Chapter inspiration: The Acid Queen (The Who)


Nick and Jeff were bored; many of their fellow Warblers had gone home for the winter vacation, but they stayed at Dalton to avoid their families' joint Christmas festivities, which generally consisted of going to church and silently sitting around a roaring fire.

"I wish someone was out and about like us right now," Nick muttered, walking down the hallway, hand-in-hand with Jeff.

"What's that?" Jeff heard music playing and he followed the noise, dragging Nick behind him. The music was coming from room 35 and the door was cracked open. Jeff pushed the door open slightly and burst into silent giggles at what he saw.

"What is it?" Nick elbowed Jeff, who pulled him in sight of the dorm's inhabitant. Louis stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a black dress and red cape and dancing up a storm. "Oh my God." He pulled out his phone and took a video.

"If your child ain't all he should be now

This girl will put him right

I'll show him what he could be now

Just give me one night

I'm the gypsy, the Acid Queen

Pay before we start

The gypsy, I'm guaranteed to

I'll tear your sould apart."

"This is easily the most hilarious thing I have ever seen him do," Nick chuckled.

"You know if he sees us or that video, he'll kill us," Jeff whispered, still snickering.

"That's why I'm uploading it under Joel's account," Nick said, quickly typing Joel's password into his phone.

"How do you know his password?"

"He shouldn't leave a Post-It with his password lying around where anyone can see it." Nick pressed a few buttons and put his phone away.


A week later, Louis was heading for his first period math class when he heard whispers from behind him. He turned and saw a group of seniors pointing at him and laughing. Louis only rolled his eyes. It was nothing new, but he knew something was wrong when he found a black silk dress in his gym locker. Looking up, he saw a bunch of lacrosse players openly laughing their asses off.

"What the hell?" He shouted. "Did you assholes do this?"

"You're the Acid Queen, ain't you?" Louis froze. "He doesn't even deny it!" What he heard next was his voice coming out of one of jocks' phones.

"Oh my God," he murmured. He turned and snatched the phone out of the guy's hand. For a minute and a half, there was video of him dancing in what he thought was the private sanctity of his dorm room, but there were already over two million views and six-hundred comments.

"Give me my phone, twerp," the jock snapped. Louis handed back his phone and stood stock-still in the middle of the locker room. The lacrosse players left and Louis walked down the corridor, ignoring all the snickers and stares.

He entered the rehearsal room, only finding Joel lying on the couch. The brunet looked up and smiled. "Hey, Louis." When he got a better look, he frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Why? What did I do to you, Joel?" Joel got up and stood in front of Louis.

"What the hell are you talking about, dude? I have no reason to have any issue with you. What's going on?" Louis dug out his phone and found the video on Facebook. He held the phone out so Joel could see.

Joel bit back a snicker. "Sorry. Um, I'm sorry that this happened to you, but how is this my fault?" Louis' finger pointed to the uploader's name. "What the fuck?"

"I thought we were friends, Joel." Louis shook his head, tears forming in his eyes.

"Let me see that." Joel took the phone and examined it. "This was posted on January second, Louis. I wasn't here. I was at home with my douchebag parents."

"Then who would do this?" Joel looked around and saw two silhouettes from behind the couch.

"I think I have a pretty good idea," he said under his breath. He motioned Louis go around the other side as he slowly moved to one side. There, he found Nick and Jeff, both watching the video and sniggering quietly.

"You two are fucking dead," Louis growled, lunging at them. Jeff yelled and tried to make a run for it, but Joel caught him while Louis dragged Nick out by his feet.

"Let me be the first to ask, how the fuck did you get my password?" Joel shouted.

"You left a Post-It stuck to the inside of your laptop," Nick said, rubbing his arm.

"Okay, better question: what the hell were you doing with my laptop?" Joel folded his arms across his chest, tapping his foot.

"You left it out after rehearsal last week and we were returning it to you," Jeff admitted.

"What possessed you two to use my YouTube account to humiliate Louis?"

"Because if we used our account, he'd kill us!" Nick said defensively. Louis scoffed and lifted Nick by the front of his blazer.

"And you think had you put it up at all, I still wouldn't kill you?" Nick frowned and looked at Jeff, who looked as if he were about to cry. "Sterling, you do not get to cry. Get that look off your face." The blond Warbler stared at Louis wide-eyed. "I don't know what the hell I did to make you two do this to me, but I'm not going to beat you guys up." Louis released Nick, who slumped back against the couch. "I'm just never going to talk to either of you ever again." Louis left the room, slamming the door behind him.


Another week passed and most people forgot about the video; however, a lot of folks who teased Louis about it were jocks and he frequently showed up for Warbler rehearsal with at least one new bruise a day.

"Louis, this has got to stop," Sebastian admonished as Louis worked himself to the bone during dance rehearsals. "I mean, it's great that you've immersed yourself in your moves, but the bruises and black eyes... we can't go to Regionals with you all banged up."

"So what now? You're not going to let me perform at Regionals?" Louis asked quietly. "If that's what you're saying, Seb, then fine." Not waiting for a response, Louis picked up his knapsack and left the room, just narrowly ducking past Nick, who was just coming in.

"Louis, wait!" Nick called out but Louis—as he'd done for a week—simply ignored him.

"You guys know that what you did to him was like the lowest thing I've ever known you two to ever do," Sebastian said, shaking his head. When the Warblers found out that Nick and Jeff were behind the video's uploading, they went from being the most loved to the most disliked in about ten seconds. "What I can't believe is that you used Joel's account to get out of being instantly blamed. Honestly, it sounds like something I would have done once upon a time."

Nick walked over to Jeff and sat beside his boyfriend. "I feel so bad for what we did to Louis. We have to do something so they'll all forgive us."

"Or at the very least start talking to us again," Jeff whispered, playing with the hem of his blazer. A moment later, his head shot up. "Nicky, do we still have that video of—?"

"You mean, the—?" Jeff nodded. "You think we should?"

"It'll take the attention off Louis and maybe he'll talk to us again. Please, Nicky, I kind of miss him not yelling at us."

Nick and Jeff returned to their room and dug up an old video of theirs that was uploaded online without them knowing about it. Looking back, they realized that what they did to Louis was exactly what had been done to them.


The next day, Louis woke. He didn't want to get out of bed because he knew that it was just going to be another day of harassment and self-loathing. He looked over at his roommate, Ted, who was wearing earphones and laughing at something on his phone. Louis got out of bed and Ted looked up.

"Dude, Louis, you gotta see this," he said. "I think they're trying to apologize for what they did." Louis looked down and saw a video of Nick and Jeff, they looked about 12 or 13, and they were performing the Jonas Brothers' "Keep It Real" while people laughed at them.

"You think they really did this for me?" Louis raised a skeptical eyebrow. Ted looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah, it seems like something they would do. Besides, I overheard them yesterday and they actually feel guilty for embarassing you like that."

Louis looked down and sighed. "I guess I'll talk to them."


Nick and Jeff walked out to the quad and found themselves the new subject of whispers and pointing. They looked at each other and nodded, remembering their promise to find Louis and apologize.

"Hey, guys," Louis said from behind them. "You didn't have to do what you did, you know."

"We're really sorry, Louis," Nick whispered. "We were just messing around."

Louis smiled softly and embraced Nick. "It's okay, Nick." He pulled Jeff into the hug. "I'm not really mad anymore. I should be, but life's no fun without yelling at the two of you."

"Love you, Louis." Jeff rested his head on Louis'.

"Love you guys too."