Chapter 5: Alan and his Theories

I leaned back in the chair beside Alan, still snickering about what happened at breakfast. I watched as every single one of the drones that were otherwise known as my classmates pulled out their books while Alan and I didn't even have a pencil with us let alone a backpack.

I suppressed a laugh as I watched the Hall kid and his friend, the guy with the curly brown hair walk in. The Hall kid had a split lip and the blood had turned into a crust on his lip, coating them like the lipstick that my mother wore, while his friend had the comings of a black eye.

Alan nudged me once as a group of girls walked in behind the two hockey players. "That's Quinn, Connie and Julie." He licked his lips. "Connie and Julie are hockey players on the JV team but Quinn has a slightly... different... extracurricular activity on her 'permanent' record." He laughed, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

I glanced over at him and frowned. "How would you know?"

He snorted and shook his head. "She was my girlfriend while I was on the track and field team last year."

I laughed. "You were a jock?" I snorted and shook my head. "Now that is hard to picture."

He shoved my shoulder and shook his head. "Shut up Banks. Anyways, I broke my leg mid-season and was out for the rest of the meets and Drake 'helped' me out. Anyways, Quinn dumped my sorry crippled ass and ran off to greener pastures." He shrugged. "But whatever. I figure if it hadn't been for her... I wouldn't be what I am today."

I smirked. "Which is extremely--"

He shot a look at me.

"Happy."

He shook his hair out of his eyes and shrugged. "You should go for her. Get yourself out there you know?"

I made a quick face. "I think not. I fly solo. No strings. I get into less trouble that way."

He snorted. "You just tripped a Varsity enforcer. You have just lost your 'innocence' at this school and their probably on the hunt for you right now. So try again."

I plastered on an authentic grin. "Let me settle in then I'll start scoping out my targets." I leaned back in my chair; the back two legs of my chair holding my weight while the front two were in the air.

"Mr. Banks!"

The sudden shout startled me and I fell flat on my back, the chair falling beneath me pitifully. I groaned and Alan shook he head and pretended not to know me. The jerk.

"Mr. Banks! Are you alright? Do you need to see the nurse?"

I groaned and attempted to sit up.

"Stay down Mr. Banks." Mr. Berkley said, his white puffy hair waving about him wildly. "You could have a concussion."

I glared at the teacher frowned. "I'm fine and stop calling me that. Mr. Banks is my dad." I snapped quickly and fumbled as I got off the ground as Alan righted the chair.

My stomach dropped as I realized I mentioned my father. I never mention my father unless I'm yelling at Denny or Mimi, never around complete strangers, like my Chemistry teacher and a bunch of conformist classmates. With that thought my face began to feel flush. I cast my eyes to the floor, staring at it like a madman praying that the ground would split open and swallow me whole.

Mr. Berkley cleared his throat carefully and took a step to my side and rested one of his hands on my shoulder, patting it comfortingly, misreading my outburst as a release for the nervousness he thought I was suffering. Pretentious ass-wipe. "Class, I would like you to welcome Adam Banks. He just transferred here from John F. Kennedy Academy in Maine."

I suppressed a scoff. I was expelled, not transferred and in all honesty, I would rather that they would ignore me rather than try and welcome me, pretending that they want to be my friend and pretending we have things in common. The corner of my mouth twitched.

He mistook that for a smile. "Adam, we sit in alphabetical order in this class; makes it easier for me." He explained giving me a little push away from Alan who sat helplessly at the back of the class. "So, how about you sit next to Mr. Conway." He nodded at the curly brown haired kid with a black eye, who stared at me wide eyed, completely shocked.

I swallowed and took a seat in the desk next to the Conway kid and didn't even look at him. Instead I picked at my fingernails and flipping the pages to my textbook, trying my best not to make eye contact with anyone. Eye contact often implies you want to start a conversation with someone and that you're a friendly person; you want to fit in.

When I was in the midst of the figuring out why I didn't want to make eye contact with anyone, someone tapped my left hand.

"Do you play hockey?"

I turned to face the Conway kid who was staring at my face intently, racking his brains on where he may have known me. His cheek, just below his eye was turning a slight purple and was getting a bit puffy and I couldn't help but let my eyes travel to that part of his face. It was so distracting. I blinked remembering he asked me a question. "No." I replied quickly and turned back to my book.

I was relieved when the bell rang and I bolted out of the room, just waiting outside the door for Alan before I was off too... I checked my time table... Advanced Trig? I groaned. God damn it! Frigging Mimi! She should have her eyes gouged out with white hot pokers. Never again do I let her choose my subjects. Never!

Alan was fast coming out of the class also and gave me a look full of pity. "Dude. Sorry. I thought he would've given up on the whole alphabetical thing by the end of the first month. Front row center. That must seriously suck."

I gave him a tired grunt and began to walk down the halls.

"Adam! Wait!"

I turned around and saw the Conway kid still trying to talk to me. I groaned and rolled my eyes as him and his little Hall friend jogged up to me and Alan.

"Did you make a new friend?" Alan chuckled under his breath, making me elbow him in the ribcage.

Conway and Hall stopped in front of me and their eyes locked on my face. "I think I remember you." Hall nodded looking over at Conway and turned back to me. "But you said you didn't play hockey though."

I rolled my eyes. "I said I don't play hockey; present tense. I did play hockey until I was like ten." I grumbled. I just wanted to block those years out of my life and they just wanted to dredge them up and soak up the limelight. Didn't they know they ruined not only my life but countless others? Had they just stayed in line and didn't change anything, my life would be fine. It was their fault.

Conway nodded excited that he remembered me. "Yeah, you were a Hawk. Number nine, right? I'm Charlie Conway. I was ninety-six on the District 5 Ducks. Weren't you supposed to join our team or something?"

I scowled at him. "I quit that year." I spoke down to him, annoyed. He seemed to be gloating.

"Chill." The Hall kid said taking a step back from me. "We just wanted to put any grudges there were in the past behind us, alright Cake-eater?"

That was the nickname. Cake-eater. I smirked. "You mean a truce?"

Charlie Conway, number ninety-six grinned at my 'compliance'. "Exactly. Truce from all of the Ducks." He smiled sticking out his hand and blinking obliviously.

I cleared my throat deeply, and spat directly into his open hand, my spit dripping from his palm onto this new black chucks. The corner of my mouth twisted into a ruthless smirk. "That's what I think of you and your team." I replied staring at him as his eyes went from his hand to me. "Now shoo."

The Hall kid's hands clenched into two tight fists and raising to his hip but Charlie glanced over at him and shook his head. "No Jesse." He muttered, his nose twitching, and a pink color flooded his cheeks from embarrassment. "Come on lets go." He muttered, grabbing onto Jesse's sleeve and pulling him down the hall in the opposite direction.

Alan stared at me dumbstruck. "Do you want to tell me what the hell that's about?" He asked in a concerned, yet slightly amused tone, his dark eyes blinking wildly.

I shook my head and shrugged. "Nothing, but I, sure as hell, need a pick-me- up."

He smirked and nodded. "After witnessing that, I think I need one too, however I think you should keep the 'good boy' act on for at least until the end of classes alright?"

I sighed. "Alright, I'll be good, but the second the bell rings, that is over."

I looked around the room, as Alan cracked a window, trying to let some of the smoke out. His side of the room didn't match him at all. It had newspaper clippings about his races, old trophies, and scented candles on his headboard. I wasn't sure if it was me or the drugs, but something didn't quite fit into his alternative look.

"What's with the candles?" I muttered as I rested my head on the mattress of his roommate. "You don't exactly seem like the type of person to need them if you catch my drift."

He looked back at me and laughed, pulling his lighter out of his pant's pocket and lit each of the five candles, one by one, carefully. "Well my mom is a health guru or something, and she said that lavender candles will help me remember shit on tests, but my roommate, Evan, is allergic to scented candles."

My nose twitched as the scent mixed in with the smoke. "So why are you lighting them?"

He turned around and sat on the floor across from me leaning against his bed. "Evan is also allergic to smoke and is a total goody-goody, so I blame his sneezing on the candles and the scent covers the drugs; it's fool- proof."

I grinned and lopsided grin and closed my eyes. "So why aren't you rooming with Drake?" I slurred slightly, shaking my head at my own mistake.

He laughed and tapped my foot with his fingertip. "We did, last year, for a week." He scoffed and lolled his head back onto the mattress. "And he drove me up the wall, in a bad way."

I frowned as I noticed the smoke clearing slightly and the sweet smell of the candles got stronger as our conversation continued. "Why?"

He looked around his room; both of the beds were unmade, clothes were thrown everywhere and I was pretty sure I was sitting on an old hamburger that was covered with more dirty clothes, but that was just my guess.

I sighed and nodded. "So it all makes sense."

He nodded. "What ended that week was the cap off the toothpaste. When the teacher on duty found us, we were on the floor practically strangling each other and it took him, a Varsity hockey player and a football player to separate us." He pulled his shaggy hair away from his ear and showed a white scar about an inch long down his tanned neck. He let his hair fall back into place and smirked. "You couldn't pay me enough money to live with him again."

My eyes widened in shock. "Then how the hell are you still together?"

He rolled his eyes. "Think back to your first best friend in the world."

I nodded. That was simple; Mitchell 'Mitch' McGill. I shrugged. "Yeah so?"

"How did you meet him?"

I frowned and tried to remember. "He told me I handled the puck like a girl, and we ended up in the principal's office with black eyes."

"There you go." He nodded. "If you're a guy, your best friend, usually begins as your worst enemy and then for some reason you gain a respect for each other and become friends." He stretched his arms along the edge of the mattress. "See girls are the exact opposite. Their worst enemies begin as their best friends. Girls are vicious." He concluded with a nod.

I frowned. "What about Drake then?"

Alan closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "What about him?"

"He wasn't my worst enemy."

He opened one eye that looked around the room like a broken doll with shifty eyes. "Drake and you are different. You didn't trust each other at first." He yawned and re-closed his eye. "Stop thinking about it; you're making me feel stupid."

I laughed and got up off the floor, and grabbing onto one of the two bedside tables trying to regain my balance, wishing these stupid schools would stop making floors that move when you get off them. "Well I'm off to do homework." I scoffed, walking over to the door and gripping the handle, marveling at it for a second.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Alan giggled slightly. "I mean, doing homework in your current condition?"

I turned around and smirked. "Don't worry. I'll give it a more philosophical feel to it."

He snorted and rested his head on his mattress. "Don't kill any brain cells while you're at it!"

I laughed as I opened the door. "I think we've already covered that."