As they walked together through the main doors, out of the autumn sun into
the school, the six of them split up to go their separate ways. Jen and
Andie disappeared off to the girls' locker room. Pacey and Dawson went to
do God knows what kind of trouble, but if Dawson was involved it probably
had something to do with the school's film equipment. Joey didn't have
anything important she wanted to so she went with Jack to his locker.
*****
When they got to right corridor Jack took a moment to collect himself and then he approached his locker. Joey would have wondered what was making Jack act so weird had she not already known, had she not been looking at exactly the same thing as him. Together they stared for a few moments at a certain spot on the door of Jack's locker. It wasn't obvious to anyone that it was there or what it was, but many students would probably be able to guess if they had bothered to pay attention to anything last year, well the locker door in particular. The spray paint was gone but the picture of it was fresh in Jack's mind. Joey too remembered the graffiti that had been scrawled along the door, covering the grate and the neighbouring lockers. She remembered that same image of a blood red word that was haunting Jack because he was a good friend and his pain hurt her too. They had scrubbed the word off the locker, and asked Jack if he knew anything about it, he had lied, but that small discoloration from where the 'a' from 'fag' had been removed served as a constant reminder. Joey gave Jack's hand a quick squeeze as he reached slowly for the lock. He opened the door and dumped the books for his afternoon classes on the shelf. Then he quickly shut the door and nodded at Joey, who nodded back. Then they turned and walked off talking, though Joey did spot Andie and Jen through a nearby window.
*****
"Thanks for coming with me Andie. Grams been on at me about that gym kit all through the summer vacation!"
"Don't worry about it. Its not like it was as bad as Jack's at our last school! He did the same thing with a pair of tube socks but they were so far gone we almost had to name them!"
Jen laughed at this but Andie quickly cut in, "No, seriously, there was fur and everything! I liked Bubble and Squeak but in the end mom said it was a really bad idea and was quick to throw the things out!"
Realising what she'd just said, Andie suddenly went quiet. Jen manoeuvred herself so she was standing in front of Andie.
"Still hurts, huh?"
Andie knew the question was rhetorical but she nodded anyway, "Not so much as it used to, but yeah."
Jen sat them both down on a nearby bench, "I don't claim to an expert but this I know, it'll get better!"
"I know, and it has. It'll always hurt though, but just a little, like just then. I mean there was a time when just thinking about her had me in tears for days but now. now I catch myself thinking about her or talking about her and I smile because I remember that I loved her and she loved me and we had so many good times together."
"There you go, see you're an even better shrink than me, and I've seen a few so that's saying something!"
Both girls smiled at each other for a second, then they sat back and enjoyed the early morning sun. They talked for a little about 'Moby Dick'. Again!
*****
"Leery, tell me again why we're dragging film and sound equipment to the Auditorium."
"It's rather simple Pacey!" Dawson said. "Auditions today, right?"
"Right."
"This year the auditions are group readings."
"Check."
"And said readings will be filmed."
"Hence the film equipment."
"Well done." Dawson congratulated, sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"But why is it us who are risking a lifetime in wheelchairs to drag it all to the auditorium?"
"Because I volunteered." Dawson replied, bluntly.
"And I'm here."
"By default. You don't really expect me to carry all this by myself now do you? This is one of the advantages of being my best friend!"
"You are coming real close to me dropping this boom on your head! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just drop this load on your foot and walk off right now!"
"Two words: Extra, Credit."
"What are waiting for Dawson, lets get to that auditorium pronto!"
Dawson sighed and fell into step behind his friend.
*****
Not five minutes later Jack, Joey, Dawson and Pacey had joined Andie and Jen on the bench outside. Joey was painting Jen's toenails through her open- toed sandals while simultaneously talking to Andie about the use of metaphor in 'Moby Dick'. The three guys were playing Frisbee around them.
"I can't believe you brought that thing to school with you, Jack!" Andie said, ending her conversation with Joey, much to Jen's relief.
He turned to answer but this broke his concentration, causing him to throw the Frisbee at Dawson slightly low. Dawson ducked but wasn't looking where he was going, too busy with the spinning disk flying at his head, and tripped over Andie's bag, which was lying on the ground behind her. He hit the floor hard.
"Sorry, Dawson!" Jack said quickly, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. The fall just winded me, that's all."
Jack and Pacey both offered Dawson a hand to help him up. He took them both, but as soon as he was upright he yelled in pain and fell right over again.
"Well, that worked well!" Pacey said.
"Pacey!" Joey scolded as she got up and Jack helped Dawson up once more. "What is it Dawson?"
"My ankle, I must have hurt it when I tripped over the bag."
"Sorry Dawson."
"Don't worry, Andie, it wasn't your fault."
"It was mine," said Jack. "I'll take you to the nurse's office."
"Thanks, Jack."
As they made their way into the building, Dawson leaning on Jack's shoulder, the bell announcing the start of homeroom and the first day of school sounded. Around the two boys, students started making their way toward their respective classrooms.
*****
As Jack and Dawson headed through the slowly clearing corridors, Dawson limping pathetically draped on Jack, Jack turned to the other boy and asked, "So, Dawson, how does it feel to officially be the first casualty of the new school year?" "Great, thanks," Dawson joked, "I'd better get a mention in the yearbook for this! But how do you know I'm the first?" They turned the corner into the nurse's office. Dawson followed Jack's gesturing arm to look at the empty room. In fact it only contained the nurse herself, reading some trashy magazine.
"Oh." Dawson replied, rather feebly
"I'll wait for you outside." Jack said, still smiling at Dawson's response.
"No need, just go to class, I'll see you later."
As Jack exited the room he heard someone laugh off to his right, which he didn't expect considering that everyone should have been homeroom 5 minutes ago. He guessed that it was a group of freshmen that'd got lost and were laughing at their predicament. So he set off to investigate, and maybe lend a hand.
When he rounded the corner he saw the door to the boy's locker room swing shut at the other end of the hallway. He thought it was slightly odd because the large, windowless double doors were obviously not classroom doors. So he went up the corridor and right in. He looked around as the door closed once more, behind him this time, but he couldn't see anyone inside.
"You know you should be in homeroom, don't you?" He called. "You'd better get there, you don't want to get suspended on your first day!"
He had to stop himself from slapping his forehead after he'd said it. Way to sound like a nerd, Jack!
He looked all round the room, even round the corners and behind the wall in the communal showers (which he despised!), but after a few minutes it was obvious no one was there. He was just turning to leave when he saw that his locker was open. Strange, he thought to himself, I haven't even used my sports locker yet this year! When he went over to close it he noticed a large brown envelope inside. As he picked the envelope up he read the words written in block capitals across the front: 'See anything you like McPhee?' He reached inside the envelope and pulled out a pile of photographs. Each of the photos showed the same scene, the communal shower behind him, but in each one the guys using it were different. As went through the top few he noticed that even he was in a couple! It must have taken quite some time to amass a collection like this, whoever had done it had done it for a reason and that reason became even more obvious to Jack as he saw a note that must have been under the envelope, still in the locker. 'We're gonna get you, you disgusting fag!' The colour of the pen they'd used reminded Jack distinctly of the graffiti that had been removed from his other locker the previous year. He stuffed the note and the photographs inside the envelope and turned to leave. That's when he noticed one more note taped to the back of the locked side of the double door. It read 'Tell anyone about this and you're dead meat."
He stuffed the last note into the envelope as he ran back to the nurse's office. As he approached the door he decided he'd better play along for now and do what the note said, he couldn't tell Dawson. Well not right now anyway, he wanted to try and work out who had left the photos and the notes and deal with them himself.
"I did say you didn't have to come fetch me, Jack"
"Er.. yeah I know Dawson. I just wanted to check you were alright."
"God, its been what like ten minutes, tops! But yeah I'm fine, it was only a twisted ankle, I'm feeling better already! What's in the envelope?"
"Nothing important!" Jack replied quickly, as he shoved the envelope into his bag.
Dawson gave him a quizzical look but stood up, handed his cold compress back to the nurse and said, "Okay than, I guess were homeroom bound then!"
"Wasn't that a movie? You know with talking pets?"
"That was HomeWARD Bound, Jack!" Dawson smiled as they walked to their classroom.
When they arrived at their homeroom almost twenty minutes late, the tutor was unimpressed to say the least!
"I take it you two are." he looked down at the morning's register, "Dawson Leery and. Jack McPhee!"
"Yes sir." They replied in unison as he looked up again.
"Would you care to explain where you have been?" He was looking furious. Neither of the boys could see why, so what if they were slightly late. "We have a lot of very important paperwork to get through this morning and you two idiots have gone and destroyed the whole schedule!" Jack thought that if this were a cartoon he'd have steam coming out of his ears!
"You see sir," Dawson explained, "I twisted my ankle playing Frisbee and Jack took me to the nurses office."
"Ah, I see, our very own Good Samaritan." This made the whole class chuckle. It was amazing how quickly he seemed to have calmed down, maybe he enjoyed watching the two boys squirm. "I'm new here this year, I'm Mr. Ames. And you have the pleasure of seeing me every morning from now until at least the end of the year."
Neither of the boys were sure of what to say to this so they just stood there.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Don't just stand there like a couple of lobotomised chimps and sit down." This earned a smirk from a couple of the more intelligent members of the class.
Dawson and Jack obediently took the only two seats left, side-by-side by the window, about halfway to the back of the room.
*****
By lunch that day Jack had already forgotten the goings on that morning in the locker room. He and Dawson had been rejoined by Joey, Jen and Andie and were waiting for Pacey who, unsurprisingly, had been kept after class. The five of them were sprawled on the grass outside while a Cibo Matto CD played on a low volume over the small speakers attached to Jen's discman.
"Hey guys!" Pacey called as he made his way towards the five friends.
"How was math class, Pacey?" Joey asked, which caused Andie to snort as she tried to suppress a laugh.
"What's that supposed to mean, Potter?"
"Nothing, its just that you must have been having such a good time to have left fifteen minutes late!" she said, feigning innocence with her smile.
"Oh, ha ha, you're so witty!" Pacey said, sitting down.
"I'm in the mood for something a little more up tempo than Cibo Matto, how about you guys?" Dawson asked.
"Sure," said Jen "I should have a few more CDs with me if you want to pass me my bag."
Andie picked up Jen's stylish knitted record bag (probably the latest offering from her mother in New York) and handed it over, not noticing she had knocked over her brother's unzipped backpack in the process.
"Great going, you big clutz!" Jack said, pretending to be annoyed.
He started to move over to pick up his stuff, Andie had already started to shove a few things back in.
"Umm, Jack?"
"Umm, Andie." Jack said as he pushed a notebook into his bag.
"What's this?"
Jack turned to look at what his sister was holding in her hands. He looked down to see a large brown envelope, red pen covering the front.
To Be Continued.
*****
When they got to right corridor Jack took a moment to collect himself and then he approached his locker. Joey would have wondered what was making Jack act so weird had she not already known, had she not been looking at exactly the same thing as him. Together they stared for a few moments at a certain spot on the door of Jack's locker. It wasn't obvious to anyone that it was there or what it was, but many students would probably be able to guess if they had bothered to pay attention to anything last year, well the locker door in particular. The spray paint was gone but the picture of it was fresh in Jack's mind. Joey too remembered the graffiti that had been scrawled along the door, covering the grate and the neighbouring lockers. She remembered that same image of a blood red word that was haunting Jack because he was a good friend and his pain hurt her too. They had scrubbed the word off the locker, and asked Jack if he knew anything about it, he had lied, but that small discoloration from where the 'a' from 'fag' had been removed served as a constant reminder. Joey gave Jack's hand a quick squeeze as he reached slowly for the lock. He opened the door and dumped the books for his afternoon classes on the shelf. Then he quickly shut the door and nodded at Joey, who nodded back. Then they turned and walked off talking, though Joey did spot Andie and Jen through a nearby window.
*****
"Thanks for coming with me Andie. Grams been on at me about that gym kit all through the summer vacation!"
"Don't worry about it. Its not like it was as bad as Jack's at our last school! He did the same thing with a pair of tube socks but they were so far gone we almost had to name them!"
Jen laughed at this but Andie quickly cut in, "No, seriously, there was fur and everything! I liked Bubble and Squeak but in the end mom said it was a really bad idea and was quick to throw the things out!"
Realising what she'd just said, Andie suddenly went quiet. Jen manoeuvred herself so she was standing in front of Andie.
"Still hurts, huh?"
Andie knew the question was rhetorical but she nodded anyway, "Not so much as it used to, but yeah."
Jen sat them both down on a nearby bench, "I don't claim to an expert but this I know, it'll get better!"
"I know, and it has. It'll always hurt though, but just a little, like just then. I mean there was a time when just thinking about her had me in tears for days but now. now I catch myself thinking about her or talking about her and I smile because I remember that I loved her and she loved me and we had so many good times together."
"There you go, see you're an even better shrink than me, and I've seen a few so that's saying something!"
Both girls smiled at each other for a second, then they sat back and enjoyed the early morning sun. They talked for a little about 'Moby Dick'. Again!
*****
"Leery, tell me again why we're dragging film and sound equipment to the Auditorium."
"It's rather simple Pacey!" Dawson said. "Auditions today, right?"
"Right."
"This year the auditions are group readings."
"Check."
"And said readings will be filmed."
"Hence the film equipment."
"Well done." Dawson congratulated, sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"But why is it us who are risking a lifetime in wheelchairs to drag it all to the auditorium?"
"Because I volunteered." Dawson replied, bluntly.
"And I'm here."
"By default. You don't really expect me to carry all this by myself now do you? This is one of the advantages of being my best friend!"
"You are coming real close to me dropping this boom on your head! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just drop this load on your foot and walk off right now!"
"Two words: Extra, Credit."
"What are waiting for Dawson, lets get to that auditorium pronto!"
Dawson sighed and fell into step behind his friend.
*****
Not five minutes later Jack, Joey, Dawson and Pacey had joined Andie and Jen on the bench outside. Joey was painting Jen's toenails through her open- toed sandals while simultaneously talking to Andie about the use of metaphor in 'Moby Dick'. The three guys were playing Frisbee around them.
"I can't believe you brought that thing to school with you, Jack!" Andie said, ending her conversation with Joey, much to Jen's relief.
He turned to answer but this broke his concentration, causing him to throw the Frisbee at Dawson slightly low. Dawson ducked but wasn't looking where he was going, too busy with the spinning disk flying at his head, and tripped over Andie's bag, which was lying on the ground behind her. He hit the floor hard.
"Sorry, Dawson!" Jack said quickly, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. The fall just winded me, that's all."
Jack and Pacey both offered Dawson a hand to help him up. He took them both, but as soon as he was upright he yelled in pain and fell right over again.
"Well, that worked well!" Pacey said.
"Pacey!" Joey scolded as she got up and Jack helped Dawson up once more. "What is it Dawson?"
"My ankle, I must have hurt it when I tripped over the bag."
"Sorry Dawson."
"Don't worry, Andie, it wasn't your fault."
"It was mine," said Jack. "I'll take you to the nurse's office."
"Thanks, Jack."
As they made their way into the building, Dawson leaning on Jack's shoulder, the bell announcing the start of homeroom and the first day of school sounded. Around the two boys, students started making their way toward their respective classrooms.
*****
As Jack and Dawson headed through the slowly clearing corridors, Dawson limping pathetically draped on Jack, Jack turned to the other boy and asked, "So, Dawson, how does it feel to officially be the first casualty of the new school year?" "Great, thanks," Dawson joked, "I'd better get a mention in the yearbook for this! But how do you know I'm the first?" They turned the corner into the nurse's office. Dawson followed Jack's gesturing arm to look at the empty room. In fact it only contained the nurse herself, reading some trashy magazine.
"Oh." Dawson replied, rather feebly
"I'll wait for you outside." Jack said, still smiling at Dawson's response.
"No need, just go to class, I'll see you later."
As Jack exited the room he heard someone laugh off to his right, which he didn't expect considering that everyone should have been homeroom 5 minutes ago. He guessed that it was a group of freshmen that'd got lost and were laughing at their predicament. So he set off to investigate, and maybe lend a hand.
When he rounded the corner he saw the door to the boy's locker room swing shut at the other end of the hallway. He thought it was slightly odd because the large, windowless double doors were obviously not classroom doors. So he went up the corridor and right in. He looked around as the door closed once more, behind him this time, but he couldn't see anyone inside.
"You know you should be in homeroom, don't you?" He called. "You'd better get there, you don't want to get suspended on your first day!"
He had to stop himself from slapping his forehead after he'd said it. Way to sound like a nerd, Jack!
He looked all round the room, even round the corners and behind the wall in the communal showers (which he despised!), but after a few minutes it was obvious no one was there. He was just turning to leave when he saw that his locker was open. Strange, he thought to himself, I haven't even used my sports locker yet this year! When he went over to close it he noticed a large brown envelope inside. As he picked the envelope up he read the words written in block capitals across the front: 'See anything you like McPhee?' He reached inside the envelope and pulled out a pile of photographs. Each of the photos showed the same scene, the communal shower behind him, but in each one the guys using it were different. As went through the top few he noticed that even he was in a couple! It must have taken quite some time to amass a collection like this, whoever had done it had done it for a reason and that reason became even more obvious to Jack as he saw a note that must have been under the envelope, still in the locker. 'We're gonna get you, you disgusting fag!' The colour of the pen they'd used reminded Jack distinctly of the graffiti that had been removed from his other locker the previous year. He stuffed the note and the photographs inside the envelope and turned to leave. That's when he noticed one more note taped to the back of the locked side of the double door. It read 'Tell anyone about this and you're dead meat."
He stuffed the last note into the envelope as he ran back to the nurse's office. As he approached the door he decided he'd better play along for now and do what the note said, he couldn't tell Dawson. Well not right now anyway, he wanted to try and work out who had left the photos and the notes and deal with them himself.
"I did say you didn't have to come fetch me, Jack"
"Er.. yeah I know Dawson. I just wanted to check you were alright."
"God, its been what like ten minutes, tops! But yeah I'm fine, it was only a twisted ankle, I'm feeling better already! What's in the envelope?"
"Nothing important!" Jack replied quickly, as he shoved the envelope into his bag.
Dawson gave him a quizzical look but stood up, handed his cold compress back to the nurse and said, "Okay than, I guess were homeroom bound then!"
"Wasn't that a movie? You know with talking pets?"
"That was HomeWARD Bound, Jack!" Dawson smiled as they walked to their classroom.
When they arrived at their homeroom almost twenty minutes late, the tutor was unimpressed to say the least!
"I take it you two are." he looked down at the morning's register, "Dawson Leery and. Jack McPhee!"
"Yes sir." They replied in unison as he looked up again.
"Would you care to explain where you have been?" He was looking furious. Neither of the boys could see why, so what if they were slightly late. "We have a lot of very important paperwork to get through this morning and you two idiots have gone and destroyed the whole schedule!" Jack thought that if this were a cartoon he'd have steam coming out of his ears!
"You see sir," Dawson explained, "I twisted my ankle playing Frisbee and Jack took me to the nurses office."
"Ah, I see, our very own Good Samaritan." This made the whole class chuckle. It was amazing how quickly he seemed to have calmed down, maybe he enjoyed watching the two boys squirm. "I'm new here this year, I'm Mr. Ames. And you have the pleasure of seeing me every morning from now until at least the end of the year."
Neither of the boys were sure of what to say to this so they just stood there.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Don't just stand there like a couple of lobotomised chimps and sit down." This earned a smirk from a couple of the more intelligent members of the class.
Dawson and Jack obediently took the only two seats left, side-by-side by the window, about halfway to the back of the room.
*****
By lunch that day Jack had already forgotten the goings on that morning in the locker room. He and Dawson had been rejoined by Joey, Jen and Andie and were waiting for Pacey who, unsurprisingly, had been kept after class. The five of them were sprawled on the grass outside while a Cibo Matto CD played on a low volume over the small speakers attached to Jen's discman.
"Hey guys!" Pacey called as he made his way towards the five friends.
"How was math class, Pacey?" Joey asked, which caused Andie to snort as she tried to suppress a laugh.
"What's that supposed to mean, Potter?"
"Nothing, its just that you must have been having such a good time to have left fifteen minutes late!" she said, feigning innocence with her smile.
"Oh, ha ha, you're so witty!" Pacey said, sitting down.
"I'm in the mood for something a little more up tempo than Cibo Matto, how about you guys?" Dawson asked.
"Sure," said Jen "I should have a few more CDs with me if you want to pass me my bag."
Andie picked up Jen's stylish knitted record bag (probably the latest offering from her mother in New York) and handed it over, not noticing she had knocked over her brother's unzipped backpack in the process.
"Great going, you big clutz!" Jack said, pretending to be annoyed.
He started to move over to pick up his stuff, Andie had already started to shove a few things back in.
"Umm, Jack?"
"Umm, Andie." Jack said as he pushed a notebook into his bag.
"What's this?"
Jack turned to look at what his sister was holding in her hands. He looked down to see a large brown envelope, red pen covering the front.
To Be Continued.