(05) Understanding

Ralph's head shot up, for he had been on the verge of falling asleep.

'What did you say, sir?' he inquired, interrupting Mr. Piddy as he announced the next pair. Surely he had heard wrong.

The professor sighed and consulted his list.

'Ralph Macpherson and Jack Merridew,' he said, glancing pointedly at the two teens. 'You two are together for this assignment.'

Ralph groaned inwardly.

"Not Jack! Why must he make my life so miserable!"

"It's not Jack's fault you two are paired together," reasoned the logical part of his mind. "You just happen to have closely placed last names in the alphabet."

"But that doesn't make me feel any better."

When the teacher had said that he would be pairing the class off, Ralph hadn't really cared much. At least he wouldn't have to be embarrassed by having to choose between working alone or with some nerdy dork. He had been so busy for the past day (trying to catch up on all his missed work) that he couldn't really find the time to make friends. The only real one he had was Ray, and the Aussie wasn't in any of his classes.

Ralph hadn't thought Mr. Piddy's choosing would be a big deal, because whoever he was paired with . . . Well, the other students would have understood and probably even pitied him if he got stuck with the class geek. Personally, he'd have preferred that to the partner he actually had.

"Why Jack!" he thought miserably. "Why him of all people?"

'Valentin and Warrington, and finally Zeres,' Mr. Piddy finished. 'Mr. Zeres, you may choose another group to be with, for we have an uneven number of gentlemen in the class now.' He glanced pointedly in Ralph's direction. 'Now,' he said, clapping his hands together as Ned Zeres hurried over to join his friends. 'I suppose you are all wondering what this assignment is.'

"Not really."

Mr. Piddy went over to his desk and pulled out a pile of papers from the top drawer.

'Together with your partner, you are to do all these questions. There are about 200 of them in all.'

A loud groan made its way across the classroom.

'Tut tut, it is not that much,' the professor said, handing some of the thick paper packages to the person in the very corner of the desk setup with the instructions to pass them backwards. Then the last person—Ralph—was to pass them over to Jack in the other row, whereby he was to pass them forwards, and so on and so forth.

'You will have two days to do these questions . . .' Mr. Piddy said, and there was a sigh of relief from the class. '. . . Tops!' he suddenly added. 'So you will have to do some of them on your own time also.'

"Fuck it," Ralph cursed. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

'But, sir,' a student across the room began, waving his hand belatedly in the air, 'we've never learned this stuff.'

Ralph's copy of the assignment was handed to him and he looked it over, subconsciously tossing the mound of papers across the aisle to Jack. It was true—they hadn't learned any of the stuff on the assignment. What was Mr. Piddy playing at?

'I know,' the teacher said with a small smile. 'Your assignment is not only to do the questions, which may take a while,' he added in an undertone. 'You are also to tell me what the general rule is for those type of questions. Remember, there will always be exceptions.'

Ralph slumped in his chair.

"WHAT!" Suddenly, being with the class geek didn't seem like such a bad idea . . . but he was stuck with Jack.

Mr. Piddy sat sitting down at his desk, appearing livelier than he had all class.

'Your assignments are to be handed on Friday at the beginning of class,' he said. 'No exceptions!'

'What if we're ill that day?' Ralph asked.

The professor gave him a bitter smile.

'Do not pre-plan any illnesses, Mr. Macpherson,' he warned. 'If a student is absent on that day,' Mr. Piddy said in a louder voice to address the class as a whole, 'he must have another student hand it in for him. Otherwise, he will lose 10.'

"That's not so bad."

As if he had heard Ralph's thoughts, Mr. Piddy continued.

'If it is handed in at the end of class, 15 will be lost. And since that is a Friday, the assignment is quite impossible to be handed in on the weekend. Therefore, the unlucky student will lose 30.'

Ralph groaned, and he wasn't the only one to have done so . . . but Mr. Piddy wasn't finished yet.

'If it is handed in on Monday before class, that is 35. After class: 40. On Tuesday, it will be 50, regardless of it being handed in before or after class. On Wednesday, do not even bother giving it to me, because I will not accept it. You would already have failed, so it would not matter if you got this mark.' Seemingly satisfied with the class' less than enthusiastic reaction concerning this assignment, he pulled out a thick pile of papers and began to mark them. 'Do not, I repeat, do not write on the instruction pages. I will be collecting them all back when you hand in your assignments, which I suggest you begin now,' he said, not looking up. 'Marks will be given for effort, but on the same note, they will also be taken away for incompletion.'

Still wondering how that could really work out, Ralph absentmindedly dragged his chair over to Jack's desk with a long, screechy sound.

'So . . .' Jack said, twirling his pencil around with his fingers.

'So,' Ralph replied. 'This sucks major shit, doesn't it?' he inquired, trying to keep the mood light. 'A quiz and an assignment in the same day.'

'Ralph,' Jack said softly, his voice barely audible against the hissed mutterings of their classmates. 'Please, just let me talk. Let me finish what I was saying.'

Ralph immediately began to shuffle his papers around in an effort to keep busy and avoid Jack's gaze. Although his curiosity was at its peak, he really didn't want to listen to anything the latter had to say.

'We had better start,' he said, pulling out a fresh sheet of lined paper. 'This is due in two days' time. We'll probably have to work in the library at lunchtime and after school, too, to get it finished in time.'

'Ralph, please. We have to talk.'

'I have nothing to say to you,' he said shortly.

'But I have shit to say to you!' Jack snapped briskly, then he lowered his voice to a volume just above a whisper. 'I saw things from your point of view,' he said quickly before Ralph had the time to interrupt.

'What?' Ralph questioned, dumbfounded.

'I-I saw things on the island from your perspective,' Jack repeated, slower this time.

'What are you talking about?'

'The day . . . the last day that we were on the island, the one with the fire . . . I saw things from your point of view.'

'You're repeating yourself, Jack, and you're not making any sense,' Ralph said, unconsciously leaning forward to converse more quietly with the other teen.

'Remember when my Hunters tried to burn you out of the forest to . . . to kill you?'

'Under your orders,' Ralph muttered.

'Well, I actually saw how things were for you. I felt your . . . your hatred, your fear, your feelings that I betrayed you.'

Ralph hand suddenly twitched and he dropped his pencil on the ground. He took the opportunity to retrieve it so that Jack would not see the expression on his face, the expression of surprise that Jack seemed to clearly understand what he had felt. Surely Jack had to be lying about the dream he had . . . but then how could his description be so accurate?

Ralph suddenly remembered the reason he had woken up that morning, how he had heard a whisper saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't know." That had sounded very much like Jack's voice, but . . .

"No way! Why would I be hearing Jack's thoughts?" Ralph re-emerged from under the desk and calmly glanced at his assignment sheet for the first question.

'You don't believe me, do you?' Jack whispered, drawing doodles on the corner of his page.

'Not for a second,' the other teen replied honestly, writing a few numbers and signs down on his sheet of paper.

Jack nodded in acceptance of this and finally began to work on their math assignment.

'I didn't know Samneric lied about where you were,' he said quietly, not looking up from his page.

Ralph froze suddenly. How did Jack know about that? Were they stupid enough to tell him?

"He's telling the truth," the teen finally realized. "He really did have that dream."

Sighing in resignation, Ralph delicately set his pencil down on the desk and leaned forward to speak quietly with Jack.

'I want you to tell me everything you saw.'

-

At lunchtime that day, Jack was bombarded with yet more inquiries about Ralph.

'How're you getting along with him now, Jack?' Fred asked, practically bouncing in his seat with excitement.

'He's probably screwing up big time,' Lee said.

'Actually, things are starting to look lot better for them,' John said. He and Terry had asked Jack about it in history class the period before.

'Yeah, tell them what happened, Jack,' Terry added.

'Well—' Jack began, but Michael Wong suddenly came up to them and punched Jack amiably in the shoulder.

'Hey, Jack,' he said. 'I bet for you, man. Don't let me down.' And just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone.

'I bet against you, Jack,' said one of the boys from another table. 'Don't let me down!'

Jack looked at him, confused.

Lee just laughed.

'Hope you don't mind, buddy,' he said, clapping Jack on the back, 'but I spread the word a bit.'

'A bit?' Jack inquired. Now that he thought about it, a lot of boys were staring at him . . . more than usual, anyway. They also seemed to be giving him secretive gestures, like a smile or a wink, as if they knew something. It seemed as though everyone knew about the bet . . . everyone except Ralph, that is.

'Just how many people did you tell, Lee?' John asked, having noticed the stares as well.

'Only about twenty or so,' Lee replied, shrugging.

'Twenty! Do you know how fast rumours leak around this place?' Fred inquired, bug-eyed.

Lee glanced at Jack and he gave his friend a wicked grin.

'Yep.'

Jack, however, hadn't noticed this brief exchange between his friends. He had been too distracted because of: (a) all the guys staring at him, and (b) a certain someone who had just walked into the cafeteria.

'I'll be right back,' he muttered, hurrying over to Ralph.

'Hey,' the other teen greeted him.

'Hey,' Jack replied in turn.

After their little conversation about the island in the math classroom, they had come to a certain, unexplainable understanding. They were no longer enemies, but they were not yet friends. They were merely . . . acquaintances.

'Listen, we didn't get a lot of work done in class,' Ralph said, 'so do you want to work in the library later.'

'Sure,' Jack responded. 'How long from now?'

Ralph glanced at his wristwatch.

'I don't know . . . Is ten or fifteen minutes okay?'

'Sure,' Jack said again. 'I guess I'll see you there then.'

'Yeah, see you.'

Jack exhaled loudly and turned around to return to his gang.

'Gah!' he exclaimed in surprise when Lee suddenly appeared from behind him.

'Is that the only kind of conversation the two of you have?' Lee asked, grinning. 'Hey . . . Hey . . . What's up . . . Nothing . . . Okay . . . I got to go . . . Okay . . . Bye . . . Bye.'

'That wasn't what our conversation sounded like,' Jack said indignantly. 'We were actually talking in full sentences, Lee.'

'Yeah, only because you were arranging a meeting in the library to work!' Lee sneered. 'Like, who the hell hits on someone by asking to meet them in the library? This guy obviously doesn't have the hots for you. You're in trouble, man.'

'Like you would care,' Jack retorted. 'You bet on me losing, remember? And shut up about that library shit. FYI, I used to ask guys to meet me in the library.'

'Because you would make out in the storage room at the back,' Lee said in a bored voice. 'Yeah, yeah, I know the story. Even the ending . . . But if you recall, you've been trying to avoid the library where possible, because you would die of embarrassment if you had to face Mrs. Penning again after that little . . . incident.'

Mrs. Penning was the old school librarian who looked as if she had been around at the time of the dinosaurs. She also happened to be the one who caught Jack and his "significant" other making out ("significant", meaning they broke up in two days).

'Yeah, I know I never go to the library, but that's not the reason why,' Jack said. 'You actually think I would get embarrassed for that? Ha! Really though, I never go there anymore because I almost gave old Mrs. Penning a heart attack from my . . . excursion. The only thing I would die from would be the guilt if she actually had one because of me.'

Lee laughed loudly and led the way back to their table.

'Back so soon?' John asked. 'Snagged him already, didja, Jack?'

'No,' Jack replied. 'We were just arranging to meet in the library.'

'The library?' Terry asked stupidly. 'This school has a library?'

Jack chuckled softly and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder.

'Ter, man, I worry about you sometimes.'

-

A half-hour later, Jack skidded to a halt in front of the table Ralph was sitting at. He was breathing hard and clutching at a stitch in his chest with his free hand; his other hand held his math book in it.

'You're late,' Ralph said reprovingly, looking over at Jack from his pile of books.

'Couldn't be helped,' Jack managed to gasp out. That was the truth. A hoard of boys had been following him around for all of twenty minutes, trying to find out what Jack's progress was with Ralph so they would know which side to bet on. The teen had been bombarded with useless questions like "is his favourite colour the same as yours?" and "is he even interested in guys?". Okay, so the latter was actually important, but that didn't mean it annoyed Jack any less than the former did.

'Sit down,' Ralph said, indicating the seat beside him.

Jack did so and gazed awe-struck at the mound of books on the table that he had only just noticed.

'What are all these for?' he asked. 'You only need the assignment page and about a thousand sheets of paper, so what's with all the books?'

'We're getting marked on our accuracy,' Ralph replied, underlining the title of the new section he had started on. 'I figured that all these books might help us.'

Jack glanced at the one book he still had in his hand, and it immediately felt very insignificant.

'That was smart of you,' he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

'Jack!' someone abruptly exclaimed in a surprised tone.

Jack twisted around in his seat to see who had called him, and he was less than happy to see Mrs. Penning standing there. He gave her a cheery wave, and she immediately dropped the stack of books in her arms and fled to her office.

'Wonder what's wrong with her?' Ralph asked, having just witnessed this amusing sight.

Jack just shrugged.

'Beats me,' he lied, pulling out his pencil.

'Okay, this is what I figured we could do,' Ralph said, shifting some books over so that Jack would have room to write. 'I'll do half of it and you do half of it, and we'll help each other along the way and stuff. Then we'll just copy it off each other or whatever.'

'Sounds fair enough,' Jack agreed, shrugging again. Then they got down to work.

The two boys had been working hard for only five minutes when they were interrupted again. This time, by annoying would-be whispers from the shelves behind them.

Jack had a sneaking suspicion who it was.

'Excuse me for a sec,' he murmured to Ralph, and he stood up to confront the snickering teens, who immediately pulled random books off the shelves and pretended to be reading. 'What the hell do you want?' he hissed.

'What are you talking about, Jack?' one of them asked innocently, holding a book upside-down in his hand.

'Don't play dumb with me. You know what I'm talking about.'

'Do we?' another asked.

'Oh, so you're telling me that you're just looking at a page on vaginal parts just for the fun of it?' Jack snapped.

The other teen, who seemed to be a freshman, glanced down at the book he was holding and abruptly dropped it on the ground.

'Ew!' he squeaked, wiping his hands on his pants, as if they were contaminated from touching the book.

Jack rolled his eyes.

'What the hell are you doing here?'

'Just watching your progress,' the first teen replied, putting his book away. 'That's all.'

'Yeah? Well, it's bloody annoying! Get lost!'

'No way,' a third person protested, following suit and stuffing his book onto a nearby shelf. 'This is starting to get interesting.'

Jack recognized him as one of the older students in the school. In fact, it was the one he was making out with in the storage room when Mrs. Penning hadcaught them.

'What's so interesting about us sitting at a table and doing our homework, Steve?' he asked.

'Because after doing some work, you make your move. I remember . . .'

His companions smirked and Jack rolled his eyes.

'Don't make me have to kill you, Steve. Get you and your fucking little friends out of here!'

Steve threw up his hands in defeat.

'Alright, we're going, but only after you answer one question: Which side should we bet on?'

'OUT!' Jack screamed, his voice echoing throughout the cavernous room.

The teens immediately fled, shooting fearful glances back at Jack; the latter was waving his fist at them angrily.

'What's with all the yelling?' Ralph asked, suddenly appearing.

Jack jumped in surprise.

'Why does everyone have to do that!' he exclaimed.

When Ralph started to giggle, Jack nudged him in the shoulder.

'Come on, we've got work to do,' he said stiffly, making his way back to the table.

-

RING!

It was time for gym class again. Jack amiably walked alongside Ralph as the two of them walked to the change rooms together.

'We'll have to work on it tonight,' Ralph said, obviously talking about their math assignment.

'Yeah,' Jack agreed absentmindedly. 'Where though?'

'Library.'

'How long do you think we need? The library closes about three hours after school ends.'

Ralph groaned.

'I think we're going to need a bit more time than that,' he admitted bitterly, opening the door to Change Room B.

'Maybe we can work on it at your house then,' Jack suggested.

'Why my house?' Ralph questioned. 'Why not yours?'

"Because my mom's a control freak and my dad is a drunk bastard," he thought, but he knew better than to say this aloud.

'Because . . . because my parents . . .' he began, not really knowing how to finish the sentence.

'Yes?' Ralph prompted, taking a seat on one of the wooden benches.

Jack shook his head.

'Never mind,' he muttered, sitting down beside the other boy.

Ralph, who seemed to have sensed Jack's discomfort on the subject, said, 'I guess we can work at my house.'

Jack's face brightened immediately.

'Great.'

'Don't mention it.' Ralph smiled. 'Ever!'

-

'Okay, class, we will continue with our wrestling unit today,' Mr. Penting said after they had finished stretches (and after he had finished chastising Jack in front of the entire class for having skipped his equipment duty that morning). 'We will be learning one of the most basic wrestling skills today—pinning your opponent. Please divide into pairs.'

Ralph purposefully avoided Terry's eye and wandered about the gym, looking for another partner. Being with the big bloke yesterday had left him rather pained and bruised, and it wasn't exactly an experience he'd like to repeat.

'Hey, Ralph, you want to be partners?' Jack asked, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Without a second thought, Ralph replied, 'Sure. Why not?' After all, being with Jack had to be a helluva lot better than being with Terry . . . wasn't it?

'Hey, Lee!' Ralph heard Terry's booming voice yell. 'Looks like we're partners, ol' buddy.' From the paled look on Lee's face, it was apparent to Ralph that he would rather eat a garden snake.

'Okay, Ter,' Lee replied, his face quickly becoming an unattractive shade of green.

Ralph chuckled softly and glanced over at Jack, who was watching his friends with an amused glint in his eye. In the course of one day, Jack proved to be quite different from the boy who had tried to kill him on the island. He wasn't the cocky, arrogant, conceited bastard that Ralph once knew. No, he'd changed. Firstly, Jack no longer wanted to kill him, and that was a big plus! Ralph took in the fine, attractive features of his partner, noticing how his eyes always seemed bright and mischievous. His silky hair was slightly curly at the tips and his plush lips were—

'What are you looking at?' Jack asked him suddenly, but it wasn't the hard, demanding voice he once used when speaking to Ralph.

'Nothing,' Ralph replied quickly, turning his attention to Mr. Penting, who was describing ways to pin down their opponents when wrestling.

'You must ensure that your partner cannot escape,' he said, and it was only then that Ralph realized he was using Terry and Lee as an example. The larger teen was almost crushing the latter with his weight as he clumsily tried to press Lee down onto the mats.

'I don't think you'll have to worry about Lee escaping, Mr. Penting,' another student whispered, 'Terry's about to suffocate him.'

'Hey, shut up, man!' Terry snapped, getting up slightly to relieve Lee of some of his weight.

Beside Ralph, Jack was laughing his ass off, letting out loud guffaws from seeing Lee in such a state.

'Serves you right, man!' he mouthed, pointing at Lee.

Ralph suppressed a smile of his own, not from Lee's situation, but from how giddy Jack looked. It was pretty funny . . .

'Can you do better, Jack?' Terry questioned, slightly hurt from the way his friend was acting and thinking it was at him rather than Lee.

'Maybe,' Jack replied. His laughter ceased as he rose up to the challenge.

A dramatic "ooh" was murmured through the class.

'Then you must do so, Mr. Merridew!' Mr. Penting said, enthusiastically clapping his hands. 'You and your partner will do the Rock Pin.'

'Do the what?' Jack inquired.

'The Rock Pin. Just pin Mr. Macpherson down. We are not doing any full-out wrestling matches until all of you have mastered the basics,' he added to the class.

'What's the Rock Pin?' Jack asked Ralph quietly, but it was still loud enough for Mr. Penting to hear.

'If you were listening, you would know what I am talking about, Mr. Merridew.'

Jack paled slightly and nudged Ralph towards the mat.

'Come on,' he murmured.

-

'What's the Rock Pin?' Jack questioned Ralph again, and the latter shrugged.

'I know just about as much about it as you do, Jack,' Ralph responded.

'Oh, great.' Jack cast his gaze over to Terry and Lee, who were still in the Rock Pin position, whatever that was. Jack had about a millisecond to see what it was before his two friends stood up to go join the rest of the class, who were forming a spectacle circle around Jack and Ralph. 'Okay, I think I know what to do,' Jack muttered. 'Just lie on the mat.'

Ralph did so, stretching out comfortably on his back.

'Sorry, Ralph,' Jack muttered before he nervously straddled the teen's hips and leaned over him, stationing his hands on either side of Ralph's head.

'Off to a bad start, are we, Mr. Merridew?' Mr. Penting mocked, and the class giggled softly.

Jack rolled his eyes and instead leaned further. He used his forearms to press Ralph's shoulders firmly into the mat. Their noses almost touched, and their breaths intermingled, facts that both teens noticed. Two sets of eyes locked, ebony with sapphire. In that one shared instant, everything around them shattered and disappeared into oblivion. Only they existed for that moment . . . and for each other . . .

Jack started when he felt something hard against his thigh, and he immediately rolled off of Ralph and sat down on the mat. It was then that the moment was broken.