As they entered the school they continued to get weird looks from everybody, but they were each in their own little worlds. Suddenly John put his arm around Claire again, but she shrugged it off and asked playfully,
"So I'm your girlfriend am I? Or are you just considering me?"
"Nah, I've thought about you, considered you, and even had a wet dream about you…OW!" He exclaimed rubbing his shoulder where Claire had shoved it into a locker. "What was that for?"
"For being the same asshole jerk you were on Saturday." She said.
"But you know you love it!"
"Sure I do." She said sarcastically.
"See I knew you saw it my way." He said ignoring the sarcasm, and leaning down for a kiss, but she turned her head.
"Nope, for every perverted comment or action you don't get a kiss for an hour!"
"Fine." He said, and smirked, before stopping off at some leggy biker blonde's locker and flirting with her.
"John!" She said, pulling him away.
"Do I get that kiss now?" She sighed, smiled, and nodded before giving him a kiss, which he quickly deepened.
Allison and Andrew were walking next to them. Andrew had his arm around Allison's shoulder, and she was leaning her head on his shoulder. She was staring at John and Claire, and snickering.
"Look at them, bickering like an old married couple!" She whispered to Andrew.
He just nodded, but continued to stare off into space. Allison looked up at him, and poked him in the chest. This got his attention and he looked down at her.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"It's stupid really." He said, but she gave him the look to continue. "It's just those guys back there were supposed to be my friends, but the second I start hanging around with you guys they drop me. I mean I knew they were shallow, but I never knew they were this shallow."
"Andrew, don't get mad at me but I have to say that they weren't your real friends then. I mean I know this doesn't mean much coming from the girl without any friends before you guys, but maybe they only liked you because you thought the way they did. You know? But once you changed your outlook you weren't good enough in their eyes anymore…But look on the bright side now you have three friends, and a girlfriend who don't care about that kind of stuff."
"Thanks Allison, what would I do without you?" He asked, and kissed her, even though he still looked a little upset.
At that moment they both ran into Brian who had been walking in front of them, when he stopped. Andrew was about to ask what was up, when he followed Brian's gaze to a girl standing about six lockers down.
Brian stood there, frozen and staring at the girl just down the hall from him. She was around his height, and she was beautiful in his eyes anyway. She was in a pair of Levis, with a pale pink button down shirt tucked into her jeans, and she was chewing some gum. Her hair was long and brown, pulled into a ponytail. Suddenly he felt someone shove him lightly and he turned his head to see John, Claire, Allison, and Andrew looking at him expectantly.
"What?" He asked, annoyed.
"Well Brian aren't you going to talk to her…unless you have some telepathic powers you aren't telling us about." John said, motioning to the girl.
"Fine." Brian said, and nervously approached the girl.
When he got near her, she glanced his way, but continued to stand there chewing that piece of gum. Finally he cleared his throat, and said,
"Um…hi I'm Brian."
"Karen. Those your friends over there?" She asked, motioning to the other four.
"Yeah…um would you like to meet them?"
"Whatever." She said, but she began to walk towards them and Brian followed behind.
John watched as Brian nervously talked to the new girl, and was slightly surprised when she began to head towards them with Brian following behind. When she approached, John noticed something in her eyes, and was already getting a bad feeling about her.
"Hi, I'm Karen." She said, extending her hand to Andrew, Allison, and Claire. Finally she turned to John, and said, "And who's this handsome fellow?"
"I'm John, Claire's boyfriend." John saw Claire relax a bit at this statement and Karen give her a quick glare before saying,
"Well that's too bad. See you later, guys, girls, John."
"That's so not fair!" Brian complained. "How come when I finally find a girl I like, she likes you?"
"Dunno it must be my charm." John said, and at that moment the bell rang.
"Time for class. How about we meet up before we go to the cafeteria okay?" Allison asked, and they all agreed.
Andrew gave Allison one last kiss before heading out to gym class with John, but in the gym John didn't bother to go to the locker rooms. When he entered the locker room, all of the guys inside quieted, and Andrew's friends headed his way. They all stood around him, and then one of them, Jake, pushed him. The other guys laughed, and when Andrew tried to push back, Gerard grabbed his arms, and held him in place.
"See Andrew this is what you get when you ditch us for those losers." Jake said, and punched him in the face.
"They aren't losers, they're better than you ever were!" This earned him another punch, and then another.
By the time the coach called them out of the locker room, Andrew had gotten a pretty good beating. The guys laughed, and left him on the floor as they headed out to gym class.
John was in Andrew's gym class, but this was the first time he had ever shown up for gym. He hadn't even bothered to change. He was standing against the wall, when he saw some of Andrew's old friends exit the locker room, but no Andrew. They were all laughing, and John felt uneasy, so he decided to take a peek in the locker room. When he walked inside and over to Andrew's locker he was surprised to see Andrew laying on the ground, very beaten up.
"Dude what happened to you?" John asked, helping Andrew up, and onto the bench.
"My friends…jerks beat me up for hanging out with you guys."
"Bastards, well c'mon lets go." John said getting up.
"Go where…you don't want to skip class do you?"
"Well do you want to go back out there with all of those bastards again while you're looking like this?"
"Good point, so where do we go now?"
"Behind the school. C'mon." John said, heading for a nearby window, which he expertly opened and climbed out of.
Andrew taking his time because he was still in pain, eventually made it over and followed John to a tree in the back, which they sat under.
"Wanna smoke?" John asked, pulling a cigarette from his pocket.
"Nah." Andrew said. "So John let me ask you something…after what you told us about your family why do you stay at your house? I mean couldn't you go to your friend's houses or something?" John just sighed and said,
"My mother…she's just as bad as my father when it comes to drinking, and she evens tries to get a few good swings in at me, but I can't leave her. No mater how mad I am at her, seeing her get beaten by my father tears me up inside, and I'm afraid if I leave her he'll take it too far one day ya know?"
"Wow man." Was all Andrew could manage.
"Yeah well…so how's things with your old man?"
"Same old…but now that you mention it I was wondering if you guys wanted to come to my meet this Saturday."
"Well I don't normally make it a habit to show my presence at school functions by why not?"
"Cool."
"Oh and Andrew when we head back inside, you might wanna clean up your face a bit." John said, throw is cigarette on the ground and crushing it with his boot.
At that moment the bell rang, and the guys headed back inside with a new understanding of each other.