The first day of school. If anxiety was a day, that would be it. Everything relies on making a decent first impression. Life or death.
I bite my lip and tell myself that it's all going to be okay as I look at my new school, Saint William's Catholic Academy, located in the heart of barren New Jersey. I shove my hands into my ill-fitting pant pockets.
Saint Williams, or as I have overheard many people refer to it as, 'Will's' is less than prestigious. On the outside, the dull, two story, gray building is appealing to the eye, and then you see the patches of a slightly lighter gray where graffiti has been removed, and the rows of students smoking in the front of the school, making the front of school reek of nicotine. Walking in might possibly be worse than looking outside. The walls are covered with a putrid brown wall paper that is peeling at each corner. You can tell that all of the lockers used to be a vibrant blue, our school color, but are now a shade of green that is simply horrible to look at. Every 8 or so lockers, you could see a crossed-out racist slang on the surface of the locker.
As I approach Will's, the scent of smoke attacks my nose from the growing line of smokers in front of the school. Looking at them I am less than excited to start off my day. Everybody here seemed so…
Intimidating I suppose. They all wore the uniforms, yes, but most of the boy's white button-ups had a stain or two of some sort on it, some being ash or beer, but every now and then somebody had blood on their shirt. I shivered at the thought of how those guys got that on there.
The bell rang and the crowd in front of the school scattered inside, most of them throwing their! cigarettes on the ground. Gross. Inspecting the cigarettes on the ground I could tell that some of them were not cigarettes at all. Great, druggies. My brother will fit right in.
My older brother, Gerard smokes piles of pot every day. Don't get me wrong, I love him to death, but it worries me. I don't want him to get hurt, and I feel like this lifestyle that he has is going to come back and bite him at any time.
Gerard pats my back when he sees me looking at the school in awe.
"Not much of a sight, is it." He says, clearly trying to comfort me
"Nope." I say, faking a smile. I dont want to worry him.
"Mikey, this will be a good year. I promise." He looked behind him at a girl running into school "you have nothing to worry about."
The girl running towards us caught my eye. She had long, wavy black hair that she pulled up into a ponytail, leaving out a black fringe in front. Her hair framed her face quite well and showed off her deep cheekbones. She wore the boys uniform. I didn't even know that it was allowed. I looked over at Gerard, his eyes were on her in awe. She stopped when she was just about to pass us.
"You guys new?" She asked. She had a low voice with a thick canadian accent.
"Yeah, we moved here from south New Jersey." Gerard said, before I could have a say in the matter
"As you can see, it's not exactly the nicest around here." She motioned back towards the school
"I'm Mikey, this is my older brother Gerard." I finally got a word into this conversation. Gerard swept his hand through his mop of black hair
"Lacie." She put her hand out to shake whoevers hand she could. I accepted her hand and shook it lightly "Anyway, Im going to be late for Geometry."
"Geometry with Mrs Truman?" I ask
"As it happens, yes. Do you have her?"
"Yep, second period."
"Cool. Shes rude, but you get used to her. She kinda grows on you."
"Like Mikey." Gerard nudged my shoulder
"Anyway, gotta go. Good luck on your first day."
And just like that she ran back into the school. I checked my watch, 8:37. 7 minutes late already. I looked up at Gerard, and his face seemed happy. Im glad he's happy, but it is my job as the younger brother to tease him.
"Ooooooohhh." I taunted like a third grader.
"Shut up, loser. You're gay, you don't get it." He played the gay card.
"Rude." I said, running into school. I was already late, it was best that I don't be any later.
Gerard's POV
My first period today was Language Arts. I didn't exactly excel in Language Arts. I walked in and put my books into the box slot under my assigned desk in the middle left of class.
I was getting so many dirty looks from my classmates. It made me uncomfortable being stared at so harshly.
"Name?" The teacher, Mr Miller asked me in a monotone voice
"Way." I responded
"Way?" A large kid in the back with a huge brown stain on the front of his shirt asked me "You don't happen to be related to that faggot Mikey?"
"Language, Mr. Brown." Mr Miller interrupted
"If you say one more thing about my little brother somebody here is getting hurt." I mumbled, fighting the urge to throw a punch
"I'm so scared." He stood up "This is coming from the gaylord's brother."
"Does anyone even say gaylord anymore?" I said looking up "As promised, you're going to get hurt. Tonight, Garland park, 12:00."
"You're on." He said, sitting down
I really hoped he didn't think I was serious, or I'm getting my ass on a platter tomorrow.
Mikey's POV
My third period class was Art II with Mrs Thomson. I don't even know how the hell I got into Art II with my lack of art skills. Gerard is the one who can actually do art, but he ended up in Art III, Advanced Art.
Walking into the class I noticed that there wasn't tables, there was desks, like a classroom. I also noticed that Lacie was sitting at the desk in the back left.
"This is Art, correct?" I asked her. She looked up with a surprised look on her face and when she remembered who I was she smiled
"Yep. The one and only!" She replied. I sat down next to her
"Cool. Is the teacher alright?" I asked. I was genuinely curious, as I had all but too much experience with bad art teachers.
"Depends. She's an okay art teacher, but personality wise she's not so great." She sighed "She pulled me out of Art III because my parents got into an argument her. I'm pretty sure it isn't legal and is considered discriminatory, but I'm not pulling somebody out of a job because of a little disagreement."
"I'm not even supposed to be in Art II. She just really liked my brother's art skills and assumed that it ran in the family. It doesn't."
Lacie laughed a bit.
"There's somebody that I want you to meet. His name is Frank. You two should get along just fine."
At this point I knew a subtotal of two people at this school, my brother and Lacie, and I desperately needed some friends.
"Okay!" I smiled
Lacie's POV
Today at lunchtime I invited Mikey and Gerard over to sit with me and my friends. The people who sat at my table on a daily basis were Elizabeth, Alex, Ray and Frank. Elizabeth has bright blue eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. Alex cuts his hair every month or so to make it so that it's a bowl cut just above his ears that kind of makes his face look like it's being swallowed whole by his hair. His eyes are almost identical to Elizabeth's, which is the main feature that makes people become mistaken and think that they are related. Ray is the oldest of all of us. He's a senior who has fluffy brown hair that Frank constant loves to stroke whenever he's bored and brown eyes. And Frank Iero. Frank has half of his hair cut into a choppy black fringe and the other half is short and blonde. He normally wears a generous amount of black eyeliner. Frank is gay, and we're about the only ones in school who accept him for that.
Gerard was the first one to walk over. He held his lunch tray in one hand and his books in the other and he looked like he was about to topple over. Frank stood up and ran over to help Gerard with his books. I have second period Social Studies with Frank, and he told me that seeing Gerard in the hallways, he thought he was pretty hot. I am not going to be rude and tell him this, but I am pretty sure that Gerard is straight. Anyways, if I do he'll just tell me what he tells me every time he has a crush on a straight guy; "Spaghetti is straight too, but then it gets a little hot".
Frank took Gerard's books and placed them right next to where he was sitting, but despite being clearly gestured to sit next to Frank, Gerard placed his lunch tray next to where I was sitting and sat down there.
"Gerard, this is Frank." I said, knowing that if I didn't introduce them sooner rather than later Frank was going to be furious.
"A pleasure." Gerard said, extending his hand. Frank shook it very firmly
"The pleasure is all mine." Frank smiled.
After about 6 awkward seconds of Frank not letting go of Gerard's hand, they finally broke the handshake up.
Finally, Mikey arrived at the table. He sat down next to Frank, where Gerard's books were. Mikey handed the books back to Gerard when he realized that they belonged to him. Mikey wasn't saying anything, so I had to kick off the conversation.
"Hey, Mikey. This is Elizabeth, Alex, Ray and Frank." I greeted
"Nice to meet you guys." He said. He was clearly gesturing it towards the whole group, but he was looking Frank right in the eye while he said it.
"Gerard and Mikey are new here. They're from Easton, I believe."
Easton was our school's rival district. If you were to ask any football player about Easton, they would call it some rude slang that they made up about it and explain to them why Will's is better than Easton, even though Easton was much nicer and higher class than Will's.
"What made you move here?" Ray asked Mikey "I mean, Easton is much nicer than Will's. Easton is Harvard compared to Will's."
"Our dad was tired of paying monthly tuition fees. It's like, 100 big ones per month, and money's a bit scarce when your dad blows it all on scratch tickets." Mikey responded
"You must not like it here. Hell, I moved here from Greyhound, the other Catholic high school in the district, and even it seemed like Harvard compared to here." Ray looked at his feet while he was speaking. It was a really bad habit of his.
"I got kicked out of Easton for dealing pot. Dropped out for a few months" Gerard said shamelessly.
"You'll fit right in." Elizabeth smiled. Elizabeth is usually quite the optimist.
"I don't smoke anymore. Pot, anyway." Gerard interrupted. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, but frank took one out of his pocket faster.
"No, take one of mine." He told him. Gerard snatched the cigarette from Frank's hand, lit it and thanked Frank for it.
"Lacie, you want one?" Gerard asked me
"I don't smoke." I said "Surprising, isn't it? Somebody at this school doesn't smoke?"
"I don't either." Alex butt in "It's gross."
"Suit yourself, loser." Frank taunted Alex. Alex and Frank used to date until Alex confessed that he was straight and was dating Stephanie, one of the girls who was in the 'emo' clique. Frank hasn't forgiven him since.
"Ay, Frank. You're doing it again." Ray pointed out. Ray stopped Frank whenever he was bullying Alex. It was like his unofficial job.
"Sorry, sorry." Frank apologised.
The bell rang symbolizing that lunch was over
Mikey's POV
I really like Frank. I find him genuinely attractive and an alright person from what I can assume. I could even go as far as to say that I have a crush on him.
In the hallways on my way to 5th period, I ran into Gerard.
"Hey, I'm thinking of inviting Lacie and Frank over for dinner tonight while dad's out on the business trip."
My dad has worked his ass off to make money for us since our mom passed away, and he bit off more than he could chew with his new job as a consultant for a wealthy product production company. You'd normally need to be a business major, but to quote my dad's boss he 'Liked his enthusiasm to jump right into the job'. He normally makes about 25 dollars an hour, and you'd think that that would be enough to support tuition for Easton, but it isn't when he wastes it all on scratch tickets and 4-day trips to Vegas whenever he has enough money. Don't get me wrong, I really do love my dad, but he's not exactly the best role model.
"Yeah, that sounds alright. Do I need to cook something?" I'm usually the cook in the family, as I'm pretty good at it.
"You do, but I have Home Ec. with Lacie and Frank, and Lacie is vegetarian and frank is vegan. I was thinking that we could make that really good bean soup that you make for Lacie and us and make a bowl or two with almond milk for Frank. Does that sound okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, but you'll have to drive me to the store tonight to pick up the ingredients. I don't have most of the stuff to make it."
"No problem. Consider it done." Gerard said, walking off.
I'm really excited to have Lacie and Frank over for dinner tonight, as it will give us a chance to talk and get to know each other. Maybe Frank will open up to us and we will be able to see behind his cover.