Don't be too shocked, but I think I might have written a chapter I like!

The internal monologues are all belonging to Howard in this chapter, I thought he deserved them. Still no idea where this is going, but you all seem nice and supportive of my lack of plot, so that's no problem!

Howard, Vince and Gideon all belong to Barrat and Fielding, but the admissions lady is aaaall mine!

Chapter 5

"Vince Noir! If I find you have your phone out AGAIN, I will take it off you and you won't have it back until the end of the school term!"

Vince sighed, slipping his mobile phone back into his pocket. He had been checking it religiously, every five or ten minutes. He had given Howard his mobile number, hadn't he? It seemed so strange. They had been getting on well on the Saturday night, then Howard just got up and left and Vince hadn't heard from him for four days. Not that it mattered of course, Howard was just a boring zoo keeper, why would an up-and-coming electro star want to bother himself with him anyway? To tell the truth, Vince was embarrassed. He had been rude to Howard, and badly, badly wanted to set the record straight. Being unintentionally rude was one of the things that drove Vince mad. It made him cringe to think that people might think badly of him when he was trying to be nice.

The school bell cut through his thoughts and the boredom that filled the air of the classroom. The screeching of chairs on the cheap wood floor snapped Vince into action, and he immediately starting tossing his books in his bag, hungry to be outside of the school gates. he thought he heard the teacher bark his name as he hurried out of the classroom, but he wasn't going to waste another second in that stuffy classroom. Teacher or no teacher.

He was about to cut ahead of the crowd of people heading out of a side door when a hand grabbed his shoulder. He span round to see who it was.

The eyeliner-ed eyes of one of friends smiled back at him. "Hey, Vince, you comin' out with us?"

Vince looked round and saw three more boys milling behind him, looking bored with their dead-pan expressions. Vince liked his friends, they were cool after all...but he had to admit...it wasn't particularly tempting.

"Where are you off?" Asked Vince, searching for a reason to decline.

"Johnny, he got some booze from his older brother. We were gonna hang at the park an' have some fun..."

God, they're so pathetic. That's their idea of an afternoon; vodka at the fucking kiddies playground- Vince caught himself in mid thought. Had he just thought that? He had just called the coolest guys in his year pathetic? What the? He hoped he hadn't said it out loud and just not realised. He would be dead for sure. But they were still stood there, waiting for an answer with expressions that told Vince that they didn't really care either way.

"I've got to go meet someone...maybe later, yeah?" He grinned smoothly. His friends just nodded and sloped off down the corridor. Vince dashed out of the side door, appreciating the way the cold air outside stung his cheeks.

He took long and quick strides until he reaches a public toilet on one of the street corners, dashing in and locking himself in a cubicle. He dumped his bag on the worryingly slimy flour and began tugging his blazer and shirt off in one go, forgetting about the tie that held it all in place. Once he had unknotted it, he dumped his school clothes on the cistern, and began searching in the bottom of his bag. His fingers eventually grazed the cotton, and he pulled out his favourite Kings of Leon t-shirt. It was crumpled from being crushed under his school books, but still fit like a second skin. After tugging it over his head and stretching it down to his hips, he adorned his wrist with a handful of silver bangles that jangled noisily when he reached up to run his fingers through his hair. He didn't need to check his reflection on the way out to know that he looked good. Although he checked it anyway.

He made his way over to the zoo, relieved to be out of his school uniform. He was going to find Howard, but there was always the chance that he might run into Ms. Gideon, and he couldn't let her see him in his school uniform, or she would know he had lied.

The lady at the admissions booth looked Vince up and down like he was something that was stuck on the underside of her desk.

"You need to buy a wristband to access the zoo," She said plainly, chewing a grey lump of gum in a way that reminded Vince of a cow.

"I don't care about seeing the zoo. I just want to talk to Howard Moon!"

She cracked her gum. "I can call him if you want," she said, although maintained an expression that told Vince it was the last thing she wanted to do. Nevertheless, he nodded.

The admissions lady pressed down a button, and a loudspeaker crackled and fizzled it's way into life.

"Howard Moon, report to admissions. Howard Moon to admissions," she droned in a perfect "checkout number four, please" voice, before adding, "He'll be here in a minute."

Duh, thought Vince to himself. He moved out of the eye line of the admissions lady, who was still staring at him, her overly plucked eyebrows raised so high they were disappearing under her fringe. Vince slumped against a wall, drawing his name in the dirt with the tip of his converse. He had just finished carefully printing his first name when a voice interrupted him.

"Oh, Vince!" Something told him that the high pitched voice with it's distinct accent, didn't belong to Howard. It in fact belonged to Gideon, who set the rake she had been holding against the wall, and rushed over to him.

"Hey, Gideon," Vince mustered up charming smile, hiding his annoyance at being greeted by the wrong person. Not that he minded Gideon, of course, she was pretty and she liked him. That ticked both of Vince's boxes.

"You came to see me?" She asked in a hopeful voice, and Vince knew that he could hardly answer negatively to a question like that.

"Of course! Haven't seen you since Saturday, have I?"

Gideon gave a giggle and shook her head. "I was hoping I would run into you, we don't have each other's phone number!" She grabbed Vince's arm to try and make him understand the seriousness of his issue, "and how are we ever going to keep in touch without phone numbers?"

"Smoke signals?" Vince joked, setting her off laughing again. She flapped her hand at him in a kind of "oh you!" type of way and Vince gave her a smile, though he couldn't help looking over Gideon's shoulder and seeing if he could spot Howard approaching. He was kind of nervous, Gideon seemed awfully keen on him and he couldn't say that he was absolutely crazy about her. There was nothing wrong with her, but he just wasn't all over her like she was with him. Luckily, Vince didn't have to worry much longer, as an American voice blared over the loudspeaker, demanding that Gideon report to once place or another, he hadn't been paying enough attention to remember where.

"Oh dear, I better go, but don't you leave before I get a chance to give you my number, ok?" She smiled at him and went up on her tip toes, giving Vince a peck on the cheek before grabbing her rake and heading off for another part of the zoo.

Howard was already having a bad day. He had been woken two hours earlier than usual because there was so much to get done. The kettle hadn't been working so he was still going without his morning cup of tea to keep him alive. He kept getting called to Bob Fossil's office when he was in the middle of doing other things. And now he was getting called to admissions when he had been working right at the other end of the zoo!

He wondered what they could possible want him for, then he saw. Gideon with her hand on Vince's arm. Gideon laughing at Vince's jokes. Reaching up to kiss him on the cheek. Howard felt anger leap up from his stomach and burn in his head. All he wanted to do was march over and pull them away from each other, and he had to cross his arms as a kind of way of holding himself back. It's not fair, his mind taunted him, he walks on the scene and Gideon loves him after just one hour. You've been trying to impression Gideon for months now...he doesn't deserve her...go over there and tell him. Go on, I bet it would feel good to break his nose. Howard took a deep breath and shook his head to shut up the little voice that was baiting him.

He was suddenly aware that Gideon was walking straight towards him. He didn't know why, but he didn't want her to know that he had seen her and Vince together. He felt like he had been spying and had jealous tattooed right across his forehead. Howard looked around, panicked, for a place to duck away. But he didn't have to worry, she just walked straight past him, without batting an eyelid. That hardly improved his mood.

"What do you want?" Howard demanded more than asked, marching over to where Vince was now stood.

"Um..." Vince tried to remember why he was there. He was shocked by Howard's sudden arrival, he hadn't noticed him approaching and he was still slightly overwhelmed by the way Gideon acted around him. "Saturday night, I didn't say goodbye to you. I'm sorry, I must have sounded really rude!"

Howard wasn't quite sure how to react. The way Vince had acted was one of the reasons he used to justify his new found dislike for the boy. "Oh...ok...anything else?" he asked, then realised he wasn't holding his ground well enough and snapped, "I'm busy today, you know!"

"I thought we still had stuff to talk about, you know...we didn't really finish our conversation..." Vince tried to prompt Howard into resuming said conversation. He stayed silent, staring at Vince like he was expecting something. "But maybe we could catch up some other time, right?" He figured Howard wasn't in a very social mood.

"Maybe." Howard was reminded of that Saturday night. The way he felt when Vince announced that he wished he was good at something. The excitement he'd had at being able to offer Vince what he needed, and his expectations of the gratitude he would receive. The fluttery feeling returned, and he wanted to talk to Vince, he really, really wanted to...they could get round their differences...Howard was sure he could get over his pathetic jealously, for the sake of helping poor aspirationless Vince out...

"Alright, I'll leave you to your work then," smiled Vince, then he handed Howard a little slip of paper with numbers on it, "and can you give that to Gideon? She asked for it. I'll see ya then." He turned to leave the zoo.

Forget it, Howard's mind starting biting at him again. He doesn't care, he doesn't want to be friends with you. He only wants to talk to you so he can get closer to Gideon. Rip up that piece of paper. Go on. Don't let him get any closer to her...then you two will be together. Vince is the only person keeping you apart. Rip it up...

Howard could feel his hands sweating, smudging the ink on the piece of paper. He didn't know what to do. He was split down the middle. One side of him wanted to be friends with Vince, he was a nice guy. The two of them would work well together, and Vince would always have a certain admiration for the older guy who had tutored him to become a great zoo keeper. He could see Vince in one of the green zoo keeper jackets. Grinning his genuine smile and saying "thanks Howard" with a little nod. Howard could feel the pride welling up in his heart just in imagining the moment.

The other side of him pushed the image out of his head, ripping the picture into shreds. It reminded him of the way he felt when he had seen Vince and Gideon together. This horrible, burning hatred that clawed at the inside of his stomach. Tensed his muscles so hard they hurt. Gave him this unsupressable hunger for revenge. Made him realise, as long as Vince was around, Gideon wouldn't see him. He would be invisible in Vince's shadow.

Before he had even realised what he had done, the pieces of paper were littering the ground like numbered confetti.