Glade High

Chapter Four

Brenda was certain that the scene in front of her was something out of a Mean Girls movie. Minho and Thomas (Minho with his hands on his hips and Thomas with a stern glare) were staring down Gally and Ben, both of who were glaring back. A crowd was forming around the four boys who were arguing in front of the hallway to the science room.

"Go away, slut," snarled Gally, his black hair hanging in his eyes slightly. "All I want to do is introduce myself to the new Greenie."

"Maybe he doesn't want to talk to you," Minho snapped back before Thomas could respond. "It's not like you're a very pleasant person anyway, slint head."

Ben scoffed. "I'm sure the Greenie can speak for himself." His dark eyes turned towards Thomas. Patronizingly he asked, "Or are you too stupid to defend yourself? Is that why the foster system had to send you here?"

As Thomas opened his mouth, most likely to make a biting comment back, Minho growled, "That was low, even for you. Making a crack about someone's time in the system."

"Please," Gally retorted in an obnoxious voice. "Not everyone's story is as woeful as yours is, you fag."

"Okay, THAT is enough!" a small voice shouted.

Everyone turned around, most annoyed, though Thomas was looking rather grateful at the distraction. Brenda peeked over the shoulder of Terry, who was in front of her, and looked at the guy who had spoken.

It was Chuck.

The kid was glaring at Gally and Ben, his blue eyes oozing annoyance. "Shut up and go to class, shuck heads." He then turned to Minho and Thomas. "And you two just go away; you know that they aren't worth your time."

For a moment, the group was silent, and then Gally laughed rudely. "Need the pipsqueak to save your asses?" he exclaimed, cackling.

Ben high fived his friend and Brenda watched while Thomas stepped forward, arm raised. Quick as lightning, he flung his hand out and back handed Gally. Voice murderous, Thomas muttered, "Get the fuck away, Gally."

So mad he was basically steaming with anger Gally stepped forward, mouth opened and yelled, "Who do you think you are, talking to me, Greenie!?"

"A hell of a lot awesomer than you," Minho cut in, nodding at Thomas with respect.

"I oughta - " Ben said in a strangled voice as someone tried to hold him back.

"HEY!" someone suddenly shouted. "What the hell is going on here?"

The crowd parted and Brenda grinned as Ms. Summers stepped into view, her hands on her hips. "It sounds like someone is fighting but I know that can't be the case because I know that my students aren't stupid enough to stir up trouble because I know that I taught them better than that." Her green eyes held a warning as her glare swept the crowd, lingering on Gally, Ben, Thomas, and Minho. "Am I right?"

"Yes Ms. Summers," a few students mumbled half-heartedly.

"Good!" she exclaimed, clapping her paint-splattered hands and grinning suddenly. "Now get to class or Janson will have your asses, kids!"

Brenda snorted in amusement at her teacher's antics as Terry turned to look at her. "We just had to get stuck with another drama-prone guy, didn't we?" Terry asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Of course!" Brenda exclaimed in faux-happiness, lowering her voice like she tried to so she could stay masculine sounding. Something told her it never really worked. "At least he seems nice enough."

"Yeah," Terry replied, though he seemed distant while the two room-mates walked towards art class.

Brenda followed his line of sight and let out a groan. "Please tell me you aren't crushing on Thomas."

"Of course not!" Terry exclaimed "What makes you think that?"

"You just keep looking at him," Brenda admitted, shoulder her bag that held her books in it. .

Terry narrowed his eyes and replied, "I look at you a lot. That doesn't mean anything."

Brenda felt her cheeks flush though she simply said, "Puh-lease, of course you have the hots for me. How could anyone resist this?" She motioned to her body which was clothed in loose jeans and a rather shapeless shirt. "I'm such a catch."

Terry let out a giggle, sounding extremely feminine. "Sure I do, Brendan. Keep on telling yourself that."

The two friends entered their art class where their classmates (a group of about ten guys) were already busy sketching something in their notepads as Ms. Summers stared intently at a piece of paper in front of her.

"Hey Ms. Summers!" both Brenda and Terry chorused at the same time, taking their places near her desk.

"Hi boys," Ms. Summers said, not taking her eyes off the piece of paper. "Today is theme day. Draw me something pertaining to pirates that isn't unbearably cliché."

Unquestioningly, Brenda pulled out her notepad and began sketching out a female pirate. Ms. Summers had requested much stranger drawings and paintings before, so this was, in all actuality, a break from some of the weirdness.

"So what are you looking at?" Terry asked, looking up from his drawing. "You seem pretty intense."

Ms. Summers simply stood up with the paper in hand, not breaking eye contact with it, and held it in front of Terry and Brenda. "The last line, boys. I cannot figure out how to end this poem."

Brenda grinned. Ms. Summers was obsessed with writing, art, and music, and she tended to either be immersed in something from one of those three categories every time they saw her in class. "It's a nice poem," Brenda said honestly.

"Thanks, darling, but I need to finish it off," Ms. Summers muttered, glaring down at the piece of paper. "Ah, maybe some music will help."

Their unorthodox teacher straightened up and yelled to the class, "Music requests, anybody?"

Someone yelled out, "Party Rock Anthem!"

Within moments the song was blasting from the speakers and kids were singing along as they worked. Terry shifted closer to Brenda while they talked, so he could be heard.

"So what do you think about the Gally thing?" Terry asked, shading in a skull and crossbones flag.

"They're being idiots," Brenda said bluntly, shaping out a gun in the pirate's hand. "Gally doesn't deserve to talk to Thomas and that's that."

"I agree," Terry said, nodding. "What do you think about him, by the way? He seems nice enough, if not a little boring."

"He's kind of...rude." Brenda looked up at Terry briefly. "And he seems like the kind of person who isn't about to let anyone in."

Terry nodded, eyes wide. "Yes! He's going to be a tough nut to crack but I bet we can."

"We need something to break him out of his shell," Brenda mused, letting her mind wander.

Terry made a noise of agreement and went back to his drawing. "By the way, there is something I've meant to talk to you about."

He said it so offhandedly that Brenda immediately knew something was wrong. Terry never beat around the bush. "Eh, yes?" she offered worriedly.

Eyes trained on the pencil he was using, Terry said, "You've been acting kind of strange lately. Is anything wrong?"

Brenda gulped, slipping her gaze to Terry's face, though that didn't seem to give anything away. Lately trying to hide her identity had got so much worse, what with certain things going on...

"Everything's fine," she replied in a strangled voice. "Why do you ask?"

Terry shrugged, his hoodie slipping off his shoulder slightly. "You've just been off recently. I've meant to talk to you about something, but I can't now."

"Why?"

His cool blue eyes finally rose to meet Brenda's gaze. "It's personal."

They fell silent after that, both too scared to catch each other's worried stares.

~WICKED~

All Minho could hear was the scratching of lead pencils on paper as the class copied down notes. In front of him was a full-page of notes covered in small doodles and song lyrics. Yeah, so he was supposed to be copying down the math notes, but why?

Geometry was useless and a complete waste of time; it wasn't like he was going to use it in his future job. He practically had the track scholarship in his hands - all Jorge had to do was secure it. It wasn't like he thought school in general was a waste; he was a pretty good student; but math just rubbed him the wrong way.

Minho tapped his pencil against the notebook in a monotonous beat, eyes glazed over as his mind wandered to earlier in the morning.

Trust Gally and his little minion Ben to ruin his whole day. He just had to go and shove his big nose where people didn't need him, like trying to meet the new kid. The slinthead had approached them with this pompous smirk on his face saying, "Well, if it isn't the Greenie? My name's Gally, but you can call me Captain Gally."

Ben had laughed, this annoying nasally laugh, and nodded in agreement.

Unsurprisingly, keeping up with the stereotypical teenage guy role Minho had placed him under, Thomas had scoffed and said, "Yeah, as soon as you call me King Thomas."

For whatever reason, Gally and Ben had taken his (rather lame) comeback way too seriously.

And then they began to argue.

Minho sighed, wondering what the guys' problem was and why -

"Minho!"

Minho jerked himself upwards, tearing his eyes from the spot in the air he had been staring at, and shot his gaze to his livid math teacher.

"Pay attention," Janson growled, his beady eyes narrowing.

"Sorry," Minho muttered, not very convincingly.

He went back to taking "notes" while Janson prowled around the room like a rat, his ugly little black eyes sweeping over the room while he preached about the formula they were learning. Minho sighed under his breath, doodling a small stick figure Janson falling off of the page into a pit of fire.

It gave him a sick sense of pleasure, watching the stick figure fall into the flames.

When class finally ended, Minho threw himself out of the seat towards the back of the room to grab Newt and head off to Science. However, when he approached the back of the room, he saw Newt passed out in his seat, his pale blonde hair lying like a halo around his head and arms.

Chuckling, Minho yanked Newt's backpack up, pulling the taller guy up with him. Said guy yelped and jerked forward, putting Minho in a headlock before he was fully awake.

Minho widened his eyes as Newt let out a nervous laugh and let go. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Eh, sorry, I guess I fell asleep during the last few minutes of class."

"'s okay," Minho assured him, pulling Newt out of class as Janson glared at their retreat. "But are you okay, dude? You've been ridiculously tired lately and sorta distant. Alby and I are starting to get worried."

"I'm fine," Newt exclaimed, slightly too fast to be convincing. "I mean, I've just had a lot on my mind recently."

Minho nodded, though he was unconvinced. "You can talk to me and Alby if you need to. What's on your mind so much you've lost sleep over it?"

"Certain...people," Newt explained vaguely. "And I keep having nightmares. It's nothing to get bloody worried about, but it's been annoying."

Minho turned to Newt as they arrived at the hallway where their science class was, stopping him in his tracks. "You are going to tell me about this later. No ifs, ands, or buts."

"No, it's oka - "

"Shush." Minho placed a hand over Newt's mouth with a somber smile. "Stop talking. You explain to me later."

Newt rolled his blue eyes, but nodded. "Nuh et oh uh mah mouh," he grumbled.

Minho removed his hand with a flourish and grinned widely. "Good that. Let's get to class now, before Mr. Stephen starts class without us."

The two took off walking down the hallway, Newt letting out a grudging smile. "The track thing is today, isn't it?" he asked.

Minho nearly choked from happiness as he exclaimed, "My GOD I forgot about that!"

His day was made again.

~WICKED~

Class with Alby and Chuck was something that Thomas could get used to. The two weren't exactly friends, but they had enough sarcasm and wit to keep a conversation going from sheer opinions.

Their fourth period class was sitting outside on a bunch of rocks that was positioned around a fire pit. Their teacher, a guy in his mid-forties with graying black hair was currently teaching them about the properties of life.

"Alby!" he suddenly shouted, startling Thomas. "What is this leaf made of?" he asked, holding out a green leaf.

Alby grinned and said, "Matter. All things are made of matter."

"Correct!" Mr. Stephen exclaimed. "All things are made of matter! However, what else does it take to make a leaf? Aris!"

"Water, a tree, sunlight," answered a tanned guy with black hair, shrugging his shoulders. "And maybe dirt for the tree?"

"Yes! But then what makes a tree? And sunlight?" Mr. Stephen grinned. "Chuck?"

"Bark, soil, water, bugs, stuff like that? And the sunlight is made by the sun?" Chuck replied.

"Correct again! But what are bugs made of? How do they become a bug?" Mr. Stephen asked. "Ian?"

A guy answered, "Bug guts? Uh, whatever it is that bugs eat? Like plants and stuff."

"Yes! But where do plants and stuff come from?"

The class was looking at their teacher like he was crazy, but something clicked to Thomas. He raised his hand. "Mr. Stephen?"

"Ah, yes, Thomas!" the teacher exclaimed. "Got something to add?"

"Everything is made from everything," Thomas said, slightly perturbed by the stares he was getting. "You and I can't exist without oxygen and oxygen comes from trees which comes from the soil which comes from deceased plants and animals which comes from everything they eat."

There was a moment of stillness until Mr. Stephen let out a blinding smile. "Brilliant, son. Yes, class! Everything is made from everything! In some strange or miniscule way, everything is affected by everything else."

Alby grinned at Thomas and Chuck slapped him on the back, though it felt more like a pat coming from the boy.

"Nice job," Chuck told him quietly, smiling.

Despite himself, usually not giving a crap about what adults thought and said about him, Thomas smiled back. "Thanks."

As soon as Mr. Stephen took out a match and a jar of lighter fluid and set them both in the fire pit, Thomas knew he was going to be okay in this school. But for some reason, he had an inkling of a feeling that something dramatic was about to happen.

And he was going to be caught in the middle of it.

Chapter four! :D I'm getting the hang of writing these chapters so quickly.

Huge thanks to: katie, Guest, Maze Runner Girl, chickeny,role, Guest, BillieLiliJem, Not a guest, Guest, and Absolutely Taylor for the wonderful reviews! They make my day, seriously. I know a bunch of people read this and don't leave a review but please, could you? It literally makes me want to write more when I see reviews and suggestions and ideas from people, and all you have to do is type something like: nice chapter, loved when someone did that.

PLEASE don't be shy when suggesting new plots or happenings in the story because right now it's very general. It gets more interesting, trust me. XD

With love! C:

~Dani :D