"It's in the water baby,

it's in your frequencyIt's in the water baby,

it's between you and me."

I sat at the table, Frank on my left and Mikey on my right. My mum and Frank's stood straight in front of me, glancing down at the pair of us with anxious expressions.

"Are we supposed to say sorry?" Frank asked, resting back in his seat lazily.

"Probably," I replied, holding my coffee mug to my lips and taking a delicate sip of the fine liquid, feeling it's hot, creamy texture trickling down my throat. I let out a small sigh, coffee really was heaven in a cup. Frank looked over at me with a 'what the hell' look about him. Mikey just gave a slow, sure nod like that of a recovering mental patient in the younger boy's direction.

"Coffee's good," Mikey said.

Frank shook his head as though he was waking from a daze and got back to speaking to me.

"Do you wanna? Yeah know, settle this?" he said, in a low voice so his mum couldn't here him. I guess, he wasn't only trying to keep up a tough reputation at school.

"I don't know, Frankie," I sighed smugly, taking another sip.

"Don't call me that," came that toned-down voice from my side.

"I will call you whatever I like, Frankie," I repeated his new name once more.

"Fu-" his head shot up to our mum's disapproving frowns.

"Work out your issues, boys," my mum gave a sad sigh.

"I know what you're talking about Donna," Frank's mum gave a gentle laugh, "And soon, you have school in a few minutes," she looked up at the clock before quickly correcting herself, her words accompanied by her jerking arms, "Actually now! Get up boys, get out the door!"

I jumped up from my seat, snatching hold of my school back and racing out the door - steering myself straight ahead and not even glancing back to check if the other two were bothering to follow me, I didn't really care if they missed school or not - I could really do without this whole week of rent-a-friend, altogether, so escaping the sight of their faces for a few hours would be something of pleasant. The bus was sitting impatiently, groaning and heaving as I stepped onto it. The driver gave me her familiar cold look. I stared back, doing what I usually do in such situations; I smiled. I saw her diverting her eyes from my own face and glancing at Mikey and Frank who were running towards us. Her eyes seemed alarmed, not at Mikey - he was any adult's dream really but more to Frank. Maybe it was his focused gaze, his lip piece that somehow glittered in the dull light that we called the sun, maybe it was his floppy hair that hid one of his perfectly round, amber eyes…I shook my head, bringing my daze to a halt. Maybe it was just because he was a dick, yeah let's go with that. Her eyes swerved back to my own, my lips still curved, this time more encouragingly - mentally cheering her on. I didn't dare think she'd actually do it. Bus drivers, especially such a 'lady' as this one, weren't exactly kind people. Actually, come to think of it - maybe that's why she did it. The doors slammed shut. I looked back, seeing the two boy's shocked expressions through the musty glass. I shrugged, mouthing, "What ya' gonna do?" and scampered along to my own seat. I fell into the curve of it's uncomfortable material, poising myself once more in the direction of the window, welcoming my canvas that was spotted today from the raindrops that had fallen presumably last night. I watched, intrigued, as each one raced against the other. As they grasped the moisture of fellow speckles of rain and grew larger, falling quicker and quicker, I imagined two peeved faces forming on them. Oh how angry my brother and my rent-a-friend was going to be when they finally made their way to the school. Sighing, I remembered the little shake up that had taken place between myself and Frank - if he was insistent on capturing that tough-boy reputation for himself then I'd be meeting him back there again. The joy.

The bus tediously winched itself along the road, arriving at the school with only a minute to spare. The one day I am in absolute dire need of a fag is the day the driver decides to pace herself but I couldn't really complain about her, she had done that one deed earlier that I still couldn't decide whether was a good one or a bad one. I shuffled inside the building, quickly scanning my surroundings on the lookout for anybody to strike up conversation with or socially pressure to talk to whilst we went to class. Ray was a fine candidate. A somewhat tall boy with a head of hair consisting of perfect curls, often referred to as the 'fro. Actually, we were pretty good friends - we'd hang out occasionally; grab a few beers, lounge about one of our houses. He was a genuinely nice guy and nothing of the sorts of rent-a-friend Frankie, who I really have to stop making connections to at every little thing. No pun intended. I walked towards him, my oh-so-common smile playing on my lips. He replied with a toothy grin, waving his hand in the air to usher me over quicker.

"Ray," I managed to make out just before the bell sounded its high tone.

"Gerard," he laughed, making a comical face to the nearest bell stationed on the ceiling. I looked up at it too, shrugging my shoulders in agreement at it's annoyance.

"So, what you got?" I asked, as we both instinctively began to saunter towards the stairs.

"English, which means you've got it too I presume?" he laughed - a kind of bad joke directed at the fact we sat next to each other in this class. Wait, why did I even ask him then? Oh, his joke was directed at me being an idiot and forgetting. Haha. I gave a laugh, rolling my eyes at my own silliness."So, much happening?" he said as we made our way through the babbling crowds.

"Well, my mum thought it would be a good idea to throw me and Mikey a guest. So, this new kid - Frank," I went on, "he's staying with me and the Mikes for a week whilst her and my dad jet off to Paris, I think he moved here just recent or something, 'cause I only saw him for the first time here at school." Ray nodded, giving me a comforting smile, "I'm sure it'll be okay - he'll probably end up to be a pretty cool guy," he said - trying to look on the bright side, a usual thing for Ray to do. I pursed my lips together, hiding my annoyance at what Ray had just said. Oh, he'll be a pretty cool guy, like totally. I imagined that of an over-preppy cheerleader mimicking Ray's suggestion.

"I'm not so sure," was all I said before we broke into a pretty regular conversation that we'd both soon forget about as soon as we stepped into class.

I was being stupid again. As I'd said, I'd forget everything Ray and I had discussed after Frank. Frank. He was sticking on my mind an awful lot today. All during English, whilst my teacher held up booklets and pointed to highlighted sections, even after focussing on the words in front of me, all I could say was 'he'll be a pretty cool guy.' He'll be a pretty cool guy. I'd remembered the angry expression he'd wore when he'd walked out the door for some 'air' this morning. I remembered the smug little gesture that followed. I then recalled when he'd actually tried to put our little feud to an end, without resorting to violence. I'd only laughed at him and acted cocky myself. Maybe if I wasn't so mean- I cursed myself for even thinking about feeling sorry for the little bastard. I could just see the very look on his face if he could tap into my mind right now. A grin spread across his little fucking pretty face. He had an irritatingly pretty face. The bell sounded, causing everyone to scuttle out from behind the desks and race to wherever they met up at interval. This meant facing Frank, in my case. I instinctively strode out of the classroom, down the stairs through the endless crowds of my classmates and snuck round the back without even a second thought - it was routine for me. As I threw my bag aside, I felt my back pocket for my packet, growing anxious when nothing was to be felt. Oh great. My arms fell against my sides loudly in exaggeration as I began cursing myself again - this time very vocally.

"Missing something?" someone asked. Someone who's presence I could now feel right by my side.

I spun round, my hands suspended in mid air as if I'd been caught by the police doing graffiti or something else rather criminal. Oh, it was him. There was that irritatingly pretty face looking up at me with that look he always gave that told the whole world he 'wasn't always right, just never wrong'.

"You took my fags, you little shit!" I snapped, ripping them from his hands. His eyes grew wide, before a smirk danced on his pink lips.

"No, simply brought them for you," he explained, with a purr playing on his words.

I grunted in annoyance, flipping open the packet, getting my lighter from my pocket and lighting up. I must have done this rather quickly, as the little kid in front of me seemed impressed for once. It wasn't much long before I realised he was probably only faking it to annoy me even further.

I rested myself against the wall, inhaling and exhaling the fumes and toxins I'd been so many times warned of.

"Frank," I sighed, "what are you doing?" He was staring at me, that's what he was doing.

"Nothing," he shrugged.

I let the cigarette fall to the ground.

"Just thinking," he piped.

Whoever thought thinking was nothing, was a very foolish person because 'nothing' hadn't been annoying me all day.