Chapter 2

Helena

Soon enough the others joined us by the Orange Blossom tree. All of them were carrying different items in their hands.

"Thought you'd be here." Gerard shouted at us.

"Where else would we be?" I shouted back, before coughing.

They all rushed over to me and Mikey, not bothering to drop anything that they were carrying.

All of them started to crowd me and were asking whether I was okay and 'what did I need?'

"I need for all of you to back off and get me some water." I was able to shout over them.

"Right." Bob said before asking, "And where do we get that from?"

I stared at them in shock. "None of you have some water in your bags or lockers or somewhere secret which only you know about? Haven't I taught you anything?"

Mikey stood up and then helped me to my feet. "They never carry anything important. You should know that."
I laughed. "I know that. I was just thinking that they would have learnt something from me by now."

Mikey laughed with me. "They only carry school books 'cause they have to."

"Not true." Frank mumbled before jumping on Bob's back, and shouting, "Ride my trusty steed."

Bob laughed before he let go of Frank; letting him fall to the ground and landing on his butt. "No, Iero. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Frank thought about it for a second before answering, "As many times as I've done it."

This reminded me of when I first met them, almost seven years ago.

It had been pretty boring at home so I'd decided to go for a walk, get to know the area and stuff. But most importantly, I wanted to draw and think.

In the past week, I had moved from my hometown, Glasgow, and moved to somewhere almost halfway round the world from there, to Belleville, New Jersey. I hadn't wanted to move from Glasgow, but mama got a promotion and it was all the way out here. My brother was old enough to have his own house and job, so he hadn't come with us, but I wasn't old enough and he had said that he didn't want me living with him 'cause he didn't want me to 'cramp his style'. As if.

Well, at least I had photos and drawings of us together.

Suddenly, I heard a voice yell, "Give that back, you midget," and I immediately turned my head to see who it was.

There were five boys sitting in a small circle across the other side of the park. One had raven black hair, another two had almost the exact shade of light brown hair; but one had glasses, one had dark brown hair; but from a distance it looked black, and the last had blond hair.

"Never, vampire." The shortest guy yelled back before getting up and running.

I just shook my head and put my headphones in; turning on Green Day's Basket Case. Little did I know what was about to happen. One second I was on my feet and then next I was hit by something hard; landing flat on my back with the 'midget' laying on top of me.

"You know, if you wanted to be hugged, you could have just asked me instead of tackling me." I joked in my, thick, Scottish accent.

He groaned and rolled off of me. "That really hurt. I never knew the ground was that hard."
I rolled my eyes. "You landed on me, not the ground, so don't be cheeky." I told him, sitting up.

The one with the black hair went up to the boy laying on his back and took the black, leather-bound book from his hands and said, "I'm not helping you up, Frankie. You fell down, you get up."

"But, Gee…" The one named Frankie pleaded.

"No 'but's, Frankie. I shall help the lovely lady up cause you knocked her over." Gee said, offering out his pale hand.

I took it and he hauled me up to my feet.

"Thanks." I mumbled, picking up my sketch pad.

"I'm Gerard, and the one laying on the floor is Frank." He introduced himself, and then whispered, "Frank is just a bit hyper and energetic, just to let you know."

I laughed a little. "I think I gathered that from him calling you a vampire and running."

Gerard was a little taken aback by my heavy accent, but never broke the conversation. "I'm guessing that you're from somewhere in Scotland. Me and my brother are half Scottish."

"You are correct. I'm from Glasgow and, my mama and me just moved here." I told him, "And I'm guessing that your brother is the short-ass lying on the floor."

"No, he's not. My brother is over there." He said, pointing to the guys over the other side of the park, "Come on. Let me introduce you to them."

"Oh, okay." I mumbled, kinda feeling stupid for being wrong, "Let's go."

We walked over to the others, who looked up as they saw us approach them.

"It looks as though Gerard has a 'girlfriend' now. We should have a party." The one with the afro said.

I started laughing, but Gerard just shook his head.

"She's not my girlfriend. Guys, this is…" It finally occurred to him that he hadn't asked for my name.

"I'm Helena. But most people call me Hells."

"Right. Helena, this is Ray." He said, pointing to the guy with the afro, "Bob." Pointing to the one with the blond hair, "And my brother, Mikey." Pointing to the last one with the glasses and light brown hair.

"Nice contacts, Hells." Bob told me, pointing at my eyes, "Where did you get them from? I bet Gerard will fight you for them."

I looked away, hiding my eyes. I'd always been bullied for having violet eyes. "They're not contacts. I was born with them like this. The doctors don't know why.

"Well, they're really cool." Ray said.

"You're not gonna call me a mutant?" I asked in a shocked voice.

They looked at me like I was mad and started laughing.

"Why would we call you a mutant?"

"It's just that everybody else does."

"Well we won't. We promise."

"Us outcasts gotta stick together, haven't we?" Gerard said, smacking me on the back.

I smiled. "We have. Together, we can take on the world."

By this time Frank had got up and made his way to us. "Bob gimme a lift home, please."

"Walk yourself home." Bob told him, "I'm not carrying you all the way to your home."

I got into the canteen and picked up a bottle of still water from one of the shelves.

"See, this is all you need to have in your bag." I told them, "Now you remember that."

"Yes, mom." They all replied in unison, causing me and them to laugh.

Suddenly, it was like everything blurry; everything hurt. My head pounded, my chest started to close on me. The bottle of water fell from my hands.

"Hells?" Mikey asked, "Are you okay?"

All I was able to do shake my head before everything around me went black… I knew that this was the end.