AN: Hola chicos. This is the edited version of the shit I posted yesterday, not too different- but maybe nicer to read!

Chapter six

Alex led Ryan out into the music floor's corridor and gestured to the room on the opposite side. They walked together across the wide corridor and as Alex's hand closed around the door handle Ryan could hear voices inside. Without warning Alex threw open the door and shoved Ryan though to the spacious, well lit room.

It was rectangular in shape, with a whiteboard at the front and rows of desks- not unlike an ordinary classroom. A large, curving Victorian style window lit the room that was filled with ten or so students, the people lounging about on the desks were casting shadows onto the pale walls around them. Ryan recognised most of the students from dinner the night before, there was Ray the mirror guy and Bob the blonde. Mikey and Frank had clearly finished breakfast and were sitting in the sunlight. Alex dragged Ryan to a darker corner where Gerard and a student he didn't recognise were talking, Gerard was waving his arms around and the other boy was nodding vigorously. Gerard stopped gesticulating as they drew closer and he broke into a smile when he saw Ryan. He turned to the mop of black hair next to him.

"Hey dude, you have to meet the new kid." He poked his now still friend, who was rubbing his neck as though the nodding had given him whiplash. He spun round and shot out a hand for Ryan to shake. In Ryan's peripheral vision he saw Alex roll his eyes and walk off. In search of Jack no doubt.

"Hey! I'm Mr Armstrong, nice to meet you" The man, not boy as Ryan had first thought, lunged forwards and grabbed Ryan's hand anyway, allowing for Ryan's slow reflex due to the fact that his chin was attempting to reach Australia. Mr Armstrong laughed hysterically showing off a stunningly crooked set of teeth.

"Is it the hair? Or the eyeliner? Or both? I'm guessing not the eyeliner considering you look like you just walked out of Sephora yourself." He lurched away just as quickly and leapt up onto the desk where he had previously been seated. He turned to the room and stretched his arms high above his head.

"OI! Fuckers! Everyone grab a goddamn seat before I fucking draw a seating plan!" He then jumped of his perch and sauntered to the front of the class as everyone in the room moved to an empty seat. Gerard turned to where Ryan was still standing. He slapped Ryan on the back before stepping round him

"Yep- That, was Mr Billie Joe Armstrong."

Ryan finally snapped his jaw shut. Gerard poked him in the ribs and he took another look at the class. Now almost everyone was seated in pairs it was a lot easier to see who made up the music class. Alex and Jack were seated together, Bob and Frank, Ray and Mikey- Gerard moved to sit next to Ray...which left Ryan choosing who to sit next to. From Mikey and Brendon. Not cool. Ryan winced and made a quick fire decision, pulling up a chair next to Brendon. The youth didn't even turn towards him, just continued to pick at his nails.

"Right class," Said the voice at the front, "For Ryan's benefit could someone go through the routine we have going on here?" Mr A glanced around the class. Bob raised a hand lazily and was nodded at. The blonde turned towards Ryan and shrugged.

"It's easy to understand really, this lesson will be a kind of- this year we're doing this- type thing and then every week half of us go into the practice room and half do theory in here. We rotate." He looked back up to Mr Armstrong who was lying across his desk.

"What Bob said." He confirmed, rolling himself upright. "Today I'll fill you all in on the program for the year and then we'll do a bit of theory." There was a moan from the class and Ryan began to expect that theory lessons weren't everyone's favourite thing.

"All right, all right, calm yourselves children." Billie sat himself on the edge of his desk and crossed his legs. "As you all know the winter term includes the School play- which the upper seconds do the music for. So this is your year. Unless you're acting of course." He nodded to Brendon, who smirked. At a guess Ryan could tell that one of Brendon's subjects must be Drama, and he could see why. Brendon would make an excellent actor. Bitchy, confident, arrogant, handsome- Ryan coughed. Mr A shot him a strange look before continuing.

"As I was saying, the school play. I need to talk to Mr Walker about what the actual production will be, but he has confirmed it will be a musical this year." Whispering broke out in the room and Ryan could see Brendon exchanging glances with Jack. Jack must be a Drama student as well. A thought struck him- if this was an all male school...who played the women? As he wrestled with the concept of Gerard in a dress- Mr Armstrong spoke.

"Shut up guys, I know it's all very exciting- but hush." He gave a lopsided smirk. "There are of course bigger things to sort out. The school band, the talent show...the record deal." At this everyone stopped talking. Even Ryan managed to stem the flow of cross dressing thoughts. A record deal? Ryan knew this school had connections, but this was ridiculous.

"You heard me, record deal. As I'm sure you all know- Pete Wentz's father runs a club in Chicago called Decaydance, he is offering one musician here- or group of musicians, a contract to play at his club for three months. To make it all the more fabulous- Decaydance club is frequented by many big names in the music business and may be your ticket to the top." Mr A's grin faltered and he sighed. Ryan wondered if he wished he'd had a chance like that when he was younger. From the corner of the room Mikey spoke up.

"But how will Mr Wentz pick people?" It was a good point. One that Ryan had been contemplating himself. Mr Armstrong seemed pleased and he rubbed his hands together.

"Ah, this is the magical bit. Whereas the prize for last year's talent show was a lifetime supply of Red Vines- which is currently being enjoyed by Darren in upper first- this year..." He trailed off.

"It's a one way ticket to fame." Muttered Brendon from next to Ryan. It was the first thing that Brendon had said since the piano incident only fifteen minutes previous and it made Ryan jump. Brendon scoffed from next to him and raised his hand. Mr Armstrong looked surprised but indicated with a gesture that Brendon could speak.

"Mr A- I have a question, is it open to all years or just us?" Ryan sighed. Somewhere in his brain he had thought it might have been something worse.

"Good question Bren, yeah. Right, the Decaydance deal is open only to your year. For everyone else the first prize would be a free pass into the next year." There was an intake of breath from the class. Even though there was no next year for them, they could all imaging just how fiercely the other students would compete over the prize. Mr A laughed quietly.

"Patrick has certainly upped the stakes this year." He muttered, more to himself than to the class. It was sure to be a controversial point over the coming year, he had no doubt there would be students that would attempt to bribe him.

Over the next hour Mr Armstrong quizzed the class on everything from their summers to the best way to make a classical piece sound edgy. Ryan felt at ease in the class, the questions were basic and he could answer most of them. He had been worried that his lack of musical knowledge might prove an issue. Sure he could play the guitar- and the harmonica if he was asked. But tell him to transpose a piece into Db major? He might have to Google it.

At the end of the lesson Mr Armstrong split them up into two groups. Group A would spend the week in the practice room and Group B would do theory in the classroom. Ryan was relived to be put into group A- he thought the questions might get harder in the class. Group A consisted of Him, Ray, Jack and Mikey. Ryan was quite happy with the grouping, it meant he could get to know Jack better. He seemed to be less of an asshole when Alex wasn't around. After finding out their groupings Ray offered to show Ryan the way to the English class they shared, there was a twenty minute break between the classes and it meant that Ray would have time to show him round the English and Drama block properly before the class started.

They walked down the gravel paths side by side, not speaking. It was a comfortable silence that can be hard to find, but Ray seemed to be well accomplished at the skill. Their feet crunched in sync and Ryan took a break from analysing to really think about the beauty of his surroundings. If the maps he'd read were accurate then either side of the campus was surrounded by forest. The rear backed directly onto a hill- that if you could be bothered to walk up, flattened out into a large grassy area with a lake in the very centre. As he walked Ryan thought about maybe visiting it at the weekend.

Ryan almost walked into the back of Ray who was staring at something on the path up ahead. Ryan leant around the tall boy and realised it was not a something- but a someone. Ray made a noise deep in his throat that closely resembled a growl. Ryan couldn't see anything extraordinary about the man on the path but before he could say anything- a running figure sprinted from a nearby building and crashed headlong into the man, swearing and kicking.

Ray and Ryan ran over- as they got nearer the running figure turned out to be Frank who was screaming and punching every part of the man he could get to, the other fighter was giving as good as he got, flailing his arms around. Ray dug his hands in between them and prised them apart. Then- putting his arms under Frank's armpits he hauled him to the side of the path.

Ryan looked down at the scraggly heap of a man on the ground about a foot away from him, it glared back.

"Who the fuck are you then?" The man said in a cigarette husked voice, reaching up a hand to wipe at his split lip. Over by the grass Frank spat blood on the ground and swore. Ryan looked back and forth between the two- deciding not to get involved. He muttered something nonsensical and walked out of range

"Bert Mc-fucking-Crackhead," snarled Frank, finally providing a name to the beaten up face. "Kindly fuck off." He tried to get back over to Bert but Ray stopped him with a look.

"Frank, take Ryan inside and I'll talk to Bert." Ray sounded oddly calm as he shoved Ryan into Frank and marched over to 'Bert'. Frank protested briefly before raking a hand through his hair and sighing.

"Ok Farro- lets go." He lurched forwards, grabbed Ryan by the skinny arm and dragged him into what- from the wall displays seemed to be the English block after all. As the heavy doors swung shut behind them Frank sank to the ground. Ryan slid down next to him and stayed silent. They breathed in sync for a while before Frank closed his eyes and sighed heavily once more.

"That was Bert McCracken, Gerard's ex. He got kicked out after his first year but Gerard and he kept in contact. He tries to visit every now and again. He's never got past me, Bob and Ray though." Frank coughed wetly, leaning his head in his hands.

"I didn't think he'd pull something like this first day back, even if Alex has invited him to this godforsaken party." Ryan cocked his head, interested. So there was out of school interaction? It had never really occurred to him that these students might have friends outside of school.

At that moment Ray burst through the doors and collapsed next to them.

"He's gone for now," Ray muttered. "But you can guarantee he'll be back later." Frank nodded, his head still in his lap. Ryan felt out of place in the adrenaline of a situation he clearly had no right to be a part of. He started to get up whn Ray placed a hand on his arm.

"Bert is the ex we don't talk about for a reason, Ok?" He said, worry heavy in his voice. Ryan nodded.

He suspected there was more to this Bert character than Frank was letting on- but he let it slide. If Bert was at the party later- he might even be able to ask him in person.

"Right!" exclaimed Ray, leaping to his feet. "L'anglais!" He reached down and pulled a pissed looking Frank off the floor, "Let's go douchebags." His other arm curled around Ryan's wrist and he kicked the double doors to the left of them wide open- revealing a large lecture hall with one figure occupying the front desk.

Headmaster Patrick Stump.

Hello! Sorry for the confusion- you see a certain friend of mine. (Sarah M- I'm looking at you.) Makes me update on command, hence the shoddy update from last night. Apologies. Here is chapter six in its entire and perfectish form. R'and'R bitches. x