Chapter Eight

Ryan looked at Spencer. The guy clearly didn't have a clue just how in love with Jon he was. The body language, the eyes. This was every textbook sign that Ryan had been told to watch for. He was about to reply to Spencer when Jon himself came running out of the art block behind them. He skidded up to Spencer on the gravel and handed him a sketchbook.

"You forgot this." He said, blushing. He turned to Ryan and opened and shut his mouth a couple of times. Looking as though he wanted to follow up that statement with something else. Instead he settled for a nod- and sped off in the other direction. Spencer looking after him wistfully.

Ryan grabbed the sketchbook out of Spencer's distracted hands and flipped it open. It was blank. He frowned at Spencer, who looked equally puzzled. Ryan waved the sketchbook around, working himself up to a speech on teacher-student relationships. Then, with a particularly violent gesticulation, some pieces of paper dropped out of some of the pages and flopped to the ground.

Spencer stooped low to grab them- and came up screaming. He jumped up and down for a while, his voice fading out to a strangled cough. Ryan looked on incredulously, laughing at the boy in front of him. When Spencer stopped bouncing long enough for Ryan to grab the paper, he looked at them before breaking into a wide smile.

One of the pieces was a note, it read;

Dear Spence, sorry I couldn't get this to you yesterday. Take a friend?

Jon.

The two last pieces were tickets. To the 25th Anniversary tour of Phantom of the Opera. Ryan almost squealed. He might be straight- But come on. Who doesn't love Phantom? He caught himself at the last second and barked out a laugh instead of a squeal.

"Bit gay aren't you Spence?" Ryan grinned, pulling the still hyperventilating boy into a hug. He lowered his voice and whispered into Spencer's ear "Seems like not everyone forgot huh?" Spencer squeezed back as a response. When Ryan released him from the tight manly hug Spencer was singing under his breath. He stopped, grinned at Ryan and started to walk away. He called back over his shoulder.

"I'm going to go off to Woodwork early- I have blocks of tree to mutilate. I'll catch you later. Try the main school for an empty place to put your electronics!" He started to sing again as he almost skipped back to the Art block. Presumably to thank Jon.

Ryan shrugged and pulled his bag higher up his shoulder. He did need to set up ...so he might as well get going. As he strolled over to the largest building on the campus he thought about his day so far. It was only lunch time, and yet he felt like he had a pretty good picture of school life already. After all, with only three proper lessons a day- there wasn't much to get his head round.

The social circles were a lot harder to grasp though. He thought that Spencer was becoming his friend. In a roundabout 'you know too much' kind of way. He liked Spencer, they seems to have a bit of a mind meld thing going on. Alex seemed to really be as much of a dick as described; Jack actually appeared to be alright when he was separated from his one true love. Gerard and Frank were hardcore to the emo team, but seemed like people he would be able to form a fairly strong friendship with. Not that that would help in the mission to get closer to Brendon. Speaking of. Brendon was probably the least promising friend out of every possible person. From the interactions so far Ryan thought the feeling was probably mutual, there was something undeniably interesting about the guy though. He didn't know the others all too well yet. He'd have to try and corner some of them that evening and strike up conversation.

Ryan reached the back entrance of the main building. Frank had taken him out this way the previous afternoon. He shoved to door open and tried to remember which way the stairs were. He walked past classrooms, many with students still inside. Ryan presumed different years had different lunch times- therefore he'd have to be much sneakier in his approach to finding a place to stash his stuff.

He sniggered to himself. Stash his stuff? He wasn't a drug dealer. He was a legitimate student trying to find a legitimate place for his approved Optional. Nothing wrong with that. It was only when he pulled open the door to the upper corridor on the second floor that he realised his hands were both sweaty and shaking. He sighed, rubbed his hands on his jeans and pressed forwards.

Around half way down the corridor, after meeting a grand total of zero people, Ryan came across a little side corridor. It was up about three stairs and along a bare wooden floor. There was just enough room to fit two people side by side, and even then it would be a tight squeeze. Ryan chuckled to himself. You could probably fit about ten William Becketts down there though.

As he shuffled down the passageway he found a couple of cupboards full of supplies for the new year. Books, lever arch files and several giant tubs of biros. Ryan hesitated before shoving a couple into his bag- you could never have too many biros. The third cupboard he tried was stuck closed. Someone had painted over the door and it was jammed. Ryan reached into his bag and pulled out one of the pens; taking of the lid he ran the pointed tip down the crack of the door. With positive results. When he shoved it again, the door fell open.

Ryan coughed as dust flew into his face, he waved his arms about and waited for the air to clear. There was no light on in the cupboard and he pulled his phone from his pocket to light his way. He moved into the small space and shut the door behind him When the door swung closed it was as though the darkness had swallowed up all the warmth. Ryan tried to dispel all thoughts of childhood monsters that threatened to have him running from the corridor. He turned round and walked two steps inside before ramming into something. He reeled backwards, arms flailing. Ryan braced himself up against the wall- and by happy coincidence managed to hit the light switch that had been on the inside all along.

As the small room was thrown into light Ryan was forced to evaluate his entire perception of the school. These students weren't just privileged, clever and a little bit cheeky- they were downright devious. This room that Ryan had stumbled upon was a little bit bigger than most disabled toilets you get in restaurants. So, not big enough to dance the Time warp but the Macarena could be attempted. There were shelves lining two walls, one with what looked like student items. Fireworks, knives, guns, raunchy magazines and...Ryan blushed, a giant tub labelled CONDOMS ETC. That one was going to stay unexplored. The other shelf held boxes of lost property including what looked like a mankini. Ryan was in the confiscated items closet. Presumably a place lost in the mists of time.

Ryan doubted much got confiscated these days, what with the teachers seeming so lenient. He sighed and looked down at his shins to see what it was he had almost fallen over. It was a cardboard box with, by the bruises he could feel forming on his shins, something heavy inside it. Ryan shoved it away and turned to look at the other wall that wasn't the one with the door in. He gasped when he realised what he was looking at. It was a bank of computer screens, dusty and worn. All the technology appeared to be at least two decades old, but it was a start. It was more than he could have dared to hope for. He had thought he might strike lucky and get a couple of wall sockets, but computers were better. Ryan sank to the floor and started to rummage underneath the desk. There was one rickety desk with eight screens piled on top of it. As Ryan fiddled with the frayed wires he thought about why they might be there. CCTV? Unlikely. Unless these computers were left over from when the building was a stately home, but wasn't that hundreds of years ago? He'd email Farro later and ask him to check up on it.

Ryan smiled as he worked. He didn't have much more than his bare hands with him today, but tomorrow he could set up all of the microphone bugs to transmit to the laptop he'd brought with him. Then he could use the cables from the computer to get internet and, well the possibilities were endless. Provided Patrick didn't decide to introduce a reformation on school policy and open up the library of contraband again. Ryan hummed to himself as he stripped cables with his teeth, he realised after about five minutes that he was humming his way through Phantom of the Opera. He grinned as he thought of the look on Spencer's face when he realised Jon hadn't forgotten his birthday. Even though their relationship was illegal and wrong and all that, it was undeniable sweet. The way Jon blushed and Spencer looked like a flipping puppy every time Jon got within two feet of him. That was the sort of thing you couldn't get anywhere outside of love. Ryan nodded to affirm this thought. Unfortunately the desk was just low enough that this meant he cracked his head upside of the flat surface.

"FUCK!" He hissed, before covering his mouth with his hand. He sat in silence for several moments before rolling his eyes and sliding out from underneath the desk on his stomach. He flipped onto his back and lay in the centre of to room breathing slowly. His twitched his foot to the left and it collided with the giant box from earlier. Curiosity piqued, Ryan sat up and dragged it towards him. He presumed it would be contraband of some form and dragged a nail down the tape in the centre. He lifted the edges of the box and peered inside. Bottles, he should have guessed. There wasn't nearly enough alcohol in the room. He shrugged to no one in particular. He had thought it might have been something more interesting. He didn't even bother to check the dusty labels and shoved the box back into the corner. He got to his feet to shake out the wrinkles in his clothes. Only to realise that the skin tight outfit had prevented anything other than a light fold.

Ryan sighed and checked his watch, half past three. Not bad timing. Everyone else would have finished their optional half an hour ago and would probably just be around in U2 block. Ryan thought this might be a good opportunity to talk to some of the people he had yet to have a proper conversation with. Gabe and Bill for example. Or Pete. Although Pete seemed to have a...reputation that he would no doubt try to uphold with Ryan.

As he left the room with his bag over his shoulder, Ryan wondered if this would be safe place to store all the electronic equipment that was in the smallest suitcase he'd brought. He decided that maybe if he found some caution tape and stuck it over the door he might stand a better chance of keeping it secret. He turned and inspected the door. It was unlikely anyone would come and check the hidden alcove today. Ryan's stomach growled ominously and he poked it. He hadn't eaten since breakfast so he decided that the kitchen would be his first port of call.

As he meandered back to the door he looked in at the afternoon classes. All of the rest of the school had a full after lunch timetable, there were language classes, maths, English even what looked like a stray geography class. They sunshine still poured in through the windows. As he walked back out of the door he almost didn't notice that a giant bush by the side of the path was twitching, and smoking. Ryan wasn't a genius- but he was no Moses either. So that bush was not divine intervention. His head flicked around and he backspaced up to it. When Ryan was standing next to it the plant was about a foot over his head, he coughed pointedly at the vegetation and a head shot out of the bottom.

It was that kid that had glared at him the first day. By Patrick's office possibly? He was definitely younger so Ryan had no misgivings about dropping his bag and grabbing the collar of this boy, dragging him out from under the plant.

"Name?" Ryan enquired politely. There were some topics he wasn't nervous about- blatant rule breaking and the punishment of those doing so, was basically his job.

"Benjam- Uh Benji Madden" Stuttered the kid, who then looked up. He blushed and straightened himself up. Gaining an attitude as he realised Ryan wasn't a teacher. Ryan looked at the boy properly. He was wearing a cut-off white shirt and had plenty of tattoos. One earring and a cap. All in all, not your typical academy student.

"I'm in upper first, yes I'm skipping class. Fuck you." Reeled off the muscled teen. Ryan shrugged, what the kid did was none of his business really. He was the new guy and couldn't really hold down the law just yet. He let go of Benji's shirt and stepped backwards. The smoking, he now realised, came from the cigarette he held obviously behind his back.

"They don't let you smoke?" Asked Ryan, losing the intimidating demeanour. Genuinely intrigued. They seemed to let a lot go on in this school, yet Benji was hiding in a bush to light up.

"Nope." Replied Benji, flicking the ash onto the path, "But they've never caught me yet." With that he looked into Ryan's eyes. As much a challenge as a beseeching gaze. Ryan rolled his eyes. He needed friends right?

"Well they won't catch you today. Piss off." Ryan waved his arm towards the main building and Benji took off. He called over his shoulder as he ran.

"You're all right Ryro, You're all right."

Ryan stared after him. Or more accurately stared after his muscles. He shook his head and tried to dispel the thought of Benji's biceps with a thought about Helena's hips. He then had a shot internal debate about alliteration- before walking back to U2. He thought it was strange that he hadn't seen another single classmate. Maybe they all went off campus for the afternoons? He puzzled at it as he turned the door handle to go inside.

He got a foot inside the door before the rest of him was pulled inside by three pairs of grabbing hands.

THIS IS SO LATE I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON I HOPE YOU GUYS STILL LOVE ME. I've got another chapter after this one already written, so If I get comments soon- then you can have that one today. That one has hot sweaty gayness in it. (It's taken long enough to get some action in here. Soz to all readers who wanted fast smut.)

Anyways, I have a maths tutor and a party today. You have a chapter to review.