"I confess, I messed up
Dropping I'm sorry like you're still around
And I know you dressed up,
Hey kid, you'll never live this down"
A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" – Fall Out Boy
Louise
"Chloe Barbash!" Louise growled, as she stared at her ruined shirt. Her dad had gotten it for her the Christmas prior. It was a plain white shirt of a cartoon burger in the middle. While Louise thought that the shirt was absolutely comical, it was one of her favourites. However, she would never tell her father that.
Chloe scoffed, "you're the one who should be watching where you're going! Now I'm out a caramel macchiato for the day!"
Beside Louise, Jessica tried to stifle a laugh. "I'm sure that goes both ways, my dude."
"It's not my fault you can't watch where you're going! Now I'm going to be late for the first day!" Chloe shouted back, ignoring Jessica.
Louise clenched her teeth, a light flaming behind her eyes. She had forgotten how much she hated Chloe.
"You're going to be late?! You're the one who spilled your coffee on my shirt! Honestly, I probably wouldn't be this pissed off if you had apologized in the first place!"
"I have nothing to apologize for!" Chloe swished her hair. "In fact, it should be you apologizing to me for ruining my morning, and embarrassing me in front of Bradley!"
"Who the fuck is Bradley?" Just as Louise finished the question, she heard the sound of a throat clearing.
She turned, eyeing the strange boy who stood slightly behind Chloe, eyes wide. Clearly not knowing what to do.
"Uhh, okay…? Don't know why you would be embarrassed. Wannabe goth is the one who should be embarrassed with his obviously dyed hair."
Bradley couldn't help but chuckle, which surprised Louise.
Meanwhile, Chloe gasped. "How dare you?!"
"If I may," Jessica interjected. "Louise, you're going to be late if we don't leave right now.If we hurry up, we could get to your house so you can change, and still be on time."
Louise glared at Chloe, but conceded. Jessica was right, and she didn't want Frond on her ass. "Fine."
They turned away, walking quickly toward Louise's truck. "That shirt was stupid anyway!" Chloe called behind them.
Jessica gripped Louise's arm, and hurried off before Louise could turn around and punch Chloe in the face.
Meanwhile, Jessica and Bradley stayed behind, watching the two girls run away.
"Ugh, I'm so sorry that you had to meet Louise Belcher…She's really…something."
Bradley was barely listening to Chloe, instead eyeing the forceful girl until she was no longer within eyesight.
Any doubt that he had had about starting public school had completely obliterated.
…
It was just Louise's luck that she would get every red light on her race home. She tapped her thumb nervously against the steering wheel, while Jessica sat in the passenger seat, humming along to the radio.
"Jessica, your lack of urgency is stressing me out."
Jessica shrugged, "what do you want me to do? Turn all of the traffic lights to green?"
Once Louise got home, she haphazardly parked her truck in front of the restaurant, and sprinted up the stairs.
"Louise?!" Her mother shouted in surprise as Louise practically tumbled past the living room. "W-what's going on?!"
Louise tripped into her bedroom, while pulling the shirt off of her at the same time.
She didn't notice that her mom was standing at her doorway until she said "Louise, baby, are you okay?"
Louise stood up, her hair in shambles in front of her face. "I need a clean shirt."
Linda raised an eyebrow, and took a sip from the mug in her hand. "This is why I keep telling you do your laundry."
Louise groaned, quickly shoveling through the dirty piles of clothes on her bedroom floor. Unsatisfied, she ran into her brother's room, (thankfully Gene wasn't home), pulled out one of his oversized band shirts from his drawer, and put it on.
"I gotta go Mom, sorry about all that!" She called as she raced out of the house.
Bradley
Bradley couldn't help but be amused at the stubby high school counsellor. They stood in front of his office, waiting for the girl that would be showing Bradley around. He watched as Mr. Frond tapped his foot impatiently, his cellphone in his hand, wondering if he should make yet another phone call. The other two calls had gone straight to voicemail.
"I knew Louise was going through a hard time, but I didn't think that she would leave us here all high and dry…" He said disappointedly.
Bradley wrinkled his eyebrows. Louise? He swears he had heard that name before. Where had he heard it?
"Ugh," Mr. Frond checked his phone again. "She could've at least thought to text."
Bradley cleared his throat, "you know, it's really no trouble, I can find my classes by myself, and I'm sure I can make friends by myself-"
Mr. Frond put up a hand to stop him. "While all of that is true, I pride myself for the welcoming and positive environment that I help create here at Huxley." He pushed his glasses up his nose.
"You know, before I was moved here from the elementary school, this place was a bleak dark place, with a very negative energy. It felt kind of like…kind of like…"
"A high school?" Bradley offered.
"Exactly! Just like a high school! But that was before I transferred here, and turned this ship around!"
Suddenly, the bell above them rang, startling Bradley. He knew that schools had bells signaling the start and end of class times, but it was something he never experienced. Only witnessed on TV.
Just as the bell was going off, they heard a voice shouting from across the hall.
"I'm here! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Bradley almost gasped when he saw who the voice belonged to. It was the girl whose shirt mopped up Chloe's drink.
She ran across the hall and stopped in front of Mr. Frond.
Bradley stood there stunned, he had to make sure his mouth wasn't hanging open. If Chloe had left him smitten, this girl left him paralyzed!
He wasn't sure what it was about her. Maybe it was her hair, clearly rumpled from running here. Or maybe it was her completely natural appearance. It was obvious that aside from washing herself up in the morning, she didn't do much other than roll out of bed and get to school. Or maybe it was the shirt she was wearing (which was different than the one she had that morning), an oversized My Chemical Romance t-shirt. A band he was quite familiar with.
"I am so sorry, Mr. Frond. I swear I wasn't trying to be late, I ran into Ultimate Bitch, and she spilled coffee all over my shirt, and then-"
Mr. Frond held up a hand "Louise, who is Ultimate Btich?"
There was a pause, "Chloe Barbash."
It looked like Mr. Frond was about to say something back to her, when he shook his head and thought better of it.
"No matter, you're here now, I would like to introduce you to our International Student, Bradley Bosler."
At this, Louise finally turned to look at him, and Bradley almost burst out laughing when he noticed the recognition across her face. Her eyes gaped at him, clearly embarrassed.
"Oh, uh…I-I'm so-" Bradley stopped her midsentence by putting his hand out to her.
"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Bradley, just like Mr. Frond said." Louise eyed him curiously, almost as if she thought he was messing with her. Eventually she took his hand in hers.
"Louise, like Frond said."
"Louise!" he exclaimed, remembering that that was the name of Teddy's best friend's daughter. The girl that Teddy was so anxious for him to meet. And now that he thought about it, it was also the name that Chloe practically spat after Louise and her friend had run away.
Louise narrowed her eyes, "Uhh, yeah."
Mr. Frond clapped his hands, "I am so excited to have paired you up! I have the upmost confidence in Louise here! I've worked with her for a very long time, and have no doubt that she is the best guide to our school!"
Louise let go of Bradley's hand, and folded her arms across her chest, rolling her eyes. "Frond, we are already late, and I'm sure, Bradford-"
"Bradley," Bradley corrected with a chuckle.
"Bradley, doesn't want to be even more late. On the first day of school no less!"
Louise adjusted her backpack strap, "and neither do I quite frankly," she stated in a voice that only Bradley could hear.
Mr. Frond nodded, ignoring her sarcasm. "Right you are," he quickly retreated to his office, and grabbed a piece of paper, and a notebook."
"This here is your schedule, Bradley. Louise, if you check your schedule, you'll see that both you and Bradley have the same homeroom. I thought this would be a good way to start the day. You also have the same study hall period, again, I thought this would be a good time to regroup." Mr. Frond then handed Bradley a copy of the day planner. "This is your planner, pretty straight forward. You just write down assignments, appointments, anything you deem necessary to get you though your life here at Huxley High School!"
His enthusiasm made Louise roll her eyes again.
"Have a great rest of your day! And a great time here at Huxley High!"
"If he says that one more time, I'm going to kill myself," Louise mumbled as they hurried off to their first class.
Louise
Louise led Bradley to the science wing, to commence their first day of senior year. The first class on the schedule was Biology, which if she remembered correctly, she also had with Jessica.
As they reached the top of the stairs to the third floor, Louise stopped him.
"Listen," she closed her eyes, as if what she was about to say would physically pain her. "I'm sorry," she opened her eyes. "I'm sorry for what I said outside the coffee shop."
"Oh, the wannabe goth comment?" Bradley said, jokingly.
Louise closed her eyes again, acting like she had been stung. "I know it doesn't excuse it, but I was just surprised, and bombarded, and I haven't had the best summer-"
"Louise," Bradley don't know what came over him, but he put a hand on her shoulder. "Louise," he repeated. "It's okay. I understand, plus, I've already forgotten."
She seemed to take notice of his hand on her shoulder, so he quickly took it back. "Mr. Frond mentioned that you were having a tough time, I understand that."
Louise rolled her eyes, "of course he did."
Bradley offered her a kind smile, "I am more than happy to pretend that this morning didn't happen, and that our first meeting was outside of Mr. Frond's office."
Louise returned the smile, two dimples appearing on her cheeks. "I'd like that."
Class had already started by the time that they entered the classroom. However. Mrs. Dunham, the bio teacher had just started going through the syllabus, and they hadn't missed much.
There were only two seats available, one beside Arnold Evans, and the other beside Jessica. She took the seat beside Arnold, which was right in front of Jessica's seat, and Bradley took the other.
Jessica gave Louise a curious look, Louise mouthed I'll tell you later, and turned around ready to take notes.
Class officially began Mrs. Dunham handed out textbooks, and assigned a reading on plant procreation. It was during this time, when Jessica leaned forward, tapping Louise on the shoulder with her pencil.
Louise sighed, knowing what was coming. She turned around in her chair, and smiled sarcastically at her friend. "Yes?"
"Is this not the guy that was with Chl-"
"Hey!" Louise snipped in a whisper, and made a motion for her to cut it out.
Beside Jessica, Bradley chuckled and turned to Jessica. "Hi, I'm Bradley." He said, holding his hand out.
Jessica, much like Louise, eyed him cautiously before shaking it. "I'm Jessica, I'm sure Louise has told you so much about me!"
"I've literally just met the guy," Louise said dismissively, turning back to her reading.
Bradley didn't seem to want this conversation to end though. "I like your shirt!" He said rather quickly.
"I-I saw them once. Recently actually, at their reunion tour," At this Louise and Jessica dropped their highlighters, and turned to Bradley, eagerly shouting questions.
"You saw My Chemical Romance in concert?"
"Where?!"
"Oh my god, how much were tickets?!"
"Girls!" Mrs. Dunham walked by, giving them a glare for them to quiet down. As soon as she walked away, Jessica leaned in, "tell us everything," she whispered.
"My dad got tickets from their agent, so I went with my then girlfriend. It was awesome! Company could've been better, but meh, what can you do?"
Louise stared at him, her jaw on the floor. "Your dad got tickets to an MCR concert from their agent?"
At this, Bradley froze, "Uhh, yeah my dad works in the entertainment industry, he lives in LA actually. He meets a lot of important people, and occasionally they give him concert tickets…I don't live in LA though, obviously, I live in Canada with my mom."
Louise wrinkled her eyebrows, "if your dad lives in LA why would you come here?"
Jessica nodded, "yeah, this place is the most boring place on the planet."
Suddenly, the bell rang announcing the end of class. Everyone gathered their things to exit the classroom, forgetting about the unanswered question that Bradley let hang between the three of them.
"Hey, Bradley," Louise called before he walked out of the classroom. "What's your next class?"
Bradley fumbled for his schedule, "uhhh, English with Mr. Myrol."
Louise sighed, "okay, that's a bit out of my way, I have Math, but if we hurry I can get you and myself to class on time."
"Hey! I have English with Myrol second period! It's okay, I'll show him the way!" Jessica exclaimed.
"I appreciate that, but I also don't want Frond breathing down my neck about not being a good guide for Bradley or whatever."
Bradley shook his head reassuringly, "It's okay, Louise, I'll walk to my next class with Jessica. I'm a big boy, and can figure out where to go after."
"Are you sure?"
Bradley nodded, "yes."
Louise smiled a blush tinging her cheeks, "alright then, I'll see you at lunch then."
Bradley smiled back, "see you at lunch."