FicWad

For the rest of the Sunday, I walked around in my pajamas, trying to get rid of the headache, which had returned in full-swing once I had fully waken up. In the end I just took a couple Benadryl, and passed out in my room. I wasn't disturbed, until the next morning when my cellphone alarm went off.

I got out of bed wondering where my mom could be. I walked downstairs slowly, and found out her location. It was on the couch, with a bottle in her hand, and a bucket of puke next to her. I shook my head in disgust, and went back up the stair to my room, leaving her as she was. My mother had to work yesterday, despite it being a Sunday, and must've come home after I'd passed out, giving her full access to a drinking marathon. And the thing on the leather couch downstairs was the product of it.

At least I didn't have to hear her screeching at me to wake up. I looked around the room for a outfit that didn't shout cheerleader, yet wasn't as edgy as the outfit I'd worn yesterday, and managed to find a pair of dark blue jeans, a fitting neon blue top, and a pair of black Uggs. I threw them on and went over to my mirror and applied a thin layer of black eyeliner and a little mascara, taking care to cover up the yellowing bruises with my foundation, and I straightened my hair into the coppery structure it had been last night. Now as I looked in the mirror, I saw a happy person, finally free of Stacey, Dana, and Sara. I still saw Sara as a friend, I was hoping she'd still see me as one. Only going to school would give me my answers.

I bound down the stairs and my mother was still passed out. She was going to be late for work, but it wasn't my problem, she was the one getting completely maggoty on a Sunday night. I ignored her and wolfed down a bagel and a glass of milk before rushing out to the Blazer. Without my mom driving me to school, I was free to go to Dunkin Donuts and I picked up a coffee, putting sugar and cream in it like Gerard had.

It was a new day in my book and I couldn't wait to experience it. I felt a little nervous to be going into the school after quitting the squad, I was mostly anxious how the people around me would act. Would the girls still hate me? Would the boys still drool after my every action?

I suppose not, I thought as I sipped my wonderful cup of joe. I pulled into the school parking lot and immediately got my answer. On the front steps there was spray-painted words. JETTA'S A SLUT, was written in red paint, totally untrue, and yet I could care less. I got out and walked right passed it, not giving it a second-glance. Stacey and Dana ambushed me a soon as I got in there. Stacey's trademark smile was on, fake and ready to fight, meanwhile Dana just looked furious at me.

"Listen here you little slut, you have one chance to get out of this weird fix your on and rejoin the squad." Stacey stopped and smiled sweetly, like a twisted person. "Or we can turn the entire school population on you, no one quits on me". Dana nodded behind her, like a frickin' side-kick. I looked down quickly, pretending to be scared. I glanced up to see their smiles grinning at me, thinking they had me scared and cornered. That's when I grinned proudly.

"I think you're wrong Stacey, you can't turn the entire school on me, as for the squad, you can all go fuck your football boyfriends and leave me alone.", I smiled, and felt the coffee in my hand get heavier. I pulled the top off and poured the entire contents of the cup over Stacey's head. Seeing the completely shocked look on her face was priceless.

"Y-y-you little-", she stuttered, as her face turned into a raging one. She couldn't even speak from the fury emanating off her. Any other person would have been running, but I had stood up to her, and now I was getting the satisfaction of getting under Stacey Drake's skin.

I just grinned and waved a goodbye to her as I walked into the school. There were a few cheerleaders who stepped out of my way as I went, I'd just stood up to their Queen Bee, and they were awaiting orders on what to do. A few football players were also in the small circle of people who'd witnessed it, and they looked at me like I had just won the WWE Championship. I felt indomitable as I walked down the hallway after sitting in the cafeteria. Of course, I couldn't sit at the table that Stacey had sat at, instead I sat in the back, as far away from the Popular table as possible. It was sad to see Sara over there talking with them. Stacey had wiped the coffee off and was probably planning a way to get me back.

Every once in a while, Sara would send me a sad look, almost like she was pleading with me to come back to the table and talk with her, but I'd gone too far this time. There was no going back, even if I came on all fours begging.

The rest of the day went surprisingly normal. Of course, I didn't have the usual crowd of people following me, I walked the halls alone, not a single person following or wanting to talk to me. It was refreshing not to talk every minute, yet it made me kinda lonely. And as I walked into the art room for my final class, I felt a small pang in my heart.

I had sat alone in the cafeteria, I had looked for Frankie, Mikey, Ray or Bob, but they weren't in my Lunch. I had even looked for Gerard, just someone to talk to, even if he was as jittery as yesterday.

But now I saw him in the art room, sitting in his usual spot, and I felt a pull to go and sit by him. And so I did.

His face when he looked up at me, was one of surprise and a little apprehensive, but he was silent while the teacher was telling us what the assignment was. We were to create an image inspired by nature, but it was to be from our minds, not any subject matter that was from a picture, or something we'd seen before. It was a harder than the other assignment that we had before, but a couple of scenes flew through my mind and I picked a random one.

I got my paper and pencil and sat down to start sketching out my image. Gerard did the same, yet I could tell he wanted to tell me something, he was biting his lips again. I found that he did that whenever he was nervous, must be a habit of his.

I began drawing a city scene. A sidewalk, deserted, with buildings and a couple skyscrapers surrounding it. Above the tops of the building, I drew a sun setting behind them. Once we were to color it, I would use black, gray and gold, coloring and shading the buildings, while using the gold to show the waning light of the sun. After I'd drawn the scene, I found myself adding one single person to the barren sidewalk. The person transformed into a guy with the pencil in my hands. And it ended with the guy's back facing me, wearing a trench-coat and jeans, with long black hair. I didn't lie to myself, I knew I had drawn Gerard, and I was proud of how much it resembled him.

And the named person was looking over my shoulder at it. I didn't think he could guess who the person was, so I kept quiet and let him observe.

Finally he gave his opinion. "It's beautiful. Realistic, yet almost imaginary.", he muttered, lowly, almost a whisper. I glanced at his and got a small shock.

He had drawn a girl, with long, curly hair, under a willow tree. She had a book in her hands, and her head was bent over it, reading it enthusiastically, and at that angle, much like my own drawing, you couldn't see her face. I looked to the other objects in the picture, and found that she was in a cemetery, with headstones surrounding her and the tree. The piece looked so realistic that it seemed more like a Polaroid than a pencil and paper drawing.

"Yours isn't bad either.", I mumured. And suddenly that nervousness was back, and his head lowered, so I couldn't see his eyes.

"Listen, I want to say that I was wrong.", he paused, then pressed on, "And that I was sorry for being a total prick to you over the weekend.", he finished, looking up at me with apologetic eyes. I grinned and said the words that I'd been wanting to say.

"No, I'm sorry for all the things that I've done to you, and that I'm grateful that you've helped me so much over the past few days.", I replied. He smiled and shook his head at my words. Then he held out a graphite covered hand.

"Friends again?", he asked, a smirk on. I felt myself grimacing on the inside at the dreaded word, 'friend', but I shook his hand despite my wishes. If he wanted to just be friends, then that was something I had to accept. At least now I could hang out with Mikey and the others without worrying about how Gerard felt about it.

I went back to my drawing, after wiping the graphite onto my jeans, and started detailing the rest of the drawing, adding details to the buildings and skyscrapers, putting posters in weird places, and adding more and more to the sky.

"You know, that reminds me of a movie I watched. . .", Gerard said, watching me put feathery clouds into the sky, almost touching the tops of the tallest skyscrapers. I glanced up. "And what movie would that be?".

"Dawn of the Dead.", he answered simply. I gaped at him, he was comparing my art to a zombie movie? He saw my expression and started shaking his head and waving his hands.

"Not like in the dead people walking around thing.", he explained, "More like the romantic thing about the movie, like how Stephan gets bitten and leads the zombies to Francine." He tried to give me the idea. I hadn't seen the movie, just saw and heard things about it. He leaned over and pointed to the person.

"Like see how you made the place unpopulated except for that person", he pointed out. "Well, that's after everyone has been bitten and they've all moved to the other populated places over the world, and he's like the only person left.", he said, and I sort of understood it. He had a twisted way of thinking, but it did make sense. The only thing that bothered me was my thought about the one person, so lonely in a world surrounded by nobody but a few zombies.

"I can see how you would think that, it'd be lonely though, in a world with no one except zombies." I spoke my thoughts. He nodded, "Yeah, it probably would be.", he said with a sad tone to his voice.

I looked back at his drawing.

"Yours reminds me of a peaceful place.", I smiled at it. I knew that it was creepy and sort of weird, but whenever I'd been to a cemetery with my mother, whether it was for a funeral, or just visiting my grandmother, the place always seemed tranquil and serene. He chuckled.

"That was sort of what I was going for.", he informed me. The teacher suddenly yelled for us to start cleaning up. The underclassmen started going for their portfolios and I waited back for them to get out of the way.

"You know, Mikey gave me hell yesterday, I think I might get out of another fight if you came over to hang out or something.", Gerard told me, shrugging casually. I smiled as I put my drawing into the postage packages we used to protect our artwork. Another visit to the Way house was like asking if I'd like a piece of chocolate. The answer was a hell yes.

"I'd love to.", I replied, "When do you want me over?", I asked. He shrugged again.

"I suppose tomorrow, we're sort of going over to my grandmothers for a visit. But we'll be back early enough to hang out.", he said, smiling a little. Any other guy would have been groaning about going to a relatives, but Gerard actually looked happy. I smiled, his good mood spreading to me.

"Maybe we can watch Dawn of the Dead then, I've never watched it before.", I suggested, "Plus it might give me an idea on what you were talking about."

He nodded, "Okay, I think Mikey's got the movie." The bell rang and I waved to him as we went down opposite halls, he waved back, giving me his crooked grin as he did. I almost skipped down the halls as I went to my locker.

The day couldn't get any better, I'd patched things up with Gerard, I stood up to Stacey, I made it through the day without a single prank or insult, plus I had driven the Blazer to school, something that my mother insisted was unnecessary. Now maybe I could persuade her to let me drive it all the time. And now I was going to hang-out at the Way's house with Mikey and Gerard tomorrow.

That was when my luck crashed down on me like an elephant. I went from my locker to the parking lot, which was on the other side of the school. Belleville High had two parking lots, one near the main entrance, and the other in the back. As I was walking to my car Stacey, Dana and two other girls stepped in front of me. I hadn't even seen them coming.

"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Masochist, you must really like pain.", Stacey snapped her fingers and the two girls grabbed my arms as Dana punched me into the stomach. What the hell? We never did this type of stuff to the other girls in school. We worked from behind, never actually harming them with fists. That was the jock's job, even for the girls we had decided to pick on. As I was bent over, I asked what was going on.

Stacey grabbed my hair and lifted my head so she could sneer into my face, "You're getting the full-punishment for quitting the team and humiliating me like that." That was when she started pulling me towards the forest that surrounded a part of the school. I followed, feeling the roots of my hairs start to get numb from the pulling that they were experiencing. I had no clue what was going to happen, and I was scared, despite trying to look brave.