FicWad

I spotted Mikey, his 'girlfriend' and a couple of our human friends sitting in the corner furthest corner from the windows. Aside from the stereotypes on vampires, we still don't like the sun. yes, and people wonder why we're all so pale.

Everyone looked up at me as I came up and smiled. With a quick grin, I sat between Mikey and Bob, my oldest, closest human friend. He smiled at me again and socked me in the shoulder. I laughed and punched him back and Mikey slapped my other shoulder.

“Yeah?” I looked at him and he pointed to the door as two figures walked in, laughing. “Isn't that Frank? With Lucile Comner?” I shrugged and nodded, watching Frank shake his hair out of his eyes.

“They know each other?” he asked, his voice a bit alarmed. I ripped my eyes away from Frank and nodded again.

“He told me that they're cousins. Why?” What's the big deal? Mikey chewed his lip and Genna tucked her arm under his. I'd noticed that she only did that when he was nervous.

“Mikey?” he played with his fingers and looked at Frank and Lucile again. His eyes flashed back to me and he pulled me closer, leaning away from Genna.

“You know Lucile's a witch, right?” he pulled back and I froze. Lucile's a witch? Wait, if she and Frank are cousins then that means Frank's.....

I grabbed the front of Mikey's shirt. “Are you sure? Like willing to put your life on that?” I asked, staring at nothing, seeing nothing. Mikey's voice was the only thing I heard. I just wish he'd said something other than that one, little three letter word.

“Yes.” my heart stopped. My mouth moved without my knowledge. “How?” I heard my voice. “She's in my gym class. She likes tank-tops.”

I knew what he meant. Girl witches get their marks on their shoulder blades and guy witches get them on their wrists.

Someone shook me. I blinked and my eyes focused on Mikey's worried face. “Are you okay?” he asked under his breath. I let go of his shirt and bit my lip.

I don't know how to answer. No, I'm perfect! I'm in love with my enemy, even before. When I thought he was human. Of course I'm not o-fuckin- kay.

Thankfully, the bell rang, freeing me from getting forced into answering. “Uh, I'll tell you later if I remember.” I snapped my bag up from under the table.

In a rush, I nearly ran to art. I sat in my chair with a relieved sigh and pulled out my sketchbook. The chair next to me moved, shocking me.

I looked up and my heart stopped again. Frank gave me a little smile that made my heart squeeze and speed up all at once. “Hi Gerard.” he said softly and pulled a sketchbook out of his bag that was a lot like mine.

A smile spread on my face and I bit my lip again. “Hey Frank.” I murmured a beat too late. I heard his heart speed up a little. Holy shit! Does he like me to?

I ran through my head for a question to ask him. “So why aren't you sitting with Lucile?” I asked, hoping I didn't sound rude. He shrugged and looked at her. “I've been sitting next to her all through lunch. She can get a little tiring after a while. I can't find out why she's so full of energy. It's just school.” he tilted his head and I spotted a tattoo on his neck.

“Hmmm....you don't know energy until you've seen my little brother hopped up on candy. Now that's the funniest thing I've seen in years. I remember when we were little, he'd eat so much candy on Halloween that he'd get on his bike and shoot down the street and circle about thirty time before he got slow enough to stop! Good times, good times!” He laughed next to me and I had to duck my head to keep from howling with laughter as I pictured a ten-year-old Mikey on his bike, his somewhat-offensive vampire cape flailing out behind him as he broke speeding limits.

“That sounds fun. I've never been trick-or-treating. I always have to go to the boring birthday parties my mom throws for me. Yeah, she'll invite all my friends, but the house we lived in across town was so small that I thought we were all gonna break the walls. It was like getting locked in a cage and getting told to have fun.” he shook his head and sighed. “Your birthday is Halloween? That's cool. Mines April 9th.” I wrinkled my nose a little at my crappy date of birth.

The bell rang, making us both jump. Mr. Canon walked in and the room went silent. The ironic thing is Mr. Canon looked more like a canon ball, he was so over-weight. I remember before the class had got to know him that there were pictures of him as a canon ball rolling around the room taped on the chalkboard. To my great embarrassment, I'd drawn a few of them.

But after a few weeks, we all saw how cool he was and now if anybody talked about him, he had flocks of students behind him, sticking up for him. Last month the school-board wanted to fire him, but all of his art classes had started a mini-riot and got the attention of the news. Camera-crews littered the school, tracking down art students and Mr. Canon.

Shockingly, they'd found me and asked me a bunch of questions like why we all liked Mr. Canon and how long we were going to fight to keep him here. And with that, I made the ten pm news. I remember watching myself at home and blushing at my answers as the wind made my hair go crazy.

Mr. Canon picked up a piece of chalk and started writing in his longhand cursive on the board. He wrote 'symbols' and set the chalk back down. “Who can tell me what all symbols we have in this room?” he huffed, walking around the room. Frank's hand shot into the air.

“I love when the new students know something! Yes, Sir! Your answer?” Frank lowered his hand and nodded at Mr. Canon. “The flag is a symbol of patriotism.” he murmured a little softly. Mr. Canon smiled and went to stand in front of the flag. “Yes! Very good, Mr.?”

Frank swallowed and looked back at Mr. Canon. “Iero. Frank Iero.” he said, his voice shaking a little. “Well, Mr. Iero, you have a gift for this class! I hope you like it! Now, can anybody else give me an example of symbolism? Anybody?” my hand slowly crept into the air.

“Ah! Gerard, very good! What is your example?” I nodded and pointed at the clock. “That is a symbol of how time can fly by when you don't want it to and just slowly creep forward when you want it to fly.” I said matter-of-factly. Laughter boomed from Mr. Canon and the other students. “Yes, I suppose you could say that. Very good reading, Mr. Way!” he said and went back to the board.

“For our next project, I want you to work with a partner! Once you have one partner, I will let you draw a word from the hat,” he held up a joker's hat “and that will be what you have to make a symbol for. Now, choose!” he shouted playfully, sitting back in his chair.

I turned to Frank, who was looking at me. “Well, wanna be my partner in this too?” I asked softly. He shrugged and nodded. “Sure, why not? We can work on English and this at the same time.” Lucile bounced up to our table, a huge smile on her face.

“Wanna work with me Frankie?” she gushed, ignoring me. Frankie? I like that. He grinned softly and shook his head. “Sorry, Lulu, Gerard kinda beat you to asking me and I said yes.” his voice was soft and didn't sound in the least bit sorry.

Lucile shrugged and nodded. “It's okay, cuz. Mat already asked but I wanted to see if you were all set. It looks like you are. Well, later Frankie. Gerard.” she nodded at both of us and went back to her partner, Mat.

I looked at Frank. “Well, you were right. She has way too much energy.” I agreed and he laughed, nodding. “Told ya so,” he shook his head and the bell rang, ending the school day. He sighed and picked up his bag.

“Do you wanna work at my house or yours? I know my mom's gonna be crazy-excited that I made new friends already.” he rolled his eyes. I thought and shrugged.

“Better than Mikey trying to bug us at mine. We can work at yours if you don't mind.” I said nonchalantly. He nodded and we walked through the door.

“See ya around four-thirty partner. And don't forget you books.” he added, shrugging past a group of girls clustered in the hall. “Okay!” I called after him and went to find Mikey, turning around. Lucile was walking the way I just turned from and ignored me again. And she's a witch? I don't doubt it.