FicWad

Joanne stood with her friends at the back gates of her school. One of them was sitting a bin on fire, one was demanding lunch money from a first year and another was throwing someone’s schoolbag into a tree. There was a teacher over the other side of the car park but she didn’t do anything about it. Joanne’s gang was one of the most feared gangs in the town.
Joanne ran her fingers through her dark auburn scene cut hair. She didn’t like the way her gang treated people but she didn’t dare tell them that. If you got on the wrong side the gang, you were in trouble. Joanne knew this better than anyone. So long as she was friends with them, she was safe.
Someone walking through the gates caught her eye. He was small with a lip piercing, black hair and several tattoos. She smiled when she saw him. She quite liked the look of him. But judging by the look on her friends faces, she wasn’t allowed to like him.
One of Joanne’s friends walked over to her “Hey Jo, have you seen the new kid?” He snorted “He lives on the posh street. I bet he thinks he’s above everybody else.”
Joanne disagreed. From the look on the new kid’s face, he clearly thought he was below everyone else here. But of course Joanne didn’t say that. “I know right.” Joanne laughed.
Joanne’s friend nudged her arm “Hey, watch this.”
He ran away from Joanne and up to the new boy. He grabbed the new boys black jeans and yanked them down, revealing his Superman underwear. The new boy flushed bright red and pulled his jeans back up. “What’s your problem?” New boy snapped, trying to sound threatening but unfortunately he’d inherited one of the poshest voices in the world.
This made Joanne’s friend, Ray Toro, laugh even harder “What are you gonna do posh nob?” Ray snorted “What ya gonna do midget?”
“Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
“Why don’t you just go jump off a cliff?”
“Oh how original.” New boy said sarcastically “Look, just leave me the fuck alone.”
Ray shoved him and he fell off his feet. New boy didn’t bother to get back, just looked down at the ground while all of Joanne’s friends laughed. Everybody else walked past as fast as they could, hoping that Joanne’s gang would ignore them.
Joanne looked at the new boy and felt sorry for him. But chose not to go and help him. Instead, she went and stood with Gerard “Do you know what his name is?” Joanne asked Gerard “The new boy’s name, I mean.”
“Oh yeah, it’s Frank Iero.” Gerard said “And his friends call him Frankie. Not that I believe he’s ever had any friends.”
“Probably not…” Joanne agreed.
Gerard smiled and grabbed Joanne’s arm “Come on, let’s go over.”
He dragged Joanne over to Frank. Gerard held out his hand to Frank. He lay there for a moment before taking his hand. Gerard pulled him up and Joanne looked at him, confused. Why was Gerard helping Frank out?
But Gerard snapped “Why don’t you get outta here and stay the hell away from us? Just leave us alone you posh nob midget.”
Frank realised that it would be best not to say anything and ran off as fast as he could. Gerard and everyone else burst out laughing. But Joanne felt pretty guilty.

Later in Maths class, Frank had to sit next to Joanne. Neither of them had a choice. During the lesson Joanne got a number of text messages about it. Most of them were jokes about Frank. She was reading an extremely rude one when Frank looked down and saw what it said.
He blinked, tears in his eyes “Why does everyone here hate me?” Frank asked Joanne “I used to have lots of friends back in New Jersey. What’s wrong with me?”
“I don’t hate you.” Joanne admitted “I was only checking my messages. I don’t think it’s funny but don’t tell my friends I said that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t wanna get on the wrong side of them.” Joanne whispered, hoping none of her friends could see her talking to Frank “You don’t know them as well as me. They once posted some fireworks through this girl’s door and they all went off. The girl was in hospital for ages.”
“Why aren’t the teachers doing something about it?”
“Because they’re scared of the gang too,” Joanne mumbled “Our gang gets away with murder… Literally…”
Frank was shocked “And you hang round with them?”
“Of course I do! I don’t want the fireworks posted through my letterbox. I don’t wanna get hurt. You saw what they were like this morning.”
“Brilliant.” Frank said sarcastically “So you can stay popular with all the friends that you don’t actually like… And I get to spend my time having a terrible life.”
“Frank…”
But Frank wasn’t listening anymore. Joanne sighed and looked down at her work. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually done work.

After school, Joanne’s gang decided it’d be fun to follow Frank home. Joanne considered asking them to leave him alone but then decided against it. So they all followed him home.
Frank’s heart was racing and he tried to speed up. But the moment he sped up, the gang laughed and sped up too. He tried so hard to ignore the stupid comments but he didn’t want to put his headphones in in case they snuck up behind him. He considered starting to run but he knew they’d laugh even more.
He heard them all running up behind him and he felt sick. Three of them grabbed him and shoved him into a bush. The gang laughed and walked past him. Frank lay in the bush until he could no longer hear them. Then he dared creep out.
The only person remaining was Joanne, looking at him. Frank glared at her “Oh here to ridicule me, are you?”
“No, of course not… I wanted to apologise.”
“I’m not in the mood!” Frank snapped, tears welling up in his eyes “Why can’t you and your stupid friends just leave me alone? I haven’t done anything!”
Frank ran off and Joanne watched him, tears welling in her own eyes.