FicWad

It would be too easy to blame Sidney for all of this. Most of the time, it wasn’t his fault. The Midnight Troupe wasn’t his idea. Or maybe it was. Nobody’s really sure which was Sid and which wasn’t
Let’s start at the start. September fifth.

~*~

Gerard moved into Dorm five with a minimum of fanfare and his little brother. It was a Catholic private school, named Our Father Immaculate. Neither Gerard, nor his little brother Mikey were sent there for the religion. Both were sent, simply, because it was a good school.
Dorm five met no expectations whatsoever. Sure, it was a nice room, but it was crammed with two sets of bunk beds, a single bed, three desks, two bookshelves and four dressers.
“This,” Mikey said, “Is not what it looked like in the brochure.” Mikey was short for his age, with big glasses and asthma. Mikey, in general, was nothing short of non-threatening. Mikey was about as terrifying as an arcade teddy bear. “Well, maybe this is...um...where they put the boarding students and the ones who go to regular students get the nice rooms?” Gerard projected. Gerard was taller than Mikey, with long black hair, and brown eyes.
“What? No. That sucks!”
“I know, but we can’t do anything about it, Mikes.”

Just then, a boy about Mikey’s height barreled up. “Is this Dorm Five?” he asked breathlessly. Gerard nodded.
The short boy brightened. “Good! I went to the other Dorm Five, and it took me ages to figure out why they put me in with the girls. Dibs on top bunk!”
“Oh! I want Top bunk!” Mikey piped up. “Too bad, so sad. I’ve got top, I’m oldest,” Gerard said, swinging his suitcase onto the top bunk of the nearest bunk bed. “No! No fair! I called it first!” Mikey whined, trying to jump up and push Gerard off the top bunk. Gerard responded by putting his size four foot in his little brother’s face and shoving him to the floor.
“I’m telling mom!”
“Nice try, Dingus. We’re at boarding school.”

Short Boy introduced himself as Frank Iero, and Gerard and Mikey introduced themselves too. Frank chattered the entire time he unpacked, mostly about himself. He was an only child, he was here for the religion, he didn’t know how to tie a tie by himself yet, were the teachers still allowed to hit students, his favourite bands...
“Is this Dorm Five?”
All three looked up to see a tall boy leaning in the door. “Yeah. Why?”
“The boy’s dorm?”
“No, we’re girls in disguise.”
“Ha ha ha. You can laugh, but I went to the other Dorm five-”
“REALLY? ME TOO!”
“Oh, that was you? What’s your name?” the tall boy asked, claiming lower bunk with little fuss. “I’m Frank, tall one is Gerard, and little one is Mikey!” Frank said, obviously proud he knew everyone’s name. “Frank, Gerard, Mikey. Okay, got it. I’m Ray,” Tall boy said, shaking hands with Frank. “Awesome! That’s everyone,” Mikey said, looking vaguely happy since he was demoted via footwear from the Realm of Top Bunk.
“No, there’s one more person. Who’s sleeping there?” Gerard asked, leaping down from Top Bunk to the ground, gesturing to the single bed. “Didn’t you read the brochure?” Mikey asked, looking disapproving. “Nope,” Gerard admitted proudly. “It’s the prefect’s bed. For the younger kids, they put an older one in to keep an eye on us,” Ray said, stuffing socks into a nearby dresser. “That’s a bit creepy, isn’t it?” Frank said, upending his suitcase and sending everything onto his bunk. “A bit, but it’s how it works. It’s a good school, Mikey,” Ray replied.
“I’m Frank. That one’s Mikey.”
“Oh! Sorry.”
“S’okay,” Frank said, trying to figure out how to tie his tie. “Easy there. You’ll strangle yourself,” Gerard said, folding his t-shirts and putting them into his dresser. “Says you! We have to be in uniform in time for dinner!” Frank declared, and in a self-fullfilling prophecy, nearly asphyxiated himself.

At that moment, the last boy strolled in.
It was hard to say what it was about him that made everyone fall silent. Maybe it was the slouch of his shoulders, or the grim set of his jaw. A large bruise bloomed on his neck, half-covered by his wrinkled dress shirt.
The boy glanced around, light blue eyes carefully watching everyone.
“Alright, fags, listen up. I’m Dorm Five’s prefect. I sure as fuck don’t want to be here, but David Germaine, who’s supposed to be the prefect, got busted for stealing cars. By alphabetical hierarchy, I am now your boss. Understand?”
Gerard glanced around. Mikey’s eyes were bugging out of his head, Frank was staring, and Ray had clamped his lips together.
“I said, DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND?”
“Yessir!” Mikey squeaked.
The boy calmed down immediately. “Good. Now, in this dorm, there will be rules. Rule number one, Do not question me. Rule number two, you do not squeal, rat, or bitch about or on anyone. Rule number three, take your shoes off before you come in. And Rule number four, the most important one, you do not get caught.”
“Caught?” Ray blurted, then ducked down like he hadn’t spoken. “Damn straight. I do not need to know your names. All I need to do is make sure you tykes do your homework and go to bed on time. I’m not your mommy. I do not care about you. If you’re being bullied, suck it up and take care of it yourself.”
After finishing his speech, he swung his battered suitcases onto his bed and left without unpacking.


“That’s the prefect we have?” Mikey hissed when the older boy had left. “He’s evil!” Ray moaned, passing a hand over his eyes. “He used the f-word and the d-word and the b-word!” Frank cheeped from a desk in the corner.
“He’s so...cool...” Gerard whispered reverently.
“What! Gee! He’s obviously a head case! He is not cool!” Mikey snapped. “Yeah he is! He’s like one of those guys in those action movies dad likes. He’s, like, an anti-hero,” Gerard reasoned, refusing to back down. It was true. He did have a certain charm or flare to him, something that burned. There was no question that he was trouble, but maybe that’s what made him so cool. Where could those bruises be from? Maybe he fights bad guys, or maybe he was in prison, or...
“You listening to me?”
Gerard snapped out of his reverie. “What?”
“We have to go find the cafeteria. Dinner’s in two minutes!” Ray called, halfway out the door.
~*~
After about fifteen minutes of confusion-”We’re gonna miss dinner!” “I told you it’s the other way!” “Moron!” “I wanna go home!” “Shut up Mikey nobody asked you!”-they got to the cafeteria.
“Man, I never thought I’d be so glad to see a building with no windows,” Frank remarked as he walked up the steps. On the way up, they were stopped by a heavyset woman in a black dress. “Look! A nun!” Gerard whispered to Mikey, and both starting laughing.
“Boys, where have you been?”
“We got lost, ma’am,” Frank answered. Ray dug an elbow into Gerard’s side with a hissed “Stop laughing! I wanna eat!”
“Well, your dorm prefect was supposed to give you your schedules, and your schedules have a map included.”
“Our dorm prefect did no such thing,” Mikey responded, biting down giggles about the nun comment.
“What? Who’s your dorm prefect?”
“Uh...we don’t know?” Ray said, then added, “He’s sort of really tall and mean, and he’s got black hair and this big bruise on his neck...”

“Wait. That sounds like Sidney Gumb. Are you talking about Sidney Gumb?” the woman asked, raising her eyebrows. “Could be. We don’t know his first name,” Gerard replied. “Can we eat now?” Mikey whined.
“Oh. Yes, of course. Sidney Gumb is a prefect? My oh my...” the woman ushered them in.
Gerard turned the name over in his mind. Sidney Gumb....Sidney Gumb...Or just Sid?
The woman marched them over to a table. Sitting at the table by himself, was none other than the prefect of Dorm five.
“Mr. Gumb!”
Sid looked up, tongue pushing on the inside of one cheek.
“Hanh?”
“Did you, or did you not give these boys their schedules and maps?” the woman demanded. Sidney folded his hands on the table, looked over at the four boys and said, “I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
“Mr. Gumb! Hands up!”
Sidney groaned. “C’mon, Sister Clare, it’s the first day of term!”
Sister Eve paid no attention, and quickly strapped Sidney across the knuckles. Gerard, Mikey, and Frank all thought the same thing: Where did that come from?
Sidney yelped loudly and stuck his fingers in his mouth.
“Tha’ hurts!”
Sister Clare smiled mirthlessly. “I trust you can take these four back once dinner’s over?”
“Yes...” Sid muttered.
“And to the assembly after?”
“I said yeah, alright?!”

~*~

After assembly, Sid led them back to the dorm, saying he’d talk to them later and he had to talk to somebody.
“How mad is he gonna be?” Ray asked. “How would we know? Guy’s a psycho,” Mikey replied, climbing into his bunk.
Eventually, Ray switched out the lights, and everybody fell asleep.
Except for Gerard. He stayed up, and waited for Sidney to come back. Gerard eventually dropped off around eleven.
Sid came back around twelve. “Lookit all the little angels,” he whispered, partially to himself. Sid set his shoes down on the floor, and padded around in his bare feet.
“The angels ratted, though, didn’t they? Yeah, they did. Welp, punishment time,” Sid whispered, sneaking through the bunk beds.
Once Sid gathered all of the boys white school shirts from their dressers, he left the dorm for a second time that night.
After carefully dodging both wayward teachers and curfew, Sid snuck into the boy’s bathroom. Generally, Sid didn’t sneak into public bathrooms barefoot-gross!-but tonight would be special.
Locking himself in a stall, Sid rummaged through his blazer and brought out the four bottles of dye. After a quick search through his pants pockets, he came up with a handful of rubber bands. Sidney liked rubber bands. Infinitely useful, and if not, they were fun to shoot at people.
Sid spread the shirts out on the floor, and pinned some parts of the shirts with rubber bands. Giggling now, Sid poured the dye onto the shirts, quickly and effectively tye-dying them.
“Rat on me, will they? This’ll show them!”

Sid snuck back into Dorm five, hung the shirts up, and crash-landed into bed for sleep, and dreamt of violence and revenge.

A.N. Is it okay thus far? Sorry I haven't included any of your characters yet, but don't worry, they'll show up, I promise!