FicWad

That night, Sidney made sure all the boys were sleeping before he headed out to meet his brother.
John leaned against the wall of the dorm, flipping a coin with his left hand. “Ready?” he asked. Sid nodded, and the two set off together.
Both boys crunched through the dead late September grass, and the night left cold fingerprints on the back of Sid’s neck.
The trek left behind the lights of the school, through the marshy ground that sucked at Sidney’s shoes like drunken promises, and the only noise was the sound of the cars on the highway.
“This is it?” Sid asked, staring down at the house. It was probably a treehouse at one point, but it had fallen out of the tree it had been residing in. John nodded.
“I walked for like four fucking years across a fucking bog for some fucking shack in the middle of the woods? This is stupid, you’re stupid, and I’m going home.” Sidney kicked an uprooted patch of grass, and started tromping back to dorm five.
“At least look at it!” John protested, catching his brother’s arm. Sid whipped around and glared at his brother. John, unaffected by his brother’s bad mood, grinned like a fool. Sidney sighed, and rolled his eyes, and let his brother pull him back to the shack.
After climbing through the slanted door, Sid surveyed the area critically. “It’s too small. We’d never be able to get any decent scrum going,” he pointed out.
John threw up his hands. “Fine, then! Do whatever the frack you want. I’m done. I’m going to bed rather than hearing you whine about how awful things are,” John spat and left for good.
“I’m sorry, Johnny, I didn’t mean it,” Sid whispered, once he was gone and couldn’t hear him. Disappointed and pissed off, Sid ran a hand through his hair and regarded the space again.
Well, John did have a point. They could run the club thing here, but they’d need some sort of invitation system.
Closing his eyes, Sid pictured the space filled with teens like him, teens who hated everyone and didn’t believe in love and just wanted to kill everything.
All of them would be there with invites. Plus ones. Cards only given to those who could be trusted. What could he do about lights? It’d be too dark for anything to be noteworthy. Would candles work? Yeah, they would. Candles waxed to the floor and window ledges would blow out easily and people would light cigarettes off them. Yes. That would work.
They’d have to be screened. Sid’s upper lip curled in disgust at the thought of football players and basketball players contaminating his precious club. No. No sporty types at all.
But who? Who else?
“Scenesters.” Sid announced to the empty air. Why not? Scene kids pummeling the crap out of each other is totally watchable. Band geeks going head to head with goths. Drama geeks breaking the teeth of catholic hipsters. Indie girls busting knuckles on screamo kids.
That would be so beautiful. He had to make it happen.
“John! John! Wait up!” Sid called, throwing himself out of the shack and after his brother.

~*~

Sid cracked the door and tried to slip into bed. He flinched when one of the wards woke up.
“Where were you?” Dark haired cancer one asked. Sid kicked off his shoes, not really caring where they landed and falling backwards into bed. Sid imagined his shoes going into orbit around fat afro kid and the thought makes him smile.
“What’re you so smiley about?” Dark haired cancer one asked accusingly. “You sound mad. Why?” Sid asked, expertly dodging the question. “I...dunno. You’re just...you’re sneaking out all the time, and you don’t tell me anything. I can’t tell anything to anybody because you’ll beat me up, and I’m just....” he trails off. Sid feels a stab of guilt, and decides to just be honest.
“I was out with my brother.”
“You have a brother?”
“You sound surprised. Nah, I get it. We’re nothing alike. John’s nice. He’s good with people and he doesn’t smoke much. He can chill me out when I’m being a dick. He stopped me from getting expelled last year when I bit some kid,” Sid says matter-of-factly.
“What? What happened?” Dark Haired Cancer One whispers happily, leaping catlike off his bunk and coming to sit on the floor. “There’s this prick in my grade, name’s Les, and he was pissing me off something awful, and he said some really hate-filled things to me. We got in a fight, one thing let to another, and I forcibly removed a part of his shoulder off with my own teeth.”
“Whoa,” the kid says quietly with a ring of reverence.
“Yeah. My nickname was Mad Dog for the longest time, but my brother smoothed all that over,” Sid explains, then adds. “He also used to help me a lot before I showed up here. Like, at home. I never go home, my house fucking sucks. My dad used to beat me up a lot, and my mum doesn’t know, she just thought I wanted to go to boarding school. My bro patched my cuts up at home, and he makes sure I get out of scrapes here too. He’s a diamond boy and I’m a fuckup. That’s how it always works with brothers,” Sid explains. Dark Haired Cancer One thinks this over. “I have a brother,” he says eventually, grabbing onto his left foot and shuffling back and forth. “And? Which one are you? Diamond boy or Fuckup?” Sid posed the question like it was no big deal, loosening his tie. Dark Haired Cancer One chewed on the inside of his cheek and looked over at his brother.
“Well, if you ever start to think you’re the fuckuppity one, come talk to me. I’ve got a new business venture to put forth, and I’ma need all the help I can get. Now go to sleep, cuz I’m a prefect and you have to do whatever I say, got it?”
Sid heard a laugh from the kid on the floor. “Good night!” he called softly as he climbed the ladder back onto top bunk.
“Night, fag.”

~*~

Gerard woke up early. Sid was either asleep, or he had suffered an aneurysm in the night and died silently. Either one was possible, with the teen lying flat on his face and not moving. Gerard pulled his knees up to his chest and thought about what Sid told him. He actually seemed honest. But...with the brother thing, he didn’t want Mikey to be a fu-I mean, screwup. And wow, no wonder Sid was such a demented lunatic.


There was a knock on the door, and Gerard’s eyes snapped up.
“Sid! Sid, open the door!”
The younger three boys groaned like zombies. “What the heck, Sid! It’s like a Saturday!” Ray griped.
“SIDDY! Open the door! I need to talk to you!” The knocking on the door became louder. Sid buried deeper under his covers.
“Just come in, it’s unlocked!” Mikey shouted, fumbling for his glasses.
There was a brief pause, then a “No, it could be kidnapping in court unless somebody opens the door.”
“Never thought I’d get to hear that used in casual conversation,” Frankie yawned as he spoke, knuckling sleep out of his eyes, and padding over to the door. “Open that door, and I shall kill you,” Sid promised, opening one blood-shot eye to glare at the shorter boy.
Frankie took a step back, not wanting to piss off Sid, but not wanting to leave the people outside.

Frankie’s eyes flicked to the door. Back to Sid. Then he leaped forward and yanked the door open. Leaped backwards, Frankie launched an in-your-face smirk towards Sidney. Sid, too tired to react, merely flipped him off.

“You! Up!” a girl strode into the dorm, bright sunlight trailing behind her from outside. Sid moaned and tried to hide under his covers.
“Don’t you dare, Gumb! You’re ditching band sectionals!”
Sid’s voice slunk out, muffled from the covers. “So? Who cares?”
With that, the girl grabbed the covers and pulled them off the bed and onto the floor. She roared, “WHO CARES? I CARES, YOU DUMBASS! You’ve got a sectional in half an hour, and I want you acceptable by then. No pussying out.”
“Alexia, darling, who pissed in your coffee? I’ve got bigger things to worry about than band sectionals, m’kay?” Sid yawned, his jaw cracking in the process. “Ow.”
Alexia tapped her foot. “Salander’s gonna move you to second chair,” she informed, crossing her arms.

Sid paused mid-stretch. “No he wouldn’t,” he said, his voice ringed with just a little bit of doubt. Alexia, sensing it, pounced. “Oh yes he will. He thinks Mallory Gregoro has been sounding superb, and she kisses ass on top of that.”
Sidney leaped up, fury running tight through him. “That little Bitch!”
“It’s true! Get going, if you hurry you can be there early!” Alexia prompted, shoving him forward. “Yeah, no, I’m not going early to kiss ass. I’m going to go early to show that bastard Salander that I CAN PLAY BETTER THAN THAT SECOND CHAIR SLUT GREGORO!” Rummaging under his bunk, Sidney grabbed a not-too-terribly wrinkled dress shirt and tie and stalked out of Dorm five to the showers, slamming the door behind him.
The other four boys were shocked speechless. “How’d you do that?” Mikey asked, dumbfounded. “Oh, that? It’s easy peasy pumpkin peasy. Siddy’s just very, very, very competitive. Give him a challenge, and he can’t say no. He’s pretty much immune to punishment too. Yeah. He’s like that,” Alexia explained, chewing on a fingernail. “We should try that!” Frankie said, humming with excitement. “Go ahead. Be careful, though. He’s a bit back and forth. Sometimes things don’t bother him, but sometimes they really just piss him off,” Alexia said, then checked her watch. “Listen, it’s lovely chatting with you boys, but I have to get down to the school musical for auditions.”
Gerard sat up a little straighter, the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind. If he got a major part, that would automatically make him not a screwup, right?
“What play?” he asked.
Alexia shrugged. “We’re doing Peter Pan this year. Wanna come?”

Within minutes, Gerard had already dressed, and was in line for auditions. Breathing deeply, Gerard thought about the facts. He had an okay singing voice, but what song should he sing? Would Sid think that he’s a screwup for doing this? Would he really have to wear those godawful tights?
“Next!” the voice boomed across the stage.
Gerard exhaled to calm his nerves, and stepped forward into the light of the stage.