FicWad

I walked into my year class, and scanned the classroom nervously; he isn’t here. I really hope that the boy that just moved in across the road isn’t the boy from New Jersey that we are expecting in Science class today. He’s a really good looking kid, from what I saw. I didn’t get to see much, just that he’s kinda tall, pale and has black hair. But that’s all I got to notice before he saw me peeping over the fence. If the boy that’s starting at school today IS him, then I sure as hell hope he doesn’t recognize me.
I sat next to Bonnie who was drawing little love hearts all over her folder.
“Are they for Frank?” I cheeked and elbowed her gently.
“I did not think of that, I was just drawing them just because I can,” She started writing F.I in the middle of all of the love hearts. How sweet. Puke.
“We got new neighbours across the road today.” I said in a moment of silence.
“Oh yeah?” Bonnie wasn’t really paying attention, just drawing.
“I think it’s the boy from New Jersey.” I said flatly.
“Really?” She piped up. “You don’t even know what this boy looks like...?”
“No, I know,” I grabbed my pens and a paper, and started doodling more black shadow figures. “But from what I’m guessing is his Dad was talking to the van mover person, and he is American.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s the new boy in Science, just means you have American neighbours, and what is it with you drawing black shadows in corners?” Bonnie stopped and frowned.
“I don’t know, I just always have drawn black shadows.” I answered. “But I guess we’ll find out if it is him today. When do we have Science?”
Bonnie opened up her folder and scanned her schedule. “Just before lunch.”
Our year class teacher walked in and said good morning. She took the role and then announced we were going on a trip to Manchester on Friday, and handed out the parental permission slips as we would be staying for the weekend. I sighed. There’s no way I’m going to be able to get my parents to sign this.
“If worse comes to worse, I’ll see if I can get my Mum to forge a letter for you.” Bonnie whispered. I smiled at her. I love this girl so much. Since we were nine, she has always been there for me. She never once questioned why my parents are the way they are. She just understood that the situation I’m in is shit, and she’s done everything she can to help me since. Bonnie has grown up in a very wealthy family. They always had money, food and enough clothes for a store. Her parents are lovely. Her Dad works a lot so I don’t see much of him, but her Mum only works part time at a primary school as the receptionist. I’ve never told her Mum what my family is like, but I think with the way she sends me home with a bag of food to hide in my room tells me that she knows something’s not quite right.
“And that’s all for today. You may go to your classes.” The teacher said. I hadn’t been paying attention to what she was saying after the announcement. I just shrugged and headed off to English class.
Again, as soon as I stepped into the room I scanned the classroom for the New Jersey boy, he wasn’t here either. I sat down at my usual spot at the front of the class.
“Good morning class.” Mr. Gerrison strolled, and behind him was the boy who lives across the road from me. My heart started beating fast and I could feel my cheeks burning up. Shit!
“Good morning Mr. Gerrison.” The class repeated back.
“Today we have a new student. He’s just moved over from the United States and I want everyone to make him feel welcome. Would you like to introduce yourself?” Mr. Gerrison looked at the American boy, who looked a bit put on the spot and scratched the top of his head.
“Uh.. Sure… What do I say?” He said quietly.
“Just tell us a little bit about who you are.” Mr. Gerrison sat down at his desk.
“Okay. Well.” The Boy paused and scanned the room. He looked at me, but it didn’t look like he recognized me. Phew! “Well my name is Gerard. I'm seventeen in a few weeks. I’m from Belleville, New Jersey. I like music and art.” He looked at Mr. Gerrison to save him.
“Okay, well, nice to meet you Gerard.” He stood back up and scanned the classroom. “I’m sure everyone will be welcoming, and if there’s anything else anyone wants to know then they can just ask. There’s a seat at the back of the classroom, you can sit there. I don’t expect you to know what we’re going on about, but if you do feel free to join in.”
Gerard walked to the back of the class keeping his eyes on the ground along the way, not daring to make eye contact with anyone. Poor boy, it must suck being the new kid at a school in a completely different country.
The entire lesson I struggled to pay attention to what Mr. Gerrison was on about. I know he was talking about some poet from New Zealand called Janet Frame. I couldn’t take my mind of this new boy, Gerard. There was something so drawing about him. He looked so mysterious at the front of the class. His black hair hung down just above his shoulders, and half of it covered his eyes, and he flicked it out of the way just like he did yesterday. He’s wearing an army-style jacket with patches of sorts attached to the sleeves, and underneath that he is wearing a black tshirt with a funny looking skull on it. His black jeans had rips at the bottom and chains around his belt. His eyes were hazel, and they were so intense. It was like he was looking at everything sharply, and wasn’t just looking at you, but into you, if that makes sense.
I subtly turned around, pretending to be looking at the posters on the walls and my eyes made their way into the direction of where Gerard’s sitting. I allowed myself to look at him. He was looking right at me with a look I’ll never forget.
I quickly turned back around. Fuck, I really shouldn’t have done that. I have to share at least the next class with this guy and he just caught you looking at him. I shut my folder and tried to pay attention to Mr. Gerrison. But then my mind started to wonder back to Gerard. If he caught me looking at him, then that means I also caught him looking at me. Does he recognize me from yesterday?
The bell rang for the second spell. I quickly grabbed my things and almost raced out the door before Mr. Gerrison stopped me. The rest of the class piled out of the classroom, racing like rats to their next class. Mrs. Dickenson is on hallway duty today, and if she catches you out in the hallway when you should be in class without a note from a teacher, you’re fucked.
“Rachel, come here for a minute please.” Mr. Gerrison picked up a bunch of paper. “I’ll write you a note for Mrs. Dickenson, don’t worry about it.”
He must have seen the look of impatience on my face, and truth be told it wasn’t Mrs. Dickenson that I was trying avoid bumping into in the hallway. I looked around the room. Gerard had just finished packing his stuff up and was making his way to the front of the room.
“Sure.” I took a deep breath and walked up to Mr. Gerrison and smiled. “What is it?”
“I found this, you might want to have a look at it.” Mr. Gerrison handed me the papers. It was a complete typed biography of Edgar Allan Poe, it was roughly ten pages long. I looked up at him confused.
“Wh.. It’s the biography of Edgar Allan Poe.” I looked back down to the papers and skimmed over them.
“I’m not going to be able to make time for our Poe day for some time,” He smiled down at me. “So I thought you might like to give this a read. It’s got some really interesting information in there. Gerard what is your next class?”
“Uh…” He looked down at a piece of paper, presumably his schedule. “Science. With Mrs. Nesbit. In the Mission foyer. I don’t know where that is?”
“That’s alright, Rachel’s in the same class. She’ll take you there. Wait just a moment while I write a note. If Mrs. Dickenson catches you two without a note you’ll spend the next five lunch times in detention writing her letters about why you shouldn’t have been out of class without reason.” He rolled his eyes and walked over to the desk.
I could feel my heart racing and my cheeks burning up, I could also feel Gerard looking at me. I took a deep breath and looked at him. He stood at about a head taller than me. He was looking at me like he knew me from somewhere. I forced a smile and quickly looked back at Mr. Gerrison. This was going to be the longest walk to Mission foyer, ever.
“Here you go,” Mr. Gerrison handed me the note. “Be as quick as you can. She’ll try to sting you with detention regardless of this letter.”
“Thank you Mr. I’ll see you on Thursday.” I looked at Gerard and nodded my head towards the door, urging him to follow.
“Thank you Mr. Gerrison,” Gerard smiled, and we walked out the door.
“Are you my neighbour?” He asked me as soon as I closed the door behind us. My heart jumped and my chest felt heavy, that feeling you get when something you hoped wouldn’t happen did happen.
“Uh… Yeah I am. You’re the Boy from New Jersey, right?” I asked. I mentally punched myself in the face, he literally just said that in his introduction to the class you fucking moron.
“Yeah, we moved to England nearly two weeks ago.” He replied as we made our way to Mission foyer, of which is on the other side of the school.
“You and your family?” I might as well make conversation, it’s better than awkward silence.
“Yeah, my Mum, Dad and little brother. My Grandmother is at our family home in New Jersey, looking after the house for us.”
“So you’re not here permanently?”
“Just for a year, I think.” He looked at me. “Six months maybe extended if my Dad’s job need him.”
I nodded. We arrived at Science. Thank god.
We walked in and everybody stared at us. I handed the note to Mrs. Nesbit and explained why we were late.
“Awesome!” Mrs. Nesbit exclaimed. “Since you have an empty space next to you, show Gerard where you two will be sitting. Alright kids, this is the New Jersey boy I was telling you about yesterday, everybody say hi, his name is Gerard!”
“Hi Gerard.” Everybody echoed in monotone.
“Hey.” Gerard said quietly.
“I’m going to just go get these photocopied, and then we can get on with the lesson.” Mrs. Nesbit picked up some papers and walked out. The class erupted with conversation.
“Dude, you’re totally wearing a misfits t-shirt.” Frank leaned over his desk.
Gerard’s face broke into smile. “Yeah, I am. You’re a fan?”
“Fucking aye I’m a fan. Welcome to the circle of death!” Frank roared.
“Frank here likes to call our little friend circle the circle of death. Just ignore him. I’m Bob.” Bob held out his hand and shook Gerards.
“And I’m Ray. I’m a pretty big fan of the misfits myself.” Ray introduced himself.
“And I am Bonnie! I am from France, I understand what it’s like to be the new kid in a new country. You’ll be fine with us.” Bonnie smiled.
Gerard seemed to relax a bit more once everyone had introduced themselves. Mrs. Nesbit walked back in.
“The damn photocopier is broken. I’m just going to write this on the board and you will have to copy it down by hand. Not my fault.” She grabbed the whiteboard marker and away she wrote.
“Do you have a spare pen? I left mine at home.” Gerard whispered.
“Sure.” I handed him a pen. He smiled at me.
I started to write the notes down, but I just wanted to talk to this new kid some more. So I grabbed a spare piece of paper and started a note-conversation with Gerard.

Hey, Gerard :)
Hey, neighbour. I didn’t get your name?
Rachel Robinson. What’s your last name?
Way. I’m Gerard Way.
Cool. Hey, I’m sorry if I creeped you out yesterday. You know, the way I was looking over the fence and stuff.
Don’t be sorry. You were curious. I would have said hi if you just stayed but you ran off. Am I that ugly?
Haha! Don’t be silly. You’re not ugly. I just thought it would have been creepy.
I think it was more creepy the way you were there and the next you weren’t. I didn’t even see you go into your house.
Well, now you can see me going into my house today if you walk home with me?
Sounds like a date =P
Looking forward to it. I better get writing these notes.

Gerard looked at me with a cheeky grin. I could feel the butterflies flying around my stomach making me feel sick. There’s no way I like this guy, right? I literally just met him. He’s into music I have never heard before. And his hair is greasy.

Lunch time rolled around and we were all sitting out the front of the school eat lunch, except me, because I never had any. I always played off an excuse saying that I’m watching my weight and I’d rather draw. So I sat there drawing more black shadows.
“That’s really interesting, what are they?” Gerard asked as he sat down next to me looking at my drawings.
“I’m not sure,” I looked at them, analysing their detail. “But sometimes I see them in my dreams.”
“They’re really good.” He smiled at me, and ate his lunch.
School was really boring for the rest of the day. Maths, History and Economics were not my thing. I sat there in Economics looking at the clock. 2:58pm. Just two more minutes to go. The last half hour of school is easily the most painful. You sit there and you glance at the clock and you realise you only have half an hour left, and then what feels like it's been half an hour you look back at the clock and you are deeply saddened to learn it hasn’t even been five minutes.
Finally the clock reached 3.00pm and I raced out to my locker.
“You are in a hurry.” Bonnie said leaning against her locker, filing her nails.
“I just wanna get out of school.” I said piling books and folders into my bag, and leaving the books that I didn’t need to take home behind. I quickly scanned my locker in case there was something I was forgetting.
“You usually take your time before leaving the school. You hate it at your place.” Bonnie responded, this time with a slightly condescending overtone.
“What are you getting at?” I shut my locker and swung my bag over my back and looked at Bonnie.
“Oh, nothing!” She stood up straight pretending to not mean anything. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with this new boy though, would it?”
“Pffft, get real.” I started walking towards the front door.
“It so is!” Bonnie screamed. “You like the New Jersey boy!”
I spun around and got in her face. “Will you keep your fucking voice down! What if he’s nearby?”
“So it is the new boy!” Bonnie was beaming now. I rolled my eyes. “You liiiike him.”
“Okay. Fine. I think he’s attractive. And he seems cool.” I folded my arms.
“Uh huh. That’s all right? You’re not trying to get in his pants or anything, it’s completely innocent!” She started throwing her arms around over-acting it.
“I’m trying to get into no one’s pants.” I scoffed. “Unlike all the other girls in this school, I have moral standards and I plan to keep them. Thank you. I’m leaving.”
I turned around and walked away. As I got to the door I turned around. Bonnie was still standing there, and she had Frank with her. They both waved and smiled at me. I raised my arms and grunted in frustration.
I walked out to the front gate, where Gerard was standing.
“Was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten.” He smiled. He picked up his bag from the ground and put one of the straps on one shoulder.
“Oh, I wouldn’t forget about you.” I went bright red when I realised what I had said. “I mean.. I didn’t mean that like in a creepy way or anything.. I just mean… Well… I don-“
“Rachel,” Gerard held up one hand. “Just stop.” He laughed.
I smiled. “Are you going anywhere before home?”
“Yeah. Yours.” He grinned.
“Oh really?”
“Well you didn’t invite me in for coffee yesterday, so we’re gonna do that today. It’s the American way.”
“Then shouldn’t coffee be at your place?”
“Do you really want my little brother in your face the whole time?” His tone dropped and looked at me sarcastically.
I grinned. “To mine it is.”