FicWad

One.

“Have fun in there, Iero!”
What the FUCK is with the last name thing? Frank thought to himself. Do I matter that much, they took the liberty of remembering my first AND last name? Funny way of showing it.
He sighed and watched as that metal door slammed in his face.

It didn't really bother him anymore. He didn't even wonder what he did in the first place- being new wasn't exactly a reason to be bullied. “Or maybe they just need someone to take the piss out of.” Frank muttered. “God knows why that's a reason to be popular.”
Being a dick to everyone you didn't like the look of? And then getting people to laugh with you like sheep while you make half-assed comments about what someone else is doing and how they should be according to you... Sounded boring to Frank.
Frank's mom had no idea he was having problems. No idea he was here, shoved in a locker (the newest form of entertainment had come up with), and probably would be for the next two classes he had today.

Unless this wasn't just some spare locker.
Maybe it was some student's locker instead, and maybe they'd come to get their stuff between classes- Frank could get out and move on with his life instead of staying stuffed up in here for the rest of the day...
First thing's first, he thought, if I can find anything in here, lunch money, books, whatever random crap people fill up their lockers with, it means they'll come back.
He awkwardly shuffled around a bit in the metal box of doom- thankfully he had a little space to actually move his limbs- and felt around for anything remotely like that.
Nothing. Of course.
And then Frank's foot nudged something, very lightly. There was the tiniest clink, nothing more. He nudged again, the same noise- nothing he could link up to an object. No wait, maybe.. Beads or something?
If this was a girls' locker, he was in trouble. Pretty much every girl in this school seemed to love making up whatever they could, just for attention. Maybe Frank had decided to climb into her locker and shut himself in, just to stalk her and go through her things. She'd kick up some fuss the principal (or whoever she got involved) wouldn't bother to deny, in case it became too much work for them, then he'd be in detention for a week.
Still, that little clink was his last hope of someone finding him.
All he had to do was wait.



~~~

“There's a heavy iron door right ahead of you, it appears to be open just a crack- enough for you to hear a deep voice. Perhaps someone of high authority. He's not speaking in english, instead it's another dialect.. I'll need you guys to roll a Wisdom check for me.” Gerard Way looked up from the DM screen at Matt and James.
Matt sighed, looking down at his die.
“Uh.. That would be a 2.”
James laughed, slapping him on the shoulder and grinning his usual crooked grin, rolling his own.
“Not two minutes back into the game, it's going great guys!”
Gerard giggled, ignoring the distant shh! From the librarian's desk, then looked over at his little brother, Mikey.
The kid had only just joined their D&D game last week, but he'd gotten into it quickly, teaming up with Matt's unenthusiastic dwarf and James' drag queen of an elf by adding his own bloodthirsty vampire to the game Not so different from Gerard's character.. Well, except male.
But Gerard himself preferred to be the Dungeon Master. It meant he couldn't really play the game but there was something awesome about being able to actually make the game for everyone else, even when it meant he was the nerd master too, as James called him.
Gerard always wondered why James was into Dungeons & Dragons in the first place, he was skinny enough, and the puff of scraggly black hair on his head wasn't exactly the greatest 'do, but he was hardly ever insecure. His grades weren't fantastic either, he’d been held back a year, and spent half his time in school taking the piss out of everything he could- including himself. He drank plenty too, as they all did, so maybe he just covered it up by being out of it half the time.. But they'd been friends from the day they met at Belleville High. He was the odd one out, but he had to be Gerard's best friend- on par with Mikey.
Gerard didn't know Matt as well, but he was a good friend to him and Mikey too. He was a bulky guy who liked his beer, with a flat crop of dark brown hair on his head (which he liked to cover up with a cap most of the time). He was also pretty good on the drums, him and Gerard jammed out occasionally in the music rooms and the Ways' basement.
“Gerd, you still with us?” Mikey nudged his arm, pushing his thick-rimmed glasses back onto his nose.
“Don't call me Gerd.” He grinned, then looked down at the DM kit laid out on the table. Awww, pickles...
“Guys, I forgot my dice bag.”
“Seriously, dude?” Matt shook his head. “We took this long to set up everything and you forgot your dice?”
“I didn't realise!” Gerard pouted at him, standing up. “Just give me a sec. We have a full hour left of the game, remember.”
“Alright. But this dwarf's getting hungry.” he patted his stomach, leaning back in his chair. “Don't mind if I step out for some lunch while you're gone.”
Gerard just giggled again. Matt was becoming way too much like his character.


Belleville High. Gerard had spent just under four years walking to and from this school, day after day, hoping he was at least getting somewhere in the long run. It didn't seem so recently- maybe in the the 9th grade he still felt like he was taking something in, starting to understand a bit of algebra, handing in the occasional good English essay, keeping up with all of the kids.
Now he was in the 12th grade, the only thing he excelled in was art- even then, it wasn't as if Ms. Patricks showed any sign of him progressing at all, only criticising about how he didn't do enough research on this artist, or show enough insight into the works of that artist. All the things that Gerard never saw any relevance to art anyway. Why wasn't he allowed to just draw, paint, sculpt what he wanted, instead of being forced to duplicate other artists' work piece-by-piece? It made no sense to him.
So Gerard doodled his way through his other classes. Whenever he did pay attention, it just went through one ear and out the other, no matter how hard he tried. It was bad enough everyone else had heir own cliques, and loved to take the piss out of kids like him. Especially him, in fact.
Ever since 4th grade, when he played Peter Pan in the school musical... All he did was wear a pair of green tights- which were surprisingly not as uncomfortable as Gerard thought they would be- and sing a few songs. He got a huge applause even if the audience WAS mainly parents, but the second he was offstage, it started. The other kids started pushing him -and Mikey, sometimes- around, and in his later years of middle school they'd even taken to calling him Gerard Gay. He thought it would've stopped when he got to ___ High, but it was exactly his luck for almost half of his class to turn up too..
It continued, worse this time since they were a bunch of teenagers, and the fact they realised how nerdy he was becoming didn't really help. Sometimes it got to Gerard, sometimes it didn't. But he had Mikey and a handful of friends, and that was all he needed to keep going for now.

Gerard scratched his head, walking down the corridor. It couldn't be too bad this year. Maybe he could even get a shitty job over the summer this year, practice guitar a little more and find a band that didn't kick him out for not playing well enough... He'd get there eventually.
~

D&D was more interesting than Mikey originally thought. His brother had gone on about it for weeks, on and on about orcs and elves, but it never really looked that fun from outside the game. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ Mikey had said to Gerard after watching his first game, ‘but if there aren’t any lightsabers involved, I’m not interested.’ Of course, that was before he got dragged into the game, and well... he was starting to enjoy it despite his social anxiety.
Then again, it was pretty hard to be awkward around James. He was just one of those people even Mikey couldn’t sit and block out with some Joy Division (which was mainly what he did in large groups of people. And supermarkets, ugh.), or James would start poking fun at him. And James and Gerard in one room? No, Mikey was only ever comfortable around them, and Ray Toro from math class.
He looked over at Gerard now, who looked just as thoughtful as they walked down the corridor. He was his only other sibling, and his best friend. There was no one else who could stay up late talking to him, or having a Star Wars marathon, or discussing their favourite bands for hours- it just wouldn’t be the same without his big (well, shorter, but still older) brother.
“Gerard?”
“Yeah, Mikey?”
“D’you think I should learn bass?”
Gerard stopped. “..What?”
“Never mind.” Mikey looked away. He shouldn’t have brought it up, it was a stupid idea. It was completely out of nowhere too- well, he’d been thinking about it for a while, but still, it wasn’t like he had any kind of musical talent in the first place-
“No, that’d be awesome!” Gerard beamed at Mikey, patting him on the shoulder, “We could practice together, I’m still trying new stuff on my guitar anyway. Need to get better at that...”
Mikey blinked. But.. what if he wasn’t good enough? He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of his brother, and then he would have to buy a bass too. It’d just be a waste if he couldn’t play it properly.. Gerard looked so excited though.
“You think so? I mean, it would take a while for me to even lear-“
“We’ll ask Mom about getting you one, dude.” Gee smiled, eyes bright as he turned to his locker, “Though I think Ray has a bass, you could practice with him before you decide you want one for real.”
Ray had a bass too?
“Man.” Mikey shook his head, fiddling with his headphones, “Ray has everything. Drumkit, guitar, bass...”
Gerard looked thoughtful again as he clicked the numbers of his combination lock into place.
“Yeah.. I don’t think he has that much- Who the hell are you?”
Mikey looked at his brother, who was gaping at his locker. Or rather, who was in his locker.
The guy looked... tired. His dark brown fringe was stuck to his forehead with sweat- he’d obviously been there for at least an hour- and a trickle of blood was coming from his nose. He stared at Gerard and Mikey with browny-green eyes, and his expression didn’t get any brighter.
Wow.. Mikey thought to himself, He has to be short to fit in there..
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, man- I sort of got.. A guy stuffed me in here.”
Gerard was still staring.
The guy scratched his head, obviously wanting to get out, but too awkward to try.
“I, uh.. I didn’t stand on any of your stuff, if that’s-“
“You want a hand?” Gee interrupted. “..Looks a bit cramped.”
“Yeah.”
Mikey and Gerard offered a hand each, and the guy stumbled his way out of the locker, accidently kicking Gerard’s dice bag to the floor.
“Was it Danny?”
“What?”
“Danny. Tall guy, brown hair, prick-like friends?”
“That’s all- most, of the guys I’ve met here so far. And they all look tall to me.” The guy grinned. Mikey was right, he was only about 5’3, if that. He ruffled up his brown hair, and Mikey could see his face clearly now. He was as pale as Gerard- not as pale as Mikey, of course- though he had a slightly darker mark by his right eye, and he had a silver lip ring which somehow really suited him. He looked about as antisocial as their group, headphones poking out of the front of his school shirt and fingerless skeleton gloves that looked tattered. He looked like a pretty cool guy.
“Gerard, by the way.”
“Oh right, yeah.” The guy nodded, “I’m Frank Iero.”
“The new guy?” Gerard grinned.
“It’s been like, two weeks.”
“Complete hell?”
“Yeah.”
They smiled at each other. Frank was definitely one of them.
“This is my brother, Mikey, by the way.” Gerard nudged Mikey, who gave a little wave and instantly regretted it. Must have looked so stupid.
“Nice to meet you guys.” Frank said, awkward again. “Thanks for the locker and stuff- I mean, helping me out of the locker. Uh, your locker. Sorry. I dropped your thing too, that bag?”
The brothers followed his gaze, and Gerard walked over to pick it up.
“Oh yeah, my dice bag! No problem, Danny’s a dick. If he’s the one who did that, anyway.”
When Mikey turned back, Frank was already starting to walk down the corridor hurriedly.
“Well, yeah.. I’ll see you guys around anyway, I’m late for class!”
“Class?” Mikey asked his brother quietly, “Lunch only started about twenty minutes ago...”
Gerard scratched his head, shutting his locker again with a slightly disheartened frown.
“I guess not everyone has to like us, Mikey.”