FicWad

Five.

(Again, sorry about the delay! I’ve been catching up on Doctor Who, modding my Sims 2 game, and sorting out a few problems with my DS. Also, had quite a bad case of Writer’s Block, but hopefully I’m over it now. :3 Anyway, let’s see how this chapter goes~)

“Happy birthday!”
Gerard froze. Birthday?
Katrina ran up to Amber, who looked just as surprised, and hugged her.
No.. Gerard thought to himself, it was the day before Halloween, surely he hadn’t forgotten Amber’s birthday...
“It’s not my birthday...”
“I know,” Katrina grinned as she opened her black messenger bag, pulling out what appeared to be a enveloped card, “But, you don’t remember what I said I’d get you?”
Amber looked at Gerard, who shrugged. He was just as clueless, but relieved too. He knew Amber’s birthday had been over two months ago now, with the vague memory of a good day at the park. Their park.
That was one of the things he always loved, the fact that –unlike most people- they would rather get a day’s worth of snacks from a store and hang around in a park like three misplaced teenagers than go out somewhere ‘fun’. Even their snacks weren’t normal- boxes of cereal, canned spaghetti, endless lollipops...
Katrina’s face fell.
“You seriously don’t remember?”
“Nope.”
“Really...? Even you, Gee?”
He scrunched up his nose, thinking back two months ago. Katrina hadn’t said anything significant, only that she wanted to see a gig with the two of them...
“Uhmm... I remember your card, it’s still up on my wall...” Amber trailed off, thoughtful. “It’s still awesome, by the way...”
Katrina sighed, and then the smile came back.
“Well, you’re gonna love it, both of you. Here.”
She held out the envelope, which Gerard noticed was more official-looking than he’d realised. Was there an address on it?
Amber took it warily, and carefully started to peel it open bit-by-bit.
“Dude, just open it!” Kat laughed, but Amber shook her head.
“What if I rip.. whatever this is?”
“You won’t, just-”
Katrina paused as Amber stared at the tickets in her hand for a moment, and Gerard peered over her shoulder.
“Mindless... What?”
“Consider it a joint-birthday present,” Kat said proudly, “Since I didn’t know you well enough in April, Gee. We’re going to see MSI tomorrow!”
Gerard looked at Amber, and Amber looked at Gerard. He hadn’t heard of this band at all, and from the looks of it, neither had she. But from the way Katrina was acting...
“Who are they, exactly?”
“Guys!” She threw her arms up, frustrated. Gerard was wary, she was getting a bit heated. “Does it matter? They’re only a small band playing in a bar, it was the cheapest I could get since I’m paying for all of us. I thought we could check them out, as a first gig together!”
Amber frowned. “Shouldn’t we kind of listen to them a bit first?”
“They only have like six songs out-”
“Then why..?”
“Because gigs!” Kat exploded, arms flailing again.
“I know that, and you’re awesome for buying tickets! But it’s a bit-”
“What’s wrong with Mindless Self In-”
Suddenly Gerard went over to the excited Katrina and hugged her tightly.
“Shhh, Kat.”
She went still.
He looked at her carefully, giving her a smile. “It’s a great idea, thanks for the ticket.”
“Oh.. That’s fine... ”
“I’m gonna go to class now, okay?”
“O...kay.”
“You’re not gonna attack Amber, are you?”
“No..”
“Good Katty.” He grinned and patted her head. And then, he left the two girls standing there, feeling a bit better as he started down the hall and away from the cafeteria.
“You should be a dog trainer!” Amber shouted after him, and he just giggled to himself.
~
It was Halloween, and Ray was sat in English, trying to take notes. They were supposedly studying a series of plays, (this week, Othello)- and it wasn’t as if Ray was such a huge Shakespeare fan (he much preferred to watch the plays themselves instead of reading through pages of dialogue) but the teacher’s drawl was degrading. It was almost as if he’d given up on even teaching the class of rowdy students, flicking pens at each other and talking about who cheated on who, or who should be on the school athletics team, and instead just strung together intelligent-sounding sentences to drone at them.
Ray didn’t even have Mikey, who was in a separate class since English was mandatory and there were just too many students of each set to fit into one room.
In fact, the only friendly face was Frank, slumped in his seat behind Ray, scrawling all over his notepad- and Ray still wasn’t sure what footing they were on. After all, being friends with Gerard might not have put him in Frank’s good books since the incident... Still, it’d be nice to have someone to talk to.
The drone stopped suddenly, and the class quietened down a little.
“I have your marked essays on from last week. Most of you did at least average- Rob, I didn’t really appreciate your wording on how Romeo ‘banged’ Juliet, especially when it was irrelevant to the question. That said, you may want to invest in a thesaurus-”
The teacher paused as the class laughed and Rob raised his arms- Ray supposed if he had to be proud of something, it was being illiterate...
“-I’ll be bringing them round so you can all take a good look at your feedback.”
Ray heard Frank slump even further behind him.
Ray wasn’t expecting much either- he didn’t consider himself bad at English, he just preferred film adaptations to books. Sometimes, the scene just wasn’t set well enough for him to imagine it- whereas graphics would just plainly say it. Maybe he didn’t have a good enough imagination.
Though, he supposed, plays were his strength in english- he was studying film and media as it was, borrowing Ed’s old camera for whatever practical work he needed to do. The class wasn’t the easiest to keep up with when he didn’t have a computer of his own, but he clung to the grade boundaries by staying late at the library to get as much done as he could. Writing scripts was the boring part, to Ray, but he had a couple of storylines going for his final project- like the man and the eggs-
“Toro,” Ray looked up to see the teacher handing his paper back unceremoniously, and then moving on to Frank.
On the front of his paper in a big red circle was ‘B+. Good knowledge of stage directions and other dramatic devices, work on understanding Shakespeare’s way of writing.’
“Iero,” The teacher again, “Happy birthday.”
Happy birthday?
“Uh, thanks.” Frank didn’t sound like it was his birthday.
Then again, he never seemed happy about much at all... Ray felt bad as the teacher walked away. In his family, birthdays were always a big celebration- n parties or anything, since the house was so small and they couldn’t afford a feast, but none of the Toros were ever miserable for the day.
But Frank looked completely unchanged as ever. Possibly worse, he looked a bit more alone that usual...
“Happy birthday.” Ray said, turning to him.
Frank looked surprised- Ray supposed there was a difference between teacher and student here- and then gave him a small smile.
“...Thanks.”
“Uh...” Now what? “Pretty cool day to turn 17 then?”
Frank smiled properly this time, fiddling with his pen.
“Doesn’t feel like it, really.”
“Dude, it’s Halloween.” Ray pointed out, “You can’t get a cooler birthday.”
Frank laughed. Did this mean Ray wasn’t taboo to him? Frank was still quiet and obviously not used to the attention- he was pulling at a few stray threads in his skeleton gloves now- but his face was that little bit more.. alive.
“So... How’d you do?”
“Huh?”
Ray pointed to his essay.
“Oh, C. I can’t understand damn Shakespearean, even with a translation.”
“Ah..” Ray felt uncomfortable.
“You?”
“Um, B+.”
“Oh.”
“I do film, I had a head start.” Ray said quickly, and Frank waved him away.
“It’s fine, you look like a brainiac anyway.”
Ray blinked.
“That fro.” Frank smiled again.
Oh. Ray smiled back, wondering how Gerard wasn’t already friends with Frank. He didn’t seem the kind of guy to just push someone away, but then again, that was exactly like antisocial kids.
One second, they were the most welcoming people, then the next, they started hating themselves and alienating everyone around them... Did Frank even have anyone to talk to?
“I’m Ray, by the way.”
“Frank Iero.” Like he needed the introduction, Ray thought to himself, he was the unfitting king of drama right now. But for now, there didn’t seem to be any drama, just a normal.. nice conversation.
“So, no trick or treating tonight?”
“Never gone.”
Ray stared. He’d always gone, with his brothers, of course. Then again, Frank was probably an only child, from how he acted.
“Not even as a kid?”
“Not once” Frank shrugged.
Ray wasn’t nearly as antisocial as Frank, but he still didn’t believe what he said next.
“Well. You busy tonight?”

~

“All my yes!”Jimmy grinned, and Ray looked delighted for a second, “...But I’m busy.”
“Oh come on... Gerard?”
Gerard shook his head, looking disappointed in himself.
“Going out with some friends, can’t cancel at all.”
“...Other friends?” Everyone turned to stare at Gerard, who looked like a deer caught in headlights. Gerard had never spoken of having friends outside of the group... Not even to Mikey, who was equally as confused as everyone else.
“Well... Yeah.. Am I not allowed other friends?” he shrugged a little, still looking uncomfortable.
“Well, yeah,” Matt scratched his head, “But... You never... Who are they?”
“No one special.” Gerard said defensively, but Mikey knew that look. It was the look his brother always wore when he was trying to avoid being judged. He was hiding something...
“That’s just plain suspicious, Gee.” Ray accused, desperation to recruit trick-or-treaters apparently forgotten. “Who else do you hang out with?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“I bet it’s a girl.” Jimmy grinned, putting an arm around Gerard, “Look, if you’re gonna fuck tonight, it’s all you need t-”
“No!” Gerard wailed, waving his arms a bit, “Well, it’s just a couple of girls from French-”
“Aha!” Matt shook his head, “You dirty stop-out.”
“Wow, Gerard...” Mikey raised his eyebrows, “Two of them?”
“Hey, hey,” Jimmy held up a hand,” There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Guys, it’s not like that!”
“You could just bring them, y’know. Unless you’re busy, well, with whatever.” Ray suggested, ignoring Gerard’s protest.
“Don’t be a cockblocker, Ray,” Jimmy grinned, “Let him get his game on.”
“THEY’RE JUST FRIENDS, AND WE’RE GOING TO A BAR, OKAY?!” Gerard shouted, silencing everyone. “Just friends...”
Mikey smiled inwardly. Gerard never knew when to take a joke- when it was on him, anyway. Still, he had noticed when his brother missed a couple of lunchtimes with the guys and disappeared instead, with these ‘other friends’.
Gerard exhaled, obviously glad to be done with the topic.
“So, what’s your pimp name, Gee?” Mikey asked.
“I hate you all.”

For the first time in his life, Mikey felt... cool. As he, Ray, Matt and Frank walked down the street, he caught sight of himself in the windows of the houses they passed and admired Gerard’s work.
White face makeup, red- but only the right shade of red- on his lips and dark grey circles around his eyes, hair slicked back, a traditional cape (well, trenchcoat with a high collar, but it worked just as well), and traditional Victorian attire underneath (a waistcoat, shirt and trousers borrowed from his dad, actually). Mikey had had compliments all night for his scarily accurate vampire costume, all thanks to his brother. Ray and Matt had copped out for zombie costumes at the last minute- the least creative of all the costumes- and shredded some of their old clothes, borrowed Gerard’s eyeliner to draw a couple of scratches and stitches on themselves, and got a bit of help from Ed with the general ‘dead look’ and fake blood. Of course, Ray had the advantage of having ‘rubbish’ strewn across his fro, but they both paled in comparison to other costumes.
Frank, however, had opted for a full skeleton costume. Which wasn’t amazingly creative, seeing as he just threw on his skeleton onesie which gave the perfect illusion in the dark, but the most striking this was his face. Apparently his mother had insisted on helping, and had a way with full-face painting, and after a good half an hour, Frank’s face was a quite convincing skull. With hair.
He’d been quite amicable tonight, Mikey had noticed. Maybe because, for the first time, he had quite a bit of company and fit in with the rest of the neighbourhood. He’d seemed to warm up to everyone, Ray especially, but Mikey didn’t really know what things would be like if Gerard was here- the incident hadn’t been mentioned at all. The only hint of it was the seemingly apologetic nod Frank had given Mikey upon arrival, and otherwise they had had a couple of normal conversations, even joked around and stole each others’ candy.
Speaking of candy, Mikey had also noticed they had considerably less than passing kids seemed to have.
“Probably something to do with the fact we seem like thieving 17 year olds.” Frank pointed out, shaking his almost-empty paper bag.
“Or the fact Matt’s dragging us down...” Ray muttered.
“Hey!”
“It’s true.”
“Look, I’d rather knock on someone’s door and get a nice cold beer, alright?” Matt poked at one of his arm ‘stitches’ in disdain, “This is degrading.”
“I’m having fun.” Frank smiled, lollipop in his mouth. Mikey had to smile too, it was odd for anyone to be as quiet as Mikey was, but Frank was at least opening up slowly...
The group headed up to yet another door, and Ray knocked. The door swung open to reveal an middle-aged balding guy.
“Yeah?”
“Trick or treat..?” Ray was bad at this.
The guy thrust a plastic bowl of candy towards them, filled with biscuits for some reason.
“Ain’t you a bit too old?” He asked, then shook his head. “One each.”
One by one, they all gingerly took a biscuit and uttered a wary ‘thanks’.
“You, little girl,” The guy jabbed his finger at Frank, “Good costume.”
“Uh, I’m-”
Then he slammed the door shut.
There was silence, and then Matt sniggered a bit.
Ray nudged him. “Shush.”
“Nah, I think he’s a cute little girl too.” Matt said, ruffling Frank’s hair.
“Hey!”
Mikey laughed, and they started down the path again.
“What a weird guy. Still, I wish Jimmy was here.” Ray grinned. “I hate the whole answering the door part.”
“That lanky guy with the hair, right?” Frank asked, as they turned the street corner, “I’ve seen him around school..”
“Yeah, he hangs around with us.” Ray shrugged, “He’s a bit..”
“Insane.” Mikey finished, with a smile.
“Oh, right.” Frank chewed on his lollipop stick nervously.
“He’s fine, you just have to get used to him,” Matt patted Frank’s barely visible shoulder, “He would’ve probably dressed up as a gay fairy and scared everyone away.”
Everyone laughed.
“I wonder what he’s busy with..” Ray sighed.
“Probably a party or something, he probably won’t show up for school tomorrow.” Mikey shrugged. “I’m just surprised Gee didn’t say he was busy sooner.”
“He didn't want us to make a move on his girlfriends.” Matt said, pulling a toffee out of his bag and unwrapping it, “Sneaky fucker.”
“Like they’d go for any of us. I doubt he actually has a girlfriend, he would’ve told me.”
“Aha. He hasn’t got a girlfriend yet.” Matt waved a finger, tossing the candy into his mouth, “You watch, he’s too pretty for his own good.”