FicWad

Patrick silently emptied the contents of his messenger bag into his locker, keeping only the books he would need to complete his homework for the evening. He shut his locker and made his way towards the chem lab, and joined a rather geeky group of boys sitting around a bubbling flask of green liquid. He tossed his messenger bag into an empty seat and shoved his right hand into his front pocket, and kept his left hanging down by his side, still unable to move it much. A short lanky man walked out from the closet in the far corner of the room carrying a small tray of petite vials, each filled with a white powder. He looked up through thickened glasses and smiled, his braces matching his bowtie.

"Hello, Patrick, nice of you to join us this afternoon. Everyone, this is Patrick."

"Hello, Patrick," they all said in unison, giving Patrick a cheeky smile and a vigorously friendly, yet overly nerdy, wave.

"Hi." Patrick flicked his right hand into a wave and smiled back. He remained shy despite his years of experience being the new kid in school.

"Well, Mr. Hurley dropped in earlier today to say that he would be unable to attend today's meeting of the Chemistry Club, oh I love that alliteration, so it appears that everyone is here. Now let's get started. Today, I thought we would discuss distinguishing factors in determining differnt substances when we unfortunatly find them unlabled." He paused to point to the complilation of white powders he had been carrying with him. "Can anyone tell-"

Patrick found himself lingering on the edge of the professor's unfinished sentence before he noticed why he had suddenly stopped speaking. He glanced over his shoulder to see a plain looking girl walk into the room. Patrick looked through his newly intact lenses and watched as the girl reached into her messenger bag and pulled out three cds.

"Aw, Miss Mitchell, thank you so much for doing this, it is greatly appreciated."

"Sure, Mr. J., but I'm not here at a bad time, am I?"

"No, no, of course not. I was just getting started with the Chemistry Club, oh I love that alliteration, so we will be over by the lab tables the whole time. You will have free reign over the computers here."

"Cool. I should have them scanned and virus free in about an hour or so, if that's not too long. I can come back tomorrow if you can't stay that late."

"An hour is perfect. Do what you can today, and if I do have to leave before you finish, then please, by all means, come back tomorrow and finish."

Patrick couldn't help but let a faint smile cross his face as he watched a small giggle escape from her lips. He willingly returned his attention, however, back to the professor as he continued the discussion he had intended for the group of young chemists. He watched as his teacher sprinkled small amounts of the powders over a row of beakers filled to the brim of boiling water, and clumsily smiled with the rest, as a beautiful array of colors emerged from each one. As the extracarricular lesson came to a close, Patrick made his way across the room and slung the strap of his bag over his shoulder, accidentlly hitting his broken wrist as he did. He inadvertantly let out a short, but stifflied cry of pain.

Her head shot up, her eyes found and focused on the new kid. She knew who he was, and suddenly found her throat filled with the overwhelming feeling of her stomach. She clicked the mouse signifying the completion of her scan, and moved to flip in the last of the cds she had brought with her, before standing to approach him. But as she looked over the top of her glasses, he had vanished, and she sank back down into her seat, her heart sinking with her. She quickly exchanged words with the chemistry professor and they agreed on a time which she could return the following day to finish the work she had begun on his computers. She walked briskly down the empty hallway and made her way towards the back entrance of the school, figuring that she would have to chance talking with the boy some other time. As she reached for the key to her bicycle lock, she opened the door without looking up, and stumbled over a shattered mess of broken parts, looking to belong to a small digital device. She began to fall towards the ground, closing her eyes ready to hit the pavement.

"Woah, got you." Patrick sat back on his knees, dropping the pieces of his Nintendo DS and filling his hands instead with the girl from the lab. She landed hard on his wrist and it gave way from underneath her, nearly dropping her to the ground, as fate may have intended. He looked down on her, biting his lip to stop himself from shouting in immense pain.

"Oh god, thanks."

"No problem, but, um-"

"Oh god, let me get off of you."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Are you alright, I didn't hurt you did I?" She watched as he clutched his wrist close to him and held it gingerly in his hand.

"Nope, unfortuantly looks like I'll live another day, although I think I may have to have a funeral service for my DS."

"I'll say. Looks like it had a fight with a wood chopper and the chopper won."

Patrick laughed to himself at her dated and lame joke, although he liked her appreciation for nostalgic humor. He looked back down at his broken gadget and began to gather the pieces once more, noticing another pair of hands reaching for the tiny parts.

"Looks like most of the crucial parts are still intact, although the shell is demolished and the screen is pretty well destroyed. I have an extra casing at home I could let you have. I'll just put in your memory card and that way you'll have all your scores still saved and stuff. I mean, if you want?"

Patrick stared at her blankly with every intent to answer her with a joyful acceptance to her extremely generous offer, when he heard the rustling of footsteps creep up behind him.

"What the fuck are you doin, Lardo?" His cousin's breath rattled beside him, burning his tone onto his ear. Patrick stood still as Pete made his way around to face him, placing himself between him and the girl. "I have a hot freaking date with the residental sex-kitten and I can't have you fucking it up by actually letting you be seen with me. So get your fat fucking ass to the car, or your face will end up like your little toy here, in a million fucking pieces." Patrick watched as Pete finally realized that there was another person standing with them. He watched as his cousin glanced over his shoulder to behold the plain girl staring at him. Pete snarled and returned his eyes to Patrick with a heated glaze. "Now."

She allowed a generous distance to formulate between Pete and the pair of them still standing by the doorway.

"Your Wentz's cousin, aren't you? He did this to your DS?"

Patrick didn't say anything, he couldn't. His mouth shut with fear at the thought of what his cousin might do if he told this stranger the truth. He could feel Pete's eyes leering into his back and made to turn towards the car he was instructed to get in.

"You're not the first one he's ever hurt."

Patrick's glance shot straight ahead, eyes torn from the ground, heart sinking nearly to it. He peered over his shoulder, then back at his cousin, seated angrily in his car. He moved onward, trying his best to make it obvious that he hadn't heard her statement. He reached for the handle of the car door before he heard her speak again.

"Trust me, I know."