FicWad

Claire sifted through her bag and rummaged around for the contents of her lunch. Thankfully, she had decided to leave the fish at home and just stuck with a simple chicken Caesar salad. It was loaded with different greens and vegetables, croutons, sweet chunks of home cooked chicken teriyaki, and small bacon bits. Low in fat, and great in taste.

She smiled to herself as she plucked a fork out of her bag and dug into the salad. She had placed a dressing drenched piece of lettuce into her mouth and glanced over at Andrew. He of course, had packed heavily with a foot long sub loaded with lunch meat and mayonnaise, a sack of chocolate chip cookies, a small bag of ketchup chips, a small sandwich bag full of vegetable sticks, two apples, an orange, and a banana. How he stomached it all was beyond her. If she ever ate that fully her thighs would be bigger than his ego.

She turned around and watched John and Brian, who were still seated next to one another behind her. Brian had pulled out a ratty brown paper bag. Even though his outer appearance had changed, it looked as though his mother's lunch making habits hadn't. He had pulled out a thermos of chicken noodle soup, a bag full of crackers, cheese, and salami, a pudding cup, three cookies, and apple slices in a Tupperware container. John was smirking heavily at him, and had already stolen his crackers and cheese. Brian looked like he could care less.

She turned around fully and glanced across the room to the only student left sitting on the left side. She remembered fondly Allison's lunch escapades, and wondered with a chuckle what she had in store for them today. The dark haired girl had a wild smile on her face - obviously not as upset as she was a few moments earlier - and had three bags settled in front of her. The first had been half way filled with miniature marshmallows, the second with honey teddy grahams, and the third with large purple grapes. She pulled a small sandwich container from her bag and popped open the lid. Inside, there was a thick, chocolate substance - most likely pudding. She then dumped all three bags inside of her pudding, and finally topped it all off with her pixie sticks.

Now, at first meeting Claire was not very fond of Allison. She had thought she was disgusting and dirty, freaky, and a major loser. She dressed funny and had drawn funny pictures, and stole things. She was Claire's opposite - completely - and she had wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.

But then she had sat down and talked to the girl, and gotten to know her a little better. She found out that she was definitely very interesting and free spirited, and for the most part was pretty open minded and kind. Claire had definitely never met anyone like her at all, and for that reason she decided that she liked Allison.

She could tell from early on that she seemed to like Andy, and vice versa. By the end of the day, she realized that if they could try something together, then maybe, just maybe, it could be the same thing with her and John. When she had left Allison in the foreign languages department after making her over, she realized just how cute and beautiful she was under her mask. It was what had given her the strength to do the same thing; to peel off her mask and go show John Bender the real Claire Standish.

Even though things hadn't worked out in the end, she still thanked Allison for that courage, even though she hadn't told her face to face. She was kind of sad that she hadn't hung around with Allison a bit more. She always wondered what it would be like to have that good friend that wasn't in the school's spotlight, someone who had a completely different style and spirit, yet completely understood her from a girl's point of view. She thought Allison would make a good friend like that. It was quite obvious that the girl wouldn't change herself drastically for no one, but Claire still thought they would make an interesting pair.

She sighed softly and turned around to her food; by now, Andy had finished half of his meal, and Brian and John were arguing over their 'shared' lunch.

"I want the fuckin' cheese, dork! Fork it over!" She heard John demand behind her.

Brian held it away from him on the far end of the table. "No way, John! You already ate like half of it and there is no way you are only leaving me with soup to eat!"

John furrowed his eyebrows, obviously annoyed. "Why what's the matter? You got the munchies or somethin'?"

Claire heard Brian distinctly shushing him and wondered why he would be so hush-hush about it if they had all gotten high together. She plucked a crouton into her mouth and began to chew it gently.

"Shut the hell up!"

She heard a scoff. "Don't tell me to shut up dork! First you think you can get away with sayin' you banged my mom, and then ya wanna tell me to shut up? I don't think so!"

"Come on Bender, please?" Brian begged desperately.

Claire turned around in her seat so that the two boys knew that she was listening. John stopped glaring at Brian to look at her. "Havin' problems ignorin' me again, princess?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "No none at all actually. I was more interested in what Brian was doing actually."

This obviously annoyed John, and he turned to Brian. "So you think you can just start hangin' around me and doin' things I do, and it's all gonna work out, dork?"

Claire furrowed her eyebrows, figuring she was getting somewhere. "Oh, so you do hang out with John?"

John looked at Brian smugly, who in turn looked like he was beginning to panic. "Uh, yeah...I mean, no...I just..." Bender looked at him expectantly and Brian just put his head down on the desk.

Claire raised a sculpted eyebrow. "So you do? So why did you guys have no problem being friends afterwards?"

John turned to Claire. "Because he wasn't going to parties and sleeping around with his friend's boyfriends."

Claire's mouth dropped. "Look, I did not write that, my friend..."

But Bender heard none of it. "And sporto plays with asses too much, and crazy, is just...well, crazy. Me and Brian just had some good high times."

Claire's eyebrows furrowed and her words from one year ago came to her ears. 'Why don't you take Brian out to the parking lot to get high, or how about Andy for that matter? What about me?' Suddenly she felt a small pang of jealousy, but shoved it aside. "So it's true then?"

John had a smug grin on his face at his 'friends' sudden awkwardness towards each other. "Sure. Go on, Bry, tell her."

Brian looked at Bender in a defeated stance. Claire thought he looked like a kicked little puppy dog. Brian raked his hands through his hair. "Look Bender please just drop this..."

Andy suddenly turned around as well. "No, don't drop nothing. We want to know what's goin' on."

... ... ...

Brian looked at the group in front of him and suddenly wanted to lash out. He wanted to so badly yell at Andy for caring all of a sudden when he didn't give a shit less before. He wanted to scream at Claire and shake her for butting in in the first place. And most of all, he just wanted to punch John and hurt him for starting him on everything in the first place. He wanted to so badly just wipe that smug grin off of his face.

But he just didn't have the energy to hide his life anymore. "Just shut up John. We're not talking about this."

John's grin fell and was replaced with an angry frown at Brian's choice of words. "Okay dweeb, you wanna play that way?" He stood up from his seat and flipped up his collar. "Let's take a look at Life from Big Bry's house, Part Two: The fuck up."

Brian looked at John in horror, realizing what he was about to do. "John..."

But John heard none of it as he walked towards the statue and stopped to stare at him with a glare. He straightened his posture and folded his arms neatly in front of him. "Son?"

He started and Brian felt like he was going to get sick. He realized that things were going down hill for him in the last few months but never - ever - did he have to talk about this in front of any group of people. Worst of all, these were the people who could see through him.

Bender slumped a bit and messed up his hair, he placed his hand next to his mouth in a lazy manner. "What dad? Just what do you want now?"

Bender straightened up once more, and plastered his face with mock concern. "Son, your ma and I are just so worried about you! Don't you still want to go to Harvard? Follow in your old man's footsteps?"

Bender once again slumped and messed his hair a bit more. Brian felt his eyes prickle every line Bender progressed with. Bender put a scowl on his face. "Oh, I dunno dad...I, uh...spent my whole, you know, life savings at school today, and I uh, you know...failed another elephant lamp, and fucked up, ya know, uh..."

Brian scanned Andy and Claire's faces; both looked as though they were completely trying to decipher John's speech. John, in turn, just kept on going full speed ahead. He straightened up again and pointed an authoritative index finger forward. "Son! Don't curse! Just what is going on here? Do you need help? Are you on drugs?"

He slumped down once again and rubbed the sides of his face. "I'm just so depressed about my miserable life...I have no friends, a 3.8 G.P.A., and a whole locker stashed full of dope because the school jail bird got me stocked up when I met him in detention. None of my friends like me and I think I may just end it all..."

Bender's eyes were laughing, and Brian knew that he should have just kept his mouth shut to him about the whole virgin thing. He felt his lungs tighten and suddenly he felt like he was having a nervous break down.

Bender stood up straight once again. "Well, okay son, as long as it is stashed and the neighborhood folk don't find out; we wouldn't want out perfect little image destroyed by your addiction."

He slumped once more and pretended to sniff his nose hard. "No dad, I'll be a good little closet junkie and get you those test scores you always wanted. Since my savings are gone and all, I'll really have to work for that scholarship now..."

Bender cocked an eyebrow. "Shit, that still looks like a playground compared to my nest."

Brian was breathing raggedly and his eyes quickly raced from Bender, to Claire, to Andrew, and to Allison, and back all around again. They couldn't possibly believe him could they?"

"Oh my god..." Claire muttered.

Yep, they definitely did.

... ... ...

Allison watched John in shock, but really, it all made sense now. Brian had looked like shit when he walked in here, and in all honestly something just didn't seem right about him. He wasn't that same old innocent Brian that they knew; he was almost tainted.

She watched as he sat motionless in his seat, as if he didn't know what to do. Bender hadn't budged - he stood directly beside her to her right - and just stared at him as if he was waiting for a fucking applause.

Claire and Andy just stared at Brian as if they couldn't believe what he said. Andy cleared his throat and dipped his head a bit so that he was eye level with the shrunken Brian. "Is that true?"

Suddenly, he did something that none of them expected; he stood so quickly that his chair flipped over behind him and put both of his hands on either side of his head. "What the fuck do you care, huh? You didn't care when your friend threw my ass in a locker with my fucking underwear over my shoulders. You laughed, you prick! You told me; 'no way' you would never humiliate me again!" His eyes were wide and accusatory. "You didn't fucking care then so don't start now!"

And then he turned to Claire whose eyes were wide with fright and surprise. "And you should have just kept your gossip hound nose out of my fucking business in the first place! All you care about is juicy gossip that you can share with your Barbie doll friends because you have nothing better to do with your pathetic lives!" He slammed his fist down on the table and turned around to face John, with tears streaming down his face.

John still stood his ground and acted as if it didn't bother him at all. Brian scowled. "And you are a fucking loser, you know that? You are just a dumb dope who is going no where in life. You can't stand the pressure on yourself so you just turn around and place it on everyone else. You get a kick out of humiliating people and shitting all over them." John's face hardened a touch and he stepped a step towards Brian, but he continued. "You are gonna grow up to be just like Vernon. Shitting all over and humiliating innocent people who never did anything to you, just because you are so miserable and you hate yourself so much!" He gave him a mock salute in pure rage. "Good afternoon, dick!"

Bender stood there with an angered look on his face, almost looking like a lion ready to pounce on the poor kid. But before Bender got anything in Brian stormed towards Allison; she had no idea what the hell he had in store for her, but she figured in his state it could be anything.

He slammed his hands down on her table and stared her in the eyes. "And what do you have to say about it, huh? You hypocrite!"

Allison was taken back and just let out a small squeak. This seemed to anger Brian more. "What are you gonna say, huh? I should just go see a damn shrink? That I should get help? That I am kind of bizarre? Fucked up?" Her eyes began to pool up with tears as he leaned in closer, his own eyes red and wet from tears. "Well guess what? Your words mean nothing to me...nothing! You were the one that said you wouldn't cut me up! The kind of friends you'd have wouldn't mind...bullshit!" He yelled mockingly at her. He spun around and was met face to face with Andy.

"Don't touch me, prick!" He said. And with that he stormed off towards the door and exited the library.

Andy looked at Allison. "You alright?"

Suddenly forgetting their argument from earlier she nodded slowly. "Yeah, thanks."

Andy scratched his head and turned at the sound of Claire's voice. "You shouldn't have done that John."

John narrowed his eyes dangerously at her. "Why? You had no problem accusing me last time..."

Claire cut him off and rose to her feet. "No! I didn't! I said nothing about your home life and your problems! You went out of line!"

John's nostrils flared in anger and he pointed a finger at her. "That's all you did! You did nothing but remind me how much of a piece of scum I am! You are no better!"

Claire - surprisingly - stood her ground, even daring to step closer. "No, you had no right to do or say that..."

He growled. "Then why did you push and pry, huh? Getting some juicy gossip about someone's home problems your cup of tea?" He stepped forward again until he was inches from her face. "Face it, you are just as much a piece of shit as I am."

Andy stepped forward and pushed him back. "Both of you stop it!"

Claire nodded and stepped back first, her eyes never leaving John's. Allison could tell his words had stung her. Obviously no one liked to have those kind of things said to them. But coming from John to Claire - and vice versa - was a totally different story to the two of them.

Andy looked at both of them. "Look, I don't give a shit what either of you have to say to each other, but I think we should go find Brian."

Claire looked at him. "Not with Vernon out there."

Andy looked to John; he rolled his eyes and sat down. "Fuck him."

Andy took one last desperate glance to Allison. She could tell that he was obviously trying to make it up to Brian for whatever it was that Andy had really done to him last year. But Allison had made up her mind.

"I'll come with you."

Andy nodded and smiled. "Good." He looked back at John and Claire; Claire was staring at the table ahead of her and John just glared at him. Andy cleared his throat, obviously a little unsure at his next course of action. Both he and Allison knew very well that Vernon was just outside the door, but they needed to make sure Brian was okay. Whether it was out of guilt or genuine care they just had to make sure the troubled boy was alright.

Andy began walking towards the door so Allison stood quickly to keep up with him. Just before she reached him he stopped so abruptly she almost crashed into him. He regarded her and then looked at them.

"Don't get into too much trouble while we're gone."

To Be Continued.