FicWad

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WARNING: The views of the characters expressed are NOT the same as those of the author's. I am not a homophobe by ANY means, so please do not take Bender's views and homosexual discrimination from me. They are just part of the story and I DO NOT feel the same way.
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Wednesday March 13, 1985
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Brian waited anxiously at his locker for Allison to show up for school. He had a horrible feeling about his birthday supper with his grandparents all night; Allison hadn't called him, and none of the others had heard from her that he knew of. The last time his parents and his grandparents had gotten together it had been a total disaster which left his mother, his sister, and his grandmother in tears. If he could have any wish in the world sometimes it would be that they would just put their differences aside - whatever their true differences really were.

His night at Claire's the previous evening had proved fairly easy. Her parents allowed for her to have as much privacy as she wanted, which made it easy for Brian to avoid them at all costs. They had a maid who made dinner and cleaned up after them, so he didn't have any chores to do either. It was a big difference from what he was used to at his own home, but he kind of liked it. He was never treated as a king, nor did he ever get his own way; Claire's house was like a much welcomed vacation.

He knew that Claire's school life was going to be a much different story, however. Claire was part of student council, the dance committee, the fashion club - social clubs were a lot different than academic clubs. Her friends, for the most part, would also prove difficult. They were shop-a-holics, make-up freaks, and boy crazy; how was he supposed to get along with a group like that? Claire's friends hardly accepted her friendship with him as it was, so it was going to be extremely difficult for him to pose as Claire entirely.

"You got your head in the clouds again?" Allison's smiling face stood in front of him, and instantly he had a million questions.

"Wow, Al, I'm glad that you're here! How did supper go? Were they totally horrible? Did they make you cry? How's my dog?" Brian was cut off by Allison throwing her hands up in the air to stop him.

"Whoa! Hold up...I'm Andy, remember?" 'Allison' looked exasperated.

Brian felt a blush creep up to his cheeks. "Oh yeah...I guess if you really were Allison, then I would still be Brian, and Claire would be the one standing here talking to you...and not me...you know, so then really...I wouldn't have even had any of those questions to begin with!" He took a deep breath and laughed.

Andy only shook his head. "Yep, what you said. I was just going to wait for Allison here myself." He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the row of lockers. "So how are you enjoying life as a girl, Bry?"

Brian's eyes widened at that. "It's absolutely horrifying! I can't dress myself, or look nice, or even go to the bathroom without blushing! I feel like I'm violating Claire just by looking down at my hands! I don't know how the hell those girls live like this...its, just...you know...difficult."

Andy rolled his eyes and laughed. "You're kidding me, right?"

Brian shook his head. "Not at all."

Andy laughed. "Well I think it's the coolest thing in the whole world! Seriously Brian, we have boobs!"

A girl at the locker next to them snorted and walked away, which made Brian shoot Andy a death glare. "Watch what you say! She's going to think we're lesbos!"

Andy closed his eyes and shook his head. "Don't give me those thoughts, Brian, I'm begging you."

Brian scrunched up his face at that, and was ready to retort before he saw his body storming towards his locker. He waved at Allison and smiled. "How're you doing today?"

She took a deep breath. "Where do you want me to start?"

"How about with you throwing me out of Brian's house yesterday!" Andy butt in with a glare.

Allison turned around and punched him in the shoulder. "You got me in trouble with Mary!"

"Mary likes me!" Andy protested.

"She told Mrs. Johnson that we're dating!" Allison exclaimed with Brian's squeaky voice.

Brian pushed Andy back from Allison and stomped his foot angrily. "What did you guys do?!" Andy and Allison were known for doing some pretty weird things together for kicks, so Brian was a little scared to hear the answer.

Allison rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Andy came over and beat me up on your lawn..."

"That is such a lie, you abusive jerk!" Andy cut in.

Allison ignored him and continued. "And Mary caught him straddling me and said she was telling your mom. So Andy called her Grimace and made her giggle and then she decided that she liked him - or me, or whatever - so she told your mom that she wanted us to date and that we like to roll around on top of each other."

Brian's face burned a bright shade of red. "Andy, did you have to even go to my house?"

Andy snorted. "She threw me out before your mom even got home from work."

Allison nodded in agreement. "Yep, she didn't even see him...me...you know."

Andy glared at her. "And she literally shoved me out the door and knocked me down!"

Allison, again, nodded in agreement. "I'm taking advantage of it while I still can."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Guys, I would really appreciate it if you didn't act all...like you guys...when you're with my family. They are really, um, sensitive."

Allison groaned. "You're telling me. You have no idea what I had to go through last night."

Brian instantly remembered the birthday dinner again; his stomach knotted up and he swallowed. "How did it go?"

Allison sighed and gave him an apologetic glance. "Sorry..." Brian bit his lip in disappointment and sighed. Just as Allison got ready to explain herself, Claire approached (looking rather clean for Bender) and joined the group.

"Well first they flipped on me because I couldn't figure out how to tie a tie. I never even dress up, and I tried! They yelled at me as soon as they walked in the door." She looked a little upset by the fact, so Brian didn't have the heart to be angry with her. "Then they got mad at your mom for not raising you right, and then I accidentally let it slip that you want to go to Penn State."

Brian's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "WHAT?!"

Allison bit her lip. "I'd figured that you would've at least told your mom! How was I supposed to know?"

Brian bit his lip. "What did they say?"

"Your grandparents flipped out. Your mom was mad at first, but then we talked about it." She said it rather casually, which came as a surprise to Brian.

"You talked about it? How did that happen?" Brian was pretty confused; he felt like he couldn't tell his mother anything. She was close minded, ignorant to his feelings, and way too intimidating to have that kind of conversation with.

Allison just shrugged her shoulders. "She asked me if I was okay, so I talked to her. It wasn't that bad actually; I expected her to be a total bitch."

"So she's okay with it?" Brian asked incredulously.

Allison shrugged again. "She just said that you'd talk about it when the time comes."

Brian opened his mouth to speak, but the warning bell for class beat him to it. Bender joined the group a few moments later. He looked at Andy - and he looked miserable as hell. "Where the fuck am I supposed to be?"

"What's wrong with you?" Andy asked seriously.

Bender opened his mouth to reply, but then strangely just shook his head. "Never mind. Just give me your schedule so I can figure out where I need to go."

Andy nodded and dug around in Allison's bag for the trusty spiral notebook. He tore a piece of paper out and quickly scrawled down his schedule against Brian's locker. "You have to go to wrestling practice at lunch time."

John face went from irritated to explosive when he looked at Andy's timetable. "You have practice at lunch, health in the morning, and gym in the afternoon? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I need to keep in shape!" Andy defended, and passed the notebook to Claire so that everyone else could exchange courses.

"Oh, this is not going to fuckin' work," John said through gritted teeth. "No fucking way."

An annoyed look passed over Andy's face and he glared at John. "You're not the only one that has to go to classes that they don't enjoy, so shut the hell up. I'm stuck in art class and English. I'm horrible at both!"

Claire passed off her classes to Brian. "Here, I'm sure that you won't have a problem with these." Brian looked the list over and grinned: advanced calculus, literature, Spanish, human anatomy, study hall, and home economics.

"This will be a piece of cake!" Brian exclaimed happily.

Claire laughed as Brian began to write his schedule down for Allison. "Don't worry; I'm just as happy as you are that you're the one doing my homework."

Allison frowned at Brian's schedule. "You're going to hate me after a couple of days, you realize that, right?"

Brian bit his lip; he had already thought about that. "There isn't much that we can do about that is there? Just try your best."

Allison looked a bit surprised at his answer, but shrugged her shoulders nonetheless. "Okay, I will."

Brian nodded and smiled. "Good, so what do you guys say we meet at lunch time?"

Bender snorted before he started walking away. "No can do, I have balls to grab."

Brian regarded the rest of the group, who all gave him a nod. "Well, have fun today guys...I guess."

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Claire entered Shermer High's shop classroom empty-handed and feeling extremely out of place. Strangely, there wasn't a single other girl in the whole room, and there was probably only about fifteen boys in the class total. She hadn't even as much as met the shop teacher before in her four years at the school.

She looked around the room and noticed two boys that John hung out with regularly. One was a thin, blonde haired boy that was always wearing a black denim jacket, and the other was a very tall and muscular African-American boy. She bit her lip and made her way over to their table.

"Hey guys," She smiled at them and sat next to the black boy, who she remembered as Reggie.

The blonde boy, Roger, snorted at her and smacked her arm - hard. "You sleepin' or something?"

Claire's eyebrows furrowed as she rubbed her arm. "What're you talking about?"

He shot her a strange look and motioned to the table in front of her. "You're sitting in Tom's seat. That's his project."

Claire shot up, feeling incredibly stupid; she racked her mind for something macho and stupid to say. "Fuck you; I'm having a shitty morning."

Roger held up his hands in defense. "Don't bite my head off, man! I was just askin' you a question!"

Claire bit her lip and shrugged. "Sorry."

It was Reggie's turn to look exasperated. "Johnny, I think that's the first time I've ever heard that come out of your mouth!"

Claire was beginning to realize very quickly that she made a very shitty Bender. "Fuck off, fag!" She tried using her best bitchy voice; she figured her bitchy attitude combined with her boyfriend's scary face would at least work in her favor. She took the seat next to Roger and sighed. "I don't wanna be here."

Roger nodded in agreement. "Well at least we can work on our projects today."

A larger, bald headed man walked into the classroom and closed the door behind him. "Alright guys, good morning and take your seats please." He set his work folder down on a wooden desk at the front of the shop and rubbed his forehead. "There's been a change of plans today, fellas."

Before he continued, a large skin head boy hurried into the class and shot the teacher a smirk before sitting down in his seat. Claire had seen him before, but had never met him. However, since he sat down in the seat that she had previously been sitting in, she figured that he was Tom. "'Mornin', Sir!"

The older man glared at the chunky boy and sighed. "That's the third day this week, Mr. Stevens; do we need to pencil you in for another Saturday detention?"

Reggie laughed. "You can keep Johnny company!"

Claire said nothing and only stared at the nose ring in Tom's face; it wasn't through his nostril like most nose rings were, instead it was right through the fleshy part between the nostrils - the septum; it was the grossest piercing she had ever seen.

"No, sir!" Tom laughed at the older man.

"Alright then, let's get started, shall we?" The older man opened up his work folder and started sifting through a pile of pages. "We're going to set aside our table projects for the time being and begin work on our final projects..."

"But it's only March!" Claire blurted out in protest; she had never even picked up a hammer in her entire life, there was no way she was going to be responsible for John's final project!

"Are you on your period or something, Mr. Bender?" The teacher glared at her. "My wife doesn't even sound that whiny! You'll do the project now, or you can leave! I don't give a shit, so pick one!"

She bit her lip and slumped in her seat as she noticed the rest of the boys in the class staring at her oddly.

"What I want is a piece of furniture - you can choose what that is - but there has to be certain designs incorporated into it. For example, there has to be a shelf, drawer, or a storage space of some sort within in. I want there to also be two of the twenty-five border designs that we studied. I have a hand-out here that has all of the requirements that you need for this project." He handed a pile of papers to the boy sitting closest to him to pass out. "Are there any questions?"

"I thought we were going to do something fun this year..." Reggie muttered to the rest of the boys at their table.

Roger nodded in agreement. "It's weird considering that we had to do a lamp last year; lamps are way more complicated."

"Well at least we won't have to pay for the fuckin' supplies this time," Reggie shrugged.

Tom grabbed the stack of papers that was coming around and grabbed one for each of them before passing them along. "Holy fuck...he has like a hundred fuckin' things on here that he wants!"

"Mr. Stevens! Detention after school!" The teacher belted out from across the room. "I've told you all on many occasions now that that language will not be tolerated in my classroom."

"What a douche," Reggie laughed at Tom.

Claire took her paper and stared at it glumly; there is no way in hell she would be able to get this done unless John did it for her. She wasn't exactly sure if they were even allowed to do those kinds of projects outside of school or not; for John's sake she hoped that she could. She wouldn't be able to hammer a nail in straight if she wanted to...hell, she wasn't even sure if she knew how to use sandpaper properly.

On top of having a class that she knew nothing about, the weird feeling in her chest wasn't helping her mood any either. Her lungs felt tight and constricting, and she was getting extremely irritated. She knew that John always got bitchy when he needed a cigarette, and she wondered if maybe what she was feeling was a withdrawal. She had bothered John for so long about quitting smoking, and it only now just occurred to her how uncomfortable it was to not have one.

Roger leaned over to her so that the other boys couldn't hear him. "Are you okay? You seem kinda...weird today."

She smiled at his concern. "I think I just need a smoke."

He nodded and laughed; he had a nice smile. "Do you wanna ditch?"

She looked over at the teacher who was reading a newspaper and drinking coffee - with his feet perched on top of the desk. "Sure, how do we get outta here?"

Roger snorted loudly at that, and shook his head as he stood. "You really are out of it this morning, ain't ya?" He motioned for her to follow him. "Let's go, what are ya waiting for?"

Claire looked to the other boys at the table, but they weren't even paying any attention to them. She quickly moved from her seat to the door and followed Roger's lead. She had met Roger quite a few times, and she did like him; he was a lot nicer and polite than all of John's other friends, which she figured was why he was John's best friend. She wondered briefly if he knew anything about this drug dealer guy that she had to go see on Friday; maybe if she was lucky, she could get Roger to come with her.

It would be better than going off on her own.

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Bender stood angrily in the middle of the gym; it was at that time that he should have been getting high, smoking, and eating something...but no! He had to wear a faggy pair of tights and sit in the gym with a bunch of clowns who liked to towel whip each other in the locker room. He had never been more pissed off in his entire life.

He had no idea how Andrew walked around wearing those things; he felt like he had a massive wedgie, and that all the homos around him could see his dick. Not only that, but he had a thing with wearing such a small amount of clothing; he was real used to having scars and bruises to cover him up, so wearing something so - not there - made him feel extremely self conscious.

"Alright listen up, girls!" A short, stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair walked through the gym with a stern look on his face. "I want ten laps around the gym, and then you can all drop and give me fifty. Do your stretch exercises, and then we'll meet up together in the centre of the gym!" He blew his whistle. "Get going!"

John stood and watched as all the other boys in the class began to run. He hated fucking running and he only did it when someone was chasing him (which sadly did happen often). He rolled his eyes and began to run as well. He hadn't taken a phys-ed class since his freshmen year, and that was only because it was mandatory. He couldn't for the life of him remember how to breathe properly, or pace himself, or how to do proper stretches. Physical fitness and bodily heath was something he did not care about at all; a shower and sex was all the body health that he needed to get by.

It surprised him that he wasn't even close to being out of breath by the time his ninth lap came around. Andrew's body felt a lot more stronger and flexible than his own did (which he would still never dare admit to anyone), and the exercise actually felt good. He finished his laps and did his push-ups, which took him only a minute to complete. He thought the wrestling stuff should be a piece of cake.

"Alright guys!" Coach walked towards the centre of the gym and looked each of the wrestlers in the face. "I want all y'all to partner up so that we can start a circuit."

John stood dumbly in the middle of the gym; he didn't like any of the jocks in the gym with him, so he figured that he would wait until someone else picked him. It was only a few moments later before another blonde haired boy punched him in the arm and laughed. "Hey Clark, wanna be my bitch today?"

Bender thought for a second that he should probably punch the kid in the face, but the Coach blowing his whistle - again, for the ten thousandth fucking time - interrupted his thoughts. "Alright, each of you pick a mat and we'll do two minute time limit match-ups. I don't want any pinning; we're just going to work on move-to-move transitions."

The other boy clapped Bender's shoulder and moved over to the mat that was closest to them. The blonde boy, whom he learned was named Jack, took position on one end of the mat. He stood with his knees slightly bent and his arms up; Bender didn't know what else to do, so he just tried to do what he did. It was only after standing in that position for a few seconds that his left knee began to feel extremely agitated from the weight pressure. Bender straightened out his posture just as soon as the Coach blew the whistle. John wasn't even looking up when Jack grabbed him and threw him to the ground, twisted his arm behind his back, and ground his face into the floor.

John grunted loudly and began to thrash around underneath of the other boy. He couldn't for the life of him figure out how he had him all tied up, so he just pulled and pulled until he slipped his arm free. He rolled on the floor until he was on his back, rather then his stomach, and lifted his leg up to kick the other boy off of him.

"Why the fuck are you using your feet, Clark?" Jack yelled angrily.

John just grunted angrily and tried wrapping his arms around the other guy to get him down in a move. He wrapped one arm around Jack's waist, and the other around his leg until the other boy started punching him. "What the fuck?" Bender yelled.

"Why are you grabbing me there, you homo?!"

Anger surged through Bender's body at the accusation and he flew at the other boy with his fists. "You wanna see a homo, you piece of shit?" He pulled his arm back and connected his fist square with Jack's jaw. As soon as the other boy's arms flew to his face and he stumbled back, John pounced on him again, that time tackling him right to the floor.

The wrestling stuff was a piss off; not only did he not know what to do, but the second he tried to do something, some asshole was coming onto him and calling him a flamer. If there was one thing that Bender would not tolerate it would be being called a faggot. He raised his fist back and punched Jack in the nose, and then proceeded to grab him by the hair and push his head into the ground.

"Clark!" Coach blew his whistle and raced up to the two boys. "What on Earth are you doing?!"

A group of wrestlers pulled John off of the fallen jock and pushed him away. The Coach gave him a stern look. "Clark, you get your fruity ass to my office right now." Bender only stood and glared at the older man angrily for his choice of words, but Coach would have none of that. "NOW!"

TBC