Three Cheers for Sweethearts [Frerard AU]

PART I: Chapter 6

                  

CHAPTER 6 – THIS CLASS IS A CURSE

I didn't stop at my locker. Who cares if I get a zero in participation for the day? That was better than lingering out in the open a second longer than I necessarily needed to be. I went straight to History.

I'd be lying if I told you that everything Hunter said to me (or about me) all the time wasn't irritating. Generally, I could brush it off and forget about whatever it was within ten minutes (or even if I couldn't, I'd always been good at acting like I could). But something about this specific argument was different. The way he was talking to Frank... I sort of considered Frank to be my friend, new as he was to my life. And I'd always put my friends before myself.

I felt like I was being followed, and when I turned a corner, my peripheral vision confirmed that I was. Being followed. By Frank.

Couldn't he tell I was looking for some alone time? Maybe he was in my class, and I just hadn't noticed yesterday. Of course. Not only was Hunter in my US History class as he had been all year, but now Frank was, too? Could the setup for the next hour have been any more threatening than it already was?

Sure enough, I entered the room and Frank was right on my tail. I chose the seat back and center. Frank clearly felt just as uncomfortable as me (thank goodness, otherwise I might have had to struggle through attempting to make conversation) so he didn't sit right next to me. He sat front and center.

Nerd. No one else ever sat in that seat. It would be weird to start seeing someone there all the time.

We didn't sit in silence for long. The rest of the class filled in the empty seats, and the bell rang just as Hunter walked in. The teacher gave him a glare as he sat down without a word in the same seat I had yesterday - the one by the door.

Maybe the sense of impending doom was lifting, or maybe I just really, really wanted it to. But either way, I relaxed. Somehow. I wasn't going to try to figure out how, lest it went away and I started panicking. That hadn't happened in a while and I wasn't about to lose control over my mind for the first time in years.

The teacher popped in a movie about the American Revolution (or maybe it was the Civil War... basically the same thing, right?) and turned off the lights so we could see the board well. I leaned my back against the wall and let my mind wander.

That wasn't a good choice, because it wandered back about twenty minutes, right after lunch.

How did rumors like that even start? Had someone seen me showing Frank where his stupid second period class was yesterday and assumed that meant we were in love? Had our hands accidentally touched, and everyone else noticed but Frank and me? Was showing the new kid around considered flirting?

Can't anyone just be nice without being teased anymore?

Frank hadn't even been here a full week yet. He still had plenty of time to make friends, maybe meet a girl, become über popular, and in turn, be able to talk down Hunter. Maybe even with a little gang of his own to back him up.

But on the other hand, he had the same amount of time to make friends with people like me, Ray, and Mikey, then get into the same kind of things we did every day. That one was more likely, considering the way things had been going lately. He'd definitely made friends with the wrong crowd if he was looking for a tolerable social life.

I didn't know why I was even worrying about Frank's social life. Or mine, for that matter. But in high school, that's really the peak of how interesting your life gets. There are the classes, which are horribly dull or insanely stressful with no in-between. You get the good teachers or the bad teachers. Yes or no. Right or wrong. But friends came and went, had rankings from acquaintance to best friend. The relativity, the unpredictability, that's the most applicable-to-life thing you get to learn, and you have to (get to?) learn it yourself, without a teacher telling you what you're missing.

I let my mind linger on these thoughts for a second, let it run laps around and around them. I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds coming from the movie through the bits of static, when suddenly someone nudged me.

I popped open my eyes to see the teacher glaring down at me. Ha. She probably thought I was trying to fall asleep; she never did trust me. I rolled my eyes and sat up straight. As she was still watching me, I picked up my pencil. This appeased her (oddly enough, because I didn't have any paper to write on) and she walked back to her desk. I put the pencil down.

Out of sheer curiosity, I craned my neck to check out what Frank and Hunter were doing.

Frank, taking full advantage of his front and center seat, was sitting up perfectly straight, taking vigorous notes, and only when I saw him scribbling so furiously did I realize that the scratching sounds weren't coming from the static in the speakers. Really, how nerdy do you get?

Hunter was passed out on his desk.

Of course, the teacher didn't notice him. Maybe he did this every day, so she was used to it and had given up trying to make him pay attention. Or maybe he was so dead asleep that she didn't think she could possibly wake him up. Maybe she thought he actually was dead.

I smirked, and turned my head again to stare blankly at the movie playing on the board. I let my mind wander aimlessly again, but this time, I kept it on a tight leash. No more thinking about people.

***

The movie ended five minutes before class was over, which of course meant to everyone that the lesson was done and it was a-okay to talk and prepare for next period, despite the teacher's efforts to make us all discuss what we just watched (or were supposed to be watching).

Ignoring her, we all left our seats and crowded by the door. There we were. The period went by without any trouble!

"Fraaaank..."

I spoke too soon.

Frank was still gathering his papers and notes and stuffing them into his bag, so apparently Hunter had decided it was his golden opportunity. "Notes? Really?"

Frank shrugged casually, and didn't look up. "It's good to get good grades."

"Nerd!" Hunter howled.

Suddenly, calling Frank a nerd in my head wasn't so funny anymore.

Frank stood up and flung his bag over his shoulder, starting to head toward the crowd at the door, but Hunter wasn't having it.

I didn't want to get involved, especially not after what had happened after lunch. Honestly, the last thing I needed was Hunter bothering me, too. Better just one of us be hassled than both. Right?

"Nerd," Hunter taunted again. He pushed Frank's shoulder with his fingertips. Not hard, but forcefully enough to make Frank have to step backward. "Dork. Geek. Know-it-all. Teacher's pet. Freak." With each syllable, Hunter pushed him again and again until Frank tripped backwards and stumbled into a few people. Frank opened his mouth to respond, but he couldn't come up with something to say fast enough. Sassing the science teacher one time was nothing like word-battling Hunter.

"Hunter, be nice," the teacher said vaguely while still looking at her computer. I could practically hear in her mind her thoughts on the matter: By speaking up but not taking any action, she wouldn't have to get involved, and if and when he got reported, she couldn't say she didn't try to stop him. You gotta love good teachers like her. Note the sarcasm.

Frank muttered apologies to the group of people he had stumbled into, but none of them seemed to care. They really only crinkled their noses and looked at him like he was some disgusting bug they found on the floor. Frank got up and kept his head down as he got away from Hunter and the crowd he ran into. There was only one place in the room where he could get away from both.

This, of course, was where I happened to be standing.

I pretended not to notice, pretended I was looking at the posters on the wall the whole time, but Hunter jumped on the opportunity. "Suuuuure, go to your boyfriend, he'll protect, you, am I right? Chicken! Coward! Dumbass!"

"Language!" the teacher called over the bell. Frank was the first one out of that room, and Hunter shoved past me to be second. The rest of the class, I don't think, even noticed anything.