Invincible

thirteen

Jared walked into school on a high, almost grinning before he realised how suspicious that would look (Jared’s usual expression was somewhere between a scowl and a smirk, and he wasn’t exactly one to skip along the corridors beaming and humming ‘Walking on Sunshine’). Usually when he was feeling this pleased with himself he’d have a good smug crow at all his friends, but he did still have some pride and confessing to all he’d been up to recently was not high on his to-do list.

     Still. There was Isaac to tell; Isaac who was so fucking dweeby himself that it really didn’t matter what you told him. He was going to be impressed alright. I mean, he’d only lent the book to Jared yesterday and here he was already chatting up the girl with it. Nice work, if I do say so myself.

     Jared was grabbing his folders from his locker when the realisation dawned: he didn’t have English that day. No English. No Isaac. No smug basking in his own brilliance. For fuck’s sake.

     To start he just shook it off (because come on, it was Isaac and he didn’t need to talk to him that badly) but by lunchtime he’d decided Isaac would probably be wanting to know how he’d got on. And well, Jared wouldn’t exactly’ve described himself as a kind person but maybe today was the day for an act of kindness- maybe today he should go and let Isaac know what had been happening. You know, just in case he was wondering. The kid was new and all. He’d probably be too shy to approach someone like Jared and ask.

     (Although even as his imagination offered this up as an excuse Jared had to smother a scoff because whatever else you might call him, Isaac was not shy).

     Ditching his friends at the common room, Jared walked aimlessly through the corridors for a while, wondering where he might find Isaac. Who did the guy hang out with? Did he even have anyone to hang out with? Jared sifted through the boys in the year in an attempt to fit Isaac into a group. Usually the new boys were picked up firstly by the eager community-loving suck-ups, but somehow Jared didn’t think Isaac would’ve stuck around them long. Ugh, this was frustrating. Where the fuck was he.

     He was just about to give up when he caught sight of Isaac standing outside the staffroom, talking to Ellis the head of geography. Of fucking course. The staffroom. A rush of triumph rollercoastered through him and he raised a hand.

    “What’s up Ellis!” he hollered down the corridor. Both Isaac and the teacher’s heads snapped round towards him, Ellis gaping and Isaac with a tickled little smile on his face. It was the sort of smile that made you want to know what he was thinking: amused and private and just the slightest bit sardonic.

    “Spencer,” Ellis greeted him, the distaste clear in his voice. “Will you please not shout in the corridors. And it’s Mr Ellis.”

     Jared shrugged. Ellis turned to Isaac, said something about a staff meeting he’d suddenly remembered, and stalked off.

    “So,” said Isaac when they were alone, “By your radiant glow, I’m assuming the book worked its magic?”

     Jared snorted.

    “Fuck off, Hanly, it wasn’t just the book. I mean, if there was any magic worked this morning it was my magic.”

     And he grinned, then, because he’d been holding it in all day and after all- it was only Isaac.