"Barakat!" the obvious bully yelled, startling the lanky boy, "Come here!"

"Leave me alone Zack..." the other boy, Barakat, mumbled, "I don't understand what your problem is..."

"Obviously you!" Zack snapped, getting in his face, "I wish you'd just disappear from my sight!"

"If you wish," Barakat muttered, before walking away from Zack.

"Hey I wasn't done with you yet!" Zack yelled.

"Well I'm done with you," Barakat said, continuing to walk away, causing me to chuckle quietly.

Zack must've heard me though, because his head snapped in my direction, "What are you laughing at kid?!" he snapped.

"No- Nothing," I stuttered quietly, looking anywhere but at his scary face.

"Good! Keep it that way!" he yelled before storming off in a random direction.

I inwardly sighed in relief, I hate confrontation, but I guess most sane people do... Even if that is the only sane thing about me...

I did a double take to make sure Zack wasn't coming back before continuing to walk to school. It was a warm morning, I almost wished that I could've worn a short sleeved shirt, but I don't want to be labeled 'emo' yet. It would happen, someone would find out and tell the school. I would be alienated even more, I'd get bullied even more, it's a vicious little cycle. But hey, it's a vicious little world.

By the time I made it to campus, there was a thin layer of sweat under my beanie. Wonderful. I wandered around for a few minutes until I found the building labeled 'Main Office.' I took a deep breath before walking in. I was met by the sound of typing, the smell of printer ink and the cool rush of air conditioner.

"How can I help you hun?" a middle aged, blonde secretary asked me.

"Um- It's my first day here and I need to pick up my schedule," I said, "My name's Alex Gaskarth."

"Of course just a moment!" she said, with an overly large smile on her face, "Someone from your classes will be here momentarily to show you around today."

I nodded and gave her a small smile as I took my schedule. This is exactly what I need, someone forced to spend time with me. They'd obviously hate me if they even bothered to talk to me, I mean no one's ever actually liked me.

The door opened and in walked an average height boy with a brown crew cut. He walked to the front desk and gave the secretary a dazzling smile. Looks wise, he was pretty ok, I'd say about a 6. But what stood out the most to me was his shirt, New Found Glory, a very good choice if I do say so.

"Rian," the secretary said addressing said boy, "This is Alex, he's new and in all of your classes. Would you be a dear and show him around today?"

"Of course Mrs. Martz," Rian said, nodding at her with another smile.

"Thank you so much hun!" she exclaimed happily, "Have a great day!"

Rian nodded before turning his attention to me, "Hey man," he said, giving me a small wave and friendly smile, "I'm Rian Dawson."

"Alex Gaskarth," I responded quietly, "I like your shirt."

He glanced down at his shirt, before chuckling and saying, "They're pretty good right?"

"Yeah," I said quietly, giving him a small smile, trying to act as normal as possible.

"We should probably get going," he said, glancing at the clock in the wall, "I have to head to my locker before we go to homeroom and you probably want to find yours."

I nodded and followed him out the door.

As we walked Rian explained that this school was made up of four major buildings, a math and science building, a history and english building, an arts building and a student building. We were headed to the student building now, for it held the gym, cafeteria and lockers.

Once we were at Rian's locker I looked around a bit at the slowly filling hall. I noticed the skunk haired boy with the weird name from earlier.

"Hey Jack!" Rian called, looking in skunk haired boys direction, "Come here and meet Alex!"

Notes

Hey guys and dolls! xMarebear14x here, reporting for updating duty! So bla bla bla new story stuff that you don't care about. ;)

Title cred: All Time Low- Outlines

~Mary