Alex had just finished unpacking all of his clothes, and was now examining the school uniform he was expected to wear during class hours. "How do you survive in this thing?" he asked Jack, not looking away from the white, button-up dress shirt, black neck tie, and pleated black formal pants.

"I don't know," Jack sighed, looking down at the stack of uniforms he had laid out in front of him, "I'm just grateful they don't make us wear the goddamn jacket in the hot months. I think that would actually be classified as child cruelty."

Alex nodded, and then turned to look at Jack, leaning against the set of drawers he was standing next to. "So," he began, "Do you have any other friends here? I'm just wondering why you've been choosing to hang out with the new kid all day."

"Yeah, I guess," Jack shrugged, looking towards the floor, "I mean, there are some cool kids here that I eat lunch with and hang out with when I get bored, and they're pretty awesome dudes, but it's not like we're super close or anything. And pretty much everyone else here are douche bags."

Alex nodded in understanding, knowing that feeling. He had plenty of 'friends' back home, but Rian was the only one he really cared about beyond "I guess I'd be kinda sad if you died." "Still," he responded, "That doesn't answer the question as to why you're hanging out with me."

Jack smiled and looked up at Alex, saying, "Cause you're interesting. Anything new is interesting."

Alex put on a face of mock hurt, and putting a hand on his forehead in true soap opera fashion, dramatically exclaimed, "Just what I thought! You only want me because I'm an oddity. I thought you loved me Jacky!"

Jack immediately started playing along, putting one hand over his heart with the other outstretched towards Alex and responded in a voice of mock concern, "No Lexi! Of course I love you! Your sister meant nothing to me!"

At that point, both boys burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. "We could totally start a soap opera man," Jack said between giggles, "We could call it, 'The Secret Life of Catholic School Boys'. It'd be a hit."

"I can just imagine," Alex responded, wiping a tear off his face, "Just think of all the old women creaming themselves over us."

Jack put on a face of disgust and replied, "Dude, not cool. You just put the worst image of my Nan in my head ever."

Alex's own face crinkled in revolt as he got his own particularly disturbing mental image. "Yeah dude," he sighed, shaking his head, "Forget I said anything. That shit is gross." He reached into his pocket for his phone then, pulling it out to glance at the time. The clock on the LCD screen read "3:30", which Alex figured gave him enough time before the five o'clock assembly to learn 'Dammit' on guitar.

Alex walked over to his bed and pulled Wendy onto his lap, digging the pick he always kept with him out of his pocket. As he coaxed the first few chords that he already knew out of the guitar's old body, he felt eyes on him. Looking up, he found Jack standing at his desk, staring at him wide-eyed.

When Jack realized he had been caught staring at his new roommate, he blushed and hid behind his fringe. "Sorry," he muttered, "I've just never seen someone play guitar in person before."

"It's okay man," Alex said, smiling gently at Jack's enthusiasm, "I remember the first time I saw someone play live. I was like five, and my dad had brought me to some music shop to get me a piano. I saw this long long haired, 80s metal band looking dude hammering on a guitar, and I swear, it was like a religious experience or some shit like that. I sat there watching him the entire time we were there, and that Christmas I begged and begged for a guitar. Didn't wind up getting it until last year, but hey, what are you gonna do."

The corners of Jack's mouth turned up at that, and a little less uncomfortably, he responded, "Well, don't let my creepiness stop you. Keep going, you sound good." He turned back around to his desk to finish putting away the school supplies he had pulled out of his bag.

Alex looked back down at his guitar and lined his hands back up. He leaned over to where he had set his phone down and started laying 'Dammit', listening carefully to the chords, trying to imitate them on his own guitar. He managed to get through the first verse pretty easily, but the chorus hit with an array of wrong notes and a string of muttered 'shit's and 'fuck's. Finally, after trying four times, Alex turned the music off and just started playing through 'Josie'. Singing along as he played, he started, "My girlfriend takes me home when I'm too drunk to drive..."

As he continued, Alex became aware that Jack was staring at him again, but didn't say anything this time. He actually found it kind of adorable in a way, the teen's unadulterated wonderment at music.

Jack stood watching Alex play, once again distracted from trying to unpack, when an unexpected thought entered his brain: "He's beautiful." Jack immediately pushed that out of his head, because fuck no, he was not about to start thinking about his roommate like that. End well, it would not. Shaking his head, Jack turned back around, digging through one of his bags to pull out the posters he had brought with him, and started to hang them on the wall above his desk.

Alex strummed out the final notes of the song, and then looked up at the the wall Jack was currently covering with Blink-182, Sum 41, Jimmy Eat World, and New Found Glory. "Dude," he said, getting up and walking over to Jack, "Those are awesome. We're gonna have the best decorated in this place."

"We fucking better," Jack said in a playful tone, "Zack is always bragging about how great his room is, and I wanna shut him up this year."

"Who's that?" Alex said teasingly, nudging Jack in the side with his elbow, a smirk gracing his face, "Your boyfriend?"

Jack laughed at that before responding, "Hahaha, no. Zack is so fucking straight it's ridiculous. Whenever they let us out of here on weekends, he always manages to sneak into the all girls school in the next town, and I swear to you he's banged every single chick in that place. Don't ask me how, but he's got the underwear to prove it."

"So, we know I'm gay, whoever Zack is, he's straight," Alex began, "What about you, Mr. Mysterious? Do you like dicks or chicks?"

Jack just shook his head and replied, "I'd classify myself as a hormone driven teenage boy, who's way too horny and sexually confused for his own good. So, basically, I got no fucking idea."

Alex just shrugged and said, "I can respect that."

Jack glanced at the clock he had set up on the shelf above his desk, and noticed it said '4:30'. "Shit man," he said, turning towards Alex, "We better get ready for the assembly. We gotta change into our uniforms. I mean, normally I wouldn't care, but if we miss the very first assembly, Rags will have both of our heads." When Alex looked confused, he elaborated, saying, "Mr. Ragini, the Dean."

Alex nodded, and scooped up the uniform that was still laying on top of his dresser. Then he looked around and asked, "Where do we change? No offense, but I just met you, so you don't really need to see me naked yet."

"There's a bathroom down the hall," Jack replied, going into a drawer for his own uniform, "You can use a stall in there. I'm gonna change in here, so knock before you come in."

Alex nodded, and headed out of the room and towards the direction Jack had pointed. Meanwhile thoughts were racing through his head, most of them about Jack. Maybe it was just Alex's own hopeless romantic tendencies, but he was finding himself developing a small crush on Jack. Alex shook that out of his brain for now, because he was not about to fuck up this new found friendship because of something as silly and trivial as a crush, puppy love at most. He figured it would wear off soon enough, things like this almost always did, and even if it didn't he'd find a way to deal with it. He had always been good at hiding things.

Notes

Okay, so this is a little bit shit, I know. I probably should rewrite but a) I'm too lazy and b) I have homework I really should be doing (who am I kidding, I'm never going to do that crap). So, I promise to try to make the next chapter better than this.
xokc