Six Feet Under the Stars

The next day, Alex was awoken by the sound of Jack's alarm blaring out the local pop station, which, unfortunately, was the only one that came through. "Turn that shit off," Alex groaned, rolling onto his stomach and covering his head with his pillow in an attempt to block out the grating music.
Jack laughed at his roommate as he climbed off his bunk and strode over to the offending clock, turning it off. "Morning to you too, Sunshine," Jack said, smirking at the blonde whose face was still hidden underneath the pillow.

Alex flipped the other boy off, burrowing further into his sheets. His plan to be absorbed into the bed, however, was foiled when Jack came over and started trying to tear away his bedding. "Get up sleepy head," Jack said in a sing-song voice, "The world is waiting! There's people to see, places to go -"

"Roommates to murder," Alex muttered, finally rolling out of bed with a sigh of resignation.

"That's the spirit," Jack smiled as he grabbed his shower bag off his desk and pulled a towel out his only partially unpacked bag before walking out the door, calling over his shoulder, "I'm going to go cleanse myself."

"Have fun," Alex yelled back, slightly half-heartedly since he was still blearly from sleep.He got up off the floor (he had literally rolled out of bed) and went to go examine himself in the mirror. After scrutinizing his appearance for about one minute and giving himself a quick sniff check, trying to decide whether taking a shower would be worth the effort, he figured neither his hair or his body odor were bad enough to warrant one. Shrugging at his own laziness, he turned to go and change into his god awful uniform.

As Alex was tugging on his jacket (God, he already hated the thing), Jack returned from what was apparently the shortest shower ever, towel wrapped around his waist. "Whazzup, mah homeslice?" Alex said, throwing up a West side gang sign as he did so.

"Alex, you are so fucking white," Jack sighed, reaching into his drawers for a shirt and a pair of pants.

Alex laughed and turned around as Jack started getting dressed in his uniform. He walked over to his desk to puck up the class schedule he had been given the day before and sigh heavily, "I have no idea where any of these rooms are."

"Didn't they give you a map?" Jack asked from behind him.

"Yeah," Alex replied, "But I fucking hate those things. I always hold them the wrong way and end up getting lost worse than if I hadn't used it at all."

Suddenly, a (thankfully clothed) Jack was peering over Alex's shoulder and reaching around to tap the room number of Alex's first class, geometry. "That one's in the main building," Jack said, "I think we'll pass by the hall its in on the way way to breakfast. I'll point it out to you."

Alex nodded and then responded, "Thanks dude. Speaking of breakfast, let's go. I'm starving."

Jack chuckled and said, "You won't be once you see what they call eggs in there."

Alex just rolled his eyes in way of reply and walked out the door, knowing Jack would follow.

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It was eight a.m. and Alex was sitting in his first geometry of his sophomore year. His teacher, an approximately 110 year old guy with a voice like sandpaper and a name like Mr. Buchanan or something else just as pretentious, obviously never got the memo that you're not supposed to teach on the first actual day of school and was droning on about the area of triangles or something.Just as he was about to doze off, Alex felt something hit the back of his head, and reaching up to feel his hair, he found a crumpled up ball of loose leaf stuck there. Looking over his shoulder, Alex saw a group of jocks laughing as quietly as they could. Alex just rolled his eyes and turned back around, slumping further down in his seat.

Alex had learned many years before that fighting back against bullies never panned out in his favor, despite all the adults who told him to hold his ground. It always seemed that when he tried he would just end up laying on it. So he just tried not to let the very audible snickers of the teens behind him bother him and just not focus on anything. That had always been his favorite defense mechanism: ignoring everything.

Finally, the bell rang signalling the end of the period. Alex quickly picked up his bag and swung it over his shoulder, simultaneously glancing down at the schedule clutched in his hand and walking out of the classroom. He quickly realized that he had no idea where room "141 AB" was, and he was going to have a hell of a time figuring it out. "Shit," Alex muttered as he pulled out the map from his back pocket although he seriously doubted it would help. He saw a building labeled AB, and it seemed as though it was to the right of the building he was in so he decided to give it a shot.

He walked out the first door he could find and started walking along a path, glancing left and right for any sort of sign he was going in the right direction. They had ten minutes to pass between classes since it was the first day and the classrooms were so far apart, but Alex still wanted to find his as soon as possible. He always liked to be early.

As he was walking, Alex heard a large group of footsteps behind him. Figuring it was just a group of friends who happened to be walking in the same direction as him, he ignored it until he heard a voice call out, "Hey, fag!"

Alex sighed and turned around slowly, knowing that if he kept going they would only push him over. He didn't say anything though, he didn't want to say the wrong thing and end up with a black eye. Instead, he just raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"Yeah you, faggot," said a large boy with a buzz cut and muscles that had definitely required steroids to achieve who was heading a brat pack of jocks, "You mute or something?"

Alex just shook his head, still reluctant to talk to the teen who didn't seem to have much of a vocabulary aside from insults.

"Well, I know you're new and you look pretty faggy, so I wanted to make sure you knew the rules around here," the boy, who still hadn't named himself, said, his beady eyes narrowing at Alex, "We don't put up with any queers around here. If we find out you're one, don't think we won't do something about it."

"I don't doubt it," Alex muttered, bending his head back over and sweeping his slight fringe back over his eye as he turned to walk away.

"What'd you say?" the teen spat at Alex, grabbing onto his shoulder with a meaty hand and spinning his back around.

"I said 'I don't doubt it'," Alex replied, trying to keep an innocent look on his face.

"That better be all you said," the hulking boy responded, squinting again before releasing Alex from his grip and turning around to walk the other way with his group of minions who gave him a round of high fives.

Alex waited until they walked out of earshot before muttering, "Fucking pricks," and then continuing on his his journey to his next class.

Notes

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry this took so long and that this is so short. I had really bad writers block and I was on a bit of a poetry kick for a while, but I swear I'll be better at updating now.
xokc