Six Feet Under the Stars

After religion class back in the main building and a few more insults hurled his way by what he had mentally termed the 'jock gang', Alex slumped to the cafeteria for lunch, hoping he had the same wave as Jack or Zack. Walking in, he glanced around hoping to see a familiar face, and smiled when he saw Jack waving manically in his direction from a mostly empty table. As he made his way over, Alex spotted Zack and the freshman, Robert, sitting at the table too.

Dropping his bag onto the floor, Alex flopped into the open seat next to Robert and across from Jack.

"How's your first day been going?" Jack asked, smirking a little bit, "Are you feeling the love of God yet?"

Alex scoffed and responded, "Yeah, being called a fag at least twenty times in three hours is just filling me up with love."

Jack smiled, a little sadly now, and shook his head, "I told you. Almost everyone here aside from us are massive douche bags." Looking across the cafe, Jack pointed and continued, "Except those two dudes," and then proceeded to wave manically again.

Alex looked over his shoulder at the two teens that were now making their way towards his table. They were both fairly short, one wearing a hat that was definitely against dress code and the other with some eyeliner smudged on his face which was definitely against every code.

"Jack!" the one with the eyeliner called as he got closer to the table, "How you been?"

"Pretty good," Jack responded, "How 'bout you Pete? How's the Wentz-man doing?"

The teen, apparently Pete, laughed and replied, "Pretty awesome actually. Me and Patty were about to go and get some food, but we'll be back over in a few."

Jack nodded as the two boys walked away towards the food line again, then turned towards Alex again to say, "That's Pete and Patrick. We call them Peterick since they're hardly ever apart. I don't get how they work, but they do. Pete's a bit obnoxious, but an awesome writer and Patrick's super shy, but a musical genius. They're both super cool once you get to know them."

Alex nodded an looked over at the line where Pete and Patrick were standing, Pete talking animatedly to one of the workers, Patrick standing off to the side looking mildly uncomfortable but like he was used to this sort of thing. He then looked to the end of the table where Robert and Zack were sitting, and saw that the two were having a pretty intense discussion about something.

"You're crazy, man," Zack said, shaking his head at the freshman, "Dude Ranch is superior to Enema in every way."

Robert rolled his eyes and replied, "You don't know what you're talking about. Both the production and musical quality on Enema is leagues ahead of anything else they had done." He spoke excitedly, but in timid sort of way, like he wasn't sure if what he was saying was interesting to anyone besides himself. Alex knew that feeling.

"But the rawness is what makes Dude Ranch so much better," Alex interjected, willing to get in on anything to do with Blink.

Zack nodded in agreement, saying, "Alex has got it right. Dude Ranch has a lot more guts to it. Enema is way too polished."

Robert just sighed and grumbled, "Fine. You can both be wrong then."

Alex's stomach grumbled then, and looking around he saw no one else had gotten food yet either. "Does anyone want to eat, or?" he asked, a little confused.

Jack shrugged and replied, "I could eat. Not sure if what we'll get could technically qualify as food but it's worth a shot."

Alex glanced over at Robert who quickly shook his head, and Zack was pulling some food out of his bag. In response to a quirked eyebrow from Alex, he said, "I sneak some food in at the beginning of every week. Like hell if I'm gonna eat this place's shit if I don't have to."

Alex just shrugged in response, and got up with Jack to go and get some chicken strips and a bottle of off-brand soda. By the time they sat back down, Pete and Patrick had made it back as well and Pete had joined the Blink debate, adamantly defending Enema.

Sitting down, Jack declared, "You're all wrong. Buddha is the best."

Zack groaned in response and chucked a potato chip at Jack's head, saying, "Oh my god, dude. That's like, the one album that everyone agrees sucks."

Jack grinned happily at his friend's apparent aggravation, and took a bite of one of his chicken strips, which immediately brought a grimace onto his face. "I fucking told you Alex," he said, swallowing the 'chicken' with exaggerated effort, "There is no way this shit is legal to serve."

Alex cautiously took a bite of his own meal, and merely shrugged, "I don't know. It's not that bad really. Better than what they served at my old school anyway."

Jack just looked back at Alex, a little wide eyed, and said, "Where the hell did you go to school?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After classes ended, the students had two hours of dorm time before dinner. Of course, Jack managed to drag Alex out of their room and out onto the grass area in between the dorm buildings where Zack, Patrick, Pete, and Robert were already gathered.

"Fuck you, Zack," Pete was saying from where he was lying on the ground, head laying in Patrick's lap, the blonde haired boy looking fairly annoyed, "You know the eyeliner makes me look even more badass."

With a shrug, Zack replied, "I also know that its the reason you get beat up so often."

Propping himself up on his elbows, Pete responded with a death stare, "I repeat: fuck you."

Alex sat down next to Robert as Pete flopped down back onto Patrick, turning on his side so Zack wasn't in his line of vision. Patrick put a hand on Pete's back and glared at Zack, looking extremely protective.

Zack looked over at Jack, who had sat down next to Alex, looking slightly desperate, and Jack just shrugged.

Alex coughed, a little bit awkwardly, and then turned to Robert, asking, "So, how was your first ever day of high school?"

Robert looked at Alex, seemingly surprised of being spoken to, but responded anyway, "Pretty shit if I'm being honest."

Alex nodded knowingly and replied, "Well, that's high school for you."

"So it doesn't get any better?" the brown haired boy asked, looking fairly worried.

Alex smiled sympathetically at the freshman and answered, "The classes sure as hell don't, if I'm being straight up. But you'll get through it if you've got good friends." Alex glanced around at the group, saw Pete continuing to pout on Patrick's lap and Patrick, Zack, and Jack in a very animated discussion (probably about music), and continued, "And it looks like we've both already got some."

A/N: Hey guys! Oh my god, the response I've been getting to this story is kind of amazing. HUGE thank you to everyone who voted/followed/commented, you're the reason I tried (and kind of succeeded) to update quicker. Hopefully the next chapter will be written even quicker and probably better! Also, I apologize for any crappiness in this update, a lot of shit has been going down in my personal life (please don't ask).

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