The Anklebiters

“Guys! I’ve had a revelation!” Jack exclaimed as he took his seat at the table consisting of the same two other guys.

Zack rolled his eyes. “What is it this time?”

Jack smirked at his new found idea. It had been a week since the incident at the 8x10 club, and because of the results of it and Jack’s new idea, the boy was sure the Anklebiters’ secure spot as one of the most popular groups at Dulaney was feeling threatened. “Now that we have a fourth member, I think we can finally start our group.”

“It’s not going to work.” Rian replied in a sing-song voice while taking a slurp of the spaghetti on his tray. Zack nodded his head with his friend.

“Don’t you guys get it?” Jack asked, already diving into his spaghetti with a new tomato sauce stain on his Green Day shirt. “The Anklebiters were already threatened by us on Friday night! It could work this time!”

Zack sighed. “The Anklebiters rule the school. We can’t do anything about it.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re scared of them!”

“Zack’s right, it’ll take years to crush their rep.” Rian agreed. “Besides, how will having Alex help create this new group you so want to create?”

“I heard my name,” Alex grinned as he approached the table and sat down. “What are you guys talking about?”

Jack put his arm around Alex’s shoulders, a sly smile on his face. “You, and how you’re going to help us.”

“Um …” The shaggy haired boy looked from his tray of salad to Jack. “How?”

Jack help up two fingers. “Two words: Fall. Football.”

---

Mr. Brenn finished writing the mass-mass stoichiometry practice problems on the white board and let the class work with their partners to solve them. Hayley realized that he was really pushing it with the twenty problems he wrote up for the kids who had trouble with this stuff, but she got it done quickly. Just because she didn’t like school, didn’t mean she wasn’t good at it.

Once she was finished, she looked over at Alex on the other end of the desk. He was running his hand through his shaggy brown hair, clearly stressed out. She couldn’t blame him; they had been learning this stoichiometry shit for weeks and he only just got here a week ago. She bit her lips, deciding if he would even accept her help if she offered it. Better question: was this against an Anklebiter rule? The group never really had rules, but sometimes Taylor came up with some on the spot. Was helping a guy clearly part of Jack’s friends crossing the line?

She sighed and scooted her chair over. “Hey,” she tapped his hand, and he quickly looked up with distressed orbs, “you having any trouble?”

“No,” he spat. She glanced at his notebook, seeing that he had only the first problem done and it was wrong. He then shrugged. “Maybe a little …”

“Thought so,” she smirked, taking his pencil and mapping out how to do the problem.

After working on a couple of them together, he finally started to understand the concept. Hayley was surprised he could even do it on his own now, but she realized Alex was a guy who took things in strides. He wasn’t one for the fast life, and Hayley almost admired him for that. She wished she could be that way.

As he worked on the tenth problem on his own, Hayley still stayed seated close to him, picking off the orange polish on her nails. She usually did this when she was bored, but when she glanced up, something caught her attention.

“You like Blink?” She asked, gesturing to his shirt.

He looked up with a smile warming on his face. “They’re only, like, the best band ever.”

“Don’t forget they’re the only band who really shaped the punk industry as a whole,” she giggled. “Are you into other bands?”

“Mostly Green Day, Nirvana, the Ramones, Jimmy Eat World, oh and don’t forget―”

“Pink Floyd?”

He beamed. “Yeah,” he nodded, amazed that he was having an actual conversation about music with an Anklebiter. Jack had informed him on each of them over the week, and Alex had concluded maybe they were as bad as Jack thought. But Hayley was definitely changing his opinions. “Have you heard of this local band from across town, New Found Glory? They’re one of my absolute favorites and the guys are so nice.”

“Do I know them?” She snorted. “I dated the lead guitarist.”

Alex’s eyes almost fell out. “You dated Chad?”

She nodded. “Yeah …” She trailed off, not wanting to talk so much about the subject. There was a reason why Hayley was glad she broke off things with Chad, and Tay was the only one who knew about it. “We’re both better off, I guess.”

“You mind if I go for him?”

She chuckled. Even though Chad was a touchy subject for her, she enjoyed talking about him with Alex. He almost made her forget about all her problems with Chad. “What about the bro code?”

“We’re bros now?” Alex’s eyebrows perked up in interest.

She debated her answer. She would surely be lectured by Taylor if the leader found out her new friendship with one of Jack’s friends, but Hayley honestly didn’t care. “What do I have to lose?”

Alex snorted.

“What?”

“What do you have to lose?” He repeated. “I’d say your reputation.”

Notes

Won't be updating for a little while because I have BIG plans this weekend! (Yes, Gwen is going outside wow shocker)
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Rock on \m/