5

Jack sat uncomfortably in his maths class, waiting for the day to end so he could go home and hide away from the world. The waistband of his jeans was digging into his hips so every time that he tried to move he found himself in pain and then struggling to hide it. That was another thing that Jack hated about the aftermath of cutting, you had to deal with the pain and healing for at least a week.

It was a Thursday, it had been at least three days since Jack had had a proper conversation with Alex he was missing the comforting attention that the older boy seemed to give him. The day just dragged out longer and he was just happy to be in his last class of the day, even if it was maths. Jack was alright at maths, not great but good enough to be passing classes with a C average. Jack tried in all of his classes but there was just some kind of failure to process information in his mind.

“Jack do you know what the answer is?” Mr Cas, Jack’s annoying boring maths teacher asked him. Jack knew that he had picked Jack because Jack was staring out a window and failing to pay attention to the ‘much needed’ maths problem on the bored. Jack felt his skin run pale and he froze. He didn’t know what Mr Cas was talking about and the whole class was now looking at him. “Jack we’re not going to move on until you have the answer to this problem.” Mr Cas’ voice echoed throughout the classroom, earning a round of groans from the students around Jack.

Jack scanned his eyes over the board frantically to try and find out what question he was answering. 2D, part 1. Jack didn’t understand what kind of method he had to use to work this problem out because it had numbers AND letters in the equation, taking Jack’s panic to a whole new level. “I-I don’t know Mr Cas.” Jack stuttered, making a few of the more popular kids snicker and laugh at Jack’s stupidity.

“Well, look at the equation and find us a solution.” Mr Cas said to Jack plainly, it was like he was trying to torture Jack. Jack’s mind struggled to remember every little thing that he learned in his years of dong maths classes but they were all skipping one key part of information; how to work out that stupid question on the board.

“Alright times up Jack, you’ve got detention after school with me.” Jack lowered his head as the sounds of other people’s laughter filled the room. Jack tried really hard to work out that problem but he simply didn’t understand any of it, he couldn’t help what he did and didn’t understand. Mr Cas carried on with the class like it never happened, like one of his students didn’t almost have a panic attack and pass out.

For the rest of the lesson Jack kept his eyes focused on the board instead of looking out that damn window that got him in trouble in the first place. Jack tried to focus his attention on what his teacher was saying but he could barely hold a pen in his hand without having to readjust the waistband of his jeans because it was rubbing against the fresh wounds displayed on his skin.

The bell to signal the end of the school day rang throughout the school, causing most students to smile and get up to leave class but instead making Jack sink lower into his seat. The room was empty within a few seconds, leaving Jack and Mr Cas in the room alone, which made Jack scared, he hated being alone with strangers, even if it was with his maths teacher. “I’ll be back in a second; I just have to get some papers and notify your parents that you’ll be staying after school. There’s another student that will be staying back so they’ll be here shortly.” Mr Cas walked out of the class room, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts.

Jack remembered that Mr Cas said that there would be another student here soon, Jack wasn’t good with other people so he just hopped that it was student that wouldn’t cause him any trouble. Jack fidgeted with the hem of his top as he waited for Mr Cas to get back so he could hurry up and leave.

The door to the maths class room swung open, making Jack almost jump three feet in the air at the sudden sound. “Jack?” Jack looked up from the grey school desk to see Alex standing in front of him. “Y-You’re the other kid with detention? What did you even do?” Jack asked as Alex pulled up a chair next to Jack and then sat down. “I was talking to Rian whilst Mr Cas was talking, no big deal. What about you?” Alex explained to Jack. The question that Alex placed at the end of the sentence made Jack shuffled in his seat.

“I couldn’t answer a question on the board because I forgot how to do it and I was stuttering and everything.” Jack said to Alex, trying to be as vague as possible but he knew that it would only make Alex ask more questions. “Were you having a panic attack Jack?” Alex asked the younger boy in front of him. Jack nodded his head. “Hey, it’ll be okay. I can always come over some nights after school and help you with some of the work if you need it Jack.” “You’d do that?” “Of course, we’ll sort it out on the way back to your house.” Alex said with a smile. So now they were going to go back to Jack’s house after detention, this day was starting to get slightly better for Jack.

“Alright, Alex you can do whatever maths work you have for homework and I guess I should start helping you Jack.” Mr Cas walked into the plainly coloured room with a stack of papers in his hands. He set them down on his desk and then began to explain to the boys what would be happening. Alex got out his books for maths class and then opened his text book and began to start answering the questions on the page. “Jack come over here.” Mr Cas called from his desk.

Jack’s breath hitched at that comment and Alex had noticed. “It’s okay, you’ll be fine.” Alex whispered into Jack’s ear to reassure him. Jack nodded his head and began to walk towards Mr Cas’ desk, sitting in the chair next to his teachers. “So what do you need help with?” Mr Cas asked, sounding a little nicer than he did whilst the rest of the class was here. “Algebra, I just don’t seem to understand any of it.” Jack explained. Mr Cas nodded his head and got out a pen. He began to explain to Jack the main forms of algebra in the simplest terms that he could manage.

Notes

So here's the first 'real' chapter I guess you could call it, that I've written for this fanfic in a while. Let me know what you think of it.