It was weird, I was kind of looking forward to school for the first time… ever. I kissed my mum goodbye, making her smile at me hugely.
"You seem happy this morning?"
"I can’t stop, I'm meeting Amy"
"Okay honey, I won't be back till late tonight. I have a conference at work so I wont be able to answer my phone"
"Okay" I called back to her as I made my way up the road. Part of me considered that she might not even be waiting for me, but the other part ran over the conversation we had had on the playing field the day before. We had loads in common and just generally got along really well. There was every reason for her to be waiting for me. I breathed with relief when I saw her stood on the corner of her street, her bag slung on her back facing the other way.
"Hey!" I called to her as I approached.
"Hey Jack" She span round with a smile.
"You look tired"
"Yeah, I couldn’t sleep" It wasn’t uncommon for me not to sleep, I found it hard to shut my head up sometimes.
"Today is gunna drag so bad for you then, and we have English class first" She groaned. I hadn't forgotten, not for a second. I had thought about it for most of the night before. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alex. We couldn’t sit there in silence for an hour, could we?

Me and Amy were a little late into English, but not late enough to earn a sarcastic comment from Mr Carrigan again. I flicked my eyes over to my back table, which already had someone sat to it. Alex. As I walked towards it he looked up, instantly stiffening in his chair. Here we go again I thought to myself. I sat down, keeping my eyes on the floor and pulling out a pen. I noticed the pile of books stacked up on the table. I shot Alex a questioning look, hoping he'd explain without me having to ask. He looked at me from under his fringe.
"They're for the assignment. I guessed that it was what you are into" He told me quietly. I looked over at the books placed in front of me, all of them music related.
"You want to do the assignment on this?" I spoke as clearly as I could, making sure it didn’t come out too fast. I didn’t want to give him any reason to pick on me.
"Yeah, whatever" He shrugged. We decided to just read them and take some notes. It was the best thing for both of us, it meant we didn’t have to talk.
"Isn't this more your thing Barakat?" I heard Stanley call before a small book hit me on the top of my head. It landed on the desk in front of me with a thump. 'Women's Fashion' it read on the front. I didn’t bother looking up, I just moved it to the side and shifted my fringe to hide any redness that would show in my eyes. Alex lifted it from the table and threw it across the floor away from us. I peeked up at him through my hair, but his eyes were already down and he was busy writing his notes. The rest of the lesson was uneventful, quiet. The bell rang for the end of the lesson. Alex got up just as quickly as the day before, but this time moved his chair out of my way. I met Amy at the door.
"How was grumpy?" She asked.
"He's not that bad" I told her honestly. He wasn’t as hard to be around as I thought he would be.
After break me and Amy said goodbye before walking in opposite directions to go to our next lessons, it really sucked that we only had one class together. I stopped at my locker to grab some books for literature. I rummaged through all of my crap trying to find them. I made a mental note to tidy my locker when I had the chance. Stanley's arm appeared out of nowhere, his hand resting on the edge of my locker. I instantly took a step back, my muscles tensing up. I dropped my eyes, nibbling nervously on my lip. There was no point in arguing with him. All I could do was wait until he decided he'd given me enough misery.
"Looking for something? Maybe I can help" He said casually before pushing his arm into my locker and with one move, emptying its contents onto the floor. Bits of paper flew out into the busy corridor, becoming crumpled under peoples feet. Of course no one stopped to help me, or even stepped round my stuff. They walked all over it. Stanley laughed, knocking my shoulder as he walked past me. I sighed, dropping to my hands and knees and began picking the ruined and ripped pieces of paper that were left of my coursework. My eyes became foggy as a few tears stung in my eyes. People didn’t stop for me. Most walked round me complaining loudly, a few knocked into me intentionally. I mumbled an apology every time. I occasionally lifted my shaky hands from the floor to wipe away the wet streaks on my cheeks. A pair of familiar hands appeared in front of me, bunching up a pile of paper.
"What happened Jack?" I looked up to meet Amy's soft eyes.
"Stanley" That was all I needed to say to make her understand. With her free hand she pulled me up to my feet. I piled everything back into my locker, not caring enough to put it back neatly. I grabbed the literature books I had been looking for to start with and slammed the door shut. I inhaled deeply, calming myself.
"Are you okay?" Amy asked my with a sympathetic expression, placing a hand on my shoulder. I nodded weakly.
"You get used to it. What are you doing back here anyway?" I asked her, she should have been in her Math class.
"I forgot something from my locker. It's lucky I did, huh?" She put her arm around my briefly before dropping it and opening her locker. I smiled to myself at how she reminded me of me. She took out what she needed and slammed it shut again, telling me she'd see me later.

Literature dragged like hell, but at least I was left alone for a while. Like in every other class, I had my own table right at the back. I liked it that way, I got less attention than I would of I was sat in the front. I was dreading my next class. I had gym. As you can imagine, contact sports didn’t wok out that well for me when half my gym class hated me. I made my way to the changing rooms. I was at least 15 minutes early, but that worked the best for me. it meant I could get changed without being heckled, without the homophobic comments about me looking at the other guys. It also meant I could lock up my stuff in a sports locker. I used to leave my stuff out on the bench and it would frequently go missing or end up wet through in the showers. I pushed open the heavy door, noticing someone sat on a bench in the corner of the room.
Stanley?" I asked cautiously. He obviously hadn't notice me come in as he jumped violently when I spoke. He pushed himself further into the corner, looking at me with wide… almost wild eyes.
"I'm sorry okay?! Just… leave me alone…" He told me in a shaky voice. I frowned at him, really not able to comprehend what I was seeing and hearing. Stanley was almost begging me to leave him alone… Me leave him alone?
"JUST GO!" He shouted. He was seriously spooked. I just nodded quickly and backed out of the changing room. I stood facing the changing room door from the corridor for a moment, totally bewildered by what had just happened. What was up with Stanley? I stopped a passing gym teacher, telling him that he needed to talk to Stanley. He looked at me questioningly, but did as I told him. He came back out, looking as confused as I felt.
"What happened to him?" He asked me.
"I don’t know. I went in there to change for gym and found him there" He nodded at me, entering the changing room again. I leant up against the opposite wall, waiting for Stanley to come out. When he eventually did he began shouting at me again, telling me he was sorry and I had to leave him alone. The gym teacher shot me a stern look. Was this Stanley's twisted mind trying to get me in trouble? All I could do was stare back at the teacher until they were out of sight. I hurried back into the changing room, desperate to be changed before the others turned up. I managed it just, locking my stuff up and slipping the key into the pocket of my gym shorts. I left just as the other guys were turning up. I sat outside the gym hall, waiting while the others got changed. It wasn’t long before everyone piled into the hall. I waited at the back of the group, just not wanting any trouble. Once inside, the teacher made an announcement.
"We're a gym teacher down, so we're merging the two groups. Pair up! Alex, Stanley's… unwell, so you can go with Jack" Was this seriously happening to me? Alex looked over at me without emotion, crossing the hall to stand by my side.
"Hi" He said stiffly.
"Hi" I said, leaving my eyes on the floor. The badminton nets where already set up, so it wasn’t hard to guess what we would be doing. At least it didn’t involve any body contact, or talking. We were given a court at the end of the hall. I collected 2 rackets from the storage cupboard, handing one to Alex. He nodded once as thanks, and stood on his side of the court. Time was dragging again as I spent every second of the lesson on edge, half expecting Alex to throw his racket at me or something. But he didn’t. It was awkward...but it wasn’t awful. I was beginning to think that although he would never like me, maybe Alex didn’t hate me like I thought he did.
I hesitantly approached the cupboard, clutching our rackets, feeling completely alone and intimidated. I made my way through the group, placing the rackets into their box. I was about to turn to leave when I felt a hand in my pocket, but I was too slow to catch it before my key was taken. I turned round, looking for who had taken it. Before I could do anything I was surrounded by a large group who seemed to come out of nowhere, holding a badminton net between them. I tried to move but it was too late, they threw it over me. I thrashed around trying to get out, but the more I moved, the more I got tangled up in it. My breathing sped up as I felt my throat closing. All I could hear was laughter and the other boys cheering them on. I lost my balance and fell, my shoulder cracking on the hard wood floor.
"Please...let me out" I whimpered. I am claustrophobic, and they knew it. What made it worse was I could see what was going to happen next. They began to drag me towards the storage cupboard. I had given up by this point, letting tears escape. They didn’t stop, they dragged me until I was right at the back of the cupboard. As soon as they dropped the net I was struggling to get out of it before they shut me in, but it was no good.
"This is for what you did to Stanley you dirty fag" I heard someone shout before the doors where slammed shut. I was properly crying now, there was no one to see it anyway. I curled myself up in the darkness, waiting for the next class to find me. I was sure they'd have a good laugh about it too. Whatever had happened to Stanley, it was clear I was getting the blame for it. When I actually thought that things could get no worse for me, they 100% had. What was the point of me even going to school anymore? I hated it. It wasn’t worth this misery. My mind drifted to where I should look for my stuff first when I got out. Maybe the showers, that tended to be a favourite. It was really quiet, I couldn’t hear a thing. I felt completely alone. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, when I heard a single set of footsteps. They were getting louder. I held my breath so I could hear them more clearly as they approached. Maybe the teacher had come back to help me out, or maybe Stanley had come to find me. When the door opened, it was the person I least expected. The look on his face made me feel even more stupid. I dropped my eyes immediately. I couldn’t look at him, I was too ashamed of how pathetic I must of looked. Tears were still forming as Alex approached me. He knelt down, raising his hand. I flinched away, shuffling backwards. He held his hands out.
"I'm not going to hurt you" He assured me. I chewed my lip, giving him a small nod. He began to untangle me. All I could do was sit there snivelling, occasionally moving when he told me to. Not that much conversation passed between us. There was so much I wanted to ask him. Like why he was doing this, and if he knew what the hell had happened to Stanley. Although I had tangled myself up incredibly well and it was taking a long time, he never once complained, gently moving the net around me. When he finally lifted the net off of me, he stayed on his knees and looked me straight in the face, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"You okay" He asked me. I sniffed, nodding my head. He stood up, holding out his hand. I took it and he pulled me up. We walked back to the changing rooms in silence. I didn’t know what to say to him, I was unsure where I stood with him.
"I think I got most of it" He told me as we entered the room, pointing to the pile of folded clothes and books on the bench…my clothes and books. He had obviously gone gathered up my stuff for me.
"Thanks Alex" I said quietly, lifting my eyes to meet his. He nodded once.
"It's okay. I'll see you tomorrow" He hadn't smiled once. He kind of acted as if I was an inconvenience to him. But why was he helping me? I couldn’t work it out. He gave me my locker key back as he passed me, leaving me alone. I got changed in a daze, luckily Alex had managed to save most of my clothes from the shower. Why ever he did it, I owed him.

I met Amy outside the school gates. We had a half day and were leaving in lunch period. She immediately knew something was wrong as I approached her.
"Have you been crying?" She asked, instantly looking worried. I shrugged it off.
"Some guys locked me the storage cupboard, nothing really. I just don’t like small spaces"
"Jack I don’t know how you deal with it" She said as she pulled me into a hug.
"I have to, what else can I do"
"It is so pathetic that they treat you that way, just because of Stanley"
"That's the other thing I had to tell you" I went on to explain what had happened, and how it looked as if I was getting the blame. How anyone thought that I could intimidate him enough for him to act like that was beyond me. Amy thought about it for a moment.
"When was this?" she asked.
"In the break after second period"
Amy looked at me as if she had just realised something.
"What is it?" I asked her eagerly.
"Alex left Maths at some point in the lesson" She said, not breaking eye contact. We stared at each other, taking in what this meant.
"You don’t think…." I asked her, my eyes widening in disbelief.
"It could have been"
"Why would he though? Stanley's his friend. And he's not even my friend, why would he do that for me?"
"Maybe he'd had enough. I mean this is Stanley we're talking about. And maybe that's why he helped you in gym, he might have felt guilty for you getting the blame" What Amy was saying was hard to believe…but it made sense. It was the only explanation I could think of that did. I knew Stanley was an idiot, but there was no way he would make himself look that vulnerable to get me in trouble.
"I just don’t know if I can believe he would do that for me" She shrugged in response
"I don't know either. But it just seems too much of a coincidence to me that he left Math class, something happens to Stanley and then he comes and helps you for no reason" I had been so engulfed in the conversation that I hadn't realised we were on Amy's road. We came to a stop.
"I wonder what will happen tomorrow" I told her.
"Hmm. Do you think you'll seriously get the blame for this?"
"I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good for me"
"I'm sure it will work itself out, I'll see you tomorrow" She hugged me goodbye and turned away, walking down her road.
"See ya" I called after her before carrying on the short walk to my house, my mind reeling with the days events. I could tell I wasn’t going to get any sleep that night. I was dragged out of my thoughts by the sight of Alex, walking a little ahead of me with his earphones blaring. I had no idea he lived near me. I carried on walking at the same speed, not wanting him to know I was there. I watched him as he walked carelessly, dragging his feet. He stepped off of the curb to cross the road, his hair bouncing as his feet hit the tarmac. I couldn’t work out how it had happened, but the strap of his bag gave way and it fell to the ground, throwing his books across the road. He cussed under his breath, folding himself down to pick them up. His body was faced towards me, but his eyes remained on the floor. Despite this my heart picked up a few beats. I really didn’t want him to see me. He sang along to the music playing in his ears. Was he listening to Blink?? I would recognise them anywhere… Alex was still picking his stuff up, oblivious to me. As I got closer to the curb, I realised I was going to have to walk past him. I scanned along the road, looking for some way of me crossing without Alex seeing me. Instead I noticed a faint buzzing. I frowned, looking around me. As it got louder I dismissed it, realising it was the sound of moving tyres on the road. I carried on walking slowly, wishing Alex would hurry the hell up and pick his stuff up so I could get home. I could hear the cars engine roaring now, where-ever it was, it was moving quickly. The sound started to unnerve me. That's when I saw the car appear in the distance… and it was speeding straight towards Alex, who was still fucking about with his stuff in the road. I watched him anxiously, barely able to breath, waiting for him to look up. But he wasn’t. I began to walk more quickly towards him. I couldn’t wait any longer, it was getting too close too quickly.
"ALEX!" I screamed at him, dropping my bag and running towards him. He slowly stood up but was still oblivious to me or the car speeding towards him, still singing along to Feeling this. I couldn’t make my feet move fast enough. I jumped off of the curb, slamming myself into his chest. He looked up, meeting my wide eyes with confusion, his brows furrowed almost aggressively as he flew backwards. His head snapped towards the car now only a meter from me, his eyes widening and his mouth falling open. He looked back at me, fear in his eyes as he tried to reach out for me. But it was too late. All I felt was my face hitting the road. Then it went black.

Notes

Hey guys! So.... this chapter is insanely long, sorry about that! I think there is probably enough going on in this chapter to fill 3 but i wanted to get the drama started ;) dont worry, this is barely the start of it
Comments would be amaaazing, let me know if you like the way this is going. I know parts of this chapter are a bit rubbbish, sorry about that!
Thankyou for reading! xxx
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