Under Jersey Skies

I walked into school on Monday with a smile on my face, I hadn’t been able to stop smiling since Saturday. Frank and I had both agreed to keep things quiet for now, with the exception of Arriana, who had promised not to tell anyone about us.

On the steps of the main building, Gerard, Mikey, Frank, Ray, Bob, Arriana and Joey were sitting together, waiting for me. Gerard jumped up when he saw me coming and happily bounded over to me. I held my arms out as he approached me, and pulled him into a hug when he got close enough. I felt him flinch a little when I tightened my arms around him and I looked up at his face, which was screwed up a little in a painful expression.

“You okay?” I asked him.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine” answered Gerard, clearing his throat when he spoke.
“Are you hurt or something?” I questioned.
“Oh, yeah, but only a little, I-I bumped into the corner of our kitchen table this morning on my way out” he explained, I had a feeling he was lying to me, but I let it slide, it was probably nothing anyway.

I took his hand in my own and led him over to the others.

“Hey Jackie!” Ray greeted me with a smile.
“How you doin?” said Bob cheerfully.
“Fine, morning guys” I replied.
“Oi, you two” I snapped playfully, gently kicking the comic books out of Mikey and Joey’s hands.

They both looked up at me, pouting.

“Aren’t you gonna say hello?” I complained in a babyish voice.
“Hello” they said in unison, before picking up their comic books and burying their noses in them again.
“Hey, aren’t you forgetting about me?” complained Arriana.

I looked over at her and widened my eyes a little in surprise as I saw her hand linked with Ray’s. Only then did I realize how close together they were sitting.

“Sorry, morning Arriana” I replied.

Her eyes darted to my hand, which was still holding Gerard’s, and back to my eyes, giving me a warning glare and jerking her head to the side a little, towards Frank. I giggled and let go of Gerard’s hand, letting her know it was ok.

Gerard walked ahead and sat down, talking to Bob. I sat down next to Frank, who kissed my cheek when no-one was looking. I smiled and looked into his eyes affectionately. His hand slid over mine and he pulled me up from the ground.

“We’ll be back in a few minutes guys” said Frank, before leading me away from them.

We walked around the corner, where Frank backed me up against the wall. One hand on my hip, the other holding my face, Frank leaned in and kissed me. I let myself melt in his arms, smiling into the kiss as I felt Frank’s cold piercings again. His tongue slipped into my mouth and I sighed in enjoyment.
#
#At that moment, the bell signalling the end of lunch sounded, and we both parted and went our separate ways, I had Art with Gerard, while Frank had English. I walked across the schoolyard to the Art House and pushed open the door.

“Oh, good afternoon Jackie” Faith greeted me warmly as I entered the room.
“Good afternoon Faith” I replied with a smile.

Faith was one of my favourite teachers, aside from Mrs. Lynch & Mr. Becker. She was about the only teacher in the school who preferred to be called by her first name rather than her last, which was Lehane. Faith was in her late twenties, and had long brown wavy hair and brown eyes, she usually wore a black tank top and dark blue skinny legs, which was obviously her favourite outfit. Today however, she was wearing a thin red hooded jacket over the black top. I smiled, she was pretty, Faith was.

“Hello Gerard” she said as he entered the room.
“Good afternoon Faith” Gerard replied nervously with a shy smile on his face, which was slightly red. It was no secret to me that Gerard had a bit of a crush on her.

He took his seat next to mine and pulled out his sketch book and paint set. Realizing I hadn’t even gotten my own stuff out yet, I began unpacking my stuff from my bag. Slowly but surely, the other students began to pile in until the whole class had arrived. Faith set us to work, with the challenge to either paint or draw a cartoon portrait of ourselves. I set to work on mine, with a little difficulty, I was usually good at this stuff, but not when I was the subject.

I drew the outline of my face, my long black hair, a t-shirt, jeans, and stripy arm warmers, a bow in my hair, and a studded belt. I looked over at Gerard’s before grabbing my felt tip to go over the pencil lines. Gerard had drawn himself wearing a black suit with a red tie, and a black stripe across his eyes. It looked really good.

I turned back to my own work and went over the pencil lines with my black felt tip. When it was done I left the ink to dry properly for a few minutes before grabbing my coloured pencils and colouring the picture in. I coloured my hair black, the bow pink, my eyes blue, the t-shirt yellow, my jeans black, the belt silver and the stripy arm warmers pink and black. I set my pencil down and relaxed, I was finished. Gerard finished a few moments later and looked over at my drawing.

“That’s really cool, it’s got a kinda anime look to it” he said.
“Thanks” I smiled.
“Yours is good too” I added.
“Thankyou” he smiled.

His eyes stayed focused on mine, just looking, not saying a word. There was something in them, an emotion of some kind, but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. His smile faded into a more serious look and I looked away, Faith had started talking again.

“Well, there’s five minutes left until the bell goes for the end of the day, so whoever’s finished by then, leave your drawings on my desk, and you’ll get them back on Thursday with your marks, if you haven’t, you’ll have Thursday’s lesson to finish them” she said.

“You want me to hand her ours?” I asked Gerard.
“Yeah, thanks” he replied, handing his drawing to me.

His eyes met with mine again, and he bit his lip slightly. I looked at him with a puzzled expression and he just shook his head and smiled. I turned and walked up to Faith’s desk, leaving our drawings on the desk’s surface. She smiled as I passed, happy that Gerard and I had yet again been the first two students to finish our work.

I was halfway through packing my things away back at my desk when the bell rang. I finished packing and swung my bagover my shoulder. I looked up expecting Gerard to have already left, but he was standing with his hand leaning on the table’s surface, waiting for me. He gave me a friendly grin before the two of us left class together.

He walked me across the schoolyard and out to the front of the school where he gave me a quick hug before we parted our ways to go home. As I walked, a white van rolled up on the road next to me. The window rolled down and Frank’s head popped out.

“Hey, want a lift?” he asked.
“Sure!” I said.

I walked around to the other side of the van and pulled the door open and got in. I threw my bag into the back seat, aiming carefully so it didn’t hit Frank’s guitar. Frank started up the engine again and turned the car around, heading in the direction of my house. We drove past Gerard and he looked up and saw my face in the window.

I looked over at Frank, but he hadn’t seemed to notice Gerard was out there. I looked back, wondering if I should ask Frank to turn around and pick him up, but we were further away now and I didn’t want to cause Frank the trouble. Still though, I kept looking back at Gerard, he was just standing there, a somewhat sad look on his face. I kept my eyes on him until we turned a corner and he disappeared from my view…