Stand Tall, They'll Tear You Down.

Zacky's POV

I opened my eyes and looked over at the alarm clock. "Ugh, 10 more minutes..." I thought, shutting the alarm off and getting up. Today I would be starting at my new school. I'm in tenth grade. My parent's got divorced, and my mom moved here for better job oppertunities or something like that. I really hate my dad, so I went with my mom. School hadn't actually started yet, so it would be everyones first day, but they've all been to the school before.

I hardly got any sleep last night, my mind was far too busy to shut down. Of all the things that had happened to me recently, starting at a new school certainly wouldn't make anything better.

Why did my parent's get divorced, you ask? Well... I recently found out I was gay. I thought my parents would be okay with it, and my mom was. But my dad...he freaked. I'd rather not get into that...

I went to the bathroom across the hall and stared at myself in the mirror. "Well, Zacky, today's the big day. New school, new friends, new life..." I sighed at the failed attempt to make myself feel better. I turned the shower on, and adjusted the water. After removing my clothes, I stepped in and let the hot water run down my body. I sighed again as the water burned my skin. I always liked really hot showers. I like the burning feeling on my skin.

I stayed in the shower until all the hot water ran out, and got out. I heard my mom downstairs tinkering around in the kitchen, probably making me a big "first day" breakfast. I wrapped a towel around my waist and went in my room to get dressed. I put on my favourite pair of ripped jeans, a Misfits shirt, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. I put on a sufficient amount of red eye smudge, checked myself in the mirror once more, and went downstairs to see my mom in the kitchen.

"Morning Zacky! Ready for your first day?" She asked a little too cheerfully. I smiled weakly. "As ready as I can be, I suppose."

"Oh, it won't be so bad. I'm sure a nice boy like you will make lots of friends." She ruffled my still unbrushed hair, and set a plate in front of me. Pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns. My favourite breakfast. "Thanks mom."

I hurried through my breakfast and ran upstairs to brush my hair and grab my stuff. I went back down to see my mom standing by the door with her coat on, holding her keys. "Ready to go?" she asked. I sighed. "I guess."

We arrived at the school, and the sick feeling I had in my stomach all day had gotten worse. I was surprised I managed to keep my breakfast down. "Alright Zacky, have a good day. I'll be waiting to pick you up after school." I kissed my mom on the cheek, said goodbye, and got out of the car. I took a deep breath and started walking toward the entrance. "Well...here goes."

I went to the office to get my schedule. I had the Algebra room for homeroom. First period was Health, then Algebra, Gym, Lunch, Biology, World History, and lastly English. My locker number was 1113. I went upstairs to find it. It was right next to my first class. I put in my combination and put my stuff in my locker. I checked my watch to see that i still had ten minutes until I had to be in homeroom. I looked around at all the groups of people talking. Telling each other about their summers, and what they would do after school, and the "end of summer" party. I thought about my friends at my old school, what they might be doing now. With me...My mind wandered for a little bit before someone yelling down the hallway brought me out of it. I wished someone would come up and say hi to me...I'm not good at approaching other people. What would they think of me? Would they be nice? That's when I saw a group of guys whispering and pointing and looking in my direction. I made eye contact with one of them, and quickly looked away, heat rushing to my cheeks. Then he started walking towards me. I tried to look cool, but I was nervous.

He said hi to me. I stuttered a bit. "I-uh...Hi."

"My names Billy. What's yours?"

"Uh..Zacky."

"Hey Zacky. You new here?"

I nodded.

"Cool. Hey uhm...are you...gay, by any chance?"

The question surprised me. Maybe he was gay himself...

"I...erm...Yeah...I..I am."

He busted out laughing and turned around to his group of friends and shouted "HE'S A FAG!" They all started laugh and he ran over and high fived them. The whole hallway heard him and soon they were all laughing too.I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and I had to give everything to not throw up right there. I ran to the nearest bathroom, thankful no one else was in there. I checked my watch. Two more minutes. I didn't want to go back out there. I just wanted to lock myself in a stall and die. But I couldn't. I splashed my face with water and tried to make it look like I hadn't been crying. Then I heard the bell ring.

I slowly walked out of the bathroom, keeping my head down all the way to my locker. Even with my eyes on the floor, I could feel people staring and hear them laughing. I quickly got my things from my locker and went to my first class. I was there early so there were a lot of open seats. I took one in the back corner. More people started walking in, most of them whispering and giggling when they noticed me. There were a few kind people who gave me sympathetic looks. I just stared at my desk. The second bell rang and the teacher walked in. I hoped to god she didn't make me get up in front of the class and introduce myself.

She introduced herself and called roll, my name included, and thankfully she didn't make me stand up and introduce myself. I guess she wouldn't because it was the very first day of school and there were a few other new students. And seeing as how it was the first day, we didn't do much other than go over rules and things.

Class seemed like it flew by, and the bell rang in no time. I went to my locker, got my things for my next class, and checked my schedule to see what room I would be going to. "Algebra...that's downstairs..."

* * *

Finally it was lunch time. This was good and bad. Good because I was hungry and I wanted to get away from the classrooms for a little, and bad because half the school was in the cafeteria, pointing, laughing, whispering as usual. And not to mention I had no one to sit with.

I got my lunch and looked around to try and find a vacant spot, preferably with no other people. No luck. The cafeteria was so full people were even standing. I spotted a slightly empty corner and started walking towards it. Then I heard a familiar voice shouting my name.

"Hey Zacky!" It was the guy from this morning. I tried to ignore him and kept walking, but he caught up to me and put his arm around me. "Hey, what't up Faggy- I mean..Zacky." He smiled cockily. I glared and shrugged his arm off, still moving towards my corner. "Aww come one, where you goin'? I was just messin' with you!"

"Hey, leave him alone, asshole." This voice was different. "Oh, what's big bad Brian gonna do about it?" The other man who's name was apparently Brian grabbed a fistful of his shirt and got in his face. "You wanna keep going and find out?" All the cockiness from early had gone away. "Sorry man, I was just messin' with him." "Yeah, you ever come near him again, I'll beat your ass. You hear?" He nodded and Brian let go of his shirt. The look on his face went from threatening to kind when he looked at me. I nearly dropped my tray when he smiled at me. He was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen in my life. He had an amazing body, beautiful brown eyes, long brown hair...He was perfect. I almost started drooling before I realized he was talking. "Hey, I'm Brian. My friends call me Syn. Long story." he held out his hand. I shook it and said "Hey Brian...I'm...I'm Zacky."
"Call me Syn." He smiled again. I smiled too and said "Okay...Syn."
"Don't mind those guys. They're assholes. I put up with a lot of shit from them before I finally set 'em straight. Never bothered me again." He winked and I almost melted. "So, you wanna come sit with me and my friends?" "Uh...yeah. That'd be nice." We walked over to a table with three other people at it. One had almost the same build as Syn, but less hair. The other was really short, and had blonde hair. The one standing next to him was the tallest, and he had very interesting hair.
"Everyone, this is Zacky. Zacky, this is Matt," he gestured toward the one with his similar build, "Jimmy," the tallest one, "and Johnny." the shortest one. I recognized Matt from algebra, and Jimmy from Gym. I didn't have any classes with Johnny or Syn yet, though. They all said hi and smiled to me, and I did the same. "So what were those guys bothering you about, anyway?" "Oh shit...do I tell them? Might as well..."

"I....uhm...I'm..g...gay." There was a moment of silence. Syn broke it. "Are you serious?"
"Perfect...now they're gonna be just like those other guys..."
I nodded. "I am too!" My eyes widened and I looked at Syn. Jimmy put his hand on my shoulder. "Seems you've found the right group of friends." Matt piped up. "Yeah, we've been friends with Syn for years, and never cared that he was gay. Jimmy, Johnny and I are all straight, but we never though any different of him when he told us he was gay." Johnny nodded in the background.
I smiled the biggest smile I had in a while. I found a group of friends who didn't shun me for being gay, and I met the most gorgeous man in the world, who also happened to be gay. Today might not be as bad as I thought it would be.