I Can Transform You

POV: Frank

The following morning, Gerard and I woke bright and early for school. Ugh, I felt like death. I am not a morning person AT ALL. But I managed to drag myself out of bed because it was the first day of putting the plan into action and I was actually sort of excited.

I still didn’t think the plan was the best idea, but I was just interested to see if I could pull it off and actually transform Gerard from a loser kid to a popular kid. It was like mission impossible, but I liked a challenge.

Plus, I liked having control; Gerard was going to have to follow my orders if he wanted this to work. And that made me feel needed; he needed me to make him popular.

Yawning, I stumbled across the bedroom, hands grabbing at clothes in my suitcase, and I made my way to the bathroom. I got washed and ready in there, taking the longest time on my hair, as usual. (I’m not vain, I just want to look as good as I can, y'know? I need to take pride in my appearance - I’m the most popular kid in school. It wouldn’t be cool to go to school looking like a tramp.)

Half an hour later, I was dressed and ready for action, so I headed back to the bedroom to see whether Gerard was ready to leave. I decided I would drive him to school in my car, seeing as I’m making him popular. He needs to start doing things that will get him noticed, like arriving at school in my sports car.

But I was met with the sight of Gerard sitting on his bed, xbox controller in hand and eyes transfixed on the TV screen. My eyes, on the other hand, were transfixed on his clothes; he was wearing some kind of God-awful Hawaiian blue shirt that needed burning.

“Dude, what the fuck?” I blurted out, frowning deeply at him.

He continued to press the buttons on his xbox controller frantically and refused to tear his eyes away from the screen.

“What?”

I rolled my eyes at him, unseen by him. My patience was wearing thin so I just stepped forward and pressed the power button on his xbox, turning it off.

“Hey! I had almost completed that level!” he complained, glaring at me.

Man, he’s such a nerd.

“First of all, it’s 7:30 in the morning, what the hell are you doing playing that?” I demanded disapprovingly, but I didn’t wait for an answer. “And secondly, what the fuck are you wearing? I actually want to punch you for wearing that.”

It’s just a top that’s so… Gerard. And he is trying to create a new image for himself now… He cannot wear that. Ever again.

“It’s a shirt, calm down,” he retorted, slightly taken aback by my strong opinion.

I could see in his eyes that he was uncertain about whether I was actually going to punch him. After all, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if I did. But no, I was not planning on doing so. It was just an expression.

“Trust me, it’s a shirt that you don’t want to be seen dead in,” I told him firmly. “Come on, Gerard, I thought you wanted me to make you popular? I’m not a fucking magician… You’re gonna have to make some effort!”

“Alright, fine. I’ll wear a different shirt,” he muttered irritably, getting off his bed to go and search through his drawers.

I appeared at his side, looking down at his clothes as he rummaged through the drawer. He really did own some horrifying items of clothing. One particular garment caught my eye and blinded me.

“Oh. dear. God,” was all I said as I lifted out a multi-coloured knitted jumper, turning to look at him with raised eyebrows.

“Uh, yeah, my Grandma made me that,” he explained, embarrassed (and rightly so).

I just continued to stare at him with raised eyebrows and my best ‘what the fuck’ expression, holding the jumper in the air.

“See? My outfit could have been worse… I could have been wearing that,” he grimaced.

That’s true…

“You need new clothes,” I declared flatly, shaking my head and then tossing the jumper that had been puked on by a rainbow behind me. “Right, we’re going shopping after school today,” I decided in a firm tone that said it was not up for discussion.

I took it upon myself to rummage through Gerard’s drawers and find a suitable top for him to wear. Most of his shirts were band shirts, and he’s not going to gain any popularity marks for wearing a ‘Misfits’ or ‘Iron Maiden’ shirt, because no one likes them.

In the end, I pulled out a plain white shirt and shoved it in Gerard’s hand.

“For now, just wear this, and you can wear my leather jacket over it,” I decided, crossing the room to retrieve my jacket from a chair in the corner of the room.

“You care way too much about appearance,” he grumbled, taking the shirt I gave him and marching out of the room, clearly going to change clothes away from me.

Yes, maybe I do care too much about appearance, but personal image is everything. You have to look the part if you want people to believe the role you’re trying to play, right?

About a minute later, he returned to the room and I handed him my leather jacket, which he put on without one word. His clothes were okay now. He looked more edgier, like someone I would hang around with, rather than a funny-looking dude I would have to beat up.

“Right, let’s go.”

***

The drive to school was slightly awkward. Gerard was already starting to get on my nerves. He complained about everything from my fast driving to my loud music… Yes, my loud music… Coming from him, the hypocrite.

The awkwardness didn’t leave once we had arrived at school either. We got out the car and started making our way to the front building together and straight away all eyes in the parking lot were on us. You’d think we were walking through school holding hands or something.

I did understand why everyone was staring though. Gerard and I standing within a few feet of eachother is not something they see every day, unless I’m beating Gerard up. It’s a parallel universe, some might say.

But as we got inside and started walking down the corridor, the stunned faces and staring eyes started to piss me off and I turned on one random passer-by.

“What the fuck are you staring at?”

They didn’t answer me; they know better than that. They just scurried away as quickly as they could.

“You don’t have to be a jerk all the time, you know?” Gerard frowned, in response to my outburst.

“I’m walking down the corridor with you... I need to maintain my tough guy image somehow,” I replied flatly.

Still, every person we passed in the corridor stared at us in complete awe; I glared back at them.

“You need to get a tough image too. You want to create fear in people, so they know not to mess with you,” I continued casually, my eyes scanning the hall for another prey.

The prey came willingly, walking towards us, talking too loudly to his friend about me and Gerard.

“Iero’s hanging with the loser kid! Holy shit, Iero’s a fucking loser too!” a lanky boy who I know by the name of Justin said.

I clenched my fists and prepared to take a swing at Justin, but Gerard’s voice suddenly filled my ears, distracting me.

“Loser kid? You wanna come and say that to my face, dickhead?” he growled, taking me by extreme surprise.

I glanced at him in shock for a second, before snapping out of it and turning my attention to Justin, shooting him a death glare.

Justin didn’t pay much attention to Gerard; his eyes were on me. He could see that I would spring to Gerard’s defence if he came any closer to ‘say it to his face’.

Justin is one of those guys that think they’re really hardcore, but they’re all mouth and no balls. And he knew, like everyone else, not to bother starting a fight with me. I would make his life a fucking misery.

“Come on,” he muttered to his scared-looking friend, backing down immediately and walking swiftly past Gerard and I.

“Call me a fucking loser again and you’ll pay for it, asshole,” I shouted warningly after him.

There was no reply and Gerard and I were suddenly the only ones in the corridor. I turned to him straight away with an impressed look on my face.

“Nicely done! I wasn’t expecting you to try the tough guy thing so soon...”

“Well, I hate the Justin kid. He’s always bullied me,” he retorted bluntly, sounding bitter.

I wondered if he had forgotten who he was talking to when he brought up the bullying thing, since I’m the person that has bullied him the most.

“Dude, everyone used to bully you… Most of all me,” I reminded him, using past tense to reinforce that he will not be the victim as long as he’s on my side.

“Yeah, I know. I hate everyone… Most of all you,” he replied nonchalantly, catching me off-guard again with his blunt reply.

He hates me?

Meh, okay, I can understand why.

“I hate you too,” I told him with a shrug.

We carried on down the never-ending corridor, until we finally reached our classroom. Our first lesson of the day was English, which was a lesson I hadn’t been to in weeks.

Normally, I would skive, but today was not a normal day, so I didn’t. I forced myself to go and endure two hours of sitting next to Gerard. I figured that I was gonna have to get used to him being around me now, so I may as well.

I knew what to expect upon entering the classroom; people would be shocked that I was here, and even more shocked that I was arriving with Gerard, and my teacher, Mr Harris, would start shouting at me immediately for never attending his lessons.

And that’s pretty much exactly what happened.

“Frank Anthony Iero!”

Don’t fucking middle-name me, Harris. You’re not my mother!

“I’ve been ill, go ask my doctor,” I made up an excuse immediately, not even waiting for him to ask where I’d been.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times hearing this bold statement, before seeming to back down.

“Take a seat, boy,” he commanded half-heartedly, gesturing to my seat on the front row next to Gerard.

I rolled my eyes and reluctantly did as I was told. Man, I hated being told what to do by anyone, but I didn’t want to be expelled from school, so I didn’t have much choice to obey teachers, at least sometimes.

Class began and we began reading Romeo and Juliet. How original. It was totally not my thing, so I just zoned out pretty much for the two hours, right up until the end when Mr Harris started coming round to collect everyone’s homework.

I saw Gerard get out a massively long essay from his folder, preparing to hand it in.

“Dude, only nerds actually do the homework… Don’t hand it in,” I instructed him bossily, talking in a low voice so no one else could hear.

“But… this took me ages!” he whined, looking down at his Romeo and Juliet essay.

“You can’t be popular if you’re going to be a nerd,” I hissed. "It’s one or the other… Make a choice!"

Gerard sighed, but obediently put his work back in his folder, making his decision.

A few seconds later, Mr Harris came over to our table. He glanced at me but said nothing, knowing already that I wouldn’t have done it. Then, his eyes rested on Gerard and he smiled warmly. (He fancies Gerard, I swear.)

“And what does my star pupil have for me today?” he asked, looking so excited he might burst. It was unnerving actually.

“Uh… I… haven’t got anything,” Gerard mumbled, looking at his table, rather than Mr Harris, probably to avoid seeing the disappointment in his eyes.

“Why not?” Sir enquired in disbelief.

It was clearly a shock for him, because Gerard is his pet. He’s the hardest-working kid in the class, but not necessarily the smartest. I’m pretty smart when I want to be… I just don’t use my intelligence if I can help it.

“I didn’t do it,” Gerard lied shamefully.

The whole class had fallen silent and was listening in on Gerard and Mr Harris’ conversation, which was exactly what I wanted them to do. I wanted them to see Gerard rebelling and not being a goody-two-shoes for once.

“Oh,” Sir responded, at a loss for words it seemed. But he cleared his throat and found his voice again within seconds. “Then I have no choice but to give you detention, Gerard.” He shook his head and walked away muttering “what is happening to this school?”

I glanced sideways at Gerard, and to my horror, found that he looked like he was about to cry. If he started crying now it would completely destroy any progress he’s made so far today.

“Man up,” I whispered harshly to him.

The rest of the class had gone back to talking amongst themselves, so they didn’t hear me talking to Gerard. I could hear Gerard’s name pop up a few times and I heard my name too (but that’s nothing new… My name is always the name on everyone’s lips).

"You just got me a detention!” he moaned, looking annoyed instead of upset now.

“And what? It’s not like you’re gonna go to it,” I shrugged, unbothered.

“I’m not?”

He had a lot to learn…

“Nah. We’re going shopping after school, remember?” I refreshed his memory.

He frowned at me, but didn’t say anything more. He didn’t look too keen on the shopping idea. I wasn’t ecstatic about it either, but he needed new clothes desperately.

The bell eventually rang for break time and class was dismissed. The lesson seemed to go on forever. But it was now time to take Gerard to meet Matty, James and the rest of my gang at our hangout round the back of the bike shed.

I hadn’t been in touch with them to tell them that the plan was already in action, so I knew it would come as quite a shock to have me turning up with Gerard. I didn’t know how they would all react...

I guess there's only one way to find out.