I Can Transform You

POV: Gerard

It was lunch time at school. Me, Ray and Bob were sat at our usual table in the corner of the cafeteria, and we had the pleasurable company of my brother today.

Ray and Bob greeted Mikey politely when he came to sit down, but I just narrowed my eyes at him.

“Why are you sitting with us?” I demanded bluntly.

He only ever comes to sit with us when he has fallen out with his girlfriend.

“Alicia is a bitch,” he grumbled predictably.

Why did I even ask?

“What have you fallen out about now?” I groaned, fed up with Mikey and his girlfriend’s on-off relationship.

It stresses me out and I'm not even involved. Well, actually, I am, because he always comes to me for advice about it. I really have no idea why because I’ve never had a girlfriend in my life.

“This morning I waved to her across the corridor and she completely blanked me!” he exclaimed as if it was the most despicable thing he had ever encountered.

Personally, I’ve encountered a lot worse than being ignored. Especially from Frank Iero. I actually wish he would ignore me, but he literally does not seem to know how to...

“Maybe she didn’t see you,” I retorted realistically, frowning at my brother’s overdramatic tone.

“Yeah, either that or you’ve done something to piss her off,” Bob commented flatly. “Hey, maybe it has something to do with that half-naked picture of her that’s going round on Bluetooth at the moment.”

If there’s one thing people needed to know about Bob, it was never to take him seriously.

As I watched Mikey’s eyes widen and the colour literally drain from his face, I knew he had forgotten this golden rule.

“WHAT?”

I sighed, shaking my head at my brother's unfortunate gullibleness.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you. I have no idea why she didn’t wave to you, Mikey,” Bob smirked.

“You’re a dick. Remind me never to let you look at my phone again,” Mikey snapped, rolling his eyes.

I could only assume that Bob had seen a half-naked picture of Alicia on Mikey’s phone, from this conversation… But I was not involved in this private joke or whatever, so really I had no idea what they were talking about.

“Why don’t you just go and ask her what’s going on?” Ray asked, confused at my brother’s lack of intelligence.

Ray was the genius of the group. He was known by others as the straight-A kid with the afro.

“Well, I was kinda hoping for some advice, but you guys are useless,” my younger sibling complained.

“Mikey, she didn’t wave at you. It’s not exactly the end of the world!” I scoffed. “You want my advice? Go and talk to your girlfriend.”

See? I’m full of wisdom.

Mikey heaved a sigh and quickly departed from the table to go and find Alicia. And I stood up to make my own departure shortly after.

“Time for marching band,” I announced, waving goodbye to Bob and Ray.

A lot of people think being in the marching band is social suicide, but it’s fine for me, because I have no social life anyway. My only friends are Bob and Ray (and Mikey, if I can count family members), and they don’t exactly hate me for being in the marching band.

Ray is the team leader of the chess group, Bob is the technology whiz kid and master of all video games ever invented, and Mikey is my brother, who has serious issues with girls, so none of them can judge me.

Everyone else apparently thinks they’re perfect enough to judge me as the loser kid though. I swear Frank Iero thinks he’s some sort of God, with all his obnoxious followers and the social status he has at this school. He thinks he is better than me; that’s why he picks on me. But he is the loser, not me. He may be the king of high school, but he will be nothing once he leaves this place.

As I was walking to the classroom for marching band, I saw Frank sitting at the ‘popular’ table out of the corner of my eye. I could feel his scrutinising eyes burning into me, but I kept my eyes fixed on the door of the cafeteria, my escape, rather than making eye contact.

I started to hear whispers and sniggering coming from his table, but I kept my head held high as I passed his table. Unfortunately for me, I held it too high.

“Trip him,” I heard the sneering voice that belonged to Frank declare, and before I had chance to look at the floor and see what obstacles were in my way, I was tripping over someone’s foot.

I felt my heart drop as I fell forward and landed on my hands and knees suddenly and the whole cafeteria erupted in laughter.

Just another normal day of humiliation, I see.

"He's used to being in that position," one of Frank's cronies pointed out (incorrectly, might I add), and they all fell about laughing.

Remaining composed, I picked myself off the floor quickly and straightened up, brushing the dust off my clothes. Still, I made no eye contact with Frank or any of his dipshit friends. I felt like shouting abuse at them, but I learnt long ago that reacting to their abuse would only make it worse, sometimes resulting in getting beaten up.

I just continued in my path to the door, ignoring the sounds of laughing and whispering, trying to remain dignified.

“Oi, Way, I can’t fucking wait to live with you!” I heard Frank shout after me in a horribly sarcastic voice that almost sounded threatening, earning a few more hollow laughs.

Once again, I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

Today was the day that he and his mum were moving into our house. It was also the day my whole world was going to be turned upside-down. I did not care for this day.