It Started With A Dare

It was the end of my first day of high school, and I wasn’t feeling too great. I’d had to sit though a whole class of Debbie rambling on about something or other, and now I had to stay behind and watch her, Gracie and Janie try out for cheerleading. Ugh. I texted Bob to tell him I was staying with some ‘friends’ for cheerleading tryouts and he said that I’d have to walk home. Great.

I followed them all to the gym where we sat on the bleachers and waited for their names to be called out. I don’t want to bore you with the details but basically I was sat there for the best part of an hour watching complete strangers spell out the name of our school football team, and I was soooo full of pep by the end of it. Go team! (Insert sarcasm here).

Debbie, Gracie and Janie had tried out, and all gotten onto the squad. I’ve got to hand it to them, they were pretty good, but there were so many others who were better, I think they only got in because they were good and pretty. The tryouts were over and I was still stuck sitting on the front bleachers listening to them all gush about how excited they were. I rolled my eyes quite a lot when they weren’t looking, but when I did, I saw Gerard walk into the gym.

I watched as a lot of the senior cheerleaders made their way towards him and started chatting to him. It was quite amusing to see them basically flaunt themselves at him and to see him clearly caring less and trying to get past them. He finally made it away from them and went out the back off the gym. I then remembered that I had to walk home, but maybe I could ask Gerard for a ride.

Slipping away from Debbie and her friends, I headed out the same way as he had and looked around the parking lot for him. I finally found him unlocking a black jeep near the front of the lot. I called out his name, and he turned to look at me as I jogged towards him.

“Hey kid, fancy seeing you here.” He said, smirking.

“Can you stop calling me that? I’m not a kid, gramps.” I said, smirking back at his shocked expression “Anyway, can you please give me a lift to my house? Bob already left and I don’t wanna walk. Please?” I asked, pulling out the puppy dog eyes on him. A few moments later and he sighed, shaking his head.

“Ugh, fine, I guess I needed to see Bob anyway, he said something about Biology homework.” He said. Ha! He already got homework!

“Thank you!” I exclaimed, quickly hugging him around the waist and jumping into the passenger seat of his car. Gerard started the car and started driving towards my house.

“So how’d your first day go?” he asked, making conversation so it wasn’t totally awkward.

“Erg, don’t even get me started. This one girl talked to me and now I think I’m stuck with the preppy lot of them.” I complained.

“Ah bummer, so did you make any other friends or just the air heads?” he asked chuckling.

“Oh I did talk to this one guy, Damien, he seems pretty cool.” I said.

“Wait, Damien Iero?” he asked, I nodded “No way! That’s Frank’s little brother!” he exclaimed.

“Really? Wow, small world.” I said, grinning when something sparked my memory “Oh, erm, I was wondering if you knew something. I’m not homophobic or anything, but is he gay?” I asked.

“Yeah, Frank told me word got around about a year ago at Damien’s middle school. He was making out with a guy in the boys toilets, then after school he got beat up by some jocks. Frank was kinda cut up about it for a while.” Gerard explained.

“That’s terrible.” I said, making Gerard nod in agreement. We soon pulled up at my house, and we both got out before I knocked on the door (I wasn’t allowed a key because I always end up losing it, then we have to change the locks). A few moments later Bob appeared in the door way, staring at us with confusion and curiosity.

“Hey Bobby!” I said, walking past him and dumping my bag by the stairs.

“Hey, how come you’re both, together?” He asked.

“I gave her a ride because she was dragged to cheerleading tryouts by some girls.” Gerard explained as I went into the kitchen to get some skittles. I could hear them chatting in the living room as I ate my skittles. It was muffled but I caught the gist that they were discussing homework. A few minutes later Bob walked into the kitchen.

“Cassie, we’re just gonna go to Frank’s house for a while, okay?” he said. I was about to bid him goodbye before an idea sparked in my head.

“Hey, can I come with you?” I asked, making him give me a weird look.

“Why? You got the hots for Frank or something?” he asked chuckling. I just rolled my eyes.

“No Bobby, I actually wanted to see Damien.” I explained.

“Oh yeah! Shit, I was gonna tell you about him. Well, come on then, but you have to sit in the back seat.” He said. I followed him and Gerard out of the house and we all got into Gerard’s car again and drove off to Frank’s house.