The Crumbling Pyramid

What are you wearing?

Anette paused, listening. Her fingers were poised over the keyboard, ready to type her response to Chase, but she needed to make sure no one was going to be barging in on her. She’d have a lot of explaining to do if her mom read her and her boyfriend’s chat history.

A nightdress. The purple one.

Anything else?

Anette thought about it for a second.

Nope. You?

Just boxers. The ones you like.

Anette’s stomach felt a little fuzzy as she imagined Chase sitting on his bed with his laptop in nothing but his blue striped boxers.

When can you come over again?

I don’t know. It’ll depend on how school goes this week.

Okay. God it’s been weeks.

Only five days. I think you can handle that, Chase.

No I can’t. Fuck, I want you right now.

Anette giggled a little.

Oh yeah? How much?

It’s tempting to drive over and climb in your window.

And what exactly would you do while my mom is home?

Well, I’d have to gag you.

That’s rude.

I don’t want you screaming while I’m fucking you senseless.

Anette was about to reply when she heard a noise from downstairs. She froze, listening with all her might. Someone was walking. They went to the bathroom, and then walked back to their room. Anette let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, they hadn’t come upstairs.

Anette?

Sorry Chase. I have to go to bed.

Dammit. Goodnight.

Night. Love you.

Love you too.

-

“Alright, I think we have everyone, so let’s get going!”

This was possibly the most difficult thing Anette had done since her last math final. She led a group of weary freshman down the halls of their new school, none of them very enthused by going on a tour lead by an upperclassman. But Anette had had to wake up early this morning unlike pretty much everyone else in the school, and she had to be as chipper as a good guide and role model should be, so if anyone had a right to complain, she did.

“So, what do you want to do? Just go around the school, or go find specific classes?” Anette asked, surveying her group.

“Can we sleep?” one asked, and Anette laughed.

“I wish. But really, how do you guys want to do this?”

“Let’s go by classes. Where’s the Basic Art room?” a girl near the front asked.

“Follow me!” said Anette, and she lead them down the art hall. “Okay, so that’s the choir room, and the band room, and if you take that door right there you’ll end up in the theater if any of you have acting classes. Oh, and auditions for Grease are going to be in three weeks, so if you want to get into the theatre program, you should audition. There are lots of chorus and tech positions for freshman, and it’s really fun.” None of them looked too enthused, so she moved on. “Alright, here’s the rest of the art classes. Left to right is Photography, Drawing, Painting, and Ceramics.” A couple of kids started taking a few notes on where their classes were, and Anette smiled.

“Okay, so let’s move on. I’ll show you Freshman hall so you can find your lockers, and then we’ll head up to the English hall.”

The tour went on like this for the whole morning. The freshman slowly warmed up to her, and by the end, they were asking her all kinds of questions, mostly about the teachers, and she answered them with enthusiasm.

“What’s Mr. Zeiner like?” one boy asked.

“Zeiner? He’s brilliant, you’ll love him.”

“How much homework do you get in Biology?”

“Depends on the teacher, but I never had much when I took it.”

“Why do we have two vice principles?”

“Because Freeman’s only here to chase down ditchers. Never try and outrun him, ‘cuz he used to be a track star.”

Anette led the freshman back to the group in the cafeteria. By now, a number of the older students had arrived and were getting their schedules.

“Anette!”

Anette turned around to see her friend Dawn walking towards her, green tote bag in one hand, purple schedule in the other and her strawberry blonde curls bouncing.

“This year is going to suck,” Dawn informed her as she came within speaking range, waving her schedule around. Anette pointed the freshman in the direction of the food lines and took Dawn’s schedule.

“It can’t possibly be that bad,” Anette said, reading the class list. “You’ve got Creative Writing and Yoga in the same semester. That’s pretty good.”

“Yeah, but I’ve also got Algebra II with Whiteman, and she hates me!”

“No she doesn’t.”

“Yes she does!”

“Well, if you would pay attention in class, she would probably like you more.”

“Don’t get all high and mighty on me!”

Anette just rolled her eyes playfully and went to get her schedule. It wasn’t that bad. She had Algebra II first thing, and then Junior English and Graphics Design. After lunch was Gym, US History, Acting III, and then a free period. ‘Excellent, I’ll have time to get dinner before rehearsals,’ she thought, handing Dawn her own schedule.

“Damn, I was hoping we’d have math together,” Dawn said grumpily, handing Anette back her purple paper.

“Yeah, but you’ll probably have Rach or Tyler or someone in there. I think we’re all taking it this year.”

“I guess.”

Slowly, the school began to fill up with students. Dawn and Anette hung around Junior Hall after they finished putting some extra supplies in their lockers, waiting for the rest of their friends to show up. Rachel, Sarah and Kate showed up soon, with Jason and Tyler in tow. Anette didn't see Chase until she and Kate went to Algebra II together. He pulled her aside into a quick kiss before winking and going inside the classroom. Anette just smiled and followed him.

Anette and Chase compared schedules after they had sat down next to each other near the back of the room. They had this class, History, and the free period together.

"Good, I'll get to see my fair share of you this year," he said, licking his lips sexually.

Anette just giggled. "You saw more than your fair share of me this summer. I don't think any of the girls got a glimpse of me 'cuz you had me locked away."

"Hey, you were at my house of your own free will."

The rest of math went pretty much like that for the rest of the period. Anette left for English in an okay mood, considering she was now going to one of her most dreaded classes. She really hated English because she couldn't read a damn thing with her dyslexia, especially when she got frustrated and the words just floated off the page. They got a list of all the books they were going to be reading, and her spirit sunk. They were all rather complicated sounding books, and only one of them was modern. To top it off, the only person she sort of hung out with in that class was Tyler, and even then she didn't know him very well. And then there was the boy from the movie theater, the one with glasses. He just sat at the back by himself, not talking to anyone. Anette frowned a little at this, but decided it would be best if she just left him alone.

She didn’t know anyone in Graphics Design, but everyone seemed to be pretty lively, so she figured she would make friends pretty fast in that class. Come to think of it, she did anyways most of the time.

Since it was a short day, instead of lunch, Anette went straight off to Gym. She thankfully didn’t need to change, and instead just walked out onto the gym floor. Fortunately, she had loads of friends in this class. Sarah and Dawn were both there, along with Tyler and his friend Bob, whom she was on friendly terms with. Unfortunately, Andrew was in the class, and so was the glasses boy. Wasn’t his name… something with an M? Mitch? No, definitely not… Mikey. That was it. Mikey.

Anette left Gym for History with Dawn and Tyler. Andrew followed with his own gang of football players, and even Mikey seemed to be headed the same way, but he had been joined up by his friend from the theater Ray, and someone she did recognize: Gerard Way. They met Rachel at the door to the classroom. “Hey guys, I’m gonna sit somewhere else for now, ‘kay?” Anette said, leaving them and walking across the room.

Dawn and Rachel looked at each other, but then Dawn shrugged. “Whatever, Anette.”

She reached the table that Gerard and his friends had sat at. “Hey Gerard, can I sit with you today?” she asked, smiling her lipsticked smile.

Gerard looked startled, but eventually overcame that and said, “Uh, sure Anette. Go for it.”

Anette sat down, aware that Mikey was giving her a look like she was the plague and that Ray was frowning, though why she couldn’t imagine. Gerard looked very awkward indeed, trying to shift a drawing out of sight without her seeing. Anette pretended like she didn’t.

“So Gerard, are you gonna audition this year?”

“Yeah. I’ve decided I might as well,” he said, running a hand through his black hair.

“You better. You’re a pretty good actor, and I think you’ll definitely get a role, probably a pretty big one,” Anette replied, smiling.

“Really?” Gerard asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah. You’re quite a bit better than a lot of the upperclassman.”

And so History went on in this fashion, Gerard and Anette geeking out about theatre, Ray sitting quietly writing music notes all over his paper, Mikey refusing to look at Anette, and a good portion of the class staring at Anette with expressions that said, “What the fuck does she think she’s doing?”

It turned out that Gerard and Anette had acting together next, so they walked there together, smiling and laughing, though Gerard was a bit awkward. It wasn’t like this was an every day occurrence, the popular girl and the art nerd walking and talking together. But it was comfortable for them, and they had an easy conversation.

Acting III was just as awesome as Anette had hoped it would be. The class was small, but composed entirely of people Anette had spent her whole high school acting career with. She and Gerard and another girl named Hailey all sat together on a couch, because Mr. Winchester’s room was filled not with desks, but with couches. This provided not only a very comfy place to sit and relax in, but good makeshift set pieces and sometimes they ended up in the shows.

Anette left her class grinning. Gerard left her for his drawing class, and she found Chase, who was waiting for her outside the school. They left for his house together, to do a little studying and a whole lot of kissing.