Burn it Down

~Luke's POV~

Did I ever mention I fucking hated first period? There was some comedian who talked about something like this. Maybe not exactly, but he said something like there is absolutely nothing you can learn out of one bloodshot eye.

He's right, but today I struggled to keep even one eye open, bloodshot or not. My friend Tyler came in, about one whopping minute before the bell rang. I was OCD about being on time. I think my parents had something to do with that, who the fuck knows. I'm lucky I can remember my own god damn name much less why I absolutely have to be on time everywhere for everything. He was technically early, but it irked me that he just couldn't fucking show up. He was probably squeezing one last cigarette in before class.

As he plopped down next to me, I swiveled my head and looked at him.

"'Bout fuckin' time you showed up." I teased.

"Bite me." He laughed and swung his bookbag down onto the polished tile floor.

"Hey faggots keep your makeout session quiet." Some douchebag jock said at the front.

We got pretty much the same line every day so I didn't even listen to it. The teacher clearly heard the insult but sat at the back doing nothing about it, also the same as every day. I had turned back to look over my shoulder at the motherfucker who should have shut that shit down but sat quietly as if nothing had happened at all. As he got up, I made eye contact with him and he shied away from my gaze as if just looking at me would turn him to stone.

Am I fucking Medusa? I thought. Pretty sure I'm not. So fucking look at me, you prick.

I ran my hand through my hair. I hate this place. I hate this place more than I hate being here. Almost anywhere else would be better than here.

The teacher rattled off some shit about the assignment. We were going to start reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower and as we read we had to fill out this stupid questionnaire. The teacher handed them to some mousy girl who passed them back two rows over.

"Split into teams of two or more if you like," The teacher asked. "You can help each other out. Just don't get too loud. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me." As the teacher weaseled his ass to the back, I turned to Tyler who, by the time I looked at him, had this ridiculous grin plastered on his face. He looked evil as fuck for no reason and I laughed, ignoring more taunts thrown at us about being gay or some shit.

It was when I turned to see where this stupid questionnaire was in relation to me that I saw a girl standing in the doorway. I had been in this area for a while and recognized nearly everyone and I was positive that this girl wasn't here at the school even yesterday. I turned to Tyler.

"Dude, you recognize this girl?" I asked him, my brows coming together before I turned back to her. She was waving to the teacher to try and get his attention.

"No." Tyler said weakly. "I'd definitely remember her." He chuckled lightly.

"Right." My eyebrows came up as I let out half a laugh.

She wasn't tall, maybe 5'5'', maybe shorter. A head full of dark brown, maybe black hair crowned her, and it was straight, but not like stick straight like a preppy girl. It was even a little bit messy, and I couldn't tell if she just wanted it to look like that or if she hid behind that hair. Maybe both. I didn't know it right then, but I would never forget exactly what she was wearing and how she looked.

Since it was a still warm outside, she had on a black V-neck t-shirt. It was fitted, tight even, but she wasn't big or anything so it wasn't a problem. Her jeans were a light denim and a tad distressed, but without holes. What I loved most was she was wearing what looked like very beat up combat boots, with half the laces undone. Seriously she must have wore those things every day for years because even though I knew they wouldn't fall apart if she took them off, they almost seemed as if they would. A bracelet encompassed her wrist, it was a wide leather band, like a cuff, and I'd later find out it was her watch and that her watch meant a lot to her.

What scared me most was that she was different. I wasn't scared of her, I was scared for her. People here didn't handle that kind of thing well and it was a shame because she was a beautiful girl and they would make her life hell because she was different.

Finally getting the teacher's attention, he waved her over.

"Megan Marks?" He asked her.

She seemed to retreat into her hair. Well, there was my fucking answer. She hid in it.

"Yes, sir." I heard her say quietly.

"Welcome to Central High School. I know it's a month into the year. We'll get you set up. I'll go easy on you until we get you all caught up. Won't be hard. We just started reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower today. We broke into groups so we'll find somewhere to put you. This is going to be silly, but we're going to have you introduce yourself to the class. You don't have to say much."

From what I could see all color flushed from her body. She looked like a ghost. She must be shy, or scared or something. I couldn't tell. Again maybe fucking both, I don't know.

She slowly meandered to the front of the class and did her best to come out of her hair. I chuckled. That was a lot of fucking hair and I almost couldn't get over it. I knew I wasn't the only one because I heard Tyler trying not to lose it too.

"Class, we have a new student today. Please be quiet while she introduces herself." The teacher said. He only half cared by now. He knew she was different so the investment he wanted to make towards her was minimal.

After a moment of her standing in front of a silent class room she finally cleared her through and shook her hair back.

"My name is Megan Marks. I just turned 16. I moved here from Boulder because my dad accepted a better job..." She trailed off.

I felt bad for her. She'd have to do this shit every period.

"My mom is a personal stylist...so if anyone wants tips or anything..."

The whole class burst out into laughter. I was suddenly beyond furious. They were in an uproar because she offered her mother's help. Wow.

I looked over at Tyler and we exchanged looks. We had this thing where we could almost communicate without even speaking. Whole conversations. I know a lot of friends could do this, but it was almost creepy how well we could do this.

I saw Megan turn a shade of red I'd never seen a human being take before and her eyes went up to the teacher, nearly begging for mercy. When he nodded she exhaled deeply.

"Would anyone be kind enough to let Megan into their group today so she can begin working on this assignment and getting into the class?"

No one spoke. Not a single fucking person. It blew my mind. There was nothing even remotely wrong with her! All the jocks and their preppy little bitch girlfriends just snickered while everyone else pretended to get really busy all of a sudden.

I looked at Tyler. He nodded.

Raising my hand I said "She's welcome to work with us."

The teacher eyeballed me suspiciously. An awkward moment passed and he shrugged his eyebrows.

"Very well then."

That was about the extent of what he had to say about it and he took his seat and seemed to ignore us all again. Megan crept over to us and as she was about to sit down, some asshole in front started his shit with us. Except this time it included Megan.

"Enjoy Cousin It, faggot. That's as close to pussy as you'll ever get."

So much laughter from that. Megan's expression was nearly perfect. She stared blankly as they stared back at her. Eventually their faces dropped and they turned around. She didn't back down from them, but she didn't fight back. She just took it in a way that let them know they didn't affect her. I could tell already I was going to like this girl.

The papers were at the guy directly in front of me. As he turned around to hand them to me, I reached out to take them, but he dropped them right on the floor, letting them fan out around me. I stared at him, so did Tyler, and so did Megan. My gaze didn't seem to affect him, nor did Tyler's, but he stared back at Megan, his color draining from him like she was leeching it right out of his body.

Finally, to make himself look like a hard ass again he asked Megan,

"Can I do something for you?"

Without a beat Megan retorted,

"Probably not."

"Oooooooohhhh..." The jocks all started laughing and turned around like what she had done was precious and not worth paying mind to. Like you do with a kid who brings home his macaroni art and you put it on the fridge just because the kid made an effort.

Megan rolled her eyes and leaned down to help me pick up the papers. She kept one for herself and I passed the pile to Tyler. We all moved and rearranged our seats so we were facing each other.

"Hey, I'm Luke." I introduced myself to her.

"Tyler." He waved.

She nodded and pushed her hair behind her ears so that her face finally came out behind it. It's hard to say but I think she was getting comfortable. Comfortable with us, comfortable in the environment? I would really hope she wasn't comfortable in this shit. So I settled on believing she found us friendly enough.

"Do they...always act like that?" She asked, glancing at nearly everyone as her way of gesturing to them.

Tyler and I looked at each other then smiles, big smiles spread across our faces and we looked back at her.

"Yeah always." We said together.

The look on her face was hard to place. My guess was disappointed...lost...hopeless. I would guess she already got out of a school like this and was just as disappointed as we all were to find out that the promise of change that this school has offered everyone was a lie.

Without even looking at the book that the teacher, whose name was Mr. Herrell, gave her, she looked at the questionnaire and reached into her backpack for a pen. Digging it out she scribbled quickly, answers to every single question.

"I've already read the book," she said, "so stop staring at me like a math problem." Her brows came together. "If you want to read the book, you can, but while we're here, we can blow this off, you can trust my judgment about the answers, and we can talk...I don't know."

Right now this was as close as I could get to her saying she wanted friends as soon as possible, and Tyler and I once again locked eyes and decided we could probably manage that for her.

So we copied her answers, not word for word, and talked with her. The more we talked, the more I knew Tyler and I would have one more friend to get us through the days packed with people who hated us.