Who Are You Now?

The constant beeping of the alarm clock woke me up, and I groaned as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It was only six-thirty; way too early to be getting up for school, in my opinion.
I sat up and stretched, feeling more exhausted than usual. I had to stay an extra hour to restock the shelves, which was more my fault than anyone else's seeing as I had failed to restock them the day before.
I got up and walked over to the bathroom down the hall, brushing my teeth quickly and washing my face off.
I wasn't ready for today; I had to go and face Jaime and Tony, and it wasn't something that I wanted to do.
So be it, though. I have to do it sometime. As I walked back down the hall, changing my clothes and collecting my things, I wondered why they hated Kellin so much.
I did hear Jaime calling him a faggot - maybe they were just homophobic.
How could I be so sure that Kellin was gay, though? I've been called a faggot lots of times, and that doesn't mean that i'm gay.
Truthfully, I didn't know what I was. I didn't have a problem with dating guys; i've just never dated one. I've never dated a girl either, so that didn't really help in figuring anything out.
I did find some guys attractive. Like Johnny Depp. Everyone finds Johnny Depp attractive, though.
I find Kellin attractive. No, Vic. You can't think like that, you need to keep your head down and just finish school without any problems on your hands.
Speaking of problems, I already had a whole barrage of them headed my way in the form of Jaime and Tony.
I sighed, going over to the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. I wonder what they're gonna do to me. Probably beat me to a pulp and leave me on the ground to die. I'm sure this is just me being overdramatic, though.
I hardly even know them! Maybe, deep down, they're secretly nice guys who spend their time volunteering at a homeless shelter and petting kittens. Wishful thinking, right?
I threw the bottle away when I was finished and checked the clock on the wall. 7:15.
Good, so I wouldn't be late. I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked over to the door, ready to leave, just as Mike came out of his room.
"Leaving so soon?" He asked, going over to the kitchen and pulling out the computer chair we had taken with us from the house to sit.
I nodded and turned the door handle. "Don't wanna be late."
"How'd it go yesterday?"
I debated on which parts I should tell him and which I should cover up before coming up with an acceptable answer. "It went pretty well. The teachers aren't all that bad."
He swiveled around in the chair a few times. "That's good. What about the students?"
I bit my lip. "They're not that bad either."
He nodded and stood up, pushing the chair back in it's place. "Well, see you later then."
I waved goodbye and walked out, closing the door behind me. I didn't want to tell Mike exactly what happened at school, because then i'd have to tell him about Tony and Jaime, and he'd blame himself for all that.
You see, the reason I had go to a new school was because I had missed so many days at my other one that they dropped me from the roll sheets. It was a blessing and a curse; a blessing because I didn't have to be around those horrible students and teachers anymore, and a curse because now that's on my record forever.
The days I missed were because I decided to stay home with Mike for a few weeks to make sure he was alright, not even realizing that I was basically neglecting all of my school work and skipping all those days.
Well, I did, but I didn't really care. Mike does, though. He just can't get the idea out of his head that my future's been permanently damaged because I was expelled. In a way, it was, but it was my choice to stay home, not his.
I sighed heavily as I trudged down the steps of the building, remembering all the bad times I had at my old school. If I do get my head pounded in by Jaime and Tony, at least that'll be better than having to spend another day at San Diego High.

-

I tapped my pencil against the desk nervously as I waited for the bell to ring, signaling the end of class. I was in English class right now - My teacher, Mrs.Bates, was teaching something about Shakespeare at the front of the class, but I was too fidgety to focus right now.
I had gone through half the day - including lunch - avoiding Jaime and Tony, choosing to hide out in the bathroom rather than in the lunchroom where I knew they'd be, and I didn't want to run into them now.
I spent all day ducking through the halls and finding different paths to get to class all just to avoid them.
I almost ran straight into them after Gym (yeah, I know, just my luck), but I managed to slip into the corner between a locker and the wall unnoticed.
The bell rang, and i jumped out of my seat, pushing past the other students and earning groans of annoyance as I did so. I couldn't worry about that now, though - I needed to hurry up and get to my next class.
I jogged out of the door and down the hall, searching for ways that I could go through to get to my next class. I couldn't find any down this end of the hall, though, and if I took the other end, i'd be more late to class then i'm comfortable with. Guess i'll have to take the straight and narrow, then.
I ducked my head under the stream of students moving through the halls to get to their next class and tried my best to slip by unnoticed - that is, until a felt a hand grab the back of my shirt and yank me backwards. Oh shit.
I turned around quickly, ready to try my best to fight them off, but lucky for me that didn't need to happen. Or unlucky, because standing in front of me was no other than Kellin.
"Fucking asshole!" I hissed quietly, "You almost scared me half to death!"
He shrugged his shoulders. "if you're scared of me right now, then you'll really be scared of what's behind you."
I felt my heart stop at that and whispered, "is it them?"
He nodded. "We should get going before they see us."
So here were my options; get caught and beaten up by Tony and Jaime, go wherever Kellin was planning to take me, or take my chances and head to class, most likely still to get beaten up by them.
I thought that over for a minute.
Fuck it, class'll have to wait, The idea of showing up with a bruised and battered face didn't really appeal to me.
"C'mon," I said, grabbing his arm and sprinting through the crowded hallway, "I guess i'll have to be stuck with you for a while."