Damaged

When I got to the new house it was Friday, it’s now Monday morning and I’m getting ready for school. I’m nervous, I’ve always been nervous at first day of schools. Rumors of ‘fresh meat’ still haunt me and I don’t want to be beat to a pulp, wouldn’t feel too good. I bruise easily too.

“Frank?” my mom called as I was tying my shoes.

“Coming,” I called back.

I walked downstairs and saw my mom talking to Mikey at the door.

“Mikey said you guys could carpool, if you like?”

“Um, sure,” I smiled before kissing her cheek and walking out.

“My brother offered to drive and I said sure, then he asked if you could come too,” Mikey explained as we walked to Gerard’s car. “I think he likes you.”

“Wow, really?”

“Mmhmm,” Mikey said.

“Cool.”

When we got to the car I noticed there were a lot of coffee mugs and seats were soft, it still had a new car smell even if there was trash.

“Nice car, Gerard,” I told him.

“Are you joking?” Mikey said when Gerard signed.

“Nope,” I smiled at him. “It really is nice.”

“Thank you,” Gerard mouthed as he signed it.

The sign ‘thank you’ was pretty cool. He placed his right hand palm facing him and his fingers to his chin and moved them until his palm was facing the ceiling of the car.

“Later after school do you guys mind teaching me ASL?” I asked. “It’d be cool to learn and actually communicate with Gerard.”

“Uh, sure, why not,” Mikey smiled.

“Thanks.”

We stayed silent in the car and when we arrived to the school I said goodbye to Gerard and me and Mikey walked into school.

“Can you show me where the office is? I need my schedule still.”

Mikey walked me to the office. The office was cold, silent except for the occasional typing on the computer or the smack of gum in the office ladies’ mouths.

I walked up to the front desk. “Um, I’m Frank. Frank Iero and I need my schedule.”

“Oh, hello, Frank,” an office lady said. “Here,” she gave me my schedule.

I looked at the schedule and groaned when I saw that math was my first period class.

“Oh, lighten up. It’s not that bad.”

“It’s too early for this shit,” I said.

“If it makes you feel any better I have that class too.”

“Cool then, c’mon, let’s go before we get in trouble.” Mikey and I walked up the stairs and into the classroom.

The people in the class room looked like they were dead. Some were asleep, some were looking like zombies—sweet—and some just…looked completely zoned out of their minds. That’s a good sign, right?

“Sit next to me,” Mikey said.

“So, is anyone going to beat the shit out of me today?” I ask as I sit down.

“Uh, dunno, keep away from everyone and just stick with me.”

“Alright,” I sighed.

“Also, don’t be afraid,” Mikey said. “They smell fear a mile away like dogs.”

“Okay then.”

The bell rang which meant the class was starting. I saw a teacher walk in, and her name was “Mrs. Moore”. She was very pretty.

“Stop making goo-goo eyes at our teacher,” Mikey hissed. “It’s weird.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I frowned. “No! I’m not…straight, God, Mikey.”

“You’re gay?”

“Duh,” I rolled my eyes.

“Quiet, boys,” Mrs. Moore warned us. “Oh!” she looked at me. “This is Frank, our new student.”

‘Oh shit...,’ I thought to myself.

I heard Mikey snicker beside me. “Asshole, stop it,” I hissed.

“It’s funny.”

“Watch it. You keep laughing and I’ll laugh when I kick you in your nuts, okay?” Mikey shook his head. “Then shut the hell up.”

“Everyone say hello to Frank,” Mrs. Moore said.

“You’d think this is Elementary school…” Mikey whispered in my ear.

I heard everyone murmur hellos as they turned to me. I looked at each and every one of them but got stuck on one of the boys.

It’s not that he was cute—he was far from cute, but he gave me chills. He reminded me of someone I know.

“Stop staring, you faggot,” the boy said. “Hasn’t your mama told you its rude?”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “Sorry.”

After I turned back around the class seemed to be going by fast. Or it could’ve been because I wasn’t paying attention to anything at all. The boy was stuck in my mind and I couldn’t help it because every time I thought of him my stomach dropped at least twenty or so feet below Earth.

“Hey, man, you okay?”

I snapped out of a daze and looked to see it was Mikey. I was also surprised that we were walking out of the classroom.

“Huh?” I said, confused.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, why?”

“You were just zoned, and you looked like you were going to be sick. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, um, the-the dude who called me a faggot just reminds me of someone…that’s all.”

“Hm, who does it remind you of?”

“I-I don’t know, just he gives me a bad vibe.”

“Well, if it helps, his name is Jonas.”

“Hm,” I shrugged. “Never mind then.”

As we were walking and talking I kept feeling eyes on me but I ignored them and just kept walking. The bell rang which stopped us and unfortunately we had to separate from each other. Although, Mikey promised to see me fifth period, lunch, and talk.

XXX

The day went by pretty fast and when it came to lunch I seen Mikey sitting at a table and I walked up to him.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey, are you hungry? We could go get food now,” he said.

“Uh, no, I’m not hungry right now. But you can go.”

“Alright, sit down, I’ll be back.”

I nodded and sat down. I looked down at my hands and twiddled my thumbs as I waited for Mikey to come back.

I couldn’t help but feel eyes burning into me, it made me feel queasy and I tried to ignore it. I looked around but saw no one. I was probably just being paranoid today because it was my first day, makes sense, right?

“Okay, I’m back,” Mikey said as he sat down heavily on the bench’s chairs. “Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

“I’m pretty sure, I hate eating cafeteria food. Plus, they don’t have vegetarian alternatives.”

“I can’t believe you’re vegetarian. I wouldn’t be able to not eat meat.”

“Sure you could, it’s not really all that hard.”

“Uh huh,” Mikey said with a mouthful of food.

“Is Gerard picking us up at the end of school?”

“Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“I just don’t like buses, I feel weird about them and…things.”

Mikey raised an eyebrow. “You sure it’s just that?”

“Huh?”

“Are you sure it’s just because you ‘don’t like buses’?”

“What—Oh! Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Whatever,” Mikey smirked.

I rolled my eyes. “Can you teach me a few signs here because I really want to learn…heh,” I asked.

“Sure, what do you want to learn?”

“Just some basics, I guess.”

“Okay, well,” Mikey looked at his watch. “We’ll start with the ABCs, they’re easy.”

“Alright,” I smiled.

“For A, make a fist but don’t put your thumb in front of your fingers,” I did as he said. “For B—” The bell cut Mikey off. “Ugh, I’ll teach you later, okay?” I shrugged. “See you later.”

“See you later.”

Mikey got up and through his trash away and walked out of the cafeteria. I followed suit but went the different direction to my next class. It was Study Hall. Study Hall wasn’t bad, at least I didn’t have to learn anything and just relax.

“Iero?” someone called. I looked up and saw it was a teacher.

I raised my eyebrows, “Hmm?”

“Could you come here, please?”

I walked up to the teacher and saw that his name was Mr. Morrison. Mr. Morrison was old looking, bald and taller than me. He looked strict and evil…somewhat.

“So, Mr. Iero, you’re new and I just wanted to tell you the rules of Study Hall.”

“Okay…?”

“Well, in this class you’re always going to do something. You have to. You can do anything—no cellphones, though or games, just homework or schoolwork. Read a book…anything, as long as there’s nothing electronic.”

‘Well, this is going to be boring…,’ I thought to myself.

“Do you have any questions?”

“Nope,” I sighed.

“Okay then, go sit down and get started working on something.”

I walked over to an empty seat and opened a notebook of mine.

In this notebook I normally just doodle or write poems or songs, or whatever. It’s not a notebook for one use, there are tons of things in this book but no one’s allowed to see it, no matter how innocent it may be. My life is in here but it isn’t like a diary or what-the-fuck-ever you want to call it. To me, it’s just a notebook.

XXX

I managed to survive the entire school day. Who knew?

I walked outside and waited outside for Mikey. I looked around and saw Mikey walking to Gerard’s car and I walked behind him.

“Fucker,” I said. “You didn’t wait for me. I could’ve gotten kidnapped, how would’ve you felt then? Would you tell my mom?”

“Oh shut up,” Mikey giggled. “You’re such a drama queen.”

“So, anyway, are you coming to my house or…?”

“Um, s-sure, we’ll go to your house.”

“Cool.”

XXX

When we arrived home I saw that my mom wasn’t home. I walked in the house with Mikey and Gerard. We walked up the stairs and into my room.

“Uh, sorry it’s a little messy,” I said. I looked at them and saw Gerard laughing. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s okay. My room is messy too,” Mikey said as Gerard signed.

“Ha,” I laughed. “So, c-can we start signing now?”

Mikey and Gerard sat on the bed with me and we all faced each other. Mikey took a deep breath and he started to sign.

“Well, we learned the letter A in lunch, so I guess we can go on to B,” Mikey said. “For, uh, B you make your palm face me and then bend your thumb a little in,” I did as he said.

As we kept going through the letters It was really easy learning this stuff. It’s like a piece of cake.

“Well, uh, that-that was easy,” I said after we finished it.

“Mmhmm,” Mikey said. “Practice something.”

“F-R-A-N-K,” I finger spelled, “I-E-R-O.”

“Ha, good job, Frank,” Mikey praised.

I felt Gerard place a hand on my knee and I looked up, he stuck a thumb up. “Thanks, Gerard.”

Mikey looked at his watch. “We gotta go, Gerard.”
“Oh,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. B—oh! What’s your phone number? I’ll text you.” I gave Mikey my phone number. “Bye, Frank.”

“Bye,” I said. “M-I-K-E-Y,” I finger spelled. “Bye, Gee,” I signed.

“Bye, Frank,” both Mikey said and Gerard signed.

When they left I kept practicing the ABCs.