Do It Now, Remember It Later.

“Jack Bassam Barakat, I said no and that is final”

I groaned, throwing my head back and pushing my side bangs to the right.

“But mom.” I whined, moving to look at my reflection in the wide mirror. “It’s just so boring.”

I glared at the small, rectangular mirror and picked at my natural medium brown hair. I spiked it up a bit on top and straightened my bangs over to the right of my forehead, but it was just so plain.

“I am not letting you bleach part of your hair, Jack. I will not allow you to ruin your hair like that. The only thing I will let you do, is get a trim or whatever. No dye.” She sighed.

I let out a huff, shutting the makeshift mirror on the car visor before putting it back up against the ceiling. Leaning against the seat, I adjusted my seatbelt so it wasn’t pressed uncomfortably against my neck.

“I just want a change. I look the same every year.” I frowned, moving to pick at the zipper of my red zip-up.

“You don’t look the same, you’ve grown some since last year.” She replied.

“I just want to do something, mom. Get a piercing, dye my hair, or maybe get a tattoo.” I pouted.

“No, no, and definitely not. And you’ve got a change, Jack. You’re going to a new school. You’ll have a fresh start since Dad’s job got transferred.” She noted.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes lightly.

“A fresh start won’t change the fact that for some reason, I can’t make friends. I’m awkward and weird. Nobody will like me here either.” I told, biting my lip when she pulled into a large parking lot.

This school was definitely bigger than my last one. It had two stories. Holy shit.

“Don’t be nervous, honey. And go on now because you’re already three hours late.” She spoke up, nudging my skinny side.

I grunted, glaring at her through my fringe as I pushed the door open. It wasn’t my fault I woke up late. We just got in like two days ago and the time difference was hard for me to get used to. Even if it was only two hours.

“Why can’t I be homeschooled?” I asked nervously sliding out of the seat and into the cold winter air.

“I’ll be back to pick you up at two thirty.” She smiled softly.

“Bye.” I mumbled, shutting the door and slowly walking up to the entrance of the school.

I took in a shaky breath, hugging my hoodie closer to my body until I reached the doors. Pulling one open, I was immediately hit with warm air so I hurried inside. Once the door shut behind me, I looked around for the office. Thankfully, it was right in front of me. I took a few steps forward and walked into the open door just as a loud bell went off.

“Hello. What can I do for you, honey?” I glanced to the front desk, surprised at the kindness in the blonde woman’s voice.

Normally office people are rude and don’t even blink when someone walks in. At my old school, I had to cough a few times or keep saying excuse me for one of the stupid secretaries to even glance at me. Even when they did they’d be like what the fuck do you want. Well, that’s what they wanted to say anyway.

“I uh..I’m new here and need my sc-schedule.” I stuttered nervously.

“Oh! You must be Jack?” She questioned sweetly.

I nodded with a small smile, stepping up to the desk. She looked through a few papers before smiling and handing one over. I took it slowly, listening to the loud chatter coming from outside of the small room. The hallways are still filled and I have no idea where to even start for my class.

“Don’t be nervous.” She reassured. “Right now, you should be headed to your fourth hour.”

I bit my lip, glancing down at the paper in my hands. Instead of even worrying about the three classes I already missed, I skimmed down to fourth period and smiled a little.

“Music with Mrs. Monroe.” I mumbled to myself.

“That’ll be easy for you to find, honey. When you leave here, you take a right and go down the hall then take another right and it will be at the end of that hall.” She directed.

“Okay…” I trailed off, nervous butterflies filling my gut. “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome. Come back to me and ask if you need any help. My name is Mrs. Stacey.” She smiled warmly.

“Okay.” I smiled back politely, slowly leaving the office just as another bell went off.

I cursed when I saw the halls were practically empty. I know I wanted it like this five minutes ago, but now I’m going to be the center of attention when I get there. I hate having everyone’s eyes on me. Everyone is always so quick to judge. Especially someone like me, an awkward looking gay new kid.

Taking a deep breath, I hugged the strap to my black messenger bag and followed the directions Mrs. Stacey gave me. As I got closer to the door, I could hear the loud talking of everyone in the class. Biting my lip I held my hand over the door handle, ready to pull it open.

“The door’s not gonna open itself you know.”

I jumped, a blush covering my cheeks.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, moving out of the way.

“It’s no problem.” The guy chuckled. “You new here? I haven’t seen you around.”

I nodded, finally looking up. I came face to face with a buff looking guy with a dazzling white smile. Like, his teeth were so perfect I could stare at them all day.

“Well, I’m Rian and music is one of the best classes to take. Everyone has fun and the teacher, Mrs. Monroe is awesome.” He grinned. “I’ll walk you in if you want?”

Holy shit, what is this? Someone is actually going out of their way to help me? Someone is being nice to me.

“Oh uh…you don’t need to d-do that.” I muttered trying to smile, but my nerves probably had me grimacing.

“It’s no problem. What’s your name?” He smiled.

“Jack.” I replied, biting my lip again.

“Well, Jack. Don’t be nervous.”

I nodded, watching him pull the door open and lead me inside. I braced myself for all the stares once the door slammed shut behind us, but nothing happened. Everyone continued talking with their friends and nobody even glanced at me. I smiled in relief. I’m glad real life isn’t like the movies where everyone is awkwardly looking at you.

Rian led me over to the teacher’s desk where a short woman with long black hair sat on a stool. Her bangs were cut across her forehead and she wore a bright, warm smile.

“Hello.” She greeted.

“Hey Monroe.” Rian greeted casually. “This is Jack. He’s new.”

Her bright blue eyes sparkled when she looked me over and an even wider grin appeared on her pale face.

“Hello Jack! I’m Mrs. Monroe and I will be your music teacher for the year.” She clapped excitedly.

Well, she sure is nice and bubbly. Again, unlike my old school.

“Hi.” I smiled shyly.

“Let’s introduce you to the class, shall we?” She asked.

I bit my lip, shrugging in response. I hate this part.

“Everyone, listen up!” She shouted.

Once everyone quieted down, I sucked in a breath and tried to look less uncomfortable than I was with everyone’s eyes on me.

“This is Jack! He’s new so welcome him!” She announced. “Okay, back to class!”

I figured everyone would keep looking at me, but as soon as the words left Mrs. Monroe’s mouth, everyone went back to talking with their friends like they were before I walked in.

“Basically today is a free day, so do whatever it is you guys want to.” She told us before looking at me. “Feel free to use any instrument or computer around the room.”

Then she was off of her stool and walking over to some student that called her name.

Well this is interesting.

“Do you wanna chill with me?” Ran questioned.

I looked back over at him and bit my lip nervously. His short brown hair was spiked up and he wore a dark red tank top, showing off his muscles along with black jeans. I couldn’t help but notice the large tattoo of a skull with bones crossed underneath that took up a chunk of his right shoulder. It seemed almost out of place for someone that looked so kind like him.

“Sure.” I smiled, deciding to take the chance at making a friend.

“I play the drums. What do you do?” He asked, leading me over to an empty corner of the room.

That would explain the muscles.

“Uh…I play a little bit of guitar.” I replied.

“That’s cool. A lot of my friends like the guitar.” He smiled.

Not really knowing what to say back, since I’m new to this talking to people thing, I decided to just speak without really thinking.

“Why are you talking to me?” I asked, covering my mouth right after the words came out.

He looked shocked at first, but then he laughed a little.

“Why wouldn’t I talk to you?” He asked back.

“Well…” I trailed off. “I’m weird.”

That got a major laugh out of him. I wonder what he’d do if he found out my sexuality.

“Everyone’s weird, dude.” He responded once he calmed down.

I smiled a little at that. Maybe Rian really is as nice as he seems. Taking a chance, I asked him about what he liked to do. That really got us talking because before I knew it, I knew his birthday, his full name, his favorite color, favorite food, favorite movie, and a lot of other basic things about him. Like how he was a major people person and he liked to make everyone happy.

“Oh my god, that kid is talking to Dawson.” Someone muttered.

“Someone’s talking to Dawson?” Another whisper-yelled.

I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing at Rian as the loud bell went off. Why are people talking about me because I had a conversation with Rian? And why did they just call him by his last name?

“What’s your next class, Jack?” Rian questioned, ignoring the whole people talking about us thing.

“Uh…” I mumbled, pulling out my schedule and glancing down at it. “English.”

“Oh man, I got History. The English hallway is the next one over though.” He smiled, patting my back. “I’ll catch ya later.

I nodded, frowning at the thought of being alone again. He probably won’t see me later, nobody ever does. Sometimes people talk to me just to be nice and then they pretend I didn’t exist. Most of the people at my old school didn’t like me because I’m gay and my ex-best friends started rumors about me. Horrible rumors that got the football team to beat the shit out of me.

Shaking the memories from my head, I stepped out into the crowded hall and moved over to the next hall where Rian said the English hall was. He wasn’t lying, but there’s so many people crowded around it’s hard to tell what room I need to be in. Groaning, I began shoving my way through people as politely as I possibly could. Glancing down at the room number one more time, I shoved the folded paper back into my pocket and looked up just to slam right into somebody.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed, stepping back to give whoever it was some space.

I pushed my bangs out of my face, gasping when I came face to face with an attractive boy. Well, almost face to face; he was a few inches taller than me. I stared back into his brown eyes, biting my lip nervously at the scowl on his face. His torso was covered by a black t-shirt reading ‘I’ll break your fucking face’, clinging to his slightly muscular arms. He wore a black and red studded belt through the hoops of black skinny jeans with holes in the knees and double silver zipper pockets on each side. To top it all off, his black hair was cut in an insanely sexy way that I wish I could pull off. His bangs were over his forehead, pushed to the left while each side of his head was cut short. I could see the little bit of long hair at the back of his neck and I really wanted to twirl it with my fingers. He was definitely what one would call a punk or a bad boy.

His mom definitely lets him do what he wants with his hair.

“Watch it.” He snapped, knocking me out of my thoughts.

“Y-yeah.” I nodded, stepping aside to my left. “I’m s-sorry.”

He glanced at me before rolling his eyes and stepping forward. As he passed me by, I couldn’t help but let my gaze fall onto the spot right below his right ear. A tattoo of a skull with crossbones underneath.

“Hey kid.”

I glanced away from the retreating figure and into the direction the new voice came from. It was a shorter boy with long black hair and huge blue-green eyes. He had very pale skin and a small frame.

“Huh?” I responded, trying not to drool over the good looks of whoever that guy was.

“If I were you, I would stay away from him.” He warned.

“Stay away from who?” I questioned confusedly.

He rolled his eyes, pushing his bangs out of his eyes and biting his lip as he looked around.

“Gaskarth.” He answered.

Gaskarth? Well that’s a really weird, unattractive name for suck a sexy boy.

“Okay?” I replied, wondering why he was telling me this.

“Seriously.” He stated sternly, glancing around nervously. “Stay away from his and the rest, they’re bad news.”

I looked around, searching to see if I saw anything unusual or anything this kid could be looking at. When I saw nothing, I turned back around.

“Who’s the rest?” I asked.

He bit his lip, leaning closer to me so I could hear his whisper.

“His gang.”