Status: updates are frequent
Everything Has Changed
Chapter 2
FRANK’S POV
I check the time on my watch seeing that it’s about time that the school bus drops Dante off, so I drop my guitar and go outside and wait. About a minute later the yellow bus pulls up in front of the house. I see Dante bounce off with a smile. He must have had a really special day for him to be smiling like this.
“Hey, buddy! How was school?” I ask, leading him to the door.
“Amazing! Daddy you would never guess how amazing it was!”
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“What happened?”
“There’s this new girl, Alice. She’s not like the others, she’s amazing and my new best friend!” he smiles.
“Oooh, tell me more about this girl.” He babbled for a long time about her style and how she helped him climb the tree and he ‘saved her life’ when she fell off, and how he had matching lunches, even the note and how she saw past the children and saw the mountains and her music taste was the same -which is really rare for kids this age if I do say so myself- and how she loved coffee too and her dad was a comic book artist and all about his first day. His eyes lit up and I was so happy for him.
Alice’s dad must be pretty awesome.
GERARD’S POV
Alice runs into my arms and I swing her around. She was smiling and giggling.
“I’m guessing school went well.”
“It was amazing! Well, school itself sucked, but there’s this boy, Dante, and he’s not like the others, he’s like me and he’s my new best friend!”
“Really? Tell me more about this boy.” She went off telling me all about how he likes coffee too and he loves comic books and had a red streak in his long black hair and how he showed her a tree so we didn’t have to be with the other kids and how he’s really short so she helped him climb higher then he ‘saved her life’ when she fell out of the tree he caught her mid-air and it was ‘epic’ and how they had the same lunches and the same notes and how he was wearing a Blink 182 shirt and had amazing music taste and his dad is a musician and has a band.
His dad must be pretty awesome.
~ ~ ~
(STILL GERARD’S POV)
This Dante boy made Alice excited to go to school and everyday she would come home with more information about him like he wants to be Greg Ginn when he grows up and that they snuck out of music class and Dante had a guitar and couldn’t play much but they sang together. Recently she came home with ‘HALLOWEEN’ drawn on her knuckles. When I asked why, she said that Dante drew it because his dad has it tattooed on him so they wanted to match. The ‘tattoo’ looked so familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it...
FRANK’S POV
“Daddy, it’s ‘show and tell’ tomorrow and I have to bring something in. It’s suppose to be related to your mom and dad.”
“Really? Okay, what do you want to bring?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I asked you.”
“Hmm...” I search my brain for anything exciting about me.
“You could bring my guitar pick? Lame, but I don’t know.” I say, out of ideas.
“I’ll do that Daddy.” he says.
~ ~ ~
DANTE’S POV
I get ready early and sneak a demo of Pencey Prep into my bag for show and tell. I can’t wait to show this. Plus, Alice will get to hear it. I make sure to wear my Blink 182 shirt. I get to school and we discuss regular things.
“What did you bring?” I ask. She pulls out a comic book from her bag.
“My dad’s comic book. He just released it.”
“I wanna read it!” I say
“I’ll get you a copy, Dan, don’t worry. What did you bring?”
“Well, my Daddy just gave me a guitar pick but I snuck his demo out.” I say, holding up a CD, smiling. We giggle to ourselves.
~ ~ ~
“That’s very nice Thomas,” Mrs. Green says as she shoos Tommy to his seat.
“Next up is..Alice.” I smile as she goes up to the front of the class.
“My name is Alice and I brought in my Daddy’s comic book. He’s an artist and he just released this.” she holds up the comic. She talks a bit more, shows a non-graphic page, before she’s shooed off as well.
“Okay, next is..Dante. Please come to the front.” I smile at Alice and go to the front.
“My Daddy is a musician. He owns a music shop but he’s in a band. We listen to all sorts of music together, like Blink 182, Black Flag, Misfits, and more.” I point to my shirt.
“He gave me this guitar pick but I have a demo of his music. This is his first CD, Heartbreak in Stereo. Mrs. Green, may I use the CD player?” she looks a bit hesitant but she hands it to me and I place the disc in, smirking. “This is my favorite song, it’s called ‘PS, Don’t write.’.” I smile at Alice while I press play.
“While you were fucking off
I went and found something new
Packed up all my shit
Stole back all my tapes
Left your spare key under the mat
This is not a joke
You'd better learn to take a hint
Cause I'm not coming back
Maybe you'll understand when you're waking up alone
In a cold and empty bed-”
is all that came out before Mrs. Green came running from her office and found a way to unplug the player.
“DANTE IERO! That is not school appropriate!” I smile.
“Sorry, Mrs. Green.” I say sassily. I was so not sorry.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to call your parents. In the meantime, do you have anything appropriate to share? What does your mother do?” she tries to revive the situation.
“I don’t have a mother.” I say. A girl in my class raises her hand and yells: “Everyone has a mother.”
“Well, I don’t.” I say.
“Why?” the class asks.
“Because I only have a dad.”
“Yes, but why don’t you have a Mommy?”
“Because my Daddy doesn’t like girls. I used to have two Daddies but one went to jail because he did very bad things.” it got very quiet.
“Your dad is a faggot?” a kid asks.
“Jonathan, we don’t use that language!” Mrs. Green says. I start to sweat. Alice helps me out. She stands up on the table.
“I don’t have a mother either.” she yells
“So your dad is gay too?” the same kid says
“Does it matter?” she says sassily, putting her hand on her hip.
“Dante’s a faggot! Dante’s a faggot! Dante’s a faggot!” the class chants. I’m about to cry and I see Alice look at me with eyes that comforted me. She could tell I was upset.
“SHUT UP!” I scream.
“CHILDREN, BE QUIET AND TAKE YOUR SEATS.” Mrs. Green says. For once I was thankful for Mrs. Green. “Mr. Iero, go to the principal’s office.”
I spoke too soon.
“You can’t send a kid to the principal’s because of the sexual orientation of their parent! That’s not fair! That’s discrimination!” Alice says
“Alice, take your seat.” Mrs. Green says, holding her temples.
“NO! If Dante’s dad like’s boys, so what! My dad does too! Why should that effect you?!” the whole class when ‘oooooooooooo’ then started to chant “Alice is a faggot! Dante’s a faggot! Alice is a faggot! Dante’s a faggot!” over and over.
“CHILDREN, QUIET! ALICE AND DANTE REPORT TO THE PRINCIPALS NOW, NOT A WORD FROM ANYONE!” I sigh and grab my stuff and exit. I wait for Ali to get her stuff and walk with her. I hold her hand.
“Thanks for standing up for me.” I say.
“Anytime, Dan, I know you’d do the same for me..I hate those kids.” she says
“Me too.” I say as we walk into Mr. Ford’s office.
“Sit down.” he says. We sit quietly. “Your parents have been called and will be here shortly.”
“Mr. Ford, with all due respect, this is nonsense. This isn’t our fault at all, we can’t help who our parents fall in love with.”
“It’s a distraction. And I was also informed that you had an inappropriate item for show and tell?”
“It wasn’t inappropriate! You said to bring in something about our parents, so I brought in my dad’s CD, just like Alice brought in her dad’s comic book.”
“Inappropriate is inappropriate, Mr. Iero.” he says. I sigh and slouch down in my chair.
FRANK’S POV
‘The world is a vampire, sent to drain.’ My phone rings. It’s the school’s number, ah fuck.
“Hello?”
“May I speak to Frank Iero.”
“Speaking.”
“Okay, well your son, Dante, is in the principal’s office. Show and tell went awry and we need you to come in as soon as possible.”
“I can be there in 10.”
“Okay, thank you Mr. Iero.”
“Yeah, yeah, see you in 10.” I say, hanging up. I drive to the school and I’m walking into the office in exactly 12 minutes. I walk right past and I see Dante sitting in a chair with his head in his hands, next to him a girl with long black hair wearing a cut up jean vest and mis-matched knee-socks over black leggings.
“Mr. Iero, please sit down. Alice’s dad should be here any minute.” I sit down next to Dante. He looks very upset.
“I see where Dante gets his..style..from.” the principal says with disgust. I look down, I’m wearing my ‘I am a monster, destroy me’ shirt, ripped black skinnies and my hair messy. My arms are covered in tattoos and I have my lip and nose pierced and my ears gauged.
“How me and my son dress isn’t your business.”
“It does when it’s a distraction in my school.” he contradicts.
“It does when it’s a distraction in my school.” I mimic him mockingly under my breath, making Dante and Alice giggle.
“You must be Alice?” I say to the girl. She smiles and nods. “I’m Frank, I’ve heard lots about you.”
“Nice to meet you, Frank. I’ve heard a lot about you too.” she says. You can tell just from how she holds herself that she’s not like the other kids.
I suddenly hear a slightly familiar voice
“Sorry I’m late.”
I look up and catch eye contact with him and my eyes widen.
Fuck.
Gerard. Fucking. Way.
I check the time on my watch seeing that it’s about time that the school bus drops Dante off, so I drop my guitar and go outside and wait. About a minute later the yellow bus pulls up in front of the house. I see Dante bounce off with a smile. He must have had a really special day for him to be smiling like this.
“Hey, buddy! How was school?” I ask, leading him to the door.
“Amazing! Daddy you would never guess how amazing it was!”
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“What happened?”
“There’s this new girl, Alice. She’s not like the others, she’s amazing and my new best friend!” he smiles.
“Oooh, tell me more about this girl.” He babbled for a long time about her style and how she helped him climb the tree and he ‘saved her life’ when she fell off, and how he had matching lunches, even the note and how she saw past the children and saw the mountains and her music taste was the same -which is really rare for kids this age if I do say so myself- and how she loved coffee too and her dad was a comic book artist and all about his first day. His eyes lit up and I was so happy for him.
Alice’s dad must be pretty awesome.
GERARD’S POV
Alice runs into my arms and I swing her around. She was smiling and giggling.
“I’m guessing school went well.”
“It was amazing! Well, school itself sucked, but there’s this boy, Dante, and he’s not like the others, he’s like me and he’s my new best friend!”
“Really? Tell me more about this boy.” She went off telling me all about how he likes coffee too and he loves comic books and had a red streak in his long black hair and how he showed her a tree so we didn’t have to be with the other kids and how he’s really short so she helped him climb higher then he ‘saved her life’ when she fell out of the tree he caught her mid-air and it was ‘epic’ and how they had the same lunches and the same notes and how he was wearing a Blink 182 shirt and had amazing music taste and his dad is a musician and has a band.
His dad must be pretty awesome.
~ ~ ~
(STILL GERARD’S POV)
This Dante boy made Alice excited to go to school and everyday she would come home with more information about him like he wants to be Greg Ginn when he grows up and that they snuck out of music class and Dante had a guitar and couldn’t play much but they sang together. Recently she came home with ‘HALLOWEEN’ drawn on her knuckles. When I asked why, she said that Dante drew it because his dad has it tattooed on him so they wanted to match. The ‘tattoo’ looked so familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it...
FRANK’S POV
“Daddy, it’s ‘show and tell’ tomorrow and I have to bring something in. It’s suppose to be related to your mom and dad.”
“Really? Okay, what do you want to bring?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I asked you.”
“Hmm...” I search my brain for anything exciting about me.
“You could bring my guitar pick? Lame, but I don’t know.” I say, out of ideas.
“I’ll do that Daddy.” he says.
~ ~ ~
DANTE’S POV
I get ready early and sneak a demo of Pencey Prep into my bag for show and tell. I can’t wait to show this. Plus, Alice will get to hear it. I make sure to wear my Blink 182 shirt. I get to school and we discuss regular things.
“What did you bring?” I ask. She pulls out a comic book from her bag.
“My dad’s comic book. He just released it.”
“I wanna read it!” I say
“I’ll get you a copy, Dan, don’t worry. What did you bring?”
“Well, my Daddy just gave me a guitar pick but I snuck his demo out.” I say, holding up a CD, smiling. We giggle to ourselves.
~ ~ ~
“That’s very nice Thomas,” Mrs. Green says as she shoos Tommy to his seat.
“Next up is..Alice.” I smile as she goes up to the front of the class.
“My name is Alice and I brought in my Daddy’s comic book. He’s an artist and he just released this.” she holds up the comic. She talks a bit more, shows a non-graphic page, before she’s shooed off as well.
“Okay, next is..Dante. Please come to the front.” I smile at Alice and go to the front.
“My Daddy is a musician. He owns a music shop but he’s in a band. We listen to all sorts of music together, like Blink 182, Black Flag, Misfits, and more.” I point to my shirt.
“He gave me this guitar pick but I have a demo of his music. This is his first CD, Heartbreak in Stereo. Mrs. Green, may I use the CD player?” she looks a bit hesitant but she hands it to me and I place the disc in, smirking. “This is my favorite song, it’s called ‘PS, Don’t write.’.” I smile at Alice while I press play.
“While you were fucking off
I went and found something new
Packed up all my shit
Stole back all my tapes
Left your spare key under the mat
This is not a joke
You'd better learn to take a hint
Cause I'm not coming back
Maybe you'll understand when you're waking up alone
In a cold and empty bed-”
is all that came out before Mrs. Green came running from her office and found a way to unplug the player.
“DANTE IERO! That is not school appropriate!” I smile.
“Sorry, Mrs. Green.” I say sassily. I was so not sorry.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to call your parents. In the meantime, do you have anything appropriate to share? What does your mother do?” she tries to revive the situation.
“I don’t have a mother.” I say. A girl in my class raises her hand and yells: “Everyone has a mother.”
“Well, I don’t.” I say.
“Why?” the class asks.
“Because I only have a dad.”
“Yes, but why don’t you have a Mommy?”
“Because my Daddy doesn’t like girls. I used to have two Daddies but one went to jail because he did very bad things.” it got very quiet.
“Your dad is a faggot?” a kid asks.
“Jonathan, we don’t use that language!” Mrs. Green says. I start to sweat. Alice helps me out. She stands up on the table.
“I don’t have a mother either.” she yells
“So your dad is gay too?” the same kid says
“Does it matter?” she says sassily, putting her hand on her hip.
“Dante’s a faggot! Dante’s a faggot! Dante’s a faggot!” the class chants. I’m about to cry and I see Alice look at me with eyes that comforted me. She could tell I was upset.
“SHUT UP!” I scream.
“CHILDREN, BE QUIET AND TAKE YOUR SEATS.” Mrs. Green says. For once I was thankful for Mrs. Green. “Mr. Iero, go to the principal’s office.”
I spoke too soon.
“You can’t send a kid to the principal’s because of the sexual orientation of their parent! That’s not fair! That’s discrimination!” Alice says
“Alice, take your seat.” Mrs. Green says, holding her temples.
“NO! If Dante’s dad like’s boys, so what! My dad does too! Why should that effect you?!” the whole class when ‘oooooooooooo’ then started to chant “Alice is a faggot! Dante’s a faggot! Alice is a faggot! Dante’s a faggot!” over and over.
“CHILDREN, QUIET! ALICE AND DANTE REPORT TO THE PRINCIPALS NOW, NOT A WORD FROM ANYONE!” I sigh and grab my stuff and exit. I wait for Ali to get her stuff and walk with her. I hold her hand.
“Thanks for standing up for me.” I say.
“Anytime, Dan, I know you’d do the same for me..I hate those kids.” she says
“Me too.” I say as we walk into Mr. Ford’s office.
“Sit down.” he says. We sit quietly. “Your parents have been called and will be here shortly.”
“Mr. Ford, with all due respect, this is nonsense. This isn’t our fault at all, we can’t help who our parents fall in love with.”
“It’s a distraction. And I was also informed that you had an inappropriate item for show and tell?”
“It wasn’t inappropriate! You said to bring in something about our parents, so I brought in my dad’s CD, just like Alice brought in her dad’s comic book.”
“Inappropriate is inappropriate, Mr. Iero.” he says. I sigh and slouch down in my chair.
FRANK’S POV
‘The world is a vampire, sent to drain.’ My phone rings. It’s the school’s number, ah fuck.
“Hello?”
“May I speak to Frank Iero.”
“Speaking.”
“Okay, well your son, Dante, is in the principal’s office. Show and tell went awry and we need you to come in as soon as possible.”
“I can be there in 10.”
“Okay, thank you Mr. Iero.”
“Yeah, yeah, see you in 10.” I say, hanging up. I drive to the school and I’m walking into the office in exactly 12 minutes. I walk right past and I see Dante sitting in a chair with his head in his hands, next to him a girl with long black hair wearing a cut up jean vest and mis-matched knee-socks over black leggings.
“Mr. Iero, please sit down. Alice’s dad should be here any minute.” I sit down next to Dante. He looks very upset.
“I see where Dante gets his..style..from.” the principal says with disgust. I look down, I’m wearing my ‘I am a monster, destroy me’ shirt, ripped black skinnies and my hair messy. My arms are covered in tattoos and I have my lip and nose pierced and my ears gauged.
“How me and my son dress isn’t your business.”
“It does when it’s a distraction in my school.” he contradicts.
“It does when it’s a distraction in my school.” I mimic him mockingly under my breath, making Dante and Alice giggle.
“You must be Alice?” I say to the girl. She smiles and nods. “I’m Frank, I’ve heard lots about you.”
“Nice to meet you, Frank. I’ve heard a lot about you too.” she says. You can tell just from how she holds herself that she’s not like the other kids.
I suddenly hear a slightly familiar voice
“Sorry I’m late.”
I look up and catch eye contact with him and my eyes widen.
Fuck.
Gerard. Fucking. Way.
♠ ♠ ♠
Comments give me motivation to write more! <3