Don't Stop If I Fall

“Hey guys,” Mikey came up behind us, holding a ripped paper bag.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Don’t ask,” he sighed, looking at the rip at the bottom of the bag, as he held it tight to keep the contents from falling. We walked further down the hall.

“OVVERR HEERRE!!” that yell was so familiar to me. I looked ahead to see Frank waving and jumping up and down, just like he did the first time we met. I ran ahead of Mikey and Gerard and jumped in front of Bob, Ray, and Frank.

“Heya!” I screamed in Bob’s face.

“Woah, hey.” Bob flinched. Ray smiled and waved, as did Frankie. The all held bagged lunches in one hand, and had their other hand shoved in their pocket.

“Where’s Jordan?” Mikey asked from behind. I looked around.

Suddenly, Jordan came storming around the corner right up to us.

“God damn english teacher. She gave me a D. UH D!!” she waved the paper in my face.

At the top of the clean white piece of paper, was the fourth letter of the alphabet. It was circled, in the reddest red in the world.

“That sucks. Don’t worry, we all hate Mrs. Neetle.” Gerard said, comforting her with a pat on the back. Jordan took the paper away from my face and quickly crumpled it up, her lunch resting between her legs. She chucked the paper behind her and stormed around the corner, out the back door of the school. The rest of us stood there for a few seconds, then realized we should follow and ventured out the door ourselves.

Once we made it to the tree, Gerard and I leaned against it, Mikey was on the other side of me, then Bob, then Ray, then Frank. Jordan sat down next to Gerard and Frank, completing the circle.

“So, what’s new guys?” I asked.

“My birthday,” Frank said.

“Our band,” Mikey added.

“My guitar lessons,” Ray said smoothly.

“My grades,” Jordan pouted.

“MY CAKE!” Bob announced. We all gave him a strange stare.

“…what? I learned how to make a cake in cooking.” He shrugged. We all started to laugh as Bob calmly chuckled along.

“Anything new with you Gerard?” I asked him. He sat staring at the greenish brown grass, not saying a word.

“…Gerard?” I waved my hand in front of his face. “Hellooooo….” He abruptly snapped out of his constant stare and directed his eyes over to me.

“Woah, sorry, zoned out.” He stuttered as he picked up his sandwich, taking a bite from the corner.

“Ha, it’s okay. What’s new?” I repeated.

“Nothing really…oh yeah, you aren’t in the hospital for once.” He nudged me and I rolled my eyes as everyone smiled agreeing to his comment.

For the rest of the period, the gang and I just talked about random things until the bell rang. Then, for the rest of the day I sat through class trying to hide my devil horns and be the perfect student. I thought that if Mr. Jones told the other teachers I had detention, I wanted to prove to them that I am not as evil as he thinks I am. I smiled politely, answered every question I knew, actually didn’t copy homework quickly from people, and asked questions sweetly to the teachers, even though it made me want to puke from being so nice. Finally the eighth period bell rang and I was free-oh yeah. Detention.