Free Kendall

Chapter 2

-Drawing is dedicated to Eliseeamar

Chapter 2

Locker's are a pain

Ari's POV

"That bastard," I say, sitting down in Mr Hemming's class.

"Language Ari," Nikolai says, his feet resting on the back of my chair."
I stick my tongue out in response, sitting down.

"Who's a bastard?" Diana asks, jumping up and down energetically as she sits across from Nik.
"Alessio and his jock-gang," I reply. "He shoved me against a locker."

Nikolai's eyes narrow.
"He certainly has a death wish."

"So do you,"
I pull out my phone, showing a picture of how he wrecked Alessio's car the other day.
Nikolai swears in Greek under his breath.

The bell rings, and Hazel, Ian and Jonas dash anime-style inside the classroom, quickly sitting down.
I wolf-whistle, making Hazel grin, and Jonas blush.

"Quiet down," Mr Hemmings instructs. "Here are your lesson plans for today, go ahead and get into your usual teams, and practise your lessons, please."
He goes back to surfing his cell phone, while Ian chuckles.

They start to push our desks into a circle, and I hop over mine and help.
"We should just be called 'The Crows', instead of 'The Gays'," I say, pushing Jonas's desk over. "We already have someone named Nikolai, right?"

"Oh shush, Ari," Hazel says, knowing well enough what book reference that was from.
He sits down in our newly made circle, wearing an outfit similar to mine: binder, plain t-shirt, unbuttoned flannel over the shirt, and black ripped jeans and fancy military boots.

"What's the daily gossip, Ian?" Diana asks, her twitches making her legs bounce up and down.
"New kid," They reply. "I could tell, he's 'like' us."
"Really?" Nikolai asks, baffled. "Us?"

Ian nods, seeming positive.

"I'll find them and introduce myself," Jonas says.
"No!" All five of us yell.

The other classmates shush us.

"I nominate Ari," Hazel says.
I groan dramatically. "Why me?"
"Because you are you," is all he responds.

I groan again.
"Fine, but if I accidentally scare him and he runs away, I am going to say that I told you so."

Nikolai chuckles.
"Yeah, you, scary," Jonas says. "Like I would believe that."

Mr Hemmings comes past and we change our conversation to match his lesson plan, quickly trying to make it look like we're working.

"We should just go to Mr Rolfe's room and ditch the rest of the day," Diana says once he is out of hearing distance.
She twirls a blonde curl absentmindedly.

"We're going to get into trouble again," Hazel mutters. "I'd rather get caught again on Discord."
I laugh because all of us have gotten caught on Discord more than once.

Nikolai hands over our homework after reviewing it.
The other five of us quickly finish it, using Nik's answers and Hazel's phone as a cheat sheet.
Mr Hemmings is a chill teacher, so as long as we do the work that he assigns, we can get away with anything.
Which in my opinion, is perfectly fine with me.

***

The six of us vanished as soon as the first-period bell, camping out in our favourite deserted classroom.
We stayed there until lunchtime when Ian offered to drive us to Chick-fil-a (even though the six of us hate the organisations that they fund), and we all decided to come with.
I mean, who denies free gasoline and rides?

Ian and Jonas ran out of the classroom first, starting a staggering effect so they could distract Ian's mother and Jonas could get the car keys.
Hazel and Nikolai dash out afterwards, to get their things, and I follow them, completely on my own.

I grab my things from my locker, using the mirror to fix my fedora and make sure my binder is fixing my chest to the way I want it to.
As I shut it, I see the new boy gawking at me.

"What do you want?" I ask, my voice laced with snark as I walk over.

He blushes, definitely overwhelmed by my tone.
"Just was wanting to make sure that everything was alright, from where that git threw you into the locker."

I chuckle.
"I'm perfectly alright, thank you for caring. Are you going to pick me up and carry me into the sunset? Or are you a jerk and want to push me into a locker like Alessio?"

The new boy gapes slightly, and I smirk.

"I won't do either of those," He replies. "Shouldn't a guy like you be treated-"
I cut him off.
"I'm genderfluid. I use they/them pronouns."
His eyebrows raise.

"Do you have a problem with that?"
"Oh no, of course, I don't -"
"It was nice to meet you," I continue. "The name is Ari, and I can tell when someone doesn't like me."

I flip him off and walk away, going to Ian's car and getting the hell out of here.