The World Below [DNF]

Chapter 15: When time stops

George POV

Everything started to go on autopilot. Although George had hated school back in England, he found himself not skipping as many classes as he had anticipated.

Sure, he wasn't the A-student in the front row of the class but the math and sciences classes was actually not half bad. The fact that a few classes were shared with a certain blonde and his little crew did help as well.

The science lessons were far the most interesting once. Ms. Baker had not forgotten the little stunt they'd pulled and had made it her mission to target them every chance she got. They were asked the majority of the questions and she made sure to notice every little mistake they made. George had struck a deal with the group to help them with their science and math homework, and to help them prepare for tests. Karl or Clay would in return do his English homework, both of them was way better at that subject, so it seemed like a fair trade.

He helped Nick and Alex as well. Although they didn't really do anything in return. Though, Alex proudly explained that their role was to keep up the groups status, even though they hardly belonged top half of the social pyramid.

George was surprised that he hadn't landed in any trouble after the knife-incident. Rumors sure as hell went around amongst the student though. He wasn't sure if people believed them or not, but he couldn't care less.

The "new-kid" label had also faded, he was now, more or less, just another student. But there was one group of people that seemed to have taken an uncomfortable interest in his existence.
The group consisted of the girl that he met his first day, whose name he'd already forgotten, and her friends. Five extremely awkward encounters with them had occurred so far. It was like they saw him as a challenge. He had denied them all five times.

George's normally very composed facade completely disappeared when they'd approached him. It was like they caused him lose his entire brain capacity. The rejections became pathetic after a while.

The newest one was by far the worst, and his friends had died when he told them what had happened.

One of the girls, with wavy blonde hair and uncomfortably, bright blue eyes had cornered him after a lesson, babbling on about a party. She'd then asked if he wanted to go with her. His panicked state caused him come up with the brilliant idea to fake that he needed to make an extremely important phone call to Clay. However, she didn't give up and offered to wait. And the plan could potentially have worked if Karl, Alex, Nick and, unfortunately, also Clay hadn't rounded the corner seconds later. She had turned away from him and he took the opportunity to run and happened to find a window that he climbed out of. He headed towards the skatepark and thought that he'd gotten away without her seeing it. But when his friends arrived at the park, they'd assured him that she DEFINITELY saw him running away.

George were yet to invite anyone home, his dad's reaction to someone just knowing where he lived was bad to say the least. So, he guessed that inviting anyone over wouldn't be previewed any better.

It seemed as though George wasn't the only one with an unstable homelife. Nick's parents lived together, yet he admitted that he wished that they'd get a divorce. They didn't get along and verbal fights broke out every day.

George knew a bit about Clay's mother since their meeting in the park. He described her as a kind woman when sober but a demon when drunk.

She somehow managed to work quite a bit despite her difficulties with liquor. So, Nick would often come stay with Clay when his mom would work to escape his parents fighting. Alex's parents worked a lot as well, he was often home alone but he said he preferred it over them being home because he and his mother fought a lot regarding his academic performance. Alex's brother was apparently the best in his grade and his mom would constantly compare the two.