Where There is Desire

Where there is Desire There is Gonna Be a Flame

Josh took a deep breath as he stepped off the bus. It was his first day of 7th grade and he was determined to make this year a good one. New school, new me as they say. He wasn't going to let this be elementary school again, no. He was stronger, he had grown, he had changed, he'd even lost weight, and he wasn't going to let the bullies get him down anymore. He had a new best friend. One that didn't expect him to be doing 90% of the work for their relationship for all of the time. Asher wasn't like Harley. Asher really cared about him, he paid attention to the little things, he listened, and he wanted to know about his interests. But his favorite part about being best friends with Asher was that he wasn't just 'Asher's friend' like he'd been 'Harley's friend', he was Josh, his own person with his own personality. He was still good friends with Harley, but he wasn't a best friend. It felt freeing really. So, this was going to be a good year.

His resolve to make this the best year ever only hardened as he walked to his fist class of the day, math. He wasn't excited for it by any means. He was good at math, but he never really liked doing it. Sometimes it was just too easy, and it drove him a little bit nuts. But that only made him want to do it more, because this was going to be the best year ever. Even if he'd had to be in regular class instead of the honors class to make room for band. He didn't like it, but he had really wanted to try percussion, so he was going to deal with it.

Entering the classroom, he could quickly tell that he and the teacher, Mr. Bates, would get along pretty well. The room was covered with Star Wars and Marvel posters, Cut outs, (for lack of a better word) toys, and stickers. He'd always liked the nerdy teachers.

When he saw the seating chart, however, he bit back a groan. Of course, Kade was going to be in this class, and of course they were sitting next to each other. Kade was the kind of person that just tried to get a rise out of him because it was fun. He'd teased him and pulled on his metaphorical pigtails, and it drove him nuts. Especially when he was told that 'boys just do that to people they like' because he didn't do that. It just didn't make sense. He was also both simultaneously a smartass and a dumbass. Those two things didn't seem to correspond, and yet somehow, Kade did both. Why would you do that to someone you like. And beyond that the kid was disgusting. He'd eat anything, and when Josh said anything, he meant it. He'd once seen the boy eat a dead and unidentified bug that he and Harley had found and then another guy dared Kade to eat it. So, he was really quite unhappy about this, but it wouldn't deter him from making this the best year ever.

After the class had gone over the rules of the classroom, the dove into their first lesson. Much to Josh's dismay, he'd already learned this last year. So, he quickly did the worksheet and then pulled out a book to read. Kade finished right after he did. Josh hid a smirk from having finished first. After all it wasn't a competition (but it totally was). But in trying to hide his smirk from the guy he turned to see a boy sitting next to Gabby (a girl from his neighborhood and a sort of friend), was staring at him, but when he noticed that Josh saw him, he looked away and got back to his worksheet. If Josh hadn't seen the guy staring in this general direction just a second ago, he wouldn't have really noticed him. He just looked kind of average. He was kind of short, but a lot of boys hadn't hit their growth spurt yet. He had blonde hair that was just messily hanging off his head. From here, Josh couldn't really tell eye color, but he was across the room, so it made sense. He did have kind of small eyes though. He had tan-ish skin, but where he still looked white. So just kind of average. Looking at the seating chart, he found out the kid's name was Ronan. Apparently the least average thing about him was his name. Satisfied with his new information, he turned back to his book.

Mr. Bates walked over and quickly noticed that both Josh and Kade were done with their worksheets. He looked them over and was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd both gotten 100% on it. "But I did it better right?" Kade asked. Josh glared at him. "You didn't do it better. We both got 100, the same." Josh told him. "You both did great. Maybe you could help me. There's a lot of kids asking for help, and I don't know if I can get to all of them, would you mind helping?" They both looked at each other. "I'll do it." They said at the same time and raced up to help the kids with their hands raised. Josh didn't like it, it meant talking to people he didn't know, it that made him nervous, but he was not going to get shown up by Kade on the first day of class. Josh went over to Gabby. "Hey Josh. What's up?" She said as he walked over. "Mr. Bates asked me and Kade to help some of the people with their hands raised." Josh explained and pointed to her raised hand. "Oh, then could you help me with question 3." She asked. Josh nodded and kneeled in front of the table so that he wasn't standing the whole time. As he explained, he noticed Ronan watching him. Josh figured that he needed the help too, so he made sure to explain how to work through the problem thoroughly and answer all of Gabby's questions. He'd spent so long helping Gabby that it was time to move on when they were done with the problem. He walked back to his desk but had the odd feeling that he was being watched.