We Aren't Nerds! {{PETEKEY}}

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The next morning, Mikey woke up feeling strangely refreshed considering the time he'd finally gotten to sleep the night before. He felt like he was completely ready to go school, a way he hadn't felt for quite some time. He grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom to get ready. Once he was ready for school, he went downstairs to eat breakfast.

Gerard, who was already eating his breakfast, was the first person to greet Mikey that morning. He smiled and asked him how he'd slept, and even though it wasn't much of a conversation starter it made Mikey feel good about himself. The morning was getting off to a good start, but it wouldn't have been right if something hadn't gone wrong. Mrs. Way came into the room, having been decided now was the perfect time to tell her sons off about what they'd done the night before.

"Boys! What do you have to say about your behaviour last night?" she yelled, still angry about what Mikey and Gerard had done.
"Nothing," Gerard said, "I had my phone, and so did Mikey. You could have called us before then if you were really so worried--"
"We're sorry," Mikey interrupted, "we won't go out without telling you again."

Mrs. Way shook her head and told Gerard and Mikey that they should be leaving for school. Despite being annoyed by his mom, Gerard nodded and dragged Mikey out with him. He didn't want to hate his mom, but he hated how she didn't seem to understand what phones were for. He always had his phone with him, and if she really needed to call him she could.

Mikey never really minded what his mom had to say to him, but he didn't like it when she was unfairly mean to them. Just like Gerard, he always had his phone with him, but he never went anywhere. He understood her reasoning, but she didn't seem to care about what he and Gerard had said, which upset him slightly. If she'd listened to them, she might have apologised for yelling and understood why it wasn't as much of a problem as she thought.

"What are you doing in school today, then?" Gerard asked, "My schedule for today sucks."
"I have Maths first," Mikey sighed, "then Art... Today is kind of lame for me, too, actually."
"You don't like Art? That's my favourite subject."
"I prefer Drama, acting is cool. There's something about Art that I find difficult, it's probably expressing myself."

Gerard laughed, he loved expressing himself through art. He never exactly saw his brother as the kind of person who would struggle to do that. Gerard thought Mikey was too interesting to not express himself, but he acknowledged that not everyone was into the same kinds of things. Gerard wasn't much of an actor, but he just supposed couldn't be good at everything.

Mikey wasn't joking when he said he found expressing himself difficult. He rarely saw himself as more than a person who was going to go through their life and then die. It wasn't like he was a major pessimist or anything, but he struggled sometimes to see past the fact that he, and everyone else, was going to die one day. Mikey still worked hard in school, though, he didn't want to throw his short life away, even if it would end up being meaningless.

Mikey couldn't help but hope he ran into Pete, Patrick, Joe and Andy during the day. He knew he was going to sit with his 'friends' all day, so he knew he was going to need some real, funny, engaging conversation at some point. Mikey didn't think Gerard fully understood how he felt about the people he called friends. He didn't like them either, but they weren't bad people, so it made sense to him to hang around with them. They were kind of boring most of the time, but sometimes they could be okay.

The Way brothers got to school just before the bell went, so they ran straight in rather than hanging around. Gerard tried to find a group of people to stick to, but Mikey stuck by himself and made his own way to Maths. It was slightly awkward, walking by himself when there were so many groups of people around him, but he didn't really mind too much. He still wasn't a people person, so being by himself was a lot more comfortable for him.

"Michael! Michael!" yelled Pete, running up behind him, "Do you have Maths now? I think I'm in the classroom opposite yours, do you want to hang out at break?"
"Oh, yeah, that sounds cool," Mikey said, "I'll wait outside my door for you."
"Cool! I'll see you later then!"

Mikey didn't expect to see Pete so soon, but he didn't mind, in fact, it was provably for the best, now he didn't have look for him. He went into Maths feeling slightly better about his day than he did before, and almost didn't mind that he was going to have to spend his lessons with people he didn't like much. Mikey took his seat and got out his pencil case.

"Good morning, Michael," smiled one of his friends
"Morning," Mikey sighed, he wanted to smile back but he wasn't feeling it. Even though he was happy, he wasn't in the mood for smiling.

The teacher entered the room and sat down at their desk. They instantly started calling students' names, and waiting for their replies. Mikey and his friends all had names fairly close to the end, so they rarely paid attention to anyone at the beginning.

"George?" called the teacher
"Here, sir," smiled Ryan, finding it hilarious that his name was still George in the school's files.
"Spencer?"
"Here, sir," answered Spencer, also still laughing about the George/Ryan mixup.
"Brendon?"
"He's ill, sir," said Ryan, automatically responding to Brendon's name as well as his. The two of them had known each other for their entire lives and knew everything about each other.
"Thank you, George," said the teacher, "Jon?"
"Here, sir," said Jon, looking at Ryan oddly.
"Michael?"
"Here, sir..." Mikey said, sighing again. Considering how happy he'd felt before he got into the lesson, he was feeling really down.

The teacher set some work for the class to do, but, of course, everyone just started chatting instead. Spencer and Jon were suspicious about Ryan, they could tell when he was lying about something. Like Brendon, they'd known him for a long time as well, in fact it was only Mikey who was a recent addition to their circle of friends.

"George Ryan Ross the Third," said Jon, "I can tell when you're lying."
"Okay, okay," Ryan laughed, "Brendon didn't do his homework and was too afraid to come in and get another detention for it."

Everyone laughed, and Mikey suddenly realised why he struggled to involve himself with these people. They'd all known each other for so long, and knew everything about each other. He was practically a stranger, they'd only let him sit with them because he obviously didn't have any other friends in the class. Mikey couldn't believe he'd believed they were boring for so long when, really, it had been him the whole time.

Mikey hated to think that he hadn't given these four other people a proper chance, especially when they'd been together for the last three or four years. He hoped he'd be able to start again with them now that he was making more, other friends. He admitted to himself, though, that he would understand if they weren't interested in him anymore, he'd always been quite quiet and reserved around them.

"M-Michael?" stuttered Ryan, not sure of how to talk to him, "Are you okay? You look and sound upset about something."
"No, no! I'm okay... I just..." Mikey said, insistently, "Yeah, no, I'm fine."

Ryan shook his head slightly and returned to the work he'd been given. He wanted to like Mikey, he really did, but it was hard for him when he was so unwilling to talk. He'd spoken to Jon, Spencer and Brendon about this before, too, and they agreed. All of them wanted to be friends with Mikey, but he made it so difficult for them and made them wonder if it was really worth it.

"Michael..." said Spencer, "Do you want to be our friend or...?"
"Of course!" Mikey gasped, "I'm sorry, I'm not really feeling myself. I went from feeling really great about this morning to kind of disappointed."
"Don't worry about it, just tell us about that kind of thing. We're your friends, and that's what friends are for."

Mikey smiled, he was about to start another conversation, but the bell went and he knew he had to rush off to meet Pete. He waved goodbye as Ryan, Spencer and Jon walked away, and he waited outside the classroom door. After about two minutes, Pete appeared with Patrick, Andy and Joe. All four of them were smiling, and looked really happy to see him.

"Hey Michael-way!" laughed Pete, "Are you ready for the best break-time ever?"
"I hope so," he laughed, "what do you guys normally do then?"
"We sit by the arts block and talk about everyone who walks past," Patrick admitted, "honestly it's not the coolest, but you'll grow to love it."
"Unless you're a good person who hates gossip, that is," Andy said, earning himself a nudge in the side from Joe.
"We're good people, Andy," Joe said, "everyone just loves gossip!"