Wishes In The Dark - A Peterick Fanfiction

Three

Having to ask for directions from a few teachers in the corridors, I find my way to Room 42 in the math corridor for my first class.

The teacher lets us in and directs us to our seats.

Pete sits down first, followed by a few more people in my form. Finally, I reach the front of the queue.

"Name?" asks the teacher.

"Patrick Stump," I reply.

The teacher looks at his seating plan, then points at the empty seat next to Pete. "Take a seat next to Mr Wentz over there."

I do as I'm told and take out my pencil case from my bag. Pete looks quite serious, and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to talk to me - especially as he's the most popular guy in the school. I better not say anything.

The first half of the class is quite boring; the teacher is just reminding the class about how to solve things. Eventually he hands out textbooks and tells us to do some questions. I flip to the right page in the textbook and start on the questions.

After about five minutes, I notice that Pete hasn't even started on the questions. He's doodling a pattern in his math book. I'm about to say something, but I stop myself.

A couple minutes later, Pete flips to the front of his math book and reads question one.

"How do you do this?" he asks, leaning over towards me.

I look at him. Is he talking to me? He's looking at the textbook but he's leaning towards me. I guess he is talking to me.

"You have to add them all up," I tell him, pointing at numbers in the question. "And you divide the sum of them by how many there are - in this case, eight."

I look at him. He's not looking at the textbook anymore; he's looking at me.

"Thanks," he says, returning to his math book.

I'm kind of shocked. The most popular guy in the school talked to me! Why me? Why would he want to talk to me? I'm not cool. I'm just Patrick.

After period two, the bell rings for break. I make my way to Principal Way's office and find Hayley, Jeremy, Taylor, Josh and Zac standing outside the Principal's door together.

"Hey Pat!" Hayley grins. "Do you mind me calling you Pat? Or do you prefer Patrick?"

"Either's fine," I reply.

She turns to the Farro brothers.

"Josh, Zac," she says to them. "As you've probably already figured out, this is Patrick."

"Hi," says Zac.

"Hey," says Josh.

"Hi," I say awkwardly.

"Now, let's go to the playground," says Hayley excitedly.

I follow them to the sixth-years' playground. We stand in a circle in the corner of the playground, near a trashcan.

Ryan's group comes walking up to us, with Brendon at the front.

"Hey guys," grins Brendon, finding spaces for him and his friends in our circle. He looks at me.

"You must be Patrick," he says, holding out his hand.

I shake his hand. "Brendon, isn't it?"

"Yup," he replies. "Now I'll introduce my fam..."

He points to his friends and introduces them in turn: Ryan, Jon and Spencer. I say hi to them all.

We talk for a few minutes, laughing and smiling with each other. Brendon then says: "Now, I hate to part with you guys, but I need the bathroom. I won't be long."

He hurries inside the school building. When he's gone, all eyes are suddenly on Ryan.

"Well?" says Hayley, looking blank.

"Well what?" frowns Ryan.

"Don't you wanna go with him?" smirks Jon, nudging him.

"Oh, fuck off," snaps Ryan, blushing.

"Come on, Ryan. When are you gonna admit you like Brendon?" asks Hayley.

"Um, never," Ryan replies firmly. "And there's a good reason; I don't have a crush on him!"

"Oh, but you do," jokes Spencer. He turns to me. "Patrick, doesn't Ryan totally have a crush on Brendon?"

Suddenly they're all looking at me. Feeling awkward as hell, I shrug and reply with: "Um, I don't know. Yeah?"

"HA!" grins Spencer, waving a finger in Ryan's face.

Ryan throws his arms out and frowns at me. "Dude!"

"Sorry," I say, blushing. I'm scared that he's genuinely really annoyed with me. But he ends up laughing, and that makes me laugh my shy awkward laugh, and we laugh until the bell rings.

"What have you guys got?" asks Taylor, looking at his timetable. "I've got psychology."

Jeremy looks at his own timetable. "Sociology," he replies. "What about you, Hayl?"

But Hayley is once again lost in a trance, because Chad walks past us on his way into the building. He walks really near Hayley - right behind her. She blushes, looks down and smiles to herself.

"Oh God, she's dreaming again," mutters Taylor, smirking.

Hayley slaps his arm gently. "Shush!" she hisses. "Ryan, Brendon, Jon and Spencer don't know!"

"Oh, we know," says Spencer.

Hayley's eyes widen in shock.

"You do?!" she gasps, panicking.

"Well, did you really think we couldn't tell?" smirks Jon.

"Dude, you're always staring at him, you always blush when he's near you, at OCK meet-ups you always try and go wherever he's going..."

"Oh God." Hayley places a hand on her forehead and sighs. "I've made it so obvious...the whole school will know soon!"

"Don't panic," smiles Ryan, placing a hand on her arm. "It's only us. We're not gonna spread it round."

"Do you really think we're that mean?" grins Jon.

Hayley smiles. "Thanks, guys."

The bell rings a second time and we all exchange the same worried look.

"Shit!" cries Ryan. "We're all late!"

"Catch you later!" exclaims Taylor.

And we all sprint to our next classes.