My American Idiot ~ Septiplier

6

When Mark arrived at school the next day he had his rucksack slung over one shoulder and Jack's black bag in his hand. He'd decided last night that Jack, whoever he was, must at least go to his school. After all, the clothes inside the bag were small enough that they couldn't possibly belong to anyone older than Mark, so he assumed Jack might be in the year below him.

While he waited at the gates for Wade to arrive he wondered how the fuck he was going to explain why he had the goddamned bag in the first place. His brain couldn't seem to come up with an excuse that wouldn't get him punched in the face by some random kid.

'Hi, I kinda tricked your mom into thinking that I was you and then, while I was looking through your stuff, she had a massive fit. I accidentally took it with me when I was pulled out and now I'm too scared to put it back. Sorry!'

Now, that doesn't sound very good, does it? And surprisingly, Mark didn't fancy becoming some Junior's goddamn punching bag.

When Wade finally appeared, literally 3 minutes before the bell, he found Mark leaning against the school gates, a dark frown on his features as he thought.

"You ok?" Wade asked, looking at the other boy with concern. Mark was never the type to look into things too deeply or to brood too much. To see him look so worried Wade must think something terrible had happened. "What's with the bag?"

Mark blinked for a second, coming back to the real world with a jolt when he saw the worried expression on Wade's face. He debated for a second on whether or not to tell his best friend everything that had happened yesterday. On one hand, Wade could probably help him find Jack faster than he could by himself, but on the other, telling him would mean Mark would have to face just how real those memories were. He didn't think he could do that just yet.

"I'm fine, and it's for gym today," he replied, guilt swirling in his stomach at the lie. If there was one person he shouldn't be lying to, it was Wade.

The taller of the two raised his eyebrows in disbelief before eventually a small smirk growing on his face. "You mean you've got an entire class of looking at Ashley Graham's ass in gym shorts," he teased good-naturedly.

Mark playfully smacked his friend on the shoulder, loud laughter filling the air as the two began to walk to their first class. "Shut up, asshole."

Ashley Graham was by far the best looking girl in their year, or at least, Mark thought so. She had everything he wanted in a girl. The cropped short red hair, freckles smattering her cheeks like stars. All complemented by unusually bright, green eyes and inquisitive personality. She was smarter than he could ever be, always talking about new movies she had seen, books she had read or people she had met, with such enthusiasm that he couldn't help but develop a little crush on her. It was impossible not to.

Ok, maybe it was more than a little crush. /Maybe./ But, whatever it was, Wade was never happier than when he got to tease Mark over it.

As fell into their first class seats Wade gave Mark a nudge with his arm. "We both know it's true. You wanna tap that."

Mark snorted when Wade suggestively wiggled his eyebrows. "Maybe I do, but-"

The grin slipped from Mark's face when he spotted the Irish kid from yesterday. What was his name? Shawn? Shane? Sean? Seth? Sitting at his desk alone, one eye black and swollen shut, and his arm wrapped up in a sling. He wasn't moving much, exhaustion etched into his features. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a black shirt with writing so faded that Mark couldn't even read it.

At the other end of the classroom Ethan and his friends, most of whom were acquired from the football team and cheerleading squad, were becoming rowdier by the second. Ethan made wild hand gestures and punched the air in front of him like he was telling a story; describing some sort of fight. Mark assumed there was a WWW fight on last night.