TEENAGERS (English) #Wattys2016

3.THE NEW BOY

He got up and looked through the window, observing the weather, watching the rain as it fell and matching with his mood. At least not everything went against him that horrible day it was going to be.

He got dressed listless, slowly, looking at the window once more. What if he jumped out of it? To the void. He would fall just like the constant water drops that fall escaping from the black clouds that have them trapped and going to a huge hit, to a certain death. But he would fade away just like them, just like his worries and specially that endless anguish. Everythig would end, he wouldn't even have to go back there.

He suddenly realized what he was thinking about and he panicked because of it. How could he have come up with that? However, it wasn't the first time. He didn't think it would be the last one, either.

Once he had tried to push those datk ideas out of his mind, he went to the bathroom to relieve himself and groom without energy.

Mikey was already sitting on the kitchen and their mother, Donna, was finishing to make pancakes for breakfast.

Once they had finished to eat, Mikey grabbed an umbrella they were going to share and the two brothers walked to the hellish high school.

Just in front of the door Gerard already started to feel sick, scared, expecting any insult or humiliation from any of his mates.

They got to the playground. He saw the group of boys who messed with him more often in the distance. What would they do when they see him? Would they push him to a puddle so he would get drenched and stained? Whould they throw his backpack on the dirty floor? Would they spit on his face? Would they punch him? They had done all of that and much more so he could expect anything.

But surprisingly and fortunately, he could go unnoticed.

Gerard sighed relieved at the sound of the bell that announced the beginnig of classes, at least there were teachers who although didn't care too much about what they could do to him they looked at the others on the classroom. That included his bullies. He said goodbye to his brother and each other took his own way.

Going upstairs he felt somebody pushing him and then laughed but he didn't care too much. He didn't even try to see who had been.

Once he was in the classroom he waited to see which chair stayed free the last so he didn't bother anybody. And so anybody would bother him. There were three lines of desks united by twos. But surprisingly, he saw that the only desk which was already empty wasn't united to any other but isolated.

Relieved for not having to sit next to anybody, Gerard went to that empty chair. Then the teacher came in and she said:

"Hello, guys. I hope you've had a fantastic summer. Even so, I also hope you remember it has finished and that you must work hard soon".

The hours before the break passed slowly and Gerard was completely ignored by everybody.

Finally the bell rang, everybody took their lunch and went outside.

Gerard sat down alone in a corner as always, trying to camouflage and be unnoticed.

However, this time he wasn't the only one who was alone. On the other side if the playground, next to the trash can, there was somebody sitting on the floor. It was a boy he had never seen before. Well, it wasn't that he knew all of his mates' faces. Even so, he didn't know why, that boy drew his attention.

Gerard took his sandwich's wrapper and went to the trash can to throw it, it was just an excuse to get closer to that boy. And so he did.

Once he was in front of the trash can he pushed the paper out of his pocket and let it fall in it as slowly as he could while he looked at that lonely boy sideways. His facial features were nice, maybe even beautiful. But he could only see him from the side.

The boy probably noticed Gerard was looking at him because he turned around and said to him:

"Hello."

"He... hello." Gerard finally answered.

The boy stood up and reached his hand out to shake it with Gerard's.

"I'm Frank." the boy introduced himself.

"Gerard." the other one simply said, noticing how short Frank was.

"Sit down." Frank said to him asking him to sit next to him. Gerard did so. "I'm new and the truth is that I don't know many people here yet".

Then Gerard remembered that last year a boy of another class had been kicked out because of his aggressive attitude not only to some mates but also to teachers.

"You came to fill the space that Alex, the boy who they kicked out, let free, right? Gerard shyly asked although Frank seemed a pretty friendly boy.

Frank nodded.

They talked about different banal things until the bell rang again.