We're Chasing The Sun (Frerard)

Chapter 8

Gerard prevented the sun from blinding him with his palm above his head and squinted. He didn't want to aggravate the teacher in watch, so he avoided groaning again. The sun didn't have ears to hear him anyway, so it was no use. 

He hated the sun. Why couldn't it show up in the middle of a snowing February day? Warm them up a little? Maybe then Gerard would slowly grow fond of it....probably not, but it'd be worth the try. He bet if his mother was there, she'd indefinitely plague him about getting Vitamin D or something.

September was coming to an end, slowly dying out, and the sun was deceiving everyone. The trickster. It might have been up, putting on airs with its wondrous beam—which Gerard thought was utterly irritating, God, what a show-off—but despite that, really, it was a cold day.

Gerard strongly recalled Mrs. McMillan's words once, informing them about a rather strange saying in the Greek language; apparently, when the weather's pretty chilly but the sun is out, the Greeks describe that as 'the sun showing its teeth' which was an absolutely superfluous thing to learn in history class, according to Gerard, but also quite interesting.

So, he guessed, the sun was showing its teeth today. Ah, he bet half of the school would turn up wearing t-shirts, and their jackets would be sullenly hanging at home. The fools. Gerard knew better than to trust the sun.

Mrs. Henson, who was about three meters away from him, beamed all of a sudden and Gerard narrowed his eyes, curious to see what had caused this miracle.

"Well, looka yonder. Sun's finally out! Beautiful day, ain't it, Louise?" Officer Thomas took off his hat and gestured at Mrs. Henson. Oh, that's why the old lady's face lit up...just to indicate everything being in order to the Officer. How disappointing, Gerard had actually expected something more. "Mornin', Way."

"Good morning, Officer," Gerard greeted back with a smile and carried on looking around the schoolyard, his eyes scanning for a certain face to show up.

"What are you waitin' for, boy? Shouldn't ya be headin' to class?" Officer Thomas was kind enough to point out...just like Mrs. Henson had done earlier this morning...about five hundred times.

"Uh, I'm supposed to meet up with someone to discuss an assignment. I can't see them after school, so..." Gerard made up a quick excuse none of them would question and began walking closer.

"What are you here for, Thomas? Everything okay?" Mrs. Henson, thankfully, didn't dwell on Gerard's excuse this time, and folded her hands, not breaking the smile playing on her wrinkly lips, on which she had hastily added a layer of bright red lipstick earlier that morning. Gerard thought it made her look rather old—well, older. Why would she put that on?

"Just checkin'. Don't know if you heard, but there's been a shooting and we're tryna investigate all around the town—" Gerard became alarmed very quickly and cocked his head up to listen carefully what the man was saying, "—just to be safe. I thought I'd pass by and greet while I could. And anyway, we must be ensured of the school's safety and protection. Above all, kids' protection's the most of importance."

"Well, I can assure you everything is fine around here. No shootings, no danger. None that we're aware of, at least. Students here are angels," Mrs. Henson reassured and glanced at Gerard boastfully, with her nose and her upper lip pointing up. Her look literally screamed to Gerard 'don't you dare ruin this' as if he had the intentions to.

Internally, Gerard threw her a menacing glare and told her to shut her mouth, but in reality, he didn't even bother. He nodded his head affirmatively. But he still wanted to learn more, goddammit, he and Frank got scared shitless that night.

He decided to take action himself and ask more on the matter, "So, did you find out who it was? Did anybody get hurt?"

"Don't bother yourself with these things, boy. Don't you fret, everything's under control."