Chapter 1

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He hated it. No, he loathed it. If he had to pick the biggest mistake he's made out of his 18 years on Earth, taking this class would be number one. He just didn't get it. Everyone thought it was so interesting, but he was instantly muddled when he walked into the room.

Okay, maybe he was over exaggerating just because he hated the stupid dream project. The class wasn't that lame, but he still disliked it. No matter how much he payed attention, the tests always came back with a big red F, screaming "you're stupid".

Now, paying attention for Gerard was basically him making sure he kept his head up and doodled in his notebook, which was an amelioration of flat out napping, but his brain just couldn't seem to grasp the concepts, no matter how hard he tried to actually take notes. Why did they have to learn about things that were irrelevant today? It was absolutely pointless.

"Maybe you're just doing it wrong." Pete said to him at lunch about every single day as Gerard ranted about his dreaded project. Habitually, Gerard would glare at him, ask him how he could dream wrong and then continue to poke at his chicken patty that was a little too pink for his liking.

"I literally just can't dream," Gerard would sigh frustratedly. "If I don't get a good grade on this I'm not graduating." Maybe he was just stressed, sleep deprived and clearly exaggerating. It's not like going to bed at 3 in the morning would assist with his dreaming problem, but that complication was a bit harder to resolve. He pushed those thoughts away, he didn't want to think about that right now, or ever, for that matter.

"Oh, come on," Mikey was done with this shit, even though he loved his brother dearly, he kind of wanted to punch him in the throat these past couple days. "You literally want to write stories for a living, just make one up." He reasoned, which is a perfectly logical solution but Gerard was a brat and felt depressed that he couldn't dream while everyone was having the time of their lives when they were asleep, but he just saw black.

He was also just pissed off that he couldn't enjoy sleeping, not that that had anything to do with dreaming. It just annoyed him that the most blissful parts of his life were when he was unconscious. He waited all day to fall asleep, eager just to get under his warm sheets, then he woke up, completely missing the best part of his night. But that was the appealing part, right?

"I just don't get it," he sighed as he shoved soggy tater tots into his mouth. "I use to dream so much when I was little, they were so intense." He honestly got great comic ideas, or even lyrics, from dreams. Even when he was younger he knew what he wanted to do with his life and it was great to let his imagination run free, but now he just missed that part of his childhood, he wanted something to avoid stupid reality with or to put at lease some of his thoughts into instead of thinking about stupid things he didn't want to think about. Take psychology for example.

Gerard just pouted as he pulled out his dream journal which had a very enthusiastic name for an unenthusiastic piece of paper with wordless lines. How was he suppose to come up with five dreams in two days? It really wasn't that hard of a task, but he didn't want to do it in general. He also really just sucked at lying, so presenting these would just be him standing in front of the class with a pool of sweat at his feet.

"Hey, you're in my psychology class, right?" A voice asked from next to him, it was also really coincidental because that's literally what they were talking about. He turned to be met with a face that belonged to some quitet kid in the back of the class he vaguely remembers accidently making eye contact with once because he was drifting off into a day dream. "Fourth period?" The guy continued after Gerard didn't answer the first time.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Gerard responded, returning from his flashback. He never heard him talk before and assumed his voice wouldn't be so low. "What page was the homework on?" He asked, but this was another reason as to why Gerard was failing the class. "Umm, I don't know." He shrugged, giving the guy a sympathetic look.

"You idiot." Pete barged into their conversation, massaging his temples with his thumb and pointer finger. "You wrote it on your hand, remember?" He flipped Gerard's hand palm side up, which was smeared with faint blue numbers and realization dawned on his face as his mouth formed an "O" shape.

"Ohh, yeah, thanks Pete." He smiled, turning back to the boy who he thinks his name is Patrick or something. Curses to himself for listening to roll call but not the lessons. "Page 104, numbers 3 through 12." He stated, Patrick thanked him as his eyes caught attention to the blank paper. Gerard also looked down at it sadly because it was pretty sad.

"No dreams?" He asked, plopping down in the empty spot at the table next to Gerard, the darker haired man didn't really mind though, he smelled pretty nice. "I had that problem too." Patrick nodded as he studied the paper, but there wasn't really much to look at. "Had?" Gerard asked, suddenly intrigued. He would also like to not have that problem.

"Yeah," Patrick nodded, still staring at the paper. "Did you look up any tricks?" He questioned but Gerard just gave him a blank stare. He usually decided to mope around instead of attempting to fix a problem.

"Well I googled some stuff," Patrick continued, taking out a pen and writing the hacks on the top of Gerard's sad dream journal. "Apple juice, this special tea..." he went on, rattling off a few more and passing the paper back. "Oh and try to go to bed early."he stated; the rest of them laughed.

Patrick shrugged and smiled, aware it was a long shot for a teenager. He didn't know any high schooler that went to bed before 10pm, excluding himself. "Or if you just wanna get stoned you'll be in your R.E.M. State really quick." He laughed, Gerard didn't know what that was, but he laughed along forcefully anyway.

Patrick playfully narrowed his eyes, "rapid eye movement." He explained, Gerard silently thanked him, yet that didn't explain anything. It sounded kinda familiar though, he should really pay more attention in class

"Well, thanks man, I'll try them out." Gerard smiled genuinely. He was kind of excited, he hadn't dreamt in years. He thought the conversation was over but Patrick continued to sit with them. His head was bowed and they all stared at him expectantly. He twiddled his thumbs, pretending to be oblivious of the three sets of eyes on him.

He looked up with a slight blush covering his cheeks. "Would you like to sit with us?" Pete was the one to speak up before Patrick could mutter an apology. Pat thanked him with his eyes and gave him a shy smile. "Yes, thank you, I-I don't really know anyone." He said, which saddened Gerard.

Patrick reminded Gerard of himself before Pete and Mikey came to the school, since they were a year younger. He didn't know anybody... except for that one kid who helped him survive freshman year. He must've moved away though, Gerard never saw him after that. What was his name again?

He became lost in thought as a conversation ignited without him.

Sorry this is short, idk y the other ones are longer jaha

Honestly I wrote this chapter like a month ago so yeah I might come back to fix some things ahh

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