September 25, Tuesday
It was the month of September, the final year of high school beginning to take place. Although two weeks has already passed, still, nothing noteworthy has happened.
The school hallways were still overladen with the familiar and unfamiliar faces of students, who per usual, were crowding the corridors with mindless chatters and boisterous laughter. Every day, everyone would hang out in the halls, waiting for the bell to ring and for their classes to start, making the wide corridor effectively smaller and narrower.
Among the busy crowd of students, Ryan Beaumont appeared almost claustrophobic, getting all the textbooks and notes he'll need for his morning classes from his locker.
Every day, the hallway was buzzing and Rye was not a big fan of crowds. 'But it's fine', Rye thought. He's gotten used to it. After all, it was his senior year, and everything will be over very, very soon.
A loud banging sound caught Rye's and the majority of students' attention, it was the jocks. One of them just pushed a random student against the locker, seemingly for no good reason at all. The athletes laughed as the poor student put his hands up, looking so small and frightened.
At least, they let him go, but not without one last hard shove which made the student bang his head against the lockers, loudly, which made Rye wince. The jocks then proceeded to swagger, the crowd dividing in the middle, making way to the 'self-proclaimed kings of the school'.
Rye wanted to roll his eyes. He always thought high school in real life would be a whole lot different from the stereotypical high school image painted in books. While there were strong similarities between the fiction and reality, there were slight differences. But here's what Rye truly believed in: High school is a jungle, not a zoo. It's a matter of survival, and you have to survive.
The jocks passed through and one of them was looking around and sending piercing glares. It just so happened that Rye was one of the students who was given one. Cold green eyes met his soft brown ones, but the gaze broke as soon as it started. It was clear that Brooklyn Wyatt was having a bad day---with the way his face was scrunched up into obvious sulkiness---but Rye was happy that the blonde jock didn't lash his anger with his fists, but with his eyes instead.
'Good thing that looks could kill was just a silly expression', Rye said to himself.
He was quite thankful that the jocks, or the school, doesn't at all make fun of him. Because, clearly, he falls under the nerd category. Rye had thick framed glasses and braces on his teeth. It doesn't help that he was an avid fan of reading---his head always buried against the pages of his books---and had his grades kept at top-notch.
It's not like he planned to have this image, but this was who he was. And, it just so happens that when all the puzzle pieces come together, it built a nerd image.
In this school, the nerds were meant to be bullied, but thankfully, the general idea was not applied to Rye. It's probably because he never stood out in the large crowd, being unlikely to be victimized in this poisonous system.
People say ignorance is worse than hatred, but Rye would very much prefer to be ignored than to be hated. He could take being unseen and unnoticed, which was really cool when he thought about it. It was like he was given a superhero gift of invisibility.
As Rye began swimming across the crowd of people, he noticed a small, cleared area which the students were clearly avoiding. Curiously, he got a little closer to the evaded corner. And there, he saw the two well-known castaways of the school, leaning against the wall without a care. Jack Duff and Michael 'Mikey' Cobban.
Rye never knew why people nominated the pair as the school's rejects, but he knew that they were avoided. Sure, he heard bad rumors about the two. It was said that they smoke drugs and do illegal stuff. Someone said that they were jailed for six times already and were attending rehabilitation for delinquents on weekends. They said Jack was a father to three pregnant college girls, and that Mikey was part of a criminal organization of some sort. There was that rumor too, that Jack and Mikey were drug lords that eats children at night. Honestly, Rye couldn't believe that people were stupid enough to make and believe this kind of nonsense, which clearly was pretty unrealistic. But, well, this was high school, the land of stupidity.
However, Jack and Mikey branded themselves in a way that supported the rumors. Mikey had a large rose tattoo on his right forearm, and piercings on both his ears, nose and the bottom of his lips. He also seemed to wear nothing but black. Black shirt, black shoes, black everything. Meanwhile, Jack always wore his messy, unruly brown hair which covers almost all of his eyes. But, this doesn't stop Rye to notice deep, dark circles surrounding them. Dressed in loose, baggy clothes, it was almost as if he did not want to attend school at all. Rye saw him lean in and whisper something to Mikey in which the latter chuckled about. The two then left the hallways, leaving the busy, chaotic scene.
Suddenly, the sound of the school bell rang, signaling that classes were about to start. Students began to rush towards their designated classrooms, quickly clearing out the buzzy crowd into a smaller number.
Rye wasted no time and began walking towards his first period. He was exhilarated about it for the class was new and exclusive for graduating senior students only. As he treads the slowly deserted hall, he suddenly stopped as his eyes met with Andy Fowler.
Just right in the middle of the corridor, Andy was making out intensely with a guy that Rye was unfamiliar with. Probably an eleventh grader. He didn't care, really, it wasn't his business anyway. But among the types of people in the popular list, Rye hated Andy the most. He didn't really mind that Andy was a proud homosexual, it was the twenty-first century after all. What was wrong about him was that he proudly paraded his relationships everywhere and every time Rye saw him, he was making out or flirting with a whole new other boy. It was like he was targeting to sleep with all the boys in this school, and he's not even ashamed about it. He wore the title given to him as the 'School's Man Slut' like a golden crown.
'And it was not even something to be proud about', Rye thought.
Rye continued walking but he felt Andy's eyes still gazing at him, so he glanced back only to caught him staring away. Rye swore he saw him roll his eyes at him with disdain. The nerve.
Rye, on impulse, sneered at the pair, passing through them as the two broke their kiss. "Bye, babe." He heard Andy say.
Rye continued walking away and he turned right, finally seeing the classroom he needed to go to. He quickly erased the negative thoughts and images he saw on his way here and smiled to himself. 'Today will be a great day,' he convinced himself, turning the doorknob and entering the room.
He sat on the middle, second row, where he could easily see the writings on the board and easily listen to their teacher. He immediately put down and arranged his books and notes, silently waiting for the arrival of their mentor.
He looked around and the negative thoughts immediately rushed back in his head. On the back, he saw Brooklyn with the other jocks who were roughly pushing one another, laughing, uncaringly knocking down some seats and books. 'Violence is never funny', Rye mentally quoted but thought that jocks were all muscles and no brains to even know that. On the corner beside the windows, he saw Jack and Mikey, sitting beside each other, silently brooding and hating the world. There were also some giggling girls who were appreciating the athletes' rough-housing, which Rye finds both very annoying.
Everything was turning out to be a bad start of the morning.
Finally, to top it all, much to Rye's horror, the door opened and there stood Andy Fowler, haughty and smirking as all eyes focused on him. He slowly paraded to a vacant seat at the back, winking at the guy across him who looked down and blushed. Rye tried his best not to roll his eyes as he faced in front and waited for their class teacher. Fortunately, they made their entrance not long after a few minutes. She greeted her students and marked the start of the class.
Rye made another glance throughout the room and sighed hoping for the best of this period.
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OUTCASTS // randy/macklyn (ON HIATUS)
Fanfiction"We're an ugly bunch, aren't we?" Andy said which made Rye glance at him. He was looking at the direction where Rye was previously looking at. The bespectacled boy swore he saw the blonde smiling sadly, but he could be wrong because it was over as s...
