Always Forever

Lout

It was the day after Sunday. Monday. Ralph woke up at 5:00 am every morning for school. On the weekend it was 7:00 am.
He walked to school, knowing he'd see his friends sooner or later, maybe they'd console his epidemic.  Once he arrived it was a bare land. No one really got up as early as he did, especially not after a Sunday. He got his breakfast from the cafeteria, orange juice and some meager pickings. His routine for breakfast wasn't very thick with variety.

Later in the day when more people started showing up he saw his faithful friends, Simon and Piggy. Sam and Eric usually arrived later on, on count of the fact that they love to ruse mischief for greasers  late at night. 
"Hey guys." Ralph said tiredly.

"What's shakin, bacon?" Piggy replied.

"Well aren't you chipper in the morning?" Ralph laughed.

The three of them talked and laughed until finally Sam n Eric showed up.

"It's about damn time!" Piggy said

"Hey guys!" The two greeted.

Ralph  yawned, the point of him and Jack would come up sooner or later with these two gossipers around. It wasn't like it was hard to avoid the concept anyhow with them blathering all the time. Simon poked up

"Huh?"

Ralph finally tuned into the conversation to blush and become the subject of a very embarrassing subject.

"It's true! Jack was totally mackin' on Ralph!"

Ralph looked down in embarrassment.

Simon held Ralph's hands in his own, "Ralph listen to me, don't trust those greasers."

Ralph shrugged and tried to subside the awkward conversation about his love life.

"I'd rather keep work business in work. Strictly. And not discuss it for trivial matters.." Ralph spat quietly

Simon looked at him with something in his eyes. Ralph couldn't tell if it was happiness or sadness. The school bell rang and each to their own walked to their designated classroom. Back to Jack. Ralph dreaded each step to his English class. When he got there he felt as if all eyes were on him. He sat at his desk and saw a very tired Jack nearly passing out at his desk. Typical. He tried to look away from the other boy but his mind gave a hot flash to last night. His cheeks heated up and he pressed his cold hands to his face. Today was bound to be a long horrible day.

The teacher greeted the class as usual and docked the assignments for today. They were to read a chapter of some book silently and write about it. Jack's piercing blue eyes were drooping. Until eventually he fell asleep. Ralph wanted to roll his eyes and laugh at him for being so typical but he just muffled a chuckle and focused on his book. He read through the chapter but it wasn't like he absorbed any of that information. He tried reading it again to regain his intelligence as a student, alas no avail. All he could think about was Simon's indiscernible eyes and how beautiful Jack was. And you know what? Ralph didn't care whether Jack was a no good greaser or not, he just had a burning need for him.

He slapped his face for thinking that. Now that really got the whole class staring at him. All their gazes were like needles. Especially Jack's pale blue glare. He rubbed his eyes then put his book up as if he was still reading it. In reality, he was just using that as a ruse, a distraction really, to think about his current affair. He put his book away and brought out his journal. Since the whole class was reading the same book, Ralph would probably get a short summary from Piggy. Then he would rewrite that in his own words.

He brought his #2 pencil down to the lined paper and sketched something resembling eyes. He cursed himself for not being able to draw as well as Simon, or even some of the greasers for that matter. While he was sketching it seemed like only a couple seconds before the bell rang to head to his next class. He scrambled to put his things away, and ended up just crumpling up the paper with a peculiar set of eyes and throwing it away in a nearby waste-bin.

He smacked Jack on the shoulder to wake up and rushed out the door to his next class.  When Jack arose from his chair his face was flushed. And drool on his face from whatever minimal sleep he just had.  Ralph couldn't bring himself to look at Jack for very long before feeling guilty.

He walked into his next class, science. That class was a blur. Something about taking notes, the usual Cornell notes. He couldn't recall at all what the lesson was about but he would eventually turn back to it when he got home. After all, studying daily is a necessity to be a straight A student. Breaking that roll would devastate him.  After he finished notes he laid his head down on the thick desk. He could only close his eyes for a few minutes because his stress level wouldn't allow him to legitimately sleep.

The rest of the period was him staring off into space thinking about how stupid Jack is. So stupid and...Beautiful. God why did he have to fall for this cheeky bastard?! The bell rung and he slung his backpack over his back and walked to third, then fourth...

Lunch time? Another plane of reality.
When he walked to his usual table. The pristine one that never had stains, or food, or dross left on it. He brought out lunch. A pb and j. He would count on his friends to protect his lunch. Piggy sat at the table with his lunch. His aunt always packed a nice good lunch for him. Spoiled brat. Then followed Simon who didn't really ever eat anything during lunch. He said he ate when he got home. No one questioned that. And the twins who also got cafeteria food. Their favorite thing to do was create the most disgusting concoction with the remnants of their feast.

Ralph walked back to a full table with a carton of milk.

"Hey guys" Ralph sighed. He was still thinking about Jack.

"I think we should use a code name for him if we're gonna talk...about him..." Ralph's eyes drifted to the floor and then back to the table of people staring back at him.

Piggy dipped on his juicebox. "Uh...like what?"

"Uhhhhhh..." he thought and just blurted out, "cHerry????"

Sam n Eric laughed
Sam bumped Eric, "Oh, he's serious?" He whispered. 

Ralph blushed "shut up. If you wanna talk about him then use that name."

The boys shrugged. It wasn't like they had anything better to do.

Ralph sat down and tried to take a bite of his sandwich while his friends blathered I'm about cars and books. Suddenly a greaser saunters to the table.

"H-" he breathed out.
Ralph had the most confused expression on his face.