It was the third fight that had broken out that week. It seemed like everyone was trying to jump at each other's throats in this place. So far Gerard had avoided the worst of it. He still got shoved into lockers daily, and his stuff was still mysteriously disappearing and reappearing all the time, but he hadn't taken a punch in ages. Ok, so that sounded pretty sad, but then again he wasn't exactly the most popular guy there. The weird kid that wore eyeliner and sat at the back of the class, drawing little cartoon monsters everywhere? He tended to get beat up a lot for that. For being... Different.
But he wasn't the only one. Everyone got beat up at some point, for various different reasons. The jocks practically owned highschool, along with the cheerleaders and who ever else had climbed high enough on the social ladder. Typical highschool hierarchy. They bossed everyone else around and acted all superior. When Gerard first started highschool it used to bother him a lot, but you learnt to keep your head down and your mouth shut in order to survive, a skill Gerard had slightly delayed in mastering. Being invisible was his easiest option. But it didn't always work. Sometimes... People were just looking for trouble.
That's what appeared to have happened on this particular day. Some other kid in Gerard's class-he wasn't quite sure what his name was-was just minding his own business, walking down the hallway, when he knocked into this other guy in Gerard's class, Frank. Frank... Frank was a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a black leather jacket. Like Gerard he sat at the back of the class and kept to himself. Well, he tried to keep to himself, but somehow he just couldn't help but get involved in other people's shit. He talked back in class, he had a knack for annoying almost anyone... He didn't exactly seem like the friendliest guy in the world. And yet, somehow Gerard knew that he wasn't an asshole, not completely. He was relatively new to the school, only started there a few months ago. And, ok, he was cute. He was short, he had a lip ring and Gerard could've sworn that he could see a tattoo on his arm peeking out from under the sleeve of his hoodie. It almost made Gerard forget how irritating he was. Almost.
Anyway, it was a complete accident. Frank was moping about with his head down; the other guy was texting and wasn't really paying attention to where he was going... And they ran into each other. If it had been anyone else, it probably wouldn't have mattered, but it just had to be Frank. The guy tried apologizing to him but Frank was having none of it. He probably thought everyone was out to get him. Just as he was storming off, a couple of jocks came by and shoved him into the lockers. Frank was pretty worked up by then, so he confronted the group. Which inevitably resulted in him getting punched, and Gerard thought he could hear his jaw crack from where he was standing. He had been walking not too far behind Frank when it all happened, and being the complete and utter brainless idiot that he was, he decided that it would be a wonderful idea if he got involved. Not the brightest idea on his part.
He told the head jock (who turned out to be the captain of the football team, James) to back off, that he'd knocked into Frank first. Then Frank, the pretentious douchebag, started yelling at Gerard saying he didn't need his help. When he swung in to punch him Gerard ducked, so Frank ended up punching one of James' cohorts in the chest (he's pretty short and they're freakishly tall, so that's as far as he could reach). Complete mayhem broke out after that, fists were flying, insults were thrown... The whole school seemed to be at war. Until finally, their dim-witted principal Mr. Johnson decided he simply couldn't finish his morning coffee in peace with all the screaming. Gerard, James, his cohort, and Frank were all sent to his office.
"Stay right where you are!" his voice had thankfully climbed down an octave or two, after shouting at all of them for a good half-hour. "Don't think for a minute that we're done here!" He then turned around, straightened his tie, and proceeded to open the door, calm and collected as if he hadn't been screaming himself hoarse just moments before. "Ah, Mr. Urie! So glad you could make it. And just in time too." He had resorted to just glaring daggers at them now that there was a witness present.
