K-12 | Frerard

chapter one

They'd been sitting silently in the loud bus when the paper airplane hit the back of Gerard's head.

The folded piece of paper tumbled soundlessly to the ground, and Frank stared at it with wide eyes. Gerard nudged it with his toe, pushing it closer to Frank's feet. "What does it say?"

Frank picked the airplane up, unfolding it slowly. Things were always like this with Gerard; he attracted attention, brought all eyes in the room to him. Gerard liked to challenge the rules and push everything to the maximum limit. Girls wore pink dressed and boys wore blue pants, but this year Gerard had dyed his uniform a light shade of purple that made Frank's heart leap with fear every time he looked at it. It just wasn't right. It wasn't allowed.

Frank would much rather stay hidden. Standing out was asking for trouble. The rules were put into place for a reason, and even if they didn't make sense, you had to follow them. Bad things happened to people who broke the rules.

Holding up the paper, Frank read the words scrawled in messy blue ink. At first, he couldn't read anything. His head had been pounding with pain since the bus had first arrived, and now the letters in front of him were swimming in his blurry vision. There were so many voices and so many thoughts; it was easy for Frank to get lost in them.

They are such sluts!

God, he'd be a hot fuck.

I wonder if she's judging me.

Closing his eyes, Frank focused on drowning out the voices. Once the roaring had simmered down to soft waves, he opened his eyes, looking back at the page.

Faggots.

He handed it to Gerard hesitantly, the other boy's hand lingering on his. Frank was positive the action was accidental, but it was long enough for him to see the dark black polish on Gerard's fingers. Nail polish on boys was forbidden, and Frank bit his tongue to keep himself from reminding Gerard of that. Gerard didn't like it when Frank reminded him of the rules. The sudden contact allowed a jolt of Gerard's emotion to run through Frank, and he listened to it intently. Excitement. Anticipation. Worry. It wasn't often that Frank got to see into Gerard's mind; the one upside of being special was being able to guard yourself from others. Gerard had gotten quite good at this skill, but Frank wasn't entirely convinced that he himself could shield his thoughts from Gerard completely. Gerard said that he could, but then again Gerard often lied.

Gerard read the letter and snorted, standing up and turning around to face the back of the bus. "Whoever wrote this," Gerard shouted over the clamor of voices. "You can suck my dick!"

Frank gasped, tugging Gerard's sleeve until he sat back down. "You can't say stuff like that!" Frank whispered, and Gerard shrugged. "Why not? What's the worst they could do to me?"

"A lot of things. I don't want to be here either," Frank admitted. "But I'd rather be at the institution that dead."

This morning had started like any other, despite the fact that it was possibly the first day of a ten-month-long hell. Frank's alarm had woken him up, and he'd scrambled into the school's uniform and raced down to the bus stop. He hadn't brought any bags – the school would provide him with everything he needed.

The pink bus had arrived not long after he did, with the bright blue words K-12 Sleepaway School painted on the side. The sight had made chills run down Frank's spine.

The girls behind Frank squealed, making his snap back to reality. "Are you ready for all this?" Frank asked quietly, and Gerard shrugged. "It doesn't matter, we have to go to school regardless. Everyone does."