New Place, New Feelings | Horrid Henry x Rude Ralph

[2] Classroom Shenanigans

POP!

"Whoever is popping gum, please spit it out now!"

The class started giggling. Mr Lance Stockson, known to many of his students as Laughing Stock Lance, was one of Henry's favourite teachers. Mainly because he let his students get away with anything.

POP!

Lance ran to the other side of the classroom. "It's coming from both sides!"

POP!

Unbeknownst to Lance, the sources of the popping noise were Henry and Ralph. They had purposely sat on opposite sides of the classroom and were alternating between which one of them was popping their bubblegum. Most teachers would have figured out what was going on by this point, but as his nickname suggested, Lance was easy to make a laughing stock of.

POP!

"Stop!" Lance yelled, becoming more and more agitated. However, someone else seemed to be getting agitated too.

A tall girl stood up from her seat. Moody Margaret. She pointed a finger at Henry. "HENRY! If you pop that gum one more time then... then you're going to regret it!"

Lance immediately turned towards Henry, who gulped. "So you're the one popping that-"

POP!

Lance's head whipped around to face the other side of the room.

"Who was that?!"

The bell suddenly rang, causing all of the students to jump out of their seats and leave the classroom.

"Hey, wait!" Lance called after them, but to no avail. Henry and Ralph erupted into a fit of laughter.

"That was awesome!" Henry exclaimed.

"I know right! You're lucky the bell went when it did, or else you'd be in detention thanks to Moody Margaret," Ralph said. The pair continued laughing as they headed outside for break.

"Well, I'm also lucky that you were there," Henry responded. "If you popped your gum any later then Laughing Stock Lance would have had the chance to give me a detention, even if the bell went when it did!"

"Huh, I guess you're right," Ralph said, smiling. They carried on walking until they reached Aerobic Al and Beefy Bert.

"Hey guys," Henry said, greeting his two friends.

"Hi Henry, hi Ralph," Al replied. Ralph nodded at Al and Bert, and Bert gave a small wave in response.

"Have you heard about the new Mutant Max game that's coming out?" Henry asked, excited.

"Er, I dunno," Bert replied with his usual response. Ralph, however, perked up.

"I have! My dad's gonna get the beta test!"

"Woah, that's awesome!" Henry exclaimed. "I wish my dad would do something like that."

"Don't worry Henry, you can come over and have a go if you want!" Ralph replied. "But I don't get it until Friday."

"I'll ask my mum later," Henry said. "I hope she lets me..." The Mutant Max game looked awesome, and he didn't want to miss what could possibly be his only chance to play it.

"Hey, are we still having a Purple Hand Gang meeting later?" Al asked. The Purple Hand Gang was a gang that Henry had created many years ago, and it was still around. Although, the 'meetings' were never actually anything important.

"Yep, straight after school," Henry replied.

"Cool!" Al said before looking down at his watch. "I'd better get going, I need to fit in at least 3 laps around the yard before the bell goes. See you later!" He quickly took off jogging, and Bert wandered off somewhere else.

Henry turned to Ralph. "Welp, I guess that just leaves us again."

"Er, yeah, I guess it does," Ralph replied. Henry looked at him strangely.

"Are you feeling alright, Ralph? You've been acting a bit, er... odd, today."

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm fine!" Ralph said a bit too quickly. Henry looked suspicious.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Henry, I'm sure!"

Henry wasn't totally convinced, but he decided not to ask about it. Maybe he would have, if he wasn't interrupted by Moody Margaret.

"What are you two bogey brains up to?"

"Yeah, bogey brains," Sour Susan echoed behind her.

"Er... talking?" Henry replied.

"About what?"

"What's it got to do with you?"

There was a moment of silence between Henry and his rival. Tension hung in the air, waiting to be broken by somebody.

"Let's go, Henry," someone spoke, softly grabbing Henry's arm and pulling him away.

"Wha- Ralph? What are you doing?!" Henry exclaimed as he tried to escape Ralph's grasp, which tightened. Once they were quite far away from Margaret and Susan, he let go.

"You're always talking to Margaret!" Ralph complained. "Especially for someone who says girls are disgusting." Henry looked at him in shock.

"Well first of all, I absolutely hate Margaret! And second, why do you even care?" A thought came into Henry's head. Surely not...

"Well, I-"

"Ralph... do you like Margaret?!" Ralph's eyes widened in shock.

"Eugh, of course not!" Ralph replied in disgust. Henry wasn't convinced, but he didn't have time to ask more because the bell went and Ralph was gone.

Henry stayed still for a moment. Does Ralph really like Margaret? That thought made him feel weird. Sort of... disappointed, in a way. He didn't know why he felt like that. Probably because Margaret was his worst enemy, and if Ralph liked her he would be betraying him. Also, Margaret was a girl, and Henry thought girls were disgusting.

The thought lingered in his mind as he began to walk to his next class. He tried to tell himself that he wouldn't care if that was the case, if Ralph really did like Margaret. But there was a small - no, a big part of him that doubted that. He couldn't shake that disappointed feeling, no matter how hard he tried.

Henry entered his maths classroom and sat in the back corner of the room. The corner was where he sat if he didn't want to talk to anyone - it was unusual, but it did happen every so often. He stayed silent for the whole lesson, not even looking up to make a crude joke or pull a small prank. He just kept thinking. And nobody payed any attention to him.

Well... one person did.