"Watch it, nerd!" A kid yelled pushing him into one of the lockers. The kid took a good look at the nerds face before bursting with laughter. "Are you serious? Hey Bryan, come check this out!" He motioned over the best defender on their football team. "Looks like the biggest nerd in school just got nerdier."
He pinned Luke by his shoulders leaving him defenseless.
"W-well I couldn't see the homework board and you broke my glasses before so I had to improvise," Luke spat, yet kept his head down trying to hide the embarrassing green glasses his mom used to wear.
"What did you just say, Hemmings?" Bryan whispered.
"Leave him alone guys," A thicker Australian accent came.
"Aww come on we were just having some fun Ashton," the other kid said. "Plus look at his glasses."
"Seriously Zach, leave him alone and go pick on someone your own size," Ashton warned. Zach nodded and left with Bryan following. Ashton walked towards Luke who was getting his books together. "Are you okay?" Ashton asked tiredly, as if he'd done this a million times before. Luke nodded and swallowed hard.
"Yea I'll be fine," he said leaving to go to his next class with his head held down.
"And by the way," Ashton yelled from across the hallway causing Luke to turn around. "I think your glasses are pretty cool." Luke smiled softly and walked into art class.
Ashton walked in the other direction as girls were swooning over him and his bravery to defend the school nerd. He cheekily smiled at the girls and walked into his gym class.
Meanwhile, Michael Clifford was angrily staring at the role model and the girls that adored him. He was convinced that anyone could have done that. He wanted attention, but was happy staying in the crowd. He rolled his eyes as a girl was staring at Ashton's butt and put in his earplugs. Blink-182 was on shuffle and he was ready to ditch when his teacher saw him in the hallway and dragged him into class.
"Michael," she warned. "If I catch you with those goddamn earplugs then I'm going to report you to the principles office." Michael nodded and put away his phone and earplugs.
Michael was a good kid, and not many people knew that. They saw him as an outcast, a reject. Just some punk kid who'll kill himself later in life. He had good grades. Not great, but he was able to maintain a B average in most classes. Sometimes a C, sometimes even an A, but that all depended on his mood.
He sat in the back of his class. He sat alone. He used to have a friend, but he dropped out. Now his only friends are a lesbian and an exchange student from Egypt who can't pronounce his name right.
Michael sighed in his Technology class. The only class he had an A in. Computers were his specialty. His lesbian friend, Sierra; who Michael didn't like very much, winked at him and he rolled his eyes. Michael was disgusted by her, and he hated that. He wanted to think fondly about her but he couldn't. It wasn't because she was a lesbian, but she tried so hard to be one of the boys. She cut her hair, wore a snapback, listened to blink-182, wore boy clothes, played video games 24/7, deepened her voice, talked about her penis which she did not have, and preferred to be called "John". He didn't want to call her John, because he knew she was still Sierra. He knew deep down inside she missed wearing dresses and skirts and wearing ponytails.
He waved it off and went back to his boring class. He missed his friend Calum. Calum was a good kid, too.
Calum was a really good soccer player, like insanely good. He got the opportunity to go to Brazil and try to make it big, but he returned to Australia after about a month when he got homesick. Calum wasn't smart, at all. The only reason they didn't hold him back was because of the scholarship he got from playing soccer. That apparently wasn't good enough for him. He left around mid-December to go and follow his dreams. He never said goodbye or anything. He just left. The saddest thing was no one knew what his dream was. It was just a dream, though.
