It's the lake in November, and the move closer to the ocean, and Gerard's fixation, and Gerard's compulsions like tidal waves dragging him down, and Mikey's more distant than ever: like they're drifting out into the middle of the ocean, whereas Gerard's just stuck there: water turning to quicksand around him, drowning. And it's the letter; Frank finds it on the floor of the boys' bathroom on the first floor. It's dropped in accident, perhaps from a pocket or something, and it's drenched in what Frank hopes is tap water, and the words: scrawled in blue ink are difficult to make out as the words join together in a fuzzy inky mess. The only paragraph legible is the final one, and even still, it barely is: 'I've been underwater for a long time now, but I'm not drowning, I'm beginning to think I can breathe like this, but I can't, I'm gasping for breath, and I have to do this, Mikey, I have to end this myself. I'm going to the lake on the 1st of November, don't wait for me... I'm not coming back.' And the name signed at the bottom is little more than a smudged mess of blue ink, and there's nothing Frank can do about it, but he knows for certain that the one thing he can't do is ignore this letter, and he reminds himself of that as he folds it into his pocket. It's a suicide note, Frank's stupid, but not stupid enough to brush over that fact, and whoever this person is, Frank knows that they most certainly don't deserve to die. And Frank isn't going to let them. Because he's going to find this person; he's got time now at least, and he can save them, he will save them - Frank promises himself that. But one person in a whole school, it's like a needle in a haystack, but he's got time, it's November 1st in thirty days, and he can only hope that it will be enough. He's got one month: the date is October 1st.

The Pocket Universe Effect - the feeling that nothing else outside your little bubble of reality can quite matter at all. One am on a Friday in June, admist quiet neighbourhoods of New Jersey, the Ieros are away on a night out and Frank and Gerard are sprawled out across Gerard's green anorak, without the capacity to care about anything other than the night sky and the way the stars reflect in each other's eyes.

The adventures of 'pretty boy' and 'dyke'. The story of the boy with the boobs who can pack a serious punch, and the girl with a dick and her all mighty powerful butt, and just how the two happen to meet and perhaps happen to fall for one another. And the two's battles against dysphoria, the foes of the judgemental gaze of the outside world, and sometimes themselves, sometimes even each other, but in the end, they both know from that very first moment, the first eye contact: it's the two of them against the motherfucking world. (Trans AU, FTM Frank & MTF Gerard)

Mr Iero is probably the worst and most inexperienced English teacher on the planet, probably even the worst teacher, or even just the worst human being, but this is probably the worst school on the planet, and everyone knows teaching is just about making sixteen year olds laugh in order to better your ego, or at least that's what Frank keeps telling himself. Mr Way is going to get the art department enough funding to have this trip to Paris, even if he dies accomplishing it; other items on his agenda include defending his position as dominant homosexual, and pretentious artist motherfucker, and the new 'amazing' Mr Iero in room sixty eight B has no hopes of stopping him there, even if he is as cute as everyone says, and even if he is totally all for helping Mr Way getting that trip to Paris.