Chapter Text
Franklin Iero. That’s what was printed on my new, crisply laminated student ID for Roosevelt High School. It held all my information: height (4’10”), weight (119 lbs.), grade (11th, a junior), and homeroom teacher (Mr. Waters). It also held the fact that I was in a new town, a new school, a new life, and not a clue what to do about it. I hated moving, I really did, but it’s just a part of life. I stared down at my Vans, their contrast against the creamy white tiles of the school office, and my tattooed knuckles, as I waited for the secretary to lead me to my classroom. “Alright, Franklin, it’s your first day of school!” She crowed, slapping a hand on my back. “I’ll lead you to your first class. You start off in math, okay?” I nodded, following behind the buxom woman, all but encased in her shadow. Everyone was probably already in class, there were a few late kids streaming in, but besides that, it was mostly me and the secretary taking up the hallway. She opened a left-hand door and strode confidently into the classroom. “Mr. Waters, you have a new student!”
A young teacher, maybe in his mid-20s, looked up from his desk and straight over my head, before lowering his eyes to meet mine. Typical. He smiled, coming to shake my hand. “Hello, you must be Franklin.”
“Just Frank, please.” I mumbled, staring at my shoes. “Please don’t make me introduce myself.”
Mr. Waters smiled again, nodding. “Ah, a shy one, okay. Pick a seat then… Frank.”
I scanned the class, seeing three open seats. The first one was at the front of the class, just off to the teacher’s left. Nope. The second was in the very back, again on the left-ish side of the center. Also a no. That left one seat, in the middle-back right, a single seat away from the wall. I started to walk over there and the class went into a collective silence, watching me as I set my backpack down at my feet and sat in the desk. The guy on my left looked up, his silent, menacing hazel eyes seeming to take me in before giving me the smallest grunts of assent. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and butterflies danced in my stomach as he broke our little staring contest, returning his eyes to his notebook, which he had a hoodie-clad arm around protectively. I felt a wave of nervousness wrack my body as I pulled out my own spiral-bound notebook and a pencil out of my backpack’s front pocket. “Alright, class, now that that’s settled, let’s begin.”
The first thing we had to do was a placement test, fairly easy stuff, most of it from last year’s math class. I went to work on answering as many questions as possible, as did the rest of the class, excepting the boy on my left. He kept sketching in his notebook, as if he was oblivious to the rest of the class’ work. I couldn’t see what he was sketching, but that only interested me more, making me even more curious as to who he is. But I didn’t have much time to contemplate it, as the class bell rang and he rose from his chair before anyone else had made a move, stooping to pick up his own backpack and stuffing his pencil inside the front zipper pocket. Before he could grab up his notebook, I caught a glimpse of what he had been sketching. It was an incredibly detailed sketch, if a trace cartoonish, of… me. He had captured me in charcoal, sitting up tall in my desk to complete my sheet. I gasped, eyes wide as I haphazardly stuffed my notebook into my bag. Why would he draw me? I chewed my lip ring in thought as I walked out of the classroom, and… ran smack into a blond girl in a strappy floral sundress, losing my balance and knocking her off center. I quickly stood up, grabbing my backpack up off the floor and offering her a hand to get up. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!” I asked, eyes wide as she stood on her own, ignoring my hand and giving me a pleasant smile.
“It’s okay.” She grinned. “I’m alright. I’m Snyper Bryar, by the way, and you are…. Frank Iero. You’re Frank, right?”
“Um… Yes?” I was stumped as to how she knew that. She hadn’t been in my class yet! “How’d you know?”
“You sat next to Gerard.” She said simply, shrugging and pointing to the guy who had been on my left, who was now walking away from us through the sea of parting people. “I got a text telling me about the new kid, so everyone in the school probably knows who you are. Gerard hasn’t let anyone sit by him before.” She smiled funnily. “Want to join us for lunch? Me and a bunch of friends’ll be out in the quad.”
“O… Okay.” I said, chewing nervously on my lip ring. “Thank you… Snyper.”
“Yep!” She said, walking off with a smile on her face. NOW I couldn’t wait for lunch.
Okay. Before we go on any farther in my story, there’s a few things you should know. First off is that I’m gay. When I say gay, I mean Gayer-Than-Freddy-Mercury gay. Like, unicorns and rainbows gay. Second is that, if you can’t tell, people agonize me. I’ve got anxiety, I’m shy, and I’m a pushover. Also, I play guitar. Alright, that’s all. Back to the story.
Anyways, class was fairly uneventful until I got to lunch. I wandered out onto the quad and quickly spotted Snyper, mainly because she was jumping up and down under a large oak tree. “Frank!” She called. “Frankie, over here!” I walked over to where she was sitting, and noticed her companions. There was a tall, broad-shouldered blond guy who looked very much like Snyper, a guy with thick, curly brown hair that cascaded around his goofy face like an afro, and a guy with long, slicked-back blond hair that kind of had an emo-scene vibe around him. “Frank, this is Bob, my twin brother,” pointing to the tallest blond one, “And this is Ray Toro,” the curly-haired one, “And this is Mikey Way.” The last one, who was wearing a yellow-and-black zebra print muscle shirt. “And you already know Gerard Way, he’s over there.” She pointed to where, underneath the tree, Gerard was sitting. He had his notebook out once again, drawing or something, and he flicked his gaze over all of us for a second before going back to his work. “Gerard and Mikey are brothers. Mikey’s younger. Guys, this is Frank Iero.”
“FRANKIEEE!” Ray yelled, grinning as he ran up to me and caught me in a bear hug. “Nice to meet yo - Owwww!” Gerard smirked from his place on the ground as Ray let go of me and turned around, picking up an egg-sized rock from just behind him. “That HURT, Gerard! Jeez!” Shaking his head, he turned back around to me. “Well, nice to meet you, anyways.” He shot me a lopsided smile.
I half-laughed, letting out my high-pitched, girly squeal of a laugh. “Nice to meet you, too, I guess…?”
Mikey started talking to me then, cutting off a reply from Ray. “Hey, Short New One, want to come to the amusement park with us this afternoon? We’re gonna go take on the new roller coaster.” He got a fierce grin on his face as he waited for my response.
“Yeah, Frankie, you should come, it’ll be fun!” Snyper chimed in with a huge smile on her face.
“I guess so.” I said, smiling back. “I’d love to.”
After lunch, in 6th period, Ray was in my biology class. I walked in and found a seat, on the right of Ray, and he grinned. “Frank!” He said, ruffling my hair. “Nice to see you again!”
“Hi, Ray.” I half-smiled back, running a hand over my head to assess the damage he’d done to my hair before just smoothing it back down.
“Alright, class!” The teacher – Ms. Olson – said then, turning towards us all. “We’re going to be watching a movie today…”
“Nap time!” Ray mumbled, and as soon as the room went dark, Ray’s head hit the desk, fast asleep.
I almost laughed as I picked up my pen, shaking my head at Ray and beginning to take notes. Unlike him, I cared about getting good grades.