Let's go back to the beginning. We'll start with the introductions. My name's Michael Way. Mikey for short. I had just turned sixteen when this all began. My older brother, Gerard, was sixteen – due to turn seventeen the following April. We were at school together, same grade at Belleville High. I'd always thought it was awesome I'd skipped a grade and shared a lot of classes with Gerard. We were always really close.

It was nice having each other at school. We were kind of outcasts. At least we could be outcasts together. I mean, seriously, we were such misfits that not even the emo and goth wannabe misfits wanted us. That's how fucking cool we were.

This all started about a month after school began. It was October 2nd. We had this stupid assignment to hand in. Stupid piece on what life in New Jersey meant to us. Gerard and I worked together, taking the phrase “bored to death” quite literally and maybe a bit too far. We got into a load of shit. It was dumb.

Anyway. Over the last few weeks, there'd been what we all thought was some kind of wild dog attacking the neighbourhood pets. The most recent being the previous morning. A typical lazy Sunday when this woman across the road came out screaming her heart out, collapsed on her knees in the middle of the road; you know the sort of thing. Totally stupid, totally over dramatic. I mean jeez, it was just a fucking dog.

This ties in, don't you worry. You see, that Monday on October 2nd, I became the victim of, well, it wasn't even a cruel prank – it was just cruel. It was gym class, and Gerard and I were doing what we usually did. Hunched up at the far corner of the soccer pitch, hiding a crafty smoke while we waited for our turn.

Gerard nudged me sharply with his thin elbow and nodded his head towards the bleachers. I followed his gaze to see the girls gym class. Up on the bleachers a gaggle of girls were sitting, waiting to be called up.

“I think Lindsey's checking me out,” He commented.

I looked up at her. She was pale with her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, white shirt and black gym shorts, ready to burn off some weight. She looked across at Gerard and smiled, her fingers playing with loose strands of her hair. He smiled awkwardly, pulled his thick hoody tighter around him and snatched the cigarette from my hand.

“Fucking hell,” He whispered.

“Like you care, yeah?” I questioned.

“I dunno',” He replied thoughtfully.

He'd never expressed any particular interest in the female population of our town but I suspected he'd been harbouring some feelings for Lindsey. And good for him, she wasn't ugly or short on intelligent conversation or anything. Mom and Dad thought we were both weird for having never been on dates. We got lectures on it all the time.

I smiled knowingly at him and reached for the cigarette, looking over my shoulder quickly to check no one was looking. Gerard rolled his eyes and pushed his dark brown hair from his face.

“No one is watching us, you dweeb,” He insisted “Now come on, share the wealth. It took me ages to get these!”

“Come on, guys, change over!” Came the call “Gerard and Mikey, that means you too, surprisingly!”

“Fuck,” We muttered in unison, dropping the cigarette and snubbing it out.

We really hated gym. I could see the soccer enthusiasts smirking as we shuffled awkwardly onto the pitch. We were so dead. They were thinking it. We knew it. As soon as the game began I'd spend the rest of it running in the opposite direction that the ball was going.

There was this guy in particular called Dean. He was a total a-hole with a dick on top. He had the typical douchebag floppy dark brown fringe and the blue eyes to go with it. God I hated that guy. Anyway, he always made it his duty to make me look as big of an idiot in gym as he could. No matter which way I ran to avoid him, he'd be right behind me.

Today was no different. I decided to go join Gerard to get away and there Dean was, running behind me, trying to trip me up. 'Look at the freak run' he was calling behind me. I stumbled as his foot caught my ankle. He laughed, joined by his friends.

“Fuck off,” I yelled to him, turning sharply to try and get away.

As I turned, I bumped straight into him and fell down, my legs getting tangled with him and sending him headlong forwards. I couldn't see what was happening because my glasses were gone. I stumbled around, trying to find them in the fuzz. All around me I could hear gasps and exclamations of disgust.

“That's one mad dog!”

“It's done it again!”

A rough hand seized my hair and I was dragged sideways. I cried out as my face was shoved down into the cold, squishy brown mud.

“No one does that to me!” I could hear Dean's angry shout, his hand pushing down hard on the back of my head.

“It was a fucking accident!” I could hear Gerard yelling.

The gym teacher's whistle sounded and he rushed over, seizing us both by our shirts and pulling us apart.

“Break it up,” He yelled “Break it up now or so help me you'll both be in detention!”

A hand was on my shoulder as I wiped the mud from my face with my shirt. My glasses were placed back on. I took a deep breath in as I felt an uncomfortable tightening. I could now see what everyone was exclaiming about. Dean had fallen over a dog corpse. Just left lying on the pitch, its guts and shit everywhere. He had a big red stain and flecks of hair on his gym shirt. My stomach turned.

“Dean, Mikey, go get cleaned up.”

Gerard put an arm around me and gave me a push in the direction of the locker room. He strode confidently over to Dean, stopping almost nose-to-nose. Dean snorted with laughter.

“You fucking touch my brother again,” He threatened “I fucking dare you to!”

“Try and stop me, loser,” Dean laughed back, shoving Gerard hard and swaggering off.

* * *

“Fucking hell, that was a nightmare,” I mumbled to Gerard, pushing my broken glasses further up my nose. One lens was cracked and they now hung squiffy on my nose. I pushed them up irritably as they slipped down.

“Mom's gonna' freak,” Gerard commented.

We paused in front of our side-by-side lockers. For a moment, we just stared. Gym hadn't been the end. Someone had taken a black marker pen and scrawled “FREAK” across my blue locker door.

I sighed to myself, looking around at the dickheads who were clearly responsible from the way they were staring and nudging each other. They were waiting for something.

I looked down at the floor. There was a small red drop on the floor. I sighed. They'd obviously gotten in there and burst a bunch of ketchup packets or something. Bastards.

I entered my combination and opened the catch. The door swung open from the weight of something pushing on it. I shrieked as what was obviously the leftover shit from the biology department burst out of my locker. All around me laughter erupted. I stared in wide-eyed shock, horror and disgust at the bloody mess in front of me.

Gerard looked disgusted and mumbled something about getting a cleaner before rushing off. I slammed the locker door shut, grabbed my books and swept off down the corridor. High School really fucking sucked.

Notes

So, guys?
I moved my story from Mibba to here to see how it gets received! Comment for more? =)