My attempts to talk to Gerard over the next few days were in vain, and as I began to settle into my new school I decided that I should just give up trying. I had been accepted as one of the 'populars' and now spent my days trying to dodge the eyes of every student in the school as they seemed to think I was some kind of celebrity. My nationality didn't help. Every time I spoke I could hear people around me echoing my words with very poor British accents. I was a novelty. The whole school loved my 'quirkiness' and my new group of friends loved the attention I brought to them. Everyone was a winner except me. All eyes were constantly on me and the one thing I wish I could have succeeded at, I failed every time. I couldn't get within twenty feet of Gerard Way without him bolting. I don't know why I was so fascinated with him; he was probably just your average teenage boy, but the fact that he was so elusive drew me in.

My obsession with Gerard didn't last. Time went on and I began to forget about how I wanted to make things up to him. He didn't want to know, and I was done chasing him. April came and went and I was accepted into the cheerleading squad along with the rest of my friends. My short blue and gold uniform brought another kind of attention to me - male attention. And yes, that meant all males. Gerard had stopped avoiding me and instead took to muttering things like 'whore' whenever I passed him. I only ever retaliated if my friends heard what he said, just so I didn't seem like I was losing face, but in reality I didn't care what he thought of me; I had no feelings for him, positive or negative; he was just an entity to me.

I had now spent an entire year at Belleville High School. I had made a name for myself, and I guess I could live with that. The clean slate I had hoped for had well and truly been thrown out of the window.

I didn't have as many classes with my friends this year (probably because I was much more intelligent, but I didn't like to brag) but it didn't matter because, much to my disappointment, most everyone idolised me anyway. My French classes that I had continued from the year before were one such class where I was alone, isolated from everyone I knew except Gerard Way who, coincidently, was the only other person in the class to have a desk to himself.

Mr Boucher had been lecturing about something relatively unimportant for the last half hour when he announced he wanted to try something new.

"Today I want you to get into pairs," he said through his thick French accent, "I want to try an exercise to improve your abysmal speaking grades. Now, pair up!"

I looked around the room, hoping there would be someone who would be almost falling over themselves to be my partner. No such luck. But why? I was great at French! Everyone had paired off with the person they were sitting next to leaving me partnerless.

"Does anyone not have a partner?" Mr Boucher asked after a few minutes. I raised my hand and let it hang in the air whilst I swung back on my seat in a cocky manner - I wasn't letting anyone know it bothered me to be a loner!

"Miss McCullagh," he said, "could you please move and sit with Mr Way?"

Mr Way? Oh fuck, Gerard Way? I'd forgotten he even attended this class! Well, in truth, he didn't most of the time.

"Sir, I don't think I need to practice my speech."

"Maybe not, but Gerard does. Move now, please."

I sighed heavily and snatched my bag up from the floor. As I moved towards the back of the classroom, I heard a sigh equally as irritable.

Once I had sat down, Gerard moved as far away from me as was physically possible on the two person table.

"I'm not going to bite you, you know?" I snapped angrily.

"With the attention you get, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a prized animal in a zoo," he defended.

"Poor Gerard, very poor."

"Do you think I care what a whore like you thinks about me?"

"If you didn't you wouldn't be so worked up," I pointed out simply.

"Oh you'd love me to care about your opinion, wouldn't you? One more person to adore you. I bet it really grinds on you that I don't worship you like all the other losers in this school, doesn't it?"

"No Gerard, I quite like the challenge of winning you round," I laughed, playing his game, "what would it take, do you think? Sex?"

A disgusted noise came from deep within Gerard's throat. I stifled a laugh.

"Miss McCullagh and Mr Way, that does not sound like French!" Mr Boucher called from the front of the class. Gerard ignored him.

"You think you can get what you want by acting like a complete slut? You clearly did not inherit your father's intelligence."

"And you clearly do not have a grasp on sarcasm. Seriously Gerard, I couldn't give a shit about you, whatever you may think. I'm afraid to inform you that your words do not have me in tears at night. If anything, I laugh at how desperate you seemed on my first day," I knew even before his reaction that I'd hit a nerve. I was also lying, Gerard seemed nothing but casual when I met him on my first day at Belleville High.

"DESPERATE?! What the actual fuck, Evelyn? -"

"Mr Way!"

"Did it not occur to you that I felt sorry for you? You had no friends-"

"Mr Way!"

"-you were lost and I thought your accent was cool! That's all!"

"MR WAY!"

We both turned to look at our short, plump teacher who's face was quickly reddening. "What is the meaning of this?"

"She was being her usual, egotistical self, sir," Gerard had regained his casual voice. I held my hands up in protest.

"I think you'll find, Gerard, you can't take a joke."

"You think it's funny my brother was hit by a car?"

The class let out a hushed 'oooh'. They all knew he was lying, but that was some good thinking on his part.

"Yeah yeah, play the victim."

"Both of you, detention! And stand outside for the rest of the lesson."

We both left, grumbling. Once out of the classroom, Gerard took off immediately, leaving me to explain my version of events to Mr Boucher after class. It also made me late for lunch time cheer practice. Ebony was going to flip.