House of Wolves

The truck sped down the freeway, the great canyons rushing by. I sat with my headphones in and stared out the window. My mom was arguing with my dumb 15 year old brother, Mikey, about something. So I decided to turn my music down and eavesdrop.

“I don’t understand why we have to move all the way across the country. We had a good life in New Jersey, so why couldn’t we just stay. I HAD FRIENDS!” I kept staring out the window.

“Mikey, I’m not gonna explain this to you again. Just because you had a good life there, doesn’t mean we can just stay there. Me and your fathers divorce was hard, so space is crucial. So stop being such a baby and deal with it.” My mother was irritated. Mikey hasn’t stopped pestering her about it since she decided it was time to leave. To me, I didn’t really care what we did. I hated my father and I had no friends either. I was basically leaving nothing behind because I had nothing in the first place. I sighed and I kept listening to the conversation.

“But mom, not only are we moving across the country, we’re moving to a tiny town in Oregon. No one lives in Oregon.” I saw my mom turn red in the corner of my eye.

“Well Mikey, we live in Oregon. So I suggest you just drop it, or I will pull over and make you walk there. My brother took her seriously and shut his trap. We sat all smushed in a truck and drove through the mountains. I hadn’t said a word the whole drive, and we had been driving for a week. We drove a while longer and soon we approached a sign that said “Welcome to Ashland” in big orange letters. Ashland was tiny. We drove down the main street that had a restaurant and a couples stores and bars. We passed the high school Mikey and I were going to attend and then soon we were in a giant neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but it seemed like the type of town that drove you stir crazy. We pulled up to a small deep purple house that looked more modern than the rest of the surrounding houses. It had a huge willow tree on the side and had a big red door. We all got out of the truck and stood on the cracked side walk.

“Well boys,” my mom asked, “What do you think?” Both Mikey and I just stood and stared. I actually kind of liked it, but it looked really, really small.

“And what possessed you to move here?” my brother smirked. My mom just gave him a dirty look and turned to me.

“Well Gerard, you haven’t said a word since left, what do you think?” I still had my music in, so I just pretended that I didn’t hear her. Instead I just grabbed my backpack and walked towards the house. My mom just took a deep breath and followed me with the key in her hand, with Mikey trailing behind her. We walked up to the red door. I took my headphones out while she wiggled the key in the door. She pushed it open and a breeze of stale, cold air brushed against my face.

“Well boys, this is your new home, so make it feel like it. We walked in and we were immediately in the living room. The moving guys got here before us and already put our furniture in the rooms my mom said to put them in. We walked through it and into a hallway. To the immediate left was the kitchen with a small dining room attached to it, and to the right was another hallway. We walked down it and on the right were two bedrooms. To the left there was a bathroom a door that led to the garage, and another door that led to the basement which had a bedroom and a bathroom.

“Mikey, you and me get the two room up here. Gerard, I figured you would want the basement bedroom, so I gave it to you. All your stuff should be down there already.” I nodded at my mom and she nodded back.

“Thanks mom.” I said and opened the door to the basement.

“And finally the man speaks.” Mikey snickered. I gave him a dirty look and walked down the stairs, closing the door behind me. When I reached the bottom I could tell that they had completely renovated the basement. It was nice too. It definitely look like a basement. I turned on the lights and saw my bed placed in the corner along with my dresser and various boxes surrounding them. I looked for the box with my stereo in it and set it up. Immediately I put on some music and I started to unpack. After about two hours I was already completely done unpacking and I was starting to get hungry, so I went upstairs to see if my mom had unpacked the kitchen yet. Of course, her and Mikey were arguing about something when I got upstairs. My mom had got out a box of pasta and had them boiling, so I sat at the table and waited.

“Are you boys ready for school tomorrow?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Pfft,” Mikey blurted, “if we were back in NJ, sure, but here? Not a chance.” My mom seemed to be ignoring Mikey altogether by this point and just looked at me. I just shrugged.

“I guess.”

“Well good, I’m sure both of you will do fine.” She got up from the table and went to serve the pasta. We ate in silence for the most part, with the occasional complaint from Mikey. When I was finished, I got up, put my bowl in the sink, and decided to go look outside. The willow tree swayed in the wind and I noticed there was a swing inside of the branches. I walked around to the back of the house and saw that we had a giant backyard. It seemed like we had no neighbors. Back at home, it seemed liked we were squished into a tiny area, but here, it seemed like we had a hundred acres surrounding us. I saw my Bedroom window which were really just holes in the ground, so instead of going through the front door, I decided to just climb through the window. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and stripped down to my boxers. I turned on some Blur and laid on my bed. Before I knew it, I was asleep. I woke up to an annoying alarm instead of the ongoing music at 6 o’clock. Someone was in here and had turned it off. I got myself up and took a quick shower. I threw a Iron Maiden T-shirt on and some black jeans with a sweatshirt, grabbed my backpack and went upstairs to eat breakfast. I got to the kitchen and both Mikey and my mom were already there at the table. I grabbed a bowl of cereal and sat down.

“I see that you managed to sneak into the house without me noticing last night Gerard, where did you go last night?” My mom seemed a little upset, like she thought I snuck out onto the town or something. “I just went outside and looked. I climbed through my window and just didn’t come back up I guess.” I said, trying not to speak too much. She just shrugged.

“Well next time, at least tell me your back.” She got up and left the kitchen. Mikey and I finished our cereal and walked out the door and started our walk to school. Mikey immediately started yapping my ear off, so it was too late to grab my music.

“Okay Gerard, I know this is a new school and all, so we have to make a good impression. I think you should cheer up a bit and try to make some friends. And Gerard, try not to embarrass me.” I rolled my eyes. He always cares about his “impression”. I grabbed my headphones.

“Well don’t worry, no one notices me anyway.” I started my music and walked a little faster away from my brother. I don’t know what it was, but we just never got along. We finally got to school. There weren’t as many people as I thought, but it was still a good amount. I walked into the building and led Mikey and myself to the principals office to get our schedules. Already, I could see people looking at Mikey and whispering. I could tell he already had friends. When we got to the office, a little old lady sat at the desk looking at a computer screen. She looked up when she noticed us standing there, and all she did was point in a direction that told us to go there. We slowly walked into a big office, where the Principal, Mr. Brown, sat at a big brown desk. He looked kind of mean.

“How may I help you boys today?” he asked as he clasped his hands and placed them onto the desk.

“Hi, I’m Gerard, and this is my younger brother Mikey, we are new students he-” He interrupted me.

“That’s right, you must be the Way boys. I’ve been expecting you! Welcome to Ashland High!” Wow this man was happy. A little too happy maybe, after all, it’s just me and Mikey. We both just kind of nodded and smiled.

“Well we have your schedules ready to go. Your boys are lucky you moved here close to the start of the year. Most teachers are still on their first or second unit. On the back you have a map of the school. It isn’t too big, so you shouldn’t have any problems. But if you do, ask any of the teachers or staff, they are glad to help you,” He smiled and got two pieces of paper out,

“which one of you is the freshman again?” he asked. Mikey turned a little red, embarrassed by the term, “freshman”. Mr. Brown Handed him a piece of paper that had seven different classes listed. Mikey got up and left me immediately to go friend hunting. Mr. Brown looked at me.

“Then you must be the junior.” He handed my piece of paper. I only had six classes. I had seventh period off. I felt quite happy about that.

“Since you have gotten almost all your credits to graduate back in New Jersey, you really only to take a bunch of electives.” I smiled and thanked him and left his office. I walked out and saw the old lady at the counter who looked busy at work. When I was in the main entryway, I stopped to look at my schedule. First class was art, then creative writing, then I had music, then lunch, Language Arts, another art class, Gym, and then finally my free period. I looked around and started to go to my first class. It took me awhile to find art, but eventually I found it. I walked in, but I was late. When I sat in the very back, everyone just looked at me in disgust.

"Can I help you?" The teacher asked me.

"I'm new." Is all I could say. Everyone looked away from me and continued on what they were doing.

"Oh, well I'm Ms. Vicory. We're just havin a free sketch so feel free to do what you want." She said. I grabbed my music and took out my sketch book. The class went by fast, and so did the next. It took me a bit longer to find music class. It was hidden in the very back of the school. I was greeted the same way into the class as every did. I sat in the corner of the room. This was a different type of music class. The teacher made us do everything independently. It was basically another free period. In the corner, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote some lyrics and drew some doodles. For about the first twenty minutes, I could see a guy with a huge fro staring at me. After I had made awkward eye contact with him, he finally started to walk towards me. Instantly I felt nervous so I just kept looking down at my paper.

“So you like Iron Maiden?” he asked me. I looked up and just looked at him. He looked so relaxed. How could be so relaxed!?

“Yeah.” I could barely speak. This wasn’t something I normally did. He nodded and we sat awkwardly for a minute.

“Well, I’m Ray, what’s yours?” he held out his hand gesturing I shake it.

“Gerard.” I replied. We shook hands. I couldn’t quite wrap my finger around what was happening at the moment. This had never happened before.

“Cool. Are you new here?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

“Where you from?” this guy was full of questions.

“New Jersey. I actually just arrived here yesterday.” his eyes widened.

“Wow, you’re starting school pretty early for getting here only yesterday. Why’d you move here, well if you don’t mind me asking.” I felt a little uncomfortable about that. I was glad I moved because I didn’t like my dad to begin with, but I still didn’t want to move so far from home.

“My mom just thought that we try something new.” I came up with. It was actually somewhat true. “Cool, weird you chose Ashland as the place. Anyway, you’re pretty cool, you should come hang out with me and my friends. And actually, one of them is from New Jersey too.” I didn’t know what to say. I was never actually invited to “hang out” with them. “

Uh, okay, sure.” I pulled out.

“Awesome!” he seemed excited which confused me, but I was actually glad that he talked to me. We talked for a while about bands that we liked, like Morrissey and the Misfits, things like that. Ray was pretty cool. Finally the bell rang and it was lunch.

“So we go out to the back of the school everyday, just in case you decide you like us. You’ll know where to find us.” We walked through the halls and to the back and outside. It smelt like mountains and pine and the sun was hiding behind some grey clouds. I saw two people by a tree and it seemed like that where we were going.

“Hey Ray, how much money would you bet that I could get Regina to go on a date with me.” the blonde one asked.

“I wouldn’t even bet dirt man.” Ray replied and they both laughed.

“Whose this?” the blonde guy asked Ray after he finally noticed me. The other guy was leaning on a tree staring off at something.

“This is Gerard. He’s new here. Just moved here from New Jersey actually,” Ray turned to me and pointed at the blonde guy, “Gerard, that’s Bob. He’s kind of an ass but he’s pretty chill most of the time and... FRANK ARE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION? AND WHERE WERE YOU IN MUSIC CLASS?” he screamed out.

The guy looked over. He had a black hair that was fringed and wore a misfits t-shirt. Holy shit, this guy was beautiful. Especially his eyes. They were almost haunting in a way. He just stared at each other but eventually he stopped and just stopped and looked at Ray.

“Frank, this is Gerard. He’s from New Jersey just like you.” Frank turned and walked closer to us.

“Nice to meet you. Sorry I’m just kind of tired today. I’ve had a hard week, so I ditched instead.” he said and he shook my hand and put the other hand in his pants pocket. He was pretty short.

“No worries.” was all I could say. We all sat and started to eat our lunch. Ray went and debated with Bob, and Frank actually sat and seemed only interested in me.

“Which part of New Jersey are you from?” he asked me.

“Newark, you?” I asked.

“Belleville,” he replied, “You like the misfits?” I was getting a feeling they were his favorite.

“Yeah, a lot actually.” He smiled. Wow. I was so overwhelmed that I was making friends for the first time ever. We talked about music for a while. He played guitar and had formed a band with Ray and Bob. All they needed was a singer. Frank was pretty cool.

“So Gerard, what do you think. Will you hang out with us more often?” Ray asked me. I thought about it. I think I would, they were all pretty cool people.

“Yeah, I think I will.” I felt good inside for the first time in a long time. I never had friends before. Ray let out a scream and Bob high fived him. Frank just smiled and nudged me in the shoulder. It was a good nudge. The lunch bell rang and I said goodbye to my new friends. They all waved at me and went their separate ways. and I went through the last of my classes with a breeze. I met Mikey in the front lobby. He also made new friends. The typical popular boys of course, typical Mikey at his finest.

“So Gerard, how was your first day.” he asked. I could tell he wasn't actually interested, he just wanted me to ask him about his new crowd.

“Fine, how about yours.” I instantly regretted that. But too late.

“Well, I made a couple new friends. I think theres a girl that thinks I’m kinda hot.” I just rolled my eyes and put my music on. When I got home I ignored my mom and just went down to my room. I took my shirt off and turned on my music. I wasn’t really in the mood for dinner. I had too much on my mind. I HAVE FRIENDS. REAL LIVING FRIENDS. I thought about my whole day and everything that happened, and I ended up thinking about Frank. He was so beautiful, yet mysterious. He looked like he was exciting and fun, but had a secret deep down inside. I knew I was different, but I never thought about it much, especially when it came to my sexuality. I think I wanted Frank more than a friend. But the question is, would he want me?

I fell asleep to the thought of Frank, eager to see him again tomorrow.

Notes

So I hope you guys like this. I was kinda bored so I just decided I would start a story. SORRY ITS SO LONG... I guess I just wanted to get the basis across before the story really begins. (I also think I got a little to excited :P.)
I don't know, let me know what you think. I'm just doing it for fun :)