Chapter 2: Gerard

Frank got out of Bob's mums car and waved goodbye at the three people sat inside the Volkswagen, turning to walk up the steps to his four bedroom house, clasping the piece of paper with Gerard's number he had been given after Science. He dumped his bag outside of his room and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice. As he opened the fridge door he noticed a neon yellow sticky note on a pizza box inside the fridge,

"Frankie,

Had to nip out, work stuff, Left you pizza to warm up, you know how to do it, love you hunnie,

Mum xxx"

Frank smiled at the little note and took the pizza box out of the fridge, removing the pizza and putting it in the oven to cook. Whilst it was cooking Frank removed his homework from his school bag and completed it all before the pizza had fully cooked. He switched on the tv whilst he removed the pizza from the oven and sat down with it on a plate.

It took Frank a mere 10 minutes to eat the whole pizza and put his plate in the dish washer. He plopped himself down on the sofa and grabbed his phone, sending a text to Gerard saying a simple "Hi". About 4 minutes later the phone beeped telling him he had received a text, Frank practically jumped out of his seat squealing with excitment when he picked up the phone and saw Gerard's name flash across the screen. Frank decided to ask Gerard if he wanted to come over for a bit after school the next day for food and sent him his address. Whilst he was channel surfing Franks phone beeped again and Gerard's name flashed across the screen. Frank had gotten butterflies whilst he had been waiting for a response and now his stomach was doing tiny backflips as he read the response - "yeah sure, sounds good :)". A squeal of excitement escaped Frank's lips as he asked Gerard if he wanted anything in particular with which Gerard responded "PIZZA". Frank chuckled and carried on the conversation till he eventually fell asleep in front of the tv dreaming of what might happen after school tomorrow.

Frank decided to walk to school on Tuesday instead of walking to Bob's house and getting a lift. He was giddy about the thought of seeing Gerard even though he'd only known him for a day. As he got a few streets away from the school he noticed he was walking behind a tall boy with long dyed black hair. Frank skipped up next to him hoping it was who he thought it was, the boy looked up from the floor sensing Frank next to him.

"Oh hey Frank." Gerard smiled widely, the biggest smile Gerard had shown Frank yet.

"Hey!" Frank smiled back, "your still okay to come round to my house tonight right? I'm ordering pizza!" Frank smiled and asked the olive eyed boy.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Gerard smiled sweetly at Frank which made the spikey haired boys heart flutter.

The two boys walked into school, careful to avoid the jocks Gerard had met the previous morning. As the two walked into the canteen they were greeted by the sight of Ray and Bob having a make out session. The two boys sat down in their seats and the blonde let go of his boyfriend laughing awkwardly and sorting out his disheveled hair. Frank laughed nervously at the two.

"Oh err Frank I was wondering if I could ask you something about that history homework we got yesterday?" Ray questioned Frank who nodded and stood up walking away from the table, following him to his locker. The two boys walked to his locker in silence until Ray turned to Frank.

"You like him don't you?" Ray smiled slightly.

"No! Who? Err, I don't know what your talking about!" Frank said sheepishly and began to fidget with his lip ring.

"Gerard you idiot." Ray carried on smiling.

Frank paused "Is it that obvious?" Ray laughed lightly.

"Just a bit, ya know, the puppy dog eyes, the yes Gerard no Gerard three bags full Gerard." Ray carried on laughing whilst Frank carried on fidgeting, "I can have a word with him if you want? Ya know, ask him if he likes you too?" Ray smiled calmly.

"Yeah yeah!" Frank practically began jumping up and down. Ray laughed at Franks excitment whilst he grabbed his English book out of his locker. The two walked back to where they had been sat in the canteen only to find Gerard and Bob arm wrestling. Frank and Ray took their seats next to the two boys just as Bob has lost to Gerard.

"Aww come on man! One more try! Your like Superman or some shit!" Bob whined.

Ray laughed and patted Bob on the arm when Gerard beat the blonde yet again.

The bell went to signal the start of double English and the four boys stood up and walked to class. Ray jumped into Frank's seat after whispering something to Bob, Frank just stared at Ray and giggled slightly as he sat next to Bob. Bob looked slightly puzzled but didn't say anything as him and Frank began chatting.

"Hey Gerard." Ray said with a big smile plastered on his face.

"Hey Ray." Gerard smiled back. Just as the two boys began discussing how The Scarecrow was a much better villain then The Penguin, their English teacher Mrs Tear clapped her hands together signalling for the class to quiet down so she could speak. Gerard liked Mrs Tear, she was one of the few teachers who seemed a bit wacky and didn't really care what anyone else thought, a bit like himself really. Mrs Tear told the class how they would be acting out some scenes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as part of their GCSE coursework. The teacher separated the class into groups of four (putting Ray, Bob, Frank and Gerard together) so they could act out the scene in which Juliet tells her father she will not marry Paris. Gerard was made to play Juliet's nurse, Frank was Juliet, Bob was Lord Capulet and of course Lady Capulet was played by Ray. At the end of the lesson each group was made to show their scene and the four boys made the whole class laugh with their terrible acting skills. Just after the boys had bowed to their audience the bell rang allowing the class to file out for their break time. Bob and Ray wandered off around the corner into the boys toilets, Gerard didn't want to imagine what they where up to. This meant that Frank and himself meandered to their usual seats in the canteen to chat about whatever comic book the other had been reading lately (which for Gerard happened to be Batman). About 10 minutes after the boys had started their discussion on why The Joker was one of the best villains ever, Bob and Ray came trotting over hand in hand, Bob's hair rather disheveled and his collar twisted out of place. Ray giggled lightly as Gerard pointed this out to Bob who went bright red. The four boys laughed as the bell signalled the beginning of yet another lesson.

Gerard wandered into his history class and took his seat next to Ray who had the same large grin plastered on his face.

"I'm starting to really worry about what Bob's being doing to you in those toilets to make you smile so much." Gerard chuckled.

"Shut up." Ray laughed as he playfully punched Gerards arm.

Their history teacher Mr Wadley began to talk about the Russian Tsar and how useless he had been throughout the Russian revolution as he handed out yet more worksheets for the class to complete and hand in. As the class began to complete their work sheets Ray poked Gerard. Gerard turned to Ray and looked at him quizzically.

"What do you think of Frankie then?" Ray asked Gerard who's eyes widened.

"He's ... Nice." Gerard murmured as he turned and hoped that Ray would leave the matter alone.

"Aww come on man, tell me! You like him don't you? I can see it in the way you look at him." Ray smiled slightly at the dark haired boy next to him as he froze like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"I ... I ... Yes I do, he's ... Nice, really nice. But I just met him so." Gerard trailed off and looked out the window next to him.

"That's cute." Ray smiled and carried on with his work. Gerard looked quizzically at him but decided not to think anything more of it and carry on with his work.

Ray, Bob and Gerard walked over to Frank at their table in the canteen. Frank beamed up at Gerard as he sat down next to him. The boys soon finished their sandwhiches and Bob insisted that himself and Gerard have another arm wrestle to see if Bob could win (which he didn't). Gerard, Ray and Frank laughed as Bob became more and more frustrated at the fact that he couldn't move Gerards arm. The bell sounded to make the boys move to their next class, art.

The four boys walked into their art class and were met by a short blonde woman who was sat with her feet up on a table reading a magazine with a cup of tea. Ray, Bob and Frank went to the side of the classroom and collected their art folders and started to doodle inside them. Gerard stood in the doorway looking slightly confused at what to do until Frank walked over to him and handed him a new A3 art book like that of which the other boys had. Gerard looked puzzled but sat down next to Frank and started doodling images of Spider-Man and Dr. Octavious in his new book.

For the next two hours, Gerard doodled random pictures that popped into his head of comic book characters and new ones that he had created himself. Quite a few members of the class commented on his drawings saying how good they were which made Gerard feel more awkward then usual. Frank kept asking who the comic book characters where that Gerard had created, overall Gerard spent about a quarter of the lesson explaining who they were in Gerards head.

Eventually the bell rang telling the kids it was the end of the day and finally time to go home. Everyone put their books at the side of the classroom and left, the blonde behind the desk didn't even look up from her magazine. Frank ran after Gerard hoping he hasn't forgotten about going to his house after school.

"Don't fret kiddo, I'm still coming!" Gerard laughed as relief spread across Franks face.

The two boys walked out of the school, waving goodbye to Ray and Bob as they got in Bobs mums car. Frank doubled his usual walking speed, eager to get home with Gerard as soon as possible. Gerard began telling Frank about his little brother Mikey who had started to learn how to play the bass, at the moment apparently he didn't sound to bad but Gerard was hoping he would either get much better much soon or give it up ASAP.