"Hey. Hey. Hey. Who are you?" Asked Gerard as they were dragged into an empty classroom, the door slamming shut behind them. Mikey stood shoulder to shoulder with his brother, seeking comfort in his warmth.
They looked up to the boy that stood in front of them, his long brown spaghetti like hair sticking from hundreds of different angles from his head. The glassy chocolate eyes of his looking sadly to the two brothers as he folded his arms in front of them, resting his weight slightly on one leg. He was a little taller than the other two and his expression was a mixture of doubt, worry but he couldn't hide the small smile that crept warmly onto his face.

"Hey!" The chocolate-eyed boy smiled, "the names Ray..."
"Um, hi Ray." Gerard mumbled back nervously.
"You guys better watch it!" The kid with the awesome afro warned, "don't want to go messing with Cris on your first day."
"Cris?" Asked Mikey.
"The blonde haired twat out front that pushed you to the floor."
"Oh. Well he talked about our mum and dad and..." Gerard trailed off as he realised that he was talking about them, he swallowed his words as Ray tilted his head slightly to the side, giving the brothers confused glassy chocolate puppy eyes to stare at.

"You guys okay?" He asked concerned.
"Yeah. yeah...fine." Mikey brushed the thoughts far from his mind.
"Listen..." Ray stated, "high school is a tough place. You gotta stick together or you're dead meat. You know anyone else already in this shithole of a school?"
"Um. no."
"Well then. I suggest that you guys hang round with me for your first few days so you don't get pulverised into mush. I think your parents would prefer you returned in one piece..."
"Yeah. I suppose so..." Gerard mumbled, scuffing his feet on the floor.
"Sorry. Did I say something wrong?"
"No. You weren't to know..."
"Why what's wrong?"
"Well, um, how do I say it?" Gerard held back the tears; he didn't want to cry in front of his newly made friend, "well. We live with our uncle because our parents aren't around any more. So yeah."
"I'm so sorry..." Ray apologised.

Gerard and Mikey wouldn't usually have accepted a hug from someone that they'd met only a few minutes ago but when Ray brought his arm around the two and comforted them with his warmth, neither of them flinched.

They were interrupted by the bell, the shrill sound blaring through the empty classroom. After drying the last tears from his eyes Mikey separated from the hug and all three of them walked out of the door onto the busy moving corridors.

Notes

Hello, so we have Ray in this story too now! Yay! I hope that you are all doing good and thank you for reading. :) x
-Lou