wl_fanfiction | My Salad Days ch 4

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Title: 'My Salad Days (Green In Judgement, Cold In Blood)' Chapter 4 of probably lots.
Author:

sinful_teddy
Rating: PG
Pairing: Tiny bit of Ry/Col that will become the main pairing. Verrrrry even slighterer one-sided Brad/Greg that's only there if you squint real hard or if you're looking for it. (Thanks for always looking, Nade. n___n) Greg/OC. Wayne/OC. Eensy beginnings of Greg/Jeff.
Summary: It's senior student Colin's first day at a new high school in America. He never made any good friends at his last school - will this one be different? Of course it will, stupid. Colin meets some new people he feels like he could fit in with. He is intrigued by Ryan, the shy and awkward junior. WHERE WILL IT LEAD. /lame summary orz
In this chapter, the gang gets a new member -- Jeff. Colin sees Ryan and experiences another minor revelation.
Warnings: High school AU. Some self-inserts of me and my sister that are purely for our amusement. Colin with hair (o: wtf). Uh and this chapter is totally weird. I dunno what's up with it but my Colin muse took the writing-reins towards the end and got all overly-introspective on me.
Notes: I FAIL with proof-reading, so if you spot any mistakes or inconsistencies, would you would point them out to me! c:

---

NOTES ON GRADES AND AGES

Sophomores
Jeff, 15
Wayne, 16
Rowan, 16

Juniors
Brad, 16
Chip, 16
Ryan, 17
Greg, 17

Seniors
Sinead, 18
Drew, 18
Colin, 18

---

CHAPTER FOUR: Time Can’t Fly Fast Enough

There was a new arrival at the table that day. Looking shy and slightly lost, a boy with dyed-black hair in a fringe over his right eye stood beside Wayne, whose arm was draped over the newcomer’s shoulder.

“Hey, who’s this?” asked Brad, dumping his bag beside Greg’s, and walking over to greet Wayne and his friend. Colin followed, trying to present himself as confident yet welcoming.

“This is Jeff,” Wayne announced. “Jeff, this is Brad, and that’s Colin. Colin only transferred here yesterday.”

“Hi,” said Jeff, looking up without lifting his head. He gave a dejected little wave and Colin wondered what was wrong.

“Jeff’s a sophomore as well,” said Rowan, who was standing a little further away, with Chip and Sinead.

“He used to hang out with his girlfriend and her friends, but there was a pretty messy break-up so I told him he could come hang out with us,” said Wayne. Jeff stared at his shoes, frowning.

“Hey, it’s OK,” said Brad, grasping Jeff’s shoulder reassuringly. “We’re glad to have ya with us.”

“Yeah,” said Greg, from his seat on the table. He looked Jeff up and down, taking a sip from his juice box. “Real glad.” Jeff looked up without raising his head, meeting Greg’s eyes. They shared a little smile.

“Nice to meet you all,” Jeff said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“You too,” said Colin, feeling a little sympathy for this boy.

“Hey Jeff,” said Greg. “Want some chocolate?” He waved a chocolate bar in Jeff’s face.

“Oh, yeah…thanks.” Jeff smiled again and took the treat, but stowed it away in his pocket, evidently saving it for later.

“Got any more of those?” asked Sinead, coming to sit beside Greg.

“I think that was my last.” He gave a little pout.

“Ah well. Doesn’t matter.” She shrugged and motioned for Drew to pass her her bag from off the ground; he willingly obliged. As she rummaged around for food, Drew stood up and looked at Colin.

“So what’d Miss Collins want?”

“Oh…she wanted…” Colin realised he had almost forgotten the good news he’d just been given. “She gave me Kyle’s part in the play.” He smiled.

“Wow,” Drew enthused, clapping. Wayne, Chip and Rowan joined in, but the sound petered out after just a moment. “Nice one!” Drew grinned. “So you’re in the play for real now! That should be great fun. You’re a really good actor.”

“Thanks,” Colin said humbly, kicking a pebble.

He, Brad and Greg took Jeff on a walk around the school during the second half of lunch. As it turned out, Jeff used to be part of the popular crowd. His ex-girlfriend Penny was, too, and when they started dating she basically manipulated him into spending all his time with her. As a result he ended up leaving his crowd of friends and hanging out with her instead.

They went out for nearly three weeks before she got tired of not being able to control everything Jeff did, so she spread nasty and untrue rumours about him doing embarrassing things when they had sex, even though they’d never actually had sex. She also claimed that he’d cheated on her with her sister, though Jeff frankly found Penny’s whole family hard to stand. Then Penny had dumped him publicly in an attempt to shame him in front of his peers. Jeff’s friends had believed everything that Penny had said about him and he felt uncomfortable hanging around them any more since they were treating him differently.

Come one science class, Jeff knew he could no longer work with Stefan, who had once been his close friend. He saw Wayne sitting on his own, and made a quick decision that would ruin any reputation he had left – he sat with Wayne and they worked together.

“Wayne’s really nice,” Jeff said. “He was willing to forget the mean things I used to say about him. I didn’t mean any of them,” he said honestly.

“Hush now, we believe you,” said Greg, wrapping one arm around Jeff and pulling him close. Jeff didn’t respond, but stared at the ground. Colin guessed that the boys Jeff was used to being around were not this touchy-feely with him, so it must feel weird for him now.

“Hey,” said Brad suddenly. “We’re having a party at Drew’s place on the weekend. You two wanna come?”

“Oh yeah,” said Greg excitedly. “You should both come! It’d be so much fun.”

“I’ll have to check with my parents,” said Colin.

“What about you, Jeff?” asked Greg eagerly.

“Er. Dunno. I think I could go,” he said with a noncommittal shrug.

“Well find out, ‘cause we’d love for you to come along,” said Brad.

“Who else is going?” asked Colin.

“Oh, the whole gang,” said Brad.

Greg counted them off on his fingers. “Me, Brad, you guys if you can, Drew, Sinead, Rowan, Chip, Wayne…is that everyone? Oh and Ryan, if he decides to get off his fat lazy butt.”

“That’s nice!” Colin said, but he was laughing.

“It’s OK,” said Greg, with a smarmy smirk, “Ryan knows I think his butt is fat.” Brad and Colin laughed at that, and even Jeff cracked a smile.

The end of lunch came as they neared the bench once more. Only Wayne and Sinead were still around. Sinead gave Greg a tight hug and they said their goodbyes before walking off to their respective classes.

“C’mon Jeff, class awaits,” said Wayne. Jeff made a face in distaste. Wayne grinned and clasped Jeff’s wrist, much to Jeff’s surprise, and began to lead him away.

“Need help finding your classroom?” asked Brad helpfully, as the others were leaving.

“No, thank-you,” said Colin. “It’s not far. I’m pretty good with maps.” Brad enveloped him in a hug, surprising Colin, in a way of saying goodbye before he walked away.

Colin smiled to himself. He wasn’t used to getting hugs from anyone who wasn’t family or the one girlfriend he’d ever had, but a hug from a friend sure felt nice. He walked off, feeling happy once again with the way his new life was panning out for him.

He was pleasantly surprised in Maths to find that he shared a class with Drew and Sinead. They invited him to sit between them and they talked quietly all lesson, Drew often leaning across to sneak answers from one of them.

“How’d you get into the top maths class?” Colin asked him, laughing, the fourth time Drew tried to cheat.

“I know the answer,” Drew insisted, “I just like making you guys feel smarter!”

“Right,” Sinead snorted, then looked down at her paper. “Oh, wait, no. Wrong.” She erased what she had just written, then started again.

“Damn,” Drew muttered glumly. “That was the one I just copied!” The other two burst into quiet giggles and Drew joined in, earning an admonishment from their teacher.

Later, as the bell went and it was time to go home, the three friends lagged behind and waited for the pushy, noisy crowd to recede before they donned their school bags and left the room.

“Whew, big day,” said Drew, holding his arms in the air as if in celebration of having completed it.

“It went really quickly though,” Sinead observed.

Colin grinned silently, recalling an old cliché he thought befitting: ‘Time flies when you’re having fun.’

As if in support of this very thought, it seemed to Colin they had only been walking for a second before they reached the point where they must leave in different directions. Colin’s mother picked him up at a different end of the school to where Drew and Sinead got their bus home. Colin was a little jealous; Chip, Wayne, Ryan and Rowan all also caught that same bus, and he wished he could spend the ride home with all of them. Though he took comfort in the familiar environment of that old people mover and him mum’s presence, he’d quickly become eager to spend as much time as he could with all his new friends.

They said their goodbyes and Colin walked away from them. He was just about to enter the car park when something in his peripheral vision struck a nerve and he turned around to see what it was.

To his great alarm, there was Ryan, standing at the door of a room Colin didn’t recognise. Colin wondered whether to go up and greet him, then decided that the short time they had already spent together was too important to be left as it was, so he hurried over.

“Colin?” Ryan questioned, narrowing his eyes in surprise as Colin got to his side. Colin was loath to see that a brilliant purple bruise had flowered around Ryan’s right eye, making it stand out starkly from his left one.

“Ryan!” he said, waving. “What are you doing here?” Colin looked at the door of the nameless room. “Where is here?”

Ryan looked confused, and still a little surprised. He opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened at the same time and a balding, greying man stepped out.

“Ryan,” greeted the man with a friendly smile. “Come on in. Glad you could make it.” He offered Colin the same warm smile before motioning for Ryan to go inside.

“Ah… Seeya, Col,” said Ryan uncomfortably, and shuffled into the room. The man stepped in after him and closed the door behind them.

“Wha…?” Colin shook his head. He noticed the sign on the door. It read ‘Guidance Counsellor’. “Oh…” said Colin, as understanding washed over him. “Right.” He stood there for a moment, letting this new information sink in, then turned away mechanically and walked to the parking lot, where his mother was patiently waiting.

---

Colin couldn’t concentrate on his book. He noticed this with a start as he blinked tiredly and realised he had just read three long paragraphs without really taking in any of it. Upon trying to read those bits again, however, he found the words uncomfortably familiar, as though he’d read them a long time ago, and quickly became disgruntled by this. He marked his page and closed the book.

Colin decided that an easier pastime than reading would be to lie face-up on his bed, examining the ceiling. The ceiling itself was not at the forefront of his thoughts as he did this, though. It was Ryan Stiles he was thinking of – the boy he’d been so hopelessly intrigued by since first seeing him. He was concerned for Ryan’s wellbeing as he would be any person in that position, but it wasn’t Ryan’s sexuality, his physical state or the fact that he was seeing a guidance counsellor that had gotten him so embedded in Colin’s mind. Aside from any of those things, Ryan Stiles made Colin ache with a desperate curiosity that partly made his head race and partly made his stomach twinge. He wanted to know all about this boy he’d just met, and he didn’t know why.

He knew, though, that for one thing he hoped Ryan would go to Drew’s party. Ryan had seemed well enough today – apart from the bruises and the limp – that he’d be in good enough shape to hang around at a friend’s place on the weekend. And if Colin didn’t get to see Ryan some time before next week, and sit down to talk to him, he felt he’d burst with some of these things he needed to know.

But somehow, exact questions couldn’t take shape in Colin’s mind. If he got Ryan alone, what would he actually ask him? A flicker of a half-formed idea of something would pass through Colin’s mind, only to be immediately replaced by another picture, a memory, of Ryan’s face and that dark, ugly bruise. Yes, that bruise was ugly, but also somehow beautiful in a strange, slightly sick way –

Wait a minute, now. He was going off on tangents. What was it that had been important just now? Something he hadn’t noticed properly as it crossed his mind… Colin struggled with his thoughts to regain clarity in a clouded, busy head…

Drew’s party! ‘Idiot, you were supposed to ask,’ Colin scolded himself internally, hopping out of his bed and starting off towards the kitchen to find his mother.

She was working on dinner. It smelt good. Some kind of meat sauce? Tangents! Colin shook his head to clear it – left to his own devices, he always though more than could be good for a boy – and approached the woman at the stove.

“Hey, mum,” he began, leaning against the pantry. A grey tabby cat (dubbed Grapes – the Destroyer!) approached him and curled herself around one of his legs. Colin bent down to scratch behind her ears and she purred in approval. ‘Plotting world destruction really,’ Colin thought fondly, before standing back up and realising that his mother hadn’t actually replied. Humming a little tune to herself, she hadn’t noticed him. “Mum?” he tried again, ignoring Grapes’ insistent nuzzling of his lower shin.

“Yes?” She didn’t look up at him but that didn’t bother Colin; clearly, and with reason, his mother was concentrating on dinner.

“Drew has a party on the weekend at his house…wants me to go…” Colin said, watching the meat sauce simmer for a moment before looking back down at the still purring Grapes.

“Drew?” repeated Colin’s mum. “He’s the…”

“The blond one with glasses who’s playing Quince,” Colin supplied.

“Who else will be there?”

“Well, no-one you know,” Colin said reasonably. “Just all the others I’ve started hanging out with.”

“Any girls?”

“Yeah…” Colin said, frowning. “Sinead and Rowan, those sisters.”

“But they both have boyfriends.”

“Yes! Mum, I’m not going there to hook up with chicks, I’m going to spend time with my new friends.”

“Will there be alcohol? And will Drew’s parents be there?”

Colin rolled his eyes at his mother’s over-protectiveness. However, when he looked across at her, there was a smile on her face – tight, as if she was vainly trying to hold it back. So, she was really just happy that Colin had a party to go to.

“I think I’ll talk to Drew’s mum about it, dear,” said his mum, when he didn’t reply.

“I’ve got the phone number,” Colin said, mood lifting substantially. From what Drew had told him, the Carey family was a friendly and responsible one. And if Colin’s mum got along with Drew’s over the phone, she was bound to let him go.

“Well, it’s a little late to ring now. They’re probably having dinner. I’ll call tomorrow,” came the response. Colin was hardly disappointed, but he was a little impatient. This meant that he would have to wait until tomorrow after school to know if he could go or not!

Thanking his mother, he hurried back up to his room to wait for dinner. He was going to try and read that book again – even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Too much bustle in his brain and nothing to organise it.

Colin found himself longing for the day of the party to come.

Current Mood: chipper
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