I'M THE BETA'S MATE (BOY X BOY)

Chapter 5: "Embracing courage"

"We do thing, but we do not know why we do them."
- Albert Einstein

Jack Lopez

♥

I walked down the hall as I tried to get to my next class. The hall was awfully crowded which made it hard for me to get through, but I managed to find the art room and slipped inside. I was quite early so I thought I would be the only one, but as I stepped inside I looked at a girl. Her hair was a greyish brown colour and it was pulled back into a messy bun. She was slim and curvy and would be concidered a girl with a good body. She was wearing a green blouse together with blue skinny jeans and pastel purple convers. She had many diffrent wristbands which made her look like she wasn't as tidy as she seemed. She was looking out of the window which had the beautilful view of a parking lot.
She seemed to be looking at someone. I cleared my troath to notify her that I had entered the room. She instantly looked at me starteled. In all honesty she was beautiful. She had slightly plum rosey lips, grey blue eyes and her cheeks were tinted with a soft pink colour.
"Hello? I'm new here, but this is the art class, right?" I asked her trying to strike up an conversation. She looked at me with a questionmark planted on her face before looking around the room which was filled with canvases, paint, pencils, papers and paint brushes. I nearly slapped myself for asking such a stupid question.
"Well, duh!" She replied giggling. "What's your name boy? You sound english." She jumped over to me smiling widely. I didn't feel uncomfortable around her which I took as a sign that she was a good person.
"I'm Jack, I just arrived here from London." I told her holding out my hand to greet her. "And you are?" I asked smiling back at her. She straightened her back and cleared her troath. "I'm Joline." She said as she took my hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Jack, mind if I call you Jackie?" She was so straight forward and nice. She could turn out to be a good friend.
"No, it's totally fine." I released her hand and let it fall down to my side. She sat down to where I guessed her seat was and I placed my bag on the table next to hers.
10 minutes later the class began and even though I hadn't tried all of my new classes this one was seriously my favourite. We were just chilling, listening to music, drawing and painting. The teacher had to be the nicest teacher ever!
His frame was small and he had short grey hair. His glasses were oval and the edges were black. He was wearing a red shirt with his sleves rolled up, black pants and brown Rieker shoes.
Today's theme was "fantasy" and that was the only thing he told us. I found out 15 minutes of looking like a fool what I was supposed to do. Joline had approached me and told me the routine. Normally the teacher, John, would give the class a theme, then they had to draw or paint something in that connection and when the class was almost over, they would present their artwork for the class and explain what it was. I found it interesting and appealing.
John walked between the tables checking out our artworks and complimenting them. He also told us what we could do better and what we could add. He got closer to my table and looked down at my scetch book.
"This is very good, how long have you been drawing mister....?" He stopped his sentence looking at me waiting for a reply.
"Jack." I replied quickly. "I'm a new student, I moved from Englnd last week." He smiled and looked slightly surpriced. "I have been drawing for as long as I can remember" I told him as he looked back down at my drawing.
"You are really talented, I have never seen anyone draw a mythical creature in this class before, so A+ for creativity." He said as he walked further away, checking up on the students in the back.
* * * *
After class Joline had asked me if I wanted to eat lunch together so now we were sitting in the corner table in the cafeteria looking at each other awkwardly. I bit my salad sandwich as she gulped down her instant noodles.
"So isn't England like really cold?" She asked suddenly, trying to strike up a conversation. I hurried to chew my sandwich and swallowed so I could reply.
"It is not so bad if you have lived there your whole life." I said unscrewing the cap of my juice bottle.
"Isn't it small?" She seemed very interested.
"Well, no, not really, there is a place where me and my parents used to go on vacation which was even smaller, but it was really beautiful. We often stayed in the same city which only had around 4800 citizens." I recalled the vacations with my family. I had always looked forward to visit that place every year.
"What? Such a tiny city excists?!" She asked so surpriced that she almost choked on her noodles. "Where?" I giggled at her slightly.
"It's called the Faroe Islands, It is really close to England, but it belongs to Denmark. In the second world war the English people used to buy fish from the Faroe Islands and many trooper stayed there to protect the islands from Germany who were trying to take over the Islands. Some even got married to faroese women." I began explaining and told her what I knew of the little islands. "Did you know that they are known for selling the best fish in the world?" I asked, but of course she couldn't know.
"That's insane! They are so tiny, but they are still famous for something?" She asked with a happy expression. "I wanna go there!" She exclaimed and grabbed my hand.
"Maybe someday." I told her, giggling, as I pulled my hand back and ate the rest of my sandwich. She was a cheerful person and you could see the lights glow in her eyes as diamonds.
Lunchbreak was over before we knew it and we had topart our ways. My next class was English which I now personally hated. Our teacher was no one else that my best friend mr. Lanchester. Hurray... Mr. Lanchester really hates me and the worst part is that I haven't even done anything!
I slowly made my dreadful way to the english classroom. I could already feel a headache comming up. I entered the classroom where about 20 other students were. They were all talking and from what I heard,they don't like mr. Lanchester all too well either.
I sat down at a table in the back where the seat was empty. I took out my english books and my pencils. No need to be sluggish.
I heard someone talking loudly in the hallway. They all had deep voices and they sounded very American. I looked up when I saw them enter the classroom and noticed that they all looked like gangsters. The tallest and strongest guy turned his gaze torwards me and shouted:
"Hey! What da fuck man, get da hell outta ma chair!" I looked at him lifting my right eyebrow.
"Why? I was here before you." I told him and hoped he would just back off.
"The boy's english, what a pussy." A black guy in the back of the group laughed.
"No one steals K-boy's seat!" another guy called. He was slim and looked weak, but his body was covered with black ink all over that honestly scared me. By now several students had their gaze turned to face us.
The one who I assumed was the leader, K-boy, leaned down and pressed his face up against mine.
"Move ya fucking ass right now or else..." His voice was low and husky, it had a scary feel to it as well. Shivers ran down my spine and crept all the way down to my feet. I decided to be brave and do as the hero would have done in a movie. I talked back at him.
"Or else what? You're going to beat me which would lead you to detention or even better you got expelled?" I felt an awesome power encurrage me and I felt good. Students were looking at me in awe and some even yelled that I did a good job. Ha! Jokes on him. He probably can't even fig-
A sharp pain shot across my chin and I fell onto the cold grey floor.
"Shit!" I exclaimed feeling the pain sting. It was a burning sensation and shortly after a fist landed right on my nose. Luckily it didn't break but I was having a major noosebleed.
"Now move bitch!" K-boy said harshly and I hurried to move my bag. Just when I sat down my favorite person came in. His white hair was jumping as he walked and it seemed as if it all happened in slowmotion. Most of the girls let out a sigh as if this was a scene from a movie. I sighed as well but mostly because I didn't want to see him. Blondie was only a couple of meters away before he noticed my bloody nose and beat up cheek.
"What happened to you?" He asked chuckling silently. At this point I was just annoyed and wanted to go the nurses office.
"Look Blondie, I just wanna go to the nurses office so if you could show me where that is that'd be great," I said as I rubbed my temples not touching my cheek.
I heard him laughing silently and I looked up. "What is it?" I asked and he placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Blondie? So that is what you call me?" He asked grinning. I blushed crimson at the realisation that I had actually called him Blondie outloud.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to" I said embarrast but he just took my hand and pulled me out of the classroom. "Wait, where are you taking me?" I asked feeling confused. He looked at me smiling.
"The nurse's office," he told me not letting go of my hand.
As we turned around a corner I spotted Bryan in the distance. He didn't notice us until we were right beside him. He grabbed Ash's arm and asked him in a whisper what had happened to me. I could feel the aching on my cheek and the thumping pain in my nose beginning to increase. I heard Ash telling Bryan what had happened but I spaced out and was lost in my own thoughts. I was actually embarrast that I hadn't even put up a fight. Well, you could call me talking back something, but to me it wasn't enough. I really wanted to win the argument.
"... So can you take him?" I heard Ash ask Bryan, and he nodded. Before I knew it Ash was walking away waveing at me. Bryan signalled me to follow him and I did.
While we were walking Bryan explained that Ash had a test in english and had to go so he had asked Bryan to show me to the nurse's office. The walk was awkward but it only took around 3 minutes. It felt as if it was 10 minutes of awkward silence.
"We're here." He said bluntly stopping in front of a white wooden door that had a sign on it that said: Nurse's office.
A note hung to the left of the door and it said that you'd have to knock before entering. Before I could react, Bryan was already knocking on the door.
"Come in!" We heard a gentle voice from the other side of the door and entered.
"Mister Acker? What are you-" She paused looking at me. "So you showed him the way? Good boy." She praised him. "You must be Jack...Logan?" She asked.
I was actually surpriced she remembered my name that well, she had to remember the names of all the students?!
"Lopez." I corrected her smiling. She told me to sit on the red chair in the middle of the room so she could exsamine me. I did as told and sat down while Bryan was observing me.
"So what happened?" She asked giving me cotton balls to put into my bleeding nose. I figeted but replied to her question.
"I got into a fight with someone called K-boy." I told her while she disinfected a scratch on my cheek. It kind of stung and it felt as if something was shrinking on the inside of my cheek causing the thumping pain.
"What did you do to make him hit you?" She asked putting a large band-aid on my cheek as well. Not once had Bryan looked away. His eyes were glued on me.
"I wouldn't move from what was "his" chair." I said frowning. He really had annoyed me.
I heard Bryan chuckle and I glared at him. "What's so funny?!" I asked raising my voice slightly but not threathning.
"No one told you? K-boy, or actually Christoph, is very violent and someone should have told you he is very posessive and quite dangerous, and you went and did that? Talked back? You got some balls." He told me and honestly that was the longest sentence I had ever heard him say. "Normally only me and Ash dare to talk back to him because we are way stronger and more dominating, speaking of Ash, I heard you called him Blondie." He said, now smiling. He was honestly looking like an angle smiling with a light and delicate smile.
"It was an accident!" I argued blushing slightly. He just shook his head. The nurse handed me some pain killers and a cup of water and told me I could just go home. She gave me a note which I was supposed to hand over to mr. Lanchester. Great.
We left and walked down the long grey corridor. I had to take my bag, and give mr. Lanchester the note, and then I would be free from the hell going under the cover name, school.
"Shall I drive you?" Bryan offered and I thought it would be best since I didn't have my car.
"Sure, thank you... Wait, what about your classes?" I asked not wanting him to skip. He didn't seem concerned.
"I can leave now if I want to." He said already walking in the direction to the parking lot. All I could do was follow him to his car.
"Which is yours?" I asked looking around at all the cars. He pointed over to my right side.
"The silver Mitsubishi ASX over there." He told me walking over to it. I stared at the fancy car in awe. He really did have a good life huh? This car was so much better than my olive green pickup truck that was already falling apart. The paint on it was chipping, the radio didn't work, it made so much noise and it was quite bumpy to drive with. But I was grateful that I could even have a car.
We entered the car and began driving.