Sophomore Year (Smopkins #2)

Gary's Thoughts

"Hey Gary? You okay? You're being really quiet."

He stared down at Jimmy, caught off guard. "I'm fine. Distracted. Don't worry," Gary said solemnly, but it was the truth. Jimmy was acting so unusual lately, and he couldn't make sense of it.

You look nice today.

That's what Jimmy had said to him when he sat down at his table. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why Jimmy said it. Gary wasn't one of his girls, he didn't need to compliment him, and he didn't really look nice at all. He wore what he always wore, what everyone else wore. The uniform. He styled his hair the exact same way. Gary never made any special effort to get anyone's- or Jimmy's- attention when he got dressed this morning. Did Jimmy just say that to... distract him from something else? Move the conversation in a different direction?

And why did he make Mandy keep apologizing to him? It surprised Gary that Jimmy would just stand up for him like that, but... he could've been doing it to prove a point to her. To make her feel stupid.

Why would he want to do that?

Gary sighed in frustration, feeling totally lost. Was that how he got girls? Making them feel incompetent and stupid? And what was with the... the weird looks Jimmy was giving him? Something was going on, and Gary could only hope that Jimmy wasn't going to turn on him. Although maybe he was, and it wasn't like Gary could blame him. He was a handful. He really was.

But he didn't want Jimmy to leave him. He was his only friend.

The back of his throat burned, and suddenly he felt like crying.

He looked at Jimmy again. Jimmy had been staring at him, yet Mandy took the attention away from him once again. "Um, Jimmy," she spoke.

Gary wasn't fond of any of Jimmy's recurring girlfriends, although if he had to pick one it would be Zoe. He never saw her too often, which made her the least annoying. Beatrice and Mandy were suck-ups, Pinky was an inbred, and Lola couldn't stick with a guy if she tried. Sometimes Gary even felt remorse for Johnny. Who could like a girl like... that?

"What?" Jimmy asked, sounding... irritated?

Mandy leaned across the desk and whispered something to Jimmy, her hand cupping around his ear. Gary scooted away from Jimmy. He didn't care about what she was saying, it was either something about Gary or her ex boyfriend. His eyes darted around the classroom, landing on the teacher in the front of the room. His name was Mr. Mette, and he looked pretty young. Nice, too. Maybe he would let Gary cry in the bathroom, if he could muster up the courage to ask without breaking out into sobs.

Gary's attention was pulled back to Jimmy and Mandy. Turns out, Gary was wrong. "Sure, Mandy. We can talk later." So it was a favor. Gary rolled his eyes, Jimmy had to be the Bullworth favor boy, didn't he? In the beginning, Jimmy was his favor boy. His grunt worker. Everyone must have picked up on that at some point.

Gary would never use Jimmy again, though. Not because Jimmy was too smart, but because... well, Gary didn't need any favors. He didn't have some big overarching plan to take over Bullworth. Bullworth belonged to Jimmy, and now that they got along, he didn't need to worry about him. He only had to worry about the other students.

But then again, Jimmy might be making plans to slowly detach himself from Gary.

He stared down at his empty desk, upset and on the verge of tears. If Jimmy (or anyone) spoke to him, Gary knew he would break down. So he kept quiet and avoided eye contact, planning to bring a book to read or a notebook to draw in tomorrow. It would be a good way to pass the time and distract himself while Mandy flirted the whole period.