FALL

Chapter Four: F - right/racture

Into the new year.
Only one more year to go. This was it; senior year and he would graduate. He was going to make it. True to the promise Leonard never agreed to, he did not speak to Jonathan nor did the young man find any more love letters in his locker. The first month had been a little awkward. Passing glances when they had classes together, sometimes Leonard would watch Jonathan at lunch or visa versa when they thought the other was not looking, and the biggest hurdle was that they still had lockers next to one another. The school did not assign new ones just because you changed grades.

However, much like last year before Jonathan had gotten a large amount of Leonard exposure, they stayed within their social pecking order and hardly interacted.

The hottest gossip became Bo and Sherry's breakup, the power couple had a fight and Sherry had slapped Bo in the cafeteria calling him all kinds of names. Jonathan had always admired the young woman from afar and he assumed they'd get together again within the week. Yet, they didn't. Another week passed. Still, they had not reconciled. Was this... was this his chance to talk to her? She'd never truly been mean to him and always looked nervous when the others bullied him – he assumed it was because it made her uncomfortable. She had been a transfer at one point during freshmen year herself, never knowing him from middle school and only secondhand rumors from her peers. Regardless the entire school knew he put a snake on Mindy-Lea's head during seventh grade, she had the bite scars to prove that one.

His palms were sweaty long before he approached Sherry, he was not stalking her he told himself. Jonathan had just been looking for the most opportune moment to talk to her when no one else was around. "H-hi Sherry."

"Huh?" Her head pulled up from the water fountain, "Oh, uh... Hi. Johnny right?"

He hated that nickname – it was better than scarecrow, faggot or Ichabod - his head just nodded, "Y-yeah." He was failing to utter words into sentences and he inconspicuously wiped his hands on his pants, "How are you t-today?" That was much harder than it should have been, his heart felt like it was hammering in his chest.

Thankfully if she noticed she didn't say anything. The young woman smiled slightly, "I'm all right, was there something you needed?"

"I u-uh..." Just say it! He thundered in his own head, "S-sean Tomson's throwing a H-halloween party and, would you... that is, if you want, next weekend to go... w-would you go, with me?"

She paused in thought for a moment looking down the hall then flickering her beautiful emerald eyes back to him, taking a step forward, "I'd love to go with you." She stressed the word love with a wide and bright smile tilting her head up at him and he felt like his heart was fluttering so hard that it was going to stop.

Jonathan learned a valuable lesson about women and that inflection Sherry had used when she agreed to come with him. That Halloween night she had used him to make Bo mad, lured him into the basement and showed her true colors – she was never uncomfortable watching him get bullied. She feared other people seeing her sadistically laugh at someone getting hurt. The power couple got back together over his torment. Jonathan watched as Sherry gave him the coldest of smiles and most smug of gazes while kissing Bo on the cheek while the jock knocked the wind from his chest again via foot. He felt something in him break that night, vowing to get revenge.

Not even three days after Halloween he was surrounded by the jock squad – he'd been trying to avoid them, yet a teacher had held him late today discussing colleges he could apply to for scholarships. They had been waiting for him near his locker, "What do you want?" He put his things inside the locker and shut it before turning to face them. He spied golden locks and realized the one he thought would never torment him was there too. Had the cowardly lion given in to join the hierarchy?