Your Secret's Out | Peterick AU

Chapter 3

"Mr. Stumph, don't you have work you should be doing?" Mr. Perry asks.

"I got it done at home last night," I lie.

"Okay, carry on."

It's been a week since Frank's been here, so I haven't had to deal with much bullying. It's only been a week since school started, but I seriously think I might have a bruised rib. Lately, I've been taking refuge in Mr. Wentz's room. Frank's friends taunt me at lunch since he isn't there to do it, and I'm sure soon I will end up in the hospital if this keeps happening. Tre shoved me down stairs and beats the crap out of me, Ray just trips me, and Kurt constantly calls me a "faggot."

The bell chimes loudly signaling for us to pass to our next class. I collect my notebook from my desk and rush out of the cramped room. I've never used study hall time wisely, and it usually results in consequences, but it doesn't really affect me. The crowded halls seem more crowded than usual, which causes me to feel a little more anxious than usual. I bite my inner lip and continue the long walk to my history class.

"Hey, Patrick!" Mr. Wentz greets me as I walk towards the classroom.

"Good morning, Mr. Wentz," I reply back as I step into the dark classroom. I look at the board at the front of the classroom to see that he has prepared a slideshow for notes today. The bell rings as I take my seat, which means that I just barely made it to this class on time. Mr. Wentz walks happily into the room and shuts the door behind him.

"Okay, class, this is your first note packet of the year. Most of it is typed, but there are plenty of fill in the blanks that you need to do. It makes information easier to obtain, and I'm sure most of you wouldn't want to deal with history again. Anyways, I need somebody to pass these out."

Mr. Wentz searches around the room for somebody that will willingly volunteer to pass out the small note packets. When he finds nobody, his eyes slowly make their way back to my desk.

"Patrick, how about you?" he says with a warm smile. He holds the pile of packets out towards me and waits patiently for me to unwillingly take them from his large hands. I quickly examine the hands that were previously holding them. I slowly step away from my desk and walk towards the front of the classroom. 1...2...3...4...5... I repeat this pattern as I hand out note packets to each row of my peers. Everybody is here today, making this easier on me. As I approach my row, I catch myself thinking about his hands again. They look extremely soft, but I'm sure that they are also calloused from all the work he does. If I'm correct, they also gave off the faint scent of cocoa butter lotion.

I hand the extra copies over to Mr. Wentz before quickly walking back to my seat. As I sit down, I look over towards Brendon, who is staring off into space. I lightly smack the back of his head, causing him to gently rub where I smacked him. He looks over at me and pouts a little.

"Stop fantasizing about scoring with Ryan!" I hiss playfully.

"But I bet he is so good!" Brendon whines.

Before I have the chance to reply back, Mr. Wentz interrupts all conversations going on throughout the classroom by saying, "Today, we are going to dive into the topic of early civilizations. Can anybody name an early civilization?"

Hesitantly, I raise my hand up and wait for Mr. Wentz to notice my hand. When he acknowledges me, I quietly say, "Mesopotamia."

"Good! Any others?" he asks excitedly.

"Indus River Valley!" Brendon blurts out.

"Ray, do you have one?" Mr. Wentz asks.

"Hm? Oh, Mesopotamia," he answers with a bored expression.

"Good, but Patrick already mentioned that one."

Ray automatically turns to me and gives me a dirty look. I flinch a little at the sudden action, and I look at Brendon with panic in my eyes. I turn back to Ray to see his furrowed eyebrows almost pressed into one.

"Egypt!" Spencer calls out.

"Okay, good. You guys named all of them. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley and the Yellow River Valley."

Notes fly by quickly, and by the end of the period, we have flown through half of our note packets. Mr. Wentz stops us five minutes before the period ends, telling us that we can take our phones out.

"Breadbin?" I say as I turn to face him.

"What's up?"

"I'm not going to be in lunch today. I think I'm going to stay here. Ray is kind of holding a grudge against me at the moment."

"Okay, I hope Ash isn't too disappointed. You're one of her favorite people, y'know."

"Yeah, I feel really bad, but it's gotta be done," I say sadly.

Mr. Wentz dismisses everyone early, which leads to Brendon flinging his bag over his shoulder and removing himself from the classroom. I remain seated at my desk and pull out the math homework that I didn't do.

"Staying after again, Patrick?" Mr. Wentz questions jokingly.

"Yeah, someone looked a little mad at me earlier, so I don't wanna risk having my face bashed in," I say with a sigh.

"Who was it?" Mr. Wentz asks.

"It's better that I don't say, because snitches get stitches," I mumble.

"I'm here if you need me," he says in defeat.

I silently work on Geometry homework for about ten minutes before finishing. I've always been somewhat decent at math. I pull my heavy, blue backpack from the ground and stuff my homework into it.

"So, Patrick," Mr. Wentz starts, "do you like music?"

"Yes, actually, I love so many kinds of music, but specifically rock or pop punk," I admit sheepishly.

"That's cool," he replies, "I'm a big fan of Metallica and Iron Maiden."

"Nice; I love Metallica and blink-182."

"Blink is good, what's your favorite song?" he asks.

"Wendy Clear," I smile, "it's the first song I heard from them."

"I love Dumpweed and The Rock Show," he comments.

"Those are great songs, too. One of my dreams in life is to at least see them in concert once. I've been working my ass off for months so that I'll be able to afford meet and greet tickets if they ever come close to Golden Creek."

"That would be fun," Mr. Wentz says.

"Maybe I'll bring you along if I have enough for two," I say quietly.

"I would be flattered, but don't waste money on your history teacher," he smiles.

"I can do as I please with my money," I laugh a little bit.

"Okay, Patrick," he says before returning to his computer.

I honestly thought Mr. Wentz was going to be a shitty teacher, but he by far my favorite so far. He's so chill and we share many similarities. He's also pretty attractive as well. The best part is, I will have this class all year.