Whylight

2.

The day had started off terribly for Paul. Nobody had sat beside him in his first three classes, and the teacher had made him introduce himself in his first class which he unfortunately shared with Pat, the two brothers being close enough in age to be in the same year. Wonderful. Now everyone knew that he was related to those dicks.

Which meant that as the day wore on Paul would also find himself becoming more and more isolated the more people got to know the three stooges, not that it really mattered he supposed. It wasn't anything that Paul wasn't used to.

Standing outside the door to his music class Paul bit his lip, wishing that he could go home instead. Well, partially wishing that he could go home. If his father was home, Paul would much prefer to live in school if he could. But unfortunately he couldn't and instead he listened as a loud, guttural screaming started up from inside the classroom, Paul freezing in shock and he instantly took out his time table, scanning his eyes down the page until he found the time slot and checked the room. No, he was at the right door. The teacher probably just wasn't inside yet.

As the screaming cut off, Paul quietly opened the door and slipped into the classroom. He instantly froze again.

The set up wasn't like a normal classroom at all.

There were no desks or chairs, instead students were sitting in bean bags which were scattered haphazardly across the room. Paul noticed the two guys from the bus sitting in a corner. Well, fluffy was sitting. Metal lips however had both his fists bundled up in the beanbag and was attempting to bounce across the room on it as though it were a spacehopper while the teacher, who was also sitting in a beanbag, seemed completely unperturbed. Or maybe he just hadn't noticed the chaos yet, Paul noticing that he appeared to be deep in conversation with another student who's face Paul couldn't see yet due to his long sheath of jet black hair covering it.

It seemed, that Paul's father had somehow sent him to an all goth school.

"All right, take it from the top then Chris!" the teacher said loudly enough to startle Paul out of his thoughts and he hurriedly plopped himself into a beanbag, hoping to remain unnoticed however fluffy looked over at him as once again, a wall tremblingly loud screaming started up and he poked metal lips who almost fell over mid-bounce before glancing over at Paul. His face split into a wide grin.

"Oh hey, it's the shrimp!" he said delightedly but Paul hardly seemed to notice. He was too busy staring at the kid who was screaming at the top of the class, his expression a mixture of awe and fearful confusion.

"Ricky, you can't just call him shrimp!" Fluffy hissed.

"Well he is pink and teensy and cute. I'm calling him shrimp."

Fluffy sighed heavily, Paul finally snapping his gaze away from metal mouth and noticing that metal lips was staring at him. He baulked.

"Can I help you....?" he said slowly.

"You're that kid from the bus!"

"Ricky."

"Shut up Vinny, I'm tryna make a friend here."

".....Uh.... yeah. I am."

"Cool. You're our friend now, what's your name?"

Catching sight of the bewildered look on the kids face Vinny elbowed Ricky, but as usual he was ignored.

"Paul."

"Cool, well I'm Ricky. This is Vinny, daddy long legs up there is Chris and we have other friends but they're not here right now so I won't introduce them just yet."

"......Right."

Turning his attention back to Chris, Paul ignored as Ricky sidled closer to him, the boy leaning closer to Paul's ear while keeping his eyes trained on Chris.

"He's hot, isn't he?" Ricky whispered and Paul felt his cheeks flush bright pink.

"I wouldn't know, I'm not attracted to men," he said stiffly.

"Oh really?"

"Ricky please."

"Really."

"Hush Vinny. All right then Paul, will we see you at lunch?"

Paul bit his lip, thinking for a second before eventually nodding his head. He would decidedly much prefer the company of these boys to his brothers.

"Sure, why not."

"Sweet! I better get to class then, see y'all at lunch!"

With a final wave, Ricky darted out the door leaving Paul looking confused and Vinny done.

"....Was he... Is he not in this class?"

"Not usually, no. But the teachers have pretty much given up on him anyways."

"Oh."

"You'll get used to him eventually, don't worry Paul," said Vinny and he leant back in his chair.

Paul wasn't quite sure that he believed him.