After school, I rush to the school entrance and wait for Kevin's car to show up. When it does show up, I get in the passenger seat next to Kevin with a smile on my face.
"Hey Pat," smiles Kevin, starting to drive away. "How was your first day of school?"
"It was good!" I say chirpily. "Better than I thought it would be. Principal Way was nice to me, my form tutor seems alright, I even made a few friends."
"That's great!" beams Kevin. "Well done, kiddo."
I suddenly remember telling Hayley I'd go to the OCK meet-up tonight. But should I really tell Kevin? He said he didn't want me doing anything dangerous, and I don't think he'd want me going out tonight. I probably won't even go. So I remain silent.
When we step inside the apartment, Kevin opens his wallet.
"I almost forgot," he says, handing me a small key. "I got you a key for this apartment. There you go."
I smile at the key and at Kevin. "Thanks, Kev."
"No problem. Hey, I'm going out for the evening and probably most of the night with a friend. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, that's fine."
"Stay here, okay? There's some pasta in one of the draws in the kitchen, and a jar of tomato sauce. Will that be alright for you?"
"It'll be fine. What time are you going?"
"About 6:30."
Suddenly something very strange happens to me. A strange, alien thought pops into my head; I've never had this kind of thought before. I'm having...a rebellious thought. What's wrong with me? The rebellious thought is that I could sneak out to the OCK meet-up after Kevin leaves. Then after the meet-up I'd sneak back in without Kevin ever finding out. Oh my gosh, I never knew I could be so rebellious...
"Don't leave the apartment," Kevin instructs seriously.
Then his phone vibrates in his pocket. He takes it out and answers the call.
"Hi Meg," he says.
Why is Megan calling him?
"Yeah," he says to Megan. "Yeah, he said it went okay. Yeah. Okay, hold on one second." Kevin takes the phone away from his ear and hands it to me. "Megan wants to speak to you."
I hold the phone to my ear.
"Hi Megan," I say cheerily.
"Hey Pat!" she says. "So how did school go?"
"Good," I reply. "I made some friends."
"That's great!" she says. "Have you met a girrrrrrl?"
She says it in such an irritating girly way that I have to roll my eyes. It's also ridiculous. Me? Girls? Really? She knows I'll never have a girl who loves me, so why is she asking this question? Is she just trying to boost my confidence?
"No," I mutter.
"Or is it a boy?"
"...No."
"You hesitated."
"No, I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No I didn't! Look, why did you call?"
"Can you put me on speaker?"
I do as I'm told and Kevin listens in.
"I'm calling to tell you that Tom and I are leaving for a couple months," says Megan. "We're going on a vacation!"
"Nice!" grins Kevin. "Where are you going?"
"Road tripping in Spain. I know right, so exotic! Anyway, I won't be contactable from this afternoon all the way to the sixteenth of December, so enjoy your time without me, losers!"
Kevin and I laugh.
"I'd better go," says Megan. "See you guys!"
"Have fun, Meg," Kevin tells her.
"Hope you have a good time!" I chirp.
"Thinking of you guys," says Megan. "Especially you, Patrick."
I can't see her, but I can tell she's smiling. I'm smiling back at her.
Megan hangs up and Kevin and I exchange a quick smile, before heading into different rooms.
Later, Kevin knocks on the door of the spare bedroom, which I'm going to call my room now.
"Pat, I'm going out now," he says. "Are you gonna be okay here on your own?"
"Yeah," I reply. "I'll be fine."
Kevin smiles and leaves the apartment. When he's gone, I check my watch. It's 6:35pm - I've got twenty five minutes to get to the "old garage downtown where people graffiti and skateboard"...wherever that is. I'll probably have to end up asking for directions.
Ten minutes later, I leave the apartment and walk down a few streets. I'm a bit clueless...I hardly know this town. But that's when I see the Farro brothers walking down the street opposite me. They must be going to the meet-up too. I run across the road but they're too far ahead for me to catch up with them, so I just follow.
I end up in the old garage. It's car-less, with graffiti all over the brick walls and concrete floor. A mass of sixth-years from my new school fill the space around me, with Pete and some guy who's taller than him (but looks kinda like him) in the middle.
I scan the room and manage to locate Hayley. She's with Jeremy and Taylor. I weave through the crowd and hover with them.
"Hello," I say.
"Hey Pat!" grins Hayley. "Honestly I didn't think you'd come."
"OVERCAST KIDS," yells the tall guy next to Pete from the middle of the swarm of sixth-years.
Everyone stops talking to listen.
"Tonight we're gonna split up into groups and all go off to different parts of town," the guy continues. "I'll assign a leader to each group and they're in charge of keeping everyone safe. We'll meet back here at 9:30."
"Who is that?" I whisper to Hayley.
"That's Andrew Wentz, Pete's brother," she replies. "The leader of the OCK."
I take a proper look at Andrew. He's tall, pretty muscular and a bit sinister-looking. He's got dark hair, like Pete, and a sleeve of tattoos on his right arm. He's wearing eyeliner, again like Pete, and he has a nose piercing.
"The leaders of the groups will be..."
Andrew looks around at the people near him.
"Myself, my brother Pete," he says finally, "His friends Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman, Chad Gilbert..."
He says the names of a few other people who I don't know.
"Now get into groups, you fucked up assholes."
People start going to the leader whose group they want to be in.
"Who's group are you going in?" I ask.
When I don't get a reply from Hayley, I look over and realise that she's gone. Where did she go? Frowning, I look around and finally spot her running towards Chad. Of course.
But where does that leave me?
I look at the leaders in turn. Most people are going to Andrew's group, probably because he's the leader of the whole gang, but I don't want to be in his group; he's too cool and I'm too much of a loser. A lot of people are going to Chad's group. Again, I don't want to be in his group, even if Hayley's there. He seems rude. Going in a group led by someone I don't know is not an option, but a lot of people are going with them. More people are going with Joe than Andy, but I'm not sure about them. I don't know them well enough. So that leaves Pete, who has about ten people in his group.
Awkward and lonely, I make my way to his group and stand there on my own. Catching me completely by surprise, Pete appears by my side.
"You're Patrick, right?" he asks.
"Um, yeah," I reply, nodding.
"This your first OCK meet-up, isn't it?"
"Yep."
"Hmm." Pete thinks to himself for a moment. "I think you'd better stick close to me. These things can get...kinda wild sometimes."
"Are you sure?" I ask.
Like, are you really sure? Because I'm a loser and I'm a dork and I probably smell of nerd and you don't seem like the kind of person who would want to be near me.
"Yeah, it's fine," he shrugs. "Just don't bother me too much."
I shut myself up and stand there, alone.
When all the leaders have a group, Andrew shushes everyone.
"Okay," he says. "My group and Chad's group are on shoplifting. We'll go to the mall and steal shit from there. Chad, make sure you and your group don't go near my group. We don't want people suspecting we're at it again." He turns to Andy and his group. "Andy's group, you're on mugging. Get whatever you want, but don't get useless stuff like you did last time."
I hear a sigh from Pete.
"Joe's group, you're on graffiti. Vandalise wherever the hell you want, it doesn't matter. And everyone else, you can just...do whatever. We'll all meet back here at 9:30pm. Don't screw up."
"Okay guys," says Pete, turning to face his group of eleven. "We'll go for a walk and see what's up. Follow me."
So we all follow our leader out the garage and down a nearby street. We walk for about five minutes. People bigger than me keep pushing in front of me. I try to stay close to Pete like he said I could, but I'm too weak. Suddenly someone steps on my shoelace and I stumble over.
"Weakling," sniggers an Overcast Kid I don't know.
I ignore his comment and kneel down to tie up my shoe. My group are continuing to walk, unaware that I'm behind. I open my mouth to tell them to wait for me, but they probably don't want a weirdo like me telling them what to do, so I stay silent.
Then Pete, at the front of the group, starts talking to someone. The whole group stops. I look up but I can't see what's going on over the crowd's heads.
"Hey, be careful!" snaps Pete.
"Me?" scoffs the person he's talking to. It's a man. "You were the one who walked into me!"
"Oh really? And what are you gonna do about that?"
I still can't see, but everyone in the group made a dramatic "OHHHHH" noise, so I'm assuming Pete seemed intimidating.
But the guy doesn't sound fazed by him.
"What I'm gonna do about that is tell you to watch where you're going," he says. "You'll end up hurting someone if you're not careful."
I really recognise his voice...
I finish tying my shoelace and jump up. I scurry over to my group and try to see, accidently knocking people's arms in the process.
"Watch it," hisses a member of my group.
"Sorry," I whisper.
"Do you really think I care about that?" sneers Pete.
Desperate to see the guy with the familiar voice, I walk round to the edge of the crowd.
Oh God...
"You should," the guy says.
He looks over at me and does a completely shocked double take.
"Pa-Patrick?"
It's Kevin.