Welcome back
to Alex's New Life. This is obviously
the sequel I promised you which was written a while after the original so
hopefully things will be better in this one.
The major difference this time around is that it's told from a couple of
different points of view which should be easy enough to recognise by \\\ This /// type
of changeover. This one is actually longer than the previous story but there's
only a little bit of sex stuff quite late on.
Hopefully the story will be good enough that you don't care but we'll
see.
As usual
enjoy and don't forget to donate to Nifty here https://donate.nifty.org/
Chapter 1
\\\ Nick ///
"Bleeeuuurrrggghh!"
"Whoa!! I
hope that wasn't an expensive breakfast.
You ok?" I wiped my mouth with
the back of my hand before turning to see the concerned face of a guy who
looked to be around my age. He had
longish brown hair that hung down to just above his brown eyes and a pretty
cute face. He was a little taller than
my skinny, 5'6 frame and definitely looked like he was hiding some muscle under
his uniform.
"Hey, I'm
Noah...so are you done feeding the plants?"
He asked with a cheeky smile. I
smiled back weakly but still felt the urge to run home as I could feel the
anxiety rise. I tried taking deep
breaths to calm myself – even though that familiar voice in the back of my head
was telling me to get away and protect myself – but I had to start trying to
trust again. I took a few more deep
breaths, feeling my heart rate slow down to a more normal pace.
"Yeah...sorry,
I think it's just first day nerves. I'm
Nick." I held out my hand and Noah took
one look at it then wrinkled up his face.
I suddenly realised it was the one I used to wipe my mouth and quickly
hid it behind my back. "Sorry." I whimpered, all the while mentally kicking
myself for being so stupid.
"Come on,
let's get you cleaned up and refuelled before first period." He smiled like I hadn't just been a complete
moron, and then clapped me on the back to lead me to the toilets.
I stood in
front of the mirror watching the water drip down my face; it was hard to tell
what was a tear and what was from the tap, but again I
chastised myself for crying in school. I
was 15 for crying out loud, far too old to be blubbering like a baby on my
first day. I splashed more water on my
face to try and relieve the puffiness then took a look at my reflection. My dark brown hair was sticking up all over
the place and no matter what I tried I just couldn't tame it so I just let it
run wild. I looked back into my hazel
eyes and saw that they were still a little bloodshot but hopefully Noah
wouldn't notice. He probably would notice
the way both the ends of my tie and the sleeves on my blazer had frayed from
years of being worn by who knows how many people before me. With a final sigh I decided this was as good
as it would get and joined him back in the hallway.
"Feeling
better?" He asked and I just nodded
quietly, trying not to burst into tears again.
"Come on then, let's get some food in you."
There was
nothing really available in the mornings so Noah led me over to the vending
machines and started to stock up on snacks, handing me some as they fell out of
the machine. I offered to pay him back
but thankfully he refused, I honestly didn't know how I could've afforded
anything from the machines as well as lunch later on so I was lucky he was so
generous.
"Well it
looks like we're in the same class for English first thing today." Noah said as he read over my timetable while
I busily tucked into a chocolate bar.
"And later in the week you've got a few lessons with me or a few of my
friends, I could introduce you to them at lunch if you want." Noah looked up cheerily but I felt a wave of
panic taking over my body as my heart started to race again. Everything seemed to be going too quickly
today, I just wanted to hide away but here was a guy who genuinely wanted to
befriend me and help me make get to know more people, would that be so
bad?
"Or not, if you don't want to." He said as his smile
start to falter. He could probably see
the anguish I was feeling and I started to feel a bit guilty.
"No...sorry,
that'd be cool...thanks."
"You sure? I don't wanna come on too strong, I just
wanted to make sure you're around some decent people while you're here." His smile came back as he led me to our first
lesson.
When we
arrived at our classroom Noah sat in what I assumed was his usual seat and gave
me a reassuring smile as I walked to an empty desk further back. I looked over my timetable for the rest of
the week and noticed I was in worse classes for some subjects than others, most
likely due to the terrible grades from my previous three schools. It made me wonder about Noah's friends though
as he said they'd be in some of my lessons, were they hopeless at those
subjects too? I started to scold myself
again as I had done many times before, I had to keep reminding myself that it
wasn't my fault. With all that happened
over the last few years it was a miracle I was doing so well in English, but
obviously it had taken its toll on subjects that didn't come so naturally.
I managed to
keep up with the lesson pretty easily but when the teacher, Mrs Forster, asked
questions to the class I tried not to look her way and kept quiet. Even though I wanted to speak up I was
terrified of what all these new people might think of me, or who might decide
to take the piss if I said anything. The
few times I caught the teacher's eye I turned away as quickly as possible as I
started to panic at the thought of her calling on me. After the class was over my worst fear came
to pass as she asked me to stay behind.
I shot a pleading look at Noah as he was leaving but he just gave me a
warm smile as if telling me not to worry.
"Thanks for
staying behind Nicholas..."
"Nick." I replied quietly and probably a bit abruptly
as I cut her off. She quickly composed
herself again to continue.
"Sorry...Nick.
I didn't really get to introduce you to
everyone at the start of the lesson but I thought you might not want to be the
centre of attention." She seemed to be
looking right at me as I took a great deal of interest in the floor by my feet,
"Is everything ok? You seemed like you
wanted to participate in the lesson but were holding back."
"No...I mean,
I'm fine...everything's fine." I replied,
barely above a whisper. Like most
teachers I assumed she'd been doing this for a while and must have seen a lot
over the years. No matter what I said,
one look at my clothes and general appearance and she'd know everything wasn't
ok.
"Ok, I'm not
going to press you on your first day, it's all probably a bit overwhelming, but
if you need to talk then my door's always open." I didn't know how to respond to that but she
carried on trying to reassure me. "And
don't be afraid to speak up in here, I don't know what your last school was
like but in my class no one will tease you if they want to survive to the end
of the year, ok?" I looked up and gave
her a weak smile as she let me go to my next lesson but I had a feeling she'd
be keeping an eye on me.
When
lunchtime finally came around I found my way to the cafeteria. After a quick peak through the doors I
couldn't see Noah so I decided to wait outside for him. As I walked back to the
main corridor though I found myself looking into the school's trophy case. All of the noise and chaos that was going on
around me suddenly died away as I stared intently through the glass. My eyes roamed around the contents of the
case and I could feel myself shaking with a mixture of rage and fear. I had no idea how long I stood there for but
I was snapped out of my thoughts by a hand waving in front of my face; I looked
around for the owner and saw Noah standing off to my left with a concerned look
on his face.
"Wha...?" I blinked a few times to get my senses back.
"I said are
you ready to get some proper food in you?
Are you ok? You're trembling."
"Sorry, yeah
I'm fine. It's probably just cos I'm
hungry." I lied. Noah led me toward the lunch ladies but I saw
him take another look over his shoulder at the trophy case. I still didn't know if I could trust him
enough yet so I really hoped he didn't ask any more questions about what just
happened.
After
loading up our plates with what looked like some pretty appetising food Noah guided
me over to a big, rectangular table where three guys were already tucking into
their lunch.
"Alright
boys, I brought a new guy over to hang with us.
This is Nick."
"Oh Jeeze,
what did we say about bringing strays over?
Last time you did that with Jamie and now we can't get rid of him." One of the boys said. I was suddenly really nervous and thought I'd
made a big mistake by trusting Noah; my insecurities about not being wanted
came thundering back and I quickly looked around for an escape route.
"Fuck off
Tom." Jamie replied, trying to look mad
but failing, then turned to me with a smile and said, "Hey Nick." I started to relax slightly and took the seat
next to Noah as he made the introductions around the table.
"So as
you've probably guessed by now this prick is Tom and obviously that's
Jamie." Jamie tipped his cap slightly as
Tom gave a thumbs up.
"And the little guy down the end there is Danny." The smaller boy at the end of the table gave
a little mock salute and went back to eating.
Danny was the shortest and looked to be slightly younger than the
others; he had dark, spikey hair with bright blue eyes. Jamie seemed very
laid back, almost like a surfer with a few longish blond, curly bangs sticking
out from random places around his cap. If
it wasn't for the school uniform I could just imagine him looking like a surfer
from an Australian beach. Lastly there
was Tom, with his brown hair constantly flopping over his blue/green eyes and
his school tie hanging down away from his collar. With the exception of Danny they were all
taller than me and all looked pretty lean, which made me wonder what sports
they played. When I first met Noah I
noticed he had a badge on the lapel of his blazer with strange logo on it and
just assumed it was a band or rapper I'd never heard of, now when I looked
around the group in front of me I noticed the same, almost home-made logo
appeared somewhere on their clothing or school bags which made me curious.
"So who is
Fleek Flow?" I asked, pointing to the
logo on Jamie's cap.
"Not who, what." Tom replied with a lopsided grin.
"What?" I asked.
"Yeah, what."
"No, I
meant...what do you mean by what?" I was
beginning to feel nervous and flustered, convinced that Tom was messing with me
like he didn't want me there.
"What do you
mean what do I mean by what?" Tom asked
in return, feigning confusion.
"Oh god just stop! You're gonna give him a headache." Jamie said.
"Fleek Flow
is us." Noah said before Tom could start
messing about again. I was still
confused and I think it showed so he explained.
"We're a group of free runners who like to let our movements flow, and
we like to keep it pretty stylish so we're on fleek."
"Oh...ok." I said.
That definitely explained their body types but I didn't know what to do
with this new information so I decided to change the subject and ignore
Tom. "Are you allowed to wear caps in
school?" I asked Jamie but naturally it
was Tom who answered.
"No he's
not, but for some reason he gets away with it outside of lessons. Personally I'd get fed up of always having
hat hair but goldilocks over there seems to like it." Tom was clearly the wind up merchant in this
crew. "So what about
you then young Nicholas, what's brought you to the lovely town of Emberville?" He asked.
"It's Nick,
not Nicholas!" I stated, possibly a bit
too tersely as Tom was taken off-guard by my blunt answer, but he was starting
to piss me off. "And I didn't want to
move back here, I didn't have a choice.
Now I've got to start over trying to get to know new people." I went back to eating my food but I think my
face betrayed the feelings of hurt and anger running through my body.
"Don't
worry, you've got us now and we'll make sure you fit in here." Noah said with a reassuring smile.
"HELL YEAH!!" Came a little
voice from the end of the table and everyone turned to see Danny's enthusiasm
turn to embarrassment as we all burst out laughing. I don't know what it was about Danny but I
instantly liked him, even though he'd barely said anything, there was just
something...sweet about him.
"So let's
introduce you to some more of the school while you're in here." Tom said and started to look around. "Ok, so there's a
few teachers over there obviously.
You'll meet them over time and find out who are good and who are dicks. One who
definitely doesn't fall into that category is Mrs Forster, the English teacher,
and Jamie's mum." I looked over to where
she was sitting and started to see some similarities between them.
"You're only
saying that cos you know I'd kick your ass if you didn't." Jamie said.
"No, I'm
saying that cos I know she'd kick my
ass if I didn't." Tom replied.
Tom carried
on pointing out the various cliques around the lunch room but my eyes kept
wandering back to one particular group which didn't go unnoticed.
"Ah I see
you've spotted the plastics." Tom said
with a cheeky smile causing me to look confused. "They're the sort of vapid, shallow
group. All they seem to be interested in
is looking good and drawing attention to themselves." I watched as the four girls primped and
preened but I was more interested in the guy with them. It didn't take much to suss out him out; he
had a rainbow wristband peeking out from under one of his sleeves and carried
himself in a way that left no doubt in my mind that he was out and proud.
"Who's the
guy with them?" I asked. My eyes kept being drawn to the good looking,
skinny twink who seemed to be holding court with the group of girls that were
noisily talking with him about whatever had been happening that morning. I kept trying to turn away so it didn't seem
obvious I was staring at him but there was just something about the way his
stylishly coiffed, sandy blond hair effortlessly complimented his angelic
face. Finally I was able to look away
again as the emotions swirled around in my head, an equal mixture of lust,
revulsion, longing and shame.
"That would
be one Lucas Draper, and his fag hags Casey, Jemma, Amber and Zara." Tom replied.
"You can't
call them that!" Jamie protested looking
shocked at the casual use of such a derogatory phrase.
"That's what
they call themselves; they wear it like a badge of honour." Tom said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Wait, did
you say Draper?" I asked, suddenly aware
of the conversations going on around me and feeling bitterness rise up in the
pit of my stomach.
"Yeah, why?" Tom replied.
I looked back across the cafeteria, only this time my eyes met Lucas'
piercing blue eyes and I felt like my head was about to explode. I turned away feeling my stomach churn as
years of anger and hatred boiled up inside me, but those feelings of lust and
longing were still there, all swirling around and battering at my already
fragile psyche. I wanted to run away
again just as a strangely familiar voice came from behind, turning around I saw
the familiar face of an auburn haired boy and felt my rage hit critical mass.
\\\ Ben ///
"Hey, who's
this?" I asked as I approached our usual
lunch table. Normally I was one of the
first of the Fleeks (as we called ourselves) to arrive but I'd ended up staying
behind after my last lesson. When I
approached the table I was surprised to see a new guy sitting with the group
but as he had his back to me I had no idea the surprise that awaited
when he turned around.
"Holy shit!
Nick? Nick H..."
"It's
Taylor!! And of course you'd have to be here as well wouldn't you?" Nick snapped while bursting to his feet as
the cafeteria fell silent. "Ben Anderson and Lucas Draper, the two fucking
cunts who made my life a living hell, both in the same fucking school!! This couldn't get any better could
it?!?!" Before I could even reply, Nick
stalked out of the cafeteria leaving a lot of very confused faces in his wake.
"What was
that all about?" Danny asked. I just stood, stunned as the room suddenly
burst back to life with people talking about what just happened.
"Ben? Hello?
What's he got against you and the dancing queen?" Tom asked with a cheeky smile, snapping me
back to reality. Suddenly Jamie whacked
Tom around the back of his head as had become tradition.
"Really? You had to throw an Abba reference in there
didn't you?" He said, trying not to
laugh at their standing joke. "Ben, you
ok?"
"Yeah...I...what
just happened?" I replied, finally
sitting down with my food but still reeling from Nick's outburst. "I haven't seen Nick in years. We were in the same school together but his
family moved away pretty abruptly before we finished primary school."
"So what did
you guys do to piss him off so much before he left?" Tom asked.
I tried to think back but nothing came to mind.
"Nothing, or
at least I don't think we did." I looked
over to Lucas to see him being quizzed by his friends and looking equally as
confused and frustrated by the whole situation.
I started to eat my food and thought about what had just happened. What had I ever done to Nick for him to react
like that? We barely knew each other
when we were younger and were never friends in school; until today I hadn't
even given him a second thought after he left.
As for Lucas, he hadn't even met Nick as far as I knew because he'd been
home schooled before he came here.
While I sat
there lost in thought I could hear the other guys throwing around wild ideas
about what could've happened in the past but the more I tried to think back to
those days the more confused I became.
"Hi Ben." I was suddenly snapped back to reality by a
familiar female voice calling my name as Sammie Conway walked past, giving me a
little wave and a cute smile. I waved
back, blushing slightly as she carried on across the room but as she walked
closer to Lucas he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her over to his table and
then started talking to her animatedly while gesturing wildly towards the door
where Nick had left. I realised I'd have
to talk to Lucas about this someday but I didn't even know what I could tell
him.
"Did you see
that? She just completely ignored
us!" Jamie complained.
"Of course
she did." Tom replied. "Sammie's only got eyes for Ben, but he's too
scared to make a move."
"I'm not
scared; we just...have a history..." I trailed
off, feeling slightly embarrassed. It
was true that we'd known each other for years but I was just so conflicted with
my feelings for her.
"Speaking of
history, we better get going or we'll be late."
Jamie said to Tom. "See ya later
boys." We all started to gather our
things and I took one last look over towards Lucas, still in deep conversation
with Sammie, before making my way to class.
I could've gone over to speak to him but what would I say? Should I congratulate him on making a new
enemy?
Once out of
the cafeteria we all went our separate ways and I had to make a quick stop at
my locker to grab some different books.
As I walked down the hallway afterwards I was suddenly slammed, back
first into the lockers, quickly finding myself face to face with Lucas.
"Alright,
what the hell is going on? Who's that
new guy on your table and what's his problem with me?" He asked while keeping my shoulders pinned to
the locker. I tried to move but knew I
couldn't budge Lucas' vicelike grip no matter how hard I tried.
"Lucas,
you're hurting me, and you're making a scene now calm down." I said in a quiet voice, probably slightly
more menacing than it was meant to be but he really was hurting me. "You don't want your little friends to find
out something they don't need to know now do you?" I looked over towards Lucas' entourage
standing a few feet away and Lucas seemed to come to his senses, releasing his
grip on my shoulders.
"I'll catch
up with you girlies in class, I just need a minute with Benny here and I'll be
there. Save me a seat." He said in his sweet, slightly effeminate
tone. The girls walked away as Lucas
turned back to me.
"Please
don't call me Benny, and stop talking like a ponce." I snapped, shaking my arm to relieve the
pain. I was beginning to get a little
fed up with this version of Lucas as I knew it was all part of the act he put
on at school. "Look, his name's Nick
Taylor and I used to go to school with him before he left town a few years
ago. I've no idea why he hates us though
but I'll try to find out, alright?" I
turned and stalked away, not even giving Lucas time to answer.
\\\ Nick ///
I didn't
stop running until I burst through the front door of the shitty little house I
now had to call home, finally collapsing onto the floor in the hallway as I
tried to catch my breath. I kicked the
door closed and crawled over to the staircase, sitting down with my head in my
hands, half panting and half sobbing as the adrenaline wore off.
"Nick...is
that you? What're you doing home so early?" Mum asked as she looked over the bannister
from upstairs. I felt the rage building
up again and before I knew it burst to my feet and started screaming at her.
"WHY DID WE HAVE TO COME BACK HERE?!?"
I yelled. "Of all the places in
the world you could have taken us to, why here?"
"You know
why, where else could we go?" She asked
as she staggered to the top of the stairs and the rage quickly drained out of
me as I started to feel guilty for that outburst. I ran up the stairs and draped her arm over
my shoulder as we stumbled down to the living room. She sat down on the couch and tapped the
cushion next to her for me to sit down as she tried to get comfortable, even
though I could see her wincing in pain.
"Tell me what's happened." It was
like a floodgate opening; I talked her though everything that happened at
school, including meeting the Fleek Flow guys, my initial thoughts on Lucas,
the outburst after finding out who he was and that Ben
was in the same school. When I finished there were tears running down my face
as she gave me a hug and wiped my eyes but I quickly pulled away when I heard
her wince in pain again.
"I'm sorry,
I shouldn't have shouted before." I said, raising my tear stained face to look at her. The swelling on her face had mostly gone down
and the bruising around her eye had almost completely faded. Her ribs would take a little longer to heal
but she was able to get around a little better now that her twisted ankle was
on the mend. Seeing her like this made
my blood boil but at the same time I was grateful it hadn't been any worse.
"Don't be
sorry, I know you're hurting and you'll want to lash out; trust me I want to as
well, but if we do then we let this beat us and I don't know about you but I've
been beaten enough lately." I was trying
to agree with her but nothing she could say would stop me feeling this
way. "I know it wasn't ideal coming back
here but we had no other choice." I
looked around the living room with its tired, out of date carpet and peeling
wallpaper, wishing she'd been able to afford something better, but everything
had happened so quickly that our options were limited. I just counted myself lucky that we still had
a roof over our heads but the sooner we could get some money together to fix up
the place the better.
"I
know. I just don't know why I was so
surprised that those guys would be in school and I didn't realise how much I
hated them until I found out who they were."
She reached her hand out to my face, brushing my hair back as she wiped
away a tear with her thumb.
"I don't
think you hate them; that school will bring up a lot of bad feelings but it's
the only one here, and you can't blame those poor boys for what's happened in
the past, it was nothing to do with them."
She said, still stroking my hair soothingly. "Remember I went to school with their parents
as well and they weren't bad people. You
need to make up your own mind about them and not be influenced by anyone else."
"You mean I
have to like them?"
"Of course
not, but you don't have to dislike them either.
Like I said, make up your own mind, but these Freak Show guys sound like
they could be interesting."
"It's Fleek
Flow Mum." I replied, rolling my eyes.
"Ah ok,
anyway, go and do something fun for a while, take your mind off things, then
we'll get started on dinner." I trudged
back up to my tiny room to watch some videos, even though I didn't really feel
like it. The house had one master
bedroom and a small, spare room which was all mine. There was barely enough room for a bed, a small
wardrobe and a tiny shelf in the corner, just about big enough for the tiny TV
my nan let me have.
I still missed the stuff I'd left in my old room from before the move
but there was no time to bring anything but the bare essentials with us. Thankfully I was able to grab my guitar and
some clothes before we fled our old life, not that I could play it at the
moment though.
Around an
hour later the doorbell chimed downstairs.
I instinctively dashed down to answer the door, determined to be the
first line of defence in case the worst happened. Pulling the door open slightly I peeked
through the gap to see who was there and was surprised to see my English
teacher standing on our doorstep.
"Mrs
Forster? What're you doing here?" I asked, opening the front door fully and
suddenly feeling ashamed at the state of the front garden.
"Hello Nick,
you left your bag at school and Jamie insisted on bringing it back to
you." I looked round her and saw Jamie
smiling shyly a couple of paces back, holding onto my backpack just as my mum
came down the hallway behind me.
"Who is it
sweetie? Oh...hello."
"Hi, I'm
Helen Forster, Nick's English teacher and this is my son, Jamie." She said with a pleasant smile, even though I
could tell she was surveying the damage to Mum's face. "Can we come in for a minute; I'd like to
make sure everything is ok with Nick coming back to school."
"Of course,
I'm Summer by the way, come on through." She replied.
"Nick why don't you take Jamie upstairs?" It wasn't really a question, more like a way
to give them some privacy but I didn't mind.
I was still feeling embarrassed as I led Jamie up the creaky, wooden
stairs and when we entered my bedroom I saw Jamie take a quick look around.
"Wow, this
is..."
"Small?" I finished the statement for him, feeling my
cheeks go red with the shame.
"I was going
to say cosy but small works as well."
Jamie placed my bag on the bed as he took a look at the guitar propped
up in the corner. I was suddenly really
conscious about the missing strings and haphazard, red spray paint covering
it. "Cool, do you play that?"
"Yeah a
little, not at the moment though." I
said, feeling a little embarrassed by the state of the instrument. "I'm not very good." We sat in silence for what seemed like an
eternity as Jamie looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to
word his thoughts. I could only guess
what he'd want to ask; what happened to my mum?
Why are we living in such a shithole?
What brought us back to town?
"Ok, so what
was all that about at lunch?" He finally
blurted out. "Why do you hate Lucas and
Ben so much?"
"It's not...I
don't hate them, well I do...sort of. It's...argh!!
I don't even know anymore!!" Even
though I should've expected the question it still caught me off guard, I
couldn't really explain why I reacted the way I did. I flopped down onto the bed with my hands
either side of my head as I stared up at the ceiling, trying to think of some
way to get all the stray thoughts in my head to come out as a rational
response.
"Look I don't
know what's happened in the past and I'm not going to force you to tell me, but
I've known Ben a long time and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met." Jamie said.
"As for Lucas...well, I don't really know him at all to be honest but he's
never done anything to make me think he's a horrible person."
"Great." I said sarcastically, sitting back up
again. "So what do I do next? Go back to school tomorrow and try to act
like we're best friends?"
"Of course
not, but if you're mad at them for something specific then they deserve to know
so they can make amends for whatever they've done. That's if you want them to."
"They
haven't really done anything...it's...you wouldn't understand." I sighed.
"My mum said I should make up my own mind about them so I guess I
should."
"You can
always come join us for lunch again if you like and see how things go. Just call today a trial run and start afresh
tomorrow." Just then Jamie's mum called
him from downstairs so I led Jamie back down to see him out.
"See you at
lunch tomorrow then." I said. Jamie smiled and fist bumped me before
climbing into the car.
"He seemed
nice, is he one of the freaks?" Mum
asked. I just rolled my eyes and shut
the door before going back to my room.