Chapter Text
Getting dropped off at a new place wasn’t new to Jimmy. What was he on now? Stepdad number six? This would be his sixth time getting dumped somewhere new. Maybe it was his fault in part, too. Maybe. He had worked hard to get expelled and permanently banned from those past institutions. He wasn’t going to deny that. This place, however, was different. It was a private boarding school. Every other place had been public. His mom allowed him at least that freedom. The freedom to go home every night and choose to eat pizza rolls for dinner while she was off on another honeymoon. His last taste of freedom was being ripped from his hands, and his mother was droning on about something as he lay in the back of the car, staring up at the stained cab. Was this guy supposed to be rich? You’d think he could afford a nicer car. Jimmy scoffed. “What was that young man?” His mother’s shrill voice pulled him back into reality, and he sat up. “It’s nothing, ma.”
“Good, that’s what I thought.” She made eye contact with her son in the rearview, her eyes turning into thin lines. “You know you should be grateful that we got you into this school. They said they can take kids like you and turn you around!” Jimmy scoffed again, and this time had words to back it up. “Yeah, whatever, just say it’s your sorry excuse of a babysitter because you would rather galavant across Europe with this random geezer.” Jimmy let out a huff and averted his gaze away from the mirror, not in the mood right now to face his mother’s wrath.
“James Hopkins! That is no way to talk to your mother or your new father! You have been expelled from almost twelve schools at this point! This place is hours away from our home. It's the only place that was willing to accept you!” This was only the start of her tirade. “You think I want to have you force you to go to boarding school? Oh well, maybe I do, considering you can’t seem to function in any other educational institution. I hope you learn a little bit from your extended school year here, James, and you better hope I don’t get a phone call again like I have so many times in the past.“ It was at that point that Jimmy began to drone his mother out again, turning his head to look out the window. They were approaching a large gate, two gargoyles atop. It didn’t seem fitting for a school, more like an evil villain's castle. There were kids of varying ages outside the gate, some saying goodbye to their parents, some welcoming their friends, and some just brooding.
Well, really, there was one brooding. She was a tall girl with bright red hair. Jimmy wondered if she was a natural redhead like he was. His hair wasn’t nearly as bright. The sight of the girl actually made Jimmy perk up for a moment. It was like she was glowing, no, it was like she was sparkling in the light peaking through the overcast sky. She was beautiful. He couldn’t help but stare. When she met his gaze, he almost shook the car in surprise, which in turn caused his mother to turn around and give him another round of scolding. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, James! I don’t want to hear you begging me to stay with your mom or acting like you’re scared. You’ve been to summer camp before; you can do this. Now go get your bags out of the trunk.” Jimmy’s mother made a shooing motion out of the car, and Jimmy reluctantly obliged.
He slid out of the car, side nearest to the gate, and opened the trunk, getting out his single worn suitcase. The plastic on the edges was showing signs of wear and tear. He’d had the suitcase since he was probably 11. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. He slammed the trunk closed to the protest of his mother and a loud grumble from his stepfather. He wheeled the suitcase to the sidewalk and sighed. This was going to be his new life now. Before he could wheel himself in, he heard his mother again.“James, don’t you dare think about leaving your mother without telling her goodbye! Did I raise you in a barn?!” The comment made Jimmy smile, just a little. He left his suitcase and walked back to his mother, reaching through the window to give her a peck on the cheek. “Maybe not a barn, but it was pretty close.” He replied.
His mother faked a look of shock before matching his smile. She brought up a gentle hand to pat her son’s face. “You be good now. I’ll see you in a year, James. I love you.”
“Yeah, ma. I love you too.” Jimmy took a step back from the car.
“Don’t call me! I don’t know if I’ll have cell service!”
That was the last thing he heard, and a frantic wave was the last thing he saw before the car sped off. Jimmy laughed. He wondered how long this marriage would last. When he turned back to get his suitcase, he was surprised to come face to face with someone new. Part of him had been hoping it would be the redhead girl, but when he glanced back to where she had been standing, she was gone. The only proof she had been there was a stamped-out cigarette butt. This new person greeted him with a smile. “Hey! I didn’t mean to scare you if I did! I just know you’re new. Well, the principal sent me out here to greet the new older students. I’m Pete! Pete Kowalski!” The cheerful boy stuck his hand out, awaiting a handshake.
Jimmy considered the hand for a moment before tentatively shaking it. “I’m Jimmy.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jimmy! Welcome to Bullworth!”
“Thanks.” Jimmy bumped past the boy to grab his suitcase.
This kid was rather unremarkable. He was squeaky clean if anything. His shirt was perfectly pressed. He had a cheerful smile. He was short. He was damn short. It caught Jimmy by surprise. Most of his life, he was on the shorter end of the height spectrum, but this kid was tiny. He assumed they were the same age. Maybe they’d both have a late growth spurt. Jimmy wanted to mention Pete’s height, but decided against it. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to fuck up his school situation on the first day, then end up homeless. “Oh well, hey, let me show you to the dorms, okay?” Pete said, returning to Jimmy’s side, smile still plastered on his face.
“Are you always this cheery?”
The smile faltered. “Well, not really, but Dr. Crabblesnitch told me I needed to make a good first impression for the students.” There was a bit of an awkward tension now. Pete was standing there just staring at the ground. “Why? What’s in it for you?” Jimmy asked. He started walking again, rolling his luggage behind him. He didn’t know where he was going at that moment, but he figured Pete would show him the way. The sound of the suitcase moving was enough to help Pete get back on his welcome wagon routine. “Well, I guess there isn’t much in it for me, but it’s a good thing to do…” he trailed off. “I guess?”
Jimmy quirked a brow. “Okay…”
“Let me show you to the dorm!”
Pete picked up the pace, leading Jimmy toward his new lodging arrangement. Bullworth High had seen better days. At first glance, the buildings were impressive, large and imposing, clearly very old. Upon further inspection, anyone could see how run-down the campus was. Bricks were covered in moss or discolored, walls were crumbling, and the decorative fountains around the school were covered in algae. The place kind of was like a scary abandoned castle, but instead of imps, there were a bunch of dorks running around. The current dork in front of Jimmy was now holding the dorm’s door open for him. What was he? A chick? And they say chivalry is dead. Jimmy lugged his suitcase up the steps. The piece of luggage may have been small and worn out, but it was heavy as balls. Jimmy had done his best to pack his entire life in it, and his life ended up weighing close to 50 pounds. He flashed Pete a thin smile as he walked through the door.
It was about what he expected. The place was old. Cracked wood floors and peeling wallpaper. There was a lounge room at the very center of the dormitory and rooms down the walls on either side. Jimmy leaned to take a peek into one of the rooms. Shared rooms. Damn. Jimmy wondered if he was going to share a room with this dork. “Oh, hey, Jimmy, you’re lucky! You got assigned to room 1!” Pete elbowed Jimmy gently. Jimmy swatted the other boy’s elbow away. “What’s that mean?”
“It’s the only dorm room with a single bed! You won’t have to room with anyone this entire semester!”
That statement was enough to heighten Jimmy’s mood, just a bit. Pete turned the corner, Jimmy followed, and then there it was, immediately on the right. Room 1A. Pete stood to the side, looking expectantly at Jimmy, as if this was going to be some magical fucking moment. Like Jimmy would fall in love with the school at the sight of his room. Jimmy turned the knob. It was a room. A window, a single bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a side table. It was nothing special aside from the extra space he had due to it being a single room. “Is this the only single room in the dorm?” Jimmy asked, not sure why. Maybe he was curious, maybe he just wanted to make conversation with this Pete kid. He seemed keen on getting to know Jimmy, and Jimmy could do well with a friend.
“Oh, on the other side, there’s another single room!” Pete lowered his voice when he said his next words. “That one belongs to Gary Smith.”
“Why are you whispering? Does this kid have superhuman hearing or something?” Jimmy had gotten started on his unpacking, his suitcase now opened on his bed. The items that were miraculously stuffed in the luggage were now strewn about on the mattress, and Jimmy took great care in shoving shirts into drawers without folding them.
“No, it’s just. He’s…” Pete trailed off. “He’s just someone you might want to—“
“Who’s just someone you might want to what, Petey?”
Jimmy turned his head towards the unfamiliar voice. Surrounding Pete, almost like a predator, was a taller boy. He had a scar on the right side of his face. It went into his eyebrow, leaving a gap there. His haircut was almost fit for someone in the military, and he had a mischievous— no, malicious glint in his eyes. He now had his arms loosely hanging off Pete’s shoulders. He wore a watch on one hand and a leather arm band on the other. Jimmy wasn’t sure why he noticed it, or why he even cared to notice it, but he did. Jimmy did another once-over of the sight before returning to unpacking his suitcase. “I’m assuming this is the Gary kid?”
“You would be right!” The new voice piped up— Gary piped up. “How has our little dorm mascot been treating you, Jimmy? Well, I hope!” Jimmy bristled at that. He didn’t tell this Gary kid his name, so how did he know? Maybe he did have a keen sense of hearing; maybe word got around this school fast. The campus might be large, but there didn’t seem to be that many students. “Yeah, it’s cool, man,” Jimmy mumbled, opening the tall wood wardrobe to toss his shoes in. He noticed there were a few hangers in it.
“Oh yeah! Jimmy, they’ll have a uniform ready for you tomorrow; you can get it from the office.” Pete squeaked out; his voice was strained. When Jimmy glanced back to see if he was okay, he saw that Gary was continually encroaching on Pete’s personal space. Jimmy gave them a look before grabbing another bunch of clothes out of his bag and determining what was fancy enough to hang up.
“Why don’t you look at people when they’re speaking to you, James?” The way his name rolled off Gary’s tongue got his attention. He bristled again but didn’t want the other boy to know he’d gotten under his skin. Jimmy had less than a minute of interaction with Gary, but he could already tell he liked attention. Liked getting to people. Pete seemed like the perfect prey with how obviously flustered he was with Gary just standing near him. Jimmy scoffed. “You’re not my daddy, I don’t have to fucking look at you.” He grumbled out the tail end of his sentence and snatched up one of the hangers. He sloppily forced a dress shirt on it, nearly popping off one of the buttons.
There was a moment of silence, then a breath of relief from Pete. Jimmy felt Gary approaching him from behind. Jimmy didn’t know who this kid thought he was, but he wasn’t easily intimidated. It would take more than big talk to scare him. He scowled and turned on his heel, arms up and ready to push the other male back. When he glared up to look Gary in the face, his expression changed. It was like Gary had seen a ghost and been overheated at the same time. He was ghastly pale and bright red simultaneously. His expression was unreadable. Jimmy lowered his arms, but before he could question the other man, Gary pushed Jimmy back, knocking him against his dresser. “Fuck.” It was the last thing Jimmy heard Gary mutter before he pushed Petey away from the doorway and stormed out of the room.
What the fuck was that about?
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Jimmy stared blankly at his ceiling. He’d been there for less than 5 hours, and already someone freaked out on him. Normally, he would brush that off; that Gary kid was clearly asking for it, but the way Gary had looked at him. It was weird. The only way Jimmy could describe it was scary, but there was no way he’d be scared by that kid. In that moment, though, maybe he was. Jimmy didn’t have anything better to do at the moment since classes didn’t start until tomorrow, and he realized a little too late that he had forgotten his Walkman. Maybe it was at home, maybe it was somewhere lodged between the seats in that geezer's car, maybe it was in his mom’s purse, and she intentionally kept it as a final fuck you to her son. It didn’t really matter. He didn’t have the Walkman now. Maybe he could see what shops old Bullworth had to offer, see about slumming for some cash, and buy himself a brand spanking new one.
He thought back to the girl he had seen this morning. She was ethereal, and Jimmy was surprised that he’d even thought up such a word to describe the girl. He wondered where she went after her smoke. Did she attend school there, too, or was she just a visitor? Jimmy closed his eyes to think back. She was wearing a white button-down and a plaid skirt. That seemed like the standard uniform here, although hers was red, and it seemed like the majority of students wore green and blue. It was just another aspect, aside from her glowing complexion and red hair, that made her stand out. Just another aspect that made Jimmy curious about her. Just as his mind drifted from the girl outside the school gate,s it drifted back to Gary. Gary had strong features. He looked a bit older than Jimmy. Jimmy himself was 16, so he guessed that maybe Gary was 17? 18? Gary stood out, too, in his own way. The scar on his face was noticeable, and aside from the look of fear he had when he was peering down at Jimmy a few hours ago, he always had a smug look on his face. He looked like he was planning something. The thought that he was handsome crossed Jimmy’s mind. Jimmy guessed he couldn’t deny it, but the dude seemed batshit. Plus, it would be so lame to get two crushes on the first day of school.
Crushes? What the fuck is Jimmy thinking? Thinking about people and acknowledging their looks does not mean you have a crush. He groaned and rubbed his face, rocking back on his bed in frustration at his thoughts.
There was a knock on the door, then another, before it creaked open. It was Petey.
“Hey Jimmy, I wanted to tell you it’s around dinner time now. If you aren’t in the cafeteria by 9, you’ll have to go buy something in town to eat.” Pete started to close the door. “Oh, and curfew is at 10, so you should be careful about skipping dinner. You know, a limited amount of time to get something. Anyways, you can come sit with me if you want. Or not that’s fine too.” With those parting words, Pete shut the door.
Jimmy sighed and swung his legs over the side of the bed, sitting up and looking at the bedside clock. It was 7 pm. He had gotten here at 12 p,m and all he’d managed to do so far was unpack his shit, get pushed into his wardrobe, and adopt a pet named Pete. He was totally off his game today.
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The cafeteria was bustling. There were clear cliques at each table, bunched together, whispering. Jimmy wondered at what? It was made clear when, upon closer inspection, most of the looks before the whispers were directed towards him. Had these freaks never seen a transfer student before? It wasn’t like it was the middle of the semester. He assumed most of the people who attended this school had done so since birth or since middle school. This was a 6-12 institution. Jimmy first wondered where the elementary school was, and secondly, wondered whose idea it was to cram a bunch of 12-year-olds on a campus with 18-year-olds. Jimmy continued to survey the cafeteria when a waving hand caught his eye. It was Petey, sitting at a table with two other people. Two girls, both wearing glasses. Hey, maybe Jimmy underestimated this guy, and he was a true ladies' man. Jimmy approached the table, giving both girls a wave before sitting down next to Petey.
“Hi! I’m Angie, and this is Beatrice!” The girl with the blunt bangs spoke first, gesturing to herself and the other four eyes. “You’re the new kid, right? Jimmy? We rarely get ‘new’ students here. I’ve attended Bullworth since 8th grade!”
“Wow, this place is exclusive or something?” Jimmy half-joked.
“Kind of the opposite!” The other girl, Beatrice, piped up. “Actually, it’s just that this is a pretty small town and Bullworth isn’t the first choice for a lot of people, but I like it here! I mean, the school looks good on a resume. It’s well known for its academics!”
“Was well known for its academics.” Angie corrected. “If the new test scores mean anything, then Bullworth is on its way to being an average old C school.”
Jimmy was only half paying attention at this point. Two things were on his mind: the fact that he hadn’t gotten anything to eat, and he was starting to feel hungry as shit, and that in the entire cafeteria, he had yet to spot that girl with red hair.
Jimmy glanced down at Petey’s plate. The food was barely touched, and it also looked barely edible. The food appeared to be a soup, but it was dark brown. The only indication of what it might be was the occasional pea and corn floating around in the concoction. There were chunks in it, too. Jimmy could only assume it was meat. Next to the bowl of soup was a bread roll and a fruit cup. The fruit cup had been eaten, and it looked like an effort had been made at the bread. There were teeth marks, but no sign of a chunk being taken out of it. This shit looked worse than what he ate at the glorified prison school his mom had to drop him off at halfway through his freshman year. It had been deemed a “Troubled Teen Boy Rehabilitation Education Institution”. It was a glorified prison, and Jimmy was smarter than half the teachers. Evidently, it wasn’t a very good rehabilitation institution since Jimmy got kicked out for building a pipe bomb in biology. It was the teacher's fault, who keeps the exact supplies for rudimentary bomb making in their closet? A fucking idiot that’s who.
Jimmy made a face at the memory, and his stomach growled. He must’ve been thinking too hard. The food may appear inedible, but food is food, and Jimmy is hungry. The stomach growl did not go unnoticed by his tablemates. “Oh, you hungry, Jimmy? I don’t want the rest of my food; you can have it. I don’t have cooties or anything like that.” Pete joked, sliding the plate towards Jimmy. “I mean, I only ate the fruit cup, and I tried to eat the bread, but well…”
Jimmy considered the plate for a second before sliding it all the way in front of him. “So, what even is this?” Jimmy picked up the bread roll and tried to squeeze it. It had no give. He tapped the roll on the table, making a thud sound on the worn-out wood. “Is this shit even edible?” Almost in unison, the other three at the table laughed.
“Everything Edna makes can be eaten!” Beatrice proudly stated.
“…but that doesn’t mean it should!” Angie added.
The two girls giggled amongst themselves at the comment, and Jimmy looked back down at his tray. He shrugged, picking up the spoon and bringing a big bite of sludge to his lips.
“I’m pretty sure this is Edna’s special clean-out soup? She basically takes all the old expired cans of soup and vegetables from last year and puts them all in one pot.”
“Canned food can expire?” Jimmy questioned, mouth half full. It was clear he had no intent to stop eating, shoveling the next spoonful of ‘soup’ into his mouth before he fully swallowed the rest. He didn’t actually care all that much that the food was expired. Jimmy prided himself on his appetite. He had never been a picky eater. This might be the worst school lunch he’s eaten, but as a whole, he’s eaten much worse. Stepdad number three’s cigarette ashes, for example.
One of the girls responded to the question, Beatrice, maybe? It was a long diatribe about FDA regulations and botulism. Jimmy didn’t care, well, he tried to care at first, but his attention was drawn away by a streak of fire from the corner of his eye.
It was her. The girl from this morning. She wasn’t alone this time either; accompanying her was the Gary kid. Jimmy’s eyebrows knit together at the sight. The two of them made a striking pair, both standing in line for a plate. Jimmy wondered if they were dating. The irony wasn’t lost on him. The first two people at this school who caught his eye were dating? What a joke. Maybe they weren’t exclusive; just because they looked like they were together doesn’t mean anything. Jimmy might still have a chance. His brow furrows more at the thought. He wants to kick himself. Why is he concerning himself with dating, much less dating people he doesn’t know? For all he knows, Gary is a fucking serial killer, and the girl could be a junkie with how she was freely smoking on a “tobacco-free” campus.
Jimmy’s staring wasn’t subtle at all. It caught the attention of Angie, and the girl promptly cut Beatrice off. “What are you looking at, Jimmy? Zoe and Gary?”
Jimmy was surprised by the question, his face returning to a neutral expression. He didn’t realize he had been frowning. He just shrugged in response, “Maybe I am, so what?” He averted his gaze back down to his soup. Holy shit. Why had he sounded so defensive? If he wasn’t mentally kicking himself before, he was now. He sounded like a fucking girl who got caught peeking at her crush. How lame. “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with that!” Angie tried to explain herself. She leaned in across the table, speaking in a low voice. “It’s just those two are kind of weird, you know?”
“Weirder than you guys?”
This earned him another laugh from the trio. “Okay, so we might be eccentric or different or maybe weird is a word you could use, but those two…” Angie trailed off. Her expression was thoughtful, like she was thinking hard about the word to find. “They’re sort of outcasts?”
“Outcast, how?” Jimmy questioned. This earned a SHHHH! from Angie and Beatrice.
“Can you keep it down, please, Jimmy!” Beatrice pleaded.
Jimmy scrunched his face up before sighing in resignation. He didn’t know why these two just had to be so secretive. Maybe Gary really was a serial killer, and Angie was about to reveal it to him, but maybe if Gary knows you know he’s a serial killer, he gets you next. Angie didn’t seem that good with secrets, though. Jimmy had just met her, and she seemed keen on telling him all about Zoe and Gary. He would have to scratch that theory off his list.
“So…is anyone gonna answer me? How are they outcast?” He tried to keep his voice down, but he was not going to whisper like a little girl. Jimmy was well and done with his food, scooting the plate towards a space next to him and throwing the rock of a bread roll as hard as he could on the ground. It still didn’t budge. Angie, Beatrice, and Petey exchanged glances, like they were mentally trying to decide who would explain the situation. Beatrice looked defeated before sighing and beginning. “Well, Zoe is hardly ever in class. Ever. She’s always skipping. I’m surprised she’s even still enrolled here, but she has good grades. A 3.5 GPA to be exact. The only class she struggles in is gym. She's hardly ever there, so she doesn’t get her grade.”
“So what? She skips class? Who cares?” Jimmy remarked.
“Well, it’s not just that, I mean, she totally wears her uniform wrong, she smokes and drinks, she acts like she’s better than everyone, but doesn’t even talk to other people. I’m pretty sure the only person she’s ever spoken to on campus outside of the faculty is Gary.” Beatrice paused. “And she doesn’t stay in the dorms most nights. You’d think if she were skipping, she’d be in town, sure, but she doesn’t come back at night. She just shows back up on campus each day in her uniform, freshly pressed like she wasn’t probably on a late-night bender. It’s just eerie.”
Gary and Zoe had now moved to the front of the line. They both grabbed their trays and walked through the cafeteria towards what Jimmy assumed was their designated table. He stared in awe at the sight, not because of them, but because of the other students. It was like the two of them had an incurable virus you could catch from being within 5 feet of them. Younger students quickly scurried out of the way, and older ones avoided their path altogether. Nothing Beatrice had said so far was that alarming. Maybe students at this school were just unusually cruel in their bullying? Pete mentioned not having cooties earlier; maybe they still play that game, and Zoe and Gary are to be avoided at all costs. None of the fantastical scenarios really made sense in Jimmy’s mind. All of them were kind of stupid if not entirely implausible.
He craned his neck to look behind him. There was one singular circular table at the back of the cafeteria. He hadn’t seen it before when he walked in. There were two chairs, one for Zoe and one for Gary. Jimmy guessed Zoe would sit in the left one and Gary on the right. Or was the one on the right on the left? Should Jimmy be guessing his right and left or their right and left? It didn’t matter; they both sat down. If Jimmy hadn’t seen their gazes on him, he would’ve felt it. Both of them were looking right at him. There was a slight curl to Zoe’s lip. A smile? Was she flirting? When he turned to look at Gary, it was the opposite. Zoe may have been shooting heart arrows at Jimmy with her gaze while Gary was shooting daggers. His face was a scowl, top lip curled upwards almost like a snarl. The look on his face was almost like he was on the defensive, telling Jimmy to stay away. The way a feral dog looks at a stranger on the street before it bites their hand off. A second later, and they both looked away. Gary was looking down at his hands, fiddling with his thumbs, and Zoe was looking out the window, gazing at the moonlight creeping through.
Their stares didn’t scare Jimmy off if that was the goal; on the contrary. It made him want to approach them. His stomach did a little flip at the thought. Maybe he did have a fucking crush on two random people his first day of school. Why else would he be so preoccupied with them? Somehow, both of their expressions seemed welcoming, and if not welcoming, then they made him curious. Nothing Beatrice said gave insight into Zoe. It was all surface-level, and his singular interaction with Gary earlier today didn’t suggest much about the boy other than the fact that he had some anger issues.
“And as for Gary…” It was Petey’s turn to speak up now. “Well, you saw how he was earlier, right?” Petey elbowed Jimmy to get his attention.
“Oh yeah, well that was weird. He acted like I did something to him. Maybe he doesn’t like it when you look him in the eyes?” Jimmy joked before turning his head again. Zoe and Gary were both getting up now. Hadn’t they both just sat down? Their trays were still full, too. Both fruit cups had the plastic layer on top, and the spoons remained pristine on the side.
“What did Gary do to Jimmy?” Angie questioned quietly. Jimmy couldn’t choose between being an active participant in the conversation or staring down the two students like a hawk. Petey started to tell the story, starting from the school gates. Wow, these three sure could talk.
The uneaten trays were left discarded on the table. The two of them turned to leave the cafeteria, but not before Zoe caught Gary’s arm. She leaned down to whisper in his ear, earning Jimmy another glance from both of them. Gary’s face turned red, and his scowl returned before he shrugged the redhead off and stormed out of the cafeteria, mirroring the way he stormed out of Jimmy’s dorm room today. Zoe was left by the doorway alone. She shot Jimmy a wink before taking her exit. If Jimmy didn’t have more resolution, he would’ve blushed in the moment.
“So yeah, Gary just freaked out on Jimmy and then stormed out. I’ve never seen him like that before!” This was the point of the conversation Jimmy had tuned back into, turning his head back to his table. He was surprised that Pete had already gotten to that part.
“Oh gosh, Jimmy, are you okay?” Angie asked, genuine concern in her eyes as she reached out to grab Jimmy’s hand.
“Pfft? Okay? I’ve never been better. I don’t know what got into that guy, but it’s fine. He didn’t even leave a scratch.” Jimmy laughed it off, doing his best to reassure the girl. He flashed her a grin. “I’m the last guy you need to worry about, okay? Pete, here is the one you need to look out for.” He used his free hand to gesture toward his new friend. “Gary had no problem laying a hand on him.”
Angie and Beatrice’s brows raised. Angie quickly let go of Jimmy’s hand to now tend to Pete. Beatrice was there for backup, asking if Pete was okay. “You make it sound like he beat me up, Jimmy!” Pete groaned, shooing the girls’ aid away. “I’m fine. He’s a family friend, that’s why he’s so close with me.”
Jimmy raised an eyebrow at that. He’d have to ask Pete more about Gary later.
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The rest of dinner went smoothly. The four of them made small talk. Jimmy told jokes about his stepdads and gave his usual life story, the one he gave when he wanted to impress people, and impress it did. There was a fair share of “oo-ing” and “ahh-ing” from the table. Angie and Beatrice properly introduced themselves. Angie is a cheerleader, but is an exceptional student. She and Beatrice are best friends. Beatrice is the top of the class; she’s both the smartest girl and the smartest person in school, full stop. Jimmy learned that Angie, Pete, and Beatrice all became friends just last year. Beatrice sometimes sits at the other table with the self-described “nerds” and Angie with the cheerleaders. On those days, Pete would eat outside or catch up on studying in the library. He was also pretty smart, but the two girls were smarter.
Jimmy smiled to himself, walking back to the dorm room. The four of them all split to go their separate ways, something about Pete having to set up for the first day of classes, Beatrice getting ahead on studying, and Angie working on a pep rally. They were an odd bunch, sure, but they were cool. They were cool in Jimmy’s book, and that’s all that mattered. He was proud of himself, really. So far, he’d already made three friends. This was the best he had done at a new school in a hot minute. His mom would be proud. Still, Jimmy’s mind couldn’t help but drift back to Zoe and Gary. He wanted to know more about them. Were they dating? Just friends? Related? They didn’t look related, but maybe. He wondered what Gary’s problem was, why he had pushed him, and what was with the look on his face. He wondered what Zoe whispered to him that caused the same reaction. He wondered if Zoe was interested in him, too, or if he was reading too much into it.
Jimmy slipped into the dormitory and turned the corner. He walked into his room and closed the door gently behind him. He plopped down on his bed, which was now mostly clear of any of his junk or clothing. He stared back up at the ceiling as he had before. Just thinking about everything. It was somehow one of the quickest and slowest days of his life. He wondered how the rest of the school year would go. He wondered if he’d get to know Gary and Zoe better, if Pete would tell him more, if his mom and stepdad had gotten divorced in the hours Jimmy had been apart from them. Before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep.