"No problem," He said,"Not like it was much trouble, it takes two steps to get from my house to yours."
"Morning," She said to Gerard.
"Morning," He said to them.
"There wasn't math homework last night was there?" Ray asked, he had math the period after them.
"I hope not, cause if there was I didn't do it," Gerard said.
"There wasn't," Charlotte said,"Thank God."
"Is there anything on my face?" Tracy said from behind them. They jumped and turned around.
"Why'd you sneak up on us?"
"Cause it's fun. So do I?"
"No, why?"
"My brother was laughing at me today, and I don't know why...."
"Hold on," Charlotte said, walking around Tracy and looking at her back. "Well, he didn't do anything to your backside."
"Hmm...." Tracy said.
"See you second period," Charlotte said to Gerard before she and Tracy walked into school.
"Crap, I hope I didn't get Lila," She thought.
"Lila Grimela," Mr. Marcus said,"You will be paired with-"
Lila scooted her chair closer to Frank's and smiled at him. He ignored her.
"Greg Hemell," Mr Marcus finished. Lila's smile turned completely upside-down.
"The band geek?" She said.
"I'm right here, I can hear you," Greg said from behind her.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes before picking up her stuff and taking the seat next to him. They'd both be talking to Mr. Marcus.
"Josie Wendson, you're with Frank Iero."
Josie had short red hair and brown eyes with scattered freckles across her face. She shrugged and picked up her things before taking the seat next to Frank that Lila had just left. Lila's eyes narrowed.
"Marley Smith, you're with Joe Green."
He continued down the list, pausing after each one to let people move to their new seats.
"Charlotte Miller, you're with Gerard Way," He said sympathetically.
Charlotte smiled and got her things before taking the seat next to Gerard.
"Luck out huh?" She said to Gerard.
"Yeah," he agreed.
Assigning lab partners took the remainder of the class period. But Mr. Marcus still had enough time to assign them homework, ignoring groans from throughout the class. The bell rang and they flooded into the hallway.
"Hey Charlotte, do you know when the next lacross game is?" Josie said.
"No. Why?"
"Oh, I wanted to go and make fun of the cheers, cheer for the wrong team, and throw stuff at the mascot."
"Sounds fun, count me and Tracy in."
"'K," Josie said, before walking towards the cafeteria.
"Throw stuff at the mascot, won't that get you banned from all lacross games from now on?" Gerard said.
"Yes, but he deserves it," She said, referring to Kenneth Gow who was the mascot. He was rude to basically everyone.
"True, very true," Frank said.
"Josie should have gotten to be the mascot."
"She tried out?" Gerard said.
"She didn't get it?" Frank said.
"Yes, and yes. She would have made a much better mascot."
"Yeah." Josie was really goofy and fun to be around, the complete opposite of the current mascot.
"They were the final two, and the cheerleading captain picked Kenneth because she thinks he's cute. The only way Josie will get to be the mascot is if he can't."
Mindy walked down the hall with Lila and a few other cheerleaders. They were smiling and gossiping. Gerard watched as her long pretty hair swayed back and fourth as she walked. They walked completely past him without even sparing a glance.
At least that's what he thought until he heard one of them say,"What's with his hair? Incase he didn't know, the 70's are over."
"I like your hair."
Gerard turned to see Charlotte opening her locker.
"Huh?"
"I said I like your hair just the way it is. Normally I don't like guys with longer hair but it works for you."
"Thanks."
"Mmhm," She said, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. Only to let it fall back to cover part of her face. "Sorry it took so long to get here."
"It's all right. I don't mind."
Charlotte put her backpack on and closed her locker. They walked out to the parking lot and Charlotte slid into the passenger seat.
Gerard pulled into the driveway and Charlotte got out of the car. Gerard started to get out but was thrust back into his seat. He looked down and saw that he'd tried to get out of the car with his seatbelt still on. Charlotte smiled and laughed slightly.
"Don't tell Mikey, I'll never hear the end of it," He said.
"Okay."
Charlotte pulled her keys from her pocket and unlocked her front door. "Buster?!" She said when she came in. The Labrador bounced into the front room and jumped on her. "Oh, I missed you too Buster, I missed you too." Buster ran around her and jumped on Gerard. "Buster! Down!"
Charlotte got a dog treat from above their fridge and Buster sat automatically. She gave him the treat and he walked away to eat it. "Sorry about him," She said.
"It's fine," Gerard said. He looked around the kitchen. The tile on the floor was brick red and the cupboards were black. The counters looked like bricks and there was a lot of plaques on the wall that said things like,"Break Bread With Friends" or "Home is Where the Heart Is."
Charlotte sat down at the table and Gerard took the seat next to hers.
"Alright," She said,"First thing, let me see your Chemistry Notebook."
"My Chemistry Notebook?"
"Yes."
"... Um," he said, remembering his "notes" on the last film they'd watched,"Is that completely necessary?"
"Yes. I need to see if you're getting the right information written down."
He sighed and opened is backpack. He gave her the notebook with the red cover that had Chemistry scribbled over the front along with some strange designs he'd drawn on it. She flipped to the first page, the only page with any notes. "These look fine, not to detailed," she said, flipping the page.
"Let's see, Little demon people," She said, then flipped the page,"A cute monkey wearing a barret," next page,"More Little Demon People." She skimmed through the next few pages before closing the notebook. "This is no longer your Chemistry notebook, this is your spare doodle pad okay? You need to get a new notebook for Chemistry," She said.
"All right."
"Okay, when did Chemistry first start confusing you?"
"About eighth grade."
<i>"Eight Grade?"</i>
"The end of eighth grade."
"But that's when we took Physics! Hold on." She went up the staircase and came back with a textbook. "Lucky for you my sister's in eighth grade."
They spent nearly an hour on the last few chapters of that text book before something clicked.
"Oh!" he said,"That makes sense."
"Good, we're making progress. Let's try our homework."
"And all the making sense just ended," He said after trying to answer a few questions.
"Don't worry," Charlotte said, writing down the correct answer and pointing to the part of the book that stated what the answer was.
The front door opened and Charlotte's sister Carli walked in. She said hi to Buster before going up to her room.
"Won't she be needing her book?" Gerard said.
"No, she never starts her homework until about seven." They finished the Chemistry homework, though Gerard's mind was still in tangles over it and moved on to math.
"Alright," Gerard said,"Let me see your math notebook."
Charlotte smiled nervously and gave it to Gerard. Her's was the exact same as his Chemistry notebook, just with a few more notes here and there.
"I'll get a new notebook for math," She said.
"Right," He said,"And when did math start confusing <i>you</i>?"
"First Grade actually. But it <i>really</i> started confusing me in ninth grade. I didn't understand any of that until tenth grade, and none of the tenth grade stuff until last year."
"So you understand everything up until last year."
"No, It's all caught up, I just don't understand anything this year."
"Let's try the homework."
It was about another thirty minutes before they got all their homework for all their classes done. The door opened and Charlotte's dad walked in.
"Hi Buster," He said as the dog wagged his tail and jumped on him.
"Hi Dad," Charlotte said.
"Hi Sweetie," He said, giving her a peck on the top of her head. "Hello Gerard," He said.
Gerard waved un-enthusiastically.
"Is your mom home yet?" He said to Charlotte.
"No, she had to go to- um.... Gerard, she had an apointment with your mom. Um..."
"Hair appointment?" Gerard said.
"Right, hair appointment."
"That woman gets her hair done too much." The phone range and he picked it up,"Hello?.... Yes this is him.... WHAT?! .... Idiots.... Mmhm.... Right.... Yes, I'll be there ..... okay.... bye." He hung up the phone,"Charlotte, tell your mom that I had to go back to the office, some moron shreded our project with some old files, we'll be pulling an all-nighter."
"Okay."
"Bye." He picked his briefcase back up and headed out the door.
Gerard put his stuff in his backpack before standing up. "I'm going to go too."
"Alright, see you at school tomorrow."
"'K."
"Trust Me."