June skipped over to me in the corridors and held out a sandwich and packet of crisps, beaming at me. I raised my eyebrow.

"For you."

"I can get my own lunch, June. You don't need to get me anything." I stated blankly.

"I know," she said still smiling, "I just wanted to."

I shook my head, taking the lunch and thanking her. I thought she would've left me at that but she continued to walk with me while munching on an apple. Don't ask me where she got the damn apple from because I'm just as confused.

"June, you don't need to stay with me at lunch. You can hang out with your friends if you want." Her smile wilted a bit.

"Charlee hangs out with you guys for lunch and everyone else thinks I'm a weirdo." She muttered softly.

"Fuck everyone else, June. It's just their loss, isn't it?" I exclaimed pulling her closer to me.

"You're right, Frankie. It is their loss."

+++

The looks I got from everyone when I sat down behind the school building with June holding my hand were a mixture of shock and confusion. All except Harri who had coincidentally found something very interesting on the bottom of his shoe.

I looked closer. Black eye. Ha. Good. He deserved it, the prick.

Charlee gave me an unsure look as if pleading for me to walk away with June with me. The rest of the girls stared at June like they were at a circus and she was the act. It surprised me how different they all acted towards someone else.

Holli shuffled away from where June was - the same Holli that drove three hours to bring Charlee some food when she was ill. Paisley gave a disgusted look, a look that was absent around everyone else. India whispered things into Holli's ear making her giggle and stare at June. And sweet Jourdan, who was as beautiful as she was feisty, I would never expect such an ugly look to come from her as the sneer painted on her face when gazing upon June.

I wanted to scoop June up and take her away from here when I saw the unwelcome glances of everyone. But I didn't.

Ashby gave me an unsure look and I turned my head not wanting any bullshit speech.

Soon chatter turned back to the norm although June still sat there quiet, playing with her sandwich.

I looked at mine and unwrapped it. Tuna and mayonnaise with lots of sweet corn.

"You either did your research or you're a very good guesser. How did you know I was a Pescatarian?" I whispered into her ear. She seemed to jump out of her trance and shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey, you okay, June?" I asked still whispering.

She nodded at me.

"I like to know what they say about me." June whispered back into my ear, turning her head at the girls. Her hot breath so close to me gave me goosebumps and I quickly moved away.

She knew. June knew that her sister's friends spoke about her. I looked at June, who seemed to have forgotten my presence and was now solely focused on the girls' conversation.

I took a bite of the sandwich.

June Freebody certainly wasn't the oblivious girl I took her for.

+++

I know I'm skipping basically the entire of the school day and going straight to lunch. But I'm sure that if I did write about the eye dissection in Biology, someone would go and complain.

Let's just sum it up by saying that a bull's eye is very difficult to cut open and also quite slippery too.

I mean if I didn't miss out all the classes then you'd have to wait longer for the scene where I'm pushed into yet another disabled toilet.

Which is actually now.

"What the fuck, Caden?!"

Said person, looked at me sheepishly and lost for words.

"We need to talk." Caden said slowly and cautiously as if he were talking to a wild animal.

"You know people are going to start coming up with theories if they see us coming out the toilets together." I said chuckling a bit. Caden looked at me gravely and didn't respond.

"You okay, Caden? You're acting really-"

"We need to talk about that night, two weeks into summer." Caden burst out, interrupting me.

Rude.

"What about it?" I asked.

"You know what I'm talking about, Frankie."

Yes. I'm aware that it sounds like we've killed someone when this conversation has no context whatsoever. So let me elaborate...

Two weeks into summer, as previously stated, all of us went down to Paisley's family's beach house. She's pretty rich and you wouldn't actually know it unless you saw her house. So well done Ashby for scoring that one (I'm kidding).

And that was basically it. We went to the beach house for a week. No murders. No breakups. But to make up for it we had a ton of alcohol.

"No. I really don't. Care to share?"

"That night, Frankie."

"That night. Is that supposed to mean something to me?" I asked, still wondering what he was talking about.

"Frankie, don't play dumb. The night we kissed."

I rolled my eyes.

"What about it, Caden?" I said not really caring at this point.

"We need to talk about it."

"So you've said." I replied dryly. "Well go on then, talk about it."

I saw Caden gulp and edge away from me like a crab retreating back into it's shell. A bit of a weird comparison but it'll do.

"What did it mean to you?"

"What? Caden, we were just messing around. I can't believe you're making such a big deal over this."

"Why did you do it, Frankie?"

"I don't know. I was drunk. Just trying to have a bit of fun."

"Are you gay? Is that the reason Jourdan broke up with you?"

I scoffed.

"It was a mutual agreement and I don't like to label myself, you of all people should know that. You could say that I'm bi. You could say that I don't really care for genders. Hmmm, wait, is the right word pan?" I'd have to look over my definitions later.

"How did you feel?"

"What is this? Twenty questions or an interrogation of my life? Why does it matter? We were just messing around."

"It mattered to me because I felt something that night, Frankie. But it isn't important anymore because you obviously don't fucking care."

+++

I guess I'm that gay guy put into a book to make it seem more diverse.

It was only Ashby that wasn't ignoring me out of the lads. Caden stormed off after our conversation somewhat pissed off at me. And of course, Harri is still sore after I punched him in the face and I'm still annoyed at the fact that I got caught.

Thankfully I only had to deal with Caden in English, although that still seemed pretty bad. When I walked in, I found that he had already let someone else take my seat. I wanted to scoff at how immature he was being about the whole thing.

June waved at me from the middle row and patted the seat next to her. I greeted her with a smile as I sat down next to her. For once I was thankful that she was in my English class.

I don't know whether it was Charlee or Caden but I could feel someone burning holes into the back of my head, halfway through the lesson.

"Ey! Mind not staring at me!" I whisper shouted.

"Frankie Tamsem!" I sighed and turned around. Great! Now I can get into more trouble.

"Caden Rogers! Both of you come with me now!"

Surprisingly it wasn't the teacher who was shouting at us, it was the head teacher, who had suddenly appeared at the doorway.

+++

I trudged behind Caden and our head teacher as we made our way to his office in silence. The corridors were eerily silent and so different from the noise factories I was used to.

When we walked in I was surprised to see Ashby and Harri.

"I'm sure you all know why you're in here." The head teacher said grimly.

I gave a look of confusion to Ashby wondering what he was talking about.

"Well? Which of you are going to own up to what you've done?!"

"Sir, I'm not sure what we've done wrong but you can rest assure that we're deeply sorry for it." Trust Ashby to apologise sincerely for the four of us. My heart stopped racing as fast.

The headteacher banged his head on the desk making us all jump in surprise.

"You know what you've all done because your faces have all been identified collecting a parcel at the school gates."

I blinked a few times before processing what was happening.

"Now I don't know if it's drugs or alcohol you're getting but I intend to find out, even if it means searching you all."

"I swear that's illegal." Harri muttered.

"Caden, Ashby. I especially didn't expect this kind of behaviour from the two of you. How stupid you both are when you could have had such a high future."

I gave an incredulous look at the head teacher.

"Harrison, Frankie. It saddens me that this behaviour from you doesn't surprise me."

Rude.

"Sir, this is all a misunderstanding. It was just lunch."

"Lunch? Lunch?! You can get lunch here in the canteen don't expect me to believe that the things in that parcel was just lunch."

It was at times like these when I really wished people were as good at telling truths from lies as they thought they were.

+++

Isolation. I managed to get away with just a one day isolation because one: Ashby was one of the top students so expelling him was out of the question (as he was one of the few people the school relied on for bringing the grades up); two: mum went to school with the headteacher or somet like that so the punishment wasn't as severe; three: there was no proof that it was drugs and until then we can get away with it.

One thing's for sure is that I didn't think a bit of fish and chips could get me put in isolation.

Worst part about isolation is either the fact that there's no one to talk to and you're stuck in a room with a teacher for an entire day or the fact that the teacher has to get your lunch for you.

I can tell you from experience that trying to tell a teacher which sandwich you want from the canteen is a difficult task.

They pick up any random one. I want the fish finger sandwich.

No, not the ham sandwich! I'm fucking pescatarian, mate.

Don't choose the ones at the front they've been sitting there for at least a few weeks. Get the fresh ones from the back of the shelf.

Not that one. Why would you choose the one with only two fish fingers. Surely you'd go for the one with more in it.

Do I look like the sort of person that puts mustard on fish fingers?! Get that shit away from my sandwich.

Struggles. Anyway the mother has already used the usual threat of making us move to a new town if I don't settle down properly and exclaimed her disappointment in me.

You would've thought she'd just put all her bets on Maya.