The sound of a blaring alarm woke Gerard up from his slumber. He jumped a little when he first heard it. The alarm was set to play Chop Suey by System of a Down. Gerard originally set it to that because he thought it would get him out of bed faster, but it also proved to be good at scaring the shit out of him when he woke up.

It definitely did get him up and out though, because he rushed to the alarm so he could turn off Serj Tankian's loud vocals. They were still amazing vocals, but Gerard didn't really appreciate them at the time.

When he finally stopped the alarm, he sighed and walked over to his computer to check his emails. He had 2 of them, one of which was from his professor, and the other was from the head of the school.

From: Cory Russle
To: Gerard Way and 30 others

I'm sorry to say that I am sick today, and we will not be having class as we normally do. Take this time to go out and draw anything that grabs your attention. You have no specific assignments today, but take a day for yourself to let your creative side run free. If you draw anything you enjoy, please email me pictures of the work so I can award you the proper bonus credits for your end of semester grades.

That was the email from his professor. Next was the email from the head of the school.

From: Dr. Jones Mayberry
To: Gerard Way and 100+ others

As most of you know by now, the end of the semester is arriving quickly. However, just because there is less time left for school does not mean that rules do not apply. This email serves as a reminder to be on your best behavior, along with the assignments needed for your final grades. Please pay close attention to each assignment, and complete it by the appropriate date. Email your professors for more information.

~Visual Arts students: Create a portfolio of all different types of art you have made over the year. This will be used to track your progression as artists.

~Music students: Construct a completed song that lasts from 1 and a half minutes to 4. Your scores will be based on creativity, lyrical talent, and originality of scores and sounds.

~Photography students: Create a collage of your favorite things to photograph. Scores will be based on visual aesthetic.

~Literature students: Create a short passage. The passage can be used in the following forms: poetry, folk-tale, and informative article. There is no length requirement, as long as you provide enough content for the reader to understand. Scores will be based on the development of ideas and use of context.

Gerard deleted the two emails and decided that he would put his art portfolio together over the weekend. He had good grades the whole year, so he was pretty certain that his final grade would be good too.

He decided that it would be nice to go walking around the courtyard for awhile, and enjoy nature. He slipped off his pajamas and tossed them onto the pile of dirty clothes he was planning to wash later, and he put on some sweatpants and a hoodie. He took the note he found yesterday from the drawer and placed it in his pocket.

He put some supplies in his art bag and slung it over his shoulder before walking out the door, locking it behind him. He trudged his was down the stairs until he reached the front entrance and swung the door wide open, ready to leave those dreaded dorms.

When he first looked around at all the scenery, it looked like a typical art college. There were music students outside singing and strumming guitars. There were authors sitting at some of the lunch tables, huddled in small cliques. There were art students scattered around sketching the whole scene. There were photographers observing the flowers and angling their cameras to get the best photos. Everything seemed so cliche.

Gerard looked over at the tree he was wanting to draw and saw a bunch of photographers taking photos of it. He decided it would be best to wait until the photographers left, that way no one would be in his path when he chose to draw the tree.

Now would be a good time to try and get more information on this letter he had. The secretary's office was in a building across the courtyard, so he started heading that way.

When he entered the building, he saw many kids waiting in the lobby. He would probably have to wait as well. He went up to the reception desk and waited behind a few other people before a small woman with glasses came to him. "Hello sir, name please?"

"Gerard Way."

"Alright please take a seat in the lobby and we'll call your name when the secretary is ready to see you."

The wait was long, painfully long. Gerard didn't know why it took so much time for students to have a few conversations, but something about it made it seem like the most demanded thing at the college. This was supposed to be a short meeting, not the line for costumers service at the department store.

The small lobby smelled like pumpkins. Gerard noticed a few candles sitting on a table in the corner and assumed that was the cause of the scent. The small flames danced around gently, and when someone walked past them, their movement became more rapid, but soon calmed down after awhile.

The chairs in the room looked uncomfortable too. They didn't have any cushions, and they were made of hard wood, which was why Gerard was standing up.

Rooms like these tended to make Gerard uneasy. Whenever he went to counseling as a child, he had to wait many minutes in those chairs before being dragged into a room and being forced to spill all his problems out. Gerard hated that.

Nowadays, Gerard didn't need counseling anymore. He only went to it when he was younger because his parents were concerned at his lack of friends. They wanted Gerard to learn to be more sociable, but that obviously didn't work. If anything, Gerard became even more of an introvert because of how much time he wasted talking to people in those meetings.

Gerard's thoughts were interrupted when his name was finally called, and he made his way into the office. A tall lady with brown hair tied in a bun and a gray dress sat in an office chair behind her desk. "Have a seat Gerard," she said as she pointed to a cushioned chair on the opposite side of the desk. Gerard went to the chair and sat down in it. "What brings you to my office today?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you have any information on a student named 'Frank Iero?'"

"I can see what comes up in the computer when I search the name. Why must you know about him?"

"I found some work with his name on it. I need to know who he is so I can return the papers to him." The secretary nodded in response as she typed his name up on the computer. When she got a result, she turned the monitor around so both her and Gerard could look at it at the same time.

"It says here that Frank is currently in his 3rd year. Same as you I'm guessing?" Gerard nodded. " Here's his picture." She pointed to an image in the corner of the webpage. The guy had a small smile on his face, and black hair cut into a faux hawk. In the photo, he was currently wearing a green cardigan, and he had a scorpion tattoo on his neck. "He's a music major, plays guitar and stuff like that. Right now he's staying in the dorms in the music hall, but he's supposedly transferring to a different dorm building soon because of a 'troublesome roommate.'"

Gerard observed the page a few more times, before deciding that he would probably forget everything in the next few minutes. "Do you mind if I take a picture of this information with my phone, so I don't forget?" She nodded her head, and Gerard took out his cellphone, snapping a photo and placing it back in his pocket. "Thanks that's all I needed."

"No problem. Come back anytime if you need anything." She smiled a small but genuine smile, and Gerard smiled back. He soon walked out and sighed when he saw that the photographers were still surrounding the tree.

At this rate, they would be here all day. Gerard picked up his phone and went to dial Lindsey's number before he remembered something. He opened his photos and soon looked at the picture he had saved of Frank.

Frank was actually a very interesting and complex person to look at. His face was shaped in a unique way, and his hair complemented it. His eyes were a perfect shade of hazel as well, and Gerard found himself fascinated with the artistic vision that this one photo brought him.

Absentmindedly, he pulled out his sketchbook and pencils from his art bag. He began sketching Frank's face and soon became engrossed in the drawing process. Once he had a detailed outline, he got out his colors and started working on more intricate parts of the drawing.

Everything went on so smoothly, and Gerard was practically in love with the color pallet. All the colors worked so well together. The way that the pale color of his skin went with his dark hair, and how it all made his hazel eyes pop out. The drawing came almost naturally, and when Gerard checked the time, he was surprised to see that it was almost evening. He had to go to the party soon.

He packed up his supplies and put it all back in his art bag. It was a bit upsetting that he had to miss the sunset today, but he supposed that yesterdays experience made up for it. After all, he didn't want Ray getting drunk and forgetting who he invited to his own party before Gerard arrived. He had to figure out more about this Frank person. Was that creepy? Gerard didn't think so. He was just intrigued.

As he headed up the stairs of the dorm, he was pleased to see that Ray was still setting up for the party. Now he could offer to help while having a conversation with Ray.

"What's up Ray? Need any help setting up?" Gerard approached the doorway.

"No dude, I'm fine thanks. I'm almost done. You can come inside though. Things will get a little lonely before people actually start showing up." Gerard stepped through the door and into the room, where he took a seat next to a table.

"So Ray, who all are you inviting to this party?"

"Well, considering it's the end of the semester, we were planning on it being pretty big. We've invited practically everyone over from this dorm, and we also invited some of the girls. Only the chill ones though, not the bitchy ones who whine about everything." Gerard laughed about that. It was true that there were a few girls who just wanted to fuck around any chance they got, but there were mostly nice ones. "So yeah, we've invited Lindsey, Hayley, Kristin, Frances, and Jamia as far as I know. We've also invited a kid that's transferring to this dorm, just so he can get to know the people around here."

Gerard nodded. Soon the first visitor arrived. Then the second. And soon the room was full of people. Gerard just kind of awkwardly sat in the corner, watching and wondering what the hell he was supposed to do at a party like this.

Gerard didn't enjoy drinking, especially since he didn't have any drinking buddies. A lot of his friends went to bars together on Friday nights, but he never went, because he knew he'd be excluded. Drinking alone wasn't too good for him, especially when he woke up with a pounding headache and no one was there to spoon feed him pills.

He noticed that practically everyone in the room was shit-faced, and everyone was clumsily walking around doing drunk shit. There were a few people aggressively eating each other's faces, a few that went to other rooms to do more heated things, and a few that had already passed out from drunkenness. The whole room smelled of alcohol at that point, and Gerard had to step out into the hallway to get away from the nasty scent.

He sighed when he stepped outside and leaned against a wall. He really wasn't having much luck doing what he intended so far, and he thought about just leaving the party altogether and going back to his dorm. That is, until an unfamiliar voice began speaking beside him.

"You're not one for parties I'm guessing?"

Gerard laughed a little bit before replying. "Nah, I'm not really a social butterfly in these types of situations." He then looked over to the source of the voice, and practically screamed internally when he saw Frank standing in front of him.

"Yeah me neither, I guess. Plus, it's nice to be one of the only sober ones at the party. You can make fun of the others when they go about the next day complaining about their hangovers. It's absolute bliss, if you ask me." He had a small smile planted across his face the whole time he was talking.

Gerard couldn't help but take in all of his appearance. He was shorter than Gerard first imagined. He was currently wearing some black ripped jeans, a blink-182 tee shirt, and a pair of red converse. His hair wasn't particularly tamed, so it pretty much hung loosely over his face. His eyes were so much more lively without being dulled by a shitty camera. All the colors he had on him appeared more vibrant than they ever had.

"So... what brings you to this party if you aren't much of a partier?" Gerard asked trying to make conversation.

"Well, Ray invited me over to meet some of the people around here. I'm moving into this dorm building soon. I was going to try and talk to some of the people around her but I haven't had much luck until now since... well..." Frank used his arms to gesture towards the room full of drunken people. Gerard chuckled slightly at the scene that laid out in front of him.

"Yeah I can understand that. I can tell you a bit about everyone here I guess. Ray is chill, as I'm sure you know by now. He's got a sense of humor and he's a neat guy once you get to know him. Jimmy is also pretty cool. He wears a lot of wacky outfits, but that's just his personality. He's fun to hang out with. Pete is annoying but he's annoying in a funny way. Corey is an angry little bastard but he's a really cool guy if you get to know him. Mikey is a bit awkward at times but he's one of the nicest guys I know, he's my brother by the way. Bert is also really cool. A lot of people don't like him for some reason, but they just judge him wrong. He's actually an amazing person. I don't know much about the rest of the guys, but the ones I do know about have a lot of fun here."

Frank nodded. "What about you?"

"Hmm?" Gerard was a little taken aback by the question. No one ever asked about him before, because no one ever really cared.

"What are you like?" Frank repeated.

"Oh um... well for starters, I don't talk about myself often." Gerard nervously laughed as he thought of what to say. "Well I'm a visual arts student, that's something I guess. I don't have many friends but the ones I do have are cool. I like to listen to rock music in my spare time, or while I'm drawing. Those are a few things. Oh, and my names Gerard. I forgot to mention that... sorry."

Frank's smile grew a bit wider. Gerard began to suspect that Frank was actually interested in what he had to say, which was a rare occurrence for most people. "That's pretty interesting, Gerard. My name is Frank."

"Well then how about you, Frank? I'd love to hear some things about yourself." Gerard turned the question around.

"I'm a music student. I play guitar currently, and I try to sing when I can. I listen to rock music as well, it's my favorite genre of music, if you couldn't tell." He pointed to his blink-182 shirt. "But yeah, that's pretty much it."

Gerard nodded. He could tell that Frank had good music taste, considering blink-182 was a pretty damn good band. He found himself wanting to become friends with Frank. He always wanted a friend who had the same musical interests as him, that way they could have meaningless long conversations about bands. Gerard's thoughts were interrupted when a realization dawned on him.

"Ah shit," he mumbled under his breath. He turned to face the door of the room he was originally in, and found it to be closed and locked.

"What's wrong?" Frank asked.

"I left my damn art bag in there, and lord knows what these sick fucks are doing to it." Gerard laughed a tad bit, but he didn't want to admit that he was genuinely worried about his art bag. He began banging on the door, hoping that someone could hear him. "HEY YOU STUPID BITCHES, GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE AND OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"

Frank started laughing hard at the way Gerard was calling out for his friends. When no one came to the door, Gerard started knocking louder and shaking the door, which only made Frank's laughter increase.

"RAY, PETE, MIKEY, LINDSEY, FRANCES, I KNOW YOU'RE ALL IN THERE BECAUSE YOU AREN'T OUT HERE! NOW ONE OF YOU FUCKING IMBECILES BETTER GET YOURSELF OVER HERE OR I WILL KNOCK THIS FUCKING DOOR DOWN!" Still no one came, and Gerard looked over at Frank. "Stay here for a second, I'm getting something."

Gerard walked down the hall to his dorm and walked inside. He immediately went over to his drawers and began searching through the top one. "Aha!" He smiled in victory as he retrieved a Bobby pin and closed the drawer.

He walked back down the hallway and eventually reached the same door he was outside originally. He began toying with the lock, moving the Bobby pin around until the slots clicked into place. He had quite a lot of experience with doing this, especially since he often left his key inside his dorm when he first moved to the college.

When the lock finally came loose, he was able to turn the doorknob and open the door. He strutted inside and scoffed when he saw Ray, Pete, Mikey, Lindsey, and Frances gathered in a circle around a beer bottle on the floor. "Spin the bottle? What are you guys, fucking middle schoolers?" Gerard laughed.

Frank was practically dying at this point, and Gerard was a bit concerned that he would suffocate from laughter.

"Gee... you should join us it's so much fun..." Pete tried to say excitedly. It didn't work too well however, because all of his words slurred at the end. He was definitely wasted.

"No thanks Pete, I just came in here to retrieve my art bag and then I'll be on my way." Gerard walked towards the chair he was last sitting in and grabbed his art supplies before walking out the door and looking back at his friends while saying, "use protection when you try to fuck my brother, Pete." Gerard smirked.

Mikey gasped a bit and started to protest, but before he could, Gerard simply added, "Shut the fuck up Mikey, everyone knows you're a bottom." He then left the room finally, closing the door behind him.

At this point, Frank was wiping tears off his face as he tried to calm down his laughter. Gerard was pretty proud that he made someone laugh that much. He swung his bag over his shoulder, and patted Frank on the back trying to help him calm down.

"You okay, Frank?"

"You... you fucking destroyed him dude!" Frank laughed one more time before finally stopping and just smiling.

"Yeah well, I tend to have that type of effect on people. Anyway, this party doesn't seem to be getting any more exciting from here so I'm just going to go back to my room. Wanna come with me? We could watch a movie or something."

Frank nodded and smiled. "Sure, that sounds fun."

The two retreated back to Gerard's room and Frank sat down on Gerard's bed while Gerard put his things away. He set his art bag down on the table and unpacked all his supplies, placing them in the appropriate drawers. He soon got out his laptop and sat down on the bed next to Frank, opening Netflix.
"So what do you want to watch?"

"Hmm..." Frank thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, I don't really care. Just as long as it's not some children's shit that makes me want to gauge my eyes out."

Gerard nodded and scrolled through Netflix before selecting 'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.'

"What the fuck Gerard? Jimmy Neutron, seriously?" Frank laughed.

"Oh shut up Frank, don't act like you don't secretly enjoy it." Gerard smiled at Frank. "Ok but in all seriousness, opinions on Carl Wheezer?"

Frank laughed some more before answering Gerard, the movie still playing in the background. "I'm not sure, he's got a weird thing going on for Jimmy's mom though."

Gerard paused before he started singing. "Jimmy's mom has got it going on, she's all I want and I've waited for so long."

Frank instantly smiled at the Fountains of Wayne reference and continued the song. "Jimmy can't you see, you're just not the guy for me. I know it might be wrong but I'm in love with Jimmy's mom."

The two of them bursted into laughter and soon continued watching the movie after that. It was nice to Gerard, you know, actually having a friend for once. He never got to do things like this with anyone else he knew.

It was getting late and the movie had ended by this point. Frank was too tired to go back to his room, so Gerard offered him some pajamas to sleep in so he could stay in his room for the night. Gerard changed into his in his room, while Frank changed in the bathroom.

When they both got done, Gerard couldn't help but laugh a little at the way that Gerard's clothes were too big for Frank. Frank didn't seem to mind though.

They ended up sitting in Gerard's bed talking for what seemed like hours about a bunch of random topics. Eventually however, they fell asleep.

Frank's head rested on Gerard's shoulder, and Gerard's head rested on top of Frank's.