Next Generation Chapter 1
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.