Andrew, The New Kid

“I can’t find anything worth shit”, I grunted, scrolling through my phone. For the upcoming school paper, we were supposed to write a horror story and have it prepared for submission to the newspaper club, Knightly Knews, for the October edition. Our teacher, being a big internet junkie, told us to take the creepiest things we could find on the internet for inspiration, be it pictures, videos, or other stories (plagiarism would result in an immediate class failure). “Oli, what did you pick?”


“Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabell Lee. What if her spirit didn’t remember him? And every night he came to lie with her, she was confused and enraged by the man who took such care of her but wasn’t Edgar? And the whole time she’s like ‘where’s my Eddie?!’” Oli wailed, doing a physical interpretation of his decision. I snickered.


“It’s just like you to be a romantic and write about long forgotten love”, I smiled. “Yo, Biersack. What’re you picking?”


Andy, who still hadn’t recovered from our afternoon the other day, looked up sheepishly. Every time I spoke to him, he’d turn bright pink, an ugly blush that clashed with his white flesh and dark features. “Um, Jeff the Killer, I guess”, he shrugged.


“Lame!” Oli sang. “Please be more original. Fucking noob.”


“How is Jeff lame?”


“Nothing about his story makes any logical sense. 13 fucking years old and cutting off his eye lids? Just surviving burns, physical trauma, and external bleeding?” I giggled. I leaned closer to Andy, as I was his Berlin Wall from Oli, and grabbed his phone. He was on a creepypasta index. “Let’s see, shall we?” I murmured, moving my thumb over his screen. Andy shoulder tensed up a little under me which I found almost funny. “The Skinwalker”, I stated. “That’s your inspiration. Read it. Love it. Mind fuck.”


“You didn’t even read it”, Andy said quietly. “What’s so special about this title-”


“It’s not the title”, I informed. “I’ve read it. And I want to see what you can do with such a twist.”


Oli laughed. “This is Felix’s way of figuring out what kind of creepy you’re into and whether or not it’s suitable to her interests.”


“Andy can have his own creep-o-meter”, I snickered. “You like Hellraiser. I like The Girl Next Door.”


“That sounds like porn”, Andy scoffed.


I stared at him and he stopped. “Softcore gore porn based on a true story”, I said dryly. “That reminds me, Oli, the Bunny Game?”


“Got it”, he replied.


“The Bunny Game?” Andy wondered.


I grinned at him. “Every weekend Oli and I have Banned-Movie-Night! We watch movies that were banned in different places for different things. This weekend is the Bunny Game. Care to join us?”


“What’s so bad about it?”


“Graphic depictions of sexual and physical assault”, I shrugged. “But if it’s not the Human Centipede, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be good.”


“Centipede makes everything look good”, Oli smiled, taking his hand away from his notebook. He leaned back in his seat. “Andy, we haven’t talked much. What do you like?”


“Religion”, Andy said truthfully. “It’s weird to me the way people let it rule their lives when it makes so little sense.”


“And that’s what I like about paganism”, I interrupted. “A good portion of it is just about being in touch with the spirit world and the living world. Stuff that’s around you.”


“I thought paganism was dead”, Andy admitted.


“This one will tell you otherwise”, Oli smirked, ruffling my hair. I rushed to fix it as the bell was about to ring.


“Time to go”, I sighed. On cue, the bell rang. Oli shoved his books lazily into his messenger bag as I carefully stacked mine into a self made messenger bag that featured the Tactical Sekt logo. I’d decided today was a lazy day and went with a cyber military goth look, earning me weird stares from the preps. I saw nothing wrong with military jackets or combat boots. Maybe it was the messy bun. Goths aren’t supposed to have messy buns, are they? We got up to leave and walked to our classes. Chemistry was my only one I didn’t share with Oliver (possibly because I’d failed and had to retake the class). Andy had the class too but sat with Ashley who made it a point to look at me with a look that said he picked me because he has good taste. I told him Andy just felt bad that he didn’t have any real friends.


I sat with a country bumpkin named Lindsey who was nice. She never met a stranger and was easily the star of our track team. “That Andy boy keeps looking over”, she whispered in her Texas accent. “Maybe he’s lookin’ to court ya.”


“I’m not interested”, I answered.


“He’s cute”, she giggled shrilly.


“Yeah, but I’m not looking.”


Lindsey let go of the conversation but I knew it was only a matter of time before she’d start bringing up boys again. It was kind of her thing. Flirting was part of her “heritage” and proudly told everyone one of her ancestors had been a local legend amongst brothels in her home town. We were stuck working on something about the way food colouring goes through water at different temperatures, nothing special. I got up and went to go grab the food colouring we’d need from the class cabinet where Ashley stopped me.


“You made me miss my first period”, he muttered, stepping on my foot. “And what the fuck’s with that get up?”


“You missed your first period. It’s not on me.”


“What about that stupid look you gave me the other day?”


“You said you didn’t believe in the evil eye, remember?”


Ashley frowned. “You should make it up to me”, he purred.


I feigned a look of thought. “Really?” I asked sarcastically. “Because I owe you so much right? Please, enlighten me on the ways I can end my excommunication from the Temple of Purdy!”


“Date night”, Ashley suggested. “I mean, Andy told me all about your smooch-”


“No, he didn’t.”


“So you did kiss him!” Ashley smirked. “I’m going to a party at Jake’s this weekend. Come with me and I won’t make Andy’s life Hell.”


“What do you mean?” I asked. “The kid hasn’t done anything to you?”


“He got to kiss you. And he’s only known you since the first day of senior year. How long have I known you? The entire fucking time you’ve been here. What gives?”


I stared. Was he seriously this stupid? “I don’t know man, probably because you’re dick.”


“Maybe I’m a dick because you won’t give a dude a chance.”


“I told you the first time, I’m not looking. I wasn’t looking then and I’m not now.”


Ashley held up two fists and began counting on his fingers. “Daniel. Megan. Sara. Richie. Blaine. The Giovonni twins. Lacy-”


“I get it”, I hissed. “But they were pretty alright compared to-”


“Just a date to the party and I don’t ruin Andy”, Ashley whispered, smiling. “You can’t tell me it’s not obvious that he has a thing for you.”


“No he doesn’t”, I argued. “I just tried being nice to him and it seems to be working for him.”


“Sure you did. Just go or I’ll-”


“What?”


“I have my methods.” I thought for a moment. He did have methods. I knew that much due to a few accidents we’d had in previous years. “You’re smart, Felix. And you have a soft spot for noobs. Remember when I conned you into teaching me that stupid ass nerd game, Guild Battles?”


“Guild Wars”, I corrected.


“Just do it for Andy.”


“For Andy”, I repeated, putting emphasis on it. I glanced across the room and saw the new kid was too busy scribbling down answers on a work sheet from the text book. “But just the party. Just for Andy. This isn’t for you.”


“Always working for the underdog”, Ashley grinned. “I’ll come pick you up at seven on Saturday.”


“But Saturday is me and Oli’s movie night-”


“You need to drop Oliver. He’s a fucking vegan prick. Tell him you’re sick.”


“Purdy.”


“Andy”, Ashley reminded me. “You’re doing this for Andy.”


I growled and ripped three bottles out of the cabinet. “Only for Andy”, I said, marching off. I walked back to Lindsey and forced myself to smile at her and follow along with her talk of boys until the end of class while we worked on our stupid project.

Notes

Hopefully the spacing takes. I hate unspaced stories buuut something happened on Google docs and it just didn't look right to me. Anyway... :)