Jaren's POV

I could tell that Luke was slightly angry at me for acting like I was weirded out by them.

If only he knew.

I let out a soft sigh as I trail behind him to our next class, occasionally asking him a question here and there.

"Hey, Jaren?" Luke asks, spieling down to walk beside me.

"Yeah?" I reply, watching him closely.

"Are... Are you homophobic? You said you weren't used to it, but, are you homophobic?" He asks. I bite my lip and stare down at the ground as we walk.

"No, I'm not homophobic." I finally answer and I feel the tension break away at last.

"Oh, ok. You just didn't see a lot of homosexual stuff where you're from?" He asks, causing me to hum slightly.

"Being gay where I'm from is pretty much a death wish." I reply, awkwardly looking down at my feet as we walk. "If the kids don't get to you, the adults will." I add, causing Luke to make a disgusted noise.

"Your parents like that?" He asks, glancing over at me.

"Eri and Joshua aren't like that at all." I say to him, shaking my head with a soft smile.

"You call your parents by their first name?" He asks, giving me a weird look.

"Adoptive parents." I say, causing him to nod his head in understanding. "We have math now, right?" I ask, changing the subject.

"Yep. And the teacher is literally the devil." He says, sighing softly.

"Great." I grumble, walking through the door he held open for me.

"Luke!" Some guy called from up the back. I glance over and see some of his friends from home room and some new ones.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to the boys." He says, tugging on my arm.

I nervously follow him and I greet everyone there.

Tyler, a dude with short cut brown hair and a quite muscular build is the first to greet me.

Then the dude beside him, Craig, greets me. He has fluffy hair and some glasses that seem to slide down his nose every once in a while. He's very cute.

These a kid named Marcel, he has dark skin and an electric smile that could make anyone swoon for him.

And then there is Brian. Brian has this bad boy look to him, one ear is pierced, he's got a black stud in at the moment, and he's casually shewing gum.

And he's totally checking me out.

He doesn't hide it either.

"So this little twinks the new guy?" Brian slurs, a thick Irish accent hanging off every word.

"Brian! Don't call him a twink." Craig gasps our, slapping the Irishman on the shoulder.

Marcel, Tyler and Luke all laugh at this and shake their heads.

"Don't let Brock catch you checking him out." Marcel says to Brian, poking his arm.

"Pfft, I'm not checking him out. I was just... Taking in his appearance." The guy says.

"Is everyone gay here or something?" I ask Luke, causing him to give me a 'duh' look.

"And you aren't? My gaydar is going crazy on you." Tyler points out, shrugging his shoulders. I find my face heating up and I quickly change the topic.

"Gaydar? That's not a thing." I say, causing all of them to laugh.

"Yeah it is, every gay guy has one." Marcel jumps in, leaning forwards on his elbows.

I scoff and sit down in front of them, turning to talk every once and a while.

I find myself glancing around the room and I smile when I notice Cameron in the back corner with three other guys.

It's like Cameron can feel my gaze because he stops talking and meets my eyes.

Cameron waves like a maniac, causing his friends to turn and look at me.

I wave back and I hear Brian scoff.

"Don't hang out with Cameron and his drug dealer friends, they're bad news." Brian says, leaning forward to talk to me.

"Drug dealers?" I ask sceptically, rolling my eyes.

"They do drugs and they sell 'em. That makes them dealers." Marcel pitches in, glancing over at them. "They are also notorious for throwing parties that end up with the police crashing them. They're your typical bad boys." Marcel adds, glancing at me.

"Yeah, don't fool around with them dude." Luke says. I remember what Cameron has said earlier, and it makes me wonder if this is all really the truth or not.

Cameron and Mason seemed really nice!

And so what if they do drugs? It's probably not anything bad, probably just weed.

Maybe these guys have issues with each other, I don't know.

This is why it sucks to be the new kid sometimes.

Luke was right though, the math teacher was actual aids.

The first thing he did was hand out a pop quiz on Trigonometry.

Like, kill me now.

He gave us twenty minutes to answer ten questions and then he went over the answers. I got two right.

It's reasonable to say that I suck at math.

"How the fuck are you so smart?" Tyler asks Craig, who got a perfect score.

"I pay attention." He replies, all of us laughing slightly at that, only to be yelled at by the teacher.

Just then, the door swung open and in walked the calmest looking dude ever.

"Mr. Keyes, why are you late?" The teacher asks, ready to scold him.

"No reason." The boy replies, heading over to the back of the class where Cameron is.

"That right there is the biggest ass of them all." Luke says, seemingly aggravated by his mere presence.

"John Keyes." Craig mumbles. This tiny little nerd even despised him, so it appears.

"You're acting like he's a walking plague." I say, rolling my eyes at them.

"He's a player, he's a jerk and for some damn reason, everyone likes him." Tyler growls, shaking his head.

"I beg to differ." I state, motioning towards them all.

"Well, besides our group." Marcel says, sighing slightly.

I glance over at him and I can totally see it.

He's leant back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest as he absent-mindedly chats away with Cameron and his friends.

He has his nails painted black, an electric blue hoodie wrapped around his waist and an arrangement of rings placed on his fingers.

His hair is bleached blonde and fluffy, Dulles up in a partial ponytail, but his hair isn't that long. His hair looks poofy. It's cute.

He's got black jeans on and a plain maroon coloured shirt on, that would usually be hidden under his hoodie.

And then I see his shoes.

Maroon coloured boots that complete his look and drive me crazy. I can see why people would like him, he's hot, got a good fashion sense and had that bad boy vibe to him.

Call me crazy, but I think I'm falling for him.

"Earth to shorty." Luke says, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Don't call me short or I'll kill you." I state, looking over at him. The boys all laugh and shake their head at my threat, causing me to smile softly at them.

These guys are pretty cool, I have to admit.

Not gonna lie, they're all pretty hot as well.

Marcel is definitely the hottest so far, in my opinion.

His brown skin and chocolate eyes could turn anyone gay. He has well defined muscles and I can only imagine the abs now.

Oh I'm a sucker for abs.

He's got light pink lips and pearly white teeth, and shirt black hair.

He's beautiful.

Brian comes in close second though.

He's got short-ish brown hair, and a wicked smile as well.

I might be a sucker for bad boys, because all three of them (John, Marcel And Brian) give off some serious bad boy vibes.

"Hey so, if you're sitting with us at lunch, just beware of Lui. He's a hugger." Luke says to me, causing the others to fake shudder.

I chuckle slightly and nod my head before finally returning my attention to the teacher.

Luckily, math class flies by, and soon enough we are walking to the last class before lunch.

Unfortunately, it's gym.

"You good at sports?" Luke asks as we enter the change rooms.

"I'm pretty fast and I used to play hockey, but I'm better at gymnastics and flexible stuff." I reply honestly, rubbing my hands together nervously.

I pull my hoodie off over my head, revealing my grey shirt underneath.

I put my bag in my temporary locker and pull out the shorts I had packed, Luke doing the same as we talk.

"Me, Jonathan and Tyler are on the football team. Evan and Marcel are on the soccer team, Lui is on the running squad and... Scotty is on the cheer team." Luke says, as if he's trying to remember everything.

"Who's Scotty?" I ask, pulling off my sweatpants and pulling on my shorts.

"Oh, he's Marcel's boyfriend." Luke replies.

Jesus. They really are all gay.

"Do you guys get bullied?" I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

"For being gay? Hell no. Some people give us disgusted looks, but no one says shit." Luke replies, shrugging his shoulders.

"You guys would be dead if you went to my old school." I say, staring into my locker as I remember the last time I got beaten up.

I subconsciously rub my side, wincing slightly at the memory.

"Not very friendly people, huh?" Luke asks, smiling slightly.

"Definitely not to faggots." I reply.

Luke tenses up and I quickly realise my mistake. He doesn't know I'm gay and he thinks I'm slightly homophobic.

And I just pretty much called him and his friends faggots.

Guilt and fear wash over me and I quickly slam my locker and walk away from him, heading out into the gym as quickly as I could.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Why would I say that?

I'm such a moron. I bet he hates my guts now.

My eyes drift over to Cameron who is waiting on the bleachers for his friends. I find myself walking over to him and greeting him with a small wave.

"Hey Jaren! How's your day been so far?" He asks as I sit beside him.

"Pretty good." I reply, my thoughts still on my slip up with Luke. "Although I think Luke hates me." I mumble to him.

"Why?" Cameron asks, and so I tell him what I said.

"I didn't mean it like that though, y'know?" I finish off, looking down at my shoes.

"Jaren, you're not from around here and where you were from, that's what you heard people call homosexuals. It's obvious you didn't mean it, don't worry." Cameron says, patting my back lightly.

"He looked so angry." I whisper, looking over at Cameron.

"Well, you can chill with me for the rest of sport then, ok?" He replies, slinging an arm over my shoulders.

My eyes drift over to Luke and I notice that Jonathan is standing next to him.

I didn't realise Jonathan was in this class.

And they both look pissed.

Oh goddddddd.

"Hey Cam, is this the new kid?" I hear someone ask. I turn my attention towards this cute guy in a pink hoodie walking over to us.

"Yeah, you not participating again, Toby?" Cameron asks, putting his arm around the guys shoulder when he sits down.

"No way. You're so cute!" Toby replies, turning to me and holding his hand out. "Nice to meet you!" He says, and I notice his accent is similar to Cameron's.

"New Zealander?" I ask and he nods his head, grinning at me. "I'm Jaren, nice to meet you." I introduce, shaking his hand.

The coach eventually walks out and calls everyone up, he introduces himself to me and then proceeds to tell the class what's happening.

I let my eyes drift over to Luke and I see that he still looks mad, but he isn't looking at me.

How do I manage to piss people off so easily?

"Hey Jaren, Come here." Cameron calls out. I head over to where he's standing and he grins and throws an arm around my shoulders. "Be my partner, short stuff?" He asks.

I mentally cringe at our height difference and nod my head, scolding him for calling me short.

We spilt up into pairs and do warm ups, that includes stretching.

I do my old gymnastics warm-up drills and I find Cameron staring at me with wide eyes.

"What?" I ask, holing my leg up above my head for a few seconds.

"You're so flexible!" He whisper yells.

"Yeah..?" I question, not really understanding his surprise. We continue to stretch after that, Cameron saying that he now feels self conscious around me because of his lack of flexibility.

I simply laugh at him, amused by his amazement.

"Alright! Two teams, leader one will be Carlos and leader two will be Jonathan. We're playing a game of basketball." The coach says, and soon the two boys are picking teammates.

Carlos picks Cameron first and Jonathan picks Luke.

They continue to pick people, Carlos picking me about halfway in.

"Can you play?" Cameron asks me, grinning slightly.

"Yeah, but I'm not great." I reply, shrugging my shoulders.

"At least it's not football."

"Amen." I reply.

||.:.||