page 4

[green]

“Hey, it's Frank, right?” Mikey asks.

Frank smiles and nods. He holds up the map. “Looking for the office.”

“Need some help?” Mikey asks.

“Sure, if you want to.”

Mikey looks at the map and points. “We're here right now,” he says. “So all you have to do is follow this hall down and take a left.”

“Oh, I see,” Frank says, smiling wider. “I was turned around a little.”

“Want me to walk you there?” Mikey asks, because first day or no, he hates math.

Frank raises his eyebrows. “Sure,” he says, and they start walking in that direction.

“Lemme ask you something,” Mikey starts to say, but Frank cuts in.

“Yeah, it's a real tattoo,” he says, and lifts his sleeve to show Mikey. “This summer I got it and one other. A friend's brother had the right equipment and responded well to bribery.”

Mikey's intrigued. He wants to ask where the other tattoo is, wants to see it, too, but he doesn't say anything else.

“What's your name?” Frank asks.

Oops. “Mikey Way,” Mikey says. “And the ink is cool.”

“Yeah?” Frank says, and grins. “I like your eyeliner.”

That makes Mikey actually smile. He knows he doesn't smile often, because people always crack jokes about it. But Frank doesn't, he just grins wider.

“Some guys can't pull it off,” Frank says.

“I'm special,” Mikey says in a monotone.

Frank laughs, and then they're at the office. “Want to come in with me?”

“Sure,” Mikey says. “I'll be your moral support.”

It takes some persuasion of the administration that yes, Frank is supposed to actually go to this school, but finally he gets a schedule. By this time, Mikey's already missed Algebra and it's halfway through Biology.

Mikey doesn't have a pass, so he gets a stern talking to by the office staff. Mikey shrugs it off, but he really does have to go.

“Maybe I'll see you at lunch?” Frank asks hopefully.

“Maybe?” Mikey says in reply. “If I see you, sure.”

Frank gives him another smile and waves him off.

Classes go by pretty fast, and soon it's lunch time.


page 6 go smoke in the boy's room
page 7 look for Gerard
page 8 go to the lunch room