New Beginning

"I can run." he replied calmly, steeling himself. There'd be no panic this time, no shocks, no traps, just running to a destination. He could do that.

James sighed and shifted the weight of his backpack again, trying to keep it mroe balanced.

"Alright, let's go."

He broke into a sprint, or what he'd consider a sprint. It was probably more like fast jogging, really. His breathing soon was coming in short, quick gasps again and the blond had to push himself to keep up the steady pace. They really weren't too far away from school now, only about a block's length away. He could already see the side entrance and the large gate surrounding the place.

But Justin was running fairly easily, now that he wasn't being tugged along. Something about not being in control of his body, it made him panic...

He nearly came to passing James several times, but held back, as to not upset him.

James slowed to a walk as they entered the gates, panting heavily. He ignored the stares and eyerolls of the other students as they slowly crowded into the main school building. He looked at his watch and grinned.

"The first bell just rung, we made it!"

He held out a hand to Justin for a high five. It had been interesting, that time three months ago when James had to explain the purpose of high fives when Justin had just stared at him blankly...

Justin looked at the hand for a moment of blatant confusion, before suddenly remembering what he was supposed to do.

"Yeah, you go, dude..." he said awkwardly, reaching up to slap the hand, but with his hand at the wrong angle, so it looked more like a swipe. He frowned and furrowed his brow.

"I did that wrong, huh."

James laughed and nodded as he began heading for their first class.

"Yeah, that was pretty terrible. But everyone has to start somewhere." He pulled open a door and held it for Justin.

"¡A la clase española vamos!"

Justin froze.

He still wasn't very used to Spanish. Any other language was fine, he knew, like, eight or ten, just not this one.

"Ah...¿Acaso tiene alguna casa?"

James blinked.

"...Perhaps it has some house? ...What?"

He gave a small chuckle and darted through the crowd, heading for the stairs. He checked to make sure Justin was keeping up.

"I... I think I was trying to say something about homework..." Justin bit his lip. Yeah, he could speak the original Spanish, but none of that Hispanic stuff. It wasn't even very different, it just... was.

He sighed and followed James.

"I wish we had French... or Russian... or anything not Hispanic..." he grumbled, allowing himself a rare moment of complaint.

James shrugged as they reached the top of the stairs and turned down a hall, threading carefully through the flood of students rushing to their classes.

"I'm as likely to use French or Russian as I am Spanish, so it doesn't really matter to me. I just need the stupid credits."

He glanced at Justin.

"I mean it's great to know other languages, I just really don't see myself needing that kind of knowledge later on, so I feel like it's kind of a waste of time."

"I already know French and Russian." he said, not quite realizing how annoyed his tone became. "It'd be an easy A and I wouldn't be going to a class that makes me feel like a god damn idiot!"

He stopped short, startling himself with the pitch of his angered voice.

"I... I'm sorry..." He bit his lip. "I didn't mean to yell."

James raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should be more worried or amused. He settled for a little of both.

"Hey, it's fine. I can help you with the vocabulary words as we learn them. You can't be perfect at everything, having an A that's slightly below a 100 isn't going to kill you."

He stopped at the door of their classroom and pulled it open.

"If it's any consolation, you can do trigonometry like it's fifth grade math."

"But it was fifth grade..." Justin mumbled darkly, following the blond into the class room.

(-cracks up- -shot-)

James rolled his eyes good naturedly and walked down a row of desks, plopping down in his seat and setting his backpack next to it. The classroom was about halfway filled by now, with stragglers still coming in, chattering loudly as they found their seats.

Senora Valdez walked to the front of the room with her usual cheerful smile, waving her whiteboard marker like a wand.

"¡Buena mañana cada uno! Siéntese, siéntese, nosotros tienen una hora de diversión a comenzar."

James sighed. Babbling in Spanish wasn't his definition of fun by any means.

And poor Justin was a deer in the headlights.

...

He seriously didn't understand Spanish.

"Uh... What did she just say?" he halting asked James, growing quickly upset with himself for not knowing. If the doctors were here, he'd be given so much rehabilitation.

"Sitting, right?"

(pfff that was the teacher talking to the class silly person GO FIX YOUR REPLY -shot-)

(FIXED IT)

James nodded, replying quietly, "She basically said good morning and to sit because she has a fun class planned for us. So basically we're screwed today."

Senore Valdez's head whipped to the two boys and she raised an eyebrow.

"¿Usted tiene gusto de compartir su conversación con la clase, James? Estoy seguro que todos conseguiríamos algunas ventajas educativas maravillosas de su discusión privada."

James shook his head quickly.

"No, ningún que no es Senora necesario Valdez. Seremos reservados, yo lo sentimos."

"Espero sinceramente así pues, Sr. Larson," she replied curtly before turning back to the rest of the snickering class.

James let out a slow sigh of relief. Senora Valdez loved to pick on talking students. She didn't just embarass them in front of the entire class. Oh no. On bad days, she would stand them up in front of the class, shove the lesson plan book at them, and make them teach the day's lesson. She would sit at her desk and begin grading papers, not even looking up to see if the unfortunate miscreant was pronouncing words correctly. Everyone suffered on those days.

He had suffered through that fate twice already, both times resulting from helping the idiots who decided to ask him for help while the teacher was still talking.

Justin practically shriveled under her stare, not wanting to draw any further attention to himself. He really, really didn't like this, having the entire class stare at him. And when she addressed the, his mind went to his most familiar language, which unfortunately wasn't Spanish.

"D-desole, Mm. Valdez. Il ne se reproduira pas."

Damn French.

The teacher quirked an eyebrow at him then turned back to the class, continuing on as if she hadn't heard the timid apology. James gave a small sigh of relief. She could have eaten Justin out for speaking french in her class, instead she had let it go. She seemed to have a soft spot for Justin, which was a mixed blessing.

Still, whatever helped.

He leaned back in his seat, listening as the teacher began explaining their warm-up activity. Everyone had to get up and find someone in the classroom that they didn't sit by and hold a three minute conversation with them, completely in Spanish, with no notes.

Shit... James didn't want to leave Justin to such a fate, what if he was stuck with one of the assholes who enjoyed shoving people into walls simply because they could and their victims were too weak to fight back?! What if he were stuck with one of the gossips, and by the end of the day everyone would be talking about how he and Justin shared and room and were sort of brothers but not? What if he were stuck with one of those Mexican kids who used the class to text and then would talk to him in nothing but profanities and innuendos and Justin wouldn't understand a word of it!?
He gritted his teeth and stood, looking to Justin to determine his reaction.

Justin jumped at the jumpy movement from the blond in front of him. He honestly had no idea what was going on. The teacher had said something and suddenly everyone was moving and James had this look on his face and Justin just didn't get it.

"W-what?" he stammered timidly, not sure what to do with his hands as hey moved around like the erratic jerks of someone suffering from a God damn seizure.

"We have to hold a three minute conversation with someone who sits elsewhere in the classroom completely in Spanish, no notes," James hissed quickly under his breath, looking away in the hopes that maybe, just maybe she hadn't hea-

"Mr. Larson I hope you know that you are not going to get away with that. You must find someone on the other side of the room, not right next to you."

The fact that she had said it in English gave away that she was quite pointedly talking to Justin. James growled under his breath and made his way to the other side of the room, glaring at the only other person who didn't have a partner. A dirty blonde with skin tight clothes and a gaunt face. Her limbs were elongated sticks and her face was gaunt and almost haggard, though the excessive makeup masked it a little.

James blinked. He hadn't realized that Alexis was in this class...

The girl rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention back to Justin, clearly intending to ignore the blond.

Justin didn't follow this either.

Suddenly, James wasn't beside him, he felt alone, and all he felt were eyes trained on him.

Freagin creepy.

After thirty seconds of waiting for Alexis to acknowledge him or at least take her eyes off Justin, James waved a hand in front of her face. Justin looked freaked out enough with the small handful of gossips already staring at him and smirking, Alexis staring wasn't helping.

"So are you just going to give us both zeroes for the warmup? You know Senora Valdez will get pissed if she sees we aren't...You're not listening are you?" James stared at Alexis grimly, waiting for some sign that she knew he wasn't invisible other than that first glare when he had sat down next to her.

After another few seconds, she turned her head a fraction of an inch. Still not taking her eyes off Justin, Alexis discreety raised her middle finger at James, then turned away and yawned, resting her head on that same hand.

Maybe it would be better to let her take her chances with the Nightmares. No way in hell do I want to get a symbol of her etched onto my body.

He shuddered slightly, turning away from the girl to keep an eye out for the teacher. She was in the middle of the classroom, listening to a conversation between two other unlucky souls. She didn't appear to be noticing that he and Alexis weren't conversing, at least she hadn't noticed yet. James looked for Justin, and saw that he hadn't moved from his desk and looked like a lost puppy trying to find its way home.

The blond looked at the clock on the wall and grimaced. Two more minutes of this hell.

Justin made an uncomfortable face and looked around the room, completely at a loss of what to do. Honestly, he wouldn't want to speak Spanish with him either. He sucked. Any other language and he'd rule the conversation, but not with Spanish.

He looked over to James and saw he was with Alexis. The girl they were supposed to talk to.

He sighed.

And then did everything he could to try and ignore the way that she was basically undressing him with her eyes. Very uncomfortable and extremely inappropriate.

Enfer, he hated this class.