Gary followed after Barry and his father who were leading down the winding corridors. Barry was giving a practiced tour of the school, guiding Gary's father and highlighting the few positives of the school. Barry had a sort of enchanting way of spinning any aspects of their school into a positive. Wayward students? SummerVille High values individuality and rewards students that use their initiative. It was sort of interesting listening to what he said about the school, of course none of it was true, it was clear that he practiced this and gave every visitor pretty much the same speech. Barry lurked back a little as Gary's father studied the school's large gym.
"Liking the tour, Sheffield?" Barry asked, coming over to Gary's side and leaning his arm on Gary's shoulder. Gary pushed him off rolling his eyes and Barry smirked, placing his arm on Gary again. "You think that would work?" He sneered grinning, keeping his eyes on Gary's father the whole time.
"Why are you doing this?" Gary asked turning to Barry, frowning. He knew there must be something that Barry wanted. There always was.
Barry smiled. "Cuz of my sunny personality." He answered, causing Gary to roll his eyes again. Why had he actually expected a proper answer? It was Barry he was talking to. He never gave straight answers. There was always some kind of trick or ulterior motive to deal with.
"Really?" He muttered sarcastically, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "I've literally never seen this 'sunny personality'" he added. Gary sighed realising that this was going no where. He turned back to his father, seeing him pick up a basket ball, test it's resistance and then throw it through the hoop with ease. Gary's eyes widened slightly, he had no idea that his father could play basketball, let alone well!
"Look. You need help having fake friends, I need to be a good Head boy. It's that easy." Barry answered, his voice was serious and quiet, not letting the walls echo his voice. For some reason, Gary didn't quite believe that being a good head boy was the reason for Barry going to all this effort to help him. It seemed too simple. What did Barry want?
Before Gary could ask if that was really the case, his father came back over to the two of them. "Are you two friends then?" The mayor asked, gesturing to Barry's arm, which was still leaning on Gary's shoulder. Gary opened and closed his mouth several times, not wanting to lie to his father and say yes since he knew that Barry would tell his father the truth.
"Yeah, Gary's got a lot of friends here, too bad that there's exams going on today so they can't be here, right Gary?" Barry bluffed, removing his arm from Gary's shoulder to hit him playfully. Gary winced at the impact. Yep, Barry was mad. He was also lying through his teeth. Why was he doing this? How could it benefit him in any way?
"Yep," Gary nervously chuckled, "exams, too bad." He agreed nervously. Gary's father frowned and studied Gary and then studied Barry a little more closely. Barry didn't even flinch he was too confident to back down, even from the Mayor of Sheffield apparently.
"So if you're the head boy, where is the head girl? I would've thought that the school would have organised for both of you to come and meet me." Jacob frowned, staring at Barry as if questioning his authority. The school didn't even know you were coming! Gary thought, internally making fun of his father. Then the thought hit him. Head girl. That was the Aimes. And if his father saw her she'd be locked away in prison for the rest of her life. His skin paled as he realised this. Rainbow was in trouble.
It seemed like Barry had realised this as well as he seemed slightly taken aback by the question. "Well, the head girl doesn't give the school tours, due to health reasons, so she's normally busy undertaking other important work. Today she's in exams all day though, but otherwise you could have met her." Barry explained. So that was why Rainbow didn't give the tours like Barry did then. Health reasons. Gary wondered what health reason could prevent her from giving tours, but then again the rest of the explanation had been a lie so why would that be true? "She's incredibly intelligent and she and Gary seem to get along quite well, if you know what I mean!" Barry continued adding a wink at the end and nudging Gary playfully. So that was what this was about. Rainbow.
"W-what! Don't say it like that! We're not even friends!" Gary exclaimed, worried that his father wouldn't approve of him dating anyone other than a suitor. Plus, he had to cover his back now that he knew what Barry was getting at.
"Oh, really?" Barry commented sarcastically. "You're totally just acquaintances!" The sentence was so sarcastic you could practically see the sarcasm coming out of Barry's mouth. Gary frowned at Barry's teasing. Why was Barry setting it up like he and the Aimes were dating? Especially when Barry specifically told him to stay away from her and not even speak to her. Maybe it was because he knew that he could get to Gary by using the Aimes. Barry knew how to play people and it scared him a little. He was worried that he was getting Rainbow into situations just because Barry knew he could target her to get at Gary.
The bell rang above them, it was lunch time. "Well, it's lunch time, would you like to come and see our school cafeteria?" Barry asked, holding his arm out in the direction of the door. Gary's father left the room and suddenly Barry pinned Gary to the wall by his throat. Gary lifted his arms to Barry's trying to push him off. "Want to know what I want Sheffield? Stay. Away. From. Rainbow." Barry threatened, gripping Gary tighter as he started to struggle more. "And then I won't make fun of you in front of your father." He smiled, letting go of Gary and leaving the room to join Jacob. Gary gasped, struggling to get the air into his lungs. It looked like his friendship with the Aimes was going to have to be put on hold. At least for now.