Warren sat with Connor and a couple of other scholarship students during lunch.
It was at a table a little tucked out of the way, where most people probably wouldn't notice them. The only reason Alex did was that Warren wasn't sitting at theirs or with his old group of friends. He scanned the room until he found them. Alex didn't know the names of the two girls with them, but he recognized them from the party. The four of them looked at ease, like any regular kids at a lunch table. Alex hoped Warren knew that his choices that day were something meaningful too.
Since Jack was next to Eloise during art, Alex took his old spot next to Warren. He mentioned seeing where he sat at lunch, and Warren almost looked bashful.
"Connor and I have a few common interests," he muttered. "Poetry and music, stuff like that. He was kind enough to invite me when I mentioned I was angry with the others."
"Yeah? Glad that worked out. He seemed like a nice guy."
"He is. And I'm not a little kid who needs to follow around his cousin anymore. Isaac made his choices. I need to commit to my own."
"Have you talked to him yet? He looked worried about you this morning."
"We have English together. He tried to apologize, but he wanted me to just forget about what Andrew and the girls did. 'They were just joking around. Can't you get over it?'." Warren shook his head. "Great for him that he can do that so easily, but not me. Besides, you were right. I never fit in with them; I never even really liked them that much. I was just anxious about messing with the status quo. And I never had a reason to, you know? Never felt like there was a better place to go."
"Yeah," Alex said. "I get that."
"You and Jack can join us if you want. Connor mentioned he hung out with Jack at the party. He thinks he's funny."
"Thanks. I'll think about it. Revive a bit of Jack's social life."
Alex and Warren chatted a bit, but Alex couldn't help but miss sitting next to Eloise. She gave him a small smile when she entered, but he was trying his best to not look in her direction during class. He did a couple of times and felt a twinge of satisfaction mixed with regret when he saw Eloise and Jack having a good time. Alex knew if he could tell his younger self he would one day want to be like more Jack, he would have called him crazy. But it was true. He wanted to be as brave as him. As social. As easygoing. They may have been thrown together because the Farrows thought Jack needed a babysitter, but didn't it turn out the other way around? Jack wasn't entirely joking when he said Alex wouldn't last long without him. But Alex couldn't be relying on him forever. He was going to have to figure out how to stand up for himself eventually.
Shape up soon, mate, AJ said. He's got better things to do than babysit you all the time.
Alex had been trying not to think about PE all day, but that had the side effect of causing all his repressed panic to flood in on the walkover.
"Relax, dude," Jack said, bumping him on the shoulder. "I'm sure they won't kill you on sight."
Alex almost laughed at how easily Jack could read what he was worried about. Who he was worried about. "I haven't spoken to Matthew since Saturday night," Alex muttered. He never told Jack exactly how that conversation went.
"I don't think you need to take his disposition as personally as you do."
Oh, I think he means it personally, AJ said.
"You and Ellie had fun, last class?" Alex said to change the subject.
"Yeah. I like her a lot. She's still making her mind up on me, I think."
"You are a bit of acquired taste. Give it... seven years. She'll come around by then, probably."
"Seven... Wait, is that how long it took you to like me?"
"About."
"I thought it was five. We've been friends since you were eleven!" Alex stared at him. "Remember? When I punched you? It was a pivotal moment in our relationship."
"Eh. Took me a couple of years after that to come around."
"Wow. Guess I'll have to push back our fifth anniversary. I had some good shit planned too."
"Uh-huh."
When the two walked into the locker room, there was a small cluster of boys by the chalkboard. Mr Sanders was standing next to it, fielding questions from some of the boys.
"-just tried to keep it balanced," Sanders was saying. Alex craned his neck once they were closer to reading the chalkboard. Sanders had divided up the class into four teams for football, and most of the boys were voicing regular complaints. Being separated from friends. Being stuck with bad players. Having to participate at all. "Anyone who really can't tolerate their lot can feel free to just run laps for the whole hour."
"Whose team are we on?" Jack asked after he failed to see the board while standing on his toes.
"You're blue," Alex said. "But I'm red."
"Wow, Sanders. Why do you hate friendship?"
"Shut it, Farrow."
Alex felt his blood go cold when he saw who was on his team. He waited for some of the other boys to clear out before he shuffled his way up to Mr Sanders. "Sir," he said in a small voice. "Could I talk to you about my team?"
Sanders glanced at the team lists and sighed. "Look, I know you two have some problems," he said, "but I think it could be good for you both to be on the same side in something. Even if it's just a silly football match."
"I think being a bad football teammate would just give him another reason to hate me."
Sanders fought back a smirk. "You're not as bad as you think you are, Conrad. But if you're so worried, you can just run. Alright?"
"Alright."
"Hey Sandy," Jack interjected once he got a chance to see his full team. "Why did you put me on the crappy team? Argent can't shoot for shit!"
"Balance, Farrow. Balance. Go get dressed already."
Alex dragged Jack away before he could start an argument. That didn't stop him from complaining to Alex, though. "And Tanner, too? Balance, my ass. I'm the only decent player on my team. And what the hell is he thinking? Putting you and Montoya together?"
"Maybe he's right," Alex said, mostly trying to convince himself. "Maybe we just need a common goal."
"Uh-huh. I think maybe you should just run in circles today."
Alex didn't respond to that; he just sighed and pulled out his things to get changed. As he sat down on a bench to lace up his trainers, he noticed Matthew and Emilio enter. They went straight to their lockers, and it wasn't long before Samuel Argent abandoned his spot gossiping with friends and approached them.
"Hey Montoya," he said, those two words sounding malicious coming out of his mouth. "I'm surprised to see you here. I would have expected you to take the day off. What with the ordeal you went through on Saturday."
Emilio muttered an insult in Spanish and moved like he was about to hit Argent. Argent looked panicked for a second, but Matthew held up a hand and Emilio backed off. Though he didn't look too pleased about it.
"Thanks for your concern," Matthew said, his tone sincere in a way that made it clear his intention was not, "but I'm fine now."
Argent leaned in closer to Matthew, who looked like he wanted to back away but didn't. Argent lowered his voice to a whisper. But even with his shit hearing, Alex could hear him as clearly as if he was speaking into a microphone.
"I heard Greene got you to keep your mouth shut the old-fashioned way. Can I ask how much he gave you?"
"I don't see why that's your business."
"Well, I was hoping to make a business proposition, is all." Argent reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a wad of money. He flicked out three or four fifty-pound notes. "What'll it cost for me to get a crack at you then? Two hundred? Maybe three?" Argent held out the whole bundle. "Maybe I can give you the whole lot to get an even better shot in than Greene? A crack at breaking a bone, maybe? I'll even spare you some trouble and pick your non-dominant hand."
Matthew was staring right into Argent's face with steely eyes, but his hand was clenched into a shaky fist. Alex wasn't sure if he was about to throw a punch or run away. He didn't get a chance to do either, though. Because as soon as Argent had the nerve to take out his money, Alex felt himself heating the air around him. When Argent offered the whole lot, and Alex saw his smug grin and Matthew's shaking hand, he felt a sharp pain in the centre of his forehead. Like a rubber band was snapping against the inside of his skull. Before he could stop himself his right eye combusted, and so did Argent's wad of money.
"Fuck!" he shouted, as both he and Matthew jumped back from the sudden bonfire in his hands. Argent dropped the smouldering notes on the ground and shook out his probably singed fingertips. Matthew quickly stomped on the papers to put out the fire. Argent snapped his head to glare at Alex. As if it wasn't obvious enough that he was responsible, being the only fire wyvern in the room, his eye was still on fire.
"What the hell?" Argent demanded as Alex put a panicked hand over the right side of his face. "What was that for, Conrad?"
"The hell do you think, Argent?" Jack said, standing in between the two.
Argent still looked confused, but before he could shout anything else, Sanders stuck his head around the corner.
"The hell is going on over here?"
"Nothing, sir," several boys, including Jack and Argent, said. Sanders didn't look like he was even close to believing them, but instead of calling them out, he glared at Argent and a couple of his friends.
"Why are you all just standing around? Half of you aren't even dressed yet! I've not got all day, hurry up!"
Argent and his friends went off while still giving Alex dirty looks. But he wasn't looking at them. He was looking at the floor, his hand still over his now flame-free eye. He moved it and looked up in time to see Matthew pick up the remains of the burned money and throw it in a nearby bin.
"I can handle myself, Conrad," he said as he passed by to get back to his locker.
"Hey, I think the words you're looking for are 'thank you', jackass," Jack said. Matthew glared at him, but it looked half-hearted.
"It's fine, Jack," Alex muttered, getting up and rushing out of the locker room. He felt Jack following close behind him.
"Hey, are you alright?" Jack asked, stopping him once they were outside by putting a hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex shrugged him off, half afraid he was going to combust again.
"I'm fine," Alex lied. The most obvious lie he had ever told in his life.
"Hey. Don't feel bad about that. Argent had it coming. It was the right thing to do, taking him down a peg."
Alex swallowed hard as his stomach felt like it was twisting. "I didn't mean to do it, Jack," he confessed. "It was an accident. I haven't messed up that badly since primary school. I- I can't be doing things like that on accident. I could have- What if I had-"
"It's okay, Al. You didn't hurt anyone. They're both fine. Maybe you had more control than you realized. Maybe it was just your better half poking through again."
Hear that? AJ chimed in. If Alex could, he would set him on fire too. I'm better than you.
"Oh, shut it, you sod!" Alex shouted without thinking. Jack held his hands up as he had just been snapped at by a dog.
"Sorry," Alex said before Jack could comment. "I wasn't... talking to you."
"Okay," Jack said, probably because he wasn't sure what else to do.
"I'm gonna... I'm going to take up Sanders on that running alternative."
"Okay."
"I- I'm fine. Promise."
Jack didn't say 'okay' to that. He just looked at Alex with scrunched eyebrows and a frown that said, 'I know that's not true, but I'm letting you have this one'. For now, at least. So, he just nodded and went off to play with his shitty football team.
After he was thirty minutes into his self-inflicted circular hell, Sanders waved Alex over to where he was supervising the football matches on the pitch. The boys were all wearing coloured mesh jerseys to distinguish themselves. Half the pitch held a match between Red and Green, while the other half was Blue and Yellow. Alex instinctively found Jack playing goalie for his team, in the middle of punting the ball towards the other goal. Then he glanced at the other game, and without thinking searched for Matthew. He was easy to find since he was the one who had possession of the ball. He was dribbling it towards Green's defenders and expertly wove around them. Once he was clear he shot it towards their goal, and it whizzed past the goalie's fingertips and into the top left corner of the net.
"5-1 Red," Sanders announced as Alex reached him. The boys in Green groaned.
"When do we get a mercy-ruling coach?" One of the green players shouted. "That's the third one in five minutes!"
"Since when is there mercy in football? Here, Conrad." Sanders paused in berating the losers to hand Alex a bottle of chilled water. "Take a break, no need for you to collapse out there. Shame you abandoned a winning team, though."
"They would be less likely to win if I was out there," Alex said after taking a drink. Now that he had stopped running his legs felt like gelatin, and he realized he was a lot more dehydrated than he thought.
"Eh. Montoya's more of a one-man team anyways. Oh, there he goes again." Matthew stole the ball from a green player, but instead of trying to shoot, he passed to a boy named Edward. The other team saw an opportunity in getting to contend with someone other than Matthew and swarmed him. They stole the ball away, and in the process sent Edward tumbling to the ground. Alex winced when he saw the angle he landed at, and Edward himself let out an expletive and brought his knee up to his chest.
"Damn it, Oscar!" he shouted. "What the hell was that for?"
"Sorry, Ed," one of the boys in green said, helping him to his feet. Edward tried to put weight on the knee he had cradled but faltered. He would have fallen again if Oscar hadn't caught him.
"Bring him over here," Sanders said, pointing to a metal bench on the sideline. As Edward hobbled over with Oscar's help, Sanders looked at Alex. "Willing to sub in?"
"I think they'd be better off being a man down," Alex muttered.
"Conrad would count as a mercy rule," Oscar joked.
"Shut it, Kent."
"It's fine. He's right."
Sanders rolled his eyes and picked up a red jersey from the pile next to his feet. "Go on," he said, tossing it to Alex. "Go be a good teammate and help them out."
Alex thought about pushing back before sighing and tossing the jersey over his head. Edward had been playing a forward, but his classmates seemed to think that would be a bad idea for Alex. One of the boys playing defender took Edward's place so Alex could take his. Matthew didn't seem to notice he was even there, and the game picked up quickly. At first, Alex didn't have to do much, because Matthew mostly kept the ball on the other team's side. But after a few more minutes he must have been getting tired or bored. He started to let his teammates have possession of the ball most of the time, only keeping it for a few seconds before handing it off to someone else. He wouldn't even try to steal it from Green players that often. His change in tactic along with Alex's poor defense skills meant it wasn't long before the two teams were tied.
"Come on, Red!" Sanders shouted. "You shouldn't be relying on one player to do all the work for you!"
Now that the boys in Green had a shot at actually winning, they played a bit more aggressively. Matthew started stealing the ball again, but he kept trying to pass it off right away. The other boys weren't as good at keeping it away from their opponents. Especially from Oscar. He stole it within a couple seconds of Matthew passing it to another boy and came barreling towards the goal Alex was supposed to be defending. Alex tried to stop him, but all he accomplished was tripping over his own feet. He fell backwards onto the ground, barely breaking his fall with his hands. Oscar chuckled as he ran past and made an easy winning goal. Mr Sanders trilled his whistle one last time.
"Green wins," he announced. "By the stupidest miracle, I've ever seen."
It was the boys in red's turn to groan as the green players celebrated their victory. Alex managed to bring himself to a sitting position as Oscar ran past him again.
"Thanks for the assist, Conrad," he said as his teammates laughed.
"Any time," Alex muttered, not getting up right away. At least sports culture seemed to supersede that 'special treatment' Conrad privilege. Though it was the one place where maybe he wouldn't mind it so much.
Alex was contemplating staying there and staring at the scuff marks on his trainers for the rest of his life, when he saw the shadow of an outstretched hand reaching towards him. He thought it was going to be Jack, coming over from his own finished game, but when he looked up the hand was brown and had calloused fingertips. Alex raised his gaze slightly to see it was Matthew, looking down at him with an unreadable expression.
Alex just stared at him as he stared back, unmoving. He thought maybe Matthew would get tired of waiting and leave. Rescind the offer. But he didn't. He just stood and stared and waited, his outstretched hand never even shaking. Alex finally reached and took it, and Matthew pulled him to his feet so quickly it was more disorienting than the fall.
"Thank you," Alex managed to get out once he was sure he wasn't going to fall again. But he wasn't sure if Matthew had heard him. The second Alex was on his feet he had let go of his hand and was walking back to the locker room. Alex stared after him and vaguely registered Jack walking up behind him.
"Was that progress I saw?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"I think..." Alex started before shaking his head. "I think he was just being a good teammate."
"Maybe. Maybe he was finally saying thank you for what you did back with Argent."
"Maybe."
"You want to talk about that yet?" Alex didn't say anything. "I'll drop it if you want me to."
"... I'm starting to scare myself, Jack," Alex whispered. And he was. With more than just his spontaneous combustion, it was probably best if he didn't unload every concerning habit he'd been developing for the past few months. For the past few years. For his whole life. "It's bad enough when I'm only affecting myself, but to torch something else..."
"Maybe you should schedule a session with Dr. Bayer."
"But my family-"
"Have her on their payroll for a reason. And don't even need to know if you go."
"She won't contact them?"
"Only if she feels like she needs to. Or if she wants to give you a prescription."
"Are you still on yours?"
"Not the suppressants. Her other techniques worked better for me. My mom's thinking about putting my sister on them, though. She got into a screaming match with a kid at school last week and accidentally sent out a lightning strike that hit the school's main powerline."
"That's concerning."
"I don't know how well she'd do with taking them. I doubt she'll like the way they make you feel. And if she gets any of the side effects... Plus those things are the size of peach pits and that girl still needs to take chewable baby aspirin."
"Conrad! Farrow!" Sanders suddenly shouted, and Alex realized they were the only two still out on the pitch. "Hurry up! I'm not covering for you if you're late to class!"
"Oh no," Jack said in a sarcastic voice even though. he was hurrying back to the locker room. "I might miss Professor Munn's beginning of class tangential lecture. Whatever will I do?"
"If you're late you'll just make her launch into her importance of punctuality lecture too."
"Shit. You're right. Hey, I smell decent enough to not have to shower, right?" Jack tried to shove his arm into Alex's face for a sniff test and he almost gagged.
"Christ," Alex said, running away from him. "If that's what your forearm smells like, I do not want to know what the rest of you smells like."
"Oh, come on! It's not that bad!" Jack chased after him while Coach Sanders watched with an expression that was half amusement, half disappointment.
"I suppose there's some comfort in the fact that the stupidity of teenage boys transcends social class," Alex heard him mutter as Jack was still trying to get him to smell his sweaty armpit.