the new gods

2: love

thump

At approximately the same time, in a separate dorm room just two stories lower and about the length of twenty rooms to the east, a different boy's alarm clock was making the soft thumping sound that all alarm clocks in the Kingdom of Doom make.

thump

Goddamn it. Jarex didn't want to wake up. Yesterday was hard enough. He had had a crap week so far, and he was sure today would not be an exception. He didn't think he had even finished all his homework the previous night. I'll do it in the morning, he had previously thought. Homework was the last thing he wanted to do now. He didn't want to face another day in the Academy of Doom, where the schoolwork was impossible and every stupid kid in the grade made a big freaking deal out of every little thing. They should have called it the Academy of Drama. Or the Academy of Crap, he thought bitterly.

thump

Fine then! He would get up! Stupid goddamn alarm clock, wouldn't it just shut up? Angrily, he slammed his fist on the alarm clock, causing it to cease its thumping. Jarex hated life here, and he just wanted out. Out of this freaking Academy. Life was just a pile of crap anyway, who cares if he didn't finish his homework? None of his stupid little actions here in the Kingdom of Doom would ever change anything.

Thinking about this in the morning made him tired.

There's nothing I can do, he said to himself. Time to face another day.

His eyes skimmed around his room, a familiar sight to him. There were posters all over the walls, mostly of his favorite bands. All were dark with violent blood splatters and men in black clothes on them. My Fever Rising, As I Impale the Sky, Agony of Fate, Bleeding Flowers, Death To the Skeleton Horde, Black Embodiment, Kill the Soul, etc. On one far section of his wall, the wallpaper had almost fully peeled off, and people attending parties there had taken to writing some inappropriate comments in the blank space. On his floor, books, papers, CDs, were strewn around in a chaotic mess.

Looking at the time on the clock, he realized that the previous night he had set his alarm to the latest possible hour that he could wake up, and that now he had to hurry up and get downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast. He got up, went over to his closet, and pulled on a piece of clothing, not really caring what it was. It was pretty tight, he had to pull a little to get it on, which made him somewhat mad. He then took out a pair of dark-colored jeans, which he pulled onto his legs. These were also pretty tight. At first he thought that he needed to get looser clothing, then he realized that this was a conscious choice, as these clothes showed off his great figure, which the girls loved.

His eyes turned to the mirror, just as Edward had done about a half-hour before. He looked pathetic. His thin bony face was weary, and he had dark bags under his normally piercing, but now half shut eyes. The dark black hair on his forehead was messed up, not straight and smooth as he liked it. The shirt he had thrown on was actually very small for him, and it was just a black shirt with a gray image advertising some band he had seen live a couple years ago that he no longer cared about. He snatched the comb off of his dresser and frantically ran it through his hair, trying to smooth it down. When it was an acceptable level of straightness, he flopped it over one eye and grabbed his bulky backpack from the floor. Screw the homework, he could do it in study hall. Wait, dammit. He didn't have a study hall today. Oh, well, he could probably do it in the back of his third period class. The teacher was an idiot, he wouldn't notice.

He rushed out the door and turned his dorm key in his lock, hoping he would reach the cafeteria in time to maybe grab a muffin before his first period class.

* * * * *

As it turned out, he wasn't that late for breakfast. He had time to get a decent meal in before the school day started. Patting down his hair, which was strewn around his face from sprinting down the corridors, he grabbed a tray from the stack and got in line. The cafeteria was pleasantly decorated, it looked just like a restaurant with booths to sit in, tables for four people, three people, and two people, and in the evenings it was dimly lit to make for a relaxing (and sometimes romantic) atmosphere. Jarex had certainly taken advantage of this romantic atmosphere on occasion. Maybe he'd get some action this night. But first he had to survive all his boring, depressing, and stupid classes today.

After receiving some pancakes, a muffin, and some juice, he sat down at a booth in a corner of the cafeteria. As soon as he had put his tray down, three girls came over and sat next to him. He grinned. I like where this is going. "Hey, Jarex," one giggled as she sat down and slid up close right next to him. This one had long, fiery hair that fell down to her shoulder, and bright eyes.

"Hey," he said as he flipped his hair to one side. From experience, he knew that the girls loved that. Sure enough, they all giggled again, and the redhead slid closer to him on the booth, squeezing him against the wall. Oh yeah. She had a great figure that she was pressing up against him. Keep it relaxed, he reminded himself. Another girl, this one a tall (and curvy) blond, leaned her arms on the table where Jarex's pancake rested.

"Mr. Faverbro got really mad at you fourth period yesterday! It was so cool how you told him off!" When she saw Jarex give a sly grin to her, the redhead to his side gasped.

"Aren't you going to like, get in trouble or something? Mr. Faverbro is so..." Jarex slowly shook his head.

"Fuck him, he's an asshole," he said perfectly audibly to the rest of the cafeteria, reducing the girls into more gasps and giggles. But Jarex just played it cool, pretending like nothing had happened. This is working well, he told himself.

This was a regular scene, something that happened every day. Some thought that he was just irresistible to the ladies somehow. But he knew that that wasn't right. It was his carefully calculated attitude and smooth talking. Contrary to what people thought, it took a lot of smarts to get the girls. It was just something he had picked up a while ago, that came in very useful.

He looked at the third girl, standing next to the blond one. This one was shorter, with dark brown hair and bangs that hung over her also dark brown eyes. Not as pretty as the other two, but not ugly either. She was more shy, hadn't said a word yet. The girl blushed when Jarex looked at her, and so he just flashed her a grin, then went back to chatting to the redhead that was unafraid to get in close proximity to him. "What does your shirt say...?" she began to inquire, turning her head to the side. Jarex looked down at the shirt he had thrown on. "Murder Our Heroes". Seeing her confused expression, he continued, "It's a band." She nodded. "Ah."

"What are they, some sort of screamo?" the blond perched on the edge of the table asked, somewhat sarcastically .

"Not, really. They're more of a... post-hardcore emo hybrid," he explained, showing off his vast knowledge of depressed kid music. `

"That sounds interesting," the dark brown haired one spoke up, in a crappy attempt at flirting with him.

"It is," he explained with one of his trademark grins.

He glanced over at the clock. "I gotta get to first period." Turning his attention to the red-haired one next to him, he said politely, "Move, and I'll see you later." She obediently got up, and Jarex swung his backpack out of the seat and placed it on his shoulders. With a last smile directed toward the trio of girls, he walked away. A he exited the room, he sensed that a bunch of other boys were glaring at him from other, but he was used to it. He just cooly walked out of the cafeteria and to his first period class.

The classes at the Academy of Doom weren't like the classes at normal schools. In your average public school, you would take a math class, a science class, an english class, a history class, and possibly a foreign language class. There might be an art class or a technology class thrown in there too. It wasn't like that here. In first period, the first period teacher taught the students whatever he felt like. Sometimes he would assign the class to read a book, and make them do an essay on it. Or maybe he would teach them about how the government system in ancient societies had failed, and why other governments might work better. It was a total grab bag, you never knew what you were going to get.

Still, some teachers had a tendency to teach certain things. In Jarex's third period class, the teacher was into politics. Most of what he did was showing the class how governments in the past worked, the flaws in current governments, and he often asked the students to make their own perfect governments as a project. In fourth period, the teacher taught higher-level math and physics, that could be applied to the scientific world. All the teachers were like this.

* * * * *

First period that day was uneventful, and very boring. After chatting with two different girls that the unfortunate teacher had placed him next to, he was relocated to a corner of the room away from any other student, but where the teacher could easily see him. He spent the class doodling on his binder. Second period was annoying, and the teacher gave so much homework it physically exhausted Jarex just thinking about it. Then in the third class, the completely oblivious teacher actually noticed that Jarex was doing his homework in the back of the class, and went into a long lecture about how cheating was unacceptable and he would report Jarex to the principal of the school. The teacher never acted on his threats, but it still worried Jarex slightly. Five minutes later, he was busy talking to a really nice and somewhat pretty girl who was of a strange ethnicity and had a bluish tinge to her skin, probably from some planet that Jarex wasn't from. (What was her name? Kara? Kala? Something like that.) But the teacher noticed this, and gave Jarex another long and unfortunate lecture, which led all the guys that hated him snickering at him behind his back. By the end of three periods, Jarex was in a crappy mood. It was just as he had predicted it, this day was another terrible day in a terrible week.

As he walked down the hallway, he saw someone walk down the hallway from the other direction.

Oh, shit.

It was his girlfriend.

At first he wanted to hide behind a locker, but that would be foolish.

It wasn't that he didn't like his girlfriend. She was pretty freaking hot. It was that he was tired, he was stressed out, he was in a crappy mood, and talking to her was the last thing he wanted to do. Come on, Jarex, he thought. Just do your thing, make her love you like the other girls do. He took a deep breath, and walked up to her. "Hey, Sellara," he casually said, with a flick of his hair.

"Hi, Jarex," she said, somewhat indecisively, as if she was trying to decide whether to flirt with him or to tell him off. She had skin the color of copper, and beautiful brown eyes. He rather hoped she was attempting the first one.

"See you tonight," he told her, and then started to casually walk away.

"Wait!" she exclaimed, placing her hand on his shoulder. He swiveled around. "Can you stop... like, flirting with all those other girls? I mean, we are going out, aren't we? It's kind of annoying." Shit. Now what was he supposed to say?

"Hey, you know I really love you. I don't flirt with them, they flirt with me. I wish they wouldn't, but... you know." He shrugged and began to walk away for a second time.

"Well tell them to stop!" she exclaimed, to Jarex's surprise. Sellara rarely lost her cool.

"Alright. That's what I'll try," he smoothly told her.

"Oh, come on, Jarex!" she pouted. "You... you know, I'm getting tired of this. Can we just... can we just be friends?"

Fuck.

The day had gone from bad to even worse. Now that he thought about it, Sellara wasn't just hot, she was really hot. And of course, ninety-nine percent of the time, the girl had no intent on being "just friends".

He casually played it off as if that was fine with him. "Alright, then. Friends is cool. See you around."

As Sellara walked away, a swarm of girls ran up to Jarex, who was still standing dumbstruck in the middle of the hallway.

"Oh my god! Did Sellara break up with you? That's so sad!" one said, although she was clearly ecstatic about it.

"Yeah, well, you know. She was such a whore. I'm kind of glad she's gone," he denounced.

"Oh my god!" the girl repeated, and ran off to tell someone else the juicy gossip.

* * * * *

Somehow, he managed to survive another incredibly boring period with one of his least favorite teachers of all time, and then it was lunch. He was kind of hungry now, and he rushed to get to lunch early. As he got his food and took a seat at a booth, the same redheaded girl from breakfast sat her tray down next to him, and slid into the booth next to him. "Hey there, Jarex," she said.

Jarex gave a slight nod of the head, and went to his food. She was pretty hot, wasn't she? Maybe not as much as Sellara, but yeah, she was hot. He might as well.

"Hey, you know what? Let's go out sometime," he said, looking her straight in her eyes.

The girl looked awed for a second, and then a smile came to her face. "Sure, why not?"

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