Chapter Five

"Mr. Alan." A high voice reached Alan's ears as the subtle dullness of sleep washed away. "Mr. Alan, are you with us?" Alan lifted his heavy head as he blinked away the brightening light that clawed at his eyes. "Good morning, welcome back!" Alan looked up at the teacher that stood above his desk. Gleaming down at him with a smile of mixed feelings. The whole class was looking at him as he slightly sat up, clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." Alan mumbled as he stared up at the teacher that looked almost happy. Her height was different from most women, she was tall and heavy at the same time, she wore a very bright pink dress that almost blinded him. She looked like the happiest person ever to exist. "It won't happen again."

"Oh, I know." She chuckled. "I don't let new students slip through the cracks because they think they're invincible. This will be strike one for this week, if you get to strike two I will send you to detention." Her smile was bright but her words were dagger.

Alan nodded as he swallowed air that seemed to be stuck in his throat. She turned away from him as she began to speak to the class about history once again like nothing happened. No one laughed at Alan for falling asleep, but Alan felt people glances as he slouched on his desk once more. Over 40 students were in his class, all of them were a mix of religion and color, maybe even age. But that didn't bother Alan, what bothered him was the side glances they didn't even try to hide.

After a couple minutes of pretending to not feel their eyes, Alan finally glanced back at the group of kids. There were around five of them, each giving Alan a glance once in a while. Alan recognized Max as he raised his eyebrows at Alan with a smirk on his face. The boy sitting next to him was Anthony who's eyes showed that he was laughing at Alan without his voice. Then MayMay, Alan paused as they made eye contact. She at first didn't do anything, and neither did Alan. But as they held eye contact longer, she half smiled at him before looking away.

The class lasted around 50 minutes, but all Alan got out of it was a short nap and some embarrassment issues. When the bell rang, it was like angels singing in heaven. Kids lurched up from their seats like an unsaid race was happening to the door. The slower ones were the ones in groups, specifically Max's group being the last. But as Alan packed his things slower then the rest in the class as the teacher, Mrs. Perry walked out, Max appeared.

"Alan, how was your nap?" Max stepped up next to him as he zipped his backpack up.

"Could have been better if it lasted long." Alan joked, hoping to lighten his embarrassment.

"I bet, but you got the wrong class to be sleeping in, dawg." Anthony was the one who spoke as he lifted his arm over Max's shoulder. " Science class is the best nap time, granted you'll fail but the teacher doesn't care what you do."

"What's your next class?" Max cut off Anthony as he shrugged Anthony's arms off his shoulder.

"It's English class." MayMay was the one to cut Alan off first. Everyone looked at her in question, scared how she learned such information. "I saw it when I walked in, he was looking at it."

"Aw shoot, bro." Anthony hollered as he clapped his hands. "Cody can take you there, he's great at English too."

"Cody?" Alan questioned.

"Yeah, he's one of our buddy's." Max chirped. "He's totally cool, you'll like him."

"Speaking of which." MayMay mumbled as she glanced at the opening door. Two tall boys walked into the room, laughing as one of them told a joke. They both looked similar in their structure except one was taller and almost matched MayMay except for being a boy and his black hair was shorter. The other one looked average with a little more meat, his Asian structure proved wrong as large muscles balanced out his baby cheeks.

"Anthony!" The Asian boy almost screamed as he dabbed his friend up with a complicated handshake. "Did you read that book I sent you?"

"Yeah bro, it was dope." Anthony greeted the boy's handshake with his own before giving him a slight hug. "Alan, this is Cody." Anthony squeezed Cody's shoulder as he introduced him to Alan. "And this is Brandon, MayMay's older brother."

Brandon nodded as he gave Alan a slight 'sup' before siding next to MayMay and started talking to her in a quiet tone. Alan looked at Max, but something seemed off as he stared daggers into Anthony who still had Cody close to his side. Alan stared longer but then glanced away when he felt MayMay staring at him, her eyebrows raised as she too glanced at Cody and Max.

'Jealousy.' She mouthed. Alan nodded as he too raised his eyebrows in shock at the silent glares from Max.

"Alan is new here and his next class is English, I was hoping you could show him the ropes." Anthony spoke differently to Cody than Max, more jokingly rather than stern. Friction could be seen from a mile away if they wanted too.

"Sure bro, I can even introduce you to some of my friends." Cody smiled as he fixed his glasses. "Some of them are hot so you might be lucky enough to get into a relationship by the end of the year." Laughter broke out, Cody being rather the clown of the group.

"Thanks," Alan slightly smiled, feeling misplaced in a group of friends. "What grade are you in?" Alan murmured as he tried to get along with everyone.

"10th grade, but since I love English I got to skip a year of it." Cody smiled proudly.

"That's cool." Alan felt this seizing pain in his chest of expanding un comfort as Cody kept speaking about himself. Maybe it's because Alan felt the discomfort from Max and since he knew him he sided with him on how he felt about Cody. But there was a chance that maybe it was just Cody and how he spoke, sometimes it's just like that in life.

"It's 2 minutes till the next bell goes off." MayMay was the one to speak over Cody as he blabbered on, even Anthony seemed tired of Cody.

"Why is everyone just standing around?" Another boy had stepped into the empty class as the first warning bell went off.

"White, is this your next class?" Max was the first one to jump up from his slight sitting position on the desk and begin to get ready to leave.

"Um yeah, we go to the same highschool and you don't know my classes? I share half of them with you, dwatt." White furrowed his eyebrows as he asked honestly.

"I just forgot, that's all. We all better scramble so we can make it to our next classes." Max jumped up and grabbed MayMay as he bolted out the door, MayMay in toe as an unwilling participant.

"Let's go, new kid." Cody Detached from Anthony's side as he too re adjusted his backpack and left with a slight nod, looking dazed and unsure of the past couple of minutes. "Cody slung his arm over Alan's shoulder but once Alan moved away with a slight jerk, Cody got the message that they wouldn't be buddy buddy as he hoped.

"So," Alan wanted to know what he and Max's relationship was, and why Anthony was the sore thumb in the middle of it. "Are you not good friends with Max?" The halls of the school was filled to the brim of running kids to the next class, but all Cody did was glide through them like he had all day.

"Oh, me and Max?" His voice was tinted with a slight strain as he cleared his throat. "We just don't get along, that's all. We work fine in the court though."

"The court?" Alan asked as he ran through sports that required a court in his head. He honestly looked like a dweeb in Alan's offense, nothing much of an athlete stuck out to Alan like most who play sports.

"Yeah, all of us are on the basketball team. You should try it, Your height would be killer on the court." Cody laughed slightly as he explained how he knew everyone.

"All of them play?" Alan's disbelief rang as they entered one more class until lunch, hoping that time would zoom by.

"Well," Cody sat down in a chair further to the back of the class as students gathered for seating. "Most do, MayMay doesn't and Max refuses half the time. Plus we are down a man this year, but we are still really good." Cody's voice got higher as he spoke of Max's lack of playing, but the rest was rather interesting. "You should try it, I think you would be good."

"Sure." Alan laughed. The thought of playing on a team, or even playing at all made Alan cringe physically like cockroaches were crawling on his back and didn't stop. "Sure." He repeated as he sat down across from Cody. "Sure."