THE Idiots

Right now you're the only reason / I'M NOT LETTING GO
found out not everyone's worth pleasing... / well HA HA
you'll trigger a landslide / kill off their finite state of mind.

- Paramore

In a high school where the entire student body has a flair for the dramatics and were all total idiots, only one is different. The one abnormailty outcasted more than anyone. The one girl who mattered. But no one cared about her, this girl who sat alone in the corner, wearing all black everyday, writing in that little black notebook. She wasn’t wild, she didn’t dress to kill, and she didn’t care. She flipped off anyone that came near her. Her thick exterior was only fought through by her brother and her best friend. Her crush may as well have ignored her very existence. And she didn’t do anything about that overwhelming power the boy had over her, the boy she couldn’t stop thinking about.

The popular clique ignored her, so the rest of the school followed suit. She couldn’t do shit about it. All the teachers had this thing about how her depression was “a negative state of mind” and how being shy “would never get her through life.” But she ignored it all. But for some strange reason, when I saw her at my band’s gig, I didn’t know what to think. The guys in my band were jeering at her, like she was some piece of shit off the street.

She ignored them. I could tell she could give a shit about whether those fuckers liked her or not.

I’m Eric Shearer, resident rocker at my high shit school. You've probably heard of my new step brother, Danny. I’m not one of those popular idiots who think they can rock out; I’m true to my music. I’ve never kissed a girl, but I sure as hell have asked girls out. Mostly, I got no’s, but it never stopped me. Nothing will. My friends say I'm the walking definition of determination, and I guess that's true. Maybe that’s why I never gave a second thought to the girl before that night. She never got in my way before that night, and I had half a mind to kick her out of the place for flipping my band mates off.

Yeah, I did. “Loyalty” is not just a word to me, it’s a lifestyle. So then I walked over to set the chick straight.

My only thought?

Hopefully, I’ll never see her face again.

PERVERTS ARE NOT ONE OF A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

“Fuck off, will ya?” Hailey Gibson told the band that had just played some freaking awesome music onstage. She’d followed them for a while now, but now that these idiots recognized her from school and were giving her some crazy shit, she didn’t think she would anymore. I just wish people like them would go to hell and never come back, she though hopelessly. Like they would get a record deal with their attitude to people. Well, what if Will was the guy they were trying to get signed on with? Maybe in all his gayness he'd pick them up for a ride and go bi for a minute or two for her...

“Aw hon, can’t we stay witchu a bit longer?” The drummer asked. “You look good ‘nough to eat.”

Hailey raised her eyebrow at the drummer. “See, the thing is, if we did eat each other, I’m pretty sure I’d vomit. If you weren’t dead by then.” Hailey winced at her somewhat lame comeback.

“Baby why you gotta be like that?” The bassist slurred on his words. Wasted, Hailey thought. Totally wasted.

“First off, if you're gonna talk to me, at least use proper English. Second, I 'gotta be like that' because you guys are acting like real idiots,” Hailey informed them in a bored tone. She started to push past them, dusting off her pants and picking up her little black notebook. God, they all sucked. “Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get going--”

“No, you're not going anywhere, bitch.” The bassist grabbed her by the arm. She stared at him coldly, dead in the eye. Exactly how long would it take to gouge this bastard's eye out?

Hailey spat viciously, “Let me go you frigging motherfucker.” She struggled against his pull, but it was no use. He was twice her size.

He grinned. “I don't think I qualify as a motherfucker—unless you happen to have kids of course.”

Hailey gaped. “I'm barely fifteen, you bastard rocker.”

“That's never stopped me.”

Hailey sniffed. “Why don't you take your whore of a self and your band mate to the insane asylum and leave me the hell alone, asshole?”

And then the singer-guitarist came forward. “Who are you to call one of my best friends an asshole, bitch?”

WANNA BE KICKED OUT OR WORN OUT?

The girl twisted and turned to see that Eric had decided to join the party. “And who are you to call me a bitch?”

He glared at her. Bitch. “You are so lucky you're a girl. Because otherwise, you'd be on the floor and begging for mercy.”

“Ooh, the big bad rocker boy doesn't like me? I've insulted him? I'm so scared I've pissed in my pants.” She rolled her eyes in disgust. “Get a life, and tell your friends to get ones too.”

Eric smirked. All the guys who needed to, quote, get a life, were staring at her hungrily and desirably. “From the looks on their faces, it seems that they've decided to make you a part of theirs for tonight.”

The girl looked at them and where their eyes landed and shook out of Jamie's(the bassist's) grasp. “Dude,” she said, “Get the hell away from me.”

All of them grinned. But Eric knew the best thing to do would to kick her out of this place. “Get out of here.”

She composed herself and bowed. “My pleasure to escape from you dorks. Personally, I do like your music. Just not your fucked-up attitude.” Then the girl picked up her notebook and walked out.

Oh, crap. They'd just pissed off one of their only fans. “Wait!” Eric called. He ran after her and smiled. “What's your name?”

“Hailey Gibson.” She raised her eyebrow. “Interested, are you? 'Cause the answer's no.”

“No, I'm not interested, but you said you liked us as a band right?”

The girl nodded, a bit confused. Eric smirked to himself. Hooking up his friends with her would be easy. And then she'd be a guaranteed roadie.

“Maybe you'd like to come to one of our rehearsals?”

She looked a bit surpirsed at the offer, but smiled and said, “I'll see you in school, Shearer.” She strutted away, and Eric could't help but ogle her perfectly shaped butt in her tight ass skinny jeans. Wait a minute—what?

Love and lust are dangerous things, Eric honey.

STRAIGHT GIRL IN LOVE WITH GAY BOY DATING A GAYER BOY = A MESS OF A LOVELIFE FOR STRAIGHT GIRL

She laid there, twirling her hair and sighing deeply. “So how'd you convert this guy?”

William shrugged. “I didn't. He just fell in love with me.” Hailey sighed again, and this time, he acknowledged it. “What? Do you disapprove?” William's face expressed concern for her opinion. Ha. Since when?

“It's not that I disapprove, or anything. I just...” Don't lead him on, she thought. “I just think you could've done better.” She was never going to get this guy, was she? Why'd she think he might feel the way she did? He's gay, for God's sake. He's not going to fall in love with her just because she was in love with him.

William frowned. “Well, I like him.”

Hailey sat up, and prodded, “Are you in love with him?”

“Uh...”

“Well?” Hailey held her breath.

“No,” he blurted. “I like him a lot, but no. He's not enough. I need someone I am absolutely sure I can depend on.”

Hailey let out her breath. “Don't lead him on and then hurt him. This Gary may be quite a stranger to heartbreak.”

William shook his head. “We're just a fling.”

Hailey made a face. “It probably doesn't seem that way to him.”

“He'll let go of me first. I mean, he's got half of the male gay portion of the student body after him.”

“Alright. Just don't get too involved. Just as easily as you can hurt him, he can hurt you.”

“I know, Hailey. Thanks.” He looked away for a moment, and then beared his eyes into hers pleadingly. “Did you ever think that, that maybe, maybe we could...” William trailed off, a faraway look in his eyes.

Hailey's heart raced. “Maybe we could what?”

William shook his head furiously. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea.”

“No really, what?” Hailey looked hopeful, and prayed he felt the same way she did.

“It's nothing.”

Hailey whispered under her breath, “I wished it was.”

AND YOU THOUGHT CINDERELLA'S STEP-FAMILY WAS BAD

“Dude!” Eric's new stepbrother Danny, jumped away from his girlfriend, Kayla, who was turning red at being caught making out. On a bed. In the eighth grade.

Apparently, the two lovebirds had gotten together the year before, the same year Eric's mom and Danny's dad had.

Eric shrugged. “I can't help that we share the same bedroom.” He smirked. “It's not like you mind your little girlfriend being in here.”

His chick blushed even harder, and Eric rolled his eyes. This was the image that was going to haunt him in his sleep: his stepbrother and his girlfriend making out on his bed, and his parents doing something even worse on it.

Ew.

It's not even like Danny was nice about the whole thing. Every time Eric would complain about this insane arrangement, Danny would smirk and call Eric a jealous girlfriend-less wreck. And maybe that was true. But Danny didn't know the half of it.

And Eric never intended Danny, or anyone else for that matter, to ever know.

Guess intentions just weren't enough.

AND SHE THOUGHT SHE LIKED THE GAY ONE

Hailey walked home from William's house, berating herself. What was her problem? She was a het girl, in love with a homo boy, who was having a fling with a recently-turned-homo boy. God, she hated this. She may not be starving, she may not be an abuse-ee, and she may not be suffering at all according to passing onlookers, but she was sure as hell hurting.

Just as she turned the keys in her front door, she remembered a little something she had to do. Like, that band rehearsal she'd been invited to? With the hot lead singer?

What'd she just think? Hot? More like jackass.

She shook her head, intent on shaking out all thoughts. Then Hailey went on inside her house. Her shoes padded across the floor into her room, as she mindlessly went through a phone book to find the Shearer household. Phone books. Who uses those anymore?

She did find it. For a common name, there was only one listed. She called. A boy that sounded several years younger picked up. “Hi. I'd like to speak to Eric.” Hailey blinked at what she herself said. She hadn't been polite in years.

The boy answered, “Yeah, yeah, I'll get the shithead.” That's right, Hailey thought. He's just another shithead I have to deal with.

Ha!

Hailey could hear the argument from the speaker. The boy snickered, “I think it's your girlfriend.”

“I don't have a girlfriend.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, you little asshole. Give me the phone.”

“Why should I? I can steal your girlfriend!” Then the boy spoke into the phone. “Hey baby, who are you? What's your name?”

She harshly answered. “Who am I? I'm the girl who will snap your neck if you don't give the phone to Eric. My name? Bitch.”

Hailey could practically hear him rolling his eyes. He told Eric, “She said her name's Bitch.”

“Hello?” She heard Eric ask confusedly.

“It's Hailey.” The girl prayed he wouldn't snarl.

“Oh.”

“When's the rehearsal?”

Pause. “In five minutes.” Curt? Come on.

Well, she was being curt too.

“Shit. Where?”

“My house.”

Hailey ran her free hand through her red curls, and sighed, “How the fuck do I get there?”

“Is there ever a moment you don't curse?”

It's like the guy had never even heard of her.

“Is there ever you moment you don't insult me?”

“How the hell was than an insult?” Hailey heard Eric wince on the other end of the line, as if being accused of insulting her was a crime.

“It was an insult because you had to ask.”

“Oh whatever. I'll pick you up at the coffehouse on Utopia Parkway, 'kay?” Wait, which “pick you up”? Sex or a car ride? Or is it both?

Jesus, did she really just think that? She was getting as bad as them.

“Sure. See ya,” she said, hanging up the phone with her heart beating wildly in her chest. Oh. My. God.

The emo chick has got a crush.

And it's no longer on the untouchable gay boy.

BACK TO YOU, KAYLA

Kayla looked between the two boys as they stared daggers at each other. And then she finally decided to process the insane situation in her head.

Let's see: hunk plus hunk's hottie of an older brother plus pretty girl all multiplied by all three all alone in the boys' bedroom equals something I don't want to think about

Well. This certainly wasn't going to work out. “Hey, Danny, I'm gonna go.”

Danny pouted, his adorable face scrunched up in sadness. “So soon?”

Kayla waited for her heart to take over her body and want to kiss his parted lips, but it didn't. She felt nothing. “Yeah, I gotta go. Mom's birthday is today. Bye.” Kayla grabbed her bag and rushed the hell out of there. Things just weren't like they used to be between her and Danny.

Ever since Danny's dad and Eric's mom had gotten married, their kids having no idea that the two had even dated, Danny had stood on shaky ground but had held her hand all the same. And then when Eric moved in with his step-brother, it had been all about making Eric feel unwelcome and lesser than Danny. And Danny and Kayla barely said a word to each other since the party, though they sure as fuck did get it on. And even though Danny believed that words couldn't describe what they felt for each other, Kayla could sum it up: a flame so burnt out it can never be rekindled.

The attraction was gone, and so was the love. But Danny needed her right now, as he was going through a difficult time and all. It's just that Kayla couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, it was time to let go. Maybe they were just a thing, not the thing.

......

And while all this was running through Kayla's mind, all Danny could think about was tearing her clothes off. God, she was hot. She made him feel like that he would never want to stop loving her. All he wanted and all he thought about was her. Danny needed her desperately. She was the only thing that kept him running away from this messed up family.

Eric was an all-around nice guy, but he was just way too perfect. So Danny picked on the sorest spot: the fact that he had a girlfriend and Eric didn't.

And his new step-mother was a nice chick; he'd give her that. And his dad was acting like a

complete fool, giving her everything and anything. The things we do for love. Like walking in the rain and the snow, when there's nowhere to go/And you're feelin' like a part of you is dyin'

Spectacular!? Really? That was the musical-movie that came to him when he was trying to think? God, it was just a lame show that Kayla made him watch.

Communications is the problem to be answered...

Why won't this stupid song get out of his head

You're looking for the answer in her eyes/You think you're gonna break up

What were the next lyrics? He didn't remember. All he saw was an image of Kayla telling him it was over.

But why would she?

Communications is the problem to be answered

Jesus Christ.

That was why she'd run out of here today. Ever since the party, their relationship had been a blur of make-outs and feel ups.

He thought he'd loved her when was really just lusting for her.

And how did she feel?

Communications is the problem to be answered

Goddamn lyrical quote always has to be right.

ARE YOU COVERING A SONG OR YOUR FEELINGS?

Eric sang out the last words of “Open Arms” by Journey, struck a pose, and then slung his guitar over his head and walked over to the girl smiling in the corner.

“If I could sing like that,” she said, “I would be singin' all over the fuckin place.”

“Well,” Jamie, the bassist retorted, “If I could sing like that, I would be sleeping all over the place.”

Hailey rolled her eyes. “I bet you all would and that you,” she said, jabbing her thumb in Eric's direction, “do sleep all over the place.”

Everyone else burst out laughing. “Oh, that's rich,” the drummer chortled. “Eric, acting like a skeev, oh my god that's funny.”

Now that turned her head. “You're in rock band, you have mad vocals, and you don't shag two girls a night?”

Kevin, who played the rhythm on his the guitar, spread his hands out in explanation. “Eric's never even kissed a girl. If it weren't for all the porno he watched and all the girls he's asked out, we would have declared him a homosexual so deep in the closet he was finding Christmas presents in April.”

Hailey looked at Eric, slyly replying, “I guess I had you pegged wrong. For a rocker boy, you're pretty pure. Especially when your step brother has no doubt made it to second base in the eight grade.”

Eric shrugged. “I guess I just happen to differentiate from the stereotype.” He smirked. “My friends, however, do not.”

Kevin clapped his hands. “You got that right.”

UM, FYI: IT'S YOUR FEELINGS.

Hailey walked to Eric's car, taking slow, smiling steps as they talked over how great his band was. Eric chivalrously held the door open for her. They smiled at each other as she took shotgun and he took the wheel.

Hailey looked at him curiously. “Don't you need a driver's license?”

Eric shook his head cockily. “I have a friend who makes great fake ones. I've been pulled over several times, only to be left with a warning.”

Hailey gave him a look of you've-gotta-be-kidding-me.

Eric sighed. “Alright, so I sweet talked my way out of them; thankfully, the cop was always a chick or had a chick with him.”

Hailey smiled. “Romancing your way out of ticket?”

“I guess.” He took his eyes off the road to look at her, then quickly looked back. “I know you know all about my life, as it's talked about everywhere without a second thought.” Hailey looked guiltily at her lap. Not only did she know where this where was going, but she knew she'd talked bullshit about Shearer with people countless times.

“I'm guessing you want to know about my life too?”

He nodded, a hint of curiousty surfacing in his gorgeous eyes.

She really needed to get laid. Dreaming about a singer of a high school band? Nuh-uh.

Hailey took a deep breath. “Where do you want to start?”

“Your lovelife.”

Well, isn't that something she'd love to talk about?”

She let out that breath and spilled it all. “I've gone out with guys and made out and been to home plate and back, I've always lusted and found a way to love, but it always seemed that no one would match Will. Will being my best friend.”

Eric looked startled. Or was it jealousy more than startlement? “Yeah?”

“I guess I need to specify here. Will, my gay best friend. Not working out too well at all. He recently got another guy to go gay, gay only for him. It's really weird, because I have no idea what to do or what I should do about him, but it hasn't seemed like he mattered ever since...” she trailed off.

“Ever since what?” he said pulling into the parking spot at the coffeehouse.

“Ever since I met you,” she blurted, grabbing his face and kissing him.

Only word left to say:

FINALLY!

Happily ever after.

Yep. After that, one can imagine them being high school sweethearts, one cheating and the other knowing that the love was still there. One can imagine them getting married, having kids, and getting their happy ending.

But honestly, why would something as good as that happen in life?

Remember? Life? The bitch that no one can stand or accept?

Eric pushed Hailey off of him, with a force neither of them knew he had. “Get out of my car.”

Hailey's face was a mix of pain, hurt, vulnerability, and heartbreak.

Which tends to all be the same thing.

She took one final look at him and got out of his car, not having the heart to even slam the door as she walked home.

As soon as she got in her empty house, she closed the door and sank down it, her back against the door, and she started to cry.

Hailey had never felt anything like this before. Pain shooting through her heart and her soul, only now feeling the impact of her great vulnerability. Remembering the way he had pushed her off of him with great force, she cried even harder, not knowing what to do. He was the one for her.

Though as it stood then, she was not the one for him.

Author's note: How ya like me now? Remember, this is a two shot, not a one shot.