I knew if I didn't do this right now that it wouldn't get done til Friday cause I'm going out later again!! Blame me and my busy week rather than me being lazy. =P

Okay so I think this is gonna be the last bit unless someone gives me an idea so awesome it brings a tear to my eye because I don't think I can carry on with much enthusiasm anymore... I don't know what happened but I'm getting extremely bored of this story.

Schoolboy story Pt. 6

"What are you doing?" Noel asked with his hands on his hips as he backed Russell up against the side of the old school building, rage building up silently in his small frame.

"Having lunch with them lot," Russell said, pointing his finger in the direction of the others, feigning obliviousness and hoping that Noel would forgive him almost straight away like he had done so many times in situations like these. Noel was like a substitute teacher you could always mess about with and they'd still be nice.

"You know what I mean!" Noel exclaimed. "Putting all the blame on me, what was that?!" he nearly squealed as his eyes were then only focused on Russell's eyes, the rest of the world a meaningless blur around him.

"I had to save myself, Noel. My reputation is at stake," Russell said, looking past Noel and to the ground, neither shamefully or otherwise.

"We've been at the school for the exact same time, no one even knows us, you don't have a reputation!!" Noel shouted, face coming slightly closer to Russell's.

"I will do though," Russell said, leaning on the wall and crossing one leg over the other, "think about it, I'm gonna be more famous than you so if something bad happens to me now, my fame will be bad."

Noel just stared at him, refusing to believe he'd even said something like that. "This is what it's about?"

"Yeah," Russell shrugged.

Noel could feel himself getting angrier and angrier as his heart-rate increased and he swore that he was about to cry. He cursed himself for this and looked away from Russell; he couldn't let him see him cry. He didn't know whether he was more upset or angry anymore as his emotions became some sort of play-things in a cauldron of mockery.

"Sorry, though," Russell added, rather late for apologising.

The word 'sorry' echoed through Noel's head and the more it repeated, the angrier he got. How dare he only have 'sorry' to make up for letting the others hate him after all he did was follow Russell's stupid orders.

He finally gave in to temptation and punched Russell without warning, right in the nose. Ignoring the pain in his right hand, he stomped away feeling satisfied with himself, a smile teasing at his face for standing up for himself, even if it did have to resort to violence to make him feel better.

As he turned the corner to look for a new place to eat, he bumped into Josh who was standing at the wall around the corner, a lollipop hanging from his mouth innocently.

"What are you doing here?" Noel asked in a near threatening way, still feeling tough from what he had just done to Russell.

He hadn't noticed anyone move from the spot that they were all sitting in and didn't expect Josh to be there right in front of him either.

"I wanted to see what you were talking about," Josh explained, twiddling the lolly in-between his thumb and forefinger as he smiled apologetically for being nosey. "I don't like when people fight."

Noel nodded and mouthed an 'oh'. "We weren't fighting...well, not...really," Noel tried to explain as he put his right hand behind his back nervously.

"I heard it all, you know," Josh revealed.

"Yeah, sorry if I sounded angry, it's just...wait," Noel stopped, figuring out what Josh actually meant. "You heard it all?" Noel's eyebrows raised. "All of it?"

"Yeah," Josh beamed. "I did," he said almost with pride for being in the right place at the right time.

Noel grabbed Josh and pulled him in for a tight hug, being careful not to damage him in any way. "So you know it wasn't just me!"

"Yeah," Josh said, voice strained as the air was slowly being pushed out of his lungs.

Noel let go. "I'm really sorry, Josh. It's just Russell...he put me up to it and I thought it would be funny for a while but I didn't expect it to go on for this long," he confessed. "I wouldn't have done it if I knew you'd get all upset and stuff...like, really badly upset."

Josh nodded. "I was pretty upset."

"Russell is worse now for trying to just blame me," Noel added, trying to fully shift the blame off of himself and be virtually in the clear once again. "Right?"

*

Josh and Noel walked back to the others, Josh holding Noel's hand so the others were aware that they had made up with each other. Noel still wanted to cry due to all the things that had happened to him but he held it in for the sake of his dignity.

"...Did you just punch Russell??" Joe asked as soon as they got close enough so Noel could hear him, ignoring the fact that he hated him a couple of minutes ago.

"Noel was right, Russell's a liar," Josh smiled, looking at Noel as he said it with a keen eye. "I think we should be nice to Noel now, he said sorry."

Josh and Noel explained what had happened in the conversation between Noel and Russell so they could deal with the situation properly and Rhys immediately stood up and hugged Noel.

"You still did wrong things though," Faris said.

"I know!" Noel cried, a few tears escaping against his will. "I really am sorry though, I mean it," he said, wiping his eyes in the sleeve of his blazer.

Josh pulled him in closer and rested his head on Noel's shoulder while Noel continued to cry.

"You're one of us now," Joe beamed, patting the space next to him and motioning with his head for Noel to sit down.

"Thanks," Noel smiled with a sniff as he tried to calm himself completely.

Maybe everything was going to be okay after all, then.