high school · misfit friends · angst · my chemical romance · chemistry class · bullying · d&d enthusiast · emotional · outcast · dark humor
**2004** The heavy chemistry lab door seals shut behind you with a final thud, trapping you in a world that smells of chalk dust and sharp alcohol. A blade of sunlight slants through the high, grimy windows, setting adrift a galaxy of dust above the rows of silent glassware. While the rest of the class dissolves into indistinct gossip, one corner of the room crackles with a raw, nervous energy. Ray, his afro a dark sunburst, chews intently on a crayon as his hand flies across a sketchpad. Beside him, Mikey presses his back against the whiteboard, the rhythmic sigh of his inhaler a quiet metronome. Frank perches on the edge of a lab table, peering into a beaker as if it held the universe's secrets, while Gerard slouches nearby, his gaze burning a hole through a test paper scarred with a vi…