Note: Yes RENT is not mine nor will it ever be! Thanks so much for all of your support for all my work guys. And yes I just realized that the reply button for reviews exists so I will actually reply now! Just a note for this fic I might continue if you guys want some more. Also I dedicate this fic to all of you guys out there who made me love high school fics. Before this fandom I thought they were kinda weird, but now I'm addicted! Here's my own version. Thanks all!

Thomas Collins, age 18, gulped grasping onto his tray for dear life as the student body smirked at him. The cafeteria was all together too focused, ready to enact revenge on him. For years he was their golden boy. The linebacker which put Scarsdale High's football program on the map. The kid who could magically get straight A's while simultaneously getting more detentions than any other student. He was the amazing mix of a rebel and a champion. The popular students welcomed him automatically, how couldn't they? After all he was the kid who had locked the evil librarian Ms. Kinneans in a custodian closet overnight. The cheerleaders wanted to date him. The other guys wished they were more like him. But then he made a mistake. A mistake that the society of the Scarsdale High wouldn't forgive. He admitted to his best friend, Robbie Kinsman, that he was gay.

"I'm not gonna let this get to me." Tom whispered to himself as he breathed in deeply and proudly walked towards the back of the cafeteria. The popular kids watched him closely. His former friends. The jocks wrinkled their noses at him. They were disgusted after all. Football game after football game they had changed in front of one of them? It was enough to make them want to puke. Robbie turned around and looked at him, his best friend. The quarter back smirked and raised his hands to flick at jock strap at Collins' face. Tom brushed off the jockstrap although he couldn't ignore the slight twinge of pain that remained on his face. He walked on.

The next table was the princesses. The ones who spent most of their days primping and discussing the jocks that they wanted most as arm candy. The head cheerleader, Lydia Ronsale, waved to him coyly as he went by. She covered her mouth with her hand as if she had forgotten something and then stopped him from continuing. Tom really just wanted to keep walking but he still held onto some hope that at least one of his friends would stand up for him.

"Oh, Tom, I'm so sorry. Here I know what will make you feel better. It always works for me. I have a whole start up kit for you." Lydia went into her pink backpack and pulled out a makeup bag. With a giggle she slapped it on top of Tom's Jell-O.

"I hope I got your colors right." Tom picked up the bag and dropped it onto the ground without an expression on his face. His legs egged him on to the next table. The wanna-bes. The ones who only wished they could be the populars. The girls giggled and pointed. Tom was sure he heard a girl say, "I mean how gross is that!" The guys, forever wanting to show their strength balled their fists. Lenny Jordan, Tom's lab partner got up and stood in his way. Tom looked down on the ground refusing to meet his eyes. It wasn't out of fear but out of passiveness.

"You ever try to flirt with me or get closer to me than a foot away or something. You're gonna find yourself in need of your fairy godmother." He cracked his knuckles in Tom's face making the teen blink. Lenny nodded to himself and got a few high fives from his friends as he sat down again. Tom continued looking straight ahead assuming the worst was over.

Reaching the intellectuals he breathed out a sigh of relief. Since he took quite a few AP classes he knew most of them and they got along. The brains were often surprised to see how open Tom was about the cliques. Most jocks and princesses wouldn't be caught dead with the likes of them, but Tom didn't care. So he was sure he would have their support. But as he got to their table and prepared to sit down Gina Hershaw pulled away the chair, "This seat is taken." She explained going back to her reading. John Kilkenny looked up from his math homework and frowned. With a shake of his head he turned back to his work.

Tom blinked away a few tears and proceeded to the next tables. The art students, the stoners, and the actors. More groups that he would assume would welcome him, if nothing out of pity. He knew at least one person at every table having dabbled in all of their subjects at one time or another. But the art students ignored his question of an empty seat, the stoners just grunted and went back to their rolling, and the actors asked him to just move on. Tom nodded to himself, he knew it was going to be hard. He knew that he would loose some of his friends, but he thought at least one person would be there for him. It turned out that the whole school was against him. It was as if he had a red letter G painted on his chest.

Finally, Tom sat down at an empty table and ate up his tofu hoping that no one would be able to see the few tears that escaped his eyes. But they were all watching and pointing and laughing. "That's where you belong fag! Right there. Cause you don't even have the right to exist!" Robbie screamed at him from across the cafeteria which was met by many rounds of applause from the student body. Tom didn't raise his head but continued to eat, although every part of him wanted to run out of the cafeteria and hide under the left wing staircase. But that's what they wanted. They wanted to break him. Tom wouldn't allow that. He wasn't about to loose his dignity. Not for anything.

Two very confused boys walked into the cafeteria as the applause died down.

"I didn't know people cared." One said who was wearing glasses that engulfed his small face. The other kid just grinned, "See I told you they'd come around." He took a seat at the table where Tom was sitting and pulled out a guitar from the case he had been lugging around. Tom looked at them in shock, did they realize what they were doing? The kid with the glasses was the first to notice Tom and waved as he sat down, "Hey…you're Tom Collins right? Linebacker extrodinare…or something like that I never understood football." He said smiling. Tom raised his eyebrow and nodded, "Yeah…do you want me to go sit over there?" He asked referring to an empty table across the way. The one with the guitar shrugged, "Not unless you want to. Don't worry Mark doesn't smell this bad always. It sinks into the air after a while." He grinned tuning his guitar.

Mark rolled his eyes, "We all can't smell like some type of caribou carcass like illustrious Roger Davis now can we? I swear Rog that cologne crap you wear is vile." He wrinkled his nose and pulled out a film camera which he was soon winding. Roger smirked , "Your sister seems to like it." Collins had to smile behind his drink.

Mark sighed apparently giving up on the battle of wits, "Now after that wonderful talk do you want to stay?" He asked Tom with a deep grin on his face. Tom looked around and nodded with a shrug, "I mean…sure." Mark nodded, "Welcome to ShirleyNanette then…it's what we call our table. Shirley, in honor of Roger's first girlfriend in the second grade." Roger laughed in remembrance, "Aw yeah she was hot!" Mark shook his head in disgust, "In second grade!" Roger shrugged plucking a few of the guitar strings, "She was advanced beyond her years." Mark just continued to shake his head and said, "Nanette for my first girlfriend. But now that you're here maybe we should add a name." Tom almost choked on his Jell-O and raised his eyes to the kid.

"What?" Mark didn't look phased, "Your first? So we can properly re-title the table." He explained as if it was very simple to understand. Roger nodded playing a melody that Tom knew but could never remember the name of. Licking his lips Tom looked around the cafeteria. Was this some big joke? One more way to pick on Tom for who he was? One last kick in the face? Well whether it was a joke or not Tom knew he had to play along. He cleared his throat and said quietly but clearly, "Garret."

"Ok then. I know dub thee, ShirelyNanetteGarret." Mark said lavishly while gently smacking his yoo-hoo drink box onto the table. Roger grinned to himself, "Has a nice ring to it. Though I vote for going for SNG for short." Tom just watched Mark and then Roger. Neither of them frowned or looked away in disgust. There was no finger pointing or laughter or calling of names. They accepted it. They accepted him.

Tom heart lurched as Roger held up a finger expecting him to reveal the big joke when he said, "You know what would have rocked. If Tom dated a guy name Matthew or something first. Then we could name the table SNM…get it?" Mark looked over at his friend very confused. Roger groaned and dropped his guitar for a moment, "C'mon Mark S and M!" Mark watched Roger for a moment and then said, "Ohhhh…yeah…that would have been cool." He took a sip of his yoo-hoo still looking rather confused. Roger shook his head, "You're hopeless Cohen."

Tom smiled to himself and finished up his tofu quietly. He knew that Mark and Roger were both watching him, but he couldn't manage to look at them. Roger cleared his throat and began to play his guitar again, while Mark's camera was creaking slightly.

"You know…" Tom said out of the blue surprised at his own speech, "I never really liked the name Tom."

Mark smiled lightly, happy to hear something from the withdrawn football player, "Then we'll call you Collins if you like. As long as you don't mind that one." Collins shook his head, "Fine by me." Roger nodded, "Well then Collins welcome to our sad sad group. Which actually has been a sad sad partnership lately…not like that though. Mark's in love with that actress chick with the emotional problems-"

"She does not have emotional problems!"

"Mark, she just randomly picked up a pair of scissors and cut her hair in the middle of class!"

"That was in kindergarten!"

"Still man she has issues." Roger said winking at Collins. The former jock laughed, the first time in a while, and nodded, "Thanks I think…do you mean Maureen Johnson? She does have issues. Crazy girl but I really dig her. Too bad she's not in this lunch period." Roger grinned, "Yeah then maybe we could match make you, Mark." The boy sunk into his chair and blushed, "I hate you both." Roger laughed and patted Collins on the shoulder, "Now you're officially one of us." Collins smiled deeply and sighed contented. Finally he found a table where he belonged.

Post note: So what you think? Shall I cont? If I do the others would be on their way. A cookie for anyone who can pick out the names of another famous gay couple ;) their names are just a paragraph apart from each other.