What better way to start off the new year than with a new fanfiction? After getting off my hiatus, I am back in shape with a new (awesome) computer and ready to tackle some challenges! Let's see how this fanfic turns out in the end – if my writing skills have improved, or decreased, over this time!

I like Gary/Pete just as much as Jimmy/Pete or Gary/Jimmy...actually...I really can tolerate ANY Bully pairing that you can possibly spawn. O.o Well, I guess that may be a good thing because I makes for some interesting fanfics. This one will have no more than 5 chapters and has a few background pairings I hope you can spot. This is my first time writing a New Year's theme – wish me luck!

Disclaimer: MidnightSakuraBlossom does not own Bully or it's characters.

~MidnightSakuraBlossom

. . .

The New Year

Chapter 1; Preparing For The Party

. . .

"Hang the banner somewhat vertically, Gary."

"Shut up! It looks fine, dammit! Now get me that tape before I punch you for your annoying 'criticism'!"

"Hey, there is no need to be so hostile! Headmaster Crabblesnitch told us that we would have to set out differences aside and prepare for the New Year's party, so you have no choice but to listen to my advice."

"Petey, I didn't even want to do this manual labor!"

"Someone had to." A feminine voice interjected to the conversation. "But I just don't see how it had to be me, you, Peter, and...ugh...Algernon."

"You people are really annoying the crap out of me! I can't believe we just had to listen to the old man and do this labor!"

"Do you want to mow the lawns as the prefects watch you like a hawk? That Jimmy Hopkins has to do it at least two times a week now."

"Pinky has a point, Gary."

"Just let me hang this thing and we'll talk later!"

If you didn't catch what was going on, the usually boring and screwed up school, Bullworth Academy was finally seeing a little bit of excitement. The year was beginning to wrap up and be behind everyone. And damn, has it ever been chaotic with that new kid coming and stirring up trouble. He has been doing some infamous things with Gary at his side being the puppet master and Pete being forced to by his friends to be a part of the action whether he wanted to or not.

The past few years have been boring around this time. Gary wanted to break the horrible cycle by suggesting to the headmaster that they throw some sort of event at the academy. Perhaps a party and big count down to the end of the year since it was only six days away. And to his surprise, it was accepted...but only on one condition.

He would have to do all of the preparations with a group that Crabblesnitch would choose at random. Gary was not the type of guy to do labor, but he hoped that he could dump off his job on the rest of the group. Unfortunately, his team consisted of: Pete, his girly roommate. Algernon, an easily-scared nerd. And Pinky, a pretty and very spoiled prep. And when he protested about the choice, he was kicked out of the office without a second thought as if Crabblesnitch could care less about his thoughts. Humph. Old people these days...

Gary was instructed to hang banners with words of encouragement (gag), Pete was instructed to hang lights and also fix Gary's careless mistakes, Pinky was instructed to plant some more flowers and help out in the disgusting cafeteria, and Algie was instructed to spread word about the event being held. So everyone was assigned with a job and had no free will, forced to do the aforementioned tasks in between classes and even during lunch. Which was actually reasonable – the food here sucked.

Gary hated having do labor and seemingly complained about everything in the world, Algie was never noticed by anyone except his fellow nerds or the bullies who kept sneaking up and giving him wedgies, and Pinky was uttering some choice words for the headmaster for making her ruin her perfect and flawless hands by digging into the earth or preparing sickening food.

Pete was the only one who did not openly complain. No one listened to him, so why should he even bother? Besides, the preparations were soon to be complete and they were all allowed to return back to their dorms at night for rest. And just the fact he was getting to be close to Gary during all of this was...admittedly nice.

Gary wasn't very focused on putting him down in particular and would choose to snap at either Algie or Pinky for the pathetic ways they were doing things. And he could be close to the school's sociopath without worrying anyone wondering why he was staring at the other boy so...mindlessly?

He couldn't really say it out loud without feeling embarrassed, but Pete just knew that he must be falling for Gary even after all that has happened this past year. All of the arguments, verbal and physical abuse, pranks, violence, drama, and insanity, he has come to realize his real feelings. The feelings that he had to hide for...personal reasons, yeah that's it.

He could admit it clearly in his mind that he felt so strongly about Gary regardless of how he treated him. He could live with secretly pining over him and being forced by unknown ways of the world to hide the way he enjoyed being his roommate (despite how annoying of a roommate Gary could be on a daily basis). Whenever Pete would attempt to just say it aloud...whether it be to himself for reassurance or when they were alone and he finally gathered a bit of nerve to open his mouth. Something always either interrupted or he lost that mentioned nerve. It would always conclude with nothing being revealed.

And keeping it a secret would have to become challenging eventually. Pete had read the books (which he was teased of for them being romance novels): secrets always run a person down to the point of which they are not themselves. They hurt especially of a person wants to be able to share it with the world. And in conclusion, they always come out whether it be the hard way or the easy way.

Pete knew he felt this way...his only question was why. Why the hell did he feel so strongly if he was always treated badly by Gary and he probably didn't like him in that way because he never made a move. Gary was the type of person to make a move the instant he felt like it. So why hasn't that happened yet? And why did he sometimes stay up late, watching the sociopath sleep, and wonder what his thoughts were.

Well, he was just thankful that in the morning, Gary would never prompt the question of why he sensed someone watching him at night. Pete had luck on his side after all, obviously. Because that would be oh so difficult to explain reasonably.

"Petey, snap out of dreamland and grab the ladder!"

"Huh?" The shock of hearing Gary's slightly-panicked tone brought him from his thoughts. He came back to earth to see that the ladder he had been holding was indeed starting to shift around. Pete's eyes widened. "Oh God!"

Even if his mind was at an inward war over whether to just let Gary fall or not, Pete's body reacted instinctively and his arms rushed out to hold the ladder once again. He couldn't believe he had done that though...Gary probably deserved to at least feel some physical pain...

Right? Right...?

Gary glanced down at Pete's apologetic face glaring, irritated with the way that he had been acting unfocused lately. "Pay more attention to what you're doing! If I fall now, I won't get a chance to complete my own goals with an injury!"

"It's not my fault!" It's your fault for making me so conflicted about how I feel towards you, but Pete didn't add this sentence to the reply of course.

Rather than snapping again, Gary returned to carelessly attaching the damn banner to the roof. And this time, it was done slightly furiously so that he could it done and over with. Apparently, Pete was going to be the death of him if he kept being unfocused lately.

Which confused him...why did Petey seem to be so unfocused around him? Well, that could be somewhat understandable seeing as though Gary Smith is quite the sexy guy around this school. That was what he believed anyway, and anyone would swoon over his charm and rough ways with people in social situations. And when he didn't have his medication; watch out, students of Bullworth. Watch out.

At least with this damn manual labor, he had the chance to be around Pete more often and femme boy was forced to stay around and not ditch him because he had some fucking weird way of not being able to disobey orders especially by authority of this school. That flaw was going to get the boy in trouble one day, oh yes...

Eventually, Gary finished up with the banner and Pete held the latter steady this time so that he could come down more easily. And by this time, Algernon reappeared from the school bathroom with his wedgie gone, and even Pinky showed up and happily yanked the horrifically ugly hair net from her self-proclaimed beautiful hair.

"Okay, so how much longer are we going to be doing this work?" Gary prompted the three in his view. Pinky and Pete exchanged looks that basically spelled out they were clueless.

However, Algie stepped up and caught Gary's eye. Now that he had his attention, the nerd went on to explain, "I had hid in Crabblesnitche's office when some bullies had chased me after I exited the bathroom alone. Since I was already there, I asked if we were free to go since we already finished most of our jobs today."

"What did he say, nerd?"

"He said that he already told the teachers none of us would be in classes today. We would need to continue for the rest of the day until finally finished." Pete, Gary, and Pinky all groaned at the news. For all of them were tired from their tasks today. "Hey, the good news is that we don't have to be in class. I'm not very athletic myself, so I always freak out when I have to play sports-"

"That isn't good news! My grades are going to slip and I'll have to see a big, haunting bad grade on the test I was supposed to have in math!" Pete suddenly said in distress, everyone turned to glance at him as his eyes widened in fear of the mental images of his failed test that he couldn't study for due to the preparations.

It wasn't that he didn't want the party to be held, because he did want to see some excitement for a change of pace. But still...he got high grades and hardly failed. His grades were already beginning to slip due to the way Gary has been on his mind lately.

Noticing his distress over the matter, Gary rolled his eyes and took a step forward. Soon enough, he grabbed Pete's right shoulder and shot him a blank look once their eyes made contact. "Geez, femme boy. We wouldn't want that, now would we? Besides, you have already been showing some signs of lack of concentration..." To end this sarcastic little comment, Gary smirked almost teasingly as if he was testing Pete's frustration about the subject.

Even if he was still very much worried over his grades, Pete still briefly forgot about that once he felt Gary's hand rest upon his light shoulder. The contact. Through the material of his shirt, to his skin, Pete liked that contact.

His eyes revealed it, they softened and fluttered to a close for a split second.

And then Pete returned to reality. He shifted his eyes to see Algie and Pinky staring with mildly-concerned faces, probably wondering why he had no comeback and briefly went limp and silent. As fast as ever, the heat rushed into the smaller boy's cheeks and he stepped away and out of his contact. There was no way that he could have possibly enjoyed that...not now at least...

"No comment?" Gary sighed, was that of disappointment. If he hadn't turned to survey the school, Pete would have probably spoke without thinking and asked if he was disappointed. "God, you're acting so weird lately. Anyway, enough about you. Nerd, let's hear the rest of the story..."

"Right, right." Algie resumed his explanation before Pete had interrupted with his distressed comments and the weird moment between him and the sociopath. "I was about to mention that he said we can all make up for our absence and finish any work that had been missed. So, Pete, there's no need to worry about that!"

"Humph, I couldn't care less. I just really want to go back to my room and retire for the day..." Pinky stated matter-of-factly, bringing a hand to cover her mouth as a small yawn passed her lips. She hadn't slept well the previous night because of some ruckus outside her room window involving some greasers yelling at each other about a girl they both wanted to date or something like that.

And so, the four decided that they should resume their work and get all of this over with. Once the preparations for the party were complete, the tired Bullworth students could all sit back and relax with the knowledge that it was all over and they just had to survive the remaining six days of the year. And on New Year's Eve, the party would be in full swing.

Who knows what could possibly happen that night. Excitement welled inside of the four, as well as other students in the know. That night would be the end of the year, the beginning of a new, and this could only mean plenty of interesting occurrences. Each of the students had high hopes for how things turned out when all was said and done. Meanwhile, Pete wondered how he could live with falling for Gary and trying so hard to mask it so he would never discover the truth.

But, unfortunately, the rest of this manual labor would have to be done before that night. Everyone realized this fact and sped up on their jobs, hoping that time would pass quicker.

Now at the fountain, Pete resumed his task of decorating that with lights. His mind was elsewhere, however. And his eyes were right on Gary who was passing by carrying the stupid banner and looking very pissed off.

To Be Continued In Chapter 2

. . .

Yes, the chapters will be somewhat short like this one. Right now, we're only getting a general idea of what is going on with the New Year's preparations and Pete's thoughts of the matter and his determination to hide them.

And Gary's will be revealed in chapter 2. I hope you bear with me during the story, updates may take a few days at the most because of my freaking busy life that you're probably not interested in at all...

Read and review!

~MidnightSakuraBlossom