Chapter Text
“So,” He started, walking down the hallway as he held his grass-green backpack over his right shoulder.
“Now that- you're single, Nick,” Clay continued, hesitating slightly as he carefully thought about his words. The two boys walked beside the lockers, their eyes shifting from the surrounding people them to the numbers on the lockers, chatting with each other as they made their way over to their next classes.“Do you wanna watch the school's game this week? I know you have practice, but, we haven't been on a game together in months! Plus, there might be some hot chick, or dude, whatever you prefer- that you can find for yourself!” Nick chuckled as he rolled his eyes, walking up to his friend's locker and putting the code in. “Yeah dude, of course, we can.” He stepped back, Clay putting the backpack away as they continued chit-chatting with each other, waiting for the bell to ring.
After what felt like just seconds, the two boys started walking to class, the annoying sound ringing in their ears. It was a boring, quick walk, with no conversation between the two. They soon enough needed to exchange goodbyes, Nick going up the staircase to his class, and Clay staying on the previous floor.
“Morning Mr.'Za,” He mumbled, the silence being oddly loud as he headed towards an empty seat, sitting next to some random guy he didn't know.
The teacher responding coldly as he looked back at the board. Nick never was the guy to pay attention in Mr. Phil's class, he simply found it boring, especially since it didn't have anything to do with his future career.
The teenager found himself looking around the class, seeing a few familiar faces, along with ones he's never seen before. He recognized a few of his friends or his friends' friends. David — more known as 'Techno', was sitting in the front row, he and Mr. Phil were friends, somehow. Nick only knew him because of Clay, he's seen the other talk with David a few times before. The boy smirked as he remembered countless scenarios that happened in the past with his friends and the guy from the first row.
“So?” The teacher raised his voice slightly, crossing his arms as he made the boy snap out of his train of thought. As he was about to respond with the classic ‘May you repeat, Mr.’Za?’, assuming the statement was directed towards him, other people from across the room started to chat with the older. “Alright, alright. I'll talk with Mr. Halo about the project, I'll ask him to cancel it, or at least make the due date longer.” Nick looked at his classmate, slightly nudging the other shoulder as he whispered in question, “what’s he talking about?” He whispered, the other replying with an annoyed expression, looking back at the wall that he was previously staring at.
And as the bell rang, Nick decided his best bet was to ask David about what the teacher talked about, so he did. It was a slightly boring and very awkward conversation, considering the older boy was known for being that one nerdy although chill guy with anxiety. “What did the teacher talk about?” Nick questioned, leaning onto the wall that was next to the other’s desk. “Project.” The other mumbled, “Why ask? Didn’t- uh, like- didn’t you already know? Thought we had the same classes, or uh, most of them at least. From what I recall,”
“I didn’t listen, plus I skip Mr. Halo’s classes most of the time, now, what’s the project about?”
“Ask your partner dude, everybody has different themes, so ask the person you’re workin’ with, alright? Like- I don’t- remember everything.” David picked up his bag finally, waving to the teacher as he walked out of class, leaving Nick alone with the teacher.
“Your partner’s Alex, he’s from class A2, I can hand you his schedule if you’d like me to.” The teacher spoke, he was cool, in a weird way. „No need. Thank you, still.” The Texan walked out of the room, slightly irritated at the fact he had no idea what he was doing, or where he could find his project-partner.
“Curse that damn choice of partners, how can I even do a project with that guy? I hardly know him, he doesn’t even go to the same group as me, stupid A2 class, fuck it, it’s so annoying, the whole project’s ass“ “Hey” Greeted George, he looked like a mess, his hand gripping his backpack messily. It was clear he just came out of P. E class, with the teacher they had P. E was more than hell on earth. The boy wore a gray hoodie from his favorite shop, the iconic “#404” is spelled on the front, in small, white letters. The top was paired with black skinny jeans as well as some random not-fancy shoes from wall-mart. The Brit’s bag was a nice dull blue, a key-chain hanging from the zipper, it was a gold letter “G”, a gift from Nick and Clay, that they gave him on one of his birthdays, which one? None of them remember. George looked the other up figuring out the other hasn’t seen him yet, somehow.
“Who are you cursing out specifically?” The older asked, snapping the other out of his gaze. “The stupid project, why make a project that has different themes for every group, that’s ass.” Nick started rambling about his never-ending hatred towards the task, George trying to listen as carefully as he could although the Brit got bored as soon as the other started talking about Mr. Halo’s class. All three of them had amazing grades from the class, the teacher was chill and liked them, tho learning about the history of the U. S wasn’t that interesting.
“I’m paired with some idiotic Alex guy from A2.”
“You mean Alex, as in, Alexis? The guy from the school band?” George laughed silently, remembering that Nick used to be a band kid, the embarrassing videos that were once leaked onto Twitter of him as a child remained as a memory that haunted the poor guy. He would never forget them. “I guess so, he’s probably annoying as hell, Jesus, I hate this dumb project.” Nick continued, at this point, he could make a whole essay about how the one, small assignment sucks so badly. “Well, I recommend you find that guy, he should be in-“ George took a second to remember, biting his lip and looking around for a minute or two. “Chemistry, I believe.” The Texan frowned, the biology class was at the end of the 2nd floor. Curse the architect that believed it was a good idea to put one pair of stairs on one side of the building, which was massive.
The younger stormed away from the other just as Clay came along. “What’s with him?” He pointed at the now running younger boy.
“Bad day, he’s mad about some stupid project, ooh! Do you think he could get paired with the Alex guy from A2?” George smirked, “Georgie, you can’t think that every person that talks to Nick is his partner. You're always 'shipping' everyone, as you say it. I think the only one's you should 'ship' is me and you.” He said smoothly, his gaze piercing the other’s, “Shut up Piss-Jock,” The Brit raised his voice as he giggled when the bell rang. “It was ONCE! One time!” The other yelled back.
As the angered boy opened the door to class ’87 he was greeted with a stare from everyone, the teacher holding a confused expression. “I came here for Alex, it’s important. The principal wants to speak with him.” He lied, suddenly the class turned their stare to Alexis, the Mexican boy standing up and walking to the other. They both walked out of the classroom, “Is it about the-, the dildos in the bathroom? Or uh- the anthem being changed to the- uh, the weird “Dudududu” music?”
“What?” Nick asked in disbelief, sure, the other had a reputation of the school’s clown, along with some other people, although he didn’t know he would do things like those. “Listen, the whole stupid principal thing was a joke-“ “What?” “Yeah, so, I came here to ask about the project we had to do, I have no idea what’s it about.” He admitted shamelessly, leaning onto the wall. The Mexican sighed in relief, stretching out, even tho it was almost 3 pm, he still was tired.
“Here, have my number.” The shorter took a small piece of crumpled paper out of his pocket, as well as a small — almost fully used — pencil out of another pocket. He quickly wrote his number on the paper, crumbling it back and throwing it at the boy, who laughed at the stupid action, rolling his eyes. “I think you already know my snap, uh, I wrote it on there if you haven’t tho. Text me on there if you wanna talk about the project.” He quickly made finger-guns with his hands as he hurried back to the classroom — it was clear he didn’t feel like talking to Nick.
The boy sighed, looking at the piece of paper, stuffing it inside of his pocket for later. After a while of waiting he decided to hurry to the bathroom, thinking it wasn't the best idea to come back to class after about 20 minutes.