Chapter Text
The bell had just rung. Students were packing their things, friends were excitedly chatting about their after school plans, and Till was glued to his phone. He had whipped it out as soon as his teacher wrapped up their lesson for today, minutes before the bell went off.
37 missed messages, the most recent being:
Im sooooooo bored
*image sent*
This is who your ignoring btw i hope you feel bad
When is school letting out its so boring without anyone to talk to ૮₍ ˃ ⤙ ˂ ₎ა
Youre visiting today right ૮₍ •̯́ ₃ •̯̀₎ა
The picture was of a boy, head tilted down with pouting lips and exaggerated sad eyes making direct eye contact with the camera in an obvious attempt to look cute.
Till let out an exasperated sigh but the small smile forming on his face wasn’t fooling anyone. Just as he was about to send a reply a voice called out to him.
“Till!!!”
Startled, Till jumps and slams his phone face down. “M-Mizi!”
“Whatcha up to? Do you have club today? Sua and I found a really cute cafe that sells the beeeest strawberry cake. The place isn’t super popular so they’re never sold out but it's sooooooo good.”
Mizi bounced her way into the classroom with Sua trailing behind her. The three of them had befriended each other during a summer program their school hosted. Its purpose was to ease the transition from middle to high school, which Till thought was so lame. It was obvious parents just wanted a place to dump their kids for a couple weeks during the summer while they fuck off to whatever fancy cruise, private island, or wherever people who had money to burn went on vacation. A school this ‘prestigious’ also wouldn't mind keeping tabs on future students so as to not stain their precious reputation.
Needless to say Till was not buying what this school was trying to sell here with this summer program. But as much as he wasn't a fan his mom insisted he go. She’d gone on and on about how much of a good opportunity it was. He could get used to the layout of the school so when the first day of classes came around he wouldn’t have to worry about where everything was. He could also make friends while he was there.
“I feel awful separating you from your friends, but this school was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Hopefully this summer program will allow you to make friends before the school year starts. Wouldn’t that be great, my love?”, is what his mom said while he was keeping her company as she made dinner one night and how was he supposed to say no when she put it like that.
As much as he shit talked the summer program and what it represented to him, Till had been so nervous going into it. I mean, just like his mom said, practically no one from his friend group was going to this prep school. He remembers when they all told each other what schools they’d be going to the next year and he’d been expectantly clowned on.
“The school with all those rich assholes! Pff, how’d you get in? Your family can’t even afford the application fee, I don’t think anyone from our class can…well maybe not everyone.”, the boy smirked side eyeing Till.
“I got in through a raffle.” Till mumbled, embarrassed. “None of us are that poor..”, his meek defense ignored.
They’d been walking to their usual hangout spot, a packed arcade, after school.
“A raffle? So you're basically a charity case, something for them to brag about in the local newspaper that no one reads. How generous of them.”, another boy scoffs, rolling his eyes.
Till knew this was exactly the kind of response he was going to receive, condescending comments and mocking smiles. But, to be honest, he’d probably react the same way if one of the others had said they were going to attend a rich prep school instead of the nearby public school everyone else was going to attend. Hell, he has made snide remarks towards his best friend, Ivan, when he admitted his parents planned on enrolling him in the exact same school Till was to attend the following year. Till actually hadn’t told Ivan he’d been accepted yet, if only a certain someone would answer his texts instead of ghosting him and skipping class for days on end.
hey
where you been
hurry up and answer your phone
heading to the arcade i’ll get you one of the plushies
you whine and complain about not being able to win
Shooting a quick text while the others kept on with the teasing, they'd arrived at the arcade and spent the rest of the day goofing off and playing games. After playing a couple of shooter and racing games with his friends Till broke off from the group and spent a solid hour and a good chunk of his allowance, that he’ll never admit to an actual number of, trying to win a big cyan colored bunny plushie. It looked silly, and a little ugly in his opinion, with a spikey tuft of hair on its head and a floppy ear. It was perfect for who he was going to give it to. Ivan always had questionable taste in what he deemed was cute.
All-in-all it was a pretty good way to end off his last term of middle school before everyone had to hunker down and start prepping for final exams in two weeks.
Turns out he had nothing to be so nervous about since now, he was friends with two girls who were practically attached to the hip. Mizi and Sua had nearly every class together and even before their first year in high school they had been childhood friends always following after each other, or so he’s been told. Even though they obviously have history with each other and are as close as two people could be, they never hesitated to include Till in their hangouts. Whether it's something as mundane as Sua inviting him to join them in their study sessions or Mizi inviting him to check out a cafe the two girls have already been to, Till never felt left out (even if he has felt like a third wheel on occasion).
“We’re about to head over and treat ourselves, wanna come with? You can even pick something up for your girlfriend! I’m sure she’d also like the strawberry cake we’re going for.” Mizi innocently tried to bribe him into coming with them.
“Yea- I don’t have a girlfriend!” right as Till was going to accept her invitation, he realized what Mizi said.
“You don’t? But you’re always smiling at your phone during breaks and you always try to rush out of here after school. I thought you were going on dates with a girlfriend. Oh, and every time we all go out you buy the cutest little trinkets, something a doting boyfriend would totally do for a girlfriend. Really Till, I’m offended you never bothered to introduce us to her. Have these past weeks meant nothing to you. I thought we were all friends here.” Mizi dramatically pouted and crossed her arms, turning away from Till in an exaggerated show of betrayal.
“Personally I doubt you have the charm to bag a girlfriend, but the evidence is glaring.” Sua chimed in amused at the growing flush coloring Till’s face.
“That’s not- I’m not- He er um- They’re not- It’s” at that point Till’s stuttering caused Sua to let out an unexpected laugh.
“Pfff, I told you he wasn’t ready to tell us.” Sua leaned her weight on Mizi and then redirected her focus onto Till. “Alright hurry up, finish your text to your girlfriend and finish packing up so we can go. Mizi’s been craving this cake all day.”
“Whatever. You guys are awful.” Till mumbled under his breath and shoved all his school supplies into his backpack. As the three walked out of the classroom together he started typing out a quick message letting the girls lead the way.
yeah yeah ill stop by today
gotta make a quick stop first
see you in a bit
Yay o૮(≧∇≦o)ა