WC: currently 92,047
Chapters
prologue | ch1
Paige Woods is a normal, everyday average kid.
Well, he was a Teenager, but… you know.
Just like every day, his alarm blares at 6 AM. He yawns as he clicks it off and gets up from his bed.
Ahh. Time for another day of school.
Paige does his morning routine—use bathroom, brush teeth, take shower, towel off and get dressed. Once that’s all done, he goes downstairs.
“Morning honey!” His mom greets. “I made you your usual. It’s on the table.”
“Thanks Mom!” Paige smiles, walking past her and into the kitchen. There, on the table as promised, is two slices of toasted wheat bread, an overeasy egg, and of course, a cold glass of orange juice.
Paige could jump for joy. This was his favorite breakfast!
He sits at the table and munches at his food until it goes away piece by piece. He always had everything in the same order. Not for any particular reason, of course. It was just his preferred method of eating. He did this with all of his meals.
At 6:45 AM, Paige is finally ready to start his day.
“Mooom!” he calls into the house. “It’s time to gooo!”
“Coming, honey!” his mom yells back. “Just have to find my keys!”
“I’ll wait for you outside, then!”
“OK!”
Paige gathers his things—backpack, house keys, wallet and finally his phone. He taps at it to activate it and inputs his password. A cute picture of a kitty greets him as his background. He grins at it as he enters his texting app.
paige: Hi good morning.
branflakes: GM!
branflakes: is it time 2 go?
paige: Yes. Meet me outside?
branflakes: OK!
Paige closes his phone and pockets it in his hoodie. It was getting kind of cold with it being October soon. His standard get up was his burgundy uniform pants along with a plain white t-shirt. His hoodie was actually barely allowed, but because his teachers liked him, he was allowed to wear a burgundy hoodie.
Lucky for him! Sorry to anyone else, though.
Paige makes his way outside and waits by the front of his fence for his friend.
“Paiiige!”
The teen turns and smiles wide.
Running down the block was Brandon—Paige’s best friend and right hand man.
“Hi!” Paige greets once Brandon is close enough. “How was your night?”
“Awesome!” Brendon exclaims between panting. “I got… a new trophy… on Worms Armageddon!”
“Oh, congrats!” Paige claps. “Is that one of the games that Bro let you borrow?”
“Yeah!” Bradon’s face looks a little red. Perhaps he should stop running to meet up with Paige everyday? “Bart finished it all, so I got to hold onto it indefinitely!”
“Cool!” Paige says, giving a thumbs up. “You’ll have to let me see you play sometime, okay?”
“Of course!” Brandon’s face turns a little sly. “I can’t wait to beat you into the dirt.”
“Hey!” Paige pouts. “I resent that!”
Brandon laughs as Quinn finally exits the house. “Come on, boys!” she shouts from the garage.
“We’re coming!” the both of them shout back.
“Race you!” Brandon grins. “Onetwothree GO!” He takes off like a rocket, leaving Paige to blink in his wake.
“Wait!” he cries, beginning to run after the other. “Cheater!”
“Don’t hate the player, playa!” Brandon calls back, sticking his tongue out. “Hate the game!”
“I’ll hate the player all I want!” Paige laughs.
The two of them are a panting mess by the time they get to the SUV. Quinn is clearly trying very hard not to laugh at their antics, but she’s failing. The teens don’t seem to care one way or another though, continuing to rib each other even as the car leaves the garage.
The 20-ish minute drive there is filled with dad rock, poking and prodding and laughter. Tons and tons of laughter.
Just the way Paige loved it!
“I’ll see you later, alright kids?” Quinn says as she finally drops them off at their destination.
“See you Mom!” Paige waves at the same time Brandon says, “Bye-bye Auntie Quinn!”
The car pulls off, students soon filling the spot it left.
The two teens turn to one another as kids of all shapes and sizes stream past them. “Ready for another bomb day?” Brandon asks, holding up a fist.
“Yep!” Paige grins, completing the fist bump. The two of them make explosion noises as they pull their hands away, slowly opening them.
“Dorks!” someone from the crowd shouts. A small amount of giggles ripple through the crowd. But then Brandon puts on his one and only Scary Face.
The Scary Face consisted of a scowl so scathing it almost hurt to look at, eyes being squinted so much it was surprising Brandon could even see out of them, and to really sell it, he tilted his head downwards. It immediately shuts everyone up.
“C’mon, Paige. Let’s go,” Brandon says, turning back to him and dropping the Scary Face like it was nothing. In its place is a genuine smile, one that Paige had noticed he only really shared with himself and Bro and Sue. It made him feel special. After all, the four of them were pretty good friends! It felt great to have someone as close as Brandon in his life.
The school bell rings out. For a moment, the sea of students still. Then, they all scramble towards the front doors like rats about to be caught. Brandon quickly grabs onto Paige’s hand, not wanting them to get separated.
“Bomb day?” he asks, looking back at the other as he pulls him through the crowd.
“Bomb day,” Paige smiles back.
Even though people were already being mean to him today, Paige figured it didn’t matter. It would just be another boring day of school, nothing exciting happening. Nothing ever happened here at Ingenious High.
Why would today be any different?
Paige yawns as he sits in his 1st period class. He was rather smart, so the idea of studying ELA bored him. Not because ELA was boring in of itself, but because they were only trying to teach him things he already knew.
Paige hated to be told things he already knew.
Science was a different story. It was his 2nd period class. He had a waning interest in it, but it was enough to keep him from doodling the period away.
Third up, French, made Paige want to pull his hair out. The conjunctions never made any sense to him, no matter how much he studied. The teen sat in the back of the class and kept his head down for as much of the period as he could, unwilling to be spotted and called upon.
Algebra 2 right after was a welcome change of pace. He was extremely good with numbers, but he didn’t care much for them. Still, answering questions in the blink of an eye did have its fun qualities. He liked to watch as people who would make fun of him on a daily basis struggled to do the same as him. It would reinflate his ego after they would pierce and pop it all the time.
After Algebra 2 was Paige’s second favorite subject—lunch of course!
“Yo!” Brandon calls from the back of the lunch line as Paige squeezes into the cafeteria. “Paige! Over here!”
Paige knits his brows together with a worried smile. He glances around, looking for any of the Lunch Squad.
The Lunch Squad consisted of a group of three separate teachers, all of whom seemingly hated everything to do with the students. They wanted to prevent any fun from happening at all costs, as well as stopping anything they deemed “incorrect” or “immoral”.
Frankly, Paige found it ridiculous. What was the harm in people skipping the lunch line every so often? One extra person wasn’t going to hurt anyone. But he digressed.
None of the Lunch Squad seemed to be around, so Paige scuttles over to Brandon before he can be spotted.
“Hey-o!” Brandon smiles, holding up his fist. Just like earlier, Paige smiles and completes the brofist. This time though, in order not to alert any of the Lunch Squad, the explosion noises and effects are on a much smaller scale.
“How were your morning classes?” Paige asks, neatly slotting into line behind his friend.
“Good, good,” Brandon says. The two of them didn’t share many classes, the only two being their last two periods, Art and Writing. “I got to talk to Bart a bit. We’re working on that one project together, you know the one from Science?”
“Yeah, the one for the Science Fair, right?” Paige asks. Brandon nods. “I didn’t think you’d agree to be part of the pair to represent your class! What are you two doing?”
“Something about vitamin C, I don’t really remember much actually,” Brandon shrugs. “Was too busy thinking about the next time me and Bart get to hang out. Besides, they’re the one who’s good at sciency stuff. I’m more geared towards the big pic, you know that.”
Paige giggles as they move up in the line. “Yeah, I do.”
“That supposed to mean something?” Brandon asks, quirking an eyebrow.
Paige’s giggles turn into full-on laughter.
Eventually the two teens get to grab their lunch, a passable amount of dumplings along with fried rice, chocolate milk for Brandon and 1% for Paige, and go to find the table they always sat at.
There, waiting for them, is Bro and Sue.
“Hey guys!” Sue waves. “What’s on the menu today?” They and Bro always brought their own lunches from home, so they’d always ask what the other two got to eat for the day.
“Dumplings ‘n rice!” Brandon smiles. “Tasty treat for a Monday.” He and Paige take a seat.
“Nice to see you’re with us today, Sue!” Paige beams. Sue smiles back as Brandon begins to use his teeth in an attempt to open a packet of soy sauce.
“Y-you’re gonna spill that everywhere,” Bro mutters calmly. To anyone else, it would probably sound like they were shy, but Paige knows better. They just talked like that.
“Am not,” Brandon bites back, muffled by the packet still in his mouth. He pulls at it harder. “Damn thing… won’t…”
Rip.
Paige and Sue gasp.
Bro, meanwhile, breaks into a hiccuping mess of laughter.
Just as predicted, Brandon’s shirt is now stained dark with soy sauce.
“None of it even landed on the rice…” he laments.
“H-here,” Bro manages through laughs, handing the poor condiment’s victim a wipe.
Brandon sighs. “Thanks, Bart.”
“Any… anytime,” Bro smiles.
Their hands linger for a moment before Brandon finally pulls the wipe away and begins cleaning himself off.
Luckily, once that’s taken care of, Bro offers to open the next one for him.
“Um,” Brandon says, “Don’t you think you’ll just end up like me?”
“N-nah.”
With one magic tug, Bro has a second packet opened and spilled over Brandon’s helping of rice. Then a third. “Want a-nother?” they ask, hand hovering over the last one.
“Please?”
“G-otcha.”
Bro does as asked of them with no complaints. Brandon smiles at them, one of those specifically saved for this group of people. It’s got something else hidden in it though. Paige can’t exactly parse what it is, but it’s noticeable, that’s for certain.
He chooses not to comment on it.
The lunch period continues amicably after that, the four students chatting with one another happily. The period is soon to end though, and as the conversation drifts over to the next class, Paige jolts in his seat.
“Oh! My books for Social Studies are still in my locker!” He stands quickly, rounding up his garbage and placing it all on his tray. “I’ll see you guys soon! I don’t wanna get trampled trying to get them while everyone else is trying to get to their classes.”
Brandon nods, Sue waves and Bro shoots a finger gun. Each one of them had their own little ways of saying bye. Paige smiles. He loved his friends.
On the way out of the cafeteria he tosses his garbage and fixes his bookbag to be more comfortable on his back.
The walk to his locker is made in relative silence, Paige brokenly humming a tune he vaguely remembers. He reaches his destination with no interruptions. He grabs his lock and begins to enter the combination.
16… 5… 18. There we go!
Paige pulls open his locker, ready to get his things, but something catches his eye as it falls gently to the floor. He scrunches his face in confusion as he bends down to pick it up.
What was this?
The back of it is blank, but when Paige flips it over, his mouth falls open.
“Did you know? Cats are typically thought to have nine whole lives!
If I were a cat, I’d be more than inclined to spend every life with you.
(P.S.
My favorite breed is ragdoll. What’s yours?)
(P.P.S.
Leave your response right under your locker. I’ll find a way to get back to you. Promise. ♥)”
Paige blinks.
He reads the note over once, twice, three times.
Was… was this meant for him?
Paige looks around the hallway in a tizzy. No one else was around. No one else was around when he arrived either. So… who could have…?
The bell rings.
Ah… time for the next period huh…
I really hope Social Studies isn’t a lot today, Paige thinks, stuffing the note in his pocket. I don’t think I could handle it. I won’t be able to stop thinking about this note…
He quickly nabs the books he came here for in the first place and pushes them into his bag, closing the locker behind himself.
He’s almost about to leave, but…
If this was really and truly meant for him, wouldn’t it be rude not to respond?
Students begin to enter the hallway. Paige panics. He only had about 5 minutes to make it to his next class on the 3rd floor.
As fast as he can, he grabs one of his notebooks and scribbles out an answer.
“I like orange cats!” is all he manages before the crowd begins to thicken. It would have to do.
He pushes the note overtop of his locker, letting just a bit stick out. Hopefully whoever had left this note would find it?
He lets the wave of students carry him off to his next class, thoughts full of whoever could have written such a thing. And just for him no less!
He couldn’t wait until 7th period. He had to tell Brandon about this.