Chapters
ch1 | ch2 | ch3 | ch4 | ch5 | ch6 | ch7 | ch8
Sebastian sashays down the empty hallway on his way to his third period class that consisted of none other than Social Studies. It was another crisp Monday morning, and his first two classes of Art and ELA had gone by swimmingly. Just as they always did.
Glancing sideways at the lockers as he passes them, Sebastian sighs. His jolly court filled with subjects, yet none of them loyal to him! How sad! What was a king without his people?
Something catches Sebatian’s eye as he passes by an otherwise nondescript locker. There was a piece of paper sticking out from it.
“Litter…” he growls. “I cannot stand literers….”
Without hesitation, he snatches the paper out of the locker and looks it over.
It reads:
“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.
haLeave your response right under your locker. I’ll find a way to get back to you. Promise. ♥)”
Sebastian blinks.
Was this… a love letter?
Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Sebastian had just read someone’s mail.
He had just broken the law.
Oh dear…!
The school bell rings signaling for classes to rotate. Sebastian had been let out early per his request. He didn’t want to get trampled in the halls, after all. Especially not with this exquisite outfit on.
But, in becoming a criminal, he had taken too long. Students are beginning to pour out of doors like a flood.
Panicking, Sebastian quickly shoves the note through the slots on the top of the locker. He hopes and prays it gets to its intended recipient and not a low down dog like him.
+++
The next day, Sebastian follows his same route from ELA to Social Studies. This means he also passes by the same locker from before.
There’s a new note there.
Phew, he sighs.It looks like the delivery was attempted again. He sighs again, happy this time. Aah, a love letter! Incredible! Here’s to new love finding its way into my domain!
Sebastian carries on with his day, relieved.
+++
On Wednesday, however, things are different.
Today there is no note.
Sebastian worries.
Didn’t they say to write back? he thinks, nibbling his fingernails. Has there been an upset? Could they have… He gasps. Could they have found out I accidentally read their mail and are now too scared to communicate this way?
Sebastian feels like sobbing. He rushes over to the locker, peering at all sides.
No, no, he frets. They couldn’t have found out. I can’t be the reason this couple can’t find love. I can’t be the demise of a still budding relationship!
But, try as Sebastian might, he cannot find a letter jutting out anywhere from the locker.
He tries to calm his breathing.
It’s okay. Nobody knows of your misdeeds, Sebastian. Perhaps this has nothing to do with you at all.
Yes. Yes, maybe that was it.
Of course.
That had to be it.
Absolutely.
Sebastian walks to Social Studies, 100% completely paying attention to where he’s going. The flat bruise on his face is because someone hit him with a book, obviously. He absolutely did not walk head first into every door he came across.
Not at all.
+++
The jig is up. It’s Thursday and there’s no note.
This is absolutely his fault.
Someone had found out about his crime, told the sender and recipient, and they’ve moved to a more secure location.
That, of course, was the Good End.
The Most Likely End is that the sender saw Sebastian eyeing the note on Tuesday and got so scared they didn’t leave any more notes.
This was it. Sebastian had ruined a flourishing love, becoming a heinous criminal at the same time.
The teenager requests an early leave. Before long, Collins is here to drive him home.
“You good, Seb?” she asks as he climbs in quietly.
“Just… take me home please.”
“...Alright, buddy.”
+++
“...Brother dearest?” Sebastian murmurs as he knocks lightly and pushes into Kevin’s room. “Are you in here…?”
“What is it, Seb?” Kevin barks, clacking away at one of his video’s game’s controllers. “Kinda in the middle of something h—Pipes! Behind you!”
“Um…” Sebastian comes in and closes the door. “May I speak with you?”
“About what?”
“...Something important?”
Kevin turns to look at him for a moment, eyebrows furrowed. “Something important?”
“Kev!” Sebastian can just barely hear out of Kevin’s headphones. Then the sound of little explosions happen and a sad little trill. “Damnit.”
“Ugh,” Kevin groans. He turns to his computer. “Be right back.” He taps something on his keyboard and turns his chair towards his brother. “What’s up, Seb?”
Sebastian cradles himself and glances away. “I may have done something… illegal.” He spits the word out, disgusted.
Kevin however, gets excited. “For real?” He jumps up a little. “What’d you do?”
“I…” He takes a lavishing deep breath. “I read someone else’s mail!” he shouts out in a rush.
“...Yeah?” Kevin says like he’s expecting more. “...And?”
“I read someone’s mail!” Sebastian languishes. “I’ve ruined a love! I’ve tarnished the Sharp’s good name!”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Kevin says. “Go back. Ruined a love?”
“Yes!” the taller teen cries. “The letter I read was a love letter! And now the notes have stopped appearing!”
“...Okay?” Kevin asks.
“So, because of me, those poor lovelorn souls will never find their soulmates!”
“...Oh,” Kevin says after a moment. “Oh, you’re serious.”
“Of course I’m serious!” Sebastian shouts, eyes starting to water. “Do you take nothing I say seriously!?”
“Woah, hey, hey! Of course I do!” Kevin says, getting up. “Don’t cry, man.” He walks over to his brother with open arms. Sebastian falls into him without another word, sobbing profusely.
“I didn’t me-an too~!” he weeps. “I thought it was li-tter~!”
“It’s alright, dude,” Kevin soothes, rubbing circles in Sebastian’s back. And, though he sighs before he says it, he offers, “Do you wanna go sit down and watch the Winnie the Pooh movie again?”
Sebastian sniffles undaintily. “...C-an we?”
“Yeah, man.” Kevin begins to walk them to the personal movie theater side of his room. There’s a big comfortable reclining chair set up just for them. “We can do whatever you want.”
Kevin gently coaxes Sebastian into taking a seat. “Can—” he starts abruptly, sniffing and holding his arms to his chest, “Can I hold Wobbles?”
A look passes over Kevin’s face, but it’s there and gone so fast Sebastian has no time to process it. Either way, he says, “Yeah, man. Like I said, whatever you want.”
Kevin moves to go retrieve Wobbles and probably shut off his computer. Meanwhile, Sebastian gets the movie set up.
It takes a minute, but eventually the two brothers are side by side, sharing a blanket, a massive bowl of popcorn and watching the movie together. Kevin had gotten Wobbles for Sebastian as requested, and he clings onto the little stuffed white dog for dear life.
But, just like every other time they ended up like this, Sebastian begins to nod off somewhere in the middle of the movie. The familiarity of the situation makes him feel safe.
He’s half asleep when he hears the movie’s volume decrease and he perks up a bit, intrigued.
“Hey, Seb,” Kevin prods. “You still awake?”
“Mmm?”
“You’re not like, a criminal or anything, y’know,” Kevin says, looking directly at him. “It was an honest mistake.”
While they were ultimately untrue, the words warm Sebastian’s heart anyways, making him smile just a bit.
“...Thanks, Kevin,” he mumbles. “For everything.”
“Hey, no problem, man.” Kevin turns the movie back up with one hand, his phone in the other. “Go get some sleep. I’ll let it play out.”
Sebastian’s smile widens just a fraction. It’s one of the most important fractions in his life.
kevvie: yea
kevvie: hes out liwk a lifht
kevvie: like light
kevvie: srry im kinda tired too
pipesies: its ok
pipesies: so wat was th problwm
kevvie: ok get this
pipesies: :iamlooking:
kevvie: he was upset cause he accidentally read someones love letter
pipesies: ??
pipesies: who..
kevvie: idk
kevvie: its like killing me not knowing tho
kevvie: he was rlly torn up abt it too. so idont wanna ask him again
pipesies: hm
pipesies: what abt
pipesies: asking
kevvie: say a real name or im kicking you
pipesies: .
pipesies: whats her name um
pipesies: mike?
kevvie: u mean mic
pipesies: ya
kevvie: idk. she always knows a lot but i dont want it getting around that seb looked at it
pipesies: just dont say that then
kevvie: oh
kevvie: ok yea
kevvie: thanx babe <3
pipesies: <3
+++
kev: hey mic
mic: hi kev!!! whats up:0
kev: need some info
mic: ohhhh abt what?
kev: dont tell anybody but
kev: theres someone in the school egtting love notes
kev: u know anything abt it
mic: WHATTTT
mic: NO WAY THATS SO COOOOOLL
kev: damn
kev: take that as a no
mic: YEA SORRY
mic: you want me to ask around? without like outing you ofc!!
kev: nah
kev: thanks tho
mic: np!! sorry i didnt have anything to help!!
kev: ur good. ttyl
mic: kay!!
“Sean, Sean, Sean,” Mic calls. “Seeeaaaannnnn.”
The two of them are in Chorus, near the back. Everyone is doing something on their own, the teacher having stepped out for a moment.
“Yes?” Sean whispers. She’s always whispering.
“Guess what.”
“What?”
Mic looks around before leaning in. “There’s a secret admirer in the school!” she whispers excitedly
“Here?” Sean asks. “Seriously?”
“I know, right!?” Mic is about to jump out of her seat as she flaps her hands rapidly. “It’s so exciting!
“It is a bit exciting,” Sean nods. “Do you know who it is? Or who’s getting them?”
“Noooope,” Mic sighs. “But I really hope I can hear more from—” She covers her mouth. “Oops! I’m not supposed to say!”
“It’s okay,” Sean says. “Probably best to keep quiet about it.” She frowns a bit. “We wouldn’t want it getting around and messing with things.”
“You’re right!” Mic nods enthusiastically. “Still…! Exciting…!!!”
“It is, Mikey,” Sean smiles, patting her on the head gently. “It is.”
Mic grins wide.
+++
“Oh my god,” Sarah giggles. “Peps, you totally heard that during Chorus, right?”
Sarah and Peppa are sitting at their usual table at Lunch, nibbling on today’s food.
“Of course I did,” Peppa smiles. “You know your bestie’s got ears on him!”
“Oh my gooood,” Sarah says again. “That’s so romantic…” she swoons.
“It’s pretty cliche, actually,” Peppa says, rolling his eyes. “But… it is also kind of romantic.”
“See!” Sarah flaps her hand at Peppa, smile on her face. “Oh my god. We have to find out who it is.”
“Do we?” Peppa asks, raising an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that be like, ruining the whole thing of it being a secret admirer?”
“Not if we don’t tell anyone!” Sarah says earnestly. Then she scrunches her face, thinking. “Well… we’ll probably need to ask at least one person about it.”
“Why?
“How else are we supposed to find out who it is?”
“Lurking?”
“You know I don’t like lurking, Peps.”
“But lurking is fun!”
“It is not!”
“It is too!”
“Lurking?” The two friends blink. When they turn to the source of the new voice, it’s none other than Lucy Lulu, rain boots and all. “What’re we lurking for?”
“Oh, hey Luce,” Peppa greets. “You’re good at finding stuff out, right?”
“Peps!” Sarah whispers harshly. She didn’t know Lucy very well, unlike Peppa. Those two had gone back a while, but they were more casual friends nowadays. Still… Sarah didn’t know if they could trust her with a secret like this. Mic might've been a loudmouth, but from the stories Peppa had told her about Lucy, this girl was relentless.
“Oh, calm down, Sarie,” Peppa smiles. “I know what you’re probably thinking. You’ve got that worried look on your face.”
“I do?” Sarah asks, touching her face. Peppa laughs.
“Lucy, we have a favor to ask.”
“Shoot!” Lucy smiles.
“Now, I need to stress, this has to stay a secret, okay? This is an ears to the ground operation.”
“Got it boss!” Lucy says, giggling with a salute.
“Awesome,” Peppa smiles. “Now, we heard from a loud little birdie last period that someone in the school has a secret admirer!”
“Oh!” Lucy gasps. “How sweet!”
“It’s more than sweet,” Peppa smirks. “It’s super interesting. Nothing interesting ever happens here at Ingenuous High.” He looks at Sarah. “Me and Sarie wanna know who the recipient is.”
“Not the sender?” Sarah asks. “I thought that’d be more fun!”
“Nooo,” Lucy answers instead of Peppa. “‘Cause then I’ll know who it is! And I’ll never forget! And I’ll be a liability!” Lucy pushes her hands into her hair, hunching over a bit. “I hate being a liability!”
“Okay, okay,” Peppa soothes. “Like I said, we only wanna know the person getting them.”
“Oh, okay!” Lucy perks right back up. “You got it!” With that, Lucy salutes again and leaves, objective received.
“Do you really think she’ll find out who it is?” Sarah asks.
“Oh, definitely.” Peppa nods. “She’ll probably tell Peyton once she finds out, but they don’t strike me as the gossiping type.”
“So only us four will know who it is?”
“Pretty much.”
Sarah smiles. “Heehee! I love knowing secrets!”
Oh man.
Barret sits in Chorus, shuffling his feet.
He had just overheard something he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to.
Secret admirer… he thinks to himself. Maybe I should… no… he wouldn’t be able to figure out it was me and it would kill me if he thought it was someone else.
The thought of becoming Nick’s secret admirer is thrown in the trash before it has the proper time to grow. He’d have to find some other way to let the other know about his feelings.
…Later. In the future. At some point.
Yeah.
Either way, Barret still has this new knowledge he can’t do anything about.
Except for one thing, of course.
+++
“Barret!” Nick waves. “Over here!”
Nick is in the middle of the lunch line, not being subtle at all. He doesn’t have to, after all. The Lunch Squad (the stupid name the whole school had called those teachers who were annoying at Lunch) were all out sick today. The cafeteria was a lawless place.
So of course that means Nick is gonna slip his main man into the line for a fast lunch.
Barret looks worried as he approaches Nick. “Hi, Nick…” he mumbles, slotting into line. People behind them groan, but Nick could care less.
Now, Barret wasn’t always a huge ball of energy on a good day. But he normally fought weakly about skipping the line before ultimately doing it anyways. What was up?
“Barr, what’s wrong?” Nick asks, eyebrows scrunching. “You good?”
“Um,” he mumbles. “Let’s wait until we’re off line.”
Huh? Was it a secret or something?
“Okay,” Nick nods anyways, even though curiosity was now burning at him.
Before long, the line has taken them to get their lunch, milk and surprise iceies from a crate. Limited supply, of course.
Nick takes two.
Then, the two go to sit at their table in the back of the cafe. It was better this way for both of them. Nick got to listen in on folks’ conversations a lot easier, and Barret got less overwhelmed. Win win in Nick’s book.
“Okay, big guy,” Nick says the moment they set their trays down. “What’s up? You didn’t fight me about skipping today.” He pokes Barret on the forehead. “You got somethin’ goin’ on up there I don’t know about?”
“Um…” Barret mumbles again. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Alright then, spill.”
“There’s… um…” Barret pulls his arms up and rocks a bit. He’s nervous.
“Hey,” Nick says softly. “You don’t gotta if it’s making you like that, man.”
“There’s a secret admirer in the school,” Barret rushes out, a bit loud. “Um. I… wanted to say that quieter.”
“You’re fine,” Nick says, waving a hand. “Everyone around here is too busy with their own shit to care about us.” Nick pushes himself up on the table. “But!” he smiles, excited. “How do you know? Is it youuu?”
“No!” Barret yelps. Then he clears his throat. “N-no, it’s not me,” he stammers. “But I don’t know who it could be either.”
Nick sits back down on his chair. “Booo!” he pouts. “I thought you had some big boy news!”
“W-well…” Barret mumbles. “I think… I think it’s cool…”
“Yeah?” Nick asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah…” Barret sighs dreamily. “I think if I got a secret admirer it’d really make me swoon, y’know?”
Nick shrugs. “Eh. I’d rather whoever wants me to just straight up tell me.
Barret looks at Nick with intense eyes.
“What?” Nick asks. “Is that so weird?”
“No,” Barret replies, looking away. “Not at all.”
Kevin flops down on their bed. What a day! They had met up with Paige again after a long time, gotten a hang out planned with him and the others, and learned who was getting those love letters!
They sigh. They still couldn’t believe it was Paige of all people… He was such a shy little guy, they didn’t think he’d ever find someone in high school.
Oh, speaking of Paige and tomorrow’s hang out…
Kevin pulls out their phone. “Call Collins,” they instruct.
“Calling Collins…” the phone trills back before ringing. It rings once, twice…
“What’s up, Kev?” Collins asks as she picks up. “You need somethin’?”
“Not right now,” they say. “But tomorrow. Me and a couple friends are going to the skate park and I was hoping you could drive us.”
“No prob!” Collins says, smile in her voice. Then she sucks her teeth. “Oh, damn. I forgot.”
“Huh?”
“Seb has his weekend drive tomorrow,” Collins explains. “You good with sharing the ride?”
“Yeah, you know I don’t care.”
“Alright then! I got you. But I’ll have to break the news to Seb…”
“Nah, I got it,” Kevin says, stretching. “He’ll just throw a fit if you do it.”
“Thanks, boss,” Collins laughs. “That all, then?”
“Yeah. Talk to you.”
“Talk t’ ya!” With that, the line goes dead.
“Ughhh…” Kevin groans. They had completely forgotten Sebastian goes on those drives every weekend. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too stubborn about letting them and their friends ride along.
Well. No time like the present.
Kevin ambles their way over to Sebastian’s room, only a hallway down from theirs. When they get there, they knock before pushing in.
“Seb?”
Sebastian looks up from his book. It looks like he was reading one of his Winnie the Pooh books again. “Yes, brother dearest?” he asks.
“Ssooooo… you know how you have a drive all planned out for tomorrow?”
Sebastian squints. “Yes…?”
“Well, funny story, I met the guy whose mail you read and—”
“YOU WHAT?” Sebastian cries, completely cutting Kevin off. “THIS IS A TRAVESTY!” He jumps up and almost races over to Kevin, grabbing them by the scruff of their collar. “Tell me you didn’t tell them about me! Tell me!”
“I didn’t, I didn’t!” Kevin swears, holding their hands up playacting. “I promise!”
Sebastian sighs and lets go of Kevin, dusting himself off afterwords. “Terribly sorry,” he murmurs. “Don’t quite know what came over me.”
“You were just scared, man. I get it.” Kevin nods. “But, anyways, you’ll never believe who it is!”
Sebastian hesitates, lips creasing before he says, “...Who?”
“Piage! You know, from when we were little?”
“Paige… Woods?” Sebastian asks.
“Yeah! That’s my man.”
“I barely recall the name, but perhaps that’s for the best.” Sebastian sighs. “Well, whatever. What in the world does this have to do with my drive tomorrow?”
Kevin smiles awkwardly. “So, basically, I’m taking a couple friends to the skate park, Paige included, and I need to use the limo to get us there.”
Sebastian stares hard at his brother. “Kevin,” he huffs, crossing his arms, “I am not letting you and your rowdy friends tarnish my good weekend drive.”
“Pleaseeeee?” Kevin begs, pushing their hands together flat and bowing their head. “I already told them I would!”
“Ugh…” Sebastian groans. “I do so detest lying… even if it’s not my lie, it would have been my fault it was a lie…”
Kevin smirks, unseeable to Sebastian. They knew their brother didn’t like lying. The bait had worked.
“Ugh. Fine,” Sebastian sighs. Kevin cheers. “However!” he continues. “You must promise not to cause a ruckus.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever!” Kevin gives their brother a quick hug. “Heh! Thanks, Seb!”
Sebastian blinks as Kevin makes their exit before he can change his mind.
They press the speed dial on their phone for Collins. It rings once… twice…
“Heyo!”
“Told him! Had to cheese it outta him, but we’re good to go!”
“Nice!”
It’s a boring, boring lunch period. There’s not much to talk about, so Sarah and Peppa sit on their phones, blogging away.
It’s not until there’s a surprise pop in that they both perk up.
“Hi!” Lucy greets, literally popping up from the other side of the table.
“Oh my god!” Sarah gasps. “Lucy, what the hell?”
Peppa, also stunned for a bit, doesn’t freak out after. In fact, he’s laughing a little bit. “Same old Lucy,” he sighs happily. “What’s up, cut up?”
“I got the info you wanted!”
“Oh, awesome!” Peppa grins, spreading out across the table. “Tell us, tell us!”
“It’s…” Lucy looks around, up and down, and then comes close to the other two. “It’s Paige Woods!” she whispers.
“No way!” Sarah gasps. “Pa—”
Peppa hits Sarah lightly. “Shh!” he quiets. “Not so loud!”
“Oh, right,” Sarah smiles awkwardly. “Sorry! But you know I just love juicy secrets.”
“I’m glad I could help on your secret finding endeavors!” Lucy laughs, only to get serious a second later. “He’s a shy guy, though!” she warns. “So maybe don’t ask him about it? He’ll get all flustered and probably have a heart attack to boot.”
“‘Kay,” Peppa nods. “Thanks for the info, Luce!”
“Anytime, Pep!” And with that, Lucy waves and leaves.
The second she’s out of earshot, Peppa looks at Sarah mischievously. “So, we’re definitely asking him, right?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Yusef is a lot of things. Has been called a lot of things. Has done a lot of things. Things that have sharpened their resolve, sharpened their senses, and most importantly, things that forced them to sharpen their claws.
There’s very little that didn’t set Yusef off. They’re able to keep a good half of it in check, but the other half? Well, let's just say they’d been in more fights than strictly necessary. Fights that started and ended in minutes, fights that they were goaded into, fights that shouldn’t have happened… Yusef had seen them all.
They could go from completely calm to clawing at someone in a second. People had called them volatile, unstable, a mess of a person.
Thus, without their permission, they were dubbed the Yin Yang Cutter. The sudden yin turned yang and their nails ripping through whoever was stupid enough to fight them is what popularized it, or something like that. Yusef didn’t really care.
What Yusef did care about though, was… less tangible.
You see, coming from a troubled home, they didn’t really get much in the love department from any side. So when they overhear that stupid Sharp kid whispering about getting admirer notes when he was rich and famous and probably had a loving, caring family who tended to his every whim…
Well. Yusef didn’t take it lightly.
The rage that filled their heart over the idea of someone who didn’t need it, didn’t deserve it, getting love notes? It made them want to throw up. Out of everyone in the school, why him?
…Why not them…?
Yusef’s mind is suddenly filled with the need to destroy anything and everything that that stupid kid loved and held dear. How to go about that exactly was a toss up, but they were ready for any type of possibility to open itself to them.
And open itself it did.
Yusef is returning from the bathroom when none other than the Sharp kid comes down the hallway. He’s in a rush, which is just perfect.
Yusef grins with sudden manic energy, quickly putting the 3 second plan they’d thought up into motion. As the Sharp walks by, they quickly trip him, leaving him on the floor in a heap.
“Ow!” he hisses, holding onto one of his legs. “What the hell, man?”
Yusef puts on a fake pout. “I’m sorry,” they say. “Does your leg hurt?”
“Yeah, no thanks to you!”
Yusef smirks. “Let me help make it worse, then.”
“What?” the Sharp asks, letting his leg straighten.
Big mistake.
“You have everything,” Yusef grumbles, beginning to loom over the other. “You have absolutely everything someone like me could want. Do you know that?”
“Man, I don’t even know who you are,” the Sharp says, rolling his eyes.
“Well,” Yusef chuckles, raising their own leg. “This’ll make you remember me for a while.”
Yusef brings their leg down onto the Sharp’s, indulging in the crack that splits the air.
He screams.
Yusef grins happily.
Serves him right.
Trigger Warnings: homophobia
Orville follows behind Ms. Meredith calmly, though the same can’t be said for PB.
“This is bullshit!” he shouts, trying to twist his arm away from the teacher. “I didn’t do anything!”
“I highly doubt that, Mr. Jones,” Ms. Meredith hisses. “Exactly how many times have I caught you in this exact position?”
“Like, three times tops!”
“That’s a blatant lie and you know it.”
The two teens are taken to the dean’s office and placed in front of the man himself, Mr. Parlett.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Meredith?” he asks, glancing up from his book. He looks down at the students and his eyes widen in surprise.
“Mr. Jones, this is no surprise, but you, Mr. Squeeze? What are you doing here?”
Orville goes to explain, but Ms. Meredith beats him to the punch. “They were fighting in the cafeteria,” she informs. “Both of them.”
“I wasn’t fighting anybody!” PB swears. “It was his crazy ass who up and attacked me!”
“Language,” Mr. Parlett says before lidding his eyes. “Now, I won’t lie Mr. Jones, you’re quite the bully.”
“I’ve never done anything else than self defense.” It’s such a lie even Orville can see through it.
“Right,” Mr. Parlett says blandly. Turning to Orville, he asks, “Would you like to tell us your recollection of what happened?”
Orville nods. “Of course. PB here threatened my friend Paige Woods—”
“You mean your little boyfriend?” PB laughs, causing Orville to frown.
“He threatened my friend and I couldn’t sit idly by. So I stood up and defended him.” He turns to the other with an annoyed expression. “I then acted in self defense after he swung at me.”
“‘Cause that little twerp was going to ruin me!” PB shouts. “I had to fight him, I—” He blinks. “...I mean, I wasn’t going to fight anybody. At all. Ever.” He smiles sweetly. “I’m an angel.”
“What you are is suspended for three weeks,” Mr. Parlett says without missing a beat.
“Aw, what!?” PB groans. “I didn’t even do shit!”
“You tried to attack me,” Orville says deadpanned.
PB crosses his arms and slumps into his chair. “What the fuck ever.”
“Language,” Mr. Parlett stresses. “Or we could talk about upping that suspension into an expulsion. You’re about one fight over your allowance, Mr. Jones. I will not hear another word from you on this matter if you wish to stay in this school.”
PB growls, but says no more.
+++
As it ends up, Orville simply has a mark put on his file. He’s assured should he gain no more, it’ll be erased before he graduates.
He texts with Paige all night, doing all he can to ease the other’s mind. It takes a little convincing, but eventually the two of them are able to ease into more mellow topics.
Eventually, it’s time to sleep. Orville bids Paige a goodnight before plugging his phone in to charge and climbing into bed proper.
He’s ready to sleep, but the scenes of him fighting PB and then being in the dean’s office keeps replaying in his head. Both times PB had mocked the idea of Paige and him being together…
While that was… unsurprising for someone like him, Orville worries about it regardless. The way he’d spit it out like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard…
Well. Orville could only hope nothing else came of it.
He rolls over and soon falls into a fitful sleep, feeling unprepared for the next day.