Chapter Text
First hour was kinda boring. Mx. Woof introduced themselves, gave a general outline about what the class would be about and then had the class circle up and do an icebreaker. The class is a mix of all four grades and Taako honestly can’t tell who’s a freshman and who’s a sophomore. But there’s a couple juniors he knows from previous classes.
Luckily, Mx. Woof didn’t ask about soulmates or even mention having one. Taako can’t tell if they have marks on their arms and doesn’t want to pry. Ren thinks they had a falling out and separated. But it's none of the teacher’s business to ask about those kinds of things anyway.
But now he has to go all the way across the school to the art wing so he can get to second-hour jewelry.
He pushes through the chaos of the 900, 600 and 700 intersection and gets to class just before the bell rings.
Much to Taako’s surprise, Julia has this class too. So he sets his stuff down on the table and plops down into the chair next to her, “Have I ever told you how much I hate the 900, 700 and 600 intersection? Because I hate it.”
Julia looks up at him with a grin, “No, no you haven’t,” she says sarcastically, “I didn’t know you had this class.”
“Had to fill up my schedule somehow,” he laughs with a shrug.
“I’m taking it because it has to do with my chosen career path.”
“I thought you wanted to be a carpenter?” Taako asks confusedly.
“Yeah, I want to be a mix of a carpenter and a blacksmith or whatever. Magnus wants to be a carpenter.” Julia explains.
“If they allowed him to carry a knife in school, he’d be carving all day wouldn’t he?”
Julia nods with a smile, “If only they did.”
“Tayko Highchurch?”
“I’m here,” he raises his hand slightly, “It’s, uh pronounced like the food,” he says awkwardly.
“How was your first hour?” Julia asks, “All that happened in sports exploration was that we got assigned our lockers for the semester.”
“We did this icebreaker where we had to circle up and say something about ourselves to someone else? It was interesting.”
Julia nods, “Playing volleyball again this year, right?” she asks.
“Fuck yeah, Carey and I are captains. Our first game is this tomorrow night.” he grins.
“Right, right I forgot about that.”
“Julia Waxman?”
“Here!”
“How’s football going? Kicking the ball hard?”
“Real hard,” she grins with a laugh, “Kinda wish I could actually play sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Taako nods, “You’d be a good player.”
“Aw, thank you” she grins.
Taako pulls out his phone and opens discord to check the new messages in the group chat as Mx. Scout explains the classroom norms, which he’s only half paying attention to.
Let me carve in school: I just saw a bunch of freshman with maps walking around the hallway during passing time and oh my god it was the greatest thing ever
You can’t bring knives to school!: that was you once, Magnus.
Let me carve in school: I know Lucretia
Bringing a knife to school: hell yeah look at those little children with their maps
No knives allowed: some of them are taller than you babe
Bringing a knife to school: >:(
Bringing a knife to school: I know, but still
Taako chuckles and Julia nudges him to pay attention because the teacher is talking about how to be safe with the equipment.
Mx. Scout then passes out safety agreements in case if anyone gets hurt, she won’t get sued or anything. Then they show the class around the classroom and how to operate the machines safely.
Taako was only mostly paying attention to this part.
Once they were done showing everyone how to operate everything they had the rest of the hour to themselves so Taako pulls out his phone once again.
“Aw what, they blocked Discord.” Julia pouts.
“Ugh, yeah, that’s why I got a VPN for that and other shit.”
“Y’know that’s a good idea.”
He grins, “Natch.”
Stabby stab has added No.3113 to the group chat.
Fire knife: HEWWO??
What’s with all the knives: Lup no
Fire knife: Lup yes
You can’t bring knives to school!: hewwo?
You can’t bring knives to school!: I’m sorry.
Shitty plastic school knife: Lucy, never say hewwo again,,,
Stabby stab: this is my soulmate, Noelle, maybe change your names back to normal so she can know your names?
Scalpel: no, never
Stabby stab ---> Ren
Ren: please
Also wants to carve in school ---> Julia.
Julia: hi!
Julia: I agree with taako, never say hewwo again Lucretia. It sounds incredibly cursed coming out of your mouth
Julia: er, typed. You know what I mean.
Just a knife: oh shit hi
Please stab me ---> Johann.
Johann: sup
Just a knife ---> Avi.
Avi: aren't yall supposed to be in class anyways?
Shitty plastic school knife ---> Taako From TV.
Taako From TV: arent you?
Taako From TV: Mx. Crow gave us the rest of the hour as free time
No knives allowed ---> Killian.
Killian: literally nothing is happening in gym class rn
Avi: I meant learning
Fire knife ---> Lup.
Lup: Its the first day of school, nothing happens on the first day of school. Not even learning
What’s with all the knives ---> Barry.
Barry: sometimes teachers have you learn on the first day
Let me carve in school ---> Magnus.
Bringing a knife to school ---> Carey.
Scalpel: I’m staying scalpel
Scalpel: I’m Maureen btw
No.3113: hi! Nice to meet yall
Avi: nvm
Taako sits back in his seat with a sigh. He is suddenly very bored for no reason.
Julia gives him a look and raises an eyebrow.
“What? I’m bored.”
“Put your earbuds in and play music instead of sighing dramatically.”
“That wasn’t sighing dramatically.” Taako grins, “This is sighing dramatically,” he says and sighs very dramatically as an example.
Julia: Taako is being dramatic again
Taako From TV: I’m literally only sighing
Julia: but dramatically
Taako sighs dramatically again
Julia: he did it again
Taako From TV: ;)
Lup: lol
No.3113: why is he doing that?
Taako From TV: I’m depressed
Johann: mood?
Scalpel: worm
Lucretia has changed Scalpel’s name to Maureen.
Maureen: heyyy >:’(
Lucretia: <3
Barry: welcome to hell
Ren: these are all my friends from school I was telling you about
No.3113: oh cool
No.3113: I asked my parents if we could move closer to you and they said maybe
Ren: :D!
Taako got a sudden pang of jealousy deep down in his stomach and frowns. So he closes discord and puts his earbuds in so he can listen to music. He opens Spotify and puts on his favorites playlist to try to cheer himself up. Taako then lays his head on his arms and stares at the wall.
Julia notices his sudden change in mood and rubs his back in comfort. He really hates feeling this way.
He wishes he wasn’t alone.
~~~
For Kravitz, first hour went by fairly quickly. He quickly packs up his sketchbook and heads towards second hour. English with Ms. Kat, but apparently not to be confused with Mrs. Kath who’s his music teacher. He’s bound to get the two confused.
He enters the classroom and feels awkward. The desks are arranged so that it's four to a group and most of them are already taken. Everyone is sitting with a friend or soulmate and that just leaves him, the new kid, lost.
So he sits down at a table with an open seat, one of the girls gives him a smile while the other gives him a judging look before going back to her phone. The boy across from him also smiles.
The bell rings moments later, well, Kravitz doesn’t even consider it a bell. It’s more like noise from an alarm clock. Imagine that going off every hour.
Ms. Kat stands up from her desk after the bell rings and starts talking, “Okay Y'all, I’m gonna pass out some sticky notes. Write your name on them we’re doing an icebreaker between you and your table mates. Two truths and a lie, you will share them with your tablemates.” she instructs as she passes out the sticky notes.
The girl sitting diagonally from him scoffs in annoyance but writes on her sticky note anyway.
He thinks for a moment on what to put, he should be truthful about it. So he puts that he is new here and that he has a pet fish. The pet fish one is a lie. Kravitz doesn’t have any pets. He wonders if he should put that he doesn’t have a soulmate?
After a moment of thought, he caves and puts it down, his face feels warm in pre-embarrassment.
“Okay everyone, share those two truths and a lie with your table and introduce yourselves.”
Before anyone else at his table can speak the girl who scoffed earlier speaks up, “I’m Valerie, I went to Italy over the summer, I have three cats and my favorite color is mauve,” she grins slightly.
“Uh, the lie is that you went to Italy.” the other boy guesses.
She almost looks insulted, “No, it's the three cats. I have four.”
He shrugs, “okay I guess I’ll go next. Uh, I’m Keats, I had cancer before, I have two older siblings who are both asses. Um, I have a dog.”
“Is it the cancer one?” the other girl asks.
“Nah, I don’t have a dog.”
“Oh.” Kravitz says surprised, “Also that’s an oddly specific thing to say about siblings.”
“Eh, they may be asses but they care. Sometimes.” he grins.
Before Kravitz can say anything else the girl next to him speaks up, “I’m Kara and I can put my thumb behind my closed fist, uh I can say the alphabet backwards, and I can sing the titular song from the Phantom of the Opera musical almost completely by myself, but not at once.” she smiles.
“I’m going to say the thumb thing?” Valerie guesses.
“Nope!” Kara laughs, “I can actually do that,” she says and demonstrates.
“What the fuck?” Keats whispers in awe.
Kravitz’s eyes widen, “that’s uh, impressive,” he clears his throat, “I guess it’s my turn now. Um, I’m new here, I have a pet goldfish and I do currently not have a soulmate.”
“The soulmate one,” Valerie says confidently.
“Uh, actually, I don’t have a… soulmate…” he says with embarrassment.
“What? But everyone has a soulmate! It’s practically impossible for you not to have one!”
“W-well, it’s true,” he feels his face grow warm again.
“Have you even tried writing on your arm?” She asks in exasperation.
He doesn’t respond; he stares at the table. He gave up on writing on his arm a while ago.
“Hey fuck off Valerie. It’s none of your business. Also, that was really shitty of you," Keats scowls, “You okay man?” he asks in concern.
He nods slightly and tries not to flinch when Kara pats his back comfortingly. It was a bad idea to sit here and an even worse idea to put that he doesn’t have a soulmate down. The day was going fine but now it was ruined.
But at least Kara and Keats care. Maybe that’s an upside of this. He hopes the rest of the day will be better than this class.