Chapter Text
First: my outline, a conversation I'd had with a friend on tumblr. (Sovvung if you're out there,, thanks man). This was the vague initial plan at the top of my doc.
\ What if Stan had finished school after getting kicked out instead of splitting from town first thing? What if he had stuck around, living out of his car, and gone to class every single day? Took showers in the gym locker rooms (it was mandatory back then anyway, right?) Moved in class so that he sat in the back instead of next to his brother. But show up every day until graduation. Be forced to sit next to Stanford that day. Walk up when his name was called. Take that diploma and then walk out without a glance behind him. Just to prove he did it on his own. Throw it in Stanford’s face. Throw it in his dad’s face. Then walk out and leave town.
Ford would be forced to see his brother every day. Looking worse and worse because living out of your car is rough. Ford would have to fend for himself from the bullies. Suddenly they all know that the brothers have split for some reason, and that’s all Crampelter and his goons needed to start bringing it down on Ford for real again, now that Stan isn’t protecting the nerd anymore. When Crampelter tried going after Stan on his own, though, certain that the guy wouldn’t put up much fight without his brother cowering behind him, he got a black eye and a fat lip that had him hightailing it away. They only picked on Ford from then on out. (Ford didn’t know it but Stan would find Crampelter later when he was picking on younger kids and beat him up for them instead, because he couldn’t do it for Ford anymore).
Ma Pines snuck Stanley some of his things when Filbrick and Ford went out to look at other options for college. Filbrick had run through and thrown most of Stan’s things in a box to be sold at the store or thrown out, but Ma Pines managed to save some of it and hand it off to Stanley later. She even sent some of his boxing trophies to a rival pawn shop in town and pawned them for money so that he could have something to live on.
Filbrick didn’t say his name again once after he threw Stan out. That good for nothing piece of crap was outta their lives, and they weren’t gonna say a damn thing about it, end of discussion.
*preliminary headcanons. Will elaborate more, and then include the Backupsmore/Fiddleford aspect later.
(Stan spends nights in the library, hiding between shelves but during the day he actually reads the adventure stuff so they don’t notice him?
$2/5/10 and I’ll beat up X for ya. Saw what he did last week. Nasty stuff. I’ll show him one for ya if you want—for a price. $5 and I can borrow your book from class this week [Ford and he used to share, now he needs to find a way to get at the books on his own]
Ma Pines able to sneak more stuff this way)
Wrestling Season in hs: October or November through March
Early acceptance could be as soon as December, but typically the usual way of knowing happens around February or March.
OR
While Stan was sticking around, maybe it was too late to join the school team. You need to have been applied for college by November, typically. Did Stan apply anywhere? Hard to say (but probably no). However, if you take a visit to a school, you can get sped through the process there, depending on GPA and other factors.
Stan actually is smart. He has other smarts, yeah, but he does have more intelligence than he lets on. After he gets kicked out, does he want to go back to school? Hell no. But he does. He knows he’s got a better chance if he can get his diploma before skipping town. He spends a few nights out at the Stan O’ War, half hoping Stanford would show up. (He doesn’t).
Second, the one post high school scene I'd written, exactly one sentence long, that shows Ford's still angry and stubborn.
Ford didn’t talk to Stan throughout the entire ceremony. Luckily, he was able to leave his side momentarily to give the valedictorian speech.
Third, where it was going to go at some point:
AU Where Stan sticks around after getting kicked out of the house, gets an athletic scholarship to Backupsmore and still avoids Ford. Fiddleford finally realizes there’s a connection between the two of them after MONTHS of school has passed.
ok but like. au where Stan somehow managed to get himself an athletic scholarship to Backupsmore and ends up bumping into Fidds a lot and eventually he makes the connection between his roomie and "that squinty jock who always wears the same shirt"
Fidds finally understanding why they look so similar and he just storms into the room mad like: “Ford! You got some explaining to do about why this Stan Pines fella looks awfully familiar to you!”
And Ford is just like: “Well…shit.”
I wanted Fiddleford to be the connection point between the two of them, and eventually push for some sort of reconciliation on what happened. He's independently friends with Stan and Ford, but face blind beautiful man that Fiddleford is, doesn't see that they're literally identical until someone else mentions it in passing and he connects some dots.