Chapter Text
“I'm sorry, but we can't continue to keep you two at our school.”
Jeremy and Michael sat sandwiched between their parents in the principal’s office. Michael shot a knowing glance over at Jeremy, who had tears forming in his eyes.
“What do you mean?” Jeremy's mother interjected. “What did they do that requires expulsion from the school?”
“Well,” the principal said, shifting in her chair. “There have been multiple student reports of these boys selling and taking drugs.”
Jeremy made a squeak of protest. “That's not true!”
“We've heard people talking about you taking some kind of drug called a… squip, Mr. Heere. They might be rumors, but we have a good reputation here at Middle Borough and we don't want to ruin that.”
“I mean- but- what about Michael?” Jeremy stammered.
The principal folded her hands together. “As you know, we have a zero-tolerance drug policy and Mr. Mell has been known to use marijuana.”
Michael shrugged, but Jeremy scoffed. “Off school grounds!”
Jeremy's mother put a hand on his shoulder. “Honey, I don't think you're really helping.”
“Off school grounds or not, there have been multiple reports of you two selling drugs and we can't continue to keep you at our school.” The principal smiled mechanically. “But we were able to offer you enrollment to the school in the next county over. It's a wonderful school and a short enough bus or car ride that you wouldn't have to move.”
Michael and Jeremy’s parents made eye contact with each other. “It seems like the best we can do,” Michael’s mother said. “What would we need to do to enroll them?”
“You just need to sign here and they'll be able to start attending school in a few weeks.”
The parents all nodded and individually signed the paper the principal brandished. With that, the two families left the principal’s office in silence.
“What on earth?” Jeremy’s mother yelled as soon as they were out of earshot of the principal’s office. “Selling drugs? Michael get back here, I'm talking to you too. Have you been selling drugs?”
“No!” The two boys said at the same time.
“Well then what was that?” Jeremy's mom said with a dramatic gesture towards the school.
“Remember earlier this year when I told you I ingested a supercomputer in the form of a pill to make me cool?” Jeremy’s mother nodded incredulously. “I assume that's what that was about. As for Michael, Michael’s just a stoner.”
“Hell yeah, I am.”
Jeremy’s mom massaged her temples. “Okay, fine. Jeremy, you're coming home and you're grounded until you start your new school. No talking to Michael, you hear me?”
Jeremy nodded. “Yeah. Um… bye, Michael. See you in a few weeks.”
Michael grinned largely and shut the door to his car. “Bye, loser!”
Jeremy's dad sighed. “I can't believe you got a expelled for selling drugs and you didn't even do drugs. God, I'm raising such a dweeb.”
~
Jeremy was disappointed with the new school. For the most part, it was exactly the same as all the others. It was a different building, of course, but in other ways it was exactly like every other school in the United States. Posters of clubs and events dotted the walls, students lounged between classes on any available resting space.
Jeremy walked through the crowded hallways, trying to find his new homeroom before the first bell rang. Room 483. That would logically be with the other 400s, right? Jeremy looked to his left. Room 225. Fuck.
A short kid with glasses slammed into his back, too busy with his loud conversation to notice Jeremy standing there. “You fell from a tree? What are you, like an acorn?” He laughed. Another student with a cast and a blue striped shirt chuckled weakly.
“Yeah, sure. Exactly like that.”
“Get out of the way, tree!” The kid shouted, playfully checking his shoulder.
“Trees are great, Jared.” The other boy said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I'm sure this guy’s great too.”
Jeremy's face flushed. “Uh… thanks.”
The kid, Jared, punched the other kid in the shoulder. “Come on, let's leave the freak alone. If I miss homeroom any more times my parents won't pay for my car insurance.” With that, the two boys walked off, chatting and laughing to each other.
Jeremy shifted his backpack on his shoulders, trying to forget about the large scribbled letters on the back. Nobody at this school knew what ‘BOYF’ meant and he wanted to keep it that way. Of course, as soon as Michael showed up it would all become obvious. Jeremy sighed and looked at the numbers scrawled on the back of his hand again. Room 483.
He climbed the stairs heavily, his posture horrible and his spine curling. Fuck the squip and his perfect posture. If there was one thing Jeremy didn't want to be at this school, it was cool. Finally, he found Room 483 after climbing almost every staircase in the building. The teacher was at the front with an attendance sheet, and all the kids were already in their seats. Jeremy tentatively opened the door.
“Hello! Jeremy Heere?”
Jeremy froze in the doorway. “Uh… I… present.”
A snicker from the back of the class. The teacher seemed oblivious. “Class, I’d like to introduce to your new homeroom member, Jeremy Heere. We have two new students at our school, Jeremy and Michael Mell, who both just recently transferred from Middle Borough High School. I'd like you to make them feel very welcome.”
A tall kid with long hair in the back of the class piped up, “Did you get expelled?”
Jeremy coughed. “Yeah.”
He smirked and put his feet up on his desk. “I heard you got expelled for selling drugs. That true?”
Jeremy stood in the doorway nervously, all eyes in the classroom on him. “Well… yeah.”
The kid in the back laughed. “Awesome! Got any weed for me?”
The teacher’s docile face morphed into one of terror. “CONNOR!” The rest of the class laughed. Apparently Connor was a troublemaker. Jeremy would have to be wary of him.
The teacher turned to Jeremy. “I'm Ms. Silver. You can sit down, if you want.”
Jeremy nodded stiffly and sat down in one of the front empty desks. Ms. Silver smiled and clapped her hands together. “Alright! As per our homeroom tradition, Mondays are reading days. Everybody take out your independent reading books and get imaginative!”
Jeremy looked around at the rest of the class to see if any of them also thought that the teacher was more fitted to teach kindergarten than high school. However, the rest of the class all had books out and were either reading or pretending to read as they stared at the page and whispered with the person next to them. Jeremy pulled out his small copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Somebody next to him snorted something about ‘nerd books’ but Jeremy ignored him and started to read.
“Jeremy!”
Jeremy looked up to see Michael in the doorway of his classroom, a large smile on his face and his backpack dangling dangerously off of his shoulder. Without realizing it, he blushed and a smile split across his face. A rocky start to the day wouldn't mean anything if Michael was in his homeroom!
“Who are you?” Ms. Silver asked, looking up from her (probably a romance) novel.
“Michael Mell. I'm not in this homeroom, but I read the student handbook and it's not against the rules to go to somebody else's homeroom if you were at yours for attendance.”
Ms. Silver sighed. “Fine. There's a seat over by Zoe if you want it. Just… it's silent reading time, so you need to have a book.”
Michael reached into his bag and pulled out a battered Aquaman comic book. “Does this count?”
Ms. Silver nodded and looked down at her book. Michael sat down on the desk by some girl, probably Zoe, put his headphones on, and started to read.
A small headache started growing in the left temple of Jeremy’s head. Agitated, he rubbed his head with his palm and continued to read. The whispers around the room sounded like static, and the pain in Jeremy’s head continued to grow.
WORTHLESS
A sharp knife of pain, right in Jeremy’s forehead. A loud ringing mechanical note filled his head, and the static of the classroom was drowned out by the resonating C-sharp.
PATHETIC
Tears unwillingly started to form as the voice of the squip drilled into his head. Jeremy made an unwanted noise of pain, and everyone in the class turned to look.
PITIFUL
“Jeremy?” Ms. Silver’s calm voice barely scraped the surface of the grating noises in his head. “Do you need to go to the nurse?”
USELESS
“Jeremy!” Was Michael’s voice, along with the scraping of a chair being pushed back on the floor. Jeremy slid from his desk, curled up on the floor and clutching the sides of his head.
“Get a load of this,” one voice said from the back, “the freak’s freaking out!”
SAD
Jeremy could feel Michael’s hands on his shoulders, but could no longer see through the pain. Michael made panicked noises and spoke in terror-filled sentence fragments.
“Jeremy! Are you- What is it? Can you see- Is it the- JEREMY!” Michael roughly shook Jeremy’s shoulders, his voice choked with horror and the beginning of tears.
WASTE
Jeremy choked out another cry of pain, which only made Michael grow more frantic. The static and the ringing and the voices were louder than they had ever been.
Michael put his hands over Jeremy’s on the sides of his head. “I- I don't know what to do!”
Suddenly, Michael’s lips were on his, hasty and salty with tears. The ringing and the voices died away until all that Jeremy could feel was Michael.
And then Jeremy felt nothing.