Chapter Text
BEEP.
BEEP.
BEEP.
Keith rolled over and slammed his alarm clock off. He opened one eye, reading the time.
6:25 A.M.
He groaned, wanting nothing more than to roll over and go back to sleep. However, he knew that Shiro was more than capable of dragging him down the stairs, so he swung his legs off his bed and headed downstairs.
Shiro was already at the table, eating his usual three eggs and four sausages, with a protein shake. How he was even conscious enough to manage that was still a mystery to Keith. The most he could do was pour cereal into a bowl and shovel it into his mouth.
“Morning, Keith.”
Keith grunted.
“I can tell you're excited about school.” Shiro smirked at him, knowing the opposite was true.
Senior year started today at Midtown High, and the was no place on Earth Keith hated to go to more. High school was simply unbearable. Well, school in general, ever since he'd been labeled ‘the weird kid’ in third grade.
“There's still time for me to drop out,” Keith said around a spoonful of cereal.
Shiro chuckled. “I don’t think so. There's a reason your college fund is called a college fund.”
Keith sighed and began to clear away his dishes. “Yeah, well, things change.” He headed upstairs.
“Wear something a little nice!” Shiro called after him.
Keith settled for a short-sleeved button-up with his one pair of jeans that weren't distressed. He dragged a comb through his hair and sprinted downstairs.
“Happy?”
Shiro glanced up from his phone. “Yeah. Have a good day.”
Keith scoffed. “Unlikely.”
One uneventful bus ride later, Keith was walking into Midtown High. He headed to the third floor, to the small alcove between the English rooms. His hangout spot.
“Hey, Keithy boy!”
And Pidge’s.
“Hey man!”
And Hunk’s.
“Sooo…” Pidge raised an eyebrow. “You boys ready to fuck shit up this year?”
“Pidge, we're honors students, we can't.”
Pidge sighed. “Once again, my dreams have been shot down. Anyway, Keith, gimme your schedule!”
Keith handed the paper over. “You guys doing anything tonight?”
Hunk shook his head. “It's syllabus week, literally the easiest week of the year. We'll be good to hang all week.”
“Yeah, my parents’ll be out of the house tonight for work, but Matt’ll be cool if we crash there.”
“Sounds good. So,” Keith glanced at the three schedules in Pidge’s hands. “What's the breakdown?”
“Hunk and I have AP Calc together second period, but you took regular -shame on you. You and Hunk have Economics third period. Then things get great: the three of us have AP English fourth period, so we'll inevitably have lunch together, and then we go straight to AP Physics together. After that, you're on your own for sixth period; Hunk and I have Programming.”
Hunk shrugged. “Could be worse.”
“Are you kidding?” Keith grinned. “This is better than I thought it would be.”
Hunk snorted. “Dude, your expectations were rock-bottom, that's not hard to beat.”
“Hunk, look, he actually smiled. ”
“Shut up, Pidge. I smile like every day!”
Pidge smirked. “I know.”
Ddddding!
Hunk sighed. “We'd better head to class. See you guys later.”
“Later.”
“Bye.” Keith headed back to the second floor. He glanced across the locker banks before his eyes landed on him.
Lance McClain, one of the cutest boys in school. No, definitely the cutest boy in school. Lance was leaning against a locker, talking to a pretty girl. She was either Florona or Plaxum; Keith wasn't sure. What he was sure of was that he would give just about anything to talk to Lance like that.
A blonde girl tapped Lance on the shoulder and began engaging him in conversation. That was Nyma, one of the biggest bitches in the school, according to Keith. She was hanging off of her boyfriend, Rolo, one of the biggest douchebags he knew.
It was mainly those two that kept Keith from going up to Lance himself. They'd been part of the group that dubbed him the ‘weird kid’, and he hadn't gotten over the insecurities they had given him. So, he just continued sneaking glances from a distance until he made it to his Crime and Justice class.
Keith was actually looking forward to the class, and he did his best to listen to the teacher reading the syllabus, but his mind kept slipping back to Lance.
Is he still single? He knew that Lance's former boyfriend graduated last year, and he'd heard from some girls in his Chem class that Lance had broken things off early due to his boyfriend being a possessive jerk. Keith couldn't recall his name, and he couldn't remember ever seeing them together, so he had no idea who the guy even was. He only really knew due to the gossip that revolved around Lance, mostly stuff about how “I thought he had a girlfriend last year” or “Wait, is he gay now?”
Lance, of course, had handled it like a champ, explaining his bisexuality to anyone who dared to ask.
But then again, he'd almost always been the center of attention and playground scandal. Keith knew that Lance and Hunk had been childhood friends until Lance had moved to California, which earned him a swarm of kids who pestered him about the move. When he came back to New York in eighth grade, he amazed everyone with his stories of legalized weed and spotting celebs everywhere he looked, with pictures to prove everything.
Keith had almost immediately fallen in love with Lance. The confident, flirtatious boy had won him over easily. He was just about everything Keith was not, so of course Keith was undeniably attracted to him. It didn't help that he refused to consider anyone else for a crush, even when Lance wasn't single-
“Keith? Keith Kogane?”
“Here!” Keith straightened up, torn from his thoughts.
His teacher chuckled. “Still tired, huh? Don't worry, I promise the material will get a lot more interesting in the following weeks.”
A good amount of students laughed, including Keith.
Maybe this year could actually be good.
Keith and Hunk were walking to English when it happened.
“Hey Hunk, hey Keith!”
Keith barely glanced up. People who talked to Hunk only acknowledged Keith out of politeness, except for Shay. She was actually nice.
Of course today was the exception.
“Hey Lance!” Hunk called back.
Keith's head whipped around. Lance was indeed walking down the hall behind them. He could feel an embarrassed flush rising on his face.
“That was Lance ?!” Keith whisper-shouted.
Hunk chuckled. “Yeah, man. You know, he's always been pretty cool and nice. After he moved back he kept saying ‘hi’ during passing times or whatever. He still does, obviously.”
“Who does?” Pidge asked. She'd saved Keith and Hunk seats next to her.
“No one.”
“ You-know-who. ” Hunk said with a smirk.
Pidge got an evil grin on her face. “So, what happened?”
“ Nothing!”
“Lance said ‘hey’ to both of us and Keith here didn't even realize it.”
“Oooh, that's rough. But at least he acknowledged your existence!”
Hunk and Pidge were very aware of Keith’s hopeless crush on Lance, and had been for years. Most of the time they were chill about it, but sometimes they were just pains in his ass.
“Ya know, Keith, my buddy, my dude, you could just grow a pair and go talk to him.” Pidge bumped his shoulder. “Hunk’ll be your wingman.”
“You know I can't do that. I still get anxious every time I get near Rolo and Nyma.” Keith buried his head in his hands. “God, I'm hopeless!”
“I'll say,” Pidge murmured.
Hunk scoffed. “As if! I have faith in you, buddy.”
“Thanks,” Keith mumbled.
Before they could move on to something other than Keith's hopeless love life, the teacher stepped in.
Roll call on the first day was always good for a laugh, especially with Hunk and Pidge in the class.
“Tsss...Sss..Tsssssyoooyoshi Garrett?”
A few snickers could be heard throughout the classroom.
“It's ‘Tsuyoshi’, but people call me Hunk.”
“Ah, yes, thank you, Hunk.”
All was quiet until-
“Katie Holt?”
“Here, but call me Pidge. Everyone else does. God knows why.”
A lot of kids were full-on laughing at this point, not really knowing how she got the nickname either.
Pidge had told Hunk and Keith the story countless times before. In kindergarten, when the teacher had been asking everyone to introduce themselves, she'd spotted a pigeon in the window and shouted “Pidge!” when she was asked what her name was. The name stuck when she went home, and through two skipped grades, much to her chagrin. Of course, people still called her Katie when they were being especially serious, like her parents.
Keith figured that she only kept it to mess with teachers every year, and he had to admire her dedication.
English, lunch, and Physics were all fine, and Keith managed to not burst out laughing at Pidge’s antics and Hunk’s frantic attempts to get her to behave. Pidge had gotten pretty pissed when their Physics teacher announced that they would be going on a field trip to Galra Labs on Friday. Permission slips were handed out to be completed ASAP, and Pidge damn near tore hers to shreds.
“They're just doing this for the positive buzz. Matt warned me about something like this, but I figured they'd just send us tablets or something.”
Hunk furrowed his eyebrows. “So, are you not going?”
Pidge scoffed. “Of course I have to go. Gonna steal all their intel, though,” she whispered.
Of course, their time together came to an end with the fifth period dismissal bell.
Keith sighed as he packed up his things and trudged to Calc. “See you guys later.”
“Yeah, I’ll text you when you should come over.” Pidge gave Keith a peace sign before turning around with Hunk and heading downstairs.
Keith stayed on the third floor, and walked past his Calc room a few times before walking in. He didn't want to be the first in the room; that would make things awkward for him.
“Welcome, name?” His teacher was an older woman, with a nasally voice.
“Keith Kogane.”
“Excellent, you'll be here.” She gestured to a desk on her clipboard with his name.
Keith nodded and went to his seat. About twelve other kids were already there, in varying stages of unfocus.
Keith's desk was one away from the wall opposite the teacher’s desk, somewhere in the middle.
Not bad, he thought. He decided to pull out his earbuds and discreetly hide them in his shirt so he could listen to something as the teacher explained the syllabus. He absentmindedly tapped his pencil on the desk to the beat of the song.
With only one earbud in, Keith could hear just about everyone who came into the classroom, but he tuned them out for the most part, until-
“Lance McClain.”
Keith’s heart skipped a beat. Oh god he's in my class. He wasn't sure if he was excited or terrified.
He glanced up as Lance walked in, and then looked away. He must've sat somewhere in the row over from Keith, because he was walking along the wall near Keith's desk. Not that he minded, he'd be perfectly happy staring at the back of Lance's head.
Keith could've sworn his heart stopped when Lance sat next to him.
Shit.
Lance turned to Keith. “Hey, Keith. How's it going?”
“It's...going as good as school can go, I guess.”
Lance chuckled. “Good, good.”
Keith had never been more thankful for a teacher to start class than he had been at that moment.
Fuck, I should've asked him how he's doing. Goddammit.
This was going to be a long year.