Chapter Text
"C'mon, guys, we're gonna be late!" Evan called to his friends, pulling Connor's arm to get outside.
"Dude, chill! We have time." Jared laughed at Evan's excitement, walking past the two taller boys and leaning against Connor's house.
"Yeah, seriously, Evan, calm the fuck down." Connor chuckled quietly, pulling his arm from Evan's grasp and simply stepping outside.
"We don't have that much time, I mean, we - we have to walk there, which'll take a while, and - and then we'll have to try and talk to people, and - and what if we start talking to someone and we're still talking after class starts? We could be late!"
"Like you'd talk to anyone," Jared scoffed.
"Hey, Jared, I'm - I'm gonna actually try, okay? This year is - is a year for trying. Where's Zoe? Is she still not out here?"
"You know her, she always takes forever to get ready."
"I do not!" Zoe said, climbing down the stairs in her house. "You jerk." She punched Connor's arm and smiled at Evan. "I'm here now. Let's go!"
Evan smiled back and blushed, nodding. "Okay, let's go!"
The four started walking to their new highschool, Middleborough. It wasn't all that far from where they used to go, which somewhat helped the homesickness.
And it wasn't far from their new homes, either. It took them only about 5 minutes to get there, which was good, because none of them were very athletic and wouldn't be able to spend anymore time walking.
They scanned the front of the school, and Evan noticed a boy in a red hoodie leaning against the school wall.
Connor followed Evan's glance and also noticed the boy. He pointed at him (which sparked the boy's attention), and suggested, "Hey, why don't we talk to him?"
"I dunno, he seems kinda pissed about something," Evan said.
"Maybe he's pissed that Connor's pointing at him," Jared observed, forcibly shoving Connor's hand down.
"Oh, yeah, probably," Evan chuckled. "He's staring at us now."
Evan, Connor and Jared all stood still, staring back at the boy, but Zoe pushed passed them. "I'm gonna talk to him since you guys are too busy fighting him with your eyes." She walked over to him and waved.
"Hi."
"Um, hi." He gave a small wave back.
"I'm Zoe Murphy, me and my friends are new here."
"I'm Michael Mell. Um, welcome to the school." He gave a small smile. "Um, sorry, but why was your friend pointing at me?"
"Oh, my brother was just trying to say that we should talk to you, but now I think they're intimidated."
"Why would they be intimidated by me?" Michael laughed.
"I dunno. They're weird and antisocial."
"Oh, well, so am I."
They both chuckled and Zoe asked if she could bring her friends over. Michael nodded, and Zoe gestured for the three to come over.
"Connor, Evan, Jared, this is Michael. Michael, this is Connor - my brother - Jared, and Evan."
All four boys said some variation of "hello" and waved.
"What grade are you guys in?"
"We're - we're all seniors," Evan muttered. "Except for Zoe, she's a junior."
Jared whispered, "Oh my God, he can talk," to Connor, who elbowed him in the chest.
Michael nodded. "Cool, I'm a senior too."
"C.. cool."
"Sooo, do you have any friends? Why are you all alone out here?" Jared asked, cursing under his breath when Connor elbowed him again.
Michael frowned in annoyance. "Yeah, I have plenty of friends. They're just off somewhere else, and one of them isn't here yet. But he should be, soon."
And as if he had been summoned, a boy was running onto the school grounds yelling for Michael.
"Speak of the devil. Hold on," Michael said, pushing past the group.
"Michael! Hi!" the other person said with a smile. He seemed out of breath.
"Hey Jere!" Michael smiled back and grabbed one of the boy's hands. "Hey, I made some more friends. C'mere." He pulled him over to the other four.
"Oh boy, more friends, this is great for my anxiety," 'Jere' said with an eye roll.
"Shush, if I could talk to them, then so can you. Guys! This is my best fwiend in the whole wowld, Jeremy!"
Jeremy gave a small wave.
"Jer, this is Connor, Zoe, Evan, and Jared."
The four also waved.
"Are you guys, like.. new here.. orr.."
Jared nodded. "Ya. We came here from a school like, half a mile away."
"Oh, that's cool, so you didn't move far."
"Mhm."
"That's... cool..." Jeremy muttered, not sure what else to say.
There was a long awkward silence before Michael spoke up. "So um!! We'll totally like, introduce you to all our friends later, but we wanna hang out with said friends right now so.. we'll see you around?"
The group nodded as the two boys walked away, hand in hand.
"They're gay," Connor noted.
"What?" Evan looked at his friend.
"Evan, they're holding hands. They were really happy to see each other. They're gay."
"Wha - I'm always happy to see you and we hold hands sometimes but we're not gay! - At least, I'm not."
Connor raised a questioning eyebrow. "You're not? Really."
"Really!"
"This is news to me," Connor laughed, and Jared laughed with him.
Evan crossed his arms and looked to the ground.
"Connor's right, though," Jared said. "They're totally gay."
"Definitely!" Zoe agreed.
"Evan just doesn't know it because he doesn't have gaydar 'cause he's 'not gay'," Connor said, using finger quotes for not gay.
"None of you are gay either, though.. right?"
"Sure, Evan-esence," Jared shrugged with a laugh. Connor snickered at the nickname.
Evan(esence) raised a questioning brow, not fully believing him, but being the oblivious booger he was, he shrugged it off.
"Hey, we should probably get in the building and like, start looking for our classes, right?" Zoe suggested, and Evan nodded in approval.
"Y - yeah, Zoe's right, we should - we should do that."
Zoe smiled at Evan, and Evan smiled back as he felt his heart flutter. He felt his face heat up and Connor elbowed the arm with the cast on it, making Evan wince.
"Evan, stop flirting with my sister. Let's go."
Evan sputtered out nonsense, blushing deeper than before. Jared chuckled and grabbed his good arm, leading him and the other two into the building.
"Okay, so, what classes do we have for first period?"
Everyone pulled their schedules either out of their backpack or their pocket.
"I have mathematics first-"
"Evan, hunty, who the fuck calls it mathematics." Jared laid a hand on Evan's shoulder.
"I'm - I'm just reading what it says on the paper -"
Connor laughed. "You're such a weirdo, Evan."
Evan wasn't sure if Connor meant that in a nice or mean way but it hurt.
**
"Yeah and there's this fuckin' emo kid, he's wearing like, all black, even his fucking /backpack/ is black, I literally haven't seen anyone so edgy since Jeremy's emo phase."
The squip squad (as Rich had begged to call them) laughed, minus Christine.
"Maybe he likes the color black. I don't think you should be calling him emo or edgy for it, Mikey."
Michael shrugged. "Oh, um. Sorry."
"There was also this cute Zoe girl," Jeremy noted.
"Yeah, she and the emo kid were brother and sister."
"Was the emo kid cute too?" Rich wondered, tilting his head.
"Not really? I dunno, he didn't look cute to me. He wasn't ugly though," Michael answered with a shrug. "He had long hair, too."
Rich nodded, trying to imagine the boy.
"And then there was these guys, Evan and Jared I think? The Evan kid had a cast, he had the emo kid's name - Connor - written on it in big letters."
"Aww," Christine cooed. "That's cute."
"What if they're dating?" Jenna asked.
"Jenna, just because two people are close doesn't mean they're dating," Christine rolled her eyes. "Like Michael and Jeremy."
"Michael and Jeremy aren't dating!?"
"No!" Michael and Jeremy answered in unison.
"Okay, wow, jeez, I guess I lied to all all my twitter followers."
Jeremy groaned. "Can't you like, check your facts before you post something?"
"Nope."
Rich snickered. "You guys should be dating. For real. You would make a great couple."
Michael muttered something and Jeremy punched Rich's arm.
"Ow! C'mon, man, I'm still healing!"
Jeremy rolled his eyes and punched Rich again just because he felt like it.
"!! Christine!! Stop him!!"
"Jeremy, stop hitting Rich, please."
"Yes, dear."
**
Connor and Jared sat in English class, and Evan sat alone in Math. Zoe was 11th grade Biology.
A short boy with a red streak in his hair sat next to Evan, which made him scoot away uncomoftablely
"Hey," the boy said.
"Um.. hey."
"Nice cast," the boy said with a strong lisp.
"Oh, um, thanks..? Do you wanna sign it?"
"Sure," the boy nodded, getting a red sharpie from his backpack. He wrote "richy" in small writing under the already existing name.
"I'm Rich." He put the sharpie back in his backpack.
"Evan."
Rich put a hand out to shake, and Evan wiped his hand on his pants and shook it.
"Ew, dude, why's your hand so sweaty?" Rich laughed.
"Oh, uhm, sorry-" Evan took his hand away and wiped it on his pants again.
"No biggie," Rich shrugged. "How'd you break it? - Your arm, I mean."
"Um, I fell out of a tree."
"People still climb trees?"
"...Yeah."
"Huh," Rich muttered, and glanced at the class door, where two girls - a tall brunette and a short blonde - walked in, talking to each other.
"Yo, Chlo! Brooke!" He called out, waving to the two. The girls waved back and greeted Rich, sitting in the two seats in front of him and Evan.
"Hey, aren't you that Evan kid Michael was talking about?" the brunette asked with a tilt of her head.
"People were talking about me..?" Evan mumbled, almost inaudible.
"Hm?"
Evan cleared his throat. "Um, yeah, that's me, I think."
"Where's your boyfriend?" the blonde asked.
"B - boyfriend - !?" Evan blushed. He only just got to this school, and people were already calling him gay? Yikes.
"Yeah, the edgy kid? Connor, is it?"
"He's - he's not my... boy... friend..."
"Hey, we don't judge here," Rich put a hand on Evan's back.
"He's not my boyfriend!"
"Not yet," the blonde whispered to the the brunette, who giggled.
"Anyway, he's in English, I think."
"Ahh." The girls nodded.
"Anyway, um. Who - who are you two?"
"I'm Brooke Lohst," the blonde girl answered, "and this is Chloe Valentine."
"I'm Evan."
"We know."
"Oh, yeah - yeah.. right. Sorry. I just - um, y'know, I'm used to saying 'I'm Evan' after someone else s - says their name and I - I forgot that you already, um, knew that. Sorry."
Chloe snickered. "Relax, man. It's not a big deal."
"Okay, sorry."
"You say sorry a lot," Brooke noticed.
"Yeah. Sorry."
Chloe giggled. "Oooookay, kid. Have fun with Dick back there."
"Dude, don't call me Dick!"
"It's a more suiting nickname than Rich."
Rich stuck his tongue out as Chloe and Brooke turned around and started talking.
Evan put his head down on his desk and closed his eyes for a moment, but the math teacher soon came in and gave a small introduction.
**
"OMG, you're that Connor kid, right?" Jenna yelled as she entered English.
"Um, yes?" Connor glared with a raised eyebrow. "How do you even..??"
"I know everyone and everything here. You're dating Evan, right?"
Jared snickered and Connor rolled his eyes. "No way."
"Okay. Damn. I'm bad at keeping track of who is and who isn't dating."
"What are you, some sort of gossip girl?" Jared asked, leaning over Connor's desk to speak to her.
"I guess? I just make it my business to know everybody else's business."
"Right. And you pass that business off to other people?"
"Usually."
"Okay. Got it, gossip girl."
Jared sat back in his seat, putting his legs up on his desk.
"It's Jenna."
"Sure."
"Anyway, who are you? I don't remember you."
"The one and only Jared Kleinman, hon," Jared did a little fingergun.
"Oh, you're the one that Michael said was gay!"
"What?" Jared chuckled.
"Michael claims to have gaydar and he said you were gay."
"Huh. Wow. So Michael's gay?"
"Yeah."
Connor banged his fist on his desk. "I fucking knew it!"
Jenna and Jared chuckled.
"Anyway, yeah, that Michael kid's right. What a smartie."
Jenna typed something into her phone. "Okay. Thanks."
"Thanks?"
"Now I know you're gay, so I have more information on you."
"Oh. Please don't tell like, everyone about that."
"Oops."
**
So the school day begun, and idk the kids did their morning classes. just pretend i did a good, big ending paragraph ok thanks