Chapter Text
The idea of going back to school for Max was a little scary, not that he would ever fucking tell a soul, but he didn’t know any kids at the school, he was in a whole other province from anyone he’d ever known. David had told him to use it as an opportunity, to reinvent himself and make new friends, that our lives were shaped by the influences around us. Max had told him to fuck off and go back to his philosophy assignment.
The school wasn’t large but was an unnerving square made of bricks, a cookie cutter image of all the other old schools in the whole city. They had looked at a couple of them, and all of them looked so similar he was sure that David was driving in circles and stopping at the same school over and over, except for the signs changed every time.
When he walked up the path from the bus he pulled at his backpack strap adjusting it before putting his head down and dissolving into the crowd of people. This was something Max was good at, disappearing, he was small for his age and barely even looked like a Jr. High school student at all. He slipped virtually undetected through the hall and into the admin office where an overly cheery older lady sat behind her desk.
When Margo looked up she did so over her glasses and smiled at the boy warmly. “You’re Max right?” She earned a nod but no verbal confirmation. “Just have a seat, one of your peers is running late, he’s going to show you around.” She motioned towards a couple chairs that had been picked apart by a student who had obviously been trapped there for far longer than he hoped he would be.
After about ten minutes of playing on his phone a familiar, tall curling haired boy came lumbering into the office. He was in an awkward panic stumbling over his own lanky limbs as he came up just short of hitting the desk. “M-margo! Sorry, I’m late! Dad’s car stalled on the highway again and we had a time getting it started again.” He was breathless and his voice had dropped a little since camp but he was most certainly the Neil Max knew, loved and loved to torture.
“Neil!?” Max asked incredulously as he hopped off the seat towards his friend.
The taller boy turned in surprise, trying to judge if his ears were playing tricks on him or not. “MAX!?” He nearly ran forwards and caught his friend in a tight hug. “David told us what happened at the end of camp…. What are you doing here? How did you get here? Where are you living? Is everything okay? Holy shit holy shit MAX. Nikki is going to die…”
All the blood drained from his face, the excitement subsided into dread, how did he avoid telling Neil the truth? “I’m living with foster parents… they’re not terrible and it’s better than going home… so… look can we not talk about it right now?” The curly haired kid shifted a little uncomfortably.
“Sorry right yeah… you can tell us whenever you’re ready….” He mumbled realizing he’d been a little pushy.
“It’s okay, I will I promise but I think we’re late for class,” Max said glancing at the clock.
Neil looked at his watch and swallowed. “Shit yeah you’re right okay common let’s go…”
The taller kid led Max down the halls of the Jr. High school to the homeroom class. He apologized profusely to the teacher while Max simply shrugged off them being late.
“Do you want to tell the class your name?” The lady addressed him sweetly.
“Not really, no,” Max said cooly, drawing a laugh out of the other students, the teacher seemed to get irritated by this.
“Could you tell the class your name?” She prompted again eyeing Max.
Max shrugged again glancing at Neil with a smirk that filled Neil with so much dread. “I could but as I said, I don’t really want to.”
“Take a seat Maxwell and see me after school.” The woman was clearly already fed up of Max’s shit.
Max smirked and made his way to two empty chairs at the back of the room ignoring the stares as his best friend followed. Max sunk down into the chair and looked bored by the teacher, trying to seem like he didn’t care.
“Damn Max… That was a little hard on her, she’s actually really nice.” Neil glanced between Max and the teacher. “Just give her a chance okay?”
“And let these other fucking kids see me as some fucking target or suck up? No fucking way Neil, I would rather die than deal with that shit.” He whispered back honestly earning a hard glare for talking.
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By the time lunch rolled around Max had already made an enemy of the homeroom teacher, the maths and sciences teachers both seemed more amused with Max’s attitude than anything.
“So where is Nikki?” Max was surprised they hadn’t seen her yet and glancing around the room he didn’t see any familiar green hair anywhere.
Neil made a face looking over at Max. “She’s a year younger than us dude, she’s not in Jr. High yet.”
“Wait, what?” Max asked in surprise, he found an empty table end and sat at it, laying out his packed lunch that David had made him.
“I wish my parents made me packed lunch,” Neil commented poking at the gross cafeteria food.
Max rolled his eyes looking at the food. “Dad’s a little much sometimes….” He unrolled the top to find two cans of pop inside and a note.
‘First days can be rough kiddo, maybe you could use this as a peace offering to make friends. Chin up Bud, see you after school – Jas.’ Max read over the note and groaned it was just as embarrassing as he thought.
“So you call your foster parents mom and dad?” Neil sounded genuinely surprised by this, there was someone Max actually cared for that much?
Max fought off the flush of embarrassment as much as he could. “Dad and Dad… They’re fucking queer as they come…” He admitted softly folding up the note and putting it in his backpack before retrieving the cans and setting one in front of Neil. “They’re actually not as bad as I expected…”
Neil took the drink deeply surprised that whoever it was would give a kid pop with his lunch. “Do you have pictures?” Neil asked raising an eyebrow.
“No,” Max said almost too fast suddenly conscious of the fact that his dads were, in fact, his phone screen background, he would have to make sure Neil never saw his phone because he wasn’t up for changing it.
Neil shrugged and went back to his gross food before they went to their next classes, by the time the day was over Max was ready for bed. He was thankful that he took the bus home and didn’t have Jasper or David standing outside to give away his secret when he said goodbye to Neil.