Chapter Text
Ranboo sat crosslegged on the gray pavement of the school parking lot, nursing a thermos of coffee. It had been 4:30 in the morning when he had dragged himself out of bed, grabbed a cup, and gotten into his mom's car for her to drive him to school. Now the sky was beginning to switch from a dark blue to a lighter gray, the sun not yet risen. He pondered to himself as to why he had signed up for this trip.
Sam clapped his hands a few times, and Ranboo turned to face him. "Alright! I know it's early, and I'm sorry to get you all up at this hour, but I have a quick announcement to make regarding partners. As soon as you have your assigned partner, you can get on the bus and sit next to them, I won't be going over rules until we get to the camp. So," he flipped through a clipboard, "here we go. Alright.
Dream and George, you're together."
The taller blond boy attempted to high-five a half-asleep looking George, who mumbled blearily and gave a thumbs up to no one in particular.
"Tommy and Jack, you're a pair."
Jack frowned at the empty spot next to him and called out, "Tommy drove to camp with his dad and brothers last week, he's not here," Sam nodded absentmindedly.
"Ranboo and Tubbo, you two are together."
Ranboo suddenly felt much more awake. He peered around the dimly lit parking lot to see Tubbo smile at him from near Jack.
Sam continued pairing people up, but Ranboo walked over to Tubbo and tried to appear nonchalant.
"So, we're partners?"
Tubbo stood up happily. "Yeah, that's what he said. We go to school together, right? Gosh, you're really tall."
Ranboo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, 'm sorry, it's gonna be really awkward having to share a seat with me, I don't easily fit most places."
Tubbo grabbed his arm and pulled him over to where Sam had just finished dispersing the pairs of teenagers to say a last goodbye to their parents.
"Sam, Ranboo has really long legs and can't sit in most seats, can the two of us sit in the very back?"
With Sam's blessing, Ranboo and Tubbo climbed onto the bus and made their way to the far back, where there was a bit more room to stretch out.
Tubbo sat down and yawned, stretching his short arms up to the ceiling. "Listen, big man, I don't usually get up before 9, so I'm gonna go back to sleep, you can wake me up if you need anything, okay?" He tucked his feet up under him and curled to the side, pulling up the hood of his green sweatshirt and closing his eyes.
Ranboo yawned as well, extending his legs into the space in front of him. It was still pretty cramped, but better than both him and Tubbo squished into the same tiny seat; here they had twice the space, and could both look out the windows. He eyed a suspicious stain on the ground underneath his feet. Who even knows how long this bus had been in use. On the back of the seat in front of him was scrawled the faded message "Dream is gay". He chuckled a little, looking over the bus to see the same blond boy sitting several rows up.
He took a sip of his now lukewarm coffee and sighed, relaxing backwards into the seat as the bus began to move out of the parking lot.
***
The sun had been poking him in the face lightly for about half an hour now, and Ranboo looked at his watch to see it was 7 am. He glanced quickly at Tubbo's sleeping figure, the boy appearing to be passed out despite them riding over several bumps.
He pulled his headphones out of his backpack and plugged them into an old iPhone, shuffling his music on spotify until a song he liked came on. For the next few minutes, as more sun came into the bus, he watched as people started to wake up.
"Psst! Hey, new guy! Ranboo!"
Ranboo looked up over the seats to see a kid with a buzzcut clambering over the tops. He pulled his headphones out. "Hi."
The kid settled on the seat in front of him and leaned over the back. "I'm Jack, you're new, right?"
Ranboo nodded. "Yep. It's my first time."
Jack laughed. "Well, for new people, it's usually their partners job to give 'em the rundown on the ride up to camp, but Tubbo will be asleep for another hour, so I'll tell you some stuff. I'm Jack. My partner is Tommy, he's already at camp 'cuz his dad is one of the leaders. On the bus today we have Dream, George, Sapnap, Karl, Quackity, Fundy, Eret, Niki, and Puffy." He pointed out each person on the bus, the majority being sleeping bodies against one another.
"Sam will tell everyone the job information when we get to camp, and you'll meet a couple more people, but this is going to be a long-ass bus ride, so I figured you'd wanna know. We'll get to camp around 3, people wake up when we stop for breakfast at 8, and lunch is at noon. Bickering will start at about 2, I'd recommend saving your phone battery, you do not wanna hear Sapnap whining. Everyone's great, long bus rides just bring out the worst in people."
Jack glanced at Tubbo. "You've got a good partner, Tubbo's been a counselor here since he was too old to go as a camper, he'll teach you everything you need to know." He patted Ranboo on the shoulder. "Don't worry, mate, we're nice people. The food isn't all that bad either." He laughed dryly as he turned to climb back over the seats.
Ranboo slid back against the seat and sighed, then took off his jacket as the bus started to warm up. Tubbo stirred a little next to him and Ranboo found himself looking at the much smaller boy.
Ranboo had known Tubbo since they had started at the same high school together 3 years ago, but he had never exchanged more than 5 words with him, let alone watch him sleep. He felt somehow like he was intruding, but the sunlight coming through the window shone on his few freckles, and his hair glowed.
Tubbo sighed in his sleep, and closed his eyes tighter, pressing his face against the windowsill. Ranboo turned to look at the front as one of the girls Jack had pointed out to him, Niki, giggled softly at something someone had said. The atmosphere in the bus grew in volume very slowly, and at one point Sapnap stood unsteadily up on his seat and flipped off George, who was still sleeping, before crashing back down onto his seatmate's lap.
"Sapnap! What the honk!"
All in all, the energy in the bus seemed very cheerful, full of sleepy teenagers slowly waking up amongst their friends for the first time this summer.
"Hey! New guy! C'mere for a sec!"
A girl with pink, blue and blonde dyed hair waved at him eagerly. Ranboo pried himself out of his seat and crept up a few rows, sitting down across from the girl and her seatmate.
"I'm Puffy, this is Niki, what's your name?"
"I'm Ranboo, it's nice to meet you!"
Puffy smiled at him. "You're partners with Tubbo, right?"
Ranboo nodded. She laughed. "Man, I love the guy, but he is not a great conversationalist before 9 am, sorry you're stuck all the way in the back with him. I think we're stopping for McDonald's soon for breakfast, do you know what you wanna get?"
Ranboo shrugged. "Probably a sausage muffin or something, I don't know the menu terribly well."
Niki grinned. "Well, you can get anything, as long as you can convince Sam that it's a breakfast food." Her voice had a charming lilt to it, and Ranboo felt himself grinning in return.
Sam stood up at the front of the bus after a few minutes. "Alright, guys! If you can hear me clap once!" There were a few random claps, and he rolled his eyes. "Good enough. I'm taking breakfast orders, we're getting McDonalds, what does everybody want?"
Quackity stood up. "Sam, I don't like McDonalds, can we stop for Burger King instead?"
"No! What else does everyone want?"
Sapnap raised his hand. "Can I get a milkshake? It's a breakfast food, I promise."
Sam shook his head. "No, but I'll get you a smoothie, if you want."
Sapnap groaned and sank back down.
After Sam got a few actual orders, and several random requests from Sapnap, Dream, Quackity, and Karl for various other fast food restaurants, they pulled into the parking lot.
"Okay, anyone who needs to use the bathroom, come with me. I highly recommend you all use the bathroom." Ranboo, Eret, and Dream all stood up.
Ranboo went and used the bathroom, and came out to see Eret trying to help Sam order.
"Sam, I swear, just get like 3 of everything on the breakfast menu. We'll eat it. I'm hungry, Niki's hungry, we're all hungry."
Ranboo sat down in the back of the bus next to Tubbo, who was sitting up, looking dazed. "Where's Sam?"
Ranboo gestured to the outside of the bus. "He's getting breakfast."
"Oh." Tubbo rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Man, I hate waking up early. It's terrible. Did you go back to sleep?"
Ranboo shook his head. "No, I drank a thing of coffee before I got on the bus, I couldn't fall back asleep."
Tubbo laughed a little, crawling onto the seat to gaze over the bus. "Jack. Jack! Where's Tommy?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "Didn't he tell you? He drove up with his dad and Techno and Wil three days ago." He muttered under his breath, "You'd think the guy would tell his best friend but no, he leaves me to explain to everyone where he is. Prick."
Ranboo looked on in curiousity. "Do you guys know Tommy well? How are you all friends?"
Jack motioned towards Tubbo. "He's better friends with the guy, I met 'em both when we were campers a few years ago."
Tubbo stood up. "I'm going to make sure Sam got an Egg McMuffin, once we're back on the road I'll tell you the long story of how Thomas Minecraft and I became best friends."
Jack groaned, and Ranboo felt a small smile spread across his face. This summer was off to a great start.