Chapter Text
Troy just happens to be walking to Spanish 101 on his first day when he passes a bubbling stone fountain in a very un-crowded area.
He checks his watch and he has a good ten minutes before he needs to get to class, which happens to be just down another hall, so he thinks he has time.
There wasn’t a plan at first. There were no rules, no basic ideas behind it, he just decided to wish in a fountain.
Pulling some change out of his pockets, Troy drops the first penny in.
“I wish for…” Okay, he really could have thought ahead more, as he has no idea what a fitting first day of school wish is, but he figures it out. “A thousand wishes!” he says with a big grin plastered on his face, dropping the penny in with a satisfying spe-lunk noise.
Well, he doesn’t feel any different, but that’s probably to be expected.
“Alright Troy, second wish, here you go,” he whispers, hyping himself up. “I wish for… A great school year.” It’s admittedly basic, but he’s been worrying about it, and he’s glad that he can do something to feel a little better.
He sends the penny into the water.
Spe-lunk!
Troy spends a second fishing in the pocket of his jeans for another penny, but when he finally starts to get a grip on it, his sweaty hands slip and accidentally flings it into the water.
Troy watches the penny fly through the air, still processing its unfortunate end, when something surprised him. A hand snatches the coin from the air mere milliseconds before it hits the surface of the fountain.
The hand belongs to a stranger, who examines the coin carefully before tossing it back to Troy, an almost amused smile on his face.
Troy catches the coin and blushes, before stopping to actually take in this person. He’s a strange-looking boy, (by which he means that he’s looking at Troy in a strange, almost examinatory way, and not referring to his actual face) standing a few feet away. He’s wearing a long-sleeved flannel overshirt, a flamingo tee shirt, and some incredibly tight jeans, and he’s avoiding eye contact like his life depends on it.
In short, this stranger looks like exactly the kind of nerd Troy would bully.
“How’s the wishing going?” asks the stranger, seemingly unbothered by Troy’s awkward silence.
“Oh, uh…” Troy trails off. There isn’t really a reason to antagonize this guy, even if it’s something he would’ve done without hesitation only a few months before. “Yeah, it’s going okay I guess,” Troy says, scratching the back of his head nervously.
“Do you have enough coins?” the stranger asks.
Troy’s surprised, but after a second, he shrugs. “I guess I could use a few more.”
“Cool. Cool, cool, cool,” says the stranger, and he sets his backpack down and unzips it, revealing to Troy that along with various books and school supplies, he’s carrying a jar of jingling coins. He offers it to Troy. “Take as many as you’d like,” he offers simply, unscrewing the cap.
Troy giggles a little at the absurdity of the whole situation. There’s a student who walks around with a big coin jar? What’s he doing with all of them? It feels like some kind of joke, but as he scans this stranger’s face for any sign of humor, he’s met with nothing but seriousness.
Eventually, Troy just sighs. “Why not?” he whispers under his breath, taking just a few pennies.
The stranger nods curtly, and puts the jar back in the bag. He looks about to leave, but Troy stops him.
“So you just… walk around with those?” Troy asks, still laughing a little.
The stranger nods.
“Why?”
“I get them from my dad’s falafel shop, he lets me keep the pennies from the tip jar, but it hardly matters. It helped you, didn’t it?” he asks in response.
Troy’s dumbfounded. “I mean- I guess so,” he stammers.
He doesn’t quite understand how -or why- this strange student seems so self-assured and confident. Troy would be threatened if he weren’t busy studying this student’s strange charm and subtle charisma that seemed to do nothing but draw him in with curiosity and confusion.
“Well then, they’ve fulfilled their purpose,” the stranger says with a smile that seems to pull Troy’s heart from his chest.
“I think you’re probably the weirdest person I’ve ever met,” Troy says without thinking.
The stranger frowns at this, and for a fleeting moment Troy panics that he might’ve said something wrong- a thought he almost immediately pushes from his mind, he shouldn’t be caring what this weirdo thinks of him.
“You should meet some more people,” the stranger replies. “I’m actually headed to a study group right now. We’re meeting in the library- Study Room F, if I remember right. There should be a lot of different kinds of people there…” He hums to himself, as if lost in thought for a moment, before exclaiming, “It’ll be just like The Breakfast Club!”
Troy nods, a little confused.
“I’m asking if you’d like to go?” the boy explains.
“Ohhh…” says Troy. His first instinct is to say no- after all, a study group? That’s for nerds, but then he thinks about the boy’s smile again, and how lovely it would be if they could be friends or even if they could- No. He shouldn’t want that, that would be wrong. But still, he could always just be friends with this boy. He should be satisfied with that.
After a long silence, Troy finally says, “I might, actually.”
The stranger flashes another blessed smile at him. “Cool. I’ve been told we’re meeting at four. See you there?” he asks.
Troy smiles back. “Yeah, yeah, see you there- Oh, wait, I didn’t catch your name!” he calls just as the stranger starts to turn away.
“Oh of course, the name’s Nadir. Abed Nadir,” he replies in his most Bond-like voice.
Troy beams at him. “I’m Troy- I mean, Barnes. Troy Barnes,” he says, offering his hand to shake.
Abed doesn’t shake his hand, though -it looks like he doesn’t even register the offer- and instead he shoots Troy a finger-gun and starts speed-walking away, the coin jar clinking in his bag as he goes.
Troy chuckles and looks back in his other hand, where he has four pennies.
“I wish that I will pass my classes this year.”
Spe-lunk!
“I wish that people are nice about my letterman jacket.”
Spe-lunk!
“I wish that I’ll be able to play football again.”
Spe-lunk!
“I wish that…” He stops himself. Maybe this wish is better said inside his head.
I wish that the pretty boy I just met likes me.
Spe-lunk!
No. He doesn’t need to be wishing weird stuff like that. He’s just having an off-day, he didn’t actually mean it, right?
Yeah, definitely. It’s not too late to take back the wish, anyway.
“I wish that I meet a cute girl.” He says instead, his voice numb.
Whatever. It’s fine, he’s fine. Besides, he’ll get to see that pretty boy again in this study group anyway, he can be satisfied with that.