Chapter Text
Transferring to a new school in the middle of the year was difficult, but it wasn’t like Ranboo had never done it before.
With all of his family’s moving around, he had gotten used to being “the new kid” every couple of months, but something about hearing that there was a possibility this would be their “forever home” unnerved him. They wouldn’t just be “the new kid” who disappeared after a few months to the people he met here, which meant that they would actually have to try to make some friends.
Their parents reassured them that he would be fine. It’s not like he was lonely at his other schools, he mingled with the others just fine. But the thought of actually having long-term friends was foreign to him.
It all went by too fast, getting off the plane, moving into their townhouse, and being shoved into the front doors of their new school in a blink of an eye. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to find what or where his classes were beforehand.
Well this is going to be fun.. Ranboo thought as they pushed through the doors leading to the main office.
Immediately when he walked in, he was uncomfortable. A tall blonde boy stood glaring at him, while a curly-haired woman sat down next to him, looking exhausted.
“Hello! You must be Ranboo. My name’s Puffy, I’m the guidance counselor here.” The woman stood up to greet them, giving Ranboo a friendly smile. “And this is Tommy. He’ll be showing you around for your first day!”
Puffy looked over expectantly at Tommy, narrowing her eyes at him when he didn’t respond after a few beats.
“Yeah, right. I’m Tommy.” The blonde mumbled, still glaring at Ranboo.
Puffy sighed, then turned towards Ranboo again. “You two have most of your classes together, so he’ll escort you around to make sure you don’t get lost.” Puffy smiled at him playfully before handing them their schedule. “Alright, I think that’s about it! Let me know if you have any questions, I’m always happy to help.”
Ranboo nodded at her, and muttered a small “thanks” before she turned to leave, looking pointedly at Tommy and mouthing “ be nice ” to him. Ranboo pretended not to notice.
The office door clicked shut and the two were left alone.
It was uncomfortably silent for a good minute and a half, but it’s not like Ranboo was counting. Nope. Not at all.
They breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Tommy finally spoke up.
“How old are you?” Tommy asked, narrowing his eyes at him.
“Seventeen.” Ranboo replied, not quite sure of where this was going.
“Yeah, well I know that, dipshit. I mean when were you born? Like what month?”
“I was born in November?”
“Oh, fuck you.” Tommy scoffed, heading out the doors. Ranboo wasn’t sure if he should follow, but he did anyway.
“So you’re taller than me, older than me, and you’re American?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Ranboo shuffled behind him. “Wait, what’s wrong with being American?”
“I fucking hate you.” Tommy decided.
“Sorry?”
“You should be.”
Well, this is going great so far.
-
To their surprise, Tommy actually did accompany Ranboo throughout their lessons. He wasn’t exactly friendly towards them, but hey, he was there.
By the time lunch rolled around, Ranboo might have actually thought that he liked hanging around Tommy, but they quickly shoved that thought out of their mind because the boy made it abundantly clear that he despised Ranboo’s existence.
(Or did he? Could he have been joking? Ranboo was't sure. He was never the best at reading people.)
When lunch time rolled around, Ranboo the loud presence that had been beside him all day was gone. Unfortunately for them, Tommy had second lunch while Ranboo had first, which meant that this was his first time being alone all day.
Walking around the cafeteria felt like he was in a scene from a slightly below-average high school movie. There were clearly cliques at this school, which was always so much fun. Ranboo found himself wishing he had that map of the cafeteria from Mean Girls , so they could figure out where to sit.
Unluckily for them, they had no such thing. He would only be able to rely on his intuition to figure out which table to eat lunch at.
Looking around, the lunch tables were very clearly packed. Everyone already seemed to have their group of friends, and it would just be awkward if he were to intrude on that.
Just when Ranboo thought they would have to eat lunch in the bathroom (again. Yes, they had done it before. It wasn’t exactly something they were proud of, okay? But sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures), they spotted a small table shoved into the corner of the cafeteria. There was only one boy occupying it. He had his nose buried in a book, a curtain of long pink hair covering most of his face. He seemed chill enough, so Ranboo decided to join him.
Better than the bathrooms, I guess.
The boy looked up at him with a blank face as Ranboo sat down at his table.
It was quiet for a moment before the boy spoke up.
“This is my table.” He said monotonously.
“uh- yeah? Is it, um-”
“Are you sure you want to sit here?”
Ranboo fidgeted with his hands nervously. This was not how he had expected this to go.
“I mean- I’m sorry. I can just- I can leave if you want me to..” Ranboo stammered out, their face turning a bit red.
Welp this is embarrassing.
The boy was quiet for a moment. Ranboo could feel eyes around the cafeteria glance at him quickly, but he didn’t let himself look at anything but the table.
“Yeah, sure. You can stay.” The boy finally said. Then he picked up his book again and started to read.
Ranboo just sat there in their chair for a moment, not quite knowing what to do. They could try to start a conversation, but this guy seemed pretty invested in his book, so they just opted to eat their lunch in silence. Ranboo made sure to pull out his phone while he ate, trying not to look awkward as he scrolled through Twitter, not quite looking at anything.
When the bell finally rang, Ranboo quickly packed up his things and left the table. Before they could even get two feet away, they saw Tommy staring at him, mouth agape.
Sighing, Ranboo hurried over to him to see what the hell could make the blonde so dumbfounded.
“Ranboo, Ranboo, Ranboo.” Tommy said hurriedly, glancing over to the table Ranboo had just come from. “Did you seriously sit there during lunch?”
“Uh- yeah?” Ranboo looks at Tommy’s face for a second before quickly going back to the floor. “Is that bad?”
“Wha-” Tommy sputtered. “How did you do that?”
“Huh?”
“You do realize that you just sat with the Technoblade , right?”
“That’s his name?”
“You didn’t even-?” Tommy put a hand on Ranboo’s shoulder. “Ranboo, Ranboo, Ranboo. My friend-” Ranboo’s eyes went wide. Tommy noticed and quickly corrected himself. “My not-friend, Ranboo. You just sat with The Blade .”
Tommy stared at them. Ranboo stayed silent, still not quite understanding what Tommy was trying to say.
“Did he beat you up?” Tommy questioned.
“Wha- no! Why would he-”
Ranboo was cut off by the bell ringing again. They were going to be late for their next class. Dammit.
“Shit. Okay, uh. I think your next class is in C-Wing. Third hallway then it should be the first door to your left.” Tommy directed Ranboo, then shook his head. “I can’t believe you just ate lunch with the fucking Technoblade. And he didn’t beat you up. What world am I living in?”
And that was all Tommy said before walking off, leaving Ranboo to find his class that they had already forgotten the directions to.