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Sans stared into a mirror, smoothing down the front of his uniform. It would be odd, going his whole life without having to wear school uniforms to all of a sudden wearing one every day, but he was sure he would get used to it eventually. His school only put the uniform mandate in place over the summer, so it would be something all the students at Ebbot High would have to get used to.
Papyrus was lucky, the middle schoolers didn’t have the uniform mandate, but he would be joining the land of uniforms in a year. Speaking of Papyrus, he should probably join his brother for breakfast before his parents berated him for not being downstairs early enough.
He shuddered when he thought of his parents. They were constantly disappointed in him, and constantly praising everything Papyrus ever did. It caused a bit of a rivalry between the two brothers while they were in elementary school, but as they both grew, Sans’s resentment faded.
While he desperately wanted his parent’s approval, he figured that Papyrus’s success in their eyes had little to do with how much they ignored him. He hoped this would be the year he could make his parents finally proud of him, but after almost twelve years of trying, he didn’t have very high hopes.
Walking down the stairs, Sans thought of how his day could go. He knew he wouldn’t really have anyone to talk to, so socializing wasn’t really something he thought would happen, though he did hear about a student transferring this year. He knew he would have to try and find some kind of club if he wanted any kind of friends, but he also knew that there was the chance everyone would continue to avoid him.
“Sans? Why are you just standing there?” He heard Papyrus ask, snapping Sans out of his thoughts.
“huh? sorry, i was just thinking about something.” Sans laughed, finishing his descent down the steps.
“You’re always thinking about something, but you never tell me what it is.” Papyrus sighed, then approached, giving Sans a quick hug before he ran up the stairs two at a time, likely to grab his backpack.
Sans was left alone once again. His parents were sitting on the couch in the living room, both reading. He left the two alone, deciding to get some breakfast rather than an annoyed look from his parents for disturbing their reading.
“dang it, we’re out of eggs.” Sans mumbled, grabbing a sticky note and slapping a note on the fridge door. He grabbed the milk, opting to have some cereal instead.
Halfway through his bowl, Papyrus reappeared, plopping down in the seat in front of Sans. It was a little tradition they had, even if one had already eaten, they would sit with the other to keep them company.
“Did you finally eat all the eggs?” Papyrus teased, poking Sans’s bowl.
“i guess so.” Sans laughed, taking another bite.
“Are you excited? I’m excited to see my friends again!” Papyrus said happily. Leaning back a little to far in his chair. “Woah!” He cried, the chair falling over with him still in it.
“paps!” Sans called, standing up and running to the other side of the table as quickly as he could. “jeez, are you alright?” He asked, helping Papyrus into a sitting position on the floor.
“Oh darling, are you alright?” His mother called, her and their father running into the dining room to check on Papyrus. They pushed Sans aside, both physically and metaphorically, to give their full attention to Papyrus, who insisted that he was completely fine.
Sans turned away, taking his bowl to the sink, suddenly not hungry anymore.
——————————————————————————————————————————
“Remember to do your best, we believe in you.” His father said to Papyrus, genuine love in his voice.
“I’ll try. I love you guys!” Papyrus said. “I’ll see you soon!” He called, turning to go into the school.
Unlike before his brother left the car, the ride from the middle school to the high school was completely silent. His parents barely offered a goodbye when he got out of the car, simply driving away once he had all his things.
And so began the school year. Sans walked into one of the large classrooms, which he had been instructed to go to. He knew that each grade level had to meet together for a grade-specific orientation before the beginning of the year assembly took place at the end of the day. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but he knew that being swarmed by old friends was out of the picture.
“good morning.” He told the lady who was checking them into the room. “comic sans serif.” He told her before she asked what his name was. She only looked at him, then crossed his name off of a list, waving for him to enter further into the room as she did so. Sans took a seat at an empty table, trying to keep to himself. His class was rather small, only about seventy people total, but that didn’t stop the classroom from feeling like there were hundreds of people packed in.
He didn’t necessarily have a bad reputation, quite a good one actually. He was at the top of his class, and that came with the notion that people were somewhat intimidated by him. Some assumed that he was a teacher's pet, while others assumed he was the type of person to use his status to his advantage. His classmates got along just fine with him, but they kept their distance. Which is why he was so startled when he heard someone call his name and run towards him.
“wha-” he asked before the stranger suddenly hugged him out of nowhere. Sans stood up quickly from his seat.
“Oh man I missed you!” She cried out, causing a bunch of people to stare at the two.
“um… who are you?” Sans asked, unable to recognise this girl by only the top of her head and her voice. The girl backed up, and the moment that Sans saw her face everything clicked. “alph?!”
“The o-one and only!” She smiled. More people were staring, a couple whispering. Sans didn’t care what anyone thought at that moment, he just hugged his old best friend.
“how long has it been?” Sans whispered.
“Um… elementary sc-school?” Alphys asked. By now the students who had been staring looked away, no longer interested in their conversation. They broke up their hug, Sans motioning for Alphys to sit beside him. “A-angel above it’s been s-so long, how h-have you been?”
“i’ve been alright.” Sans said, not knowing what else to say, he noticed that his voice sounded more dull than he had intended. Oh well, that was normal by now.
“S-so you haven’t been al-alright.” She responded, “Is it-it your parents?”
“i- uh…” Sans froze, unable to respond.
“Or is it your brother?” Alphys asked, making it through the entire sentence without stuttering.
“what?! no it isn’t him!” Sans objected a little louder than he intended, once again drawing eyes to the pair.
“Alright so j-just your parents.” She said, “So, are you dating anyone? Got a-a girlfriend yet?”
“alphys… i’m not…”
“Oh. Same lol.” Alphys snorted without skipping a beat.
“did- did you just say ‘lol’ out loud?” Sans asked after a moment.
“Hell yeah I did!”
Sans took a moment to stare at her before sighing, letting a small smile slip out. “see? this is why we’re best friends.”
“Damn, and here I thought you didn’t show any emotions.” A voice said from behind the pair.
“shut it richard.” Sans said, not even needing to turn around to know who made the sarcastic comment.
“What are you gonna do? Tell the teacher on me?” He laughed. It was an awful laugh, one that made Sans want to choose violence.
“I-I’m sorry, but who are you?” Alphys asked, Sans could tell she was trying her best to sound confident.
“I-I-I-I-” Richard said in a mocking voice, making fun of Alphys’s stutter.
“Alright that’s enough.” A teacher said, interrupting Sans who was about two seconds away from strangeling some. “The orientation is about to start. You may find a seat.” The teacher said. Richard scoffed, walking away from the duo.
“Attention everyone!” A teacher called not long after. “I would like to welcome all of you back from summer vacation-”
—
“So you’re saying y-you don’t really have any f-friends?” Alphys asked during lunch.
Sans took a bite out of his sandwich. “not really. i’m friendly with most of our classmates, but most people keep their distance from me.”
“Why?”
“i just don’t really talk to anyone.” Sans explained. “i’m fine with it though.”
“If you say s-so.” Alphys told him.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Just like everyone else in his life, Alphys eventually moved on, finding new friends and spending a lot of time with them and away from him. Sans didn’t feel mad at Alphys, he knew that it wasn’t her fault he didn’t want to hang out with her new friends, but he was still a little sad.
Once again he was alone at lunch, sitting on a bench under the giant tree, which was at the edge of the courtyard. Even Papyrus had grown more distant lately, choosing to spend his afternoons at a new friend's house. He had even stopped sitting with Sans at breakfast, instead staying in his room to message this friend.
Sans looked down at his lap, the loneliness he never really noticed before becoming a lot more apparent, gnawing away little pieces of him.
Sans stood up, sighing. He packed the remains of his lunch and headed to the school’s library. He passed many students on his way to his locker and to the library, some of which waved or offered a hello, and others simply ignored him. His mind and soul were a bit of a mess when he finally sat down at a computer.
‘Why is Joan of Arc seen as such a strong figure of her time?’ He typed, determined to make his homework distract him from the sudden burst of loneliness.
—
Quiet, compliant, invisible. That’s how many of his classmates and even some teachers described him. And that’s how Sans felt at times too. Sure people all around him saw him, they would say hello or sometimes even make small talk, but for the most part, everyone kept their distance.
“He’s the smart one, top of our class, he probably thinks he’s too good for us.” Some would say behind his back.
“You shouldn’t compliment him, it’ll go to his head.” His mother had told his teacher one year at a conference. She didn’t know Sans had been listening just outside the door.
“We shouldn’t need to congratulate you on things that are expected of you.” His father told him when his report card came back one quarter.
“You shouldn’t be anxious, you have perfect grades. There’s nothing to be anxious over.”
“Why are you talking to us? Do you just want to use us to make yourself look better?”
“I feel bad for anyone who gets paired up with him, he just makes them look stupid.”
“Quit showing off, you’re going to make the rest of us feel bad. No one cares that you got an A.”
“I thought you were popular or something, why are you sitting with us?”
“Why don’t you ever socialize with anyone, it’s not like they’re going to bite you?”
“I thought you were supposed to be perfect .”
Perfect. Sans was starting to hate that word. It was the thing he had to be. He had to be perfect every day. He had to have perfect grades, perfect performance, perfect appearance, perfect everything. If he wasn’t perfect, then what was he?
He wished sometimes that he didn’t have to be the best of the best, but he couldn’t disappoint everyone now that their expectations of him were so high. He had to be the one to make the winning shot in sports, every grade had to be three digits, every interaction he had couldn’t be flawed.
Then again, how could he be perfect? A perfect person didn’t worry over everything. A perfect person didn’t have to take medications to keep his anxiety under control. A perfect person should have more than one close friend. A perfect person didn’t disappoint their parents whenever they made the slightest of mistakes. He wasn’t perfect, but everyone acted like he needed to be.
His gym class was playing basketball, something he was good at. Good wasn’t good enough though. Sans played as hard as he could, giving the sudden game everything he had. He was sloppy. Missing shots, not making clean enough passes. It wasn’t a good performance. Sans was stressing out, not wanting to be the reason his team lost.
He caught the ball and angled himself quickly to make a shot. Just as the ball left his hands, another student, one of the soccer players, ran directly into him, knocking Sans to the ground while he was still in the air.
There was a twist and Sans heard a pop as he landed on the ground. His ears rang, vision blurry for a moment as he registered what was going on.
“Don’t be so dramatic, I didn’t hit you that hard.” He heard the guy who knocked him over say.
“Shut up Grillby!” another student shouted at him, she turned to face Sans as he struggled to sit up, pain flaring up in his right ankle, “Sans, I heard something pop, are you alright?”
“i… i think so.” Sans said, cursing how shaky his voice sounded. He was probably being dramatic, just like Grillby said. The girl helped him to his feet, only for Sans to fall over the moment he tried to take a step, gasping in pain.
Finally the coach came over, making her way through the sea of students who had gathered. “Is it your ankle?” She asked, kneeling down in front of him. Sans nodded, not trusting his voice as pain blossomed with every movement. She lifted the bottom of his pant leg, revealing that the ankle bone itself was fine, but the normally clear pseudo-flesh that covered it was now a dark blue, the magic lines running through his ankle having been disrupted and twisted, causing immense pain.
“Grillby, you’re the one who caused this, you take him to the nurse.” She said, voice strict, “Your ankle only looks to be sprained, but the nurse will check it out just to be safe.”
Grillby approached, taking Sans’s hand and helping him up once more. They made their way to the nurse without too much trouble, Grillby even asked to stay a bit to make sure Sans was okay.
“Sorry for saying that earlier, there were a bunch of times when people pretended to be injured by me in order to get something. I know that’s not an excuse for what I said, but I wanted to apologize anyway.” He said when the nurse left them alone for a moment to go get some ice.
Sans didn’t know how to respond. He had never been in a situation like this before. He sighed, hoping his words were the right ones to say, “accidents happen, it wasn’t your fault.”
There was a brief moment where the two didn’t say anything at all. Sans was worried that he had messed up somehow.
“Thank you.” Grillby whispered. The nurse walked back in before Sans could reply, and handed Sans a bag with a cloth wrapped around it.
“You can go back to class now, Mr. Fotia. I’m sure your teacher is wondering where you are.” The nurse told him, turning her attention back to Sans. “Are you alright with me trying to heal your ankle?”
“yes.” Sans replied quickly, wanting the throbbing pain to go away. The nurse sat down in front of him, a hand lit with a bright green light hovering just centimeters above the swollen limb. Relief was almost instant, the pain being siphoned away as the green glow increased.
“I called your parents, your father is coming to pick you up.” The nurse told him abruptly, Sans froze, already knowing how the afternoon was going to play out. “What’s the matter?”
“he’s going to think i’m faking it to get out of school.” Sans told her, anxiety welling up.
“Then I’ll tell him exactly what’s going on before he gets you. At least it’s Friday, so you don’t have to worry about missing much school.” She said, beginning to wrap the ankle in a thick bandage. “Take it easy this weekend. It’ll be a few days before you should start walking on that ankle again.”
“fair enough.” Sans sighed, wondering if his parents would even let him stay still long enough to heal.
——————————————————————————————————————————
He sat on the edge of a footbridge. The barren road showcased the lack of cars, something unusual for how busy it usually was. Water spilled everywhere, a constant moisture that encompassed the streets. It tried to find a place to go, somewhere to run and hide from the blaze of the sun. The dirtiness of it reflected off of the sun as the dark murkiness could suck you in, trapping you forever. The marketplace lacked people, the chatter that would grind on his ears when he sat there, listening, and thinking of every possibility known to man. The torn canopies and umbrellas, as bright as they were contrasted hard against the abyss of water. Most of it had stains, a now brownish color that appeared like a molting butterfly. He sat silent as he observed the scene. A few mosquitos flew by and he had the feeling they watched them, judging over his shoulder like some strict mother. They left him alone for the most part, for some reason only known by the Angel Above.
A small patch of wet woodland stood behind him. It seemed to draw in the humid air, the hotness of it made him sweat. Screams of the hundreds of cicadas that claimed these woods drowned out any ambient noise. The dirt road they had driven to here was just barely out of sight, the gainey feeling of dust still stuck between his toes. He knew that others had come, their voices intelligible marks in the distance, out of reach from any chance of him being able to meet them. So he sat, and contentness filled him, puffing him up inside as he waited and watched.
A person joined, he couldn’t really make out their face but they were familiar somehow, unnamed yet important. They talked about how lovely the market would have been if it hadn’t been flooded, how the flooding was normal for the area and time of year, and how unbearably hot and sticky it was. They conversed like old friends, despite the lack of features and memories shared. Flies and other insects crawler around, a couple daring to land on his arms only to be slapped a moment later.
The words began to muddle and he went back to watching the waters, the other person still talking, their voice now as faded as the ones on the main path. The dirty water was beginning to recede, where the water had originally been at the base of the footbridge, it was now at the entrance of the marketplace, revealing the tops of empty stalls. Bits of grass and leaves littered the mud stained countertops that the poor stall owners hadn’t managed to move.
There was an itch on his arm. He realized a mosquito bit him before he could slap it away. He sighed in annoyance, ‘Dang it,’ he thought, ‘that was going to be annoying for a while until the bite went away.’ He noticed that the bugs were starting to swarm him more, mostly mosquitos but other insects like flies and ants too.
He stood, figuring he had overstated his visit, and prepared to make his way back to the car. As he walked, though, the insects would not leave him alone. Multiple mosquitos landed on his arms and legs, refusing to let go, flying ants clinging to his clothing, flies buzzing in his ears. He ran, trying to get away from the little menaces, but to no avail, they would not leave him alone.
A bug dropped from above, landing directly on his head. It was small enough that he was able to squish it pretty easily. He moved his hand to look at it, and the thing looked like an ant-sized scorpion. Panicked, he tried to run faster, trying to make it back to the car, but-
*BEEP**BEEP**BEEP**BEEP*
That was his alarm… It was just a dream.
He breathed a sigh of relief, relieved that there were no more bugs. The itchiness and sticky humidity gone.
——————————————————————————————————————————
For the amount of complaints Sans had for the music department of his school, it would be a massive surprise that Sans played an instrument. Sure, he hated the music department for being incredibly stingy with their money, having received plenty to at least purchase some new sheet music, but choosing not to.
Sans would always sigh and tell himself that he was just too young to understand the reason for the teacher’s decisions whenever they came to his mind.
Returning to his instrument, Sans sat on his bed, still unable to stand with his sprained ankle, playing a violin. It wasn’t something he gave a lot of time for, but at times like this where there was literally nothing else for him to do, he would pull it out, brush whatever dust had formed off, and tune the creature of wood and wire, preparing it for its private symphony.
His parents would always complain about the noise, about how he needed to practice more because he wasn’t good enough, but Sans had long since drowned out their complaints, playing anyways.
It may sound stupid to anyone else, but the times where he ran his bow over the strings, chin pressed into the wood, fingertips digging into the wire to manipulate it’s sound, were the only times he truely felt alive. When everything felt bleaker than usual, when he wanted nothing more than to curl up in his bed and disappear for eternity, he would play anything that came to mind. Scales, classical music his old teachers taught him, pop songs from memory, little jingles he came up with on the spot, and everything in between.
Papyrus would sometimes wander into his room to listen, and others he would stay alone and play until his fingers burned or until his parents yelled at him to stop.
—
Surprisingly enough, Sans had been able to stay still enough to let his ankle heal for the most part over the weekend, but it was still bothering him.
“Maybe you should just stay home, let it heal completely.” Papyrus said when he came down the stairs that morning.
“i can’t, i have a geometry test today.” Sans said, sighing. Papyrus looked like he wanted to argue, but didn’t, only sighing as he finished up his cereal.
He went into the medicine cabinet, taking a few painkillers to ease the dull ache that wasn’t quite gone just yet.
—
The test started off well enough, with the first three questions being a breeze. On the fourth question, his mind started to feel a little fuzzy, but he was able to answer it all the same. Question five and six, Sans caught himself swaying.
“Are you alright?” Alphys, who just so happened to be sitting right next to him, asked.
“i… i think so.” Sans whispered back.
“No talking during the test.” The teacher told them sternly. Both ducked back down, going back to their work.
Question seven, eight, and nine were a struggle, with keeping focus. On question ten, Sans felt his body seize up, and everything went black.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Once again, Sans woke to the sound of beeping, though this time, it felt different. The beeping was slightly off, the bed too uncomfortable to be his own. The lights were too bright, deterring him from opening his eyes. The air was too cold, the sharp scent of rubbing alcohol was off putting along with the slightly bitter taste in his mouth.
Exhaustion weighed him down more than usual, his memories foggy and unable to remember where he was.
Sans heard voices and footsteps gradually getting closer, both unfamiliar, both too distant and fuzzy to make out.
“- check on them, make sure they are stable.” One of the voices said. There was the sound of metal on metal close by, the sound making him wince. Sans forced himself to open his eyes, glaring against the harsh lights. His surroundings told him he was in a hospital, though why he was there, he didn’t know.
“Good evening,” someone who looked like a doctor greeted. Sans groggily looked over, “how are you feeling.”
He tried to find the words for how he felt only to come up empty, “i don’t know.”
“That’s fairly normal, considering what happened.” The doctor said with a slight chuckle, “how about mentally, do you feel confused, anxious, anything out of the ordinary.”
“really tired,” Sans started, “everything feels really slow.”
“Again, fairly normal. What about physically? Does anything hurt? Sore?”
Sans flexed his limbs, testing for any pain or numbness, only to turn up empty. He shook his head in response.
“I need to ask a couple more things.” The doctor said, holding a clipboard and a pen, “Can I have your full name and date of birth?”
“comic sans serif, april first 20XX.” Sans said, “no one ever believes me when i tell them when my birthday is.” He laughed softly, drawing a small chuckle from the doctor.
“Are you currently or were you recently on any medication?” They asked.
“um, i’m taking an anxiety medication, but i forgot what it was called.” Sans explained.
“Alright, I can see it here on your record. One last question: are you aware of why you’re here?” The doctor asked. Sans thought for a minute, though the last thing he could remember was the math test, everything that happened after that was a blacked-out blur.
“i… i don’t know.” Sans said, almost whispering.
“Well according to your classmates and teacher, you had a seizure in the middle of class.” The doctor told him. Sans froze, suddenly remembering his last moments of consciousness when he felt himself involuntarily freeze.
“do my parents know?” Sans asked. “when can i go home?”
“Yes, and they are aware that you have woken up. As for when you can go home, we need to do a couple tests to make sure there was no lasting damage.” The doctor explained.
—
“Good morning, it’s time to eat.” someone unfamiliar said, waking Sans. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The nurse went over to the other bed in the room, which had previously been empty, and woke up what looked like another patient in a similar fashion. He then gave each patient some food and then left, presumably to deliver more patients their breakfast.
“What are you here for?” The other patient asked. Sans looked over, shocked to see that the stranger looked remarkably similar to him, as well as looking close in age.
“seizure.” Sans said, not offering context.
“Really? Same here.” The other said, “I’m called Outer, by the way.”
“i’m sans.” He said, turning the rest of his body to face Outer’s bed. “did they tell you what caused yours?”
“The doctors think it was stress, but we’re not too sure, since that’s really rare for people who don’t have epilepsy.” Outer explained, “What about you?”
“they think it was a drug interaction.” Sans said recalling the previous night’s events, “i’m on an anxiety medication, and took painkillers yesterday morning. they think they interacted and caused me to have a seizure.”
“Huh. Didn't know that was a thing.” Outer said, surprisingly calm for what Sans just said.
“i didn’t either. but here we are i guess.” He responded, shrugging.
The two fell into silence for a bit, neither having anything to say.
“So, uh, you have any hobbies?” Outer asked, obviously trying to start small talk. Sans thought about the question, most of his time was spent on schoolwork or studying. The lack of friends didn’t help anything either.
“i like to read.” Sans said after he thought for a little longer.
Outer gave him a sympathetic look. “Let me guess, you spend so much time on school that you don’t even know your own hobbies?”
Sans stared, not knowing how to respond to someone being able to reach into his mind and pull the thoughts straight from his head. He felt oddly vulnerable, like this other person would start listing off every one of his secrets and insecurities.
“I’ll take that as a yes?” Outer said with a small laugh.
“how-”
“You had to think about it for a long time, and when you finally gave me an answer, you gave me something that most people in school would be doing every day anyways.” Outer explained, “I didn’t read your mind or anything, just picked up on subtle hints. I know that there are people who genuinely have reading as a hobby and don’t spend all their time at school, but they don’t normally take that long to respond, plus they also usually say something else too, like ‘I like reading and playing piano’ or something like that.”
Sans looked down at his bed, not knowing how to respond.
“Hmm, let’s try an easier one. What’s your least favorite subject in school.” It sounded less like a question, and more like Outer was a parent giving basic questions to a child to keep them distracted.
“i… i don’t like music classes very much.” Sans said, trying to shake the odd feeling that had now encompassed his soul, weighing it down with uncertainty.
“That makes a bit of sense, I don’t really like language arts. Too much reading stuff I find boring and writing papers.” Outer said.
“i can understand that.”
The two fell into a gentle conversation after that, asking each other random questions. The entire time Sans felt vulnerable, the odd feeling of someone or something watching the very culmination of his being ever present.
——————————————————————————————————————————
“Dude! What happened? You were gone for, like, a week!” Someone in Sans’s first period asked when he walked into the classroom.
“i… uh…” Sans said, discomfort enveloping him as the entire class turned to stare at him like he was an exotic creature in a zoo.
“He doesn’t have to answer if he doesn’t want to.” The teacher told his classmate, who deflated slightly before walking back to his seat. A couple other students began whispering as Sans walked to his seat. He heard the words ‘test’ and ‘seizure’ a few times, but everything else was too quiet to make out.
He understood their curiosity, but that didn’t mean he welcomed it.
The entire day was like that, people staring and gawking, a teacher telling them to knock it off, and then the whispering. Seven periods straight, with people following him around at lunch to ask invasive questions.
—
Sans felt like he was slowly shutting down, every day becoming darker, duller, emptier. Nothing he did was enough to make anyone proud. He didn’t want to hog anyone’s attention, but it was getting really hard being invisible constantly. He just wanted his parents to look at him and be proud for once, for his teachers to look at his exams and projects and to say “good job” instead of just nodding.
He wanted his classmates to look at him and know him as a hard worker instead of as a stuck up person who thinks he’s too good to talk to anyone. It wasn’t true.
He wanted to spend more time with his very few friends and his brother, but it had gotten to the point that Papyrus asked him to stop being so clingy all the time. Sans kept his distance after that, trying to give his brother space. It hurt, but he didn’t want to ruin one of the few good relationships he had.
To make matters worse, his parents had gone from hands-off on his school work, to hands-on.
“You have an 83 on this quiz, I expected better from you.” His mother told him one day after school.
“You have a paper due next week, I want to see you working on that next time I come by.” His father said when he got home from work once.
“Can’t you be doing better in this class? You are not an A- student.”
“Why is your handwriting so messy? You really need to work on that.”
“If you don’t get an A on this test, there will be consequences.”
It was almost worse than his parents never being proud. Now it was them constantly showing him their disappointment.
He was shutting down more and more. The year dragged on, the second semester began, his birthday passed, now it was spring break.
—
“i passed the entrance exam.” Sans told his parents on the last day of spring break.
“What entrance exam.” His father asked.
“the one to go to maple valley next year.”
“Isn’t that a private school? Those cost money, you know.” His mother asked, sounding cross.
“it does, but i-”
“Then no.” His mother interrupted.
“you didn’t let me finish.” Sans said, testing his luck. “i applied for a full-ride scholarship and won. i won’t need to pay for anything.”
“If it’s fully paid for, then you can go.” His mother said, turning back to her laptop. His father followed in suit, going back to his book. Sans quickly hurried up the stairs, feeling not quite as happy as he thought he would be. Sans grabbed his violin the moment he entered his room, desperate for the relief the strings brought the moment they started singing.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Sans was just about done with everything. He knew there wouldn’t be much time left at that school, but just the sheer amount of people that had gone from ignoring him and shunning him all year to pretending to be his friend the week before finals was both disturbing and exhausting. He just wanted to finish his finals and leave, the urge to smack someone was strong, but his urge to not get into trouble was stronger.
“I look forward to seeing you again for algebra two next year.” His teacher said when he finished his math exam.
“i won’t be here next year.” Sans said, not offering any sympathy or letting any emotion into his voice. Out of all his teachers who his parents told to ignore him and to not show him anything positive, his math teacher was the worst offender. He didn’t like how now on the last day of his math classes, his teacher was suddenly trying to be on good terms.
“Oh? Where are you going?” His teacher asked.
“far from here.” Sans finished, walking away before his teacher could try talking again.
—
“Hey, I heard y-you were moving.” Alphys told him on their last day of school.
“not really. i’m just not going to be going to this school next year.” Sans explained.
“A-am I going to see you again?” Alphys asked.
“maybe.” Sans told her. After a moment of silence between the two, Alphys reached forward and hugged Sans, startling him.
“I’ll miss you.” She said, squeezing. Sans returned the embrace, letting his chin rest on her shoulder. For a moment, the world disappeared, and it was just the two of them.
“don’t worry about me, you have so many friends now, i’m sure you don’t need me.” He said, trying to reassure her.
“Maybe, but they aren’t you.” She whispered.
—
Sans stood alone in his room, the only sound being the velvet-soft sounds produced by his violin, Alphys’s words playing over and over in his head. She hadn’t stammered, no amount of uncertainty was in her voice. She was telling the truth. Sans stopped playing.
He had always known he wasn’t anything special, just someone who had to be perfect. Sans never even considered that he could be important to someone, much less someone who at one point he competed with for the title of “top of the class.” He had always assumed Alphys had been the same as him, someone who worked as hard as she could for the approval of others, but unlike him, she was able to achieve and receive that praise.
Well, there wasn’t really going back now, he had already accepted the position at this new school. It was far enough away that Sans would have to stay in the dorms, but not so far away that he couldn’t regularly visit, not that his parents would probably bother visiting anyways. Papyrus would continue going to his old high school, and would likely be too busy with school to visit himself.
Sans sighed, knowing he had this one summer, though he planned on working to save up a bit of money. He resumed playing, velvet tones filling the room once more.
For now, all Sans knew was that everything would change once the summer ended.