Chapter Text
Aubrey sluggishly moved through the crowded school halls while the chatter of other students that she didn’t know nor cared about filled the building. She hated being up this early, but if it meant free tax-paid lunches then it was almost a worthwhile sacrifice. If only she didn’t have to put up with all the noise that worsened a growing headache. Noise that she was unfortunately used to.
“Here comes Aubrey the bully.”
“She should just drop out already.”
“I hope she stays away from me this year.”
“Did you see the new kid? Dude’s got a scar on his eye.”
All except for that last comment. For once in who knows how long, Aubrey was looking forward to attending her classes this year. So much so that Aubrey could hardly sleep a wink. After all, she could hang out with her old friend Sunny again. She wasn’t sure what exactly about it made her so excited about him coming back to school. Maybe it was because things got worse after Sunny stopped attending and with his return marking some sort of return to normalcy.
Today marked the first day of the school year at Faraway High, and for the delinquent, it would’ve been another year of just getting by while sleeping comfortably at an old desk. That all changed during the summer when Mari, a friend that she loved like an older sister, had come back from a fantasy world after four years of being labeled as dead. Why was she dead? Well, it turned out that Sunny had pushed her down the stairs, and his best friend Basil helped frame it as a suicide. And you bet that would send any group of childhood best friends into a new league of traumatic shock.
But that was all in the past. Now, all Aubrey wanted was to get things back to the way they were before. “Hey, Aubrey!” Even if it meant dealing with a few minor headaches. Walking towards her were two of her oldest friends. An annoying tall tan boy named Kel who wore their school’s basketball uniform, and a shy sweet blonde boy called Basil who was dressed in a simple green polo shirt and cargo shorts.
“Sup, dweebs,” she greeted while trying to force a smile as she was way too tired to offer a genuine one.
“It’s nice to see you too, Aubrey,” replied Basil. It was funny to her to hear him say that considering the unrelenting bullying she used to subject him to. Years of torment, and for what? Some ink on old pieces of film? She was petty and stupid for doing that. Scum. Trash. Pathet-
‘No, that’s in the past and I’m moving on from it,’ she thought to herself.
“Hey, Aubrey, who’d you get for homeroom?” Kel asked out of the blue.
Fishing for the crumbled sheet of paper that was her schedule, Aubrey pulled it out of her pocket and scanned through the sheet. “Looks like I got Mr. Lastname. Aw crud I forget I have to take after school classes this year.” With everything that happened over the summer, she had forgotten that she had to take the extra classes to graduate on time. Sure, she could just not go, but ditching is exactly what got her in this mess in the first place.
“Lucky!” exclaimed Kel with a wide smile. Aubrey had to agree with him, she had Mr. Lastname last year and he was pretty lenient towards her sleeping during lectures. But, she didn’t get why she’d be fortunate for having to stay on campus longer. Either way, it sounded like Kel didn’t get the same teacher.
“What about you guys? Who’d you get?” she asked the pair.
“We both got Ms. Surname,” responded Basil with a hint of gloom in his voice. A feeling of pity hit Aubrey as Ms. Surname was notorious for being a hard-ass with her strict policies and overwhelming homework.
“Sucks to be you guys,” she consoled. “What about Sun-” before she could finish her question Aubrey was cut off by the daunting school bell, signaling that Armageddon had begun for the teenagers of Faraway.
“Looks like we should make our way to class now,” said Basil as the mass of students that lined up the halls thinned out.
“See you at lunch, Aubrey!” said Kel as he and the flower boy scampered to class.
Aubrey opened the door to her classroom. Inside she could see her classmates, most of whom she met in previous years, but never bothered to learn their names. They were all surrounding something in the center of the room and talking their heads off. To her disappointment, she didn’t spot anyone of her Hooligans nor Sunny amongst the crowd. No matter, Aubrey was sure she could handle being a lone wolf. Probably.
As she entered the room the crowd fell silent and focused their gaze on Aubrey. A drawback of having bright pink hair, getting unwanted attention from unknown strangers. Not to mention the hostility their glares gave from Aubrey’s bad reputation of being an infamous gang leader. But she was all too used to it. Trudging on, she slumped into an unclaimed seat in the back of the classroom near the windows. Once she did, everyone else focused back on whatever was in the middle of the room. She couldn’t care less about it. All she wanted was to sleep, eat what could barely be called lunch, sleep some more, and hang out with her friends, all in that order.
Planning to do just that, Aubrey plumped her head facedown into her arms on top of the desk. Sadly, it was still noisy in the classroom. All Aubrey wanted was enough peace and quiet to catch a few z’s in however few minutes she had left before Mr. Lastname showed up. Was that too much to ask?
As if answering for her, silence fell in the room once more. She didn’t hear the door open and doubted that the teacher had magically gotten there, so she was rather surprised by it. Were they all staring at her again? Was she sitting on a literal land mine now? Sure she wished for it to quiet down, but not to the point that it freaked her out.
Suddenly the silence was pierced as a few footsteps could be heard and were followed by one small familiar voice, “Aubrey?”
Her head quickly shot up from the desk. “Sun-” Aubrey began but soon coughed as some of her hair was caught in her mouth. Before she fixed it, she noticed as the formation of the crowd had changed as if what they were surrounding had been freed. And that thing was Sunny. He stood facing her while wearing a similar outfit to Basil’s, albeit black instead of green. And he looked less pale and a little taller than before. It had only been a week since she last saw him, but it looked like he had been going out more. Maybe Mari had been helping him exercise.
Aubrey swiftly brushed her hair away, while flustered at her sloppy display and Sunny’s sudden appearance. Hopefully, he couldn’t see her blushing from how embarrassed she was. But just to check, she looked up at him and soon made eye contact. Aubrey’s eyes that were hidden past her teal contacts felt locked into Sunny’s familiar left eye and his scarred right eye with a faded grey pupil. She could only manage to get out one word at that small moment, “Hey.” It wasn’t anything special, but her classmates seemed to disagree as noise filled the classroom yet again, this time in an uproar.
“Do you know Aubrey, new kid?”
“I’d stay away from her if I were you, new kid. She’s trouble.”
“Why don’t you sit over here, new kid? You don’t want to be anywhere that bully.”
There it was again, that noise that seemed to follow Aubrey anywhere she went. The unanimous voices of the people, rallied against her as if she was the greatest evil to plague the small town. Sure it was mostly just out-of-hand rumors regarding Aubrey and the Hooligans that led to her notoriety, but she couldn’t deny that it wasn’t undeserved. But that wasn’t the case for Sunny, he shouldn’t get dragged down to her level because of her rebellious choices. After all he’s been through the guy deserved a fresh start at things.
“It’s alright Sunny, you don’t have to sit with me,” Aubrey uncomfortably said. “Mr. Lastname probably has a seating chart anyway.”
It looked like he understood what she meant, although Aubrey wasn’t sure, it was hard to read Sunny’s expressionless face after all. Until he turned away back towards the rest of the class. Aubrey nervously waited for him to walk back to them, yet he just stood there. “Thanks, but I choose my own friends,” he said to the large crowd.
“Alright, suit yourself, weirdo.”
“Don’t say we didn’t warn you, freak.”
“Bet that loser will only last a week.”
And like that, Sunny’s sudden popularity fell as fast it came. He took the seat next to Aubrey, which was much closer than she thought. Apparently, she didn’t notice that the desks were set up in pairs.
“You didn’t have to do that you know,” she whispered to him. She didn’t like that Sunny sacrificed himself like that, but that wasn’t to say that she didn’t appreciate it.
“It’s fine, that’s what friends are for, remember?” he said. Aubrey thought she saw a smile form at the corners of his mouth, but it was still too hard for her to tell with his naturally neutral face.
She wanted to say something back but before she could, the class died down yet again as an elderly man entered the room. “Sorry I’m late class, the seniors decided to get a head start on their pranks. Now when I was a student we didn’t…” And with that came Aubrey’s cue to take a relaxing nap on the cool desk while sitting next to her old friend Sunny.