Chapter Text
Thump.
“Watch it, kid!”
Adam clumsily steadies himself. Some asshole roughly shoved past him—seeming to be in a hurry. Adam could not care less for what he was in a rush for but it is certain that he wasn’t the one who should be watching where he was going; he watches with a dry smirk as the asshole nearly trips someone over in his rush.
Typical Monday morning. Students running in the halls even after they’ve been scolded by the passing teachers; burnouts hauling themselves to the library to burn themselves out even more; older kids bullying the younger kids on their way to their class as if they own the place; and so, so much more chaos.
“Imbecile,” someone hissed.
Looking at the direction of the voice, Adam sees a stumbling Felix regaining his balance at the opposite side of the hallway—presumptuously also having been tripped by the dashing douchebag.
Ah, yes—Felix. That kid he met in kindergarten. They’ve never necessarily been friends; acquaintances is rather the correct term to use. Speaking only when needed to and hanging out only when with mutual friends. Adam, however, was friends with his twin brother, Ted. Ted was definitely the more outgoing of the two of them, as Felix was the more cold and quiet one—often keeping to himself or with his “business partners” as he calls them. Felix was the formal kind as well. All his clothes were ironed and tailored, always looking as though he had somewhere far more important to be than high school. His gaze is always so focused on what he’s doing—whether it’s an assignment or just walking to somewhere he needs to be.
Today, however, he looked different—like something was off. His blue polo wasn’t tucked in properly and his tie seemed a bit loose. His hair seemed disheveled; it wasn’t combed to how it usually looks. There was also a slight tinge of red on his cheeks. Adam won’t be surprised if he as well rushed this morning like that douche that nearly made them trip.
Adam can’t help but chuckle at the sight of the prim and proper rich boy looking messed up and clumsy.
This makes Felix look up in Adam’s direction. They maintain eye contact for a good twenty-something seconds before Adam gives Felix an awkward grin. This happens to snap Felix out of whatever trance he’s in, as he straightens up and pats his clothes as if to brush off dirt.
He gives Adam a stiff nod as if to acknowledge him and walks in the direction of the bathroom—off to tidy up, Adam assumes.
That was… awkward.
That was probably their weirdest exchange in the many years they’ve known each other.
Adam turns to his locker and inputs the code on its lock, sighing heavily as he braces himself for another lesson on History—his worst subject. He still doesn’t know why they could be bothered by history.
I mean if we were to solve current problems shouldn’t we be bothered by the situations happening at present-?!
His mind momentarily stops thinking as a small piece of paper flutters out of his locker onto the cold, dirty floor of the school hallway.
Did he leave a note to himself on Friday that he forgot? What if that was a homework reminder for himself?
God, please don’t tell me I missed some homework.
Adam picks up the note from the floor and reads it.
“I’m not sure how, but you managed to catch my eye
Now I long for the day when I can catch yours”
What. The. Hell?!
Is this-? No, it can’t be. But it really looks like a-
The bell rings, interrupting his thoughts. He hastily grabs his History notebook and forces it into his bag, causing creases to form at the edges.
He practically dashes to his class with his half-open backpack in one hand and the note in the other. Adam dodges other students and teachers just to get to his first period on time. Surprisingly, he doesn’t get yelled at by the hall monitors for running in the halls, but Adam likes to think that he was too fast for them to notice.
His mind still in a daze from the whiplash he got a few minutes ago, he shoves the note deep in his pocket—deciding it would be best to think about it later and clear his mind for a little while as he listens to the teacher drawl about history.
-----
He could, in fact, not clear his mind.
Everything he thought of always led to the mysterious note in his pocket.
Slowly taking it out of his pocket so as to not draw any attention to himself, he inspects the note front and back. It was an unlined light blue index card. The writing is neat and delicate—like the author took their time and patience in writing those two lines. There’s no name, no signature, or anything that can be found to indicate the author of the cryptic note.
Now examining the actual note itself, he stares at the two lines written in deep thought.
Is this… a love letter?
There was, in fact, no doubt that it’s a love letter. The note's general cheesiness and fondness are obvious. It was endearing and lovely—Adam smiles softly as he chooses to ignore the way his heart skipped a beat after reading it again.
Then, a thought hits him.
What if this is a prank?
He shook his head. “No, that’ll be a very cruel prank to pull on someone,” Adam thought to himself. But then again, the kids in this school are all very cruel and harsh to those who they don’t like or deem inferior to them.
Adam racks his brain for someone who he might’ve upset recently. No one comes to mind. Sighing, he takes another look at the letter in his hands.
“… you managed to catch my eye”
So someone likes me? (Assuming, of course, that this isn’t some harsh prank.)
This is exciting. It wasn’t the first time Adam had had admirers before, but a secret one? No, definitely not. The mystery of the secret admirer thrills him.
But the question of “who” still lingers.
Who could his secret admirer possibly be?
His gaze lifts up from the note in his hand—eyes wandering the classroom. One by one, he analyzes each of his classmates, thinking if one of them could be his secret admirer. That wouldn’t be likely seeing as there’s hundreds of students in this school, many of his age, while there were only about twenty students in this classroom, but Adam’s curiosity got the better of him.
He glances at a person in the front row: Cindy.
Adam shivers.
He deeply hopes that his secret admirer isn’t her. However, he doubts that it could be her. Seeing the way she has always been very vocal about wanting a boyfriend since they were in kindergarten, Adam is sure that Cindy would be nonstop talking about her feelings for him, thus making him hear about it days before the arrival of the letter.
Sure, she has used letters before to proclaim her feelings, but she’s always signed her name and delivered it by herself in person or paid someone to deliver it for her.
Adam doubts that she would ever pull off a shy act by hiding her feelings and shoving them in someone’s locker—the confidence she has is admirable, though.
He scratches her name off of his mental list.
Behind her is Lucas; Adam automatically crosses him off his mental list.
The two of them have only ever spoken once or twice, both for academic purposes. Adam also knows that Lucas has a girlfriend—and judging by the way he talks about her, he doubts he’ll be leaving her anytime soon.
Adam feels someone’s gaze tingle the side of his skull.
He turns to his left and sees Felix looking at him—well, not really at him, but rather at the note in his hand.
Adam’ grip tightens around the index card slightly. This causes Felix to snap out of whatever stupor he was in; his eyes snap up towards Adam’s.
Hazel eyes meet black.
Eyes slightly wide, Felix stares at him, lips slightly parted. Adam stares back with anticipation and confusion.
Why the hell is Felix Huxley staring at me?
Could he be—? No, definitely not.
Felix Huxley, the guy who looks like he thinks he’s above others; Felix Huxley who everyone has a crush on and who rejects almost all affection given to him; Felix “emotionally constipated” Huxley?
Yeah, absolutely not.
Of all people, Felix Huxley most certainly would not like him-
“Adam, are you listening or is there something more important that you would like with share to the class?”
Adam’s head snaps up towards Mr. Carter—discreetly sliding the note under his huge History textbook. Thank whatever god there is out there that he’s sitting behind Buggs.
“No sir!” he says, a little surprised by the way his voice sounded higher than usual.
Mr. Carter looks at him with a slight annoyance in his eyes before turning back to the lesson.
A few seconds go by until Adam chances a glance over at Felix once more.
His eyes are glued to the whiteboard, a hint of a smile tugging on the corner of his lips.
-----
Dragging his shoes on the cold tiles of the cafeteria, he slowly makes his way to the table near the back. There sits Billy and Lily, his best friends since kindergarten, having a Monstermon battle. By the looks of it, Billy is losing severely.
“Boom!” Lily smacks a card down onto the table, causing Billy to lose all his health. “You lose, Billy!”
With a groan, Billy throws the Monstermon cards he’s holding onto the table.
“I swear, I’ll get you next time,” he says, gritting his teeth in irritation.
“You wish.” Lily said nonchalantly, fixing her deck.
Adam finally gets to the table, brain still exhausted from the surprise test his Math teacher gave him. Like seriously, that shouldn’t be allowed. On a Monday morning too!
Lily looks up from the stack of cards she had been fixing seconds prior.
“Hey, Adam!”
“Hey!”
He sits down beside her and puts his bag on the floor.
He turns to Billy with a shit-eating grin.
“So you lost again, huh? What is it now?” He puts his index finger on his temple, pretending to be thinking. “9-2?”
“It’s actually 10-2,” Lily corrects him with a slight snicker.
“Shut up, both of you!” Billy shoots them both a glare—shoving his deck of cards deep inside his backpack.
This did nothing but earn him a fit of giggles from the other two.
After the laughter subsided, Lily spoke up once again while leaning in.
“Hey guys, did you know that this one senior crashed into the principal’s car?” she said in a hushed voice.
“No way!” Billy suddenly perked up.
And there it is. The daily gossip. It’s like a newspaper but for the shenanigans that happen in this large high school. It’s not common hearing about it either.
See, the thing about Billy and Lily is that they are very sneaky. It’s easy for them to eavesdrop on conversations and discover secrets. They’re also fast enough to hide from anyone who might have seen them. They’re like spies.
There was one time a month ago when they all passed a test in Dr. Danner’s class when he overheard him go over the answer key on the phone with another teacher. Pulling that stunt was rather risky, though, seeing as they all received suspicious glares from Dr. Danner for the rest of the week.
They have also uncovered many secrets from those around them—the most notable one being about the Arts teacher having affairs with the girls’ volleyball coach, but they didn’t have strong enough evidence to support that claim. They still think about that one a lot, though.
It wasn’t all necessarily bad. They like to think that they could be worse with their spy talents than they are with them now. For example, they could have made a profit off of it but they chose not to. Besides, it’s nothing unlike what other teenagers are doing, which is all far worse.
Adam doesn’t realize that he was staring at nothing until fingers snap in front of his eyes.
“Hey, hey, Earth to Adam. Are you there?” Billy says with a playful tone in his voice.
“Yeah, dude, we were just getting to the juicy part,” Lily adds with a grin.
Adam snaps out of spacing out.
“Yeah, I’m here. I was just… just…”
Actually, speaking of spies…
“Hey, check this out.” He carefully pulls out the note from his bag and places it in front of them.
The twins look at it with both shock and confusion.
“No way…” Billy speaks out after a few seconds have passed.
“Is this…?” Lilly says quietly.
“A love letter!” they both say simultaneously, which shocks Adam, but he chalks it down to twin telepathy.
“I guess? Well, it isn’t really a letter per se, more of a note,” Adam says with a shrug, trying to act as nonchalant as possible—when in reality, he’s also slightly shocked.
Lily picks it up and inspects it from back to back.
“There’s no name on it too.” She turns to Adam.
“Adam’s got a secret admirer,” she says, more to Billy than to Adam.
They both look so shocked that he doesn’t know whether he should be offended or amused.
“Good for you, man!” Billy gives him a punch on the shoulder.
“Yeah! You’re finally getting some action!” Lily pats his back with a quiet laugh.
Adam rubs his shoulder, biting down a grin.
“Guys, chill. It isn’t the first time I’ve had an admirer.”
“True, but it’s still exciting,” Billy responds.
“Who could it be though?” Lily says, picking up the note from the table once more, “I mean, they left no name or signature or anything!”
“How secretive…”
“Yes, Billy. It’s almost like that’s the reason why they didn’t sign their name.” Adam rolls his eyes.
“You guys are such bullies,” Billy says with a feigned hurt look.
“Ok, seriously, who could they be?” Lily steers the conversation back to the main topic.
The three of them fall silent. For a moment, all they could hear was the noise of the busy cafeteria and the sound of Billy’s fingers tapping on the table in a rhythmic pattern.
Just as Lily opens her mouth to say something, Ted arrives holding a tray of food.
“Hey guys-” he takes a seat next to Billy, placing his tray down on the table, “-got caught up in English, Ms. Applegate was mad.”
“Isn’t she always mad?” Billy picks up a fry from Ted’s tray, which didn’t seem to care.
“Yeah, but this time she was mad as hell.”
“Why so?” Adam steals the fry Billy was holding and popped it in his mouth, earning him a playful glare.
“Apparently, she’s getting sick of Cindy’s bullshit.”
“Isn’t everybody?” Lily rolls her eyes.
Murmurs of agreement come from the other three.
A moment of silence falls over them while they steal fries from Ted—who doesn’t seem to mind, seeing as he’s used to them doing this almost every lunch.
“Hey, Ted,” Billy snatches the note from Lily’s hand and places it in front of Ted, “Check this out.”
Ted’s face visibly pales.
“I-I don’t think you should be showing that around to anyone,” he says with a sheepish smile, looking directly at Adam.
“Why?” Adam raises an eyebrow.
“Because your admirer might not like it.”
“Oh?” Billy chimes in.
“And how would you know what his admirer likes?” Lily adds, leaning in a little for effect.
Ted starts to fidget with his tie, looking very uncomfortable.
“Ugh, because…” he averts his eyes to somewhere behind Adam, “you know, common sense. If you keep showing that to a lot of people, then their identity may be revealed. They kinda left their name out of the note for a reason.” Ted shrugs nonchalantly.
The twins shoot him a curios glance before looking at each other, seeming to have a conversation with their minds—twin telepathy.
“Well, fair enough.” Adam says with an unsure tone. He shrugs, appearing unaware of Billy and Lily’s suspicious looks directed at Ted.
It was clear that something was going on, and it certainly involved Ted.
-----
Adam places his bag down on the floor of his bedroom. One long day down, four more to go.
He collapses onto his bed and groans into his pillow.
Today was exhausting, and it’s only Monday too.
First of all, he almost arrives late for class. Then Mr. Carter gives them a surprise test, which Adam is positive he failed. Ms. Applegate has given them the task of writing an essay on literature or something. Additionally, Dr. Danner has assigned them to read about four chapters of the brand-new science book he has handed out.
Adam has never felt more stressed.
Rising from his bed, he drags his feet on the carpet of his room. He makes his way to his bag to retrieve probably the only good thing that happened today—the note.
He takes it out of his bag. Surprisingly, it remained undamaged despite the messy condition of everything else in his bag that was just haphazardly shoved in.
After reading the note for the nth time that day, he chews down a smile.
I’ll find out who wrote this one day.
He makes his way towards his desk drawer near the window.
But for now-
Adam opens the drawer and carefully places the note under an unused notebook.
I’m going to have to finish the shit ton of work the teachers gave us.
With a sigh, he pulls his English textbook out of his bag and cracks it open.