Chapter Text
“Jessica Domesty and Liberty Wheeler!”, the principal shouts.
“I can’t believe this! That’s total bullshit, I wanted you and Ash wanted George! I’m gonna complain!”, Liberty says furiously.
She just found out that she couldn’t share her dorm with Jay. The principal is currently reading the list of dorm partners out loud and she got together with Ash. Not that there’s something wrong with Ash, they’re both their friends but Jay and Liberty still hoped for each other to be their dorm partner.
“It’s been six months”, Ash groans from behind.
“I’m sorry, Ash, the principal is so ignorant”, Jay says to them.
“Yeah, right? Whatever. I’m just hella annoyed, he doesn’t even try!”
“He’s shit.”
“Agreed.”
“Jay Lewis and Oliver Williams!”, the principal continues the list. ‘No way’, Jay thought, a look of disbelief on his face.
“Oh my god. Oliver fucking Williams?”, he says in disbelief.
Oliver Williams is the one person he hates most. The only person he didn’t wanna share his dorm with.
He’s been picking on him since elementary school. He calls him annoying, he calls him ugly, he uses mean names like “emo” or “freak”, he spilled his coffee over Jay's essay on purpose!
“What the fuck is that?”, Liberty says with rage.
“Out of all people, why him?”, Ash agrees.
“He’s kinda hot”, George exclaims.
“What did you say?”, Liberty asks and turns dangerously slow to George. He smiles a helpless smile at her, which looks kinda cute to be honest.
“Just the facts”, he shrugs.
“But he’s an asshole, so what does it matter if he’s hot?”, Jay states. Ash nods and gives a high five to Liberty, who also agrees.
“Enemies to lovers, duh”, George says, “that’s literally how all of them start.”
“Yeah, but he’s never a real asshole. He just is like ‘you’re so annoying, cutie’ and that’s it. Being called a freak isn’t that romantic to me”, Jay points out.
“You got a point.”
“George Redd and Summer Smith!”
“NO WAY”, George shouts, visibly in pain. Summer Miller is one of the most homophobic, transphobic and aggressive Christians in the whole town.
“Yes way”, Jay grins, “at least she’s hot.”
“WHAT DOES THAT MATTER NOW?”
“That’s literally what you said!”, Jay says and George has to agree with him.
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A little later he stands in front of his dorm room, key in his hand. He lets out a sigh and opens the door.
“That took you like ages”, Oliver says from the kitchen counter, where he’s making himself instant noodles. Oliver has messy brown hair, which is lowkey curly and always in front of his eyes. That annoys
Jay so much, he always thinks that his hair is ‘indie’ and ‘different’ when it is literally just annoying. He’s wearing grey sweatpants and a loose dark blue t-shirt.
“Your hair looks weird”, he can’t help but say. Oliver doesn’t even look up, he just flips Jay off and says: “Fuck off, freak.”
Exactly how he remembers him.
He takes his suitcases and goes to the bedroom. Jay's jaw drops when he realises that they would have to share the bedroom.
“Oliver!”, he shouts.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Do we have to share our bedroom?”
“Unfortunately.”
No fucking way was he gonna share his bedroom with Oliver Williams. He figured, that he could sleep on the couch. Might be uncomfortable, but at least he wouldn’t have to breath the same air that Oliver Williams breaths all night long.
Jay was about to move the suitcases when a secretary announces trough the speakers: “In 20 minutes everyone is expected to be downstairs on the soccer field with his dorm partner! You’ll get to do fun bonding activities!”
Fun bonding activities? Everything is better than that. Jay drops his suitcases next to his bed. Maybe he’ll just sleep here for one night and then move. He was way too exhausted to sleep bad tonight.
“Yo, Jay, I’m gonna go shower real quick. Don’t come in!”, Oliver shouts from the bathroom. Jay simply ignores him.
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Then he picks out a kinda comfy outfit – Ash’s shirt and his sweatpants – and leaves their dorm.
He runs down the big staircases of the school and rushes to the soccer field. He starts looking for Liberty, when he bumps into Ash.
“Ash!”, Jay says, happily grinning.
“Jay! Nice shirt”, they say with a knowing smirk, “You’re looking for Libby, huh?”
“Yeah, where’s she?”
“Saving George”, Ash states.
“Oh god”, he laughs, “is Summer hitting on him?”
“Yes! She literally is, it’s so painful to watch”, Ash says, smiling.
George hasn’t really outed himself yet, but everybody still kind of knows. There’s been so many rumours about him and even though half of them aren’t even true, everybody knows that he’s gay. Everyone except for Summer obviously.
“Excuse me, boys?”, a voice says from behind.
“Actually not ‘boys’, Ash isn’t a boy”, Jay answers without having fully turned around yet.
When he’s done, he sees Mrs. Miller. She’s an old teacher and nothing throws her off. She’d been here for like at least 25 years already and she isn’t planning on leaving the school yet.
“I’m sure you mean Jessica.”
“No, my name is Ash”, Ash interrupts Jay's and Mrs. Millers’ conversation.
“Whatever, where are your dorm partners?”
“Liberty is right over there with George”, Ash says and points over to Liberty.
“And yours?”, Mrs. Miller says while turning to Jay.
“He’s still upstairs, he’ll be here in a bit.”
“Go upstairs now. You should go down here together!”, Mrs. Miller says in her teacher voice.
“Are you kidding me?”
“You better walk up to him and you better do it now!”, Mrs. Miller shouts. Some students turn around to take a look at what made her upset and Jay rushes out of sight. He doesn’t wanna be everybody’s new rumour, because rumours at this Academy spread like fire in a dry area.
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Jay's standing in front of his dorm’s door for the second time today and he’s just as hesitant as he was the first time. He knocks on it.
“Yeah, just come in! The door’s open!”, Oliver shouts from the inside. His shouting sounds kinda muffled, but that’s just because of the door.
Jay opens it and steps inside. Oliver isn’t in the kitchen or living room, which is basically the same thing. “Oliver?”, he asks.
“Ugh, you again. What’s it this time?”
“Mrs. Miller told me to walk upstairs again”, he says while walking to the bedroom. Oliver stands in front of the mirror and is parting his hair in the middle.
“Why are you parting your hair?” He is so annoying. As if anybody cares about his hair.
“To look good, of course.”
“Nobody gives a shit about the way your hair is parted! Now come hurry up”, Jay groans.
“You can’t know!”
“Well I don’t know who you’re trying to impress, but I don’t care about your hair and I’m sure others won’t either.” He doesn’t respond, but instead finishes parting his hair. When he’s done he looks at Jay.
“What do you think, freak?”
“About your hair?”
“Yeah, obviously.”
“It’s ugly.” He laughs at the comment and they both leave their dorm. When they arrive at the soccer field, Mrs. Miller is already awaiting them. She gives them a sheet of paper with exercises on it for both of them to complete.
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Get to know YOUR dorm partner
• What’s his/her favourite drink?
• What’s his/her favourite song?
• Tell him/her 1 thing you DON’T like about him/her
• Tell him/her 3 things you LIKE about him/her
• Tell him/her a thing about you only less than 5 people know
• What’s his/her favourite subject?
• What’s his/her least favourite subject?
After Jay finishes reading, he immediately looks at Ash. They’re already looking at Jay, a pained look on their face. Shadowmore Academy isn’t open to anything queer, so of course Ash’s pronouns aren’t respected. Jay mouths a quiet ‘sorry’ to them and they smile a helpless smile.
“So”, Oliver says and looks at him, “what’s your favourite drink?”
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After a long discussion about the Arctic Monkeys, they come to the third question.
“One thing you don’t like about me?”, Oliver asks.
“Your hair”, Jay immediately says. He had a thousand things he didn’t like about the other boy, but that’s the first thing that came to mind.
“Why?”
“You think it’s indie and different to have your hair in your eyes, but it’s just so annoying”, he groans.
“I never said that!”, Oliver defends himself.
“Yeah, but you obviously think so!”
“Whatever”, he grumbles, “one thing I don’t like about you is your emo phase last year.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, Jay says. He’s embarrassed of that phase, because he was one of those kids, who wore bunnyhats and fishnets. And hell, was he aggressive during that time.
“You know damn well”, Oliver grins and Jay shrugs it off.
“Let’s go on”, he says and Oliver thankfully agrees.
“Three things you like about me?”, Oliver questions. He’s lying in the grass in front of Jay now, because he’s too tired to sit like everybody does.
“Your glasses. And um-”
“My glasses?”, he interrupts him.
“Yeah, they make you looks smart.”
“I hate them.”
“I don’t. I also like that you’re so interested in history.”
“I am?”
“Yes, it’s like the only subject you raise your hand and you always discuss the topics with the teacher”, Jay tells. He’s been watching him every class they have together, just to know his weak points in all
those subjects.
“Interesting.”
“And I like your mom. She’s so sweet.”
“You know my mom?”
“Yeah, she was selling brownies next to me at the spring festival! We talked about cookies and your cats.”
“What the fuck”, Oliver says and looks at Jay. Oliver’s mom never told him about him.
“Well, I like your haircut”, Oliver says. Jay has short, but fluffy hair, which he got a few months ago by a hairdresser out of town. At first he hated it, but after all his friends told him that they’d make out with him now, he started to like it.
“I also like your shoes and … um … I don’t know, man”, Oliver sighs, “how are we supposed to know three things we like about each other, if we don’t even know each other.”
“I don’t know, this school doesn’t make any sense.”
“So”, Jay says, “a thing less than five people know about me, huh?” He hesitates. “I- Um… I’m pansexual.”
“I’m not”, Oliver shrugs.
Why doesn’t he judge Jay, like everybody does? He only told Liberty, George, Ash and his mom and his mom was freaking out. She said a lot of mean stuff and made Jay promise that it was just a joke. His friends didn’t care, of course they didn’t. George is gay, Ash is non-binary and Liberty is Black, they all have been victims of discrimination before.
“What?”, Jay asks in disbelief. Oliver must be joking.
“Surprise, I guess? I’m not pansexual and I don’t care about your sexual attraction.”
“Wh- You don’t?”
“Why would I care about your sexuality?”
“I don’t know”, he mumbles.
“Me neither. Well, a thing that literally nobody knows about me, is that I sing”, Oliver says and looks up at Jay.
“You sing?”, he asks in surprise.
“Yeah, I’m a singer”, he grins, “I have my next gig on Saturday at 10 p.m. in the club next to Sunny’s.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“Take it as you will.”