Work Text:
Fresh
My phone's alarm clock starts ringing, I always leave it at maximum volume because I know that sleep is very heavy, even if the phone was in my face at a regular volume, I wouldn't wake up. I sit up in bed yawning, looking at the time on the alarm clock "04:37 am", I hate that I have to wake up at this time of the morning, but living on the other side of town makes me wake up at this time. I get up, soon reaching for the phone, silencing it and putting it back where it is on the bedside table, I open my wardrobe and take out the set of clothes that I wear almost every day of the week to school, I go to the bathroom like a zombie.
After a while I'm already in the kitchen, eating my toasted bread with cheese and ham while looking at the school's news blog, which you see or another post a piece of news that is more like gossip. I go through some of them until I get to the cast list for this year's theater, I'm part of the crowd that stays offstage, I'm both a dressing room assistant and a prop maker – even though it's very rare for me to play my part as a prop maker –, basically I help the actors with whatever they need before the performance, such as dressing up, changing costumes during the performance, or even makeup. My phone screen goes black and then the message "GO TO DAMN SCHOOL!" With an eardrum-popping sound like alarm, I swallow the rest of the bread in one gulp, walk over to the couch and grab my messenger bag, then head to the front door, opening and closing it behind me as I walk through it.
I walk to my car, many would ask “Wow Fresh, you have a car! How did you have the money to buy it?”, but when they really see the model of the car, they start to ask “Wow, Fresh, did your great-great-grandfather buy this car for you?” Being the reason that made me stop parking in front of the school and I started to put it in the farthest possible space so that they would not see that the car was mine, even if the path was a little long, a walk during the morning doesn't hurt nobody. I get in the car, put the gear stick in reverse and pull the car out of the garage, speeding down the street to Alphys' house before heading directly to school.
[On school...]
— What are your first classes today? — Alphys asks taking two books from inside her locker, we are at school, the madness of the daily corridors happens behind us as we fight not to be carried away by the sea, conversations, laughter and screams are everywhere, but after years here, I learned to get used to all this.
— History, honestly, I wish Nightmare stopped being so hard-headed — I answer closing my locker tightly since its lock is broken, if Professor Nightmare heard what I just said he would definitely send me to coordination to have a a word with his girlfriend, he would probably say that I just missed saying that his mother is a whore since he always adds to history, he had to be a history teacher.
— Good luck to you, I have class with Dream now. — she says laughing at my suffering, how dare she? Little does she know that she'll have to walk home if she keeps this up and it's a wonderful 5 blocks to walk.
Before I can, I notice that the crowd is moving strangely, as if they want to clear a space in the middle of the hall, I look one way and see nothing, I look the other way, then I find out why they want to open a space, wanted to roll out a red carpet for the popular trio: Paperjam aka PJ, Undyne and BurgePants. Undyne is the only one who is not part of the basketball team, since she is a girl and the team is all men, but she is part of the volleyball team, this crazy girl has already broken many people's noses when she attacked and the ball ended “accidentally” hitting someone on the opposing team in the face, they passed by and some people asked for autographs, some even said they would tattoo it when their mother let them, they are just good players, there are also other good players on the basketball team and in volleyball, so why focus so much spotlight on them? In the end, they're all idiots with fame going to their heads.
— Undyne is so pretty today… — Alphys compliments her, almost drooling over her own pink cardigan she always wears, Alphys has had a crush on her since she entered school, even before she got all this fame — How am I? — she asks, lifting her glasses with her index finger so that they would be in the correct position on her face, today the volleyball team is going to train for the metropolitan games that are next week, Alphys and someone else stays on the court to deliver the Styrofoam with water bottles when you break.
— You look great. — I answer seeing her blush in a faint shade of red, I look again at the trio, specifically at PJ, he has a silly smile on his face while talking to some of his fans, many of them just needed to knock him to the floor of so much so that they threw themselves at him, but somehow he seems to be trying to push her away from him, he seems to be feeling uncomfortable with so much proximity, whether he was feeling that way or not, lucky for him or not, the bell rang and sea of people began to calm down as the number of people entered their rooms
"Meeting at break?"
“In the usual place. — I say seeing her before closing her own closet and looking at the reflection of the small mirror on his door, so I start walking to my room.
The classes of Mr. Nightmare aren't bad, in fact they're great, he's one of the best teachers at this school and definitely the best history teacher I've had all these years, but there's just one small problem, he's exceptionally strict at the level extreme, it's as if we were in a military school classroom and he was teaching a class with a G38 ready to shoot the first person who looked away without his permission in the forehead.
I open the classroom door and he's already there, sitting at the teacher's desk reading something in the notebook he carries everywhere, I've come to believe that if one day someone has the courage to disappear with that notebook, he simply can't teach
— Good morning Fresh — he looks up as I close the door and greets me, I reply with a “Good morning Mr. Nightmare” while walking to my chair — How was your weekend?
— No big deal, I just did the shopping for the month on Saturday and spent the rest of Sunday cleaning the house — I answer putting my purse on the table, taking out my binder and some pens, then putting it in the small drawer under the table.
"Hey, can I tell you something?" — he gets up from the table, walks to my table and whispers the question, I answer that he can — Muffet and I went out this weekend — he says and starts laughing, it's not like the whole school knows they like one each other but the whole school knows they like each other, they are cute together. For some reason he likes me a lot, I sit in front of his desk so I always end up being asked questions or he just starts talking to me after I finish his exam asking how the exam week was going and if I thought I had I did well on his test, sometimes he corrected my test in class.
"Good, how was it?"
— Just amazing, we went to see the movie in that movie theater that opened downtown, then we walked through the park and she kissed me on the cheek before entering the house — a passionate smile grew on his face as he told, a lavender blush became visible, when he spoke of the kiss, he placed his hand on his left cheek and sighed deeply — It was perfect...
— I think it's past time to propose to her — I say putting my elbows on the table and resting my face in my hands
— I'm sorry Fresh, but I don't take love advice from someone who's never even kissed — we laugh and the second bell rings, anyone who doesn't enter the room within the next 5 minutes won't be able to enter the room until the second time, they're still lucky Mr. Nightmare have time tolerance. I talked with Mr. Nightmare until the last student appeared, it was PJ, he looked tired, he apologizes for the delay saying that his father wanted to talk to him before the class started and Nightmare says that's ok and asks him to sit down that he will start class in a minute, I watch him walk to his chair, he greets a colleague who sits next to him, I must have stared at him for a long time as he looked back, I averted my gaze and looked back at Mr. Nightmare who looked at me strangely — You can only be kidding, right?
— What are you talking about?
“I think I finally understand the silly face you say I get when I talk about Muffet.
- What? - he realizes how confused and laughs
“I would never have the heart to give Muffet a glare.” Still needing two seconds, I finally understand what he means and feel my face heat up.
“No, no and no, I just… looked for a long time.
— It was really, a long time — I hide my face with my hands and my "stop, please" comes out muffled — Ok, ok, I'll stop… Good morning, students! — he shouts getting the attention of the entire class as he walks to the middle of the room, making the people who were talking to be quiet, one of the few rooms that are really silent during class — I hope your weekend was good, but we have new material to learn, so open your notebooks, I'm going to copy a lot today. he says taking his brushes out of his back pocket and turning to the board, writing the name of the content on it while saying why his name was like that. And I was getting ready to write the bible and finish my history class for the fifth time that month.
— I'm sorry Fresh, but I don't take love advice from someone who's never even kissed — we laugh and the second bell rings, anyone who doesn't enter the room within the next 5 minutes won't be able to enter the room until the second time, they're still lucky Mr. Nightmare have time tolerance. I talked with Mr. Nightmare until the last student appeared, it was PJ, he looked tired, he apologizes for the delay saying that his father wanted to talk to him before the class started and Nightmare says that's ok and asks him to sit down that he will start class in a minute, I watch him walk to his chair, he greets a colleague who sits next to him, I must have stared at him for a long time as he looked back, I averted my gaze and looked back at Mr. Nightmare who looked at me strangely — You can only be kidding, right?
— What are you talking about?
— I think I finally understand the silly face you say I get when I talk about Muffet.
— What? - he realizes how confused and laughs
— I would never have the heart to give Muffet a glare. — Still needing two seconds, I finally understand what he means and feel my face heat up.
— No, no and no, I just… looked for a long time.
— It was really, a long time — I hide my face with my hands and my "stop, please" comes out muffled — Ok, ok, I'll stop… Good morning, students! — he shouts getting the attention of the entire class as he walks to the middle of the room, making the people who were talking to be quiet, one of the few rooms that are really silent during class — I hope your weekend was good, but we have new material to learn, so open your notebooks, I'm going to copy a lot today. he says taking his brushes out of his back pocket and turning to the board, writing the name of the content on it while saying why his name was like that. And I was getting ready to write the bible and finish my history class for the fifth time that month.
I had already drawn a good part of the room on other days, I was just missing the two rows on the side of the door, I was looking at the second row looking for my victim when I stopped my gaze on Paperjam, what was happening to me today? He was talking to the person in front, so I had a perfect profile of his face, I don't think I've ever drawn a face in profile, this was my chance. I start doodling on the paper, trying to be discreet as I shift my gaze from the paper to PJ, after a while, I look at the time on my phone and 30 minutes have passed – when I like the drawing I'm doing time always passes so much faster – it was almost done, just needed to finish some details, had focused a lot on his face, I look up and he was looking at me, quickly look back at the drawing, shit, I thought I was being discreet, I close the binder and stare out the window , waiting for my face to return to normal temperature to pay attention at the end of class.
The teacher tries to say one more curiosity about the subject he explained, but the bell rings and soon everyone runs out of the room like a herd of buffaloes, I grab my binder, throw the strap of my bag over my shoulder and leave the room in one step rushed.
— Hello Fresh! — I hear Papyrus scream as I close the cafeteria door, after almost a year sitting in the stands on the basketball court, we managed to get a table in the cafeteria, it wasn't very difficult, we just had to do the chores of the people who sat there for three months.
— Hi Paps, Napstablook, Alphys — I greeted everyone as I sat down, everyone responded with a “Hi!” — what class did you have now?
— Astrology — Napstablook and Alphys respond at the same time
— Arts, I was used as a model during class! — Papyrus says doing a heroic pose, I'm pretty sure it was the same pose he did for the model during class, Ink always makes a point of using someone as a model for whatever art style he's going to teach, you have It doesn't matter if you feel ashamed, you'll lose points in your performance grade if you don't get up on the small stage in the middle of the room.
— What cool Paps, you must be the only one in the group who likes to model in Ink's classes — I say taking a small transparent pot out of my bag, it has grapes and a sliced banana with oatmeal, a small but healthy snack.
“Oh, Fresh, do you have any notes from the last history lesson?” My class ended while writing down his bible — Alphys asks
— Yes, I do, you can take the sheets — I say handing over my binder, Alphys has a printer at home, so when she needs to copy content that she ended up not having time to copy in the classroom, she asks for my notes and scans the sheets, then prints and puts it in her binder, since she has the same binder model as mine. She flips through my binder, but stops at some page and makes a surprised face, then looks at me with that same face - What's up?
"Nice drawing, huh?" - Papyrus looks at the sheet and looks at me with a let's say... Machiavellian look. So, I finally see what drawing they were talking about, it was PJ's unfinished drawing, I feel my face heat up for the fifth time this morning and I take the binder out of Alphys' hands who is smiling a lot and her eyes look like they're going to become stars
"You have a crush!" At Paperjam! she says in a louder tone, my hands tingle when I figured slamming the binder in Alphys' face would make her quieter about matters like this, I don't know how she hasn't run into Undyne's arms saying she loves her - Since when?
“Alphys, don't scream. — I say then sigh deeply — Since never, I don't have a crush on PJ, I was just bored and he was in that position, and I thought it would be cool to draw him that way, and I think... I think he saw what I was looking at him. - I say hiding my face with my hands and she starts talking about the millions of ideas for fanfics she had just thought of. I like Alphys's stories, they are well written, but I always asked her to never write anything about me and she replied that she had no idea who my love interest would be, but now I could only imagine the 15 books she would write with just the that I just said.
We talked for a long time, the bell rang and everyone went to their respective class, one of the two physics classes passed, but Professor Mettaton enters the room
- Hello my dear! — he greets the teacher with his usual animation, walks up to him and says something in his ear, for whatever it was the teacher nods positively and points his finger in my direction. Damn it, I thought I was breathing fresh air until I really got to go to that hell — Thanks a lot, Fresh darling, I'm going to need to steal you a few lessons first.
- All good. I say, getting up from the chair. My school has all this nonsense about clubs, they are usually after school and as I don't like to stay in school longer than necessary, I would ignore all the notices to join a club or I would get no grade and at the end of the year Ms. Muffet gave me a job – which in her mind seemed to be super complicated –, I did it two days before the due date and enjoyed the holidays, it was like that for 3 years, but this year Mrs. Muffet scolded me saying that if I didn't join a club by the end of the week, I would fail the subject and fail the year.
When I went to look at the lists of clubs, most were already full, there was only one librarian's assistant vacancy and two theater vacancies, I wrote my name on the librarian's assistant, but the following week when I went to the first day of slavery the librarian said my name wasn't there, so I went to see Mrs. Muffet and she said the “system” must have switched names and put me in the theater.
Participating in the theater may seem very cool to other people, acting, singing sometimes, but not for me, I was never really interested in anything involving the theater, I went to the plays – after all, they were on during school hours –, but nothing more than that. On the way to the stage, Mr. Mettaton was explaining what was going to happen today, what parts of the play they were going to rehearse today and apparently the prototype costumes had arrived and he wanted me to help actors get dressed if they needed it, I say “yes”, “ok”, “okay”, but this guy always has trillions of things to say and nothing will shut him up, even for a minute.
— Fresh darling, are you okay? he asks me, turning his face toward me as we walk. “It's a little quieter than usual.
— It's nothing, I'm cool — I say opening the theater door, it wasn't big like other schools, but it wasn't a cubicle, it was like a much smaller version of the “Eastman Theater”. Mr. Mettaton walks in front and I follow behind him after I close the door, most of the actors were on stage, some practiced their lines by reading the script, others tried to recite their lines without looking at the script and looked at the ceiling, probably hoping that Mr. Mettaton arrived.
- Good morning, dear ones! — he shouts his loud-so-good morning and everyone responds back — I finally found Fresh, so let's get started. Are you all here, right?
— No, Tiffany was absent. — a boy I only know by sight raises his hand and speaks
— Must have woken up with bad hair or broke a nail — Paper joked walking out of the curtain, holding a large cardboard box and soon puts it on the floor, I take the chance that Mr. Mettaton joins the actors on the stage – being the majority of the people who were there –, starting the conversation about which scene they would be rehearsing today, I go towards the box and open it, kneeling in front of it and I open the lid, in it were the prototypes of the costumes, most were blue or green, in each piece there is a paper stapled with the name of the character so I started to separate the pieces
"Did you find mine?" — when I hear Paperjam's voice next to me, my whole body jumps for a second like an alley cat when it sees a person trying to get close to it — Oops, I'm sorry for the scare.
"No problem, h-here it is," she stammered, handing him the set.
— Thanks, Fresh, I don't know what would become of us without you here — he thanked me taking the set from my hands, he stares at the clothes for a few seconds then asks — Are you mad at me?
- What?
"It's just that you were staring at me a lot in the first few classes, I thought you were mad at me or something."
- Oh no! No, no, I wouldn't even have reason to be mad at you — I say along with a nervous laugh — Sorry, sometimes I don't want to look at the blackboard, so I look at what other people are doing...
"And I was the victim this time?" — he asks and after I respond by nodding positively, he laughs — If I had understood it that way, I would have given a worm and gone to his chair to talk.
—Paper! Put this thing on, we're about to start! - another boy calls him, wearing a giant hat for him
“I have to… You know.
— Come on, I'm not leaving here until you're done anyway — he leaves wearing the costume over the clothes he was wearing, it was a good hour and a half watching them rehearse the lines that I already knew backwards, for doing nothing while they rehearsed, I started reading each character's lines – as there is a copy of each character's script – and challenging myself to see how far I could go without looking at the paper
I slung my purse strap over my shoulder for the millionth time that day and started to walk down the stage, but before I could get down the last step, I heard Paperjam call my name, when I look back, he's coming towards me.
"Did you think you were going to get rid of me?" He asks with a laugh when he comes to my side.
— I found it, but I forgot that you have your eagle eye — I reply immediately, laughing with him and we walk together out of the theater, since I started participating in the theater he's been my friend, I can't lie by saying that I don't like his friendship, he's nice, he's energetic like his father, but his popularity disgusts me, not in the sense of wanting to end his popularity because I want it for myself, not really, knowing that teachers talk about me in their classroom makes me give shivers of despair, imagine the whole school knowing my name? Toby Fox saves me from triggering this result. I always notice the eyes on me when we're leaving the theater, they always annoy me, so before we get closer to the hallway that leads towards the main entrance, I tell us to separate saying that my locker was further back, which was a lie, and he turns away. says goodbye and walks to the main hall. I sigh and turn around making my way back to the theater, after rehearsals that place is a mess, so to give PJ time to leave and Alphy to leave the science club class to take her home.