Chapter Text
Tommy should have probably picked a better spot than the bathroom to skip it seems. He thought it was a good idea to skip here because this bathroom is close to the vending machines and an emergency exit – not a bad move if you think about it. Apparently, the whole damn school had the same genius idea, because they were all here! The whole fucking school was crammend in there.
The bathroom was packed to the fucking brim, and staying there meant higher chances of getting busted while skipping. A crowd of teenagers crammed in a not-so-clean bathroom together isn’t really quiet either, meaning someone was sure to come check sooner or later. So Tommy decided to do the logical thing and bail from the bathroom to find a better spot to skip.
Where was he gonna go? No clue. He can come up with somewhere as he goes. Because he sure as hell isn’t going to think of a place in that stinky bathroom with the weird smell and that crowd – no thank you.
So here he is, walking around the school trying to come up with a place to skip peacefully when it all happens.
He hears Principal Puffy shout, “YOU THERE! HOLD IT!”
Tommy obviously thought it was him Puffy was shouting to, until he turns around to face the principal but instead sees some other kid hauling past him, running like a fucking maniac, bumping into Tommy and dropping something while sprinting away from Principal Puffy. Too busy running to retrieve whatever they had just dropped. The princable ignored Tommy’s existence completely to run after this kid.
Damn, what did they do?
He got his answer real quick when he glanced down to check out what the kid dropped in the mad dash.
There, on the pristine white floor of the school, right by his sneakers, lay what seemed to be a literal pack of cocaine. Wrapped up in a big woven plastic bag, it had ‘Syndicate’ scribbled on it with what looked like a black Sharpie.
Tommy wasn’t playing detective on whether it was the real deal or not. But leaving it there? On the floor of the school? Nope, not an option. No chance. Plus, where the fuck would he stumble upon something like this ever again?
So, quick as a flash, Tommy crouched down, snatched up the bag, and jammed it into his backpack before bouncing back up.
For once, his laziness to hit his locker to put his backpack in before skipping class paid off big time.
Just as he spun around to head somewhere else, preferably a place he can skip peacefully and now, also investigate what he just got, Principal Puffy’s footsteps echoed, followed by a questioning, “Tommy?”
Great. And he had thought he would get away with skipping since the principal was too busy chasing that kid. But return she did it seems.
“Heyy, Miss. Puffy, rough day at work? What’s going on with that kid?” Tommy tried to divert the attention off of himself. He did just put a whole bag of highly illegal drugs in his backpack.
“None of your business. Now, why aren’t you in class?” Miss. Puffy said sternly. Guess she really wasn’t having it. She was just chasing a kid down, so guess it makes sense that she doesn’t have the patience to put up with Tommy.
Lucky for her, Tommy doesn’t plan on being the nusicince he usually is. He would have, and he would have enjoyed annoying Puffy out of her mind after she ran after that Purpled hooded boy. But Tommy doesn’t think it would be that good of an idea to do it with a backpack full of coke.
So an excuse it is he’ll go for. Then hopefully he can just go home. Tommy really hopes it’s the real deal in his backpack and not some cheap stuff. He hadn’t had the time to check after all.
“Oh, uh… I was just going to the bathroom.” Tommy lies.
“You came all the way out to the main foyer on the way to the bathroom?” Puffy says as she raises one of his eyebrows.
Guess not the best excuse he could’ve came up with, but he’ll stick with it.
“What? Do we need bathroom GPS now?”
“Tell me what class you’re in right now.” Miss Puffy demands. She really isn’t in the mood for taking shit it seems.
“..Civics? It’s okay I’m going back now tho, so don't you worry principle.”
He totally won’t be going there. Fuck class, he’s already skipping and the class is almost over. He might actually go to the bathroom and look at what he got.
“I’ll walk with you.” Miss Puffy says.
And take away Tommy’s chance to skip and investigate this shit that just happened? No thank you principal. He’ll kindly refuse.
“Nah that's okay, you don’t have to.”
“I insist.”
Welp, he doesn’t care that much. So guess he’ll go.
Escorted by the principal, Tommy gets dropped off to his class as his escort walks away as she makes a few phone calls.
As Tommy enters the class, he can hear the civics teacher Dream’s voice. “And as I hope you remembered, today is the last day for submitting your community service sponsor. If you don’t get those hours in, you can not graduate.”
For fucks sake. Tommy hates civics. Why do they gotta help the ‘community’? The fuck did community do to them to deserve that? Tommy will tell you, jack shit. It did jack shit.
Like damn, at least if he’s gonna do labor he wants to get paid for it. Child workers in China are getting paid, why can’t he? Fuck the ‘charity’ shit.
Then it seems he catches Mr. Dream’s eyes as he enters the classroom. Probably because he came 25 minutes late to class, escorted by the princable herself. “Tommy! So nice of you to join us.” his teacher says with so much sarcasm that Tommy can taste it.
Hey, if his teacher is going to be like that, Tommy will be like that too.
Tommy rolls his eyes. “I’d tell you to kill yourself in your garage but you probably only have a 2 bedroom condo with your pets.”
Tommy can hear a few students giggle as his oh so dear teacher respondes, Mr. Dream’s annoyance laced in his voice. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Tommy takes his seat next to Ranboo as Dream turns back to class “I trust the rest of you will be taking the community service hours seriously?”
His deskmate Ranboo is the one that answers his teacher first as the class is silent. “I guess..?”
“You guess? Ranboo, who’s your sponsor?”
“I’m volunteering for the county police department.”
And wow, really Ranboo? That low? That fucking low?! He thought Ranboo and he were friends too. Tommy can not believe he’s sitting next to this guy.
“Wow, that’s lame.” Tommy comments.
“Something you’d like to add, Tommy?” Dream says, daring him.
And Tommy’s no pussy. So yes, he does. He does now anyways.
“Yeah. Why would you help the people who screw us over with speeding tickets?”
Ranboo turns to Tommy as he answers, “The office is really close to my house, I don’t have to drive or anything.”
“So you’re gonna fuck the rest of us over just to save on gas money?”
“What did I say about the F-word in this class?!” His teacher warns Tommy.
“Sorry bitch.”
Mr. Dream takes a deep breath before he continues. His teacher can’t really make a comeback if it isn’t a well thought one after all. Not being allowed to cuss at his students, and Tommy qualifying as one is great. If he does he might lose the job and all that shit. Tommy doesn’t know, nor care.
Guess his teacher settled on saying something about the police charity thing in the end. “Are we just supposed to drive as fast as we want? The police are here to keep us safe Tommy.”
“Is that why a ticket is 200 dollars? They’re keepin’ my safe, holy shit.”
“Funny that the boy that's so critical of our legal system is failing civics.”
“Funny how you teach the most expensive car you could ever afford.”
And for a second Mr. Dream makes a face of pure annoyance and anger on his face. Look at Tommy, already managing to get his teacher riled up! It hasn’t even been 5 minutes since he entered, really.
“Alright Tommy. If you’re so in tune with the needs of the people, how about your cause?”
“..my what?”
“Your cause, your sponsor for the community service hours. You’ve had 2 weeks to set something up, now tell me who or what.”
Right. He had to do that, hadn’t he? Guess he’ll do what he’s best at. Bullshitting till it works. Or till he comes up with something that will work.
He might be a genius but even he can’t come up with something believable right on the spot.
“It’s uh… it’s like a non-profit.”
“A non-profit what?”
“A non-profit charity.”
Dream sighs. “A non-profit charity for what?”
“A cause. You wanted it for a cause, right?”
“What is the cause??”
“A healthy cause. So people are healthy.”
Way to go Tommy. He’s rockin this.
“And how do they make them healthy?”
The most easy question ever to answer. He knows the answer to this. A child, no, even a fucking toddler knows the answer to this.
“Medicine.” Tommy answers.
“Okay, so pharmaceuticals. What’s the name of this pharmaceutical non-profit?”
Great question Mr. Dream. Great question. An awesome one actually.
“Ohh, yeah. Gotta get back to you on that one teach.” Tommy shrugs with a smile.
And here it is, the second sigh of his teacher Dream since they started this conversation. “You signed up for a charity and you don’t even know the name of it?”
“Well, it was kind of long and I don’t have the name written down or anything. But it was definitely a charity and definitely for medication to the… under-privileged.”
And that's when Ranboob decides to butt in, “Where is it?”
“Shut up.” Tommy quickly responds
“No, Ranboo, great question. Tommy, you are aware that you’ll need to fill out a form with the location of this charity right? Just so we know it’s not made up.” Mr. Dream says, looking directly at Tommy.
“Yeah, totally. I’ll get all that for ya next class.”
“It was due today.”
“I don’t know what to tell you man. Is the charity gonna disappear cuz I didn’t get it in on time?” Tommy scoffs.
“If you’re fine with your grade taking a 10 percent hit then be my guest. My policy on all late work.”
“Man, you need to stop watching C-Span.”
“How did you know what I watched at lunch?”
“You just seem like a rules fan.”
“I hope everyone here is a rules fan, this is civics!”
“If rules did anything wouldn’t rape and murder stop happening?” Tommy asks, looking directly at his teacher.
“It stops most of it.”
“Okay, let’s tell all rape and murder victims that. I’m sure it’ll make em all feel better.” Tommy says as he rolls his eyes.
“Get your charity in the next class and hope I don’t fail you for the year Tommy.”
“God failed you for your entire life.” So Tommy’s not entirely concerned about his grade he’ll be getting from you, ‘Mr. Dream.’
How his teacher got a teaching license, only Prime will know.
~~~~~~~~~
Finally! Breaktime! A break from all those lessons. Tommy was seriously questioning how much more of this bullshit he could handle.
This fucking place he is in? He’s supposed to be learning stuff? It’s supposed to be educational? All it’s teaching him is self-hatred and that everyone is literal shit except him. Shit like the cafeteria food.
“Hey, Tommy!” Someone shouts.
Oh, it’s Tubbo, the one guy Tommy actually likes that is yet to betray him, unlike Ranboo in civics class. Can’t really remember why he was mad at Ranboo, but he knows he was mad. So, he’ll keep his guard up. Tommy is the kind to keep a grudge after all.
“Sup Tubs. What’s with those?”
“Oh, these? Just some stuff I snagged from the robotics class.”
“Holy shit! You stole all that?!” Tommy says as his eyes widen with a smile.
“No way- what?! Not this time! They gave em to me via free will.” Tubbo quickly says as he crosses his arms in front of himself.
“Why would they even do that? No-offense, but I don’t think anyone likes you that much to give you this many shit-“
Tubbo cuts Tommy off, “Fuck off! But yeah, I know. That’s how I scored these. They said I’m like a goddamn charity for useless shit like these cables n’ all that.”
Charity… Why does that ring a bell for Tommy? He’s pretty sure he had something to do with charity.
“Charity- Fuck!! I still have to do that!”
“Do what?”
“I made up a fake pharmaceutical charity for civics and now I gotta go either find a real one or just make up better lies for the fake one.”
“Both sound like a fuck lot of effort.”
“No kidding.”
“Or you could start your own charity, then you’re not lying.” Tubbo offers.
“That sounds like more work than both options put together.” Tommy deadplans.
“Fuck no, you think people actually work at those charity things?”
“..yes?”
“They just vacay in Florida and write it off as a conference.”
“How would you know?”
“My fucking piece of shit dad who I wanna kill works for a charity business.”
“You want to kill- actually never mind that but that’s actually a good idea.”
“Yeah. Oh, and did you hear about this kid, Purpled? He tried selling brick at school.”
“Brick?”
“As in cocaine? I thought you were smart Tommy.”
“I am smart, you thought right. But no, I had no idea that was going on. Who was this kid selling the coke to?”
He lied. He does know that shit happened. It’s probably the kid he saw that was running for his life away from Puffy.
“Probably a teacher with a coke problem cause I don’t know any kid who could afford that.”
“Where would he even get a brick of coke?”
“I think his friend’s cousin’s in Syndicate.”
“Oh shit, damn. Really?”
“Yeah, apparently.”
“Cool.”
“We now have a whole ass pack of coke lost in our school.” Tubbo concludes.
“Like I said, cool.” Tommy doubles down. Plus, it’s not lost. It’s in his backpack.
Oh fuck- IT’S IN HIS BACKPACK-
He really should do something about that, shouldn’t he? It would suck ass if the school decided to do a random ‘backpack search’ or some shit like that.
Then there’s the annoying sound of the school bell ringing, echoing thru the walls of the school as it rings.
“You going to class?” Tubbo asks him.
“Nah I’m going home. It’s 12.30 pm, been here long enough.” Tommy reasons.
Plus he also has a brick of coke in his backpack and staying at school might not be that good of an option for him. But he’ll keep that to himself for now. Look at Tommy making smart choices by not telling everyone he has a brick of coke in his backpack.
“What about you Tubs?”
“Well, unlike someone, I care about my GPA, and do want to get into a university after I graduate so, yeah. I’m gonna head to class.”
“Nerd.”
Tubbo turns around and starts heading to class as he responds, “You’re the one who’s gonna end up as a McDonald's cashier or a drug dealer or some shit with the way you’re going, not me.”
“It’s called having fun. You should try it sometime!” Tommy shouts after Tubbo to make sure he hears it.
For a person that short, Tubbo sure does walk fast.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tommy enters his room, tosses his backpack into who-knows-where in his bedroom, and just flops onto the bed.
Home sweet home.
But unfortunately, there is shit he's gotta handle before he can dive into endless phone scrolling in the comfort of his bed till the sun bows out.
First off, he needs to find some kind of charity, a way to ditch that hefty brick currently hogging space in his backpack, and, well, money in general. Always gotta chase that paper. He can never have enough nor too much after all.
But he can’t just straight-up sell the coke, can he? Probably not, there is a very high fucking chance he’ll get caught. It's a damn shame, considering how good it feels on his gums.
He'd give it a real shot, but who knows if it'd mix well with his mom's vicodin. Seriously, how is coke a prescription med? Feels as good as a street drug.
Wait- that’s it.
Tommy whips out his phone. Now, how's he gonna word this?
He cracks open Google, tapping away in the search bar, "How to freebase."
~~~~~~~~~~
Tommy despises this fucking class, seriously.
“Now if you didn’t get your community service cause last time, you better have it today.” Dream lectures the class, strolling over to where Tommy's sulking.
But Tommy hates Dream more.
“And speaking of that, it’s your last day to submit or fail this class for the year Tommy. So, what do you got for me?"
"I've got my charity."
"And what charity might that be? It had to do with pharmaceuticals, as you told me yesterday, so let's not stray too far from any prior narrative." Mr. Dream says as his eyes narrow at Tommy.
"Yeah, whatever. The charity is called Medicine Rocks."
“That was the hard name you couldn’t remember last time?”
“You don’t judge Ranboo for his shit memory, why are you coming on me now dickhead?”
And here it is, Mr. Dream’s ‘I’m so sick of this shit’ sigh. That’s a new record for Tommy. “So, Medicine Rocks?”
"Yup. It's a charity that helps people get prescription drugs for the under-privileged in Logstedshire."
"Why haven't I heard of this charity?"
"I don't know man. Logstedshire is far?"
"Not that far."
"Well, they're really underfunded, so they can't get the word out. Wanted to volunteer for something that could actually use some help." Tommy says as he sends a look at his deskmate Ranboo.
Ranboo jumps in at that, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Bitch, you know what it means." Tommy quickly shoots back.
And, of course, Dream warns him, "Tommy!"
"I didn't even do anything!"
"I really can't deal with this right now- Let's just get back to the topic at hand. It seems I'll just have to look up your charity sometime then Tommy. They'd have a website, wouldn't they?" Hia teacher questions.
"No, they don't really have anything on the internet because they're under-funded and under-privileged. Not everyone has the technology we well-funded whites do, Mr. Dream."
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you Google them, you're racist." Tommy sums it up.
"He got you there," Ranboo chimes in.
Oh, that's why Tommy had started liking Ranboo in the first place. Now he remembers.
Ranboo is fucking cool.
Dream hushes Ranboo before he continues, "Well, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with you Tommy. Here's your hours sheet. You'll need 25 hours in the next six weeks, with signatures."
"Yeah, okay."
"We operate under the honor system, but don't think I won't keep my eye on you."
"Freakin' loser with nothing else to do other than to keep an 'eye' on 16-year-olds," Tommy mumbles under his breath at that.
"What was that?!" Mr. Dream quickly turns back towards him.
Guess he didn’t mumble it thay low, huh.
"Nothing. Hey, let's see you fail one of these other losers." Tommy easily says.
"Alright."
Dream turns back to the class. "Anyone else got a charity for me?"
~~~~~~
Holy fuckin’ shit, Tommy's been all over this school looking for Tubbo, and this is where he finds him? Seriously?! It's gotta be some sick joke.
After skipping classes and scouring the entire school, he finally gives up and decides to grace a class for once. Gym class, of all things, and now he's being coerced into playing volleyball.
Like that isn’t enough of a torture as it is, then his fat-ass coach yells at him too, "Tommy! Get it together!"
Tommy fires back with the most logical and kind response he can think of, "The government forces me to be here, and you expect me to try at volleyball?" as he turns to face the coach.
And as soon as he fully turns, there's Tubbo, right next to the gym coach. Freakin' great, really.
Tommy just ditches the volleyball court and makes his way over to Tubbo. Tommy finally found him. Fuck everything else.
"Since when the fuck do you take elective gym, Tubbo?!"
"It's the easiest class ever. You just have muscles and get an A. I work at a car repair shop, so I got muscles. It's an extra A on my grades." Tubbo shrugs.
"Fuck off. I've been looking all over for you."
"You have? What do you even want from me?"
"I have a project I need help with."
"Tommy, that Twitter boy isn't even fun to bully anymore." Tubbo sighs.
"No, not that – another project."
"Project for what?"
"For school."
"Since when the fuck do you do any project for school?"
"Since I got a really awesome idea for it, but I need you to bring some stuff over to my house."
"Okay, what is it?" Tubbo sighs in response.
Hey, Tommy wasn't even trying this time.
"I need baking soda, a Zippo lighter, some really tiny Ziplocks, and one of your parent's serving spoons."
"Are you in chemistry now?"
"No, civics."
"I won't even – just where the fuck am I gonna get really tiny Ziplocks?"
"Isn't your dad into jewelry? He would have those lying around."
"Okay, so Ziplocks, serving spoon, lighter... what else?"
"Baking soda, a whole box of it."
"Baking soda. Okay, got it. I'll see you after school."
"Thanks, I'll explain later."
Tommy turns around to go back to just standing around in the volleyball court as Tubbo mumbles something like "How long is it even gonna take to find this shit" under his breath.
Tubbo’s gonna lose his fucking mind when he comes to Tommy’s tonight.
But hey, freebasing is a type of bonding activity, is it not? So it’s fine. Tubbo and Tommy are just going to have a bonding night.