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“Alrighty, good morning, kids!” Mr. Thomas sipped his morning coffee, the steam brewing from his mug which had the words, ‘world’s best teacher’ imprinted on it. “Tough crowd today?” Thomas joked light-heartedly, only groans can be heard in response. Thomas cleared his throat, however it came to be useless when two kids rushed into the classroom.
“Sorry we’re late, sir! We were caught up in a fight!!” Taylor panted in exhaustion, the two twins stumbling into the class, Taylor quickly shoving her phone in her back pocket.
“A fight?! Where?!” Thomas snapped, grabbing his detention slips and a pen. “Just down the hall.” Tyler pointed behind him with his thumb, his voice was flat as if this was normal for him.
“Thank you for telling me, kids, this is completely unacceptable!” Thomas flashed a smile at the twins before returning to an angry expression and running out the classroom, almost running into the door. A few kids chuckled at the clumsy mistake including Taylor.
“Well, that’s that then!” Taylor chuckled, making her way to her seat, pulling back out her phone. A few kids asked for the video. Tyler heaved a sigh, heading over to his seat. Taylor scooted her desk closer to her brothers, making a horrible screeching noise that only Ashlyn seemed to hear. Taylor noticed because Ashlyn winced in agony.
“Sorry, Ashlyn!!” Ashlyn shot her a quick soft smile and a thumbs up before returning back to her papers. “You think Mr. Thomas is gonna remember to mark us tardy?” The brunette asked, her attention still glued to her phone, scrolling through social media.
“I sure hope not. If I get one more tardy this semester, coach is gonna give me a penalty.” Tyler dug through his bookbag, trying to find his papers for that class. He groaned, not being able to find them. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, his eyes glare behind him, spotting the bleach blond. Of course it was him, here to bug Tyler as always.
“Pssst, Tyler!!” Aiden pestered, dragging the s.
“What do you want, psycho?” Tyler kicked his backpack in frustration before returning his attention back to Aiden.
“Well, spill the tea, who was fighting?! Did you get videos!?” Aiden tugged on Tyler’s jacket, however not for long due to Tyler swatting his hand off, leaving a mark. Aiden’s psychotic smile remained unaffected. Tyler’s hands lingered on Aiden’s hand after realizing how much pain he inflicted. Aiden was quick to pull his hand away, perhaps in reflex? Odd.
“Aiden, slow down. First of all, Tay has the videos. Second, Barron was the one fighting some blond kid-” Tyler began but was quick to get cut off.
“What?! Who was he fighting?!” Logan cut in accidentally being a little too loud, he could tell by the stares darting at him from all across the room. His head eased into the conversation.
“Jeez! You scared me… How did you even hear that?” Tyler flinched, his body pulling away from Aiden.
“I didn’t,” Logan’s index finger raised to point at an embarrassed girl, her red face covered by her hands, “Ashlyn told me. She was eavesdropping and told me!”
“Sometimes I forget you have superhuman hearing!” Aiden poked Ashlyn’s hands, her hands lowered down- her face a little less red than before.
“It wasn’t eavesdropping specifically!! It was… I just heard the conversation and decided to listen in!” Ashlyn huffed, tracing circles around the desk.
“So eavesdropping?” Tyler raised an eyebrow, a smirk on his face.
“No! Well… I know it sounds bad but I was really just-” Ashlyn’s voice came off more squeaky than she tried to appear, however it was only to get cut off by a loud squeal.
“Awww, guys! Emma got a sweater from Jake!!” Taylor pointed her phone towards the group, it was opened to an instagram story from a classmate of theirs.
“What’s up with people getting sweaters today?” Ashlyn asked, her eyes looking down to the caption in hopes to find any clues.
“REAL! I saw- like- 50 couples in our school today with swapped jackets or sweaters!!” Aiden butted into the conversation, taking the phone from Taylor.
“There’s not even that many couples at our school!” Tyler took the phone back, returning it to the owner.
“You guys haven’t seen the trend?!” Taylor’s jaw dropped. The others- Ashlyn, Aiden, Tyler, Ben, and Logan- stared in confusion at the brunette. Taylor sighed. “You know the song called Heather by Conan Gray?”
“You’ve been playing that song all the time at the graveyard, so yes we know it. But what does that have to do with anything?” Ashlyn tilted her head in confusion.
“The lyrics! ‘I still remember, the THIRD of DECEMBER, me and your SWEATER!” Taylor enunciated on a few of the lyrics to make her point clear.
“Ohhh, I get it now.” Ashlyn’s eyes sparked with an understanding. “So couples swap their sweaters for the day because of that lyric?”
“Yeah! Usually as a romantic gesture but sometimes friends do it too! You know like Emma and Sarah did last year!” Taylor smiled, closing instagram and putting her phone in her pocket, exchanging it for a compact mirror and lipgloss.
“Well that doesn’t make sense! Isn’t the song about the second choice?! Why would couples do that??” Aiden complains about the logic of it. Taylor argued it was just for fun. Tyler listened in, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he did agree with Aiden’s argument. Taylor finally gave in and let Aiden win the quarrel. Aiden flipped his ‘hair’ (It was really just air), he turned his head back and locked eyes with Tyler. Tyler was quick to look away but Aiden’s gaze lingered a little longer.
“OH MY GOSH GUYS! WE SHOULD ALL SWAP SWEATERS!” Aiden called out, slamming his hands on the desk rather dramatically.
“Weren’t you the one arguing the trend was not logical?” Tyler feud, raising an eyebrow. Aiden crossed his arms.
“Shut up, halfwit.” Aiden bickered. Tyler rolled his eyes.
“Well I agree with Aiden! It would be so fun!!” Taylor rested her hand on Aiden’s shoulder. Tyler sighed, running his hands through his hair.
“Okay, fine. But I claim Taylor.” Tyler pulled his sister towards her, tugging on her velvet jacket.
“Sorry, Ty, but your jacket STINKS with cologne.” Taylor placed her hand on top of Tyler’s.
“I think it smells good!” Aiden pouted, crossing his arms like a toddler having a tantrum. He sat down on Tyler’s table.
“Perfect! You switch with him then since you don’t have a problem with it!” Taylor bargained. Aiden’s face grew with shock.
“Oh c’monnn~, why me!?” Aiden whined, Tyler would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a pang of melancholy hit his heart. I mean, it's not like Tyler wanted for Aiden to wear his jacket- it was his favorite one. He never lets anyone wear it, well there was one exception for Taylor when they went out and she got cold but that was the only time.
“Nobody else other than you can stand that scent! It’s so strong and… gross…” Ashlyn complained, sipping her coffee, it was too early to be arguing about sweaters.
“Aiden’s going to get my jacket all disgusting, there’s no way I’m going to be giving him mine.” Tyler rolled his eyes, he secretly hoped that the other would protest against it, and that he did.
“Ya’ know what? Now I volunteer to switch with Tyler!” Aiden put his hands on his hips.
“Oh now you want to… You’re only doing that to annoy me, aren’t you?” Tyler raised an eyebrow, his voice coming off as annoyed, however Tyler knew that he wanted more than anything for Aiden to persist. He wasn’t sure why he wanted that. He just did.
“Whattt! No way, I’d never do that to ya’ halfwit!” Aiden grimaced, poking at Tyler’s forehead. Tyler swatted his hand away.
“Well, either way, Ashlyn and I are swapping and so are Logan and Ben so it looks like you guys are stuck together!” Taylor hooked on Ashlyn’s hand, intertwining their fingers.
"What! When did that happen!?” Aiden called out, throwing his hands in the air.
“When you and Tyler were bickering, the rest of us chose our partners.” Logan rubbed the back of his neck. Tyler noticed him and Ben had already swapped and it seemed Ashlyn and Taylor were about to. He couldn’t help but chuckle at Ashlyn’s flustered face. Tyler felt relieved? If that’s even the word. He didn’t know why. Maybe he just trusted Aiden with his jacket more than anybody else in the group. Yeah, that’s what it is. Tyler sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Fine. C’mon let’s get this over with, idiot.” Tyler took off his jacket, he turned around, expecting to see Aiden however he wasn’t there. Where could this psycho have gone? Can he teleport now too? God, that would be Tyler’s worst nightmare. His eyes scanned the room behind him, looking for the bleach blond. He groaned and turned back around, only for the blond to be right in front of him. Tyler was taken aback. When the hell did he get there? “Jesus-! Stop doing that!” Tyler tried to hide his flinch.
“Sooo, which sweater do ya’ want?” Aiden tilted his head.
“Which… sweater? What do you mean?” Tyler raised an eyebrow. His eyes scanned over Aiden, hoping for a clue of whatever that sentence meant.
“Like, the black one or the beige one?” Aiden lifted up his beige sweater to reveal a black one underneath. Tyler always thought it was just one sweater- he didn’t expect it to be two layered.
“I- uh- black? Hold on, the real question is why do you have two sweaters on?” Tyler ran his hand through his hair, his face showing a hint of oddity.
“Hey! It’s cold and stylish!” Aiden pulled off his sweaters- struggling a bit. Tyler tittered at the blond’s scuffle to get his head out the whole.
“You tell yourself that…” Tyler mumbled. Tyler’s gaze seemed to linger longer than it should have, and Aiden noticed.
“Ya’ gonna hand over your jacket or keep checking me out?” Aiden snickered, Tyler immediately looked into his eyes. Why the hell would he do that?! It would’ve been better to just look away! God, Tyler was in his own little world today.
“I- Shut up.” Tyler rolled his eyes, pushing his jacket onto Aiden, quickly taking Aiden’s in exchange.
“You should take a picture, it'll last longer.” Aiden motioned the same way you would snap a picture with one hand while putting his arm through the sleeve with the other.
“Are they fighting or flirting?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow. Taylor nudged his arm with a chuckle.
“Maybe both.” Taylor shot a glance at Tyler. Tyler furrowed his brows.
“How do I look, personally I think I pull it off better than halfwit.” Aiden striked a pose— cocking his hip to his left, placing a hand on it and using the opposing one to run through his hair.
“Horrible–” Tyler began before getting cut off by his twin sister, shoving him into a desk, causing him to sit down.
“AMAZING!” Taylor opened Instagram to post to her story, tagging Aiden. Taylor smiled.
“Jesus, Aiden, how do you wear two sweaters all day!? I'm sweating just wearing this one!” Tyler fanned himself with his right hand, pulling the sweater up by its seams with his left.
“Maybe I'm just better.” Aiden teased, sticking his tongue out.
“In your dreams, Clark.” Tyler scoffed, leaning back on the desk, using his arms as support. A few kids yelled that the teacher was coming and each of the six rushed to their seats. As if on cue, Mr. Thomas walks back into the classroom, out of breath and sweating.
“Sorry about that, kids. Anyway, let's get on with today's lesson.” Thomas sat down at his desk, pulling out a textbook. The class mirrored the action, all but Tyler, who had his head down on his desk. In his lap was placed his phone, opened to Instagram, which was strange since Tyler was never on social media. He found himself navigating to his sister's page, clicking the glowing story icon, staring a little longer than needed on the bleach blond starring in it.