Chapter Text
Freddy’s pov:
Another boring day at school, as always. I’m used to it by now. I stumbled inside with my crutch and started walking towards first period. Everyone was giving me dirty looks, as always, so I kept my head down not to see them.
As I dodged a person walking right in front of me, I accidentally bumped into someone else and their books fell. “Gosh I’m so sorry” I said panicking, worried that yet another person would hate me in this school. I tried to crouch down to help them grab the books, but they stopped me.
“Don’t worry it’s okay, I see you’re already hurt so I’ll grab these” they said, and I finally looked at them. It was a boy, long dark curls covering his face as he grabbed the books. He got up and stuck a strand of his hair behind his ear as he smiled to me.
After a second of silence, I quickly spoke. “A-Are you new here?”. He replied almost immediately. “Yes! I was actually searching for… Mr. Wilson’s maths class-“ he said looking at a piece of paper in his hands to then return his gaze on me. “-do you know where it is?” he said giving me a smiled and my heart melted. He was there, looking at me and smiling, and the world just stopped spinning. I quickly snapped out of that stupid thought and tried replying.
“Uh… yeah, yeah! I’m- I know where it is!” I said in a slightly higher tone than average, and some people turned around to stare. “Sorry, I-I meant yeah, I can help you get there if you want”. “Sure, thanks so much” he said while we were walking towards the class.
“Here we are” I said while he thanked me and waved in my direction while walking in class. I was standing there, smiling like a stupid idiot, and just before he walked into the class, I realized.
“FREDDY!” I screamed as everyone stopped talking and turned to stare at me, including him. I cleared my throat, looking around at everyone looking and laughing at me. “Is my name, sorry that was weird… and loud… so I’m Freddy ‘he said in a normal voice’” I repeated as everyone started chatting again. He still looked a bit shocked, but he was giggling. “Cool, my name’s Ziggy” he said as he walked into the classroom. “Ziggy…” I repeated into a whisper, smiling like a 2 year old baby, before snapping out of it and walking towards my class.
*some hours later*
After the first four periods of the day, I walked into the cafeteria and searched for someone to sit next to. As I got my food, I tried approaching some tables, but everyone gave me dirty looks so I just backed away and walked past them. As I finally found a free spot at a table and sat down, all the people next to me got up and ran away from me.
I was fairly disappointed, but used to it. I started eating alone as I always did, when I heard some footsteps approaching me. “All alone?” a voice from behind me said. I turned around and I was facing Ziggy.
My face immediately lit up with happiness. “Can I sit here… Freddy, was it?” he said with nonchalance as he sat down next to me. “Yes… yes tha-that’s me” I whispered, probably looking at him with an amazed expression because he remembered my name. “Do you usually eat alone?” he asked me, grabbing his fork to start eating. I was still star struck, looking at him. I snapped out of it once again and answered him.
“Yeah, pretty much all the time since I got here” I said, sipping my water. “Gosh I’m so sorry, you seem like a very great person tho” he said, looking at me, putting his fork down. My heart started racing, and I hated that I was feeling like that because of him, the guy I just met. *He called me a great person* I thought to myself, before finally answering.
“Thanks… but no worries! I have my brother.” I added. He nodded, and turned back towards his plate. “May I ask why people avoid you?” Ziggy asked me, and I panicked. *Will he hate me too if I tell him? I don’t wanna loose the only possibility I have of a friend…* I thought to myself.
“Well… you see…” I hesitated, and he looked at me with a soft expression, as if telling me that he wouldn’t judge me. “It’s just that I’m… I… I’m a foster kid”.
It was such a stupid thing, but still I got bullied since the day I got here for that, so I was pretty scared. I turned around to look at him, he shifted his gaze to my eyes and he spoke.
“And people avoid you for that stupid thing? It’s bullshit!”. I let out a sigh of relief and a little giggle as I saw him laughing too. “I know right, that’s bullshit!” I repeated.
We spent the rest of the break talking, laughing and occasionally getting weird looks from other people around us. I kept getting distracted by those curls of his. Sometimes they would fall over his eyes and I was aching to just gently wipe them away from there. I thankfully didn’t do anything stupid that I would regret, and as the break ended, we walked together to the lockers.
“What class do you have now?” I asked Ziggy as he opened his locker and a couple of guitar picks fell out of it. As he bent down to grab them, he replied.
“I’m pretty sure I have Latin, I fucking hate that subject” he said, positioning the guitar picks somewhere in his locker. “Yeah, I hate Latin too… do you play the guitar?” I pointed at the guitar picks in the locker, and he turned to look at me.
He seemed a little embarrassed, so I lowered my hand and put it in my pocket. *Fuck you Freddy FUCK YOUUUU* I kept thinking. “Yeah I do actually… I may or may not have 20,000 followers…” he kind of whispered, smiling lightly at me. “HOLY SHIT!” I almost screamed, looking completely shocked.
“Whoops… uhm I meant… like that’s so fucking cool! How come I never heard of you?” I recomposed myself.
“I really don’t know” he said in a sarcastic tone, giggling and very lightly pushing my shoulder. As soon as his hand even brushed my shoulder, a whole lightning bolted through my body.
I distracted myself from that feeling and I heard the bell ring. “I have Spanish class now…” I said, a bit disappointed because I still wanted to spend time with him. “See you at the entrance in 2 hours?” he asked me, starting to go my opposite direction. “Yeah sure! See you!” I said as he waved and turned around to get to his class.
*2 hours later*
I was walking towards the entrance, where me and Ziggy had agreed to meet, as I sadly stumbled into those motherfuckers: same bullies as always.
I tried avoiding them, stumbling towards the entrance, but they stood in front of me. “Well well well, if it isn’t Freddy Freeman” Brett said smugly, as Burke laughed at my sight.
“Just please leave me alone, I have to go” I said, trying to get past them. Brett grabbed my shoulders and threw me against the lockers, then put his hand on my throat, almost choking me.
“Why do you HAVE to go huh? Got a date or something, loser?” he said, tightening the grip. I tried fighting back, and as I did my crutch fell to the ground. Burke grabbed it and threw it in the nearest trash can.
Brett finally let go of me, but I fell to the ground and my leg started hurting. Burke then kicked me once, I was kinda used to this, also. Just as he was hitting me the second time I heard a voice from behind them.
“Stop right now”. It was Ziggy. I recognized him by his voice, without even tilting my head upwards in the first place. “Or what, new guy?” Brett teased Ziggy, which seemed to be getting angrier by the second.
Brett kicked me once again and turned back to face Ziggy, and the last one spoke. “Or this” he said before punching Brett on the face.
After that, both bullies ran away. I stared up at Ziggy while he screamed behind them. “Takes nothing like a little fear to make a paper man crumble!”.
I saw him, his curls still falling over his eyes, his hand still in a fist. He quickly grabbed the crutch from the trash can and walked towards me, helping me up. “Freds, are you okay?” he asked, concerned.
*He gave me a nickname! Gosh this guy is gonna make me die sometime soon* I thought to myself as I nodded. “I’m okay… used to it” I said to him. “Thank you so much for saving me there by the way!” I added with a smile.
“No worries, that’s what friends do, right?” Ziggy said, smiling to me. *Friends. We are friends. ME AND ZIGGY ARE FRIENDS!* I thought as I nodded and smiled. “Should we go?” he asked me. “A-absolutely!” I replied, and I started walking with him.