Chapter Text
Jax hopped out of the bus, the rest of the crew following suit right behind. Caine flies out of the bus' roof and does a little twirl.
"Welcome everyone to DIGITAL HIGH!" He descended to everyone's level. "Today's adventure will be a SCHOOL MONTH'S NOSTALGIA! So enjoy your classes..."
"I do not want to be here." Jax states bluntly. Caine either doesn't hear or plainly ignores him.
"...enjoy your lunch..." He snaps his fingers, a small plastic bag appears in everyone's hands, a sandwich inside them. ... Except Jax's. His is just a sack of carrots, for some reason. "... and make friends! For you will be staying here a full month!"
"What? Are you serious?" Jax glares up from his carrot sack. "You never told us that we..."
"Oh, how fun!" Ragatha stated, walking into the school. "I'm sure this'll be fine, Pomni..." Her voice fades as everyone walks away without Jax.
"What are you waiting for?! Class is about to start!"
"Eugh..." Jax reluctantly looks back at the high school. He's past his 20s. He shouldn't be here.
He enters the building, walking down the hallways as Jax stares down at the white tiles, fidgeting with the single strap over his shoulder. One was enough, he didn't need both. He focuses on the light clinking of his backpack's zippers instead of any other sounds nearby, as he approaches the class sheet near the principal's office. Room... 24? ... Henry... Liam... Thomas... I guess no one important's there. How fun.
The map here says it's... straight ahead then a right? I guess that's not too far. Jax turns on his heels, and continues on the path he was going. He moves closer to the blue lockers lined on the walls, and reaches his hand out and touches the metal as he moves forward, zeroing in on the sound of his glove's fabric against the locker's metal.
He whips the doors open, and as they hit the walls beside them, he sits down on the bottom-left corner seat. He splays the blatantly Jax-themed backpack across his table, laying on top of it, as he barely mutters under his breath, covering his head with his hands: "I don't want to be here."
Orbsman walks into the room, wearing a red tie. Oh, that guy is LAME. Don't tell me he's... The Teacher.
"Rubbery, unintelligible speech" Orbsman gestures with his arms as he 'talks'. Turning around to write something on the blackboard, Orbsman continues 'speaking'.
Jax sighs as he hears the chalk scribble onto the blackboard, and he sneaks a glance at everyone in the class. ... Several mannequins, even more empty seats, and one red rabbit. ... That's weird. A red rabbit, who looks just like him, but red, with spiky hair... Yellow overalls... Who is HE? Did Caine seriously make a knock-off of Jax specifically for this stupid adventure? ... Again? Please, by god, just say it's not just Evil Jax all over again...
"Screechy, Rubbery speech" Orbsman continues, the words "TEST TIME!" drawn in a bubbly font onto the blackboard.
"Uuugh, are you serious?" Jax groaned out, propping himself up from the backpack, and placed the world's most unoriginal backpack back onto the ground, as Orbsman handed him a test.
Question 1: Grass is Green. True or False?
... No way. ... There's no way. It's true, right? Or did Jax go insane already?
Question 2: The Sky is Blue. True or False?
... Oh dear god. He just hates this already...
Answering each question with barely any thought, Jax turns in his paper near-immediately. ... And, he should've expected it, also receives the graded test back near-immediately. Let's see... ... Huh, he aced it. ... He... Well, of course he did. Those questions were @$$. Suddenly, the bell rung, his ears aching from the sudden noise. Right. Lunch.
He walks out of the classroom--
"Agh! Watch where you're going!" Jax bumps into someone. He looks up at them... Uh.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" ... It's that Jax knock-off.
"Uhh. Yeah, I'm fine—Who are you?" Jax keeps his distance.
"My name's Thomas. I think we have the same class."
"Oh, is there a lot of purple cartoon rabbits around this school?" Jax leans away, talking with the biggest s#!+-eating grin ever. "Am I so not unique that you only think we're in the same class?"
"Uh, no. The exact opposite. You're so unique I feel I should've seen you." Thomas scratches the back of his head, looking into the classroom behind Jax.
"Okay, cool it with the glazing, Tom." He flicks Thomas' face to push him away a little.
"My name's Thoma--"
"I couldn't give less of a f$#@."
"... Okay, rude." Thomas rolls his eyes. "What do you have for lunch?"
"Why do you wanna know? We just met."
"... I mean, I think we could be friends."
"What? I'm not being friends with you." Jax turns away, trying to walk as far from this weirdo as he can.
"Why?" Thomas begun pulling out his lunch from his overall's surprisingly large front pocket. Jax stops.
"Because I'm not that narcissistic. Go away." Jax doesn't even turn around, but doesn't get the chance to start walking again.
"... Is that just because we look alike?" Thomas takes a peek inside of the box.
"Wow, how smart you are." Jax barely turns 45°, only able to look at Thomas through sheer luck. His or Thomas's? Dunno.
"Oh, really?!" Thomas' eyes light up. Is... There's no way he's...
"Uh. Sure. You're, uhm... Einstein 2." He turns all the way.
"Ah, thank you!" No way.
"... You're not seriously gonna believe that, are you?"
"I packed some sandwiches for today. Want to share?" He opens the lunchbox's lid, revealing little poptarts and PB&J's.
"Uh-- ... Wha...? You're just gonna give them to me just like that?"
"I mean, yeah--"
"Okay, goody-two-shoes, why don't you go jump off a bridge?" Jax flips imaginary hair. "That'd make me SOOO happy."
"No."
"Okay, fair enough." Jax steps closer, not too close, of course. "I guess I'll take a poptart. What flavors are they?"
"Oh, they're all strawberry. But I also added a little bit of strawberry & grape jam on top of them." Thomas grabs one. It's as said; A pink poptart with some red and purple jam on top.
"Strawberry AND grape? That's weird. Usually it's one or the other." Jax takes the poptart, and as his fingers turn it slowly, stares down at it as if it killed his entire family twice.
"I liked the poptart with either one so I tried it with both. Turns out two positives make a bigger positive. Multiplication or something like that." Thomas sat down on the floor in a corner between wall and a locker. "Sit down!" He pat the space beside him.
"On... On the floor?" Jax looks down at the red rabbit beneath him with a judgemental look. ... It's not like he hadn't done this, but still.
"I usually sit on the tables in the cafeteria, but I'm too lazy today to go over there."
"Oh, are you now?" Jax squats down.
"... Are you gonna eat that, or are you just... going to stare at it?"
"My mouth is teeth. I can't really eat." He presses the poptart on his teeth. Surely enough, no bites are taken.
"... Just take a bite out of it." Thomas grabs a PB&J and puts it in front of his face. He closes his mouth in the sandwich's vicinity, and all of a sudden, a bite is taken.
"What."
"Try it!" Thomas moves Jax's hand using his middle and index finger slightly towards Jax's mouth.
"Uh, okay, whatever." Jax closes his mouth. A bite is taken. And he can taste it. ... It tastes fine.
The bell rings just then, and Jax stands back up instantly. "Well, I guess it's time to go back to class." He stretches his back and arms.
"What? No, the day's over." Thomas also stands up.
"... That's not how schools work."
"I mean, is it? That's how this school's worked since I was in 7th grade in here." The two head into the classroom, collecting their bags. Thomas' is... Thomas-themed.
"But that's... not..." Caine made this thing, right? Of course this is how this school works. "... Nevermind."
"Well, why don't you come over my house?" Thomas says as they both head out of the building. "It's a treehouse."
"You live in a treehouse?" Jax follows Thomas down the dirt walkway. "Is it like, a treehouse in your backyard, or?"
"Oh, no, I just live in a treehouse in the middle of the woods."
"..." Jax stares at the other rabbit. Just... a random treehouse... in the middle of the woods? "Why? That... doesn't make sense."
"Yes it does."
"I mean, I guess, but... ugh, nevermind."
"We're here!" Thomas states, out of the blue.
"What? We were just at-- ..." Surely enough, in front of the two, there's a tall tree with a ladder leading into a treehouse. "Ugh... I have to stop questioning things..."
As they head inside... wait, is this just straight up a house on a tree? Instead of a... treehouse? ... is there even a difference??
The walls, made of wood, are adorned with posters of random non-copyright movies, to the left there's a kitchen. It has a functioning fridge, oven, microwave, etc. There's also a bedroom with a working TV strapped up with an Xbox 360. ... No, a Zbox, actually. There's also a bathroom with bathroom things.
"I'll order pizza. There's some Strawberry Copa Cola in the fridge if you want." Thomas grabs the stationary rotary phone on the wall and dials a number. For some reason, he says them out loud as he dials. "5555474992". ... How useless.
"Strawberry Copa... Is that just Coca Cola?"
"Huh? What's that?"
"... Okay. I guess I'll take some." Jax walks into the kitchen, opening the fridge. Inside is baker-miller pink cans labeled COPA COLA with the tagline 'The best drink for coping with insurmountable distress'. Also, there's a bunch of tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, left-over pancake batter, bread dough mix, and strawberries. ... He just takes the Copa Cola.
"What kind of pizza are you getting, anyway?" Jax turns back towards Thomas, who just put away the phone.
"Oh, Calabresa sausage pizza!" Thomas walks into the kitchen, also grabbing a can of Coke. ... 'Cope'?
"Calabresa...? What's that?"
"A mildly spicy, smoky sausage." Thomas walks out of the kitchen, into the bedroom. "C'mon! I wanna show you something!"
"Let me guess, is it your--"
"Let's play Minceraft!" Thomas sat down in front of the CRT.
"I'll... just watch you play." Jax knelt down.
"That's fine." Thomas turned on the Zbox, and as it turned on, Jax's eyes grew heavy...
"See this build I made?" Thomas pointed at the screen. It was too bright for Jax to see, for he was already half asleep.
"Uh-huh, yeah. Sure." Jax leaned on the wall.
"Oh, are you tired?" Thomas looks back at him, seeing him leaned onto the wall shoulder-to-shoulder. ... shoulder-to-wood.
"Huh? Oh, uh--"
"Well, it's late anyway." He got up. ... What? The sun was still up a second ago... surely enough, twilight glimmers from outside onto the cups.
Light reflects back from the cup, breaking apart the colors into a rainbow as they reached back onto Jax, painting his arm in rainbow. He simply stared at it. The way his purple skin... slash fur was painted in several colors. The red was overpowering, turning him the same shade as Thomas where it affected the color, and so was the blue. The purple simply made him more vibrant. Everything else simply tinted.
Jax looked behind himself, seeing Thomas preparing the bed. It was a simple bed with a pull-out drawer underneath, with red Minecraft... Minceraft hearts printed onto it. It also had a slight glimmer of purple on it from the rainbow cast by the cups.
"Why are you--" Jax couldn't get the chance to ask.
"For us to sleep." Thomas responded.
"... I can just, go home." Jax got up, but Thomas fluffed the pillows less aggressively. ... Or, was he at this pace...?
"Well, it's probably far away. I don't really want you walking three miles or so, especially during nighttime." Thomas batted the bed, removing potato chip crumbs.
"... Also, did you say 'for us to sleep'?" Jax slowly pulls his hand away from the backpack he was about to grab. "We're... not sleeping in the same bed."
"Oh, why not?" Thomas sat down on the bed, looking up at Jax.
"Well. That's, uh."
"Well, the bed is the most comfortable place in the treehouse. I don't think it's healthy for your spine to sleep anywhere else..." Thomas retreated into a corner, grabbing a book from the shelf behind the bed.
"... Okay. Fine." Why doesn't he have any arguments? Why did he agree to something so... eugh...
"Do you want the side near the wall or the side near the edge?" Thomas asked, reading the cover of the book he grabbed.
"I'll. be fine either way." It's weird to be doing something so odd and be picky about it.
"That's fine. You should probably pick the side near the edge." Thomas laid down, his back on the backboard.
Jax stood there for a moment longer. He blinked once, or twice. He didn't count. And so, as if approaching a rabid animal, he stepped towards the bed and climbed on.