Chapter Text
“We're moving,” Jake said to Rich in the bathroom.
“What!?” Rich exclaimed. Jake nodded solemnly.
“My mom said we could come visit on breaks but… I'm going to a private school.”
Rich hugged him. Jake hugged back, tears pricking his eyes.
Rich was his best friend since 3rd grade, back when they were both losers. They stayed friends when Jake became popular, hanging out after school. They hung out again in school once Rich became popular.
And now they were being separated.
This was his last week at Middleborough.
He tried to make the best of it but it hurt watching as his house slowly got emptier.
And before he knew it he was in the back of his parents car, being driven across the state to a new house, and a new school, new people.
He felt sick
~~
He stood in front of his mirror, looking at himself.
He looked wrong, though maybe that was just the uniform.
His new school was a private school, the dress code fairly strict.
White button ups, short or long sleeves. A tie (blue for the juniors). Black dress pants (skirts for the girls). Black shoes with white soles. No big jewelry, no dyed hair, ect.
It was weird, you could always dress how you wanted at his old schools, but then again all of his old schools were public schools.
He sighed and went downstairs. Maybe seeing the other kids in matching uniforms would make him feel better.
He went to the door and grabbed his backpack. It was new, plain black, just to make the uniform more sad.
Threw it over one shoulder and opened the door, leaving.
The school wasn't too far so his mom said he could walk, unlike her driving him before.
~~
When he stepped into the school he looked around. Everyone really did look the same.
Same shirt, same pants and skirts, same shoes. The most different were tie colors, red for freshmen, yellow for sophomores, blue for juniors, green for seniors.
He just stood there and stared till someone started talking to him.
“Hello? Are you the new kid, Jake?” A girl said to him. She had dark skin and long braids. Her green tie signified she was a senior.
“Uh, yeah, I'm Jake.” She grabbed his hand and gave it a firm shake.
“Great! I'm Stephanie, head of the student council, which is why I have this star clip on my tie.” She pointed to it. He nodded. “Here's your schedule.”
She handed him a piece of paper with his name on it. It had his locker number, room numbers, and teacher's names on it.
“I'll show you to your locker and homeroom, after that your classmates should be able to show you to the rest of your classes.” She smiled at him.
“Thank you,” he said. She nodded. They really chose a good head for the student council here.
She took his arm and showed him to his locker, locker number 58. Once he managed to open it she showed him to his homeroom, room 128.
They exchanged goodbyes and he walked in.
There were already a few kids in the classroom, 1 boy, 2 girls, all doing their own thing before school started.
“Hello,” the teacher (Ms. Hayley according to his schedule) said. “Are you the new student?”
“Uh, yeah. I'm Jake.” She nodded.
“It's good to meet you. Now your seat is right next to Olivia’s. Olivia! Raise your hand please.” A girl with blonde hair in pigtails sitting in the first row raised her hand.
He walked over and looked at the seat next to her. It had his name written on a name tag taped to it. He sat down, Olivia was to his right.
He looked at the name tag on the desk to the left of him. Whatever name that used to be written there had white out messily put over it and “Skip” written in blue marker over it.
Had it been someone else's seat before? Or did the teacher just put the wrong name?
He shrugged, it didn't really matter.
More kids slowly filtered in, almost the entire class was there by the time the late bell rang, except whoever “Skip” was.
Class started and it was the same stuff from his other school, but the class was a lot calmer. Well, for the first 10 minutes.
After about 10 minutes the door flung open, scaring everyone.
A kid walked in, confidence radiating off of them. They barely followed the dress code. The collar of their shirt was up instead of folded over the tie. Half of their shirt was tucked in, the other half was not. One side of their pants was rolled up to show their boots.
Their hair 100% broke the dress code as it was bright blue, you could see part of the bleach right before their roots.
“Skip. Why are you 10 minutes late?” Ms. Hayley asked.
“My parents' car broke down,” they said. They leaned against the teachers desk, giving her a challenging look.
“Why don't you have a pass from the office?”
“Don't need one.” They stood up again, sitting right next to Jake. They put their feet up on their desk, leaning back in their chair.
“Get your feet off your desk, please.”
They rolled their eyes and leaned back, looking at the kid behind them.
“I need a pencil, waiter boy,” they said, completely ignoring the teacher.
“I-I, um–”
“Pencil.” The boy reached for his bag, quickly getting a pencil out and handing it to them.
They snatched it, putting their chair down and getting out their notebook. It had doodles all over it.
The teacher took a deep breath before teaching again, clearly frustrated with this kid.
Skip was obnoxious, to say the least. They made sure to click their boots on the ground, erase loudly, and whistle whenever Ms. Hayley turned her back.
He could see them staring at him at one point. But why? He didn't know.
But eventually the bell rang and they left before he could get a word out to them.
He stood up and asked for directions to his next class before walking off. He'd talk to that obnoxious rule breaker at lunch.