Chapter Text
zachary was walking around the campus, taking mental notes of where everything was. unfortunately, he was too busy looking around to look in front of him. he bumped into someone by accident,
"shit, sorry."
he looked up to see who he bumped into, it was a young man, around his age maybe? wavy brown hair, enticing blue eyes, and--
"hey, you do know its rude to stare at people, right?"
zachary let out a small chuckle, "i zoned out, sorry."
the other man helped zachary up, and he mumbled a quick thank you. should he ask him for his number? fuck, that's probably too direct. maybe just ask him for his name and year, that would be more reasonable. if he asked the other guy for his number, it would look like he was hitting on him. maybe that wouldnt be so bad though..
"hey, can i get to know you more? maybe we'll see eachother again."
the man was caught off guard, obviously not expecting zachary to ask him that, "oh, sure. here."
zachary handed the other guy his phone, in which he created a new contact with his name and number.
hudson, it said. hudson grader. that name sounded nice, whatever, that was too frivolous at the moment.
zachary nodded his head,
"alright then, hudson. i'll see you later." he turned on his heel, when a hand grabbed him back.
"wait, you havent told me your own name yet."
oh, right.
"my name is zachary, zachary aiken."
hudson nodded, and let go of zachary. "are you in.. 10th grade?" he asked.
zachary nodded, and brushed his hair back to tidy it up.
"haha, yeah. what does your schedule look like?"
hudson opened his messenger bag, and took his schedule out and showed zachary.
first period was baking, second gym, third literature, fourth pre calc, fifth psychology, sixth computer, seventh ap us gov, and eighth spanish 2.
hold on, a lot of these were similar to zacharys own schedule. so, zachary took his paper out and compared it side by side.
first baking, second gym, third pre calc, fourth literature, fifth psychology, sixth computer, seventh spanish 2, and eighth ap us gov. it was practically the same thing, just switched around.
that was, until something--or someone--interrupted zacharys train of thought and bumped into him.
"woah, sorry guys!"
the collision caused zachary to fall into hudsons arms again, fuck. this was really embarrassing now.
the person that bumped into zachary was this light skinned man, out of uniform. behind him was.. oh it was a blur. that was what made zachary realize his glasses dropped somewhere.. damnit.
"ah, sorry, my glasses have dropped somewhere.."
then hudson already handed him his glasses.
"thank you."
zachary put his glasses back on, and looked back at the people behind him. it was an awkward guy, with a sheepish smile on his face standing behind the light skinned man.
"oh, hey. we havent met, have we? sorry for my rude introduction."
zachary looked the other guy up and down, all he was wearing was a denim jacket with denim pants, with headphones dangling out of his pocket. didnt the school require them to wear the uniform? whatever, zachary wouldve responded if hudson didnt beat him to it.
"oh, hey. i've seen you before. you must be.. leo, right?"
the leo nodded, "and you are..?"
"hudson, and this is zachary."
"you can call me zach instead. who's that guy behind you?"
zachary was referring to the platinum blonde man, still standing behind leo.
"this guy, is owen fernsby. hes a bit.. shy."
they were both out of dresscode, were they new here too? that didnt excuse their poor attire, this was also zachary's first time here and hes already in uniform.
hudson pondered, "are we all year 10s?"
leo nodded, and owen finally spoke up, "oh! maybe we all have classes together, oh my!! we all get to see eachother and be friends!!"
well, hes talkative when hes comfortable.
zachary was starting to get a headache.
"excuse me, i'll head back to my dorm. i have a headache."
hudson saw and opportunity, and decided to take it.
"can i walk you back? it wouldnt hurt and i'd make sure you're okay."
zachary nodded, "yeah yeah, i just need to be inside."
leo frowned, "are you going so soon?
zachary nodded and started heading to the residential hall. hudson followed close behind, with leo and owen's talking echoing in the background.
"which dorm are you in? im pretty sure everyone has a roommate."
"ah, pretty sure im dorm.. 213? yeah."
hudson chuckled, and ruffled his hair.
"ha, what a coincidence. mine is also 213."
zachary internally rolled his eyes. god, all he wanted right now was to be alone.
they finally reached room 213 after going up a flight of stairs and taking a right. zachary went in his bag to dig out his dorm keys, when hudson did it first.
"thanks," he mumbled, glaring at him through the corner of his eye. their suitcases were bundled in the corner, unpacked. school starts in a week, and they were only allowed to go early to understand their way around the school and unpack their things.
ugh, zachary was already smart and diligent. why would his parents send him here? nonetheless, zachary slumped onto his bed, which was lumpy and uncomfortable.
hudson had taken his hat and bag off to go change in the bathroom, leaving the door slightly cracked. zachary rolled over and couldnt get rid of the headache bothering him at the moment. why would he be getging this headache? hes been sleeping 8 hours a night.. mostly.. hydrated well.. oh. hes probably just hallucinating or something. fake it till you make it!
at some point, zachary ended up dozing off, and his dream consisted of ice cream everywhere, in a white padded room. some kind of freak ice cream incident happened there.. hopefully it isnt foreshadowing anything.. giggles *winks*
𐔌 ﹒ ⋆ ꩜ ⋆ 𓂃 ₊ ⊹
hudson was adjusting his hair in the mirror. should he let it grow or cut it? would he look better with long hair or short hair? oh! he could ask his new friend, zach. it was awfully quiet anyway, just the sounds of their breathing.
"hey, zachary?"
..
no response? did something happen?
hudson grabbed a random shirt from his bag, and peeped his head out the bathroom. zachary was laying on the bed, dormant. guess the headache got to him or something, whatever. he can simply ask his other friends later. it was kinda boring without anything to do, so he decided to start unpacking. he organized his clothes and put them in his drawers, cleaned the room a bit, and then went out to go eat.
he went to the shared kitchen for the dormitories, and there he spotted leo and owen.
"hey, what are you guys doing here?"
hudson asked, noticing they were eating spaghetti.
leo spoke up before owen, "oh, we were hungry so we came here to eat."
"mind if i join? zachary is sleeping."
leos eyes widened, "at this time? its only 3 pm!"
"well, i suppose his headache is the reason why."
"tell him i hope he feels better when he wakes up."
owen finished his plate of spaghetti and put it in the sink where the other dishes were.
..
is anyone going to clean the dirty dishes?
hudson looked around, but leo and owen started to run off and even said, "youre the last one there, you have to clean the dishes!"
he sighed and reluctantly walked over to the dishes and pulled up his sleeves.
the people here ate like gluttons.. the food cannot be this good. are they cooking this themselves or taking it from the cafeteria? considering that there are zero pots or pans, probably from the cafeteria.
while cleaning the dishes, hudsons mind started to wander.
this would be his.. 2nd year here? yeah. if he recalls correctly, zachary, leo, and owen are new to the school. he hadnt seen them before, and they seemed pretty lost. there were a handful of new students, but everyone else had stayed the same.
the door suddenly creaked open to the kitchen, and a head popped out. oh, it was just luke. he walked over to hudson, and decided to open his mouth, "why are you washing dishes?"
"because its my responsibility to leave the area clean. its disrespectful and impolite to let people clean after you."
"..arent you cleaning after people?"
"yeah, but thats different."
"eugh, you're better than me. i wouldve only cleaned up my mess."
hudson scoffed, "i've never seen you clean."
"yeah, because i never get messy."
"good point."
hudson sighed, "at least im done washing dishes now."
"you still have to dry them!" luke reminded.
hudson rolled his eyes, "they will dry, i only need to leave them out like this. i dont have to manually put them in the dishwasher to dry or whatever."
luke was obviously trying to get on hudsons nerves by trying to make him do more dishes, so he just flicked luke on the forehead and walked out.