Chapter Text
Josh looked at the pile of notebooks on his bed. Did he have them all? He went through the list in his head one more time. Math, English, music, art… Yes. That was it. He was stuffing the books into his schoolbag, when his phone vibrated. One new text message from Tyler.
Josh sighed. He opened the text and read it.
Tyler: heeey who r u sitting @ music w/??
Josh could barely understand what it said. He frowned.
Josh: ? are you asking me who i’m sitting with at music? no one… yet. why?
He sent the text and almost immediately got a response.
Tyler: yeye you with ur stupid grammar lol cool wanna sit wit me?
Now, Josh didn’t really like this guy. He was noisy, annoying and never had his homework done. But Joshua Dun wasn’t a bad guy, so every time Tyler asked him if he could see his homework to “check if everything’s correct”, he just rolled his eyes and passed him the piece of paper. Josh was also known for being the smart kid and Tyler was known for being the cool kid… who had shitty grades. Tyler probably thought of Josh as a servant who has to help him no matter what and Josh usually did that. He helped everyone if he had time.
But he didn’t quite understand why Tyler would want to sit with him at music. It was like, the easiest class. Even Tyler was good at it.
Josh: uhh i guess.. why music tho?
Tyler: i dunno lol does it bother you? ..okay uh, english? art? depends on wht classes we have 2gether
Josh: i don’t care dude whatever
Tyler: aight
And before Josh knew it, he was already standing in front of the ugly grey building he’ll have to enter almost every day for a whole year. A group of students were already in front of the building, divided in small groups. They were probably waiting to get assigned the lockers they would have access to this year. It’s not like anyone uses those things… Josh thought, hurrying to join the students, his eyes scanning the area in search for his friends.
“Josh!” a familiar voice called. He recognized it immediately. Josh spun around, almost getting knocked down by the small person running into his arms. “Debby!” he chuckled.
“Mark! I found him!” she yelled and another guy joined them.
“Hey, dude,” Mark greeted him with a smile. “Hi, Mark!” Josh grinned.
“I missed you guys,” Josh tilted his head after Debby took a step back to give him some space.
“Yeah, we missed you too.”
“Oh, right. Debbs, are you still dating that guy… uh… what was his name again?” Josh scratched the back of his head.
“You mean Jason?”
“No, that other dude… um…”
“Sean?”
Josh shook his head. “Sp… Was it Spencer?”
“What?! Spencer Boldman? Ew… That was just a rumor. Gross. That’s like dating… Lucas Till, or… Tyler Joseph-”
“Nice to know you think of me that way.” Suddenly, a wild Tyler Joseph appeared.
Debby spun around, trying to find words. “I, uh… Well, I… um… No offense,” she chuckled awkwardly.
Tyler chuckled too. “Hey, none taken. I wouldn’t date you either… Hi, everyone.”
Everyone greeted him back, except for Josh, who was too deep in his thoughts to hear anything. Tyler cleared his throat. Gosh, why did it always had to be his way?
“Josh…?” Tyler said quietly
As soon as Josh heard his name, he quickly lowered his gaze from the sky to Tyler’s eyes. “Yeah?” he asked with wide eyes. “Nothing, it’s just polite to say hey when someone says hi,” he chuckled. Would you stop chuckling and being fucking annoying for one fucking second and let the world live normally, please?!
“Yeah, sorry… Hey,” Josh faked a smile and rolled his eyes as soon as Tyler’s attention was directed to someone else.
“Senior students, come closer, please!”
Soon the seniors were gathered around the teacher. She continued: “I will call each one of you and give you your new locker number and combination. Do not show that combination to anyone and don’t lose the paper. Switching lockers with someone else is forbidden.”
She started calling names in alphabetic order.
“Dun, Josh.”
Josh received a small piece of paper with some numbers scribbled on it. He didn’t care about them. He folded the paper and put it into his pocket, waiting for his friends. Soon Mark and Debby got their combinations too. They didn’t care about them either. No one did.
“Why are they even trying with these stupid lockers? Do they know nobody uses them?” Mark asked when they were walking down the hall to check what classes they had.
“Yeah, I know right…! Oh, damn it. Of course there are a lot of people around the billboard.”
“Relax, I’m pretty tall. I can check for you guys too,” Josh chuckled, silently praying they would be in the same classes.
He took his phone out and tried getting as close as possible to the board. He took a picture without even knowing what he was photographing. Josh sighed and stepped away. There was no way he’d come closer to the board, not with that many kids around it, squishing each other and eager to see the list.
He took a look at the photo he snapped.
“Hey, did you get anything?”
“Yeah… You guys both have P.E. and I have… art. Perfect.”
It’s not like Josh didn’t like art – he absolutely loved it, but he wanted to be with his friends.
“Ah, cheer up, bro. Maybe we have something else together, hm?” Mark side-hugged him.
“Well, it’s not like we could read anything from this thing,” he pointed at his phone, where the picture was still open. “It’s all blurry… But yeah, I’ll hope for the best.”
They said goodbye to each other and Josh made his way down the hall, to the art classroom. It was half empty, there were some kids sitting on the desks, talking to each other. Josh didn’t recognize any of them in particular.
Josh sat himself at the window in the last row. He pulled out his sketchbook and placed it on the table. Sighing, he stared out of the window.
“Aw, what’re you all sad about?”