Chapter Text
The hallway of Uptown High was quiet as it always was.
Wilson kept his head hung low with his headphones slung over his neck. His only goal was to make it through the first day of his senior year with as little human interaction as possible. Of course, his plan fails when Sofia runs up and wraps her arms around him.
‘Wil, show me your schedule right now,’ Sofia exclaims.
Wilson let out a breathy laugh. ‘Okay, okay, hold on.’
He pulled the folded up paper out of his back pocket and opened it up, handing it to Sofia.
‘Oh my GOD?! You’re taking AP stats?’ her eyes widened. ‘Dude you’re like a genius or something.’
‘Eh, it’s nothing I guess. I’ve always loved math,’ he brushes it off and pulls the paper back out of her hand.
The piercing tone of the school bell echoed through the halls. ‘I’m going to get to class, Mr. Stanley will kill me if I’m late on the first day,’ Wil turned and walked away.
‘Ugh! You’re no fun,’ Sofia shouted to ensure he heard.
He hustled to class and stopped at the door of his creative writing classroom, bracing himself on a trash can and panting.
After catching his breath, he opened the door to the classroom and Mr. Stanley’s eyes met his immediately. ‘You’re late on the first day. What’s your name?’
Wilson’s breath caught in his throat. ‘Oh- uh- mine? It’s Wilson, you can call me Wil, though.’
‘Okay, Wil, you’re tardy. I’ll excuse it since it’s the first day, but don’t let it happen again,’ he said sternly.
‘Yessir,’ Wil’s eyes darted to the floor as he tapped his foot.
‘Your seat is the third to the left in the second-row, next to Yasmin,’ Mr. Stanley pointed to the only empty chair left in the classroom.
Wilson slumped to his seat and threw his backpack on the floor, his foot immediately tapping repeatedly against the rough tile.
Mr. Stanley had a ‘Get To Know Me!’ slideshow on the TV, but Wilson wasn’t paying attention to any of it. He was more focused on doodling in his notebook.
‘I have two sisters and three brothers, does anyone want to tell me how many siblings they have?’ Mr. Stanley looked around the room to see a bunch of disinterested teenagers. ‘Hm.. Wil, how about you? How many siblings do you have?’
Wilson’s head snapped up from his notebook, full of pictures of anything he could find to use as a reference. ‘Well uhm,” he cleared his throat. ‘I’m actually the only child in my home. My parents wanted another kid but it just didn’t work out,’ he muttered.
‘That’s great! I’m sure it must be nice to have a lot of alone time,’ Mr. Stanley’s voice shot like a confetti cannon.
‘Yeah, it’s okay sometimes,” he slumped in his chair, tapping his pencil against the table.
The rest of the class went extremely slow, Wilson looking up at the clock every five minutes hoping the bell would finally ring at some point.
Once it finally did, Wil grabbed his backpack and swung it over his shoulder, pushing through the door as fast as possible.
The hallway was extremely loud, kids rushing to their next class, regardless of the five minute passing period they got. Sofia emerged from the crowd and caught Wilson staring into the conglomerate of people.
‘Hey Sofi,’ Wilson grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close to him.
‘Hey Wil! Oh my gosh, I saw this really hot guy in my physics class and I think I’m going to try to get his number,’ she was jumping up and down now.
‘Oh yeah? What’s his name?’ Wilson tried to still her, but there was no hope.
‘Well you see, I don’t actually know, I’ll figure that out tomorrow,’ she looked around awkwardly. ‘Or, if he’s in one of my next classes I can try and sit next to him!’
‘I suppose I wish you luck then,’ Wilson giggled.
‘Have you seen anyone you’re interested in?’ Sofi smirked and looked him in the eyes like he was actually going to give an interesting answer.
‘No, you know me well enough to know that I haven’t had a crush since, like, 6th grade,’ he sputtered. ‘And that guy was a total dick anyway.’
‘Right, but you might find someone this year, you know it doesn’t have to be a guy, maybe you’ll find a girl!’ Sofia smiled.
‘Sofi, do you realize how homophobic you sound right now,’ he chuckled.
She stopped and thought for a second. ‘Yeah actually I do now that I think about it, sorry Wil.’ She laughed it off, knowing he didn’t actually care that much.
‘Anyway, I just don’t think I’m built for a relationship. I mean, I can’t even come out to my own mother, despite the whole school knowing.’ A wave of anxiety rushed over him after remembering that everyone knows about his sexuality.
‘It’s okay, Wil, it’s not like you wanted them to know anyway, but I’m sure you’ll find the perfect man this year, that’s what senior year is about,’ Sofia said lightly.
Wilson had gotten outed in 7th grade by his old friends. They had a huge falling out and their first thought was to tell everyone and their mother that Wil was gay. ‘I don’t think so, we go to school with all the same douchebags as we usually have.’
‘Yes, but maybe you haven’t met all of the douchebags you talk about, I mean, our class alone has, like, 500 people,’ Sofi responded.
‘Mhm, right. I’m going to get to my next class, sorry Sofi.’
‘It’s okay, I probably should too, bye bye Wils!’ Sofi squealed.
As he walked to class he thought about what Sofi had said. Maybe he would find the perfect guy, or maybe she wasn’t joking around, maybe he would somehow find a girl he was interested in. Regardless, he didn’t want to get himself into a relationship now. He had been single and mostly content with that for the last 18 years.
He made it to his second ever class of senior year and walked into the classroom shyly. The board read, ‘free seating!’ So he looked around to see only two empty seats left.
I really need to stop wasting my passing periods talking to Sofi… he thought to himself.
His only two choices were next to a girl with auburn hair, he thinks her name is Abigail, but they had only talked once or twice, or next to a boy with dirty blonde hair whom he had never met.
He chose the boy and went over to him. ‘Hey, is this seat taken?’
‘Oh, no, you can sit there if you want. Actually, PLEASE sit there, I’m scared of this girl who has a crush on me sitting there, and she has this class.’ The boy responded
Wilson was taken aback by his sudden monologue-type story. ‘Well, okay. Thanks.’ He sat down hoping that’d be the last time they talked. He was terribly mistaken.
‘So, Wilson right?’ The boy questioned.
‘Uhm, yeah. How’d you know?’ Wilson replied shyly.
‘I’ve heard about you, I bet you don’t know me though, huh? I don’t usually interact with your kind of people.’ He laughed a bit.
Wilson couldn’t tell if he was supposed to be offended by that or not. ‘No, I haven’t heard of you actually,’ he paused for a second. ‘What’s your name?”
‘I’m Brando, but my friends call me Bran if you want a sick nickname to use,’ Brando must’ve thought he was the coolest guy around.
‘Okay, uhm, hey Brando, you can call me Wil.. If you also want a sick nickname to use for me,’ he grossed himself out with the popular boy language.
‘Hm… Wil is a pretty cool nickname, I wish I was named Wilson, that’s a really nice name,’ Bran acted like it was flavorful.
‘Thanks, I like the name Brando, it’s unique,’ Wil was struggling to communicate, as he always does with new people.
The teacher stood up from her desk and began talking about icebreakers. Icebreaker questions were Wil’s #1 fear because it required talking to a large group of people at once about himself.
‘Okay, how about we all go around and say our names and our favorite hobby, sounds good?’ The class mumbled, acting like they were excited, however they all knew nobody actually was.
‘Hmmm.. lets start with you with the dark curly hair in the hoodie!’ Wil looked up instantly and his heart was beating out of his chest.
‘My name is Wilson, but you can call me Wil, and I like drawing, painting, and playing my guitar about equally, I guess.’ Wilson spoke quickly.
‘Fantastic, you’re going to have to teach me how to play guitar someday!’ The teacher laughed like it was funny, but Wil didn’t find it funny at all, it just sparked more anxiety in him.
‘Let’s go down the line, so you’re next,’ the teacher pointed at Brando and he stood up proudly
‘Hey! My name is Brando and I like playing football and setting new records for the school!’ Brando said this like he was the most unique person ever, but he was just a copy-paste of all the other guys around, hence why Wilson found it hard to see any of them romantically.
‘That’s cool! It’s nice to meet you, Bran!’ The teacher sounded really sweet, like she was genuinely just trying to connect with everyone in some way.
The next 30 minutes of second period included their whole class just doing that, then the last 30 minutes was theirs.
‘Hey, Wil,’ Bran tapped his shoulder.
Wil looked up from his notebook which now had more doodles in it. ‘What do you want?’
‘Jesus, feisty one huh?’ Bran joked.
‘I guess. What’s up?’ Wil tried to seem nicer this time. He didn’t want to be a mean guy, he just didn’t like talking to new people.
‘Thanks for sitting next to me, I think Lorelai got the hint.’ Bran said.
‘Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by that?’ Wil was confused now.
‘Well, I told her I’d save her a seat in this class, and clearly I didn’t,’ he started. ‘And now she hasn’t tried to talk to me the whole period.’
‘Do you just not like her back?’ Wil questioned.
‘Nope, not at all. Plus, I have a girlfriend, but every girl in this school just tries to get close to me so that the second I’m single they have a better opportunity at getting with me.’ Bran sounded like he genuinely hated that.
‘That sounds miserable,’ Wil genuinely laughed.
‘It is. I mean, I’m sure you understand a little bit, you’re not a bad looking dude, you know,’ Bran joked.
‘I actually don’t, I’m not sure if anyone has liked me.. That way. I’ve never been in a relationship, and also I don’t even like girls and that isn’t a very common thing here,’ Wil felt like he was being too vulnerable for talking to a new person, but there was a newfound comfort he found in Brando, despite hating his popular kid tendencies.
‘Wait, are you gay?’ Bran’s expression softened.
‘Well, yeah, I guess. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to me now or something, I get that a lot, too many homophobes at this school,’ Wil sounded a bit sad now.
‘No, no, no! I think you’re a cool guy, I don’t see why your sexuality would make me hate you immediately,’ Bran’s voice was hurried.
‘Oh, thanks, I think?’ Wil laughed.
‘But, we’re seniors, you’ve seriously never dated anyone?’ Bran looked confused.
‘Nope, no gay guys around here,’ Wil’s tone was annoyed.
‘That sucks, do you have anyone to sit with at lunch?’ Bran asked.
‘Well, I have my friend, Sofia, but she’s about it,’ Wil responded.
‘Oh Sofia is nice, I know her. Do you want to bring her to sit with me and my friends at lunch?’ Bran was making himself cringe now, he never thought he’d ask someone to sit with him at lunch like a cringey middle schooler would.
‘Oh, uhm, I’ll ask her,’ Wil muttered. ‘But would your group even like me?’
‘That’s a good question that I don’t have an answer to. They’re a bit homophobic, but they’re football boys. They might like your personality but I don’t know about the gay thing,’ Bran was trying to sound as kind as he could while saying this.
‘Okay, I’ll just hope they don’t already know from 7th grade,’ Wil chuckled.
Bran was a little confused, but disregarded it. ‘Great, well if Sofia says yes, you can meet us at the table closest to door 14 outside.’
‘Thanks,’ Wil smiled and grabbed his bag to leave as the bell rang.
Bran’s friends may not accept Wil’s sexuality, but it’s nothing he hasn’t dealt with before. Plus, this was a good opportunity for him to make more friends, and he connected with Bran better than he expected.
He found Sofi at her locker and tapped her shoulder. ‘Oh my god, hey, Wil!’ Sofi had her usual enthusiastic voice.
‘Hey Sofi, so this guy, you may or may not know him, Brando, he asked if we wanted to sit with him at lunch,’ Wilson spoke as quickly as he physically could.
‘Oh, Brando is kind of not our type of guy at all, but if you want to, I’m down,’ Sofi replied with genuine concern in her voice.
‘Right, I know, but I got along with him really well and I think I do want to be his friend, regardless of his lame hobbies,’ he giggled.
‘Hmmm.. potential boyfriend material or no?’ Sofi replied and looked at him with the funniest look ever.
‘Well.. He isn’t my type, but he isn’t not my type either. He’s pretty nice too,’ Wilson smiled, and blushed a little from embarrassment.
‘I’m sensing that you’re going to realize that you have a crush on him within the month. NO, the week,’ Sofi said, and she’s hardly ever wrong.
‘I don’t like him, trust me,” all Wil wanted was to be Bran’s friend, even though he never wanted new friends.
‘Whatever you say, anyway, yes, I’m cool with lunch with Brando and his dickhead friends,’ Sofi rolled her eyes.
‘Great!’ Wil felt himself smile a little too hard, he might have a new friend, this hasn't happened since 8th grade when he met Sofi!