Chapter Text
Cosmo watched as everyone rushed to their classes. It was the first day of high school and he had no idea what he was doing… The school was so much bigger than junior high. Why couldn’t they just make this simpler..?
He looked at his schedule and could barely get to his first class. He couldn’t understand if it was on the 2nd or 1st floor… Cosmo was so confused. If it was this difficult finding his first class, who knows what would happen later?!
He wished he hadn’t picked this many extra curriculars… After asking a teacher for help (and wandering the halls for several minutes) he finally made it to his first period.
He sat in his seat and breathed a sigh of relief. As he sat he thought to himself, I finally found my first class! At least I wasn’t 10 minutes late like in my first year of middle school… I just hope this year isn’t anything like that. I don’t want people bullying me over something dumb again…
Cosmo gets snapped out of his thoughts when he feels a small tap on his shoulder. “Is anyone sitting here?” He looked to see a tall strawberry standing beside him. He was dressed in a uniform and seemed pretty professional for being in school… I don’t even think we had specific uniforms.
Cosmo realizes that he’s staring and his face flushes a little. “O-Oh uh, no. No one’s sitting here…” God Cosmo hated how he sounded so shy all the time… If only he was just more confident then maybe he’d actually make a friend!
He watches as the tall guy sits next to him. Cosmo was too nervous to ask his name so he referred to him as “Tall Guy.” He faces the front of the class as he realizes the bell is about to a ring.
Just then, a girl runs in panting and sweating. She was wearing some sort of brown overalls mixed with a skirt? She looked pretty simple. She spoke between breaths, “I’m-… So sorry I’m late sir!” The teacher shakes his head, “No no, it’s alright. The bell hasn’t rung yet, so please take a seat.”
Cosmo watches as she takes a seat on the other side of the classroom. Damn, I guess he’s not the only one stressing today. Throughout the lesson, Cosmo gets distracted several times. He can’t help that the lesson is boring… Whether it’s day dreaming or messing with one of his pencils, he gets called out for it…
Several times Mr. Rodger gets onto him, at this point it’s a record. Mr. Rodger keeps a note in his head to watch out for Cosmo. Cosmo can tell that he’s judging him already. It’s the first day of school and he’s already on one of the teachers lists…
He sighs and doodles a bit in his notebook before snapping himself out of it. No Cosmo! Don’t get distracted again. I won’t get distracted, and I will pay attention. He struggles to pay attention for the rest of the lesson.
After class, he sighs. He has to make a good impression on everyone! Maybe first period wasn’t it, but there’s tons of opportunities in his other classes. He didn’t really talk to anyone besides that Tall Guy asking questions here and there. But maybe he’ll see someone familiar in his 2nd period! Whenever he gets there…
He walks through the halls, each one feeling endless… He hears the bell ring. Shit! He’s late! This is not gonna look good… He can already hear Tisha berating him for not paying attention during the tour. After several minutes, he makes it to 2nd period. Cosmo sputters out apologies. “I’m so sorry ma’am! I just got caught up in everything and-“ She interrupts him and reassures him that it’s fine.
Cosmo sits down and lets out a sigh of relief, he hopes that his other teachers are as nice as his first two. He still remembers those 3 from last year, it felt like hell… Cosmo notices that the only empty seat is next to that Shell girl from his first period. He sits down next to her sheepishly.
She whispers to him, “Hey, I’m Shelly. We have the same first period right?” He nods, and she smiles brightly. “It’s nice to see someone that I saw earlier. I see we both have the same problem with being late huh?” Cosmo nods again, but this time he finds the courage to speak. “Yeah… I’m just glad they aren’t yelling at us for it. Oh, by the way my name is Cosmo. Sorry I didn’t tell you before…”
Shelly shakes her head, “Oh don’t worry, I’m just glad I have someone to talk to.” They talk a few times during class before heading their separate ways. Before Cosmo leaves Shelly puts a hand on his shoulder, “Do you have anyone to sit with during lunch? If not, do you wanna sit with me?” He's never felt happier, usually he’s the one asking. He holds back a smile as he responds, but his mood is noticeably brighter. “I’d love to!”
Shelly waves and as she walks off she says, “I’ll meet you at the front of the cafeteria byeee!” Cosmo waves back and he feels happier with himself. I’m finally making a new friend! I hope we have the same lunch, otherwise I’ll be sitting alone… Hmm, maybe if I talk more with other people in my classes I can make a small friend group. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to in every class. But, maybe not that tall guy. He seemed too uptight…
Cosmo manages to make it to his 3rd period pretty quickly since it’s near his second. He takes a seat and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees someone familiar. It’s not Shelly, but instead Boxten. He waves him over and pats the seat next to him. He immediately calms down when he sees Cosmo. It looks like he was looking for someone familiar too!
“How was your 1st and 2nd period?” Cosmo asks, tilting his head a bit. Boxten huffs and sinks into his seat, “It was terrible… Everyone kept yelling and panicking over future grades. Being in advanced math is hard… and in 2nd period someone kept throwing gum wrappers on the ground. But the teacher thought it was me! This year is gonna be so hard…”
Cosmo puts a comforting hand on Boxten's shoulder, “Oh don’t be like that Boxten. It’s the first day, I’m sure it’ll be better later on.” He just sighs, “I hope so…” The bell rings and they pay attention to directions.
Science was one of the subjects Cosmo was good at, since baking involves chemical reactions and all that stuff. But sometimes it could be a bit difficult. As he wrote down notes he thought about Shelly. Maybe she would be different, and he could finally have a true best friend! Of course, he still cared about Tisha, Boxten, and Poppy. But he wanted someone that he talked to daily, and someone who cared about him deeply.
Shelly seemed like a nice girl, and she was pretty energetic. Cosmo couldn’t exactly match her energy, but maybe he could listen to her? A talkative person and a quiet person. The classic duo. Although they were opposites, they fit in perfectly together! Maybe that’s how their friendship will be. Cosmo snaps out of his train of thought when Boxten taps on his shoulder.
“Uh Cosmo, you’ve been zoning out a bit and… we’re supposed to be working on this assignment.” Cosmo perks up and immediately starts to work on his paper. “S-Sorry! I was thinking about something…” Boxten raises an eyebrow but stays silent. They both continue their work.
After 3rd period, Cosmo was already exhausted. He got to his 4th just in time, and which to his excitement, was baking class! He sat down and looked at the baking supplies scattered around the room. He held back a squeal of excitement, as long as he didn’t have anyone to bother him this class would be a breeze.
To his disappointment, the tall guy walked in. He hadn’t expected him to be interested in baking of all things. One thing Cosmo noticed was how all the girls surrounded him. Seems like he was popular this year and maybe last year, since this was the first day of highschool. Gosh, Cosmo disliked people who were so full of themselves. Hopefully he didn’t have to work with the tall guy…
Thankfully, they had to do separate work. Although, Cosmo couldn’t help but notice how the tall guy kept messing up. He let out a little snicker every now and then, but reminded himself that not everyone is good at baking. He carefully swirled the frosting onto the cupcake, and put a blueberry on top. Making cupcakes was simple so this was a cakewalk. (HAHAH GET IT?? No? Ok…)
As he waited for others to finish up, he made small notes in his baking book. He put little tips on each page, like how adding extra vanilla extract made it taste less bitter. Or adding more baking soda made it fluffier. He did little doodles here and there, like Tisha with her favorite duster and Shelly eating a cookie. He also drew Boxten looking intently at the directions. Cosmo knew that Boxten had been inspired by him to start baking, so he offered to teach him.
Cosmo and Boxten were gonna be busy this week with school starting up, so he decided that next weekend at his house would be better. Also, Cosmo hadn’t gotten ALL of the school supplies so he had to go do some late shopping. And he did have to get some ingredients the school didn’t supply for baking class.
He looked around and noticed people finishing up. So while he was waiting, he made sure his cupcakes were perfect before waiting for the next instructions. As soon as everyone finished, the baking instructor inspected all of their cupcakes. He personally got an A, but some other people weren’t so fortunate… Like that Shrimp guy in the back who got a D. Although, if he was just gonna yell about how much he hated everything, why be in baking class at all?
Class ends and everyone leaves. As Cosmo makes his way to 4th period, he wonders what lunch will be like with Shelly. Hopefully she doesn’t hang out with anyone rude. The rest of his classes are uneventful, nothing but boring stuff going on. He walks to the cafeteria and immediately hears the loudness of everyone talking at once. He sees Shelly standing by the vending machine and walks towards her. Hopefully this will end well…