Chapter Text
September 1st, 2025
The sound of rain tapped and danced against the brown, tiled roof top. Swayle managed to grab a window seat at the beginning of class. It was one of his favorites: reading. It was a simple way of expression, and overall a decent way of relaxing. Nah, that was a lie, he just liked it cause it was easy. Unless you’re told to analyze poetry, then it throws him off.. which unfortunately was what he was being tested on right now.
Maybe that’s why he’s looking out the window and watching the rain instead of paying attention or actually putting any effort in. He knows he’s most likely going to fail the test in the long run. I mean, what’s one bad grade for him? He was passing.. for now, and that’s all that mattered!
Though between him and the rain, the weather shouldn’t be on the top of his mind right now.
He quietly exhaled, the sound of pencils scratching against paper filling the air. Swayle could tell that everyone else around him was struggling, which only managed to reassure him a little bit. The whole class was in the same boat as him. Great to know he wasn’t alone.
..
Watching the rain pour down really wasn’t cutting it for him. He was bored as hell, and you couldn’t even blame him! Who wouldn’t be? You’d either have to be some edgy loser who thinks they’re the next Shakespeare or be on some good ketamine. How good your test score would be just depends on which option it is.
After a bit of internal struggle, he finally gave in. He decided to give it a try! What’s the worst that could happen? I mean, Edgar Allan Poe had nothing on him.. or so he tried to convince himself. What could the poem possibly mean? Science? Beauty? How did those things even tie in together? Poetry is lame, especially when someone else writes it. What was the need to overcomplicate things back then?
Like, he understood if you were some British man in the 1500s whose wife never wanted to fuck him but damn, now he had to deal with this bullshit of someone venting through writing to him like he could even do anything about it?
Swayle rested his head against the wooden table, using the sleeve of his uniform as a cushion. This boarding school was just as lame as what was soon to be his grade since he was convinced he was going to flunk the test. He missed living in Texas, where he went to an actually normal school.. Well his school was far from normal but you’d get it, right? It’s what he thought was the actual teenage experience.
Calling friends late at night while cramming for exams, going out to dinner with his parents, freaking out because he could never get a prom date in time? Hell, even being too scared to go into the bathrooms because of the unbelievable shit that was in there was better than this. It was peak high school. Now he was stuck in some stupid boarding school. And yeah, maybe sneaking out in the middle of the night to see friends was similar to calling them, but it just never felt the same to him. Swayle missed the freedom he once had.
Damn, he was a loser.
Swayle’s train of thought was interrupted by a crumbled up ball of paper landing on his desk. He lifted his head, looking around the classroom. Maybe it hit the wrong desk? It wasn’t like he talked to anyone in this class, everyone here was either stupid or snobs, flip a coin.
Still, curious, he decided to open the uninviting letter.
“ժօ մ ղҽҽժ հҽӀք?”
Their handwriting wasn’t exactly pretty, but not messy enough to be unreadable. Swayle wanted to decline- It was cheating, and he was no cheater. But at the same time, he did want to pass. He definitely needed the help, wanting to admit it or not. I mean, what’s one test that cheated on his gonna do to his college opportunities?
Swayle looked up again in hopes of finding the sender. His eyes darted as he searched around the classroom, before his head immediately snapped down to look at his paper as he almost locked eyes with his teacher. Yikes. Mr. Hill wasn’t known for being too kind- it was a force he didn’t want to deal with. Hell, that was sugarcoating it, he was a bitch!
He waited for him to look away, before continuing to scout. Luckily for him, the person who delivered it to him was nice enough to make themself known.. even though it was in a weird way. God, they looked like lizards the way their eyes were locked on each other. Swayle desperately wanted to break eye contact. At first glance he thought that this person was a girl, with their.. no, his blonde braids. They were surprisingly neat, which made him doubt that he did it himself.
He was a yellow and orange pufferfish hybrid. In Swayle’s opinion, the blue uniform oddly suited him. It was something about color theory, but he couldn’t bother to remember what exactly about it made the three colors pop. He wasn’t into art, that was for 14 year olds that write fan fictions.
The two of them continued to stare at each other, before the pufferfish perked up as a thought seemingly popped into his head. He quietly tore off a piece of paper from his test sheet and quickly scribbled something down. He crumbled it up, looking at the teacher to see if he was watching before throwing it to his desk with odd precision..
And like clockwork, Swayle opened up the paper in intrigue.
“Iɱ Pҽɾƈყ :) ƈσɱҽ ԋαɳɠ συƚ ɯιƚԋ ɱҽ ιɳ ƚԋҽ ʅιႦɾαɾყ 6Ⴆ”
Swayle silently laughed at the smiley face, though he couldn’t be caught dead laughing at something as stupid as that. What about the answers to the test? He wasn’t about to get robbed by some random femboy in the middle of English class. He tore off a piece of paper from his own test, writing down his response.
“𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚜, 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜?”
“αƚ ʅιႦɾαɾყ σႦʋισυʂʅყ”
“𝙳𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚋𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚎.”
“I ɯσɳƚƚƚ ʝυʂƚ ɱҽҽƚ ɱҽ ƚԋҽɾҽ”
Alright, fine. Swayle would meet Percy at the library. To him, it was almost as suspicious as their torn test sheets. No shot that the teacher wouldn’t notice. Maybe he’d just have to do a little bit of convincing and a dash of defending himself and just a tiiiiiny bit of throwing Percy under the bus, even if it would likely worsen the situation.
. . .
By the time Swayle had finished packing his bags, Percy was already gone. For being a fish, he was oddly fast. Like, you’d assume he’d be significantly slower. It was whatever, they were headed to the same place, anyways. What was he in a rush for, though? I mean, Swayle skipped breakfast in the mornings so he could understand being hungry, but it was odd how he immediately booked it. Not to mention the school food was shit.
He stood up with his bag and hurried out the classroom before Mr. Hill could question him about his mid-test conversation. Swayle had prayed to whatever introverted loser, all powerful being that Mr. Hill hopefully didn't notice. Come to think of it, Percy had never told him where in the library to sit. He’d just have to take a guess and hope for the best.
After descending down the stairs, he pushed open the wooden door to the library. It was fairly huge, filled with books of all sorts. He wasn’t huge into reading, but hey, it was a peaceful place to hang out with friends.. If he even had any in the first place. It was still confusing to him- why would he want to hang out with him of all people? He was a pretty unknown student. If anything, he was embarrassingly basic. What did he see in him?
Swayle strided around the library, peaking around bookshelves in an attempt to find him. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked, he just couldn’t find him. It was a bit infuriating.. Well maybe infuriating was an overstatement but he was annoyed that he had no way of finding him. If you were going to ask him to hang out, could you maybe not be so discrete about it? Hiding in the closet is one thing, playing in his face was another.
He had searched every inch of the library for this mystery boy, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Maybe he was right, he didn’t actually see anything in him and thought it was a funny prank? He huffed, slumping against the wooden bookshelf in defeat. This was great, just what he wanted- his lunch break being cut short looking for a guy that didn’t even show up. The cafeteria was most likely closed by now, meaning he’d have to go hungry for the day.
Well, while he was at it he could at least read something to pass the remaining time.
Swayle stood up, dusting off his uniform out of habit. What section was he even in anyway? He glanced at the poster on the pillar, the letters M-P. He wasn’t five, he just wanted a genre. Whatever, it’s fine. His eyes darted over the books, trying to find something interesting to check out. One of Us is Lying? Meh, not something he’d want to read while in school. The Cruel Prince? Enemies to lovers was way too cheesy for him and almost never done right. It was only for weird people that fetishize yaoi.
The Hunger Games? It was too.. Well, it was actually a good series. It wasn’t what he was really interested in, but he didn’t have anything else better to do. Why not? He grabbed the book, noticing that Percy was standing on the other side like a ghost from a K-Drama. Okay, whatever.
Wait, say that again?
He did a double take, jumping back like a cat next to a cucumber. He shrieked like a little girl, stopping himself mid way as he realized that the library was dead silent. His face heated up, pouting like a child in embarrassment. God, was he thankful that nobody noticed.. Maybe. Okay, he’ll admit, a few people turned to look at him.
Percy tried holding back his laugh, slapping a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. He didn’t expect him to react like that. “I can’t believe that actually worked..” He spoke in a hushed tone, trying not to attract an angry librarian with a stick shoved up their ass. Swayle frowned, though he wasn’t entirely mad. He actually found it a bit funny. “Where were you? I wasted like.. 30 minutes looking for you!” He demanded, folding his arms as the two of them spoke through a bookshelf.
“I decided to follow you around! I don’t know how you didn’t notice me, I’m not that hard to miss.” He bluntly replied, like it was a totally normal thing to do. Swayle sputtered over his words in disbelief and confusion. What was the point of doing that? He decided to shut up for once and let him continue talking. “I mean, since you were looking for me it showed that you cared enough! Or y’know, you just wanted answers but that’s besides the point!”
That was a pretty stupid reason to him.
Stupid wasn’t the word, maybe nonsensical. Sneaking around the person trying to find you? This wasn’t the middle of a 2000s romcom movie. He didn’t care for him, he just wanted answers and now he was getting dragged into this mess! Well, maybe that was a bit harsh. He couldn’t say he knew him, but he cared enough to look for him anyway so in a way he was kind of right.
Swayle exhaled, trying to calm himself down. He just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. “Whatever, just give me the answers to the test so I can go. I’m missing my lunch break.” He brought up again, folding his arms absentmindedly.
[Puff]: “What? I thought you were gonna stay longer! I wanted to hang out with you!”
Hell no, he’s a dumb blonde and way too good at stalking.
[Swayle]: “Well, why should I?”
[Puff]: “You’re a bitch I hope you know that.”
[Swayle]: “Wow, thanks.”
[Puff]: “I mean, you’re just kinda fucked up. I guess you’re a really handsome Italian guy with an attachment issue.”
Alright, now If other people came up with things like this he would actually like them.
[Swayle]: “You’re right, let’s skip together.”
[Puff]: “Little weird you took that as a compliment but sure I guess..?”