Chapter Text
Leaving his old friends behind to move across the country isn't Saps’ idea of a relaxing grade 11.
He stares out the passenger window as his dad’s car slows, pulling off the main road, passing through massive iron gates. The land beneath them transforms from gravel to cobblestone, tires rolling over the uneven ground, driving into the turnaround loop.
And that's how Saps ended up here, the prison where he was going to spend the next 2 years of his life looming into sight.
The car comes to a full stop at the entrance. Saps unbuckles his seatbelt, grabbing his belongings with him, which consisted of nothing more than a backpack and a duffle bag.
“Have fun! Remember to call me if you need anything!” His dad, Ish, reminds him, waving goodbye with a big smile on his face.
Saps waves back, shutting the door behind him. “I will, don’t worry. Bye!”
He watches Ish’s car drive away, disappearing out the gates. Any happiness he has at that moment disappears out the window as he remembers his current situation.
The air is still damp from the rain and it clings to his skin as he steps across the parking lot. He steps over a puddle and looks at the academy as he approaches. Saps slings his bag over his shoulder and lets out a breath.
Saps spends about twenty seconds walking around, completely lost, before a voice sounds from behind him. “There you are! Took you long enough!”
Saps turns around, instantly spotting his cousin, Snowbird, waiting with his arms crossed. Saps walks a little faster to meet him. “Oh thank god you're here. I don't know where the hell I'm supposed to go.”
His cousin looks at him, pressing his lips into a line. “You know if you just walked a few extra steps you would see the front doors that are right there.”
Saps follows him to where he stands, and indeed there is a door. A grand, unmissable door made from wood. “Whoops.”
“Yeah,” Snowbird said, rolling his eyes, turning around to make his way to the entrance. “Come on, let’s get going.”
Saps follows closely behind him.
He takes a look around at the dormitory building as he walks through.
Saps honestly had no issue moving schools, it's not like he liked his old school anyways, but switching schools and knowing absolutely nobody? Especially halfway through boarding school where you never leave the campus and when everyone already has their set tight-knit friend group? Yeah, no thanks.
Snowbird was leading him to their room, because if his dad had done one thing right, it was pulling strings and managing to get him in with Snowbird. This way, he doesn’t have to suffer through finding a roommate in a place like this. Snowbird’s his cousin, and that’s the best case scenario
The two of them drop their stuff at their dorm, which is actually reasonably sized with a small kitchen and 2 twin beds. It’s rather empty, a contrast to his room back at his old house. He’ll probably get used to it. Maybe. He already mourns his privacy.
The academy is huge. It’s all one building, filled with so many little details in it that he starts to lose count. The residential wings are practically fused with the dining and lecture halls, meaning you could roll out of bed and make it to class without breaking a sweat.
He takes a look out of one of the massive windows and grimaces. The design seemed like it was made to keep people inside and miserable. He couldn’t say he was surprised.
Snowbird gives him the survival guide as he tours him around campus: which teachers to avoid, when to eat in the dining hall, and which floors to stick to if he values his life. All good to know. He’s mentally made routes to his classes by the time they’re heading back to the dorms.
He manages to unpack what little he’d brought with him before he lays down and falls dead asleep. He decides that maybe this place wouldn’t be bad at all.
He was mistaken.
The next day, he’s kicking himself out of bed late. Dread pits in his stomach and he fights himself to get dressed and get ready. It was his first day of actual classes.
He forgot that most boarding schools had uniforms, beginning to miss his old school more. Thankfully, the uniform is less snobby than he expected, a simple white dress shirt with black trousers and a tie.
He looks at his reflection and triple-checks to make sure he doesn’t look like a complete idiot. Once he’s sure, he grabs his binder and his pencil case, steps out of his dorm, and starts to follow the mass swarm of students.
The halls are packed, just as warned, but he was prepared. The slam of lockers and endless, droning chatter just seems to get louder and louder as he navigates to his first block. Snowbird shot him a text to tell him that he’d saved a seat for him in physics.
Now, if only he could remember where to find physics…
He glances at his phone as he rounds a corner into the science wing a bit too quickly. He feels himself collide into someone coming from the other direction, and his binder drops to the floor, loose paper drifting out as it falls. He feels a little burn of shame as heads turn. Instinctively, he reaches down to pick it up as he apologizes.
“Oh crap–sorry I wasn't looking,” Saps starts, bending down to pick up his things, his instinct to be polite taking over. He ignores the fact that he was on the correct side of the hallway.
A scoff cuts him off before he could finish apologising. “Watch where you're going next time, jackass.”
He pauses in with his hand still hovering over the scattered paper as he looks up at the boy above him. His eyes meet narrow amethyst ones, giving him the most arrogant look he’d ever received in his life. Saps looks at them through the strands of black hair hanging in front of his eyes. The boy tilts his head and the light catches an earring dangling from his ear.
“What, are you going to stare at me like an idiot now?”
Saps almost doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. “Excuse me?”
He picks his things back up and comes to his feet. He stands taller than this guy. He eyes him warily.
“You heard me. I’ve got a class to get to, I don’t have time to scrape you off of the bottom of my shoe.” The boy responds, crossing his arms over his chest, not backing down one bit.
“Are you stupid? You walked into me!” Saps snaps back, stepping forwards to look down at him using his height to an advantage. "Shouldn’t you be paying attention to where you’re going instead of looking at your phone like a zombie?”
“You were also looking at your phone?”
“Yeah well at least I wasn’t on the wrong side of the hallway!”
“Bastard,” the guy huffs, moving to shove past him, but Saps grabs him by the arm.
“Fuck did you just call me?”
“Bastard,” he repeats, spitting it out like venom. “Do you need your hearing checked?”
“Okay, watch your mouth. Just because I accidentally ran into you doesn’t mean you can start calling me names.” Saps snarls.
“What are you going to do about it?” The shorter boy taunts, slowly stalking closer to him, holding his head high as if he was trying to appear taller. “Go cry to a teacher? You’re new, aren’t you? I’m not going to pity you for thinking you can walk around like an idiot just because you’re a transfer.”
“Never asked for your pity,” Saps tells him. “Not like I want it from a miserable douchebag like you, anyway.”
“Do you know who you’re calling a douchebag?” The boy hisses back, narrowing his eyes. “My dad is--”
Saps shrugs. “Sorry, didn’t know you were a special little princess. Did daddy get your shitty personality for you, too?”
He watches the way the boy’s face recoils and tries not to seem too smug about it.
“You’re fucking dead,” he hisses at Saps.
Saps is ready to shoot a response back at him when he’s shoved hard into the wall. The only reason he stumbles is because it caught him off-guard. He braces his hand on the wall and scrunches his face up to look at the other boy.
All his rational thoughts fly out Saps’ mind in an instant.
He can see a crowd beginning to form. Go figure. All their bickering was bound to draw attention.
The other boy looks at him and it makes his blood start to boil. His patience had gone thin by now, having zero interest in getting bullied by a snobby rich kid before first period even started.
He pushes himself off of the wall and launches himself forward, tackling the other boy to the ground. He winds his fist back and slams it down onto his face.
There’s this crack beneath him and a yelp of pain. The other boy’s hands fly up to cover his face. Saps pulls his hand back to hit him again when he sees a trail of blood start to leak from between his fingers.
“Get off of me!” He shouts, kicking Saps off. Saps stops and watches him crawl away.
He shoves down the pang of guilt he feels at the sight.
The hallway stays dead silent as the boy takes his hands away from his nose and looks at the blood. He cups his hand and it drips down.
He curses under his breath and unsteadily gets to his feet, covering his face, and he looks at Saps quietly.
“Fuck you,” he manages, nasally, and then turns to walk away.
Saps looks at the red-orange smear of blood across his knuckles. He shakes his fist off and picks his stuff up. He looks at the crowd of people watching him.
“What?” He asks innocently, walking away. “He had it coming.”
He slides into class and takes a seat beside Snowbird as the bell rings. Snowbird looks at him from the corner of his eye.
“Did you run here?” Snowbird asks.
“Huh?”
“You’re out of breath,” Snowbird notes, looking him up and down. “Your hair’s all fucked up, too, it looks like shit.”
“Oh,” Saps considers telling him the truth for a split second, but ends up deciding against it. He was already tired, and he definitely didn't feel like getting lectured by his cousin for potentially getting suspended his first day here. He reaches his hand up and smooths it back into place. “Yeah. No, I had a little trouble getting through crowds.”
“Told you,” Snowbird says, sliding his phone into his lap.
The next hour or so passes slowly.
Every first class of the year were always like that, especially since the teachers do nothing but introduce themselves and summarize the course.
Saps gets bored quickly, tuning out the teacher's talking to stare out the window instead.
He thinks back to the interaction in the hallway, beginning to worry. What if the guy snitches on him and he actually gets in trouble? What if he doesn't snitch but comes back for revenge?
Who was that guy anyways? He reminds Saps of those bullies in movies, the arrogant, insufferable ones that terrorize innocent students for their own entertainment or for no reason at all. He honestly didn’t think people like that existed in real life.
He ignores his thoughts, telling himself it technically wasn’t his fault.
By the start of lunch, Saps is already sick of playing awkward icebreakers and repeating the same 3 events about his summer. Snowbird gave him loose instructions through texts on how to find the dining hall. He makes his way over with his head up, trying to not have a repeat of this morning.
He turns left too early and quickly realizes he’s lost. Before he can text Snowbird to come save him, a student emerges from an empty classroom, looking up to see Saps standing there like a lost puppy.
“Do you need help getting somewhere?” The brunette offers helpfully. Saps notes an orange bandana tied around his neck.
Saps sighs in relief. Thank god not everyone in this school was an entitled brat with no manners. “Yes, please. Do you happen to know where the cafeteria is?”
“Oh! I'm heading there right now, just come with me.”
Saps nods gratefully, following the guy as he leads the way.
“My name’s Thomas, by the way.”
“Saps.”
They go back through the hallway Saps came from. Thomas looks over at him curiously, seemingly contemplating something. “You kind of look like someone I know.”
Saps is taken aback. “I do?”
“Yeah, he’s got the same white hair as you, only his eyes are brown.” Thomas explains. “His name’s Snowbird.”
Saps takes a second to register the name before letting out a huff of laughter. “Oh, that's actually my cousin. That’s why I'm trying to get to the cafeteria.”
Thomas raises eyebrows, looking surprised and excited. “No way! He’s in the same friend group as I'm in, I eat lunch with him and the others.”
“That’s cool,” Saps finds himself liking this guy. “Thanks for showing me the way, I’m not used to this place yet.”
Thomas smiles kindly. “No problem!”
They eventually make it to the dining hall, which ends up being bigger than he thought. He scans the crowded place, eventually spotting Snowbird along with 3 other people he'd never seen before sitting at the table.
“You actually found your way here!” Snowbird exclaims as they approach, waving them over.
“Guess who I ran into on the way here?” Thomas gestures to Saps. “This is Saps, Snowbird’s cousin.”
He turns back to Saps before adding, “That’s Rotation, Gotoga and Newkids. There's one more of us but he isn’t here yet. His name is Fluixon but we all call him Flux.” Thomas points at a boy with tanned skin and blond hair, then one hunched over his phone with dyed blue hair, and finally a quiet guy with a scar resembling a burn mark on his eyes.
Saps waves back to them. They give him small nods of acknowledgement. “Where’s the other one?”
Gotoga keeps his eyes glued to his phone screen, his thumbs typing rapidly. “He’s probably scheming something again. You know how he gets near the start of the school year, he just falls off the face of the earth for a while.”
“Hey, now that you mention it, It’s kind of weird I didn't see him in the first two classes we have together,” Rotation observes, leaning against the table. “He's usually really strict on his attendance. Well, sometimes. Only when he’s not avoiding people.”
“He’ll be fine,” Thomas cuts in, waving his hand dismissively. “It's not like he can't take care of himself.”
Newkids, whose eyes had been focused on the steady stream of students flowing through the entrance to the hall, lifts a finger up in the general direction of the crowd. “Spoke too soon, look who it is.”
All of them turn their heads towards the doors, following the direction Newkids was pointing, including Saps, who wasn't sure who he was looking for.
“Oh my god.”
Saps squints, trying to spot the 5th friend somewhere in the crowd.
For a few seconds, he sees no one interesting. But then, the crowd parts slightly, and he spots the familiar face of the guy that he punched earlier, now strolling across the cafeteria, carrying himself as if he owned the place despite a thick white bandage taped over his nose bridge.
He freezes as said guy starts making his way towards him and he genuinely considers throwing himself out the window. Saps whips his head down so quickly he feels his neck crack, keeping his eyes glued to his food, praying that the other would just walk past their table.
He fails to realize that the people around him are laughing at something.
“Don’t even start,” a sharp voice snaps from above him.
“Flux, what happened man?” Thomas asks, still snickering along with Rotation. “Dont tell me you got physical with someone first day back!”
Saps goes rigid, his mind rapidly putting the pieces together with terror. No. There's no way this group of perfectly normal people, especially his cousin, would associate with a dude who acted like a spoiled brat, right?
Saps slowly looks up, lifting his head only to see a very familiar, very angry face standing at the other end of the table. His heart drops to his stomach.
Flux is the same guy he punched in the hallway.
Flux's gaze sweeps over their friends before landing directly on Saps, his eyes narrowing the tiniest bit, a flicker of recognition passing through them.
Saps winces, suddenly wondering why his past self didn’t just walk away instead of fighting back. He braces himself, genuinely expecting the boy to curse his entire bloodline and scream at him for ruining his perfect face with a bandage.
“I tripped.” Flux says simply, looking away to grab an empty chair from a nearby table, dragging it over with a loud screech.
Huh?
“You tripped?” Rotation echos, a massive, shit-eating grin spreading across his face.
“Listen, I just wasn't paying attention, okay?” Flux snaps, his voice laced with defensive impatience. “I slipped and fell onto the railing, no big deal.”
Saps lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding, a wave of relief washing over him. It dawns on him that Flux was clearly too proud to admit that a transfer student dropped him flat on his back before period one even started.
Now all he has to do is hope that Flux wouldn't come hunting him in his sleep.
“Right, whatever you say dude,” Thomas laughs, clearly amused by his friend's clumsiness. “By the way, this is Saps, Snowbird’s cousin. He just transferred here.”
“Nice to meet you, Saps.” Flux greets, his tone even. If Saps didn’t know any better, he would miss the icy look in Flux’s eyes that was practically screaming for war. “It's nice to know they're being more open minded about who they're letting into the school these days.”
“Thanks, Flux, it's nice to meet you too.” Saps responds, choosing to ignore the backhanded comment as he takes a bite out of his food.
“Wait Flux,” Gotoga cuts in. “Where have you been this whole time? You missed both your classes with Rotation.”
Flux crosses his arms, throwing a glare at Saps as he speaks. “Well, I fell down the stairs during first block,” he spits out, forcing the words out with great difficulty as if he knew his friends would never let him live this down. “And I would've been back in class in no time if it weren't for the nurse insisting on keeping in her office for ‘observation’! Took me forever to convince her to let me leave.”
“Yeah, just try not to break anything else before the end of the day,” Snowbird chimes in.
Before Flux could throw a sarcastic comment back at Snowbird, the harsh blare of the school bell cuts through the chatter, signalling the end of lunch.
“Ugh, looks like we gotta go back to slaving away, let's get moving before the hallways get jammed,” Thomas groans, moving to start packing his trash.
The exact second the others turn around to return their trays, Flux leans across the table, his face inches away from Saps’. “Watch your back here, asshole. I’m gonna make you regret ever transferring here.”
Saps internally panicked, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind. “Try it, dumbass. Keep pushing your luck and I'll give you a black eye if you want a matching set with your nose.” Well there goes any chance of you resolving this peacefully.
Flux’s jaw visibly clenches, his face heating up in anger, but before he could spit out another insult, Thomas slaps a hand on his shoulder, making them both jump apart instantly.
“Woah, you guys met literally 10 minutes ago,” Thomas teases, although there was a glint of suspicion in his eyes. “Should we leave you guys alone or…?”
“It's all casual, don’t worry about it Thomas,” Flux says, keeping his piercing gaze on Saps. “Let’s go to class, we don't want to be late.”
“Yeah, see you guys,” Saps responds, holding his stare for one last second before grabbing his own tray.
Flux doesn’t wait for him to finish. Instead he turns on his heel and storms away, dragging Thomas with him.
Saps lets out a miserable sigh, fully aware that he had just put a big red target on his back.
Unfortunately his prediction turns out to be spot on.
Saps had headed to his next class, PE right after lunch, spending an hour playing volleyball with a guy named Schpood and his friends.
He faintly remembered Snowbird saying something about Schpood’s entire group being a walking frat house. They apparently hosted massive chaotic parties that usually had to be broken up by the local police, but despite their questionable reputation, Saps had a fun time playing with them.
But whatever good mood gym class had given him was gone the moment he stepped into psychology class.
The room was already packed with students when he’d walked in five minutes late. The teacher had taken one look at him and pointed him to a seat at the back of the class. Funny enough, the only available seat in the entire class was directly beside Flux.
Although Saps was trying to avoid angering Flux further, his pettiness got the better of him.
They end up spending the entire lecture trying to subtly provoke each other.
Flux clicked his pen aggressively with every sentence he wrote in his notebook. While Saps did attempt to just ignore him, he ran out of patience pretty quickly. Two can play that game! He retaliated by nudging Flux’s arm whenever he was writing, smudging his pen across his neat notes.
Saps already knows he’s digging himself a grave, but what was he supposed to do? Sit there and let this stuck up snob mess with him? He thinks not.
The teacher eventually turned around to erase the chalkboard. Flux finally cracked, leaning into Saps’ space, his eyes flashing with irritation.
“If you nudge my arm one more time I will choke you right here right now,” Flux hissed, his patience already out the window.
Saps seemed completely unbothered by the threat, a grin spreading across his face. “Kinky.”
Flux’s face turns bright pink almost immediately, looking just about ready to burn the place down if it meant Saps would shut his mouth. “Fuck you.”
“You wish.”
Flux’s eyes narrow into slits. He opens his mouth to retaliate but quickly realizes that he can’t say a single thing without fueling Saps’ satisfaction. Accepting he already lost the verbal argument, he instead resorts to reaching under the table to pinch Saps’ leg.
Saps bites down sharply on his own tongue to stop himself from letting out a yelp in the quiet classroom, glaring sideways at the smirking boy next to him.
“Well, you made it through your first day! What do you think of this place?”
Saps is back in his dorm with Snowbird, both of them collapsed on their bed. “It’s better than I expected. I’m just happy classes are so close to where we sleep. It’s like college without the adult life part.” Saps purposely excludes a specific part of his day.
“Yeah. At least your first day went somewhat peacefully.”
“I wish it did.” Saps mumbles under his breath.
Snowbird looks up from where he’s sitting. “What was that?”
Saps wants to smack himself on the head for saying that outloud. Well, you weren't supposed to hear that. “Oh. Nothing.”
Snowbird raises an eyebrow suspiciously. “No, what did you just say? It clearly isn't nothing since you suddenly won't look me in the eyes.”
“Uh.” He swallows nervously.
“Seriously, what did you do?”
“So I may have gotten myself into a small disagreement.” Describing whatever happened as small was a big understatement. Saps hoped his cousin would just move on with his day and not push any further.
Snowbird’s eye twitches slightly. “How small of a disagreement are we talking?”
“I might’ve,” Saps hesitates, taking in a breath before blurting everything out at once. “punchedapersoninthehallway.”
“You did what?” Snowbird exclaims in disbelief, his mouth falling open. Saps begins to regret all his life choices that led him here.
“I…. punched a person in the hallway…?” He repeats sheepishly.
“Saps.” Snowbird seems irritated, though not angry. Saps takes that as a good sign. “That is not a small disagreement! It’s your first day here, for fucks sake! When did this even happen?”
“Right before school started.”
“Right before school started??” Snowbird echos. “And you didn’t get called to the office yet? Why would you do that first thing in the morning? What made you think that was a good idea?”
“Okay okay, he got in my way, called me a bitch, and shoved me first,” Saps says defensively. “I wasn’t planning to just stand there and let it happen!”
“That barely makes it any better, but sure.” Snowbird's face has ‘I would kill you right now but I’m too tired to so ill let it slide’ written all over it. “Do you have any idea who it was?”
Saps winces, presses his lips into a thin line.“So about that…”
“Saps. Saps, who was it?”
“It may or may not have been Flux.” Snowbird’s face changes into something Saps can’t recognize. “Yeah.”
“Is that why he had a bandage slapped across his face?”
“Maybe…?”
Saps watches as Snowbird’s face morphs from unreadable to disbelief to amusement before he bursts out laughing. “He told us he fell onto a railing! He sat there with a straight face and told us four that he tripped down stairs instead of admitting he got dropped by a transfer the first day back!”
Saps is just glad that he isn’t getting chewed out. “Dude, don't tell anyone though.” Saps warns. “He’s already pissed at me. If he found out I told you guys he’s going to find a way to poison my food.”
Snowbird’s laughter dies down slightly, his expression shifting into an amused grin. “Don’t worry about it, I won't say anything.”
Saps breaths a sigh of relief. “Thanks man.”
“It’s better for both of us. If he ever found out I knew, both of us are getting sent to the grave. Just keep a good distance from him for now.”
“You don’t need to tell me that twice.”
“He’s not a bad person though, he just gets ahead of himself sometimes. He’ll cool off eventually.” Snowbird reassures, waving his hand dismissively.
Saps prays his cousin is right. “I sure hope so.”