Chapter Text
The door is forced open with a kick.
Short, soft, light yellow legs run as fast as their body physically permits it. Exasperated short breaths follow those very footsteps.
It’s X’s first day of school… and he's already late. He doesn't really have time to think about how soggy the bread he has in his mouth will be with all the sweat falling on it, or if he has put his bow on correctly, or if he even had time to put his summer work in his backpack. He just has to make it there before the gate closes.
After the ingestion of a wet, slightly salty bread and a few minutes of nonstop running, X saw the building, just a grasp away. A smile of relief started to form just before he heard the bell ring not too far away. X 's skin went cold. They knew that this very moment would determine whether they would start off this school year on the right foot; the most logical conclusion he could conjure up at this life threatening moment was to… make a jump for the gate…
X closed his eyes and jumped as far as his little algebralien body could. He quickly landed on his stomach, unsure if he had made it, and too scared to look for confirmation. When he hesitantly attempted to open his eyes to assess his surroundings, he heard a mechanic noise approach him, accompanied by a great force of sorts.
“ow!” “ow!” “ow!” “ow!” “ow!” X yelled periodically in pain each time he got squished by the gate.
Although he knew that the volume of his voice wasn’t outstanding, he hoped that someone, anyone, might hear his cries for help and aid him. Because, if not, this would have been the worst, most embarrassing first day of school of his life. In between these periods of pain, he silently pondered what the rest of his life would look like, stuck in an automated gate.
Just before X could get around the idea of dying alone, he managed to hear a chain of footsteps, making their way to him. X’s eyes were filled with hope as he looked up, and his eyes began to register the familiar face of his beloved best friend, Four!
X teared up at the sight of someone he could trust after this absolute wreck of a morning. X stretched out his arms as Four met them, pulling X away from the grasp of the gate, which, without X in its way, managed to close with a loud, intimidating bang. Even though X’s face was riddled with sweat and exhaustion, Four didn’t hesitate at giving X a warm, maybe a little bit too strong, tad lengthy embrace.
X pulled away from the hug as Four exclaimed,
“X! You made it! I was so worried about you!”, their hands still interlocked firmly, thanks to Four’s efforts.
“Barely…”
X managed to get out before collapsing headfirst on the green, probably not-so comfortable spiky grass in front of the stairs that lead inside the building.
Four gently guided his hands back to X’s and exclaimed,
“There’s nothing to be tired about X! It’s our first day of school!”
X groaned at the mere mention of the thing that has brought them stress throughout the entirety of today, but still themself be dragged along to the entrance by Four.
“Oh, come on X! You’re gonna get your uniform dirty…” Four said.
His glaring expression towards X comes off as a mix of genuine concern and pure frustration at his newfound laziness.
Four opened the door with the hand that wasn't occupied by the task of dragging the equivalent of a lifeless corpse around. At the sound of a creaking door, X finally made the effort to look up, only to see the longest hallway a variable could ever dream of witnessing.
“Wow…”
X’s expression of amazement echoes through the endless space as he slowly gets up, away from Four's grasp.
The hall was illuminated, well, as illuminated as a school could ever be. The flickering, hardly cared for ceiling lights take away any chance this school has had at being a not-completely depressing experience. Though a small glance at Four’s expression would confirm he doesn’t seem to share the same idea. His lit up grin at the sight of this environment seems to hint at the fact that he loves this place more than anything.
As Four glances over at X wandering the endless hallway full of lockers, rooms and branching paths, a brilliant idea pierces his mind.
“X! Let’s see how many classes we have together!” Four shouts at X’s back.
X turned to look at the source of the sound calling his name, only for it to appear right beside him, snatch his hand and run off into the unknown with him by its side.
“Four— where are we going?” X manages to get out in between steps, voicing out his confusion.
“We’re here!” Four proclaims, abruptly stopping.
They both glance over at a locker labeled ‘4’. Four enters a combination on the lock, taking his schedule out once it opens.
“Do you know your schedule X?” Four asks, looking at X gleefully.
“I… think…?” X replies hesitantly. X then begins trying to recall while counting on their fingers. “I have English first period… then… science… then music… no— I think it was PE… ”
Four’s smile progressively decays with every class that X reveals to him. By the end, all that is left is an empty expression, doing its best to hide the utter disappointment that Four feels at this moment.
“And then I have algebra last period…”
X finishes his finger count and looks up at Four, who is putting his schedule back in his locker and loudly closing it, all the while staring at the floor.
“Four! What 's wrong? You look—”
Four, not letting his sight off the ground, replied in a monotone voice, “No… classes… together…”
X, quickly making sense of Four’s demeanor, realized this might not end well. To try and de-escalate the situation, X sheltered Four’s hand in his and attempted to comfort him.
“Hey… hey! Relax Four! I-It’s going to be okay— I promise!”
Four, abruptly detaching his hand from X’s declared, “I’ll have a word with admin…” He then quickly disappeared into the endless halls, abandoning X.
After a few minutes of muffled, distant screaming and pleading, Four soon came back with an unsettling smile stuck on his face.
“They changed my schedule! We have health together now!”
“Yay! I’m glad!”, X exclaims. “But… um… when is homeroom starting…?” he adds in a nervous manner. “It feels like forever since I arrived…”
The second X finished his sentence, an ear piercing, lingering sound of a bell filled the halls they were in.
“Now!” Four replied enthusiastically.
“Oh— so… well… then I guess that means I have to go to homeroom…” X reasons, in a rather bittersweet tone. His sight rarely being able to meet Four’s.
“Yea… I-I guess so…” Four responds, his tone changing dramatically, unable to hide his desire for X to not leave his side.
After a taste of some uncomfortable silence, X began to slowly tread backwards, perhaps as a way to not have to leave Four just yet, or maybe out of the desire to exit this pitifully awkward exchange.
“Bye Four…!” X exclaimed faintly, waving their hands goodbye at Four.
“Bye X!!!” Four replied, rather loudly, considering the gap between them wasn't that great just yet. Even though he didn’t want to leave X so soon, against his will, he too started waving goodbye while slowly heading the opposite direction.
After walking a pretty sizable distance, Four and X’s eyes were still interlocked, though they could barely even see each other. To try and put a stop to this seemingly never-ending interaction, X chose to slowly start turning away from Four. At the sight of this, Four decided to shout at the top of his lungs,
“SEE YOU IN HEALTH!!!”
X nodded diligently as a substitute for a reply that would inevitably drag the conversation on even further as he finalized turning his back towards Four. It was not after he couldn’t possibly see X in his way that Four stopped awkwardly waving at practically nothing and turned his attention to making his way to class.
The thought of being late couldn’t possibly cross his mind, as all he could think about was fast-forwarding the day to get to health. Now that he thinks about it… this is the first time in his life he’s ever wanted to be in health class.
“Stop standing around and get to homeroom, Four.” A passing voice said.
Four turned to address the source of such baseless remark, but the algebralien who was responsible vanished as quickly as they appeared. Though the best guess and undeniable truth didn’t need visual reinforcement to back it, as Four immediately knew that the one to blame was a snarky algebralien known as Six. While it was true that Four wanted to turn their fragile, soft, azure skin inside out as punishment, he couldn't help but recognize that she was right. The passing period was going to end soon, and he didn’t want a tardy mark to stain his report card so early on in the school year. As much as he hated to oblige to Six’s order, Four swallowed his pride and concluded it was the only logical course of action.
After going up two flights of stairs that he severely underestimated, Four took two steps to the right and arrived at the front of room 2-763. His homeroom.
Looking at the classroom through the door’s foggy window, Four could make out some familiar faces, as well as a handful of new ones. His eyes were stuck onto the glass for a few moments until he heard the bell ring once again, which provoked him to turn the handle of the door with an apparent sense of urgency. Once he hurried inside, everyone’s curious gazes soon fell on him. Four could feel their judging eyes, stabbing at him as he scrambled to make his way to the only available seat, located at the front of the classroom.
The algebralien facing the class slowly took their reprimanding stare away from Four as they cleared their throat.
“As I was saying before getting interrupted…” The teacher remarked in a condescending tone between their teeth, before starting to write what appeared to be their name on the board with chalk.
The algebralien continued, “My name is One Hundred and Sixty-Four Integer and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the year.”
Giggling was heard across the classroom.
“How about we start by taking attendance?”
The sound of paper shuffling echoed through the room.
“Let’s see here… Pentagon Polygon?”
“Here.”
This time it was faint whispering interrupting the awkwardness of the room.
“Square Pyramid Polyhedron?”
Whispering once again…
“Square Pyramid Polyhedron…?” The teacher reinstated in a more impatient tone, scanning the room.
Whispering…
“Oh— yea, I’m present.”
Giggling…
Four managed to drown out the sound of the classroom. The overwhelming thoughts and anxieties that plagued him earlier this morning were swept off his mind.
Peace at last… Maybe he can take the rest of the day easy…
Four gets a tap on his back, taking him off guard. He springs up and whips around, hoping to discover the motive of why his presence was needed.
“We were told to pass this down.” It’s one of the Zeroes, stretching out their hand, in it a piece of folded paper resting tranquilly. Zero stares at Four blankly, as if they’re waiting for him to do something. It took Four an embarrassing amount of time to realize that they wanted him to take the paper. He does, though shamefully, and returns to his normal stance at his seat. Four tries to unfold the paper to evaluate its insides, but not before being cut short by a screaming voice materializing in front of him.
“Those noises are driving me insane! Hey— You! What’s your name?!”
“Um… Are you talking to me…?” Four asks, trying to get themself out of the conflict.
“Yes! I’m talking to you! What’s your name?” The teacher impatiently pries for an answer.
“I’m… Four…” He weakly lets out.
One Hundred Sixty-Four swiftly scans their student list.
“So… Four Integer. Do you want to tell the class what was so funny while I took attendance?” They barked at Four.
Four miserably got up, pushing the creaking chair behind him. Once he got to the teacher’s podium and faced the class, he could finally open the paper that was, somehow, the cause of this whole extremely cliche incident.
As Four diligently unfolded the piece of paper, his mind couldn’t stop itself from theorizing what it could possibly say. Was it something insulting him? Did he make such a bad first impression today that everyone was eager to mock him? Did everyone find out he’s a freak of nature and figured he deserved it?
He has to find out.
Four finished unfolding the paper and braced to learn what cruel things everyone had to say about him.
“ ‘One Hundred and Sixty-Four? More like—’ What does it say here…? ”
Someone tries to hold back their hysterical laughter, although they’re failing at it quite miserably.
Four brings the crumpled paper up to his face in order to try and make out the horrid handwriting.
“ ‘More like One Hundred and Sixty…’ Fork…?” He finishes, in utter confusion.
The giggling abruptly stops, leaving the classroom in the purgatory of awkward silence.
Four feels some sort of relief at the mocking not being directed at him, but he still pulls the paper away from his face to process what in the gumdrops he just read.
“That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever read… It-It doesn’t even remotely make sense!” Four comments in disbelief, loud enough for everybody to hear.
“It was supposed to say ‘One Hundred Sixty-Dork’, okay?!” A voice from the back of the class makes itself known quite loudly, diverting the room’s attention to it.
“I wanted to try my hand at meaner jokes this year but it turns out they’re not in my nature… I mean NO ONE laughed at it!”
One Hundred Sixty-Four let out a tired sigh.
“And what may your name be…?” They asked bluntly at the algebralien responsible for this, glaring at them with an expression that could be interpreted as nothing other than pure irritation.
The algebralien visibly tensed. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought that this algebralien and the one who was obnoxiously cackling a few moments ago were different people.
“I’m Seven…” The algebralien forcefully spouted out before realizing the potential gravity of the situation and continuing in a more frenzied manner, “Wait— Y-You’re not giving me detention right? I’m sorry Mx.! It just didn’t land well! Not everyone can become a comedy genius instantly! Give me another chance!”
“I can’t believe I’m gonna have to deal with this every morning…” One Hundred Sixty-Four sighed under their breath as they covered their face with their hand, trying to hide their exhausted demeanor.
“Seven… Just— Just be quiet… Alright?” The teacher weakly responded in a way that suggested that all their motivation for continuing this class had been drained out of their body.
Although Seven didn’t verbally agree to this compromise, just the way he visibly deflated in shame was enough to confirm that he wouldn’t try to do anything like this again for the reminder of homeroom.
Four takes their seat once again as everyone starts to remove their eyes off of Seven, moving on from the incident without a further question.
One Hundred Sixty-Four takes a deep breath before shifting their attention towards their student list once again and announcing to the class, “Okay… so Four Integer and Seven Integer are present. Lets try to at least finish taking attendance before the first period starts… ”
This first day isn’t turning out to be the exhilarating, eventful and math-filled day that Four expected it to be. In these dire moments of boredom, Four resorts to daydreaming about how his best friend X is doing without him. Surely they’re having a better day than him… Right?