Chapter Text
Pau Cubarsí had always harbored bad habits. When he was younger, they ranged from sharp pinches dealt to anyone standing too close to a relentless habit of biting his tongue as hard as he could. Once, when he was six, he had bitten down so hard his mouth filled with blood. But that was years ago. Now that he was in high school, he believed he had completely matured past those childish instincts.
“Pau!”
Pau blinked, shaking his head as he snapped out of his daze. “Oh! Hey, Marc.”
“You good, bro? I’ve been calling your name for ages,” Marc Bernal said, his forehead creasing with genuine worry.
“I was just thinking about something. Sorry to scare you!” Pau offered a quick, reassuring smile.Marc looked skeptical, but he didn't push any further. Instead, he pivoted back into his usual, never-ending rambling about nothing in particular. Pau just listened, secretly loving the sound of it. Whenever Marc spoke, a strange, calming warmth bloomed in Pau’s chest—a feeling he instinctively chose to ignore most of the time.
Unfortunately, the comfort of the hallway didn't last. Pau’s first period was chemistry, which was miserable enough on its own, but he also had to endure the absolute worst person in his class: Lamine Yamal. Lamine was so incredibly annoying that even N'Golo Kanté, the most patient man alive, would probably lose his cool with him. The mere fact that Pau had to deal with Lamine first thing in the morning was enough to ruin his entire day.
The morning bell rang, and the teacher began passing out the chemistry warm-ups. To no one's surprise, Lamine was already completely ignoring the lesson, leaning over to whisper with his best friend, Nico Williams. Nico wasn't quite as irritating as Lamine, but together, they were a massive pain.
“Yo, did you hear about the new transfer student?” Nico hissed, attempting and failing to whisper.
“Oh, totally, man,” Lamine giggled, a smirk plastering his face. “She’s really cute.”
“You should definite—” Nico started, but his voice was quickly cut off by a heavy shadow falling over their desks.
“Boys,”
the teacher interrupted, her voice tight with irritation. “Can we focus on something appropriate for the classroom, please?”Lamine turned his head slowly, defiance flashing in his eyes.
“Why do you care so much about what we're talking about?”The entire classroom went dead silent.
“Excuse me?”
the teacher replied, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.Lamine looked straight into her eyes.
“You heard me. Why do you care?”
“I have heard more than enough from you today,” the teacher snapped. Her eyes scanned the room before landing directly on Pau. “Cubarsí, get your things. You’re switching seats with Nico. Right now.”
Pau froze, his heart dropping into his stomach. Why me? he thought in sheer panic. He bit his tongue, hoping that it would bleed so he could get out of class. He hadn't wanted to sit anywhere near Lamine's orbit, let alone be trapped right beside him for the rest of the semester.“Why do I have to sit with him?”
Pau asked.“Don’t question me, just switch with Nico. Now.”Pau unwillingly dragged his things over and switched seats. The teacher lectured on, but Pau only tuned in enough to catch one major piece of devastating news.
“Class, you will be completing a project that will count as a major grade. You will work with the person sitting beside you at this moment.
”Pau wished he had heard wrong. A project with Lamine Yamal? This was going to be hell.“Okay, so your project will be about…” Pau tuned out the teacher’s words again, telling himself he would just catch up on Google Classroom later.
“Psst!”
Pau turned his head. Of course Lamine was already bugging him.“What do you want?” Pau replied, clearly irritated.
“Damn, who pissed in your cereal?” Lamine joked. Pau decided to ignore him in hopes that he would go away, but Lamine only got more annoying , mimicking a high-pitched, annoying voice right in his ear.
“Oh, fuck off!”
Pau yelled by accident. He instantly regretted it, praying the teacher hadn’t heard him. She obviously had.
“Ahem. Mind repeating that, Cubarsí?”
She glared at him. “I see that Lamine is really growing on you. In a bad way, of course.”
“I’m so sorry, miss, it's just that Lamine wouldn’t stop bugging me.”
Lamine exaggerated a shocked gasp. “Why’d you bring me into this?”
“That’s enough. I’m tired of dealing with you, Lamine. Both of you, to the office.”
This was going to be Pau's first time going to the office for getting in trouble. Well, not technically his first time, back in sixth grade he had been sent down for a fight, but that was only because he was the one who got punched in the face.
“You’re a pussy,” Lamine hissed as they walked out. “Well, that was rude.” Pau knew he had intentionally dragged Lamine down with him. He hated dealing with trouble alone, so he always made sure someone had to tag along. It was another one of his bad habits.
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They walked surprisingly fast for two people on their way to the office for a bad reason. The lady at the front desk looked shocked to see Pau standing there. To be fair, he usually had a reputation as a goody-two-shoes.
“Uhm… Cubarsí? What did Lamine do to you?” Lamine snapped
“Oh, for goodness' sake! I didn’t do anything to him. He just used his words to get us both in trouble!”
The secretary looked at Pau, waiting for him to deny it, but to her surprise, he stayed quiet.
“Well then, could one of you explain what happened?”Lamine and Pau looked at each other, waiting for the other to start speaking, but neither planned to give in. The lady sighed and called their teacher. A bit later, the two received their respective punishments and were sent back to class.
By the time the lunch bell rang, Pau already had a full paragraph planned out in his head to rant about. Even though he spent most of the period eating, he still managed to voice his complaints to Marc, and naturally, every single word was about Lamine Yamal.
The rest of the school day passed without anything else happening. When the final bell rang, Pau began his walk home, deciding to stop by the local corner store to grab some snacks first.
About fifteen minutes later, he arrived at the store. The cashier greeted him warmly, recognizing him as a frequent visitor. But as Pau reached for a bag of chips, he spotted a very familiar, unwelcome face in the aisle. Lamine Yamal. Lamine noticed him at the exact same time.
“Oh my gosh, are you like… following me?”
Pau’s irritation flared instantly.
“Why on earth would I follow you, dumbass?”
Lamine saw how worked up Pau was getting and decided to use it to his advantage. He smirked. “It’s because you love me, of course! I mean, I am just that hot, aren’t I?”
The next thing Lamine knew, a full bag of chips was flying directly at his face. Pau snatched up a different bag and walked off toward the counter without another word.
“At least these chips are tasty, I should probably get more for Kenye” Lamine muttered to himself, tearing the thrown bag open and chewing on a handful.
“You better pay for those, Yamal!” the cashier yelled from across the store.
“Yeah, yeah, I will!” Lamine called back.
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Cubarsí got an earful from his mother the second he stepped through the front door. The main trigger was the phone call from the office, but him not going straight home only fueled the fire. In his room, he flipped open his Chromebook and pulled up Google Classroom to check the project. The assignment notification stared back at him: Chemistry Project Instructions *
IMPORTANT: Both partners MUST contribute 50% of the work. This is a shared grade. If your partner slacks off, your grade will suffer.
*Goal: Grow your own rock candy!
* Due Date: One week and three days from today.
* Materials Needed: 3 cups white granulated sugar, 1 cup water, clean glass jar, cotton string or wooden skewer, pencil, paperclip weight, saucepan, and optional food coloring/flavoring.
He closed his Chromebook and buried his head in his hands. “How on earth am I supposed to work with this idiot” he thought to himself. “Shit, I didn’t even get his number.” He groaned slouching in his chair, ”this is horrible”
“Pau!”
He glanced at the desk clock. It was already 8:03 PM. His stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn't eaten in seven hours.
“Coming ma!”
He ran downstairs with his hopes high on what to eat for dinner, but was met with a harsh reality. His mother looked at him with a big smile.
“So I heard about your project.”
Cubarsí sighed.
“You’re in luck! Lamine’s mother called me that you will go over to his house at nine in the morning to work on your project!” Cubarsí didn’t understand why his mom was so happy. This was practically living hell, having to wake up early just to deal with Lamine Yamal? Cubarsí sat down and sank into his chair
“what’s for dinner?”
“Spaghetti. Let me dish it out for you.”
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Across town, Lamine was still eating the chips that Cubarsí had thrown at him. “Cubarsí.” he whispered in a low voice. Lamine disliked Cubarsí just as much as he hated him he was just better at hiding it. His usual strategy was simple: push Cubarsí's buttons, watch him unravel, and walk away clean.
But today felt different. He couldn't shake the memory of Cubarsí’s completely irritated, flushed face from his mind. It felt like he liked it. Like he wanted Cubarsí to get mad at him. A slow, sharp grin spread across Lamine's face as he finally stood up, tossing the empty chip bag into the trash. Nine in the morning couldn't come fast enough.