ᯓ3★
Classes. Finally, Wow.
That Pickle guy doesn’t seem to be as bad as I thought he was, but considering what he’s wearing right now, he’s gonna get ripped to shreds.
He looks scared shitless, so I decide to do him a favor and walk in first. My appearance is distracting enough for the two of us, right?
It seems to be, or maybe people just really don’t give a fuck Pickle’s wearing the ugliest outfit known to mankind. Maybe I.. did overdress. Literally almost everyone is wearing pajamas, not to mention gawking at me. I’m quickly running out of fucks to give.
“EVERYONE EVERYONE BE QUIET AND FIND YOUR SEATS!”
Oh yeah. I forgot this was class.
I look around and spot my name tag in the back corner, thank god.
I don’t bother to check the nametag of the person I’m seated next to, but it seems they are either late or not here today..
Where the fuck is Mic? I specifically remember us having our first period together.
“ALRIGHT EVERYONE SETTLE DOWN PLEAAASSSEEEE!”
I get the chance to get a good look at the history teacher. He looks young. Young and tired.
“THANK YOU! WELCOME TO COBBS HIGH FIRST PERIOD STUDENTS! MY NAME IS MR. OJ, BUT NOT TO BOAST, SINCE I'M A PRETTY COOL TEACHER, YOU CAN JUST CALL ME OJ. YEP! SURPRISINGLY, I AM NOT THAT OLDER THAN YOU ALL! I WAS A STUDENT PRODIGY. SOMETHING THAT YOU ALL, HERE TODAY, COULD BE NOW, OR IN THE FUTURE!...”
I hear a cough or two.
“Ahemmmm… I’ll stop yelling now. Yeah, so I probably only have two or three.. Or four… or fi-.. years on you all.!.. How was I hired? Ha.. Me and my buddy Pa- I mean MR. PAGES!!”
He starts to whisper for a second.
“Shh, don’t go calling other teachers by their first names, I’m sure Mr. Pages could care less about you calling him by his first name but like.. I can’t have you guys going around saying I’m telling you guys to do this.”
He’s definitely putting on some strange act to seem cooler.. Or maybe he’s just like this.
“Anywayss.. So, me and my buddy MR. Pages were the top of our Junior history class! We completed additional programs not even the smartest of seniors could do.. In result, we got to graduate early! As soon as we got out of highschool, we went to college together! Couple years later… we’re teaching at the same school! Crazy.. Amirite?”
The room went silent. This is pretty funny and pathetic.
OJ starts sweating.
“Why don’t we uh.. Start off with some icebrea-”
THUMP
“I’M HERE!”
“MIC?”
She gives an awkward smile to the teacher.
“Five minutes late, what got you caught up? Since it’s the first day, I’ll let you off, but I’m curious.” OJ says.
“My roommate dropped a dumbbell on me.”
… What?
The room bursts out in giggles and chatter.
“Pardon, what?”
“I said my roommate dropped a dumbbell on me.”
“..How?” He has a very concerned look in his eyes.
“I fell off my bed in the middle of the night and somehow moved to like.. The middle of the floor, and my roommate.. He works out a lot apparently so he grabbed a dumbbell at like 5am in the dark and stepped on me and panicked and then.. Dropped his dumbbell.”
She’s running out of breath. This is the funniest day of my life.
“So, uh-..yeah. I had to go to the nurse which is why I have this huge bruise on my collarbone. Hope ya understand..”
Eugh. That is a very misfortunate placing. I pity her.
“Uh–okay..?” OJ mutters before quickly giving her a shortened version of his cool guy spiel.
“Go ahead and find a seat now..”
I look to see, and sure enough purely by chance she’s seated next to me. Surprisingly enough, I’d probably rather NOT sit next to her because of how much she might torment me.
She’s smarter than me, pays more attention, but because of that she’s always giving me these weirdass questions about what we’re learning just because she knows I wasn’t paying attention. She’s not a goody two shoes or anything of the sorts, but she can be annoying. Oh well. At Least she’s not goldilocks or some shit.
“Uhm! As I was saying! Let’s get down to some ice breakers! Let’s form a circle around the class, when it’s your turn, say your name, roommate, and favorite musical artist!”
“We aren’t in Kindergarten!” A girl says. I recognize her, it’s one of the girls I was between on the bus. Her weird twin friend is next to her, and she throws her hand over her friend's mouth and whispers something in her ear. The girl who yelled gives her a disgusted look but shrugs it off.
OJ ignores the rude remark and gets out one of those fidget..ball..twisty things.
“When the ball is passed to you, it’s your turn to speak, got it?” Most of the class nods.
Me, Mic, Pickle, and Soap are all grouped together. I think Pickle has no friends so he just followed me I guess.
“As you know, I am OJ. Like you all, I too have a roommate. You can probably guess, but it’s Mr. Pages. My favorite band is Green Day.”
He passes it, and the cycle continues. Some were.. Pretty notable.
“How’s it going? Gouda I hope! I’m Cheesy, my roommate is Clover, and I brie-fer Weird Al!”
“Greetings! My name’s File Cabinet, but you can call me Cabby! I love all music.. But I am partial to Mitski. Oh-! And my roommate is dear Test Tube here..”
“Wazzup! The name’s Lightbulb.. My roomie is Fan, and I like soundtracks.. And all that bizz!”
Suddenly, the toy’s in Pickle's hand.
“Uhh.. Hi! I’m Pickle.. My roommate is Knife,” He points to me, “and ..I like Charli XCX.” He looks down in shame with a wobbly smile. I hold in a laugh as he passes to me.
“Knife. Roommate’s Pickle. My music taste is none of your business.”
Hopefully I made my point, I pass to Mic.
“Hii.. I’m Mic, I room with… Trophy.. Andd I like Olivia Rodrigo.”
Onto Soap, she refuses to carry the ball so Mic just drops it infront of her.
“Hello! I’m Soap, my roommate’s Taco, and I love Taylor Swift.. But I also like making my own music from time to time.”
Blah blah.. Carry on.. Carry on.. Then it’s FINALLY over.
After we all sat back down, and went over some classroom rules, class was over.
In between periods we get about 10 minutes, so I decide to make conversation with Pickle.
“Charli XCX, huh?” I interrogate Pickle.
“Shut up! She’s green! And at least I’m willing to share my music taste! For all I know you could be listening to ABCDEFU or cotton eye joe or some shit!”
Okay he can be pretty funny sometimes.
I chuckle and roll my eyes.
The day goes by in a blur, I do not remember any of the rules from any of the classes at all. Whatever. Rules are made to break.
Before I know it, it’s lunch time. I find a table next to Mic, and Pickle soon follows.
We murmur about our weeks for a couple minutes while eating. Obviously I know about Pickle, but it’s nice to hear from Mic. They seemed to have gotten along decently.
“Dude, During my week I visited Soap a lot to get away from that Trophy guy, and her roommate.. Is totally like… freaky. (NOT IN THAT WAY .) She’s British I think.. And is weirdly smart but in.. a creepy way. I’m lowkey kind of digging her though, I dunno.”
I notice Pickle’s gaze goes cold, I brush it aside. Maybe I’ll poke at him later.
“Whutta ‘bout you Pickle, how’s Knife been.” She smirks, I roll my eyes. His face goes back intact.
“Uh- I- I don’t know? Okay I guess.. He’s nicer than he looks.”
“Oh really? Jeez.. He’s usually always mean to others.. Maybe you’re special-”
I cut her off,
“MIC- ..Microphone. He’s not special.. It’s just–He’s my roommate. I’ll have to make due with him somehow or it’ll end up biting me in the ass.”
She shrugs, “True I guess.”
I notice a slight crimson tint on Pickle’s face. I guess he doesn’t like to be the center of attention.
“Y’know, I guess that if he considers us friends.. He’s my only friend. The reason I’m kinda clingish.. And follow him around, is because I really have no one else.” He admits.
I really do not want to admit we’re friends in front of Mic but he’s really giving me no choice here.
I sigh and attempt to change the topic, but give Pickle a slight smile first to reassure him I was listening.
“Anyways..-”
I was cut off by Soap flopping down beside Microphone.
“Oh – uh, sorry, carry on.” I glare at her strange lunch set up, I really don’t think a sandwich needs to be in 5 plastic bags.
“Yeah. As I was saying, why don’t you guys tell me more about your roommates.” I specifically point to Soap and Microphone. I wouldn’t really consider me and Soap friends, but we’ve known each other for quite a long time.
I notice Pickle’s awkward demeanour, ‘wonder what’s up with him.
Mic starts speaking, “DUDDDDEEEEE…. He’s SO annoying. How the FUCK do you drop a dumbbell on your roommate at 5 in the morning? I’m almost convinced he’s the one who pushed me off the bed.. Maybe I could charge attempted murder. Not to mention, he’s never said ANYTHING NICE! I pick up the room everyday, and all he does is.. INSULT ME! FUCKING INSULT ME! I DIDN’T EVEN DO ANYTHING??” she blabbers out.
“WAIT. DOES HE HAVE BLONDE HAIR, GOLDILOCKS LOOKING, UGLY?”
“YES?”
“NO WAY. THAT’S THE DICK I TOLD YOU SPILLED HIS LITTLE MILKSHAKE ON ME.”
Everyone but Pickle is laughing. Why isn’t he? He was there! He was literally laughing at me before.
“Alright alright, let me tell you about mine..”
Pickle just.. Abruptly stands up and leaves? What the hell?
Soap and Mic both are fittingly confused, Mic in particular shifting eyes between me and him.
“What? Don’t act like I’m supposed to know what’s going on! I’m just as confused as you!”
“Eye-dee-kay! You know him best!” she responds.
“Does he hate me or something?” Soap adds.
I continued, “Where’s he even going?”
“OMGA! Let’s follow him!” A new voice pops in from out of nowhere…
“WHO ARE YOU!?” Both Mic and Soap yell in unison. Again, I have no more fucks left to give. I just facepalm, at this point I probably have a concussion from how idiotic everyone is.
“Sorry about her..” a gallll….. Fellllaaaaa?.... A person says as them and some nerd drag her away.
…
“She’s not wrong.. Let’s follow him, where’d he go?-- Ohhh… There he is!” Soap starts before Pickle sits back down.
“Uhhh.. ha-ha-ha…. Sorry guys. Bathroom emergency! Like, a number 47..!”
“Ew dude.. TMI..” Mic follows.
I can tell he’s lying, but I know how it feels to be pressured so I pretend I believe him.
We talk a bit more, and Soap mentions her roommate a few times. I can tell of Pickle’s desperation to keep his composure. If Mic, Soap, and her roommate are such good friends, why is Soap’s roommate sitting all alone? Whatever. Why should I care.
Soon enough, The lunch bell goes off, and we’re already back in class.
This is too boring. Wayy too boring.
“May I go to the bathroom.” I flatley asked the teacher, I did not bother to learn her name.
After some persistence, she finally agrees.
I lock myself in a stall, and squat on the seat so nobody suspects I’m in here. Gotta keep my snapstreak with Suitcase. Neither of us give a fuck but I’m too far in to backout.
After saving my snapstreak, I hook up my earbuds and open spotify to–
Errrrrchhhhhh opening door noise LOUDDD THUUMPPP
“WHAT THE FLIP!” He says, I guess I forgot to lock the door.
He shuts his eyes immediately
“AWWW MAN I’M SORRY DUDE.. I REALLY DIDN’T MEAN TO I SWEAR I'M NOT A WEIRDO!” He blubbers.
“Calm down, I wasn’t even taking a piss, just skipping class.”
“Oh, me too.” He nonchalantly adds, completely contrasting from his previous tones.
“Wanna play Nintendo?” I ask, I really had nothing better to do other than listening to the same playlist over and over.
“Oh yeah–yeah, okay.”
I guess it’s pretty weird to ask another dude to game with you in the same bathroom stall, but who cares. Weird is my thing.
“Choose a game,” I pass him the Switch, he chooses Gang Beasts.
I detach the controllers from the console, and hand Pickle the left one, our hands touch for a bit. Not weird. I said I paid attention to detail a lot, right? I’m physically dumb, not socially.
We finish a couple rounds of Gang Beasts, and then I check the time. We still have 10 more minutes until the period ends.
“This is getting boring, wanna play 20 questions?” Pickle says.
I’m not one to answer questions, except from people I barely know, but It kind of feels like I’ve known Pickle forever, and he seems.. Okay.
“Sure, I guess.” You only live once.
I learned a bit about him, like that he’s unemployed, Bisexual, and depressed. I mean, I don’t wanna sound insensitive, but who isn’t these days?
I tried not to share much, as I like to keep my life somewhat personal, but he’s just.. Really easy to talk to.
20 questions.. Wasn’t actually really twenty questions. We got about 7-10 in before getting distracted with various conversations and topics.
10 Minutes.. Was also not actually 10 minutes. We spent about an hour and a half in that stall. Pickle isn’t so bad, even if his life is pretty basic, he’s interesting in his own ways. I like him. I like his hair too, and the warmth of his hands, and… I’m too mature for this shit. I can make friends without thinking about everything I like about them.
I've only known Pickle for what, a week? And it feels like I’ve told him every little detail about me. I haven’t even shared that much with Suitcase. It’s been getting tougher to keep stuff in, and I’m at the point where if I share something little, it progresses into something way larger.
Maybe I know everything about Pickle as well, or maybe he’s better than me at being edgy and I actually know nothing about him.
Only time can tell.