Chapter 1
Miles was going to die.
That might seem dramatic, but it really wasn’t. Not when he’s starting his first day in a brand new school for preppy rich people, where his dad just embarrassed the crap out of him.
And he hasn’t even mentioned the dorm situation, yes, at 14 years old he has to live in a dorm! With a roommate!
Okay maybe that isn’t that bad, since he’ll get some freedom from his parents, but it’s still stressful. Miles isn’t expecting much from any person in a school like this, never mind a roommate. He wouldn’t be surprised if they slept at 8 or didn’t sleep at all. Shit- this school could be crazy strict. Now Miles isn’t the worst kid but he’s still a teenager, he can’t be cooped up in a room that’s the size of one really big bed.
And he also can’t be expected to want to go to this school in the first place!!
Fortunately, Miles already has a plan covered. He’ll just be so stupid they have to kick him out! It’s not like they can change a students grade, that’s just dumb. And then he’ll be able to wave this elitist hell goodbye.
—————————
His teacher changed his fucking score.
Okay that’s a little hostile. No hate to his teacher, she seems nice enough and she’s just doing her job. But just- ugh- she changed every single failing grade he had to a 100! Just because of some stupid 50/50 percentage thingy! Who does that?!?
He did make a friend though, Gwen, and she seems cool. He was originally interested in her, like romantically, but after seeing a pride flag on her bag (a lesbian and trans one to be specific) he realized that he should shut that down.
He also met his roommate, who ended up not being a COMPLETE asshole. (He has his moments but it’s all love Miles isn’t the best either.) He was right about the sleep deprivation thing though, that guy is nocturnal.
So, even though he didn’t want to be here, he was adjusting. He became a little chattier around his classmates, and personalized his dorm a little more. And most importantly, he stopped sneaking out at night to meet up with his uncle, since he didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in the dorms yet. Which is, a little embarrassing to say out loud. But his uncle didn’t tease him THAT much so it’s fine.
And when he looks back on the beginning of the week, he can laugh when he remembers how he thought he was going to die.
“Hey you! Miles Morale’s!” Crap.
“I know you’ve been sneaking out at night!” Crap crap crap-
What does he say to that!? Um- what does his dad say to do when you’re accused of something, he’s a cop so he should know what to do right?
Miles lingers on that thought before wanting to smack himself on the forehead. Why’d he think that would help him, his dad is a cop! He’s all about honesty and accountability and ah ah ah, he would want him to come clean and apologize. Which is not happening.
“Hello? Miles Morales don’t ignore me!” Wow, how rude. But he does have a point, he can’t just stand here looking stupid!
“Um, nuh uh.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
And with that, Miles breaks out into a sprint the opposite way the guys facing, internally cursing himself. Why did he do that!?! There’s no way he’ll be able to lose him… right?
Miles takes a quick glance behind him before letting out a laugh. The guy is nowhere near him! The most he’ll need to run for is 5 minutes, max, before the guy gives up all together.
Or, Miles could stop running all together… hm.
After a brief moment of consideration, he takes a sharp left, over to the lockers and prays for a once of luck. He knows that he doesn’t particularly need it, since he knows that Gwen has had a pretty consistent schedule for when she’d go to her locker, but he still thanks any holy power out there when he sees her.
“Oh hey Mile-“ she smiles and is trying to greet him when he interrupts her.
“Shove me in your locker.”
“Wha-“
“Time. No. Explain later,” he pats her on the shoulder, looks around for any witnesses, and goes inside her locker himself when he finds no one. Which surprisingly fits him. But he knew that already from… past experiences.
“Dude,” Gwen tries to keep her laughter down, but from the effort she ends up snorting. “Just close it oh my god he’s going to find me-“ and at that moment, like he’s been summoned, they both hear loud footsteps.
“Oh shit,” Gwen’s smile drops as she sees the look of panic in Miles eyes.
“Close it close it close it!”
“Alright alright now be quiet or whoever that is will hear you!” Gwen whispers while quickly shutting her locker, just in time before the deen turns the corner and is staring dead at her, while trying to catch his breathe.
“Did- huff- you happen to see Miles Morales come running here..?” He manages to let out, while Gwen tries to compose herself. “No sir,” even though she kept her laughter in, she guesses that her smile was too wide because he doesn’t seem to buy it.
“You’re sure?” He looks at her skeptically.
“Positive. If it helps, I think I heard running going through the cafeteria.” She says with a neutral expression on her face.
As much as she finds this amusing, she doesn’t want to have to explain that Miles happens to be 5 feet away from him, hiding in a locker. In her locker to be exact.
“Jesus, he must be long gone by now. I’ll just have to catch him in his next class, have a good day.” He grumbles. “You too!” Gwen grins.
She waits until about a minute before she bursts out laughing, followed along with the chuckles she can hear from inside her locker.
“Can you let me out now?” Miles says sheepishly. He wasn’t hurt or anything, but it was kinda tight in here. He feels like one of those clowns in their tiny cars.
“Weren’t you the one that wanted to be in there so bad?” Gwen teases as she opens her locker and helped him out.
“Why’d you even think that was a good idea.” “I didn’t. But I used to hide in lockers like this all the time so I just prayed I would fit still.” Miles shrugged but at the bewildered look Gwen gives him he goes on, “Me and my friends would hide in each others lockers to scare each other.”
You’re ridiculous,” Gwen cackled, “Also, were you able to hear what he said? Cause he mentioned something about catching you in class.”
“Crap. You think I should skip?” Miles sighs, dragging his hand across his face. It wasn’t even the first month of school and he was already doing everything he shouldn’t.
“What other choice do you have? It’s too late to back out now.”
“True.” He sighed. He just knew coming up with an excuse for his teacher would be a pain in the ass.
…
“Can you cover for me?” Gwen groans. “Sure.” She rolls her eyes. She doesn’t really care but she still wants him to be grateful. “Thank god- you’re a real one!”
“Yeah yeah. Also ,go to the bathroom a, the b one has shit on the walls.” She grimaced, she’s still traumatized from when she saw it first period. She just wanted to piss back then, how foolish and naive she was.
“Ew what the fuck.”
“Yeah I know, but I gotta go before I’m late. I’ll text you if anything happens.” She waved him off.
“‘Preciate it.”
Instead of replying, she just rolls her eyes as she walks away, clearly not caring enough to jog there before the bell rings. But he guesses he can’t judge, since you know, he’s not going at all.
With the now empty hallway, Miles starts walking to the bathroom A. Bathroom B is closer but he does NOT want to deal with shit, he already had enough of his going on. (Heh- get it?)
As he walks into the bathroom, he tries to breathe from his mouth so he doesn’t smell the state of the bathroom. Who is comfortable enough to shit in here the first week of school? Like damn just hold it in until you get home. The stench is so bad that if he didn’t run the risk of getting caught, he would’ve walked out the school to avoid the dean already. Alast, his school has hightop security and the moment he would’ve stood outside they would call his mom so she can beat his ass. That’s just the “privilege” he gets by going to a stinky rich school filled with preppy rich kids. (Though there’s the exceptions.)
He was planning on sitting on the ledge that was at the corner of the bathroom but he stops when he realizes the seat is already occupied . The first thing he noticed about the guy was his freestyle wicks, which look absolutely sick, and the collection of piercings adorning their face that he didn’t even know all the names of.
In simple terms, they looked really cool. In complicated ones, they made Miles’s stomach feel like it was on a roller coaster. A really light fluffy type of rollercoaster, if that makes sense. Which it probably doesn’t because even himself doesn’t know what that means or entails.
Anyway- they seemed to be skipping too, if the blanket and snacks they had with them meant anything.
“Can I help you?” Miles startles as the guy glances up at him, raising his eyebrow. (It was pierced of course.) It took Miles a second to reboot after hearing the guys deep British accent that was way too attractive for comfort before replying.
“Oh my bad, it’s just, I like your… set up you got here,” Miles awkwardly chuckles. He was going to say look but he felt like that would be too weird. And gay.
“Cheers mate, I had to buy off the bathroom attendant to keep ‘em quiet,” the mystery guy grins and leans forward like he’s telling Miles a secret.
“You paid them cash?” He says incredulously. Sure, desperate times calls for desperate measures but he couldn’t imagine paying someone so he could chill in a shitty bathroom for hours on end.
“Nah I just gave him a bag of crisps.”
“Chips?”
“Huh? Oh that’s what Yanks call them don’t they? Why is that, are the they chips of one really big crisp?” He teases, as he pats the seat next to him encouragingly. “Come sit, I need someone to rabbit with.”
Even though he had no idea what they just said, Miles walks over and sat down next to this interesting guy.
“So… what’s your name?”
“Hobie, Hobie Brown. What about you?”
“Miles, Morales.”
For a second, there’s just awkward silence between them. But only for a second. Miles lets out a tiny flinch when a bag of “crisps” get thrown at his face.
As it falls, he looked at Hobie with an unimpressed look.
“You looked hungry,” he shrugs.
“Mhm. Well thanks anyways,” Miles says as he rips the bag open. Atleast the guy gave him Doritos -he wants nothing to do with the skinny Cheetos that he sees on his lap.
“Do you really like those… monstrosities??”
“Huh? Which ones ‘ya talking about? ‘Cause lays are where it’s at bruv.”
“Nah bro not those -in fact can I please get one after I’m done with the Doritos- I’m talking about those skinny cheese shits,” Miles points at them while scrunching his nose. “Oh these? Don’t worry my taste buds are mint, they just came with the pack. Was thinkin’ of givin’ ‘em to kids in my class,” Hobie shrugged.
“Oh good cause those things taste nasty, I can’t trust people that like them,” Miles says while stuffing his mouth with chips.
“That’s a tad judgmental innit?” Hobie teases.
“Nah. If someone ran at you with a knife it wouldn’t be judgmental if you screamed and ran away right? Same logic applied with Cheetos.” He waits to finish whats in his mouth before he adds on “Just the skinny ones, the puffs are ‘aight.”
He ends up garnering a laugh from the punk while he continues to stuff his face.
“That’s the spirit! If you’re gonna hate somethin you should be loud about it, don’t yah agree?” Hobie proceeds to then swing his arm around miles, which causes said boy to blue-screen for a second. He was way too close for comfort, and now Miles hands were all clammy and gross. But after a second, he swallows his spit and lets out a small hum in agreement before shoving even more food into his mouth.
“So, why ya playin’ hooky? Most people here would kick the bucket before they’d skip on the first week,” Hobie looks curiously over at Miles while tapping a rhythm onto the boricua’s shoulder- which does things to his heart he doesn’t know how to describe- and passes him a bag of lays and soda.
“Oh, thanks dude. And shouldn’t I ask you the same thing? Your set up is so good I wouldn’t be surprised if you planned to stay here all day,” Miles chuckles, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the guy agreed and said he was.
“Nah, just got a teacher that kept bossin’ me around, talkin’ about my uniform and choker. I refused to let ‘er control me so I’m skipping the class,” Hobie scoffs midway through his sentence, “real arse if you ask me.”
“Damn, I’m avoiding a teacher too,” at that, Hobie perks up.
“Really? Didn’t peg you for the type,” he grins.
“Yeah, me neither. But the deen tried to confront me on how I’ve sneaked out every night and I panicked and ran away. He planned to catch me at my next class, so I just didn’t go.”
While speaking, Miles mood visibly deflates. The deen will probably catch him at some point and he’ll get in even more trouble than what he’d usually get. And that won’t even compare to what his mom and dad will say when they get a call from the school that he both snuck out of the school at night AND skipped a class. They’ll probably have a heart attack before they even get to beat his ass.
“Heh- good for you. The dorms are way too stuffy for such a “prestigious school”” Hobie mocks the word prestigious so ridiculously that it causes Miles to laugh, changing his mood. He doesn’t know if he envies or pities this guy’s roommate. “Yeah, my mom will definitely kick my ass if she finds out though,” he sighs, leaning back and coincidentally leaning into Hobie’s arm, “Or might like when.”
“Hm that’s too bad. Were you out drinking?” “Nah, I was with my uncle,” Miles says, acting natural, but internally he was praying that Hobie wouldn’t ask why. Fortunately, the boy just shrugs and spares him the fate of looking like a jackass.
“If you tell ‘em that it probably lighten the sentence, don’t you think?”
“On me, yes. For my uncle… that would be a whole different problem. And I don’t want to rat him out, you know?”
He didn’t have the time to think about it before, but if his parents caught wind of anything remotely about this, his uncle would be affected too. The shaky relationship his dad and Uncle Aaron already have would be further damaged, and it would be all Miles’s fault.
“Hmm… that just means you can’t be caught, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Yeah, he really can’t get caught. Doesn’t mean it will be easy though.
“You think the deen will go to my next class too?”Miles groans and puts his face in his hands.
“Nah, he’s too lazy. The guys been trying to catch me for weeks, but no dice.” He smirks.
“Well that’s good. I’ll just avoid him in the hallways for… the rest of school.”
“That’s the spirit! Now enough with all the doom and gloom, matter fact, let’s forget that snob exists for now!” Miles chuckles.
“Yeah, that’s sounds good.”
——
Him and Hobie spent the next hour talking about everything and anything. Seriously, Miles now knows what Hobie’s favorite time of day is now (It’s nothing. He hates the am and the pm.) and vise-versa.
However, the ONE thing they somehow forgot to get around to was exchanging numbers, and now Miles is up at 2am pulling his hair over it. He’s so stupid! A whole hour and all he’s left with is fluttery feeling and not even one digit out of the ten he wants. His only saving grace is the fact that he now knows his whereabouts every Tuesday second period, so all he has to do is wait until then! Unfortunately…
He’s never really been patient. So hopefully those seven days turn into one, or just a few hours! (Spoiler: they don’t)