Chapter 1: No

Today was a special day. It was one of the rare days when Keith actually showed to class rather than wandering around the halls or smoking behind the school with his group. Ironically, today was also the day his English teacher was announcing there was a project.

Keith was about the same height as most the boys in his grade. However, he was much stronger than most and more feared. Rumors about the dirty and horrible things he's "done" flew around the school like you'd expect snowflakes to fly around in a snowstorm. When all this first started Keith was quite shocked at this, but by now, he's become indifferent. As the squeaky voice of Mrs. Lewis, his English teacher, was about to irritate him to the point of standing up and leaving, he heard they had to do a project to pass the semester. Meaning, if they did the project, they didn't have to pass the 200-question final. As much as he didn't want to do a stupid project with a stupid and most likely vexatious partner, he did not want to do 200 questions about things he wasn't here for. So, Keith was forced to stay for this, since Lewis did say she picked the partners already.

Keith took out his notebook for the class and a pen, resting his head on his hand he decided to draw.

"Class, I will now announce the pairs I have selected for this project" Lewis chirped excitedly as every single student in the class groaned in annoyance.

After the woman listed the names of classmates Keith did not even know, he heard a few kids cheer. He looked up and saw 'The Trio', as he called them, high fiving each other. Clearly two of them got paired together. He gave them a sour look and went back to drawing a young boy's face, littering it with freckles. Lewis continued reading off names as Keith finished the drawing. He cringed at it. It looked like somebody he hated. He ripped out the page and crumpled it up slamming the pen on his desk and throwing the crumpled paper on the floor.

Keith tuned out Lewis by putting in his earbuds and blasting his music. He continued drawing whatever floated to his mind until he felt somebody tap his on the shoulder, although it reminded him more of a poke. A tall boy was standing over him, Keith always thought the lanky boy looked like a thin tree about to snap with the slightest breeze.

"Hey, uh," Lance paused and scratched the back of his neck, "Lewis paired us together on this, but it's okay if you don't want to do it I'll gladly just put your name on it."

Keith gave Lance a look as bitter as dark roast coffee with no cream or milk as he said, "And what makes you think that I'm not going to do any work for this, uhhh," he tried to remember the name of the quite irking boy when he cut in.

"Lance, it's Lance."

"Right, Lance," he paused, "what makes you think I just want you do all the work and slap my name on it?" he asked again.

"I don't know it just seemed like it," he said, his tan face turning slightly red in embarrassment, "Sorry."

"it's fine, I don't care anyway" Keith scoffed and tossed his notebook and pen back in his bag.

"Would you do me a favor and uh," he stopped to throw his bag over his shoulder, "Get us both rubrics for this stupid thing and meet me out front in the student parking area after school."

"Actually I- "Lance started.

"That wasn't a question, it was a statement," Keith said as he made direct eye contact with Lance. Keith's dark eyebrows drawn together over his dark nearly-purple hued eyes as they met the bright blue ones of the, now slightly trembling, boy. Lance gulped and nodded, clearly scared of Keith.

As Keith left the classroom unnoticed, Lance breathed a sigh of relief, his friends Hunk and Pidge rushed over to him bombarding him with questions.

Outside of the classroom, Keith let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, he shrugged and started walking out of the building and to the back of the school. He felt like he needed to escape from his mind, it felt like it was going 500 kilometers per hour. Arriving at his spot Keith took his prescriptions out of his bag, taking one of each. He took a bottle out of his bag and has a drink of water to wash down the pills. He took out a cigarette and a lighter. He flicked it, it sparked. He lit his cigarette. He took a deep breath, the cigarette between his lips. He exhaled, the smoke escaped his slightly opened lips and dissolved in the air, enveloping him in a white haze for a moment.

He finished smoking and tossed the nearly-empty box of cigarettes back into his bag. He pulled out a tin of mints and popped one into his mouth. He stood up, allowing one strap of his bag to fall over his shoulder to hold. He started walking off into the art building of the school when a hand managed to grab onto the sleeve of his black windbreaker. Keith turned around ready to punch whoever it was in the face.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Keith exclaimed in shocked and lowered his fist which had hit the boy in front of him right below the ribs.

"You uh, you" he gasped and tried to catch his breath, bent over, doubled in pain with an arm over his stomach.

"Stop coughing I didn't even hit you that hard," he glared at Lance who was almost wheezing on the floor, his eyes squeezed shut in pain.

Lance looked up at Keith "Easy for you to say," he smiled "You were the one doing the punching after all."

"Aren't you in pain?" asked Keith confused, "Why are you smiling?"

"Because," Lance paused for a second to slowly stand up while still leaving his hand over his stomach, "it's funny."

"What?" now Keith was even more confused "What's funny about me punching you?"

"It's not the reaction you'd expect from someone when you're just trying to return their artwork to them" said Lance as he extended the paper Keith had thrown onto the floor to him.

"Why are you walking around picking up my trash?" Keith mumbled in anger snatching the paper from Lance.

"Dunno, thought you might want it back, I couldn't help but look" Lance said as he started to massage his stomach with both hands now "It's really good by the way, looks like me if I had star shaped freckles, if I'm being honest."

"Then don't be honest," Keith growled, displeased.

"I'm okay though, thanks for asking" Lance flashed another smile at Keith.

"You're supposed to be in class, if I'm correct" Keith commented as he turned and started walking away from Lance.

"Oh shit!" Lance exclaimed "uh, um, I gotta run back I told Lewis I was going to the bathroom, bye"

Lance started to sprint back to his class. Keith kept his eyes focused straight ahead.

Keith arrived at the art hallway. He opened the door which was painted with a pattern of bright yellow sunflowers. He walked into the hallway, paintings hanging everywhere, he looked at the new things the teachers had hung up. He frowned at most of them, he thought they weren't worthy of being on the walls. Well, not worthy of replacing the things they did.

He opened the door to Mr. Takashi's room and walked in.

"Keith, do you have a pass to be here?" asked Shirogane, not looking up from his computer where he was inputting grades.

"But Shiro I-" Keith was cut off.

"It's Mr. Takashi, and Keith," he stopped to peer at Keith over the rim of his glasses "You're already months ahead of everybody in projects, I think it's time you slow down for a bit."

He fixed his glasses, pushing them up with his finger back up onto his nose and looking back at his monitor screen, "But if you want, your painting's where it usually is."

"Thank you, sh-" Keith stopped himself, "Mr. Takashi."

Mr. Takashi nodded and Keith walked to the back of the classroom, his canvas already set up. Keith took out oil paints, paint thinner, brushes, a palette, and a palette knife. He dropped the palette and it made a loud noise as it contacted the floor, heads turned to the back. Nobody had noticed Keith in the classroom until that moment, the atmosphere went tense immediately. Heads snapped back to projects immediately as they recognized who'd made the noise. Keith sighed and picked up the palette.

He no longer felt comfortable, he put away his things and rushed out of the class. He felt like he needed to calm down, what has ever worked for him?

He rushed around the halls, trying to find something to do. The bell for the next class rang. He finally settled for going to the sports fields and watching his best, well, only, friend practice.

It was near the end of October, so it was still hot out in the afternoon. Keith took off his jacket and stuffed it into his bag, he tied up his hair. It was starting to grow out longer than he would prefer but he didn't care that much. He did not care how a few strands of his hair didn't tie up and just hung around his face in loose waves either.

He walked around, seeing a Physical Education class of freshmen trying to throw frisbees around to each other. Keith chuckled to himself as he saw a short boy get whacked straight in the face because he wasn't paying attention. He continued past the tennis courts and walked straight through the tracks, which made quite a few people stumble and be forced to slow down. He then finally arrived at the soccer fields. He tossed his bag on the glass and sat down. He bent his knees slightly and loosely threw his arms around them and squinted to attempt to make out the only familiar shape on the field.

Then he spotted her. With mocha skin contrasting platinum hair which was currently tied into a bun, Allura was dribbling the soccer ball closer to the goal. She kicked it with extreme force, the ball flew right past the goalie's face and hit the net.

The coach blew his whistle "Take five everybody, great play!" he shouted.

Everybody calmly walked to their sports bags to get water. Allura spotted Keith sitting in the only shady spot on the field and decided to sit next to him.

"What you sulkin' for, Kogane?" she said in her thick British accent as she took her hair out of her bun to redo it.

"I'm sulkin' cause of how bad your hair smells" he mocked her accent and she elbowed him lightly.

"Watch it," she warned him.

"Okay okay," he sighed "We have to do a stupid language arts project and I'm paired with the school goody two shoes."

Allura tightened her bun and wiped the sweat off her face with her shirt "Oh no, your life is so hard" she said sarcastically and it was Keith's turn to elbow her.

"Watch it," he said.

Allura started drinking her water and Keith continued, "He's so annoying I literally hate him so much, he's too nice to everybody and he laughs at the dumbest damn things and he thinks he's so funny when he's-" Keith's complaining was cut short by the coach blowing his whistle.

"Sorry darlin" said Allura as she got up to jog back to the field, "Coach demands me back."

"Make sure those shorts don't Mar too far" Keith teased and Allura laughed loudly as she jogged back out into the field.

Keith watched the soccer team practice for a while. He checked the time after a while. Ten minutes.

He got up shouted "Bye" to Allura who responded with a wave which caused her to miss a pass to her teammate.

He walked through the track and back out into the hallways. He walked out to the student parking lot and leaved back on his car. He lit a cigarette and started smoking. The smoke curled from his mouth to round his nose and floating in front of the rest of his face.

The bell rang. The smoke continued flowing. Keith turned away and looked at all the students file out of the school gates chatting with each other. Some heading for the buses, some for their cars, some walked.

"Keith!" someone called out, Keith snapped his head towards where he heard his name, he spotted Lance. Keith rolled his eyes and took one last drag before taking his cigarette out of his mouth and throwing it on the floor. He stomped on it to extinguish it and at the same moment Lance arrived.

He scrunched up his face "Why does it smell like smoke? Ew" he said.

Keith sighed "You don't get any dumber do you". He took out his car keys and pressed the button to unlock it. Keith got in and tossed his backpack into the backseat. Lance opened the passenger door and sat down, he set his bag between his feet. They put on their seatbelts and Keith started the car, he pulled out of the school and started driving to his house.

"Can I play some music?" asked Lance to break the silence, he was smiling, like always.

"No" Keith answered with a frown.

"Come on, please?" Lance continued "I promise it'll put a smile on that grumpy face"

"No," Keith repeated "And who do you think you are to speak to me like that?"

"A classmate?" Lance chirped "A friend? Yes?"

"No"

"Maybe so it is"

"What will it take for you to leave me alone while I drive?" said Keith in irritation.

"Let me play my music" said Lance as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Fine," Keith extended the aux cord to Lance.

Lance took out his phone and plugged the aux cord in. The car's stereo started blasting "Tropics" by Mantaraybryn. Keith rolled his eyes and ignored the music choice, at least Lance stopped talking.

One couldn't imagine Keith's surprise when he started to slightly tap the rhythm with his fingers on the steering wheel. He noticed Lance grinning at him and immediately stopped. They arrived at Keith's house and he pulled into the driveway and parked the car there.

Keith grabbed his bag from the back and pulled out his house key. They got out of the car and Keith unlocked his front door and walked in.

"Shoes off when you walk in" Keith said and Lance nodded taking off his shoes as soon as he walked into the house and leaving them neatly next to each other.

"Dad's on a trip to New York, shooting another episode of his show" commented Keith as he started upstairs to get to his room.

"Oh my god, your dad is THE Copernicus Kogane?" Lance asked, "The Copernicus Kogane who plays the red king?"

"Yeah, I don't care about his show, it's boring" Keith said as Lance started to follow him up.

"What? No way! It's the best show around" Lance exclaimed.

"Will you shut up?" Keith lashed out in anger.

"Sorry," Lance mumbled and walked into Keith's room with him.

Keith looked at his room, it was clean. Much unlike you'd expect an artist's to be. Some markers and colored pencils lay around his table along with a few piles of drawings. Most things were neatly put away into their respective cups or drawers. A few jackets and socks littered his floor or hung on his chair. Keith dropped his bag and sat on one of the beanbags. He gestured for Lance to sit on the other one, he nodded in return and sat down taking two sheets of paper out of his bag.

"Rubrics" he said extending one to Keith who took it and glanced over it.

The project was supposed to shed light on a current modern issue with the use of a visual aid in the form of a comic strip, an essay, and a short documentary. It was due at the end of November, giving them about a month to do it.

"So, uh, what do you want to do for our topic?" Lance asked.

"Don't know, don't care, your choice" Keith answered.

"Okay, uh," Lance paused to think "Why not do homophobia?"

Keith looked up at the other boy, Lance looked uncomfortable and as if he was asked a question he'd choke up and cry. As much as Keith hated him, he didn't want to deal with somebody crying.