Before Note: Okay so I managed to update before school started. WOOP WOOP. And the bad thing is that school starts. The day after tomorrow. Ugh. One more day of freedom. And because of that I'll warn that I won't be able to update frequently, most likely. I will be aiming for once a week but if I don't then I can only promise once a month. But I'll try my best.
Disclaimer: Characters and all things Homestuck in this fanfic belong to the Huss. I just own the plot here and doing this fo fun. bluh
Thank you to my followers and reviewers! Glad to know someone enjoys this so far :D Enjoy!
It took Jake about a month to finally adjust to the new school life. The first few days had been such a drag for him, there was just so many things he had to keep up with and adjust to. To start off, he had to form an adequate sleeping schedule. It wasn't that sleeping late and waking up late was a usual thing for him, just that he needed to get his body adapted to waking up at six in the morning without it feeling like gravity was fighting him to the ground. He found that hitting the hay at around ten did the trick for him, when he usually went at around midnight.
Man, and he thought sleep was for the weak. Never before had he worshipped the cozy softness of his bed until now.
And then there was the dreaded homework. Again, not much of a problem except for the fact that he had to set himself on a strict schedule to get it all done before he went to bed. He even considered joining Aranea's after school book club, but he turned down the offer so he could have more time to work. Usually, he could take a few breaks of procrastination before his brain exploded, but now he was forced to be equally consistent in putting effort into all of his subjects. Which meant he had to concentrate for longer periods of time. That was the hardest part about sitting in the classroom. You were forced to sit in your seat and focus for a whole hour. No breaks. Each class. Maybe that's why he always looked forward to P.E. It was the perfect way to let his brain cool down from trying to keep up with the classroom pace by giving his body a much needed workout. His body may be healthy but sitting around at home studying and fucking around on the internet looking at cat pictures and reading webcomics all day everyday really made his muscles a tad weak.
Putting all things you were actually supposed to do in school aside, Jake really enjoyed and hated the socialness going to school had to offer. Don't get him wrong, it felt good to finally quit being homestuck and look forward to meeting up with Jane and the others. But there was a difference between being surrounded by his friends and being surrounded by hormonal teens and all types of assholes. He learned to handle the crowds on every journey he took to get to his next class, because really, you had no choice but to learn to deal with it. It was inevitable. What he didn't understand was why people had the need to suck each other's faces off in every fucking hallway. The levels of PDA in the whole school broke the damn meter faster than Jane's prankster's gambit ever would.
Then came the actual socializing. The raven haired boy was always wary when starting a conversation with someone new. He soon came to realize that not everybody was easy to talk to like it was with Jane, Roxy, Dirk, and even Calliope. Or that not everybody wanted to talk to him in the first place. Or that there were people who he shouldn't even be talking to, in the first place. Not everyone was exactly trustworthy enough to share things with and not everyone would particularly care about it. It was a thing about hanging out with the right people suitable to you and avoiding the wrong crowd.
And talking about the bad crowd, Jake also found it hard to defend himself when caught in certain situations. He just didn't know in what ways he had to confront it so he usually tried to ignore the people bothering him or just take it. Yet, Dirk was all but pleased when he witnessed the tan boy being pushed around by a couple of bastard jocks in the locker room for P.E. After a few kicks and punches (ok, wow, the guy moved fast), the blond had shoved the shorter male against the lockers, pinning him there, and after seeing no other reaction but a questioning gaze from behind framed glasses, he sighed.
"Look, I know you're a good person and all, but that doesn't mean you should take shit from anyone, ok?" There was a touch a concern in the statement and Jake had to hold back a smile.
"I guess I wouldn't if I knew how," he had said honestly, and after a moment's silence, he continued, "I suppose I should probably at least try to, huh?" The raven haired boy then gave the other a rough push to the shoulders, shoving him off until his back hit the set of lockers straight across. The only thing that had showed Dirk's surprise was how his eyebrows rose above his shades. "How's that?" He felt a wave of pride overflow him at having left the shaded boy speechless and he offered a hand, which was begrudgingly taken. "Let's go before the coach yells at us."
Jake liked talking to Dirk, even when their conversations consisted of mostly smartass remarks being thrown back and forth (Don't even get him started on the raps, or the irony, for that matter, but hey, at least now he knew that the guy wasn't really emotionless, he just liked to hide it). Maybe it was because the mechanic was the only other guy in their little group, who knows, but within the first month, through chatting in class and pestering each other on weekends, they had gone from mere acquaintances to more or less 'best bros'. Not as far as Jane and Roxy being 'BFFsies 4Evers', but close enough. The adventurer hoped that the other felt the same, he had never really had a best friend before. It would be nice if the blond filled in that spot.
But he wouldn't push it. The last thing he wanted to seem like was a clingy and annoying pain in the ass.
Lately, he had felt as if he might be a bit overbearing every time he started the pestering with his friends, so he occasionally let the others message him first. The new and foreign self-consciousness had been bugging him for days now and he found himself confiding in Jane about it more than anyone else. She was the most understanding and always did what she could to help him out, even in his studies. Calliope had a similar attitude, but she was more reserved than the short-haired girl. Roxy also gave good advice and was great at sorting out problems, but he just didn't connect with her as much as he did with Jane. Yet, that same self-consciousness Jane was helping him overcome went and kicked him in the ass the day she had snapped at him after school.
"Jake shut up! I know that this is something that is really eating at you, but that's all you've ever come to talk to me about! And even then, you keep on rambling so much that you barely let me talk! Stop acting like a hypocrite!" The tan boy had winced at her words and stayed quiet, not wanting to anger her more and realizing what he had been doing. What he didn't want to do in the first place.
Fuck, he was stupid.
She had then stormed off in the direction of her house, leaving him in her dust, almost literally.
And so he did what he saw as the most reasonable thing to do after taking a few minutes to talk to his grandma about it when he got home. He lay in bed that night, thinking of an appropriate apology to deliver to the young lady. He had to keep it short, but meaningful. He had to avoid rambling into a fit of apologies because it would end up defeating the purpose of it in the first place. The next day, he arrived to his first class early and was glad to find Jane already sitting in her seat with Roxy not there yet. He hesitantly sat at the desk next to her and she looked at him skeptically, light reflecting off her glasses and wow that was kinda scary to look at. But he couldn't be intimidated by that now. No way.
"Okay," he breathed in, recalling his thoughts from the previous night, "You have every right to be annoyed at me, and I understand if you still are, but I just want to say that I'm really sorry for acting the way I did. I didn't realize how overbearing and selfish I was being until you pointed it out, and it was never my intention to act like that towards you," his fingers tangled gracelessly, " I should have considered your feelings first before going on about mine." Green eyes met blue at the sound of a short giggle, and Jake was confused to see the baker trying to suppress a few laughs.
"Don't worry so much, Jake," she leaned in and stopped, looking unsure, but then quickly giving the boy a chaste kiss on the cheek that then flushed red, "I overreacted in the first place, and it must be hard for you to deal with that kind of stuff. I understand completely."
Sweet damn relief.
So after that little incident, Jake mused a bit over Jane's advice, which went a little like, "just be yourself, but you do tend to go off into a bunch of rambling about yourself sometimes, so simply think a little bit about some of the things you say before you say them". He found her words reasonable enough, and he was able to adjust how he interacted with others to his benefit. Gosh, he sure was glad to have Jane as a friend.
September quickly turned into October, with shorts and tank tops slowly turning into hoodies and boots, ice-cold lemonades turning into coffee and hot chocolate and all that good stuff. Classes finally settled into a daily routine, something Jake had to learn to tolerate.
Lectures, notes, homework, weekly tests and pop quizzes, small projects, worksheets.
Same thing everyday, so boring!
Even though he always self-taught himself most of the material back at home, grandma would always find some fun ways to test his knowledge. She would get some cool videos or try some experiments with him to go with the material he was working on. They even role-played some historical events in the living room! The only classes that offered that much of a hands-on experience was Biology and Art. The other teachers just taught you straight from the textbook, and that was no fun! The adventurer found himself going to Dirk and Jane often for help on essays, assignments that were incredibly foreign to him. Jane for her perfect grammar, Dirk for his wide knowledge.
But Jake had to admit, he liked this change in his life. He felt it was doing him good.
Not to mention Halloween was coming up soon, too! He couldn't wait to show off some of his grandma's homemade pumpkin treats to his friends. Hell, he could even invite them over when Grandma Harely got busy in the kitchen, Janey sure would have a field day with that! The pumpkin patch in the yard looked promising this year!
"So, what are you guy's Halloween plans this year?" Roxy asked after taking a bite out of her pasta and bread lunch. She had to almost shout due to all the cafeteria noises. "It'd be awesome if all of us went trick-or-treating together." The prankster then piped up.
"Oh! It would!" She eagerly turned to Jake, clasping her hands together, "What do you usually do this time of year?"
The boy thought about it for a few moments before answering. "Well, I help my grandmother decorate and bake. I don't really go out trick-or-treating. I just stay home and give out candy." Damn, he really didn't do much with his life.
Did he just now realize that?
I believe so.
Anyways.
"You are so gonna go trick-or-treating with us this year then!" The girl gamer exclaimed. "Have you even dressed up before?"
"I can't say I have?" he trailed off, the strange gleam in her violet eyes was making him a bit hesitant, even more so when she exchanged glances with Jane and Calliope. He nervously looked over at Dirk and oh god he was grinning. It just practically screamed 'You're fucked, bro.' right back at him.
"Oh man. Me, Janey, and Calliope here so got ya covered!" Roxy then nudged her elbow against the artist's arm enthusiastically.
"Ah, well, you see," Calliope closed the notebook she had been writing on and cleared her throat, giving the shorter male an apologetic smile, "I've got a pretty big cosplay collection at home."
"You're basically gonna be the girls' dress up doll this year." Dirk cut in after taking a sip of his orange soda.
Dress up doll.
Okay, don't panic now. They are just three girls. Three girls couldn't just go and force him into frilly dresses with bows, right?
Damn it all, they're girls.
Of course they could force him into it.
"What type of cosplays do you have, exactly?" Jake inquired.
The girl went thoughtful for a few seconds. "Well, the majority of it consists of a bunch of Lolita style dresses," the tan boy cringed at the thought of wearing a dress and he swore that he saw red tint Dirk's cheeks right beneath his shades, "But I have various accessories from comic characters and I'm pretty sure we can combine a few to make something for you," she finished, rushing her sentence after seeing the shorter male make a face at the sound of dresses.
Okay. Jake wasn't sure if he should be scared or not. He was sure they wouldn't let him back out of this now.
Roxy giggled. "I bet Jakey would look adorbs in a Lolita dress."
Maybe he should be scared.
"No I wouldn't! That is such an absurd idea!" He defended, glasses falling down on his nose as he snapped his head to the side to give the blond an annoyed glance, the heat rising to his cheeks.
This only seemed to encourage the girl as she leaned over the table and pinched the boy's cheeks. "But look at you! I bet you'd make straight guys fall for you with your little charms. The gaydar would surely overload!"
"Oh gosh, Roxy, stop." Jane whined, Calliope giggling and the blond male nodding in agreement, shoulders tense, Jake noticed. What's up with him? He looked fine a few minutes ago. The adventurer wished he could see the blond's eyes, maybe then he could at least have an idea of what the boy was actually feeling, instead of assuming. It always frustrated him that Dirk had that advantage of looking at people's eyes and not the other way around. Hopefully he would eventually get a reason for those weird anime shades.
The bell interrupted his thoughts, and all five of them left to their respective classes, but not before the tan boy agreed to pay the artist a visit by the end of the week to check out the costumes.
Maybe this Halloween would be more eventful than his previous ones.
After Note: Okay, another uneventful chapter cuz I'm setting up for next chapter. NEXT CHAPTER IS HALLOWEEN CHAPTER SHIT IS GOING DOWN.
Cuz I can make that happen.
And I'm making Jake a kawai little motherfucker.
Cuz I can.
Hope you enjoyed and you're free to suggest any costume ideas for poor little Jake here. Make them good tho! I was actually considering having the girls force him into a dress for shits and giggles. But no. Just no.
Comments and feedback is always welcomed!
