Disclaimer: I do not own Recess.
A/N: I am not American and so I apologise in advance if any of my Americanisms are wrong (would also appreciate it if you told me where they are and what to use instead). Thank you and enjoy.
High School. I don't know about you but it always reminded me of an ants nest. Riddled with far too many beings, and some of them bite. Perhaps this was why Gretchen Grundler always came into school half an hour early every school day, to avoid the swarms of bodies that push and shove they way in every morning. Though, she would argue that coming in early was an effective way to heighten brain activity before a day of learning. Definitely not to avoid people and get a good parking spot, don't be ridiculous.
For her 17th birthday Gretchen had been given a two seat pickup truck, at first she thought this to be a strange choice of car for her but found it to be incredibly useful as it allowed for her to take her large, and extremely expensive, telescope to the top of different hills allowing her to fully appreciate the night sky (and even though hills had the best vantage point for looking at the stars she much preferred going to the -somewhat overgrown- old park where no one ever went, it was more peaceful there). Her pickup - which she loving named 'Hypatia' after the famous astronomer, mathematician and inventor Hypatia of Alexandria - was always parked in the far back corner of the parking lot, underneath a large cherry blossom tree. Gretchen found this tree to be both beautiful and irksome as during the fall her car would be covered in leaves and petals.
With the extra half hour that Gretchen had she would usually spend in her homeroom studying and going over class notes, or occasionally reading an article or two on her phone about the newest scientific advancement in medical research or the newest plans for future space travel. Never did she have to rush homework or essays before class because she always did them the day they were set, she was organised. Though this particular morning she wasn't the first one in homeroom. Vince LaSalle was sat at his usual seat at the back of the class, slouched in his chair staring at his phone. As Gretchen came in he glanced up, before looking away and back down to his phone - he didn't seem to care she was there. Surprisingly, Gretchen and Vince had had homeroom together every single year of high school, but unsurprisingly they had never said a word to one another.
Gretchen wondered why he was in so early, but her thoughts were soon consumed by her notes from yesterday's Advanced Physics class. Vince's thoughts on the other hand weren't as focused, his mind seemed to be all over the place and had been for a while. He was stressed. His grades were only just hitting averages, he had the big basketball game on Thursday and race for track on Friday, Ashley A. (his girlfriend of just over five months) was driving him up the wall with the constant partying every weekend, and to top it all off he forgot his lunch money! Very stressful indeed. He hasn't been able to sleep very well lately because of all the stress, and has come accustomed to the casual night stroll - except last night's stroll started at four in the morning and ended at school. He scrolled through the various songs on his phone trying to find a good one to sooth his slow-growing stress induced headache, he settled with Raphael by CocoRosie thinking of what his friends would say to him if they ever found out he listened to such 'weird, pansy, bitch' music as he pressed play.
The clock ticked on, and Vince and Gretchen sat in silence. Gretchen went from Advanced Physics, to Advance Biology, to Advanced Chemistry. And Vince went from Raphael, to Hopscotch, to By Your Side. Fellow students began to enter into the home room and Vince couldn't help but notice when some girl - he had no idea who, but she looked nerdy - came in and sat next to Gretchen all they did was extend a friendly 'hello' to each other before burying themselves in books. Gretchen, of course, was used to this somewhat unsociable-ness that came from Annabelle, and other students like her who preferred books; and studying, than people. By this point it was officially nine o'clock and their homeroom teacher came in to take morning registration and, not that Vince was surprised, Chad Beso came in late. Chad Beso was, like Vince, a popular jock and, unlike Vince, was a giant dick. Vince unlocked his phone and closed his music app so that Chad wouldn't be able to pick fun at him, though I very much doubt that would stop him.
"Mornin' Vinnie!" Chad clambered down next to Vince and slapped him on the back as a friendly 'bro' greeting. "Did ya heard about Sammy and Ashley Q? Hahaha, oh man! What a mess, right? Oh man let me tell you…" Chad's drabble went on and on and Vince managed to tone most of it out, just giving the occasional nod here and there convinced Chad that 'Vinnie' was listening to the oh so important news.
The school bell chimed and everyone began to leave for their lessons, Gretchen collected her things and put them back in her bag even though she knew she would have to get them back out again in just a moment as she had Advanced Biology and Math first thing before lunch. She left the room quickly in hopes to move through the corridors before every student fought their way to their respective classrooms. Vince on the other hand took his sweet time, attempting to delay the next hour and a half he would have to spend with Mr. Eger in World History. Vince made his way, in the opposite direction from his forgotten friend Gretchen, towards his locker taking out his History and note book and turning off his phone putting it away - knowing that if Eger even saw an outline of a phone in a pocket that he'd take it away. He wasn't the first to World History but he wasn't late. He took at seat at the back of the class - he almost always sat at the back. And so did someone else, Gus, though that was mainly because he got sick of people saying that they couldn't see the board because of him. Gus sat with only a seat between him and Vince, no one sat in that seat next to them - surprisingly World History wasn't that popular of a subject - and a couple of times Vince would ask Gus if he could borrow a pencil and if Gus was sick when he would come back he would ask Vince what he missed to which Vince would just reply by letting him borrow his notes. Sometimes they even saw each other at the school gym and would exchange a small and quick smile but that was all that was left of their friendship; careless smiles, pencils, and class notes. The second bell rang indicating that the lesson had begun but Mr. Eger still wasn't there - and he was never late.
A tired looking temp teacher walked through the door, sat down at the desk and started using a laptop, she took registration and then made the announcement that "Mr. Eger isn't in today so he has left you with this documentary to watch on Ancient Egypt, he want's you to know that this is not a free lesson and expects you all to take notes and prepare for a pop quiz on Ancient Egypt when he gets back." the class collectively sighed and groaned and the temp started the documentary, on the box like TV that was mounted to the wall, before leaving. Vince slouched back in his chair, regretting putting his phone away, and Gus leaned forward into his hand, paper and pencil at the ready even though he knew that he probably wouldn't take that many notes.
The time dragged on painfully before the bell rang again, and Vince and Gus left each other without saying a word. Vince now had basketball practice and went to his locker to put back his books and get his gym locker key, Gus on the other hand now had free lesson, usually Gus spent free lessons in the gym but today he felt like going outside. Eighth Street High School was a fairly big school, with two auditoriums (one for theatre and announcements the other for indoor sports), a large canteen and a outdoor eating square, a football and track field, and student and staff parking. So Gus had no problem finding somewhere quiet to sit, he decided to go through the canteen and to the outdoor eating square since it was a nice day. The square was, well a square - two sides made from the walls of the High School and the other two sides made from fence that looked out onto the car park. In the square there were picnic tables for people to eat at and in the middle of the square was a tall oak tree that had benches built around it to form a long sort of circle bench - simply called the circle bench by students.
Gus went to go and sit down at one of the picnic tables - the one in the furthest corner - when he heard voices talking. "Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love." It was Mikey, dramatically reading an extract from Hamlet - or as Gus thought 'some Shakespeare shit' - to some of the other theatre kids. In seeing that Mikey was here Gus decided to go back inside and sat at a table in the canteen, he pulled out his Math book from his bag and some potato chips, he knew he should of done his Math homework over the weekend but The Lost Boys trilogy was just screaming his name and he couldn't resist. Mikey and him were the last members of the group to become distant. In middle school, 7th Grade was when everyone really started to fall away from each other and Mikey and Gus where the last to hit the ground, it wasn't until 8th Grade that Mikey joined the theatre group and eventually left Gus behind, unintentionally of course but that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt.
Mikey's theatre group was and out of school group - for both high schoolers and middle schoolers - and he usually spent his time with other members of the group as they all shared the same interests. However, he often found their behaviour towards others, well, rude.
"Oh bravo Michael! Bravo!" Benjamin applauded, and so did the few others who were there with him - Cynthia, Claude, and Nancy. Benjamin was your typical drama kid; dressed in all black, wore a beret, and was constantly quoting any and every literary piece of work he could.
"Very well enunciated, a grand read indeed. However, I still think we should stick with doing Macbeth instead of Hamlet - I personally think Macbeth to be the better of Shakespeare's works, don't you?" He asked turning to the others, they nodded in obedient agreement - one never disagrees with Benjamin, head of theatre group - and Benjamin then began reciting extracts from Macbeth and mumbling about who would play who. Mikey sat down with a sigh, for once he would like to do a performance he wanted. Sure he loved all of Shakespeare's works but he really, really, really wanted to do Hamlet this time.
Mikey looked around the square and appreciated the beautiful day mentally noting to himself to take the animals, at the shelter, outside today. Benjamin handed Mikey a copy of Macbeth, knowing him out of his thoughts and back into the reality of theatre group leaders who evidently only do what they want no matter how good your performance of Hamlet is. Time dragged on slowly and they read Macbeth and before Mikey knew it, it was lunch.
A/N: More to come! Things will get very interesting very soon ;)
