"What! Theater? So you actually joined the club?" My boy, Travis, has finally grown up!
"Yeah I did!" he's smiling so hard I'm afraid it'll hurt. "I mean I'm not gonna do anything crazy," he says coming down from his high. "I figured I could just do some small roles and see if the club is even for me."
'Is he shy?' "Have you ever been in a play before?" 'What if he has stage fright!'
He nods his head. "When I was a little kid I was in a few small plays and stuff. But I liked it and I kind of want to try it now that I'm in high school."
"Good for you Travis! I'll come to all of your plays and stuff!"
"Really?! But wait. What if I get cast as a rock or something?"
"Well you better be the better rock ever or I'll be super disappointed in you."
"Do you really think I can do it?"
"Hey! Stop being sad! I said you can do it and that's all that matters. I'll cheer you on in the audience like an obnoxious super fan and I'll even make t-shirts with your face on them."
He laughs. "Thanks. That's really nice of you."
"Alright students! Settle down" the homeroom calls the room to attention interrupting the rest of our conversation. "I know we're in our homeroom period right know but I have an announcement to make!" There was a kid standing next to him. He was around Travis' height with brown hair and green eyes. "We have a new transfer student joining our class!" he said pushing the new kid forward. "Everyone welcome Vylad Romaeve!"
The new kid steps forward. "Hi!"
"Wait? Romaeve? Does that mean you're related to-"
New kid smiles and interrupts. Yup! That emo kid in the back of the room is my older brother. Hey bro!"
The emo kid in the back of the room groans and tells Vylad to shut up and I'm barely able to keep myself from laughing at the entire encounter. After that was settled, Vylad was told to take a seat and looked a little lost so I called him over.
"Hey, Vylad! My name's Aphmau and it's nice to meet you!"
He looks over at me surprised. "hey!" he says walking over. " I wasn't expecting anyone to talk to me so soon."
"Yeah! I have almost no shame regarding myself and other people. Plus, I kind of know how it feels to be new and alone, we're freshmen after all," I giggle. "This is Travis, my Not-Alone Buddy™."
He waves. "Hey, Vylad! Nice to meet you."
"Same to you Travis. It's kinda nice that you approached me like that," he pauses clearly having trouble with my name. "Aphmeow. Ah, sorry. Is that how you say your name."
I laugh. "No, it's Aph-mau, kind of like meow but without the 'E'. But don't worry, a lot of people get my name wrong the first few times."
"By the way," he askes. "What's a Not-Alone Buddy™?"
"Oh, um," I laugh. I can't think of how to explain this without sounding weird. "It's something Travis and I came up with on our first day because we were both awkward and didn't know what friends did. Now he's my minion and can never leave."
"Wait why am I the minion?" Travis says interrupting my tangent.
"Because I'm obviously the protagonist," I explain patting his head condescendingly. "You're like a mix of early Ginny Weasley and Peter Pettigrew."
He nods his head hesitantly. "I'm confused, do I at least get a minion outfit?"
"Nope," I smile.
"That's great..." Vylad interjects. "But why don't you just call each other friends?"
"Friend?" I drag out as if I'm testing its pronunciation. "What is this strange term you just made up? I only know of Not-alone buddies™ ."
"I don't know Aphmau," Travis decides to play along. "His new word is shorter and easier to say."
I hum. "I'll think about it. So!" I exclaim cutting the act. "What do you like to do for fun new Not-Alone Buddy™ ?"
"I just like to sit around and hang out."
"Omg me too!" I yell out.
"Right! We have so much in common," Travis agrees.
"I love being lazy but my mom disagrees with unproductiveness so I run in my free time. I'm also in Magicks, Science, Math, Debate, Soccer and Music Club."
Their jaws drop. "Wow."
Vylad is the first to recover. "Do you have any free time?"
"Well yeah. They don't meet every day, not even every week; magicks, and music club meet during lunch and are basically optional classes teaching theory and real-life applications. I also try to get my homework done in school so I don't have to take it home," it's not that big of a deal. "What about you Vylad?"
"Well my mom made me sign up for fencing classes, so I've been doing that for a while now."
"Ooo, fencing!"
"You get to play with swords?" Travis is starstruck. "Cool!"
Vylad smiles shaking his head. "It's not that cool. I mostly fight saber because it has the least rules. Wait-" he looks worried. "Is there a fencing team here?"
Travis and I glance at each other confused. "Um, I don't think so?"
"Perfect! One less thing I'll have to do." Vylad looks contemplative. "Maybe I can stop taking lessons too."
"So you don't like playing with swords?" such a thing is inconceivable! "It sounds fun to me, at least the learning how to use swords part."
"Well, you can play with swords all you want. My mom said each of us had to play at least one sport. Garroth chose baseball and I chose fencing," he explained
"Cool!" Wait, Garroth? "Wait, Ro'meave?" he nodded. "You're Garroth's brother?" he nodded again. "So you, Emo Kid and Garroth are related?" I think his head is gonna fall off. I'm so confused.
"Yup. we're addressed fondly as the Ro'meave brothers. But Zane over there would like to stay as far away from that title as possible."
'But you're nothing alike!' I don't think I'll be able to wrap my head around this. "What sport was Zane forced to play?" I can't picture him playing a sport.
"Zane's the exception. Mom says he's sensitive," he chuckles. "Doesn't want a sport to rough him up."
Their relation must be something. I glance at Zane. "What's it like?"
"Living with Zane?"
"And Garroth. Zane is dark and broody and Garroth is hot and mysterious," I grin. "Do they act the same at home?"
"First ew, Garroth isn't hot or mysterious; he's loud and goofy," he pauses thinking. "And Zane isn't always like this. He wanted to go to O'Khasis Prep bu the didn't get in. the last thing he wanted was to go through high school in Garoth's shadow."
"That must be rough," Travis sympathizes.
"Zane thinks so. I have no problem with it." Vylad disagrees. "I knew he wasn't too happy about being here, but I didn't think he'd be this salty. Anyway," he gets back on track. "No, he's not always 'dark and broody'. Sometimes he can be a good brother. Sometimes. He and Garroth can get along but he's going through a 'darkness and pain' phase right now," then he mumbles something under his breath.
"What?" cake?
"He's not too fond of me, but he and Garroth fight too often these days. It must be a brother thing."
"So you aren't their brother?" I'm so confused. What are these family dynamics?
"Well yeah but all of that sounds like a lot of work, and who want to do that?"
"I agree completely! And don't worry about Zane, whether it's a phase or not, you guys are family so you're forced to stick together. He'll eventually be forced to make nice." I giggle. "Maybe we should invite him to-" The bell rings.
Travis gets up. "There's the bell! I've got Bio and I need to be there early to get a good seat."
"Lucky," I groan. "I have werewolf class."
"Ouch. Is it really necessary for you to be there?"
"No. but it's too late for me to transfer out so I'm stuck for the rest of the year," I whine. It's not that I hate the class it's mostly history and theory, things I can do in my sleep, but I can tell when I'm not welcome and Balto likes to remind me every time I see him. "Anyway, good luck you guys, I'll see you tomorrow."
Travis runs out. "See ya!"
"So Vylad. What class do you have? I'll lead you there."
"I have," he looks at his schedule. "Home Ec. People still teach that class?"
"Ok let's go!" I grab his hand rushing to room 305. "Home Ec. is great because t teaches you life skills and you can eat any creations you make. I call it 'second lunch'," I giggle.
"So you take it?"
"No," I puff my cheeks out.
"I don't remember signing up for this class though."
"Well," I think it over. "You might have had too little classes in your schedule. It doesn't matter in the long run," I reassure him. "If you really don't want to take it you should try to get it changed asap," I look up. "And we're here!" I drop him off and prepare to sprint. "I've got to rush to 203 but I hope you really enjoy your time at Phoenix Drop High!"
I'm running through the halls because I really don't want to be late when I stumble upon Gene and friends vandalizing the school. They turn simultaneously when they realize I'm there, which is really creepy, and Gene looks like the cat that caught the canary.
"Well, what do we have here?"
"Yeah hi," I back up a little looking for a way out. "Um, I'm gonna be late to class so if you could just let me go?" I try to run past.
And he stops me. "Hey, what's the rush? Don't you want to hang out?"
"No," I'm getting a little impatient. "The second bell hasn't rung yet and that means I have less than five minutes to get where I'm going, so if you could just get out of my way," I try sidestepping him again.
And again he refuses to get out of my way. "Wow Freshman-"
And now I'm done. "Don't call em freshman!" the bell rings. "I need to get to class because I'm a goodie two shoes and I don't want to be late! If you want to bother me do it later please!" I finally get past him and arrive at Werewolf class five minutes late.
"Ms. Aphmau glad you could make it." Mr. Kevin calls me out before I could even attempt to sneak into my seat.
"I'm so sorry," I try to explain. "I had to take my friend-"
"No excuses!" he interrupts. "It's only five minutes and I haven't sent down the attendance so you're off the hook this time. Get to your seat."
I walk with my head down to sit next to Scary Boy who decides to add to my misery.
"I thought you transferred out of this class," he growls.
I am done with boys forever. "I don't want to hear it from you," I growl back.
"Whatever, I guess we're stuck in this class together then."
"Shut up."
Why am I stuck with him?
