Chapter 14- Sleep, Oblivious and School
Chuckie yawned as he unlocked the door to his house. Closing and locking the door behind him as he walked in Chuckie startled when his dad started speaking right behind him.
"Hey Chuckie. You're back late. I thought you were just going over to talk to Tommy quickly. Not go for a drive. You had me worried." Chaz said.
"Sorry dad." Chuckie said, giving Chaz a hug, "I just, something happened at dinner with Tommy and Dil's mum and they didn't want to be in the house at that moment. They were at the park when I got there. I thought that a drive might calm them down so I just went with Tommy's plan and went stargazing. Sorry for worrying you." Chuckie continued.
"It's okay. Just tell me what's going on next time, 'kay?" Chaz asked with a smile.
"Okay dad." Chuckie said smiling as well.
"Now off to bed with you mister… You've had a long day and look exhausted."
"Yeah." Chuckie mumbled, yawning again.
"Goodnight Son." Chaz said with a smile as Chuckie went upstairs to his room.
"Goodnight dad." Chuckie said turning at the top of the stairs and smiling at him.
Chuckie yawned as he closed the door to his room and collapsed onto his bed before realising that pyjamas would be a good idea. With a groan he got up again and got changed, going to the bathroom and bushing his teeth quickly while he was up.
Returning to his room, taking off his glasses and collapsing onto the bed under the covers Chuckie slowly fell asleep.
-Sleeping-
What felt like minutes later but was actually hours his alarm went off and he startled awake.
Quickly turning of his screeching alarm he groaned and closed his eyes, almost falling back asleep before his second alarm went off.
He slammed his hand down onto the blaring clock and sat up rubbing his eyes, picking the sleep out of them before putting on his glasses and going to have breakfast.
It felt like he hadn't slept at all as he yawned into his coffee before taking a sip and making some toast.
"You okay bro?" Kimi asked in her usual chipper voice as she walked into the kitchen and made cereal before sitting down at the table and eating it.
"Yea-" Chuckie mumbled before getting interrupted by a yawn, "I'm fine." Chuckie continued before getting startled when his toast popped up.
Kimi giggled and said, "Calm down bro. Its just toast."
"I know that." Chuckie snapped back and started buttering his toast.
Kimi smirked at his back as she finished her cereal.
"Tommy texted you." Kimi said as she slurped her milk, "Said he'd be here in a ten minutes... And then the message continues but I can't read it." Kimi continued before rushing off to brush her hair.
Chuckie meanwhile finished putting butter and the American version of Vegemite onto his toast before transferring his coffee into a portable mug and then going to get changed quickly while munching on the toast wrapped in a napkin that was in his hand.
Quickly chucking a pair of jeans and his normal Neptune shirt onto the bed he started to get dressed, tying his shoes just as he heard the horn.
Waving out his window with a grin Chuckie grabbed the toast off of his desk where he'd put it to get changed and his bag before rushing downstairs, grabbing his coffee, phone and keys before going out the front door and locking it behind him.
"Letsa go." Chuckie said with a grin as he hoped into the front.
"Breakfast on the run?" Tommy asked with a grin as he pulled out of the driveway.
"Yep. Second alarm day." Chuckie said with a grin at Tommy.
"Thought so." Tommy said with a chuckle.
Chuckie took a sip of his coffee as they pulled up in front of Phil and Lil's house.
Tommy honked and we waited. Soon enough they both came running out. Like Chuckie they were both holding portable mugs and toast.
"Is everybody just having a late start today?" Tommy asked grinning as Lil hopped into the back and kissed Kimi before sipping at what he was going to assume was coffee.
"No. I woke up early." Kimi said with a smirk.
"Same." Tommy said before sticking out a hand and saying, "Air five."
Kimi grinned and gave Tommy an air hi-five.
Meanwhile Phil sat next to Dil and continued on their conversation from yesterday, both of them stopping at points to drink from their individual coffee mugs.
"Okay then. Now to pick up Susie and Angelica." Tommy announced and most of them groaned.
"Ang texted me this morning, she even asked nicely." Tommy said as he drove to her house.
Parking on the side of the road next to Angelica's house Tommy honked the horn and waited for the two girls to come out of the house.
Angelica was yawning and holding a mug as she left the house and came down the driveway. Followed by Suzie who was slightly more awake but also with a mug.
"Let me guess... Coffee?" Tommy asked with a smirk as Suzie got into the back and Angelica folded down the chair.
"Yep." Angelica said, yawning again before taking a sip.
"It's needed after last night." Suzie said with a grin.
"Do I even want to know?" Lil asked, smirking as she took a sip from her own mug.
"Probably not." Angelica said smirking back at the younger girl.
"Oh Angey don't be so crude." Suzie said, ruffling her girlfriend's hair before continuing while Angelica whined, "We stayed up studying for most of the night, stupid project that Angelica forgot that she had. I'm helping her cause I'm such a nice girlfriend."
"You fell asleep on me just after one a.m." Angelica whined, fixing up her hair.
"I was tired. I'm sorry." Suzie said with a small pout.
"It's okay. Can you help me again tonight though? I'm almost done." Angelica said, turning around and kissing the pout off of Suzie's lips.
"I'll come home with you again." Suzie said after she pulled away from the kiss with a smile.
"And we're here." Tommy said, pulling into a spot in the student parking lot.
"Cool." Chuckie said, getting out and opening the sliding back door.
Angelica got out and she folded up her seat, letting Suzie, Lil and Kimi get out while she asked Tommy if Suzie and her could have a ride home.
"Sure." Tommy said as the eight of them walked into the school building, each holding their own conversations.
"Your locker's near mine isn't it?" Phil asked Dil as they walked along next to each other, bumping shoulders and hands together as they talked.
"Yeah. I noticed that yesterday." Dil said blushing lightly.
"I did too." Phil said with a grin, grabbing Dil's hand as he pushed through the crowd, not wanting to lose his friend.
"Th-Thanks." Dil said when they finally made it to the other side.
"No problem." Phil said, pulling Dil over to his locker and unlocking it to pull out his books. Only letting go of the others hand when he realised that he needed it to hold his books.
Dil blushed deeply while Phil got his books. And to avoid the older boy seeing it he turned and went to his locker, struggling with the lock on it for a while as his blush went down. And then it was back, cheeks even redder then before when Phil put his hand on top of Dil's that was fiddling with the combo.
"Let me help." Phil said with a grin.
"Th-Thanks." Dil stuttered, "But I think I've got this." Dil twisted the dial one more time and the lock clicked open, "Toda." Dil said, grinning at Phil as he got out his stuff.
"Cool. Took me two weeks to figure out mine." Phil said with a smile before he noticed how red Dil's face was, "Are you okay dude? Your face is all red, did you catch what Tommy and Chuckie had?" Phil asked, worried as he placed one hand on Dil's cheek and another onto his forehead.
"I-I'm f-fine Phil." Dil said, pushing Phil's hands off his face as the bell went, "I've gotta go. See ya at lunch!" Dil called to a bewildered Phil as he rounded the corner.
"Okay, see ya." Phil mumbled as Lil made her usual appearance of being late to her locker cause she was with Kimi.
"You okay bro?" Lil asked as she unlocked her locker and got out a few books.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just worried about Dil. He seems to have caught whatever Tommy and Chuckie had yesterday. He's acting weird around me as well." Phil said as the two of them walked to their first class.
Homeroom.
"I'm sure he's fine Phil." Lil said with a grin. Her brother was more oblivious then Tommy.
~Right after Dil and Phil left them~
"I realised I had a crush on you when I was seven or eight you know?" Chuckie said as Tommy and him walked down the hall to their lockers.
"Really?" Tommy asked eyes wide in disbelief that he hadn't manage to pick up even the slightest hint that Chuckie had a crush on him. Then again Tommy had just thought that Chuckie was looking, smiling and blushing at the girls in their group but the whole time he'd been the one that Chuckie's attention had been on.
"Yeah." Chuckie mumbled, "I was really confused for a long time about how I could love you and be just your best friend. Then I asked myself, 'Why can't I have both?' I was just too nervous to tell you for a few years." Chuckie chuckled.
"Just a few years?" Tommy asked, laughing as well.
"Yeah, just a few… You know, like ten." Chuckie said, grinning, "Not that anyone would blame me. You were oblivious, Lil realised before you did, and it's not like I was trying to hide that I was attracted to you." Chuckie was blushing and smiling at Tommy right as he reached his locker.
"I'm sorry that I was so oblivious." Tommy mumbled as Chuckie got out books before they went to his locker just a bit further down the hall.
"It's okay. Would've been bad if you had realised and freaked out about your sexuality and if you liked me back." Chuckie said smiling at the younger boy.
"I don't know my sexuality." Tommy mumbled as they reached his locker and he spun in the code, "I just know that I like you a lot." Tommy grinned back at Chuckie before pulling out books and pens and stuff for his classes.
"I like you too Tommy." Chuckie said right before the bell for homeroom went off.
"Gotta scram." Tommy said, lightly squeezing Chuckie's hand and walking to his homeroom.
"See you at lunch." Chuckie called before walking in the other direction.
"Yeah." Tommy mumbled as he turned a corner and walked into homeroom for the first time that year.
"Greetings Ma'am." Tommy said with a grin at the homeroom teacher he'd had since he'd started at this school.
"Hi Tommy." Miss Baker replied, smiling at the teen that she'd know for a few years, "How are you today deary?"
"I'm pretty good." Tommy said smiling happily at his favourite teacher, "What about you?" He asked as they waited for the rest of the class that was slowly dawdling in.
"Good, Good, I'm very good. My baby is off to collage this weekend. I'm so proud of him." Miss Baker gushed happily, very excited for her little boy.
"That's great. Where's he going?" Tommy asked, wondering about the kid who used to come in after school and help his mum.
"Oh he's off to Harvard. He's going to be a doctor."
"That's really cool. Good luck to him." Tommy said before taking a seat near the front of the class as the final bell went and Miss Baker started the roll call.
"Now that that's done." Miss Baker said with a smile, "We can get started. Now, I heard that there is a huge geography assignment coming up in the next few weeks. So we can work on that once you all have it. You probably don't have much to do being the second day but this as usual is to be used to catch up and do homework. Got it? You who've had me before know how I roll but for those who haven't, I'm fine with quiet chatter as long as you're doing something productive."
Tommy smiled as he got out some of the stuff from yesterday. He heard the same speech every year that he'd been here and it comforted him to hear it again.