The loud screech from the school intercoms broke Sal from another nap in History Class. He shot up, perhaps a bit too quickly, earning a weird look from his teacher, who was busy grading papers from today's unit test. Sally Face ignored the man, instead focusing on the sound that echoed through the coms, head tilting to one side for his good ear. The rest of his peers were chatting already, clearly disobeying their teacher's remarks for silence. This was the first Sal found it in himself to agree with the grumpy fuck.

From the seat behind him, Larry touched his hands against Sal's back. It was a thing he did sometimes, especially when the room was too loud for Sal to hear diddly squat. Being half deaf and half blind was good for only a few specific reasons. Right now, it was a curse.

Larry said something, just as Sal turned his head to look at him. His friend's mouth moved, but his voice, low and kinda raspy, was overshadowed by the loud voices of all the other students. Sal shook his head quickly, I can't hear you.

Sally heard Larry say "Fuck", which was when their history teacher finally decided he was fucking fed up with a room of screaming juniors. His voice yelled out from all the other students', so loud Sal covered his working ear and scowled from underneath his mask. Any good thoughts about that man were definitely gone.

All at once, the students grabbed backpacks and purses and bolted out of the room, a herd forming at the doorway. Larry was about to follow in pursuit when Sal stopped him, asking a simple question.

"I couldn't hear anything over all that ruckus. What did they say?"

"On the intercoms?" Larry asked, earning a nod from Sal. "Uhh... Something about the school locking down for the day or something. Yadda, yadda- I don't know dude, but it sounded pretty exciting given everyone's shouting."

Sal scooted out of his desk and draped his backpack over his shoulder. "Whatever it is, it doesn't sound very enjoyable."

"Dude, where'd your enthusiasm go?"

"Out the window when all I could hear was kids our age, screeching."

"Ha, makes sense."

The boys exited from the classroom, leaving behind the hell that was history and encountering Ash and Todd in the hall. They had both witnessed their own fair share of a gleeful experience in their own classrooms. Well, a bit less than Sal and Larry did, considering the kids in Ash's and Todd's classes actually gave a damn about their subjects. Art and AP Technological Science, apparently.

"I can't believe they expected us to drop everything we were previously working on just for some issues involving the school's educational systems," Todd said. In his own smart way, he was bitching about the school lock down, which Sal still didn't know much about. Right now, he convinced himself he would rather know as little about it as possible. "I was right in the middle of conducting another experiment revolving around making more apparitions appear."

"I was just about done sketching my painting for the final!" Ash sounded the most upset. She was even frowning, her sketchbooks held tightly against her chest.

Larry shared Ash's emotions. "Yeah dude! Making you stop sketching for some cool shit is fucking insane!"

"Does anybody actually know what they're doing with this school lock down thing?" Sal asked. He was tired of not knowing now. Just tell me what shit we've been thrown into, and I think I can handle it.

Todd adjusted his glasses. "They're making us stay at the school until our parents can pick us up. Something about how the security for the building needs repairing and it would take the entirety of the day."

"So, it's safer for us to stay here, where kids smoke crack in the bathrooms and the lunch school is inedible?" Sal asked, already not liking the sound of this scenario.

"I have snacks!" Ash piped, in which Larry praised her with "All hail our savior, Ashley Campbell!".

Sal wasn't convinced, unfortunately. "I still don't feel like this entire thing is safe. I just... Don't like the sound of it."

Larry's expression took an impressive change. He gave Sally Face a wide-eyed look. "Do you think they're planning some fucked-up cult thing?"

"A sacrifice?" Todd questioned.

Ash shuddered. "I really hope not. The things we found in that temple underneath the apartments and the things in Packerton's room..."

Larry grimaced. "Dude- please don't remind me of that!"

"I don't think they're going to make a sacrifice or turn us into lunch meat or anything like that," Sal said, trying to reassure them. "I just... I don't know. The entire thing doesn't feel right. When is there ever an instance where a high school would lock their students in because apparently the security technology has gone to shit?"

"Good point," Todd said, smiling. "I think the entire situation is abnormal. We should proceed with caution, given regards to how the school is handling this."

"I hope my mom will be able to pick me up soon, man," Larry mumbled.

That was when Sal remembered something. Something he should've remembered before they all started talking. "Shit!"

All of his friends bombarded him with a unison of "What!?".

"I forgot my dad is out of town again for work!" He groaned, fingers running through the blue bangs that covered the forehead part of his prosthetic.

"I can get my mom to pick you up too, since your dad and my mom are such good friends!" Larry said, but Sal shook his head.

"Well, good luck Sally Face," Ash said. Her voice was soft with sympathy, and she gave him a curt hug. "I have to use the bus to get home. Not having to go to lunch means I have enough money to afford a ride."

"I don't think you can just leave," Todd said. "If that were true, me, Larry and Sal could just walk to the apartment complex. It's approximately only a two and a half mile walk."

"Well, I can just lie that my parents are picking me up and sneak over to the bus stop." But everybody knew that Ash's suggestion was a stupid one. Risky and stupid. Even Ash herself knew how much of an idiotic idea that was.

"Dude, let's just camp!"

Sal looked at his shoes. "Nobody will be home to take care of Gizmo..." That was an excuse and a cover-up for Sal's actual emotions. Gizmo could take care of himself just fine. He was well-fed and the cat was smart. It was more of Sal's neverending anxiety about what this situation could entail. He really didn't want to know what would be awaiting them.

Nonetheless, the four of them were eventually rounded up with the other students crowding the hallway and pulled into the auditorium. At a first glance, there was no way in hell the auditorium would be able to hold all the children that attended Nockfell High, and adding in the staff would have made that impossible, but they did. It was either the inside of the building was bigger than it seemed, or there were less people who worked and attended at the school.

Either way, neither of those trains of thoughts could lower Sal's anxiety. He pulled his sleeves over his hands and tried to keep his gaze to the floor, sticking close to Larry's side. Sal could handle people. He could handle parties. But where there were hundreds of people being overly loud and obnoxious, screaming in glee about how the school system has gone to shit and their lives have just gotten better... Well, Sally Face couldn't handle that.

Organized by year and what their homeroom teacher was, the group of four broke apart. Sal felt a feeling of dread, watching the three of his closest friends being grouped away into a place that wasn't his. Chug and Maple weren't even in his group, which made Sal feel more like shit. Slowly, he lowered himself to a wall of the auditorium, plopping himself on the floor. The back buckles of his mask dug ever so slightly into his scalp, but he embraced the feeling. Anything would be better than some panic attack. He listened to his homeroom teacher trying to count the children she was supposed to take care of, catching his name and one that he couldn't help but peerk his head at.

Travis Phelps.

Maybe a year ago, Sal would have dreaded being in the same homeroom as Travis. The guy made freshman year and the beginning half of Sal's sophomore year a living hell, which Sal was honestly not a stranger to. But one fateful event led to another, specifically when Sally Face and his friends were trying to figure out what was wrong with the school bologna. Locked inside of one of the stalls in the bathroom was Travis himself, a conclusion that Sal could only come to thanks to a crumpled up note that just missed being dunked into the trash can. It was all because of that fateful encounter that Sal learned three things about Travis he wished he knew before.

1. Travis didn't actually hate Sal and his friends.

2. Travis was lonely, and wanted friends too.

3. Travis was secretly homosexual.

Sal also got the feeling Travis liked him. That Travis was gay for him. It was an odd thing to think about, and Sal was never against liking boys. Honestly, he'd never really kissed a boy or a girl before, so the entire thing sounded foreign to him. But just the thought of it made him shiver. Nobody could really kiss him. Ever. Sal's prosthetic and means of never allowing anybody see his face purposefully made sure of that.

But that didn't mean he wasn't curious. Especially curious about the true contents of Travis's note. Sal found the blond-haired boy in the crowd, isolating himself just like Sal was. Slowly, he pushed himself up from the floor and walked over to him, keeping clear of any people that could accidentally knock into his blind side.

The coast was clear and Sal was able to successfully arrive at Travis's spot. Another wall, sitting down on another floor. Trying to give the guy respect, Sally sat a few inches away from him. Neither of them talked.

Several times, Sal caught Travis sneaking glances at him. Yeah, and he saw that uncertainty. There really didn't need to be words, but Travis said something anyways. Something that sounded rather un-Travis of him.

"Hi."

Sal nodded. "Hey."

"...What are you doing?"

"Sitting next to you."

Travis looked away from Sal quickly. "...Where'd your buddies go?"

"Oh, they don't share the same homeroom as I do this semester. But you and I do, so yeah..."

"...Oh."

"Yeah, heheh..."

Why was this so damn awkward? Sal cleared his throat, unzipping his backpack and pulling out a small container of applesauce. He normally relied on a plastic straw to help him slurp it up, just to help keep the contents of what was underneath his mask a secret. But he seemed to have forgotten one. Instead, Sal offered it to Travis. Just a simple action of kindness.

Travis gave him a confused look, a strange mix with him trying to also look tough. "What's that?"

"Applesauce, duh!"

"Oh... Uhm..."

It was a few seconds before Travis reached out a hand and took the applesauce from Sal's hand. Then their fingers touched, just slightly. Neither of them moved, Travis looked deep at Sal, into his eyes. And Sal looked right back at him, watching that toughness fade away. And... Was Travis starting to blush?

Sal cleared his throat. That broke the awkward, frozen interaction. Travis pulled the container away, holding it in his hands as if it was glass. "Uhm... Sorry if you don't like applesauce. That's all I really have, and all I eat sometimes."

"Because of the mask?"

"Yeah. My prosthetic."

Travis looked at the floor. Again. "...How many people, do you think, want to know what you actually look like?"

Sal laughed. He couldn't help it. "Too many!" Travis didn't say anything, but Sal already knew what he was thinking. "But it's better if people didn't know."

"Why not?"

"Just because. I mean, it's not like I look very dashing. With my prosthetic on, I look better. Trust me."

Every ounce of air in Sal's lungs vanished at the moment Travis's next words hit his ear:

"I don't."

Underneath his mask, Sal felt warm. What the hell? He looked away from Travis quickly, attention turned to the black nailpoilish on his fingernails. Sal proceeded to pick away at them, an action he did when he was bored or anxious. But he wasn't either. Was he flustered? That was impossible! There were many people that wondered about Sal's true appearance, but only a few have ever seen it. Ash, when she was cleaning blood off his face, ignoring Sal's protests when she unblucked his prosthetic in the halls! His dad, and Larry. Neither of them commented about it. Actually, neither of them said anything awful about the scars and the missing skin and all that stuff.

"Sal Fisher?"

Sal's existence came back to reality. He looked over at Travis, who called his name. "U-Uhh... Yeah?"

"Are you an angel?"

He thought about that for a while. "I don't think so."

Travis looked at the ground. "Hmm... You're so nice, I think I almost thought you were."

"Wow. That's nice of you, Travis."

"I've been trying."

Sal smiled. But it wasn't like he could see it. "That's good to know. And hey- maybe someday, you'll get to see my most guarded secret."

"I don't think you mean that."

"Maybe not, but you were the one who called me an 'angel'."

Travis laughed. A good-to-honest laugh. Not the one he used when mocking Sal or his friends. It felt good to hear him actually laugh. And he smiled too, moving his head to look at Sal again, smile on full display. "Touche, Sally Face. Touche."