Chapter 5

Slowly surfacing, there seemed to be silence. The music must have stopped. Some time ago. The time. Homeschool's music. Going to see Homeschool. The time…

Strong Sad bolted up when he realised he had no idea what time it was. He found a random watch on his table and saw it was ten minutes past four. He jumped up and pulled his hooded sweatshirt on, grabbing his backpack and any other things he might want to take. He almost tripped down the stairs he was getting in such a rush for reasons unknown to him. He just had this urge to go next door. He had to go there at that moment. He didn't have time. Time. What a weird concept. He was afraid it would drag on, and he'd be so bored he'd end up leaving early. It turns out it slipped through his fingers like water. Stupid sponge-lake. It probably didn't even mean anything.

The only thing that brought this insanity to a halt was finding that he was standing directly behind Homeschool, unlocking his door. He turned around and cast Strong Sad a confused look, shortly before turning back to getting the door open. Now he felt like an idiot, realising he was only ten minutes late for something he'd arranged by himself. Feeling more embarrassed than he had in ages, he felt his cheeks grow hot, knowing his pale complexion would give it away immediately. Homeschool turned back to him after opening the door, smiling slightly at the awkward young adult. He was strange sometimes. Almost like himself as a teenager.

"I'm guessing Homestar remembered to tell you then." Homeschool stepped aside for his slightly flustered companion to enter. "I wasn't sure if he would, considering how obsessed he's become with Strong Bad…" There was a pause, an awkward one. "So, the music." Homeschool had relocated his collection to the living room upstairs, for convenience. He'd also reorganised his CDs into genres, giving them more attention than usual. Some of them he'd forgotten existed.

He handed over the certain ones that he'd pre-selected, but started getting ahead of himself and pulled out other ones he thought were worth discussing. The two ended up chatting about music for the majority of Strong Sad's visit. The haphazard pile of CDs grew and it started looking just like it did the previous day. The younger of the two was also shown which ones Homeschool considered as his favourites, and one which he called the 'best techno compilation he's ever found'. Strong Sad was slightly curious about this particular one. Its cover was an obvious computer printout, but still effective. The hundreds of stars formed clouds of different colours and it looked like something you'd only find in the depths of space. He noticed how it was placed away from the tower that had formed. That thing was about to tumble over probably.

Strong Sad suddenly remembered why he wanted to talk to Homeschool. He needed help with making the massive amount of cupcakes he'd unfortunately volunteered to do. He felt really random bringing it up now. However he needed to say it before he forgot again. "I know this is kinda unrelated, but Marzipan's holding a rally this weekend. And I promised I would help with catering. I'm making cupcakes." Okay, off to a decent start. Keep it sounding interesting. "But it's a lot of them, and they need to be specially decorated. It's too much work for me by myself, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping out…?" That didn't sound too bad…not exactly good either. He immediately felt awkward again and wished he'd just stuck to struggling by himself. Like Homeschool would agree to help bake cupcakes. He was a scientist. Not exactly his field of interest.

Homeschool was obviously thinking it over, but it was excruciating waiting for an answer. For some inexplicable reason, Strong Sad felt like his whole being depended on Homeschool helping him now. These haphazard emotions were driving him crazy!

"Alright then. I'm not too good in the kitchen but I'm sure I could help anyway." He smiled reassuringly, obviously trying to put the younger of the two at ease. He sympathised a bit, it was hell being a social outcast. Back when he cared of course. Now he didn't care what people thought. But spending time with this person was proving…entertaining. He had to admit to himself that it got a bit lonely. "So what exactly do we have to do?"

Strong Sad felt so relieved he might as well have passed out. What was going on with him? Why did it matter so much? His head made less and less sense to him. He figured he'd worry about it later and try to keep this going semi-smoothly. Not that his visit had started well. "Marzipan wants to protest against the 'possibly nuclear waste' Bubs has been trying to dispose of incorrectly. So I suggested that the cupcakes have crossed-out hazardous waste symbols on them." Strong Sad was finding it difficult to word the sentence any differently than it had been that morning. Now he was being picky about every sentence he spoke? The hell?

Homeschool nodded in appreciation. "Clever. But how many is 'a lot' exactly?" He had a sceptical look on his face because he knew there would have to be a decent amount of food to attract enough people. And he doubted his cooking skills (or lack thereof) would be able to contribute to that amount.

"Um…she said about fifty." Strong Sad braced himself for the refusal he was so sure would be coming his way. Instead he was surprised to find Homeschool nod again, and then smile slightly wider than earlier.

"We'll have to work hard to get this done in time then." This was unexpected. Homeschool always seemed like the type of person to be bitter and unsociable, too wrapped up in his work to care about anyone else. He was probably just as misunderstood as Strong Sad. And he had a lot of pressure taken off his shoulders recently with Homestar being out of his hair properly. Maybe he just needed someone who could relate to him to loosen up.

Suddenly he couldn't help it. Strong Sad gave Homeschool a small, but almost in a way, friendly smile. It almost caught him off-guard. Before he could react, he was interrupted by the phone ringing. He went to answer it, leaving Strong Sad by himself…who promptly slapped himself in an attempt to bring himself to his senses. What was that about? Why on earth did he smile like that? Why would he? It was so against his nature. He was now sure that something must be wrong with him. He had all these weird urges to do things he would never normally do. He was getting more and more curious about Homeschool. He wanted to get closer to him and find out why he liked the things he did. He felt like that CD had been practically staring at him for the past ten minutes. He heard Homeschool was getting close to finishing off on the phone in the kitchen. Time. No, not now. That stupid 'time' thing was bugging him again. Not enough. Why? Plenty. Why is time an issue? Need more. Don't.

Putting the phone down, Homeschool walked back into the living room feeling slightly awkward. "Sorry about that. It was to do with my work. I'm going to be busy all day tomorrow so..." He noticed Strong Sad was suddenly jumpy and nervously messing with his hair. Weird boy.

Strong Sad was shaken up by his sudden battle within himself. "That's fine. I've got classes until Wednesday morning anyway. We'll work on it after then okay?" Before there could be a reply Strong Sad started making his way to the door. "Look I just realised the time and I have to go get dinner ready before Strong Bad gets back. Thanks so much for the music and stuff. I really appreciate the help." And the nervous wreck was gone. Homeschool glanced at the clock and saw that it was barely past five. Sometimes Strong Sad was confusing. Really confusing. He could relate to it from what he remembered feeling like when he was younger, but honestly sometimes it was just too weird. And now he was going to be making cupcakes with him. Odd situation, if you think about it. But he should probably practice or do some research so he can be a bit more useful on the day. He didn't think fifty burnt cupcakes would cut it.

Meanwhile in the Strong household there was a sudden disturbance as Strong Sad ran up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door behind him. Not that anyone was there to hear it, but that's not the point. The emptier the better, in this case.

He was most definitely not used to this sort of thing. He fished through his backpack and pulled out the offending CD that caused him to do something so outrageous. Stupid techno music. What's so great about it anyway? Why does he feel like he needs to listen to it so much as to steal it? Technically it was sort of borrowing. He wasn't going to keep it, but he just needed to know…why it was so great…

"This is all your fault."