Chapter Text
“Can’t you like-“ Bobbin began, he shrugged and he made a throwing motion with his hand. “Like throw a knife at them or something?”
Sol stood beside him, her arms crossed over her chest as her head was tilted to the side, her eyes a bit narrowed as she watched the fight that was happening in front of them.
“Nah,” Sol answered. “Would cause too much blood.”
Bobbin snorted as his eyes flickered between the two persons who were fighting before him. “Thought that didn’t stop you.”
Sol huffed out a laugh before she winced as she saw Treech earning himself a punch to the gut. “Maybe we should try to break this up again.”
“Maybe we should,” Bobbin mused although he didn’t make any move to stop the fight, neither did Sol. “Who’d you think will win?”
“I betcha ten bucks it’s gonna be Coral.” Sol nodded decisively.
Bobbin hummed in thought for a second, Coral wasn’t even here but Sol was always right with these kind of things, “Alright. I’ll take you up on that.” He said and he shook her hand.
Bobbin didn’t even know how the fight started. He just got to his locker and the next second a crowd was forming down the hall. Curious, Bobbin had walked towards it and now here they were, watching Treech fight a guy bigger than him.
Sol had appeared at his side some time later and they had been passing comments between them ever since.
They were actually such bad friends for not helping Treech, honestly. But Sol had tried to step in, Bobbin too, but Treech had shook his head at both of them as he wiped his bloody nose on his jacket sleeve.
Sol tugged unexpectedly at Bobbin’s shoulder and he stumbled backwards just as Tanner came out of nowhere and full body slammed into the guy Treech was fighting with, Coral not far behind him.
Bobbin heard some cheering and he spotted Brandy and Circ in the crowd, Bobbin assumed they just got here as he hadn’t seen them earlier. Brandy was yelling encouragements at both Tanner and Coral while Circ had his phone in his hand and stretched out before him.
Bobbin smiled amusedly as Sol sighed exasperatedly beside him. Bobbin focused back on the scene before him and he saw Velvereen tugging Treech towards her by his wrist while she muttered angrily, Panlo behind her as he shot a glare at the other guy, Treech tried to get out of the girl’s hold but Velvereen just yanked him back.
Coral was now yelling at the guy Treech had been fighting with, Tanner standing next to her, now sporting a bloody nose just like Treech. The guy was talking about something, which Bobbin couldn’t hear, but had Coral looking more angry than she already looked and completely out of the blue, Coral kneed the guy in the crotch. A collective wince went from all the boys that stood in the crowd and Bobbin heard Sol laugh loudly next to him.
Coral shoved the guy and he fell to his knees and collapsed in a miserable pile of limbs as he groaned in pain.
“Yeah, alright,” Bobbin mumbled and he got a crumpled ten dollar bill out of his pocket, laying it on Sol’s already outstretched hand. Sol hummed triumphantly, “Pleasure doing business with ya,” she said with a smug grin on her face and she pocketed the money.
“Oh my god! Did you get that?!” Bobbin heard Brandy exclaim and he turned his eyes towards her again. He watched as she hit Circ repeatedly on his arm and he almost dropped his phone.
“Did you get that?!” She asked him again and Bobbin watched as they probably watched some footage on Circ’s phone and then bursting into laughter a moment later.
“He’s going to send that in the groupchat later, I’ll tell ya,” Sol said to him, a grin firmly plastered on her lips.
“And we’re going to turn it into a meme,” Bobbin shot back.
“Damn right we are.”
Suddenly the crowd began to thin out at a fast pace, Bobbin looked around himself to see why, when he saw multiple teachers coming their way.
He quickly turned around and pushed Sol in the direction of the exit, “Hey, wha-!” She began as she stumbled forwards.
“Teachers!” Bobbin hissed at her.
“Oh.” Sol hurried through the hall, Bobbin hot at her heels. When they neared the end of the hall, Bobbin could just see one of Velvereen’s braids disapearring through one of the deserted bathroom doors and he quickly dragged Sol with him before she could get any further.
He quickly opened the door and rushed inside, closing it behind him as soon as Sol had rushed past him.
Bobbin turned around, expecting to see just Velvereen, Panlo and maybe even Treech, only to be met with most of their friendgroup, minus the younger kids of course, they were in middle school, the building right next to theirs.
Velvereen stood with Treech by one of the sinks, accompanied by Sabyn and Panlo, the tap was running as he held his hand under it, the cold water coloring red from his blood.
Coral and Brandy were smoking by the open window, sitting opposite each other on the window sill while Tanner sat on the ground before them, his back against the wall as he held a piece of toilet paper to his nose.
Circ stood next to Brandy, he was casually leaning against the wall while he was doing something on his phone, Brandy was looking over his shoulder at his phone every now and then. Teslee and Sheaf were talking in a corner, while Hy was laying on the floor in the middle of the room, his backpack laying under his head and his hat lay on his face. Bobbin didn’t know if he was asleep or just chilling down there, probably the first one.
Lamina, Reaper and Marcus were probably in their classes as he didn’t see them anywhere. The rest of their friendgroup, he didn’t know.
Sol laughed at his surprised face while she was bend over slightly, her hands on her knees as she catched her breath.
“What’re you all doing here?” Sol asked and she stood up to her full height again.
“Escaping the teachers,” Circ answered, not looking up from whatever he was doing on his phone. “I assume you guys are doing the same.” He casted a quick glance up at them.
“Yeah,” Bobbin said back, he watched Sol walk towards Hy and kick him lightly in the leg. The other boy gave her no response, Sol rolled her eyes before she walked over to Treech.
Bobbin followed after her to where Treech and Velvereen were. Bobbin cringed from the split lip, the bruise that was already forming on his cheekbone and the cut by Treech’s eyebrow, “You should have just let us step in, you know.”
Treech glared at him but ducked his head when Sol raised an eyebrow at him, “You really should have.” She told him.
“It’s whatever,” he waved off, he winced when Velvereen pressed a wet paper towel to his eyebrow. “That’s what you get for fighting,” Velvereen said to Treech, she removed her hand so that Treech could hold it with his own hand.
“Where’s Lamina?” Treech scowled.
“Not here,” Hy spoke up, Bobbin was honestly surprised that he said something because he really thought he was asleep.
Treech scoffed and was about to say something when the door opened and Otto and Marcus walked in.
“You really can’t throw a punch, now can you?” Otto said as soon as he caught sight of Treech and he shook his head in mock disappointment.
Treech spluttered. “I can!” He replied indignantly.
“You can’t,” Marcus crossed his arms over his chest while Treech rolled his eyes.
“How would you even know? You weren’t even there.” Treech said. Marcus grabbed his phone out of his pocket, tapped something on his phone and turned it around to show it to Treech. On the screen was a video playing of Treech when he tried to punch the other guy, but the guy ducked and Treech slammed into the lockers before him.
Treech’s face went blank and he shot an annoyed look at Brandy and Circ when he heard them both laughing by the window. Noticing Treech looking at them, Circ’s laughter stopped and was replaced with obviously fake coughing as he elbowed Brandy in the arm. Brandy just smiled widely at Treech while Circ had atleast the decency to look a little bit guilty. Just a little bit though.
Treech rolled his eyes again and looked in the mirror at his own reflection, he removed the paper towel away from his eyebrow. Velvereen grimaced next to him and turned around, “Coral?” She said and she looked at the girl expectantly.
Coral, apparently knowing what the other girl wanted, just lifted her leg off the window sill to her backpack that lay on the ground and kicked it wordlessly towards Velvereen with her foot before she took a drag of her cigarette and passed it to Brandy. The bag hit Hy in the side on the way over and he made an annoyed sound. Without removing his hat from his face, he blindly shoved the bag the rest of the way to Velvereen.
The bag slid across the tiles and skidded to a stop just before the other girl’s feet and she kneeled down to open the backpack, Velvereen pulled out a small blue box and handed it over to Treech.
Bobbin walked over to the wall by the sinks to sit down on the ground, Sol sat next to him a moment later. She pulled out her phone while Bobbin looked around the room.
He watched Coral throw the butt of the cigarette out the window. Across from her, Circ tapped Brandy on her arm, she turned her head towards him as Circ held his phone in front of her, showing her something on his phone. Brandy barked out a laugh at whatever was playing on Circ’s phone and grabbed it out of his hand to show it to Coral and Tanner, who now had stood up from where he was seated on the floor.
Bobbin assumes Circ had made something else out of the video he took of the fight, because it had Coral rolling her eyes in slight amusement and Tanner laughing loudly next to her.
He looked away from them to Sheaf and Teslee, Sheaf was writing down things in her notebook now, her eyes flickering between her own notebook and the one next to it, presumably Teslee’s notebook to copy the answers for the math homework. They definitely made a deal for that, because Bobbin knew Teslee would not let someone copy her answers unless they did something in return for her. Bobbin turned his head away from them, his eyes landing on Treech and Velvereen.
Bobbin watched Treech bandage his knuckles while Velvereen was rummaging through the blue box in search for something. Sabyn and Panlo were crowded around Velvereen’s phone, as they somehow gotten a hold of it while she was busy, Bobbin heard familiar voices coming out of it so he knew they were probably calling someone. If he heard correctly, he could hear Reaper talking and in the background Facet’s frantic whispers telling him to hang up the phone before they get caught by their teacher.
Panlo and Sabyn laughed when the phone got ripped from Sabyn’s hands by an now irritated Velvereen and the call got cut off abruptly. The girl full on cackled when Velvereen threw a soaking wet paper towel at Panlo, hitting him square in the face. The poor girl almost collapsed on the floor from where she was leaning against one of the sinks as she laughed loudly while Sheaf made a surprised noise when multiple water drops landed on the piece of paper she was writing on, the ink on the paper mixing with the water. Having caught the attention of the others, more laughter began to ring through the room.
Bobbin was laughing too but got distracted when he saw Sol’s hand out of the corner of his eye, her phone in her hand and pointed at Panlo, a second later there was a click and a flash of light came from the phone.
Sol turned the phone towards her again and laughed at what she saw on the screen. Bobbin went to look over her shoulder but he didn’t have too as Sol turned her phone towards him. On the screen was a photo of Panlo with the wet paper towel on his face, his face set in a grimace as he tried to get it off his face, Sabyn next to him as she laughed while Sheaf and Teslee were seated on the floor in the background, Sheaf looking a bit irritated as she was wiping over her slightly wet paper with her hand while Teslee had a hand in front of her mouth to hide the smile that was forming on her face, her eyes fixated on the scene in front of her.
When Sol’s laughter died down, although her smile didn’t leave her face, she leaned towards Bobbin, “That’s gonna be the new profile picture of the group chat.” And she began to do just that as Bobbin watched with her.
The profile picture of their group chat changed almost every week. Every time a new picture of one of their friends doing something stupid.
The last one was a picture of Facet actually. They were all at a party that was hosted at Sejanus’ house and Ginnee had given him a drink to try. By the way he had spit it out as soon as the liquid made contact with his tongue, they all knew it was disgusting. Teslee had made the picture, actually a video but she took a screenshot later of the moment when Facet made a disgusted face before he had spit out the drink, his eyes narrowed and nose crinkled in disgust.
See, this is what Bobbin likes so much about being friends with Sol. The girl liked to torment their friends just as much as he did. Sol loved to make bets on dumb things that their friends did and Bobbin couldn’t help but go along with it. As he had said earlier, Sol was almost always right about the bets they made, she liked to gloat about it a lot, saying it was a gift with a smug grin on her face.
The only time she was wrong was when she made a bet with Bobbin about that she wouldn’t throw up when she would get drunk that night when they were at yet another party with their friends.
Bobbin had held her hair back from her face when she was puking the alcohol back out in the big backyard of Persephone Price’s house.
He got ten bucks out of that.
So yeah. Sol was almost always right with her bets.
Honestly, their friendgroup couldn’t deny it, because there are so many other examples that would prove them differently.
Bobbin turned his head towards Sol, he could just catch a glimpse of the new profile picture of their group chat on her phone before the messages came flooding in, their friends who were not here expressing their reactions in a mess of crying emoticons or a series of random capital letters that Bobbin thinks is supposed to be laughter.
Sol sent the original photo with Sabyn, Sheaf and Teslee in the background just because she could and turned her phone off.
She stared blankly ahead of her for a while before she clicked her phone back on, the time glaring back at her. Bobbin’s mouth tilted upwards at Sol’s phone background. It was a photo of both of them, both grinning up at Sol’s phone that she had held in the air above them.
The photo was a bit blurry because Hy had barrelled right into her side when Sol was about to take the photo, causing the phone to shake. Hy was not the only one who had photobombed the picture. Mizzen had crashed into Bobbin’s back with a laugh a second later and had grinned up at the camera as well while Brandy stood with Jessup behind them, her middle finger in the air while Jessup had threw up a peace sign. The photo was blurry but Bobbin could see their smiles as clear as day.
Sol groaned and thumped her head against the wall behind her, successfully bringing him back out of his thoughts, she clearly had realised something.
“What?” Bobbin asked, he was now fiddling with a loose thread on his pants.
“We have gym class in ten minutes.” Sol grumbled, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.
Bobbin stopped fiddling with the thread and looked up, also staring blankly ahead for a moment.
“Let’s skip,” he said eventually.
“Can’t,” Sol told him and she grunted when she got to her feet. “We‘ve skipped those far too much, I don’t want to get a note for that or them calling our parents.”
Bobbin sighed extra dramatically, Sol smiled in obvious amusement as Bobbin stood up, heaving his backpack onto his shoulder.
Sol walked towards the door, calling a quick goodbye over her shoulder, they got a chorus of ‘bye’s’ and ‘see you laters’ in return.
The door almost slammed into Bobbin because Sol let the door swing shut behind her and he heard her laughing in front him.
“Funny,” he deadpanned at her but he couldn’t help the small smile that slipped onto his faces.
Bobbin picked up his pace to walk next to Sol through the empty hallway towards the exit that led outside to the sport fields.
Bobbin turned his head towards her when she gave him a little push.
“Race you there?” Sol grinned at him, determination already sparkling in her eyes.
“Only if you’re prepared to lose!” Bobbin said confidently.
Sol scoffed, “Don’t get cocky with me now, Bobbin! I’ll get your money even if it’s the last thing I do.”
This time it was Bobbin’s turn to scoff, a smile on his face. “You already got most of it.”
“True.”
Bobbin laughed.
“But anyway. On three,” Sol announces.
“Go for it,” Bobbin challenged.
“Alright. One.” Sol adjusted her backpack so that it sat better on her shoulders.
“Two.” Bobbin grinned widely at her and Sol rolled her eyes but grinned back a second later.
“Three!”
Bobbin lost another ten dollars that afternoon.