Chapter Text
“Never let your team choose what alarm you use” Was the first thought Cellbit had when he woke up at 4:20 AM to the sound of three of his teammates screaming a badly written song from his phone speaker.
Against all better judgment, Cellbit dragged himself out of his bed and walked over to his desk where his phone was plugged in, still screaming lyrics about jean shorts. Silence had never been so nice to hear. When he turned the alarm off, he stood there for a bit to listen to absolutely nothing. And oh, how good did it sound. Of course, that blessed silence had to be ended by the ping of his messages, coming from the exact same teammates he had just silenced.
BolasBolasBolasBolas
Members: Phil-CrowFather, Jaiden- Jaidenstune Miku, Charlie-Malewife, Foolish- Smiley, Cellbit-Cellbo, Baghera-Quacki
4:29 AM
Malewife: RISE AND SHINE LOSERS LETS GO
Malewife: YALL NEED TO LEAVE YOUR HOUSES SOON
Malewife: GOTTA BE AT THE RINK AT 5:45
Malewife: YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE ME LATE TO THIS COMPETITION
Of course it was Charlie fucking Slimecicle. A goofy last name that pretty much told you everything you needed to know about the man it was attached to. Cellbit was honestly surprised he was texting first in this group chat and not their resident father figure Phil. Charlie was close to impossible when it came to waking him up on time, always getting distracted by something, staying up way too late and sleeping through his alarms. Which some of the other members were quick to point out in the group chat, much to Charlie's chagrin.
Smiley: why the fuck are you so excited
Smiley: you literally are the hardest to wake from your princess slumber normally
Quacki: he does sleep like a princess lmaoooooo
Malewife: stfu i will make sure coach sits you by the bathrooms
Smiley: oh god please not again
Cellbit laughed a little at that, putting his phone back on his desk and beginning his competition morning routine of unpacking and repacking his bag three times 30 minutes before he had to leave. Anyone who finished packing before they had to leave and didn’t check it before they left were insane people in Cellbit’s opinion. Cellbit didn’t trust anyone who didn’t have 300 lists over a mile long and didn’t double check everything on each and every one of them. To be fair, he didn’t trust a lot of people. Though that might just be his mothers influence and his paranoia, not a packing thing. But still! Who the hell didn’t wake up unusually early every day before school to check and see if anything had been slightly moved throughout the night!
As he was finishing going through all of his shirts and even switching out two of his graphic t-shirts for another pair of only slightly different t-shirts, his phone started to light up across the room once again. This time on silent, of course. He knows his teammates, he’s not stupid. Sending one text just isn’t in their nature.
The messages were once again from Charlie, but this time he was screaming at the rest of his team to shut up. Interested, Cellbit started scrolling back to see what could have caused this.
Crowfather: Mariana is at the competition this year
Crowfather: thats why hes so excited
Smiley: FUCKING MARIANA????
Smiley: CHARLES CHARLIE AKA SLIME AKA SLIMECICLE AKA BITCH WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS
Smiley: M A R I A N A ????
Malewife: SHUT UP
Malewife: SHUT UP
Malewife: SHUT UP
Malewife: SHUT UP
Malewife: SHUT UP
Malewife: PHILIPPE MINECRAFT COUNT YOUR DAYS
Cellbit let out a disappointed sigh. Mariana was Charlie's “ex” that he never really got over. Cellbit didn’t even really count him as an ex due to the fact that it was middle school and it really only lasted two weeks, Charlie breaking up with him because Mariana broke their science project by accident. The two had been doing this weird dance around each other ever since, and honestly, Cellbit was tired of them not saying anything. It really didn’t help that Mariana was kind of a bitch to Charlie, which made everyone on Bolas hate him. Mariana was on Soulfire, Bolas’s rival team. The team that fucked Bolas over four years ago when Cellbit joined. The team was extremely good, no one could argue against that, but their bitchiness and the "I'm better than you” attitude they all had pissed Cellbit off to the highest degree. The team was one of the bigger ones in the region too, with the biggest rink out of the three teams in the area. Cellbit had an unfiltered hatred towards them. One of the worst out of the entire team. The only person who really held the same amount of hatred for them was his teammate Jaiden, who used to skate at the same rink as Soulfire before being so ruthlessly bullied that she had to leave and move to a different rink.
Cellbit could feel himself getting angry just thinking about that team, seeing as his phone just tried to power off because he was holding down the power button due to him tightening his grip on his phone. Quickly getting rid of the “power off” screen, Cellbit went back to his packing list.
Phone charger? Check. School work? Check. Portable Charger? Check. Energy drinks? Check. Blanket for the bus? Check. Pillow for the bus? Check. Extra sweatshirt when the inevitable happens and you suddenly get overwhelmed and hate the texture of the government assigned team jacket? Check.
Marking off the last of the paper list he wrote last night in case he forgot to charge his phone and wasn’t able to get it charged in time to get through the entirety of his digital list, Cellbit zipped up his duffle bag and suitcase and prepared to bring them downstairs to where his skate bag was waiting. Shoving his phone in his pocket (and ignoring the buzz he felt from what was probably the Bolas group chat still going off), he lifted his duffle bag over his shoulder and began carrying both bags down the stairs to the kitchen, trying to be as quiet as possible as to not wake the rest of his family up.
Checking his phone once he got downstairs, he saw a few more messages from the group chat and Baghera, his ride to the rink.
Oeufs à la Coque-Cellbit, French Toast- Baghera
4:46 AM
French Toast: hey i'm On My Way!
French Toast: i hate my phone wtf
French Toast: *omw
Oeufs à la Coque: On My Way!
French Toast: i will crash and die right now
French Toast: then what would you do
Cellbit laughed before shoving his phone once again into his pocket and checking to make sure all of his snacks were packed correctly into his bags. He knew that he would probably end up extra when it was time to head home, but it was fine. One of his teammates, Foolish, always managed to run out of snacks extremely early when it came to competitions, so he tried to stock up on some that everyone liked.
Once confirming that everything was in its proper spots, Cellbit finally sat down at his kitchen corner and began to scroll social media, waiting for the message from Baghera that she was at his house. Baghera herself didn’t live too far away from Cellbit and his mom, the two going to the same school. The rest of Bolas was spread throughout the school districts surrounding the rinks, some even going to school with members of the two rival teams. Most Bolas members actually went to different schools without any teammates. Jaiden and Foolish, for example, were in the same school district but went to two different schools. Phil and Charlie had the same issue. Baghera and Cellbit were the only two Bolas members that went to the same school as one of their teammates. This wasn’t the best thing due to the type of school they went to but, the two of them made it work. Baghera once described moving to Cellbits school as, “knowing she’d be fine because she had a built-in friend and didn’t have to try to make any new ones.” Cellbit agreed with the sentiment.
Due to how close she lived,the message saying she was at Cellbits house didn’t take long to come and Cellbit took a deep breath before attempting to carry his four bags out of the house by himself. His duffle bag was slung across his chest and his backpack on his back.His skate bag was another backpack-like bag,so he was able to put it on his front before picking up his suitcase and dragging it outside to where Bagheras car was sitting in his driveway.
“Cellbo!” She yelled out the window as Cellbit put all of his bags into her trunk, noting that she had a matching amount of bags and he did not overpack like he was worried that he would.
“Hey, Bags.” Cellbit said, his voice sounding like he’s been inhaling coal dust for the last 30 years of his 17 year old life. Shutting the trunk, he opened the door to the passenger’s side.
“ Oh hello, Cellbo. ” Baghera lowered her voice in response, sounding almost like a bad old man impression.
“Is that your Phil impression?” Cellbit slid into the passenger's seat and buckled himself in.
“Man, you're calling him old when he’s not even here to defend himself?” Baghera laughed as she pulled out of Cellbit’s driveway.
“I would never do that, how could you suggest I would insult our father like that?” Cellbit mocked, putting his hand over his chest like he was an offended old lady.
“No no, you would never insult the one and only Philza Minecraft. No one would even dare to do such a thing!” The two giggled to themselves for a little longer before Baghera turned up the music that was playing from her phone.
“If you want to, you can set up the queue for the drive. My password is still the same.” Baghera said, gesturing to her phone in the cup holder in front of the two.
The Bolas rink was not very far away from Baghera and Cellbit. Around 20 minutes if you took highways, 25 without. The two skaters chatted for most of the ride, music quietly going through playlists they found at the beginning of their drive. They talked about their school, their classes and the kids that pissed them off. Mostly, they talked about how this competition was going to go. Making fun of Soulfire and some of their members, trying to remember if roommates had come out yet, bringing up funny stories that happened throughout their last competition season. Baghera brought up how Phil got stuck in an elevator for two hours due to a snowstorm at one of their competitions at the beginning of the year. Cellbit reminded her she did the exact same the year he moved to the Bolas rink. (She threatened to kick him out of the car afterwards.)
As they got closer to the rink, the conversation lulled into a calm silence, humming along to the music Cellbit had queued up. The two eventually saw their rink on the horizon. The bus the team was taking was parked in front of it, and if you squiented, you could almost see Phil and Foolish picking up bags and putting them underneath the bus.
Baghera pulled into the parking spot the rink had assigned her for competitions like this. The two grabbed their bags from the trunk and began their walk over to where their teammates were standing.
Phil of course, with his “fatherly senses” as the team liked to joke, noticed the 2 of them before anyone else did, letting out his usual greeting “Hey mates!”
Phil and Foolish went up to them, Foolish grabbing Baghera’s duffle bag she refused to put over her shoulder. “I’m walking across a parking lot. I don't need to basically trap myself into holding it Cellbo.” She had said when Cellbit asked why she wasn't carrying it normally. Which Cellbit understood, but it made her extremely off balance, and he didn’t hesitate to make fun of her every time she swayed on their walk across the street.
“Thanks, Foolish,” Baghera said, adjusting the straps on her backpack with the weight of the duffle bag literally off her shoulders.
“No prob dog!” Foolish exclaimed, smiling in his iconic “Shark tooth” smile. Cellbit didn’t know how he could have so much energy at 5 in the morning, but he guessed the “golden retriever of the team” role doesn’t really let you stop being upbeat. Though, when he thought about it, Foolish seemed to just be like that.
“Are Charlie and Jaiden here yet?” Cellbit asked, throwing his duffle and skate bags underneath the bus alongside everyone else's.
“Jaiden got dropped off by Jacob a while ago, we showed up around the same time,” Phil said. “Charlie got here first somehow. He wasn’t joking when he said we’re not making him late apparently.”
“We are getting to competition on time and you can’t fucking stop me!” A voice called from above them. The group looked up to find Charlie Slimecicle, in all his slimy glory, hanging out one of the bus windows looking down at the four teammates.
“Charlie! Language! Also stop leaning outside the window!” Another voice yelled from inside the bus. From the tone one could assume that it was the Bolas Rojas Team's coach, Coach Phoenix. The woman herself oversaw most of the older skaters like Cellbit and his friends, while her sister took the responsibility of teaching the younger children who competitively skated at the Bolas rink. The rink, of course, had more than just two coaches, but Phoenix and her sister were the only coaches who consistently rode the competition buses.
“Sorry coach!” Charlie yelled, pulling himself back inside. Cellbit could see Jaiden laughing in the seat behind Charlie.
“Are the four of you just going to stand there? We’re supposed to leave soon and I assume you four want your spots in the back of the bus?” Speak of the devil and she shall appear, behind the group of four their coach’s sister was standing with her arms crossed.
“Yeah we’re going, sorry Coach Crystal!” Baghera chirped, grabbing her backpack and running onto the bus. Phil and Foolish following her with their own bags. Cellbit did not move, he always made sure he put his bags in last so that they were locked up immediately and no one could touch them. It just made him feel better about them being out of his sight.
“Cellbit, don’t worry about closing the door, I just got word that a few more of our team members are going to be here in 5 minutes. I’ll watch over your stuff.” Crystal said, moving to stand in front of his bags.
“Are you sure?” Cellbit didn’t like trusting people. Especially when it came to his stuff.
“Promise, Cellbit, it will only be out for a short while and you can take the seat above it and make sure I'm watching. Now go hang out with your friends.” Crystal patted Cellbits head before pushing him towards the bus door.
Cellbit readjusted his backpack straps and made his way onto the bus. Noting that all the parents were sitting in the front of the bus with a few rows of empty seats in between them and the younger kids on Bolas team, who sat somewhere in the middle of the bus. He waved at Phil’s younger siblings, Chayenne and Tallulah, who were sitting next to each other on his way down to where his friends were.
Each senior on the Bolas skating team had grabbed a row of seats for themselves. Each row had two seats so you could lay across them comfortably. Jaiden and Foolish had the front two rows, followed by Charlie and Baghera and then Phil and the empty spot next to him. Which Cellbit took for his own. He set his backpack down and grabbed the blanket he had managed to stuff into the bag out of it.
He settled into his chair and pulled out his phone, checking the time. 5:14 AM it read. They were scheduled to leave in 6 minutes. Perfectly on time. Cellbit smiled to himself as he got comfortable. He felt himself drifting off slightly as everyone in the bus was fading into a quiet background noise.
“Oh well there goes the cat.”
“Jaiden shhhh! Don’t wake him up, you know he never sleeps.”
“Yeah yeah now come here I have something to show you.”
Chapter 2
Summary:
“Can’t choose? Me neither man.” Cellbit forced his body to still even as he felt his heart jump out of his chest and onto the floor. He tried to turn his head casually, looking at the voice that had spoken next to him.
Next to him stood a boy that looked around his age. He wasn’t looking at Cellbit, staring at the drink case in front of the two of them instead. He was shorter than Cellbit, but not by much. His hair was pushed out of his face by a blue headband that was tied in the back of his head in a way where the extra fabric fell down his back and into the hood of his spiderman jacket he was wearing.The boy looked up at Cellbit and cocked his head. Cellbit noticed he had snake bites. The two black rings around his bottom lip stood out against the red. Cellbit just blinked at him.
Notes:
chapter 2 chapter 2!!!! i’ve been having so much fun writing this and im so excited for you all to read it as well- i’m sorry it’s taken a while both me and my beta reader are dealing with school stuff currently so ive just been writing in small increments when i had the time- but in the good news ive officially found the outfits each character wears for skating- this fic has joined my collection of pintrest boards (i am a pintrest feind- i have over 200 boards-)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Cellbit was pulled out of his sleep to at least two people shaking him awake. “Cellbit! Cellbit! Wake the fuck up!”
“What…” Cellbit croaked out, trying not to open his eyes to the bright sun that had risen while he was asleep.
“Cellbit, mate, we’ve stopped for food.” Phil’s voice was the reason Cellbit finally got up. Phil was the team captain. He was just the type of person you listen to when they tell you to do something.
As he was climbing out of his seat he noticed that a few members were missing. Stretching his arms above his head and yawning he tilted his head towards the empty seats in a silent question.
“Oh they all went to go see what was available for food, Slime and Bags went ahead while Foolish is scoping out the gas station part of the rest shop.” Jaiden was leaning over the back of her seat, probably the one who tried waking him up first and then called Phil to help her.
“Which one are we stopped at?” Cellbit asked, grabbing his team jacket that he had shed onto the floor in his sleep. It was required they all wear their team jackets when they were outside the bus so as to not get lost.
“It’s kind of similar to the one we stop at when we go to Quesadilla, just a little bigger. Which is why we sent three people instead of the usual two.” Phil shrugged, walking out the bus and leading the group over to the rest stop the bus and team had parked at.
Cellbit smiled to himself as the group walked in and started heading towards the corner near the snack area of the building. If there was one thing that he was grateful for when it came to his team, it was how they were all the “same flavor of crazy” as Jaiden once called it. The group of skaters had all been through things that made them rely on one another much more than they probably should on competition trips. They had a system to work around the issues the six of them had.
When it came to traveling, Cellbit and Baghera were the most paranoid due to what had happened to them at their old rinks–Cellbit a bit more so than Baghera–so Cellbit was never sent in first and Baghera was never sent in alone. They just worked like that. They would all protect each other and make their competition experiences as good as they could be. It wasn’t just Cellbit and Baghera of course, Jaiden was always extremely anxious at practices when she was alone so they had a rotation on who would go with her to competition practices to sit with her on the boards or watch her from the stands. Charlie, as happy-go-lucky as he was, turned on himself very fast whenever he got overwhelmed. He once described it as his mind beginning to “glitch”. Foolish had a tendency to take apart things to rebuild them into other shapes when he was anxious and once almost broke his fingers when he was bored and alone, so the others make sure they have at least a pen on them for him to take apart. Phil just always needed to make sure they were all ok, if they were out of his sight for too long or gone without any explanation, he spiraled slightly. He was more put together compared to the rest of them but it still happened. Working around these things just became normal for the Bolas team.
“Cellbo! They have gas station eggs!” Baghera called from the corner where the rest of the team was standing. Cellbit felt himself start to get a headache as soon as he heard those words out of her mouth.
Phil sighed at the two, dragging his hand across his face.“Slime please don't eat gas station eggs again…”
“Leave me and my love for moist gas station eggs out of this!” Charlie defended, clutching his gas station eggs to his chest like they were a strand of pearls.
Jaiden looked like she was about to walk herself back to the Bolas rink. “Charlie please never say your love for moist gas station eggs ever again that was disgusting.”
“They do have good food though! They have some burgers, some sandwiches, the usual.” Foolish shrugged.
“Oh and Coach Crystal said if we don’t get ourselves in trouble she’ll take us to StarBobby on the way home.” Jaiden shoved her hands in her pockets, rocking back and forth with a smile on her face. “I was able to convince her.”
“Oh fuck yeah!” Foolish and Jaiden leaned across the small circle the team had created in the corner to high five.
“Does anybody know what time they said we need to be back on the bus? I need to know if I’m good to get in line for food.” Baghera said.
“We’re leaving at 9:15. So we need to be back on the bus at 9:05 at least, 9:10 at most.” Phil answered, pulling up his messages with their coach to show the group.
“So what’s the plan? Who’s getting what?” Cellbit asked, rolling his sleeves up in advance. “We shouldn’t need too much food since we’ve only been on the road for two hours, so I’m thinking, energy drinks and coffee?”
“Me and Bags will go get in line for breakfast food if anyone wants it?” Charlie asked the group, pulling out his phone to write it down.
“I want pancakes.” Foolish said.
“Oh my god, me too! Get me pancakes!” Jaiden called from where she was looking at the snacks around them.
“I’m good, i'm going to get myself food over here.” Phil pointed to another spot in the gas station.
Cellbit just shrugged. “I’ll just steal some of your guys' food, I'm not that hungry.”
Baghera rolled her eyes. “Cellbit you’re never hungry.”
“Oh shut, do you guys want anything from over here?” Cellbit gestured to the drinks behind the group.
“If they have that one Miku blue drink I want that.” Jaiden said, still looking at the snacks.
Phil sighed. “You’re gonna have a heart attack drinking that drink.”
“Ok and? You’re still going to die first, old man.” Jaiden turned, eyes sharp and targeted on Phil.
“Literally all I did was turn 18 before you guys. Why are you like this?” Phil said as he threw his arms up in frustration.
“Sorry grandpa.” Foolish laughed.
Phil crossed his arms and glared at the group. “I’m not buying any of you guys food next time we stop.”
The entire team burst out into a chorus of no’s and I'm sorry's until Phil finally agreed to buy them food for lunch. Even though all six of them were fully aware they wouldn’t get too much food just to make sure Phil wouldn’t go broke and refuse to buy them food again.
“Ok so, Jaiden wants her Miku drink, do you guys want anything or just Jaiden?” Cellbit asked, pulling out his phone and creating another list in his notes app.
“Could you get me a Mountain Dew? I’ll get a drink with my food but coach said we’re not going to stop for anything till like 1.” Charlie asked. Cellbit wrote it down.
“Foolish?”
“Nah I’m good, I’ll get a drink with my food. I’m planning on sleeping till we stop again anyway.” Ok, Foolish no drink . Check.
“Baghera?” Cellbit glanced up from his phone to make eye contact with the girl.
“Lemonade. Duh.” Lemonade, Baghera. Check.
“Ok is that all? Jaiden wants her Miku drink, Charlie wants mountain dew, Foolish nothing and Bags lemonade? That’s all right?” Cellbit read out his list, looking up to confirm who wanted what.
“Yeah that’s right. Ok Slime let's go! We gotta beat that big family we saw walking in.” Baghera grabbed Slime's arm, the two of them running away from the group, Charlie calling out a quick, “See you on the bus!” before the two of them disappeared from sight. Foolish and Jaiden followed behind, going out to explore the gift shop area of the building. Something about finding extremely stupid sunglasses. Cellbit expected to see them wearing them when he got back onto the bus.
“What am I going to do with the five of you…” Phil sighed, rolling his eyes. Cellbit shrugged.
“You chose this team, you could have been on Soulfire.”
“Just because Missa is on Soulfire doesn’t mean I want to be on Soulfire.” Cellbit laughed at Phil’s defensive tone, raising his arms up in a surrender movement.
“Hey nobody said anything about Missa.” Cellbit smirked at the red that was showing up on Phil's face.
“Go get the drinks Cellbit.” Phil pushed him away, Cellbit let him, laughing as he walked towards the energy drink section.
The walk wasn’t too long. He could hear Foolish and Jaiden laughing somewhere near him, he couldn’t make out the words they were saying but when it came to the two of them he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to figure out what they were saying. The fridges holding all the drinks his friends wanted were relatively close together, making his job much easier. Grabbing each drink he now stood in front of all the energy drinks, debating which one he wanted. There were so many flavors, the best he could do was cross them out on what he didn’t want. Some of those names sounded more like poison than something that was drinkable. What the fuck was ‘Ultra Violet’ how does someone drink UV rays. How is that a flavor?
“Can’t choose? Me neither man.” Cellbit forced his body to still even as he felt his heart jump out of his chest and onto the floor. He tried to turn his head casually, looking at the voice that had spoken next to him.
Next to him stood a boy that looked around his age. He wasn’t looking at Cellbit, staring at the drink case in front of the two of them instead. He was shorter than Cellbit, but not by much. His hair was pushed out of his face by a blue headband that was tied in the back of his head in a way where the extra fabric fell down his back and into the hood of his spiderman jacket he was wearing.The boy looked up at Cellbit and cocked his head. Cellbit noticed he had snake bites. The two black rings around his bottom lip stood out against the red. Cellbit just blinked at him.
“What’s your favorite flavor? I don't know which one I want.” The boy shrugged with his shoulders, his hands in the front pockets of his jacket. Cellbit continued to just stare.
“My favorite is the red ones, my favorite color is red. Really only because of spiderman but no one really cares about why someone has a favorite color. Most people just do.” The boy rambled on for a while.
“The pacific punch one.” Cellbit blurted out. Surprising even himself. He didn’t even know he had a favorite flavor.
“Oh! I don’t think I've had that one before. I’ll get it!” the boy then reached into the fridge to grab the drink Cellbit had spoken about. The boy paused before opening it again, grabbing another colorful drink from the shelves.
“Here, this ones my favorite.” He handed Cellbit a red can before smiling, weirdly sharp canines on display before walking away leaving Cellbit standing by himself in the blue light of the gas station refrigerators.
“Oh there you are! I was just about to head back to the bus, you coming with?” Cellbit turned to find Foolish standing in front of him, holding a plastic bag full of something that Cellbit was sure was going to make him confused if he asked.
Cellbit nodded, not feeling like he could talk after that weird interaction. Lifting the drinks he’s grabbed and gesturing over to where the check out was, Cellbit just hoped Foolish understood what he meant.
Luckily Foolish, for how dumb he was, picked up on social cues from his team members quickly.
“Oh you still have to buy those! I’ll wait.” Cellbit had to fight back a laugh at the way Foolish’s face seemed to split open with his golden retriever smile. Cellbit noted for the first time Foolish also had sharp teeth, similar to the boy in red he had just met.
The line to check out wasn’t long, only around two to three people in front of them and before the two boys knew it they were on their way across the parking lot to where their bus was waiting. Waving a hello to the bus driver the two made their way down the aisle back to their chairs, where Jaiden was already waiting.
“Did you get it?” Jaiden asked, looking up from her phone and staring at Cellbits plastic bag he held in front of him.
“The way you asked that made it sound like a drug deal.” Foolish laughed as he fell into his seat across from Jaiden, opening his own bag and grabbing chips out of it.
“It is a drug deal Foolish, I do not play around when it comes to Miku.”
“I got your radioactive drink, take it.” Cellbit rolled his eyes as he held out the bag in front of Jaiden. She started to scrounge around in it, moving around all the other drinks before grabbing the bright blue drink she was looking for.
“Thank you Cellboooo” She sang, cracking the drink open. “By the way, I didn’t know you liked the red monster, one of my best friends loves that one too.”
Cellbit just shrugged, “Some kid told me to try it, couldn’t decide so I just grabbed it.”
“It’s good, not Miku good but good.” Jaiden settled back into her chair, leaning back onto the window next to her.
Cellbit moved back to his own seat, leaving drinks for Baghera and Charlie on their own seats on his way. Resting his head on the window he looked out into the parking lot, trying to see if he could spot his teammates on their way back to the bus. Then he noticed a flash of red leaving the building and he felt his eyes begin to follow it on instinct.
The boy in the spiderman hoodie was easy to follow as he strolled across the parking lot to a bus similar to the one Cellbit himself was on. Was the boy a skater like himself? It wasn’t unusual to run into other teams when you were traveling, you were all traveling to the same place after all, but spiderman hoodie boy had nothing that indicated he was on any type of team at all. He knew the rule about wearing team gear outside wasn’t just a thing Bolas did, all of the rinks around the area had the same rules. Jaiden had told them the rink closest to theirs, GGN, had the exact same rule and they all knew Soulfire had the same rules that they did due to running into them at gas stations such as this one.
“Din din time losers! Your resident male wife has brought you food!” Charlie’s voice ringing through the bus tore Cellbit’s eyes away from the boy with the spiderman hoodie to find him and Baghera running down the aisle, Phil following closely behind.
“I’m sorry Charlie, what did you just call yourself?” A voice carried down the aisle, sending the entire group into laughter as Charlie stuttered a response.
“Nothing Coach Phoenix, don’t worry about it!” Charlie was turning as red as his shirt, the other members reveling in the first time Charlie ever got embarrassed about the things he said.
“It’s also not dinner Slime, how can you be a good male wife and not know the time?” Foolish pointed out, making eye contact with Slime as he said it. Cellbit could see just from the way Charlie’s eyes lit up that he was going to deal with one of the stupidest conversations he’d ever heard.
“Oh you’re so right my apologies my beloved hubby.” Charlie sat down next to Foolish, crossing his legs over one another, handing Foolish his fast food pancakes while blinking his eyelashes.
“Oh god.” Baghera sighed, sitting down next to Jaiden and handing her her pancakes as well.
“What in the 1950’s is going on.” Phil said, rolling his eyes as he sat back into seat.
“Hey, leave me and my pookie alone. He’s a great husband.” Charlie flipped off Phil from where he was leaning on Foolish.
“You would make a terrible wife Slime, we all know it, you literally tried to eat raw dough in your class three days ago.” Baghera spoke through a mouthful of pancake, pointing her fork at the boy.
“You tried to eat raw dough?!” Cellbit exclaimed, leaning over his chair to look at Charlie.
“I didn’t try to eat it!” Charlie tried to defend, a smug smile on his face “I did.”
The look on Charlie’s face was wiped off when Phil began coming up behind him to smack him on the backside of his head.
“Jesus Charlie what the fuck mate.” Phil said.
“Hey! I didn’t eat the whole ball of dough…..only half.”
“Half!?” The group exclaimed.
“You’re going to die so fast Slime what the fuck.” Jaiden shook her head in disappointment.
“A good male wife never dies.” Charlie stuck out his tongue at the group before getting up and moving back to his own seat.
“Hey! Bolas, count off!” Their coach called from the front, signaling they were finally getting back on the road.
“1!” Phil called out, followed by Foolish, Charlie, Jaiden, Baghera, and finally Cellbit.
Bolas numbering followed when you joined the team and Cellbit had been the most recent, with him only joining 3 years ago after being forced to leave his old rink due to the incident that occurred there. Phil was the first, he had seen everything basically. Foolish and Charlie joined not too long after with Jaiden and Baghera coming together.
With the count off over and the bus back on the road, the group of teens settled back down. Jaiden and Baghera watching movies on Jaidens phone. Cellbit could see Foolish playing on his phone from the crack in between the two seats in front of him. Slime was reading a book from what he could see and Phil was on his phone, smiling at something. Cellbit sighed, turning back towards the window, the gas station and its weird boys in red jackets gone. Replaced by empty highways and sky for as far the eye could see.
Notes:
i’m going to start using end notes as little comments me and my beta reader had on chapters! (also if you see any fnaf references i was watching battingtom tapes while writing a good chuck of this)
“RAHHHH I DONT WANNA GO TO WORK I WANNA KEEP WRITING MY CRINGEFAIL LITTLE GUYS”
“i forgot what a cup holder was called and i literally had to look up "place in car you put your cups".....IT WAS CUPHOLDER HOW DID I FORGET”
“ me at work: this is just like that hit fic i wrote ”
also but i literally bought myself the spider-man hoodie roier is wearing- the brainrot is real-
Chapter 3
Summary:
Cellbit just sat and thought for a while, thinking about what he would say if he ran into his sister. Would he say hello? Would they pretend they’d never met each other before? Would they make eye contact and do the handshake they came up with when they were nine? Would they just walk by each other with nothing but a small nod? Would he even see Bagi? They were staying at the same hotel sure, but hotels were huge. There were times at his old rink where he could stay in the same hotel as one of his friends and not run into them until they had to skate against each other. Maybe he wouldn’t see his sister at all, it’s not like they skated in the same division.
Notes:
hiiiiiiiiiii!!!!! i made a playlist at a request but there’s not a lot of songs on it right now, so if you have any songs that remind you of this fic or of this au i’m all ears lmao!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The rest of the bus ride went similar to how most of these bus rides always went. Occasionally there would be a few messages from the group chat that would make it out of the digital space and turn into actual conversations, but mostly the Bolas teens stayed to themselves. They would trade snacks and such but nothing as loud as the kids playing around in the front of the bus.
They would sing and watch movies on the loudest setting, leaving the teenagers in the back to just roll their eyes or laugh at their antics until it got too annoying and they all put their headphones in and tried to block the kids out. This was how most travels with the Bolas team went, and the trip to Egg Island was like no other.
Cellbit was sitting in his “assigned spot”, back against the window while reading one of the books he was able to shove into his bag. He was trying his best to annotate it with the shakiness on the bus when the silence of the back seats was broken with who he’d assume was either Baghera or Charlie dramatically gasping before muttering a “no way”. Then Cellbit felt his phone buzz and it was confirmed, it was Baghera who had gasped like she just saw god.
BolasBolasBolasBolas:
1:43 PM
Quacki: BREAKING NEWS
Jaidenstune Miku: I AM TRYING TO SLEEP
Quacki: STFU JAIDEN LET ME TALK
Jaidenstune Miku: KYS I WANT TO SLEEP
Quacki: I’LL KILL YOU MYSELF GIRL GIVE ME A SECOND TO TALK
CrowFather: Baghera just say what you need to before I tell the kids about your snacks
Quacki: You would *never*
CrowFather: Yes. I. Would.
Quacki: you're so parasocial
Quacki: You hate me so much
CrowFather: Baghera.
Quacki: FINE OMG
Quacki: I WAS STALKING QUACKITYS INSTAGRAM AND HIS TEAM IS STAYING AT OUR SAME HOTEL
Quacki: WHICH MEANS THE ENTIRE GGN TEAM IS STAYING AT OUR HOTEL
CrowFather: ah-
CrowFather: that’ll be funny to watch :)
Jaidenstune Miku: I will Tanya Harding all of you.
Quacki: Honk shoooo honk shooo can’t hear you honk shooo im asleeppppppp
Of course Baghera started “snoring” out loud, leading to her getting smacked in the face by a pillow Jaiden threw at her from over the seat. The noise that came out of her mouth sounded like a cross between a scream and a laugh. You could hear Charlie laughing and Cellbit assumed if he was closer, also recording. Slime always loved to keep videos of their stupidest moments, bargaining them away to each other for whatever he wanted at the time.
After a quick call from the coaches for the two girls to calm down, Baghera and Jaiden settled down, giggling at one another. Baghera pulled Jaiden in and whispered something in her ear to which Jaiden started laughing even harder.
“No! He’s not! That’s going to be so funny!” Jaiden stuttered out through her laughter, Baghera nodding her head trying to hold in her own laughs.
Soon the bus settled back down, Jaiden and Baghera texting on their phones faster than Cellbit could almost see their fingers begin to have a motion blur. Cellbit could hear Charlie and Foolish talking softly about something a few seats ahead of him and Phil was asleep in his chair, his dark purple blanket pulled over his head, face unseen to the world.
Turning back to his book Cellbits mind began to wander. If the GGN were staying at the same hotel as them, that means it would be harder than ever to escape his sister. Cellbit hadn’t seen his sister outside of forced family holidays for almost four years now. It was weird without her sometimes but Cellbit had gotten used to the empty spot next to him as he grew older. The two of them had been extremely close when they were younger, the typical twin friendship. The two of them had a “twin language” and matching interests. They both began skating together, refusing to do anything without the other. They even skated pairs together when they were younger. Then the two of them hit 5th grade and started skating solo. Bagi had found a club she wanted to do and decided she wanted to start playing soccer as well. This made the time the two of them spent together shrink tenfold. The two still saw each other but with the newly split rooms and the different competition schedules they just got farther apart. Then came the incident and the divorce, Bagi deciding to go with their dad and Cellbit and their mom moving away when they were in 8th grade.
It was weird seeing her sometimes, the two of them going from closer than ever to just instagram mutuals you’d see and wonder if you're truly allowed to like their post or if you just scroll away without another thought. They were civil towards each other when they needed to be at holidays but otherwise they refused to see each other. The only thing Cellbit really knew about his sister's skating career is that she resumed skating two years ago at the rink the GGN skated at and soon joined the team. From her posts about their team outings he saw on his timeline, they seemed like a good fit for her, the group always smiling or laughing in their pictures. He hoped the group was nice to her, she was a good friend.
Cellbit just sat and thought for a while, thinking about what he would say if he ran into his sister. Would he say hello? Would they pretend they’d never met each other before? Would they make eye contact and do the handshake they came up with when they were nine? Would they just walk by each other with nothing but a small nod? Would he even see Bagi? They were staying at the same hotel sure, but hotels were huge. There were times at his old rink where he could stay in the same hotel as one of his friends and not run into them until they had to skate against each other. Maybe he wouldn’t see his sister at all, it’s not like they skated in the same division.
“Mr. Cellbit?” Cellbit was pulled out of his own head by a little voice speaking to him. Looking up from his book he saw a little girl with short curly hair and purple hat. Tallulah, Phil’s younger cousin.
“Hey Lullah, what's up?” Cellbit asked, moving some of his stuff from the seat to the floor to make space for the kid standing in the aisle. The girl sat down next to him, pulling her knees up and her yellow duck sweatshirt over her knees.
“Is that Chay’s sweatshirt?” He points out, raising his eyebrows as Tallulah giggles at him.
“Maybeeeee. He’s asleep! He doesn’t need it!” She defended crossing her arms and huffing at the teenager.
He laughs putting his book away. “Whaddya need kid.”
“Do you still have those Gravity Falls episodes downloaded on your computer? I wanna watch them.” Tallulah said.
“Of course I do Lullah, here which one do you want to watch?” Cellbit pulled his backpack onto his lap and pulled out his computer, logging in quicker than he had in a while and digging through his files to find where he had stuck the downloaded episodes. Him and Bagi once found a website to download the entire show along with some others and had downloaded them immediately, almost giving their family computer a virus in the process. When Cellbit got a computer for high school the first time he immediately tested out the website to see if it was still up and running. It was and now he has all two seasons of Gravity Falls and all three of Owl House downloaded onto his computer.
“I want to watch the Halloween one!” Tallulah clambered over half on Cellbits lap, half on her own seat leaning on his shoulder as he scrolled through all the episodes.
“As you request my queen.” He laughed and started the episode, handing Tallulah one half of the headphones he had connected to the laptop. The two of them began watching the episode, humming along to the theme song. Tallulah asking questions about the mystery glitches and Cellbit answering them to the best of his ability without spoiling the entire series for her. Tallulah and Chayenne were watching the entire series by themselves and they made a promise to not watch any new episodes without each other.
Tallulah soon fell asleep on his shoulder as he let the episodes play on, the kid obviously tired from waking up super early. Cellbit just kept watching, he loved the show of course and he didn’t have the heart to move his arm to turn it off even when it fell asleep. Cellbit watched the entirety of the show, mentally taking notes to make sure he explained the mysteries to Tallulah and Chayenne when the two of them stole Phils phone to ask him questions. Once the show was over it started playing the next few things in his downloads, a few movies he had downloaded as a joke to watch in hotel rooms with his team. There were a few other episodes of shows too, his favorite murder mystery show was downloaded but he skipped it as to not wake Tallulah with the sounds of the murder victims screaming.
Eventually the sun went down and the bus pulled into their hotel. The hotel building was huge, towering over the bus with all the skaters inside. You couldn’t even see the top of the hotel from the bus windows. There was a small fountain in front of the drive through area with an awning where the bus was slowing to a stop. As the bus began slowing the chaos began. Parents yelling at their kids to grab everything before the bus stopped so nothing would be left overnight could be heard echoing down the seats. Tallulah bolted up the aisle muttering a quick apology for falling asleep on Cellbit, even though he had explained to her and the small team time and time again none of them cared. Cellbit himself muttered curses as he attempted to grab the mess that had escaped out from his backpacks and ended up all over the two seats he had claimed for his own at the beginning of the thirteen hour drive. Something in him smiled when he could hear the rest of his team members doing the same, letting out a huff of a laugh as he could hear Jaiden whisper-shouting “kill yourself” over and over to her blanket she was currently trying to stuff into her Miku backpack.
Once the team was slightly ready to go, they began to funnel out and began unpacking underneath the bus. The bus driver just grabbing every bag and just throwing them onto the concrete sidewalk, waiting for the skaters to find their own bags. Cellbit snuck away from the crowd trying to sort their bags and found the corner he had stuffed his two bags at the beginning of the trip. Just where he had left them. He quickly grabbed their handles and slid them out from the storage area, setting his skate bag onto his suitcase. Dragging his luggage to where his friends were standing, Cellbit took in the outside of the hotel once again. He was sure it looked pretty when it was daylight, but he didn’t think it looked half bad in the darkness either.
He knew what he was walking into as soon as he heard the faint sound of Foolish talking. He did this every time they got to a new hotel. Taking in the architecture and pointing out every mistake or thing he loved. One time he talked for an entire three hour drive about the construction of the ice rink the team was traveling to. Cellbit wanted to strangle him.
“Did you see those sconces inside the lobby? Did you see the way they were shaped!” Foolish was talking with his hands, Cellbit noting his nails were a new bright green. He must have painted them on the ride over. How he was able to do that on a shaking bus Cellbit had no idea.
“Foolish we haven’t even been inside yet, no we haven’t seen the sconces.” Despite the annoyance behind the words, Cellbit could see Baghera smiling as she hung onto Foolish’s words. No one understood what he was talking about but damn did he make it sound interesting when he was talking about it.
Looking around Cellbit noticed a certain blonde man missing from the circle of teenagers. His stuff was here, he noted. The black and purple bag with the skull decal was sitting next to his green suitcase covered in stickers Tallulah and Chayanne made.
“Hey where’s Phil?” Cellbit asks, and almost as if on command Jaidens phone dings while the rest of theirs buzz, indicating a text from the group chat.
BolasBolasBolas
CrowFather-Phil, Quacki-Baghera, Jaidenstune Miku-Jaiden, Smiley-Foolish, Cellbo-Cellbit, Malewife-Charlie
7:24 PM
CrowFather: hey guys! Coach gave me our keycards, we’re getting separated from the rest of the team because of how busy it is but he says we’re old enough to handle ourselves without any chaperones so no one but us team wise will be on our floor
CrowFather: and because i know for a fucking FACT none of you check the spread sheet
CrowFather: Bags and Jaiden are rooming together, me and Foolish are rooming together, and cellbit and slime are rooming together
CrowFather: all of our rooms are right next to each other and coach says that if we get any noise complaints hes moving us into the rest of the teams rooms so dont scream at like 3 am
Quacki: OWN ROOMS OWN ROOMS OWN ROOMS OWN ROOMS OWN ROOMS
Jaidenstune Miku: FUCK YEAHHHHHHHHH
Cellbo: LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO
Smiley: PHIL WERE ROOMIESSSSSSS
Malewife: BOLASBOLASBOLASBOLASBOLASBOLAS
Smiley: BOLASBOLASBOLASBOLAS
Quacki: BOLASBOLASBOLASBOLAS
Jaidenstune Miku: BOLASBOLASBOLASBOLASBOLASBOLAS
Cellbo: BOLASBOLASBOLASBOLASBOLAS
CrowFather: istfg if you guys start the cult rumor again this year i will quit
Malewife: sowwyyyyyyyyyyyy
CrowFather: no no no stop never again i hate you
Jaidenstune Miku: charlie im gonna need you to post an apology video for that
Malewife: but i left my ukelele at home :(
Cellbo: can i move back to my old rink?
Callbo: can i leave?
Smiley: no youre stuck with us loserrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Cellbo: youre the worst
Smiley: ;)
Cellbo: blocked and reported
Smiley: :0
Cellbit looking up to Foolish someone making the exact same face as the emoticon that he had just sent, looking like a dejected puppy. Cellbit sighs, trying not to laugh at the 6 '2 teenager looking like a sad child just because he said he was going to block him.
“Oh calm down, I'm not gonna move.” He gives in and begins to laugh, “Where am I going to go? Soulfire? Hell no.”
“Oh god could you imagine that? Cellbit on Soulfire?” Jaiden says in disbelief.
“He’d end up back here anyways, we all know how he works.” Baghera laughs, stretching her arms over her head, trying to wake her body up just a little bit more.
“Hey, I'm perfectly normal, I don't know what you’re talking about.” Cellbit crossing his arms in defense.
“Yeah, normal, sure, says the guy whose last name is Mystery.” Charlie rolls his eyes with a smile. Cellbit smiles back. It’s on now.
“Sure, says the kid whos last name is fucking Slimecicle.”
Charlie gasps in mock offense. “It makes for a wonderful brand, how dare you.”
“Yeah, a slimy goopy brand.” Jaiden joined in on the fight, crossing her arms over her front smiling in challenge.
“All of you guys have weird last names Ms Anymation.” Phil said, coming up from behind the circle. In his hands were six hotel room keys, all the same dark purple color.
Jaiden opened her mouth to say something but Phil cut her off. “Here are the keys to our rooms. We'll probably have to take multiple trips but we should be ok.”
“I’m going to help Tallulah and Chayenne get settled into their room since they’re rooming with Iris and her mom. “ Phil continued.
He began passing out each of their room keys, handing Cellbit and Charlie the keys that were marked 807 in red sharpie on the back. The two boys made eye contact and smiled. Picking up their bags and dragging them closer to one another. Silently the two agreed that this would be a good rooming situation, promising to make this a good competition. Both of them understood that sometimes a roommate can make or break a competition and both had had their fair share of terrible roommates.
Once the group had gotten the approval to go Team Bolas headed up the elevator and onto floor eight. Cellbit and Charlie's room was at the end of the row of Bolas rooms with Jaiden and Baghera being in 805 and Foolish and Phil in 806. Each of them struggled their way with their bags into their rooms, waving to the others before they closed the door.
As soon as Charlie and Cellbit closed the door the two rushed to the nearest bed and grabbed the pillows, starting a pillow fight immediately. Cellbit whipped his arms around trying to hit Charlie as he swerved around him. The two fought long and hard until they were both on the floor laughing so loud Cellbit was worried they would get a noise complaint. Soon they calmed down and began sorting out who would get what out of their room. Charlie got first shower privileges because Cellbit got the bed closest to the window and the outlets. They both collapsed into their beds pretty quickly once they were done, exhausted with the day.
Making sure he set his alarm, Cellbit drifted off for what he felt like was the 30th time that day, content with one of his last travel days.
Notes:
as always this updates when i’m done with the next chapter so if you want a schedule i don’t have one lmaoooo😭 also i swear ill update noise complaint but ive been brain rotting over this version of the au 😭 it’s gotten to the point where im drawing fanart of it in my school notes 😭
anyways author life update i guess: my little brother taught my mom what gyatt meant at dinner and i think i died a little inside
Chapter 4
Summary:
“Oh god, please don’t make fun of me too.” Foolish groaned, “I've been through enough already.”
“You literally set yourself up for this. He was flirting with you and you didn’t get his name?”
“Leave me alone! I was tired!”
“No! What the fuck Foolish!”
“Hey at least I’m not Cellbit! Some guy flirted with him and he just blinked at him!” All heads turned towards Cellbit who stared at Foolish extremely confused.
‘Who had flirted with him?’ Cellbit thought, digging through his memories and finding only one person who could have “flirted with him”. A flash of red and a headband suddenly went through his head.
Notes:
HII!!! i’ve missed yall- i swear im working on a chapter for new message it’s just taking forever because i realized i spoiled things for this fic in that one 😭 it’s also just been busy for me and school lmao- i am suffering immensely :,)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Cellbit woke up to the screaming of both his and Charlie's alarms matching in harmony. Charlie smacked both of their phones to turn them off, Cellbit muttered a small thanks before turning over and trying to fall back asleep. The silence of the two did not last of course, the banging on their door began around five minutes after they had turned off their own alarms.
“Jesus christ ok! Ok!” Charlie slid out from underneath his covers and went to open the door. Cellbit put a pillow over his head to block out the light coming from the doorway.
“Jaiden, it is too early.” Cellbit heard a muffled Charlie say.
“Too bad we have to leave in 30 minutes. You two need to get up.” Cellbit saw the lights in the room turn on and tightened his grip on the pillow, he knew what was coming next.
As if on cue Cellbit felt the blankets get pulled off him in a swift motion. Jaiden tried to get the pillow of his head as well but Cellbit threw it at her before she could grab it. She yelped and caught it midair, throwing it back down at Cellbit with a glare.
“Good morning to you too, asshole.” Jaiden shoved Cellbit off the bed, already dressed in her practice outfit. Cellbit was pretty sure the sweatpants she was wearing were Cellbits, but he couldn't really tell anymore what was his or stolen from someone else.
“Hi.” Cellbit glared at her back, sitting up and stretching before standing up out of bed.
“Cellbit the bathrooms open!” Charlie called from where he stood near his bright green suitcase, also dressed in his practice gear.
Cellbgit sighed and walked over to his duffle bag near the window, grabbing his phone in the process. Opening what the team had nicknamed “the void” due to the all black clothing making it look like there was nothing inside the bag, he dug around to find the clothes he was looking for, a black tank top and his favorite pair of sweatpants.
Walking over to the bathroom he passed Charlie and Jaiden on his bed, scrolling through Jaidens phone together. He rolled his eyes at the two, acknowledging that Jaiden did have her shoes off his bed, so at least it wasn’t all bad.
Once he got to the bathroom Cellbit quickly changed out of his pajamas and into his practice clothes. Looking at himself in the mirror he had to fight the urge to cringe at himself. His hair was a mess, the white streak completely separated and all over the top of his head. The long scars on his arms from when he was younger and he and his sister weren’t the best at pairs were on full display. He knew he had a pretty bad one on the back of his shoulder, he had gotten too many stares and awkward questions to forget about it. The bags under his eyes were a weird shade of purple, glaring at him from underneath his eyes. The blue making the purple stand out even more. He hated the way his face looked in the morning. And in the afternoon. And at night. Cellbit just hated his face to be honest.
“Cellbit stop being a sad loser in there, we have to go!” Baghera, who must have gotten into their room while Cellbit was changing, yelled through the door.
“Shut up!” He yelled back, picking up his clothes and opening the door. Baghera was standing in front of it, her blonde hair pulled back into french braids that she must have done while Jaiden came and woke Cellbit and Charlie up.
Cellbit carried his clothes back over to his duffle bag, noting that Charlie's skate bag was missing along with the two teens that had been in his room before. “Yeah, the two of them went to go see if they could get breakfast or if they were going to have to convince Phoenix to get them food after practice.”
Cellbit threw his clothes down next to his duffle bag and grabbed his own skate bag before turning around and facing Baghera, who was still standing near the front door. He noted her skate bag was also by her feet, the bright pins standing out against the black and red color scheme of their team assigned bags.
“Ok i’m ready.” He said, grabbing his keycard off the desk and putting it in his pocket. “You didn’t have to wait for me, you know.”
Baghera shrugged, slinging her own bag over her shoulder and holding the door for Cellbit out into the hallway. “You’re my friend, plus I know you would have fallen asleep if I didn’t make sure you left.”
“Oh shut up, we both know I would have made it on time.” Cellbit rolled his eyes, as the two continued down the hallway, soon reaching the elevators and hitting the down button.
“Yeah you’re too paranoid.” Baghera laughed, punching Cellbits arm. The elevator bell dinged and the doors opened to an almost empty elevator. All that was in it was a small child, a skate bag on the floor next to them. Their dog hoodie covered their team jacket, making the two teens unable to see what team the child belonged to. The kid looked up at the two of them, their black hair falling in front of their face with the movement.
“Hi!” Baghera chirped, grabbing Cellbits arm and pulling them into the elevator. Hitting the lobby button, she smiled at the kid next to them who was still just staring.
“Are you a skater too?” The kid nodded, turning their bag and pointing at the embroidered logo on the side. It was of a blue flame with the words Soulfire underneath it. Cellbit felt Baghera lock up slightly, Soulfire had done terrible things to both of them, but this child was not a part of it. They both had to remind themselves that. With Baghera squeezing Cellbits arm to bring attention to the way he was digging his nails into his palm and Cellbit doing the same to her to bring attention to her pulling on her earrings.
“Do you like your team?” Cellbit coughed out. Wincing at how scary his voice sounded. The kid didn’t seem to mind, in fact their eyes lit up at the mention of their team. They brought their hands up and began throwing symbols quickly, which Cellbit recognized as sign language. He could pick out a few words but not much as the kid was speaking too fast for him to be able to pick up on the complete sentences. He was able to pick up fun , friends , and happy . Happy was the word that Cellbit noticed was repeated multiple times.
“I’m glad you have fun with your teammates.” Cellbit smiled at the child, who simply nodded aggressively back at him.
The elevator soon reached the lobby floor, opening the doors with another ding. The kid picked up their bag and ran off faster than Cellbit and Baghera could blink. Leaving the two of them to adjust their bags and walk out into the huge lobby. They passed the small snack area close to the elevators that they had spotted when they reached the hotel last night and made their way over to the seating area full of couches where they spotted Foolish with his head in Jaidens shoulder with her awkwardly patting him on the back while Phil and Charlie seemed to be laughing extremely hard.
“Oh god what did he do?” Cellbit said under his breath.
“It’s too early for you to be a wreck Foolish what the fuck.” Baghera sighed as the two of them got into ear shot of the group.
Foolish just let out a groan that sounded more like a real life keysmash than anything human, hiding his face even more into Jaidens shoulder, much to her dismay.
“He went down to the lobby first and we just found him like this.” Phil shrugged, trying to calm himself down from the laughing fit Foolish had caused.
“From what it sounds like he met a pretty boy and he fumbled.” Jaiden said.
“He was so prettyyyyyyyy, I couldn’t say anythingggggggg.” Foolish sobbed. Cellbit felt himself start laughing as well.
Baghera picked Foolish up off Jaiden and shook his shoulders. “Please don’t tell me he was extremely basic, Foolish i’ve seen your crushes don’t tell me he was boring.”
“He wasn’t boring! I swear! He had a purple sweatshirt with what looked like hand embroidered designs! He has pretty hair! I swear!” While Foolish tried to defend himself to Baghera, Jaiden slipped away and moved up to where Phil, Charlie, and Cellbit were standing.
“Dude it was crazy, we came down here and he was just sitting there with his head in his hands just muttering to himself like a crazy person.” Jaiden shook her head, the neon teal dye showing through the dark brown as she did.
“Sounds like it dude, why is he like this?” Cellbit laughed.
“Bolas! Where are you!” At the sound of their coach's voice, all of the Bolas team members' heads whipped around trying to find their coach. The women walked over to the group, wearing a similar black and red outfit that the skaters all wore. Her hair was braided similar to Bagheras, which made sense due to Baghera idolizing their coach and what she’s done for them.
The group of teens all stood up, grabbing their bags as soon as she got close enough to the group to no longer need to yell. “Are you all ready?”
The group nodded in sync, which their coach laughed at. “You guys are a hivemind I swear.”
The group followed Phoenix as she led them out into the darkness of early morning and onto the bus. Sitting in their “assigned” seats in the back of the bus the Bolas teenagers settled down in the back of the bus.
Cellbit pulled out his phone and noticed the groupchat had gone off when he was still getting ready. Scrolling back Cellbit could feel himself begin to smirk at the chaos that had happened when he and Baghera were in the elevator.
BolasBolasBolasBolas
Members: Phil-CrowFather, Jaiden- Jaidenstune Miku, Charlie-Malewife, Foolish- Smiley, Cellbit-Cellbo, Baghera-Quacki
6:22 AM
Smiley: GUYS I JUST MET THE PRETTIEST BOY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD
Smiley: HE SAID I WAS CUTE AND WINKED AT ME AND ALSO BOUGHT MY FOOD OH MY GOD GUYS HE WAS SO PRETTY HE HAD THIS AMAZING HOODIE BUT HE ROLLED THE SLEEVES UP AND HE WAS SO STRONG HE LOOKED LIKE HE COULD LIKE DO PARTNER THROWS WITH ME GUYS IT WAS AMAZING AND HE FUCKING BOUGHT MY FOOD FOR ME BECAUSE I DROPPED IT ON THE FLOOR AND HE SAID HIS SISTER WAS AN ICE SKATER AND HE KNEW HOW ANNOYING EARLY MORNING PRACTICES WERE AND OH MY GOD GUYS
Malewife: WDYM FUCKING FOOLISH IS GETTING BITCHES AND IM NOT
Malewife: WHAT IS THIS
Malewife: HOW IS HE GETTING BITCHES AT 6 IN THE MORNING
Jaidenstune Miku: LMAOOOOOOOOOO FOOLISH PLEASE TELL ME YOU GOT HIS NUMBER
CrowFather: oh god foolish-
Smiley: …..
Malewife: F O O L I S H G O L D
Smiley: …….yes?
Malewife: Did you
Malewife: get his number
Smiley: ….
CrowFather: foolish.
Smiley: no…. I didn’t….
Jaidenstune Miku: I DONT CARE ABOUT THIS BRING ME MY DRINK
Malewife: STFU JAIDEN WERE TRYING TO HELP FOOLISH GET BITCHES
Jaidenstune Miku: ALL OF YOU ARE BITCHLESS AND I HOPE YOU ALL DIE
Smiley: Jaiden I will throw away your drink right now
Jaidenstune Miku: you wouldn’t
Smiley: i would.
Jaidenstune Miku: ….
Smiley: that’s what I thought.
CrowFather: foolish please tell us you got his name at the very least
Smiley: ….
Malewife: FOOLISH
Cellbit could hear Baghera chuckling from across the aisle, she was also reading what had happened. “Foolish, did you really not get his name?”
“Oh god, please don’t make fun of me too.” Foolish groaned, “I've been through enough already.”
“You literally set yourself up for this. He was flirting with you and you didn’t get his name? ”
“Leave me alone! I was tired!”
“No! What the fuck Foolish!”
“Hey at least I’m not Cellbit! Some guy flirted with him and he just blinked at him!” All heads turned towards Cellbit who stared at Foolish extremely confused.
‘ Who had flirted with him?’ Cellbit thought, digging through his memories and finding only one person who could have “flirted with him”. A flash of red and a headband suddenly went through his head.
Was he talking about the spiderman hoodie from the gas station?’
“Cellbit someone flirted with you and you didn’t tell us!” Baghera screeched, leaping over her seat to get to Cellbit. Charlie did something similar, leaning over the back of his chair and hovering over Cellbit. Cellbit wanted to sink into his seat. He didn’t even know what they were talking about.
“Cell, stop picking at your fingernails, you can’t make them look all fucked up before comp.” Phil said, not even looking up from his phone. Cellbit looked down at his hands, he was actually picking at his fingernails. He hadn’t noticed. It was just something he unconsciously did when he was thinking. He had a lot of habits like that. When he was in middle school someone had pointed out to him that his lips always looked like they were the wrong color due to him chewing on his lip whenever he was struggling on a test. Baghera looked down at his hands as well, taking them from him and holding them in her own hands. Cellbit understood what she was trying to do and began to play with her fingers while she talked.
“Ok, but you’re not getting out of this.” Charlie said, still hovering above Cellbits chair. “Who the hell flirted with you and why did you do nothing but just blink. ”
“I have no idea what Foolish is talking about, he’s just saying shit.” Cellbit heard Foolish gasp before he too was in front of Cellbit, standing in the middle of the aisle. His black hair that he usually just let fall however he wanted was pulled back into a bun. An extremely messy one with strands falling out in front of his face, but a bun nonetheless.
“I am not! There was that boy with the spiderman hoodie! He was so very much flirting with you! And you just stared at him!” Foolish defended, flailing his hands all over the place.
“Spiderman hoodie?” And there was Jaiden, now Cellbit had the entire team just standing over him.
‘Why isn’t the rink closer?’ He thought bitterly. Baghera and Jaiden were now doing their weird telepathy thing, staring into each other's eyes and talking without words. It was something Cellbit had known the two to have done since he arrived at the Bolas rink the first time. He would catch the two of them staring at each other with what looked like murderous intent to any outside source multiple times whenever they all practiced together. When he asked they just said it was something they had developed when they skated together at one of their old rinks.
“Was he flirting or was that just you deflecting?” Phill rolled his eyes at Foolish.
“He was flirting! Trust me I know flirting!”
“Do you?” Charlie laughed as Foolish tried to push him off his seat, “Do you not remember that one boy from freshman year?”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Foolish slapped his hand over Charlie's mouth.
“We do not talk about Bbh, he doesn’t count.” Something about that name sounded familiar to Cellbit but he couldn’t remember from where. Maybe he had just heard it somewhere during school or something. It didn’t matter. What really mattered was the way Charlie bit Foolish’s hand and how the two began wrestling each other in the aisle.
Jaiden broke out of her trance with Baghera just to start chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Phil just sighed-something he did a lot when he was with the team- and began to record the fight on the floor. Cellbit himself pulled out his phone to start recording as well, less for blackmail like Phil, more to bully the two on their fighting techniques later. He had thrown a good few punches in his life and had fought dirty in scuffles more than he could count, he was legally obligated to give them tips.
“Foolish Totem-Gold and Charlie Slimecicle! Stop that right now!” Phoenix yelled as she stomped down the aisle to where the two were now biting each other. Both boys winced and rolled off each other, Cellbit noticed the bruises that were already beginning to form on each of their faces. Oh Coach was not going to be happy.
Any type of injury that could be seen was immediately met with scorn and disappointment, even if it wasn't your fault. That’s just how the ice skating world worked. Anything less than perfect appearance was a point lost. It didn’t help any skater mentally but it did make them much sneakier when it came to things like fights or injuries. This time it would be harder to hide the injuries Foolish and Charlie had left on each other but it was obvious with how all of the injuries seemed to be on the side of their chins and on their arms. Both of them wore long sleeved costumes to perform so those bite marks they had left on each other wouldn't be too hard to hide. Cellbit had had his fair share of disappointed looks and anger aimed at him for his injuries when he was younger. His pain tolerance was high sure, but he bruised extremely easily and scarred even easier. The reaction to his injuries was one of the reasons he focused a lot of his energy when he was younger into getting better at fighting and playing dirty when it came to said fights. A friend at his one old rinks had even taught him where each pressure point on the body was and how to hit them the best.
Looking back it wasn’t the best thing to tell an 11 year old, but he still used that information today. He could pretend it made him a better skater, but in all honesty all it really did for his skating was make it easier to get out of arguments with his fellow team members. Well, if he thought about it, it did help him regulate his anger till he was off the ice. Except that one time but no one wanted to talk about that.
Tuning back into the conversation Cellbit listened to his coach grill the shit out of his teammates, who were both still sitting on the floor. “I can’t believe the two of you, I can excuse the fighting at our home rink but here? Oh the fucking floor of a bus? What were you two even fighting over?”
Phoenix sounded extremely exasperated and Cellbit couldn’t help but notice how the rest of the team were all fighting to keep their laughter back. He himself fought a smile while his coach was continuing her lecture. Nothing was going to truly change their behavior, the group had gotten into physical fights for less–memories of when Jaiden and Slime got into a fight over how Charlie couldn’t sing a Miku song he had never heard before come to mind–it was just funnier to the group that the fight was caused by a boy. Not even a boy they all knew, just a boy one of their friends flirted with.
“We are arriving at the rink in 3 minutes, you are the representatives of the Bolas Rolas rink and if I catch you doing anything like this when we are there I will pull you out of the competition like that.” Phoenix snapped.
She looked up at the rest of the team, her face hardening. “This goes for the rest of you as well.”
“Now sit back down in your seats and be quiet until we get to the rink.” Their coach turned and made her way back up the aisle to where she had been sitting before. Charlie and Foolish scrambled off the floor and into their seats, fighting back laughter while they sat down.
Cellbit looked down at his phone and the exact thing he was waiting for, a notification from the group chat.
BolasBolasBolasBolas
Members: Phil-CrowFather, Jaiden- Jaidenstune Miku, Charlie-Malewife, Foolish- Smiley, Cellbit-Cellbo, Baghera-Quacki
6:41 AM
Jaidenstune Miku: LMAOOOOOOO
Quacki: IF ONLY SHE KNEW HOW MUCH WE FOUGHT
Malewife: WHICH ONE OF YOU HAS THE VIDEO
Malewife: THAT WAS SUCH A BAD FIGHT FOR ME
Smiley: no yeah wtf
Smiley: to be fair we both played dirty
Malewife: I ONLY PLAYED DIRTY BECAUSE YOU PLAYED DIRTY
Smiley: YOU FUCKING BIT ME
Malewife: YOU BIT ME TOO YOU MOTHER FUCKER
Smiley: YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO DO IT BACK
Cellbo: LMAO BOTH OF YOU FUCKING SUCKED DURING THAT FIGHT
Cellbo: HOW THE HELL DID YOU MESS THAT UP THAT BAD
CrowFather: we literally had a whole meeting about not hitting each others faces
CrowFather: what’s the one rule about fighting
CrowFather: all of you say it i saw how you were all itching to jump in
Cellbo: go for the chest not the face
Quacki: go for the chest not the face
Jaidenstune Miku: go for the chest not the face
Smiley: go for the chest not the face
Malewife: go for the chest not the face
CrowFather: exactly
CrowFather: now both me and Cellbit took a video of the fight so i’ll send it to you guys
Cellbo: i’ll send mine too
Malewife: damn @Smiley my jaw hurts :(
Smiley: my arm hurts :(
“Bolas! We’re here! Let’s get a move on!” Phoenix yelled from the bus, her voice causing the group of six to scramble out of their seats and grab their bags. Once all of them were outside of the bus they were able to take in the rink that stood before them. Cellbit cursed in his mind, of course it was this rink. At least he knew where the locker rooms were.
Notes:
the bolas friendship in this chapter is lowkey my favorite- idk why but them killing each other in purgatory translates to them fighting each other whenever they have the chance in my mind- anyways you know that one meme of the parents holding up a baby while the other one struggles in the water with the skelton in the bottom? that’s how i feel like i am with this fic noise complaint and my schoolwork 😭😭😭
Chapter 5
Summary:
Their attention was soon pulled away from their coach angrily muttering by a creaking of one of the wooden doors of the locker rooms opened. Cellbit froze eyes locking with the person in front of him.
Peeking his head out the door was someone Cellbit swore he would never see again. His black hair had gotten longer, it must be growing out from some type of wolf cut with how shaggy it was becoming. His face still looked the same, if not a little older. His freckles had faded but in his defense, so had Cellbits, it was just a natural effect of no longer going outside as much due to skating. Cellbit couldn’t see the rest of him but he knew that if he looked right above his knee there would be a thick scar that almost coiled around like a snake. He knew that if he looked he could see the birthmark on his upper shoulder that looked like pac man. He knew that if he kept staring he could feel the anger rise through his body. They both kept staring.
Notes:
hey guys fun fact- i like angst! :3 a lot :3 also peep the unreliable narrator tag :P just saying :3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The first thing Cellbit realized was that the rink really wasn’t as big as it used to feel. It was bigger than Bolas’s rink, sure, but it couldn't have been any bigger than Soulfires. The figure skating rink itself was connected to a rink that was meant for hockey, and that side was bigger of course. Two rinks was uncommon, but it wasn’t rare. Once a hockey team gets enough popularity and money they usually split off and build another, bigger rink with bigger stands, more sponsors, and overall a better look. Leaving the smaller rink to the figure skaters to use to their heart's content. That is, until they decide to give the time they used to give to the figure skaters to young kids hockey practice. Then their ice time gets shorter, and then when the figure skating parents and coaches complain, the ice time gets moved to earlier and earlier. Then eventually you turn 17 and still can’t wake up later than 7 am because you're too used to waking up at 4 am everyday when you were 11.
Cellbit followed as they went through the front door of the rink and stood in silence with the rest of the team as Phoenix checked them in. The boy at the front desk looked almost the same age as Phil, maybe a few years older. His hair was a bleached blonde and he looked like he was growing a beard, somehow also bleached. He just looked exhausted, the bags under his eyes mimicked the ones Cellbit had on his own face.
“Team name?” The boy sighed.
Phoenix rolled her eyes, leaning over the desk into the boy's personal space to look for her name on the list, “Bolas Rolas, it will be under Phoenix Watcher.” The Bolas team turned and made eye contact with each other. Of course she was going to be annoying today of all days, right after she had yelled at them for how they all presented themselves too.
“Ah, yeah I see you sorry, just tired.” The boy checked them off the list and pulled out another paper.
“I’m assuming you are all accounted for but I just have to do this, when I say your name just like, say something I don’t know.”
“Jaiden Anymation?”
“Hm? Oh yeah here.”
“Foolish Gold?”
“Sup!”
“Baghera Jones?”
“Oui”
“Phil Minecraft?”
“Morning mate.”
“Cellbit Mystery”
“Hi.”
“Charlie Slimecicle”
“Here!”
The blonde boy checked off everyones names as he read them outloud, rubbing his eyes tiredly before continuing.
“You guys are good to head to locker room 6, it will be down the hall and to the left.” He yawned, pointing his pen in the direction of the locker rooms.
“Thank you.” Phil said as Phoenix decided the teen's work wasn’t deserving of one, just jerking her head towards the direction they had been pointed and headed off. Cellbit adjusted his bag and followed behind the rest of the team, looking at the pictures of all the skaters that lined the walls of the hallway. He mind wandered to the box in the strange storage room behind the skate rental filled with pictures of skaters that had left the rink and moved on. He wondered if there was a picture of him in the box, or if they had thrown it away before what he looked like had been leaked to the public.
The locker rooms were all situated in around the same spot, six on each side of the hallway with simple decals on each of the doors to tell them apart. There was a list of hockey games for the day that was taped over some of the numbering of the doors, some you couldn’t see anything at all. The Numbers faded like they had never been there at all, leading the group to have to stand in the middle of the hallway and try to guess which one of the doors was theirs.
“He couldn’t have mentioned the design on the door? Would that be so hard?” Phoenix’s anger was slowly rising with everything that had happened so far in the day. The teenagers all stepped a little farther away from their coach, Baghera stepping into Cellbit with Jaiden and Foolish moving closer to Phil and Charlie.
Their attention was soon pulled away from their coach angrily muttering by a creaking of one of the wooden doors of the locker rooms opened. Cellbit froze eyes locking with the person in front of him.
Peeking his head out the door was someone Cellbit swore he would never see again. His black hair had gotten longer, it must be growing out from some type of wolf cut with how shaggy it was becoming. His face still looked the same, if not a little older. His freckles had faded but in his defense, so had Cellbits, it was just a natural effect of no longer going outside as much due to skating. Cellbit couldn’t see the rest of him but he knew that if he looked right above his knee there would be a thick scar that almost coiled around like a snake. He knew that if he looked he could see the birthmark on his upper shoulder that looked like pac man. He knew that if he kept staring he could feel the anger rise through his body. They both kept staring.
The boy didn’t move. Staring at Cellbit with those brown eyes that always looked yellow under certain rink lights like a deer in headlights. Like prey that was pretending to play dead. Unconsciously Cellbit moved his hand to where the last hit was landed as if he could stop the blood that was beginning to drip down his arm. There was no blood. Cellbit’s hands were not red. Not anymore at least. Cellbit didn’t know how much time had passed. Time felt too slow and too fast at the same time.
Before anyone could say anything another head popped out from behind the door, this time it was a girl with long brown hair, pulled back behind her head in a half up, half down style. She looked at the group confused before stepping out fully. She was wearing a duo toned blue jacket over her all black outfit that almost matched the Bolas team's uniforms. Cellbit glanced at her for only a few seconds before his eyes fixated on the boy with the scar again.
“Are you guys lost?” She asked, raising her eyebrow at the group of teens just standing while their coach paced up and down the hallway.
“Yeah, they hid the numbers and we’re trying to figure out which one is locker room six.” Phil shrugged.
Cellbit looked down at the floor, breaking eye contact with the boy and his deer-like eyes. He knew the disappointment and confusion that would come through in his eyes at the admission that they were lost. He shouldn’t be lost. He refused to admit he was lost. He clenched his hands into fists. He wasn’t fucking lost.
“Oh yeah we struggled for a little bit too, luckily this is Pac’s old rink so he helped us out!” She pulled Pac out from behind the door, exposing the exact same sweatshirt Cellbit had ripped to shreds on accident six years ago. If he rotated Pacs wrist he could see the remains of a star his sister had embroidered onto the sleeve. Bright green against the dark blue, matching to another sleeve that Cellbit hadn’t seen in years.
Pac stayed still, eyes glancing at his teammate. “Tina…I’m not supposed to tell anyone that..”
“What? Why? You told us?” Tina turned to her teammate, raising her eyebrows.
Pac began fidgeting with his sleeves. “Don’t worry about it.”
He looked up at Phoenix who was tapping her foot in wait. “Locker room six is the one right over there” He pointed to the door with the star decal that was beginning to fade a few doors down from where they were standing.
“Thank you. Finally.” Phoenix muttered, immediately walking over to the door and going inside. The rest of the team followed with Cellbit making up the rear. He tried his best to avoid Pac’s eyes who was still staring at him, Cellbit forgot how long he could go without blinking. Tina left to go back inside her own locker room, leaving with another confused look at Pac, whose face had steeled itself up. Pac didn’t follow his teammate. He stepped in front of Cellbit, blocking him off from the rest of his team's sight. Cellbit dug his nails into his palm and bit his lip, fighting back the urge to just punch Pac.
“Stop pretending like you’ve never been here. We both know you know these locker rooms like the back of your hand. Or do you only remember the blood stains you left on the floors?” Pac stared right into Cellbits eyes, hatred filled and angry. Just like the eyes that he used to see in the mirror.
“Cellbit!” Baghera called, “Let’s go!”
“If you pull this shit again, I'll fully cut off your leg this time.” Cellbit pushed his way through Pac, checking his shoulder in a warning.
Throwing the wooden door open, Cellbit found his team all sitting around in the locker room, digging through their bags to get their skates on. At the sound of the door opening most of them looked up Cellbit stared at the floor. The chips in the rubber pissed him off to no end.
“Cellbit stop digging your nails into your hand and get your skates on.” Phoenix said from the corner of the room where she was standing on her phone.
“I’m going to go get on the ice and talk to the rest of the coaches.” She shut her phone and walked out of the room, leaving the group of teens once again, alone.
Cellbit threw his bag off his shoulder and settled into a spot close to Phil, he was farther away then he normally would be but he doesn’t trust himself to not go ballistic if anyone tried to pry into what was wrong. He knew Phil wasn’t that big on talking emotions so he hoped he would be fine sitting next to him. Foolish would question him immediately, Jaiden and Baghera would both somehow already know what was wrong, and Charlie would point out everything that set him off. He loved his friends but he just needed their team captain right now. Cellbit could feel his team's concerned eyes on him as he pulled the extra hand wrap he had in his skate bag for moments like these, for when he digs his nails too far into his palm. Baghera called them his cat claws one time when she was doing his nails, Cellbit took it as a compliment but now it felt more like a curse.
It was just something he did, either he clawed his hand or he clawed whatever made him angry. As much as he loved fighting with his teammates, they always fought for fun. There were no true angry feelings behind their fights. Actual anger just made Cellbit feel like a terrible person, like he was back at his old rink. Ironic wasn’t it. The first time he’s felt real anger and not just silly frustration was when he was back in the hellhole that made him promise himself to never feel this type of anger again. It’s been six years and one boy was all it took for his training to stop working and for him to revert back to old Cellbit.
“Mate, I don't know what he said, but we don’t skate with them. Phoenix made sure we’re the only team on the ice.” Phil’s voice was quiet, like it was only for Cellbit. As he looked around he noticed his teammates were all finishing up and beginning to warm up. Some of them were up, tying the last knots on their skates and jumping around to make sure it was tight enough. Jaiden was stretching her splits with Foolish, joking about something as the two leaned towards their skates. Charlie was stretching his spiral against the wall with Baghera lifting his leg above his head. Cellbit winced as Charlie waved for Baghera to lift his foot higher, she pushed harder and Charlie's body was soon at a straight 180 degree angle.
“How the fuck do you even do that man!” Foolish called from the floor.
“I don’t know, I'm just better than you.”
“Dude, you two literally just fought, chill out.” Baghera pushed Charlie's foot down, making him fall over.
“Rude.” Charlie stuck his tongue out at Baghera. She flipped him off and moved to sit with Jaiden and stretch her own splits.
“Cellbo, come stretch with me!” Foolish tried to pull him over by the arm once Cellbit was finished tying his skates. Cellbit looked over at Phil, who nodded at him and went back to his phone smiling at whoever he was texting. Cellbit caved and let himself get pulled up by Foolish.
“Come on, come on! Help me stretch my spiral. I gotta get it higher than Slime!” Cellbit shook his head.
“Slime’s literally just has fucked up bones. There’s no way you can get higher than him.”
“I’m not fucked up in the bones man!” Charlie interjected, “I’m just double jointed dumbass!”
“That counts as fucked up up bones!”
“You literally sharpened your teeth!”
“I was 12!”
“Ladies! Ladies! You’re both pretty! Now shut the fuck up.” Jaiden stepped in between the two who had gotten closer and closer as they fought.
Baghera rolled her eyes. “I swear Phoenix is gonna come back and one of you is going to be dead.”
“Yeah you Bags.” Slime said.
The door swung open and Phoenix stepped in once again, her own skates were on and she looked even more pissed than she had when she left the room.
“All of you on the ice now. I need to prove something to those fucking Soulfire coaches.”
Notes:
THE SECONDARY PLOT HAS STARTED LETS GOOOOO- i’m super excited for where this story is going and i’m so excited for you guys to read it! also btw i do have a playlist for this fic! it’s not finished but https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SMUkZzdMpHwjNVXCr6AuE?si=9FBlvOGjTl-EOnSU1cfIqQ&pi=u-uW3o-qhCSjCm (idk if the link didn’t work then it’s just under Too Sweet For Me on spotify!) i’ve been writing these chapters super quick so i might see you guys soooonnnnnnn~~~~~
Chapter 6
Summary:
The sound of toe-picks taking off and ice coming up in chunks as people landed soon filled the air around Cellbit. The Bolas skaters were nothing if not known for their high jumps. The team was composed of skaters who had been mainly focused on jumping before reaching Bolas Rolas. For better or for worse. Both Jaiden and Baghera were literally a part of a group that was nicknamed the “wingless birds” by the media with how high they used to jump before the injuries. The two could still jump extremely high, but it was lower than they used to. Phil was in a similar situation with his jumps, back issues from poor training when he was a kid causing him to take more breaks than he would like to.
Notes:
i think this chapter pushes us over 15k words and i think that’s crazy 🧍
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The ice was as cold as Cellbit remembered it was. Even when he was younger he thought it was unnaturally cold. That’s just how Cargo Rink was, it was cold for the hockey team. Not for the figure skaters that used the rink more but the hockey team who was only there when they had to be.
“Jesus fucking christ why is this rink so cold.” Bagheras teeth were basically chattering the whole time the team lined up to get on the ice.
“Hockey players.” Cellbit shrugged.
“Ok now for you guys, three laps around the ice you know the warm up.” Phoenix waved her hand for the six of them to get on the ice.
Getting on the ice was always an experience, for Cellbit at least it was. As soon as he realized his balance was in the hands of a random piece of sharpened metal he felt free. He was a fast skater and he knew that, waving as he passed both Phil and Baghera as he started his warm up. The wind in his hair felt amazing, pushing it out of his face as he skated around. It was one of the main reasons he didn't really put his hair up when it came to practice, he put it up for run-throughs of his program but nothing else. It was just annoying to have to grab all of his layers, plus his team always joked that it looked like he was balding due to the white streaks in his hair.
Each member of Bolas had a slightly different warmup due to their various styles of skating but they all were trained to begin the same, front and back crossovers while stretching their arms out above their heads and curling them around in a bowing motion. As the group fell into their usual routines, Cellbit glanced at the boards. There he saw Phoenix and a new woman sitting next to her. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight ballet bun and she was wearing a puffer jacket in the same burgundy red of the Bolas Rolas team colors.
‘ When had she arrived?’
Bolas Rolas had two main coaches for their older skaters, Phoenix Watcher and Bonnie Eyes. Bonnie, or Coach Eyes as she was called more often, skated and taught for both Bolas Rolas and the GGN. She was just one of those coaches that taught at multiple rinks, which was normal even if the rinks had huge rivalries.
‘That was the skaters problem, not the coaches’
she always said. Bonnie was much kinder than Phoenix normally but competition season was much different. Bonnie was raised a dancer instead of a skater like Phoenix was and to her upbringing presentation was everything. You had to be at the top of your game even during a regular practice during competition season. Bonnie showed no mercy as the main choreographer of the Bolas Team, if you did something slightly off she would notice and she would yell it out for all of your teammates to hear. Cellbit was one of the main ones that got yelled at often with how much he got into his head about programs. What could he say? Controlling his face was hard.
“Oh shit, Coach Eyes is here, be right back I’m off to go die.” Foolish muttered as he slowed down to skate next to Cellbit.
Jaiden skated by the two of them, flicking Foolish on the head when she got close enough.
“You’ll be fine, just don’t pop your jumps.”
Foolish sped off to try and catch her, calling out behind her. Cellbit laughed as he saw Foolish almost trip on his toe-pick.
“Careful shark boy!” Phil called from somewhere behind Cellbit. Foolish’s eyes darted around before he attempted to discreetly flip Phil off but was unsuccessful if the scandalized call of his name from the boards was anything to go by.
“Start warming up your jumps!” Coach Eyes called from where she was, already exasperated from watching the team mess with each other. If Phoenix had told her about the fight on the bus….this was going to be an interesting practice.
The sound of toe-picks taking off and ice coming up in chunks as people landed soon filled the air around Cellbit. The Bolas skaters were nothing if not known for their high jumps. The team was composed of skaters who had been mainly focused on jumping before reaching Bolas Rolas. For better or for worse. Both Jaiden and Baghera were literally a part of a group that was nicknamed the “wingless birds” by the media with how high they used to jump before the injuries. The two could still jump extremely high, but it was lower than they used to. Phil was in a similar situation with his jumps, back issues from poor training when he was a kid causing him to take more breaks than he would like to.
They were, what Charlie joked, “rescue animals' ' with all of their injuries sustained from rinks they skated at before Bolas Rolas. Cellbit and his arm, Phil, Jaiden, and Baghera with their backs, Foolish with his legs and Charlie with his entire body basically. Charlie was an interesting case with how he was a self described “rescue”. Charlie was double jointed in most of his joints that were used for skating, which led to him pushing himself much farther than he should have when he was younger. All because he thought his body was supposed to do that. It was still a problem due to his high-ass pain tolerance. He wouldn’t notice if he was twisting his arm too far, everyone else had to stop him before he almost broke an elbow again.
Cellbit ended his first half of his jumping ladder, landing slightly wobbly on his right foot. Wincing as he felt his ankle take the brunt of the bad landing. Glancing around, he prayed that neither of the coaches had seen that. He really didn’t want to do the full thing again. Jumping ladders were fun for Cellbit but the beginning of them was extremely annoying and slow. Singles of jumps always made Cellbit feel off, like he was doing something wrong. He had to keep doing half rotations to stop himself from going too over and accidentally fucking up. Waltz Jump, Salchow, Toe Loop, Loop, Flip, Lutz Jump, Axel. One rotation in the air each. That’s how all of his practices started. Warm ups were just annoying to Cellbit. Needed yes, and he understood that, but still extremely annoying.
Cellbit knew some of the team members felt similar to him, just less extreme about it. The only person who ever really understood the annoyance of warmups was his sister, Bagi. Sometimes he wondered if she still didn’t like them. They used to speed run their pairs warmups just so they could get to working with their coaches faster. Maybe that’s where his annoyance came from. He wouldn’t be surprised.
“Cellbit!” His name being called burst through his thoughts and threw him off so badly, he fell in the middle of his jump. As the pain shot through Cellbits legs they were immediately soothed by the freezing cold of the ice he fell onto. Cellbit looked up to find his coaches staring at him from across the ice, his team members in a circle around them.
Shit.
He got too into his head again.
Picking himself up, Cellbit began speeding over the boards, wiping the ice off the back of his pants as he headed to the circle of his teammates. Skidding to a stop, he took his place in between Jaiden and Charlie.
“Ok now that all of you are here,” Phoenix clapped her hands, “Baghera and Jaiden, you two skate first in the dramatic, so we’ll have the two of you run your programs now.”
The two girls nodded in unison. “Yes Coach!”
Bonnie made a thoughtful noise before speaking, “Actually, I want them running their programs without music first while we keep talking to these four.”
Baghera and Jaiden were then sent off with another nod to go start a run through of their programs. Cellbit turned back to the two coaches in front of him, who were leaning over a clipboard while flipping through a collection of papers, which Cellbit could assume was the competition schedule.
“Cellbit, Charlie, you two are next so the two of you will be doing a run through after those two finish. I also want you two to run through them now without your music.” Bonnie waved Charlie and Cellbit away from the boards with just a small flick of her hand, leaving just Foolish and Phil with the two coaches while the others skated away.
His dramatic program wasn’t super long, shorter than his regular one at least. Or maybe it just felt like that since it wasn’t chock full of jumps that made him feel like his feet were falling off. There were only three or four jumps in this program. His dramatic was focused mostly on his facial expressions and his ability to skate fast. Bonnie had choreographed it to cover the ice at least three times, forcing him to speed up even if he didn’t want to.
Counting himself in, Cellbit felt his mind go clear. His only thoughts became what step was next and what he needed to do to get across the ice in the short amount of time he was given. Of course he did have to avoid his fellow skaters during his run through, a problem that came with having the same choreographer. Same choreographer meant the similar spots for jumps, the same beginning for step sequences and many other matching things. He had to get out of the middle of the rink quickly if he was to be able to reach the corner before Jaiden got there. She and Baghera had started before the rest of them so they were less worried about getting hit, it was still a possibility though. Being hit was always a possibility.
Dramatic programs meant big arms along with big movements and all four of their programs included them. Cellbit felt himself shorten his arms into a t-rex type of movement as he passed Charlie on his way to set up for his jump. His double lutz wasn’t the best but it was practice. It wasn’t supposed to be perfect.
‘It’s not supposed to be perfect ’ He chanted internally as he popped his second jump. Pushing away the fear he felt climbing in his stomach he prepared himself for his step sequence. He could feel Bonnie's eyes scrutinizing him as he began twisting and turning as fast as he could go without completely falling over. He felt his spine pop as he turned too quickly, trying to cover it up with an extended lunge around the red circle in the middle of the ice. He landed his third jump without any problems which helped encourage him to slow down slightly, taking his time with his turns and edges without hitting his teammates on the ice.
Pushing himself off his toe-pick he started himself into his spin, lifting his foot to almost a 90 degree angle. He tried not to close his eyes as the world around him started to spin faster and faster until it was completely covered in motion blur. Cellbit tried to stretch his arms out above his head the same way the music called for but he knew he must have been a few seconds off from his internal clock. Musical timed things were the hardest to do when you were skating without your music, especially when you were avoiding other people on the ice who were also slightly disoriented due to the lack of music usually heard. Grabbing the end of his skate he pulled the blade towards his head, his breath slowed as he focused all his energy on staying spinning and not having the blade slip out of his hands.
Taking a deep breath Cellbit mentally prepared himself for the amount of small jumps his program called for next. One of the things he struggled with with this program was not jumping too high with his smaller hops and not being able to stop himself from overshooting and tripping over himself. If he turned his head slightly to the left he could see Charlie doing these exact same turns across the ice. These types of turns were one of Charlie's specialties when it comes to programs like this, almost all his programs involved like 30 of them in a row.
Cellbits internal program music ended soon after Charlies. Both of them coming to a stop at the same corner of the ice. The two breathing heavily as they high-fived and tried to calm their heartbeats. Charlie’s face split into one of his crazy grins as he smacked Cellbit on the back.
“Fuck yeah Cellbo! Nice spin you had there!”
“Thanks Slime, nice jumps.” Cellbit fought to catch his breath as the two skated over to where their water bottles were waiting for them.
Looking out to the rest of the rink as he leaned on the boards, Cellbit could see Phil and Foolish running through their own long programs. They kept interweaving with their step sequences, cutting it extremely close. Almost hitting each other in the face with their skates whenever they got too close together. Looking over to the other side of the rink he could see Baghera and Jaiden playing rock paper scissors to see who got to go first playing the music for their programs. From Bagheras dramatic sinking to the floor he could figure out Jaiden won.
“You wanna go first after them or me?” Charlie gurgled out, water still in his mouth.
Cellbit sent him a disgusted look, “Ew dude what the fuck.” Charlie just shrugged, a proud smile on his face.
“Just for that you have to go first.” Cellbit shoved his friend, who just laughed at him.
“Whatever man.”
Charlie skated off to go tell their coaches what the order was decided to be. Cellbit accepted the break that gave him and he leaned back onto the boards to watch Jaidens program as her music faded in from the speakers positioned all over the rink. Jaiden was one of the two Bolas members known for their dramatic programs at the rink and it always showed whenever she got the full space to perform. Jaiden moved her arms like they were separate from how she was now. Her programs always made it seem like in another life she had wings, the way she created a space around her was something only one other person could match. She and Phil were the only people Cellbit had ever known to create such an aura around themselves when they skated. Her jumps showed this off the most with how she kept her hands above her head whenever she jumped, making it look like she was a hawk diving down for its prey. She was obsessed with birds enough that it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone on the team, or really anyone that was friends with her enough to notice how much she loved her birds. Cellbit remembers talking about this exact same topic with Jaidens best friend, Jacob, when he used to come to practice with her. The two of them were very chaotic together, making great content for Jaiden to send to the Bolas group chat whenever they went off on a random adventure together. The two shared a knack for dramatic facial expressions that came through even if they were blurred by bad camera work from whichever of the two was recording.
Jaiden’s face while performing was another thing Cellbit was jealous of. Whenever Cellbit performed he either looked angry or just sad, which worked for his music yes, but Jaiden could show much more than those base emotions whenever she skated. Even in her “angry” programs she could show more than just “anger” she showed rage, frustration and even mourning.
You could never truly tell if Jaiden was exhausted when it came to her routine, it was only once she ended could you notice the heavy rise and fall of her chest, the faded look in her eyes, the way she let her shoulders drop like they were weights. Applause rose from the corners of the rink the rest of the team had run to once the program began. Foolish bolted across the rink to give Jaiden a hug, screeching about a clean program as he picked her up and spun her around.
“Put me down you brute!” Jaiden screamed, smacking Foolish on the head until he put her down. Laughter echoed through the almost empty rink until Phoenix yelled at them to “shut up and let Baghera go”.
The practice soon fell into the same routine it always had. The coaches started by setting up the order of the programs, then the skaters were sent off to run them. They then watched the others skate, practicing what they messed up in their own programs and then running the program through again. If you weren't running through a program you typically were helping your teammates with something they had struggled with during their run. All of the Bolas members had a specialty that the others used to their advantage when the full group was on the ice together. Cellbit was able to convince Phil to help him with some of his spins while Foolish was running his program. Of course Pheonix and Bonnie helped but only really when one of them fucked up so bad they fell, otherwise they focused on whoever else was running their program at the time, taking notes to give them before sending them off to practice on their own.
Practice ended an hour later with the bright red timer hitting zero and an alarm going off with a screaming buzz. The Bolas team quickly grabbed all their water bottles and made their way back to the locker rooms. Cellbit’s eyes darted around the small hallway, checking to make sure his past wasn’t going to jump out at him like it had earlier. Baghera had her arm around his shoulders, leaning on him as she ranted about something that he couldn’t care to listen to. She was talking too fast for him anyways, leading her to blur her words into a mix of French and fast english. Overall something Cellbit just didn’t understand.
The group got to their locker room with no signs of the team they had run into earlier. No sign of Pac either. Cellbit let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding as he sat down next to his bag and began unwrapping his hand. The palm underneath was bright red from the cold and the falls he had taken in the past hour and half. But the small marks Cellbit had made in his hand hadn’t gotten irritated and stayed small cuts. Exactly how he needed them to be.
“Are we allowed to go back to bed after this?” Jaiden yawned in her seat across the room.
Phil sighed, “Do any of you check the schedule?”
The chorus of no’s made a look of disappointment cross Phils face, he shook his head at the five of them before answering. “We have our fancy dinner tonight but we’re at the hotel for the rest of the day.”
Jaiden cheered at the news. “Oh fuck yeah! I’m sleeping all day!”
“Jaiden, if you fell into a coma I don’t think we’d notice.” Baghera giggled at her friend.
“Baghera what the fuck.” Foolish laughed.
“What it’s true! She sleeps all the time!” She defended.
As the team began to squabble about whether or not they would notice if Jaiden fell into a coma, Cellbit turned his focus back onto untying his skates and getting out of this cursed locker room as fast as possible.
Notes:
fun fact guys: irl boys are confusing and i hate liking boys (a guy said he didn’t like me and then said he’d still go to prom with me. he lives 4 hours away. i’m so confused) anyways im going crazy and coping by voice acting danganronpa with my best friends (im playing mikan and nagito and ibuki and hajime- im basically talking to myself for hours at a time it’s great)
Chapter 7
Summary:
Mariana hums, looking Charlie up and down, “I’ve seen you around I think.”
“Most of my classes are in the basement, pretty hard to see.” Charlie shrugged.
The conversation was dull, but it was a conversation. Cellbit could feel the eyes of his teammates burning into his back, if he turned around he could probably see the three of the remaining teammates looking over the back of the small couch that was in the center of the lobby.
Cellbit’s eyes were drawn away from the small conversation in front of him by a flash of red that ran across the room. It was an obnoxious red. Spiderman red. Pacific Punch red.
Notes:
shout out to my best friend leo, who had to listen to me give a ted talk about the lore of this universe in a very weird not at all in a correct timeline way-
also shout out danganronpa for apparently influencing my writing style unknown to me (i was playing the games with my friends and i was like “this writing is familiar….”)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The ride back to the hotel was calm, mostly due to Phoenix threatening them with off ice before they got back on the bus. Bonnie had waved the team a goodbye before heading back to her car only a few minutes before or else they would have had to. Luckily for them, Bonnie never took the bus, driving herself everywhere due to the amount of teams she worked with. The hotel itself was also oddly quiet and calm when they walked into the lobby, even for 9 AM. There were only a few tables that had people scattered around the breakfast area. A few boys around one table talking quietly and a couple old ladies at another. Probably talking shit from the look on their faces.
“Oh shit! Fuck! Hide me!” Charlie suddenly whispered-screamed, jumping behind Cellbit and clinging onto his bag.
“Huh? What- Why?” Cellbit spluttered out.
“Is that Mariana?” Phil said.
Oh.
Of fucking course it’s Mariana.
“Phil, I swear to god just because…” Charlie hissed. He tried reaching out to grab onto the back of Phils hoodie but it was too late. Phil had already spotted Mariana and was walking over to him.
Foolish patted Slimes back, nodding sagely. “Better luck next time man.”
“Why does he have to fucking know everyone!” He groaned, “I just want to be free to suffer in peace.”
“You could literally just go up to your hotel room right now.” Jaiden offered.
“Bro, no. Just cause I won’t talk to him doesn’t mean I don’t like looking at him.”
Baghera rolled her eyes, “You are so annoying. Do you know that?”
“Awwww, yes I did thank you!” Charlie batted his eyelashes at Baghera before she pushed away his face with her palm.
“Dude, what do you even see in him?” Cellbit said, frustrated at this back and forth the two had.
“Man I don’t know, he’s hot?” Charlie shrugged.
“I hate you.” Jaiden said, at the exact same time as Foolish high-fived Charlie with a, “Fuck yeah dude!”
“Slime you literally should just go talk to him, pretend you need the room key or something.” Baghera suggested.
Charlie sighed, shaking his head. “Phil would call me out, I share a room with Cellbit anyways.”
As soon as he said that, Jaiden pulled her phone out with a huff. Typing something fast before shoving her phone back into her pocket. She crossed her arms and glared at Charlie. Cellbit felt his phone buzz in his pocket, signaling a group text from the way Foolish and Slime both pulled out their phones.
BolasBolasBolas
Jaidenstune Miku- Jaiden, CrowFather-Phil, Malewife-Charlie, Smiley-Foolish, Quacki-Baghera, Cellbo-Cellbit
9:36 AM
Jaidenstune Miku: phil
Jaidnenstune Miku: charlie is being fucking stupid
Jaidenstune Miku: if he comes and asks for your room key
Jaidenstune Miku: give it to him
Jaidenstune Miku: or i will kill him myself
“Jaiden!”
“I mean I will.”
The group collectively turned and looked at Phil, waiting for him to see what was sent. They all saw him open his phone and waited with baited breath as he read the messages. Phil glanced behind him, making eye contact with the 5 of them in a huddle before sending them a small nod.
“Yes!” Foolish pumped his fist.
Baghera pushed Charlie towards the two teens as soon as they got the approval, “Go! Go! Go!”
As he was being pushed away Charlie grabbed Cellbits wrist and tugged him along with him. Cellbit looked at him incredulously, “Dude, what?”
“We’re roommates, if I'm going down, you're going down with me.” Was all he said before the two of them reached Phil and Mariana. Mariana was just a regular dude in Cellbit’s opinion. He honestly looked similar to Charlie if he squinted. The same glasses, the same floppy brown hair, the same awkward stance whenever they were closer than 5 feet to each other. The only difference between the two of them was the teams they were on.
Charlie was just staring at Mariana, saying nothing. The secondhand embarrassment was too much for Cellbit so he stepped on his foot to nudge him into motion.
“Ow! Fuck!” He yelped, “I mean, h-hey Phil we uh- need the room key.”
There.
Thank god.
“Are these your teammates Phil?” Mariana tilted his head. Cellbit fought back a smirk, they were all fully aware that Mariana knew the team members of Bolas. He knew full well Charlie and Cellbit were on the same team as Phil. He was just playing a game with them. A game he and Phil would play along with.
“Yeah! This is Cellbit,” Phil waved his hand at Cellbit before grabbing Charlie and pulling him fully out from where he was hiding behind Cellbit.
“And this is Charlie, I think he actually goes to your school!” Phil’s smile was a sneaky one, he knew what he was doing and Cellbit wouldn’t lie, it was extremely funny to watch Charlie try not to squirm or say something crazy to deflect the attention.
Mariana hums, looking Charlie up and down, “I’ve seen you around I think.”
“Most of my classes are in the basement, pretty hard to see.” Charlie shrugged.
The conversation was dull, but it was a conversation. Cellbit could feel the eyes of his teammates burning into his back, if he turned around he could probably see the three of the remaining teammates looking over the back of the small couch that was in the center of the lobby.
Cellbit’s eyes were drawn away from the small conversation in front of him by a flash of red that ran across the room. It was an obnoxious red. Spiderman red. Pacific Punch red.
He heard Jaiden and Baghera call something, he was too far away to understand what they said. Cellbit wouldn’t be able to hear them anyways. He was too focused on the boy in the spiderman sweatshirt who was hugging them. If Cellbit thought he looked good in a poorly lit gas station he must have been crazy. In the warm light of the hotel lobby the boy looked amazing. He was still wearing his spiderman hoodie but this time there was another black jacket tied around his waist. Cellbit couldn’t see the logo due to how it was flipped inside out but it looked like a team jacket. His sweatpants looked like they had a hand embroidered spider-web sewn onto the cuffs. It looked nice.
The boy finally let go of Jaiden and Baghera and stepped away from the two. Something in the back of Cellbits mind noticed he was missing his snake bites. Cellbit thought he was still pretty without them.
Wait what.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He didn’t even know this boy's name and he was giving him compliments by the bucketful. Cellbit only really gave compliments to 5 people and all of them were followed by a punch or an insult.
When he looked back at the group he noticed that the boy was staring back at him. His eyes were brown, no red, no they were brown. Cellbit felt his hand raise on its own accord, awkwardly giving a small wave from across the room. Spider boy looked shocked, bringing his own hand up to presumably cover his laugh at Cellbit’s stupid attempt at communicating. Cellbit felt his cheeks heat up. He began to turn away before he caught eyes with the spider boy again. He was smiling, his eyes were calm and not full of malice like Cellbit thought they were. He picked his hand up and waved back at Cellbit, before he was being pulled away by a boy with black hair shoved under a beanie. He stared at the empty spot between Baghera and Jaiden. He missed the bright red of the spiderman sweatshirt. He didn’t even understand why but he did.
“Cellbit?” A voice drifted through his consciousness.
“Hey! Cellbo!” Cellbits eyes snapped back over to the three people he had been talking to before the spiderman hoodie was seen. Well, two.
“Where’d Mariana go?”
Phil waved his hand towards the elevators, “Back to his room, you fully with us now mate?”
“Yeah dude you like, clocked out pretty quick into that. What happened?” Charlie raised his eyebrow at Cellbit.
Cellbit tried to avoid the eye contact as he flushed. “Nothing. Just- Nothing.”
“Oh?”
“Shut up Slime.” Cellbit shoved his friend before the trio began walking back over to the rest of their team.
“Charlie! Dude! You just missed Quackity!” Foolish called as soon as they were in range to hear them.
Charlie groaned, dragging his palm on his face. “Dude! I haven’t seen him in a year! How the fuck did I miss him!”
“He’s staying in the same hotel as us man,” Foolish shrugged, “You’ll probably spot him again later.”
“Who was the other person you guys were talking to?” Cellbit blurted out, wincing at the tone his voice took.
“Hm?” Baghera hummed, “Oh Roier! He was a part of the team me, Quackity and Jaiden were on when we were little!”
Jaiden nodded. “Me and him actually used to do pairs together.
“Why? You know him?” Baghera tilted her head, a smile creeping up on her face at what she was implying.
“No. Just saw him at the gas station earlier.”
Baghera weaved her way across the circle the group had made into Cellbits face, “You're avoiding my eyes, Cellbo.”
Pushing her head away from his, he muttered, “Are not.”
“Are too!”
“Girls, girls you're both pretty.” Phil said, “Can we go upstairs now? We’ve been down here for like 30 minutes.”
“Yeah yeah whatever, I need a nap anyways.” As if on cue, Baghera yawned. The rest of the team agreed to head back to their rooms pretty quickly once they remembered what time it was. They all grabbed their bags and piled into the hotel elevators.
Once they were all inside the elevators Phil spoke up, “I’m going to be playing Stardew in my room if any of you guys want to come watch.”
“Oh yeah we still need to play on our group farm don't we.” Foolish said.
Jaiden hummed from where she was leaning on Bagheras shoulder. “Yeah I’m still going to take a nap but maybe after lunch?”
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open soon after she had spoke, signaling the group had reached their floor. The six teens shuffled out and split up as they went down the hallway, each going into their respective rooms. As soon as Cellbit and Charlie got into their room Charlie threw himself onto his bed. There was a beat of silence before the muffled sound of Charlie screaming into his pillow filled the room.
Cellbit laughed at his friend acting like a teenage girl in a movie, “He’s just a guy Slime.”
“He is not! He’s like a god I swear!” Charlie’s was still muffled by the pillow.
Cellbit shook his head, going over to his own bed and his duffel bag. Sliding off his team jacket, he replaced it with his trusted dark green jacket. He’d had it for a few years at this point, the ends of the sleeves covered in random embroidered flowers that Tallulah had done during their last competition.
Turning back to his roommate, who was still face down on his bed, Cellbit pulled out his phone and snapped a picture. Saving it for blackmail later.
“I’m probably going to go over to watch Phil play Stardew, you staying here?” He said.
Charlie said nothing, just throwing a thumbs up as Cellbit grabbed his charger and headed out into the hallway, pulling up he and Phils messages to remember which room he was in.
Cellbit walked down the hallway to Phils room, humming some random song that had gotten stuck in his head as he moved. As he reached the correct room, Cellbit knocked and waited. The sound of another door opening and closing echoed down the empty hallway, drawing Cellbit’s attention away from the door in front of him.
A girl had stepped out into the hallway, her hand was still on the handle of the door she had just closed. She wore a casual blue t-shirt with green sweatpants. She must have just woken up with how she yawned and stretched before rubbing her eyes. Her hair was longer than the last time Cellbit saw her. The white had also taken up more of her hair, causing it to become almost the opposite of Cellbits own.
The two made eye contact and she froze. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something just as Foolish opened the door and pulled Cellbit inside of the hotel room.
“Hey dude! I was able to get the switch to connect to the tv!” Foolish’s words trailed off when he made eye contact with Cellbit. His expression quickly became concerned.
“You ok?” Foolish softly asked.
Cellbit shrugged, trying to ignore the alarm bells that were ringing in his ears. Bagi was at this competition, that was something he knew could have always been a possibility. Bagi being on the exact same floor as him, only a few doors down was not. There were multiple hotels around the area. There are around 50 rooms on this floor. There are 17 floors! And yet….she was four doors down from him.
His sister.
He just saw his sister.
His sister just saw him.
“Can we just play Stardew?” Cellbit quietly asked, wanting to take his mind off what had just happened.
Foolish looked like he wanted to ask more but he just nodded. Leading Cellbit over to where Phil was sitting on one of the beds, hunched over and focused on trying not to die in mines. Cellbit sat down on Foolish’s bed, upsetting the small shark that had been placed on the bed. He pulled out his phone and turned off all notifications. He didn’t know how he would handle seeing a notification from his sister right now. He turned his focus back onto the video game in front of him, mentally promising himself that he would text Bagi later. If she didn’t text him first.
It would be fine.
Everything would be fine.
It wasn’t going to be ok.
What the fuck.
Notes:
HOOOO BOY GUYS YALL ARE GONNA HAVE A FUCKING TIME WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER- IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF ANGST BUT ALL OF A SUDDEN I CHECKED IT AND IT WAS 3000 WORDS OF ANGST 😭😭😭😭 HAVE FUN BESTIESSSSSS
Chapter 8
Summary:
Foolish sat up, looking down on Cellbit who was still lying down, “Why’d you guys stop talking?”
“Aren’t twins normally like, always connected and close or some shit like that?” He continued, waving his hands around as if to try to prove his point.
“We were….” Cellbit stared up at the ceiling, trying to memorize every detail as if it would take over the memories of his sister.
“Does it have to do with Pac?” Cellbits head whipped around to look at Phil, who was staring down at him.
He could feel his throat close up as he was scrutinized underneath Phil’s gaze. “How do you know his name…?”
Chapter Text
“Cell, are you going to get your phone or are you just going to let it ring again?” Phil tilted his head towards Cellbits phone where it was vibrating on the floor.
Stardew was long abandoned at this point, the game being traded in for Minecraft and Foolish taking over for Phil after he made fun of him for his builds. Phil was sitting back on his bed, doing something on his phone that Cellbit couldn't see from his position next to Foolish.
Foolish paused the game and turned to look at Cellbit, who was avoiding looking at the phone that had now gone silent after being not picked up. “You should probably reply dude.”
Cellbit sighed. “But what if I don’t?”
“Mate, whoever it is has called you at least three times at this point.” Phil turned his own phone off and sat up.
“Who even is it anyway?” Phil tried to make eye contact with Cellbit, trying to figure out what was wrong just by looking, “If you wanna avoid the call that bad, you got to know who it is.”
Cellbit fell back onto the bed behind him, covering his face with his hands as he fell. Silence filled the room for what felt like 30 minutes to Cellbit but could have been 20 seconds to everyone else. Eventually he took his hands off his face and turned to look at his friends.
“It’s my sister.” He knew that Bolas was at least aware of his family situation to some degree. It was hard not to be. Cellbit knew that his friends knew his parents were divorced. He knew that they knew that they had gotten divorced when Cellbit was 11 and that Cellbits father had moved away when he was 13. Bagi was a different story. It was easy talking about how your parents broke up, Cellbit himself always knew they were going to. When he was younger he used to joke with his old rink that it was going to happen soon. Bagi was harder to speak about. That was something that was a consequence to something Cellbit did directly. His sister moving away from Cellbit was something harder to explain. How was he supposed to explain that the person he was born with and spent every moment of every single day with, just up and left? There was only one person he had ever explained it to and even they didn’t fully understand it.
“Oh…” Foolish breathed out. “You have a sister?”
Cellbit nodded. “Remember when I said I used to do pairs? She was my partner for it.”
“Why are you trying to get away from her then?” Cellbit had to force himself to shove the anger down when he saw the look on Phil's face. Of course he looked confused, he was the oldest in his family. None of his siblings hated him. He had never done anything to make Chayane hate him besides maybe not knowing how to cook. Tallulah even less so. The girl was too forgiving for her own good. Phil had a big family, a lot of cousins, a lot of people that he could fall back on. Cellbit only had Bagi growing up. Both their parents too weighed down by their failing marriage and their own jobs to really be there for their children. They were just the people they lived with, not really family.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Cellbit sighed.
“Make us understand then.” Foolish laid down next to Cellbit, obviously trying to cheer him up with one of his small smiles. It was kind of working.
“I mean, I have sisters. You know I do, Finley decides she hates me every other week.” He laughed.
“Yeah but you guys aren’t twins.”
“Twins huh..” Phil spoke under his breath, Cellbit had to strain to hear him. His eyes looked distant, like he was seeing something that wasn’t in front of him. Cellbit didn’t want to ask. If Phil wanted to talk about whatever he was seeing, he would.
“Yeah. I’m older. She hates it.” Cellbit smiled slightly, remembering the time when they were 6 and had finally dug through enough files in their parents office to find their birth certificates. Cellbit had been 12 minutes older than Bagi and Bagi refused to admit it. For years after she always introduced herself as the “older twin” even when she truly wasn’t. Cellbit let her, he wasn’t ever talkative, Bagi was the people person out of the two of them.
Foolish sat up, looking down on Cellbit who was still lying down, “Why’d you guys stop talking?”
“Aren’t twins normally like, always connected and close or some shit like that?” He continued, waving his hands around as if to try to prove his point.
“We were….” Cellbit stared up at the ceiling, trying to memorize every detail as if it would take over the memories of his sister.
“Does it have to do with Pac?” Cellbits head whipped around to look at Phil, who was staring down at him.
He could feel his throat close up as he was scrutinized underneath Phil’s gaze. “How do you know his name…?”
He shrugged, “Missa is on his team, I go to school with him, rumors get around.”
“Wait, who's Pac?” Foolish looked between the two boys who were staring each other down.
“The guy we met in the hallway at practice today.” Phil said, still looking at Cellbit.
“Shit really? That guy confused me, he wouldn’t stop staring at Cellbi-ohhhh.” Foolish cut himself off as the information sunk in.
“Yeah.” Phil tilted his head, “Does Bagi not talk to you because of that?”
Cellbit tore his eyes away from Phils and looked back up at the ceiling, “...Not just because of that, I fucked up a lot when we were in middle school. But yeah, that’s the main reason I guess.”
Foolish let out a laugh at that. “Well no shit you fucked up! You go to Watcher with Baghera.”
“Foolish, not the time.” Phil said sternly.
Before Foolish could apologize, Cellbit spoke up again, “It’s fine. He's right anyways.”
“Do you guys remember like, 6 or 7 years ago when there was a big scandal with that one rink whose team had to be pulled from every competition because of a huge fight that broke out?”
Foolish was the first one to speak up after Cellbit asked the question, “Oh yeah! Wasn’t it the rink we went to for practice today? I thought I recognized the layout from the news stories about it- the architecture is very recognizable.”
“Remember how none of the skaters' names got leaked?” Silence lingered again, leaving the three boys with nothing but the sound of the still on TV quietly buzzing.
“...So it was you and Pac?” Phil quietly asked.
“...he started it…” Cellbit muttered.
“But what does that have to do with Bagi? That makes sense for why you and Pac had that- I don't know-,” Foolish waved his hand around when he couldn’t find the word, “whatever that was, but it doesn’t explain you and your sister.”
Cellbit sighed, “Bagi, Mike and Pac were the trio of our rink. It was an extremely competitive rink and those three skated at the same time while I skated with my friend Felps, you guys met him, the one who goes to school with me and Bags?”
The two boys nodded, remembering the boy with the red hoodie that was completely covered in self sewn designs. Phelps had grown up with Bagi and Cellbit before being moved away by his parents, he had skated himself for a while with the two of them. But he decided it was too competitive and was dragging him down so he stopped only a couple years into it.
Cellbit continued, closing his eyes as he spoke, “Pac was in my gym class when we were younger and he caught me cheating at some fucking game we were playing. I don’t even remember just that I was extremely mad at him because I got detention for it and the detention teacher was just a bitch, probably shouldn’t have been teaching kids honestly. She made fun of me, called me stupid and useless, you know the whole shabang. Which obviously, just made me angrier at Pac.”
“I remember just thinking about how betrayed I felt because he was supposed to be my friend and he got me in trouble.” He sighed.
“It just so happened I had practice with Pac and Mike later that day, and the practice went horribly. Probably because I was so angry but just nothing was working for me and it just got worse with the fact that day Pac landed his axel, something I had been working on forever”
Cellbit heard Foolish hiss, realizing where this was going. “After practice we were in the locker rooms, taking our skates off and Mike left the room to go fill up his water bottle. As soon as he left Pac said something like “how was detention?” and I….I just snapped.”
“Neither of us had our skates off, Pac still had both of his skates on, though they were really loose and I had my left off but not my right.”
Cellbit only saw red when Pac had asked him that stupid question. He grabbed him the collar of that stupid blue sweatshirt he always wore, distantly hearing the fabric tear at how hard he yanked the small boy up. He ignored the wobbling of his right ankle, the skin hitting the sides of his loose skate. Neither of them were very tall, the two 11 years old only an inch or two apart in height.
“It was a really bad fight honestly, I had only fought with one person before this and Pac I don’t think fought anyone at all. Just really scrappy and we both started playing dirty really quickly, Pac clawed the shit out of my face and he landed a good punch in between the beatings we were each giving each other. I definitely almost broke his nose.”
There was blood in his eye. There was fucking blood in his eye. Pac got fucking blood in his eye. He couldn’t fucking see.
Cellbit sighed, feeling his lungs reinflate before continuing. “There was one rink before the rink where this all went down. It was the rink that eventually turned into Dreamland before that one burned down. You know the one by that cookie shop?”
“Yeah, trust me, we both know that one.” Foolish sounded bitter at the mention of Dreamland. Cellbit knew that Foolish, Phil and Charlie had all skated there before they came to Bolas, but it was something they didn’t talk about. Past rinks were something Bolas hated talking about, they all held bad memories for each of the members apparently.
“Before it was Dreamland it was the Hunger Games rink and it had one of the only coaches that would teach pairs, which is why me and Bagi used to skate there.” Phil made an understanding sound.
“And there was this one guy, honestly it's been so long I don’t even remember his name, but he was cool. He did knife throwing outside of skating and I thought he was one of the coolest people in the world. Bagi had other friends so she would wait with them while I always hung around this one kid when we waited for our parents to pick us up after practice. One of the things we used to talk about was how to fight and how to make your enemies imobile.”
“Ok so, if you're fighting someone and they’re about to kick you, try and get their knee. It will throw them off balance for a second and you’ll be able to get another hit in.”
“So you used one of his techniques?” Foolish’s eyes filled with worry when Cellbit nodded at his question.
“I kicked him in the shin..” His voice tapered off, “...with the blade of my skate…”
Cellbit couldn’t bring himself to speak in anything more than a whisper as he got taken over by the memories, “...there was blood everywhere…it was all over my hands…all over his hands…we both froze after it happened.”
“He tried to kick me off him, leading him to kick my arm with his skate as well.” Cellbits hand moved up to the thick scar on his bicep, fingers running over the raised skin that once had to be stitched back together.
“Mike came in right after….with Bagi.” He dug his nails into the scar. “Turns out my mom sent her inside to come and get me because I wasn’t answering my phone.”
“And she saw both of you covered in blood on the floor?” Cellbit nodded.
“Pac was crying and bleeding from his nose. He looked a lot worse than me and I wasn’t crying out of shock and I had blood on my knuckles.” He shrugged, “The evidence was damning. It’s not her fault she reacted the way she did.”
He sat up and stretched, staring down the still paused Minecraft on the TV, “My mom kept telling my dad that nothing had happened. I think she thought it was one of her own episodes for a while and not actually real. She told him that I never even got hurt and even when she fully came to realize it wasn’t just her, the whole thing just got too much and they officially agreed to get divorced. She, in her own way, had sided with me and my dad…”
“Sided with your sister.” Phil finished for him.
“Yep, our parents were already sleeping in separate rooms at that point so Bagi moved everything she liked out of our shared room into the guest room with our dad.”
Foolish let out a thoughtful hum, connecting the dots in his own mind, “Which led to you siding with your mother more because she supported you so when the actual divorce came and it was time for your dad to move out, Bagi went with him and you stayed here. And from the reaction you had to Pac today I’m guessing you never went back to that rink? Or saw any of them again?”
Cellbit shook his head. “Dad pulled me from our old school and moved me into Watcher Middle School that night, never even got to go back to school to get my stuff from my locker.”
“Wait-” Cellbit turned to Phil who was tapping his fingers against his mouth as he thought, “You went to hospital right?”
When Cellbit nodded, he continued,“Then why didn’t you get sent to a mental hospital? That would have absolutely happened if they knew what happened.”
“My mom was best friends with Pacs mom, she probably begged her to lie about it and Pacs mom felt bad or something and let it slide.” Cellbit shrugged. “I didn’t really talk for a few weeks after it so no one but me and Pac knew what really happened, and I think I gave Pac a concussion anyways. So really only I knew what happened.”
“So Bagi stopped talking to you because of the Pac thing?” Foolish asked.
Cellbit hummed in agreement, “Really we only saw each other over holidays afterwards, and we only went to holidays with our extended family, so she didn’t talk to me there either.”
“You know that one family member that you just have the most basic and bland of small talk with?” Phil and Foolish nodded. “That’s what me and Bagi are now.”
“Do you think she wants to be friends again?” Foolish asked.
“God, imagine trying to be friends with your crazy twin brother again.” Cellbit knew his laugh sounded depressing, he just couldn't stop himself.
“Do you want to be friends with her again?” Phil picked up Cellbits phone and walked over to the bed where both Foolish and Cellbit were sitting.
Cellbit stared at the phone Phil was holding out at him, staring at the chips in the phone case and the stickers that Jaiden and Charlie had snuck onto his phone when he wasn't looking.
“...She's my sister Phil…of course I want to be friends again..” Cellbit couldn’t bring himself to reach out and grab the phone, even if he knew he wanted to.
“What the fuck would I even say?” He sighed.
“You could apologize?”
Cellbit rolled his eyes. “Yeah sure lemme just hit her up with the ‘hey I’m sorry I almost killed a man when I was 11 who was lowkey your best friend and then I didn't explain what happened when you asked me and then didn’t talk to you for 3 weeks. That’s on me, wanna be friends again?’ No. That’s fucking stupid Phil.”
“Ok! How about this!” Foolish suddenly jumped up off the bed, cutting off Cellbit before he could say anything else, “Jaiden just texted me and said lunch is soon. We leave this for now and come back to it later tonight after dinner.”
Both Phil and Cellbit just stared at Foolish, “This hotel is huge! You shouldn’t see Bagi today anyways, you said she looked like she was leaving?”
“I didn't say anything.” Cellbit raised his eyebrow at Foolish.
Foolish continued unfazed, “Whatever! She was probably leaving! Jaiden and the others are thinking about watching Lego Batman. Lego Batman is what everyone needs when they’re sad.”
“I'm not sad.” Phil scoffed at that, Cellbit sent him a glare. “I’m not!”
“Sure mate, sure. I do want to watch Lego Batman though.” He said.
“Lego Batman it is!” Foolish’s face became more solemn for a second as he looked Cellbit in the eyes. Bright blue met green as the two stared at each other for a bit. “You need a break from this and we both know it. Don’t act like we can’t see you drifting away. None of us want you to get back into your head, especially when we are all right here to help.”
Cellbit sighed and stood up. He knew Foolish was right, even if he didn’t want to deal with it. “You're right.”
“Always am!” Foolish chirped, teeth on full display as he rocked back and forth on his feet.
“You are not.” Phil said.
“Shut the fuck up Phil!” Foolish was still smiling.
“Ok, ok, let’s just go.” Cellbit knew there was a soft smile on his face as he grabbed his phone from where Phil had set it down on the bed, purposely not looking at the screen as he shoved it in the pocket of his sweatpants. It was going to be ok, he had his teammates. He had his friends. It was going to be ok.
Notes:
hehe :) i’m posting this right before i go to bed so i can sleep well knowing ive made yall sad :) (also want to remind yall Cellbit it hella unreliable when it comes to his past, he hates himself for what he did and also absolutely got a concussion from the fight so he thinks he did a lot worse than he really did)
Chapter 9
Summary:
Before he even knew what he was doing he had picked up the phone and walked to the door of the hotel room. Most of his teammates looked at him confused but Foolish and Phil just smiled at him.
“Sorry, gotta take this.” He lifted his phone up before stepping out into the hallway. The same hallway where he had seen his sister only a few hours before. The sun was just beginning to go down, he could see it from the big window at the end of the hall.
Cellbit stared down at his phone for a while, the contact still reading “Mable” even after all these years. Cellbit didn’t have the heart to change it. ‘Did Bagi still have him in her phone as Dipper?’ He wondered.
Taking a deep breath Cellbit was about to hit ‘Answer’ when his phone stopped ringing and the contact went away
Notes:
this isn’t my favorite chapter of all time but someone’s gotta write the beach episodes
update: apparently guest comments are not allowed right now but i miss yall so please send me your thoughts on tumblr!!!! :(((
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Wait, who's that?” Cellbit pointed at the blurry person on Bagheras instagram feed. The movie had faded into the background for the two of them as soon as Baghera randomly jumped on top of Cellbit and began scrolling her instagram, deciding that she was going to explain everyone who was supposed at the competition this year to him. His own phone was abandoned as soon as he had gotten to the room. It was lying somewhere face down in the middle of the mess that occupied the desk in Jaiden and Bagheras' hotel room.
“Oh my god Cellbit we’ve been over this!” She groaned, “That’s Quackity, he’s the one me and Jaiden used to skate with.”
“Why the fuck is he so blurry here?” Cellbit squinted and tried to zoom in on her phone.
“I don't know, he’s just terrible at pictures.”
Their conversation was cut short when someone began banging on the door to the room.
“Finally Foolish is back! I’m fucking starving!” Jaiden hopped up from where she and Charlie were reenacting the Joker and Batman fight on the floor and ran over to the door, throwing it open and letting in a bright red faced Foolish.
His face was slightly hidden behind the three boxes of food he was carrying but Cellbit didn’t even care about the boxes. All he could think about was how he looked like he was going to explode. He looked like he just ran up 10 flights of stairs, which Cellbit knew wasn’t true because even if he had ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, they were on the 8th floor.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Phil sounded just as confused as Cellbit felt.
Foolish set down the boxes of food before answering a simple, “Pretty boy.”
“Not again!” Charlie screamed at the same time Baghera started laughing, “Jesus christ! When is it my turn!”
“Charlie you had your turn this morning, shut up!” Baghera said through her laughter at her teammate, who was now laying down on the floor staring at the ceiling after giving everyone their food. Charlie stuck his tongue out and Baghera flipped him off.
As soon as the two of them started arguing, Cellbit slipped away and crouched down next to Foolish, poking him like he was a dead body. “You good man?”
The only response was another Foolish Trademarked real life keysmash groan. “Ok so, not ok then?”
“What the fuck even happened mate?” Phil tried asking again.
This time he got a response once Foolish sighed dramatically. “Pretty boy was downstairs. Pretty boy told me his cousin is here.”
“Ok Juliette, that doesn’t explain anything.” Jaiden said through a mouthful of the noodles she had ordered.
“Pretty boy said he hopes I’m not competing against his cousin or else he’s going to have to explain why he’s not cheering for his cousin to his family.” Foolish muttered, blurring all his words together. He then threw his hands up in an effort to cover his still red face, Cellbit giggled at the dramatics of his friend.
“And I’m guessing you said something stupid?” He asked.
“I fucking said cowabunga!” The room exploded into laughter as Foolish rolled around on his stomach and tried to suffocate himself, or maybe he was trying to melt into the floor, Cellbit couldn’t really tell.
“Cowabunga?! Foolish please!” Jaiden wiped away her tears that had formed amidst her laughter.
“I dont know!”
Phil sighed, a smile still stuck on his face, “Did you at least get his name this time?”
The silence that rang throughout the room was so thick you could cut it with a skate as the team took in what Foolish was implying with his lack of answer. Cellbit felt his face fall into one of disappointment as he stared at his bashful teammate.
“Foolish I swear to every god-” Baghera was interrupted by Foolish’s face splitting in half with a huge smile.
“I got his instagram!” He announced, holding his phone up like it was a gold medal. The silence hung for a little longer before the room erupted into cheers, the team all piling on top of Foolish until they were all just a mix of limps on a hotel room floor. Cellbit got squished in between Foolish and Charlie. Phil sat off to the side, somehow escaping the pile, his phone recording the group.
“Say hi to Carre guys!” He chuckled. Cellbit attempted a wave at the camera. He hoped it looked like one, Baghera was absolutely laying on top of his arm. Or was that Charlie?
Jaiden let out a gasp before she lunged across the pile and stole Foolishs phone out of his hand, unlocking it before he could say anything,“Does he follow you back?”
“If he does, we're going to have to work magic on him tonight.” Baghera climbed out from underneath the pile where Charlie was laying on top of her. He let out a yelp when she pushed him off.
“Hey, what does that mean!” Foolish wheezed out, still being crushed by all his teammates.
Baghera and Jaiden turned and stared down at him, “You’re pretty but like, you’re stupid boy pretty.” Baghera said.
“What the fuck is stupid boy pretty.” Charlie muttered, rubbing his arm after rolling into the bed frame when Baghera pushed him off.
“Don’t worry about it Slime you’re not it.” Jaiden flicked his forehead before leaning against Baghera, “Foolish what’s his at? I need to make sure you weren’t lying when you said he wasn’t basic.”
Charlie grumbled something about how a certain someone would never treat him like this as Foolish replied, “I think it’s Vegetta….777? He typed it in, check the recent searches.”
“And did you get his instagram before or after saying cowabunga to him?” Cellbit raised his eyebrows, teasing his friend.
Foolish sighed, “Before saying cowabunga...”
“God none of you can be left alone apparently,” Baghera rolled her eyes, “All of you are useless! The only person I could somewhat trust is Phil and that’s just because Missa’s the one who becomes useless around him!”
“Hey! I’m not useless!” Cellbit tried to defend himself, his voice falling off when he saw Jaiden and Baghera turn to glare at him.
Jaiden turned back to Foolish’s phone, probably still digging through his instagram, “You…are a whole different story Mr. Man…we’ll deal with you next.”
“Mr. Man is crazy.” Charlie whispered.
Cellbit chucked before responding in a whisper of his own, “I feel like they’re starting a scheme.”
“I’m scared.” Foolish said as he joined into the quiet conversation.
From where he was sitting, Phil let out a small chuckle that only the three of them heard once he glanced at his phone. “Carre says you guys probably should be.”
Charlie crawled up to Phil, still whispering, “Tell him we said fuck you for abandoning us.”
Phil shrugged, typed, and the four boys then sat and waited for the response from their missing team member. The oldest skaters of the Bolas Rolas team weren't just the six teens that were all on the floor of a random hotel room fighting each other over anything and everything, there was a “secret” seventh member, Carre. Carre is one of the few skaters that the Bolas team knew that skated at multiple rinks at once. Bolas was his home rink sure, but he didn’t mind skating at GGN or Soulfire occasionally. Carre recently though, had been selected to be a part of an exclusive training camp that the rest of the Bolas team had helped him fill out the application for. It was originally as a joke, none of them thought he would actually get in. They all knew he was an amazing skater who deserved to go to the camp and was good enough to be above the requirements, but Bolas still had a reputation after all. A reputation that followed them like toxic gas. As a surprise to them all he got accepted and he was currently across the country at some sort of training rink with a bunch of other extremely good skaters. He basically was a ghost to the team right now, the camp forcing him to keep their team group chat on mute if he actually wanted to sleep on time due to the difference in time zones. The team missed him of course, but he was off doing cooler things than dealing with the boy drama that was still happening back home. Plus from the pictures he occasionally posted on his instagram story he was always wearing the matching bracelet that Baghera and Charlie had made a few years ago for each one of the members, so they all knew he missed them just as much, even if he didn’t say it.
“He said ‘shut the fuck up slime, you literally filled out the application with me’” Phil laughed.
“Oh give me that!” Slime grabbed the phone out of Phils hand and began typing aggressively, “My name keeps being slandered! All day! Slander! Defamation!”
Phil just sighed, not attempting to take his phone back from the teen. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have been able to get into his phone if he shut it off. On principal most of Bolas knew each other's phone passwords, it just made things easier for them all. Phil’s phone had most of the schedules and the most direct contact with Phoenix and Bonnie, Jaiden’s had the most downloaded music and most of their programs, Bagheras had what felt like every contact ever and her phone held charge the longest, Charlie had the most downloaded books and if you dug you could find the entire rulebooks for competitions and Foolish had the most games on his phone and a list of every server or multiplayer game the team had played together.
Everyone also knew Cellbits password, he had the most shows downloaded since it was connected to his computer. He didn’t have much related to skating compared to his friends, but his phone camera was the best so his phone was the unofficial official picture taking phone.
“Ok!” A clap brought the four boys attention to the two girls who now had the look of ‘we’ve made a plan and you are all just pawns in it’ on both of their faces.
“We have our fancy dinner tonight, me and Jai are going to attempt to help you three be less annoying and push you towards your guys,” Baghera smiled, Cellbit did not feel comforted by it.
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked.
Jaiden groaned and rolled her eyes, “Honestly don’t worry about it, I think this is a stupid plan I’m just letting Quacki over here have her fun.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better at all man.” Foolish sighed.
“Y'all should be fine, calm down,” Jaiden stood up and went to get the remote for the TV, pressing play before turning back to the rest of her team, who were all still in a pile on the floor. “Now that we have Foolish back can we finish doing the scene between Batman and the Joker? I wanna hear Charlie sing again.”
The room soon fell back into how it was before, though there was more confusion in the air than earlier. Baghera, Cellbit and Phil sat on Bagheras bed and watched as the other three dramatically acted out the rest of the Lego Batman Movie with Charlie singing the background music and Jaiden being Batman. (Foolish was assigned every other character.) Cellbit leaned on Baghera and began to think about what just happened.
This day was already exhausting for Cellbit and it was only like 4 PM. Not to mention it was also an emotional roller coaster with how it had thrown Cellbit for a loop with everyone he had interacted with throughout the day. It wasn’t even over, the promise of Baghera and Jaidens schemes looming over the dinner their team had planned in a few hours.
Team dinners were something Cellbit hadn’t experienced until he came to Bolas, they went out to eat at his old rink sure, but never to the extent Bolas Rolas did. Every time they came to this specific competition they all got dressed up and went to a somewhat fancy restaurant as a team. It was nice, even if it confused the shit out of Cellbit the first time he was told to pack a suit jacket for a competition. They all used it as a time to catch up on things they might have missed, or just used it to tell each other about drama that was going down at each other's schools. Cellbit remembered last year Charlie had gone off onto a rant about his DnD campaign he was DMing for with his friends. Apparently one of them decided he was going to trade places with a god and force everyone to eat apples. He had rolled extremely high on everything he needed to ascend and Charlie had been forced to edit the entire story that he had planned out for weeks.
Knowing Baghera, dinner tonight was probably going to be here interrogating Foolish on the boy he met and coming up with a plan on how to get the two of them together. In her own words Bags “loved love” and loved even more when she could match-make her friends together. She had been trying to get Mariana and Charlie together for the past few years after Slime had let it slip he still liked him when they were freshmen.
Just as Cellbit was letting himself relax he heard the faint sound of his phone buzzing with a call across the room. His heart stopped and he looked towards Foolish, who heard it as well with how he was staring back at him.
So many questions raced throughout his mind. Relaxation seemed farther away than ever.
Was it his sister? Was it just a spam call? Why had she stopped calling if it was her? What would he say if he picked up the phone? What would she say if he picked up the phone? Did she even want him to pick up the phone?
Foolish nodded his head at Cellbit, encouragement to just talk to her. He didn’t understand how bad it was, Cellbit knew that, but Foolish always saw the good in everyone. Even if that got him in trouble sometimes.
Maybe he should follow his friend's example on this…
Before he even knew what he was doing he had picked up the phone and walked to the door of the hotel room. Most of his teammates looked at him confused but Foolish and Phil just smiled at him.
“Sorry, gotta take this.” He lifted his phone up before stepping out into the hallway. The same hallway where he had seen his sister only a few hours before. The sun was just beginning to go down, he could see it from the big window at the end of the hall.
Cellbit stared down at his phone for a while, the contact still reading “Mable” even after all these years. Cellbit didn’t have the heart to change it. ‘Did Bagi still have him in her phone as Dipper?’ He wondered.
Taking a deep breath Cellbit was about to hit ‘Answer’ when his phone stopped ringing and the contact went away. He could see himself in the darkness of his phone once it turned off. He could see his hair that was braided slightly from Baghera getting bored earlier. He could see the remorse in his own eyes. He could see how much he wanted to answer. And he was surprised when he saw it.
Phil’s words rang in his head as he unlocked his phone and began scrolling his contacts. “Just apologize.” He muttered to himself.
Once he found his sister he took in another deep breath in before hitting the call button, lifting the phone to his ear to listen to it ring.
She didn’t take as long as Cellbit had to pick up, the ringing stopping only after a couple rings. Neither of them said anything, just listened to each other breathe. Cellbit internally laughed at the irony, the silence was just like how they used to comfort each other during bad thunderstorms, or when they secretly watched a horror movie by themselves. It used to be a silent agreement that they would get through whatever was scaring them together, like they always had. Now it was just charged with the question of , ‘do you hate me?’.
“...Cellbit?” Her voice sounded older, but it still had the same accent she always had.
“Hey..” He softly spoke, wondering if the phone could even pick his voice up.
Cellbit heard her let out a shaky breath through the speaker, “How are you?”
“I’m…..I’m good.” He nodded to no one in particular, “Yeah, I'm good. How are you?”
“Me too. Um- I mean, I’m- I’m good as well.” Cellbit chuckled a bit at her stuttering, wasn’t he supposed to be the terrible speaker out of the two of them?
He asked her just as such, leaving her to make a noise of disagreement, “Oh shut up, it’s not everyday your brother finally decides to call you!”
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “It’s not like you called me either! Plus you always avoided me!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
Cellbit felt his heart get lighter at their bantering, it was like nothing had ever happened between them. Cellbit sat down on the floor, pulling his knees to his chest as he drilled his sister about everything he had missed in her life since they stopped talking. From the rustling of fabric coming from her end of the call, Cellbit assumed she had sat down in the weird chair all of their hotel rooms had in the corner.
The two settled into a pattern for a while. Bagi would go first, asking him questions about his teammates and his school and he would go second, asking her questions about how her school was going and about her friends. The two ended up gossiping about their team members for a short while, Bagi telling Cellbit all about how someone told a known try-hard hockey player at their rink that figure skating was harder and how he had decided he was going to prove that it wasn’t.
“It’s his first competition with the rest of the team and I think we gave culture shock!” She laughed.
“God, that has the same vibes as my first competition that wasn’t doing pairs with you!”
Bagi gasped, the sound becoming slightly crunchy over the phone, “Wait oh my god! Cellbit do you remember that one pairs team we skated against when we were younger? The ones from the Cucurucho rink?”
Cellbit groaned at the memory his sister had just dragged up, “Fuck Bags, why would you remind me of that hell of a competition.”
“Yeah yeah, it wasn’t as bad as you remember it, you just don’t like losing.”
“Who the fuck likes losing!”
Bagi sighed, “Not the point Cell! The point is the guy from that pair's team is on my actual team now! He’s so funny, you’d probably like him.”
“What's his name?” Cellbit growled, still thinking of the competition.
“Jesus christ Cellbit, let it go, we were 9!”
The sound of a door opening and closing came through his phone speaker, followed by Bagi talking to someone whose words were not being picked up by Bagis phone.
“Hey Cell, sorry to cut this short but I have to get ready for dinner with my team! I’ll call you later?”
“Huh- It’s not that late though-” Cellbit checked the time on his phone, “Holy shit it's almost five!”
“Mhm! We have dinner reservations at like 7 so I have to go get ready now.” The two siblings said their goodbyes, neither of them wanting to hang up after finally talking to each other. The silence lingered before Cellbit decided to talk again.
“Hey Bags?” He said. She hummed.
“I’m sorry for everything that happened. I didn’t mean to.” He breathed, surprised by the words coming out of his mouth. He quickly hung up and threw his head back onto the door behind him. He tried not to wince at the bang it made. He was proud of himself. He just talked to his sister. He talked to Bagi, and it was fine. Everything was going to be fine.
He smiled, pulling himself up off the floor and knocking on the door. He needed to get started on getting ready for his own team dinner. And it was going to be fun. It was going to be good!
“Everything is going to be good.” He whispered to himself. And to his own surprise, he found he actually believed it.
Notes:
prom was so fun guys!!!! those of you who told me to run away from prom boy i hate to announce the fact that my delusions have actually gotten stronger and will probably stay for a while 🧍in my defense- i have no defense- 🧍
anyways please don’t forget about my tumblr!!!! i try my best to answer every ask i get and i love talking to yall!!! (i just got a bunch of headcannons from someone and some of them are actually being integrated into this fic lmaooo)
Chapter 10
Summary:
Cellbit stared at his face in the mirror, Baghera had attacked him earlier with eyeshadow to figure out which shimmer she wanted on her own eyes, he had tried to get it all off but he still was still slightly sparkly if he turned his head just right. His eyes had a small bit of red around the ends that dragged down and blended into his under eye. The red canceled out the purple that was always there, no matter what he attempted to do to cover up the dark circles. His own eyeliner wasn’t as dramatic as Jaiden or Bagheras but it wasn’t as simple as Charlies. (The two karaoke singers had speed ran getting ready so they could get full control of the tv and the music.) He knew that in around 10 minutes, once he and Jaiden were finished with their own makeup, Foolish would come up to either of them and ask if they could do his eyeliner.
Notes:
hihihiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! hopefully everyone’s going good!!! dinner arc is startingggggggg!!! (also i know ao3 turned guest comments back on but in case it goes off again- i see yall i miss yall i hope you enjoy!!!)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Getting ready in the same room was almost always one of the most chaotic things Bolas ever did together. Baghera and Charlie always ended up distracted doing karaoke in whatever mirror they could find, even if it didn’t fit the song that was playing. Foolish always got confused and mixed up at times which led to him either being ready super early or rushing to finish before they all left. Jaiden and Cellbit at some point always got their eyeliners mixed up and had to figure out which one belonged to who. Phil usually got done early, always planning for this, and just ran around helping everyone else like the mama bird he was.
Currently all of these exact things were happening at the same time.
“I swear to god this one was mine right?” Jaiden asked, almost shouting over the sound of Charlie and Baghera singing some song from a musical behind them.
“Jaiden yours is the one with the blue sticker remember! Cellbit yours is the red one!” Phil called from where he was showing Foolish the schedule on the bed.
Jaiden dug through the pile of makeup that was spread out on the counter to find her eyeliner, the blue sticker was wrapped around the end, just as Phil had said. She called a small thank you before handing Cellbit back his own eyeliner and going back to finishing the dramatic cat eye she had been working on.
Cellbit stared at his face in the mirror, Baghera had attacked him earlier with eyeshadow to figure out which shimmer she wanted on her own eyes, he had tried to get it all off but he still was still slightly sparkly if he turned his head just right. His eyes had a small bit of red around the ends that dragged down and blended into his under eye. The red canceled out the purple that was always there, no matter what he attempted to do to cover up the dark circles. His own eyeliner wasn’t as dramatic as Jaiden or Bagheras but it wasn’t as simple as Charlies. (The two karaoke singers had speed ran getting ready so they could get full control of the tv and the music.) He knew that in around 10 minutes, once he and Jaiden were finished with their own makeup, Foolish would come up to either of them and ask if they could do his eyeliner.
He attempted to mess with his hair a little more, the two white pieces falling into place when he ran his hand through it. Jaiden had helped him style it a little so it looked “fluffier” (Her words not his.) and Cellbit had to admit, he thought it looked nice.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jaiden finishing her makeup, blending the dark purple eyeshadow she had gotten from Baghera into the cat eye she had just finished.
“Are you guys done yet?” Cellbit jumped to the side at the sound of Baghera’s voice. The girl had shown up next to him without making any sound. How she was able to walk so quietly in heels was beyond him. Her own makeup was very soft compared to the Cellbit and Jaidens, the pinkish eyeshadow she had used blending into her many shimmers perfectly. The pink still dragged into her under eye just like Cellbits' own. Cellbit thought it was funny, even when they were given complete control of themselves with no rules, they still found a way to accidentally match. Her blonde hair was curled, courtesy of Foolish, and pulled back into a half up half down style. The outfit she was wearing was one of Cellbits favorites, it was one of the ones he helped pick when she called him a few days before they left with her entire closet on the floor. The light pink dress was reminiscent of the color she had dyed her hair last year, the fabric ending right before Bagheras knees and falling behind her in the back. Just like her eyeshadow it had a faint sparkle to it but Cellbit couldn’t tell if that was also the eyeshadow or not. He was pretty sure the necklace she was wearing was not hers, the thin golden chain holding a small spider pendant at the end of it, but he didn’t remember if that belonged to anyone on the team or not.
“Yeah, just finishing up.” Cellbit nodded, adjusting his own outfit. He was wearing a simple black button up with just a pair black pants. His favorite part of the outfit was the dark red suit vest he was wearing with the silver buttons that matched both his bracelets he stole from Charlie and the necklaces he grabbed before he left the house the day they went to travel. Picking up the rings he had taken off to do his makeup and putting them in his pocket, Cellbit finished cleaning his area and moved away from the mirror Jaiden was currently messing with her hair in.
As Cellbit stepped away from the mirror a voice floated up from the floor.``You look good, Cellbo~.” It purred.
Looking down Cellbit saw Charlie laying down on the floor, looking up at him through is black lined eyes, done by Baghera if he had to guess with the remnants of glitter on his face. Charlie's outfits were always a wild card when it came to these events, his closet having a wide range of clothes that no one expected him to have. This time he was more normal, wearing a button up shirt with dark green pants and a matching vest. He changed out his regular wire frame glasses for his contacts and his eyeliner was slightly smudged from scream singing with Baghera for a bit. It still looked good somehow, Charlie always seemed to make any outfit work for him. Even if it was the stupidest thing he’s ever seen. (That one slime suit he made for Halloween comes to mind.)
“Fuck off.” Cellbit sighed, sitting down on the floor next to him anyways.
Charlie sat up, scooted closer to him and smiled. One of those smiles that meant he was actually having fun. Cellbit smiled back.
“Jaidennnnnn.” Foolish cried, running over to where she and Baghera were still chatting in front of the mirror, just on time.
“Can you do my makeup?” Cellbit heard Jaiden laugh, followed by the sound of her digging around through her makeup bag. Celbit knew she and Baghera had recently bought a pallet just for Foolish recently; he had seen it when they sent him the options they were thinking about getting. It was mostly golds and dark browns, the color palette Foolish had for fancy events that he almost always followed with his makeup. Cellbit didn’t know if the color palette was on purpose or just his obsession with architecture and building bleeding into his real life, but it worked for him.
Baghera walked out towards where the three of them were sitting, “Does anyone know if we’re taking the bus to the restaurant?” She asked.
Phil shook his head, the green earrings he was wearing clinking as he did so, “Nope, the adults needed to rent a van today for some reason so we’re going in that to save money.”
“They probably didn’t talk about who was going on the bus or not so they ran out of space or something.” Charlie shrugged, “It happened last year.”
“Speaking of leaving, are you guys done yet?” Phil stood up out of the chair he had been sitting on, stretching his hands above his head.
Baghera snickered, “Careful grandpa, don’t hurt your hips.”
Phil sent her a glare and flipped her off, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Yeah we're done!” Foolish said as he and Jaiden walked into the main area. The makeup Jaiden had put on him was casual, gold on his inner corners and some type of reddish brown in the outters. (Dragged down slightly underneath his eyes just like the rest of them of course.) It matched his maroon suit jacket that was currently lying on the bed behind Cellbit.
“Ok good, we should probably go downstairs then.” Phil put his phone in his pocket, “Phoenix and Bonnie are probably waiting for us.”
Baghera turned her music off and threw her phone into the bag Jaiden had grabbed, Miku themed of course. Though it did have a type of bear keychain on it so she had that going for her.
The group then all left the hotel room, only having to turn back once because Foolish forgot his room key. They all then piled into the elevator and were just chatting about anything and everything as they stepped into the lobby.
“Wait oh my…” They heard someone gasp, “Phil! Charlie! Foolish!”
The group all turned to find a boy with long black hair running up to them. He was also dressed up, wearing a black and red outfit that almost matched Cellbits' own. When he reached the group, Cellbit noticed the boy was a little bit taller than him, but not by much. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jaiden freeze up and slip away from the group, grabbing Baghera as she did.
Phil, as usual, was the first one to speak, “Oh hey! I didn’t know you guys were here!”
The two hugged each other pulling apart after a little bit, there was tension in the air but Cellbit couldn’t figure out why. The normally extremely loud Foolish was quiet and even Charlie kept glancing over to where Jaiden and Baghera were, like he wanted to run away from the boy with them. Cellbit didn’t get it. He looked kind in Cellbits opinion, his smile was sweet almost like something you would find in a bakery.
The boy's eyes scanned the group behind Phil, the reddish brown landing on Cellbit. He tilted his head, his ponytail fell onto his shoulder as he did so. Cellbit noticed there were two red streaks hidden in between all the black. “Do I know you?”
His voice sounded familiar, something tugging on the memories that Cellbit had tried to hide. “I don’t know, you’re familiar though.”
“Did you used to skate at Hunger Games?” The boy tapped his lip, Cellbit could see the gears turning in his head.
Cellbit nodded, “I did actually, I was super young though so.” He shrugged.
“Did you used to skate around 4?” Cellbit nodded again, racking his brain to see if he could remember the boy standing in front of him.
The boy snapped and pointed at Cellbit, “Dagger! Oh my god! That’s why I know you!”
Cellbit felt his eyes widened, there was only one person who had ever given him that nickname. The dots connected, the memories of a kid that looked a lot older than apparently he was blurred with the person he was staring at right then. He hadn’t changed much now that Cellbit knew who he was. His hair was longer and he was missing his glasses but his face was still the same, it was him. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, the way he swayed as he talked. Cellbit wondered what he was thinking, he looked the same but Cellbit couldn’t have looked more different. He only had one streak of white in his hair when he was young, the extra white had come in during middle school when the two didn’t talk anymore. He wondered if looked at him and still was able to see that scrawny kid who just wanted to impress him.
“..Bad?” Cellbit breathed out.
“So it is you!” Bad’s smile grew bigger, he then rushed in and picked Cellbit up in a hug. Just like how he used to. “I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you!”
Cellbit could feel the confusion radiating off his team, Cellbit wasn’t the touchy type to anyone but the six of his team members and even then it was rare. Ironically, he couldn’t feel it in himself to actually care what they thought right now. He hadn’t seen Bad in years and he missed him.
“I’m good! How are you!” Cellbit said when Bad finally let him go.
Bad laughed, “I’m doing good! Spending a lot of time with my team and stuff.”
“Speaking of teams and stuff.” Phil's voice interrupted the two teens' conversation, “We actually have to go.”
“Aw rats!” Bad sighed, “I should probably get going as well, my team has our team dinner tonight.”
He shrugged, “Well, my numbers still the same if you want to talk Cellbit!”
And with that he sent another wave to his teammates and walked off, his ponytail swaying as he stepped. Cellbit was still smiling as Bad turned the corner and was no longer in view. He was absolutely texting him during the drive over to the restaurant.
Cellbit turned to his teammates who were all looking at him, waiting for him to explain what had just happened. “I used to skate with him when I was little.”
“He was one of my only friends at my old rink.” Cellbit looked straight at Foolish and Phil as he spoke, watching as the realization of what that meant from what he had told them earlier dawned on them.
“Yeah that actually makes a lot of sense.” Foolish shook his head. “Bad would be the one to teach you how to fight wouldn’t he.”
Phil sighed, “I remember fighting with Bad once, it was terrifying.”
Charlie laughed at that. “Yeah I remember watching him and Puffy fighting that one time before competition at school, I still can’t really tell if that was for fun or if they were actually fighting.”
Phil checked his phone before speaking again, “Ok I was joking when I said we have to go, Phoenix is waiting for us outside in the front.”
Foolish stood on his toes and looked around, over everyone in the lobby's head, “Where’s Jaiden and Bags?”
At his words Cellbit realized their other two teammates were no longer a few steps away. They were out of sight. He couldn’t see Jaidens blue streaks, or Bagheras glitter. Where were they?
Where were they?
Cellbit glanced over at Charlie, whose eyes were also darting around the room in an attempt to find their missing friends.
“Hey, you three.” Phil snapped, drawing their attention back over to their team captain. “They’re with Phoenix. Jaiden is the one that texted me.”
The three boys calmed down, collectively sighing before they followed their captain outside to where the missing members were waiting for them. The two girls were safe and sound, laughing about something on Bagheras phone, unknowing of the panic they had caused their teammates. Their coach was standing behind them, her arms crossed as she stared at the four boys leaving the building. Jaiden and Baghera turned towards the boys when they heard their footsteps.
“Sorry,” Foolish apologized to their coach who was still glaring at them for being late, “Got caught up with some friends in the lobby.”
“Just say you have bad time management. Let's go.” Phoenix rolled her eyes, effectively shutting up any attempt at defending themselves the team had. She then adjusted her shoulder bag and began walking into the dark parking lot with no more explanation.
“Is she still mad about earlier?” Charlie fake whispered as the group followed their coach, “It’s been like 12 hours, you would think she’d be over it.”
Jaiden sighed, “We think she found out other teams are going to be at the restaurant, not just us.”
Baghera nodded, “Crystal called her and she accidently put her on speaker so we heard her.”
“Do we know which teams?” Cellbit asked, wondering if Bad was going to be at the same restaurant that they were going to.
Baghera shook her head, “She realized we could hear her so she switched back from speaker before we could find out which ones.”
The walk to the van they had rented wasn’t a long one, the parking lot was large but the van was parked close enough to where Cellbit hadn’t had to give Jaiden his jacket yet. As they all settled into the back of the van Cellbit found himself scrolling through his contacts to find one person. The profile of Bads contact almost made him laugh out loud, the photo because an extremely blurry photo of him jumping in the middle of the rink. The picture was truly only a picture 10 year old Cellbit could have taken. The contact name read “Knives :)”, another thing only the fake emo kid Cellbit was when he was younger could have done.
Knives :), Dagger :(
6:43 PM
Dagger :( : hey bad!
Knives :) : haha oh my god
Knives :) : i forgot what the contact names were!
Knives :) : also your profile picture is so funny on my phone!
Knives :) : its a picture of you with a bloody nose just laying down on the ice
Dagger :( : oh my fucking god
Dagger :( : i remember that
Knives :) : language!
Dagger :( : my bad
Dagger :( : lmao
Dagger :( : bad
Dagger :( : anyways the picture is from the day i fell into the wall right?
Knives :) : from what it looks like yeah!
Knives :) : i think it was when you spun into it actually
Dagger :( : oh god i remember that one
Dagger :( : damn now that i think about it
Dagger :( : i fell into the wall a lot when i was younger huh-
Knives :) : lmao no i get it
Knives :) : i used to fall into the walls all the time because of my friends
Dagger :( : speaking of friends
Dagger :( : you said you and your team are going out tonight?
Knives :) : oh yeah!!!
Knives :) : I’m super excited!!!
Knives :) : we talked to another one of the teams that is staying at our hotel and they’re going to be at the same restaurant that we’re going to!
Knives :) : it’ll be annoying because of the couples but i have friends on the other team so i’m excited
Dagger :( : oh really which team?
Knives :) : actually its your sisters team!
Knives :) : her and one of my teammates are like
Knives :) : well i don’t really know whats going on with them
Dagger :( : oh shit really
Knives :) : yeah! Those two muffins are weird
Knives :) : oh actually we’re pulling the restaurant right now
Knives :) : ill see you later?
Dagger :( : yeah i’ll see you later :)
Knives :) : im glad i found you again little dagger
Dagger :( : yeah me too lmao
Bad didn’t reply after that, probably walking into whatever restaurant he and his team were going to. Cellbit looked out the window and noticed he could see the restaurant his own team was going to in the distance. The lights on the patio outside the building were shining so bright he could almost see the entire parking lot. The restaurant looked nice, it was one the group hadn't gone to before. Their regular restaurant was hosting a big party or something and wasn’t able to get their reservation in for the week they were going to be in town. This one had good reviews from what his research had told him and a good enough menu to feed his entire team, including Jaiden. He just mostly hoped that from the weird L shape of the building, something he always noticed now due to Foolish, the tables where his team would be sitting would be separate from everyone else. Not for their own sake, for everyone else’s. Bolas dinner conversations were something that had small jokes and under their breath comments turned into yelling at each other across the table like they were in a sitcom. They were the group of people that scared Ikea employees when they pretended to be toxic couples fighting in the living room setups.
Out of the corner of his eye as the van the group was in pulled into the parking lot, Cellbit noticed that there was another travel bus there. Another team. That wasn’t that much of a surprise, teams were everywhere, the surprise came from the fact Cellbit recognized it. It was the boy with the spiderman hoodies, Roiers, bus. The same one he saw in the gas station parking lot when they met. His team was here, he was here. Cellbit was going to see him again.
Cellbit internally thanked himself for being able to clean up pretty well. Each time this boy had seen him he had looked like he had just rolled around on the floor. Hopefully he could actually talk to him this time. Or- just- wink back this time. At the very least.
Foolish let out a gasp from his seat, “Fuck!”
“Language!” Phoenix yelled back at him.
“Sorry Coach” He muttered.
Cellbits phone lit up directly after with another message, this time from the group chat.
BolasBolasBolasBolas
Members: Phil-CrowFather, Jaiden- Jaidenstune Miku, Charlie-Malewife, Foolish- Smiley, Cellbit-Cellbo, Baghera-Quacki
7:01 PM
Smiley: i'm going to kms.
Quacki: why?
Quacki: are the bricks of the building not the right color for you?
Smiley: no.
Smiley: i just saw pretty boy outside.
Smiley: he just walked inside.
Smiley: i'm going to kms.
Jaidenstune Miku: he's literally just a guy
Smiley: shhhhhhh stfuuuuuuuuuuuu
Malewife: finally my hubris will not be for naught
Malewife: i'm not the only one suffering today
Malewife: i am god's favorite
Cellbit huffed a small laugh at Foolish letting out a small “hey!” when he read Charlie's messages. This was going to be an extremely interesting dinner.
Notes:
guys don’t like men irl- just don’t- ya boys struggling- anyways honestly expect the next chapter tomorrow in speed running my missing assignments right now so i can get back to writing and i have basically all my free classes tomorrow!!!! :3333
(don’t forget to ask me questions or just like say hi on tumblr! you can watch me go insane over this in live time lmaoooo)
Chapter 11
Summary:
“Hey, uh, can I sit with you?” Cellbit felt his neck crack at how fast he looked up at the voice. In front of him was Roier, the boy in the spiderman hoodie. The boy with the headband. That Roier.
Cellbit felt his mouth drop open, his makeup looked better up close. Cellbit couldn’t see it from far away but now that they were only an arms length apart he noticed that Roier actually had designs that spiraled out underneath his eyes. There were two thin red lines that were laid on top of each other underneath his eyes. It looked really good, whether that was because it was on him or if it was a good design Cellbit had yet to figure out. Cellbit snapped his mouth shut once he realized what he was doing.
“Sorry, if you want me to leave I mean I can, just” Roier stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, “You’re the guy from the gas station yesterday right?”
Notes:
lowkey posting this under a tornado watch at my theater in my school so everyone cross your fingers and hope this posts
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The restaurant was nice. It was simple but somehow extravagant at the same time. Foolish could probably explain what made it feel that way in detail but all Cellbit could say was he liked the big lights they had hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant had a castle adjacent theme to it, with its high ceilings and stained glass separating the rooms in the back. If Cellbit strained he could hear laughter coming from the back of the building, around where Cellbit assumed the room for bigger parties was.
Phoenix and Cyrstal were currently checking in with the hostess in the front while the rest of Bolas looked around and went through each of their own mental checklists to make sure they wouldn’t be threatened. Cellbit could see from the way Phils eyes were darting around the room that he was scanning the layout to make sure he knew where any of the members would be if they got up from their table. Cellbit just hoped Phoenix and Crystal sat away from them, the two of them being judging of the group's conversations was not something Cellbit wanted to deal with today after everything.
“What do you mean we don’t get the entire room?” Oh god. Of course something was already wrong. Phoenix was already getting angry at the hostess who looked terrified that this would escalate.
“I’m sorry ma'am but since you have such a small party, it wouldn’t have been practical for us to give you the entire room.” She squeaked out.
“It’s fine Nix, the kids don’t mind.” Crystal laid her hand down on her sister's shoulder, “We’re not eating with them anyways, this isn’t something that affects us.”
At her words Phoenix, thankfully, relented and sent a sharp nod at the hostess, “Show us where we’re eating then.”
The girl quickly nodded, grabbing a pile of menus before turning away from the team, “If you’d please follow me.”
She led the group towards the voices and laughter that was coming from the back, confirming what she said earlier about other parties using the same room as them. As they walked in, Cellbit heard Phoenix curse. Something she only did in front of them when something she wasn't expecting happened. The group stopped in the doorway as a new voice called out to them.
“Is that Phoenix and Crystal Watcher?” A woman who looked the same age as Phoenix and Crystal ran up to the group, smiling widely. She was wearing a light purple summer dress with two matching bows on either side of her head.
“Hi Elena!” Phoenix muttered while her sister threw her arms around the women.
“I haven’t seen you guys in forever!” Elena said once she and Crystal pulled apart, “Is this your team?”
She turned her attention on the group of teenagers behind the two coaches, who had just been sitting there. Foolish was the first one to do anything, sending out a small wave. “Hi.”
“Oh wait!” Elena pointed at Baghera and Jaiden, “I recognize you two!”
The two girls froze up, looking over at their coaches who were looking at Elena just as confused.
Elena shook her head, “Sorry that must have sounded concerning, I meant to say, you two used to skate with two of my students!”
Before Jaiden or Baghera could ask her what the ment the hostess cleared her throat, “I’m sorry to interrupt ma'am but I do have to take them to their seats.”
“Oh that’s no problem at all! I’ll come with! I’ve missed these two you know!” Elena waved at Crystal and Phoenix who had two very different expressions on their faces. Phoenix looked annoyed while Crystal looked like she was happy to meet an old friend. What happened to them to make Phoenix hate this girl Cellbit had no idea but Pheonix always hated everyone so it could also just be something like that. Not all friendships ended the way Cellbits usually did.
The room the hostess led the group into almost made Cellbit turn around and run back outside. From the way the rest of his team straightened their posture out of the corner of his eye, they were all fighting the instinct to do that as well. Inside the room where the group was going to be eating were two long tables, each filled with the people Cellbit and his team had tried avoiding the entire time they had been at their hotel. Cellbit could see his sister's white and brown hair sitting in the back of the room, what he assumed was the rest of her team sitting around her throughout the table.
“Damn, the gangs all here I guess.” Foolish said under his breath as he walked next to Cellbit.
Cellbits eyes were drawn to Bad sitting at the table he was walking past, sitting next to a girl with brown hair and a white bow decorating the back of it. He looked just as surprised to see Cellbit as Cellbit was to see him. Cellbit felt his heart sink into his stomach when he realized what team Bad was on. He recognized the jackets sitting on the backs of the chairs.
Phil let out a low whistle, “Both Soulfire and GGN! Damn…”
Elena was still chatting with their coaches when they reached their table, a short table in the corner of the room, only big enough for the skaters to sit.
“Um-” Crystal tried to talk but was cut off by Elena as soon as the words attempted to leave her mouth, “This works perfectly! Us coaches have our own table over there so you two can just join us!”
The hostess just set down the menus and walked away with a small, “I’ll let you all figure it out.”
As soon as the hostess was out of sight Elena laughed, “Ok well, I’ll see you kids later! We have a lot to catch up on!” And drug Crystal and Phoenix away without a second thought, taking them to a table in the corner that Cellbit hadn’t seen when he walked into the room. As soon as their coaches were out of sight Jaiden let sighed, “What the fuck is going on.”
They all sat down, throwing their bags and jackets onto the floor or onto the chairs behind them. Cellbit sat next to the wall with Jaiden and Foolish on his other side while Baghera, Phil and Charlie sat across from them. Soon after they settled down Foolish glanced around the room, speaking in a low tone. “I can feel the eyes on us.”
Charlie shrugged at Foolish, “There are always eyes on us, at least we know whose eyes it is this time.”
“Yeah that's true, it doesn't make it any less weird though.” Foolish sighed, learning on Jaiden as she rolled her eyes.
“Honestly I don’t care, I’m pretty sure that's Quackitys team anyways so I’ll probably go over there to bother him.” She shrugged.
Baghera sat up and started looking around the room for her friend, “Oh my god, wait really?!”
“I mean that’s GGN right?” Jaiden gestured to the table behind where Baghera was sitting, “I recognize most of them, there's a few I don’t but faces are hard.”
“I can’t see Roier though. Where is he?”
As if on cue, Roier walked in with a big smile on his face, dragging behind him another boy. Cellbit tried not to acknowledge his heart speeding up and the warmth that was rising to cheeks at the outfit the boy was wearing. His hair was still pushed back with the headband that Cellbit was starting to realize was a staple of every outfit he wore. It matched the outfit that was currently driving Cellbit insane. He was wearing a simple button up shirt with a suit vest on top of it, close to what his own friends were wearing. What he was wearing on his face otherwise was what Cellbit, who was never one for eye contact, couldn’t stop staring at. His eyes were decorated with dark red eyeshadow that blended into the cat eye eyeliner he was wearing perfectly. His lips were painted a shade of red that made his snake bites pop even more than they had the first time Cellbit had seen him. He looked dangerous. He was so pretty.
The boy next to him also had that dangerous pretty boy aura around him. He was wearing a dark purple suit with a golden chain wrapped around his waist. Cellbit could see Foolish out of the corner of his eye turn bright red. Cellbit just hoped he had enough self control to not look exactly like him.
Roier and his friend ran across the room, sitting ironically right next to his sister. The two hugged and Bagi ruffled his hair, he immediately tried to fix it while the table around him laughed. Bagi then turned and made eye contact with Cellbit.
Oh fuck.
Please don’t let her notice.
I don’t think I could handle that.
No matter how loudly he prayed internally, his sister smirked as realization ran across her face. She winked at him and mouthed a simple “loser” before going back to talking to Roier and the boy he brought to their table. Cellbit wanted to kill her. He slumped onto the table and covered his face with his hands. Foolish soon joined him.
Baghera laughed at the two boys with their heads on the table, “What the fuck is wrong with the two of you.”
“No no, they’re so right for that. I get it.” Charlie sighed, staring at another table behind Cellbit that he couldn’t see. Presumably staring at Mariana if he knew his friend and what was able to keep his attention for longer than 30 seconds.
Jaiden opened her mouth to protest the three boys being the way they are, but was interrupted by their waiter bouncing over to them. “Hi guys, what can I get started for you!”
“Can we get some waters?” Phil asked, earning groans from the rest of the group around the table.
Phil wasn’t phased, just rolled his eyes before continuing “Don’t listen to them, they need the water.”
“Six….waters…” The waiter marked down on the notepad they had pulled out of their pocket, “Ok I’ll be back with those real soon!”
As they bounded away Cellbit heard a voice call out “Hey! Aimsey!” from behind him. Charlie and Phil both started laughing uncontrollably right before the voice called out, the two had seen what had happened to the owner of the voice and the waiter before the victim had yelled in response.
“Ha!” Phil barked out, “Get fucked mate!”
“Oh fuck off Phil!” The same voice called back.
‘Of course Phil knew someone at every table, he apparently knows everyone. Why wouldn't he?’ Cellbit rolled his eyes.
“Oh my god, wait!” Foolish suddenly gasped, snapping out of whatever staring contest he was having with the wall in front of him. “Quackity is here! I’ll be right back!”
With nothing else, he stood up and ran over to the table where Roier and his sister were sitting, waving to one of the other boys at the table, who was wearing a dark blue beanie that matched his suit jacket.
“Wait! I want to say hi too!” Jaiden ran after him, followed soon after by Baghera once she realized where her friends had gone. Charlie was still staring at the table behind where the remaining group was sitting.
Phil sighed, “I’m going to go talk to Missa, one of you guys stay here to get the drinks.”
“Hey-” Charlie bolted up and out of his seat, “Lemme come with!”
Phil rolled his eyes but nodded, looking towards Cellbit for his approval to leave him alone at the table by himself. Cellbit shrugged at him, a silent agreement. He didn’t mind being by himself, he could hear the table where the trio of losers ran to getting louder and louder as they all riled each other up. He didn’t want to deal with that at all. Plus, he could stare at the boy with the headband all he wanted without being made fun of.
Once Phil got the response he wanted, he dragged Charlie off to the table that held the rest of Soulfire. As soon as the two were out of sight a new waiter walked over to the table with a tray of waters.
“Sorry, that took us a second! Aimsey got-” He cut himself off and raised an eyebrow at the now empty table. “What happened to the rest of you?”
Cellbit shrugged, taking his drink from the waiter's hand, “They’re all talking to their friends right now, they’ll be back.”
The waiter did not seem convinced, but let the topic go, “Do you know when you guys are going to want to order?”
Cellbit glanced down at the menu, they had gone over it earlier but none of them had actually made a decision yet, “No, I’ll let you know when we have an idea though.”
Cellbit could tell the waiter thought that he and his teammates were weird, “Okayyyyy, well Aimsey should be back in a couple of minutes to check on y'all. They got caught up in the kitchen.”
They gave Cellbit one last look before they turned away, walking over to the other tables to presumably check on them and refill whatever drinks they wanted. Cellbit sighed and swirled his straw around in his drink, watching the ice bang against the glass sides of the cup. He loved his friends he really did, but god damn were they all extroverts when it came down to it. Carre was usually the one who stayed with him during these times, choosing to chill instead of dealing with his friends yelling. But Carre wasn’t there, he was in some random state.
“Hey, uh, can I sit with you?” Cellbit felt his neck crack at how fast he looked up at the voice. In front of him was Roier, the boy in the spiderman hoodie. The boy with the headband. That Roier.
Cellbit felt his mouth drop open, his makeup looked better up close. Cellbit couldn’t see it from far away but now that they were only an arms length apart he noticed that Roier actually had designs that spiraled out underneath his eyes. There were two thin red lines that were laid on top of each other underneath his eyes. It looked really good, whether that was because it was on him or if it was a good design Cellbit had yet to figure out. Cellbit snapped his mouth shut once he realized what he was doing.
“Sorry, if you want me to leave I mean I can, just” Roier stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, “You’re the guy from the gas station yesterday right?”
Cellbit cleared his throat, preparing himself to speak, “Uhhh- Yeah I am.” He fought back a cough. His throat was so dry despite drinking most of his water only a few seconds before.
“And, you can sit if you want.” Cellbit avoided Roiers' eyes as he spoke. “Just, wasn’t expecting anyone to come over.”
Roiers entire being brighted when Cellbit said he could sit with him. He smiled and slipped into the chair across the table from Cellbit. Cellbit felt him accidentally kick his foot as he sat down.
“I’m Roier!” He stuck out his hand, waiting for Cellbit to take it. Cellbit noticed his nails were painted with a spider-web design across his middle finger. Nothing like Cellbits own which were covered with chipping black paint from when he randomly decided to paint them a few weeks ago.
Cellbit shook his hand, surprised at how cold it was, “I’m Cellbit.”
“Nice to meet you Cellbit!” Roier laughed, “Or should I say meet you again!”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t think that counts.” Cellbit felt himself smile.
“Whatever man, how was the drink? You liked it right? You’re smiling, you so liked it!”
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “Whatever man.” He mocked.
“Why did you come over here anyways, did Bagi put you up to it?” He tried to look around Roier to where his sister (and half of his team) were sitting but Roier shook his head, distracting him with the glint of his earrings before he could do so.
“No, Bagi did tell me I was stupid though.” Roier rolled his eyes at the memory of what Cellbits sister had said, “I’m actually over here because of something else.”
‘Bagi didn’t put him up to this? Why the fuck is he over here then?’ Cellbit thought.
Roier beckoned him closer, once the two of them were each leaning over the table Roier whispered, “My cousin has a crush on your teammate.”
‘Holy shit. What.’
“What?!” Cellbit was so confused, ‘Roier had a cousin? Which teammate? If it was Jaiden there would be problems. Wait, why didn’t he go to Jaiden? Jaiden said they were best friends?’
“Yeah!” Roier was still speaking in hushed tones, like anyone could even hear them from across the room over their own conversations. “Foolish? Is that his name? He thinks he’s hot”
Cellbit groaned, of course Foolish found himself another suiter. The teen was a himbo, boys and girls followed him everywhere and he didn’t even realize what was happening. Foolish most of the time didn’t even think he was attractive, which led to people accidentally getting led on and heartbroken because Foolish just didn’t understand they weren't joking when they called him “handsome” or “pretty”. The fact that someone else had also caught Foolish’s own attention recently made him almost completely shut off to any other romantic affection like any other “crush” Foolish had.
Roier looked a little defeated at Cellbits reaction, Cellbit hated that look on him, “Is that a bad thing?”
“No! Nonono!” Cellbit shook his head quickly, “Foolish is a great guy! He just-”
“Does he not like guys?” Cellbit almost snorted at that, he didn’t know about how many times today alone Foolish had screamed and been an absolute loser about a boy. He does like boys, and he likes them stupidly.
“No he does, he just likes some random guy he met in the hotel today.” Cellbit stifled another laugh at the memory of this morning, “Has your cousin even talked to him?”
Roier let out a small laugh, it was a nice laugh, “Oh god yeah, apparently my cousin likes them when they’re just a little stupid because apparently he tried to flirt with Foolish and Foolish said “cowabunga” to him!”
Cellbits eyes widened at his story, Roier was cousins with Foolish’s “pretty boy”? The same one he had talked to this morning?
“Holy shit..” Cellbit breathed, “You’re the cousin?”
Roier looked at him bewildered before bursting into another round of laughter, “Oh god, what did Vegetta say?”
Cellbit fought back his own laughter as he explained the events that had unfolded due to his cousin's actions. Both of them rolled their eyes when Cellbit began explaining the fight that had happened over him this morning. “It was wild all because I didn’t want to talk about you actually!”
Roier paused, “About me?”
‘Shit- Shit- Fuck-’ Cellbit thought, imeditaly trying to think of how to backpedal. He couldn’t just tell this man “yeah my friends were making fun of me because they think you flirted with me”! That would be A) weird B) probably wrong! No one ever flirts with Cellbit, that's like one of his whole things! He’s unapproachable, he looks mean, he has big scary scars that get him made fun of in the hallways. He’s never flirted with. There was no reason for Roier to flirt with him besides as a joke and Roier doesn’t seem the type of person to do something like that. So what the fuck does he say?
“They were making fun of me because uh- I just blinked at you instead of talking the first time we met.” Cellbit rubbed the back of his neck as he tried not to look Roier in the eye as he lied to his face.
His lie worked at least because Roier looked less anxious then he had when Cellbit had accidently let it slip Bolas had talked about him before, “You did do that.”
“I thought you were going to hurt me or something, you looked so scary” He laughed. Cellbit did not like that laugh.
“I was just tired.” He blurt out, interrupting whatever Roier was going to say next, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Roiers mouth hung open for a bit before he clamped it shut, his snake bites moving slightly when he licked his lips before he started speaking again. “Uh. Thanks. I know. Bagi told me you weren’t going to.”
“Bagi said that?” It was Cellbits turn to look at Roier bewildered. His sister said that? His sister? Bagi?
“Yeah! She recognized you when I told her what happened in the gas station,” Roier shrugged, unaware he had just thrown Cellbits entire day into a new perspective.
She had known he was there the entire time.
“But that's not the point!” Roier shook his head, almost as if to clear his thoughts, “I need your help trying to get Foolish and Vegetta together because I’m going crazy.”
Cellbit forgot that was where the conversation started, “I mean yeah I can try, but why me?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” He gestured to the empty table around him, “I’m not exactly the social type. You’re better off asking Baghera or Charlie.”
“Mhm, actually” Cellbit rolled his eyes, “You wouldn't get anything out of Charlie, he’s too invested in Mariana.”
“Mariana?” Oh no. Roier isn’t like Phil where he knows everyone right? Cellbit doesn’t think he could handle going out anywhere with him and meeting the entire town. Wait- going out?
Cellbut punched himself internally, this was his second time talking to the dude. He needed to chill.
“Yeah. Mariana on Soulfire.” He pointed to the table behind him, Charlie was the only one over there now, fighting with one of the members over something Cellbit didn’t even care about from what it looked like.
“Is his last name Slimecicle?” Roier raised an eyebrow.
“What, Mariana? No, I honestly don't know his last name. I've talked to him like, I don’t know three times?”
Roier sighed and shook his head, “No dumbass. Is Charlie's last name Slimecicle? I know Marianas.”
“Oh.” Well now Cellbit felt embarrassed, “Yeah that’s his last name.”
“Of course it is! Those two I swear!”
“Wait, does Mariana talk about Slime too?”
Roier groaned, “Only all the fucking time! I go to school with both of them and it’s literally hell.”
“You go to school with them?” Charlie's school was close to his, it was the school he was supposed to be going to if he wasn’t going to Watcher.
“Yep!” Roier nodded, “It’s annoying but a lot of my teammates go there too.”
Their conversation was cut short when a girl ran up to their table, “Roier!”
“Yeah Mouse?” The girl, now “Mouse” in Cellbits head, was wearing what looked like to be a lolita inspired black dress that had dark pink lace running up the sides. The girl herself also had pink hair, pulled up into pigtails on the top of her head that were decorated with heart clips and two bells that rang when she moved her head.
“Etoiles said we have to order real quick before we all “run away from him” like we always do” Mouse did air quotes along with a deep voice and accent as she described whoever she was talking about.
Roier rolled his eyes, “He never lets us have fun.”
“It’s fine I need to go wrangle my team anyways.” Cellbit offered up.
“Well I feel bad cutting our conversation short,” Roier pouted, sticking out his bottom lip in exaggeration, “It just got fun.”
Cellbit tried his best to wave him off without Roier noticing the red that was absolutely rushing through his face right now, “You’ll just have to come back and talk to me I guess.”
Mouse was basically scrutinizing them, her eyes darting back and forth between Cellbit and Roier until Roier finally sighed and got up out of the chair he was sitting in. “I guess I'll go.”
Cellbit watched as the two turned to walk away, mind already wandering to his next conversation with Roier. Just as he himself was about to get up to go get the rest of his teammates, Roier turned back around and winked at him.
“See you soon, gatinho!” He waved at Cellbit before being smacked in the arm by Mouse.
As the two walked away and their squabble faded out of his ears, Cellbits mind returned full force.
He winked at him. He's so pretty. He knows his friends. Mariana likes Charlie back. They're both so annoying. Roier looks good today. He likes his snake bites. He wondered if they hurt. Why did Bagi tell him he wouldn't hurt him? What the fuck just happened.
Cellbit was left to wonder about the events that just unfolded by himself, his mind officially going a mile a minute.
Notes:
guys lullah and chay are back and that makes me so happy- also i’m sorry this took so long i got caught up with school and stuff 😔 hopefully next chapter will come out faster lmaooooooo
(edit: someone tell me why ao3 has decided to randomly fuck up my words 😔 why does it look like a glitch bro 😭)
Chapter 12
Summary:
The Soulfire table was just like the Bolas table. Empty seats were scattered throughout the long table, jackets and half drank drinks as evidence that people had been sitting in those seats but had now wandered off. Bad led Foolish and Cellbit over to a girl who was typing furiously on her phone, Cellbit could see the paragraph building to whoever the poor soul who was going to get that message.
“Tina!” Bad called, getting the girl's attention. She turned and Cellbit’s breath stuttered, she was the girl from earlier this morning. Her hair was no longer up in a high ponytail, instead it was slightly curled with bows similar to Elena decorating her simple hairstyle. Recognition flitted through her eyes when she saw Cellbit before she noticed Foolish and glared at him.
“You bitch!” She cried, standing up to smack Foolish in the arm. “How dare you not tell me you were here!”
Notes:
I WAS SUPPOSED TO POST THIS YESTERDAY MY BAD GUYS WHERE I LIVE WEVE HAD LIKE A CONSTANT STORM GOING ON AND INTERNET BEING HELLA ANNOYING 😭😭😭
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Once everyone was back at the table and the food was officially ordered, Cellbit was only able to take around 0.01 seconds to collect himself before the entire team started gossiping.
“Debrief! Now!” Baghera snapped her fingers, starting the discussion as always.
Charlie sighed longingly, “Men.”
“Yeah yeah, we already knew you were a homo that’s not new,” Baghera rolled her eyes, “I meant new information dumbass. I saw you over there twisting your hair and batting your eyelashes like you weren’t an absolute menace to society.”
“Hey!” Charlie blurted out, before his mouth was covered by Phils hand.
“Public place Slime, no yelling.” He said, ignoring the glare from the boy next to him. “Don’t you fucking dare lick my hand by the way.”
Slime's face turned sheepish as he was caught, his face turning a little red before flipping Phil off.
“Ok, but he was right.” Foolish said, eyes glancing back at the GGN table, where his new “boy toy” as Jaiden had so elegantly put it, was currently sitting.
Speaking of Jaiden, she just laughed at her useless friends, “I’ve never been so glad to be aro, all of this shit is too complicated for me.”
“I literally could not care any less, tell me what you guys talked about! I need to know!”
“Jesus Christ Baghera.” Phil chuckled, “If you really want to know me and Missa just talked about his team and his program.”
“Well yeah because you two are married and boring!” Baghera dragged out the word boring for effect.
She turned her attention to Cellbit, who felt his heart drop as soon as her glitter covered eyes landed on him, “The real drama is from whatever Roier and Mr. “I don’t talk to anyone ever, leave me alone” over here were talking about.”
Cellbit sighed, he knew this was coming. He didn’t even like the guy! He was just some pretty guy that decided to talk to Cellbit! That was literally it! “We were talking about you fucks.”
Foolish let out a small “Hey!” in defense but Cellbit waved him off. “He was just asking what you two have been up to since you last talked.” Cellbit pointed at Jaiden and Baghera, who both were looking at him unimpressed.
“Uh huh.” Jaiden nodded, “Sure, we talked to him less than an hour ago.”
“Yeah what are you trying to hide, Cellbo?” Charlie leaned over the table and flicked Cellbit in the head, well attempted. Cellbit bit his finger before he got too close.
“Oh shut up Slime, we all know you melted into a puddle as soon as Mariana looked at you.” He retorted, glaring back at the boy teasingly.
“I’ll have you know!” Charlie backed away from Cellbit, putting his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his seat, “He asked what was wrong with my face.”
The smug smile on Charlie's face was the thing that made Foolish finally burst out laughing, “What's wrong with your face? Please tell me he was asking about the bruises and not just calling you ugly!”
“He was asking about the bruises, dumbass!” Charlie spluttered, “The bruises you left you bitch!”
“Wah wah,” Foolish made a talking motion with his hand, “And I’d do it again!”
“You would do it too for a check…” Jaiden whispered under her breath.
Groaning loudly, Baghera pulled the two teens apart by the back of their shirts, "Back on topic! I need gossip!”
“Literally just ask anyone else on the other teams,” Phil sighed, “They’d know more than these losers, all of you have no brains or memories at all.”
“I’m going to ignore that you also called me stupid in saying that,” Baghera chirped, sliding out of the booth as she spoke, “And take your advice!”
“Bye loserssssssss!” She called as she walked away from the table, heading over to where a couple of the GGN and Soulfire members were chatting in the corner.
Jaiden fought back a laugh, “She’s so invested in you fucks and I do not understand why.”
“Because we’re so cool and interesting actually Jaiden, did you ever think about that?” Charlie tilted his head back and forth like a bird, mocking his friend.
“Oh fuck off, you are not that special.” She scolded as she pushed his head away from hers, “You literally eat raw dough.”
“Both of you shut up! Someones coming over here!” Phil suddenly said, shutting the group up effectively.
“Hey guys.” Walking up to them was Bad, looking between the five teens nervously as he fidgeted with the bracelets and rings on his hands. Both Jaiden and Foolish looked down at their hands, avoiding eye contact with the black haired boy. Cellbit still didn’t understand the drama between the three of them.
Phil smiled, one of those poilite “I don’t really like you but I’m not going to say anything” smiles, “Hey mate. What’s up?”
“Nothing much!” Bad smiled back, not picking up on the hint as usual. Cellbit laughed internally, he was still the same old Bad with his inability to pick up on social cues. “How are you Phil?”
“Bad we talked like,” Phil checked his phone, “less than an hour ago, and I was just over at your table. What do you need?”
Bad laughed, “I guess you were! I actually came over because I need Foolish!”
Foolish winced and looked up at the teen, “Why?”
Bad furrowed his eyebrows, like he didn’t understand why Foolish was acting the way he was. “Nothing bad! Tina just wants you to say hi!”
“Oh.” Foolish’s face smoothed out and went back to his regular happy smile and alive eyes once Bad told him what he was being asked of. It only lasted a few seconds before he groaned and mimed smacking his head on the table, “Wait- No!”
“I just escaped Baghera asking me about this. I don't need her being a bitch about this too!” Cellbit glanced back at Bad, surprised he didn’t “language” Foolish like he usually did. The teen looked like he wanted to but was holding back for some reason.
“Tina?” Cellbit asked, confused even more than usual. Why did his friends know so many people? Why is he just finding out now?
Foolish lifted his head from the table, looking up at Cellbit, “Friend from school. You’ve never met her?”
Cellbit shook his head, “Damn dude-”
“Tina is nice! She’s friends with Bagi actually!” Bad pipped up.
Foolish groaned, “Yeah they’re “friends” sureeeee.”
“God, all of you know each other and I’m just the outside loser.” Cellbit rolled his eyes. “Thanks guys, making me feel really appreciated here.”
“Aw come on Dagger!” Bad comforted, “I appreciate you!”
Cellbit scoffed, “Thanks Bad, you too.”
“Here actually, you come with me and Foolish back to my table!”
“Huh- What- When did I say I was going to your table?” Foolish stuttered, looking back and forth between Bad and Phil.
Bad ignored him and kept talking, “I’ll introduce you to a bunch of my teammates! They’ll like you I swear!”
“Yeah sure, pretend you're nice.” Jaiden muttered under her breath, getting a look from Cellbit. She shook her head and mouthed “I’ll tell you later”, so Cellbit left it at that and turned back to Bad and Foolish who were now bickering to Phils dismay.
“What do you mean “it wasn’t my fault” the egg thing was absolutely your fault!” Cellbit didn’t even want to know what the two were talking about, the annoyance on Phil’s face was enough for him to leave the topic as is.
“Oh calm down!” Bad waved a hand in Foolish’s face, “It didn’t hurt you in the long run. You’re fine!”
Cellbit could see Foolish was about to blow up and go off at Bad, so he quickly interjected before it could get ugly. Bad wasn’t a Bolas member, Bad was too good to fight like the rats Bolas were compared to. “Can we just go to your table Bad?”
Bad blinked at him, like he had forgotten he was there, “Yeah course!”
Foolish sent Bad another glare before getting up out of his seat, waiting for Cellbit to get out of his own as well. Cellbit made sure he had his phone before he stood up and followed Foolish and Bad, who were still bickering, just quieter.
The Soulfire table was just like the Bolas table. Empty seats were scattered throughout the long table, jackets and half drank drinks as evidence that people had been sitting in those seats but had now wandered off. Bad led Foolish and Cellbit over to a girl who was typing furiously on her phone, Cellbit could see the paragraph building to whoever the poor soul who was going to get that message.
“Tina!” Bad called, getting the girl's attention. She turned and Cellbit’s breath stuttered, she was the girl from earlier this morning. Her hair was no longer up in a high ponytail, instead it was slightly curled with bows similar to Elena decorating her simple hairstyle. Recognition flitted through her eyes when she saw Cellbit before she noticed Foolish and glared at him.
“You bitch!” She cried, standing up to smack Foolish in the arm. “How dare you not tell me you were here!”
“Ow! Fuck!” Foolish clutched his arm and backed away from her, “I saw you this morning!”
“Yeah and you didn’t say hi!” Tina crossed her arms in front of the light purple dress she was wearing.
Foolish rolled his eyes, “Oh come on! You didn’t say hi either.”
Bad’s laughter was quiet enough that only Cellbit heard it from where he was standing next to him, “Those two are always fighting.”
Cellbit turned to Bad who had grabbed his drink when he was focused on Tina and Foolish. “Here let me introduce you to the rest of my team!”
Bad led Cellbit to the other side of the table where a bunch of people were chatting or on their phones. There were only a few members sitting, the rest Cellbit assumed were probably a part of the groups of people who were standing around the room chatting amongst themselves.
“Guys this is my friend Cellbit, he’s from,” Bad glanced at Cellbit like he was nervous to say his team name. The group of teens all looked up at Cellbit and Bad and Cellbit could feel the judging eyes. He didn’t really care though, Cellbit rolled his eyes, “Bolas, I’m from Bolas.”
The first person to respond was a teenager who looked slightly younger than the rest of the group, he looked almost a similar age to the waiters if Cellbit thought about it too hard. His hair was dyed blonde at the tips creating a similar style to how Cellbits hair was when he was younger. The boy looked up from where he was typing on his phone and something in the back of Cellbits mind recognized him. From where he couldn’t remember but he knew he had memories of him somewhere in his mind.
“Sup, I’m Tubbo. I’m one of the better team captains of Soulfire.” Tubbo stuck his tongue out at Bad who had let out an offended squeak at the words.
The girl with the black and pink dyed hair who sat next to Tubbo rolled her eyes, “Tina could beat your ass whenever she wanted.”
“Wah wah,” Tubbo made a talking motion with his hand, Cellbit got deja vu, “Tina is crazy what’s your point?”
The girl with the pink hair laughed and threw her braid over her shoulder and stretched out to flick Tubbos forehead, “We both know most people on this team could beat your ass. You get kicked around by your little sister.”
“You try telling her she can’t get a new dress when she's wearing skates!” Tubbo scoffed.
“I would say: “Sorry Sunny, you can’t have a new dress.” It’s just that easy.”
Tubbo rolled his eyes, “Say goodbye to your knees then Niki.”
Bad sighed, “Tubbo you really have to stop spoiling her.”
“You say that like you don’t spoil Dapper.”
“Oh!” Cellbit turned to Bad, completely forgetting about his little brother, “How is Dapper by the way? I forgot to ask.”
Dapper was only a toddler the last time Cellbit had seen him, running around the ice rink and talking to anyone who would listen to him about animals. If Cellbit could remember correctly the boy looked like a mini Bad, the same dark hair and the same ghostly way of walking.
“Oh muffin, he's doing great!” Bad clapped his hands with a smile on his face, “He got into the gifted program at his elementary school and he’s made a lot of friends.”
“Does he also skate? I know Phils siblings do.”
Bad nodded, “He does! He’s currently trying to convince our mom to let him do pairs with one of his best friends.” He nudged Cellbits' side, “They call each other twins like another pairs team I used to know.”
Cellbit let out a dejected laugh, Bad didn’t know about Bagi and Cellbit’s decayed relationship. “Who’s his twin?”
The girl with the pink stripes, Niki, answered his question before he could, “Her name is Pomme, she’s super sweet.”
“Sweet to you, her brother has decided he’s my enemy and she makes fun of me.” Tubbo whined.
Another skater, wearing a dark blue button up shirt with golden details on the cuffs that Cellbit couldn’t see, spoke up, “You’re so easy to make an enemy though Tubbo.”
“Ay!” Tubbo squawked, “Pierre you don’t get to talk. Etoiles doesn’t make fun of you because you guys are related.”
Pierre scoffed, “Oh he absolutely makes fun of me I’m just harder to rile up than you are. I don’t get angry over him just saying words at me.”
“At least my hockey team didn’t leave me behind for another rink.” Tubbo stuck out his tongue. Pierre just stared at him blankly.
“You are literally proving my point.”
“Hockey team?” Cellbit asked, this team was even more confusing than his own.
Pierre nodded, turning his head away from Tubbo who was now making faces at him, “I used to do hockey with a few others, we stopped and the team split up a while ago.”
“His boyfriend was on our team for a while actually,” Pierre pointed at Bad, who spluttered and turned red.
“He’s not my boyfriend!” He tried to defend.
Cellbit groaned, “Is the boyfriends name Skeppy?” He asked Pierre, getting a response from both Niki and Tubbo instead.
“God fucking Skeppy.” The two said at the same time, pointing at each other accusingly when they realized they had spoke in unison.
Bad scoffed at the two, calming himself down even if the red was still sticking to his face, “He is not my boyfriend.”
“You say that but,” Tubbo gestured to in front of him, “Isn’t he coming to watch you tomorrow?”
“I don’t skate tomorrow.”
Tubbo rolled his eyes, “Ok but he’s coming to watch you at some point, right?
Niki laughed at her friends, “You’re acting like Tina”
“Ok but Tina is, well Tina.” Bad tried to defend himself again, but it wasn’t working. Cellbit didn’t even know what they were talking about and even he knew Bad was losing this battle.
“Actually he’s acting more like Pac.” Tubbo said.
“Pac?” Cellbit spoke before he could even think about it.
“Yeah he’s another dude on our team,” Tubbo shrugged, “He absolutely has a crush on one of the dudes for GGN and he just won’t admit it.”
“He does?”
“It makes me violently homophobic.” Tubbo nodded solemnly.
Cellbit held back a laugh at his comments, choosing to focus on how Niki checked her phone and then stood up and ran off. The others at the table seemed to not understand why she ran off either all looking at each other confused.
“Hey guys, Tina just absolutely ditched me so.” Foolish said, coming up behind where Cellbit and Bad were standing from the other side of the table where he and Tina had been sitting before.
“Yeah Niki just dipped too.” Tubbo said, standing up to do some weird handshake with Foolish.
Glancing around the room Cellbit saw his worst fear, his sister, Jaiden and Baghera all huddled around an empty table with a few other girls whispering. “Oh god.” He muttered.
“What?” Bad looked at him, “What’s wrong?”
Cellbit just pointed at the table, Foolish groaned once he saw Tina over there. “What the fuck are they even doing?”
“Probably scheming, you know how girls be.” Tubbo said, “Hey! Don’t look at me like that! I was joking!”
“Yeah yeah sure,” Foolish teased, leading to the two of them to start arguing over random mundane things.
“Damn you guys really bring out the worst in Foolish huh?” Cellbit said, staring at the two boys who were now waving their fingers in each other's faces.
Bad shrugged, “I don’t know why but he’s so easy to argue with.” He chuckled, “Plus it's fun.”
Pierre stood up and stretched, “Ok you guys are weird, I’m going to talk to Etoiles. See ya!”
Pierre walked away, heading over to where Cellbit thought the GGN table was, leaving Cellbit and Bad to just watch the argument that was still happening between Tubbo and Foolish. It turned into a fight about a diamond? Cellbit couldn’t really tell anymore.
He was just happy to be there to be honest.
Notes:
ok a few things: 1)i have to turn in my computer in like a week and a half and im going to go crazy 😭 i write on this thing!!!
2) this has officially gotten to over 100 pages on my google docs 😭
3) do you guys think i should add like chapter titles? i haven’t been doing it cuz idk what to say but i was thinking maybe once im a little bit more confident i could add like a song that fits the vibe of the chapter as the title? would you guys like that or do we like the regular “chapter 7” stuff!as always thank you so much for reading and commenting it really makes my day :,)
Chapter 13
Summary:
“Why aren’t you attacking me? Aren’t you the same rabid dog you always were?”
Cellbit winced at that, hissing through his teeth, “Ouch Mikey, that one hurt.”
Cellbit tried not to be surprised when the silence after he spoke was cut with a quiet, muttered, “Sorry.” He didn’t think Mike would apologize for saying that, Cellbit didn’t deserve an apology in his mind and Cellbit agreed with him.
Notes:
1. reminder, Cellbo is an unreliable narrator
2. Cellbit thinks everyone’s hates him do not take what he thinks as fact lmao
3. i’m going crazy ao3 let me post my fic without any weird wording please
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The rest of the “team” outing went similarly, they would all collectively meet up at their table, talk a little and then someone else would come up and they’d all run away. The only time the entire team of Bolas was near each other was when their food came and their checks came with it, leaving them to figure out who was paying for what and who was sharing with someone else. Cellbit ended up splitting his check with Baghera since they ended up sharing food, each eating half of the other's plate before they took back their own meal. Phil covered Charlie's meal with the promise that he would pay him back because he was off talking to one of his other friends when the checks had to be collected.
Bolas ended up having to leave first, Phoenix and Cyrstal calling for them to leave randomly without any explanation. Phoenix looked extremely angry, like she was holding back yelling at the group, when she had come up to them with their waiter, telling them to ask for their checks. Crystal also looked nervous, like someone had told her something that made her want to get out. They looked the way Cellbit saw himself in the mirror. That was the most concerning part. Cellbit knew the rest of the team saw themselves in the reactions as well with how quick they each packed up and got out of the restaurant.
As they were leaving, Baghera suddenly gasped. “Shit! I left my phone in there!”
She turned and ran back into the restaurant leaving the group to stand there, trying to think of what to do next. Phoenix groaned, anger barely contained in her voice when she spoke, “Cellbit, you stay here and wait for her. The rest of you let’s go.”
She turned away sharply and sped off towards where the van they had come in was parked. Her sister ran off as well, chasing her through the dark parking lot. The rest of the team followed the two, anxiously turning back between Cellbit, their friend and their coach, someone who had authority over them. Cellbit didn’t move frozen by the order he was given. He was nothing if not a follower, even if he would have waited for Baghera without being told to.
Phil lagged behind, farther than he usually did. He was always the one walking behind the group, keeping track of the rest of them. He gave Cellbit a glance, eyes searching his face to confirm that Cellbit didn’t mind being left behind. Cellbit got deja vu from earlier in the dinner, when the exact same thing had happened, only under his own violation instead of being told to stay behind. He smiled at Phil, a small one, but confirmation that he was ok. Phil stared at his face a little more before turning away from his friend and walking into the darkness.
Cellbit found a bench that was off to the side of the front door of the restaurant, sitting down and just enjoying the cool air of the night. It was a weird day but he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would. Cellbit a few years ago would have already gone crazy and punched a few walls if his idea of what the day was supposed to be that he was so used to was thrown upside down like it was today. That made Cellbits heart feel a little lighter as he went back through the day.
A voice broke the silence, dull and annoyed, “I don’t like you, you know.”
Cellbit whipped his head around at the voice, seeing another piece of his past. The pink hair was new but the eyes glaring down at him through glasses were something that he could never forget. He could feel the anger rising in his chest when the two of them made eye contact, but he couldn’t bring himself to listen to it. He was tired and it was late. Getting angry would get him nowhere, plus he was fine where he was right now.
Mike stared down at him with his arms crossed against his chest. He was also dressed up like the rest of the skaters, wearing a green button up with a white jacket that matched his pants on top. Cellbit may not like him but he commended him for deciding to wear white to a dinner.
“Hi Mike.”
Mike's posture stiffened, did he not think Cellbit would actually respond? Did he expect Cellbit to start yelling or something? It was like 8 Pm and Cellbit was tired. Why would he do that? Did he think that low of Cellbit?
“I don’t like you.” Was all Mike said.
“I know,” Cellbit turned away from him, staring back into the empty parking lot, “You said that.”
“Bagi thinks you’ve changed.” Cellbit chucked a little bit, of course his sister wanted to give him a second chance, “I don’t think you have.”
Cellbit sighed, memories of what Phil and Foolish had told him earlier running through his head. He was tired, he just wanted to go to bed at this point, “I was 11 Mike. I was a kid.”
“You hurt him.”
“He hurt me.” Cellbit shrugged, still not looking back at Mike, knowing he was probably glaring holes into the back of his skull.
“Didn’t the two of you make a promise to be on each other's teams no matter what,” Cellbit heard the rustle of fabric behind him, “What happened to that?”
“Shut up. People grow. He got on Soulfire and I couldn’t have been prouder.” Mike sounded like he was forcing the words out of his mouth, biting back the anger.
“Exactly. People grow Mike. You have pink hair now, you’ve changed too.”
“Prank gone wrong.” Was all Mike gave Cellbit.
“Do the two of you still prank each other every competition?” The hum that came from behind Cellbit confirmed it to him. It was a tradition Pac and Mike had started when they were younger, they had gotten Cellbit and Bagi in on it to be their accomplices whenever the four were at the same competition. It was weirdly comforting that Pac was still pranking Mike like he had when they were younger.
“Why aren’t you attacking me? Aren’t you the same rabid dog you always were?”
Cellbit winced at that, hissing through his teeth, “Ouch Mikey, that one hurt.”
Cellbit tried not to be surprised when the silence after he spoke was cut with a quiet, muttered, “Sorry.” He didn’t think Mike would apologize for saying that, Cellbit didn’t deserve an apology in his mind and Cellbit agreed with him.
“He wants to be friends again…” Cellbit had to strain his ears to listen to the pink haired boy talk.
The silence hung between them, heavy as it always had been. Mike and Cellbit had always been the least close of their little group, getting into more arguments than probably was necessary. Whenever they had their little moments of clarity they worked together great but those times were very far and few inbetween when they were younger. Someone once joked that they were more like siblings who hated each other than real friends and both of them had gotten so offended they didn’t talk to the kid that said that for 3 weeks out of spite. That was one of the things they did well together, petty behavior in response to something they didn’t like. Cellbit wondered if, in a different life, they could have been real friends when they were younger. They had similar personalities, similar takes on life, and both protected their “sibling” with their life. But that never happened, they just fought, smiled politely at each other, got along when they were forced to and that was it. Now they’re here. Not looking at each other and neither of them talking.
Cellbit was tired of avoiding his past at this point, he thought he was going to be fine at this competition. He wouldn’t see any of those figures that haunted his nightmares and he would just have a good time with his friends. Just like the rest of the competitions he's been to since he left. He just wanted it to be over with, whether that means that he finally faced Pac and apologized, or he confirmed everyone hated him and he could go back to his normal life. He missed his childhood friends, sure, they spent 3 years together. Pac and Mike lived down the street from Cellbit and Bagi, every summer was spent running back and forth between their houses and the pool. Even when Mike and Cellbit would argue every 30 minutes, the group never stopped hanging out. Of course he missed his friends. He missed his sister. He missed Pac and his rants about anything. He missed Mike too, even if he didn’t want to admit it. Even if missing them made him angry.
“Do you hate me?” Cellbit couldn’t even hear his own voice.
Mike sighed behind him, “Not really.”
“I don’t like you, but- I don’t know. I don’t hate you.”
Cellbit couldn’t believe his ears, this was stupid. How could he say he doesn’t hate Cellbit but then turn around and say he didn’t like him. No one made any sense and he tried to be calm about it but it was stupid. He was saying all the right things, he was avoiding everyone like his mom told him to. She told him it would be ok, that they already hated him so he didn’t need to worry about them popping up again. They were supposed to avoid him. Why weren’t they avoiding him? He didn’t want to be as angry as they knew him as but everytime he was. He was what Mike called him earlier, a rabid dog. He stood up and faced Mike, fists balled like he was going to punch the pink haired boy. He wanted to. God did he want to.
Cellbit groaned, “None of you make any sense! I can’t stand it!”
He tried not to claw at his arms, closing his eyes and trying to breathe. Phil always told him to breathe. He knew Mike couldn’t see the storm inside his head, he was always too good at hiding it. He turned and finally looked Mike in the eyes, staring down at him like they always had. Though there was something off about them this time, they looked conflicted. Not angry, not frustrated, not annoyed. Just, conflicted. Like he was fighting himself the same way Cellbit was.
The two stared at each other, not talking. Just looking. Cellbit didn’t know how long they stood there staring into each other's eyes, trying to figure out what the other one was trying to say. Neither of them were good with words, even when they were younger. It was just how the two of them were, even if it led to fights over badly worded agreements that Bagi and Pac had to step in for. But there was no Bagi or Pac here right now. It was just them and their lack of words. If Cellbit wasn’t locked in this staring contest he would have chucked at his own lack of communication skills. He had gotten better at talking to people since joining Bolas, you had to with the amount of extraverts and people the other members knew. But he was still terrible at it.
“Sorry Cell! Got caught up with some of my friends!” Baghera laughed as she walked out the door, holding her phone up.
Oh right, that’s what they were still here for. How long had it been since the two of them were left behind? Was their team still there? Cellbit hoped they were, he knew Phil wouldn’t let them leave without him and Baghera, but the worry was still there.
“Oh hey, Mike right?” Baghera stuck her hand out, unaware of what had just happened between Cellbit and Mike.
Mike glanced at Cellbit before taking her hand, “Yeah, you’re friends with Quackity right?”
Baghera nodded, “Yep! We actually grew up together!”
“Oh really?” Mike looked like he wanted to get out of the conversation, Cellbit felt the same, “That’s cool.”
“Yeah, he’s just as annoying as he used to be, went off on a rant about some random kid on Soulfire.”
Mike just hummed in agreement, looking at Cellbit for help but Cellbit just smiled at him. It was his turn to be put into an awkward situation. Cellbit laughed quietly.
“Hey Bags,” Cellbit called to get his friend's attention, “the rest of the team is waiting for us. We gotta go.”
“Oh shit! You’re right!” Baghera checked her jacket's pockets, confirming she had everything before she ran over to Cellbit.
“Bye Quackitys friend!” She waved before she dragged Cellbit through the parking lot, trying to find the van in which their team was waiting for them.
Once they found the van Phil was sitting outside it, anxiously sitting on the curb waiting for them. His foot was tapping the ground in an offbeat manner, his eyes looked around like he was searching for something. Cellbit immediately felt bad for not texting him and he could tell from the way Baghera gripped his hand she felt bad too.
As they got closer Baghera got down on Phils level and waved her hand in front of the probably dissociated man. “Hey Phil, sorry I got distracted.”
Phil's eyes cleared once he realized both Cellbit and Baghera were in front of him, looking both of them up and down, checking them over for injuries. Once he confirmed to himself nothing he was wrong and he knew all his teammates were all ok, he got up and smacked the two over the head.
“What the fuck!” He growled, “You could have at least texted!”
Cellbit and Baghera looked down at the ground as Phil started to berate them about not calling or texting him about where they were. “You were gone for 30 minutes!”
“Sorry Phil.” The two said in unison, not having the strength to look their team captain in the eyes.
“Cellbit you had your phone on you,” Cellbit sucked in a breath, knowing what was coming next. “I’m disappointed.”
No matter how many times Phil had to say that it hurt every single time he did. It was one of those things that just hurt your soul and made you feel terrible for stepping out of line. Cellbits own father was never able to get those emotions out of him whenever he said he was disappointed in Cellbit, even when he was younger and would kill for attention from his father. Phil just hit different, as both the team leader, and their friend. He just wanted them to be ok and Cellbit let him down.
“I’m sorry…” He whispered, hoping that Phil picked up on what he said.
“...Yeah me too,” Baghera muttered, grabbing Cellbits hand in support. “I should have checked the time.”
Phil sighed, “Thank you saying sorry you two.”
He pulled them into a hug and both of them felt their team captain's worries fall away when he could feel that both of them were real and tangible. Phil wouldn’t forgive them until later, but that was ok. They would get a text right before they went to bed saying that he forgave them and to not do it again. He always did that. It was a pattern Bolas expected and if he waited for longer than a day Phil was really disappointed in you and you should probably apologize again. Or buy him food. Sometimes you had to bribe him, but they all knew it was just because he cared for them. He’d done the same for Chayanne and Lullah when they got in trouble at home, Cellbit had seen them both run to apologize after they dropped a plastic cup at the teams New Years Eve party last year.
Phil pulled away, leaving his hands on both of their shoulders, “Now Phoenix is going to be extremely angry because you two took too long, if you want to talk text the group chat and do not speak out loud.”
Baghera and Cellbit nodded, already shutting their mouths down so they wouldn’t break the rules that had just been set for them. Once he made sure they both understood, Phil pulled open the door to the van. Complete silence waited for them, just like Phil had said.
“Baghera got caught up with Elena and she wouldn’t let her leave.” Phil lied as the three of them climbed in.
Phoenix rolled her eyes, “Of course she did. Fucking Elena.”
Crystal patted her sister's shoulder, “She’s just a talkative person, she’s not trying to do anything bad.”
“Whatever. She should know better to mess with my students.” Phoenix hissed.
Crystal turned the car on, not looking at her sister as she did so, “Let’s just go back to the hotel, we can talk more there.”
The team started on their journey, the members exchanging glances with each other before pulling out their phones.
BolasBolasBolasBolas
Members: Phil-CrowFather, Jaiden- Jaidenstune Miku, Charlie-Malewife, Foolish- Smiley, Cellbit-Cellbo, Baghera-Quacki
9:57 PM
Jaidenstune Miku: SO WAHT THE FUCK HAPPENED
Malewife: ARE YOU GUYS OK???
Smiley: DID YOU ACTUALLY GET CAUGHT UP WITH ELENA OR WAS THAT A PHIL THING
Quacki: the elena thing was phils idea
Quacki: i got distracted talking with quackity T^T
Jaidenstune Miku: of course you did lmao
Quacki: HE WAS TELLING ME ABOUT HIS NEW CRUSH
Smiley: but cellbit was with you right????
Smiley: why didn’t he come get you????
Cellbo: someone was talking to me
Cellbo: didn’t notice the time
CrowFather: who were you even talking to?
Cellbo: Mike
Cellbo: hes on GGN
Cellbo: used to be on my old team
Cellbo: wanted to catch up
Smiley: hmmmm
Smiley: just catch up or????
Cellbo: uh
Cellbo: it was a weird conversation
Cellbo: but i guess we caught up
CrowFather: ok…
CrowFather: i will be asking you about this later
CrowFather: but i am so tired
Malewife: from what???
Malewife: flirting with your husband the whole time????
CrowFather: not my husband
Malewife: mhm sureeeeeeeee
CrowFather: i have a girlfriend
Quacki: you have two hands
CrowFather: y'all are so weird
Jaidenstune Miku: WE GOT HIM TO SAY YALL LETS GOOO
CrowFather: I SAY IT ALL THE TIME????
Jaidenstune Miku: AMERICA WINNNNNNN
Smiley: RAHHHHHHHHH
Malewife: RAHHHHHHH
CrowFather: i hate you
CrowFather: you move to america from the uk one time
CrowFather: and suddenly youre the british guy
Malewife: that’s because you are
Malewife: Cellbo is the brazil guy
Cellbo: COME TO BRAZIL
Malewife: Baghera is the french guy
Quacki: je suis plus cool que vous les gars
Malewife: and youre the british guy
Malewife: carre is also the spanish guy but hes not here
Jaidenstune Miku: rip carre you were a real one
Jaidenstune Miku: sometimes i can still hear his voice
CrowFather: he’s not dead you guys just don't respond to the instagram groupchat
Jaidenstune Miku: i miss him every day
CrowFather: oh my god
CrowFather: before i forget
CrowFather: baghera and jaiden you two skate tomorrow
CrowFather: your practice is early and also separate
CrowFather: you two skate at 8:45 am
CrowFather: charlie i see you typing yes we all have to be there
Malewife: RATS
Quacki: :0
Quacki: RUDE
Quacki: I SEE HOW IT IS YOU JUST HATE ME
Quacki: DON'T EVEN WANT TO SUPPORT ME
Malewife: WAIT NO OF COURSE I WANT TO COME SEE YOU
Malewife: I JUST DONT WANT TO HAVE TO GO TO THE COLD RINK AT 4 AM
Quacki: thats fair neither do i tbh
CrowFather: ANYWAYS
CrowFather: Jaiden you’re second and Baghera you’re third
CrowFather: Cellbit since you are currently in trouble with me
CrowFather: you’re going with Jaiden and Baghera to practice
Cellbo: blehhhhhhhh
Cellbo: fineeeeeeeeeee
Smiley: yes!!!!
Smiley: i dont have to gooooooooo~~~~~~
CrowFather: whatever
CrowFather: we’re pulling up to the hotel right now
CrowFather: get out quick and avoid Phoenix
CrowFather: she’s still pissed i can sense it
CrowFather: just go straight to bed and ill see you all in the morning :)
Cellbo: awww dad DOES love us
CrowFather: shut up
Malewife: nvm he doesn’t
Notes:
the way we’ve officially hit novel territory is crazy- this is a minecraft fanfiction 😭
(btw if you want extra behind the scenes or just a collection of memes that i made for this fic follow me on tumblr! i talk about this fic a lot lmaoooo)
Chapter 14
Summary:
Cellbit opened the door holding the key and Charlie's skate bag, “Yeah I know, how far down the hall did you make it?”
Charlie sighed, taking his stuff from Cellbits hands, “I made it halfway down the hall.”
“Called it.”
“I will throw another thing at you.” Charlie glared at Cellbit. “I don’t know what it will be but I will throw something at you.”
Notes:
hey guys! sorry this took so long- i ran out of adhd meds and i think ive gone actually crazy- 😭
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Cellbits alarm went off a little earlier than Charlies, he had set it so he could get up and take a shower without dealing with Charlie whining about having to be awake. He dragged himself out of bed as per usual with these early competition mornings, even if he woke up super early regularly it was a struggle for some reason at competitions.
Yawning, he stretched and went over his list of what he had to do before he got up. First thing on the list was sending a quick message back to Phil who was checking to make sure he was awake. Phil had apologized for getting upset right before they went to bed but Cellbit still felt bad. He was still fighting the urge to send Phil another apology. Deciding against it, Cellbit checked the next thing on his list, making sure that everything he needed for his own program was packed up and ready to go. Since he was going with Jaiden and Baghera to their own practice he was going to have a shorter amount of time to get ready and if he forgot anything he wouldn’t be able to go back to get anything like the others would be able to. His outfit was already folded away in his bag, put there by himself last night after they had gotten back to the hotel, but his makeup and stuff that he usually used was still in Jaiden and Bagheras room. He would have to go to their room and get whatever he left behind, hopefully he wouldn’t have to fight Jaiden over whose eyeliner was whose again.
He grabbed his competition uniform, a tight black long-sleeved shirt and slightly baggy black pants with the Bolas logo on the side of them, and took a quick shower, making sure his hair wasn’t greasy so it could be easily styled by Phil later. Phil and Foolish were usually the only two people that could deal with Cellbits weird amount of layers and his hair length, each of them having to either deal with it for themselves in Foolishs case, or having to do it on other people all the time in Phils case. Lullah had recently cut her hair to the same style that Chayanne has and Phil had to relearn how to style her hair for school everyday.
As he stepped out of the shower he could hear Charlie rummaging around in his own bags, looking for whatever. He must have woken up while Cellbit was in the shower because Cellbit didn’t hear his alarm going off. Maybe that was just because Cellbit himself was still half asleep and very out of it due to the warm water making him tired again. He went over to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face to wake him up again. He shook his head to restart his brain, wet hair hitting the sides of his face aiding in his effort to wake himself up.
He quickly put his clothes on before walking out to where Charlie was currently laying on his stomach on his bed. “Hey can I dry my hair or are you going to try to go back to bed?”
Charlie looked up at him, squinting because he wasn’t wearing his glasses, “You can dry your hair, I can’t see you but I’m pretty sure you look like a fucking wet cat.”
“You can’t see me but I’m flipping you off right now.”
“Cool thanks, go away.” Cellbit flipped him off with both hands before returning to the bathroom, pulling out the hairdryer. He tried not to look at himself in the mirror but he caught his dead eyes and winced. He forgot how fucked up he looked when he first woke up, it was something about then way he looked like a corpse early in the morning. He never could tell if it was just him or if it was what everyone else saw but he swore his cheeks were not usually this hollow. Maybe Bagheras jokes about how he was turning into a ghost were right.
He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “God dammit it’s too early for self loathing.” He cursed.
Ignoring his thoughts telling him he should keep questioning his looks in the mirror, Cellbit began the tedious process of drying his hair. His hair wasn’t extremely long, stopping right before it hit his shoulders or so, but it was thick. It took forever to air dry and Cellbit looked like a wet cat whenever he left it wet for too long. The layers he had that stuck out when they dried naturally faster than the rest of his haircut didn’t help either. His hair was easy to dry now after years of learning how to dry it the fastest he could, but it was still one of the most annoying things about his hair.
He was done in record time and stared at himself in the mirror again. Ok maybe his hair was a little too poofy now but it was still only like, 6 AM. It would flatten throughout the day, he should be fine. He quickly cleaned the bathroom back up, not wanting to leave it messy for anyone who came in after him. His mom always said you wanted to make it look like no one had been there, as if you were a ghost. Maybe that’s where his weirdness about his face in the morning came from. Whatever, that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting down to the lobby on time.
Opening the door to the bathroom Cellbit stepped out to see Charlie half asleep on the floor, yet again. Cellbit huffed a laugh, of course his friend made it to his skate bag and fell asleep. Stepping over him, Cellbit went to his own skate bag that was left in the corner next to his duffel bag. Opening it up he made sure his own program outfit was there, along with everything else he needed. Even in the dark he could see the sparkle of his outfit shining in the void that was his skate bag.
Digging through his duffel bag, he grabbed a random sweatshirt to bring. Someone always forgot one and depending on the time, the rink would either be extremely cold or just regular cold. Foolish one of the main ones to forget to bring on, too excited and over packing for anything any of his team members might need and forgetting to think about himself. Bolas always took care of each other, even if they forgot to take care of themselves in the process. Most of their clothes fit at least half of the team, closets got mixed together and clothes got lost. (There was once a time where Jaiden accidentally took Cellbits school uniform and Cellbit got detention for not wearing the uniform. Cellbit still doesn’t know how she found that shirt comfortable, it was a scratchy weird fitting polo with the Watcher Academy logo on the left side. When Baghera found out the two of them made fun of her for 3 days afterwards.)
Cellbit went over his list in his head again, making sure he got everything for the day. Portable charger, jacket, skates, makeup, the list went on. Cellbit stood up and stretched, wincing when he heard his back pop loudly.
“Was that your back?” Charlie muttered from his spot on the floor. “Jesus Christ man.”
Cellbit shrugged, “Too many bones.”
“Also Phil is asking if everyone is up and ready yet.” Cellbit saw Charlie squint at his phone, still not wearing his glasses.
Cellbit pulled out his phone to respond to his captain, getting hit in the face with the chaos of his team instead.
BolasBolasBolas
Jaidenstune Miku- Jaiden, CrowFather-Phil, Malewife-Charlie, Smiley-Foolish, Quacki-Baghera, Cellbo-Cellbit
6:33 AM
CrowFather: @Jaidenstune Miku @Quacki UP UP UP ITS COMP DAY FOR YOU 2
CrowFather: YOU TWO BETTER BE READY AND NOT HALF READY AND ASLEEP ON THE FLOOR
Quacki: LET ME SLEEP
Jaidenstune Miku: WHYYYYYYYYY
Cellbo: i'm getting flashbacks to trying to wake up charlie and foolish last year
Malewife: I SAID I WAS SORRY
Cellbo: YOU THREW THE HOTEL ALARM CLOCK AT ME
“I said sorry!” Charlie threw a pillow across the room at Cellbits face.
“You just threw more shit at me!”
Smiley: i didn't do shit what are you talking about
CrowFather: you complained for the entire bus ride to the rink
CrowFather: it was horrible
Smiley: no regrets i hate the cold
CrowFather: YOU'RE A FIGURE SKATER
Smiley: I DON'T LIKE THE COLD PHILZA
Quacki: blah blah blah
Quacki: one of you go check if hotel breakfast is open
Quacki: i want apple juice
Jaidenstune Miku: i want pancakes
Malewife: should i go for the bit
Quacki: what fucking bit i want apple juice
Malewife: my name dumbass
Quacki: WIFE FETCH ME SOME APPLE JUICE
Malewife: RIGHT AWAY HUSBAND
Jaidenstune Miku: I STILL WANT PANCAKES
Malewife: RIGHT AWAY SECOND HUSBAND
Jaidenstune Miku: ew no i'm not marrying you
Jaidenstune Miku: you threw an egg at me 3 weeks ago
Malewife: yeah fair
Malewife: brb tho
Malewife: you want anything else while i'm there bags?
Malewife: or just apple juice
Quacki: just apple juice i saw a stand with food at practice yesterday
Malewife: got it o7
Charlie finally got up off the floor, stretching when he stood. He walked over to where he had thrown his glasses the night before and put them on. Cellbit could physically see his eyes clear as his vision was no longer blurry.
“Do you want anything?” He asked as he dug around in his bag for his wallet.
Cellbit shook his head, “Not really, if there's any energy drinks get me one but otherwise I’m fine.”
“Any particular flavor or just anything?”
“Monster if they have it, the black and green one over the white one.” Cellbit shrugged, “Those are the only two most hotels have.”
“You got it boss!” Charlie said in one of his many voices, giving Cellbit a thumbs up as he did it.
Cellbit rolled his eyes, a smile on his face, “I’ll pay you back if you get me anything.”
Charlie just threw another thumbs up as he left the room. Once the door shut Cellbit was to go back to making sure he had everything he needed when he saw a room key on the desk. Cellbit checked his pockets Cellbit paused, feeling his own room key. Meaning that the one currently on the desk was Charlies. Cellbit laughed, and began waiting for the knock telling him Charlie left his room key on the desk.
A few seconds passed before the knock came and Cellbit laughed, picking up the room key his friend had left behind. Grabbing Charlie's skate bag for good measure. Knowing him he was going to get distracted and be down in the lobby until the rest of the team was heading down there to leave. For good measure he unplugged Charlie's charger and threw it into his bag.
Cellbit opened the door holding the key and Charlie's skate bag, “Yeah I know, how far down the hall did you make it?”
Charlie sighed, taking his stuff from Cellbits hands, “I made it halfway down the hall.”
“Called it.”
“I will throw another thing at you.” Charlie glared at Cellbit. “I don’t know what it will be but I will throw something at you.”
Cellbits phone buzzed in his pocket, drawing his attention away from the standoff he was having with his roommate. It was Baghera asking for him to braid her hair.
“Baghera?” Charlie asked, knowing his friends too well to not know the patterns they always seemed to follow.
Cellbit nodded, “She needs me to braid her hair.”
Everyone knew Baghera was perfectly capable of braiding her own hair, she was even the one who taught Charlie a few years ago. She just preferred it when anyone else did her hair, even when they all fucked it up and had to redo it a couple times to get it perfect. Foolish and her once spent the entirety of a bus ride teaching each other different braiding techniques. Foolish’s younger sister had recently forced him to learn a difficult braid for her first school dance and Baghera wanted to know how to do it as well. Cellbit was usually the one she called for competition braids, he learned how to do them really young from an old coach who used to make fun of Bagis hair being “unruly” and not “professional enough”. (Cellbit still thought that was stupid, even now. Not shit a 9 year old is “unprofessional”. They’re 9.)
“Damn you fuck up a braid once and she never asks you do it again.” Charlie lamented.
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “You braided her hair like, last week.”
“Semantics.” Charlie waved his hand in front of Cellbits face.
“Just go get their food dumbass.” Cellbit pushed Charlie out the door, letting it close before his friend could respond. He turned and grabbed his own skate bag, stopping by the bathroom to grab the extra hair ties that he had left on the counter after his shower. Doing one more check of his list and making sure he had everything he needed, including his own roomkey.
Leaving his room, he couldn’t help but do a double take up and down the hallway. The ghosts of his past apparently haunted these halls without him knowing and he didn’t know if he could handle throwing his entire day off again. Cellbit let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding once he confirmed there was know one else in the hallway besides himself. Even if he was on ok terms with his sister now, he wouldn’t be able to react like a regular human being if he saw Pac or Mike in the hallway.
Walking down the hallway to where Baghera and Jaidens room was, he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle when he heard faint music playing through the door. It was some Miku song that Jaiden had shown them a while ago, it was one of those ones that sounded happy but was apparently extremely sad. Jaiden could be heard singing along and Cellbit could almost see her dancing around to one of the many versions of the choreo of the song. (Cellbit didn’t understand how a robot could have so many different versions of the dance to one song but every time Jaiden had gone into detail about how it works it went completely over his head. He no longer questioned the “Great Hatsune Miku.”)
Cellbit knocked on the door, only having to wait for a little bit before Baghera opened the door for him. “Thank god! I can’t get my hair right and it’s driving me insane!”
“Good morning to you too.” She rolled her eyes at him and dragged him inside their hotel room. The music was louder inside the room, and Cellbit could see Jaiden singing to herself while she did her makeup in the mirror. The room itself was an absolute mess, skating clothes everywhere, brushes on the bed, just overall insanely chaotic. Cellbit could almost hear his mother yelling at him in his head. Something about the mess being a dangerous issue if someone was to walk in the house. She was always concerned about others' opinions on her and her house.
“Am I putting the braid into the bun or braid into a ponytail?” He asked as he set his own stuff down by the door.
Baghera turned, messing with her hair that was currently straightened if the iron on the counter said anything. “I was thinking two french braids into a bun? Since this is the artistic program I can do more.”
Cellbit nodded, “Yeah I can do that.”
“Morning Cell!” Jaiden called as he walked past the nook the bathroom and mirror was in. He waved back, noticing her eyeliner was the one with the red sticker on the bottom of it.
Baghera sat on the floor in front of a chair, holding a container of gel that was usually used to keep hair in place. Cellbit also had to use it, but a lot less than the girls had to. It was a weird double standard but neither Jaiden or Baghera seemed to mind anymore, they had gotten used to their hair being so slicked back it couldn’t move.
Cellbit couldn't find the hairspray he needed as he looked around the chaotic room. “Where's your hairspray?”
“I have it, sorry!” Jaiden called, running out to give Cellbit the bright yellow bottle.
“Thanks Jai!” He smiled at her, “Like the makeup by the way.”
Jaidens makeup was the signature Bolas red with her own twist on it. It was just as sparkly as Bagheras makeup but it had more black around the edges, smudging out to give her a death stare without trying. She smiled at him, full teeth on display. She was missing lipstick but Cellbit knew she was saving it for when Charlie got her the food she had asked for.
“Thanks!” She chirped before turning and going back to where she was finishing her eyeliner.
“Cellbo! Hair! We’re on a time limit!” Baghera called from the floor, snapping to get her friend's attention as she spoke.
Cellbit sighed, “Yeah, yeah I know.”
He began braiding her hair, listening to her rant about whatever she wanted. Currently it was about the “egg incident” that had happened between her and Charlie a few weeks ago. Baghera was somehow able to keep her head still even when she was talking, something that must have been trained into her since she was little. The braids didn’t take too long, slicking them back and making sure they stayed without any flyaways was the biggest problem. He struggled with it with his own hair and it was much shorter than Bagheras so it took longer to get to the standard he usually held himself to for hair.
Once he finished her hair was completely held back as much as Cellbit could get it without sewing her bun into her head, Crystal would do that later once they reached the rink.
“Done.” He said, smacking his hands on the sides of her head to make her stand up.
“Hey!” She quickly stood up, glaring at her friend, “Fuck you too.”
Cellbit just blinked his eyes at her, giving her the “i’ve done nothing wrong ever” face. She rolled her eyes and went back to where Jaiden was currently sorting out whose makeup was whose. Jaiden high-fived Baghera as they switched spots, Jaiden now changed into her competition dress with sweatpants on top of it. For a sport that took place on the ice, figure skating outfits usually did not do anything to beat the cold. It was common to layer on top of whatever you were wearing and it didn’t just stop at the girls and their dresses they had to wear. Cellbit himself usually wore pants over his skating pants because of how annoying they were.
Jaidens dress matched her makeup, following the rule that Bolas had for their skaters. It was one that Cellbit thought was stupid when he first joined, but he honestly liked the rule a lot now. It kept the group together and made them look a lot more in sync than they really were. All competition outfits had to be red. Occasionally you could have red and black like Jaidens outfit or like Cellbits but the color that took over most of your outfit had to be red. No one really knew who created the rule, Phil said it was already in place when he had joined a year before the rest of them.
Jaiden sat down on the floor with a sigh, laying down like Charlie had earlier. “I wanna go back to bed.”
“Yeah I know,” Cellbit was empathetic, he had to skate early tomorrow and was not looking forward to it, “At least Charlie is getting you breakfast?”
Jaiden groaned, “But I want my pancakes nowwwwwwww.”
“Literally you can go downstairs and get them yourself right now.”
“But I don’t wannnaaaaaaa.” Jaiden was now laying on her stomach, face down on the floor. Cellbit just hoped she didn’t ruin her makeup. Or her hair. Jaiden didn’t have her hair in a bun like Baghera did but it was pulled into a slick back ponytail that was curled at the ends. Cellbit could see the gel that was holding her hair in place shine in the dim light of the hotel room if he looked close enough. He made a note in his head to sneak the hair stuff into his skate bag before they leave for the rink. If the rest of the day was going to be like this, at least Slime and Foolish are going to touch their hair when they weren't supposed to and mess it up.
“Text Slime then.” Cellbit shrugged, “Ask him to bring your food up.”
“Also don’t mess up your hair.”
Jaiden glared at him from the floor, “Ok, Pheonix fuck off.”
Cellbit rolled his eyes at his friend before he stood up, “I’m going to go get food, you two should be down stairs soon.”
Jaiden threw him a thumbs up similar to the one Charlie gave him yesterday before collapsing on the floor and laying as still as a board. If Cellbit didn’t know any better he’d think she was dead. Jaiden was very good at playing dead, for absolutely no reason. She was just good at it. Someday she’s going to trick them into thinking she was actually dead.
Cellbit shook his head, grabbing the can of hairspray off the counter and shoving it into his skate bag. He walked over to where Baghera was finishing up her makeup, her iconic sparkle all over the counter from where she probably knocked it over earlier if he knew his friend and her habits.
“Hey I’m going to go downstairs, I’ll tell Phoenix her or Crystal need to sew your bun in before practice when I’m down there.”
“Okie!” She chirped, turning back to her makeup with a small wave goodbye.
Cellbit left the room, checking his phone as he headed down the hallway to where the elevator was waiting for him. Scrolling through his instagram he noticed a new account on his following tab. It was Bagi.
Checking the corner of the post, he fought back a laugh. It was her spam account she made when they were 13 and people from their family had found her instagram. Cellbit forgot he even followed the account. She must have blocked him on it after the incident and just unblocked him.
Scrolling through he saw the chaos she had gotten herself into over the years; blurry photos of her and her friends running through the streets at night, photos of her laying face first down on the ice, captions complaining about schoolwork and bad memes her and her friends had made about random inside jokes that Cellbit didn’t understand.
The elevator was empty, as it should be this early in the morning, so Cellbit was free to play the audio of his sister and her friends being crazy outloud. (His headphones were in his bag and it was too much work to get them out.) The videos were always bad quality, the audio spiked in a way that made Cellbit wince more than once, and always featured a certain group of Bagis teammates from what he could tell from her other photos about their competition shenanigans. There were also others that were not from her team that Cellbit assumed were friends from school since they always seemed to be in a classroom whenever their pictures were taken. Cellbit couldn’t help himself from smiling as he watched his sister attempt skateboarding and eating shit on the ground once she fell. He was glad he had her back finally. He saved the post to a folder that hadn’t been touched in years, ‘Bagi Blackmail.’
Notes:
i’m trying to work in more of the chatfic conversations but it is so goddamn annoying because currently i only post on my phone 😭 and ao3 hates that apprently- it’s a struggle lmao
(also ive been watching a bunch of snapcube recently so if you catch any references in later chapters i have no defense lmao)
(also also- as always tell me if those glitchy words are happening again!)
(next chapter features a few characters that have recently shown back up in the cannon! i couldn’t help myself i love them too much!)
Chapter 15
Summary:
Someone at the table in front of Cellbit got up and walked away revealing who his teammate was talking to. Cellbit tried not to roll his eyes, it was Roiers cousin. The guy from the Hotel Lobby. The one Foolish had a crush on. He was using his hand to prop up his head as he leaned on the table, staring at Foolish with a look Cellbit couldn’t decipher in his eyes. There was another person at the table as well, a kid who looked around 8 or 9, around Chayanne's age. The kid was sitting in between Foolish and Roiers cousin, Vegetta if he could remember correctly, staring up at his friend with stars in their eyes.
Notes:
short-ish chapter for now but have some foolishgetta!!!! (i love them)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The lobby was once again quiet, yet it was somehow also busy. There were skaters and their parents walking around half awake around the room, holding plates of food carrying their skate bags with them. Every person Cellbit saw matched him in tired eyes and half awake dragging feet as they stepped. It was like the lobby was full of zombies.
Glancing around he saw a flash of the bright white hoodie Charlie always wore. The three hearts that ran down the sleeve stood out in the crowd of all black uniforms that most of the skaters and their teammates were assigned to wear. He was holding 3 styrofoam boxes that Cellbit assumed was full of the food Jaiden and Baghera had asked for. Charlie was currently standing in line to get drinks and Cellbit looked around to see if he could find any other members of his team or if it was just Charlie downstairs. He probably shouldn’t attempt to go up to Charlie in line in case someone thought he was cutting the line and got mad at him. It was too early to make people hate him. There were a few empty tables around so if he couldn’t find Phil or Foolish he could go sit somewhere for Charlie to find him later. It didn’t help that Phil and Foolish were known for taking a little longer because Phil usually had to check on Lullah and Chayanne and Foolish just followed him most of the time.
Just as he thought, he couldn’t find Phil, but he was surprised to see Foolish sitting in the corner talking to someone he couldn’t see. His hair was messy from sleep but it was slightly more tamed than usual with Foolish putting it in a bun to hide the chaos. Cellbit headed over to where Foolish was sitting, deciding to leave Charlie alone on his mission to get the food for their team.
As he got closer to where his teammate was sitting, he could see Foolish was ranting around something. (Probably architecture knowing him.) His hands were waving around and creating shapes as he attempted to get his point across to whoever he was talking to, still hidden by the table in front of where Foolish was sitting. He noticed Foolish was wearing a hoodie that he had never seen before, he hadn’t bought one recently from Cellbits knowledge since Jaiden hadn’t stolen it and Foolish hadn’t complained about her stealing it to the group chat. The hoodie itself was a dark purple, almost a black, with some type of detailing on the back that Cellbit couldn’t really make out from where he was.
Someone at the table in front of Cellbit got up and walked away revealing who his teammate was talking to. Cellbit tried not to roll his eyes, it was Roiers cousin. The guy from the Hotel Lobby. The one Foolish had a crush on. He was using his hand to prop up his head as he leaned on the table, staring at Foolish with a look Cellbit couldn’t decipher in his eyes. There was another person at the table as well, a kid who looked around 8 or 9, around Chayanne's age. The kid was sitting in between Foolish and Roiers cousin, Vegetta if he could remember correctly, staring up at his friend with stars in their eyes. The kid was wearing a bright red jacket that almost looked too big for them. It was covered in patches and buttons up and down the sleeves, almost as if it was an attempt to match the hoodie Foolish was wearing. (Cellbit was beginning to think it was probably Vegettas. The teen wasn’t wearing a hoodie, just a simple black tank top, and it was almost always cold in the lobby.)
The kid noticed Cellbit before either of the other teens did, pointing at him and saying in a voice that sounded almost annoyed that Cellbit even came close to the 3 of them. “Who are you?”
He couldn’t get mad at the kid, it was understandable. He had the exact same reaction when anyone got too close to him and his friends when they were out together. He just waved at the kid, trying to smile in a way that wouldn’t be creepy and would signal to the kid he wasn’t a threat. The kid still looked suspicious but Foolish finally noticed him and lit up at the sight of his friend.
“Hey Foolish.” He waved at his teammate, who smiled wider.
“Hey Cell!” Foolish gestured to the two people sitting next to him, “This is Leo and her brother Vegetta!”
Vegetta waved shyly at him while Leo didn’t wave at all, still glaring at him. “Hello.”
“Cellbit is one of my teammates! He’s super cool Leo!” Leo didn’t look convinced and turned her attention back to Foolish, sending a glare at Cellbit before falling into Foolish.
“Oh!” Foolish looked surprised at the little kid who had fallen into his lap, arms crossed as she pointedly not looked at Cellbit. Vegetta looked embarrassed, turning bright red right in front of Cellbits eyes.
“Leo! You can’t just do that!” Vegetta looked panicked as he spoke, “I’m sorry she gets really clingy when he’s tired.” He attempted to pull his little sibling out of Foolishs lap but Leo doubled down and wrapped her arms around Foolishs neck, holding on to the teen for dear life. Foolish just laughed and wrapped his arms around the kid, pulling her closer.
“It’s fine, don’t worry.” Foolish smiled at Vegetta, “My younger siblings do this all the time, I don’t mind.”
“Plus,” He turned his attention to Cellbit, giving him a smile that meant he was going to say some shit that Cellbit was going to want to punch him over, “Cellbit does the exact same.”
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “You cling onto your friends once when you’re tired and suddenly you’re clingy.”
(He was lying, he did that all the time. They all did. Carre literally fell asleep on Cellbit's shoulder during practice one time. Foolish and Baghera were always falling asleep on each other whenever they hung out at someone's house. Hell, their most recent sleepover they all fell asleep on top of each other in a big pile on the floor!)
Foolish was aware he was lying, sending him a look before moving past it, “But anyways, Vegetta,” Vegetta looked up as soon as his name was said, staring at Foolish like he was hanging onto every word the boy said.
“Cellbit is on Bolas with me, he’s actually related to Bagi!” Cellbit rolled his eyes, his sister followed him everywhere now.
“Oh really?” Vegetta said, “My cousins on her team.”
Cellbit nodded, “Roier right?”
Vegetta hummed in agreement, “He’s the main reason we’re here right.”
“Do you skate?” Cellbit questioned, he couldn’t remember seeing Vegetta around the rink but he also hated looking at people he didn’t know so he really couldn’t trust himself to know if Vegetta was a skater or not.
Vegetta shook his head, “Not my thing. Leo is though.” He gestured to the kid who was still in Foolish’s lap.
“She’s on Soulfire’s younger team actually!” Vegetta looked so proud as he told Cellbit what team his sibling was on, Cellbit couldn’t even be mad at the fact Leo was a Soulfire kid. He wondered if Leo knew Dapper. The two would probably be friends guessing from what Leo's attitude was.
“Oh really?” Cellbit couldn’t help but wince at the tone of his voice. He didn’t mean for his bias to come through his voice and it was very obvious from the way Foolish glared at him.
Luckily Vegetta didn’t seem to notice, “Yeah! She really likes it there, the team is made up of her friends so she has a lot of fun at the rink.”
Leo sat up, glaring at his brother like he had just betrayed her in the worst way possible. “Don’t you dare call Sunny my friend.”
“Sunny? Like Tubbos little sister?”
Leo nodded, “She’s the worst Mr. Foolish.”
Foolish looked at Vegetta holding back laughter, Cellbit was in the same boat. Vegetta just sighed, looking defeated as his sister sat with her arms crossed. “I thought the two of you made up?”
“Ew! No!” Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh at Leo's offended face.
“Are we talking shit about Tubbo?” Cellbit jumped and turned around in his chair. Charlie had snuck up without any of them noticing, holding a bag that held the original reason Cellbit had come downstairs.
“Charlie! There's kids here!” Foolish hissed, gesturing to Leo who just rolled her eyes.
“I’ve heard worse. Vegetta swears all the time.”
“Leonarda!” Vegetta shushed him.
It didn’t work of course, only got the kid more riled up. Leo threw his arms up in defense, “What! You and Roier call me bad words all the time!”
“I do not!”
“Yes you do! You called me hijo de puta all the time!”
“Leonarda…” Vegetta warned, the look in his eyes effectively shutting up Leo before he was able to yell any louder.
“Sorry.” She mumbled, leaning back into Foolish.
“This is where you guys were!” Jaidens voice broke through the silence that had followed Leo and Vegetta arguing.
Baghera was right behind her, “We were looking for you fucks!”
Cellbit held back his laughter at the defeated look on Foolish’s face, he almost had the exact same expression that Bad had the time Cellbit had cussed him out in Portuguese when he was 10.
“Sorry man.” He tried to sound apologetic but he couldn’t hold the laughter from spilling out when Charlie snorted in his own laughter.
“Yeah right, like you of all people are sorry for swearing.”
Jaiden looked between the group of teenagers and the kid pouting in Foolish’s arms. “I feel like I missed something.”
“Oh hey Vegetta! How are you!” Baghera waved at the back haired boy who just looked extremely confused at this point. Cellbit understood where he was coming from. All of his teammates were insanely good at sneaking up on people and sometimes you just couldn’t tell if they had walked or teleported. That or maybe he was confused on why Baghera and Jaidens makeup looked like they were going to a red carpet at 6:30 in the morning when they were wearing oversized shirts and sweatpants.
“I’m good. How are you guys?”
“Good! We’re good! Looking for Phil right now,” Baghera turned to her teammates, “He said he’s down here somewhere but he didn’t respond to my texts asking him where he was.”
Cellbit shrugged, “Yeah sounds about right.”
“He’s probably somewhere near the front talking to some random person.” Charlie pointed out, “He does know literally everyone ever.”
“He’s a very popular person.” Vegetta commented, “Even I know of him.”
“What!” The Bolas team exclaimed in unison, “How the fuck.”
Vegetta looked around surprised, “Like you said, he knows everyone. He’s friends with Missa.”
Foolish groaned, “Of course it’s Missa.”
“Have we even met Missa before?” Jaiden questioned.
“I mean we’ve talked to him but he’s like…” Charlie leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, “Always busy or something so we’ve never had a team hangout with him.”
“Speaking of team,” Cellbit checked his phone, glancing at the time, “We should probably go catch the bus.”
“Shit.” Jaiden also had her phone out, realizing how little time they had to get to their coaches. “He’s right.”
“Ok we’re going to go find Phil, see you at the front in 5?” Charlie said, face serious in one of his moments of letting his “funny guy” facade fall and taking control. The rest of the team nodded in agreement, sending either a “yep” or a “you got it boss” Charlie's way. Once the entire time answered Charlie grabbed Jaiden and Baghera and the three of them went off to go find their team captain.
“Leo?” Foolish attempted to get the kids attention but it looked like she had fallen asleep. Foolish looked up at Vegetta and sent him an empathetic look. Vegetta just shrugged and grabbed Leo off of Foolishs lap. Somehow the kid didn’t wake up and just settled into Vegettas arms. Foolish began taking off the hoodie that he was wearing, confirming it was Vegettas in Cellbits mind.
“No no, keep it. You were cold.” Vegetta held out of his hand to stop Foolish, Cellbit rolled his eyes.
“Really?” Foolish breathed, eyes wide. Cellbit wanted to leave.
“Yeah you…”Vegetta took a deep breath, “You look good in it.”
With that he picked Leo up and walked away, leaving Cellbit done with his friend and Foolish melting in his seat. Foolish was literally melting, sliding down his seat until he was halfway under the table. His face was bright red.
“He said I looked good!” Foolish cried, slapping his hands over his eyes.
“Yeah he did, you can tell Bags later. We gotta go.” Cellbti sighed, pretending he wasn’t at least a little happy for his friend. In reality he was, Foolish never really talked to any of his crushes in fear they wouldn’t like his personality so Vegetta talking to him and meeting his friends was a really good thing for all of them honestly.
“Shit!” Foolish hopped up off the floor, almost tripping in the process, “You’re right!”
Cellbit laughed at his friend, throwing his arm around his shoulders, “Grab your bag, let's just go.”
Notes:
guys it’s finals week for me rn and i’m going insane- i graduate in like 6 days but noooooooo the minecraft men have to take top priority in my mind 🙄🙄🙄
also i know a lot of skating terms don’t make sense so i think im gonna start explaining a few in my notes lmao!!! but if you’re confused just ask ill always try to get back to you!!!
Chapter 16
Summary:
“What the fuck are you two arguing over now.” Cellbit asked, not even looking at his teammates. Choosing to instead look at the drawings and signatures that were scattered throughout the board. There were a few doodles down closer to the floor that looked like they were done by a kid. A bunch of stars with apples and butterflies going around a name that was half erased. All Cellbit could make out was a P and an M. There was another doodle with ghosts next to a similarly erased name that he couldn’t make out at all.
“Cellbit tell Bags she has to give me the yellow!” Oh right. His teammates.
Notes:
AHHHH THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER THAT WILL BE POST FROM MY SCHOOL MACBOOK AHHHHHHHHH LETS GOOOOOO
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
When Foolish and Cellbit got to the front of the lobby the other three were waiting there with Phil, Baghera making fun of him. According to Charlie, the other 3 had found Phil in the back near a random corner talking with Missa, as they all expected. Phil was showing him pictures and videos of Chayanne playing with his older cousin and the two were just laughing at Chayanne fighting one of Missas friends at elementary school pick up.
Cellbit rolled his eyes, Phil pretended he was better than the rest of them when it came to relationships but he was really just as pathetic. None of them had any really good social skills and it was always the most obvious when they liked someone. Everyone knew Phil liked Missa, the only people who didn’t know were Phil and Missa. Even Phils crush from school knew about the two of them and she thought it was funny.
Foolish immediately jumped into making fun of Phil as soon as Jaiden told him what was going on while the group waited for their couch, who was not where they thought she was. Cellbit didn’t participate in this moment, he would later but he was too busy talking to Jaiden about where he would be sitting during her and Bagheras practice.
“It’s in the secondary rink so it shouldn’t be too busy hopefully.” She had pulled up the map on her phone, showing Cellbit where the three of them would be.
“Which one is your locker room?”
“According to the assignments that were sent out earlier,” The two of them made eye contact, both aware that sometimes competition staff switched locker rooms around without telling the skaters, “Me and Bags are in locker room 7 B right now, the one closest to the rink.”
“Ok cool, pull up the tickets for the rink.” Jaiden rolled her eyes at Cellbit.
“Who do you think I am?” Jaiden switched to another tab on her phone, “I already have it pulled up mother fucker.”
Cellbit raised his hands in defeat, “Damn ok, you win.”
The two went over the rink and the best places for Cellbit to sit to keep an eye on Jaiden and Baghera. Because he wasn’t a coach he wasn’t allowed to sit behind the boards which made trying to find a good spot where Jaiden could see Cellbit if she needed to check if he was there a lot harder than it should have been.
“Ok if you sit around…there, you should be able to be in my line of sight.” The spot Jaiden had picked for Cellbit to sit during her and Bagheras practice was extremely close to the boards of the rink.
Cellbit gave her a look, “Isn’t there glass in the way?”
Jaiden shook her head, her hair not moving at all as she did so, “Nope! For some reason this rink has them open.”
“Good morning Bolas!” A cheerful voice called. Crystal strutted over to the team with a huge smile on her face, her sister missing.
“I will be going with you guys to the rink today,” She swung her arms around Phil, who looked confused and a little angry at the women in front of him.
“Where is Phoenix?” He said, voice somehow stable. Cellbit knew if she had tried to do that to him, he would have dug his nails into her arm and ran. Crystal was always too friendly for the type of coach she was. You expected Phoenix to be mean, she looked like she would be mean. Crystal was a wild card. She could say the meanest shit you’ve heard in your life in a way that would make what she said somehow go over your head. She could also just praise you angrily, which confused the team every time that happened. There were times she would give you a comforting hug after a bad program while whispering everything you did wrong and what you needed to fix about yourself while she did it. Yet somehow, she was still the nicer one out of the two in Cellbits opinion. He didn’t know why his teammates always preferred it when it was just Pheonix over Crystal.
“Oh she’s already at the rink! One of her better kids had practice earlier than you two,” She took her arm off Phils shoulders and pointed at Baghera and Jaiden, who just glared at her.
“Love your makeup girls,” She paused, as if she was thinking before jumping right back into her cheerful spiel to the team, “Now I will be driving the van we took last night. We realized it was just easier to keep the van for you guys and let the other kids ride the bus since there's more of them and we pay for the bus per hour.”
Cellbit just leaned on Jaiden and zoned out as Crystal spoke about how the rink worked. He had done his research about it a week before, plus he and Jaiden had just gone over it themselves. He had stalked every skater that had ever skated there's instagram to figure out the layout of the building. Jaiden and Baghera would be practicing in a different rink that the one they skated at yesterday, leaving the threat of random people they didn’t know causing problems for them much higher than it was yesterday. Yet, Cellbit felt calmer about today than he had yesterday. They would be practicing in the official EIP rink today, he had less to worry about with his past jumping out at him without any warning. His past was nicer to him right now sure, but at any moment they could turn on him and he would prefer to keep them at arm's length until he could confirm they didn’t hate him.
Cellbit was brought out of his head with Crystal clapping, “Ok now that we have that settled! Let’s go!”
With that she just walked out of the lobby, leaving the rest of the team to scramble and grab all of their bags so they could catch up with their coach before she faded into the darkness of early morning. There was a scuffle between Charlie and Baghera as they walked out due to them accidentally grabbing each other's bags and neither of them giving back to the correct owner. They only got a few slaps in on each other before Phil took the bags and switched them himself.
“It is too early for your bullshit.” He sighed.
Baghera and Charlie apologized in unison before Charlie pulled out his phones and the two began messing around with filters on his instagram. Cellbit knew at least eight of those dumb photos they were taking would be on his story later. He was just glad neither of them had the login for their official Bolas account. That would have been a disaster. (In reality Cellbit knew both of them could handle themselves in a professional setting, it was just more fun to make fun of them.)
Luckily for them, Bolas was a team that was chaotic enough by themselves that when things randomly happened to them that they hadn’t planned for, they could usually catch up pretty quickly. Crystal was only a few steps ahead of them, reaching the car right before Foolish did.
The team piled into the van, sitting in the same seats they had sat in the night before. This time each of them struggled to keep their skate bags to themselves without hitting the others. Foolish tried his best not to hit Phil in the face with his bag but ended up hitting Cellbit into the window. Cellbit held back a laugh as Foolish apologized like his life depended on it.
“Don’t worry man,” Cellbit attempted to wave Foolish off, “It didn’t hurt, it was just cold.”
Foolish did not sit in his spot next to Jaiden, choosing to kick Baghera out of the seat next to Cellbit. (She didn’t complain. She immediately sat next to Phil and pulled at his hair until he let her braid it.) Foolish grabbed Cellbits face by the jaw, turning it to the left and right to see if there were any marks left over from being hit with Foolishs many pins and charms he had on his skate bag. Cellbit rolled his eyes, he wasn’t lying when he said it didn’t hurt. Foolish continued to look over his face as they began their trip to the rink. Cellbit let him.
People who knew the team joked a lot that they were pack animals, always moving together, never able to go anywhere without the others. Moments like these made Cellbit think in another life it was probably true, with Phil letting Baghera braid his hair even when he wasn’t supposed to do anything with it for competition later. With Cellbit letting Foolish panic check over his face even though he already told him he wasn’t hurt. With Charlie letting Jaiden put her head on his shoulder as he told her about every DND class that could feature her bird. Carre once said during one of their movie nights that if they were in the hunger games they would simply win with the power of friendship. Everyone hit him with pillows because he talked during the movie.
The ride to the rink wasn’t as long as the one yesterday, only taking around 10 minutes compared to yesterdays 30. Foolish had calmed down once he had confirmed Cellbit was not in fact hurt by his bag hitting him in the face and was now telling Cellbit about a weird dream he had last week that he had apparently “forgot to tell them” (He hadn’t. Cellbit just let him tell the story again.) Cellbit had to fight back the weird faces he wanted to make as Foolish described a lava trap that apparently they had built together to trap and kill people on the other teams. He tried not to judge dream him for his choices in defense but he couldn’t help and think dream him was stupid for trying to make a maze without figuring out how to get out of it himself first.
As the van pulled into the parking lot of the EIP Official rink, Cellbit couldn’t help but look out the window in awe. On the outside the rink looked extremely professional, lights and windows decorated the outside of the building in a simple but sleek way. It looked like it was around 3 floors and from the information he had gotten earlier there were at least 2 rinks inside. Cellbit knew at least one of his team members had the layout on their phone somewhere, Cellbit himself wasn’t allowed to have them. He overthought and got too anxious if he got his hands on them. It was probably Phil this time since Foolish had a project for his own class that took up too much storage on his phone. (Foolish had told him during his rant about his dream.) So if he got lost he would just ask Phil. He probably would have done that anyways, all of Bolas usually looked to Phil when they got lost. Even if he had no idea where they were either.
“Ok!” Crystal shut the van off and turned to the team in the back of the van, “Everybody out!”
The team piled out of the van with only a few struggles with hitting each other with their bags and only one person getting caught on the seats when they tried to jump out of the van. (It was Charlie.) Walking into the rink Cellbit tried to fight showing the awe he was feeling on his face. The walls were covered in banners of big name figure skaters who had been there before, with a few hockey players and teams sprinkled in between. The rink itself wasn’t super busy due to the competition not starting for another hour and a half but there was a large chalkboard on wheels a few feet down from the check-in station that was half covered in signatures from teams that had already been at the rink either the day before or had just gotten to the rink like Bolas had. Jaiden and Charlie ran up to the board immediately, grabbing whatever chalk they could find from a bucket on the floor.
Cellbit left them to it, following behind Phil as he tried to convince Crystal to let him go with her to pick up their badges. She looked like she wasn’t having it but Cellbit knew Phil was nothing if not convincing.
“Do you really want to deal with the looks of disgust while they read the team members' names?” Phil raised his eyebrows at Crystal, whose resolve was cracking.
“Phoenix isn’t here to yell at them.” Bringing up her sister was the final nail in the coffin. Crystal cared about reputation, Phoenix did not. It was something all of Bolas knew bothered her, the fact her sister didn’t follow the “rules” of etiquette so to speak.
Crystal sighed, “Fine. You’re the team captain anyways.”
Cellbit looked over at Phil, who was trying not to let his excitement show on his face. “Thank you Coach Crystal.”
Cellbit tried not to laugh as Phil skipped away with Crystal to the check-in table, he always said he had no idea where Lullah and Chayannes love for skipping came from but Cellbit was seeing exactly where it came from in front of him. Phil loved to pretend he wasn’t an amazing brother to his siblings but little things like that proved otherwise.
“Foolish no!” Cellbit sighed when he heard his friend's voice echo throughout the empty hall. He turned to see Baghera and Foolish fighting over a piece of chalk. Cellbit couldn’t see what color it was but he honestly didn’t think it would matter anyways. Jaiden was off on the other side of the chalkboard, focused on drawing something. She was completely unaware of the scuffle going on on the other side of the board. Charlie was just watching Baghera and Foolish, a stupid smile on his face that meant he probably started the fight.
“What the fuck are you two arguing over now.” Cellbit asked, not even looking at his teammates. Choosing to instead look at the drawings and signatures that were scattered throughout the board. There were a few doodles down closer to the floor that looked like they were done by a kid. A bunch of stars with apples and butterflies going around a name that was half erased. All Cellbit could make out was a P and an M. There was another doodle with ghosts next to a similarly erased name that he couldn’t make out at all.
“Cellbit tell Bags she has to give me the yellow!” Oh right. His teammates.
Cellbit turned back to the two arguing, both of them now pouting while Charlie was covering his mouth with a hand trying not to laugh. “You guys are acting like children.”
Baghera rolled her eyes, “Yeah but Foolish is using up the last yellow and I need it!”
“The last yellow?” Cellbit tilted his head to the side, glancing over at the chalk bucket, “There's at least 3 of every color in the bucket.”
He looked back at the chalkboard, analyzing the drawings. There wasn’t enough yellow anywhere on the board that would have worn down the chalk to where only one yellow piece of chalk remained. Cellbit turned back to Charlie, realizing he was hiding one of his arms behind his back.
He rubbed his temples as the dots connected in his mind. “Slime just give them the chalk.”
“Aw rats!” Slime dramatically snapped before taking his hand out from behind his back. He was holding exactly what Cellbit thought, the rest of the yellow chalk.
“Dude!” Baghera and Foolish exclaimed at the same time, grabbing the chalk from his hands.
“And I would have gotten away with it too-”
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “Don’t do it.”
“If it wouldn’t have been for you meddling kids!” Slime's smile was smug, looking down at his friend as he just looked at him disappointed.
“Got the badges!” Phil called as he ran up to them, snapping Jaiden out of her laser focus and bringing their attention to him. He still had the braid Baghera did in his hair. He was holding all of their credentials, the lanyards the only reason they would be allowed to go back into the locker rooms and even the rink itself. The flimsy plastic at the end of each of them contained their name, what team they were on and what level they skated at on the front. Phil began passing them all out, giving Jaiden a look when she reached out for hers and he noticed her chalk covered hands. They were stained teal from whatever she was drawing earlier. She just smiled at him and shrugged, going back to her art once she got her credentials.
Once Cellbit got his own credentials he turned it over to the back, expecting to see the schedule. There was usually a schedule on the back of most of their badges but this time there was just a QR code. Cellbit knew the competition was busy, being Mids and all, but he didn’t realize it was so busy that they couldn’t fit the schedule on the back of the credentials. It didn’t help that the internet was usually terrible in rinks like this so he would have to take a screenshot so he wouldn’t miss anything. He had a few people who he really wanted to watch their programs and if he missed them he would never forgive himself, even if they didn’t know he was watching.
Once Phil had handed out all the credentials he called the entire team over, explaining their plan for the day, “Crystal went to go find Phoenix, she said we’re on our own to find where we’re going to sit in the stands.”
Cellbit and Jaiden shared a look, thank god the two of them studied the layout earlier. Phil continued on, “Jaiden, Baghera and Cellbit will go to find the locker they need to be in, the rest of you guys will come with me. We can explore for food options and see what's open for a little bit, but then we need to find a spot for our bags.”
Everyone nodded or gave a thumbs up in agreement when Phil was finished talking. “Ok now the 3 of you should probably get going.” He pointed at Jaiden, Baghera and Cellbit who were all already going to grab their bags.
“Yeah you're probably right.” Baghera sighed, throwing her bag over her shoulder.
Jaiden began fake pouting at Phil “But Dadddddddd, I wanted to finish my drawing.”
Phil just stared at her, “If your hair wasn’t in a competition bun right now I would have absolutely messed it up.”
With that he shooed them away down the hallway, towards where a security “guard” (probably just a volunteer with a fancy vest) stood in front of a sign that read, “Locker Rooms! Skaters and Coaches Only!”
“Speaking of hair,” Cellbit said as they started walking, “Who sewed you two in?”
“Crystal.” Baghera sighed.
Cellbit winced, “Sorry.”
Jaiden waved him off, “Nah not your fault. She’s just tough with it.”
“I mean they stay the longest.”
“Yeah true, can’t complain then.” Baghera shrugged.
“Credentials?” The security guard asked once they reached where they were standing, giving them a thumbs up and stepping to the side once they showed them.
The locker room hallways were dim, with black rubber floors and dark navy paint running throughout it. Farther down Cellbit could see a bunch of volunteers standing around a table of water bottles. Otherwise it was completely empty.
“Honestly surprised they didn’t question you coming back here with us.” Baghera looked at Cellbit, who just shrugged.
“Eh- They don’t get paid enough to care that much.”
“They don’t get paid at all, Cell.” Jaiden pointed out.
“Exactly.”
The trio walked down the quiet hallways until they found Jaiden and Bagheras locker room. There was no sign on the locker rooms, just like at Cargo. Leading them to wander around until they found the right one. Once they got there, they could hear muffled voices coming through the door. They were not the first ones to get to the locker room.
“Ok I’m going to go find a seat. You guys good?”
“Yep!” the two chirped.
“Ok just text me if you need anything.” Baghera and Jaiden nodded, shooing him away like Phil had earlier. Cellbit pulled out his phone and his headphones as he walked back down the hallway towards the rink. Picking a random playlist he started blasting music into his ears. The hallways were too quiet without his friends to keep him company and he was not risking the “voices”, he so eloquently named, coming back and ruining his self confidence before had to compete.
Cellbit somehow didn’t get stopped by any volunteers his entire journey down to the rink. not that he wanted to get interrogated by some random old middle aged woman who thought she knew more than she did, it was just weird. They must have not checked the schedule or something and just assumed it was a multiple category practice. No matter, he got to the rink where his friends would be practicing for the next half hour without any complications.
The rink itself was much colder than he thought it was going to be. He internally kicked himself for not asking Foolish for the extra blanket he knew he had in his bag. Foolish never cleaned out his bag unless you forced him to and he saw that blanket two days ago when Foolish was struggling to shove it back into his skatebag after they got off the bus.
But he didn’t have the blanket. He just zipped his jacket up all the way and found the row he and Jaiden had planned for him to sit in. Settling in Cellbit pulled his extra jacket out of his bag and layed it over his legs. It didn’t help much, but it was something. He began to relax into the plastic seat he was “assigned”, he had about 20 minutes before the practice actually started so he might as well get comfortable.
“Cold?”
Notes:
also next chapter was one of my favorites to write just because of how it ends 🤭🤭🤭🤭 i am a sucker for the “oh.” moments what can i say 🤭🤭🤭🤭
(also i have found the weird glitches in earlier chapters and i’m going to go crazy they’re so annoying-)
short edit: the next chapter may take a little longer to come out but don't think im going to abandon this fic! i just don't have a computer anymore and writing on my phone is like hell on earth for me lmaoooooo
Chapter 17
Summary:
“Moral support huh?” Roier chuckled, it was a nice sound, “That’s why you’re shivering in an empty rink by yourself?”
Cellbit shrugged, “Shivering? Yes. By myself? Nah."
“Where is everyone then?” Roier proceeded to make a big deal out of looking around for the people Cellbit was implying were around. Getting up onto his knees and looking around with his hand above his eyes, squinting like he was staring into the sun as he dramatically looked around the rink full with empty chairs.
“I got you.” Roiers mind seemed to stutter at Cellbits words, hand falling from where it was placed just above his eyes to his side. Roier looked down to where Cellbit was sitting, Cellbit stared back at him.
Notes:
ITS HERE MY FAVORITE CHAPTER I HAVE WRITTEN SO FAR LETS GOOOOOOO
(also btw huge shoutout to techhnoblade-simp for finding all the weird things ao3 keeps doing to my chapters i felt like you should get recognition for that besides me tell you how much i love you in the comments lmaooooo)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Cold?” Cellbit’s neck cracked at the speed he turned to see where the voice was coming from. Behind him stood Roier, decked out in his team's gear for once. He was holding a blanket out for Cellbit to take. His eyes were tired but his smile was warm. He had a nice smile.
Cellbit suddenly realized he was staring, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. He tried to formulate a sentence, something along the lines of ‘what are you doing here? Yes I'm so cold, why are you here?’ but all he could get himself to say was a simple, “Hi.”
Roier waved with his free hand, “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
Roier sighed and shook his head, his hair falling in front of his eyes as he did so, “One of my teammates forgot her charger so I was going to give it to her but I forgot I can’t go back into the locker rooms until later.”
“So I guess I’m just sitting here until she’s done.” He shrugged, “What about you?”
Cellbit knew Jaiden was friends with Roier but he didn’t know if he knew about Jaidens past with solo practices. He couldn’t just betray his friend and expose her past but he didn’t know what he would say even if he could. ‘ My friend has issues because she got bullied so now she can’t be left alone during a practice?’ That just sounds stupid.
As Cellbit was trying to figure out what to say, Roier climbed over the back of the seats and sat down next to Cellbit, throwing his skate bag down next to Cellbits. Roier yawned and turned to look back at Cellbit. Cellbit couldn’t help but notice the spider bites were missing again. It must be a skating thing then. Cellbit himself was allowed to keep his piercings in since he only had up to his doubles in but the rules must be different for facial piercings.
“It’s fine if you don’t wanna tell me.” Roiers eyes darted around Cellbits face like he was trying to figure him out before he shrugged and turned back to the empty ice in front of the two of them. “I don’t mind.”
Before Cellbit could fall further into his mind and begin overthinking again, he blurted out, “I’m just here for moral support.”
His mouth moving without his brain's permission was something that seemed to keep happening whenever he was around Roier. He didn’t understand it. It wasn’t something that had happened in years and the last time it happened it was Pac, and everyone knew how that shit show played out. His mouth speaking without his brain was something that ended terribly, and something Cellbit’s mom had trained out of him. So why was he doing it now?
“Moral support huh?” Roier chuckled, it was a nice sound, “That’s why you’re shivering in an empty rink by yourself?”
Cellbit shrugged, “Shivering? Yes. By myself? Nah.”
“Where is everyone then?” Roier proceeded to make a big deal out of looking around for the people Cellbit was implying were around. Getting up onto his knees and looking around with his hand above his eyes, squinting like he was staring into the sun as he dramatically looked around the rink full with empty chairs.
“I got you.” Roiers mind seemed to stutter at Cellbits words, hand falling from where it was placed just above his eyes to his side. Roier looked down to where Cellbit was sitting, Cellbit stared back at him.
Roier was an objectively pretty person. He had a nice face, pretty brown eyes, a nice nose, soft lips. He didn’t have any huge scars on his face besides the two extremely faint ones underneath his eyes. They were still pretty though, the scar looked more like a beauty mark. Like it was supposed to be there. He was like the love interest from a movie, the sporty jock who at the end of the day was a secret nerd. Roier was the whole ordeal. Cellbit couldn’t help but compare himself to the boy in front of him the longer the two stared at each other.
Cellbits eyes were a vivid blue, they always had been. He used to think they were cool but as he got older all they did was earn him comments like “Wow your eyes are weird. They look like a feral animals. I get why you cover them up with your hair now.” or some type of variation of that. He ignored them for a while but they eventually wore him down. His nose was slightly crooked from breaking it after falling off a swing when he was 5. His lips had a faint scar on the top lip from the same incident. He bit too hard on the skin when he fell and the blood running down from his nose and from his lips didn’t help the panic. He still remembers that day. His mom joked that she could finally tell him and Bagi apart when it happened.
Roiers jet black hair was a perfect mix of tame and wild, falling in a way that framed his face in a way that complimented him. It was just the right length where it could be styled any way Roier wanted, the layers listening to him. Cellbits hair was a stringy brown, taking years to tame when he wanted to look nice. No matter what his hair looked wrong, like it was defying him. The white streaks that looked so good on others when they created them artificially looked ugly and dull on him. They stood out against the shades of brown that made up his hair. Cellbit’s hair was getting too long, reaching the stage where anything he wanted to do with it was a struggle.
Cellbit stared at the boy in front of him, his eyes, his face, his outfit. Everything Cellbit wanted to be. Roier stared back, eyes roaming Cellbits face. They paused on his scars. The ones above his lip. The one on his temple. Roier stared at his mistakes. Cellbit stared at the perfection that made up Roier.
The echoing noise of a door being slammed opened broke Roier and Cellbit out of their staring contest. They both looked away immediately, faces flushed red. One of the volunteers had opened the door to the locker rooms, signaling the practice was about to start. The volunteer didn’t seem to see them and just walked back down the hallway without a second glance.
Roier sat back down and threw the blanket he had over the two of them, avoiding making eye contact with Cellbit. Cellbit couldn’t help but pick at his cuticles as the voices of the skaters who were scheduled for the practice ice began to float through the room as they came closer to the rink. He would just focus on his friends. He wasn’t here for Roier. He was here for Jaiden and Baghera.
Not Roier.
He didn’t understand why he felt disappointed when Roier didn’t look at him. It felt like a tug on his heart when he pointedly looked at the skaters getting on the ice. He turned his attention away from the boy next to him, following his lead and looking at the skaters, shaking his head in an attempt to clear his mind as he did so.
There weren’t a lot of skaters for this practice. Which was to be expected for huge competitions like this, too many skaters trying to do their programs at once was a disaster waiting to happen. They usually split up the group into two halves when the number of people in the competition was over 10, which Jaiden and Bagheras was. If he remembered correctly there were 12 people in their division for this competition, meaning that there was another practice after this one with the rest of the competition.
Cellbit glanced over at Roier, who was now taking notes on his phone for some reason. His body language was serious as he followed the skaters on the ice with an intense stare, not even looking away from them to type. Somewhere in the back of Cellbits mind he was reminded of a National Geographic video of a spider waiting to jump on its prey.
“So,” He winced at the weakness of his voice, “Who's on your team?” He didn’t know why he asked Roier that. He knew who was on his team, he had met the girl with the pink hair at dinner last night and then the other one was his sister. He just wanted to talk to Roier, he guessed.
Roier still didn’t look at him but his eyes did lose a little bit of their seriousness, “The girl with the pink and purple hair and the girl with the split white and brown!”
He finally looked back up at Cellbit, scanning his hair, “Actually, you’re the first person I've seen with hair like hers.”
Cellbit had to fight a snort, “Yeah she’s the first one I’ve met with it too.”
“Where did you even meet Bagi? She recognized you earlier but she’d never told me where she met you.”
They met at birth but… it would be funnier to keep that information from Roier. Just for the bit. “We met at an old rink, hadn’t seen each other in years to be honest.” That part wasn’t a lie at least. He really hadn’t seen Bagi in a few years, she was always mysteriously “sick” for the big holidays so her and his dad wouldn’t have to go.
“Yeah that makes sense.” Roier shrugged, turning back to the ice. At this point the warmups had stopped and the skaters were starting to run through their programs. Cellbit could see the gears working in Jaidens mind, trying to keep herself on beat. Baghera was over on the boards talking to both Bonnie and Phoenix. Bonnie must have been here for a while from the way she kept staring longingly at her coffee off to the side.
“Oh Bonnies here!” Roier waved at the women who, to Cellbits shock and surprise, waved back with a warm smile.
“You guys know Bonnie?”
Roier nodded, a big smile on his face, “Yeah she’s one of our coaches! She’s really nice.”
‘Ok so she just hates Bolas then.’ Cellbit thought bitterly, remembering all the times he’d been criticized by her for no reason.
Cellbits mind was drawn away from Bonnie and her different treatment of him and his team compared to others by his sister colliding with someone. He couldn’t help but laugh at the way she turned bright red at embarrassment as she picked herself up off the ice and offered a hand out to the girl in the Soulfire jacket.
Roier rolled his eyes when he saw the two. “God damn it.” He groaned, “I need them to get their shit together before I go insane.”
Cellbit looked at him, new information about his sister? Possible blackmail for later? He was nothing if not an annoying brother and he had 4 years of being a menace to catch up on. “What’s up with them?”
“Ugh! You are so lucky you don’t have to deal with the two of them.” Roier threw his hands up in exasperation.
“It’s so obvious they like each other but they won’t do shit about it!”
Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh at that. His sister was the most straightforward ‘tell you how it is’ person he’d ever met, the only person who was any more than her was probably the coaches he’d had over the years. “Really?”
“Yes!” Roier nodded frantically, “Tina literally told me she liked her but Bagi won’t believe me!”
Cellbit was empathetic of Roier's plight, the way he explained it sounded almost like how he felt about Mariana and Charlie, just annoyed that it wasn’t happening. “Sounds like my friends honestly. I understand you.”
“God I don’t think anyone could be worse than them.”
Cellbit shook his head. “You haven’t had to deal with Charlie and Mariana before.”
Roier groaned and covered his face with his hands, “Oh no I have. I go to school with those two.”
“Mariana complains about how he wont talk to him in the halls all the time and I’m just like, I don’t know man, maybe he’s trying to get to his class on time ?”
Cellbit winced and patted Roier on the back, “Oh god that’s gotta suck. If it makes you feel any better, Charlie complains about the same thing.”
“That doesn’t help at all, Cellbit.”
“Yeah my bad.”
“God our friends really can’t get their shit together huh?” Roier laughed dejectedly.
“Nope!” Cellbit popped the P as emphasis, “They’re all dumbasses.”
“I’m about to lock them all in a locker room and force them to figure their relationships out at this point.”
Cellbit laughed, “Yeah you have to deal with Bagi, Vegetta, and Mariana all at the same time huh? You have it worse than I do honestly.”
The conversation continued to flow easily between the two of them, going from their friends' relationships to just their friends to school and even to what games the two of them liked to play. Talking to Roier was one of the easiest things for Cellbit to do, which confused him. He wasn’t usually easy to talk to. Conversations with new people were stilted, boring and stopped after the person realized he wasn’t going to respond.
With Roier it wasn’t like that at all. Cellbit found himself wanting to talk to Roier even more and even changing the topic of conversation when they had exhausted everything in the original topic. Eventually the two of them had somehow gotten onto the topic of their skating and how they had grown up in weirdly pressured skating environments.
Turns out Roier had experienced something similar to Cellbit growing up, strict coaches that cared too much about what a child was doing or what they looked like. When Cellbit asked Roier told him the scars underneath his eyes had actually been from when he attempted an off ice jump in his driveway (which Roier explained was on a slant, something you really shouldn’t be jumping on.) and fell onto the concrete when he was around 7 or 8. Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh as he explained when he told his coach at the time, he had just brushed it off and told Roier it was his fault that his parents picked a house that had a slope for a driveway. It was such a stupid thing to say to a child but it was such a common experience with coaches like that.
The two of them traded horror stories from when they were little back and forth for a while, occasionally stopping to comment on the practice that was happening in front of them. (Cellbit couldn’t help but cackle when Roier told him Bagi had to change her song 8 times because it kept getting copyrighted.) Cellbit told him about the coach he had when he and his sister were still doing pairs, though he kept the fact his pairs partner was Bagi out of the story, and he had them attempt a move that ended with Cellbits left leg being cut by his sister's skate. Cellbit knew it wasn’t a good thing that the injury, and the ones that came after it from similar experiences, happened but they were the reason he had such a good pain tolerance.
It was nice to tell someone about what he had gone through at his old rinks and not be told “oh well that’s just terrible!” instead of laughing about it. It was a nice sentiment but really it just repeated what anyone who had gone through it had already been told by everyone ever. Telling someone who had also been through it meant you could joke about it without dancing on eggshells around people who would turn it into something sad. So Cellbit told Roier his stories and in return Roier told Cellbit his. (For example: when his coach had his team, which was only 4 people since they were so young, spend an entire hour spinning until they felt like they were going to throw up.) The two giggled about being so worried about getting good scores that whenever they were home they would start spinning on whatever slippery surface they could find in their socks.
Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh at himself internally when he caught himself staring at Roier as he told him some crazy story about what he and his teammates now did after their last competition, waving his arms as he tried to get Cellbit to visualize the layout of the neighborhood they had gotten lost in. Cellbit found himself wondering if this was how Vegetta had felt earlier when he was listening to Foolish talk?
‘Wait.’ The thought shocked Cellbit to his core when he realized what he had just questioned. The Foolish and Vegetta situation was different! Those two were completely different from Cellbit and Roier! Roier was just someone Cellbit wanted to be friends with! He was just a guy who was extremely pretty and had a wonderful laugh and talked nice and made dumb jokes and-
Oh.
Shit.
Notes:
guys i finally get to do it! i get to do the weird "holy shit this ao3 author has just been going through life changing things in the background while they write this" (i mean i technailly already did this when i posted under tornado watch but shhhh) I GRADUATE IN A FEW HOURS LMAOOO I SHOULD BE GETTING READY BUT I WAS FINISHING THIS FOR YOU GUYS- THE NEXT TIME ILL UPDATE A CHAPTER ILL OFFICALLY BE A HIGHSCHOOL GRADUATE LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO IM FREEEEEEEEEEEEE
also cellbit is so me core in this chapter
Chapter 18
Summary:
The locker room hallway was just as quiet as it had been a few hours ago but it didn’t hold the same haunting anxiety that it held earlier. It felt nicer, more enjoyable. Like it was just a normal hallway and not the path to sacrifice it had always felt like to Cellbit. There were no volunteers at the table when he passed it, the water bottles laid out on the surface missing a few. (He wondered if it was one of his friends that had taken one, Baghera did have a habit of forgetting her water bottle so it wouldn’t have been that crazy to assume.)
The locker room that his friends were in (Did Roier count as a friend now?) was fast approaching, the door actually inviting this time. Cellbit couldn’t help but be happy to put Roiers stuff down. The jingling of the pins was making him think someone else was in the hallway and his backpack was extremely heavy. Totally not because he wanted Roier to like him and he was excited to give Roiers stuff back because that meant he got to see Roiers smile again. That was not the reason why he was happy to finally reach the locker room. He was not that crazy.
Notes:
soooooooooo im backkkkkkkkkk sorry this took so long lmaoooooo but ill have a lot of time to write now! (more context in the ending notes lmao)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Fuck.
The buzzer signaling practice was over was barely audible over the screaming that was happening inside Cellbits head. His heart was racing as Roier ran over to where his friends were getting off the ice, waving his hands around like he was telling a story to the entire group. Of course the guy he liked was an extrovert. There was no world in which Cellbit could get anything he wanted. Watching Roier talk, Cellbit couldn’t help but think he looked sweet trying to dramatically explain whatever he was talking about to Jaiden and the others. Oh god, he was so done for. Foolish did the exact same thing and they always asked if he was trying to fly away from them, his brain so kindly reminded him. He couldn’t believe that he liked this boy. Well yes he could, he was a very nice person, he was hot, he was a good skater (No Cellbit hadn’t seen him skate yet, he just gave off those vibes. He wasn’t biased, what are you talking about!) He was just someone Cellbit would like. But Cellbit hadn’t had a crush on anyone since he was 12 and was not expecting to have one on someone who he would probably never see again after this week.
Cellbit didn’t like having crushes, they overwhelmed him. He didn’t understand them either, he had a “type” yes, but normally that type was people who would absolutely never like him back. Watching Roier bounce around his friends with a smile on his face, Cellbit just knew he was never going to be able to tell him that Cellbit liked him. Even if he did, on some miniscule offhand chance, like Cellbit back, the two of them could never be together. Roier had too many friends that hated Cellbit. They deserved to hate Cellbit and he was fine with that, but if someone hated Roier because of Cellbit he didn’t think he could handle that. He just wouldn’t drag Roier down like that. Roier didn’t deserve that.
Cellbit zoned back in when the sounds of the second group in the division getting on the ice filled his ears, he really needed to stop doing that. It was probably just competition nerves and everything that had happened so far but he was zoning out a lot more than he should have. After quickly packing up his stuff, Cellbit pulled out his phone to text Jaiden. He didn’t want to leave Roiers stuff behind but he didn’t have his number to ask him to come get it.
Miku Truther-Jaiden, Miku Denier-Cellbit
7:53 AM
Miku Denier : hey loser
Miku Denier : your friend left his stuff over here
Miku Denier : i’m down to take it to the locker room for him
Miku Denier: but i gotta know if he wants me to or not
Miku Truther : omg cellbit being a nice person????
Miku Truther : this is unheard of
Miku Denier : hi baghera
Miku Truther : HOW THE FUCK DID YOU KNOW
Miku Denier : you two type differently
Miku Truther: not really????
Miku Truther : i was literally trying to type like her????
Miku Denier : you do 4 question marks
Miku Denier: jaiden does 3
Miku Truther: thats so fucking weird
Miku Truther: there is no way thats true
Miku Denier: eh
Miku Denier: anyway ask roier if he wants me to grab his stuff or not
Miku Truther : ooooooooooo roier huh~~~~
Miku Denier : nope
Miku Denier: nope nope nope nope
Miku Denier : just ask him
Miku Truther: ugh fineeeee
Miku Truther: you’re so boring though
Miku Denier: womp womp
Miku Truther: he says he can come and get it if you want him to
Miku Truther : but he also said you can just leave the bags
Miku Denier: i’ll just bring them to the locker room
Miku Denier: i don’t mind
Miku Denier: plus i dont wanna leave his stuff by itself
Miku Truther: mhmmmmmm
Miku Denier : what-
Miku Denier : it’s polite
Miku Truther: yeah but you only grab someone elses stuff when you’re leaving when its us
Miku Denier: oh my god im omw
Cellbit made sure to fold the blanket that Roier had left behind when he bolted away to their friends, making sure it folded neatly without any messy corners before he grabbed the bag Roier had left and headed back to the locker room where his friends and Roier were. Roiers bag was similar to Bagheras, covered in pins with a wide range of designs. The pins Roier had on his bag were interesting to Cellbit, there were the spiderman ones of course but the ones that grabbed Cellbits attention were the ones that had other team names on them. Baghera had a few of them but they were all very old and Baghera only got them when people were hunting for people to trade pins with. Roiers bag had a whole section dedicated to them. Cellbit hated talking to people but he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous if not for himself but for Baghera. She always wanted to trade pins but everyone always avoided their team. He wondered if Baghera went pin trading with Roier would she finally be able to trade pins like she always complained about to the group at big competitions.
The locker room hallway was just as quiet as it had been a few hours ago but it didn’t hold the same haunting anxiety that it held earlier. It felt nicer, more enjoyable. Like it was just a normal hallway and not the path to sacrifice it had always felt like to Cellbit. There were no volunteers at the table when he passed it, the water bottles laid out on the surface missing a few. (He wondered if it was one of his friends that had taken one, Baghera did have a habit of forgetting her water bottle so it wouldn’t have been that crazy to assume.)
The locker room that his friends were in (Did Roier count as a friend now?) was fast approaching, the door actually inviting this time. Cellbit couldn’t help but be happy to put Roiers stuff down. The jingling of the pins was making him think someone else was in the hallway and his backpack was extremely heavy. Totally not because he wanted Roier to like him and he was excited to give Roiers stuff back because that meant he got to see Roiers smile again. That was not the reason why he was happy to finally reach the locker room. He was not that crazy.
Pushing open the door Cellbit wasn’t shocked at what he saw, it was chaos. The girl with the pink hair, Mouse, was dancing with Jaiden in the corner. The two were in complete sync and Cellbit assumed it was probably a Vocaloid dance that both of them knew, recognizing the robotic voice of whatever the pink Vocaloid was. (Cellbit absolutely knew the dance the two were doing, Jaiden and Foolish had teamed up and made the group learn it at one of their sleepovers a few months ago.) His sister was talking to Tina in the corner, fidgeting with her hair in a way that Cellbit would absolutely be asking her about later. Baghera and Roier were talking to another girl with split dyed black and pink hair. The trio was talking animatedly about something Cellbit couldn’t hear from where he was standing.
Roier was the first one to notice him standing in the doorway, “Cellbit!” He called, running up to Cellbit and grabbing his bags out of Cellbits hands.
“I’m so sorry you had to grab my stuff!” Roier looked sheepish as he stared down at the perfectly folded blanket Cellbit had made, “I could have come to get it.”
“Nah it’s fine!” Cellbit waved him off, “My teammates make me carry their shit all the time, it's ok!”
“We do not!” Baghera scoffed.
“Yeah stop bringing down our reputation!” Jaiden yelled from the corner.
Roier snickered, “He doesn't need to bring your reputation down, you do that yourselves.”
“Hey!” The other two cried. Jaiden threw one of her many random bear keychains at Roier from across the room. It hit Roier smack in the forehead.
The silence was thick, waiting for Roiers reaction. He just stared at his friend, slowly blinking before picking up the little toy off the floor and throwing it back at her. It landed next to her bag with almost perfect accuracy, “Is that a new one?”
Jaiden nodded, “Jacob got it for me last week.”
“Did he get it for you or did you annoy him into getting it for you.” Roier raised an eyebrow.
“Shut up.”
The two started arguing over whether or not Jaiden had an “addiction” to buying the little bear creatures, leaving the rest of the room to just watch. The girl with the pink and black hair came up to Cellbit, sticking out her hand, “We met at dinner last night but we never really introduced ourselves, I’m Niki! I’m on Soulfire with Bad.”
Cellbit took her hand, shaking it before replying, “Cellbit, you already knew that though.”
Niki nodded, “I actually skated with a few of your team members and I go to school with a couple as well! I'm surprised we never met!”
Cellbit couldn’t help but shrug, “I’m not really a people person.” It was true, he was more social than your usual Introvert sure but he still hated talking to people when he didn’t know them. It was more of a risk to be judged if you didn’t already know them. Which is not how human interaction worked, and Cellbit knew that, it was just easier to really only talk to your teammates and occasionally talk to their friends.
“Makes sense, me neither to be honest.” Niki smiled at him, it was a small one but it was comforting.
“So you’re on Foolish’s team?” Tina asked, having left her conversation with Bagi, who was now talking to Baghera.
Cellbit sighed, remembering all the chaos that Foolish and Charlie had caused only yesterday even though it felt like years. “Yeah I am.”
“I knew he would react like that!”
“You just think Foolish is annoying.” Niki laughed at her teammates' reaction.
“Hell yeah I do!” She cheered before pausing and looking back at Cellbit, “I don’t actually think he’s annoying. He’s just stupid.”
Cellbit shook his head, “No! No! I know! I didn’t think you did.”
Tina sighed a breath of relief, “Ok good, I don’t want you guys to think I’m a terrible friend.”
“Tina no one thinks you’re a terrible friend.” His sister put her hand on Tinas shoulder (When the fuck had Bagi gotten here!) and Cellbit squinted as he watched the two of them stare way too long into each other's eyes before jerking their heads away from each other. There was absolutely something going on there. He didn’t know what but there was something.
“Anyways,” Niki interrupted, “You guys should probably go, we skate in 20 minutes.”
“Shit!” Roier blurted out when he checked his phone and saw that Niki was in fact correct, and that they only had 15 minutes to get back to their teams. “I told Tubbo I’d get him food!”
“I’ll see you when Bobby skates!” He called to Jaiden as he grabbed his stuff and ran out the door. Cellbit chuckled and grabbed the blanket he had left behind, waving to his friends and their competition technically.
“I’ll see you guys later probably. Good luck!” He swung his bag over his shoulder and began to open the door just to have Roier open it first and have Cellbit fall onto him. Cellbit could feel his face turn bright red. He avoided eye contact with his teammates and stared down at the floor as if it had personally cursed him as Roier held onto his waist while he twisted around him to wave goodbye to his friends still in the locker room.
“Good luck to you guys by the way!” Roier called, not even noticing the war that was happening inside Cellbits head next to him.
He was just friendly. He didn’t like Cellbit back. He was just friendly. He probably didn’t even notice when he accidentally tightened his grip on Cellbits shirt when Cellbit wobbled a little bit while he was waving goodbye to Tina and Niki. He was just friendly and he was just helping Cellbit. That’s all he was. He was just friendly.
Cellbit was so absolutely fucked.
Notes:
so uh- long story short- i went to con right after graduation so i couldn't really write while i was there and then right after i got super sick and could not formulate normal thoughts like at all- and then uh- may or may not have fucked up my ankle? i have a fracture on one side and were currently in a limbo of weather or not my ligament is torn lmaooooo personally im chilling- im a skater (duh) so the pain doesnt really bother me? does that make sense? anyways i also got really into sk8 the infinity while i was sick so maybe ill write a fic or two for them! but yeah TLDR my body decided to betray me and i didn't in fact abandon the fic- more chapters coming soon!!! :DDDD
edit: the funniest part was i was with one of my beta readers the whole time and literally in the hospital i went “shit i was supposed to post a new chapter of too sweet!” and she looked so dissapointed in me lmaoooooooo
Chapter 19
Summary:
“How was practice?” Foolish asked when Cellbit sat down.
Cellbit shrugged, “It was fine, Jaiden landed her doubles pretty well and Baghera landed her flying spins without any problem. They both struggled without their music though.”
“Yeah that’s normal though, they should be fine when the time comes.” Charlie said from where he was picking up the remains of their Uno game up off the floor.
“You gonna sort those?” Charlie looked up at Cellbit as he closed the book.
“Nah you can do it.”
Cellbit took the box from Charlie and slid off his chair into the spot Charlie was just kneeling on the floor, crossing his legs over each other as he did so. Charlie himself took his spot on the other side of Foolish, Slime hitting flicking Foolish in the forehead as he did so.
“What was that for!” Foolish exclaimed. Charlie just shrugged before pulling out his phone.
“Anyone heard from dad?” Foolish and Cellbit shook their heads.
“He probably got caught up with the other teams, Niki mentioned something about them all being here earlier.” Cellbit said offhandedly, still sorting the Uno cards into categories.
Chapter Text
Roier and Cellbit went their separate ways after walking through the locker room hallway together, Roier going off to the left with Cellbit going to the right. Roier waved to him as he walked away, a large smile on his face as he headed to where the rest of his team was sitting.
Cellbit was pretty sure he had an equally large smile on his face as he waved goodbye to Roier. The two had gotten onto the topic of movies and shows they liked as they went through the locker room hallways and Cellbit got to explain the plot of his favorite horror movie while Roier explained the overarching lore of the Spider-man movies to him. (Roier swore up and down he liked other movies besides Spiderman but he was just better at explaining the story of each Spiderman trilogy. Cellbit thought he just liked talking about Spiderman. Cellbit just liked listening to Roier talk.)
Cellbit felt lighter as he walked away from Roier and towards where his teammates told him they were sitting. He knew they would ask him about it later and make fun of him but he couldn’t help feeling happy about talking to people outside of their little group for once. He was the only one out of the team that actively avoided people besides them. Phil had Missa and also everyone ever, Foolish had Tina and all his friends on his schools swim team, Charlie had all of his friends from his DnD club, Jaiden had all her friends from school and her animation group, Carre had his friends from school and the people he went to the skatepark with, even Baghera had other friends at school besides Cellbit. Cellbit just avoided people all the time, even at school. He had Baghera and Felps. That was it. Cellbit was just one of those people who was just fine with the few people he knew and he didn’t need to know anyone else. He didn’t mind being around a lot of people, he just wasn’t used to it.
Cellbit blinked and pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked around. He actually had no idea where he was. There were teams all around him that he didn’t have to look at to know they were giving him the same dirty looks he always got. Checking his phone, Cellbit opened the group chat to figure out where his team was sitting. He had forgotten to ask where they were going to be before he went with Jaiden and Baghera earlier.
BolasBolasBolas
Jaidenstune Miku- Jaiden, CrowFather-Phil, Malewife-Charlie, Smiley-Foolish, Quacki-Baghera, Cellbo-Cellbit
8:11 AM
Cellbo: where are yall
Cellbo: jai stop typing i know where you are
Jaidenstune Miku: YOU ASKED
Cellbo: i was asking dad not you :/
Smiley: were sitting at 105!
Smiley: Dad is off getting us drinks because we annoyed him too much
Malewife: papa cant handle the smoke i guess
Smiley: can’t handle that uno game smoke
Cellbo: oh god
Cellbo: who was winning?
Malewife: can’t remember
Malewife: me and Foolish teamed up against him
Malewife: so probably one of us?
Cellbo: oh thats why he left
Smiley: personally i think we were smart in our strategy
Cellbo: he was winning wasnt he
Smiley: yeah
Cellbo: of fucking course
Cellbo: anyways i'm almost there i’ll see you guys in like a few minutes
The rink where the competition was taking place was bigger than the practice rink.The stands were filled at least halfway with teams and their voices echoed across the room, filling the room with random voices that Cellbit couldn’t make out. The rink itself was playing some random pop music that was popular 5 years ago at a quiet volume.
“Cellbit!” Foolish was standing and waving his arms above his head like a crazy person while he tried to get Cellbits attention. He was still wearing the purple sweatshirt he had accidentally stolen from Vegetta but he had rolled the sleeves up to his forearms, Cellbit could see the yellowish remains of a bruise from his fight with Charlie a few days ago. Charlie's own bruise on his face was already faded, only a shadow on the side of his face now. You would have to look at both of them extremely close to see anything.
Cellbit dropped his bag off at the top of the stairs at the beginning of the area that Bolas' team had claimed. It landed next to Foolishs own bag, the charms that had hit him earlier clinking against each other at the movement. The area the Bolas team had taken up was a lot bigger than what the team currently was, their bags taking up almost 5 rows of chairs even though the group of teens was only 6 currently. Cellbit knew neither Charlie or Foolish would have taken up the entire space for themselves so it was probably from Phil remembering that the group had to sit with the entire team, including the younger teams that won’t be there for a few hours. There were more kids on the Bolas team than there were teenagers, a fact that never really bothered Cellbit until they had to go to competitions. He looked out across the ice at the giant groups of teams chatting with each other, playing games, climbing over each other to get to the spot that they had claimed. Cellbit could even see some parents helping their kids get ready, doing their hair, handing them food, throwing blankets at them. Cellbit tried not to be jealous watching all the parents take care of their kids. He really couldn’t be, none of his teammates' parents were there anyways. Charlie's mom was too busy taking care of his younger siblings and his dad was always working. Foolish’s parents only came to his swim meets since skating was always too cold for them. Jaidens parents were always away on work trips and Bagheras mom was busy with her bakery. Phil's parents were really the only ones who ever showed up but everyone knew they were only there to watch over Chayanne and Tallulah. Plus Cellbit loved his mom! He really did. He didn’t have any issues with her, unlike Charlie and his dad, he just wished she’d come support him more.
God he needed to stop thinking about his family. Cellbit shook his head to clear his thoughts, something he’d been doing a lot more recently. Cellbits mom had severe anxiety and paranoia, she would hate coming to anything Cellbit did. He didn’t know what he was even thinking, being jealous. He had his mom at home, she would always be there for him when he got home. That’s all that mattered.
“How was practice?” Foolish asked when Cellbit sat down.
Cellbit shrugged, “It was fine, Jaiden landed her doubles pretty well and Baghera landed her flying spins without any problem. They both struggled without their music though.”
“Yeah that’s normal though, they should be fine when the time comes.” Charlie said from where he was picking up the remains of their Uno game up off the floor.
“You gonna sort those?” Charlie looked up at Cellbit as he closed the book.
“Nah you can do it.”
Cellbit took the box from Charlie and slid off his chair into the spot Charlie was just kneeling on the floor, crossing his legs over each other as he did so. Charlie himself took his spot on the other side of Foolish, Slime hitting flicking Foolish in the forehead as he did so.
“What was that for!” Foolish exclaimed. Charlie just shrugged before pulling out his phone.
“Anyone heard from dad?” Foolish and Cellbit shook their heads.
“He probably got caught up with the other teams, Niki mentioned something about them all being here earlier.” Cellbit said offhandedly, still sorting the Uno cards into categories.
“You talked to Niki?”
“Yeah she was chill, we chatted after Jaiden and Bags practice since Roier had to give Mouse her charger back.”
“Roier?” Charlie questioned, Cellbit knew he had that stupid smug smile on his face as he spoke.
Cellbit rolled his eyes at his friends. “He was just watching their practice with me, nothing special.”
They didn’t have to know about the lingering eye contact with the pretty brown eyes or the laughter that made Cellbits heart skip a beat or the fleeting touches as the two of them walked back down the hallway to where the rest of their friends were waiting for them. No one but Roier and Cellbit needed to know about those things. Maybe Roier didn’t even have to know. He already didn’t know about Cellbits racing heart when Roier looked at him, or the way Cellbit always noticed when he had his snake bites in or not. Roier didn’t have to know about the way Cellbit hadn’t stopped thinking about him.
Jesus fucking christ . Cellbit internally groaned. He was so fucked.
He really wouldn’t have made fun of his friends if he had known he would have been as annoying about the guy he liked (holy shit he liked Roier.) as the rest of them are about almost any relationship they get into. (That’s a lie, he would have made fun of his friends no matter what. They were just so easy to make fun of!) Cellbit really needed to get his shit together. He couldn’t be thinking of some random boy who probably didn’t even like him that much before a competition. Cellbit and Roier were barely even friends, there was no reason for Cellbit to be this obsessed with Roier liking him.
Once Cellbit was done sorting the Uno cards, he shoved them back into the box they came in and pulled out his phone. Foolish and Charlie were playing some game in the groupchat so Cellbit muted his messages and opened instagram. He scrolled through a few posts by artists he liked and liked one of Felps most recent posts. Felps really only posted like once every semester so it became a game between him and a few others to see if they had made the annual post. Cellbit almost always made the post due to the amount of time he and Felps spent together but it was still fun to see what picture he had picked. This time the picture Cellbit was featured in was one that Cellbit remembered being taken a few months ago. It was of the two of them in Cellbits basement playing some random 1v1 video game. Felps had won and you could see Cellbit sulking off to the side of the picture with Felps posing next to his high score. Cellbit laughed a little and liked the picture, commenting about how he would have won if it wasn’t 3 am before moving on and watching random peoples stories, starting with Carres first.
He had recently made it a habit to watch Carres stories whenever he had the time, since he was usually posting what he was doing at camp or just the drama that was happening while he was there. There had recently been a breakup of a pairs skating couple that were at the camp and Carre was basically keeping everyone up to date with it on his close friends. Cellbit had to admit it was interesting to watch go down. Apparently the guy had dated another girl at the camp and the two of them were caught flirting or something and the girlfriend had freaked out. Cellbit personally was on the girlfriend's side but he still wanted to see how it turned out. There was around an hour left before Jaiden and Baghera skated so Cellbit settled into his spot and made sure he had his charger. Phil came back with a bag of drinks for the entire team around halfway into their hour-long wait. He had also brought them the schedule of who was skating first. Jaiden and Baghera skated in the first half, the same time they thought they were going to but neither of them were skating first which was good. The four boys started discussing who they thought was going to win while they waited for the rest of the time to pass by them. Jaiden and Baghera had stopped responding in the group chat which meant that they had to hand their phones in so they couldn’t ask the two of them any questions about the girls they were skating against. Charlie and Foolish got bored and had decided to go off and hunt for the merch and trinkets that most competitions sold, promising to be back in time to watch their friends skate.
Cellbit yawned and leaned onto to Phils shoulder, all this waiting was making him tired. They had 20 minutes left before their teammates skating so it wouldn’t hurt to take a nap right?
Apparently it did since Phil slightly pulled his hair when he noticed Cellbit falling asleep on his shoulder, the tug not being hard enough to hurt but hard enough to tell Cellbit that Phil didn’t want him sleeping right now.
“No sleep,” Phil said, not even looking up from his phone to look at Cellbit, “You can sleep once you're done competing.”
“You’re boring.” Cellbit muttered, rolling his eyes.
“And you’re not normally this tired.”
“Blegh.”
Phil rolled his eyes and finally looked at Cellbit, who was once again picking at his fingernails. “Seriously you're not normally this tired, or this anxious. What’s up?”
Ok so the fact that a certain brunette with a spiderman obsession and a pretty smile was taking up every part of his mind where his program could be was obvious. Or maybe it was just something Phil noticed? Phil always seemed to notice if the smallest thing was off.
“Eh.” Cellbit shrugged, “Just-”
Phil cut him off, “Is it your sister?”
Oh right.
He did have that whole thing with his sister huh-
Honestly Cellbit kind of forgot about that whole thing. Bagi had been nice to him today and the air hadn’t been thick with tension like it had been before the two of them had talked. Maybe it was just the fact that they were just busy with skating and other things and hadn’t sat down and had a real conversation to talk everything over but Cellbit really wasn’t as bothered as he probably should be after reuniting with his twin sister after not talking for around four years. Was it bad that his mind had chosen to focus on some boy that he would probably never see again after this over the whole situation with Bagi?
“Well now it is…” Cellbit muttered.
“What was that?”
Cellbit shook his head, sitting up and stretching. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. Yeah it’s my sister.”
“She’s your sister Cellbit, she wants to be your friend again. Don’t be afraid.” Cellbit fought the urge to roll his eyes. He just nodded before pulling out his own phone and checking the time, around 5 minutes until Jaiden and Bagheras' event started. And Bagi’s.
“Who skates first?”
“IronMouse from GGN, have you ever heard of her?” Cellbit didn’t even need to look at Phil to know that he was pulling up the schedule. He always did, even if he already knew it.
“Yeah, I actually met her this morning!” The memory of the girl with the bright pink hair dancing with Jaiden in the locker room only a little bit before was still fresh in his mind. “The one with the pink hair right?”
“Mhm,” Phil nodded, “Her pink hair is actually pretty interesting, what I’ve heard is they let her keep it since she has an illness that makes it hard for her to skate sometimes.”
“She’s a good skater.” Cellbit shrugged, “Didn’t pay attention much to her program but from what I did catch, it was good.”
“Good enough to beat Jaiden and Baghera?” Foolish asked, slipping into his seat next to Cellbit.
Charlie dropped into his seat only a few seconds later, echoing his friend with a small, “Yeah is she?”
“Maybe, what did you guys get?”
Charlie handed Cellbit a white monster, “Just a few drinks, we scouted out the sweatshirts though.”
“They any good?” Phil asked, setting down his own drink the duo had gotten him.
“They’re the usual,” Foolish shrugged, “They have a few cool variations though!”
“They also have a plushie booth!” Charlie chimed in, “It has one I'm absolutely getting after I skate today.”
“If they still have it.”
“It’s ugly,” Foolish deadpanned, “They’re still going to have it.”
“Hey!”
The two went back and forth about the plush for a little bit before the music that had been playing in the background of the rink faded out and Phil sent them a stern look and they shut up pretty quick. Once the music faded, the noise of everyone in the rink talking quieted as well, leaving the rink with a tension of excitement running through the air. The competition was about to begin.
Notes:
soooooo the ao3 author curse caught up to me lmao- turns out being stuck in your room with nothing to do doesn't actually help your motivation? long story short my life is picking up again and i feel a little bit more alive so that leads us to 2:51 am (my time) where i just wrote 2000+ words in like 50 minutes because i got a random strick of motivation- im actually really excited for the next chapter so hopefully i'll wake up on time tomorrow to write it!!! :D
Chapter 20
Summary:
The voice continued on, talking about how proud they were of all the teams that had signed up and how excited they were to see the competition start soon.
“If you’re so excited, stop talking and start the competition.” Phil muttered under his breath, causing Cellbit to laugh quietly.
“They always take too long,” Charlie groaned, leaning back in his chair, “It’s the same script too.”
After what felt like forever the voice over the speakers finally stopped talking, ending with a long awaited. “And with that I say our final thank yous to our sponsors and let's get on with the show! Good luck skaters!”
The mic then buzzed as it was passed over to one of the presenters of the competition. The man started talking and the entire Bolas team groaned. It always took forever to start competitions and at some point in your life they just got extremely annoying. First they read out every judge and what makes them qualified to be a judge, where they came from, what rink they were from, and a lot of things that in Cellbits personal opinion, just were not needed. If he wanted to know a judge's life story he would look them up later.
Notes:
this end note is about to be the longest authors note ive ever written gang lemme tell you the curse was truly cursing the past few weeks
before that though: yall probably know/dont know that this fic was orginally a instagram au! but i couldn't figure out how to do pictures for a while and i didn't have a way to make their instagram account to be able to make it a real thing but i finally found an app that let me do that and i was on a road trip for a while so i made the accounts if anyone wanted to see them lmao! I lowkey will probably make one for every single character no matter how minor they are lmao
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
----------
EggIslandIce is Live! EIP Senior Dramatic 20XX:
GGN - IronMouse
Bolas - Jaiden
Bolas - Baghera
GGN - Bagi
Soulfire - Tina
Soulfire- Niki
----------
Unlike a lot of competitions which were known to have terrible camera work the higher level you got due to the skaters getting faster and doing more unpredictable moves in an attempt to win gold, the EIP was notorious for being good at camera work. Their cameras following the skaters like they already knew what was going to happen with barely any motion blur. No one knew how their cameras were able to capture the skaters so well and the sponsors of the club never disclosed that information either, leaving the only choice to do your absolute best for their competition in an attempt to get the best video of your program.
Cellbit spotted the five camera men the rink had positioned around the rink, each looking more focused and stone cold than the next. The music stopped and a new voice came over the intercom, echoing across the entire rink. Cellbit didn’t recognize the voice but from the cadence it sounded like it was the owner of EIP rink.
“Hello everyone!” The voice was assertive, with some type of accent that Cellbit couldn’t place.
“Welcome to the 24th annual Egg Island Ice Competition! Sponsored by the Federation.” Cellbit saw his teammates roll their eyes, the Federation was the organization that most figure skating competitions and most of their regulations fell under. Though it was very obvious the organization played favorites, with Bolas not being anywhere near a favorite. They were always the last rink to know of new rules and regulations that they changed, usually only a few weeks before a competition compared to other rinks which knew at the beginning of the season.
The voice continued on, talking about how proud they were of all the teams that had signed up and how excited they were to see the competition start soon.
“If you’re so excited, stop talking and start the competition.” Phil muttered under his breath, causing Cellbit to laugh quietly.
“They always take too long,” Charlie groaned, leaning back in his chair, “It’s the same script too.”
After what felt like forever the voice over the speakers finally stopped talking, ending with a long awaited. “And with that I say our final thank yous to our sponsors and let's get on with the show! Good luck skaters!”
The mic then buzzed as it was passed over to one of the presenters of the competition. The man started talking and the entire Bolas team groaned. It always took forever to start competitions and at some point in your life they just got extremely annoying. First they read out every judge and what makes them qualified to be a judge, where they came from, what rink they were from, and a lot of things that in Cellbits personal opinion, just were not needed. If he wanted to know a judge's life story he would look them up later.
Cellbit couldn’t help but pull out his phone and tune out the announcer. He would probably hear all of this later anyways since he was skating as well in a few hours. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Charlie and Foolish playing rock paper scissors while Phil was actually listening to the announcer. Phil always actually listened to the announcers unlike the rest of them. If he missed any actual information Phil would tell the team later.
Scrolling through instagram Cellbit noticed a new bright red notification at the top of his screen. Someone wanted to follow him.
Cellbit couldn’t stop his heart from leaping when he read the username. SpiderRoier. How Roier found his account he didn’t know but he didn’t want to think about it right now, he would think about that later. He immediately clicked approve before he could even register what he was doing.
Before he could start to look through Roiers account Phil elbowed him in the side, signaling the speaker had finally finished and the competition was about to actually start.
“Please welcome Iron Mouse from the GGN Team!” The rink burst into applause as the girl with the pink hair skated out into the middle of the rink, arms straight above her head as she did so, waving to the crowd. Cellbit noted that he liked her dress. It was a simple black dress with pink detailing that went around the sides and down the back. The light pink gemstones used to decorate the black fabric glittered in the light making the girl look almost like she was a magical being. The pink wasn’t too overwhelming either and it complimented her hair that was pulled back into a tight bun with a flower hair piece probably sewn in. Cellbit couldn’t help but notice the bottoms of her skates were also lightly bedazzled, not enough to get her a point taken off but enough the rhinestones could be seen from all across the rink if you looked close enough.
Her music started and Cellbit immediately recognized the song; he had heard it all the time when he was younger. Moulin Rouge was his moms favorite movie back in the day and he could pick up a song from then any day. She used to brag to Cellbit and Bagi when they were younger that they were born to be performers because she watched the movie so much when they were pregnant. (Cellbit knew the movie was a tragedy, he didn’t know how he felt that she said that was the reason she wanted her kids to be performers. Maybe it was a sign that something was always wrong with Cellbit.)
Mouse was a beautiful skater. Her face was so emotive while she skated, her arms flowing to the sound of the music. She looked like she was floating while she skated. Her turns were beautiful, her jumps were crisp. You could hear the sound of the ice cracking when she landed throughout the rink. Mouse flowed into every move with the cadence of someone who knew her way around the stage, like she had performed the show herself once before. Cellbit wouldn’t put it past her with the way her face moved with what only could be described as theater training. He could see the scenes from the movie as she skated around the rink. Her speed as she stretched herself out into a spiral before grabbing her foot and bringing it above her head.
As she performed a jump into a sit spin, Cellbit smiled as the crowd cheered at the way she brought her arms apart during her spin. Cellbit couldn’t help himself from humming along as the music switched into the regular upbeat sound that was commonly thought of when it came to tangos and so did the style of skating.
“Oh! I know this song!” Charlie muttered to himself as Cellbit leaned forward on his chair to watch the pink haired girl turn the ice into a stage. Mouse moved her arms perfectly on beat, changing her face to one that almost mirrored the look the Bolas team was told to wear when they skated. She stared at the space before her like it had personally offended her as she danced around the rink, kicking her skates out and leaning backwards in a way that emulated the dance the song was about.
As she sped up for her step sequence the crowd cheered louder and her mouth tilted up into what could be seen as a dangerous smile as she flicked her hands above her head. Cellbit couldn’t help but envy the enjoyment she was very obviously having as she skated. Skating to Moulin Rouge always sounded fun but he was never able to form the words when it came time to pick his new music for a competition.
As she spun once more the music slowed back down to what it had been at the beginning. The strings that accompanied her skate skipping around as she slowed, yet still skating strong.
“It’s ending already?” Foolish asked, “That’s quite the short program if so.”
Cellbit shook his head, “Just wait.”
After a jump, perfectly landed of course, the music picked back up again, sounding more anxious and panicked than the rest of the song. Mouse turned into a spin, dipping low and bringing her head down to her thigh as she spun faster and faster. The music continued on, faster and faster. Cellbit could feel his own anxiety pick up as he realized what type of spin she was going for. Mouse switched over to her non dominant foot, still spinning fast as she grabbed her other foot. She began rising out of her sit spin, taking her foot with her as she did. She straightened and her foot was above her head, fully stretched out. Cellbit smiled, he loved this spin. It was dangerous but it was fun. Wasn’t all of figure skating though, wasn’t that why they all did it?
Cellbit applauded along with the rest of the rink as Mouse ended her program, breathing heavily once the dramatic music faded out. She raised her arms above her head, waving to the audience once more as she bowed to the judges, a huge smile on her face as she did so. There were loud cheers that echoed over the sound of applause from a corner of the rink where Cellbit could see green banners and blankets being lifted over people's heads as they cheered.
‘That must be where GGN is sitting.’ Cellbit thought to himself as Mouse skated off the ice to the Kiss N Cry to wait. The Kiss N Cry was decorated in golden stars and colorful banners signed with good luck messages from the team that skated at the EIP, Cellbit couldn’t make out what they said from where he sat in the stands but somewhere in the back of his head he recognized the fact that in a few hours he will be where Mouse was sitting currently, jacket over her shoulders as she tried to catch her breath, waiting anxiously for her score.
“Look there's Jaiden!” Charlie blurted out, drawing Cellbits attention away from the girl with the pink hair fidgeting with her hands and dress at the Kiss N Cry. There on the other side of the rink stood Jaiden, the death glare on her face that alerted the team that she was anxious. Her makeup was bold and dark, everything that the Bolas reputation called for. The dark red of her dress stood out against the white and blue that surrounded her, drawing eyes to her even when she wasn't on the ice. Next to her stood Phoenix, a similar deadpan expression on her face. Phoenix was wearing the team jacket that all of the Bolas members owned, the dark red name embroidered onto the chest couldn’t be seen from where Cellbit sat but he knew it was there. It was on his own jacket, on Jaidens, on Phils, each of them had the branding that was the Bolas name on their jackets.
Phoenix leaned into Jaidens space and whispered something in her ear, pointing at where the rest of the team sat as she did so. Jaidens face hardened as she glared at her teammates. Cellbit knew she didn’t really mean it, nor was she really glaring at them, but he felt the chill that ran down his back when her eyes landed on him. They only lingered on him for a few seconds before they looked away but her eyes were so sharp that it felt like they were talons clawing down his back with hatred.
Phoenix always did that. Held the rest of the team above each other's heads as a way to push them to do their best. “You don’t want to disappoint your friends now do you?” “You really want to be the worst on the team?” Shit like that that stuck with them throughout their programs. Cellbit knew each and every one of them had heard things like that from both Crystal and Phoenix before competitions and even when they knew the two of them were going to say things like that it always got under their skin. Did it work and make them skate faster and stronger? Yes. Did any of them but Cellbit appreciate the words that crawled under their skin like bugs? No.
Cellbit didn’t like the words that were whispered into his ear before he skated, quite the opposite. But he did know the effect they left on him did help him with competition. His anxieties being spoken out loud solidified the need to prove them wrong and come out on top. He didn’t know what was going to be said this competition, usually for Cellbit it was weirdly personal. The team had promised to never talk about what their coaches told them before the skated, only to avoid talking about anything personal that could be used against them in front of the two coaches. To be fair to the team, none of them could really remember the words spoken even if they tried, the adrenaline of the competition and cold stinging their skin usually took mental priority over the mindless words used to hype them up in a sense. Cellbit only remembered the feeling he felt after the words were whispered into his ears.
The announcer's voice blasting over the speakers pulled Cellbit out of his staring match with the crack in the ice in front of Jaiden. Not fast enough to understand the points that were being read before the entire rink (mostly where the GGN sat) burst into cheers but Cellbit saw Mouse standing up and jumping while she hugged their coaches (Cellbit could almost make out the purple bows of Elena if he squinted.) and jumped around the Kiss N Cry. It must have been a personal record if that was their reaction.
“Man, that's amazing for her first skate back.” Phil said with pride in his voice as he spoke.
“First skate back?”
Phil nodded, “She has a chronic illness that had a really bad flare up that was on and off for the past two years so she couldn’t compete until this year.”
Cellbit looked back at Mouse, taking in her continued excitement as she hopped off the podium and headed backstage to the hall that led to the locker rooms. She looked nothing like the girl who had just skated to such dramatic music. Her smile didn’t die down at all as she walked away and Cellbit felt something pang in his heart watching it. He didn’t know where the hurt was coming from, she was happy that she got a score that showed off her work. She wasn’t upset about going first and being kicked off the leaderboard as soon as the next person skated. She was just happy to skate.
Shaking his head, Cellbit tuned back into the announcer calling out Jaidens name.
Notes:
the following notes have been added to over the last 3 weeks:
also new author curse: my brother keeps taking the computer i use to write with him to sleepovers and he somehow gets away with 3-4 day long sleepovers- and another new author curse is personally i think i’m being haunted by like the ghost of a squirrel or smth- my downstairs is like full of squeaking and like chips and groaning of wood and shit and it sounds like a haunted forest but in my white mom pinterest board modern greyscale living room- i’m lowkey terrified
new authors update: my sleep schedule. it’s somehow gone back to “tokyo time” aka when i stay awake till the sun rises and then i go to bed and sleep till sunset what the fuck
UPDATE ON THE NOISE: Something is living in the walls. :) I am very normal about this and not at all terrified. :)
ANOTHER UPDATE: its bats. There's bats living in my walls. We can't get them out till august because they are under federal law. What the fuck. They're so loud. I can't sleep.
Update on the bats: one of them died- we still can't remove them- the squeaking is gone but the smell is awful- people say the smell will go in two weeks but i don't wanna wait that long- they died in the wall next to the shower- its like a battle to shower gang this is terrible
another update: i started writing this chapter then had to go on a family vacation for the fourth of july for 5 days 😭 got to bring my friend tho so that was fun- but anyways as we were packing up to leave my mom told me her mom fell and is in the hospital (i don’t care we hate her and are no contact) and that my uncle who tried to blow up a bar two years ago (he’s crazy) showed up at the bar her and my family was at last night and she had a panic attack and had to leave so we had to rush outta there- i’m doing fine but this means i will be stuck in my room avoiding my mom as soon as we get home cuz she’s kinda a ticking time bomb rn (for good reason) hopefully i can get back to writing consistently tho! oh! i also joined art fight! my account is StarryLemonAid :3 i’m pretty slow since i’m working on a bunch of stuff rn but ill try and revenge!
oh and also i joined a dance group- i got invited by someone ive idolized since i was 13- were performing in exactly a week- were perfoming spicy by aespa- im so excited
everyone wish me luck i survive till the next update lmaoooo
Chapter 21
Summary:
“Up next is Baghera Jones, also representing the Bolas Figure Skating Club.”
Yeah Cellbit was absolutely going to lose his voice by the end of the day. He could make fun of Foolish for doing the same but he loved cheering for his friends more than anything. It was one of his favorite parts of competitions. Plus Baghera was literally his ride or die, why wouldn’t he cheer as loud as he humanly can for her? He should feel some sympathy for the announcer who was getting drowned out once again as Baghera waved to the crowd. She was always someone who could get the best attention with her blonde hair, that was pulled up into her favorite half up half down style, to her bright smile as she giggled and made heart hands with random people in the stands. He couldn’t help himself when she turned to where the rest of them were sitting. As soon as she made eye contact with him, Cellbit flipped her off with a smile on his face. She glared at him and rolled her eyes before finally skating back to her beginning spot.
Notes:
im not dead yet chat!!! also this was supposed to be a lot longer but i felt like i needed to post smth before i died for a month again so keep a look out for the next chapter!!!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
EggIslandIce is Live! EIP Senior Dramatic 20XX:
GGN - Ironmouse https://youtu.be/Utpf-9zBgEg?si=4eDX49n6oWVZ-Vot
Bolas - Jaiden https://youtu.be/Zjc2Mxh-0iM?si=AQ_0fnfEvD7UDx3u
Bolas- Baghera https://youtu.be/dbYCwvFVmiQ?si=z-ugz8T_S_qGjlY-
GGN - Bagi https://youtu.be/s_-Pia_QeaE?si=SS6vazz4sra4zt_6
Soulfire - Tina https://youtu.be/wCrI5vZkcDE?si=BPr4PAZ-WY-PTMWs
Soulfire - Niki https://youtu.be/El86mQZTbLE?si=dg19-mCNf2POVN5f
“Now presenting Jaiden Anymations, Jaiden is from Bolas Figure Skating Club and is represented by coach Phoenix Watcher-” The announcer was drowned out as Jaiden skated out onto the ice and the rest of the Bolas team began cheering loudly. Cellbit winced when he heard Foolish’s voice crack as he screamed for their friend. He was going to complain about that later. He could basically already hear Foolish whining about it once he realizes he fucked up his throat.
Something weird stuck out to Cellbit about the cheering. He didn’t recognize all of the voices. He could separate his teammates voices but there were extra voices that seemed to mix into the screaming Cellbit was participating in. It felt like the cheers were not just coming from the remaining four that was the Bolas team, they were coming from across the rink as well. Cellbit glanced around, trying to figure out if they were pity cheers or not. Normally people who were just there to watch the competition clapped for a skater but that was usually it. Not the screaming that Cellbit was hearing. Cellbit strained his ears just slightly, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from when he noticed them. The GGN team were on their feet, the scarves waving for Jaiden as well the same way they had been waved for IronMouse as she reached the middle of the rink.
Jaiden had an expression on her face that would look like she was filled with rage to anyone but her friends as she stopped in front of the wall, the smokey eye Cellbit knew her and Baghera did meticulously this morning making her look as dangerous as she probably felt. The red of her dress and gloves stood out against the blue tones of the rink and the bright white of the ice she was staring at like it had caused her harm. Cellbit remembered helping her and Baghera pick out their dresses on early morning practice. All three of them got so frustrated trying to find a non-christmas red dress Cellbit almost threw the phone they were using to shop onto the ice. The red outfit curse was something each and every Bolas member had to deal with. The Bolas rink had a rule, every Bolas member wore red for every single one of their performances. It was their team colors and they were expected to prove to others that they were something to be feared. Crystal once said that they looked like a “competent team for once” when they stood together for pictures like they all didn’t know it was another ego thing like the other random rules their rink had. (You could dye your hair if you really wanted to, but you had to give a heads up and get approval before you did it.) The only ones who didn’t have to wear red were the younger team members like Lullah and Chayanne but once they tested high enough they would be required to wear the team color as per the rules.
Cellbit watched as Jaiden skated to her starting spot against the wall, right next to the judges. He could see the glare she sent them and felt the shiver go down his spine as she leaned back, flexing her back muscles. He knew the team liked to joke about having past lives but Cellbit truly believed Jaiden was a bird or something related to one in her past life with the way she had absolute control over her back and shoulders, it was one of his favorite parts of his friend when she performed.
Jaidens music started and it was like a switch was turned off in her brain. Cellbit could see her posture straighten as she followed the music around the rink, her dress sparkling as she did so. It was something about the way that she carried herself as the music blasted from the speakers hidden somewhere above them that made Cellbit proud that she was his friend. He knew the others on the team felt the same.
“Go birdy go..” Cellbit could barely register what Charlie had whispered to himself as Jaiden did one of her signature moves in her first step sequence. It was something that had tripped him, Foolish and Charlie up when she tried to teach it to them. Phil and Baghera got it down pretty quickly, only fueling Cellbits “bird people theory” as they liked to joke.
Cellbit watched his teammate fly across the ice with baited breath, wincing when she landed a jump a little two hard, cheers leaving his mouth involuntarily when she made it through a sequence he had watched her struggle with a million times before.
It was quick enough to be invisible to anyone else but something caught Cellbits eye as Jaiden skated towards where he and the team were sitting, a certain gleam in her eye that was aimed at a little kid who was sitting near the plexiglass separating the stands from the ice. The kid was wearing a dark blue blanket as a cape that fell off as the kid jumped up and cheered when Jaiden got closer to him only to be tugged back into his seat by another kid that sat next to him. The other kid was wearing a red and white hat that the kid with the blanket pulled off his head after he attempted to pull him back down. Jaiden smiled slightly at the two boys before she schooled her face again and went into another jump, a lot closer to the wall than she was supposed to be. She was showing off for the two boys. It was working as the two boys went absolutely wild once she landed her combo jump in front of them. Cellbit couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at the two who were now both jumping and cheering, grabbing onto each other like crazed fans as Jaiden skated away into Cellbits favorite part of this program.
Cellbit had got to help choreograph the more instrumental section of the program, the two of them spending at least 2 weeks of practice changing and tweaking parts of the sequence. Phoenix and Crystal had also helped of course, along with Bonnie criticizing them on the arms in a way that actually ended up being helpful, but it was mostly Cellbit and Jaiden. Cellbit watched, pride filling his chest, as Jaiden executed the section perfectly. She even added an extra twizzle for flair towards the end. As the music picked back up again so did the crowd, clapping along to the beat like they had for Mouse. Cellbit felt his face break out into a smile as he and the others joined in the rhythmic clapping.
“Lets fucking go thats my best friend!” Foolish cried as Jaiden finished her ending spin with as much drama that she could muster. The exhaustion that finally crashed into her was only obvious by the quickness of her chest as she tried to catch her breath. Cellbit was internally thankful that Foolish probably couldn’t be heard over the crowd, Crystal didn’t take too kindly to them screaming swear words at competition and he was not in the mood to have to do one of her dumb workouts right before he competed.)
Cellbit cackled as he watched Jaiden look towards where the four of them were sitting and roll her eyes before skating off the ice to meet Phoenix at the Kiss N Cry. Phoenix looked proud for once at the performance Jaiden had just given, grabbing the teen into a side hug as they walked up the steps.
As soon as Jaiden reached the middle of the platform that was decorated she turned and sent an excited wave in the direction of the Bolas members, smiling so wide it looked like it hurt.
“Damn she’s really excited to see us-” Cellbit quipped before Phil laughed at him.
“Nah mate,” Phil shook his head, “Her son is here.”
Cellbit thought he almost gave himself whiplash at the speed he turned around, looking at Phil with a face so confused Charlie even started laughing at him. “Her, what now?”
“Dude how has he never come up-” Charlie laughed. “You don’t know Bobby?”
“Who the fuck is Bobby?”
“You’ve been our friend for 4 years how do you-” Foolish started before being interrupted by Phil.
“Leave him alone guys you didn’t know Techno was my brother for 5 years Foolish.”
Foolish spluttered, “Hey woah- He literally doesn’t live with you-”
“Yes he does?”
“Ignoring Foolish living up to his name and being stupid,” Cellbit sighed, “Circle back, who is Bobby?”
“You know how Jaiden used to live near that one intersection with the coffee shop on the side?” Cellbit nodded, trying to encourage Charlie to keep explaining.
“Bobby is the owner of the coffee shop's son and Jaiden used to babysit him all the time, still does.”
“He’s also Roiers youngest cousin!” Foolish said before going back to arguing with Phil.
“Why would the kid Jaiden babysits ever come up in conversation dude-” Cellbit sighed, “No shit I didn’t know about him.”
“It might be a different school thing too. Our highschool is right next to Bobby's elementary school so she usually goes to pick him up right from class.” Charlie shrugged.
“Shhhh!” Phil suddenly interrupted, “They just handed the announcer the score shut the fuck up!”
The trio shut up as soon as Phil mentioned the score, waiting with baited breath as the announcer picked up the mic with a soft hum coming from the speakers.
“The score for Jaiden Anymations of Bolas Figure Skating is….” Cellbit cursed every god he could think of as his anxiety made his heart speed up so fast he could swear everyone could hear it.
“121.03 points!” Cellbit immediately started jumping when the number hit his ears. That was a new personal best for this program!
“Lets gooooooooo!” Charlie screamed, voice mixing into the echoing cheers around the rink.
Cellbit knew he was already as wide as he could but he could feel his face stretch impossibly wider as he watched Jaiden jump around the Kiss N Cry. He was so proud of his friend. He wished he could go run down and give her a hug but that would have to wait till the zamboni came out as the halfway mark. He looked over to where he knew Baghera was waiting for her turn and saw her fighting the urge to go run to Jaiden as well, her hands twitching as she walked towards the opening in the wall where she was about to step on the ice. They would absolutely be celebrating in one of their hotel rooms later tonight after Phoenix and Crystal went to bed.
Glancing back down to where the kid–Bobby he now knew–was sitting, Cellbit watched as a blur of dark blue and black ran towards the exit Cellbit knew led to the back hallway of the locker rooms. His friend with the hat scrambled behind him in an attempt to catch up, grabbing his hat that had fallen to the floor and shoving it onto his head as he ran. Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh at the way the two ran, almost cartoonish.
It took a while for the teens to settle down but once Jaiden was out of sight the cheers quieted down enough for the announcer to talk again.
“Up next is Baghera Jones, also representing the Bolas Figure Skating Club.”
Yeah Cellbit was absolutely going to lose his voice by the end of the day. He could make fun of Foolish for doing the same but he loved cheering for his friends more than anything. It was one of his favorite parts of competitions. Plus Baghera was literally his ride or die, why wouldn’t he cheer as loud as he humanly can for her? He should feel some sympathy for the announcer who was getting drowned out once again as Baghera waved to the crowd. She was always someone who could get the best attention with her blonde hair, that was pulled up into her favorite half up half down style, to her bright smile as she giggled and made heart hands with random people in the stands. He couldn’t help himself when she turned to where the rest of them were sitting. As soon as she made eye contact with him, Cellbit flipped her off with a smile on his face. She glared at him and rolled her eyes before finally skating back to her beginning spot.
“Is that Jaidens dress or am I going crazy?” Foolish muttered to Cellbit.
Cellbit nodded, “Yeah it’s hers, we couldn’t find a good one that shipped in time so Jaiden let Bags borrow hers.”
Foolish hummed, “Ok that’s what I thought, I knew I recognized it somewhere.”
The dress was something that Cellbit knew the girls had agreed to share since Jaiden bought it, Baghera had told him during lunch during the whole debacle. The dress itself fit Bagheras program the best than anything the duo could find, being used for Jaidens emotional program last season. It was red–obviously–but it was a cooler red, less bold than their other costumes. The dress also had a flower theme that carried itself throughout the outfit, matching with the few accessories Baghera had put into her hair.
Cellbit huffed in quiet laughter as he saw Baghera flinch at the cold ice on her knees as she kneeled down into the first pose of her program, mentally taking a note to go back to the EIP channel and take a screenshot of the dumb face his friend had just made later. Just because he loved watching his friends skate didn’t mean he didn’t get to make fun of them for skating in general.
The music started and a woman's voice echoed sweetly through the speakers that surrounded the rink as Baghera reached in front of her, hands grasping for an imaginary person in front of her. If Cellbit had helped Jaiden with her program and it showed through the artistry than Charlie's touches shown through Bagheras program as she twisted her body and stretched in a way that echoed Charlies signature moves.
Cellbit once asked why Baghera picked a French song for her program, especially for one that was so important as a skater as a Dramatic program. Watching Baghera skate so calmly and so fluidly her answer was coming back to him. She knew the words, she could tell a story with it, that was what she told him when he asked for the first time at practice one day. Later at one of their weekly sleepovers, she whispered it was actually because she missed the language and she loved that she could skate to music that reminded her of her home and share it with her friends. Baghera never really talked about being an exchange student, none of them did. Some had been here longer than others but they all felt some disconnect. It was something they didn’t really like to talk about, like their past, so watching Baghera choose to skate to a song that a year ago she would fight Cellbit for even suggesting was nice. Maybe they were all healing better than they noticed.
Cellbit shook the thoughts out of his head and focused back on his friend, watching her as she flowed into her first jump perfectly. Cellbit sucked in a breath as the scratch of toe picks against ice could be heard as Baghera jumped, only letting it out once she landed perfectly. He was always anxious when they jumped, knowing one wrong move, one slight turn, could ruin everything.
The music picked up slightly and so did Baghera, the two working in tandem to tell a story. She skated almost like she was running through an empty ballroom. Dramatic programs were not most people's favorite nor were they really the most important when it came to competitions but at a competition like ICP they felt like the only thing any skater was waiting for. Dramatic programs had less restrictions on them, jumps were still required but the points they gave didn’t matter as much. ICP was notorious for their judges always telling skaters they just “didn’t seem like they were enjoying their craft that much”, facial expressions were points that could save you from second place.
Baghera spun in the middle of the ice, grabbing onto her foot and bringing it above her head before dropping down into a sit spin. Cellbit could hear the sharp intake of breath Phil took next to him as Baghera switched feet, waiting until she was balanced enough before bringing her foot next to her ear. A Y spin. Cellbit hated them. They were impressive and once you could do them it was more likely than not you were never going to escape them but so many things could go wrong. Both of your hands were above your head and you were spinning on one foot, skates were heavy and one of your arms was focused on not letting your foot drop, making the attention you usually kept on being balanced falter. Cellbit remembered when he was younger he attempted a Y spin and ended up falling out of it, cutting his hand on his skate as he went down. Knowing Baghera had her step sequence after this spin made Cellbit want to dig his nails into his palm. Step sequences were huge point getters in dramatic programs and Cellbit knew Bagheras had a lot of small things she would need to be completely balanced for.
Luckily if she was dizzy, she hid it well as she exited her spin and went straight into her step sequence. Dancing around the ice the glitter on her dress reflecting off the lights with her smile matching the glitter. This was her favorite part of her program, just as the jumps were Jaidens. You could tell from the way both of their smiles widened as they skated, adding extra flair to moves they spent hours on perfecting.
Cellbit laughed when Charlie couldn’t help but let out a cheer when Baghera did a knee slide that wasn’t originally in the program. It was something the two had been working on but Bags had been struggling with since Charlie got to skate with pants so the cold didn’t affect him as much as it did when it came through her tights. There was another move that had replaced the slide once Phoenix discovered she couldn’t do it in her tights at their dress rehearsal practice. Looking down at where Phoenix was standing, back by the boards after Jaiden had gone into the back, he could see her face twist into something that almost looked…proud.
She got up without any struggle and flowed right into her next moves, spinning and twisting across the ice, dancing once again with a smile on her face. Even if she didn’t win, the success of doing a move she was nervous for was cause to celebrate anyways. Cellbit could do nothing but hope that he did as well as his teammates when it was his turn to dance around the ice.
Cellbit could almost see Baghera laugh as she jumped, higher than he had seen her do in a while, no longer dragged down by any thoughts about the outside world. Just her, her music and cold ice. If he was closer he could probably see the way her eyes sparkled matching the eyeshadow she had put on in the dressing room.
“Wait, if she did the slide there will she-” Charlie's voice was cut off by the music and the cheers from the team and those around them as Baghera did another slide across the ice. Lifting her arms as she elegantly spun on her knees before standing up and going straight into another small turn before skating into the wall, the same way that Jaiden had started her own program, lifting her foot above her head. Her body almost turned into a straight line as she stretched before pushing herself off the wall into another series of turns.
The cheers were louder now, the music calling for them the same way Iron Mouses music called for them as it sped up. Cellbit joined in with the cheers as Baghera stood up into a spread eagle. Not using her feet to push at all ash she leaded back onto her blades, showing off the extreme control and balance that you needed to hold the position for as long as Bagheras choreography called for. Cellbit yelled and clapped as she went from the move right into a jump, no intro, no speed to help her up, and landing it perfectly.
The energy did not die down either, especially not from Charlie as she did another spin slide, he jumped and yelled for his friend as she finished her program strong. Cellbit applauded as she spun, laughing at his teammate for going absolutely crazy in the corner of his eye. Just like Jaiden, a child sitting across the rink caught his eye. Cheering almost as crazy as Charlie for his friend. Jumping up and down with her hands above her head, holding what looked like a handmade drawing in one of her hands like a little poster. Cellbit couldn’t make out the art that was on it since she was across the rink from him but he could see the light blue scarf that is tied around her neck.
‘Why was this SoulFire kid cheering for Baghera?’
Cellbit looked away from the kid, deciding he shouldn't be mean to a kid that hasn’t done anything to him, even was cheering for his friend! Just because he didn’t have a good history with the team the kid was on.
Cellbit winced as his voice cracked as he screamed for his best friend. That was absolutely gonna hurt later.
Baghera skated off the ice, waving to everyone around her. Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh when she tripped because she was spinning so much to make sure she waved at everyone. (Another thing he internally noted to go back to the live stream and record to make fun of her later. You can never have too much blackmail with your friends.) Phoenix gave her the same awkward side hug that she gave Jaiden as the two of them walked up to the Kiss N Cry. Before she turned to the seats where the Bolas members were sitting, she sent a bunch of hearts and waves backstage. Cellbit could hear a voice he recognized cheering for her as well, echoing up from the backstage area. He was surprised Jaiden got away with not being kept in the locker rooms, but also not really. She was extremely convincing when she needed to be.
“Dude they’re both doing so well,” Foolish sighed, “I’m worried for when I have to skate now.”
Cellbit laughed, dragging a hand down his face, “No actually, I’m gonna embarrass the hell out of myself I swear.”
“You’re gonna be fine.” Phil patted Cellbits back as he spoke.
“Or not. You could trip and die.” Charlie shrugged.
“Charlie!”
“What this goes for all of us.” Slime lifted his hands in defeat, “Like I ate shit climbing up here earlier, I could die.”
Cellbit rolled his eyes, “If anything you’d die from trying to do a flip that was literally banned for a reason.”
“I literally landed that!”
“Yeah but how many more times can you do that weirdo.” Foolish smacked the back of Charlie's head.
“I’m literally so consistent with it, unlike you and your triple axel.”
“Oh fuck off.”
“Oh my god, shut up, they're announcing the score.” Phil slapped his hands over both Charlie and Foolishs mouths.
“The score for Baghera Jones of Bolas Figure Skating Club is….”
Cellbit crossed his fingers, waiting for the score.
“103.7!”
The cheers grew louder and louder as Baghera jumped around on the Kiss N Cry. Jaiden had given up on staying hidden in the corner and had run onto the Kiss N Cry with Baghera. It wasn’t as good as Jaiden but it was still an amazing score, another personal record broken and replaced by a higher score.
“Let's go!!!” Cellbit screamed with Charlie, the two also jumping around while Phil kept laughing at the two of them. Foolish had his phone out while yelling, sending voice notes to the group chat of them cheering for their teammates. Bolas had skated amazingly and they had broken personal records. The Bolas girls didn’t have anything left to prove, they were amazing skaters and that's all that matters for them.
Notes:
this was supposed to go up yesterday lmao but I had a performance so I got busy practicing with that- also dont forget to comment!!! i miss talking to you guys lol! Ill also try to be more active on tumblr if you guys wanna find me over there!!! :DDD see you guys next timeeeeeeeeee
Chapter 22: so um. hi :')
Summary:
THIS FIC IS #NOT CANCELED
Chapter Text
heyyyyyyyyyyyyy
yall know the trope of something dying and them coming back slightly different but better???
um yeah im doing that with this fic lmaooooo
also i finally figured out how to put images in ao3
anyways i hope you guys enjoy the new one as much as this one bc im working my ass off to try and get it finished for yall
Pages Navigation
IWishYouWereHere (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 02:28AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 03:31AM UTC
Comment Actions
Endani_live on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 02:50AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 03:32AM UTC
Comment Actions
Drew_Dr0p on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 04:22AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Mon 25 Mar 2024 01:09PM UTC
Comment Actions
stairwaytohaven on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 07:59AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Mon 25 Mar 2024 01:10PM UTC
Comment Actions
qredbow on Chapter 1 Sun 24 Mar 2024 01:03PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Mon 25 Mar 2024 01:11PM UTC
Comment Actions
minttea_oo on Chapter 1 Mon 25 Mar 2024 10:02PM UTC
Comment Actions
astro_skies on Chapter 1 Tue 09 Apr 2024 08:14PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Tue 09 Apr 2024 11:28PM UTC
Comment Actions
Walrus (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 13 Apr 2024 08:51PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Sat 13 Apr 2024 10:53PM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 1 Wed 17 Apr 2024 03:04PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Wed 17 Apr 2024 03:08PM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 1 Wed 17 Apr 2024 07:15PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 17 Apr 2024 07:25PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Wed 17 Apr 2024 08:04PM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 1 Wed 17 Apr 2024 08:29PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Thu 18 Apr 2024 01:59PM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 1 Thu 18 Apr 2024 02:22PM UTC
Comment Actions
Walruses8me on Chapter 1 Tue 23 Apr 2024 08:23PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 1 Wed 24 Apr 2024 01:12AM UTC
Comment Actions
stairwaytohaven on Chapter 2 Sun 31 Mar 2024 08:25PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Sun 31 Mar 2024 08:37PM UTC
Comment Actions
astro_skies on Chapter 2 Tue 09 Apr 2024 08:00PM UTC
Comment Actions
ThatsNicadenic on Chapter 2 Sun 31 Mar 2024 09:33PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 01:05PM UTC
Comment Actions
IWishYouWereHere (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 02:29AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 01:08PM UTC
Comment Actions
Drew_Dr0p on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 04:18AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 01:07PM UTC
Comment Actions
qredbow on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 04:34AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 01:06PM UTC
Comment Actions
qredbow on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 03:22PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 01 Apr 2024 04:49PM UTC
Comment Actions
attunedz on Chapter 2 Wed 03 Apr 2024 09:32PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Thu 04 Apr 2024 12:26PM UTC
Comment Actions
Walrus (Guest) on Chapter 2 Sun 14 Apr 2024 12:41AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 15 Apr 2024 01:13AM UTC
Comment Actions
Walrus (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 15 Apr 2024 01:25AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Mon 15 Apr 2024 02:39AM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 2 Thu 18 Apr 2024 01:20AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 2 Thu 18 Apr 2024 01:53PM UTC
Comment Actions
Alix_Fiction on Chapter 2 Thu 18 Apr 2024 02:19PM UTC
Last Edited Thu 18 Apr 2024 02:27PM UTC
Comment Actions
qredbow on Chapter 3 Wed 03 Apr 2024 08:05AM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 3 Wed 03 Apr 2024 12:44PM UTC
Comment Actions
witiradokja on Chapter 3 Wed 03 Apr 2024 01:29PM UTC
Comment Actions
StaryMooshi on Chapter 3 Thu 04 Apr 2024 12:27PM UTC
Comment Actions
Pages Navigation