Not

by MurderDronesGoober75

Summary:

Knife, the self proclaimed jerk. He loved disobeying the rules. It was a hobby, until he eventually got sick of being kicked out of schools every five months. It's his Junior year, and he tried so hard to make this school last, but as fate would have it, he got kicked out. His mom had no job, no money, so his cousin, Microphone, and her dads invited them to stay. Surprisingly, Mic's school took him. There, he meets a girl who will change his life along with some real friends. But something happened at this school, something that has changed the people around him. Something that might change him too.

Notes:

This is my first posted fic and my friend kept telling me to post so eat up! I'll add more tags as I continue, I have about 5 chapters rn and I'll post them soon trust. And yes, the title is the song Not by Big Thief, all chapters will be based on songs

Chapter 1: There's Something Happening

 

It was relatively nice for late November. The sky was a bright blue, clouds white as snow floating around with no rush. The trees still held their red and orange leaves, not quite ready to let them go just yet. The grass was a healthy beautiful green, mostly due to the care put in it by the city. A nice warm breeze traveled in the air, making the trees and grass sway. A lovely day indeed. It was rare for nice days like these being so close to December, no one wanted to waste a day like this staying inside or doing work. Unfortunately, school was still in session.

One school in question was Inanimate High School. It was the most preferred school in the city, for a lot of reasons. Inanimate High School tended to have the highest testing scores compared to other districts, however the school focused a lot more on the student’s well-being than their grades which was another reason it was preferred not only by parents but by the students themselves. This caused a lot less misbehavior from students with very little exceptions; not everyone is perfect, as they say. Students from all over Inanimate City attended this school, this created a variety of different students that attended.

The halls of Inanimate High were pretty peaceful and quiet despite the Inanimate Middle 8th graders that were touring the school today. Their excitement softly echoed throughout the halls. Other than that, it was a pretty normal Thursday. Nothing out of sorts. Amidst one of the only empty halls at the moment, an older student, Dough, had exited the bathroom. He wasn’t a noteworthy person to say the least, the type of person that you wouldn’t really know existed until he spoke. Dough fixed his plain checkered vest as he exited, making his way back to his class. Nothing interesting really, just a nobody roaming the halls. That was until he saw someone.

A tall person with a white hood over their head stood near a wall, staring at the clock hanging near the ceiling. They weren’t doing anything, just staring. Dough didn’t seem to be weirded or creeped out by it, instead opting to be a rule enforcer and calling the person out.

“Uh, excuse me, sir. Wearing hoods is not allowed, you know? It’s against the rules. You’ll get in trouble.” Dough called out, trying to sound like he had authority but failing and instead sounding like an annoying teacher's pet.

The tall figure turned to face Dough, their face covered by the hood. “I’m sorry,” The figure spoke, their voice was low and deep but also robotic. They brought their hands up to slowly lift the hoodie off their head, revealing a white and gold MePhone with sharp purple triangle-like shades covering their eyes.

As if on cue, the lockdown alarm started blaring throughout the halls. Dough’s expression turned to one of slight panic. Normally, lockdown drill practices are announced before they happen, so a random one occurring out of nowhere was alarming.

“We, like, need to find somewhere to hide!” Dough told the stranger, to which the stranger laughed.

“No need.” The MePhone spoke, he reached into his jacket and-

BAM!

Chapter 2: Light's Out

Summary:

Meet Knife, the jerk. Wow, it's his first year anniversary of being at this school without getting kicked out! Heh... well fate sure doesn't like him now does it? Turns out the people he thought were friends, weren't actually. What a pity.

Notes:

CHAPTER 2 ALREADY?! WOWZERS!!! EAT UP MY GUYS GALS AND NON-BINARY PALS

Knife grumbled as he watched as kids ran around screaming their heads off. It wasn’t even October yet and the lower classmen were already acting like hooligans. Whatever, only two years left of this place and he was out for good. It honestly surprised him how long he’s lasted at this school, he usually only lasts less than five months.

Knife didn’t have the best track record, to say the least. He was constantly getting into fights and rebelling against staff at school. What could he say, he was a self proclaimed jerk after all. He honestly saw it all as a joke, until it wasn’t. He saw how his mom suffered from having to constantly move and try to convince schools to take him in. Knife loves his mom, he wasn’t afraid to admit it and he didn’t want her to suffer. He promised to try and he did try. He resisted the urge to pick fights with people, but apparently people saw this as a chance to pick fights with him. It was annoying but he promised to restrain himself, but sometimes he just couldn’t help it.

This school, however, hasn’t been that bad. Sure, there are moments but Knife was always able to hold back. This week actually marks one year of being here, a record for him. He didn’t really care though.

“Knife. KNIFE!” A voice yelled. He groaned in response and turned to face the two people standing in front of him. “Have you NOT been paying attention?!” The girl yelled.

Knife had only made two friends in his entire year of being at this school, Poster and Alarm Clock. Knife had stopped trying with friends after the 4th school, it wasn’t like they even lasted long with him moving almost every five months. These two hadn’t steered him wrong yet, even though they were both annoying.

Poster was very… out there, to say the least. She was definitely a talker, and as far as Knife knew, she didn’t have an off switch. He also found she was awful at social cues, not knowing when to back down or out. She was the type to butt into conversations she wasn’t involved in, no matter if they were private or not and if you didn’t let her join in she’d make a scene. Knife doesn’t even remember how he became friends with her.

Then there was Alarm Clock, or AC for short. He was more quiet and reserved, but 100% a know it all. He knew everything about everyone, and wasn’t hesitant to use it against someone if he really wanted to. He was also a teacher's pet, but not the annoying type. He actually hated most of the teachers. AC was the smartest student in the entire school and the most likely to be the reason why the school even has decent overall scoring results.

“Of course he hasn’t.” AC stated, his arms folded behind his back. “Do you seriously think he cares about Jazmin Bean?” Alarm Clock looked Knife up and down in apathy. It’s not like Alarm Clock liked Jazmin Bean either, he just always looked at people like that.

“Her music’s nice, I’m just not a die hard fan.” Knife spoke up, wanting to be heard before Poster starts spitting nonsense, which she’d probably do either way.

“Nah, you just don’t care about anything but yourself.” Poster spat, crossing her arms and looking at Knife with disgust. This caused him to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“I seriously don’t, Poster. I don’t know what gave you that idea.” He shot back, his voice being as calm as he can make it for someone who has a rough, gruff voice.

“No,” AC spoke up, glancing over to Poster with raised eyebrows, “No, she’s right, Knife. You are probably one of the most selfish people I know.”

“See, Knife? Even Mr. Buzzkill over here agrees.” Poster pointed to AC with her thumb, her statement earning a look of disgust from the former. “You, my dear friend, are selfish.”

Knife’s eyes were wide with offense, where was all this coming from?! Him and his friends bantered for sure, but this was more direct, more personal. “Wha- What the hell guys!? Where is this coming from?” He demanded.

Poster scoffed with a smirk. “Consider this our happy one year of not getting kicked out, Knife.” Her expression then turned into one of disgust. “I thought you were fun. That’s the whole reason I even talked to you in the first place.”

Knifes’ brows furrowed in anger. He should have known.

“Not once have I seen a fight, been asked to skip class, ditch, vandalize, torment. Nothing!” Poster complained, counting fingers as she listed everything she said.

“Wow, is that all you expect from me? To constantly get in trouble?!” He yelled, catching the attention of a few students.

“Everyone in this school expects it from you, Knife. Don’t act like you don’t know.” Alarm Clock chimes in, stepping up to Knife, glaring at him with disgust.

“I know it’s what everyone expects from me. I hear it. All. The. Time.” Knife steps closer as well, being face to face with Alarm Clock, glaring down at the slightly shorter man.

“Then why not give them what they want?” Alarm Clock challenged, a smirk on his face.

“You don’t intimidate me, you know why I’m not going to. I have to make this school last.” Knife said lowly, people were starting to whisper to their friends, giving the scene more attention than he wanted. This wasn’t even anyone’s business.

“‘Cause you’re a mama’s boy?” Poster spat out loudly, causing a vein to appear on Knife’s forehead. Yes, he was a mama’s boy. He was a boy who loved his mom and his mom loved him, so by default he was a mama’s boy. It wasn’t a bad thing. Who knew a term that meant no harm could be turned into an insult in less than a second. Knife felt his fists ball up as he became more angry.

Knife opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he noticed the crowd that grew, seeing students pulling out their phones and whispering to themselves. He took a long breath, his fists unfurling as he calmed. “If you want a reaction, you aren’t getting one.” He spoke firmly. He ignored all of the groans and complaints from the crowd as he turned to leave. Someone, however, didn’t seem to take too kindly to that as they ran towards him, shoving him forward. Knife stumbled forward with an ACK, he caught himself before he could fall over. He turned his head to see Poster standing only a few feet away from him with an insane grin. “What are you doing?!”

“If you aren’t going to give them what they want, I may as well!” With that she shoved him again, to which he stumbled again, catching himself better than the last. He would have fought back but that would mean giving everyone what they wanted.

“I’m not fighting you.” He yelled to her, wanting to be heard over the shouts of the excited mob surrounding them. She didn’t listen though, running at him to throw a punch at him. He grabbed her shoulders to keep her arms away from him but she lifted her knee into his stomach which caused him to pull back in pain. He watched as she laughed in triumph. He didn’t have time for this. He turned away to leave. She had other plans. She ran back at him again and his patience was growing thin. By the time she reached him, he turned back, grabbed her shoulders and threw her in front of him.

Knife opted to leave while she was still on the ground but stopped to look back at her when the crowd went quiet. His eyes widened as he laid eyes on her. Her right wrist looked sprain and her nose was broken, blood spilling out. He hadn’t meant to throw her that hard. He wanted to reach out but was halted when a teacher burst through the crowd, and ofcourse it was Mrs. Groscar.

“What is going on here?!” She yelled as she threw herself into the circle. A gasp left her lips as she saw Poster, who was now crying in a couple of girls’ arms. Mrs. Groscar’s gaze then found Knife and her brows furrowed in anger, by then he knew that he was screwed.

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed! Chapter 3 be neigh 😈

Chapter 3: Over & Over

Summary:

Knife is now in the principal's office for 'allegedly' starting a fight with Poster. What's going to happen to him? I wonder ☝️🤓

Notes:

OHHHH yeah chapter 3. EAT UP!! For those wondering, yes ships will be coming in a few chapters (Tacomic tension starts chapter 6 trust) I'm just cooking it up for y'all. HEAVY ANGST SOON!!!!

Knife groaned for what seemed like the millionth time since he arrived at the principal’s office over half an hour ago. His mom had already been called and he was left alone waiting outside the principal’s office till she arrived. This was a disaster, he had gotten in trouble again and it just had to be on the one year mark of him being at this school. Just great.

Knife looked up at the clock and crossed his arms as his leg started to bounce. As if on cue, the door to the office opened as his mom stepped inside. She looked exhausted and that made everything so much worse for Knife.

“Ma, I-”

“Stop,” She shushed him as she took a seat next to him, her voice sounded stern but also heartbroken. “We’ll talk about this later.”

The door to the principal’s office swung open and the two were beckoned inside. Knife let his mom walk in first before he stepped in and sat beside her in one of the two chairs in front of Mr. Zoetrope’s desk.

“Honestly not surprised, Knife.” The latter said, looking down at the file lying open on his desk. “Been waiting for the time I’d find you in here.” These words caused Knife to growl lowly, to which his mom pressed her shoe on his to tell him to back down.

“Let’s just get to the chase shall we?” He proposed, shutting the file and looking up at Knife. “You’re expelled.”

Knife’s mom couldn’t do anything now as he screamed and agitated, “WHAT?!”

“Quiet boy!” Mrs. Groscar yelled, slamming a hand down on Mr. Zoetrope’s desk.

Knife scoffed in anger. “I didn’t even start it! She ran at me first, I only threw her down so I’d have time to leave!” He yelled in defense, this was unbelievable.

“Unfortunately for you, that’s not what others have to say.” The principal said, opening a notepad to read the contents. “Your friend Alarm Clock has definitely been the most helpful with the events.” Knife could feel his eye twitch, and this is why he didn’t make friends. Mr. Zoetrope cleared his throat. “Alarm Clock said, and I quote, ‘Knife, Poster, and I were chatting, you know, the usual. We were simply exchanging light hearted banter, opting to not joke about anything too deep as to not cause any unintentional hurt. Well, Knife must have had a temper because the moment Poster said ‘ mama’s boy’ to refer to his love for his mom, he must’ve snapped. Maybe it was because he hates his mom or he is ashamed for his love for her,’”

Knife whipped his head to his mom, irritation rising as he saw her eyes become glassy. “‘Doesn’t matter what it was, he started throwing punches to which she tried to block, but of course, she never was strong enough to go against Knife.’” Mr. Zoetrope was quiet for a moment longer after he finished reading, seemingly rereading it to himself. He hummed, set the notepad down, and looked at the Knife.

“That is a lie.” Knife said, his voice low to prevent himself from yelling. “She called me a ‘Mama’s Boy’ yes, but she used it as an insult. She was begging me to fight! She ran for me first I swear!” Knife couldn’t help himself, his voice rising into a yell as he tried to defend himself.

“Maybe that would be more believable if your track record wasn’t already in shambles, Mr. Knife.” Mrs. Groscar spoke up, looking at Knife like he was utter filth. “Plus, all the other students interviewed reported you throwing the first punch.”

Knife was left speechless, was there seriously not a single person who would tell the truth here.

“With that, we will not be open for argument or any negotiation. Knife, you are hereby expelled from Invitational High. Get out.”

 

— — —

 

Knife sat in his moms old Sedan, his hands in his pocket to keep himself from punching the window. His mom was outside the car, on the phone with someone. This was his last chance, and he blew it. God, he was so stupid. He didn’t even do anything! Everyone was always so quick to believe it was his fault.

The driver's door slammed shut, forcing him out of his thoughts. His mom had gotten into the car, her expression angry but also lost and heartbroken. The two sat there in an uncomfortable, tense silence before his mom spoke up.

“You realize that was the last school in the district right?” She asked, her tone obviously distraught. Knife just looked away in response. “You promised me you’d try. You swore you’d make this school last, then you go ahead and get yourself EXACTLY a year later from the day you arrived! Is this a big joke to you?!”

“No!” Knife yelled, turning to face her. There was desperation in his face, something rare. “I’ve taken this whole year seriously, I’ve behaved, I’ve done my work, I’ve followed all the rules! This wasn’t my fault I swear!”

“Throwing hands for being called a ‘Mama’s Boy’?! What about that is supposed to tell me you’ve been trying?!” Tears sprung out of her eyes as she pointed an angry at him.

“She used it as an INSULT, Ma!” He yelled, “She was mocking me, telling me I was a coward. She wanted me to be a delinquent, to disobey the rules and drag her along. I refused and she got mad telling me it was because I was a ‘Mama’s Boy.’”

“That’s no reason to start a fight!”

“I didn’t start it! I walked away and she wouldn’t let me leave! I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Mr. Zoetrope, I only threw her to the ground to give me time to leave so I wouldn’t have to fight!” Knife explained, “I don’t know why everyone lied, I don’t know why there doesn’t seem to be an ounce of humanity in this damned school! I don’t know why I can’t be taken seriously!” He threw himself back into his carseat.

It was silent for a while before Knife heard his mom sigh. She started the car, pulling out of the parking lot and making the drive home. They lived a little bit further out in the area than most people did, making the drive a little longer. Despite liking silence, Knife couldn’t bear it at this moment. “So, what are we going to do now?” He immediately regretted that question as he heard a wince from his mom.

“Well,” She finally spoke, pulling into their town. “You already know that the place I work at has been shutting down.”

“They finally let you go?” Knife asked cautiously.

A sigh. “Yep, Mr. Quilt started the process today. The factory has already been sold to become a matchstick factory.”

Knife hummed in acknowledgement. Then it hit him. “How are we going to pay for the apartment?!”

“We’re moving.”

“We are?!” His head whipped towards the woman next to him.

“Yes, Knife! There are no more schools here in the district, or even the state for that matter, that will take you!” She threw at him, not taking her eyes off the road.

“Where are we going to go? We don’t have the money to go anywhere!”

“Maybe if you’d let me finish, I could tell you.” She remarked, looking at him through the rearview mirror in annoyance.

“Right, sorry, continue Ma.”

She sighed. “You remember Microphone?”

“‘Course I remember her, she’s my cousin. What about her?”

“Well,” She pulled into their neighborhood. “I called her dads, they recently moved into a county so they could find a job that paid more and so Microphone could see her old friend Soap again.” She pulled into the driveway of their small apartment. “Their house is supposedly very big and they offered to let us live with them.”

“And school?”

“Knife.” She said in warning, causing him to back down. It was silent for a bit again before Knife’s mom stopped the car. “Start packing the little stuff you have, I’m telling the landlord we’ll be out of here by Friday.

“That’s two days away.”

“Knife I swear to the stars if you don’t stop talking.”

He took that as his cue to exit the car and do as she says.

 

— — —

 

Friday morning came quickly. Knife and his mom didn’t have to pack much anyways, their apartment was small and they bought much in fear of needing to move because of Knife. Speaking of him, he was packing the last of the boxes to put in the car, rolling up his sleeping bag and shoving it into the empty closet. He turned back and looked at the mostly empty room aside from the bed and nightstand that was being left there. On the nightstand was nothing but a photo, a photo of him with Poster and Alarm Clock. Upon looking at it, he wasted no time taking it out of the frame and ripping it into shreds.

“Knife!” His mom called from the other room. He picked up the leftover frame, stuffing it into his box, sealing it, and bringing it to the main room.

“Have everything?” His mom asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good, we have a 5 hour drive ahead of us. We should be there about an hour before Microphone gets out of school.” She tried to reach for the box in his arms but he waved her off and stepped out of the apartment for the last time, walking towards the car. He opened the trunk, gently setting it inside. Sighing, he looked around for his mom, seeing her shaking the landlord's hand as he wished her luck. Eugh. He hated the landlord. He closed the trunk door and opened the passenger door to slip inside, closing the door loud enough to get his moms attention.

She said her last goodbyes and slipped into the car. “Ready?” She asked, already starting up the car.

“Yup.” He answered simply, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his airpod case, putting both in and pressing play on his playlist which was mostly McCafferty songs. His mom was hoping to have some communication with her son but understood it must’ve been hard enough for him and he didn’t need anything extra so she just drove in silence.

 

— — —

 

Like she had said, it was a long drive. Good thing Knife had McCafferty, or else he might have gone insane. McCafferty was his antidepressant nowadays. Sure yeah, it was depressing and the things being sung were kinda messed up but that’s what made it comforting. That he wasn’t alone in this hell of a world.

Knife felt a tap on his shoulder, taking an airpod out and turning to his mom, to which she pointed to something. His eyes widened as he saw what she was pointing at, a sign saying “Welcome to Inanimate County!”.

“Only 25 minutes 'till we arrive at Microphone's. You excited to see her after all these years?” His mom asked, finding it a good time to have a conversation with her son. He just shrugged in response.

“I mean, It’s been 10 years, plus last time I saw her I was…” He trailed off, though his mom knew what he was referring to.

His mom nodded, still glancing at him through the rearview mirror. “Well the entire family was notified when you transitioned so you won’t have to worry about that, baby.”

Knife nodded, a hum escaping his throat. He gazed out the window, taking in the view of his new home. If he was being honest, he was kind of shocked. He could tell this was definitely a well funded city, or whatever it was called. It kind of looked like paradise. The grass and trees were a bright luscious green, looking the most healthy he has ever seen. The sky was clear and blue with occasional clouds that looked like fluffy pillows. Even from inside the car, he could smell the clean crisp air. Every time they passed a neighborhood, Knife would immediately take notice of how big and clean the houses were. To say the least, he felt underdressed.

“Geez Ma, what do her parents do for a living?!” Knife cried, unable to really believe he was going to live in a place like this. The car turned into a neighborhood, which he assumed was the neighborhood Microphone lived in.

“Your uncle Music Note edits music for a popular band that lives in the city, and your uncle Speaker works at one of the amphitheaters where a lot of concerts take place.” His mom explained as she pulled into a driveway. “You can ask them more about it when we get inside.” She said, stopping the car and climbing out.

Knife followed suit, finding himself amazed as he stared up at the house in front of him. It had black stone siding with white tiled roofing. It was two stories high but could be four if you were to take half the size of the two floors and stacked them on top of each other. Just like everywhere else in the city, the greenery was breathtaking, being well taken care of with the utmost effort. Yet again, Knife felt underdressed.

“Knife, stop gawking and help me with the boxes!” His mom called to him, causing him to break out of his trance. He shut the car door and rushed to the trunk to give her a hand. “Just grab the box that has your things and we can grab the rest later.” She instructed.

With a simple nod, he grabbed his box and shut the trunk after his mom got hers. They both then made their way to the front door, the door immediately swinging open before either one of them could knock. Standing in the doorway was Knife’s uncle Music Note, the latter immediately squealing and pulling Knife’s mom into a tight embrace.

“OHMIGOSH! Jean Jacket!” He squealed, shaking her side to side in his arms, causing her to almost drop her box. Before that could happen, however, Music Note then noticed Knife and ran to give him a huge hug, to which Knife tensed in surprise and slight uncomfort.

“O- Okay, maybe lay off the hugging.” Knife choked out as his uncle swayed him side to side like he did his mom, though once Music heard his words he immediately pulled back.

“Sorry, sorry! I just haven’t seen you two in SO long!” Music Note exclaimed, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet. He then froze as a realization hit him. “Gosh! Where are my manners? Come inside, come on!” He grabbed both Knife and his moms’ arms and practically yanked them inside.

Once they were inside, Music Note immediately started to rant but neither Knife or his mom could tell what he was yapping about. They both gave each other a look of unsureness.

“Yo, Notes?” Knife’s mom called out loud enough for Music Note to halt his rant. “Could we maybe put our stuff down first?” She asked politely, a lot more politely than Knife would have.

Music Notes' eyes widened and he started apologizing profusely. “Right! Oh my stars, please forgive me. My husband has work today and Mic has school so I’ve been home just waiting on my own. I’ll make you guys some lemonade while you set your stuff down. Jean, your room is upstairs at the end of the first hall. Knife, yours is next to Mic’s. You’ll know which one that is because her room door is COVERED in stickers.” He explained, running off to the kitchen.

Knife grumbled, earring a hard glare from his mom, before going up the steps. Being in a house this big made him pretty dizzy, out of all the places he’s lived in this one was definitely the biggest. The upstairs was definitely a lot more open than the downstairs so that made it a little less difficult to find the room he was looking for. Scanning down one of the hallways he immediately spotted a door that was adorned with stickers. Knife huffed, walking towards it, examining it. They were all band stickers, making this guess due to being able to recognize most of them. A little further down was another door which he was guessing was his room. Opening the door, his eyes widened for possibly the 20th time since arriving in the city. The room was huge, he already knew his room would feel empty even after unpacking everything.

Knife set his box down next to the door and slowly made his way towards the bed in the far corner of the room, falling back into it with a loud thwump. He let out a long sigh, it was a very comfortable mattress to say the least. He unwillingly fell into his thoughts as he replayed the drive since they arrived in Inanimate County. With the well cared for nature, the many things to do, the rich neighborhoods and possibly a rich school, he thought to himself. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

Notes:

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for chapter 4 and thank you for over 70 reads in less than two days! Love you all ❤❤❤🗣🔥

Chapter 4: Simulation Swarm

Summary:

Knife finally meets his cousin after so long and she's definitely changed. He also learns something else that he wasn't really expecting

Notes:

I meant to post this on Friday but I forgor, speaking of that I'm gonna make a posting schedule!! I'm gonna post every Friday so I can pace myself. Btw thanks to everyone who has read and left kudos it means so much to me!!!

Not long after, Knife went downstairs where a cup of cold lemonade sat waiting for him. He noticed his mom in the backyard listening as his uncle talked her head off. Yeah, no, he was not dealing with that, instead he opted to finish the lemonade and go back up to his own room. He honestly wasn’t expecting to have an upgrade in his living situation when he got kicked out but he wasn’t complaining.

Speaking of his own school, Knife took his phone out and pulled up Snapchat. He felt like being a little smug. He went to the window in his room which had a good view of all the big rich houses, it was perfect. Opening the camera, he took a selfie with his camera facing the outside of the window. Adding some captions, he uploaded the photo to his story, and just like he predicted, he got a bunch of angry backlash from his old friends. This made him laugh. He closed the app, leaving his old friends on read.

Knife turned to sit on his bed, until his room door burst open, slamming against the door. He jumped, his head whipping to see who the intruder was. To his surprise, it was Microphone staring at him with wide eyes. Wasting no time, she ran up to him to try and give him a hug, though he backed up and held his arms up as a “No thank you.”

Seeing this, she scoffed. “Wow, haven’t seen me in 10 years and you won’t even give me a hug? Real nice Knife, real nice.” She stated, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.

“Maybe I’d be more open to one if you didn’t almost break my door like how your dad did when we first arrived.” He remarked, crossing his own arms and glaring at the girl who was only a little taller than him. A third a foot taller than him at max.

“Whatever,” She ran over to his bed and plopped down onto it, swinging her legs back and forth off the edge. “What have you been up to?”

“Other than getting kicked out every school I go to, not much.” He answered, looking at her with annoyance. If she was planning on invading his privacy like this everyday, maybe his move wasn’t exactly the most perfect he assumed it would be.

Microphone hummed in response, unsure of how to respond. “Wanna go get some smoothies?” She asked, finding the previous topic to be boring.

“I literally got here only half an hour ago. Can I get at least a little bit of time to rest?” He requested, hoping, BEGGING that she’d leave him be.

“Nah.” She shook her head, causing him to throw his head down. “Dude, you JUST got here, and as far as I know your last home was a dump. You gotta get out and see what this place has to offer!” She insisted.

“I don’t want a tour guide.” He stated firmly, leaving no room for argument. That didn’t stop her though, she huffed and grabbed his arm.

“That sounds like a SKILL ISSUE!” She sprinted out the bedroom door, dragging him with her.

 

— — —

 

Microphone scanned the menu above her, trying to decide what she wanted. Without looking away, she turned her head slightly and called out to Knife. “What are you gonna get?”

“Nothing,” Knife replied before she could even finish her sentence. “I already told you, I don’t want to be here!” He hissed.

Microphone rolled her eyes, going up to the counter to order. He grumbled and sat down by the nearest table. He would have left but he doesn’t even know how to get back to the house, meaning he was stuck there until Mic gave up and took him back. Couple minutes later, Microphone returned with two large cups in her hands. She handed one to Knife. He looked at it like it was the grossest thing in the world.

“The hell is this?” He demanded.

“Blueberry bliss smoothie. I got one too.” She held hers up and gently shook it side to side before taking a sip.

“I would have preferred something else.”

“Well then maybe you should have just picked something yourself when I asked you to!” She yelled at him, being a bit too loud for his liking.

“Or maybe you should have left me alone instead of dragging a whole mile here.” He offered, his tone and expression full of apathy.

“You’re a jerk!” Microphone insulted, he just chuckled.

“That I am.” He finally picked up the cup and took a long sip. It was actually pretty good, he wouldn’t admit it though. Microphone huffed, turning away from him with a frown.

The atmosphere was tense for a little while, Knife honestly couldn’t take it. He didn’t want to socialize with his cousin who was a lot more annoying than he remembered her being, but it was better than this awkward tense vibe going on.

“So,” He spoke up, keeping his attention on his smoothie rather than her, but he saw her look at him through his peripheral so he knew he had her attention. “My mom mentioned y’all moved here to see your old friend Soap, how is she? She still a clean freak like she was 10 years ago?” Knife didn’t really know Soap all that well when he was younger, he really only remembers her because she was always with Microphone when his family visited her. He didn’t really know what answer he was expecting, maybe a simple ‘She’s alright’, but he definitely wasn’t expecting the reaction he was receiving right now.

The moment Knife mentioned Soap, Microphone immediately froze, her eyes slightly wide with a disturbed and lost look. This made Knife a little curious, and maybe a bit concerned.

Mic opened her mouth to try and speak but immediately started stammering. She closed her mouth once more, taking a deep breath, before trying again. “Soap’s dead.”

Knife’s eyes flew wide, his own body freezing. That was the last thing he expected as an answer, he didn’t even know that could even be an answer until now. Soap, was dead? “What?”

“I said-”

“No. No, I know what you said I- I just wasn’t expecting that.” He cut her off. “She’s really dead?” Knife almost regretted that question as he visibly noticed Microphone clenching her muscles.

“Yeah… I didn’t find out until after we moved here. I hadn’t heard from her since last year after we bought the house. We got here, and I went straight to her house. She, uh, wasn’t there.” She explained, her voice cracking very subtly.

Knife was a jerk, yes, but he still had morals and Microphone was family. “Damn, I- Ugh. I don’t even know what to say. I’m sorry man.”

“It’s fine.” She spoke, cutting Knife off before he could say anything more. “You didn’t know.” She finally looked at him, making eye contact. She stared at him for a moment, looking absolutely hopeless before she sighed. “All I ask is that you don’t bring it up. Don’t even ask what happened. To me or to anyone.”

Knife furrowed his brows in confusion and burning curiosity. She could see this and she turned back to face him, leaning onto the table so she could speak more quietly with him. “It’s kind of an unspoken rule in this town to not bring it up.”

“Was her death like, a big thing?” He had never been so confused in his life, he felt like he was on the outside of a really good joke, except it would technically be a sad joke.

“Well- no- it’s just-” She groaned, throwing her head into her hands for a hot minute. “Look Knife, just know that something devastating happened here. Don’t, I repeat, do NOT go around asking what that something was. Understand?”

Knife was a bit taken aback by it all, nothing made sense. Microphone was serious though, like dead serious. He sighed. “I understand.” In response, Microphone let out a breath of relief and sat back in her chair, clarifying that this conversation was over. This left Knife’s mind BURNING with questions.

“What about you?” Microphone asked, seeming to not accept the awkward silence that planned to flow over them with that last conversation. Knife raised his brow, wanting clarification on what she was referring to. “Any friends you're upset about leaving behind?”

Knife groaned loudly. “Absolutely NOT!” He practically screamed, “They’re the reason I’m even here in the first place!” Knife complained, finishing the last of his smoothie and tossing it in the trash nearby. “Not like I’m fully complaining, this place is actually a huge upgrade, huge being a way to put it lightly. Though I might have to get homeschooled. In a place like this, you’d probably have to have a squeaky clean record to attend any school here.”

Mic scoffed, “You’d be surprised.”

 

— — —

 

Knife and Mic returned home about an hour later, both of them deep into conversation about music. And by both, it was just Microphone. It was like there was no stop, it kinda reminded Knife of Poster, except Poster was a little different. Knife didn’t really know how to explain it but he knew it was different.

“It’s such a good album but it feels like a huge fever dream, y’know? It’s like a stim, your mind just kinda goes blank once it starts.” She explained, using her hands to visually describe… something. He couldn’t tell. It just looked like a bunch of random hand movements. “Enough about my music, what about you? Any favorite artists?” Microphone asked, opening the front door to the house and closing it once they were both inside.

Knife wasn’t really expecting the question, but didn’t mind it nonetheless. “Ever heard of McCafferty?” He questioned, kneeling down to untie his dirty grey converse.

Mic thought for a minute. “I don’t… think so? I might have heard a song somewhere online.” She slipped her platform boots off and placed them on the shoe rack next to the door. Knife just tossed his onto it, earning a glare from Microphone as she fixed it. “You can make a list of songs and I’ll listen to them.”

“Knife!”

Said person whipped his head to the sound of his name, his mom now in front of him and Mic.

“Aunt Jean!” Exclaimed the latter, running up to Jean Jacket and giving her a big hug, which she happily returned.

“Hey, sweetie. How’s it going?” Jean asked, softly rubbing her hand up and down Mic’s back.

“Doin’ alright.” Mic responded happily. Her name was then called and she pressed a quick kiss to her aunt’s cheek and ran off.

Jean Jacket then turned to her son, observing him for a moment with an unintelligible expression before speaking. “We’ll be going to Microphone’s school tomorrow, I called the principal and he agreed to meet you.” Knife wasn’t too sure but he was sure his mother had muttered ‘surprisingly’ under her breath. “I want you to wear something decent. With everything that’s happened, you’re lucky he even agreed, especially with how rich this school is.” She said, “Got that?”

“Yeah.” He replied simply, turning to the staircase.

“Your uncles are making dinner.” Jean quickly stated, expecting Knife to come back. He just hummed in acknowledgment, starting his ascent. “You’re not going to join us?”

Knife sighed, turning to his mom, but not making any move to go towards her. “Look Ma, I would but I’m exhausted. I’m just going to turn in for the night, catch up on sleep.”

Knife’s mom sighed, visibly upset but too exhausted to try to convince him. “Okay then, goodnight hon.” She said simply, turning to join the others in the kitchen.

Knife sighed in relief that she let him go. He turned to continue his ascent up the stairs, speed walking to his room once he reached the top. Knife softly shut the door behind him and wasted no time making his way to the bed and falling onto it. There weren’t any curtains on the room's window, yet, but it was already pretty dark out making it easier to fall into a sleepy state. He sat up slightly, discarding his shirt, before lying back down to find a cozy position. He let himself drift off into sleep, probably the most comfortable sleep he’s ever had.

Notes:

Thanks for reading... heh.... y'all not gonna be ready for chapter five...

Chapter 5: Black Out Days

Summary:

FLASH BACK! A group of twins touring their new school, what could go wrong?

Notes:

THANK YOU FOR 230 READS!!! Y'ALL SO NOT READY FOR THIS!!! P.S. Bot uses She/Her for a couple paragraphs in the beginning before coming out to Bow and during the flashback... inside the flashback

Song for this chapter is black out days by Phantogram

Two girls skipped through the halls of Inanimate Insanity High, their giggles that they attempted to stifle echoed through the halls. Both their arms were linked in a sisterly manner, showing their dynamic duo. Bow and Bot, two of the most popular girls at Inanimate Middle, well, Bow was the most popular but everyone mostly knew Bot too.

The two sisters were inseparable, rarely seen apart. They were like standing in a mirror and seeing yourself on the other side, both completely identical, aside from a few things. Both girls had beautiful smooth sun kissed powder pink skin, both without a noticeable blemish. Their hair was silky and rose pink, a bright pink bow styled in both girls’ hair, both styled in the exact same way. Both wore matching outfits everyday, always wearing a variety of beautiful pinks that clashed real well with each other. This made it hard to tell who was who, but there were a few differences that helped. Bow had bright emerald green eyes. While Bot was born with the same eyes, the color grew cloudy over the months giving her eyes a glacial green color. Another difference that set them apart was their voices, Bot had a more childish high pitched voice while Bow had a slightly deeper voice that sounded more mature like.

Both girls strutted down the halls, talking and gossiping about nothing and everything. Reaching the end of one hall, Bow peaked her head around the corner, checking to see if the hall was clear.

“All good, c’mon!” She whisper yelled, causing both her and Bot to giggle as they ran into the next hall.

“I really hope we don’t get caught.” Bot stated in a not so quiet whisper, looking back to the hall the two just came from. “I know Ms. Clover won’t yell at us but if we get caught by anyone else we’ll definitely get yelled at if not just given a stern talking to.”

“Oh, please. It’s definitely, like, totes better than being with that boring integer Five.” Bow cried, rolling her eyes at the single mention of Five. “He’s only been our tour guide for, like, 20 minutes and I already felt like crashing out. Plus, we’ll definitely get a better tour like this Botty. Trust me.” Bow reassured, resting her head on Bot’s shoulder.

“I know, I know. You know I’m not fond of getting in trouble.” Bot sighed, resting her head on top of Bow’s as they both continued down the hall.

“If we get caught, I’ll take full responsibility. Don’t worry girly, I got you covered.” Bow reassured once more, squeezing Bot’s arm firmly with hers for a moment.

Bot responded with a smile, grateful that her sister would look out for her like that even at her own expense. That smile soon faded when Bow called her ‘girly’. Bot didn’t really know why but terms like that made her feel… out of place. She didn’t like it.

“Hey Bow?” Bot spoke up after a few seconds of silence.

“Yeah twin?”

“Could you maybe… not call me girly?” Bot reluctantly requested. Bow lifted her head off of Bot’s shoulder, causing Bot to lift her head off of Bow’s.

“Why?” Bow asked out of pure genuine curiosity. Bot didn’t see it like that, immediately tensing and looking away.

“Nevermind, you don’t have too.”

“Nah, I’m going to, because you asked me to. It would be, like, SUPER uncool of me if I kept calling you something that you, like, didn’t like. Loser sister behavior if you ask me. I’m just curious.” Bow kept a comforting gaze on her sister, hoping it would make Bot more comfortable to open up to her.

“Well,” Bot sighed, finally making eye contact with her sister. “It just doesn’t feel… right? Does that make sense?”

Bow stared at Bot with a blank face for a moment before her brows furrowed. “If you’re telling me you're a boy, that’s fine, but, like, I am NOT going to call you ‘boyly’. That just sounds weird.” Bow stated. This caused Bot to giggle slightly at Bow saying ‘boyly’. It did sound weird but also funny.

“What? No, I'm not a boy. It’s… kind of hard to explain. I don’t feel like a girl, but I also don’t feel like a boy. I don’t really know how to explain it.” Bot attempted.

Bow was silent for a few seconds, seemingly in deep thought before something clicked in her head. “Oh! So you’re a they? Coolness! No need to stress, I support you girl- wait no, that wouldn’t work.” Bow looked ahead for a moment before turning back to Bot. “No need to stress, I support you they!” She reattempted

Bot was almost on their knees in tears of laughter at this, it was kind of funny to watch Bow being the most supportive sister in the world while also saying the most out of pocket things.

“I- I didn’t think that was even an option.” Bot admitted after calming themselves down.

“What? Using, like, They/Them pronouns?”

“Yeah, I’ll definitely look into it though, thank you!” Bot exclaimed, pulling themselves closer to their twin, a happy smile on their face.

Before Bow could answer, a loud alarm played on the loudspeaker, though it ended just as it had started. Then a loud sound reached their ears. It sounded far away. Bow and Bot gave each other a look that said ‘weird’. They both assumed the alarm was a false one and the sound was probably a maintenance person dropping some metal or whatever.

“Anyways. You’re welcome Botty, you know I’m-”

“GIRLS!” A familiar voice yelled, causing the siblings to whip their heads to see their cousin Test Tube at the end of the hall. She looked exhausted like she had just ran ten miles. Bow and Bot initially thought that they had been caught sneaking off, that was until they noticed the pure fear in Test Tube’s eyes.

“Test Tube?!” Bot called out, their arm slipping away from Bow’s as they cupped their hands around their mouth. “Is everything alright?!”

“GET IN THAT BATHROOM. RIGHT. NOW!” Test Tube yelled, they could hear the panic and fear in her voice as it echoed in an unnerving tremble. Neither of the two liked how their cousin sounded, while Bow just looked annoyed and confused, Bot felt an awful chill run down their spine. Without giving either of the twins enough time to question what was going on, Test Tube bolted into the closet right at the entrance of the hall.

Bow’s face scrunched up, obviously weirded out, she opened her mouth to speak. “Geez, what the hell was th-”

BAM!

Both twins froze in their spot, eyes blown wide. Neither of them could move. What was that?

BAM!

Another bang ran out, this time they both flinched, blood curdling screams echoed down through the hall followed by another. More loud sounds rang out, getting closer. Both realized at the same time what was happening. Those sounds weren’t maintenance, they were shots.

Bow was able to find movement in her body before Bot did, she grabbed their arm and bolted for the girls bathroom. Bot felt tears spring out of their eyes like waterfalls as their mind finally catched up to what they heard. They turned their face to Bow who was dragging the both of them down the bathroom and into a random stall. She practically slammed it shut, fumbling with the lock before climbing onto the closed toilet seat with Bot.

The shots got louder and louder and so did the screaming, echoing throughout the entire school. The two twins held onto each other tightly, not caring if it hurt one another. Tears streamed out both of their eyes, blurring their vision. With every shot, one of them, if not both of them, winced or choked on their tears. It went on for what felt like forever, it was so agonizing. It felt like hell.

The bathroom door shot open, causing a loud bang as it opened and slammed shut, catching the twins' attention as they whipped their heads towards the sound. They could hear rapid footprints and heavy breathing as someone seemingly entered a stall. The door slammed open again and Bot almost cried out in fear but Bow slammed her hand against Bot’s mouth. She shakily brought a finger to her lips in gesture for Bot to be silent, trying her best not to cry out either.

Loud, slow footsteps echoed in the empty bathroom as a figure slowly traveled through the room. Bow and Bot could hear the chaos that took place outside, adding to their panic. It wasn’t just one intruder, there were more.

Bow could feel her tears sting her eyes, she so desperately wanted to cry out in pain but she had to keep her and her sibling safe. She bit her lip, hoping to suppress any sounds of pain that threatened to spill from her throat.

Bot heard the footsteps grow closer to their stall, silently grabbing onto their sister and holding her tight. Their pupils shrunk into needles as they watched the intruder pass by from under the stall. They trembled violently, they didn’t know if it was just them but they could’ve sworn they felt Bow shaking too. The intruder’s footsteps stopped, before turning around to walk back. Their steps seemed to be stretched, feeling like it was taking them 20 years to pass by five stalls. They eventually heard the intruder reach the door, swinging it open, the door crashing into the wall. Fortunately, this muffled the yelp that came from Bow.

The intruder left, Bow finally uncovered Bot’s mouth and whispered to her reassuringly. “It’s okay Bot, we’re okay. It’s going to be fine, help will arrive soon, okay? We just need to be-”

As if whatever lived below already knew what Bow was going to say, a loud clunk sound was heard from one of the stalls. Both siblings were startled. Bow, adjusted to lean down and check under the stalls to see what had fallen. All the way down to the first stall she saw a pink phone on the floor, she assumed the hider in that stall must’ve dropped it. That wasn’t the bad thing, the bad thing is that the door had only started to close, and that clunk… was loud.

A whole ‘nother wave of panic washed over Bow as she watched the intruder step back into the bathroom. She whipped back up and noticed Bot started to panic once more, about to enter a full on panic attack.

“Shut up, SHUT UP!” Bow whisper yelled, being silenced in the intruder’s ears by the loud footsteps and the audible panic from the victim in the stall that had been found. Bow noticed how she may have come off as rude and scary to Bot in the moment so she let her face fall into a plea as she silently begged for Bot to keep quiet, two which Bot pressed their lips together in a thin line.

The victim started to plead as the intruder got to her bathroom stall. The siblings could hear the intruder try to open the stall door, but failed. The moment Bow saw the intruder's weapon being raised over the stall door, she whipped her head away to instead focus on her trembling sister.

A trigger was pulled, a scream was heard, a shot was taken, someone died.

Once the shot rang out, Bot couldn’t hold it in as they accidentally let out a scream. The second they realized it, they clapped their hand over their mouth. It was too late, the intruder heard, and they were both dead. Bow felt her heart drop, she wasn’t mad with Bot though, she could never. Her heart dropped because she failed, failed to protect the only person in her life that she knew since birth that she never wanted to live without. Bow heard the intruder stop at their stall, raising their weapon above the door.

 

— — —

 

Bow’s life practically flashed before her eyes, well, not her whole life, a few moments.

Bow remembered that day in 1st grade where a few kids were picking on Bot for their legs. She remembers how they called them an emotionless robot, and that they were a defect because of their emotions. Bow never understood why.

That night, after Bot was already asleep, Bow remembers slipping out of bed that night to ask her mom.

“Momma?” Bow called out as she peaked around the corner.

A beautiful young lady looked up in response, smiling softly when she saw her daughter.

“Bow, baby. Why aren’t you asleep with your sister?” She asked, placing the book she had in hand down.

Bow pulled a pink ribbon out behind her back and held it out for her mom to see. “Can you braid my hair so it’s curly tomorrow?” She asked.

Ribbon, her mother, sighed. “It’s late, baby. Why didn’t you ask earlier when I was doing Bot’s?”

“Yo Gabba Gabba was on.” Bow answered, as though it was obvious. “Please momma?”

Ribbon sighed once more, motioning for her daughter to come over. Bow smiled, trotting up to the couch and climbing on to it before plopping down into her moms lap. Ribbon messed with Bow’s hair for a moment before she started to delicately braid the soft strands. It was silent for a bit before Bow spoke.

“Momma, why do people call Bot an emotionless robot?”

Ribbon paused what she was doing, leaning her body to Bow’s side. “People call her what?” She questioned, sounding deeply concerned.

“Yeah, they call herher legs were super weird.” Bow explained, mindlessly fidgeting with her pajama dress.

Ribbon sighed sadly, continuing to braid Bow’s hair. “Bow, your sister is a little different than most kids.” Ribbon stated.

“Why? Is it because she’s identical to me?” Bow guessed, turning her head to the side which caused Ribbon to mess up slightly.

Ribbon gently turned Bow’s head back to face forward. “No sweetie, it’s not because she’s your twin.” Ribbon hesitated slightly before continuing. “There was actually a time where me and Papa thought she wasn’t going to be your twin.” She recalled.

“What do you mean Momma?” Bow asked, not quite understanding.

“Well,” She started, trying to find the best way to explain it without it being too confusing. “You were able to come out just fine and healthy when I was giving birth, ready to grace this world with your presence.” Ribbon reached to lightly tap Bow’s nose, the latter letting out a silly giggle in response. “Your sister, however, was having a hard time. She wasn’t moving to try and come out of me. The doctors thought she was stuck.” Ribbon's expression turned to one of sorrow of the memory where she thought she was only going to meet one of her daughters “We thought she was dead.”

Bow’s eyes widened, her sister dead? She didn’t like that thought, bringing her knees to her chest. She doesn’t want Bot to be gone forever.

“They had to cut open my stomach, they found that she was not dead, thankfully.” Ribbon added, giving relief to Bow, even though Bow already knew Bot was alive. “She couldn’t get out because her leg bones weren’t attached to the rest of her bones. She couldn’t keep her legs, they had to take them away.”

“Momma, you’re ridiculous, Bot has legs!” Bow exclaimed defensively.

“You’re right, but they aren’t hersher.” Ribbon explained. “The doctors spent 20 minutes trying to get Bot out, we are so lucky she is with us today. I thank the stars everyday that she gets to be a part of your life and mine.” Ribbon finished Bow’s braid and tied it with the pink ribbon. “Enough story time, it’s late. You need to sleep.” She instructed.

Bow stood on her mom’s lap and gave her mom a kiss before sliding off and sprinting towards her room. Once inside, instead of going to her own bed, she climbed into Bot’s. Bow wrapped her arms around her twin, snuggling into her.

“I promise, I will always protect you.” She swore.

 

— — —

 

The promise she made to Bot that day ran around her mind in fast circles, her brows furrowing. Bow wrapped her arms around Bot, turning the both of them so that she was blocking Bot from the line of fire. Bow didn’t have much time, softly slamming her forehead against Bot’s.

“I love you, forever and ever!” Bow cried.

Those words, those were the last words Bot heard from Bow before loud shot rang out. Bot couldn’t process anything for a few seconds afterwards. Bot’s ears rang and they felt like they had just been shoved up against a wall harshly. Eventually, their ears stopped ringing, the shots and screams had died and someone came on over the loudspeaker, Bot could barely hear it, something muffling their hearing. Their gaze was on Bow, her wide eyes that were blank, lifeless. Her body was limp against theirs. Bot could feel liquid seep through their clothing, they could see the blood falling from Bow’s head.

Suddenly the bathroom door slammed open, but Bot didn’t register it.

“Bow?! Bot?! Please tell me you're here! PLEASE!” A voice begged, Bot seemed to have gained some sort of movement as they started to look at Bow with confusion. Why was Bow staring at them like that?

Bathroom stalls started slamming open, the same voice continuing to plead and cry out.

Why wasn’t Bow moving? What was wrong with her?

“Bow?” Bot finally spoke, shaking Bow’s shoulders slightly.

“Bot?!” The same voice in the bathroom called out.

Bot started to try and shove Bow to the side, instead Bow slid off of them and fell back onto the floor with their stomach facing up. Bot’s shock faded immediately, their heart being torn into a million pieces as they saw their twin sister. Her eyes were so empty, it was sickening. Her beautiful pink hair was being soaked in red blood that pooled from under her. A hole was ripped open on her forehead from the blow, Bot could see the cracked skull deep inside. They couldn’t feel their body, they were paralyzed as hot salty tears spilled from their wide eyes.

Bot slid off the toilet seat moving beside their twin and trying to pick up her lip body, Bow was never this hard to carry, they carried each other all the time. Bot successfully held their arms around Bow’s waist, trying to keep her upright.

“B- Bow?” Bot warily called out, trying to redirect Bow’s limp head to them, as if that would somehow make Bow move.

“Bot! What stall are you in?! Is Bow with you?!” The voice called out again, Bot didn’t acknowledge it.

Bot couldn’t get Bow to look at them, couldn’t get Bow to wake up. It wasn’t long before the realization broke through their shock, Bow was dead, and it was all. Their. Fault.

Notes:

My apologies Bow fans 😞 lol actually almost cried in English while writing this!

Chapter 6: What Is This Feeling?

Summary:

What Is This Feeling? The feeling of absolute loathing and absolute lesbianism. Or just Knife taking step into his new school where him and his cousin bump into someone that Knife despises but Mic seems to adore.

Notes:

Yes this is the song from Wicked, I spent a whole hour and 30 minutes trying to decide a name and said "fuck it, we're going with this" I tried not to use TOO much angst in this one, especially because someone threatened to use me as a piñata because of the last chapter 😞

Knife’s eyes widened in genuine shock as he took a step into Inanimate High. The school looked huge on the outside, but it was oh so much bigger on the inside. He was already estimating how many times he would be tardy for his classes.

The halls were a light shade of royal blue, everything else being a color you could compare to snow or clouds. The hallways were long, seeming to branch out into different ones like a maze. Paper made 3D stars hung from the ceilings, the shimmering light inside the stars serving as the ceiling lights instead of the actual lights on the ceiling which were off at the moment. No need to have the lights on where there wasn’t really anyone in the building. The school smelled surprisingly decent. Most schools always have a smell, whether it’s from the lunch room or from whatever students do in the bathroom, but this school smelled clean and well cared for. It was comforting in a way.

“Better find your way around fast, boy. If I get a call about you being tardy, you’re done.” Jean Jacket spoke as she too took notice of how huge the school was.

“Give him a week or two.” Microphone said next, her face a lot less shocked than the other two. “The staff will understand.”

The three stood right there for a moment, Microphone letting the two take in everything before someone stepped out a room, taking notice of them.

“Oh. Hello there, Microphone.” The figure, who looked as though they came from or worked for Meeple, spoke upon noticing Mic. They then turned to the other two. “If I’m not mistaken, you must be Jean Jacket and Knife. Welcome to Inanimate High School.” Their voice was emotionless, sounding human but holding no emotion like one.

“Hey MePad!” Mic exclaimed, she turned to her aunt and cousin. “MePad is one of the assistant principal’s. He’s new actually.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, MePad.” Jean said with a smile, walking towards MePad, holding her hand out for a shake. The latter returning the gesture immediately.

“MePhone4 is waiting in his office, I’ll bring you to him.” MePad turned his direction and started walking, expecting the three to follow, which they did. The walk wasn’t too far, only being a hall away from where MePad first appeared. Once they reached the office door, MePad turned to the group and wished them well before heading off.

Knife and his ma stood there, unsure if they should knock or wait for MePhone to open the door himself. Microphone got impatient gently shoving the two away before opening the door and stepping in.

“Mic! Manners!” Jean whisper yelled, walking into the office behind Microphone, her son following suit.

“Relax auntie, MePhone4 doesn’t care.” She responded aloud, the latter noticing the group. A smile grew on his face, turning his swivel chair to face them.

“Greetings and salutations! Take a seat, go on!” He insisted, pointing to the three chairs in front of his desk. “You must be Jean, the one I spoke with on the phone.” He leaned to hold out a hand to Jean Jacket. She took it, shaking it gently while nodding her head.

“Yes, that’s me. I really appreciate you agreeing to speak with us, I understand it might be a hesitant decision with his record.” She said, pulling back from MePhone to find her original position in the chair she sat in.

“Pshhhh.” MePhone swatted a hand in Jean’s direction but not towards her. “His track record doesn’t concern me, the schools he went to does.”

“Pardon?” Jean raised an eyebrow, not exactly understanding.

“Invitational High School? If Zoetrope is still principal, I assume he didn’t even investigate whatever the boy did before kicking him out.” MePhone4 scoffed, looking down at the file in front of him. Knife smirked at MePhone4’s words, he knew he didn’t deserve to get out and hearing it from someone else gave him a bit of pride. “Let’s make this meeting quick though, I actually have another meeting soon. We’ll take him.”

Knife’s eyes widened in genuine shock, along with his ma’s. Was this dude being serious? Just like that. Wow.

Jean Jacket stammered for a moment, unable to really believe here ears. She took a deep breath, regaining her composure. "I really appreciate your generosity!” Jean practically cried, so much relief running through her. If she had no self control she would already be in tears.

“No need to thank me. Your son and go walk around with, uh, Mic, get used to the place. I will ask that you stay for a moment, I have something I’d like to talk about.” MePhone closed the file and placed it into a cabinet file. Jean turned to her son and motioned for him and Microphone to leave, which they both quickly did.

 

— — —

 

“That over there is the math hall.”

“Wasn’t the hall we passed by forever ago the math hall?”

“Big school, more of one type of class. Anyways, you might get Mr. Four as your math teacher. He’s the most popular one for juniors, you either hate them or you don’t, though the population of people who like him is small.”

“Mr… Four?” Knife questioned, he’d never heard of a number object-person before.

“Yeah? He’s an algebralien, were there no algebralien’s where you lived?”

“No,” He answered plainly, he’s learned about them but has never actually met one before. His last home didn’t have a huge variety, at most there were only one or two electric object-people that lived in the town. “Not much of a variety.”

Microphone simply hummed, not exactly sure how to respond. Her eyes soon widened in excitement as she spotted a particular hallway. “Hey! There’s something cool in one of my classes down there that I want to show you!” She exclaimed, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. Knife sighed.

“Fine, whatever.” He said, walking towards the hall, about to round the corner when he bumped into someone. He stumbled back into the taller girl, grabbing his head as he groaned.

The person who he had bumped into, a formal looking woman with short blond hair styled into a choppy wolf cut, subtle streaks of red and green in a couple of places. Her skin was pretty pale, dotted with freckles. Her eyes were a piercing emerald green, a huge scar on her right eye, making her look like a total badass.

“Qu’est-ce que-” The girl scoffed as she stumbled back, her hand on her forehead and dropping whatever was in her hand. She looked up and saw Knife, her brows furrowing in annoyance. “Watch where you’re going, moron!” She spat, her voice heavily laced with a british accent.

A starry eyed look flashed on Mic’s face as she recognized the woman, Taco. She had seen her a couple of times throughout the school, whether she was walking alone, eating alone, working alone, didn’t matter. Microphone had heard so many rumors about Taco, how she pretended to be an absolute dummy just to win a scholarship and how she used someone for that as well. Some people even go as far as saying she left the boy for dead, Microphone understood it was messed up but she couldn’t help how… cool Taco looked. Plus, it was also a rumor.

“Watch where I’m going?!” Knife cried, pushing himself away from Mic and stepping up to the smaller woman. “How about you watch where you’re going!”

A look of recognition flashed on Taco’s face, a smirk making its way onto her face. “Hey, I know you! Aren’t you that kid on social media who got kicked out of school after throwing hands with a poor defenseless girl after she called you a ‘mama’s boy’?” She sneered.

Microphone noticed how Knife’s fists clenched, she started to get a little nervous.

“Pathetic if you asked me.” She teased, her grin widening.

Knife growled angrily. “Listen here you little-”

“Woah! Oooooookaaaaay!” Microphone yelled out, stepping in between the two, her hands held out to keep them from getting near each other. “Let’s not do anything we’ll regret.” She insisted, laughing nervously.

Taco chuckled, “Yeah, ‘Mama’s Boy’. Listen to Microphone.”

Microphone tensed her entire body, trying to fight off any sort of blush that threatened to make its way onto her face. Taco knew her name!

Knife on the other hand, glared daggers at the smaller british girl. Microphone was right though. Just a little over ten minutes ago, MePhone4 had willingly taken Knife as an official student, if he got into a fight he would get kicked out and his mom would kill him. After a few seconds he groaned in defeat, crossing his arms and facing away from the woman.

Taco got a good chuckle out of this and turned to leave, though as she was walking away, she noticed Mic’s eyes lingering on her. Once she caught her, Mic’s eyes widened and she waved nervously. Taco simply hummed, her eyes narrowing for a moment before completely turning to leave.

“Ugh, haven’t even gone here a day. Whatever, what was it that you wanted to show me?” Knife asked after Taco was pretty far away. He never got an answer, his eyes glancing to Microphone. “Mic?”

Microphone simply hummed, not looking away from where Taco was walking. Saying Taco was cool was an understatement. Taco was breathtaking! Mic knew she shouldn’t be thinking this, she only got to the school a little less than a month ago and she was already smitten by a girl she hasn’t formally met! She couldn’t help it though. Knife noticed the look in her eyes and his brows furrowed.

“Absolutely not! Did you hear how she talked to me?! I know I have no right to get involved in whatever… love life you’ve got going on but from a first interaction I can already tell she’s bad news.” Knife says sternly, taking a few steps towards his cousin.

“Yeah, you and everyone else in this school.” She sighed in response. “Come on, I’m sure your mom’s ready to go home.” She started making her way towards the front of the school, gesturing for Knife to follow her.

He was a bit reluctant, not because of her response to his stern scolding, but of something he noticed along the row of lockers. Every locker was practically bland on the outside with a random sticker here and there, but one locker stood out the most. It was surrounded by paper flowers on the door and real ones at the foot of the locker. In the middle, where the air slits were, a photo of a student was taped on. There were handwritten letters taped around the photo, there were even words scratched onto the locker. It looked like a… memorial?

Knife stepped up to the decorated locker, tracing his fingers over the things taped to it. The student in the photo looked happy, wearing a goofy smile. Bright crimson red skin and dark black eyes, a glare bouncing on her silky ruby red hair, making her hair give off the impression of an actual ruby. She had a very alt look to her, her short choppy hair holding black strips in the front. Most likely clip ons with how much longer the strands were than the rest of her hair. Her makeup was extravagant, dark red eyeshadow with winged eyeliner and long lashes, heavy blush and black lipstick. The girl held her hands up in a peace sign, showing off her black and red striped fingerless gloves, thousands upon thousands of different types of bracelets on top. This girl was no doubt a girl who wasn’t afraid to go all out even if she was just going to a 7/11.

Knife continued to examine the locker, his fingers stopping as they hit a specific message carved into metal. He pulled his hand back, reading the message.

‘R.I.P. Ruby. You will be missed, a FreeSmarter forever <3’

Knife’s eyes widened slightly, this locker was a memorial, this student died. In fact, the whole entire memorial itself, showed that this student died here. At this school.

Notes:

Thank you for reading! Just want to put it out there that in two weeks updates are going to be A LOT slower. I unfortunately don't have my own laptop and am writing this on... my school chromebook (how many aura points have I lost?) And we have to return them soon. If I don't get my own laptop before school ends I'll probably have a chapter posted once a month until we get the chromebooks back for next year (giving you the once a month episode treatment 😈)

Chapter 7: Insomniac

Summary:

Knife's first morning at his new school. He has trouble finding his class and meets someone new. Wonder who it is!

Notes:

This song is Insomniac by Memo Boy. Thank you all so much for the love and support you've given me! Life has been a little rough as of late and coming on every day to read all of your nice comments really warms my heart! I never expected to get this much views and kudos and support, it really gets to me! Unfortunately, as of next Friday my schedule will be different. I'll post a new chapter on the 1st of July and the 1st of August because I won't have access to write any new chapters to post every week. I'm really sorry but, it is what it is :P

Monday had rolled around pretty fast, not that Knife wasn’t expecting it to. He adjusted his bag on his shoulders as he waited for the bus to arrive. Microphone would have been with him at the moment but she opted to drive to school early for something assignment related. Whatever, he honestly didn’t mind. It was nice and quiet, McCafferty playing softly in his ears; and by softly he means having the volume of his airpods at the lowest instead of all the way up like he usually had it.

It had been really rainy the night before, leaving that dewy smell drifting through the air as the leftover clouds covered the sky in varying greys. Despite how out of character it sounded for Knife, he liked it. He wasn’t sure why but it felt more refreshing than the blazing hot sun shining in his face constantly and practically blinding him. He preferred the weather like this.

Not much later, a yellow bus pulled up in front of Knife, doors opening swiftly for him to step in. The bus was relatively quiet with only a few kids in the back talking, even then they were quiet. He wasn’t complaining, of course, but he was hoping it would be this quiet on the way home. He took a seat somewhere near the front, not wanting to put in the extra energy to move to the back.

Knife had zoned out the entire ride to school, not aware that the bus had arrived until he felt movement of kids rushing off the bus. Grabbing his stuff quickly and rushing off so he wasn’t the last off. Luckily, the bus dropped them off right at the entrance, making it a lot easier for him to find his classes. Students rushed into the school, running off in different directions whether it be a specific hallway, the cafeteria, or going into the courtyard; most likely going to meet up with friends. Knife didn’t have any friends to meet up with, not like he wanted any friends anyway. He knew all too well about how that ended. He sighed, stepping through the front doors, his ears immediately being filled with the sound of students chattering, lockers slamming, and teachers occasionally yelling. Way too early for this.

Knife reached into one of the pockets of his cargo pants, pulling out two folded papers, one being his schedule and the other being a map of the school. His first class was Biology, something he didn’t like but he knew he needed it. It should be easy to get to, not too long he assumed.

…

Not even three minutes later, he was lost. He took one hallway and now he was presented with hallways that weren’t in the route the map was showing him. He groaned loudly in frustration, causing a few students to glance at him for a moment before continuing with their lives. Knife rubbed his temple in frustration as he looked back at the map, finding an area that looked kind of similar to where he was now. He started walking, not even looking where he was going, bumping into someone as he turned a hallway.

He stumbled back, dropping the paper in his hand as he found his footing on the ground. The girl in front of him doing the same, finding her composure and fixing her headband when she noticed Knife. She made her way towards him, a nervous and embarrassed look etched into her features.

“Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!” The girl apologized, leaning down to grab the paper that fell out of his hands, standing back up to return it to him. She very slowly handed it to him as she studied the contents on the map, noticing the classes circled, numbers that she assumed labeled the order of classes he went to.

“‘S fine.” Knife mumbled in response, taking the paper from her. He didn’t want to look at her, not because he was disgusted but because he wasn’t interested in making conversation. He hoped she could take a hint.

“Are you… new?” She asked hesitantly. Knife held back an audible groan of annoyance. Fate was never on his side, was it?

“Yeah, what about it?” He demanded quite rudely, his eyes finally looking up to meet hers.

The girl was quite short, about the same size as the girl he ran into on Saturday. She had brown beige skin littered with occasional freckles, her eyes being a cool auburn. She had a wavy bob that went down to the top of her shoulders and her curly bangs rested on the top of her eyelashes, her hair only being a shade or two darker than her skin; a yellow headband rested on the top of her head to keep her hair behind her ears. She wore a white short sleeved button up shirt with a peanut brown skirt that had yellow suspenders the same color as her head band. As if she couldn’t look more like the average shy bookworm, she wore a pair of chocolate brown Mary Jane’s with white socks that stopped halfway up her calves.

“Oh! Uh- I didn’t mean to sound like I was looking down on you!” She cried, her voice a bit higher than when she first spoke to him, making her words sound like a whine. “I-I was just going to offer to show you around! Or- Or maybe help you find your classes!” She stammered nervously, fidgeting with the edge of her skirt.

“I’m perfectly fine. I don’t need help.” He dismissed, turning to leave. He did need help, he had no idea where he was or where he was going but he had too much pride to even admit it.

“Really? ‘Cause your first class is all the way on the other side of the school.” She spoke up, her nervous demeanor doing an entire 180 for a hot moment. “Wait, that was rude! Sorry!” She cried as soon as she became aware of what she said and how she said it.

Knife’s eyes widened, not really expecting her to call him out like that. Now it was his turn to stammer as he turned back around to face the girl. “I guess…” He tensed slightly at the thought of what he was about to admit, a sigh escaping his lips. “I guess I could use some help.” He muttered quietly.

The girl smiled, her hands clasping together in front of her. “Of course- uh… I don’t know your name.” She said in hopes of receiving his name.

“Yeah and I don’t plan on giving it to you.” He stated firmly, folding up both his map and schedule and putting it in his pocket before adjusting his bag. “Where’s my class?” He was purposely trying to be rude, she was kind and was offering to help him no problem, but friends didn’t seem to work out too well for him and he didn’t want to risk anything. Hopefully she’d catch the hint this time.

The girl's expression faltered slightly but she didn’t press. “R-Right, this way!” She then turned, effortlessly leading Knife through the maze of students and halls; Knife was having a hard time keeping up. They reached the room in less than 5 minutes, thanks to the girl.

“Here it is! Ms. Fossil’s science room! She’s a little strict so try not to get on her bad side, last week my friend Balloon said that she-”

“Not in the mood for the story.” He mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

Her expression faltered once more, her brows furrowing slightly. “You’re quite a jerk, you know that right.” She put her hands on her hips, glaring at the taller person.

He chuckled, “I’m well aware.”

She rolled her eyes. Turning and leaving rather quickly, if he wasn’t going to at least be a little decent with her she might as well not stick around.

“Thank you.”

She stopped, turning back to the man. He was looking at her, his expression still rough and kind of cold but his eyes gave off a hint of genuine appreciation. She smiled at him.

“Anytime!” She turned to leave but whipped back around once more. “W-Wait!” The boy, now halfway through the door, stopped and looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. “I-I know you don’t want to give me your name, b-but I at least wanted to give you mine.” She offered, honestly expecting him to just leave, but him standing there and waiting gave her a different answer. “I’m Suitcase!”

Knife hummed, taking a moment to contemplate himself before speaking up. “Knife.” With that, he walked through the door, leaving Suitcase standing there in the hallway.

Notes:

Thank you again for reading! I know this chapter was kind of short but with school and all it's been a little rough to write longer chapters. I finished chapter 9 yesterday and that's pretty lengthy so I hope that will make up for this chapter and next. Have a lovely day/night!

Chapter 8: Hope

Summary:

Suitcase goes to meet up with her friends after helping Knife, they interrogate her and someone is brought up.

Notes:

CHAPTER 8 YUHHHHH this song for this is Hope by Alex G (I rlly wanna go to his concert for sandy but the parents said no.... SIGHHHHH) I know this chapter is rlly short but school has been wearing me out! Next chapter will be out July 1st and then after that August 1st. Those next two chapters will be longer I promise! Anyways, happy summer and thanks again for reading!!

Suitcase speed walked through the cafeteria full of students, searching for a specific table. She had promised her friends she’d come straight to the cafeteria after dropping her stuff off in her first class but then she bumped into Knife, and- well, she couldn’t help but help him. So now she was late.

“SUITCASE!”

In response, she searched frantically for the source to see Balloon waving at her. Balloon was, no doubt, her best friend in the entire world! He was a short stubby boy who was only a little taller than her. He had salmon skin with freckles all over his body. Despite his piercing green eyes, his cheesy tooth-gapped smile always softened the blow. He had really long curly salmon red hair that he always kept tied up in a yellow ribbon she bought for him for his 16th birthday. He was wearing a grey t-shirt with a red flannel jacket over top, followed with baggy jeans and tennis shoes.

Balloon had a pretty bad past with the school, a past almost comparable to another girls’ past in the school. After freshman year, he tried so hard to change but not a single person really trusted him. When he was a Sophomore and Suitcase was a freshman, Suitcase was one of the only students who actually tried to give him a second chance. It was hard, considering she was seen as an outsider quite a bit, but soon everyone started seeing Balloon as a good person if not a great friend!

While waving at her with one hand, his other was intertwined with a boy sitting next to him: Nickel.

Nickel was shorter than both her and Balloon, constantly being mistaken for a 6th grader instead of an 11th grader. He had graphite grey skin that looked almost shiny, his spiky hair being almost the EXACT same color. His eyes were ice blue, unforgivably piercing to anyone who made eye contact. He had snake bite piercings shaped like spikes under his bottom lip, and if you looked closely, he also had a small stud tongue piercing. Nickel wore a baggy shadow colored shirt that was three sizes too big for him and some charcoal pants that were, again, three sizes too big. Suitcase could barely tell, but if she had to guess, she’d say he was wearing black and white checkered vans. With it all, he wore a few grey chain necklaces and black fingerless gloves.

Suitcase didn’t really like Nickel. When she first arrived as a freshman, Nickel and… one of his friends took her in, saying they’d help look out for her. Most of the time they did, until Balloon came into play. Suitcase had striked a conversation with him, not really knowing who Balloon was at the time, and when Nickel found out, things weren’t really the same. It took a lot, and she means A LOT, of convincing to try to get Nickel and Balloon to get along. Then, out of nowhere, the two boys came back from spring break being the best friends they were before Balloon was hated. It surprised her even more when Balloon told her that they started dating!

Suitcase still didn’t trust Nickel all that much, but Balloon was happy; she wouldn’t take that away from him. She ran up to the table and apologized quickly as she sat down.

“Geez, where were you?” Nickel asked, his usual annoyed attitude dripping from his lips.

“Sorry, I ran into someone new at the school and helped him find his class.” Suitcase explained, giving a quick fist bump to Balloon before settling in her seat across from the two.

“Did you get his name?” Balloon asked, genuinely curious.

“His name’s Knife.”

“Sounds like a thug.” Nickel teased, recoiling in discomfort a few seconds later as Balloon jabbed his elbow into Nickel’s side while glaring at him.

“Is he from another school in the city?” Balloon questioned once more.

“I couldn’t really tell. He didn’t have an accent from anywhere outside the city but he also didn’t have an accent from anywhere inside the city, like a goikyan accent or a yoylean accent.”

Balloon hummed in thought. “Well, was he nice?”

“Why are you interviewing her like he’s her boyfriend or something?” Nickel asked his boyfriend, his tone making his question sound a little rude.

“I’m not! I’m just genuinely curious!” Balloon cried, glaring at Nickel who backed down.

“Sorry, sorry, wasn’t trying to come off as rude.” Nickel put his free hand in the air in surrender.

“Maybe if you change your tone to match your attitude you wouldn’t have to worry about that.” Suitcase spoke up, shooting Nickel a glare of her own, earning an eye roll from him, before turning back to Balloon. “To answer your question, I… don’t really… know?” She tried, shrugging nervously.

“I… don’t know what that means, Suitcase.”

“Well, he was kind of rude. He seemed to have a lot of pride and turned me down pretty fast when I offered help. He also agreed with me when I told him he was a jerk. Though… he did genuinely thank me when I helped him and gave me his name so… I don’t know.” Suitcase explained, having to stop a good few times to figure out how she wanted to word everything. “Kind of reminds me of you in a way.” She shot to Nickel.

He unlaced his fingers from Balloons, throwing his arms up in the air before crossing them. “I see how it is! Everyone can have character development but me! Real nice!” He complained, aggravation dripping from his voice and features, turning away from the two with a pout.

“It’s okay, Nickel. We all see your character development.” Balloon reassured, patting Nickel’s back teasingly. He tried to stifle a laugh as he took in Nickel’s expression.

“Oh please, I’m pretty sure the only people who have noticed are you and Baseball.”

Everyone tensed, including Nickel, as he accidentally let the name slip. Nickel’s eyes widened slightly as he subconsciously curled in on himself, seeming to remember something he didn’t want to. The entire table was quiet. Everything was quiet, even with the thousands of students in the cafeteria making so much commotion.

“Sorry.” Nickel mumbled. “Didn’t mean to, uh, bring the mood down.” He looked vulnerable, something he never was in public. He wasn’t the only one who looked vulnerable. Even Suitcase and Balloon seemed to have had some sort of memory about Baseball as they both had slightly curled in on themselves as well.

“I’m… I’m sure he sees how hard you’re trying. How hard all of us are trying.” Balloon reassures gently, softly rubbing Nickel’s back. While the gesture was supposed to be comforting, it didn’t do much for Nickel. Out of the three, Nickel was hurt the most by the… memory of it all. Baseball and Nickel had been friends since they were in elementary, even living in the same neighborhood. Baseball no longer being with them… it hurt Nickel badly, causing him to go into some pretty bad habits that took a while to break.

“I know.” Nickel sighed, getting out of his seat. “I’m going to class.” He said, not letting any of them try to speak or argue with him to stay. He just… left.

Notes:

Thank you again you guys have no idea how appreciated you guys make me feel, I never thought I would get this much notice in my story ❤❤❤ (I hope this chapter is actually good I reread it five times 😭)

Chapter 9: Answer

Summary:

Microphone confronts someone whose she's been thinking about for a while, and she makes an offer!

Notes:

WOW POSTING A DAY EARLY YAYAYAYYA. Before we get started, I have a few announcements. Numero un! CHAPTER 10 WILL NOT BE POSTED ON AUGUST FIRST!!! I will be posting it July 17th on my birthday :D. Speaking of August, chapter 11 will be delayed a few days, probably will be posted August 3rd. My next announcement is that I will be putting my TUMBLR here! I will be posting abt Not on my TUMBLR, so you will get announcements there as they are created or whatever. I'll also be taking oneshots! I will make an announcement there after this chapter is posted. No warnings for this other than yuri.... I love yuri. OH MY GOSH I CAN FINALLY USE MY TACOMIC TAG AHHHHH I also want to clarify some stuff on character designs. They are... weird. They'll be humanized but will still have their object abilities if they have any. You'll see what i mean. Also the song is Answer [instrumental] by Tyler The Creator, why is it the instrumental? No idea, I actually didn't know what I wanted to name this but the instrumental was on repeat whole I was writing lol

Microphone walked out of her classroom as the bell rang for students to start rolling into the building. Her project partners were SUPPOSED to all be there early that morning to work on something but they ended up changing the meetup date without even telling her. It was whatever though, she just wished she could have maybe been at home so she could help Knife with things like finding his class and whatnot.

The second she stepped foot outside of the music class, her thoughts were practically shoved somewhere else; Saturday, to be specific. She couldn’t stop thinking about Taco, and how she knew her name. She wasn’t in any classes with Taco, and she’s never spoken to her either. Not like she really could anyway. The school hated Taco for a bunch of rumours. Microphone knew it was smarter to do her research before believing anything but she was also smart to know that she’d probably get jumped if she talked to Taco. Despite Microphone finding Taco... intriguing, that didn’t make Taco any less intimidating if Mic was being completely honest.

Speaking of which, Microphone had just been peacefully walking down the hall, most likely going to her first class, when she saw the girl that was currently filling up her mind. It looked like she was heading towards the library; all by herself, like always. Microphone knew she probably shouldn’t follow, but the urge to know how Taco knew her name was overweighing on her scale of decision.

“Screw it.” Mic said to herself, pivoting on her heels and turning towards the direction of the library. Upon entering said library, Microphone was met with the librarian: Cabby.

“Microphone! Lovely seeing you this morning!” Cabby greeted, a smile on her face as she turned her chair to roll towards Mic.

“Morning Ms. Cabby!” Microphone said, returning the greeting.

Cabby was a woman who looked younger than her age. She had glowing cornflower blue skin, her hair was only a shade darker that was tied back in a neat bun with her bangs falling over her forehead and almost covering the top half of her eyes which were a cloudy light steel encased behind a pair of round silver glasses and .

“Is there anything you’re looking for?” Cabby asked, reaching into one of the pockets built into her wheelchair. “We still don’t have that book you wanted in stock, though I have confirmation that it will be in next week.” She pulled out a file and opened it up to read something inside.

“Uh, no, actually.” Mic answered, not even looking at the librarian but instead scanning the library. She couldn’t see Taco. Microphone bent her knees so she could whisper to Ms. Cabby. “Did a girl come in here a bit ago?”

Cabby hummed as she turned her wheelchair to look out at the library. After a moment, she pointed towards the back corner of the library, though she looked a bit unsure, not really trusting her memory all that well. “I think…”

“Thank you!” She stood straight up once more and quietly made her way through the maze of bookshelves. Finally making her way to the back, she didn’t see anyone. A wave of upset washed over her, but faded as she considered that maybe Taco had gone to the other corner.

Mic hadn’t even gone too far before she was proved wrong. The sound of a book falling onto the ground followed by a scoff caught Microphone’s attention, turning back to the corner. She didn’t hear anything else, but she knew someone was nearby. She didn’t want to seem like she was searching for them- even though she was -but if it was Taco, she didn’t want to risk that. With hesitation, Microphone reached under her shirt where a small subtle knob rested on the small of her back. Slowly turning it, her gain raised in volume, allowing her to hear almost everything around her.

She heard the sound of pages in a book flipping. Following it, she noticed a bunch of bookshelves around each other with a small opening space. The sound was coming from inside the little space. No need to keep her gain on anymore, so she twisted the knob once more to return to its original setting. Microphone took a few quick steps towards the opening before hesitantly standing right in front of it.

There she was, Taco, sitting at a small bench in the middle of the small closed off corner. Her head was down, gaze set on the book that lay on the table in front of her. Her platinum blond hair was draped over the sides of her head, casting a shadow on her face. She wore a crimson red button down long sleeve shirt with a black armless vest that hugged the shirt against her body. Her pants were also black and were baggy but not oversized; her boots were also black. She didn’t wear any accessories, being more simple and formal in her attire but truly pulling it off in an intimidating, badass way.

Despite Taco not even looking, Microphone knew she was aware of her presence as a heavy sigh escaped her mouth.

Microphone took a deep breath to speak. “Taco-”

“If anyone sees you talking to me, I can’t guarantee that you’ll make it to Senior year.” She interrupted, not even looking up at Microphone as she flipped the page in her book.

Microphone didn’t respond, instead making her way into the small makeshift room and sitting right across from Taco, completely ignoring her warning. This earned another sigh, one of irritation and impatience.

“What do you want, Microphone?” She demanded impatiently, closing the book and finally looking up at Microphone to which the latter winced upon Taco’s piercing emerald gaze.

“How do you know my name?” Straight to the point. She was determined to get an answer or she might just explode.

Taco raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh. “You came all the way here to ask how I know your name? Are you serious?”

“Yes! I am serious!” She cried, a little louder than she should have. “We’ve never once spoken, hell, we aren’t even in any of the same classes, so how do you know my name?!”

“I know a lot about a lot of people.” Taco said simply, opening the book once more and continuing to read.

“Well, yeah, but I’m new and I’m not exactly popular.” Microphone went on, not satisfied with the answer. “So… how?”

“I’m sure as hell not telling you.” Taco scoffed, not looking up at the girl in front of her.

There was silence for a few moments, Microphone hadn’t said anything but also made no plan or attempt at leaving. She obviously wasn’t going to get an answer so she might as well drop it, but couldn’t. It wasn’t that easy for her to just drop things like others could. She was curious, a little too curious. A new question formed.

“Well… what do you know about me?” Mic asked hesitantly, sounding like she was afraid that Taco would lash out on her for it. Why’d she think that? She didn’t know.

Taco groaned, looking up at Microphone. She kept her gaze on her for a hot moment, almost like she was studying her. Microphone tensed, feeling a little vulnerable under her gaze. She felt like Taco was cutting open her mind and inspecting every part of it, learning all of her faults and weaknesses.

“Well, I know you’re a wildcard. A loose canon, if you will." She stated, her voice apathetic.

Microphone’s eyes blew wide. A ‘wild card’!? Where would anyone get that idea?!

Taco couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle as she rolled her eyes at Microphone’s flabbergasted expression. This brought Mic to reality as she heard it, stammering for a moment.

“Don’t laugh!” Mic cried, earning a loud shush from the librarian across the library.

“You’re making it hard not to.” Taco teased.

“How could you even say that in the first place?! Me?! A wild card?!” Microphone scoffed, looking away and crossing her arms. “That’s a false assumption! Who would even say that anyway?!”

Taco shrugged, not caring that it added to Microphone’s desperate curiosity and irritation. “Wouldn’t tell you either way, my resources are private.” An unidentifiable look then flashed her face. “Though, it would be nice to have a better source than having to play spy constantly.” Taco muttered to herself, not even realizing she said it aloud until Microphone perked up and made an offer.

“I could be your new info outlet!”

“Pardon?”

“You heard me! I could be your info outlet!” Microphone repeated, a cheesy smile crossing her face.

“Don’t make me laugh!” Taco scoffed with an irritated laugh. Microphone couldn’t be serious.

“I’m serious! Just tell me who you want dirt on and I can get it for you! No one will suspect a thing, Taco.” Microphone offered once more, a hopeful smile still on her lips as her heels bounced on the ground.

Despite how much she didn’t want to, Taco found herself considering it. It wasn’t easy getting information while being the school's most hated student, but with someone like Microphone… this could work!

“Fine,” Taco spoke up, shutting her book loudly. “You may be my new info source. Though, I highly recommend you don’t tell anyone. Like I said, I won’t be able to guarantee your survival to Senior year”

Microphone chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. Not like she really had any friends to tell. She did have Knife, but he’d most likely make a fuss about it. He didn’t like Taco, and he didn’t even know her. Despite that, Mic was actually happy Taco agreed. Why? Maybe it was because she thought Taco was really cool.

“So, uh, where do we start?”

“We start by you giving me your contact info so we can communicate.” Taco said, holding a hand out.

Microphone grabbed her tote bag and started going through it, trying to find her cell. Her mind felt a little underdressed with Taco’s use of words. “You’re very… formal with your words. You kind of sound like a teacher.” She found her phone, unlocked in and placed it in Taco’s hand.

“Not too fond of English slang.” Taco stated, opening Microphone’s contact app and adding her number. “It’s not my first language.” Taco then handed the phone back to MIc.

“Really? What is it?” Mic asked, stuffing her phone back into her tote bag.

“French.”

Mic hummed casually, acting as if she wasn’t internally exploding. Taco spoke French. French?! The most romantic language ever?! The slightly attractive but extremely intimidating woman in front of her spoke French! Mic didn’t know what to do except play it cool; try not to seem like a complete idiot.

“Well then, if that’s all the questions you have, I’ll be in contact with you.” With that, Taco stood up, brushing herself off. She picked up the book on the table and placed it in one of the shelves before making her way to exit the tiny nook. Not looking back. “Gooday Microphone.”

Microphone sat there for a moment, staring at the entrance that Taco had just left through. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with herself at the moment. Should she just leave? Go to class? Maybe try and find Knife, see if he needs any help? She could have done all of those things but she just sat there. She felt awkward all by herself, but she didn’t make any attempt to leave. She reached into her bag and pulled her phone out, watching the screen flicker to life as she hit a button on the side of the device. She unlocked it with her fingerprint, the contacts list appearing instantly. Right at the top of the list, was Taco. Microphone doesn’t know how, it seems pretty surreal, but she just got the number of the most intimidating- yet attractive -girl in the entire school.

How in the world did she do that?

Notes:

https://headphonesthemusicgeek.tumblr.com/ go follow me, and thank you again for reading words can not express how much I appreciate you all! One more thing. Any comment that contains TPOT 19 or II4 Episode 1 spoilers will be deleted and blocked. NO SPOILERS!!!

Chapter 10: Nails Like God

Summary:

FLASHBACK! A cute couple gets bored in class and goes to the school courtyard to chill

Notes:

So sorry for being a day late.... I was rlly busy for my birthday yesterday and COMPLETELY FORGOT!! So here is chapter 10. No cuz can we talk abt TPOT 19.... TWO FINALLY SPOKE THANK YOU AAAAAAAA BUT NOOOOOO TWO IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT I PROMISE MY SHAYLAAAAA

Class was very boring today in Mrs. Dragon Scales' civics class. She had left pretty early in the day because of an emergency, not having enough time to leave anything for any of her classes. This left the students there at the time with nothing to do except be on their phones.

Two students in particular, Gaty and Two, didn’t feel like being on their phones. Why subject themselves to an endless doom scroll for an hour and a half? Plus, they didn’t even want to be in school.

It was such a nice warm day for late November, days like these where the skies were clear and the air was nice were rare so close to winter. You have to take advantage of it as much as you can. You can’t do that when you’re stuck in school.

The duo sat in the far back of their class, leaning back against their seats with a shared expression of boredom. They’d rather be anywhere but here, preferably outside enjoying the sun.

After a moment of MISERABLE silence, Two finally spoke up, breaking said silence. “What if…” They sat up in their seat, an expression of thought morphing into their features.

“What if what?” Gaty sat up alongside them, her gaze stuck on their expression.

“D’you think we can convince the substitute to let us leave?” Two proposed, their head turning to Gaty.

“We’ll get in a lot of trouble if we leave school mid-day, you do realize that right?” She stated blatantly.

“No, like, leave the classroom.” Two restated. “We could head to the courtyard, chill in the garden.” A faint smile grew on their lips at their own thought of it.

Gaty was quiet for a moment, taking it into consideration. It sounded like a nice idea, just her and her partner on their own in the courtyard, enjoying the last of the nice fall days before the cold miserable winter days. However, there were still small doubts in the mix of it.

“I don’t know. What if we get caught?”

“If you don’t want to, you can just say so. I won’t get mad.” Two reassured, grabbing one of her hands and lacing their fingers together.

“No, it’s not that. I’m just genuinely worried about getting caught.” Her gaze fell to their hand in hers, one of her fingers softly rubbing over their knuckles.

“Either way, I won’t get mad if you say no.” They gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She squeezed back.

After another beat of silence, she finally decided. “Let’s do it. Beats sitting in here, bored out of our minds.” She looked up at them with a smile that they quickly returned.

Two unlaced their fingers, letting her hand slip out of theirs as they quietly stood up and made their way to the teacher. Almost as soon as they had left, they were right back at the desk, gesturing for Gaty to go with them. She happily did.

 

— — —

 

The warm breeze softly smacked against the face of a young student as they stepped into the courtyard, their hand flying to hover over their eyes as they tried to get used to the bright light of the sun. Seconds passed and they let their hand fall back to their side, eyes scanning over the large space. No one was there, or at least no one that they could see. They turned back to the door they came from and stepped halfway through the door, turning to face their companion who was a couple feet from them, waiting patiently.

“Anyone out there, Two?” Their companion called out in a hushed yell.

Two shook their head. “All clear, Gaty!”

Gaty nodded, making her way towards them in a hurried walk. “You sure? No janitors or teachers?” She asked, her voice nervous and unsure.

“Not that I could see.” They grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together with hers. “We could go back to class if you're unsure, you know. I’d hate for you to risk getting in trouble just to hang out with me.”

“Oh, shush. It’s fine, swear.” She reassured, stepping into the courtyard before they could try and say anything more. “Plus, you’re right. It’s too nice of a day to spend it inside.” She tugged on their arm, pulling them out with her. “Let’s enjoy it while it lasts!”

With a quick silent agreement, they both ran. They ran towards the far center of the courtyard, where a small garden had been built. The two laughed and giggled as they disappeared into the small trees that surrounded the garden like a split rail fence. They both took their time admiring every different type of flowers that were planted throughout the garden. They spent time comparing the colors and smells to different things, whether it be comparing a flower's color to the sky or the smell to lavender. Their hands never once parting the entire time.

They soon found themselves lying in the middle of the garden, soaking in the rays of the sun. Gaty’s eyes rested close, her hands resting on her stomach and her legs crossed over one another as she quietly hummed a tune. She was relaxed and still, her chest softly rising and falling with each breath.

Two was a little bit of the opposite. They lied right next to her, eyes open and staring up at the clear blue sky. Their knees were bent and their fingers subconsciously drummed against their stomach. They felt a little restless, not being able to sit still for too long.

The algebralien turned their head to face Gaty, gazing at her softly. Her periwinkle skin and hair shining in the sun’s rays. Her sharp bangs very lightly touched her forehead, like she was too majestic to touch. A light natural blush dusted her cheeks in a subtle way, giving her a very lively look. She was always very lively, not afraid to be herself. Two admired her. Two loved her. What was there not to love? They’d tell her if they could. Call it stupid but they were too afraid too. What if she didn’t feel the same. Maybe she wasn’t ready to use that word for them. Sure they’d been dating for quite a while but still! They didn’t want to risk anything.

Gaty’s eyes opened, her head turning to look at Two who snapped their head away with wide eyes as they had been caught staring.

“Sorry, that was rude.” They apologized, cheeks flaring up with a dark green tint.

She only giggled, reaching to grab one of their hands. “No no, you’re fine!” She reassured. “No need to say sorry, Two.”

Two smiled as she grabbed their hand and reassured them, but that didn’t help that pit now in their stomach. They did something wrong, they were convinced that what they did was wrong. They were staring at her. They were admiring her. It wasn't a bad thing at all, but to them it was dangerous. What if they had said or done something that would cause them both to break apart. It was dangerous, and because of that, it was wrong. They had to make up for it. They had to do something.

“I’m making you a flower crown!” They announced immediately, standing up rather quickly, their hand slipping out of Gaty’s as they did. They never saw the look of concern that Gaty gave them as they made their way to one of the flower bushes.

Two specifically chose the bush with all the periwinkle flowers, knowing it was Gaty’s favorite color. They spent several long minutes picking out flowers, finding all the ones that were flawless. They crouched down on their knees and started working away, weaving the flowers into a crown. They were deeply concentrating, not even noticing that Gaty had moved to sit next to them while they desperately tried to make the crown perfect. It didn’t need to be perfect, Gaty wouldn’t care, but Two couldn’t help it.

“Done!” Two announced after they finally finished. They jumped slightly when they noticed Gaty had moved but didn’t say anything, just handing her the crown.

“You know you didn’t have to do that right?” Gaty said softly, admiring the crown with a smile that didn’t quite exactly meet her eyes.

“I know! I wanted to make it for you!” Two said happily.

“I know.” Gaty muttered. She loved the crown, she really did, but she would have loved it a lot more if Two hadn’t made it out of whatever guilt that stirred in their mind. Where did the guilt even stem from? Because she caught them staring at her? There was no reason to feel guilty for that, it was unnecessary. Was it something else that she didn’t know about?

“Two… Is something-”

Riiiiiing

Gaty was cut off, startled by the noise of Two’s phone going off.

Two was also startled, fumbling with their pants as they desperately tried to get their phone out. Pulling it out, they recognized the caller ID as their friend Eight. They had asked him to call them when they needed to return to class. Two accepted the call, bringing the device to their ear.

“Eight? What’s up?”

“Sub needs you to come back. They called a lockdown but it was cut off, probably a false one. He still wants you two to come back in case the staff comes around and does a check, or whatever.” Eight explained, sounding bored.

“Alright, thanks!” Two pulled the phone back and ended the call, slipping their phone back into their pocket. They looked up at Gaty. “We have to head back.”

Gaty nodded, already halfway up from the ground. She set the crown on her head while waiting for Two to get up. “Mind if we talk later? Something on my mind I want to talk about.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s fine.” They responded, dusting themselves off as they stood up straight. They grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together with hers as they both started walking out of the garden and towards the building. “We can talk about it on our way back to class.”

Both walked in silence as they made their way towards the door. Nothing out of the ordinary, no ‘off’ feelings. Just a cute couple on their way to class so they wouldn’t get in trouble.

Nothing could have ever prepared them for what they were about to experience.

“So,” Two spoke up, slowly closing the courtyard door behind them so that it wouldn’t make any loud noises. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well… For starters I-”

BAM!

Both students jumped, hearts beating rapidly as they whipped their hands to the area the sound had come from.

“T-Two? What-”

BAM!

They both jumped again, both trembling as they started to hear screams. They both knew something was up, those screams…

Two had so many thoughts swirling around their head in a frenzy. Eight had said it was false, Two thought it was false too; The school always notifies the staff and students about practice drills. But those screams… those were screams of pure terror, the screams that make your mind think only of death. And those sounds? Those… Those were shots.

Two couldn’t turn their head away from where they were looking. It was kind of like they were stuck in place. They reached a hand out towards Gaty without looking, expecting her to take it. “Something’s not right…” They muttered.

“Two…”

“Come on, Gaty! We have to go!” They finally turned their head to look at her when she didn’t take their hand. Their face froze upon seeing Gaty’s face, she looked terrified. Why?

They followed her line of sight, and right there, across the hall, a MePhone stood. It wasn’t ‘til Two saw them raise their arm that they noticed the weapon.

Panic.

“NO!” Two moved, their body on autopilot as they aimed to protect-

BAM!

…

Two’s eyes slowly opened. Their ears were ringing and their body was aching… A lot. Everything was so muffled, like they were under water. They were also on the ground, the chill of the floor tiles burning through their clothes. Did they black out?

They tried to sit up, a sharp pain in their left shoulder causing them to wince. Turning their head to look at it, they saw a cut in their green blazer. They pulled the rip up, trying to see what’s underneath. It looked like a scrape, like something had grazed them, breaking a good few layers of skin. Two seethed. How’d this happen anyway? Last thing they remember is-

…

Gaty.

Two’s head whipped around, desperately searching for their partner. Their eyes were drawn to the ground, bile building in their throat as they saw her.

She was awake, though she looked like it pained her to be. Her eyes were wide, tears desperately trying to get out. Her body convulsed violently as she struggled to breath, like there was something blocking her airway. Her periwinkle skin slowly paled into a purplish white. And the blood- the blood… God that made it worse.

“GATY!” Two cried, tears spilling like waterfalls as they wrapped their arms under her, pulling her close. There were two large bullet wounds, one right in the middle of her forehead and one on the side of her lower left waist, just shy of her stomach. She shouldn’t have even been alive. The wound near her stomach? It was fatal but survivable, but the wound right in the middle of her forehead? A wound like that was almost impossible to survive. That shot should have killed her instantly. But here she was, in her partner's arms, trembling and convulsing violently.

How could they let this happen?! No. They wouldn’t let this happen. They wouldn’t let death catch up to Gaty, they’d fight fate themselves if they had too.

“I-It’s okay. I’m going to help you, okay?” They reassured, their voice cracking. Wincing as she sobbed.

Algebraliens weren’t allowed to use their powers on school property, it had been made a law forever ago. The law was to keep people safe, apparently. Two knew this, but they didn’t care. They couldn’t stay out in the open like this, they’d both die. Two wasn’t going to let that happen.

Lifting one of their hands off of Gaty’s body, a sparkling lime green mist manifested itself in their palm. With a quick close of their fist, they were no longer in the school but now right back in the garden. They could have just immediately teleported the both of them straight to the hospital, but that would take a lot of strength that they didn’t have at the moment. The garden was the first closest thing they could think of that would keep them hidden.

“I-I’m going to lie you down now.” They stuttered, body shaking so much that they couldn’t even focus their eyes. They tried to stay as still as possible as they carefully moved Gaty to lie on the pebbled ground, not wanting to accidentally drop her or move her in a way that would cause her more pain.

“T-Two I-.”

“I’m right here. Don’t talk, you’ll cause yourself more pain.” They interrupted, both arms pulling away as they finally set her down. They didn’t know if the last thing they said was even true or not but they had to stop her from talking, they couldn’t bear how she sounded. Her shaky, pained, broken voice was too much for them. They were trying to stay composed and keep themself together. They had to. For her.

Their hands started to glow as the lime green mist formed in their palm once more. They reached their arms out towards her, one hand hovering over the wound on her stomach and the other hovering over the wound on her forehead. They were trying to close it up.

“I-It hurts! Two I can’t- I can’t breathe!” She cried, her arms desperately trying to grab onto any part of Two.

“I know! I know! I’m going to make it stop, I promise!” They cried back, brows furrowing as they tried to close the wound with their magic. They pressed their hands closer to Gaty’s wounds, the mist lightly pressing against her skin as they hoped the mist would then close the wound from inside the layers; Two just hoped it wouldn’t cause more pain.

“I don’t want to die!” One of her hands grasped Two’s wrist, the one by her stomach wound, while the other hand grasped Two's blazer that was smeared with blood, her blood.

“You aren’t going to die!” Two screamed, not at Gaty, but at themself. Tears blurred their vision but their hands pushed closer as they tried so desperately to get the wound to close. They were too weak, but they were desperate. “I’m going to save you!”

Gaty continued to sob in pain, the sound practically unbearable to Two. They pushed harder, their arms and head screaming at them that they barely noticed how more blood was gushing out than before. Key word barely. Upon noticing, they had to quickly think of something else. With a flick of their pointer fingers, two clumps of mist manifested to which they quickly placed them in each wound as a plug. Now their focus was shifted to keeping the makeshift plugs in while they waited for help.

“You’re going to survive, I swear! After all of this is over, I’ll take you wherever you want. We can go see a movie, we can go to a café. I’ll even let you brush my hair if you really want to!” Two let out a teary laugh at their last sentence, thinking of the amount of times Gaty had wished to brush out their curly hair. They always denied, saying that while they loved the thought, their curls would only puff out, possibly making it look like they had been electrocuted.

They went on and on, it was meant to be a distraction for Gaty, but it almost seemed like it was truly intended as a distraction for themselves, or a motivator.

“Y-You mean it?” She said, her voice strained. She attempted a smile, but it wavered heavily.

“Swear on it.” They promised, their heart clenching when she responded with a pained giggle. “I’ll dye it too, a little pink strip. You've always told that pink went well with green.” They continued to talk, unable to bear any silence, until that was all that responded. Silence.

Two noticed the lack of hold she had on them and their eyes flicked to her face, panic filling their mind as they noticed her eyes were shut.

“G-Gaty?”

No response.

“Gaty!?”

A wave of dread washed over Two.

“GATY!”

Notes:

Thank you for reading, go follow my TUMBLR for updates and please don't jump me. "YOU MONSTER WHY'D YOU KILL GATY?!?!" woah.... who said she died? (I was originally not gonna say anything about her surviving and making that a "THANK GOODNESS SHE'S ACTUALLY ALIVE, OUR TWOGATY YURI WILL LIVE ANOTHER DAY!!" but then the new TPOT episode released and I felt really bad for Two so....)

Chapter 11: Battle Of The Larynx

Summary:

Lunchtime, and wouldn't you know, Nickel and Suitcase have a fight. What else is new?

Notes:

The chapter song is by Melanie Martinez. Idk thought it related to the fight of Suitcase and Nickel, y'know? Also I just got back from camp I my entire dorm created a frat boy group and it was actually insane, everyone called me Thad >:)

Knife let out a very faint sigh of relief as he stepped out of his 3rd period class. As much as he appreciated that the school didn't operate on a 7 period schedule, that didn’t make the hour and a half class time any better.

His first period with Ms. Fossil honestly wasn’t that bad. She was really strict and spoke in a very complicated sciency way that Knife couldn’t understand, but the moment the two locked eyes when she was taking roll, they had both silently agreed that if he didn’t bother her, she wouldn’t bother him and things would be just peachy.

Knife couldn’t say the same about his second period. His teacher, Mr. Lifering, had tried to get him to do a whole introduction. Like hell he was going to get up and do a whole introduction for a bunch of people that probably didn’t care about his existence. Eugh. Mr. Lifering didn’t stop pestering him there. He kept talking to Knife like he had never picked up a dumbell in his life. Longest hour and a half of his life.

Third bell was probably the most chill. Knife already had a decent amount of knowledge on the Spanish language, so his teacher, Ms. Dora, just gave him the bell to settle in and get his materials ready. He didn’t. He just spent the entire time on his phone.

Now with that class done, he was trying to find his way to lunch. He opted to follow the other kids in the hall, finding that option a lot easier than pulling out his map.

…

Holy hell, the cafeteria was huge, and loud. He had to cover his ears for a moment when he opened the door as a roar of at least 500 different conversations hit his ears at once. Not only that, the room was packed. The lunch line was long, which was kind of ridiculous. No way the school lunch was that good that there were at least 35 students in each line. He wasn't that hungry anyways to fuck that.

Knife scanned the huge room, hoping to find an empty table. No luck. His next option was the courtyard which was… on the other side of the cafeteria.

Great.

With a heavy sigh, he readjusted his bag and started his long trek towards the courtyard.

 

— — —

 

“I just hate getting caught up in that stuff, y’know?” Balloon’s squeaky voice said, slicing through the noise around them perfectly.

“I get it, that’s got to be frustrating.” Suitcase nodded in agreement, taking a sip of her banana peanut butter smoothie that Balloon had gotten for her from Tropical Smoothie. The lunch lines get pretty long, so Balloon and Nickel always offered to get everyone a little something so they wouldn't have to worry standing in line the entire lunch period with only 5 minutes left to eat.

“How’d you get caught up in her stupid shenanigans anyway?” Nickel asked, finally joining in on the conversation, and already halfway through his pineapple banana smoothie.

“Well, it kind of started when…”

Balloon’s voice trailed off in Suitcase’s mind as her thoughts wandered. Where did they wander? Eh, she wasn’t too sure. She had probably been zoned out for a good five minutes as when she was pulled out of her mind by someone walking by, Balloon and Nickel were already talking about something completely different. She quickly glanced at the person who walked by. Knife. She did a double take, making sure it really was him. Yep, same slicked back shiny grey hair and same leather jacket. She quickly looked back at her friends, then at Knife.

“Uh, guys? I’m going to go grab someone real quick.” She called out, getting both boys’ attention.

“Yeah that’s fine!” Balloon replied, giving her a quick glance of acknowledgment before going back to his conversation with Nickel.

Suitcase smiled with a nod, slipping out of her seat and speed walking to catch up with Knife. Once close enough, she started to reach a hand out to tap his shoulder.

Knife had just been walking peacefully, trying to reach the courtyard so he could have some peace and quiet, hopefully. So far so good, no one had really noticed him or tried to bother him… God did really hate him, huh? He felt a small delicate tap on his shoulder, his head slowly turning to face the person who touched him. It was Suitcase.

“Hey again!” She greeted, a cheery smile on her lips.

“...Hey.” He responded, almost hesitant to give a response.

“Would you like to come sit with me and my friends? It’s just two others.” She offered kindly, turning to point at the table where her two friends were. They weren’t looking at the two, deep in a conversation.

Knife looked over to where she pointed, a groan bubbling from his throat. “Suitcase, was it?”

“Yep! That’s me!” She beamed, clasping both her hands.

“Well, Suitcase, I’m not looking for friends.” He said bluntly, his eyes piercing her like blades.

Her smile faltered. “Oh, I mean- I just thought you’d like to have someone to sit with and-”

“Don’t assume things about people you don’t know.” He cut her off, not in the mood to let her go off on a nervous rant. “Have a nice day, Suitcase.” And with that, he was off on his way to the courtyard once more.

Suitcase sighed, at least she gave it a shot. She was kind of bummed but she had to respect his wishes. She turned to head back to her seat but froze when she saw Balloon and Nickel staring at her with wide eyes. Balloon looked worried and concerned while Nickel looked offended and like he was ready to throw hands. She raised a confused eyebrow and hurried back to them.

“Are you guys okay?! Why are you looking at me like that?!” She questioned, sliding back into her seat.

“You do know who that is, right?” Nickel asked, he looked at Suitcase like she was insane, like she had just tried to fight a lion thinking she’d win.

“Yeah, that’s Knife. He’s the new student I helped this morning.” She responded, still looking confused. “Stop looking at me like that!” She cried, her eyes on Nickel.

“Suitcase… he beat up a defenseless girl at his last school.” Balloon said cautiously.

Her eyes widened, gaze turning to her best friend. “What?” Her face morphed into one of disbelief, but quickly disappeared as a question arose. “Wait- How would you even know that?”

“We saw it online, there are a lot of videos about it.” Nickel informed, grabbing his smoothie and taking a sip before continuing. “So, you see-”

“So you two are going to believe something you saw online? About someone you don’t actually know? About a situation you know nothing about?!” She accused, giving both boys a stern glare. “Balloon, you should know better than most people that that is unfair!”

“Y-You’re right! We know nothing about what happened,” Balloon stammered, looking a little nervous. “But there is still a video of him fighting someone. We just want you to be careful.” He was hoping she could see their reasoning and at least understand where they were both coming from.

“I knew nothing about what happened in your Freshman year, but you still manipulated and used people. Knowing all that, I still gave you a chance.” She reminded. Balloon couldn’t seem to think of a response to that.

“That’s different.” Nickel insisted.

“Different?!” Suitcase snapped, voice raising slightly. She looked angry, it was uncomfortable to look at since she was usually calm and sweet.

“You didn’t seem to think so when I tried to give him a chance!” She cried. Once she noticed that her yelling had gotten the attention of a few bystanders, she calmed herself down, taking a couple deep breaths.

“I don’t want to talk to either of you right now.” Suitcase mumbled, loud enough for both boys to hear. She stood up, grabbing her smoothie. “Thanks again for the drink, Balloon.” She stepped away from the table and made her way to the courtyard where she saw Knife heading earlier.

 

— — —

 

Knife definitely liked the courtyard a lot better than the cafeteria. It was a lot quieter and spacious. Nothing to do though, not like he was expecting the courtyard to have entertainment. He didn’t even bother trying to get lunch, the line was too long and the food probably wasn’t even that promising.

He was used to only having two meals a day instead of three so he was perfectly fine skipping lunch. Gave him a lot more time to himself.

…

That didn’t last long.

“I thought I said I wasn’t looking to make friends.” He said with irritation as Suitcase appeared next to him on the bench he had chosen to sit at.

“I’m not here to become your friend.” She replied, crossing her legs on top of one another.

“Then why did you come out here to sit with me?”Knife demanded. He didn’t even look at her, instead pulling his phone out and scrolling through a random app.

“My friends are pissing me off and they’ll be less likely to run after me if I’m with someone.” She took a sip of her smoothie. She sounded irritated, her leg bouncing as she found herself restless.

“You could have sat with anyone else, y’know.” Knife said, hoping she would take the hint. How much more obvious could he make it that he did not want to be near her. He was practically screaming, ‘LEAVE ME ALONE’ without screaming ‘LEAVE ME ALONE’.

“Out of everyone else out here, you’re the only person I know.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Not ‘know know’, just know. I know you exist.”

Knife just grumbled, she obviously wasn’t going to go away. That annoyed him. He wanted to yell, maybe make an insult, but getting himself in trouble on the first day is pathetic. Makes him look like he isn’t even trying.

It was silent after that, which honestly kind of… surprised Knife? He wasn’t complaining but he kind of had it in his head that Suitcase was going to try and make conversation.

It was then that he decided to look at her, putting his phone down. Wow, she really did look pissed. Her brows were furrowed heavily and her body looked kind of tense, like she was bracing for an attack almost. Her leg was bouncing kind of fast and her arms were crossed, her fingers drumming on her arms. She looked restless, like she was itching to do something to distract herself.

‘At least she’s not trying to talk to me.’ Knife thought to himself. He didn’t pay too much mind to her after that. He took out his phone and airpods, putting one in so he could listen to music while scrolling through whatever app he was before.

He obviously didn’t look for too long. Maybe if he had, he’d have seen that distant look in her eyes, the one that showed that she wasn’t all there. He was unaware of the horrors in her head that suffocated her in that moment. The visions that mocked her.

She was in an eternal battle.

An eternal war.

Notes:

Thanks again for reading guys!! I'll be getting my school chromebook back in a couple of weeks and chapters will come out a lot quicker then so STAY TUNED!! Also sorry that this is such a short chapter, I SWEAR they will start to get longer

Update: HOLYYYYY SHIIIIIIT THAT NEW EPISODE. My friend: "Ppl were saying that this episode would be a sad episode for Fantube... let's hope they don't get divorced again." Maybe them getting divorced would have been better.... ALSO THE AMOUNT OF IDEAS I GOT.... AAAAAAAAA we gotta kill Jack. I also just got back from a visit to Kennedy Space Center and I got the chance to send a message to space so I wrote down "Say hi to the Prime Shimmers for me! :D"

Chapter 12: Lunchbox Friends

Summary:

Taco considers Mic's offer and bumps into... someone unpleasant

Notes:

Song by Melanie Martinez, AND I AM OFFICIALLY BACK YES YESS YEEEESSSSSS!!!! I don't have a schedule but when I do I'll let you guys know! I've also decided I won't be describing the characters that much bc I suck ass at it as you've already seen so you guys get to imagine your own humanizations:D

"Good day, Microphone.” Those were the last words Taco said to the girl before exiting the small nook. There were at least 10 minutes left before the bell rang, but Taco wasn’t really in the mood to spend it with Microphone. Plus, getting to her class early would help to avoid a specific someone.

Ms. Cabby looked up from the computer she was working on as she noticed Taco heading towards the library's exit. “Have a good day, Taco!” She called out kindly.

“Right.” She didn’t have much care to return any kindness, quickly exiting the library.

Taco walked briskly through the halls. Her head was high, shoulders down, attention dead set. She looked like someone with the attitude of “I own the place”, at least that’s what others might tell you. Taco was just a very formal person, it was as simple as that. People just really liked to mischaracterize her every chance they could; though, the look of confidence in her posture helped keep people away… most of the time. She didn’t spare a single glance to anyone she passed by, whether they glared, whispered, or outright ignored her. None of them were worth her time anyways.

“Taco!” A high pitched voice called out, making Taco freeze. So much for avoiding them. “Lovely seeing you!”

Taco took a deep breath. Just stay calm and dismiss everything they say she thought to herself as she slowly turned to face the algebralien that called out to her. “One, didn’t think you’d be heading to class so early.” Taco spoke with venom, hoping One would catch on and just leave her be.

“I could say the same for you!” One giggled, a kind, but obviously fake smile plastered on her face.

Ugh, Taco hated- no, hate was too kind, Taco absolutely despised her smile. It wasn’t just the smile that Taco despised, it was One in general. If you think Taco is a monster, then what do you think One is? An absolute angel probably, that’s what everyone else thought, but Taco knew they were the absolute opposite. One was just a conniving evil bitch who thought she was the main character and that she should be adored and respected.

“That doesn’t matter though,” One made a fanning motion with her hand, dismissing her previous sentence. They were only talking to Taco because they wanted something. “I have an offer to make.”

Ah, there it was. “Geez, it seems like everyone's interested in making offers with me today.” Taco said, her words coming off as sarcastic playful banter, which One seemed to catch on too if the twitch in their lips were anything to go off of. Good. Taco didn’t want to make a deal with her anyways.

“Oh, come on! Just hear me out, I promise it’ll be worth your time.” One gave her a kind look, her eyes soft and warm.

Taco didn’t buy it, as a good actor herself she could always tell when people were giving her bullshit, no matter how good the act is. Plus, she in fact didn’t have time for this!

“Oh please,” Taco scoffed. “You just need someone to help you with your evil plan to steal your ex-best friend’s powers.” She turned to continue her walk to class, clearly done with this conversation. Well One wasn’t.

“Don’t be like that, Taco!” They followed after her, trying their best to match Taco’s speed. “All I need is a little help, and in return, I can help boost your reputation. I know you miss the days when everyone looked at you and smiled. It must be really frustrating that everyone accuses you of being responsible for Pickle’s-”

Taco’s eyes flew wide at the mention of… she halted, turning to face One with wide, furious eyes. “No. I am not making a deal with you. Not now, not ever. Others may see you as a saint, but I don’t. You can’t manipulate me.” Taco watched as One struggled to keep herself from looking frustrated, she didn’t even respond and that gave Taco an exit, turning away from the algebralien as she continued her walk to class.

One stood there a moment, watching as Taco walked away. Once out of earshot, they scoffed. “At least I know I’m a manipulator.” They giggled to themself before turning on their heel to walk to class.

 

— — —

 

Taco set her bag down beside her desk that was, thankfully, in the back of the classroom. Taco wasn’t a big fan of marketing. The class was fine, and the the material was easy, it was just the teacher: Mr. Clock. He was… a bit of a nutcase to say the least.

Class started like normal, everyone came in, took their seats, chatted a little, and then quieted down as Mr. Clock started his lecture on how to sell a… The, whatever the heck that was.

Taco wasn’t really paying much attention, deeming this lecture unimportant and a waste of space in her brain. But not paying attention led to Taco thinking about other things that were more “of interest” than learning how to sell a The. Those things of interest being Mic’s offer. She pulled out her phone and practically glared at the screen in thought as her eyes scanned over the number saved in her contacts; it was Microphone’s number. (Which she had taken the time to quickly memorize when exchanging her own number.) Taco had a slight hunch that Microphone would be a bit hesitant to reach out to her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Microphone was slightly intimidated by her, but it also didn’t take a genius to figure out that Microphone was looking for friendship.

Taco was conflicted to say the least. Taco didn’t doubt that having someone as an information outlet would be a huge help, but would Microphone be the most suitable? Taco wasn't all that sure if she could rely on Microphone, she was known to be a wild card or a loose cannon, if you will. She also didn’t have a lot of friends, and from what Taco has heard, her own classmates see her as reckless and a "girl failure”.

She also didn’t want to accept the offer if it meant that Microphone would be led to thinking they were friends. Taco knew all too well about how that turned out last time, and she knew damn well she wasn’t going to let it happen again. Never again.

Taco continued to stare at the number for a few good minutes before saying screw it and pressing the message icon.

You: Microphone.

 

— — —

 

Microphone sighed, her head resting in the palm of her hand. Music class had been her absolute favorite for the first couple of weeks, Mrs. Ukulele was by far her favorite teacher! She was so kind and compassionate, and such a fun teacher! Now that she was on maternity leave a month earlier than she was supposed to be, now class has just been… boring. Ms. Slipper isn’t a very exciting substitute. She didn’t even assign them anything! “I don’t care what you dorks do, just don’t bother me.” Microphone really hoped she wasn’t a sub for too much longer.

Buzz

Microphone’s eyes darted towards her pocket, quickly pulling out her phone. Microphone only had a couple of contacts. Her dads, her aunts, Knife’s, her group mates, and Soap… who she still kept as a contact. Microphone assumed it might have been either Knife or her dads trying to contact her.

Taco: Microphone.

Microphone yelped as she saw the name. Why? Because she didn’t give Taco her number! It was the other way around!

You: hi???
You: how did u get my number?? i thought u just gave urs to me???

Taco: I took the time to quickly memorize your number while putting mines in.

Oh. That made sense.

You: do u have like photographic memory or smthn because you only had my phone for less than a minute

Taco: You mean eidetic memory? Yes, I do have that.

Microphone stared at her phone blankly. She had no idea what that even was. She started to type out a response but Taco beat her to it.

Taco: I’ve considered your offer and have decided to accept it. I will be in contact with you when I have your first task.

And with that, Taco was offline. Microphone stared at her phone for a few moments before setting it down in her lap and looking straight ahead. Taco accepted Mic’s offer… SHE ACCEPTED MIC’S OFFER! If Microphone didn’t have any self control, she’d be hopping around the classroom while squealing. Instead, a huge smile formed on her lips as her shoes tapped against the floor rapidly. Taco accepted Mic’s offer, meaning she wanted to be partners, and maybe… even friends!

Notes:

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR OVER 100 COMMENTS AND OVER 1,000 HITS YOU ALL MEAN SO MUCH TO ME AAAAA and before I forget #FREESCHLEP