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It's not that Sonny Moore was a bad kid. He- well, he at least tried to be good and obedient and not anything that would send his mom in a frenzy. He had decent grades, did his best to pay attention in class, stuck with his tiny circle of friends. (And he was very thankful for Dillon and Anton, despite sharing few classes with them.)
Mostly, Sonny knew how to avoid the Wrong Crowd. The jock boys who talked loud and hit harder, the girls with short skirts and glitter-mean eyes. They'd eat him up and spit him out- if he ever actually caught their attention. But Sonny was a barely a decipherable blip in the social radar of school, and he wanted to keep it that way. It was easier to hide behind a curtain of long hair and loud music.
He wasn't a bad kid, so how'd he end up in detention?
Mr. Aoki, his homeroom teacher, had finally noticed Sonny coming in late, and was forced to put his foot down. One detention slip for Saturday. It wouldn't have been so bad if Mr. Aoki hadn't been one of the coolest teachers possible, willing to ignore the first tardy moments. Sometimes he even brought cake in for the students. It also sucked how Sonny couldn't explain why he was appearing so late. He didn't want to talk about how he was just so exhausted recently, like how being invisible was starting to get to him.
And yeah, having to tell mom about detention sucked majorly too. Her disappointed eyes were the worst part.
But he could survive an afternoon of being stuck in a classroom. Sonny could keep his head down and pretend to work on his geometry homework. Math had never been his forte anyways.
The first thing he noticed walking into the designated classroom was that there were only two other people, a teacher and another student. Mr. Swire looked frazzled, flipping through papers at light speed and mumbling something just under his breath. The other student was-
He was trouble with a capital T. Short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that lazily followed Sonny's movements before glancing away. Great. Just his luck to share detention with the infamous Thomas Wesley Pentz. The notorious party dude, captain of the soccer team, ladies' man, blah blah blah. Sonny never said a word to him, and likewise vice versa. He didn't have to, because he knew that Wesley (or just Wes to his many buddies) was just another jerk in the popular clique.
Mr. Swire motioned Sonny to take a seat. "Alright, I uh... misplaced something I need. Probably left it with Garreth." He scratched fretfully at the wood of his desk, looking a little embarrassed but mostly annoyed.
"You can go look for it, we'll stay here all nice and quiet. Promise!" Wes smiled the kind of smile that wrinkly old ladies would fall for, but not cynical teachers that spent too much time babysitting teens he was supposed to be educating. Thing is, Swire had no choice. That's what he told himself then and that's what looped in his brain as he left behind the stringy-haired emo kid and the boy who threw only the most legendary of parties.
Without the teacher here, Sonny felt even more vulnerable then before. He's never spent so much time with someone like Wesley, let alone all by themselves. What the hell was Mr. Swire thinking, ditching them like that? Maybe if he didn't make eye contact and stayed perfectly still, Wes would leave him alone. 'If I can't see you, you can't see me.'
"Hey kid."
Or not, that's cool too, whatever.
Sonny looked up all slow and timid, pushing thick-framed glasses up his nose. Was there someone else in the room he hadn't noticed? Because there was no way Wesley was wiling to start a conversation with a small emo boy no one noticed. But he was, and Sonny responded with a faint "What."
Wesley smiled in a way that suggested he was chill with anything possible. Aliens could invade earth and he would roll with it. "I haven't seen your face around here. Your name, I swear I know it though. S... Scotty? Stanley? It's starts with an 's' and ends with that hard 'e' sound."
"It's Sonny." He says to the wooden tabletop. Someone had scrawled their name in pen on it, 'AINO JAWA', which at first made him think someone misspelled a whole other thing. Underneath it, 'I DONT CARE I LOVE IT' was written in bold bubble letters. "And you're Thomas Wesley Pentz, everyone knows who you are and what your name is."
Sonny winces to himself, hoping that he didn't sound as whiny as he thought. But Wesley made a face like he tasted something gross, so that was probably unlikely.
"Bro, the only people who call me that are my parents when they get pissed at me. Call me Wes, all my buddies do."
He almost blurts out 'We're not buddies' but bites it back in time. No reason to annoy the only other kid in detention, and it wasn't like Sonny actually disliked him. He just felt wary. A little nervous in a strange way, not like around other students, but he didn't want to deal with that sudden revelation.
Instead he asks "So what did you do?"
Tho- Wes gives him a confused look, so he clarifies. "Uh, you know. What did you do to end up here. In detention." Sonny picks at the hem of his shirt, taps his foot in a nervous beat. "I got too many tardies, Mr. Aoki had been giving me a break but I still ended up in here."
"Oh. That's not too bad, I..." Wes started but trailed off. When Sonny dared to look at his face, he was surprised to see the taller boy seem almost embarrassed and even a little upset. Wes shook himself out of it and returned to his casual smile, casual stance. "Me and my friends, we were in class and the teacher had to step outside for a moment. She left her phone behind so one of my buds thought it would be a good idea to take it and look up, you know. Porn."
Sonny felt his face burn red in response to the confession. He suddenly found the floor a lot more interesting, dropping his gaze down. What do you even say as a follow up to that? 'haha good one, a dumb prank that seriously could've gotten a teacher in trouble and force her to face consequences even though she's actually innocent. really cool.'
"The teacher caught us and flipped her shit, demanded to know who started it but nobody said a word. When she threatened to keep the entire class after school I had to step in. It just wasn't fair, right? So I stood up and took the heat and that's pretty much it."
That wasn't what he expected at all. He figured Wes had pulled some spectacular yet immature prank worthy of prime time tv, not taking a bullet for his friends. It was kinda sweet in a way that made Sonny smile to himself.
Wes noticed his lips quirk up and hummed in curiosity. "What are you smiling for, kid?"
"Hey, first of all you're only a grade above me!" Sonny defends himself, sitting up straight, eyes now brighter than before. "Second of all, I wasn't smiling. I have a rare genetic disorder that makes my grimaces look like smiles, it's very tragic." He couldn't even keep a straight face saying that, muffled laughter escaping him in snorts. Wes looked weirdly proud, and at the sound of Sonny's laugh a warm feeling bubbled in his belly. This was nice. It was like an unspoken boundary between them broke, now they were free to relax and be themselves.
"You're a silly little dude. I like it." Wes admitted. He pointed at a bundle of charms clipped to Sonny's backpack, tiny colorful things clinking against each other. "I like those things too, wherever they're from. Is that a mouse head?"
Sonny leaned down to fiddle with the Mickey Mouse charm, big grin on his small face. "Oh my gosh do not get me started on Disney, I've watched every single movie several times but Lilo and Stitch is probably my all time favorite. Oh! Speaking of extraterrestrials, here's my newest charm freshly shipped from the UFO capital of the world." He excitedly showed off the alien head-shaped charm, the words 'Roswell, New Mexico' etched on the back in fluorescent green.
The younger boy talked so animatedly about his hobbies that Wes had a hard time relating him to the previous meek version. He liked how lively Sonny acted, as if there was a certain energy in him just waiting to be released.
In the midst of the mess of charms, Wes spotted one that caught his attention. A tiny music note charm, simple in color and shape yet he couldn't tear his gaze away. "Hey dude, are you into music?".
Sonny cut himself off mid-sentence and blinked hard down at the object in question. "Well uh. Yeah you could say that."
"Cool, I dabble a little in music too, got some good stuff that could be potential hits. It's all edm, right now I'm really into house with like a dancehall twist that gives it an extra punch. What kinda music do you like?"
Edm. House. These were words Sonny was familiar with. "I'm working on dance music too! You know what I love, it's finding the perfect drop and where it exactly fits in. I've been saving up for a synthesizer but the cheapest ones are usually shitty..." Oh, he was excited now. Music has always been a source of passion for him and finally getting to talk to someone about it made him giddy with joy.
"We should hang out sometime, check each other's samples. I've got a neat synthesizer you can play with, got it as a birthday present last year. Here, hold up a minute." Wes tore a sheet of paper from his notebook, which Sonny noticed was filled with doodles of dinosaurs. Cute.
The junior scribbled something on the paper, folded it once and pressed it to Sonny's empty hands. "That's my number. So we can make plans to meet up and chill out! This is gonna be sick, you'll be the first person who'll actually be interested in my music."
That last part didn't make sense. Sonny knew Wes had a swarm of lackies near him everyday at school, borderline fanatic in the way they treat him. At least one of them shared his interest in house music. There wasn't any reason for Wes to lie though, not about this. Sonny's curiosity was peaked.
He pocketed the offered paper with a bashful smile, shyness still lingering like an unwelcome guest. He was so ready to get over it but it clung to him. Baby steps first. Talk to the biggest name in school, bond over producing edm, get his number without even asking for it. Oh gosh.
"Sounds good," Sonny breathed, "I'll text you tonight. Hope you like crazy amounts of emojis, 'cuz that's like my number one way to communicate nowadays."
The door slammed open before Wes could respond with a laugh, Mr. Swire rushing in frantically. He peered around the room with suspicious eyes, settling his gaze on the students sitting politely. "Ok! This is good, you two are still here, there's no damaged property, no noise complaints coming in..." The teacher nodded in satisfaction, seemingly pleased that his two charges were unharmed and obedient. "Sorry for the wait, Mr. McGrillen was not being cooperative. All's well that ends well, I suppose. Hopefully you boys got along well. Not giving Moore any trouble, have you Pentz?"
"No way sir. I think this might be the start of a beautiful partnership." Wes winked at Sonny playfully, an inside joke between them. Sonny tried to wink back but probably ended up looking like he was squinting in frustration. He's been thinking about getting contacts anyways.
The rest of the detention went by relatively uneventful, Sonny working on geometry questions and Wes doodling in his notebook. They were released from detention by Mr. Swire, who wished Sonny well and told Wes he'd better not see him in trouble again.
Sonny's mom was already waiting in her car to pick him up, parked near the entrance. He could see her appraise Wes in judgement, wondering who this kid her son walked out of detention with was. First impressions and all.
"That's my mom, I'll talk to you later!" Sonny huffed out. He sprinted the few feet to the car, embarrassment twisting his heart and making him feel guilty. Mom was great, the loveliest person he ever knew, so he knew no reason to feel ashamed of her. Biological or not, she was his mother and she never treated him less then her own flesh and blood.
Wes shouted bye at him just as Sonny closed the car door. The smaller boy watched as his new friend walked in the opposite direction, jogging down the street. He didn't notice his mom's watchful eyes, or the gleam of realization in them.
Later that night, Sonny texted a quick message.
To diplo: this is sonny 8} coming to you live but plz call me skrillex •u•