Chapter Text
The academy coming into his sight looked as depressing as ever under the overcast sky. Saps adjusted the weight of the duffel bag slung across his shoulder, walking across the parking lot to the building. The air smelt of wet pavement, still damp from the rain that took place a few hours before. Leaving his old friends behind to move across the country wasn’t Saps’ idea of a relaxing senior year.
A voice sounded from the entrance to the dormitory building. “Took you long enough.”
Saps put his bag down on the concrete to look towards the source of sound. Leaning against the brick wall was Snowbird, holding his own bags.
“Shut up, my bus was late,” Saps snapped back, fiddling with his hoodie’s drawstrings. “That’s genuinely not my fault.”
“Uh huh,” Snowbird said, rolling his eyes, turning around to kick the door’s sensor with his foot. “Let’s get going.”
Saps gave a grunt in response before picking his bag back up and following his cousin through the sliding glass doors. If there was at least one thing his parents had done right in this entire last minute dash across the country, it was managing to pull strings and get him placed in the same dorm room as Snowbird. At least that saved him the stress of finding a roommate in a completely new environment.
The academy was one massive u-shaped building, designed with so many intricate details you could easily compare it to a medieval castle. The residential wings were practically fused with the dining and lecture halls, meaning you could roll out of bed and make it to class within 3 minutes.
Saps, however, took one look at the massive windows pointing to the view of the football field and internally bet that no one here ever stepped foot outside. The design was practically begging for students to stay cooped up indoors all day.
They dropped their stuff at their dorm, which was actually reasonably sized with a small kitchen and 2 twin beds. It was rather empty, a contrast to his room back at his old house. He would probably get used to it.
For the next hour, they wandered around as Snowbird gave him a detailed run down of the campus layout, told him what teachers to avoid, which days the dining hall served food that was actually edible, what floors to stick to if he didn't want to deal with chaotic crowds. It was basically everything Saps needed to survive at this new school.By the time they headed back to the room, Saps was exhausted enough to collapse flat onto his bed and fall asleep within minutes.
The next day, it was the first official day of classes, and Saps was making his way to his first class, following the current of students with a pencil case and a binder in his arms. The hallways were packed, just like Snowbird had warned him about, filled with the noise of lockers slamming and hundreds of separate conversations all combining into a wall of sound. Luckily, he had physics with Snowbird first block, who had texted Saps that he’d already saved him a seat in class.
Saps checked his phone, trying to find the correct room number, rounding a corner near the science wing a bit too fast.
He crashed straight into another student coming from the other direction, a few papers slipping from his binder onto the floor.
“Oh crap—sorry I wasn't looking,” Saps started, bending down to pick up his things, his instinct to be polite taking over.
A sneer cut him off before he could finish apologising. “Watch it, idiot.”
Saps paused, his hand still stretched out, hovering over the scattered paper. He looked up, the apology dying on his tongue. Towering over him was a boy glaring down at him with a piercing, arrogant stare. The guy had pale skin, short jet-black hair marked by a stripe of purple down the front of his bangs, small hanging slightly over his eyes. Saps noted a single earring dangling from his pierced ear, glinting slightly under the hallway's lights.
Saps’ tone shifted from apologetic to defensive within a second, rising up to meet the boy at eye level, though the boy was slightly shorter than him. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Most of us have better things to do than picking transfer students off the ground.” The boy responded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Are you stupid? You walked into me!” Saps snapped back, stepping forwards to look down at him using his height advantage. "Shouldn’t you be paying attention to where you’re going instead of looking at your phone like a zombie?”
“You’re a bitch.”
“Watch your mouth.” Saps hissed, clenching his jaw.
“Or what?” The shorter boy taunted, slowly stalking closer to him, holding his head high as if he was trying to appear taller. “You gonna go cry to the counselor's office? You've been here barely a day and you’re already sticking out like a sore thumb in the hallway.”
“Oh really?” Saps felt his face getting hot, his patience running thin, having no interest in getting bullied by a snobby private school kid before first period even started. He leaned down, voice dropping dangerously low. “Did mommy and daddy pay for your shitty personality too, or are you naturally this good at wasting space?”
The insult seemed to hit a nerve. “You're dead,” he hissed.
The boy planted both hands on Saps’ chest before shoving him with enough force to catch him off balance, sending him slamming into the wall.
A crowd was starting to gather, the yelling clearly attracting more attention than intended. Saps registered a sharp pain shooting through his back from the impact, but the sting was overridden by a wave of anger. He had long lost his patience to deal with nuisances. Without missing a beat, he pushed himself off the wall, steadying himself before letting his fist fly.
His knuckles met the other’s nose with a sickening crack, and he stumbled backwards, falling onto the carpeted floor. The hallway went dead silent. The boy held his already bleeding nose with his hand, looking stunned, clearly not expecting any retaliation.
Saps only felt half bad.
“Don’t ever put your hands on me again,” Saps hissed, not waiting for a response before whipping around, pushing through the crowd of onlookers to storm to class.
He managed to find his class just as the final bell rang. He spotted Snowbird, who was sitting there with his chin propped against his hand, scrolling on his phone. Snowbird looked up as he approached, lifting his backpack off the chair next to him that had been there to save Saps a seat. He slid into the empty chair.
Snowbird squinted at him. “Why is your hair so messy?”
Saps considered telling him the truth for a split second, but ended up deciding against it. He didn't feel like getting lectured by his cousin for potentially getting suspended his first day here. He quickly smoothed down his hair, quickly finding an excuse to explain his rumpled state. “I just woke up, I didn't have any time to fix my hair,” he lied.
“Ah, that explains a lot,” Snowbird said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
Saps glared at him and opened his mouth to insult him, right before the teacher strolled in holding a stack of textbooks, signaling the beginning of class.
The next hour or so passed slowly. Every first class of the year was usually like that, especially since the teachers did nothing but introduce themselves and summarize the course. Saps got bored quickly, tuning out the teacher's talking to stare out the window instead.
By the start of lunch, Saps was already sick of playing awkward icebreakers and repeating the same 3 events about his summer. Snowbird had given him loose instructions through texts on how to find the dining hall. He made his way over, trying to memorise the directions.
He eventually found the massive hall only after running into a dead end from turning left a hallway too early. He scanned the crowded place, eventually spotting Snowbird along with 4 other people he'd never seen before sitting at the table. He made his way over to them, weaving through the tables.
A brunette with an orange bandana tied loosely around him waved enthusiastically at him as he approached. “Yo, you must be the cousin Snowbird’s been talking about!!”
“Yeah,” Saps replied, sliding into the wooden bench attached to the table. “My name's Saparata but everyone calls me Saps.”
“Sweet. My name’s Thomas, cool meeting you, man.” Thomas pointed at a boy with tanned skin and blond hair, then one hunched over his phone with dyed blue hair, and finally a quiet guy with a scar resembling a burn mark on his eyes. “That’s Rotation, Gotoga and Newkids. There's one more of us but he isn’t here yet. His name is Fluixon but we all call him Flux.”
Saps waved back to them as they gave him small nods of acknowledgment. “Where is he?”
Gotoga kept his eyes glued to his phone screen, his thumbs typing rapidly. “He’s probably scheming something again. You know how he gets near the start of the school year, he just falls off the face of the earth for a while.”
“Hey, now that you mention it, It’s kind of weird I didn't see him in the first two classes we have together,” Rotation observed, leaning against the table. “He's usually a sweat when it comes to attendance.”
“Guys we shouldn’t worry too much,” Thomas cut in, waving his hand dismissively. “It's not like he can't take care of himself.”
Newkids, whose eyes had been focused on the steady stream of students flowing through the entrance to the hall, lifted a finger up in the general direction of the crowd. “Spoke too soon, look who it is.”
All of them turned their heads towards the doors, following the direction of Newkids’ finger, including Saps, who wasn't sure who he was looking for.
“Oh my god.” Thomas was already laughing.
Saps squinted, trying to spot the 6th friend somewhere in the crowd. For a few seconds, he saw no one interesting. But then, the crowd parted slightly, and he spotted the familiar face of the guy that he had punched earlier, now strolling across the cafeteria, carrying himself as if he owned the place despite a thick white bandage taped over his nose bridge.
He froze as said guy started making his way towards him and he genuinely considered throwing himself out the window. Saps whipped his head down, keeping his eyes glued to his food, praying that the other would just walk past their table.
“Don’t even start,” a sharp voice snapped from above him.
“Flux, what happened man?” Thomas asked, still snickering along with Rotation. “Dont tell me you got into a physical fight first day back.”
Saps went rigid. He slowly looked up, lifting his head only to see a very familiar, very angry face standing at the other end of the table. He made a horrifying realization, his heart dropping to his stomach.
Flux was the same guy he punched in the hallway.
Flux's gaze swept over their friends before landing directly on Saps, his eyes narrowing the tiniest bit, a flicker of recognition passing through them. Saps winced, genuinely expecting the boy to curse his entire bloodline and scream at him for ruining his face with a bandage.
“I tripped.” Flux said simply, looking away to grab an empty chair from a nearby table, dragging it over with a loud screech.
“You tripped?” Rotation echoed, a massive shit eating grin spreading across his face.
“Listen, I just wasn't paying attention, okay?” Flux snapped, his voice laced with defensive impatience. “I slipped and fell onto the railing, no big deal.”
Saps let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, a wave of smug relief washing over him. He smirked slightly, looking down at his food to hide his glee. Flux was clearly too proud to admit to his friends that a transfer student dropped him flat on his back before period one even started.
“Right, whatever you say dude,” Thomas laughed, clearly amused by his friend's clumsiness. “By the way, this is Saps, Snowbird’s cousin. He just transferred here.”
“Nice to meet you, Saps.” Flux greeted, his tone even. If you weren't paying attention, you would miss the icy look in his eyes that was practically screaming for war. “It's nice to know they're being more open minded about who they're letting into the school these days.”
“Thanks, Flux, it's nice to meet you too.” Saps responded, completely ignoring the backhanded comment as he took a bite out of his food.
“Wait Flux,” Gotoga cut in. “If you tripped right before period one where have you been this whole time? You missed both your classes with Rotation.”
Flux crossed his arms, throwing a glare at Saps as he spoke. “Because I spent 2 hours trapped in the nurse's office. She insisted on keeping me there for ‘observation’. Took me forever to convince her to let me leave.”
“Yeah, just try not to break anything else before the end of the day,” Snowbird chimed in.
Before Flux could snap a sarcastic comment back at Snowbird, the harsh blare of the school bell cuts through the chatter, signalling the end of lunch.
“Ugh, looks like we gotta go back to slaving away, let's get moving before the hallways get jammed,” Thomas groaned, moving to start packing his trash.
The exact second the others turned around to return their trays, Flux leaned across the table, his face inches away from Saps’. “Watch your back here, asshole. I’m gonna make you regret that you ever transferred here.”
Saps didn’t flinch. Instead, he leaned right back into Flux’s space, shooting him a mocking grin. “Try it, dumbass. Keep pushing your luck and I'll give you a black eye if you want a matching set with your nose.”
Flux’s jaw visibly clenched, his face heating up at the threat, but before he could spit out another insult, Thomas slapped a hand on his shoulder, making them jump apart instantly.
“Woah, you guys met literally 10 minutes ago,” Thomas teased, although there was a glint of suspicion in his eyes. “Should we leave you guys alone or…?”
“It's all casual, don’t worry about it Thomas,” Flux said, keeping his piercing gaze on Saps. “Let’s go to class, we don't want to be late.”
“Yeah, see you guys,” Saps responded, holding his stare for one last second before grabbing his own tray. “And Flux? Watch out for those stairs, I wouldn't want you injuring yourself again.”
Flux didn't answer. Instead he turned on his heel and stormed away, dragging Thomas with him.
Saps let out a sigh. He had only been here for a day and he had somehow managed to put a target on his back. There was no way this went well.
Unfortunately his prediction was spot on, which is why he was currently sitting right next to Flux in his last period of the day.
Saps had headed to PE right after lunch, spending an hour playing volleyball with a guy named Schpood and the rest of his friends. He faintly remembered Snowbird saying something about Schpood’s entire group being a walking frat house. They apparently hosted massive chaotic parties that usually had to be broken up by the local police, but despite their questionable reputation, Saps had a fun time playing with them.
But whatever good mood gym class had given him was gone the moment he stepped into psychology class.
The room was already packed with students when he’d walked in five minutes late. The teacher had taken one look at him and pointed him to a seat at the back of the class. Funny enough, the only available seat in the entire class was directly beside Flux.
They spent the entire lecture trying to subtly provoke each other. Flux was clicking aggressively with his pen every sentence he wrote on his notebook, while Saps would retaliate by nudging Flux’s arm whenever he was writing, smudging his pen across his neat notes.
When the teacher turned around to erase the chalkboard, Flux finally cracked. He leaned into Saps’ space, his eyes flashing with irritation.
“If you nudge my arm one more time I will choke you right here right now,” Flux hissed, his patience already out the window.
Saps seemed completely unbothered by the threat, a grin spreading across his face. “Kinky.”
Flux’s face turned bright pink almost immediately. He looked ready to burn the place down if it meant shutting Saps up. “Fuck you.”
“You wish.”
Flux’s eyes narrowed into slits. He opened his mouth to retaliate but quickly realized that he couldn't say a single thing without fueling Saps’ satisfaction. Accepting he’d lost the verbal argument, he instead resorted to reaching under the table to pinch Saps’ leg.
Saps bit down sharply on his own tongue to stop himself from letting out a yelp in the quiet classroom, glaring sideways at the smirking boy next to him.
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