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The sharp bell rang in the distance as students pooled into the sun-kissed room. Sleep danced on Paul’s eyes as he sat in his seat, setting his flute case next to his feet.
His classmate and dear friend, George, sat next to him, pulling out a small container of pancakes out of his bag. Paul raised his eyebrow as he turned to his pal
“You do know we have band next period, right?” He said, resting his chin on his knuckles. George only side-eyes him while chewing on one of the pancakes.
He swallows, nearly choking, and says, “I know, Macca, I’m not an idiot” he rolls his eyes. He takes another bite of his food as Paul looks at him confused.
“Have you been eating before band every time?!” Paul quickly shot up and slammed his hand on his desk. He quickly sat down in embarrassment after his peers turned his way.
“Yea, why so dramatic?” George says with a mouthful. Paul grimaced and sighed.
“Your poor reed…” He slowly shook his head. George only shrugged and continued eating. This is when Paul decided not to speak to George this period.
The teacher starts his whole rant on geometry and Paul stares longingly into the window next to he seat. He was watching a fly die on the window sill as the teacher was interrupted in the middle of proofs by two late students.
“-and that’s why when they ask you ass or tits, you gotta answer with eyes!” A short one commented to another who was out of Paul’s view. A loud cackle ensued and then a bunch of… barking?
The teacher sighed at asked someone to close the door. Paul, being the closest to the door in the back of the class, got up and looked out for a second. He recognized them as people from their band class! One of them was percussion and the other was a trumpet. Paul closed the door and quickly walked back to his seat.
The hour was spent filled with half-assed notes and small doodles before time was finally up and it was time to leave. Paul got up and speed-walked his way to the band room, not bothering to speak to George on the way.
He sits in his section in the flutes, next to a senior named Brian. Brian was a good friend of his and he made wonderful conversation.
They were in the middle of their gossip when Paul heard someone clearing their throat behind him. He turned to see the trumpeter from earlier holding his flute case!
“Hey uh, your friend over there asked me to grab this for ya” The man nodded his head at George, who was laughing his head off with another bassoonist.
Paul got a light red on his cheek as he quickly grabbed his flute from the boy’s hands.
“Thank you, umm..” Paul bites on his thumb nail.
“John, my name is John.”
“Ah, well, thank you John.” Paul smiled before opening his case. John walks away over to his chair as the conductor steps up to the front. He tries to speak before getting interrupted by feed back from their guitarist’s-a freshman named Jimi-amp. He apologized and went back to whispering to his friends in percussion.
The conductor continues on and Paul finishes assembling his flute. They all played a b flat to make sure they were in tune. Of course, the saxes were all out of tune, and a good half of the room groaned as they tried to get in tune.
Finally, they were ready to start playing. Due to the demands of certain people, they were all trying to learn Sweating Bullets by Megadeath. Paul was upset that he didn’t get one of the main solos at the beginning or the end. In fact, he’d been complaining all month about it to George.
After band, George and Paul made their way down to Paul’s car to go get some Jollibees. George and spotted John and the shorter one in the parking lot and had called out to them.
“Oye John, Ringo!” They both turned over to Paul’s car. Paul punches George in the arm, he didn’t want this kind of attention!
“Wanna go to Jollibees with us?” George yelled. John turned to Ringo and the latter only shrugged.
“Sure, why not!” John calls back. They both approach the car while talking to one another. Paul nervously bites his nails.
“What the hell, George!” Paul violently whispered. George only waggled his eyebrows. Paul sighed as the others approached and entered into his baby blue Fiat Cabriolet.
“Real small car ya got here, reminds me of you, Rings” John commented . Ringo and George laughed and Paul’s cheeks turned a tomato red. He awkwardly laughed with them as he pulled out of the lot.
“You okay Paul? You look as red as when you saw my mom-“
“I’m fine, George!” He gripped the wheel tighter, gritting his teeth.
The car smelt of cigarette smoke as Ringo took puffs of his cigarette.
“You know, we never really introduced ourselves.” Ringo commented. He shifted a bit in the back. The car was rather cramped, especially if you were sitting next to someone of John’s size and stature.
“I’m Richard, but you can call me Ringo.” Ringo then elbowed John, prompting him to put down the magazine he was nose deep in.
“What? Paul knows me,”John turns his head over to the drivers seat “don’t ya, boy?” He said in a crappy southern accent. Paul nearly laughed if it weren’t for them hitting a speed bump.
They finally arrived at their local McDonalds and they step inside, John and Ringo stubbing out their cigarettes on the back or Paul’s car without him looking.
“Hey pretty momma!” John whistled at a couple other girls. They seemingly went to their school as Paul had seen them around the halls. The other three side-eyed Lennon and entered the ‘fine establishment’.
“It smells rank in here” George commented, scrunching up his nose.
“It can’t be that bad” Ringo said. He stopped in the middle of the doorway before he jumped back, nearly tripping. “What the hell is that!” Hey pretty exclaimed covering his nose.
“I’m not jinxing it, I’m staying out here” John put his hands up and stepped away from the door.
Paul grimaced, knowing that he would have to be the one to get their lunch. Paul stepped in and reluctantly ordered two-twenty piece McNuggets and four large fries for them to share. He waited a good 10-15 minutes before he got his food before he stepped out to his car.
He nearly dropped the bags as soon as he looked over to find the other three EATING IN-N’-OUT, RIGHT AFTER HE BOIGHT THEM ALL THAT FOOD?! He puts on a not-so-convincing smile and nearly stomps his way to the car and slams the goon on the hood.
“Hey guys!” He said through heavily gritted teeth. They all look over mid bite, George waves.
“You were taking a bit so,” Ringo says before taking another bite of his biscuit, “we went to the in-n’-out”
“That’s… wonderful” Paul felt more and more agitated. He slowly grabbed the nuggets out of bag carefully and gently placed them on the hood of his car.
“Oh can I get some?” George sucked some ketchup from the side of his thumb while pointing to the McNuggets with the other.
“Sure, here.” Paul the proceeds to violently throw the McNuggets at all three of them, saving only ten for himself. George managed to catch 2 in his mouth and the others cowered on the other side of his car.
“What the hell, Paul!” John shouted out from behind the trunk.
Paul wipes his hands on his ‘Mesmerize’ t-shirt and only said, “you guys were taking so long to eat the food,” Paul slow looked back up a John, looking at him through his thick eyelashes in a way that made his heart swell “so I was just handing over your share.” He innocently battered his eyes before reverting his face to a mix of a scowl and a snarl.
“Isht that whath youphhh upseth-gulp-about?” George said with a mouth full of food. Paul could barely make out what he was saying so he had to do a lot of guesswork.
“YES, that is what I am upset about! I spent all MY money buying food for your hungry selves!” Paul was fuming until he actually thought it over. Did he ever even ask for what they wanted? Suddenly he felt really stupid, but his pride was in the line here and he would rather not look a fool in front of his acquaintances. He crossed his arms in wait of an apology.
They just shrug it off and got back tithe front of the car to eat their food. Paul sighed and rolled his eyes. He ate his food like the rest of them, not daring to utter a word.
After the meal, they just stood around quietly, Ringo slowly lit a cigarette from his pocket.
“You know, we don’t have to go back to school, right?” Ringo said, exhaling his cigarette smoke. George hit his strawberry vape while looking off into the distance. Paul looks at him disgustedly before looking back at Ringo.
“But won’t we, yanno, get into deep shit?” Paul asked.
“Oh, don’t be such a princess, Paul” John commented, snickering into the sleeve of his leather jacket. Paul lightly punched John on the arm before George decided to climb in the front seat.
“C’mon guys, no witnesses!” George smirked as he reved the engine on Paul’s poor car. With a sigh Ringo dropped in smoke on the ground and stubbed it with his heel.
“Ringo that’s littering!” Paul complained
“Since when did you care?” George side-eyed Paul from the drivers seat. This time, Paul was sitting next to John in the back. Ringo gave a shrug and climbed in the passenger side.
“Where to?” Apparently George found Paul’s sunglasses in the front because he tilted them and asked through the rearview mirror, trying to look cool and what-not.
“Hmmm, go to Walmart, I have something I need to get real quick” John replied.
“Alrighty then, buckle up guys!” George grined and started driving out of the restaurant area.
The next five minutes were hell for everyone in that car, George drove like a newborn! He had finally parked in the Walmart parking lot before the rest of them started yelling at him.
“Do you even know HOW to drive!?” Paul managed to say through all the yelling. George gave him a sheepish grin.
“I haven’t even taken drivers Ed yet” George scratches the back of his neck and the other three look absolutely mortified. They then got out of the car, opened George’s door, dragged him out, and started beating the ever loving shit out of him.
When they were all done jumping George, John divided to just go inside the Walmart and leave Paul, Ringo, and George outside.
George finally was able to speak up and yelled, “What the hell was that for!?”
“You could’ve bloody killed us!” Ringo said, that was the most emotion he showed all evening!
“Your front seat privileges are now revoked Georgie! You now have to sit in the back with John!” Paul continued to scold him for the next three minutes.
“But Macca! John smells like he hasn’t showered in weeks!” George whined, holding a now-forming bruise on his arm.
“I what now?” John showed up behind them, holding two boxes of kool-aid.
“Oh you heard me John!” George rolled his eyes before limping to the backseat of the car. John only shrugged and got back into the car again.
“John, you’ve gotta sit in the back with George!” Paul yelled over to him.
“What, why?” John complained. He just opened a pouch of his tropical punch kool-aid.
“I want you to hit George whenever he does something stupid” Paul answered. John simply nodded and George was shooting daggers at Paul. Paul only gave him a “you know you deserve it” look. Paul strapped into the passenger seat as Ringo took the wheel. He turned the radio knob till he was on the rock channel.
“I love this song!” John exclaimed before turning the volume all the way up on Heartbreak Hotel.
Nobody knew where Ringo was driving them but it had been an hour since they got in the car. It was now around 1pm when Paul asked when they would arrive at Ringo’s destination.
“Around 6:30, why?”
Paul shrieked, waking up George and John, who were sleeping in the back.
“I have a curfew on my license!” Paul panicked, shaking Ringo’s shoulders.
“Relax, relax, I’m eighteen, legally an adult. And, you aren’t even driving so why should it matter?” He gave Paul a reassuring smile and Paul was taking deep breathes. Paul hated the idea of being in trouble with his father.
“Plus, it worth it-where I’m taking you, that is.” Ringo looked back on the road and Paul nodded into sleep.
Four more hours had passed when Paul woke up and had to play a game of “what the hell happened while I was sleeping”. John and George were bickering loudly and Ringo had a cut on his forehead.
He looked at what John and George where doing, playing cards. And for some-
“Paul, you look like you’re about to have an aneurysm.” Ringo took one hand off the wheel and placed it in his shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Paul adjusted his tired eyes and nodded with a yawn.
“That’s good, didn’t want ya to confuse yourself to death.”
“Wait what happened?” Paul just remembered he could ask Ringo.
“Okay so it all started when John and George started playing black jack.”…
“I win! You owe me…”, George counted on his fingers for a second, “Thirty bucks!” He grinned, showing his sharp canines. John cursed and brought out his wallet. It was at that time when Ringo pulled into a Starbucks drive through-
“Wait you guys got Starbucks without me?!” Paul interrupted, pouting that he couldn’t get a croissant sandwich or something.
“Oh quiet down, I tried waking you up but you wouldn’t budge.” Ringo rolled his eyes before focusing back in the road. “Anyway…”
They pulled up to order and right when Ringo finished ordering, before John could say anything , George interrupted with his order.
“I’ll also get a Matcha latte and a chocolate chip cookie.” George ordered.
“Alrighty, is that it?” The woman at the window asked.
“Cain I actually-“
“Yep, that’s it.” George interrupted John once more.
They pay and get the food but John got to the bag before George did. He pulled out the plastic fork Ringo was going to use to eat his lemon cake and started the eating George with it.
About thirty minutes later, they calmed down and slept for three hours before waking up and decided to play cards again.
“…As you can see, that didn’t end well.” Ringo gestures back to the still bickering duo.
“Wait but why are you bleeding?” Paul asked, fully awake now.
“Oh, John threw the fork and it hit me.” Ringo just shrugged it off.
Paul scoffed, of course he did. “Hey, next stop, I’ll drive.” Paul told Ringo.
“You don’t even know where we’re going?” Ringo raised his eyebrow. Paul cheeks turned red, he forgot he did.
About an hour later when everyone has calmed down, the colors of sunset drowns their faces and the smell of the sea strangles them. Ringo had taken them to a nice beach, far away from the city in which they lived. They parked the car and got out. They felt like their bones were melting as they stepped on the solid ground, before this the only time they left was to pump gas.
“Follow me, I know a nice place to watch the sun.” Ringo guided them to a rock protruding a bit over the ocean. The breeze felt nice on their sweaty skin and the rock was cool to the touch. The four of them sat shoulder to shoulder, watching the sun. Paul then decided to speak up.
“Look”, he hesitated, almost a bit embarrassed, “I know some of us just met but, can we do this more often?” He looks at Ringo and John with pleading eyes. John snorted and gave into a full on belly laugh. He went on like this for a solid minute until he managed to calm himself down. Paul’s face was as red as a tomato.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” John said, wiping the tears from his eyes and getting the last bits of his laughter out, “it’s just that, I thought it was obvious that this is gonna be a thing, yanno?”
“Yea, don’t be daft, Paul” George added, getting a shoulder punch from Ringo. Paul’s eye water up as he smiles. He simply turns his head back at the sun, cherishing the moment.