Chapter Text
==> Be Dave
Your name is Dave Strider, and you’re not looking forward to going back to school for your senior year.
I mean, that’s to be expected, right? Who the fuck shoves a seventeen-year-old into school after a hundred and four days of sweet, sweet freedom and actually thinks they’ll be happy about it? Absolutely fucking no one, that’s who. Even whoever-the-fuck made those happy go lucky back to school commercials wasn’t buying their own bullshit.
But this year, you have an additional reason for not wanting to go back to school. Namely, it was the current absence of your friends.
Despite being possibly the coolest kid to ever grace the surface of this earth, you really only have three close friends. Your twin sister Rose, your best bro John, and his cousin Jade. You’ve all been friends…well, pretty much forever. You’ve always been tight as fuck. Inseparable, really.
But not this year.
No, this year, your sister had to go and get a scholarship to some fancy all-girls boarding school. And of course John’s dad decided to transfer your best friend to some private school halfway across the country. Okay, so maybe his new school was only a few blocks away from yours. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that he wasn’t at your school anymore. Jade would still be here with you, but with half of the gang missing, it just felt…wrong.
But it wasn’t like you could exactly do anything about it. So you’d suck it up and whine about it to them over pesterchum later. For now, though, it was time to lug your sorry ass to school. After a quick shower and a nutritious breakfast consisting of a bowl of fruity pebbles and a glass of aj, you pull on your clothes, shove your shades into their place on your face, grab your shit and head out of your apartment, making sure you lock up as you go. Bro hadn’t been home in a few days anyway. You doubt that’d change while you're at school. Probably.
Usually when you’d leave your apartment with Rose, John would already be waiting for you two outside. You’d walk to school together, and Jade would meet you there; she lived with her grandpa in the opposite direction from the school, so he’d usually drop her off.
Today wasn’t like “usually”. Today, you leave your apartment alone. Today, no one is waiting to meet you outside. Today, Jade is leaving later than usual, since her grandpa wanted to see John before he left for his first day at his new school. The school he was going to without you.
Today sucked.
You walk to school in silence, your hands shoved into your pockets. The only sounds you could hear over the early-morning traffic was the sound of your own heartbeat, your own breathing.
You stick your earbuds into your ears and set the music library on your phone to shuffle.
You should work more on your own music. You barely did that all summer. Funny, how when you actually had time to get shit done you put it off, but now that you were back to school and would be drowning in work, you suddenly have the motivation to work on other projects. Is that just your brain’s way of making you procrastinate? Like: Oh, I have a test tomorrow, but I’ll study as soon as I finish laying out the beat for this sick jam. And then boom! Next thing you know, it’s seven am, you’ve planned out four new songs, finished two, and haven’t even looked at your textbook. What the fuck was up with that? It always happened, and you always said you were gonna get your shit together, then a week and a half later, you were right back where you started, working on Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff instead of doing your algebra homework and-
Oh. You’re here.
You keep your earbuds in as you enter the school, making your way to your locker. You ignore the groups of friends reuniting around you. You also ignore the bitter feeling it leaves you with.
You get to your locker, unloading the year’s new textbooks into it. That’s a weight off your shoulders. Literally.
You’re still busily ignoring shit when you feel someone attach themselves to you from behind, trapping you in a hug. You turn as they let go, not surprised to find Jade standing there. Her island origins were evident in her dark skin and thick, black hair, currently pulled back in a messy braid. Her bright green eyes sparkled in excitement as she stared down at you – damn, she was an amazon. And also way too happy, what the fuck.
It took you a moment to realize she was saying something. At least, her lips were moving, but the only thing you were hearing was the killer beat drop of Gladius by KXA; man was a genius. You reluctantly pulled your earbuds out, squinting at Jade from behind your shades.
“Did you even catch any of that, Dave?” Fuck. Now she looks kinda annoyed.
“The only thing that I caught is that you’re way too chipper for this early in the morning; especially before eight in the morning. What’s got you so perky anyway? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re down two dorks.”
She frowned, seeming to slouch slightly as that hit her. “Of course I noticed. I miss them already. Things are going to be so…different without them.” She sighed, then suddenly perked up, her excited demeanor returning. “But ‘different’ doesn’t have to be bad!”
You pause, frowning at Jade. “…Are you saying you’re happy they’re gone?”
She punches you on the arm. It’s meant to be playful, you’re aware, but even a playful punch from her tended to hurt. “Of course I’m not! Rose and John were two of my best friends! But think about it, Dave. The four of us were always together. Always. We barely paid any attention to all our other classmates! We were so close minded. But now that we’re down to two, we’ll have way more of an opportunity to make new friends! Focus on the positive.”
You stare at her incredulously, though in all honesty, you can see her point. None of you had ever made much of an effort to talk to your other classmates more than was absolutely necessary. Well, except for John. He talked to everyone. But John was an exception to everything. Maybe it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to actually try getting to know some of them.
One problem; you’re kinda shit at social interactions. Especially with people you didn’t know. You either had no clue what to say – and thus said nothing – or you’d open your mouth and spew so much verbal shit that you wound up seriously considering getting an out of order sign to permanently plaster over it.
Obviously, you haven’t actually done that. Yet.
You spend probably too long staring at Jade, contemplating the ironic value of actually getting an out-of-order sign. The taller girl waves her hand in front of your shades, trying to get your attention.
“Hellooo? Earth to Strider?”
You swat her hand away irritably, though you’re not actually annoyed. You probably needed that wake-up call. Though it’s definitely ironic that you’re getting it from a narcoleptic girl.
“Yeah yeah, I read you loud and clear, Harley. And I guess you make a pretty valid point. Just make some new friends. Easy.”
“That’s the spirit, Dave! See, this year isn’t going to be that bad.”
The two of you shoot the breeze absently for the next few minutes, until the bell rings and groups of friends scatter, heading to their respective first classes of the school year. You and Jade part ways, her leaving for geography while you go to your music class.
You can honestly say that talking to Jade cheered you up quite a bit. Your bleak outlook on what the school year offered had brightened – if only slightly.
Your name is Dave Strider, and you’re going to try the Harley approach: focus on the positive.