George hated his dad's car. He especially hated being seen getting out of it. He preferred to walk to school but today his dad insisted for some reason. He sighed after returning his father's "I love you" and shut the car door.

He winced as the old ugly brown thing cranked away and turned toward the school doors, ignoring any stares.

The halls were a little difficult to navigate, especially because George was shorter than most of the other kids.

Average height. They're just tall.

After a few years of high school the ebb and flow of traffic became familiar to him and he could usually get along fine if he stayed low and out of people's way.

"Hey Runt!"

Apparently not today.

"Oh come on, you heard me."

Of course I did. I just don't want to, that's all.

"Come on, turn around. Face me"

Don't want to do that either.

But he knew that voice, and it wasn't one to be ignored.

George felt his bookbag sag with his hopes of getting to class early as he turned to the figure lounging against the lockers behind him.

Technoblade.

No one dares call him Dave.

"The Boar" earned his name on the soccer field in middle school and he's been known as Technoblade ever since, for some reason. He's neither tech-savvy nor blade-wielding.

The boar is a much better fit; he's animal-like.

Aggressive, tough, like a thug.

"Aren't you going to say hello?"

George just glared at him before moving his gaze to the floor.

Unsettlingly, Techno just laughed at this. A loud cackle that set George's nerves on edge and made his whole body tense up.

"Come here" he said with a smirk.

George unwillingly took a few steps forward but stopped out of arm's reach.

The other students moved past and paid no mind.

As usual.

Techno made up the distance between them and leaned down into George's face.

"Hungry for lunch today, Runt?"

George internally cringed but stared into his eyes, like he preferred. It didn't take a genius to figure out where Techno was heading with this.

Techno rolled his eyes and leaned back but still stayed too close for comfort.

"It's potatoes. God, I hate them"

He returned his gaze to George.

"You were planning to have some weren't you?"

"Jesus Christ, say something!"

George opened his mouth but was interrupted by a wolf-whistle.

Who did that?

The question was answered a second later when Techno pulled out his phone. A text tone.

What a weird choice.

Techno read the text then stopped to consider George again. He tried not to squirm under his gaze.

After a second he shoved George back and sauntered off, calling "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today, and I've got other things to do."

George stared in surprise at his Techno's back, but quickly turned around and continued in the opposite direction, pleased with his sudden luck.

>>>

Clay exhaled as he stepped onto the bus, glancing around before settling in his usual seat by the window. He saw Nick in the back with a few other soccer guys; that's where they always sat, farthest from the driver.

Clay preferred the middle area, comfortably close to the doors, but not too close.

He looked sideways at his friends across the aisle, Skeppy and Bad.

Their real names were Zak and Darryl, but practically everyone in the school went by nicknames. Bad's was from a weird incident actually.

Someone had graffitied his face with devil horns and a tail as a joke, with the caption "Badboy" but then someone else put a halo on it so he took on the name Badboyhalo. It hardly suited him, though.

Clay had no idea where the name "Skeppy" came from, something about peanut butter.

At the moment Bad was snoring loudly while Skeppy looked out the window.

Clay greeted him with a little "hey" which he returned quietly, then went back to staring through the glass.

Oh well, can't expect much from them in the mornings, I guess.

They were more like night-owls, but it was unusual for Bad to be actually asleep on the way to school.

Clay himself was exhausted, but he wouldn't let himself rest somewhere like the bus.

At the next stop a few more soccer guys came on and cruised right to the back, followed slowly by the other occupant of Clay's seat.

A6d sat down next to Clay with a plop and promptly pulled out a book.

Clay wanted to ask a quick question before his friend got lost in its pages.

"Hey, uh, do you know what's up with Bad?"

Vincent just kinda humphed and didn't look up.

"He's asleep" Clay prompted.

"Yeah i can hear him," a sigh followed this statement. "He's probably

just tired from last night."

"Last-"

"Yeah we stayed up playing Xbox," Skeppy joined in.

Oh, that makes sense

"Aren't you tired then, Skep?" Clay looked across the aisle at him.

"No way, I'm used to staying up late."

Clay accepted this without question; his eyes traveled to a6d.

"He never sleeps." Skeppy answered his unasked question.

Clay knew that must be impossible, but he couldn't actually summon a memory of seeing it happen. He looked over a6d to see if he seemed tired.

He was wearing his favorite "people suck" shirt and normal black pants, curled with his knees up on another seat. His face was normal, a little scruffy, but there were hardly noticeable bags under his eyes. He was focused intently on his book. Clay leaned over. Something French.

"Can i help u with something?" His voice surprised Clay; he didn't think Vin was paying attention, but he must have felt his eyes on him. Vincent's French accent was heavy, but Clay barely even noticed it anymore after being friends with him for over a year. Unlike George's cute British one, and his funny little phrases of speech that made Clay laugh. But he couldn't think about that now, Vincent was still half-waiting for a reply.

After answering no, Clay looked up to see Bad sleeping on Skeppy's shoulder. He caught his eye and Skeppy gave a little shrug with his other shoulder, but Clay caught the little blush on his cheeks as he looked down.

Nothing happened for the rest of the ride; Clay just browsed Twitter.

But when the bus finally stopped at school Skeppy woke up Bad by booping his nose.

"aizshaskedhij.... huh wha?" Bad rubbed his eyes and woke up groggily, not noticing where his head had fallen.

"We're here." A6d regretfully closed his book as Skeppy laughed at Bad's sleepiness.

"Oh hey Clay. Good morning!" Bad turned back into his normal cheery self with a bright smile.

"Morning, Bad" Clay said with a little laugh as they got off the bus.

They parted ways for their first class after the bell rang; Clay left the lockers with a slightly sulky Vincent.

>>>

Sapnap sighed and changed his position at the back of the bus as he waited impatiently for the other guys to get on.

He was busy on his phone of course, but he didn't have anyone to talk to if he wanted conversation. George never took the bus and he wouldn't sit there anyway.

The back was exclusively soccer team; he just wished they'd hurry up already.

He gazed at the doors and caught sight of Clay coming on. He watched him sit at his usual place.

One more stop then.

The newbies to the team buzzed around him, but he didn't really care to talk to them. He was above them, after all.

Finally some other guys got on the bus. Sapnap said "Hey" with a half-raised hand as greeting. Wilbur plopped himself down in the empty seat across from Sapnap and leaned back, texting. It was normal for the higher rank guys to keep a seat by themselves.

Sapnap turned and talked a bit with Tommy, who was sharing a seat with Tubbo in front of him. Fundy joined in from across the row and a freshman, Ponk, tried to jump in the convo but he was laughed out.

It's not like they were mean or anything. It's just that all of them had been at the bottom of the totem pole when they started and now it was their turn on top.

Sapnap was having a chill time with the others but Wilbur wasn't really joining in. Sapnap watched him tap away at his phone, earbuds in and the ever-present yellow beanie on his head. Wilbur only socialized when he felt like it. The dude could be moody sometimes.

"What's up?" Sapnap asked him with a casual tone.

"Hey, Wilbur."

Sapnap nudged him when he didn't respond.

He looked up and pulled out an earbud. "What?"

"What're you doing?" Sapnap nodded at his phone.

"Texting Techno." He started to put his earbud back in, attention disappearing.

"About what?"

Wilbur looked annoyed so Sapnap decided to stop asking questions and move on.

"Practice" Wilbur answered with his head down and his focus on his phone.

Sapnap just shrugged.

Leave it to them.

He returned to his conversation with the other guys.

"I'm just saying that having a beehive in your backyard is a pretty cool thing," Tubbo was talking.

"No way, what if you kicked a ball straight into it?" Tommy countered.

"Well I practice in the front yard, so that wouldn't happen. And anyway, the bees are good for the environment; there's this one that-"

Fundy interrupted him: "I'm sure your bees are great but Fox is the best pet by far. Cats are superior."

"Furry" Tommy teased him.

"HEY!"

"No screw your dumb cat. I bet it can't even catch anything."

"You guys make me want to bang my head against the wall," Sapnap said.

"Hey Sapnap, what's Wilbur up to?" Tubbo changed the subject.

"Oh, he's just texting Techno about practice."

"Oh,

Why doesn't he ride the bus again?"

Fundy sighed and Tommy gave a very exaggerated groan.

"Tubbo, we've said this before, he likes to drive." Tommy said.

"Why does he go early though?"

There was a pause.

"That's only sometimes." Fundy said.

"Yeah it's when he has a test and he has to study" Sapnap joked, ruffling Tubbo's hair. He laughed.

The bus finally arrived and Sapnap felt a little drained, but he shook it off. Time to sit through some classes waiting for lunch.

And with that, the bell rang.

(1761 words)