Chapter Text
It was especially frigid in Winters the day the teachers began to speak of finals, and every first year was filled with horrible dread, not knowing what was waiting for them at the end of June.
In the boys dorm, students were split into four categories; the first years expressing their worries and stressors, the older students explaining exactly what their first year finals were like to them, the token rebels smoking cigarettes out the bathroom window in hopes that the teachers wouldn’t smell the tobacco (they always did), and the boys talking about families taking tours of the school recently, wondering who of the boys they caught sight of might join them in the dorm and who of the girls walking with their families would be living in the dorm beneath them, who they could sneak around with behind the student library and theatre house once they moved in.
Among group number one were two boys, both just about thirteen years old, going over flashcards together, sitting cross legged on the floor of their shared room.
“Okay, Tony, what’s the formula for calculating slope?” Jeff said, placing the previous card in the used pile with one hand. Tony made a sound of distress and gently tossed his hat on the ground as if he wanted to protest, but was afraid of ruining his hat.
“I hate maths.” He said, leaning back against the end of his bed.
“It’s really not that bad,” Spoke up an older student, who had been hanging out in Jeff ands Tony’s room at the time.
“That’s easy for you to say, Maxwell.” Tony replied, fixing his hat back atop his messy auburn hair. “You’re always on the honor roll, and you’ve already taken this class.”
“Well, maybe you could be on the honor roll too if you’d let me tutor you.” Maxwell said, walking over to sit with the boys.
“Tony, do you know it?” Jeff asked, still holding the flashcard with the answer in his hand. Tony sighed.
“No.”
Jeff gave Tony a vaguely worried look.
“It’s- it starts with y,” Jeff began, helpfully.
“Y… um…”
“Eeeeeeeequeals…”
“Y equals… uh… something…” Tony said.
“Mmmmmmmmmmm-” Jeff continued. Maxwell laughed.
“He’s not gonna get it, Jeff.”
“Y equals m?” Tony said.
“And?” Jeff ignored Maxwell.
“Um… Oh, oh, I think I know what we’re talking about now! It’s… something… is there multiplication?”
“Yes! Keep going!” Jeff encouraged, eyes lighting up.
“Y equals m…. Y equals….” Tony jumped to his feet as if he had made the most amazing discovery of 199X.
“Y EQUALS M X PLUS B!” He shouted, pointing to the sky triumphantly. Jeff broke out cheering with the energy of a full stadium of sport fans when their team scored the winning point, and he and Tony shared a loud high five, which, of course, was a very painful one, and both boys hissed and shook out their hands as Maxwell watched with amusement.
“Can we break now?” Tony said, looking pleadingly at Jeff.
“We’re only five flashcards in!” Jeff exclaimed, acting exasperated despite his joyful smile.
“Come on, Jeff, please????” Tony whined, flashing Jeff his puppy dog eyes. Jeff melted beneath Tony’s gaze and sighed, placing down the flashcards.
“Okay, fine.”
Tony pumped a fist in the air and cheered, then flopped over backwards onto his bed. Maxwell smiled and took Tony’s hat, which had fallen off his head and onto the ground, and placed it over Tony’s face. Jeff snickered as Tony let out a “hey!” and placed the hat on his chest instead.
“Hey, Max, what about your finals?” Jeff asked, turning to Maxwell as he reorganized the cards. Maxwell shrugged.
“I’m not too worried about them. Except for my final project for robotics.” He replied.
“What’s your final project?” Tony piped up.
“To build a functional robot, of course.” Maxwell said. “We have to come up with a function for the bot, and then make it. Mine is supposed to do basic carpentry, but I’m having difficulty getting it to do anything besides walk around. It also doesn’t help that I don’t know anything about carpentry.”
“What if you make a robot who’s function is to build other useless robots?” Tony mused, staring at the ceiling. Jeff laughed as Maxwell rolled his eyes.
“If only I could get help from a true scientist.” Maxwell said, voice dripping with melodrama. Jeff’s smile faded and the air hung more heavy in the room, Jeff knew what Maxwell meant and what he wanted from him, and it was something that he could not give.
After an awkward silence in which Jeff did not reply, Maxwell cleared his throat.
“Anyway, they say there’s a couple new kids coming in.” He said, attempting to break the intensity in the air.
“Really? A couple? At this time of year?” Tony said, and Jeff was eternally thankful that Tony volunteered to converse with Maxwell, instead of forcing Jeff to himself.
“Yeah, that’s what everyone is saying. I think one of them is an exchange student, too.”
“From where?”
“I think they said Dalaam. No idea why anyone from there would move somewhere so cold.”
Tony laughed lightly and turned to look at Jeff, who was quietly picking at the carpet, not looking up.
“Hey, Max, it’s getting late. I have to start getting ready for bed.” Tony said.
“Oh, yeah, you’re right.” Maxwell said, standing up. “I should go. Goodnight, all.”
“Bye!” Tony waved as Maxwell reached for the door knob, and Jeff brought himself to flash him a weak smile. Maxwell shut the door behind him, and Jeff let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding.
“Thanks, Tony.” Jeff said, standing up and walking over to his own bed. He sat down defeatedly.
“No problem.” Tony replied.
“I wish he would stop doing that. Like, he’s fun to hang out with sometimes, but he always has to bring that up.” Jeff flopped over backwards on his bed.
“He’s gonna get in trouble for it, one of these days.” Tony began removing his neck tie, ready to change into pajamas. Jeff shook his head.
“It’s not as if the teachers are much better.”
Tony made a hum of sad agreement and tossed his coat onto the ground.
“Do you think there are really gonna be new kids?”
Jeff rolled over to look at Tony.
“I don’t know, maybe.”
Tony unbuttoned his shirt and shed it, and Jeff averted his eyes, fiddling with his glasses. Figuring that he should probably change as well, Jeff sat up with his back to Tony and began untying his bowtie.
“I think it would be cool.” Tony said, struggling to put on his pajama pants while standing up. “If they’re nice, anyway.”
Jeff nodded, reaching into the drawer next to his bed for his cartoon space patterned pjs.
“Hey, did you ever figure out the english homework?” Jeff said, sweating, and still trying not to look behind himself. Tony laughed.
“No.” He replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Jeff laughed and took his chances with turning around, and found that Tony was fully dressed in a pair of silk red pajamas, and was hanging his hat on the end of his bed. Tony ruffled out his own hair, which had been pressed beneath his hat all day. Jeff smiled and flopped over in bed, pulling himself beneath the scratchy school provided sheets that he’d come to associate with home. Tony followed suit in his own bed, and then frowned as Jeff reached under his bed for a tool box and a collection of scraps he kept beneath there, and took the book light taped to a headband that he used as a headlight at times like these.
“Jeff,” Tony said, like a mother warning her son.
“What?” Jeff replied innocently, clicking on the book light.
“Come on, we have a test tomorrow. You have to sleep.”
“I know, but I’m working on a laser gun!”
“A laser gun?!?!?”
Tony threw his blankets off his body and crawled excitedly onto Jeff’s bed, eyes sparkling. Jeff laughed as Tony leaned over his shoulder to get a look at the parts that Jeff was managing.
“That’s so cool!” Tony leaned over on Jeff’s shoulder. “Won’t you get in trouble, though?”
“Shh!” Jeff placed a finger over his lips and turned to Tony, smiling. “Not if the teachers don’t find it.”
“What are you gonna do with it?” Tony asked, and Jeff stopped for a moment.
“Oh,” he said, “I hadn’t really thought about that.” His hands turned back to working. “I guess I just want to see if I can do it.”
Tony laughed and stood up, removing himself from Jeff’s bed, and Jeff mourned the loss of contact in the deepest parts of his mind. Tony returned to his bed.
“You should still go to sleep, though.” He said, climbing back under his covers.
“I’ll have some coffee in the morning.” Jeff replied dismissively, not looking up from his work. Tony sighed, but, knowing there was no convincing Jeff, rolled over in his bed to reach his bedside lamp.
“Okay,” he said, “goodnight.”
“Night.” Jeff replied, and Tony turned out the lights.
—-
“Mr. Andonuts!”
“Hm?” Jeff turned around, arms filled with books. The teacher who had called him, an older woman with greying hair and pale pink lipstick, and was not one that Jeff was too familiar with himself, as he’d never taken a class of hers, but he was not surprised that she’d known his name.
“We have a new student today, and his schedule matches yours. Would you mind showing him to his classes?”
“Oh, sure!” Jeff replied, relieved that he was not in some sort of trouble. “I’d be glad to.”
“Wonderful!” The teacher clasped her hands together, and Jeff noticed that she was leaning out the door of the admissions office, her high heeled foot keeping the door part way open. She leaned back into the office.
“I just caught him as he was walking past. He can show you to your classes!” She ushered a short chubby boy into the hallway, who was wearing a uniform jacket over a striped yellow and blue shirt, and had his dark hair tucked under and red and blue baseball cap. He smiled and waved, hauling a backpack onto his back.
“Hi! I’m Ness.” He said. Jeff awkwardly stuck out his hand for a handshake.
“I’m Jeff. I- uh- nice to meet you.”
Ness took his hand and shook enthusiastically.
“You take care, boys! Ness, come find me if you need anything!” The teacher disappeared back into the office pleasantly, and Jeff frowned. Why does she call Ness by his first name, but not Jeff?
“You’ve already seen your room, right?” Jeff asked, beginning to walk. He motioned for Ness to follow.
“Mhm,” Ness skipped after Jeff, “and my roommate.”
“Who’s your roommate?” Jeff said, curiously.
“He’s new too! His name is Poo.”
Jeff adjusted his glasses and decided not to laugh at that out of respect for the new boy, and out of the need to feel mature.
“He must be the foreign exchange student. Is he from Dalaam?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Ness replied.
“I can’t believe we have two new people in one day.” Jeff mused to himself.
“Three!” Ness chirped.
“Three?”
“Three! My best friend Paula came here today too!”
“Wh- how- so close to the end of the year- why did you all come on one day?” Jeff stumbled in both his walk and words. Ness laughed.
“I don’t know about Poo, but Paula and I wanted to come together.” He replied, cheerfully.
“That’s… what a weird coincidence.” Jeff said. “Hey, we are going to science, right?”
“We should be! That’s what I have first.”
“Oh, okay, good.” Jeff replied. “I just wanted to be sure.”
“Hey, Jeff, what about you?” Ness said, looking up at Jeff.
“What about me?” Jeff reiterated, confused.
“Who are your friends? What are you all about?”
“Um…” Jeff thought for a moment. What a strange question! He’d never really thought about what he was ‘all about’ before, or what he’d say if someone asked.
“My best friend is Tony, he’s my roommate. He’s not very good at math, but that’s okay because I help him with his homework. He has red-brown hair and he always wears this dark brimmed hat with a green ribbon tied around it, and he always helps me tie my bow tie when I get dressed in the morning.” Jeff stuttered. “Don’t tell anyone I said that.”. Ness smiled.
“Oh, he sounds nice.” Ness replied.
“He is!” Jeff said, feeling suddenly less awkward than he did earlier. “He’s really nice, you should meet him.” Jeff turned to grin at Ness.
“Okay!” Ness replied cheerily. “You should introduce me!”
“Maybe!” Jeff said, and turned to see that they had reached the particular science lab that served as the room for his science class.
“Here it is,” Jeff said, and led Ness into the lab room.
Inside, a few students were also sitting, early, and one who Jeff did not recognize turned and smiled at them, waving excitedly. Ness waved back and rushed over to her, and Jeff assumed that this was the aforementioned Paula girl. She was wearing a green uniform blazer over a frilly pink dress, and her blonde hair was tied up in a bow of the same green of her jacket. Jeff approached his usual seat, not wanting to interrupt, before Ness waved him over excitedly.
“Jeff! This is Paula!” Ness motioned to the girl with great pride, as if showing her off. Jeff smiled, mildly surprised that Ness was still acknowledging him, and walked over with his hand extended for another hand shake.
“Hi, I’m Jeff. Ness said… he said nice things about you.”
Paula smiled back and shook his hand, grip not as tight as Ness’s and shake not as enthusiastic, but still awfully pleasantly.
“Hello! Are you Ness’s friend?” She said, and Jeff sputtered for a moment, before Ness answered her.
“Yeah!” He nodded enthusiastically. Jeff blinked.
“You… you want to be my friend?”
Before anyone could reply, Tony peeked out from behind Jeff.
“Morning!” Tony noticed the unfamiliar faces and gasped. “Oh, the new kids! Maxwell was right! I’m Tony!”
“Oh, Jeff told me about you! I’m Ness!” The pure innocence and joy shared between Tony and Ness as they introduced themselves to each other was intense enough to turn coal to diamonds, Jeff thought.
Jeff stood silently, watching idly as the kids conversed excitedly, in awe at how easily the three could make friends with each other. After a moment, the professor entered the room, and Jeff and Tony retreated to their usual seats, which, of course, were right next to each other. As was per usual, the professor began the lesson, only to be interrupted nearly immediately when the door swung right back open.
Behind it stood an older boy, who Jeff thought may be too old to be taking a first year class, long dark hair pulled into a rather formal braid behind him. He was silent, and he looked back and forth through the classroom, before strutting up to the professor and handing him something of a late note, Jeff assumed. Not that he was aware that anybody used or needed late notes at Snow Wood. When the professor took the note, the boy said nothing, and walked over to the nearest empty seat, and sat down with his hands folded. Still processing the event that just took place, the professor blinked, looked down at the note, and then continued the lesson.
“Well, as I’m sure most of you are aware, we should be starting our final project of the year this week. Today, I want to figure out grouping.”
Quietly, Paula raised her hand, and the professor nodded at her.
“Excuse me, sir, what is the project? Ness and I- we don’t know what it’s all about.” She said, seeming suddenly much less confident in herself than she did when introducing herself to Jeff.
“Oh, yes, why don’t you and Ness pair up with Mr. Andonuts?” Jeff jumped in his seat. “He can help you both. And,” the professor looked over to the other new boy, who had just walked in, “why don’t you work with Jeff as well?”
Ness and Paula seemed rather happy to be paired with Jeff, while the fourth boy simply nodded, still having not said anything. Then, the professor continued on, hardly explaining anything about the actual project as Paula had asked, and Jeff assumed that the professor was completely placing that responsibility on him.
Tony had been placed with two other boys that Jeff was not close with, and Jeff felt very perturbed by not being paired with Tony for possibly the first time since he came to Snow Wood. When the professor finished speaking, the students gathered into their groups, and Jeff sat quietly and awkwardly as Ness and Paula bounded over, and the other boy sat down calmly next to him.
“Hi Poo!” Ness leaned over in front of Jeff to speak to the boy Jeff assumed was Poo, and Poo cracked a very unexpected smile.
“Hello, Ness.” He raised a hand in a small wave.
“Oh!” Jeff exclaimed, “you’re Ness’s roommate, aren’t you?”
Poo nodded, and held out his hand for a handshake.
“I am. And you are Jeff?”
Jeff took his hand and they shared what Jeff considered to be the first normal handshake he had had all day.
“Yes, that’s me. It’s nice to meet you!”
“The pleasure is all mine.” Poo replied, placing a hand on his chest. Oh, Jeff liked him already.
“And this is Paula!” Ness piped up, moving over so that Poo could see Paula.
“Hello, Paula. Ness told me about you.” Poo said, waving again.
“Hi, Poo! What did he say?”
“Anyway, Jeff, what’s this project about?” Ness interrupted quickly, and Poo quietly giggled. Jeff stifled a laugh as well, sharing a knowing look with both Poo and Ness, before beginning to explain.
“Well, the project is very open, the idea is to take information that we learned about during this year and expound on that by building some mechanism or conducting some experiment that relates to whatever subject we choose to base our project off,” Jeff said, using the explanatory hand gestures and movements that he used whenever he got more focused on explaining his work. “I was thinking, perhaps, about doing a project about aerodynamicity, and how much machinery and horse power would be needed to suffice for the non-aerodynamic build of some sort of flying vehicle, or how far the non-aerodynamicity can be taken.”
Jeff looked around to see the three faces blinking back at him, expressions blank, before Ness cracked a smile.
“Okay!”
“I mean, we don’t have to do that, we, uh… we can do a project about something else, if you guys want…” Jeff’s voice broke, and he folded his hands together.
“Well, I think that sounds perfectly fine!” Paula said, smiling brightly. Jeff turned to look at Poo for any agreement in his face, and Poo smiled and nodded.
“Ah, well, alright then, if that’s what you’d all like. I was thinking that, maybe, we could-”
---
Much to his dismay, Jeff realized that Tony was absolutely right to tell him to go to sleep earlier the night before, as he was just about falling asleep during his fifth class. He’d already taken that test that he had to, fortunately, but that didn’t change the fact that the professor was probably going on about something equally as important. Probably, anyway. Jeff didn’t know for sure, because it was very hard to pay attention when all of your energy is going into staying awake.
“Jeff?”
Jeff jumped right out of his seat when Ness tapped him on the shoulder from behind, landing awkwardly and embarrassingly on the floor. He looked around, still in shock, to realize that, thankfully, the classroom was nearly empty at this point, and hardly anybody would have seen.
He turned around to look at Ness, who seemed equally as shocked, his finger still hovering in the air where he had tapped Jeff.
“Phht-”
Both their faces broke and they burst into laughter, Jeff’s perhaps more to cover his embarrassment than anything, but he couldn’t deny that it was probably actually pretty funny. Ness offered his hand and Jeff took it, fixing his glasses as Ness helped him off the ground.
“Sorry,” Jeff said, smiling sheepishly, “You surprised me.”
“It’s okay.” Ness said, still laughing lightly. “I’m sorry I surprised you. It’s, uh, it’s time for lunch now.”
“Right,” Jeff replied, gathering his books and such, “I’ll show you to the dining hall.”
And he did, Jeff led Ness down to the dining hall, which was bustling with other students coming down to meet with their friends and take their meals, some of the boys taking their food and seeing how disgusting they could create a concoction of them as if it was a fascinating science experiment, some of the girls staring back with disgust, other boys whisking off other girls to eat lunch with them elsewhere, friend groups gathering together at tables, some of the volunteering students serving food, musicians ogling the grand piano which sat in the dining hall for special occasions that they were told not to touch unless they were involved in those special occasions, students doing last minute math homework in between bites of their lunch, students copying off them. Jeff searched out Tony, as usual, and found that he was (of course) sitting at their usual table, which was also today occupied by Paula and Poo, who Tony was conversing with happily. Nearly forgetting about Ness, then taking his hand to lead him through the crowd, Jeff walked over and took his usual seat next to Tony.
“Hey! Here’s your milk!” Tony said, handing a small carton of chocolate milk to Jeff as he sat down. The dining hall only allowed students to take one milk per meal, and because Tony didn’t like milk all that much, and because Jeff did like milk all that much, it was lunch tradition for Tony to give Jeff his milk, allowing Jeff to have an illegal two chocolate milks. Rebellious.
“Thank you.” Jeff took the milk and cracked it open, already drinking it as he was sitting down. Ness joyfully took a seat between Paula and Poo.
“Jeff fell out of his seat earlier because I tapped him on the shoulder!” Ness said, as if he was tattling. Jeff choked on his milk.
“Hey!” He cried, after recovering from the milk in his lungs, his face going red. Paula giggled, Poo clearly stifled a laugh, and Tony collapsed on Jeff’s shoulder with laughter. Jeff’s face only went redder, and he wasn’t sure why Tony was so surprised by this that he broke into gut wrenching laughter, but that oddly made him feel a little better about it. He cracked a small smile and nearly leaned back into Tony before he pulled away.
“Were you sleeping again?” Tony said.
“I mean, not completely,” Jeff replied, though he was still smiling.
“I told you to go to bed!” Tony shouted, despite his laughter.
“It’s fine! It wasn’t until after the test!” Jeff protested. Poo let out his first non suppressed small laughter since Jeff had met him that day.
“You’re both very close.” He said, rather matter of factly.
“Oh,” Jeff was taken by surprise, “Well, yes, we’ve known each other for a long time.”
Tony grinned.
“For sure!”
“Do you really help him tie his bowtie every morning?” Ness asked, leaning forwards. Tony nodded, pleased with himself, and Jeff gasped.
“I told you that in confidence!” Jeff cried, more disappointment in his voice than anger. Ness clapped his hand over his mouth.
“I’m sorry!!!” He shouted, “I forgot!!!”
“Does that mean if I untie his bowtie, he won’t be able to fix it?” Paula said, leaning forward threateningly.
“Don’t you dare .” Jeff pointed a cautionary finger at her, and both Poo and Tony laughed.
“Come on, give him a break.” Poo said, and Jeff silently thanked him, hand still hovering protectively over his bowtie. The rest of the group was still laughing as he brought his drink to his lips and took a sip, before placing it back down.
“After all,” Poo continued, “we all have something like that. I couldn’t tie my shoes until I was nine.”
Jaws dropped around him as the kids registered their disbelief in the fact that someone so mature, so sophisticated, so formal, hadn’t learned to tie his own shoes until he was well into grade school.
“WHAT?” Ness shouted, perhaps too loud.
“It’s true,” Poo replied, somehow not at all embarrassed, “I wore sandals and slip on shoes up until then. Most people don’t wear shoelaces in Dalaam.”
“At least you have an excuse.” Jeff said into his chocolate milk. Poo shrugged.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Plenty of people don’t know how to tie a tie. Besides,” He looked over at Tony, “So long as you have Tony, you shouldn’t have to worry.”
Jeff blinked. So long as he had Tony… how long would he have Tony for?
The thought made his head spin, and he took another swig of chocolate milk.