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“Of course
I'm
the one who gets stuck with the new kid” Leo lamented to Piper as they made their way to the cafeteria for breakfast.
The teachers probably thought it'd be
so
funny to put the supposed amnesiac that half the school was obsessed with with the dorky orphan that was always in trouble and on one liked. They were probably laughing their asses off in their teacher lounges.
Piper laughed lightly “is he that bad?” she asked as they entered the cafeteria.
“He woke up at five in the fucking morning. He's also really weird, he was studying and he has this intense look to him. Said he can't remember anything from before yesterday morning, but that can't be the case— he'd be in a mental hospital instead of here if it was”
Humming Piper said “that not necessary true, we've got a lot of mental issues here at school, someone could've shipped him here because they didn't want to deal with it”
Leo knew firsthand how true that could be. Still he couldn't shake the feeling that something was really wrong here. “I don't know, he gives me a strange feeling, like theres more to this all”
When he had first met Piper he got a similar feeling, like there was more to her than met the eye, like she was really important.
They got in line for breakfast as Piper asked “what does he look like? Maybe you've seen him somewhere before?”
“Maybe but I doubt it. He looks like the typical perfect all American boy but he's got a tattoo and scars. His eyes are crazy too, there like actually electric blue, I've never seen someone with such bright eyes”
Piper gave him a suspicious look “you know what his eyes look like?” she asked in a teasing way. Being autistic and ADHD Leo tended to avoid eye contact.
Crossing his arms Leo said “it's not like that! I know what your eyes look like”
Her eyes were a deep brown, with a magenta hue coloring them and when you looked really closely you could see flecks of all sorts of colors. When light reflected off of them in just the right way it looked like she had hearts in her eyes.
“That's because of the art project last year and you know it” Leo snagged a cardboard carton of milk that tasted more like the box than any kind of milk.
Last year in art class they had to paint someone else's eyes, Leo and Piper had paired up for the project. Leo also couldn't deny it and say he knew what her eyes looked like before because he had very loudly said ‘
your eyes have purple in them!’
when forced to stare at them in class.
Still it didn't mean anything that he knew what Jason’s eyes looked like.
Changing the subject back to their original conversation he said “either way he’s insisting that he can't remember anything” he grabbed a bowl of cereal.
“I wouldn't be surprised if he said that as a cover for something” Piper sat a bagel on her late and reached over to grab a plastic thing of jam. “You said he has a tattoo? What kind?” she asked, going from speculative to interested.
Piper was into all those grunge aesthetics and had a fascination with tattoos and piercings, she talked about how she wanted to get some all the time.
He shrugged and grabbed two small bowls of fruit for the two of them. “No clue. Some lightning bolts and lines. But you might be onto something with it being a cover story, I was thinking drugs”
Stepping out of the line they walked through the cafetera to their usual table in the back.
“Hopefully thats not whats up, drugs are no fun—”
Despite agreeing with her Leo snorted and said “you sound like one of the teachers”
She rolled her eyes “you know what I mean, it's not an interesting story. Maybe he's part of some sort of conspiracy or secret society and is under cover!”
Laughing at Piper's theory they sat down. Coming up with the craziest stories they could for new students was always fun.
“What if he's an alien? Sent here to abduct me”
That caused Piper to snort as she put the jam on her bagel “why would they want you? So you can ruin all their hair clips?” he may or may not have bent all of Piper’s hair clips into little sculptures and machines.
Gesturing with his spoon at his head he said “they'd want me for my superior brain, obviously”
Their laughter was interpreted by the alien himself.
“Excuse me, do you mind if I join you? I'm not really sure where to sit” Jason said, looking like a lost puppy.
Yeah, that was understandable. Most of the kids had their cliques or were completely alone and very hostile. All of the students were guarded and not keen on being too open or friendly with anyone right away. Unless they wanted something from you.
Piper gave Leo a look as though to say ‘this is the guy you think is a druggie?’ or maybe if she still was overthinking him knowing Jaosn’s eye color it was ‘what do you see in this guy?’. Leo saw nothing in him other than a new roommate that had some serious issues.
“Of course, I’m Piper” she smiled sweetly and Jason sat next to Leo.
Returning the smile Jason said “hello, I’m Jason Grace, Leo’s roommate” again with the strangely formal and unnatural introduction, especially for a teen delinquent high schooler. Maybe that alien theory actually had some merit to it.
Taking a bite of a strawberry Piper asked “so… Jason, how’ve you enjoyed prison so far?” Leo laughed at the accurate description of Wilderness.
He shrugged “it's fine. I like our room. It’ll really depend on the classes though, are they any good?” he asked, sounding genuinely interested.
That's good, don't tell anyone but Leo was desperate for more nerd friends at the school, or at least more nerds because right now he was pretty much the only one. Of course Leo didn't
like
classes, but at his core he was regretfully a huge dorky nerd who geeks out about sci-fi shows and math.
“They’re fine I guess. The one lit teacher, Ms.Jones, is super ableist about dyslexia though and Mr.George, the homeroom teacher, is a massive dickhead. Homework is easy though and there's no standardized testing which is nice”
Leo muttered “homework's only easy because I help you with math”
Looking around Jason scowled “seems like half this place is full of dickheads”
“You've got them pegged!” Leo laughed. “No ones as bad as Dylan though. He tied ro push me out a window on my second day” he mentioned the last part more as an antidote than a true complaint. It would be good to know how his new roommate feels about murder attempts via the window.
Frowning, Jason said “That's not good, shouldn't someone do something about it?”
Piper shook her head “do what? Unless its Juvie they'd send him here”
“I think Coach Hedge gave him detention for a couple days” Leo said, trying to remember, though the whole thing was pretty fuzzy. He knew Coach had stepped in but he didn't remember it being a big deal. Dylan had lied and said he merely bumped Leo who had poor balance (he didn't have poor balance, not bad enough to fall out a window anyway).
Always the one who stopped Leo from thinking too hard about unpleasant past events, Piper chimed in “yeah, Dylan is an asshole. Anyways, what's your schedule? Leo and I have all the same classes together” she had apparently ‘talked’ her way into sharing classes with Leo this year as well. “We can show you around if you've got the same classes, tell you which hallways to avoid and what water fountains Leo’s tampered with”
It wasn't his fault that it was so easy to make water fountains squirt people when they walked by.
Jason pulled out a sheet of paper “um… here, that's my schedule” he handed it to Piper.
Leaning over the table to see, Leo looked over the paper, Jason had all the same classes as them. It made sense if he's Leo’s new roommate if the teachers would also stick him in all the same classes.
“Yup, you're officially going to be stuck with us all year. We’ll show you around after breakfast” Leo said.