Until you say my name

Chapter Two: Study Dates

5up leaned on his locker. He checked his watch.

3:56

Fundy was late. What was taking him so long. 5up brought his phone out of his pocket. He flicked it on. With one tap the calendar app was open. And in a quick flurry of movements, 5up had slammed his locker shut and was now pelting it down the hallway. How did he forget? Fundy was probably waiting for him in the library. 5up was supposed to be the one that remembered things. Shit. Just before the library door, 5up slowed to a walk. He dusted himself off and calmly walked into the quiet studying space. He expected to see Fundy waiting by one of the cubicles, tapping his pencil to his paper impatiently, waiting for 5up. But instead, he saw someone sitting across from Fundy. They seemed to be deep in conversation. Fundy was scribbling furiously on his piece of paper.

"Fundy..? Hey." 5up said as he walked up to the cubicle.

Fundy looked up at him for a second before turning back to his paper, "oh hi 5up. I thought you weren't going to make it."

5up laughed awkwardly, "yeah well uh I got held back in my last class... the teacher wants me to help another student study."

"Typical 5up and his big brain." Fundy said glancing back at 5up and raising his eyebrow.

"Hey you're smart too!"

"Look at me 5up. I need help studying. I'm not smart. I'm failing like all my classes."

5up rolled his eyes, "sure."

He looked from Fundy to the strange person and back.

After a short pause he asked, "so do you want me to stay or..?"

"Oh yeah 5up, this is Dream. Dream this is 5up." The person, Dream nodded at 5up.

So that's Dream. The tall dirty blonde boy. The sporty guy. The popular one. Why was he suddenly hanging out with Fundy?

"Dream was wandering through the library and offered to help me study when you didn't show up." Fundy explained, placing his pencil down.

Dream pulled himself up from his chair, "I should probably get going if 5up is here."

"No wait stay, please?" Fundy pleaded.

5up bit his lip, "I could probably do with some extra reading time. You guys can keep studying here and I'll meet up with you after you're done. 4:30 work?"

Fundy nodded, "yeah sure. I'll meet you by your locker."

5up smiled one final time before he twisted away. He walked towards a quiet section of the library where he sunk into a beanbag and pulled a book from his bag. The book was long and had a lot of small words. It required the reader's full attention to really get into the story, but no matter how much he tried, 5up couldn't process a single word. All the text looked like it was swimming across the page, swirling to a mess of black scribbles. He leaned his head back onto the wall behind him. 5up never realised that Dream was a good student. He had always assumed that those sporty guys were planning on a sports scholarship if anything. But then again assuming never got anyone very far. Dream could be both smart and sporty. And popular. He looked back over to the pair. Fundy was slotting the paper back into the bag and Dream was trying hard not to burst out laughing. 5up quickly looked back down to his book. He always made sure that they spend the most time studying rather than goofing off. He had a feeling that Fundy was going to fail the chemistry report. And 5up was going to blame himself for not intervening. He looked up to the clock on the wall.

4:11

Still 20 minutes to go. 5up tried to focus on his book again. But still nothing. He didn't really want to be so intently focused on what Fundy was doing, but 5up couldn't help taking one final peak. He saw the way that Dream looked at Fundy. He saw the way that Fundy looked at Dream. Fundy looked radiant. Like he was glowing. He had never looked that way when he was with 5up. He was happy that Fundy was happy right? Why does Fundy glow like that when he's with Dream? Is it because Dream is sporty? Maybe 5up should pick up a sport. Like golf or something. Something that didn't require too much running. He thought back to that morning. Randomly getting a call in the middle of making a cup of tea. They spent the next couple of hours laughing and figuring out how to write an essay. That would be the first and last time it would ever happen. Fundy would call Dream instead. Dream would become Fundy's study partner. They would sit together in classes. Fundy would sit on the sporty table at lunch. Fundy would walk home with dream. Fundy would pick up a sport and leave 5up on read. 5up would be alone. 5up doesn't want to be alone. Not again. This was all Dream's fault. Stupid Dream.

"Hey 5up you ready to go?"

5up jerked his head up, "huh?"

Fundy reached his hand out to 5up, "it's 4:32."

5up blinked in confusion for a few seconds before he took Fundy's hand to pull himself up, "oh yeah sorry I blanked out for a bit there."

"I know, you kind of stared past us. You okay?"

"Oh.. uh sorry about that. I'm all good though." 5up smiled at Fundy, "you ready to go?"

Fundy reached down to grab 5up's bag, "let's go."