letterman

12:00 pm

Summary-

The night's news bring developments the next day.

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WE BACKKK
i wrote one chapter and the plot has been just falling into place without me realizing until now, but i am finally picking this back up yeahhh! this feels like more of the first chapter than the actual first chapter because everything is just so much more set in stone now, and i absolutely can't wait to work through it
that summary thing gives off strong ao3 vibes but that website just scares me idk
without further ado, lesgo!

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It's 12 pm, noon, and George swears that in all his four years at this place, he's never seen the school in such a state.

He had woken up late that morning, scarfed down breakfast without time to pack a lunch, and gave his aunt a thoughtless good morning glance as he stumbled out the front door.

To which she returned the indifference. The look stung, even though at this point, it really shouldn't.

Yet there it stayed; etched into the dark of his eyelids all the way on the walk to school. Adding to his discontent was a quiet, unjust annoyance- at Alex and his overachiever tendencies George wishes he had, because it's a Monday. Because on Mondays, like these, he has to make the walk by himself, as his friend is already at school for whatever extracurriculars he would wake up early for.

And then all that was completely forgotten by the very first sight that greeted him.

Enough to stop him in his tracks, as all wonderings of his rough-awakening dropped instantly. Tacked onto the large, heavy front doors and bulletin boards all around the school so it was impossible to miss.

The news. The article. The reason why busy hallways are even more so, and why there's so many people whose voices now have that underlying touch of worry and panic and speculation.

Both teachers of both his morning classes, who brought up the disappearances with a forlorn tone and brows drawn together in solemn composure. Explaining the situation to the twenty-so seated students, as if the topic wasn't the very thing on everyone's minds.

It's on George's, even though he really wants it off. But the subject's still fresh on his tongue, and Alex's, who trudges next to him as they all but claw through the overwhelming crowds in the overwhelming hallway.

He's worried, and speculated, but the panic's let off. There was only that moment, the initial spike in his pulse as he read the headline and headline only.

But as soon as he read beyond that...

It's not them. It's not them.

It's not the two loud-mouthed, rowdy teenagers who've occupied the seats behind them for the entire semester. It's not them that now have their names printed all over the front-page article, as the reporters dump worry on their whereabouts. Who's presences have gone from intolerable to whatever it is now, that they are the first George would think of after seeing the boldened headline.

It's not them. It's two randoms, two other football players, two names George caught in his careless skim-over and now has no memory of.

"God," Alex grumbles, cutting cleanly through his thoughts. It's only now that George becomes aware of the block of silence from now to when he had explained his mix-up to Alex minutes earlier, a mistake that his friend had laughed at him for. "People are fucking loud."

He couldn't agree more. With the press of noise from every direction as the buzzing hallway never seems to die down, just hearing his friend speak calls for an immense effort. And hearing earfuls of other's conversation here and there, makes the topic impossible to keep at bay.