Our Safeguard

Chapter 15

i just realized that this is the third book of this au AND MY BOY TONY HASN'T SHOWN UP ONCE :( so i apologize for his appearance seeing out of the blue.

Chapter 15

~Nolan~

       Even though I decided to stick with online schooling while I was recovering, I was tempted to go back to online schooling the moment I returned to school. Honestly, I thought I was going to get a bunch of stares from my classmates since I was gone for a while, but I didn't.

       I guess I still had to convince my mind that a lot of people actually didn't care about other people's lives. Some do, but some didn't.

       It wasn't the stares, or really the lack of stares that made me want to go back to online schooling. Honestly, it wasn't because I wasn't doing too well. Sure, I was feeling very fatigued but this wasn't the first. The only reason why I wanted to go back online was because I just wanted to sleep in.

       And see Jerome, but I couldn't let that be the reason I stopped going to public school.

       Once lunch rolled around, I first went to my locker before trying to find Orchid or Alan. Jerome had work right now so we couldn't have lunch together, leaving me to stay at school. I always had lunch with Orchid or Alan when I had to stay at the school but this time, I couldn't find either of them.

       There was still one more option that honestly wasn't even a bad one. In fact, it would probably be the best place for me to eat. There probably wouldn't be any other students there, which I definitely needed right now. I was already stuck in a bunch of students in my first two classes, so I was already feeling quite suffocated.

       I knocked on the classroom door before peeping my head in. My uncle, Tony, was sitting at his desk, eating his lunch. When he saw me, I said, "Hey... Can I eat my lunch in here? I normally go out with Jerome but he's working, and I can't find Orchid and Alan anywhere. I could text them but--"

       "Nolan," Tony interrupted. "You don't have to explain yourself. Of course you can eat your lunch in here." He moved some stuff aside on his desk, knowing I'd feel more comfortable eating close to him than on the other side of the classroom.

       I grabbed the closest chair and moved it to his desk. I sat down on the chair before I got my lunch out of my backpack. Mom made a lunch for both me and Jerome today, knowing that I would have been too tired to make my own lunch and that Jerome now preferred to have his lunch made by someone else.

       "How have you been going?" Tony asked. He knew what I had gone through recently. Mom told him so I had an extra person, a teacher at that, keep an eye out for me at school. It was a shame he wasn't my teacher this semester. I felt like it would have been a lot easier going to school if that were the case.

       Tony was one of the best teachers, and I wasn't saying that just because he was my uncle. A lot of students would say he was the best because he actually understood the need of teenagers. He would give his students breaks throughout the class, knowing that sitting in class for more than an hour straight would make them lose their concentration. If someone was sleeping, he would check up on them instead of yelling at them for sleeping in class.

       "I've been better..." I muttered. "I mean, I'm well enough to be in school but... It's hard."

       "Well, I do have a prep period during third period," Tony said. "So if you ever find it too difficult to be in your third period class, you can just tell your teacher that you're going to come here. Just bring your schoolwork and you'll be fine."

       "What if she's not okay with it?" I asked. 

       "Then I'll talk to her," Tony said. "But considering you were hospitalized for a few days, I don't think she'll be against it. Your mom told me that she told your teachers you were hospitalized, but she didn't tell them why. Either way, they'll probably figure out it's not something they should ask about. But I promise she'll be okay with it. I'm pretty convincing."

       "Mom said you tried convincing her once to eat a bug but you were unsuccessful."

       "Okay, but I convinced your dad to eat the bug."

       "Dad will eat anything, so that doesn't count."

       "You know what? That's fair. He once took chicken wings out of the organics bin and ate it because he claimed your mom didn't finish eating all the meat on it."

        I scrunched my face in disgust. "He's weird."

       "I remember once when I was their teacher, our class got delivered oranges for the fruit and veggie program. He asked the class if he should eat the orange peel and he did it without waiting for an answer. I think he just liked the attention."

       "Yeah, I don't doubt that," I said. If it wasn't that he wanted everyone else's attention, it was definitely because he wanted Mom's attention. Or wanted to impress her in a weird way, even though they were dating at the time.

       Just like I always wanted Jerome's attention even when we were dating. I guess I got that from my Dad.

       But who could blame me? Jerome was the hottest person ever. Of course I wanted his attention all the time.

       As exhausted as I was, I did feel well enough to go to my third period class. Eating lunch with my uncle and no other people around made it easier for me to regenerate. I didn't have to worry about the loud students.

       At least my fourth period class would be one I could handle. My teacher didn't really like students talking, even when we were working on schoolwork. Sometimes it sucked but other times, it was refreshing to not listen to my loud classmates.

       I soon made it through the whole day without anything bad really happening. I did feel exhausted most of the day, but that was to be expected. I just knew that if I could make it through one day while recovering from sepsis, I could make it through the rest of the school year without any problems.

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HOW DARE I FORGET TO INCLUDE MY LOVE TONY IN THIS AU????? i don't even know why i forgot about him????? he's one of my favourite older brother characters.

anyway for those who have only read this au and not the original series, tony is poppy's older brother and he's the best. he was always there for her when no one else was <3