Vanishing Lake

Volume Three

"Uh, anyway. Ruby, did you get any breakfast? The tater tots are really good." Charlie munched on his tater tots and noticed Ruby staring at him with a rather intense gleam in her eyes. Teddy waved his hand a couple of inches from Ruby's face. "Have you noticed how pale Char is?" She blinked rapidly and inspected Charles' face with fierce concern. "Yeah, it's just Anemia pulling bullshit again. He forgot to take his iron pills this morning and biked all the way here." Teddy laughed softly and ran his fingers through Charlie's thick curls. "Char, how many times have I told you? Take your iron pills when you wake up, then you won't forget. Honestly... 8 years of having an anemia diagnosis and you'd think they'd know more about the disease and have a set schedule but nope. Do I have to do everyone's job for them?" Ruby mumbled angrily while Charlie just giggled. "Sorry, Ruby! I have an awful memory." Teddy continued happily playing with Charlie's hair while Charlie took his time sipping on his chocolate milk. "Faggots." A grade 10 mumbled as he sauntered past the bench the lot was sitting on (or in Ruby's case, leaning on). Teddy's hand slowly withdrew and then went to rest on his leg. Charlie sighed and loudly drank from his milk purposely to disturb everyone. Ruby glared while Teddy didn't waste any time throwing his right hand's middle finger at them.

Or maybe he did waste time because then the bell rang. Everyone reluctantly drugs themselves to their respected classes. In Charlie's case, it was Biology with Mrs. Sanchez. He moped to the door and turned the silver handle. Sat at his seat, a certain boy caught his eye. Is that Danny? Was his class switched to his period? On the last day of school? Seems unlikely. "Danny" turned and looked at him. Shit. Charlie buried his head in his book. Not knowing who it was, he slowly peeked out from the pages so his eyes and nothing else except a bit of his hair was showing. "Danny" lifted an eyebrow and stifled a laugh. Charlie dropped the book on his desk and tilted his head. There's no way that those electric blue eyes could belong to anyone else. "Danny?" Charlie mouthed. Danny nodded. 

Charlie tore a bit of paper off from a page in his notebook and began writing. 'Did they seriously switch your schedule on the last day of school?' He scribbled. He folded the paper and pretended to yawn while stretching. He dropped it on Danny's desk and watched him read it. He held up his index finger and pulled out a paper.

Danny's note read 'Yes, I've been trying to change my biology class since the beginning of 2nd semester but there weren't any openings. Towards the end of this year I just gave up because there obviously wouldn't be any chances for me to switch but the principal abruptly gave me my new schedule at the latest student council meeting so, guess I have the honor of being in your presence for one day, oh great sir Charles.' Charlie beamed and immediately began scrawling his new note, not bothering to match Danny's incredibly pretty handwriting. 'As if you aren't in my presence every day, you asshat. But why would they even bother switching your schedule now if there won't be school until September?'  Charles pretended to drop the note on the ground by accident and pretended not to notice as he flipped through the pages of "How To Catch A Murderer", his latest favorite novella. 

I caught Danny snatching up the paper out of the corner of my eye and watched as he read it. I read the last line on the 163rd page as I picked up Danny's next note. 'No idea. Are we still on to go out with the rest today? I've been looking forward to the summer since the first day of the first semester.' He repeated the previous steps, folding the note, dropping it, watching Danny pick it up a minute later, etc. He looked up trying to get a good view of Mrs. Sanchez's desk and luckily she was still reading the latest newspaper. 

This back and forth communication of notes continued between the two boys until Mrs. Sanchez stood up. "I've seen you two boys passing notes since nearly the beginning of class. Now, you all know how I feel about passing notes in my class," She picked up the folded piece of paper off the ground. "You pass notes in this room, I read them out loud." Mrs. Sanchez looked between the two boys expecting to see panic on their faces. She wasn't too far off. Charlie was frozen in terror because he knew everyone was staring at him for sure now and he hated the attention. It horrified him so he sunk slightly in his seat and tried to hide his face with his book. Danny wasn't completely terrified but he was worried this would tarnish his reputation. 

He'd spent all of middle school building up the reputation of being a shiny golden boy to avoid the merciless bullying that would make for a terrible high school experience and what if this ruined that? Passing notes with a boy surely would mean a call to his parents. Maybe she would let them off easy as it was the last day?"Told you, fairies." The same 10th grader whispered to his mate from the back of the class. Danny sighed and the teacher continued. She began unfolding and refolding the note. "Now, you both have two choices and I'll let you boys decide between them," Daniel glanced at his friend. He tried to not smile as he noticed how adorable Charlie looked.

"We can either call your parents or, I read this note in front of the entire class." Charlie and Danny shared a quick glance before making up their minds. Mrs. Sanchez began tapping her foot impatiently. "Read it." Danny and Charlie announced simultaneously. She unfolded the note and began reading. "Has Teddy decided who's house we're meeting up at? I thought we all decided on Ruby's but he's indecisive like that." Mrs. Sanchez had expected something more interesting and so, disappointed, she left with the note to sit back at her desk with a "Hmph!"

Danny left their biology class that morning giggling until they couldn't breathe. They shared quick mimics of the teacher's actions with quips such as "Did you see her face? She sat down like "HMPHHH!" " Charlie exaggerated, talking with his hands, and hugging Danny's arm. "Yeah, it was hilarious. I'm honestly just glad we didn't get a phone call to our parents. My mom would've smited me to the heavens." Danny looked down into Charlie's hazel eyes. They were so pretty. Like brown eyes but if they had mini novas made of lighter shades exploding inside them. He felt his face heating up and had to tear his eyes away. He couldn't help it though. Who could? His eyes were just so pretty. They were to him, at least."Well, I gotta get to English! Mr. Mitchell will have a cow if I'm late." Charlie shouted as he ran down the hall, waving at his friend. Danny beamed at him as he left and went to his class.

Author's Note: Hi! It's Joey! :) I honestly didn't expect this story to get this far and I'm super happy it's going well because I normally run out of motivation by the 2nd chapter. Anyway, I drew 2 pictures. One of Teddy flipping off the homophobic kid:

And one of Charlie reading his book:

I hope you like them and enjoyed this chapter, I'm so excited to get working on the next one, and I hope you have a great day/night! :]