"New Students" (Klapollo AU)

The Idiot Squad (& Thalassa)

    "Said I don't do this very often. When someone like you comes around..."

    "Clay, what the hell are you listening to?!" Apollo yelled into his phone.

    A slam was heard on the other side. "Excuse you! You're just jealous that you don't know the song name and I do!" A quiet apology was directed away from the speaker as well.

    Apollo huffed, sitting on the couch in the living room. "Well now I at least know the artist. Jeez..."

    "Don't 'jeez' me, Mr. Chords of Steel! I can hear you fine without you yelling at me directly into your microphone." They went quiet for a moment. The emptiness on both ends finally stopped with Clay laughing to himself. "Okay, okay. I'll be a little less defensive of TWRP, 'kay?"

    Apollo smiled. "Fine. But we are listening to that song later so I can make fun of you in person."

    "Deal. Any new song recommendations on your end or have Trucy and Klavier tainted your weekly bops when I wasn't looking?"

    He waited for the shuffling on the other end to stop before responding, "First of all, do not call them bops. Secondly, it's just my mom's music this week, so nothing you haven't heard."

   "Bops."

    "I'm going to kill you."

    "Please do, my online work is hell. But with your mom's music, is it her new original stuff or that cool, strange other music she puts on?"

    Apollo looked up for a moment. "I'm not sure, but you could ask when you come over. Speaking of which, you're gonna need to get a ride from Ema or something. My mom left a bit ago to go pick Trucy up from her friend's house."

    "Shit, really?" Clay sighed (for a short period of time unlike a certain actual astronaut thankfully). "Of course none of them I talk to live out here... Ah! I'm at the Space Center, not my house today. They finally let me back in. After some begging and pleading, from them and not me of course." He paused. "You're sure I can't get a ride from your mom?"

    Apollo started to shake his head before remembering they couldn't see each other. "Trucy's friend is on the Nine Tails Vale way out of town, not space center side. You might wanna ask Ema for help with the ride situation. At the very least, she may be willing to help you find who to get a ride from."

    "Great. Thanks for the idea though at least. I should probably go get ready to leave then. Tell Trucy hi for me when she gets home!" With that Clay hung up, sending a text of "<3 jk unless" shortly after.

    The silence of the house returned once again for the first time since before he called. Sighing, Apollo got up and started grabbing what he needed from the kitchen for the party. Trucy would be handling all of the entertainment and decoration stuff by herself after refusing Apollo's offer to help. If he was lucky, he'd be able to see the floor when she was done with whatever she had planned.

    Once he was done getting the dishes and put them and the already-made snacks out, Apollo retreated back to his room to wait for everyone to arrive. So long as everyone didn't end up in some horrid traffic somehow, the first of his friends would be there in the next hour shortly after the sun had set.

    Ema was unsurprisingly in the earlier arrivals. She'd already cleared half a bowl of snackoos before his mom and sister got home. When Trucy asked, Ema just said Lana had her own plans that night she needed to go to.

    "But that doesn't tell us what she's doing!" Trucy groaned.

    Popping another snackoo into her mouth, Ema responded, "Actually being social stuff."