an institution for troubled children

four boys on the bench

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊

༄ؘ ˑ

the door pushes open, the principal leaning into the room and ignoring the expectant looks he receives from the class. "can i talk to you for a moment?" mr. craft asks, nodding his head back to gesture out of the classroom. "nothing bad," he clears up as he hears a few students begin to whisper conspiracies, "i just need to ask something."

"yes, of course," mr. septic quickly nods, putting the pen he'd been writing with on the board down at his desk. "everyone, start writing out the annotating techniques in your books, if you finish early then brainstorm examples."

with that, he makes his way out of the class with the head.

tommy leans back in his chair, continuing to scribble out clouds at the top of his page: realistically, they were just black blobs of biro, but he still thought it was cool.

he looks up instinctively as a ball of paper goes flying by him, watching as it hits purpled square on the back of the head. the other blond twists back to look at what has hit him, sighing before turning back to face the front and not even addressing whoever it was thrown by.

tommy, much more nosy, glances back to find the culprit. he is unsurprised to find jack laughing and his friend aimsey giggling along.

"oi!" tommy calls, getting the pair's attention but mainly addressing jack when he says, "fuck off, alright?"

"you what?" jack spits back, glaring at the blond in feigned confusion.

"just leave him alone, asshole," tommy curses, overly aware of the audience of students observing the interaction. "he didn't do shit."

jack simply rolls his eyes, disregarding the blond completely as he looks over at aimsey, the pair quietly falling back into a casual conversation, as if the previous interaction hadn't happened.

tommy supposes that is an okay reaction, seeing as it is obvious he has embarrassed the older boy by calling him out, and he turns back to the front with a smug smile.

he looks back at purpled, surprised to find the blond still staring expressionlessly down at his book, not regarding tommy, despite how he has unconditionally stood up for him.

nothing else occurs before mr. septic returns, entering the room with an unreadable expression. he makes his way to the front, voice completely casual as he says, "eryn, could you please go to the head's office."

tommy looks over as a boy he doesn't really recognise gets up, gathering his stuff up before making his way out of the room.

"okay," mr. septic begins, clapping his hands together. "so, we are starting our termly group exercise today," he announces, earning a chorus of groans from his class. "uh, no," he scolds, raising a hand to silence the room, "i do not want to hear it from any of you. the project is only a week long and can be completed fully during class hours, so you have no need to complain!"