Friends with "that Niccals kid" | Gorillaz High school AU

Sleepover

After school I immediately go up to him, Art supplies at hand from our last lecture. He immediately speeds up going out of the class, but me and my long legs catch up to him. He doesn't seem pleased.

"Oi, I told you! Sod off!" he yells at me, causing a scene

"Not until I know what your problem is with me! What did I do?"

He just shoves me away and speeds off, I catch up to him once again.

"Murdoc!" I exclaim as he turns to me sharply, stares at me, and gets going again.

I stop at my tracks and go to pack away my stuff into my locker, deciding to leave him alone, I'll surely find out what's wrong eventually, Russel comes up to me.

"Ay, Pot, ma's working overtime and I have a couple hours b'fore I'll have to be home, wanna go 'round the city a bit?"

"...Sure, alright" I say, deep in thought about this whole situation.

We went everywhere, book store, school supply store, even a make up store - don't judge me, make up stuff is fun - and then the grocery store for some snacks. We sat down in a local park and Russ ate some cheap crisps as I used my phone's front facing camera to try on my new mascara.

"Hey, I've been thinkin', wanna have a sleep over some time?" I say, putting my new mascara away.

"Uhm" he gets flustered "An actual sleepover or one of those fun sleepovers where we, uhh, neversleepatall theentirenight?" he rambles

"Uh, if you want? I'll probably sleep, but stay up if you want I guess"

"Alright..." he says "So, how's it goin' with Niccals?"

"Rocky road, I thought we were friends, but now he's acting all strange and shit"

"Maybe he's bipolar? Or menstruating? Or insane?" Russ lays out his theories

"I dunno" I say after laughing a bit

"Well, I'm sure you can work it out... or stay in some weird situationship where you never interact and feel awkward around each other" he responds "So, when's the sleepover?"

We make plans and eventually part ways, I go home and immediately do my homework, listening to my favourite band, Blur, eventually getting to the extra spanish essay I said I'd write about a book I've taken out of the school library.

After everything was all finished, I decide to paint a bit, but mum calls me down for dinner, so I drag my limbs downstairs.

"So, how's that Niccals kid doing?" Mum asks

"I dunno, he was pretty strange today, I think he's mad at me, I just don't know what for" I say, lazily pushing my peas around the plate with my fork.

"Oh, that's a shame, he seemed like a nice boy. I actually thought he was one of those rebellious boys your age, bad influence and all, but he actually seems like a nice person"

Clearly, mum doesn't know the side of him I do. I begin absorbing my chips, slowly, and staring into the nothingness.

"Yeah, I guess" I respond, not paying full attention anymore, just zoning out

I began thinking, what could've upset him? Maybe it's the fact I made him study? Yeah, he was probably all butt hurt that he couldn't keep up his rebellious "homework is for losers" attitude, what a pretentious prick...

After eating half my plate, scooping the rest onto mum's plate and lazily tossing my plate into the wash, I move my limbs upstairs and finish the painting I started.

SATURDAY

Over the week, Murdoc slowly went back to his old self, continuing to bully me, taking my lunch, all that, I gave up trying to talk to him.

I wake up, slowly blinking my eyes open, continuing to lay in my bed, rid of any movement. This is what I always liked about saturdays, I could lay in bed for as long as I want, even spend the entire day here if I wanted, but today I can't, since today I had to get ready for a sleepover me and Russel are gonna have.

At exactly 2:38 PM, a knock on the door was heard. Mrs. Hobbs and his son, Russel appeared with a gym bag at hand.

Our mums kept on talking and talking and talking, Jesus, how much could they talk? After they talked through the basics - 11 PM bedtime, no alcohol, no loud music past 8 - we went upstairs to my room, letting the two of them keep talking.

At exactly 3:42 PM, we saw Mrs. Hobbs drive off, it was party time. We put on some music - a mixtape we made, mixed with my various tastes of music and his 90's hiphop and rap - and let it play on my laptop on spotify as I decided to do some make up.

"So, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but why do you like make up so much?" he asks

"I dunno, my guess is Paula, she always practiced make up on me to see if the reason she couldn't do symmetric eyeliner wings was because of her skills or the fact she did it for herself" I explain "At the end of the day, they are sisters, not twins"

"Who?"

"The wings, it's like an expression"

"Oh, right" he takes a sip of cola that we brought in for the party "Could you do mine?"

"Oh, uh, sure!"

I did his make up, nothing complicated, just what I would usually do. Some mascara, small eyeliner wings, maybe a matching lipstick on special occasions, and that's that. Russel looks at his make up, and seems surprised.

"Whoa, this looks great!" he exclaims

"Thank you" I proudly reply "Wanna spice the night up?"

"...How?" he suspiciously asks

I silently go up to my secret drawer, pulling out a bottle of cheap vodka and two lemon beers.

"Now, let's get this party really started"