(OLD) TMF 80s AU

.•♫•♬• 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎 •♬•♫•.

-C.W./T.W. Cursing, mild bullying, minor mentions of sex (just Shannon making unnecessary pregnancy jokes while people are trying to eat)-

September 3rd, 1985

It was a dark and stormy morning. Rain was pouring down all over the small town of Rosemeadow, creating a very lovely, cheerful atmosphere.

If you wanted to stay in bed all day.

Which, unfortunately, was not an option for Zander.

“Child of mine!” called Shannon from the bottom of the staircase. “Your education awaits you!”

“Good. Can it wait longer?” he half-yelled at his blurry door.

“If you want to be living in that room and working at Burger King with no degree for the rest of your life, then sure.”

“Uuuuuurgh,” he groaned, then rolled out of bed. He made several failed attempts to grab his glasses off his nightstand, before finally catching the side of one of the frames with his pinky finger. He slammed his glasses onto his face in an unnecessarily aggressive manner, and shuffled out of his room and down the stairs to breakfast.

“Look alive, Alex,” said Zander’s stepfather as he sat down at the table and faceplanted into a bagel. “It’s your second day of school!”

“So?”

“So, this time next year you’ll be freaking out about college and how you’re almost 18 and this is your last year of high school before you’re thrown into the cruel, cold reality of being an adult.”

“I think you might be projecting a bit, Dad.” Hailey said from across the table.

“Probably. Point is, whether you like it or not, these are your golden years. Enjoy them.”

“That’s...a really depressing thing to think about.”

“Thems the facts, kid,” Micheal said, while making finger guns.

Hailey groaned. “Please stop.”

“What? Your old man not rad enough for you?”

Zander tuned out Hailey and Micheal’s conversation as it turned to just Micheal embarrassing Hailey for the eleventh time that week. This was a perfectly normal morning in the Austin-Wickham household.

He was just sitting there with his head on the table, wishing he could go back to sleep, when he heard the door opening and Hailey’s voice from the hallway.

“Luke, thank god. We have a code purple here. Zander’s having one of his days where he’s in a hermit kind of mood.”

Luke chuckled lightly. “Isn’t that every day though?”

“True.”

“I can hear you, you know.” Zander snapped.

“We know,” Luke said in a patronizing tone.

“Uuuggggghhhh,” Zander groaned, and attempted to put his face back into his breakfast. Shannon caught him by the back of his collar and pulled him back up.

“Up. If you’re going to drown yourself in your juice, at least wait until after school.”

“Wow. Thanks for the emotional support, mum.”

“Aww, don’t mention it,” she said in a falsly sweet tone. “Now eat.”

Zander chewed on his bagel very slowly, while Shannon pestered Hailey and Luke with a lightning round of questions about how school was going. He wasn’t really listening, until he heard his mom say;