Lost loves | ✨Sprace✨

Chapter 2

September 1952

Racetrack Higgins leaned on a wall at the front of the Science class. He was waiting to be assigned his lab partner for the semester. Because he had the worst luck, all of his friends in this class were assigned to each other, with Charlie, or as everyone called him nowadays, Crutchie, assigned with Finch, and Jack with Albert.

"ANTHONY HIGGINS?!"

This caught Race's attention. "What?" He asked tiredly.

"That is the third time I've had to call your name. THIRD TIME. Please, listen."

"Okay," Race mumbled. It wasn't exactly his fault. No one, except his dad on occasion, called him Anthony. plus he had an impressively short attention span, something most teachers realized very quickly. Clearly, Mr. "Wiesel" Hadn't realized that. Wiesel. Race thought. More like Weasel. He chuckled at the thought.

"ANTHONY HIGGINS, DO YOU NEED TO GO TO THE MAIN OFFICE!?" Clearly, Mr. Weasel was not one to get aggravated. Race made a mental note.

"I hear ya," Race muttered.

"Okay. for the FINAL time, you are sitting in that seat there next to Sean." The old man pointed to an empty seat in the back left corner of the classroom. At least the seat wasn't too bad.

Race put his bags down and rested his head on the table. Maybe he could catch up on some sleep? This teacher already hated him anyways.

"Aww, he's asleep." Race looked up to see Sean Conlon poking at him. He grumbled and sat up.

"Well if it isn't Sean Conlon," Race told him, smugly.

"Haven't heard that name in a while," the brown-haired boy muttered.

"Oh right, you're going by the name Spot now. What kinda name is that anyway? Spot?"

"Says the boy who goes by 'Racer'," Spot replied with a smile.

"Hey, That's Racetrack ta you," Race responded, almost snobbishly.

"I preferred Tonio."

"You remain the only person to have ever called me that," Race grumbled.

"Not surprised. Last I checked you were named 'Anthony'," Spot told him with a stupid smirk plastered on his face.

Race sighed, and put his head back down, realizing this was going to be a long semester.

Spot's smirk faded a little. He felt bad now, something that didn't happen often. He shrugged the feeling off and decided to pay some attention to what Mr. Wiesel was talking about. Maybe it would be helpful.

It wasn't. The old man just rambled on about the importance of punctuality and how he would give detention to students who didn't do their homework.

Race was incredibly tired. Probably because of the fact that he got, like, negative two hours of sleep last night. But of course, now that he wanted to sleep, he couldn't. He looked around a little. Jack and Albert were diagonally left to him. Crutchie and Finch were down at the front of the class; unsurprising 'cause Crutchie had a crutch.

Jack was doodling, something Race had noticed him doing a lot lately. And today he was doodling one Katherine Pulitzer, a girl he had been making googly eyes at a lot recently. Race sighed. There was no chance of that happening.

"Anthony Higgins!" Mr. Wiesel called from the front of the class. Spot nudged Race awake, who sat up with a jolt.

"Huh- what!" Race was confused.

"I would like you to stay after class. We need to discuss some things."

The bell rang, and everyone left the classroom quickly, except for Race and Spot, who got up but didn't leave.

"Mr. Conlon?" Weasel asked.

"Yeah."

"You do not need to stay. I just need to have a discussion with this young man."

"Yeah, about that." Spot walked over to Race and put his arm around the taller boy's shoulders. "This 'young man' has a short attention span, which you may have already realized. I felt I should mention that he, uh, doesn't like to be called 'Anthony'. You would find it easier to get his attention if you called him Antonio or Racetrack. I'm telling you this because he told me the same thing many years ago and I haven't had trouble with him since."

"Uh..." Weasel didn't exactly know what to say. "Thank you, Mr. Conlon. I had no idea you knew this boy. Now, you can go to class, I still need to talk to him."

Race watched as Spot left the room. He wondered why anyone would stand up for him, let alone Spot Conlon. The only time they had ever interacted was when they were six, and Race barely remembered. Spot must've he thought.

"Now, Antonio, is it?" Weasel asked.

"What! Oh, yeah."

"I need to talk to you because, well, I know your father. And that man would never raise a kid that acted like you did today. You slept basically the entire period! And it's the first day!"

"I was tired!" Race exclaimed, defending himself.

"I can tell." Weasel looked him up and down, pausing at his deep eye bags. "And I would assume that's because of your mother, is it not?"

Race sighed. He had only made it two hours into the day and someone already brought up his mother.

Weasel looked Race in the eye and noticed the water building up at the bottom. Race looked down.

"Can I go now?" Race asked, trying to force his emotions down.

"Look, kid," Weasel sighed. "I too lost my mother at a young age and it is not easy. But trust me, giving up in life is not a helpful coping mechanism. It works for a second, maybe, but the best thing you can do is push through it. Here, try this." Weasel handed the boy a cigar. Race took it, tentatively.

"What's this supposed to do?" He asked.

"Well, it calms me down. And if you promise to pay attention, I won't tell your father about your little misdemeanor and you can smoke that thing in my classroom. Do we have a deal?"

Race thought for a moment. There was almost no way he could keep that promise, but his father would not be pleased to get a call from his teacher on the first day of school. And hey, the cigar could be nice.

"Deal," Race told him after a little while.

"Good choice." Weasel smiled. "See you tomorrow, boy."

Race walked out the door and out the door with a cigar in his mouth. It was disgusting, but it relaxed him nonetheless. Plus it was a nice fidget, something he most definitely needed.

Spot was standing right outside the door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"How much did you hear?" Race asked.

"Enough," Spot told him. "Sorry about your mom."

"Thanks but uh, please don't tell anybody. I don't need everyone offering their condolences."

"Don't worry, I won't. You never told anyone about my brother, and it's only fair I do the same. Also, don't smoke that thing. I've heard rumors it's bad for you."

"Why do you care?"

"because then I wouldn't have a lab partner." Spot chuckled. "See ya around, Tonio!"

Race felt his cheeks redden as Spot walked away. 

--

So there was chapter two. I know that most 12-13 year-olds don't act like that, but whatever. I'll try and post another chapter tomorrow or the day after. Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Sincerely,

 me (Potato_Lover45)

P.S. this is kinda random but check out Bandstand the Musical. I've recently been obsessed with it and it's really good. So, if you want a new musical to check out, I would recommend that one if you haven't watched/listened to it already.