Alice

a new home

i walk into the living room and drop my bags by the door. spencer does the same. it's strangely quiet, almost unsettling. spencer goes to take coffee, i follow him. 

"it's going to be weird having someone else in the house now. I'm used to coming home to a quiet house." spencer says, pouring coffee grounds into the filter. 

"it's weird being here without the rest of the band." i say. 

"that part definitely takes some getting used to. we can always invite people over if you want. I'm sure andy and lilith would be happy to come over." spencer says. "and august can help you figure out your schedule for school."

"could we? i need to figure out what i need for school." i say. 

"you guys could go back to school shopping together! that would be fun." spencer suggests. the coffee maker beeps and he pours himself a cup of coffee. i grab a mug and pour some for myself.

"for sure, we can have them over tomorrow. you should unpack." 

"yeah, i still have to figure out how I'm going to organize my room." i say. i pick up my bags and walk down the hall to my room. i haven't been in this room for months, an entire summer actually. 

i look at the single poster on the wall. i need to get more posters, or just more things for my wall in general. i throw my bags on my bed and count the drawers in my dresser so i can plan out where everything goes. 

i open the suitcase i got from chris and see a rolled up poster with a rubber band around it. i smile and undo the rubber band. it's actually three posters. one of black viel brides, one of bad omens, and one of motionless in white. 

i hang up all three posters on the wall directly across from my door so they're the first thing i see when i come into my room. i start to unpack and fold all of my clothes. i can put them straight into my dresser, luckily we got to do laundry right before tour ended. 

i spent easily half an hour organizing my drawers and putting things away. first drawer is socks and underwear, second is t-shirts and long sleeves, third is jeans and shorts, and the bottom is sweaters. 

the drawers are still pretty empty, i don't have that many clothes. most of what i do have came from chris. i notice a small coat rack with a few hooks on it. that has to be new. i hang up my hodies. 

spencer knocks on my door tells me dinner is ready. we eat and both go to bed. it's weird sleeping in a real bed again, not a hotel bed, my own real bed. 

*

spencer and i are watching tv, and I'm texting august. theres a knock at the door. spencer stands up and opens it to greet andy, lilith, and august. i wave to august and she waves back. She runs over and sits down next to me, opening her laptop.

"so, i was told I'm helping you figure out your school stuff?" she asks. i nod and open spencers laptop in front of me. i follow augusts instructions and log into my school email. it's under micheal, all of my school stuff is under micheal. 

i open my schedule and compare both semesters to augusts. we have pretty much all of our core classes together. it'll be nice to already know at least one person in most of my classes. 

"the school is pretty big, so there's a mix of people who've known each other forever and people who have never met before, so it's pretty easy to get to know people and make friends. plus i think you're in forensics, they're a pretty good place to meet people" she says.

"what is forensics?"

"like public speaking, sort of. like poetry performances, speeches, presentations, stuff like that. they'll explain it in class better than i could explain it." 

she walk me through all of the electives i'm in, and all of them seem like things i would've picked for myself anyway. she tells me about all of my teachers too, which ones are mean, which ones are nice, and which ones are just kinda neutral. 

both of us open the syllabus' for our classes, helping each other make a list of what we both need. i suggest both of us get planners. august excitedly takes a large planner out of her backpack and shows it to me. 

it's the size of a normal note book with a pink cover covered in roses and other flowers. it says planner across the front in fancy text. she opens it up and the whole thing is super colorful and written in glittery gel  pen. i see my name written on the contacts page with a little heart next to it.

she hands me a small black planner with a pen pocket on the side, with a pen already in it. "i wasn't sure what kind of planner you would want, or if you would even want one, so i got a pretty neutral one." i open the planner and write my name in it. 

i flip to the contacts page in the back to write down august number and see that she already wrote it with a glittery black gen pen. i smile and draw a little heart next to it. i fill in the relationship line with "girlfriend". i write in her planner, writing "boyfriend" on the relationship line under my contact. 

i flip back to the emergency contact page and write in spencer number, labeling him as dad. i wrte in justin and Patrick as "uncle", and andy as "trusted adult". i go to the notes section in the back and jot down some of the other numbers in my phone: Noah, vinny, ricky, chris, lonny, nadia, and lilith.

"hey dad?" august gets andy's attention. andy looks over to us. "can we go back to school shopping soon? like within the next few days? i don't want to have to do it all last minute like last year." she says

"yeah, for sure. we can do that tomorrow." he says. "make a list." 

"already done, and Mikey has one too." 

"you guys could go together, get a chance to drag chris around." spencer suggests. "i can give chris some money to spend on you two."

"I'll throw him some too. i didn't know he lived round here." andy says.

"oh yeah, it's like a half hour drive. he came by when i first got mikey and dropped off some old clothes." spencer tell him. 

"that would be why alot of your clothes look familiar." andy says to me. i nod. 

"yeah i don't have a very big wardrobe. it's like two shirts and a pair of jeans i already had, a few shirts and pants from chris, a few t-shirts from Walmart, and whatever you guys all got me from merch booths." i say. "like maybe 15 shirts total, and like three pairs of pants." 

"and a few hoodies, you got alot of hoodies from the merch people." spencer says. "those people thought you were great. I've never seen them so happy to give away free shit." 

"they seemed nice." i say. august and i compare lists and mark anything that we both have on our lists. 

we all spend the rest of the day talking and august tells me about a few of her friends. anthony who talks about dnd non-stop, charlie who knits, Keith who cooks non-stop, and Susanna who does theatre. 

I feel like I already know these people, seeing photos of them and hearing every small detail about the way the act and speak. August loves her friends, and I love her. I'm sure I'll find my place in the new school and maybe this time I'll be more normal.

By the time everyone left we already had plans to go get back to school supplies

A/n I'm not dead! Sorry abt the break my last musical was ROUGH. Like charges pressed (not against me) kinda rough... anyways I'm not dead and I'm back to writting! Also my editor exploded halfway through this chapter so I guess its just like that now :/