~Attractions~ (An Inanimate Insanity AU)

11: GO TO FIRST PERIOD 🔥🔥🔥

October 17, Thursday Morning, Paintbrush's POV:

"Vocaloid, Marshmallow? Vocaloid? That's the kind of music you like?"

"Shut up, Paintbrush! It's better than whatever you listen to!"

"Excuse me?" I acted like I was offended, joking around with her. "My taste in music is better! That one Barracuda song is amazing, okay?"

"You mean that nostalgic song that was made like—what, twelve years ago? Vocaloid was around before then!" Marshmallow argued, chuckling. "Have you ever listened to a single Vocaloid song?"

"...No, to be perfectly honest, I haven't."

"Then you should!" She exclaimed, which made some heads in the hallway turn to face us. She blushed from the embarrassment. "Ugh...now I feel like Silver on the first day, when he was complaining about the locker color."

I whipped my head around to face her. "You know about that?"

"Everyone does! In fact, everyone agrees with him. I mean...who decided to choose gray as the locker color? I'd like to meet them...so I can persuade them in the nicest way possible to change it to, I don't know, blue." Marshmallow smiled at me, then she looked down at her phone. "Apple and Bow aren't here yet. Strange. They're usually earlier than me."

"Uh...Marshmallow? It's 6:20 AM. Not many people arrive that early." I reminded her, pointing at the time on her phone. She looked down at her phone again, her mouth forming a small "Oh!" She pocketed her device, shrugging. "Never been here so early before. It feels...empty. Don't you think?"

I listened for a minute to find other noises in the hallway, other than the sounds of our voices and our footsteps echoing on the floor. Almost nothing, except the slamming of locker doors and the shuffling of other pairs of feet. Marshmallow was right—it does feel empty.

"Paintbrush! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!"

I honestly thought it was Silver Spoon's voice for a second—but then after a few moments of panicking, I realized it was Test Tube speaking, walking towards me, waving an arm in the air to get my attention. Marshmallow and I said our goodbyes, and we went our separate ways.

"Hey, Test Tube. Where's Fan? Didn't he start taking the bus with you?" I asked. Test Tube sighed, taking out her phone to show me the text messages he sent her, apparently, at 5:30 AM. "He sent me this super early. He's lucky the message was delivered, my phone is getting old, it doesn't work properly anymore and I don't get messages until ten minutes after they're sent for some reason..."

I was busy scrolling through her messages to pay attention to what she was saying.

Science_Pal: im sick i wont be here sorry :'((((

Science_Pal: tell paintbrush and lightbulb ok??? ty!!!

Science_Pal: have fun at school :D (i know u wont)

"Oh. Well, more and more people have been getting the flu lately. Understandable." I said, giving her the phone back, and she put it in her backpack. "Why do you have his contact name as 'Science Pal?'"

She shrugged. "Because he's my partner in science. Simple enough."

(He's gonna be ur partner in love terms, too, green apple popsicle stick, mark my words...also haha Chemistry Lessons reference)

"Hey, you two! Where's Fan?" Lightbulb exclaimed, running up to us and giving the both of us a tight hug. It was quite comforting, but she was also suffocating us. She let go, and I was able to breathe properly again. "Oh, sorry, guys! Anyway, where's Fan?" She repeated. Test Tube showed her the messages he sent, and her eyes widened. "Oh, no! He's sick?"