Setosolace- "The Past Bites Back"

Chapter Three

Laughs because in my original chapter I was excited about eleven reads

So pretty much what's happening with this chapter (and all of them for that matter), is that I'm reading the original chapter as it is, and then taking everything in it and using it as a base, throwing away everything I think is useless. As for this chapter, really the only thing I liked about it was the beginning. The rest of it was garbage and I'm also going to punt that shit into the trash like the last one and Jerome's tux (things such as aunt Janet and MB have been punted like a pro into a trash bin, as well as everything else. It's just weird to include in a serious story.) Prolly going to be really short, my apologies!~

I actually really like the way this chapter starts off in the original write wow????

~

Seto can just already hear the insults being slung back and forth, the cold stares as the kids in the hallways inspect him like some sort of used item. He feels a shiver racing down his spine at the thought, brain obviously acting like attending a new school was going to be the start to an awful "Lifetime" movie.

He sighed to himself as he pulled his sneakers on. He never bothered to check what brand, who cared anyways? They're just shoes.

He opened the door as he heard his mother call goodbye to him, which he nodded in response to as he stepped from the door frame into the small walkway, which lead to the driveway. The leaves crunched under his shoes as he walked around the bend in the neighborhood, searching for the curb with the stop sign on it. And, sure enough, he found it easily. There was someone else standing there, tapping his shoe on the pavement, in a sort of beat-keeping manner, not the impatient beating of someone's foot if they were agitated or angry. Seto felt himself smile lightly as he looked at him a bit more, discovering the guitar case slung from his back, the strap pulled across his chest. As he stepped closer, he couldn't help but let his curiosity wander.

"Band?" The kid looked startled slightly, before chuckling quietly to himself.

"Nah, theater. I got kicked out of band for falling through one of the drums." Then he looked over at Seto, before cracking a sheepish smile.

"New kid, right? New York?" Seto felt himself smile as well, before nodding as he looked around the street. It was nothing really so special, just an average street in a friendly neighborhood, houses prettily painted with pastel colors of all kinds, mostly being blues and yellows. After a couple moments, Seto looked back at the boy, looking him up-and-down silently. He had brown hair, and the soft blue eyes to match, which were hidden slightly behind thick-framed glasses. He was wearing jeans, and white tee with a red and black checkered throw-over.

"Ah, anyways, do you have your schedule? Pretty sure they mail it to you, right?" The boy looked at him curiously, and so Seto just let out a small hum of confirmation before he rustled in his bag for his schedule. When Seto handed it to the boy, he just scanned over it, before handing it back.

"Thanks, man. We have all the same core classes, but our electives are on other sides of the school," The boy looked flustered for a moment, before laughing nervously. "My name is Tyler, by the way."

"Seto."

Tyler nodded curtly, looking away from Seto. He looked up the road, probably waiting for the bus to arrive.

The noise the bus made when it stopped was that of a balloon deflating from a small hole, loud and forever going to be annoying to Seto. As he climbed up the steps into the bus, he immediately decided that he hated everyone one it all at once, besides like, maybe two people. There were papers and garbage being thrown from seat to seat, and nearly everyone was screaming at some sort of volume that combined to make a deafening blanket of noise, like thick tar coated any crevasse the noise could escape from. He sits down in the seat with the fire escape window, in case he needs to pull a 007 and dip out; which he's fully prepared to do at this point.

Seto curses himself for not grabbing his headphones, and opts to whisper a small silencing incantation, the noise around him coming to a stop as the world goes quiet. He folds in on himself, bringing his knees up and pressing them into the back of the chair in front of him, deciding to just gaze out the window to kill his time. It was still dark; since he had to be out at the curb at 6:20. The bus ride would be long, which gave Seto more time to compose himself.

So far so good.

This was the phrase racing through his head as he stepped off the bus, the sun having finally come out, shining harsh morning rays of light into his face. Once again, he seems to curse at himself. He wasn't used to sunlight, he'd spent so much time inside; brooding and cultivating his ability. The crowd is moving a mile a minute, and Seto barely has the time to catch the door before it hits him in the face, his back being shoved at by the impatient mob tailing him. He manages to make his way inside unharmed, feeling a bit claustrophobic upon the discovery that, although he was a junior, he could stand about level with some of the freshman. He was short.

Fuck.

Multiply that word by ten thousand, set the speed at two words per second, and then set the volume to max. That's how Seto felt at this moment, his brain screaming at the thought of the rest of the school year. He can barely pull the schedule out of his pocket from the intensity of the tremble that seems to have overcome him. Art, find the art room.

Seto scuttles wildly through the crowd, the traffic flow absolutely everywhere. He sprints up and down the stairs, winds up the in library twice, and then gives up on his hopes and dreams before finally admitting defeat and letting out a sigh. He does the unthinkable; and asks a teacher for directions. They point to a small staircase directly beside the library entrance, and Seto feels his soul leave his body. He walked right past it more than once.

He tries to focus on getting up the stairs, rather than his crippling embarrassment, but it's sort of hard to do when the latter of the two makes him move like a rusted, jerky, robot. Seto only trips on the steps once, an accomplishment in his eyes, and successfully reaches the top of the staircase. He reaches out to pull open the art room door, before glancing down and realizing he was an idiot; the door was already open. He hastily makes his way inside, taking the first open seat he sees as his face burns a harsh shade of red, the students who were already sat giving him pitiful looks. The teacher wasn't in the room yet, but Seto remembered that everything was still silent, and muttered a ceasing spell, the noise returning to his ears, although the room was basically quiet, save the hushed whispers of the teens who didn't look like they were going to pass out from exhaustion.

The room smelled like a mix between paint and coffee, and since it was too early for anyone to be sweating, it altogether lacked the haunting scent of teenage body odor. Seto thanked the heavens just as the teacher came in, a young woman of tall stature and thin build.

Seto sighed to himself, and then class begun. She didn't acknowledge him, and Seto was undeniably grateful. Class passed slowly, but it ended soon enough. He exited the room and trotted down the steps, heading to his next class.

The day passed slow as molasses, until in his last period, there was a loud tap on his desk, and his gaze shot up to come face to face with familiar blue eyes and brown hair. Tyler.

"You wanna be my partner on this?" He asked, pointing down at the packet they were handed. It was a webquest, the teacher had called it, adding quickly in "minus the web". Seto nodded, and then Tyler scooted his desk to bump elbows with Seto. He flipped through his notes, grumbling softly, before looking back up at him, leaning in a bit.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" His voice is a hushed whisper, and there's a bit of stressed urgency radiating off of him. Seto nods again. Tyler clears his throat a bit.

"Do you happen to know... Someone named Brice?" Tyler's eyes scanned over Seto's paled face, taking in his horrified look. He continued. "Because he seems to know who you are, and he's scared shitless. He swerved and hit a trashcan early today when he saw you."

Tyler snickers at that last part, shaking his head a little. Seto regains his senses slowly. He stutters out a whisper.

"Yeah, I know him."
~
It's ya boy fucking finally amiright

Shit my dudes, it's been a while, what have you guys been up to?

Tbh I wrote most of this in my PE class because I didn't have wifi yikes 💞💞