Colors

High School AU

Mark made a swipe at grabbing his books, wincing when his hand fell just short of snatching them from the air as they clattered to the ground. Groaning he stooped down, beginning to pick them up when a pair of hands, a shade lighter than his grabbed his same book. Looking up he saw a pretty girl smiling at him, handing him his fallen material. He grinned in return, taking the book and thanking her politely as she nodded, retrieving the rest of his books and helping him place them inside his worn backpack.

"Thanks" he said, earning a warm 'welcome' from the girl before she turned and began heading to one of her classes. As Marks eyes followed her until a guy a grade above him stepped into view, quickly stepping over to his helper and giving her a quick kiss on the lips, earning a small blush from said girl. They interlocked fingers, ducking into a classroom and Mark gave a sigh, running his hands through his thick black hair as he stood. 'Of course. What was I thinking? Everything is still back and white'. 

Giving his book bag one last heft over his shoulder Mark started making his way to first period: Biology. After a few twists and turns throughout the school he made it inside, sitting at his desk and dumping his bag onto the floor before pulling out his needed material. As usual he was one of the first people in class, giving him a few moments to gather his thoughts together before he and his peers were thrown into their hectic schedule. 

His thoughts this morning had been relating to his soulmate, a person that he didn't often think about between school, his home life, and video games.  Him, like everybody else, is born with black and white vision. But, whenever that one special person comes along, they seemingly peel the veil away from your line of sight, giving the world brightness. Or, at least, that's what his teachers have described it as. He wasn't too sure about it, considering his own parents had married each other with black and white vision. However, his father had recently divorced his mom, finding another woman that he claimed gave him 'color vision'. "Its like the world becomes ten times brighter" Mark remembers his dad explaining to him a morning not too long ago, "with heat and cold and calm and anger. But its not something you can feel. Its something you see." Mark loves his stepmom and all, don't mistaken that, its just the whole ordeal had caused the 18 year old to question the importance of a soulmate, despite the passion his father carried when trying to explain his experience to his son.

'I mean, what's so special about a soulmate anyways? Why are we all tied to one person? Why can't we choose?" Mark shook his head quickly, trying to dismiss the thoughts. It was times like these when his train of thoughts would stray from the tracks, leading him to all sorts of trouble. Just then the bell rang, relieving the half-Korean from his distractions as his professor dove into today's lesson.

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F'TTAAANNNGGG!

The sound of the bell interrupted Mark's teacher mid-sentence, and the entire class groaned in relief, gathering their stuff and rushing out of the door, Mark being one of the first out as usual.

He began to his next class, Band, his gait casual considering it was only a hallway over. On the way there Mark ran into one of his best friends: Wade. The tall boy came dashing over, hair slightly haywire and face flushed with excitement. "MARK!"

"Wade! What's up?" Mark asked, his friends enthusiasm and energy a bit concerning. 

"You'll never believe it! I found my soulmate! And man, is she a beauty! I bumped into her on my way to the bus stop! I haven't had a chance to tell you yet, but I'm here now! How cool is that?" Wade's words brought back Marks thoughts from this morning. And yet he smiled, happy for his friend, if not a little jealous.

"That's great for you Wade!" However, while Mark may be a fantastic actor, Wade saw straight through his friends lies, face falling slightly.

"Mark? Hey, whats wrong?"

Mark quickly shook his head, giving a bigger grin. "Nothing, nothing. Hey, I've gotta get to class. We can talk later and maybe you can introduce her to me, OK?" He said as he made his way to band. Mark winced when he heard a slightly belated 'bye' from behind him, but trudged on none the less, walking into the band room and setting up his music.

His thoughts began to drift once more, causing him to run a hand through his hair in frustration. He was always so focused in school, so what was going on?

"Class! Pay attention!" It was only then that Mark noticed how loud the class had been, even more irritated that he had blocked that out as well. With a new found determination his dark eyes focused themselves on the band director. " Alright, role call! Macy?"

"Here!"

"Jordan?"

"Here..."

"Campbell?"

"Her-"

THWACK!

Every head in the classroom snapped around at the sound of the door flying open, revealing an out of breath student. Mark let out a sharp inhale of air as his gaze landed on the boy standing there. His pale face was slightly flushed, one hand gripping his drumstick tightly. His ears had gauges in them and he wore a too large hoodie, the same shade as his blue eyes. Blue. Mark felt his breath catch in his throat as the color spread from the boys eyes and swarmed his own vision, overtaking everything he could see. 

"Sorry Aye'm late" he panted, his accent thick, maybe Irish? "I kinda lost my way 'ere."

The band director chuckled, oblivious to the major shock Mark was going through. "No worries boy. I'm guessing you're the foreign student...Seàn?"

The boy, Seàn, nodded, giving a sheepish chuckle. "Yep, that's me sir. But my friends call me Jack, if you don't mind." The director nodded, scribbling something down on his sheet before looking back up. 

"Alright then! Well Jack, since we won't have a drum set for you until tomorrow, you can take a seat next to some of the other percussionists in the back." He nodded, flipping his drum stick once in his hands before heading around the back of the class, avoiding eye contact with most of the students. Mark gulped, hands shaking as the director continued on with his role call, buzzed whispers already beginning about the Irish kid. But they all became white noise as the shocked teenagers eyes darted around the room, taking in all of the colors around him. His heart was thumping widely as a small smile came to his lips.  'So this is why soulmates are so special.'

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Jacks knee tapped impatiently, the coffee he had gulped down this morning still buzzing fiercely in his system as he glanced at the clock for the millionth time, reading only five minutes left of class. He smiled softly to himself, finally taking the time to look thoroughly at his new classmates. He had been observing the multiple posters on the walls and daydreaming about what game he would play when he got home. Probably Shadow Of The Colossus. 

His eyes scanned the room, taking in his fellow percussionists first before going over the variety of different students. They were an average bunch: short, tall, thin, wide, light, tan, d-wait, tan? Jacks head whipped back to where he had seen the odd color, feeling his eyes widening as they observed a boy putting away his trumpet, back facing the drummer. From that point color began to spread through Jacks vision, causing him to quickly look all around the room as everything and every shade became varied, ten times brighter.

When, with trembling hands, he finally looked back where his new found sight started, he saw that same boy looking at him. Blue clashed with brown as they stared at each other, neither moving. Until, finally, the boy with the dark hair smiled, standing up and walking over to Jack, who could barely breath, much less stand up to greet him. 

He held out a hand for the startled new kid to shake, eyes warm and friendly. "Hello! My name is Mark. Jack it is, right?" Jack could only nod, giving a large grin as he took Marks hand, tingles spreading through his hand as they made skin to skin contact. "Your eyes are a beautiful blue."