My Nonsensical Desire (Billdip AU)

4|| Four

Invariably, the halls are filled with kids, all of them going to their last class of the day. Bill walks fast, eager to get to auditions. He's rushing, his hair bobbing madly, as he accidentally bumps shoulders with someone. He's about to apologize but the person is already gone, lost in the heaping crowd of students. Bill shrugs it off and begins to continue his walk to the auditorium, when he notices something on the floor.

It's a blue and white cap, with a little pine tree on the front. Bill leans over and picks it up. It looks so familiar. Maybe he knows the owner. Bill puts it in his bag, planning to find the person it belongs to later.

He enters the auditorium as one of the first kids. Everyone else is probably caught up in the hall, talking to their friends, most likely. Bill sits in the second row from the stage. Anticipation blows up inside of him like a balloon. It erupts, reaching every inch of his body. His hands become clammy and his heart rapidly beats against his chest. He wants auditions to start so he can get them over with. The sooner the better.

"Hey," Vivian greets Bill, sitting down beside him.

"Hi," Bill feels his face heating up. He becomes slightly calmer at her presence. Gripping the arms of his chair, Bill looks at Vivian. He doesn't know why she's paying so much attention to him but he doesn't want her to stop. His craving for a friendship has grown too strong. He needs to show that he can be easy to talk to, he needs to be interesting enough to keep her around. He'll make conversation. Talk about something simple, generic. A topic they can both contribute to. "Um, where's Gideon?" Gideon is Vivian's best friend. He's always with Her during theater. They enter the class together and leave together. So this is a topic Vivian should be able to discuss gladly.

"I'm right here you boob," an annoyed voice grumbles from the other side of Bill.

Turning around in a way that most definitely showcases his irritation, Bill finds Gideon sitting beside him with his arms crossed firmly over his chest. Of course he'd be right next to me, Bill reasons caustically. Silence falls over the three, and the auditorium fills up with students. Finally, when the room seems to contain the whole class, Mr. Ramirez walks out of the back stage area to greet the kids.

"Are you guys ready for auditions?" He excitedly asks.

"Yeah!" The students respond cheerfully.

Bill fidgets with his bow tie, a habit he used to have. It's been a while since he's worn one. He doesn't know how to feel about it. It's a bit nostalgic, because the period he would wear them was the time in his life when he still had friends.

When he still had his pookie.

Mr. Ramirez likes to talk. He likes to rant. That's what he's doing right now and he's taking up the limited time for auditions. Why does he always do this? So much could be accomplished but instead he rants about how the auditions will go and how he wants to wish the students luck, and a random irrelevant story from his childhood that is supposed to ease the nerves of some students.

Bill sometimes wonders if Mr. Ramirez is even interested in his class. Another thing he rants about often is how much he loves this school, but behind his seemingly content brown eyes there's something yearning for a change. Behind his loud, demanding, attention drawling voice, there's something that's tired of routine.

"..and so I said to the mail man, if you don't want my dog to chase you, don't have the job in which you trespass on his territory. He's just defending his yard. Ha, might of gotten a bit off topic there but the idea behind that little story was that you should know it's okay to have confidence in anything no matter the situation, and I want to see confidence in these auditions. First up I want the people auditioning for Alice on the stage."

Vivian rises from her chair in an eager manner, and walks to the stage. Bill smiles to himself slightly. He knows she'll get the part.

Auditions race by and Bill walks as calm as he can to the stage, because Mr. Ramirez just called for all those who are auditioning for the Cheshire Cat. A line of students forms on the stage, including Gideon and, and at the very end, Bill.

Each of the kids read a small passage from the play. Gideon is fluid in his speech, and cunning with his smile. Bill begins to worry that he doesn't stand a chance.

Bill thinks maybe he shouldn't audition.

He thinks he should walk off the stage and forget this whole thing, but he can't.

He can't, because it's his turn and everyone's eyes are on him. He takes a big breath.

"What sort of people live around here?" Mr. Ramirez's voice fills the auditorium.

Bill's eyes hold a nonchalant expression, his smirk knowing and out of character for him,"In that direction." Bill points his hand lazily in front of himself,"Lives a Hatter: and it that direction." He throws his arm over his head. Keeping the rest of his body still and his gaze ahead, he points his hand behind his back. "Lives a March Hare. Visit Either you like: they're both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Mr. Ramirez reads the lines off the play script.

"Oh you can't help that," Bill smiles,"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" His teacher recites.

"You must be," Bill responds in a confident, yet indifferent tone,"or you wouldn't have come here."

Mr. Ramirez places the script down and grins at Bill,"Thank you, that will be enough." Bill nods, dropping his act and walking off the stage. He sits down in his seat, between Vivian and Gideon.

"Good job," Vivian praises in a hushed voice.

"Thank you," Bill whispers back sheepishly.

Vivian turns to face Bill completely, and the two make eye contact,"Hey," she speaks, still quietly,"After school, I'm going out to eat with some of my friends and I was wondering if you would like to come along?"

"Really?" Bill can't believe his ears.

"Yeah, I get it if you don't want to considering you don't really know them, or me for that matter, but I wanted to invite you."

"I'd love to!" Bill answers giddily, forgetting he's supposed to whisper.

A few people look at him but he doesn't care.

Vivian laughs,"Awesome, so do you wanna ride there with me and Gideon in my car?"

"Of course, that sounds great." Bill's face heats up. If this works out then he will finally have friends, and this time he won't let them go.

A/N
Disclaimer: NONE OF THE QUOTES FROM ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND ARE MINE. THEY BELONG THE THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNER, LEWIS CARROLL.
In other news, Bill and Dipper are going to meet next chapter so yay! Starting next chapter, the story really takes off. These first few have just been introduction to Bill's world. Sorry if they weren't very interesting because they lacked Dipper, but they were necessary. Point is, BILLDIP IS IS STARTING SOON SO GET EXCITED!! Also get prepared, because this is going to get dra-MA-tic.