laverly high (septiplier fluff)

[13] Backstory + Edgar

MARK'S PERSPECTIVE

The next day wasn't exactly the easiest to get through. Mark hadn't been able to get any sleep that night, not even in the space of time before he'd made an outburst to Jack. He'd been too busy thinking about his stupid merit badge and where to find it. He'd even been thinking about Jack's badge for a little while, too, as a way to repay the kindness he'd offered him since being here. This lack of sleep had been the cause of the outburst, and it was even the cause of accidentally blabbering to Jack about David, also known as Mr. Charette.

David Charette was his uncle from his dad's side but he didn't carry the Fischbach name.  Or, at least, he didn't carry it in his job here. The whole class would've made the connection between Mark and David in an instant if he'd carried the name. Up until seventh grade, David had been like any fun and regular uncle. They met up at least once a month for a family visit, where he would play with him and his dad and listen to their childhood stories happily. 

Mark had gotten most of his inspiration to pursue both mechanical engineering and rock-climbing from his dad and uncle. His dad knew a quite a bit about mechanical engineering while his uncle had been a somewhat expert mountain hiker. Whenever the family car broke down his dad used to always show him the different gears and functions underneath the bonnet, and whenever it was a nice day his uncle David used to offer to bring him hiking up the nearby mountain range (they were more like hills than mountains but Mark liked to think of them as mountains).

But then one day they stopped meeting up. His mum and dad refused to talk about him and for many years he heard nothing about David. For a while Mark assumed that his uncle had flown over to the eastern side to pursue his dream of scaling Mount. Everest, which was much, much larger than the hills back at home, but he was never sure about it.

That was until recently, when his dad had started bringing up the possibility of enrolling him in this new school designed for people with specialised talents. He kept nagging both him and his mum about it until Mark gave in and agreed to sign up. Strangely enough, his dad had insisted that Mark write about his rock-climbing talents on his form rather than anything else. Mark hadn't objected and wrote it down. He was curious to see why his dad had been so fascinated about this place.. and he soon found out why.

In short, Mark was stuck in a nightmare. He didn't know who had betrayed him, either his dad or his uncle.  One theory he had was that David had pressured (or even blackmailed) his dad into sending Mark to Laverly High.. Another theory was that his dad had been on David's side all along and had sent him here willingly. The biggest betrayal of all had to be from his uncle, though. He had been such an angel to him in his childhood, but now he'd turned into a monster. From teaching Mark the best ways to hike up hills in his childhood to mercilessly keeping a group of innocent children trapped in a school. He didn't know what he had gotten up to during his absence, but whatever it'd been, it hadn't been good. 

All of this was too much for poor Mark.

Mark rolled over in his bed and looked at the bedside clock. It showed 6:43 AM. He was sick of tossing and turning in his bed so he decided to get up to have a quick shower. When he glanced over to Jack on the couch, he noticed that the Irish boy was still fast asleep, but it was clear that he'd been having a bit of trouble sleeping as well. Mark felt his heart do the thing again, where it skipped a beat for a moment but then returned back to normal soon after. His heart had done the thing multiple times since he'd met Jack. It wasn't anything new to him.

Being careful not to wake Jack, Mark stepped into the shower, turned it on and began to ponder about the usual things - His merit badge, Jack's merit badge, Jack himself, Mr. Charette, Lilly finding her badge, the mechanics room.. It was a lot to take in and it was starting to overwhelm him, so instead, he began to softly sing 'Secrets' by Onerepublic to take his mind of off things for a bit. An ironic choice of song it was, seeing that he'd just blabbed one of his secrets to Jack last night. Thankfully, his other secret was still hidden from Jack.. But he was beginning to consider telling him it if the perfect opportunity came past.