Neon - a Peterick AU

7:15 AM; August 17, 1998

He couldn't be my soulmate.
Could he?
Of course not. Think about it, Patrick.
You don't like him, do you?
No, not like that.
Does he like me like that?
I doubt it.

"Okay everyone! Welcome!" I hear a lady call over the crowd of fourteen-year-olds. "Are you all excited for your first day of high school?"

Some of the kids around me shouted "yaaay"s, but I just grin weakly. I'm too distracted to worry about high school.

Pete went(z) into the front office with a few other older kids, so I don't get to catch up with him. I glance over at the windows of the office and see eight or nine teenagers. There are boys and girls, tall and short, wildly colored and calmly dressed... and then there's Pete.

The lady must've said something else while I was zoned out because all of a sudden everybody is moving. I get shoved around by a couple kids who mumble things like "sorry" or "watch it".
I hesitate, so another kid comes up to me and whispers "Hey, do you know what we're doing?"

"No," I whisper back. He's taller than me and probably even taller than Pete. The first thing I notice when I look at him is his hair- it's brown and combed flawlessly. "Do you?"

He laughs lightly and shakes his head. Luckily we only stand there awkwardly for a couple of seconds before a teacher directs us to a smaller group farther in the back. There are only about five other kids huddled around, so we all introduce ourselves.

"So, uh... my name's Brendon," the kid with the neat hair says after a moment.
"Brendon Urie. But you can call me Bren, if you want."

"Damn son, your forehead is huge!!" one of the other kids says, giggling. "I'm Ryan Ross and I'm probably gay, but I honestly don't give a FUCK about what you think of me."

"That's impressive," Brendon notes.

"Well, my name is Patrick Stump. You can call me... Patrick Stump. Or just Patrick." I shrug. "But DON'T CALL ME PAT!!"

"Okay, Paaaaaaa...." the careless gay kid says. I shoot him a look and he quickly finishes with a "-trick."

Brendon and two other kids try to hide their laughter.

The two other kids both start to talk, but stop when they hear each other. One of them blinks slowly and signals for the other to go first.

"Well, I'm Hayley," she says. She's really short- even more so than I. Her hair is bright orangish-red and tied up in a messy bun. "And I'm always happy, and stuff... you know. And this is my friend Lyndsey," she grins, motioning to the girl who's pretty much hiding behind her, even though she's much taller.

The Lyndsey girl's eyes widen and she smiles strangely. "Call me Lynn," she adds quickly. Then we all stand there quietly, expecting her to add on. Which she never does.

"Okaayyy, well, I'm Mikey. Just Mikey. No extra vowels needed." interrupts the kid who started talking at the same time as Hayley. He's got brown hair which is blond at the top and is wearing a white tank top with black skinny jeans, standing with his legs positioned awkwardly so his knees are together.

"I'm Joe," a kid pipes up from behind Mikey. He glances around the group and makes a point of looking us each in the eye. His hair is brown and poofy like a cartoon character who'd just gotten electrocuted. "Do not make fun of my hair or my friends, because I know I look like a little fluffy poodle human, but I bite like a fucking alligator. So watch out."

I instinctively take a step back as the floofy fro kid opens his jaw wide and shuts it like an activated mousetrap. Then, he snorts at my reaction.

Unfazed, the gay kid (Rowan?) points to some kid in a different, bigger group.
"Hey, Poodle, is that kid your brother?"

"Uh, no. I like his hair though. And what did I just say about making fun of my fro?"

"And what did I say about how much I care what you think about me?"

"I don't think. I act. And by the time I'm done, you won't be thinking anything anymore."

I look away to avoid the argument. Brendon seems to have looked away, too, so I glance over his shoulder and see two more kids being directed to our group. Awkwardly, I walk up behind him and smile to the newbies. There's a small- no, he's not really small, he's taller than I am- boy and a girl with really pretty brown hair.

"Hey, I'm Brendon. I'm assuming you're coming to our group?"

"Yeah, we are, Brendon. Unless you already have too many people," the girl says energetically. Brendon shakes his head, and though I can't see his face, I have a feeling he's grinning.

"Well, my name is Chrissy," she explains to the few of us who came over to listen.

The boy next to her waves his hand weakly and introduces himself. His name is Frank Ey-yee-row (I'm not sure how to spell that, maybe Iyero?) and he's wearing a light green shirt with bleached jeans. It's a pretty bad look, but then again, he's probably still colorblind.

"How do you even spell that?" the boy with the awkward knees asks quietly.

"I-E-R-O. Sorry, I probably should've clarified."

"Who are all of you?" questions the brown-haired short girl. What was her name? Christy? Sorry, I'm bad with names.

"Wait, wait!" Brendon calls before anyone has the chance to speak. "I want to see if I can remember all of your names." He points to Hayley, who is standing on the edge of our group. "Happy Hayley... Lyndsey..."

"Lynn," she corrects him. Hayley snorts.

"Right, sorry. Lynn, Mikey-with-no-extra-vowels, and Patrick Stump-but-not-Pat. And me, of course."

Frank Iyero nods and looks us over again. Christy glances at the two immature fourteen-year-olds and whispers, "Who are those two muffins?"

"Oh, Attack Poodle and Gayboy." Brendon laughs. "AKA Joe and Ryan."

Ryan, that's it. Not Rowan.
Rowan is a pretty nice name, though.

"But you might not want to call him Poodle." Hayley adds. "That's why they're fighting in the first place."

By then, a teacher has come over to corral the 'muffins'. She's saying things like "We can still give out detentions on the first day," and "You don't want to get kicked out before you step into the classroom, do you?" But of course, Ryan doesn't care and Joe doesn't drop it.

While I'm absorbed in the action, another teacher comes over to the rest of us and tells us to go into the office. I miss it at first, but I catch up eventually. Ryan and Joe, well, they don't catch up at all.

(A/N: Well I tried to keep the age proportionate for Pete, but I wanted to add some other band members and they weren't all the same age as Patrick. So, here you go.)