High school: Auggie x Jack Will

Morning Nerves

Auggie's POV
It's the first day of high school, and I'm nervous out of my mind. Even Via, my near perfect sister, and Miranda, her amazingly outgoing and talented friend had troubles in their first year of high school. I'm trying to avoid imagining what it's going to be like for me, a 5'3 science nerd-weirdo with a facial deformity. Yeah, that's me. It's definitely not the ideal situation, I'll say that.

I get dressed. I'm wearing some faded jeans, a Star Wars shirt, and some slides with obnoxious NASA socks. One of the pretty cool parts about being like me is that I can get away with dressing like an absolute cringe-fest without anyone blinking an eye. People have other things they feel the need to stare at and ridicule me for, I guess.

I slide down the staircase using my old sled. It sounds stupid, but it's a pretty important part of my first day of school morning routine. Jack Will came up with the idea at our last sleepover before being seventh graders. We've followed through with it every first day of school since then, it's become our little tradition. I'm sort of growing out of the idea, but I'll keep doing it for Jack, it's the least I can do.

My relationship with Jack is a bit strange, but he's my best friend, and for that, I love him to death. In a platonic way. He went from talking to me out of pity, to actually wanting to spend time with me, to unintentionally bullying me for a day, and then to becoming my best friend in the entire universe. To be honest, he's a bit problematic and sometimes clingy, but he just wants to protect me, and I'm thankful for that.

So I let him.

I feel bad, besides from my supposed sense of humor and similar video game and movie taste to his, I don't have anything to give in return. He's such a genuinely nice person, and sometimes I wish he never had to become friends with me, he would probably get bullied less, and have to deal with a lot less shitty people. He's such a trooper.

Jack's POV
I wake up, and the nerves immediately rush in. I'm not worrying too much about how many times I'll get called gay today, or how much the kids I've known since kindergarten may have changed for the worse. I mean, yeah, I'm worrying about that too, but more about Auggie. He's just such a good kid, and no one sees it. I can't bear to see that anymore, pretty much all he has is me, and Charlotte and Summer, and we're not exactly the most liked or popular kids either. Well, we're in this together.

The girls are great friends to Auggie, and they fight off bullies along side of us, but I'm just not sure they get what it's like to be bullied, and how Auggie feels when he does. I'm not saying I know how Auggie feels, the bullying I have to deal with is no where near as extreme, but I've been getting called homophobic slurs since the first grade when I told Jacob Degan he had "literally magnificent eyes." I didn't really know what "literally" meant, I was just an English nerd and wanted to impress him with my vocabulary or whatever. I guess that's why I've always sucked at science, I'm smarter in literacy.

Anyway, people claimed I had a crush on that kid Jacob. I'm not sure that's what it was, I was so young at that time. That's why I became "friends" with Julian and that crowd. At the time, they stood up for me. I don't remember when it was exactly that they became homophobic, difference-intolerant assholes, but it happened, and I didn't know how to leave without getting bullied again. It kind of rubbed off on me too after a while. I hate that I used to be like that.

I got shit for the gay thing until third grade, when Jacob moved to Wyoming, or Wisconsin. Same thing. I avoided him after the bullying started, I wasn't sure if I liked him, and I figured being around him to find out would do more harm than good.

The bullying stopped for a while, until Auggie came to the middle school. By sixth grade, we became best friends, and people were calling me gay again for protecting him. It doesn't really bother me anymore, I'm more focused on what they do to hurt August, but the thing is, they're kind of right, and I'm not sure I want my friends to know the rumors about me are true just yet. I don't want Auggie knowing, at least. He'll freak out, he's made it pretty clear that he's not into boys.

I ride my sled down the stairs and race my little brother to the kitchen for breakfast. Auggie's still on my mind.

Auggie's POV

I'm about to hit up the group chat with Jack, Charlotte, and Summer, but Via and Miranda facetime me from their dorm at UCLA. "Major Tom! Good luck my friend! High school is hard for everyone, keep that in mind. Let people stare, be the better person, unless they're being obnoxious, then you have my permission to punch those idiots to the ground," Miranda says, slightly too excitedly. Via continues, "Yeah, Auggie. I know you'll do great, you're the coolest kid we know. Say hi to Jack for us!" Mom screams for me to get to the bus stop. "Thanks you guys. Will do! Bye."

I hug Mom goodbye, and let her take a few pictures of me after, my most hated tradition of hers. She ends up taking so many that the bus has already left when she drives me to the stop sign just around the corner, where it usually pulls up. I realize quickly that this was her intention, she wanted to drive me in today. I let her without putting up a fight. She still babies me, and it kills me inside, I want to be treated my age, but to be honest, that's what I'm used to, and I'm not sure I'd be able to function without at least some special treatment. "Wow, you're pathetic. You're not cut out for a new school with older, meaner kids," I think to myself in response to the previous chain of thoughts.

"Good luck, bud," she says, dabbing her face all over with a tissue as she shakily turns the first corner. She can't seem to say anything else, and I get it. She's even more scared for me than I am, and I'm pretty dang scared myself. I just smirk and nod, knowing that me talking about what's going to go down in less than in hour is going to be just about as worse as it gets. I'd definitely start crying if I actually decided to respond to her in a verbal manner, others crying triggers me to as well.

I try and distract myself with the last thing I was thinking about, so Via and Miranda's facetime call. I used to have a huge crush on Miranda. I mean, she did get me my space helmet, the one thing that got me through middle school before I had friends.

Out of nowhere, I get a text from Jack. Not in the group chat, a private one.

"Hey, Auggie. Your going to be okay, alrighty dude? I've got your back and we're in this together man. Let's go show those dumbasses that we're here and we're here to stay. We're cooler than those idiots. We've got this. No worries."

I laugh and grin, and immediately write him back, an old fashion smiley emoticon. It's an inside joke, we figure we're already pretty geeky, so why not just intentionally make it worse.

This kid is too good, the guilt comes again. The poor kid having to put up with me, be trapped guarding me. I feel so bad. I didn't necessarily ask him to do any of this for me, that's all on him, but I feel bad for him getting involved in the shitiness I have to call my life. It sucks for me, and considering how much he cares about me, or at least makes it seem he cares about me, I'm sure it sucks pretty damn bad for him too.

Mom pulls up right before the bus circle, and I take off, the emotions already kicking in. I'm terrified. I try to remind myself that other kids will have it hard in high school too. Jack has stupid nonsense rumors spread about him all of the time. God, another reason him hanging out with me is social suicide. I open the door, look down at the poorly tiled floor, and walk to the auditorium for some stupid freshman orientation thing. As expected, I'm admittedly terrified.