「reputation」➳ garrance

「...ready for it? 」

"in the middle of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do, baby"

➳ ➳ ➳

september 18th, 1973

nothing ever happened in troy, kansas.

with a population of 998 people, it was hard for anything to happen. it was almost autumn and the biggest thing that had happened was mr. wright's cow giving birth to a calf. so when garroth heard the news that a new kid would be starting school, a week after school started, he got excited.

new kids never happened in troy, kansas. garroth had gone to school with all 30 of his classmates since pre-k at mrs. smith's house. he wasn't the only one who was excited. the teachers had reserved a seat for him right in front since the start of school, even though he wouldn't be coming for another week; the principal of troy high school held an assembly on the second day of school about new york city, which was where the new kid was from (garroth had almost laughed at that—a kid from an overpopulated city moving to a place where your neighbor could be a mile away from you); the church announced they would be hosting a sunday picnic on september 16th, because apparently, he had arrived in town the day before, but he never showed up (garroth was too excited to even be mad that he had sat in the blazing sun all day in his church clothes to meet someone that never showed); his own mother gave him an invitation to sunday dinner to give to the new kid this morning.

it was as if the beatles were coming to town. when garroth parked his bike in the rack in front of the school and saw everyone—students and staff—huddled in front of the doors, though, he decided it was much more important than if the beatles were to come. garroth squeezed himself through the crowd until he found his two friends—gene salvi and ein gray.

"this is madness," garroth said, shaking his head.

"like you're not just as excited to meet the new kid as everyone else," gene retorted as he rolled his eyes.

garroth bit his lip and looked away, knowing gene was completely right. the new kid kept him up most of the night, and he didn't even know his name yet. "this is the first person to move here in years, and he happens to be the same age as us. of course i'm excited."

ein touched his shoulder. "wait—i think he's here."

garroth extended his neck to try to see over the crowd. he followed ein's gaze until he saw a guy walking through the parking lot. from what he could see, the boy had sandy brown hair that almost touched his shoulders. he was wearing a blue and white striped turtleneck and some blue jeans that flared at the bottom.

"that must be him. i've never seen him before," ein said.

garroth could only nod. his ocean blue eyes were still locked on the brunette. if he could only get his name—

"hi, um, i'm laurance zvahl. i'm new here," the boy said, anxiously fiddling with the hem of his turtleneck.

"ah, welcome, mr. zvahl. i am mr. augustine, principal of troy high school," the principal said, holding out his hand.

laurance shifted his notebooks into his left hand and shook mr. augustine's hand. "nice to meet you, sir."

"the pleasure is all mine," he smiled. "if you would come with me to my office, i'll give you your schedule and locker information." he turned to the crowd. "also, would garroth ro'meave come with us?"

though it was phrased as a question, garroth knew he had no choice but to make his presence known. he wished he had a mirror, and that confused him, because never did he ever want to make a good first impression. he was one of the most popular kids in the school, so everyone just automatically thought he was perfect. laurance, for whatever reason, was different.