New Kids (Prinxiety/Logicality)

Chapter Two

Virgil intrigued Roman. He'd never seen anyone who looked as edgy or cool as he did, and although he looked all tough, Roman could tell from their short conversation that he was the kind of guy who cared about small details.

He was going to sit next to him on the bus, but Deceit beat him to it. Virgil tensed, but Deceit didn't seem to notice. Roman did.

He watched as Deceit tried to start up a conversation multiple times, but Virgil just nodded, or shook his head, or mumbled something quietly, all while staring out the window and not engaging. Huh.

He tried to catch him again as they got off the bus, and this time he was successful.

"Hey, Virgil!" he called happily. "I wanted to ask, what classes do you have? I don't really know anybody else, so I guess I'd be a bit more comfortable with a friend."

Virgil looked slightly shocked, but quickly composed himself and they compared schedules. They had homeroom, lunch, geometry, and art. "You draw too, Roman?" he asked.

"Well, I sort of want to. I'm not really all that great, but I've always enjoyed it. Kind of a hobby," he explained as they walked to their homeroom. They suddenly realized they didn't know where anything was.

"Do you have any idea how to get anywhere?" Virgil asked.

"No," Roman replied, somewhat nervous. Deceit spoke up from behind them.

"Where d'you need to get to, Virge?" he asked, completely ignoring Roman.

"Oh, well... neither of us know how to get to our homeroom," he said, glad that Deceit was helping him out.

"Oh, you two have the same homeroom?"

"Yep! We need to get to... Callaghan," Roman said, checking his schedule again to be sure.

"Callaghan, huh... alright, follow me," he winked at Virgil, who was starting to get nervous. He took a couple deep breaths as he followed Deceit with Roman down the hallway to avoid having a panic attack right there. Thankfully, it worked to calm him down.

A couple of winding turns later, they arrived at the classroom. Deceit said goodbye and disappeared into the sea of students immediately. Roman and Virgil glanced at one another nervously and went inside together.

Virgil kept his face low, while Roman held his head high. A couple of slutty-looking girls' jaws dropped and within five minutes they were practically drooling and staring as though they had tunnel vision.

One of them finally got the courage to say hi and give him her number, and he smiled and said simply, "I don't like girls like that. Sorry to disappoint." Her face fell and she practically sprinted back to her thotty friends to break the news. Virgil was shocked to hear this, mainly because he was also gay but had never told anyone before.

"Something wrong, Virgil?" Roman noticed his expression and immediately got scared. Was he homophobic? Did he think there was something wrong with him?

"No, it's just... I've always been super scared to come out, and you don't really care what other people think and I guess that just surprised me," he rambled, and Roman let out a sigh of relief.

"You are too, then?" he asked more quietly in case he didn't want anyone to know.

"Yeah," Virgil answered, blushing slightly. He was actually kinda cute when he was nervous. Wait, what? He didn't say cute. Not that he was bad-looking. He was actually pretty handsome. Okay, he needed to stop.

"That's good. I didn't want to be the only gay person here," Roman laughed, and Virgil couldn't help but notice how gorgeous he was when he smiled.

"Me neither. I wasn't really planning on telling anybody, but I'm glad I did," Virgil said. "It helps to know I'm not totally alone here. At my old school I didn't really have any friends or anybody I could really relate to and it kinda sucked."

"I'm glad I met you, then. Wouldn't want you to be lonely two schools in a row," he smiled and the room seemed to light up.

They chatted for a little while before the bell rang to officially start homeroom, and everyone sat down. Roman and Virgil sat next to each other, both too nervous and unwilling to talk to anyone else. The teacher walked in and told the classroom full of sophomores to quiet down.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Mr. Callaghan. I'd like each of you to come up and introduce yourself to the class by saying your name and an interesting fact about yourself," he said. The mere suggestion of the activity was met by groans from everyone. Mr. Callaghan didn't care.

The girl who'd given Roman her number decided to go first. "I'm Vicky Gall and..." she stared directly at Roman, "these are real," she winked and he blushed. He understood the Mean Girls reference. He stood up to go next, just because he could. The rest of the class was watching intently.

"Roman Santuci." He looked at Vicky. "I'm extremely gay." Everyone laughed, and Vicky glared at him as he went to sit down.

"That was brilliant," Virgil muttered, smiling. Roman grinned.

"Thanks. What's your interesting fact?" Roman asked, curious.

"I'm just gonna say I'm an artist," he decided after a second. They looked up as Vicky's friend, Emilee Brown, sat down. They had no clue what she'd said, but she was glaring in the direction of the two boys and people were snickering.

Vicky's friends continued to pelt the boys with insults as their "interesting facts" and Mr. Callaghan wasn't really paying attention at all. If he'd heard a thing, he certainly didn't care. Or worse, he agreed with them.

Virgil finally went and simply said he enjoyed drawing and sat back down, attempting to ignore the girls who burst out laughing at his shy nature. Roman smiled sympathetically. Mr. Callaghan finally looked up and asked boredly, "Is there anyone who hasn't gone?" Everyone shook their heads, and Mr. Callaghan waved his hand and said, "Alright, y'all can talk. Don't murder each other."

Vicky grinned evilly and stared at the two boys who were trying their hardest to go unnoticed by this point.

"She's freaking me out," Virgil muttered. "I should probably tell you... I have really bad anxiety. Not exactly something I can control." He sighed. "It is very difficult trying not to panic."

"I'll just have to distract you, then," Roman grinned at him, and Virgil smiled sympathetically. "You said you draw, right? Well..." he reached into his backpack and pulled out a piece of looseleaf paper and a pencil. "Draw something, then. It usually helps me calm down if I'm stressed." Virgil gave him a thankful look before he thought for a second and started sketching something.

The bell ran for the end of homeroom just as he finished the picture. Roman had been watching and noticed that the sketch looked suspiciously like him.

"Before you go..." Virgil said, holding up his free hand to tell Roman not to leave yet. He quickly scribbled his number onto the drawing and gave it to him. "Here you are. That's my number. I just... really need friends," he admitted and hurried out the door so that Roman couldn't see him blush.