Where It All Began - Tyrus

Chapter 8

It was a perfectly normal day at Jefferson. The sounds of slamming lockers, people stepping up and down stairs, and the squeaking sounds of whiteboard markers was slowly coming to an end.

TJ was in his last class for the day, which was Math. For the past few weeks, his grades have been pretty decent. With the bit of courage that he had (with the help of Cyrus), he was able to tell him that he had dyscalculia. He understood, which was a relief.

TJ was slowly waiting for the bell to ring, but still paying attention to what Mr. Smith was saying. He didn't understand any of it, except for these words.

"Math tests are being handed back to all of you." Mr. Smith announced, with a surprised gasp coming out of every student, excluding TJ. Internally, he was screaming.

The bell finally rang, signalling the end of class - and the school day itself. TJ watched as the students ran towards Mr. Smith, crowding around him in a circle as if he was going to be sacrificed to the gods.

TJ went up last. His palms were sweating as he walked up to Mr. Smith, who was beaming at him.

"I flunked," TJ thought, as he put his hand out for the paper that was worth part of his grade.

"Amazing job, Mr. Kippen." Mr. Smith said to him, smiling.

As TJ started walking out the door, nervousness started to build up in him again. He started to sweat. Usually, he failed almost every test given to him, and the highest grade he's gotten so far in the year was a C, which he was proud of, showing around to everyone in the class.

TJ turned over the paper, and his jaw dropped in astonishment.

A big fat A+, circled and everything, was on the top of his test.

The athlete bounced around the hallway as he got closer to the doors of the school. People around him made faces as if he was making a fool out of himself, but he didn't care at all.

"I got an A+, I got an A+, I got an A+," TJ thought to himself. All those days tutoring with Buffy and Cyrus (mainly Cyrus) paid off well. He improved so much, especially since when they started dating.

Cyrus was sitting on a bench with Andi and Buffy on both sides of him. His back was turned towards TJ, who was still smiling so hard, his jaw could've broke.

TJ put his test carefully in his pocket as he started to sneak up behind Cyrus. Once he got behind him, (he surprisingly has not noticed him), he slowly took the test out of his pocket, unfolded it, and put it in front of Cyrus' face.

Cyrus read the name "TJ Kippen" on the test, then turned his head to see the grade. He gasped in excitement, and turned around seeing TJ, still smiling.

"So you've been doing a lot better, haven't you?" Buffy asked, smiling at TJ.

"Better than how your basketball team is doing, Slayer." TJ replied sarcastically. Buffy turned red in embarrassment at his response.

"One point for TJ." Andi said, putting her hands up knowing that Buffy's response would be playfully hitting her.

"Let's celebrate at The Spoon?" Cyrus asked.

"Let's go!" I answered.

Andi, Buffy, Cyrus, and TJ later left that bench, and got on the sidewalk to walk to The Spoon. TJ slowly slid his arm around Cyrus' shoulder as Cyrus laid his head on TJ's shoulder.

Andi and Buffy looked at the two lovebirds and immediately rolled their eyes as they continued to walk towards The Spoon. The diner's familiar sign pointing to the building itself was glowing in the distance.

As they got to the doors of The Spoon, they were greeted to the recognizable smell of baby taters, burgers, milkshakes, all the food that they'd dream of in their spare time. Andi and Buffy walked to a booth, and sat on one side. Cyrus and TJ sat on the other side.

"Anything new?" Andi asked, waiting for a response.

"Nah, I mean we're all hungry, that should be new." Cyrus replied, rubbing his stomach showing that he needed food to function.

"Your usuals?" Amber asked as she started to jot down on her notepad.

"You know it." Andi answered as she started to turn red.

As Amber walked away to get their orders, Andi sighed in relief.

"Right, you have a crush on Amber." TJ suddenly said.

"N-no?" Andi tried to deny, but it wasn't working.

Five minutes later, Amber started to walk back towards the hungry booth full of people, with their orders.

"Two baskets of baby taters, 3 chocolate milkshakes, one vanilla." Amber said, as she put the food down on the table, before walking away.

TJ still had his arm around Cyrus, which wasn't moving at all. Buffy and Cyrus were casually dipping baby taters in their milkshakes, as Andi and TJ were looking at both of them in confusion, and disgust.

"Try it." Cyrus said.

TJ and Buffy reluctantly picked up a baby tater from both baskets, and dipped it into their milkshakes. TJ had a vanilla milkshake, and Cyrus slid his milkshake towards TJ for him to dip his tot into.

Their faces lit up as they took a bite into the milkshake-covered baby tater.

"Ok, fine, this is good." Andi admitted.

"Yeah, yeah," TJ added, "it's weird, but good."

Cyrus continued into his usual tater theatre, which today was another love story between two baby taters. TJ, Buffy, and Andi watched as Cyrus was going through with his little play, which was at a hospital scene. Cyrus made a tiny bed with paper from the baby tater basket, which TJ thought was pretty clever.

As Cyrus was finishing up the play, TJ suddenly gave Cyrus a kiss on the cheek. A blush appeared across his cheeks, as he hasn't showed any signs of affection until now.

Cyrus finished his little play, and the others applauded him for his work. TJ gave Cyrus a side hug which lasted at least 5 minutes, as Andi and Buffy looked at each other, and back at them.

TJ's phone suddenly rang. As he got his phone out, he saw that it was from his dad. He slid out of the booth to answer it.

"Hey!" TJ said into the phone, as he was getting a response from somebody who did not sound like his dad.

"What?"