popularity || sanders sides [DISCONTINUED]

13 | Roman

Chapter Thirteen: Romie and Ronnie (And Patton And Logan)
  Roman Castillo

I first met Veronica in third grade. She had asked me if I could borrow my red crayon so she could finish her Clifford drawing and, of course, I let her use it. I ended up letting her have it. I had plenty of red crayons. It was my favorite color.

The next day, she had told me that she enjoyed using my crayon, and told me how good of a crayon it was. I agreed. We talked all the way through the class, and then through lunch, and then through recess. We agreed that we would have to arrange a play date of some sort sometime. That made me happy.

Even as children, people were jerks. This became incredibly evident to me after being friends with Veronica for around five years.

We had become really close over that year, and I had become more-or-less like her brother. Our parents were aware of this, and they all found it 'adorable,' in their words. Part of becoming close with Ronnie was that I would get angry when people would hurt her.

She wasn't a weak person; she could handle herself. But, just like with everyone else, there were weak points, points where she would get knocked down and couldn't help herself up. One day in eighth grade was one of those low points.

"What's up, Nerd?" One of the bigger kids in the grade said while approaching the two of us at lunch. The comment was aimed at Veronica. "Do you blindfold yourself before you get dressed in the morning?"

Look, we were in eighth grade, what did you expect?

Veronica didn't respond to the boy; she just continued her conversation with me. But this boy, Dawson Dolion (what a name), was persistent, "I can't stress this enough—you look like a raging dumpster fire."

"Go away, Dawson." Veronica said quickly. I could see that she was starting to get annoyed, not upset.

"Roman," he aimed his next comment at me. "You can make better friends. You can do better. She isn't worth your time. She's a snake, Roman. Come with me. We don't need her."

I refused to respond to Dawson, fearing that if I did it would show that I would give in. Veronica was my friend—my first real friend—and with her being such, it was my job to stand by her.

"Not to mention how unprofessional she is. Darn, you should see her room, because I have and it is awful. She wasn't a good girlf—"

"SHUT UP!" Veronica shouted, almost making my ears ring. Everyone who had heard her turned to stare at us, and Dawson smirked, "Wow, Veronica. Attention whore much?"

That was the last straw for me. I stood up from where I sat next to my friend and faced Dawson, and before either of us could speak, I punched him in the face. I didn't have to even look at her to see how surprised Veronica was.

I was called up to the office just after that.

While I was waiting to see the principal, which, at the time was around when the period just after lunch ended, two kids sat down next to me. One of them wore a bright blue shirt with a cardigan wrapped around his shoulders and khakis. He also had round gold glasses on his face along with some faint freckles—if he wasn't so childish looking, I would've thought he was a parent.

The other one wore a plain black shirt with a blue tie and jeans. He had thick-rimmed, black, square glasses on his face and seemed to fit the teacher stereotype very well. Not wanting to really talk to anyone at the moment, I wrapped my red, white, and gold stripped jacket tighter around myself.

Clearly, the dad one didn't get the hint because he looked at me with a wide grin and said, "Hello!"

"...Hi?" I replied, not really sure of myself at all for some reason. Come on, Roman, it was just a word.

"What're you here for?" Was the next thing to come out of his mouth. I sighed before responding, "I punched a kid in the face at lunch. You?"

He smiled to himself and responded, "Oh! So you're the guy! We both saw you at lunch, didn't we, Logan?" The other one nodded, and the dad-looking one went on, "Anyways, I'm here because someone intentionally poured glue on my hands in art, and I didn't think to tell the teacher until it was all dry. I have to get the nurse to help me get it all off..."

"Oh." I looked at the other one—Logan—as if asking him what he did. Logan stated simply, "I yelled at the teacher because she didn't do anything about the kid who poured glue all over Patton's hands without thinking about how poor of a decision that would've been."

Patton and Logan. They seem fun.

"Why did you punch that kid—Dawson, I believe his name was—anyways?" Logan asked.

I replied quietly, yet loud enough to hear, "He was messing with my friend Veronica. She didn't deserve all the things he was saying about her and it was clear that it was bothering her."

"Oh. Reasonable."

Soon enough—after me coming back from my two-day suspension—Patton, Logan, and I became close, and they joined Veronica and I at lunch. It was neat how our group had doubled in a matter of days. Afterwards, Patton and I became some of the most popular kids in school, and we took Logan and Veronica with us for our popularity.

Then I met Virgil—you know how that went down. We became somewhat close, I hurt his feelings, I tried my best to make it up to him, and now here I stood at his front door, about to knock to see if we could hang out. Patton and Logan were busy with whatever and Veronica was just not in the mood, so here I was.

I knocked on the door and waited for it to open. And when it did, I was not met with the chocolate gaze of the emo nightmare, but instead the blue stare of some lady who I assumed to be his mother—or one of them, at least.

"Who are you?" She asked.

Seeming to snap back into some sort of reality from the daydream I didn't know I was in, I replied, "Oh, I'm one of Virgil's friends. I just wanted to come by and ask if we could hang out or something."

"Are you that rando that showed up at our house last night, dropped Virgil off, and yelled at him with a megaphone for at least a minute?" She asked next. I nodded.

"Well even if you didn't come across as annoying before I even formally met you, you can't come in. He's grounded for a week." That response astounded me. What could Virgil possibly have done to get himself grounded? He's usually quiet and usually keeps to himself.

I found myself asking, "What did he do?"

"He yelled at his sister and had the guts to argue with me. The whole story isn't any of your business. Now you better leave or else I will call someone, whether that be the authorities or your mother. I'm sure both would give you a similar punishment."

I nodded and walked away from the door, thinking to myself that at least we still had school tomorrow. I could see him then. But then again, why did I want to see him so much? That I didn't know, but rather hoped to find out.

—————

Okay, so in a quick post on my wall, I said that there would be something special for this chapter. Perhaps saying I had 'something special planned' wasn't the best way to phrase it, but I suppose it worked. Now, here's my announcement for the chapter:

There will be a sequel to this book. I know, exciting! But, seeing as I'm only 1/4 — 1/3 done with this book, I can't release the plot of the sequel due to it revealing the ending of this. Don't worry, I have a plan to end this part of the High School AU's journey. I can tell you one thing: the sequel will be called 'Superiority'

That is all for my announcement. Bye, binches!

ps. i actually have one more thing to add: there's a new addition to my upload schedule. now on wednesdays, there is a CHANCE i may add another update to the one-shots book. that is all.