Chapter Text
Ghost had seen him a few times at the skatepark, sitting on the bleachers next to the skate park, glancing between the sketchbook sat in his lap and the skaters that gathered throughout the day. They’d made eye contact a few times throughout the day but neither acknowledged it when they passed each other. He wasn’t sure if it was because of his whole “anonymous skater” outfit he darned when he was going to skate, or the fact that there were many sketches of his skull mask in the boy’s sketchbook as he sat next to him in chemistry at school.
Any class they were in together, their seats were always at the same table or at least next to each other in one of the back corners. Everyone else had an established group of friends in each class, so naturally they were both pushed into the last couple of seats left.
Simon tapped the boy on the shoulder, he turned to face Simon. He learned the boy’s name was John from attendance every day.
“Hey, do you have a pencil I can borrow? Forgot my pencil case at home.”
John sifted through his bag, “uh let me see... yeah, here you go.” He handed a pencil to Simon.
“Thanks man, I’ll give it back at the end of class.” He looked down at his paper to start answering questions about... steel wool and mass? He honestly had no clue what was ever happening in this class, hence the D he’s kept through the first semester.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure you’ll need it for the rest of your classes. Plus I have like a million at home anyways.” Johnny started answering the questions on his own paper effortlessly.
Simon shrugged in agreement and struggled through the questions. By the time he was halfway through, he glanced over at John to see his paper already done and he was working on an almost complete sketch of none other than Ghost himself.
John caught him looking at the drawing and titled the sketchbook so Simon could see it better. “Like it? It’s this really cool guy I see at the skatepark all the time. I’ve been obsessed with drawing his mask lately. I’ve gotten pretty good at it if I do say so myself.” He went back to drawing with a smile on his face.
Simon already knew the answer but he might as well strike up a conversation since his interest was piqued. “Do you skate?”
“No, I just go to sketch some dynamic poses. Tried to skate once when I was younger and I couldn’t even stand on the board.” He scoffed at the memory.
“I could teach you” he paused “if you want me to”
John looked up a bit off his paper before looking back down and continuing to sketch, talking with Simon as he did, “That’s alright, Si. I’m happy being on the sidelines.”
‘Si’. He liked that nickname. Not from anyone else, just Johnny.
“Whatever you say, Johnny.” Johnny shook his head at the nickname, smirking down at his paper.
-*--*-
Later that day, he was on his way to the skatepark with his ‘Ghost’ getup when he spotted Johnny already sitting on the bleachers, sketchbook in his lap but not drawing anything.
‘He looks like he’s... looking for someone?... shit, he’s looking for me isn't he.’ Simon thought. He made his way into the park itself, noting a couple people on the bleachers before he was stopped by Johnny staring right at him, standing in front of him with a paper in hand.
“Uh... hello... you? Sorry I don’t know your name but I just um... so I’m an artist.. well, not an artist but I like to draw and I uh...” Johnny’s face grew pink as he tried to get his words in line.
Some asshole a few feet away yelled out from where he sat on the bleachers; “spit it out already! You gonna ask him out yet or what?” Smirking and laughing to his group of friends.
Ghost shot him a look, shutting him up real quick.
He turned back to Johnny to continue listening to him, and his face was bright pink. He chuckled at the sight, but Johnny looked defeated and his arms started to pull the paper toward his chest.
Ghost quickly put his hand on one of Johnny’s arms and gently pulled them away from his chest.
“Careful, you’ll crumple the paper. Wouldn’t want a work of art to be ruined so easily.” He allowed his voice to be a bit softer than when he usually spoke to Johnny, not wanting to give away who he was and trying not to scare him away even more than the asshole already had.
Ghost took the drawing in his hands, taking in every detail of his mask, his gear, his skateboard with the skull painted on the bottom of it, and the incredible pose Johnny had caught him in.
A soft “wow...” escaped his lips as he inspected the paper. He looked up to see Johnny smiling softly at him, face still pink.
“Thanks, I uh... I’m actually pretty proud of this one. Been working on it all day.”
“You should be. You did all of this in just one day? It's incredible.” He had seen the rough layout of the drawing earlier in class but he never thought it would come out to be something quite like this.
“Keep at it, you can be a professional and get money for this stuff. Can I keep this?” Johnny smiled and nodded.
Ghost folded the paper and put it into one of his pockets. He nodded to Johnny and went on to go skate for the day.
-*--*-
Johnny watched as the other man skated around the park, roughly sketching out the poses he found interesting. A girl sitting near him saw the sketches in his book and tapped him on the shoulder.
“You drawin’ Ghost?”
“Hmm? Oh, is that his name? Yeah I find him really interesting to draw.”
“They look great, just be careful around him.”
“What? Why?”
“A random man who hides his entire identity? No one knows anything about that guy. I think that’s the most I’ve heard him talk to someone. Usually it’s just a short nod to say ‘hi’.”
“Well I don’t see what’s so bad about that, maybe he’s just anxious about his looks or something. He might just not have many friends here so he doesn’t speak much.”
“Well I’m not sure if you’d consider them friends but there is this one guy he talks to that comes here sometimes. I see them signing to each other.”
“Really? That’s cool. Is he here now? Maybe I can get to know them both better.”
“Yeah, right over there. The one with the steampunk board.” The girl pointed toward a teenager with a patterned board filled with cogs and antennae on his helmet. He was waiting to drop in with Ghost, and he saw him turn to sign something to him, and Ghost sign back.
-*--*-
‘Who’s the creep?’ Roach signed
‘What creep?’ Ghost replied
‘The one with the notebook’ he pointed in Johnny’s direction
‘Oh, he’s drawing me. He’s pretty good, he’s in my class at school.’
‘Personal artist? Sounds more like a stalker to me.’
Ghost chuckled and dropped in while Roach was distracted. He knew Roach would yell at him later but it was worth it for his face.
He skated right toward the bleachers, stopping in front of Johnny and looking up at him expectantly.
“Ghost! Now that I know your name I can call you over when I drew something new.” He grinned.
Ghost smiled under the mask.
“I was going to head home soon, do you want me to walk you home? It’s going to get dark soon.” Ghost wanted to have an excuse to spend more time with him outside of school.
“Sure, I’ll meet you at the gate in five if you wanna just finish whatever it is skaters do.” Johnny walked away, sketchbook and pencils in hand.
-*--*-
Ghost walked beside Johnny, enjoying the pink sky from the sunset in the distance as they walked.
Johnny broke the silence, “Can I ask you something?”
Ghost looked over and nodded
“Why the whole... skeleton thing?” He motioned to Ghost’s outfit.
“Halloween costume got bonded to my skin permanently, tragic accident.”
Johnny had an unimpressed look on his face. “Haha, very funny. But seriously how could I not be curious? The coolest looking guy at the skatepark and nobody’s wondering who’s under there?”
“I’m sure plenty of people do wonder, they just don’t need to know.” Johnny nodded in response.
There was an awkward few seconds of silence before Johnny broke it. “Well, I like the whole ‘anonymous skater’ getup.”
The two walked silently until they reached Johnny’s house and Ghost watched to make sure he got in safely.
-*--*-
The next day in class, Simon was once again struggling with the work and Johnny noticed.
“Still on yesterday’s work?”
“Yeah, I have no idea what any of this means.” Simon rested his head on his hand, giving up on the questions.
“Were you here for the lab last week?”
“Yeah but I was partnered with the smart people and I just copied their answers while they did all the work.”
Johnny chuckled and pulled his own lab packet from his bag. “Ok well the first question is asking if the mass of the steel wool increased or decreased when it was ignited over the flame. So on this table it says that the mass changed by 2 grams after it was ignited.”
Simon leaned over to get a better look at Johnny’s packet, matching the questions to his data table and asking questions to Johnny as they answered the questions. Johnny never gave him the answer, but instead guided him and gave him hints to push him toward the answer.
When he got to the last few questions, he was on his own and Johnny didn’t help him. He was able to answer the last few questions and Johnny approved his answers. Maybe he will graduate this year.
“Thanks for the help, you’re pretty-” As Simon lifted his head to face Johnny, he noticed how close they’d moved together to be able to work together.
“Thanks, Si. You’re pretty too.”
“I- what? Oh, no! I meant to finish my sentence but I just- what I was gonna say was that you’re pretty good at this. Not that you’re- I mean not that you’re not, I just-” he was cut off again by Johnny laughing at his stumbling.
‘Okay maybe I did mean to say that.’ He thought as he saw Johnny’s smile as he laughed. Simon smiled along with him.
“That was painful to watch. You're worse than me when I’m rambling on.” Johnny said, trying to steady his breath from laughing.
Ring
Class ended sooner than Simon wanted it to, but he would have to go to English eventually.
Johnny got up to pack his bag and so did Simon.
“You’re face is still red, by the way.” Johnny walked out of the classroom with a proud-looking smile on his face.
And just like that, Simon couldn’t stop thinking about Johnny for the rest of the school day.