Chapter Text
The alarm blared in his ears, a reminder that the day he dreaded had begun. With a groan, he rolled over, slamming his tail on the alarm clock to shut it up. Staring at the wall, Impulse contemplated his life. Why did he have to go to school?
Sitting up, he blinked the sleep out of his eyes as reality began to hit. Attempting to distract himself from the growing anxiety in his stomach, he slid out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After splashing hot water onto his face, he could feel his brain beginning to wake up.
Walking back into his room to get changed, his eyes brushed over the alarm clock that read 7:54 am.
7:54?!
Impulse immediately picked up the pace, getting dressed and eating breakfast in a matter of minutes before sprinting out the door for the 8:00 bus. Impulse could see people boarding in the distance as he desperately ran for the bus, making it just as the doors were about to close.
Plopping into a seat, Impulse shut his eyes and leaned back in an attempt to catch his breath. A terrible start to a day he already dreaded. He pulled his headphones on and looked out the window as the bus zoomed along the road.
He blinked, and suddenly, his school was looming in front of him. Did he fall asleep? Anxiety built in his chest, and he wondered if the other people on the bus noticed. The door opened, and Impulse hopped out, facing a giant brick building with the school logo plastered in the centre. He was not excited. His tail curled around his ankle, digging into his skin as he put his head down and walked towards the main doors.
Fighting his way through the hall between sweaty, loud bodies did nothing except overwhelm him, as he tried desperately to find his calculus class. Rainbow-coloured, feathery wings appeared from nowhere, knocking into Impulse as he navigated the crowd. “Sorry!” A voice shouted as Impulse continued to wriggle his way around. His face reddened at the thought of what he must look like: a small, skinny teenage boy with horns and tail, practically running to a class that didn’t start for fifteen minutes.
Impulse turned his head to see who he crashed into, and a boy with sandy hair and glasses stared at him strangely before turning to whisper to his friends, who whipped their heads around. One of them, a gangly, black-haired boy with pale skin, smiled at him while the other, a boy of medium height with brown hair and a scar on his nose, waved.
Impulse turned away, embarrassed that his clumsiness had been noticed. Marching on, his classroom appeared in front of him, a haven from the overstimulation of the school corridor. He swung the door open, elated to discover the empty classroom. He sat down at a desk in the middle of the room, the prime location for going unnoticed. Not so close to the front that he seemed like a nerd, and not so close to the back that he seemed lazy. Impulse felt his heart rate returning to normal, the pit in his stomach dissipating.
He had always felt more at peace when he was alone, especially after a stressful event. Impulse had always hated school; being surrounded by loud people while simultaneously having to cope with his anxiety and do his work felt like too much. But the first days of school were especially awful; the noise and chaos seemed to be amplified tenfold. Not to mention that today was his last first day, which somehow made the noise even louder as his peers cried over their childhood coming to an end. But not Impulse. He was excited to escape this place.
Impulse was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of the door opening - it was his teacher. Impulse sighed internally as he saw his calculus teacher, Mr Masu, notorious for being one of the worst teachers in the school. The man did not teach anything, he would just put equations on the board. And he assigned boatloads of homework. This was not going to be a good year.
Time ticked on, and more students began to trickle into class as the time neared 8:30. The chatter began to overwhelm Impulse, and he escaped into his mind, visualising random colours and shapes to prevent him from having a panic attack. He didn’t even notice the two of the guys from earlier walk into class, shooting Impulse a half smile that he didn’t reciprocate. Or the sneeze Mr. Masu let out that rocked the whole classroom, causing giggles from the other students.
The final thing Impulse didn’t notice was the student who walked in late. He had dark hair and piercing blue eyes, with huge white wings sprouting from his back. He didn’t notice the suit he was wearing, with sleeves torn off to reveal his muscular arms. He also didn’t notice that the angel cast his eyes over the whole room before landing on Impulse and beelining towards the desk next to his.
The only thing that snapped Impulse out of his borderline catatonic state was hearing his name being announced from the front of the class. His heart began to beat a mile a minute as the teacher stared expectantly around the classroom. What did he do? How was he in trouble on the first day?
Mr Masu said his name again, and Impulse realised he was simply calling for attendance. “Here,” Impulse replied meekly, turning beet-red as other students turned around to look at him. How had he already embarrassed himself on the first day? Impulse thought to himself, putting his head down as Mr Masu talked about the course outline.
Halfway through the lesson, Mr Masu had already assigned them a worksheet, despite not having taught anything. Impulse had his head down, focusing on decoding the problems he had in front of him. Luckily, math had always come easily to him, so he was doing quite well.
However, the loud sighs and grumbles coming from beside him indicated that someone else was not faring so well. Impulse turned to his left to see a guy with dark curls staring blankly at the paper, chewing on the end of his pencil as if he were trying to focus. His wings twitched slightly, drawing Impulse’s attention to how neatly preened they were. He was cute. No, he was pretty .
As if on cue, the guy whipped his head up to see Impulse staring straight at him. The guy grinned at him, then gestured wildly towards the worksheet.
Embarrassed that his staring had been noticed, Impulse looked back towards his paper. Through Impulse’s peripheral vision, he could still see the guy looking at him, which only worsened his embarrassment. Impulse put his head back down, trying to concentrate on the calculus problems despite feeling the angel’s stare burning into his mind.
Several minutes later, Impulse had finished the worksheet. Glancing over his answers, he decided to give in and return the worksheet to Mr Masu, despite everyone else still working quietly.
Attempting to get up as silently as possible, Impulse walked over to the front desk and placed the paper down. As he turned around to go back to his seat, Impulse noticed the array of empty desks around the room. His eyes flitted back over to the angel at the desk next to him, frustration visible on his face.
Why is he sitting next to me?
Impulse’s heart began to race yet again. Impulse returned to his seat, trying desperately to focus on anything except the guy next to him. He didn’t need to draw any more attention to himself than he already had this morning.
The bell rang for the end of class, and Impulse immediately popped out of his seat and headed to the door. Stuck behind other students who had made it to the door first, Impulse eagerly awaited his escape.
“Hey Man!” A voice called from behind him, and Impulse whipped his head around to see the angel looking at him while waving.
“Uh…hi?” Impulse replied nervously, fiddling with his earring while avoiding eye contact with the angel.
“I just wanted to introduce myself, the names Skizz!” The angel gave Impulse that goofy grin again, tilting his head slightly.
“Oh…I’m Impulse,” Impulse said cautiously. Despite Skizz somewhat resembling Scooby Doo with the way his head was tilted, Impulse still found himself questioning what Skizz’s motives were for talking to him.
As if he recognised Impulse’s apprehension, Skizz reduced his wide grin to a friendly smile. “I saw you when I walked in and thought all your piercings were super sick. And I didn’t know anyone, so I figured I may as well talk to someone new,” His wings shuddered slightly.“I hope that’s okay with you?”
Impulse was shocked at how friendly Skizz was. In the three years he had been at this high school and the many years of knowing some of the other students from grade school, no one had ever paid this much attention to him. “Oh, that’s nice of you to say, and yeah sure it’s fine,” he responded, hoping his pause wasn’t too noticeable.
“Okay, that’s great! See you around, homie!” Skizz chirped before picking up his bag and walking out of class, leaving Impulse there to contemplate what just happened to him.
Impulse turned around to watch Skizz walk out of class, wings bouncing as though he had a pep in his step. Impulse followed after Skizz vanished from sight, trying to make sure it didn’t look like he was following him. As Skizz strolled straight down the hallway, Impulse took a left, heading to his physics class.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur for Impulse as he went over his short interaction with Skizz over and over again. Impulse nitpicked everything he had done, wishing that he could be less awkward. As Impulse headed to his final class of the day, he questioned where Skizz had come from. Impulse didn’t recall seeing him around in previous years, he would recognise those pristine white wings anywhere.
He swung open the door to his computer class, which he actually wasn’t dreading. Impulse’s passion for computers and the demands of the class, which meant silent work most of the time, were the perfect combination for Impulse. He was one of the last to arrive, so he slid into a seat near the front of the class to avoid attracting attention.
“Hi Impulse!” A voice called from his left, and he turned to see Pearl sitting next to him.
“Hi Pearl!” Impulse smiled back. Pearl was his only sort of friend at this school, even though they only really spoke in class.
“What have you been up to today, mate?” Pearl inquired, Australian accent making an appearance. She had moved from Australia a few years ago, causing a weird mishmash of Australian and American accents.
“Just trying to survive all my classes, what about you?”
“Same same, it’s been pretty boring,” Pearl laughed.
Impulse contemplated mentioning Skizz on the off chance that Pearl knew more about him, but what if Skizz wasn’t new and Impulse just seemed like a jerk? Curiosity was gnawing at him, though, and he decided to go for it.
“I did meet a new student today though, he said his name was Skizz. Know anything?” Impulse sucked all his air in, praying he wasn’t about to be shot down.
“Oh yeah, I met him too! Really nice guy from what I could tell.”
Impulse breathed a sigh of relief before replying. “Yeah, he’s very friendly.”
Their conversation was cut short by the teacher calling for attention, and their heads whipped towards the front of the class. At least now Impulse knew that Skizz was a new kid. An interesting new kid.
The rest of the class passed in a flash as Impulse concentrated on the concepts being taught to him. The bell ringing for the end of the day snapped him out of his daze, hopping out of his seat and waving goodbye to Pearl before leaving class.
Impulse strolled to the bus stop outside his school and sat down as he waited for the bus to arrive. He suddenly got the urge to look up, and saw Skizz driving away in a beat-up Toyota, with a small, brown-haired boy wearing a moss hoodie in the passenger seat. Impulse wracked his brain for the small boy's name, before remembering it was Bdubs. How Skizz had managed to make so many friends on his first day, Impulse couldn’t understand. As the bus pulled in, Impulse put his headphones on, letting the rock music fill his ears as he boarded the bus.
…
Impulse threw his schoolbag on his bedroom floor before leaping onto his bed and staring straight at the ceiling. Feeling a buzz in his pocket, he pulled his phone out to see Zedaph had texted him. Impulse had known Zedaph for years, albeit only through Discord. Regardless, Zedaph was the closest thing Impulse had to a best friend.
Zedaph: Heya Impulse! How was the first day of school?
Impulse: hi zed, it went well
Zedaph: Glad to hear it man!
Zedaph: Anything interesting happen today?
Impulse: actually yeah, this guy sat next to me in my calc class and spoke to me
Zedaph: Oh Void, Impulse, please tell me you replied to him and didn’t close off like you do
Impulse: oh shut it, yes i talked to him
Impulse: he was rlly nice actually… i’ve never met someone so friendly before
Zedaph: Awww someone’s got a crush! What’s his name, loverboy?
Impulse: i hate you so much
Impulse: and his name is skizz
Zedaph: Cute! Can’t wait for you to introduce him as your boyfriend in a few months!
Impulse: you are so close to being blocked
Zedaph: You wouldn’t!
Impulse: yeah i wouldn’t
Impulse: anyway i have soooooooooo much homework to do, ttyl hopefully
Zedaph: ON THE FIRST DAY??!!
Impulse: yes. shoot me.
Zedaph: Ok, talk to you later Impulse!
Impulse: bye bye
Shutting his phone off and lugging himself over to his desk, Impulse opened his calculus workbook and began working on the problems. But all he could focus on were Zed’s comments.
Did it really seem like Impulse had a crush on Skizz? If Zedaph thought that through the screen, what did it seem like in person? Impulse did not like Skizz. Well, that wasn’t true; the guy was lovely. But romantically, there was nothing there. Nothing at all.
Moving back to his calculus questions, Impulse focused on those for several minutes before cringing at how he had acted around Skizz earlier. So awkward and weird. Impulse hoped that wouldn’t affect how Skizz perceived him. Of course, this could all have been avoided if Skizz had just ignored him like everyone else did. It was always easier that way. But that didn’t stop Impulse from acknowledging the warm feeling in his stomach that came from someone genuinely noticing him.