Chapter Text
✦ 𝓨𝓷𝓖𝓯𝓜 ✦
Ordinary
It is just an ordinary day.
“Ack!” he grunts, falling to the floor.
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping. Students are walking through the hallways of the school, minding their business for once in their lives. They pretend not to hear the sounds of struggle and pain. They walk away as if they don’t see one of their fellow classmates be flung toward the row of lockers.
He gasps for air as his knees hit the ground, red and growing bruised. Sweat trickles down the side of his head, blood slowly rolls down from the nostrils of his nose, dripping to the ground.
“Try not to be such a nuisance next time.”
As his lifelong bully walks away, Sapnap Armstrong stands up from the ground. He lifts his hands to his face, wiping away the blood and sweat. Without a word and without paying much attention to his schoolmates, who probably imagined he didn’t exist, he turns around looking for his backpack.
Sapnap, a 16-year-old teenage boy, struggles every day to pass by without getting a fist shoved in his face. Every time he is led to believe that he has done something to deserve it, yet he never seems to find out what it is. It has gotten to a point where he no longer burdens himself with the thought.
He sighs as he reaches for his backpack on the ground, silently thanking whatever higher power who watches from above for his items not being sprawled across the floor. Shoving his arms through the straps, Sapnap takes a deep breath as he turns to walk through the hallway, lifting his hand to his face as blood continues to trickle down.
“Ugh, great–” he groans, pulling the sleeve of his sweater to soak up the blood. “Please… please just stop bleeding.”
His eyes scan his surroundings, finding a few schoolmates whispering into each other’s ears. Although he can’t quite hear what they are saying, he has an idea of what they are trying to keep on the low. It is always the same: constant berating and laughter toward him.
He tries to ignore it, but it continues to grow harder as the days go. Then again, it is just an ordinary day.
Sapnap turns the corner, finding a familiar face waiting for him outside of a classroom. He smiles as he quickly approaches them, fiddling with the sleeves of his sweater in an attempt to hide the stains of blood from his nose. It was then when he began to wonder if he successfully cleaned the traces of the assault.
“Hey, Sam!” he exclaims, putting on the brightest smile he could think of.
The boy in question looks up from his phone, smiling brightly at the sight of Sapnap. The happy expression, however, falls away almost immediately. Sapnap sighs as he looks away, already knowing what was to come.
“What happened? You look…” Sam starts, trailing off as he searches for the right words to say.
Sapnap shrugs his shoulders as he stops fiddling with his sweater, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Sam simply ignores the situation, already knowing what might have happened. Instead, he reaches his hand out to grab a hold of Sapnap’s arm, starting to pull him toward the door beside him.
“You’re not going to ask?” Sapnap questions. “You usually do. Are you sick or something?”
“If that’s the case, I’m sick of this constant fighting between you and Dream,” he says, pulling the door open. “Plus, each time I ask you what happened, you always dodge the question and pretend like everything is okay.”
“Everything is okay–” Sapnap sighs, already regretting prying. He walks into the classroom with Sam, feeling the cool air from the AC wrap around him. He shivers as his arms grow cold, even though he is wearing a sweater. He hates how his clothes never shield him from cold temperatures. “What do you expect me to say? I’m used to it.”
Sam scoffs as he turns to look at Sapnap, dragging him to their desks that were conveniently next to each other. He shakes his head as he takes a seat, waiting for Sapnap to do the same. Once he did, he began to speak again. “That’s the problem, I don’t get why you keep going back to him.”
“Exactly, Sam. You don’t get it,” Sapnap says, leaning against his chair as he crosses his arms against his chest.
Yup, just an ordinary day. Just as all the other days, Sam and Sapnap speak about what happens and never get to a point of understanding. Sam never understood, and probably never will understand why Sapnap keeps going back to his lifelong bully. In Sam’s eyes, Sapnap is merely looking for trouble. In Sapnap’s eyes, he has no other choice but to go back.
The classroom begins to fill with students as the door opens at the sound of the bell. The hallways erupted into noise, students running to their classes to avoid the security guards and crazy janitors from catching them. This high school was keen on ensuring their students are always on time to their classes.
When they aren’t, the security guards often lock their eyes on certain students they see and drag them to the principal's office to make a phone call home. The crazy janitors simply chase the students as a joke, giving them a reason to go to class: to tell the rest of their classmates and their teachers about what happened.
Sapnap is still surprised that no janitors have been fired for genuinely scaring some students. Then again, he’s glad that it hasn’t happened, but he has no doubt that it will happen eventually.
“Good morning,” the teacher happily says, clasping her hands together as she greets incoming students.
One of those many incoming students is his lifelong bully, or as Sam mentioned before, Dream Taken. A 17-year-old teenage boy who grew up in a wealthy family, knowing nothing but privilege and control. It comes as no surprise to Sapnap that he ended up the way he did. Yet, he still finds himself wondering if there is another factor that played into why Dream ended up this way.
Dream walks to his desk, laughing with his twin brother, Punz Taken, and their best friends; George Davidson and Quackity, both 17-years-old. The four of them are found together all of the time, never separated. Unless Dream was having his usual fun with Sapnap, beating him to a pulp almost every day, excluding the weekends.
Frankly, Saturday and Sunday were the only days that Sapnap can rely on for a break, pushing aside what always awaits him at the house he was cursed to live in. He looks away quickly as Dream approaches. Although his best friend’s desk is beside his, they aren’t connected. The desk that is connected to Sapnap’s desk happens to be Dream’s. Which is rather “wonderful” for him, seeing as he has to sit there and deal with the constant berating.
“Dream, I hope you brought your book with you today,” the teacher says, standing up from her chair.
The blonde lets out a heavy breath as he takes a seat, pretending as if Sapnap did not exist. “I did, Mrs. Kennedie.”
“What a surprise,” Sapnap thought, shifting slightly in his chair. He turns to look at Sam, whose eyes were locked on something else. In more accurate terms, they were locked on someone else. Sapnap looks around the class, trying to find who it was.
The sound of Dream clearing his throat makes him flinch. He takes a quick, quiet deep breath as he shifts his attention back to the situation at hand. It always seems to be the same in this class: try to focus on the teacher while trying to keep from “provoking” the boy beside him.
“Psst!”
Sapnap turns, finding Sam waving his hand around. “Yeah?”
“I have a plan,” he says. His face holds a big, giddy smile as he pulls out his phone. Sapnap tilts his head slightly to the side, waiting for his friend to show him his plan. While he waits, he feels piercing emerald eyes burn through the back of his head.
He fights the urge to look over his shoulder, wondering if Dream truly is watching him, or if it is all in his imagination. Then again, the amount of times that this sort of thing has happened before has created the expectation. Yet, he can’t bring himself to check. If he does, he’ll only end up doing the very thing he does not want to do: give Dream a reason to hurt him again.
“Look, I found his account–” Sam says, shoving his phone onto Sapnap’s lap.
“Whose account?” he asks as he picks up the phone, looking down at the screen. His eye immediately catches onto the name of the Instagram account. “Oh.”
“You know how I’ve been talking to his friend, George, for a while now?” Sam says, making Sapnap look up at him. “Well, George has mentioned me to him a few times and I thought it would be a good idea to hang out.”
“They’re brothers, Sam–” Sapnap sighs.
Sam shrugs his shoulders as he reaches for his phone. “Yes, but they’re not the exact same! Just because they’re twins doesn’t mean they behave the same way.”
“You can hang out with him, I’m not going to,” Sapnap remarks, turning away.
“There’s no way you’re going to make me hang out with him alone! Don’t you remember all the things I’ve told you before?” Sam panics, grabbing onto the boy’s shoulder. Sapnap laughs quietly as he turns to look at his friend, listening intently to Sam begging him to tag along.
“Fine, fine! I’ll be there with you,” he says. “Let’s talk more about it later, the final bell is about to ring.”
At that second, the bell rings, announcing to the school that class has begun. Sam nods his head as he puts his phone away. Sapnap leans down to grab his bag, digging through it for his book. Their teacher, Mrs. Kennedie, walks around the room, asking anyone who didn’t have their book out about where it was.
He listens to the sound of Dream tapping his foot on the ground. The sound seems almost soothing, if it had only come from someone besides the blonde. Sapnap places his book on the desk, catching a glimpse of Dream’s hand. From the corner of his eyes, Sapnap watches as the blonde fiddles with his pencil, twisting it around his fingers. Rather ordinary.
“Alright, let’s start reading!” Mrs. Kennedie says, clapping her hands twice as she makes her way back to her desk. She sighs as she grabs her copy of the book. “Let’s go to the page we were on this past Friday. Let’s see… Frankie, you start us off.”
The student begins to read, the class falling quiet. Dream stops the spinning of his pencil, setting it down. Sapnap looks down at his book, staring at the words. He follows along with the student reading, waiting for them to stop and hope he wasn’t called on next.
Suddenly, he feels someone’s knee graze up against his. Sapnap’s eyes switch from the book to beneath the desk, finding Dream’s knee touching his. He carefully looks up, turning to look at the blonde. Dream continues to look at the book, paying no attention to Sapnap’s stares.
His gaze returns back to the book all while he slowly nudges Dream’s knee. He hears the chair beside him creak as Dream shifts in his seat. Then, he hears Dream whisper into his ear. Shivers run through his body, his face flushing red.
“My place, after school. Don’t be late,” Dream had whispered.
Sapnap slowly nodded his head.
“Okay, next to read is Sapnap–” Mrs. Kennedie says.
Yup.
Just an ordinary day.