Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Florence stifled a groan as he shifted in the chair they were sitting in outside of the principal’s office, they were sent in there again for screeching someone in the hallway. He tried explaining to the teacher that confronted them that it was an accident, at least this time it was, but they wouldn't listen to them and sent him anyway. And to make matters worse their annoying twin and younger sibling got sent to the principal’s office too so he was stuck sitting in between them. 

Florence sighed.

Their mom was going to give them hell when they got home. 

Flo was pulled out of their thoughts by the sound of their younger sibling, Tori, humming, he instantly recognized the tune and let out an aggravated groan. They hated that song because they heard it all the time, and it didn't help that Tori sang it constantly around the house and while they were baking. 

Florence let out another groan, one that was slightly louder than the previous one as Tori’s humming escalated to quiet singing, to try and get their attention. 

Flo suppressed the urge to scream when Tori continued to sing, completely ignoring his groaning, as he tugged on his pigtails in annoyance. 

He needed them to stop singing NOW, or they were gonna lose it. 

Flo turned to face Tori, his face pulled into an annoyed expression as he roughly tapped their shoulder.

Tori’s singing finally stopped as they turned to face Florence, shooting them a smile. 

“Hey, Four! How's your day been going? Mine’s been-”

“Two! You know how I feel about that song! I-” Florence snapped, interrupting their sibling. 

“Hey! I was talking, don't interrupt me! Don't you know how rude that is Flo? Well, it is very rude indeed! And-” Tori paused, cutting themself off to think about what Florence said. “Wait a song? What song, I wasn't singing.” Their expression shifted to one of confusion. 

“What do you mean you weren't singing? I just heard you!” Flo shouted their expression twisting into anger rather than annoyance. 

“Florence, I genuinely do not know what you're talking about. I just told you that I wasn't singing!” Tori replied, starting to get annoyed with their sibling. 

Flo growled as they gripped the armests of the chair they were sitting in, he used all of his will power to not scream in Tori’s face or hit them. Getting into a fist fight with their younger sibling was the last thing they wanted to do, he wouldn't hear the end of it.

“Tori,” Florence hissed as he tried to keep his temper in check. “You were just singing that song you wrote.”

“Which one? I've written multiple songs, you're going to have to be more specific.” Tori asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Wasn't. Finished. Talking.” Florence grumbled shooting a glare at their sibling.

“Sorry.” 

Flo rolled his eyes ignoring his sibling’s apology before they continued talking. 

“You were singing the one about baking. The one that you sing every single time that you bake.” 

Tori’s face lit up in recognition, as a smile etched its way onto their face. 

“Oh! You mean the one that goes; everyday, I think of all the things I’ll make with my- ”

Florence rudely slapped their hand over Tori’s mouth before they could start singing more of that annoying song.

“Yes. That song.” Florence growled, taking their hand off of Tori’s mouth. “I don't like that song, whenever I hear it I want to rip my ears off! Whenever you sing it around the house I feel like ripping your mouth completely off!”

He didn't mean to come off as harsh as he did, in reality the song only mildly irritated them and, not that he would ever admit this, it was quite catchy. But, alas, Flo had never been the best at expressing how he was feeling with words and it often led to them accidentally hurting someone’s feelings or coming off as ingenuine. 

Flo watched as his sibling’s expression dropped and shifted into one of hurt. 

“If you didn't like my music Four, you could've just said that. You didn't have to be so mean about it!” Tori snapped, crossing their arms and looking away from Florence. 

“What?!” Flo asked, their expression turning into one of bewilderment. “That is not what I said! Were you even listening?!”

“Well that's not what you said but that's what it felt like.” Tori spat back at them. “And of course I was listening, I have ears mate! I know how to use them.” 

“You still aren't listening, Two!” Florence shouted with anger flaring in their gut. “I wasn't insulting your songwriting skills! I only brought up that song because-”

“Yeah, you brought it up because I was ‘singing it’. I know Four.” Tori scoffed, making air quotes, still refusing to hear out their sibling. 

Florence growled, their grip on the armrest tightening. “Why do you have to be such a pain in the ass, Victoria?!” 

“I don't know, maybe it's the same reason why you're such a stupid bitch, Florence.” Tori spat back with a glare.

Florence opened their mouth to screech at Tori, only to get interrupted by the voice of their twin.

“Ugh, are you guys done yet?” Ophelia asked, scoffing at their bickering. 

Florence snapped their gaze over to her, and narrowed their eyes.

“Shut up, One. This is between me and them so-” 

“Blah, Blah, Blah… Don't care.” Ophelia interjected, rudely talking over their twin. 

Tori turned to face their older siblings, shooting Ophelia a slightly annoyed look. 

“One! Don't you know how rude that was! Seriously, you guys need to learn some-”

“I don't really care about what you have to say, Two.” Ophelia rudely said, interrupting her other sibling. 

She bit back a smirk as she watched her younger sibling’s expression shift to a frown as they started sulking in their seat. Ophelia looked over at their twin to see them positively fuming at her and staring daggers into her soul. She wasn't the least bit threatened by this and instead smirked in their face causing him to growl at her.

After a few more seconds of studying her siblings' expressions, Ophelia decided to speak up again. 

“Are we done talking now guys?” 

“...Sure.”

“Whatever.” 

Her smirk widened after hearing their siblings’ dejected responses. 

“Good, because now it's my turn to talk! And I have a question for you guys,” 

Ophelia noticed her siblings’ unease after her statement as her smirk widened to a full on grin. 

“Why’d you guys get sent to the principal's office?” Ophelia asked with an innocent grin.

She already knew the answer to this question of course, but she wanted to hear it from them.

Florence growled at his twin while Tori’s frown deepened as they shifted in their seat uncomfortably. 

“Why do you want to know? You haven't even told us what you did to get sent here.” Florence muttered, eying Ophelia skeptically

“Is it a crime to check in on my siblings and ask them questions? I may be mean but guys I'm not a monster !” Ophelia said, trying to look and sound as genuine as possible. 

“You still haven't told us what you're here for.” Tori spoke up, eying her in a similar fashion. 

Ophelia scoffed as their expression shifted to annoyance. 

“Fine, I don't know why you want to know so badly. I'm here because I'm the head of the student council, so I was chosen to talk to the principal about some of the school policies. I'm not in here because I got in trouble if that's what you were thinking.” Ophelia explained with an eye roll. “Now will you tell me why you guys are here? If you don't tell me now I'll just find out later by-”

“Okay, okay! We get it Ophelia, we'll tell you jeez!” Tori cried out, causing Florence to glare at them.

“What are you doing? I did not agree on telling them anything!” Florence snapped at their younger sibling. 

“I know- But, nevermind. I-” Tori cut themself off before glancing at Flo and deciding to talk to them telepathically instead. ‘She was probably going to find out anyway, you know how fast word spreads around at this school. So it doesn't really matter does it?’ 

Florence groaned, unfortunately their sibling did make a good point. It didn't really matter whether they told her or not because she was just going to find out anyway.

‘Fine. You're going first though since you decided that we were both going to tell her.’ Florence replied, their expression shifting into one less harsh. 

‘Got it! Thanks Four!’ 

‘Whatever.’ 

Tori moved their gaze to look at their other older sibling and shot them a nervous smile.

“So Two, what did you do this time?” Ophelia asked, her grin from earlier returning.

“Well… What I did wasn't that bad, they're probably not gonna call home because of it and-”  

“That does not answer my question.” Ophelia interrupted with her smile looking slightly strained, urging her sibling to get to the point. 

Tori’s smile disappeared and they bunched up the fabric of their skirt with their hands, feeling a wave of unease wash over them as they prepared to open their mouth again.

“Right, sorry. I, uh, got into a screaming match with someone in the hallway earlier.” Tori admitted, avoiding eye contact. “It was an accident though, and it was one-sided on my side! All I did was try to complement them…”

Florence rolled his eyes at Tori’s confession, by the way they’d been acting he assumed they did something worse than getting into a screaming match. 

Ophelia on the other hand was overjoyed with their younger sibling’s confession. It would make excellent blackmail material.

Ophelia felt her smile widen as she fixed her gaze on her twin. 

“So, Four. You already know what I'm gonna ask.” Ophelia said, looking at their twin expectantly. 

Florence shot a glare at their twin before opening their mouth to talk.

“I accidentally screeched someone unconscious in the hallway because I got startled.” Florence reluctantly admitted with a shrug. “...It's whatever.” 

Ophelia's grin widened into one that was borderline manic, she would benefit greatly from this information.

Florence, noticing his twin’s expression, sent them a sideways glance before turning to look at Tori. 

‘We shouldn't have told her that. If I get in trouble when we get home it's your fault and I'm throwing you under the bus so you also get in trouble.’

Tori frowned and averted Florence’s gaze, opting not to respond to their telepathic message.

After the three siblings finished their conversation a tense awkward silence hung in the air, only for it to get interrupted by the sound of the door to the principal's office being slammed open and yelling.

The trio snapped their gazes over to the door to find Snow Ball storming out of there angrily. 

“Why am I getting detention?! That bossy bot Golfball started it!” Snow yelled as he stomped down the hallway. 

Shortly after Snow started making his way down the hallway, Gabrielle emerged from the office, rolling her eyes at his outburst.

“Snowball! We both got detention, you imbecile!” She shouted after him as she also started to make her way down the hallway.

“Can the next student come in here please?” The principal called from his office.

Florence groaned as they got up from the chair they were sitting in.

He prayed to whatever god above that was watching them that he wouldn't get detention as he started walking towards the office.

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Immediately after entering the office Flo was greeted by the monotone voice of the principal.

“Hello, Florence. How's your day been going?”

Flo gave the principal an uninterested look instead of responding.

“Not in the mood for conversation, I see. I guess I'll just get straight to the point then, have a seat.” Mr. Announcer urged, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Florence reluctantly pulled out a chair and sat in it, their expression unchanging.

“Florence, today right before third period you used your screeching power and knocked out Gabriel. Correct?”

“It was an accident.” Flo grumbled, his expression souring. 

“How? Explain to me what happened.” The principal asked.

“Right before third period I had to get something out of my locker while Gabriel was throwing forks down the hallway. To make a long story short, while I wasn't paying attention one got stuck in my hair and got tangled so when he tried to pull it out he ended up pulling on my hair really hard which made me screech.” Florence explained. “I didn't do it on purpose.” 

“I see.” Mr. Announcer muttered, before humming in thought. “Well, since Gabriel wasn't too badly injured and you and him both claim it was an accident, I won't call home this time and I'll let you off with a warning.” 

Flo celebrated internally as he felt a small smile try to make its way into his face. He tried getting up to leave but was stopped by the sound of the principal talking again.

“But wait, I'm not done. Sit back down.” Mr. Announcer called out. 

Florence felt their smile falter and their eyebrows tense up as they sat back down in front of the principal.

“Florence, although what happened between you and Gabriel was an accident, you’ve been in here four times within the past week.” 

Florence bit back the urge to smile at the mention of their favorite number, but felt that urge quickly disappear as the weight of the announcer’s words sinked in.

“Meaning?” Flo asked, already knowing and dreading the answer to his question.

“I'm going to have to give you an after school detention. As per school policy frequent principal’s office visits must be punished.” The principal responded before handing Florence a detention slip. “It's not that you're a bad kid, it's just school policy. You may be dismissed and head back to class now.” 

Florence bit back a snarl as he snatched the detention slip from the principal’s hand. 

“Thanks…” Florence hissed before getting up from their seat and walking towards the door. 

“You're welcome, have a nice day Florence.” Mr. Announcer called out as Flo started to exit the office. 

“You too!” Florence replied in the sweetest voice they could manage before aggressively  slamming the door shut. 

They didn't even bother to spare a glance towards their siblings as they stormed down the hallway. 

“So Four, how’d it go? Did you get detention?” Ophelia asked with a shit eating grin, trying to get on her twin’s nerves. 

Florence flipped Ophelia off without turning to look back at her. 

“I think you know how it went. You stupid bitch.” Flo called out as he turned down the hallway and got out of his siblings’ line of sight.

Ophelia sat in their chair silently fuming, he was going to regret saying that to them.

“...Well that wasn't very nice-”

“Shut up Tori.” 

Chapter Text

Shortly after turning down the hallway Florence stopped walking and decided to pull out their phone to check the time. 

‘Third period ends in twenty minutes. Should I skip or go back to class…’ He thought to himself as put his phone up. 

Flo’s third period was English, a class they weren't particularly fond of. Right now they really weren't in the mood to sit in their English teacher’s classroom and be bored for twenty whole minutes. 

After thinking about it for a few seconds Flo decided that he was going to skip class and wander around the school. 

‘If I get caught I'll just lie and say that this is my off period.’ Florence thought to themself as they started walking down the hallway again.

Not that it would really matter if he got caught. After all he could afford to skip English, he wasn’t failing the class and he already finished the book they were supposed to be reading. 

Besides, it’s not like anything was gonna happen while they were skipping class…

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.

Ximenia sighed as they wandered aimlessly through the hallways of their new school. They knew they should've gone to the new student orientation instead of skipping it like their cousin, Steven, suggested. All of these hallways and doors looked the same! 

He turned down another hallway and paused to pull out a slightly crumpled up map from the front pocket of their jean skirt. They stared down at the map in their hands before looking back up at their surroundings. 

Ximenia’s face shifted into one of confusion as he looked back down at the map, and scratched their blond hair. Were they even reading this right… 

They looked at their surroundings and the map one last time before shoving it back into their pocket. Ximenia reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone to see if Steven had texted him back yet.

They powered on their phone to see no new notifications and no response from their cousin. 

Ximenia let out a slightly aggravated huff before putting his phone back. They shouldn't be bothering their cousin with this, he was probably in class right now. 

They sighed as they continued down the hallway, they’d run into someone eventually right? 

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Ximenia fought back the urge to groan as he trudged down another empty hallway, he'd been walking for nearly twenty minutes straight carrying his heavy bag. Class had to be ending soon right? 

They turned down another hallway expecting it to be empty like the rest of them, instead they found someone sitting on the floor writing in a notebook. 

They had brown skin, dark brown eyes, and blue coily hair styled into a half up-half down style with two afro puffs near the top of their head, and bangs that covered their forehead. They were wearing a dark blue graphic T-shirt with black cargo pants and dirty black converse. 

Ximenia’s face lit up at the sight of the other person in the hallway, finally they had a chance of navigating around this school! 

He cheerily walked over to the person sitting in the hallway and stopped in front of them. 

“Excuse me…” Ximenia called out to get their attention. 

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Florence jumped at the sound of someone else’s voice, he was writing down algebra equations and solving them to take his mind off of things. He must’ve zoned out if he didn't hear them approaching.

They slammed their notebook shut as their face shifted into an annoyed expression, this better be worth their time. Flo snapped his gaze up to see… 

…

Wait, who was that? 

Florence’s expression changed to one of confusion as he took in the person’s appearance. They had light blue eyes, pale skin (did they have albinism?) , and yellow/blond coily hair styled into four afro puffs with gelled down swoop bangs. They were wearing a long brown jean skirt, an oversized buttoned up mustard yellow cardigan with a white collared shirt that had a black ribbon underneath, and black chunky shoes with scrunched up white leg warmers. 

He has never seen this kid before in his entire life. Were they new, and why were they trying to talk to him?

“Uhm… Are you okay? You’ve been staring at me for a minute now. It's getting kind of awkward…” 

Shit. They didn't realize how long they were staring at them. 

“What do you want?” Florence rudely snapped at them, his annoyed expression from earlier returning. 

The blond haired kid in front of him startled slightly at his outburst before smiling at him.

“My name is Ximenia, but most people just call me X! I'm new here and-”

“I didn't ask for your name.” Florence muttered interrupting Ximenia, they already wanted this conversation to be done with.

Ximenia’s smile faltered slightly at Flo’s response. “Right, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to annoy you, but-”

“But you are.” Florence interrupted again, trying to make them go away and leave him alone. 

“Right… Sorry…” Ximenia apologized, his smile turning into a frown. 

“Whatever.” Flo grumbled dismissing the apology. 

Florence looked up at the clock on the wall in front of them. There was only a minute until the bell, they should probably start moving unless they wanted to get stepped on. 

Flo put his phone in his pocket and teleported away his notebook and pen before he stood up and started to walk away. 

“W-Wait! Where are you going?” Ximenia called after them, sounding panicked. 

“To class. The bell's about to ring.” Florence responded, annoyed that they were still trying to talk to them. ‘And away from you.’

“B-But wait I didn't get to ask my question!” Ximenia cried, trying to get him to stay.

“Don't care. See ya!” Florence exclaimed cheerily before teleporting away right before the bell rang.

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. 

“Wait please I-” Ximenia exclaimed as the blue haired person teleported away. 

Great, the bell just rang.

X huffed in annoyance, that guy didn't even bother to hear them out. If they didn't wanna help him they could've just said so instead of being rude about it. 

Ximenia felt their phone vibrate in their back pocket, they pulled it out to see that Steven had finally texted them back. 

‘Finally,’ X thought to themself as they opened the text message. ‘Is that you standing on the other side of the hall?’ They made a confused face as they read the message. What did they mean by-

Oh. 

Ximenia looked up from his phone and looked through the sea of kids walking through the hallway to find his cousin smiling at him. Next to him were two of his friends, Silvia and Nigel who seemed to be arguing about something.

“Hey X!” Steven exclaimed, waving at X.  

“Hey Seven!” X’s face lit up as he replied and made his way over to the group of teens.

Upon making it to the group of teens X could hear the details of Silvia and Nigel’s argument more clearly. 

“Dude, Nine there's no way they’re gonna be on time today! They were late almost all week last week,” Silvia tried to explain to her friend.

“You don't know that Sixer! What if they have a weird stroke of luck and end up on time today!” Nigel retorted, refusing to hear them out.

“Are you guys talking about Two again?” Steven asked, butting into their conversation. 

“Yup, the only problem is Nine’s being an idiot who thinks they're not going to be late.” Silvia responded, sending a glare towards Nigel.

“Ouch, harsh Sixer! I'm not an idiot just because I choose to believe Two’s not gonna be late.” Nigel spat back, sending a glare of her own at Silvia.

“Who’s Two?” X asked, deciding to make their presence known.

“Oh, Two is this second year in our next period who’s almost always late for class.” Steven explained. “Also, X you remember Six and Nine from my birthday party, right?”

“I sure do,” Ximenia responded before turning to the two other teens. “It's nice to see you two again!”

“Right back at ya’ little dude!” 

“Yeah what Nine said.” 

The pair quickly responded before returning to their argument.

“So what's your next class?” Steven asked.

“Uh, I don't know, let's see. My next class is…” X trailed off as they pulled up their schedule on their phone. “Art, with Ms. Flower Speakerbox!” 

“Cool, that's our next class too! There's a lot of great people in that class, you're gonna love it!” Steven exclaimed. “Wanna walk to class with us?” 

“Mhm, I don't wanna miss this class either! This school has been very hard to navigate through.” Ximenia sent a small glare towards his cousin. 

“Haha… Right, you missed third period because of me…” Steven muttered sheepishly while avoiding eye contact with their cousin. “...Anyway… Six and Nine we're gonna start walking to class. Bye!” He announced before starting to walk down the hallway and gesturing for X to follow him. 

“See you guys in class!” X exclaimed before going to follow Steven, only to get no response from the bickering duo. It looked like they were about to get into a fist fight with each other. 

“Are they always like that?” X asked Steven once they caught up to him.

“Oh those two? They pretty much argue over whether or not Two’s gonna be late every day.” Steven explained as the two of them turned into a different hallway. “But enough about them, let's talk about you. How’s your first day been going so far?”

“Oh, uhm, it's been interesting to say the least… My first two classes were okay and easy to find since they were in the front of the school. But I couldn't find my third period so-”

“ Really sorry about that by the way!” Steven interrupted, cutting off their cousin to apologize. 

“It’s okay Seven, I forgive you.” X smiled at Steven. “But like I was saying, I couldn't find my third period so I was stuck wandering around the hallways.” 

“That sucks, did you get in trouble?” Steven asked as they reached the end of the hallway and started going up a flight of stairs. 

“No, the hallways were completely empty. At least I thought they were until I ran into this guy that acted like a complete jerk!” Ximenia’s face soured as they thought back on their interaction with the blue haired stranger. 

“Aw I'm sorry that happened to you X, do you remember what they look like?” 

“Uh kind of… Let’s see,” X mumbled as he thought back on the stranger's appearance. “They had this blue curly hair, with these two pigtails that stood straight up for some reason, and they had brown skin and eyes. I remember they were also wearing a blue shirt.”  

“Hmm…” Steven hummed in thought as they tried to recall anyone who would fit that description. “That sounds a lot like Four…” Their face turned into a grimace. 

“Who’s Four? Are they someone bad-?”

“No, no no! They aren't bad, they've just got some issues!” Steven frantically exclaimed. 

“Okay…” Ximenia grumbled skeptically not entirely believing their cousin, as the two of them reached the top of the staircase and started walking down another hallway.

“Yeah, just a few problems but they're not bad or anything, not all, people just tend to steer clear of them…” Steven muttered. “I heard today right before third period he knocked some kid unconscious…”

X grimaced at that statement. 

“Oh… Y’know maybe it was a good thing that he didn't show me around…”

“Yeah…” Steven responded as they came to a stop outside of a classroom. “I’d say you definitely dodged a bullet there.” 

“Definitely…” 

“Anyway we're here.” Steven said before stepping inside the classroom with X following him shortly after.

The art classroom was decently big. There were eight long tables, for students to sit at, arranged into two rows of four with a walkway in the middle separating them. There were also lots of flower themed paintings and decorations all over the classroom. 

The two of them were pretty early so there were only a few students and the teacher in the classroom. 

Steven and Ximenia walked over to a large desk in the front corner of the classroom where Ms. Flower Speakerbox was sitting on her phone. She had pink poofy hair pulled back into a bun and she wore a yellow floral themed blouse with a black skirt and shoes. 

“Ahem,” Steven cleared his throat as the two of them stood in front of the desk to get the teacher’s attention. 

The teacher put her phone down and looked up at the students in front of her with a bored expression. 

“Can I help you two with something?” She asked, seeming annoyed with their presence. 

“No. I just wanted to introduce you to my cousin, they’re new to your class.” Steven said, gesturing toward X.

“Hello Miss! My name is Ximenia or X. It’s nice to meet you.” X introduced himself with a smile

“Yeah, it's nice to meet you too, kid.” Ms. Flower Speakerbox responded sounding disinterested, before grabbing two papers off her desk and handing them to X. “Here, this is the course syllabus and supply list. I don't have a seating chart so as long as I can see you while I'm taking attendance I don't care where you sit. On the back of the course syllabus you’ll find my classroom rules.” 

“...Is that it?” Ximenia asked, expecting there to be more. 

“Yep. Go sit down or something, I don't really care, class hasn't started yet.” Ms. Flower Speakerbox responded with a wave of her hand, before going back on her phone. 

Ximenia shot their cousin a confused look, only to get an apologetic shrug in response. 

“She's like that to everyone don't worry, you get used to it after some time.” Steven explained, walking towards the tables “Anyway, let's go sit down. Where do you wanna sit?”

“Hm… Let’s see uh…” X trailed off as he looked at the tables lining the classroom before settling on a mostly empty one in the back where a girl with periwinkle hair was sitting, facing the front of the classroom. “Let’s sit there, she seems nice. Plus there's room for Six and Nine if they wanna sit next to us!” They said pointing to the table they picked out. 

Steven nodded their head in approval, before the two of them started walking towards the table. 

When the two of them made it to the table Ximenia took the seat next to the periwinkle haired girl, while Steven sat in the aisle seat next to him. 

Shortly after the pair of cousins sat down, Silvia and Nigel walked in the classroom bickering, and sat down across from them. 

“I told you Sixer just because they were late to half of their classes last week, doesn't mean that it's going to happen again this week!” Nigel shouted at Silvia. 

“Yeah, but that means that there’s a higher chance of them being late again this week!” Silvia retorted. “Just face it, Nine, you're not winning this bet.” 

“Ugh! You sound just like Five bro!” Nigel exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. 

“Hey, don't compare me to that bossy annoyance! I sound nothing like her!” 

“Yes you do! You sound exactly like-”

“Guys, guys, guys, you're forgetting about-” 

“Shut up Seven! You're not even a part of this argument!” Silvia shouted angrily, cutting off Steven. 

“Rude.” Steven muttered, looking offended. 

“Look, Nine, there's only two minutes until class starts. If Two doesn't walk in within the next minute, you owe me fifteen dollars.” Silvia said with an air of finality. 

“What! That’s not even fair, Sixer! I- What are the chances of Two showing up two minutes before-” 

“Hi, guys!” 

Everyone at the table X was sitting at snapped their gazes toward the doorway. 

Standing there was a person with dark brown skin and eyes that were a darker shade of brown. They had green coily hair styled into a low ponytail with a pink bow and bangs. Their outfit consisted of a pink and green cardigan with a white collared undershirt, and a jean skirt with pink and white chunky shoes. Their face also looked strangely similar to Four’s, but X didn't pay too much attention to it.

“...Why’re you all staring at me like that?” The person asked, as they walked into the classroom. “Anyway… Can you believe it guys I'm early today! Isn't that exciting?” They exclaimed, before walking over to Ximenia's table and sitting across from the periwinkle haired girl. 

X looked over to Silvia and Nigel for an explanation as to why everyone was staring at the person who just walked in, only to find the two of them still staring with shocked expressions. Ximenia looked at his cousin with a confused expression. 

“Uh, Seven, why was everyone staring at them?” Ximenia asked, pointing in the direction of the green haired stranger. 

“Oh, y'know that second year I told you about who’s always late?” 

“Yeah, why?” 

“That's them, Tori better known as Two.” 

“Oh…” X exclaimed in realization. “So then that means-” 

“Two, have I ever told you that you’re my favorite person ever ?” Nigel asked with a grin, having recovered from his shock. 

Tori’s face contorted with confusion as they turned to look at her. 

“I don't know, have you ever told me that? I talk to a lot of people so it's hard to keep track of what everyone tells me sometimes-”

“Two Half-let you're my least favorite person ever. I was counting on you man!” Silvia shouted accusingly at Tori, having also recovered from her shock. 

“Um, sorry? I don't exactly think I know what you're talking about. You were counting on me for what now?” Tori asked, seeming even more confused than before. 

“I was counting on you being late to class today.” Silvia hissed out through clenched teeth, her gaze fixed angrily on Tori. 

“Now why would you do that? I thought you guys would've been happy that I was early today.” Tori frowned and crossed their arms. 

“Well, if it makes you feel better Two, I'm happy that you were early to class today!” The periwinkle haired girl spoke up with a smile.

“Thanks, Gracie. I'm glad at least one person is happy about me being early to class.” Tori exclaimed, shooting a pointed glare at Silvia. “Y’know if you didn't like me Six you could've just said that.” 

“That's not what I-” 

Silvia was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing. 

“We’ll continue this later.” Silvia grumbled in annoyance before turning around to face the teacher. 

“Alright class, today we’re going to be going over…” 

 . 

. 

.

The way Ms. Flower Speakerbox ran her class was interesting to X, to say the least. She wasn't a bad teacher, but she did have a habit of going off into tangents about flowers and about how beautiful she was. She also yelled at a kid and wrote them up for talking during her lecture. Fortunately, for Ximenia they weren't that kid and they made a mental note to never talk over their art teacher. 

After the lecture Ms. Flower Speakerbox assigned an easy assignment based on the lecture she gave. Her lecture today was over different types of shading, so their assignment today was to draw three objects in their sketchbooks and use a different type of shading on each of them. 

For his drawings X decided to draw his favorite thing for all of them, baskets. 

He was just getting started on his first drawing when Silvia started to speak up. 

“So Nine, what are you gonna draw for the assignment?” Silvia asked, looking over at Nigel’s paper. 

“Hm… I don't know Sixer. I was thinking of drawing that fifteen bucks you owe me.” Nigel responded, flashing a snug grin at Silvia. “Pay up, I know you have your wallet on you!” 

Silvia glared at Nigel before reaching into her pocket and fishing out her wallet. 

“Y’know, I wouldn't owe you fifteen dollars, if someone didn't show up to class early today!” Silvia snapped, as they pulled the money they owed Nigel out of their pocket and handed it to her. 

“What does me showing up to class early have to do with you owing Nine fifteen dollars? I'm still very confused here.” Tori asked, with a perplexed expression plastered on their face. 

“Oh, yeah! They bet fifteen dollars on whether or not you’d be late today. Nine bet on you not being late and Six bet on you being late. She was so sure she would win because-” 

“You’re late like everyday , Two! Why did you decide to be early today?!” Silvia exclaimed, talking over Steven.

“That's a good question. Two, why were you early today?” Nigel asked, causing everyone else at the table to look at Tori. 

“Well… Y’know in my last class period I started thinking about how I should take my attendance more seriously and-” 

“Your mom yelled at you over the phone again didn't she.” Gracie interrupted, deadpan. 

“Gaty… How’d you know?” Tori said with a sigh before frowning. “She threatened to take away my baking supplies if I got another lunch detention for being late! And I couldn't have that because that would be horrible for my business.”

“Um, if you don't mind me asking…” Ximenia spoke up, finally deciding to join the conversation. “What type of business do you run?” 

Tori’s face lit up at X’s question, as they moved their eager gaze onto him. 

“Oh! I'm so glad you asked! I run a baking business! I bake things like muffins, croissants, cookies, and more. But my favorite thing to bake is cakes! I love to bake cakes!” Tori exclaimed, seeming excited to talk about their baking business. “If you want to order something, just let me know. I'd be happy to help you out!” 

“Cool! I can't order anything though right now unfortunately. I spent all of my last allowance on basket weaving materials…” Ximenia admitted, shamefully. If they had money they would buy something. 

“Oh! No worries mate, it was just an offer. You didn't have to accept it.” Tori smiled kindly at X, before returning to their drawing. 

Ximenia also smiled before returning to the basket he was drawing. Tori seemed to be a lot nicer than Four, he hoped he could become friends with them.

. 

.

.

“There’s five minutes left of class, start finishing up your drawings and packing up.” 

Ximenia snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing his teacher’s announcement, and looked over his finished drawings. X smiled as he looked over his finished creations: three neatly drawn baskets shaded with cross-hatching, hatching, and blending. They gave their drawings on last look before packing up their things, they didn't want to be late to their next class! 

After putting their pencil case and sketchbook in their bag, X decided to look over and see what Gracie and Tori were doing. He turned around to face the duo, expecting to see them packing up, only to find that the duo were engrossed in a conversation and hadn't even started packing up. Ximenia doubted the two of them had even heard the teacher's announcement. 

“Uh, excuse me. Two and Gaty,” Ximenia called out to get the duo’s attention.

“Yes?” Gracie turned her head to face X, causing Tori to do the same. 

“Oh, I just wanted to let you know that there’s about five minutes until the bell. So you should probably start finishing up.” X kindly informed the duo. 

“Oh my fence, really? I didn't even notice! Thanks for telling us.” Gracie exclaimed before starting to pack up her things. 

“Yeah, thank you for telling us! If you didn't we would've been late to lunch!” Tori chimed in before they also started packing up their things. 

“Late to lunch…?” Ximenia asked, seeming perplexed at Tori’s statement. 

“Yes! Usually by the time we get there all the good tables are gone.” Tori explained while putting on their shoulder bag. 

“Yeah, and we're stuck eating at the sucky ones or worse case scenario, in the car with Florence.” Gracie complained as she put on her backpack. 

“Hey I don't mind eating in the car with Florence!” Tori defensively shouted. “Even if it means we can't really talk as loudly as we usually do because they're watching BFDI.” 

“Who’s Florence?” X asked. 

“My older brother, he’s a junior. He likes to sit in his car sometimes to watch this show he’s practically addicted to in his car during lunch.” Tori explained. “Anyway, enough talk about him. I don't think I know your name yet, or that you’ve ever told me your name. It seems a bit weird that you know my name but I don't know your’s, don't ya think?” 

Ximenia nearly flushed in embarrassment, had he really forgotten to introduce himself?

“Yeah, tell us a bit about yourself. We've got time.” Gracie urged on, encouraging X to talk about themself. 

“Uh, well my name is Ximenia but most people call me X. I'm new here and I'm a junior like Tori’s brother. And, uhm…” Ximenia trailed off as he thought of something else to say. “I like… baskets.” He said with an awkward smile. They had never been the best about talking about themselves when put on the spot.

“Sweet,” Gracie smiled at X before starting to introduce herself. “My name is Gracie but most people call me Gaty because back in second grade I got stuck in a gate, no I don't want to talk about it… I'm a freshman and I like plants.” 

“Cool! I like plants too! I'm currently working on growing an aloe vera garden.” Ximenia exclaimed, happy to have something in common with the periwinkle haired girl. 

“Really? I’d love to see it sometime! I don't have a garden of my own right now, but I'm planning on starting one.” Gracie mused before remembering what they were doing. “By the way, it’s your turn to introduce yourself Two.” 

“Oh, right! I forgot we were doing that…” Tori mumbled sheepishly before getting back on topic. “My name is Victoria, but most people just tend to call me Tori or my nickname Two. People call me Two because it’s my lucky number. I'm a sophomore and I like to bake!” 

Right after Tori finished their sentence the bell rang for them to go to their next class. 

“Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you guys.” X smiled at the duo before putting on his bag and starting to walk towards the door, where his cousin was waiting for him. 

“Bye-bye, X! It was nice meeting you too!” Tori called out to them before starting up another conversation with Gracie. 

When X reached his cousin the two of them exited the classroom together and started walking down the hallway. 

“So X, what’s your next class?” Steven asked. 

“I don't know, lemme check,” Ximenia pulled their phone out of their back pocket to check their schedule before putting it away after reading it. “It says I have lunch. What’s your next class?” 

“Ugh, I have science next period! I wish I had lunch.” Steven sulked with a frown. “Anyway. Do you know where the cafeteria is?” 

“Uh…” Ximenia trailed off nervously as their palms began to sweat. “No… But since our classes are in different places, I'm guessing you won't have time to show me?” 

“Yeah,” Steven sighed. “The cafeteria is on the first floor near the courtyard and the athletic buildings, and my science classroom is on the other side of the school. Sorry X, I was really hoping that we had the same lunch.” 

“It’s okay Seven. Pat, pat.” X comforted his cousin by patting him on the back. “I'm sure I'll find someone else that can help me find the cafeteria…” 

…Wait didn't Tori and Gracie mention that they had lunch next period…

“Oh wait! I just remembered something!” X gasped in realization. “You can go to class Seven, I think I know who can show me the cafeteria!” They blurted out before turning around and speed walking back in the direction of the art classroom. 

Fortunately for Ximenia when they got there the two of them had only just exited the classroom and were starting to walk towards the stairs. 

“Hey, guys!” X exclaimed as he approached the duo, causing them to turn around.

“Oh, hey X! Back so soon, did you miss us or something?” Tori lightly teased.

“Uh… Sure…?” X responded awkwardly, unsure of how to respond to Tori's statement. “But that's not why I came back. You guys said you had lunch next period right?” 

“Yeah, why?” Gracie asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. 

“Ok so it turns out I have lunch next period too! And I was wondering if you guys could show me the cafeteria and if we could possibly eat lunch together…?” Ximenia sheepishly asked with a nervous smile. 

“Of course we can show you how to get to the cafeteria X! We'd love to help you out! Right, Gaty?” Tori responded with a smile. 

“Mhm,” Gracie nodded in agreement. “We’d love to eat lunch with you X! Especially since it's your first day.” 

“Really?” X asked in disbelief, they weren't expecting them to accept their offer. 

“Of course! Like Gaty said, we'd love to eat lunch with you X!” Tori said with a smile as they wrapped their arm around X’s shoulder. “After all, we're friends aren't we? Now, let's get a move on because I am starving .” They removed their arm from Ximenia’s shoulder before starting to walk down the stairs. 

“I really hope they don't have anything nasty for lunch. I don't wanna eat another mystery meat burger. Ugh!” Gracie playfully complained before she started to go down the stairs as well.

“Ew! Don't even get me started on those! If they're serving those again, I am begging Eight to go off campus and buy me something. Or maybe I could ask Ten to do it…” 

“Two… Can't you teleport food?” 

“...Oh yeah… I forgot about that…”

Ximenia went down the stairs shortly after Gracie did and found himself tuning out the duo’s conversation, as he thought about Tori’s previous statement. “We’re friends aren't we?” , X felt a smile form on their face.

Friends. They liked the sound of that. 

Chapter Text

Florence didn't think his day could get any worse after his principal's office visit. 

Unfortunately since the universe seemed to have it out for him that day, it did. 

While he was walking to lunch Flynn ran past them and accidentally brushed up against their lunch bag, setting it a flame and burning it to a crisp. Flo didn't like school lunch and they decided to walk to school that day, so they couldn't go off campus to get lunch. It's safe to say that they starved during lunch today.

He could've teleported off campus and in hindsight he really should’ve. But, they were too focused on the fact that their lunch just got ruined, rather than trying to find a way to fix the problem. 

At least he got to sit in the courtyard under his favorite tree to watch BFDI. 

But… he forgot his laptop at home so he had to watch it on his phone which drained his phone battery down to 5%. And, on top of forgetting his laptop he forgot his phone charger. They could ask Tori for their’s, but Flo had a strong feeling that they also forgot to bring their charger. Asking his twin for her charger was automatically out of the question. 

Florence let out an irritated sigh before walking into their precalculus class. 

Maybe their favorite class of the day will help cheer them up, they hopefully thought with a small smile. Math always did put them in a better mood. 

The inside of the precal classroom wasn’t very big, in fact it was actually one of the smaller math classrooms on campus due to precalculus not being a very popular class. In the front of the classroom there was a large TV with two white boards on either side of it, and in the corner the teacher’s desk was there. The desks in the were arranged in groups of two and were sporadically placed around the classroom, and the walls were decorated with corny math posters that were sure to make any teenager roll their eyes. 

This was Flo’s favorite classroom. 

They felt their smile widen a bit as they walked over to their desk in the front of the classroom and set their stuff down. 

His teacher, Mx. Triangle Speaker box, was sitting at their desk doing something on their computer. Probably putting in grades, Flo assumed.

Florence looked down at their phone and back at their teacher as they felt an idea begin to form in their head. 

Maybe Mx. Triangle Speakerbox has a charger… 

“Excuse me, Mx. Triangle Speakerbox?” Florence called out as he made his way over to their desk. 

Mx. Triangle Speakerbox paused what they were doing to turn and look at Florence. “Yes?”   They had straight red hair that was cut into a triangular bob, and a triangle themed outfit. 

“Uh, I was wondering if you had a phone charger. I left mine at home and my phone’s about to die.” Flo explained while fidgeting with his phone in his hands. 

“Hm….” The red haired teacher hummed in thought. “I might… What type of charger does your phone use?” 

“I don't know, but it's an android.” Florence responded. “You can look at it if you want.” They handed the teacher their phone. 

The math teacher looked over the phone for a second before pulling out a charging cord and plugging it into the phone. After the charging cord was inserted the phone lit up, indicating that it was being charged. 

“Tell you what, I'll charge your phone at my desk and I'll give it to you at the end of class. Sound good?” Mx. Triangle Speakerbox asked with a kind smile. 

“Yes. Thank you.” Florence said, giving the red haired teacher a genuine smile before walking back to his seat. 

Mx. Triangle Speakerbox had always been their favorite teacher. They seemed to be the one of the few people in the school who liked math as much as he did. 

Shortly after Flo sat down people started noisily entering the classroom. Florence paid them no mind and instead opened up his math notebook to doodle in it. Right before his pen hits the paper he senses someone, actually multiple people, standing in front of him. 

Florence sighed before looking up to see Nigel along with Silvia, Fiona, Steven and Elijah crowded around his desk area. Fiona and Silvia seemed to be having an argument of some sort while Elijah and Steven were watching and instigating.

Nigel on the other hand was looking straight at Flo with her signature smirk. 

Florence mentally prepared themself for their inevitable conversation with Nigel. 

“Hi, Nine.” Flo dully greeted the white haired teen in front of him. 

“Wassup, Four-bro! How's it hanging?” Nigel exclaimed, returning the greeting. 

“Uh, it's hanging. My day hasn't been very good.” Florence admitted, his face sourering as he thought back on his day. 

“Well that's no good. What's got you feeling down broski?” Nigel asked, concern lacing their features. 

“I got detention today for the ‘incident’ before third period.” Florence grumbled as they started to scratch lines into their notebook with their pen. 

“Bummer…” Nigel hissed out before his face lit up as if he suddenly remembered something. “Oh! If it makes you feel better bro I'm pretty sure Two-bro also got detention for getting into an argument with Flowe-” 

“Two didn't get detention! I said Two almost got detention! They said they would’ve if they didn't tell the principal that the argument was really a misunderstanding.” Fiona cut off Nigel to quickly correct them before returning to her argument with Silvia.

“Uh, nevermind then. Looks like Two didn't get detention…” Nigel sheepishly mumbled while giving Flo an apologetic expression. “Y’know speaking of your little sib-sib, they completely saved my ass during fourth period today. So, Silvia and I were arguing again like usual and…” 

Florence zoned out halfway through Nigel's story about how they won fifteen dollars because Tori was early to class. They broke out of their trance when the bell rang and Nigel stopped talking. 

“Aw man, class is about to start! Talk to you later Four-bro!” Nigel waved at them with a small frown before making her way to her seat. 

Flo on the other hand smiled at this. The bell ringing meant he was one step closer to doing his favorite thing in the world, math.

A few minutes after the bell rang, Mx. Triangle Speakerbox got up from their seat, walked to the front of the classroom and stopped in front of one of the white boards.

“Alright class, take out your notebooks and something to write with! Today we’re going over-” 

“WAIT!” 

Mx. Triangle Speakerbox was cut off by the sound of someone yelling and the sound of the classroom door being practically slammed open. 

The class went silent as everyone looked in the direction of the door. 

Standing the doorway was a short blond haired kid that looked oddly familiar, Flo felt like he had seen them somewhere before he just couldn't put his finger on it. And standing right next to them was his annoying twin. 

They had forgotten she was in this class. 

Florence sent a glare towards the newcomers, his sour mood suddenly returning. 

“Heh-heh… Sorry, Mx. I didn't mean to cause a scene. I was just worried about missing the lesson…” The blond haired kid laughed awkwardly, seeming embarrassed. 

“Sorry about our tardiness, Mx. Triangle Speakerbox. I was running late because I volunteered to help my teacher clean up the classroom last period, and while I was walking to class I found him looking lost in the hallway.” Ophelia innocently explained. “They said it’s their first day here.” She added on with a smile. 

Florence rolled his eyes at Ophelia’s statement, he could care less as to why they were late. She was holding up the lesson. 

“Well that's quite alright Ophelia, you can go sit down now.” Mx. Triangle Speakerbox said with a kind smile before directing their attention on the new kid. “You’re new here?” 

The blond haired kid nodded. 

“Yes I am! My name is Ximenia, I hope I didn't miss too much of the lesson. I've been having a lot of trouble finding some of my classes…” 

That name sounded familiar too, Florence felt like they've heard it before…

“Oh that’s quite alright dear, we were just about to get started on the notes when you got here.” Mx. Triangle Speakerbox reassured. “Now let's find you an empty desk to sit in…” The math teacher scanned the scattered pairs of desks, looking for an empty one, before their eyes landed on the one next to Florence. 

Florence had a bad feeling about where this was heading. 

“Florence, who sits next to you?” The teacher asked. 

“No one does…” Flo reluctantly replied, dreading what was going to come out of the teacher's mouth next. 

“Good! Alright, Ximenia you're going to be sitting next to Florence. I can't have you sitting alone because group work is a big part of this class, okay?” Mx. Triangle Speakerbox explained. 

“...Okay.” Ximenia muttered in response before nervously making their way over to the desk next to Flo and getting themself situated. 

“Alright! Now that we've gotten that taken care of, let's get on with the notes,” The math teacher announced as they grabbed a dry-erase marker and started writing on the whiteboard. “Alright class today we're going to be going over…” 

Flo sent a sideways glance at Ximenia before he started to write his notes, they looked nervous to be around him. It wasn't like he was going to jump out at them or attack them. 

They wouldn't admit this out loud but, it actually made them feel quite hurt. 

Sure, he could get a bit aggressive at times but he wouldn't hurt someone unprovoked, let alone someone he didn't even know.

Florence pushed these thoughts aside as he continued writing his notes. He didn't have time to be sad, he had math to do. 

. 

. 

. 

After Mx. Triangle Speakerbox was done going over the lesson they assigned an assignment that was due at the end of the period, much to Flo’s delight. 

It seemed like their day was slowly but surely getting better. 

Florence eagerly got to work on the assignment shortly after it was passed out, and finished it in ten minutes. 

Flo tapped his pencil on his desk as he looked at the clock above the door, there were fifteen minutes of class left. 

They sighed at this, they were getting bored. 

Florence decided to sneak a glance in Ximenia’s direction, maybe he could watch them do their work to pass the time. 

‘Wow his work is really neat…’ The blue haired teen thought to themself as they looked over their desk-mate's paper. 

Ximenia organized his work very neatly and on top of that he had good handwriting. 

He should compliment them, he likes people who organize their algebra correctly. 

“Excuse me,” Florence whispered while tapping Ximenia’s shoulder to get his attention. 

The blond haired teen startled at the sudden contact, before turning his head to face Florence. 

“...Yes…?” Ximenia responded cautiously. He still seemed pretty nervous to be around Flo, but they decided to ignore his nervousness for now in favor of giving him a compliment. 

“Your work is really neat.” Flo complimented with a smile. 

Instead of looking happy, like Flo thought they would after receiving a compliment, Ximenia gave him a confused look. 

“...Uh, sorry I don't think I quite understand what you mean. Do you mind repeating that?” Ximenia asked, before quickly backtracking. “I-I mean if you don't want to it's fine! Actually just forget I-” 

“Wait no I meant- Uhm…” Florence trailed off, thinking of how to reword their compliment. “I like the way you organize the work on your paper. It's really neat and well organized. I like people who organize their algebra correctly. Also you have really nice handwriting!” They blurted out. 

Ximenia’s confused expression returned for a split second before their face lit up, after they processed the barrage of words thrown at them. 

“Oh! Thank you! I, um…” Ximenia looked nervous as he trailed off, trying to think of a way to compliment Flo. “I think you're really good at math…? I mean you finished your worksheet pretty quickly… Also I like the drawing you did on your paper, what is it?” He pointed at the drawing Flo drew on the corner of his paper, it was the number four with limbs and a face. 

“Thank you, I think you're pretty good at math too.” Flo replied with a smile, before turning his attention to his paper. “As for the drawing, he’s just a character I made up when I was younger based off of my favorite number. I tend to draw him when I get bored.” 

“So, I'm guessing his name is… Four?” Ximenia asked, a small smile making his way into his lips. 

“Uh-huh,” Flo confirmed with a thumbs up as his smile widened. “Named him after myself, and my favorite number! I love the number four.”

“...Wow, you really like math, huh?” Ximenia asked in astonishment. 

“I sure do!” 

The two of them fell into an awkward silence. Ximenia and Florence stared at each other, both of them having run out of things to say. 

“Uh… I feel like we might've gotten off on the wrong foot…” Ximenia muttered a few minutes later, breaking the silence between the two. 

Now it was Florence's turn to look confused, he was sure he had never met Ximenia before. 

Unless he had run into them earlier and just didn't remember… 

“We did?” Flo asked, their face screwed up as they tried to analyze Ximenia. Something about him looked familiar, they just couldn't put their finger on it. 

“Yeah… You were kinda rude to me in the hallway before fourth period when I tried to ask you for directions.” Ximenia sheepishly explained with a nervous smile on his face. “But I won't hold it against you or anything like th-” 

“Oh my gumdrop, that was you!?” Florence exclaimed, panicked. 

Their eyes widened, that's what they remembered Ximenia from. He must think he's a real jerk… 

“Yeah, but-” 

“Oh my math, I'm sorry! If I had known how good at math you were, I never would've been rude to you like that!” Florence cut off Ximenia again, apologizing for their first encounter. “I was kind of in a bad mood because I got detention…” He muttered, averting Ximenia's gaze. 

When Flo looked back at Ximenia, he noticed that he didn't look as tense as he did when he first sat down. He also noticed that they were looking at him with a sort of apologetic expression. 

“Hey it's okay, I'd be in a pretty bad mood if I got detention too. Apology accepted.” Ximenia replied, offering Flo a small smile. “Also I'm really sorry that you got detention. I know that probably sucks.” They added. 

“It does,” Flo sighed, their face dropping at the reminder of their unfortunate fate. “But at least I can go on my phone to watch my favorite show while I'm there.” He smiled as he thought about his favorite show. 

“That's good.” 

“Yeah.” 

The two of them fell into another silence and locked eyes with each other for a second time. 

“Uh… My name is Florence but most people call me Four because it’s my favorite number.” Florence broke the silence, deciding it was a good time to introduce themself. 

“Oh! My name is Ximenia but most people just call me X-” 

“LIKE THE VARIABLE!?” Flo shouted, causing everyone in the classroom to turn and look at them. 

“Hey Four, we're inside. We need to use our inside voice, okay?” Ophelia asked with a sneer, earning a few snickers from other students in the classroom. 

Flo whipped around to glare at their twin, oh how he loathed being in the same class as her. 

“Shut up, One!” Flo shouted back before turning around to face Ximenia. “Sorry I got a little excited…” He sheepishly apologized.

“Uh it's okay. I guess it is kind of like the variable…” Ximenia muttered awkwardly, before changing the topic. “So tell me about your favorite show. What's it called?” 

“Oh my algebra, I thought you'd never ask! My favorite show is called Battle for Dream Island, also known as BFDI for short. So basically it's about these objects that battle for…” 

.

.

.

Florence and Ximenia spent the rest of the class period talking about his favorite show. He was happy to finally have someone who was willing to listen to him info-dump about his favorite show. They’ve tried getting their siblings to listen to them before in the past but Tori was always busy and Ophelia just didn't care. 

Maybe he could convince X to watch it with him sometime… 

Flo felt himself breakout into a toothy grin as he packed up his stuff, maybe his day wasn't turning out as bad as he thought it was going to be. 

Chapter Text

The rest of Florence’s day seemed like it was going surprisingly well.

He offered to walk Ximenia to their next period which happened to be the same as his, culinary. On the way to class he got to talk more about his favorite show and he got to know more about X as well. 

During culinary Flo and Ximenia talked some more and worked together on an assignment. He felt himself growing closer to the blond haired teen with each conversation they had.

After culinary Florence had to part ways with X because they, unfortunately, didn't share the same last period. Ximenia's eighth period was a free period while Flo had track. Ugh.

He tried convincing Ximenia to join the track team but they politely declined claiming that ‘they weren't a sports person’. Flo mentioned to them that the track team needed more managers before walking to the athletic building, they really hoped X would take them up on their offer. He didn't have any close friends in his eighth period. 

Their track workout today was one of Florence’s favorite workouts, four repeat 400’s. To say they were ecstatic would be an understatement, they loved running the 400 it was their event after all! 

During the workout Flo’s mind kept on wandering back to Ximenia. 

They couldn't explain it, but something about Ximenia made them feel drawn to their presence. It was like something clicked into place when they talked to him, he felt like he could talk to him about anything despite barely knowing them. 

It felt like they were meant to be together, meant to be friends.

Florence pushed his thoughts about X aside as he put on his converse, they had finished the workout not too long ago and were currently getting changed in the locker room. They had quite a bit of time before the bell was supposed to ring, but they had to hurry if they wanted to make it to detention on time. 

“Hey.” 

Flo paused in the middle of tying his shoe in order to look up at the voice in front of him. They looked up to see their younger sibling standing in front of them with a nervous expression. 

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Tori asked quietly, a stark contrast from their usually loud demeanor. 

Florence sighed at this; they didn't really want to talk to Tori right now but they supposed they should at least hear them out. 

“I guess.” Flo shrugged before standing up from his crouching position. 

“Really? I thought you were going to say no,” Tori mumbled in disbelief before quickly getting to the point. “Anyway, I wanted to apologize for this morning. It was completely out of line for me to argue with you like that over something so small. Also, I talked it over with Gaty and apparently I have a habit of humming while I'm zoned out… Either way I'm sorry, will you accept my apology?” They nervously fiddled with the sleeve of their cardigan. 

Florence took a moment to think it over, if he was really being honest it should be him apologizing not Tori. Sure, they were getting on his nerves but he could’ve been a bit nicer. 

“I accept your apology, Two. Listen I-” 

“You do? Oh thank goodness! I thought you were going to hold a grudge against me because of this and hate me-” 

“I wasn't finished talking.” Florence grumbled, cutting off the beginning of what was sure to be a ramble from Tori. 

“Sorry.” 

Flo rolled his eyes at Tori’s apology, he knew they weren't cutting him off on purpose but dear math they needed to work on that. 

“Whatever. Anyway, I realized I was a bit mean to you this morning... So, I'm sorry for giving you a hard time.” Florence choked out while avoiding eye contact with their younger sibling. 

He suddenly felt two arms embrace him in a hug and his sibling’s body squeeze up against his.  

“Consider your apology accepted, Four!” Tori responded while hugging the older of the two, their usual enthusiastic tone returning.

Normally Flo would've pushed Tori off the second they tried hugging them, but since they were in a semi-good mood they decided to let it slide. 

“Whatever.” Florence sighed while patting Tori on the back, before nudging them off of him signalling the end of the hug. “Was that it?” 

“Yeah, pretty much,” Tori replied before looking like they suddenly remembered something. “Oh wait, I wanted to ask you something. You seemed pretty distracted during the workout earlier, what's up?” They asked with a curious expression. 

“Uh…” The blue haired teen trailed off as they tried to think of a good excuse. Truthfully, they had been thinking about Ximenia during the workout, but Tori didn't need to know that. What if they try stealing his new friend from him? “Nothing, I was just thinking about math.” He lied. 

“Math?” Tori queried, not fully believing Flo. 

“Math.” 

“Since when do you think about math when you’re working out?” The younger of the two questioned, while raising an eyebrow. 

“Since, uh… Today.” Flo responded, unconvincingly while trying to think of a way to get his younger sibling off of his back. “Y'know we went over something really interesting today in precal, Two. I could tell you about it if you want-” 

“Ah, no! Do not tell me what you went over in your math class today, Four. You know how I feel about math!” Tori snapped. “I hate it!” 

Florence snickered under his breath at Tori’s outburst. That worked every time he wanted Tori to stop pestering him. 

“Then stop asking me what I was thinking about during practice. It's none of your business!” Flo retorted. 

“Ok, ok! You could've just told me that instead of lying to me, jeez!” Tori exclaimed defensively before pulling out their phone and checking their notifications. “Oh. Mum just texted that she’s going to be coming home late today, lucky you! She won't find out that you had detention.” 

“Really?” Flo asked in disbelief. 

“Yeah, I wouldn't lie about something like that Four,” Tori flashed their phone screen at Florence showing the text from their mother. “She also said she was picking up dinner tonight, I hope she gets Cheesecake Factory and buys me cheesecake!” 

Florence felt himself smile after hearing the news about his mother, his worry about her finding out about his detention dissipated. He only hoped a certain blue haired nuisance didn't tell their mother, he knew how much she liked to get him in trouble. 

“Can't you bake your own cheesecake?” Flo asked, a tease on the edge of his voice. 

“Yeah, and? Don't get me wrong I love to bake but, there's just something about Cheesecake Factory’s cakes that I just love!” Tori exclaimed with a smile. 

“You're an addict.” Florence teased with an eye roll. “You beg for Cheesecake Factory at least twice a week.” 

“You're just a hater.” Tori playfully stuck their tongue out a Flo before occupying themself with their phone. 

Florence rolled their eyes at their sibling before returning to their previous task of tying their shoes. Shortly after they finished tying their shoes and getting their stuff together, the bell rang for dismissal. 

“Oh! There's the bell,” Tori exclaimed before putting their phone away and putting their bag on. “Bye-bye, Four-Four! See you at the house!” They waved before exiting the locker room. 

“See ya, Two-Two!” Florence called out before Tori left. 

Flo then put his bag on and exited the locker room himself, he had a smile on his face as walked out of the athletic building. 

He hoped he would still be smiling when he got home.

. 

. 

. 

Tori walked around the courtyard in search of their new friend in a chipper mood. They were happy their brother was in a good mood and they were happy that he accepted their apology. 

They were also quite curious about what Florence was thinking about during the workout today, he seemed quite distracted. In fact he was so distracted that he almost ran with the wrong group, he never does that. 

Tori ducked and dodged around groups of teenagers fooling around or running to catch the bus. 

‘Where could they be-’ 

“Hey, Two!” 

Tori was pulled out of their thoughts by a voice behind them. They whipped around to see Gracie sitting at a table with her friend Sawyer and a few of their other friends. 

“Oh hi, guys!” Tori returned the greeting and walked over to the group of friends. “I thought your bus already came?” 

“Nope, I wish it did though. It's hot out here.” Gracie sighed while fanning herself. 

“Yeah, our bus driver is running late so now we have to wait out here in the hot, hot, sun.” Sawyer chimed in. 

“Bummer, I wish I could drive so I could give you guys a ride home.” Tori mumbled. 

“Yeah… Well, enough about us. What are you doing?” Gracie asked. 

“Yeah, what are you doing? We’ve been watching you walk around the courtyard for the past couple of minutes.” Sawyer commented. 

“Oh, right! I was looking for the new kid, X! Have you seen him? I wanted to ask them if they wanted to walk home together.” Tori explained. 

“Hm…” Gracie hummed in thought. “I think Teardrop might know where he is, I saw them together earlier.” She tapped TD on the shoulder to get her attention before gesturing towards Tori.

“Uh, excuse me Teardrop. I don't mean to be a bother but, do you happen to know where X is?” Tori asked politely. 

The mute girl looked around the courtyard before pointing to the front gate near the entrance. 

Tori looked over there to see Steven and his group of friends along with X gathered over there talking. 

“Oh thank you, Teardrop! Your help is very much appreciated!” Tori rejoiced before starting to walk over towards the group of upperclassmen. “Bye, guys!” 

TD gave Tori a thumbs up in response before returning to her comic she was writing, while Gracie and Sawyer bid them goodbye as they walked off. 

As Tori started to get closer to the group Tenille as well as Elijah noticed them approaching and waved them over. 

“Hi, Ten! Hey, Eight!” Tori greeted the junior and senior duo as they made it to where the group was. 

“Hey.” Elijah replied nonchalantly with a nod of his head, returning the greeting. 

“Hi, Two!” Tenille responded, much more enthusiastically than his black haired friend. “What brings you over here?” 

“Well, I came over here because-” 

“Shouldn't you be at the house, Victoria?” 

Tori frowned at being interrupted, they really didn't like when people did that to them. They turned to where they heard the voice come from, to see their older sister glaring at them from their spot next to Steven.

They didn't notice her standing there, had they known she was there they wouldn't have even thought about asking X to walk home together.

They felt their a pit form in their stomach as their palms began to sweat, they needed to get out of here before-

“Hey, it's no problem, One. Two can hang out with us if they want to!” Steven put a hand on Ophelia's shoulder. “Two’s not here to cause any trouble. Right, Two?” 

“Uh.. Right. But, that's not why I came over here… I wanted to see if-” 

“Oh, but you don't understand,” Ophelia started, her expression softening into mock-concern as she turned face to Steven. “Two has dance practice today so they have to go home so they can get ready. Which is what they should be doing right now.” She explained with a bit of growl directed towards Tori. 

“Dance practice isn't until later, I have time to-” 

“Dance practice, smance practice, who cares! Two doesn't have to go to that, they can stay here and chill with us! Especially since they helped me win fifteen whole dollars!” Nigel exclaimed while pulling out the money that she won. 

“Yeah, yeah… You don't have to rub it in…” Silvia grumbled, still upset about losing their previous bet. 

“Well, that's great and all guys but that's not really what I came here to-” 

“Oh, but Two has to go to dance practice today. They have a recital coming up.” Ophelia calmly explained, keeping her irritation at bay. 

“Ooh, I love watching dance recitals! What type of dance are you-” 

“Whatever, it's just a dance recital! Two can skip one day of practice, just let them hang with us.” Steven argued, cutting off Ximenia. 

“I wasn't planning on skipping practice! And I don't have a recital coming up! I just wanted to know if-” 

“Yeah it's just a dance recital! I mean who cares about-” 

“OH MY MATH CAN I TALK?” Tori angrily snapped, cutting off Nigel. “Are you lot done talking over me?” They didn't mean to snap like that, but they were really getting irritated.

Tori received only slightly frightened nods in response, everyone being stunned by their change in demeanor. 

“Thank you.” Tori let out a slightly aggravated sigh before continuing, they hated when people talked over them to the point where they couldn't even get a word out. “X, you mentioned during lunch that you lived across the street from Seven. So, I was wondering if you wanted to walk home together? We live on the same street.” 

“Oh! Of course, I wouldn't mind walking home with you.” Ximenia replied with a smile. “Let's go! I'll see you guys tomorrow!” 

The two of them separated from the group to start walking out of the courtyard. 

Tori sighed to themself, that could've gone a lot better. At least Ophelia didn't try to chew them out in public that would've been embarrassing. If she did she would've given them an earful at home about how they, ‘made her look bad in public’. 

“So, was that your sister?” Ximenia asked after a couple minutes of walking. 

“Yeah, that was her. Ophelia better known as One,” Tori confirmed with a sigh. “Don’t get me wrong I love my sister, but sometimes I get the feeling that she doesn't really like me very much. Like she hates me for something I didn't even know that I did.” Their expression soured as they thought about their conflicting feelings toward their older sister.

Ximenia frowned at this. 

“Hey, don't say that. I don't know why she wouldn't like you, I think you're a great person Two.” He reassured with a smile. “Maybe she's just bad at showing that she cares.”

“...Yeah, maybe.” Tori responded unsurely with a shrug before changing the topic. “So how was your day?” 

“My day was pretty good… Oh, I made a new friend in my math class!” The blond haired teen exclaimed. 

“Ooh, tell me about them! What's their name?” Tori excitedly asked. 

“His name is Florence but he goes by Four! So we-” 

“Wait.” Tori spoke suddenly, cutting off X. 

“What? Is there something wrong?” Ximenia asked nervously. 

“What? No!” Tori responded with a small giggle. 

“Then, what is it…?” 

“Nothing it's just, I'm surprised you met my brother without realizing you met him! I told you about them during art, remember?” Tori laughed, finding X’s forgetfulness amusing. 

“Huh- Oh…” Ximenia’s face lit up in realization. “You did tell me about them! I was wondering why their name sounded familiar.” 

“Yeah, how did you not notice? Now continue with your story, I'm curious as to how you guys met!” Tori urged Ximenia to continue his story.

“Oh right, well, I first ran into Four this morning during third period. I had gotten lost so…” 

Tori felt a smirk break out on their face as X continued to tell their story. They were definitely going to pester Flo with this information later. 

. 

.

. 

After one hour of detention and about half a season of BFDI he was finally going home. 

He sighed as he made his way down the sidewalk leading to his house, he nearly fell asleep in the detention classroom, it was almost deathly quiet in there.

Florence shot a quick glance at his driveway to check if his mother was home as he neared his house. When he looked in the driveway he only saw one car there, his. 

They internally celebrated at this, it looked like Tori was right. Their mother wouldn't be finding out that they had detention. 

Flo felt himself smile as he made his way through the driveway and up to the front porch where the door was located. 

‘Finally, home at last.’ They thought to themself as they unlocked and opened the front door before stepping inside the house, and shutting the door behind him.

When Flo walked inside of his home he was met with an unusual quietness. Usually, whenever they came home he was either greeted with arguing, or a hello from either Tori or Ophelia if she was feeling nice. 

Guess, he was home alone for now. Not that he was complaining, being home alone meant he could watch his show without his siblings complaining. 

Florence walked into a hallway near the front of the house and passed three other rooms before getting to his. 

Flo pushed open the door to their room and flicked the light on before entering the room and putting their bag down. He then slipped his shoes off and put them in his closet before sitting down on his bed to think. 

‘Did they have any homework to do…?’ 

Florence thought back on their day before quickly determining that the answer was no, they didn't have any homework today. After all, they, for the most part, finished all their work in class. Having homework was more of a Tori thing, especially when it came to math. 

They snickered as they thought back on all of the times their mother had to sit at the table to force their younger sibling to do their math homework. It wasn't even like they were bad at math, they just didn't want to do it. 

Flo glanced over at their alarm clock, it was going on six o'clock, he supposed he could take a shower right now. Especially since his siblings weren't here to fight over the bathroom. 

They got up from their spot on the bed and walked over to a dresser in front of it to get some clean clothes. He pulled out some shorts, an oversized T-shirt, and most importantly his bonnet. They were not trying to wash their hair tonight, it would take them hours. 

Flo then exited his room and made a short walk across the hall to get to the bathroom. Upon entering the bathroom they turned on the light and locked the door before starting to run some water for their shower.

While waiting for the water to heat up Flo decided to take down their hair, they undid their two ponytails before putting a little bit of hair oil on their hands and massaging their scalp. He then did a quick twist out before putting his bonnet on and getting in the shower. 

By the time Flo came out of the shower, Ophelia had finally made it home. 

“Where have you been?” Florence asked as he exited the bathroom.

“I was out with my friends, something you don't have.” Ophelia swiftly replied with a sneer before moving past them to get to her room.

Florence growled at this and opened his mouth to argue before pausing and closing it as he remembered something. 

He had Ximenia, didn't they technically count as their friend… I mean sure, they just met today but Florence already felt like they had a connection to him, surely they had to be friends right? 

They pushed these thoughts to the back of his head as he made his way over to his room. 

He'd ask X tomorrow if they were friends.

They entered their room to put away their dirty clothes before quickly exiting the room again. 

Flo sped out of the hallway leading to his room, and walked past the kitchen to make it to the living room. He flopped down on one of the comfortable couches as he grabbed the remote to watch his favorite show. Finally time to watch some- 

“FOUR! DID YOU USE UP ALL OF THE HOT WATER!?” Ophelia shouted from the bathroom. “OTHER PEOPLE HAVE TO SHOWER Y’KNOW!” 

“WHATEVER, WHY DOES IT MATTER? YOU HAVE POWERS JUST MAKE THE WATER HOT AGAIN!” Florence shouted back at them. 

“JUST BECAUSE I HAVE POWERS DOESN'T MEAN I NEED TO USE THEM ALL THE TIME!” Ophelia retorted. 

Flo rolled his eyes at this, it's just water he didn't understand what the big deal was. He decided to tune out his twin in favor of watching his show; taking a shower with cold water wasn't going to kill them. 

About thirty minutes after Ophelia came home, Tori came home looking tired as well as sweaty from dance practice. 

“Damn what happened to you? You look like shit!” Ophelia commented as she walked toward the living room in her two-piece star themed pajamas with a matching bonnet on her head.

“Dance practice happened to me. I'm so tired…” Tori complained before dropping their dance bag on the floor and teleporting into the living room. 

Tori plopped down on the couch next to Flo much to his annoyance. 

“So what are we watching guys?” They asked while putting their feet on their older brother’s legs.

“What do you think we're watching? It's the same thing every time, Two.” Ophelia responded as she sat down in her arm chair.  “Can we watch something else?” 

“No.” Flo quickly replied before turning their attention to Tori. “Get your feet off of me! Go shower Two, you stink.” He pushed his younger sibling’s feet off of him before scooting away. 

“I won't go shower unless you give me a hug!” Tori inched closer to Florence with their arms open. 

“Ew, no! Not this again Two, go shower!” Florence snapped as they scooted further away from Tori. He had no idea why Tori liked to do this to them, they didn't want to smell like sweat right after they showered.

“Not unless you hug me!” The green haired teen retorted in a sing-song voice as they got closer to their older brother. 

Flo scrunched up their face before scooting away once again. Suddenly their face lit up as they came up with an idea to make Tori stop pestering him.

“Y’know we went over something very interesting in pre-cal today,” Florence started off with an innocent smile. “Right, One?” 

“Right! We did go over something pretty interesting…” Ophelia responded with a sly grin, immediately catching on. “Wanna hear about it Tw-”

“NO!” Tori snapped looking panicked. “I don't want to hear about it! Don't talk to me about math, I already hear enough about it at school!” 

“Then stop trying to hug me with your stinky, smelly body and go take a shower!” Flo replied with their eyebrows furrowed. 

“Ok, ok! I'll go, I’ll go!” Tori hurriedly got up from their spot on the couch and started walking in the direction of the bathroom. “I was only joking geez! Also, I still want my hug Four!” They shouted before disappearing out of their siblings’ line of sight.

The twins snickered at their younger sibling’s response, that worked every time. 

“Finally, good riddance!” Ophelia sighed out, with a bit of a laugh.

“Yeah.” Flo muttered in agreement before returning his attention back to his show. 

After a beat of silence Ophelia spoke up again. 

“Can we watch something el-” 

“No.” 

“Ugh, you suck!”

. 

. 

. 

After about twenty five minutes of arguing with their twin over the TV remote Tori came out of the bathroom wearing a nightgown with a bonnet of the same color. 

“Hey guys! I'm back from the-” 

“UGH, YOU'RE BEING SO STUBBORN JUST GIVE ME THE REMOTE!” Ophelia snapped at her twin, unintentionally cutting off Tori. 

“No.” Flo responded with a grin from their spot on the ceiling. “If you want the remote you're going to have to come and get it!” 

“FINE!” Ophelia started to fly up to where Flo was before they suddenly felt themself being stopped. She looked down to see a green aura enveloping her and Tori’s hand glowing green.

“Woah, woah, woah guys what's all of this about?” Tori asked as they flew up to Ophelia’s level. “I'm sure this problem can be solved without the use of violence. Why don't you two try talking things out for a change? Surely that would work better than-” 

“Two, let me go so I can get the remote from Four!” Ophelia shouted while trying to break out of their younger sibling’s telekinetic grip. 

“What is with you interrupting me? Seriously you need to-” Tori cut themself off as their expression changed to a confused one. “Wait the remote? You two have been fighting over that?”

“Yes we have because One doesn't want to let me watch my show!” The oldest of the three of them screeched from the ceiling. 

“Your show is stupid and nobody wants to watch it!” The light blue haired teen yelled up at Flo. 

Florence gasped dramatically, how dare she insult his show. 

“You take that back!” Florence growled, pointing a finger at Ophelia. 

“Make me.” Ophelia challenged with a smirk. 

“Fine!” Flo jumped up from their spot on the ceiling and started to dive down at One, only to be stopped midway by Tori’s telekinesis. 

“Hey! What’d I say about fighting?” The youngest of the trio asked while bringing Flo down to their level. “Can't we just talk this out-”

“NO! We cannot talk this out because One insulted my show!” Florence snapped at Tori. 

“It's not an insult if it's true.” Ophelia muttered with an eye roll. 

Another dramatic gasp came from Flo’s mouth. 

“Hey, that wasn't very nice One.” Tori commented with a frown. “Y’know guys, this isn't what I meant by talking it ou-” 

“TAKE THAT BACK! BFDI DOES NOT SUCK!” Flo screeched while trying to pry his way out of Tori’s telekinetic hold. “LET ME GO!”

“I don't think I will be taking that back, because it really does suck and it's childish! Right, Tori?” Ophelia scoffed. 

“Uh, I'm not really comfortable with being put on the spot like that… But personally I don't think that-” 

“Oh my gumdrop you're agreeing with her aren't you?!” Flo exclaimed while looking hurt. “And here I thought you enjoyed watching BFDI with me…” 

“What?!” Tori turned towards their older brother with a panicked expression. “I never said that! You didn't let me finish! Listen, I do enjoy watching your show with you, and I think that-” 

“DON'T SPARE HIS FEELINGS TWO, LET HIM KNOW HOW YOU REALLY FEEL ABOUT HIS STUPID SHOW!” Ophelia shouted over Tori. “AND LET THEM KNOW ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU DON'T LIKE THE TV BEING TAKEN OVER BY-” 

“SHUT UP, ONE THEY WEREN'T TALKING TO YOU!” Florence cut off their twin. “IT'S OKAY TWO, DON'T LET HER BULLY YOU INTO SAYING YOU DON'T LIKE MY SHOW! NOW TELL HER HOW MUCH YOU LIKE BFD-” 

“BULLYING THEM? I AM NOT-” 

“OH MY ALGEBRA CAN I TALK WITHOUT YOU TWO TALKING OVER ME!?” Tori snapped, effectively shutting the two of them up. “Are you two done now?” 

The twins nodded in response. 

“Thank you.” Tori sighed tiredly, clearly done with their bickering. “Now as I was saying, personally I-” They paused in the middle of their sentence as they tilted their head in the direction of the front door, as if they were trying to hear something. 

“Wait. Are you guys hearing what I'm hearing?”

“What are you talking about-?” 

“Shh! Listen.” Tori shushed Ophelia before jutting a finger in the direction of the front door.

The three siblings floated there in silence for a few seconds before a loud and very familiar sound became apparent, it was the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. 

Their mother was home. 

“Shoot mom’s home! Put us down Tori, she can't know we were arguing again or we won't hear the end of it!” Ophelia shouted frantically. 

“Right, right!” Tori exclaimed before placing their siblings on the ground and floating down themself. 

They heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor and the sound of car keys jingling gradually getting louder. 

“Everyone act natural!” Flo blurted out before teleporting over to the couch and sitting down. 

Ophelia ran over to her armchair and Tori hopped over the back of the couch to sit next to Florence. 

Soon enough they heard the sound of the front door opening and keys being hung up as the front door was closed. 

“Kids I’m home, come and get dinner!” Their mother, Infinity, a black woman with pastel rainbow hair, called out as she made her way into the kitchen. 

She walked to the kitchen table next to the living room to put the food down. After putting the food down she started to walk back to the kitchen to wash her hands, but stopped once she caught a glance of the living room. 

“Oh, that's where you all are. I don't know why you're all sitting around, start washing your hands so you can eat.” Infinity said before continuing her walk to the kitchen sink. “Also, Two put your dance bag in your room. You know that's not where it goes.” 

“Yes ma'am.” Tori compiled by snapping their fingers and teleporting their bag into their room. “So, what’d you get for dinner? Did you get Cheesecake Factory?” They asked as they made their way into the kitchen where Infinity was. 

“Nope, I got Asian food tonight. Sorry, Two.” Infinity responded as she finished up washing her hands. 

“Aw…” Tori sighed, disappointed at their lack of cheesecake as they started to wash their hands. “I really wanted cheesecake today too.”

“You can't have cheesecake everyday, Two. You do this every time I get something other than Cheesecake Factory.” Infinity sighed exasperatedly as she moved over to the table to start separating the food. “And can't you make your own cheesecake?” 

“Ugh, that’s the same thing Four said.” Tori groaned as they finished washing their hands and went over to the table to sit down. 

Shortly after Tori sat down Flo turned off the TV and got up to wash their hands. 

“Seriously, now you don't wanna watch TV anymore?” Ophelia asked incredulously before getting up to follow her twin into the kitchen. “You're so selfish.”

“Whatever.” Flo muttered in response as he started to wash his hands, clearly not caring about Ophelia's insult. 

After he finished washing his hands he walked over to the table to take their seat next to Tori. Shortly after, Ophelia joined them at the table and took the seat across from the two of them. 

Soon, food was passed out and everyone was sitting down at the table. After everyone was situated Infinity decided to speak up. 

“How was school, Two?” She asked from her spot at the head of the table while dipping a piece of sushi in soy-sauce. 

“Hm, it was pretty good. I made a new friend in my art class today, and was actually on time for all of my classes.” Tori responded with a small smile, before putting a piece of their gyoza in their mouth. 

“And how was track practice?” Infinity asked, putting a piece of sushi in her mouth. 

Tori took a moment to chew their food before responding. 

“Track practice was pretty good, we did repeat 400’s today. Four was pretty happy about that,” Tori replied after they swallowed. “I got to run in a group with Four, Eight and Ten.” 

“The junior and senior who live down the street?” Infinity asked once she was done chewing and swallowing her food. 

“Mhm.” Tori nodded in confirmation before putting another piece of gyoza in their mouth. 

“How did you do?” The pastel haired woman asked as she picked up another piece of sushi with her chopsticks. 

“Pretty good actually. Although, I was a bit intimidated at first because Eight runs the 800 so he’s pretty fast on the 400, and Ten’s the fastest senior on the team!” Tori explained. “And, do I even need to explain why I was afraid of Four? Anyway we finished at around the same time on almost all of them.” 

“That's right you better be afraid of me, the 400 is my event! Keep your grubby 200 meter dash paws away from it!” Flo blurted out, before returning to their bowl of ramen. 

“They have you running with juniors and seniors during practice?” Ophelia asked while putting some ginger in a piece of sushi. 

“Yup, they sure do!” 

“I'm surprised you're not getting your ass beat out there.”

“Rude.” 

“Hey, language, Ophelia. Not at the dinner table.” Infinity scolded before changing the topic. “How was dance practice, Two?” 

Tori looked away and averted eye contact with their mother when the topic of dance practice came up. 

“Uh, dance practice was…” Tori trailed off, their eyes darting around the room as they tried to think of a suitable lie. “Okay, I can't lie to you, dance practice was horrible. We got in trouble today, so instead of working on turns we did conditioning for the whole entire practice.” They sighed out, seeming upset. 

Ophelia choked back a snicker at their younger sibling’s pathetic story, so that's why they looked so beat up when they got home. 

“Wow. I am so glad I only have wrestling practice twice a week.” Flo said with a barely disguised laugh. “I know you were tired.” 

“I was. Don't even get me started on how tired I was, it was horrible.” Tori complained, screwing their face up. “I was so mad, and it wasn't even my fault that we got in trouble! She just made the whole team do it!”

“Aw, I'm sorry dance practice didn't go well for you, honey.” Infinity sympathized, reaching over to pat her youngest on the back. 

“...It's okay, it's not your fault…” Tori grumbled before returning to their food. 

Infinity gave Tori a sympathetic look before turning her attention to Florence. 

“Now, Florence, how was your day?” She asked.

“It was okay, I made a new friend during class today. Track practice was also pretty good too.” Flo explained with a smile as he thought about X, purposely leaving out the bad parts he knew his mother would be concerned about. 

“Good, One how was yours?” Infinity turned her attention towards Ophelia.

“Pretty good, during student council I got to go to the principal’s office to talk with the principal. I also got to hang out with my friends after school.” Ophelia summed up her day with an innocent smile. 

“Good, I'm glad you all had a good day today.” Infinity smiled. 

A couple minutes of silence passed before Infinity spoke again. 

“Hey, Florence, a little birdy told me you got sent to the principal’s office today. Care to explain yourself?” Infinity question, her smile seeming a bit strained. 

Flo felt their blood run cold as they nearly choked on their ramen, this couldn't be happening. 

“... Ma'am?” Florence choked out with a cough. “What are you talking about?” 

“I said,” Infinity’s smile completely dropped as she continued her sentence. “A little birdy told me you got sent to the principal’s office today. Why were you sent there?” She put down her chopsticks and crossed her arms at her oldest child. 

“I… Um…” Florence stammered, their face screwing up into a nervous expression. Who told her…? 

Flo looked at Tori from the corner of his eye, their face looked neutral. But when he looked down he saw them bunching up the bottom of their nightgown with their hands. He also noticed that Tori was oddly still, not fidgeting with anything other than their clothes.

They were just as nervous as he was, it couldn't have been them. 

“A little birdy also told me that you had detention today. You also got marked absent in your third period, care to explain that as well?” Infinity’s stare bore into Florence, she knew they were guilty she was just waiting on them to admit it. 

He sent a quick glance at Ophelia and caught a glance of her failing to hide her shit eating grin. That asshole. 

“A little birdy, or a little blue bitch named Ophelia!?” Florence screeched as he got up and slammed his hands on the table. “You're such an asshole!” 

“Hey! No yelling or cursing at the dinner table, Florence Quattuor Half-let sit down.” Infinity sternly reprimanded. 

“No! While we're on the topic of principal’s office visits, y’know who else got sent to the principal’s office?” Florence shouted, shooting a look at their younger sibling. 

“Victoria Duo Half-let. Don't tell me you got sent to the principal’s office as well.” Infinity moved her now angry gaze onto her youngest child.

Tori's face dropped as they flashed a look of betrayal over at Flo. “Uh… Well-” 

“FLORENCE YOU BASTARD I WAS GOING TO USE THAT AS BLACK MAIL!” Ophelia shouted over Tori, also getting up and slamming her hands on the table. 

“Ophelia Unus Half-let, what have I told you three about yelling at the dinner table sit down.” Infinity warned with barely constrained anger. 

“I'll sit down if that TV hog over there sits down first. BFDI isn't even that good…” Ophelia retorted, rolling her eyes. 

“What did you say?” Florence growled.

“Uh guys, can we not fight at the dinner table? I’d like to eat my food…” Tori mumbled while scooting away from their older brother. 

“I said, BFDI isn't even that good. In fact, I think it sucks and-” 

Ophelia was abruptly cut off by her twin leaping over the table and tackling her to the ground. 

The two of them wrestled on the ground for a few seconds before Infinity separated them with her telekinesis. 

“You're both grounded for a month. I want you both to come straight home after school, and don't even think about going anywhere outside the neighborhood with your friends.” She said harshly before releasing them from her hold. “As for you Victoria, you're closing down your shop for a whole month no deliveries no nothing.” 

“What?! But I didn't even do anything, Mum!? You can't-” 

“Aht, aht, aht! I don't care. All three of you go to your rooms now.” Infinity commanded with a stern look. 

Tori got up from the table looking like they were about to cry, they didn't bother sparing a glance at the twins as they pushed past them to go to their room. 

Ophelia and Florence sent glares at each other before following Tori shortly after. 

“Fuck you Florence.” Ophelia muttered before walking inside her room and shutting the door. 

Flo flipped her off in response before going into his room.

So much for having a good rest of his day, he knew it was too good to be true. 

He hoped tomorrow would be better.

Chapter Text

Florence was awakened from their slumber by the sound of footsteps near his bed. After being sent to their room Flo decided to just call it a night, and went to bed. After watching some BFDI on his phone of course. 

They pushed themself up to a sitting position and rubbed their eyes, who was in their room?

Flo opened his eyes to be met with two green glowing eyes looking back at him. 

Any normal person would be terrified at this, fortunately the blue haired teen was far from normal and wasn't freaked out in the slightest.

They instead let out a tired sigh and blinked a few times to let their eyes adjust to their dark surroundings. After blinking a few times his eyes started to glow blue as the figure in front of them started to become more clear. 

It was Tori, holding a piece of paper. Dear math, what did his sibling want? 

“What?” Florence asked groggily, they would much rather be sleeping right now. They could ignore Tori but they would find a way to wake them up, they always did. 

“Can you check my math homework?” The green haired teen shuffled over to the side of Flo’s bed and sat down before handing him the paper and a pencil. 

Florence’s face lit up at this, he did love checking people's work. Although part of them was confused, why was Tori up doing homework? Whatever, they weren't going to ask after all, they had all of this math to look over. 

“Of course! You know I love math!” Flo exclaimed, seeming more awake as they snatched the paper and pencil from their sibling. 

“Thanks.” Tori mumbled before laying down on their older brother’s bed as they waited.

Florence looked over his younger sibling’s math homework, if he was being honest they were pretty good at math. They weren't as good as him of course, but he didn't notice anything wrong about their homework. 

“Your homework looks great, you got no questions wrong!” The older of the two of them said with a smile, dangling the homework as well as the pencil in front of Tori’s face.

“Great, that means I don't have to go re-do it.” They smiled before reaching up and grabbing the items. 

“Yeah.” Florence responded. “Is that it?” 

“Uh, yes? But-”

“Great! Now get out of my room, it's night-night time.” Flo pointed to the door before moving to lay down again.

“Wait- I-” 

“Leave. I would like to go back to sleep Two!” They snapped their fingers and teleported their younger sibling off the bed. 

“Ow!” Tori exclaimed as they fell on the hard floor. “Four, please just hear me out!” They pleaded as they got up. 

“No! It's sleepy-time for me and you, go back to sleep!” Flo snapped before getting up from their bed and pushing Tori towards the door. “Goodnight, Two!”

“Ugh, but Four I can't sleep!” Tori complained while digging their heels into the ground. 

“How is that my problem?” Florence questioned, continuing to push Tori.

“It isn't, I never said it was! C’mon, Four I'm bored and I need someone to talk to!” 

“Why don't you try talking to Gaty?” 

“I was on the phone with her earlier, but she fell asleep so I ended the call.” Tori admitted with a frown. 

“Womp, womp, not my problem. Go to sleep.” Florence grumbled. 

“But, I can't, I'm tired but I can't fall asleep!” Tori teleported back into Florence's room as they started to get close to the door. “Four, please just stay awake and talk to me, or at least let me talk to you! I hate it when I'm awake with just myself and my thoughts!” 

“No! Try harder to fall asleep, doesn't baking usually make you-” Flo paused in the middle of their sentence, usually when Tori’s thoughts were keeping them awake they would bake. But, their mother said they couldn't work on anything for their baking business for a whole month, which included baking. If their mother woke up and saw Tori baking she would assume they were making something for their business.

The blue haired teen took a long look at their younger sibling, they looked exhausted. Florence actually felt a little bad for them, not that they would ever admit it out loud. Flo also had similar experiences with his thoughts keeping him awake, usually when it happened to him he would watch BFDI until he inevitably passed out. Or, he would info-dump on Tori.

…He supposed it would be kind of selfish to not help Tori out, and Florence wasn't keen on being known as a selfish person. 

“Listen, Two, if I help you fall asleep, will you leave me alone?” Flo asked with a tired sigh. 

“Yes, I promise I will! I want to sleep just as badly as you do!” Tori eagerly agreed, nodding their head wildly. 

Florence sighed as he began to think about something that would make their younger sibling fall asleep, a faint smile appeared on his face as he came up with an idea. Coffee always made him feel sleepy rather than more awake, he had a feeling it would have the same effect on Tori. 

“C’mon.” Flo mentioned for Tori to follow them as they started to walk out of their room.

The two siblings walked out of Florence's room and made their way to the kitchen. Once they arrived there Flo plugged in the coffee maker and got out some coffee grounds. 

“What’cha making?” Tori asked, peeking over their older brother’s shoulder. 

“You’ll see.” He responded while putting the coffee grounds into the machine and starting it. 

A peaceful silence washed over the sibling duo while the coffee maker ran, the only sound that could be heard in the kitchen was the sound of coffee brewing.

“So… I heard you made a new friend today during your math class.” Tori broke the silence, trying to start up a conversation. 

“Yeah, I mentioned that during dinner.” Flo looked away from Tori as a small smile emerged on his lips. “He’s really nice to me and-” He paused his sentence in order to think about what their younger sibling said. They never mentioned what class they met X in during dinner. 

“Wait a minute, I never said what class we met in.” They turned to look at Tori, who was looking at them with a cheeky grin. 

“Nope, you sure didn't!” Tori replied cheekily. “I wonder how I found that out-”

“How do you know that?!” Florence asked while gripping Tori’s shoulders and shaking them a little. 

“I know because I'm friends with him, too silly! X and I have the same art class!” They explained with a laugh. “Crazy, coincidence huh?” 

Oh. Florence deflated at this, Ximenia’s also friends with their younger sibling. What if X decides they don't like him any more and ditches him for Tori? He couldn't let that happen!

“Y’know, we walked home together, X and I, and he seems very fond of you! From what I heard it seems like you two get along pretty well.” Tori mentioned, not yet aware of their older sibling’s mental anguish. 

“...Yeah, I really like him.” Flo mumbled. 

“Good! I'm glad you're making more friends Four, I like seeing you happy!” The green haired teen exclaimed with a smile before their face shifted into a concerned expression, having finally noticed Florence's change in demeanor. “What's wrong?” 

“Nothing it's just…” Flo trailed off, unsure of how to explain how he was feeling. “X is my friend and I don't want you to take him away from me!” They definitely could've worded that better, but they've never been the best when it came to feelings. 

“Take him away from you? Why would I do that?” Tori asked, their expression shifting from concern to confusion. “I mean I wouldn't like it if someone took Gaty away from me, so why would I take X away from you?” 

“Because you-! Uh…” Florence trailed off as he tried to think of a rebuttal. “I-I don't know why you’d do it, but you might! I know we just met but X is really special to me, and I don't want anyone to take him away from me!” He shouted getting a bit emotional, Ximenia was one of his only friends at the moment he couldn't risk them leaving him for someone else. Sure they had Steven and his crew, but it wasn't the same.

Tori's expression shifted into something more serious as they started talking. 

“Listen, Florence, I would never do something like that to you. I remember how devastated you were when One broke up your friendship with Three-”

“She stole them away from me!” Flo snapped, cutting off their younger sibling. 

“... Right, stole them away from you. Look, I don't like seeing the people I love upset, and I love you very much Four. You were heartbroken when Three said they didn't want to be friends with you anymore! So why would I steal X away from you and make you sad all over again?” Tori asked with a quirked brow. 

Florence took a moment to process all that was said to them, their sibling did have a point. Tori tended to care deeply for those around them, and when they found out that Three unfriended him they also cut them off in solidarity. They were his biggest supporter during his time of need and at times it seemed like they were more upset than he was. 

His younger sibling was a lot of things, cocky, impulsive, stubborn, annoying. But they weren't a monster, at least not like a certain blue haired twin of their’s. 

“...You promise you won't try to take X away from me.” Flo asked in a quiet unsure voice, not entirely believing them.

“I promise. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you like that Four.” Tori replied in a firm voice. 

The two siblings fell into an awkward silence, well at least it was awkward on Flo’s part, they were never really fond of being emotionally vulnerable like that. He fidgeted in place as he thought of something to do or say. 

“...I guess I should probably apologize for getting you in trouble at the dinner table…” Florence quietly mumbled. 

“Hm? You don't have to apologize, it was my idea to tell One, you were only keeping your word.” Tori shrugged, seeming like they already got over what happened a few hours ago. “I'm not upset or anything if that's what you're wondering, if I was I'd let you know.” 

Flo’s expression changed into a confused one, their younger sibling seemed pretty upset when their mother sent them to their rooms earlier. 

“But… I could've sworn you were-” 

“Unimportant!” Tori blurted out, interrupting Flo. “Seriously, Four, don't stress your blue head out worrying about me, I'm fine! ...Besides it's not like you're the one I'm mad at or anything…” They muttered the last part under their breath. 

“Wait- What was that-” 

“Hey, back on the topic of both of us being friends with X, isn't it so cool that we have a mutual friend?” Tori cut off their older brother to change the topic. 

“I guess it's pretty cool.” Florence shrugged, more confused than before. “I like X, but what does that have to do with-”

“The two of us having a mutual friend means we can go out and do stuff together!” Tori once again ignored their sibling’s question in favor of changing the topic. “We could go to the Equation playground, go to football games together, choir concerts- Ooh! All three of us have the same lunch so could eat lunch together and maybe-” 

“Two, stop ignoring me and cutting me off!” Florence shouted, stopping their younger sibling’s rambling. 

“Huh? Oh sorry, Four, I didn't realize you were trying to talk.” The younger of the two apologized insincerely.

“You definitely did…” The blue haired teen grumbled under his breath. “You ready to address the elephant in the room?” 

“Whaaaat? What elephant? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about-” 

“Yes you do! You're obviously mad at One!” Flo snapped. “I'm mad at her too, I don't know why you're so afraid of admitting it.” He rolled his eyes. At times it seemed like Tori tried to avoid showing negative emotions. Whenever they did it was usually because they just slipped out, or their emotions got the best of them. 

Their sibling’s face flashed anger at them.

“I'm NOT-!” Tori took a second to regain their composure, realizing they were about to start yelling. “I'm not mad at her, nor am I afraid to admit it. I'm just a little cross with her.” Their expression shifted to an annoyed one rather than an angered one. 

“Heh, cross you're so British.” Flo teased before getting back on topic. “But, seriously, even if you're just ‘annoyed’ at her, like you claim, you're allowed to be upset. Just don't do anything crazy like last time, remember 7th grade?” 

Tori's face dropped at the reminder of their rough 7th grade year, that was the year Ophelia was relentlessly bullying them. They had moved back to the states after living with their dad in the U.K not that long ago and Ophelia didn't like them very much, which led to her bullying them.

Tori could've told someone but they didn't because no one would've believed them, and no one still believes them to this day. But eventually they had enough and just snapped at her in the hallway one day, they ended up having a huge fight. Their mum was pissed to say the least and they both got in huge trouble. Tori won the fight, so Ophelia doesn't even try to do anything to piss them off to that degree anymore. But that doesn't stop her from trying to get on their nerves. 

“...I don't think I want to do anything like that again, I hurt One pretty badly…” They muttered regretfully. 

“Hurt her pretty badly is an understatement, you fucked her up! She had to get staples in her head and stitches!” Flo laughed while reminiscing on his twin’s misfortune, but quickly stopped after noticing Tori’s sorrowful expression. “Look, I know middle school was a bad time for you but you're a better, changed person now. When I look at you now I don't see the angry jerk that moved here from the U.K, I see my annoying younger sibling who likes to bake and get on my nerves.” He awkwardly wrapped an arm around his younger sibling’s shoulder in an attempt at comforting them. 

“You really mean that?” Tori asked feeling insecure, they really didn't like the person that they were during middle school. 

“Mhm.” Flo hummed in confirmation before falling quiet. 

The two siblings fell into a comfortable silence that was shortly broken by the coffee maker beeping, signalling that the coffee was done. 

Florence detached from Tori’s side to grab a mug as well as a coffee creamer and some milk. Their younger sibling didn't like bitter things so they doubted that they would enjoy drinking straight up black coffee. 

He poured the coffee into the mug before adding in the creamer and milk. They then grabbed a stirring straw to mix the contents of the mug together before quickly disposing of it. 

“Here, it's coffee, it'll help you sleep.” Flo explained, handing the mug to Tori. “Caffeine has the opposite effect on me, so I thought it might do the same thing to you.” 

“What makes you think that?” Tori asked while taking a sip of the hot drink. 

“The fact that when we were driving to your dance competition last year One dared you to drink a hydro flask full of Monster Energy, and you drank it and immediately fell asleep after.” Florence snickered at that memory, Tori didn't wake up until they were checking into the hotel. 

“That's what was!? I thought it was just water!? And you're telling me this now??” Tori snapped, walking towards their room. “For the longest time I thought she put sleeping pills in the water!” 

Florence started laughing even harder at this as he started to make their way to their own room.

“Nope! It was Monster, it was so funny you looked so confused when you woke up!” They laughed. 

“Wow it's official you're the worst brother ever.” Tori spat out in mock anger as they neared their room. 

“Whatever, you're just a hater.” Flo teased. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Four,” Tori playfully rolled their eyes at their brother before entering their room. “Goodnight, Four.”

“Goodnight, Two.” Florence called out before going to enter their own room. 

Florence then went inside his bed and went back to sleep, part of him hoped he could do this again sometime. He didn't mind being around his younger sibling as much as he used to. 

. 

. 

. 

Unbeknownst to the two siblings, a third one was awake over hearing their entire conversation. 

Florence and Victoria getting along, not on her watch. 

Ophelia smiled to herself, a wicked sinister thing, she knew just how to drive a wedge into their relationship. 

Chapter Text

When Florence made it to school that morning he was greeted by the sight of none other than Gabriel standing by his locker. 

Dear math, they hoped he wasn't waiting for them. It wasn't like he hated the green haired teen, he just wasn't in the mood to talk to him at the moment. He hoped he was there to wait for one of his friends and not to bother him.

Unfortunately as fate was usually not on their side, Flo would not be that lucky. 

When Flo started nearing his locker, Gabriel perked up and started waving at him and motioning them to come over. 

Florence heaved a tired sigh at this, what did he want this time? 

“Hi, Gelatin.” Flo dryly greeted the green haired teen as they came to a stop in front of their locker. 

“Sup’, Fourster! How’s it hanging?” Gabriel enthusiastically greeted, shooting finger guns at the blue haired teen. 

“It's uh hanging,” Flo mumbled, unlocking his locker. “Did you need something?” 

“Oh, right-” Gabriel suddenly went down on his knees in a kneeling position before clasping his hands together. “I am SO sorry for getting you in trouble yesterday, Four! I swear I wasn't trying to hit you, please don't be mad!” He exclaimed, seeming desperate for forgiveness. 

Oh. An apology was not what he was expecting. They weren't mad at Gabriel nor did they hold a grudge against him for what happened yesterday. He was moreso mad at a certain twin of his. 

“Whatever.” Flo shrugged, grabbing a couple of books out of his locker. 

“So you accept my apology right?” Gabriel asked, only to get a blank stare in response. “I'm taking that as a yes.” 

The green haired teen got up off of his knees and brushed himself off. 

“Well, I'll see you around Fourster! Next time I throw forks down the hallway, I'll make sure you're not in the way. Bye!” Gabriel quickly blurted out before darting down the hallway in search of one of his other friends. 

Florence rolled his eyes as Gabriel walked away before closing his locker. That boy was odd, they didn't even see Gabriel after the incident in the hallway yesterday. Why did he think they were mad at him? 

Whatever, they’d rather not spend their time wondering about what goes in Gabriel’s head. 

Flo pushed his thoughts about the green haired teen aside as they started to walk to their homeroom. 

Upon arrival they promptly sat down at their desk near the door before putting their stuff on their desk and turning on their phone. 

When Flo powered on his phone he was met with multiple notifications from the group chat he was in with Steven and his friends. 

They honestly had no idea why they were in that group chat in the first place. Florence barely talked to any of the people in the group chat anymore. All of them used to be close when they were younger but he just started drifting away from the group. 

He rarely checks the group chat but he just can't find it in him to leave it. 

Flo sighed to themself as they opened up the group chat for the first time in months, they better not regret this. 

.    .     .

DA BOYZZ 🔥🔥🔥

unfunnyjokes: heyyy 

unfunnyjokes: do you guys wanna meet up in the library today?? I need help with the english hw 😭

funpolice: that depends are u actually going to do your work this time or fuck around and get us kicked out 😐

funpolice: also who changed the gc name???

sixerr🎨🖌️: god forbid we have a fun gc name 🙄

funpolice: it isn't fun it just sounds stupid like you 

funpolice changed the name to ‘Equation Street GC’

sixerr🎨🖌️: the fun police is at it again people 😒

sunnies🛹: aw I liked that name ☹️ 

to funpolice  – > unfunnyjokes: it wasn't even my fault last time, we got kicked out bc u n six were arguing 💀

funpolice: sybau 

sixerr🎨🖌️: sybau 

sunnies🛹: please say we're going to the library today guys I need the answers for the chem hww 😓🙏🙏

cardgames🎱: I am NOT giving you my answers again nine 

sunnies🛹: eight bro please I need them 😭🙏

sunnies🛹: I have a 50% rn I can't afford another missing ☹️☹️

cardgames🎱: oh my math just do your homework it isn't that hard 

sunnies🛹: I can't I gotta hop on Fortnite when I get home 😓

sixerr🎨🖌️: r we deadass rn 💀 

sunnies🛹: yes dude ☹️ 

funpolice: how do you have a 50% the school year JUST started 

sunnies🛹: idk bro 😭 

to unfunnyjokes – > One🌠: I can help u with the hw seven :) 

unfunnyjokes: TYSMM ONE 

unfunnyjokes: ILYSM 

One🌠: yw <3

sunnies 🛹: DO U HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THE CHEM HW 1 ☹️

One🌠: sorry nine I took chem last year 😓

sunnies🛹: 😭😭😭

sunnies🛹: DOES ANYONE HAVE THE ANSWERS BRO 

cardgames🎱: istg just do ur hw it isn't going to kill u 😐 

sunnies🛹: I fell asleep in class yesterday idk how to do it 😔 

sixerr🎨🖌️: haha 

funpolice: shut up 

sixerr🎨🖌️: u first big mouth 

to unfunnyjokes – > Ten!!: I'll meet up in the library with u seven :) 

sunnies🛹: tennn do u remember how to do chemistry ☹️

Ten!!: not really sorry nine I wish I could help you 😓

sunnies🛹: brooo I'm so cooked 😭 

cheesecake🍰: I can help u with your hw nine 😚

cheesecake🍰: I finished the paper during class yesterday lol

sunnies🛹: ILY TWO TYY 🥹

sunnies🛹: I'll make sure to order something from u to pay u back 🙏🙏

cheesecake🍰: yww!! but I got in trouble last night so I can't bake rn ☹️ 

sunnies🛹: that sucks I'll pay u back in some other way ig 😔

Ten!!: so are we all going to the library?

funpolice: yea 

funpolice: just don't get us kicked out again guys 

sixerr🎨🖌️: not u talking like you're not the problem here 

funpolice: you're also apart of the problem six

sixerr🎨🖌️: no 

funpolice: yes 

cardgames🎱: shut up u both cause problems 

to Ten!! – > X: I'll go too! :D 

cheesecake🍰: hi X :) 

X: hi two :3

.   .   . 

Flo felt his heart nearly skip a beat when he saw Ximenia’s name appear on the screen. Originally they weren't going to say anything but now they felt compelled to type out a message. They weren't going to pass up an opportunity to hangout with their new friend. 

.    .    .  

RIP: I'll go too

RIP: wtf why is my name like this

One 🌠: omg four’s saying their first words 🥹

RIP: stfu 😒

RIP changed their name to ‘Four!💭🏝️’

unfunnyjokes: dude we thought u blocked us what happened 😭

sunnies🛹: we thought u hated us fourbro ☹️

Four! 💭🏝️: I just didn't feel like talking 🤷‍♀️  

cheesecake🍰: why?

cardgames🎱: cuz y'all are bums have y'all seen the stuff we talk about in here 💀

cheesecake🍰: ☹️ 

cardgames🎱: not u two ur one of the normal ones 

cheesecake🍰: oh ok 

cheesecake🍰: also hi fourr :3 

Four!💭🏝️: hi 

Ten!!: hi four! 👋

Four!💭🏝️: hi ten!

X: hello four!! 😁 

Four!💭🏝️: HI X! :))

cheesecake🍰: wow you're fake asf for that 😒

sixerr🎨🖌️: someone clearly has a favorite 💀

funpolice: u always have something to say don't you

sixerr🎨🖌️: ur acting like u don't?? out of everyone in here u clearly have the biggest mouth 🙄

sixerr🎨🖌️ changed funpolice’s name to ‘bigmouth’

bigmouth changed sixerr🎨🖌️’s name to ‘dumbass’

dumbass: it's on sight next time I see u five

cardgames🎱: are we seriously doing this rn guys 😐

Ten!!: if u guys are gonna fight please take it to dm’s ☹️🙏

One🌠: please do bc no one wants to read 11 paragraphs of u 2 screaming at each other 

bigmouth: fine  

dumbass: wtvr 

sunnies🛹: we're going to the library when the bell rings right 

unfunnyjokes: yea 

unfunnyjokes: it should be ringing soon I'm pretty sure 

.     .     .  

Shortly after Steven sent those last two messages the group chat went quiet and the bell rang. 

Flo waited for their teacher to get done taking attendance before asking for a pass to the library. Their teacher seemed a bit reluctant at first, even having the nerve to ask why he was going to the library, but ultimately she wrote them a pass and let them leave.

‘What did she think I was going to do, fight someone in the library? Jeez.’ Florence thought to themself as they walked out of the classroom and down the hallway, offended at his teacher’s reluctance to write him a pass. 

It wasn't like he was mad, angry or wild and unpredictable all the time, it wasn't his fault that his emotions got the best of him sometimes. He wished people would stop automatically assuming the worst of them, they were more than their faults. 

Flo blocked out their negative thoughts as they neared the library, they didn't feel like having an emotional episode today. He especially didn't feel like having one in front of a group of friends that he hasn't hung out with since middle school. 

Whatever, feelings are annoying and stupid. Besides, he didn't have time to think about this. They were about to hang out with their new friend in the library, they shouldn't be upset. 

Florence pushed open the doors to the library and entered the large book-filled room. They used to come here for lunch during their freshman year to watch BFDI before they got their car. 

The library was a maze of bookshelves and books, and had various different tables, chairs, and seating arrangements scattered around the large room. 

The blue haired teen searched the various seating arrangements for any sign of his former friend group, before finally landing on Tenille. 

The orange haired senior was sitting at a large, round table near the back of the library, fortunately it was only him sitting there at the moment, meaning Flo got there earlier than the rest of the group. 

Thank algebra for that, they didn't know what they would do if they got there late and the last available seat was next to Ophelia… 

Flo involuntarily shuddered at that thought as he made his way to the back of the library. 

When Flo started getting closer to the table, Tenille noticed them approaching and started to wave them over. 

“Hi, Four!” Tenille greeted in his ever enthusiastic tone as Florence made it to the table. 

“Hi, Ten!” Flo returned the greeting with a smile, setting their stuff down and sitting down next to Tenille. 

“How are you doing today?” The orange haired teen asked, trying to start up a conversation. 

“I'm doing great!” Flo exclaimed, they weren't feeling too good earlier but they felt better now that they were talking to Tenille. “How are you doing?” 

“I'm doing pretty good, I'm a bit tired though because I was up studying.” Tenille replied with a small yawn before his expression shifted into one of sympathy. “I’m sorry you got detention by the way, it's a shame you weren't able to hangout with us after school yesterday.” He said, seeming genuinely upset that Flo wasn't able to hangout with the rest of the group. 

Florence was slightly taken back by Tenille’s statement, he hasn't hung out with the group in forever. He only stopped hanging out with them due the tension between his siblings. Sometimes Flo hated the fact that all three of them happened to be in the same social circle, because hanging out with the group also meant having to hangout with either one of them or, worse case scenario, both of them. 

They could only take so much of their siblings’ irritating presence at once before they snapped. They’d rather not get into a fight with one of them or have to deal with their bickering every time they did something with the group. 

“Whatever, detention wasn't that bad. I got to watch my show while I was sitting in there.” He shrugged in response to Tenille's statement, trying to seem indifferent. He didn't need to know how much that sentence affected them. 

“Okay, but you know you're always welcome to hangout with us right, Four?” Tenille asked with an uneasy smile, his enthusiastic demeanor dropping.

What type of question was that? Of course he knew that he was able to hang out with the group. Who wouldn't want to hang around him? He was great. 

It wasn't his so-called friends that they were worried about, he was more so worried about his siblings, their twin in particular. She had a knack for being problematic and causing problems, and she knew just how to push their buttons in the wrong way. 

Florence simply nodded in response to the senior’s question, making his smile relax into something more natural. 

“Okay, just making sure,” Tenille said, flashing a kind smile at the blue haired junior. “You should hangout with us the next time we get together after school, we could go over to your house and watch your show!” The orange haired teen suggested, his enthusiastic nature returning.

Flo smiled at the mention of his favorite show, he wouldn't mind doing something like that. Although, the only way something like that would happen was if Ximenia was there. They would put up with their friends and siblings bickering with each other, if it meant seeing X. 

“Yeah, maybe.” He smiled, knowing damn well there was a high chance of that never happening. 

“What show are you guys talking about?” 

The two teens turned around to see Elijah approaching the table they were sitting at. 

“Hi, Eight!” Tenille greeted his grey haired friend as he sat down in the seat on the other side of him. “We were just talking about Four’s favorite show. What’s it called again?” 

“Battle for Dream Island, or BFDI for short.” Flo responded quickly. 

“Sounds cool, what's it about?” Elijah asked, seeming genuinely interested. 

“Yeah, tell us about it!” Tenille exclaimed, encouraging Florence to talk about his show. 

“It's about-” 

“-These inanimate objects that battle for a Dream Island. Yeah, yeah, we’ve only heard you say this a billion times Four.” 

Florence’s face soured after being interrupted, they whipped their head around to find their twin as well as Steven approaching the table. 

Of course, she had to show up at the worst time possible. 

“Trust me when I say this, BFDI is a childish, stupid kids’ show. Watching it is a waste of time.” Ophelia complained as she sat down in the seat across from Tenille. 

“One you're such a hater, you probably haven't even watched it. It's not even that bad of a show.” Steven retorted, coming to Flo's defense as they sat down next to Ophelia.

“Trust me Seven, I have watched it multiple times because that creature across the table is obsessed with it!” Ophelia argued, jutting a finger in Florence’s direction. “He watches that show every single day when we get home from school and I'm sick of it!” 

“Bold words coming from someone who watches Judge Judy and Dr. Phil, every time the TV is free…” Florence grumbled, nearly slamming their hands on the table but stopping themself after remembering where they were. “You don't even really watch those shows either, you're on your phone the whole time!” He whisper-shouted. 

“Okay? It's better than the stuff you and Two watch! BFDI sucks and The Great British Bake Off is so boring. I don't get why Two’s obsessed with that-” 

“I know I didn't just hear you diss The Great British Bake Off!” 

Everyone at the table turned toward the front of the library to see Tori storming over to their table, with Ximenia following behind them. 

“Honestly, One that's bold coming from you considering that all the shows you watch are trashy talk shows.” Tori snapped, causing a chorus of 'oohs' to erupt from the others as they sat down in the seat next to Elijah.

“Why are you guys even arguing over the type of shows you watch anyway?” Ximenia asked while sitting down next to Flo. 

“Yeah guys, you're allowed to have different opinions. You all don't have to like the same stuff.” Tenille chimed in, trying to end the argument before it got too out of hand.

“This argument is stupid, can we please start doing some homework already!” Steven exclaimed, seeming annoyed. 

“I never thought I'd hear you say something like that, Seven.” Elijah snickered, poking fun at the black haired junior. 

“I have English next period and I haven't even started on the homework because I don't know how to do it!” He cried while pulling out his homework, causing Elijah to laugh at them.

“It's not my fault if some people have the wrong opinion…” Florence muttered, shooting a glare towards Ophelia. 

Ophelia leveled a glare of her own at her twin, and opened her mouth to argue before quickly closing it and turning towards Steven.

They were going to argue back but they decided to drop it in favor of helping out Steven. After all, arguing with Florence instead of helping her friend out with their homework could completely wreck her reputation, she couldn't risk something like that happening. 

She’d let Florence think they won for now, she was going to get them back later. 

“Yo! What's up, party people?” 

The group at the table turned around to see Nigel along with Silvia and Fiona entering the library. 

“Nine be quiet, you're gonna get us kicked out again!” Fiona all but yelled at the white haired teen. 

“Nine’s going to get us kicked out? With the way you're yelling Five it seems like you're the one that's going to get us-” 

Silvia’s sentence was interrupted by the librarian loudly shushing and glaring at her. After being interrupted the trio went silent as they quickly made their way to the back of the library where the rest of the group was. 

“Wassup guys?” Nigel greeted the group, their volume now down to a whisper as they sat down next to Tori.

“Hi, Nine!” Tenille politely greeted before returning to his conversation with Elijah. 

“Hey, Nine! You brought your homework with you right?” Tori asked as they started to pull out their chemistry binder and pencil bag. 

“You know I did Two-bro!” The white haired junior exclaimed before pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from their pocket and pencil that has seen better days. “It's right here.” 

“Oh…” Tori mumbled as their face screwed up, they didn't know what they were expecting. They knew Nigel wasn't the most organized but they certainly weren't expecting that. “..What happened to it…?”

“What took you guys so long?” Steven asked Fiona as she sat down next to him. 

“We took a long time because someone decided to mess around in the classroom and make our teacher yell at us.” Fiona grumbled, shooting a look towards Silvia. 

“I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Silvia rolled their eyes from their spot next to Ophelia, completely ignoring the look they were getting.

“You definitely do…” Fiona muttered before jumping into Elijah and Tenille’s conversation.

Soon after everyone got situated the once silent library was filled with mostly polite and quiet chatter from the group of teens. 

Up to this point Flo had mainly been talking to various people in the group, not because they wanted to, they just kept on pulling them into their conversations, something about wanting to catch up with them. Whatever, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy being the center of attention, he just really wanted to talk to X right now. But he didn't feel like being rude so he forced himself to listen and engage.

After another painstakingly boring conversation about how he’s been doing, he decided to check up on X. They were the whole reason why he even bothered to show up to the library in the first place. 

Florence turned around to find the blond haired teen staring right at him. 

“Oh! Uhm-” Ximenia startled after being caught in the act and quickly looked away. “Hi…” Flo could've sworn they saw a bit of blush on his face, but that must've been their eyes playing tricks on them.

“Hi, X!” Florence greeted his new friend cheerily, ignoring the fact that they were staring at him for their sake. 

“Uh, hey,” X replied before looking back at their blue haired companion, having regained their composure. “Sorry for uh, staring at you like that. I don't know what got into me.” He apologized awkwardly, his body looking tense. 

“It's fine, I don't mind being stared at.” Flo waved off their apology, making X relax. He truly doesn't mind being stared at, it makes him feel important and like he’s the center of attention. “So how was your first day of school?”

“Hmmm,” Ximenia hummed in thought before responding. “I’d say my first day here was pretty good, this school isn't that bad. My teachers, for the most part, are nice and I made a lot of new friends as well!” They explained with a smile. 

Florence felt an ugly, jealous feeling bubble up inside him when X mentioned that he made a lot of new friends. Ximenia having a lot of friends meant a lot of people that could potentially steal him away from them.

“Although, I will say my favorite part of the day was meeting you during class yesterday Four. I think you're really cool and smart.” X added on with a shy smile, making the jealous feeling inside the blue haired teen die down a bit. 

“...Thanks, I think you're really cool too X.” He ignored the jealous feeling inside of him in favor of giving X a compliment. They felt their face heat up a little.

“Thank you.” Ximenia smiled at them, their cheeks turning a light shade of red. “How was your day yesterday?” 

“It was…” The blue haired teen trailed off as he thought about how his day was yesterday, his face turning into a grimace. “A day…” He settled on, he didn't feel like talking about his nightmare of a day that he had. And they especially didn't feel like talking about how they got grounded. 

“Oh, not too good huh?” Ximenia looked at him with a sympathetic expression. 

“Yeah… I don't feel like talking about it right now, I'll tell you about it later.” Florence explained, not wanting to leave his new friend uninformed about what was going on with him. 

The blond haired teen nodded in understanding. 

“I’m sorry you had a bad day yesterday. I hope things go better for you today, Four.” They said with a kind smile. 

“Thanks, I hope so too…” Florence sighed before changing the topic. “So, have you thought about becoming a track manager?” He asked, his good mood from earlier coming back. 

X noticeably perked up at that. 

“Oh! I have actually, but I still need to give it more thought…” He responded. 

“Yay!” Flo cheered, before processing the rest of Ximenia’s sentence. “Wait. Why do you need to give it more thought?” 

“Well it's just that I have albinism and I don't do too well in the sun, so I don't want to damage my skin.” Ximenia explained kindly while gesturing to his skin. “I'm a bit on the pale side.” 

“Oh- Uh…” Florence cut himself off, face palming mentally. Why didn't he consider that before asking them to become a manager? “Oh! We could get an umbrella or a tent for you during practice…?” He suggested unsurely. 

“Hm…” Ximenia took a moment to consider their suggestion before responding. “I still don't know, Four…” 

“I also have a lot of sunscreen you could use! It's 100spf full coverage!” Flo blurted out, making the blond haired junior laugh. 

“Look I'll let you know by 6th or 7th period, okay?” 

“Okay…” Flo sighed feeling a little disappointed. “But…. If you do decide to become a manager there's a lot of benefits, it counts as a PE credit, you get to be with me, and…” 

. 

.

.

The rest of the blue haired teen’s time in the library was spent talking to Ximenia and others in the group. 

Flo actually found himself enjoying the group’s company, he forgot how much he enjoyed being around them back in middle school.

It looks like he would be checking the group chat more often.