Less than a week until our official graduation ceremony. It was finally almost here. The long, tedious journey of grade school was almost over. Today was a Monday. I groaned, not wanting to wake up on a weekday. I rubbed my eyes and went back to sleep, despite there being school today. Usually, I set three alarms in the morning, waking up on the third one. Today, I only set one since I was lazy yesterday and was busy on a trip with friends. It was currently 6:00 am and school started at 8. I finally got the energy to pull myself out of bed and get ready for the day. I slipped on my favorite pair of clothes and got ready in the bathroom. It felt good to finally be back in my own home. Although the three days of vacation I had was fun, I still needed some quiet time to myself. I washed my face and sat on my bed for a couple of minutes, thinking about what I would do today at school.
Pen was downstairs working out. He spent all of the money he earned from his part-time job on training devices and weights. When I went downstairs, it smelled like the inside of a sauna. The air was humid and the humidity made the temperature around me rise. Pen had his earbuds in, so he couldn't hear me. I walked by and made myself some breakfast. An omelet sounded good today. I whipped up my breakfast and ate alone at the table. Since no one was on text in the morning, I was rather bored eating alone. Usually, on weekdays, Pen would work out first thing in the morning, as it was his hobby and he didn't feel the need to do it on weekends. I was in the middle of eating my food when I heard Pen call me. He asked if I could get him a protein shake from the fridge. I thought if I should be a good friend and make it for him, or if I should be mean to him since he did this exact thing to me multiple times. I knew Pen would get payback if I didn't do it, so I made it for him. I had dark circles under my eyes due to the lack of sleep I got last night. I walked over to Pen, who was sweating up an ocean. I proceeded to give him the protein shake, as he WAS my best friend and roommate after all.
"Thank you, Tree! You're my dude!" Pen told me with a kindhearted smile.
"No problemo," I smirked at him before walking away to finish my breakfast.
The rest of the morning went by like normal. I finished my breakfast and cleaned the kitchen since I had nothing better to do. I checked my watch and noticed it was time for school. I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, and washed my hair. Pen was already outside waiting for me. That guy was so lucky! He didn't have to style his hair since it was much shorter and his sweat didn't smell at all so he didn't even bother washing up. Although Pen's a night owl and a late riser on the weekends, he's the exact opposite on the weekdays, sometimes waking up at 4 in the morning to work out. I suspected that he worked out to either impress his bros or to impress girls at school. Either way, I thought he was rather humorous for doing so.
Pen offered to drive today, as I had been driving for the past week. Pen was a jerky driver, never having a steady foot on the pedal. He would also occasionally make extremely sharp turns on the road, as he was afraid he would crash into the cars in front of him. I didn't mind this, as Pen was still a good driver, as he had never gotten into an accident in his life.
"You ready for the last week of school, Tree?" Pen asked while driving.
"I'm exhausted from school, but knowing it's the last week, I'm pretty pumped," I replied.
"Same here bro. Since it's the last week, I'm planning to go all out." Pen excitedly remarked.
"What does that mean?" I questioned.
"You'll find out ya idiot."
We talked for the rest of the ride about usual things like girls, mean teachers, annoying people, etc.
Pen eventually pulled into the school's parking lot. There, Pen's friends were waiting for him.
"Morning Pen!" Eraser remarked. His monotone voice could be easily recognizable from anywhere.
"Wassup Eraser!" Pen excitedly called out, eager to see his childhood friends.
Blocky lay against the wall, smoking a cigarette. He smashed the end on the wall and threw the cigarette butt into a trash can. He gave me a fist bump and greeted me outside the school. I knew Eraser and Blocky reasonably well, as they would often come over to hang out with Pen. I eventually got tight with them and started hanging out with them not too long ago.
Five minutes until our classes started. During the day, everyone had six periods. There were seven-period slots for every student, so everyone had something called a "free period". My free period was the seventh period, meaning I could go home before Pen every day. Luckily for me, I had my first period with lots of my friends. Pen, Snowball, and Bottle were all in my class, which was Science.
The classroom atmosphere was always super quiet. Our teacher always commented on how silent our class was, despite Pen and Snowball being in our class. We were all silent since it was the morning and being seniors, none of us got good sleep at all.
All of us were shocked to hear that we had a final tomorrow. Luckily, our teacher was nice and our science final was rather easy, mostly multiple-choice with one free-response question. She passed out study guides and gave us some possible prompts for the free-response question. I was one of the smartest kids in the class, so it wasn't rare that someone would ask me for help, sometimes being a tutor. I wasn't surprised when Pen and Snowball both asked me for help. Pen wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, having an 84% in the class. He asked for some help and I gladly helped him study. He was extremely shaky on most concepts and worried he would fail the final. I reassured him that the final would be super easy. The only reason Pen was stressed was because the test was worth 30% of our final grade, meaning if we did badly, our grade would fall tremendously. For the rest of the period, our teacher gave us time to study for the final tomorrow. Although I didn't like Snowball much, I still helped him since he needed it too.
The bell rang and everyone exited the class to go to the second period. I took AP computer science for my second period. The class went by as any normal day would. There was only one thing in particular I disliked about this class. This was because Leafy was my desk partner. Leafy wasn't too much of a nuisance, but her personality was like a loose cannon. She could be "fake nice" at one point and objective and rude at another. Although I disliked this to some extent, the class wasn't the worst. The professor, Professor Six, was energetic and nice most of the time. However, they would tell Leafy off a lot whenever she talked out of turn, which I found rather amusing.
It was now Brunch. I gathered at "the spot" next to the football field. My friends and I would always meet there. Once I arrived, I saw Pen and the others sitting on the bleachers. Liy complained that school sucked and that the teachers even made the last week of school boring. We all agreed since none of our classes had anything fun to do. We played games with each other on our phones and showed each other funny memes for the rest of brunch. The time went by much faster than I had anticipated. "Was it just me or does recess seem ten thousand times faster than classes?" I asked myself, not knowing the answer.
The next two classes were my least favorite by far. Literature and AP Physics. AP Physics has the same rules as AP computer science, boosting my grades. In both of my classes, I had some of the most annoying kids. In literature, I had Fanny sit on my left and Flower sit on my right. Both of them were kiss-ups to the teacher and always talked about random stuff. They were both extremely annoying and my time in that class felt like hell on earth. I mainly slept through that class, as the work was extremely easy and we didn't have a literature final.
Things soon changed in AP Physics. I had all the nerds in my class. Golf Ball and Tennis Ball were both in the front. I sat in the middle row. The only good part about this class was the fact that I sat next to Black Hole, one of my childhood besties. He would always bless me with the homework answers and sometimes teach me Physics to ensure I understood everything. Black Hole was the smartest kid in the school, having a jaw-dropping 5.0 GPA. He would always spend his time in the library studying and reading books. I tried to get him to hang out during our breaks, but he refused, as he worried he would do badly on something at school. Although he was a nerd, he was extremely nice and caring. He had one of the best personalities you could think of. To top it all off, he was extremely handsome. Despite these qualities, he never tried being popular. The class was a breeze if you sat next to him. Because of him, I had a good grade in the class.
Lunch was always my favorite part of the day. Throughout the year, I noticed the cafeteria was divided into sections. Popular girls like Fanny, Flower, Pencil, Match, etc would sit in the back of the building. Jocks like Snowball would sit right next to their table, the edgy kids next to them, the semi-popular kids next, and the nerds would sit in the front of the cafeteria. I would usually join Pen at the jock's table, despite being unathletic and a huge nerd myself. For the rest of lunch, Pen and I would talk with his friends about sports and games. They would also ask me for homework answers often, as they were dependent on me. The majority of the time, I gladly gave it, as I knew that they would change some answers to make it seem like it was their work. Sometimes, Blocky would bring his gaming system and a couple of controllers so we could play video games the whole time. Today was one of those days. I wasn't particularly good at games, but I was good enough to put up a fight against some of my friends. We gamed for the rest of lunch and had lots of fun doing so.
My ending periods were chill for the most part. Math was easy for me and PE was even easier. Despite me not being athletic, all you needed to do in PE was try. My PE class was the most enjoyable out of all my classes in my opinion. I had every single one of my friends in my period. Pen, Remote, Liy, Bottle, Black Hole, Pie, Pillow, Blocky, and Eraser were all in this class. After changing out of my clothes, I went outside and we walked over to the field. Since it was the end of the year, we played football for the remainder of the period. I wasn't fast and I couldn't catch, but I could throw like there was no tomorrow. I kept throwing to Black Hole, as he was the fastest in our period, and kept blowing by Blocky, who was getting increasingly more mad at Black Hole for simply being too good. I laughed at this and kept doing it until every defender was guarding him. Football was entertaining, as everyone had some skill at something. We also had many players on the field, as football was our school's main sport. We had won the varsity championship three times in a row these past years.
Since I got to go home early, I teased Pen as I walked out of the school. Eraser also left early, so he drove me back home. Eraser and I got along surprisingly well, despite having two completely different personalities. Although he would call me "nerd" or "smartass", I liked his humor and he was extremely funny. He always told me stories about Blocky and Pen being idiots, which I found extremely entertaining. I would return the favor by telling him what Pen does at the house. I wasn't surprised if Eraser told me he already knew Pen was like that, as he and Pen had known each other longer than I had known Pen.
"So, what are your plans for the last week of school?" Eraser asked, eager to know.
"Hmm, I don't know. I'm probably just going to hang out with friends and study for finals." I answered.
"That's cool. I heard there's going to be a giant party after the ceremony. Wanna come with?" Eraser stared at me with his usual deadpan expression.
"I've got nothing else to do, so I guess," I told him. "For now, I'll probably just study relentlessly."
"Hm, Maybe I should study too, as my grades aren't the best and the finals could boost them." Eraser pondered.
"I'd say that's a great idea since I could help you study for upcoming exams," I eagerly told him, as I always liked helping others with school.
He smiled at me for the first time today. We both walked inside the house and Eraser unlocked the door.
"Hold on a minute. How did you get the keys to our house?" I asked with a raised brow.
"Pen gave me a copy of your keys haha." Eraser sarcastically remarked.
"So you can just break into our house anytime you want?" I questioned.
"I could, but I won't since I surprisingly have good morals." Eraser chuckled.
Eraser and I walked inside and set our backpacks next to the table in the living room. By now, Eraser was used to coming over to our house, as Pen loved inviting friends over no matter the occasion.
"Wanna study in Pen's room? He has a bigger desk than this." I informed.
"If Pen's cool with it, I'm down." Eraser boldly smiled.
"Pen's fine with anything," I told him, rolling my eyes.
"Yeah yeah, cut the sass Tree. I was going to barge in there anyways." Eraser advised, deadpan.
I chuckled at this and we both walked up the stairs into Pen's room. Pen's room was rather messy today, as it had been a while since he had last cleaned his room. There were multiple shirts and pairs of underwear scattered throughout the room. About six water bottles lay on the floor next to his bed, and for some reason, his dumbbells were on his pillow. Eraser and I cleared some space from Pen's desk. We started studying, mainly mathematics, as Eraser wanted to get a good score on that final the most. We studied for about thirty minutes. Eraser eventually fell asleep on the desk. Not wanting to wake him, I continued studying for my classes until I heard the front door open. Pen was home.
"Tree! I'm home," Pen projected from down the stairs.
"Hey Pen!" I eagerly replied as I missed his presence while I was at the house.
Pen walked up the stairs and asked what I was up to. Once he walked in, he saw Eraser sleeping at his desk.
"What's Eraser doing here?" Pen asked, slightly confused.
"Oh, He needed help with studying so I helped him a bit. You're okay with us in your room right?" I explained.
"I'm completely fine with it, on one condition. No looking at my messages on my computer."
"Pssh, Why would I even check your computer Pen? I have no interest in that stuff." I laughed at him.
Pen shrugged his shoulders and went back downstairs to do his homework. Eraser eventually woke up only because I woke him up on purpose. For the rest of the day, I studied with Eraser until he decided to go at about 7:00 pm.
I followed up with Pen and asked him how school was.
"Ehh, School was pretty boring. It's the last week of school goddammit. Why can't our teachers be at least a little more fun instead of giving us last-minute lessons?" Pen bantered.
"I agree dude. They're making it seem like our last week of school means nothing." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Yeah! Did you know Professor X gave us a ten-page homework assignment?" Pen glared.
"Ugh, I hate that guy. He's so annoying and tiring to listen to!"
"You say that as if he's the worst Professor of all time. I'd say he's just trying to look out for your future and keep you sharp on your skills." I replied, trying to make Pen chill a bit.
"Nonsense. I'm glad I'm going to be completely done with school."
We ate supper at the table together and talked about more usual, senior things. Pen told me about his crushes at school, which I vowed not to tell anyone. Pen usually didn't have any crushes, so this news was rather surprising, to say the least. As of now, I pondered on what my last week of school would be like.
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Okay, I didn't proofread this chapter since I was in a rush to post this, as I'm currently busy again haha. Please do inform me of any spelling, grammar, or readability mistakes so I can fix them. Thanks for reading this chapter! Yeah I know, this is a filler chapter. Hey, it's gotta be done lol.
Chapter 12: Publishing 10/05/23