Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
Duncan thinks High school is stupid. Very stupid. And that's only because Duncan's schedule is just full of AP classes he's never selected. AP Art, AP Social studies, AP this, AP that, since when was there an AP Art? He doesn't know, but it's just ridiculous. And now, he has to flow to AP Art, the first period just to sleep, eat, and sleep again. Over and over until 12th grade is finally done.
Duncan has practically been asleep his entire life. His whole existence is just a long, forever-lasting period that is filled with sleep. And now? He rests so much that he can't even sleep at home anymore. He can't blink an eye in class because they're always closed. He can't participate and he doesn't even remember his teacher's name because as soon as he walks into the class and sits down, there's no awakening. Just sleep. Forever.
And all of this sleep has ravaged his life. At first, it was immaculate. Instantly falls asleep whenever he sees his bed and gets comfortable in class, but now he can't wake up. And now sleeping is like a drug that will never run out. It's so hard to wake up and it's like a daily challenge to walk three steps to his next class. And despite this toil, he still sleeps. He can't even fight against it anymore because he just feels tired from everything. And now he's cruising for more trouble in AP Arts.
A new guy just joined his class. Pretty and from Spain, Duncan thinks this guy is too attractive to be a male. The teacher, Blainley Mason introduces the guy as Alejandro Burromuerto and guides him to sit next to Duncan. Great. Now he's gonna be aroused in every class by Alejandro. At least he's not sitting next to Harold or Geoff, now that'd be bad.
Even with Duncan's sleeping obsession, he still managed to make friends. Mostly friends he'd never want to sit next to, are Geoff, Harold, Owen, and Justin. Justin talks too much, Owen always smells like piss, Harold is too smart for him, and Geoff is too nice. DJ is cool and lets him sleep in class because he knows Duncan is still gonna find a way to sleep secretly. But Alejandro? Well, Duncan's not friends with Alejandro, but he can tell that Alejandro is powered by determination. If they were ever to be friends, Duncan would have to stay awake in class and actually try to do work. The idea already annoys Duncan, but what can he do about it anyway? It's only a matter of time.
Alejandro walks towards the open seat right next to Duncan and sits down, opening his backpack and taking out a notebook. Duncan sighs, laying his head on his cold, dirty school table, and burying his head in his arms. Alejandro notices this and pokes his shoulder. "Hey." He whispers, smiling as Duncan raises his head to look at Alejandro. He catches a glimpse of Alejandro's olive-green eyes and suddenly feels threatened. "What do you want?"
"Do you want a pillow to lay your head on?" Alejandro asks in a low voice and digs into his bag. "I know the table is pretty cold, and I know from experience that it's very uncomfortable--"
"I'm okay," Duncan says in a sleepy voice. "Thanks for the offer, though."
"Are you sure?" Alejandro asks. "I mean, just in case--"
"I'm sure. Thank you." Duncan buries his head and falls asleep again, later waking up to Alejandro's soft presence four minutes before the period ends.
2nd period, Literature class rolls into the timeline, and Duncan finds himself strolling over to AP Literature. He enters the classroom, sits down, and right before he puts his head down, he sees Alejandro enter the room behind him and take a seat by his side. Alejandro says, "There's always an open seat right next to you. Why is that?"
"Because people want to sit next to someone useful," Duncan answers and sighs, suddenly not feeling weary today. Alejandro lours and takes out his notebook. "Well... I'm just joining this school today from Spain--"
"I know," Duncan states. Alejandro's face crumbles. "Uh, but do you know what we're doing in this class?"
"All about sound devices for poetry," Duncan replies, giving into Alejandro's physical features. He's captivating. Vintage verdant green eyes, prolonged wavy brown hair, tanned benign skin, and flawless lips. His outfit is immaculate in style as he is wearing a beige turtleneck, white jeans, brown boots, and a necklace with a miniature montaur head on it. Duncan scowls at this, covering his head and compelling himself to nap, but he can't sleep. Today is undoubtedly not his apathetic Monday, and Duncan hates Mondays.
The third period soars past and it's the fourth period when Duncan learns that he and Alejandro share all of the same lessons. Great. Now he'd be blitzed by this new Spanish guy for the rest of his life in 12th grade. How could this day get any worse?
OHHHH LUNCH TIME.
Duncan Tarun, the Ultimate Alejandro Burromuerto hater finds himself gazing at the guy in the Lunchroom. He witnesses Alejandro emitting with Courtney, the Lunch Manager(somehow), about something he doesn't know about. Duncan ignores them and saunters out into the courtyard and to the closest gas position for snacks.
A while later, Duncan comes back to the entrance of the court, two bags full of food in his hands. He spots Alejandro wandering at the entry of the yard and grimaces. Duncan strolls towards Alejandro. "You decided to join the Lunch team?" Duncan asks. Alejandro nods. "Yeah."
"Why is that?" Duncan questions, holding his bags in one hand. Alejandro notices this and frowns. "Where did you go?" He asks.
Duncan's face crumbles. "To the nearby gas station," Duncan answers. "Is there a problem? I need to get into the building."
"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," Alejandro says, pulling a large file of papers from his satchel. Duncan's jaw drops. "Uh, on page 2,483 of this entire packet, it says; 'No student is permitted to enter the school cafeteria after leaving.' Sorry, man."
Duncan shakes his head. "When did they add that rule? I swear every time I left the school, I'd be let in immediately. You're making this up."
"No, I'm not." Alejandro passes Duncan the packet and points to the rule. While Alejandro finds the right page, Duncan realizes how close Alejandro is to his face. So close that Duncan can smell his vanilla deodorant and cologne. "See? I wasn't lying."
"Okay, God..." Duncan turns away from Alejandro and sits down on the concrete steps, burying his head in his arms and trying to fall asleep. Alejandro, now feeling defeated by his success, sits down next to Duncan. "I'd let you in if it weren't my first day on the job, but I'm sorry, okay?"
"I'm not mad," Duncan mumbles. "It's your job anyways."
"Yeah, but now I feel bad for not letting you in," Alejandro replies. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Duncan says, opening a bag of M&M's and passing it to Alejandro. "You want some?"
"Sure," Alejandro digs his hand in the bag of M&M's and pulls out a handful. "Is this too much?"
"Not at all," Duncan says and pops a M&M in his mouth.
The 7th bell rings, awaiting Duncan's math class. He walks into the room, head held down as he sits in his seat and sleeps. Alejandro, walking in late later finds a seat next to Duncan and sits down, poking his cheek to wake him up. Duncan groans. "What could you possibly want now?"
"I just wanted to apologize again." Alejandro says, "Despite it being on the rule book, I'm pretty sure Courtney added the rule because she knows you go outside for lunch." Duncan cocks his left eyebrow. "How do you know about me and Courtney?"
"When I was talking to her about joining the lunch team, she kept looking your way. I figured you two dated or something."
"We did."
"Oh, well... She seems like a nice girl to date." Alejandro says and looks at the clear whiteboard. "Are we in the right class?"
"Yeah," Duncan answers.
"What's going on then? There's no work." Alejandro says.
"Here." Duncan passes Alejandro his work paper. "You can do my work if you're itching for it."
"I'm okay, thank you," Alejandro replies, raising his hand. The teacher, Mrs. Scarlet sees him. "What's wrong?"
"I don't have a paper," Alejandro answers, frowning. "And uh, I don't know what we're doing in math either."
Mrs. Scarlet walks up to her desk and grabs a paper from it, striding over to Alejandro and passing him the paper. "It's Algebra 2, ask Duncan for help on the work. He's smart enough to memorize the learning object daily despite not doing anything in class." And Mrs. Scarlett just leaves to speak to another student. Alejandro turns to Duncan with a smirk on his face. "So, you're like a genius then?" Alejandro asks. "That's insane."
"No, I'm not a genius. Don't ask me for help." Duncan mumbles, getting comfortable.
Alejandro smiles in surprise. "Ohh.. I didn't even realize that I didn't know your name this whole time!"
"You didn't? You're absent-minded." Duncan says. "Well. Not entirely."
Geoff, the blonde guy sitting on Duncan's right frowns and crosses his arms. "Be nice, Duncan."
"Okay, okay," Duncan says and groans. Alejandro smiles. "What's your favorite math equation?"
"Division," Duncan answers. "Either that or exponents. Why are you asking?"
"I don't know, you just seem interesting. Mine's multiplication. It's so easy."
"It is, but subtracting just feels more... full? I don't know how to explain."
"Full and subtracting in the same sentence sounds funny," Alejandro says, writing his name on the math worksheet. He looks down at the problems and visibly pales. "Okay. What is this?"
"Math," Duncan answers. Alejandro shakily turns to Duncan. "No seriously. What are we doing in math?"
"I forgot."
"Ughhh..." Alejandro wipes at his eyes, staring down at the worksheet, and suddenly feels sentimental. Duncan turns to Alejandro and notices this, sighing and sitting up straight. Duncan takes Alejandro's worksheet and his LED pencil, starting to work on the math problems easily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm doing the work for you since you don't know it." Duncan hums, flipping over the paper and writing down answers to the questions. "This is so easy. How do you not know this?"
"Because they didn't teach Algebra 2 in Spain," Alejandro answers and peers over the paper. "That looks right. And you're not showing any work either. Why?"
"I don't know. It's just easy." Duncan says. Alejandro smiles. "Duncan, how old are you?"
"17," Duncan replies. "What about it?"
"Did you skip a grade?"
"...I don't know--"
"He did," Geoff says. "He's supposed to be in 10th grade but has an early birthday, so it seems like he's older."
"Really? Oh, that makes sense." Alejandro responds. Duncan reddens, passing Alejandro back his paper and hiding his face in his hands. "I'm going back to sleep. Don't talk to me."
"Alright," Alejandro says and looks down at the paper. I guess I'll teach myself how to do this now.
RING RING RING. The bell for the 8th period rings horribly in Duncan's ears, awakening as Geoff ruffles his hair. "Wake up, Duncan. DJ's gonna be mad if you come to social studies late."
"I know, I'm up," Duncan says, rubbing his eyes, and turns to Alejandro's seat, just to see that he isn't there. "Jesus. He left so quick."
"Yup, he's a nice guy," Geoff says as they both get up and leave the math room, walking over to Social Studies. "And you've gotta protect him, Duncan."
"Me? Why?" Duncan asks. "I want nothing to do with that guy. Tell him to leave me alone."
"No can do, Duncan," Geoff says and pulls Duncan into the X stairway right next to the Social Studies room. "Listen, Alejandro just joined this school. You should know just by how he acts that he's gonna be in trouble this year." Geoff inhales and sighs as Duncan frowns. "But why me?"
"Because he's already bonding with you. I can see it myself." Geoff answers and let's go of Duncan. "Now, go to Social Studies and act like this didn't happen, okay? Me and DJ will wait for you in dismissal." He pecks Duncan's cheek and hops away, leaving the delinquent alone to gather his thoughts. Duncan walks out of the stairway and into the social studies room, taking his seat and slinging his backpack on his chair. He doesn't even realize that Alejandro is sitting right next to him. On Alejandro's left is Tyler Kenard, one of his new friends that Duncan hates immensely. Tyler, a striking man on the Athletes' team, is a devil in demoralizing humanity. Duncan can't explain his growing hatred for the older boy, and wishing every curse under the sun against him, but nothing seems to come his way. Despite all this bottled-up anger, Tyler is somehow protected by Duncan's fury. Duncan decides that Tyler is somewhat of an Angel from Heaven on a voyage to regain immortality or something. He then decides that Tyler's life isn't fair and that he needs to die. He puts his head down. Alejandro turns to Duncan. "You know, it's cool how we share all of the same classes and seats."
"You just chose to sit next to me in every class," Duncan mentions.
"No, first period there weren't any more seats so I sat next to you. I guess I decided to take the rest of the open seats next to you in every other class." Alejandro mumbles and turns to Tyler. "Well, Duncan, this is my friend, Tyler."
Tyler frowns at Alejandro. "That guy hates me."
Alejandro shakes his head. "No, he doesn't. He just hasn't met you yet. You're very nice." Duncan grimaces at Alejandro. This kind of feeling settles in Duncan's stomach, he doesn't want Tyler near Alejandro. Not because Tyler is dangerous, but because he hates Tyler and remembers what Geoff said. "You have to protect him or I'll kill you!!" Stuff like that scares Duncan. Well, Geoff is the only person that can scare Duncan. He doesn't know why one of the nicest people he met could scare him. His brain seriously isn't working today.
"Yeah, I hate him," Duncan says. "I don't care about him. Watch who you are friends with, Alejandro."
"Hey! Now that's just revolting. Tyler is a nice guy, Duncan." Alejandro says. Tyler nods and grins at Alejandro. "Why would you hate a guy like him?"
"Because he's saccharine and annoying."
"Because he's what? "
Duncan rolls his eyes. "Ugh, it means ridiculously optimistic."
"Oh. Well, that's a good thing. Tyler is saccharine and it's okay to be saccharine."
"Focus on your work." And Duncan puts his head down. Alejandro frowns at him. "Despite meeting Duncan today, he's really sad."
"You're right," Tyler says. Duncan fights the urge to call him every slur under the sun. "Very sad."
"And it's okay to be sad, but you have to be happy and enjoy life."
"Exactly."
"So what? You may be saccharine, but you're appreciating your life."
"Yup." So what if Tyler is saccharine? He's still a pesky hog with no brain and pink lassie balls. Duncan thinks as he falls asleep. He's hideous, too tall, unattractive again, too unappealing, too joyful, and smells like waste. I snooze all day and at least I know how to bathe myself, unlike that foul-smelling bastard.
The dismissal bell rings, and Duncan bolts out of his chair and into the staircase, afraid of being late to meet up with DJ and Geoff. Here's the thing, nice people are always so rude. Like Geoff. Geoff is so rude and scary. Duncan could think about how hard Geoff tackled him when he was caught slacking in GYM again and still muster some tears. Or when Geoff tackled him again after he came back from Florida. In conclusion, nice people are scary and rude.
Duncan meets up with DJ and Geoff in front of the school, Geoff grinning at him crazily as DJ smiles. "So, Geoff told me about you and Alejandro and I agree with him."
"WHY? I don't want to take care of someone this year too." Duncan complains. "It's not fair."
"You don't do anything in school, Dunc. You need something to do." DJ says, cupping Duncan's face in his hands. "Now, you owe me M&M's."
"Right," Duncan digs into his backpack, scanning it for M&M's, but there's nothing but chips. "Oh crap."
"Did they run away or something?" Geoff asks, looking in Duncan's bag. "Oh, they did. That's so cool!"
DJ crosses his arms and narrows his eyes at Duncan. "You don't have it?"
"Not at all, sir," Duncan answers.
"Then let's go to the store so you can buy more. It's no problem. You most definitely gave it to Alejandro anyway." And then a pair of hands drop onto Duncan's shoulders. Duncan shrieks and jumps back, turning around and seeing Alejandro. Alejandro smiles at him. "Hi, Duncan."
"Hey... Alejandro."
Geoff grins at Alejandro. "Hi again!"
"Hi, Geoff!" Alejandro greets him, shaking hands with Geoff. Geoff smirks. "Well, Al, meet my best friend, DJ!"
"Hello." DJ smiles. Alejandro smiles as well. "Hi, DJ!"
"How was Duncan today? I know he slacks off a lot, but I'm assuming there's something he did."
"He helped me with my math work today,"
DJ turns to Duncan. "Is that true?"
"Yeah, I helped him with his Algebra 2 assignment," Duncan answers.
"That's good," DJ says and then turns to Alejandro. "Where are you from?"
"Spain. I moved here a week ago,"
"You enjoy this school?"
"Half 'N half."
"Favorite milk for coffee?"
"Half 'N half and French Vanilla,"
"Last name?"
"Burromuerto."
"Siblings?"
"Two."
"Names?"
"Carlos and Jose."
"Relationships?"
"My friend, Tyler. Duncan hates him. Why is that?"
"Because Tyler threw a ball at his head during Gym once by accident."
Duncan hears this and frowns. "HEY." He says. "Stop talking about me."
Alejandro laughs. "You're interesting. It's fun to talk about you."
"No, it's not and I'm not riveting--I meant interesting."
Geoff shakes his head. "Don't listen to him, Alejandro. He's lying." DJ nods. "You're better off learning from us,"
"Learning what?" Questions Alejandro. A honk sounds from a nearby blue car, the man inside the car glaring at Alejandro and yelling colorful words in Spanish at him. "Hurry up, Jose's calling me."
"Alright," DJ says. "You're better off learning who to stay away from and who to mess with." Geoff agrees happily.
Duncan frowns at the guy in the nearby car, squinting his eyes. "He looks dangerous." Duncan turns to Alejandro. "You better leave now."
"You're right, I gotta go." Alejandro grins and hugs Duncan before waving to Geoff and DJ. "Bye!"
"Bye, Alejandro!" Geoff yells as DJ smiles. "Bye-bye."
Alejandro runs to the blue car, swinging open the car door and sliding in. The guy in the car seems to cool off and drives away as Duncan, Geoff, and DJ start walking to the store, in hopes of free food and tranquility during their purchase.