Chapter Text
Tommy has been in a slump all day, not really talking to anyone, barely managing a wave when he passed his friends in the hallway. Honestly, both Tubbo and Ranboo were starting to get worried. They didn’t even get a chance to talk with him during the day. Despite the fact that they had about half their classes together, they had a test in history, a quiz in math, a lab in chemistry and Tommy didn’t show up to lunch. He always showed up to lunch unless he was in the counselor's office, which he happened to go to instead of having a class before lunch. Tubbo had asked about him when he went to see her during his period but she simply smiled at him and told him to ask Tommy himself.
But when they got to the theater Tommy dropped his snack tray onto the break/homework table and then just dropped his head onto the table alongside it. Ranboo had flinched while Tubbo simply poked him. Eret raised an eyebrow at him before sitting down at the other side of the table.
“Have something you want to talk about?” Eret asked, also poking Tommy’s head.
“Not really.” Tommy muttered, muffled by the fact he was face down on the table.
“You spent two full periods in Puffy’s office. Come on.” Tubbo said. Tommy sighed and shifted his head so he was longer face down on the table.
“My brothers are coming home soon. Sometime before winter break.”
“Ooh.” Eret winced.
“L.” Tubbo answered. Eret whacked him lightly on the shoulder. “What?”
“I thought they were supposed to stay until Technoblade got his masters?” Ranboo asked.
“He’s graduating early.” Tommy said. “You’d think after being at school for almost 7 years they’d just stay there.”
“You wish.” Tubbo replied, earning himself yet another light whack from Ranboo this time.
“I mean Wilbur got his teaching degree in six years and now Techno is graduating a year and a semester early? Can you believe that?” Tommy hissed.
“Hey Eret?” Tubbo asked. “You’re around the same age at Tommy’s brothers, why aren’t you still in college?”
“This school isn’t run by the county or even the government like public schools are. The requirements to teach are different, sure you need education if you’re going to teach but you don’t need a teaching degree to work here. I graduated from college a year early and came here directly. I worked one year as a student teacher and then some summer programs and that was that. Here I am.” Eret told them. “Most of the teachers here were like that. Graduated early or didn’t even graduate at all just had enough to teach and student taught for a year.”
“I can tell.” Tommy muttered. “I don’t learn a thing in English.”
“That’s just because Dream’s a dick.” Tubbo replied. Eret sighed.
“We’re technically still in school, please just call him Mr. WasTaken.” Eret told them for what was probably the three hundredth time.
“We call you Eret.” Tubbo pointed out.
“My choice.”
“Whatever.”
“Aren’t your brothers going to be looking for a job instead of just staying around the house?” Ranboo asked. “So you won’t see them that much.”
“Wilbur will, but technically they’re taking another year off, like the one before going to college wasn’t enough. So Techno will be home all the time and Wilbur is only applying for part-time jobs at best.” Tommy muttered. “I just really don’t want to see them.”
“That’s fair.” Eret told him.
“What sucks is probably no more hang outs at my house for the foreseeable future. Wouldn’t want to disturb the precious golden twins.” Tommy fake gagged at his own words.
“Booooooo!” Tubbo whined, he always liked going over to Tommy’s house, especially because Phil was never home and Eret was the one to supervise them.
“I’m sure you could always ask Phil.” Ranboo said, trying to look on the brighter side of things.
“Phil doesn’t know you guys ever came over in the first place.” Tommy said, despite the fact that he never openly admitted to that before, they all always knew. That didn’t stop Eret from glaring at him anyway. Eret only came to the little get togethers because Phil wasn’t going to be there and if Eret wasn’t there, there was nothing to stop them from getting trouble. That and the fact that these get togethers were supposed to be about practicing for the theater stuff.
“We’ll still have our discord game nights.” Eret waved him off. “Plus if we need to meet up outside of school we can always meet at someone else’s house.” Tubbo smiled.
“Your house?” He asked. The three of them had always wanted to see their teacher’s house but Eret always refused, insisting that even hanging out with the kids outside of school was weird enough, despite the fact that Eret was barely older than them and was less of a teacher to them and more of a friend in the first place. Eret sighed in annoyance.
“If it came to that, yes.” The three boys cheered and Eret knew that they were going to do whatever it took to make sure they got invited over. “Anyway, this table is for breaks and homework, who had homework?” They all raised their hands.
“I have a worksheet from Ponk, and dickhead Dream is making us read two chapters of the new book he just gave us.” Eret couldn’t help but sigh.
“English as well.” Tubbo replied, confirming the chapters Dream had given him
“English and Sapnap gave me a packet for greek.” Ranboo said.
“Okay how about we read the chapters out loud for English and then Tubbo while these two finish up on their worksheets and packets we can work on your choreography for the winter showcase.” Eret suggested.
“Oh god please.” Tubbo begged. Reading the book by himself was hard, the dyslexia made it difficult for him to read for long periods of time, but Eret had figured out pretty early on in their first year that when others read aloud to him he was able to understand the book. Eret also made all three of them finish their homework before starting rehearsals. That way they kept their grades up and therefore Ranboo and Tommy could keep their scholarships. And Eret got to keep some of the best kids in the theater industry. With that the group set off to work while Eret got the theater ready for their rehearsal.
-
“Good work today.” Eret praised the boys who had started packing up.
“Do you think we’ll get any homework for break?” Ranboo asked. Winter break was just next week which was why they were having so many tests in a row. Despite the fact that their winter showcase was also next week so their theater class wouldn’t be off technically as they’d be in their hell week. And this wasn’t any ordinary high school hell week. Their school was a private school with the most prestigious theater program in the country. Meaning only three of them were actually able to get in during their first year and no one had been able to get into it since. Sure there were upperclassmen… before they became the upperclassmen. So instead of a huge cast full of talented people, it was a tiny group of three people who were insanely talented in a wide range of performing skills. Acting, singing, dancing, instruments, ect. Whatever kind of performing arts you can think of, these kids were miles, kilometers, ahead of their peers and even ahead of college students, especially due to this program. So Hell week here was like hell week at a professional theater. None of them would have much time for anything other than rehearsals.
“I hope not.” Tommy replied. “Unlikely, Dream is definitely giving us a shit ton of stuff over the break.”
“I’m just glad it’s two weeks this year.” Tubbo replied. “That way we still have a week after the winter showcase.” Tommy nodded.
“Fair enough.”
“You guys are doing great and deserve a break. Don’t worry about any homework you have over the break. I’ll do my best to talk to your teachers about giving you work.” Eret laughed, understanding how hard these kids were working. Eret had been part of this program back when they were in high school, and it was increasingly more difficult when they had hell week and a mountain of homework on top of it, so they worked hard to make sure that the boys didn’t have to do much homework during hell week. Tech week, right now, they were allowed to have homework, Eret was not about to push their luck but they definitely didn’t want these kids overworking themselves. They experienced burnout themself and it wasn’t fun.
“I think I have to go on an ambulance ride at least once this break. Don’t think I can get out of that.” Tommy said.
“Your EMT class scares me.” Ranboo muttered to himself. Tommy only shrugged.
“Yeah I can’t get you out of that, but I can ask Ponk to let you go after the showcase.” Eret told him as the group made their way out of the theater.
“Oh yeah, Ponk is chill with me doing it after, I just have to do it at least once. Last year of highschool means we need actual hours in so we can get certified.” Tommy replied as Eret locked the doors to their school theater.
“How are your guys' last year of high school classes going?” Eret asked.
“Fine,” Tubbo said. “I’m glad I was able to make it into Sam’s class this year.” Tommy bumped shoulders with Tubbo.
“You get into his class every year.” Tommy laughed.
“Yeah Sam picks who gets into his classes. He’s picked you every year since we first took his class in our first year.” Ranboo rolled his eyes. “Of course you got in, Sam loves you.” Tubbo crossed his arms and didn’t reply.
“I have a mid term project for Sam’s class and I have until the end of the semester but he gave it to us now just to be sure we have enough time to get it done.” Tubbo continued without addressing the others' conversations about Sam.
“Home ec with Niki is good, she’s mostly having us bake this week, winter and holiday themed cookies and cakes and all of that. She’s really good. Greek is going well too. There are only three of us at this level but apparently there are a lot of underclassmen are taking it this year so it’s getting a lot of popularity. I’m getting a bunch of volunteer hours because our class is helping the new students, tutoring and things like that.” Ranboo told them.
“Sapnap teaches that class, right? The math teacher?” Eret asked. Ranboo nodded.
“Yeah, apparently he grew up learning it with English so when kids wanted a different language they allowed him to teach it.” Ranboo explained, holding the front entrance door open for everyone behind him.
“Nice, how about you Tommy? You mentioned your EMT class is getting certified soon, what about the others?” Eret asked, waving to the night security guard at the entrance as they left the building. Tommy shrugged a bit.
“I’m getting good with sign language, this year it’s just me and Callahan but it’s not a very popular class to start with. English is still shitty and I hate Dream but Puffy keeps me late sometimes so I don’t have to be in class with him for the full period so that’s good.” Tommy explained. Eret nodded.
“I don’t know what his deal is with you.” Eret confessed. “He’s never had this problem with any of my kids before. He’s newer but he’s been friends with the majority of the teaching staff here for years. I’m pretty sure Foolish is his half brother or something.”
“Foolish is nice. I don’t know how he’s a teacher but he’s nice.” Tubbo replied.
“He- yeah no I agree.” Ranboo muttered. “He had a mental breakdown when I told him one of the lights was broken and he couldn’t fix it. I had to get Ponk who ended up getting Sam to fix it and then took Foolish to lay down for the rest of the day.”
“I’d believe it.” Tommy said. “We worshiped a pickle one afternoon when I went for extra help. I think he gave me a 100 on that test because he didn’t help me and he didn’t want anyone else finding out about the pickle.”
“You’re telling us that now.” Tubbo pointed out.
“It’s far too late to change my grade now.” Tommy replied solemnly. Tubbo rolled his eyes and shoved him a bit, making him laugh.
“Alright this is where we part ways.” Eret told them as they reached the sidewalk. The teacher’s parking lot was to the right while the sidewalk that took the kids home was straight ahead. They nodded.
“I’m going to go climb into my father’s office window.” Tubbo decided and headed off back towards the school. His dad happened to be the principal of the school and Tubbo loved nothing more than doing things that pissed him off but technically weren’t against the rules. The student handbook went from having about 25 pages worth of stuff to somewhere around 120 after Tubbo joined. They needed official rules after kids started to imitate Tubbo’s actions.
“Be careful! Have a good night!” Eret called to him. Tubbo gave him a salute and ran off. “You two, be safe walking home. I’ll see you tomorrow. Text the group chat when you get home safe.” Ranboo lived in a group home on the next street over from Tommy’s house. Right on the border of what elementary and middle school they would go to and they just so happened to be put in separate ones. No one from Ranboo’s home was able to pick him up this late and so he had to walk. Tommy walked too, considering Phil didn’t even know he wasn’t home. So naturally the two walked together. Eret had offered to give them rides, as did Sam and Puffy but the two declined unless it was raining, snowing, or just too cold and windy to walk that far. It was about a fifteen to twenty minute walk depending on how fast they walked. So it wasn’t too bad.
“See ya tomorrow!” Tommy called as Ranboo waved and the two set off.
“So are we going to meet your brothers?” Ranboo asked as they walked further into the dark. Tommy shrugged.
“Probably not. Hopefully not.” He replied.
“Probably not?” Ranboo asked, he wasn’t exactly eager to meet the people that made Tommy’s life so miserable but he was interested in seeing what they looked like at the very least. He was curious.
“You’ve known me for over three years, almost four at this point and you’ve been over to my house how many times? Have you even met Phil?” Tommy asked. Ranboo was quiet for a moment, attempting to think of a time that he met Tommy’s father, but he hadn’t. Eret hadn’t either, while most kids went with their parents or guardians to ‘meet-the-teacher-night’ (even one of the care-takers from the home went with Ranboo) Tommy always showed up alone. Phil hadn’t even shown up to a single show they did. Apparently Tommy stopped asking him after their first year when he didn’t show up to even the promotions which happened on both Sundays and Saturdays to prevent parents from not showing up. Tommy merely shrugged and said he was used to it.
“No.” Ranboo replied after a moment of silence as they walked.
“There you go.” Tommy said simply. “I haven't spoken to them since sixth grade, Ranboo I don’t know them anymore, it’s been six years.”
“Is that a good thing?” Ranboo asked. “If they aren’t the same people they were when your fight happened, doesn’t that mean good things?” Tommy shrugged.
“Possibly? If they were just reentering my life and I’d see them maybe twice a week it could be a good thing… but it’s literally like I’m starting to live with strangers and I have no clue how safe I'm going to feel around them.” Tommy replied. “I mean I know they’re not going to hurt me, I’m their brother after all, but” He paused. “It’s not a safe place, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah. Puffy’s room is a safe place, the theater is a safe place but Dream’s room isn’t a safe place.” Ranboo said, just labeling places that he could think of off the top of his head. “A place where you feel welcomed and loved.”
“Right.” Tommy said. “It’s not a place I feel welcomed, I haven’t for awhile and it’s not like them coming home is going just be okay, you know?”
“Yeah I get it.” Ranboo replied. “And Phil just dropped it on you?” Tommy nodded.
“I was eating cereal this morning and he was like, ‘oh yeah, Wil and Tech are coming home later next week.’ and I choked on my cereal.” Tommy said, rolling his eyes. Ranboo made a face. He couldn’t say he liked Phil, not after everything Tommy told them.
“Welp, see you tomorrow Ranboob!” Tommy exclaimed, clapping him on the back like he always did. As he went left down the street towards his house, while Ranboo had to go right for a bit then over to the next street and get to the group home. Ranboo couldn’t help but laugh, used to the nickname after four years of it.
-
Tommy was at his front door and sighed at the sight of the empty driveway, you’d think after seven years of this he’d be used to Phil not being home on time. He was usually home around 8 o’clock, and it was about 6:30 right now. Early end to tech week so far but they were far ahead of schedule and they had gotten through everything they needed to get through. Besides, the winter showcase was a lot less important, despite both being only one night, the winter showcase was shorter and had less pressure and overall wasn’t seen as a huge event. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a huge scramble for seats especially because they didn’t have the balcony seats open, the entire upper deck was closed off. They were still an internationally renowned school and people felt special if they could get a seat to the show.
Regardless he was home earlier than he thought but it didn't hurt any less when he realized that Phil wasn’t home and probably wouldn’t be for at least an hour. It was rough but he figured he’d get to have pizza tonight so it’s evened out a bit. They had left overs from a couple nights ago so he’d just heat it up and go to his room to chill, maybe practice even. One of the best decisions of his life was to move the keyboard from the living room to his room. It wasn’t like anyone but Tommy used it anyway and even if Phil wanted to play the piano they had one down there too. He didn’t have to use the keyboard. Either way, Phil didn’t even notice and Tommy was content to use the keyboard in his room instead of in front of Phil.
In the end he texted the group chat he got home safe, closely followed by Ranboo’s confirmation that he also was home. Instead of doing something productive he ended up laying on his bed switching between scrolling through twitter and reddit just for some entertainment. It wasn’t like he had anything more important to be doing, he had already memorized all of the songs for the winter showcase, it wasn’t anything too difficult, just nowhere near as formal or as much pressure. Tech and Hell week would definitely be enough for him to be ready. After all, he couldn’t really memorize blocking while he was at home, no stage, no blocking.
Although he did hear Phil come home. The door opened and closed without much preamble or noise, but in the almost dead quiet house it wasn’t hard to hear him coming.
“I’m home!” Phil called.
“Okay!” Tommy yelled back, not even bothering to stop his scrolling. After a little bit Phil did end up coming upstairs, at least having the decency to knock, but didn’t really wait for an answer before opening the door.
“Did you eat something?” Phil asked. Tommy glanced at the time at the top of his screen. It was 9:22 now, Phil had gotten home an hour later than he usually did.
“Yep.” Tommy replied, sitting up.
“Good.” Phil said, with a light smile. “Homework?”
“Already done.” He said.
“How was school?” Phil continued.
“Fine. Nothing interesting or exciting today.” Occasionally Tommy would tell Phil about his day, although it was a recent development. In fact, Phil taking
any
interest in Tommy at
all
was a recent development. It started in Junior year and this had since been their routine. Phil would come home, make sure Tommy ate and did his homework before asking about his day. On good days Tommy would tell him about something… on bad days Phil would be lucky to hear an answer to any of his questions. Today was a mid kind of day, he was still pissed about Phil just dropping the fact that Techno and Wilbur were coming home on him this morning but it wasn’t really his fault.
Phil gave a little sigh and walked into his room. Tommy didn’t mind all too much but wished he would have asked first. He sat up full and faced Phil as he sat on the chair with his desk.
“Techno and Wilbur coming back won’t be as big of a shift as you might think.” Phil tried. Tommy raised an eyebrow not quite knowing where this was going. “I mean we lived with them once before.” Yeah and look how that turned out.
Tommy loathed his brothers about as much as he loved them. But they just loathed him. They told him so right before going off to college, the perfect time to do so, that way they wouldn’t have to hear him bitching to them about it later.
“We sure did.” Tommy replied. Phil sighed again.
“I’m going to be picking them up from the airport on Friday. Do you want to come with me?” Phil asked. Tommy pretended to think for a moment, even if it was just for his own sake, so Phil wouldn’t push.
“No, I have a lot going on Friday. I have tests and stuff, plus we have a club event next week, remember?” Tommy told him. He silenced the part of him that hoped Phil asked about the ‘event’ which was really the winter showcase. In freshman year he had been so excited to tell Phil about it, to which he replied with an obviously distracted ‘uh huh’ only to ask when it was and tell Tommy he was working that day. After a whole year of disappointments he gave up on Phil ever coming to anything and stopped asking.
“Vaguely.” Phil answered and Tommy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. At this point Tommy wasn’t even sure if he wanted Phil to know about his theater career. After all, the theater was a safe place and he really didn’t want his family invading that.
“We’re getting ready, it’s why I’ve been staying later than normal.” Tommy replied. “I can’t come Friday.” Phil nodded at him and patted his shoulder.
“They’ll see you Friday night then.” Phil said. Tommy nodded as well. There was a moment of awkward and slightly tense silence between them before Phil stood up with a groan, Tommy could only snort.
“Old man.” He muttered. Phil rolled his eyes fondly.
“You little shit.” He also muttered before leaving the room. Tommy laid back down on his bed but didn’t pick up his phone yet. He looked up at the ceiling of his bedroom and let out a breath. He could do this, yeah he could do this.
----
One of Tommy’s least favorite sounds was the blaring of his alarm. He quickly silenced his phone and briefly wondered if it was worth it to fake sick. Phil was usually gone in the morning so if claimed he’d been sick Phil would be forced to believe him and call him out of school. Although he knew Tubbo would kill him if he called out this late into Tech week.
And then someone knocked on his door.
“Are you up mate?” Phil called through the door. What. Phil was never home this late in the morning-
It was Friday.
Fuck, it was Friday and Phil was home because he was going to pick up Techno and Wilbur and that’s why he was home and definitely was a reason Tommy shouldn’t stay home.
“Yeah! I’m up!” He called to Phil and practically launched himself out of bed, scrambling to get dressed as quickly as he could. He wanted out of his house and he wanted out yesterday.
Tech week must be getting to him, he couldn’t believe he forgot. He rushed out his door, despite having no real reason to be rushing but he just wanted to get out of the house. He ran into the kitchen surprised to see a muffin waiting for him.
“I bought you breakfast.” Phil said as he drank coffee. Tommy paused but grabbed the muffin.
“Thanks.” He replied somewhat cautiously, he took a couple of bites as he shoved his shoes on and hiked his backpack further up his shoulder. “I gotta go pick up Ranboo in case he gets lost.” He called. Ranboo might have had a shit memory, something he and Puffy were working on but he wasn’t that forgetful. Tommy just needed an excuse to get out of the house.
“Be careful and have a good day!” Phil yelled after him.
“Thanks! Bye!” Tommy replied and ran down the street, in the opposite direction of school, towards the group home that Ranboo lived in.
The house itself wasn’t bad or anything. In fact it was one of the better homes Ranboo had been in but it was crowded, as all homes tended to be and it wasn’t a fun place to be. So Ranboo was often found at someone else’s house, be it Tubbo’s or Tommy’s place. More likely Tommy’s place considering it was closer and no one was ever home so it was a good place to just relax.
Tommy went up to the door of the house, it was loud to the point that Tommy could hear them from outside, although he supposed it made sense considering there were a bunch of kids all trying to get ready for different levels of school. Regardless he knocked on the door and waited.
“Oh hello Thomas. Here for Ranboo?” One of the care-takers asked when she opened the door. For the life of him he couldn’t remember her name but to be fair she called him Thomas which was not his name.
“Yep!” He replied. “I got a headstart today, I want to get to class early today.” She chuckled and nodded.
“I’ll go get him.” She said and left to get Ranboo, who stumbled out the door a couple of minutes later.
“Hey, you’re early.” Ranboo said, closing the door behind him and walking to Tommy, who shrugged in reply. Ranboo usually met Tommy outside of his house and then the two of them would walk to school, but occasionally if Ranboo was late or Tommy was eager to get to school he would meet Ranboo at his house instead.
“My dad’s home and I don’t want to deal with everything. Techno and Wilbur are coming home today and I just don’t want to be there.” He replied as the two started down the sidewalk.
“That’s fair.” Ranboo muttered.
“Yeah they’re probably going to be there when I get home.” Tommy complained.
“You’ll be okay. Worse comes to worst we’ll deal with it.” Ranboo told him. Tommy sighed.
“Yeah I guess.” They were quiet for a moment, but it was different from the silence with Phil, this was comfortable and neither felt like they needed to say anything. “I’m going to stay with Puffy for three periods.”
“Dream is going to kill you.” Ranboo told him.
“He can fuck off! It’s the day before break and I need my therapist. That dickhead can fucking deal.” Tommy yelled and crossed his arms. Ranboo huffed out a laugh and the two kept walking.
It was a cold morning, they could see their breath as they walked. The sun had barely risen, far too early for either of them but it wasn’t bad. The air was crisp and frost coasted the trees and grass. Honestly, they were just glad it wasn’t snowing. Both of them were bundled up to the best of their abilities, Tommy’s blue puffy coat was enough for him while Ranboo had a black pea coat that Eret had given him for ‘Secret Santa’ in freshman year, Ranboo didn’t know that he had rigged the draw so that he had Ranboo just to give him a coat, Tubbo’s scarf that he had given him and never asked for it back and gloves that Tommy had given him this year because his old ones had holes in them.
It was a nice day, although cold, it didn’t hinder the fact that the sky was clear. Tommy was a bit miffed, today was supposed to be a shitty day, after all his brothers were coming home and yet the day itself was so nice. It pissed him off a bit, but as the academy came into view a lot of the stress and anger melted away. This, despite being school, was one of his happy places.
-
First up was chemistry where they met up with Tubbo. Ranboo and Tubbo sat together having known each other in middle school while Tommy sat two rows behind them next to Purpled, who was cool and reminded him of his old friends but they were nowhere near as close as he was with Tubbo and Ranboo. But Purpled’s older brother was the gym coach here and he helped get Tommy out of gym more times than he cares to admit. Chemistry was fun, their teacher was great. George NotFound or as Tommy calls him Gogy. Which did get him points off a test once, didn’t stop him. Only problem Tommy had with George was that he was good friends with Dream.
Next was Math, they sat in groups of four and Tubbo Ranboo and Tommy had their own little group. Sapnap, their math teacher and Ranboo’s Greek teacher, was pretty cool, he stole Tommy’s nickname for George and also opted to call him Gogy. Which was probably why he got points off on that one chem test.
After that they all split, Tubbo went to coding class with Sam, Tommy went to EMT class a specialty class he had been taking since Sophomore year with Ponk and Ranboo went to his daily sessions with Puffy. Where Eret was like a friend or even an older sibling, Sam was like a dad, despite the fact that only Tubbo ever took his classes. Sam showed up to some of Tommy’s events for him and was the one to give him flowers or chocolate after shows. Eret did too but that was just kind of a given. Ponk was great, a doctor and the school nurse EMT class was rarely loud and definitely well behaved so it wasn’t a big deal to hold the small class in the side room off of the nurse’s office. Tommy was also 99% sure Sam and Ponk were dating or at the very least crushing and Tubbo agreed with him.
The three met up again for History with Mr. Jacobs, one of the few teachers they actually called by their last name. Despite the fact that he didn’t care he was good, if not a bit scatterbrained teacher that treated the kids well and fairly, not nearly as much as Sam or even Ponk so a first name basis wasn’t necessary but they enjoyed his class. Tommy sat with Tubbo while Ranboo sat behind them.
Then the three split once again, going to their language classes. Tommy took ASL with Callahan. Callahan used to be terrifying and Tommy was honestly very nervous to take a class with him, but as the year progressed it wasn’t bad. Callahan was the school enforcer and dealt with the ISS kids and although there were very few kids who did get ISS they never got it again once they spent at least a day with Callahan. But if you weren’t in ISS he was actually pretty chill and nice, Tommy was the only kid at his level so a one on one class with him might have been scary when he was a freshmen he actually really enjoyed it now. The fact that Callahan was mute and only spoke in sign language was actually very helpful, the next door teacher, Connor, was mainly a translator for the freshmen and sophomores who didn’t yet understand what Callahan was saying.
Tubbo was taking German with Niki who was also Ranboo’s home economics teacher. She was very nice but Tommy never had her as a teacher. Ranboo took Greek with Sapnap and then Tubbo and Ranboo ended up having English together with Dream while Tommy went to his daily sessions with Puffy. Part of his and Eret’s agreement was that he had to go to Puffy daily and since it didn’t interrupt his schedule he kept it all four years. Puffy was extremely helpful and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
Despite the fact that going to the academy really helped him he still needed a lot of help with the transition from middle to high school. At first he didn’t really talk or do much but once he opened up to her life got a whole lot better and easier. It wasn’t easy at first and it wasn’t instant results and of course he still had a lot of issues they were working through but he never would’ve been where he is today without her. He owed a lot to Puffy.
After that was lunch or gym, it alternated depending on the day for the three of them but either way they tended to skip and end up in the cafeteria anyway.
Finally, it was Tubbo’s turn to go to Puffy’s office, Ranboo headed to home ec and Tommy went to the hellscape known as English class. Gods did he hate that class. Dream was his teacher and for some unknown reason Dream had it out for Tommy and was an absolute menace. He actively targeted him and overall was just cruel to him. It sucked and Dream made his life miserable, possibly even more so than his family did. Dream bullied him. And adult, a teacher fucking bullied him . But unfortunately he had tenure and to get anything done about him Tommy’s mental health would have to be declining rapidly or he had to have proof. But everyone’s phones were taken and put at the back of the classroom and Tommy had no proof about anything. Luckily, despite being awful, Dream wasn’t too bad for Tommy’s mental health so it was bearable at the very least.
So for today, Tommy’s session with Puffy ‘ran over time’ and instead of staying there for one or even two periods he was there for the last three periods of the day, just sat in one of the chairs in Puffy’s office, since Tubbo didn’t have to talk to Puffy about anything she allowed Tommy to stay. He skipped English but that was just another plus.
Onto Theater, the best time of the day even if it was Tech week and they didn’t have the weekend to practice because the theater was getting repainted. Bad timing but definitely needed.
“Puffy said you spent the last three periods of school in her room?” Eret asked, sitting in the chair next to Tommy as he worked on finishing up his homework. All the break homework was pretty light considering Eret had spoken to their teachers about work with hell week coming up and all. Most were understanding but Tommy wasn’t there for Dream’s class so despite the fact that he knew from Tubbo and Ranboo that there was an assignment he technically didn’t have to do it. It wasn’t assigned to him therefore it doesn’t exist.
“Yeah my brothers are coming home today.” Tommy muttered before checking the time on his phone. “They may even be home right now.”
“That sucks.” Eret replied. “How are you feeling?”
“Come on man, I did this with Puffy already.” Tommy huffed, slinking down in his seat. Eret let out a chuckle.
“I’m sure you did. I just want to know.” Eret told him. Tommy grumbled something under his breath but sat up straighter.
“I don’t know. I’m worried but at the same time I don’t care.” Tommy said. “I just… It’s my senior year, I just didn’t want to have to deal with this.”
“That’s completely valid. You shouldn’t have to, but you also should let yourself enjoy your senior year. Don’t worry too much about what you can’t control and focus on what you can. Okay?” Eret asked. Tommy couldn’t help but smile a bit. Eret had helped him through one of, if not the hardest time in his life and they’d do it again. Eret left him to finish his homework and as he filled in one of the last problems of his math packet he figured he’d be okay.
Tubbo and Ranboo were already on stage, practicing the blocking while just simply saying their lines, not really acting. He nodded to himself.
Yeah he was going to be okay.