brooks & hale ✔️

brooks

a quick note:
UCAS application, for those of you who don't know, is part of the process for applying to university in England. You submit the form at the end of year twelve/start of year thirteen, and the more achievements you have on it (both academic and extracurricular) the better your application is, and therefore the more likely universities will want you.

not necessary to know, but background context might make more sense! feel free to pm or comment if you still don't get it :)

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eighteen ;
b r o o k s

"THEY HAVE PIZZA, GUYS!" Calla yelled, almost hitting Hassan in the face with her bag as she swung into her seat. "They actually have pizza!"

"You can thank me for that," Brooks said, chuckling at her enthusiasm. "I told you being part of school council has it's perks."

"No way," Calla gaped. "They actually listened to you?"

"I'm a very influential person in school council," Brooks said seriously, ignoring the sceptical look Hassan shot him. "Okay, only because I'm the only one who actually bothers suggesting improvements. The others are only there to put it on their UCAS application."

Lexus had a reputation for quite a few things, none of them good, but one of the worst was the food. Brooks had no idea what those dinner ladies were doing in the kitchen, but the food on the menu rarely consisted of more than questionable mush and questionable soup with questionable lumps that might have been meat, or might have been something else. Basically, everything was questionable and nothing was edible.

Brooks had taken matters into his own hands and suggested more variety through the school council, using Calla's constant complaining as "the students wanting to see a difference". The pizza was burnt and too hard to chew without breaking a couple of teeth, but hey, it was pizza. It was all about baby steps. Maybe one day they'd enjoy a lunch they could fully digest.

"Mhmm, thish ish sho gwood," Calla said, closing her eyes in bliss as she chomped down on the rock pizza. Hassan and Brooks exchanged a disbelieving look.

"Good?" Hassan echoed. "Calla, you're going to need dentures at the rate you're trying to eat that."

"It's pizza, Has! I don't care what the texture is. I'm eating it."

"Are you actually tasting anything other than bread and dried out tomato sauce?" Hassan poked his own shrivelled slice of pizza with a disgusted expression. A sliver of hardened cheese flaked off. "I don't think this is allowed to be classified as pizza. It's offensive to real pizza everywhere."

Calla swallowed her mouthful. "You know what your problem is? You're way too picky. Maybe if you just appreciated the food - "

"I can't possibly appreciate this garbage."

"C'mon, that's just harsh. It's not that bad."

Brooks tuned out their debate on whether Lexus pizza was allowed to be called pizza, more interested in the crowded table across the cafeteria. Hale was with his usual crowd of friends, laughing and joking like nothing was wrong, like they hadn't discussed his conflicted sexuality just a few days ago. Even though he acted like he was fine, you could tell something was bothering him if you looked closely enough, that his smile didn't quite reach his eyes.