For Whom The Bell Tolls (Trollhunters continuation/Evil Jim AU)

19: Toby

A few hours had passed since recess, all the students now back in class. Toby was completely lost in thought, staring longingly at Jim's empty seat, wondering where he'd gone off to. He could hear Aja and Claire still chatting, Miss Janeth droning on in the background but it had all been drowned out by Domzalski's lack of attention span at current. He thought about the other night, how cool that'd been, but also how genuinely terrifying and unbelievable it was. He was actually the chosen one for once? He'd never been chosen for anything really - unless it was to be the subject of incessant bullying at the hands of Steve Palchuk and his lackies. He was never chosen for a role in the school play (at least for the one he wanted), he always got chosen last in gym class and his choice of movie was usually overlooked on movie night too.
Then his focus shifted to Jim again. Whilst he knew he should be more concerned with whatever crazy stuff was going on with Lake, he couldn't help but think of the boy's physical appearance. How safe he felt nestled in those muscular arms, the sharper more defined jawline and those radiant, piercing ocean blue irises that contained so much pain and sorrow, but also kindness and calm. Like a gentle tide.
They brought Toby a lot of comfort and he found himself sighing lovingly into his palm as his vivid daydreams began. Jim scooping him up bridal style, carrying him across a meadow where they could fall back into the long grass and watch the clouds together...

"Mr. Domzalski! Perhaps you could tell us all the route of x?"

Miss Janeth's shrill voice piped up, snapping Toby out of his fantasy. The class snickered quietly.

"Umm...42?" He offered, chuckling nervously.

The teacher's posture grew rigid and she shook her head, "No Mr. Domzalski, the route of x is not 42. If you'd been paying attention to the lesson rather than staring out the window then you'd have known that the route of x is actually 7."

"Right, yeah...sorry miss." Toby mumbled awkwardly and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

He could practically feel the intense burning glares of all of the students in the classroom fixed on him. He'd never felt more embarrassed in a lesson. He began to drift off again as the teacher started her boring algebra lecture once more, a strange fuzzy feeling in his head. He began to think of Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!, he wondered when he'd see them again since Jim was meant to take the amulet thing to them both. This stray thought was met by a strong tugging sensation in his mind and a bright flash, changing what he could see.
He could now see what looked to be some form of library before him, books strewn about the place. The books looked ancient, medieval in origin. He found himself able to move around (he wasn't very far off the ground), picking up one of the dog-eared tomes and flicking through it. It was all written in a weird language he couldn't decipher, but the pictures were cool. One of them looked exactly like that troll Bular he'd stabbed with the sword Daylight. He continued to flick through, seeing depictions of a bridge-like structure and a large orange coloured crystal.
His reading was interrupted by the sound of footsteps, followed by Blinky walking in and clearing up books. Toby willed himself to hide, knocking a skull to one side as he did.

Blinky spun round and Toby found himself face-to-face with six eyes full of rage. One of the troll's four arms picked up a nearby book and swung it at Toby.

"Shoo, get out of here, vile vermin! You gnomes are scum of the Earth!"

The book was brought down onto his head and Toby immediately found himself thrown back to the class. His breathing was rapid and his hands were shaky. The teenager had no idea what had just happened but it had definitely caught him by surprise.
That was kinda cool but also mildly horrifying, probably gonna need counselling for that- He pondered.

The class continued to drag on, with Toby eventually reasoning that he'd tell Claire about this later, but right now he wanted to see if this was just a daydream or if he could possibly use whatever power this was to see Jim. All he'd done was think about Blinky for a second and he'd seen him. Perhaps it worked similarly?
Toby cleared his mind again and allowed himself to almost sink into a trance-like state. He focused all his thoughts on Jim, trying to think long and hard about finding him, seeing him, but it wasn't working. All he could think of was how attractive Jim looked with that longer hair, how strong he was...Heck, even the troll form was kind of cute. Those gauzy cerulean eyes still remained, bringing an air of Jim to the beast. Toby's face flushed crimson. He couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful Jim's eyes were. It didn't make sense to him. Maybe this new power thing just didn't work properly yet, but logically, if it was what he suspected it to be, he'd be able to see Jim by just wanting to see him, right?
More time passed and still nothing but more thoughts of how attractive Lake was. How much of an amazing guy he was.
Then the realisation hit.
The whole reason Toby couldn't focus on finding Jim was because he was too flustered thinking about him. He felt like a tiny bit of an idiot.
Claire lightly tapped his shoulder, which made him jump again. Miss Janeth turned around to hurl an accusation at Toby, but Claire stepped in and apologised, telling the teacher she'd accidentally dropped her pencil and that's why the sound of a chair scrape was heard.
Toby sighed with relief, mouthing a quick 'thank you' to his friend and burying his head in his arms. He had powers like Jim, which was a lot to process and his childhood crush on Jim that he'd spent the past five years trying to conceal was evidently stronger than ever.
He surmised that at lunch he'd ring Jim and talk with Claire, that'd solve things? At least he hoped they would any way.