Chapter 1 - A fresh start

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!WARNING: slight homophobia!

Paintbrush POV

I can't wait for college. Everyone in this town as been calling me she/her my whole life. Most people do it just to mess with me. Even when I switched schools, people still made fun of me. I'm glad I can finally start somewhere new. My parents were a bit sad to find out that I was going to college out of state.

I am gonna miss Marshmallow though. Hopefully she got in the same school as me. We've been wanted to get out of this town forever. We both know our parents would disown us if we told them our sexualities. Marshmallow told me that she finds out if she got in today. I should call her. But I really don't wanna get up.

I sighed, standing up and stretching. God my back hurts. I've been sleeping terribly. I grabbed my phone of my desk and pressed Marshmallow's contact on my phone. "Hey, Marsh." I could hear Marshmallow sigh on the phone. "Paintbrush, I was in the middle of cooking." I sat back down on my bed, my leg tired from standing. "And I was in the middle of fucking your mom."

"Wow, Paintbrush. That made me laugh so hard." I could tell she was rolling her eyes. "I'm glad I made you laugh so hard Marshmallow. I really am." I smirked. "I really hate you, Paintbrush, I really do." "Aww, I love you too Marsh."

"Soo, I wanted to call to see if you had gotten your email yet." Marshmallow snorted. "Paintbrush, you asked me that last night. And the night before that. And the night before that. When will you learn to have patience?" "Never. I get mad when my mom doesn't cook my food in under five minutes. What patience do you think I have?" "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I expected from you. You failed almost all of your classes. How sad. I don't even know how you got into college." "I have my ways, Marsh, I have my ways."

I could hear Marshmallow's mom yelling slightly in the distance. "I gonna go, my mom is mad at me because I forgot to clean my room again." "Okay, bye." I hung up the phone and sighed. I have no one else to talk to. OJ, Bomb, and Paper live in a different state, and Marshmallow's busy with her mom. I guess I should start packing. I have orientation in a couple weeks. I'm staying at the campus for a week around the middle of August. I stood up, once again, and started looking for things to pack.

-

It was finally the day. August 17th. I was gonna be staying at this school until August 24th. I'm honestly scared. The email said that I would be meeting my roommates and I have a chance to switch roommates within the next five days. I hope my roommates aren't like the people back home. I don't even know if I should tell them I'm non-binary. I probably should just incase they wanna switch roommates... But that's not important right now! Me and Marshmallow were riding the train there, and thankfully, Marshmallow got in the same college as me. I don't know what I would've done if she was going somewhere else.

I hope OJ, Bomb, and Paper are still together. They've been friends since 1st grade and have been dating since sophomore year. I hope their doing well. Even if they were a pain to deal with. They talked to lovingly to each other all the time. Me, Marsh, Taco and Pickle were so over it. At least their parents accepted them. I wish my parents weren't so goddamn homophobic.

"When we get there, I'm gonna steal all the food they have." Marsh said, her eyes glued to her phone. "Of course you are. You're a like a hungry hungry hippo." "Wow, rude." I laughed, pulling out my phone and checking the time. It was around 6am. I got up way too early for this. I woke up at 3:45 am. I feel like my body is going to physically shut down. I didn't even get any sleep thanks to my insomnia.

I felt the train come to a stop. The doors opened. Well, here we go. Me and Marsh stood up and walked out the doors. It was a bit of a walk to get to the campus. "Marsh, and we please take the bus? I am literally going to die if we walk." "You're being dramatic. It's only a 30 minute walk." I groaned. "Pleasee? I'll pay for both of us!" Marshmallow sighed. "Fine, we can take the bus." "Yes!"

I walked to the bus stop and sat on the seats. "It's a 2 minute wait for the bus." Marsh said, rolling her eyes. She seemed a bit annoyed. "See, Marshy? There's much easier ways to get to places than just walking." "Yeah, okay. Just don't blame me when you're overweight." I scoffed. "That was extremely rude of you Marsh, I might have to take away you're phone privileges for that."

"Who are you? My mother?" "You never know. We could be in those dramatic TV shows. You could be my daughter." "What a terrible world to live in. If I was your daughter, I would disown myself." Marshmallow chuckled as I scoffed, once again. "Jeez, Marsh. You really hurt my feelings." "That's the goal." As soon as I was about to respond, the bus came.

We got on, and I paid, (Marsh totally didn't have to force me) and we sat down around the back of the bus. It would be about 4 stops until we got to the college, which I was fine with. I didn't really mind. Anything was better than walking. On the next stop, about 5 people got on. Only one girl had sat in the back.

I felt a bit uneasy. Like someone was watching me. I looked to my left and saw the girl, who had just sat down, staring at me with a smile. She had dark chocolate skin, and bright yellow hair that had to be dyed. She had bright blue eyes. She was wearing a pastel yellow shirt, and grey overalls. She also had a suitcase and a backpack. She immediately looked away when she saw me look back at her.

"Hey, Marsh," I whispered. "That girl was staring at me." Marsh shrugged. "Maybe she finds you hot." "Ew! Gross! I am not into her at all." Marsh rolled her eyes. "Mhm, why don't you go talk to her? Y'know, find out why she was staring at you?" I considered the thought. "Maybe I should." "Dude, I was joking-" I stood up and walk towards the girl. I sat down next to her. I saw Marsh facepalming.

"Um, excuse me?" She looked towards me. "Y'know, it's rude to stare at people." "You just seemed bit familiar to me. Baxter thought you looked familiar too." "Uh, who is Baxter?" She took off her backpack and took out a.. crab?! "This is Baxter. Baxter, meet stranger. Stranger, meet Baxter." I just sat there confused. Maybe I should've came over here-

"What's your name?" "Oh. Uh, my name's Paintbrush." Her facial expression changed when she heard my name. Like something clicked inside of her. "Ohhh. Now I remember you." "Remember me? From what?" "We went to high school together right?" I studied her face, the gears in my head turning. "Oh! You're Lightbulb, right?" She nodded. "The one and only."

"Wait a minute, why do you have a pet crab?" "I couldn't just leave Baxter at home. Bowie would try to eat em. She's a tricky little cat." "No, I mean in general-" "Paintbrush!" I heard Marshmallow yell my name. "This is our stop!" "Oh, okay." I got up and left the bus... with Lightbulb following close behind me.

"Um, can I help you?" "Yes actually, 1 or 2?" "2??" Lightbulb immediately ran, yelling. "I GUESS I'M RUNNING TO CAMPUS!!!" Marsh started laughing. She almost died of laughter. (No, seriously. I had to check if she was okay.) Huh. What a weird girl.

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