✧❦Popularity❦✧ ➳ skephalo

.23.

A/N: you people are going to love this chapter, just sayin~

Zak's POV:

I rode the bus to school that morning, feeling really tired and exhausted. The concussion was really taking a toll on me, causing headaches whenever a room was too bright or too loud. Which made the bus ride terrible, since there were a ton of obnoxious kids on my bus, making the whole situation so much worse.

Let's just say I wasn't having a good morning. My mom's boyfriend woke me up by screaming at me, then proceeded to slap me when I argued back with him. Oh... how badly I wanted to start to punch and kick him. But I knew I couldn't, because of my head injury, it would only make things worse for me.

I stepped off of the bus when it arrived at the school, only to be greeted by everyone looking at me with smiles. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what they were all grinning about. Is someone spreading rumors about me again? I questioned myself as I made my way up to the front doors of the building.

As I walked, I began to notice that people were whispering to each other and glancing at me. I blinked a few times with furrowed eyebrows. What the hell are they gossiping about? I rubbed my face with my hands and then spotted Zelk.

"Yo!" I called out to him, jogging up to him. "What is everyone whispering about? What's going on?" I questioned him with confusion.

He just simply smiled in return. "Why don't you enter the school and find out yourself?"

I started to feel nervous and excited at the same time. What does he mean by that? I began to speed-walk up to the building, my anxiety building up with every step I take. I really didn't know what to expect, nobody said anything to me about any event happening that day, so I wasn't sure how to respond to all this attention behind my back.

When I opened up the doors to the school, a smile grew on my face. In the commons, there were a bunch of people lined up on each side of me, making a row down the hallway where I was supposed to walk through. The people were all of my friends. My entire baseball team was there in their jerseys, throwing pedals onto the ground where I started to walk.

I saw Clay, who brought a bunch of the boys from the cross country team. They were cheering and chanting my name. I laughed when some people threw peanuts onto the floor as I walked down the row, finding it humorous that they do that whenever something good happens.

Vincent was there too, standing next to Clay, giving me a thumbs up. He held a baguette in his palms which made me giggle. It was like an inside joke to us, I often referred to him as baguette-boy.

Finn and Dave stood with bouquets, they handed them to me as I walked down. I gave them a confused look, and they gestured down as if they were saying "keep walking". I just flashed them a smile and kept making my way down the row of people, still not knowing what to find at the end.

Brianna was also among the rows of people. She held up a rainbow flag with a big laugh, chanting my name along with the baseball and cross country boys. I gave her a nod of appreciation, although I was still confused on what was going on.

When I continued down the line, I also saw George and Jack. They patted me on the shoulders as I walked past them, I smiled back at them in return.

At the end of the row, I saw a sign. It was huge, held up by two girls on each side. The sign had baseballs and baseball bats on it, with more doodles of baseball helmets and the number 14. When I got closer, I saw the words. "I might strike-out but I'm gonna take a swing at it, cuz I finally got the balls so... HOCO?"

My eyes widened when I read the sign... but let me tell you... when Darryl popped up from behind the sign, my eyes nearly fell out of my skull.

I covered my mouth with my hand in shock, running my other hand through my hair before I practically threw myself at Darryl. That's why Brianna was holding the rainbow flag... I thought to myself as I hugged Darryl so tightly that he probably couldn't breath. "Yes..." I breathed into his ear as I buried myself into his body.

The older boy laughed, prying me off of him. "You gotta say it louder, you muffin," He teased, ruffling my hair.

I smiled, then turned towards everyone who was watching. I threw my fists into the air as an action of victory, and then I shouted, "YES!"

The hallway erupted with cheers, screams, barks, whoops, and laughter. Zelk, Dave, Clay, Vincent, George, Jack, Finn, and Brianna all came running up to me and started hugging, patting, and shaking hands with me. Slowly the cheers turned into chants of one word.

"SKEPHALO! SKEPHALO!"

"What the hell is Skephalo?" I asked Brianna after everyone began to chant it.

She giggled. "Ever since that night at the party, where you and Darryl went into the closet together, people made a ship name out of your two nicknames. BadBoyHalo and Skeppy, Skephalo."

I started to laugh. "People have been shipping us?"

"Yes, I'm surprised you didn't realize," Vincent told Darryl and I in his French accent. "I'm the one who started it, anyway."

I then turned to Darryl. "How the hell did you get the whole school to agree to this?"

He shrugged. "It wasn't hard, along with the petition to get you back onto the baseball team, I also told people about this. Everyone loves you Zak, nobody even hesitated to agree to help out."

Suddenly I began to feel emotional. "Oh my God-" My voice slightly cracked and cut off during that sentence.

The people around us started to "aww" at how choked up I was getting. The girls found it adorable while I found it embarrassing.

"Come here, Skeppy," Darryl told me, pulling me into another hug. I rested my head on his shoulder and let my happy tears fall onto his shirt. I sniffled into his neck, which is when I saw flashes. I realized that people were taking pictures of him and I hugging, and I had no problem with it.

I desperately hoped that him asking me to Homecoming wasn't a one time thing.

A/N: cheesy chapter but adorable at the same time