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'I'll repeat my question, what did you do?'
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I was currently at Claire's house in her garage as her. Darci and Mary were practicing for the battle of the bands. As their manager, I was there to give support, advice, and to go everywhere they go.
I sat cross legged on the couch as I listen to their singing. It honestly wasn't horrible, although some of the vocals could definitely be better and the constant yelling of 'we want to be mean!' Is definitely gonna effect my hearing later on in life.
It wasn't until it was Claire's part to sing, did the girl completely freeze as she seemed to look around in a daze.
"Claire?" I ask worriedly, just as Claire collapsed on the ground as I immediately sit up. "Claire!"
Mary, Darci and I immediately surround her unconscious body as Mary starts to stress.
"Oh my gosh! Is she alright?" Mary exclaims as I put my hand to her forehead to find her burning up.
"Her face is on fire!" I say with wide eyes as I quickly go to grab her arms. "I'll grab the arms, Darci, you grab the feet"
Darci nods as we both grab onto her and move her into her living room and onto the couch.
"Mary! Get her some water! Darci! Grab her a wet face cloth!" I instruct as they both nod before running away.
I quickly check Claire's pulse but it seemed perfectly fine. Maybe she's dehydrated? Or maybe it's the clear lack of sleep she's been getting?
Mary and Darci soon come back with the water and wet face cloth as I immediately place the water on the counter next to the couch and press the face cloth against Claire's forehead.
"Is she alright?" Darci asks as I helplessly shrug my shoulders.
"I don't know" I mumble.
As soon as those words leave my mouth, Claire let out a groan as I watch as she squints her eyes.
"Claire! Are you okay?" Mary asks as we all look down at the delirious girl.
Claire groans before she heaves her body up and sits up straight on the couch as she removes the face cloth from her head.
"You, like, went to the twilight zone there" Mary says with a worried expression on her face.
"Claire have you been getting enough sleep? Are you dehydrated or something?" I ask worriedly as I grab the water from the counter and quickly hand it to the girl.
"I'm fine, I...uh lost myself in the music. Sorry" Claire mumbles as she takes a sip of the water before handing it back to me as I sigh.
"Right..." I mumble, not believing the lie at all.
"Um, Claire, your nose" Darci points out with wide eyes as I look to find a trickle of black blood dripping down her nose.
I quickly hand the girl a tissue as she wipes underneath her nose and looks back at the blood before looking at us nervously.
"Uh, maybe I should sit this one out" Claire mumbles.
"Maybe you should sit school out too. I mean, that's not normal" Mary says worriedly as I nod my head.
"For once, I completely agree with Mary" I say as I feel Mary playfully nudge my shoulder as I hold in a laugh, knowing it's not the time.
"Yeah, uh...your right" Claire mumbles as she looks down.
"Claire, get some sleep, stay hydrated and call me if anything happens...alright?" I say as the girl hesitantly nods her head as I smile. "Good"
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"How can Claire still be sick?" Toby asks as us Jim and I walk down the hallway through school with Toby at our side.
"Toby, it's only one more sick day. Claire needs her rest" I say with a shrug, deciding it's best not to mention Claire passing out.
"I know someone else who needs some rest" Jim says as he narrows his eyes at me making me roll my eyes.
"I told you Jim, I'm fine" I say with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Didn't you yell at me in the sewers saying that when a girl says she's fine she doesn't mean it?" Jim questions with a small smirk as I huff.
"It was an emotional day! Sometimes, when a girl says she's fine, she's actually fine" I explain as Jim nods unconvinced.
We turn the corner in the hallway but freeze as we watch Coach Lawrence with his arm around Steve in an attempt to hug the boy. Jim obnoxiously coughs into his fist making them both freeze and move away from eachother with wide eyes.
"Jumping jacks, now! Give me 20! Uh...no, 50!" Coach Lawrence yells as Steve immediately starts doing jumping jacks while counting.
As soon as Coach Lawrence walks back into his office, Steve immediately stops and growls under his breath before stomping over to us.
"You heard nothing, got it?" Steve asks before pushing both Jim and Toby to the ground and knocking his shoulder into mine as I grunt and watch him stomp away.
"Asshole" I mutter before I watch as a hot chocolate can goes rolling around the hallway as people kick it with their feet without realising, before it rolls into the teachers lounge.
"Oh, great" Jim sighs as he looks at the can sadly.
"The teachers lounge" Toby says with wide eyes. "The educational no-fly zone"
"Just cover for me, okay?" Jim asks us as we nod.
"Wait, why do you need a can of hot chocolate?" I ask confused as I watch Jim's eyes widen momentarily.
"I-it's for class! I need it" Jim quickly says before he quickly sneaks into the teachers lounge before I can question him.
"Well that totally wasn't suspicious" I mutter before looking towards Toby. "Anything you want to say T.P?"
"No?" Toby questions nervously before quickly grabbing his phone and turning on music as he grabs my arm and drags me infront of the teachers lounge door. "Surprise teachers dance party!"
Toby immediately gets into the music as he dances his heart out while making robot noises as I stand next to him and awkwardly shimmy my body around while bobbing to the music.
I'm not a dancer, alright!
"This is a strict no dancing zone, Domzalski and L/n" Senor Uhl says as Toby and I awkwardly shuffle our feet out of view of the door before we sigh in relief when we're out of sight.
I quickly peek my head through the door again as I spot Jim crouched underneath a table with the hot chocolate in his hand as I gesture for him to run out.
Jim quickly runs out of the teachers lounge as Jim, Toby and I high five in success.
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Unlucky for me, my first class was gym and today we were running laps on the school oval. Usually I wouldn't mind this because it's usually quite easy and I just jog alongside Claire, but today it was horrible.
I was slowly jogging alongside Toby and Jim as we chatted, but our attention immediately turned to Coach Lawrence who decided to yell at a bunch of students.
"Oh, you wanna text and run? Okay. Well, how about this status update?" Coach Lawrence yells at Gabe as he grabs his phone and throws it into the air as we all watch it fly away.
Coach Lawrence then spots a panting and tired looking Eli who seems to be on his last legs. Coach quickly runs next to the boy and decided to target him next.
"What the—? That's your best?" Coach Lawrence yells as he runs with high knees next to the panting boy.
"I'm doing the best I can, sir" Eli pants as he looks like he's about to collapse.
"Let me ask you, how have you not been eaten by a hawk with those embryonic little legs?" Coach Lawrence yells before he starts to flap his arms like a bird. "Oh, look out. Run, little worm. Run!"
"Geez, who peed in his coffee?" Toby asks with wide eyes.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed" I agree as I cross my arms against my chest.
"Cut him some slack, Coach" Steve says in defensive of the terrified Eli.
It was like watching a horror movie as Coach Lawrence turns around with fury in his eyes that were directly trained on Steve.
"Your father might've taken your lip, but your playing on my field now!" Coach Lawrence yells as he stands infront of Steve with a glare on his face. "If it wasn't for your mother, I'd have shipped you off to military school, son!"
And that's when the bomb dropped. A deafening silence followed after Coach Lawrence's statement as everyone on the field took in what he said.
Coach Lawrence was dating Steve's mum.
"You said you wouldn't say anything" Steve mumbles in a quivering voice.
"Dude" Toby mumbles.
"Dude" Jim mumbles with a grimace.
"Dude" I sigh with my arms crossed against my chest.
"Dude...coach and Steve's mum!" Mary exclaims with a wide smile.
"You think I like picking up pimple pads and puffing snacks?" Coach Lawrence continues as his face continues to shudder. "Your a disgrace Palchuk!"
I watch as Steve's face completely drops as tears start to form in the boys eyes. I realise that this may be the first time I've ever felt bad for Steve.
"I hate you..." Steve sobs in a quivering voice as he punched Coach's chest in anger. "I hate you!"
"Tobes, maybe there was something in his coffee" I hear Jim mumble, making me slowly turn around to the boy with narrowed eyes.
"Jim...what did you do?" I ask slowly as the nervous boy meets my furious gaze.
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Toby and I follow Jim into the locker rooms as we watch Jim open his locker and pull out the tin of hot chocolate. Jim opens the lid and takes a sniff as his eyes widen.
"Oh no" Jim mumbles in defeat.
"I'll repeat my question, what did you do?" I ask with narrowed eyes as Jim sighs in frustration and closes his locker shut.
"I must've grabbed the wrong can" Jim continues to mumble to himself making me sigh in frustration.
"Jim! What did you do?" I ask with a glare as Jim sighs.
"I've been practicing my training with Gumm-Gumm ashes and their supposed to make you more...troll-like" Jim starts to explain as a horrible feeling appears in my stomach. "And I brought it to school because I thought nothing would happen but you know, I dropped it and the tin rolled into the teachers lounge and..."
"...and you grabbed the wrong can when you went in there....oh Merlin Jim!" I exclaim as I punch the boys shoulder as he winces.
"I'm sorry! I don't even know how this happened I-" Jim starts to say as he rubs his shoulder but his voice dies off at the sound of Eli and Steve.
"It's okay Steve" Eli attempts to comfort as Steve angrily punches one of the lockers.
"Coach might have made his coffee with Gumm-Gumm ashes" Jim whispers to Toby and I with a grimace.
"He drank dead troll?" Toby whispers with wide eyes.
"This is you Lake, isn't it?" Steve's voice suddenly says as the three of us nervously look towards the furious boy.
"Uh, I'm sure Jim had a good reason" Eli tries to defend Jim.
"Just hear him out Steve" I say as I push back against his chest as Steve attempts to strangle Jim.
"It was a huge mistake" Jim starts to say nervously. "He drank something that's making him act like a troll"
Suddenly a thud sound came from somewhere in the locker room as we all immediately freeze. I don't waste a second before I quietly walk towards the sound and slowly lean over the wall to see what's making the sound.
Apparently the others had the same idea as me as we all peep our heads around the wall and watch as a crazed looking Coach digs through a container of dodge balls.
"Teenagers" Coach Lawrence snarls before he picks up a dodgeball and slowly pushes against it before it pops. "No discipline"
We all quickly lean our heads away from the wall with wide eyes as Jim immediately grabs his phone to call someone.
Suddenly Steve made a grab for Jim's collar as he holds the boy up in the air with a glare on his face.
"Whatever you did Lake, you better undo it" Steve threatens before he raises a fist in the air. "Or I'm gonna undo your face"
"I'd like to see you try" I say with narrowed eyes as I grab the boys fist that's in the air and twist it back as Steve grunts and lets go of Jim.
"Listen L/n-!" Steve starts to say before a low growl from behind us put our attention back to the main problem.
The person on the other end of Jim's phone suddenly accepted the call as Jim quickly put it on speaker as we huddle around the phone.
"Young Atlas, it's fourth period. Shouldn't you be...dissecting a frog?" The voice of Strickler came from the other end of the phone as my eyes widen.
"Strickler?" Eli and Steve both gasp.
"Hypothetical question" Jim starts to say. "What if someone accidentally ate Grace sand?"
"What?" Sticklers voice gasps. "It's not meant to be consumed. That would amplify its effects tenfold"
"No need to be concerned" Jim quickly says. "It was just-"
"-Toby's cat!" I quickly say as I elbow Toby to join in on the lie as the boy starts to meow and hiss.
"Ah, Ms L/n, it has been awhile, it is nice to hear your voice again, no matter how annoying it can be" I hear Stricklers smart ass voice say from the phone as I hold in a smile.
"And Mr Strickler! Oh how I've missed your snarky attitude and stupid looking face" I say back as I hear him chuckle quietly.
"Back on topic please" Jim says before going back to the cat. "So how do we help the cat?"
"He's coming!" Eli suddenly whispers as he comes running past us.
We all gasp as we quickly run away from the benches and each lean against a wall, the sound of Coach Lawrence howling gaining our attention as we all share a nervous look.
"I'd recommend putting the cat down" Stricklers voice says as my eyes widen. "It's the only merciful thing to do"
"What?" Jim says with wide eyes as Toby continues to nervously meow and hiss loudly. "What if that's not an option? What if the cat means a lot to Toby?"
"Stop meowing!" Eli whispers as I hit Toby upside the back of his head to make the boy shut up.
"To bring him back, you need to break through his delusions and emotionally connect with him, before his altered state becomes permanent" Stricklers voice says making me slap my forehead in frustration.
"Permanent—?!" Steve whispers with his hands on his head.
"Now, how one emotionally connects with a feline is debatable" Stricklers voice continues to say until a loud growl gains my attention as I look to the side to see a furious looking Coach looking down at Toby.
"Your no cat!" Coach Lawrence yells in anger as we all stare at the Coach with wide eyes.
"Meow" Toby mumbles awkwardly.
Coach Lawrence growls loudly making us all yell and quickly run towards the door, knocking over the large container of dodgeballs as they go falling to the ground. I practically push infront of everyone as I sprint through the door first, everyone quickly behind me before we shut the door and lean against it panting.
This just got more complicated.
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Authors note:
I couldn't decide if I wanted to do the episode of the teachers going crazy bc I know Claire wasn't in it because she was sick, but I feel like it would be fun to see Y/n and the rest of the group so Yayyyy
Also I am so sorry that this chapter took so long to be published, I have been a bit busy with life shit lol
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!