As the two boys are making their way towards the classroom, Jungkook glances over at Taehyung's arm that was draped around his shoulder. "I don't wanna, uh...hurt your feelings or anything, but I'm not really that fond of people touching me." He says, prompting Taehyung to look over at him.
"Oh? Does it make you uncomfortable or something?" Taehyung asks, slightly tilting his head to the side.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
"Why's that?" Taehyung asks, still keeping his arm snug around Jungkook even as they enter the classroom.
"I dunno...it's just always been that way since I was a kid." Jungkook says, wiggling his shoulders a little bit, but Taehyung's arm doesn't budge.
"Hm...I dunno...your shoulder is pretty comfortable, though...I don't think I want to."
"Wow...you're a difficult one, aren't you?" Jungkook says, putting it as nicely as he could.
"I'm just trying to get you to loosen up a bit, is all." Taehyung says, finally letting the younger go. He holds his hands out towards a long desk that was built for two. "Anyways, you'll be happy to know I got you a seat next to me, so you don't have to converse with any of the clowns in here."
Though he was a little bit bummed to see that he wouldn't have his own desk, Jungkook nods and sets his bag down beside it on the floor, then pulls the seat out from underneath it.
"Gee, you're welcome...." Taehyung says, rolling his eyes. "Dr. Slawter is always a little late to his own class, so we can chill for a bit before he gets here." He says, rubbing his hands together. "I'll go get you a folder and a textbook. Be right back."
After Taehyung walks off, Jungkook leans down to rummage through his bag for his pencil case, but stops soon after when he hears Pete's soft voice call out to him.
"Oh, hey Jungkook!" Pete says, prompting Jungkook to look up.
"Oh, Petey, right? Sorry, I'm bad with names." Jungkook says, and Pete nods his head.
"Pete, Petey...either one works. But uh, wow, glad to see you! I didn't know you were gonna be in this class! I thought I heard Dr. Slawter saying something about a new student, but I wasn't sure."
"Yep, here I am, haha..." Jungkook says, clearing his throat. "Taehyung didn't mention that you were in this class too."
"Oh that's weird...fun fact, this is actually where Taehyung and I met." He scratched the back of his head. "But, um...I hate to break it to you, since you've already got your stuff out...but..." he laughs nervously before continuing. "You're actually in my spot."
"I am..?" Jungkook says, lowering his eyebrows in confusion. He glances over to Taehyung, who was starting to walk back over, then back to Pete. "Wait, but Taehyung told me this spot was free."
"What? Why would Taehyung say that?" Pete says, he too lowering his brows.
"Oh, heya Pete." Taehyung says. He drops Jungkook's books down onto the desk, causing a loud, sharp thud as the book's hardback cover came in contact with it - scaring the living crap out of nearly everyone surrounding them.
"Hey...um, did you tell Jungkook that he could sit here?" Pete asks, cocking his head a bit.
"Yup, I sure did. Why?" Taehyung replies rather nonchalantly.
"Well, I didn't think I had to explain, but that's my seat." Pete says.
"Correction; used to be your seat." Taehyung says, sitting down in his chair. "Ya see, I may have told the teach' yesterday that you wanted to swap seats with the new kid. I didn't think you'd mind."
"You did what? But Taehyung, I never said-"
"Um, I can move, it's no problem." Jungkook says as he starts collecting his things. He starts to stand up from the chair, but Taehyung reaches over him and blocks him with his arm, preventing him from doing so.
"No, Jungkook. It's okay." Taehyung says, redirecting his attention back onto Pete. "Petey, you said you wanted me to stop treating you like a child correct?"
"Well yes, but I don't see how that has anything to do with-"
"Then quit whining like one and go sit over there. It's not like it's going to kill you to be away from me for a little while." Taehyung says, pointing with his other hand towards an empty desk at the complete opposite side of the room. "Jungkook needs all the help he can get, so you can sacrifice your seat."
"But.."
"Okay, class. Settle down, settle down.." An older gentlemen with a white lab coat says after walking into the classroom. "Get to your seats."
Pete glances from Jungkook, over to Taehyung, then sheepishly makes his way over to his new spot, leaving Jungkook with a feeling of slight guilt.
"As you are probably well aware, a new student will be attending our class. If you would, please stand up and get your introduction out of the way so we can start our lesson, posthaste." Dr. Slawter says.
Doing as instructed, Jungkook halfway stands up from his desk and mutters a simple, "My name's Jungkook, nice to meet you all." Then immediately sits back down.
"Great. Now, you'll all be happy to know that the shipments of rats got here safe and sound. Everyone only receives one, so I sincerely hope no one messes up. There is no room for error." Dr. Slawter says, going over to a large box that was stored in the corner of the room, containing a large amount of jars filled with liquid.
As Dr. Slawter starts handing out one jar per student, a few moans and groans, along with some "EWWWWs" fill the room, aside from Taehyung, who just looks at his jar in awe. "Cool!!" Taehyung says, smirking as he examines the dead rat floating around in the jar closely (to which he gets a few questionable looks as a result.)
"You will each get one scalpel, one magnifying glass, and one pair of forceps. When you are done with the tools, place them in the empty bin over there, so they can be properly sanitized." Dr. Slawter says, handing out a set of tools to each of the students, along with a pair of gloves. "Have you ever dissected a specimen before, Jungkook?" Dr. Slawter asks as he hands Jungkook his tools.
"No, sir. Never in my life." Jungkook replies, putting on his gloves.
"Well, this should be a rather momentous occasion for you, then. Just follow along with my instructions and you should be just fine."
"Don't worry Dr. Slawter, I'll be Jungkook's moral support." Taehyung says, patting Jungkook's back.
"Quite good." Dr. Slawter says, then starts heading back to the chalkboard.
"Isn't this exciting??" Taehyung says as he pulls his gloves over his hands, letting it smack against his wrist.
"I think I'm actually going to be sick..." Jungkook says as he watches the dead rat's lifeless body floating around in the liquid.
"Oh, quit being a little wimp. It's just a rat." Taehyung says, hastily unscrewing the jar's lid. As he removes the rat with his forceps, he plops it down onto the tray on his desk, causing Jungkook to jump back a little bit.
"Hey, be careful!! You almost got rat juice on me!"
"It's not rat juice. It's formaldehyde."
"Well, whatever juices it is, I don't want it near me."
"Hey, Jungkook...look.." Taehyung says, prompting Jungkook to look over.
"What are you..." Jungkook says, watching curiously as Taehyung holds the rat up by it's paws.
To Jungkook's shock, Taehyung starts humming the Waltz of The Flowers and he begins swinging the rat around their desk, to which Jungkook slowly lifts his hand up to cover his face.
"Hello there, m'lady. Care for a dance?" Taehyung says, peaking Jungkook's curiosity.
Seeing that Taehyung now had both of their rats and were holding them in front of each other, Jungkook snatches his out of the older's hand. "Oh my God...give me that..!" He says, trying to hold back a laugh. "That's so messed up. They're not freaking dolls..!" He whisper yells.
"I wish I had a mini top hat." Taehyung says, still holding the rat by the arms and making it do a little dance.
"TAEHYUNG! Put that specimen down this instant! It is not your plaything!"
Pulling his lips inwards, Taehyung plops the rat back down onto the tray, and Jungkook just shakes his head.
"Okay, class...we're going to start off with pinning the arms and legs down...they can get quite slippery, and we don't want any...accidents like last time." Dr. Slawter says.
"What happened last time?" Jungkook whispers, looking over at Taehyung curiously.
"Some kid managed to slice his finger. Unlucky bastard accidentally hit an artery."
"Geeez...that's awful."
"Blood was everywhere....isn't it crazy how humans can bleed so much blood just from a little simple cut?" Taehyung says, shoving a pin into one of the rat's legs.
"Is he okay?" Jungkook asks, hesitantly.
"Hmm...I dunno. Haven't seen him for awhile. He did lose a lot of blood. It was pretty fascinating to watch though."
"I wouldn't say fascinating would be the right word in that scenario..."
"What would you say is the right word then?"
"Creepy...horrifying...disgusting...probably not 'fascinating.'"
"To each their own, I guess." Taehyung says, shrugging his shoulders, then continues pinning the rat with no ounce of hesitation what-so-ever. Meanwhile, Jungkook struggles to even put one in; nearly vomiting before the pin even comes in contact with it's skin.
Suddenly feeling like someone was watching at him, Jungkook stops mid-pin and his eyes shoot up. Something tells him to look over in Pete's direction, so he does, and sure enough, his eyes had indeed been fixated on him. The moment he was caught, Pete immediately drops his gaze back down onto his tray; the simple action making Jungkook feel a bit uncomfortable, but he continues on with his project anyways, trying not to overthink the awkward interaction. But it was no more than a few minutes later when the same thing happened yet again.
This time - even though it wasn't at all in Jungkook's character to do so -he attempts to give Pete a smile, though it came off as more of a look of pain than anything close to a smile. And none to his surprise, he wasn't returned one - Pete instead turning away from him and resuming his dissection.
. . . . . . .
"Poor guys." Taehyung says, holding up a pair of disembodied rat testicles in his forceps.
"When you all are finished removing the testes, please set it into the container with the rest of the organs and close the lid tightly." Dr. Slawter says.
"Testes?" Jungkook says, frantically looking up from the rat, over to Taehyung's rat to see how far along he was. Seeing that Taehyung's rat was pretty much hollow, his jaw drops. "What the heck, I'm still on the heart..!" He says.
"The heart..? Wasn't that like...the first thing we removed?" Taehyung says, putting his forceps down onto the tray with the rest of his dirty tools and removing his gloves. "Weren't you paying any attention?"
"I...I guess not." Jungkook says, lowering his foreceps.
"I'll be coming around to give each of you a score. I expect everyone's rat to be as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny." Dr. Slawter says.
"Oof...sucks to be you." Taehyung says, leaning back smugly in his chair. "Can't believe you weren't even able to follow such simple instructions."
Knowing that it was a lost cause to continue any further, Jungkook puts his forceps down and starts removing his gloves. As he was doing so, he curiously glances over at Pete yet again, catching him looking in his direction for what seemed like the millionth time in the past 40 minutes.
"Um...Taehyung?"
"Hmm?" Taehyung says
"I think Pete may be upset."
"Ha, what's new?"
"I dunno...this was his spot. I know I'd be pretty mad if someone took my spot too. Maybe I should move."
"Oh boo-hoo. He'll just have to get over it. You're not moving spots."
"It doesn't really matter that much to me honestly."
"Yeah well, it matters to me alright? Now just ignore him." Taehyung snaps, much to Jungkook surprise. "Be quiet, Dr. Slawter is coming to our table." He says.
"Oh dear..." Dr. Slawter says, looking down at Jungkook's mutilated rat.
"What did you do to it, my boy..?"
"To be honest sir....I don't even know. I guess dissecting rats isn't my forte..."
"Well....I suppose you tried..." Dr. Slawter says, scribbling something down in his notebook. After writing, he redirects his focus onto Taehyung's, to which his expression immediately lightens up.
"Wowww...quite impressive yet again, Taehyung. I know I've said it before, but you could make a spectacular Biologist one of these days. I mean look at these clean edges..." He says, leaning down to get a closer look. "I feel like I am looking at a piece of fine art!" He says, jotting in his notebook.
"I guess I really know my away around some rat guts." Taehyung says.
"Indeed, you do. I can confidently and proudly say, you will be receiving an A, no doubt about it."
"Thank you, sir."
"No, thank you." Dr. Slawter says, the proceeds to walk over to the next desk of students.
As Jungkook and Taehyung were picking up their tools to bring over to the cleaning bin, Taehyung takes one last glance over at Jungkook's rat. "Ugh, God....promise me you'll never be a surgeon.." Taehyung says, shaking his head back and fourth, to which Jungkook just rolls his eyes.
. . . . .
After school 4:30pm
"Well, you're crap outta luck. I guess you're just gonna have to go on without me." Taehyung says.
"I think I'll survive." Jungkook says.
"I don't know what makes that idiot, Galloway, think that I deserved a B on that essay. For him to think that was worth anything less than an A is insulting..."
"A B really isn't anything to get mad over, though, you know that, right?"
"B is average...to put someone like me in the average percentile...that's nothing but a slap in the face."
"What are you planning on doing about it?"
"If it were up to me, I'd get his ass fired. But, for now....I'll have to suck it up and see what exactly it is he would consider to be worth an A." Taehyung says, rubbing his temple.
"Well, good luck with that." Jungkook says, about to take off, but Taehyung stops him by his shoulder.
"Since you don't have me to protect you, if I were you, I would take the back exit of the school. You're less likely to have a run-in with anyone wanting to give you trouble."
"Note taken. Good luck on your essay then, I guess." Jungkook says, and the two bid farewell..
. . .
Jungkook looks down at his watch as he walks out of the school's back entrance like Taehyung had suggested - it's only 4:30 and already he's ready for bed. Even though it's not even the end of it, it feels like this day has dragged on for an eternity to the teen, and all he wants to do now is to go to his room and relax. Plus, he still felt pretty nauseous after staring at the inside of a rat for an hour today.
With Taehyung hopefully gone for the next couple hours, Jungkook has a glimmer of hope he can finally relax. Though he only had to deal with him for a couple hours total, it feels like he's known Taehyung for a lifetime - and not in a good way, either. But now, he'll finally be able to take it easy and take some time for himself...or so he thought.
"Wait a second...so this is the new kid?" Jungkook hears, prompting him to stop in place. He glances up from his watch, only for his gaze to land on a worn out, brown leather jacket.
He looks into the brown eyes of the shorter teen standing before him, but only for a moment before something else catches his attention in his peripheral vision; three other similarly dressed males walking out from the shadows of the corner.
The greasers.
"He can't be." One of the male says in a thick bronx accent, looking Jungkook over. "He's just a little pipsqueak!"
"What's your name, kid?"
"Um, I'm Jungkook." Jungkook says.
"Jungkook what?"
"Jeon. Jeon Jungkook."
"Wow...so you are the new kid...looks like the rumor wasn't true, boys." The first and foremost male says, looking back at his friends who all had smirks on their faces.
"Um...may I ask what rumor you're talking about?" Jungkook asks, looking to and from each of the males.
"Well, word's been goin' around that the new kid is a bit of a trouble-maker...that you caught your last school on fire. Ha."
"But you're just a kid...looks like you should still be in diapers." The tallest of the males add, earning snickers from the group.
"Well, the fire thing might not be true, but...yes, I have gotten into my fair share of trouble." Jungkook says.
"What, did ya stay up past your 9 o clock bed time?" The leader says in a condescending tone, leaning in a bit with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Listen, I don't want any trouble." Jungkook says, adjusting the heavy backpack on his shoulders. "I'm just trying to get back to my dorm."
"Chill, kid. We're just messin' with ya." He says, ruffling Jungkook's hair. "We're just a bit confused is all, considerin' we were expectin' oh, I dunno, maybe someone a few inches talla...maybe 50 pounds heavia with all these crazy rumors goin' around."
"That's why we wanted to see ya for ourselves...see how tough you really were." His friend adds. "But, looks they really were just rumors."
"I don't know what you want me to say, but I might not be the biggest or most intimidating looking, but...it's true, I got sent to this dump for a reason...and that reason being, I did find myself in a bit of trouble. Take that with what you will." Jungkook replies.
"What could you have possibly done? You look like if you were hugged too hard, you'd snap in half."
"I'd rather not talk about it." Jungkook says.
"Oh come on...tell us somethin' impressive."
"Really, i'd rather just go to my dorm. I'm tired...but, maybe another day..?" Jungkook says.
"Aww, you're borin'...but I'm just tellin' ya, if you want our respect, you're gonna have to earn it. And maybe if you're as bad as you say ya are, then maybe....just maybe, we will consida ya into our group in the future."
"First off - I never claimed I was 'bad'. And two - who says I wanna join you guys? I'm doing pretty well on my own, thanks." Jungkook says.
"Hmm...bit of a smart ass, eh? Okay. I see how it is."
"Can I just go now? Really, I'm not looking for any fights." Jungkook asks.
"Sheesh, someone's in a hurry...well, not before knowin' our names. I'm Larry," the leader of the pack says, then tilts his head in the direction of the boys standing behind him, "and these ugly mugs ova here are Ricky, Lucky and Lefty."
"Oh wow..." Jungkook says, trying to lighten things up with an awkward chuckle. "Your guys' names all end with a Y. Funny."
"Funny? You sayin' our names are funny??" Ricky asks, taking a step up and cracking his knuckles.
"What, no, no." Jungkook says. "I just thought it was a coincidence, is all..." Jungkook puts his hands up defensively, and Lefty puts his arm across his friend, stopping him from stepping up any further.
"Watch what ya say, twerp." Lucky says, and Jungkook only nods.
Sheesh these guys are touchy...
"Alright, alright. Can I go now?" Jungkook asks, and Larry thinks for a second before nodding his head.
"Yeah, I guess. But I'm warnin' ya, if I were you, I wouldn't show my face around the auto shop." Larry says.
"Yeah, that's our turf." Lefty adds.
"Ain't no skinny twerps like you allowed ova there." Ricky chimes in.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of stepping on your precious turf." Jungkook says, rolling his eyes as he turns away from them.
As Jungkook walks off, the group of guys turn and start walking down the opposite way of the path.
"We should tell Johnny about this one." Lucky says, and the others nod their heads.
"Right. There's somethin' different about that kid, he's got a 'tude that pisses me off." Larry says.
"We'll hafta keep our eye on him." Lucky says.
"No doubt."
-
Having successfully blended in with the rest of the crowd of students walking into the A dorm, Jungkook goes to hurry into his room, but he stops after seeing Pete heading into his room that was just a couple doors down from his.
"Hey, Pete!" Jungkook calls out, and Pete glances over at him as he was about to step inside.
"Can we talk for a sec?" Jungkook asks, and Pete looks from him, to his doorway.
"Um, sorry Jungkook, I have homework to do." Pete says, and takes not a second longer to linger in the hall - practically throwing himself into his room.
Not about to try and chase him down to convince him further, Jungkook shrugs his shoulders and heads into his room. After throwing his bag down onto the floor beside his bed, he plops down onto his squeaky mattress - letting out probably the biggest, most relieved sigh he has ever let out in his life.
God have mercy on my patience...please let everyone leave me alone for the rest of the night...
a/n: Ummmm I'm debating whether or not to add the greasers into the character descriptions part quite yet, I might wait a little bit because they'll have more of a presence later in the story, but I wanted to introduce a few of them right now. I dunno, I'll think about it. but when I do, I'll republish the part so you guys interested will be notified. 😁 I will be adding Dr. Slawter though who will be in the faculty section.
anyways thanks for reading!♡