Dream took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. He was at yet another new school. He thought he wouldn't be nervous anymore with the amount of times he's done this, yet the feeling still clung to him. He tried to shake it off and focus on the present. No one seemed to have noticed him yet, that's good.
Since the school doors hadn't opened yet, he was forced to sit outside and wait. He took shelter under one of the trees in the schoolyard and decided to pull out a small sketchbook from his bag.
The page of doodles he had been working on greeted him. He wasn't the best at art, but he was getting better. His pencil moved smoothly along the page, as he centered his focus on one specific doodle.
The pencil was jerked to the side as the bell went off, signaling the students could go inside. He glared at the line across his drawing and with an annoyed sigh, he put away his sketchbook. Hopefully the line wouldn't be too hard to fix.
His anxiety spiked the second he stepped into the building. A few people had turned to look at him, some with confused expressions, but nothing was said. He was grateful that they had kept their mouths shut as he didn't want to deal with people this early.
He slunk his way through the halls, avoiding the other students burning gazes the best he could. He glanced at each sign outside the classrooms, trying to catch sight of the math class. He paused and stared in confusion as he noticed there were two of every class, each across the hall from the other.
"They must have a lot of students here," He thought and continued walking down what seemed to be the endless hall.
He grew perplexed as he noticed there were other halls connecting to the one he was standing in. He scanned down each hall the best he could. Down one hall led to what appeared to be the lunchroom and down the other were more classrooms lined up, seemingly taunting him.
He patted his pockets for the schedule he had shoved in there earlier but to his dismay, it was gone. He rolled his eyes and kept walking down the hall, hoping it was the right one.
After a little bit of exploration and being five minutes late, he was seated in the first class of the day, Algebra. The farthest seat to the back had been almost calling his name. Since no one else had chosen it, he claimed it and set his stuff down. A few glances were cast his way but he quickly shrugged them off.
First days were always boring. Most schools had the same basic rules. Don't eat in class, raise your hand to answer questions, if you have to use the bathroom go before class, same old boring shit. Dream stopped listening after his name had been called for roll and decided to observe the room around him instead.
The walls were a nice sky blue colour, math posters lining them. The floor was dark grey marble, that was a unique touch. A few windows were on the walls, pastel blue curtains hiding the outside world from his view. The door was just regular dark wood, same as most of the other schools. His gaze eventually landed back on the teacher, who was still talking about who knows what. He eventually pulled out his sketchbook and started a new page, deciding to doodle his way through class.
After another painfully long hour, he was finally released from the class. He quickly gathered his things and slung his backpack over his shoulder. As he walked through the halls, he scanned for an English class. Luckily, it was only 3 doors down and he didn't get lost like before.
Walking up to the door, he realized the teacher wasn't in yet so he set his backpack down and leaned against the wall. People stared as they walked by, but he only gave a small wave and a nod, nervousness bubbling in his chest. He had been pretty lucky so far, but the taunting was sure to come.
The next few classes were pretty much the same as the first, eventually lunchtime rolled around. He grabbed a plate and ate the food as quickly as he could. He never minded being alone at lunch but sometimes he wished he had someone to talk to, be friends with. Everyone he had ever tried to talk to was either disgusted or pressed him to tell them why he wore the mask.
The loneliness ate away at him, but he tried his best to push it away. Dream shook himself from his thoughts and dumped his plate before making his way outside.
It was quieter, as most students were still inside eating. The sky had gotten a bit darker since he had walked into the school, but that was okay. Dream secretly hoped it would rain, there was just something about it that was so calming to him. He glanced around, before picking a spot to sit against the wall of the school. The wind brushed through his hair while his pencil glided across the paper.
The sound of other students signaled it was closer to the end of lunch. He flipped back a page and attempted to fix the huge pencil mark across his drawing, before putting his sketchbook back in his bag and wrapping up his headphones. The bell rang and with a sigh, he ventured back over to the building.
Art was his next class, the one he had been looking forward to the most for obvious reasons. Even though he knew it was probably just going to be introductions, he figured this was the one class he could have his sketchbook out and not get glared down by the teacher.
His eyes sparkled as he walked into the room. The walls were filled with doodles and drawings from other students. A few colorful, half painted tiles lay strewn across the floor. He assumed they were from students earlier that day and grew excited at the thought of actually getting to do something besides going over basic rules!
He walked over to a table and set his stuff down. The teacher looked up and smiled at him, "Welcome! You must be Clay?"
He nodded shyly.
"I'm Ms. Hazel, nice to meet you! I recognize most of my students so I got pretty excited when I heard I was getting a new one!" Her smile was warm and genuine, he had a feeling he would enjoy this class a lot.
"You're a bit early but that's okay. We're not going to assign seats so any one is fine."
Dream nodded and in a quiet voice asked, "What are we gonna do today?"
"Simple introductions first, then we're going to start on a small project since it's only the first week."
Dream grinned and nodded to himself. He then pulled out his sketchbook while waiting for the other students to walk in. Ms. Hazel greeted everyone and students began filling up the seats. After a little while, every table was filled except Dream's. He felt a twinge of hurt, but it was expected that he would end up alone.
Right before the door was closed, another boy came rushing in.
"Sorry sorry, another teacher needed me." He and Dream locked eyes for a split second before his gaze travelled over to the teacher. Dream noticed his eyes were two different colours, one brown and one blue.
"It's alright George, good to see you here. Find a seat and we can begin."
George glanced around and found that the only vacant seat, or table that is, was by a dirty blonde boy with a mask covering his face. He did another quick scan around the room and sighed when he saw that truly was the only other seat. He sent a quick glare at his friend across the room for not saving his spot, and reluctantly sat down next to the boy.
Dream looked up in surprise as he heard shuffling beside him. He glanced to his right to see the boy who had walked in late sitting next to him. He gave a quick wave before setting his backpack on his chair and resting his hand in his palm.
Dream put away his sketchbook and listened as the teacher began to give instructions. They were each going to be given a tile to paint and she wanted them to make it as unique and tailored to themselves as possible. They were allowed to sketch out their idea first or just jump straight in and start painting.
Dream thought it would be better to sketch out what he was going to do first, since he wasn't the best at painting. He grabbed a sheet of paper and began thinking of what he wanted to do. The teacher said to make it as kind of an introduction to themselves, but Dream didn't think he was the most interesting guy.
He sketched began to fill the page with things he liked. Drawing, video games, his cat Patches, writing, and a few other miscellaneous things like his blob figure.
He glanced over to the side to see the boy next to him already painting. "You're not gonna sketch?" he blurted out. He mentally facepalmed, but it was too late to do anything about it.
The boy looked over at him, "I usually don't sketch first, I just go for it."
Dream nodded, "Ah, I see."
He awkwardly looked back down at his paper, heat rising in his face. Why had he said anything at all? He wasn't one for talking to strangers, but something felt different. He felt compelled to talk to the boy, yet was too shy to continue the conversation. Instead, he finished sketching until it looked sufficient, then went to grab his materials.
By the time the bell rang, he hadn't done much but begin the outline of a few items. Ms Hazel had instructed them to clean up and set the tiles on the desk beside her own. He had only used green and yellow paint, yet he had blue splattered on the underside of his arm. As he walked back to his table, he noticed that the brunette next to him had only used blue, just in different variations. Well, that explains the splotches staining his arm.
Dream grabbed his backpack and locked eyes with the boy once more. Dream's breath caught in his throat, and he gave a small smile, not that other could see it anyways. Dream headed out the door to finish up the rest of the day.
The bus ride home was boring, so he had decided to draw to help shorten the ride. He found himself sketching the boy from earlier, making sure to make this drawing a little more detailed than he usually would. He tried to capture how his hair was slightly brushed to the side, the clout goggles that rested atop his head, and his eyes. His eyes were stunning, the two colours went well together and practicality shone.
Dream stopped for a second. He hadn't realized how much he had paid attention to the other boy for him to be able to draw him this detailed. He had only known him for 40 minutes and talked to him for one of those forty. Nonetheless, Dream focused and continued adding small details to complete his piece.
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He creaked the front door open to see his grandmother on the couch, waiting patiently for him.
"How was your first day sweetheart?"
Dream slipped into the house and set his backpack down, the door closing gently behind him.
"It was pretty good for once, no one said anything." He sat himself on the couch next to her.
His grandmother smiled warmly, "That's really good to hear. Maybe your stubbornness finally landed you in a good school."
Dream nodded, "Maybe so. Anything that needs to be taken care of today?"
She shook her head, "Just the usual. Your grandfather is out helping the neighbors with their car, since it broke down again."
"Alright, I'll start dinner in about an hour then. Anything specific for tonight?"
She thought for a second, before shaking her head once more. "Whatever you feel like cooking since I'm sure you're tired."
He chuckled, "Okay, I'll be in my room then."
With that, he picked up his backpack and headed towards his room. His bed looked really comfortable so he quickly changed into a hoodie and sweats and loaded up Minecraft on his PS4 before plopping himself in the middle of his bed. While he waited, he petted the small calico cat sitting beside him.
"Hey Patches, how's it been?"
Patches responded with a quiet meow before going back to purring.
"Yeah, today wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only got weird stares, but that's nothing new."
He noticed that the game had loaded and he quickly found himself in a familiar world. It was one he had been working on for a few months now. There were small buildings everywhere and a patch of the overworld had been converted to symbolize the nether. It wasn't too impressive, but he was proud of it.
His friend Eret, from another school, had been helping him build on it. Eret's building skills were impressive though, as he had made his own little section in the world. This was filled with towers, skyscrapers, and stores designed to where it looked like you could actually shop in them. Dream began to travel over to Eret's land to see if he had done anymore work on it and to see if he could help gather materials.
The two got into a voice call for a little while, until Eret got tired and left. Dream decided to do the same, logging off and plugging in his headphones. After quickly making something for dinner and finishing his chores, he collapsed onto his bed and let the music take over, calming him down. He set his mask on his bedside table and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Any and all feedback is appreciated <3
-2390 words