Monday

Nick got up that morning with refound energy after having gone on back to back dates with Lucille during the weekend. It's well known in their school there is a power couple despite only having dated 7 months so far, so it isn't ironic that they both ended up in the same band. Nick scratches his head and thinks, what do I have to do today? And then suddenly a pile of lists upon lists of chores and chores were remembered. First things first he needed to wake up his lousy sister. He bolts towards the door in an effort to wake himself up. "Up, up, Nicky"

He walks into his sister's room, "Nicole! It's almost 5am, your gonna be late for work," He says as he turns the lights on to the dim setting,

"NICKY" He shouts.

"...What do you want?"

"I want us to not be homeless, get up for work."

He says one last time before exiting and going onto his next chore: make coffee for his parents. He heads to the kitchen, turns on the lights, and begins making a pot of coffee. In a few minutes an awake Nicole walks into the kitchen and takes some coffee before heading back to her room to change into her work uniform. By now his parents are still slumbering. So he heads to their room with two cups of coffee in hand, he shouts outside their door, "Guys! I made y'all coffee."

In a minute or two after waiting his dad finally opens the door.

"Good morning, Nick." His dad said in a rather deep voice. Nick replied, "Good morning. And mom?" He says trying to peek into his parents room but his dad blocks the way and says "I think your mother is very tired after yesterdays outing. I'm gonna let her sleep in today." He takes the two cups of coffee and closes the door behind him.

"Welp" Nick said, "Time for part three."

Time to start breakfast, although he guesses he doesn't have to make breakfast for his mom. Dad will make her something to eat when she eventually wakes up. He begins to cook scrambled eggs, filling plates for 3 with some bacon. Once his done his job is to deliver the plates to their respective rooms. Finally at his room, he digs in while working on homework. It's almost 6! 

Every morning since dating Lucille he wakes up at 5AM to start breakfast for his not so big family. Then he finishes up studying and homework, as school doesn't start until 8AM plus he enjoys the hours of the morning, where everything is so peaceful and quiet. Not too dark, not too bright. Just right, he thought. Once he was done, he puts on his school uniform and shoes. But before leaving he goes to his parents room and knocks on the door, "Hello?"

His dad opens the door again, "You're leaving?"

"Mhm."

"Come say bye to your mom then." He turns to the side allowing Nick in. Once welcomed in he goes directly to his moms bedside. She looks as ill as ever, pale with a cold small blanket folded on her head. His dad must have put that there.

He kisses her extremely warm cheek, "Bye mom. I love you."

He exits his apartment, walks down the stairs and leaves the building entirely. It's around 6:15 so he has 30 minutes to pick up Lucille.

We are now standing outside of Lucille's house, Nick stands at the front porch and takes out his phone to text her and let her know he's here. He knocks on the door, "Lucy loo!"

Finally she opens the door, "Hello, baby! Just saw your message."

"Wanna get a cup of coffee before school? We always do end up waiting because we're earlier." He says while reaching his hand out to grab her purple backpack from her hands. He swings it over his shoulder and looks to see her pondering. "Hmm" she says out loud. "Sure, if you're paying." She smugs.

"Of course I am, doll." He smiles back and turns around and walks with her to the nearest coffee shop. This is his second coffee of the day but he decides not to mention this to her as she would scold him and drag them both to school. They both get their respective orders, and head towards school. The first few classes were fine, he felt a caffeine high for the first two and then felt the heavy crash in third period. He still had some coffee left but decided to save it, so instead he decides to put his head down. Kids walk in and sit down, and their all so loud he thinks. Hes just gonna keep his down until Clay comes in so he could inform him of his new caffeine addiction. But he never showed. Mr martinez continued class as per usual, at one point during attendance she asked if anybody has seen Clay and majority of the class said yes so why wasn't he here? Was he skipping class?

After class ends, Nick makes his way to the vending machine. He was the first one out so the hallway is still quiet, then he notices a blonde headed boy walking the opposite direction. He speeds up and catches up to the boy. It's Clay.

"Hey where were you?"

"The counselor.."

"Why were you at the counselor?" Nick leans against the wall as teenagers of all ages begin to burst into the hall.

"I- ah, um." He stutters, almost choking on tears beginning to form, "Wasn't feeling well, went to Ms.Alvarado to cope." He forces a smile.

Nick leans in curiously, "Oh yeah? And did you cope?"

"No" He breaks into a sob.

"Woah. woah, hey" Nick catches him and turns his victory into a hug. "What's wrong?"

Clay fell into the hug, "I'm so sorry I-" He sobs "I can't do this anymore."

Nick heart sinks as the words of his friend sets in, and then his brain starts to fill with 'their watching us' thoughts as he realizes theres multiple kids passing by, all of which watching them. He thinks quickly, "Come, dude, follow me." He said in a low whisper, grabbing Clays hand and leading him to the bathroom located on the first floor. Once they were inside, Clay falls to his knees dramatically. Nick rolls his eyes at the scene, but still feels bad. He kneels down to his side only to find out why he fell in the first place. Clay is gagging, drooling on the floor. Hes clawing at his own chest as if digging for air. It all clicked suddenly in Nicks mind, Clay was having an anxiety attack. Or panic attack? 

He isn't sure yet but he is definitely having AN attack.

He didn't know what to do, he reached his hand out to grab Clay's shoulders but Clay's heaving caused him to retract. He wasn't sure what to do. This is urgent, he thought, this is important. Fuck! Who's good with panic attacks, he thinks, maybe Lucille or his friend Leslie but their in the boys- sob. His friends sobs snap him back to the moment. He realizes he needs to get out of his head, and help his friend. He firmly places a hand on Clays shoulders, "Clay, listen to me." Clay is trembling still holding onto his chest as he gags with nothing seemingly coming out. "Listen, you're going to be fine. Can you say that with me? I'm gonna be fine."

A few seconds later, Clay whispered between hiccups and coughs, "I'm gonna be fine."

Nick takes a moment to breathe in, "Can you do that with me, Clay? Breath in with me, okay? You're doing great. Ready?" Clay sniffles but nodded. 

"Okay breathe with me. In. Out. In. Out." They did this a few more times until Clay's breathing eventually stopped hyperventilating. Nick got up and grabbed tissues, giving them to Clay so he could clean his face. After cleaning his face, he says, "Thank you…"

His voice was weak and fragile, even his posture made him seem smaller. "Are you okay?" Nick asked. It felt almost pointless to ask but he felt like being sure. Clay changed positions so he's sat on his knees, "Uh…" He whispers, "I'm not okay."

Nick knew that. "But why?"

Clay grabbed at his ears, "Some seniors… They noticed my hearing aids."

Immediately Nick had a feeling where this was going. "What happened?"

"They started making fun of me." He laughs bitterly, "I mean everyone does but- but this was different. It was like they knew where to poke, what to say, to rile me up." He gestured every word. Nick asked, "What were they saying?"

"Oh poor boy, this, poor boy that." He said smiling. "It was like elementary school all over again." He lets his hands drop to his lap and sighs. Clay continues, "It all was just like- Like I was spiraling into a hole of memories. Regressing into my younger years where everything was shit."

The room fell silent, except for the sound of water dripping from a few faucets. The two sat on the dirty floor for what seemed like forever, until Clay cleared his throat and said, "Thank you by the way."

Nick stands up, "Of course dude you're just lucky nobody came into the bathroom. You're also lucky I actually managed to help- I'mma be honest at first I was like uh should I get anyone?"

He groans loudly, "Thank god you didn't I would have cried more."

All of a sudden the door opens loudly, hitting clay in the process. "UH?" A monotone voice said.

"Mills?"

It was nobody other than the lead singer himself. Clay hurled in pain for a second but stood up quickly moving out the way, finally allowing Miller to fully open the door and step inside. 

"God forbid men have hobbies." Miller said.

"What?" Nick and Clay said softly.

"No this bitch boy was talking mad uh stuff to me about highschool bands and that their doomed to fail and it's just an excuse for a group of talentless teens to come together and make terrible music." He said slowly.

Nick scoffed, "Looks like you both came in to blow off steam."

Miller walks in and goes to the first mirror and begins fixing his messy hair. "Yeahhhh" He inhales and exhales, "Crazy shit bro…"

"Are you high?" Clay said suspiciously. 

Miller paused then looked at Clay, "Yes sir is there a problem?"

"Not inherently but y'know we're in school. So be careful. Oh and does Victor know?"

Millers eyes went distant, "No."

Clay noticed this change in Miller. "I seeeee." Dragging out the e's, he moves swiftly to Miller's side with Nick watching him carefully. "So…"

His eyes narrow, "Yes, Clay?"

"Are you and Victor… together?"

"Uh." Miller reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a weed pen, takes a hit then blows out the smoke and says, "Yeah I guess."

"You guess?" Nick puts a hand on his hip and walks to Miller, taking the pen out his hand and took a hit himself. Clay looked between them both, he felt nervous as they passed around the pen. He wondered if he should take a hit too.

"Nah we are together we just haven't talked about being public yet so y'know, shut the hell up. Clay?"

"Yes?"

Miller hands him the pen, "Want?"

The world seemed to close in on him, but ultimately he knew what he had to do.

"...Sure." He takes the pen out of his hands and puts it to his mouth. He looks at Nick and Miller who are observing him, "How do I.."

"Inhale, hold, then breath out." So he did, and for the rest of the period the three passed around the pen as if it were a blunt rotation and by the end they were all several types of high. Around the beginning of fourth period the bell rung indicating that it's next period, which meant no more skipping and going to class. Luckily all three of them had chemistry together in the third floor. They went ahead together, making idle conversation. Once they were at the front door of the class, they noticed in front of them was Victor. He was picking at his fingernails before he noticed they stood in front of him. He lit up, "Hey guys! Ready to go in?" He was smiling, up until he realized something. Why did they all seem so tired, he thought. He looked at Miller, recognized the face and finally everything clicked. "Are you guys…high?" He whispered the last part.

Nick stretched, "A bit."

"Yeah." Clay and Miller said together lowly. Victor's face turned into one of disgust. "Seriously you three? In SCHOOL?" Miller rolled his eyes, "Whatever, babe." He said in a mocking voice. Victor scoffed, "Okay, Miller."

Sensing the tension Nick took the opportunity to exit, "Welp, I'm off." He walks into the chemistry room. Meanwhile Clay felt his heart sink as Victor's eyes traveled from Miller's to his, still with the look of disgust written all over him. This was a bad idea, he thought, he shouldn't have gotten high, he spiraled! He felt his breathing fasten and suddenly-

"Yo? You guys going in?" A foreground voice said. Miller looked around to the voice and said, "Yeah my bad. Come on guys." They walk in together finally and enjoy the rest of the school day together. Well most of them did.

At the end of the day Nick stands outside the school building waiting for his lovely girlfriend to come join him. Once she does, they wave goodbye to the others and go on about their day.

"So," Lucille says, "How was school today, Nick?"

Nick ponders for a moment, "It was okay. I got high with Clay and Miller. I think it messed with my stomach especially with all the coffee I drank."

"Hmm, are you still high?"

"No, disappointed?"

She makes a confused face at this comment, "Quite neutral actually." That's when Nick shoves her lightly, "So when are we going to get high together?"

"Never!" She shoves him back harder and he laughs. Him and Lucille aren't actually big on recreational drugs, or any to be honest but Nick's known to dabble in it occasionally if ever offered.

Suddenly Nick feels a pair of lips on his left cheek, "Huh?"

"Nothing, just wanted to kiss you." She beamed.