Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Jeremy! Come in here! I need to talk to you.”

Jeremy groaned as he peeled himself off of his bed, having had just been texting Michael about this cool thing he overheard people talking about in the bathroom at school. It’s a pill that implants in your brain and tells you what to do to make you cool and popular.

He hopped down the stairs that lead to the living room. They didn’t live in a big house, but it was a pretty good size. The lower level held the living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, master bedroom, and a bathroom. Jeremy pretty much only came down here if he was leaving/entering the house or getting food. He stuck to staying upstairs, which had only his bedroom and a bathroom.

When he got to the bottom, his quick glance to the couch showed his dad browsing through some music channels on the TV. Looking around, he noticed that the usual filth that usually laundered their house was now gone. Instead, the house looked clean and organized. It hasn’t looked like that since his mom.

“What’s up, dad?” Jeremy asked, turning his attention back to him. But then he saw something he hasn’t seen in a long time. “Whoa! You’re wearing pants!”

“Yeah! I’ve actually been wearing them a lot lately. You never noticed?” Taking another look, he also noted that his beard and mustache and been shaved. He almost looked like a new man.

Jeremy thought about. He actually doesn’t even remember seeing much of his dad recently. For the past few years his dad had been moping around the house, always seeming to get in his way. But these past months, he can’t recall seeing his father more than four times.

“I guess I haven’t been seeing you much lately” he replied, sitting down.

“I know. And there’s a reason for that.” Bill scooted to closer to Jeremy, giving him a sad look. “I know you miss your mother. I miss her too. But, it’s been four years since she left, and she hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to contact us. It took me awhile, and even though I’ll never completely move on from her, I’ve been dating someone. Someone who makes me happy.”

Jeremy didn’t know how to reply. He loves his mom, but it was true. His mom hasn’t had contacted them since the day she left, and probably doesn’t intend to any time in the future. He also knew that his dad deserved to be happy. “Well, I’m happy for you.” He said, with a small smile.

*ding-dong*

“Oh. And one other thing.” His dad added as he walked up to the door.

“Yeah, dad?”

“We’re engaged.”

“What?! You’re engaged?!” He couldn’t believe this. He didn’t even know about this woman until now, and all of a sudden she’s going to be his new mom?

“Yup,” he said, turning the doorknob, “And she’s here right now.”

He swung the door open.

“Evan, sweetie, are you ready?” Heidi called out as she walked into the house. She was still in her nurse’s uniform for work.

Evan walked out of his room, giving a confused look at his mom as she set down her purse and took off her nurse shoes. “R-ready for w-what?”

“What do you mean? The dinner with Bill and his son. I told you about this last week.”

“N-no you didn’t.”

“Oh,I guess I must have forgotten. Do you want to change? You’re still in your pajamas.” She went into her bedroom, leaving the door slightly cracked so that she could still talk to Evan.

Evan looked down, and sure enough, he was still in his plaid pj pants with a T-shirt that read “may the forest be with you”.

He changed quickly, grabbing a new t-shirt with a picture of a police man next to a tree. When Heidi found out that he was going to be interning at Elison state park that summer, she had bought him a bunch of tree and forest shirts, most of them containing puns.

Besides a few polos that were in the laundry, all of Evan’s other clothes were all old and wrecked from him pulling at the hem too much. It had been a few years before she bought him his new shirts, but he was definitely surprised to see the tree shirts, and not the polos he was used to.

He liked the shirts, but school hasn’t even started yet and he’s been made fun of because of them already. But he couldn’t tell his mom that. He knew how tight they were on money. Especially now since his hospital bills had come in.

He had broken his arm last week, a big, bulgy white cast now covering his left forearm. He looked at his new outfit in the mirror. Khaki pants with the tree shirt. The words “What crime did the tree commit? Treeson” reflecting backwards at him.

He went back to the living room, seeing that his mom was still in her room. He still wasn’t really sure what they we’re doing. His mom has been a lot busier than usual. It used to be like she was barely home, but now, it was as if she spends all of her little free time somewhere else. Maybe she was taking more classes.

“Hey, mom,” He called through the door, “um, w-who’s Bill?” He started, beginning to pull the hem of his shirt.

“Bill! My fiance! How could you forget about him?” She said, coming back to the living room, now wearing a nice, light green top and jeweled jeans.

“Um, y-you never told m-me about him.” Evan looked down at his hands, already stretching out his shirt.

“Of course I did! Where did you think I always am?”

“W-well, I thought you w-were at work. O-or that you were t-taking more classes.”

“Oh, honey, I don’t work that much, do I?”

“N-no! Of course n-not!” He lied, pulling more at his shirt.

“Alright, well, we need to go if we don’t want to be late.”

He nodded, put on his shoes, and followed his mom out the door.

The door opened to show a woman with light blonde hair, about his father’s age. Behind her, barely poking out, was a boy who looked about his age, maybe a little older.

“Heidi!” His dad called, giving the woman a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

She then turned to Jeremy, giving him a hug. “Oh! You must be Jeremy! I’ve heard so much about you! I’m Heidi.”

He awkwardly accepted the hug. “Yeah.” Because he didn’t know what else to say.

She motioned for the boy behind her to come into the house after her. “This is Evan,” she said to them both, but then turned to Jeremy. “He’ll actually be a senior at your school.”

“W-what?” Evan asked, a very nervous and confused expression on his face.

“Yeah! Didn’t I tell you? We’re moving here!” Heidi exclaimed, pulling Bill into a side hug, him planting a kiss on her cheek.

“WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

“Wait, you’re dad’s getting married?!”

Right after the most awkward dinner of his life, Jeremy invited Michael to come over. Of course, he came as he got the text.

Jeremy was laying on his back on his bed with his arms resting over his chest, staring at the ceiling. To his left, Michael lounged in one of the bean bag chairs they bought together a few years ago. They had both worked all summer to buy the chairs and a new gaming console.

“Yeah! And they’re moving in next week!”

“They?” MIchael looked up at Jeremy, who had moved to a sitting position, his legs dangling off the bed.

“Yeah. Her and her son Evan. He’s a year older than us. And trust me, he’s weird.”

“Weird? How weird?”

“He wouldn’t even talk the whole dinner unless his mom forced him to, he was constantly rubbing his hands on his khakis, he was always looking down, and every time he talked it was like he would hesitate with everything he said, and you could tell he definitely didn’t want to speak. He’d have a slight stutter, and apologized like every sentence.”

“He probably just has anxiety. Lots of people have it. Maybe he just has it worse.” Michael reasoned.

“I don’t know. I guess. It’s weird. I met them once, and now they are going to be living with me. You know Evan and I have to share my room? I mean, look! There’s barely enough room in here as is. And now, we’re going to have to take out the bean bag chairs to fit another bed.”

“Dude, it sucks, but you’ll just have to live with it. I’m sure it won’t be that bad. You probably won’t even see him that much. From what you said, he seems like a pretty quiet person. And don’t worry about the bean bag chairs. We’ll just move them to my room.”

“That’s just it! He’ll probably just spend his whole time sitting in here, doing whatever he like to do. I’ll have no privacy. The one place that I get privacy I won’t have anymore. He’s even moving to our school!”

“Well so is he. You think he wants to do this too? You said he was really nervous all the time, do you really think that he wants to share a room too? And move to a new school? Do you know how hard it is to be a new kid? It seems to me like this is affecting both of you.”

Every month, Heidi and Evan get together with Jared and his mother, Kate. Heidi and Kate have been best friends since college, and ever since they had kids they knew that they would have to be friends. So, they started hanging out once a month.

The dinners used to contain Paul, Evan’s dad, and Jerry, Jared’s dad, but when Paul left his wife and son, Jerry never felt right attending the get-togethers. Which meantit would just be Heidi and Kate who would hang in the kitchen making dinner, with Evan and Jared who hung out in either of their rooms.

This time, they spent their evening at the Hansen household. They always switch off, but even though it should have been at the Kleinman’s, they realized that this would be last time they could while they still lived here. When they moved in with Bill and Jeremy, they’ll probably just always go to Kate’s.

Right now, Jared was sitting on Evan’s bed, doing something on his phone while Evan worked on packing some stuff from his closet.

“So where are you moving again? Like, I know it’s with Heidi’s boyfriend or whatever, but how far is it going to be? I won’t get to walk to your house anymore to steal any of your food.” Jared asked.

Jared just lived a few blocks down. Whenever Heidi is too busy working, which is most of the time, she leaves a 20 dollar bill on the counter for Evan to get food. If Jared’s parents are also out or busy and Jared is left to make his own dinner, he usually just comes to the Hansen home and orders food for the two of them with the money left.

Evan’s social anxiety makes it really hard to talk to people, especially ones he doesn’t know. So, he always has trouble ordering food or talking to the delivery people. Jared, on the other hand, is always very glad to order and talk to the people if it means that he gets some of the food.

“It’s just the n-next city over. You probably w-won’t be able to c-come steal any food anymore, since w-we’re living with two other people now. And I think i-it’s Hillsborough high school that I’m going to. I mean, you know how much I hate being at school. And now I’m going to be the new kid!”

“Wait, you’re going to Hillsborough?” Jared asked, finally putting down his phone.

“Yeah, why?”

“You know Connor Murphy?”

“Yeah, we’ve b-been going to school with h-him like our whole l-lives. What about h-him?”

“Well, remember last year when he didn’t show up for like the whole last week of school?”

“Y-yeah. I still don’t g-get what this has to d-do with my n-new school though.”

“Well, turns out that the reason he wasn’t there was because he was expelled. I bet you can guess which school he’s transferring to.”

“Oh no.” Evan never really talked to Connor, but everytime he ever sees him, he’s always wearing really dark clothes and smells like drugs. He’s always pushing past people in the halls, and he’s always late to class.

“Yup!”

Evan, now finished with his packing, sits down next to Jared. “What am I going to d-do?”

“I don’t know. I mean, at least now nobody knows who you are. You can make sure you’re not known as the loser who can’t even talk to people or give presentations.”

“I-is that r-really what p-people think of me?”

“I mean, yeah. The people who even notice you anyway. What do you expect? You always just sit there alone.”

“W-what about y-you? You s-sit with me.”

“Well, yeah. But that’s because I need to be nice to you if I want my mom to pay for my car insurance.”

“O-oh.”He knows this already, Jared always seems like he needs to remind him, but it still hurts every time he hears it. His only friend wasn’t even a real friend. Well, at least to Jared he wasn't. They were just family friends.

“So, you wanna play a video game? I brought my wii.”

Jared would never admit it, but he was devastated that Evan was moving, even if it was just ten minutes away. His only friend was going to a different high school. They’ve been going to school together all their lives. Whenever one of their parents had to leave for more than a day, they would go to the other’s house. And now, they wouldn’t be able to do any of the things they used to do anymore.

He knows that he’s a jerk to Evan, but he’s a jerk to everyone. Actually, Evan is the only person that Jared has ever let his guard down with. With everyone, everything he says is full of jokes, lies, and criticism.

He tries to be nice to Evan. And most of the time, he succeeds, but things just seems to slip. Like when he tells Evan he’s just a family friends or that he only hangs out with him so he doesn’t have to pay car insurance.

But, the thing is, Jared pays his own car insurance. Always has. He even had to get a job. But, of course, he never told Evan. He had this thing about people getting too close to him, so he used excuses if he felt that he and Evan we’re getting there.

But there was another reason he didn’t like Evan moving to HIllsborough. That’s where his job was. He worked at an ice cream shop down there. At least Evan probably won’t go there. He knows Evan has trouble eating out at places.

But now he was going to be left alone.

“Alright honey, you got everything?” Heidi asked as she out her last box in the moving truck.

“Y-yup.”

“Alright, let’s go! I promise Evan, it’ll be great.”

Chapter Text

Bill was waiting outside when we arrived at the Heere house. Well, I guess it was his house too now. He still couldn’t believe that he had to leave his old home and school. Sure, he hated his school, but everyone hates school. At least there, no one really noticed or bothered him. At this new school, everyone will whisper about the new, weird kid.

He also didn’t like the fact that he was farther from Jared. I mean, he knows that they were just “family” friends, but Jared would always walk to his house to console him whenever he was alone or was having a bad panic attack. And now that couldn’t happen.

He and his mom got out of the truck, Bill instantly pulling Heidi into a hug. “I’m so glad you guys are here,” he pulled away, “were you guys able to get everything? You’re here early.”

Evan looks down at his watch to see they were, indeed early. 17 minutes early to be exact.

Just then, the u-haul with all their stuff came into the driveway. “Yup,” Heidi said, “still working on selling the old house though.”

“I’m sure you will soon enough.”

Evan kind of spaced out from the conversation, getting a good look at the property. The front yard was filled green grass, and one large big tree on the side. Evan went kind of pale as he examined the tree. Even though it was a bit smaller, it reminded him a lot of the tree that he had broken his arm from earlier this summer.

He shook himself out of his thoughts when the u-haul driver starting walking towards them, and Bill turned towards him. “How about you go look at yours and Jeremy’s room? It’s the only door to the right upstairs.”

Evan nodded, turning towards the door, and walking inside. He heard a little bit more of the conversation before he was too far away.

“Oh! Is Jeremy here? I want to say hi,” Heidi asked.

“No, he’s at a friend’s house. But he was supposed to be here an hour ago so he could help you guys move in.”

Evan walked through the living room and up the stairs, until he was facing the door of his new room and knocked. He doesn’t know why he knocked. He literally just heard Bill say that Jeremy wasn’t here, but he still felt the need to anyway.

He slowly grabbed and turned the handle, pushing the door open. Just as he opened it completely, he saw two boys fall through the window into the room.

Jeremy awoke groggily, feeling cold. He looks down the air mattress and sees his blanket at the end. Huh, that’s why he woke up. He huffs and pulls himself up into a sitting position. Turning his head to the right, he sees Michael still asleep on his bed.

He greedily gets up to pull his phone off the charger on Michael’s nightstand to check the time. He unlocks his phone, to find that it’s 9:37. “Shit!” He yells, causing Michael to shoot up in bed, and squint at him.

“What? Jeremy, what is it?”

“It’s 9:37!”

“So?” He asked grumpily, grabbing his glasses and putting them on.

“I was supposed to be home at 9!”

“Why? You’re dad has never cared when you got home.”

“Yeah! But today is moving day! The Hansens will be at our house at 10 and I need to help them move. I was supposed to be there to help!.” He started rushing around the room, changing back into his clothes from yesterday.

Michael, upon seeing how much his friend was freaking out about this, also started getting ready. “It’ll be fine! We still have like 20 minutes!”

“Oh my gosh! I am so dead! He only let me stay over here last night because I promised I’d be there to help out!”

They both finished getting dressed and ran out the house, Michael grabbing his keys on the way.

Getting in Michael’s PT cruiser, they sped down the street. “You’ll be fine, Jeremy. We’ve still got 15 minutes ‘til 10. We’ll be fine.”

“Can we park behind the house? I can’t let my dad know that I was late.”

“I’m sure he already knows.”

“Yeah, but if we sneak through my window, maybe he’ll think that I was just in my room.”

“You really think he didn’t check you room?”

“I don’t know! All that matters is that we get there before the Hansens and without my dad seeing.”

“Ok, fine. I’ll go the back way.”

Two more minutes of listening to Bob Marley on the crappy radio, and they’re behind his house. The clock in the car reads 9:55. They scramble out of the car, Michael not even bothering to lock it. They run to the side of the house where the one tree on the property is.Michael and Jeremy have climbed this tree over thirty times to sneak into the house, so they were able to get to Jeremy’s window pretty quickly.

Jeremy never closed his window completely in case he ever needed to go in or out through it, so he easily slid it up. He was concentrating so much that he didn’t notice his door start to open. He pulled himself in, Michael following quickly behind him.

They landed hard onto the floor, Michael groaning as he sat up.

Jeremy pulled himself up effortlessly, having done this more than Michael and knowing exactly how to land. When he looked up, he did not expect to see someone staring at them, frozen in his place with wide eyes.

He cursed internally, saying, “Oh, um, hi Evan. You’re here early.”

Michael also turns to the boy, studying him.

Evan nervously rubbed his hand against his other arm, hunching into himself like he had done at dinner. “U-um, yeah. My mom wanted to get here earlier so we could have m-more time to unpack.”

Jeremy nodded, pulling Michael up who was still sitting on the floor.

“Oh, um, cool. Well, uh, this is my friend Michael.” He motioned with his head.

“Hey.” Michael smiled, holding out his hand.

Evan looked at it for a second before not-so-subtly wiping his hand on his jeans and shaking it.”

“Hi.” Evan mumbled quietly.

“Ok, well, uh, we should probably go and help your mom unpack.” Jeremy said, trying to make it less awkward, and not like Evan just caught them sneaking into the house.

“Um, y-yeah, ok.” Then they headed downstairs, Jeremy and Michael leading with Evan slowly following behind, head down. He saw Michael give a sad look at Evan before turning back and following Jeremy out the door.

Chapter Text

They met Heidi and his dad outside. The two were pulling boxes out of the truck and into the driveway.

“Hey! Look who finally showed up!” His dad called to him, adding “Hey Michael, nice of you to join us.”

“Hey, Mr. Heere,” Michael waved.

“Hey, dad.”

Heidi hopped out of the truck, having pulled out the last box. “Hi, Jeremy. Nice to see you again.” She then turned to Michael, sticking out her hand. “Hi, Michael. I'm Evan’s mom, Heidi.”

“Hi, Heidi.” Michael shook her hand, ”Need any help? Seems like you’ve got a lot of boxes here.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful!” She said, “How about you boys help Evan get his stuff inside, and Bill and I can get my stuff.”

“Sounds great!”

Even though Jeremy was still really tired, he pushed through and helped put all of the boxes into his room. They left an open space on the opposite side of the room of Jeremy’s bed, where they would set up Evan’s. Heidi and his father had ordered him a new bed frame to match Jeremy’s, but it wouldn’t come until tomorrow. Instead, they laid the mattress down on the floor.

“Alright! All done!” Michael said, placing the last box in the room. “So, what do you guys want to do? It’s the last day of summer break! Let’s do something fun!” He turned to see Evan sitting on his bed, head down and hands fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

“Sure! What do you want to do?” Jeremy asks.

“Arcade?” Michael replies, turning the question towards Evan. But it doesn’t matter, Jeremy is the one to reply.

“Yes! Let’s go!”

“You coming, Evan?”

Evan looked up from his hands for a moment but then shot his gaze back down. “No, uh, I’m okay. I’ll just, um, st-stay here.”

Evan cautiously unpacked, not really sure where to put his stuff. Jeremy had cleaned out half of his closet, so he was able to hang up his clothes. They brought his old dresser, so he was able to put away all of his clothes, as well as unpack his stuff on top of it. In all honesty, Evan didn’t have that much stuff. He had a few trinkets that he set on his dresser, and then a picture of a tree that he had taken during the summer at the park.

He set up his laptop, notebooks, and phone on the desk next to his mattress, and finished by setting his hygiene products in the bathroom across the hall.

It felt uncomfortable for Evan to be alone in Jeremy’s - and his - room. Although he would be living here, it just felt so different. Instead of thinking too much into it, he grabbed his laptop and video-called the only person he ever felt comfortable talking to. Well, semi-comfortable.

“Hey, Acorn. How’s it hanging?” Jared answers almost immediately. He is almost always on his laptop.

“Ju-just um, feeling kind of, um, weird. I’m all alone in Jeremy’s - well, my - room, and it just, it uh doesn’t feel right?”

“I’m sure it will be okay soon. It does kind of feel weird without you living down the block. I was really craving Oreos, and I know your mom always restocks them after I go over and steal them.”

It was true. She bought them specifically for Jared. His parents aren’t home a lot, so he always comes over and raids our cabinets.

“I-I mean, more for me.” Evan let a nervous smile wash over his face.

“So, you all ready for school to start tomorrow? New school, new you.”

“Y-yeah, um I finished packing everything in my-my backpack, so now I just have to get the stuff th-that the teachers tell me that I, uh, need.”

“Cool. Well, I got to go. My mom wants to go to lunch for the last day of summer break. See ya!”

The screen went blank, leaving Evan alone once again.

It’s been a while since Evan had actually sat down at a table and ate dinner. But, apparently, this is going to become a regular thing. His mom called it “family dinner”. He doesn’t recall ever having one of these before.

It was really awkward. Bill and his mom kept trying to pull him and Jeremy into the conversation, but we both didn’t really talk much.

After dinner, we all reported into our rooms, me laying down onto my mattress. It was weird being all the way down on the ground, but he should get his bed tomorrow. The first day of school. He shuddered at the thought of having to be the new kid.

After two hours of laying down, he finally fell asleep.

Evan and Jeremy woke up with groans as the alarm went off on Jeremy’s phone. After being able to sleep in for three months, waking up at 6:30 was the worst.

Evan waited for Jeremy to get done with the bathroom before going in and brushing his teeth. Today, he decided against one of his tree shirts. He didn’t want to seem like a nerd, so he went with a blue polo and khakis.

It was awkward taking turns in the bathroom to do hair and change, but it was okay enough. Jeremy gave him a few weird looks when he started pulling at his shirt as they waited downstairs, already making Evan more anxious.

“S-so, um, how are we getting to school?” He asked Jeremy, not looking up from his hands.

“We either take the bus or walk. Up to you. I’m going to take the bus.”

Well, Evan didn’t know the way yet, so he just followed Jeremy. When they got on the bus, Evan didn’t want to feel clingy or anything, so he sat down in an empty seat, pulling his knees to his chest, not wanting to arise any attention to himself.

His plan didn’t work as he felt a person slam their body onto the seat next to him. Evan just curled into himself more, realizing that he hadn’t taken his medication today. This was going to suck.

He felt himself start to shake as the bus stopped at the school. He couldn’t do this. Too many new people. He couldn’t do it.

“Hey, man, are you okay?” The guy next to him asked.

He recognized that voice. It was the one person he didn’t want to run into today. Connor Murphy.