Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

William Wisp stood before the imposing structure of Centurion High. He clutched a small notebook as his stomach churned with nervous excitement watching other students climb the steps into the building. It was his first day at this new school, his first chance to find his place in the town of Rockfall, and his first chance at shaking off the things that happened back in Deadwood. “Ok Will, just walk in like you own the place. No pressure.”

William took a deep breath before taking his first step, directly onto his untied shoelace. William tumbled to the ground. Several people snickered in disdain as they walked past the humiliated boy. William quickly scrambled to his feet, a bright flush of embarrassment covering his pale face.

William stood still for a moment in a vain attempt to compose himself before dropping to one knee to tie his shoes. As he worked at the laces he felt someone tap him on the shoulder causing him to start slightly in surprise. Looking up he saw a boy with raspberry red hair smiling down at him. The boy held a familiar black notebook that William suddenly realized he had dropped when he tripped.

“Hey, are you alright that looked like a pretty hard fall”. The red-haired boy's voice was almost overwhelming in its cheeriness. “Umm yeah I’m fine” William replied, everting his eyes in embarrassment. “That’s good, getting hurt would be a pretty bad way to start the year huh? You dropped this by the way.” The boy handed William back his notebook and helped him to his feet.

“Thank you” William replied awkwardly as he hugged the notebook close to his chest. “No problem, I’m Dakota by the way.” “I’m William.” Dakota cocked his head slightly, “Are you new? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.” “Yeah, I just moved in recently.” Dakota nodded. “Well see you around William.” “Yeah, you too Dakota.” Dakota gave the shy boy one last smile before grabbing his skateboard and running up the stairs into the school.

William walked carefully to his homeroom class and quickly took a seat near the back of the room. Looking around the room he immediately spotted Dakota talking to a few people at the front of the classroom. Besides that, no one caught Williams’ eye. Everyone looked very normal. Just an average class of average students.

William set his notebook on the desk and idly flipped through it. Poems and thoughts covered each page in neat handwriting. Writing poetry was something he had always done to get his mind off of things. William took a pen out of his bag and was about to start writing before his homeroom teacher got up from her desk and called for everyone's attention.

“Good morning class, my name is Mrs. Druthers and I will be your homeroom teacher for the year. I recognize quite a few faces but let’s go around and have everyone give their name and a fun fact about themselves starting with,” Mrs. Druthers checked a list of names, “Dakota Damascus.” Dakota got up and walked to the front of the room with a bright smile.

“Hi everybody I’m Dakota, I play soccer and I think superheroes are pretty cool.” “Thank you, Dakota. Next up let's have William Wisp. Do we have a William Wisp with us today?” William pulled his hood over his head before slowly walking up to the front. “Ok, what's the best way to introduce yourself, hmmm.”

William arrived at the front of the room and suddenly remembered something he had written a few weeks ago. "William Wisp is a 16-year-old boy that usually goes unnoticed. He walks around with his head down and typically wears a zip-up black hoodie over a t-shirt. He's got dark denim jeans and sneakers, and under the hood of this hoodie, he has dark eyes and this black messy hair. He has this slender build a soft face and a fair complexion."

The room was deathly silent for a moment before William realized, “Oh my god did I just say that out loud?” Mrs. Druthers looked confused, “Ok uh thank you, William, you can sit down now.” William nodded and hurriedly walked to his seat. “Great first impressions, start the year off with everyone thinking you're a freak great move. Why did you have to write that anyway?”

William hugged his notebook close to his chest as more students went up to give introductions. William glanced up and saw several people staring at him only to look away. “Well, at least they aren’t laughing this time.”

William stared forward and spaced out listening to the monotonous drone of voices until the door to the classroom opened with a loud creek. A shy-looking purple-haired boy wearing a purple t-shirt and headphones entered slowly. As he glanced around the room his eyes met Williams for a brief second before he turned to the teacher.

Chapter Text

Vyncent Sol walked down the empty halls of the strange building. Doorways and lockers as far as the eye could see. His old pair of sneakers squeaked slightly with every step as he neared closer and closer to his destination.

The man's voice echoed in his mind “Just keep your head down and you’ll be fine. People in this world see weird shit every day, you won’t stick out." Arriving at the door he paused and took a deep breath. “Just open the door Vynce. You can do this.”

The creak of the door caused the people on the other side to go quiet. The faces all pointed in his direction. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the older women at the front of the classroom walked over to Vyncent. “You must be Vyncent right?” “Yes.” “The roster for the class doesn’t have a last name for you. Do you have one?” “Yes, it’s Sol, Vyncent Sol.”

The teacher nodded, " I see, well, Vyncent, I see that you don’t have a late note but it’s the first day so I won’t hold it against you. You’re one of the last students to give an introduction so you can go up and tell the class your name and a fun fact about yourself and then you can find a seat.”

Vyncent walked sheepishly to the front of the class, eyes pointed at the floor. “Um hi, my name is Vyncent and I’m not from around here.” Vyncent hurriedly headed to an empty seat in the very back of the classroom. As he walked he could hear the teacher calling on another student to give their introduction.

Vyncent sat down and put his head on the desk's cold wooden surface. Everything here was so unfamiliar. The headphones that compressed his ears felt uncomfortable and the tight-fitting clothes he had borrowed felt alien against his skin. He couldn’t wait for the day to be over. He couldn’t wait to go home.

A gentle tap on his shoulder jolted him out of his spiraling thoughts. A black-haired boy wearing a hoodie stared at him as he lifted his head. “Hi,” The boy's face was half covered in the shadows cast by his hood. “Um hi,” Vyncent responded cautiously.

The boy sat up and pulled the hood down to reveal his pale features. “Um okay, this is probably going to sound really weird but my name is William and I was wondering if we could maybe be friends? I’m also new here; everyone seems to already have their friend groups, and I don’t think I could fit in with any of them. I know that's a very sudden thing to ask when we don’t know each other and I totally understand if you say no.”

William’s face looked flushed as he finished speaking. Vyncent thought for a second, having a friend could be nice. At the very least it would be a nice distraction from his worries. “Sure we can be friends I guess.” William’s face lit up with a bright smile contrasting his usual gloomy expression.

"Wait really!? I-I uh didn't think you would say yes." Vyncent shrugged "Well I did." William opened his mouth to say something but the loud ringing of the bell cut him off.

"Oh shit um, what class do you have next?" "Calculus I think." William looked slightly dejected, "I have physics. If I remember the map correctly the classrooms are pretty close to each other so we could walk together if that's cool with you."

Vyncent had no idea where he was going so he gladly accepted William’s offer. "Ok cool it's this way.” William ran a bit ahead of Vyncent. In his haste, William ran straight into a muscular kid wearing a dark red letterman jacket.