Chapter Text
Billy speeds into the school parking lot, ignoring Gilbert yelling at him from the passenger seat. He’s been complaining the entire time, truthfully, over Billy’s ‘weird’ taste of music and how loud he plays it and how recklessly he drives. As if Billy could give two shits, though, his driving is perfectly fine. Everyone speeds, just a little bit.
The second Billy puts the car in park, Gilbert is hopping out, telling Billy he’s a danger to society. Billy shrugs, since he gets told this every time he gives Gilbert a ride to school, and he’s used to it by now.
What he’s not used to, is waking up at the crack of dawn and going to this hellhole. It’s the same thing everyday, Prissy having to literally drag him out of bed and forcing him to get ready, and then when he actually gets to the school, he always gets into some type of roasting battle with Mr Phillips. Billy’s one more detention away from getting his car taken away. See, this is why he hates school, he doesn’t get how his weirdo friends tolerate going with out a good reason.
Actually, the only reason Billy tolerates going is because of Cole, who he considers his best friend. They kind of had a rough start, with Billy annoying him every chance he gets ever since Cole moved to Avonlea in the middle of eighth grade (Billy used to be a pretty bad person in middle school, up until last year), and even getting him in trouble, mainly because he thought Cole was different, and weird. Then, they got partnered up for a project. Billy tried to make Cole do all the work, but Cole wasn’t having any of that, and made Billy do his part too. After tons of arguments and insults, they got the work done, Billy doing his half. Surprisingly, they got a good grade on it, which was the only reason that Billy passed that class.
Then, Billy realized he was being a dick to Cole for no reason, and apologized to him, and Cole forgave him, since he’s a really good person. They became friends after that, despite their differences. But, they’re not that different, because Billy’s kind of a weirdo too, deep down. And being friends with Cole was what stopped him from an asshole. According to Cole, he’s still ‘problematic’, but he’s an okay person now. Cole keeps him in line.
“I heard we’re getting a new student today.” Gilbert says out of nowhere as him and Billy go to their usual meeting place, against the wall in the cafeteria.
“Boy or girl?” Billy asks, raising his eyebrows out of curiosity.
“Why does it matter, fuckboy?” Gilbert questions, only being halfway serious. And okay, Billy’s and several girlfriends (even managing to make his relationship with Josie Pye last year last several months), but he is not a fuckboy.
“He is a fuckboy.” Out of nowhere, Cole shows up, at just the right time. Typical of him.
“Good morning to you too, Cole.” Billy teases, elbowing him. Cole playfully rolls his eyes and sits down next to Billy, barely an inch apart, sort of casually leaning against him.
Moody is the next to walk up, looking as exhausted as usual, tripping over literal air.
“Hey guys.” He greets, yawning.
“You look exhausted.” Gilbert remarks, not bothering to look up from his phone.
“No, I got a whole two hours of sleep last night.” Which, is a lot, for him. The guy stays up all night playing video games, which explains why he’s so scatterbrained. Gilbert always says it’s Billy who runs on half a braincell, but it’s not him, it’s Moody. (It’s both of them.)
“I guess you’re ready for Diana to lecture you, then.” Diana, at this point, is pretty much their mom. Or, she TRIES to keep them all in line. Needless to say, it doesn’t always work.
Before Moody can make a comeback, the bell rings. The four boys groan simultaneously, dreading going to class. To tell the truth, Miss Stacy is really nice, they’d just prefer it if they didn’t they didn’t have to wake up at six in the morning to learn things that they’ll probably forget once high school is over. But, it’s not like they have a choice.
(Actually, they kind of do. Billy would so skip that class if Cole wasn’t there. What, he likes being around him, okay, they’re best friends, nothing weird there. Nothing weird at all.)
~
“What have I told you about getting eight hours of sleep?” As always, class starts with Diana scolding Moody. They’ve known her since grade school and while she’s matured greatly, well, they have not. Cole always accuses Billy of still being mentally five years old, while Moody just keeps losing braincells by being sleep deprived.
“Sorry, mom.” Moody mumbles, sitting back in his desk. Cole sits behind him, in the back, so he can draw in class and get away with it. Billy usually sits next to him, since if he gets lost (which happens more often than not), Cole can explain it to him. And then there’s Gilbert, who sits in front of Gilbert and next to Moody. A horrible decision, really, since neither of them pay attention in class and are always goofing off, while Gilbert actually cares about his grades.
“Alright, settle down everyone.” Miss Stacy says as she walks in, too happy for someone that’s awake at seven in the morning. “We have a new student today. Who wants to go get her from the front office?” She asks, looking around the room.
“I will!” Diana shouts almost instantly, grinning excitedly.
“Go on, then. Everyone else, open your textbooks to page seventy-three.” Miss Stacy directs, ignoring the annoyed groans from everyone in the room, minus a few. “That includes you, Mr Andrews.” Miss Stacy warns, letting Billy know she isn’t afraid to send him to the office, again.
“Yes ma’am.” Billy flashes her an ‘innocent’ smile, but as always, Miss Stacy doesn’t buy it, and gives him a blank stare before turning around. Then, Cole puts (slams) the textbook on Billy’s desk, basically telling him he should stop goofing off and do his work.
And since it’s Cole, Billy listens. Even though, he’s nearly failing this class (he has a c-average) and has no idea what’s going on.
“Hey Cole, do you have any idea what’s going on here?” Billy whispers, earning an eye roll from the other boy, since this pretty much happens everyday.
Just as Cole leans over to explain to Billy what’s going on, Miss Stacy announces that it’s time for them to read the chapter out loud. At that, Cole quickly moves back to his own seat and sinks down, putting his hood on. Billy laughs at him, which was a mistake, because Miss Stacy called on him next. It wasn’t that bad, since at least he knew what page they were on.
“Alright Moody, it’s your turn to read.” Moody, who had been zoned out/half-asleep the entire time, turns to Gilbert, panicking, opening the book closest to him.
“Uh...hey Gilbert, what page are we on?” He mutters, hoping Miss Stacy can’t hear him (she can). Gilbert sighs and turns to point him to it, seeing that Moody doesn’t even have the right book.
“That’s-...that’s not even the book we’re reading.” Gilbert says, not even that surprised. Billy and Cole give each other a look, both amused at the situation. Believe it or not, this was a typical day.
~
What wasn’t typical, though, was getting a new student. In a small town like Avonlea, they barely get one new student per year. So, whenever there’s a new kid, the entire grade takes notice of them.
So when Diana came back to class with a tallish girl with red hair in braids, every head in the room turned their way.
“Alright class, this is Anne Shirley-Cuthbert.” Miss Stacy says, bringing the new girl, Anne, to the front of the room. Which, is awkward, and Cole would know, since he was the new kid in middle school and well, everyone knows that middle school is literal hell.
“Cuthbert? As in the old siblings that live down the street?” Moody attempts to whisper, referring to the pair of siblings that live more towards the country part of Avonlea. They’re seen around town and at church, but that’s about it. Also, note the word ‘attempted’, their entire section probably heard that, since Moody is very loud.
“They’re not that old. Stop being so loud.” Gilbert responds, turning back to the front, where it’s very obvious he’s staring directly at Anne. Billy almost makes a comment about that, believing that Gilbert already has a crush on her, but Miss Stacy starts talking before he can.
“Yes, quiet down.” Miss Stacy glares at Moody, a sign that he should stop talking. “Anne, why don’t you tell the class a bit about yourself.” She says, nicely. Anne looks a mix between excited and nervous but then, let’s just say she switched completely to her excited side.
Anne started with saying the Cuthberts recently adopted her and she was neighbors with Diana and had befriended her around two weeks ago, and then went on a whole rant about how happy she is to be in Avonlea and how excited she is to make new friends. Needless to say, Anne seemed to be very loud, and energetic.
Josie and the other girls were whispering and giggling on the other side of the room, presumably about Anne. Mostly everyone else, including Moody, looked confused. Gilbert was intrigued, Cole honestly wasn’t fazed at all, and Billy was just thinking that if he was the same person as he was last year, he’d probably make fun of her, to her face. Even now, he’d probably just state his opinion on the side.
“That is the brightest red hair I’ve ever seen. It’s like, the color of carrots.” Billy remarks, smirking. She isn’t the only ginger in Avonlea, but her hair is definitely the brightest.
“Be nice.” Cole lightly smacks Billy’s shoulder, glaring at him, halfway playfully and halfway seriously.
“Okay.” Is Billy’s automatic response, since he listens to Cole about almost anything.
“Pft.” Billy faces the other direction, seeing one of the guys from his hockey team (assuming he’s still there, since the season hasn’t started back up yet) giving him and Cole the side-eye.
“Something you’d like to say, bud?” Billy asks, raising an eyebrow. He will punch this guy if he has too. It’s not like he hasn’t before.
“Nope.” The guy quickly replies, keeping his eyes glued to the front room.
~
First period was over in no time, then second, third, and soon fourth period came around, which was their lunch period. After doing all that (ew) work, Billy was looking forward to getting a break, and he didn’t mind fifth period (gym) either, since that was the only class he had an A in, because who the hell doesn’t have an A in gym?
Unfortunately, Cole had other plans, plans that stood in the way of Billy’s peace. See, sixth period is math, and Mr Phillips is the worst teacher in the world. And Billy’s not just saying that because he sucks at math and he’s failing that class (terribly), it’s because it’s true. Mr Phillips doesn’t like being a teacher and doesn’t give a shit about his students, and that says enough. Only like, four kids were passing his class, and Gilbert and Cole were two of them.
Gilbert absolutely refused to help Billy get his grade up (besides, today he was trying to talk to Anne, and it was working until Diana dragged her away) but Cole didn’t mind, and was patient (most of the time) with Billy. The only problem was, he attempted to get Billy to do work during lunch, which was not going to happen.
“No. I’m not doing math during lunch.” Billy says for the tenth time, shoving the worksheet they had to do for homework back into his bookbag. Cole sighs in defeat, shaking his head at Billy.
“No offense, but-“ Cole starts, stopping mid-sentence to rephrase that. “actually, I do mean offense. Your math grade sucks and if you don’t get your shit together, you’ll fail. Again.” Cole tells him, crossing his arms. Billy shrugs, since he failed math the previous years and they still let him move up a grade. “And your parents can’t pay your way out of it this time.” Cole adds, knowing what Billy’s thinking. And, it’s true, Billy had to beg his mom to pay the school board to pass him every year since seventh grade. This year, though, his dad wouldn’t let her, and told Billy he was just going to have to figure things out himself.
Which, so far, wasn’t going so well. If Billy wanted to graduate next year, he was just going to have to study.
“How about we study after school then, you little emo?” He grumbles, elbowing Cole. Cole gently punches his arm at the insult, because he’s not an emo anymore, okay. That was freshman year, and freshman year was a time that he’d prefer not to speak of.
“I’m not an emo anymore, asshole.” He mutters, ignoring the smug look Billy gives him. God, why does he tolerate this guy?
“Yeah, yeah. So, my place?” Billy smirks, nudging Cole with his shoulder.
“Sure.” Cole answers, nudging Billy back, sort of wanting to knock him out of his chair instead.
“That sounds pretty gay.” Moody comments as he sits down across from them.
“Fuck outta here.” Billy responds, laughing. Cole awkwardly laughs along, unsure of why he finds it weird when Moody makes those type of jokes, towards them. Billy doesn’t seem to mind. Cole figures it is JUST a joke, and there’s nothing like that going on with him and Billy, at all. They’re just friends. It’s just a joke.
Before anyone can say anything else, laughter erupts from a couple of tables over. The boys look, and see Anne and Diana sitting across from Josie, Ruby, Tillie, and Jane. The laughter seems to be coming from Josie, who has her usual sinister grin on her face. She seems to be staring directly at Anne, who looks semi-uncomfortable.
“Are they being nice to her, or...?” Billy trails off, confused. With Josie, he never really can tell. When it comes to someone like Anne, a new girl who seems to be on the weird side, it’s more likely she’s making fun of her rather than just making a joke.
“I have no idea.” Moody then turns back to Billy. “Why don’t you ask Josie?” Moody teases, referring to their relationship the year before.
And, it lasted for months, Billy and Josie’s relationship and they did really like each other. But, it ended because they both got tired of each other, and wanted to spend time around other people. They haven’t really talked much ever since. As far as Billy’s concerned, he doesn’t want anything to do with Josie, and Josie’s completely over him as well.
“And why would I ask Josie?” Billy asks, confused on why Moody would even bring that up.
“She still likes you, bro.” Moody chuckles, and Billy raises his eyebrows, surprised. He did not see that coming.
(Cole tenses next to him, for whatever reason. Really, he doesn’t like the idea of Billy and Josie getting back together. It’s not weird or anything, Billy is his best friend and he’s just looking out for him. Nothing suspicious about that.)
“What girl doesn’t?” Billy jokes, earning a scoff from Cole. Billy doesn’t like Josie or anything, but he hasn’t had a girlfriend for a while and his options are open. He’ll just have to see where things go, if that’s even true.
~
It doesn’t take long for lunch to end, the same with gym. And now, it was time for the worst class of the day. Cole had to drag Billy down the hallway by his arm, as he usually has to. They end up behind Anne and Diana, the former looking slightly scared while the latter seems as if she’s trying to explain something to her.
“And that’s Mr Phillips, he’s our math teacher.” The boys overhear, watching as Diana points into the classroom, where Mr Phillips is slouching at his desk.
“He hates children.” Billy feels the need to add, just as a warning to Anne. Diana glares at him, not appreciating the interruption, but continues anyways, because he’s right. Mr Phillips doesn’t like anyone. There’s a nasty rumor going on that him and Prissy have a thing, but it’s far from true, and Billy plans to find out who started it and teach them a lesson.
“Indeed he does.” Diana agrees, pulling Anne away from the boys, who she finds very annoying.
“Then why is he a teacher? He sounds awful.” Anne says, so loudly that if Mr Phillips ever payed attention to any of his students, he’d hear her. Diana shushes her, pulling her away from the door, back towards the boys who she was originally trying to get away from, because they’re pests, all of them except Cole, who doesn’t do anything stupid, like, ever.
“We’ve all been wondering the same thing. No one knows.” Cole responds, and Billy was about a second away from roasting Mr Phillips’ fake mustache before Diana stands in his way.
“Don’t talk to them. They’re ridiculous.” Diana tells Anne, referring to Billy, who pretends to be offended. “I’m not ridiculous, but he is.” Cole says, casually putting an arm around Billy.“Shut up.” Billy laughs, walking into class and going to where him and Cole sit in the back. They have almost every class with the same people, so, Moody and Gilbert sit with them too, so does Charlie.
Moody and Charlie go to their seats as soon as they get in, and while Charlie actually did his homework and already has it out, Moody didn’t, and was watching YouTube on his phone instead. Cole gave in and let Billy copy his homework.
Gilbert eventually came over, looking a mix between disappointed and frustrated. Billy does his homework as fast as possible, expecting a lower score since his handwriting is next to unreadable. Once he does, he thanks Cole for once again letting him use his answers, and then he looks up at Gilbert, wondering what his problem is.
“What’s with you?” Charlie is the one to ask what the rest of them are thinking.
“Anne isn’t talking to me.” Gilbert mumbles, looking from them to Anne, who’s sitting with the other girls across the room, staying quiet while the other girls chat away.
“Come on bud, she’s a homeschool kid. She’s probably weirdly religious or something.” Billy tries to make his ‘rejection’ seem less rough, remembering he heard that in one of Prissy and Jane’s high school movies. But, it’s weird, because Anne was talking to him at lunch, and now she refuses to. (It’s no secret that Ruby has had a crush on Gilbert since fourth grade, so that might be why.)
“A cute girl is a cute girl.” Gilbert defends, moving his gaze back to Anne, who frowns and looks away.
“Sit down and shut the hell up!” Mr Phillips shouts, making Anne jump since she’s not used to his screaming. She will be, though, because the man screams so much that it’s a shocker that his vocal cords aren’t destroyed yet.
Mr Phillips, clearly not in the mood to teach, assigns them a random page in the textbook that he hasn’t even taught yet, and goes back to his text, probably to take a nap.
That’s the only good thing about this class. When he takes one of his naps, they can do pretty much whatever they want, as long as he doesn’t wake up. Because if any of them get caught, that’s a one-way ticket to detention.
While Cole actually makes the decision to do the work now, Billy pulls out his phone, saying he’ll do it when Cole comes over later, without his answer. At this point, Cole doesn’t believe him, but let’s him be. Gilbert, on the other hand, decides that this is the perfect time to try and get Anne’s attention.
Cole ignores him and continues doing his work, and Billy does the same but with his phone, only seeing out of the corner of his eye. Gilbert throws a few pieces of paper at Anne, who does her best not to look at him. Gilbert then takes it a step farther, and grabs his leftover apple for lunch, double-checking to make sure Mr Phillips isn’t looking before slowly moving to Anne’s desk.
And still, that doesn’t work, Anne doesn’t even bother to glance at him. And, well, Gilbert doesn’t like being ignored.
“Carrots.” Cole looks up once he hears that, raising an eyebrow. Billy does the same, just in time to see Gilbert pull one of Anne’s braids. Which, could not end well, since Billy has two sisters and the one time he pulled Jane’s hair, she threw a chair at him. So imagine what Anne’s going to do to Gilbert.
“I’m not talking to you!” Anne yells, standing up. Then, she takes her binder, and smacks Gilbert across the face with it.
Everyone in the classroom had been staring at them by now, and everyone erupts into either gasps of surprise or laughter. But no one was laughing louder than Billy.
“You just did.” Gilbert says, calmly, going back to his seat. Surprisingly, he looks lovestruck.
Billy doesn’t stop laughing when everyone else does, on the verge of tears from how hilarious he finds this. Cole was just shocked at first, but now, he’s rolling his eyes at Billy, still wondering how the hell he tolerates him.
“You good?” Moody asks Gilbert as he sits down, but he’s also kind of directing that towards Billy as well, since he’s turning a shade of red from how hard he’s been laughing. (And somehow, Mr Phillips didn’t seem to notice this.)
When Billy stops laughing, he takes notice of Gilbert’s appearance. He doesn’t look like someone who just got slapped with a binder, no, he looks like he’s in love. Which only makes Billy start laughing again.
“Simp.” He says between laughter, and Cole considers just letting Billy laugh until he knocks himself out this time. Gilbert turns around and glares at Billy, because he’s one to talk.
“Shut up.” Gilbert looks back at Anne with interest, and it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that he has a crush on her.
Hopefully someone got that on video, because the school year just got very, very interesting.