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The summer before ninth grade, Adam’s parents decide to send him to boarding school.
It’s not a punishment and they’re not just sending him away to get him out of their hair or anything, they just want a better education than public school can provide for him and all of the private schools in the greater Chicago area are far too elitist and, to be honest, way too expensive for just day school. The tuition at Abbott Black School of Higher Learning includes room and board, along with the most highly acclaimed instructors in the Midwest. It’s not even that far away, only about three hours out of the city, and Adam can come home on weekends if he wants. He doesn’t really think he’s going to, (he is fourteen, after all) but his mom seems to like the prospect, so he doesn’t say anything. And anyway, Jason’s friend Bill goes there and Bill is awesome, so with any luck, Adam will have much better things to do on the weekend than visit his family.
They drop him off five days before the semester starts, so that he has time to acclimate to dorm life before having to acclimate to Higher Education classes, too. The school is big, but not so big that just one dorm couldn’t house all the students and Adam’s room is on the top floor. He’s kind of taken aback, because he doesn’t see any beds or anything, just two desks pushed into the corner of the small (fucking tiny) room across from the door and there’s barely any floor space after the poufy bean bag chair and roley desk chairs, but then he notices the loft overhead and, okay, that’s pretty cool. Two twin beds, end tables and another beanbag chair, as well as a pretty rad skylight and, yeah, this is definitely an awesome room. He claims the bed on the left and the desk on the right and is halfway through unpacking when his roommate shows up.
His name’s Ryan Ross, and he has more clothes than any kid about to spend most of his time in uniform really needs. His voice is kind of hilariously monotone, but he seems nice enough, if a little apathetic, and even asks if Adam minds before he puts up a Blink-182 poster. He sets his guitar next to Adam’s bass and they start talking music and it’s pretty cool. They get on well and behind the disinterested exterior, Ryan has a good sense of humor. Adam’s not all that big on transgressive fiction, but Ryan’s got some interesting things to say on the matter and ends up making Adam promise to read at least a dozen different books they both know he’ll never end up picking up.
They leave their door open while they unpack and they meet a few other guys from their floor. There’s Gerard and his roommate Bob, their friends Frank and Ray from down the hall, Joe with the fucking huge hair (Ryan looks kind of scared when Joe and Ray stand next to each other and Adam could swear he clutches his flat iron a little tighter after that.) and a disconcertingly calm junior named Andy. Ryan says something about his best friend Spencer who got here the same time Ryan did but apparently had to go to lunch with his roommate’s parents to make sure he wasn’t a bad influence or something. Ryan says they invited him along, but Spencer probably wanted to make a good impression and Ryan’s not good at those.
They compare class schedules, find they have most of the same classes, Ryan being in an advanced literature class to Adam’s plain old English. They eat dinner, put up the rest of their posters and Ryan plays some music on his laptop and then Spencer appears, looking weary and worn out but bringing sodas and the three of them talk and play video games on Ryan’s computer until curfew.
It’s a pretty good first day, Adam thinks.
---
Bill doesn’t get there till just before lunch the next day and Adam knows that Bill has kind of always just thought of him as Jason’s brother, so he’s pretty pleased when Bill seems to genuinely like him. The used to hang out a lot when they were younger, but once Bill and Jason turned thirteen and realized how uncool eleven-year-olds were, they kind of drifted apart, which was fine with Adam, he totally knew how lame little kids were, but still. It sucked to have a friend one day and kind of not, the next. But now they have more in common than Adam would have expected and they fall into a comfortable friendship that makes the three years since they actually hung out together seem almost nonexistent.
Later, Ryan and Bill talk books while Spencer and Adam talk explosives and then Spencer’s roommate, Brendon, shows up and the five talk music. Adam thinks it’s pretty cool of Bill, a sophomore, to be hanging out with all these freshman, and when Bill’s sophomore friends Michael Guy Chislett (an exchange student from Australia.) and Mike “Call me Carden” Carden (“Call him Carden,” Michael Guy and Bill confirm.) arrive, they seem cool to let Adam hang around too.
When Adam volunteers to help Bill unpack, he readily accepts, later demanding Adam sleep in his room since his roommate has yet to arrive. They don’t sleep much, more inclined to talk and tell stories like the kids they pretend not to be anymore and at some point between 1:23 and 2:54, ‘Adam’ becomes ‘Sisky’ and Adam’s never had a nickname before, so he thinks it’s pretty cool. He thinks Bill is pretty cool.
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The next day, word about Adam’s nickname gets around, and everyone’s calling him Sisky. By dinner that night, no one even remembers that’s not his real name.
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Two days before classes start, Bill wakes Adam up early, around noon, because his roommate’s just gotten in and needs help moving his boxes upstairs. Adam protests the ungodly hour, but fifteen minutes later finds him lugging Bill’s roommate’s duffel bag up six flights of stairs because the elevator broke down yesterday. Andy Mrotek is stitched into the side of the bag, as well as printed on the plaque outside Bill’s door, but everyone calls him the Butcher and when Adam drops the duffle at his feet, he scratches the back of his head and says, “I’m Butcher. Thanks for helping out.”
“No problem,” Adam huffs and kind of collapses on Bill’s bed for a second, to catch his breath, “I’m Adam.”
Carden and Michael Guy walk in a minute later, each carrying a box and Carden says, “Get off your ass, Sisky, and help out.”
Adam’s already formulating plans about hiding out in Brendon and Spencer’s room when Michael Guy says, “I think Bill’s got the rest, actually.” And Adam’s so relieved, he grins at Michael Guy and the Butcher before flopping backwards, his back meeting Bill’s soft matress.
Bill flounces in carrying a box (and only Bill is talented enough to flounce while carrying cargo that weighs more than him) and sets it down with the rest of them and hugs the Butcher, muttering things about how it’s been too long and how awesome this year is going to be. Afterwards, he claps the Butcher on the shoulder with one hand and Adam with the other.
“This,” He says very seriously, “Is Sisky Business.” Bill looks very proud of himself and Butcher and Adam grin at each other.
“We’ve met.” Butcher says and winks at Adam and if Adam’s stomach flips a little, it’s probably just because he hasn’t eaten yet today.
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The semester starts and Adam doesn’t know if it’s just because he’s finally in high school or if it’s that Abbott Black is so different from every school he’s ever attended before, but it’s so much more awesome than he would have expected. A lot of his teachers are super old, but they seem to actually care about the subjects they teach, and Adam gets to sit next to Spencer a lot, since their names are so close alphabetically. No one assigns homework at all during the first week, and Adam spends his lunches with Bill and Michael Guy and Carden and Butcher and it’s pretty fucking awesome. When his mom calls him Friday night, he tells her everything’s going great and asks her to give Jason Bill’s regards.
Bill takes to hanging out in Adam and Ryan’s room almost as much as Adam hangs out in his and Butcher’s (but not nearly as much as Ryan hangs out in Brendon and Spencer’s) and the Butcher takes it upon himself to teach Adam all the ins and outs of Abbott Black. This mostly consists of gossiping about teachers and telling stories about the school that are so far-fetched, there’s no fucking way they actually happened and giggling at Adam’s jokes.
It’s a pretty fucking awesome first week of school.
---
Adam stays over for Thanksgiving break because he has a huge project due for Geography and he knows he wouldn’t get a thing done were he to try at home. And besides, Brendon’s his partner and he’s staying, and Adam doesn’t want him to be alone over the break. Adam knows that Brendon’s pretty sad to see all his friends going (Ryan and Spencer have spent the past two weeks talking about Mrs. Smith’s mashed potatoes and how Mr. Smith is going to be trying to fry the turkey this year and how much of a disaster it’s gonna be) and Adam can relate. Bill, Carden and Bob are going back to Chicago, Gerard, Frank and Ray are headed home to New Jersey and Butcher’s going to Milwaukee.
The map of the continental US Brendon’s pinned up to help them with their project says Milwaukee is only a couple hours North of Chicago, but the Butcher might as well be going to Vegas with Spencer and Ryan. Adam starts missing him the second the Mrotek’s car rounds a corner and Butcher’s stupid grinning face is no longer visible in the rear window.
Adam contents himself in the knowledge that he and Brendon will have complete run of the floor for a full week and while this will mean a lot of Disney movies in the lounge from Brendon, it also means not sharing the bathroom with 18 other guys and being able to blast his music as loud as he wants.
The only other person staying for break on their floor is Michael Guy, but that’s only because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia. Brendon and Adam’s project is on Oceania and Michael Guy seems pretty keen to help, and he doesn’t seem to mind the loud music or flood of Disney movies and tunes, so.
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They get an A with two little smiley face stickers and a pat on the back from their damn-near-decaying geography teacher. Brendon attributes it to the work ethic instilled in him by the seven dwarves, but everyone else knows that the credit should go to Chiz.
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Christmas rolls around shortly after, as is custom, and the air turns bitingly cold as the early morning frost that has covered the grounds since mid-September starts sticking around later and later in the day. It snows more often and all the guys from Chicago decide to carpool home for the holiday break. They take three cars and Adam makes the Butcher participate because he totally has to pass through Chicago to get home anyway.
The three hour drive seems to go by way too fast this time, with Butcher crooning along to the warbly tapes in the tape deck and the endless games of twenty questions that always turn into Adam or Butcher insisting nineteen-point-eighth questions totally count, what are you talking about.
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Bill and Adam hang out over break almost as much as they do at school and Bill and Carden go to Adam’s family’s New Years party and Bill smacks a loud kiss on Adam’s cheek when the ball drops, then turns to Carden and does the same.
Bill still has the shiner on his cheekbone when they get back to school later that week.
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When the new semester starts in January, it’s with a new student in the sophomore class and a new kid on their floor. His name is Pete, he’s from Chicago, likes soccer and has the biggest fucking mouth Adam’s ever seen, both figuratively and literally. Butcher spends a lot of time drawing Pete as a cartoon character and Gerard fucking loves it and they spend the next two weeks huddled over a sketchpad together.
Frank sulks around the floor the entire time, but is back in high spirits once Butcher and Gerard storm into the lounge one night triumphantly holding their completed comic book. Pete promptly grabs it and no one really knows what he does next, but by lunch the next day, there are about a thousand copies of it spread around the school and all the librarians are in a tizzy because they can’t find any copy paper anywhere and Nick, the editor of the school paper, talks Gerard into making it into a serial. Butcher’s credited with character design every issue, but he says the comic is Gerard’s baby and that’s fine with him.
It’s fine with Frank too, because that totally frees up Gerard’s time and now Frank has an excuse to invade his space, huddling with him over a sketchpad at all hours of the night and bringing him coffee in the dining hall every morning.
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Spring comes and brings with it finals and major final anxiety. The freshman are kind of freaked out because they’ve never had finals before, the sophomores are worried because their classes are so much harder than last year, juniors are fucking panicking because these are the hardest and most important finals they’ll ever take and the seniors are waiting to hear back from universities while still trying to pass all their courses.
The atmosphere is tense and everyone is stressed and the decrepit teachers seem even older, their wrinkles looking deeper, and every slow, deliberate movement they take seems to be even slower, their voices grating on every student’s nerves.
Brendon is kind of freaking out because he bombed an algebra test a few weeks ago and now his whole fucking scholarship depends on the final. Even Ryan is trying to talk him down and has got Spencer (who’s, like, a fucking math genius) tutoring him. Adam’s making sure he and the Butcher are around Brendon as much as possible because being around Butcher makes Adam calm and serene and he should totally have the same effect on Brendon.
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When finals week is over, everyone’s fucking crazy with relief. Michael Guy sleeps for the entire weekend, Ryan actually cracks a smile at someone who’s not Spencer (Pete doesn’t really know what to do with it because, yeah, he’s new, but he’s not dumb and he knows Ryan won’t just smile at anyone.), Gerard fucking finally lets Frank kiss him, Joe cuts his hair (a mistake, he immediately realizes and vows to grow it back) and even Andy is so happy, he only bitches out three people for eating meat in front of him. It’s a good week and Bill decides to throw the floor a party. It’s kind of lame by most peoples’ standards because there’s no beer or weed and no girls, but no one on the floor seems to mind the lack of girls and everyone has a great time, even if all 20 boys get detention for the rest of the school year for breaking curfew and making so much noise.
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In detention, Adam sits next to the Butcher and he draws tattoos in sharpie all over Adam’s arms and Adam can’t stop grinning.
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Summer comes and everyone says goodbye and Adam is kind of sad. He hangs out with Bill a lot, and sometimes Carden is there too. Chiz emails him every few days and he’s gone to a couple movies with Pete. He emails and texts and IMs with Brendon and Spencer, and Ryan sometimes replies too. He ran into Bob once at a record store, and Jason seems to think he’s old enough to be cool again, so that’s awesome, but.
But Adam really misses the Butcher. They IM every night and talk on the phone a lot and Butcher texts him all day every day, but it’s not the same and for the first time since 2nd grade, when the days get shorter and August comes to a close, Adam doesn’t dread the coming school year, is actually excited.
Three months is too long to go without seeing Butcher, Adam has realized.
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Four days before the semester starts, Bill and Adam and Carden drive out to Abbott Black. Adam can’t stop bouncing in his seat for the last half hour, too fucking stoked to be back and see the Butcher again.
But like last year, it’s two more days before Butcher arrives and Adam spends a lot of the time with Brendon and Frank and Pete because they’re the only guys he knows who won’t shoot him for being so fucking hyper all the time.
When Butcher finally gets there, Adam gives in and throws his arms around him, hugging tight and doesn’t think about how often his wet dream had featured the Butcher’s arms over the summer, doesn’t think about how he doesn’t like any of his other friends the same way as he likes Butcher.
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There’s a new kid this year in Adam’s grade. His name is Patrick and the first time he shows up in the lounge, he’s wearing an argyle sweater and knee socks under his shorts. He hums along to the Simpsons’ theme on the TV and blushes when everyone looks at him.
Pete hasn’t left his side since.
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This year, Gerard and Frank have made public displays of affection routine and everyone knows that they’re soul mates and destined lovers and boyfriends. No one minds. Pete composes operas in their honor and makes Patrick sing them and Patrick blushes but joins in when Brendon starts belting out the witty, if slightly off-putting, lyrics during passing periods.
Gerard’s comics now feature vampire love affairs that are never explicitly about him and Frank, but everyone knows the truth.
It’s particularly scaring for one of the incoming freshman, Mikey, Gerard’s brother.
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Michael Guy and Carden are kind of inseparable this year, but you can only tell if you’re paying attention because Carden is so smooth. Bill takes to calling them The Mikes and, when Carden isn't around, married. Michael Guy overhears one night and blushes, asks them not to say anything because he doesn’t think Carden realizes. It’s so out of character for him, Bill and Adam solemnly swear, and proceed to marathon the Harry Potter movies to take Chiz’s mind off of things and because, come on, how can they be expected to not after actually solemnly swearing to something?
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Bill takes over as editor for the school paper and spends a lot of time looking at things and people over his glasses. Ryan submits a poem and Bill declares him precious, taking him quite literally under his wing for a week or so until Pete starts missing having Ryan follow him around like a lost puppy all the time and submits angry poetry until Bill gives him back.
Patrick and Ryan bond over being friends with Pete Wentz, because that is not an easy undertaking.
Spencer scoffs because Ryan thinks Pete hung the fucking moon, he just likes to pretend to be jaded and cynical all the time. Adam overhears Ryan talking about Pete’s poetry once, and has to scoff too. The words tortured and beautiful were used in earnest and Adam and Spencer laugh for about three hours.
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Gerard somehow obtains black-out curtains and covers his skylight with duct tape. Bob, his roommate, doesn’t really mind, but the lack of light kills his fern.
Bob didn’t really like the fern all that much anyway, he only kept it because Frank gave it to him for Easter last year and Bob didn’t really want to give Frank an excuse to bite him or something.
Even though, logically, the fern’s death was Gerard’s fault, Frank blames Bob and pouts in his general direction until Bob agrees to give him piggy back rides to class for a whole week.
Bob is kind of amazing, Spencer kind of notices and around thanksgiving, Spencer develops a harmless little crush on Bob and it’s the weirdest and most adorable thing Adam has ever laid eyes on because Spencer’s a sarcastic bitch a lot of the time, but he kind of just melts around Bob.
Brendon says Spencer thinks Bob is sunshine and puppies and that Spencer wants to have little baby-Bryars with him. Everyone has learned to take everything Brendon says with a grain of salt upon first meeting him, but when Spencer grins at Bob, Adam thinks there might be something to Brendon’s ridiculous theories.
Bob, for his part, has no clue. He doesn’t notice the influx in Spencer-smiles, but he does notice how Spencer starts getting him coffee at breakfast. When asked, Bob says, “Yeah, that Smith kid is pretty cool.” To his credit, Spencer doesn’t even gush upon hearing that. He does, however, grin a bit wider.
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In March, Brendon realizes he has a fantastic ass and proceeds to wear his uniform pants two sizes smaller. He follows the rest of the floor’s lead and starts wearing girl jeans and him and Spencer share their collection of tee-shirts that Adam is sure belong to somebody’s little sister.
Ryan spends a lot more time around Brendon, Adam notices, and a lot more time standing behind him, no doubt admiring the view.
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Over spring break, the Gym teacher breaks his hip and gets replaced with a really young, really crazy guy who talks about Cobras all the time and wears neon and insists they call him Gabe. Bill might have an inappropriate crush on him and has taken to prancing around the gym in his criminally short shorts, begging for Gabe’s attention. Gabe’s a creeper, so he gets it, and after hearing Gabe chat Bill up, Pete writes an ode called Gabe’s Basement of Love and hacks into Bill’s computer to run it anonymously through the school paper.
After that, the principal has a talk with Gabe and he’s allowed to stay on, but Bill gets transferred to water sports with eighty-seven-year-old instructor Mrs. Turnbuckle.
His short shorts stay safely in his closet from that point on.
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Throughout the whole year, the Butcher is there, always in front of Adam being awesome and gorgeous, or at least always somewhere in Adam’s peripheral vision. Adam’s not one for clichés, but sometimes he finds himself convinced that the Butcher really did hang the moon, and the stars, and is responsible for all the puppies and sunshine in the universe. If Adam and Spencer ever got together and compared notes, Adam knows he’d come out on top as the more pathetic of the two.
But some of it isn’t entirely Adam’s fault, like the way his body seems to just fucking gravitate toward Butcher, or how for some reason, his skin is constantly super-sensitive of every time Butcher touches him. It could be because Adam can’t stop thinking about him, like, ever, but Adam would prefer to believe there’s something wrong with his body chemistry that makes him so lame.
During finals, Adam is glad they’re not in the same grade, because when Butcher’s around, Adam has fucking tunnel vision and can’t focus on anything but him. Were Butcher in any of his classes, Adam’s sure he’d flunk out and never get to see him again.
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This summer is more bearable because Bill insists on frequent trips up to Milwaukee. Adam is confused, because he thought he was totally stealthy about his giant ass crush, but when he confronts Bill about it, Bill just cocks his hip and gives him a look and, yeah. Adam should have realized that Bill, as his best friend, fucking knows these things, even despite Adam’s stealth.
---
This year, the entire freshman class is named Alex, and there’s a new kid named Travis from New York.
Everyone loves making fun of the Alexes and they’re all pretty good sports about it. The one named Ian even let Spencer guide him over to stand between Ray and Joe (whose hair has grown back bigger and better than ever) and ambush Ryan in the bathroom one morning, before his hair was fully straightened. Adam didn’t know Ryan’s voice could actually inflect that much, nor did he know half the profanities Ryan hissed at Spencer over breakfast that morning.
Bill and Travis hit it off in a way that causes Butcher to spend a lot of nights in Adam’s room. It’s this fact, and also just how fucking awesome Travis and how fucking happy Bill seems lately that make it so that Adam can’t find it in himself to fault the guy for taking so much of his best friend’s time.
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Chiz and Carden spend the whole first semester dancing around each other. Butcher calls it Carden’s Big Gay Freak Out and Michael Guy looks so sad, Adam even agrees to eat vegemite. He spits it out promptly after, but pretends to like it for Chiz’s sake.
Right before Christmas Break, Adam walks into Chiz’s room to check on him and Carden’s got him pinned in a corner and there’s a fucking glint in his eye that’s totally not the one Adam is used to, not the evil maniacal kind. Adam shuts the door quietly and tells the Butcher.
The next day, Michael Guy and Carden are back to normal, or, almost normal. Carden smiles a lot more now than ever before.
---
Mikey’s girlfriend Alicia is from one of the private girls’ schools in the area and thinks it’s fucking hilarious that Mikey’s entire floor is gay. She thinks Mikey needs to camp things up a bit, then her and Gerard start talking about David Cassidy and after that, Bill starts actually having to enforce the no-girls-on-the-floor rule.
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In late January, Adam gets sick. It’s a horrible, awful plague and his nose is red and raw and his eyes are puffy and his chest burns every time he coughs. It hurts to swallow, or breathe or move. Ryan’s declared the room a quarantine zone and moves in with Brendon and Spencer for the time being. Bill texts Adam a lot, but doesn’t come to see him too much because he doesn’t want to get sick (and therefore get Travis sick too).
Adam’s miserable and lonely and when the Butcher comes by in the middle of the night with ice cream stolen from the school kitchens, it’s all Adam can do not to croak out I love you, which. Oh.
Oh.
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Adam’s known about his crush on the Butcher for a fucking long time, and he’s perfectly okay with it. And the whole love thing can be totally easily attributed to a fever dream, but a Freudian slip seems far more likely. So, he talks to Bill about it because Bill is his best friend. He tells Bill that he’s a fucking kid, he can’t be in love, but Bill says something wise about young hearts and gives him a hug and Adam actually feels a lot better, even though nothing’s been solved.
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On Valentines Day, Adam slides a piece of paper under Butcher’s door and proceeds to spend the rest of the morning freaking the fuck out.
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I think I’m kind of in love with you. Like, epic petepatrick style love and I don’t know what to do, but I thought you should, you know. Know.
-Sisky
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At lunch, the Butcher puts his tray next to Adam’s like he does everyday and says, “So.” And Adam’s stomach bottoms the fuck out and his sandwich and hot Cheetos look wholly unappealing right now. He gulps and stays silent, so the Butcher tries again, “Wanna hang out after school today?”
“We hang out after school every day.” Adam points out and Butcher grins sheepishly at him.
“Yeah, but there’s always someone else there. I wanna hang out with just you because, um.” And he falters and scrubs a hand through his hair before, quick as a flash, ducking down and kissing Adam, not wary of the Flaming Hot Cheeto residue covering his lips. Butcher touches his mouth and says, “Ow.” Adam grins and presses his smile to the Butcher’s mouth, Butcher grins back and it’s maybe a little awkward, but, fuck it, Adam can be fucking cliché: it’s perfect.
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Bill and Carden and Chiz and the Butcher graduate and take Adam on their celebratory road trip.
Bill gives Butcher at least five talks about protecting Adam’s virtue. Butcher gets three tattoos that he’s always wanted done for real at a grungy shop somewhere in Missouri . Adam loses his virginity in the back of Carden’s dad’s car at a truck stop somewhere in Kansas, the halogen lights outside casting shadows on Butcher’s newly-inked skin. Butcher mouths I love you into Adam’s neck over and over and they refuse to disentangle themselves until Bill’s screeching and Carden’s snickers make them.
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Mike and Carden disappear to live in sin in the Australian Outback for a while. The Butcher and Bill go to the closest University to Abbott Black, only 35 minutes away and this year, Adam has an excellent reason to leave campus on the weekends.
Spencer and Brendon shock everyone with the very public evolution of their relationship. Gerard and Frank start a band. Most of the decrepit teachers are replaced by younger ones. Ryan falls stupidly in love with the photography teacher. Bob gets a new fern. Pete spends almost as much time in Patrick’s dorm as he does at his own University. Gerard paints an epic zombie apocalypse scene on the ceiling of the lounge before graduation and almost gets expelled.
It’s a pretty fucking great year.