Chapter Text
“Sandeep, keep your head up.”
History was boring; he disliked all types of it. World History, US History, and even Art History—he didn’t enjoy any of them. Unfortunately, he found himself asleep again in class while his teacher droned on about the first five presidents of the United States. That is, until she suddenly called him out.
Sandy kept his head down, too exhausted to lift himself, but it only made his teacher more frustrated. “You’re always nodding off in class; sometimes I wonder how you’re still passing,” she said. The comment caused the class to giggle, which was enough for Sandy to lift his head and glance up at her with an exhausted look.
Being narcoleptic was a hassle, especially since most of his teachers and classmates never took him seriously. The only ones who really cared were his sister Tara and his Uncle Gene, whom he had lived with since his parents died when he was just a toddler. Unfortunately, most of his classmates just assumed he was some guy who chose to sleep during everything, even though it was always against his will.
Sandy sat up a little as his teacher turned away, trying his best to focus on whatever she was talking about. But it wasn’t long before his head started feeling heavy again. Even with the medication he took for his narcolepsy, he kept struggling to stay awake during class.
After what felt like an eternity (which really was just five minutes), Sandy found himself setting his bag on his desk like a pillow and resting his head on it. He didn’t want to sit through another ten minutes of his teacher's yapping, so he might as well try to sleep through it despite the chances of her possibly yelling at him for nodding off again.
Yet before he could completely tune out his teacher’s voice, something managed to stick out to him.
“Group Project”.
Sandy couldn’t help but crack one eye open, lifting his heavy head from his bag to glance at the front of the room.
“Starting today, you will be doing a group project on one of the five presidents we have talked about today. You’ll have today, Friday, and Monday to work on this project, and will present on Tuesday. You’ll be working in pairs, which I’ll be choosing.”
The class erupted into disappointed groans, but Sandy remained mostly silent.
Group projects were something he didn’t necessarily enjoy, but at least his teacher was making the effort to set up groups on her own. It beats standing in the middle of the class, watching everybody find their peer, before his teacher ultimately paired him with a random one. Then that random would take their opportunity to complain about being paired with the sleepy kid.
The teacher began to call names out, though Sandy only stayed barely conscious to hear his name and the person who was unfortunate enough to get paired up with him.
“Sandy and…Edgar.”
Sandy’s expression lit up only slightly, forcing himself to sit up at his desk as he glanced around the room for anybody who slightly suited the name. Nobody really did, at least as far as he could see, but the simple “ahem” from his teacher was enough for Sandy to shift his eyes to the back of the room.
“Edgar, take your headphones off.”
The rest of the room shifted their focus to the back of the room, staring at a broody-looking boy who had his head lowered slightly, with big chunky headphones placed over his head. He didn’t seem to hear his teacher, since he didn’t even try glancing up from whatever he was doing.
It was enough to infuriate the teacher a bit, and everyone watched as she went towards the back of the room and grabbed the headphones off his head without warning. Edgar (Sandy assumed at this point) quickly raised his head out of confusion, immediately making a poor attempt at grabbing his headphones despite her holding them up high.
“What the hell? Give them back–”
“Consider paying attention to a class that’s required for your graduation instead of listening to this nonsense.” She cut him off, turning away with his headphones still in hand and walking towards her desk, all while Edgar flipped her off from behind. The class once more erupted into slight giggles.
The teacher continued to explain the directions for their project before dismissing everyone to their pairs. Everyone got up, minus Sandy, who stayed glued to his own seat. He didn’t want to do work, especially since his narcolepsy seemed to be bothering him pretty badly today, but before he could find himself dozing off once more, a shadow soon fell over him without warning.
Sandy raised his head yet again, being met with black hair with silver highlights and blue eyes that seemed brighter to him. He had slightly pale skin with a couple of scars here and there, and he held a computer, some crumbled pieces of paper, and a chunky sketchbook (he assumed) in his arm. The two held eye contact for maybe a couple of seconds before Edgar cleared his throat slightly, breaking the gaze. “I’m assuming you’re my partner…?”
Sandy blinked and quickly lowered his head, nodding it slightly in response and speaking up a bit. “Yeah- Yeah, I guess so.”
Nothing else was said, and Edgar pulled the empty desk next to him over so they could be side by side. He set his things down on the desk and sat on the seat, glancing over at Sandy for a moment before turning away. Apart from the chatter between other students, it was mostly silent between the two of them. Awkward silence, could you even blame them?
After what felt like forever, Edgar spoke up slightly, his tone filled with clear confusion. “Do you know what we’re doing?”
Sandy was yet again on the verge of falling asleep right there, but he forced himself to keep his eyes open and attempt to answer the boy’s question. “Mmm… Something about the first five presidents… I think we choose.” He mumbled, forcing himself to sit up a little straighter as he met his gaze again. Edgar sighed, glancing over at his turned-off computer and grabbing it to open the lid. He turned it on and opened the rubric that their teacher had informed them about.
“I guess it’s just some shit about their lives,” Edgar mumbled. It seemed pretty easy despite Sandy not knowing anything about either of the presidents; all you really needed to do was search the answer up and shove it into a couple of slides. But Edgar let out a frustrated sigh, burying his head into his arms like their project was the hardest thing in the world.
“I’m not doing this.”
“Wh–” Sandy quickly spoke up, clearly against the thought of Edgar doing literally nothing. The last thing he needed was a lecture about failing an important class thanks to some emo he just met. “We need to do this, I don’t want my sister to crucify me for failing this class…” Sandy said, shaking his head while Edgar turned to look over at him again. Without saying a word, he sat up again and sighed, opening up Google Slides and pulling up a new presentation for the two of them. “What’s your email so I can make you an editor?”
Sandy blinked in silence before taking Edgar’s computer instead, adding himself as an editor before sliding it back over. Sandy grabbed his bag and opened it to grab his own computer, but after looking through the crumbled pieces of paper and torn folders, he only then realized it wasn’t even with him.
“Shoot…”
“What?”
“...I don’t have my computer.”
Edgar remained silent again, almost as if he was slightly dumbfounded for a moment. But instead of probably making fun of him, he simply sighed and shut his computer. “Thank god, at least we don’t gotta do shit in this class.”
Sandy blinked at his nonchalant behavior. He understood people dislike the idea of having to wake up at six in the morning and get ready to spend about eight hours at school. Though it was clear to him that Edgar probably hated it more than anybody else. He didn’t comment on it though.
Sandy glanced up at the clock above the door, watching as the seconds ticked down one by one. They had maybe ten minutes remaining in the class period, so he decided to try and once again sneak in a small nap once again. Before he could even rest his face on his bag, a voice quickly cut him off.
“Do you always sleep in this class?”
Sandy raised his head a bit, eyeing the emo boy with a tired glance before sighing to himself, sitting up once more to speak up. “Can’t help it… Narcolepsy.”
“...And what’s that?”
Sandy suddenly felt like he was the smartest person in the room.
“...It’s a condition. I got it from my mom, it makes me sleep a lot…” Sandy explained as simply as he could, receiving a silent nod in response. Maybe he got the hint that he was probably being idiotic. It wasn’t like Sandy was directly trying to say that.
His eyes roamed around his desk for a moment before settling down on the chunky sketchbook he had noticed earlier. It was already open to one of the pages inside, where he could see some of the small drawings sketched onto the paper. He only glanced for a moment or two before Edgar’s hand quickly flew over to cover the drawing. Sandy glanced up out of confusion, unable to help but ask about it. “Why are you covering it?”
“It’s private,” Edgar mumbled, moving his computer over it with his free hand.
“It was a good doodle,” Sandy said honestly, “Do you draw a lot?”
“In my free time and during class, yeah,” Edgar responded more bluntly than usual, somewhat confusing Sandy even more. Regardless, he found himself continuing to speak. Maybe it was because it helped him not get yelled at by his shitty teacher. “That’s cool, you draw really well.”
Edgar didn’t respond, but he nodded his head again as if he was silently saying thank you. He didn’t seem as social as everyone else; he wasn’t too verbal.
Sandy tapped the desk slightly, like he was trying to figure out another thing to say. Tara always tried to encourage him to socialize, but he always failed, thanks to dozing off mid-conversation every time. Before he could even come up with a word, he found himself hearing something come out of Edgar’s mouth again.
“I draw sometimes during my break at work, too…” He mumbled, glancing down at his covered sketchbook. Sandy seemed somewhat intrigued, unable to help but speak up yet again. “Where do you work?”
“This shitty gift shop down at Starr Park. Not many people really visit it, so it’s practically rotting.”
“Starr Park? I work there too, just at my sister’s bazaar.”
It looked like he seemed interested for once, since his blue eyes glanced back over at him. “You mean that one shop in Mystic Mountain? I passed the place a few times, never knew your sister owned it…”
“It’s a pretty successful business, my sister Tara started it maybe a year or two after we started living with our uncle.”
For a moment, Edgar looked like he wanted to ask an additional question, but he ended up staying silent for the most part. Sandy couldn’t help but wonder what he would’ve asked if he were right.
Before the two could continue their conversation about…whatever, the bell suddenly rang out loud, dismissing the class for the next period. The two boys glanced at the clock above the door before retaining eye contact. “Why does time always pass so fast in this class?”
“I think that’s a good thing,” Edgar mumbled, gathering up his things before getting up from the desk. As the class emptied, Edgar wandered over to the door and gave Sandy one last look for the day. “See you tomorrow, maybe.”
As he disappeared into the busy hallway, Sandy couldn’t help but smile a bit. He wasn’t the greatest at socializing, even with Tara’s advice, but for once, he managed to hold a decent conversation. He got up from his own desk and grabbed his bag, leaving the empty classroom.
Hopefully, he’d get to his next class before the bell.