Joel and Jimmy walked down the crowded high school hallway, Joel being practically shoved into the lockers by the hoard of students going the opposite direction. The brunette scoffed and elbowed Jimmy into the center of the hallway.

"Would you cut it out, Jim?" Joel complained, adjusting his leather jacket (that was probably a hazard with all the metal accessories on it). "I'm going to have bruises all over my arm from being pummeled into the damn lockers." Other than the leather jacket, he wore a Metallica T-shirt and baggy jeans with combat boots.

Jimmy frowned, rolling his eyes and elbowing Joel back. "It's crowded, Joel, and my locker is right around the corner. You'll be alright." Jimmy was wearing a plain white T-shirt under a light demin jacket and beige trousers with red converse.

Pouting, Joel leaned dramatically against Jimmy, nearly causing the younger boy to fall to the floor. "Yeah, but my poor, buff, muscle-y biceps are going to be-" He gasped and, as they stopped at Jimmy's locker, brought a hand to his forehead and dropped his body weight onto the adjacent lockers, "ruined!"

Jimmy snickered. "Grow up, you're fine," he said, laughing to himself.

Groaning, Joel joked, "What's the point in being fine if being dramatic gets me attention?" He pulled out his phone to fiddle with the green streak in his hair, mumbling to himself, "I really need to redye this."

"Because it's annoying," a female voice said monotonously behind them, startling them both. They turned to see it was Jimmy's older sister, Lizzie, who was half-heartedly glaring at Joel. Though it had no negative nuance to it because she could barely conceal her grin. She wore a simple off-white sweater and a pleated navy blue skirt with lined tights underneath, along with headphones that had a fuzzy cover resting on her neck. She looked cozy. "Now, shoo! You're blocking my locker, nitwit."

"Anything for you, beautiful," Joel said, smitten by the beautiful, pink-haired girl in front of him. He moved aside and smiled stupidly at his girlfriend, taking in the sight of her. He rarely got to see her with her hair down and he was loving it.

Lizzie snorted. "Good morning, you doofus," she said, breaking her serious facade to blow a kiss in Joel's direction. "How are you?" she asked, turning to grab her purple creative writing binder.

Yes, it's purple.

Deal with it.

Joel sighed, putting on his dramatic act again. Jimmy rolled his eyes whilst he grabbed his books.

Here we go again.

"I would say I'm fine," Joel huffed, "but someone shoved me into the lockers and bruised me."

Lizzie faked a pout and lifted a hand to hold Joel's cheek. "Oh, you poor thing," she said sadly. "How will the universe ever move on from this tragedy?"

Joel rolled his eyes, clearly not buying Lizzie's fake sympathy. "Yeah, yeah."

"Hey, you started the dramatics."

"Whatever." Joel went to lean against Jimmy, who had just so happened to close his locker and step away, then fell backward. He gasped and twisted in an attempt to catch himself, but instead landed on his shoulder. He hissed in pain, and Jimmy and Lizzie stared at him for a moment in shock and confusion. The brunette reached for Jimmy's hand, yanking on it until Jimmy fell to the floor, too.

"Hey!" Jimmy complained, lightly punching Joel in the other arm. "What was that for?"

Joel let out a petty hmph and turned his chin up. "For making me fall."

Jimmy rose an eyebrow. "Really, Joel?" he deadpanned. "You're a child."

"Says the freshmen," Lizzie teased with a giggle, flipping her pink hair over her shoulder. Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, you know I love you, baby brother." She offered her hand to Jimmy and he took it reluctantly, letting her pull him to his feet. "Come on, Joel." She did the same for her boyfriend, helping him up off the floor. "Jim, take Joel to the clinic so he an get some ice for his shoulder, please," she requested, stepping on her toes to peck a kiss on Jimmy's cheek.

Jimmy whined, shifting his weight to his left foot. "Why do I have to?"

"Because I said so," Lizzie said with a hmph. "Now, shoo, and hurry so you're not late to class." She closed her locker and blew a kiss and a wink at Joel before turning to walk away, her hair dramatically following behind her.

Joel sighed. "She's gorgeous."

Jimmy quirked a brow, looking Joel up and down. "Okay, Mr. Enamoured," he joked.

Joel crossed his arms. "We're using big boy words now, huh?"

"Oh, shut up."

"You first."

"Nuh uh."

"Yeah, huh!"

°•♡•°

"Wait here for me," Joel said as he walked to the clinic.

Jimmy groaned in annoyance at the fact that he was going to be late to class because of Joel. The door closed and Jimmy sighed, looking across the hallway, which wasn't nearly as busy as it was before. Across the way, he spotted bright cyan hair, followed by him hearing the most beautiful laugh. He shifted a bit to see more, catching a glimpse of a thin figure wearing a blue, red, and gold varsity jacket with the number seventeen that was chalky to big and jeans with an unnecessary amount of pockets.

The dreamiest guy Jimmy had ever laid eyes on.

Sighing happily, Jimmy leaned against the wall as he watched Scott laugh some more, shaking his head. His gorgeous cyan hair tossing around effortlessly, shinning in the florescent lights of the hallway. He looked up, presumably at someone who was blocked from Jimmy's view by a group of girls, then laughed again, harder this time. He covered his mouth and audibly snorted, which only made him laugh more.

Jimmy smiled a little bit despite knowing he probably looked stupid. He couldn't help it though, Scott was so beautiful, especially when he laughed.

"Oh, stop it," Scott said, waving a hand at whoever was next to him. He shook his head again and sighed, turning toward a clipboard posted on the window to the library. "Are you going to do drama club this semester?" he asked, scribbling something down on the clipboard, then the group of girls moved to reveal who Scott was talking to.

The boy was tall - like really tall, Scott only made it up to his chest - with black curly hair and light brown skin, and he wore a red and blue basketball jersey over a grey hoodie and black trousers. He stepped behind Scott, blocking him from Jimmy's line of sight, and wrapped his arms loosely around Scott's neck. "Do you want me to?"

"Yes," Scott said, shifting them in a way that let Jimmy see about half of him. Jimmy cringed slightly at the way the taller boy held Scott by his waist. "Why? Do you not want to? You wanted to last semester." Scott glanced down briefly as the other's arms tightened around him.

"Only because you asked me to."

Scott stared up at him for a moment, and Jimmy couldn't tell what emotions the cyan-haired boy was feeling. He almost looked confused.

"I'm kidding," the other boy said, and Scott let out an awkward chuckle. "What are you trying for?" He let go of Scott to approach the clipboard.

Scott froze for a second, then whirled around again. "Oh, I was going for Juliet," he said sheepishly. "I was going to try for Romeo but, uh... I don't want to have to kiss a girl." He tucked his hair behind his ear.

"Then I guess I'll have to be Romeo."

Jimmy blinked and watched in disappointment as the tall boy lifted Scott's chin to kiss him. Scott lifted himself onto his toes as they kissed, smiling a little bit when they parted. They shared "I love you"s before walking their separate ways.

Ouch.

Jimmy wondered to himself, Have I been living under a rock? How have I not known that the most popular kid in school has a boyfriend? He sighed and shook himself. Whatever. He was out of my league anyway.

"Why do you look so depressed?"

"Gah!" Jimmy jumped and flailed his arms for a moment, nearly smacking Joel in the face. "Joel!"

Joel rolled his eyes. "Don't be a pussy," he said, before looking down the hallway where Jimmy had just been staring. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at Jimmy. "What were you staring at?"

Jimmy looked at Joel for a minute as he processed what he'd been asked, then his face turned bright red. "Oh! Uh, you know," he said nervously, scoffing to try to sound cool (it wasn't working). "Girls." He winced at what had just come from him, but it was too late now.

Joel snickered, turning his face away so he could laugh.

"What?! I was! And then-" He looked over at the clipboard that Scott was standing at and pondered it for a moment before saying, "And I was just about to sign up for drama club." He sounded stupidly confident, nodding along with his statement as if to confirm it to be true.

Eyeing Jimmy up and down, Joel couldn't seem to tell if Jimmy was serious or not (though to be fair, neither did Jimmy himself). "Uh huh. And what play are they doing that you're suddenly so interested in drama club?" he asked skeptically. "Because last time I checked, my illiterate little brother-in-law hates reading and is a horrible actor."

"You don't know that I'm a horrible ac-" Jimmy froze. "Did you just call me illiterate!?"

"Yes."

"Jerk face," Jimmy pouted, crossing his arms. "You know what?" He huffed and started toward the clipboard, which held a paper labelled 'DRAMA CLUB SIGN-UP'. "I don't have to explain myself to you." He scribbled his name and desired role down, then turned to Joel who was approaching. "Maybe I want to actually have a hobby other playing video games."

"I thought you played lacrosse," Joel murmured, leaning closer at the list to read it. He squinted his eyes - man, that guy needed glasses bad. "Wait, why are all of these crossed off?" He pointed at the list, his figure skimming over a bunch of scribbled-on words. Everyone who had put Romeo or Juliet as their desired role had been crossed off the list. "What kind of asshole would do that?" He scoffed. "Who am I kidding? It was probably that irresponsible jock on the basketball team that got the male lead last semester. What a jerk." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Also-" He turned to Jimmy with a slightly irritated look on his face, "how the fuck are you not over your crush on Scott by now?"

Jimmy just about turned as red as a tomato. "Huh?" Not only was Jimmy surprised that Joel had figured out exactly why Jimmy had signed up for the drama club, he was surprised that Joel remembered how much Jimmy liked Scott over the last few years.

Joel, rolling his eyes, motioned to the sign-up sheet. "Don't 'huh' me, Jim. It's pretty obvious by the way he's now the only one trying out for Juliet and you're trying out as Romeo."

Jimmy looked at the list again, finding Scott's name written one above Jimmy's. The one directly above Jimmy's read Zach E. "Oh."

"Yeah, it's dumb," Joel said blatantly. "You need to get over that asshat. He's only going to break your heart anyway. Trust me."

Jimmy frowned, not taking his eyes off of Zach's name. "And how would you know?"

"Because that's how popular kids are," Joel said simply. "They'll lead you on, make you feel like you're something important, then crush your little insignificant soul to prove that you're just the loser they always labelled you as."

"Maybe Scott's not like that," Jimmy said uncertainly, earning a shake of the head from Joel. "Joel, you can't know for sure. Maybe he really is different!"

Joel shrugged. "If you really want to believe that, then fine," he sighed, adjusting his leather jacket. "But don't be surprised when he turns out just like I said he would." He paused and studied Jimmy's face, sighing again when he noticed how disappointed that made him. "Hey, it's cool and all that you've found someone you like. I guess I'll..." He grimaced. "I guess I'll have your back, okay? Just don't become a mess when it turns out Scott already is dating someone or if he leads you on."

Jimmy smiled a bit, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "Too bad it's too late for that," he said softly.

"Why?"

"He already does have a boyfriend." Jimmy pointed to Zach's name. "And according to you, he's a big jerk."

"Oh." Joel chewed on his lip and sighed. "I'm sorry."

Jimmy shrugged. "It's... whatever." He looked away and so did Joel.

"Hey, Lizzie's on here," Joel said, changing the subject. "I thought after last semester's play that she would try out again, but here we are." He leaned toward the sign-up sheet again to read it. This guy has to invest in some glasses. "Lady Montague, huh?" He stared at the pen that was connected to the clipboard through a piece of yarn, then muttered an, "Oh, what the hell," before signing himself up to try for Lord Montague. He read down the list again, finding Grian's name as well. "Benvolio... He would be a pretty good Benvolio."

"You know this play?" Jimmy asked.

The look that Joel gave to Jimmy could only be described as pure disgust. "Jimmy, we read this in eighth grade," he said, narrowing his eyes at the younger boy. "You signed up not knowing Romeo and Juliet?"

Jimmy paused. "...No comment."

Joel sighed. "You're screwed, pal."

°•♡•°

"What the fuck is the slope?" fWhip hissed at his math homework as he and few others sat at the lunch table, running his hands through his hair. "This is so confusing... Grian, you're smart- help me!"

Grian, who had just shoved probably four grapes in his mouth, gave fWhip a confused and almost angry look. He shook his head and hummed in a way that almost said, "No way, man."

Joel snickered at how full Grian's cheeks were. "Buddy, you've gotta slow down," he said, laughing a bit. "You're going to choke on something."

Grian rolled his eyes as he chewed the fruit.

"He's just hungry," Lizzie said gently, handing Jimmy a bento box. He took it happily, opening it to find delicious-looking sushi and vegetables with two macarons on the side. "And he's thirteen. He's going to act like a child."

Grian nodded along as Lizzie spoke, crossing his arms and acting as if he was saying it himself. He finally finished chewing and swallowed, covering his mouth slightly as he talked, "Yeah, Joel, I'm a child."

"Well, that much is obvious," fWhip joked, making Grian gasp in half-hearted offense. "What? You definitely act your age."

"Whatever," Grian pouted.

Grian was not a freshman yet, nor would he actually be for another semester. He was actually in middle school still, but he was such an outstanding student that he spent all day at the high school taking accelerated classes. His grades were so good that he skipped two whole years worth of math and science, as well as a year of history. He only started attending the high school full time in the previous semester. Before that, he would travel between the high school and the middle school for his classes. In the current semester, he was taking pre-calculus, AP chemistry, AP biology, and AP world history, as well as the same Spanish 1 and psychology classes as Jimmy. Safe to say he was a nerd and a child prodigy.

"I'm taking higher classes than you, Joel," the youngest of them boasted, earning an "ooooh" from fWhip.

"That's because you have a brain," Lizzie said, and Joel tossed a chip at her. fWhip did another "ooooh" and also received a tossed chip from Joel. Lizzie looked at Jimmy, who had been quiet the whole time, to find he was just picking at his food. "Jimmy?"

The blonde boy jumped and looked around. "Huh?" His eyes landed on Lizzie. "Oh, uh, hi?"

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You haven't touched your food at all."

"Oh."

Joel glanced at the siblings, then sighed. "Jimmy's just emo because the guy he likes has a boyfriend," he said, and Jimmy gasped and swatted at him.

"Hey, you weren't supposed to say that!"

Joel shrugged and Jimmy rolled his eyes.

"You have a crush?" Grian asked as he took a bite from a half of Joel's sandwich. He didn't finish chewing before asking, "Who is it?"

Jimmy's cheeks turned slightly red and he turned his face away. "That's... unimportant."

"I highly doubt that."

"It's Scott, isn't it?" fWhip chimed in with a sly grin, and Jimmy shot him a half-assed glare. "I knew it!"

Lizzie quirked a brow at Jimmy. "Scott?" she asked after sipping her bottle of tea. "Still? I thought you said he was just a middle school crush."

Jimmy groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Look, it's not a big deal, can we just move on?" he murmured, making Lizzie smile softly.

"Hey, it's okay," she said. "Maybe there's someone else out there for you."

Jimmy faked a sob. "I don't want there to be someone else for me," he whined, putting his head down. "I want there to be Scott for me."

fWhip shrugged and tossed a baby carrot into his mouth. "Maybe there's another Scott out there." He paused when everyone looked at him. "What? Scott is a very popular name."

Grian shook his head, then took a long drink of his water. "Personally, I think love is dumb," he said, shrugging. He looked over at Jimmy, who was still sulking. "I think you should move on and find a passion for, like... something other than video games. You should do lacrosse again."

"Why is everybody bringing that up today?" Jimmy asked, lifting his head slightly so he could see the others. "I hated lacrosse. Running sucks."

"Yeah, but now all you do is play video games," Grian deadpanned. "You're lame."

Jimmy scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah? And what do you do?"

"I'm a mathlete," Grian started, then began to count on his fingers as he listed things off, "I study science and visit real science labs on the weekends, I do drama club, I read, oh! And I have friends that I actually hang out with regularly."

Jimmy pouted. "Whatever."

"Hey, guys," a voice said from behind Lizzie, startling her. It was Mumbo, a close "friend" of Grian's. "Room for one more?"

Grian gasped and his face lit up like fireworks. "Yes, of course!" He turned to Jimmy and shoved him over one seat. "Move!"

Joel snorted. "Yeah, love is dumb, huh?" he teased, elbowing Grian.

"Be quiet!"

Mumbo chuckled and sat down where Jimmy sat previously, setting down a plethora of robotics-related books and a sketchbook. "How are you?" he asked, more specifically to Grian than anybody else. Jimmy could've sworn he saw Grian swinging his feet under the table.

"I'm good," Grian said, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "How are you?"

Mumbo sighed. "A little bit stressed, if I'm honest," he said with a small laugh. "Mr. Hermann wants me to join the robotics club, but I'm not sure I have the time. Besides, I'm a little intimidated by all the high schoolers," he admitted shyly. "I would rather do it with someone I know."

Mumbo was in a similar situation as Grian, however he only attended the high school for half of the school day. He was smart but he was technology and robotics smart, not like how Grian was smart. He wasn't in any advanced classes, but he participated in the robotics program that Rivendell High provided.

"I'll do it with you," Grian blurted, then his face turned red. "I- I mean, if you want me to, that is." He seemed to sink back into himself, embarrassed by the way he blurted out.

Mumbo laughed. "Sure," he said. "That would be fun." He paused and shared a fond look with Grian that had the rest of the table giggling, then gasped. "Oh! Did you sign up for the play yet?"

"Yeah, I'm trying out for Benvolio," Grian replied cheerfully.

"No way! I signed up for Benvolio, too," Mumbo said, chuckling. "Great minds think alike, I guess."

Grian giggled, then let out a content sigh. "Yeahhh..."

Mumbo turned to the rest of the group. "Did you guys sign up?" he asked, earning nods from everyone around the table.

"Me and Liz are trying out for Lord and Lady Montague," Joel said as he gathered his trash into a small Ziploc. "Grian, give me your garbage."

Grian complied, distractedly handing Joel his trash as he stared at Mumbo.

"I want to get Mercutio," fWhip said simply, then handed Joel his paper bag. "Can you throw this away, too?"

Joel took the bag. "Jimmy's trying for Romeo," he said as he tossed the trash in the bin next to him.

Grian blinked, broken from his trance by the words that had just come from Joel. "Pardon?"

Joel snickered. "Jimmy's trying out for Romeo," he repeated, gesturing toward the still sulking blondebetween Mumbo and fWhip. "Only because Scott's trying out for Juliet, though."

"Oh my god, Tim," Grian groaned, running a hand through his hair. "You're such a moron. You know you're not going to get the part, right?"

Jimmy frowned. "Why not?"

"Because you're you," fWhip interjected, laughing to himself. "Have you even read Shakespeare?"

Jimmy scoffed. "Of course I have," he fibbed, crossing his arms. I definitely have not, but they don't need to know that.

Grian narrowed his eyes at Jimmy. "What the play called, then?"

Jimmy froze. "Uh..."

Lizzie sighed. "I'm disappointed in you," she said sadly.

"It's Romeo and Juliet, nitwit," Grian said. "This is why you're not getting the part."

"Hey! I knew that, I just forgot," Jimmy said as if his friends would actually believe him. He opened his mouth to continue when the bell rang, dismissing everyone from lunch. "Aw, man."

"Guess we'll have to tease you another time, Jim," Joel said with a playful wink, smirking when Jimmy rolled his eyes. "See you guys after school."

°•♡•°

Surprise, surprise, I'm rewriting APBAON!

It's not going to be the exact same as the original (that would just be boring), but I hope you all enjoy it just as much as you enjoyed the first one :)