"Woah!"

Zedaph's exclamation startled Bdubs awake, the blonde staring out Tango's window in awe.

"Guys, look!"

Confused, Bdubs followed as the other boys got up from their sleeping bags and make-shift "futons" to look out the window at what was making Zedaph so fascinated.

What Bdubs saw horrified him.

The sun and the moon were both high in the sky, which was a deep purple, and every star was brightly shining. But Bdubs was awake.

The moon and stars shouldn't be visible.

Dammit.

"Isn't it cool?" Zed asked, smiling brightly.

Of course your nerd brain would think it's cool, Bdubs thought. "It's not cool," he said, making Zed frown, "it's horrific and terrible and every bad thing all at once. The world is ending, and it's all my fau- Uhhh-" He paused, taking in the confused faces of his friends. "The world is ending!" he shouted, throwing his hands into the air, then he grabbed his stuff and ran away screaming.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

Bdubs struggled to control his breathing as he ran down the sidewalk, clutching his school bag tightly to his chest. Anxious thoughts filled his head on his way home, wondering just how awful his mother was going to think of him. He had one job and he failed at it. He could just imagine how furious she would be.

"How could you be so reckless!" he could practically hear her say already. "You're in big trouble!" Then she'd probably ground him for life, take away his gaming console and his laptop, forbid him from spending time with his friends, and maybe even make him do every chore in the house until he fixed the problem.

He stopped at the crosswalk and took a moment to catch his breath as cars whizzed by. He could imagine how upset his mother would be... but what about the gods in the Heavens? How furious would they be that the golden child they entrusted with such a great responsibility messed up? What would they do to him? What wouldn't they do to him? They'd take away his powers, for sure.

He ran a hand down his face and sighed. "Hades, just take me now-" He paused when he saw a flash of purple in the corner of his eye, and he looked over to see a (very short) kid in a red jumper with the hood up staring at him. They made eye contact for a split second, then the kid grinned and turned around to walk away.

"What the..." Bdubs blinked and the sky was suddenly its normal blue with the sun hanging high in the sky. Just like normal.

Sighing and deciding to ignore whatever the hell just happened, Bdubs crossed the street. If it was important, it would make itself known.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

"Alright, class, settle down," the teacher said, barely audible above the chatty students in the classroom. "Settle down and take your seats, please."

The classroom slowly got quiet as the students filtered in and out of the rows of desks to sit down for class.

Bdubs yawned as the teacher wrote the word 'eclipse' on the chalkboard. He couldn't believe he was yawning during class. He never yawned during class!

"Can anyone tell me what an eclipse is?" the teacher asked.

"An eclipse is the obscuring of light from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer," a voice said from the doorway.

Bdubs yawned again whilst the teacher addressed the unnamed kid, who Bdubs hadn't bothered to look at yet. The teacher had said something about the kid being an intruder when Bdubs saw a flash of purple. Sitting upright, he looked over to see the same kid that he saw across the street with a glowing, purple eye on their forehead.

"What the fuck?" Bdubs murmured, and the kid noticed him and took their hood off to smile and wave.

"Hey, Bdubs!" they said, making Bdubs' heart race. They looked up at the teacher. "Can I go sit next to him?"

The teacher paused, then said monotonously, "Yes, you can," and walked back over to the chalkboard.

The kid beamed, walked over to the empty seat next to Bdubs, and sat down.

Bdubs didn't say anything as he turned to face the board so he wouldn't have to look at them. He was kept wide awake for the rest of class by the nagging feeling that thousands of eyes were watching him.