Tw: panic attack I think...and crying

When everybody eventually went back to school after some recovering, they found that they were in the second term of the first semester.

Virgil and Logan pretty much had all of the credits they needed, were great in all of their classes, and practically didn't even need to go to school the last semester, but decided to go anyways because honestly, what else were they going to do?

Since they didn't need courses like math or science or anything they got to choose electives-which were ultimately ignored. After some explaining with the school counselor, they got a class change.

Virgil changed to Creative writing/literature, astronomy, advanced psychology, and personal financing.

Logan took poetry, astronomy, the most advanced science course he could find, and public speaking. Since poetry was only an hour he also took an hour of psychology.

Roman was in the drama club, theatre and football, so that took up a chunk of his time. He also took creative writing, along with other classes he was assigned because of the lack of a few credits.

Patton took public speaking, and psychology, was already in theatre, and took the required courses.

Virgil asked them why in the name of god any of them would want to take public speaking. They told him that they were already good at it, but needed the practice for drama club. Logan just took it because he wanted to get better at at.

As soon as they got their schedules changed, they were off.

Virgil and Logan also joined the after school drama club, but worked backstage, managing lights and the scenery. They both planned on taking an art class next term.

Virgil looked at the first class on his schedule.

Creative writing, room 203z

He walked into the class and found Roman there, looked like he had the class too.

They pretty much goofed off the whole class while the teacher's back was turned. Virgil never knew being a trouble maker could be so fun. He often looked upon the kids who goofed off with annoyance (and a tad bit of jealousy) but now he realized, it was just fun to be happy.

Even with all of the goofing off he still managed to write that short story about the love of two gay cats.

This is why it was called creative writing.

And no it wasn't a cringe furry story, it was just two normal cats who like normal cats couldn't speak, but communicated through meows.

No dialogue was used in the story, but the message was still there.

It was honestly a beautiful story which the teacher loved.

(A/n: someone who isn't me has to write this. 😂)

Virgil would usually feel such anxiety about writing things like that and letting people see it. But when he was writing he felt so calm, and it was something that he genuinely liked to do.

His next class of the day was AP psychology. That class was with Patton, and he was honestly a little surprised to see him there-he didn't really know that he had an interest in psychology.

They payed attention to the lesson, and chatted about it the whole class. Psychology was surprisingly interesting.

Lunch was..less interesting, more confusing. Was this catfish or macoroni stew?

Let's just say that they'd all be bringing packed lunches from then on.

Personal financing was surprisingly more interesting than he'd thought. Learning about budgeting money always seemed boring to Virgil, but he payed attention really closely because-well, he was going to need to learn that.

He was about to be in college the next year after all.

He was going to be a big boy. He was going to find our the difference between a checking and savings account even if it killed him.

But the next class.

Oh the next class.

THE NEXT CLASS.

Virgil read his schedule. His final class.

Building five, Room 518.

He walked into the room as he chatted with Patton.

'Hey, I didn't know you had this class too' Virgil signed, smiling.

He was confused to fins that the class looked like one of those college movie classes. The seats were kind of like bleachers, and the room kind of looked like a speech auditorium.

"...you have this class?" Logan asked, walking up to them with Roman, who had seen the interaction.

'you all have astronomy fourth period too?' Virgil asked

"Virgil? This isn't astronomy" Roman explained.

The room was huge, there were like, thirty rows of seats going up. He looked at his schedule a little closer.

Room 318, building five, hall three

Public speaking

'No' He thought.

"The counselor got your schedule mixed up!" Roman exclaimed.

"Do not worry, Virgil. Counselors often make these types of mistakes, and, seeing as you are just beginning this course, the teachers will go easy on you. I've taken this class all year with Patton, and you and Roman can sit next to us, come on. After class you can make changes."

Logan lead them to their seats. Up the steps they went, on a row that was closer to the bottom, near the middle. It was a good seat to have so that the walk down to present wasn't as agonizingly long, and you weren't stepping all over everyone.

"Also, since your new the teacher may announce your arrival..it is public speaking after all" Logan said.

Virgil shrunk into his hoodie.

This was going to suck.

"Class, class settle down!" The teacher exclaimed, clapping three times.

There were a hundred kids in that classroom. Virgil was overwhelmed. He had super high anxiety. He couldn't do this.

Patton grabbed his hand in an attempt to ground him.

Virgil jumped, looked over, and smiled.

"Now, as you know, it is a start of a new term. Most of you were here last term, so you know the rules...we have a new kid joining our classroom today. He's been in this school since freshman year though, so he's not like, new new, but still!" The teacher rambled, "anyways, please welcome Virgil!" She pointed to him and all eyes landed on him.

Virgil put his hood on.

"No hoods in the building" the second teacher called, and Virgil took his hood off.

"Awe he's shy" the teacher smiled.

"He's cute, that's what he is" some girls giggled.

Virgil curled into his corner.

"Virgil, in this class we speak up. We do not stay silent" the teacher told him.

Virgil gave her an awkward thumbs up.

She chuckled, "i'm Miss Zambo, and this is my assistant is Mr. Agriaso."

She received no response.

Mr. Agriaso sighed and clapped, giving up on him. Just like everyone else in his life, "okay class, today we will each come up in front of the class and speak about our favorite things. We've got two hours so everyone should get a chance to speak"

Nobody who went up there seemed too nervous about speaking. In fact, it was amusing. Everyone talked about interesting, funny topics that made even the teachers chuckle occasionally.

Virgil was dreading his turn.

Speaking was bad, but the walk.

Oh the walk.

The walk from his chair to the front of the classroom was always traumatic.

He could trip, he could have his knee give out on him, someone could make fun of the way he walks, he could accidentally step on someone while getting up—it was always awful.

And even worse, the kids who didn't seem confident in speaking were forced to stand there until they talked.

The class was encouraging, so it never took terribly long.

Virgil knew his turn was coming up. It had already been almost two hours. Most people just goofed off the whole class, and people talking were invited to share what they were speaking of with the whole class.

Roman, Logan, and Patton had already spoken.

So confident, so cool..it was like nothing bothered them. Logan talked about whatever had been on his mind in the moment, Roman dramatically exclaimed weird stuff about his football team, and Patton talked about what it was like being transgender.

Patton definitely had way more confidence than he did.

"Virgil Storm, you're up" Mr. Agriaso exclaimed.

Virgil gulped and let go of Patton's hand, which he was holding onto for dear life.

The walk always felt so much longer than it actually was.

He git up to the stage, taking a deep breath.

Then he realized.

He couldn't actually talk.

Selective mutism, how could he forget???

He didn't even think he could talk even if it was one of his good days, in front of so many people, no less.

See, he hadn't had much practice talking, so he sounded raspy with a lisp most of the time when he could speak, with a low, deep voice.

Logan Patton and Roman looked like they were about to all crap their pants from anticipation, Virgil looked like he was about to crap his pants in fear, and the teachers looked like they were about to beat the crap out of him if he didn't start talking soon.

He stood there.

Frozen.

He couldn't even move, he couldn't do anything.

"Ms Zambo, I don't think that...that he can do it" Patton said slowly.

"Nonsense, why would he take the class then?"

"Well, his schedule was messed up, so I think that this is all just a huge mistake!" he replied quickly.

  Before the teachers could do much, they watched for a while longer as the class encouraged him, but he just ended up crying.

Yep, he cried. It was how he responded to stuff like this-he couldn't deal with everything bubbling up inside of him. His eyes would just get wet, and he'd try and pretend he had an eyelash in his eye, but the tears would just spill over and he'd try to muffle his sobs, but his heart would just beat faster and faster and his stomach would clench, and his face would go red.

Everyone seemed very worried, though before much could be done, the dismissal bell rang, and Virgil, who was previously frozen, just booked it, and ran out of the classroom.