Grumbo enjoyers are going to like this chapter. That's all I have to say.

Enjoy the chapter :)

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"I can't believe they gave me the role of someone who dies," Fwhip sighed, stirring ketchup with a McDonald's french fry.

Grian groaned. "Again, half of the characters die. Romeo and Juliet die, for goodness sake! You're fine."

Fwhip frowned. "Can't a guy sulk in peace?"

Lizzie giggled. "There's no peace here, Fwhip." She reached over to steal one of Jimmy's chicken nuggets, but was immediately swatted away. "I'm sister, you have to give me one."

Jimmy scowled. "I paid for these," he said simply, and got up to sit right next to Grian, leaving one seat between him and Lizzie.

Lizzie huffed. "You gave Fwhip five bucks to bribe him into getting you McDonald's," she said. "I wouldn't call that paying for it."

"I can't believe I only have like sixty lines," Grian grumbled, running his hands down his face. "I was so sure Benvolio had more lines."

"The way of the world," Fwhip said, causing Joel to snort. He sighed. "Lucky you, though, I only have seventeen."

Joel let out a mock sob. "I have ten."

Grian was going to make a comment until his eyes found something - or someone - and he smiled a bit. "Hey, Mumbo," he called, waving the boy over. "Come sit with us!"

Fwhip snorted and nudged Joel in the side with his elbow. He and Joel shared funny looks, giggling to themselves as Grian eyed them skeptically.

Mumbo smiled and walked over immediately.

"Timmy, move over," Grian ordered, pushing Jimmy toward Lizzie again. "This spot's for Mumbo."

Jimmy's brows furrowed together and he frowned, still in the middle of chewing a chicken nugget. "But-"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Grian scolded, and he pushed the box with three remaining nuggets toward Lizzie, who stole one immediately. "Go!"

Groaning, Jimmy moved over and took back his last two nuggets. "Jeez."

When Mumbo sat down, Grian rested his head on his palm, the happiest look on his face. "So, how are you, Mumbo?" he asked, and Jimmy could've sworn he saw Grian swinging his feet under the table.

Mumbo was in a similar position as Grian - an eighth grader who had such amazing grades, he started taking classes at the high school. Though, Mumbo's situation was a little bit different. He was a mechanics and technology science guy, while Grian was a math and every other kind of science guy. While Grian knew almost everything about algebra and trigonometry, Mumbo knew squat about it. But Mumbo knew a little too much about mechanics and wiring, while Grian knew almost nothing.

Mumbo let out a soft chuckle. "Well, I- I'm alright, I suppose," he answered. He sighed. "I heard you guys talking about the play."

Grian's eyes lit up again. "Oh, yeah! Guess what?" he grabbed onto Mumbo's forearm, excitedly bouncing in his seat. "Guess what, guess what!"

Laughing, Mumbo said, "What, Grian?"

"I got the part!" The blonde beamed up at the other, a pink dust settling over his cheeks.

Mumbo's smile spread to his eyes. "That's great," he said, and the pink tint on Grian's face deepened its shade. "I'm really proud of you."

Jimmy heard Joel and Fwhip snickering on the other side of the table and couldn't help but giggle as well.

"What did you get?" Grian asked Mumbo, and it was Mumbo this time who turned red.

"Oh, uh, I got..." Mumbo muttered something under his breath that only Grian could hear. The blackette looked away when Grian's eyes widened, and buried his face in his hands.

First, Grian chuckled. Then he started to laugh. "Citizen one?!" he said, completely out of breath. "You were cast as citizen one?"

"And servant one," Mumbo corrected. "The page, too."

Joel snorted. "No wonder you got three parts," he said, and he and Fwhip began to giggle to themselves again.

Lizzie elbowed Joel. "Don't poke fun at him," she scolded. "I got a second part because I only have two or three lines as Lady Montague, so if you're making fun of him, you're making fun of me."

Joel stopped giggling and kept quiet for the rest of lunch for the most part.

They continued to chat about anything that had come to their minds, though Grian stared at Mumbo more often than he actually spoke to him, and Fwhip poked fun at Jimmy for having a crush on Scott more often than not.

"Oh, look, it's the loser parade," a deep voice said from behind Joel and Lizzie. Jimmy turned to see Zach grinning wickedly with Scott standing somewhat behind him. "And they have the robot nerd with them this time!" Scott didn't smile or laugh with Zach, and he seemed sort of distracted.

Grian glared at Zach. "Mumbo is not a-"

"Scott, do you hear squeaking?" Scott looked up at the mention of his name. "I think a grade schooler is talking."

Joel sighed. "Leave Grian alone, you douche," he grumbled. He expected to get a nudge or scolding from Lizzie about his language, but she stayed quiet.

"Sorry, I don't understand poor people," Zach said, making his way over toward Jimmy.

Scott seemed to pick up on this, and grabbed Zach's arm. "Babe, don't-" He made eye contact with Jimmy for a moment and he froze, seemingly confused.

Zach pulled his arm away. "I do what I want." He marched over to where Jimmy sat and leaned over his shoulder. "'Sup, Romeo."

"Um, hi?" Jimmy said in response. He almost flinched when he felt Zach's hand rest on his head. "I-"

"You're dead, you know that?" Zach whispered.

Jimmy's eyes widened. "I'm what-"

"Your audition," Zach growled. "You're a pretty ballsy guy." He took his hand away and stood up straight. "I'll kill you if you screw this play up for Scott."

Jimmy, who had never even had the chance to turn and look at Zach, noticed Scott's eyes soften as he stared at Zach.

"That goes for all of you fuckers," Zach continued. "The second any of you slips up" - he gestured to the group - "I'm going to make sure all of your lives become a living Hell."

Scott sighed. "Zach, leave them alone, please," he said. If he was trying to stand up for them, it was a pretty pathetic attempt as his voice was small and quiet and he looked more sad than frustrated.

Zach crossed his arms. "Oh?"

Scott glanced at Jimmy, then at Joel, and then at Grian before turning his attention back up to Zach. "They're not worth the second thought," he said, more uncomfortably than not.

Joel scoffed. "And here I was, thinking you were standing up for us," he grumbled. "You assholes are all the same."

The cyanette obviously heard Joel's comment, because he stiffened his posture and tightened his grip on his books. He gave one last glance over to Jimmy, who folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them face down. "Zach, can we leave now?"

Zach sighed. "Fine," he surrendered. "Don't be so whiny next time." He turned to leave, and Scott stood still and confused.

"I... wasn't being whiny," Scott said quietly, staring in confusion as Zach walked away. "I don't-"

"What are you waiting for?" Joel asked rudely, earning the nudge from Lizzie he thought he would get earlier. "Leave."

Scott didn't look at Joel when Scott mumbled an apology and scurried off to follow his boyfriend.

Grian groaned when Scott was gone. "Not a single day goes by that I'm left alone about being younger than everyone else," he said before plopping his hand into the palm of his hand again. Mumbo opened his mouth, but Grian held his hand up to shush him before he could speak. "Don't even. You're older than me, too."

Mumbo kept quiet.

"Leave me alone, Liz," Jimmy whined into his forearms, drawing the others' attention over. "I'm fine."

"You're crying, Jimmy."

Grian looked away, and so did Fwhip.

Jimmy let out a frustrated, throaty grunt. "Shut up," he whined. "I'm fine."

Lizzie poked her brother's shoulder. "No, you're not," she insisted, continuing to poke him.  "You-"

Jimmy shot up and aggressively swatted Lizzie's hands away. "I'm fine, Lizzie!" he shouted. He huffed, standing up, and gathered his books into one arm and his garbage in the other hand. "Why can't you just leave me alone? My god."

"Wait, Jim-"

"Leave me alone!" Jimmy turned to storm toward one of the large garbage bins, dumping his trash in and starting toward the doors of the cafeteria.

Joel stood up. "Jimmy, where are you going?"

"Away."

None of them saw Jimmy for the rest of the school day until drama club.

Lizzie assumed that Jimmy had gotten over the events at lunch by the time he'd gotten to drama club because he was acting as his usual, silly self. She'd called to him and waved him over, but he didn't seem to get the memo as he only smiled and waved at her.

"Liz, come back over here so we can work on this scene before Ms. Gold grabs us and puts us on the stage," Joel said.

She sighed and sat back down next to him.

Jimmy was talking with Grian about working on some lines before working with Mr. Harding until Ms. Gold came over.

"Hello, boys," the drama teacher said in her usual happy-go-lucky tone. Grian and Jimmy replied with a simultaneous hello, and Ms. Gold's smile widened. "How are we today?"

Jimmy and Grian looked at each other for a moment, sharing the same sudden memory of their lunch period before turning back to Ms. Gold. "Good," they said in perfect unison. They turned to give each other confused looks as Ms. Gold laughed.

"You boys crack me up," she said. "James, can you do me a favor?"

Jimmy winced at the use of his full name. "Uh, yeah," he answered. "Can you, uh, call me Jimmy?"

"Sure." Ms. Gold turned toward backstage, and pointed. "So, there are some crates backstage with a whole bunch of props that need to be sorted. Can you go find them and bring 'em to me?"

Pausing for a second, Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Thanks, Jimmy." Ms. Gold turned to walk away, then paused to call over her shoulder, "We're starting with Benvolio and Romeo's entrance in Act I, Scene I."

Grian and Jimmy nodded, both saying, "Okay," perfectly together again and making Ms. Gold laugh.

Grian had offered to help, Jimmy dismissed the offer saying that it wouldn't be too hard to find a couple of wooden crates among cardboard boxes. And he was right. It didn't even take five minutes to find the crates. He'd gone to open one of them to make sure it had the props in them, but knocked the other crate over during his attempt and spilled the contents inside.

Well, that's one way to figure it out.

Walking over to pick up the mess, he noticed a faint light coming from behind a box and what looked like a tarp.

Curious, Jimmy moved the box blocking the light out of the way, revealing a seemingly makeshift bed made of a folded-over quilt and a sack of sand that probably used to be used for holding down scenery. A half-empty water jug sat in the corner and next to it was a draw string bag. A string of LED lights was draped over the boxes surrounding the area, and the blue tarp covered the space completely.

Jimmy eyed the bag for a moment then reached out to grab it. Before he was able to touch it, however, he heard someone - someone familiar - speak from behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

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Oooooh cliffhanger time :D Hahaha suffer /j/lh/pos

I'm kidding, I love you guys <3 /gen/pos