Chapter Text
What. The. Fuck.
In one second he felt like his body was being torn apart at the seams, the next he was in a hallway. Blinding lights coming from the wall of windows to his left. As he surveyed the half-empty hallway, slowly getting used to the fact that he could see anything again, he noticed that this wasn't anything like what he expected hell to look like. Posters welcomed students to what appeared to be a first day at "Phoenix Drop Highschool," whatever that was.
After finally figuring out how to move again he was confronted. “Hey! This area is off limits right now! Why aren’t you getting your schedule?” A tall, skinny man with short brown hair walked quickly towards Tommy. He was dressed nicely, resembling something similar to a uniform. Tommy quickly noticed that he was wearing the same one. Where was he?
The man stopped short in front of him. “You must be a freshman here, give me your ID so I can help you go to the right area.” Tommy had no idea what he was talking about, but his hands were searching through his pockets for anything he could find.
He reached into his right pocket and pulled out a small plastic card. Giving it to the man right away, he knew better than to argue, handing him the item without a second thought.
“Tommy is it?” He looked at the front and back of the small plastic card as he said, "Well, I was right about you being a freshman. Orientation is just down the hall, so you can pick up your schedule there."
Now, look, this man barely looked like he could pick up five pounds, but he will have to admit, he had a hard time suppressing a flinch when the man handed him back his card. He could never be too careful. Like come on, this was confusing as fuck.
When he actually got a good look at the card, it was… strange to say the least. It had his name, age, birthday, as well as the number “9.” and a low quality picture of his face. How did they get a picture of him? I mean, this was hell after all, so it made sense.
As he walked over to where the man told him to, he made sure to put it back in his pocket, so it wasn’t out for everyone to see.
The second he got close to the room, he was staring at lines and lines of people his age. Did they all die too? Was this the line to fucking hell or something? He fidgeted uncomfortably. It was weird suddenly being around this many people after not seeing anyone for a month.
Well, there was someone there with him but he’d rather not compare everyone in this room to him . He drifted off into the back of his mind as he slowly made his way through the long line of people. When he finally made it to the stand at the front of the line, a nice looking woman was looking at him expectedly.
“First and last name please?” She asked while seeming to stare into his soul. He stuttered a few times before finally managing to speak. “Uhh Tommy? Tommy Innit?” he said, his voice coming out much quieter than he would have liked it to. She handed him a piece of paper and told him to head to the “homeroom” that was listed on the paper.
This made no sense. What was a “homeroom”? What did this have to do with him being dead? Nobody else seemed confused and did what they were told while they appeared to be just talking with their friends as if this was normal?
He wandered the halls, not knowing what he was supposed to be looking for, but not wanting to bring it up to anyone. He could figure this out on his own, he didn’t need help.
The halls started to empty as the kids started to filter into the rooms around him. He can’t find where he was supposed to go. Before he knew it, he was alone in the hall and completely lost. What is going on? I am dead, right? This doesn’t feel like death. He pinched the top of his hand, hard. It hurt. Was he still supposed to feel pain? Or was it like in a dream?
He was becoming more and more aware that he was in an unfamiliar place, alone, and had no idea how he got here. If this was the afterlife, it was shit. He kept wandering around the big halls, but couldn’t find anyone anymore. His heart beat began to quicken. Where did everyone go? What am I doing here? His breaths were coming out short as he practically sprinted down the halls, looking for someone, anyone , to tell him where to go.
He came to a stop, leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath. Calm down, Tommy. You’re fine. He closed his eyes, his heart pounding in his ears. Focus on your breathing. Calm down. It won’t do you any good if you have a panic attack. Plus he never liked it when you would freak out. He took slow deep breaths.
Just as he was finally calming himself, his ears rang with the loud sound of a bell. He screamed in surprise and his whole body crumpled in on itself. He slid to the floor, baring his head in his knees. His ears were ringing, his whole body was shaking. He held himself tight, trying to stop shaking, trying to hide.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there until he heard a soft voice come beside him.
“Hey, are you lost too?” A shy voice asked from somewhere in front of him. He didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. He heard some shuffling.
“I-it’s my first time in school too y’know, I was homeschooled before this, so it’s pretty scary.” The voice was beside him now. “Are you scared too? Were you homeschooled before this too? Or maybe you’re just scared ‘cause it’s the first day, I know I am.”
He raised his head slightly. Sitting on the floor next to him was a small girl with long black hair. She wore the same uniform he saw the other girls wearing. She noticed him looking at her and smiled shyly at him. Tommy quickly looked away, avoiding eye contact.
“My name is Aphmau, what’s your name?” She asked. He just stared at her, he still could feel the bell ringing through his ears. She asked him a question and he wanted to respond, but he couldn’t bring himself to.
Before he could speak he was luckily- or unluckily- cut off by an older looking teen who was clearing his throat and looking at the two.
“Well hello there? Are you two lost?” His voice was kind, but the sort of kind that only made Tommy's brain scream with trouble.
“Oh uh yes! Hello, I- I’m Aphmau and I couldn’t find my homeroom- I’m new- and I found him, and now… I’m here-” the girl- Aphmau- stuttered. She seemed to also be getting nervous being around him.
“Well then, Aphmau and…-” He looked at Tommy expectedly, but just decided to continue when he realized he wasn't going to get a response out of him. “-friend. I would be happy to help you two find your homerooms”
Aphmau seemed to be flustered as she fiddled in her bag to try to find her schedule. Tommy took that as a que to do the same. Quickly handing the crumpled piece of paper he was holding out to the older boy.
“Well aren’t you two lucky, you both have the same homeroom, here I’ll walk you there” He explained as they started to walk down the now empty hallways of the building. He stopped in front of a door that had the matching numbers that were written on the strange piece of paper. Aphmau looked up and nervously thanked him for his troubles, which prompted Tommy to do the same.
“Yes, thank you.” he practically whispered while rushing in the room after Aphmau. Nobody in the room seemed to notice that they were late as Tommy looked around. He watched as Aphmau took a seat in one of the vacant chairs, so Tommy did the same.
Once he sat down the pure strangeness of the situation caught up to him again. What… was happening?
He had heard Aphmau call this her first time in “school”? Was this what school is like? Why would he need to go to school after he died? He wasn’t dumb, he didn’t need school.
His thoughts were short lived and he noticed the short girl from earlier slowly making her way over to where he was sitting. He logically knew that he could easily take her in a fight if he needed to; however, Tubbo proved that he shouldn’t underestimate someone for their size.
He didn’t get much time to think about Tubbo before she spoke.
“Uhh hello. Uh- since you seemed so lonely earlier I was wondering if you wanted to be- uh- not alone buddies with me and Travis?” She nervously played with her hair while she spoke to him, and an awkward looking white haired boy stood behind her, looking at him with confusion.
He didn’t know what to say in this situation. Did she just want him to say yes? Despite his conflict he felt he should say something and before he could think it through he was asking more about it.
“Why don’t you just say friends?” He hated how weak his voice was, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Well my mom said that I’m not allowed to be friends with boys, so- I’m just being not-alone buddies with them instead!” She seemed to be proud of her loophole in the situation.
None of this makes sense. How could she just ignore something she was asked to do? Would he get in trouble if she was found out? And why… boys specifically ? He was used to a lot of strange rules in his past, but why wasn’t she allowed to befriend boys?
“Are you sure it's okay? You- your mom said that she didn’t want you to, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to ignore what she said like that…” He was worried that he was talking too much and had cut off the sentence a bit prematurely.
The awkward boy- Travis- spoke up. “I’m sure it will be fine! Aphmau, you said your mom doesn’t like boys if they’re interested in you, right? So us just being friends shouldn’t bother her too much.” It clicked in Tommy’s brain. Oh. Oh. He made a face to himself. Romance .
He had lived through so much at this point in his life that he completely forgot about small things like “Romantic interest.”
Aphmau groaned. “Ya, my mom can be really protective of me, but she did tell me to make friends so..” She smiled shyly at the last part. He knew what that was like. Dream used to be really protective of who he could befriend too. No, wait- that wasn’t protection- he was-
Tommy didn’t wanna finish that thought and instead looked up at the strange duo in front of him. It took him a moment, but after a while he spoke.
“Yeah sure, I’ll join your buddy thing.” He tried to seem nonchalant but sounded more like he was giving up than playing it cool.
Her face immediately lit up as she welcomed him to the “Not-alone buddies”. Somewhere inside him felt lighter. It was nice being a part of something again, it made him happy. Reminded him of Tubbo.
There was an adult man who cleared his throat and made sure he got the room's attention before he spoke. “Welcome to your first day at Phoenix Drop High! Since it’s the first day we wanted to give students some time to check out the club activities planned and to explore the school. You are free to meet up with whoever you want, just make sure to come back to homeroom before the school day ends at 3. You are dismissed!”
This day just keeps getting weirder. Like how the fuck do you explain any of that? He looked over to Aphmau and Travis as they looked over to him.
“Well, would you want to stick together as we explore the school? We wouldn’t want to leave a buddy all alone!” Aphmau said while seeming way too excited about walking around a building.
“I actually think that I might go… for a bit. Maybe I’ll meet up with you guys later?” Tommy was unsure about what he was saying. Obviously he wasn’t going to meet up with them later. HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HOW HE GOT HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
The last thing that was on his mind was exploring some school with self-proclaimed “not-alone buddies.” He got up and swiftly left the room, leaving behind a slightly saddened Aphmau to stand with Travis.
After walking the halls for a while, he spotted a room at the end of the hallway. When he walked in, he noticed that the lights were off and the room was empty. It was a somewhat big room with doors that maybe lead to closets to the right. There was a chalk board off to the side and the rest of the room was filled with what Tommy would assume were musical instruments judging by the guitars. Sighing, he walked into the room and immediately broke down.
He was a big man of course, but he didn’t even think about the fact that he hadn’t even gotten the time to mourn his own death. One second Dream was standing over him, making sure that he felt every last second of the punishment that he deserved , and then suddenly he was in mock-highschool romance.
He had to push through his sobs, but he did the only thing he knew how to calm himself down, to talk through it. Dream never liked the fact that he had to constantly talk just to get himself through the day, but he didn’t see another way out of this situation.
“Okay, so- I woke up, and I look like I belong here, but I don’t and I don’t know how I got here, and I’m supposed to be dead” Sobs broke through the last of his sentence. Had he really died? Was this his fate now?
Talking through it wasn’t working, but he didn’t know what else to do.
Finally curling in on himself and just letting himself feel the panic. “I don’t know where I am…” was the last thing he managed to say before he heard a small shuffling coming from one of the doors across the room. Immediately his fight or flight kicked in as he stood up and left the room as fast as he could.
He sprinted down the hall till he noticed the large group of kids standing in a large room, rows of tables set up with well crafted posters hanging up seeming to advertise what each stand was about. He quickly shoved his dilemma in the back of his mind. He didn’t need anyone else to know about his situation, and it was something he could deal with later.
It didn’t take him long to find his “not-alone buddies” again. Mainly because Travis had fallen on the floor completely knocked out and there was a crowd of people standing around him and watching.
Aphmau was bent over him, seeming to freak out as she yelled at an older girl with bright blue hair, who seemed to also be getting yelled at by a tall blond boy. The situation seemed bad enough as it is, so he stood and blended into the crowd, watching the events unfold.
“It wasn’t my fault he was standing in the way of my ball!” The blue haired girl said defensively.
“Katelyn, play nice.” the blonde boy said in an accent similar to Tommys. The bluette- Katelyn- sighed and apologized to Aphmau for hitting Travis on the back of the head with a volleyball, which sounded hilarious and he was almost sad he missed it.
Although he had come looking for them in the first place, he immediately felt as if he was unwanted and just decided to leave.
He spent the rest of the day mindlessly wandering the halls of the school. He had come to terms with the fact that he looked like every other kid walking around the school looking for things and decided it would be best to just walk without thinking.
It didn’t feel like long before he heard the loud bell once again. This time, however, he was slightly less surprised by the noise and managed to just flinch at it. Students started to head back to their “homeroom,” but Tommy saw this as an opportunity to slip into a vacant room and try to find a place to sleep for the night.
The last thing he wanted was to get mauled by a zombie and not even be able to figure out what was happening. Surely this building was big enough that he would be able to find somewhere to sleep.
It didn’t take him long before he found himself in a familiar dead-end hallway. When he walked into the room this time, he picked up a long metal object that seemed to be used to make a whistling noise, and headed over to the side rooms. He checked each of the rooms to make sure there was really no one this time, and curled into the farthest back room.
He hated how small the room felt to him, but he wasn’t going to complain about safety.
Before long, he finally managed to fall asleep…