♣

Passing period was always Sawyer's least favorite part of the day, because he always tended to get distracted due to his mind switching between classes and told his friends things that he didn't necessarily want them to know about. Like that day, for instance, when Sawyer was walking from Ceramics to Chemistry as he tried to recall the polyatomic ions that he was supposed to have memorized, and he accidentally slipped up to Daniel and Sophie about how he was going to the antique store after school to check on Kal's progress with his slug. And in true Daniel and Sophie fashion, they could not let it go.

"So you got a slug, and didn't show it to us? And you put it in my hoodie?" exclaimed Daniel.

"Screw that. You touched a slug?" asked Sophie.

"Well, not on purpose at first," explained Sawyer. "I stepped on it, but-"

"You killed a slug?! Then touched it?!" yelled Sophie, voice jumping two octaves.

Sawyer put his hands up as if trying to hold down more of Sophie's shrieks. "I didn't kill it. I stepped on it, but it didn't die. Then I crushed it. Again. And again. Not even a drop of blood. Plus, the colors were some that I've never seen on a slug before. So, I wanted to ask Kal. He has all those books and I don't think he ever takes a break from looking up weird stuff on the internet, so-"

"So you find an immortal slug and you keep it?" Daniel interrupted. "Look, I love a good weird occurrence, but I think that was a sign to stay the fuck away from it."

"This could be huge, Daniel," reasoned Sawyer. "Plus, if I left it there unattended, who knows what could happen. Maybe it would've fucked up the school. Blown it up. You'd never know."

"Should've let it!"

"You'd rather it blow up Kal's shop?" Sophie interjected.

Sawyer shook his head. "Kal knows what he's doing-"

"I mean this with no disrespect towards you or him, but he is nineteen. He is barely an adult. Wouldn't it have made more sense to bring it to a biologist? Or anyone who has at least graduated college?"

"Soph, look. This is huge. There aren't any other immortal slugs out there that we know about. And it's, well, it's mine." He sighed. "If Kal doesn't find anything, then I'll bring it in. Happy?"

"And if he does?" asked Daniel.

Sawyer shrugged. "Depends on what it is."

Sophie groaned. "Sawyer Armstrong, you're going to be the death of me."

Sawyer's jaw dropped. "Excuse me, Sophie Beaufoy, do you have no faith in my judgment at all?"

Sophie raised an eyebrow. "I've gotta go," she redirected, and entered the doors to their right. Daniel and Sawyer continued forwards.

"So, this slug," pondered Daniel. "Do you think it was a glitch in the multiverse and it came from the monster universe and now it wants to go back and it was at the school because the school is the location of the gate that can send it back?" 

Sawyer narrowed his eyes at the statement. Daniel stared at him in genuine curiosity. Sawyer shrugged.

"Maybe."

♣

The bell rang, which was Oscar's sign to shove all of his loose leaf math papers into his tote bag thrown over his shoulder. Due to his multiple sclerosis affecting his back and shoulders, he carried as little in his bag as he possibly could to keep the load light, so any binders or textbooks were either left at home or in his locker.

The problem arose when he was headed to AP World History, which required him to not only carry a textbook, but a binder as well, and his friend that usually carried his books with him didn't show up to school that day.

Oscar looked around at his classmates that, by now, were all gone from the classroom. He peered around the hallway, looking for any familiar face he could manage. Near the door across from him, a boy that was no taller than 5 feet with a dark brown afro and square glasses that had edges so sharp they could cut a piece of paper joined the crowd leaving the area. As he got closer, Oscar noticed his gray and brown mismatched socks that stretched nearly up to his knees.

"Leo!" Oscar called. The boy met his glance, giving him a weak smile. Oscar walked towards him. "Where is your next class?"

"Building three."

"Great! Can you help me bring my books there? They're just in the locker right there-"

"Sorry, Oscar," he interrupted. "I have a test. I have to go."

"Oh. I mean, it shouldn't take more than 2 minutes-"

"Sorry." Leo quickly turned away from Oscar and joined the mass crowd walking out of the double doors.

Oscar swallowed. He cleared his throat and planted a smile on his face once again, looking around at the mostly-empty hallway. Hardly any students were leaving the hallway. Most of them were entering, already arriving at their next classes.

Maybe he could just go without his books?

As Oscar started to walk down the hall, a boy just now leaving his classroom caught his eye. His hands were wrapped around his backpack straps, eyes directed straight forward. Oscar felt his heart jump. He immediately changed paths and moved to walk next to him.

"Hey Sawyer!"

Sawyer jumped slightly, taking a quick glance at Oscar before responding with a smile. "Hey Oscar."

"Where's your next class?" he asked.

"Building five."

"Oh," Oscar said, voice dropping a bit. He looked down at the floor.

"What?"

"Oh, it's nothing. My building is three and I just needed someone to help me carry my books but I don't want to make you since you're all the way in five-"

"I'll do it."

Oscar's head rose. "You will? I don't want to make you late."

"I'm going to piano class. No disrespect to Mr. Shaw-Nathan, but... yeah, trust me, it is no problem."

"You're the best, man!" Oscar exclaimed. He rotated his shoulder to keep his bag from falling off. He picked up his speed a bit, and stopped near his locker. "This is mine. The combination is 4-17-7."

Sawyer inputted the numbers into the lock, which took him a good two tries to get right. He had on a bright orange shirt that didn't exactly go with his blueish-greenish basketball shorts, but something Oscar didn't notice when he first saw him was his nails. They seemed to have been painted black a week or two ago, but by then it was starting to come off. As he spun the lock, his chipped nail polish drew invisible lines in the air, and Oscar could almost see them. His clumsiness of handling the lock only added intricacies that kept Oscar entranced.

The door swung open, and Oscar confirmed which books he needed, and Sawyer retrieved them, shutting the door just as easily as he had opened it. The two left the building, and started towards Oscar's class. Oscar racked his brain for things to talk about.

"What kind of things are you into?"

What kind of person are you into?

"Oh. Well, I like comic books." Oscar nodded, even though he could not name a single comic book with a gun to his head. "Sci-Fi, mostly. Sci-Fi action is the best."

"Oh, like the X-Men movies?" Oscar asked, grasping at straws.

Sawyer nodded. "Exactly like them."

Oscar silently celebrated the win. "Theo told me about you and Daniel's comic collections. He wasn't very descriptive, I don't think he's into it."

"Oh, definitely not," Sawyer responded with a laugh. "He's only read the ones that we forced him to. He calls us geeks, though he's just as geeky as us. You should see his horror collection. Good God, it's humongous."

As Sawyer spoke about Daniel and Theo, Oscar saw a warmth and comfort that he hadn't seen. What he would do to see that more often.

"So, Sawyer, I know you've got your friends–who are awesome, by the way–but are you seeing anyone right now? Or is one of your friends that I met something more...?"

Smooth, Osman.

Usually, Oscar would upright ask someone he was interested in if they were gay, but for Sawyer, it was a bit more... complicated. Because he had already kind of, sort of, indirectly already asked.

In their first period, Oscar asked Theo about Sawyer, whether he already had someone or just wasn't interested in guys at all, and Theo gave him the extremely helpful response of
"I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Oscar asked, pushing down any frustration.

"I mean Sawyer's never mentioned relationships. Ever. And we've never really asked. He's not that kind of guy, I guess. He's never had a girlfriend, never had a boyfriend, nothing. At least that we know of."

Maybe he hadn't told anyone yet. Maybe Oscar was barking up a very wrong tree. Either way, he had been in this situation before, and if he learned anything from it, it's that he wasn't ever going to find out from staying quiet.

"Um, no," Sawyer answered after a long pause, eyes fixated on his Vans. "There's not a lot of people that would be interested here."

"Bullshit," argued Oscar. "You're a really cool guy, Sawyer."

"I'm not cool. I'm probably slightly below average when it comes to being cool."

"Shut up, dude, you are!" Oscar insisted with a playful laugh. He focused on the curly chestnut locs that, if they were longer, would've created a veil in front of his face due to the way he was standing. "Plus, you've got really good hair."

Sawyer took a break from admiring his shoes to meet Oscar's gaze. Sawyer had these soft brown eyes that Oscar swore had pupils that formed little hearts. He felt his heart lift all the way up to his cheeks, nudging his lips into an even wider smile. He gripped his crutches to keep his posture straight.

Wow.

"Thank you," said Sawyer, breaking eye contact.

"Of course."

"So," Sawyer started. He cleared his throat. "Me and my friends were gonna go down to Hen's Antiques after school. It's this antique store at the edge of town, these guys we know work there so we go there a lot. Anyways, there's this thing we've got there and it's pretty cool and maybe you'd wanna see it?"

Oscar raised his eyebrows. "A thing?"

"It's cooler if I don't explain now."

"Secretive." Oscar took a beat, pretending to ponder the invitation. "Alright, I'll go."

"Cool."

Oscar breathed in. "Can I get your number? So I can text you?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could muster.

"Oh. Yeah. Sure."

Oscar moved his right crutch to his left hand, leaning on the two, and dug out his phone. He handed it to Sawyer, who gave him his in return. Oscar typed in his number, adding his contact name as Ossie with a smiley face emoticon. They returned their respective devices. Oscar put it back into his pocket, and returned both crutches to his grasp.

"Can't wait," he said with a grin.

Once Sawyer looked away, he bopped his head and let out a small whisper of celebration. "What was that?" Sawyer questioned, spinning his head to Oscar again.

"Oh, nothing!"

Passing period wasn't usually Oscar's favorite part of the day, but at that moment, it was.

♣

Sawyer pushed on the glass door, the paper sign reading "open" brushing against his forearm as he did so. Caleb was scrubbing an old glasses case at the front desk, but looked up to see him.

"Hey, Sawyer!" he greeted. "Kal's on break, but he'll be back in about ten."

Sawyer nodded and glanced around at the rest of the shop. Abigail and Sophie were already there, looking through a large book on ballet and pointing and laughing at certain things. Neither of them acknowledged Sawyer's entrance.

"Are Daniel, Theo and Quinn coming?" he asked them. Abigail looked up from the book.

"Yeah, about that..." she started.

Almost on cue, Daniel came running from the back of the store, red stains all over his face and clothing. Sawyer jumped backwards, but stopped when he noticed Daniel's laughter.

"I swear, this stuff looks too real!"

"You didn't get this on the carpet, did you?" Caleb scorned.

Daniel shook his head. "Of course not. We did it in the bathroom."

Caleb sighed and went back to cleaning off glasses cases.

"Won't this distract the customers?" Sawyer asked. "Or make them, I don't know, worried?" Caleb rolled his eyes.

"What customers? It's a Friday afternoon. Nobody is spending their Friday afternoon here. Except you guys."

"Hey, you love it when we come here," Quinn said, emerging from the back as well. They were wearing the coat they wore the day prior, except this time it had occasional spots of red over the black fabric.

"I never said otherwise," Caleb responded with a smirk.

"Good, cause we aren't leaving till this is done," Theodore added. They were wearing the same dress, but again, covered in blood.

"As long as you pay for those costumes, because I am not selling those to anyone."

Daniel looked down at his fake-blood soaked clothing. "How much?"

Sawyer felt a buzz in his pocket, and he retrieved his phone to see a text from "Ossie :)" on his notifications.

"I'm almost there!" it read.

Sawyer didn't notice his mouth forming a smile until Caleb asked, "Who's making you smile like that, Sawyer?"

Theodore covered their mouth with their fist to stifle any laughter. Sawyer felt his cheeks heat up. "Nothing."

He clearly didn't fool anyone in that store, but none of them pushed forward.

Sawyer spent the next few minutes looking around at the stock, even though nothing had changed since the last time he had been there. He shuffled through the postcards that were in a box on one of the shelves, taking particular note of ones that had writing on them. Some of the messages were rather sad, seemingly written to a loved one but were never sent. The ones involving parents stuck out the most to him–they were easily the most painful to get through.

Snapping him out of his daze was the ringing of a bell, signifying someone entering the building. He saw Oscar propping the door open with his crutch, but he was helped a few seconds later by Caleb who kept it open long enough for him to walk in. He thanked him, and introduced himself, taking a look at the shop.

Sawyer forgot what it must be like for people to walk into Hen's Antiques for the first time–the shelves upon shelves of miscellaneous items, chairs that always seemed to be about to fall from the top shelf but never did, the bright colors of the articles, the overall browns and grays of the structure. It was the most put-together mess he had ever seen.

"Do you have a chair I can use? I've been walking all day, it gets pretty exhausting," Oscar asked Caleb in a genuinely polite manner.

"Of course!" Caleb went to the back of the store, and as he did, Oscar continued to look around, landing his eyes on Sawyer. His smile grew to show his teeth.

"Hey!" he greeted. Sawyer walked over towards him.

"Hey," he replied gleefully.

"This place is so neat!" Oscar said, continuing to scan the shop. "I mean, I've never been to an antique store before, maybe this is normal, but wow!"

"I really like it," Sawyer responded. "The people who work here kind of let us in here all the time and give us the ability to do basically whatever we want. As long as we don't break anything."

Oscar nodded, letting out a chuckle. "Caleb seems nice."

"He is. Kal works here, too, but he's on break. He's nice too. Trust me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because he's a bit... he doesn't have the softest exterior."

"I think I'll be okay," he said with a wink.

Quinn, Theodore and Daniel returned to the front, Daniel just putting down his camera and Quinn and Theodore laughing about a joke that Sawyer didn't hear. Oscar jumped back, and Sawyer leaned towards him. "It's fake."

"It sure looks real," he said quietly.

Quinn's head moved towards the two of them, and they pointed at him, mouth wide open. "Oscar!" they exclaimed in shock.

Oscar's jaw dropped. "Quinn!"

Quinn ran up to him and threw their arms around his neck. "Why are you here?"

"Sawyer invited me!" he explained.

"Yeah he did," Theodore mumbled. Sawyer gave him eyes that hopefully delivered the message of "I heard that, you can shut up now."

"He told me you guys have something interesting here?"

That statement made Sophie put down her book and storm towards Sawyer. "You did not."

Sawyer felt his hands fill with sweat. "I-"

"We do?" Abigail interjected.

"Is Oscar gonna be in the movie?" Quinn asked hopefully, putting their hands together.

"A movie?" he asked.

"I'm making a horror movie for my project in the store," Daniel cleared up. "That's why I'm dressed like I was just murdered. Cause I was."

"Oh, hell yeah, I'll be in it!" Caleb returned carrying a swivel chair. He placed it next to Oscar, who set down his crutches and took a seat in it. "So, who do you need?"

The group discussed their plans for the film, and out of the corner of his eye, Sawyer saw Kal walking down the sidewalk. He entered the shop, stopping when he saw the group.

"Who's this?" he asked through sign and voice, pointing at Oscar.

"This is Oscar," Sawyer responded. Oscar waved enthusiastically.

"Kal?" Oscar fingerspelled slowly. Kal nodded, but there was no trace of warmth on his face. He walked straight over towards Sawyer.

"I'm glad you're here," signed Kal. His breathing was irregularly patterned, and sweat gleamed his forehead that was not holding his usual beanie.

"Is everything okay?" Sawyer asked.

Kal walked right past him, motioning Sawyer to follow. Sawyer looked at Oscar. "I'll be right back," he said. Oscar nodded.

Sawyer met Kal in the back part of the store, who was pacing back and forth. Sawyer touched his shoulder to steady him. "What?"

Kal wiped his forehead. "I looked at your slug last night."

There was a pause. "And?"

"And I didn't get any results online or in any of the books. Nothing similar to what you found."

Sawyer's jaw dropped. "So, I found a new type of slug?"

"Maybe. But, Sawyer," Kal took a step towards him. "You shouldn't be messing with it."

He sighed. "Sophie and Daniel already said that-"

"Listen." Kal took a deep breath. "It's gone."

Sawyer felt his stomach drop. "What?"

"It escaped last night. The lid was still on. No broken glass. No cracks in the door it could've gone through. It just vanished." With his hands, he demonstrated a slug crawling on the floor, then, with both hands, symbolized it spreading into thin air. "Poof."

---

after chapter note -

hey everyone! for this author's note, i have a few questions

so, i have all of the character playlists, but any song suggestions for the book as a whole? they can be funny, weird songs that fit the comedic vibe, actually dark horrifying songs, whatever you think fits!

second, who's your favorite character so far (besides your own)?

also i have asked people who use mobility aids and hoh/deaf people before posting chapters to make sure everything is accurate, but if you fall into any of the categories that the characters do and see something that you think inaccurately portrays your group, please let me know! accuracy and good representation is of utmost importance to me and any feedback is highly appreciated :)

lastly, it is time. let's get this craziness really started.

sincerely, nicholas