Chapter Text
"So, Jonathan, any questions?" Dr. Dave asked. "I know you've been struggling at biology, but I think that if—"
"No, I'm fine! The homework seems a lot easier now." Shoot, shoot, how late am I? "Besides, if I have any more problems with cells, I can just ask my—" His voice hitched. How could he forget about what happened to Terrence? "—ask my parents. Or email you." Jonny knew there were no stakes if he was late for the club meeting, but he still didn't want to be, mainly because he had volunteer work today. "May I please leave now?"
"Oh, well, if then you're feeling better about it, then yes! You're free to go!" Dr. Dave gave him a smile, handing him his (50% finished) homework back. "Have a nice weekend!"
Jonny snatched it out of his hand. "Thank you for letting me make up the test! I'll bring those pictures you gave me to the aquarium!" As soon as he got out of the classroom, a feeling of relief washed over him. Dr. Dave was a great science teacher and a decent person overall, but something about him freaked Jonny out. Maybe it was that Jonny knew his brother would've loved him, or maybe… oh shit, he really had to get going.
He began running through the school's empty hallways until he found the library. He had to be there by 4:00. Being there by 4:10 couldn't be that bad, could it?
He flung open the library doors, seeing this school's sad excuse for a game club inside. It had more members, but the only ones attending today were Deejus's friend group, who were currently screaming at each other due to an intense game of Monopoly, and Jonny's friends Anna and Pear, who were playing Uno with the supervising teacher, Mr. Caine, who was Jonny's social studies teacher two years ago, and he and Deejus were the ones who came up with the idea for a game club. You'd think they'd be better at recruiting people, seeing as the club had been running for a year now, but apparently not.
Anna, Pear, and Mr. Caine were sitting around a little coffee table, both of them looking at Jonny like they'd just found out his worst secret. Anna usually made Jonny look like "some guy" compared to her fashion sense, but the school uniform had pretty much taken away all of her coolness, because it sucked that badly. As for Pear, (well, Alex was his real name,) he had the sort of face that you'd forget, not because he was particularly bland, but because usually what background events were surrounding him were more interesting than memorizing his face.
"Jonny, you're late again," Pear told him. "God, you literally forced me and Anna to join this club, and yet you can't ever come to these meetings early."
"Sue me for not wanting to fail biology," Jonny muttered.
Pear sighed, playing a blue three on top of the Uno pile. "Listen, dude, the reason we have such a problem with you coming late is because—"
"Pear and I barely know each other," Anna interjected, watching Mr. Caine look through his cards. "The only thing we have in common is that we're both friends with you, and that we share a Spanish class. So when you come in late, we both just have to sit there awkwardly, waiting for you to show up."
"Today was less bad, since Mr. Caine was here, but dude, you have got to stop showing up late to this kind of stuff… hey wait, didn't you say something about getting some new kids to join?"
"Oh yeah, two of the kids I teach, Danno and Charlie. Danno said they couldn't attend this meeting, though," Mr. Caine said, finally placing down a blue six.
"Oh my god, those two?" Pear said. "Yeah, it'll be nice to have them around— Okay, fuck you, Anna."
Anna, having placed down a plus 4 onto Pear, looked up at him. "Wow. You only met me a couple weeks ago and you're already cursing me out. The color's green, by the way."
"Listen, it's Uno, everyone curses each other out!" Pear yelled, slamming a card down. "You'd probably do the same if you were me. After all—"
"Pear, can you tell me about Danno and Charlie?" Jonny interrupted before Pear could go on an insane rant. They were lucky Mr. Caine wasn't paid enough to write Pear up for cursing after school, and the security cameras in the library didn't record sound, otherwise Pear would be suspended by now. "I don't think I've talked to them before." The name Danno sounded familiar, like someone had mentioned him before, but Charlie? He'd never heard of there being someone named that in this school.
"I sit with them at lunch, they're pretty cool," Pear told him. "Danno's really smart. He draws all the time in math class and still manages to get better grades than me. He's making some sort of OC story, I don't remember what it's about. Charlie— well, he prefers people call him Cdot. He's great at fixing technology, but apparently he creeps people out. I mean, I've never really gotten that vibe from him, but some people say that…"
"Pear,” Anna sighed, “I hate to tell you, but the people are right. Cdot is really creepy."
“You don’t know that, Anna.“
>“Unfortunately, I do. My mom and his mom, they're friends." Anna paused for a second, then said, "Well, maybe he’s not creepy, but he’s really… weird." Uno had pretty much stopped, with Mr. Caine being waved over by Deejus for something, and from the looks of it, it was going to take a bit. "He always has this blank stare in his eyes, he's freakishly good with technology, he barely ever talks, except when he's talking to Danno, his family, or that—"
Pear interrupted Anna before she could continue, "He's not like that! I mean, yeah, he is pretty quiet compared to a lot of people, but he's fine. It's not like he's insane or something. He's just quiet." Pear put down his hand of Uno cards. "Anyway, Jonny. Enough about Cdot. He's great, and besides, you'll meet him on Thursday. That's what we're doing, since there's no school on Friday, right?"
"You'd have to ask Deejus about that, he's the club president," Jonny told Pear, noticing Anna looking suspiciously at him. "What?"
"You could probably convince him. You're probably his favorite out of all of us," she told him, seemingly completely serious. "With the way he treats you, you're practically married now."
"Dude, we literally fight every time we talk to each other!" What was Anna even talking about? He and Deejus weren't—
"Not helping your case."
"Fine. Sure, I'll ask him when Mr. Caine comes back. Or try to convince him, whatever." As if on cue, Mr. Caine started walking back over to Anna and Pear, which meant that he had to go talk to Deejus. Great.
He walked over to the nearest table, seeing the Monopoly game going on. Everyone hadn't screamed at each other for a while, as they seemed to be taking the game way too seriously.
"Listen, Jelly, I'll buy Atlanta from you for 700 dollars so you can get out of bankruptcy, but—"
Jonny tapped Deejus on the shoulder. "Hey. Do we have game club on Thursday?"
Deejus shrugged. "Yeah, probably. I'm not even going to be here though, so do what you want." Huh. He wasn't going to be here next Thursday? Why did that sound wrong?
"Okay, thanks," Jonny said, beginning to walk out of there, before remembering. "Isn't it your job to introduce the new kids to the club and force them to do that weird ceremony or something? And don't we have two coming in next week?"
"Oh, yeah, Danno and Charlie. I guess you'll have to help with them, since I'm not going to be here." Deejus smiled, as if he wasn't just giving his (mildly important) responsibilities to Jonny. Probably out of spite for last Monday.
"Sure. Fine. I'll do the whole "initiation" thing," Jonny said, walking away, before mumbling to himself, "even though it's stupid. This is a club where we just play games for an hour, for god's sake."
From the looks of it, Pear, Anna, and Mr. Caine had finished their Uno game, with Pear winning. Was this a good thing? Probably, because it meant nothing was getting thrown.
Jonny ended up playing a couple more rounds of Uno with them. It was fun, meeting with this club every week. It was one of the only times he got to see Pear, it took his mind off of things, and it taught him how to avoid getting hit by cards!
Of course, it all had to end, far too quickly for his liking. All the ramblings, the "Uno induced insanity," whatever the hell Deejus was doing, it was all ended by—
"Alright, it's five, everyone!" he heard Mr. Caine yell once the time came. "Make sure that your parents are coming, I really don't want to take you home."
As the very few members of the game club streamed out of the school, Jonny said his goodbyes to Pear, promised to not be late next week, then caught up with Anna so her mom could drive him to his house so he could drop off his stuff before going to the aquarium.
"Alright, Jonny, I have to warn you," Anna said, sounding unusually scared, "Mom… she's been acting a bit… weird. Dad's been, too."
"How?"
"They keep acting... like dolls or robots or something like that. Like, they keep asking me stuff like "Anna, am I doing a good job as your parent?" I can never find them doing anything for themselves anymore. They just, I don't know, act like my parents and nothing else, I guess." She laughed, although it didn't seem like she found it funny. "I'm sorry. I sound crazy. It's probably nothing."
As Jonny and Anna walked over to the car, Jonny saw what Anna meant. Her mom had this blank stare on her face, like she was an empty husk, and she was smiling way too hard. "She's been out here for hours," Anna whispered.
"Well, if it isn't Jonny Razer," Anna's mom said. "I've been told all about you. You should smile more." She got way too close to him, fingers forcing the corners of his mouth up.
"Mom! You don't just— stop!"
She blinked at Anna, slowly and unnaturally. "But he should smile more. It reminds me of his brother. Yes. That's what he should do."
Oh god. Oh god. There was something wrong with her. Why would she— no, she never would, right? Right? No one would ever compare him to his probably dead brother, especially not her. He could hear Anna yelling at her in the background, but his thoughts were spiraling enough that he didn't want to make out words.
"—whatever, I don't care! Just drive!" Anna yelled, her "mom" obliging.
The way she drove was slightly erratic, but mostly fine enough to pass for being normal. He and Anna didn't talk for most of the ride, they were too freaked out by her mom's behavior. When they got to his house (he had to point it out to Anna's mom, even though she should've known,) he got out onto the street.
Anna winced. "Hey, I'm sorry about the…"
"It's fine. I know you miss him too." Jonny walked into his house far quicker than usual. His parents weren't home. They both drowned themselves in work once Terrence disappeared, because being home made them think of their lost son. They barely talked with Jonny about anything anymore, but the rare times they did, they usually talked about his brother like he was about to come home.
He dropped his backpack at his house and started down the street. He didn't know why, but for some reason he kept thinking about Terrence. About what Anna's mom said.
It was stupid, wasn't it? His twin had already been missing for two months now, and yet some part of him, some part of his parents as well, kept expecting him to come back, well and alive like nothing happened. Maybe it was because they never held Terrence a funeral, that there never was a body, but at the same time, no one believed he was alive anymore. The police had pretty much given up on the case. It had just become a fact of life to everyone else that he was dead.
It could be wrong. That was what his parents believed. Why they never held the funeral. They believed that some spirit, God, or whatever the hell was out there would return his brother back to them soon. They believed that he would be okay in the end.
Jonny wished he could believe that would happen. That his brother would come back alright. But he couldn't. He couldn't even bring himself to hope his brother would be alive anymore. No, he had to accept that his brother was dead, and the only thing he could hope for was to find a body.
He finally reached the doors of the aquarium. It closed early on Fridays, and with it being so close to his house, it gave Jonny the perfect opportunity to volunteer there. It was pretty easy to convince the owner too, with Jonny providing free work, Bundun working there, and the aquarium owner loving Bundun for reasons he refused to talk about.
Jonny walked inside, with Bundun at the front desk. His eyes were slightly red, and he looked exhausted. "Oh… Jonny! How are you doing?"
"Good," he lied. "How have you been doing?"
"I've been doing great," Bundun said, maybe sarcastically, maybe actually. You could never tell with him.
He was doing great. That wasn't a statement you heard a lot from Bundun. Or from anyone who lived in this town, actually. There wasn't much to do. It was made for old people who were going to die in several months. If you weren't doing something in your school (and Bundun had graduated two years ago) or for work, you were doing other people or drugs. Probably both at once. Because being in the aquarium, looking at the same fish for the twenty-seventh time while talking with your friends, just isn't going to cut it for most people. But hey, at least the housing was affordable!
"Hey. Jonny. Jonny," Bundun said, waving his hand in front of Jonny's face. "You thinking about this shitty town again?"
He nodded. "Sorry, I just…"
"No, no, I get it. No one who's born here wants to die here. I wish something good would finally happen here… something interesting— oh, that reminds me!" Bundun perked up. "Some blond kid was asking about you today."
Blond? Jonny didn't really know that many blond people besides Anna. And most people didn't even know he volunteered at the aquarium. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. He went up here and said something like, "Is Jonny coming here today?" and I said yes. When I asked him why he needed to know, he wouldn't tell me. He was weird as shit, man. You should have seen him." Bundun paused, before continuing, "I liked his friend a lot better though…"
Great. So along with all the other stuff in my life, I've got a stalker. Better write that one down.
"…he said he'd been with the blond kid for most of his life, but even he doesn't know why he's been acting so weird lately. I should've gotten their names. But anyway, enough about them. You're not here to listen to me ramble. I'll bring the cleaning supply cart in, if you wanna…"
"Yeah. I do." As Bundun went to get the cleaning supplies, Jonny walked into the aquarium door to the left. Was it weird, that he was willing to volunteer at an aquarium just for this? Just for some alone time with the most interesting thing in town? He didn't know.
As he made his way toward the glowing, tube shaped tank, he saw the pink, humanoid creature suspended in it. It seemed to look more and more human every day it was in this aquarium. Some people said you could see it copying your own features if you looked too closely at it.
Was it sentient? Jonny didn't know. It was messed up, keeping a possibly sentient alien in a glass tank like this. What made the government— no, any person— think this was a good idea? He wished someone would try to get it out of there. But no. All he could do to try to help it if it was sentient was to say—
"Hey. Do you want to hear about my life?"