April 27th 5:03AM

I just woke up, and holy hell do I feel tired. You all know that feeling right? Where you've just woken up from a healthy amount of sleep yet you feel like you haven't slept at all? It's especially terrible when you know that you have to start a busy day in a couple of hours and yet your annoying cat is gonna barge in and start screaming in 3, 2, 1, aaaaand...

"MEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

Bingo.

I tiredly yawned, "Cat. What do you want? You hungry?"

My question was only met with Puff launching himself onto my bed.

"Okay? Do you want attention?" I groggily asked him.

He then started to aggressively lick his asshole. On my bed. Right. In. Front. Of. Me.

"OH COME ON DUDE! YOU COULDN'T WAIT TWELVE SECONDS FOR ME TO GRAB MY SHIT AND TAKE A SHOWER!" I angrily whispered to him as he continued his 'bath' on my bed.

I got up and grabbed my shit before quickly jogging to the bathroom.

"I'll never understand that boi." I quietly chuckled to myself,"When will he be 'normal'.?"

I set my shit down on the toilet befo-

"Wait. What the hell are you doing in my bathroom?! Get out! If you're really aching to see someone's morning, go check on Max or Kyle or anybody else for about eleven minutes."

I quickly slammed the door, blocking anyone from getting in there. I started to-

"YOU'RE STILL HERE!"

*sigh*

"You know what?" I whispered in frustration as I rubbed my temples,"I'm throwing in another time skip in just because you guys won't leave me alone."

April 27th 6:43AM

I'm sitting at the table eating my wheaty hoop rings. Nothing exciting.

"Do you guys do know that I hate how intrusive y'all are?" I grumbled between bites of wheaty hoop rings," It puts a whole heaping load of stress on me, because I'm the one you're always focusing on! I kinda wish there was someone here to keep your attention on when I'm doing stuff like taking a shower or anything else that requires privacy. Which is apparently a foreign concept to all of you."

But anyways, breakfast went swimmingly, and now I've gotta assemble my shit so I'm not late for the hellhole they call Woody Flowers High School. It's not a bad school actually, you just have to look past the people vaping in the bathroom and the cringy people like me, it's actually a pretty decent school. Speaking of which...

"I've gotta get going, I don't want Max crashing through my window this morning."

I grabbed everything I needed and started walking towards the school.

"What's crackalackin' big smackin'?" Max eagerly greeted to the tired me.

"Dude it's too early for me. I can't function in the mornings. But he can."
I slowly pointed to William, who was dancing down the street singing something we couldn't hear yet.

As we started to walk towards him, Max looked at me and knowingly asked,"Do you think he's listening to The Great Comet again?"

I tiredly replied,"Nah, I think he's listening to Be More Chill again."

As we got closer, we heard him singing,"...and so I built a bomb. Tonight our school is Vietnam. Let's guarantee they never see their senior prooommm..."

We looked at each other and stated simultaneously, "Heathers."

I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, which caused him to scream, turn around, and knock me on my ass. All of that happed in the span of about three seconds.

"OH SHIT! I'M SO SORRY DUDE! YOU JUST SCARED ME!" William frantically apologized to me as he helped me up.

"Nah, it's okay." I slowly groaned as I got up holding my eye,"I've been through worse."

William accepted that answer, but he still looked extremely remorseful. We then continued walking to school.

"So, I'm gonna change the subject and ask you; what's with the flat cap William?" Max quickly asked.

"I just found this hat this morning. I thought I looked good in it."

I slowly commented, "It does give you a unique look."

"What's that supposed to mean." William demanded.

"It means you look like a pedophile." Max nonchalantly answered.

William just shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care, but you could see the look of worry on his face as he did so.

"Don't worry William, I'm fine."

"No it's not that, I know you're okay. I just need to know, does it actually make me look like a pedophile?"

"Kinda, but it's mainly because of that neckbeard you've got right now." Max quickly pointed out.

"HEY! I just haven't shaved yet!"

"Fine, let's drop the subject before he starts to swear like a sailor; waking everyone in a three mile radius in the process." Max quietly suggested.

"Agreed."

We continued our walk to the school in awkward silence, as none of us knew what to say to start up a conversation. I, on the other hand, was just too tired to start anything.

"Welcome to Hell." I quietly muttered under my breath as we walked in through the gates.

We walked to our usual meeting spot in the mornings. It was under a pine tree that would shed like a cat at the beginning of summer. I lazily plopped down against the tree, causing hundreds of pine needles to fall onto me. We were the only ones who hung out under there because believe it or not, most people don't want pine needles in their clothes; me included. The only reason we sit there is because Kayla likes the smell of pine. Why don't we try to move? It's because she gets super bitchy if she doesn't get a good whiff of pine. We all joke about it being her secret dr-

"Hey shiner, you there?" Evan jokingly asked as he waved his hand in front of my face.

It turns out Evan had been trying to get my attention during my little mental rant.

"Hey Evan." I tiredly greeted him, slowly blinking one eye at a time.

"How's life been for you Jeremy?"

"Just peachy." I tiredly and sarcastically sighed.

"How are your parents doing? They still in China?"

"They're probably doing great and I assume they are still in China." I stated with a hint of sadness in my voice.

"You okay dude? You sure you're okay with your parents being out of the house? You sound a little depresso..." Max worriedly asked.

"I mean, sure it has it's perks, but I really do wish their trip would end sooner. The house just feels empty right now, you know?"

William was slowly looking around worriedly as we were having our little chat.

"Something wrong?" Evan asked William as he put his hand on his shoulder.

"What.?.." William replied a little dazed out,"It's just... have any of you seen Kay or Kyle this morning?"

"I'm up here you idiots." Kayla quietly shouted to us.

We all looked up to see her sitting nonchalantly on a branch above us.

"What're you doing up there!?" Evan frantically screamed to Kayla, who was unfazed by his sudden outburst.

"I was waiting to see how long it would take for you guys to notice me up here. It was fun for the first five minutes, but then it got boring." She said with boredom lacing every word.

She gracefully jumped down from her perch above us. The only problem is that her landing wasn't as graceful as her descent. And unluckily for me, she landed right on top of me...

"Dude watch ou-" was all she could get out before she clumsily fell on top of me.

The tired feeling that was weighing me down before was replaced with shock in an instant.

"Sorry dude." Kayla sadly mumbled as she tried to get off of me.

I pushed her off forcefully but also gently pushed her off, 'cause I don't want people getting the wrong ideas.

"Are you okay?" Max asked as he reached his hand out to help me up.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just wish someone told me it was national beat up Jeremy day." I chuckled as I accepted Max's helpful hand.

Everyone's worried expressions worsened when they saw me collapse to the floor moments after standing up.

"Dude. Your leg." Evan worriedly blurted out,"It looks broken."

I looked down to see that my shin was bent at an odd angle.

"I guess now would be a bad time to crack a joke?" I deviously asked as an attempt to make everyone feel better.

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME!" Evan angrily shouted.

"Wow. No need to get snappy."

"WHY ARE YOU JUST MAKING PUNS!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to break the tension."

"GODDAMMIT JEREMY! WE GOTTA GET YOU TO THE NURSE!"

"So they can give me an ice pack and send me back to class? No thanks." I replied.

"CAN YOU STOP MAKING JOKES FOR TEN SECONDS!!" Evan worriedly yelled at me.

"I'm more concerned about the fact that nobody else has noticed any of this." William quietly added as he gestured to the courtyard full of students who seemed to be oblivious to the situation at hand.

"Let's get you to the nurse." Kayla suggested as she started to gently guide me towards the main building.

"I don't think an ice pack is gonna help this." I jokingly replied.

"Probably, but you're going to need one for that black eye you've got." Kayla quietly demanded.

"You've got me there."

I reluctantly let Kayla lead me to the nurse's office.

"I wonder how the nurse is gonna react to this." I quietly asked myself as Kayla lead me closer to the nurse's office.

"She's probably gonna lose it dude." Kayla replied.

We had been walking silently for a few minutes. Well actually, she was walking, I was limping with an arm wrapped around her shoulder.

"You know, I'm still wondering how you managed to break my leg while you got out with only a few scratches."

"If I had an answer to that question, I'd give it to you."

"Well... can't you at least make up an answer?"

"Fine." She quietly grumbled,"Maybe your leg broke my fall. You happy?"

"No. I'm actually worried."

"Why are you worried?"

"Well, I can't feel any pain in my leg right now; and I'm kinda worried about how this will feel once the adrenaline dies down."

Just as I had finished that sentence, I collapsed to the floor in pain.

My vision was starting to become clouded with tears as I silently choked out, "There it is."

Kayla lifted me off of the ground, looping my right arm around her shoulders and forcing me to stand on my good leg.

"You idiot, you forgot to knock on wood."

"You've got me there."

We continued the awkward small talk all the way to the nurse's office.

"Watch the nurse freak out in 3, 2, 1, and..." I knowingly joked as I pushed the door to the nurse's office open.

"Hi. How did you hur-" The nurse cheerfully greeted until she saw my leg.

"Hey Susan!" I jokingly and cheerfully stated,"I broke my leg! Where's my ice pack!?"

I joked with the nurse like this because I was the lonely child who always got hurt in elementary school, so I subsequently became friends with the nurse. She moved to another school my 5th grade year, and as it turned out; she moved to this one. I found out she was the nurse here on the first day, when I managed to sprain my finger. Now that was bec-

"Hey! I said how did you manage to do this!?" Susan angrily asked as she snapped her fingers in front of my face, probably to get my attention.

"I fell out of a tree." I casually stated.

"Stop lying Jeremy. I was the one fell out of a tree." Kayla interjected with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Then why don't you have any severe injuries like this klutz.?" Susan asked as she jabbed her thumb towards me.

"HEY!"

"His leg broke my fall." Kayla stated without a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Still seems kind of odd to me."

"How so?"

"Well first of all, you were sitting in a tree. And then you fell onto this guy?"

"What the Hell!"

"Shut it Jeremy, you always depreciate youself."

"True. Continue."

"Now back to what I was saying, why would you fall on him rather than trying to grab onto the tree itself?"

"Look, I tried to gracefully leap off of the branch I was on. It was the landing that wasn't graceful."

"So you wer-"

"Hey I know that you two could carry this conversation on all day, but I am suffering through a tremendous amount of pain right now. So could you give me my ice pack so I can go take my final?" I half-jokingly interjected because BITCH I need that boost to my grade!

"Look, the most I can do is put it in a splint and let you borrow a wheelchair. I would normally make you use crutches, but someone managed to sprain their ankle before you got hurt today."

"WOOOOO!" I excitedly screamed while pumping my fists into the air, "Imma be Tokyo driftin' my way around campus!"

Susan audibly sighed as she placed her hand on her forehead in slight frustration; the kind that friends experience when someone tells a bad pun.

She then asked Kayla,"Could you and his other friends make sure he doesn't break anything else today?"

"Sure, we already do that anyways."

"Well you're doing a great job so far." Susan sarcastically commented.

"Hey! It's not our fault that he acts like a bad luck magnet!"

"OH COME ON! I'm sitting five feet away from you!

"Look, arguing isn't going to get you two back to class faster. So I'm gonna splint Jeremy's leg and get him in the wheelchair, then you two can get back to your classes."

"I'm guessing this is gonna hurt a lot more than when it was broken?" I  asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yep." Kayla and Susan simultaneously responded.

"Ah shit."

Well that wraps it up for this chapter. The reason this chapter took so long was because I was running a little low on interesting life experiences, so I had to make up something interesting. I'm just gonna let the handful of people reading this know that the updates are probably gonna get slower because I'm beginning to hit the all-too-familiar state called writer's block. So that means it's probably gonna be a couple of months before the next chapter. And with that I bid thee, Adieu.