"I don't see why we have to do back to school shopping." Jeremy whined as he slammed the car door behind him and settled into the passenger's seat. "I already have school supplies, and school doesn't start till next month anyway."

Mr. Heere shrugged and started the car. "Nothing wrong with getting a head start. And you're going up another grade, you need new school supplies."

"I guess..." Jeremy replied sluggishly. 

The car ride didn't last very long as Mr. Heere pulled into the Target parking lot. They entered the store which seemed to get bigger and more overwhelming every time Jeremy came here. But maybe that was because they were constantly expanding and adding new stuff. 

"I haven't done back to school shopping since I was a kid!" Mr. Heere exclaimed.

It's true, Jeremy's mom always took him before. She planned what to buy ahead of time and would always get what was on sale. She knew what she was doing though and always managed to spend just under $300 with the help of gift cards and coupons. 
She was apparently busy today which left the task up to Jeremy's dad instead.

Mr. Heere gestured Jeremy to follow him into the "back to school" section that Target had newly displayed. Most of it seemed to be pandering towards elementary students but there were a few things for High Schoolers too.

"Hey, look at this backpack!" Mr. Heere motioned the backpack towards Jeremy. It was dark blue with silver-colored straps and had the Triforce on it. It also had an obnoxiously big sticker on it that read 'LIGHTS UP IN THE DARK!' on it. "How cool is that?"

"It's really cool." Jeremy said. "But...how much is it it?" He did like it. But he didn't want his dad spending all their back to school funds on a light up backpack.

"Fifty dollars." Mr. Heere responded before tossing it into their cart.

"Wait, fifty dollars? Dad, they have cheaper ones over there-" Jeremy pointed towards some bargain backpacks, which were priced around twenty dollars and rather bland and ugly. But it was better than nothing.

"You want it, right?" Mr. Heere asked. Jeremy sheepishly nodded. "Then let's buy it. You need a new backpack anyway. Your old one still has that BOYF  thing on it - whatever that means."

Jeremy felt his face heat up. He forgot about that completely.
Regardless, he was thankful for the new backpack anyway and tried to swallow his guilt for making his dad spend $50 on a backpack. 

They continued to wander around the store, picking up rulers and books and binders. It had been almost two hours already and Mr. Heere was definitely spending much more than Jeremy's mom would have. He was almost afraid to see the final price, but his dad continued to reassure him as it was nothing.

"You probably need some new clothes too, huh?" Mr. Heere suggested. "You've gotten taller."

"Like...two inches." Jeremy shrugged. "But I guess I could use some new clothes, yeah."

They headed towards the clothing section, where almost all the clothes had some kind of cringy old meme reference on it or said something corny, along the lines of 'I <3 Pizza' and 'I got 99 problems but my swag ain't one.'

"Hey, what about this shirt?" Mr. Heere revealed a black shirt with bolt red writing that said 'Will The Real Slim Shady Please Stand up?'

If Jeremy wasn't cringing at those bad meme shirts, he was definitely cringing now.
"I don't really like Eminem anymore." He said shortly and turned his back to browse the rest of the shirts.

"Hm." Mr. Heere said "See anything you like then?"

"This shirt is pretty nice." It was white shirt with several multicolored stripes and a pocket on the chest area. 

"You and your stripes." Mr. Heere chuckled, pulling the shirt off the rack. "Go find what you want, and I'll buy it."

***

At the end of the day, the total had come around to $750 which Mr. Heere must have been able to tell made Jeremy feel guilty, since he continued to reassure him that it was no problem and they had plenty of money left.

After loading the car trunk with several plastic bags, the two returned to their seats and started on the drive home.
"When I was a kid, back to school shopping was always fun." Mr. Heere said "We had these lists of things we wanted, like those Rubber Pencil Grips and Scratch-and-Sniff Stickers. I had a whole bunch of those." 

Jeremy smiled softly. Getting to hear about his dad's childhood was kind of a nice in a way. He wondered if he ever struggled as much as he did as a teen. He knew that teen years sucked for everyone, but it was especially sucky for Jeremy, and he wasn't even seventeen yet.

"After school on Friday nights, we would usually go see a movie or go to an arcade. That's how I met your mom." Mr. Heere smiled sadly. "We met at an arcade when we fought over who's tickets were whose. So we decided that whoever beat each other in Laser Tag won the tickets." 

"Who won?"

"She did." He confirmed. "She was way better at it than me. We actually kept seeing each other and found out we went to the same school but just never talked before. Our dates usually consisted of arcades and fancy diners. Maybe that's why you like gaming so much." He laughed.

Jeremy grinned. But also couldn't believe there was a time his mom was into arcade games. She just never seemed to care too much and was always very serious and aloof.

"Our arcade trips stopped after you were born."

Jeremy's smile turned to frown. Why did adults always get so boring the moment they had kids? "Why..?" He asked.

"We were just so busy all the time, taking care of you. And we both had our jobs. We had no time to do other stuff." Mr. Heere explained. "And then she just became so different and we didn't..." he trailed off. "You excited for school?"

"You already asked me that." Jeremy responded, narrowing his eyes. His dad must have realized he had said too much. He didn't like talking about their divorce and it always hit a nerve for him. Although Jeremy was curious to learn more, he didn't push it. "I am excited, yeah."

"Maybe make some new friends?"

"Probably." 

"Well, it'll be a good year. If you make it anyway." 

"You can't make it a good year." Jeremy said skeptically. 

"Sure you can. Only you can change your life, no one else can really do it for you."

Jeremy snorted at that. Nobody else but a Squip could. 

The moment they got into the house, Jeremy collapsed onto the couch, turning on the fan. He didn't realize how hot out there it was until he got inside and felt the cool air. Connecting back to the internet, his phone buzzed with several text messages.

Michael: hey

Michael: you busy?

Michael: can i come over later?

Michael: rich asked abt u

Jeremy initially ignored the text about Rich asking about him but he couldn't help but wonder about it. Why? What was that supposed to mean? Why would Michael include that?

He tried to just dismiss it and asked his dad if Michael could come over. Mr. Heere went on about how Michael is always welcomed there. A simple "yes" would have worked. He let his friend know and went to check the other messages.

The other texts were from his mom, who had apologized for not being able to take him shopping (her texts almost always felt forced and like a stranger wrote them), his grandma, who seemed to have confused his back to school shopping with his birthday, and Christine.

His heart skipped a beat as he opened the message.

Christine: Hi! How have you been? :-)

Her last message was from months ago. And this was all very sudden. He immediately wrote back.

Jeremy: good. you?

He should have said more, but he didn't know what else to stay. Everything seemed either too much or too little. So he tried to let her continue the conversation from there.

Christine: Good! School is starting again soon. I heard they're gonna be putting on Grease this year?

Grease? Jeremy never heard of it and decided to look it up. It looked kinda cheesy, but he was eager to see Christine in anything that made her happy.

Jeremy: Oh, thats cool

No, that sounds too obviously disinterested. He quickly sent another text after that.

Jeremy: like, really cool! we should watch the movie sometime together

Oh, how he wished he could edit texts. He probably suggested too much and made it about himself again. Ugh.

Christine: We should!! Actually, you free tonight? I have it on DVD at my house :)

Jeremy's heart beat sped up and his cheeks flustered. He was going to text back a "yes" of course, until his a notification popped up from Michael saying he'd be right there. How did he already forgot about that?

He didn't really want to turn down either of them. Hanging out with Christine would be preferable, but his dad and Michael wouldn't be too happy about that. So he instead asked what might ruin their possibly romantic alone movie night.

Jeremy: can you bring the movie here? michael is coming over btw

Christine: Sure!

Christine was always so nice that it made Jeremy wonder why he's always so tense when talking to her. Of course half of it comes from his obvious crush, but still, there was this nervous feeling he had whenever he even saw her name.

Suddenly, the door flew open and Michael entered the house with a small grin on his face and what looked like several video game cases under his arm. "Hey" he waved to Jeremy, who turned his head to look at him from the couch.

"I brought something." He placed down the games on the table and looked towards Jeremy, as if awaiting a reaction. "Since we were kinda bored last time."

The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles, Assassins Creed, and Borderlands 2 were spread across the table, each one had a big M for mature label on it.

"Which one are you feeling up to, dude?" Michael asked, casually stuffing his hands into his hoodie pocket.

"Um, actually-" Jeremy was cut off by the door being flown open again. This time by Christine who had the DVD in her hands and looked as gleeful as ever. 

"Oh..." Michael said softly. "Uh, hi Christine."

"Hi!" She sat down beside Jeremy on the couch. "I brought Grease."

Michael nodded. "That's a good movie." he crossed his legs and sat at the foot of the couch as Christine put the DVD in.

The TV was kinda small and a little slow sometimes, but it was better than watching it on Jeremy's laggy laptop that took forever loading anything.

***

The movie ended with both Christine and Michael belting out the lyrics to 'You're the One That I Want'  and dancing around the room. Jeremy, who had forgotten almost all of the songs besides that catchy intro, just sat on the couch and watched as they danced around. They both seemed so into it. He didn't even know Michael knew this movie, much less all the words.

 After they finished their little number, Christine rested her elbows on the table, out of breath for a moment. She looked down to see the games Michael had brought earlier and her face lit up.

"Borderlands 2? I love this game." A smile crossed her face and both Michael and Jeremy were a little taken back.

"You're into video games?" Michael asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! I've played this one with my cousin Dustin a lot. I've beat it twice."

Now they were really impressed. Michael slid the disk into the PlayStation 2 and handed the controllers out. Mr. Heere occasionally brought snacks over and would give commentary to their game, despite knowing nothing about it. But it didn't fail to make them all laugh.

While they didn't finish it, they got pretty far, and played a little bit of each game. The day was winding down to an end eventually, and both Christine and Michael had to leave, but stood in the doorway talking to Jeremy for almost a whole ten minutes before they left.

After they were gone, the house became quiet again. Jeremy had wished they didn't go so soon even if they had been hanging out for hours.
He glanced over at the shopping bags on the kitchen table and carried his new backpack to his room, filling it with all his school stuff early.

Maybe returning to school wasn't going to be so bad after all.

(A/N: another chapter done! thoughts? where do u think its heading?)