{Third Person | Focus ~ Thomas}

Thomas sat down quietly, scanning the vast room, rows of desks with the waves of students coming in. Now he was really understanding Alexander's anxiousness, the more people he saw, the more nervous he got. Now the things he heard about college through his sister was resurfacing in his mind. She had dropped out as a result of how difficult it was for her, saying that it wasn't really worth it. But he had worked hard to get here, so he couldn't give up now because of a bad feeling. He fiddled with his pencil, biting on it out of force of habit, satisfied with the feeling of his teeth sinking through something. "Uhm, hello. Could I sit here?" Questioned a voice nearby. Thomas shrugged, then gave a verbal answer. "Sure." Thomas could hear the person sat down next to him. "Thanks, uh..." They trailed off. Thomas turned around to greet them, only gasped when he saw who it was.

"Aaron!" "Hey Thomas!" Thomas turned his body around in the chair and faced him, smiling joyfully. "How's it been?" "A lot of great things have been happening. The brothers' up and out of the hospital, I've been getting some good gigs and big venues, and me and Theodosia made it official." The Southerner clasped his hands together, mouth agape. "Aw, congratulations!" Aaron  waved him off. "Thanks man. What about you? Have you found your special someone yet?" Thomas shook his head, looking downward. "Sorry to tell ya, but I'm a single pringle." "That's too bad.." Aaron's eyes brightened as he snapped his fingers together, something coming back to his remembrance. "Hey! What about Alexander?" Thomas could hear his own heart thumping at the mention of his name, especially in this context. "W-What?" "Yeah, Alex. You two always sorta clicked really well. Even when you guys first met!" "Uh.."

Thomas' eyes darted around the large room, those thoughts and memories flooding back into his mind. He clasped his hand together and fiddled with his thumbs, trying to think of a suitable answer that couldn't be bent out of shape. Aaron chuckled at his sudden nervousness. "That told me all I needed to know." "W-Wait a sec! I didn't say I-" Thomas along with the rest of the classroom fell silent as they heard their teacher clear his throat in the microphone, causing loud, high pitched feedback. Everyone covered their ears and hunched their shoulders, Aaron gritting his teeth and scrunching up his hands. The man flinched away from the microphone, slowly walking back up to it when the screeching stopped. Thomas sighed, dropping his shoulders as he heard the ringing die down. "My name is Mr.-" He began, only to be interrupted by the screeching bell. Some of the students began to snicker, the poor man couldn't get a full sentence in. "Okay.. Now that all of that is over, my name is Mr. Reeves and I'll be your math teacher for this year. Now listen to me when I say that.."

The second that Thomas heard his voice, his eyelids had gotten heavier. It was like he took three shots of melatonin as he struggled to fight against the urge for slumber. The rude awakening he received this morning was the cause, the tiredness finally sinking in. Thomas' hand slipped from the slim, wooden desk into his satchel, rummaging through it and fishing out his phone. He switched it on, reading the time. -8:09- Thomas sighed heavily, laying his head down on the desk. This is gonna be a long ass day..

                                  °❀•°✮ | Story Pause |✮°•❀°

"Wait, what happen to Uncle Aaron's brother?" Philip asked, looking towards his father for an answer. Thomas did the same, intrigued. "Yeah, what did happen to his brother?" Alexander hummed thoughtfully, snapping when it came back to his memory. "Oh! His brother was in some gang related crimes, and uh.." He paused, trying to think of a simpler way to talk about this slightly heavy subject, keeping in mind that he has a child listening in. "..Something bad had happened, and a group of people ended up beating him up real bad-" Thomas gasped, gradually remembering. "Oh yeah! They really jacked his shit up.." Thomas chuckled and shook his head while Alexander quickly covered his son's ears. "Thomas! Your son..!" Alex scolded while Thomas laughed at the irritated look on Philip's face. "Oh, so your fine with him stealing, but he hears one cuss word, I have to get crucified, right?" "Exactly, I'm glad we're at an understanding."

Thomas shook his head while Philip pried Alexander's hands off of his ears, huffing in frustration. "You know I can still hear you two, right?" The Southern hummed. "So overprotective." "Says the man who enforces bedtime rules on a Friday night!" "That's actually helpful and something that'll stick with em'!" Alex scoffed, his eyes widening is disbelief. "And censoring curse words aren't?!" Philip groaned in annoyance, plugging his ears and standing up, silencing the two. "Stop! Gosh! You two are like children." He scolded, stomping back to the couch as the two parents sat in place, silent. "Sometimes I wonder who the actual parent is.." He muttered, folding his arms and giving the men disappointed looks. "Now can we please continue without arguing?" "..Alrighty then.."

                               °❀•°✮ |Story Resumes| ✮°•❀°

The drowsy Virginian was startled awake by two obnoxious girls running up the stairs and chasing after each other. He groaned and slowly rose his head up, rubbing his eyes and blinking repeatedly. After his cloudy vision had cleared, he saw that nobody was in the classroom with him. That realization alone frightened him. In a panic, he frantically gathered his things and rushed out of the hall, nearly tripping over the last step of the stairs. He peeked at the small clock on the wall and peeped the time. -9:37- He snatched a balled up paper that contained his schedule from out of his bag and looked at the room numbers nearby the small red doors as he quickly scanned the contents of his paper. As the minutes passed by, the wave of students gradually began to disappear, indicating that the passing time was about to end. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! That simple word was the only thing running through his mind as the doors in the long, seemingly endless hallway began to slam closed. The ringing of the deafening bell only added on more stress, he audibly groaned and smacked his forehead.

Good fucking job Jefferson.

Thomas roamed through the empty halls in search of room number 216, his stomach churning as he always got anxiety in situations like this. He felt a slight wave a relief when he opened the door to the second hall of the day. Before he opened the door, a small, colorful flyer on the bulletin board next to the door caught his eye.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

★彡[ᴀᴛᴛᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱᴛᴜᴅᴇɴᴛꜱ]彡★

𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚜, 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛𝚜...

𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚞𝚙𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚖. 𝚆𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚕 𝚠𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙼𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝙵𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚕!

𝚆𝚎 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜, 𝚠𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚊 𝚜𝚊𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎.

𝚆𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚢𝚖𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚆𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚝 𝟻:𝟶𝟶𝙿𝙼 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚜.

𝚂𝚒𝚐𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎!

↓

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This, being the singer he was, peaked Thomas' interest. So, as to not forget about it five minutes after, he whipped out his phone and took a quick photo before heading in. He awkwardly shuffled into the dead silent room with the most silly of smiles, though his shoulders had slowly relaxed as he saw an empty seat.

"Mr. Jefferson." A strong and striking female voice called out his name from below, catching him by surprise, he slightly jumped and looked over in confusion. A few chuckles and giggles scattered and echoed around the room. A short, slim, and pale woman with small wrinkles by the crevices of her narrowed eyes, her deep green eyes boring into Thomas' as her firmly compressed lips shaped into a frown. Her stern look reminded Jefferson of his mother, he mentally shivered at the thought. With a sheepish and slightly playful voice, he quietly calls out to her, "And uhm..how..do you know my name?" "Well didn't you know? Your father attended this school as well. It seems as if you both have a habit of being late.. I'll allow it, today."

The Virginian's lips curved into an awkward smile as he breathed in deeply with an open mouth in preparation to speak, but ultimately decided to close his mouth instead. He shut his lips and swiftly turned in the opposite direction, quickly darting up the stairs to be seated.

His eyes flashed around the room once more, his eyes lingering specifically on his professor before opening his phone, sending the photo he took of the flyer to the newly remade group chat that also included Peggy, the missing schuyler sister.

This oughta be fun...

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𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞. 𝐘𝐞𝐲.