Chapter 2: Degrees From Normal

 "Alright boys, breakfast is done!"
 Sunlight shone in through the window and illuminated the kitchen. Aunt Kole watched as the four teenagers entered the room: Tomus was the first, coming for his plate at almost running speed ("No running in the house, Tomus!"). Lucas came in next, almost tripping at the door in his haste. Karen skipped in cheerily after him, and Glesto was the last one to enter at his own pace.
 The same order was observed as they ate: Tomus finished first, followed by Lucas (the two of them appeared to be racing), then Karen and finally Glesto who was still chewing on a rather large portion of scrambled eggs.
 "Well, looks like you beat me this time, Tomus."
 "There's always a next time, Lukey. And another after that if you keep screwing up!"
 "Wise words, but your brother’s wiser."
 "Glesto here's more brawn than anythin’. He's nowhere near my level of sexiness."
 Glesto paused to process what he just heard; he glanced up at the clock.

 "Since you two are already done, can't you just go and get your school bags already? We'll be late again if you make me wait for you like last time."
 "Eh, looks like he's probably more brain after all. I'm still sexier though."
 "That makes no sense at all."
 "Understand dem jokes, boy!"
 And with that, Tomus bolted out the room with Lucas following closely behind (he almost toppled over his own chair).
 Their absence left silence to linger in the kitchen, apart from the sound of Aunt Kole washing the dishes. Glesto finally swallowed his last bit of egg.
 "Hey, Karen."
 "Yah?" She was picking up baked beans with her fork.
 "I'm just, um... You could say I'm a little worried."
 “About what?"
 "When I, my brother and Lucas leave for Italy, we won't be back for at least a few months. Would you be alright without us?"
 Karen smiled without looking at him.
 "I will! You'll write postcards twice every week, right?” she said, giving a small laugh.
 Glesto noted that her smile seemed a little off. Just a bit.
 "Of course I will."
 He got up and dusted his shirt.
 "Well, I'll be going now. Thanks for the breakfast, ma'am."
 "Oh Glesto, you can always feel free to address me as Aunt Kole instead of plain old "ma'am"."
 Karen giggled behind his back.
 As he left the kitchen, Glesto found Tomus tying his shoes outside the closet.
 "Erm, why are you wearing your shoes inside the house?"
 "So I can grab this bag!" He gestured at one of the clothes peg next to the closet door, from which hung a plastic bag filled to the brim with multiple round objects.
 "You could've just worn your shoes outside and gotten me to bring this bag out for you, not to mention..." Glesto took the bag and stared down into its contents. "...Why are you bringing all these oranges to school? And where'd you even get all these?"
 "Aunt Kole was nice enough to, eh, 'lend' me some of them."

 "And why?"
 "Imma throw these at Kent!"
 Glesto rolled his eyes.
 "Kent's your senior by two years. If you don't get in trouble, he’s going to pummel you."
 "But he ain't your senior."
 "It's not like I’m gonna do it, no way in hell."
 "Aw, pretty pwease?"
 "Please no, hearing you make that voice gives me chills," said Glesto as he made to walk outside with the bag of oranges.
 "I'll help you bring these to school anyway, hope you don't mind me using some of them to perform electrolysis.” He looked into the bag again. “And I guess this kind of explains why Aunt Kole has so many cartons of homemade orange juice."
 "Meh."
 Tomus continued tying his shoes quietly, the silence briefly broken by Glesto opening the door and Karen helping with the dishes in the kitchen. Then he stopped for a second and suddenly started undoing his shoelaces.
 "Aw, d****t. Lucas, a li'l help!"
 He had forgotten to wear his uniform. And his socks.
  
- - - - - - - - - -
  
 "Can. You. Stop."
 "Why?"
 "Please!"
 "Aw, don't be like that."
 "Then get those stupid fruits away from me!"
 Glesto shoved away Tomus's hand that was repeatedly nudging him with one of the oranges.
 "Come ooon, let me at it.”
 "I said stop!"

 Lucas was snickering as he came out from the house. The brothers were waiting for him under the tree that grew outside Aunt Kole’s house; the ground was littered with several yellowed leaves.

 "Oh man, watching you two going at it never gets old."
 "About time you came out. Now help me get my bothersome brother off- Stop!"
 Lucas laughed as he watched Tomus push an orange into the back of Glesto's head.
 "Ugh, I give up..."
 "Hey, at least now you know what Kent's gonna get, except ten times more troll! Lol!"
 "Not very comforting information, but I'll take your word for it."
 Glesto fished a scrambled Rubik's cube out from his pocket.
 "Lucas."
 "Eeh, alright."
 Lucas grabbed the cube from him and turned it over and around in his hand.
 "Gee, you gave me an annoying combination here."
 "By annoying, you mean you'll solve it a few seconds short of your best time, right?"
 Lucas opened his mouth to object, then realised Glesto was right.
 "Anyway, we should hurry. You can solve it on the way."
 "Yeah." He was already sizing up the patterns on the cube.
 "Hey! Don't forget about me, y'all!"
 Glesto turned back to look at Tomus and glimpsed someone in the kitchen window; he realised Karen was looking at him through it.
 It was hard to be sure, but her expression behind the glass seemed a little solemn. She didn’t look depressed, but those normally cheerful cyan eyes, for once, seemed glum.
 He stared back for perhaps a moment too long; Glesto waved back at Karen who shortly returned it with a slight smile. Turning away from the window, he beckoned his brother and Lucas.

“Hm... Gles, d’you like Karen?”

“What do you mean, do I like her?”

“There’s obviously somethin’ between you two. This calls for a ship!”

“Shut up.”

Glesto glanced down to check that his shoelaces were doubly tied.

"Alright guys, we're going for a little run again. Ready?"

Lucas suddenly looked crestfallen.

“What! A-again? Really??”

“Yeah, keep up.”
Their school wasn't too far from Aunt Kole's house. The walk was at most 8 or 10 minutes, but to Glesto that was hardly enough time.
 In his opinion, a quick jog to school shortened traveling time considerably. He wasn't wrong, except his companions didn't exactly readily agree with the idea.
 "Hey! Hey!! Stop running, man!"
 "And be late? Suit yourself."
 "Tomus's right, ugh... Slow down a bit for us would you?"
 Lucas, being the slowest of the three, was panting behind them as he struggled to keep up with their pace; the searing February sun was not helping. Glesto didn't stop but somewhat faltered in his pace such that Tomus threatened to overtake him.
 "It's not my fault if you can't keep up, so keep up!"
 "We're lazy people, yo!"
 "And while you're at it, shut up!"
 They were nearing the gate now. Several other students were still outside on their way into the school compound.

 At the side of the school gate, in large letters, was its name, Yulgard Secondary School.

 "Bruh, I don't see any other guys in a hurry!"
 "I don't care!"
 Heads turned as they dashed past the bewildered students around the gate, juniors, seniors and teachers alike. Several seniors shook their heads in disbelief.

 "Don't judge, ya broad nerds!" Tomus pulled an orange from his bag and pretended to aim it at one of the seniors.
 "TOMUS! Is now the best time!?"
 "Sorry Gles, gotta do what you gotta do!" Then he pocketed the orange and resorted to blowing raspberries instead.
 Lucas brought up the rear after he hastily apologised to some of the students they ran past.
 "Glesto, c-can you remind me what we're rushing for?" He could barely gasp out the words after catching up to them; sweat was pouring down his forehead.
 "Early bird gets the worm. Simple as that."
 "No metaphors, d****t!"
 Glesto and Tomus raced up the stairwell, leaving Lucas behind to the echoes of their footsteps.
 "Can you two at least wait up!?"
 Suddenly, Tomus jumped back down the stairs and almost went crashing straight into Lucas.
 "Ya, welp, I'm still feeling kinda lazy. You and me, let's take the lift."
 "Uh, alright then."
 The 5th storey. Glesto had always been extraordinarily quick with the stairs; he bumped into Tomus and Lucas just as they were exiting the lift.
 "You just had to take the lazy way up here again, didn't you?"
 "Welp, it was easier so meh."
 "Anyway, seeing how all we're all up here now, there's probably not much of a need to rush anymore."
 "Tell that to Lucas over here lol."
 Lucas had been solving the cube inside the lift, cube in one hand and phone in the other. He was still panting.
 "Still solving it?"
 "Hey, I'm almost done here. I only started when we were waiting for the lift."
 He flicked the last few pieces into place and finally solved the last layer, stopping the timer on his phone as he did so.
 "Here, good enough for you?" huffed Lucas, handing the cube back to Glesto.
 "Time taken?"
 "23.6 seconds."
 "There's room for improvement," said Glesto. He almost smirked.
 "Surprise, surprise.” Lucas nudged Glesto in the shoulder.
 Tomus, meanwhile, was getting restless again.

 "Eh, Gles!"
 "What?"
 "You wanna help me out with the prank? The one involvin' tape across the door."
 "Um... Sure, I guess."
 Lucas remained silent; when it came to Tomus's pranks, he preferred to keep his distance.

 There wasn't actually much of a reason for Glesto wanting to rush to school. He simply felt at ease being early, even if it meant waiting for an hour or so for lessons to begin.
 Tomus wanted to be early for another reason altogether; he usually spent that excess time enlisting the help of his brother and Lucas in setting up pranks. Not that he held any contempt against his classmates or teachers, he just felt he didn’t have anything else better to do.

 In particular, one of his more comical albeit rather risky ideas was the Taped Door.

 It involved multiple strips of transparent tape stretched across the door frame. According to his theory, any given person would open the door and notice the numerous tape strips, whereupon they would pause and leave an opening for Tomus to shove them from behind right into the tape.

 Tomus had tested it on Glesto several weeks back. He had noticed the strips of tape before opening the door, so he tried to take a closer look after doing so. Needless to say, he got a face full of tape.
 "Oooh, I wonder who's gonna walk into this one today," chuckled Tomus as he stretched the tape out across the length of the door frame.
 "Don't get your hopes up, if it's Kent again then you might really need those oranges," muttered Glesto as he helped cut the strip of tape. He tore and stuck it across the door frame at eye level.

 They were at Lucas and Tomus’s homeroom of class 1C, just one floor below Glesto’s homeroom of class 3B. Against his better (and most definitely more reliable) judgement, he had agreed to detour from his homeroom to help Tomus set the prank up.
 Lucas was sitting alone in 1C, scrambling and solving the Rubik's cube repeatedly. The clicking sound it made was rather distracting.

 “Today's a bit odd, isn't it?" he said as his eyes darted around the different colours on the cube.
 "Why?" Glesto was stretching out the tape this time.
 "This is usually the time when my classmates start turning up."
 "No one's here apart from us."
 "Case in point." Lucas tried to rotate the cube with a quick finger trick; it spun so quickly that it fell from his grip and onto the floor. A corner piece popped out as it landed with a clack.
 "Oh, crud. Not again."
 "Relax, it won't be the first time the cube's broken apart."
 "It certainly isn't any more pleasant than last time." Lucas bent down to pick up the cube. The moment the cube left the ground, the rest of its pieces suddenly gave way and fell apart; ultimately, Lucas was left with a pile of 26 cube pieces.
 "...Well, looks like Murphy’s Law is deciding to be a dick today."

 "Don't worry about it. I'll be able put it back together."
 "Ugh, take your time."

 Juniors could be heard shouting from the first floor as they ran about the parade square (“Tch, they’re so noisy," groaned Glesto). Several students that passed by the homeroom gave awkward stares at the sight of the brothers taping the door; Tomus stuck his tongue out at some of them. Glesto and Tomus took a minute to add more tape, then spent another two minutes bickering after Lucas pointed out that they were running out of tape, and yet another two minutes looking for a spare roll from the teacher’s table and using it to apply the last few strips.
 After all was said and done, it was ten minutes to assembly time.

 "Hue hue, this is gonna be great!" Tomus snickered, throwing the roll of tape to Glesto.
 "...This is when I start regretting life decisions," Glesto groaned as he caught the tape and returned it to the teacher’s table.
 “It’s alright, Glesto. I know what that feels like," assured Lucas, who was still moping over the broken Rubik’s cube.

 On the way to the assembly hall, Glesto somehow managed to put the cube back together while he was walking. Then again, he was also a much better speedcuber than Lucas was.

 "You wanna hold onto it?" asked Glesto, gesturing at Lucas.

 "I might break it again."
 "I don't really mind, it'd be your loss either way."
 "Way to be blunt."

 As usual, Tommus couldn't stand keeping to himself for minutes at a time.
 "Hey, Gles!!"
 "What?"
 "Nothin'."

 "Huh?"
 That seemed to satisfy Tomus.

 The hall was starting to get congested with students pouring into it and filled with the buzzing of countless conversations. Glesto separated from Lucas and Tomus, heading for his class in the middle of the hall.
 But when he got to the position where his class should be, for some reason, he was the only one there.

 The other third year classes on either side of him were already queued with students, but his was utterly empty.

 “Psst, hey," he whispered to a girl on his right from class 3A. “Did you see my class on the way here?”

 “Nope, haven’t seen them. You’re Glesto from 3B, right?”

 “Yeah. Well, I’ll just stay here then.” Glesto shook his head and just stood there, awkwardly looking around for any signs of his classmates. “They really don’t seem to be anywhere…”

 “Sup, G.” This voice was deep, loud and very familiar.

 “Oh, hi Kent.”

 Kent Cugner was Glesto’s classmate in 3B. He had black hair in a buzz cut, a rather large and well built physique and, like Glesto, had a darker skin tone than most. In size, he dwarfed the rest of his class, Glesto included. In smarts, however, not so much; he was several grades below Glesto who didn't even worry himself with grades. The two were still good friends though, since they got along pretty well, were equally dense and had common interests for the most part. They also shared assignment answers, with Glesto providing most of them.

  “You’re the only one here, dude? Maaan, where’s the rest of our class?”

 “No idea, I don’t see them anywhere. They can’t possibly still be in class, can they?”

 “It happens, man. You’ll never know.”

 “Um, right.” Glesto continued scanning around the hall. “Come to think of it, 1C was quite empty today as well…”

 “1C? What, the dummy class that that Lucas kid and your bro are in?”

 “Er, I guess that’s one way to put it.”

 The only real problem with Kent was that he wasn’t exactly on good terms with Tomus. Kent was an acquaintance of Lucas who usually visited 1C to chat with him, but Tomus would always be there to pull some kind of prank. Whenever the two met, it was, in Glesto’s opinion, like “watching a bull with a monkey for a matador”.

 “You see them anywhere, man?”

 “I still don’t see our class, where the heck are they? Assembly’s about to begi-”

 The bell rang. Glesto jumped slightly at the sudden, shrill sound of the bell ringing through the hall.

 “Huh, much reaction. It’s not even a real bell, it’s just audio over the speakers, man.”

 “That’s kind of why I don’t like it.”

 “You’ve got some taste, bruh.”

 “It’s just a stock sound effect, what taste is there to be had?”

 As the bell’s reverberating echoes faded away, a large and rather intimidating figure stepped up to the stage with hard footsteps. When the man put his voice to the microphone, the words he spoke were more booming than Kent’s tenfold.

 “May I remind all students to please keep their electronic devices inside their bags. We do not want to see students wearing their headphones around their neck, holding their phones or even using their calculators during the flag raising ceremony; it’s incredibly disrespectful.”

 The Discipline Master. The literal embodiment of punishment for schools. At his appearance, the previously overpowering buzzing evaporated.

 Glesto has had his fair share of ‘discipline’ when he and Tomus were caught setting up pranks for the previous year’s April Fools’, easily Tomus’s most favourite day of the year. Even though it was now only February, he already had plans for the upcoming April Fools’ in two months.

 Speaking of which…

 “Hey, Kent.”

 “Sup?”

 “Um, don’t go to class 1C today. Whatever you do, just don’t.”

 “Why?”

 “Don’t ask. Oh hey, there’s the rest of our class. And there’s 1C as well.” The two groups of students were quickly piling in from either sides of the hall. “That's weird, we’re the only two classes that turned up late.”

 “Flag raising’s about to happen, fam. Don't stare at them or the Derp Master’s gonna call us out.”

 After the flag raising ceremony was over, the first morning lessons came.

 Kent didn't seem to understand anything being taught throughout Chemistry. He was apparently so dumbfounded by the concepts of organic chemistry, in fact, that he just sat there with his mouth hanging open when the teacher revised the topic with the class for the third time. Glesto sat to the left of Kent; he was taking down several trivial notes on the daily applications of organic chemistry (“Whoa there, G. Is all of that crap on the test?”).

 Also, as it turns out, Glesto’s advice to Kent went unheeded.

 When the first period of recess began after Chemistry, Glesto was still preparing to head downstairs when he heard yelling emanating from 1C below him.

 “I’LL KILL YA, TOMUS! YOU PIECE O’ S**T!!”

 “Aayy lmao! You needs to chill!”

 Tomus had pushed Kent through the tape door. Glesto was met with a rather comical scene of Kent chasing Tomus around the homeroom, knocking over every chair and table in their path and sending the rest of the students running outside; Lucas was already outside the 1C homeroom, backed up against a wall and caught in a fit of laughter.

 “Ugh, I guess Kent still came here huh?”

 “You bet he did, man, that was hilarious! Hah hah!”

 “Then I guess this means Tomus is gonna-”

 An orange rolled to their feet. Another hit the wall right next to Lucas’ shoulder and bounced away.

 “Yep, the oranges.”

 Glesto pulled Lucas upstairs to retreat from the bombardment of oranges that was Tomus; they could still hear him laughing over Kent’s angry death threats.

 “We should probably stay up here for a bit, Kent will run short of breath in a minute.”

 “Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something.”

 “What is it?”

 “Kent was gonna tell me about this math test you guys had a few days ago. He says your math teacher’s giving them back today.”

 “That’s right, what about it?”

 “So, how well do you think you did?”

 Glesto thought for a few moments.

 “Um, probably above average but I don’t think I did very well. Why?”

 “Kent keeps mentioning how you’re an overachiever.”

 A few stray oranges flew up the stairwell and splattered on the wall, accompanied by Kent’s loud, echoing voice.

 “COME BACK HERE YOU-!!” Something crashed downstairs.

 “I guess that’s true but as you can see, he’s a bit, um... clumsy.”

 Tomus suddenly ran up the stairs and past the two of them, dropping several oranges from the plastic bag he was carrying; Kent was in hot pursuit, some of the tape still stuck to his face. As if to prove Glesto’s point, he tripped at the top step and awkwardly fell on his stomach with a painful thud, leaving Tomus to run off blowing raspberries.

 “ARGH!! Oww... Maaan, this sucks," Kent groaned as he slowly rolled over. He sat up to see Glesto and a very amused Lucas watching him from the corridor.

 “So, I guess my brother did it again huh?”

 “Dude, don’t even get me started. Just how many of these damn tangerines does he have?”

 “Too many for our sake. And those were oranges, just saying.”

 Glesto helped Kent back up on his feet while Lucas went to gather the oranges lying around on the stairs. They could hear murmuring from the students downstairs.

 “Hey Glesto, a little help cleaning up?”

 “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I mean, we should certainly clean up but the DM’s going to arrive any minute now.”

 “Oh s**t, you’re right.”

 The three of them went up to 3B to wait out the Discipline Master’s arrival. Tomus was nowhere to be seen, although he did leave a scarce trail of stray oranges (“Yeah well, that’s my brother for you. Being an idiot, like always.”). Not long after, they heard a distinctively formidable voice booming up the stairwell; it could only have belonged to one person.

 “This is probably that Rheeman boy’s doing again, the nerve of him. We’ll need to have this mess cleared up immediately. I’ll go find the boy, just get some cleaners here.”

- - - - - - - - - -

 Tomus had been camping it out in the restrooms.

When the bell rang to signify the end of recess, he had tried to creep back to the 1C homeroom. He even had his route all planned out: a quick detour upstairs via the lift, a run past the fourth year homerooms and then back down the stairwell to 1C while most definitely avoiding 3B where the Discipline Master would be interrogating Glesto.

  He could have very well succeeded in sneaking back were it not for the luckless fact that the DM had been waiting to relieve himself at the very cubicle Tomus was hiding in.

 Ultimately, Tomus got dragged back outside 3B alongside Glesto and Kent. They were standing side by side outside the homeroom; Lucas was peeking at them from the stairwell even though classes should have already started.

 At the moment, Tomus was getting the brunt of the lecturing.

 “So, you think you’re funny, huh? Pulling pranks on your seniors and disrupting classes, this all a big joke to you, is it?”

 “Um, excuse me, sir," Glesto blurted. “I don’t think this was Tomus’s doing.”

 “Standing up for you brother again? I must say, young man, you are rather naive.”

 “But sir, he-”

 The DM held up a hand to silence Glesto.

 “Kent, what exactly happened just now?”

 Kent pursed his lips; as much as he didn’t like Tomus, he hated the Discipline Master more than anyone.

 “Uhh, it was all just a big misunderstanding…”

 “Really? Is that so?”

 “Um, yeah man. It was someone else and we didn't see who it was. That’s all it was, uh, sir.” Kent leaned backwards as the DM, who towered over everyone, glared down at him. Tomus was shaking a little; he seemed to be suppressing an urge to laugh and was getting desperate side glances from Glesto.

 “Well, boys. If I find out that either of you are trying to cover up for him-” the DM glanced at Tomus, "-or anyone else who may be involved in this mess, you’ll get it from me. Am I understood?”

 “Yes, sir.” Glesto was the only one who replied, but the DM didn't really seem to care.

 “Good. Now back to your classes with you.”

 Tomus scurried off in the direction of the stairwell where Lucas was still watching, his head popping back behind the corner. Kent (“That stupid frikkin’ Derp Master," he mumbled) and Glesto lamely shambled into 3B where their math teacher was about to begin, the Discipline Master still staring them down from the corridor. Their classmates inside were either chatting or looked at them as they entered.

 The teacher himself was wearing a green checkered shirt with dark grey jeans. He was young, one of the newer teachers, and at the moment he seemed rather flustered.

 “Oh, there you are. Come on, back to your seats so we can get started.”

 The two quietly sat down next to each other like usual. Kent was still reeling from the Discipline Master’s authoritative aura. Glesto just looked pretty bored, like he usually did; after all, he had already read through and memorised everything in their math syllabus.

 “And now everyone is here and accounted for. Good! So uh, today, we will be beginning on a new chapter so can everyone please turn to page 43?” The teacher turned to the whiteboard and swiftly wrote a single cursive word in red marker. It was utterly ineligible.

 “That’s right! Today, we’re doing Integration!” This was met with groans and sighs from half the homeroom, while the other half was still trying to process what was going on. Kent was from the latter.

 “Now, now, it’s not that bad. Heads up, Glesto!”

 “Huh? Yes, Mr Harton?” He was still flipping to page 43.

 “Please do, uh, questions 1 and 2 on the board. I know you’ve already read everything.”

 “Alright.”

 “As for question 3, let’s see… Kent, you’re up!”

 Kent was already nodding off; he hadn’t even taken out his textbook.

 “...Wha? Wait, me?”

 “Yes you, now get a marker and come up front.”

 Glesto produced two markers from his pencil case.

 “I got a spare, if you still haven’t bought yours.”

 “Thanks.”

Author's Note

Yeeeaah, this chapter is for establishing the characters' personalities. I *may* have tried a bit too hard and landed flat on my face with it but just give your honest opinions as always.

Reviews

[Matthew Ian Herrawood W]

I don't have time to finish this chapter right now but thought I would mention at the elevator scene you have written Welp twice within approximately 6 lines of each other instead of well. I'm getting worried your going to write Welp at some point and not mean "well"