Omni-span 50: people are staring
Aaaalirght, let’s go!!! Btw, this is an AU where Ricardo moved to Charter City sometime in middle school.
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“People are staring.”
“My name is Nathan Park,” the boy said, looking at his own face in the mirror, seeing the way his brows lowered a bit as he said that, his nervousness fading away from his face for once in his life.
“My name is Nathan Park,” he repeated, more confidently this time.
Alright, he could do this. It was just school. Nothing was that different … well, okay, that was a complete lie. But he was going to be fine.
“My name–”
“Honey!” his mother called from the kitchen, “come on, you’re going to be late! Your sister’s already eaten all the corn flakes!”
“U-uh, coming!” Nathan called back, his gaze on the mirror for a moment more before he turned away to grab his bag and make his way to the kitchen.
Nathan grabbed a granola bar from the pantry, too nervous to eat a big breakfast. What if everyone hated him? What if he was bullied? They were all going to stare at him, he just knew it. Jake would be there for him … and he knew Ricardo would, too … but for how long? What if they couldn’t handle hanging out with someone who was mocked every day? Someone who everyone was surely going to hate?
“Nathan,” his mother’s clear voice pulled him out of his thoughts as she placed a hand on his shoulder, “you’re going to have a great day, okay? Call me if you need to come home, but I know you can do this. And don’t worry, I’ve emailed your teachers and principal, and they’ve said they can change the yearbook to–”
“MOOOM! HE STOLE MY HAIRBANDS AGAIN!” Isabelle yelled, interrupting his mother.
His mom gave him a small, warm smile before her expression turned to her mom-stare. “Now, Jason, give that back to her right now. You’re all going to be late for school!”
Maybe things would be okay … if not, he was at least glad to have his family’s support.
When Nathan arrived at school, he tightened his grip on his backpack, holding it close to his chest as he looked around to try and spot Jake. He smoothed his hair out a bit, not used to the short length, as he finally noticed Jake waving to him from the foyer. Seeing his friend relaxed him a bit, and he made his way over to him.
“Wow, Nathan, you look awesome!” Jake grinned, giving his friend a side-hug.
“Thanks,” Nathan smiled shyly. “Where is Ricardo?”
“Oh, he’s coming,” Jake smirked.
Just then, Ricardo ran up to them, holding a teddy bear and shoving it in Nathan’s arms. “Hey dude! Aw, you look hot!”
“W-I do?” Nathan sputtered.
“Hell yeah! I’m so proud of you, dude!” Ricardo grinned, “hence the teddy bear.”
“Uh … thanks,” Nathan gave a small smile before he frowned, looking down, “but … people are staring. I-I knew they would, it just … “
“Hey,” Ricardo said, gently lifting Nathan’s chin. “You look at me, okay? Just focus on me and Jake, and nobody else. They don’t matter. And if they give you a hard time about this, I’ll make them sorry they ever set foot in this school.”
Nathan bit his lip at that, blushing slightly at what his friend had said. He was glad they were there for him … he shouldn’t have doubted they would be. Still, that was anxiety for you.
“Okay, now let’s get to our lockers so we aren’t late for Botany?” Jake suggested, gesturing towards the lockers with a small smile.
“Okay,” Nathan nodded, following his friends towards the lockers.
As they neared his locker, Nathan swore his heart stopped. Because there, on his locker, was a large poster, covered in flowers and smiley faces and crudely drawn unicorns, and on it said “WE’RE SO PROUD OF YOU, NATHAN!” with a pink, white, and blue striped flag below it.
And that … that was enough to make him cry.
He wiped the tears away quickly, but not before Ricardo and Jake had noticed.
“Dude? What’s wrong?” Ricardo asked worriedly, his grin quickly replaced by a frown.
“N-nothing, I just … “ Nathan smiled, “it says Nathan on it.”
Ricardo and Jake gave each other a look, and then Jake smiled, “yeah, it does. Because that’s your name.”
Nathan was grinning now, pulling his friends in for a hug.
“My name is Nathan Park,” he said through his smile, and Ricardo nodded.
“Your name is Nathan Park. And you’re the manliest guy I know.”
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(If y’all couldn’t tell, this was a trans!Nathan fic with some SLIGHT omni-span … hope that was okay for the prompt!)
