Chapter Text
“I’m so glad we’re finally able to hang out!” Paper exclaimed. “It’s been so long since we’ve last seen each other in person.” Paper smiled at OJ.
It was the Thursday after OJ’s baseball game that Paper got to attend to see his friend. And he was very proud of his best friend. Paper always knew OJ was a great baseball player, but seeing him play in person was a crazy experience. OJ was possibly the best baseball player ever, and Paper had seen a couple MLB games before. What shocked Paper the most though was how nonchalant OJ was about how good he was. He would always say it was the pitcher making it easy or that he could be better, but Paper couldn’t imagine OJ getting even more good.
“I mean, we talk all the time.” OJ pointed out. They were both walking down their neighborhood to go to their nearby ice cream shop, which wouldn’t take too long, but they got distracted easily so it would probably be a fifteen minute journey. Since today was hot, he wore a light blue tank top that was laying around in his room and an orange jacket. Why was he wearing an orange jacket? Idk plot reason
Paper shrugged. “Well, yeah. But that’s on the phone. I think hanging out with you in person is just superior.” He smiled a bit and stepped closer to OJ. “I love seeing your dumb face in person.” He joked. Paper was wearing a regular, short sleeved white shirt with that one stupid looking whale on it.
OJ smirked. “And I love hearing your high voice in person.” The two best friends were quite the jokesters.
The two boys walked down the street, cracking jokes and pointing out things they saw as they passed. They passed by the old corner where they’d try to stack rocks at, the house where they would get to pet the cat, and the bush they’d throw bird food in so they could scare the birds. Now, as older and more mature versions of themselves, they would still do that. At the corner, they picked up the tiny pebbles and tried stacking them on the giant rocks. At the house, they begged to see the cat, and then pet the old thing.
“Do you have any bird food?” Paper asked OJ when they came to their old bush.
“...Why would I have bird food on me?” OJ asked back.
Paper shrugged. “Well, I mean, you always had the bird seed on you when we were young.”
“That’s because I stole it from my mom’s bird feeder.”
“Why would you do that?! Your mom was so nice to me back then!”
“Was?”
“Well, she still is but—” Paper groaned and then laughed. “I see what you’re doing. But your mother is the nicest human being on the planet. At your game yesterday, she kept on telling me how she missed seeing us hang out all the time because we were cute back then. Like cute kids.” Paper clarified, tucking a loose curl of hair behind his ear. “And then she asked about my musical and she’s sad that she can’t come because of a work meeting.”
OJ frowned. “Wait, like the work meeting in a couple weeks? That work meeting is at the same time of your play?”
“Musical.” Paper quickly corrected. “But yes. It’s on Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning.”
At that moment, OJ’s heart fell. On Friday night, OJ had a baseball game a couple hours away in a different town, and then on Sunday morning, it was the start of the summer league championships. It seemed like Pape’s musical wasn’t going to be the only thing OJ’s mom would be missing. “Um, Paper? I’m not sure if I'll be able to make it.” OJ squeaked out. “I have games on Friday and Sunday.”
Paper looked concerned for a moment, then smiled. “Well, there’s always Saturday. You’ll be able to make it then.”
OJ felt a wave of relief rush over him at that moment. “Oh, thank god.” The two started walking down the sidewalk again. “I’d feel guilty if I weren’t able to come to your show. You always come to my sports games, so I want to return the favor and come to yours.” He paused to turn to Paper. “I feel like it would be worse to miss your show more though because of all the hard work you put into it.”
Paper’s pale face turned a bit red. “Well, I mean, you put a lot of effort into your games.”
“Sure, but you’re always at your practices! And when you’re not, you’re always practicing your lines. You’re the reason why we haven’t hung out as much this summer.” OJ laughed.
Now Paper’s face turned red. “Hey, wait, I didn’t mean to do that–”
“Wait, sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.” OJ quickly apologized. “It’s not like it’s necessarily a bad thing. It kind of just means that we have different interests.” He turned to the sky, making this whole situation seem cinematic. “It might mean we might drift away at one point. It…Makes sense. We’re really different people, so it’s kind of a miracle that we’re even best friends.”
The two just stood there for a moment. Paper was in shock at what OJ just said. “OJ, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t ever want to drift away from you.” He said firmly.
Wait, what the hell did OJ even say? He was literally just spewing nonsense and had no reason to be saying any of that. “Oh shoot, Paper. I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean any of that, what I said was nothing important. Nevermind that.”
Paper seemed a little disheartened from OJ’s comment, and he looked like he was trying to hide it. “...Let’s go. The ice cream shop isn’t too far, and we’re only delaying it.”
OJ frowned, but followed Paper as he walked. “Okay, then.”
The two boys started walking again. However, they were silent now, and didn’t say anything, which was because they were silent. They walked side by side silently, and didn’t dare say a word, shifting their focus towards the scenery, like the trees, the sky, the houses, and the park. Wait, holy cow! That was THEIR park. Well, technically it wasn’t their park, it was just the park that they went to a lot. Well, technically, it wasn’t just the park they went to, but the park that they, Pickle, Bomb, and Taco always visited when they were bored in middle school! How nostalgic!
“Oh my god, OJ!” Paper exclaimed. “It’s our park! I forgot it existed after that tree fell down on it!” Paper grabbed OJ’s shoulders and started shaking his friend.
“You’re right!” OJ answered. He grabbed Paper’s hand. “We should go!” He turned to Paper and smirked at him. “Last one to slide is a rotten egg!” He let go of Paper’s hand and started running towards the swings.
“H-hey! Wait!” Paper shrieked, and then went after OJ.
Even though OJ was one of the fast runners on the baseball team, Paper was somehow just as fast as him. Paper ran up to OJ and tried pushing him out of the way. OJ stumbled to the ground, and then grabbed Paper’s ankle to pull him down with him. They were on the grass now, so when they fell down, it didn’t hurt. When OJ and Paper saw each other covered in dirt and grass, they burst out laughing.
OJ smiled at Paper. “What, do I have sticks in my hair or something?”
“You have dirt covering the left side of your face!” Paper shriek-giggled.
“Really?” OJ reached towards the right side of his face.
“No, left side of your face.”
OJ wiped the dirt off his face. “Wait, Paper, turn around.” OJ stood up and dusted the dirt off his knees and elbows.
Paper stood up and did a little spin. The back of his white shirt was stained green from the wet grass. “Do I have sticks on my back?”
“Your entire back is green!”
Paper turned back to OJ, his expression pure horror. “Oh my god. My mom’s gonna kill me!”
“Wait, no, take this!” OJ stripped himself of the orange jacket and gave it to Paper. “This should cover it up.”
Gratefully, Paper took the jacket, then paused. “...OJ…It’s the middle of summer. Why would I be wearing a jacket?”
“...Do you want to hide the stain?”
“Yes please.” Paper grabbed the jacket from OJ and put it on. Seeing Paper wearing OJ’s jacket made OJ feel…Weird. Eh, it was probably the switch from overheating in the jacket to wearing just a tank top. “Okay, let’s go swing.”
ִֶ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ .࿔ ࣪˚｡⋆⚾︎
“So you’re saying that you lost that stupid baseball game because that so-called ‘team captain’ struck out?” Teddy asked Jack. “Jesus.” She huffed.
Jack nodded his head furiously. “Yes! It’s so stupid!” He crossed his arms and turned to the side.
Spikey gave the two a hesitant look. “Well, Baseball was trying his hardest.” He reasoned.
“I’m sure the rest of the team was trying their hardest. Especially, y’know, THE ONES ON BASE.” Jack pointed out. “It’s bad that he can’t hit the ball properly, but it’s terrible if the captain who is supposed to be the best baseball player can’t hit the ball.”
At that moment, Jack and his friends, Teddy, Tapey, Spikey, and Bell, sat at a bench outside of the nearby ice cream shop. They usually meet up at least once or twice each week in the summer, as they are a pretty tight friend group, though Jack and Teddy could be slightly irritating. They all got scoops of ice cream, and were talking so much that they didn’t notice the ice cream melting.
“Your team sounds like it’s kinda pathetic.” Teddy stated. “They just obey Baseball like he’s the king? That’s messed up.” She poked at her peanut butter ice cream. “I know what the so-called captain is like, and I obviously know about you and Spikey, but are the other people on the team like?”
Jack took a deep breath, not sure where to start. “Hm… Let’s see…” He thought for a moment. “OJ wants things to always come out the way he wants, but he’s a good player. Balloon thinks he’s an underdog, when he really isn’t. Nickel…” Jack turned back to the ice cream shop, where he saw Nickel in his uniform. Nickel looked miserable and tired in the heat. “Nickel is okay I guess. Pickle and Trophy are fine but annoying, Bomb has a jerky throw, Yin seems to be scared of the ball, and Yang is too busy trying to mess up the other team to help our team. Not to toot my own horn, but I’d say I’m probably the best player.”
Tapey gave Jack a side eye. “That’s a bit narcissistic, Jack. You’re saying that as a high school Freshman.”
“Whatever, Tapey.” Jack growled.
“Where are the girls on the team?” Teddy asked Jack, her tone sounding a bit offended by the lack of gender diversity on the team. “I bet if there were a bunch of girls on the team, you guys would have the wisdom to win.”
That idea made Jack choke on his ice cream. He laughed. “Girls? On a baseball team? That’s a funny joke.” When he saw Teddy’s very serious and angry face, he took back what he said. “I mean, girls can’t be on baseball teams. Baseball is a boy sport. That’s why they made softball. Softball is a girls sport.”
Everyone kinda just stared at Jack in disbelief.
“...No, Jack.” Tapey disagreed. “Girls can play on baseball teams, though it’s not exactly common to see women on those teams. Baseball is not a ‘boy sport’ and not strictly for boys, as all genders can enjoy it. Same way with how softball is not a ‘girl sport’.”
Jack was obviously upset he was proven wrong, but tried to mask his sexism. “Pfft, whatever, Chatgpt.” He rolled his eyes. Tapey wasn’t that impressed.
Bell cleared her throat and spoke up. “Wait, no, Tapey’s right! On my softball team I was on when I was in elementary school, there were two boys on the team.”
“Yeah, good job proving the oppressors wrong, Bell!” Teddy cheered, wrapping their arm around Bell. “See? My girlfriend is awesome!” She kissed Bell’s cheek. “Jack, I bet you’re sexist because you can’t get a girlfriend!” She taunted him.
Jack looked to the side. “Shut up, Teddy!”
ִֶ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ .࿔ ࣪˚｡⋆⚾︎
OJ and Paper sat next to each other on the swings. They weren’t moving at all, but they were talking about how their own respective lives were going so far.
“Rehearsals aren’t bad. We have a little bit before hell week starts, which is rumored to be pretty rough, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Paper shrugged. “At least it’s not school though.”
OJ stared at Paper in disbelief. “Hell week? What are the directors doing to you poor actors?!”
“I–Uh, no, OJ. Hell week is just a nickname. It’s also known as tech week.” Paper clarified, and OJ breathed a sigh of relief. “It shouldn’t be that bad. It’s just us rehearsing the show over and over again during the week. I think we even get served dinner when we do it. It’s fun because I get to spend a bit of time with some of my new friends.”
For some reason, OJ felt a little bit jealous hearing about ‘new friends’. Well, that was fair. OJ couldn’t be Paper’s only friend. Changing the subject, OJ asked “So, I know you’re playing the Lion in your play—”
“Musical.”
“In your musical, but like, what even is the musical?” OJ asked, hoping he didn’t forget something that Paper told him.
“It’s the Wizard of Oz, y’know, like the movie.” Paper answered.
“...I’ve never seen it.”
Paper gave OJ a look that screamed ‘you fucking idiot how have you never seen it’. “...Well, it’s about this girl from Kansas that gets into a tornado and is brought to a land called Oz.” He jumped off the swing and did a lion-y pose. “I play the Lion, which is a lion that doesn’t have any courage.”
“Well, lions don’t typically have much courage.” OJ muttered. “Who plays the other characters?”
Paper thought for a minute, and started listing off a bunch of people with roles that OJ didn’t know. “Paintbrush is the Scarecrow who lacks a brain, Silver is the Tin Man who lacks a heart—”
OJ smirked. “Fitting.”
“Uh… Oh, yeah, Marshmallow is Dorothy, Soap is Glinda, Cheesy is the Wizard of Oz, and Clover is the Wicked Witch.” OJ had no idea who any of those characters were, but he didn’t mind. “And then Apple, Bot, Lightbulb, Goo, and Bell are in the ensemble, where they’re usually the Munchkins and the Flying Monkeys. That sounds weird without context, but you have to trust me that they’re normal enough. And then Test Tube, Fan, Cabby, Poppy, and Starfruit are all tech crew.”
“...That’s cool.” OJ smiled. “All of you guys make sense to be doing drama, as you’re all so dramatic.”
Paper nodded his head. “Especially Silver. Now, tell me about your team. What are you guys like? How’s Jack?”
“Your little brother’s fine. He’s kinda annoying though. He started picking on Baseball though about his hitting, which is like, a stupid move to pick on the actual team captain.” OJ said. He wasn’t at all worried about Paper getting upset that he’s bad mouthing his brother since he knew Paper really wanted to see if Jack was doing something stupid to tease Jack about. “But other than that, he’s doing pretty good for a freshman. Makes pretty good moves.”
Paper nodded his head. “I usually have to pick him up after practices and games, and he seems pretty annoyed afterwards. Especially at Baseball.”
OJ shrugged. “I think the entire team might start getting annoyed at Baseball if he doesn’t hit the ball anymore.” OJ started kicking his legs back and forth on the swings so he could go a bit higher. “Paper, wouldn’t it be cool if I jumped?” He shouted when he was a couple feet in the air.
“No, it wouldn’t!”
“I’m gonna jump!”
“Please don’t!”
“I’m gonna do it!”
“OJ, please don’t—”
OJ jumped.
He soared through the air for like a couple seconds before falling down. Unfortunately, Paper was right in front of him, and OJ accidentally jumped and landed onto him. Both boys fell onto the grass again, with OJ landing into a position where he was straddling Paper but also pinning him against the ground. What an unfortunate way to land. The two looked at each other, both bright red.
“I uhhm;g ummgf uhm’ghm” OJ stuttered out, trying to get off of Paper. Again, unfortunately, OJ and Paper tripped on each other when getting and landed in a position where Paper was just an inch away from kissing OJ. The two quickly pulled away, both steaming from the really hot weather and the situation they got in.
“...Uhhhhh….” Paper tried calming himself down by rubbing his elbow. “So uh… The–The ice cream shop! Ju–Just a block away!”
“Yep!” OJ forced a laugh that sounded very fake. “Yep! Just a block away! Why don’t we go!” He grabbed Paper’s hand, which made the other boy jump from the physical contact. OJ didn’t even realize what he was doing, and started pulling them back on track towards the ice cream shop.
On the way, a group of familiar looking people stopped and looked at them from a distance. “Hey, homos!” The unmistakable voice of Pickle exclaimed.
“Oh, hi Pickle!” OJ exclaimed, waving his non-Paper hand at Pickle, not even registering the fact Pickle called the two boys ‘homos’. As they got closer, OJ recognized Pickle, with his girlfriend, Taco, and their other friend, Bomb. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We’re just out getting ice cream.” Pickle shrugged. “Nothing much. Anyways, what are you…two doing?” He hesitated.
OJ looked down at his hand, and actually realized that he was holding Paper’s hand like real, romantic couples. Paper was silent and looking at OJ’s hand, his face still really red. That was probably from when OJ accidentally landed on him and nothing else. OJ quickly pulled his hand away and pretended they weren’t ever touching.
“What a small world!” Paper exclaimed, as if trying to change the subject away from him and OJ. “We were also going to the ice cream shop! It would be really cool if we also went together as a group! Does that sound good?”
“I’m fine with that.” Pickle nodded.
“Sour cream!” Taco exclaimed, jumping up and down.
“G-g-guys, please, I ca-can’t be a third wheel again.” Bomb stuttered.
Paper cocked his head. “Hm? What did you say?”
“I-I said th-that it would be n-n-nice for you two to join us!” Bomb clarified.
ִֶ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ .࿔ ࣪˚｡⋆⚾︎
Nickel leaned up against the counter of the ice cream shop he worked at, feeling utterly humiliated. First off, the stupid uniform was ugly and made him look like a twink. Second off, Cheesy decided to come into work today with his stupid script and was making Nickel practice his lines with him. Third off, a bunch of customers who were on Nickel’s baseball team decided to come in, like Yin, Yang, and Trophy, as well as Jack and Spikey earlier, so they could all see how ugly Nickel looked! He was lucky that he was a better player than all of these guys so it wasn’t that embarrassing, but Nickel would actually melt if someone like OJ tried ordering ice cream.
“Not so fast! Not so fast… I’ll have to give the matter a little thought!” Cheesy exclaimed in his most Wizard-y voice possible. “I’ll have to give the matter a little thought.” He recited from memory. It was kinda cool how Cheesy was able to memorize all those lines, but also annoying how much effort he was putting into this with the loud voices and the exaggerating motions.
Nickel huffed and looked down at the beat up script that Cheesy gave him. “Tomorrow. Oh but I want to go home now.” He read in the most monotone voice possible.
Cheesy looked at him blankly for another second. “Nickel, there’s other lines you need to read.” He reminded Nickel, returning his voice to normal.
“UGHHHH FINE.” He took a deep breath. “You had pleanty—Oh, look at that!” He exclaimed sarcastically, looking up from the damn script. “A new customer! Wowie! Guess I have to serve them!” He violently swept the script away from him and smiled at the customer coming towards him. “Hi there, what would you like to……order?” Nickel froze when he saw OJ, followed behind by Paper, Pickle, Bomb, and Taco. Great.
OJ scratched his chin and looked up at the menu. “Hm…. I’ll have…” He paused. “I’ll get the vanilla ice cream.”
Nickel nodded his head as he wrote it down. “Cup or cone?”
“Uh… Cone. Wait, no, I’ll get the cup.”
“Okayy… Any toppings?”
OJ froze for a second. “Uhhhhh… How about blueberries and the red fruit.”
Nickel gave OJ a blank look. “‘The red fruit’?”
“I forgot the name of it.”
“Raspberries?”
“No, the other one.”
“Strawberries?!”
“Yeah, that one, please.”
Nickel tried his hardest to keep his cool. “Great. Is that it?”
“Uh, I’ll order too!” Paper exclaimed, jumping in next to OJ. “I’ll have a scoop of orange sherbert in a cup with sprinkles, please!”
“Thanks for being clear.” Nickel quickly shot a glance at OJ. “Is that all, or is there another order?” He wrote down Paper’s short and sweet order.
“Hey, I have an order.” Pickle pushed the two guys away and stepped up. “All of it is on me. I’ll get two scoops of chocolate ice cream in a bowl with chocolate syrup. Please.”
“Okay…” Nickel nodded his head. “Next?”
Taco jumped up and gave Nickel a giant smile. She always gave Nickel a weird vibe that she was faking being stupid, but he would never say that, because he was sure he’d get jumped by someone or something. However, instead of ordering, she just smiled at him.
“...What flavour do you want?” Nickel sighed. “We have mint, vanilla, chocolate, cherry, blue moon–”
“Bloooooo!” She exclaimed. She turned to Pickle, who gave her a thumbs up.
“Do you want it in a cup or a cone?”
“Mmmmmm…….Cone!”
“Any toppings?”
“Sprinkles!” She yelled in her annoying voice that made Nickel want to bang his head against the wall until it cracked open (it as in the wall).
“Great.” Nickel gritted his teeth. “Bomb?” He turned to the last person left.
“I-I-I-I’ll have mint in a cone. N-N-No t-toppings.” Bomb answered. He forgot to say please, but Nickel could overlook that.
Nickel passed the piece of paper with the orders to Cheesy to make. “Great. It’ll be a minute or two.” He said. Pickle pulled out a credit card and took a couple of tries to get it to register, and then it finally processed. Nickel looked at the ground, very bored, while Cheesy hummed to himself as he made the ice cream. After a moment, Cheesy turned to Taco.
“Hey, sorry Taco, but we ran out of sprinkles.” He said sadly.
Taco started bawling and fell dramatically to the ground. “WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” She cried. Nickel had enough of Taco’s weird bullshit of her pretending to be stupid so he fished out his raggedy and somewhat dirty headphones and turned his music on full blast so he couldn’t hear whatever was going on.
ִֶ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ .࿔ ࣪˚｡⋆⚾︎
Finally, after a long while of waiting, the group had settled down at a picnic table to finally enjoy their ice cream. Bomb was a little bit upset that his ice cream was cold, Taco and Pickle ended up switching ice creams because Taco didn’t want hers anymore, but Paper and OJ enjoyed their own respective orange sherbert and vanilla ice cream. As they ate their own ice creams, they joked and giggled with each other.
“Your tongue’s orange.” OJ told Paper.
Paper stuck out his tongue. It was bright orange from the bright orange ice cream. “Eh-ee?” He asked, tongue still stuck out.
“Why would I be lying? It’s not like I’d try to come up with a lie to try and see your tongue.” OJ shrugged.
“Do you want to try my ice cream?” Paper asked, grabbing a spoonful of half-melted ice cream for OJ.
“Sure…” OJ grabbed the spoon from Paper and tried it. The orange sherbert was really…Orange-y. In a bad way, actually. “Ew…”
“You don’t like it?”
“Not really… It’s a very vibrant taste.” OJ explained. “Very… Orange-y. And tangy. How do you like it?”
Paper shrugged as he took the spoon back. “Well, it might be bold, but I like how bold the orange is. It tastes pretty good. How do you manage to like vanilla though? It’s so boring.”
OJ took another bite of his ice cream. “Well, vanilla may be boring, but it’s a very calming flavor. It’s kind of always been…There for me.”
Pickle and Bomb stared in horror at OJ and Paper, while Taco’s jaw dropped. “Oh my GOD will you guys get your flirting out of here!! 😭😭😭 Get a room, for the love of god!” Pickle yelled at them.
“Get out!” Taco playfully yelled.
“Okay fine!” Paper laughed to himself, grabbing OJ and getting up. It was now OJ’s turn to be aware of the hand holding and turn red. “We were probably going to go back to home anyways, so might as well go back now.” He started dragging his friend away. “Bye guys!” Paper exclaimed towards the three.
“...Bye.” OJ mumbled out towards them.
Pickle gave OJ a weird look. “Really? Uhm… Bye then.” He and Bomb gave the two a little wave as Paper started dragging OJ away.
The two boys started leaving the ice cream shop, until they were stopped by someone. “Hey, Jack, isn’t that your brother? I didn’t know he was gay and had a boyfriend.” A raspy voice said. Paper and OJ turned around and saw Paper’s younger brother sitting with a group of four of his friends. It was less of a shock that OJ could be mistaken as Paper’s boyfriend and more that Jack could make a friend, and even crazier, four.
“Hi Jack!” Paper exclaimed, putting a hand on Jack’s head. You’d think that Paper would start harassing/assaulting his lil bro in public to embarrass him, but he’d just be nice to him since he was chill and calm. “Didn’t see you there!”
“...Yeah I wish you didn’t.” Jack muttered. He looked up at Paper and OJ, who were still holding hands. “Oh my god are you OJ finally dating?” He asked.
“What? No, no, we’re not dating!” Paper pulled his hands away. “No, that’s silly! Why would you think that?!”
Jack looked at the ice creams the two were holding. “...Are you serious?”
“...What?” Paper questioned, taking a bite out of his ice cream. “We’re going home right now. Do you want to come with us or anything?”
“No. I don’t think I would be able to stand your mild flirting.” Jack rolled his eyes. “I’d rather spend time with my friends.” He turned to his group of friends.
“Friends? Are you sure about that?” One of the girls, probably Tapey, questioned.
“Oh my god shut up Tapeygpt!” Jack exclaimed.
Paper laughed a bit to himself and started dragging OJ away to go on their walk back to one of their homes. “That was a bit crazy. Imagine us being boyfriends… That’s a weird thought…” Paper hesitated at the end. The more that Paper thought about it, the idea that OJ and him would be with each other… Together… Romantically… That wasn’t that weird of a thought. It was actually a nice idea, actually.
“Yeah…” OJ agreed, his cheeks a light shade of red. “What a weird thought.”