#2 Fluent Freshmen AU

[jtl-fics]

In honor of April Fools day I will talk a bit about an AU with my favorite fool - (Redacted) Smith that I will probably never write fully but have thought about a bunch of scenes for.

I call it 2 Fluent Freshmen.

Due to a clerical error at both the school and during the local government's push to digitize their documents Smith is noted down as being 2 years older than he actually is and (perhaps a clerical error or maybe no teacher can say if they've had him in class or not) Smith also has enough credits to graduate. Gran has passed away early and there's nothing for him in Washington other than more anxiety.

Wymack & Dan come to Smith when he is 16 and Smith takes the chance to escape from his family IMMEDIATELY. Sure the Foxes are the worst team and sure there's some drama going on with Kevin Day having joined them after his injury but a full ride scholarship is a full ride scholarship!

Smith is rooming with 2 upperclassmen and his only other fellow freshman - Neil Josten. He is not hiding the fact that he can speak Russian, he is hiding the fact that he is 16. Smith ends up pretty close to Seth and Allison due to sharing a dorm / position respectively and just doing his best not to get to close to crazy Andrew Minyard. He does get a bit close with Neil but it's not something he's trying to do.

He's trying to keep his head down and get through the year.

It's a little hard when he is sat on the couch with the Kathy Ferdinand show. It's a lot harder when Riko Moriyama shows up and doesn't realize he's there and just...sits in Smith's lap?? Smith remains as blank faced as ever and what the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT HE FUCKED UP?

Do you know how hard it is to intimidate someone when you're sitting in the lap of some dude? The answer is VERY. Kevin can't take him seriously at all, especially after Smith made a comment that Riko's ass was bony.

Riko goes after them the same but Smith doesn't really get that his anger is at Kevin. "Hey, I'm sorry I called your butt bony on national television. That was rude of me. You should try some squats though." and like what the fuck is Riko supposed to say in the face of some dude genuinely apologizing to him.

It buys enough time that no one is grabbed or slammed.

Seth and Allison drag him out to the bar that night and after a few minutes sitting with Allison Smith realizes that he actually does have to pee and oh god someone's trying to assault Seth! Smith calls upon the powers of Gracie Hart and Seth has a black eye and a concussion but he graduates.

Neil wants Smith to come with him to the Thanksgiving because Neil has latched on a bit. Smith ends up going and also ends up going upstairs to go to the bathroom because oh god he cannot handle Nicky's parents hearing him take an anxiety shit. He's making his way to the end of the hall and sees a penny on the ground so he bends over to grab it.

And Drake Spears is unbalanced from missing his swing and falls right out the open window to the ground below where he breaks his neck. Naturally, Andrew is watching this scene unfold from the stairs and just starts to laugh his ass off. Smith turns around after flipping the penny over (it was tails side up and therefore not lucky) unaware of what has happened.

Smith asks if Andrew wants to use the bathroom. Andrew insists that Smith goes on ahead. The Hemmicks keep asking if they saw anyone upstairs and Smith has no idea what they're talking about, Andrew does but plays dumb out of spite. A day later it's wild that Nicky's parents got arrested. Like they seemed so normal, how did they kill someone and dump him in the side garden??

The Winter Banquet happens and well...it's dark. It's dark and Neil has brown hair and brown eyes and Smith has brown hair and brown eyes. Riko is not the best at judging heights so he calls Smith to threaten him and tell him that he's joining the Ravens for a Winter Break training camp. Jean is doing the most anyone has ever done not to laugh right now.

Riko only realizes his mistake when he's finished threatening Smith with his father and Smith ruins it. Smith is elated to have somewhere to stay over winter break. He can't mention he has nowhere to go so he'd thought he'd spend the break homeless. Now here comes Riko Moriyama inviting him to a camp where room and board will be provided?

What a nice guy. To thank him Smith compliments the gains he's noticed on Riko's ass. "The squats are really helping you, or are you doing something else?" he asks.

What the fuck is Riko supposed to do? ADMIT THAT HE FUCKED UP? Tell Smith that he's been doing squats and leg lifts before asking that he hand the tickets back and go get Neil???

Fuck that.

He'll just turn Smith against the Foxes and-

Well Riko kept talking about Smith's dead dad and so Smith may have a slight misunderstanding about the full scope of this training camp. He may think that there is some sort of seance element to it at this point and he's kind of excited at the idea of talking to his dad. "I've never spoken to a dead man before, this will be fun." and it's delivered flatly with no expression.

Riko starts to wonder if maybe Smith is the Butcher's son? Did the Butcher have two sons? He's sweating all the sudden.

It does not help that Smith brings a Ouija board to camp or that his dad was a legit Butcher before he died so Riko's tentative questioning only sends him further into an anxious mess about if Nathan had twins and Riko, due to being kept away from the family business, might just not be aware of it?

Smith has a nice Christmas break.

The last scene I've got dinging around in the noggin is in Binghamton. Smith has been left behind at many a stadium at this point. There's a solid and fast rule.

Neil cannot get on the bus without Smith. They are buddies. This is the buddy system. So when the riot starts and Neil seems to be getting pulled away in the crowd?

Well Smith grabs his hand and pulls him towards the bus, "Buddy system."

The bus starts and they're on their way shortly after. Neil's an anxious wreck but that next morning he wakes up to the news that the Butcher of Baltimore died in an FBI raid the night before as well as his men.

Smith watches the news with Neil, "Wow, that's scary." as he sips some orange juice.

[aftgficrec]

Hi, can you recommend fics with Andreil being discovered by the new foxes?

Here you go! -A

also see:

freshmen react to andreil 1 here, 2 here

freshmen react/pov outsider here

latest foxes react to andreil here

‘Me and You’ series here

‘midnight love,’ ‘flashes of intimacy ch 14 “devotion,”’ ‘Forever Is A Big Word,’ and ‘Master post for Fluent Freshman AU’ here

‘Allison asks how andreil got together’ here

‘AFTG/TFC minifics…Ch 21’ here

‘Teaching a caged bird to fly’ series here (particularly part 4)

you may also like:

Jack & Sheena being assholes here

Neil fights with Jack here

fics featuring the freshmen here

they match by Ani_Rygaard [Rated G, 2869 Words, Complete, 2021]

Baby Fox finding out about Andrew and Neil cause Neil called Andrew babe.

tw: alcohol, tw: homophobia

Never Have I Ever by hismiley16 [Rated T, 4332 Words, Complete, 2023]

The foxes induct the freshman with a post-preseason drinking game. Things get out of hand and Andrew shuts everybody up.

tw: alcohol, tw: homophobia

The Palmetto State Foxes Rules by Overherenow [Not Rated, 1536 Words, Complete, 2018]

A summary of rules for all freshmen for the Palmetto State foxes Exy team. And some upperclassmen who might forget.

The most beautiful thing ever by poly_pr1nce [Rated T, 1055 Words, Complete, 2018, Locked]

Kevin gets sent a clip from the last winter banquet, and when Allison sees it she agrees all the Foxes need to see it, especially the Freshmen/Cubs so they know what to expect when they piss Neil off or say stuff about Andrew

there's no way JOSTEN has a girlfriend by itadoriminyard [Rated G, 3246 Words, Complete, 2021]

“But it has to be her! Neil literally doesn’t spend time with anyone outside of this team. Like at all. Who could he possibly be dating? Someone on the team?” She asked sarcastically. She was met with silence. “Wait… are y’all serious?” Nicky was positively ecstatic at this turn of events. -- [The freshmen are determined to find Neil's secret girlfriend. Neil and Andrew are unwilling to aid their quest.]

The 5 times Neil wore Andrew's jersey and the 1 time Andrew wore Neil's by Hand_of_the_Alex [Rated T, 2489 Words, Complete, 2016]

Neil hadn’t meant to do it the first time, he just saw orange and white and slipped it on for his late night exy practices with Kevin. Kevin didn’t give any reaction further than an eye roll and a scoff before getting back to exy, so Neil finished the practise wearing Andrew’s jersey.

tw: homophobia, tw: nightmares 

five times christmas meant something by nomadicdeer (someonestolemycoffee) [Rated G, 2359 Words, Complete, 2017]

Neil Josten asks Andrew if they can celebrate Christmas. He decided he likes Christmas quite a bit.

[justeverythingprettymuch]

High School AUs (based on real experiences I’ve had) pt. 2

So, here’s another fifty weird prompts, since people seemed to like the first ones...

(Part 1)

51. You're twice my size and have huge muscles, but you got told off by our teacher for going on your phone, so she took your phone and placed you next to me. I was super nervous, but then you began whispering to me about how the only reason you kept using your phone was because you work at an old age home, and one of the nurses there is sending you updates on the residents. I think I just melted.

52. My friends and I have been calling you "Muscle Man Mark" for the good part of the last two years, but we don't actually know your name or anything about you. All we know is your biceps are the size of your head. One day, you overhear us talking about you and buRST OUT LAUGHING WHEN YOU FIND OUT YOUR NICKNAME.

53. You and your best friend are Russian exchange students and you're in my art class. You are at least a head taller than me and look like you could crush my skull with one hand, but your best friend is the scrawniest motherfucker I've ever seen. You glare at everyone, while he smiles like sunshine. I kind of ship you together... but I'm pretty sure you overheard me say that to my friend, because you both keep looking at me now.

54. Some freshmen stole my group's usual spot and they woN'T LEAVE. You see me getting increasingly irritated because this has been our spot for the last three and a hALF YEARS AND I WILL BE DAMNED IF I LET THEM TAKE IT NOW. You stroll over and tell the freshmen to leave without even explaining why, and they just get up and walk away. Turns out you're their class' assigned prefect, so you pretty much own them AND I AM AWED BY YOUR POWER.

55. My friend and I went to a department store after school. We were apparently more rowdy than I thought because the store manager is coming up to us, looking really angry, but he's wearing a purple shirt and I just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind when I'm nervous... so I say "Doctor Banner this is not the place to Hulk out" and he fucking loses it.

56. Everyone in our friend group knows that we're no longer welcome at the comic book store down the road. There are some crazy theories as to why, but in reality it's because you bought a sword from there and forced me to ducktape it to your arm, then proceeded to try picking a fight with everyone in the store.

57. We were walking through a park in the middle of the night and saw a really weird light in the distance, and our conspiracy-enthused asses immediately assumed it was something crashing to Earth. You turn to me and say; "If this is it, I need you to know... (insert whatever you want)." ... Turns out it was just a weirdly shaped paper lantern.

58. You're my best friend and you've just realized you aren't as straight as you previously thought, but instead of coming out to me in some quiet sort of nervous way, you just turn up at my house one day and throw open the door. Without even checking who was home you yell out; "I'm bisexual, bitches!"

59. We've been friends for years, but we've never been that close. One day you get drunk before school and a teacher noticed, so you get suspended for the rest of the week, and for some strange reason you only told me about it??

60. We were on a school trip and you asked if anyone had a pair of scissors, but no one did. Instead, my best friend pulled out a craft knife and I pulled out a pocket knife with a four-inch blade. You're a little bit concerned.

61. We've been out all night walking around and we've just wandered on to our school's grounds. You insist on climbing up onto the roof - and no, of course we can't just use the stairs, we have to climb a tree and scale the second-storey wall because you're fucking hardcore like that - just so that we can watch the sunrise.

62. You're this really scary-yet-super-smart kid that never really talks to anyone other than the teachers, but one day it's really, really cold and you turn up in a Christmas sweater, and I just... can't compute?

63. You were sitting next to me at lunch while I was searching through my bag for my house keys. I absentmindedly unpacked all the little trinkets I've collected over the past few weeks and just haven't taken out, while you become increasingly curious and simultaneously afraid. I've just taken out 3 lighters, a pocket knife, lip balm, a bus card, a first-aid kit, a small flashlight, a box of matches, like 6 pens, and what looks like it might be a wooden cube covered in blood.

64. We sit next to each other in our music class. I don't know a damn thing about music, while you're pretty much the top student. You're literally in the orchestra and three different bands, all at the same time. I'm barely scraping by in the class, so you take pity on me and teach me a few things.

65. Since sophomore year, you've always been followed around by the younger kids at lunchtime. No one has any idea why, but it always happens. Every semester of every year, you pick one of the students to pretty much become your protege. By senior year, the challenge of becoming your protege has pretty much become our school's Hunger Games and it's absolutely hilarious.

66. Most of our friend group is staying the night at your house, so we've been drinking some beer and playing random games. You and your best friend then decide to put on all your goalie gear and wrestle in the garage, while the rest of us sit on the pool table and question why we're friends with either of you in the first place.

67. I just moved out of my parent's house and into an apartment. You and your best friend are my new roommates, but I only meet you after four days of living there. You call a house meeting as soon as you walk through the door, but when we find you in the living room you've got branches in your hair, mud on your clothes, and you're only wearing one shoe.

68. I had a huge fight with my parents, so I packed some things into a bag and walked out the door. Three hours later, I'm wandering aimlessly through a park and decide to call you for advice, since you moved out of your parents' house for similar reasons. You pick me up twenty minutes later and offer to let me take your couch for as long as I need.

69. I was sitting in the library before school when you came past me and hit me on the head with a pile of paper. When I turn to look at you, you're showing off a twelve-page essay and say; "'Can't do it the night before,' my ass."

70. You had six shots of espresso one after the other right before lunch, then came to sit with our group. You spend the entire hour asking us weird philosophical questions, until eventually you just start asking us what would happen if we laminated certain things. Now we're going around the school asking every technology teacher we find if they have a laminator so that we can test some of these theories. It's for science!

71. You took one of the freshmen under your wing this year, so you go to check up on him at least once a week and insist on buying him food. You have dubbed him your son and will literally tell anyone willing to listen about how great your 'sweet summer child' is.

72. We sit together in class, but we never hang out outside of that class. One day, my friend buys four tickets to a movie premiere for us and a couple of our friends, but one of the people who were meant to go had to cancel, so I ask you if you want to go 'cause I know you've been looking forward to seeing the movie too.

73. We went to go ask a teacher a question, but he gets side-tracked because I'm wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt and he wants to talk about the band. You keep giving me exasperated looks and whispering; "Stay focused, we're on a mission."

74. I was walking down one of the hallways, when you suddenly pulled me into an empty storage room. Before I can even ask what is going on, you shove $70 in my hand, and then push me back out. Why in the hell are you just giving me money???

75. We were on a school field trip, but you were only there when they were taking the roll (at the beginning and end of the trip), so the next day you ask me to give you a quick summary of everything we saw and learnt for when the teacher inevitably asks us what happened.

76. You came in to a meeting for a club we're both in carrying three bags stacked up with apple crumble in little foil trays. And everyone is just like ???? Why?? Turns out no one in your hospitality class likes apple crumble, so you got 30 trays of it for free.

77. We both take the same bus all the way to the exchange every day, but you usually just get on another bus, while I leave the exchange 'cause I live nearby. One day you have to go to a store that's in the same area, so you ask me what street you have to go down to get there and I'm like "How would I know?" and that's how you find out I don't even know the name of the street I LIVE on, I just walk there through muscle memory alone.

78. I was at the grocery store with my mother. I saw you staring at me, so I smiled and said 'hi' as I passed you, but then you tried to say something back, while still walking, and ended up walking straight into a display. I feel really bad for laughing, but that's honestly the funniest thing I've seen all day.

79. You and your girlfriend just broke up, so you come over to my house to distract yourself. We end up watching all the Godfather movies, drinking a 24 box of beer and most of a bottle of vodka. By morning, we are both somehow passably fluent in Italian, though we have no idea how that happened.

80. You stay the night at my house and sleep on my bedroom floor, but you get woken up at three in the morning by my cat who is not happy about you taking up his pile of blankets.

81. We have a movie night/sleepover with our group of friends. We are each other's wing-people with our respective crushes, but neither of us sleep that well and we seem to be the only people who can put up with each other for extended periods of time, so now it's about four in the morning and we're trying not to wake everyone else up while we're giggling about random inside jokes we have.

82. I came for a sleepover at your house, but you have two siblings who are much younger than you, and for some unknown reason your 8-year-old brother is up at six in the morning playing with fuCKING BEYBLADES ON WOODEN FLOOR BOARDS AND IF I HEAR THAT GODDAMN THING GO OFF ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR TO GOD.

83. Your best friend, my best friend, and the two of us are passing a relatively small bottle of 'water' (it's vodka, guys) between us, while we walk with the rest of our group through a super posh neighbourhood in the wee hours of the morning. Given that one of our friends lives in the neighbourhood, we've been ordered to be on our best behaviour and not bring any alcohol to this party. Unfortunately, turns out you are the lightest of all the lightweights and now we're trying our best to hide the fact that you're drunk from the rest of our friends.

84. We're walking around our neighbourhood, just trying to explore a little, but we're also drunk and there's this buff as all-hell guy taking his very small dogs for a walk. The first time we pass the guy, we just coo and tell him he has cute dogs, before continuing on our way, but then we pass him again on our way back around the block. The guy lets us pet his dogs, so we end up just sitting on the side of the road petting these tiny dogs while this big-ass guy just laughs at our weird drunk asses.

85. We met at a party a while ago and exchanged numbers, but we've never really spoken much since. One day, you text me out of the blue asking if I want to come to a family BBQ on Saturday. Apparently your parents are super conservative and literally don't approve of anyone that isn't prim and proper. You want to scare them into leaving you alone when it comes to who you date, and I'm the only person you know that a) wears Iron Maiden and Megadeath t-shirts, b) is very openly queer, c) does not give a single fuck about what others think of me, and d) has a reputation as someone who likes to piss off overbearing parents. So... you think I'll be perfect for the job.

86. We both live really far out of town, so we usually get dropped off really early and have to bus for hours to get home. Because of this, we usually end up spending like and extra 3-4 hours a day together, and so we've sort of gotten super close and know way more about each other than anyone else does. Including your strange obsession with making the perfect whiskey.

87. We've been on-and-off frenemies since freshman year, but we've been hanging out a lot lately. Like, almost the entire school day and then we meet up outside of school to watch movies, go to parties or have sleepovers. In the past week or so, this guy in one of my classes has been trying to hit on me and hang out with me whenever I've got a spare moment, but he keeps getting shut down because you're always with me. Now, practically everyone we know is convinced we're dating.

88. You and your best friend sometimes spend your lunchtimes with my group of friends, and you are both super intimidating, but super cute underneath. Most people don't realize this until they see the two of you together because that's almost the only time you guys let it show. Like that time you hand-fed each other pizza, or that time you were trying to sing together but you kept getting distracted and laughing. I ship it SO HAAARD.

89. We were in class and our teacher knew that none of us would be doing any work today, so she gave us a short quiz to do and then started just chatting with us. She is a really adorable and sweet old lady who is always friendly and supportive of us all, though she thinks partying and smoking and stuff like that is horrible. The conversation somehow got onto this fact, and you called me out as being someone who parties relatively often, so I called you out by saying; "Well, you smoke all day every day, so let's focus on that." And our teacher thought I meant you smoke marijuana, and that's how we ended up finding out that this adorable tiny lady doesn't mind people smoking weed as long as they’re responsible about it. AND she once accidentally threw out $300 worth of her son's weed because she didn't realize what it was.

90. One lunchtime you brought up some kind of fact about the Soviet Union, and it reminded me of the story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko... and that's how we found out we were both obscure history buffs and we ended up spending four hours talking about all the random stuff we knew.

91. You're an art student and your folio is due in a few hours. You haven't slept in two and a half days and you've had so many energy drinks that you can hardly even see straight, but you're still really determined to get things done. I come to the art studio at lunch time to keep you company, but I end up having to stop you from drinking dirty water and walking into a wall, since apparently your brain isn't doing the job for you.

92. We're frenemies, so we don't always get along, but we live nearby each other and are usually free at the same times because we have our free period at the same time and often work the same hours. Because of this, we are often the only members of our group of friends that can meet up regularly. One day, I owed you some food so I bought you a 6 for $5 pack of muffins ('cause I'm cheap and don't like you) and came over to your house to watch the Breakfast Club. Your sister and her friend are also there, and they think they're being quiet, but I can hear them talking about how they think we're dating.

93. We went to the beach to hang out with a bunch of people we were friends with, but who were not in our immediate group of friends. Because of this, we weren't as comfortable around the other people there, so we mostly stuck to each other for the night. Anyway, around 9PM a large group of college students sort of stumbled in to where we were all sitting around a fire, and asked if they could join us. By the end of the night, all of the college students are convinced we're dating, won't believe us when we say we're each other's wing-people, and have dubbed us 'Star-crossed Lovers'.

94. You're house sitting at your neighbour's 50 acre farm and invite me over for a few days because the farm has goats on it and you know I love them to death. By the time I have to leave I'm genuinely considering just stealing one, while you think my love for goats is the cutest thing you've ever heard.

95. We went to the beach for a party, but at one point I managed to somehow hurt my toes. I don't remember how it happened, only that you were there and I ignored it at the time. In the morning my toes are kinda blue and I can't bend them, and we later discover that I somehow managed to break two of my toes. You feel really bad since the whole night had been your idea, and you had been involved in how I got hurt, though you won't tell me what happened.

96. You broke your nose twice within a couple weeks, so you have to get surgery to fix it since it's so bad that you can't breathe properly anymore. After the surgery, you aren't allowed to really do much of anything for a while, so I come over with some of our friends to keep you company and make sure you're okay.

97. It's waaaaay too hot outside, but we're supposed to hang out so you come over with ice cream. You find me lying down on my kitchen floor, feeding my cats ice chips.

98. We have our birthday on the same day, so we decide to throw our party together. We invite all of our friends, mutual and otherwise, to your house for the day. By the end of the night, there's been at least three fist-fights, one guy climbed on your garage's roof in nothing but his underwear, and we're both questioning why we ever thought this was a good idea.

99. You're my ride home from a friend's house, but you have to stop at your house to grab something before we go. Once we get there, you make me hot chocolate and leave me alone with your dog, while you go get ready. When you come back, your dog is sitting on my lap - despite being huge as hell - and refuses to move.

100. We jokingly proposed to each other because we're the only people we know who want to have a pagan handfasting ceremony instead of a 'normal' wedding, and one day your mum came up to us while we were at your house and asked you, "Well, have you asked her yet?" And when you asked what she meant she sarcastically said; "To marry you, obviously." Caught off guard, you immediately blurted out; "How did you know about that?" ... turns out your mum actually wanted to know if you'd asked me to come camping with the family yet, but she was suddenly much more interested in "WHat do you meAN YOU PROPOSED?" which led to an awkward hour of us having to explain that you hadn't actually proposed, it was a joke. We swear.

Hope you like my rollercoaster life. Like before, if you happen to use these for a story, I would love it if you could tag me or send me a link or something. I’d love to read them!

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 03

PREVIOUS

In the Fluent Freshman AU I could see a moment where Andrew kind of misses having Renee around. She was a nice quiet support for him during her time at Palmetto and now she’s graduated. Bee suggests that Andrew try and make a new friend, he can try with someone on the team even.

Andrew, initially, thinks it’s a stupid idea. He real hates pretty much every sophomore (Jack’s group) and pretty much all of the new freshmen irritate him since they’re always trying to steal Neil’s attention with all their fucking problems. The only freshman that he has no opinion on (and therefore is miles and miles ahead of everyone else) is the quiet one that he glowered at pretty early on for staring at Neil’s scars.

Except now, with the knowledge that the kid is a foreign language major, he was probably just trying to figure out what language him and Neil were talking in since the kid isn’t phased at all when Neil absentmindedly used his shirt to wipe away sweat on his face. Everyone else had LOOKED but the kid had just continued on as if it were nothing.

Nicky likes him a fair bit and has assured both Andrew and Neil, after the fourth time the kid power walked away from them, that he’s not homophobic just due to circumstances public displays of affection make him deeply uncomfortable. The Foxes have pasts and if the kid isn’t going to make it their problem then Andrew isn’t about to get irritated over it.

(Nicky doesn’t elaborate that those circumstances being that he understands that Andrew is telling Neil all the places (geographical locations) that he wants to kiss Neil and where he’d do it. He’s really not a prude but how did watching Cars 2 result in this level of dirty talk?! He’s just trying to actually get to see these movies everyone keeps referencing so that he can join in on the conversation)

The kid’s quiet company the few times Andrew’s been in it and Neil has been making some slow progress on getting the kid to open up. Andrew knows that the kid has his own weekly meetings with Betsy and he’s not about to pry.

(It’s social anxiety and stress related. No he has not told Betsy about the whole Russian situation because she’d be mad at him right? Everyone keeps telling him that Betsy and Andrew Minyard are close and that Andrew is her favorite even if she can’t admit to having something like that. She’s nice but what if she gets mad about it and tells Wymack that he’s not fit mentally to be on the team? Then what? He can’t afford college without a sports scholarship. Oh god- Betsy spends a lot of time walking him through stress relief and not worst case scenario-ing every interaction)

Andrew figures that if nothing else this kid is fine with sitting in stony silence. If it doesn’t work then w/e he tried.

So, to Fluent Freshman’s absolute horror and dismay, Andrew Minyard starts to hang around him even when Captain Neil ISN’T AROUND. He becomes unbeatable at Poker and fluent in Japanese if not fully literate.

Once it’s just Andrew and Fluent Freshman sitting in absolute silence for an hour. This might be the nicest time Andrew’s had with someone not part of his family since Renee left. “You ever consider learning Russian?” Andrew asks.

Fluent Freshman’s award winning performance starts here.

“No, I have never considered taking Russian classes here.” He responds turning a page in his book on Esperanto (he thinks it’d be fun) because why take a class for a language he’s already fluent in. He’s bad at lying but he’s GREAT at just not saying the truth.

Andrew doesn’t say anything in response and they continue to sit in silence until Fluent Freshman has to get up and go quietly have a panic attack.

Everyone, except Nicky, all think that Fluent Freshman’s the second coming of Andrew’s general apathy. Bee is proud of Andrew for willingly sitting next to someone in almost complete silence. Andrew says it helps that there’s someone else like him (Bee is confused because Fluent Freshman is known to bring his own brown paper bag to hyper-ventilate into but she says nothing.)

Only Nicky knows the full extent. Fluent Freshman is doing breathing exercises, taking pepto bismol to help his stress related stomach ulcer, and considering using his art gen-ed for theater so that he can commit to this bit better.

Fluent Freshman kind of gets used to Andrew’s quiet company until one day they’re an hour and a half into their usual absolute silence when Fluent Freshman gets up to grab something Andrew looks at him and goes “Hey wanna learn how to use a knife?” And Fluent Freshman stiffens up and straight up faints.

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