ʀᴀɪꜱɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴀᴋᴇꜱ ➸ Jacob Barber

𝓃𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓁𝒶 𝓉𝑜𝒶𝓈𝓉

The next morning, Jacob and Y/N had some time before they had to leave the house. They took this as an opportunity to watch some TV with Andy and eat breakfast before heading to school for another day. Jacob felt uneasy about going, especially after the newspaper clipping on his locker. But Y/N had promised to stand up for him if anyone bothered him about it, all he had to do was stick close to her. 

Andy Barber flicked through the channels, trying to see if there was anything half decent to watch first thing in the morning. As usual, there wasn't. They settled on the local news channel. 

There was a weeping woman on the screen, the mother of the missing boy. "My Daniel was last seen last week when I dropped him off for school. But he didn't come home." The woman took a moment to wipe her eyes against a handkerchief, "If anyone has seen my darling boy, please, please contact the police." 

A photo of the boy showed up on the screen, a photo clearly taken at a birthday party of some sort. The boy was tall, blonde, blue eyes. There was nothing very special about him, nothing that struck Y/N as anything unusual or fantastic. But she knew that the boy was being missed a lot by his loved ones and so she tried her hardest to commit the image of him to memory.

"Awh, shi- sugar." Jacob groaned from the spot on the sofa next to Y/N. She looked over at him and noticed he'd dropped his piece of toast, which was dripping with Nutella, all down his t-shirt. A brown, chocolatey splodge right down his nice clean shirt. 

"Nice one, Jake." Y/N laughed and nudged him, shaking her head softly. He looked at her with a playful grin, reaching for a magazine from the coffee table and ripping out a page, using it to wipe some of the chocolate goo from his shirt.

"Jacob! That's my monthly mechanics magazine, they charge me like twenty dollars a month for that. Just get up and change your shirt!" Andy told Jacob, voice toned with dismay as he watched his magazine perish before his eyes. 

Jacob stood up. The piece of chocolate toast flopping from his shirt onto the ground. Landing chocolate-side down on the carpet.

Andy stared at the mess on his lovely white carpet in silence. He sighed. "Jacob, just go and change. Can't take you anywhere, honestly." 

Y/N fought the urge to laugh like one might fight the urge to sneeze, she watched Jacob tread up the stairs to change and put a hand over her mouth and shook her head. Pretending to be just as disappointed.

༄༄༄༄༄

Jacob and Y/N walked into school, laughing to themselves about the nutella-toast incident from a mere half hour ago. But the moment Jacob's feet touched the interior of their high school, his laughter died down and he went straight back to his cautious mode, as if someone had flipped a switch on him.

Y/N sighed as they both headed back to their lockers to grab the books they'd need for the day. "Remember, stick with me and it'll be fine, okay?" Jacob nodded shyly and shut his locker door, following Y/N to their first class they had together.

They turned the corner and walked passed a group of older boys, Y/N kept her gaze straight ahead as they passed them and sighed with relief when they were away from them. She looked over at-

Where was Jacob?

She turned around and saw he was a few paces behind her, trying to walk passed the group of boys who were making a joke of not letting him pass. "Please, can I get passed I just-"

He pushed his way passed the group but one idiot put his foot out, sending Jacob flying forwards and down to the ground. The boys erupted in guffaw as they ran off, a classroom door opening.

Y/N crouched down by Jacob, "God, what idiots!" She told him as she tried helping him up, he winced and a bruise was beginning to form on his cheekbone from where he hit the ground. A teacher stepped out of the classroom, their shadow lingering over the two of them.

"Jacob, what happened? Everything okay?" 

Y/N turned and saw that it was Mr Wallace standing there, looking at the two with concern. Mr Wallace was an average-sized man, dark-hair yet balding like plenty of other male staff members. He almost always wore a suit-jacket much too big for him, it was almost a cloak. 

"I'm fine, thanks, sir. Just fell." Jacob answered, nodding shortly and shrugging off Y/N's assistance as he stood up again. 

"Alright then. Are you still coming for maths club at lunch?" Mr Wallace asked, eyeing Y/N cautiously.

Jacob shook his head, "Not today, if that's alright. I'm going to go for lunch in the canteen. Try something new, for a change." Jacob finished and gave a polite smile.

"Good idea. Well, hurry on then, you two. Don't want to be late for class." Mr Wallace nodded and headed back into the classroom he'd emerged from moments before. 

Y/N walked down the hallway with Jacob, looking at him curiously. "You should have told him about the boys tripping you up."  Jacob sighed and shook his head.

"No. It's fine." Jacob told her before giving her a smile as they headed into their class together, ready to face another lesson of chemistry.