A Fresh Start (Joe x Orel Moral Orel Fanfic)

Chapter 10

3rd POV

- 3 days later

"Morning Orel!" Tommy said with a cheerful tone as he plopped a small stack of papers onto his desk. "Here's the copies you asked for. Sorry it took so long, the copy machine was being difficult."

Orel reached over to grab the stack and skillfully jogged the paper by hand. "Thanks Tommy, its alright, as long as I have them by tomorrow it'll be okay."

Tommy hummed in response and pulled a chair over to Orels desk. "Anything new happen recently?" He asked. "...Have you talked to Doughy at all?"

"I guess so. There's this guy, and I think he likes me or something. I'm probably just reading it wrong though." He shut off his laptop, giving Tommy his full attention. "What else did you say? Sorry."

Tommy pulled at his collar in an awkward manner. "Oh, uhm, thats nice!" One of the desks close to Orel creaked as he sat on it. "Aheh, I said, have you talked to Doughy these past couple days?"

This gave Orel a chuckle. "Doughy? Yeah, I had the chance to talk to him when he was looking after the kids. That was actually when I started talking to that guy." He blushed, lowering his voice. "Again."

"Again? You gotta tell me who this guy is!" Tommy giggled to himself. "Well," Orel paused and thought of what to say. "You'll have to guess. We went to school with him back in Moralton, he's got black hair-"

"Oh my God, is it Billy? I think he had black hair..." The blonde kicked his legs back and forth as he ran his memory, thinking of the kids in their main friend group at the time. "Nope, he's a bit more...wild? Impolite? I don't want to give it away."

"Impolite? Well the only impolite kid with black hair that ever stuck out to me was Joe. Was that his name? Never really knew him." Orel smiled at the mention of his name and nodded. "Yes, Joe! Glad your memory from Moralton is still in-tact."

"Wish it wasn't." He cocked his head. "You and Joe? Let's hope he's more handsome than he was."

Both men laughed a bit, then Tommy raised an eyebrow as he inquired further. "Is he? I'm curious if he's changed much."

"Ah...uhm, I guess he's a lot taller now, same haircut though. And a nice stubble..." Orel pictured Joe in his mind, blushing evermore. "He could be handsome, in a rugged, tough kinda way.."

Tommy jumped to his feet. "Like hunky? I hope so, you need someone like that! I, personally, like the sweeter ones."

"I mean, he can be kinda sweet sometimes. It's strange, I didn't really expect him to act like that around me." He narrowed his eyes and playfully shot a smug look at Tommy. "Sweeter, as in Doughy?"

Tommy perked up and tried to hide his blush by looking to the side. "No! Yeah, he's sweet, but I just don't think he's interested. And it seems to me that he's distracted with someone else, anyway..."

"I know you like him, Tommy, but whatever you say. From my perspective, I don't see him fawning over anyone, but if that's what you think then that's your loss."

He rolled his eyes and took a sweet out of Orels 'reward bowl'. "Class is gonna start soon. Oh, and, I'm gonna need those vocab flashcards from unit 4 tomorrow. Can you drop them off sometime today?"

As Orel was about to respond, Tommy walked out the door and towards his classroom. "They're..in the cupboard, to your left..." His voice trailed off and he tiredly laid his head down on his desk, using his hands to provide some coushin for him. Just before the bell rang, he clutched the cross around his neck. "God, please let this day be somewhat bearable."

-

Orel came home to a silent house. Both children must be asleep, since there was no trail of either anywhere; VeggieTales wasn't even on.

Relieved at the peaceful atmosphere, he headed to his room and stripped to his underwear. He picked out his favorite pastel blue pajamas that had little puppy faces all over them.

He sat down on the bed and his eyes darted for the remote. Instead, he saw the home phone, and was reminded of Joe's word's a few days ago. Orel felt hesitant, yet he cuddled up under the covers and took the phone to dial Joe's number.

The phone rang and rang, and finally he heard a click accompanied by some other miscellaneous sounds. "Heyy, this is Orel, right? I think I recognize the number."

"Mhm, its me. Is it okay if I call right now?"

"Oh, sure! What's up? Something happen with my Trevor again?" Orel rolled onto his side, yet to respond; it felt too embarrassing. "No, he's fine, just the usual Trevor. Actually, I just wanted to see if you'd like to talk? You told me to call you..."

Joe held his breath, then snickered through the phone. "Sure! We can talk about whatever you'd like. I wasn't expecting you to call, let me get settled real quick,"

"Is this a good time?" A few seconds later and Joe replied, "Yea, yea, your okay. Today is my day off, anyways."

"Ah, thats good." He curled himself up, going into the fetal position. "You still haven't told me where you work, by the way!"

"Right. I spaced it out. I'm a mechanic for an auto repair shop, I mainly just fix up vehicles and all."

Orel bit his nails, listening intently. "Oh, how cool! I've never really been the type of person to be able to fix things, its nice to see that you have a talent."

"Talent?" Joe was clearly taken aback, he held a questioning tone. "I mean, it's pretty easy. But thanks for humbling me, sweetheart." There was a very brief silence before Joe came up with a follow-up question. "I know your a teacher, that must be hard. I don't know how you could possibly deal with all those brats. What's it like?"