Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Rules

Nick was smiling as he came to school that morning. It was a bright sunny day, and he had an amazing boyfriend, and summer was almost here.

The tables were full of his former friends again, and as he approached, Sai looked up and called his name and waved.

Nick ignored him. They had all let Harry bully Charlie, and none of them had said a word about it, in the cinema or after. Not to him or to Charlie. He didn't want to talk to them.

Imogen came running up to him. "Nicholas!"

He stopped for her, smiling. "Imogen. Are you okay?"

"I have something very important to show you."

"Okay."

She dragged him away from the tables and opened up her phone to show him a picture of a completely adorable puppy. "I named him Brooklyn because that's where I want to live someday, and I really want him to meet Nellie so they can be best friends!"

Nick laughed. That would be nice. "He's absolutely adorable." When he looked up, she wasn't smiling.

"We're still friends, aren't we? I promise I don't fancy you anymore."

Chuckling, because who but Imogen would come right out with that so bluntly, he said, "Yeah. I still want to be friends."

"Okay, good." She did smile now, leaning toward him conspiratorially. "Also, I fancy someone else now."

"Really? Who?" He wondered if it was someone he knew.

She made a zipping motion across her mouth and mimed throwing away the key.

"Okay, fine. Don't tell me. We've been friends since year 7, but ..."

"If anything actually happens, I promise I'll tell you. And if you have any romantic developments, I want to hear all about them."

This was the perfect opening. He should tell her. He should tell her right now. He meant to tell her, he was going to tell her ...

Then Imogen looked back at her phone. "Oh, my God, I forgot to show you this one. Look. I got Brooklyn to roll over."

He watched the video, which was very cute, and felt terribly guilty because after all this time, he still hadn't told anyone other than his mum.

As he walked through the corridor, dreading having to tell Charlie he couldn't seem to manage to come out, the headmaster's voice came over the speakers. "Happy Monday, Truham Grammar. Or perhaps not so happy for our year 11s, as I regret to inform you that two weeks of GCSE study hall starts today."

Nick stood there staring at the sign that said the same thing. He'd been dreading this all year. He hated tests; he was bad at them, and they stressed him out, and he couldn't run while in study hall, just had to sit there, which he was also bad at. But there was no getting away from it.

He found his name on the blackboard in the gym and the corresponding number on the seating chart and made his way to his assigned table. Just as his seatmate carelessly threw his books down. Ben Hope and Nick stood there glaring at each other, having just been condemned to two solid weeks sitting next to one another.

It was almost a relief when Mr. Farouk's sharp voice yelled "Quiet!" above the din of the other lads all talking. Nick and Ben took their seats.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Mr. Farouk. I normally teach science, but for the next couple of weeks, I'll be supervising your independent GCSE revision."

Seething, unable to believe that of all the year 11s he'd gotten stuck with Ben, Nick needed to feel connected to Charlie. He snuck his phone out of his pocket, only half-listening as Mr. Farouk went on.

"My rules are simple. No chatting, no phones, no annoying questions."

Nick typed "Nearly came out to Imogen this morning lol" "also I miss you"

"Break my rules, and you go straight to isolation for the day."

Still staring at his phone, Nick was not at all prepared for Mr. Farouk's wooden ruler to come crashing down on the table in front of him. He jumped, looking up into the teacher's scowling face, hastily stowing his phone back in his pocket.

"Nicholas Nelson. Why don't I let you off with a warning seeing as I hadn't quite finished listing my rules? If I catch you with that phone again, I'll be confiscating it." He stepped closer, speaking quietly. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He tapped Nick on the shoulder as he went on. "All right. I think we're going to get along just fine."

Next to Nick, Ben smirked. Less than five minutes in, and Nick had already been called out, and Ben was already laughing at him.

He tried to focus. He really did. All around him, the others were diligently writing notes, studying, and Nick tried to, but the page blurred in front of him.

Ben stopped writing, looking up. "Are you just going to ignore me for two weeks, then?"

Nick couldn't believe he'd ever been friends, or anything approaching it, with him. He tried to ignore him.

Huffing a laugh, Ben leaned closer. "I didn't even do anything to you."

"Don't talk to me."

"I said sorry to Charlie for what happened."

"Don't talk about him."

"Wow." Ben laughed. "You know, if you're trying to keep it quiet, you should probably stop acting so gay for him."

Nick turned to him, and he didn't know what he might have said if Mr. Farouk's ruler hadn't banged down between them just then. He leaned down. "I seem to remember saying something about no chatting."

Then he was gone. Nick glared at Ben. Leaning back, he checked to see that Mr. Farouk's back was turned, and eased his phone out of his pocket. Charlie had texted him back: "omg you almost told imogen?? you're amazing" and "i miss you too tho"

Seeing those texts made it better. Whatever Ben said, it didn't matter, because he and Charlie were together, and that was what was important.

Another text came in just then, Charlie saying, "i might have an idea ..."

But Nick would have to wait to see what the idea was. Mr. Farouk was coming round again, and his phone had to go back in his pocket.

He attacked the revisions with a renewed energy, though, just knowing Charlie was thinking about him.