just children once ✓

stanford stands for l o s e r

Hope you wonderful fuckers are awake for this shit.

<6:13 pm, Wednesday>

"What do you mean they didn't accept me?" Tyler yelped, snatching the letter from his best friend's hands. "Sorry Ty, I think you were a bit too late on registration," Melanie confided, biting her lip to stifle her laugh.

He glared at her and read over the paper again, hoping to find a mistake in the fine print and prove that she was wrong. No such luck came his way. He had tried to register too late, and all their spots were taken. Tyler took a deep breath to keep himself from screaming in the school parking lot.

His parents already expected him to be accepted, how was he going to explain that he wasn't? Tyler groans, resisting the urge to crumple the damned letter in his hands.

Melanie smiles empathetically, resting her hand on his shoulder. "You can always register for another college," she recommends. He shakes his head.

"I'm ruined. How am I supposed to get my degree without Stanford? There goes all my hopes and dreams," he moaned, burying his face in his hands. Melanie rolls her eyes. "You're so dramatic sometimes."

She stood on a bench and cupped her mouth with her hands. Her hair painted like that of cotton candy made her stand out on a good day, but her pastel pleated skirt and oversized sweater didn't make it better as people began to turn their heads.

"I'm Tyler Robert Joseph- MVP in basketball and class valedictorian and I think the world is ending because I didn't get accepted into Stanford," she mocked, earning snickers from passing students.

Tyler started to blush furiously, motioning her to hope down. He tugged at his brown hair, watching his cherry-cheeked friend finish Melanie monologue and step down, earning a death glare.

"Was the middle name really necessary, Mel?" He hissed, pulling her arm so they could start walking to his car. "Now everyone knows how big of a failure I am." Melanie rolled her eyes.

She let Tyler drag her to Brendon's beat up Impala waiting for them in the senior lot. "Life isn't a straight line that you walk down," Melanie lectured. "There are twists and turns, and you need to learn to deal with it."

They stopped, and Melanie poked hard in the chest. "You're smart, Ty. I know you'll figure something out." Brendon looked out of his window, starting the car and spinning towards them.

"I'm best friends with delinquents," Tyler mutters as he pushes cans of alcohol and unlit cigarettes off of the back seat. Brendon winks at Tyler through the rear view mirror. "I prefer the term 'school pharmacist," he mused, adjusting his glasses.

Melanie snorted. "Since when is selling drugs and liquor to underclassmen considered something to be proud of? You can get them so much cheaper from Ryan-" Brendon roared the engine, drowning out the rest of her sentence.

Tyler stared out the window, mentally rerouting his plans. If he couldn't get into Stanford, then another college would take him. No one would pass up the opportunity to have someone as prestigious as Tyler on campus; he was a top class student and on the varsity team, he was one in a million.

Melanie stretched herself across Tyler's lap, somehow grabbing his SAT score paper from his backpack pocket. "Hey!" He protested, but she was already unfolding the wrinkled letter and holding it up in the light.

"1388? Damn, you're smart," she handed it back, and Brendon looked at him through the rearview mirror. "You still going to that nerd school?" He asked, pulling into the parking lot of Sweet Revenge, a chick-lit shop that acted as their hangout.