All the Stars (Modern Ham AU / LAMS)

Chapter Nine: The One With Tibby

{AN: Woot, look out, DRAMAAAA! Everything will be fine, but I want to add in some bad shit for them. Sorry. Also, sorry for the weird time skip. I don't really have any way around that, because I really wanted to include the 'next morning' bit. So relax and enjoy the show!}

John's pov:

I wake up in probably the best possible way. Sunlight is streaming in my face, I can hear some of my closest friends chatting softly (and Alex's laugh, which is a bonus because he doesn't really laugh that much), and I can actually smell breakfast from all the way downstairs. I open my eyes and stretch, then close them, because the streaming sunlight is actually very intent on violently burning my eyeballs to smithereens. Yay.

"Ooh, John's awake!" I hear Eliza's soft voice. "Now we can go downstairs to eat! Perfect timing, too, since Martha's making something really good-smelling right now."

"Oui, I think my stomach is eating itself! Allons-y!" I sit up and blink sleep out of my eyes as they all stare at me expectantly.

"Alright, let's go." At this, Eliza jumps up and she and Laf practically race each other down the stairs. Alex stays in the room as I stretch again and stand up, then we walk down more slowly.

"Hey, thanks for last night."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you hadn't stayed awake and talked to me, I don't think I would have ever fallen asleep. You kind of took my mind off of the shitstorm in my head, so I could think about other things. So thank you."

"No problem. I'm happy to help you out whenever."

With that, we head downstairs to partake in some absolutely amazing blueberry and cream cheese pastry.

[Tuesday of the same week]

Angelica's pov:

"Hey, Alex!"

He looks up from his sandwich and waves me over.

"Hi Angie," he says when I sit down. "Where are Eliza and Peggy?"

"They're coming. Peggy dropped her tray and Eliza waited for her while she got more food." As I talk, the two of them run to the table, drop their lunches and dive into a drift of crunchy orange leaves.

"This is why I love fall!!!" Eliza shouts, sitting up in the waist-high drift. There are a bunch of colorful leaves stuck in her tangled hair. Hercules, Laf, Alex, and I all laugh at how silly she looks, and the sound of mockery summons Peggy from the depths of the leaf pile.

"You two look ridiculous!" Hercules says in between fits of laughter.

"Hey, I will be a child if I feel like being a child!" Peggy retorts, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "I will drink chocolate milk, and play on the swings, and eat animal crackers if I feel like it, so fuck you and your social standards!" The rant causes us to laugh harder, and eventually Peggy joins in.

"So, Alex," I say when the laughter has died down a little, "Are you going to be joining the debate team?"

"The what?"

"Umm, the debate team," I assumed he would already know about it, seeing as Washington is in charge of it. "Didn't Washington tell you about it?"

"No... Should he have? What is the debate team, anyways?"

"Yes, he should have, because he's in charge of it. And the debate team is basically where you get assigned to an issue, usually a moral one, and you have to debate either for or against the idea with other people. You have time to research and prepare a speech, and you can debate in teams or alone." I look up from leftover pork and green bean stir-fry to see him smiling, eyes wide. He looks like a small child who has just been told he can have all the candy in a candy store.