By the time Shane reached school, the few papers that he had in his backpack were reduced to a mushy white mess, not to mention that he was soaked to the fucking bone.

"I'm definitely not going to class like this... I'll probably have one hella of a cold tomorrow too, thanks dad" he grumbled angrily as he walked around the empty halls, making a sick 'squosh' noise at his every step and leaving wet footprints behind.

'The janitor will clean it anyway' he thought as he pulled out his wallet, thankful that it was waterproof.

He went up to the vending and bought one super warm coffee, he needed to bring his body temperature up desperately, even if just by a few degrees.

As he was walking back outside, Shane saw a nice, fluffy, warm looking coat hanging at a nearby coat hanger. A thought crossed his mind, he looked around before muttering a "Fuck it" and snatching it, throwing his soaked jacked into the thrash, putting on his newly acquired coat.

"So fluffy" he mumbled as he snuggled into it. It was made with synthetic fur but he couldn't care less as long as it kept him from reaching hypothermia until the end of the day. Shane kept wandering aimlessly for about an hour before he decided that becoming a doctor or some shit like that wasn't for him.

"I'll just be a builder or something, it's not like I'm lacking the raw strength" he gloated, stealing a random umbrella and leaving the school to spend the rest of the day doing literally anything but learn.

I headed towards what he basically considered his second home, the arcade. As soon as he walked through the doors, he was greeted by a very familiar face.

"Hey Alex" he waved at him with a smile, catching his attention "Shane!" he ran up to him and they shared their secret handshake, a thing they invented when they were kids and which still used to this day.

"Ok it's you" Shane raised an eyebrow "Who else would it be dumbass?" he shrugged "Just had to make sure you weren't a shape-shifter or shit like that, nothing personal bro" he just punched him in the arm "You're such an idiot" he giggled. 

"What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have school today?" Alex asked confused "And why are you wearing a woman's coat?"

"It's a woman coat?!"he yelled, surprised.

"Well duh! Look at it! No man would wear something so fluffy and extravagant" 

Shane shook his head "Don't pay too much mind to it, I just snatched it at school cuz mine was soaked beyond saving, as for the being in class, I've decided I'll remain an ignorant peasant" he joked.

"Welcome to the club then, we are always open to new members" he said with a giggle.

Alex was the first ever friend Shane had managed to make, the dude was 5 years older than him, so he was about twenty or twenty one , but Shanee couldn't care less, it was his best friend, regardless of age.

Besides, while physically he looked twenty, his mental age could be considered the one of a teenager, if not even younger. He's one of those guys who's obsessed with ghosts, aliens and conspiracies. As long as it was weird and made zero sense, he was interested in it. That's who Alex was.

Shane loved to hear him ramble about how the world was gonna end one day and we were all gonna turn into zombies or marshmallow, it didn't make sense at all but his younger self loved to hear those crazy stories, they were waaay better than the ones his mother used to read him.

They got particularly close when they discovered horror and creepypasta. They loved to pull pranks on people around the time the Slanderman story became famous.

They would head inside the nearby woods and hang some of the pages on a few trees before climbing up and making random noises to scare the people who would come check them.

Shane was confident they've made at least ten kids piss their pants, although in the end their parents called the police on them. Jokes on them though! They couldn't arrest the two idiots since they weren't doing anything illegal, so they just gave them a good scolding reported it back to Shane's parents, which ended up with him getting grounded for a whole month. 

Totally worth it.

"So, what's the plan?" Alex asked "Hang out 'till 1pm, to which point I'll go grab my sister and head home to make lunch" Alex rolled his eyes "You really became a softie huh? She's old enough to walk home by herself and I'm pretty sure your mom or dad made her lunch so you don't have to cook it" he pointed out.

"You clearly haven't tasted my father's cooking then, it would be more nutritious to eat literal coal instead of that abomination he calls food" he shivered at the thought.

"Jee, you're such a drama queen" Shane shot him a glare. 

'Ohhh! It. Is. On.'

"Why don't you come over then? I'll let you taste my father's cooking so you can judge yourself if it's me who's a wuss or if he's actually trying to kill us" Alex laughed "Sounds like a free meal for me, I'm in!"

He gave a quick look at his watch.

"We still have 3 more hours to waste, did you keep my old Yu-Gi-Oh deck like I asked you?" he grinned, walking over a shelf and taking out two decks "Ready to get your ass kicked again?" Shane snatched his deck from his friend's hand "It's 40 wins vs 44 losses for me, get off your high horse buddy, you aren't as good as you think"

"Oh yeah? Bring it then punk!"

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"So you're just gonna meet my sister for the first time ever dressed like that?" Shane asked, slightly annoyed upon seeing him walk out of the arcade with a jumper that read 'Anarchy! Free sex! Free smoke!'

"What? It's the only clean clothing I had" he rolled his eyes "I seriously doubt that, but it's still better than that hentay hoodie of your" he grumbled.

"Oh actually let me get that o-" Shane grabbed his arm before he had the time to go back and change "No you don't, I don't want to scar my sister, now come on, we are already late"

They soon reached her school and received quite a few stares from the parents who were leaving with their kids. Shane was embarrassed, while Alex was enjoying every bit of it "You are such an attention seeker" he just shrugged and kept standing there proudly, a satisfied grin plastered on his face.

"Brotherrrrrr!" he heard a familiar, squeaky voice call. Shane turned just in time to see his little sister run towards him, tackling him in a hug "Oof!" he stumbled back a few steps but managed to not fall "Hello to you too Angy" 

'Ouch, my poor liver'

"Why are you here? Don't you have classes?" he shrugged "Naaa, I'm too smart for those, besides, my sister is more important than a few boring books" he cooed.

"Awww" she hugged him again "I love you too"

Shane could see Alex fake a gag out of the corner of his eye and shot him a glare. 

"Angela this idiot over here is Alex, he's my friend and he'll be eating lunch with us today" Angela squared him up and down before hiding behind Shane a bit "He looks weird"

"That's fair" Alex added in response to her comment.

"He is weird, but I can assure you he's a good guy, now come on, go say hi" she shyly walked up to him and extended her hand "H-hi, I'm Angela, nice to meet you" Alex chuckled, crouching a bit to be at her level and shaking her hand "Nice to meet you too Angela, I'm Alex, your brother's best friend"

It was one of the things Shane found quite annoying from Alex, he was a monster in height, being 6'4. So he flexed about it whenever he found the occasion, which meant crouching in front of short people, annoying the fuck out of them.

'Attention seeker' he thought with a shake of the head.

Right after, Angela did a full 180° turn so to face him "You have a best friend and didn't tell me about it?!"

'Oh fuck'

"Yeah bro, why didn't you tell her?" Alex vouched. Shane already knew how this was going to end, so he tried to cut off the conversation immediately "Stop this you two, let's just get home and eat" 

On their way back home Angela tugged his sleeve, giving Shane a glare that said 'You ain't getting away with this, be prepared to be harassed by me all day' he just nodded, knowing that there wasn't a way to save himself from this when Angela got her mind set on something.