Ryan yawned, rubbing his eye as he lazily thudded down the steps of the stairs. He was fully ready for the day and almost ready to leave for school; he was only waiting for the knock on the door that was heard every morning before he walked to the bus stop. Luckily for him, it came as soon as he reached the last step. Ryan hurried over to the door, opening it for a familiar smiling woman and a teenager with strawberry blond hair.

"Good morning, Mrs. Stump." Ryan yawned again before smiling, "Hey, Patrick."

The strawberry blond smiled with a small wave. He wore a flower crown delicately on the top of his head, which he adjusted after his wave to Ryan, and a light blue tee shirt accompanied by black jeans.

"Hello, Ryan." Mrs. Stump smiled, "Has she woken up yet?"

Ryan shook his head. "No ma'am. I did make some food for breakfast, though, as thank you for dinner." He smiled as she stepped inside.

"Thank you, Ryan! I hope you enjoyed it."

He reached back and tapped his backpack. "Even saved some for lunch."

She laughed. "You're set then! Better hurry to the bus before you're late!" She waved her hands to shoo them out the door. They complied, both hurrying down the cement path as she smiled after them, leaning against the doorframe. "Have a nice day, boys!"

Ryan and Patrick stopped their quickened pace about a house later, allowing their thudding steps to fade into barely noticeable taps along the ground.

"I didn't see you after school." Patrick said as their steps began to sync, "Did that substitute really give you detention?"

"Don't remind me." Ryan groaned, "I couldn't even tell mom when I eventually made it home. She thinks I was tutoring some kid..."

Patrick looked at Ryan with wide eyes. "You lied to her?"

"Don't you think I already feel bad enough?" Ryan snapped, immediately apologizing to his friend, however. He sighed, "I just couldn't stand her face if she found out I got in trouble. Haven't you ever lied to your mom?"

Patrick shook his head, maintaining his wide eyed look. "I fear that woman." He said, "I do not want her wrath if she catches me in a lie."

Ryan swung his arm, hitting his hand against his face. "That makes me feel so much better, Pat, thanks."

"That's just my mom though!" Patrick exclaimed, missing a step of the rhythm and taking two to attempt to make up for it. "Y-your would u-u-unders-stand." He shut his eyes tightly at his stutter.

"Did I get you worked up with the conversation?" Ryan asked with a short laugh, "Calm down, Pat. It'll go away again."

"E-eas-sy for you t-t-to say." He scowled at himself after speaking the short sentence. His stutter was something he always struggled with. Even though it was unnoticeable in most of his regular speech now, it always reared its head when he got worked up in some way, shape, or form.

Ryan just wrapped his arm around Patrick, squeezing him a bit before releasing him. "Enough about that topic of conversation. How about some crazy shit I saw in detention?" Patrick raised an eyebrow at Ryan as the darker haired boy grinned. "I saw someone sneak out a window to get out of it! His name was something Urie."

Patrick tilted his head, keeping his mouth shut. Ryan reached over and plucked his flower crown off his head, placing it on his own.

"Do you know anyone with a weird last name like that?" Ryan asked, side stepping so that Patrick couldn't swipe the small band of flowers back.

"Don't think so." Patrick spoke quickly, sticking his tongue out of his mouth as he tried to grab at the accessory Ryan had swiped.

Ryan lifted the flower crown, allowing Patrick to steal it back and readjust it in his strawberry blond hair. Patrick smiled contently as their steps synced back up. "Urie? That's odd." He commented, "Guess it's better than being named after part of a tree, though."

"You're last name is fine, Patrick." Ryan assured his friend, "It fits you and your flower loving personality. Urie... It's weird... I wish I knew his first name..."

"Why? Are you crushing on detention dude?" Patrick asked with a small smirk as they came upon the bus stop.

Ryan felt his face redden as he shook his head. "No! Why would I crush on some punk who got caught in attempted arson?"

"IN WHAT!?"

"Forgot to mention that, hu?" Ryan asked with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head, as Patrick stared at him with wide eyes. "What? It's not like I did anything that extreme to get there! Just a stupid phone in class..."

"Something seems off ab-bout the p-punishment system..." Patrick muttered, shaking his head as the bus pulled up at their stop.

---

Ryan doodled scribbles in his notebook as his teacher droned on with his lesson. It was just some repeated topic that was going to be useless in the real world, so Ryan was entering his zone out space. He was in the back of the classroom, so he was usually fine to do so.

He was really just thinking about the boy from detention the previous day. What kind of name fit well with Urie? Adam? Alex? Brandon? Benny? Ryan frowned to himself. That kid didn't fit any of those names. None of them were as unique as he seemed to be.

He jumped in his seat as his pencil lead snapped, causing him to hit his knee against the underside of the desk. He held in a noise of pain as he reached under his desk to hold his knee. The teacher droned on, making no notice to Ryan's injury. Ryan turned his head towards the window, biting his lip as his knee throbbed. It was dying down, but it still hurt.

He looked out the window, taking in the scene of the beautiful day they were being restricted from. The vibrant blue sky was speckled with mixtures of gray and white shaded clouds. His eyes trailed over them before being caught by a bird that seemed to be divebombing. It releveled itself before it hit the ground, but Ryan didn't follow the rest of its progress. His eyes had been caught by a familiar figure.

The Urie boy was leaning against a tree with the friend that had helped him bail from detention, smoking a cigarette. Ryan's eyes grew wide at the sight of the boy again. He was letting the smoke out in a steady stream past his lips before cutting it off to laugh at something his friend said.

The two seemed so carefree out there as they broke obvious school rules. Ryan propped his elbow up on the desk, resting his cheek on his hand as he continued to watch the two outside. He halfway wished he was outside with them; anything to be out in the day instead of a stuffy classroom where the teacher droned on repeated knowledge.

"Ryan!"

Ryan shot to alertness, hitting his elbow and knee on the desk, yet again. He held in an exclamation of pain as he turned his attention to the front of the room. His teacher was looking at him with a frown.

"Can you tell me what we've been discussing?" His teacher asked, crossing her arms.

"Thee origins of democracy. Primarily the influence of Greeks and ancient Romans." Ryan spoke in a bored tone, earning an impressed look from the teacher.

"Very good, Ryan, but do try to focus on the front of the room." She told him before turning back to her lesson.

"Yes, ma'am..." Ryan muttered, looking down at his scribbled notes. He knew he had just been extremely close to getting in trouble once again. What was going on with him? Usually, he had no problem casually zoning out in class or having a lack of attention because he was always on top of what he was missing. Now, he had been caught two days in a row?

Ryan shook his head. He needed to stay out of teacher's targets. He couldn't get in trouble again for something stupid. He looked up at the front of the room and began to copy notes down, despite them having covered the same subject just last year. He simply needed to focus back in again and attempt to stay out of trouble.

Unfortunately, that mindset only lasted for about a week.