Crimson/Silver

Disclaimer: I don't own Choices or the High School Story… story. I just own my OC. I know, sad.

Black Stripes

Alan Gray got on the bus, finding it not too crowded, instilling some comfort into him. He put his Skullcandy earphones in his ears, pushing his moderately long silver and black hair back a bit, and took his place in an empty seat, staring out the window. The trees looked to be swaying in sync with the music in his ears. He let his imagination run wild, and he could see the skies darken, the trees rip themselves out of the ground, seemingly walking around. Street lamps became lassos to the trees, and they used the lamps to round up fugitives of the law.

His focus was broken, however, when a petite, slim, gothy girl in a red sweater with black stripes, black leather skirt tapped him on his shoulder. Her hair was red as well, just like her sweater, and her lips were charcoal black, standing out for some reason to him.

"Can I sit?" she curtly asked, barely any emotion behind it.

"Sure." He responded in a very similar tone. Alan was not one for unnecessary socializing.

The girl sat down, keeping to herself. However, Alan could notice her eyes dart, every now and then, to his earphones. He figured she liked them, seeing as she seemed to be a goth, and his earphones were basically black skulls on the outside. He had a Justin Law vibe to him. Not that most people would even know who that is.

He was absolutely fine not talking to anyone, but then he was suddenly reminded of his promise to his aunt.

Promise me you won't keep completely to yourself? At least one friend?

Alan groaned inwardly, then he figured, if he had to make friends, might as well talk to people similar to himself. He sucked in a breath, before-

The bus stopped and everyone got up to leave, the girl included. Alan groaned again. There went the one person he might have actually gotten along with. Now he'd probably have to make friends with some stupid loud cheer squad member.

Alan walked through the halls of Oliver M. Berry high school. He did not look at anyone on his way to his locker, quickly finishing his work there and heading to his homeroom. Entering it, he saw students everywhere. More crowds, he thought, just what he needed.

What caught his eye, however, was the red haired girl from the bus, sitting alone in the corner. He quickly walked up to her, eyeing the rest of the students. A boy with pinkish hair sat in the seat in front of her. He wore a blue hoodie, and a galaxy pattern t-shirt. Not bad taste, he thought. He stood in front of the girl's seat and asked curtly, "Do you mind?" gesturing to the seat.

"Are you stalking me?" the girl asked.

"No. You just seem quieter and less obnoxious than most others here." Alan said.

The girl looked at him for a while, before nodding. Alan gave a small nod himself, taking his seat beside the girl. He sorted his notebooks in the desk compartment, calmly looking around quietly. The girl beside him seemed to be doing the same.

"I'm Alan." He said, suddenly turning towards her.

"Cool." was all the girl said.

Alan didn't say anything else. He simply turned his head straight and waited for class to start.

"Sky." He suddenly heard the girl speak.

"Huh?" he said, confused.

"Sky. With an E. That's my name." Skye said.

"Okay, Skye-with-an-E." Alan said, his lips turning into the smallest smile.

"Don't call me that." Skye said in the same expressionless manner.

"Cool." Alan said, monotonous himself. He noticed her lips perk up into a small smile similar to his, before they went straight again, and she looked out the window.

Soon the teacher came in, and classes began.

.

.

Alan walked to the theater, ready to apply for a Tech support position as he'd planned. He needed at least one extracurricular activity as per what the teachers had told him, and he figured this was one of the less crowded places.

His nerves, however, did not do him any favors when he saw several of his classmates gathered inside the theater. There was a boy with brown skin, black hair and glasses sitting away from others, scribbling furiously in his notebook.

"Excuse me, could you point me in the right direction. I'm a new tech support here." Alan spoke cautiously.

"That's Trevor over there. Checkered shirt." The boy said without even looking up.

Alan wordlessly walked towards Trevor, only to find him talking to Skye.

"Skye?" Alan asked as he got close.

"Alan. What are you doing here?" Skye asked.

"Tech support." Alan shortly replied.

"Oh so you're the new one. Hi, I'm Trevor." Trevor spoke, offering a handshake.

"Alan Gray." Alan said, accepting his handshake. "Skye and I have already met." He added curtly.

"Sweet. In that case I'll let Skye show you around our lair. I have something to do." Trevor said. "Skye, you got it?" He asked Skye, already walking away. Skye merely hummed as affirmation.

"So, Skye-with-an-E…" Alan started.

"I'll hit you." Skye said, eyes narrowing.

"That'll be entertaining." Alan smirked. He didn't know why, but it was easy interacting with her. Usually he would've already shut up and followed their lead, looking everywhere but at them, letting his imagination take over as the world would twist and morph in his eyes, giving rise to impossible architecture and fantastic beings all around him. Then he'd be snapped out of it by something he was needed to do. But not with Skye. He followed her as she lead him backstage, to the control boards.

"You got all that?" Skye asked as the introductory tour ended.

"Yup." Alan answered. "Anything else?"

"Not really." Skye said, expressionlessly.

"Hmm." Alan simply hummed, bringing out a small notebook from a side pocket on his backpack and scribbling something in it, before putting it back.

"What did you write?" Skye asked.

"Curious, aren't we?" Alan smirked again. "Private thoughts and in my private diary, I'm afraid."

"Your accent changed." Skye said.

Alan suddenly became nervous again. His spoken accent had a habit of changing randomly. He didn't even notice it until someone pointed it out, and by then, he was either to awkward to say anything further, or he was already being snickered at.

"Sorry. It has a habit of doing that. Randomly." Alan said, his awkwardness returning full swing in his voice.

"No worries. It's actually kind of cool." Skye said, before looking away towards the control boards.

"Wait really?" Alan said, surprised. Skye simply hummed, making Alan smile. Maybe Skye was different than others, he thought. He looked at her. The Black Stripes on her red sweater really stood out for some reason.

"Okay everyone, gather around!" Alan heard Ajay's voice from the seats.

"Curtain Call already?" he whispered to himself. He was surprised again, however, to hear a small chuckle from Skye. It was adora- Shut it, Alan thought. He simply smiled at Skye and followed her out as they went to join the others in front of Ajay, her eyes giving a small roll, but the small smile on her lips not escaping his notice.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, we will start off our auditions. Ben, I'd like you and Rory to take page 67 from the top." Ajay spoke.

"Alright." Ben, a guy with a silver fauxhawk and a red jacket with Berry written over it said.

"Who's that?" a boy beside him asked, speaking with another girl. The boy had pink hair waved to one side, wearing a galaxy print t-shirt and a blue hoodie.

Not bad taste, Alan thought.

"That's Ben, last year's Homecoming King and Prom King. He's in the band usually, but he's auditioning this year." The girl spoke. She was dark skinned, fairly tall and had short, black hair.

Alan looked to the stage and saw Ben and Rory get ready. He tuned out a couple of people fanning over Rory to pay attention to the audition.

"… it will be an honor." Ben said, walking over to a theater cube, although it looked like it had wheels. "Kneel before this rock." Ben continued.

He's not going to stand on it is he? It's hella risky, Alan thought to himself, but of course, it was too late. Ben went to step up on the cube, and it promptly rolled out from under him, sending him tumbling down the stage, and he landed down on the theater floor with a sickening crack, yelling out in pain.

Everyone stood up in shock, rushing to Ben. Ajay kept trying to fight back a stampede. "Give him some room and call an ambulance!" he ordered.

Alan sighed to himself, before making up his mind and walking to Ben.

"Hey no crowding." Ajay tried to stop him.

"I have some medical experience, let me at least see." Alan said, and Ajay nodded, letting him pass.

"Hey. Name's Alan." He nervously said to Ben, noticing his eye and mouth.

"Hey." Ben said back, straining.

"No brain damage then." Alan said out loud. "Sorry if it hurts" he said, as he began feeling around the leg, gauging it for damage as much as he could this superficially. "Yup, bad news. It's broken."

"Great." Ben said, still holding back lots of pain.

"In two places. Femur and Tibia. Also a knee dislocation. The leg just twisted up, huh?" Alan added, shrugging. "It'll take a good two weeks for that to heal, at least. I'm sorry."

"Hey not your fault." Ben said quickly, shooting a pained smile at everyone.

"I think it may have been mine. I brought that cube out. I mean I was told to, but still…" the boy with the pink hair from before spoke and trailed off.

"Alex no. You're new. You couldn't have possibly known what was what. We experienced theatre people should have been more careful." The tall girl said.

"Erin's right." Ajay seethed under his teeth. He calmed down a bit though as a couple nurses came in with a stretcher.

"Hey." Alan called to the nurses. "Femural and Tibial fracture, plus patella dislocation."

"Thanks kid." One of the nurses said, picking Ben up on the stretcher.

Alan let out a gigantic sigh and walked into the tech booth, trying to get some alone time. He'd interacted with more people today than he had in the entirety of last week. He felt weird… and in a good way. It didn't feel completely out of place, interacting with these people.

Be that as it may, I need a break, he thought.

He went out into the theatre again, Ajay scolding the others about not standing on anything with wheels. The boy with the pink hair, Alex was now on the stage, taking the role of the prince. Skye and Trevor were in the booth, keeping watch on the lights and sounds, as the auditions carried on. Of course, he kept an eye on the controls as well, picking up everything from whatever the other two did.

Soon, auditions were over.

"Well good job everyone. Mr. Olsen and I have a lot to think about." Ajay said as he shooed everyone away.

Well I guess that does it for today, Alan thought. He picked up his bag, got his earphones out and was about to leave, when Trevor stopped him.

"Dude, those headphones are sick! Where'd you get those?" he asked excitedly.

"Um, a store?" Alan replied. From beside, he could hear Skye snort.

"Where?" Trevor asked.

"Back when I lived in Oregon." Alan said. "Now I suppose we're done for today?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'd say you've learned everything more or less. See you at break!" Trevor said, walking off, waving at him.

"Do I have to?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"It's better than a bunch of loudmouths." Skye said from beside him.

"If you say so." Alan said.

"Those earphones do look good by the way. I wouldn't mind having a pair." Skye said, in the same monotone.

"I can find you some." Alan said, smirking at her.

"Thanks." Skye simply said, before turning and leaving.

"You're welcome, Skye-with-an-E." Alan whispered to himself.

.

.

Alan got through his classes quietly. He didn't really talk much. Of course, any classes he had with Skye, they sat together. He saw that they were both nerds, and they both didn't like a whole lot of social interaction, so he thought it was fine.

Soon, it was lunch time, and Alan shuffled into the cafeteria. It was crowded, but of course, everybody was minding their own business, hanging out with their friends, or simply enjoying their food.

Alan went and got his own food, walking around looking for a place to sit, tray in hand.

"Yo Alan!" Alan's ears caught Trevor's voice calling out, and he turned towards the direction of the voice to see a bunch of the theatre group there on a table. He walked over, seeing as it would be better to stick with a group of people he knew and would constantly work with for the next few months anyways. He took the corner of the bench, sitting next to Skye.

"Hey there." He said to Skye, his awkwardness leaking slightly through his voice.

"Hey." Skye replied in her signature monotone.

"Hello, Alan. And you can keep sitting with us everyday during lunch. You looked like a deer in headlights, standing there." Erin said, smiling. "Oh I'm Erin."

"I know. I picked up a lot of your names back during the auditions." Alan said.

"Oooh, sharp ears, eh?" Clint said.

"I heard people that usually wear headphones everyday have better hearing." Trevor said, stroking his chin like he was thinking deeply.

"Where did you hear that?" Erin said, half laughing.

"I mean, he's not entirely wrong." Alan said. "While excessive use of headphones do tend to damage the ears themselves, if your brain is used to getting by just fine by hearing the world through headphones, then it does a much better job with the unhindered sounds that provide it more data to work with." He finished, shrugging as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

"Dang, I never thought of it that way." Erin said.

"What do you major in?" Natalie asked. "I'm Natalie by the way."

"Oh yeah Clint here." Clint said.

"Hi. Name's Alan Gray." He said, even though he already knee their names. "I'm majoring in Electronics, but I'm a bit of a Jack of all Trades, I'm afraid."

"Interesting." Erin said. Clint however, had his eyes wide.

"Did you just switch accents?" he asked eagerly, leaning forward.

"Oh I, uh…. I do that subconsciously. Not on purpose. It just happens completely randomly, and I don't even realise. I'm sorry." Alan said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

"No no, I think it's really cool." Clint said.

"What he means is he is really enthusiastic about speaking in multiple accents. He keeps switching to sound cool." Erin said, chuckling.

"Hey!" Clint said.

"Alex, are you gonna talk at all?" Erin said, nudging the pink haired boy beside her.

"Oh, I'm new so, I don't even know what to say." Alex said.

"I know the feeling well, but you can get comfy with people once you identify with them, Alex." Alan said. "Let's start, I'm Alan Gray. You are…?" he said, edging him.

"I'm Alex Maxwell. Nice to meet you." Alex said timidly.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Erin smiled.

"I guess not." Alex smiled nervously.

"Yeah, Alex. Besides you don't wanna be too nervous and worry Ajay about your performance." Erin said.

"Performance behaviour and everyday behaviour can be different. I picked Alex for a reason." Ajay said. From where? Alan was trying to find out, eventually seeing the spectacled boy at the far end of the bench, quietly working on blocking out scenes in his notebook.

"Thanks…" Alex said, nervous still, but visibly less stiff.

Alan smiled internally, looking at Alex. While Alan hated a lot of social interaction, he didn't mind if it was with the right people. He was an ambivert. Alex, however, was just an incredibly introverted boy, timid and shy. He'd need much more work to be open with people. But it wasn't that bad, he thought.

You'll be alright, Alan thought to himself.

Alan looked next to him, to Skye, who was quietly eating her meal.

"Hungry, aren't we?" he said to her.

"Hmm." Skye hummed through a mouthful of food.

"Okay, let's have a little introduction session. Not your names, we already know those. I want y'all to say something about yourself that we don't know just from regular talks. Nothing you're not comfortable with though." Erin said, slapping the table lightly to get everyone's attention.

"Is this really necessary?" Ajay said, groaning as he looked up from his notebook.

"Yes! Good bonds within the team makes us better! More efficient. I'll start us off." Erin said, the same cool smile on her face. She was really starting to seem like the 'mom' friend of the group.

Wait, friend? Alan thought. Yes, friend, idiot! Look around!

Alan supposed he was right. He was actually comfortable with these people. No anxiety, no awkwardness… well maybe a little awkwardness, but not for any fault of theirs. Plus, most of them didn't seem very pretentious to him. Especially Sk-

Shush! Alan scolded himself again. Though why? He didn't know.

!-!-!-!-!

Yes, this is a HSSCA fanfic. Thanks for reading and I hope you won't stop reading. As I keep uploading. I hope I keep uploading.

Just so we're clear. Alex is the male MC from the game. I created him that way when I played. Alan is my OC, completely new to the story. Also, Rory is female in my story, in case you couldn't tell, and Ben is the HSS MC, just in case.

I'll see you in the next chapter then, Peace!