A Different Circumstance - Monday Blues

	"📬 📬 📬 ✋ ❄   ✋ 💧   ✈ 🕆 ✋ ❄ ☜   ✋ ☠ ❄ ☜ ☼ ☜ 💧 ❄ ✋ ☠ ☝ 📪   ✋ 💧  ✋ ❄   ☠ ⚐ ❄ ✍
	👎 ☜ 💧 🏱 ✋ ❄ ☜  💣 ⚐ ☠ 💧 ❄ ☜ ☼  👌 ⚐ 👎 ✋ ☜ 💧   👌 ☜ ✋ ☠ ☝   💣 ⚐ 💧 ❄ ☹ ✡   👍 ⚐ 💣 🏱 ☼ ✋ 💧 ☜ 👎   ⚐ ☞   💣 ✌ ☝ ✋ 👍 📬 📬 📬
	❄ ☟ ☜ ✡   ❄ ☜ ☠ 👎   ❄ ⚐   ⚐ 🏱 ☜ ☼ ✌ ❄ ☜   👍 ☹ ⚐ 💧 ☜ ☹ ✡   ❄ ⚐   💣 ✌ 💣 💣 ✌ ☹   👌 ✋ ⚐ ☹ ⚐ ☝ ✡ 📬 📬 📬
	💧 🕆 👍 ☟   ✌ 💧   ❄ ☟ ☜   💧 ❄ ✌ ☠ 👎 ✌ ☼ 👎   ✠   ✌ ☠ 👎   ✡   👍 ☟ ☼ ⚐ 💣 ⚐ 💧 ⚐ 💣 ☜   👍 ⚐ ☠ ☞ ✋ ☝ 🕆 ☼ ✌ ❄ ✋ ⚐ ☠ 💧 📬 📬 📬
	⚐ ☠ ☜   💧 💣 ✌ ☹ ☹   👍 ☟ ✌ ☠ ☝ ☜   ✋ ☠   💧 🕆 👍 ☟   ✌   💧 ✋ 💣 🏱 ☹ ☜   🏱 ✌ ❄ ❄ ☜ ☼ ☠ 📬 📬 📬
	👍 ✌ ☠   💣 ✌ 😐 ☜   ✌ ☹ ☹   ❄ ☟ ☜   👎 ✋ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☼ ☜ ☠ 👍 ☜   ✋ ☠   ❄ ☟ ☜   🕈 ⚐ ☼ ☹ 👎 📬 📬 📬
	❄ ☟ ✋ 💧   ☠ ☜ ✠ ❄   ☜ ✠ 🏱 ☜ ☼ ✋ 💣 ☜ ☠ ❄   💧 ☜ ☜ 💣 💧   ✞ ☜ ☼ ✡ 📬 📬 📬   ✞ ☜ ☼ ✡ 📬 📬 📬




														✋ ☠ ❄ ☜ ☼ ☜ 💧 ❄ ✋ ☠ ☝ 📬 📬 📬"

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	With a twist and a merciless shove, the rickety front door flew open. The metal doorknob struck the wall with a hard thud that reverberated through the surrounding trees. The doorknob seemed to only dig deeper an indentation in the wall that had accumulated size over the years through continuous ruthless slamming. A juvenile dragon monster with purple skin and long, greasy, brown hair by the name of Sam stepped out and scowled at the bright sun in the sky. As the disgruntled youth descended the heavily molded steps that creaked with every fluctuation of weight, the door was left ajar as if it was expected to close on its own.

	Heavily weathered boots that surprisingly fit found themselves uncaringly stomping onto the heavily cracked driveway. A ratty old jacket with a broken zipper from years long past failed to protect Sam's susceptible skin from the elements. The ripped holes in his weathered blue jeans allowed for the crisp autumn air to flow freely onto his legs.

	Besides the recent drop in temperature, several signs of winter's slow approach made themselves apparent to the residents of a sleepy rural town by the unoriginal name of Hometown. The days grew shorter, yet shorter with every rotation of the planet. The leaves themselves turned from a vibrant green to a modest yellow.

	Due to the smaller size of the town itself, there was no need for any school buses to pick anyone up since the school was generally within walking distance for most students. However, this would only add onto the already sky-high pile of problems for the drake. He actually had to walk a shorter distance to the school than his classmates that lived in the apartments just north of the school, but it was still just as much of a slog considering Sam's current state.

	Heavy bags yanked down on Sam's eyes, his entire body felt stiff and rigid, and his ever so loudly growling stomach felt emptier than usual. He had spent the previous night tossing and turning on an uncomfortable, sheet-less, blanket-less mattress propped up on a cheap metal bed frame. The lack of any decent meal in a good while clawed at the dragon from within, sapping his physical and mental energy.

	A clawed hand clumsily shoved itself into a jacket pocket as it grasped at a nearly empty pack of cigarettes. Sam pulled it out and popped it open as spindly tendrils of smoke poured into the open air from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth. Sam mustered a puff of fire large enough to light the small stick of addictive chemicals and tar right before popping the yellow end of it into his mouth.

	After taking the first puff of the day, a pillar of smoke and foggy breath was ejected from Sam's mouth and nostrils. At last, the dragon felt just a little more at ease as the small high from getting his nicotine fix soothed his mind, even if it was for just a short while. A quick glance at the cardboard container revealed that it was finally empty. Sam cast the carton aside with no regard for littering laws and kept moving forward.

	The path, however, was still blocked by a traffic barrier that Undyne, the local lunatic in a police uniform, had erected recently. It consisted of two wooden hurdles that intruded on the sidewalk, and a strand of police tape stretching from tree to tree across the road. "Fuck's sake..." Sam groggily muttered, pinching his snout and clenching his eyes in irritation and disappointment. The sleep-deprived teen took another puff and flicked the cigarette in his hand while staring at the barrier in contempt. Thinking it was better to get it over with, he resorted to walking on the sidewalk, pushing the end of the wooden hurdles out of the way, and ducking underneath the police tape.

	Sam didn't care if officer Undyne caught him 'trespassing' as she put it. The barrier blocked his only way in and out of the main part of town where the school was, so he felt as if she could 'go fuck herself' for all he cared. His rebellious thoughts were swiftly interrupted as soon as he saw a red van in the distance take a left turn towards the school.

	"......FUCK!" he snapped, flicking the cigarette onto the ground just before stamping on the burning end with the heel of his boot. Sam stepped onto the sidewalk and tackled the edge of the hurdles and ripped through the police tape with a single claw swipe. As soon as the path was clear, the dragon made a mad dash towards the school while kicking up dust in his wake as he realized he was very likely going to be late if he didn't haul ass immediately. He didn't care much for school or even bothered to do much homework, but something primal in the back of his mind warned that expulsion could be disastrous.

	"HEY!" an authoritarian female voice called to him from behind just as he passed the police station. Sam stopped himself and turned to see that damn fish cop with an annoyed scowl on her face. She appeared to have just stepped outside and had already connected the dots on who had trashed her barrier.

	Before she could berate the dragon or give him a legal punishment, he quickly and angrily shouted "THAT BARRIER WAS BLOCKING MY ONLY WAY TO SCHOOL! FUCK OFF!" as he turned right back around and restarted his sprint eastwards. Undyne considered arresting him right then and there after such a display of attitude and rudeness, but her coffee hadn't even kicked in yet, and she wasn't quite in the mood to deal with anyone at the moment. "I'll just start showing up to work earlier so I can catch that little shit..." she grumbled.

	If it weren't for the fish monster's rude interruption, Sam likely would have caught up to the red van, but he was now several seconds behind. By the time he had passed the 'librarby', the doors of the van were already opening to reveal a tall, fluffy church woman by the name of Toriel. A small tuft of brown hair with a slight curl was barely visible above the van's roof.

	Toriel was rounding the corner to meet her adoptive child on the other side, but she stopped when she heard rapid, heavy footsteps coming her way. Her happy expression shifted into a look of bitter judgment the very moment she caught sight of what she perceived as a manifestation of everything she didn't want her children to become. That didn't go unnoticed by the quickly approaching dragon, but he didn't care enough to say anything.

	Sam slowed to a snail's pace once he reached the red van, clutching chest and wheezing. He practically stumbled towards the front doors to the school, not paying any mind to the religious matriarch or his classmate. "...Were you smoking again, Samuel?" Toriel asked him in a sickeningly accusatory tone. He immediately wanted to flip her off, but he decided it wasn't worth the trouble and just kept walking.

	Toriel's eyes followed the purple delinquent like a hawk. She considered waiting until Sam was far enough ahead to where she felt comfortable, but she remembered that her daughter sat right in front of him in class. Her fluffy hand sternly grasped the adopted human's yellow hand and dragged her along.

	Sam felt the fluffy matriarch's burning gaze piercing into the back of his skull, but he didn't know that Toriel's daughter had also affixed her gaze upon him. Kris, the local human in a town of monsters, looked at him with intrigue and... something else she couldn't place her little yellow finger on. As usual, not a single word broke through her lips as she watched her gruff classmate shove the school building's front doors open.

	The warmth of the school's air conditioning welcomed Sam, hugging his very being tightly in a pleasant embrace. For once all morning, he didn't feel like he was freezing his ass off. His throat was dry not just from his earlier use of his fire breath, but the mouth-drying cigarette and all his running, so he wasn't surprised when he found himself instinctively slamming his thumb on the small metal button on the water fountain in the hallway.

	Sam didn't care if he had seen people putting their mouth on the water fountain before. All that truly mattered to him was quenching his thirst. Each gulp coincidentally seemed to follow the same beat as the footsteps approaching from behind. He heard Toriel say something about 'staying safe' just before Kris was finally allowed to leave for class. A single yellow eye caught the sight of Kris walking down the hallway towards the high school classroom as she walked. His gaze, thankfully hidden under his hair, was focused a bit... southwards due to the hormones surging within his body at his age. A smirk almost formed on his waterlogged lips, but he almost scowled when a purposefully attention-grabbing vocalization erupted from behind.

	"Ahem."

	Sam released his finger from the button as he quickly realized how intently he was eyeing Kris right in front of her mother, who was one of the biggest Angel worshipers in town besides Father Alvin. He turned his upper body to face the stern woman, internally hoping that she was going to scold him for smelling like cigarette smoke rather than for staring at her daughter in such a sinful way.

	"...What?" Sam coldly responded. He turned his entire body to face the woman and defensively crossed his arms.
"You smell of smoke, Samuel," Toriel began, "You should not allow yourself to fall prey to addiction. Do you not know what such things do to your lungs?" she asked in a noticeable amount of earnest. Her eyes were disappointed, yet they carried a feeling of genuine concern.
	"Why do you care?" he rudely shot back. He was immensely grateful that Toriel didn't seem to notice where his eye was transfixed moments prior, but he wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible regardless.
"I do not want to see anyone of your age littering their bodies with such filth. You are in a critical part of your development into an adult, and you must remember how important it is to take care of yourself."
"Uh huh. I'll keep that in mind," Sam replied. The draconic youth stepped to the side and walked down the hall.

	Toriel considered stopping him by grabbing his arm and giving him a good talking to, but she decided it was better to let him go. After all, he was already close to running late, and she didn't want to cause him to be in any further trouble with his teacher. That didn't seem fair to her.

	The door to the classroom was left ajar in Kris' wake, but Sam loudly shoved it wide open with little regard for anyone who might be in the way. A small chuckle crawled out his throat at a small yelp coming from a yellow, hunched over lizard monster. The monster in question happened to be his meek teacher, Alphys. "O-o-oh, g-good mo-morning, S-Sam! Y-you're not... l-late... That's.... good!" she squeaked. The purple teenager rolled his eyes under his hair and quietly walked to the back of the room where his seat awaited him.

	Everyone except for Sam himself was already seated at their desks by the time he got there. Jockington was talking at Catti who was not even listening while typing away at her phone as usual. Berdly was snickering to himself while staring right at Sam like he thought he was somehow superior. Snowdrake was harassing a very unamused MK with lame puns that didn't even fit the conversation or current situational context. Temmie was vibrating in her seat while affectionately petting a boiled egg. Noelle was trying and failing miserably to seem like she wasn't looking Sam's way, and Kris was already doodling something in her notebook.

	All of this, and Alphys, their teacher, did absolutely nothing to get anybody to pay attention. Instead, she was rummaging around her desk to look for worksheets she had printed off of the internet instead of getting anything approved by the school administration. 'Typical, just let everyone walk all over you as usual,' Sam thought.

	Sam pulled his chair out from his desk and slumped into it. He looked to his right to see Snowdrake with a goofy grin spread across his beak, with MK in front him looking like he wish he had the hands to strangle the bird with. Sam secretly shared the perceived sentiment, but he was in no position to act on it.

	"G-good morning, everyone! I hope you all had a w-wonderful weekend! I know I did!" Alphys exclaimed with clearly forced enthusiasm.
"That's wonderful, Ms. Alphys," a timid voice replied in the front of the class. Her words rang far less hollow in comparison.
"T-thank you, Noelle. I... uh... appreciate it." Alphys replied with a weak smile.

	She grabbed the chalk that sat right underneath the blackboard and began writing down assignments. After writing down basic instructions related to the bootleg paperwork, the lizard woman took her freshly printed stack and started handing them out. "Man," Sam muttered under his breath, "Mondays suck ass..."

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	As Alphys was immersed within her sinful fantasies involving her favorite cartoon characters on her computer screen, Sam slapped his small stack of completed worksheets onto Alphys' desk. The reptilian woman immediately jolted upwards and frantically clicked off of several webpages and opened picture files scattered across her screen. With a voice shaken with adrenaline, Alphys looked past the desktop to see Sam awaiting an acknowledgment of his existence with exhausted eyes staring her down.

	"O-oh, y-you're done! O-okay, j-just... staple them together a-and p-put them with the others," Alphys squeaked, pointing at a neat pile of papers stacked to her right. Sam blinked at his teacher and picked his assignments back up and lazily applied a staple to them with a satisfying *CHA-CHUNK*. The dragon placed his work on the top of the pile haphazardly, not caring if it fell onto the floor. The drake heard a nasal snicker taunting him from behind.

	"Got somethin' to say?" he asked, turning his head to see a smirking Berdly. The eyes of the self-proclaimed 'first smartest student in class' gleamed with a sense of snide superiority.
	"Oh, nothing..." Berdly sneered, "just that even the kid with no arms completed his work faster than you. What, are you not getting enough sleep? You... look... like... Uh... Heh..." Berdly chuckled, but his words trailed off into silence when the purple beast turned around and approached his desk with a menacing aura. Sam placed his bared claws on the bird's desk, leaving small marks in the wood.

	"...Shit? I'll tell you who looks like shit," Sam growled. With his mind clouded with sleep deprivation and the need for another cigarette he wouldn't find any time soon, the drake acted purely out of instinct. Alphys scrambled to find the words to stop a fight from breaking out, but she could barely work up the nerve. "The bird who got chucked out the window, squirming in the DIRT twelve seconds from now looks like shit."
	"S-Sam..." Alphys forced through her stiff lips, "T-that's enough! P-please, j-just... sit down, or.. I-I'll s-suspend you!"

	The blue bird's smirk was long gone, replaced with a faux stoicism and bravery. Sam shifted his gaze upon the rest of the class to see fear and worry plastered on most of their faces. However, Kris and Catti seemingly had no reaction. The perpetually smiling, Tem-shaped anomaly to his left had not changed her expression, but she had noticeably ceased breathing. With a small huff through his nose, Sam stuffed his claws into his pockets and walked back to his seat.

	Just as he was about to sit back down, the ear-piercing noise of the school bell ringing, signaling that it was lunchtime. "...Looks like I don't gotta sit down," Sam commented, but the shrill sound echoing throughout the school halls drowned him out. Everyone else stayed glued to their seat, not wanting to be the first one to break the awkward fog created by Sam and Berdly's back-to-back outbursts.

	The delinquent, externally unfazed by such recent events, was the first to walk towards the door. Sam yanked the door open and slammed it behind him just as the ringing of the bell began to die and stormed down the hallway. He could hear the cheering and laughter coming from Ms. Toriel's kindergarten class directly in front of him, followed by the maternal teacher's muffled yet stern request for the children to calm down.

	A small twang of guilt smacked the back of Sam's head like a stiff ruler when he saw the classroom door beginning to open. He felt as if such a strict authority figure like Toriel would immediately know the things he had said to Berdly mere moments prior, and consequentially bring her hammer down upon him. Sam bolted for the front doors and ripped them open to avoid such an imagined confrontation.

	Sam slowed his roll by the time he was out on the street in front of the building, resigning himself to power-walking westwards. He had nowhere specific to be, he realized all too quickly. The uniquely tiny school had no cafeteria, and he was banned from a Free Ham Sandwich Day that wasn't due to come around for several days, meaning he had no way of getting any free or otherwise stolen food from the school. He could possibly steal someone's lunch, but he knew he would regret it not much long after.

	The only other places he could think of was QC's Diner and the local 'pezza' joint, but he had no money on him. Instead, he would need to raid their dumpster for freshly tossed food. He hated the idea of eating like he was homeless, but he wasn't about to walk all the way home to find barely anything other than a certain person he wanted to avoid for as long as he could.

	Sam shamefully lowered his head and steeled himself for the possibility of getting caught, being reported to the crazy fish cop, and having the school administration restrict everyone from leaving school grounds during lunchtime ever again. He wasn't ready for the burden of other people getting punished for his own actions, but he was famished. It was a risk he would need to take.

	"Too hungry..." he thought. "I need to eat SOMETHING..."
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Next chapter, A Slow Morning: https://pastebin.com/3e5VGC53