Tweetie

47

"I'll talk to you anytime, Ryan," she smiled, her face warm and kind as he nodded, still unable to hold eye contact in his anxious state.

"Yeah, Tweetie, thanks," Fox smiled, joining the conversation. "You talked sense into him. Now we can rest knowing the idiot is safe."

"He accepted your offer?" Leo turned, his eyebrows raised.

"What offer?" Joel chimed in, his voice further than the others as he sat only a table away.

"I offered to let him live with me. My grandparents are worried about him too, so we kept offering but he always said no. Tweetie told him to take the offer." Fox explained, watching as Joel widened his eyes, turning to the girl then towards Ryan. "So," Fox continued, "thanks. We owe you."

"She's a miracle worker."

"Hardly," Hazel hummed, fiddling with the edge of her sheet of paper. "If I was a miracle worker, do you think there would be children starving right now? Do you think I would be starving right now?"

"You're so dramatic," Leo laughed, watching as she pouted, "want me to get you some food? You didn't get the chance to have lunch, did you?"

"No that's okay, you don't need to-"

"Tweetie, I insist."

"Well... if you insist."

He stood, pushing himself up and passing her, his hand patting her head gently before he moved to the counter and rang a small bell, hoping to get Stewart out of the kitchen. Normally, cafe's didn't have bells, honestly, Hazel thought it was decorative. But thinking about it, it made sense since it was only Stewart working there alone and he couldn't stand at the counter all day.

"Awh..." Joel's breathy voice sighed, his head lowered to look at his phone before he turned, facing their table again. "Oscar, you can't come over tonight, my parents are coming home."

"Really? Will you be okay?" Oscar sat himself up immediately.

"Yeah, I'll be okay."

"Joel," Fox turned to face him, "come help me and Ryan move stuff to my house later, okay?"

"Okay."

Hazel watched as they looked out for each other. It was becoming clearer and clearer that even though Fox might not say too much, he cared for the entire group dearly. Hell, he probably held things together and kept things smooth when nobody else could. Constantly, he was looking after the others, he was always thinking of them and how he could help. He always helped and he would do anything for this group of boys.

"Here you go," Leo pulled her from her thoughts, preventing them from going any further as she realised she needed to rethink the entire case. She knew the boys didn't take part in what happened to Jason, but something kept pushing her back and she needed to figure out what it was, she needed to get their alibis and clear their names for good.

"Ooh," Hazel beamed, taking the cookie from Leo as he patted her wet haired head again on his way past her and towards his seat. "Thank you, Leo."

"No problem."

"Tweetie," she turned, called again by Oscar who handed her his sheet of translated words. "Could you check through this?"

She hummed, nodding her head as she took the paper from his grasp and leaned back, holding it up to read through everything carefully. Everyone seemed to pause, stopping to watch her mark the work as she continued to tilt her head, recalling the answers from her memory.

Soon enough, she placed the sheet down and beamed towards Oscar, her smile filled with pride for the boy who's own smile grew upon seeing hers.

"You got them all right! Good job, Oscy!"