𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍. ᵗʷⁱˡⁱᵍʰᵗ

four.

Jonathan was currently debating whether he should go out and explore the forest or town, or if he should invite Cass over to reorganize his record collection- Cass liked organizing things, but she also enjoyed the sound of his record player. Then again, maybe he should get himself more reacquainted with the town and find some places to hang out at when he didn't want to immediately go home. Maybe there was a good book store or music shop that he hadn't been to before, highly unlikely, but you never know. He hadn't been here since the previous summer, which had been cut short because Jonathan had gotten ill the day school let out so he had been unable to travel for a good two and a half weeks. In the end, he decided that he would be checking out the forest behind the house, going to explore and maybe even find a nice place to have picnics with Cass- she liked that kind of stuff, and it was hard to find a place with privacy for them to talk more freely. Small towns and all...

Jonathan remained unaware of the directions of this newest project, and stayed blissfully in his own head as students were randomly paired off. That is, until he heard the screeching of desks around him being moved around and chair legs scraping painfully on the floor, hurting his ears and snapping him out of his reverie.

Looking around, Jonathan Swan found himself at a loss as he found Evangeline now seated next to him. Exceedingly close due to her desk being pushed right next to his. Taking a quick glance around the room, he found others had their desks in similar setups, and Cass was pouting with arms crossed as she was paired up with some boy from the basketball team. She did not look happy, as she sneered at the boy as she most obviously insulted him and began to work on whatever assignment they'd been given, rolling her eyes when the boy continued to talk to her.

He snapped his eyes back to the girl before him as she cleared her throat softly, looking amused as she smiled a bit at him, raising her eyebrow. "I'm going to assume that you weren't paying attention." She said, her voice unwavering in confidence and absolute music to his blessed ears. Holy shit, that was some sappy-ass shit.

Jonathan grimaced, "Yeah, no, sorry. What's going on?"

"We've been assigned a partner project." Evangeline explained kindly, before launching into the details of what they were supposed to do and the directions for what whatever they were doing would entail. Turns out, it was a research report that was loosely related to their discussion of Shakespeare's works.

He caught Cass' smug look, then, as she peered over at him with one of the hugest smirks on her face, looking in between him and Evangeline with obvious suggestion. She was now sitting with a different partner, a girl this time- she must have been reassigned, judging from the looks she was getting from her previous partner, and also the eye roll from their teacher, who was just walking back to the front of the room were his desk sat from Cass' seat in the back of the room.

"So what do you think?" Evangeline's voice broke him from his distractions, and he turned to quickly face her again to see her already looking at him with amusement. "You don't have a very strong attention span, do you?"

"No," Jonathan sighed, "Sorry, I'm just having a rough morning."

"It's cool, I get it," Evangeline shrugged, "Something on your mind?"

It was almost startling how easily the words had come out of her mouth. Evangeline wasn't one to get close to someone or make conversation with the mortals at this school, or any school they attended, and yet here she was now. She found his silent observations of Cassandra Yang fun to watch, and she thought his spacey behavior, which was obviously uncharacteristic because Cassandra had been shooting him worried looks for the entire duration of the class' lecture, to be adorable.

Plus, when he talked to her, he was looking her in the eyes.

"My sister's having a bit of a hard time because yesterday some jerk made her insecure." Jonathan sighed heavily, internally surprised how easily he had divulged his thoughts to her.