Love Comes From Strange Places

17

"Wait, wait, wait! You did what?!" Emerald yelled the next day. It was free period and Neve was with Emerald, Reed, Kai, and Emmett.

"I turned in my homework." Reed said.

"I'm so proud of you oh my god!" Emerald squealed.

"What the fuck is up with you? I always turn in my homework." Reed asked, their eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"No but you turned in your science homework without asking for my help! No extra work for me, no sir!" Emerald was practically bouncing off the walls. Well, they were outside there technically weren't any walls, but the meaning is still there.

"I never ask you for help." Reed said, defensively.

"Reed, we all know that's a lie." Kai said, not looking up from his phone.

"What are you doing on your phone?" Neve asked Kai.

"That's none of your business!" Kai said, moving his phone screen from Neve's line of sight.

Emerald grabbed Kai's phone from his hand, and he looked like he was about to explode.

"The angry birds game? Really Kai?" Emerald said.

"Shut up. It's fun." Kai muttered. He grabbed his phone and turned it off. Emmett started laughing and a small blush crept onto Kai's cheeks.

"Speaking of homework," Emmett said, reaching into his backpack, "Does anyone know how to do this? I still haven't figured out this question." He pointed at one of the algebra problems.

"Oh yeah, I can help you with that." Kai said quickly. Neve looked at him in confusion. Kai wasn't very good at math. She knew he knew how to do this problem, but he would never help someone. He was never confident enough with his answers. But still Kai was helping Emmett. He had been acting very strange lately, especially around Emmett. Neve didn't know what was happening. She was still as oblivious as she had been before, even if she said she wasn't. But for others like Emerald and Reed for example, watched moments like these and tried not to laugh.

"Kai you can't even do math!" Emerald laughed.

"Yea-yeah I can!" Kai said. His face turned a little red.

"No you can't. Didn't you get like a B last semester?" Reed added.

"Yeah but that's pretty good." Kai said.

"It's better than me. I got a C-." Emmett muttered to Neve.

"Is it good enough to help other people though? We know you want to feel important but helping other people? That's too much." Emerald said.

"What are you talking about?" Kai asked.

"Oh you know exactly what we're talking about." Said Reed.

"No. No I don't." Kai answered.

"Oh well then. Guess you'll never find out." Emerald said, looking at her nails. After a second she looked up and made direct eye contact with Reed. Both of them bursted into laughter.

Neve and Emmett looked at them in confusion. Neither of them understood what was happening at all. Kai looked extremely annoyed. Neve could see on his face that he knew exactly what was going on but just didn't want to say it.

The sound of a bell rang from inside the building and echoed around the courtyard from all directions. Neve put her stuff into her bag, getting ready for history.

Emerald groaned, "I have geography. I hate geography."

"Good luck girl. I have English so... I'm better than you." Reed said. She stuck her tongue out at Emerald.

"Well I have art so all of you lose!" Kai said.

"Lucky!" Complained Emerald.

"Yeah I'm wonderful." Kai said. Reed laughed.

Neve loved watching her friends interact like this. She wasn't very talkative so she often wouldn't contribute to their conversations, but she always found them very entertaining.

All her friends started standing up to head to class. Emmett was in Neve's history class so they walked together.

"Your friends are very strange." Emmett said.

"Yeah they are, but I still love them." Neve answered.

"You seem to care a lot about them. I thought you would talk more. You talk a lot when it's just us."

"I talk a lot more in one on one. I always end up not having anything to contribute to the conversation. When it's just two people it's easier to talk."

"That makes a lot of sense." Emmett said.

"You don't talk much either. Is it for the same reasons?" Neve asked.

"Not really. It just sometimes feels like I don't belong with your friends. The rest of you act like you have known each other forever and I just, don't."

"Oh yeah. That makes sense." There was a moment of silence. "Maybe you could get to know us." Neve looked at Emmett and smiled.

"Yeah that would be great!" Emmett said, smiling back.

They walked into the classroom and took their seats on almost opposite sides of the room. Emmett with some of the other popular kids in the class by the door, Neve alone by the window. 

The teacher walked in, "Hello class. Get out your textbooks and read the next chapter. There will be no talking."

'Oh I can do this.' Neve thought. She picked up her textbook and started reading.

A/N: this was a sad excuse for a filler chapter but oh well. Sorry it took so long to write, I was helping Batman fight crime. See you all soon. -Emma