BFB High (with a continuous plot wow)

Chapter 14: The TA's Secret

"Hi Gale, Talia, and Lola!" Sawyer exclaimed upon seeing her upperclassmen friends.

"Hi," Gale responded.

"Hey," Talia said.

"Hello, Sawyer and Dora. And welcome back, Teddy," Lola greeted from the lunch table. However, her eyes soon caught sight of the person next to her, Leah, and she frowned. "What is the Stepford Smiler doing here?"

"Lola!" Gale and Sawyer exclaimed at the same time. Sawyer was looking at Lola with a shocked expression on her face, seeming to not believe that she had said that. Meanwhile, Gale was looking at the bespectacled girl in disapproval, looking like she was about to scold her about her rudeness.

Teddy winced. Right, Lola wasn't exactly welcoming towards Leah when she came over to help out on Monday. Maybe this was a bad idea. She tried to give Leah an apologetic look, but the brunette wasn't looking at her, instead looking at the lunch table with a fake smile frozen on her face. Oh no. Leah had never reacted well to being rejected or unwanted, and with the stress of worrying about Penelope on top of it...

Thankfully, Talia interjected before a disaster could happen. "Don't listen to Lola. She acts like this to everyone," she reassured Leah. "You're welcome to sit with us if you like. And thanks for helping with the whole thing with Becky..."

Leah's smile turned warmer at this. "You're welcome! And helping people is what I do! Let's sit down!"

With that, the four girls sat down at the table, although Teddy couldn't help but notice that Leah chose to sit near the edge of the table when she knew how much the girl loved to sit near the center of the table. Granted, it wasn't too obvious as she was sitting next to Teddy and these tables seemed to be able to seat about eight people each. Still, Teddy found herself worried about the other girl.

"So, how has your day been so far?" Sawyer asked the sophomores as she took out her lunchbox.

"It was good," Gale replied, "math class was interesting though. It looks like Don came back to TA this year. His relationship with the professor seemed as strained as ever, though."

Teddy put down her sandwich to type a question into her AAC app. "Wait, Don is a TA for sophomore math too?"

"Apparently so," Gale replied. "We had him last year as a TA when we were freshmen too, but that was everyday. So when he didn't show up during math yesterday or on Monday, we thought he wasn't going to be a TA this year. Turns out he's only going to be a TA for us on Wednesdays."

"Huh? Only on Wednesdays?" Sawyer asked. "He told my class he would be a TA for us everyday."

"Weird," Talia muttered.

"Well, it's only your class's first year of high school, while this is our class's second year. With this increased experience, we probably need less guidance than you," Lola reasoned. "Perhaps that's why you have a TA everyday and we only get one for one day."

"That tracks," Leah jumped in. "As juniors, we don't have a TA for our math class, and we have the most high school experience of all the classes."

It relieved Teddy to see Leah was still socializing with others. Hopefully this would take her mind off of worrying about Penelope. Though, Teddy couldn't help but notice that Leah was nowhere near as exuberant as she normally would be in conversations.