1.0 | Beaumont Academy | editing

BA 8 | ✓ family ties

08 family ties

"Uh oh." James muttered. He was standing beside Nadine at their lab table, who had been playing around with her pacer while halfway through their chemistry worksheet. Something was definitely wrong if Nadine hadn't finished it before the rest of the class.

He nudged her softly, "Lois lane."

Nadine looked up to him, expression blank as if she'd been daydreaming the entire time. "Huh?"

"What's wrong, Lois Lane?" James asked, "You've been out of it since the start of the day."

She frowned at the nickname but shook her head, "Don't worry about it."

"I'll worry about it," he smiled playfully, "because something's up and you've barely answered your worksheet right. And by the way, water is not WA, it's H-two-O." He chuckled, pointing at her silly mistake with the tip of his pencil. She was definitely out-of-it if she'd gotten that wrong.

Nadine cursed lowly, rubbing her mistake out and replacing it with the correct formula. She huffed in frustration and James immediately regretted teasing her.

"Hey," he said, taking her hand which was fisted tightly against her pacer, "are you alright?" He quickly eyed the teacher, who was busy writing homework up on the board, to make sure they wouldn't get in trouble. Nobody else seemed to pay attention to them. Then he looked back to Nadine, who avoided his eyes, and who looked close to crying.

Mercifully, the bell rung at that moment. Nadine pulled her hand away, wiping her tears away with her sleeve and packing her things then walking away before James could tell her to wait. He sighed, and quickly took out his phone to snap their homework and then ran to follow her.

He followed her to an empty hallway, away from the rest of the students heading to lunch, and watched as she sank against the wall, letting herself cry. A part of him thought to find the rest of SWAN, so they could comfort her. (Because he was obviously doing a terrible job at it). But he was there, and the other part of him more so wanted to comfort her.

He breathed and quietly walked to her. When she caught a glimpse of him, she swiftly wiped away her tears, and yet again, avoided his gaze.

"Nadine," he said lowly, and waited for her to talk. He wouldn't force her to, though he wished she would. All he wanted to do was be there for her, and even if he'd only known her for several weeks, there was no denying that he'd grown to care for her.

"Why are you here?" She whispered, barely audible that he only just caught it.

"Because I'm your friend."

"You've only known me for – "

"Doesn't matter. I'm still your friend. And you are the Lois Lane."

She scoffed lightly at that, her lips twisting up ever so slightly, but hey, he'd managed to make her smile.

"Now," he said, "you can tell me what's wrong, or I'll stand here and simply be here for you. You don't need to tell me, but I'd really rather you do because my mum always said it's better to talk to someone who you know cares about you – that way, they know that they're not alone."

"You care about me?"

He frowned as if that should've been the most obvious thing in the world, "Course I do."

It took several minutes before she told him. James simply listened, offering to carry her bag for her while she told him that her breakfast that morning involved her parents reinforcing their plans for her future: that she'd go to Oxford or Stanford to study business and after that she'd work at their company. She had no input.