Come With Me (Lapidot)

Chapter 26

Peridot hummed quietly as she reached across the way to snatch the pencil from Ruby's desk as the girl animatedly talked to another classmate. She hadn't finished her homework from the night before and still had the last few equations to solve before the bell rang to signal the start of class; she began writing, knowing full well that the entire time that the boy that sat next to her was glancing over and messily copying what he could catch off her paper. She didn't mind. It had become a fairly common practice and so long as he didn't try it on tests, she wasn't calling him out for it.

She had gotten through question seventeen when her phone buzzed in her hoodie pocket. She let the pencil fall from her grip and reached in, swiping across her screen to bring the message up. It was from Steven, a picture of him and Amethyst  in front of some sort of fancy water fountain with stupidly giant grins plastered on their faces. It made the corners of Peri's own mouth twitch up.

They still weren't back from Empire City. Wouldn't be, until Wednesday. Peridot had to admit that considering Amethyst was the one person she spent ninety percent of her time with, it was sort of lonely without her. And she still had two days to go.

"Hey!" Ruby spoke up suddenly, sounding indignant. Peridot's eyes jumped up and she found her friend glaring at her. "That was my pencil." She even went so far as to reach over to snatch it back but Peridot beat her to it and yanked it to the side.

She smirked. "No idea what you're talking about. This one is mine. Maybe you lost yours."

"Oh, so funny, Per. Come on, give it back. It's the only one I have at this point."

Peridot furrowed her brow at that. "What? But you had, like, a giant bag filled with pens and pencils a week ago."

Ruby huffed and halfway stood from her seat, making another swipe at the writing implement. "Yeah, a week ago. Now it's just the one. Please, Peridot?"

The blonde rolled her eyes but relented with a heavy, exaggerated sigh. "Alright, alright," she muttered as she handed it over. "You're pretty useless, you know that?"

Her friend grinned a toothy sort of gesture and slipped the pencil down the rings of her notebook's spine. "I know. But you still love me."

Peridot opened her mouth, snippy comment on the edge of her tongue, but the bell blaring overhead beat her to it. So she simply shook her head and reached for her own book bag to dig around and try to find one of the many pencils that got lost within its depths. Had to be one in there somewhere.

She unzipped the largest pocket and started rummaging around, until her fingers hit a piece of folded up paper in front of her binder. That was odd. Where she wasn't known for her organization skills, she didn't normally just stuff papers into her bag. They went in a folder, or binder, or in between the pages of a textbook. So, out of curiosity, she grabbed it and pulled it free.

It took a moment to unfold, during which time the door to the classroom swung open and her math teacher came in, not even making it to his own desk before calling for the homework to be turned in. Peridot wasn't too upset hers wasn't completely finished; she let Ruby take it up for her when the girl stood to take her own up.

The paper was written on in sloppy, loopy letters, taking up only one line. Not her own. They looked... like Lapis' honestly. But Peridot's brow furrowed because why would Lapis slip a sheet of paper in her things like an elementary schooler when she could just text or wait until break to talk? Intrigue won out, and Peridot began to read.

How do you feel about dancing? Yay or nay?

That... wasn't what Peridot had been expecting at all. She very nearly snorted in amusement, folding the paper back up and tucking it in the front pocket of her jeans. Looked like they had something to talk about when lunch rolled around.