Seafoam (Klance)

Chapter 2 - He's Just A Boy

Lance ended up settling in the seat directly in front of Keith, completely oblivious to the raven haired boy glaring intensely at the back of his head. Keith could not fathom the sudden appearance of this boy. All these years of searching and out of nowhere that face, those eyes, appear in the place he'd last expect to see them. However, this boy was simply that, a boy. No scales, no fins, no gills, and certainly no tail. It was simply impossible. Even so, these facts do not invalidate the shock the pale teen was currently experiencing.

The chocolate haired boy seemed to daze off towards the end of the lesson. As a result, the sudden ringing of the bell signalling the end of class set him into a panicked flurry as he scrambled to gather his belongings and scurry out of the classroom. Keith never really unpacked anything to begin with and began calmly strolling towards the exit after the majority had cleared out. Halfway to the door, however, another being haphazardly slammed into him from behind sending the two hurtling to the ground, books and binders scattering over the floor.

"Sorry man, you okay?" Keith turned his head towards the voice behind him to find himself face to face with the very cause of his current distress.

"Woah," Lance exhaled as he took in the features of the ravenette for the first time, gaining him a quizzical glance from said boy. "I mean... Is that a mullet?"

"Excuse me?" Keith responded, somewhat astounded by Lance's question.

"Y-you're excused?" Lance truly did not intend to offend or pick a fight with the unfamiliar boy, he simply panicked. This didn't matter now though, he recognised the spark of irritation in the boy's blue-violet grey eyes. Alarmed and partially terrified the ocean eyed boy hastily gathered his scattered belongings and bolted.

"Hey, wai-!" Keith began to take off after the mildly frightened boy only to collide with the ground once again as he slipped on a relatively small, flat object. With growing irritation the pale boy inspected the object that foiled him. It appeared to be a relatively small blue notebook. Opening to the first page was a brief contact form containing name, phone number, and address. The form had been appropriately filled out in blue ink. Under name he read: 'Lance McClain', however, McClain had been crossed out and written in the room under it was 'Garrett'. Keith concluded the notebook belonged to Lance and the boy had failed to retrieve it in his prior haste. The pale boy sighed, plunging the notebook into his pocket. He didn't mean to startle the other boy. He'd forgotten how intimidating he could be, his lack of interaction with others and all.

oOoOo

"Hunk!" Lance exclaimed, finally finding the one familiar face he recognised in the entire school. A larger teen with honey brown skin, nut brown eyes, and ear length, black-brown hair.

"Hey buddy, how's your first day so far?" the larger boy smiled warmly at his best friend.

"Yeah, about that..." Lance began, "I think I pissed off a mildly scary looking dude in my class... What do I do?!"

"Hold up, how have you already pissed someone off?!"

"I didn't mean to! I panicked! He was kinda cute..." Lance inaudibly mumbled the last part.

"Okay, can you tell me who you pissed off?" Hunk questioned, rubbing his temples.

"Uh... I don't know..."

"Do you remember what he looked like?"

"Mullet!"

"Sorry, what?"

"He had a mullet! Black hair, pale skin, and I think his eyes were like a lilac grey?" the chocolate haired teen described.

"Oh! You mean Keith!" the honey skinned boy concluded, "Yeah... He is kinda scary..."

The lanky boy groaned, collapsing into the comfort of his best friend's arms.

"It's okay buddy, I've got your back!" Hunk comforted his friend, "Also, there's someone I wanna introduce you to!"

"O-okay, yeah! Thanks Hunk!" Lance perked up a bit, "So where is this person?"

"They should be in the computer lab."

oOoOo

"Pidge. You must be Lance," a rather short girl with short, fluffy, light hazelnut brown hair and honey brown eyes introduced herself.

"Yup, the one and only! So, you're Hunk's friend?" the lanky boy remarked

"Yup, we're both science and technology nuts," Hunk chimed in, chipper.

"How old are you though... You're like... A genderless child," Lance carelessly expressed his thoughts aloud. The larger boy beside him giggled at his comment.

"Honestly, I don't really care what other people think I look like. But, I'll have you know, I'm 15 and I'm in the same grade as you," Pidge retorted, a smug smile brushing her lips.

"Pidge is a genius and skipped a grade," Hunk explained

"That's pretty amazing!" the slender boy beamed, sincerity apparent in his voice.

"Thanks," the shorter girl expressed, slightly bashful. She was slightly taken aback by the boy's reaction, "You're not so bad yourself, sides, I've had multiple people compare me to a gremlin." the girl shot a glare at Hunk, the taller male guiltily averting his gaze.

oOoOo

Whilst it holds true that Keith avoided unnecessary interactions with others, there was one person he talked to. This person, quite like himself, lacked interest in what high school had to offer for them. Being a genius said person was far ahead of the school curriculum and instead indulged in their own research. In fact, they only stuck around because they were still contemplating which high end institute would be best for their tertiary studies, and, unlike Keith, they had friends. This person sometimes aided Keith in his research, taking up a slight interest in the area themselves, though never questioned why the boy was so insistent on his mermaid hunt.

"Hey Pidge, I need your help with something," the pale teen announced as he stepped into the computer lab. Startled by a squeal assaulting his ear drums as he entered.

"I swear I wasn't trying to pick a fight with you! I just kinda panicked and said the first thing that came to my mind, I didn't mean to piss you off or anything like that!" it was the ocean eyed boy, hid behind his hulking friend who stood his ground defensively against the pale boy who'd just entered the room. Pidge watched the scene playing out before her eyes, an eyebrow raised.

"What? I..." Keith sighed, "Look, I'm not going to hurt you. You don't need to be so freaked out by me."

Lance reluctantly stepped out from behind his friend's back, facing the other, raven haired, boy.

"Lance, right? I'm Keith," the pale boy introduced himself.

"Y-yeah..." the caramel skinned boy responded sheepishly.

"So what did you need help with?" Pidge interjected

"Oh, right. Actually, I wanted you to help me find the new kid," Keith answered the smaller girl before turning to the boy in question, revealing the blue notebook from his pocket, "You dropped this."

The blue eyed boy snatched the booklet from his hand, flustered.

"Y-you didn't look inside it did you?" Lance questioned, slightly fearful and worried.

"No, I only looked at the first page. I was trying to figure out who it belonged to," the ravenette assured, glancing at the lanky boy, concerned, "Should I not have?"

"Uhm... No... Uh... No, no that's okay! Thanks!" Lance smiled.

Keith kind of liked Lance's smile, it was almost contagious. After all though, he noted that the boy didn't seem to recognise him, not even slightly. He was certain it was impossible that this boy was the mermaid boy that saved him.