God I wish Charlie would've knocked on my door so I didn't have to carry all of these on my own.
Knox and Sigrid walked next to each other in complete silence, Sigrid was struggling to hold her book-bag over her shoulder because she carried more materials than usual, Charlie hadn't specified which books she needed to study so she cluelessly brought all of them. The roommates walked next to each other in complete silence, one out of annoyance of the extra weight and the other one anxious about making a good first impression on his dad's friends.
She looked over at him and gave a little smile when she noticed him comb his hair to the other side for the fifth time in the past thirty seconds. She looked at his attire, an unwelcome cackle erupted from the bottom of her throat. "So...are we going to give the crown to the queen or accept the presidency of a small country in Asia?"
"Funny, Hall. But if you knew me well enough," she tsked at the well enough, "You'd know that the Danburry's are very important people, and these clothes make up for how incredibly unlikable I am to elders."
"Oh come on, Overstreet," she rolled her eyes as she finally got to Meeks' front door and then stopped him in front of her. She looked up as she took his comb to fix his hair one more time, "I'm sure the single mothers book club loves you."
He smacked her hand away playfully and asked her to put his comb in her book-bag. She sighed as she did so and then looked back up at him, "In all seriousness, I hope it goes well. I know meeting new people could be scary. Maybe not all old people are annoying."
"Thank you?" he chuckled and then knocked on the door for her.
"You're welcome," she grinned and then got on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek just as the door opened. Charlie looked at them unamused then pretended to be smiling the whole time when they turned to look at him. Sigrid hugged him, Charlie was taken slightly aback but then awkwardly patted her back as he continued to stare at Knox. Knox gave a little smirk before pulling her off of his friend and taking the book-bag off her shoulders.
"Well, I have to go now, I'll see you guys later."
Sigrid walked into the room, it seemed a lot smaller with a handful of boys inside of it. She noticed Todd wasn't there, she slightly frowned before getting her book-bag again. "Latin or English?"
They all answered simultaneously, "Both."
She nodded, taking out both of them and taking a pencil from her small pencil bag. Charlie walked next to her, looking down at her hands preparing her things. "Why'd you bring all your books?"
She shrugged, he took her books and sat down next to Neil, she awkwardly stood at the edge of the bed until he patted the space next to him. She crawled up and then sat next to him, they were shoulder to shoulder, Neil set Charlie's book in front of him so Charlie could take her to the page they left off on, "I didn't know what we were going to study."
"Todd's doing his Chem homework in his dorm, we asked him so we could all help each other as is but something tells me he doesn't really like us," Neil muttered, butting into Sigrid and Charlie's conversation. She looked passed the boy and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What makes you think that?"
"Nothing really, I just think it's a little weird how closed off he is with us. He didn't have a problem going out with you."
Sigrid noticed the undertone, even though Neil was still smiling and sounded overall positive. She looked at Charlie quickly before shifting her eyes back at Neil. "He's doing his work. I doubt you doesn't like you, Chemistry could be a real drag."
"You know what else is a real drag?" having your future stolen from right under you. "Wanting to help someone out and having them completely close up on you. It's unfair, that Anderson. He didn't even look stressed, he just looked annoyed."
Charlie stuck out his head in between them and then turned to her with a slightly annoyed expression, "Can we get to studying now?"
He put the book on her lap and then picked up his own. "Sure," she muttered and rolled her eyes playfully for Neil to notice, he gave an annoyed expression as he looked down at his book.
"Alright," he mocked in return.
"Keating said we're supposed to rip out the introduction to the book, so there's no Pritchard's chart, Sig."
"Oh thank god," she said under her breath, ripping out the pages without making sure with the other boys that Neil wasn't messing with her. Charlie followed after a few seconds of looking at her in bewilderment. "If I had to go off some stupid chart for the rest of the year I'd willingly throw myself off a cliff."
They both laughed through their noses, Richard Cameron, Gerard, and Steven were on the other bed working on Latin together. So they figured one group would study one subject and the other group would do the other.
"How are we going to help each other with poems if we're supposed to do it on our own?" Sigrid accepted a paper that Charlie handed her, he gave another to Neil. Neil shrugged, "Maybe we could talk about certain things we've thought of writing about and we could help each other with rhyming?"
"A poem could be a poem if it doesn't rhyme," Sigrid started doodling on the side of her page. Charlie started thinking of what to name his poem, Neil was thinking of one thing he didn't want to.
Todd.
"Colors, foods, movies, shoot 'em at me," he muttered instead and looked over at her.
"Green," Charlie suggested as he looked at both of them and then wrote it down on his paper.
"I haven't watched movies in years," the first sentence spilled from her head and onto the paper:
Still, my thoughts motionless like pictures,
memories of your in my garden flicker,
jovial feet in the mud running quicker,
paints in my soul and makes our love written like scripture.
Then she looked at the stanza with furrowed eyebrows as she read it over, too much rhyming, you sound like Dr. Seuss. She turned the paper to the other side instead of crushing it with her hands. "Next."
"Coats, birds, and oranges," Neil said hesitantly. He had no idea where the words came from but then laughed at how none of them made sense in the same sentence.
Neil began to write with an eased hand, lip caught in between his teeth as he thought so harshly it would make him bleed. Charlie looked at Sigrid and smiled, "Coats, birds, and oranges? What are we writing about here?"
"No idea," she looked over at his page which already had several words written on different corners. She laid her head on his shoulder, his thick eyelashes hid his eyes as he looked down as he continued to write with his immaculate cursive. Neil hummed, "Leather shoes, blond hair, and snow," he whispered to himself. Sigrid quirked an eyebrow as she barely heard him.
"Leather shoes? That's good."
"You should get back to writing," Charlie whispered as he looked up from his paper to look at the other boys. Neil now had his pencil in between his teeth and the other boys were going through the study cards to see who could remember the most words. "Fine," she pouted slightly before removing her head from her shoulder and slumping back to the wall. "What are you writing about?"
"Taking over the government, of course," the corner of his mouth twitched to hide a smile before shaking his head. "I'm kidding. I'm not sure yet, just writing what comes to mind."
He turned his page to show her, the page was slowly filling up with single words, and single words were slowly making sense in a string. "You've sure got a unique way of writing your thoughts."
"If I don't write it down I'll forget it, and I can't afford that now that this is due tomorrow."
Coats, birds, oranges, leather shoes, blond hair, and snow.
"Damnit!" Neil hissed as he crumbled his paper and threw it to the trash bin, it missed by a centimeter which only made him more angry. He stood up and angrily shoved it in the full bin and kicked it over. Sigrid stifled slightly but Charlie stopped her by putting his hand behind her elbow. "What?"
"Let him be, he'll get over it," Charlie scooted to take Neil's space as he opened the door to leave. "Want to go through more ideas?"
Neil walked through the hallways by himself. His hands were tightly gripping his suit uneasily as he tried to clear out his head, but he couldn't, and the more he thought the more aggressively the tears fell down his cheeks. "He doesn't even like me, he probably has a girlfriend," he walked to the bathroom and went to the sink to wash his face. "Sigrid, stupid Sigrid. He didn't want to go to the study session today so he wouldn't see me. What makes me think he likes me back."
He splashed water onto his face after undoing a few buttons from the top of his shirt to prevent the rest of his body from getting wet. He hadn't even checked if he was alone in the bathroom but there was someone hidden in the stall. His leather shoes were noticeable from under the stall, but Neil hadn't seen him. He was too busy crying over the sink will gripping the side to try to calm himself down.
"Why do I feel like this?" his voice cracked. "I can't feel like this."
Todd raised his feet to the toilet so the person on the other side wouldn't notice him. His palms were becoming sweaty, he felt wrong for hiding in the stall and listening to the conversation.
"I'm supposed to marry some pretty girl and become a doctor....and I'm supposed to have kids with her so my parents could be happy. I'm supposed to get out of that door every single day and pretend it's not there. I'm supposed," he gasped out another cry as his face twisted.
You're supposed.
"I'm supposed to be what dad wants me to be."
Todd frowned as his feet went back down to the ground, he grabbed the handle to the side to stand up with hesitance. His shoes squeaked, Neil froze for a couple seconds but then he started frantically wiping the tears off his face and buttoned his shirt where it was supposed to be.
Todd opened the stall door with a face as white as a ghost as he made eye contact with the boy. Neil stared back through the mirror, a sudden ball of saliva forming in his throat. His hands were shaking slightly, Todd walked to the other sink in complete silence and washed his hands.
"Tough study session?" he cleared his throat awkwardly before giving a side glance to his roommate. He tried his hands with a paper towel then got another piece to offer to Neil, Neil took it slowly then wiped his neck.
"You could say that," it was quiet but raspy. He covered up the bitterness with a laugh.
"Do you..." Todd finally turned to look at Neil, Neil looked away. It was like there was a wall between them, Neil's nose was bright red as he sniffled and Todd was dry for words.
"Do you want to study with me for the rest of the night?"