Something was different the minute Emilia approached the school gates, the kind of buzz in the air that usually came from someone being disproportionately pranked, a public breakup, or someone finding an explicit item somewhere it definitely shouldn't be. The whole school seemed excited about a change of pace, and until Emilia went into the building to meet up with her locker before the school day began, she could only assume it would at least be funny.
The girl in question, the centre of attention as she batted eyelashes and loudly simpered pleas of help finding her way around, was not 'at least funny'. Emilia had to stop herself actually rolling her eyes at the blonde, as she was the first person since Arielle to wear heels to school, and her pink thigh-high boots were the opposite of subtle but definitely breaking dress code. She already had one of the footballers carrying her books that clearly were never going to fit in her designer handbag. The textbooks did at least look like the correct versions though, of course all brand new copies. Taking a quick glance at the titles, Emilia noticed the top one was for chemistry, and suddenly the obvious new girl felt a little more threatening. There was hope too of course, she considered as she hid behind the door of her locker, mentally scolding herself for judging someone else so harshly before even meeting them. A girl with an armful of textbooks already had a lot in common with her, and chemistry students usually studied at least a second scientific discipline. By the time Emilia had gathered her own books for the day and awkwardly shoved them into her bag, the new girl had moved on far enough down the corridor that she was out of sight, leaving Emilia to return to her routine in heading down to the engineering block. After the slight deviation to her morning that would inevitably alter the rest of her year, focussing on robotics sounded like the perfect way to decompress before class officially started.
Emilia had only been working on her current circuitry for a few minutes before Arielle's voice sounded from outside the classroom, unsurprising but anxiety inducing nonetheless.
"It's okay, we'll introduce you. That way she won't be a problem for you either."
The attack on Emilia's early electronics mornings was becoming unfairly routine, for it meant Arielle and her followers were coming in earlier than they needed to just to take a shot at ruining her day.
"Is she there?" Maddie's voice could be heard from around the corner.
"Of course she is." Corrine was the first to appear in the doorway as she replied, Arielle, Jocelyn, Maddie, and the new girl all crowding behind her, staring at Emilia like she was some kind of zoo animal or strange-looking aquarium fish. "Good morning Emilia."
"Hi," she mumbled back as the five girls approached, Arielle taking the new girl's hand after fighting through her long blonde hair, and leading her ahead of the group. Arielle started talking to her like Emilia was behind glass before she could react.
"Don't be fooled Poppy, she's a lot more than she looks," Arielle said, "I've heard that in her physics classes she always makes fun of people who aren't as smart as her, which is everyone." It was the first compliment Arielle had ever given her, and yet it still tore her down. There was nothing Emilia could say back to save herself, and she figured anything she did say would only make things worse, so she just sat in silence.
"Oh," Poppy mumbled, and for a moment it looked as if she might doubt Arielle's story. The words she next spoke didn't match the hollow, slightly threatening tone Poppy used. "It's good to meet you then, Emilia." The next breath Emilia took, she held onto. Time needed to move faster, the group needed to leave and her class needed to start. Usually, Jocelyn would be the next person to make some kind of move, usually taking one of her things and holding it just out of reach, or throwing it on the floor for her to scramble to pick up, but Emilia had a tight hold on the current work-in-progress in front of her. The next thought was the soldering iron, but surely Jocelyn wouldn't cross the line into actual evil. Emilia kept an eye on it just in case, but not once did Jocelyn move from where she stood, at the back of the group just off Maddie's shoulder. She couldn't put it into words, but something wasn't right amongst them.
"Girls I don't believe you're supposed to be down here." Emilia never would've guessed the slightly-disorganised electronics teacher she'd been assigned for her final year would've cared to the extent he did, whether it was about her progress as a student or her wellbeing as an individual. Maybe he was just the only teacher to take the school's so-called 'zero-tolerance' policy seriously. Either way, his comment had been met with a series of eye-rolls, sighs, and mutters from the group, who admitted defeat and left Emilia back to her own relative peace.
"I'll be assigning groups for your first project of the year later," Mr Reid added after he was sure only Emilia was in earshot. "Just to give you a heads up."
"It's appreciated," she replied, barely looking up from her soldering work. There had been no reason for him to mention it other than taking pity on her for all the mornings he's also seen Arielle on the way out of the classroom, and how nervous she probably looked at any given point. She certainly felt that way.
"By the specification, a group counts as three or more people. I'm capping it at five, or there will definitely be people doing nothing," Mr Reid explained, as promised to Emilia just under half an hour prior. Their electronics group project had been highly anticipated since the class had seen it in their assessment criteria. "You'll have the opportunity to change who you work with for different projects later in the year, but this decision will be final, so choose wisely." Immediately the class had started looking around the room, students pointing at each other to start planning groups. Emilia had remained still and quiet and focussed enough to catch the lip reading more than anything, of Mr Reid's lighthearted joke. "Or not, I'm not going to tell you guys how to live."
Panic only set in once she'd realised that was the end of the project brief for now, and she was already late in joining a group, frozen in silence on her seat as her mind took her to the worst case scenarios of having to work with students she'd never really met herself, but had seen talking with Maddie over the years. Maybe a group who took all the credit while contributing nothing could still be better than that. The mild distress on her face was very recognisable to Jay, who'd been quietly conferring with Zane about the exact same issue of either asking another person to make a three person group with them, or wander the classroom in search of a duo lacking in numbers. He smiled at Zane without needing to ask the question. He turned to Emilia, the movement breaking her away from the catastrophes in her head.
"You're welcome to work with us," Zane offered, devoid of the frantic nature other students had adopted so as not to lose track of their friends like the group project was some kind of apocalypse. Final year electronics students took this more seriously than Garmadon's attacks, Emilia was convinced.
"If you wanted, of course," Jay quickly and awkwardly added, regretting it the moment the words had left his mouth. "I mean, we wouldn't want to make you feel like you had to or anything, but equally it would be cool." There was no amount of added words that could create a balance in his communication between wanting to work with her, without making her feel pressured to say yes. "If you wanted to."
"The choice is entirely yours Emilia," Zane summarised. It was a desperate attempt to save his friend, which Jay was grateful for.
"That would be really nice, yes please." She could finally breathe, relief washing over her as she envisioned the way the project would go. Despite not knowing either of them on a personal level, they'd seemed hard-working enough, and they'd certainly showed her nothing but kindness. "Thanks."
The bright smile that filled Jay's face reassured her that he had wanted her there all along.
Glancing to the doorway and the empty corridor beyond it as the bell rang prompted Emilia to check her phone. Daisy's presence was found in the form of a text message instead.
Track starts today remember
That added a major deviation to Emilia's plans. She had to hesitate at her desk, bag packed, staring at her phone to try and figure out an alternative. There was always the library...
"Are you alright?" Jay had noticed. He'd almost seen the gears in her head turning as she stared at the screen, yet another expression he was familiar with. While he was yet to understand what had her so stuck in place, he could at least prove he cared enough to ask.
"Oh, yeah, it's okay," Emilia quickly responded, brushing off the uncomfortability of having lunch alone, for it was never a big deal to anyone but her. "My friend's busy over lunch, that's all, it's okay it happens like, every year." Mentally she was already deep into making plans to go to the library and get some physics revision done. There were no upcoming exams currently, but it would give her a method to avoid Max and mean she stayed on top of the subject.
"Oh, well you could join us for lunch if you want?" Nothing behind Jay's offer made her feel like she couldn't still choose the library, but the more she thought about it, maybe actually making friends with her electronics group wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"You're sure?"
"Of course we are Emilia," Zane said, another interruption to his friend's awkward invitation as he took it on himself, much to the relief of Jay who was still considering whether it had been the right idea or not. "We're electronics buddies now."
As the trio entered the crowded cafeteria, Emilia's fingers closed around the dangling strap of Jay's backpack out of habit, for usually Daisy would be leading her through the casual crowds of people to find a quieter space to sit. The only real difference between the bag she held onto was its deep blue colour. They slowed to an eventual stop just by a table clearly reserved by an intimidating looking girl, dark hair and a leather jacket. Zane confidently sat down first, right next to her, Jay leaving a couple of spaces between them. He pulled one of them out for Emilia, prompting her to sit just on his right.
"Hey!" The girl's bright smile as she looked up from her phone didn't match her dress sense. There was everything unpredictable about her, and Emilia noted it was in her best interest to keep quiet and just listen until she could better understand the new person.
"This is Emilia," Zane explained as the girl looked inquisitively at her. "Her friend was busy so Jay invited her to join us."
"Nice to meet you Emilia, I'm Nya," she said. "I'm pretty sure I must've seen you around before." The continuation of Nya's laid back, friendly demeanour was still reminding Emilia of how many assumptions she held.
"Probably." Emilia was already utterly in awe at just how cool she was, and as much as it was reassuring to be talking to someone so relaxed, it was equally intimidating to consider that she really couldn't compare.
"So you know Jay and Zane...?" Nya's statement was intonated like a question, directed at Emilia.
"We're in the same electronics class," she explained plainly. Moments like this, where she was especially aware of how she spoke, that made Emilia realise why making friends was so hard. She mentally cringed at her lack of response, while getting caught in overthinking about how to elaborate, if she even could. After preparing to add something more to her sentence, it had been too long since she'd last spoken. It would just be weird now.
"And physics," Jay added on her behalf. How could she forget, even temporarily? "She's really good at physics."
"Oh cool, you must be really smart," Nya commented. As if Jay's previous compliment hadn't already made her feel like the world's blushiest imposter.
"Not really, just interested," she replied, getting the response right with the context this time. In her peripheral, she caught Jay nodding in agreement with Nya's original assumption.
With most students having the time to reach the cafeteria by now meant the room was rapidly getting busier and louder. Conversation between the group had centred between Zane and Nya, a lighthearted debate about shark season for the island from what Emilia could gather. It wasn't until a very familiar shade of green approached the table that her attention was anywhere specific.
"Lia, hi." Lloyd didn't hide his confusion at seeing his friend from geography class sitting with his friends from everywhere else, like seeing an NPC spawn in the wrong location of a videogame. "I didn't know you knew the guys."
"Daisy's at track practice, I couldn't exactly turn down the offer to sit with the group today," she explained, and Lloyd didn't need to ask anything else. Jay had already told him enough before. Lloyd, sensing her slight social anxiety at the potential of being surrounded by new people, took the other seat next to her. Looking down at the table in front of her, Emilia missed the slightly knowing look Lloyd had aimed at Jay, a "finally" kind of look. Jay made an effort not to respond in any kind of way, diverting his attention to getting his lunchbox from his bag which prompted Emilia to do the same. A slight regret kicked in that today had been a tomato-and-cucumber-on-floured-roll day, for accidentally dusting a layer of flour from her sandwich onto her skirt was one thing in front of Daisy, and a whole other thing in front of Jay and Zane and all their friends. There wasn't long to overthink it, as the last two seats at the table were taken.
"Hey guys," one of the two boys, the slightly shorter one, said. They both looked exactly like the kind of people Emilia would usually avoid out of intimidation from how comfortable in themselves they both seemed.
"Emilia, Kai and Cole," Nya carefully pointing them out as she introduced them. Emilia couldn't imagine Kai's favourite colour to be anything other than red, and the amount of gel keeping his hair spiked at various angles had to make him a walking fire hazard. "Kai and Cole, Emilia."
"Hi," Cole, the tall one dressed in a sleeveless band top in September, added. His quietness didn't seem dismissive though.
"I am going to forget that," Emilia muttered mainly to herself as reassurance that it would be alright and predicted when she did. She'd spoken loudly enough for Nya to smile at it, but either down to the context, the company, or the setting, she hadn't felt shamed for it. The quaking social anxiety had started to shift into the pressure of maintaining friendships without her even realising.
The conversation had shifted from shark season to the range of colours that snakes could see; Kai was adamant that they had a wider range of colour vision, whereas Zane had tried to remind him that he was likely thinking of mantis shrimps, or at least, that's what Emilia had picked up on amongst the chaos of six people talking over each other about various wildlife. That and remembering to use her lunch break for actually eating lunch.
"How do you know Lloyd?" Jay quietly interrupted the noise around her, with a question that had clearly been on his mind for a while now.
"Oh, he's been in my geography class for a few years now," she replied, but at the sound of her voice the group quietened. Their interest was still intimidating to say the least, but Emilia was better prepared to make conversation than to let it catch her off guard. Asking questions back would get them talking to each other again. "How did you guys all meet, you all seem so... different?" She took another bite of her sandwich, trying to ignore the flour cascading through the air around it.
"I don't really know, we've always just been kind of close," Lloyd laughed, replying before anyone else could, "Kai and Nya's family are close with mine, me and Jay just have a load in common, and Cole and Zane have always been friends with us."
"It's just been like that for years," Cole added casually.
"That reminds me, Emi, have you read the Starfarer comic series?" Jay asked. A new line of conversation was started at her slightly hesitant "no" prompted by a reminder of one of the many things he had in common with Lloyd. Before long, Emilia questioned how much of a point there was to reading the whole series, and Jay was trying to find anything else to say that would move the conversation away from self-indulgent infodumping. Cole, who had been watching him talk in quiet amusement, finally saved him from his own awkwardness.
"Alright, I've got to make a move," Cole interrupted, standing up from his seat and casually slinging his bag over his shoulder. "You've got ten minutes."
"Thanks," Jay replied. The whole group had silently taken on the responsibility of keeping Jay on time for years now.
"See you later," Nya said.
"Nice meeting you Emilia," Cole smiled, waving at her as he left. It had caught her off guard enough that she hadn't had the time to respond with anything more than a smile. Cole hadn't looked so big sitting with the whole group, but he was tall. Watching him get up and walk away had her in her own head a little about how a person could be so mountain-sized.
"We should probably head off too," Lloyd said, only to Kai. The dispersion of the group, and the fact they all seemed to have memorised their timetables, was piling a pressure on Emilia to pull herself together and get to her next class on time. Despite the reminder of the time, Jay however seemed in no rush to leave.
"We'll see you after school," Kai said, Zane getting up to leave too. Nya had picked up her jacket.
"I think I'm gonna skip, I've got way too much homework to catch up on after this week," Nya said, her tone making it seem like it was a regular occurrence. "I'll still meet you at the beach later though!"
"Alright," Kai acknowledged. "See you around Emilia." She'd been ready this time.
"Thank you!"
Not ready enough to respond with something that made sense though.
With a couple of minutes until their next lesson was due to start, Emilia had been left alone with Jay and could no longer measure how comfortable she was with that reality. Hurriedly she searched for her diary, flicking to the page she'd stuck her new timetable for the year to, and scanning the brightly coloured squares for the current time and her next class. History, not too far. She'd be on time.
"I'm sorry if that was really uncomfortable, they can be a kind of... acquired taste. Especially as a group," Jay said.
"No, it's fine," she quickly replied. "I can see why you're friends with them actually, they're great." Maybe a little too great, she considered, as she had just thanked one of them for the acknowledgement that they might cross paths again. And they were all so collected and calm and cool. She forced herself out of her own head, and back to talking to the boy in front of her. "And thank you for inviting me to sit with you."
"No worries," Jay brightly replied, thinking for a moment. "What's your next class? Maybe we're going the same way." He never really wanted to stop spending time with her.
"History, it's not far from here," she verbalised her thought process from a few seconds ago. That was a little too far from Jay's mathematics class for him to be on time, but luckily, he decided, no one ever really expected Jay Walker to show up on time anyway.