Reed had dropped Callas off at school, telling her that he would be home early to pick her up, but he would be late home the next day on Thursday. She quickly mentioned how she would be having Henry over after school to work on the History project with her, which Reed was fine with. He was just glad that Callas was making friends. He didn't mention anything about Jacob staying over, he didn't think it was necessary, he trusted Callas to be smart about her decisions. Besides, they wouldn't do anything in the house while everyone else was there, he doubted she saw Jacob in that way to begin with.
He knew that if he mentioned that to her then she would just stare at him and ask him how stupid he thought she was. Callas had a book in her hand, which was extremely normal to Reed now, she was always the one to be reading, no matter where she was. He was planning on taking her to the beach the next week at some point, while having made other plans for Friday. He was excited, mainly because Silas had told him before he left that Billy would be having the bonfire that Friday, and that he would be telling the stories of the legends, obviously to the younger children who were into that sort of thing. So, that was something he was looking forward to.
When Reed pulled up to the parking lot, Callas had already put her book away. Her flight jacket was already in her hand, her bag was over her shoulder as she looked over to him with a smile. Reed noticed the dark, heavy bags under her eyes, and her attempt at covering them up, but he knew her too damn well to think that she wasn't hiding something. He wasn't sure if he should mention it, maybe it had something to do with Jacob being over. But Callas had beaten him to talking first anyway:
"See you later today." She offered him a smile. "Oh, and stay safe at work." She nodded.
"I will, Cal. I will." He moved his right hand to mess with her hair, ruffling it.
She batted his hands away. "I could do with you not doing that, thanks." She laughed just as Reed put his hand back on the wheel.
"I'm your big brother, it's what I do."
"Yeah, along with several equally annoying things."
"Watch it." He pointed at her. "Or you're walking home," he teased.
"Like you could deal with me walking home alone without having the place mapped out with me beforehand." She rolled her eyes.
He pursed his lips. "You got me there."
"No kidding. I own you." She smirked, jokingly. "You're my bitch."
"Do not quote Criminal Minds to me." Reed gave her a look. "I am not Reid, no matter how similar our names are. You're not Garcia either, you can barely work Microsoft word."
"I was quoting Horrible Bosses, but, you know, close enough with your lack of general movie and TV knowledge." She shrugged. Callas opened the Jeep door and stepped out.
"You know I haven't seen that!" Reed yelled as Callas closed the door on him.
He could hear her laughing as she made her way around the front of the Jeep, he shook his head and grumbled. An idea came to his mind as he beeped the horn, making her jump and scream, clutching her chest and flight jacket tightly, he began laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach as he resting his head on the wheel. As he did, the horn went off again causing himself to jump, he clutched his own chest just over his heart, breathing deeply. When he looked over to Callas, she was already laughing as she moved to walk up the steps to the doors.
"It wasn't funny, Cal!" He yelled even though he knew she couldn't hear him. He shook his head before driving off before he got weird stares by other students.
By the time Callas walked in and made her way to the front office, she had bumped into numerous other students, and almost a teacher, having paid not much attention to them. The lady at the reception smiled, and told her that she didn't need any more forms to be signed, but she was still glad to see her. Callas informed her that she was just waiting on Henry. The lady told her to go into the back to see if he was ready. Callas thanked her and walked around the desk into the back room. Henry was sitting at one of the desks at a computer, his back to her.
"Hey, Hen," she greeted as she placed her hands on his shoulders, looking at the computer screen, but he quickly exited the page.
"Hey, Callas," he responded.
Immediately, she knew something was up. Henry had only ever called her Cally. Never Callas. What was even stranger was the glimpse she got at the page he was on before he closed it. All she caught sight of was that it had something to do with La Push, around the time when Callas's mother had died, the words 'bear attack' and 'blood drained' caught her eye. But other than that, there was nothing much to go on from, so she had no clue of what Henry had been searching. Henry had logged off and picked his bag up, her hands sliding off his shoulders as he stood up. She stepped back as he pushed the chair in, rather forcefully.
She raised an eyebrow. "You okay, Henry?"
"Yeah."
He left it at that. She definitely knew something was up with him now. Henry was being weird around her, it was like he was distancing himself from her. Something that she found rather unsettling and odd. Henry was being uncharacteristic. His smile didn't reach his eyes, like it usually would. His arm didn't go straight around her shoulders, like it usually would. But more importantly, his tone of voice didn't match his normal personality, like it usually would. This left Callas highly alerted, and suspicious of her friend's behaviour. They were friends... or did she get that bit wrong? He walked out of the room, she followed closely behind.
"We still on for tomorrow?" She had to quicken her pace to keep up with him, something he did with her on her first day.
"Tomorrow?"
"You're coming to my house to work on our History, remember?"
"Yeah, of course. Sorry, I just haven't slept yet, so I'm a bit off. But, of course, I'm still up for tomorrow." Henry glanced down at her. His words putting her at ease slightly.
"Trouble sleeping?" She asked quietly. He hummed in response. "I know the feeling," she mumbled, more to herself if anything as they walked into History together.
Henry was soon settling into his usual personality traits, but if anything, it was still off. It was as if Henry was a completely different person, which began to worry Callas. She hoped that everything was okay, maybe it had something to do with troubles at home, maybe his parents. Although she didn't push her luck to ask, she wanted to keep him in a good mood, in a hope that he would tell her himself, that was if he wanted to of course, she wasn't going to force it out of him. That wasn't the type of friend, or person, she was.
The History lesson that they had seemed all the more funnier when Callas thought back to the Coach's words on Mr Hanson. His terrible jokes and puns seemed to make more sense now that she knew what type of person he was. Another thing was Henry started to crack his own jokes to her. Sitting at the back meant that they weren't picked on as much, as she doubted Mr Hanson could really see them from where he was, even with his glasses. So, Henry took that as an opportunity to have his own conversation with Callas while the rest of the class were forced to watch and listen to one of the old black and white documentaries with Mr Hanson's inputs.
"So, I have a question."
"I probably have an answer."
He grinned and looked at the table. "We haven't known each other long..." Oh God. "I know that you don't have to say yes..." Oh God. "But I was wondering..." Oh God.
Callas really hoped that he wasn't going to ask what she thought he was going to ask. She doubted if she could ever look at him the same if things ended up badly after her answer was revealed to him. Her jaw tightened and she bit the inside of her mouth, really, desperately hoping that he wasn't going to ask her what she thought he was going to ask. Her heart hammered away nervously, she wasn't sure why she was so worried about it, it was just a question after all, Henry would understand, he even said they had only really just met. But maybe it wasn't the question but the outcome that worried her.
"Could you tell me about the bear thing?"
That... wasn't the direction in which Callas had first presumed the question would go. She tilted her head, her eyes squinted slightly as she looked to him, unsure of what he meant. Maybe it had something to do with what he was searching up earlier. Maybe he wanted to ask about how her mother died, she really hoped that he wouldn't, after all she didn't pry in his home life during P.E. the other day. Henry seemed to catch onto her unsure look, he pulled a face at her own in response, equally as confused as to what she thought he meant, just before his eyes widened in realisation.
"You said the ocean stole your bear, I didn't know what you meant by that." His hands were up in surrender, not sure if he overstepped his boundaries as a friend.
"Oh." She relaxed with a small laugh. "Yeah, I did say that!" Henry smiled back at her.
"Am I, Henry, as a fellow friend of yours, one who truly cares deeply, allowed to hear the mysterious story of the bear?" Callas tried to hide her laugh at the way he said it, the even bigger grin on his face proved that he intended to make her laugh.
"Yeah, Hen, I can tell you." She nodded. "How about during our free? After Maths?" She asked with a smile.
He nodded. "Sounds like a date." He looked back to the documentary. Callas smiled at him before looking as well. Henry looked back at her quickly. "Not like a date-date. Not that I wouldn't want to date you. Not saying that I want to. I mean..."
Callas looked down with a small laugh. "I knew what you meant, Henry." He breathed out, clutching his chest.
"Oh, thank god." He leaned his head back, while speaking rather loudly.
"Yes, Henry. That was my exact reaction to this scene as well!" Mr Hanson beamed at him.
Henry's eyes widened as he looked back towards the rest of the class, not realising that he spoke out loud. Callas placed her head on her desk, laughing quietly to herself. She didn't have to look at him to know that his cheeks probably flamed up, he sputtered out an awkward response before he laid his head on his desk as well. Everyone else turning back around to the documentary. Callas turned her head to look at him, still laying her head on the desk. Henry heard her move, he turned his head faintly, his eyes looked over from under his eyelashes at her.
"Smooth." She grinned.
He closed his eyes and moved his head to face the table again, with a quiet groan and a soft murmur he responded, "Don't."
"Cheer up, it could have been worse." She moved her arms onto the desk to lay her head on them comfortably as she looked at him.
"How so?" His voice was muffled by the desk.
"You could have sworn." She shrugged, not really knowing what else to say.
She knew he rolled his eyes and he nudged her side, wanting it to be over with as the lesson came to an end. They both packed up, getting ready to head to Maths together, walking side-by-side. Callas couldn't help but feel bad, she misjudged him when they first met. He wasn't creepy, or weird. He was eccentric and interesting. He seemed a lot nicer than Paul and Jared made themselves out to be the other day when they cornered Henry and herself after P.E. Thinking of them and the others, she remembered to get Henry's number off him, three days later than she originally planned. She was glad she had Henry with her, she'd be lost without him. Quite literally.