5

The sound of Nathan's phone kept buzzing in his ear, his head was already buried underneath his pillow, but it wasn't enough to keep it at bay. "Ugh… it's morning already!?" He groaned; shuffling around in his bed before he silently stared up at the ceiling. There he lay for a few seconds, lethargy still keeping his body paralyzed. Afterward, he looked at the thing that rudely woke him up, noting that it was already close to six in the morning. "Shit." With that, he limped over the edge of his bed, trudging over to the bathroom to get himself ready for the day.

His sister was silent that morning, peacefully watching Nathan as she looked at the contents of her bag. With a soft smile, she opened the door as the two of them got out and started waiting for the bus in their usual spot on the sidewalk. "Hey, it's not good to oversleep."

"Cut me some slack. I was up late on my little project." Nathan looked up at her face, noticing the confusion that was shown on her lips.

"Just, remember to behave yourself after school. Your friend is coming over, right?" She asked, giving him a small surprise as the bus pulled up for them. She looked at his face as she walked past their usual seats and sat behind him. He had clearly forgotten about it, as shown by his slightly rosy complexion that was quickly getting drenched in small beads of his nervous sweat.

"We're not friends, she's just coming over to tutor me; there's nothing else to it." He retorted, retreating to his little world by covering his ears with his headphones. He sat there, humming the song as the bus went to pick up the other students on its route. Stacy took the seat beside him, instantly turning her attention toward him.

"So, how did you end up tutoring him?" Penny asked, resting her head on the headrest of Nathan's seat ahead of her. "He's usually great in class, so this is a bit odd."

"Well, he said that he learns better if he listens to the explanation compared to if he just read it." Stacy looked back at her, flashing her usual smile. "I'm Stacy, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

"Penny. Take care of my brother, okay. He's not used to the whole, 'friends' thing." Penny joked, teasing him by lightly pulling on his cheeks.

"Hmm? He seems very likable, and he gets a lot of attention in class when he draws. How can you say that he's not sociable?" Stacy asked, returning her focus to her seatmate as Nathan's eyes shut and his breathing became steady; he fell asleep.

"You see, he's just been a nervous wreck for as long as I could remember." Penny looked over, reaching over to lower the volume on her brother's music. "Whenever he'd try to talk to people, he'd get so nervous that he couldn't even move his legs. When I asked him about it, he kept mumbling about how he thought people looked at him."

"How he thought people looked at him?"

"Yeah. He tends to put himself down, you know. He always thinks that they don't like him, or think that he's weird. That's what he told me, anyway." Penny leaned back in her own chair, resting her head against her hands. "I don't know anything about what goes on his head, but I do know that he's stopped trying to make friends after a few years of this happening."

"That sounds…"

"Don't worry about it too much, Stacy. Just be good to him. Maybe he'll get more friends if he already has one, you never know. You're coming over later, right? I'll be waiting outside for you, so you'll know which house it is." With that, Penny chuckled to herself, looking down at her bag before she pulled out her phone and went about with her business. Stacy looked over at him again, reclining in her own chair and deciding to rest herself before their busy school day.

They arrived and went to their rooms. Nathan instantly tried to sleep again once he got to his desk, using his bag as a makeshift pillow for the short amount of time they had before the first period. For the most part, he was undisturbed as he slept; the rest of the class not really having business with him in the first place. Stacy, on the other hand, kept getting bombarded with questions and conversations. She pulled out a notebook, writing down everything that her classmates said to get to them later. "Wake up, the teacher's almost here." The last thing she did before class was walk over, gently poking and prodding at Nathan until he woke up and sat up straight.

The lessons for the day were just more of what they learned previously, but Nathan was already behind the curve so he was struggling for a while. "Wait, when do we use that?" He mumbled to himself, looking back and forth between his notebook and what the teacher had written down. It was hopeless; he still couldn't understand anything without knowing where to start. He spent the first break period they had trying to memorize his notes, or that was what he originally intended.

The room was empty, even Stacy had gone somewhere, so he was left alone with his thoughts and notes. He tried for five minutes, but all he had to show for it was a small headache. With that, he decided to take a break, pulling out his notebook and pencil to get started with another practice session. He put the sharpened tip against the paper…

For a whole minute he sat there, his hand unmoving as he grumbled to himself. "I'm blocked…" He sighed in frustration as he put away his things and pulled out his phone from his pocket. He looked at what he could do with it, not finding anything that piqued his interest. "What was it that she played?" He thought to himself as he searched the store, finding a familiar looking gacha game and downloading it to his phone.

After finishing the tutorial and getting the starting pulls out of the way, he tried playing a few levels, not noticing how time passed by and how his classmates have come back until he saw them in his peripheral vision. A few were watching his screen, particularly the group of chatty girls that Susan is in, and the ones seated in his immediate vicinity. He felt a chill run down his spine as he registered their eyes on him, shutting the screen off and putting the device back in his pocket as to not attract any more attention.

The next set of subjects was a little easier, though it wasn't because of anything he did. He looked up at the teacher as Stacy raised her hand to ask a question. Then he thought for a bit. "Doesn't she already know this? This was in her notebook…" He mumbled to himself, but he would take what he could get. Thanks to the questions, and the teacher's reply, he started getting a grasp on the situation. He looked around the room, noticing that he wasn't the only one that was furiously taking down notes. Nathan returned his gaze over to the front of the room, finding another string of notes that he'd have difficulty with. As he copied them down, Stacy shot him a look and quietly nodded. It happened with every teacher for the rest of the day.

Once they were let out for lunch, Stacy walked up to him, holding her notebook in her hands. "So, should we get started?" She asked, moving a chair over as she opened up on the most recent page of her notes. Nathan looked over at her notes; pristine as ever. Before he could even reply, she started running through them with her finger as she read.

"Do you ever take a break?" Nathan asked, trying his best to keep up. "It seems like all I ever see you do is study."

"We're in school, isn't that the point?" Stacy retorted as she continued, slowing down to allow him to make corrections to his notes. They sat there for a while, the conversation filled with a serious air that was nearly suffocating for Nathan. Yet he felt fine, at least compared to having a normal conversation with anyone. After five minutes passed, he asked for a break, taking out his phone as he heard footsteps approaching him and stopping right behind his chair.

"Don't do that, this is better." Susan said; pointing with her finger at his screen as Nathan looked up at her. He and Stacy sat silently as Susan pulled up a chair herself and watched as Nathan play. "Hey." Was all she said to them at the time.

"Susan, do you like this game?" Stacy asked, moving slightly. Susan looked away abashedly, trying to hide the expression on her face as best she could.

"Uhh, I've only heard about it from some friends." She replied as her attention was caught by the sound of failure coming from Nathan's phone.

He groaned in frustration, putting his phone on back in his pocket as he picked up a pencil and turned to a clean page in his notebook. "I see." Stacy replied, getting up from her chair and making her way toward the door. "Well, I hope you don't put too much time into that. I've noticed that you seem to be struggling during class. If you want help, just ask for it, okay?" She added with a bubbly smile as she left the room.

"So, you've started playing." The moment the two of them were alone, Susan turned her attention back toward Nathan. "What do you think?"

"I can see why you spent so much on it." He replied; eyes focused on his drawing. "But she's right, you know. You should probably focus on your studies more than this game."

"What does she know? All she ever does is study. I've never seen her do anything but that."

"I feel the same, but at least it will be useful outside of school. Not something I can say for this game though." Nathan stopped his hand for a moment, thinking about something. "What do you want to be?" He asked as he put his notebook away.

"Me? Well, I don't know yet. You?" She watched as he pulled his notebook out for a second; gesturing to it before returning it back into his bag. "Right… anyway, I got really lucky last night." She said, pulling out her own phone to show him that she got a really rare character in her collection now.

They spent the rest of the break rolling for new characters, though none of them would be as rare as the one she showed off. Once lunch break and the last few classes were over, Nathan went outside to wait for the bus; his sister standing by his side and teasing him until it arrived. The bus ride home was calm, the idle chatter of the other riders turning into white noise as Nathan got a few minutes of sleep in. "Wake up, we're home." Penny gently nudged him; standing beside him with her things slung over her shoulder. "Come on."

Nathan groggily got up and left the bus, putting his things down on the couch as he went to get himself something to drink from the kitchen. He brought his glass into the garage as he set himself up to paint. He uncovered his latest project, mumbling to himself as he looked at the colors at his disposal. After making up his mind, he began mixing them up, starting with the colors he'd use for the girl in the family.

She looked a few years older than him; her long hair reaching down to her back as a pair of denim looking overalls and a striped shirt covered her body. He was about to go with a fine brush to add some details to the painting when he heard something from outside. "Hey, get over here." Penny yelled, barging into the garage with a wide smile on her face. She dragged him away from the canvas, bringing him to the living room where Stacy was waiting for him with her bag resting on her lap.

"Let's get started." She smiled, getting up and walking over to Nathan as he gulped down a knot in his throat.