Study Buddies

Lawrence

Lawrence exited the study room in the library, stretching his legs. He'd been there at least three hours. He walked around the balcony, down the stairs. There was a vending machine by the front desk. Maybe he'd grab a sleeve of peanuts or something. There was a chemistry test coming up soon. A three hundred point test to be exact. They'd stopped learning new material about a week ago to begin their review. He wondered how everyone else was going to do. He thought back to Sean. He and Sean were the two most likely competitors for valedictorian. He wasn't going to lose to some dumb Tourney player who partied from Friday to Sunday.

As he wound around the stairs he almost quite literally bumped into Emma. "Oh! Sorry!" He said, picking up her notebook that she dropped.

"You're fine." she said with a sigh, tucking back a lock of her hair. He couldn't hide the smile on his face. He thought she was pretty when she came to class in her perfect outfit she'd probably spent a half an hour picking out. The makeup she used to accent her features was pretty. But this Emma? He liked this version of her best.

The slim figure in a pair of ripped jeans and a sweatshirt, strawberry blonde hair tied into a messy bun, glasses on her face, backpack, books falling from her arms… "Yeah I came to study. I fell behind a little bit the last few chapters in chem. My grade is back up to a "B" instead of a "C" at least." she said with a tired smile.

His heart leapt before he asked, "I'm actually studying for the same test, do you want to join me? I have a practice room with a touchscreen board and a pretty advanced computer. Plus it is in the correct section of the library."

She hesitated for a moment. He thought she was going to say no when— "Yeah, that would be great. I brought dinner with me, I hope it's okay to eat while I'm here…"

"No, yeah it's fine. I was actually going to grab a trail mix or a package of cookies from the vending machine." Lawrence said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Hey if you want I can share." Emma said as they walked up the stairs, "Gisa and I were bored of going to the cafeteria so we snuck into the home economics classrooms to use their burners after running to the grocery store. She made a ridiculous amount of rice." Emma said with a laugh.

Lawrence normally would have been abashed that someone would sneak into a classroom after hours but… "Only if you think there's enough," he laughed with her.

"Trust me, there's plenty."

Emma set up her books alongside his, her color coordinated notecards putting his scribbles to shame. Then she pulled out a glass container with a bright red lid as well as a clouded plastic container. And when she opened them…

Lawrence couldn't help but smile as the heavenly scent reached his nose. "This smells and looks delicious," he said as his eyes swept over the stir fry. "Chicken?"

"And assorted vegetables. Here you can have the paper plate. I'll use the container." She spooned half of the rice and half of the stir fry onto the paper plate. "Oh, I have a spoon and a fork. Do you care which one you use?" she giggled a little bit, "Sorry. A bit unprepared."

"I'll take the fork," he smiled, "Thanks."

An awkward silence fell for a moment as they both ate. Lawrence watched her gently dab away something on the corner of her mouth. Something hit him in the chest. "Hey Emma,"

She looked up from her dish, "What's up? Did you want to start studying while we ate?"

"No I— I want to apologize." He saw her eyes flash in hurt and recognition, "I didn't mean to cause you to go to the courtroom, and Michael to freak out because your friends were being protective of you…" a sigh, "I feel like it is kind of all my fault."

"It's… it's honestly okay," she seemed to shrink back into her sweatshirt. "If you think about it, it really doesn't mean much. Gisa and I are still sisters even if only in spirit. It also explained a lot to everyone else…"

"Explained a lot to everyone else as in…" he held his breath a minute. He needed to learn to have a filter. If only he didn't do things and say things just because they came to mind. "Nevermind. I don't want to pry."

But she answered his question anyway, "Explained as in… yes I knew it all along. But I was scared to tell everyone." She looked down, almost ashamed.

"Why were you scared?" Lawrence knew the moment the words left his mouth. He wanted to kick himself for it. Stupid. Of course she was scared to reveal herself.

Emma inhaled deeply, weaving her hands together, "Audenzitios never let me forget that I wasn't hers. But she never told Gisa about it. So I guess I didn't either. And… Well, being Audenzitios's daughter gave me privileges. Most people knew me as her child and assumed that she wouldn't let anyone mess with me. She… she runs the island's underground."

He almost shivered. He'd never had to live through the age of villains. Emma? She lived in the world of villains. "So it was safer to pretend?"

Emma nodded, "Sooner or later people were going to realize she didn't care what happened to me. Probably sooner…" Emma didn't meet his eyes.

Lawrence frowned. He should have definitely kept his mouth shut. "Nothing has happened now that everyone knows?"

"It doesn't matter as much here, does it?" She said, stabbing her food absent-mindedly. "I'm the daughter of Queen Gloriannagon. A woman so obsessed with her beauty that she tried to kill some innocent girl because she was prettier. I was the daughter of the infamous villainess of all villains. Now I'm the daughter of a shallow woman convicted of witchcraft and attempted murder." Emma pulled her hands back into the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

"I'm the son of a dwarf, literally named Dopey, who still can't tell his left from his right. And he's fifty!" Lawrence said with a shrug. "I don't know how I managed to grow as tall as I did. Or get the grades. He didn't exactly marry a tall genius." He took another bite of the food, "In a different sense, I know what it is like to be the one who just doesn't fit. I'm a foot taller than all of my uncles and cousins at least. My younger brothers and sisters are about as dumb as they come…"

Emma smiled despite herself. "Ironic that we are able to speak civilly. My mother tried to kill the woman your father and uncles tried to save."

Lawrence nodded with a laugh. He was sorry that he'd nosed through this without giving thought to how it might affect everyone else. His family often criticized him for it.

He remembered the last holiday he'd spent with his family. His father had looked up at him to continually berate him for his lack of emotional intelligence. It wasn't that Lawrence didn't care about people… he just had a hard time remembering that other people could be affected by his actions. It just didn't occur to him right away. That specific holiday his step mother had lost her brother.

"Well, he's out of his misery now. He wasn't comfortable being sick for years like that. Besides, you never talked to him anyway." Lawrence didn't notice that everyone was staring at him until after he'd continued to eat a minute longer.

His step mother had become so upset with him that his father hadn't brought him home for a holiday since then. Two years ago. His siblings didn't even go to a boarding school. They went to a school near where they lived, much further north. Not that it mattered.

He dragged his thoughts back to where Emma was closing her container, setting it back into her bag. "You're um, ready to start studying?"

She smiled, brushing a stray hair from her face, "Yeah. Unless you aren't." She pulled another notebook out and a case of pencils, setting them on the table.

"No, no yeah let's get started then," he tried to hide his smile and the blush creeping up on his cheeks. Goodness, she was absolutely perfect. Not only pretty, but she was so smart and— "What are you doing?"

Emma hurriedly flipped the page of her notebook covering up a drawing that he'd thought had been— "Nothing, just um, catching up to the correct page in my um notebook," she laughed, not looking up.

"Go… go back to that page."

She didn't move. Lawrence was about to apologize when Emma sighed, "Okay but, just don't say anything." She fingered back a few pages. "I used to… I used to design clothes back when I was fourteen or fifteen, and I was hit with inspiration and I couldn't help but sketch it down…" She pushed the page over to him shyly.

He didn't dare touch it, being too afraid to smudge the carefully penciled sketch. A tall woman without a face stood proudly on the page, an exquisite drawing of a striped dress, a cute little jacket with prominent designs stitched on it. Everything down to the boots was absolutely… "Amazing. Emma, this is really good."

"It's not that good," she fiddled with a pencil worn down to nothing but the stub. "I— I have better ones in my dorm. Besides, I haven't tried to make that one yet. I don't know if it's—"

"You create them too?" he asked. She was completely amazing. He studied the drawing again. She brushed it off as nothing, but not only did she draw them, but she created these too…

"Well, yeah but it's… it's just a hobby, you know?" Emma put her pencil down before taking off her sweatshirt. She was wearing a purple and blue wide collared shirt with a pretty floral print, lace on the edge buttons down the middle, "I made this one too."

"You wore that the first week of school. I really liked it, but I was too shy to say anything," he chuckled a little bit, "It's really really pretty though. How long did it take you to make it?"

She shrugged, "About a week. I made it when I was fifteen. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't grown since then. Audenzitios was upset with me for something and... confined me to the house so I had a lot of time to sketch and create the clothes. This one isn't the best one, but it is the most comfortable." A small smile.

"Emma, that's absolutely amazing," Lawrence said with a small laugh of his own. He couldn't control himself. She was so talented. And she was in the advanced classes. So she was probably smart.

As they began to study, she confirmed his suspicions, getting the answer to a problem a solid thirty seconds before him. "How did you—"

She giggled, "Lawrence I've had so much time to do absolutely nothing. There are so few books on the island that I read textbooks for fun. I read a book that had tips and tricks for improving mental calculations." she shrugged, seemingly flustered. "It's weird. Gisa makes fun of me. Jokingly of course…"

"No, I… It's cool. I think it is really cool that you did that. You didn't have to write it down, you just… knew." He couldn't tell if he was jealous or not…

Their night passed uneventfully and Lawrence had to admit, having a studying partner was much more enjoyable than studying all alone. Especially because his study partner was Emma…

"There are so many conversions on the practice sheet he handed out," Emma let her head flop against her book. "They're so repetitive I think I'm going to cry."

Though he didn't want to leave, "Well, it is almost nine o'clock. We still have a few days left before the test. Did— did you want to study at the same time the next few days here?"

"Yeah actually, that would be nice." She began to fold up her notebooks and slide her pens back into their cases, "I'll bring dinner too, save you from the vending machine food."

Lawrence could have skipped with happiness on his way back to his dorm. He was going to have a study partner!