SOTF Mini

(wow look it's kermit's first actual rp post ever. Sorry for short, wanted to get something out before I leave and pregame closes.)

Everett had a biology test in three days.

Now, usually, this wouldn’t be that much of a problem, what with Everett’s obsessive studying habits, but unfortunately for Everett, this was a test mainly focused on the different cycles of matter. Thus, Everett was here in the library, spending his lunch reading over every minute detail his textbook had about the nitrogen cycle instead of, well, actually eating lunch.

Everett loathed this unit. A lot of biology tended to be easy-ish, hinging on a lot of stuff he’d already picked up in his past ventures, but this?


This was the worst.


Matter cycles were just entirely memorization of information mostly unfamiliar to Everett. If this were any other unit, Everett would’ve been comfortable with just using the after-school free time he had to study, but he absolutely had to do well on this test. Anything lower than a 90% would be a complete and utter failure, and failure would be unacceptable.

Everett’s eyes traced over the image on the page, a diagram displaying every facet of the nitrogen cycle, for what felt like the hundredth time.

Hey, look on the bright side. At this rate, you might be able to actually lose some weight, you fat shi-No! I don’t need your bullshit right now, brain-What are you even working towards, it not like any of thi-

Of course, Everett knew it was ridiculous to have a mental argument with himself, but at this point, he was beyond caring. Everett just stared blankly at the page, having once again fallen into the deep pit of self-loathing.

[[Pregame Start: Wendy Fischer - Commence]]

Ok it was time to study again. Instead of eating lunch again. She sure missed eating lunch with her friends and the company of people in the large social hub of the school's cafeteria, but this was important. She had tests coming up and people were already making jokes at Wendy's expense or being extremely patronizing within hearing distance again.

Why, why were people so mean? She had gone along for years not realizing until late junior year that people had been referring to her as 'the dumb blonde' or 'that ditzy cheerleader', apparently for years. She had the misfortune to gain this reputation and it was so not fair. She tried, she really did, she just wasn't particularly good at academics. It was just so hard, when she was not at all interested in the subject material, but she really wanted to do well and she would with some occasional help.

She thought she'd get some semblance of respect toward her, but instead would hear: "How cute" or "she's just like Elle Woods" they would say. What the heck? Elwood was her father's name; why were they comparing her to her dad? How did some of her classmates even know her dad? Did that many people really go to the restaurant where he was head chef? Oh never-mind, she was here to study. It was time for some basic algebra!

So here she was again, walking into the library once more, with her fluffy book bag.

As she passed by the center tables of the library she noticed the large boy, sitting, staring ahead at his book. It wasn't until she approached due to sheer curiosity that she realized he was zoned out. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay there?"

A voice snapped Everett out of his trance. He looked up to face its source.

A girl, pretty and sporty-looking. Everett was certain he’d seen her around the school before, maybe part of a roving pack of cheerleaders or something like that. He wasn’t quite sure of her name, Nancy or Mandy or something similar.

“Uh, no, yeah. I’m okay.”

Everett mentally consternated himself for both wasting his study time and his bungled response, but mostly for the time wasting. If things kept up this way, he’d have to spend the time tonight he had set aside for volunteer work studying, and he certainly didn’t want to do that. Sure it probably wouldn’t matter that much in the end, but Everett dreaded having to explain to his parents that he was going to miss his self-imposed community service because he forgot to fucking study.

Everett’s eyes flicked down to the page and back up to the girl. She looked like one of those types that just coasted through high school because they had pretty faces and footballer boyfriends and rich dads who bought them like three fucking Bentleys, but little did she know she’d be fucked when or if she graduated.

Oh God, please don’t sit down. Please don't sit down.

Wendy pulled out a seat.

"Oh alright. Just checking. You look pretty tense."

She put her bag onto the large table. Started lowering herself to the chair, but stood back up again.

Silly Wendy, she had forgotten to introduce herself to this boy. She looked over to him trying to figure out if she recognized him or not. She did, there was no way she hadn't noticed the lumbering big boy around school, who always seemed to wear the same ensemble of white dress shirt tucked neatly into brown slacks, with tie. It was definitely distinguishable in a crowd, especially compared to all their other peers. He looked more like a businessman than a high school student, well a very nervous businessman at least. Quite the character, she figured. Most would probably consider him a weirdo, but Wendy found it strangely adorable. Too bad she didn't have him in any of her classes or else she'd probably have acquainted herself by now. He was probably in some of the Advanced Placement classes, she'd wager, based on his appearance alone.

As she stood up, Wendy flashed the pearly whites and gave a small, but over-exaggerated, lengthy hand-wave.

"I'm Wendy, by the way," she exclaimed cheerfully, inciting a few "shhhs" from the few others around them.

Wendy, gave a slightly embarrassed smile. She needed to learn to stop doing that in here. She stopped waving her hand and extended it toward the big guy for a handshake.

The girl pulled out a seat.

Oh my God no

Now that she was sitting down, Everett lost all hope in spending the rest of lunch studying.The girl said he’d looked tense. Did he look tense? He hoped not.

“Thanks. I, uh, appreciate your concern.”

Now that Everett thought about it, the girl had to have had some reason for being here. She didn’t look like the kind of person who spent her lunches ruminating in the library because she had nothing better to do, she looked like the kind of person who spent her lunches gossipping up with the cheer squad. The bag she was carrying with her looked heavy, and vaguely book-shaped. Maybe she was here to study. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

The girl introduced herself, LOUDLY, eliciting glares and passive-aggressive shushes from the rest of the library. Everett did his best to hide a cringe. He took it back, this was pretty bad.

Apparently the girl’s name was Wendy. Everett was close-ish, he guessed. Everett really didn’t want to engage with the girl. Still, it’d be rude not to introduce himself.

“My name’s Everett. It’s nice to meet you, Wendy.”

Wendy reached out for a handshake, which Everett reciprocated. Two pumps and a firm grip, just like dad taught him. Handshakes were vital for first impressions, he had said. Give a dead-fish handshake, and everyone assumes you’re just there because you have no other choice.


Well, may as well find out why she's here.


“You here to study?”, Everett asked.

Oh, ow. What a vice-grip. Everett seemed like a nice guy, strong handshake, perhaps a little too strong.

Wendy wiggled her hand a little as soon as she was free, still smiling to be polite. She backed away and finally lowered herself onto her seat.

"Um, uh-yeah. I'm supposed to," she sighed, thinking about the headache she'd get when trying to study on her own.

She glanced back at the boy whilst twirling her left side braid. "You don't mind if I sit here, right?"

Oh.

Okay.

So she wasn’t here to chat his ear off. Well, that was a relief, maybe Everett could actually get his studying over with.

Wendy asked if it was okay to sit down. Sure, ask that when you’re already sitting down, Everett bitterly thought. Still, she probably wouldn’t end up bothering Everett all that much, and it’d just be plain rude to decline.

Everett nodded his head. “Sure.”

Though, the girl seemed kind of...worried about studying. She was “supposed” to study? What was that supposed to mean? Was she being punished for bad grades or something? Whatever it was, she didn’t seem too enthusiastic about her schoolwork.

“If you need anything, I can probably help you out.” Everett offered, motioning his hand towards his textbook.

"Would you really?"

Wendy looked up with a grin. Still playing with one of her braids.

"I mean, if it's not any trouble, of course."

She stopped, unzipped her bag and pulled out the text book.

"I-I really appreciate it, Everett. I just wanna do better, at, at school stuff, but it's hard I'm just not smart enough, I guess. A lot of people say that and I dunno. I just don't want to prove them right, but it's hard on my own."

She tilted her head and smirked, eyes half way closed, lips tight.

"So how are you with math?"

And then he helped her study! What a nice guy.

Everett was pretty darn smart, knew a good amount of math and helped her get all the answers. Really useful.

The whole time she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched for some reason. Was she just being paranoid? Or Dumb? It was probably just the librarian.

The cafeteria bell rang and that was that, for this study session. She shook Everett's hand again and without thinking, pulled him into a hug, giving him a playful peck on the cheek.

"Thanks Everett," she proclaimed a little loudly again, waving, but who really cared, lunch-time was over anyway, all students were going to leave.

"Oh sorry," she said, bumping into a really tall boy, who had appeared from the bookshelves, before leaving.

Everett was nice, but she felt bad for taking him away from his own work. Oh well. He was probably already really smart anyway.

[[Wendy Fischer, Everett Taylor, Vincent Holway - continued to the SC2 Island Game]]