New Normal

"Sooo did you know that Liam has a mad crush on you?" Zenobia looked up from her lunch, a baffled expression on her face. One thing she learned in the bit of time she's spent with Phoebie, was that the girl was the type to chatter one's ears off. Which seemed odd at first. 

Ever since freshman year, the girl never said a peep, always using gestures and actions to convey what she wanted. Coralin natives kept to formalities unless in the presence of those they're close to. Best friends, kin, lovers, those were the exceptions to the polite facades. Now that Zenobia accepted her friendship while offering to help her with her studies…the gloves were apparently off. 

The girl's mouth was ready to run laps with how much her gums were running between taking notes and asking questions. Not that the crimson eyed girl minded all that much. Her classmate reminded her of Zora with her chatterbox tendencies. It made the irritating noise of their fellow students a faint buzz in the cafeteria. 

Zenobia's meal tasted far more enjoyable than usual thanks to her newfound friendship. Though she found herself raising an eyebrow at the sudden topic shift. She didn't even know a Liam, let alone know this guy had a crush on her. Phoebie peered into her through her mask, sighing after a moment.

"You have no clue who I'm referring to, do you?"

"Not a one."

"Really."

"Nope."

"The boy in the raven mask? Who nearly punched you yesterday?"

"Ah." Hearing that, Phoebie snorted, clutching her mask as she tried to hold in her laughter. Zenobia could only slurp from her water bottle, bring extra loud to drown the girl out. For once she was grateful for those stuffy traditions involving her mask since it covered the upper half of her face. She didn't need a mirror or her companion calling out the blush blooming from her cheeks.

"You had no clue what his name was?! Did you know any of our names?"

"I plead the fifth."

"You are awful, terrible!" Despite her claims, her newly established friend held no ill will. If anything, Phoebie just kept laughing. Her hands clutching tightly to her stomach while tears descended down her chin. Honestly, she was really hoping they wouldn't have this particular conversation. 

Though in the end she deserved to be laughed at. If she bothered, she could've paid attention to their conversations, or learned their names properly. It was too late now. So, she had no one to blame for herself as she dipped her head in shame. 

She tapped her pencil on the table repeatedly. Every three seconds she bounced the nubbed eraser end up and down. Every descent caused the pencil to land a little harder. Zenobia heard the slight scrape of from the metal before she sighed, forcing it to lay on the table. 

"As much as I'm going to regret moving to the point of this discussion, I'll ask…why do you think he has a crush on me? Boy was ready to pick a fight and I was ready to dish out blows." A snort left her fellow student, the apple in her grasp slipping from her fingers. A squeak escaped her while trying to catch the flying fruit. 

Zenobia furrowed her brows as she tilted her head. She saw the apple slowly falling in front of her. Without thinking she reached her hand, catching it before it plopped onto the floor. Both girls breathed a sigh of relief as the object of their mini panic attack exchanged hands. Phoebie took a bite, swallowing before continuing.

"He's been crushing on you since day one, but he's so stubborn in denying it. He'd rather pretend to hate you, then risk asking you out, only to get rejected." A bit weird, but she could understand it. Chances were she would reject him if he tried asking her out-not that she was saying that to be mean. 

 Right now, her focus was on her studies and improving her carving skills. Dating wasn't something she was really interested in. With her blunt, no-nonsense tone…it wouldn't take much for a miscommunication to occur from that conversation. Already she was getting a headache and he wasn't even there.

"He's not wrong, per say, but I don't feel like getting detention because of his pride."

"You're not interested?"

"Not really. More into making sure I pass all my classes."

"Even if I told you he wouldn't stop gushing all day yesterday at how badass you were telling him off?"

"No way in hell."

"Damn! Guess Renzo owes me ten bucks then. He bet that you were just being stubborn like Liam and actually liked him back. Too bad for him." 

The red-eyed teen crinkled her nose at that. Why would she bother denying or playing mind games? Who does that anyway? If he wanted to ask her out, he should do it and continue on with his life regardless of the answer. She'd rather be upfront about her feelings, or hide them to the deepest crevices of her heart so no one would know about them.

In any case she wasn't going to dive too much deeper into that can of worms. Pushing her tray away from her, she took out her books, waving one of them in front of her friend. She couldn't see the girl's expression, but she knew Phoebie was disappointed. Her slumped shoulders told her as such. 

Poor thing must've expected Zenobia to be a typical high school chick that talked one's ears off. Unfortunate for Phoebie, but she was not the type to gossip or worry about rumor shit. She had enough to worry about. Starting with exams. 

"Party pooper...boring Betty." Thankfully the obvious hint was taken as the lunch table was now covered with more opened notebooks. The two talked, with Zenobia correcting any mistakes she noticed as they went over assignments in math. They had twenty-six minutes left until the bell. The fox-masked student was determined to cover as much ground as possible.

"The hell is this?" Twenty-four minutes, and already their tutoring session was interrupted. Zenobia had a feeling she knew who the two shadows covering them were. And sure enough, after looking over her shoulder, she found herself starinng into angry yet confused brown eyes barely seen in the various black plumes. It would only figure that he would appear after their conversation about him. 

"Studying." It took everything within her not to roll her eyes or snap at him. She learned her lesson about judging a book by its cover. Even if she wasn't sure if she wanted to be friends with him, she would do better with how she treated people. So long as 'Liam' was civil with her, she'd do the same with him. But both her reaction and answer seemed to have just confused him more.

"Why?"

"Because midterms are coming up."

"It's a waste of time." 

"To you perhaps."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Keep calm. Loosen the tension in the shoulders. Zenobia took a breath as she repeated those thoughts in her head. She understood why he was acting like this. He wasn't intentionally trying to pick a fight with her, he was insecure.

"With my family situation, I can't afford for my grades to slip. The same goes for Phoebie. That's why we're doing this. If you think it's not worth your time or that it doesn't matter, fine. However…I am asking that you don't go disregarding our attempt to prepare."

"I never-"

"Hey, Zeno, how good are you at ancient civilizations?" Zenobia raised an eyebrow as bull-no! No, Renzo. His name is Renzo...or she hoped it was. Process of elimination dictated that if her near brawling companion is Liam, then the bull who is always talking to Phoebie must be Renzo.

When it doubt, bullshit it out. She raised an eyebrow as Renzo interrupted Liam, both physically and verbally jumping in his way. Crimson orbs met desperate lime-green. A hum left her lips while she pondered the question. Her pencil returned to it's tapping position on the table.

"I'm not bad. I'm not in that class so I can't really go over things in detail, but I can help with terminology and memorizing timelines." Phoebie laughed when Renzo leaped into the seat next to her. The teen smashed his mask covered face onto the table while holding his hands in front of him clasped together. 

"My savior!" Zenobia could only sigh, drained. Who knew social interactions could be so…fatigue inducing? She had to give her little sister credit for being so outgoing at such a young age because she didn't know how the kid did it. 

Well, even if she wanted to say no, it was too late to back out now. Without any hesitation, Renzo dumped all of his textbooks and papers into their pile. His eyes sparkled in anticipation, for a moment reminding Zenobia of Rosette. Man she missed that dog...

"You're insane, man!"

"Sorry Li, but my big brother threatened to kick my ass if I came home with another bad set of test grades. Zeno's a straight A genius. Like hell I'm not going to take advantage of her offer!" She wanted to point out that she didn't even offer, her mouth opened to do just that. 

Only to stop when she met Phoebie's gaze, watching her shake her head. Apparently, it was a lost cause, so she snapped her mouth shut with a click of her teeth. Probably for the best anyways since Liam didn't look convinced in the slightest. Her headache continued to grow. 

"Straight A's doesn't mean shit if she hasn't taken a class."

"Are you struggling, Liam?"

"No! Why are you even asking!? You never bothered before."

"Because I don't like who I was yesterday, so I'm trying to put in effort and change that."

"H-huh!?"

"Look, Phoebie asked me to help, so I'm helping her. If you and Renzo want to join and do a study session together, that's fine, I won't judge. I will say that I don't want to ditch classes, I don't want to steal, smoke, do drugs or drink. If you want to hang out with me, don't be an ass and I'll try not to be when you get defensive, got it?"

He said nothing to that, instead he sat down next to her. If he decided to open up his own backpack, silently taking out his own books to work, then she wouldn't call him out on it. A small smile graced her features when he had a question on his physics homework. Now this...this was what she was looking for.

No fighting. Nothing but just getting assignments done and over with. Just as Zenobia pointed out his errors, she saw a flash of movement. She glanced up, raising an eyebrow when Phoebie shot her a wink. No clue what that was about, but she made sure to point out her Coralin friend's flaws, reducing the girl to rechecking her latest correction.