I Don't Need You

In Which Silas Cracks Up Raely

Kota helped me out. "What classes are you taking this year?" he asked the group. I was sure he was the kind of guy to already have all his friends' schedules memorized, but it got people talking and that was a relief.

The rest of lunch went by much faster, stuffed with a lively conversation on school and which subjects were bearable or ridiculous. Benji had already heard all about my online school experience, but the other boys hadn't and they showed a lot of interest. I usually preferred to listen more than talk when among people I didn't know well, but somehow I ended up telling stories and making jokes in a way I sometimes struggled to do even with Grace and Benji. Gabriel and Luke's disarming personalities and constant jokes must have had something to do with it, but it was more than that. I felt comfortable around this group.

Ben had noticed. He kept looking at me, confused. I could only shrug back. What was I supposed to say? I didn't understand their magic spell either. Laughing to myself, I pictured them all with wands and cauldrons and warts; they made hilarious witches.

All too soon, lunchtime ended and it was time for one of my least favorite classes, math. I took AP Statistics, a challenging and intensive course. One would think that meant I had some sort of appreciation for the subject, but one would be wrong. I despised math. I just happened to be good at it.

My father was an engineer, and he'd been so proud when I'd entered the accelerated math program, only to end up disappointed when I informed him of my utter dislike for all numbers. To be honest, his attention was the only reason I'd taken the harder classes at all. With his travels, work, and five other children, my dad's attention was not easy to come by. My mother's notice wasn't common either, but I'd had a special bond with my father at a young age. I missed him more than I'd ever let anyone know. 

Benji leaned over to peck my cheek on his way out. Though my view was blocked by his head, I could hear a weird noise. It sounded somewhat like a stifled growl. Hmm. "See you later," I told my boyfriend.

Kota (who had the same third-period class as I did) stood up with me. Waving our goodbyes, we made our way through the sea of students to our Statistics classroom. I paused in front of the door to take a deep breath. Kota, who'd taken a few more steps, looked back. "What's wrong?" he asked. His concerned tone and worried eyes showed a glimpse of his caring personality, which brought my smile back.

"Nothing," I assured him, and I followed him into the classroom.

***

As I walked out of the room, I was grateful once again to have met Kota. It seemed he was going to be an invaluable asset in the area of Statistics. In fact, I was pretty sure he could teach the class. It was lucky Kota was such a nice guy and was willing to help me out, or there was no way I'd be passing this particular subject. They started on about confounding and blocking--who knows what that means--and it's only day one!

Though I protested, Kota insisted on walking me to my last class of the day. Silas stood right outside of the marine biology classroom as if he were waiting for me. Why would he wait for me? We'd barely met. That was very odd.

~Silas~

My brothers and I had agreed not to leave Aggele Mou alone in this school. There were too many d----bags that didn't belong anywhere near her purity and beauty. I waited outside the classroom for our mate, glad to see Kota escorting her, though Raely looked slightly confused. She'd soon get used to our presence. It was only natural for mates, after all.

"Hey," I said to Raely with my best smile. "What did the ocean say to the shore?"

Raely looked at me with head tilted and brows furrowed. "I'm not sure."

I deadpanned the punchline, "Nothing, it just waved."

Raely clasped her hands over her mouth to stifle the loud burst of laughter that was trying to escape. My little mate chuckled and snorted for an entire minute before squeezing out, "That" gasp "wasn't even" gasp "funny" wheeze "Why" huff "I" wheeze "laughing?"

She was still shaking her head and exploding with giggles as I led her inside the class and into a chair. My grin was wider than a football field. I had made Aggele Mou laugh, a real, messy laugh. I couldn't wait to brag to Sean.

Some of the other teens were sending Raely weird glances, but I glared at them until they looked away.

Throughout the rest of the class, I shared my best jokes with Raely. None of them failed to make her laugh, though she glanced guiltily at the teacher each time. Ms. Simmons, the biology teacher, didn't care at all. From what I'd seen in past years, she would just keep lecturing no matter what the students did.

At the end of the class, which was also the end of school, I saw Raely start to get up to leave, but I held her back. "The hallways are a stampede right now," I told her. "You're too tiny. You'd be crushed."

Her face full of indignity, she responded "I am not tiny! And now I'm going to miss my bus so thanks a lot." The last bit dripped with sarcasm.

Her missing the bus had been part of the plan. One of us could give her a ride, and we could make sure we stopped at the packhouse so Doc could check her over. If we didn't bring her to him, Dr. Sean would probably go to her, creating all sorts of problems and likely making her think she had a stalker.

"No worries, Agelle Mou," the nickname slipped out before I could stop it. Mr. B had said to hold back on those for a while. Oh well. No going back now. "North can give you a ride."

Hope you are all great! Thank you for reading, commenting, and voting. If you don't want to hear my excuses, stop reading now. Sorry for taking absolutely forever to update. I went on vacation and left my motivation there, apparently. Then work got crazier and family stuff happened. Now I'm quarantining and getting tested today (hope I don't have COVID) so I had time to finish this chapter. 

Fanfic recommendation of the chapter (is this something I should keep doing? Let me know): 

Medically Speaking by @my-fanfic-soul 

Feel free to leave some for me in the comments!