Lost

Friends?

Lunch time rolled around eventually and Emilia found herself working on a new seating chart for all of Dr. Banner's classes while simultaneously eating a leftover double bacon cheeseburger with fries from dinner with Charlie at the diner.

When tasked with helping grade papers or arrange a new seating chart, Emilia usually sat alone with her earbuds in. Occasionally Mike, Eric or Angela joined her, but for the most part she liked working alone.

Emilia was so focused she didn't notice the pixie-like girl sitting across from her at the small table for a solid minute. When she noticed, she paused the music and took out her earbuds. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. . . Alice, right?"

"It's alright! I just wanted to check in on you" Alice said and Emilia chuckled. 
"I should be the one checking on you. . . Speaking of, how's your day been so far? Finding your classes easily?" The shorter girl nodded. 

"Your tour really helped, and I actually wanted to ask you something if it's alright?" Alice asked hopefully. 

Emilia smiled and nodded. "Fire away" she said with a grin. 

"Would you maybe want to sit with us since you've been a big help today?" It felt as if Emilia's smile couldn't get any bigger, yet it seemed as if it did. 

"You're serious?" The pixie nodded and the girl almost squealed, but didn't, managing to control herself.
Emilia's smile began to fade as if she realized something. "I'd love to but I'm swamped with work and I wouldn't want to bother your family with my presence." Emilia said, tapping her pen on the small stack of papers.

"You wouldn't be bothering us at all, in fact I think we'd all be amazing friends!" Alice declared. 

Emilia shook her head with a small smile. "I think we would be too, but let's give it time. You guys might end up hating me or something." Emilia chuckled. 

“I don't think so.” Alice replied with a smile.

-

After the last bell of the day rang, Emilia was the last one out of the foreign language class. While everyone had started packing up a minute before the bell rang, she'd continued on her work since (much like everyone else) she had room to improve. 

Emilia said goodbye to the teacher in French, before making her way back to the biology classroom.

She arrived at the classroom, with the new charts in hand, labeled for each class period. Emilia knocked on the open door, gaining Dr. Banner's attention. 

He moved his glasses off the end of his nose, repositioning them, and then he greeted the teenager. "Emilia, come in! What do you have there?" He asked and she handed him the stack of papers. 

"It's the seating charts for all your classes. Yellow notes are the old ones, the green notes are the new ones. The new ones integrate the new students and allow them along with others to potentially make new friendships while keeping some familiarity for the other students." She stated proudly. 

"I'm proud of how far you've come as a student and as a person, Emilia. I truly am. . . Which is why it saddens me that I won't be here to teach you next year." This information upset the teenager. She finally felt as if someone understood her. 

Emilia was incredibly smart and talented, but she needed the support and challenge. Borderline genius, as Charlie called her. Which is why, when Dr. Banner started teaching her in the middle of freshman year, her grades were even better than they were before. 

The man had become like family to her, even Charlie was accepting of the fact that Emilia considered him family and finally had someone she could talk science with. 

Despite being saddened by the revelation, she explained to him that she would support him in anything he chose to do, as long as he called or wrote so they could talk about things she learned. He agreed to the terms. 

They talked for a few more minutes before she left the classroom. She pulled out her keys as she exited the building and made her way towards her car — her most favorite thing on the entire planet. 

Dr. Banner is about to become a much larger part in the story soon.