Sang's Acceptance

I need to wash my eyes

The 'Exploration of Marine Life' class is basically a very specific biology class and a deep dive into different sea creatures. I'm once again sandwiched in between two of my mates, Silas and Kota. I'm willing to bet that my next class will have Nathan, North, or Luke since I've been in class with two of my younger seven mates every period. I'll even go as far as to bet that  its Nathan and North and my homeroom is Luke and North.

"Hello class," Axel speaks entering the room, "Welcome to an exploration of marine life, this is a class dedicated to furthering your knowledge of the ocean and it's various creatures."

He looks around before continuing, it seems like he is actually interested in teaching this class, unlike what I've heard and even seen from other teachers today. Meaning Doc who stared at me the whole time, Dopey who literally changed the class so he could get work done, and everyone else who just handed out a random assignment instead of standing up and teaching. 

"I plan to discuss a different sea creature every day and each week you will have to do a small slide show on a specific animal from that week. At the end of every month you are to take one of your slide shows and go into more detail about your animal of choice then present it in class. That will be all for homework and the monthly presentations will be in replacement of tests." the class cheered at the no tests part making me chuckle under my breath.

"So, before we get started on our animal of the day, does anyone have any questions?"

A few students asked questions about the structure of the class and what specific sea creatures we would learn about. At the end of questions Axel announced that today we would be learning about the feather star, they're actually some of my favorite sea creatures so I was excited. I took notes in my pastel green notebook (because science is green) and wrote with my green and black pens and pastel green highlighter. Yes, I'm extra with my notes. I also made sure to draw a picture of the feather star for reference, even though I knew what they looked like before hand.

At the end of class Axel goes answers a few more questions, then dismisses us. I silently make my way to the gym, when I get there its empty. I remember that they told me this was Raven's planning period so I make my way to the locker room area, assuming his office is somewhere back there.

Finding his office quickly I knock on the door and wait for a response. 

"Come," I hear Raven's thick Russian accent from the other side of the door and I head inside.

Walking in I immediately jump and turn around, covering my eyes with my hand, and walking back out the door, "You were NOT saying come in," I say with my voice slightly raised as I close the door behind me and sit down on the wall across from the door, face flushed.

Inside I hear Raven laughing hysterically and clothes shuffling, "Did you hear her knock?" I hear Corey hiss at him. "Maybe," I hear the Russian. "You did that on purpose!" he accuses loudly.

"Da, you didn't know if she knew we were mates too, now she know," Raven responds.

I shrug, decent enough reasoning. 

North and Nathan choose that moment to walk through the doors that lead to the gym. "Nathan," I yell dramatically, knowing Corey and Raven can hear me.

"Wha-I-yes?" he questions probably startled that I even spoke to him at all let alone seeming relieved to see him.

"Do you have any bleach or soap, I need to wash my eyes!" I exclaim causing both men to raise their eyebrows at me.

"Umm... no? Why do you need to wash your eyes?" he questions as a very red Corey opens the office door. I giggle slightly at the look on his face and the other two immediately start laughing having put the pieces together.

"You two, go ahead in. I- can I talk to you for a second?" he aims his question at me apprehensively.

"Sure thing," I smile standing up. We silently walk into the gym and sit on the bleachers.

"I'm sorry you saw that, I honestly didn't hear you knock. Raven has a really screwed up way of reasoning and-well now that you've probably noticed Raven and I are also mated to each other," he tells me seemingly nervous about something.

"Okay?" I question, unsure of why he cares that I know one way or another.

"You aren't mad?"

"If I was mad, I wouldn't have the right to be," I laugh a little, "First of all no I'm not mad at all so get that thought out of your head right now. Second of all, I told you all that I didn't want mates from that moment on I don't get to be mad about who you spend your time with second mate or not. Third of all if it's because you're both men, please take another look at my friend group."

"I- you are entirely allowed to be mad," Corey says flustered, "We made it very clear that we want you and we would be furious if we saw you with another person even if you rejected us on the spot. We also didn't tell you about me and Raven which, it seems like it's something you should know."

"You're right, fuck you," I tell him.

"What?" he raises his voice even more concerned now.

I laugh again and put my hands on his shoulders, "You worry too much."

Corey huffs, "You know that the eldest five of us had a first chance mate right?" he asks and I nod, confused about what this has to do with our conversation, "Well... Kayli never liked the fact that Raven and I were mates, she basically kept us separated the best she could and Raven was one of her favorites so that was frequently," he looks sad as he explains, "I didn't want it to be the same way with you, even if you don't want us."

"There's more to it though, isn't there?" I scrunch my eyebrows.

"I- my relationship with Kayli was complicated," he pauses taking a deep breath, looking nervous and sad, "I always knew I was her least favorite out of all of us. We only ever went on one date at the beginning of our relationship, she constantly took my stuff and messed it up, she told me that the things I was interested in were stupid and weren't manly, she only ever kissed me on the cheek and that was only when the others were around, and we never even had sex even though she slept with the others almost every night. She always played favorites between everyone and pinned us against each other, I fought so hard for her to love me but she never did and when she rejected us after we caught her cheating, she finally told me that she didn't want me from the beginning. Sh-she didn't want me either," he sobs at the end making me realize that I've hurt him more than I ever wanted to. Hell, I didn't want him to be hurt at all, I just didn't know how to process the whole situation.

I can't help it, with tears in my eyes I jump into his lap and hug him as tight as I can, he takes a second to hug me back. We hug for a solid five minutes while he sobs into my neck, before I pull away still on his lap. We lock eyes for a few seconds and next thing I know, I'm kissing him.