Protective

Old Friends

Yeremy

Lana was a liar.

She wasn't just bad at Calculus, she was God awful.

"You know it's our first day, these problems aren't even hard," I whispered, "He gave us simple ones."

"Oh, shut up," she whispered back, "I'm not that bad," she started to count some questions, "I got five of them right."

No. She in fact had those wrong as well, but I wasn't going to tell her that. She was right after all about this not being my job.

I was supposed to protect her life, not bring her apples when she skipped breakfast or help her with her Calculus work.

My mind drifted off to the few people she had met today.

Mikhail had told me just how important it was to pay attention to even the most insignificant people.

Violette March and Roman Luciano. I had recognized both of them from the file Dmitri gave me of all of our classmates.

They were rivals in constant competition for the top spot in all academic aspects along with popularity.

They didn't seem to be a big threat although it was clear Violette didn't like Lana at all. From what I could tell, it was her immaturity that made Violette not like her. Something I would hardly consider made her a threat.

Roman on the other hand liked Lana a little too much, or at least was attracted to her.

He could hardly keep from smiling at her for two seconds the entire tour.

He could potentially be a threat but for right now, he seemed pretty harmless.

I adjusted myself in my seat as I continued to work through the problems on the textbook, which made me realize that Lana was peaking at my paper.

I laughed, "Are you copying off of me?"

She smiled sweetly, "No, of course not. I'm just checking my work. You're much better at this than me."

A part of me actually believed her, and if I hadn't known who her father was I would've thought she was being sincere.

I shook my head, "You'll never learn anything if you copy of me, you know."

"Oh spare me," she rolled her eyes, "Calculus is demonic. I preferred Geometry."

"Don't you have straight A's?" I questioned, "How did you manage that being this terrible at Calculus?"

She smiled, "I already told you, I am not bad at anything. I'm inherently terrible at Calculus but I managed to test very well with a few helpful notes in my calculator."

"Cheater," I accused.

She laughed, "I call it covering all of my bases."

The first three periods before lunch passed by quickly and I continued to take note of the types of people that interacted with Lana.

The interactions were mostly simple, trading of writing utensils, exchange of misheard directions from the teacher, crap like that.

"Shouldn't you be attempting to make friends?" I asked her as we walked towards our lockers, "Isn't that the whole point of being here?"

"Well, da," her voiced trailed off, "But I need someone who is—

"Lana!"

A girl with soft short brown hair started rushing towards her at full speed and as I moved to intervene, Lana shook her head at me and pulled the girl into her arms.