(this one is probably a bit short, but i forgot to mention earlier a lot of characters mentioned in the little writing things are characters of beebocube !! check them out they r so so cool )
when lee initially makes friends, and actual friends, not just the ones he does homework for and not just the ones he's assigned projects with, he's inclined to believe there's a betrayal waiting for him. some kind of prank that tells him he's an idiot for trusting people other than his mother. oh, how she'd scold him. not to trust the schoolboys, the schoolgirls, the school kids.
but he ends up trusting them anyway. he has nothing better to do. graduation is coming up and everyone doesn't care about homework anymore. for someone so independent he sure as hell felt lonely. what a strange little feeling, for a man he thought so strangely of himself.
he's laid on the grass, journal in his lap, and the two 'friends' he'd made are talking. they're both loud, one more confident than the other, one more adventurous than the other. lee's neither of those, so they're not sure why they chose him to be their friend, even if it could be temporary. he may be bits and pieces of those things, like curious of the adventure, but he'd never go out to seas. he'd never fight beasts. so he just watches her talk about it, watches the other put things together and take them apart. cordelia and jesse. jesse and cordelia. he didn't think his name fit with the two of them.
he's lost in the words he's written, about bugs and mountains and the way the world works, until he notices cordelia looming over him. it doesn't take too long to notice because her hair tickles his nose.
he glances up, and she doesn't say anything for so long until he realizes she's already said something, and lee just didn't hear it.
"what?" he eventually chirps up, in a rude tone he definitely doesn't mean but slips out anyways.
cordelia raises an eyebrow at him, but doesn't mind it, "the voyage, wise guy." she chirps with a grin, "you coming or not?"
lee is inclined to say 'what?' again, but it makes him sound like a parrot and he decides against it, "you're going on one?"
"yep, when i can afford the parts. jess's gonna help me build it." she boasts, standing back on her heels.
"a whole boat?"
"a whole boat." she mirrors, sounding like the parrot now.her hands are stuffed in her pocket now. she's a pretty adventurous, taller thing, she's suntanned and bandaged and bruised. the 'voyage' she has in mind probably wasn't the worst adventure she's ever been on. she was probably built for this. lee definitely wasn't. he was pale and scrawny and couldn't handle the school sports when he was younger. he'd probably die of sea sickness, "i'm gonna be the captain of the whole seas."
lee's eyes eventually look up at the clouds. he wonders who made those. that's who he wants to voyage to,
"i don't really see how i'm supposed to help you with that." he comments absentmindedly, burying his head in the tall blades of grass.
the weight of his journal on his lap, however, is suddenly lifted when cordelia swipes it off of him. the action alone has him startled, sitting up so fast it makes him dizzy, yelling out mixes of 'what's and 'hey's like he was about to get beat up.
cordelia doesn't really... do anything, though. not like those pricks in his class did. she just reads through it, genuinely interested. he already let her read a page, when they initially met around a week ago, so his anxiety swoops down a few levels,
"you can help me with this- gods, i thought you were smart." she scoffs, tossing back the book to him, "you can be the brain to my brawn."
"my brawn." jesse counters, which no one can really argue with.
"- to my winning smile."
lee laughs at that. like, actually laughs. it's a bit relieving. he didn't know he'd ever feel like this around people he barely knew, because the people he actually knew were jerks. he likes this.
cordelia, eventually, goes off trying to find something (lee forgets what), and leaves himself to the clouds again, thinking about where things came from and why things came that way and how will they end up until jesse crouches down next to him. she's actually pretty noticeable. she's always been. she's pretty and strong and most people like her. he doesn't blame them, she's pretty likable,
"you think you can handle it?"
"her?"
"the sea sickness."
he stares at her a moment, laying down in the grass, "no. to both."
"she probably thinks you're a wimp." she challenges.
"she definitely thinks i'm the brain."
jesse laughs, "well, i think you'll fit right in."
lee smiles, and he hopes she can't see it, hoping she's blinded by the sun or the grass is too tall or something. no one ever told him that before.
he doesn't think he'll fit right in. he usually doesn't. but he thinks he'll stay anyways.
