𝙨𝒕𝙖𝒓𝙙𝒐𝙢'𝙨 𝙨𝒆𝙘𝒓𝙚𝒕 - 𝐥𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐱 𝐟em! 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

chapter 06 - homework

Lyney was mindlessly scrolling on his phone with his back to his locker, waiting for Lynette so that they could leave.

That was, until he got a notification on his phone.

Lynette

Go on ahead. I'll be late helping the art club to prepare for the upcoming festival. I should be home at around 16:00.

You

But who's going to help me with my math homework? :(

Lynette

I'm sure y/n can help you just fine. You two need to work on your history project together, anyway.

Lyney rolled his eyes but left his locker and headed towards the stairs. It was true, so far they hadn't made an impressive amount of progress on their project. Though, y/n had probably already left the campus...

"Lyney!"

Or not.

"Oh, y/n! I usually never catch you after school. You always just dart out of this place."

"Yeah, well, Charlotte wanted to talk to me after school for a couple of minutes. I'm going down to the orchestra room to pick up my violin. Wanna come?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Okay! Hurry up, though, because I need to catch up on some homework soon."

She rushed down the stairs, skipping the last two steps at the bottom. Lyney followed after her, but without skipping the steps.

—————

The orchestra room was cold for some reason. Like, physically colder than other classrooms.

So this is where all the school's air conditioning went.

The chairs were neatly organized in perfect formation, the same number of black chairs in every row. On the top lefthand side of the room, Lyney noticed a pair of racks, both with two shelves, and violin cases and music folders or binders were laid out on both. Just before it was a shelf very low to the ground, which was filled with much larger black cases. There were about ten of them, which Lyney guessed were the cellos. There was a lone case that didn't have any rack or shelf, and it was massive compared to the other instruments.

"So, um," Lyney hesitated as to whether or not it would be an embarrassing question, "which instrument is that?" He asked, gesturing to the lone case.

"Hm? Oh, that's the double bass. Or string bass, or contrabass... whatever you wanna call it. It's pretty cool, it has the deepest notes in the orchestra." Y/n explained.

Lyney hummed. "Who plays it in your orchestra?"

"Um..." she thought for a moment, "Oh, some senior named Skirk." She shrugged. "I don't know that much about her, she's kinda introverted."

"Interesting."

"Let's go," she said, holding the large, 4/4 rectangular violin case. Lyney noticed that she had a black leather music folder, matching her case.

But do we really have to part ways now?

He cleared his throat. "Would you like to work on the project today? If you don't have any plans, I mean."

She thought for a moment. "Okay. But do you mind if I take my violin? I wouldn't want it to be an inconvenience..."

"No worries. It's not a problem."

_________

The Hearths' residency was quite large, almost massive. The exterior of the mansion was decorated with a fountain in the front yard and hanging pots from the outside windowsills.

There was a sleek gray car in the driveway, signaling the presence of mother.

The pair stepped towards the front entrance, their shoes making soft sounds on the cobblestone ground below. There were a few strings of fairy lights above the porch, all colored a gentle, dim yellow. An orange-burgundy welcome mat laid on the ground before the gray door, which had a fall-themed wreath.

Ah, so Lynette found the time to set up her decorations, then.

Lyney turned the handle on the door, the hinges emitting no sound. "Come on in." He internally cringed. Can't you just act normal?

Y/n dipped her head as a thanks, being careful that her violin case didn't accidentally slam against the doorway as she stepped in. Lyney followed after her, shutting the door on his way in. The living room was lit up by a sophisticated chandelier hanging on the high ceiling over the living room.

"Ah, Y/n, welcome back." Arlecchino stood at the top of the stairs.

"Thank you for having me over. I like the new decorations!" Y/n had no problem appearing friendly, though, if one looked close enough, was still intimidated by Arlecchino.

"Yes, Lynette does have a keen eye for appropriate décor." A few moments passed. "Unfortunately, I have...work that I must attend to. Please enjoy your time here." She disappeared.

...Okay.

"Would you like to go up to my room? That way we won't be in the way for Freminet's oboe practice or Lynette's TV shows."

"Sure!"

__________

The walls of Lyney's room were all a soft white, one wall being a gentle, dark crimson. One of the white walls had a wooden decoration in the vague shape of a simple cat head. It was painted black, with a red top hat and cartoony eyes.

"Your room is pretty cute. I'm glad you haven't changed it," she commented.

A selfish part of him wished that she was calling him cute. Stop it. That's not going to be a good habit.

"So, I had a few ideas for the project and a vague outline for all the writing." Y/n said, pulling a muted pink folder filled with papers from her bag.

"Oh, really? Thank you so much, I wouldn't want you to do all the work, though."

She shrugged. "It wasn't that hard. Don't worry about it."

"Would you like to work at my desk? I can pull up another chair."

"Okay. Thanks, Lyney!"

_________

He flushed as he realized the close proximity of the girl next to him, who was immersed in the project.

"Alright, how's your paragraph going?" she asked.

"Oh, it's going great. I just have to finish this last sentence. How does it look?" His calm demeanor betrayed the nervousness he felt inside. In his opinion, it was always nerve-wracking to show her his work since she was an all-honors classes student and a violin player on top of that. He always feared that it would be difficult to impress her, or even meet her level.

"That looks perfect!" She said enthusiastically.

"...May I see yours?" Lyney asked hesitantly.

She paused for half a beat, then said, "Of course!"

Yep. It was as he expected.

Twice the amount of writing that he did.

"Oh, wow, you're uh...quite the writer."

Y/n seemed flustered. "Ah, well—I just have a lot to say. I feel like I need to write a lot to really explain it, you know?"

She's perfect.

"Yes, yes, of course..." He really needed to step up his academic game.