Inconvenient Things

3. New item unlocked: "Friends"

High school. Every teenager's worst nightmare. The worst and hardest part of anyone's life, where students struggle with the educational stress and anxieties while trying to fit in. From first relationships to breakups and heartbreaks, from existential crises to suicides. The stage where your innocent inner child slowly fades away, exposing you to the harsh reality that is life. Where you try to understand who you really are. The realisation that nothing will ever be easy. That you'll always have to fight to live. The choice between existing and living. The part of Ashley's life where she started wondering where humanity took a wrong turn. How the fuck she ended up where she is. Confused and alone. Nobody willing to help her with that damned history paper. 

Well, somebody would probably help her out if she asked. But either way, it was too late to do anything about it, since lunch was almost over and she had only managed to write two relevant things. Her name and the date. It probably didn't help that she had spelled her name wrong and didn't bother to correct it. When it came to anything science related, Ashley was a straight A student. Or as close to a "straight" A student as she could get. Science was one of the few things she actually enjoyed. History, on the other hand...Britains king during the Cold War, —Martin Luther King, if she remembered correctly— could rot in Stalin's basement for all she cared.

She huffed and looked over at the mathletes, who were all sitting together at the lunch table. „Try to make some friends." Dr. Lane's words rang in her head. Ashley thought about it, weighing out the pros and cons. Before she actually got the chance to decide, Harper caught her looking at them and waved her over. Friends it is, then. She rose to her feet and made her way to the table. 

„Hey, Ash. Why don't you sit with us? We were just talking about helping you and Em with the project."

Harper was the nicest of the group, Ashley observed. She was the so-called mom friend, if Ashley understood correctly. She was always making sure that everyone's okay. The girl was not only appreciated by the group, but by the whole student body. Everyone knew she was trustworthy and incredibly empathetic. That couldn't be said about the rest of the group. Cole was almost too dumb to function, yet still somehow probably the best mathlete they had. Ethan was a quiet guy who mostly only speaks to tell Cole off. Nora was...Nora. Ashley didn't really know a lot about her except that she lived in her own world. Then there was Emery. A pain in the ass. The thorn in Ashley's side. A stone in her shoe. The negative number in her square root in a quadratic formula. Emery's existence was one big inconvenience to the world.

Ashley slumped onto the empty chair next to Nora, who was too engrossed in a book to notice. A tale of two cities, Ashley read the title. Who in their right mind would read that for fun?

„Why would you want to help? Don't you have better things to do with your time?" Ashley queried.

Harper shrugged „There's nothing wrong with wanting to help out your friends"

„We're friends?" Huh, Dr. Lane was right. Making friends really is easy. 

„Of course we are, dingus."

„Cool."

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch and the start of Hell. Ashley slapped her hands on her knees and stood up.

„I'll see you after school, then."

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„Ashley, can I talk to you for a minute?" her history teacher, Miss Lewis, asked.

Ashley rolled her eyes. „I don't know, can you?"

She knew she had no reason to be rude to her teacher. Miss Lewis really did try her best to help Ashley. Unlike other teachers, the woman actually acknowledged Ashley's condition, but still managed to treat her like any other student. Miss Lewis was very patient, which probably came from decades of teaching all kinds of teenagers. That's what everyone at school assumed, at least. It was still a mystery how she was still alive, not to mention teaching. With her old fashioned glasses that made her eyes look huge and the short white curls, she might have outlived the Queen of England. Hell, she probably led the Roman army to Carthage back in the day. 

Miss Lewis lightly whacked the folder she was holding on Ashley's head. 

"Stop your buffoonery for a second and listen, young lady."

"Yes, Miss Lewis. My apologies."

Ashley waited for her teacher to continue. The older woman was looking her right in the eyes, unblinking, her expression unreadable.

"You're failing history."

Miss Lewis turned around and started packing up her things. When she realised that Ashley hadn't moved she added: "Don't fail. Now go!" She started shooing Ashley away with her hands. The girl grabbed her bag and hurried out the door. Of course, Ashley had known she was failing the class, it wasn't a mystery. What was a mystery was why her teacher had to tell her that after class. Ashley decided not to question it. Miss Lewis was weird like that.

Five figures were waiting for her at her motorcycle, one of them waving at her and another shoving the person next to them. Her friends. The person who was shoved, Ashley was pretty sure it was Cole, stumbled into her precious motorcycle and it started tilting to the side. All five of them lurched towards it, quickly steadying it before it hit the ground. Her friends on very fucking thin ice.

„What are you doing?" Ashley barked.

Harper smiled apologetically. „Sorry about that. We were waiting to pick you up."

„Why?"

„Because we're all going to Cole's place."

Cole, who was trying to tie his shoes, perked up. „We are?"

Ethan rolled his eyes. „Dude, you literally invited us over ten minutes ago."

„Huh, cool." Cole shrugged and continued struggling with his shoes. 

Ashley shook her head. „I can't just leave the  motorcycle here."

„Ethan's got a pick up truck." Emery piped in.

After a collective effort of heaving the motorbike onto the truck, Ashley found herself squeezed in between Nora and Emery. Ethan was the driver and Cole sat next to him, originally to tell him the directions. Harper, who was sitting to Cole's right, had taken the lead after he'd gotten them lost twice.

Finally, they arrived at Cole's house. It was a parmesan-yellow coloured single family house with a surprisingly neat lawn. Cole turned around „My parents aren't home, by the way."

Ethan sighed „We know, Cole. That's why you invited us over."

„Oh."