★ 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚛𝚜 ★

☆ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 4 ☆

Chapter 4

"Jam is so odd. Like.. You're legit just boiling fruit in a pot, it's so strange," Corey randomly said, placing his head on his hands, "I don't get why someone had the idea to try heating fruit in a pot one day. What even inspired that? Weird, if you ask me."

"Yeah, just like you," Max responded, crossing his arms. "Why are you even talking about jam anyway?"

Tory looked to Max. "Oh, this is normal. This is probably about the tenth time he's gone on a ramble about jam this month.." They informed, placing their hands on the table.

"But you can't blame me!" Corey exclaimed, flailing his arms in the air like some kind of madman, "It's so weird! Seriously, why was it ever made?"

Giving a quiet scoff and rolling their eyes, Tory shook their head. "Corey, be quiet. I don't think anyone cares for what you have to say about jam, it's irrelevant." They snapped unexpectedly, surprising everyone at the table- even themself. "Oh- um, sorry.." The brown-haired student then apologised quietly, looking down at the table and fiddling with the sleeves of their green jumper-dress.

Corey looked at Tory with shock before raising an eyebrow, leaning his head on the palm of his right hand. "You remind me of someone right now, Tory." He stated nonchalantly, looking his taller friend up and down with his bright blue eyes before directing his gaze off to the side, not elaborating on that.

In response, Tory's expression showed slight worry, but before they could respond to it the trio's attention was diverted to the sound of two others approaching: AJ, a fairly short (although not as short as Corey) boy with curly brown hair and rectangular glasses wearing a nirvana shirt, some black ripped jeans with a jacket over it and knee-high converse shoes; and the other, Rin, who was younger than the others yet somehow one of the taller ones, who had fluffy black hair tied up in a short ponytail, bright blue eyes, a green sleeveless jumper over a greyish-brown shirt, brown trousers and black dress shoes. He resembled his brother, Corey, quite a lot.

"Hey, guys! I'm sorry we were late. Did we miss anything?" AJ queried, taking a seat next to Tory and resting his arms on the table.

"It's fine, you didn't miss anything. Just Corey talking about jam again." Tory sighed as she looked over to the short, black-haired guy who now just happily chatted with Rin.

AJ couldn't help but chuckle at this, shaking his head. "Again? He does this all the time."

"I know he does... Honestly, I don't get it." Tory spoke with a scoff but caught themself before they said anything bad. They needed to spend less time in that game...

Rin turned to the two, smiling and speaking up. "Hey, what are you two talking about?"

Corey turned to Tory and AJ as well, prompting Tory to answer. "Oh, nothing. Don't worry."

Raising an eyebrow, Corey hummed and studied Tory's expression. "Huh. Alright," He began, but as he went to speak, the bell went off. Time for class.

Max let out an audible groan, grabbing his bag and standing. "Damn it! Already? I'm gonna go bunk off in the bathroom, I think. I have science..."

"Unlucky. I have computing, so I better get going. See you all at lunch!" Corey called, already at the stairs closest to their table. He waved, beckoning Rin over to walk with him before heading up to his classroom.

"Oh- uh, see you at lunch.." Tory awkwardly answered, unable to help why Corey was in such a rush as they waved back and then turned to AJ. "So, what do you have now?.."

"Science. Wanna walk together?" The curly-haired guy suggested, flashing a grin.

Tory nodded. "Sure. I have business anyway, it's on the same floor. Let's go."