Is your bedroom ceiling bored?

Talking

(Same outfit as the last chapter) 

"Translate is about giving everyone access to every word ever written, no matter what language it was written in, because when the entire world can see, read and find the rest of the world's cool stuff, good things start happening." The man up front said to them. 

Team Lyle sat in a single row listening to the Translate lecture. Emily was sat between Stuart and Neha, trying to get the most out of this lecture, unlike some of her group. Stuart was occupied on his phone, which Emily gave back after the 15 minutes were up, and Lyle was looking at something on his laptop while Billy and Nick talked to him. Billy and Nick could have possibly been the loudest whisperers Emily's ever met. Their 'quiet' talk brought the whole team's attention to them. 

After the lecture, which Emily actually liked, everyone was told they have the rest of the day off to meet new people and explore a bit more. 

Emily made her way down to the cafeteria and grabbed some water and left for a walk outside. 

After a while she sat under a tree and went on Instagram, posting a few photos of the past three days before she started listening to music and pulled out her book from her bag and started reading The Hunger Games book again. 

She wasn't really paying attention to anything until she noticed someone sitting down next to her an hour or so later, she glanced over to see it was just Stuart. She rolled her eyes and went back to her book as he stared at his phone. 

They sat there for a while, just doing their own things, and mostly ignoring each other, until Emily pulled out a bag of Doritos and offered some to Stuart who hesitated before taking a few. 

"So what's with you and the phone?" She asked, pulling out her ear buds as she turned to look at him. 

"Harder for people to bully when they can't see you, and when you ignore them." He told her, shrugging. 

"Ah. I can understand that." She hummed. 

"Can you? Little miss famous?" He asked her and she shrugged. 

"Before I was famous I was chubby, had glasses and was a very smart kid, so I got bullied a lot. When I was 14 I convinced my parents to let me get liposuction done, and get contacts. After that I just started doing YouTube videos. Started out as a way for me to rant out how I felt to strangers, then it turned into more little by little, and turned into a place where I did music and posted it. I'm not good with putting my emotions into actual words, but for some reason I can put them into music. It's strange, but as it turns out strangers understand what you need to say, even if you're not saying it." She shrugged. 

"I'd have never thought that you'd have ever gone through that." He told her and she nodded. 

"No one ever does. I never wanted to be famous, I just wanted to be heard." She told the boy who looked at her, really looked at her. He could hear the pain in her voice as she said that, and he could understand that better than anyone, but Stuart, being Stuart, instead of saying that, went another way. 

"Well, people may be hearing now, but they're not listening. They never listen." 

"Like you do?" She asked him, and he shrugged. 

"Never claimed that I did." He told her and she shrugged. 

"Never said you did." She countered back. 

That night Emily was in her room, working on her music, when a knock sounded on her door. Frowning she stood up and went over and opened it up. It was Neha. 

"Hey." Emily said, confused as to why Neha was at her doorstep. 

"I saw you and Stuart talking today. You two looked cozy." Neha said, entering her room and plopping onto Emily's bed. 

"We were just talking. He's a nice enough guy when he's not being an ass." Emily shrugged, sitting in her desk chair. 

"You've got a crush." Neha said, narrowing her eyes at the girl, who frowned, confused. 

"I've known him for all of two days, no I don't." Emily said, shaking her head. 

"Maybe not now but soon enough. I have a sixth sense about these things." Neha shrugged. 

"Yeah, okay."