Rising Tides (Human!lapidot)

Chapter 20

Lapis glanced over at the clock, sitting up on the back wall of the classroom, then back to her desk and finally, up to the teacher standing beside the whiteboard, writing down notes that the class was supposed to copy down. But instead of doing that, Lapis had 'borrowed' a piece of paper from the pile that sat at the front and was now doodling random pictures of characters she'd made up. Scribbling a circle to start off the head, she got to work on the nose, eyes and finally, face shape before giving the guy deer antlers and ears. A small smile grew on her face.

Her quiet moment of happiness was ruined by someone nudging her. She turned around to see Sapphire staring at her from under thick blue bangs, an eyebrow raised. Lapis mouthed a quick 'what?' and the other girl chuckled and pointed to a tiny sketch at the bottom of the paper. She followed her finger and blushed as she noticed she had accidentally drawn her and Peridot...holding hands??

"Shut up sapphire" Lapis elbowed her and she stopped laughing, turning back to her book and writing down notes for the latest project.

Lapis decided to do that same as this supposed project would be something we enjoyed. The task was to storyboard and make a short animation about something and that, Lapis could do. The bluenette had already planned half of it a week prior because the teacher had accidentally said too much.

"OK class, pile up your books on the front table an tidy up your sheets" the teacher clapped her hands together as she stood up from her chair.

The class mumbled and stood up, passing their books forward and packing up their things. Lapis grabbed her script, that had been sitting on the table beside her for the entire lesson and started shuffling with excitement. Today was the first day of rehearsals, which was normally just script reading so the techies never came. But Peridot had agreed to help and that was the best feeling ever. She was usually so stubborn and don't agree with half of Lapis' plans.

"See ya later Sapphire, bye!" The bell rang and everyone left the room, Lapis running to the front and leading the small crowd.

She managed to make it to the auditorium in one piece and upon arriving spotted several cast members already there, wandering around with a script in hands. There was a teacher at the side, not doing anything but standing and watching the students rehearse. Lapis waited on a bench beside the door for Peridot to arrive.

The blonde opened the door with one hand, the other pressed firmly against the side of her head. From what the bluenette could see, it was another encounter with Jasper and she did not look like she was in a good mood. Peridot didn't say anything though, she spotted Lapis and sat down beside her, trying not to groan in pain.

"Are you ok?"

Peridot nodded, still not talking.

"You can go home if you want"

Peridot shook her head, releasing her hand from the tight grip on her face to reveal a thick purple ring around her eye and blood stains from her nose.

"M'fine" Peridot's speech was slightly slurred and she sounded as if she had a blocked nose.

"Is your nose broken?"

She shook her head, no.

"How can you be sure?"

Peridot shrugged.

Standing up and grabbing Peridot's arm, Lapis said "I'm taking you to Rose".

Peridot didn't react, she just stared off into space, her head propped in her hand, arm resting on her knee. Lapis gave her arm another tug and she reeled back angrily.

"I'm fine, leave me alone" she hissed, finally looking up at Lapis through her lenses, which were surprisingly not cracked.

Lapis was unsure. She looked hurt and her nose might be broken but she seemed fine. Just a bit angrier than normal. She could deal with that. Lapis handed Peridot a spare script and gave her the part of the love interest of her character, hoping she couldn't catch onto what she was doing. But Peridot was sore and light headed and every word she spoke came out a slur. She was tired and hungry but wanted to spend time with Lapis. Lapis instructed Peridot where to read and gave her a little description of the scene before started with her opening lines. Peridot responded back confidently, not messing up any lines even with her slurred speech.

For some reason,that surprised Lapis. She knew Peridot couldn't act to save her life but she was so good at voicing the character, putting so much emotion into her lines. They carried on back and forth until the scene came to an end.

"That was amazing. You're amazing!" A wide grin spread across lapis' face.

Peridot shrugged again, her cheek growing red from the compliment. "Thanks?" She seemed unsure of what to say.

"Ever though of becoming an actor?"

Peridot scoffed, raising an eyebrow at Lapis' question.

"Voice actor?"

Another shrug. Was that a yes? Maybe? It was definitely not a no so it was something.

After that was silence. The two were staring at each other, lapis from behind her script and Peridot just zoning out. It took them a while to realise everyone had left and even longer to muster up the courage to talk to each other. Both stood up, gave the other a quick glance and walked off in different directions: Peridot to the car park and Lapis to the front of the school.

Checking the time on her phone, she noticed that had time to kill before the bus arrived. Supposing that it was on time at least. Breaking out her earphones and turning on her music sounded like the most sensible idea as the music tended to drown people out. Any unwanted person would be ignored from now on. But she guessed that didn't really apply today because she was alone at the bus stop.

Scrolling down her playlists, she selected one and hit shuffle.

(Edited)