Out of This World

Krel

When Krel saw Andy next, it was in first period with her head down on her desk, hair pooling around her head and off the small table like dripping honey. That was an earth food he had discovered he rather liked, despite the fact it always made his hands insanely sticky. Steve had told him you weren't supposed to eat it with your fingers, but the Palchuck had 'punked' Krel so many times about Earthen customs that the prince wasn't sure if he could trust him on these sorts of things.

He wasn't sure if she was asleep or not, so he leaned in to see. He heard a gentle, rhythmic breathing coming from her, signifying she was in fact, asleep. He really didn't want to wake her, but the bell was about to ring and Mr. Roberts would soon be on the warpath (Mr. Roberts was the new history teacher, or so Andy had told him. He was the history teacher when Krel got there, but apparently there was another one before him, Mr. Strickler, that had just sorta... disappeared.)

"Andy," he whisper-shouted, leaning over. She did not respond. He shook her shoulder gently. "Andy!"

She groaned, stirring. She lifted her head, hair cascading over her face like some lake monster surfacing, getting tangled up in the aquatic plants in its ascent. "What?" she asked. It was really cute, and Krel had to keep himself from giggling.

"Class is about to start," he replied, hesitantly brushing some of the hair out of her eyes.

"Fuck," she groaned, putting her head back down. That seemed to be one of her favorite words, Krel noticed. He knew it was profanity, but it seemed to have a wide variety of uses from the practical to the downright stupid. "I have a monster headache, dude. Stupid concussion."

"I hope you are taking it easy," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You do not want to make it any worse."

"I know, I know," she said. "No taekwondo for a while." She groaned again. "Fuck me, this feels like a hangover." Krel was not sure what a hangover was, but if it was anything like being concussed, he supposed it was very unpleasant.

"How do you know what a hangover feels like?" Krel heard Darci say, leaning over to look at Andy. "Also what happened to you?"

"Long story," said Andy. "Basically I tripped and hit my head really hard."

"You didn't answer my first question."

"I was at one of Mary Wang's parties," she said, looking up. "First time ever consuming alcohol and frankly, the last time consuming alcohol, at least until I'm of the legal age. The next day was absolutely brutal."

Mr. Roberts walked to the front of the room as the bell rang, flicking off the lights and turning on the projector. He began to lecture about ancient Rome, and Andy rolled her eyes. "Great, this is just great," she said. "The lights are out and it's doing nothing for how tired I am. I am going to sleep. Krel, can you wake me up when class is over?"

"Sure," he said, chuckling to himself. She was usually a really good student and never missed a lecture, she must be in a lot of pain if she was actually driven to academic negligence. He'd let her sleep, she'd been through a lot.

"Okie dokie, lights out," she said, putting her head down on her desk, promptly falling asleep.

"Andy," he said, shaking her shoulder gently, as kids began filing out of the room. "Andy wake up!"

She lifted her head groggily. "Is class over?"

"Yep."

"Okay," she said, standing up and shouldering her backpack. The two of them walked together out of the classroom, and Andy extended an open palm to him. He looked at her hand and then looked at her, a question on his face. She rolled her eyes and chuckled, grabbing his hand and intertwining their fingers. Oh, okay, hand holding. That's what she wanted.

"Oh. My. GOD!" Krel heard a familiar screech from behind the two of them. They both turned inwards to look behind them to see Mary Wang with her hand over her mouth and her expression ecstatic. "ARE YOU HOLDING HANDS WITH KEVIN?"

Both Krel and Andy winced at the same time. Krel knew that Mary knew his name, at least, he thought she did, and that messing up his name every time she saw him was a running gag for her. He really hoped so, at least, because it was frustrating.

"Geez, Mary, tell everyone why don't you," Andy snapped, rubbing her head. "What does it look like we're doing?" she asked, holding up their hands. "I'm too tired for this."

Krel wasn't really sure what to do at this point. Mary always kind of stressed him out, she was a little unpredictable; he knew, however, that she and Andy were fairly close.

Andy rubbed her head. "Look Mary, Krel and I are dating," she said plainly.

"I KNEW IT!" she squealed, pointing at Andy repeatedly. "YOU FINALLY LIKE BOYS!" She ran forward and hugged Andy.

Andy rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. "For the record, I've always liked boys."

"Yeah, as friends," Mary jabbed. "I mean jeez, you pretty much act like one."

Andy laughed, pushing her friend off of her. "Yeah yeah whatever, asshole. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay," she giggled, flicking Andy on the side of the head. Andy slapped her hand away, wincing in pain.

"Are you okay?" Krel said, reached up and lightly touched the side of her head where Mary flicked her. "That couldn't have felt good."

"It didn't," she said, as the two of them walked to their next class. "But it's okay, she didn't know."

The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, and after Krel walked Andy home and then walked himself home, he decided to sit on the couch and work on learning his guitar. He was halfway through his warm-up chords when Aja came into the room looking rather dejected, throwing herself down onto the couch on top of his legs, which hurt.

"OW! Get off me Aja!" he protested, pushing her with his feet in frustration.

"I just had the worst day," she said, putting her head in her hands.

Krel's response shifted from annoyed to concerned. He sat up, setting his guitar aside, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

"Clearly it is not," she said, "I just said I had the worst of days!"

"Well," Krel began, "what happened?"

Aja sighed. "Mary and I had a fight," she said. "It was about Steve."

Krel lifted an eyebrow. He knew that Mary was one of the world's biggest Staja fans out there, and he wasn't sure why she would fight with Aja about him. "Why?"

"She says I spend too much time with him and that I am ignoring the girls, Mary, Darci, Shannon, Claire, and Andy," she said, looking at her feet. "I mean, I do spend lots of time with him. But he is my boyfriend!"

Krel nodded. "I... admit I am not much help in this area," he said, mouth scrunching up to the side in thought. "I suppose time is the best remedy."

"You are probably right, little brother," she said.

He put a hand on her shoulder in consolation. "It will be alright," he said. "Don't worry."