fever dream high » l.s.

part three

Louis

Louis spread out his textbook and the Physics assignment sheet in front of him, looking at the different word problems that were listed out. Beside him, Jacob scooted over so that he was sitting closer to Louis. Their teacher was currently teaching them all about speed, velocity, acceleration, displacement, etc. He'd assigned them a number of word problems to solve in groups of two. Given that Jacob sat beside Louis, they'd been paired up.

They hadn't really spoken since Jacob's first day in class. At first, they'd exchanged pleasantries, but over the last couple of weeks, the new kid had sort of retreated and Louis did as well, not wanting to be annoying to the other boy in case he wanted to be left alone. Louis had intended to invite him to have lunch sometime, or maybe even go to a football game, but it just never happened. Plus, that was around the time Louis' heat problem came up and since then it has been non-stop harryharryharry in his brain. Speaking of Harry, Louis' phone had been buzzing for the last five minutes in his pocket and he was sure it was Harry sending him texts about how bored he was in his US History class.

"Hey, how's it going?" Louis asked, smiling once Jacob was settled beside him.

"Good, good," Jacob responded. "You?"

"I'm alright."

"Any idea on how to solve these problems?" Jacob asked him, quirking up an eyebrow.

"A bit," Louis replied. He began mapping out the first problem, reading it over a few times, and explaining to Jacob as he went through each step before finally settling on the answers.

"Well, that's easy enough," he says.

"I feel like we're in the easy part of Physics. No doubt it'll get harder as the year progresses."

"You seem really smart, though," Jacob said. "I can see you acing this class."

Louis smiled appreciatively. "Thank you. How have you been liking Woodsfield so far?"

Jacob leaned back in his chair as Louis began working out the next problem. "It's been alright. I feel like it's sort of similar to my old school in the sense that everyone's already sort of got their group of people. And I don't mean this in a clique-y sense, but it kind of is."

"I can see that," Louis nodded, erasing a couple of mistakes he made before beginning again. "I think people are nice enough that they'd include you in your group, though. No one's broken up into cliques based on personalities and all that. Like, you won't find the jocks in one group and the nerds in another. I think everyone's mixed up. My best friends all play different sports, have different interests, etc. It makes it more fun."

"You're totally right. I have noticed that," Jacob nodded.

As Louis finished up the second problem, Jacob took over for the third and fourth. Tapping his pen on the table and studying Jacob, Louis leaned forward as he said, "So, have you gotten to know anybody yet?"

"Not really," Jacob said, focused on the problem at hand. "I haven't really spoken to anyone outside of classes. It'll take me a bit of time, I think. I've been told I can be a little shy."

Grinning at Louis, he presented the answers to the third problem and once Louis checked them over and confirmed they were right, Jacob continued to the fourth problem. From this close, Louis was able to get a proper sniff of his cinnamon smell. It reminded him of Christmas mornings, snow days, and watching movies with his family while sitting by the cozy fireplace.

"Well, I was thinking that you could join me this Friday with a few of my friends," he began.

"Join you for what?" Jacob asked.