"...here." No, Edward didn't particularly want to share his desk or his book with a strange girl, but the teacher had instructed him to and so he moved the book between the two of them anyway. He didn't imagine the girl would find it overly helpful, given he'd scribbled over much of the page and answered all the problems, using a variety of codes. He got very bored in maths lessons and it showed.
"Sorry about the scribbling." He knew people didn't like it. His teachers always complained. He just wasn't neat the way Lucius was.
"Thanks anyway." Raising an eyebrow, Lee moved in a little closer and looked at the page, trying to read the stuff she had to but, well, that seemed awfully pointless. She frowned as she reached out and turned the page one way and then the other, seeing that the scribbles were pretty consistent all over the book. Why didn't he just write on a notebook instead?
She tried for a few to pay attention but it was just far too boring and everything she asked them to do had been solved so ... well, what was she to do? Instead, she just pulled out her pen and started answering the riddles the boy had left around the book. Way more interesting.
Edward frowned, resisting the initial urge to snatch the book away from her. Lucius sometimes solved his riddles, though not usually when presented like this. He said it hurt his head. Which Edward didn't really get, he felt as if things flowed well, but apparently Lucius disagreed.
And now there was this girl, treating his book like a puzzle book. He'd know, he had a lot of those.
"...correct." Well, she had gotten it right. "You aren't entirely dumb."
"You're so good at flattery." Lee rolled her eyes and then finished the last one, dotting the i in her answer with a heart, just because it seemed funny to do so. She looked at Ed for a moment before she smiled at him, unable to help herself. He was cute, in his own dumb boy way. "Who said I wanted to fit in?"
Looking down at the next riddle, she frowned for a few moments and then answered it with a drawing of a bear. Well, it wasn't wrong.
"You know, you're not entirely dumb either."
Well, if he could condescend to her, she could do the same back. "Wouldn't have guessed from the look on your face."
"I just mean that everyone else here is dumb. For the most part. So you'll stand out. I do too." Like a sore thumb. He shrugged, looking at the book instead of looking at her. He wasn't the best at smiling back, seemed easier to just avoid it. The bear was cute.
Not the right answer, but a cute bear. "I'm smart."
"I think standing out isn't the worst. As long as you're not a total ass about how much smarter you are." And this boy didn't seem the best at it. He was basically calling everyone else dumb, which wasn't really a nice thing to do. She looked around the room but everyone was just getting on with their math tasks. Not that she could.
"Did you just answer every problem in this book already?" She started to flip through the pages, amused by how full they were. "Why?"
Asking him why was a more interesting reaction. Better than simply scolding him, which was what usually happened. It was not an easy question to answer either.
"I knew it, so it seemed odd to leave it empty." He just had to answer it, really. Like a riddle, it irked him when they went unanswered. Lucius got that, he had a lot of things he considered irksome too. "I don't know why they want me to wait around for answers."
Snorting in amusement, she laughed at Ed and then reached over, writing a few maths questions that were ridiculous and took a bit of thought, wanting to see how good he was. She was good at maths but she probably wasn't on his level but hey, it was fun to play. She pulled out a purple pen and handed it to him. "Solve. I'll write."
This was unusual. She hadn't called him names yet, she hadn't acted as if he was disgusting somehow and she didn't laugh at the riddles. Instead she was giving him her pen? Giving him her pen and actually posing questions. This was unusual.
Even as he puzzled over this peculiarity, he was solving the problems, not even putting the pen down to think. They weren't very difficult, if a little bit random at times, so it wasn't as if he needed any longer to solve them than it took to jot the answers down.
"Your name is Leslie, right?" He had been listening. "Leslie Thompkins. It's a nice name. Leslie can be a name for a boy or a girl, that's curious."
"I go by Lee. Though same applies I guess, boy or girl. I like it that way. My sister always says it suits me just fine cause people could mistake me for a boy. She's so rude like that." Just because she was a tomboy didn't mean she was any less girly. She just did it in her own way. "Lee is one of the most common names, right? Cause of east Asian? My dad told me that Lee is the most common surname in the world."
Not that she used it as a surname but still, that was pretty interesting.
She smiled and added another puzzle for him to solve, pausing only to look at Ed with a smile. "Ed Nygma. E.Nygma. Enigma? Heh. That's so funny. Your name is a mystery."
Edward paused for a moment to turn his head and look at her. He loved his name, he really did, the only thing his father had given him that he did not resent, but usually people did not get it. They didn't put it together, probably because people never bothered thinking about things. So he smiled at Lee, smiled because of Lee, and he decided that she really was special. "You are a girl, I guess. But that's all right. You are neat-o."
There, she had his seal of approval. "You shouldn't be friends with me. BTW." He did say each letter for that abbrevation.
"Aw but I like to do things I shouldn't." Lee leaned over to make another number square for Ed to solve, she wasn't the best at doing it on the fly but it was fun to watch Ed make it work. In a weird way. As fun as a math class could be, at least. Behind them, someone threw a paper ball that bounced off Ed's head and landed on the floor. Lee could hear snickering and turned back, looking at the guys who were clearly very proud of themselves.
"Do you mean because of those idiots? Cause I don't think I'm that worried about their approval."
Edward froze when the paper ball hit him, but he refused to give them a look. He counted in his head, tried to move past it. He couldn't let them get to him. "It's not just them. Generally, my friends and I aren't desirable company. It would have a very negative impact on your potential social standing, you can do much better."
He shrugged, drawing a little sketch, having solved the number square, now he was making a little map for her to follow. "Besides, after school, you turn right."
He knew she did. He could hear her accent and it was just obvious. "I turn left. I keep on going for a long time. Anyone who's that far left from this school? You don't want to get close to them."
"Uh-huh." Victor wasn't really listening to Roman, as time had taught him that he didn't have to. When Roman really wanted to be heard, he tended to make it clear, so it was fine to blend him out the rest of the time.
He was more focused on looking around the place, hands in his pockets. He wondered if it was very obvious how rich they were, but probably not. He had told Roman to dress casually and he was wearing simple stuff himself. Black hoodie wasn't obviously brand, anyway. "You can sleep over at mine tonight, if you wanna. I can have a car come pick us up any time."
"It's gross and cold here. Why do you like this kind of place? Ew, yuck, I stood in a puddle!" Roman whined as he shook his foot to try and get the water off, pouting as they wandered deeper into the Narrows. Kids alone here was apparently not worthy of being noticed so they didn't attract much attention - probably a good thing. Roman was sneering at everything he saw.
"I'll sleep over. I like your house. Your family. I like your dad, he's nice." He called him sport and didn't scare him with creepy masks so he was definitely cooler than his dad. "Your world is better."
"Dunno if my parents are gonna be home." That was always pretty up in the air, honestly. He looked at Roman and then pushed him slightly to the side, so they could avoid another puddle. "This place is way more alive than inner city. Stuff happens here, all the time. And it makes more sense too. Like, right now? We are in Maroni territory. Do you know who that is?"
"He's a gangster. The number two. Falcone is number one." Everyone knew that, even those who stayed away from this sort of thing. Though Roman had a particular interest in criminals so he knew a fair bit about gangsters. "Why are all the big gangsters in Gotham Italian? Do you think it just runs in their blood or something?" Seemed like it did.
He hoped along after Victor, idly looking around the place and only pausing when he saw some people dealing drugs. He couldn't help but stare, he hadn't seen this kind of thing before.
"Don't stare, Roman. Just glance." Victor took Roman's arm so he could drag him along, not wanting him to get them into trouble. It wasn't as if he could fend grown men like that off, even if he would try. "They're Italian cause that's where they originated, then it stays like that. We've got some Russians. A couple Chinese and Korean too. But the Falcones have been running the city for generations."
So that was how it was. "We're headed into Falcone territory. Pizzeria there that I wanna try out."
"Sure, whatever. Let's eat gangster pizza." Seemed pretty funny actually. Roman kept walking along, trying his best not to stare again so Victor didn't tell him off. He hated when Victor was like that. "Where do you think the kids who live here hang out? It's so shitty everywhere. I guess they don't really hang out. I mean, what are they gonna do? They have no money. What a sad life they lead."
Roman tried to think of not having money and it did seem sad - he hated his family and everything but the perk of having cash? He loved that.
"I dunno. They prolly have places. Parks and stuff." What did he know? Victor just assumed. "I've seen some before. They loiter a lot." Then they scattered when certain people walked by. Victor always watched, it was a good way to learn stuff. "I guess they maybe have a mall. I think poor kids go to malls."
"We should find some poor kids to play with. They could be funny. We can show them what a 100 dollar bill looks like. Oh! Maybe we can make them fight to have it. Winner gets money." Roman saw his dad do it all the time, people would do anything for money so logically speaking, other kids would too. He kind of loved the idea. "My therapist says I need to make more friends but that just seemed dumb, don't you think?"
Apparently he was 'too attached' to Victor. As if.
"Sounds fun. We can play with poor kids, if we see them around. Buy them pizza." He bet they liked food, they always looked hungry around here. He supposed that made sense. Victor imagined making them fight for money would be fun too. "I dunno. How many friends do you have?"
Cause he supposed he had a lot. He wasn't sure how much he cared for any of them, but that was a different matter anyway. "We can find you some new friends. What do you want them to be like?"
"I have you and that's it. I don't like people. People like me but I hate them. I don't get why I have to be friends. Like actual friends. Who has the time for that?" He exhaled in annoyance and shook his head, parroting his father to some degree. They always acted like going to parties and seeing other people was a chore and he did get it. People were exhausting.
"My ideal Narrows friend is poor, weak and I can tease them a lot. Maybe they can play fetch annnnd ... they have something breakable about them." Roman summarised as he thought it over. "I like weak friends."
"...huh." Was that an insult to him? Victor supposed not. He was quite a bit stronger than Roman, after all. Taller than him, stronger than him, older than him and definitely not someone people usually described as weak. Must be about the Narrows friend specifically.
"There's kids over there."
He indicated the group of boys huddled together at a corner, then shrugged and simply walked toward them, still holding on to Roman's arm. "Oy! You!"
The boys were giving them a weird look and Roman felt instantly offended by how they were looking at them. Such mistrust and uncertainty already? Pfft. Some people. "Hey! I'm Roman. Nice to meet ya. Come here, please." He gestured at the boy wearing glasses because he looked the most breakable - glasses being very easy to break. Not that the short, scrawny one wasn't fun looking too but he liked breaking glasses.
"I'm trying to make friends." Roman looked at Victor and smiled. "I'm doing good, right?"
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"Sorry about the scribbling." He knew people didn't like it. His teachers always complained. He just wasn't neat the way Lucius was.
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She tried for a few to pay attention but it was just far too boring and everything she asked them to do had been solved so ... well, what was she to do? Instead, she just pulled out her pen and started answering the riddles the boy had left around the book. Way more interesting.
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And now there was this girl, treating his book like a puzzle book. He'd know, he had a lot of those.
"...correct." Well, she had gotten it right. "You aren't entirely dumb."
Hm.
"You won't fit in here."
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Looking down at the next riddle, she frowned for a few moments and then answered it with a drawing of a bear. Well, it wasn't wrong.
"You know, you're not entirely dumb either."
Well, if he could condescend to her, she could do the same back. "Wouldn't have guessed from the look on your face."
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Not the right answer, but a cute bear. "I'm smart."
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"Did you just answer every problem in this book already?" She started to flip through the pages, amused by how full they were. "Why?"
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"I knew it, so it seemed odd to leave it empty." He just had to answer it, really. Like a riddle, it irked him when they went unanswered. Lucius got that, he had a lot of things he considered irksome too. "I don't know why they want me to wait around for answers."
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Snorting in amusement, she laughed at Ed and then reached over, writing a few maths questions that were ridiculous and took a bit of thought, wanting to see how good he was. She was good at maths but she probably wasn't on his level but hey, it was fun to play. She pulled out a purple pen and handed it to him. "Solve. I'll write."
They had little else to do so why not?
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Even as he puzzled over this peculiarity, he was solving the problems, not even putting the pen down to think. They weren't very difficult, if a little bit random at times, so it wasn't as if he needed any longer to solve them than it took to jot the answers down.
"Your name is Leslie, right?" He had been listening. "Leslie Thompkins. It's a nice name. Leslie can be a name for a boy or a girl, that's curious."
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Not that she used it as a surname but still, that was pretty interesting.
She smiled and added another puzzle for him to solve, pausing only to look at Ed with a smile. "Ed Nygma. E.Nygma. Enigma? Heh. That's so funny. Your name is a mystery."
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There, she had his seal of approval. "You shouldn't be friends with me. BTW." He did say each letter for that abbrevation.
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"Do you mean because of those idiots? Cause I don't think I'm that worried about their approval."
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He shrugged, drawing a little sketch, having solved the number square, now he was making a little map for her to follow. "Besides, after school, you turn right."
He knew she did. He could hear her accent and it was just obvious. "I turn left. I keep on going for a long time. Anyone who's that far left from this school? You don't want to get close to them."
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He was more focused on looking around the place, hands in his pockets. He wondered if it was very obvious how rich they were, but probably not. He had told Roman to dress casually and he was wearing simple stuff himself. Black hoodie wasn't obviously brand, anyway. "You can sleep over at mine tonight, if you wanna. I can have a car come pick us up any time."
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"I'll sleep over. I like your house. Your family. I like your dad, he's nice." He called him sport and didn't scare him with creepy masks so he was definitely cooler than his dad. "Your world is better."
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It was fun, learning about gangsters.
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He hoped along after Victor, idly looking around the place and only pausing when he saw some people dealing drugs. He couldn't help but stare, he hadn't seen this kind of thing before.
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So that was how it was. "We're headed into Falcone territory. Pizzeria there that I wanna try out."
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Roman tried to think of not having money and it did seem sad - he hated his family and everything but the perk of having cash? He loved that.
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Apparently he was 'too attached' to Victor. As if.
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Cause he supposed he had a lot. He wasn't sure how much he cared for any of them, but that was a different matter anyway. "We can find you some new friends. What do you want them to be like?"
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"My ideal Narrows friend is poor, weak and I can tease them a lot. Maybe they can play fetch annnnd ... they have something breakable about them." Roman summarised as he thought it over. "I like weak friends."
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"There's kids over there."
He indicated the group of boys huddled together at a corner, then shrugged and simply walked toward them, still holding on to Roman's arm. "Oy! You!"
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"I'm trying to make friends." Roman looked at Victor and smiled. "I'm doing good, right?"
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