"...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."
"That seems stupid, don't you think? The only way to break that kind of thinking is to make the difference yourself. That's what my parents say. You think I don't know a little something about this stuff?" Given her parents were immigrants, they had taught her a few lessons about befriending and never judging based off looks. She didn't even entertain the idea.
She pulled a sheet of paper free from her notepad as she scribbled a message onto it. "Besides, you're smart. I like smart. It's cool."
And with that, she balled up her paper and turned around, lobbing it at the idiot boy while the teacher's back is turned. The message was simple: FUCK OFF.
Edward frowned. "I'm not the kind of smart that people like." He would know. People didn't even like the kind of smart that Lucius was and he was less abrasive than him, based on observation over the years. But he had seen the message she had scribbled and he couldn't help but smile again. Maybe they could be friends. Why not?
"...my friends are Lucius and Oswald. Lucius is smart too." It was an accidental insult to Oswald.
"And I'm guessing Oswald isn't?" She had to laugh, it was pretty funny. She made another number square and watched Ed solve it as the bell went off above them. Fumbling, she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it onto the desk, trying to make sense of the timetable they gave her. "Do you know where English is? I have no idea what I'm doing."
She didn't want to get lost on her first day, seemed like a bad idea. "Any chance you have English too?"
"Oswald is smart in his own way." Edward had to admit that. Oswald was smarter than them in some very important ways too, no doubt. But it was also undeniable that he wasn't intelligent in the way both Lucius and Edward were.
He glanced at her timetable and then nodded, while he got up and packed his book away. "I have English. The teacher is horrid. Dangles participles a lot, makes Lucius really nervous."
"Cool, walk me there." Getting to her feet, Lee slung her bag over her shoulder and shoved in her timetable into her pocket, waiting for Edward to be all set and ready to go. As she waited for Ed to be ready to go, she noticed two boys lingering nearby and assumed this was Oswald and Lucius. They didn't seem to know what to do - they seemed very confused.
Lee just smiled and waved politely. "Are those your friends?"
"Yes, they-- Oh, dear." Edward looked at his friends and tried to think of the best way to handle this. Maybe he could just act as if this wasn't anything unusual? He gave a slight nod to his own thoughts, then walked on over and stopped by Lucius and Oswald. "Hi. This is Lee. Leslie Thompkins."
He smiled, a little awkwardly. "She wants us to walk her to English."
"But Ed... she's -- come here." Oswald pulled Ed closer and then tried his best to whisper to him, very urgently. "She's a girl." Duh. They couldn't hang out with a girl. It was weird! And strange and odd and ... probably not great for her either. They weren't good with girls.
"I think it's sexist to exclude based on gender." Lucius pointed out as he waved back politely, not seeming to mind Lee that much.
"But she's a girl. We don't know how to talk to girls."
"You kinda talk to them like you would anyone else." Lee pointed out cause yes, she could hear and no, she didn't care. She just came behind Ed with a smile. "I won't talk girly things, promise. We can talk about boy stuff. You guys look super into football and cars."
"Lucius knows about cars." So there. That was one out of three for one topic out of two, but still. Better than nothing. "Boy stuff is mostly just gross." Honestly, if Edward had to judge it. "Oh, arcade. I like talking about that."
He grinned and walked ahead, waving to Lee to come along. Lucius seemed fine and Oswald usually complained anyway, so that was all right. "I told her already. About the English teacher sucking."
"He doesn't suck, he is just ... questionable." Lucius found him troubling but not that bad.
"Cause he dangles." Lee nodded though she wasn't sure what that was or why it mattered. She mostly just wanted to try and keep on top of each boys quirks. "You like the arcade, huh? I've never been to an arcade before. I've been a lot of places but no arcade. Is it fun? Oh! Do they have those fun machines there you can win toys? Cause those look fun."
"It is fun. I like video games." He knew that not everyone did. Oswald, for example. But Oswald did really love to complain, so he didn't pay that too much heed. "You can win tickets, then you exchange them for toys. They do have those claw machines, but they are all doctored. They don't work."
He had analysed it, he knew it wasn't possible to get anything with them. Waste of money. Not that he was exactly making money by exchanging tickets for shitty toys, but still.
"You should show me some time. I bet it'd be fun." Lee suggested as she noticed the boys slowing down. Was this English class? She assumed so, based on all the posters outside the classroom - they really loved their Shakespeare quotes. As they entered, Lee approached the teacher to introduce herself and Lucius took his usual seat next to Ed and in front of Oswald. Their usual arrangement.
"Will Lee be a permanent part of our group here? If so, she should sit behind you. Then we'll be a square. If she just sits next to you, we'll be a an L. I don't like that." Lucius remarked as he looked around, arranging their desks in his head. "I guess she could also sit in front of you, that could be interesting."
"She'll make friends with the other girls and avoid us like all of them." Stood to reason. So Edward just shrugged his shoulders and watched Lee idly now, curious where she'd choose to sit. "Why would she want to join our group?"
But he did like her. Not as a girl, of course! But she got riddles and she hadn't made fun of him so far, that was special. "It'd be nice to take her to the arcade. Nicer than taking Oswald."
Well, Oswald was excessively annoying when he wanted to be.
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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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She pulled a sheet of paper free from her notepad as she scribbled a message onto it. "Besides, you're smart. I like smart. It's cool."
And with that, she balled up her paper and turned around, lobbing it at the idiot boy while the teacher's back is turned. The message was simple: FUCK OFF.
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"...my friends are Lucius and Oswald. Lucius is smart too." It was an accidental insult to Oswald.
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She didn't want to get lost on her first day, seemed like a bad idea. "Any chance you have English too?"
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He glanced at her timetable and then nodded, while he got up and packed his book away. "I have English. The teacher is horrid. Dangles participles a lot, makes Lucius really nervous."
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Lee just smiled and waved politely. "Are those your friends?"
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He smiled, a little awkwardly. "She wants us to walk her to English."
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"I think it's sexist to exclude based on gender." Lucius pointed out as he waved back politely, not seeming to mind Lee that much.
"But she's a girl. We don't know how to talk to girls."
"You kinda talk to them like you would anyone else." Lee pointed out cause yes, she could hear and no, she didn't care. She just came behind Ed with a smile. "I won't talk girly things, promise. We can talk about boy stuff. You guys look super into football and cars."
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He grinned and walked ahead, waving to Lee to come along. Lucius seemed fine and Oswald usually complained anyway, so that was all right. "I told her already. About the English teacher sucking."
She did suck.
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"Cause he dangles." Lee nodded though she wasn't sure what that was or why it mattered. She mostly just wanted to try and keep on top of each boys quirks. "You like the arcade, huh? I've never been to an arcade before. I've been a lot of places but no arcade. Is it fun? Oh! Do they have those fun machines there you can win toys? Cause those look fun."
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He had analysed it, he knew it wasn't possible to get anything with them. Waste of money. Not that he was exactly making money by exchanging tickets for shitty toys, but still.
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"Will Lee be a permanent part of our group here? If so, she should sit behind you. Then we'll be a square. If she just sits next to you, we'll be a an L. I don't like that." Lucius remarked as he looked around, arranging their desks in his head. "I guess she could also sit in front of you, that could be interesting."
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But he did like her. Not as a girl, of course! But she got riddles and she hadn't made fun of him so far, that was special. "It'd be nice to take her to the arcade. Nicer than taking Oswald."
Well, Oswald was excessively annoying when he wanted to be.
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