"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.
"The arcade is boring. And expensive. And loud, it's so damn loud. And the music there? Urgh. Worst." Oswald whined as he slumped on his desk, not wanting to do English. He was sleepy and he wanted to go home, do nothing and have his mother cook for him. That'd be way nicer than this.
The teacher asked Lee where she wanted to sit and she pointed towards Ed, smiling a little at him. Coming over, she sat beside Ed again and smiled. "Can I borrow your books again? I assume you scribble on these too, huh?"
"Ugh-- Yeah." Edward blinked a bit too much, bending down to get his books out and, yes, there were scribbles all over. A couple poems too, embarrassingly enough, but luckily they were hidden between everything else. He hoped. "You could borrow from someone less-- Less me."
He gestured behind him. "Like Oswald. You could sit next to him. We'd be a square."
"Yeah but sitting like this makes us an L. For Lee." With a playful smile, she shuffled closer to Ed and peered at his book, trying to read his notes curiously because he always had the strangest notes.
Lee didn't seem deterred by Ed and neither did she show any indication that she would change her mind either. She wanted to sit by Ed. "What do you like to be called, by the way? Ed? Edward? Eddie?"
"...it's all fine." It was weird that she was asking him. "Lucius says Edward and Oswald says Ed." Usually, anyway. For some reason bullies had a tendency to go with 'Eddie', he wasn't sure why, but he could deal with that too. Actual name-calling, that was what he couldn't stand.
He glanced at Lucius and Oswald, trying to ask for help with his eyes. What was happening? Why was she so insistent on sitting next to him? Maybe it was a trap.
Lee leaned back in her chair and watched the other kids, smiling politely and complimenting one girl on her shirt. They even had some very normal and very nice small talk, even if the other girl gave Ed a weird look. No one could quite work out why Lee was sitting with him but most assumed it was cause she was new. She'd learn.
Oswald watched her and her very normal social skills before giving Ed a baffled look and shrugging, mouthing at him 'she's crazy'.
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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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The teacher asked Lee where she wanted to sit and she pointed towards Ed, smiling a little at him. Coming over, she sat beside Ed again and smiled. "Can I borrow your books again? I assume you scribble on these too, huh?"
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He gestured behind him. "Like Oswald. You could sit next to him. We'd be a square."
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Lee didn't seem deterred by Ed and neither did she show any indication that she would change her mind either. She wanted to sit by Ed. "What do you like to be called, by the way? Ed? Edward? Eddie?"
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He glanced at Lucius and Oswald, trying to ask for help with his eyes. What was happening? Why was she so insistent on sitting next to him? Maybe it was a trap.
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Lee leaned back in her chair and watched the other kids, smiling politely and complimenting one girl on her shirt. They even had some very normal and very nice small talk, even if the other girl gave Ed a weird look. No one could quite work out why Lee was sitting with him but most assumed it was cause she was new. She'd learn.
Oswald watched her and her very normal social skills before giving Ed a baffled look and shrugging, mouthing at him 'she's crazy'.
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