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“Nathan Prescott, you’re new seat is next to… Him.” Ms. Grant directed the brunette boy, aided with a quick point with her finger.
Everyone in the science class was getting new seats, which in turn meant new partners. This was nothing new to the many students who partook in the course, as they switched partners every quarter. It was to help the students learn “valuable social skills”, and be able to adjust to changes similar to ones they would encounter once out of school. Or, that’s how Ms. Grant put it in the beginning of the year. Nathan thought it was all a load of shit, but his opinion didn’t stop him from being rotated around and forced to sit next to strangers or losers for a few weeks.
Thus far, he’d only been sat with two persons, total. The person he’d chosen to sit next to in the first quarter, which wasn’t really his choice at all. He just seated himself, quite assertively, at the lab table farthest away from Ms. Grant, and waited until someone suitable came to him, rejecting anyone unfavorable with the meanest sneer he could muster. He finally ended up sitting with one of the jocks, who, fortunately, wasn’t completely a bonehead.
The second quarter, Ms. Grant picked the seats at random. This was exceptionally irritating, and nerve wrecking, as he was made to wait in quiet anxiousness, until his name was called and paired with one of the random peers. In the end, it wasn’t the worst of cases, as he ended up being paired with one of Victoria’s friends, a blonde who didn’t really talk much about anything other than their assignments. It was a more lucky experience, he supposed. More so than this disaster, anyways.
“Mr. Graham.” She continued, explaining his seat with such an ignorant casualness, as if she wasn’t aware of the horrible mistake she’d just made.
Nathan’s gaze swept across the science classroom, brows furrowing immediately with distaste as he rested his eyes upon the dumbly oblivious face of his new lab partner, who was busy moving around the beakers stationed at the table. He clutched his fingers tightly around the strap of his bag, eyes darting from Warren to Ms. Grant, who looked over to him after he didn’t move for some time.
“Is that going to be a problem, Mr. Prescott?” She asked, tone quieter, and clearly holding a threatening note. Her brown eyes were filled momentarily with a challenging level, even with calmness, yet still pushing the fact that she could very easily go against him. Of most teachers, who seemed to understand his superiority, Ms. Grant never seemed to get it.
With good luck, he supposed. He’d been acting out enough this last month, and his father had certainly taken no liberties in letting him get away with it. It always worked out fine, in Nathan’s favor, as long as his dad didn’t catch wind of his behaviour. Once the events were learned of, however, all Nathan could do was hope that he didn’t get too fucked up.
He glared for a moment longer, opening his mouth, but with quick thought he shut his mouth again. His teeth found themselves anchored tightly on his bottom lip, biting and tugging at the dry and chapped flesh there as he agonizingly dragged his gaze away from Ms. Grant and back to Warren. “No.” He answered simply between clenched teeth as he forced himself to walk towards the other boy.
He didn’t hate the other boy, but he surely didn’t like him either. From what little he knew about the other, he could safely assume that they were not, and never would be anything near friends. Warren was pretty much the definition of a loser, in his opinion. Always sitting in his room, playing shitty games or watching lame movies. When he wasn’t indulging in science shit, or playing nerdy games in his room, he was hanging out with Max Caulfield. Anytime they’d talked, which he tried to keep at a minimum, they never exchanged good words.
As he came to the lab table, he slid his bag off of his shoulders and onto his lab chair, following closely behind by sitting down. His icy blue gaze was locked on the other boy, who paused in his rearranging of the lab equipment when he heard the other sit. With brows furrowed, eyes narrowed, and lips puckered ever so slightly in a pout, he threatened the other, daring him to say something.
Warren glanced over at the other, an air of surprise in his large brown eyes. He took a second to process the other boy, and thus the current situation, and finally gave him a small and unsure smile. “Oh, I guess we’re lab partners then?”
“Obviously.” Nathan growled in response, his sharp never alleviating their edge. That was a pretty dumb question, which automatically made Nathan dislike this seat even more. If they weren’t lab partners, why would he choose to sit here? He wouldn’t.
Most of the rest of the class was spent taking notes and answering basic questions, to get everyone ready to start the new quarter and next unit. This was nice, because it meant that neither of them talked for the remainder of the class period, and Nathan spent a considerable amount of time doodling instead of writing anything down.
…
Nathan walked across the hall, his lips pulled into a tight frown and eyes focused entirely on the open door of the science classroom. He had been talking to Victoria outside of the photography classroom, which was not at all an uncommon sight, but they both failed to heed the warning bell until Mr. Jefferson poked his head out of the room and told Vic to go into class, and for him to get to his next class. He didn’t need to be told twice today.
As his constant luck would prove, the final bell rang as he was just a few feet from the door, and Ms. Grant gave him a stern look as he walked past her, ignoring any of the students who chose to look at him, only looking at his seat, and the dork he still had to sit next to.
Ms. Grant began instructing the students about the agenda as he put his bag on the floor and sat down in his seat. He was pretty focused on pulling out his notebook and then digging around in the bag for a pen, so by the time he sat up again to look ahead, she was just finishing explaining whatever lab they had to do, and he sat there probably looking pretty lost as Warren got up and walked towards the back of the room.
“I’ll get the stuff for the lab, can you start setting up the paper?” The other boy asked him with a raised brow that quickly disappeared as he turned away, leaving Nathan to figure out what was going on at the moment. The Prescott stared at his paper for a moment, clicking the pen a few times as he thought, before writing a proper heading and waiting.
When Graham returned, he was carrying a tray with several differently colored liquids, paper towel strips, and stir sticks. As soon as he was seated again, he placed two liquids, and some paper towels, in front of him, which he stared at skeptically for a moment while Warren began doing something with his own supplies. Nathan started biting at the side of his lip.
After a while of looking around the room, in a desperate attempt to figure out what he was doing, and tearing up some loose skin, nudged Warren’s shoulder. When the other looked over in a surprised response to the action, his brown gaze went between the untouched supplies and the other boy in silent question.
“I wasn’t paying attention to what we were supposed to be doing.” He muttered in a stubbornly defiant tone of voice, though it was clear he was asking the other to help him out.
Warren’s eyes widened slightly and he smiled slightly. “Oh, you should’ve told me before.” He informed the other, before quickly re-explaining the lab assignment to them, and demonstrating a few steps by using the supplies. Nathan stared intently at the other, though avoiding eye contact, and continued to gnaw on his lip as he made it a point to listen this time.
…
The rest of the week continued like that, for the most part. Nathan and Warren would sit next to each other and do whatever the teacher assigned for them to do, with as little talking as possible. They worked fairly well together when they had to, and whenever they worked independently, Nathan would mind his own business by staring around the room, focused on nothing, for a whole class period.
Today, Monday, Nathan was really late to class. He’d been planning on skipping entirely, to spend time alone in his room, but after some coaxing from Victoria, he managed to drag himself out of his room and make it in with twenty minutes left of the period.
His hair was probably not as kept as it usually was, and he was sure his eyes looked bloodshot, but he tried to ignore whether anyone was looking at him when he entered the room. It didn’t help that Ms. Grant sarcastically greeted him with a, “Nice of you to join us, Nathan.”
He bit his lip hard, pulling up at the tender flesh there and wincing slightly when it came up some. When he sat down, not bothering to set his bag on the floor, instead just holding it in his lap. He didn’t want to look up at the board, or around the room, so he got out his notebook and held his pen against the surface as if he were taking notes like everyone else was supposed to be doing.
As he continued to stare hard at the blank, lined paper that he was resting his hand on, ripping at the skin on his lower lip, he was regretting the decision to come into class today. It seemed that even if he wanted to make an effort to catch up, he couldn’t, because he had no idea what these notes were even about and his mind was too unfocused to really grasp whatever it was that Ms. Grant was lecturing about. Just as he felt blood from his bottom lip dribble slightly down his chin, a foreign notebook was slid to press against his own.
He flicked his tongue out to get rid of the blood as his blue gaze crept from his page, over the new notebook, and up the arm that was writing notes in the book. Eventually, he landed his gaze on the face of his lab partner, who was not looking at him, and instead making a point of only looking at either his notebook or the teacher.
Nathan was tempted to decline the offer of kindness, to be a dick and completely rebuke the other boy’s help, but at this point his anxiety was pretty high and this actually gave him rafirmation to even coming to class, so he quickly began looking from Warren’s notebook, thankful that the boy had nice handwriting, and to his own paper as he scrawled out the notes.
Some of the information actually clicked in his mind, and he was able to understand what all of this correlated to. By the end of the period, he had gotten most of the notes down, and though he didn’t thank the other when he got up immediately to leave, he expressed his gratitude by making brief eye contact as he was leaving the room.
…
Nathan actually managed to make it to class on time for once, and Ms. Grant actually smiled at him. He ignored here, and everyone else, regardlessly. He was tired, having not slept well, and he just wanted to sit down and write notes and not talk to anyone.
Which is what he had started to do, once he was seated and had his notebook out, he rested his head on his hand and stared blankly at the board. He cast a few glances over to Warren, who was texting, and seemed completely uninterested.
When the bell finally rang through the room, Ms. Grant stood and began talking, like clockwork. Nathan frowned slightly more when she explained that today was not going to be a “take notes and do nothing” day, rather a lab day instead. He payed attention to this instruction set though, and when Warren stood to get the supplies, he didn’t hesitate to set up the paper and tables they would need, so that they were well prepared by the time the other returned.
It was a simple lab; take liquid, mix it with three different things, record temperature and bubbles, observe, write a report, and then sit around until you could leave. Because Warren was relatively proficient in science, and because Nathan was not an idiot, the two got done with the lab very quickly. A swift look around the room, and it was clear they were the first ones to complete everything, so Nathan got up to turn in the report while Warren brought the supplies to the sinks to clean and put everything back.
After handing the paper to Ms. Grant, and pretending to listen to whatever it was she said in response, Nathan decided to go back to where Warren was still standing by the sinks and pick up a few of the beakers, rinsing and drying them. He chewed absently on his lip as he did so, and when he was finished, he caught Warren staring at him, which made him look away quickly. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just quickly returned to his spot at the desk, putting away his things and not looking at the other boy when he came to sit down.
The two were silent for a while, and it was probably the definition of awkward, but eventually, Nathan saw Warren pull something out of his pocket and his attention was drawn immediately to the other boy’s hand. He saw that it was a tube of chapstick, and he watched him as he quickly applied it to his lips, rubbing them together, before looking over and catching him staring.
Nathan looked away quickly, embarrassment clear on his face, but Warren held the chapstick over to him, invading his line of sight. The Prescott looked back over to the boy with a confused look as Warren waved it slightly in offering, “Your lips are really chapped, do you want to use my chapstick?”
Nathan was quiet for a moment, considering his options. He looked quickly around and saw that everyone else was still heavily invested in their own projects, so after another moment of staring at Warren, he reached out and tentatively took the tube of chapstick, which upon further investigation was green apple flavored, and slowly raised it to his lips. He applied it quickly, and honestly probably swept it over them too many times, but Warren just smiled softly as he did so, and Nathan muttered a thanks when he handed it back to the other.
When the class finally ended, and Nathan stood up to leave before anyone else, he very quietly informed the other, “I like cherry chapstick better,” before hurrying out of the classroom, trying his best to not look embarrassed, while also remembering to not lick the chapstick off of his lips.
…
When Nathan walked into class, he made it through the door just as the bell rang. This earned a serious look from Ms. Grant, and a few looks from other students, but he just glared and ignored their looks, as he did everyday.
Warren wasn’t looking at him when he reached the desk they shared, but his blue eyes were immediately drawn to the small package on his desk. It was a small box, that in all honestly could be described as a ring box. It was square, but not one of those velvet ring boxes, it had a lid that was tied to it with ribbon instead. He eyed it suspiciously as he sat down his stuff and sat in the chair, giving a very suspicious glance to Warren, who continued to not look at him, though he could see him hiding a small smile with his hand.
He took out his notebook and pen, and then picked up the box. The brunette unwrapped it quickly, and slowly took the lid off, trying his best to look indifferent to whatever was in the box, but he furrowed his brows and quickly turned to look at Warren, who was looking down at the box. Then, he picked up the new tube of cherry chapstick with one hand and twisted off the cap, applying it quickly as Warren finally looked fully at him with a waiting look.
“Did you just fucking propose to me with chapstick?” Nathan asked in a hushed tone. He knew Warren was expecting some sort of thanks, but Nathan was an ass.
The other boy’s eyes widened slightly and he laughed quietly, before nodding after a moment. “Yeah, that’s totally why I got you the chapstick.” He explained in a joking manner,
Nathan rolled his eyes, “This is the cheap brand, you ass, who do you think I am?” He demanded with a easily feigned tone of malice, but he slid the tube into his pocket and looked at the board before muttering, “I accept your proposal, though.”
He didn’t even have to look over at the other boy to know that he was smiling at him.