Amongst the worst

He cares

So we didn't end up finding masked guy number 2.

Or whatever you want to call them.

Although in my opinion torturing my brother's killer is much more fun than art class.

I don't remember signing up for art class. Although I'm pretty good at it, it's stressful and I prefer doing it in my own time than being forced to do it by a teacher.

And to my great displeasure Maya and I were sat directly behind Tyler, Elliot and Andrew. Oh and Charlotte it also there too.

"I hate art" Maya groans

"Where is the teacher?" I ask

"Oh she's always late, she's probably getting her morning coffee or something" she shrugs

"Oh hey Ro Ro" Andrew turns to me with a wide smile

I pout "What did I tell you about calling me that?"

"It must have slipped my mind" he points to his head

"Sure it did" I roll me eyes

"It really did I swear!" He yells in defence

"Mhm" I hum in response

Miss McMillan barges into the room, coffee in one hand and a mountain of books on the other.

"What did I tell you"  Maya shakes her head and I chuckle

She sets down the books and takes a sip of her coffee

"Today you are all going to be drawing something that you think shows who you are as a person"

I hear Tyler scoff from the front.
I don't
"What seems to be the problem Mr Blake?" she asks him, hearing his scoff

"Oh nothing, I just think it's stupid" he says and both Elliot and Andrew hold in a laugh

"Well Mr Blake this isn't your lesson to teach"

"Yes well maybe you should take your students' opinion into consideration and maybe we would enjoy this class more"

"He has a point you know" Andrew says in agreement and so do most of the class

She completely ignores this "Elliot pass out the paper"

"But-" he gets cut off

"No buts, get to it chop chop" she claps and points to the big pile of paper on the desk

"Yeah get to it Elliot" Tyler smirks

"Well Tyler you can help too then"

"No" he says

She gives him a 'I'm serious' glare and he sighs and gets up after Elliot

Elliot gives an obvious smirk and Tyler rolls his eyes

Andrew swizzles his chair round so that he is now facing us.

"Mr Blake!" the teacher yells and turn our gaze on Tyler who is holding onto the remainder of the paper while the rest spills onto Eliot who is holding onto the desk for dear life.

"Remind me again why I'm friends with them?"

We both shrug "We all wanna know" Maya says

__________________

Tyler is so different around his friends, as if he didn't have to put up the 'I don't care about anyone' barrier and he can just be himself.

I liked that side of him.

"Rose" I heard Maya say, breaking me out of my daydreaming

"Huh?"

"Why do you always do that?" She asks

"Do what?"

"Completely zone out" she laughs

I look at her paper which had a large black scribble in the middle.

"What is that supposed to be a hurricane?" I ask

"No but it could be" she then looks at my empty paper "Well you can't talk you haven't done anything yet"

"Im starting on it" I say as convincingly as I can

I actually have no idea what I'm doing.

I hear a loud groan from Tyler, he scrunches up his paper and throws it across the classroom and into the bin.

Surprisingly it actually went in the bin instead of at someone's head.

"Score!" Andrew shouts seeing as it landed directly into the bin

"Mr Blake!" the teacher yells again

She must have said that about ten times today.

"What?" he slurs

"What did you just throw away and chuck across my classroom?" she asks raising her voice

"My circle?"

Miss McMillan gives him another teacher stare

"It wasn't really working out" Tyler then adds

Elliot finally lets out the laugh he's been holding and Tyler kicks him from under the table and he lets out a hiss.

She grabs a bit of paper from the desk, walks over to where Tyler was sitting and slaps the paper onto his desk, shaking the table slightly.

Andrew lets out a high pitch squeal.

This is gonna be a very long lesson.

______________

"I can't believe Tyler completely ignored you that whole lesson" Maya says to me as we leave the classroom and walk to the dorm

"I think it's better if we just keep a distance" I frown

I hear loud running footsteps getting closer, Maya turns around "Hey Andrew" she says, a blush makes its way to her face and I make an 'awe' face at them.

That's when a great, genius idea came to mind.

I stick out my foot in front of Maya and she nearly trips, Andrew grabs her and pulls her back up.

I smirk.

Elliot appears next to me "You know I think Rose and I need to go to the library for some...what's it called again studying!" He grins and pulls me away

"Yeah um of course studying" I agree and let him pull me away.

_______________

"That was great!" he says

I nod in agreement "Are we really going to the library?" I ask

"Of course we are!" he responds "Matter of fact we're already here" he gestures to the big sign on the door that reads 'library'

"Right" I say and we both walk in

"Tyler's been more cranky than usual, do you have something to do with that?" he asks

"Yeah what is up with him? Everything was going well-" I stop myself "Not well but not horrible" I correct myself, thinking back to the sort where we both found out about our past.

"If he's trying to distance himself from you, it's not because he doesn't want you. It's because he won't let himself care for anyone else" his expression turns more serious, I even see a glimpse of sadness

"Why?"

"Or maybe he's just trying to punish himself for some reason, he's punishing himself by not talking to you. Trust me I would know I've known him for a very long time."

"He cares more than you know Rose" he tells me and I believe him.

"We all see the way he looks at you, it's not hard to guess"

I stay silent at that and we just catch up and chat about random things for some time.

It's nice talking to Elliot. We talked as if we've known each other for years, it was a nice feeling.