Lucas laughed softly, putting his own schedule away once he was familiar with it. "Well, I would help, but I tend to lose things too." He yawned and rubbed at his eyes with a soft sigh. He hadn't gotten a ton of sleep, but that was pretty common for him at this point. "I'm sure you'll find it. Or you can just go to random classes and hope for the best, I guess. They also probably have a copy of your schedule in the office or something."
"Mm, looks like we're both chaotically forgetful." She laughed a bit, glancing up at him. "I know I have an email with it somewhere, so hopefully it didn't just disappear." Continuing to scroll, she let out an "aha!" when she found the right email, scanning over her schedule when she found it. "Alright, there we go. Now I won't be incredibly lost when I try to go to class today."
"That's good." Lucas smiled softly when Melissa found her schedule, glad that she was relieved. "I'm sure you'd have figured something out even if you didn't have the email. I know they've got precautions for this kinda thing." He yawned again, now growing frustrated with his fatigue. "I'll have to buy coffee or something caffeinated in the cafeteria… I don't want to fall asleep in class."
Looking up from her phone, she gave him a teasing smile before gently elbowing him. "Maybe you should try to go to bed earlier when you get home." She hummed, before dropping her phone back into her bag. "Then you may not be so tired."
"Mm…" Lucas sighed softly, closing his eyes for a moment to rest. "I'd like to. A lot of the time I can't sleep, or my dad and I are fighting until it's pretty late." He brushed his hair out of his face again. "I'll be alright. I'll just start drinking coffee or something to counter the tiredness."
(I'm so sorry aha-)
"You do that- please. If you can't sleep, at least get something to give you energy through the day. Just don't become an addict like Laura." Melissa laughed, leaning against the window with a soft sigh. Honestly, she herself could go for some coffee now that he mentioned it, but she would just have to wait until later.
(It's fine lol adfhjk)
"I won't. I don't really care for coffee too much, so I doubt I'll get addicted to it." Lucas laughed softly. "The cafeteria has coffee usually, right? At least the refrigerated kind. That should work well enough for now." Soon, the bus rolled to a stop outside the school and Lucas got to his feet. "Ready to go?" He asked Melissa.
"I believe so, yes." She hummed, watching as the bus pulled in. A slight frown settled on her face, but she did her best to drop the displeasure, turning to Lucas with a half smile. "Not even a little, but I don't really have a choice, now do I?" She shrugged, pulling her backpack up, and starting to walk towards the front of the bus. "Here's to only two more years of high school."
"Cheers." Lucas laughed softly and bumped Melissa's shoulder playfully. He followed her out of the bus, yawning again. "We'll graduate eventually, yeah? With any luck, anyway. Hopefully I can put up with my dad for another two years." He sighed a bit, his expression faltering and changing to one of unease. After all, his dad only ever seemed to get worse, not better. He had to keep his options in mind in the case that he needed to get out.
"My offer still stands." She hummed, in response to his latter comment. As she approached the doors she reached for his hand, taking his fingers into her palm. It was out of instinct, honestly, as she didn't want to lose him in the halls. She wasn't really ready to face the day, so having him close by made her feel better at least.
"I know… I just hope it won't get to a point where I have to take it." Lucas chuckled dryly, his gaze going a bit distant until he was grounded again by Melissa grabbing his hand. He looked over at her, blinking a couple times with his face lightly flushed, but chose to just go with it. "We'll be fine, Mel. We'll get through it all."
She glanced up at him a little confused by his final comment, before connecting the dots. At least to what she thought was what he meant. "Oh- am I making you uncomfortable?" She asked quickly, now her own face warming up. "Sorry, I wasn't even thinking." She mumbled before letting go, sticking her hands in her pockets. Having not thought about his comfort, she felt embarrassed, realizing she wasn't the only one she needed to think about.
"Ah? No— you aren't making me uncomfortable!" Lucas insisted, flushing harder. "Don't be sorry! It's fine, really!" He hesitated before gently tugging on Melissa's wrist, unable to hold back onto her hand with them in her pockets. Anyone around them who could hear the conversation was surely rolling their eyes in exasperation. Lucas and Melissa were painfully oblivious and dense, and everyone but the two of them knew that they liked each other.
Melissa adjusted her gaze, looking at him a little startled. But slowly she pulled her hand from her pocket, as to let him hold onto her hand. It seemed a little odd, but then again, he was probably just doing it for her sake. That way she didn't have to feel bad. "If you say so." She shrugged, before giving him a gentle smile. Turning on her heel, with Lucas in tow, she began heading off in the direction of the lockers. "Just don't feel like you have to, alright?"
Lucas smiled softly and held a bit tighter to her hand, his heart racing. It felt as though he was breaking some sort of rule, but he didn't want to let go. "I know I don't have to. I want to." He was perfectly content to let Melissa pull him along, just admiring her as he walked behind her. "Did we have our first class together? I forgot."
With everything in her power, she tried to keep from squealing a little. She wasn't normally one to do so, but those words just made her heart happy. So instead of skipping down the hall, or twirling around, she kept walking. Biting on the inside of her cheek to keep herself out of fantasy mode. At least long enough to hear his question. "No- I've got English first, unfortunately." She hummed, glancing over her shoulder for a moment. "You had physics, I believe."
Lucas turned his eyes to the ground and toyed with his hair to make it less obvious how red he was. His friends saw him and started calling and teasing, but he held a finger in front of his mouth, urging them to shut up. "Ah, right… physics. I know we'll meet up at some point during the day. At lunch, for sure." He flustered for a moment when Melissa looked back at him and he looked away with one hand on the back of his neck.
Bobbing her head a bit to nod, she turned her head to look back in front of where she was going. She didn't notice the group of his friends, nor did she notice the few people watching as they continued down the hall. "For sure," She hummed, coming to a stop once they reached her locker. "I think we have a math together. I could be wrong." Smile still on her face, she looked up at him for a moment before taking her bag off her back.
Lucas nodded and looked back at Melissa once she turned around. "Yeah… that'll be nice, at least. Even though math sucks we can suffer together, right?" He laughed softly. When they reached Melissa's locker, he reluctantly let go of her hand so she could put away her things, but he still kept very close to her.
Melissa nodded her agreement, while reaching up to open her locker. "It does indeed suck- but I'm actually pretty good at it. So it's not the worst thing on the planet." She hummed, shoving her bag in her locker, and unzipping it. Managing to yank her English textbook out, she blew a strand of hair out of her face before shutting her locker. "Now, where is yours?"
"I think I'm okay at it, at least… not amazing by any means, but I get by." Lucas shrugged, fidgeting with his hands a bit. "My locker? Um…" He pulled out his schedule and then looked around. "It's… over there, I think." He pointed off to his right and then wandered over that way, frequently checking to make sure Melissa was still with him. He made it to his locker and opened it, putting his backpack in and taking his physics textbook out, which he then tucked under one arm. "Ready as you'll ever be?"
"Well, I'm always here to help out," Melissa hummed before letting him continue. Eyes following to where his finger pointed, she let him lead the way. Sticking close by, without taking his hand, she followed behind him almost like a lost puppy. Once his books were also shoved in his locker, she gave a gentle smile. "As I'll ever be." She echoed, fidgeting with her textbook. "Guess we should head to class- see you later, okay?"
"Ah, yeah…" Lucas looked back over to Melissa, not wanting to part ways, but knowing that they had to. He didn't want to get in trouble or annoy Melissa, after all. "See you later, Mel." He waved and hesitated a moment before reluctantly turning to go to class. Physics was pretty boring, especially since they were really just going over the syllabus, and he busied himself with drawing in his sketchbook.
(Should we skip? And if so, any idea when to?)
"Mhm, see you later." She replied, watching him depart into the sea of of students. When he had disappeared from sight, she tried to regain herself, still buzzing from just getting to hold his hand. She was absolutely ridiculous. And once she had officially regained her composure, she quickly made her way to class.
(Yeah skipping is fine, and I'll just bring them to lunch since I think that's the next time they see each other)
After going through another couple of classes and dealing with his friends teasing him and telling him again to just ask Melissa out, Lucas arrived at lunch with a very flushed face. He sighed softly and sat down at a table, pulling out his lunchbag so he could eat. He'd neglected to eat breakfast that morning, so he was pretty hungry.
(Sounds good to me ^.^)
Melissa had wandered into the lunchroom, and through the lunchline without much thought in her mind. She had somewhat ignored some of her other friends— on accident, of course— as she was focused on trying to find Lucas. She had a feeling he had found somewhere to sit by himself, and wanted to make sure he wasn't alone all lunch break. Eventually she had found him, and a smile pulled up on her lips as she set her tray down. "Well here you are," She laughed a bit, sitting down across from him.
Lucas looked up and smiled upon seeing Melissa. She was right about him generally choosing to be more isolated at lunch. He liked the baseball team, of course, but they were usually a little too rambunctious for him when he really just wanted to eat. "Hiya, Mel. How was English?" He asked before taking a bite of his sandwich. "And your other classes too, I guess."
With a small tray of food, she picked up an apple with a shrug. "They were alright, I guess. Nothing all that exciting." She hummed before biting into said apple. "I mean, I don't really understand the point. Most of my teachers emailed me the class syllabus already- so why do we have to go over it in class?" She mumbled between bites. "What about you? How were your classes?"
"Yeah, I dunno… mine were pretty much the same." Lucas shrugged, resting his head on the knuckles of one hand. "I'm hungry… didn't have time to eat breakfast." He sighed softly and ate some more of his sandwich, tapping one foot on the ground. "Not that there's a lot of food in the house to begin with, but y'know. Old man never goes grocery shopping."
"Do you need something more to eat?" She asked, gently pushing her tray towards him. "I personally am not too hungry, so you can have some of mine. Not the best in the world, but it'll suffice." Melissa offered, setting her half-eaten apple down.