6. in which the cool girl hates her

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IN WHICH THE COOL GIRL HATES HER

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IN WHICH THE COOL GIRL HATES HER

・゚: * Nora sighs in relief when Lucas picks the shortest straw. He objects weakly while his friends laugh at him before Mike rolls his eyes. "Stop being a baby, and do it already."

Lucas jumps in the dumpster next to them all the while complaining about how the smell wanted to make him puke.

Sucks to suck, loser, Nora thought, not quite ready to talk to Max while the amount of hand-holding that occurred yesterday ran through her mind.

"What the hell's going on," Dustin asks, finally arriving near the group.

"What do you think," Mike leans against one of the sticks they were going to use to sift through the trash without having to touch it. "We're looking for Dart."

"Well, well, well," Lucas appears out of the trash bin, along with a few random bags. "Look who finally decided to show up. After, I drew the short straw. Real convenient."

"You stink!" Max exclaims, making her way over to Dustin away from Lucas.

Dustin does not seem unhappy with the situation.

"Hi, Max," he smiled at her, showing off his teeth. Nora has to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. Hi, Max, she mimics rudely in her head. Oh, sorry, Dustin. I don't know where that came from. . .

"Hi. . ." Max's awkward voice pulls Nora out of her inner conversation.

"Where's Will?" Dustin asks Mike, looking around as if he'd jump out of nowhere.

"He'll be here," Mike just assures.

"Are you just gonna stand there?" Lucas tosses Dustin a stick. "Or, are you gonna help?"

The five stand around a pile of garbage and pick at it continuously until the bell for first period rings, all of them slouching to class, disappointed to not have found anything.

Nora sits down in her normal seat in the front row of Mr. Clarke's class. She tries to ignore the nagging in her brain upon noticing Will isn't in his seat, and listens to Mr. Clarke begin the lesson.

"All living things, from complex mammals, to single-celled organisms, instinctively respond to danger. Expose a bacterium to a toxic chemical, and it will flee, or deploy some other defense mechanism." Nora glances at Will's empty seat. "We're very much the same. When we encounter danger, our hearts start pounding, our palms start to sweat. These are the signs of the physical and emotional state we call. . . fear."

・゚: * Mike is dragging Lucas, Dustin, and Eleanor to the AV Room, during lunch, rudely excluding Max on the way. "Party members only." The other three all give him a look but he just ushers them inside. "No, this is non-negotiable."

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