Drowning

Defending Thyself with Sarcasm

Another day- another long day of school. Thankfully it was Friday and Finley could not wait to be done and head into the weekend. Now she didn't hate school by any means, it's just some weeks she needed a break more than others. She kept her head down as she walked through the halls, keeping her eyes on the shoes walking in front of her. After 18 steps she hopped across the opposing stream of students and entered the classroom.

Chemistry was her second to last class of the day and she flipped open her lab packet ready to get to work. She began working on one of the problems awhile, knowing Eli was already a few questions ahead of her and she didn't want to hold him back waiting on her.

"You do realize class hasn't started yet right?"

Finley's pencil stopped moving and she tilted her head up with an annoyed look on her face. "Well thank you Captain Obvious for letting me know. I'll be sure to flag down the flight attendant and let them know when I actually start caring."

Ross shrugged and walked away muttering. "Just saying."

She rolled her eyes before going back to work. Ross was a lineman on the football team and he never had the easiest time in school. His home life wasn't fantastic at instilling hard work and dedication to school work, but considering that, he still tried a little. However that's not to say he hadn't had numerous visits to the principal's office. Kid just had a hard time focusing.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class, and kids slowly shuffled to their assigned seats.

"Alright you all can get started with your lab partners awhile. I'll be around in a few minutes to check if anyone needs help." Ms. Griffiths spoke up from behind her desk where she was finishing grading some papers for another class.

Finley grabbed her things and walked across the room to lab table 4 where Eli was already sitting. She placed her books on the countertop and opened her notebook to where the lab packet was sticking out of. Blue eyes darted up to look at her as she sat on the stool next to him. However when her brown eyes glanced over to meet his, he quickly averted his gaze back to the table in front of him.

"Hey... Nighthawk." She spoke quietly.

Those wide blue eyes appeared as they always did whenever someone spoke to him. His lips twitched ever so slightly in an upward movement at her before he once again looked back down. Finley gave him a small smile before going back to work on her packet.

They had been working for a solid 5 minutes when her packet was suddenly ripped out from under her. Her head shot up and for a moment Eli also looked up before averting his gaze from the culprit.

"Now how come 2 smart nerds got to be paired together? Seems a little unfair to have that much smart in one group. Maybe you should share some of your answers." Ross said smirking while he flipped through her packet.

Finley rolled her eyes. Him messing with her was nothing new and she really didn't care. Sometimes it was just more annoying than she would have preferred to deal with.

"Just give me my packet back." Her tone was laced with annoyance, but that was it.

"Fine but only if you answer a question first." He said holding her packet away from her.

Another eye roll and a shake of her head, before she gestured for him to hurry up and continue.

"Which is heavier: a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers?"

She sent him a 'really?' look and stood up from her stool. "Not sure. But neither of them are as dense as you are."

His lab partner ooooo'd at him and when Ross turned his head to tell him to shut up, Finley used the distraction to grab her packet back.

"Oh come on." He whined with a tilt to his head. "You can't even give us one answer?"

"Just do your own work Ross." Finley's eyes darted behind him. "And if you really need help, it's a good thing Ms. Griffiths is here to help you out."

With that Finley smirked and sat back down in her seat. Once she found what page she was on, she picked up her pencil and went back to work. Eli glanced over at her and lifted his head slightly. He nervously licked his lips as his gaze flicked back and forth from Finley to his packet. After 17 seconds he finally worked up the courage to speak.

"That- that was, uh, pretty cool. Standing up to him like that." His words rushed together towards the end.

Finley smiled softly at him and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "It's not that cool. Anyone can stand up to somebody."

Eli dropped his gaze and his hand trailed up to cover his lip as he whispered. "Not everyone."

For a moment, Finley was tempted to comfort him. To tell him she believed that he could. All he needed was a spike of confidence. But then self-doubt began to creep in. She couldn't possibly say that. It would be embarrassing and he would think she was weird and he would never talk to her again. So she kept her mouth shut, and went back to working.

They continued working in silence for the rest of class, only being disrupted by Ms. Griffiths checking in to see how everything was going. When the bell rang signaling the end of class, Eli grabbed his things and was out of there before Finley could say goodbye.

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