Unknown

Keith

"Do you have plans after school today?" Lotor asks. It's a Wednesday, two days after Lance had found the red-paint-marked library slip that Keith hadn't quite been careful enough about. It was part of a revised idea for his Studio Art class, where they're each supposed to come up with a final project on their own. He wants to do something with paper mache and wire sculpting, but he hasn't quite figured out what yet.

Keith keeps typing, trying to get the last few words of his sentence down before it flies away from him completely. He's already mostly forgotten where it's going, so he just ends it unsatisfyingly early.

"I'm volunteering at the library until four thirty," he replies finally, clicking over to Wikipedia. Mae is out sick, which means it's just him and Lotor working on their Agricultural Revolution presentation. They're making good time, but they would be doing so much better if Lotor would stop making small talk. Seriously, he'd never thought of Lotor as talkative before, but then again, he hadn't thought much about Lotor at alluntil a week ago.

"Do you volunteer every day?" Lotor asks, adding a few sentences to their shared notes document. Keith nods, clicking over to a second Wikipedia article.

"Usually. Unless it's really busy, they don't hold me to it. Why?"

Lotor finishes his paragraph--and seriously, who takes notes in paragraphs --before turning to Keith. "Acxa and I are going to Sal's pizzeria with some friends. Would you care to join us?"

"I'm a slow walker," Keith lies, scanning over the second Wikipedia article. The site itself is unreliable, but it makes for a good outline for research. "Take Lance instead," he adds as an afterthought.

"Who?"

"Lance Fuentes. He's in a bunch of your classes, or whatever. You saw him over the weekend..."

Lotor shakes his head. His dark hair falls in front of his eyes. "We aren't really that familiar with Lance," he says, and Keith is pretty sure that he still doesn't even know who they're talking about.

"You don't know me that well, either."

"Well, let's fix that." Lotor looks over at him playfully. "What's your favorite color?"

"Red."

"My favorite is green, but I also like purple. Red is nice, too."

Keith makes a noncommittal humming sound. He doesn't understand why Lotor has taken this special interest in him, but it seems to be a problem with Lance, and as much as he doesn't want to offend one of Acxa's friends, his own are much more important to him.

"What was your old school like?" Lotor asks. "Galra High, right?"

"Galra Polytechnic."

"Why did you move?"

"My dad remarried, like I said before," Keith snaps, glaring at the keyboard. He's definitely not getting into this with Lotor right now. "How's the research going?"

Before Lotor can reply, the bell rings. Keith logs out of his Garrison chromebook (because apparently the school can afford hundreds of small laptops, but can't scrape up the funds for real cheese for their ham sandwiches). He grabs his backpack and heads for the door, waving goodbye to Lotor as he does. He should at least try to be friendly.

"So, is he as smart as everyone says he is?" Pidge asks, popping up beside him.

"Yeah. He writes notes in really long paragraphs." Keith rolls his eyes. "It's weird."

"That's how I write notes!" Pidge exclaims, offended. Keith changes the subject quickly.

"How's the Cuban Revolution going?"