Tweetie

29

"God, now you both match- What's wrong with you? Why do you always resort to fighting?"

"He pissed me off!"

"Hey, hold still would you?" Hazel demanded, forcing Ryan to stop for a moment, his scowling face completely stiff as she held a bag of peas to the boy's nose, much like he did for her. Fox watched, his eyes sharp towards Ryan as they had previously bickered. The group of three; Ryan, Joel and Fox, entered the cafe as Fox pulled Ryan by the collar while Joel remained silent, simply allowing everything to happen around him.

"God," Hazel sighed, lifting the icy bag from Ryan's nose for a moment to see the swelling continue to form in a similar way to how her own did. She began to mumble, squinting her own black eye caused by a nose injury at the thought, "what's up with that guy and breaking noses...?"

"Seriously, Ryan," Joel finally spoke up, still standing as he looked over Ryan's head, "why were you fighting him? What happened?"

"It's her fault," Ryan argued, pointing towards Hazel, "if it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have even turned up!"

"It's not like I asked you to go chasing him down the street," Hazel argued back, her lips forming a childish pout, "I mean, sure, he deserved it-"

"See, Tweetie agrees!"

"Ryan, you were blaming her two seconds ago," Leo said, resting his chin in his hands as the rain began to pour outside.

"Do you know what happened, Leo?"

"Yeah," He nodded to Fox who seemed completely monotone despite the curiosity in his voice. "Dicky Ricky came in, started yelling at Tweetie, she hid in the toilets while Ricky was talking shit and emptying her bag. Ryan stopped him, Ricky left, and I guess Ryan just thought about it too much and got angry again."

They glanced at Ryan, his face still stern as he tried to let his anger fade. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to control, the more he thought, the more frustrated he became. They could all see that it was getting worse.

"Maybe we should drop this for now..." Hazel said, pressing the bag to Ryan's face and removing it after a moment so she didn't burn him with the coldness, "I mean, I doubt we'll see him for the rest of the day, plus," Hazel shifted in her seat, moving to look Ryan directly in the eye, "I think Ryan's gonna explode if we say his name one more time."

"Wow," Joel hummed, staring at the back of Hazel's head. "So mature."

"I wouldn't say that was mature," Leo pointed out, sinking into his seat, "I think she was just stating the obvious."

"Maybe it was both."

"Tweetie, would you hold that bag still?" Ryan groaned, clearly still annoyed.

Quickly, not wanting to upset the boy further, Hazel stopped moving and held it in place, her hand growing colder the longer she held it.

yet, just like always when she fell silent, she began to think and allowed her thoughts to consume her as she considered everything she still needed to do.

There was a lot on her 'to do list', she had to find records on students in the school, she had to keep track of the boys' activities, she had to do homework, go over the evidence they collected, speak to Roderick about the evidence they had. It was too much for one girl. And as it dawned on her just how exhausting her life was becoming, she grew warier, her face dropping into a frown and her body sinking down onto her hand as she leaned forward.

"What's up, Tweetie?"

She glanced up, her suddenly tired eyes meeting Leo's who tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her sudden shift.