Every day she gets dropped off precisely 15 minutes until the first bell in an unmarked black SUV by a SHIELD agent that looks completely unimpressed by this assignment as Ava hops out with her bag full of books and gives a small wave of acknowledgment as the same instruction to return to this exact spot is grunted at her. It's a strict schedule she adheres to very closely, because she knows being able to attend school at all is a privilege that can just as easily be revoked if she starts breaking any rules or causing problems.
Ava doesn't like breaking rules. Not yet. Her life is laid out for her and if she follows along and is good, they're going to help cure her. She still very much believes that promise they string her along with, so much so that she eagerly studies between all the breaks in her training and visits to the lab, trying to figure out what she can possibly do with her future once she's completely cured. Something other than that whole killing people thing they're teaching her to do in the evenings. She thinks she likes history one week, realizes most of it seems like a lie, and decides the next maybe she likes her English class better because the stories are at least more enjoyable.
It's easy enough to hide her condition these days, having practiced her control extensively and her body not quite ready to fail her yet. She can take notes fairly reliably, although her teachers still complain about the way her handwriting sometimes gets a bit twitchy. She blames the pencil. But overall things are working out okay after a month of attending, at least her grades seem to be, they tell the agent that pretends to be her mother during the conferences. The reports get sent back to her handler. Nobody seems disappointed in her progress, but nobody praises her either. So she works harder. Her dad would have been proud, she thinks.
She's watched the other students closely, although most of them barely notice her at all. Quiet at the back of the room, she hasn't managed to make any friends yet. Doesn't seem to have anything in common other than the same school uniform. But she's luckily managed to escape the attention of the bullies too. It's funny how even when she isn't invisible, she still feels that way, no idea how to engage with the other kids. But it's for the best, as she overhears one girl invite another over for an after school party. Ava knows she can't attend anything like that.
She fiddles with her locker between classes, struggling to quite get her fingers to cooperate with the lock. Spins the dial back to 10... forward to 23... they slip again, and she sighs, starts over. And notices a boy a couple over that she's never seen before, eyes narrowing a bit suspiciously. 10... 23...
Dex had not been enjoying his first week at high school. He hadn't even seen the point to going. He hadn't been to a real school in eight years and that was practically a lifetime for a sixteen year old. But when he'd tried to protest to Dr. Mercer, all she'd told him was that he needed to learn how to socialize in the real world and how to "control himself." He knew what she meant. This was an experiment to see if he could keep from letting his psychopathy rule his thoughts and cause him to act out. If it didn't work out, he'd be right back to spending a majority of his time in the psychiatric institute where he'd spent half his life now.
Dex hadn't possessed high hopes for what high school could be like but it was even worse than he'd expected. He felt like there was some sort of invisible signal all teens gave off like radio airwaves. But if everyone else's was tuned into FM, Dex's was AM, and they could all somehow sense that about him. He was too socially awkward and too weird for the other teenagers. Dex felt like he was always saying or doing the exact wrong thing he shouldn't have when he was interacting with his peers.
He thought making friends would be impossible. He'd consider it to be lucky if he could just get the teasing and bullying to stop. While he hadn't taken it lying down by any means, Dex hadn't gone quite so far as to get into any fights. He couldn't be sure of if he'd have enough control to stop before he seriously hurt or even killed anyone he got into one with. If that happened, he knew for certain he would never get back into the real world. Much as Dr. Mercer loved him, he knew she also had an ethical duty to protect people from him, for only she knew just how dangerous he could be.
So for the most part he'd spent the past five days being miserable, feeling far more isolated and alone then he'd felt in years. It was easy to be on his own when that was what he wanted. It was far harder when that was his assigned position in the social pecking order. He dug around in his locker for the book he needed for his next class. As with his room back at the institute, it was neat and orderly so he could easily find everything. As he pulled his Calculus book out, he felt like there was someone looking at him.
He looked up directly into the eyes of a stunningly beautiful girl with the most vivid pair of green eyes he'd ever seen. His whole mind and body froze up, complete with his schoolbook still only pulled out of his locker halfway. Dex eventually remembered this was the moment where he was supposed to say something so he didn't come off as a weirdo just staring at someone. "Hi," he eventually managed. "Aren't you in my English class?"
Ava freezes up in response to being noticed, because it goes against her idea of what it means to 'blend in' that she's trying very hard to prove herself capable of. Okay, she practiced this in the mirror several times. Don't mess up. "Hi," she echoes in her dainty voice, the barest hint of her accent punctuating the single word. "I'm Ava." See, not so hard.
Except he asked a question, so she has to keep going. Off script. But that's fine, she's supposed to be able to improvise, isn't that what her trainer had told her? "Sorry, I'm used to looking at the back of everyone's heads, so I didn't recognize you." Oh, that sounds like a weird thing to say, even if it's true.
She continues fumbling with the lock, not even paying attention to what numbers she's turning to now. "You're... uh. New, right?" Because maybe she's not so great with interacting with anyone, but she has been paying careful attention to all the other students, trying to learn from them, even if she hasn't been able to fully bring herself to participate much yet.
Dex was trying very hard not to have his voice crack when he spoke back. She was really pretty and he was having trouble remembering how to think properly. "Do you sit in the back?" That would explain why he hadn't noticed her before now. Dex had been spending most of his classes trying hard just to follow along with everything the teacher was saying. On the plus side, trying to keep up meant there had been absolutely no opportunity for him to be bored in class, which he knew was the worst sort of state for him to get into.
"Yeah. It's my first week here," Dex confirmed. Frankly, he was just about ready to throw in the towel and go back to just being tutored at the institute instead of trying anymore of this "social interaction." It just wasn't worth the hassle he was going through on a daily basis.
Ava nods, because she's actually a very bad liar and she's afraid of slipping up. Sitting in the back is of course her customary location in any given classroom, that part isn't the lie. But she isn't actually in his English class at all, and hadn't wanted to correct him, worried that'd be the end of the conversation and she'd lose the attention of the cute boy, on of the first students to actually really notice her. She gives an awkward twirl of the end of her pigtail around one of her nervous fingers.
"Oh, I just started this last month." One of the few personal details she can freely share, though it does come with a cover story just in case. "I-" she pauses, looks back at her locker. "I'm having some troubles," she admits, poking at the lock. The frustrating thing is that Ava isn't bad with locks at all, she could easily disable it and get inside in all sorts of different ways... that she's been forbidden to display. "If you... help me," she suggests quietly, "maybe we can. Walk together...?"
The back of her mind is a tangle of mental protests. Not only is she lying, she's setting herself up to miss her next actual class. Setting herself up to potentially be caught. She ignores them. Just smiles.
Ava was so pretty it kept taking Dex a few more seconds than it would have to follow the flow of the conversation, especially between her twirling her hair and her smile. "I...I can do that," he finally got out once he realized what she was asking and quickly moved towards Ava's locker, trying not to stumble over his own two feet. He'd never used a locker before in his life until he'd come to high school but he'd found it easy enough to open them up.
Plus if he did this, it meant he'd get to spend more time with Ava as they walked to their next class. He had absolutely no idea she wasn't really in it and frankly he was just glad to finally be talking to someone who didn't want to make fun of him either for his awkward ways or just his unusual last name.
Ava scoots a bit off to the side to give him room to stand in front of her locker, bouncing lightly from one heel to the other. This is the most she's spoken to any of her classmates so far without completely fumbling, and he hasn't even looked at her weird yet.
"26... 4..." Ava doesn't even think about the fact that giving out her lock combination to somebody else is a potential security risk. He's just a nice boy, not some enemy of the state or spy from another organization looking to infiltrate her text books. And Ava has nothing in there to hide, they make sure of that. "13," she watches him spin the dial to the last number, and the lock gives a little click confirming the combination.
"Do you... remember what the reading assignment was?"
He carefully turned the lock until he heard the final click and then swung the door open for Ava. Her own locker looked a lot more messy than his own, but then 95% of teenagers were not nearly as meticulous about keeping things neat as Dex was.
Dex couldn’t quite remember the name of what they were supposed to be reading, so he looked down at his books, sorting through them until he found the right title. “Medea,” he told her. Unlike some of his classmates, Dex actually did read through the assigned reading. It wasn’t like he had much else to do at the institute, not being involved in any extracurricular activities or the like.
When he looked back up at Ava, he found himself staring at her again. Look, this was the first pretty girl he’d spoken to in years and he had no idea how to react. “I like your hair,” he finally blurted out, noting that for some odd reason she had three pigtails instead of just two.
"Oh, good. I was afraid I read the wrong chapter," Ava finally gets out, because luckily it seems both English classes are on the same assignment. Her locker is perhaps the only place that Ava has to be a little bit messy, the only place of privacy where her belongings aren't under constant scrutiny or subject to inspection. Back at the facility she calls home, because she has no other word to really describe her living quarters despite how sterile and un-homelike they are, Ava doesn't own much at all.
Here she has books for her classes, books she's borrowing from the library that she doesn't dare take back with her out of fear they might be determined not suitable. A few notebooks with doodles and attempts at diary entries with random fliers that have caught her interest, or notes on her homework assignments she feels compelled to keep. There's a few metallic star stickers she painstakingly peeled off the "good job!" "excellent work!" gradings that she's stuck to the inside of her locker, though the adhesive isn't strong enough and causing the edges to curl a bit.
She even has a magazine that she stole off another student, or rather... picked up when it was left behind in the lunch room and she was too shy to call out to return it. Pages about new trends and diets and makeup and gossip about celebrities she's never heard of. And as handsome as the pictures of tan chiseled shirtless men on the glossy pages are, Ava finds her far more enthralled with the boy in front of her, heart beating rapidly when he compliments her hair. She reaches up to nervously twirl the end of one of the pigtails again, trying to remember any of the advice the magazine suggested about '10 tips to win your crush!' They had all seemed stupid at the time, but suddenly any of it seems preferable to the way she gives out a small squeak.
Her hand immediately covers her mouth, embarrassed as she bites down hard on her tongue to resist that sudden urge to flicker away out of visibility. "You really think so?" Ava shuffles through her books, putting away the one for her actual class before closing her locker back up with a shy smile. "My..." caretakers? No, she can't say stuff like that. "Parents. Have been trying to convince me to cut it." With a tone indicating she very much doesn't want to.
Dex started to walk to his next class. He was going much slower than he normally did. Usually, he got there early and found a spot in the back of the class he could hide away in. Minding his own business seemed like the best way to just get through the day without ending up with someone mocking him yet again for his strange last name or his odd way of doing, well, everything.
But now he didn't want to. Dex just wanted to spend time with Ava and get to know her better. He'd never talked this long with a pretty girl before. Hell, he hadn't really talked with any of his peers this long since he'd started going to high school period. "Tell them they are completely wrong with that idea. You should keep it long. It looks nice that way."
He tried to think of something next to say. "Uh, what's your name?" He said, trying not to speak so fast it all came out sounding like one word as 'whatsyourname?'. He was only partially successful.
"Oh!" Right, introducing yourself is a perfectly acceptable and expected thing to do, in such settings. "I'm Ava," she replies, the faintest trace of a giggle at even being asked in that jumble of words. She has no why this entire exchange is making her quite so... giddy? But she's not used to such attention, the compliment to her hair that she continues to twirl while staring up at him.
"What's yours?"
The halls have mostly emptied out as other students have shuffled into their classes, and while Ava has enjoyed taking their time to get there... the ringing of the bell alerting the beginning of the next period causes her to glance up in alarm. "Oh. We'll get in trouble..."
"My name is Dex." He wasn't about to explain how it was a nickname or anything like that because explaining his full name situation usually led to someone teasing him about his last one. Teenagers were utter assholes that way. Fortunately, Ava had seemed alright with only giving her first one out too.
He realized that the bell had rung and a look of dismay came over his face. "Come on then. Let's go!" He grabbed Ava's arm without even thinking and dragged her along until they were at the door of the English class. He yanked the door open and pulled her inside before they could both end up being counted as tardy. He didn't want anything getting back to Dr. Mercer that might have affected his ability to keep going to school. Even if he wasn't happy with her decision, stronger was the desire not to disappoint her.
Dex. Dex. Dex. She commits it to memory, because she wants to remember him, out of all the other students she's met. Wants to come up with more excuses to talk, in whatever spare moments are allowed.
"Oh!" Ava gives a small gasp of surprise at being grabbed, and focuses veryveryvery hard on remaining tangible as he pulls her along, glad he wasn't glancing back too much as her body literally blurred behind in the mad dash to class before it managed to catch up with the rest of her. It's a good reminder why she's not allowed to take any gym classes, with her firmly written doctor's exemption.
It's exhilarating though, them barely making it just in time to the English class. Even if they earn a few stray stares, they're not particularly of any interest to the rest of the students who are pulling out their notebooks and pencils. Ava nervously glances at the seats, knowing none of them are actually assigned to her, waiting for Dex to take one so she can slip into whichever is still free before the teacher notices she doesn't actually belong.
Dex fortunately missed the sight of Ava's form blurring behind her as he only glanced back once they'd gotten to class and were safely inside so that they wouldn't be counted tardy. Normally, he would have gone for a seat near the front of the class. Dex enjoyed the actual learning part of going to school even if the social aspect had sucked. But right now he wanted to maybe get the chance to keep talking to Ava and he couldn't do that if they were right in front of the teacher.
So he took a seat in the back and was delighted when Ava sat in the one next to him one row over. He smiled a little at the fact she wanted to stay close to him too. He pulled out the binder where he kept all the assignments, the notebook he diligently took down all the notes in, and a pouch he kept all pens, pencils, and highlighters in. He would have been more upset over his set-up having been a source of mockery quite a few times for the other students to engage in if having it all so thoroughly organized hadn't been allowing him to easily complete all the assignments. After he was done pulling everything out, he snuck another shy look over in Ava's direction.
She can tell he's well prepared for the class, with organized supplies and all his assignments. All Ava has is a book, luckily the assigned standard between each class, a notebook, and a pencil that... is worn down quite a bit. She doesn't want to risk getting up to sharpen it and bringing attention to herself, though. The teacher begins the lesson without so much looking her way, and she gives a small sigh of relief, a tiny smile toward Dex before she starts going through the motion of taking notes. She's certainly paying far more attention to him, though, and her notes start turning into writing out something to him...
do you want to study in the library together during lunch?
Ripping it from the notebook is the tricky part, waiting until everyone is turning to the next page from the textbook to hide the sound amongst rustling pages.
And then she folds it, smaller, like she's watched girls do in her other classes, slipping it over quietly.
Normally, it was easy for Dex to focus on the teacher and what she was saying. But right now, it was a bit of a struggle with Ava right next to him. He was distracted in a way he'd never really felt before, something that was so curious he made a mental note of it to discuss with his mom during their next session.
He watched as Ava wrote him a note and slipped it towards him. Dex peeled it open and peered at the writing. He took his own pen and scribbled out a response in his neat handwriting. Yeah. I'd like that. Then he passed it back over towards Ava again when he was sure the teacher wasn't looking.
There's a little rush of excitement, passing notes back and forth, the nervousness of unfolding it both to keep it properly hidden and to see the written answer she was hoping for. Ava clutches the paper, smiling...
And then the door to the classroom swings open. The teacher stops writing on the board, all the students turn their heads to observe the man in the suit in the doorway, looking a bit out of place in a school. Even when not actively trying to look like an agent, Ava always recognizes them on sight. She slinks down in her seat, knowing she can't flicker invisible as much as she'd like to right now.
"May I help you?" the teacher asks.
Though she's mostly ignored. "Ms. Starr," and then the students look around in confusion, who is that? But his gaze remains pointed right at her. "Your father," and oh how she winces at that. Knows it's part of her cover story, having parents, "is on the phone. Come down to the office." Ava gives Dex a very apologetic look, scrambling to grab her things as students whisper. Who is that girl? She knows she's in trouble, and delaying won't do her any good to get out of it.
'Lunch,' she silently mouths at Dex, hopeful he'll still want to meet her then.
Dex was disappointed when he saw that Ava was leaving. He watched her walk out the door and then it closed behind her. For a few minutes, the students continued to whisper about her. Dex didn't really pay much attention to what they were saying. High school gossip didn't interest him nearly half as much as Ava herself did. The rest of the lesson just flew right on by because he couldn't pay any attention to it, and for once, his notes were less than thorough.
For lunch, Dex had been eating in the library for the past week, not willing to subject himself to eating lunch alone at one of the tables in the cafeteria, and make it fully clear how much of a pariah he was without any friends to talk to. He went to his usual spot in the library once it and started eating slowly, casting glances around hoping that he'd see Ava again.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
high school au
Ava doesn't like breaking rules. Not yet. Her life is laid out for her and if she follows along and is good, they're going to help cure her. She still very much believes that promise they string her along with, so much so that she eagerly studies between all the breaks in her training and visits to the lab, trying to figure out what she can possibly do with her future once she's completely cured. Something other than that whole killing people thing they're teaching her to do in the evenings. She thinks she likes history one week, realizes most of it seems like a lie, and decides the next maybe she likes her English class better because the stories are at least more enjoyable.
It's easy enough to hide her condition these days, having practiced her control extensively and her body not quite ready to fail her yet. She can take notes fairly reliably, although her teachers still complain about the way her handwriting sometimes gets a bit twitchy. She blames the pencil. But overall things are working out okay after a month of attending, at least her grades seem to be, they tell the agent that pretends to be her mother during the conferences. The reports get sent back to her handler. Nobody seems disappointed in her progress, but nobody praises her either. So she works harder. Her dad would have been proud, she thinks.
She's watched the other students closely, although most of them barely notice her at all. Quiet at the back of the room, she hasn't managed to make any friends yet. Doesn't seem to have anything in common other than the same school uniform. But she's luckily managed to escape the attention of the bullies too. It's funny how even when she isn't invisible, she still feels that way, no idea how to engage with the other kids. But it's for the best, as she overhears one girl invite another over for an after school party. Ava knows she can't attend anything like that.
She fiddles with her locker between classes, struggling to quite get her fingers to cooperate with the lock. Spins the dial back to 10... forward to 23... they slip again, and she sighs, starts over. And notices a boy a couple over that she's never seen before, eyes narrowing a bit suspiciously. 10... 23...
no subject
Dex hadn't possessed high hopes for what high school could be like but it was even worse than he'd expected. He felt like there was some sort of invisible signal all teens gave off like radio airwaves. But if everyone else's was tuned into FM, Dex's was AM, and they could all somehow sense that about him. He was too socially awkward and too weird for the other teenagers. Dex felt like he was always saying or doing the exact wrong thing he shouldn't have when he was interacting with his peers.
He thought making friends would be impossible. He'd consider it to be lucky if he could just get the teasing and bullying to stop. While he hadn't taken it lying down by any means, Dex hadn't gone quite so far as to get into any fights. He couldn't be sure of if he'd have enough control to stop before he seriously hurt or even killed anyone he got into one with. If that happened, he knew for certain he would never get back into the real world. Much as Dr. Mercer loved him, he knew she also had an ethical duty to protect people from him, for only she knew just how dangerous he could be.
So for the most part he'd spent the past five days being miserable, feeling far more isolated and alone then he'd felt in years. It was easy to be on his own when that was what he wanted. It was far harder when that was his assigned position in the social pecking order. He dug around in his locker for the book he needed for his next class. As with his room back at the institute, it was neat and orderly so he could easily find everything. As he pulled his Calculus book out, he felt like there was someone looking at him.
He looked up directly into the eyes of a stunningly beautiful girl with the most vivid pair of green eyes he'd ever seen. His whole mind and body froze up, complete with his schoolbook still only pulled out of his locker halfway. Dex eventually remembered this was the moment where he was supposed to say something so he didn't come off as a weirdo just staring at someone. "Hi," he eventually managed. "Aren't you in my English class?"
no subject
Except he asked a question, so she has to keep going. Off script. But that's fine, she's supposed to be able to improvise, isn't that what her trainer had told her? "Sorry, I'm used to looking at the back of everyone's heads, so I didn't recognize you." Oh, that sounds like a weird thing to say, even if it's true.
She continues fumbling with the lock, not even paying attention to what numbers she's turning to now. "You're... uh. New, right?" Because maybe she's not so great with interacting with anyone, but she has been paying careful attention to all the other students, trying to learn from them, even if she hasn't been able to fully bring herself to participate much yet.
no subject
"Yeah. It's my first week here," Dex confirmed. Frankly, he was just about ready to throw in the towel and go back to just being tutored at the institute instead of trying anymore of this "social interaction." It just wasn't worth the hassle he was going through on a daily basis.
no subject
"Oh, I just started this last month." One of the few personal details she can freely share, though it does come with a cover story just in case. "I-" she pauses, looks back at her locker. "I'm having some troubles," she admits, poking at the lock. The frustrating thing is that Ava isn't bad with locks at all, she could easily disable it and get inside in all sorts of different ways... that she's been forbidden to display. "If you... help me," she suggests quietly, "maybe we can. Walk together...?"
The back of her mind is a tangle of mental protests. Not only is she lying, she's setting herself up to miss her next actual class. Setting herself up to potentially be caught. She ignores them. Just smiles.
no subject
Plus if he did this, it meant he'd get to spend more time with Ava as they walked to their next class. He had absolutely no idea she wasn't really in it and frankly he was just glad to finally be talking to someone who didn't want to make fun of him either for his awkward ways or just his unusual last name.
no subject
"26... 4..." Ava doesn't even think about the fact that giving out her lock combination to somebody else is a potential security risk. He's just a nice boy, not some enemy of the state or spy from another organization looking to infiltrate her text books. And Ava has nothing in there to hide, they make sure of that. "13," she watches him spin the dial to the last number, and the lock gives a little click confirming the combination.
"Do you... remember what the reading assignment was?"
no subject
Dex couldn’t quite remember the name of what they were supposed to be reading, so he looked down at his books, sorting through them until he found the right title. “Medea,” he told her. Unlike some of his classmates, Dex actually did read through the assigned reading. It wasn’t like he had much else to do at the institute, not being involved in any extracurricular activities or the like.
When he looked back up at Ava, he found himself staring at her again. Look, this was the first pretty girl he’d spoken to in years and he had no idea how to react. “I like your hair,” he finally blurted out, noting that for some odd reason she had three pigtails instead of just two.
no subject
Here she has books for her classes, books she's borrowing from the library that she doesn't dare take back with her out of fear they might be determined not suitable. A few notebooks with doodles and attempts at diary entries with random fliers that have caught her interest, or notes on her homework assignments she feels compelled to keep. There's a few metallic star stickers she painstakingly peeled off the "good job!" "excellent work!" gradings that she's stuck to the inside of her locker, though the adhesive isn't strong enough and causing the edges to curl a bit.
She even has a magazine that she stole off another student, or rather... picked up when it was left behind in the lunch room and she was too shy to call out to return it. Pages about new trends and diets and makeup and gossip about celebrities she's never heard of. And as handsome as the pictures of tan chiseled shirtless men on the glossy pages are, Ava finds her far more enthralled with the boy in front of her, heart beating rapidly when he compliments her hair. She reaches up to nervously twirl the end of one of the pigtails again, trying to remember any of the advice the magazine suggested about '10 tips to win your crush!' They had all seemed stupid at the time, but suddenly any of it seems preferable to the way she gives out a small squeak.
Her hand immediately covers her mouth, embarrassed as she bites down hard on her tongue to resist that sudden urge to flicker away out of visibility. "You really think so?" Ava shuffles through her books, putting away the one for her actual class before closing her locker back up with a shy smile. "My..." caretakers? No, she can't say stuff like that. "Parents. Have been trying to convince me to cut it." With a tone indicating she very much doesn't want to.
no subject
But now he didn't want to. Dex just wanted to spend time with Ava and get to know her better. He'd never talked this long with a pretty girl before. Hell, he hadn't really talked with any of his peers this long since he'd started going to high school period. "Tell them they are completely wrong with that idea. You should keep it long. It looks nice that way."
He tried to think of something next to say. "Uh, what's your name?" He said, trying not to speak so fast it all came out sounding like one word as 'whatsyourname?'. He was only partially successful.
no subject
"What's yours?"
The halls have mostly emptied out as other students have shuffled into their classes, and while Ava has enjoyed taking their time to get there... the ringing of the bell alerting the beginning of the next period causes her to glance up in alarm. "Oh. We'll get in trouble..."
no subject
He realized that the bell had rung and a look of dismay came over his face. "Come on then. Let's go!" He grabbed Ava's arm without even thinking and dragged her along until they were at the door of the English class. He yanked the door open and pulled her inside before they could both end up being counted as tardy. He didn't want anything getting back to Dr. Mercer that might have affected his ability to keep going to school. Even if he wasn't happy with her decision, stronger was the desire not to disappoint her.
no subject
"Oh!" Ava gives a small gasp of surprise at being grabbed, and focuses veryveryvery hard on remaining tangible as he pulls her along, glad he wasn't glancing back too much as her body literally blurred behind in the mad dash to class before it managed to catch up with the rest of her. It's a good reminder why she's not allowed to take any gym classes, with her firmly written doctor's exemption.
It's exhilarating though, them barely making it just in time to the English class. Even if they earn a few stray stares, they're not particularly of any interest to the rest of the students who are pulling out their notebooks and pencils. Ava nervously glances at the seats, knowing none of them are actually assigned to her, waiting for Dex to take one so she can slip into whichever is still free before the teacher notices she doesn't actually belong.
no subject
So he took a seat in the back and was delighted when Ava sat in the one next to him one row over. He smiled a little at the fact she wanted to stay close to him too. He pulled out the binder where he kept all the assignments, the notebook he diligently took down all the notes in, and a pouch he kept all pens, pencils, and highlighters in. He would have been more upset over his set-up having been a source of mockery quite a few times for the other students to engage in if having it all so thoroughly organized hadn't been allowing him to easily complete all the assignments. After he was done pulling everything out, he snuck another shy look over in Ava's direction.
no subject
do you want to study in the library together during lunch?
Ripping it from the notebook is the tricky part, waiting until everyone is turning to the next page from the textbook to hide the sound amongst rustling pages.
And then she folds it, smaller, like she's watched girls do in her other classes, slipping it over quietly.
no subject
He watched as Ava wrote him a note and slipped it towards him. Dex peeled it open and peered at the writing. He took his own pen and scribbled out a response in his neat handwriting. Yeah. I'd like that. Then he passed it back over towards Ava again when he was sure the teacher wasn't looking.
no subject
And then the door to the classroom swings open. The teacher stops writing on the board, all the students turn their heads to observe the man in the suit in the doorway, looking a bit out of place in a school. Even when not actively trying to look like an agent, Ava always recognizes them on sight. She slinks down in her seat, knowing she can't flicker invisible as much as she'd like to right now.
"May I help you?" the teacher asks.
Though she's mostly ignored. "Ms. Starr," and then the students look around in confusion, who is that? But his gaze remains pointed right at her. "Your father," and oh how she winces at that. Knows it's part of her cover story, having parents, "is on the phone. Come down to the office." Ava gives Dex a very apologetic look, scrambling to grab her things as students whisper. Who is that girl? She knows she's in trouble, and delaying won't do her any good to get out of it.
'Lunch,' she silently mouths at Dex, hopeful he'll still want to meet her then.
no subject
For lunch, Dex had been eating in the library for the past week, not willing to subject himself to eating lunch alone at one of the tables in the cafeteria, and make it fully clear how much of a pariah he was without any friends to talk to. He went to his usual spot in the library once it and started eating slowly, casting glances around hoping that he'd see Ava again.