Chapter Text
Neeko looked at the letter she was attempting to write and deflated. After half an hour, the only progress she had made was getting the sheet of paper on the desk and had selected her favourite pen. Well, she'd narrowed down her shortlist to her favourite three. Or four. She looked out of her dorm room's window at the rain coming down in great sheets. It had been raining for the past several hours, and she could see that parts of the field were already beginning to flood. She watched as some students she didn’t recognise run across the yard, holding their books above their head as they desperately tried to shield themselves from the rain, to no avail. She looked up and caught sight of her own reflection. Even Neeko could see the anxiety written across her own face.
She went to make another attempt at picking up her pen, but her hands had seized up. Her skin had turned rocklike, hard and inflexible.
She massaged the roots of her bright blue hair, wincing slightly at the way her rocky fingers scraped her scalp and took a deep, calming breath.
“Okay Neeko,” she muttered to yourself. “You got this. Just start writing.”
With a moderate amount of effort, she willed her body closer to its natural state. She still felt the worry coiling around her sho’ma, but she hoped it would begin to pass as she actually got into the flow of confessing her feelings to the paper. Or it’d just make things worse and she’d be an actual statue.
“Neeko would be a cute statue!” Neeko giggled to herself.
Okay, giggling was good. Giggling releases tension. Good to know.
Neeko checked her skin, and was pleased to see it had regained its regular, skin-y properties.
“Right Neeko. Time to go.”
She grabbed a pen at random, and put pen to paper for the first time that afternoon.
“Nidalee,” Neeko muttered as she wrote out her best friend’s name, then paused again, remembering the first time she’d heard that name. The first time they’d met, and become friends. It really wasn’t that long ago, in the grand scheme of things...
Neeko stood at the front of the class, paralyzed. Unconscious shudders rattled her bones and her skin felt tense and hard. It was all prickly against the new fabric of her school uniform. She felt a lump growing in her throat as she stared at the twenty or so pairs of eyes staring back at her. She gulped. She felt like a fish out of water, and she was desperately hoping she wouldn’t develop gills. A well-founded fear.
“Well, this is Neeko,” the teacher, Mr. Felix, drawled. “She’s come all the way from… Ixtal?” Neeko nodded furiously without saying anything. “Right. So y’all better make sure she’s made to feel welcome, safe, and all that other stuff the school expects of you.” Several students were clearly not paying any attention at all, and a few more rolled their eyes.
“Well, anyway, was there anything you wanted to say to the class, Neeko?”
Abject terror shot across her body. She felt her heart pound in her throat as she felt her cheeks redden. Were she to touch them, they’d probably have become firmer and smoother. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
“Olá a todos!” Neeko started, then cringed. Wrong words, Neeko! she chided herself. “Um. Hello everyone. My name is… Neeko. I am looking forward to meeting all of you. I am hoping we can become good friends.” The class clapped politely, and Neeko looked to her new teacher, unsure what to do now.
“Uhh, why don’t you take a seat in that empty desk on the back there? The one on the left?”
Neeko looked to the back of the classroom, where she saw two empty desks. She walked towards the back, trying not to pay attention to the sniggers that broke out when she checked both hands to see which one was the left.
She sat on her chair and felt relief permeate her entire body. That had only been the most terrifying thing she’d ever done. She leaned into her bag and grabbed some of the books she’d been given to help out with her classes, struggling to pull the largest out because it had gotten stuck behind the zipper.
Mr. Felix was drawing something on the chalkboard as he was recapping the week’s lessons.
“Now, when it comes to shapeshifting magic, you always need to keep in mind its inherent instability. Even Vastaya struggle to maintain a shapeshift if conditions are sufficiently adverse- yes, Neeko?” Neeko had raised her hand and was struggling to stay seated.
“Oh, it’s not that shapeshifting is instable,” Neeko said, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the teacher as she stood up, “Vastaya just forgot how to do it properly. Do it wrong! Neeko is Oovi-Kat, like cousin of Vastaya. There’s a trick to keeping the magic in, so it doesn’t go all woobly. Once Neeko was a frog for three whole days!” Neeko boasted proudly. “So anyway, the trick is-”
“Well, well, we have an expert in the midst! Thank you for your… insight, Neeko. Unfortunately, I just have to teach what’s in this book.”
“Oh. um… sorry.” Neeko mumbled and sat down.
At that moment in time, the classroom door opened, and a girl walked in. Neeko’s mouth immediately fell open into a small o. The girl’s azure hair was tied up in a tall, thick tail. Her blazer was tied loosely around her waist, and her reddish-brown skin was covered in more than a couple of plasters.
Mr. Felix tutted disapprovingly at the interruption.
“Nidalee. This happens every week.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Nidalee said, waving her hand dismissively, already walking to her seat. “Blame coach. She wanted to chat.”
"Well, it can't carry on. Sooner or later you'll run into trouble with a teacher that actually cares about tardiness."
"Then they can take it up with coach too," Nidalee muttered pointedly, and a couple of other students snorted at the joke Neeko didn't understand.
"Well, at any rate," Mr. Felix said, turning back to the chalkboard to continue his explanation. Neeko was keenly aware of the fact that the very pretty and attractive and strong girl was sitting less than five feet to her left. She took a deep breath to steel her nerves. She could do this. It was only another forty minutes until the next class. She was trying very hard to pay attention to Mr. Felix's lesson, but between the language barrier and the fact the information he was teaching was just plain wrong, it was proving difficult. A bead of nervous sweat rolled down the back of her head. She felt the great urge to scratch her scalp, but she resisted out of the concern she'd look weird.
Neeko. She told herself. People scratch their heads all the time. It's not strange.
She took a quick glance around the class, just to make sure nobody was paying attention to her. As she scratched her head, she heard a strange noise.
"Psst."
Neeko looked around in confusion. Had a large insect gotten stuck somewhere? Then her eyes met with Nidalee's. Her beautiful, deep brown eyes. Neeko wasn't staring at all! She felt a warmth spread across her cheeks and desperately hoped she wasn't turning into a tomato. She watched as Nidalee's lips started moving. Words! She was saying words!
"Psst, hey Newbie," Nidalee whispered. "You got any water?" She made a drinking motion with her hand. "Left mine in the gym."
Neeko nodded furiously, now certain her face was a deep red. She buried her face in her bag, thanked the gods for her brief moment of reprieve, and pulled out a plastic bottle of water, now only barely cool from when she'd grabbed it out of the fridge that morning.
"Here!" Neeko whispered, "It's okay if you keep it, I have another one." She didn't, of course, but Nidalee didn't need to know that. Nidalee smiled warmly, sending happy shivers down Neeko’s spine and through her tail.
“Thanks. Hey, what’s your name?”
“Neeko.”
“That’s a cute name. Nice to meet y-”
Their whispered conversation was cut short by a pointed look from Mr. Felix.
Neeko leaned on her desk, holding her mouth and chin, ostensibly to make it seem like she was paying keen attention to the lesson, when in reality, she was hiding the wide smile that she couldn’t fight off. Neeko hoped that Nidalee would be in some of her other classes, hopefully one that allowed slightly more talking.
Almost exactly a week later, Neeko had discovered, to her dismay, that she shared no other classes with Nidalee. As far as she could tell, her weekly lesson with Mr. Felix was her only chance to talk to Nidalee, and while she’d enjoyed some brief conversations with some of the other students in other classes, no one had captivated her the way Nidalee had.
Truth be told, she’d definitely overthought her impending lesson. That morning, she’d make sure to pack two water bottles, as well as bringing extra pens and loaning out a spare copy of the textbook from the library, just in case Nidalee had happened to forget any of them. Her bag was all the heavier for it, but the weight she carried on her back was a small price to pay for the idea that she could help Nidalee out again. Maybe then they could have a proper conversation after class, maybe get some lunch together, and become friends?
No, Neeko. She told herself. You’re getting ahead of yourself. Scary class comes first.
Neeko was walking down the hallway towards the gym, where she was awaiting her most dreaded class of the lot. Competitive Sports. Last week, her introductory meeting with Principal Yuumi had overrun somewhat (due in part to a lengthy tangent involving which fish Neeko had eaten back in Ixtal), so she’d only been around to watch the last twenty minutes of the class. What Neeko had seen had terrified her. She’d been placed in a class that consisted of a roughly 50/50 mix of deeply competitive, athletic girls and girls whose sho’ma gave off such a strange energy that Neeko just couldn’t place. She’d tried saying hello to a few but they’d just ignored her and turned away. Well, so much was to be expected from people who had weirdly shaped sho’ma.
Neeko breathed out a sigh of relief when she got to the gymnasium and saw that she was one of the first to arrive. She walked over to the woman she knew to be her teacher, who merely wordlessly pointed at the girls’ changing room, not looking up from her smartphone. Neeko walked into the room and wrinkled her nose in disgust, this room smelt awful. She was used to the wide open forests and jungles and fields of Ixtal, and even her time spent in some of the arcologies had been an olfactory nightmare. This room was so offensive to her nose it was almost cursed. Still, the quicker she changed the quicker she could escape. Picking a corner at random, Neeko began to get changed, determinedly looking into the wall. She was almost done when she began to sense the oncoming rabble, and hurried up her changing.
“Hey, New Girl,” A voice called, and Neeko turned around to see one of the Weird Energy Girls smirking at her. “You know tails count as body parts, right?”
“Umm…?” Neeko hummed, confused.
“Yeah, so you better be damn good at dodgeball or you’re just going to be a liability.” The girl and the couple next to her laughed rudely. Neeko’s heart sank.
“Neeko will do my best!” Neeko declared optimistically. The girls just gave her a withering look and turned away.
Fighting off the dejection that the interaction had filled her with, Neeko slipped on her gym shoes and walked back out into the gymnasium, where she and the teacher waited impatiently for the rest of the class to come out. More than once she had to go into the changing room to tell some people off and demand the class change faster. Finally, the class filed out and stood in a loose cluster. The teacher divided the class into six teams of five. Neeko’s team were directed to sit on a bench to the side and watch the game. The game consisted, as far as Neeko could tell, of hurling balls as hard as you could at the opposing team. If there were any rules beyond that, Neeko hadn’t figured out. Nor could she determine the exact nature of what this was supposed to teach. Dodging abilities perhaps?
She watched as the ten girls playing the game ran around their designated areas, throwing soft balls as hard as they physically could at the opposing team while the teams still sat down shouted encouragement for their friends. More than a couple of loud words that Neeko didn’t understand were shouted, but she figured from context clues they were offensive.
“So, um, Neeko doesn’t understand the rules of this game,” she muttered to the girl she was sat next to, who was thankfully one of the athletic ones.
“Oh, it’s pretty simple. You just throw the ball, and if it hits you, you’re out. If you catch it, the person who threw it is out. If you don’t think you can catch it, you get the hell out of the way. Oh, and we’re not allowed to use any special powers or anything. So if you can fly or something, that’s completely out.”
“Oh, okay!” Neeko replied, brightening up. This game was simple! Neeko could definitely play this! “And what’s the educational value of playing this?”
“What?” The athletic girl’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Why do we play this?”
“Oh, it’s just to run around and let off steam really,” the girl shrugged. “Don’t think they really care about us optimising our abilities here, long as we don’t get all antsy in other classes.”
Neeko nodded and went back to paying attention to the game, trying to follow what was going on. The numbers on each team gradually whittled down to one each, and the next minute consisted of incredibly vicious ball throwing. Finally, one of the girls, the one wearing a red vest, was absolutely obliterated by a ball thrown directly at her face. The shrill sound of the teacher’s whistle blew in the gymnasium, making Neeko’s ears ring.
“Right!” The teacher bellowed. “You!” she indicated the red girl, whose nose had already begun bleeding. “Nurse! Now! You!” she indicated the girl in green, who just looked triumphant. “Time out! Now!” The girl slunk off to the corner, still smirking. She winked in the direction of someone on Neeko’s team. Neeko’s heart pounded. She suddenly felt much less certain of her part in this game.
Two of the teams swapped around, Neeko was passed a red vest that smelled like it hadn’t been washed properly in several years.
The teacher blew her whistle again, and what followed was the most hectic ten minutes of Neeko’s life.
Jumping, diving, and running as if her life depended on it, Neeko never actually got the chance to throw a ball, but neither did she get hit by one. Finally, the whistle blew, announcing her team’s victory. She and one of the athletic girls were the last two standing. She looked over to Neeko, and nodded her approval. Neeko felt proud.
About halfway through watching the next game, Neeko felt her senses prick up in alarm. She looked around the large gymnasium to see what was going on, and noticed, way off in the far side of the room, that Nidalee was there, talking to a large buff woman Neeko assumed was her coach. The woman was laughing heartily at something Nidalee had said. Nidalee was wearing the same sports uniform that all of the girls wore, but something about it just suited Nidalee. Neeko felt heat rising to her face again. She watched as Nidalee and her coach started pulling a large net of some kind across the whole width of the gym, then set up what Neeko knew to be a Target Dummy.
“Oi, wakey wakey.” One of the girls with weird sho’ma, the one that had insulted Neeko’s tail, was waving her hand in front of Neeko’s face. “Stop gawking. It’s our turn to win. You’d better not fuck it up for us. Actually throw the ball this time.”
“Yes! Neeko is coming!” Neeko declared hastily, pulling on another vest, this one green.
The next game was no less scary, but now that Neeko had more of a grasp on the nature and pace of the game she felt slightly more sure of herself. She threw a ball a few times and while she didn’t manage to hit anyone, she did come close a few times. A projectile sent hurtling into her chest knocked her onto her bum, and she sat there for a second, dazed.
“You’d best get out of the way, Neeko,” the nice athletic girl had run over to her. “These bitches will not hesitate if they have the opportunity to mess you up, even when you’re down.”
Neeko nodded and scrambled to get out of the way. In the time that she’d done so, her team had won the rest of the game for her. She moved to go and sit down, but her team were beckoning back.
“It’s the last game, this one’s for all the marbles.” One of them told her. Her heart sank slightly. She wanted to watch what Nidalee was doing.
This time, Neeko really felt like she’d eased into the flow of the game. She even managed to knock one of her opponents out! They were easily outmatching their opponents, and outnumbered them four to two! Neeko figured she could glance over to see what Nidalee was doing, just a quick peek would be fine…
Nidalee was stretching, the sleeves of her arms were completely rolled up, and as she stretched Neeko could just about see how well developed her muscles were. She rolled her shoulders and back, then picked up a large spear. Thicker and longer than a standard sports javelin, it also sported a shiny tip that looked dangerous. With only a small run-up and a grunt of exertion, Nidalee hurled the spear as hard as she could at the Training Dummy. It embedded itself a full foot into the tightly packed straw. Neeko let out a small involuntary gasp. Nidalee was so strong! Neeko would have to tell her-
Neeko’s thoughts shattered into a million pieces as a ball ripped through the air and slapped into her jaw, hard. She’d only been distracted for maybe five seconds, but that was all the time the enemy team needed. By the time she’d regained her senses, her team had lost. The shrill whistle blew, announcing the end of the class.
“Good effort everyone,” one of the athletic girls said to the rest of Neeko’s team, but Neeko couldn’t help but feel that the sentiment wasn’t being extended to her too. Her heart sank, and as she walked with the rest of her class, she couldn’t help but feel dejected. She grabbed her clothes bag and stepped into one of the private showers for a quick rinse, inwardly thankful that the option was provided. The Oovi-Kat had had very little physical secrets, and Neeko had never felt uncomfortable wearing the scant clothing the Oovi-Kat regularly went for, but these people were not Oovi-Kat. She’d already had someone speak rude things about her tail, she did not particularly care to hear what they would say about any other part of her body.
Once she was clean- well, clean er , she stepped back into the changing room to grab her school bag. Many of the other girls had already left. She picked up her bag and moved to leave.
“Wait.” Neeko stopped. The girl who’d been mean to her was sat across from her, her arms folded.
“Um. Can I help you?” Neeko asked, feeling nervous.
The girl didn’t say anything, she just sat there and looked at Neeko. Neeko felt her palms getting clammy. Every time one more person left the room, Neeko felt more isolated. Finally, it was just the two of them. Neeko had no idea where the teacher had gone. Her heart pounded.
“Sit.” The girl said, pointing at the bench. Neeko sat and wiped her palms on her skirt. The girl stood up. “What the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Neeko asked, genuinely confused.
“That!” the girl gestured in the direction of the gym. “You single-handedly lost us the game! I can’t believe you’d just stop there in the middle of the court like that!” The girl’s tirade continued for a full two minutes, getting steadily angrier, more heated, and ruder. Neeko didn’t even understand half of the words the girl used, but it was clear from context that they were intended to cause great offense. The words were barely necessary, though. Neeko could feel the waves of anger and dislike emanating from the girl. Neeko shrank into herself, tears threatening to spill out, but she blinked them back in. She just wanted this to be over. The girl stepped forward closer, and for a second Neeko thought she was going to hit her. It certainly seemed like she was thinking about it too, before something caused her to back down.
“... Just, fuck off.” The girl finished, and marched out of the changing room. Finally by herself, Neeko pulled her knees up to her chin and let the tears spill down her cheeks. She was really starting to hate it here. Sure, some of the people seemed nice, but there were so many more that were either rude, mean-spirited, or just had strange and weird sho’ma. She’d tried to make friends, but people had either been short with her, made jokes she didn’t understand, just rude, or they’d not been in many of her classes. Even Lunchtime was a stressful affair, she just wanted to sit down and eat, but apparently even that carried connotations far, far beyond Neeko’s understanding.
“Hey, you alright?”
Neeko’s eyes snapped up, and her blood ran cold.
Nidalee was standing there, right in front of her, looking concerned.
Neeko didn’t say anything, but she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Nidalee moved closer, and sat on a nearby bench, clearly giving Neeko space. Neeko opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, as she tried to get her breathing back under control.
“It’s okay if you can’t speak, take your time,” Nidalee said gently. “I heard Chloe yelling. Was she shouting at you?” Neeko hesitated, before cautiously nodding her head. “Figured. She can be a right bitch sometimes.” Neeko took a deep, shaky breath.
“It’s okay, it was Neeko’s fault we lost.” Neeko said, not liking the feeling of her voice being all raspy.
Nidalee snorted.
“Doubt it, you were playing against people who play dodgeball for fun. Don’t let Chloe get into your head, yeah?”
Neeko nodded.
“Say, you’re from Ixtal, right? So am I.”
Neeko shrugged.
“Not from Ixtal, but Neeko spent some years there. It was… okay.” Neeko pushed down some unpleasant memories. She didn’t want to start crying again .
“Bit of a weird place, isn’t it?” Nidalee grinned. “My folks were from the Amarantine coast, they moved up here not long after I was born. I’ve been back a couple times though, sporting events and the like.”
“Oooh!” Neeko said, starting to perk up. “You do the… umm…” Neeko made a soft whoosing noise as she mimed throwing something. “For winning?”
“Yep, Javelin Toss and Spearthrowing, that’s me! I’m in the track-and-field team.” Nidalee awkwardly scratched the back of her head. “Captain of the field squad, actually.”
“Your technique is very, um, impressive.” Neeko said brightly.
“Thanks,”
Nidalee was smiling warmly, and Neeko gave a great effort to smile back, even though her eyes and face were still shining with tears. “There we go, that’s better. Look, Neeko. I was new to this place too, not too long into first year, but long enough that everyone else had already formed their stupid cliques. I know how hard it is to make friends. Shit, I don’t really have a huge amount of actual friends when you weed out all the hangers-on. So, I guess, what I’m trying to say is do you want to be friends? ” Nidalee said, slipping into Ixtali. Neeko gasped, barely believing her ears.
“ You mean it? Friends? ”
“ Sure, you seem nice, and I’d bet a week of steak dinners that no one else has really made the effort to .” The fact that the statement was true didn’t make a dent in Neeko’s mood. Nidalee wanted to be friends!
“Shall we get to class now? We’re both in TF’s class.”
The idea of walking to class with Nidalee, just the two of them, sounded like a great idea! Neeko nodded her agreement and stood up.
“Before we do go, I do have to ask,” Nidalee said, sighing. “What did Chloe say to you?”
“Oh…” Neeko paused with her back to Nidalee. When Neeko spoke again, it was flat. Automatic. “It’s not important. Neeko doesn’t even know the meaning of half of what she said.”
“They upset you though, didn’t they?” Nidalee said softly. “You don’t need to know what someone means to be upset when they berate you. Just the tone is enough to ruin your day.” Neeko told Nidalee what Chloe had said and heard a low, guttural growl. Neeko whirled around in surprise, certain a large animal was in the room, but it was just Nidalee, looking furious.
“No. That’s not acceptable.” Nidalee was clutching the strap of her bag so hard, Neeko could see her muscles popping out of the back of her hand. “She doesn’t get to go around saying that to people and get away with it.”
“It’s fine-”
“No. It really isn’t.” Nidalee took out her smartphone and started tapping, muttering out her message under her breath as she did so. Even with her exceptional senses, Neeko could only just make out what she was saying. “Hey. Neeko had another student make an extremely homophobic comment to her in Gym class. Gonna go get it reported then I’ll see if she’s okay to come to class. Dee doubleyou, I’ve already done my homework, I’ll drop it in when we’re done. Nid.”
“Really, it’s not a big-”
“Neeko.” Nidalee took a deep breath and counted to five. She didn’t want to seem frustrated at Neeko. “It’s a big deal to me. And the Student Council.”
“But we’ll miss class.”
Nidalee laughed.
“You won’t miss anything worth learning in TF’s class, trust me. We both saw the travesty he had to teach us about transformation magic last week. I’m part Vastaya, and I’m guessing you’re -?”
“Neeko is an Oovi-Kat, so, nearly!”
“Exactly. Trust me. You’ll feel all the better for talking about it with the Student President.”
Student President. Even the title seemed intimidating. Neeko’s concern must’ve shown on her face because Nidalee put a reassuring hand on Neeko’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Lux is actually really nice. She’s also really soft and sweet. Like a pudding.” Neeko giggled.
“Okay, Neeko will trust Nidalee because she is my friend .”
“That’s the spirit!” Nidalee gave Neeko a gentle, friendly slap on the back, and the two of them finally left the smelly changing room. “Oh, I almost forgot,” Nidalee muttered. She pulled a shiny copper badge out of her pocket, and attached it to the breast of her shirt. “Prefect badge. Gives me the right to escort a student around during class. I’ve been told off for forgetting it before.”
Neeko had yet to walk through Durandal Academy when the corridors were so quiet, she’d made sure to get to every class right on time thus far, so the change of pace was quite the shock. Possibly an even bigger shock, however, was just how easy it was to talk to Nidalee. Neeko was always self-conscious about babbling on for too long or interrupting when she found something interesting to jump on in conversation, but Nidalee didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, she almost seemed to have a sense for when Neeko was about to start talking, and she was content to let Neeko’s thoughts spill out of her mouth.
All too soon, they’d arrived at the Student Council Office. The door was brightly coloured, with lots of leaflets and posters stapled onto the flaked paintwork. Neeko felt the anxiety worm its way up her throat. Her skin felt all prickly again. What kind of girl was this Lux person to become the president of all students?
“You feeling alright?” Nidalee asked.
“No. Neeko feels sick.” Neeko admitted.
“It’s okay. Lux is really nice. I can do most of the talking for you.”
Neeko nodded, wiping her sweaty palms on her skirt.
Nidalee pushed open the door of the office without knocking. Neeko would’ve hesitated, but Nidalee gently pulled her in by the forearm.
“Oh, hi Nid! How’s it going?” A voice came from Neeko’s left, and she turned to face who she would’ve assumed was this ‘Lux’, had Nidalee forewarned against potentially unwanted advances from ‘the boy who also manned the Student Council Office’.
The boy was short-ish, with wild blond hair. He was holding some kind of magical artifact, a red gauntlet, in one hand, and an energy-boosting snackbar in the other. “Oh? Who’s your friend?” His voice had changed in a way Neeko did not understand when addressing Neeko.
“Can it, Ezreal.” Nidalee said, bonking Ezreal , on the head with a sheet of paper she’d pulled out of a drawer labelled Reports . “Where’s Lux?”
“Oh, she’s just gone to the loo.” Ezreal said. “Anyway. Name’s Ezreal. I’m the Deputy.” He put his hand out in front of him. Neeko looked at it in confusion, assumed it was some form of greeting, then copied the action. The two of them stood there for a solid five seconds, holding their arms out in front of them. Nidalee chuckled gently to herself.
“Oh, you’re the new girl, aren’t you?” Ezreal said. “Here, this is called a ‘handshake’.” He moved his hand to take gentle hold of Neeko’s. “It’s a form of greeting, a friendly ‘hello!’ A bit like waving, but more formal.”
“Oh! Hello, Ezreal!” Neeko said enthusiastically. She waved. Ezreal and Nidalee laughed, and the sound of it filled Neeko’s heart with warmth.
“So, anyway, what brings the two of you here this morning?” Ezreal asked, and his expression turned serious. “I’m guessing you didn’t pull her out of class just for a friendly introduction.” Nidalee grimaced.
“No. But it’s better if we wait until Lux gets back. I don’t wanna put Neeko under too much, she’s only been here two weeks.”
“Fair, fair.” Ezreal handed Neeko an unopened energy bar. “Want one?” Neeko looked over at Nidalee, who shrugged. She took it, opened it, and took a cautious bite. It tasted revolting. All wrong. Like food turned inside out.
“Eyuck!” Neeko exclaimed, spluttering. “This counts as food ?”
“If you have three hundred commitments and no way of stopping time it does,” Ezreal said with a shrug. “I’ll take it back if you don’t want it. I ain’t picky.” Neeko handed back the awful excuse for sustenance. Ezreal tore off the end Neeko had bitten and threw it in the trash. Just then, the door opened again and a girl with long, cherry red hair walked in.
Oh, she’s cute!!! Neeko thought.