Chapter Text
Emma grunted as she placed her massive pile of books down on the lunch table, amber eyes scanning the crowd of other middle school children for any of her friends. It wasn't often that she was the first one to arrive in the cafeteria for lunch, but today ended up being one of those days. It wasn't two seconds later, though, that Kathryn pushed her way through the swarm of hungry children and towards her. It was obvious that the girl hadn't had the chance to stop by her locker yet, for her own stack of books and folders was teetering in her grasp with every step.
"Do you need some help, Kat?" Emma called as her friend approached, brushing her muddy brown hair out of her eyes so that the strands weren't obscuring her vision. They would need to get in the lunch line fast if they wanted any decent food, but she wasn't about to leave her friend behind for the promise of a meal that was a bit less bland than usual.
"No, I've got it," Kathryn groaned, finally managing to stumble over to the lunch table and slam her books down on it. Her pale blue eyes met her friend's for only a moment as she righted herself, a silent agreement leading the two in the direction of the lunch line. "I was actually hoping that our loads would get lighter now that school's almost over," she continued, dropping the volume of her voice as she approached one of her smaller classmates at the end of the line. They both knew that they could be a little loud at times, but had learned to control it after a few too many times of someone hearing something they weren't supposed to hear.
Emma gave a quick nod to affirm that she'd heard her friend, the sweet smell of warm chocolate chip cookies drifting over from a table set up near the far wall of the cafeteria. The girl ignored the desire for sweets the smell was giving her, though, for she'd discovered firsthand just how deceiving the irresistible aroma could be. They'd been decent enough to receive her approval the first time she'd purchased one, but after that the quality of the cookies had quickly deteriorated. Her focus quickly returned to the food she intended to purchase, however, when one of the lunch ladies asked her what she wanted. She looked down at the meal for a moment, holding back a look of distaste as she looked down at the taco meat, which was overly saturated with sauce, that the woman intended to serve her.
"Just a taco, please," she said finally, remaining polite as she accepted the food from the woman. It was either she ate this or she went hungry, for she had forgotten to pack her own lunch that morning.
The girl took her lunch with a small smile, picking up a carton of chocolate milk and a small bag of chips before paying for the food. Emma was quick to return to her seat after that, pushing her stack of books out of the way before sitting down beside her friend. She would prefer not to have the threat of her books toppling over as she was eating loom over her, so she figured the best solution was to move them out of the way.
"Why did you even bother getting the taco, Emma? You know the meat always tastes funny," Kathryn scolded her, looking down at her friend's lunch with a frown. She had been smart enough to grab a slice of leftover pizza from yesterday, so there wasn't much for her to complain about.
"Every meat they serve here tastes funny, Kathryn. A little bit won't hurt me," Emma retorted, taking a bite of the food quickly. Though the flavor of the sauce wasn't one she was overly fond of, she wasn't about to simply throw the taco away. She had paid for it, after all. Her friend shrugged softly in response, ending the conversation there for a few moments as they nibbled on their respective meals. Once Kathryn finished, though, there was no way she was about to sit there silently.
"Just don't get sick, okay? You still have to help me plead my case to Abby later," she chided, tossing her trash in the direction of the trash can. Everyone in the school knew that Kathryn wasn't an extremely sporty person, though, so it was no surprise when the crumpled chip bag and other assorted wrappers tumbled to the floor far before they reached the trash can.
Emma chuckled softly before standing to pick up the fallen garbage, tossing it gently into the nearby trash can. She shook her head gently in the direction of her annoyed friend, surprised that she'd brought the topic up again so soon. "I told you, Kathryn, I don't care who Toothiana ends up with. Though I admit that she would look cute with Pitch, I'm not going to fight with Abby over it," she groaned, sitting down next to the blue haired girl and slouching in her seat. The guardians were a sensitive topic for her, especially since she sympathized with the one villain of the story, and she would prefer not to speak of them simply in the aspect of potential relationships. "It's not worth it. No matter what you say, she's still going to ship frostbite."
"Come on, Emma, what's a little rivalry between friends? Besides, maybe it'll finally get her to stop sitting here at lunch. That would be nice," a snide voice mused, setting his paper lunch bag down in front of him as he claimed a spot at the table. Andrew.
"If you don't like her, why do you sit here? Just go somewhere else," Emma growled, clenching her fists in her lap as her amber irises glared at him. He had been nothing more than a nuisance, as she'd reminded him many times, since he'd decided to sit down at their lunch table. She could never figure out why he stayed, though she had a few good guesses.
Andrew was a bully, and an overly enthusiastic one at that. He was very intent on making someone's day miserable all of the time, and the one person he'd been bothering lately was Abby, one of Emma's other dear friends. She wished that she could grind him into a pulp in order to get him to cease his childish behaviors, but the last thing she wanted was to get herself caught up in this mess if she needed to bring it to the attention of the teachers. That seemed to be where this was headed, after all, because it had been his goal to make the girl cry for the past three days.
"I would, but it's too much fun to pick on you guys. By the way, where is Miss Immature? She's usually here by now," the boy continued, smirking when he saw the ever growing frown on Emma's face. It was all that she could do to keep from teaching him a lesson right then and there.
"She's sick today," Kathryn answered tersely, worried blue eyes meeting her angry friend's for just a moment. She knew how upset the girl beside her usually got when Andrew started talking about their friend, and she herself thought that he deserved a good punch in the face for the words that were spewing from his annoying mouth, but there was nothing that either of them could do but endure it until lunch was over. Thankfully, that end wasn't too far away, because by the time the bell rang Kathryn was desperately trying to keep her friend from lunging at the boy wearing a triumphant smirk just inches from the pair.
"You'd better leave us, and Abby, alone from now on; There might be some unpleasant consequences waiting for you otherwise," Emma warned, stopping herself from getting any closer to the bully. Physical threats from her would do nothing but get her into more trouble, but she was sure that Andrew knew how sincere her words were. The threatening tone she spoke in now was one she barely took on, but it was effective when it did make an appearance.
"Oh come on, that's no way to talk to an old friend, Emma," Andrew scoffed, turning and heading towards his next class before either of the girls could spit out an answer. Emma was about to go after him, but a hand on her shoulder made her freeze where she was.
"Let's go. We've got to get to class," Kathryn said, keeping the grip she had on the other girl tight as she turned towards the hallway they were standing in front of. She could feel Emma's shoulders shaking in anger with every breath, but the last thing she was about to do was point it out. She didn't want to set off the explosive temper that her friend was holding back.
"I don't care if he's decided to stop or not, Kat. We're going to tell somebody tomorrow, because I'm done dealing with him," Emma spat, letting the last of her anger dissipate after a couple of steady, deep breaths. She'd never been so easily worked up by one person before, but she wasn't going to let it bother her. If she was lucky, he wouldn't be here by the time school was out tomorrow.
"I think everyone's done dealing with him," her friend chuckled, leading the way down the hall to their next class. The rest of the afternoon would hopefully be a breeze, but they still had to make it to class on time.
Emma couldn't help but feel calmer as they slipped into the art room, the sounds of pencils on paper drifting towards her as she eased the door shut behind them. Only a few kids were already working on whatever project they had decided to tackle for the day, but that was to be expected. The kids who truly loved art were the only ones that worked hard in the class, anyways. The two took their seats adjacent to each other without hesitation, barely even noticing that there was a substitute teacher until she interrupted their preparations to introduce herself. The two friends didn't pay much attention, though, for they knew that there wouldn't be any new projects. It was too close to the end of the year.
Kathryn was the first to wrestle her sketchbook from the depths of her backpack full of textbooks, carefully flipping to the drawing she had been working on last. Both of the girls had been testing their skills in drawing different guardians over the past few weeks, though it was barely a contest. Emma had a passion for art that no one else she knew possessed, but she didn't have the talent to create that art herself. Kathryn, however, possessed the unnatural talent that her friend coveted. Today, she would use it to finish the sketch she had made of all of the guardians defeating Pitch.
Emma took out her tablet with a sigh, just a glance in the direction of her friend's sketchbook preparing her for an hour of imperfection. She knew she wasn't great at drawing, but something made her keep trying. It hurt every time Kathryn told her that something was off about it, but the little mistakes weren't going to stop her either. She would get better; she just needed to practice a bit. She pulled up the reference photo she had chosen quickly, the various shade of blue and gray that made up Bunnymund's fur appearing on the screen as she flipped open the sketchbook she carried. She was going to get it right today, for there wasn't much time left to show her friend that she could.
However, nothing seemed to change that day. While others were complimenting her on doing well with such a difficult drawing, Kathryn would comment on its flaws: the feet were too big for the body, the ears looked weird. It was starting to happen often enough that she could almost expect it. Emma had fixed as much of the drawing she possibly could by the end of class, but it still couldn't hold a candle to the flawless piece of art her friend had nearly completed.
"It just needs some color, and then it's finished!" Kathryn said, smiling as she revealed the sketch to the girl beside her.
"It looks great," Emma replied, faking her own smile as she packed away her things. It was a good drawing, but she was surprised that the girl would show it to her so enthusiastically. She did remember that her favorite of the group was Pitch, right?
She managed to cast the thought aside as they walked towards their last class together, listening to Kathryn babble on about how she needed better art supplies if she was going to be able to finish the drawing the way she wanted all the way to the math classroom. It was a bit of a long walk, but somehow they always managed to make it on time.
Once they got into the room and settled into their seats, it wasn't hard for Emma to lose herself in her thoughts. The teacher barely taught them in the first place, so she would just end up teaching herself to do the homework later on. As the class dragged on, though, the girl could feel the events of the day weighing down on her. She normally felt tired in math class, but she hadn't fallen asleep in class yet. However, her eyelids were growing heavier by the minute and it was becoming harder and harder to keep them from closing.
I'll just rest my head for a minute, she thought as she laid her head on the desk. As soon as her eyes closed, though, Emma was pulled into a dream world that she didn't mind seeing for once.