"Alright, everyone! Today, we'll be learning about the other planets through a partnered activity. I have paired you off according to first name in alphabetical order. We'll start with Aaron and Ashley..."

Frisk sighed heavily as the teacher ran through the other kid's names, tapping their fingernails against the wood of their desk. They never really looked forward to working with other kids in their class for many reasons, from their being bullied to the workload being piled on them. The teacher said that group work was meant to be fun and mind-opening, but it never came across to Frisk that way.

They hated it.

"...Fran Bow and Frisk Dreemurr..."

Frisk never got the opportunity to get to know the quiet girl they'd been paired with. She sat near the back by herself, wearing black-and-white striped leggings under a pale, yellow dress. Her hair was cut in a brown bob, kind of like Frisk's. The girl seemed almost too thin, and her eyes always had a sunken kind of maturity to them.

It reminded Frisk of themselves.

Fran nearly always sat alone, whether it'd been during lunch or in the classroom. She seemed like a sweet girl, but Frisk, too, had heard the rumors about her. That she'd killed her own parent while they slept one night. That she'd been sent to an asylum to be treated for a mental disorder. That she was crazy and couldn't be trusted.

Of course, rumors weren't always true.

"Okay, everyone. Go get with your partner and then come grab a sheet!" yelled the teacher as she frantically waved a fat stack of papers in the air.

Frisk stood hesitantly. They knew that Fran might be too shy to make the first move, so it was up to them. They cautiously picked their way through the flooding mass of students making their way through the classroom, careful not to run into anyone. When the brown-haired child finally made their way through the crowd, they walked up to Fran's desk.

She was rummaging around in her backpack, which sat on the other side of the desk. Frisk decided to wait patiently until she was finished.

Fran re-emerged with a pencil in her grasp, smiling victoriously. When she noticed Frisk, her smile visibly faltered.

"Hi," Frisk started, "I'm your partner."

"O-oh, hi Frisk," Fran replied, a small smile on her face.

"If...you could get some blank sheets of black construction paper, I'll go get the directions and some colored pencils," Frisk offered.

"Okay," Fran responded, standing up again.

Frisk smiled, hoping they could get her to loosen up a little bit.

Ms. Hurley gave Frisk a piece of paper which held the directions on it.

"I think you and Fran will get along," she commented as Frisk took it.

"I hope so," they stated honestly, smiling at the teacher and thanking her before turning towards another desk, which held boxes of various art supplies. Frisk picks out red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, and white colored pencils, noting that they would have to sharpen a few of them later on.

They returned to Fran's desk, where she was laying out the blank pieces of construction paper in a line. She proceeded to tape them together by the edges, front and back.

Frisk looked around, and then pushed an unused desk to the one Fran was working on. They then laid out the construction paper so it lay flat on the surface. After that, they snagged another chair to bring over.

"Okay, here are the instructions. 'First, tape together four sheets of paper'. You got that done. 'Secondly, draw the planets in their correct order, starting from the sun and ending with Neptune. Thirdly, label them. Be sure to spell their names correctly! Fourthly, color them. Finally, turn this project in by the end of class, and be prepared to present!'" Frisk finishes.

"I guess it's not that hard," Fran admits.

"Yeah. So. There are eight planets. I'll do the last four if you'll do the first four?" Frisk offered, rolling up the sleeves of their blue-and-purple sweater.

"Sounds like a plan!" Fran responds eagerly.

The pair fell into a companionable silence as the two got to work, drawing the outline of the planets and coloring them in. Frisk reminded themselves to be wary of the outline as to not color outside the lines.

"Earth really is a pretty planet," Fran speaks up suddenly. Her voice contains none of its previous shyness.

"I think so, too. I like how the blues and greens mix with the whites of the clouds," Frisk agrees.

Fran looks up from her drawing, nodding. "Isn't it strange to think that three colors of such different things could come together and be so pretty?"

"It is. Mountains, land, seas, oceans, clouds, smoke..." Frisk drops their pencil. "hey don't really come together on the planet, but when you're in outer space?"

"It's a unique little feature of Earth," Fran replied, returning to her picture.

Frisk nods, their fingertips sliding across her pencil, gently twirling it between their fingers. The two students returned to their pictures, quietly sketching the outlines of distant worlds in gentle strokes of white-colored pencil. They fill in the circles with varying shades of different colors.

"Do you ever think about what would happen if people were able to live and thrive on Mars? If we ever created the technology to do that?" Fran asked, her voice soft and slightly unsteady as she continues to color.

"Unfortunately, I think that people would just...rely too heavily on there being another planet. Another way to live. I feel like they'd just destroy it, kind of like they're doing to this planet. Trashing it, expecting nature to somehow clean up the mess they made." Frisk shut their mouth for a second, flashbacks of Judgment Hall flooding back suddenly. "They destroy one planet only to move on to the next."

Fran nodded. "I feel like you're the only one who feels the same way I do. Whenever I ask other people, they just...give me this weird look. Like I'm-"

"-crazy," Frisk finished for her, putting their pencil down.

Fran looked up, too. "Yeah. Crazy."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Frisk hesitantly placed their hand on Fran's. "You know, I don't believe the rumors about you. I think you're really sweet and smart."

The girl's eyes seem to be almost glassy as she smiled. "Thanks, Frisk. I like you too."

Frisk nodded. "People say the worst things when they don't understand something. Or someone."

"Yeah. Isn't that the truth," Fran agreed.

"Do you...maybe want to sit together at lunch?" Frisk asked, smiling.

"Yeah! That'd be awesome," Fran replied, giving Frisk a genuine smile.

"Great!" Frisk stated, putting her pencil down on the desk and swiping the rest of them off of their paper. "It looks like we're about finished. We just have to label them. What was the silly phrase Ms. Hurley told us?"

"M-V-E-M-J-S-U-N," Fran recalled, "My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Noodles!"

"Noodles!" Frisk squealed, then remembered her skeletal friend. "I'll have to introduce you to my friend. He's a skeleton! Actually, I have two skeleton friends!"

Fran gasps, and for a moment, Frisk thought Fran's smile couldn't get any wider. "You have a skeleton friend too?!"

"Oh yeah! Who's your skeleton?" Frisk questioned.

"His name is Itward," Fran replied, "he's really nice and helps me and Mr. Midnight out a lot."

"Who's Mr. Midnight?" Frisk asked as she labels her planets.

"He's my dear kitty! He has fur the color of this paper," Fran remarked, tapping the black paper.

"I bet he's really cute," Frisk commented.

"He is! I'll have to introduce you two." Fran stated. Frisk nodded, looking down at their project. By now, the planets have been completely labeled. Ms. Hurley stepped towards the pair.

"My, my," the teacher started, "you two are already finished! The other groups are still trying to finish coloring. Your project looks awesome!"

"Thank you, Ms. Hurley. We make a great team!" Fran yelled.

"It seems so. I'll have to pair you two up more often," Ms. Hurley replied, "but for now, you two have free time. Use it wisely," she finishes with a small smirk before walking off to check up on the other groups.

"Yes!" Fran exclaimed, "free time!"

"What should we do?" Frisk asked.

"Hm...maybe we should prepare for the presentation," Fran said.

"Sounds good. So. Should we just take turns or...?"

…

The two gazed down at the handwriting of their teacher. Written in silver Sharpie on the edge of their project was:

100 A+! : D

"Awesome!" Fran yelled as the two high-fived.

"Epic!" Frisk replied, smiling.

"Itward's going be happy! This is the highest grade I've ever got on a group project," Fran said.

"Cool!" Frisk was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing.

"Sounds like it's time for lunch. Shall we?" Fran asked, gesturing towards the door.

"We shall," Frisk replied, grinning as the two walked out the door and happily journeyed to the cafeteria.