She was a pretty disgusting wreck of a human being, between not showering for about a week, gorging herself on junkfood, and barely moving from her desk. The week or so her school was out so that students could focus on studying for their final exams? It was safe to say that it might be driving Nazz a little bit insane. Just a little.
Her marks were far from abysmal, but English was killing her. A few measly percentages lower and she would be down to a D grade in that class, and even though English wasn't as relevant to her preferred career paths as math or science was, it sure as hell wouldn't look good on her record. Heh, speaking of D's and schooling. She wondered how Double D was holding out. Probably studying his heart out, even though he already more than understood all the concepts and had all the material memorized. Her sigh was rueful, and she pouted a bit in the act so that she could blow a stray strand out dyed blonde hair out of her line of vision. A haircut was needed, but it could wait a few more days. Whether or not the schools that she was going to try and get into after highschool was over would overlook this blemish on her record was more worrying to her right now than any of her mild physical discomfort.
Shifting her weight onto the hind legs of her chair and stretching her arms up as far as they would go helped to deter her mind a bit from her enforced studying dogma. Nazz was good enough at human biology to know that the conditions she was working herself under weren't exactly the best for memory retention. She was putting herself under too much stress. What she needed was to get out of the house. Take a shower, do something dumb. Brushing her teeth would be a plus, too. Man, she grossed herself out sometimes. Heavy-lidded eyes flickered to her cellphone left discarded, despondent, and unwanted on the floor. Turning it off so that she would not be distracted while immersed in literature had not been an action that she regretted, but that was enough of that. Power returning to the screen through the form of a light white glow, the girl's eyes slowly lost their zombie glazing as she read through her missed texts. Ah, the sweet smell of socialization.
Kevin hadn't sent any, as he was most likely doing the same thing she was. His grades were even worse than hers, not to mention she let him know beforehand that she would be generally unavailable to do their usual junk, so that left him fairly out of the picture, not as much to her chagrin as one would assume should they not know the events of the cul-de-sac's highschool years. Those being Kevin's decline in interest in her as a potential romantic partner after she came out. Though he still retained a close friendship with her, he acted more detached than he had previously. Nazz definitely wasn't the only one who'd stopped being secretive about their sexual orientation during highschool, not that she was going to get too much into that. But that did remind her of the particular happenings associated with the sender of the few text messages she had received while her phone was turned off. Once they hit highschool, the Kanker's had loosened up a bit, and started interacting more with the other kids. And May? May had gotten really smart. Not Double D smart, but his definite second. As if that change hadn't been enough to ostracize her even more from her gearhead sisters, Lee happened to find her stash of porn, and though she was less surprised at the contents than she was that May actually had a porn haul, it still came as a bit of a shock to her sisters. As such, she started hanging out with Double D, and Ed lost his phobia of her due to loss of feeling in danger of kisses.
And being the girl she is, Nazz had swooped in and taken the girl under her proverbial wing. See, "proverbs". The English studying was coming down pat.
Of course, she'd done the same for Eddy after his episode. Oh, opps, haha, getting a bit off topic. But anyway, because of her legacy so-to-speak it didn't really come to anyone's surprise that she was homo-friendly, and she knew May was grateful for her company, she told her often enough. If nothing, May was a genuinely sweet girl, characteristics which outshone through her pug-nose and buck teeth. In Nazz's opinion, anyway. Some faceless jerks at the school obviously didn't think so, judging from the vandalism on her locker and whatnot.
She liked to think that her and May had gotten really close! They would talk about girls they thought were cute, did each others nails, and occasionally May would give her tutoring sessions, which was why she was texting her currently, actually.
Distracting herself from distracting herself from her schoolwork was a little bit too meta for her tastes. So, getting back to the present, she declined the invitation to study, saying she would prefer to move around after being holed up at her desk for so long, "if that's okay with you". The small ding that came henceforth accompanied by the suggestion it brought with it made her face light up in a lazy smile. A quick "see you there :))) give me like half an hr" and she was off to shower and make herself as presentable as possible.
Nazz could get down to business when she put her mind to it and do so she did. Showering off her grime took only a measly 8 minutes and in between the rushed amount of time it took her to complete her various other hygienic/cosmetic practices to her level of acceptable standards and walk the short distance over to the playground where they were meeting, she was more or less right on time. Rewarding her for her punctuality was a shockingly pretty-looking May Kanker. Naturally golden flax hair was styled into two loose twin braids down either side of her face and a sky blue sundress with white polka dots adorned her pudgy figure, a stark contrast to the dark lace-up boots she had on her feet in preparation of their oncoming venture into the forest.
Getting out of the house and doing something physical would get her mind off of her English textbooks! And a relaxed hike through the forest outside of the avenue was just the ticket – especially with such enjoyable company. May was a bundle of energy. As soon as she heard Nazz call her name in greeting her expression visibly lit up. She hopped off of the swing where she was waiting and jogged the short distance over so as to give the approaching girl a hug, which was received by the hugee with a giggle bordering on a snort, a faint blush, and a fleeting thought of how squishy and soft May's hug was.
"Missed you, Nazz!" May's already-prominent teeth were accentuated by how wide her smile was when she pulled out of the hug, but Nazz also caught notice of how the top of her nose crinkled up when her smile got as huge as it was right now, and she thought it was absolutely adorable.
"Hehe! Missed you too, dude! How's your studying going?" They set off together for the forest.
"Oh right! I'm doing a study-group thing with the Eds! Double D mostly, though." The far-off dreamy look that got on her face as she said that struck Nazz with a pang of jealousy. Unlike her, May swung both ways. It was selfish of her to get jealous, though – she had to remind herself that.
"How's Eddy doing? Haven't talked to him in a while."
That caused May's temperament to sour somewhat. "Like I said, he's in our study group too. Doesn't do much work though, just reads magazines and distracts Dee occasionally. Not that Edd seems to mind." May bit her bottom lip and quirked her mouth to the side in a restrained grimace. They walked for a few seconds in silence, Nazz unsure how to respond. Finally she broke the quiet by saying "You sure you know where we're going?"
"Hah, 'course I do! I go there all the time when I want to get away to somewhere peaceful for a while. A little way off, yeah, but the flowers there are gorgeooussss~" the sentence ended in a sigh.
A gust of wind blew though Nazz's still-somewhat-damp bob of hair, bringing their surroundings to her attention. They'd reached the forest edge already?
May spoke her thoughts out loud. "Oh! That was quick." Turning her head toward Nazz and somewhat cocking it to the right, she motioned they move towards their destination further with an inquisitive smile, eyes locked on the other girl for her reaction.
Giving her okay, the two set their first footsteps through the border of where the trees met the sidewalk. For the most part they walked through a previously-trodden path but once they got close enough to smell the wildflowers they had to cut through a thick tangle of flora to reach the clearing. It was all worth it once they were there though. Out of the sprawl of amethyst and cornflower gems, a few lone sunflowers stood tall and proud, heads turned towards the slanting sun that was shafting its way through the edge's overhang of treeleaves. In shock at how lovely it was, Nazz raised her french-manicured hands to either side of her face as she let out a gasp of awe. Turning to May, she found that the other girl had been looking at her already, watching her reaction. And the smile on May's face had grown wider than ever.
"Pretty, right? Hope you aren't afraid of honeybees."
She shook her head no.
"They like this place – for obvious reasons."
"Yeah" Nazz breathed out.
The clearing was intoxicating. First they found a patch of thyme where they could lay down and flopped out on the greenery, pointing out what they could see int he formations of clouds above, both squinting and May shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. After rolling over and accidentally finding a ladybug on a fourleaved clover right beside Nazz's head, they spent a good few hours making flowercrowns and trying to find more of the clovers for as much good luck on their exams as possible. It was the sort of place Nazz figured that faeries would choose to live, and May seemed right at home. Of course she said that this was her haven to escape to when she needed it, but it really seemed like she belonged here. Like she was one of the faeries, and this was her home. So the fact that she had invited Nazz to visit it, without any prompting and of her own accord? She felt trusted.
The object of her wandering thoughts, previously bathed in dappled sunlight, suddenly was enveloped in a large shadow that Nazz realized was slowly taking over the whole of the forest, not to mention the rest of the clearing. Looking up in alarm at the unexpected loss of light, May's large, dark, storm-blue eyes matched the rolling cloud that was towering over them ominously, threatening by coming closer and closer overhead, even in the few seconds they spared to observe it in shock. Neither had noticed it, they'd been too absorbed in the natural garden.
Both looked to the other in alarm. Neither of them were exactly dressed for being pelted with rain, and from the looks of that cloud? If they didn't move fast they'd be drenched. Like two spooked deer, the girls got up from their grouching positions and, oblivious to their grass-stained knees and crowns of flora in hand, made a break for the safety of the tree's more dense foliage. Hopefully if they ran fast enough they could beat the cloud and make it to Nazz's, but the way the tumbling rumble of thunder above them roared at their backs as they ran, she doubted they would make it that far by the time the first drops fell.
Retreating pigtails trailing in front of her made it obvious that May was a faster runner than she was. It had taken them about 15 minutes to walk to where they were currently, but Nazz knew that she had the stamina to run the whole way back. What she didn't know was how long it would take her, and whether that would be enough time to avoid the oncoming downpour. May's squeal was enough to drag her violently out of her reverie – "IT'S RAINING ALREADY!" Accentuated by a streak of lightning overhead that lit up both the girl's hair so that it was more yellow than normal, she could see that they needed to find shelter, and fast.
Reading Nazz's mind seemed to be a talent May possessed, because right as she thought that, the beeline she was making toward the cul-de-sac diverted offcourse. Trusting that May had an idea in mind, Nazz followed without prompt.
By the time they reached the old treehouse, their plans of not being drenched in rain were out of the window. The scale they made one-after-the-other up the trunk of the oak towards their sanctuary was a hurried but thankful one. Gasping like they were drowning, May was the first to climb up the ladder, the reached back down to help pull Nazz up after her. The added help in leverage helped her climb in and the sudden shift in their center of gravity once Nazz got one foot inside the treehouse caused May to fall backwards and land with a thud as she let go of the other girl's hand.
Rather than look annoyed about the unexpected rainfall, May looked exhilarated. Both out of breath, they rested for a while, one leaning back so that she was lying on the floor and the other on her hands and knees. After a while Nazz crawled over and flopped down beside May, much like when they were cloud-watching, but now all that the view from the floor provided them was a wooden ceiling with a cobweb in the corner, long forgotten by its spider. The old treehouse was so abandoned that it seemed the insects didn't even want to take refuge here.
"OH I just realized! I didn't even ask you! How's your studying going? You asked about mine, so it's only fair." The girl in the sodden sundress turned her head to the side to look at her friend, curious.
Nazz groaned. She explained how hard she'd been hitting the books for English class, and how it wasn't fair that it was so hard because she barely had to study for physics so why was she having such a difficult time with this when it was supposedly so much easier?
All she got in response was a giggle and a "Not everyone's good at everything, y'know."
Nazz turned from staring absentmindedly at the ceiling to look at her with a smirk and reply "You are, though."
"Pfffffthahah, golly. I'm really not." Though the compliment seemed to have made her happy, she seemed genuinely sad. "There are plenty of things I'm not even so much as good at. Yeah academics-wise I'm alright, but stuff like knowing whether or not someone likes you?"
"May..."
"And that's not it. I'm not exactly the prettiest either, everyone can see that, heh. I've got my trademark teeth issue and my huge gross nose and my chub. I think my sisters inherited all of mom's good features and then by the time I came around there weren't any left. I know that's not how genetics works but that's what it feels like."
They sat quietly. Then a whispered, "It's unlikely that anyone likes me as anything other than friends. Who'd want to date a pig, right?", barely heard above the pounding of the rain.
Nazz sat up. That did it.
"You have the prettiest hair I've ever seen, you know that, right?" The way she said it came off more accusatory than she meant it to, but she went on anyway. "Your eyes are huge and cute and beautiful, and you're a genius, and put up with so, so much bullshit, dude."
It was like her freckles were spots left on her face where she was touched by the rain, and the flowers they had picked earlier sat drooped under the pressure of water, crushed in her hands, with her whitening knuckles. The fragrance of the mangled stems and petals was overpowering, and Nazz let out a cough, half from the cold and half from the smell. May started, and said "Hey, you brought a backpack with you, right?", to which she received a nod. Nazz handed said bag to the other girl, who rifled through it's contents. Finding an XXXL jacket Nazz had collected during her more large days, she suggested they both huddle inside it to conserve body heat.
They both fit easily inside the jacket and soon started to feel warmer, though Nazz was still shivering. May just sat beside her, warming her up while at the same time absorbing as much heat as she could.
Nazz started again with a "You know I was heavy too? Like, way heavier than you." May only nodded, still silent, lip quivering.
She tried again. "We might be here awhile." Another nod, slower this time. "Do y'know what my grandma used to say about freckles?"
May observed her then, those eyes as dark as a hurricane threatening to brim over with water, saltwater preparing to join the droplets of freshwater on her speckled cheeks. Waiting to listen to what Nazz had to say.
"She said, 'People who have freckles are kissed by the faeries.' It's supposed to be good luck, like having a guardian angel almost. Except with little butterfly wings, I guess?" That at least got May to let out a small snort of laughter. It wasn't a lot, but it was something.
"So all those fourleaf clovers we found? They aren't nearly as lucky as you are. And we found like five."
With a contained but contented sigh, May snuggled up to Nazz, laying her head against the taller girl's shoulder. "Nazz? Do you think anyone likes me?"
It didn't even take her a moment of hesitation to answer. May needed reassurance that she was loved and god damn it Nazz was going to give her it.
"I sure do, dude. And I'm sure your sisters and Double D do too. They'd be stupid not to." And with that, Nazz took May's hand in her own, giving it a faint squeeze for reassurance, but May seemed to have more questions than she did before now.
Or once more question, anyway.
"Wait, do you mean like…"
In answer to her question, Nazz moved her head forward languidly and gave an innocent kiss, right on May's self-bitten lips.
When she opened her eyes and pulled back, she couldn't help but laugh a bit at what she saw. The other girl's usually-pale face was heated up like the sun had decided to tak refuge on her skin from the onslaught of rain, and it was the most gorgeous thing Nazz thought she had ever seen. Taking the flowers that May held in her hand still, she laid them gently on top of her head, rivulets of water flowing down onto her tresses that had been hiding among the petals.
"Once we get out of here…" Nazz began, "…do you think you could help me study for my English final? There's just some stuff I really don't get for some reason, and I'm sure you could help me with it."
"Yea–h…okay." May sounded as though her breath had been stolen from her, much like Nazz had when she'd first seen the forest clearing.
They kissed again, and waited until the sky's angry thundering abated enough to let them make the short trek back to Nazz's. Until then, though, they could wait. Being huddled together in a jacket and surrounded by flowers while the world raged outside the treehouse? It was safe to say that it wasn't exactly an too unpleasant of an experience. Not too shabby.