"God, can't you pay attention for once in your life?" Peridot rubbed her temples, leaning back against the teacher's desk.
"When you give me something worthwhile to do, yeah. Sure."
"This is worthwhile! This homework isn't even difficult, Lazuli!" Except for C-13, that one had even taken Peridot a little while.
"Still boring," she grinned, kicking back in her chair with her feet crossed on top of the desk. Damn dirty sneakers and ripped jeans; she'd have to get some clorox wipes. Peridot groaned, ready to slam her head into a wall. Lapis twirled her short hair between her fingers, dark eyes unfocused as she mumbled something about renewing the deep blue dye. "I don't even need this―I ace all of the tests."
"That―that doesn't," the blonde gestured wildly at Lapis, "That's not how this works!"
"Chill, Dot―"
"My name is Peridot."
"Fine. Okay, Peridot. How does this work?"
She couldn't tell if the taller girl was actually asking―sitting there with a blank expression and relaxed posture that made her black Nirvana tank top bunch up at her navel―and oh god too much; the collar of the top showed far too much of her tanned skin for Peridot's approval. Keep it together, you gay shit.
"Well," oh so graceful, tutor, "F-first, I want to, uh. Uh, see you try to complete one of the problems."
"Any request?" Just do the damn homework, Lazuli.
"C-13."
Peridot's phone buzzed―just a text from Pearl asking how she was handling. Ready to rip my hair out.
"Done."
What. Oh, wow, that was quick.
"I'll just check it then." She pushed her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose. She turned the notebook to face her after taking a step to stand in front of Lapis' desk, reading the equations and comparing them to the steps and answers she had mesmerized. It was right, written in surprisingly neat cursive, although she seemed to use a lot of mental math―little problems jotted down and random numbers that didn't really fit in with the rest of the work. It almost looked like art, with some meaning behind it―a story. But her solution was there, a short paragraph full of numbers, circled, and completely correct.
"This. I―you―you solved it. In less than a few minutes. Like, seriously, these kind of word problems are like trying to analyze nineteenth century writing!"
Lapis shrugged, "Maybe that's why I'm good at it. I can't do the others worth shit, but these kinda remind me of short stories and stuff."
"I guess. The only classes you have A's in are ELA and your art elective."
"Don't forget PE."
"Yes, you are on the swim team after all. But that still won't make it easy to get into an acceptable college if you have C's and D's in four classes."
"Who said anything about college," Lapis murmured, crossing her arms and tilting the chair dangerously far. Her eyes hardened, shifting to avoid Peridot, "It's not like I'm even gonna make it 'till then."
Peridot swallowed hard, lips drawn into a tight line. How the hell is someone supposed to react to that?
Lapis fidgeted with her fingerless gloves, and Peridot noticed for the first time that they covered her entire forearms―black and torn at her elbows and knuckles. Her breathing was shallow, and she rocked back and forth in the chair slightly, gaze never leaving her shoes.
The blonde cleared her throat, running a hand through her short and choppy locks, "Um, well. Let's―let's just go over the rest of the homework."
Lapis nodded slowly, sitting up―like a normal human being―and reclaiming her notebook. They went over a few more problems, with Peridot explaining how to find the solutions with a bit more enthusiasm than probably necessary. Lapis just hummed along, otherwise silent and never lifting her head to look at Peridot.