I've had this idea for a while and only just got around to writing it. Initially it was just a one shot but then it got waaaay out of hand and I split it into chapters. This'll probably only be a short fic and I'll probably only continue it if people like it, so yeah. Here ya go. :)
The familiar creak of the door indicated her of another person's presence early enough. Bonnibel hunched over the test tubes she was working with, carefully applying an extra drop of starch to test tube two. Closing herself up was the intention.
"Hey, Bonnibel," She blinked down at her feet when she heard the awful scrape of chair legs against classroom floors. It made her skin crawl. "I've been meaning to come and see you for a little while now."
Bonnie shifted as the intruder sat down. Solitude was her safety net and it had been broken. She used her peripheral vision to fully identify her. Lady Rayner. Eleventh grade, like herself. Lots of friends.
Lady sent her a soft smile, her hazel eyes burning holes in Bonnie's skin. She didn't like the feeling at all. "What're you working on there, Bonnie?"
The nickname made her shift. She didn't like that, either. Bending names wasn't allowed. Her name was Bonnibel. Not Bonnie. That was set. It was orderly, and Bonnibel liked orderly.
She coughed and took her time to formulate a response to the question. Science was hers. Experiments were what she did in here. It was her lunchtime thing. She did not like being disturbed as it ruined her routine.
"I am conducting an experiment on starch in plant leaves." Bonnibel blinked down at the test tubes through her safety goggles. She shifted again, away from Lady. "It is a recap of our ninth grade experiment for the test soon."
"Oh, yeah, I remember doing that," Lady sent her another one of her wide smiles which Bonnie caught in her peripheral. "Elle nearly blew something up because she put the wrong chemical in the beaker."
"Being haphazard in the lab is not funny." Bonnibel's tone was clipped as she replied, and she didn't notice how Lady's demeanour changed completely, the atmosphere in the room thickening. "It is dangerous."
"Um, yeah," Lady shifted on her seat and tried another smile in an attempt to get the redhead to respond positively. "So, how are you? We haven't talked in a while, have we?"
Bonnibel frowned, unsure of which question to answer first. The wires in her brain all became crossed and she gripped onto the chair she was sat on, scrunching her face up in thought. It took her doubly as long to respond. "I am fine. We have not talked because you are busy with your friends."
"Oh, well- uh, I'm good too," Lady's attempts at conversation were obviously failing, not that Bonnibel even noticed. "I have been busy with my friends. Have you seen any of your friends?"
"I do not have friends." Bonnibel stared down at the test tubes in an effort to keep her mind focused on her experiment. "People think that I am weird."
"I'm your friend." Lady nudged Bonnibel with her arm and cringed when every muscle in the redhead's body tensed up. "Sorry, Bonnie. Didn't mean to do that. I forgot that you don't like it."
It took Bonnibel a few moments to come out of her shell. "You do not want to be my friend."
"What do you mean? Of course I do," Lady tried that same smile again. "I've known you since we were tiny. Remember? I used to spend loads of time with you."
"You do not want to be seen with me." Bonnibel shot down all of Lady's arguments in a second. "You never come and visit me and you disturb my routine. Friends do not disturb my routine."
"I'm visiting you right now." Lady pointed out, nodding towards the door. "Come on. We'll go for a nice little walk outside while your experiment sets. How about that?"
Bonnibel stared down at her lap and fiddled with her fingers. A walk outside would mean a change in routine and she didn't like the sound of that. She didn't want to leave her experiment, either. It was important.
"No." Bonnibel stared at the test tubes again. "I must stay here."
"Alright then, I'll wait for you to finish and then we'll go for a walk." Lady folded her arms across her chest. "Your mom told me that she wants you to go outside for a little while."
Bonnibel blinked in confusion. "My mother?"
"Yes," Lady nodded, "she said she wants you to go outside. What better time than the present? It would be nice for you and me to catch up, wouldn't it?"
"Please do not ask so many questions." Bonnibel scrunched her face in thought again. "I do not understand."
Lady dropped her voice to a whisper. "Bonnibel, look at me."
Bonnie looked up on command, her blue eyes big, wide and uncertain. She did not like the way Lady was looking straight at her. It made her very uncomfortable.
"I would really like it if you'd come for a walk with me now." Lady said slowly. "Can you do that for me, Bonnie?"
Bonnibel blinked and, unable to stand the direct eye contact any longer, stared back down at her feet. "Yes."
"Alright then," The scraping of Lady's chair indicated that she was leaving. Bonnie made no move to get up and continued to stare at her test tubes. "Come on. We're going for a walk."
At this prompt, Bonnibel stood up and stared straight ahead at the classroom door. She didn't like the sound of going out there. It was lunchtime and all of her peers were out there. Her peers bumped into her and poked and prodded at her and she didn't like it one bit. They also called her names she didn't like.
Bonnibel was her name. Not any of the things they called her.
As they made their way outside, Bonnibel stared at Lady's feet to get a good sense of direction, not realising that the blonde was taking the least crowded way outside that she could. Either way, there was a sense of relief when Bonnibel felt fresh air. Outdoors meant space.
Bonnie liked space.
"So, how are your family?" Lady sat down on the grass and looked up at Bonnibel. "Sit down here."
Bonnie nodded and sat down on the grass, keeping her hands firmly on her lap. She didn't like the way the grass felt against her palms. It was like little pinpricks against her skin. "My family are fine."
"Mine are too." Lady answered the return question that Bonnie wouldn't ask. She watched as the redhead shuffled uncomfortably. "Are you having fun at school this year?"
"Oh, yes," Academia was one of Bonnie's favourite things, "yes, school is very fun. I especially like science classes because it is formulaic and explains to me the proper ways that the world works. It is nice to know that every little thing is backed up by a formula and logic. I like formulas. Formulas have order."
Lady seemed a little taken aback by Bonnibel's sudden enthusiasm. Bonnie didn't pick up on this, or the fact that she seemed distracted. "Yeah. It's nice. Is it okay if my friends come and sit with us?"
Bonnibel collapsed in on herself almost immediately and shook her head frantically, but Lady wasn't looking. Friends meant loud noises and lots of people poking and prodding at her. Friends meant people she didn't know, nor was she comfortable with.
By the time she'd opened her mouth to respond, it was too late. People she recognised but didn't know were sitting down, encircling her, closing her in until it was starting to become too much.
A muscular boy slung an arm around Lady. "Who's your friend, babe?"
He had drawn attention to her, and suddenly the other people were a lot more interested in her. As their interest increased, Bonnibel closed herself off more and more, trying to ignore the way they were looking at her. Five pairs of eyes on her felt like a thousand little bugs crawling across her skin, making her want to scratch herself until her skin was raw.
A blond boy addressed her directly. "Aren't you in my science class?"
Bonnie shifted uncomfortably. "I do not know. I doubt it. I am in the top class for science."
The boy with his arm around Lady snorted with laughter and elbowed the other boy, but Bonnie didn't understand why he was laughing. It wasn't like she'd said anything funny, and Bonnie wasn't good at jokes anyway.
A girl dressed almost head to toe in purple clicked her fingers in front of Bonnie's face, probably to gather her attention. Bonnibel jumped backwards and didn't look up. "Aren't you that weird girl?"
Bonnie didn't answer to that and rubbed the material of her shirt between her thumb and forefinger in an effort to calm herself down. She didn't like that word. Weird. It made her uncomfortable because she knew it was negative and she wasn't sure why people were calling her that. She hadn't done anything wrong, as far as she knew.
"Elle," Lady sent her friend a stern look and the other girl held her hands up in defence. Then, Lady cleared her throat and motioned towards Bonnibel. "Everyone, this is Bonnibel. I've known her since I was a kid because her mom is friends with mine. We used to spend a lot of time together. Her mom wanted her to meet you all."
Unaware of that last fact, Bonnibel spoke up before Lady could continue. "My mother did not tell me this."
"Yeah, she said something about wanting you to make more friends, so…" Lady trailed off and Bonnie frowned to herself. Although she'd addressed some concerns to her mother about how lonely she felt at times, she didn't think that she'd do anything about it. Bonnie hadn't asked her to. "Anyway, Bonnibel, this is Jake, Finn, Elle and Marceline."
Bonnie kept her head down and nodded, following Lady's finger as she pointed at each person. Elle was the blonde who liked purple. Finn was the boy with the white hat with bear ears. Jake was the boy with his arm around Lady.
Marceline was the one she hadn't noticed.
Apparently, she wasn't very interested in Bonnie. She was just sat scrolling through her phone, caring enough to casually nod in Bonnibel's direction when Lady pointed to her. Bonnibel liked this. Uninterested was good. She didn't like attention.
After Lady had introduced her, everyone went back to their supposed lunchtime routine. Elle was gossiping about some girl and Finn and Jake didn't seem to care as they debated about superheroes. Once Bonnibel decided it was safe and everyone's eyes were no longer on her, she looked up and stared at Marceline, who was still invested in her phone.
She was very pretty, Bonnie decided. Her black hair looked soft, something that Bonnie might like to touch, and her jawline was perfectly sharp. She had green eyes, and Bonnibel liked green eyes. She'd learned in science class that green was the rarest eye colour, and she thought that Marceline's eyes were very beautiful. She still liked her hair best, though.
After a while of sitting near Lady's friends, Bonnibel quietly spoke up. "Lady?"
"Yeah?" Lady craned her neck in Bonnie's direction, and the redhead quickly dropped her gaze to her lap. "What's wrong?"
"Oh," Bonnie frowned as she tried to formulate an answer, "I would like to go back to my experiment now."
"Five more minutes, okay?" Lady dismissed her and turned back to Jake, "Jake and I will talk to you."
Bonnibel shook her head. "I would like to leave."
"Your mom wants you to make friends. You're not going to make friends if you just sit in the science room by yourself all the time." Lady warned her, her facial expression laced with guilt when she heard Bonnibel sniffle. "Stay for a few more minutes and then I'll walk you back to the science labs."
It was pointless, her staying a few more minutes. Nobody talked to her. Marceline stayed texting people, Elle gossiped with Lady and Finn and Jake told some jokes that she didn't get. Bonnibel decided that group interactions weren't for her. She could manage one-on-one interaction, but sitting in a group? No. Couldn't do it.
Once she'd been left by herself in the science room again, Bonnie allowed herself a brief sigh of relief before getting on with her work. That was where she liked it.
She decided she wouldn't leave her comfort zone again.
