Monday, Second Period

About halfway through a class of nothing but busy work, Nat leaned over and wrote on Kevin's notebook. "You gonna do it?"

Kevin just shook his head. Nat writes "WHY!?" under his previous question.

Kevin quickly scribbles out "too much work" and makes sure Nat sees it. He then pulls his notebook closer to himself and starts on his classwork again.

Nat snatches the notebook from Kevin's desk, slapping it on his own, and starts writing. Kevin tried to get his notebook back only to be swatted at by Nat's free hand. This mini-commotion was just loud enough to cause the teacher to look up at them with a frown. Kevin quickly tried to pretend to be working even without his notebook on the desk.

When the teacher turned back to his novel, Kevin tried once more to retrieve the notebook, but this time Nat kicked him while still writing. After a couple of minutes, Nat tosses the notebook back to Kevin, who fumbled it, allowing it to drop on the floor. After Kevin retrieved the notebook, he found the page that Nat wrote on.

Nurse's Aide?
1 – NOT
2 – MAYBE
3 –
4 – MAYBE
5 – NOT
6 – MAYBE
7 –

Figured you had 5th period together cause of lunch
But idk about 3rd or 7th
Just go down the list
Not hard!

Kevin spent a few moments scribbling out the heart with "K+E" written inside of it that Nat drew next to the list. Afterwards, he wrote "not" next to the 3rd line, since that's when they had a shared class, and "maybe" on the last line.

Four out of seven, Kevin thought, Just a little over half. I guess that's doable.

Kevin slammed his notebook shut before raising his hand. The teacher immediately looked towards him and said, "Yes, Kevin?"

"I don't feel well. Can I go to the nurse?"

"No, because you seem well enough to pass notes and cause a ruckus."

Kevin sank into his seat sheepishly and waited for the teacher to go back to reading his book. Kevin then looked over at Nat with a death-glare, but Nat didn't see it. He had his head buried in his arms on his desk, but Kevin could tell by the way Nat was shaking that he was being laughed at.

Monday, Fourth Period

"Any progress?"

"Nope."

"Did you even try?"

"You saw me 'try' in second period, and Edd's in my class for third period. Not much else to try."

"Dude. Sorry about that," Nat snickered.

"Could you say that without laughing?"

"NOPE!" He grinned widely. "Hey, maybe you should-"

"GOLDBERG! QUIT YAPPING AND GET UP HERE!" The coach yelled out. They were practicing baseball today in gym class.

After both Nat and Kevin had their chance at batting, they went to the end of the line. "So, as I was saying, maybe you should go now. You can probably-"

"Not gonna do it."

"Giving up already?"

"Eh. It's baseball day. I wanna stay."

"Double Delightful is going to be so heartbroken when he hears that you picked baseball over him."

Kevin just glares at him, wondering if it's normal to want to hit your best friend this many times a day.

Monday, Football Practice

"What's the status."

"Stagnant."

"That word sounds even more disgusting that usual. So, did you not see him today."

"Nope. Not outside of those two classes at least."

"Dude, you need to work on finding out when he's acting as nurse's aide. You can't just stare dreamily at him from across the room all the time."

"Could you shut up!?" Kevin grits out, subtly gesturing to the other people on the team.

Nat looked at the other people on the team who are in stretching in pairs, just like him and Kevin, before his eyes landed on someone in particular, causing him to freak out and grab Kevin's arm.

"DUDE! DUDE! DUDE! DUDE! DUDE!"

"The fuck!?"

"We're so stupid! Why don't we just ask Ed! He should know when-"

"NO! Don't even suggest it!"

"But why?" Nat whined.

"Cause he's probably gonna tell Edd and somehow misconstrue it… and be loud about it… And with you knowing about it, I'm already concerned about it being too loud as is."

"I would be offended but you're not wrong… so are you just going to try again tomorrow?"

Kevin shook his head and started to say "no" as the coach blew the whistle to begin drills. However, this made Kevin look up in the direction of the coach, allowing him to spot Edd walking home from school. The autumn breeze picked up, prompting Edd to pull his sweater closer around him. This image of Edd cozied in on himself as red and orange leaves danced around him caused Kevin to freeze as he felt something tugging inside him. Shit. I wish I wasn't at practice, so I could go over there and give him my jacket or something… the fuck am I thinking… Is Nat right? Do I have a crush on him?

Kevin tried to push those thoughts to the back of his mind as he ran through the drills. However, after being distracted a few more times, he had to admit to himself that he maybe, possibly, sorta-kinda had a tiny, microscopic crush on Edd. Heh. He might like that "microscopic" descriptor… shit… maybe it's not so microscopic of a crush after all…

One more day. I'll try just once more.