Two chapters in one day? *gasp* what is this witchcraft?
"I give you, every word known to the human race." Steven said sitting down at a table in the school library with an extremely thick dictionary in his arms he let it fall on to the table with a very loud thump. The table shook. Peridot looked at the book with mild interest. "You can stay here while I go to my classes, that way less people will see you, not very many people come here."
"Why?"
"Most human kids don't like libraries." Steven admitted. "Stay here, it's safer I'll check on you in between classes, okay?" Peridot nodded in response, Steven stood up and walked toward the door.
His first class was Engineering and Technology, it had been Pearl's idea to enroll him in the class and even though he admitted that it was interesting he couldn't help think that it was boring. The teacher; a middle-aged man who looked similar to Steven's dad was standing at the front of the class rambling about different types of wires and ways to treat and prevent electrical shocks.. Steven wasn't paying attention and was texting Connie while trying to make it look like he was taking notes.
He felt something bump up against his leg and he looked underneath the table and found Peridot sitting underneath the table with her legs pulled up against her chest. "What are you doing here?" Steven hissed under his breath. "Paying attention." Peridot replied matter-of-factly. "You're not supposed to be here, most people don't know about Gems..People in Beach City are used to seeing, Garnet Amethyst and Pearl but they haven't seen you before and they'll start asking questions about where you came from and if you tell them the wrong thing they could get really scared and hurt you." Steven explained.
Peridot waved her hand dismissively. Steven moaned in frustration. "Okay, fine but don't say I didn't warn you." He said, turning his attention back to his phone which was trying to send an text to Connie. 'message failed to send.' "No," Steven complained.
"What's wrong?" Peridot asked curiously. "My phone isn't working, I've been meaning to ask Pearl to fix it but I keep forgetting." "May I see it?" Peridot reached out her hand from under the table. Steven handed over the device and Peridot crawled out from under the table and kneeled on the chair next to Steven. "What are you doing?" Steven asked, slightly panicked. "It's darker under the table I can see what I'm doing better if I'm up here."
Peridot turned the cell phone over and opened the back so that she could reach the wires. "Steven, would you like to introduce us to your friend?" The teacher asked walking over to stand in front of the desk. "I-uh-she's visiting for a while." Steven replied unsure of what else to say. Peridot was oblivious to the conversation and was too absorbed in rearranging the cellphone's wires.
She muttered to herself and the gem on her forehead began to glow, a thin, round quarter-sized object fell into her palm and she removed the phone's backup memory card and replaced it with the strange device. Steven glanced at the teacher nervously. Please don't ask what just happened.
"What does that thing do?" Steven asked Peridot trying to pretend that the teacher wasn't there. Peridot put the panel back in so that the wires were hidden. She pressed the call button on the phone and a holographic picture of Connie projected out of the camera lense. "Steven? Why are you calling me? You know I'm in class." The hologram Connie said. Another voice came from somewhere else. "Connie, you put that phone away this instant before I take it to the office and tell your mother about this incident." "I have to go." The hologram Connie dissolved into the air.
Peridot shut the phone with a snap and handed back to Steven. The teacher stared at Peridot with an open mouth. "Unbelievable! How'd you do that?" Peridot regarded the man with a superior expression. "Turns out holographic projectors are compatible with your simple-minded technology. I wasn't sure it would work at first but I like experimenting." The teacher looked like a giddy child. "You and I will have to talk sometime." Peridot looked nervous and glanced at Steven. "I don't think that's such a good idea sir, she doesn't really like partner discussions she's very attached to her opinions and doesn't really understand how stuff works around here." The teacher nodded in understanding. "Alright." the teacher moved away from the desk and continued with his lecture.
"I thought I told you to stay in the library."
"Yes,"
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I finished reading the dictionary and I wanted to see what you were doing."
"I told you to stay in the library." Steven complained.
"You want me to learn about the human culture without human interaction? That seems contradicting."
"Peridot it could be dangerous." Although Steven admitted that Peridot had a point. "It would be easier for me to keep an eye on you though."
Peridot smiled in triumph.
Steven sat down at the lunch table and began to eat his french fries, Peridot tried not to pay attention to the disgusting action known as 'eating' and looked around the noisy and crowded lunchroom. "So this is how humans socialize?" Steven swallowed another fry and nodded in response and Peridot continued to examine their surroundings. "Someone's coming." Steven looked up curiously. "Oh, Hey Ronaldo." Steven said in a friendly tone. Ronaldo wasn't paying attention to Steven though, he was focused on Peridot.
"There's another one?" He asked in shock. Peridot glared at him. "Excuse me?" "Another polymorphic sentient rock!" Ronaldo said his voice raised in excitement, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture. Peridot blinked against the flash. "This is going on my blog." He began to rapidly type on his phone keypad. Steven looked at Ronaldo uneasily, this was what he'd been hoping to avoid. "Ronaldo are you sure that's a good idea?" The older boy stopped typing. "Of, course how come I didn't think of this sooner, why have a picture when you can have video." Ronaldo sat himself between Steven and Peridot and held his phone so close to Peridot's face that Steven wouldn't be surprised if the footage was extremely blurry.
Peridot didn't appreciate this extremely loud and nosy human. "Is your kind planning an invasion?" Peridot rolled her eyes, Ronaldo didn't seem to notice the annoyed reaction. Steven bit his lip nervously. This wasn't going to end well.
"Why would I tell you such things?" Peridot asked, genuinely confused. Ronaldo only heard what he wanted to. "So, you are planning to invade!" "Do you have current contact with the Mothership?" Ronaldo asked franticly. "Do you mean Yellow Dia-." Peridot glanced at Steven who had started to make frantic motions with his hands while mouthing the word 'stop' Peridot snapped her mouth shut. Ronaldo made a frustrated noise. . Ronaldo grabbed her shoulders and started to shake her violently in a desperate attempt to get information from her. "Get your touch stubs off of me before I smack you." Peridot threatened. Ronaldo quickly removed his hands from her shoulders. Steven tapped Ronaldo's shoulder and the older boy turned his attention away from Peridot. "Ronaldo go and bug someone else." Steven made a lame attempt to get the other boy to leave.
Peridot saw that Steven's attempt was going to be less than successful so she decided to take the matter into her own hands. She stood up on the table bench and glared at Ronaldo trying to make her voice sound as mechanical as possible. "Threat detected. Mission compromised. Prepare for annihilation." Ronaldo screamed and jumped up from the bench. He looked at Steven in panic. "You didn't tell me it was hostile!" " 'It' has a name." Peridot replied. Ronaldo backed away slowly, clutching his phone as if it would somehow protect him. "Do not meddle in my affairs human." Peridot said in a flat voice. Ronaldo ran.
Peridot sat back down on the bench and started to laugh. "Did you see his face? As if I could do anything...I mean I could but it's not like I would." Steven wasn't laughing and Peridot glanced at him, wondering why he didn't look amused. "That wasn't funny Peridot, you really scared him."
"But, you wanted him to leave."
"Well, yeah but I didn't want to scare him, no one believes the stuff he puts on his blog anyway but he believes that kind of stuff so whatever you would have told him he would have started to investigate more and if he found actual proof of what you were people would take you away."
Peridot began to get very scared, What had she just done? She stood up and backed slowly out of the lunchroom looking around in panic. Everyone was a potential enemy. "Peridot wait, I didn't mean for it to sound like that." Peridot was already gone.
Oh no.
