English class slunk by so slowly, it almost drove Lapis crazy. She was finding it harder and harder to focus on her school work as the day went on. She studied the clock as the last seconds of the class scraped painfully by, the soft ticking and the red seconds hand feeling like the middle finger of time itself.

Never had she felt so eager to discuss another person before in her life. She wanted nothing more than to spill everything that happened at lunch to Amethyst during the upcoming break. She listened to the unmistakable sound of one or two bags packing up early as the end of class crawled closer and closer and closer until...

"Alright, take it easy guys," the teacher said as more students began to gather their things.

Lapis wasted no time shoveling her things into her bag and dashing out of the room in a hurry. She headed straight for the student lounge where Amethyst suggested they'd meet up. She saw her sitting at a table rather far from everyone else, but she didn't take the time to question it.

Amethyst jumped as Lapis leaped into the chair across from her. "Well you seem eager," she joked half-heartedly.

Without acknowledging the greeting, Lapis bluntly told her, "I talked to Peridot at lunch."

Amethyst's eyes widened. "What? How?" she asked, clearly bewildered. Once she saw the confused look on the bluenette's face, she followed this up with an explanation that only fanned the flames of Lapis's curiosity. "Usually, when someone approaches her in the caf, she gets up and leaves."

"Just… Just tell me a bit about her first, please," Lapis requested, wanting to use their time together as productively as possible.

Amethyst paused. "Okay, I guess. What do you want to know?"

Lapis wasted no time. "Why is she so nervous around everyone? And why does everyone act like such assholes to her?"

"Those two questions kinda answer each other," Amethyst told her. "She's been a common target for as long as I can remember. During elementary and middle school, she was always over-enthusiastic and expressive about the things she liked, which, as you can imagine, didn't do wonders for her reputation among the grade. And even though she toned this down around 6th grade, people continued to find her an easy outlet for their pre-teen angst. It's only gotten worse since then, and it didn't take very long for the people in our grade to just kind of accept her as the class... stress toy. And it doesn't help that, at this point, she's withdrawn so much from everyone around her that no one wants to approach her, and she doesn't want to approach anyone."

Lapis was still extremely confused. "But… But she's always really nice."

Amethyst looked tired all of a sudden. "Yeah," she murmured, "that's probably the saddest part of it all."

Lapis tried to get past this, knowing that there would be a time and a place to process all this information later. She pushed on to ask more questions. "When I sat with her at lunch today, she thought I came from Jasper's table for some reason and got really upset. She thought I was trying to trick her or something…" She stared down the platinum blonde, begging with her eyes for an explanation.

Amethyst sighed. "I've sometimes seen Jasper's group send people over to pretend that they want to be her friend for a while. Sometimes this would be a brief distraction while someone else poured milk in her bag or something, and other times, it would go on for several days where the person would just… gather information about her that would later be used against her in various… ways."

Lapis couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stayed quiet for a moment, her mind outright rejecting the possibility that anyone would harbor this kind of mentality while Amethyst patiently waited. Lapis sighed. "Jasper seems to be the head of all this. Just as I was leaving the cafeteria, I caught Jasper… threatening Peridot or something. She looked really angry, but Peridot didn't do anything wrong. Jasper looked quite happy before I left, too… and she tried to hide it from me when I made my presence known."

Amethyst looked at her with confusion for the first time. "Well that's unusual. She usually enjoys picking on Peridot; it's rare to see her doing it with serious intent. I don't know why she…" Amethyst paused. "How long did you sit with Peridot?"

"Uh… the whole period?"

Amethyst looked deep in thought. "Have you interacted directly with Jasper at all yet?"

"Yes, and she's been nothing but nice to me," Lapis explained.

She and Amethyst talked for the rest of the break about her experiences with Jasper and Peridot. She talked about their introduction, their conversations, and Jasper's offer at the end of the lunch period.

"When I proposed to Peridot that we meet up again next lunch, she got really nervous and told me that she's 'not the person I'd want to hang out with around here.' What did she mean by that?"

Amethyst hummed at the question. "It's not uncommon for anyone who attempts to become friends with her to turn into targets themselves. I wouldn't put it past the people in our grade to go out of their way to keep Peridot their quiet little punching bag. This would include isolating her from any potential friends. I'm actually surprised that Jasper's been so nice to you. Considering how much time you've spent with Peridot, surely by now she would've at least kicked a soccer ball hard in your general direction."

The number of people passing them in the hall steadily increased, and noticing this, Amethyst pulled out her phone and checked the time. "Look," she said, "I don't have any more time to talk to you about this today, but let's talk about it tomorrow. Same time, same place, okay?"

Lapis was desperate for more information, but wistfully accepted the offer and walked off to her next class. So many thoughts and emotions were weighing her down. Lapis couldn't possibly imagine being in Peridot's shoes. She couldn't put herself in Jasper's shoes either, though for different reasons. 'How could anyone possibly find joy out of tormenting such an innocent person?' she thought to herself. She quickly found herself forming a strong distaste toward the idea of becoming friends with Jasper. She no longer wanted to associate herself with someone of such a headspace.

One thing was for certain, though. Lapis was going to help Peridot, and she was going to let nothing stop her from doing so.

By the end of the day, Lapis had formed a game plan. The next time she and Peridot would meet, she would suggest they study together in the library after school. She needed someone to help her with the summer work she couldn't have done herself anyway, and no one felt better of a tutor than the small, quiet blonde.

What she didn't anticipate was how soon that meeting would come.