after that party it seemed to Annie like she could finally get along with Mikasa. of course she that wasn't the case.

it seemed like Mikasa disliked her even more than before. she honestly thought that they may have passed that but apparently they haven't.

Annie sat in their shared class alone in the last row staring at Mikasa's back, the girl had been avoiding her ever since the party and Annie didn't know why. and Mikasa refused to acknowledge her whenever she was around, so asking was out of question.

she sighed, laying her head down on the table and closing her eyes. she knew nothing of what the teacher was talking about and she had nothing else better to do, so might as well take a nap.

Annie was just about to slip into unconsciousness when she felt something poke her side. she narrowed her eyes at whoever dared and touched her but felt herself relax then stiffen.

Mina sat herself next to Annie and was looking at her with a smile. "hey Annie"

it looked like Annie wasn't going to get any sleep, she lifted her head up and sat straight. "hey Mina"

"do you have anything planned after school?" Mina asked with a hopeful smile.

"kinda"

of course Annie didn't have anything planned, she was just going home and sulk with Levi all day but wasn't about to let the other girl have a chance at inviting her to something with no way out.

"oh, well me and some friends are holding a small study group after school and i was wondering if you'd like to join"

Annie weighted her options, she could either stay at home with Levi and Hanji and be broody with Levi, she would be comfortable and not obligated to socialise with anyone and she wouldn't have to keep her act of being normal around a bunch of people she may have killed in their.. past lives? Annie didn't really want to look into it.

or she could accept the offer as she actually needed all help she could get in school. math and physics were simple enough, it was just a bunch of formulas that needed to be memorized and a good feel of analysing to pass those two subjects. it was strange but luckily for Annie, History was all about the titan's era, Annie didn't need to study it to excel at it, she was already there when it happened and she was taught all about it back home when she was a kid.

chemistry and Biology were different stories, it was an entirely new territory that Annie had stepped in. she had never heard of this new technology and new discoveries. she knew basic human and animal anatomy, some minerals found in nature but she couldn't wrap her head around all the scientific terms used in her books.

"who's going to be there?" she asked.

"i invited Armin, Marco, Bertholdt and a guy named Marlo. im sure most of them would invite some of their friends though"

she knew Marlo. at least she knew Marlo back then, but since everyone seems to be somewhat similar to the people from year 850, this Marlo wouldn't be any different. and it may be safe to assume Hitch would be making an appearance with him.

she honestly missed those two.

"Alright I'll come" she agreed. "when and where will everyone be?"

"after school in the library"

"okay, thanks for inviting me Mina" Annie smiled lightly.

"it's nothing really, we'd love to have you join" Mina placed her hand lightly on Annie's arm with a smile.
"since we aren't doing anything in class right now, would you like me to help you with today's lesson?" she offered.

"yes please"

"let's start then, here come closer so we can both look at the book" Mina moved her chair closer to Annie's so none of them would have any trouble reading, theit arms were pressed together and they settled in comfortably. not aware of the piercing gaze from across the room.

Mikasa heard the conversation ever since it started and it was irritating her for no reason, was it that Armin hadn't invited her and Eren about the study group? no, Armin went to a lot of study groups that he never told them about.

she didn't know what bothered her about the conversation but she didn't like how close those two were sitting together. she also didn't like the little subtle touches Mina was having occasionally.

she was going to talk to Armin later, she was going to this study group.

x

break had started five minutes ago and Mikasa made her way to Armin's locker, she knew he always went there before joining them at their table.

there he was, calmly exchanging the books in his bag for the ones in his locker, unsuspecting of the figure lurking directly behind him.

Armin turned around and knocked into Mikasa who didn't even stumble.

"oh, Mikasa, what are you doing here?" he asked confused. "your last class was at the opposite side of the building"

it was unusual of her to come to this side, having no classes here, her locker was not on this side either. why would she come here to seek him out instead of just meeting him at their lunch table.

"Armin." she started "i want to come to your study group today"

straight to the point, as always.

"are you sure? you and Eren aren't usually interested in studying after school, at least Eren isn't and well, you don't really agree to going somewhere without him" he said nervously.

"i want to come" she said firmly leaving no room for discussion.

"if you insist, we're gathering at the library after school" he replied.

"I'll be there" she nodded then turned around to head to the cafeteria. "you coming, Armin?" she asked.

"yeah just a second!" he picked up his bag from the floor and picked up his pace to follow.

x

Mikasa and Armin were the first to arrive, everyone else came together in groups or pairs. they sat at the biggest table in the middle of the library.

Marco had invited Jean as expected. Marlo dragged Hitch along with him which the girl was obviously not happy about and was not really hiding it. Bertholdt hadn't invited Reiner suprisingly.

everyone had settled in expect for two, Annie and Mina.

Mikasa didn't know why she kept glancing at the door every five minutes, she could hear the others talking but she tuned them out.

the door burst open and Mina came in dragging Annie by the wrist with a giggle. Mikasa's eyes narrowed with a scowl.

"we were just talking about you two! why were you late?" Marco said with a friendly smile.

"Annie got lost and i went to find her" Mina replied looking at Annie with a smirk. Annie just shrugged.

"well sit down, we were about to start without you" Marlo said picking up his book.

"ooh this is the new student!" Hitch raised her head from the table when she recognised Annie. "come sit here, new kid" she excitedly bounced in her seat and gestured to the empty seat next to her.

"I'll sit with Mina, thanks" Annie replied.

"aw please?!" Hitch pouted.

"n-"

"we'll both sit next to you" Mina cut off and advanced further into the room while still pulling Annie behind her. Mikasa noticed that she hadn't let go of her wrist yet and it made her feel annoyed for some reason.

"all right, we're all here so let's do our usual thing and split into groups or pairs. if there's a particular subject you're having trouble with you can see who wants to study the same thing" Armin said when everyone was seated, mainly to Annie, Hitch and Mikasa who were not informed how the study group worked.

Armin, Marco, Marlo and Bertholdt were studying Advanced calculus together. 'what a bunch of nerds' Mikasa thought.

Jean was simply copying the boy's homework and scrolling on his phone, he was just here because he didn't want to do any work on the weekend.

Mikasa looked at the other side of the table where Annie sat in between Hitch and Mina. they had several chemistry books infront of them and Mina was actually making an effort to explain the lessons in great detail, while Hitch mainly just laid on the table and asked Annie random and useless questions.

she didn't like how close those two sat together, at all. Annie was sitting straight but not stiffly, she looked at the words in her book intensely and her eyebrows furrowed as she digested the information being explained to her.

Mina on the other hand, had her seat way too close to Annie's, there was no space between them. and she was leaning into Annie's side in order to look into the book and point at it for her, but that resulted in Mina basically resting on Annie's shoulder for it to be a comfortable position to look at both Annie and the book.

oh and comfortable she was.

Mikasa didn't relise she was glaring at them until Annie looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"um would you like to join us, Mikasa?" Mina asked when she noticed that Annie wasn't paying attention anymore.

"no no, I'm fine" she muttered and broke eye contact to look in a random book she picked up.

it went on like this for the rest of this study session, with Mikasa's eyes unconsciously drifting from her book to glaring at the couple infront of her. and whenever Annie was fed up with her staring she'd look up and glare right back at her which resulted in Mikasa averting her gaze to her book grumpily.

seeing those two gave her a nasty feeling, and she didn't like it.

x

Annie went home after around 5pm, and the moment she opened the door she was greeted by a frantic Hanji.

"where have you been?!" Hanji grabbed Annie by the shoulders.

"school."

"what were you doing there?" she asked.

"a.. friend asked me to join their study group and help me with my lessons" Annie replied.

"oh." Hanji sighed in relif. "i thought something happened, i was ready to call Erwin"

"what could happen that you'd need to call Erwin ?" Annie raised an eyebrow.

"oh uh... nothing" Hanji waved it off with a nervous laugh.

"is something going on?" Annie asked suspiously.

"nothing!" Hanji insisted.

"okay then" Annie shrugged and was about to walk Past Hanji and to the stairs.

"wait a minute, we need to tell you something" Levi said coming into the room.

"I'm listening"

"we need to know where you are at all times, or at least have an idea where" he said.

"ok" she agreed, not like she was going to wander off on her own anyway.

"no, we mean we need to be informed if you're going somewhere or are going to be late after school like today" he said.

"and how am i supposed to tell you that I'll be late when I'm at school?" she asked.

"with this!" Hanji retrieved a phone from her pocket and held it up.

Annie knew what it is, everyone seemed to have something similar to it. and it wasn't just adults or teenagers, even children seemed to have this device with them.

"i talked to Erwin about getting you one so we can contact you with no problems" Hanji continued. "i saved mine, Levi and Erwin's numbers in it for you incase you needed us"

"um thanks" Annie said, she took the phone in her hand and examined it, she remembered that paper she was given that had everyone's numbers.

"make sure to keep the GPS turned on at all time" Levi said. "that way we could easily find you"

"ok, is this all?" she asked.

"one last thing!" Hanji grinned. "try calling me, i wanna show you something cool"

Annie took about 5 minutes to call Hanji's number and when she finally did, a customised ringtone came from Hanji's phone.

Annie didn't understand what was so amusing to Hanji about it but she understood once she heard the lyrics blasting through the speakers.

she sweatdropped and looked at Levi who was pinching the bridge of his nose in effort not to bonk Hanji on the head.

Annie ended the call and that silenced the song that was repeating on Hanji's phone.

"pretty cool song huh?" Hanji wheezed. "you could listen to it on your phone if you want, it's called 'smooth criminal' by Michael Jackson"

"i.. think I'll pass on that" Annie shook her head and walked away heading to her room.

Annie spent the rest of the day tinkering around on her phone and going through the apps that Hanji downloaded and the settings to figure out how it worked. she admitted that it was really impressive technology.
she saved everyone's number in her phone but left them without emojis.

and she was actually curious about that song so she actually looked it up, she found that she quite liked the idea of music.

that song wasn't so bad.