There were so many cliché things I could have done with this Theme… But High School AU it is.
Theme Twelve: Insanity
Reid was about to lose his mind. And the feeling in his arms.
He walked carefully to his locker, having the peek around the large stack of textbooks that he was carrying. When he was positive that he had reached his locker, he dropped all of the books onto the floor, the sound resonating loudly through the empty hallway. He stared at the scattered books in frustration and kicked one of them with a grunt.
"I can't believe they conned me…" Reid said through gritted teeth, not able to finish the sentence. But he knew that he hadn't been conned into anything, his friends just didn't even give him a chance to say no…
Earlier…
Garcia bouncily approached the young genius with a math textbook in her hand. She was waving it up and down in front of him, but wasn't saying anything about it. Reid gave her a questionable look.
"What?" Reid asked. Garcia suddenly shoved the book into his chest, causing him to huff out air and cough. "Ouch! What was that for?"
"Speeeeenceeeeeeer!" Garcia said in a pleading tone, clasping her hands together. Reid narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly where this was going. "I was assigned really hard math homework! I need your help!"
"Um, I'm sure I can help, but—"
"Yay, awesome!" Garcia pulled him into a bear hug, then backed off quickly. "I gotta go now, KTHNXBYE!" Garcia then sped off in the opposite direction, leaving Reid to stare at where she had just been standing moments before in shock.
"I said I would help, not do all of it myself!" Reid shouted, but she was already gone.
"Dammit…"
Later…
"Hey, Spence," J.J. sat down at Reid's lunch table, where he was sitting with Prentiss and Rossi. J.J. didn't have a tray of food, but two textbooks instead and a notebook. Reid glanced at the books curiously.
"What's up?" he asked, taking a bite of his cheeseburger.
"I'm having the same trouble with my math homework as Penelope," she said, and Reid paused mid-bite. "She said you were helping her with it, so I thought maybe you could help me out, too."
Reid put down his cheeseburger and noticed that she had two textbooks. "That one isn't for math."
"Yeah, but I need help with Government, too," she pushed the books toward Reid, shoving his tray aside. "So, yeah, thanks!" J.J. quickly jumped up and walked off.
"Wait, J.J.!" Reid called after her, but she already disappeared into crowd. Reid turned back to his food and grumbled.
"What?" Prentiss gasped. "You're gonna help her with Government? I need help, too!" She grabbed her Government book from off the chair next to her and set it on the stack of J.J.'s books. "Thanks, I gotta go meet Ashley!" Prentiss grabbed her tray and took off for the trash can.
Reid stared at the seat Prentiss had just been sitting in before glancing at the textbooks and then Rossi. The older teen raised his eyebrow as he bit into his burger.
"I don't understand why she just gave you the same book if you already had J.J.'s," Rossi asked. Reid put his hands over his face and shook his head.
Afterward…
Rossi had asked Reid to follow him to his locker before sixth hour began. Reid, who was now carrying four extra textbooks on top of his own two, hoped that maybe Rossi would take the two duplicate textbooks and leave them in his locker until tomorrow, since Reid didn't have time to run back to his locker.
But he was very disappointed at what Rossi did instead.
"My Science teacher hates us," he removed a giant Biology textbook from his locker and added it to Reid's pile of stacked textbooks. Reid's mouth hung open in shock and he felt that his arms were about to give out. "Thanks," Rossi closed his locker and walked away.
"D-David…!" Reid struggled to speak as his arms were holding much past their limit, and Reid had to rush to class before he collapsed from strain.
Reid glared at the books, surprised that Seaver or Morgan hadn't also asked the genius to 'help' with their homework as well. But he had also not seen either of them today, and now that school was over, he hoped he wouldn't.
"Hey, Spencer!"
Reid banged his head on his locker when he heard Morgan's voice. He really was about to lose it…
"What the hell was that for?" Morgan asked as he began to open his locker next to Reid's. Not giving Reid a chance to answer, Morgan continued. "So I heard that you're helping Rossi with his Biology homework…"
Reid clenched his fists. Rossi shared the same Biology class with Morgan.
"And I was wondering—"
Slam! Morgan jumped and Reid glanced over. Hotch was standing behind Morgan, his hand on the locker next to his. Morgan turned around and blinked at him and Reid blushed.
"You were wondering what, Derek?" Hotch asked with the most serious face. Morgan felt intimidated.
"U-um…" Morgan stuttered. "I was just going to ask Spencer if he would help me with my homework…"
"Are you sure you weren't just going to throw your textbook at him and demand he do it himself?"
"Um…" Morgan chuckled slightly. "No?"
Hotch smirked. "Okay, then, why don't we all do our homework together? At least this way, you can actually get your homework done, unlike Penelope, J.J., Emily and David."
Morgan glanced down at the pile of textbooks on the floor and then laughed nervously. "Of course! They're definitely going to be SOL tomorrow, huh?"
Hotch removed his hand from the locker and bent down to pick up the textbooks off the floor that didn't belong to any of the three currently standing there. He shoved them in at the bottom of Reid's locker. "You can return those to them in the morning. In fact, demand they come to your locker to get their books, don't carry them for them."
Reid nodded. "Um, okay…"
Hotch patted the genius's head. "Reid, you're too nice."
"But, they're my friends…"
"Maybe so, but they know that you'll do it for them without question." Hotch ruffled Reid's hair. "This is why I'm here for you."
Reid blushed. "T-thanks…"
"Yeah, cause he would surely lose his mind without you!" Morgan laughed, and Hotch elbowed him in the ribs. "Oww!"
"Let's go to my house and have a study session," Hotch smiled at the younger boy. Then he turned to face Morgan, who was holding his side with a single tear hanging off of his eye. "You're welcome to come as well."
"…I-I may consider…"
"Will you really get your homework done without us?"
"…N-no…"
"Well that answers that question."
