("All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don't make any sudden moves
You don't know the half of the abuse."

"We don't deal with outsiders very well
They say newcomers have a certain smell
Yeah, trust issues, not to mention
They sayin they can smell your intentions."

"You'll never know the freak show sittin next to you
You'll have some weird people sitting next to you
You'll think, 'how'd I get here sitting next to you?'
But after all I've said, please don't forget.")

- Twenty-One Pilots, "Heathens"

August - November, 2014

2nd year, age 15

Lucas had mixed feelings about the academy.

On the one hand, even a year in, he was behind on all of his academic courses. Despite the fact he had been held back from the start, repeating the year he had struggled through in juvie, he still felt like everyone was doing great and he was just in a perpetual loop of catching up. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that half of his study group were Science & Tech students, so they were quite literally there because they were smart. On the other hand, Lucas had been a good student back in Texas, but when he was sentenced to prison, he tried and failed to learn with their school system. Basically, he had had almost a year of no instruction or practice, and it showed on his grades. Even though he had repeated the equivalent to 7th grade, he was struggling.

He knew he could ask his study group if one of them would work with him one on one, but he was too embarrassed to admit that they moved too fast for him. He was smart; he just had gotten the short end of the stick.

On the other hand, Lucas loved training. He was strong naturally, so working out was easy for him. Fighting was allowed - granted, it was consensual fighting supervised by a teacher, but it helped him center and get his energy and stress out in a way that wouldn't cause him to end up in jail. He spent several hours a day in the gym, excelled in his certification path courses, and was easily one of the best students in the class. He seriously enjoyed combat and agility training, and even did well in his under-cover skills courses, which were currently impersonation/acting and Russian and German language classes.

So as they got further and further into their second year, he knew his academic grades were slipping. He knew he was struggling. But he just hoped he could slide by enough to stay.

There was always summer school; God knows he wasn't going home anyways.

"Mr. Friar, please stay back a moment," the teacher requested, and Lucas nodded to his group, as they left for whatever class they had next.

"I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Friar," the teacher frowned, glancing over her grade book and what Lucas assumed was his school file. "You passed the IQ test with flying colors and did relatively well in the entrance exams. But you barely passed finals last term. I believe you can do better than this."

Lucas bit the inside of his cheek. "M'am, I did well in courses at my middle school in Texas, but fell behind when I left school for a year."

"I'm going to ask that you attend a support course. It's 45 minutes every day, right after academic classes end at 4pm but before your mandatory operations training. It will just help you to catch up; the teachers there will help you through homework and extra practice assignments."

"M'am, that cuts into my free time-" Lucas began, but the teacher cut him off.

"If you want to stay in this school you need to get your grades up by midterms. Once you average out at a B level, you're free to leave the course. Until then, however, this is a requirement," she stated, handing Lucas a piece of paper and a late slip to his next class.

He felt a mild panic running through his stomach; if he failed out of the academy, he would be sent back to prison for the rest of his five year sentence, a circumstance which he would rather avoid. Turning away as he surveyed the paper, he scanned the course description and the teachers, and groaned internally. He was reading further as he moved towards the door, and literally bumped into her as she was in his path.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking up to see Riley Matthews.

"It's alright," Riley nodded.

"Ms. Matthews," the teacher called, and Riley headed toward her desk, leaving Lucas behind.

As Lucas went out the door, he heard something that interested him and he hung back right outside the door frame.

"Ms. Matthews, the director requested that you meet her in her office after academic courses. The administrative panel has an assignment for you."

"Thanks," Riley said calmly, although Lucas could hear the curiosity in her voice. "I'll report to her at 4pm."

Riley's footsteps traveled toward the door, and Lucas sped down the hallway, trying to seem like he had been walking away the whole time.

Riley came up behind him and fell into step with him as they made their way to the History class that they were both in. She didn't say anything, but she did sneak a glance that Lucas caught out of the corner of his eye.

Riley was part of his study group, and had been for the past year, but neither of them really spoke to each other. They conversed as needed to answer questions in their study sessions and group work, but outside of that, they didn't talk.

"I didn't know you were failing math," Riley spoke up, and Lucas's jaw clenched.

"I'm doing fine. She's exaggerating."

"You got a 62 on the last exam," Riley pointed out, and Lucas frowned.

"How could you possibly know that?" He asked, biting his tongue from telling her to get lost.

"Farkle and I would have helped if you asked," Riley offered, instead of answering his question. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I don't need your help," Lucas stated coldly. "I do fine. And I would appreciate it if you didn't broadcast my personal marks to people."

"I don't," Riley assured him. She glanced up at him and pursed her lips. "I get that you don't want friends, and neither does Maya Hart, or my brother, but allies are a good start."

Lucas sighed internally, knowing that he couldn't deny that allies were important; especially in their line of work. "I don't want to give you any hopes of friendship."

"Oh dude," Riley smiled a little, "I lost all hope a while ago."

Lucas was sitting at his desk working when a knock sounded on his door. He frowned and glanced at his watch; it was too late for visitors. He crossed the room to pull open the door, a little surprised when it revealed Riley Matthews's face.

"Josh isn't here," Lucas said. "Try the gym." He started to close the door, but Riley stopped him.

"I'm actually here for you," she said. Pushing her way into the room, she went to sit on her brother's bed and crossed her arms.

"What do you want?" Lucas asked, annoyed but also a little curious.

"I had a proposition for you," Riley suggested, folding her hands in her lap. "You're easily one of the best students in our combat and strength classes, and I admit that I could use extra practice with someone who knows what they're doing."

"You seem to do well enough," Lucas objected, crossing his arms.

"An act," Riley offered, shrugging a little as she kept eye contact.

"Josh-" Lucas started to suggest, but Riley cut him off.

"I've been training with Josh since I was eleven, and it's a lot more difficult than you think," she confessed. "He pushes me farther than I should go and guilts me, doesn't teach well. I think that a new partner may be a better match."

The word partner was what Lucas caught. "I don't need a training partner," he rejected.

"No, but I do," Riley pointed out. "And you need a study partner." She stood up. "So help me and I'll help you. Teach me to succeed in training; I'll help you with studies. Maybe by midterms, we will have improved enough that our teachers won't bother us anymore."

"I thought Hart was your training partner," Lucas recalled.

"We train together, but there's no helping or teaching involved," Riley sighed.

Lucas paused, studying her expression. She seemed genuinely hopeful that he would help her, and part of him itched to agree. It might be annoying to have a girl training with him, but the facts were that she needed help, and she was asking him. Also, he needed help with his studies, and he hated the idea of going to the support course and letting whatever other kids in the class know that he was stupid.

This seemed like a relatively good solution; they would both improve, and Lucas wouldn't feel like a burden asking for a tutor when he would be the expert in another area for her.

"I'll try it out," Lucas agreed, and saw a flicker of a smile across Riley's face. "But only a few weeks. If it doesn't work, we stop. And one rule - no one knows we're tutoring each other. Got it?"

"Definitely," Riley agreed. "I don't want any peers knowing that I'm not doing well in training any more than you want your peers to know you're struggling in academics."

"Then it's a deal," Lucas nodded, reaching out to shake her hand as she stepped forward. "Now go away, I'm studying."

"No you're not," Riley accused as she left the room, the door closing behind her before Lucas could object.

Lucas didn't seriously think that he and Riley would be a good fit for partners. And he didn't want to admit it when they both began to improve with each others' help. Riley did academic homework with him in her room - since she didn't have a roommate, of which the reason Lucas was still trying to figure out - and they trained together during their 5pm-6pm gym hours, mostly working out combat and strength.

Lucas enjoyed working with Riley, but she was a very pushy person. She asked a lot of personal questions that Lucas didn't want to answer, and he just did his best to deflect. He had told her from the start that they weren't going to be friends, but she seemed to be testing that limit.

Within a few months, Lucas's grades had gone from D's to high B's, and Riley had gone from benching 80 to benching 130 easily, and she had significantly improved in combat, even 'beating' Lucas a few times - although he would never admit to it.

"You improve fast," Lucas noted as he and Riley wound up to mock again, after getting permission from the gym instructor.

"I have a good teacher," Riley complimented. "And you're not so bad yourself."

Lucas made the first move, coming at Riley for a head hit which she deflected with an arm. He moved again, this time landing a strike to her side, but she brought her leg up to kick him in the calf before he could strike again. He used the floor to his advantage and swung a leg under her feet to cause her to lose her footing, but she turned and did an aerial flip as his foot swung just under the place her feet had been.

She came up with her hair flying behind her and immediately threw a hit to his stomach, and he grunted, turning around to get momentum as he spun and kicked his leg up, striking her hard on the shoulder. She went down and didn't get back up.

"Yield!" She called, grimacing.

Lucas stopped, dropping down to the floor next to her. "Injury?"

"I'm fine," Riley dismissed, her expression trying to imitate nonchalance, although Lucas could see the pain written on her face in the scrunching of her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching out to help her up with the arm she wasn't currently clenching.

"Don't be; you won fair," Riley said, sucking in her breath so harshly that it made a hissing sound, as she made it into an upright position.

"We need to get you to the infirmary," Lucas declared, and Riley shook her head hard.

"I'm fine Lucas," she countered, and Lucas frowned.

"No, you're hurt, and I'm taking you to the infirmary," he commanded. "This isn't up for debate."

Riley tried to shake her head again, but as she moved her arm she yelped a little.

"Let's go," Lucas ordered in a voice that left no room for argument, taking her other arm and guiding her out the gym doors.

"Ms. Matthews," the nurse said, entering the partitioned room where Riley was sitting on the exam table, sulking, and Lucas was standing next to her. "I need you to come with me; we need X-Rays."

"I'm fine, Lucas," Riley said, sliding down off the table. "You can go back to your dorm or the gym or whatever."

"I'd rather stay," Lucas objected. He felt bad; had he hit her too hard? It seemed like a fairly normal kick, the same force that they had been using for months. It had never hurt her this bad - they were always sore but not so much that ibuprofen and ice baths didn't fix it.

In the twenty agonizing minutes that Lucas spent waiting for Riley to come back, he thought back over every fight they had had in the last few months. How bad was the damage? Would Riley want to stop training with him? Did she blame him for hurting her?

When Riley and her nurse returned to her room, she seemed genuinely surprised that he was still there. "I thought you would have gone by now."

"We need the room," the nurse said, before Lucas could answer.

He closed his mouth and drew back the partition, walking down the hall a little where he could still hear the nurse. Whether or not it was prying or an invasion of privacy, Lucas couldn't help it. He needed to know; he was worried.

"Your arm is fractured again," the nurse was saying.

Riley said something back, but her voice was too quiet for Lucas to catch.

"You were fighting on an old injury, you hadn't fully healed yet," the nurse scolded frustratedly. "You need to stop for a while; you need to let your body heal."

Lucas could feel the mix of negative emotions starting to fill his mind. Betrayal - she was supposed to tell him when they went too far. Concern - she had rebroken a bone and would have healing time; painful healing time. Fear - his roommate would not be happy.

"I'm writing you a prescription for orthopedist regeneration assisters; they'll speed up the bone's healing process. But for this to work," the nurse said seriously, in a tone that made Lucas wonder what history Riley had with this sort of thing, "you're out of training for at least two weeks. Totally. After that we'll revisit and consider returning."

"That will put me behind," Riley said, in a voice loud enough that Lucas could hear. "Can't you give me something stronger? Speed it up?"

"Without this medicine it would take you a minimum of six to eight weeks to heal," the nurse stated. "I'm doing you a favor by even giving you these. Don't abuse them. Just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean it's not still broken."

When the nurse drew the partition back and revealed Riley pulling her shirt back on over her sports bra and new brace, Lucas was waiting with his arms crossed.

"You need to stop listening to my conversations," Riley bit out, pushing past him on her way down the hall and out the door. Lucas followed her.

"You were fighting on an injury and didn't tell me?" Lucas steamed. "How could you be so damn stupid, Matthews?"

Riley didn't answer, speeding up. Lucas could tell she was heading for the girls' dorms and would try to lose him there, but he wasn't planning on letting her get away with hurting herself.

"This is dangerous! Permanent damage, Riley!" Lucas almost yelled. "Why would you risk that?"

Riley flipped around, her eyes flashing. "I'm fine, Friar. Don't tell me what I can or can't handle."

"It's not a question of strength, it's a question of anatomy!" Lucas shot back in disbelief. From what he had learned in the past year and a half of knowing her, he had thought she was smart, self aware. Ignoring her body's breaks was quite possibly one of the stupidest things an operations student could do.

"I can't afford to fall behind on training or show weakness," Riley stated, glaring up at him. "You don't get what that's like; you went to prison for heck's sake. No one doubts that you deserve your spot."

"I think we all know you deserve your place in this class," Lucas objected. "But if you keep breaking your body past its survival point, you won't be able to stay."

"I think we all know the real reason that I'm in this class, and it's certainly not because I deserve it," Riley stated harshly as she approached the girls' dorms with Lucas on her heels. "I'm good at what I do because I push myself, I don't show weakness, and I don't give in to my body's whining. And I don't need you to tell me what to do. I don't need some guy to tell me how to use my body!"

"Then why did you ask me to be your training partner?" Lucas challenged, and Riley's expression darkened.

"You needed an academic tutor and I had an assignment," she stated shortly, before entering the girls' dorms and leaving Lucas to wonder what the hell she meant by that.

A/N: I'm still processing my mom's death, but high emotions = higher creativity. I love my sister but being in her house is really difficult knowing that her mom isn't upstairs in her room and she never will be again. This leads me to write as distraction.

This is a very long chapter because I got carried away on the second half and ended up writing way more than I intended. The beginning of the Rucas relationship is here, and Riley's assignment (which threads the whole book) is introduced too. There was a lot to pack in.

I'm moving through the timeline fast to speed up the story line. We're already in Lucas/Maya/Riley's 2nd year and Josh's 4th, so we have to make it through another 4 years of school and then several years of adult life before we get back to the time that the preface is in. A lot of the interesting relationship stuff is in the next few years of school, so that's when Joshaya will really come in, and Rucas will be dancing around each other (like the training partner cliche that we all love to see) (yeah this book is all the cliches that I love).

I hope people liked this chapter because I'm too tired to reread and can't honestly tell if this was good writing or if it completely sucked. Please give me slack and be kind but if it's honestly terrible I may go back and rewrite.

Please review if you can. Feedback is always good.

C