A/N: Sorry for the late update! I had such terrible writer's block with this, and I've been moving and working and all that. I'm really sorry. I'll get better about updating!

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Emil woke up groggy the next morning. He figured he would after staying up until three in the morning thinking about Leon. Though he couldn't help but wonder if Leon had done the same about him. Leon had even managed to hack into his dreams and kiss him there in his sleep, not that Emil cared in the slightest. Who wouldn't want to dream of something like that?

"You need to wake up!" Lukas called to him through his bedroom door. "I'm going to be taking you to school in forty-five minutes!" He pounded on Emil's door. "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I heard you," Emil grumbled back, throwing his blanket over his head. "Could you go away now so I can start waking up properly?"

"Forty-five minutes," Lukas reminded before Emil heard his footsteps walking back down the hallway toward the kitchen.

The younger brother groaned, pulling his blanket off from over his head. "Why do you suck so much?" he sighed at his brother once he was gone. He slowly sat up and rubbed at his eyes, yawning. Why were mornings so hard? Why was waking up so hard? It was always the worst thing ever. How anyone could be a morning person was beyond him.

He suddenly felt a weight in his chest like a ton of bricks. It nearly knocked the wind out of him. Yet there was nothing there when he looked. His mouth formed into a frown as he sighed. Morning depression strikes again! Emil hated that he had this condition. Why couldn't he just be a normal, happy teenager? Why did all of these complicated feelings have to come into play whenever he was trying to have a good day?

The young Icelandic boy forced himself into a sitting position, feeling the weight move to his head as it drooped down. Well this was just perfect. How was he even supposed to get out of bed? At this rate, Lukas was going to yell at him for sure, and that was going to just make things worse.

Gathering all of his inner strength, Emil forced himself up and out of bed and onto his feet. His stance wavered a little, but he managed to remain standing, the heavy feeling dropping to his feet and an impending feeling of doom in his chest. If that day was going to be anything like his morning, he already wanted to go to bed.

.

Leon was waiting for Emil at the school gates when Lukas dropped him off. The Asian boy waved at the cranky Norwegian, receiving a half-hearted wave in return. "Your brother seems pissy this morning," he commented to Emil. "Don't tell me he knows about last night!"

"No way," Emil laughed, resting an arm on Leon's shoulder. "He's just pissy that I didn't get up on time." He laughed again, as if to try to fill the dull emptiness in his chest. "He thinks I actually did the homework last night. Neo is great at copying handwriting."

"Yeah, he's our forger," Leon laughed. "If you need anything signed, go straight to him." He winked at Emil. "All you need is an example signature, and he's got you from there."

"What surprises me is how he can remember the answers to things so easily," the silvery-haired boy said in awe. "He is truly amazing."

Leon exhaled, flapping his lips loudly with the the air. "Yeah, right! Neo doesn't know shit. He sleeps through school." He leaned in toward Emil. "Raivis is the brains of the operation. That kid is a fucking genius with a photographic memory at that!" His mouth twisted into a smirk. "Raivis tells Neo what to write down. They practically run a business right beneath the teachers' noses!" Leon let out a cackle. "And since we're in their little circle, we get discounts. See what I mean? Every friend in our group is beneficial in some way."

"What do you mean?" Emil asked. "What about Lilli? How is she beneficial?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Leon laughed and threw an arm around Emil's shoulders, leading him toward the school. "Lil is one of the most important in our group, actually. You know how she looks like a goody-two-shoes?"

Emil nodded. "Yeah, but-"

"You saw yourself last night that she's not," Leon told him. "Saw it with your own two eyes. That girl drinks like a fish when she's with us. But since she looks like a good kid, and acts like one around adults, they love her. So that is beneficial because parents, or at least all of the legal guardians in our friend group, don't ask questions if you're going to go hang out with Lilli. See what I'm getting at?"

"I'm starting to," Emil honestly answered. "But what's my benefit?"

"We haven't discovered that yet," Leon told him, "but that doesn't mean you don't have one. After all, we've only known you for one day, you know? It'll take some time to discover the benefits of friendship with you. Well, there was one friend that we discovered it on the first day, but that's another story."

"Who was that?"

"It's funny that you ask that," he answered. "It was Max, actually. His family is super rich, and his older brother is the one who buys our alcohol."

"He doesn't look rich," Emil commented. "He doesn't act rich either."

"That's because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Leon laughed. "But yeah, Max's parents are actually on the verge of becoming millionaires. It's pretty exciting. You see, they own a bunch of small businesses, and their businesses do well. If things keep going the way they are, Max won't have to work a day in his life."

Emil whistled low. "That must be nice."

"No kidding," Leon enthused with a grin. "I would love to be his brother or something. His parents love me, though. I go over to his house a lot. His mom makes me cookies a lot. She's pretty cool. Did you know that Max was born while his parents were vacationing in Luxembourg? So he wasn't even born in this country!"

"Well neither were we," Emil casually answered.

Leon's eyes widened. "You're right! You know, I've been here for so long that I forget I wasn't born here. I forget that I'm from Hong Kong half the time. Isn't that just sad?" He frowned a little. "How could I just betray my country like that?" He waved his hand in dismissal. "Anyone else you'd like to know about?"

"What about Natalia?" Emil asked him. "She's a quiet one."

"She's our silent mastermind," his companion answered. "If anything needs planned or conspired, Natalia does it. She's the social brains of our group. Let me tell ya, she's amazing at what she does. One time, she organized a trip to Des Moines for all of us, and we went to Adventureland! It was actually last summer. We all had a blast. Now she's planning our senior trip. Let's hope you stick around for that, because it'll be awesome!"

Emil smiled to himself. He was happy that Leon wanted him around that long, but he couldn't help but wonder if the others did or not. It confused him. He knew how Leon felt about him being around, but he wished he knew how the others felt about him. What if they all thought he was weird or annoying?

"Emil! Leon!" a familiar voice called to them. Yong-Soo ran over to them, smiling. "It's such a great day to be outside, isn't it? I can't wait until football practice tonight!"

"Yong-Soo is our jock," Leon told Emil, gesturing to him. "He and Laura, our cheerleader, get us into only the best parties of our high school career through social status. Isn't that right, Yong-Soo?"

"You know it," Yong-Soo answered, high-fiving Leon. "And I can get you into them too, Emil, if that's your thing." He winked at the Icelandic boy. "Once you've been to the best high school parties, you've seen it all."

"Really?" Emil asked, eyes wide. He wondered what kinds of things happened at high school parties if it meant he'd see it all.

"For real, my bro," Yong-Soo answered. "Now, I need to find Laura. I'll find you two later!" He then proceeded to take off running toward a group of preppy teenagers.

"I have a question," Emil slowly said. "If Yong-Soo and Laura are so popular, why do they choose to hang out with us instead of the other jocks?"

"Yong-Soo was my first friend when I moved here," Leon explained. "Our friend group was composed of his friends since kindergarten at the time. I was the newest member, like you, at the time. Sandbox love never dies, Emil. Yong-Soo will always be friends with us, no matter how popular he gets."

Emil nodded, not quite understanding it, but not wanting to think anymore about it because it would make his head hurt. "Okay, now what about Mei? What does she do?"

"Mei is our wallflower," Leon answered. "She's also our artist. What she does is that she hangs out with the more quiet kids like herself, but she's always listening. She literally knows everything about everyone. It's like she's a secret agent of sorts. Mei even has a notebook that she keep everything she hears in. It's color-coded and everything. She knows everyone's secrets, even if their friends don't know them."

"So she's like our information network?" Emil asked, a little unsure.

"You're catching on, Steilsson," the Asian boy answered with a wink. "Like I said, Mei knows everything, so we go to her for the latest gossip or to see if there are going to be pop quizzes during any of our classes."

"That's actually pretty handy," the Icelandic boy thought aloud. "She's awesome."

"Isn't she, though?" Leon smiled admirably. "And here she comes now!" He gestured to Mei, who was walking toward them. "Good morning, beautiful wallflower! How are you this fine day?"

"What do you want, Leon?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip. She turned her gaze to Emil and smiled. "Good morning, Emil. How are you today?" Mei placed her hand above her brown eyes, shielding them from the sun. "It sure is bright out."

"I'm doing fine," Emil quietly answered. "How are you?"

"I can't really complain," Mei casually responded with a smile. "Have you guys seen Max anywhere? I haven't been able to find him yet."

"Why would we know where your boyfriend is?" Leon asked her. "You're the one who knows everything, not us."

Mei huffed and put a hand on her hip. "See if I help you out today," she grumbled. "There's a pop quiz in one of your classes. Good luck finding out which one." And with that, she stormed off in search of her boyfriend.

"Yeah, she does that sometimes," Leon sighed, putting his hands behind his head. "When you piss her off, she'll give you only half of the information." He groaned. "I just wish I knew which class. It had better not be Geometry!" His hand grabbed Emil's arm. "Come on, Emil. Let's go catch up to her. I need to find out what class it is!"

.

Up until lunchtime, Emil thought about everyone's roles in his new group of friends. He now knew everyone's but Leon's and his own. It was odd that Leon never mentioned his. He figured that he would want a chance to brag about something like that. It puzzled Emil for a good while.

Once they were all gathered at the table, Leon spoke up and said, "This morning, I let Emil in on our roles in this friend group. But he's confused on his own role."

"Well he's the new kid," Raivis answered from the far end of the table. "He doesn't have one yet. After all, we don't know what he can do. So it's best that his role is just observing until we know, right?"

"That's what I was thinking," Yong-Soo answered. He winked at Raivis and shot him a thumbs-up. "Great minds think alike, Rai."

Raivis winked back at Yong-Soo. "Besides, I think it would make Emil uncomfortable to have a role this early on. He may begin to feel used or something because he doesn't know us well enough yet."

"That's very true," Leon agreed. "All in favor of keeping Emil's role as the new kid for awhile longer, raise your hand." He looked around to see that everyone but Emil raised their hand. "All opposed to this, raise your hand." His gaze went to Emil, who still didn't raise his hand. "Emil, you have to vote. That's what we do."

"Oh," Emil softly said, surprised that he had been caught not voting. "Then I vote to stay the new kid until my role is discovered."

Lilli smiled at Emil. "You'll like that a lot," she told him. "It's much better than having us ask you for your help with your expertise a lot."

"Yeah, trust her on that one," Neoklis groaned from the end of the table, where he was currently scribbling in a notebook. "I'm currently doing Yong-Soo's English homework because the lazy fuck won't do it himself."

"Shut up, at least I'm paying you," Yong-Soo grumbled at him, crossing his arms over his chest. He turned to Emil. "Just don't ask people in the group for their skills too much, or they get salty, like Neo."

"That's not true," Neoklis declared, raising his head. "I only get salty because it's you asking." He smiled at Emil. "I wouldn't have a problem if it was Emil because English isn't his native language, is it, Emil?"

Emil slowly shook his head. "It isn't."

"See?" Neoklis asked Yong-Soo. "You were born here, you moron. You should know it better than Leon and Emil. That's why you should do your own damn English homework."

"But I have football practice every day after school," Yong-Soo complained. "And then after that, I do all of my other homework. Just be happy I'm not asking you to do everything."

Neoklis gave a noncommittal shrug. "You should still do your own English homework."

"Whatever," the Korean boy sighed, waving his friend off. He turned back to Emil. "I can't wait to find out what your role will be."

Emil gripped his chocolate milk tightly with both of his hands, nerves getting to him. "Yeah, same here," he sighed. "I'm a little nervous about it, if I'm honest. It's kind of crazy, you know? I never thought I would ever be good for anything, yet here you guys are, insisting that there's actually something that I will be good for."

"Because we know there's something," Lilli answered with a warm smile. "You shouldn't beat yourself up like that. It makes us sad."

"It does?" Emil asked, eyes widening. "Why would it make you sad? It has nothing to do with you at all."

"Because you're our friend now, Emil," Natalia answered for Lilli. "We don't want to see you hurting because it makes us hurt, too."

Having never had real friends before, Emil was confused, but he didn't say anything more. Instead, he tucked the thought away in his head to think about later. He was glad that he had friends now, but what did it really mean to have friends? That was going to be the tricky thing to figure out, that was for sure.

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Spanish class came along with the whole gang. Every time Señorita Garcia would try to look her students in the eye, their gaze would always drift up to her forehead. That was the beauty of No-Eye-Contact Tuesday. And it never got old.

"Emil Steilsson, what is so interesting about my forehead," she asked him after the fifth time he had done it. Her patience was running thin with this group of high-schoolers, and she just couldn't believe that he was actually running around with Leon Wang and his gang of troublemakers.

"It's just so….smooth?" Emil answered, staring at her forehead and truly to find words to say.

"In English or Spanish, please," Señorita Garcia scolded. "I know you are from Iceland, but I do not understand a thing you are saying when you speak your native language."

The Icelandic boy turned a deep red as his gaze fell to his desk. He couldn't believe that he had accidentally spoken in his native language in front of everyone! He was completely mortified, especially because of the way the teacher had spoken to him about it. Emil struggled to hold back tears, hoping that no one would notice.

"Sirta!" Leon scolded, getting her attention. He stared directly at Señorita Garcia's forehead when her gaze fell on him. "You should be ashamed of yourself! You just humiliated poor Emil! Don't you realize that? Don't tell me you've never slipped up when speaking Spanish before whenever drunk or tired or whatever!" He crossed his arms over his chest and cast a pitying glance toward his newest friend. "I can't believe you would do that to him!"

"What happens when I slip up is none of your business," she angrily answered. "We all slip up if English isn't our native language."

"Then don't scold Emil and call him out in front of everyone for slipping up!" Leon answered. "It's not his fault that he got stuck in your stupid class! He's already bilingual. He shouldn't have to take Spanish, but the school is making him. You should be ashamed of yourself, Sirta. He's shy enough as is. I can't believe you would do this to him."

"His feelings aren't actually hurt," Señorita Garcia said. "He's one of your friends, Leon. He's just doing this for attention."

"You really think that?" Emil slowly asked. "You think that just because I'm friends with Leon, I have no feelings? That's not true. Sirta, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's not fair to me that you think I have no feelings and that I'm doing all of this for attention!" He was starting to become angry.

"And why would you expect me to think anything other than that?" she asked him. "When all I've seen is you acting just like Leon lately? Why would you think that I would actually think you're sensitive to anything?"

"Because Leon Wang and I are not the same person!" Emil yelled at her. "We're completely different people!" He couldn't believe that he was yelling at his teacher like this. But what he couldn't believe even more was what came out of his mouth next. "He's not mentally ill like I am!"

And as soon as that confession escaped his lips, all of his friends turned to stare over at him. He could see pity in their gazes, but the other thing he saw was confusion. Did they really think he was like them? There was no way that he could be mentally sound like them, when he was so depressed every day. There was just no possible way that could be.

"And you expect me to believe that just because you say it?" she asked him.

"I think you should stop right there, Sirta," Leon warned. "You're really pissing him off."

"No!" Emil snapped. "Let her keep going, Leon! She's only fueling the fire!"

"This is a bad idea, Sirta," Leon said. "Please don't provoke him anymore. We don't know what will happen."

Señorita Garcia backed down at Leon's warning. "Let's just continue with class," she decided. "And Emil, you can just go to detention after school today. I will inform your brother."

Emil snapped his pencil in half and huffed out loudly, but he didn't say anything else. He had already ruined his chances of staying in his friend group anyway.