Chapter 10: Sweet Progress

"Hey, Willow. How fast can you eat lunch?"

"Around 10 minutes if I'm not doing much else. Why?"

"Great! We'll do it during the lunch break then."

"Wh— why can't we just do it during detention?" Willow said. She can deal with working with Boscha, but if she didn't get a break then by Titan, she will lose her mind.

"Because," With just the slightest hint of murder in Boscha's voice, she says, "You'd only procrastinate if we had two hours."

"I," Willow stammers. She's not wrong… "But—"

"It's only for two weeks." Boscha states. It barely sated Willow's worries, but it was still better than if she couldn't see her friends for more than a month… But still, it meant doing nothing for the rest of the day. Quite frankly, Willow was getting tired of the monotony.

Willow gazes out the window. If Luz were here, she would compare her to an anime character. Not that Willow watches anime, because a show where a character looks out a window and does a weird thing with their glasses doesn't sound very appealing.

Boscha then snaps her out of her head, "By the way, where do you wanna do it?"

"Hmm… I don't know? This classroom seems like an obvious answer?"

"Anywhere but here," Boscha said.

Willow quirks her head. She opens her mouth to say something but decides against it. "I don't know, I can show you a place I usually go to?"

"Great, thanks," Boscha remarks, and Willow dozed off.

While Boscha had a habit of skipping class, she would only do it if she knows she would've aced the class anyway. Which were most classes. Her pride would never allow her to skip a class if she knew she wouldn't be able to pass without additional help.

Likewise, she put effort into making sure Willow would at least have progress.

Soon enough, the bell shrieked, and that was their cue. Boscha pinches Willow's ear to wake her up. As Willow emerges from her sleep, she groans, prompting Boscha to tug harder.

"Yeah okay, I get it!" Willow yelps out. She hurriedly takes off and makes her to the cafeteria. Despite her initial drowsiness, Willow quickly finishes her lunch.

"Do you have a date or something? Slow down." Mattholomule teased. Gus jabs him in his side.

"Be nice…"

Willow jolts up, "Wait since when was Mattholomule here?"

"Uhm since before you even got here?"

"Yeah, he said he'd let me be president of the H.A.S. if I let him sit at the—" Gus does a sort of air-quote. "popular kid's table."

It wasn't unreasonable to consider the table the 'popular kid's table' now that Amity and Skara were sitting with them now. But still, a disgusting feeling of deja vu returns to Willow. She wasn't very fond of the whole 'popular kids' trope in any school, as she felt it always made people feel left out…

It was then she noticed Boscha out of the corner of her eye.

"Oop, I gotta go," She said. She quickly makes her way towards Boscha.

Without any words spoken, she takes her to her usual spot behind the school. Though she hasn't been there in a while. She sits down underneath a shady tree and beckons Boscha closer. "Here."

Boscha sighs because of course, Willow would pick a spot like this. But regardless she sits down and attempts to make herself comfortable among the dirt and rocks.

Willow was honestly expecting her to complain and boss her around to a 'better' spot. But luckily it seemed Boscha felt a little nicer that day. Which Willow appreciates, she loves the cool wind outside, it made everything just a little bit more worth it.

"Well let's start easy then." Boscha pops open Willow's textbook. She circles multiple pages of undone activities and hands Willow the pen. "I'll be here to keep you accountable. Don't waste time."

"I can barely do anything in 30 minutes…"

"You can do a lot in 30 minutes. How long do you think it'll take you for this page?"

"I don't know… 5 minutes?"

"Mhm, yeah, I'll give you 1 minute and 30 seconds to answer." Boscha pops out a timer. "Go."

"What?!"

"Timer already started!"

"Okay! Okay!" Willow frantically flips through pages. She scans the text and quickly writes down the answers as fast as possible. The process repeats. Scan the book. Answer page. "Done!"

Boscha smirks.

"H-how'd I do?" Willow asks.

Boscha looks at the timer for quite a bit before replying, "Great!" in her most genuine tone.

Willow sighs in relief, she wasn't even aware she could make that time, she barely even paid attention in class.

"Now let's do this one," Boscha says nonchalantly.

Willow complains. "Already? No break?"

"What do you mean break?! It's only been the first one, don't be lazy!." She rewinds her timer. "But I'll give you a break after you've done five more of these."

"Okay…"

"I'll give you five minutes to do five. Sound fair?"

"Not at all!" Willow groans.

"Good. Now get to it then."

Willow quickly gets to work. Little does she know, Boscha hasn't actually been timing her this whole time. In fact, Boscha knew that Willow probably went a good 30 seconds more over the allotted time. But still, what Boscha wanted wasn't speed, she just wanted Willow to start working. They were lucky it was only the start of the school year, so the things they learned were relatively easy.

Past five minutes, Boscha asks, "So, how many have you done?"

Willow shushes her. "Shhh, I'm thinking."

Well, it seems Willow was doing her job for her.

As the moments passed by them and Willow was still answering her remaining works, she perks up. "I'm done."

"Cool, wanna take a quick break then?"

"Yeah!" Willow stretches her neck for a bit before laying down in the grass.

"Does this really make you feel comfortable?" Boscha asked in a condescending tone.

"Can't bash it if you haven't tried it." Willow remarks.

Boscha lays down. The grass pricking on her neck wasn't making her feel very nice. They gaze up at the clouds for a few minutes before Boscha speaks up. "I think we should head back."

Willow nods. They brush off any dirt or grass that may have been stuck to their uniform and head back. On their way back, Boscha pauses. "Shit, I forgot something. Go on without me."

"Oh, okay. See ya!"

Author's Note:

Thank you all for your patience! I just got out of school so I'll be updating more frequently. I can't wait for y'all to see what I have in store. See y'all on Wednesday! :3