AN: Omfg I actually updated this fic O.o lol Sorry about the incredibly long wait, I was uninspired. One can only write when they can you know! Anyway, thanks to Shannon my wonderful beta! Onwards!
The rest of the week didn't really fly by, but for some it went pretty quickly. Nadya was one of those people. So consumed with her new friends, she didn't even notice that her old friends were starting to notice something funny about her. Nor did she notice the dark violet eyes that followed her around everywhere. She was far too consumed by the new experience of having friends whose world seemed to revolve around her.
However, for others, like Mikhail and those of his group, the week dragged on, and when the weekend finally came, they couldn't be happier. Sad to say though, it couldn't last forever, and before they knew it, they were back at school on Monday. The only plus side to the matter was that there was one more person to suffer along with them.
"Damn you and your tan!"
Jose smiled, his white teeth contrasting greatly with his tanned skin. "I'm not going to apologize if that's what you're looking for." He laughed, slapping his green haired friend on the shoulder, "I see the first week of school has drained you of whatever color you had Damien."
"He's French, the French don't have any color to begin with." Mikhail interjected, knocking Jose's arm in greeting. "Though I would still like to kick your ass for getting to miss a week of school to be in Florida."
Said French boy punched Mikhail shortly thereafter and a play-scrap ensued. Ilya sighed, not even bothering to attempt to break up the friendly wrestling match, and was thankful when Issak strolled up. Not that Issak attempted to break them up either, but at least there was one more person to stand between him and the scrapping pair.
"How was Florida?" Ilya asked lightly, smiling at his friend.
Jose shook his head at Damien and Mikhail and turned to Ilya and Issak. "It was fun, when Atalaya wasn't trying her hardest to piss Diego off that is. We did all the theme parks, despite dad's grumbling, and spent lots of days on the beach, per mom's wishes. Abuelo and Abuela spoiled us rotten, as usual, although personally, I think that Atalaya got the best end of the deal."
"She's the youngest," Issak returned with a sheepish smile, "They always spoil the youngest. My grandparents try to spoil Kolby, though he's only the youngest by like ten minutes, but he's an ass so yeah."
The brown haired sophomore shrugged, easily stepping out of the way of a practically rolling Mika and Damien. "It's the way it goes, I don't mind. I still got a bunch of stuff, and to miss a week of school."
"Ugh, boys are so juvenile."
The three sophomores looked up to see a group their own age approaching, the lead girl, a girl with short, navy blue hair, and glasses had a slightly disdainful look on her face. The girl beside her, whose magenta hair was styled cutely in an outwards flipping bob, was much more bouncy, and her entire face seemed to light up when she caught sight of the now still Mikhail.
"Mika!"
"Dear God in heaven." Mika muttered, stiffening as the magenta haired fangirl bounced towards him, lit up like a Christmas tree.
Jose, Damien, Ilya and Issak all chuckled or snickered, the former doing the snickering and the latter doing the chuckling. Mika merely scowled at them while trying to slap away clingy hands.
As the rest of the girls caught up to their friend, they came to a stop beside the four other boys, smiles on all their faces. "What's up losers?" Elena asked, tilting her head towards them, her violet eyes meeting with Damien's cerulean eyes with raised eyebrows. She made a face at him.
"Now whose juvenile," Damien smirked, darting across his friends to grab the shorthaired girl in a headlock.
"Moving on," Bobbi rolled her eyes, shoving the pair out of the way so that she could stand beside Jose and flirt. "Hello Jose," she grinned, tossing her hair a bit. "I see Florida was good to you."
Jose ran a hand through his bangs, smiling easily at the darker skinned, pale haired girl. It was a familiar game between them. Bobbi was an almost incorrigible flirt, but her favourite target was Jose Wakeman. No one knew why exactly, some had the theory that she had a huge crush on him, and that flirting extra heavily with him was her way of showing it, others thought that perhaps it was because he was safe ground. Others thought they were dating already. It was a mystery.
"Hey Bobbi, have a good summer?"
The rest rolled their eyes as the two began their regular game. They all had their own opinions of the relationship between the brunette and the sophomore girl. Instead Issak and Ilya, the only two boys not engaged in some sort of discussion (or fight!) turned to the remaining girls… Emma and Karina.
Issak shifted, leaning against the nearest locker. "So, are you going to introduce us to your new friend?"
Issak hadn't missed how his red haired friend had been conspicuously silent since the girls' arrival, beyond the chuckle at Mikhail and Jezabelle. He also hadn't missed the slight blush, or the fact that he refused to look at the teal and slate haired girl that was beside Emma.
"This is Karina," Emma said softly, glancing at their new friend, "She's a freshmen. Karina, this is Issak, and I believe you've met Ilya."
Karina, who also had been avoiding eye contact with the red haired sophomore grimaced a smile in his and Issak's direction and looked off to the side once more. "Hello," she murmured quietly, distantly.
Emma sighed a bit. "The one wrestling with Elly is Damien, the one Jez is molesting is Mikhail and as Bobbi mentioned that's Jose."
"It's nice to meet you Karina," Issak said in a friendly manner, despite the fact that the girl was not looking at them. He, being one of the tactful one's of the group, refrained to comment on the events of the week before.
Damien, however, had far less tact than his friend, and immediately stopped play fighting with Elena, who straightened up looking disgruntled. "So you're the girl that Ilya took the punch for huh? He was right, you are cute."
Karina stiffened, her eyes expanding before she whirled around and disappeared down the crowded hall.
Elena glowered, sending a hard elbow into Damien's gut. "Nice going retard," she growled, stepping away from him, her head held high. "We should get going anyway."
Emma was already gone, chasing after Karina, while Elena had to forcefully drag Jez away from a thankful Mika, and remind Bobbi more than once that they were leaving.
As the last of them left, half the boys let out relieved or confused sighs. "Les filles," Damien grumbled, arching his back, "Qui les comprend?"
"Or in English," Mika seconded, "Girls are stupid."
"Oh I don't know, they have their moments."
There was a pause before the two largest boys jumped the laughing brunette.
xxxxxxxxxxx
It was amazing really, what a week and a half could do. A week and a half and she was opened up to them like they had been friends their entire life. A week and a half and she lost almost all of her stuttering, and at least some of her blushing.
She would always be a blusher.
She was charming, even when she didn't let herself believe that she was. Particularly when she smiled. How he loved her smile.
"So you're in a competition next weekend?"
The conversation came back to Benji, and he returned to the real world, his eyes cracking open to focus on the girl that was currently living in his thoughts. She was sitting across from him, between Shane and Dusk, as was her general place when she came to visit them during lunch hour, not a totally rare occurrence.
Shane was telling her about their band, and the Battle of the Band's competition, from what he could tell from the tale end of her last words. He liked the way her eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect. He could just hear the thoughts in her head; someone I know is in a band!
Shane popped a potato chip into his mouth and nodded. "Yup, part of my scheme to get these lazy asses off…well their asses." He chuckled, shaking his head. "But they agreed so it's their own fault."
"We only agreed because he bribed us with money." Dusk interjected, grinning easily. "A lot of money."
"They suck though," Yusuke commented idly, snatching a chip from Shane. "They'll come last."
Nadya's eyes widened. "That's not true!" She sounded so offended it stilled the entire group.
Yusuke and Fern shared a look. Fern rolled his eyes.
He really didn't see what everyone else seemed to see in the meek girl. His brother (ugh) and now his group seemed to be in love with her, and he just couldn't understand why.
It wasn't like she overly hot, cause she wasn't. It wasn't even like she had the greatest personality in the world. All he could see was a mousy seventeen year old, with eyes that were too big, and a massive inferiority complex. What was so special about that?
At least he had Yusuke. Yusuke could see that she wasn't anything to fawn over either.
True to Nadya's personality, she quickly turned red, and suddenly found the grass underneath them incredibly fascinating. "Ah… so-sorry."
"Don't be," Gou added quickly, before Yusuke or Fern could comment. "They're just jealous because they have neither the mental capacity, nor the talent to play an instrument."
Nadya peeked up and across at Gou, a small giggle leaving her lips. "I bet you guys are actually really good. You'll win for sure."
Such faith. When she gave her friendship and caring, she gave it all. It didn't really surprise him. It just made him like her all the more. Benji smiled lazily.
"Who could doubt that kind of faith?" Dusk almost cackled, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "With you cheering us on, how could we lose?"
She just blushed some more and giggled.
"You should come." Shane said, with a bit of a smirk and a glance at Benji. "It would be fun. Maybe having our own cute little fangirl in the audience will help us play better."
Nadya's jaw dropped. "Me?" She intoned, obviously surprised, "You want me to come?" Her eyes instantly moved to Benji.
He could feel everyone watching him, and as such he kept his eyes closed. With a placid expression he shrugged. "If you want to."
Her expression seemed to fall a bit, "Oh." She didn't notice Shane's foot lash out and connect with Benji's femur.
The orange haired boy grimaced, finally opening his eyes so that he could glare at the owner of the foot. Shane widened his eyes meaningfully and motioned minutely with his head towards Nadya who was once again looking at the ground. Benji fought back a sigh. Really, girls were so much work. "You should come," he said after a moment, struggling to pull himself up into a sitting position. "You'll have fun."
She peeked at him, pink coloring her ears. "O-okay, I'll-"
"So this is where you go."
Nadya froze, her spine stiffening instantly at the new voice. Her head snapped up and lavender eyes met confused gold. "Ka-Kale!" She stammered, horror rushing through her veins. Her hands fidgeted in her lap as she struggled not to cry. What did she say? How would he react? Was he scandalized? Did he hate her? "Wh-wh-what are you doing here?"
Kale's eyes narrowed, one of his hands resting on his hip, a sort of confused hurt on his face. "I came looking for you, worried. You've been disappearing more and more lately… now I see where to, though I don't know why."
The group of skater/slackers by then had rallied around the shaking girl, minus Yusuke and Fern who rolled their eyes and made their escape, not willing to be a part of the drama. Benji sat up, a neutral expression on his face, but his eyes reflected something that was almost defiant, as if he was challenging Kale's hegemony over Nadya. He couldn't explain it, but he felt almost territorial around the girl that he had set his sights on. It had been increasing over the days that passed, but he had smothered it, particularly during the gym class they all had together. He wasn't possessive by nature, nor was he a fighter, but he was finding that one, adorable but mousy girl was changing him in ways he would have never thought possible.
"Maybe she likes spending time with us?" Dusk shot out irritably after a rather lengthy silence.
Kale didn't get angry, even in the face of the obvious hostility Dusk was projecting in his direction. It just wasn't his nature. Instead, he continued to focus his attention completely on the red-faced girl. Crouching down in front of her, he smiled disarmingly, tilting his head. "Why didn't you tell me? If you want to hang out with other people that's fine, I'm not going to get mad at you." He chuckled. "But as its unlike you to just disappear from your circle of protection, it had me thinking that maybe you had got yourself into something you couldn't get out of."
Nadya peeked up at him, her eyes weary, but a tiny smile crossing over her face. "So you don't hate me?" She asked in a small voice, hope lighting her features.
The dark pink haired boy let out a loud guffaw and threw his arms around her, causing those around him to blink. "Ah, my pretty Niddie. You should know better than that! I could never hate you," he pulled back and winked. "No matter of your choice of company. Besides, the only thing I have against any of these guys is Kingston's laziness that causes us to lose in PE so consistently." The words were said with a grin directed towards the orange haired boy. "I hate to lose you know."
Dusk and Shane relaxed instantly, smiles over coming their faces as well. Gou's eyebrow arched and his lips twitched and Benji returned to his horizontal position. Benji closed his eyes, folding his arms behind his head. "You'll get used to it." He said with a bit of a smirk. "Or maybe, if you beg enough I'll actually try tomorrow."
Kale blinked for a moment, as if surprised Benji had spoken, before he broke out laughing, his grin stretching even more. "Think again Kingston! But since I have been put in charge of making sure you and Niddie pass, I'm going to have to work on some things to get you motivated. Maybe I'll ask Kaden, he's good at getting people to do what he wants." His expression became a big mischievous.
"You mean stick up his ass Kaden Jagen?" Dusk intoned, scoffing.
"None other," Kale saluted Dusk with a wicked expression. "He has terrifying ways of getting what he wants!" Having enough with crouching, Kale fell down onto his bottom, making it clear he wasn't going to be leaving any time soon.
Nadya giggled behind her hand. "It's true!" She added, her features animated, her large lavender eyes turning to Benji. "You might want to try harder Benjamin! You'll regret it if you don't!"
One of Benji's eyes cracked open, meeting the lavender gaze that was on him. "Oh? Are you going to help Jagen inflict these horrors on me?"
"Maybe!"
Kale watched with fascination as his friend interacted with the group that they had, for all intense purposes, spurned for the first three years of their high school. It was amazing. Instead of blushing, stiffening or becoming horrified at the orange haired skaters teasing, as she normally would have done, she just giggled and teased gently right back. It was strange, in a good way. He had begun to lose faith that his best friend was ever going to be anything but a terribly shy, socially terrified woman. Watching her interact with Benjamin Kingston was a learning experience.
She liked him; that much he could see. It made him relieved in a way, that her crush had shifted from the asshole known as Alexei Nikolaev. At least if Kingston broke her heart, it would be only that.
In another way it made his heart ache for his other best friend, the smart, dark haired boy who fancied himself in love with the pale haired girl. He wanted to sigh, knowing that Nadya's newest crush would probably hurt Blaise. With Alexei it had been easy to dismiss – he was dangerous and both knew that Nadya's fascination with him was just a normal teenager girl's fascination with the impossible. But Benjamin Kingston wasn't impossible, on the contrary. If one looked close enough, if one really focused on the two's interaction, one could see what was there.
Affection reflected in the green eyes of Benjamin Kingston.
Oh dear, Kale thought with a mental sigh. At least she's happy.
"Kale?"
"Huh?" The pink haired boy shook his head, and found himself looking into the curious face of his best friend. "Oh sorry Niddie," he grinned, "Zoned out there for a second. What did you say?"
"Actually it's what I said," Dusk said with a sort of smirk. "I asked if you had the notes for English. Silly me had to miss class today."
Kale laughed, shaking his head. "You mean the lure of the nice day drew you outside to lay here, and thus you chose to miss class." His smile was kind however, not mocking, as so many other students' would have been. "But yeah, I have them. We have a quiz on Friday, so you should be ready. I'll copy them tonight and give them to you tomorrow – which of course is my condition. You have to come to class tomorrow!"
Dusk made a face, but nodded nonetheless. "Fine, but only because if I have one more absent in the next couple of weeks Ms. Shandry is going to call my parents. Blegh."
They fell into a somewhat companionable silence then, each pursuing their own thoughts. Gou sat back, relaxed, as did Benji, who was on the verge of sleeping, while Shane frantically read over his homework for the class after lunch. Dusk fell backwards thinking about all the stuff he had to do that he didn't really want to. Kale poked at Nadya, who squirmed and made faces back. After about five minutes of this, Kale could take the silence no more (he didn't know these people very well after all, and to him it was an awkward silence!) and so he broke it, addressing Nadya with a playful tone.
"You coming to Student Council meeting after school? Word has it that Kaden is going to put you in charge of the music entertainment section of the Winter Fair."
Nadya's eyes expanded like he thought they would and her mouth hung open. "M-Me!" She demanded softly as if not believing what he had just said. "But that's…." She trailed off, a look a fear crossing her face.
"Word has it?" Dusk put in, inviting himself into the conversation. "You mean you suggested it. Cruel, Jagen. I like it." He grinned wolfishly, eyes flashing at Nadya.
Kale laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, being the fair one, Kaden suggested Kyan might be a better choice, and then Katia said both of them, and so thus, they are being appointed. Though you are free to turn it down, Fay will probably force it on you anyway." He gave her a sympathetic smile.
Gou snorted, a smirk on his face. "The inner workings of the social elite are mind boggling. Keep them away from here."
Nadya sighed, knowing that Kale was right. Fayina would force her into it, exclaiming something about it being a good character building exercise. Right. "I'll be there then, it doesn't seem like I have a choice."
"Such is life Niddie, such is life!"
xxxx
It was amazing really, how much power he really had. He almost smirked as he strode down the busy hallway meaningfully. Fear held a great deal of power.
And the fools were all afraid of him. Terrified even.
He was given a rather wide birth when walking down a hallway, even if it was extremely busy as it was at that moment in the after school rush. People avoided any and all contact with him wherever possible. He was proud to say he was the only one in the school that had that kind of power.
And he didn't miss the petrified expressions as he made his way through the crowd. He didn't even need to touch someone to have them cowering. Such was his reputation, as exaggerated and rather foolish as it was. You put two people in the hospital and suddenly you're a homicidal maniac.
Never mind that the fools had challenged him, well, one of them had anyway.
Still, it served his purposes to have the entire school afraid of him. It saved him the hassle of having to deal with ignorant morons on a regular basis. It also saved him the hassle of having teachers hound him to come to class. They apparently understood that there was no point in him going to class since he already knew the shit, and going only served to further bore him out of his mind.
Sometimes being a lateral thinker, a genius, was really tedious.
At least after his freshman year everyone stopped bothering to lecture him about class. He had had a 4.0, the highest grades in his year – even higher than Kaden Jagen, who he knew worked really hard to get his 4.0 – he aced every test and every assignment. Why did he need to go to class?
Since the second grade, when he realized that he could skip grades, he had resented the fact that the education system refused to skip him ahead. By rights he should be in college, not still in highschool dealing which pathetic retards and giggly halfwits.
Speaking of giggly halfwits, his target was in sight.
She was bending into her locker, shuffling things around as if she didn't really know what she was doing, or as if she was stalling. Rolling his eyes, he bet it was the latter.
Not that he cared really, what she was doing. However, to accomplish his goal and destroy one Benjamin Kingston, the girl was instrumental.
Normally, he didn't stoop so low as to use pathetic, whimpering females to accomplish his aims, but as he had been contemplating for years how he was going to lure the lazy boy into a trap, a trap that would equal the orange haired boys demise, he figured he was allowed the one indulgence. After all, if she was stupid enough to associate with scum then she was no better than scum herself.
It was also her own fault that she had a crush on him that he could exploit. And that she was stupid enough to manipulated. Had it been the red haired Ivanov bitch, he doubted he could have gotten away with it, no matter how much more superior his intelligence was. She was just too sharp.
Gladly, her mousy best friend was not. The lavender haired girl was bordering on stupid in her gullibleness. He had been watching her long enough to know that for a fact.
Thankfully, she was alone, which was rare for her. Generally she had someone flanking her, whether it was the red headed tart, the clingy jock or the quiet Italian kid. Apparently everyone realized what a gullible, pathetic mess she was.
"Hello."
She jumped clear three feet, banging her head on the top of her locker as she did. He watched as she cursed mildly, holding the top of her head, her eyes clenched shut tightly. The urge to roll his eyes raged within him once more.
Though she had spun around directly after banging her head, her eyes remained closed for another few seconds. Apparently she was afraid to face him after making a complete fool of herself, and rightly so.
What does that bastard see in this? He sneered inwardly.
Gradually, however, she cracked her eyes open, her face bright red and tears swimming in her glassy lavender eyes. With her bottom lip firmly clamped between her teeth, her hand left her head to join its partner in front of her so that they could wring themselves raw.
"H-H-Hi."
Pathetic. "Are you alright?" Alexei carefully laced empathy into his voice, even though inwardly he was laughing at how pitiful she really was. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you.
She blushed even bright as embarrassment warred with shock on her face. She was like an open book. Her eyes moved to the floor and the wringing of her hands became more pronounced. "I-I-It's o-okay. I-I'm fine." She mumbled, shuffling.
He wanted to sigh. It was going to be harder than he thought. And more irritating. Realizing that she wasn't going to say anything else, he pushed on, wanting nothing more than to be out of the fucking building and out of the company of Nadya Kyznetsov.
"I was wondering if you wanted to do something on Saturday." He grimaced in his mind at the words, knowing how utterly not like him they sounded. Using his glasses as a cover, he finally rolled his eyes. Was she so stupid that she didn't realize that what he was saying was so out of character she should be alarmed?
Nadya's eyes expanded with even greater shock and they finally left their focus point on the floor. "Sa-Sa-Sa-Saturday? W-W-With y-you!"
Alexei's hands itched to throttle her. How could anyone take the stuttering? The completely stupid looks on her face. She was like a mentally deficient house mouse that scrambled everywhere, including into the cat's clutched. "Yeah." He added a sweep of his hand through his bangs to add a measure of smoothness.
Was Alexei Nikolaev actually asking her out? She wondered if pigs were flying or the apocalypse was upon them. She wondered if it was some kind of joke. Alexei Nikolaev did not ask her out.
If this event had taken place two weeks prior she probably would have cried with gratitude and happiness. However, now, even if he was being serious, she wasn't sure what to think.
Thoughts of an orange haired, lazy, musician clouded her mind to the point where Alexei Nikolaev was a distant, fuzzy image that conjured at best fear.
She wasn't blind, or stupid. She had caught a couple of the looks of complete loathing Benji had sent in the direction of the dark haired genius, looks that were fully reciprocated. Benji wouldn't want her going out with Alexei, even if she had wanted to herself.
At the same time, she wasn't keen on saying no… to anyone. If he was indeed asking her seriously, she didn't want to hurt his feelings by saying no. Nibbling on her lip, she shifted, trying to find some excuse that would get her out of a potentially sticky situation.
And then she remembered that the Battle of the Bands was on Saturday, and that she was supposed to be going to cheer on her new friends. That caused her to perk up, and a small smile bloomed on her face. A way to let him down gently without lying to him!
Alexei watched the inner battle on the girl's face with extreme annoyance. He could tell that she was reluctant to accept, which showed that she wasn't as stupid as he might have thought. That she was wary showed intelligence. Apparently she could question his motives.
When she perked up he raised an eyebrow. After the inner battle, he couldn't be sure which side won, thus what the smile was all about. He waited patiently for her to speak, his irritation growing.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, the stutter noticeably reduced. "I p-promised my friends I would g-go to the Battle of the Bands."
The bitch thinks she's hurt my feelings. He wanted to laugh in her face, but held himself back. Her tone was placating, speaking that she didn't want to hurt him, but at the same time she didn't suggest another time or day which either meant she was afraid to, or that she didn't really want to go out with him and Saturday was an excuse, a valid one, but an excuse nonetheless. He didn't really care either way.
"That's okay." Thinking fast, he figured out how he could use the situation to his advantage. The Battle of the Bands huh? So the Kingston bastard actually kick started some form of ambition. It was perfect, he thought, his keen mind wheeling, his eyes narrowing fractionally. Kingston would be there, and so would the weak little fool, it would be easy to lure him out. Excellent. "I was going to suggest we go there anyway. Perhaps we'll meet there."
With a fake smile that hid a smirk, Alexei turned on his heel and strode back down the hall the way he came. Yes, everything was going according to his rough plan.
"What the hell did Nikolaev want?" Blaise demanded as he and Kale appeared at Nadya's elbow, all three watching the navy haired teen disappear.
It was better if she didn't say anything. If she told them what he wanted then they would want to know her excuse, and then she'd have to explain why she was going to hang out with the skaters on a weekend.
Kale had, that afternoon, forged a sort of truce with her new friends, but somehow she felt he tacitly disapproved of her socializing with them. Blaise didn't even know, and she didn't think his reaction would be very good. His little brother hung out with that group, and he and Fern had never had a very good relationship.
So she answered with a bland answer, praying they didn't see the lie and/or question her further. "Nothing," she said, smiling at her two good friends.
The boys eyed her speculatively, neither really believing her. "He didn't hurt you did he?" Kale asked suspiciously, looking her up and down, studying her for possible injury.
"Didn't threaten you?" Blaise added, taking her backpack from her and closing her locker door. "Just say the word, we'll go rough him up for you if he did."
This drew a laugh out of Kale, and a giggle from Nadya. "Sure Blaise," the dark-pink haired boy patted his best friend on the shoulder. "Cause you inspire fear even in the hearts of the biggest, toughest guys. Personally, I'm terrified of you."
Blaise returned the pat with a punch and a nasty face. Nadya continued to giggle, her heart swelling with love for her friends. "Thank you for the thought Blaise," she said softly, catching his arm and smiling at him. "I'm fine though."
The dark haired boy settled, smiling at his friend as he tucked her arm through his. "Well then, shall we be off to Student Council? Kaden will be chomping at the bit by now. Plus, I have it on good authority that you're on the organizing committee for the 90s fair in December."
Nadya sighed, her shoulders drooping. "I was hoping everyone would forget about it." As they were only down the hall from Mr. Kehl's history/Student council classroom it took them only seconds to get there.
"There she is! My partner in crime."
The three teens looked up as they entered to see Kyan dart across the room and drag Nadya away from Blaise and Kale. Nadya followed meekly, knowing the blond boy well enough to know that once he had an idea in his head there was no stopping him.
Out of the corner her eye she saw Fayina wave at her with a cheeky grin, and in an uncharacteristic move, Nadya made a face at her, complete with scrunched eyebrows and protruding tongue. The red head just raised her eyebrows and laughed.
Nadya sighed. How did she always get roped into these kinds of things?