Physics had been annoying, not because of the content but rather because of the teacher being so unbearable. It didn't help that Peridot had Pearl for a classmate in Physics, which was never a good thing for the two. Academic rivalries ran deep between them despite their friendship and the two always ended up trying to one-up the other in any class they shared. Peridot was determined not to have a grade lower than Pearls, and Pearl felt the same way towards them. Amethyst said they were the nerd version of athletes. Out of the classroom, they were best of friends, but in the classroom, Pearl and Peridot were mortal enemies.

After Physics, Peridot had Gym with Ms. Chalcedony. Honestly speaking? That woman terrified Peridot. She was much bigger than any man in the building, looked like she belonged with the Amazons. With a mane of bleached white hair, white streaks across her otherwise dark skin and just a generally pissed off expression, she wasn't the kind of teacher to anger. Rumor had it she was ex-military, other rumors said the military was too scared to let her in any of the branches. Regardless, she looked like she could bench-press the entire class and not break a sweat.

She didn't even bother with introductions and the usual get-to-know-you's during the first day. Right off the bat, Ms. Chalcedony had them running laps, doing stretches and push-ups and sit-ups, all the while yelling that they could do better and push themselves harder. Peridot already didn't like that class, but there was nothing she could do. She skipped her semester of P.E the past three years and she had to take it now or be short the required credits to graduate.

Thankfully Peridot had a free period after gym so she could rest instead of going to class sore and tired. It also allowed her to take showers to wash away the sweat she accumulated after running around. After free period would be lunch where she could sit with her friends, and after that Peridot would be off to a history course with Ms. Agate and finish it all off with a programming class, then she could go home and be done with the day.

Walking down the hall, Peridot didn't really know what she was going to do. She didn't have any assignments to work on during her free period. Though, she supposed she could just watch an episode of Camp Pining Hearts on her laptop during the hour.

"Hey, you're Peridot, right? Peridot Olivine?"

At hearing her name, Peridot stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around. Stepping out of the staff's room was Lapis Lazuli, cradling a travel mug of coffee in her hands. She had a small, lopsided smile as she leaned against the frame, watching Peridot in an almost lazy manner.

"Well, are you? Don't you know it's wrong to keep a lady waiting, especially when she's waiting on your name?" Lapis' smile grew, playfulness behind her verbal bite that had Peridot shrink back, face heating up.

"Um, y-yeah," she mumbled, holding onto her messenger bag as though it were a lifeline of some sorts. She didn't dare look up to meet her gaze, much like in the classroom. There was something about the way that Lapis Lazuli held herself that made Peridot feel small in comparison. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Lapis shook her head at that, "No, everything's good. I just thought I recognized you from class, wanted to make sure I had your name right," she said it easily enough before taking a sip of her coffee, pushing herself from her spot at the doorframe to saunter up to Peridot. She leaned down, towering awfully close to the blonde, closer than the other was comfortable with, "Shouldn't you be in class, though? I know it's the first day and all, but I doubt your teacher is going to be happy that you're already playing hooky."

"I'm, I'm not playing hooky," Peridot defended herself quickly, taking a step back to avoid further embarrassment and to create some space between her and Lapis. "I, this is my free period."

"Free period right before lunch? How lucky of you."

"Yeah," Peridot mumbled, casting a look down the hall, "But, um, I'm going to be on my way now. It was nice talking to you, Ms. Lazuli, um, I'll see you tomorrow." Before Lapis could even get a word in, she was hurrying down the hall, eager to get away so she could breathe safely again. Her heart was racing in her chest and panic rising up, making her feel increasingly nauseous.

Lapis watched her go with amusement, arms crossed and hanging onto her mug with a loose grip. It had been luck that she'd crossed paths with Peridot when she had, all Lapis had been doing was refilling her coffee and on her way out to get some lunch. But, not that she was against the chance encounter at all.

So, Peridot had a free period right before lunch? Lapis filed that little tidbit away to be used later. If Peridot was free during this time of day, she could make use of it sometime down the road.

The girl was adorable when she blushed, and Lapis felt an almost predatory sense of glee. Like the wolf looking down on red riding hood (Or was it green riding hood in this case?), or the lioness watching the rabbit. She was going to enjoy this, that much was sure. Bringing a hand to her mouth to cover the smile, Lapis thought over the interaction some more in her head.

Peridot smelled faintly of pine needles and a bit too much Axe body spray.

By the time the final bell rolled around, Peridot was ready to be home and just relax for the rest of the day before she'd have to start it all up and over again tomorrow morning.

It wasn't too long of a walk from the school to her home. It took about fifteen minutes, twenty if she was slow or if the weather was rough. Not that she minded, Peridot had her phone and she had her headphones, so she could stand to walk for a while outside while the sun was still warm and she wasn't trying to trudge on through knee high snow or a billowing storm. It was actually pretty nice out, a beautiful September day with the birds chirping and the sun bright and warm on her back. But, all good things must come to an end soon, and she was home far sooner than she would have liked.

Her mother had nailed it into her since Peridot was very little that whenever she entered a home, be it her own or someone else's, she was to take her shoes off at the door. That to not do so was beyond rude and unrefined. She'd been given plenty of yellings when she was younger when she'd run into the house with her dirty shoes. Just a kid being a kid, having fun until her mother saw the dirt on the floor and flew into a rage.

Even though it was practically her own house, her mother rarely ever home-she much more preferred her estate in Empire City where she could be closer to her company than out here in Beach City- it was still so deeply ingrained in Peridot that she instinctively removed her shoes at the door before daring step another foot in the otherwise clean building.

Depositing her bag by the table, Peridot made herself comfortable on the couch, turning on the television as she began channel flipping. There wasn't any homework yet so she could just go straight to lazing about rather than working on school work for the first couple of days. By next week she suspected that she'd be swamped with work. But as of right now, the only noise in the house was that of the large TV as she flipped through different channels.

It wasn't all too bothersome when Peridot was home alone. Even when she was little her mother was rarely ever home. She was sure that the nannies and babysitters spent more time with Peridot growing up than her own mother did. Most times she wasn't home for her birthday, occasionally Peridot would get a card or maybe a gift a few weeks late. The older Peridot got, the more often she would spend her time in the large house alone.

As of now, Peridot is an 'adult' and lives alone. Her mother explicitly stated that there was no reason for her to waste money on nannies when Peridot was old enough to take care of herself. Sure, she was eighteen, but, when she was fourteen and her mother left her to fend for herself mostly, she would have liked the company.

Well… she wasn't entirely alone.

A meow drifted into the room and a smile graced Peridots face as she turned her body to the calico cat who had jumped onto the couch. "Hey, there, Percy," she cooed as she drew the purring cat into her arms. Yeah, she wasn't alone at home, she had her cat and she was perfectly happy with him and far more willing to take the cats company over her mothers. "How do you feel about a Camp Pining Hearts marathon, little buddy?" she asked as she turned on Netflix and started typing in the title. The cat meowed loudly in response.

With the show now playing and her cat snoozing on her chest, Peridot did try her best to focus on her favorite show. But it was hard to do so. Her mind began drifting to a certain blue haired woman every time she let herself loose focus. Her stomach did flips whenever she saw Lapis watching her, and when the woman got close she felt like she'd be sick.

What was she feeling? She wasn't sure and she didn't think she liked it either. If Ms. Lazuli kept it up, Peridot wasn't sure how she'd handle it, but she was quite confident it'd kill her. This was going to be a long year, she just knew it.

The blond tried not to think about it, but, Lapis had smelled like paint when they ran into each other, and past that, Peridot could have sworn she caught the scent of the sea on her teacher when Lapis got close to her in the hall today.

"Hey there, girl," Lapis greeted, dropping her bags to the floor and dropping herself to her knees as her dog came running towards her. She wasted no time petting and rubbing at the bullmastiff who was barking happily to see her owner home. "Hey, Mala, miss me, girl? I bet you did." Malachite barked again as though to confirm this.

Lapis was glad to have her dog with her now. Honestly, the rest of the day had been awful. Jasper tried striking up a conversation, tried hitting on her, tried getting a date. She tried anything she could to do something with Lapis again since they'd broken up. She did her best to ignore the amazonian, something that was difficult in its own right because Jasper, in general, was a hard woman to ignore. She was large and she was loud, and she got mean when she didn't get what she wanted.

It was clear to any who knew her that she wanted Lapis back, and since Lapis refused to go back, Jasper acted out. Lashing out at anyone and everyone, throwing tantrums, screaming, yelling, threatening to throw punches.

It was childish. It was pathetic.

But, Lapis couldn't complain, she chose to work at Beach City High despite knowing full well that Jasper also worked there as the schools gym teacher. She had no one but herself to blame if things went bad between them. Well, worse would be more accurate, thing were already bad between them. Things were beyond bad at this point.

It was honestly a miracle how neither of them was dead yet, killed by the other. Maybe it was some hidden bit of self-control that neither knew they possessed.

The two of them had dated for a while if she was to be honest. Lapis had been sixteen, Jasper had been twenty. Her parents flipped when they found out, and Lapis still wasn't sure which was worse to them; that Jasper was a woman or that Jasper was twenty. They weren't good for each other right off the bat, though they did have their sweet moments. Dated for a good amount of time, only breaking up a little over a year ago. Lapis was now twenty-four and Jasper twenty-eight. They dated for a good six or seven years before they broke up in a messy, explosive fight that hurt them both physically and emotionally.

They got together for awful reasons, and they broke up for awful reasons. Lapis knew this, Lapis was trying to move on. But Jasper never did well with moving forward. She always had been and always would be. But, Lapis wasn't going to let her own inability to get over their breakup chain her down.

She already had a date, in fact. Some woman she'd met at a bar the other night, they had made plans to meet up again tonight for a drink and maybe more.

It was already late, actually. She should get ready to go soon if she wanted to be on time. Best to feed Malachite now and let her out to do her business before she left, too.

As Lapis got to work fixing up Malachite some dinner, putting the bowl on the floor and moving to her own room to change clothes, she let her mind begin to wander. Already she could tell it was going to be hard to remember everyone's names and faces. Lapis knew she wasn't going to be able to remember everyone, but, she could try to remember as many of her students as she could. It wasn't like she had six classes a day. Being an elective class, she only had a few classes each day, nothing compared to English teachers and Math teachers.

Well, Lapis already had one name and face memorized. Peridot Olivine, it just rolled off the tongue and had such an adorable face to go with it.

"Wonder what she's up to right now," Lapis asked herself quietly as she stripped herself down to her underwear and began looking through her closet for something nice to wear. Sure it wasn't any classy date, they were going to be at a bar. But, Lapis still had to look good if she wanted the date to go anywhere. "She's probably having dinner right now, should be having dinner right now with her family."

Would black look good? No, too formal. Maybe she'd do something green? Not her color. Well, blue was always the best to go with when in doubt, and everyone said blue looked great on her. Lapis was sure she had quite a few nice blue outfits she could go and wear.

"Maybe I can get her alone sometime this week to talk to her. I could get her squirming in no time if I did that, and fewer students watching and questioning if it's just the two of us. I can think of something," she mulled to herself, thinking of little ideas of what she could do to Peridot. The girl was far too innocent looking for her own good, innocence attracted wolves. Maybe Lapis was a wolf herself. She'd have to be careful, though. There were plenty of lines she didn't dare cross. Despite how much Lapis wanted to mess with the girl, she knew she'd have to be careful not to go too far or someone might get hurt.

A glance at the clock and Lapis quickly put on her chosen outfit, "I'm going to be late if I keep thinking like this," she muttered and hurried to finish dressing and take care of her dog quick before heading out of her house to meet up with her date at the bar. She could think about all of this when she got home and she could see Peridot tomorrow. But, right now, she had to focus on her date.