Laying in her bed, Peridot couldn't get the thoughts of lunch out of her head.

Or, more specifically. She couldn't get Lapis Lazuli out of her head.

Laying on her bed, the blonde held her rather large alien plush close as she let the events of the day play over in her head for the umpteenth time. She'd helped Ms. Lazuli clean up her classroom, she'd gone through the rest of her class day and accepted her offer for lunch. That should have been it but, it wasn't.

She felt far more nervous and anxious during the meal than she should have, though the food was good, the cafe was comfortable, nothing fancy or over the top, but had an easy air to it. They'd joked a bit, had some small talk, Lapis called her cute. At that, Peridot blushed remembering it. A part of her couldn't help but shake that Lapis may have been flirting with her. Hah. Wishful thinking.

She almost fell off her bed with how quickly she sat up when that crossed her mind. Wishful thinking? What, no, why would she want Lapis to be flirting with her? That was ridiculous!

"Besides, it's not like she'd actually be flirting. She was just being… friendly. In a weird way," Peridot grumbled to herself as she settled back down. Honestly, she didn't understand her art teacher at all. Lapis Lazuli was like a puzzle she couldn't figure out for the life of her. She always seemed to be watching,

"I kind of wanted to get to know you better."

She buried her face in her alien, "Why would you want to try and get to know me better?" she muttered to herself as she rolled over on her bed. Her face was heating up as she thought about Lapis again.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she actually was flirting with her. It wasn't like Peridot could say anyone's done that to her before. Except for Amethyst, but, Amethyst didn't count in her books, she'd flirt with anyone, it was how she was. But Lapis, why did she make her feel so nervous with just a look or word? Just thinking about her had her heart speeding up.

The blonde groaned as she once again pressed her face into her alien plush, "What am I going to do?" she asked her green friend. There wasn't much she could do when she had a class with her every day, and she doubted that Lapis was going to ease off on how she acted around her. Would it really be all that bad if she was friends with a teacher? Apart from being called a teacher's pet. But, really, it wasn't like people didn't call her that occasionally anyways. Besides, despite her nature, Lapis was kind of nice, she was pretty, too.

Maybe she could survive the rest of this year with Lapis each morning. It wouldn't be that bad, right?

Closing her eyes, she felt herself completely drained from trying to sort out her mind and found herself starting to doze off as she curled up on her bed holding onto her alien plush.

She was forced awake by the sudden, intrusive blaring of her phone. Squinting around her room, she found it had already darkened drastically, and a glance at her clock told her that it was already eight at night. Shit, she'd slept longer than intended, she hadn't even intended to sleep in the first place!

Fumbling to fix her glasses, she grabbed her phone from her bed and pressed answer before she even looked at who was calling.

"Hello, Peridot Olivine speaking, how can I help you?" she answered.

"Hello, Peridot," the voice on the other end was calm, composed and regal. The all too familiar, uncaring tone, it sent chills down her spine. Why was she calling, and so late in the night at that?

Swallowing, Peridot found herself sitting up straighter just out of habit, "Hello, mother. Was there something you needed?"

"It's been a few weeks, can't a woman see how her daughter is doing?" she almost sounded like she actually cared. Not that Peridot was fooled. "School's started, right? Have you been doing well in your classes?"

Of course, she was just making sure that Peridot wasn't already failing anything. Couldn't have her one and only daughter disappoint her like that. "It's a bit early to tell, only the second week-"

"You should know by now if you're going to be able to pass these classes or not, Peridot."

She flinched at the sudden harsh tone and found herself nodding, "R-right," she mumbled, "Classes are, they're going well. I shouldn't have any problem passing them. They seem like they might be challenging, but that's a good thing."

She could hear keyboards tapping. Was her mother at work right now? Of course, she was, when was she not at work?

"That's good. In that case, you had best not disappoint me."

Peridot nodded quietly at that and swallowed back the nerves that filled her up, making her stomach churn and head light, "Has anything new happened with the company?" she asked hoping to keep the conversation off of herself. She didn't like when her mother made the focus on the talk about Peridot, it usually dissolved into everything Peridot did wrong.

"Everything is the same. It feels like I have idiots working for me if I'm to be perfectly honest. The only silver lining is that I can fire most of them once you graduate high school and have you replace them all." It was probably the closest to a compliment Peridot was going to be getting. "I've also gotten myself a new assistant."

"Oh?" Well, that was new, "Did something happen to the last one?"

"She was useless, what do you think happened to her?" Her mother snapped, "My new one is much better. She does everything perfectly and obedient. She's very intelligent, too, graduated both high school and college early, was a valedictorian, in fact, perfect GPA, she was highly recommended. Frankly, she's leagues ahead of the one I fired. Actually, she's not all that much older than you."

"Oh? How great," of course she'd have to be 'perfect' if she was to work right under Diane Diamante Olivine, her mother never accepted anything less. "Well, I do hope she can live up to your expectations." For both her mother and her assistant's sake.

"Oh, she has met and surpassed them, you might learn a thing or two from her," was the response.

"Right." She glanced at the window, watching the cars pass and the streetlights flicker, "Hey, mom, I've got to go. I still have some studying to do. But, thanks for calling." Studying was her best and most used excuse when she wanted to stop talking to her mother, there was no way the woman would know if Peridot was telling the truth or not, and she would always back off so her daughter could ensure a perfect GPA.

"Good. Focus on your studies, I don't want to find that your grades are slipping because you've been messing around rather than doing your work."

"Don't worry, I'll pass everything this year like last year," Peridot answered and muttered a final goodbye before falling onto her back on her bed. Phone still in hand as she stared up at her ceiling.

Well… that was one way to wake up. At least her mom didn't yell or anything. She supposed it was too early in the year for that, her mom didn't have anything too bothersome to yell at Peridot for just yet. Thank God.

Today just wasn't her day, was it?

Well, she probably should go and do her homework before she went off to bed for the night. Her mother would skin her if she already started skipping out on homework so early into the year.