3.2

"This is taking forever" Julia groaned as Madison looked up. The assignment wasn't hard, just tedious as she turned her homework essay into an easy to read checklist that one of the other girls would read out when it was time to actually give the presentation, but at least she was almost done. After that she would just read her text book unless one of the other three nagged her into helping them or otherwise just outright distracted her with conversation.

"It's not that bad Jules?" Daphne offered, motioning to her own almost completed assignment, though after Madison herself Daphne was only one of them who actually seemed to be care about her grades.

"It's a stupid fucking assignment, who even goes to Africa unless you're a mercenary or one of those idiots who think they can kill the Ash Beast?"

Madison shrugged, there wasn't any arguing with Julia when she got like that and she knew from experience the other girl wouldn't respond well to Madison's own legitimate interest in the subject.

"Yeah I know, but it's not that bad, just look at mine if you want?" Daphne offered, Madison watching with one eye as Julia waved her off in annoyance and glanced back around the room.

Unlike other classes there was always the sound of chatting in Mr Gladly's classroom, even people getting up and wandering between other groups and it was impossible to tell if their classmates had actually finished their work or hadn't even bothered to start. Not until it was time to present, when there were always one or two people who decided they could confidently wing it because they knew Mr Gladly would never call them out on it. He wanted to be the 'cool' teacher, though at some point he'd seemed to equate being respected to letting everyone do whatever the hell they wanted.

Madison followed Julia's gaze when it settled and wanted to smash her head into the desk, 'of fucking course.'

"Hey Greg, how's it going, pretty lame assignment right?"

Of course Julia would zero in on Greg, because Greg was clueless enough to think women were actually interested in him and it wasn't like Julia was going to get a good response from the other two members of his group. Sparky was either perpetually stoned or just did a really good impression of it and Taylor was never going to give her the time of day.

"Huh, oh hey Julia."

Madison saw the way Taylor tensed as Greg turned around to face their group, but she wasn't sure how she could stop things either. It wasn't like Julia had actually done anything yet and Greg was just going to be happy for the attention.

"Yeah, so like, you've done the assignment right?"

Greg nodded, scraping his chair around to face their group properly. "We're just finishing the presentation bit now, well Taylor's doing it, we're just contributing you know?" He laughed at his own joke as he glanced back at Taylor who was clearly trying to pretend the rest of the world didn't exist and it would probably have been less awkward to listen to if Julia hadn't so vapidly laughed along with him.

"Oh that's great! Maybe I could borrow your group's sheet to get a few ideas? It would really help me out."

Madison sighed as Greg perked up at the idea of helping one of the prettier girls in the class and Taylor didn't have a chance to react, probably trying to ignore Julia's voice when Greg easily snatched up their group's assignment and passed it over.

"Thanks Greg!"

"Oh, it's cool, you're welcome I mean."

Julia beamed at him and then proceeded to ignore him entirely, turning her chair inward for good measure as Greg floundered for a moment before thinking nothing of it and trying to engage the other two at his table in conversation again.

"Ha, easy" Julia smirked, laying down the sheet which Madison was reluctantly impressed to admit looked higher quality than the work she'd put together for their own group's presentation so far.

"Huh, looks better than yours Mads" Roz commented idly as she looked up from her homework and glanced over to Julia's newest acquisition.

"Lemme see?" Madison tried, taking the opening for what it was and Roz plucked it out from where Julia had laid it down in front of her and had already started reading through it, sliding the assignment sheet across the table over Julia's indignant squawk.

Madison was curious enough to give it a quick once over and wasn't surprised when she saw it was as good as she figured it would be, wondering briefly if it would be okay to add a couple of the points to her own work she realised she'd missed and Taylor clearly hadn't.

"Yep you're right, better than mine" she nodded, glancing back up to the other three girls at the table who wore a mix of expressions from curious to dubious.

"So let's just keep it then, no one's going to care and we can use it for the presentation, I'll read it if you want."

"Yeah, no Jules." Madison cut in before Julia could potentially convince the other two with the promise of them not having to actually do anything for the rest of the lesson.

Pushing her chair back Madison stood up, ignoring Julia's surprised protest and the startled looks from the other two.

"Hey Taylor," she greeted as she made the short distance to the other girl's group, not having missed the way Taylor had tensed even more at Julia's wonderful little idea of sabotage.

Taylor looked up at her as she approached, anger replaced by a wary sort of confusion.

"Here" Madison offered simply, handing the group assignment back to her. "Sorry about that, I'll try and keep them from doing it again."

Taylor took the assignment sheet with the same caution she'd greeted her, waiting for the trap to be sprung, the other shoe to drop. Her eyes briefly snapped from Madison to the sheet itself and for all Madison knew she was checking to see if it hadn't been torn in half or replaced by someone else's in the few minutes it had been out of her sight.

"...Thanks" Taylor said after a moment longer than was polite, not that either of them would have commented on it.

"Just keeping my promise Taylor." It was all she could think to say even if she did wish to voice so much more and apologise a lot more profusely besides. But even her simple act had gotten a few inquisitive looks, not least of those she could feel burning into the back of her head from the three girls she'd just left.

She nodded to Taylor once and returned to her desk, slipping back into her seat with what she was hoping was an easy nonchalance even if she felt tense and ready for a fight.

No one said anything for a moment, Daphne and Roz obviously not sure what to say and Julia seemingly not sure how to phrase what she very clearly had on her mind.

"So that was new." Roz tried in an obvious attempt to break the tension and Madison couldn't help but offer her an amused smile at the comment.

"Yeah, what the fuck was that?" Julia burst in, wiping said smile cleanly off her face as she turned to look at the irate girl in front of her.

"I think Mr G draws the line at outright plagiarism." Madison tried, despite knowing full well that probably wasn't true at all and from the look on Julia's face she knew that perfectly well too.

"It's just Taylor, when did you care? Or should I be worried about you crushing on Greg or something?"

Madison actually blanched at that, Greg? No, no, no thank you. "Firstly. Ew, gross. Secondly-" she paused, trying to find the right way to put it. "It's, like why keep going Julia? What's Taylor ever done to anyone?"

Whatever she'd apparently been expecting Madison to say, that clearly hadn't been it as Julia took a full second to respond. "You're defending her?! This better be some prank Emma put you up to Mads."

"Nope" Madison shrugged, "new me, less shitty me I guess, work in progress." She shrugged again, feeling an unfamiliar thrill of amusement and satisfaction at how much her attempt at basic human decency towards Taylor was getting to the other girl.

"Huh" Roz commented, though it didn't seem like she had more to say than that whilst Daphne remained silent with an expression Madison couldn't decipher. Though maybe that was more because Daphne was the one stuck sitting next to Julia who didn't seem to be appreciating Madison's new outlook on life.

"Don't huh her! It's fucking Taylor!"

"I mean I don't care either way honestly." Roz replied with an easy tone that left little doubt she meant exactly that.

"Seriously?! You really think Emma is going to like this? Especially after her locker got broken into by Taylor yesterday?"

"What, why would she do that?" Roz asked with genuine confusion to Julia's exasperated anger.

"To get that stupid flute back obviously!"

"Oh, yeah I guess that makes sense" Roz nodded and Madison died a little inside before she could respond.

"Julia, Emma is the only one who thinks Taylor somehow broke into her locker, even Sophia thinks it was some Merchant wannabes!" She tried, desperately attempting to salvage things even as she knew the conversation was already way too far gone to recover.

"Please, Sophia just doesn't want to think Taylor is capable of it, Emma's obviously right and she's gonna be pissed you're taking Taylor's side in this!"

"I'm not-" Madison cut herself off, she had almost said she wasn't taking Taylor's side on reflex, which would have been terrible for a number of reasons. But at the end of the day she was taking Taylor's side and if she couldn't commit to it in front of Julia of all people she might as well give up her powers right there and then. Madison sighed, "sure I'm taking Taylor's side. Happy?"

The outraged face she looked back to told her Julia was anything but.

.

.

After the very abrupt end to their conversation Julia had basically refused to speak to her at all and Madison wondered if the only reason Julia hadn't said or tried anything else was the fact she'd done all the work for their group assignment and was still holding onto it just in case.

Julia or Roz were usually the go-tos to present whenever they had an inane assignment like their current one. Madison herself generally didn't enjoy the spotlight and Daphne was just shy, so it was a pretty easy arrangement where usually her and Daphne would end up doing most of the work and the other two would present it whenever their turn came up.

In the end, with Julia seeming to end up trying to pretend Madison didn't exist at all, Roz was the one who presented for their group and even though Taylor's was obviously better written, Roz was still the better speaker at the end of the day. So Madison had felt disappointed if not actually surprised that their group had won and they'd been 'awarded' a few snacks from the vending machines before class had been let out.

Julia had stomped off as soon as Mr Gladly had let the class go a few minutes before lunch started, Roz following along without a care in the world and Daphne only giving her a brief confused look back before following the other two out of the room.

It was weird being left behind like that Madison considered as she'd watched Daphne hurry out of the classroom to catch up with the others. Every other time she'd either be with them or going on ahead to meet up with Emma and Sophia at the cafeteria unless they had something else planned. Though 'weird' wasn't 'bad' and if Madison was being honest with herself the only thing she was dreading was what she'd find when she actually got to the cafeteria, especially with Julia having had plenty of time to fill Emma's head with who knew what before she got there.

It was also... Liberating being discarded as she had been, she didn't have to worry about what they thought of her anymore, she was just 'Madison' again. Who she was supposed to have been from the beginning and the fact she didn't have to pretend to care about whatever gossip Julia wanted to talk about was just a bonus really.

Taylor didn't say anything to her as she packed up and left and Madison likewise didn't say anything to her either. They weren't friends and as much as Madison may have wished that might change at some point in the future, she wasn't going to make Taylor feel pressured or any more penned in than she probably already did.

She knew roughly where Taylor would probably go, it wasn't exactly a secret the other girl tried to find somewhere secluded to eat so she wouldn't be bothered and there were only so many places in the school that she could reasonably go unless she was desperate. But unless one of the girls decided today was one of those days they'd try and find and harass her, Madison was going to leave Taylor to have her lunch in peace.

The fact that a quest hadn't popped up the moment class let out had also helped to reassure her that Taylor would be perfectly fine without her patrolling the school like an overprotective girlfriend too.

In hindsight Madison considered she probably should have packed her own lunch, but between the whole of yesterday, experimenting with her mover power that night and the rush of trying to catch the bus in the morning... The thought hadn't even entered her mind at how awkward of an affair lunch was probably going to end up being.

Still, she grabbed her food as usual when she got to the cafeteria and it was only a moment's hesitation to take a seat at the open spot a couple of places down from Sophia at the table her usual group had settled on, purposely not looking at anyone's face as she sat down with them.

Part of her was hoping that maybe she'd be able to go the whole of lunch without being interrogated, though that thought ended up lasting about as long as it took for her to take her seat.

"Madison what the hell?" She looked up only to frown at seeing where Julia had seated herself on Emma's side, the other girl giving her a dirty look as Emma cut straight to the point and effectively silenced every other conversation at their table. Oh the other girls around them were still talking mostly, but that was only to make it less obvious they were so blatantly listening in too.

"What's up Emma?" Madison asked, tense but despite everything still curious as to what Julia had actually said to her about what happened in class.

"Julia said you were sticking up for Taylor earlier?! What the fuck Madison you know she trashed my locker!"

There was no help from Sophia as Madison stole a glance at her, Sophia just staring across at her with an impassive expression and probably wondering just how much of what she'd overheard Julia telling Emma was plain bullshit.

"Yup," Madison replied simply, surprised to find herself relishing how much more frustrated Emma seemed to get at her feigned nonchalance. "Julia took Taylor's work and I gave it back, why what did she say?"

"See Emma, I told you! Madison is on Taylor's side now!" Crowed Julia from Emma's right and Madison almost laughed out loud when she realised what the other girl was doing. Madison had never consciously realised she was getting popular and it had been a startling realisation when she'd noticed that she'd somehow fallen into being what was effectively the third highest on the social pecking order of their little group. Julia wanted that spot and Madison found herself amused that she'd only realised it when the other girl was literally sitting in the same place she herself would have sat if it were any other day.

Trying to keep the amusement off her face, Madison found her gaze slipping back to Emma who was scowling back at her from across the table. "What so when Julia said you've had some random change of heart that was true? Seriously Madison? You're going to take that loser's side in everything now, is that it?"

Madison thought for a moment to see if there was a diplomatic way to answer that, one which wouldn't have Emma blowing up at her and just as quickly gave it up as a lost cause. "...Pretty much I guess?" She replied and tried to ignore Roz's bark of laughter and the way Sophia's eyes narrowed at her from the corner of her vision. "I already told you I'm not going to bully her anymore, I mean I like you guys." 'Well some of you' she mentally corrected. "But it's hard to just ignore it if everyone keeps picking on a girl who's done nothing to deserve it you know?"

"So what, you think you're better than us now?"

And oh joy Sophia had gone from angry scowling face to angry words too and Madison turned to face the other girl who was looking back at her like she was a mix between an upstart threat and something she needed to scrape off her boot.

"Never said that Sophia" she replied evenly. Though she'd never admit to anyone at the table she was definitely thinking it considering the bar was so low to begin with. Her moral high ground might have only come up to her ankles, but that still made it higher than everyone else around her right then.

"Yeah of course you didn't" the other girl scoffed dismissively. "So what? Hebert gave you some sob story and now you're her best friend?"

"No" she frowned, trying to keep her tone polite even as the tension seemed to ratchet up with the undercurrent of anger in Sophia's warning tone. "I realised I was being a bitch and I apologised to her, I'm not expecting you to as well." Because as much as she wanted it, the current conversation was making it clear that it would be a cold day in hell before either Emma or Sophia found that a palatable option. "But I'm not just going to pretend I'm not seeing anything either."

What she could do about the bullying was still something she hadn't figured out and there was no doubt in her mind that Sophia was thinking along the same lines as the other girl leaned forward with a closed fist resting on the table.

"Please," Sophia drawled, "you've been saying the same nasty shit we have, just accept it. It's fucking Hebert anyway, lanky bitch deserves it and you know it."

"Deserves it for what Sophia?" She threw back before she could help herself, getting increasingly annoyed as she saw Emma and Julia nodding along to Sophia's words and the others for not saying anything and reminding her far too much of herself. "For taking the same shit day in day out from everyone?"

"Fuck you," Sophia spat back at her, gaze turning furious. "You were fine going along with shit and now you think you're better than the rest of us just because Hebert fed you some bullshit sob story? You're really gonna start shit with me for that fucking loser?"

Madison laughed, she couldn't help herself, she'd seen where everything could lead and fuck Sophia for thinking she could imply she had the high road. "Oh yeah, it's real high and mighty to pick on a girl that just wants to be left alone every day." She taunted, raising her voice to match Sophia's own. "Really showing how tough you are there aren't you?"

Sophia actually stood up then and Madison instinctively jumped to her feet as well, dimly aware that they were getting more than few looks from other people around the cafeteria for the scene they were making.

"You better lay off Madison, I don't know where the fuck this attitude came from but you're really starting to piss me off now."

"What for calling you out on your bullshit because everyone else is too scared to?"

Sophia tensed, fists clenched to her sides and Madison felt the rush of adrenaline, her body tense and ready for fight or flight even as she knew Sophia wouldn't do anything.

If there was one upside of going to a school where about a quarter of the students were either wannabe Nazis or actual Nazis, it was that the questionably popular black girl already on a lot of people's shit lists couldn't just punch out the small popular white girl in the middle of the cafeteria and think she was going to get away with it. No matter how tough her reputation was.

"Fuck you Madison, only reason you're acting so tough is because of everyone else. You're still a spineless bitch underneath ready to suck off the first guy that plays nice with you."

Madison found herself smiling back at Sophia, only vaguely aware of the sharp edge it carried. "Insults already Sophia? And I thought we were such good friends. And all this from what? Because I apologised to Taylor? Wow," She exclaimed, a little theatricality leaking into her voice as she gestured vaguely to the room at large. "Real model example you're setting to the rest of us miss track star."

"Get the fuck out."

Sophia was growling, her voice coming out through clenched teeth and as the rush of speaking back to Sophia broke for a moment, Madison was keenly aware that there was a limit to what Sophia would tolerate before she hit her regardless, multiple witnesses or no.

So she shrugged, turning back to get her tray, dismissing Sophia because she knew it would piss the other girl off and she wanted to. The vindictiveness of it briefly intoxicating as she could almost feel the spike in anger coming from Sophia as she did so.

For the first time she saw what some of the others had thought of their argument and it left her with mixed feelings. Emma had all but shut down, her anger as intense as Sophia's but with nowhere to put it, instinctively letting the other girl fight her own battles rather than jumping in to help. Julia looked a mixture of horrified and vindicated and Madison knew Julia would enjoy her new position when she fully internalised that she'd successfully usurped it from her. Daphne was aghast, though whether that was at what Madison had said or Sophia's response was impossible to tell and Roz was frowning. Even her usual carefree enjoyment of any arguments that spilled across the table gone from what she'd been witness to.

Madison wasn't sure what compelled her to speak, but the words came surprisingly easily as she scooped up her tray in both hands. "I meant what I said before, you're my friends but... Well it's up to you what you want to do. Honestly I think you should all apologise to Taylor too, but I know I'm just repeating myself at this point. I don't think I'm better than any of you, I just want to be a better person myself."

She paused, but she was never the best at public speaking and there was nothing else she could find to add, no small capstone to finish it off and make them reconsider their life choices, just the words that had come to her in the moment and so she left without another word. Tray held steady in both hands as she ignored the looks and the small pockets of conversation that had broken out the moment their spat had spilled beyond the confines of their table.

She still had twenty minutes left of lunch, if Taylor could manage it every day then she had to be able to find somewhere to sit in peace for a bit.

[Quest: A Peaceful Lunch]

"Thanks Quest." Madison whispered softly to herself as the notification window popped up, a small smile playing on her lips as she walked away.