Summary: Naomi arrives at school early and meets someone unusual. Mateo has a rough morning.

It was an ungodly hour of the morning, and Naomi Turner shuffled her feet in the deserted school courtyard, alone save for the olaball tucked under her arm. Alright, so she was a little early. A lot early. Two and a half hours early. Any other day she'd be appalled to be at school so soon, but olaball was worth it. At least, that's what she told herself to justify the way she'd launched out of bed, rushed through all her morning routines and sprinted out the door, barely stopping to hug her baffled dad goodbye.

Tossing the ball in her hands, she considered her options. She could go back home, but while her arrival time was a bit extreme, she had agreed to meet some of her new friends before class to practice. Maybe this was an opportunity to warm up without anyone watching her, if just so she didn't embarrass herself like she did when she broke that window the first time she played. With that decided, she dropped the ball and began to train, trying to bounce it up from her foot, to her knee, to her elbow, and back down.

It wasn't that she was bad at Avalor's local sport. She had excellent footwork from years of balancing on a moving ship, and she had the strength to make powerful shots, but her control needed some work. It was exhilarating, though, between the fast pace and the strong teamwork, and she had yet to play a round she hadn't enjoyed, broken glass aside. The game had to be one of her favorite things she'd learned since moving there nearly six weeks ago.

In fact, of all the places she'd lived for longer than a month, Avalor had to be among her favorites. It was the trade center of this side of the world, and the sheer number of cultures that passed through the harbor on a daily basis was enough to sate her appetite for the unusual that the nebulous, nomadic lifestyle of a seafarer had ingrained in her. The city itself provided balance and consistency, a place where her life felt stable for once. And of course, it didn't hurt that her parents had actually warned her about the move this time, even if it wasn't quite what she had expected for the start of ninth grade.

Her drill was going well—the ball was completely under her control. Pride swelling up in her chest, she decided it was time to mix it up, letting the ball drop to the ground and sending it flying with a kick toward—

Oh no.

Someone was there, perched on the courtyard's surrounding wall with his nose buried in a book, directly in the path of the olaball's wild flight.

Naomi's stomach dropped. "Look out!" she shouted, far too late, and the hapless visitor snapped his head up at the sound, just in time for the olaball to collide with his face and send him flailing backwards into the bushes with a crash and a startled yelp. Naomi sprinted across the yard, and she leaned over the wall to check on her accidental victim, wincing at the sight that met her. The boy had snapped through several branches of the bush and sunken down far enough that he was having trouble freeing himself from the mess of foliage, and there was a reddish mark around his left eye. Guilt gnawed at Naomi's insides at the sight. That was definitely going to be a nasty bruise by the next morning.

"I'm so sorry," she finally said, vaulting herself over the wall. There wasn't much room between the bushes, so she had to carefully maneuver between them to reach a place she could even help him from, tugging her skirt behind her to free it from a particularly clingy set of branches. "I didn't realize you were there. Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, uh, sure," he replied. "Don't worry about it." He was trying to get his palms against something solid below him, but he snapped through another branch as he placed too much weight on it. Grimacing, he sank down another few inches into the plant before looking back at Naomi with a strained smile. "Happens all the time, really."

Naomi bit back a laugh. This really wasn't funny—the poor guy was hopelessly stuck because of her—but she couldn't resist taking a quick jab at him. "What, getting hit by an olaball or falling into the bushes?"

"Yeah," he simply said. He made another attempt at pushing himself out, but only managed to send himself even further into the bush. With a frustrated groan, he switched tactics, trying to get purchase on something with one of his legs instead, but as trapped as he was, he just kicked uselessly in the air a few times before dropping his leg back into the leaves.

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Here, let me help you," she said, finally reaching down to grab one of his arms. She barely waited for him to have a solid grip on her before hauling him up and out in a single pull, nearly tipping backward into one of the other bushes in the process. He stumbled for a moment, struggling to get his feet back under him, but a few seconds later, through both their efforts, he was upright, looking worse for the wear but immensely relieved.

"Sorry," Naomi said again, trying for eye contact, but he turned away from her with a confused frown and bent back over the bush, mumbling to himself as he began pulling branches aside. She debated grabbing his shirt to keep him from falling in again, but stopped her hand a few inches from his back. This was already pretty awkward without her grabbing him by his clothes. She could already hear the reprimands from the teachers and the complaints from this guy's parents and the distressed apologies from her dad. She could be a pretty rough and tumble kind of girl, and things like this came with the territory, but it was always a pain to deal with, especially since she really hadn't meant any harm this time.

The boy suddenly popped back up with an 'aha!', holding his rescued book above his head, as if the plant was going to reach up and snatch it back. Naomi rolled her eyes again. What a nerd.

"So, are we good?" she asked. "Everything's okay?"

He brushed some dirt off the book and began carefully thumbing through the pages. "I think so," he said, lifting one of the pages between his thumb and forefinger and squinting at it. "There's a little damage, but none of it looks that serious. It's still readable, at least."

Oh, this was too much. Naomi bit her lip to keep from smiling, but she could feel her eyes scrunching up with amusement. "I meant with you."

"Oh." He snapped the book shut in one hand and drew the other to the back of his neck. "Right. Of course. I'm fine." He glanced at her, but dropped his gaze to his feet with a nervous laugh after seeing the look on her face.

And then he did a double-take, brow furrowed. "Wait, I know you," he said.

Naomi was fairly certain she had never seen this guy before today.

Apparently convinced otherwise, the boy carried on. "You're… uh… that new girl, right? Naomi?"

Well, he wasn't wrong. "That's me," she replied. She did stand out quite a bit—her blonde hair and pale skin weren't exactly common in the region. He must have just seen her around. "My dad's the new harbormaster, so we just moved in by the docks. Good to meetcha!" She laughed, holding out a hand to shake. Might as well meet him properly.

He frowned. "We're in the same class," he said, voice flat.

Naomi prayed that the smile still on her face was enough to mask the panic she knew was in her eyes. They were classmates? She didn't recognize his face, though! Okay, this was fine, a little embarrassing, but ultimately fine. She'd met a lot of people in the last six weeks, so it was totally forgivable for a few of them to have slipped her mind. Looking him over, Naomi scrambled to match him to one of her many, many new acquaintances.

He was just barely shorter than her, with gangly limbs suggesting that wouldn't be the case for long, and his uniform looked loose, like his family was hoping he'd grow into it. A mop of recently-cut, dark curls sat on his head, made unruly by his adventure in the shrubs. His whole face was set in a look of disappointed judgment, with his hazel eyes narrowed at her, but with how baby-faced he was, it looked more like a comical pout than anything else.

Yeah, no. He didn't look like anyone she knew.

She was tempted to ask him if he was sure, but her eyes were drawn back to his book, now clutched tightly under one arm, and instead of trying to imagine his face, she pictured the sight of him just before she'd clocked him with the olaball: obscured behind the pages of a book, with just the top of his head and hunched shoulders visible. Just like that, the image clicked into place.

"We are!" she blurted. She couldn't place his face at first, sure, but she definitely knew—more or less—who he was. He sat near the back of the classroom and hardly spoke to anyone. Instead, he kept himself buried in a book at any moment he could and spent the rest of his time in class strategically avoiding eye contact with the teacher. He tended to rush into the classroom at the last second, looking distracted, like he'd rather be anywhere else, and was almost always the first person to take off at the end of the day.

Okay, so now she just needed a name. Fighting vainly through a month and a half's worth of vague memories of the guy, she concluded that his name started with an 'M'? She was pretty sure, at least. Was it... Marco? No, that didn't sound right. Ma… Ma-something, though.

"Mateo?" she tried, wincing at her pleading tone.

He sighed. "It's actually Mate—Oh! That's what you said." Mateo rubbed at his neck again, looking surprised and embarrassed and more delighted than Naomi had ever seen him before. "Sorry," he continued. "People don't normally get that on their first try."

"Huh. I'm sorry."

Silence stretched between them, and Naomi found herself feeling antsy, a restlessness brought on by the growing cloud of discomfort. She thought about trying for a handshake again, but presenting it now after such a long pause would probably just be weirder.

"Well!" she finally said, "not that standing in the bushes in total silence isn't loads of fun, but I had other stuff I was doing, so…"

"Oh! Right." Mateo swept an arm out toward the courtyard and gave a mock bow. "After you!"

Naomi snorted and shuffled her way back through the plantlife to vault over the wall again. Once back on solid, paved ground, her first order of business was tracking down the olaball, and after sparing a cursory glance at Mateo to confirm he hadn't tumbled into a shrub as soon as her back was turned, she went to retrieve it. She was about to rush to the center of the courtyard to resume her practice where she'd left off, or maybe all the way to the other end to prevent another accident, when she heard her classmate speak up behind her.

"So, you're here pretty early," he remarked. He'd set his book down on the wall so he could use all his limbs for climbing, and while he wasn't as graceful as Naomi had been—she had years of navigating between crates and equipment on a ship deck to thank for that—he handled the climb into the courtyard a lot better than she'd admittedly been expecting.

Naomi tucked the olaball under her arm and headed back toward him. "Yeah, I know," she said, smiling. "José and his friends, uh, Beatríz and Dante? They invited me to join them for some quick olaball games before class today, and I thought I'd get some practice in before they got here. Guess I was a little over-excited, though." She raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What's your excuse?"

"Ugh, my mom," he replied. He'd settled in so he was leaning against the wall, but with his feet still planted firmly on the ground this time, one hand resting on his book like it might grow legs and run off if he didn't hold it there. "She found out I got here late a few times last week and hustled me out of the house as quickly as she could this morning. And for her, that amounts to pretty early."

"What, and you decided to actually come straight to school?"

Mateo shrugged. "Where else would I have gone?" he asked.

Well, Naomi probably would've dropped by a friend's house to see if she could walk with them, but now that she was thinking about it, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen Mateo hanging out with anyone in class. What other options were there? "I dunno. I'd have maybe taken the scenic route around the city," she settled with. "I still feel like I'm finding new things to see here every day. Although," she noted, "I guess if you grew up here you've probably seen most of it already."

He was already nodding, even before he replied. "I live pretty far out of the city, actually, so I get the 'scenic route' every day."

"Oh, so that's why you're always in such a rush to leave." It made more sense than him being completely friendless, at least.

"Well, that's more, uh," he paused, looking away, "I've just got other stuff I'd rather be doing."

"Don't we all," Naomi laughed, and Mateo actually joined her, visibly relaxing a bit. Naomi took that as a cue to lean on the wall next to him. When he didn't elaborate on what 'other stuff' meant for him, Naomi continued, "I'm always worried a ship from someplace I've never been is going to be in and out of the harbor while I'm stuck at school, and I'll miss a once in a lifetime chance to see something extraordinary."

"Although, if you used to travel all the time before moving here, you must have already seen some pretty exciting stuff, right?" A grin split Mateo's face and his eyes brightened, looking genuinely enthused for the first time that morning.

The smile was contagious, and Naomi found herself grinning back as she replied. "Sure have! There was this one time, we pulled into port right as the town was having a parade, and I could almost see the entire parade route from up in the crow's nest. Oh! And out at sea, there was the time where the whole ocean around us started glowing one night."

Mateo made a soft awed sound, and feeling bolstered, Naomi went on, rattling off stories she'd probably recounted a dozen times to a dozen different people each time her family had moved, but they almost never failed to get an intrigued reaction.

It was a bit weird, though.

Normally, when she'd do this, whoever she was talking to would inevitably cut in with stories of their own. Or they'd start telling her about things she could look forward to in whatever country it was, or talk about times they'd seen what she had, and okay, sure, Avalor didn't seem to have festivals or anything, but she didn't think it was unreasonable to expect a conversation. Mateo had the occasional question, which Naomi was happy to answer, but no amount of prompting or pausing on her part seemed to get him to share anecdotes of his own, and the conversation, if it could really be called that, was starting to feel more like an interrogation.

An itch was starting to creep up her spine, pleading with her to escape, and she turned the olaball over in her hands a few times to distract herself from the feeling. She could just leave, right? If he wasn't doing any talking, then she could just end the conversation whenever, right?

Although, Mateo at least looked like he was having fun. He had started leaning in toward her, hanging on every word. "Have you ever seen any—" he started, but suddenly, like whatever spell he'd been under that kept him so engaged had been broken, he tore his eyes away from her and his smile dropped to something more subdued. "No, I can't ask that," he said, more to himself than to her.

Naomi perked up. That had been the first thing he'd said that felt out of the ordinary, and now she was curious. "Sure you can!" she chirped, lightly punching his arm. Besides, what was one more question, at this point?

"Ow," Mateo protested, rubbing at the spot. "No, I really can't."

Undeterred, Naomi pressed again. "Well, why not?"

"I just—I mean—it's not that important, honestly, I'm just, well…"

Any semblance of a normal, regular conversation between two normal, regular classmates died as Mateo stammered himself to a stop and the awkward, suffocating silence returned. Naomi stifled a sigh. That had, at the very least, been going okay. Kinda one-sided, sure, but it had seemed like he was finally starting to warm up to her. Not that she was really itching to become Mateo's closest friend or anything like that, but if they were going to be in school together for a while, she wanted to at least put in a token effort. Besides, he didn't strike her as an unpleasant person. Weird, for sure. He was definitely a little weird. But otherwise, he seemed nice, if a bit reserved.

Naomi gazed across the courtyard. Yeah, she was just gonna leave. Clearly, conversing was going to be an ordeal, and she didn't have the fortitude to keep slamming her head against this brick wall of a discussion this early in the morning. If he didn't want to talk, she couldn't exactly make him. Standing back up, she readied the olaball to go charging back across the stone, when an idea struck her. She had wanted to practice with someone earlier, so she might as well give interacting with Mateo one last chance.

"You wanna play a few rounds with me?" she asked, turning on her heel to face him and brandishing the olaball. "Olaball is way more fun with a group of people than just practicing by myself."

Mateo blinked at her a few times, looking confused. "You're… asking me?" he replied, hesitant.

"Uh, yeah?" Naomi gestured to the empty courtyard around them. "Do you see anyone else here? Unless you've got an invisible friend there you didn't bother telling me about."

"No," he said, but he did glance at the space beside him like he wasn't quite sure. "Although, I have read about these magic spirits called chanuls that invisibly—"

He cut off suddenly, snapping his jaw shut so fast it was a wonder he didn't break it and squeezing his eyes tightly shut, like he was in pain.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Naomi asked, alarm bubbling up alongside the guilt from earlier. Had his tumble hurt him worse than she'd realized?

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, and abruptly, he was gathering up his book and shoving it into a bookbag near his feet.

"What're you—"

"I'm going to see if we can get inside the building yet," he said, talking fast and avoiding her eyes, heading toward the front doors of the school.

"Just wait a second—!" Naomi tried again.

"Forget I said anything. Sorry."

Alarm gave way to anger. Naomi knew that she really shouldn't get upset about this, and on any other day she might have just let him go, but whether from the unusually early start she'd had, or her crawl through the bushes, or the unfairness of Mateo getting to just blow her off like that when she'd actually been trying, she was feeling especially irate. So, she did the only thing she could think of that was certain to get his attention: she pitched the olaball at the back of his head. It made contact with a sharp thwack, and Mateo yelped, lurching forward. He turned to her, holding a hand over the spot he'd been struck and glaring at her with a dark look that was uncanny to see on his previously mild-mannered face.

"What is your problem?!" Naomi shouted before he could get a word in.

Mateo scowled. "My problem?" he shot back. "You're the one that just hit me!"

"Look, I'm trying, okay?!"

"You're trying to hit me?!"

"No!" Naomi groaned. "Ugh, it's no wonder no one ever talks to you!"

Across from her, Mateo recoiled like she'd struck him again, and Naomi felt something hollow out in her chest.

"Wait, no," she immediately tried to correct, "I didn't mean that." Sighing, she put her face in her hands, trying to collect her thoughts.

She really hadn't wanted to antagonize him, but being nice was proving difficult when he kept shutting down every one of her attempts. And now… She'd been told before that she could be blunt, and sometimes over-forward, and here she was, watching those traits come to a head and having to navigate around them to diffuse the situation. Hopefully, she never needed to be a diplomat. Looking back up, she saw that Mateo, though still looking upset, at least hadn't tried to take off again. He was waiting there, his arms crossed and shoulders hunched, staring somewhere in the vicinity of his elbow.

"I was really trying to be nice," she started slowly, trying to pick her words a bit more carefully. "I'm sorry I hit you, but you weren't listening to me and I didn't know what else to do!"

Mateo's lip curled back into a scowl. "I've been listening to you all morning."

Naomi had a scathing retort prepared, but it died in her throat as she opened her mouth. He had been listening to her all morning, and really attentively at that. He'd been asking questions about her and her interests and her lifestyle, and had never once responded with any sort of derision or boredom. But he had barely been responding with anything about himself, and Naomi had felt like she'd been put on-the-spot.

"I guess you were," Naomi admitted. "But I've been trying to listen to you, too, and you keep getting all weird about it, like you don't actually want to be talking to me. It makes you seem kinda…" she waved a hand around for a moment, searching for a word, "I dunno. Standoffish."

Mateo's face fell, and his whole frame deflated. "Oh," he said softly. "You think I'm standoffish?"

Naomi shrugged. "I mean, not really, to be honest. You seem like an okay guy, but I'll admit that surprised me. The way you're always avoiding people in class, you can kinda give off that impression."

"Do you… does everyone else think that, too?"

"Maybe," she said, and Mateo flinched. "Look, I haven't been here that long yet, but that was the first impression I got."

Across from her, Mateo looked downcast. "I hadn't realized," he said. "I mean, it makes sense, but no one's said that outright before." He sighed, picking at a loose thread on his sleeve. "It's not that I'm trying to be rude, really. I'm just kind of a private person."

"I noticed," Naomi replied, trying not to sound snarky and failing.

"I'm… sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I really did like hearing about your travels."

Somewhat reluctantly, Naomi smiled. He really was an okay guy. "And I'm sorry for hitting you with an olaball. Twice."

He chuckled. "No harm done." He reached up to gingerly poke at the bruise forming around his eye and winced, yanking his hand away again. "Ow, okay, maybe a little harm done. Be honest, how bad does it look?"

Not great. The redness hadn't faded in the slightest, and in some spots had already darkened to purple, especially around where his cheek was starting to swell.

She must have grimaced, because Mateo laughed again. "That bad, huh?" he said. "Seriously though, don't worry about it. These kinds of things just happen to me."

"If you say so," Naomi said. She definitely still felt guilty, especially now that they'd smoothed things over, but if Mateo was going to insist he was fine, then she supposed she could leave it be. "But hey, if you liked hearing my stories, you should come by the harbor sometime, see some of it for yourself, you know?"

He looked startled. "Really?"

"Sure. I can give you the grand tour or something." It was the least she could do, really. "And you could tell me more about, what was it? Channels? Chanuls?"

A look of horror flashed across Mateo's face, and suddenly, he was shushing her, arms outstretched like he was going to cover her mouth. He stopped before reaching her and instead pressed his knuckles to his mouth, jittering in place.

"Seriously?" Naomi asked, trying to force some of her frustration back down. "What's your deal? Mateo, we just talked about this."

"Sorry," he finally said, voice low, "but you've got to believe me when I say we really, really can't talk about that stuff."

"Okay, fine," Naomi huffed. "You don't have to, but can you at least tell me why you can't tell me?"

"It's just—well, you know."

"Uh, clearly not!"

He fidgeted again for a moment and, after taking a deep breath, looked pointedly over Naomi's head toward something in the distance. Following his gaze, she saw that he was looking at the towers of Queen Shuriki's palace, rising high above the rest of the city's skyline.

"You know," he whispered. "The magic ban?"

She turned back to him, confused. "Wait, you do magic?"

"Wh—no! Of course not!" Mateo answered, louder than he probably needed to, before she'd even finished asking the question. "I've just, uh, read a little bit about some creatures that can."

"I don't get it, then," Naomi said. "You're worried you're gonna get in trouble just for reading some myths? That's a pretty extreme restriction."

"Shuriki arrests people for whistling," Mateo flatly replied. "You really think anything is too small of a crime to her?"

"Well, when you put it that way…" Naomi let her gaze wander back toward the palace. It really did seem strange that a place as warm as Avalor would have a ruler as cold as Shuriki. Bans on magic, music, dancing, most festivals—it was a miracle the spirit of the people was as strong as it was. She hadn't been anywhere else in the EverRealm with laws like that. One of the few definite downsides of living there, but at least she could always go out sailing with her dad whenever she needed a reprieve.

Mateo softly cleared his throat behind her. "So, uh. You aren't going to, you know, tell anyone? Are you?"

Naomi rolled her eyes and looked at him, smirking. "What? That you're a nerd that likes fairytales?"

He made a nondescript sound and looked away, wringing his hands. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and the way he was shifting his feet, he seemed ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Naomi wasn't the best at sympathy, but after walloping him with an olaball, knocking him into the bushes, hitting him with an olaball again, and setting off what was starting to look like a nervous breakdown, she knew she owed Mateo some sincerity. He deserved at least that.

"Relax," she said, mentally cringing at her own tone of voice. Why did she always sound so sarcastic? Taking a deep breath, she tried again. "I really don't think you need to be so worried about this. I mean, as long as you're not actually practicing magic—"

"Which I'm not!" Mateo cut in.

"So you mentioned," Naomi said. "Since you're not doing that, I don't think anyone is actually going to care about the stories you like to read. But if it makes you feel better, I promise, I'm not gonna rat you out to anybody."

Mateo released the breath he'd been holding in a deep sigh, slumping in on himself like the stress was what had been keeping him upright.

"Thanks," he finally said after composing himself.

Naomi shrugged. "Sure, no problem."

The silence that followed was slightly more companionable than all the preceding awkward gaps in the conversation, although it still stretched on a bit too long for Naomi's liking.

Just as she was about to break the silence, it was surprisingly Mateo that spoke up first. "Is the invitation still open?" he asked.

"What, to visit the harbor? I'm pretty sure you could go there even if I hadn't invited you."

Mateo shook his head. "No, I mean—well, yeah, that too. But I was talking about the olaball one."

A grin split Naomi's face. "I'm surprised you want anything else to do with that after how this morning's been going," she said, already looking around for where the ball had rolled this time. "But sure! I'm game."

"I just—I mean, I should try, too, right?" he said. "If I don't want to come across as, you know—"

"Mateo," Naomi cut in as he began to trip over his words again, "you're fine. Relax." And even though she couldn't stop her snort of laughter, she still sounded less snarky than before, and he responded with a tiny smile.

By the time she'd found and retrieved the ball, Mateo had deposited his bookbag against the wall and had made his way to the center of the courtyard.

"You know how to play?" Naomi asked as he approached.

"More or less."

"Good enough! You ready, nerd?"

And before Mateo had a chance to properly protest the nickname, Naomi had served the ball and started to play.

Amazingly, Mateo did not get himself clocked in the head again within the first 30 seconds of gameplay like Naomi had been expecting. He actually wasn't half bad at all. Okay, even. His footwork was subpar and he wasn't nearly as strong as Naomi, but his reflexes turned out to be pretty good when he was paying attention to his surroundings instead of his book, and his aim was a lot better than she'd been expecting. If she was being honest with herself, they'd probably balance each other out well if they were on the same team, which felt weird to think about considering they'd never spoken to each other prior to that morning.

But still, she noticed with satisfaction, she had been right: practicing olaball was a lot more fun when she was doing it with someone else. She let herself get lost in the game, delighted by the pace and the energy. Soon, all she could hear was her feet on the pavement, and the sound of the olaball being struck, and her and Mateo's laughter, and she found herself feeling so, so glad that she had gotten to school so early.

She wasn't quite sure how long they'd been playing when Mateo had to stop, doubled over and breathing hard.

"You done already?" Naomi teased, juggling the olaball between her knees to prove that she was still raring to go.

Mateo tried to laugh, but as winded as he was it came out more like a wheeze.

Just then, Naomi heard someone call out from the far end of the courtyard.

"Hey! Naomi! You got started without us!"

Looking toward the sound, Naomi saw the group of the three classmates that had invited her out in the first place jogging across the courtyard toward her. The place was still mostly empty, but now that she was watching the world outside the game again, she noticed that several more students had actually started showing up. They loitered in the corners of the courtyard, catching up with one another before class, or they filtered slowly into the school building.

Naomi chuckled as José, Beatríz, and Dante reached her. "Sorry, I just couldn't wait any longer."

"Hope you weren't waiting too long," José said, and then seemed to finally notice Mateo standing there, too. He turned to the other boy, brow furrowed in confusion. "Marco? I didn't know you played olaball."

"I… my name's…" Mateo tried, but he was still catching his breath.

Dante didn't let him finish. "Learn something new every day, huh?" he chimed in, slinging a bulky arm roughly across Mateo's shoulders. "You wanna join us, too?"

"Aw, but if Marco plays too, we won't have even teams!" Beatríz pointed out, pouting. "That was part of the point of getting Naomi in on this!"

"It's... that's not my..." No one seemed to hear Mateo over their own chatter.

Alright, that was enough of that. "Guys, guys! It's fine. Mateo can be on whatever team I'm on," Naomi cut in. "I'm still pretty new at this, so between the two of us, we're basically a whole player."

"That could work," Dante agreed. Beatríz sighed and bobbed her head like she couldn't decide whether to shake it or nod.

"Wait, Mateo? What did I call you?" José asked. "Marco?"

"Yeah," Mateo replied, trying to squirm away from Dante's arm.

"Oh, my bad. Sorry, man," José said, only looking slightly apologetic.

Mateo grimaced, finally freeing himself. "Don't worry about it," he said, sounding tired. "Happens all the time."

The others winced as he straightened up and they saw the bruising around his eye. "Whoa, what happened to you?" Dante asked.

Naomi bit her lip, knowing what was coming. Once Mateo explained what had started their little misadventure, she'd end up looking like a massive jerk, which, yeah, she kinda had been. But still, she wanted to make it up to him! She was pretty new here, and the last thing she wanted was to get stuck with a reputation for being a bully.

Given how evasive he'd been all morning though, she really shouldn't have been surprised by how he responded, instead. "I tripped face-first into the bushes," he lied. "Naomi helped me out."

Naomi wanted to make eye contact with him, to figure out if he really didn't intend to mention the other aspect of her involvement in his accident, but he was looking away, trying to discreetly block his injury from view.

"Anyway," he continued. "I think I'm done playing for the day, so you don't have to worry about the number of people. I'm pretty wiped out. And you really don't have to worry about Naomi as far as balancing the teams goes. She's plenty good already."

"What, so you're just gonna go?" Naomi blurted before she could stop herself. All that about putting in an effort, and he was just going to bail as soon as someone else joined the picture?

Mateo blinked at her, perplexed for a moment, but then the corner of his mouth tugged upward in a crooked smile. "I mean, I guess I could referee," he offered, turning back to José. "If you guys need one."

The other three made varying noises of assent and started figuring out teams, and Mateo made his way over to the approximated sidelines.

The game played like any other game of olaball. Mateo, for his part, seemed to be content watching, and never asked to tag in for a round. And like her match against Mateo earlier, the game ended far too soon for Naomi's liking. Unfortunately, they all still had to go to class.

Naomi grabbed Mateo by his elbow as he was trying to retrieve his things. "Hey, what you said earlier, about how you tripped," she started, but Mateo shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I don't want to get you in trouble. I know you didn't mean it the first time, and I kinda deserved the second one." He didn't, Naomi wanted to protest, but Mateo kept going before she could. "Consider this returning the favor," he said with a smile, and echoed her words from earlier. "I promise, I'm not gonna rat you out to anybody."

Naomi smiled. "Thanks, Mateo," she said.

"Of course. Well, I'll see you later, Naomi." He waved a little at José and the others, and then just like that, he was gone, rushing off toward the crowd of students entering the building.

"What were you guys talking about over here?" Dante asked, coming up behind Naomi with José and Beatríz in tow.

"Not much," Naomi answered.

José gave a quick, barking laugh. "Well, that 'not much' is still probably more than I've ever heard him say in what? Three? Four years of knowing him?" He turned to Dante and Beatríz for confirmation.

"Four, I think," Beatríz said.

"Only two for me," Dante said.

That long, and none of them even knew his name."He's a nice guy," Naomi insisted, feeling a rush of irritation on Mateo's behalf.

José shrugged. "I'm sure he is," he said. "He's just also kinda… you know."

"Quiet?" Dante supplied.

"Weird," Beatríz said at the same time.

"Yeah," José said, nodding. "Mateo is just a little bit weird."

Before Naomi could argue further, one of the school staff came rushing through the courtyard, herding the straggling students inside, and the school day formally began after what must have been the longest morning of her life. She saw very little of Mateo throughout class, and heard even less of him. Were it not for his black eye, she might have even believed that the morning's events were a bizarre, waking dream.

Naomi wanted to check on him again before they left, but as soon as class let out, he was gone, like he'd made himself disappear, without so much as a word to anyone on his way out.

Well, that was okay. It wasn't like she was all that invested in his friendship, anyway.

Joke's on you, Naomi, he's gonna be one of your besties by the end of this.

Anyway, I wrote the first draft of this chapter back in August 2019, because I had just plowed through the first two seasons barely a month prior, and I wanted to know more about Naomi and Mateo's dynamic so badly. There are so many fun, little details between them that never got explored, and so I decided to just start exploring them myself. And now, a year and a half later, I've finally gotten this to a shareable state. This thing is a behemoth of a fic and I've got a lot planned, and I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am.