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Sorry for not updating for a while. In addition to the technical difficulties I've been having lately, I'm also doing a lot of prep for a craft fair. But I have surgery tomorrow, so I'm posting this now before I get distracted for another two weeks.

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Janus sighed in frustration, setting his pencil down.

His parents had dropped him off at the local library, thinking that the environment would help him to study. Janus had begrudgingly gone along with it, really just because he didn't feel like fighting about it. He didn't even really want to do his homework, but he'd quickly gotten bored and had slowly pulled out his math assignment.

That had been about 30 minutes ago, and he was about ready to give up. He had absolutely no idea what this assignment was even about, let alone how to solve any of the problems. He was only about halfway done with the worksheet, but he was pretty sure that he'd only even gotten that far because he wasn't solving them correctly.

Just as he was about to give up entirely, however, someone plopped down in the seat beside him.

"Sup, cutie~" they greeted. "Workin' on homework?"

Annoyed, Janus looked up to see just who it was that was bothering him.

It was Remy Somnium, a senior from his high school. He was also in he and Roman's theatre class, which was the only class they shared (since they were in different grades).

Remy was… put simply, a delinquent. Or a class clown. Both, really. He was the guy that always seemed to be pulling some kind of stupid stunt or dumb prank- everything from hiding the whiteboard markers to setting small fires and covering the courtyard in glitter.

Last year, Remy had organized some huge thing where over half the school showed up wearing clown noses (followed by everyone wearing one denying that they were doing so and acting confused). Janus still wasn't sure exactly why Remy had organized it, but somehow, by the end of the day, there were chickens in the principal's office (rumor had it that Remy himself had been the one to plant the chickens, but no one had been able to prove anything, so he'd never gotten in trouble for anything other than a dress code violation) and alphabet magnets all over the lockers (most of which spelled out harmless little things like 'don't eat the meatloaf' or 'Bob was here', but Janus tried not to think about the phrases he'd found spelled out on his locker in comical, plastic lettering).

The year before that, Remy somehow got the yearbook club to misspell some of the teacher's names (those that were generally agreed upon to suck), and the club advisor hadn't noticed until after all the books had been printed and a teacher complained about it. Which didn't really cause much harm, but there were now a lot of people with messed-up yearbooks, and some people had angrily demanded a refund (Janus had also heard that the reason so many people were that mad about it was because one of the names had been turned into a similar curse word, though he wasn't sure if that was true or another rumor.)

Remy's biggest prank, though, apparently took place during his freshman year (while Janus was still in middle school). According to the upperclassmen, he'd managed to cover the entire school with rainbow chalk overnight without anyone noticing, a feat made spectacular more because (as confirmed by security cameras) he'd somehow done it alone than by the act itself (which was promptly washed away in the following rainstorm). The rainstorm, however, didn't wash away all of the hidden drawings he'd painted underneath.

The point was- Remy caused a lot of trouble for the school. He shared detention with Janus a lot, but they never really talked much since talking wasn't allowed- and really, Janus wasn't much inclined to talk to him anyway.

On the surface, he and Remy would seem quite similar, since they both got in trouble so much. Except there were few key differences. Most noticeably: People liked Remy. They didn't like Janus. Remy got into trouble a lot, but it was mostly silly things or things that made people laugh. That, combined with the fact that he was actually nice unless he had reason not to be, made him rather popular. If memory served him right, he and Roman were actually friends in a strange sort of way- they never appeared to be getting along, and yet they seemed to spend an awful lot of time with each other, even when they didn't need to. Janus figured it was something similar to the friendship he'd had with Virgil, before that fell to shambles.

"If Roman sent you to pester me, you can tell him to fuck off," Janus warned quietly. "I'm supposed to be doing my math homework, anyway."

It wasn't like Remy had to know he was about to give up on the assignment, anyway.

"Roman? Oh, nah," Remy denied. "I mean, he's been moaning about being partnered with you for the assignment, but he didn't, like, tell me to bother you about it or anything."

"So you're here why, then?"

"Eh, I had to find a book for English class," he replied. "Saw you here. Figured 'Hey, that's one of my classmates!' And came over."

Janus gave him a deadpan stare, but Remy didn't seem to get the hint.

"Math homework, huh?" Remy mused. "Which class?"

"None of your business."

Despite the fact that Janus clearly didn't want to talk to him, he saw Remy glance down at his worksheet.

"Oh, Algebra," he said. "You know, I took that back in 10th grade if you want me to help."

"I don't need your help," Janus hissed, glaring at him.

"... You sure, babe? 'Cuz you only got, like, one of those right."

And though Janus had already known Remy was right, he certainly hadn't wanted it pointed out- he didn't even want to be bothered right now.

"See, like, with this one you have to-"

"I didn't ask," Janus interrupted. "I neither need nor want your help, so be a dear and leave me alone, will you?"

"You sure? 'Cuz I got time."

"Well, I don't."

Janus was about two seconds from getting up and leaving, but then Remy stood up instead.

"'Kay, then," he said with a shrug. "Call me if you change your mind~"

With that, the older teen reached over, took his pencil, and lightly scribbled his phone number on the corner of Janus's worksheet before leaving with a wave.

Janus stared after him, confused about what had just happened, as he had really expected that he would get into some kind of fight (even if only a verbal one) and end up getting kicked out of the library. Instead, the boy had pretty much just annoyed him, offered his help (annoyingly), and went on his way.

Before he even thought about it too much, Janus ripped the corner off of his worksheet and stuffed the shred into his messy backpack, where he would probably forget all about it (but he hadn't just erased it).

And then Janus turned back to his homework, initially intending to try to at least finish it, but he gave up less than ten minutes later, leaving his worksheet only slightly more than halfway done and almost entirely incorrect.

Instead, he took out a notebook and began to write.

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