Private An Aloof Encounter

"Oh, um, I don't mind help. I'll help you too. If you want." Though they weren't sure what work Gray had, Sela was fairly confident that Myst and Jao could figure it out.

Sela slid the paper detailing their assignment towards Gray when they tried to read it. The explanations were actually quite complicated. While the idea of learning social behavior might seem simplistic, their assignment went deep into the subject. Keywords explained what empathy, emotional intelligence, apathy, mental disability, regression, and some other words regarding psychology. Sela had to write short paragraphs in response to prompts about social situations they might come across.

"I'm not," they replied when asked about their grade. "I tested out of base courses. My classes are focused on catching me up on social rules and developing my emotional intelligence."

Both Jao and Myst started laughing when Gray asked Sela for help. It almost sounded like a laugh track with a mix of women and men of all kinds laughing. Jao stopped first and quicky, embarrassed of her outburst. Myst kept on giggling until Jao nudged against him with her body.

Sela frowned, somewhat embarrassed. "A-Ah. Um. I don't think I can teach you that. If I knew how I wouldn't be taking this class. I think. This class isn't about teaching me to be more emotional. It's teaching me how to understand people's emotions and the nuances of conversations. But, uh, I'm sure you could sign up if you wanted. And I don't mind studying with you."

Sela was happy that Jao and Myst's laughter was ignored. The two were an immense help, but times like these made them feel annoying. They picked up on that and gave Gray separate apologies.

"Uh, I'm sorry for them too," they started off with, choosing to ignore Gray's slip-up. For now. "A-And, um, thank you..." A smile replaced their frown. "What kind of help do you need? Um, actually, Myst is really good at social stuff. He can see language. He likes talking to people too. He's the one who helps me with social stuff."

If Gray didn't point it out, Sela would have. They were very, very far from human.

However, Myst also pointed out, "Uh, I'm not human either?"

"Neither am I," Jao continued.

Sela looked down at the two, considering their options. They wanted to help Gray, but how could they help someone be human when none of them were human? They looked back up at Gray with a sheepish expression. "I don't act human... I think. I don't want to be human either. But I pretend. For the school. So I don't get hurt."

Picking up Sela's discomfort, Myst sighed. "Yeah, I'll help. I can act human pretty well. It's kinda hard to define the rules of them though. That's kind of the whole appeal of humans."

Sela leaned over to get a look at the notebook Gray was so interested in. All the while, Myst hesitated as he tried to think of how to do things.

"You shouldn't have agreed," Jao chimed in. Looking towards Gray, "He's not a teacher. It's not like he has a course all set up for you or whatever. Go find an ac—"

She was cut off by Myst. "Let's do this for Sela." That seemed to keep her from making another argument. He also looked up at Gray. "Okay, so, we gotta be more specific, yeah?" He looked up at Sela, who looked away from Gray's notebook and nodded.

"Um... What do you need help with specifically? What do you want to work on first? At school... we learned how to recognize facial expressions, changes in tone... social etiquette on the island. That last one's complicated. Too many cultures... We learned about a lot."