Green with Envy

Sitting in class at the very end of the day, were many exhausted looking students who had mostly shifted their focus from the teacher to the clock as the final few minutes seemed to take longer than ever to pass by. Carmin, on the other hand, was attentive as ever. Eager to soak up as much knowledge as he could to hopefully skip some grades somewhere down the line. If someone didn't know better, they might think he was a prodigy student. He looked to be around eight and always paid close attention during class. Most of the students in the class knew that this wasn't the case by now. In fact he was slightly older than the average for his class, a fact that was proven by the MSD bracelet around his wrist.

When the class was finally dismissed, there were sighs of relief and the beginnings of conversations all throughout the class. Carmin never joined in on these, losing the interest in his eyes as soon as the instructor stopped talking about math. He simply gathered his things and left the room. What did he care if they all hung out and had social lives and the like. He knew they all looked down on him anyway, he had no need for people like that.

He wore an almost blank expression as he walked through the halls. He kept his eyes low, an easy task for someone of his stature, and made his way directly to his locker. When he opened it up, he revealed a plain but organized locker devoid of any character whatsoever. The top portion of the locker was dusty and unused, completely out of reach, the rest was filled with his backpack on a hook in the middle, and books neatly arranged at the bottom. Aside from that, there wasn't much else.

He took his backpack down off the hook with no issues and started stuffing books in. They'd gone over a lot of new information in the past week, so he had a lot to pack. He wanted to stay ahead of his classes and go through some of the stuff he'd missed before coming to the school. Unfortunately, once all the books were packed up, he found himself incapable of lifting them. He tugged at it and found that he could technically drag the bag, but actually lifting it was out of the question.

@Kait

It wasn't the least bit ideal, but Carmin was beginning to get the idea he'd need to make two trips to get all his books home. Or at least he was, until a girl from his class stepped in. As soon as she said hi to him, his face instantly blushed in a strong light green. He was caught off guard in a moment of weakness. He stared at the girl with a concerned look as she reached down to lift his bag up for him.

He knew this person. Madeline, the one who sat behind him in math. If it wasn't for the fact that he paid close attention in class, he probably wouldn't have known that much. This particular person was one he wished wouldn't see him like this. She had poked fun at him a few times already, and he figured it'd be best if she didn't have more material to work with. "Hi." He gave her a small greeting then thought about how he'd respond to the second part.

It bothered him that she picked his bag up with so much ease. No amount of exercise would ever allow him to lift that stupid sack of books, and here she was doing it so casually. She'd never have to deal with this type of problem, yet here she was, likely trying to get amusement out of his shortcomings.

As much as he wanted to tell her to go away, a part of him didn't want to make the trip to his room and back an extra time. But then she wore a dumb smile on her face, so he wasn't sure if she was joking He was torn between accepting the offer or denying it. Ultimately deciding to go with it for the time being.

He let out an annoyed sigh, took a deep breath, then answered the question. "Look, Madeline was it? If this is some sort of joke, then please just go away. But if you really are just here to help-" He paused briefly, shifting his eyes to the side. "Then I suppose I would appreciate it." He really hoped this wasn't going to backfire on him.

@Kait

Upon hearing Madeline's response, Carmin's eyes shifted back to her. He was still a little on the suspicious side, but he couldn't think of any other motive someone would have for helping him. If she was really just there to poke fun at him, she could've done so without lifting his bag up.

Reluctantly, he chose to go along with it. "Alright, if you're sure. I just live in the dorms, so it won't be too far." He shut his locker, all set to head out, then waited as Madeline slung the backpack on. As soon as she started playing up that it was heavy, Carmin assumed she was hamming it up to make fun of how weak he was. But when she made the sarcastic comment about the contents of his bag, it seemed that she was being genuine about the pack being heavy.

"No, but most of them are." He took note of how much lighter her bag looked. It must've been nice, not having missed six years of school and needing to catch up. She'd probably never carried a bag as heavy as his before. "If it's too much, then I can carry yours until we get to my room?" He didn't like the idea of her carrying both while he walked beside, it made him feel useless.

Having his offer rejected felt like taking an arrow to the back. If the bag was so heavy, then why couldn't she just share a little bit of the work. Was it actually even heavy for her? The way she nonchalantly shrugged it off bothered him a lot more than it should have. Regardless, he let things be and started walking towards the exit. "Alright."

With that, he was quite content staying quiet for the rest of the trip to his room. Fortunately, that quiet didn't last too long. Carmin was quickly forced to look back up at the girl when she started talking to him. However, he wasn't annoyed for long. The info she'd shared with him was actually rather useful. Having joined in classes part way through the semester, Carmin missed out on a lot of things. With nobody to let him know, he'd been taking his books to each of his classes. But in hindsight, it made a lot of sense, the math and language teachers really were the only ones who ever actually utilized them and other students rarely showed up to class with them.

"For real?" The number of times where he'd suffered because of those stupid books gave him mixed feelings. Sure, it was annoying, but then it made him realize that perhaps Madeline wasn't the worst. After all, this would likely prevent a lot of hardship in the future.

When they got to the door, Carmin took the liberty of holding it open. Then decided to see if he could get any other useful information out of her. "Are there any other secrets I should know about?"

The idea of watching any sort of show on a laptop was pretty foreign to Carmin. He was anything but tech savvy, having been away for six years and receiving little experience before then. His laptop had only been used for school stuff. Before he could really think too much into it, he was caught off guard by Madeline's question.

"That's not..." He was going to lie and tell her it wasn't true, but he realized pretty quickly that it'd be a hard sell. She was spot on, and the proof made it pretty obvious. His face went from defensive to defeated "-fair." He really messed up letting someone see his room, he should have told her to drop the bag outside or something. The room was pretty different from the usual, but he'd gotten used to it and sort of forgotten. For starters, it was empty, the standard size of a high school private room, but without anything one would typically see inside. There was a small wooden desk with a blue painted top, a shelf that was mostly empty aside from a row of books on the bottom compartment and some water bottles on the top, a short dresser, and a flower bed without the flowers (just a wooden rectangle with dirt in the center). Aside from these, was a huge sun lamp beside the flower bed, a hamper with some clothes inside and more books scattered all throughout the room. It wasn't exactly the coolest room around, sitting more under the category of weird.

"I can't drink drugs or alcohol, so I can't enjoy it like you. That's why I choose not to go." The very way that he phrased that probably didn't help his case much. Choose not to go was also a bit of a stretch, he'd never actually been invited to a party before.