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Truly, it was awkward so far.
Standing very clearly uncomfortable by the dining room’s door frame, Jade nervously tapped their foot against the tiled floor.
How long had it been already? An hour? Might have been two, even. Probably an hour and a half then. Jade shook their head; time was passing by at an incredibly slow pace and they could feel every second that flew by increase their headache.
“Found any friend?” a familiar voice mumbled behind their ear.
“No luck yet,” Jade replied, trying to stay composed. They seriously got scared and almost jumped at that sound.
“You're just standing there, too,” Padparadscha commented as they rested against the opposite side of the door frame, drink in hand.
That strange, unnatural blue color the liquid shone made Jade frown. They felt quite glad they had at least a little self preservation instinct and didn’t get anything to drink other than water so far.
“Well,” the freshman threw a quick look around, “it’s a bit, well, you know.”
Padparadscha was one of the many seniors at the party tonight, but they were the only one they actually knew. That was, Padparadscha had been their assigned senior mentor, so they were kind of there to help Jade get involved in that ‘College Community Life’ or something. Which obviously hadn’t been quite successful for now.
“Yeah, it’s a bit rough at first. But you should push yourself to go and talk to people, really. They've all been freshmen too y’know,” their mentor admitted to ease their nerves.
“I know,” Jade scratched the back of their neck, “I'm just a little overwhelmed.”
Though their main anchor point, Padparadscha wasn’t the only senior they knew at that party. Actually, a few feet away from them, chatting and laughing with others, was Euclase. Jade felt their heart miss a beat.
“Oh I getcha. But you're part of the student council now, you'd better start making yourself known.”
Euclase was the student council’s secretary. As far as Jade knew, they had been for the past four years, and was generally liked by everyone. Jade couldn’t say they didn't like them too; Euclase was kind and gentle, an incredibly soft yet sturdy student. They had been kind of leading the student council behind the scenes for all those years, and Jade believed it without questioning. It had been clear right away from their first handshake as colleagues.
“Yeah, I will.”
To think that that was only a few weeks ago, and yet, here they were, at a party already. Maybe all that mental preparation for college was for nothing, in the end.
They had been invited in prime of their title; the new student council president. It felt pretty good to be seen as such, to be fair. But Jade couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it made everyone look at them a little weird.
After all, they did win the elections in a strange way.
“You got this, Prez,” Padparadscha patted their shoulder, taking a sip from their drink.
“Oh please,” slightly blushing, Jade tore their gaze off Euclase.
They seemed to get along with everyone so well, it was a sight for sure. Actually, they probably only meant to invite Euclase to the party. But as they entered the designated room for the student council, declaring that said council was invited to a party this friday, Jade didn’t even fathom it. That maybe, possibly, they weren’t. That Euclase, in their niceness, was just trying to include them. Jade’s foot froze.
They felt pretty much invisible. No one really invited them.
On the other side of the house, though, their presence was very much noticed and thoroughly discussed.
“They just got in because they're with Euclase,” a junior muttered as they discreetly peered at Jade.
“Well I only got in because I'm with you,” their companion replied.
Standing around the snack counter, two junior year students stood, visibly separated from the rest of the group. The house might have been quite vast, but this wasn’t why they stood apart. They willingly put themselves on the side, talking in whispers.
“That’s different.”
A long, dark haired student replied without too much thought, their gaze still upon the freshman. They were dressed quite classy despite the occasion, which was rather casual, but they didn’t stand out particularly either. Well, as far as clothing went. But as for everything else...
“Is it really?” the other student smiled.
There were Lapis Lazuli, high achieving and straight A’s alumni, and their best friend, reserved and quiet Ghost Quartz.
“Everyone knows you. No one knows that guy. I'm sure they only invited them out of pity. That’s a very Euclase thing to do,” Lapis slightly groaned, exasperated.
Lazuli was all a student could aspire to be. Smart, good grades, good looking, gentle and kind. Well, so it seemed.
“And where's Alex anyway? This is their party,” they continued, looking around.
“I think they took it upstairs with Chrysoberyl,” Ghost replied quietly, grabbing some candy from the counter.
“Seriously?”
No one really knew much about Ghost on the other hand. They were just kind of there, always by Lapis’ side. It seemed that only them actually knew them at all.
“Oh, you guys,” a voice suddenly interrupted them, “Glad you came!” they said excitedly.
“Just when we were talking about you,” Lapis told them, offering a small smile.
“You were? Wow, I'm gonna start blushing.”
Alexandrite just came down the stairs, panting. They were the one hosting the party, but their house was so big it appeared they had to run to go from one spot to the other.
“You invited Euclase’s new friend?”
The host looked confused for a second.
“Oh, you mean the new prez? Yeah, I thought it’d be nice to have them. And uh, about Euc-”
Lapis nodded.
“I see. Where's Chrysoberyl?” they directly changed the subject.
“Chrys, ah, they're uh, y’know.”
Before they could ask anything else, Alexandrite had already left.
“This guy,” Lapis commented.
“Yeah.”
It took a little time before any of them said anything again.
“I can’t believe they invited Euc. Like, invited them even after I said I would be there. So uncaring,” the long haired student frowned.
“Well, maybe they forgot,” Ghost tried to appease them.
Lapis shook their head.
“No way. This is just to try me.”
Euclase was all the way to the other side of the main room, chatting with Rutile, another freshman that surprisingly got invited. Well, Chrysoberyl was their mentor, so it did make a little sense they'd be there.
Though the fact that they were already getting comfortable with Euclase irked Lapis.
“I don’t think everyone wants to try you all the time,” Ghost added thoughtfully, a gummy bear in their mouth.
“You bet. Plus of course they'd come. No one ever invites them to anything and they never leave their house, they're just that boring.”
Ghost halfway finished chewing before replying.
“You're here too though. And you also never leave your house.”
Lapis gripped their drink tightly.
“That’s different. I only came because I chose to. Not because I have nothing else to do.”
Nodding arbitrarily, Ghost took another gummy bear.
“If you say so.”
What really got on Lapis’ nerves was the presence of Jade, that guy that shouldn’t even be there to begin with.
They might have won the vote for student council presidency but they were still, just a nobody. Lapis rolled their eyes at the sight of such a random guy being at a friends party. But then again, Alex kind of welcomed any shrugger into their party out of little care for who actually came. As long as they brought something to eat or drink, that pretty much granted them access to the party. So yeah, extras like Jade were just pretty common… but Lapis still couldn't handle this one in particular. Extras used to be people they knew, at least.
Not that they didn’t know Jade. Again, they got voted as the student council president.
“You guys, thank you so much,” they were blushing a little. “But truly, I couldn’t. There is already the literature club and that’s a lot of work!”
The crowd kept cheering anyway.
“I am sorry to disappoint, but I think someone else will do much better than I ever would,” they smiled shyly, shaking their hands around. “So, please, excuse me.”
They elegantly got off the stage, specks of glitter shining in the bright projector light as they walked away, crowd still wild.
And so, Jade won by default as next in line, with barely five votes in their favor.
Glaring from the other side of the room, Lapis still had lots of things to whisper to Ghost about, and sure would.
“Hey, everything alright?” a soft voice gently tore Jade out of their daydreaming, their cup almost slipping out of their hand.
“Oh, hey, yeah. Yeah.”
Euclase stood smiling candidly, their downturned eye swept occasionally by their pale eyelashes. A familiar face again swayed a great wave of comfort over Jade and left just as soon as it came after they realized they were talking to Euclase now.
“Yeah? You seem tired. Do you want me to drive you back home?”
“Ah, uh, no I'm fine. I was just out of it for a little.”
To be fair, they were concentrated on the two pair of eyes that had been watching over them the whole time.
“Really? It’d be no problem,” Euclase reassured them, bowing their head.
“Yeah it's fine, thank you. I'm just... Who’s that?” they finally decided to ask, vaguely pointing towards the two juniors at the snack table with their arm.
“Lapis?”
Jade shrugged.
“I suppose?”
Euclase frowned a little.
“Oh, they're a junior. Aren’t they in some of your classes?”
Jade looked a bit closer. Uh, yeah they might look a bit familiar now that they were squinting. Were they really…?
“Oh. Uh. Maybe?”
“Maybe?”
The frown they wore just changed to confusion.
“I mean, probably, yeah,” Jade mumbled, “didn’t they step down from the student council president thing?”
“They uh, they did, yeah,” Euclase seemed even more confused.
“Oh I see.”
They both stood in silence for a solid ten seconds.
“What about them?” Euc asked after a while.
It was hard to pinpoint what Euclase felt about them from their face.
“They've been whispering around vaguely looking in my direction the whole time, so uh, I was wondering if, y’know, they knew me maybe?”
“Well, I suppose they do now.”
Jade scratched the back of their neck.
What did that mean.
“Huh?”
Euclase finally became readable again, a soft smile easing on their face.
“They used to be the student council president too, once,” they recounted, “but that was back in our first year of college.”
Those sure were big news… Did they unknowingly get beef with the ex-president just by participating in the elections..? Now that they thought about it, no one else actually showed up aside from them and Lapis Lazuli. Oh.
“Why didn’t they participate this year then? Or maybe..?”
“Maybe what?” Euc wasn’t seeing the vision Jade just had, “No, I just think they were being serious about what they said on stage. The literature club is quite the job to handle too, I suppose.”
One small thing they learnt about Euclase so far was that they always perceived people to be inherently good, at least until proven otherwise. The kind of guy to see the good in everything and everyone, to put it simply. Jade didn’t think much of it, but they did reckon they might have not been sharing that same mindset.
On their end, they were pretty much an anxious, overthinking mess. Not that they were completely at their polar opposite, but Jade definitely couldn’t believe that everyone was good at heart. Actually, it was more likely for most people to be at least a bit bad, even though they’d have wanted it to be otherwise.
So, that speech Lapis gave at the elections. Well, Jade didn’t even know Lapis at all. But somehow, they had a feeling that was mostly an excuse they gave, unlike Euclase presented it.
“I suppose so.”
It had already been a full month since their freshman year started. They had been elected for two weeks. They had known Euclase for about as much time. Why were they at this party again? It was 11:30.
“Is something the matter?”
Things were still a bit awkward with Euclase. They could clearly see that they made attempts at getting closer to them, but Jade was way too self aware for it to go smoothly. The fault was on them, really, but Euclase, they seemed so…
“Charming,” an androgynously low voice softly commented, taking Jade by surprise.
A face had entered their field of view; long, neverending dark locks of hair cascading around their features, shut in by a straight row of bangs. Eyes of a deep, darkest black staring directly inside of their body through Jade’s. They shivered.
“Oh, hello there,” Euclase greeted back politely, bowing their head a little.
“Could it be? Our new president and famous student council secretary, Jade and Euclase? At a party like this?” that voice spoke again.
Standing beside them was that guy.
Lapis.
“Indeed it is. And if I’m not mistaken, Lapis Lazuli and Ghost Quartz from the literature club are here with us too, correct?”
Jade wasn’t even focused on any of the words that were leaving anyone’s mouth. All they could do was stare back into the abyss of these eyes.
“Correct you are,” Lapis nodded. “I didn’t know you guys were invited,” they simply noted, tilting their head to the side. Their long hair followed, flowing to their left shoulder.
“I didn’t think you’d come,” Euclase replied, “but it had been a while since I went to anything. Also,” they turned to Jade, still dazed, “I felt it would be great initiation for Jade to come along.”
Gently elbowing them, Euclase tried to get a word out of Jade before things got awkward. Sadly, it was already too late.
“...Um, ah, uh, yeah.”
Absolutely unconvincing.
“Well anyway,” coming to the rescue again, Euclase interjected, “I’m surprised you came. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you at an Alex party,” they said, letting Jade collect themselves in the background.
“You would be right,” Lapis’ eyes were still locked in with Jade’s, “I have had a lot of things on my plate lately. I just couldn’t get a second to myself these last few weeks.”
Jade finally found it in themselves to look away; thank God. Their face was burning all around. They caught a glimpse of a smirk on Lapis’ lips.
“Back to school period sure is a busy one isn’t it?” And thank Euclase for their aptitude in small talk.
“Truly is. But anyway, congratulations, Prez,” Lapis lightly cheered, raising their hand as if raising a toast.
“T-Thanks. Well, thanks to you, mostly, am I right,” Jade muttered. “If you didn’t step down, I guess I wouldn’t be here.”
Lapis tilted their head to the other side.
“Right,” they chuckled. Something about it seemed oddly menacing.
The four of them stood in a freezing silence for a second or two.
“Oh my gawd, Lapis is here!”
Turning around, they were faced with Padparadscha, unknowing savior of the situation.
“My my, hello there,” Lapis replied, pretending to cover their face as Padparadscha took out their phone to take pictures of them.
“I can’t believe you guys are here! Ghostie too! This is golden,” they swaggered, turning on and off their phone’s flashlight in Lapis’ face.
“Please stop,” they tried to remain serious for a second, softly laughing the next moment.
Thankfully, that was the end of Jade’s first encounter with Lapis Lazuli. Though it surely wouldn’t be their last.