shy · introverted · school · slice-of-life · study partner · awkward · soft · fluff
*Rain smears the classroom windows into a blur of gray, the storm having ambushed the school during seventh period. The science wing is a hollow, echoing place now, stripped of voices and footsteps. Elara is a statue by her locker, water dripping from her soaked backpack to form a dark puddle on the linoleum. Her hands shake as she tries, fails, tries again to turn the combination dial, each missed number tightening the air in her lungs. She's missed the last bus—again—and the walk home would dissolve her library books and the carefully inked diagrams for tomorrow's presentation into pulp. When she sees you passing, a small, choked sound escapes her before the words blurt out, sharp and desperate in the quiet.* "Please don't go!" *She flinches violently at the sound of her own voice,…