Learning to Love

Joey blinked once, his muffin still between his teeth. He swore he had only blinked once before and Artemis had shown up. It made him wonder vaguely what other things may appear if he chose to look away for a second and look back. Money would be nice. Or new art supplies. Or something beneficial.

"Eight o' clock is early? Wow, you wouldn't want to wake up to my family." Joey smirked and swallowed thickly past a bite of muffin, then set the food down next to his sketchbook. "They're all up at six and I just lay in bed for an hour listening to them all try to kill each other." He glanced up as Michelle sat down at the table as well, and added in an extra "hey" for her.

Artemis mad a grumbly attempt to speak through his faceplant, then sat up. "Morning, Miss Michelle." He said, before replanting. "It's too early because I dislike the morning entirely." He managed to say, still finding himself tired. "And I'm sore from Kendo yesterday."

Michelle couldn't help a smile, although she tried to hide it behind her hand. She had dealt with people who disliked the mornings before, but she never understood them. Since she could never sleep in anyway, she had learned to make the most of every minute she was awake.
"You're in kendo too? Wow. You must have a lot of skills," she said honestly. Here she was, trying to fit into even one club, and Artemis was president of one, and at least in another. She shook her head, but turned to look at Joey as well.
"How about you? Are you in any other clubs? I know you said you were trying some out. . ."

"Eh, I think I'll stick around gaming club, but otherwise not really." Joey shrugged and dusted some crumbs off the table, away from his sketchbook, then leaned back more comfortably in his chair. "Not that gaming is ever going to be a useful skill in my life, but oh well. Now, if they had a club for guys who could play a bass guitar . . ."

Artemis listed his head, and a finger. "That sounds like it would be fun...The bass guitar, I mean." Sitting up, he groaned and yawned again. "Someone ring the bell already! I'm so bored!"

As if on cue, the bell signaling students to go to their classes chimed through the halls. Michelle couldn't help but laugh at the perfect timing. She stood up, and swung her bag over one shoulder. She bit her bottom lip as she tried to decide what to say.
"Well, I guess I'll see you guys around," she settled on. As an afterthought she added, "Do you guys have anything going on after school today?"

"I'm free. Mom's day off is today so I don't have to rush home in fear of the house being set on fire," Joey replied as he stood up, stretching before slipping his backpack over his shoulders. "Now let's just hope that I don't get a bunch of homework to fill up the afternoon with instead of free time." He paused to shove the last piece of his muffin in his mouth and methodically folded the leftover wrapper in half once, then twice, and a third time as though he wasn't going to trash it in ten seconds.

"I think I'm pretty much free. Nothing that needs doing, that I know of. Why? You got somethin planned?" Artemis stood, stretching before grabbing his backpack and holding it over his shoulder with his hand, as one might see some boys in anime do with their bags.

Michelle shook her head.
"Nothing planned, really. I just," she hesitated. She had made all these plans to try and stay alone this last year of school. But here she was asking for this. She sighed. She really needed stronger self-control.
"I just haven't hung out with anyone in a while." She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "Just thought it might be fun to do something," she finished vaguely.

Joey blinked once. He wasn't used to random invitations from people he barely knew to go out and do something. He wasn't even particularly used to friends extending that invitation. "Well, sure, I guess I'm up for something," he replied with a slight shrug and a small smile. "If you have any ideas."

Artemis gave a light shrug. "Sounds good. What shall we do?" He asked, as they began to walk.

Michelle thought for a second. She wasn't used to making plans; only following them. And she still didn't know much about her new companions. What would they even like to do?
"Not really sure," she said honestly. "Do you guys have anything you like to do? Or do you maybe want to go to the park, or. . ." she trailed off. That was the best she could do, at the moment.

Joey thought for a moment before coming up with a solution. "My suggestion is that we head to a small diner a couple blocks from here," he said. "I work there, so we could get some drinks or something and they would charge cheap for it and all. Kind of a benefit that I don't get to use often."

Artemis cracked up at Joey's suggestion. "So, you're our friend with benefits?"

Michelle couldn't help but smile as well.
"That sounds like a lot of fun," she said honestly. "Do you want to just meet back here after school?" She looked up as a passing teacher yelled at them to 'hurry to class!' She winced, suddenly worried that she would be late. Although they had been walking towards classes, she realized that they were going the opposite way of her first class.
"So, uh," she said quickly, "I'll see you guys after school?"

Joey cast Artemis a look of disapproval before returning his attention to Michelle. "Meeting back here should be fine. My last class lets out just down the hall anyway," he replied, and gave a shrug. He turned to continue on to his first class. "So I'll see ya then."

Artemis gave the two of them a wave before he ran off down the hall to his next class, which was a little bit away.

Michelle nodded.
"Alright then, I'll see you guys after class."
With that, she broke of in a sprint towards her class. She managed to burst in, panting, just as the bell rang. The students in her class looked at her, obviously surprised. She was usually early, and always quiet. With a blush creeping into her cheeks, she slid into a desk near the back of the class and tried to disappear.

(Anyone up for a time skip?)

((Indeed I am. Here, since I'm posting now I'll go ahead and do it.))

After a dragging day of school that he wasn't sure was going to end before his death, Joey was relieved to finally be let of his final period of English. He gathered up his things, including a poster tube for his art project that he knew was going to be difficult carrying home for his bike. With a slight sigh, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and headed out of the classroom.

Luckily, he remembered just before he turned another corridor that he was supposed to wait there, because he was doing something that afternoon. He turned back to wait for the others, feeling a little foolish for having forgotten.

All too slowly, the day was over, and Artemis sighed gratefully as he headed out of the Music hall, finding his way to the destination he'd been rather excited to be at the entire day; the place where Joey, Michelle, and himself were supposed to meet up.

As the day progressed, Michelle grew more and more nervous. She hadn't really interacted in a group for a long time. What if she did something wrong? What if they wished she hadn't come? She seriously considered 'forgetting' about their plans. That would be the safest choice, and she could just apologize later if they noticed. She left the last class with a heavy sigh. Before she could sneak out though, she caught a glimpse of Artemis and Joey waiting in the designated place. A pang of guilt hit her, and she curved her path in their direction. She couldn't leave without being spotted at this point anyway. She put on a nervous smile as she approached them.

"Hey guys," she said as lightly as she could. "How was your day?"

Joey smiled lightly when he saw Michelle approaching. "Heya," he said pleasantly, then added to answer her question, "Boring and insufferable to the core. How about you?" He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, trying not to appear to anxious to go. Joey didn't like to stand still for very long when he had somewhere to be.

Grumbling, Artemis sighed. "My oh so darling English teacher thought my essay over the mind of man wasn't good enough even to earn a C-...Lousy, stinkin', horny..." At this point, his grumbling became inaudible. "Anyway, where shall we go?"

Michelle gave Artemis a sympathetic smile. It was always hard when teachers acted unfairly.
"Well," she said, "I think Joey had a place in mind. The place you work, right?"

"Yeah, if everyone's still up for that," Joey replied with a brief nod. He ran a hand back through his hair and added, "I do hope you both have a way to get there, because I have yet to like anybody enough to let them hitch a ride with me. Just does not work that well." He chose to ignore Artemis's grumbling; he was certain Artemis's essay had deserved the grade it had gotten and there was no reason to complain about the teacher, but Joey knew better than to speak up.