Who: Malia & Shauna What: Shauna’s distressed scent distracts Malia in the library Where: BHHS When: During lunch on Monday, 9/21 Rating: PG-13 at most, likely PG Status: Closed/In Progress
Despite having a specific period of the day dedicated to doing her homework, sometimes Malia spent time in the library during her lunches to look things over first. It didn’t happen often, because honestly Malia hated doing homework but she wanted to make more of an effort this year to excel where she’d failed the previous year. That meant extra time dedicated to her studies, which included finding tutors and the occasional lunch spent at a table in the library frowning at the papers in front of her. Not for the first time she considered simply asking her dad to place her back in homeschooling. It limited her access to people her own age, but at least she’d passed her freshmen and sophomore years that way.
It didn’t help that during this particular session in the library there was the overwhelming scent of anxiety coming off the redhead seated to her left at a nearby table. Distracting was a bit of an understatement, as Malia shot her yet another look out of the corner of her eye and willed her to either leave or start feeling an emotion that would leave a better scent in the air. As neither seemed like it would be happening any time soon, Malia was debating giving up on the English assignment in front of her. Another several minutes sealed the deal. Malia slid her notebook and supplies back into her backpack before standing, but rather than leaving she made her way over to the girl’s table.
Shanna, she thought her name was. Or maybe Shauna. They’d passed cursory hellos between them in the halls before, and that was enough for her to feel at least moderately comfortable in disrupting whatever it was the other girl was doing. Malia didn’t sit down, instead choosing to stand at the back of the chair across from where she sat. Without much warning, she asked, “Are you okay?” It didn’t cross her mind to think that her asking that might be weird, or intrusive considering their lack of friendship or even real acquaintance. Nor did she think that it might raise questions as to why Malia might think something was wrong.