With the long sweltering days of Ripening, school resumed and Xaiden returned to his routine of working on his web novel during class. The drone at the front of the class went over topics with enthusiasm, responding to the questions from his classmates with artificial empathy and optimism. Xaiden could never understand why anyone would bother talking to that thing, after all, if you needed information, it's all right there on the imprint anyway. He glanced around the class at the different desks, the students mostly fell into three categories; sleepers, studious, or slackers. He fell in the last category squarely, however his grades remained some of the best in class. He just preferred to manage his time a little differently, but he understood more than most the importance of grades. As long as he remained near the top of the class, his mother would leave him in peace.
The bell rang for class dismissal, so Xaiden submitted the latest chapter of his action story and turned his notifications back on. He hadn't missed anything while they were silenced, but he hadn't been expecting anything either. He grabbed his bag and stuffed his leftover snacks inside, burying the reflective jacket and flashlight at the bottom. He should really take those out now that he isn't using them anymore, he thought bitterly. "Dead weight," he muttered as he zipped the bag up.
"Umm.. are you Xaiden?" a soft voice he didn't recognize called from behind him.
Surprised that someone approached him, especially someone from another class, Xaiden turned around quickly, almost knocking the petite student over. "Oh, um yeah." Xaiden responded, then added. "Sorry," as he held her thin arm to steady her.
"I'm Lani! I don't think we've met before!" she chirped pleasantly as she smoothed out her clothes, then extended a slender hand towards him.
Xaiden clasped her hand lightly, still dumbfounded, as he gripped his bag with his other hand nervously.
"I know this is random," Lani continued melodically, unfazed by Xaiden's awkward demeanor, "I've heard a lot about you and with this being our last semester, I wanted to make sure I got to meet the Xaiden Caelus. Maybe we can be friends?"
"Oh, umm.. uhh, sure." Xaiden ran a hand over his hair, then nodded slowly, not exactly sure what he was agreeing to exactly.
"Yay!" Lani beamed, then smoothly linked arms with him. "Where are you off to? Can I come?" Before he could reply, she patted his arm lightly, looking up at him worriedly, "I'm sorry, do you mind? I'm so used to walking like this with my friends, I didn't even think about it!"
"I-it's fine," Xaiden nodded, flustered by everything about her. His skin tingling where her arm rested against his, he shook his head to clear his mind and said, "I'm just heading home though."
"Okay, I can walk with you to the Portal Hub then!" Lani spoke cheerily as she took a step forward, pulling Xaiden along.