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Claudia sighed wistfully at the wonderful description of Lucas's house. "That sounds like my literal heaven. There's a disgustingly low number of bookshelves in my house -- Quentin and I have these floor-to-ceiling bookselves that take up an entire wall each of our bedrooms, and my parents have some law books in their studies." Not that they ever read them. Claudia's parents were too busy with work to do anything else, much. She would be surprised if they even found out about her ditching.

"If you wake up in the middle of the night to find someone sitting in the corner of your house with a wall of books around them, it's me, don't shoot." She held up her hands as if Lucas was aiming a gun at her, and laughed. "I love books. Quentin and I are fighting to get an academic scholarship to Yale first. But the only way I can get it before him is if I skip senior year, hence all the AP classes."
 
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"If that's the case, then I'll make sure to leave out a plate of cookies and a cup of milk for you." Lucas snickered, happy that she, too, shared his love of books. "So you want to get into Yale? You sure aim high, huh?" He never bothered to think of what college he'd like to get into. It wasn't something that preoccupied his mind like his loose screws did. He always just thought about the here and now and work his way there.

"What are you plan on majoring in?" He asked, truly curious. He knew that Claudia was a smart girl, she was smarter than him without a doubt. It mad him wonder what big dreams she had for her future. All he wanted, all he ever wanted was to make the nightmares, the horrible visions, the disturbing thoughts and ideas to just go away. And he'd be happy, satisfied with just that, he would never complain.
 
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"I'd like to major in either psychology or history. I'd also like to do anthropology but that ties into both of those majors so I'd take it on as a minor." Claudia had most of her life planned out already. She would get into Yale, study in one of those areas and become a leading example in that field. She wouldn't mind getting a doctorate, either.

"I had to dumb myself down for Crystal and the others," she admitted shamefully. "They didn't even know I was in any AP classes. They can't stand nerds, so I had to pretend to be as dumb as them." She bit her lip, quite embarrassed to be speaking about this. It was something she had only ever admitted to Brogen, because he did the same thing, only he let his grades be affected. "Does that make me a bad person?"
 
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"What? No, no, of course not." Lucas answered, not even having to think about for a second. "I don't think it makes you a bad person at all. You can't be bad because you're the only person who tried to actually get to know me instead of just badmouth me. And you're nice!"

"Now was it a stupid thing to do? Yes, I do think it was stupid of you to pretend your dumb, when you're actually a smart cool person." He said frankly, yet ever so casually, not stopping to ponder how it might sound rude.

"But, as the old people say, we're young and stupid. We make mistakes, and that's okay, because if we don't how will we ever learn?" He smiled and shrugged his shoulders."And just in case you're wondering, I read that in a self-help book, yes."
 
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Claudia smiled. He was so kind, so nice to her. If Claudia had have been in Lucas's position -- been unfairly bullied for so many years when he had done nothing wrong -- she would not have turned out so nice. She would probably have turned cold and bitter.

"Thank you, Lucas." She hugged him for a moment. Just a small moment, a two-second hug, but the feeling was there. "Thanks for being so nice to me. You could have hated me just because I was friends with them, but you gave me a chance." She pulled away and bit her lip. "You're the only person who doesn't expect anything from me."

And that was something Claudia wasn't used to. Be perfect for her teachers. Be stupid for Crystal. Be successful for her parents. But for Lucas ... all she had to be was nice.
 
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Lucas was surprised by the hug she gave him. It only lasted so long but...It was enough to make him feel different. His eyes wandered away, his head up in the clouds. It was easy to tell when he spaced out, he was too busy trying to sort out how that simple one little hug made him feel. Maybe to others, it wouldn't be a big deal. But that wasn't the case with him. Somehow he was able to still hear what Claudia was saying.

"Me? Really?" Lucas pointed to himself innocently. Her words finally made him recognize that feeling. It was warm and fuzzy. And that was enough to make him turn into a babbling idiot."I should be the one thanking you. You, you are the one willing to be my friend. No one wants to be my friend, save for my parents, especially my mom. But it's always just my mother." He continued nonstop, not even to rake a breath.

"So, well, maybe,uh, I don't know. I'm just really happy." He laughed nervously. He couldn't connect his messy thoughts to say what he wanted. Even he knew how much a doofus he sounded like."Just, thank you."
 
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"You're welcome." Lucas was cute when he was blabbering. Well, he was kind of cute in general ... Claudia was beginning to notice how attractive the boy was. The weak sunlight lit up his skin and smoothed out any worry lines or imperfections. He had a pure, innocent look to his face.

Claudia leaned her head against his shoulder. It was nice to have a true friend, someone she didn't need to be anyone else for. It was a beautiful little thing, and one she had never experienced before. She never wanted this to end.

"So how long do you stay out here for?" Claudia asked. "Not that I want to leave or anything, just ... well, Tate and Brogen might actually come look for me if I'm not home by five. Quentin has German."
 
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"I'm sorry to tell you this, Claudia. But, I don't think I like you enough to let your football player and social upperclassmen brothers come find you with me." Lucas said all of this jokingly, but he was still very much serious about not wanting to see her brothers."Just between me and you, I don't think they like me very much."

"And honestly, about Tate, he scares me more than Crystal and her entourage. I've seen him play." His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Tate was good, really good. And he bet really strong. Though he never saw him actually hurt someone, so that was the only reassuring thought."I'd rather have Quentin find me. I'd personally teach him German to make up for him having to skip." Sarcastic it was, but he did indeed know German, fluently too.

 
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"Quentin would slap you if you tried to teach him German. He can't stand it when people know more than him. Except me. He's just gotten used to me being better than him." She was joking, of course. Claudia's older brother was her only academic equal in this town.

"I wish it wasn't like this," she mumbled. "I wish we could just hang out without having to worry about this shit." Why couldn't they be friends? Why couldn't Tate and Brogen and Crystal and everyone else just give Lucas a chance? If they did, they would see how much of a wonderful person he was.

"I'm not going to stop seeing you, though," she firmly assured him. And she meant it.
She would fight anyone who tried to stop her. "Can I sit with you tomorrow?"
 
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"Do you even have to ask?" Lucas nodded his head smiling at her assuringly. "Now I have something to look forward to on a school day, and that usually never happens." He said laughingly.

It was sad that they had so much in their way preventing them from just being around one another. And it wasn't really her fault and tried to tell him it wasn't his, but it was partial, wasn't it? Even if he hadn't hurt anyone before, he still had great potential to. The kids weren't wrong about him being crazy.

So, her brother's and everyone else had a reason to avoid him, he supposed, even if it was hurtful. But the lies they made up only made things worst and the way some of them tried pushing him over edge. It encouraged his mind to think those things.

But strangely enough, he had only one violent thought today. He had never felt so calm and happy than right now. Right here, with Claudia.




 
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Claudia checked the time on her phone. 2pm. She also had three missed calls, two from Tate and one from Brogen, but she ignored them. She had better things to concentrate on.

"We have three hours before I need to get home and face the wrath of my brothers," she said. "My parents are in the city and my brothers are all at school, obviously. How about we go back to my place and we can get your Tumblr set up?"

She wondered if he would be intimidated by her house. It was so clean, so perfect, everything in exactly the right place and working exactly the same way. Her parents were essentially clones of the same person; they were both pedantic, efficient workaholics with minor traces of OCD, in the aspect that everything needed to be clean. They had two maids that made sure you could perform surgery on any surface. It was sterile.
 
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"That sounds good to me." Lucas agreed barely having to ponder over it. He was going to need help setting up that account anyway. As sad as I was to admit, had no idea how to use Tumblr at all. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too difficult. He was really excited to start publishing his on work for others to see and admire.

And not to mention this was the first time someone invited him over in a while. He was curious as to what her house was like. He was certain it had to be nice and maybe a little on the fancy side. Both of her parents were lawyers after all and they always seemed to be booming with business and work.


He put his camera back into his bag and glanced at her."You don't have a basement at your house, do you?"

 
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Claudia laughed. "I do have a basement but it's Tate's bedroom so I won't be killing you in there."

They took the bus to the richer side of town, where Claudia lived. She lived in a huge two-storey house that was a few square meters off being a mansion; she unlocked the front door and stepped aside so Lucas could walk in. "Make yourself at home," she instructed as they walked up the stairs.

Everything was glossy and pristine. All the floors were marble and the walls were white. Everything else was either black or gray, except for the house plants that adorned the rooms. The ceilings were high and detailed. The staircase had a gold bannister and twisted up to the second floor, which had a large square cut out of it, allowing you to lean over the fancy black railing and see the hallway below. The six bedrooms, each with their own en suite, were on the second floor, along with both of her parents' offices.

Claudia lead Lucas into her bedroom. The room was a large, perfect walls were painted a deep, rich, sapphire blue. Like she had said, one wall was completely obscured by a floor-to-ceiling bookcase filled with books. Her bed, which was king-sized and sat on a raised platform, under which sat her desk, had a large collection of teddies on it. A flatscreen TV was attached to the wall to the right of the door The platform was flanked on either side with doors that lead to her bathroom and closet.

Claudia dumped her bag next to the door and went to her desk, where she booted up her Apple desktop computer and loaded up Tumblr. "So, you have to create your account with your email," she explained, pulling up a squishy chair so he could join her at the desk.
 
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As he had suspected her house was, in fact, nice, no, it was beyond nice. It was marvelous, beyond his expectations. He should have known when they pulled up to the wealthier side of town. He couldn't even compare his own house to this masterpiece.

And the house was especially clean, super clean, almost freakishly. It was as if it was vacant. There was no way that it could be in order with six people living in it. His house was slightly messy with only two people living in it. He would never understand.

As he followed Claudia up to her room he glanced around multiple times. He couldn't himself. And he did gape when they made it to her own personal room. It looked more like a master bedroom than an everyday teenagers room. And she had her own television.

He was more than impressed. "E-mail? Oh, right." He moved over to join her and took a seat in the chair she pulled up for him."Just put in [email protected]."
 
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Claudia raised an eyebrow as she typed the email address in. "You a big Star Wars fan?" she guessed, reaching into her mini-fridge and pulling out two bottles of Coke. She passed one to Lucas.

The platform her bed sat on, which was more like a huge bunk bed without the bottom bunk, had a set of wide stairs leading up to the top. Claudia had taped multiple pictures of herself and her ex-friends on the underside of these stairs. She noticed them and frowned. "Fill in all the stuff on the screen," she instructed, standing up.

She had planned to take off all the pictures carefully to save the Blu-Tak, but as she saw multiple copies of Crystal's face and remembered what she had done to Lucas, she lost it. She ripped all of the photos off, even though some of them contained pictures of her and Brogen, scrunched them up and threw them in the bin. "Sorry," she said to Lucas, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I don't know what that was."
 

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"You could say that." Lucas murmured. He was without a doubt a Star Wars fan. A total geek about it, he was. And he was a Trekkie. He just liked sci-fi in general. And it was because they were both timeless masterpieces. And he loved then both, frequently watching them over and over.

He was typing info just as she instructed him to, and had just activated his account when she started ripping the photos from the walls in rather a violent manner. He'd be lying if he said that it didn't frighten him a bit. Because it did. One moment she was calm and in barely a minute she wasn't.

"It happens." Lucas shrugged a shoulder. He too had those moments quite often. But for different reasons, he was sure. "As long as if I'm not next it's okay." He said lightly, "So, what's next?" He asked, tilting his head toward the computer.​
 
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"Next, you choose a username and follow things you like," said Claudia, returning to her seat. Once Lucas had chosen his username and followed a number of photography accounts and other things he liked, Claudia showed him where everything was. "This is your dashboard, it's like a newsfeed ... this is where you set the colours and stuff for your blog ... this is where you search -- oh my god."

Her eyes widened as a GIF of her favourite singer, Jace Lesecki from her favourite band Beautiful Pain, appeared on Lucas's dashboard. He was mid-strip, his stage act. Claudia put a hand over her heart and pretended to faint. "Jace. My babe." She laughed at herself and sat back up. "But, seriously, they're my favourite band. They totally deserve that Tilbury for Emperor's New Clothes. Jasper was a bit of a douche with that speech, though."
 
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"I don't know." Lucas sucked in a breath and shook his head slightly."Thier song was really great and did deserve an award. But in my personal opinion, I believe Insanity Not Sound should have won."

"Embry is bae." He said, scrolling down the page to see a monochrome GIF of his 'bae' laughing. It was clear to see he had a celebrity crush on her."If I had a twitter, I'd be bombarding Jaspers page along with all the rest of her fans, demanding he apologizes for his disrespect." He huffed. It was already a disappointment they didn't win, but then they had to get burned like that.

 
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Claudia nodded in agreement. "Oh, absolutely. Everyone's telling Jasper to apologise, including me. What he did was wrong, even if Orion left them." Claudia could also tell, by his facial expression when Jasper had delivered that speech, that Jace was affected, too. He was probably mortified. Jasper needed to apologise, even if it was just for Jace.

"And, don't get me wrong, I love Insanity Not Sound and Embry is my girl crush, but Emperor's New Clothes was so much better than Monster."
 
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"I do hope they'll be able to solve their issues and mend their relationship." Lucas folded his arms over his chest. But by telling from the shots on the other band's faces, it was most likely far from over. Maybe even the beginning of something worst.

"Wait, what? No, I disagree." He made an 'X' using his arms."It did have a pretty cool music video. But the song alone wasn't enough to me when compared to Monster."