"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks."Acacia knew that Hayden would show up sooner or later, it was part of the reason why she was relaxing in the teacher's lounge.
However, she wasn't expecting Hayden to burst into the room, a frazzled look overtaking his usually calm features. Her eyebrow raised at the unusual demeanor, the slight twinge of regret in his eyes, and the sharp exhale... Hayden was acting like...Hmmm, what exactly did he remind her of right now? Acacia's mind traveled back to her middle school years, when one of her friends chickened out in giving her crush something for Valentine's Day. The way she ran away from him after stuttering a bit, it was almost identical to the way Hayden was when he entered the room.
Oh... Oh! Acacia knew what happened now.
As he took a seat next to her, Acacia popped the remainder of her cookie into her mouth, brushing off the crumbs from her fingertips as she felt his head rest on her shoulder. That feat was quite impressive, considering that he was a full 10 inches taller than her. She glanced at him with that knowing look in her eye--the one that probably annoyed him to some extent--and she dug her elbow into his ribs gently. She knew that her brother would immediately understand what she was conveying without words, she's only been incessantly repeating the action ever since a certain new Principal arrived in their lives. Her lips twisted upwards into a teasing smirk, looking at her obviously smitten brother with amusement.
Acacia's gleeful gaze was torn from her victim when Mr. Zimmerman came into the room. Not a man of many words, was he? After an entire summer of not seeing his favorite student, the only greeting she gets is 'Acacia'?! Okay, fine, Acacia probably isn't his favorite student. But still, it wasn't like she expected a conversation about how the summer went, it was the enigmatic Ethics and Philosophy teacher after all. So she offered a simple nod and smile in return. If anything, he would probably appreciate her silence. Oedipus was lounging about now, and wait, was that one of Acacia's cookies? When, and how did that happen?! And furthermore cats can eat cookies? Well, if Mr. Zimmerman wasn't doing anything, it probably wouldn't kill Oedipus... She cracked a smile at the kitty, lifting her hand to waggle her fingers at the animal while the aloof teacher retreated from the room.
The next person to enter the room was someone Acacia didn't expect to see in the teacher's lounge, but welcome nonetheless. "Julie!" Acacia exclaimed with a wide grin. "My summer was great! And you'd better come to the picnic, you know I'm going to be mad at you if you don't." Acacia knew that Julia wouldn't notice the miniscule hesitation between the words 'was' and 'great'. Having dealt with pushing down her emotions and lying with a perfectly straight face, lying was second nature to her, especially with a tiny little white lie.
The Student Council President took the list with a slightly surprised expression. Wow, Julie was on the top of her game, already submitting an events list. Acacia looked up to thank her, but Julie was already rushing through her words, before she left hastily, curtseying as she did so. She couldn't help but chuckle at how flustered Julie had gotten. "Oh Julie, you're so cute."
Then Acacia turned to Hayden. "And you're cute too, acting flustered, exactly how Julia was like, five seconds ago!" She exclaimed with a trilling laugh, poking at his forehead.
Blazion