October 1st

After a few days of staying home, Skye returned to school feeling better than ever. It was nice getting to sleep in and lay in bed all day, but her cold was gone, so she had to go back to school. Making it a surprise, Skye went to school by herself and entered the building with a pep in her step that she didn't usually have before.

She walked into her homeroom and greeted Danny happily, which weirded him out a little as she usually came to school sluggish and angry at the world, but today was different. Skye was going to make the most of her return, even if she was only gone for three days. It was definitely torture for Levi though, but he survived without his lab partner.

"Hey, Danny!" Skye said enthusiastically, plopping down into her chair and throwing her backpack onto the ground.

"You're back!" Danny exclaimed, looking away from his notebook that he was doodling in. Every day in homeroom, Danny would doodle something, mostly doodling his girlfriend Nini, but there were times he made little doodles of his friends with little inside jokes from their group. He was actually pretty talented, but art wasn't something he wanted to pursue professionally.

"Yeah, I made a full recovery." She replied. "Did you draw anything while I was gone?"

Danny flipped a couple of pages back into his notebook and handed it to Skye, pointing to a doodle he made of Xavier in his mascot costume minus the head part of the outfit. "I just had to recreate this."

"Oh my god." Skye snickered.

"I almost drew clown makeup on him, but he would've whooped my ass for it." He chuckled.

"Do it but just say I did it instead." She said. It was tempting, but Danny said maybe on it as he didn't want to give a definitive answer.

Their conversation was interrupted by the announcements, so they and the rest of the class fell silent and listened to what the principal had to say over the loudspeaker. The principal reminded all of the students about the next football game tomorrow, which Skye almost completely forgot about. She only cared about what had to be said about today's lunch, which was apparently mozzarella sticks.

Shortly after the announcements, the bell rang for the students to head to their first period, and Skye quickly reminded Danny to not forget about the clown makeup thing, which he said he would consider doing. Skye walked out of homeroom with a sly grin on her face, clinging her binder tight to her chest as she skipped on to chemistry class to reunite with Levi who had no idea she was back at school.

Skye walked into class to see Levi looking down on his phone, not aware that she had just walked into the room, so she slowly walked towards the blacktop table they shared, making sure Levi could sense her there. "Guess who's back."

Levi looked up, his jaw immediately dropping as she glowed in his presence. He quickly put his phone away and stood up, wrapping his arms around her to pick her up and shake her around. Skye, who wasn't prepared, dropped her binder in the process, looking around at her classmates who looked at them like they were psychopaths.

"You're back, you're back, you're back!" Levi beamed as he squeezed her tight, which made her feel like she couldn't breathe.

"I'm dying over here," Skye grunted. Levi immediately put her down once he heard this, then picked her binder up for her and handed it to her.

"Sorry." He laughed awkwardly. "I just wasn't expecting you back today."

"I wanted to keep it a surprise." She smirked. "I should've expected that reaction though."

"Oops."

The two sat down in their seats, trying to catch up with what had been missed, but didn't have enough time as the teacher quickly started class. Levi did have enough time to give Skye the work she missed as he had been collecting it from her teachers over the past three days, which she thanked him for before they had to zip their lips and pay attention to their teacher. They were having a test tomorrow, but Skye was told she could wait until Monday to take it, which she was far more than grateful about.

Skye began catching up on missed work while the others did their test review packet that Levi would give the answers to later because he wanted to be as helpful as possible. She was lucky none of her teachers had started any projects while she was gone, but boy oh boy did she have quite the pile of papers that had to be done. She would get through it somehow, she had an entire weekend to push through it, and Skye definitely wanted to get a good chunk of it out of the way if she was going to tomorrow's game.

Skye and Levi walked to English together once chemistry class was over, and right when Skye thought things would be alright, she had ended up jinxing herself. On top of all the makeup work, Skye now had to write a persuasive essay on her topic of choice. Now, Skye has managed to write an essay in an hour before, but cramming in that kind of work so quickly came with its consequences, one of those consequences being a big, fat headache.

As all of the work for today piled on top of the work she missed, Skye grew very, very stressed, and she was only halfway through the day! Who knew what would happen during the other half, but it probably wouldn't be so bad as gym class never has any makeup work. Skye's developing stress, however, showed during lunchtime without her even having to try, and Levi became very concerned for his friend who began to stress eat her entire meal.

"Are you okay?" Levi asked, furrowing his eyebrows at her.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Skye exclaimed, furiously taking a bite out of a mozzarella stick.

"Well, no." He replied. "I really seem to put you through the worst things without intending to, huh?"

"Yeah, you do." She rolled her eyes. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I got makeup work to cram during this lunch period."

Before Levi could let Skye get through as much work as possible with the remainder of the lunch period, he just had to ask something that had been on his mind all week. It was worth the shot, so he was going to take a risk. "Well, I kind of had a quick question."

"You have one minute," Skye said harshly, taking out her materials while Levi asked his question.

"Uh, well, since you're going to the game tomorrow, I was gonna ask if you would wear my spare jersey." He hesitantly asked. His reasons this time were more out of desperation, which Skye obviously didn't realize as she was a little weirded out by the idea of wearing his jersey.

"Are you really asking this again?" She sighed. "I don't have time for this, man!"

"Come on, Megan is gonna be there!" Levi exclaimed. "We're playing her school tomorrow."

"Oh, really?" Skye raised an eyebrow. Now, this definitely worried her, but now she saw why he was asking this a second time.

"Yes, really! I wouldn't ask anyone else to do this, trust me." He insisted. It was true, Levi couldn't imagine asking anyone else. If he didn't know Skye he would've probably begged Nini, but that would just be too weird.

"Fine," Skye replied.

Letting out a sigh of relief that she said yes, Levi didn't hesitate to thank Skye for probably one of the biggest favors he would ever ask her. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I-"

"Times up, Daniels. I got work to do." She interrupted.

"I can give you the answers to the work we both have." He offered, which lit up a lightbulb in Skye's head. Work smarter, not harder they say.

"Now, I don't exactly condone cheating," she paused. "but I am incredibly stressed, so I'll take it. I owe you one for sure."

"You owe me nothing, Skye," Levi said. "What you're doing for me tomorrow is perfect."

"Fair, hand me the answers," Skye demanded, extended out her hand for the papers.

Levi pulled out a folder from his backpack and handed it to Skye, who was beyond thankful to have Levi's help so often. She could definitely get used to his help now. "God, you are a lifesaver. I truly don't deserve you."

"I do what I can." He blushed.

As Skye skimmed through the papers, she noticed the one subject she was hoping for the most help for was seemingly absent from the pile of papers Levi gave her. "Question; do you have calculus?"

"Unfortunately, no." Levi frowned. "I would've helped you with that if I took that class."

"Damn." She sighed. "Don't worry, it's fine, I'll live. I can finesse something in there. By the way, did anything happen in Mrs. Cloud's?"

"We've just been working on the same project." He replied, which helped Skye's worries a little.

"Thank god." She said. "I was so close to finishing it anyway."

"I turned mine in already." Levi bragged, which came as a shock for Skye. He was starting to do better in art thanks to her, so now he wasn't having as much of a hard time in class compared to the first day of school when he couldn't draw a shoe.

"Without my help?" Skye slightly gasped. "I'm impressed."

"Hey, don't you have answers to copy?" He teased.

"Right!" She exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand. "You totally distracted me."

"My bad." Levi chuckled.

Skye then began to dedicate the time she had left to get her work done, and in that time she became fully focused, not even bothering with her surroundings. Despite being focused, she could sense Levi slowly but surely reaching for her uneaten fruit cup, and there was no way she was letting him have it.

"Steal my fruit cup and you're dead," Skye said threateningly, making Levi immediately retract his hand and apologize for attempting.

"Sorry."

"We're not gonna get caught, right?" She asked out of nowhere. Despite the thrill of cheating, Skye grew worried that this would backfire on both of them. It's not like a ton of students don't do it already, so she was hoping she would be fine.

"Just change it up so it doesn't look like you copied me." Levi shrugged.

"Right, right," Skye replied then got back to her work without any more interruptions or distractions whatsoever.

Zipping through papers and whipping her head back and forth to write down her answers, Skye was getting her work done at record speed. She would for sure have everything done by Monday morning, and she would be able to go to tomorrow's football game without any stress. It was still weird to think she actually wanted to go, but the first month of school has been the most exciting month Skye has had in a really long time.

With only a minute until the bell, Skye quickly packed up her things in record time, pleased to have gotten so much done with Levi's "help".

"How much did you get done?" Levi asked her, receiving a happy response from Skye.

"A lot thanks to you!" She exclaimed. "I'd be a goner by Saturday if it weren't for you."

"Ah, it's no problem like always." He said while he felt his heartbeat rapidly.

The bell rang a moment later, meaning they would have to go to their next classes. Skye said her goodbyes before walking out, and so did Levi. "I'll see you at art."

"Ditto." He replied, then the two did a mini salute to each other before going their separate ways and dealing with the rest of the school day.

•••

MARIA TALKS!

hey y'all i'm coming through with a double update to celebrate skye's canon birthday! this chapter doesn't take place during her birthday just to avoid confusion, the day i'm posting this happens to be her actual birthday. happy birthday to my capricorn queen doe! her actual birthday chapter will come in act two, so don't fret <3

but anyway, compared to the last chapter, this is way shorter, but it kind of feels like more of a filler? the next chapter will be the football game with megan's school, but it's gonna be done differently compared to the first football game a couple of chapters back.

as always don't forget to vote! i hate to be annoying about it but ghost readers are EVERYWHERE