"Man, I wish Ryoko were here with us right now!" Joe whined as he stretched his arms out high up into the air, folding them back behind his head.

"She'll be back soon," Sara glanced at her phone, looking at the messages between her and her best friend. "She told us to go on ahead without her."

"I know, I know," Joe sighed, his hands falling loosely to his sides. "But I miss her!"

Sara's phone suddenly dinged. "What are you, a dog?" She snorted, opening up the new notification. "Oh, Anzu just texted me and told me that she and Kugie are waiting for us."

"They're there already?" Joe asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "That was kinda quick!"

Although Joe wasn't looking at her, Sara still nodded. "I think their school is closer to the convenience store than ours is."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Joe turned his head to look at Sara, grinning widely at her. "I still can't believe that the professor actually hosted a class in the convenience store! Man, I wish I coulda been there!"

"Mhm," Sara returned the smile, closing her eyes and nodding in agreement. "Imagine what kind of look had to be on his face when he saw all the students in the store." There was a hint of smugness in her words. "I'm sure it was just as priceless as all the other times."

The two continued chatting with one another as they walked along the city streets, excited for the endeavor they had planned for today. It wasn't long before they arrived at the convenience store, strolling in as if they owned the place.

"Hey guys!" Joe was the first to announce their arrival, waving excitedly at his friends.

"Oh, hi Joe!" Kugie turned her head away from a weary looking Shin, returning the wave (albeit a little less enthusiastically). "Hi, Sara."

Anzu whirled around in her place. "Hi Joe! Hi Sara!"

"Hello you two," Sara nodded in greeting. She leaned her head to the side to get a better view of Shin. "Oh, and you too, I guess."

"If you're gonna come in during my shift and mess with me the least you could do is be a little nicer..." Shin mumbled, seeming unbothered by Sara's remark.

Sara found his behavior to be a little odd. "Is it just me or does he seem a little more worn out than usual?"

"Oh, that's just Anzu being Anzu." Kugie smirked, gesturing to her girlfriend. "When she's not busy feeling guilty about breaking the store's equipment, she's actually super good at wearing down Shin's morale!" At the mention of his name, the poor worker let out a groan.

"Aww, babe, you're too kind!" Anzu giggled bashfully, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"So, anyways, where's Ryoko?" Kugie asked, leaning her back against the counter.

Joe's face lit up at the mention of his girlfriend. "She should be here any minute now!" He exclaimed. "I think she's bringing someone else with her."

"There's more of you?!" Shin cried out at the same time the bell to the store rang.

His words fell upon deaf ears as the high schoolers turned to the door in anticipation.

"Sorry if I'm late!" A familiar voice called out.

"Ryoko!" Joe barked in excitement, rushing up toward his girlfriend as if he were a dog whose owner had just returned home. "You made it!"

"Hi, Joe!" Ryoko smiled warmly at her boyfriend. She turned her head and waved to the others. "Hey, guys!"

Anzu and Kugie said their hellos, but Sara was too focused on something else to hear what exactly they said. "Is that the friend you said you'd bring?"

"Yep!" Ryoko stepped to the side, holding her hand out and gesturing to her friend. "I want you guys to meet Ranmaru Kageyama, my neighbor and a fellow third year."

Ranmaru, who looked a little bit confused, merely waved awkwardly. "Hey"

Ryoko turned to Ranmaru, gesturing to the others. "This is my boyfriend, Joe. He's a second year at Sonobeno like me."

"Nice to meetcha!" Joe grinned.

"This is Sara, a really good friend of mine who's also a second year at Sonobeno."

"Hello, Ranmaru." Sara waved.

"This is Kugie, and this is Anzu. Both are first years at Third Kurotsuki Private High School."

"Hey," Kugie nodded her head.

"Welcome to the club, girlboss!" Anzu chirped, waving excitedly at the new arrival.

"Um... I'm not a girl?" Ranmaru tilted their head ever so slightly.

"Oh, my bad!" Anzu cleared her throat, and with no hesitation, proceeded to yell out "Hey, grillboss!"

Joe let out a booming laugh. "Did you just call them grillboss?!"

Ryoko was chuckling as well. "What even is a grillboss?"

"Is there a problem?" Anzu put her hand on her hip, shooting a pointed glare in their direction. "I'm not misgendering them by calling them a grillboss, right?"

"Technically, no, but-"

"Then we're all good!" Anzu clapped her hands together. "Great! Now let's get this study hall on the road! Who wants to give me the answers to my math homework?!"

"Hey, now, this is supposed to be a study hall, not a copying answers hall." Kugie scolded, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'd be more than happy to help you figure it out."

"Aw, man, that's no fun!" Anzu pouted. "I'm just gonna bully Shin until he gives me the answers!"

"Hell no!" Shin hissed. "I did not graduate high school just to have to still do math homework!"

"Well you probably didn't graduate high school just to work at a 7-Eleven, so, sucks to suck!" Anzu grinned, pulling her math homework from out of her bag and slamming it down on the counter.

As Anzu and Kugie gave Shin his daily dose of harassment, Ryoko decided to address the other three. "So, what should we start on?"

Ranmaru shrugged, fiddling with the sleeve of their jacket. "I'm fine with whatever, really."

Sara had started to speak about what she and Ryoko had promised to work on earlier, only to find herself getting interrupted. "Oh!" Joe snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something. "I actually have some english homework I have to do. Something about, uhhh," lifting up his knee and resting his bag on his thigh, he quickly sifted through its contents and pulled out what he was looking for. "I have to write an entire paragraph about..." he squinted at the paper in his hands. "I'm not even sure what that says, but whatever it is, I gotta write about it entirely in english..."

Ryoko leaned forward, reading the contents of the paper from over Joe's shoulder. "Oh, I know what that is! They actually have some here."

"Huh? Really?" Joe looked at Ryoko with a surprised look on his face.

Ryoko nodded. "Yeah! It's also got a big label on it that has an english translation, so maybe we could use that to help write this essay."

Joe pumped his fist up into the air. "You're the best, Ryoko!" He cheered. "Show me where it is!"

"Ah-" Sara reached her hand out. "But what about my physics-?" Unfortunately for her, she could hardly get a word in before Joe and Ryoko had already vanished out of sight. "Well..." She whistled, pulling her hand back. "So much for that."

"I think I can help."

Sara turned to face Ranmaru, who had a hand on their neck and an unsure look on their face. "Did you take physics?"

"Last year, yeah," Ranmaru answered. "But, before we do anything, can I, uh, ask why exactly we are studying in a convenience store, of all places?"

Sara let out a quick laugh. "That's a bit of a long story."

"Believe me, I've got time." Ranmaru took a step back, sitting in front of one of the shelves and gesturing for Sara to join them.

"And I've got questions," Sara leaned her back against the shelf, sliding down so she was sitting next to Ranmaru. "Quite a few, actually." Setting her bag on the floor, she took out her physics homework alongside her calculator and two pencils, handing one of the pencils to Ranmaru as she held out her homework for them to take a look at. "Don't worry, I'm sure this won't be the last time we meet. I'll tell you some other time, okay?"

"If you say so." Ranmaru hummed, pressing their tongue to their cheek as they scanned the paper's contents. "Ah, you're doing SHM. That's not so bad; I kinda liked this unit, honestly."

Although Ranmaru continued to explain the basics to Sara, her attention was elsewhere. From where she sat, she had a perfect view of Joe and Ryoko if she angled her head the slightest bit. Sara leaned forward, resting her elbow on her knee and placing her chin in her palm while she watched as they both looked at something in Joe's hands, chatting back and forth. Although Joe looked a bit troubled, they both seemed as if they were having a good time together, something which made Sara feel just a little bit-

"-Are you alright, Sara?"

"Huh?" Sara pulled her head from its resting spot on her palm, turning her head away from Joe and Ryoko and giving her full attention to her impromptu study buddy, her purple eyes wide from being startled out of her mini-trance. "I'm sorry, what did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

"I was asking if you were alright." Ranmaru raised an inquisitive brow. "You seemed a little out of it."

"Oh," Sara lowered her hand to the table, fixing her posture and sitting upright. "Well, I guess you could say that." She chuckled faintly.

"Is there something on your mind?" They asked, twirling their pencil between their fingers.

"No," Sara replied just a little too quickly. "I'm just zoning out a little, that's all. Physics can be kinda boring sometimes."

"Sometimes." Ranmaru huffed, nodding in agreement. "But at the same time it can be pretty fun too."

"Yeah, yeah," Sara waved her hand dismissively. "The conceptual stuff is great. I'm just not a big fan of all the math, honestly."

"I get that." The corner of Ranmaru's lips curled upwards into the faintest of smiles. "Personally, I like doing the math."

Sara gasped in mock offense. "What are you, some kind of psycho?"

"Th-there's nothing wrong with liking math!" Ranmaru exclaimed. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it seemed as if their hair puffed up with their yell as if it were a defense mechanism. Sara chuckled at this, only making Ranmaru even more flustered. "It's easier than it looks, I swear!"

"Whatever you say, Ranmaru." Sara rolled her eyes with a playful smirk. She was grateful that things were a little less awkward between them, now.

"I'm serious! This is literally one of the easier units of physics." With their pencil, they pointed to one of the problems on the page. "Look, you can literally do this one in like ten seconds."

"Sure, sure." Looking at all of the different numbers and units nearly made her question what she was doing- but it was only after she looked at the equation sheet that she felt lost. 'One of the easier units of physics' her ass. "These numbers don't fit either of the equations."

"Which ones?" Ranmaru tilted their head, reading over the question once more.

"It gives the force constant and the length of the spring," Sara circled the numbers as she mentioned them. "But the equation for the period needs the spring constant too."

"So then what's the spring constant?" Sara gave them a particular look. "Don't worry, you have everything you need to solve it. Just look for an equation that uses the units you do have."

Although skeptical, Sara skimmed over the equation sheet once more. When she found the right equation, she had to resist the urge to facepalm. "Oh. You just divide the force by the length to get the constant." Her cheeks tinted pink in embarrassment at how simple it was, quickly putting the equation into the calculator and writing down the answer. "I knew that. So then if that's the spring constant then the period is..." She entered the second equation into her calculator. "This number?" She asked, tilting her calculator's screen so Ranmaru could see her result.

Ranmaru leaned a little closer to Sara to get a better view of the answer. "Yeah, there you go. Good job." They hummed, leaning back. "You catch on pretty fast for someone who said they had no clue what they were doing."

"Thank you," Sara sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I guess I just choked up when it wasn't as straightforward as I thought it'd be."

Ranmaru clicked their tongue. "That's physics for you. How about you try this next one? From the looks of it, this one's a little harder than the others, but just go for it, okay? Even if you think you don't know what to do, I promise you can figure it out."

Sara found her gaze wandering towards her two best friends. Watching as Ryoko leaned her head on Joe's shoulder and pointed at something, she unconsciously gripped her pencil tighter, nibbling on her bottom lip as she felt a twinge of something unpleasant swirling in her gut.

"If you're really unsure, just let me know and I'll walk you through it." Ranmaru assured her.

Just go for it, huh? It was easier said than done; but it wasn't as if Sara had a choice. Tearing her gaze away from her friends, Sara zeroed in on her homework, swallowing down the bit of bile that started to rise in her throat and getting to work.

Words: 2.3k

Author's Note: I have no clue why this chapter came out so late. I guess I just have no concept of time LOLOL. Sorry there's not as much Shin bullying in this chapter! I wanted to make a lil subplot so I hope y'all don't mind :D I promise there'll be more bullying in the next chapter! Also he/they and they/them Ranmaru gives me life. Ranmaru gives me life in general, I love them so much.