"I'm proud of you." Sarah smiled as Vance rolled his eyes, going back to his pinball machine after violently yelling definition at her when she called out words. "You got all of them right except one. In just a week."

"Can you shut up?" he snapped a her, yanking the lever a little too hard.

"Yup, shutting up." she hopped off the counter and walked toward the slushy machine. "I'm just saying-"

Vance sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. "-see how well you do when you apply yourself?"

"See how well I do when you shut up?" he mocked her, watching his score get a little higher. "We done now?"

"No." Sarah filled up her drink. "Pop quiz in math on Friday."

"How do you know?" Vance rolled his eyes.

"I have my connections." Sarah shrugged, sipping at her straw. "Want one?"

"No." he rolled his eyes, side eyeing her as she walked back to the counter. "What pop quiz?"

"Math. I just said." she said in return, setting the slush down and hopping back up on the counter. Vance groaned loudly, Sarah mimicked him. "You better get over here then, we only have four days."

"In a minute." he waved her off without looking back, yanking the lever again. Sarah rolled her eyes, only because he wasn't watching her. She got out the papers he'd need, already have written a few problems down for him to solve. She had been in contact with his math teacher on her lunch period, getting a decent feel of what his class would be quizzed on. "God, piece of shit!"

Sarah gave a crazy look at the paper, bracing herself as he pushed the machine and then stormed her way. Sarah had confined Vance was a drama queen and the biggest over reactor she'd ever known. She'd never tell him that though, just liked to think it. She went to take a sip of her slush again before it was yanked from her hands. "Hey!"

Vance ignored her, throwing the straw and taking a large gulp. Personally, Sarah could feel the brain freeze approaching for him. Vance likely could too but would pretend it wasn't a big deal, or maybe that sort of thing just didn't affect him the way it did her. He put the cup down, closer to him then her. "Knowledge me, nerd."

She passed him the paper. "Show me what you got."

He gave a look of disbelief. "I don't know this shit!"

"I know. But, I have to know what your strategy is when solving so I can correct it." Sarah crossed her legs on the counter. Vance huffed, hopping up on it as well and yanking a pencil from the little stack. He used the back of one of her folders for a hard surface, his jaw tightening after every single problem. Sarah blinked when he snapped one of the pencils, grabbing another and holding it out. Vance pulled it from her grasp and went back to writing.

She'd caught on by now that he didn't like her watching him while he worked, last time that happened he threatened to beat her with the history book. Sarah pretended to keep busy by drawing little flowers and different shapes hearts on a sheet of paper in her note book. After ten minutes, he threw the folder at her. Lucky, the paper on top stayed with it. Sarah put her notebook down and pulled out a red pen. "Are you left handed?"

"Why does it matter?" the blonde rose a faint eye brow.

"It doesn't, I just didn't notice." her words and tone were so gentle compared to how quickly he'd snapped at her, Vance sighed with an eye roll. "I'm left handed too."

For whatever reason, he sat up a little more when she said that.

"Okay, I can see where you're getting a little confused." Sarah hummed, laying the paper down and using her pen to point to his first problem. "You see how you're carrying the two on this one? You don't need to. You'll only need to carry it when there's a double digit number."

"Yeah, duh." Vance pointed down at the paper. "It was twenty-two."

Sarah blinked. "You-you got twenty-two?"

He groaned, yanking the paper away and getting off the counter. Sarah quickly scolded herself. "I'm sorry. That was so rude of me. I can see why you got twenty-two?"

"Break." Vance went back to his pinball machine.

"Break? We just started." she argued.

"Break." he simply said back.

"Twenty-two." she walked over to stand by his side a he yanked on the levers. "You got that because you decided to try long division. Smart of you to true, and very advanced. But, lucky you, right now we don't have to go to that extent."

Vance stopped and looked at her. "You're telling me i've been doing the extra for nothing?"

She tried to ease the news with a forced smile, he just rolled hie eyes in response. "Jesus fuck."

"This is a good thing, though. It means you totally know what you're actually doing." Sarah pushed into his side a little with a nudge to his shoulder. "Aye? Aye?"

"You are such a nerd, Sheeps." he used his free hand to shove her aside.

Sarah looked at her watch on her wrist. "We have ten minutes. Wanna try a problem one more time so you can go home feeling like a hundred points?"

Vance shut his eyes in annoyance when he fumbled the ball, loosing majorly. He slowly turned his head to Sarah in disbelief. "I fumbled the ball because of your talking!"

She rose her hands in surrender. "And I ruined my sleep schedule because of you."

Vance's glare turned into a side smirk. "I knew it."

"Knew what?" she crossed her arms, ready to defend herself.

"You do have a bedtime." he was laughing. "I fucking knew it."

"I don't have a bedtime. I just like being in my own room." she shrugged dramatically. "Especially at night. You know what they say about the night. Crazies come out."

"Who says that?" he followed her back to where the rest of their things are. "Crazy people exist everywhere and at all times."

"Well, with what happened to Griffin and Billy, those missing boys." Sarah frowned as she looked back at Vance in the process of packing up. "Something at night, I bet. Got lost in the dark probably."

Vance inhaled deeply, not wanting to talk about it. "Who cares?"

"Who cares? I care." Sarah spun around in complete disbelief. She knew Vance Hopper was no saint, but she hadn't expected even the devil to reply with "who cares" when speaking about Billy or Griffin. "They're sweet boys and their families are heartbroken about it, Vance. I can't believe you just said that."

"Why are you biting my head off? I meant who cares if they were taken at night." he defended himself, but realized she'd really been upset with him for saying it. Sarah rolled her eyes and turned back around to shove the final folder into her bag and zip it harshly. "What? Did you know those boys or something?"

Sarah ignored him, walking toward the door. Vance groaned in disbelief. "Sarah! You can't leave me in here."

She stopped at the door, turning around to offer him a smile. Vance was confused by the act before she flipped the store lights off, closing the door. She hadn't locked it up, though. She wasn't that heartless to leave him in there all alone over night, though he'd probably enjoy it with all the snacks and endless pinball. Vance tossed his hands up in disbelief right in the middle of the dark store. "Are you kidding me?"

•

kylie speaks

i'd kill to be a fly on the wall
during one of their study
sessions juet to see them yell
a bunch of definitions at
each other