English notes

Who: Dylan and May
When: 6th period English
Where: MSHS

Dylan wasn't early to English but he wasn't late either. That had been the rest of his day too, not bad but not really great either. At least he had spent lunch with Leija, he counted that as a win, but one highlight of red in a sea of grey blandness didn't count enough to him. At least the day was almost over, two classes left and then he was free.

The classroom was half full by the time Dylan got there and he slid into his usual seat. Well, it had become so after he noticed May was in the class. That took him longer to figure out than he wanted to admit. She wasn't there yet so he dumped his school bag on her chair, rested his feet against it and pulled out his things. He was sketching on a spare page of his English notebook when he felt someone brush against his legs. Automatically, he put them down to let the other person past but didn't look up.

It was May's skirt that brushed against his leg as she moved past him. "Hey." she said, voice soft. "Saved me a seat?" she asked, inwardly grinning, unable to help it. He'd set his bag in her chair to save her the seat by him. It was adorable but she didn't want to read too much into it.

Dylan looked up when he heard someone speaking to her and when he realised who it was, he grinned. "Of course I did, I don't want anyone else sitting next to me. Who else would I copy off?" He reached out and took his bag back off the seat, dropped it between his legs and smiled up at her. "Sit, how's your day been?"

May set herself down in the chair and smiled at him as she pulled her things from her bag and set them on her desk. "It's been alright." she told him. Much better now that I finally got to this class. she thought to herself. After all, this class was her favorite part of the day.

Dylan nodded, "Same." He slumped down a little lower into his seat, his legs stretched out in front of him, then wriggled back upright again so he could see as he flicked through his English notebook. When he found the page he wanted, he quickly tore the paper along the binding's edge and handed it across to her. On it wasn't anything too special but he knew it was something May would like anyway. Ballerinas in blue ink piroetted along the top of the page and down along one side. A little off from the middle was a sketch of a horse's head (complete with a cross marking out the right dimensions) and a tornardo of circles at the bottom where he's tried to keep his pen working but that was it.

"Here, I got bored during study hall." He paused then added an observation, something that had been bugging him since the weekend. It had been on his mind but he hadn't had anybody to talk about it with yet. Leija had her own things and he didn't know his foster family well enough to bring it up, May was safe though, a friend, so he continued; "You know, since the ghosts came out, a few people have moved away. Like that'll help, you know? My dad said they're everywhere so..." He shrugged and slumped down again. "Everyone good is going. Like Aaron and my brother, you know? Sucks."

May frowned and nodded a little. "Yeah." she said softly. "Well, I'm still around. So you don't have to worry about me leaving anytime soon." she pointed out. "And Aaron... well, he left for more than just the ghosts. With Chrissy being gone... well... yeah, I kind of understand him not wanting to be around the old memories and all that."

Dylan wanted to tell her about his own mother and how moving hadn't kept away the nightmares but he kept quiet. He didn't feel like talking about that again so he leaned his elbows onto the desk and shrugged. "I don't know, still sucks. Like, Nate left to go see if his mum was a ghost but I don't know. I get it but I still wish he was here. It's the same with Aaron, you know?"

She nodded again. "Yeah. It does suck." she agreed. "A lot. I miss Aaron, so I can at least relate to that. I don't have any brothers or sisters so it's hard for me to know what you're going through with Nate being gone and all..." May desperately wanted to be able to help him feel better, but she couldn't help but feel completely useless.

Dylan looked at her and for another moment, he was quiet again. When he spoke up, he chose his words carefully, though it was more for himself than May. He really should stop dwelling on this, his brother needed to go and he needed to stop making himself sad by thinking about it. "For a long time, my whole life actually, I didn't even know I had a brother. Dad was just this guy who flitted in and out of my house every few months, he was working on the road a lot, and I never really got to know either of them until I moved here. I shouldn't even be sad about it, right? Like, he's gone but he's never been around anyway but, I don't know. Shit's messed up, like I just find out about him and poof? Lame." He rested his elbow on the desk and leaned his face against his hand. Denial was just easier. "So lame."

May blinked at the first admittance and just sat there looking at him quietly while he told her what he told her. He didn't even know he had a father or a brother for all that time? She couldn't imagine something like that. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't know what to say for a few seconds. "I'm sorry." she said softly. "It's not lame though." she pointed out. "I'm adopted." she said in a tone even quieter than her normal voice. "Sometimes I miss my mother even though she's not really my mother..." And even though she was a total bitch.

Dylan nodded and even though it probably sounded like all sorts of wrong (it did to him anyway) he was glad that somebody else understood, even slightly. He tilted his head to look across at her and offered her a faint smile. "Which mother then, your biological or you're adopted one? 'Cause I don't know, adopted counts as real to me. She raised you and stuff so, you know, credit where credit's due and all that."

"I never knew my birth parents." she explained. "And my mother... my adopted mother cheated on my dad and they divorced so I shouldn't really miss her at all. She kind of... abandoned us and she wasn't around all that much really towards the end. She had too much going on in her own little world to care about me and my dad anymore." she shrugged, glancing around the room to be sure her conversation wasn't being eavesdropped on. Luckily it wasn't. She shrugged a little when she turned back to Dylan. "Not many people know about all that... so keep it a secret, okay?"

"Who am I going to tell?" Dylan shrugged but he knew even as he said it that it was probably a good warning. Heather, while not especially mean, seemed to him like the type who might accidentally gossip about her friends. He nibbled on the inside of his cheek as he thought about the rest of what May said then moved a little closer towards her desk.

"I don't know, I think you're still right to miss her. It's kind of, not really, the same with Frank, similar anyway. Like, basically, he married Nate's mum and then had an affair with mine and abandoned her. Like, he wouldn't even see me for the first three years because he was still married and it was awkward because I'd only see him once every six months or something. Whenever he was in town." He paused. Even though he didn't want to turn it back to him, it was easier to compare her situation to his own. "And yeah, for a while I hated him for it because I didn't have a regular family but he's still my dad, you know? Same with your mum."

May nodded and tried to push a little smile, though it didn't seem like her normal one. "Yeah. I miss her, but sometimes I don't. It's just really... confusing."

Man, did Dylan understand that. He'd always both loved and hated his father but since he'd dumped him on a stranger, it was even worse. He wanted to hate him and stay angry but it was hard when he found himself still wondering if he was safe wherever he was. Embarrassed by how much he had turned the conversation back to him already, he just nodded and reached across the table to pat her arm in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Yeah, I know. I think it's normal though, hope so anyway. So do you see your mum even though she abandoned you?"

She shook her head. "No." she said simply. "She moved away and she's wanting to start her own family." she shrugged. "She doesn't want me anymore. She doesn't want dad anymore. She doesn't even call on holidays or my birthday or anything. And it really sucks..." she admitted, realizing just how much she was telling Dylan about her home life. "It's nothing though. I'm used to it by now. Just wish things were different."

"Yeah, me too." Dylan's hand tightened a little around May's arm in what he hoped was a comforting squeeze. He pulled his hand back a second later though as the teacher walked in and pulled out his school books. Even if he didn't plan to pay any attention, he could at least look like it and maybe the teacher would cut him some slack. He doubted it but it was worth a shot at least. He waited until the teacher had settled in and started the lesson before he turned back to May. He whispered, "You okay? I won't tell by the way, promise."

"I'm alright." she said softly, brushing her hair behind her ear and shrugging. "I'll be fine, really. Promise. And thanks for not telling. It means a lot."

When the teacher's back was turned again, Dylan reached over and patted at her arm again. "I get it, call if you need to talk." He kept the conversation short, scared that the teacher might catch them. He leaned back over when the teacher turned again and he offered her a small smile before he bent down over his books.

She nodded a little at the boy. "Thanks." she said softly. "I really appreciate it. I might just do that."

Dylan was quiet for a few minutes while he tried to work out what the teacher was going on about but he hadn't read the text yet and in all honesty, didn't care about it either. He leaned across to May and hissed, "Can you help me with-" He stopped as the room went silent around them and he looked p to catch the teacher glaring down. He ducked his head again and mumbled, "Sorry."

May smiled a little and brushed her hair behind her ear and waited until the teacher turned her back. Then she pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote a little note. Can I help you with what? she asked. Folding the paper up, she slipped it onto Dylan's desk when the teacher wasn't looking.

Dylan kept his eyes on the teacher's back as he carefully clasped the note between two fingers and pulled to closer to himself. He unfolded it slowly so the paper didn't crinkle and slipped it under half of his notebook to hide it. He glanced down at it and scribbled, "english, i don't get this". The hand-writing wasn't neat, the E in 'get' was written backwards and it was all written in lowercase but aside from that, it was a lot better than his text messages. The difference was that he thought more about it on paper than when he typed where he never went back to correct typos. Just as carefully as he took it, he waited until the teacher wasn't watching before he slipped it back across the aisle where he left it on the edge of May's desk.

She read the note carefully and quietly wrote out a response. I can help you with it. We can do a study session or something if you like. :) We'll have you understanding it in no time. Once more she waited til the teacher wasn't looking and slipped it back to Dylan.

It was hard to hold a conversation like this and although he was used to being in trouble at school and especially English, May probably wasn't. She was a ballerina, wasn't it rule they were all too nice and busy worrying about swans or tutus to get detention? Probably not but that was the impression May sometimes gave him anyway. This time he wrote back, we'll organize it after clas :) (: He dropped it back onto her desk when the teacher wasn't watching then gestured to her to focus on the board instead while he waited for the end of class.