Chad sat alone at his usual table in the mess hall, lazily twirling the straw around in his half-empty glass, the potatoes in front of him untouched. It wasn't that the food was bad, it was actually cooked with surprising quality - he just wasn't all that hungry. He took another sip of the orange juice, sighing softly to himself. Dinner was always the longest and most boring part of the day for him - he couldn't read because someone might purposefully throw something at the book to damage it. And all the books in his bag right now, excluding his bible of course, were from the library. The staff got pissed if you destroyed the books.

Brushing his brown hair from his forehead, he lazily stabbed at one of the potatoes with his fork.

Lucky for Chaz, chairs were far apart that he couldn't physically brush against Gavin unless he intended to, which of course he didn't, so he didn't panic when the water student sat down. Instead, he just gave him a friendly smile and a nod, chuckling at his words. "Yeah, I mean, food is great and all, but dinner is so boring." His eyes glittered with amusement, and he angled his chair a little so he was facing the kid he could now lightly call his friend - seeing as he'd came over to join him, that meant they were friends, right?

"So, how've you been lately?" he wondered conversationally. Chaz might be shy, but he wasn't bad enough that he talked about the weather to start conversation or anything.

Chaz grinned in agreement at Gavin's comment on the food - that was definitely true. "When I was in public school, the soup looked like it was liquid concrete!" he said seriously. "And you weren't allowed to bring your own lunch, so you were expected to eat the shit!" He shook his head in disgust. "I never did though, I took the safe route and starved until I got home." Then again, home wasn't much better for Chaz, his dad didn't like him eating 'his' food, calling him an ungrateful bastard unwilling to work for his own food. He was about eight at the time - of course he didn't work. But Chaz would always sneak downstairs at night and nick food from the fridge.

"Well," Chaz said sheepishly when Gavin said dinner was always boring alone, "that's true, but I just never have anyone to sit with." His cheeks turned pink with embarrassment, hating the fact that he was so unpopular. Would Gavin risk his own popularity by sitting with Chad after he'd just confessed that? Many people were too caught up in the popularity contest to care who they hurt if they stayed away because of their social standings.

"That's good," Chaz smiled when Gavin said he'd sustained no further injuries. "Me neither. And I passed the test," he grinned.

"Yeah," Chaz agreed with a laugh, and thanks to his new friend, his sadness and loneliness had evaporated, and his appetite came back a little. Though they weren't steaming hot anymore, the potatoes weren't cold enough to taste gross, so he started to eat as he continued his conversation with the water student. "Mmm," he commented, "if this is anything like concrete, I might just go and eat the sidewalk!" He laughed, in a good mood now that he had someone to sit with.

"Well, you know how most people treat grade nine earth students," Chad pointed out with a soft smile. If you were in grade nine, it was bad. If you were in grade nine and you happened to be in earth... they might as well stick a sign reading 'punching bag' to your forehead. There was a noticeable bruise on Chaz's forearm, but he had taught himself to ignore the pain of most bruising - though he didn't realize it, he just thought that bruises didn't hurt anyone much. "Thanks," Chaz smiled gratefully. Gavin was really nice.

Chaz blushed lightly at the compliment. "I'm not that smart," he protested feebly, doubting himself.

"Very!" Chaz chuckled. "You'd probably end up eating your teeth for all it's worth if you tried," he mused, laughing. His words had put an amusing image into his brain, and his eyes were light and happy as he thought of it. Gavin really worked wonders on the atmosphere of the usually withdrawn Earth student - here he was, laughing and joking as if he never feared contact with anyone of the same sex.

"Well I..." Chaz started, but he really couldn't find anything to bring up on the subject of his intelligence. Okay, so Gavin had won. Maybe he was smart. And in the next moment, he was grinning, because that made him feel better than he'd felt in a long time, finally someone had proved without a doubt that he was worth something in at least one way, and he knew that he was going to be great friends with Gavin now, because the water student was nicer than anyone had ever been to him before. "Okay, I give," he laughed. "The thing that sucks, though, is tomorrow is Monday," he muttered, "and classes start again. I hate working," he complained.

"Yeah," Chaz agreed moodily when the thoughts of class took over, his expression turning to one of extreme dislike. He hated attending classes, it didn't matter whether you were smart or not, they were still boring as hell, and annoying on top of that! "Evil," Chaz mused, trying to fit the word into the class environment. He thought of the ways the teachers sat on their ass all day and made kids do work. He thought of the way they gave you detention for the smallest thing. And yelled at you if you didn't know even the hardest of answers. "Mhm," he agreed. Class was definitely evil.

Chaz swallowed his last potato and downed the last few sips of orange juice in his glass. Dinner would be over soon, he noticed, and for a reason he couldn't quite identify, this made him somewhat sad. He exhaled softly, but didn't say anything aloud - he didn't want to creepy Gavin out by his internal clingyness. He'd just never had a real friend before, that was probably what was making him feel so carefree and relaxed, so reluctant to part ways.

[Getting low on muse. Should we end, soon? And start another?]

"What's wrong?" Chaz wondered curiously when Gavin cursed lightly under his breath, the earth student tilting his head a tiny bit, making his brown hair sway lightly to the side. He hoped that Gavin was okay. Now that they were friends, Chaz already felt that emotional tug that he used to get when he felt concern or worry for someone. What a hypocrite, he was. When they'd first met, Chaz hadn't wanted Gavin to worry about him, and now here he was worrying about Gavin.

"Just not looking forward to going to sleep," Chaz said - which was partially honest, and so quite convincing, as he didn't have to lie much about the reason. "I'm not tired at all."

[Gavin and Chaz are so cute XD]

"Oh," Chaz said, believing him instantly, the trust he felt already was overwhelming, and he didn't quite understand why he trusted him, but he wouldn't argue with himself, this was his first friend in a long while, he couldn't ruin it with stupid doubts over his own emotions, because he might not get another chance like this for a long time.

Chaz groaned softly when the bell rang, not loud enough for anyone else to hear unless they were paying close attention to him, and got reluctantly up from his seat. He didn't want to leave, as if he was afraid he'd blink and Gavin would become just another figment of his imagination. "See you," Chaz said with a nod. Hopefully soon... he added longingly in his head before heading for the door.