Elizabeth was almost ready to pitch the boy next to her in the face. He was constantly making wise cracks at Miss Burkle, and she could just tell that Winifred was getting more than slightly flustered at William's antics. At one point, William had pulled a worm out of his pocket and placed it delicately over Elizabeth's slate whilst she was busy making moon eyes at Riley Finn. Of course William was angry, so he just had to do it. Elizabeth had let out a dignified squeak, jumped back and glared at William. Who of course was laughing his head off.
Elizabeth picked up the worm and threw it in William's face. To Riley's delight. Around noon all of the children were excused from class for lunchtime out in the quaintly manicured garden around the back of the school. William wouldn't leave Elizabeth's side and Riley continued to watch from afar.
When Elizabeth had finally accepted William's presence and had sat down to begin rummaging through her basket for her lunch, Riley lumbered over with a giant
smile on his face. Elizabeth, who of course found Riley to be rather cute, squealed and dropped her basket. Riley, attempting to be a gentleman picked it up for her and grinned down at her.
"Hello, Miss O'Connor. I'm Riley Finn. William." he said with a slight glare.
William glared back at Riley.
Elizabeth flushed and smiled at Riley. "Hello. You're from Ireland too?"
Riley smiled proudly and said, "I am! I came here last year. Well, anyway, I better be going. It was nice to meet you." and with that Riley lumbered away again.
Elizabeth reached for an apple in her bag and glanced at William who was glaring at the back of Riley. "You don't like him much, do you?"
William looked at Elizabeth, who was trying, and failing to find a way to eat her apple in a lady-like fashion. "Can't say I do, no."
Elizabeth took a small bite out of her apple, swallowed and turned back to William. "Do you actually like anybody in this school?"
William looked thoughtful for a moment then said, "You."
However, his words were drowned out by cheering from Riley's group. Elizabeth, completely oblivious to what William had just quietly revealed watched the group of people carefully. They were playing a game of "Authors" that they had learned about in Little Women and wanted to put it to the test. A girl with alarmingly red hair was narrating with fervor. Elizabeth longed to a part of their group, she had never had a real friend before, and William wasn't exactly the best company for her. He was so rude!
William, on the other hand was thinking just how rude Elizabeth was being. She had completely ignored him! He supposed she didn't hear him as he barely heard himself when he said it, but he was feeling very sorry for himself. He'd rather blame her than blame himself. He hated having to take the blame. He noticed she was staring longingly at a few girls and decided to introduce her to them from afar.
"Miss O'Connor?" he said gently. When she looked at him he said, "I couldn't help noticing that you were staring at those people over there so longingly as if they were a tasty plum cake."
Elizabeth looked at him strangely. What the devil was a plum cake?
William continued, "The dark skinned girl with the dark hair is Cordelia Chase, she is very well to do, but I would imagine her father lies about his taxes. The red-haired girl is Willow Rosenberg. She is strangely enthusiastic for a girl with her hair colour. The boy next to her is Alexander Harris, but he prefers if people call him Xander. Couldn't tell you why, I think he's a stupid whelp. The blonde one is Harmony Kendall, Cordelia's friend and of course, you've met Riley." he said with a scowl.
"Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden?" Elizabeth asked curiously. "Are you up to something?"
William looked Elizabeth in the eyes and said, "I know how it feels to be left out." Elizabeth actually looked into William's eyes and realised just how blue they were. 'He's almost.. handsome.' she thought to herself. Gulping, she shook her head mentally. No, William was bad-mannered at the best of times and even naughtier at the worst. Riley Finn, on the other hand was gentle, polite and rather sturdy.
"..I.. I have to go uh.. clean slates." William said and skipped away.
Elizabeth decided then and there that William was even weirder than she thought.
After lunch, the children all filed back into the classroom and sat in their previous seats. Elizabeth noted the absence of William next to her but shrugged it off. The red-haired girl approached Elizabeth's desk and greeted her for the first time, "I'm Willow Rosenberg. I'd like it if we could be friends, perhaps?"
Elizabeth glanced around, to make sure she wasn't being set up.
"Oh, I suppose so."
Willow smiled and sat down next to a small girl with long, light brown hair. The girl glanced at Elizabeth, smiled and turned back to talk to Willow.
Miss Burkle arrived and told the class to quiet down, checking each seat to make sure all of the children were present.
"Where's William Giles?"
Elizabeth glanced at the seat next to her and sighed.
"He's probably writing his dreadful poems again, Miss Burkle." said a dark-haired girl at the back of the class. Her hair was rather curly, and her eyes were rather large. She disturbed Elizabeth a great deal.
"Cecily Abrahms, that is enough. His poetry just needs more.. direction." responded Winifred awkwardly.
Parker Abrahms, a completely different contrast against his sister, with dishevelled brown hair and faux innocent looking eyes decided to put in his opinion,
"I think you'll find his poems are bloody awful, no amount of direction will fix them."
A series of giggles erupted through the class and Elizabeth frowned. So the boy was a little annoying, there wasn't any need to be cruel to him behind his back.
Elizabeth might not agree with most of the things he did as she was raised differently, but there was something deeper to him than his little pranks and crude conversation skills. He was quite educated behind the village idiot mask he wore. Elizabeth noticed that Riley was also laughing, and she decided that perhaps he wasn't as wonderful as she had originally thought.
When the class had finally settled down, a very grim looking William walked into class and plopped down next to Elizabeth, burying his face in his arms on the desk.
William had heard everything the Abrahms siblings had said through the door when he'd taken to hiding in the hall just outside the class. He was hurt, to say the least and his ego was fairly battered, something he was used to. He guessed Elizabeth had probably laughed at him, too.
Elizabeth, however, hadn't laughed and felt a great deal of sorrow for the boy who was only a little bit bigger than her sitting next to her. He had lost that twinkle in his eyes, she realized, when he had walked in and she thought that he had perhaps heard what the children had said about him.
Elizabeth wrote, in a perfect hand across her slate, "I didn't laugh, William." and handed it to him.
William lifted himself up off the desk and looked at the slate and wrote back in a perfect hand, "Thank you." a ghost of a smile graced his features and he returned the slate to the owner.
'Well,' he thought. 'there's a start.'
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I never really liked Riley Finn, so don't worry too much about Elizabeth and him. William will be back to being cheeky in the next chapter. You guys just had to see the other side of him.