Taking Care Of Business

“So? This was kinda your idea… what’d you want to know?” Erin started, putting her feet up onto the coffee table.

“Uh, what’s it like being a cheerleader?” John awkwardly asked.

Erin giggled. “Really? That’s your question?” Her smile faded and she sighed. “Alright, fine. Honestly, I’d rather not be on the cheer squad; the only reason I am even a cheerleader is that Vanessa said I should be.”

John quirked his eyebrow. “So she’s forcing you to do it? What would you rather be doing then?”

“Forcing might be too harsh of a way to put it, I just found it easier to go along with it. It’s not like I’m sacrificing doing things I want to do in order to do it. I’m part of the swim team and the track team. Would I prefer to have more time to do those things? Yeah, probably, but it’s not like I’m missing out and I guess it’s still pretty good exercise,” Erin explained.

“I used to love swimming, we’d go on family trips to the pool every other week. Before my mom and aunt had a big fight… Uh, anyway. So you like track and swimming? Why don’t you just tell Vanessa you aren’t doing cheerleading in favour of those?”

Erin shrugged. “It’s just easier.”

“You keep saying that. What do you even mean? What is easier? Don’t your wants and needs matter?” John questioned, seemingly getting a little agitated.

“It’s just…” Erin let out a long sigh. “You aren’t a stranger to being bullied and that was one of the reasons my parents moved us to Springfield. When I joined high school, my first goal was to find the popular kids and become friends, and the easiest way to get that is to compliment them and just agree with what they say, laugh at their shitty jokes and look the other way when they’re bullying others. It didn’t feel great, but it’s better than being the target.”

She looked away from John, brushing her hair back with her fingers. “I don’t want to sound vain but I’m not blind to my appearance, and guys have made it pretty clear that being half Colombian makes me stand out more. It would have put me on Vanessa’s radar and so I got ahead of it,” Erin confessed, seemingly shrinking and growing slightly quieter as she spoke.

“So they aren’t real friends? Do you have any real friends?” John couldn’t help but ask.

“Hmm?” Erin looked at him. “Oh, well, yeah. Vanessa isn’t as bad as she seems, at least when you get on her good side; there are girls in the swim team and ones I run with on the tracks; and there’s Alison, she’s not a cheerleader but she usually comes by to watch us and Vanessa keeps her close. She’s really nice, not the kind of girl I’d expect Vanessa to allow in her friend group but they’re like sisters.”

Erin’s slight smile vanished as she looked up at John. “What about you, then? Just a typical nerd? Or is there more to you than meets the eye? Who’s this Ellie? I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty shocked when you said you had a girlfriend, that didn’t sound right… I assume she doesn’t go to Ashcroft? I feel like it’d be hard to get a girlfriend who goes to school with us since it’d kinda make them an immediate target. Is she nerdy or whatever, like you?”

John smiled. “Yeah, I mean, what you see is basically what you get, I’m just a typical nerd. And yes again, Ellie is pretty nerdy, but I assume by that question you were actually trying to ask about her appearance, and I can promise you that I am dating way above my league. Oh, here.”

He fished his phone from his pocket before bringing up an image of Ellie, though it took a little to find one where she was clothed. Turning his phone, Erin seemed stunned while looking at the image.

“I… Wow… Did you, like, ‘weird science’ her or something? She’s hot AND you’re in an open relationship with her? Sounds too good to be true, someone set the two of you up or something? Actually, taking into account Vanessa and me, did you splash yourself with like pheromones or something?” She laughed.

John laughed along with her. “Nope, not even a love potion or anything. I was just in the right place at the right time. I guess that being with her, my self-esteem has gotten a little better, maybe it shows more than I expected.”

Erin smiled back at him, and then looked at the clock on the wall. “Well, I’d like to continue talking, it’s been nice chatting for ten minutes, but we should probably head back to class, right?” She pulled out her phone and did something before handing it over to John. “Put your number in there, I might decide to send you a text or give you a call some time.”

John was a little shocked but took the phone from her. He looked at it to see: “Loverboy” as the name. Chuckling, he added his number and saved it before handing it back over to Erin. “So, back to class then. I hope we can get to know each other more in the future.” John smiled.

Erin smirked, stood up and pulled John to his feet, leading him to what he assumed was the front door. “Everyone should be in class right now, so we should be fine going into the hall without anyone noticing,” she said, opening the door and stepping out.

Walking out into the hall, John recognised where he was. He’d seen this hallway a bunch of times as he’d turned the opposite direction and headed into the guys’ locker room. After locking the door behind them, Erin followed John towards the main hallway.

“We’ll have to see about the ‘getting to know each other more’. Just cos we fucked doesn’t mean that there’s necessarily gonna be anything more between us. I have your number now though, so maybe I’ll text and we can talk a little, or you might just get a booty call. And I have plenty of booty for you to play with.” She smirked and brought her hand down onto her ass causing a loud crack to reach John’s ears as he watched it jiggle, then she winked as she walked away from John.

John couldn’t help but stare as Erin walked away, her ass purposefully bouncing from side to side as she did. Once she’d rounded a corner, John shook his head and turned to walk towards shop class.

Upon entering the class, for a moment, everyone went silent and stared at him, before the usual murmur returned and people went back to their projects. John sighed as he spotted Mr. Dimler, still staring at him and obviously waiting.

John walked slowly over to his teacher, scratching the back of his neck as he reached the desk. “Hey, sir. Sorry that I’m late. I had a bit of a personal emergency. I know I should have been here on time and dealt with it at lunchtime, but it was important and urgent. I’ll try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Dimler, for his part, just smiled. “Don’t worry about it, you’re only fifteen minutes late, just make sure to work extra hard with the time you have left, and since it’s the first time you’ve done anything I could consider disruptive, we’ll just wave it off. Don’t let it happen again though, unless you are okay doing double time after school.”

John nodded and quickly shuffled over to his station. Again John used his Craft skill in order to do his work.

’I should really use Craft more often, right? I don’t know what I could make though; this skill might prove more useless than I had hoped…’ he thought as his body moved on its own, working to improve the project he’d started in the last lesson. ’I’d kinda given up on the skill after getting my dragon powers, but I should probably look into getting myself some armour. Not only that, but being able to make weapons or armour for anyone I pull into my bullshit would be good…’

John smiled as his body continued to work. By the time he’d finished and written everything out, he was happy with his new plan. After handing in his work, John sat back in his seat and sent a text to Robin.

< J: Hey, good news, Ellie answered when I called. Bad news, I am a little uneasy from the call, something seemed off. But she told me not to worry, and I hope that if it was something serious, she’d tell me. Doesn’t make me any less uneasy though. >

< R: Well, you got through to her so you should stop worrying so much. Like you said if it was something to worry about, she’d have brought it up. >

< J: Yeah… don’t think I’m gonna stop worrying, even if I know I shouldn’t. I did at least have a bit of a distraction earlier on, but I doubt anything else will be able to distract me that much >

< R: Distraction? >

< J: Uh yeah… probably best just leaving it at that >

< R: Oh? I think I get what you’re putting down. Guy joins the Abyss and turns into a slut haha >

< J: Since you can’t see me I should tell you: I’m rolling my eyes. >

< R: Don’t worry, princess, I’m not gonna judge ;) >

< J: Either way, I’m still concerned. We had a talk yesterday about keeping things bottled in, well… yeah we had a talk >

< J: On the upside, I’ve had an idea about training skills in class. Craft was one of the skills I got the first day I got my powers so it’s kinda terrible. It’s really expensive, and if I just spent time and effort doing it myself, I’d be able to make something reasonably similar to anything I make with the skill. >

Before Robin could reply, John had a notification.

Quest: A gesture for the Golden Rose < Don’t say I never do anything for you >

Make twenty golden paper roses in 15 minutes without the use of the Craft skill.

Reward:
Craft revamp and level up
A choice of enchantments that will be imbued on each rose. Perfect gifts that any Warden would be flattered to receive (hint hint).

Accept: YES | NO

Not needing to think about it, John tapped YES and looked up at the ceiling, trying to project his thoughts: ’Thank you!’

He jumped out of his seat and dashed into the supply room. John was in luck on two fronts: Mr. Dimler was quite organised so it was easy to find the materials he needed and paper roses were something John was familiar with due to Brenda being single all his life, John had made her a rose every Valentine’s Day since he was thirteen.

Once he’d gotten everything organised at his station, John looked at the quest and noticed the timer hadn’t begun to tick down yet, so he pulled his phone out to look at the message he’d received earlier.

< R: You can’t improve on magic if you don’t put in any effort at all. Good luck and don’t get caught >

< J: Haha, thanks, and yeah, I’m definitely going to be able to level it up. I just got a qwest that as the reward I will get an overhaul on the skill and a level up >

< R: Would a level up make a difference if the skill is getting an overhaul? Also, why did you write ‘quest’ like that? You going all UwU on me? >

< J: Stfu, it was just a typo, and I guess it doesn’t matter all that much unless the skill has been balanced based on the level or something. >

< R: Fair. Well, you better get on with that QWEST then, right? >

< J: Sure, talk to you later, asshole xD >

John quickly got to work, cutting the first shiny golden card into strips. The hard part about making the roses was the first couple of folds: you had to bend the paper, fold it in, and wrap it around itself. Once he had finally finished the flower itself, he used a golden oak stained dowel, turning it into a stem by pushing it through the centre of the rose and securing it with a small amount of glue and finally cut two leaf shapes from the same golden card and glued them to the stem too.

All in all, it took less than a minute to make the first one. Quickly he worked through the cards and dowels until he had 20 miniature golden roses. ’Most of these are shitty. I’d toss and remake them, but I don’t have time now,’ he thought.

John waited a moment for the quest to complete but nothing happened, he pulled up the quest and a small window appeared in front of the quest description.

Submit quest items? [1:18 seconds remaining]

Yes | No

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