Your Worst Nightmare

[Kailin Bishop]

Backtracked late June

The blonde's mind was on anything but the AP Calculus prerequisite work that was sitting in front of her. Never had she been so distracted about anything in her life, even when she found herself upset. But this wasn't just being upset anymore, as her work clearly showed; but it was an actual depression that came about due to her most recent breakup with Anthony. It wasn't only that she lost her boyfriend of four months that really hurt, but it was a loss of a best friend. A friend she had since she was 14. Three years.

Three years for absolutely nothing.

Her pencil tapped against the paper as she tried to determine the tan270^o but couldn't even think to look at the unit circle that was placed beside her. It was stressful, truly, it was. But she was getting frustrated that nothing she was doing was processing with her, and that had never happened before.

She had always been very good at math, and was usually the first to finish -and ace- her math homework and tests. So for this to be happening, well it only raised her unease.

She hit the pencil to the table, putting her head in her hands for a moment, before looking back down at the paper that seemed more like Greek than anything else.

[Neo Harris]

It probably took all of three days after the end of the term to finish his summer work. He had a AP Calculus assignment, and an essay to write on a book he'd read ages ago. He also read the first few chapters of his history book to stay ahead more than anything. The teacher had only requested the class read the first 2 chapters, but Neo read four - more so because he loved history than anything else.

And honestly, there was only one other person in all of Hammel that Neo expected that kind of dedication and work ethic, and possibly have finished before him: Kailin Bishop. Of course, if Kailin had finished before Neo, it was likely due to the fact that Neo took time off from studying and work to go play tennis and basketball - because as much as he focused on his studies and grades, Neo recognized the need for a social life, exercise, and extracurricular activities.

So when Neo decided to venture to the library - something he did whenever he ran out of interesting reading material - which was often - Neo was surprised to find a very frustrated Kailin Bishop hovering over the AP Calc prereq work. With a dry chuckle, he swaggered over to the table Kailin was sitting at, spinning the chair across from the girl around so he could straddle it, leaning his arms on the back of it. "Well, well, well," Neo started as he said, "If it isn't Miss Kailin. Still working on the Calc assignment there? You know I can offer my assistance. I think I finished that... a week ago now?"

Now, it wasn't that Neo hated Kailin. Or wished ill will on Kailin. Or wanted Kailin to fail. He just didn't particularly like Kailin, and took a small amount of joy in the way the blonde got flustered every time Neo got a higher grade on her on an assignment. She was his only real competition in academic matters, in his eyes, and he couldn't be friends with the enemy. And Neo definitely didn't want Kailin to fail. He just wanted her to not do as well as him. Neo knew that Kailin held a similar feeling toward him, as well. It was fun to mess with her sometimes - especially since he knew the girl would do the same if the shoe were on the other foot.

[Kailin Bishop]

There wasn't anything that she particularly hated about Neo Harris - he was smart, at least somewhat attractive, and outgoing. But it was the fact that he was in a competition with her to get the highest GPA possible, and if there were Valedictorians, they would be fighting over that. And she didn't like him for it.

And normally she could handle the snark he provided her, but not today.

"Neo, I swear to god unless you want to get stabbed in the side, back away," The blonde hissed, tapping the pencil impatiently on her paper. She avoided his gaze at that moment, but when she realized he wasn't going away, Kailin turned her head up to look at him. With her brow raised, and her lips pursed, she spoke up once again.

"Well?"

[Neo Harris]

Now, Neo expected Kailin to reply with some fire - she usually met or raised his level of snark. It was the way things worked. He did not, however, expect a threat, or a murderous look in Kailin's eyes that were avoiding his - like if she actually looked up she may jump across the table and strangle him. The reply did get to Neo a bit, but the only reaction that may have shown that was a singular raised eyebrow. Neo had learned long ago not to show his surprise - not to show that anything ever got to him. No weakness.

She finally looked up again, her own eyebrow raised. 'Well?' she asked, still expecting him to back away. He responded by scooting his chair back about 3 inches. "There? Out of the danger zone?" Neo asked, a small smirk on his lips. He got a little too much pleasure out of seeing the blonde struggle with her work - and to Neo that was all her bad mood was about. "Or are you going to threaten me with your protractor next?"

[Kailin Bishop]

He moved back, barely, but he moved. In her annoyance, she didn't notice the way he stiffened slightly - something she normally did. Instead, she only noticed the curl of his lips, mocking as if he enjoyed watching her struggle, which Kailin didn't doubt he did.

"I have a foot, you have a weak spot. You do the math," She offered him, closing her notebook and leaning back, arms crossing across her chest. There was no possible way that Kailin would actually act, especially when it was on school grounds, but it didn't hurt to threaten. She never failed on ensuring her promises, at least in the academic sense. If not, they wouldn't have been where they were now, locked in a never ending battle.

[Neo Harris]

Neo laughed just once - a low and amused 'Ha' - throwing his head back slightly before doing so. He looked back at Kailin, his reply quick but calculated, "I've already done my math! I already told you that!" he said, taking the opportunity that the blonde had given him and running with it. It wasn't often that Kailin gave him such an opportunity.

Neo did notice that Kailin was much more cranky than usual. He knew that his presence normally managed to tick the blonde off, and Neo was definitely ok with that. But today she didn't answer his snark with her own, but she sounded desperate and more annoyed than usual. She seemed... exasperated even. "What's crawled up your panties?" he asked, not really expecting there was anything wrong - just wanting to hear her admit that she was having a hard time with her math. "It isn't every day you threaten me twice before even saying hello," Neo noted, joking about the 'hello'. The two rarely exchanged such pleasantries.

[Kailin Bishop]

Kailin, in that very moment, wanted to murder Neo. Yes, she realized that he had done the math for school, and she realized the she had not. No need to rub it in her face. It wasn't as if she didn't want to do it, but rather it was the fact that she could not bring herself to do it that made it all the more frustrating.

So his next words did little to ease her annoyance, and she decided that it was only fair to chuck her pencil. At his face. "Dude, seriously. Get away from me, Damn." Abruptly, the blonde stood up, collecting her things without looking at him for two reasons. First reason, she didn't want to be near the asshole in general. Two, she didn't want him to see her cry. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and he wasn't going to be there to see them fall.

[Neo Harris]

Neo's face fell in confusion. Something was seriously wrong. She didn't have any come backs. She didn't make fun of his childish shirt (with the tazmanian devil on it) or his lopsided hair (a result of an earlier nap) or even bring up the time he spelled 32 words wrong on an essay rough draft (spelling was his weak point). She just yelled at him to get away, and started to storm off - and weirdly enough that worried Neo a bit.

"Yo, wait, wait," Neo said, hopping out of his seat, and taking a couple of long strides to catch up with Kailin. "What's going on?" he asked, still a couple of steps behind her, a hint of concern definitely evident in his voice. He didn't want to seem overly concerned if it wasn't a big deal, but frankly Neo would never wish any real ill will upon Kailin - she was his only competition at Hammel - the only person that really pushed him to do even better. "You ok?" he asked - a question he'd never even thought to ask the blonde until this moment - all because she couldn't find it in herself to insult him.

[Kailin Bishop]

She had expected him to let her go - there wasn't any indication that he ever gave two shits about her feelings. They would always go back and forth in a competitive nature, but there wasn't never any sign of sentiment between the two. She took a deep breath, willing the tears away and making her expression as bored as she could. He wouldn't see her cry - nobody would.

"I'm fine," She said on a sharp exhale. "I'm just not in the mood to deal with your bullshit." Again, Kailin wasn't a girl to curse. Ever. She found other words to use at all times, and only when she was upset did she not filter herself. She was educated, classy, and wouldn't succumb to the social pressures that were expected of her when it came to language usage. Everything else, well that was subject to interpretation. But if Neo knew Kailin, which he did, that single curse was enough to let him know that she was not okay. Well, that and her behavior in general.

[Neo Harris]

Neo flashed Kailin a sassy look that read 'don't feed me that bullshit'. It was becoming more and more obvious that something was wrong. "You're clearly not fine," Neo said, stepping in front of the blonde and blocking her from leaving the library. "And here's my reasoning," he said, before she even had the chance to argue his statement.
"1: you're never in the mood to deal with my bullshit. You do anyway. 2: You don't curse. Like ever. But you just used the word 'bullshit' in a sentence. I didn't even know that word was part of your vocabulary. 3: you still haven't finished your math... which we both know if you were ok would have been done a week ago," Neo smartly stated, folding his arms across his chest, giving Kailin another look that was urging her to explain herself.

[Kailin Bishop]

An exasperated groan mixed with a tilt of her head and a roll of her eyes clearly depicted her annoyance with Neo and his attempt to block her way. She mimicked his body language; her arms crossed across her chest, and her weight fell to her right side. At what point was she going to be able to speak?

At this point, she had shoved the tears away for so long that they didn't threaten to fall. Getting away from the prerequisite math work was also a good thing, considering most of the tears were stemming from frustration of not being able to work.

Through gritted teeth, she spoke, "Fine. I found out my boyfriend had been cheating on me with some chick, okay?" She tried not to spit the statement out, but just saying something brought an intense sense of anger and betrayal with it. "How high and mighty you must feel that you got me to say something. Now can I go?" She hissed.

Ooc: I don't know if Neo would, but maybe he can offer to help her? Because she wants to get the math done, but she obviously won't be able to do it alone with her mindset.

[Neo Harris]

Neo's face fell, if only slightly, when Kailin finally admitted what was wrong - the reason she was upset and therefore struggling to complete her assignments. "Wow... what a dick," Neo said, brow furrowing as if he himself was offended by the guy. Of course, Neo knew very little about Kailin's personal life - frankly he didn't really care. But even he felt pity toward the blonde, and disgust toward whomever it was that wronged her. Cheating wasn't cool. It wasn't justified under any means in Neo's eyes. He hated guys that bragged about having multiple girlfriends - who treated women like prizes... or goals.

"And while I'm very sorry this happened to you, and am sure you don't need to be reminded you can do better than that," Neo started, pausing just momentarily to subtly gesture at himself, "no. You may not go. You're better than this" Neo's bright green chucks stayed firmly planted on the library floor. He pointed back to the table where Kailin had been originally sitting. "Get your perky little behind back in that chair. You're finishing your math," Neo practically demanded, finally moving out of the way to go and grab a chair at the table himself, looking back to see if Kailin was actually going to follow him.

"Come on," he said, gesturing for her to come over. "Being number one is no fun when number two is light years behind and falling back fast," Neo offered with a hint of a smile, his way of telling Kailin he'd help her out - just this once - if she really wanted him to.

[Kailin Bishop]

Kailin didn't comment on Anthony being a dick - despite everything, she loved him, and that was what hurt most of all. She loved him like a best friend, and she loved him like a boyfriend. So despite being hurt like that, Kailin found she couldn't talk poorly - just yet, at least. Why she had been so oblivious and so naive towards the subject, she didn't know, but at least now she knew that it was possible to get hurt. The blonde wasn't bullet proof, and bad things could happen to her.

Honestly, when Neo said she wouldn't be allowed to go, she gritted her teeth. To be in his presence anymore would be detrimental for him and herself, and she wouldn't want to deal with being reprimanded if she accidentally elbowed him so hard in the stomach he collapsed. However, he offered to help her, and that was the first time, she thought, that he ever thought to do such a thing.

Kailin tried masking her shock.

"You're being serious?" She didn't make a move to the table, afraid that he would be planning something other than helping her. Why? She wasn't necessarily sure, but Kailin wasn't exactly thinking clearly anyway.

[Neo Harris]

Neo rolled his eyes at Kailin, who was still not making any move toward the table. She wasn't storming out, either, but Neo wished the blonde would make up her mind so he could go on with his day. "Yeah, yeah I know I'm usually an ass to you, but I'm serious," Neo insisted gesturing to the chair in front of him again.

"You should really put your pretty little self in that seat before I change my mind, though," Neo said, knowing that it wouldn't take a whole lot for his mind to change. He was in constant battle with Kailin. This offer was frankly unheard of in a war like theirs. And Neo would probably end up regretting it. But Neo wasn't a complete monster, and figured this once would probably be ok to act as more of a friend than an enemy.