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For a while, we did just what we said we would: homework, of course taking some time every now and then to check each other's work or figure something out. The twelfth problem on the assignment stumped us for a while, and it took both of us taking our books out and looking over that chapter and the two prior before we figured out what we were doing wrong. That's the thing about calculus: it's as much a state of mind as it is a type of math. Sometimes you can't really think about it the same way you do algebra, or you'll just find yourself in a circle.

Sine to cosine to negative sine to negative cosine to sine...

It's a damn good feeling to just sit down and get stuff done, really. Whenever I had to wait in my free periods for whatever reason, or none of my video games at home held my attention and I had some extra credit to do or something... this little feeling was a big part of why I wrote down every assignment in my planner, with the day assigned and the due date. Feels so good to cross something off a list, and then when you've got nothing more to do and can just relax without any kind of pressure weighing down on the back of your mind... that feels good.

Tick... tick... tick of the big analog clock hanging on one of the support columns nearby, just adding more to the background thinking noise on top of the occasional snatch of conversation outside the library, or of one of the book carts squeaking or the aids typing something into their computers, the rumble of the AC. There was also the quiet scratching of cheap ballpoint pen on paper and that kind of rattling sound you get from the ink refill clattering against the interior plastic of the barrel, pausing whenever we did to think.

Every time something stopped Tony up, he'd breathe out a little grumble, sit back in his seat, and bring his pen to his muzzle, either to roll the hexagonal barrel over and over between his lips or chew on the back end. The plastic very clearly showed that this was a habit he'd had for a while.

Four-X sine-cubed X... I circled my answer, paused, looked over the question one more time, and then lifted my pen up to scratch it behind my ear. "Hey Tony?"

The cheetah took a moment to finish up his train of thought, and then fixed his orange eyes on me with the faintest of smiles lifting his lips. "Hmm?"

"I'm... sorry if my friends made you a little uncomfortable at lunch today."

He had to think about that for a moment, whiskers and ears splaying out as he did so. Then, it clicked in his eyes, and his eyes lit up. "Oh! No, no, that was no problem. I was a little.. Distracted the whole time, is all."

"Distracted?" I turned my homework paper over, and rolled my eyes at seeing some five more rows of problems. "About your orchestra thing?"

"...Yeah. Yes, that was it."

"How'd that go, by the way?"

"Good, I think!" He leaned back in his chair too, rolling his pen back and forth between his fingers - and then dropped it. "The - director told me I am only in... fourth? Fourth orchestra because, ah... before we moved in, we could only set up this... this kind of... video audition. I had not prepared anything in advance, so I just played the first thing that came to mind, and I was nervous, and... yeah. This time, I have had about a week to look and practice, so I think it went better."

Once he was done, he leaned over to try to pick up that pen, but had to scoot forward a little bit to actually reach it. Then he sat back again, settled the back end between his teeth once more... and noticed I'd been watching him the whole time, and split his face into a big grin. I had to spend a few seconds chuckling before I could go on.

"You know, I could hear you over the rest of the orchestra earlier today, when I was waiting for you to get out of class... I think you definitely deserve higher than fourth. I used to be in orchestra, too, you know."

That made him visibly perk up. His long tail slid out of his lap, the tip flicking idly. "Really? What did you play?"

"Cello! It was, like... years ago, though. I was in elementary school, so."

"Ohh. Yes. I like that one. I tried to get my sister to play it when we were little kittens, but she wanted to play violin instead. Oh well. Ya sabes..." The cheetah pointed his pen at me. "You never really forget how to play."

"You wanna bet?"

"Ha! If I had a cello, I would. I need the money."

The conversation lulled, and Tony pulled his homework into his lap to continue working in a more comfortable position. I'd tired of math for the moment, and slid my phone off that damn weirdly-shaped table to take a look at it... Dad still hadn't texted me back, even though I'd sent him a reminder-slash-question for him picking me up right before my free period actually started.

But then, hey, speak of the devil! Right as I reached forward to set it back down, it vibrated with receiving a new message - and sure enough, as soon as I turned the screen back to face me to check who it was from...

Hey Matt. Got held up at work - sorry abt that. Still need a ride?

My ears perked - sometimes they did that in response to change in air current, or some noise that didn't register in my mind yet. This was for the latter, and it took a moment to center in on it, but - Tony had started humming to himself, quietly enough that it was hard to hear beneath the ambient hum of the school air conditioning. I paused long enough that I had to unlock my phone again to give my answer, and then scooted forward to try to get back to work.

"So," I said, looking over the next problem. "You don't have a ride home, or anything?"

"No, I do not... my mother gets off work around... five, around six."

Then, I swallowed. "No dad or anything?"

"No. No dad." He was fairly quick in answering, which I guess I should take as a good thing. As if sensing my worry, though, he then looked up at me, and smiled. "Not today, at least. He is in the, ah... what is... oh, military. Often not home; we make little... celebrations for whenever he does come back."

"That sounds nice. I live with my dad, and don't really see my mom often. Guess we're kinda opposites, huh?"

"Are we?"

Eyebrows up, whiskers forward, tail half-curled around one of his legs, the tip of it still lazily stirring. There were those eyes again. I didn't know what to say, or how to follow that up... but Tony went on anyway.

"Ah. How about you, then, Matt? Do you have a ride home?"

I guess I should be proud that I could still make my way through these calculus problems while holding an entirely unrelated conversation. If you ask me to read a chapter in my history book while talking, though... oh, man.

"Naw. Just waiting for the buses."

"Ohh... I need to check which bus number is mine... I keep on forgetting..." The cheetah scratched above his eye with the back of his pen. "How much time is left?"

"Uhh... forty minutes, about?"

"Oh, that is not bad. I had trouble sleeping last night; I would like to get home, finish up my homework, and then climb into bed..."

"Oh man, I feel you there... some mornings I feel like I'm already ready to go back to bed, and I hadn't even gotten to school yet."

"Ha! Yes. It can be tiring. Oh - have you gotten to number twenty-two yet?..."

~ ~ ~

And to think it was only Tuesday.

That was one of the first things to drop into my mind that night when I climbed into bed to go to sleep, and kind of half-shocked me back awake. Like I'd told myself before, though: that meant tomorrow was Wednesday, which meant that the week would be half-over. Would just have to get through the various quizzes in my classes, and any surprise tests, and then it'd be the weekend, with Ty and Lexi wanting to come over and hang out...

I rolled over onto my other side, tugging the blankets up closer to my neck and staring off at the far wall, pale blue-grey painted shaded to just another off-tint of black in the darkness. This was spring, early March, so temperature wasn't really something to worry about; in winter, however, the big window halfway along that wall let out a lot of heat, so I'd often find myself getting up in the middle of the night early in the season to go get a thick comforter or two out of the guest room across the hall, and drape those over myself.

It helped when there was someone else here, of course. That was something Dad shouldn't, or maybe didn't, know about: back when I was with my ex, Dad would always tell us to sleep in separate rooms, but he'd never come to actually check in on us. Or, at least, I don't think he did, because on more than one occasion did she keep me awake half the night with something or other, sometimes to my pleasure and sometimes against it... but, yeah, there was just something about having the heat and weight of another body beside you that not only made getting to sleep easier, but also gave me a better rest.

Thinking about her brought me back to Ty and Lexi. She was pretty, definitely; smarter than both me and that jackal combined, that much was clear to anyone if you'd just have a conversation longer than three minutes with her; funny, and interested in a lot of the same things as him. Like I've said before, they're almost perfect for each other. And am I jealous?

Well, sure. Jealous of that relationship, but not really of Tyler for having her, specifically. That'd be weird; I've never thought of her in that way, and even thinking about that now sent a gross little shiver down the back of my throat. Still, though... I could very clearly remember that she'd never really liked my ex, and same for Tyler. It was nice to finally take a step back from everything and get a break from it, and now I could see that they were right. But that didn't do anything to fill in the conspicuous emptiness in this bed.

Well, now I'm sounding either like a melodramatic middle-schooler, or a cheesy romance story. It wasn't that bad. It would come whenever it came, and so far, there hadn't really been anyone to catch my eye in that kind of way. Not consciously, at least. Only once in the past have I felt that kind of attraction to someone where it manifests itself as this warm tingling in your chest whenever they smile at you or touch you, and... well, that one didn't go very far.

Then, in the weird way that sleepy minds work, that brought me back to lunch today, with the four of us sitting around and chatting. Tony had sounded a little bit... reserved through all of that, as if we were pushing him to share things that he didn't really want to. And, hell, maybe we were. After all, he'd only just gotten here yesterday, and I don't think he'd shared more than a hello with Tyler before then, and Lexi can be a bit forward in meeting new people because she's had to do it so often. She could sound a bit diplomatic, sometimes.

And then there was the thing about the girlfriend, which Tony had none-too-sneakily avoided. One of the first things I'd thought about that damn cheetah was that there was no way he hadn't had one, and Lexi's little comment backed up that thought. If so, I guess he would have mentioned it by now... or, then again, maybe not. It could be hard to tell what was going through his head.

We finished our calculus assignments today with about fifteen minutes left in the period until the buses came, and in that time I certainly did not have the motivation to start on a different homework assignment, so I just sat back and flipped through my phone like usual. Tony, however, leaned forward, braced his elbow against his knee with his chin in his paw, and just... I don't know. Thought? He did that funny cat thing where he just kind of mindlessly flicks his tongue out across his muzzle, each time showing a flash of soft pink flesh between sharp white fangs.

And then, as if able to sense me watching him over my phone, he'd suddenly looked up at me, ears pointed back towards the slowly-growing noise outside the library of students leaving class early, and smiled.

"I have enjoyed talking with you today, Matt," he said, in that careful way that he always treaded over the English language with. Every syllable, each enunciation carrying some kind of hint or accent from his Spanish... I thought he'd go on, I thought he was going to say something more after that, but he didn't. He stopped there, still smiling at me, and I - I couldn't help but smile back. Not out of courtesy or because that's just what you do when someone says something like that to you, but just because...

Well, I'm not really sure why. It wasn't a conscious decision. Just - I saw him smiling, and heard that, and next thing I knew, I was smiling too. Not the first time he'd done that to me, in the two days so far we'd known each other. And, really, I wasn't sure what to think about that.

My ear tickled and flicked, and then did so again without anything touching it. I wonder if Tony was thinking about me right now, too. For some reason, that brought up this sweet slight warmth in my chest, and - I settled more comfortably against my pillow.