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[brooklynishere]

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[brooklynishere]

Spot nods, approving of the praise - they are good, and they are worth that reaction.

"Yea, well, Irish Catholic Grandmother so it kind of goes with the territory." He shrugs, typical teenage boy not wanting to give away how much he loves his grandma.

[jabbathehutt]

Ezra doesn't know much about Irish Catholic, beyond what he's seen on TV,so just nods along like he understands.

"No one in out house bakes," he offers in conversational exchange, trying not to think of the occcasions his real mom used to. "Does she do it a lot?"

[brooklynishere]

"Yea... I mean, she cooks all the time, and a good chunk of it is baking, too. Especially when there's like some church bake sale or whatever going on..." He shrugs.

She's a retired, traditional old lady with 11 grandchildren, so... yea, she bakes. A lot. Especially since Spot came to live with her and she realised how much of a sweet tooth he had.

[jabbathehutt]

"Yeah well if she wants any taste testers," Ezra says immediately, "you know where to find me."

He will never say no to free cookies.

[brooklynishere]

Spot is silent for a moment, he glances over at the packed lunch room and then back down at the table, considering the situation.

Ezra seems tolerable enough, and he'd much rather have a place to sit with a person he can stand than face figuring out where he's going to eat lunch every day.

"I'll probably have more tomorrow..." he offers casually

[jabbathehutt]

It's so casual, that. It probably should be met with a similarly casual, chill response.

Ezra almost manages it. Sure, his first response is to grin brightly, but he brings that under control and instead just nods, keeping his smirk muted.

"That'd be cool," he allows. "I mean, if she's baking them anyway."

[brooklynishere]

It's fine, it was totally cool - and Spot knows the grin is about the baking, and it's okay to be excited about his grandmother's baking, because it's good. He doesn't want to get judged for being excited himself, obviously, but he's not going to judge anybody else either.

"Yea." Spot nods. He'd said he'll tell her to pack extra, but she always packs too much anyway.

His gaze flicks to the clock and he suppresses a sigh, starting to pack up his things.

[jabbathehutt]

It's good not to be judged, because Ezra might have to admit that he's less good at keeping his chill than he likes to think.

He follows Spot's gaze to the clock and completely fails to suppress his own ugh math sigh, after which he stands, bringing his tray with him.

"Enjoy the rest of the first day," he says. "It's not all as bad as it looks."

Though part of him does want to know what Spot will think of Kanan, he doesn't want to be the teacher's son too much.

[brooklynishere]

Spot snorts slightly in wry amusement but he nods. He stops himself before he says 'see you tomorrow', not wanting to be too keen, but he can't deny (to himself, anyway) that he's feeling a lot better about at least one part of the school.

He shoves his leftovers into his bag and grabs his rubbish, tossing it in a bin as he leaves and giving Ezra a nod on his way out. Once he's outside, however, his steps slow a little... he really isn't sure about this whole class thing....

When he actually reaches the class and sees the crowd of girls waiting outside, his stomach drops. One of them asks what he's looking at and he just scowls, walking past them like he was on his way somewhere else... and then he just... keeps walking.

For a moment there, it had seemed like things wouldn't be so bad after all. Now he can see he was an idiot and that moving was, as he thought, a terrible idea.

[jabbathehutt]

Ezra's hatred of math isn't anything special per se, just a normal teen boy's hatred of math, but because he's a teenage boy he hates it a lot. Because he's also understandably worried about Hera's reaction if he gets into trouble, he doesn't bother skipping, but he does spend most of the class trying not to get picked on, with his chin in his palms and his gaze out of the window at the school fields.

Which is why he sees someone he knows shouldn't be out there. And that's when his fear of Hera is overridden by... something. Call it wanting to look out for the new kid. He puts his hand up immediately for a hall pass - spinning a tale very quickly about needing to help Kanan with something.

He'll face that music when it comes to it.

So, stashing his stuff in his locker, and leaving a cover for me note for Sabine, he slips out of the school building. He knows all the exits by now, and has a pretty good idea of where someone might head on their first day, so jogs off in that direction.

[brooklynishere]

Spot's pretty much wandering aimlessly, just trying to find a spot (ha) he can avoid people and wait out the end of the class - and maybe quietly sulk about the whole situation.

He figures outdoors makes the most sense, he's way less likely to run into anybody, so he skirts around the edge of the school grounds until he finds a spot that seems out of the way enough that nobody's going to bother him and settles down to wait.

He's not dumb enough to turn his hearing aids off, but he does pull out his phone and start flicking through the photos - he's only making his bad mood worse, of course, but it's something to do. Something distracting enough that he doesn't notice when somebody else approaches.

[jabbathehutt]

Ezra is, it has to be said, not deliberately sneaking up on anyone. It's just that he's naturally light of foot and has a lot of habits learned from a nefarious past, so it's easy for him to sneak up accidentally.

When he sees Spot, he slows down to approach, but when ebven that approach doesn't seem to be noticed, he stops a short distance away, hands thrust in his pockets, and clears his throat loudly.

[brooklynishere]

Spot flinches at the sound, panic in his eyes when he looks up - panic that is quickly masked by a scowl, annoyed at himself for being so easily startled, and at the newcomer for startling him.

He isn't sure what to do with that annoyance when he sees that it's Ezra, but the scowl doesn't really fade. He's wary, now, too - their interaction at lunch was pleasant enough but he doesn't really think he can call Ezra a friend, and if he's a teacher's kid how is he going to feel about Spot skipping?

"....hey..."

[jabbathehutt]

"Mind if I join you?"

Ezra tries not to take the scowl personally. He didn't actually come out here with a plan, he just wanted to make sure the angry new kid didn't get himself into trouble, and with his own history, he connects 'running off to be alone' with 'about to do something destructive and/or needs someone to check up on him.'

He doesn't wait for an answer, just drops down to the ground where he's standing, ready to whip his own phone out, or make conversation, whichever works.

[brooklynishere]

Spot pauses for a moment and then nods, the scowl softening slightly - it's not exactly a pleased expression, but it's not quite so combative any more, more like cautious acceptance.

"I don't have any more cookies, if that's what you're after." He comments, deadpan but he's probably joking... probably.

(He is, he's just not very good at it)

[jabbathehutt]

Ezra, who takes everything as a joke whether intended or not, smirks instead of laughing outright.

"Damn, I really had my hopes up there," he returns, with what would be equal deadpan, except for that smirk.

[brooklynishere]

Spot snorts slightly in something approaching amusement, and he actually looks like he's starting to relax - nobody who's going to hang around and make jokes is also going to then turn around and try and get him in trouble for skipping, not when he's doing the same.

Well. He might, but then there'll just be a fight. Right now he's willing to accept that Ezra probably doesn't care enough to be plotting his betrayal.

[jabbathehutt]

And then... then it's awkward, because Ezra didn't come out here with a plan beyond 'make sure Spot doesn't actually get into real trouble' and 'be there if he needs you' so then when conversation doesn't flow naturally he isn't sure what to say.

Spot's got his phone out though, and Ezra eventually gets his out, at first useing 'just checking messages' as an excuse.

(Because Sabine's picked up his message and has texted back to say 'wtf?')

[brooklynishere]

Spot glances back down at his phone when Ezra looks at his, unsure what to do about the slightly awkward air that's developed - only, then he realises that he's just making himself feel worse looking at pictures, because what's he going to do? Tell his grandmother thanks but no thanks, let's move back to Brooklyn?

He sighs, shoving his phone back in his pocket and leaning back on his hands, looking up at the sky.

"What're they like here about skipping, anyway?" he asks "They gonna call home?"

[jabbathehutt]

Well, that's a question, and one that makes Ezra shrug.

"Depends if they notice," he says. "But yeah, if they do, they'll probably do a couple detentions and call when they decide you're a problem kid."

Because he definitely was one of them when he arrived.

Another shrug, and he adds: "Got to figure out what's not going to be questioned. I said I had to help my Dad with something."

[brooklynishere]

Spot nods. So, he's got a bit of time to figure out what he's going to do - it'll be harder for them to notice, he thinks, with him being new, and he can handle a detention or two before his grandmother gets called and he actually has to face the proverbial music.

If he can think up an excuse before it gets to that point, so much the better...

"Good to know." He says after a moment.

Of course, that only helps with the problem of whether or not he's going to get away with avoiding the classes, the real problem is that he actually wants to dance, and he can't get better on his own, he needs a teacher... it's just whether his distaste at the idea of being in a group class, being the only boy in a group class, outweighs his need for teaching...

"They ain't gonna ask your dad about it?" He asks

[jabbathehutt]

"He might," Ezra allows. "I dunno how much those two talk. If he does, I'll be grounded or something. Not like I haven't been in trouble before."

He will absolutely say 'I wanted to check in on the new kid,' but he's not going to say that to Spot right now. And Kanan and Hera might understand, but no one else would.

[brooklynishere]

Spot nods - maybe that should be a red flag, some sign that he's getting involved with the 'wrong crowd', but mostly it's just reassurance that he's found somebody who isn't going to judge him for being a little bit rough around the edges. Besides, Ezra's not exactly a crowd.

His grandmother cares more about him having friends at all than about his friends being a 'good influence' anyway.

"Grounding ain't so bad." he comments.

[jabbathehutt]

"No it ain't."

He mirrors the word without even meaning to, unconsciously following Spot's phrasing.

"They'll lock away my phone too," he adds. "And there'll be chores."

Probably involving Chopper's litter box.

[brooklynishere]

If he notices the mirroring he doesn't show it, just nods at the words.

"I gotta do chores anyway," he shrugs - they're nothing compared to what his dad expected him to do - living with his grandmother is basically a cakewalk compared to living with his dad.