"Hey, watch it!" Lacey watched as Makenzie pushed past a group of guys, glaring at them as she passed. They had been rough-housing in the hallways and one of them pushed another into her path. Even though it was their fault, the group still grumbled about her. One of the guys, Jeremy, waved to Lacey and walked over, resting his arm on her shoulder. He was a friend of her family, but not exactly someone she liked.

"God, she can be such a bitch. Do you think she's PMSing or something?" She glanced up at him, shrugging his arm off.

"You shouldn't say that about her. You guys did hit her." She turned back to her locker, exchanging a book before closing it. "You should have apologized."

"Sure thing, Straight-laced Lacey." Jeremy rolled his eyes and left her behind, going back to his real friends. To be honest, Makenzie was an inspiration to Lacey. Star soccer goalie, rough and tough Makenzie was well known through the school. She wasn't popular, though she did have friends. She was so confident, and she held herself in a way that Lacey had never seen before. She genuinely didn't care about what the other kids at school thought.

Meanwhile, Lacey's own anxiety prevented her from even defending Makenzie from some asshole. She could only say anything to Jeremy because she'd known him for so long. He had been calling her "Straight-laced Lacey" since they were kids too.

She headed to her next class, the only class she really looked forward to: AP Calculus. Math, unlike everything else in the world, was always straightforward. As long as you had the right formulas and did your calculations correct, the answer would always be right. It wasn't like English, where everything was speculation and nothing made sense.

The class was mostly empty, people still lingering in the hallways to gossip and hang on their friends and the like. She found her seat, a desk firmly in the middle of the room, and pulled out her notebook for the class. She flipped through the pages, looking for where she left off last. Her notes were always meticulous and clean, she wasn't really one to doodle on the edges of the pages or anything like that. Students continued to trickle into the room until, at last, the bell rang and Ms. Williams went to the board to begin class.

Before Ms. Williams could say anything, the class door slammed open again. Jonas burst in, huffing a bit, as though he had just run a marathon, but the familiar smile was still on his face. He pushed his light brown hair out of his eyes, giving a small salute to the teacher.

"Sorry Ms. Williams, lost track of time in the library," he explained, breathlessly, as he slipped through desks, finding his seat next to Lacey.

"That's fine, Mr. Evans, just don't make such a big entrance next time. I will be counting you as tardy." Jonas gave the teacher another small salute before turning to Lacey. They exchanged meager smiles. Even though she wasn't completely comfortable him, Jonas was the only person in the school Lacey could consider as a friend.

Class passed uneventfully, the two of them working together, though Lacey had to occasionally explain to him what was going on. Ms. Williams finished her lesson early, as was common. Lacey and Jonas had their heads together, trying to solve their work. They had almost solved the problem when Ms. Williams called her over. Lacey shot an apologetic smile to Jonas before going to the teacher's desk.

"Hey, Lacey. Would you be willing to do me a favor? I have a student in my pre-calculus class who is having some struggles. I don't really have time to meet with her after school, so I told her I would try and find a student to help her. I know that you help Jonas out a lot and was wondering if you might be willing to help another fellow student out." She nodded as Ms. Williams talked, trying to figure out how to best get out of this.

"I don't know, Ms Williams... it might be kind of hard to keep up with my own work if I'm working with someone else..." Lacey trailed off, hoping that her own studies would be a good enough excuse to avoid this.

"Please, Lacey. Just give it a try. Just meet up with her to talk about it. If you guys can't come up with a schedule that will suit both of you, I'll try to find someone else." She sighed but nodded, deciding to just tell the person that she was going to be too busy. "Great! I'll leave my classroom door unlocked and you two can meet here after the last bell." Ms. Williams smiled broadly. Lacey nodded, heading back to her seat. The bell rang before she could even sit down. Grabbing her notebook, she closed it, tucking her worksheet into the pages for later, and stored it quickly in her backpack.

"Ms. Williams must have wanted something awful from you. You look like you're going to your execution." Jonas chirped up, breaking Lacey from her thoughts. She shook her head, clearing away the dark clouds, before passing a small smile to Jonas.

"No, she just wanted me to ask me to help tutor a pre-calculus student." She pulled her backpack on and headed out, Jonas following.

"Really? That's not that bad then. I guess it might suck if it's someone you don't like. Do you know who it is?" Jonas rambled. He rambled pretty often, it was actually one of the reasons they got along so well. Lacey was often nervous in silence and he hardly ever had a silent moment. She's not actually sure how he managed to not talk during classes.

"No. I'm meeting up with them after classes. I probably won't have time though. I'm busy with my own classes." She felt a little nervous lying. She wasn't actually that busy with her own classes. Despite this being her senior year, she didn't actually have any trouble with her classes. She spent most of her down time working on music, one of her few hobbies.

"Oh. Well, I'm going this way." He pointed down the hallway they were next to. "I wanna know how it goes this afternoon, so you have to tell me tomorrow." He smiled, a little meekly, as he walked away. She gave him a little wave before continuing to her next class.

The day dragged on for a while, considering that Lacey wasn't looking forward to the last bell. Usually, when dreading something, time seems to speed up and make the moment arrive sooner. She supposed that the laws of high school required time to pass slowly towards the end of the day, regardless of whether it was dreaded or anticipated.

Finally, the last bell rang. She packed her things and headed to the calculus room. Fighting her way against the crowd to a room that was pretty much on the opposite side of the school from where she was now felt odd, because she was so used to just letting the waves of people push her along. By the time Lacey reached her destination, most of the students had left, leaving just a few stragglers grabbing last minute things from their lockers. The door to Ms. Williams' classroom was open, as opposed to the closed doors all around it.

She peeked into the room, only to be faced with shocking predicament. She pulled her head out of the room, leaning against the wall beside the door for a moment to collect her thoughts. Luckily, the person in the room didn't seem to notice Lacey, as she was faced the other direction. She peeked again, looking at the back of her head, long hair spilling down her back, so dark it was almost black, but the light showed that it was actually just a dark chocolate-y brown. Lacey leaned back against the door. That was definitely her: Makenzie.

She took a deep breathe. Maybe this was her chance. She could talk to her and she could teach Lacey how to be more confident. How to be more like her. She steadied herself, stepping away from the wall. She walked in, her steps slowing the closer she got to where Makenzie sat at the desk. She must have heard Lacey's steps, since she turned to face her. Their eyes met and Lacey froze, her heart pounding.

"Oh, hey. You must be Lacey, right?" Makenzie stood up, stuffing her phone, which she had obviously been looking at, into her back pocket. She extended a hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Makenzie."

"Hello..." Lacey took her hand gingerly. Her handshake was very firm, making Lacey feel a bit like her hand was probably just a noodle.

"I can't really pay you much or anything. I could get you into soccer games free!" Makenzie laughed, obviously not feeling the waves of anxiety that were pouring off of Lacey. She forced a smile.

"Actually," Lacey's voice cracked and she had to clear her throat. "Actually, I was hoping you could help me out." Even Lacey knew that her voice was being too quiet, but Makenzie seemed to hear her fine.

"Really? If it's something I can help with then sure! That sounds like a good trade to me." Makenzie sat back down at the desk, this time facing towards Lacey.

"Could you help me be more confident?" The question caused Makenzie's eyebrows to raise.

"I, um... I don't actually know if that's something you can learn, like that." Makenzie chewed on the inside of her lip for a moment. Lacey's heart was pounding so loud at this point, she was sure that Makenzie could hear it. She looked up at Lacey, her arms crossed. "I can try, but really, confidence is just kind of something you have to figure out on your own." She uncrossed her arms, stretching her hand back out. Lacey took it again.

"You've got a deal, blondie." 

****

Hello all! This is my first time writing a teenfic that doesn't have any super natural or fantasy elements. Let me know what you think! I hope that you all enjoy!

Please comment and vote!

Dedicated to @minusfractions as thanks for helping with the summary!