A few days later, Elliott had organised a study session with the group, at his house. Elliott was surprised to see Zee there, and she couldn't say it was her choice to be here either.
Her mother found out about the study session, and in true band-together-to-gang-up-on-your-kid style—her parents forced her to go and socialise.

Irene's only reason for going was that it was a study session, and she was severely under-prepared for the history exam.
Every other class was going pretty well, but there wasn't much learning in Mr. Patel's class.
Why?
Oh right, yeah—his crazy stupid award mission.

"Woah... cool chandelier", said Atlas.

"Your living room is like twice the size of my house!", gasped Irene.
Do you hoover the ceiling?
I don't get how it's so spotless."

The group's shock was amusing to Elliott. Even though they were struggling to wrap their heads around it, Elliott could tell that they were atleast a little impressed.
He looked over at Zee, who wrinkled her nose up in disgust at all of the fancy decorations.

Of course the one person he really needed to impress was acting like she had stepped into Hell.

"Right, we can all fit on the sofas, but I have some beanbags in my room if you'd like those instead?", offered Elliott.

"Oh, I'd love a beanbag if that's ok", replied Eloise.

"Me too.
Beanbags are way comfier than sofas", said Spencer.

"Ok, uh, I'll need some help getting them from my room.
Zee, would you help me?"

"Can't you get your butler to do it?", she asked.

Elliott scoffed.
"Don't be ridiculous."

Zee raised an eyebrow at him.

"He's running some errands right now."

Zee chuckled, before rolling her eyes and smiling triumphantly.
It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but Elliott had to admit that he liked her smile.

"Please?"

"Fine.
Whatever."

As Elliott and Zee headed up to his room, the others started getting their things out. Spencer was doing something on his phone. In fact, he had been on his phone pretty much the whole way here. 

"Ok, I'll bite.
What the heck is so important on your phone?", asked Eloise.
"You've been on that thing for ages.
Wait, is it your mum?
Everything's ok with the baby, right?"

"Yeah, everything's fine.
Don't worry.
I've just been working on making a group email for us and Mr. Patel", said Spencer. "He wants to have a space where we can talk about the award mission thing."

"I love how we've all decided it's a mission", said Eloise. 

"Group chats are always cool, but are you sure this is like, good?", questioned Atlas. "I'm sure teachers aren't allowed to have our personal contact details."

"It's not anything like our phone numbers or social media—it's just our school emails. Besides, we're not talking about anything inappropriate.
Borderline desperate on Mr. Patel's part, sure, but not inappropriate", replied Spencer.

"I just hope he appreciates all the work you're doing for him", said Eloise.
"He's kind of in my good books 'cos his home life sucks, but I can't stand people that don't appreciate what other people do for them."

"And, that wraps up Eloise Bhasin's TED talk—thank you for attending", teased Spencer, putting on his best 'tv host' voice.

Eloise grabbed a nearby cushion and threw it at Spencer, making him somersault off the sofa and land on the floor.

"Oh dámn, my bad!", called out Eloise.

"Those cushions look like they weigh a tonne!", exclaimed Atlas.
"You good, Spencer?"

Groaning and clutching his stomach, a winded Spencer gave a quick nod.
He wobbled as he tried to stand up, but managed it relatively quickly.

"I've... I've been knocked off my board five times before.
This feeling right now?
So much worse."

"I bet there are like, diamonds in these cushions or something", said Eloise, twirling the cushion around as she closely examined it.

"I hate to ruin... whatever this is, but do you think we should try acting a bit cooler?
Our poverty is showing", said Rowan, which made Atlas chuckle.

"Wait, so I shouldn't try and snag some of these cool candelabras for my dining room table?", joked Irene.

Rowan giggled, taking the trio by surprise. Irene didn't seem to notice the high-pitched and giddy laugh though.
Rowan's eyes landed on Spencer's, who was giving him a knowing grin.
Rowan's smile fell, and he quickly coughed to clear his throat.

"Oh my gosh, no!", exclaimed Atlas.

"What's wrong?", asked Eloise.

"I've just seen how many poems we need to annotate for English", he groaned.
"Yep, I'm done with Earth for today."

"Some of the poems are interesting", said Irene.

"Oh, yeah, they're interesting.
For sure.
I just don't have the energy to annotate fifteen of them for tomorrow", replied Atlas.

"Well let's work on them together", said Irene.
"We'll be done in no time."

"Two heads are better than one", said Rowan.

Atlas grinned.
"You two are my favourite people."

"Hey!", yelled Eloise.

She reached for another cushion, this time aiming it at Atlas.
Spencer joined in, throwing one right at his stomach.

¤¤¤

Elliott's room was huge.
It was like a mini house.
Half of his room looked like an arcade.
A variety of different games—virtual reality, a dance mat, a spaceship game, a mini bowling alley, and more covered his room. Zee took in all of the games.
Well, she tried to.
All she could think about was the clashing bold colours and the faint music coming from the different machines.
As they approached the other end of the room, things started to look a little more normal, or at least, what Zee would class as a common teenage room. 

The walls were off-white.
He had a king size bed with blue and red striped bedding.
Above his bed, were pictures of his family. Pictures from their many holidays abroad, from birthdays, from family outings.
One picture in particular caught Zee's eye. Elliott was with a woman who Zee assumed to be his mother.
They had their arms around each other and had the goofiest grins on their faces.
Foam beards were covering their chins and jawlines, and a Christmas stocking in the background showed the picture was taken at Christmas. 

Zee smiled softly.
She didn't know there was a sweet side to Elliott.
The funny nature of the picture reminded her of how she was with her older sister. The more Zee looked at the pictures, the more she saw how important his family must be to him.
Maybe there was more to him than she thought?

Assuming that Zee would find the pictures lame, Elliott tried to steer her attention back to the more impressive things. 

"Hey, don't look at all that boring stuff. Wanna check out my mini bowling alley?"

Zee rolled her eyes.
"No.
I'm good.
Let's just get these beanbags."

A short while later, the group had settled into their study session.
Eloise and Spencer were on the beanbags, with Eloise laying on it, making an arc shape with her body.
She held her textbook up above her as she read.
Spencer's textbook was in his lap, and he was frantically highlighting sentences, a green highlighter also pressed against his lips.

Atlas and Irene were on the floor, looking over some poems.
Zee and Rowan were sat on the sofa, their feet almost touching Atlas and Irene due to how close they all were to each other.

Irene and Atlas had worked out a system.
Every time Atlas started to lose his will to live, Zee would give him a kick in the arm. She took her role quite seriously at first, smirking as she used him as a human football.
Over time, Elliott noticed how much gentler her kicks became, and she was much more involved in trying to motivate him positively.

"And that's the last poem!", beamed Irene. "We're all done, Atlas.
Nice work."

Atlas grinned and held his hand up.
It took Irene a second to realise he wanted a high five, but once she did, she slapped his hand a little too enthusiastically.

"Oops, sorry!
I think I heard your knuckle crack or something", she said.

"Yep, so did I.
But it's all good, who needs knuckles anyway?"

"Right, I think now is a good time to start science then", said Elliott. 

Eloise's heart dropped.
She was hoping everyone would get so invested in the English work that they'd forget about science.
It's not like she could say no—this whole session was set up for her.
Eloise watched as Rowan got out his chunky binder of notes, diagrams and other lesson plans.
He nodded to himself as he skimmed through them, clearly very proud of his work.
There was no way he just had that ready—it must've taken him ages to put together.
Oh boy, what was she going to do now?

"Ooh, you're doing the flame test?
I love this part", said Irene. 

"Me too, all of the colours are so cool", said Rowan.
"Right everyone, let's get started."

Rowan pulled out a sheet of paper that had detailed drawings of a Bunsen burner and a flame.
The flames were different colours, and a black line was drawn next to each drawing. On those lines, were white pieces of tape. 

"Ok, so, as Irene correctly stated, we are going to be learning about the flame test", said Rowan. 

"Oh is that the one where the different metal thingies create different colour flames?
What are they called?", questioned Spencer. 

"Ions", replied Rowan. 

"Oh yeah, my brother came up with this really corny way of remembering metal ions", said Atlas. 

Atlas placed a finger under his right eye and gently pulled the skin down.
He widened his eye a little and then pointed to it. 

"I got my ion you", he said. 

The group grimaced at the cheesy pun, but they couldn't help but laugh a little. 

"Well that'll live in my head rent free", said Zee. 

"Same", said Spencer.
"Although it better pay the rent."

"Bro, do you even pay the rent?", questioned Eloise, earning a playful gasp from Spencer and a laugh from the others. 

Irene could see that Rowan's demeanour was changing.
He was happy that everyone was enjoying themselves, but it seemed like he was also a little worried.
Irene chalked this up to him being eager to show the group something he had obviously worked so hard on.
Irene raised her hand. 

"Um, Mr. Sterling, could you explain the flame test please?", asked Irene. 

Rowan gave her a half-smile.
He knew Irene was already aware of what the flame test was, and that she knew which colours corresponded to which metal ion, but it was really sweet of her to try so hard for him. 

"Of course I can", said Rowan.
"Flame tests are conducted so we can see what metal ions are present in a substance. Not every metal ion will impact the flame's colour, which is kind of annoying, but we've got a few that do, so let's learn about them!"

Rowan pointed to the first flame, which was a pale green colour. 

"Can anyone tell me what metal ions produced this colour?", asked Rowan. 

"Oh wow, that is like the ugliest shade of green ever", said Eloise.
"Do y'all know Mrs Fisherson from the Church?
Her walls are that colour.
She's such a sweet lady but her sense of style is dreadful."

"Can we circle back to the 'ya'll'?
You American now?", asked Spencer. 

"Hey, let me live", said Eloise. 

The pair playfully bickered for a few minutes, with the others joining in too.
After a short while, the others started to pay attention to Rowan, but Eloise was still looking for ways to disrupt the class. 

"Hey, should we prank message Mr. Patel on the group email thing?", suggested Eloise. 

The group were too focused on the lesson to hear her.
Rowan was now pointing to another flame, which was an orange-red colour. 

"Oh!
Oh!
Wait, that's neon!", called out Elliott. 

"Nah, I'm not sure, mate", said Atlas. 

"Neon's a noble gas", said Zee. 

Eloise chuckled.
"Hey, what's so noble about it?"

When no one listened, Eloise leaned over and nudged Spencer. 

"Oi, Spencer.
Did you hear what I–"

"Wait, wait, hold on a sec.
I wanna see if I remembered this one", said Spencer. 

Eloise felt her last hope dwindle away.
She debated sneaking out of the house, but the house was so big that she worried she'd get lost trying to find the front door again. Or set off the motion sensor burglar system. What?
She didn't know how rich people operated. 

"A good way of remembering the metals and non-metals is looking at where they are on the periodic table", said Rowan.
"Non-metals are in a small group on the right, metals are on the left."

"Excellent tip there, Mr. Sterling", smiled Irene, making Rowan smile. 

"Oh, the third one down is uh... it's calcium! It is calcium, right?", called out Atlas.

Rowan nodded, his smile brightening. "Yeah!
You're right, Atlas, it is!"

"Do you think we'll actually have to remember all of these?", asked Elliott.
"It feels like the whole science exam will just be one big memory game."

"I think it'll definitely be some memorising", replied Rowan.
"But I try to apply what we learn to every day life.
That way, I know I actually understand it, and will be more prepared for whatever example or question we get in the test."

Irene smiled.
"Hm.
I like the way your brain works, Rowan."

As more time went by, Eloise sunk deeper and deeper into her beanbag.
It was only a matter of time before Rowan asked her a question.

"Ok, let's recap.
Uh, Eloise, what's the colour for cal–"

Rowan was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Were you expecting someone?", asked Eloise.

Elliott shook his head.
"No, I don't think so."

Elliott got up and headed towards the door, his mind working overtime trying to work out who could possibly be at the door.
The others, except for Rowan and Zee, followed after him.
Elliott opened the door, his eyes widening when he saw a group of at least ten people outside his house.
Three of them had crates of beer in their arms. 

"Uh... hello?", greeted Elliott. 

"Hey.
You gonna let us in or what?", asked one of the girls. 

"Yeah, the party can't start until we're here", added another girl. 

"Party?", questioned Elliott. 

"Yeah, it's all over socials.
Let us in then", said the first girl. 

One of the guys pushed his way to the front, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets when he saw inside the house. 

"Yo, this dude's got a mansion!", he called out.
"Sick house, man."

Elliott should've said no.
Apologised for the crossed wires and sent them on their way.
But the guy was right.
He did have a pretty nice house.
It would be a shame to keep it hidden from his classmates.
After all, popularity can get you a lot of things. 

Elliott smiled, before extending his arms out towards the inside of his house. 

"Come on in!"

¤¤¤

Soon, the house was packed with teenagers. The faint aroma of potpourri lingered in the air, but it was no match for the dominating scents of B.O and beer.
Elliott had fetched his boombox from the storage room.
The last time he used it was when his third oldest brother, who left home to live with their grandma, was here.

He would get Elliott to join in with him as he danced around the house, loud pop or classical music playing.
He didn't think about his brother much.
As far as he was concerned, he abandoned their family when he chose to put his own goals ahead of the family's. 

"Elliott, awesome party", said a girl. 

She had strawberry blonde hair that was tied into two space buns.
She had an Allergic To Passionfruit t-shirt on, similar to one Zee had.
Her eyelids were covered in silver glitter, and a bold red colour was on her lips.
Her skin was fair, and she had a pink blush on her face and on the tip of her nose, which really made her warm green eyes stand out. 

"Oh, thanks Cass", said Elliott. 

He knew Cass well.
They had been in the same science class since year seven.
Cass stuck to Elliott like glue for two years, before branching out and finding a smaller group of friends.
Everyone in their friendship group had told Elliott about Cass having a crush on him, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't like the attention.
He always kept her hanging by a
thread—never actually reciprocating her feelings, but giving her just enough attention to make her think she had a chance with him. 

Cass reached out and brushed a hand against his hair.

"Hey, have you done something new with your hair?", she asked. 

"Uh, don't think so."

From the corner of his eye, Elliott noticed Zee looking at him.
His brother's words popped into his head. Flirt with other girls to make her jealous. Elliott placed a hand on Cass' waist, pulling her towards him and whispering something in her ear.
She giggled and looked down, her face getting hotter. 

Zee watched as Cass continued to laugh at whatever Elliott was saying.
It was Elliott offering Cass 'a feel of his biceps' that made Zee want to be sick.
She couldn't believe she actually thought there was another side to Elliott. 

Just as she turned away, a pair of hands gripped her shoulders, pulling her away. Seconds later, a beer can flew past where she once was.
She turned to face the person in front of her, her body relaxing a little when she saw it was just Atlas. 

"Sorry, saw Max throwing cans about and had to step in", said Atlas. 

"Oh ok.
Well you can move y–", started Zee, but Atlas had already moved his hands away and took a step back before she asked him to. 

"Looked like you saw something interesting over there", said Atlas. 

"Oh, I just saw Cass.
The one from Military Club."

"Oh, she's here?
Let me go say hi to her."

"Good luck getting through this crowd."

As Atlas tried to find Cass, Rowan and Irene were hiding out in a beanbag fort they had just made.
 A loud THUD, followed by a series of rowdy shouts, startled the pair.
Spencer pulled apart their beanbag fort, a sense of urgency in his expression.

"We gotta go!
Sh*t's hit the fan!"

_______

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