a/n: So I feel like I should mention, after consulting exactly one source, I decided to include the poem in the actual text of this book and this is how I'm dealing with poetry written by the characters, if you don't want to read it, just skip past, that's a-ok. Anyways, so I hope everyone's liking this so far, I've been trying to get chapters out a bit faster now that more people are reading it, and so here is the next one. If you would like, give the song up there a listen, it fits Kayden's vibe so well I can't even describe it. Alright, I'll leave you to read now, have fun and have a good day or night whenever you're getting around to this. 

On Friday afternoon when the last class finally let out, Kayden could hardly wait to get to the library to show Elias his test score, even Mr. Roberts had given him a fond smile when he handed it to him. Kayden wasn't sure if that had been a 'good job' smile or an 'I told you so' smile but he thought maybe it was both and at the moment he wasn't very upset by it. He also had to show Elias the notes he'd taken all week. Towards the end, they'd gotten a bit more sparse, but they were still there, and thus, he'd done what he was supposed to. 

When he got into the library and saw Elias sitting at their usual table, he grinned and slapped the test down, causing the blond to raise a brow, though he smiled too when he saw the prominent A- in red ink at the top. "Good job, Kay, you really stepped it up." Kayden smiled brightly and couldn't help the fuzzy feeling he got in his stomach or the heat that rose to his cheeks. Obviously, he wasn't trying to succeed just so Elias would tell him that, that'd be stupid, though he had to admit it was kind of nice to be praised for something he was proud of. 

"...oh, also, I took all the notes," Kayden said, pulling out his notebook and carefully taking each notepaper out of his notebook to sit on the table, leaving a little pile that Elias picked up to look through.  

"Alright, I'm impressed. I didn't know if you'd actually do it." He said with a small smile, glancing over the sheets before he sighed softly and took a leather journal out of his backpack, leafing through the pages for a moment before he stopped, reading over one of them and then setting it down on the table, sitting open for Kayden to read it. 

The voice of a nightingale,
that sharp and heavenly song,
how it echoes through the trees,
reverberating with exuberance,

Kayden read over it a few times, looking at Elias curiously. "What's it mean?"

"Nothing, it's not meant to mean anything, it's art for art's sake," Elias said and Kayden took a moment to think about that. 

"Is all of your poetry like that, y'know, without meaning?"

"In some sense, it doesn't usually mean anything to anyone else," Elias said, closing the book and setting it back in his bag. 

"So it means something to you.." Kayden asked though it wasn't a question. 

"Sometimes," Elias said, the tone of his voice level and unphased as it always seemed to be. 

He wondered why Elias was always so closed off, he seemed perfect, but that was only because he didn't let anyone see past the surface, Kayden was sure of it. Nobody could be unaffected and exceptional all the time, everyone eventually got tired or overwhelmed or just upset, everyone had moments where they couldn't uphold the image that they'd painted of themselves. A part of him wanted to find out what Elias was really like when he wasn't hiding behind his overconfident persona of flawless golden hair and achievements, but it was none of Kayden's business and he knew that.

"We should get to studying, there's another test coming up soon and you need to be ready for it," Elias said, taking a moment to fix his sleeve cuff before he pulled out the history textbook. Kayden nodded. He didn't give any more thought to his questions about Elias's life, he wasn't going to ask and he knew it was unlikely that he'd get any kind of satisfying answer from him anyway, they were hardly even friends. "Alright, let's talk about The Persian Empire." 

"Or we could talk about hairless cats," Kayden said and the blond looked up from his textbook to give him a questioning and somewhat tired look. 

"Why would we talk about hairless cats?" 

"Because they're one of the best kinds of cat."

"Kayden, they're at a biological disadvantage. They can't protect themselves from the cold and because they have no fur to shake off, they cannot get rid of the oils on their skin meaning they rely on humans to wash them. The only reason they exist is because of a genetic mutation that makes their life harder to live, and humans looked at that and decided to selectively breed more of them which led to more genetic illnesses from inbreeding as is the case with almost every purebred pet." Elias said, his voice not raising, though it was clear he was serious. 

"But...but you can knit sweaters for them and they like heated blankets," Kayden said and Elias stared at him blankly for what seemed like a very long time before he finally sighed and adjusted his glasses. 

"They have nothing to do with history." 

"But they originated in Egypt-"

"Actually the cat you're thinking of, the Sphynx, originates from Toronto, Canada. The Egyptians worshipped the Abyssinian which isn't even a hairless cat." Elias said and Kayden sighed, crossing his arms with a frown on his face that looked suspiciously like a pout.

"Why do you know so much about everything?" The redhead asked in an annoyed tone. 

"Well because the worst thing I could possibly do is lose an argument against a skater boy who thinks sphynx cats originated in Egypt," Elias said with a smug smile and then chuckled softly. "Here's the secret, I don't bullshit myself into thinking I know everything like you do, no one knows everything. I just know when to shut my mouth and I know when I'll win an argument. If I don't think I'll win, I don't respond, it's that simple." 

"But still, you just know too much," Kayden said, begrudgingly opening his history textbook, realizing that he'd lost yet another debate that he hadn't even tried to start. 

"I know too much? What are you gonna do, hire a hitman to take me out?" Elias asked playfully and Kayden snickered. 

"Only strongly considering it." the redhead said with a small smile. 

---

"And then he said Sphynx cats don't even originate in Egypt, like who the fuck even knows that?" Kayden threw a rock hard over the cliffside into the ocean below. 

The two of them had decided to go on a walk to the overlook just off campus, it was mostly comprised of a lush field covered in overgrown grass, though the far edges dropped off about sixty feet to a small beach and the coastline below. There was a way down to the beach, but Kayden hadn't found it yet and it was too cold to go swimming anyway. 

"Where do they originate from?" Theo asked, looking over at him from where he was collecting flowers into a basket a few feet away. 

"Toronto," Kayden said, looking at him with a deadpan expression and Theo laughed quietly. "He so...infuriating." He sighed softly. "but it's not like I can pass my tests without his help."

"Don't degrade yourself like that, you can pass your tests without him, it's not like he passed your last test for you, he just gives you the tools to motivate yourself and explains things in a way that makes them understandable. That being said, you have seemed a lot less stressed lately, whether that's because of him or not." Theo said, examining the petals on a particular orange flower. 

Kayden dangled his legs over the edge of the rocks, laying back and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. He knew Elias was the reason he'd been less overwhelmed recently, and that was a good thing, wasn't it? No, of course it wasn't, that meant Elias was doing his job correctly, and worse, it mean he was winning. Kayden couldn't let him win...but he also didn't want to have to fail all of his classes just so he could say the blond was losing, because then Kayden would be losing too. Did that make them a team? Absolutely not, there was no way in hell he'd want to be on the same team as that guy. 

"Finding anything interesting?" Kayden asked, sitting up a bit to look at Theo and his basket.

Theo walked over, showing Kayden his basket filled to the brim with different colors and shapes of flowers. Kayden would just call them all flowers, but Theo always knew the specifics and though he seemed like a quiet person upon their first introduction, he could talk forever about different insects and plants. 

"So this is a Daucus carota, or Queen Anne's Lace, it smells amazing and has a beautiful form, and this one, the Sedum spurium, it's a type of succulent and can survive months of drought, I'm really excited to find some, I don't usually see them sprout up here...and then I found some little button mushrooms, and an Aster, I forget the full name of the family, but I think it's a type of perennial," Theo said and Kayden looked over the Aster, the light purple flower with a yellow center. 

"How long does it take to press them?" Kayden asked. 

"I usually leave them in the book for a few weeks and then take them out and add them to my collection journal, I can't do that with the mushrooms though so I'll probably just ask Grant to paint one," Theo said, standing up. "Are you ready to go back yet? It's getting cold."

"Yeah, you go back a while, I'll catch up in a bit," Kayden said. 

"Alright, see you soon then," Theo said before he walked off. 

Kayden sat staring over the edge for a while, watching the water crash up against the large rocks in the sand. It was only when he was alone that he thought about anything, it was why he didn't like being alone very often. He wasn't sure why he'd told Theo to go back without him, he just wanted it to be quiet for a moment, but now he was surrounded by his endless thought stream. He thought about Elias, about his opinions on Darcy, and hairless cats, his stupid cocky smile...his silvery eyes that always held that intense stare. He groaned and ran his hands through his hair, pulling at his curls.  This was stupid, he shouldn't be thinking about him, he was supposed to hate him. He still did hate him, he hated their debates, Elias's teasing comments, their tutoring sessions, and the moments inbetween where they shared cigarettes after curfew, he hated all of it. 

He got up and brushed his pants off. There was no point thinking about it, and he didn't want to think about it anymore, honestly, he wanted to drown his thoughts in vodka, Redbull, and weed with Connor, but that wasn't really an option either, so he went back to his dorm and laid in bed and he listened to music with the volume all the way up while he stared at the ceiling until dinner.