head over heels

3 ~ hey, hey.

Evan made his way into his AP chemistry class in the day's last period with dread in his stomach. It was the only class he didn't share with Willow, as she'd swapped to studio art at the last minute last semester, much to Evans dismay. 

The girl was his academic rock, and now the thought of actually being required to talk to people sent a anxious shiver down his spine.

He pushed the door open to much the same crowd as the semester before. AP chemistry was even by his standards, a fucking evil class, so the crowd was small, but besides Willows disappearance from the class, there was one significant addition that had the class buzzing.

Kei Sasaki.

Evan eyed him warily, and judging from the murmurs in the room, he wasn't the only one surprised at his sudden appearance in the class. People didn't just pick up AP chemistry in their last year. It was akin to academic suicide. Evan shuddered to think of the amount of catching up he would have to do.

Not to mention, Kei was his brother's best friend, and total pride and joy, he had been on the team last year. He was maybe the only person on the team that Ethan would begrudgingly admit was better than him. It had Evan questioning why the team's star player, and total volleyball goon would be here. In AP chemistry. Arguably the hardest class in senior year.

Evan sighed as he stood in the doorway, realising slowly that the only spare seat was directly next to Kei. He trudged over to the seat, placing his books on the table.

"Hey," he muttered. He had never really spoken to Kei before, going out of his way to avoid him and the rest of the team when his brother had them over. But he dreaded the idea that his whole semester of this class would be consumed by an awkward silence.

Kei nodded slowly at him, and Evan felt his stomach swoop as the raven haired boy looked at him with some vague sort of interest in his eyes.

"Hey."

Evan tore his eyes away from the strands of hair that fell over Kei's eyes, and focussed on his hands instead, he had sports tape around his ring finger and pinkie, his hands were long, slender and surprisingly delicate looking.

He looked away, instead focusing on his textbook, feeling like nowhere in that direction was quite safe.

After what felt like a lifetime of silence, Evan broke it, shooting a glance at Kei.

"Um. AP chem?" he questioned slowly.

Kei grimaced, "Mom made me, only way to stay on the team."

Evan thought about that for a second. It still didn't really make sense, but for lack of anything better to say, he just let out a small hum.

"Oh, okay."

A moment of silence passed, and Evan flipped through his textbook pages, hoping that the teacher would hurry and show up to save him from making painfully awkward idle conversation.

"Do you play?" Kei questioned slowly, almost as if he couldn't think of anything to say, so his default was volleyball, "Volleyball, i mean, which is the t-team," he clarified quickly, a sheepish expression growing on his face.

Evan fought the urge to laugh at that. Everyone in Lakewood knew the volleyball team after last year, and Kei had been on the championship team, albeit almost entirely different looking, but he'd scored half the points, making an explosive name for himself.

"No," Evan replied, and he saw Kei's shoulders sink slightly, so Evan continued despite his better judgement, "Not anymore."

Kei perked up, and again Evan was reminded of an over enthusiastic puppy with the way he got all excited about volleyball. It was endearing, and Evan just sort of wanted to let him talk. Which felt somewhat like a betrayal of his core beliefs.