Kore wondered what happened to Adrian to cause him to walk like that as he entered the classroom. She didn't bother to pay much attention figuring it would only make her life harder right now and instead focused on her little doodle in front of her.
Adrian plopped down in his seat with another faint wince, setting his backpack down on the floor beside his seat.
Kore continued her doodle though giving a glance at Adrian when he winced. What in the world happened to him?
Adrian ran a hand through his hair, leaning his elbow on the desk and sighing faintly.
The professor walked into the classroom at that point and began class. Kore could no longer focus on Adrian as she had to focus on what the professor was saying. He began class by saying, "If you don't recall… You needed to find a partner for the final presentation due at the end of the semester by today. If you wouldn't mind please get with your partner so I can see who still needs a partner, or find one in the next five minutes."
Well great, Kore was just going to pray she didn't get stuck with one of her bullies.
Adrian grimaced. The friend he had walked over with didn't actually attend this class; surprisingly, he didn't know anyone in this class. His eyes flickered around the room.
Kore sat and glanced around, most of the class seemed to have partners and those that didn't have friends to partner with. She spotted Adrian also sitting alone and with a slight sigh she grabbed her crutches and made her way over to him, "Um, hey, need a partner?"
Adrian looked up at her. "Sure." he replied, shifting in his seat and studying her for a moment.
Kore grinned slightly as she let out a sigh of relief. Oh thank god, she wouldn't get stuck with some weirdo. She glanced around and found an empty seat next to him, "Okay, cool."
He smiled a little in returned, shifting to face her once she was sitting down.
Kore wasn't exactly expecting him to keep paying attention to her. She hummed slightly and glanced around before looking back at Adrian, "So, um, how are you?"
"I'm alright." He said. He looked tired but that was normal. It was fine. "What about you?"
"No, worse than usual," Kore shrugged lightly. All in all, she had had a semi-decent day, "But that means I'm pretty alright. Do you have any ideas for the final project?"
"No." he rubbed his face with a hand. "Uhm." he blinked at her. "What about you?"
"Well, maybe something about representation in books?" Kore suggested to him, "You know, how it can, uh, affect people's perception of certain people."
"Yeah, okay." he considered that. "Like…LGBTQ people, or BIPOC, or?"
"LGBTQ, BIPOC, disabled, different weights," Kore began listing off gaining confidence little by little, "any minority that often gets misrepresentated."
He nodded slowly. "Yeah, okay, that works."
"Cool," Kore repeated herself once more, "Do you have any ideas as to what books we should use as resources? Besides the required one of course."
He shook his head, pulling out his noteboook. "I don't know."
"Okay," Kore replied reaching for her own notebook. At this point, the rest of the class was settling down and some of the other students were finally noticing the strange pairing that was Adrian and Kore. She could hear a few soft murmurings that clearly didn't want to be heard by anyone other than the intended person, "I guess we'll have to figure that out later."
"Hm. Maybe we could compare and contrast from classics to modern…retellings? Or just modern books?" he suggested.
"Doing compare and contrast might be fun, but I think we can also get enough material from just modern books," Kore commented, "So if we want to read classics, then we can do that."
He nodded. "Alright, that works too."
"Okay, cool," Kore nodded as she noted it down in her notebook, "So, um, maybe we should have some possible books picked out by the end of next week?"
"Yeah. Give me your number so I can text you if necessary." he replied, turning on his phone and opening up his contacts list.
"Oh, um, yeah sure," Kore pulled out her phone to look up her number. She glanced around and instead opened up her contacts to a new contact, "How about you type your number into my phone and I'll type mine into yours?"
"Alright." he took her phone, typing in his name, number, and email.
Kore took Adrian's phone and did the same keeping it as close to herself as she could. Once she was done she handed it back.
Adrian handed hers back as well, giving her a quick smile.