Bwuh??? People don't look at her that way??? Well Sable does but that's Sable she only just met this boy what the fuck!?!? 

"Thanks! Kinda stumbled the fuck into it, honestly. Pretty words are normally her job," she points at Sable. "But fuckin'... yeah. All sortsa high an' mighty adults want me to believe shit and most of the time it's dumb? Willards sounds like just another one of those assholes."

He has noticed the flusterblush and decided Hailey is cute. And she's smart too!

His realization can only be seen in a very faint blush on his cheeks, his reaction is otherwise very hidden. Perhaps he suddenly became slightly warmer. Who could say?

He had honestly forgotten about the Willards thing in the euphoria of Cool Realization. 

"It is so often dumb."

There we go, he can get a good grade in saying words after noticing a girl is cute, a thing both reasonable to want and possible to achieve. 

"At least with math I know the problem isn't a teacher who insists on being fucking wrong. It's just that I'm a dumbass."

Sable gives Hailey a flat look.

"No. You're not dumb. You've got a different learning style than Ms. Lin is used to, but you learn it just fine with more-personalized instruction."

"Besides, you just have different specialties."

She reaches out and squeezes Hailey's hand gently. "Don't be mean to our girlfriend."

Maya rests a hand on Hailey's back. "It makes us sad."

She blushes closes her eyes for a moment, takes a breath, and squeezes Sable's hand back.

"Right. No point in retelling myself the same stupid crap they did."

"But yeah. Math was frustrating, and Gatsby just does not grab me. So kind of a meh day."

Our girlfriend? Wheel of Time situation confirmed? Or is it just the thing where women call their friends girlfriends out of what must be a deep seated desire for linguistic ambiguity? Probably they are all just dating each other, actually? But if he guesses that and acts accordingly but he's wrong it will be so embarrassing.

Oh no, what if they can secretly read minds and they know he's wrong? What if someone else can secretly read minds and is laughing at him for finding this hard? What if everyone in the world but him can read minds and they're all just being nice about his disability and they all know. Okay probably not that one. Someone would have slipped up.

Oh god the supernatural is real someone actually could be reading his mind. Fuck. 

Away from that thought! Socialization needs doing.

"I didn't like the Great Gatsby much myself, it was- yeah, not my thing. Shakespeare's actually really good, though. Or, well, I like him, taste isn't objective. Math for me- it really depends on if I missed anything. If I did I just can't follow the rest of it, or it's boring to try, so I just stare out the window. If I've been there the whole way through it can be fun, though."

She laughs and nods. "Shakespeare's great, yeah."

Joshua's comment about math jogs a memory for Sable, though. She tilts her head in confusion at him for a moment.

Fifth grade, they had a sub for math that day, they were assigned a worksheet to fill the period. She was staring out the window (and didn't know she was a she yet). Midway through the period, the sub came up and asked if she was going to do her worksheet. She looked up, puzzled, then down at the worksheet. She did the whole thing, correctly, then went back to looking out the window.

She'd forgotten about that until now.

"I don't think you're bad at math at all," she murmurs softly, voice still hazy from recollection.

"Yeah, it's- not quite being bad at it. Just not, you know, good." In all of his other courses he can just skip three days and show back up like nothing happened, when he does that in math he has trouble.

It is very obvious from his face that he considers the bare fact of not being good at something terribly embarrassing. 

"Well, it'll probably be easier to pay attention when it's explained by a friend who can focus on you than a teacher who doesn't know you at all, so hopefully Tuesday helps."

If she could read his mind, she'd be calling him brilliant, but she can't. She'll have to find this out another way, later.

A friend!!!!

His squee is entirely internal and mostly well-hidden.

"I certainly hope so."

"Oh ye of little faith," she teases with a grin. "You'll be fine. Bet you a cocoa you're better at this than you think, just need the right style and pacing at most."

She's sweet.

"I'll do my best, certainly. But I won't take that bet lest I be incentivized to do worse so I can prove myself right." It will be incredibly embarrassing when he doesn't learn as fast as she expects out of him, but he can brace for that in advance and it won't be her fault.

Little does he know she'll be thrilled just to help him manage as much as he does while paying attention, even when he can't focus in class.

Of course she doesn't know how much that will or won't turn out to be, but she's hard to disappoint.

"Then how about a reverse bet. A contest. If you do well, I owe you a cocoa, otherwise you owe me one."

"Iiiiiiii- ah. Would really rather not have the possible result of being embarrassingly bad at something and having to, uh. Pay up about it also. How about we just- not do anything in that whole area?"

He does not want anything even vaguely shaped like a bet going on here, to be honest. He's already stretching his anxiety near to his breaking point by explicitly scheduling having something explained by him who can see him stumble and fail. Why is he stretching again? This is going to be Terrible.

Oh, right, friendship. Socialization. That, yeah.

Hailey cackles and throws a balled up napkin at Sable. "Bet-brained dork. Yes yes, we know you like risks," she teases fondly.

Maya chuckles and reaches across to squeeze Sable's hand. "Not everyone likes them as much as you do, darling."

Sable flushes, smiles, and shakes her head. "Oh fine, you're right, good point. No bets required."