Not gonna lie, this one ended up longer than I intended it to be. I like to think that Gold helps Crystal lighten up a bit since she's kinda tense. His laid-back attitude would have a good effect on her.

This chapter was requested by @aichifudo

Enjoy!

Crystal felt her blood run cold. Surely she hadn't heard what she just thought she had heard. There must have been some mistake. How could this happen?

"Crystal? Did you hear me? I said that your partner is going to be Gold." Mr. Elm said, pushing his glasses up further on his face before continuing on to the next students.

Crystal had heard him alright, but what had she done to deserve this kind of inhumane torture.

She felt a thud on her desk and looked up from her current despair, "Looks like we're gonna be working together." Crystal scoffed when she found herself looking down at the smirking face of Gold, who was leaning back on his chair to lay his head on Crystal's desk.

Gold thought he was a flirt, and for some girls, his dumb act actually worked, but Crystal knew he was just trouble. The school delinquent. Or so she had heard.

She had never paid Gold enough mind to ever wonder what he did. All she knew, was that she wanted nothing to do with him.

She pulled a book out of her bag and hit Gold on the forehead just hard enough for it to hurt. He leapt up off her desk rubbing his head, almost falling out of his chair in the process.

"Hey, no need to be like that! This project is gonna be no big deal." the black haired boy assured her, his golden eyes glinted in amusement.

"Whatever." she sighed standing up and grabbing her backpack. The bell rang and she made her way out the door, Gold following close behind her.

"So, where are we gonna meet for the project? We could go to your house." he said with a sly smirk, walking next to her now. She couldn't believe this guy, she definitely was NOT inviting him to her house.

"Absolutely not, we're going to a public place." the blue haired girl replied, pushing his face away from hers, he really didn't know much about personal space did he?

"So where?" he asked putting his hands behind his head as he walked. Crystal just couldn't wrap her head around his mannerisms, why did he act like this?

"I don't know right now. I'll contact you about this later." the girls said rubbing her temples, she didn't have time for his nonsense right now.

"Whoa-ho-ho, does that mean you're giving me you're number?" he stepped in front of her cutting her off. She glared at him and he shrunk back, "Hey hey hey, I was just joking. It really does bring into question though how you're gonna contact me." he teased again.

Forcefully, Crystal pulled out a piece of paper and wrote her number on it, before shoving it against his chest to walk past him, "I get one weird text, and I'm blocking your number, and if I start to hear things around school too."

"Well if I got your number it means I'm not completely hopeless." he teased her and she just ignored him looking away, "Gotta scram though, see ya later, Crys." Gold waved and ran off the other direction,

She grumbled to herself when he left, trying not to acknowledge the fact that her face felt a little warm at the thought that she had given the boy her number.

When she looked over the project papers in her room, it seemed like a pretty simple project. She had to make a presentation about developments between people due to interactions. It made sense, Mr. Elm liked to peek into the mysteries of human relationships and bonds, no wonder he'd incorporate it in his class.

The topic seemed easy, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized she couldn't come to a clear consensus on how exactly relationships developed from interactions between people.

She knew that trust grew and things like that, but she wasn't exactly sure how. The only friend she had at school was Silver, and he wasn't much for conversation anyway, so there was no way she could base her experience off of him.

Crystal sat on her bed and leaned back, looking at the time on her phone. It was already three, an hour after school had let out.

Crystal jumped when her phone buzzed in her hands. She sat up and saw a number on the screen, one she didn't recognize. It was probably just Gold, she realized. She answered, albeit begrudgingly.

"Hey babe, I'm not a fan of work, but I'm not a fan of summer school either. When we meeting up?" she heard his teasing voice on the other side of the line.

Had he just called her 'babe'?

She scowled at the phone, "Don't call me that, idiot! We can meet up tomorrow, okay?" she said, trying to hurry up and get him to get off the phone.

"K got it. Where at?"

She hadn't thought of that one yet. She had said she wanted to do the project at a more public place, but she had no idea where. She wanted to suggest the coffee shop, but a lot of kids from the high school went there, it was going to be crowded.

"How about the park?" she heard his voice from the other side of the line. For once he didn't sound like he was teasing or goofing off, like he genuinely thought the park was a good place to study.

As Crystal thought about it, she realized it might not be that bad of an idea.

"You better not get distracted though, this project is due next week."

"I know, I know, I already said I didn't want a zero." he chuckled.

"Its decided, tomorrow at the local park, ten in the morning." she said, walking to her desk to jot down a small note on a piece of paper reminding her.

"Ten is a little early i-"

"It's at ten, okay? Bye." she said, ending the conversation abruptly, hanging up on him.

She head downstairs, making sure to add Gold to her contacts, she could just delete his number after the project anyway. She put her phone back in her pocket and sat at the table, ready for dinner.

The dinner table was as quiet as it always was, any talk that was ever made at the table was just small talk that almost immediately resolved. It was that Crystal had a problem with it, but she had a question for her mother, and she didn't know if she was going to get a good answer.

Her mother was always talkative, but at the dinner table she was silent. It was a small respect to Crystal who didn't really enjoy talking to her mom all that much.

Crystal poked her fork at her food, trying to come up with a way to ask, "Hey Mom, how do interactions between people establish relationships." she decided that she'd roll with the punches and be really blunt.

"Oooh, is my Crystal trying to get a boyfriend?" her mom started to get excited.

"No. It's for a project"

"Aww..." her mom felt instantly shot down.

Suddenly she sat up, surprising Crystal, "Well, you never know how you really feel about someone until you spend time with them. First impressions aren't everything you know, your opinion of someone could change in as little as a day." she explained with a dreamy look in her eye.

How could someone change your opinion that easily? It seemed inaccurate. She knew that first impressions weren't always accurate, but more often than not Crystal felt that her impressions of people were pretty spot on.

"I see." Crystal mumbled, standing up to put her plate in the sink. Her mother always rambled. She'd just figure it out tomorrow. She doubted Gold would be any help either.

She could think it over at the park.

The park was fairly quiet, there were only a few people here and there. It was a nice place to work on a project, she'd have to admit.

It didn't look like Gold was here yet, she didn't expect him to be on time anyway, this was Gold they were talking about.

Crystal opted to sit under a nearby tree, the shade providing a cool breeze through her hair. She sighed in content.

'Your opinion of someone could change in as little as a day' Crystal frowned at what her mom had told her yesterday, it didn't seem possible. Crystal was, or thought she was, a very good judge of character, first impressions with her were everything.

There was no way that the annoying playboy that was Gold, could ever be anything more than that.

She hummed the thought away, deciding to just enjoy the serene sounds of the leaves rustling in the wind....

Now that she thought about it, it was beginning to seem like the leaves were rustling a bit too much to just be the wind. Actually now it was starting to seem like a lot of rustling.

"Heya Crys!" Crystal shrieked when an all too familiar face almost literally dropped down in front of hers. Without her actually meaning to, she threw her hands out, pushing the eccentric boy, effectively knocking him out of the tree.

So there he lay, a groaning mess on the ground, clutching his head in pain while the blue haired girl just looked on in shock.

"What the hell?!" the black haired male shot up, still clutching his head, tears pricking the edge of his eyes.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! You just scared me why we-" she cut herself off, why was he even in the tree? This was his fault anyway for scaring her, why was she apologizing, "Why were you even in the tree to begin with?" she took on a harsher tone than she intended to, but she just rolled with it anyway, deciding that she was mad with him.

"Now you're mad at me? I was taking a nap until you got here, Ms. Rise and Shine! I actually got here early!" he shouted, then he took a deep breath taking on a calmer tone, "Oh well, what's done is done. Still can't say I'm too happy about falling out of a tree, but bickering with you isn't gonna fix that." he rubbed the spot on his head, it was clearly going to leave a bump.

"Hey look, sorry." Crys said, starting to feel bad again, "Do you want me to see if it's bleeding?" she asked.

Gold looked at her warily before nodding, he sat next to her and she scooted a little closer, "Where does it hurt?" Crystal said, she had learned a few things about medical practice through some books she had read out of pure curiosity.

Gold pointed to a spot on his head and grit his teeth when her hand pushed the hair out of the way. After a couple seconds, her hands began to feel nice, easing the pain in his scalp away, Gold unintentionally leaned into her touch.

Realizing what was happening Crystal backed off, her hands leaving his head. Gold pouted, "I think I hurt somewhere else too when I fell." he started, a mischievous glint in his golden eyes.

"Where?" she questioned looking him over, she had thought he had just fallen on his head, but she guessed that she could be wrong.

"Here." Gold placed his hands dramatically over his heart, and pretended to almost fall backwards, as if hurt. Crystal eyebrows twitched in annoyance, she smacked Gold in the head and he yelped. She almost felt bad. Almost.

"Aren't we supposed to be talking about the project?" she inquired, almost forgetting what they had come to do. She would prefer it if they didn't waste any more time on meaningless banter.

"I guess. You know, your a real interesting gal." he said, scooting close to her, to which she just distanced herself yet again. She didn't get people like him. Obviously she didn't like him, she had hit him AND knocked him out of a tree, yet he still proceeded to be flirtatious as if none of that mattered. It was starting to get on her nerves.

Her mother's words rang yet again in her head, and she was over that too. She was pretty convinced that nothing could change her opinion of Gold at this point.

The only thing she had learned about him was that he was less of a flirt and more of the mischievous type, he probably just flirted with her to get on her nerves, and he was waaaaaay too cheerful to be the delinquent she had heard about. It was probably just his fangirls spreading rumors about him to make him sound cooler.

Crystal almost laughed to herself at the prospect that he had to use his fans to shape his reputation.

...

They were starting to make a little progress, though Crystal would admit that it wasn't much. Gold was hard to keep on topic, often straying onto different subjects whenever they were trying to focus, but he was getting better.

"Here's what I think," Gold said in a more inquisitive tone for once, "You have to spend at least a day with someone before you can actually judge their character.

Again what her mom had said was brought up, maybe it was a common view. One Crystal didn't share.

"That's what my mom said," Crystal stretched, leaning back against the tree, "Well, I guess we could use that as the main focus of our project." she said. It'd be easier to do something that Gold agreed with anyway.

She heard the raven haired boy grunt as he stretched his limbs, it was eleven now, and kids were starting to show up to play, filling the air with the comforting sound of childish laughter and playful yelps of excitement.

"What'dya say we take a little break?" Gold stood up, pulling on his limbs. She guessed they could take a break for a little while, there was no harm in it. She stood up with him, stretching out her sore legs.

"Race ya to the park!" he yelled before bolting off towards the other children. She sighed, he really was just like the rest of them, just a childish boy.

She jogged slowly behind him, not seeing the need to actually race him. Although she almost did feel a competitive spark, she pushed it down in favor of a more mature approach.

Gold was already amongst the smaller children, most of elementary age, the blue haired girl sat down on a bench nearby. He looked like he was having fun, running amongst the kids, giving them piggy-back rides, and playing along with their games.

She doubted she could be that good with kids.

"Hey Crys! Come on over! Have some fun!" Gold said calling her over, the kid on his shoulders joined in, as well as the children around him.

She waved them off, trying to dissuade them, but Gold was insistent. He set the smaller child down, bending down to say something to them before running over to her.

"C'mon Crys. They want you to come play. Are you gonna turn down those sad faces?" he gestured dramatically to the kids behind him, who proceeded to make begging faces, quite hilariously she might add.

"What if I still said no?" she said, a mischievous light sparking in her that she didn't know she had.

"Would you say no to this face?" Gold began making a sad face, just as the other kids did, although his almost had her caving in.

"Maybe I would." she turned away, trying to hide the smile on her face. He took the cue and grabbed her hand in his, pulling her to the playground.

Almost immediately, kids started bombarding her. She tried to get them to calm down but it clearly wasn't working.

"Hey, give her some space lackeys!" he said and the children immediately quieted down. A small boy walked forward, his brown hair almost a coordinated mess, "Miss? Bro said that, you're really cute." Gold flinched when the small boy told her that with a proud look on his face.

Crystal was confused though, who was bro? That could be any of these kids, "Who's you're bro?" she asked, and when the boy was about to answer Gold butt in, "Hey now, Black, Crys is here, why don't we play?" he rushed and Crystal quirked her brow at his suspicious behavior.

The boy named Black's eyes lit up, instantaneously forgetting what he had been previously been talking about, "Yeah, bro!" he lifted his arms up and Gold heaved him onto his shoulders.

"No fair! Sis! Can I get on your shoulders?" a small girl reached up to Crystal and she hesitantly picked up the little girl who giggled with glee. They played for a lot longer than Crystal had originally intended.

...

By the time the kids had begun to go home, it was already well past two. Crystal was rocking gently on a swing, remnants of laughter on her lips. Gold swung vibrantly next to her, laughing much more boisterously. This was the most fun she had experienced in ages. A great feeling welled up in her chest, one she hadn't felt in a while, the pure untainted happiness taking over.

She had completely forgotten about the project and frankly, she didn't care. Her mother's words crossed as a whisper across her mind again. And she was right.

Crystal glanced over at the boy, who then caught her gaze and sent her a dazzling smile back. Not a flirtatious smile, or a mischievous smile, but a whole-hearted, untainted, smile that struck something in Crystal.

"Thank you." she said, Gold swung to a halt.

"Huh?" he pretended to clean his ears out. The blue haired girl laughed and punched him in the arm, not too hard though.

"Hey!" he laughed standing up. He moved behind her and began pushing her on the swing.

"You don't swing high enough! It's much more fun if you actually swing!" he laughed pushing her hard enough to swing a little bit further, but not much.

"You were right. You're much more of a kid than I thought you were. And I figured that out just today." she chuckled covering her mouth to try to stifle her laughter. Gold just laughed with her, pushing her gently.

She sighed, maybe he wasn't so bad. He was a lot nicer than she wanted to think, although he still wasn't very reliable. She giggled to herself. And she figured that out, all in a day.