Friday evening Artemis was relaxing by the lake shore. She stared out at the sky of pinks and purples with hues of orange and reds as well. With the reflection of the lake, it was like a masterful painting. The weather was nice, the view lovely, and she just needed a short mental break from things for a moment.

The two freshman teammates were still awol which was stressing the other members quite a bit and additionally, teachers were starting to move away from going easy on students due to it being the beginning of the year. In contrast, just existing by the water edge, admiring the sunset was like a breath of fresh air. Realistically, practically every breath was one of fresh air due to the campus being so remote, but that wasn't the point.

The point was, it was calming to simply sit and focus on nature's simple beauty instead of worrying about all the chaotic busy stuff surrounding her outside of the moment. It helped her to sort out things and her thoughts on them. Like the name thing…

She knew she recognized it from somewhere, but why? What was so important about that name that she was feeling stupid for not being able to place it? Was it a important family friend? Maybe the same last name as her first crush? Or was it something more align to someone of power? Like a high profile politician or movie star or athlete? A leading scientist or expert on a niche topic she was interested in?

Arty laughed as it suddenly came to her. Of course, she must have been quite distracted lately to not immediately place the name. He probably didn't want who his family was to affect how people treated him. Thus, as his friend, she wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She was sure she could act like he was just a normal guy like anyone else.

***

“You want me to do what with you?” Abe and Artemis sat in his room, working on their assignments after dinner. He wasn’t sure how much of his question was from surprise and how much was just having not been paying full attention due to having been focused on reading from the book in front of him.

“Explore the woods around campus. It could help with our research to physically see the locations mentioned in the books. Maybe even take pictures… Most of these books lack any visual aids for what they're talking about.” Abe couldn't find any error of logic to argue in what she said. Physically seeing things had the possibility of revealing more information or at least context.

“Fine… but it should be a day we have plenty of time.” He didn’t want this excursion to interfere with his classes or anything.

“Then how about tomorrow afternoon. I don't have any classes and you've just got a drawing class. We can have lunch and then use the rest of the day to explore.”

“How'd you-”

“Your class schedule is posted right there above your desk. I've got two working eyes so it isn't hard to read.” Abe looked at the schedule. Just for fun, he'd written it in Latin when copying the classes down into a more day to day version of the schedule. Just a tiny extra thing done for exercising his mind once in a while.

“You can read that?” What the actual fuck? Why? How? It’s not even considered a conversational language so what were the chances someone else his age would so casually know it? And Artemis of all people too.

“...Yes?”

“It's in Latin.”

“I know.” She said it so casually, like there should be a ‘duh, obviously’ at the end of it.

“And you're not going to elaborate on why you know Latin…?”

“Well, you're not explaining how you know it either. It's not that big of a deal.” He wanted to point out it wasn't that odd for him to know Latin since he was a nerd that hyper focused on studying anything that even caught his attention in passing. Meanwhile, Artemis was an athlete… But it felt rude to say that so he decided to drop the subject.

“So, you're taking Ms Elkins’ Fundamentals of Mathematic as well but just a different time slot, right? Did you also get that two page worksheet?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah. I was thinking about working on it next.”

“Then…” Abe was a bit nervous but decided to just go for it. “Do you want to do it together? You know, since you're here anyways and Ms Elkins suggested working with others on it.” He held his breath slightly as he waited for her answer.

***

“Then, do you want to do it together?” Arty thought about it for a moment. Other than the research paper, they had been doing their own thing when it came to other work. She didn't know why, but the question felt like a big deal coming from Abe. He wanted to not just work in the same room as each other but actually together on something.

“Sure. It might be nice to have someone to go over parts we get stuck on…” She started getting out the particular homework. It's not like Arty planned on needing much help with math of all subjects, but she didn't want to discourage Abe by turning down his suggestion. She scooted the chair she was using to make room for him to sit beside her. After all, he probably didn't want her in his space at his desk. It was so neat and everything in its place, and she might accidentally knock something out of place.

He moved to sit with her and they got started on the assignment. It was only the second problem before Arty started to realize an unexpected revelation about the intelligent boy. For all his genius, he seemed pretty mediocre at understanding the stated math problems. His brow was furrowed as if he was having to concentrate more than usual.

She didn't want to make him uncomfortable by highlighting it, but she had to ask. “What part are you struggling with?” Abe looked embarrassed at being caught struggling.

“...Math is usually easy for me to understand, but only when applied to actual things.” She looked over the problems. That might actually be an easy issue to solve if they worked on Math together…

“Alright, well, you understand the medicinal qualities of plants, right? Imagine X as how much of a certain plant needs to be in a mix. Four times the correct amount plus three should be equal to or less than twenty seven. So, how big or small could the amount of that plant be that you put in?”

It took Abe a lot less time to figure it out when she said it that way and his reply was almost instantaneous. “Anything six or less.”

“Yep, just remember that also includes negative amounts… You can probably figure out the rest by substituting the unknown for different plants.”

“Thanks for this, Artemis…” Abe smiled. “I'm glad to have such an amazing friend like you.” He'd never actually called her his friend before and it left Arty feeling quite warm and fuzzy inside for some reason.

***

The figure stood under the moonlight deep in the forest, no living humans around. A clear sky at midnight, such a lovely balance of light and shadows to be found in that moment. They could feel an excitement for what was to come building up in them.

They could feel it in the ground, the trees, and even the very current of the air. Nature itself knew and agreed with their joy in that moment. They couldn't help but dance in the moonlight. Who cares if they should be doing such things? This was pure freedom and a touch of joy. And there was no one to stop them.

Bliss. That was what the feeling was called. They hadn't felt real bliss in so long, they had almost forgotten its name.

They eventually sat down in the ring of trees and looked up at the stars. There were so many visible on nights like tonight, and even more so this far from everything. They noticed something small and furry rushing across the ground from the corner of their eye and turned to look at it.

“Well, hello Mr. Mouse… lovely night we're having, wouldn't you agree?” The field mouse obviously didn't reply. The figure still smiled and nodded as if it had. “Quite right. I probably should be sleeping right now, but I just was too excited to get any rest right now. Tomorrow is likely to be a splendid day and I just can't wait for it to come.” They stood up carefully so as to not scare the animal. “I suppose I should start heading back soon, though…” They started walking, seemingly knowing exactly the right path to get where they were going. Every step was purposeful and they didn't take a single misstep their whole way, as if the forest guided them.