Family Picnic! [Emma and Lars]

[NICO ZUIDERDUIN]

It wasn't until Nico was halfway through the last page of his test that he came to the realization that it shouldn't be this easy. A quick glance at the kids to either side of him proved that he shouldn't have sped through this as fast as he did. Everyone else was only about halfway through. Granted, this was all material that he had studied the night before, but it shouldn't come to him like he had been learning it all his life. The harder English words weren't even giving him any grief, which could only mean one thing....

The teacher must have had the same thing in mind, because a note slid onto his test paper as they walked by.

"See me after class."

Dread curled in Nico's gut as he read it. This couldn't possibly be happening. What was he supposed to do now? Should he finish his test still? There were only a couple problems left, it's not like it would hurt...

When class was over, he endured a lecture about academic integrity, given a zero and detention after school. He could feel his face heat up in shame and embarrassment. If it weren't for his plans to eat lunch with his siblings today, he probably would have spent all of lunch break hiding in his dorm. As much as he didn't feel up to seeing much of anyone right now, he could really use their advice. After taking a minute to wash his face and recompose himself, he went over to meet them.

For a moment he attempted to pretend like everything was fine, even though there was no doubt that Lars would see through that. The prospect of seeing his siblings did cheer him up a little bit, he didn't get to hang out with them too often. Usually it was because he holed himself up in his room, working.

A frown was prominent on his features when he greeted them.  "H-Hello you two..."  So much for cheerful.

[LARS ZUIDERDUIN]

Lars was sitting at picnic table underneath the shade of a tree when his little brother approached. Right away he could tell something was up. Hell, even before his brother approached, he could feel a dark cloud of dread hit him. But it wasn't until his little brother greeted him that he realized just what was going on. He wasn't the type of empath that could feel every person that his way's feelings, but when it was his brother or sister, he could pretty much feel every nuance or fluctuation of their emotions.

It was kind of annoying, but he had grown accustomed to it, finding it more helpful than not most of the time. Especially if Nico or Emma were trying to hide things from him. He was pretty good at seeing through their lies.

"H-Hello you two..."

Man. He didn't even need his powers to tell him that something had happened. Lars glanced towards Emma, with who he had been enjoying his time eating with before Nico had walked over, and raised his eyebrows.

Lars pat the seat next to him for Nico to join them. The poor looked pretty awful. It was almost as though Nico had just seen their mother killed in front of him and now had to break it to them the hard way that they no longer had their mom. Lars certainly hoped it wasn't that. The odds of it being that were slim but... his brother did look pretty grim. 

Too bad his powers weren't mind reading. 

Actually now that he thought about it. The last time Nico had gotten so worked up was related to school. So if he had to guess, it was probably the same thing now. Nico was after all, a boy of habit, and studying was his habit. Nico hadn't gotten a final grade lower than an "A" the entire time he'd been in school. 

So using his big brotherly powers of intuition and prediction, Lars moved his gaze from Emma towards his brother again.

"Did something happen in class?"