It was well after school was out, leaving just those with clubs, sports, or band in the students' wake. Which just made things feel harder for Ben, who had spent his entire free sixth attempting to further his place with math and didn't have long before he needed to get to practice. It was due tomorrow and it took him nearly all of yesterday and now to push through just half of it. He hoped that if he at least couldn't get it done, the teacher would mistake the pages of writing, scribbles, and numbers as the entirety of the assignment. He couldn't keep doing this - if his grade dropped he'd get dropped from the band, and god knows how his GPA would handle it.
"Ben?" His pencil lead snaps at the voice from flinching. He huffed, turning his head some to see Mark with some others behind him coming through the door.
"Uh, hey." Leaning away from his papers and against the chair, he looked fully at the other. "What is it?"
Mark looked a bit amused, gesturing behind him at the people coming in. "This is where chess club meets up." It didn't help the boy's amusement as realization struck the other's expression.
"Oh." Ben looked at the clock, grimacing and pulling his papers into a relatively neat pile. "Sorry, I'll go somewhere else." A hand on Ben's shoulder keeps him from standing up fully, as Mark leans to look at the papers.
"What are you working on?"
"You sure?" Mark only laughs when the other looks at him suddenly, a mixed expression of anger and 'please be joking'. "I'm kidding. But hey, the date says it's due tomorrow. Why didn't you just get it done earlier?"
Ben's shoulders slump, his finger idly fiddling with the corner of one of the slightly crumpled papers. "I started on it as soon as I got it." The amusement on Mark's face was replaced with a mix of understanding and pity, moving his hand off the other's shoulder so he could stand up fully.
"...Well hey, you have band to get to, right? How about after we're both done you come back here and I'll give you a hand?" Ben looked back up, his face looking much brighter than it had moments ago.
"Seriously?" Mark nods and the other grins in response, almost going in for a hug but cutting short and just patting the other on the arm. "Thanks man." He was eager to finally have some help on the seemingly satanic rituals the teachers called trigonometry without having to suck it up and go to a teacher.
Mark chuckles, letting Ben gather his things before sending him off. "No problem."