Chapter Text
Marcy stood still on one of the many hallways of Saint James Middle School, as she nervously locked eyes with the door that had a fixed metal plaque on the wall beside it, a plaque that carried the last name Murphy on it.
Sensing and clearly seeing the agitation in her friend, Anne leaned forward a bit, looking at them from their side, whilst carrying that warm smile the young jock was known for, as she suggested a more comfortable approach to this confession. "Hey, we can always turn around and come back another day, Mars." Anne wanted nothing more than to get Marcy's bullying situation dealt with, but if that meant pushing their friend, someone who meant the world to her, into an uncomfortable situation where their boundaries were basically just thrown out that window without a care, then Anne would rather eat a lifetime supply of pineapple pizza as a daily meal before letting anything like that happen.
Hearing Anne's voice helped Marcy out of their little unsettling trance, in turn providing their friend with a much heartening reply. “Oh no I’m fine Anne, sure it’s a little unsettling actually going through with this, you know with Cameron’s threats still lingering in my mind and all, but you being here with me makes doing all of this a little more easier.”
The tennis player’s cheeks became painted with a faint crimson upon hearing the last bit of information she received, and Marcy’s adorable little smile that came with their response definitely didn’t help in subduing the warm hues on her visage.
“Aw geez Mars, I’m not that special.” Anne, getting a little embarrassed at her friend’s compliment, gently scratched one of her warm cheeks with her index finger, despite not really having any itch of any sort in that area.
Giggling softly at her friend’s response, Marcy turned towards the door that behind laid the key to ridding her world of darkness and despair, at least momentarily, as the future would carry many hindering obstacles that even Principal Murphy couldn’t fix, but by then Marcy would know how to deal with them, or at least have a good idea on how with them, and if not she would know to trust her party into aiding her into victory.
Putting on her brave face, Marcy took in a small quick breather, as she stepped forth towards the golden pecan colored door, Anne quickly followed suit, but before the two friends could continue their steps, a woman with an attire that demanded attention and exemplified authority stepped outside, provoking a pause in the two middle schoolers tracks.
Noticing the two young minds within close proximity of her peripheral vision, Principal Murphy turned to face them with a friendly, yet mildly stern tone to her voice, after all she was the principal of a private middle school. “Ah, Marcy, Anne, good afternoon. I presume you two, as well as Sasha, are staying out of trouble, yes?”
Laughing awkwardly, Anne rubbed the back of her neck, as she tried to truthfully explain the situation to their principal, as they indeed did in fact run into some trouble, though this time none of the trio had given wake to, it was simply some unfortunate circumstances one of their members had come across. But before the young jock could even vocally form the explanation, Marcy stepped in, gripping tightly both shoulder straps from her backpack, as she vocalized her own words. “Yes and no Principal Murphy, however there is something we would like to discuss with you before we have to go back to class.”
The high ranking administrator witnessed firsthand the serious tone in her students’ voice and their direct solemn gaze directly at her, enough to tell Principal Murphy that something was up, and her student needed to speak one on one with her. Giving the genius student a similar tone to theirs, Principal Murphy replied, “Well Marcy Wu, Anne Boonchuy, I’d be more than delighted to hear what the two of you have to say. But first, I have a much needed appointment with a certain sanitary receptacle.” Opening the door for them, the caring woman invited them inside the room where her office, as well as her secretaries’ resided in, whilst trying not to remain professional in front of her students. “In the meantime, you both may have a seat inside. I'll be back in a few minutes.” The moment her students stepped inside the room, Principal Murphy closed the door behind them and made a run to the nearest staff bathroom, her short heels making a speedy clickety clack sound echoing throughout the hallway with every step she took;as well, as giving the two students she left behind a good idea of the reasoning behind her urgent steps, or at least one of them.
As the two Asian girls took their seats, Anne noticed the door to Mrs.Richmond’s office open, but with no secretary inside. Deciding not to pay too much heed to the absence, Anne chose to place her focus on Marcy, who was actually mildly gripping the gray hoodie fabric in their forearms area.
Smiling softly, leaned forward keeping their friendly gaze on her friend, as Anne asked, “Nervous?”
Forcing out a small chuckle, Marcy responded, “A little, but I’ll push through it. I just can’t believe that I’ve made it this far.” Turning her head to face her best friend, Marcy finished her response smiling, “And it’s all thanks to you Anne.” Marcy smiled with that same adorable smile from before, though to Anne the smile appeared to be much more adorable than before, it was probably her most adorable yet;similar to before, yet another, bit more notable blush made its way onto Anne’s brown cheeks, upon hearing that claim and seeing firsthand the second most adorable image in the universe.
“C’mon Mars stop, you’re making me blush.” Anne knew her blush was more than evident now, so there was really no point in trying to hide it, besides it was normal for friends to make each other blush, right?
A few seconds after Anne vocalized her modest response, the door that led the two best friends inside the quarters of their principal opened up, though to their surprise it wasn’t Principal Murphy that came in walking, but instead a shorter women with a casual attire opposite to that of the woman she worked for stepped into the room.
Not expecting to see any students in the room right now, though not surprised to see it was Anne and Marcy, Mrs.Richmond with a welcoming smile that many of the students and staff described as that of sweet old grandma commented, “Oh hello there Anne, Marcy. Waiting to see Principal Murphy I presume?”
The trio of friends were known to take a couple of trips to the principal’s office throughout the school year, due to their mischievous little escapades, so much so that they were nicknamed the “calamity trio” by their fellow peers, soon after the staff started to follow along with their nickname. But other than their little daring exploits, Sasha, Anne, and Marcy were respected people who in the end were just kids being kids in any given opportunity they had. Mrs.Richmond even went as far as praising the tactics of one of their heists, much to Principal Murphy’s disapproval, but even she had to admit that their little puppy heist was rather clever.
“We are actually, she let us in and told us to wait here, while she went for a bathroom break.” Marcy responded diligently.
Still maintaining that friendly tone of hers, Mrs.Richmond holding onto a small red packaging under one of her arms, offered the two waiting students an option, “Well, whatever the reason for your stay is, would you two like a chocolate chip cookie in the meantime?” Opening up the red packaging to reveal three rows of the sweet treats, Mrs.Richmond continued speaking with that famous smile of hers as she leaned the now opened red packaging towards the two children. “I mainly bought them for myself and Principal Murphy, as a little guilty pleasure sugar boost to have every now and then, but something tells me you two might need one as well.”
While Anne and Marcy weren’t necessarily craving anything sweet at the moment, they were more than happy to take up Mrs.Richmond’s offer on the small treat. And thank the stars they did, because as soon as they bit into those cookies, both friends couldn’t help but sigh with such a joy of relief, as they continuously chewed into what was a soft texture instead of a crunchy one, as the chocolate chip cookies were actually of the chewy kind, a personal favorite of the secretary.
Mrs.Richmond couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the two students' synchronized reactions, proving that a chocolate chip cookie, a chewy chocolate chip cookie for that matter, was something they needed right now. And while the cookies momentarily put a smile on the middle schoolers’ faces, cookies unfortunately, weren’t the answer to life’s problems, if they were, there probably wouldn’t be wars, probably.
Anne and Marcy thanked the middle aged woman for the treats as she closed up the red packaging filled with delectable sweets, and took out her keys, opening up the door to her office.
Upon entering the room, Marcy couldn’t help but lean over a bit from her seat and admire just how clean and organized everything was in Mrs.Richmond’s office, even blushing a bit as she noticed the small figurine of the Amaterasu as a pup, a character from one of Marcy’s favorite video games she recommended the older woman to play, which she loved and the young nerd ended up purchasing a small figurine as a gift for the secretary. It made her happy knowing Mrs.Richmond genuinely liked the gift and proudly displayed it on her desk for everyone to see.
Putting the treats away for safekeeping, Mrs.Richmond took a seat at her desk, as she prepared herself to continue the day's work, only to realize she had left a few important files back in her car.
Quickly getting her car keys, the middle aged woman walked hurriedly towards the door that in this situation would be leading outside her outside the room that inhabited her office and Principal Murphy’s office, as she excused herself from the two waiting students.
Pushing the door open, Mrs.Richmond stepped outside but held the door open as she was surprised by the presence of yet another familiar young face leaning against the wall just right outside the room. “Oh hello there Sasha!”
Marcy and Anne themselves jumped a little at the name being vocalized, as they were not expecting their best friend to be anywhere near them for whatever little remaining time they had of their lunch break. Truth be told, they had misled Sasha purposefully, or at least they thought they did into making her believe that Mr.Escobar wanted to speak to her directly about one of her papers, something about revising it because it contained a lot of inaccuracy about the Romanov family;as they were walking to the young teacher’s classroom, both the Asian girls had excuse themselves quickly to use the bathroom, but assured Sasha they would be “patiently waiting” for her right outside Mr.Escobar’s classroom eating their own lunches, once they were done with bathroom business. Oh, how the tables had turned for the two best friends.
The small talk not lasting too long between the secretary and the middle school student, Mrs.Richmond, politely offered the cheerleader captain a seat amongst his friends who unbeknownst to the cheerful middle aged woman, were practically quaking in their shoes.
“I’d love that Mrs.Richmond, thanks!” Sasha said quite similarly in tone to the principal's secretary offer.
Anne and Marcy were throwing each other panicked glances, practically communicating with their frantic expressions, too scared, and much too late to use words at this point. It was fairly obvious at this point that they were going to have to play it as calm and collected as possible, despite having their best friend right there with them in the flesh, the best friend they had straight up lied to, the best friend who frankly was rather intimidating, more so when she wanted to be, and their current situation was probably going to prove that. Anne and Marcy were just going to have to hope for the best.
Sasha casually entered the inhabited room as Mrs.Richmond bid herself momentarily and closed the door behind the young blonde.
The two friends intently, but nervously made eye contact with the third member of their party, Anne herself even gulped, which she immediately regretted. The whole calm and collected act was clearly a no show, and both Marcy and Anne were aware of that, regardless they remained their eyes locked onto their best friend, hoping the continuous act would result into something positive somehow.
Very well aware of the emotional intensity her two friends were radiating towards her, Sasha's still lips turned upward, accompanied with a peace sign from one of her hands, as she greeted them casually. "Hey girlfriends, good seeing you two here!"
Upon hearing the casual friendliness in his words, more importantly his tone, the intense gaze and fear in the two Asian girls had come to a short pause, as well as their breathing and heartbeats slowly returning to that of a normal pacing, still they remained guarded, as Sasha Wabright was one of the most unpredictable people to walk this Earth, at least to Anne and March he was.
Taking a seat right next to Marcy, the young blonde took off her backpack and placed it right in front of her feet, as she took the time to bump her sore shoulders, whilst vocalizing with a slight annoyance to her tone, “Ah, I swear, kids back in the day probably had more back problems than most grownups do today. I don’t see why we can’t just go completely digital instead of using these eighteenth century books.”
Sasha seemed…fine, there was not the slightest bit of bother in her visage, nor in the rest of her body, not even in her tone. It seemed as though the more than obvious lie that was placed on her didn’t even happen at all.
Anne was fairly still skeptical of Sasha’s easygoing attitude, and wanted to play it safe, but before the young jock could muster anything from her lips, Marcy took it upon themselves to say something, though it was the exact opposite of Anne’s tactic.
“You’re not mad?” Marcy asked curiously, with much less trepidation in her voice than Anne currently had;in turn, provoking a quite shocked reaction from the Thai girl. If they weren’t in trouble before with Sasha, they were definitely in trouble now with Marcy’s straight forwardness.
Smirking, Sasha reached down towards her backpack, unzipping it, asking in a friendly tone, “Now why would I be mad?” all while she searched in the interior of her backpack, looking for an important item.
In just these few seconds of exchanging words with one her best friends, Marcy’s agitation had all but slowly disappeared from her mind, body, and voice. Truth be told, Marcy was much more interested as to why Sasha was showcasing such a calm demeanor, when instead the cheerleader should in fact be displaying a much more upset one, especially after being lied to directly by none other than his two best friends. Being one where her curiosity always got the best of her, Marcy asked, “Well, we lied to you about Mr.Escobar wanting to see you, and also about waiting for you afterwards, we lied to you twice. You hate it when we lie to you.”
“True, but honestly…” Sasha’s smile widened a bit at his friends’ last remark, in doing so, he found the item he had been looking for and pulled it out, holding it in his hand for Marcy to grab. “...I think you guys had every reason to lie, at least this time you did.”
Both friends on the receiving end had their eyes wide upon looking at what Sasha had in her hand, Marcy’s eyes being the most wide with shock out of the two.
“M-My journal…” Slowly Marcy reaches for the valuable item after giving voice to words she believed wouldn’t be said for a while, and much slower was she trying to process that the item most precious to her, one that she was gently stroking was here safe and sound, back in her hands, and not as ashes in a dumpster somewhere.
Anne herself was trying to fit two and two together as to how Sasha was able to even get ahold of Marcy’s journal in the first place. Looking back into her past conversations with the young blonde, even the one right before Anne had left for her study session with Marcy, there was no mention of Marble’s journal missing, nor any kind of indication of who exactly was the one bullying their friend;so how did Sasha know the journal was missing in the first place, how did she know who was the one responsible for making Marcy’s life a living hell for the past few days, how did Sasha know when both friends swore to secrecy? How?
So stunned by her friend’s actions, yet extremely keen into learning the “hows” of her actions, Anne went ahead and asked her friend, only to be interrupted by a notification ding from her phone, causing the young chef to jump a little.
Anne pulled out her phone from her skirt pocket, but before doing so, a message in all caps from the tennis team group chat she was a part of caught her attention. The message read, “ OMG GUYS! DID Y’ALL HEAR WHAT HAPPENED TO CAMERON?! ” Anne’s eyes were almost as wide as Marcy’s, though instead of shock, it was more of a fearful trepidation, and the feeling definitely was not being soothed as she gave the cheerleader a quick glance, who even without having read the text, gave a small yet mischievous looking smile to her friend, as she looked at Anne’s phone and back at her.
“Keep looking” Anne could practically hear Sasha mouth these words, and just like that she pressed on the message, opening up the chat and giving her access to read the plentiful amount of texts that had already accumulated in response to the first text.
Everyone had been asking practically the same thing, just wording it differently and as soon as Anne had read all the eager questions from her tennis team, the much anticipated answer had been sent to the chat. “Well apparently, he’s in the hospital!” read the new message, and a much flabbergasted young teenager reacted, even typing up her own message, that stated “Why is he in the hospital?!?!”
A heapfull amount of dread was building into Anne’s mind, it was more than obvious by now that somehow Sasha had found Cameron out, and made him pay dearly for what he did to Marcy, but it didn’t solve anything;sure, Sasha had gotten Mars’ journal back but at what cost?! How was Anne going to explain this to Principal Murphy, to her parents?! Violence was never the answer, well most times it wasn’t and this was one of those cases, shouldn’t Sasha have known better by now?!
During the midst of Anne’s eternal screaming, the answer to her text question had been answered, which in turn made the young jock’s eyes glued just inches away from her phone’s screen, anxious to read the response, and praying to whatever powerful entities that existed in the universe that Sasha hadn’t hurt Cameron too bad.
________________
Well according to him, he fell down some stairs.
That’s it? Thought he finally got into a fight or somethin’. 😒
Yeah honestly. Cause he’s been picking on a lot of people here at the school.
Ha! Fucker finally got what he deserved! 👊🏿💥
Karma made him his bitch! :)
We stan Karma here y’all! 😤💖
AMEN SISTER!!! 🙌🏼❤️✨
Anne would be lying if the various texts from her fellow teammates weren’t making her giggle inside a bit, which in turn eased the thirteen players' anxieties a bit. Though a particular question still remained, one that the Thai girl was hesitant to ask, but she had to make sure Cameron’s “fall” didn’t leave him too wounded.
Righteous justice aside, Cameron’s not dying or anything right?
I’m not 100% sure Anne, but it doesn’t look like the dude will be able to swing a golf club for a while. 🤕
According to Bobby, one of his arms looks pretty broken and he’s got a couple of bruises and scratches too.
Did he get attacked by a cat or something?
LOL no, read the previous texts Marcel! 😂
Imagine though?
My bad. 😅
Bobby was one of Cameron’s ass kissers, and his right hand man here at Saint James Middle School;he either found Cameron all beaten and bruised, or worse case scenario, Bobby had witnessed first hand, Cameron’s little “cat attack”, which could only lead to some big, expelled, probably behind bars time for one of Anne’s best friends. Even if that was the case, Sasha seemed way too laid back about having her future potentially being ruined.
As if Anne’s prayer had been answered, Emily had sent yet another text to the chat concerning Cameron’s condition.
Bobby just texted me, he says Cameron will live, he just needs some time to heal, that and probably some therapy.
Says he found him whiter than a ghost, like he had met Death face to face or something like that. Guess that trip down the stairs really scared him.
The dumbass should watch where he’s going next time.
He can’t, his head is way too up his ass.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
True that!
________________
Anne laid her hand down, still holding onto her phone and mentally sighed in relief, knowing that Cameron was going to live to see another day, just with a pinch of trauma that is. From what Emily had texted, it did seem that the no good bully was quite badly beaten-up, but it wasn’t nothing a couple of doctors and some rest couldn’t fix up, which was definitely reassuring to know;though there was still the worry of whether or not Cameron was going to tell anyone about his misencounter with Sasha, which only made Anne yet again mentally pray to whatever powerful entities inhabited their universe. But before the Thai girl could even get into that frame of mind, a question became vocalized, a question that wasn’t supposed to be vocalized.
“Cameron’s…in the hospital?” Marcy asked quite slowly, yet with a clear stunned reaction painted all over her visage and in her voice.
Anne glanced back and forth between her phone and Marcy, frantically shaking her head trying her best to make words of reasoning come out of her mouth, but only overwrought syllables were formed.Even as Anne tried desperately to form a single coherent word, her mind was much too occupied criticizing her own carelessness. Marcy was right next to her, how did she not notice them gazing over her shoulder like that?!
Finally Anne was able to form a couple of intelligible words, though their context didn’t share a similar fate. “Nonononono, you see, Emily was talking about…uh…a…another Cameron, yeah another Cameron! She actually has an older brother, one who’s in college and he got hurt, and we all happen to know him, but he’s he’s not a very person and-”
“You told Sasha didn’t you?” Marcy sternly cuts Anne off, her tone surprising both her friends and making Anne even more of a frantic mess, trying her best to correct Marcy’s misconception only to be interrupted by yet another upset misconception from her. “Anne, I told you not to tell her! I told you!”
“And I swear I didn’t tell him anything!” Stating that, Anne took a quick glance in Sasha’s direction, annoying the young jock a bit at the fact that her friend was so calm about the situation, with their hands in their jean jacket pockets and his head laid back against the wall, just sitting there crossed legged, foot bobbing up and down so leisurely, just letting everything unfold. He was the one who caused this, somehow, so why wasn’t he getting scolded?!
“Then how do you explain all of this?!” Marcy was clearly upset about the whole Cameron being in the hospital situation, which was more than understandable, but how was Anne supposed to ease them about it, while also trying to prove her innocence?! Anne needed a miracle, anything really to better this conversation.
“I was eavesdropping on you guys.”
A response was stated nonchalantly, the two best friends paused their gaze at each other, and instead turned it towards their best friend who didn’t seem at all bothered by the small dispute happening right next to him, though his friends on the other hand, had much more of a reaction, a stunned one to be exact.
Being in the state they were, Marcy asked, “You eavesdropped?”
“Yeah.” Sasha answered, still emotionally unmoved by the surprise in Marcy’s tone.
“WHEN?!” Anne quickly followed right after Sasha’s reply.
Still maintaining her head rested back against the cool wall, with her floating foot gently bobbing up and down, Sasha responded with eyes closed, “When you guys were in Mrs.Robles’s class, duh. When else would I have found out?”
“You told me you had cheer practice!!!” Anne, with her claim pointed strongly towards Sasha, thought the tennis player wasn't sure whether she should be in further shock at each revelation she was discovering or be upset at them, but quiet was one thing she wasn't going to be, how could anyone at this point?
Taking out his hands from their comfy resting place and instead, holding them mid air, Sasha shrugged his shoulders, yet again, casually stating his response, "I lied."
If Anne had to be honest, Sasha's laid back, somewhat seemingly inconsiderate attitude towards the current situation at hand, not to mention towards Anne and Marcy's dispute as well from a few seconds before had the theater hater a bit vexed. And it definitely was starting to show in Anne's face and more so in her voice. "WHY?!" The young jock asked, quite frustrated.
Opening her eyes, and turning her head to face that lovely umber colored visage, that had a more than noticeable angered blush mixed into it, Sasha kept her eyes solely on Anne, explaining her actions to the best of her abilities. “Well if you think about it Anne, if I had gone with you to your guys’ study session, I’m pretty sure Regina Wu over here would have had a harder time confessing about the bullying.”
Yeah, that’s kinda true. Anne pondered to herself, Sasha was the intimidating kind of person, even to his two best friends;so Marcy would have had a harder time confessing, if they could have even done it in the first place with Sasha being there and all.
“Sasha, you knew about the bullying?” Marcy asked curiously, though they still carried a tint of stun in their demeanor.
Moving her gaze to meet the smallest member of their trio, Sasha responded, “I had a hunch that’s what was happening with you, but I needed to be sure, so I lied to Anne about going to cheer practice and followed her to Mrs.Robles’s classroom.” Chuckling a bit to herself, Sasha now accompanied with a small dejected smile on those pink corners of hers, scratched her head with really no itch provoking her to do so and continued her response. “Honestly, it was kinda hard to just stand there in the hallway like that, not being able to do anything, but just listen to you crying your pain out. And when you confessed about Cameron, man did it fucking sting like a bitch right here” Sasha lightly gripped her shirt in the area where her heart rested, pushing forth her words. “Though honestly I was probably more mad than anything, heh.”
Marcy wasn't going to lie, she was a bit moved with Sasha’s own confession, but there was a better way to go about this, there was a better way to get the journal back, there was a better way to stop Cameron’s foolish tyranny, there always was a better way than beating your opponent to a pulp, unless it was some sort of fighting or RPG game, but this wasn’t a video game, this was real life, and in real life, if you were beat someone to a pulp there would be consequences to pay!!! Something Sasha clearly didn’t seem to understand!
Mildly gripping her journal by its sides, Marcy vocalized her frustration towards the one provoking it. “Sasha, you’re not supposed to go after people like that, heck you’re not supposed to hurt them like that either, you could get in trouble for it, YOU ARE going to get in trouble for it Sasha!”
“So what? You expected me to sit idly by knowing what it was you were going through and who was causing it?” Sasha wasn’t upset at Marcy’s small criticism, she honestly expected much, from both of them really, any sane person would really;still, Sasha would be lying if she said wasn’t the slightest bit annoyed at Marcy’s expectational methods.
“YES! Because Anne and I had a plan to fix all of this, a decent plan where no one would have to end up in a hospital bed!” Even on Marcy, was there a much more apparent angered little blush mixing in with her honey colored visage, as she clamorously stated herself, arms flailing around, her journal now resting safely on her side.
Sasha smiled to herself, finding her friend’s reaction quite adorable, but really, both flushed reactions from Anne and Marcy took the cute cake, but she had to assure them, especially Marcy.
Giving a heavy sigh, Sasha spoke her assuring truth. “Well, would it make you feel better if I told you that I never laid a finger on Cameron?”
“I-...what?” Marcy was having a hard time comprehending what Sasha just stated, and before they could even mentally delve into their friend’s words, Anne interrupted with her own take on Sasha’s what seemed to be a rather infeasible statement.
“So you’re telling us that you weren’t the one responsible for putting Cameron in the hospital?” Anne asked with a suspicious tone in her voice.
Smirking more notably, Sasha corrected his friend’s words. “I never said that Anne. What I said is that I never physically touched him.”
Despite leaving the young jock in a rather confused state, Anne continued to push forth for a much needed clarification. “So how in the nine cat lives do you explain Cameron’s injuries?! Did you just use some sort of telekinesis on him and he magically got those injuries?!”
“Actually Anne, telekinesis is more about moving and manipulating non living objects. I think the one you’re referring to is actually called auto-biokinesis, sometimes called corporikinesis, or sómakinesis, but it’s better known as body manipulation. Since Sasha is claiming she didn’t physically touch him, she might have used her abilities to physically manipulate Cameron’s body into inflicting pain onto himself. Or if Sasha has trained her supposed powers hard enough, maybe she even went as far as to-”
Gently placing her hand on March’s shoulder, Anne deferred Marcy’s intellectual disquisition with her own set of words. “Mars, while I do appreciate the cool facts you’re giving us, (and I could practically listen to you say them all day) we do have the whole ‘Sasha possibly going to be in a lot of trouble cause she almost killed someone’ situation going on for us right now.”
“Oh right!” Quickly turning herself from Anne back to Sasha, Marcy continued scolding one of her best friends, as well as demanding a better explanation of Sasha’s previous statement from before, one that the cheerleader captain was more than happy to provide.
“Like I said, I didn’t lay a single finger on Cameron, but I still managed to teach him a lesson.” Settling back into his comfortable, laid back pose, Sasha closed his eyes, briefly informing his two best friends on his little abstruse encounter with Cameron. “Once I finished gathering info from you guys, I texted Cameron telling him I wanted to meet up and apologize for what I told him in the morning. So, we met up inside the school gym, we talked for a bit, the asshole showed me some of his golf swings, he let me have a turn, lights went off and that’s where it really got fun.”
“How so?” Marcy asked nervously.
Opening her eyes, and once again lazily turning her head to face the two most important people in her life, but still maintaining it rested against the cool wall, Sasha smiled casually, though there was an obvious hint of sinisterly intention in that smile of hers;Sasha raised her index finger in the air and replied in volume only loud enough for Anne and Marcy’s ears to catch. “I scared him.”
The chess player and the young jock were now left in probably more confusion than before, though neither dared try and show it, as the mood Sasha had been building up to this point was in similar vibes to her comment, a scary one.
It being only fair for Anne to speak next, she too fearfully asked, “W-What do you mean by s-scared him?” Sasha Waybright was their best friend, but even Marcy and Anne could become petrified under the half Slavic girl’s gaze at times;she was an individual that protected those precious to her till death, even if that would mean bringing a conclusion to another’s life, including her own, with drive like that, one can’t help but admire the person that Sasha Waybright was, but also leave one quaking in their shoes a bit.
Sensing the notable tense in the air she had created, Sasha crossed her arms, sat up straight and vocalized with a booming, proud, energetic voice, “We decided to play a game of Never Have I Ever , in the dark, with minimal lighting of course. The questions got harder and more personal, the fucker realized where I was going with the game, but by the time he did, it was too late and I pushed him into an inescapable corner. Next thing you know he’s trying to land a few blows, but he fails miserably, loses his footing, falls down a couple of stairs, I leave him with a little word of advice and he runs off like a scared little bitch! HA, HA, HA!!!” Laughing quite vigorously at her own told story, Sasha happily recalled the memory of Cameron on the gym floor, injured by his own selfish stupidity, sweating profusely and terrified to his very core, as he made eye contact with Sasha, who was standing tall and menacing, using one of the bully’s golf clubs to make her point very clear by having its tip centimeters away from his horrified face. “HA, HA, HA, truly some of my best work!” Sasha stated so proudly and lightheartedly, though the two gobsmacked individuals next to her begged to differ.
Despite the stunned silence being emitted by her two friends, Sasha, still carrying that cheerful smile, turned to face the shocked staring duo, only to wink and make a peace sign with her index and middle finger, whilst playfully saying, “That’s what happened.”
"YOU'RE STILL GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE!!!"
"YOU'RE STILL GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE!!!"
Laughing at Marcy and Anne's contemporary reactions, Sasha responded with her usual laid back attitude, "Nah don't worry about that. That fucker won't be telling anyone anything, aside from his dumbass falling down those stairs, I made sure of it."
"SASHA!!!" To Anne and Sasha's surprise, Marcy had gotten up from her seat as she vocalized one of her best friends' names, with a clearly upset tone and directly facing her.
"C'mon Mar Mar, it was only fair after everything he put you through. Not to mention the threat he placed on you and your journal." Sasha retorted.
Marcy glanced at their journal, safely resting on their chair they had abruptly gotten up from. Yes, Cameron had hurt them, yes, he took away and damaged something precious to Marcy, despite their pleas to stop, yes, he threatened to get rid of Marcy's journal for good and do much worse to them, yes, it all hurt so much, but…but who were they to pass judgment onto Cameron, who was Sasha to personally pass judgment onto him, neither had that right;Marcy considered themselves lucky that Anne cared enough about them to even want to offer her help in the first place.
“That doesn’t matter Sasha, none of it does! You weren’t supposed to go after Cameron like that, Principal Murphy was going to go after Cameron, Principal Murphy was going to fix this properly, where no one had to get hurt!!!” It was more than obvious at how distressed Marcy was at the situation, even Sasha herself was a bit taken aback at just how much her little play date with Cameron was perturbing them. Sasha had to admit, she could be rather inconsiderate at times, and this was one of those times, so it only seemed fair to apologize to her friend, but before the young athlete could even form a single syllable, Marcy continued their rebuke, only this time it was aimed more so at the individual conveying it. “And besides, I-I could have just gotten another journal, i-it’s nothing special.” Despite having faced Sasha so upfront in these few minutes they shared in the waiting room, Marcy was now facing the ground, her hands by her side in a fist shape, trembling ever so lightly, and trying her darn hardest to not break down into tears. “Y-You didn’t have to do that Sasha, but you did, and n-n-now you’re going to get in trouble for it and it’s all my fault.” The tears started to trickle down Marcy’s cheeks, it unfortunately couldn’t be helped, but still, couldn’t they have just managed to get through this strongly, just this once at least?! Sniffling every few seconds, Marcy continued speaking with her eyes now shut tight. “Y-You could have gotten hurt too, o-or worse, and all because I didn’t have the proper strength to fight back, o-or even enough strength to tell someone about Cameron. Anne had to do that and she’s already risking so much by helping me tell Principal Murphy…I-I-I didn’t want you to have to do the same too, Sasha.” At this point Marcy was already sniveling audibly enough for anyone in the room to notice, their tears ceaselessly coming down like a gentle river stream, their small, frustrated fists notably trembling now, and the sniffling becoming more and more recurrent as the seconds passed by.
“Marcy…” Despite having told and reassured Marcy that she wasn’t the useless weakling she believed herself to be, the smaller girl still carried that notion strongly in her mind, which made Anne not only pity her friend, but trigger her compassionate, motherly instincts to comfort Marcy and continuously reassure her that none of it was true, and it would never will be, not as long as Marcy continued to push forth. And Anne was going to do exactly that, but another lucky gal had beat her to it.
Grabbing Marcy’s journal, Sasha, without warning gave his friend a light dab on the head using the journal’s spine, surprising both his two friends, and making Marcy wince at the minor pain in their head.
Once he got Marcy’s attention, Sasha gave a little insight of his own for the young Einstein to hear. “I’ve always hated it when people would talk shit about you or Anne, and you’re no exception Mars.” Despite their eyes being a tint of red, Marcy managed to look directly into those icy blue eyes that held a much more caring, nurturing nature behind them. “You’re honestly telling me that the all knowing, the detail attentive, the sharper than any blade in existence Marcy Regina Wu is a weakling? Geez Mars, ever considered taking up comedy for a career?” Sasha noticed the lost puppy look on Marcy's visage, and proceeded to continue speaking but in a softer tone, his eyes doing the same, as well as slowly removing the journal from its resting head on Marcy's head to Sasha's side. "I mean yeah, you couldn’t lift a 5 pound weight properly to save your life, but ya ain’t weak Mars.” Marcy would be lying to themselves, if that little comment on their physical strength didn’t jab just a bit, it was the truth though. “I could literally write a whole damn book on all your strengths and how they’ve saved our asses multiple times. Heck, it’ll probably make it as a New York Times best seller.”
Lifting up his friend’s journal and pointing at it, Sasha asked a bit sternly, “This journal is important to you isn't it?” Marcy nodded, and Sasha continued. “Then why are you making it seem as if you don’t even care what happens to it?”
Marcy returned her gaze to the ground, and contemplated her friend’s words, whose truth spoke louder than the bells of Notre Dame. Marcy had been jotting down notes from the world around her and drawing ever since she could remember;usually on her notebooks or really whatever piece of paper she had in hand, it wasn’t until her parents gifted her a modern leather journal, that still had a vintage look to it, with those smooth, cream colored pages that appealed to any eyes, and the black thin lines covering the pages, awaiting for that one lucky individual to fill them with endless, continuous strokes of bountiful imagination, knowledge and emotion. Receiving that journal was one of the best things that ever happened to Marcy, she had written and drawn so much in that journal, written so many memories, both good and bad;that journal was someone she could secretly vent to without the worry of ridicule, it always there when she needed some sort of closure, Marcy cherished that journal like a dear close friend.
A few trickles of tears followed suit like the ones from a few minutes ago, making the damp trails on Marcy’s cheeks freshly saturated once more. The chess player let her true feelings sink in, one by one, and it hurt so, so much;Marcy didn’t want her journal to be taken away, she didn’t want anymore of the pages from her journal torn, she didn’t want anything else to happen to it, she didn’t want to have to get another one, she just wanted her journal back more than anything, and it was, right here, right now, returned to her in one piece and safely in Sasha’s hand, which made the painful truth a little more tolerable.
During their emotional reflection, Marcy felt a sensation on their head that radiated a familiar warmth that surprised them a bit, though it was the words that came with that soft touch that really shook the young gamer. “Sorry.” Marcy’s eyes blinked the last set of tears, and slowly looked up to see Sasha had rested the back of his half open hand on their head, but also witnessed a saddened look on their friend’s face, a bit of a rare sight, but still beautiful nonetheless. “Sorry for being selfish and making you worry Mars. I was just so fucking pissed about what that bastard did to you, but that still doesn't excuse what I did, next time I'll let the authorities handle it properly. But.." Sasha opened his resting hand completely and turned it with his palm now directly touching those jet black strands of hair. "...don't blame yourself for something that wasn't even your fault. Cameron's just a fucking prick and you had some unfortunate luck, that's all. And hold up your head high girlfriend, you tried your damn hardest to stand up for yourself against that asshole, which is pretty admirable all in itself, especially considering no one else did, you were the first one to do that. Yeah, you couldn't completely stop him, but you still fought back even though you were scared, you still pushed forward despite everything else." Sasha gently rubbed his hand on his friend's soft kitten-like hair, helping the flexible athlete accentuate his next few words. "That's something you should be proud of, Marcy."
Once certain words were said, Sasha left the comforting, black locks of hair and instead, placed her hand on her hip, arrogantly, yet still carrying a pinch of care vocalizing, “And also, yeah I fucked up and all, but do have a little more faith in Anne and me, Mars. We can handle ourselves, and a piece of shit like Cameron is nothing for us. We’re best friends for crying out loud, we pick each other up, we listen to each other, we support each other, we do all the stuff friends are supposed to do.” Smiling now more caringly, than cocky, Sasha looked directly into those now pink tinted, loveable brown eyes and finished with, “So next time you have a problem, don’t be afraid to talk to us about it, cause we’re in this together. Got it nerd?”
If Marcy wasn’t at a loss for words, they definitely were now upon listening to Sasha’s apologetic, and caring talk. Anne had told them similar words yesterday, and it definitely helped Marcy tremendously in taking the necessary next steps that led them to where they were standing today; but now hearing such words kind, forgiving, loving words escape the lips of such a tough individual, with an even more more intimidating demeanor, who happened to also be one of their best friends created such an inexplicable warmth in their heart, that it was just too much for Marcy to contain for themselves. So they did the only logical thing they could do.
Having a few mild tears forming from the corners of her eyes, Marcy lunged herself with open arms toward Sasha, embracing her tightly like a child having missed their mother for so long, and said in a muffled voice, “Thanks Sashy.”
Quite surprised by Marcy’s actions, more so by his special little nickname being vocalized, Sasha patted the chess player head and back, returning the gesture awkwardly. “All right, all right Mars.” expressed the resilient athlete, though not without the accompaniment of a faint strawberry blush on his fair skin, which definitely did not go unnoticed by Anne. Having his turned his head a bit, Sasha noticed the smirk on the young jock, to which he made a scary looking face that said “ Say anything to Marcy and I’ll kill you Boonchuy. ”;Anne of course complied, but not without having a couple of giggles, leaving Sasha blush becoming a little more visually apparent.
Clearing her throat to try and relieve the awkwardness within herself, and the strawberry blush on her cheeks, Sasha patted Marcy’s shoulder, telling them that it was time to end the loving embrace. “Okay well Mars, um here’s your journal, again.” Sasha said with a forced small chuckle.
Marcy happily received the journal, her journal that meant the world to her, and held it to her chest, all whilst smiling and letting a few happy tears trail their way down her marshmallow like soft cheeks, as she vocalized her gratitude once more to the two people that meant the world to her, and even beyond that. “Thanks Sasha, again. You too Anne. Both of you guys, thank you so much for everything.”
“Aw Marcy, c’mon you’re going to make me cry too.” Whimpering a bit already, Anne got up and wasted no time in tightly embracing her smaller friend;looking over to her blonde friend, Anne spoke with her eyes, encouraging Sasha to complete the embrace. Rolling her eyes in a friendly way, Sasha walked over and did just that, completing the hug trinity, and Marcy simply stood there, smiling contently, basking in every second of the warm embrace, and being ever so grateful for these two awesome people, who she was proud to call her best friends.
After a few much needed seconds of comforting feelings, Sasha broke the hug with a question for the hug receiver. “Hey Mars, you still have that super saiyan drawing you did of Anne?”
“Uh yeah, why?”
Walking back to the three chairs, Sasha took her seat and replied casually, “Cause I wanna see it, duh.”
Both friends followed suit, and made themselves comfortable in the chairs alongside their friend. Marcy reached down to her backpack, unzipping and safely placing her journal away, Marcy reluctantly pulled out the drawing, though not without giving her eager friend a small warning. “It’s…it’s not in the best condition, Sash.”
Noticing the rather saddened tone and look in her friend, Sasha countered those words of uncertainty, rather proudly. “Yeah I know. But I’m sure it’s still one hell of a drawing, and besides, I made sure Cameron paid the price for tearing up your drawing like that.”
“Sasha, I thought you said you didn’t physically harm him!” The saddened mood being no longer present, but instead replaced by a rather more worried mood, as Marcy vocalized her response to the graffiti artist’s own.
“And I swear to my Harry Styles Fine Line album that I didn’t, but I doubt that trip down the stairs didn’t knock a tooth or two.” A notable smug that could be seen a mile away, was on the cheerleader’s visage as he made that statement, though on the two best friends beside him, their reactions were rather different.
Handing over the drawing to their friend, Sasha opened up the two neatly folded pieces of paper and couldn’t help but whistle upon seeing her friend’s drawing, showing that she was quite thoroughly impressed at the artwork. “Damn Marbles, this is fucking dope! How long did it take you to finish this piece?” Sasha asked without taking her eyes off the drawing, admiring and studying every detailed stroke made on the two pieces of paper.
“Well I didn’t finish it all in one setting, but if I did, it probably would have taken approximately an hour and thirty minutes, max two hours at best.” Marcy couldn’t help but smile a bit as she witnessed Sasha being in complete awe of her art work, despite the state of it;though there was a question that still lingered in the young gamer’s mind, one that was strong enough to temporarily wipe away Marcy’s smile.
“Sasha…are you sure Cameron isn’t going to tell anybody?” Marcy didn’t know too much about Cameron as a person, but if there was one thing they did know about the golf player was that he loved causing trouble for others, either by using his own bare hands to do so, which was his personal favorite way to do it, or through the usage of someone else, more so an authority figure, and Sasha was no exception.
Taking a few more looks at the drawing, Sasha responded to Marcy’s question, only her smile didn’t disappear. “Trust me Mars, he won’t be telling a single soul, he’s smarter than that. And if he does peep, then I’ll be mature about it and own up to my mistakes.”
Sasha didn’t seem to care whether or not she got in trouble for interrogating Cameron, but both Marcy and Anne did care, a lot. They didn’t want their friend getting suspended or worse, if Sasha had kept her cool just a little longer, both friends wouldn’t have to worry about ever seeing their friend again;though they had to consider themselves lucky that Sasha didn’t catechize the middle schooler with her fists, really Cameron was lucky enough to be alive. And while the skateboarder claimed to have not touched her peer whatsoever, his bruises said so otherwise, which were not going to play in the trio’s favor.
Having sensed the dark clouds trying to loom over Marcy, Sasha once again made haste to make a little sly comment that would soon blow those dark clouds away. “Also Mars, if he bothers you again, let me know and the next time he goes swimming, I’ll make sure to throw in a bag or two of piranhas to join him in his little swim.” Sasha stated, with a playful, yet bone chilling smile.
“Sasha!”
“Sasha!”
“Aw, c’mon you guys! I’ll be doing the world a favor, people like Cameron shouldn’t be allowed to procreate.” Sasha was then thrown a scrunched up paper ball by Anne on the head, followed by Marcy nudging her on the arm, upon hearing such imprudent, yet truthful reasoning.
Some much needed friendly laughter was dispersed amongst the three friends during their little antics. They were just going to have to hope for the best possible outcome from this point out, and a speedy recovery for Cameron;despite the boy’s cruelty towards others and Marcy, she wasn’t one to wish death or really any kind of harm upon others.
Having seen his fair share of the art, Sasha returned the paper to its original folded state and to its rightful creator, but not without requesting them a favor. “Hey Mars, mind if I request a similar commission from you?”
“Really?” Marcy asked with notable small sparkles in their eyes, which not only told Sasha her friend was more than eager to get started on it, but that she probably already had the idea of drawing Sasha Waybright in a super saiyan form waiting patiently in that imaginative mind of hers.
“Yeah, and I’ll pay you handsomely.”
Giving Sasha’s response some thinking, Marcy replied with, “How about instead with the typical greens, you buy me a custom made switch controller?”
Sasha knew the prices of such controllers were not a cheap one, but it was only fair after worrying Marcy like that. With a sigh, Sasha smiled and affirmed her answer, making Marcy one pleased nerd.
Well there goes my allowance for the month.
The three girls spent a few more minutes of casual teenage chat amongst each other, until the door that led them inside the waiting room opened up, letting inside a satisfied authority figure in a navy blue. Surprised to see the third of the trio in the waiting room as well, Principal Murphy gave her greetings to the teenager. “Ah, Sasha didn’t expect your visit as well. Welcome, no arson acts lately?”
Smiling innocently, Sasha responded with, “Sup Ms.Murph, I’m afraid not. Nothing as of late has been worthy enough to be embraced by the warm, yet delicate beauty that is fire.”
While the authority figure laughed it off, Anne and Marcy coincidentally thought to themselves that Cameron really was one lucky fellow.
“Well then, Marcy, Anne, why don’t you two step into my office and let’s talk about the situation you guys have going on. Miss Waybright, will you be joining us?”
“Oh no Miss, I’m just here as the third wheel, that’s all.” Sasha felt the annoyed, blushing gaze Anne was making her way, which only really only fueled that mischievous smile of cheerleader’s.
Not giving too much thought on her student's response, Principal Murphy opened up the door to her office but before she could let the two girls inside, the young principal ordered her students to wait where they sat for a just one more minute, as her office was a bit of a mess and couldn't dream of allowing her students or really anyone who entered her office to have to witness, much less endure such a clutter.
The three friends simply stared in the direction of the ajar wooden door without really "looking" at the door. Marcy then broke the silence with words soft enough for only the two people at their sides to be able to hear. "This is really happening, isn't it?" they asked, still quite in a state of disbelief, but a smile was present with that question, which only served as relief for the two friends sitting beside them.
“It is Marcy.” Anne concurred, carrying a proud smile of her own.
“How are you feeling?” Sasha asked, curious to know their state of mind, having been through so much cruel distress, to now, being in a place where all that mental agony was soon to be a thing of the past.
Taking a small breath in and one out, Marcy responded, “I’m feeling pretty good, a little tired, but for the most part, good. Thanks to you guys.”
“Hey, give yourself a little credit at least, Marcy.” While Anne very much appreciated the multiple thanks Marcy was giving to both her and Sasha, the Thai girl did feel a bit guilty at the fact that her friend wasn’t acknowledging their worth in all this. “Yeah, we helped you get up and walk, but you were the one who chose to continue walking, so really Marcy, you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you…if that makes any sense.” Anne chuckled at her own wording, it definitely sounded better in her head.
“Well, if you want to get technical, then yes Anne, I technically am here because I chose to keep walking, buuuut if it wasn't for you I still would’ve kept quiet about Cameron, and be nowhere near to where I’m sitting right now.” Marcy gave Anne that famous intellectual look, helping stress her point better, which the young jock always loved to see. “You made me feel comfortable and safe enough to confess to you about everything, you helped me work up the courage to comply with coming here and telling Principal Murphy about Cameron, you were the one that showed me my worth and strength. So really Anne, it was all you.”
Instead of a blush appearing, a smart little smirk made it’s onto Anne’s visage, and with a vocal response following right after. “Weeeeeeell, technically Marcy, I probably wouldn’t have done all that if Sasha hadn’t encouraged me to do so.” Marcy was a little taken aback at Anne’s comeback, not expecting to hear Sasha’s name in all of this. “So really Marcy, none of us would be sitting here right now if it weren’t for that scary cheerleader next you.”
“Ha ha, very funny Boonchuy.” Sasha said sarcastically, and Anne in response, partially stuck out her tongue in a teasing manner.
“Did you really Sasha?” Marcy knew Sasha cared about her to the end of the world and back, but it was always a bit surprising to hear such caring, thoughtful acts being done by the badass and aloof individual that was Sasha Waybright, and it was always fun to tease her about it too.
With a tired sigh and her hands in the air, like a criminal getting caught red-handed, Sasha responded, “Guilty as charged.”
“Aw Sashy, you do care!” Marcy further expressed her gratitude and teasing nature by leaning her head on the graffiti artist's shoulder, provoking a notable sheepish blush to form on their visage, which only served as fuel for the nerd and a welcoming invitation to the jock to join in on the fun.
After a whole minute of playful teasing on Sasha’s out of character mellow persona, Principle Murphy casually opened her office door wide as she finished making a call on her personal phone. “All right girls, my office is done and I’m ready to hear you out, but I did get a call from Mrs.Richmond telling me she does need a hand or two in bringing back some important paperwork from her car back to her office.”
“I’ll go Miss, I could use some fresh air.” Sasha’s immediate response generated a few giggles from her two friends, seeing as how red she had gotten, which was definitely not from there being a lack of AC in the room.
“All right then, Marcy, Anne, please take a seat inside my office and we’ll begin.” Not paying too much attention to the obvious blush on her cheerleading student, Principal Murphy stood to the side, holding the door handle, waiting patiently for her two students to make their way inside her office.
Both Anne and Marcy stood at their principal’s instruction, but the chess player vocalized a few words before both friends took a step. “Actually Principal Murphy, it’ll just be me talking to you. Anne’s going to help Mrs.Richmond bring the paperwork as well.”
Not at all dazed by her genius student’s words, the young woman replied, “Very well.” Though the same couldn’t be said for the other two students, more so the curly haired one.
Anne trusted Marcy more than anything in this world, and she truly believed her friend was a strong individual in their own right, if she didn’t, then there would have been no point in giving Marcy all that motivating speech talk. But Anne’s motherly side was hesitant to let Marcy go alone, it’s not that she didn’t trust, nor believe in her friend to go about confessing to Principal Murphy about Cameron’s abusive acts, it’s just…Anne wanted to be there, right next to Marcy, ready to catch them and help them back, if needed be. Anne wasn’t ready for her little birdie to leave the nest and start flapping their wings, not just yet…but…
“Marcy, are you sure about this?” Anne asked genuinely worried.
Grabbing Anne’s left hand with both her own small hands, Marcy told her dear friend, in probably one of the most comforting tones the tennis player had ever heard in her young teenage life, “Yeah Anne, I can do this. I know I’ll be in a safe space with Principal Murphy and I know you and Sash will be here waiting for me once I’m done talking.”
But Anne trusted Marcy more than anything, and right now, this loveable nerd in front of her was proving just how strong those small wings of theirs really were.
Anne placed her free hand atop those fairly tiny, yet much abled hands she had come to love so much over the years, and held on firmly, as she looked at her dear friend in those neverending curious eyes of theirs and said, “Okay. We’ll go help and we’ll be back here waiting for you Mars.”
Marcy nodded in confirmation to her friend’s response, and was given yet another hug by the young chef, making it her third hug in a row today, well five really, if you were to count the ones given to her by each of her parents this morning before she had left for school. Marcy naturally returned the hug to her dear friend, hugging tightly, encouraging Anne to do the same, and earning some soft, understanding smiles from Sasha and Principal Murphy.
Anne and Marcy finish their embrace, but before physically departing completely, the high fantasy lover keeps her hands resting on her friend’s shoulders wanting to enjoy the loving warmth radiating off Anne a little longer, looking to both her friends and telling them “See you guys soon.”
Sasha gives Marcy a little salute with her index and middle finger, indicating similar words and heads outside the waiting room.
Knowing very well Anne has to accompany Sasha, Marcy forces her hands to rest on her backpack straps instead, and lets her friend walk away from her.
Watching her two best friends leave without her did make Marcy a little sad, but she knew everything was going to be alright from here on out.
Having sensed the little bit of melancholy, Anne being Anne, stopped the door from closing and poked her head through its opening, happily waving one last bye to Marcy. A few giggles were provoked at the unexpected action and a similar action was done by the receiver, only theirs was a little more tamed. And just like that, Anne pulled her body outwards and let the door close on a gentle note.
During the few seconds of Marcy’s doting gazing in the direction of where Anne once was, Principle Murphy said out loud with a smile, “You’re quite lucky Miss Wu. Not many get to have such true, good friends at such an early stage in their lives.”
Walking towards their principal’s office, Marcy turned to look at the closed door one more time, her heart feeling so complete and warm, as they thought about the true meaning behind those spoken words from their principal. “I really do.”
Once Marcy made their way inside and made herself comfortable on one of the chairs that faced the woman’s desk, Principal Murphy closed the door behind them, made her way to her desk and sat upon her well cushioned chair. “Now then Marcy, what is it I can help you with today?” asking as she pulled her chair a little closer to her desk.
Taking off their backpack and placing it on the empty chair beside them, Marcy took a notable breath in and a breath out, before speaking the words that would change a part of their life for the better. “Well Principal Murphy, I…I’ve been having some issues lately.”
“Issues you say?” The authority figure remained attentive to every word Marcy said, but she made sure to keep her tone at a compassionate level, as her knowledgeable student seemed a bit nervous with telling her this information.
“Yes, well…” It’s okay, everything’s going to be okay, you’re safe here. “...I’ve been having issues with somebody. Somebody in the school.”
Inside her mind, the middle school chief was a tad bit surprised at her student’s response, but she remained a neutral composure, not wanting to alarm her student in any way. Principal Murphy kept her as it was, and leaned back against her cushioned office chair, as not only did she want to kill any possible tension in the room, but she wanted to get comfortable, as she felt that their talk was going to be a rather long one, not that she minded. “Tell me more Marcy.”
~~~
Anne stared at the now closed door fairly dismally, but at the same time she stared at the door quite contently; her friend had overcome so much and they continued to do so right behind that door, well the two doors if you wanted to get technical. Though her happy thoughts were soon interrupted by an amused voice.
“Yo, Earth to Boonchuy! That’s a nice door and all, but we got a middle aged woman that needs our help carrying some paperwork back to her office!” Sasha vocalized rather loudly, as she was a few feet away from Anne.
Getting out of her little trance, the DDR lover quickly made her way towards her friend. “Sorry about that Sash, I’m just-”
“Yeah I know. But still, you looked like a doting parent dropping off their kid at preschool for the first time.” Sasha stated jokingly at Anne who was now walking alongside her.
Anne couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment, she really had nothing to worry about, but somehow her motherly side, as her friends like to call it, just wouldn’t allow her to be completely worry free of Marcy. Guess now she could understand how her mother felt at times.
“Soooo, I’m guessing you never confessed to Mar Mar about your undying love towards them?” Aside from not wanting to have to walk in silence to the school parking lot, Sasha did want to get back at Anne for teaming up with Marcy for making him a flustered mess back in the waiting room. Since the adorable nerd was currently unavailable, he would have to work with what was currently available to him.
Expecting to hear some sort of embarrassed babbling, Sasha was surprised to hear nothing, what was even more shocking was the fact that there wasn’t a single sign of a red-faced expression on the girl’s face when Sasha had turned her head to inspect the silence;but instead, the cheerleader witnessed a soft smile, accompanied by an even softer expression on her friend’s face. Assuming Anne was still in her little Marcy trance from before, Sasha proceeded to repeat herself at a much more audible volume, only to be stopped by the response to her question.
“After everything we went through yesterday, nah.” Looking forward at a slightly upward angle without really “looking” at anything, Anne kept that soft smile of hers as she further explained herself. “Well aside from it not being an appropriate time, I realized that what Marcy and I have is pretty damn strong. I mean, yesterday Mary confessed something really huge to me, and that took so much courage and strength from her, I mean yeah I helped, but in the end it was all Mars.” Anne unconsciously stopped walking, Sasha unsure as to why the sudden pause in her friend's steps didn’t bother questioning it, instead she stopped as well and continued to listen. “Marcy was downright terrified to tell us anything, because she was scared that we were going to look down on her, she was scared things were gonna change between us. But it didn’t, cause all I cared about was helping Marcy, I didn’t want to see her in pain anymore, I just wanted to see her happy again, and she obviously wanted the same. So we talked, worked it out and here we are, still the best friends we’ve always been.” Turning herself to face Sasha, Anne finished with, “Our confessions are different, but they’re built on the same kind of worry. Marcy trusted me to not see her any different, and I’m trusting her to do the same. Cause if what we went through doesn’t prove how strong of a friendship we got, then I don’t know what will.”
Sasha went from listening and watching her friend in awe, to giving a satisfied sigh and wearing a smile of her own. “Whatever you say Boonchuy, but just don’t keep them waiting too long.” Sasha continued walking towards their set destination, with Anne following suite beside her.
“Hey, you’re the one who told me to take things slow.” Anne retorted jokingly.
“I know, but I’m just saying.” Deciding to give his arms a good upward stretch, Sasha continued his defensive claim as he walked, with his hands now being behind his head. “The school dance is coming up and you know exactly what that means. A whole lot of surprise promposals.”
The school dance would be happening right after finals, which weren’t that far away either. So students everywhere were probably already decorating their large promposals posters, and planning out how they would prompose to their dance invites. And while quite the amount of people who participated in promposing were friends and already set lovers, there was a good chunk of folks who used the end of the school year dance as an opportunity to not only ask someone out, but to confess their secret crush on them, which always turned out be a big surprise to the folks of the receiving end, it wasn’t called a ‘secret crush’ for nothing. Which could only mean heartbreak for Anne, she was planning on confessing to Marcy, but not in a couple of weeks! Heck, she wasn’t even planning on confessing to Marcy for the school dance, they trio did do surprise promposals to each other, but always in a platonic sense and always in an unexpected manner in order to keep the surprise element to the activity alive;and this year, it Anne and Sasha’s turn to prompose to Marcy, which they hadn’t even discussed on how exactly they were going to go about it, only that it was going to take place in the arcade, but that was it! Given everything that happened with Marcy, not to mention finals being right around the corner, how could promposing be on their minds?! Regardless, Anne had no clue as to who else could possibly be crushing on Marcy, it could literally be anyone, from someone on the football team, to someone in her chess club, or someone in her zero period, literally anyone!!! Not being able to figure out who was her best friend’s possible secret admirer, who could potentially steal the only opportunity Anne had to confess her feelings towards Marcy, just served as unwanted stress fuel for the theater hater.
Seeing Anne get so worked up like this had the graffiti artist happily laughing to herself, but despite her amusement, Sasha still didn’t have what she wanted, so proceeded with her playful cruelty. “Though if I remember correctly, it’s actually someone on the cheer team that has been eyeing Marcy.” Sasha said so casually, lowering her arms and with her index finger pointing upwards like she had discovered some new fact about something.
“A-ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Anne practically screamed across the hallway upon hearing this new revelation, gathering the attention of a few nearby students.
Not paying too much heed towards Anne’s drastic reaction, Sasha claimed so innocently, “Yeah, told me she’s been crushing on Marbles for a while now, and that she’s going to prompose to them a few days before finals week, like on the Friday of the week before finals week to be exact at the arcade near the pizza shop.”
And this mysterious person was going to not only planning to execute their promposal on a Friday, which is the day the trio always chose to prompose to one another, but at one of their favorite hangouts that also happened to be the same location where Anne and Sasha were going to prompose to their best friend. They had chosen the arcade for a reason, the trio had made so many memories there, both good and bad, and the pizza next door was honestly the best pizza in all of LA, the girls loved to grab a whole large box of pizza, sometimes even arguing back and forth on whether or not their pizza should have pineapple on it or not. That arcade was like a second home to them, a place where they found not only fun, but comfort as well, it was a place where they could momentarily forget their troubles and just revel in beating set high scores, eating pizza until they were full, and just enjoying each others company to the fullest. But now this random ass cheerleader just waltzed into the picture and decided to just take everything! She couldn’t just do that, she shouldn’t be doing this, she’s ruining everything!!!
A few seconds in, did Anne realize just how childish and selfish she was sounding, causing an embarrassed blush to form on her cheeks. How could she be thinking like this? Yes, her crush on Marcy was bigger than any brighter star that existed in the cosmos, but so did other people;there were going to be other people in Marcy’s life that would feel these exact same strong, passionate feelings Anne felt for that for adorable little nerd, and as much as it pained to see Marcy with someone else, who was she to decide who Marcy ended up with, if they even cared about that kind of stuff in the first place. Anne didn’t even know if Marcy was even interested in pursuing a romantic relationship at all, yes they had shown enthusiasm in these kinds of relationships when it came to their shipping, but shipping and having the want for an actual romantic relationship with folks were two very different interests.
Sasha could tell just by the vibe Anne was giving off, that something was stressing her out much more than it should have, and that something wasn’t the fact that someone else was crushing on Marcy, so the skateboarder decided to bring it back and continue towards his goal. “I can’t tell you who exactly this mysterious cheerleader is, cause I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but I will say this. They’ve apparently known Marcy for a while now, almost as long as you have known her.”
Despite listening intently to every word Sasha did, all the cheerleader did was leave Anne in bewilderment, but then again Sasha wouldn’t have told her that bit of info, if he didn’t think Anne couldn’t figure it out, so the young cook began to grind her brain into gear on who exactly could fit the bill on being Marcy mysterious admirer.
Anne had to admit, she really wasn’t all that familiar with the people on Sasha’s cheer team, she would see them often when Marcy and her would wait for Sasha to finish up his cheer practice, wave them a couple of greetings, and have some idle talk with them here and there, but was Anne really friends with any of them? Not by a long shot. And if Anne wasn’t friends with them, there was much less of a chance Marcy was;Marcy had their own friend group and cheerleaders weren’t part of the picture, minus Sasha that is. But despite the lack of interaction between the nerd and cheerleaders, one of them must have known that the arcade was a frequent hangout place for Marcy, that and apparently both of them were long time friends, almost as long as Marcy and Anne had been friends, a friend that Anne had never heard of too.
This person was a cheerleader and a long time friend of Marcy’s, but not as long as with Anne, either way, it was most certain that she was close with her, because no one is friends for so long without becoming close, and she knew about Mars’s regular arcade hangout, who did Anne know that fit this kind of description.
A rather loud yawn from Sasha caught Anne’s attention, interrupting her thoughts a bit. Sasha seemed pretty tired, with faint bags under her eyes, aside from being captain of the cheerleaders, which meant always making sure her team was always bringing their A game to every practice, to ensure a proud victory, there were finals coming up and the issue with Marcy, so some notable drowsiness was to be expected from the cheerleader…cheerleader…Sasha was a cheerleader, the only cheerleader Marcy was friends with…and they were exceptionally close…they became close by knowing each other for so long…Marcy met Sasha after meeting Anne, because Anne introduced them to each other, and the arcade…Sash knew it was a special hangout for them, she knew…she fit those very descriptions she herself described so indifferently. But, no, no, it couldn’t be, this is Sasha Waybright we’re talking about, a popular cheerleader whose looks could immediately hook her a professional modeling job, which surprised Anne that Sasha hadn’t even done so;half the school had a crush on the poised blonde, someone like Sash wouldn’t be into people like Marcy…right?
Stopping in her tracks, though this time on purpose and to just really take in this new bit of information she was discovering, Anne hesitantly asked her friend the question that was burning in her mind in the few seconds she had of piecing the puzzle. “Sasha…is it you?”
Sasha stopped in his tracks as well, though he was now sharing some distance between himself and the young jock who carried a mind-boggling expression to her face, which the graffiti artist didn’t blame her for, considering the thoughts and good chunk of questions that were probably rolling in her mind.
Turning only his head to his right side, Sasha’s eyes locked on Anne, with an evident smirk forming, followed by a wink, giving Anne the answer she needed, and a layer of warmth to her cheeks.
With the redness on her cheeks now painting most of her face, Anne stuttered her words, trying to find the right ones, but before she could even form a single coherent word, Sasha made a run for their set destination, whilst calling out to Anne, “Last one to the parking lot has to buy us boba for the rest of week!” she yelled out, running with clear joy written all over her face, finally getting what she wanted from the younger friend.
“W-Wait, Sasha! Are you being for real or not?! What was that wink for?! SASHA!!!” Anne yelled out to her teasing friend, as she ran after her, not only wanting lucid answers, but also wanting to save her allowance for the month.