Chapter Text
Becky woke up the next morning feeling like all of the energy had been drained from her body, and couldn't for the life of her figure out why she felt so tired.
Then she saw the most recent text on her phone, and it all came flooding back to her.
Scoopsy: The digital paper is published!! And I’m going to school early to get the physical copies printed out
Scoopsy: I’m still not sure if it was the right choice to publish that article or not but I trust your decision
Scoopsy: :)
The first thing that left her mouth was an exasperated sigh at the whole situation as she tumbled out of bed. And proceeded to land directly on the floor.
This would be fine, she tried to convince herself as she slowly climbed up off of her bedroom floor. No one even read the school paper anyway, much to Scoops’ displeasure. A few people would notice at worst, and then this whole thing would be swept under the rug. Becky’s fears weren’t fully quelled, but she didn’t feel as worried as she’d expected to. Parts of the entire scenario still felt strange to her, and she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she had walked into a trap of sorts, but if everything truly was as it seemed to be? She could actually get to know Tobey as a friend without the whole evil genius thing getting in the way, in exchange for maybe a handful of people being under the impression of them dating. Perhaps she had walked herself directly into an obvious trap, but she supposed it was worth the risk regardless.
Becky threw on a sweatshirt and a pair of comfortable leggings. The sooner she got to school the better; The bitter curiosity of this stupid newspaper was eating her alive, and she wanted to see if anyone actually picked it up or cared about the news. If anyone were to have actually asked her she would have been insistent that no , she could not have cared less about this, but in reality she felt like a young child on Christmas Eve. She wondered if Tobey would pick up a copy, and, oh god , he was going to be insufferable about this, wasn’t he? She shared her first period with him, even having the displeasure of sitting directly next to him, and she wasn’t even sure how she would survive having to tolerate him today.
Well, she had been through worse. She had done this to herself by agreeing to this offer, so she didn’t really have much room to complain. Becky shoved her belongings into her cluttered backpack, and made her way out the door with a possibly misguided optimism. She was certain that she was overplaying this mentally, and that the topic of the paper would soon dissolve into a mere rumor that hardly anyone had even heard of. Whatever happened, it couldn’t be that bad.
…
Turns out, it was that bad. Worse, even.
Becky hadn’t even been at school for thirty minutes, and there had already been an announcement over the intercom begging students to stop crowding the library and that there were no more physical copies of the newspaper available. Gossip littered the hallways more than she could’ve ever anticipated, and the things she heard about herself and Tobey made her want to gag. Her phone buzzed repeatedly with messages from a very excited Scoops, but she only had the emotional energy to skim them. It was almost comical how overwhelming the response to the paper was, as if the universe had sensed her fears and decided to multiply them tenfold.
“Ohmygosh, No way! I totally shipped them when I was younger, my elementary school self is screaming right now.” A student gushed to her friends. Becky forced herself to keep walking, and desperately tried not to think about the fact that people actually shipped the two of them before this article even came out.
“Really? Him? I didn’t think she would stoop that low, but who am I to judge?” Another person commented. She held back her laughter.
“This totally isn’t fair!” Yet another girl whined. “She should’ve been with me! I’ll beat the shit out of him.” Oh. She might want to keep an eye out for her, actually. No one was allowed to beat up Tobey except for her, thank you very much.
“Hey, Becky!” Violet called out to her as the two noticed each other in the hall. Finally, someone she actually knew to help clear her head from all of this gossip. “Have you heard that—”
“That Tobey and Wordgirl are dating? Yes. I have.” She tried her very hardest not to let her annoyance leak through to her voice, but it looked to be an impossible task.
“Oh, are you sick of hearing about it too?” She nodded a little too quickly. “I’m glad I’m not the only one. I mean, it was so obvious already, I can’t believe people are acting this surprised.”
“Yeah, it hasn’t even been that long but it’s already annoyi— Wait, what?” Becky must have misheard her. Because there was no way that she had heard what she thought she had.
“I said it was really obvious already. You like Wordgirl too, right? You know what I’m talking about.” No, in fact, she did not know! She did not wish to know, to be perfectly honest! Becky had made the mistake of believing that this morning could not have gone any more poorly before even having to interact with Tobey, but it looked as if she was on a losing streak in regards to her predictions. Violet, really? Of all people? Her own best friend? She thought they had chemistry together before all of this? Becky had never felt so betrayed over something so miniscule and stupid.
It had to be some type of confirmation bias, clearly. At least she really, really hoped it was. Because the idea that people actually thought their interactions with each other were romantic was terrifying to her.
“Uh, no! I don’t think there’s any chemistry between them at all.” Becky argued. She wasn’t really in the mood to have a debate about her own romantic interests, but if that’s what it took to convince Violet then she was more than willing.
“Look.” Violet took out her own copy of the newspaper, flipped to one of the pages inside, and pointed to a photo. It was an old picture of the two of them in the library from a while back, looking at each other and talking about some book Tobey had picked out that she couldn’t quite remember. Her heart warmed up as she thought back on the moment fondly— it was one of the few times where she and Tobey had gotten to interact with each other as friends, and she still remembered that day as being one of her favorites. “This is a picture from about two years ago. See how they look at each other? Wordgirl looks at most villains like ‘ooh’ but she looks at him like ‘aah’” Violet looked up at her as if she was supposed to understand what that was supposed to mean. And the worst part was that she did, to an extent. If she removed all of her biases and looked closely enough, she could technically understand where she was coming from. They were looking lovingly at each other, as much as she very much so didn’t want to admit it.
“I guess.” She mumbled, defeatedly. She didn’t want to get overly defensive in fear of arousing suspicion, but she definitely didn’t want to just let this go. “I still think there is absolutely no chemistry between them though. Maybe that picture was completely platonic, we don’t really have a way of truly knowing.” Violet shrugged.
“Maybe. But still, I’m surprised everyone is so shocked. I still think it was pretty obvious.” Thankfully, Violet changed the subject before Becky had the chance to continue this even further. “I’m happy for them, though. I think they’re cute together.”
“Yeah.” Becky gritted her teeth and tried not to scream in frustration. “They’re cute. I guess.” The bell to signal that classes were about to start suddenly rang, saving Becky from having to continue this conversation any longer. The two parted ways with a wave, and Becky tried navigating her way to class while walking past the fewest number of people possible, but she still ran into far more people talking about their ‘relationship’ than she would have liked. The reactions she overheard were extremely varied, with the majority of people just being surprised at the news rather than having a definitive opinion. Becky supposed that was for the better— she’d rather have people have no feelings one way or the other than have a ton of people talking about how cute they were as a couple. Ew. Becky took a deep breath as she entered the classroom, mentally preparing herself for the most annoying encounter of her life. She knew that whatever amount of preparation she did would never be enough to fully get her ready for the horrors she was about to deal with, but hopefully it would at least make it less painful.
“…Oh, and that’s a picture from our first date.” Of course Tobey was already here, pointing out pictures of them from the paper as several people crowded around him. “Did you know that her favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate cherry? Not my personal favorite, but I’ve tried it for her sake.” Of course she knew that, but how did he? That aside, Becky had a growing urge to just turn around and leave. Was ditching one class really that big of a deal? She stood in the doorway, generally considering it for a brief moment, before her situation got even more unbearable.
“Ah, Becky!” He called her over with a smile on his face. “Have you heard the news?” If one more person asked her about this today, she was going to scream.
“Yeah, I did.” She wasn’t sure whether to smile or frown, so she just stared blankly. Tobey gave her a vague look of offense.
“Oh, so you’re just jealous. I see.” She barely managed to suppress her urge to scream. “Well, maybe if you were as kind as Wordgirl is, we wouldn't be in this situation. You should take a page out of her book.” The group of students around him snickered at her, and, wow, since when had people agreed with him?
“No, I’m just surprised that…” That Wordgirl would date you of all people. But that was too mean, even for Tobey. If she was going to be ‘dating’ him, she figured she should at least learn to be nicer to him. “I’m just surprised. Since, well, you two seem like opposites.” Becky pulled her laptop out of her backpack to get started on whatever assignment they had today, only to have accidentally screwed herself over as the photo of the newspaper cover she had opened last night covered her desktop. She closed out of the tab as quickly as she could, but the damage was already done.
“Are you sure you’re not just jealous?” Tobey leaned over at her and sneered.
“It’s not like I have much to be jealous of.” The little voice in the back of her head telling her to be nicer to him kicked in, and she added a hurried, “But, I mean, congrats. I guess.” Tobey didn’t look like he believed her in the slightest, which she didn’t exactly blame him for. Becky worried that her tone was coming across as thinly veiled envy, which was the exact opposite of what she wanted.
“Well, whatever. You’re not the one with a date tonight.” Becky rolled her eyes and turned back to the work on her laptop before the realization hit her.
“You and Wordgirl have a… date tonight?” Not if she had anything to say about it! It had been, what, an hour? And he was already lying about having a date planned? That was to have been expected from Tobey, to be honest, but Becky was impressed it had happened this quickly.
“Of course we do! It’s to celebrate our relationship finally being revealed to the public.” Now she was going to have to see him after school to get this all sorted out, wasn’t she? Wonderful. She had already planned to do so anyway in order to give him closure on the whole situation, but now she didn’t have a choice. Becky felt that she should have started regretting her decision to go along with his plan right about now, but she found herself not feeling anything of the sort. She didn’t even feel mildly annoyed, instead being filled with a strange sense of content. Sure, it was most likely for attention, but the thought that Tobey liked her enough to lie about having a date planned? It made her heart feel warm.
“Uh huh.” She knew she should’ve just kept her mouth shut, but she had to admit that she was morbidly curious. “And where are you two going?” Tobey froze, clearly not having anticipated the question.
“We, uh. Um.” He looked panicked, his eyes darting around the room until they locked with one of the dictionaries sitting on the class bookshelf. “Library! We’re going to the library to read. Because that’s what you do at a library.” Yep, seeing Tobey panicked was one of the best things in the world. Good to know. It was also good to know that she apparently had a library date planned for later today, though that didn’t actually sound too bad now that she thought about it. It reminded her of the time they had spent together two years ago in that photo Violet had showed her. Becky found herself looking forward to the event now, oddly enough, and smiled to herself as she planned it out mentally. What should she wear? Oh. Nevermind, she didn’t really have much of a choice. What about her hair? Oh, wait. Helmet. Well, that made this easier but a hell of a lot less fun. It was only when she noticed herself creating a notepad file entitled ‘tobey library date plans.txt’ that Becky realized what she was doing and stopped herself.
Wow, that was weird. She laughed quietly to herself, thankfully not being overheard due to the people crowding Tobey drowning her out. Was she really that desperate to go to the library that she had become overjoyed at the prospect of a date there that may or may not even happen? Wow, she really needed to invite Scoops and Violet there, then. She closed the notepad file, though deliberately choosing not to delete it, and silently waited for the bell to ring.
———
The rest of the day didn’t quite go as expected. As in, things didn’t manage to get even worse like she’d prepared herself for. Instead the day passed as normal, though with the same annoying gossip littering the hallways. Lunch was awkward, with Scoops and Violet agreeing with each other that Tobey and Wordgirl’s relationship was ‘really obvious,’ and Becky trying desperately to get them to talk about anything else, but other than that nothing else of note happened. Which was for the best, because Becky couldn’t have imagined how this whole situation could have possibly gotten worse.
The last bell of the day rang as Becky stared at the blank notepad document in front of her. She’d been thinking about it intermittently all day, but had yet to actually type anything in it. She felt embarrassed to even still have it in the first place, but her mind wouldn’t allow her to delete it. She had finally come to terms with the fact that, fine , she was excited to go to the library because she wanted to see Tobey. Because when he wasn’t annoying her to death or trying to destroy something, he was actually fairly nice to hang out with. She very much so did not want to admit it, but it’s not like he had to know that. She couldn’t let him, actually, because if he were to find out that she wasn’t totally despising his company his ego would grow to something even more unbearable.
The notepad doc stared at her. Her fingers lingered over the keyboard, but refused to actually type anything. She was stuck in a limbo of wanting to plan for the event, but not being able to actually type anything out. Partially because of the embarrassment that came with planning not only a fake date, but a fake date with Tobey. But the majority of it was an even worse type of embarrassment. An embarrassment that her plans wouldn’t be good enough, and it was so strong that her mind refused to let her actually plan anything out. Becky hated the way her brain worked sometimes, truly. It was Tobey, why was she so worried about whether or not this went perfectly? It was near physically impossible to embarrass herself in front of him. But her fingers still lingered aimlessly over the keys, refusing to just type something already.
This was probably for the best, now that she thought about it. Now the embarrassment of even doing this in the first place and the worry of her plans not being good enough could cancel each other out, and let her just stop thinking about this stupid thing all together.
Or at least that’s what she should have done. But her brain refused to just let it go, and her eyes stayed fixated on the blinding white of the empty notepad file.
“Becky?” A voice called out to her. She immediately snapped back to reality, and she jumped.
“Huh?” She looked over and noticed Scoops staring at her with a concerned expression. There was a distinct lack of anyone else in the classroom too, now that she looked around. That was worrying, to say the least.
“The bell rang. Are you okay? You’ve been staring at that empty page for a while now. Ooh, do you need help with that essay for English?” He peered over to her laptop. “I can hel—” Becky unintentionally cut him off as she slammed her laptop shut before he could see anything. It wasn’t like there was much to see, but she would quite honestly rather die than have to explain why she had an open file named ‘tobey library date plans.txt.’
“Oohkay then?” He sounded suspicious, but thankfully didn’t press any further. “I’m gonna get going to the library. I bumped up my planned interview date with Wordgirl to today because of the success of the paper, and I still need to plan out all of my interview questions.” Becky immediately slammed her head down on the desk with a frustrated groan. “Becky?” She heard him call out, but she was too busy wallowing in the consequences of her own poor decisions.
Now she apparently had an interview to attend, as well as the library date she’d been worrying about all day. Becky wasn’t sure what deity she’d pissed off to cause all of this to happen, but she mentally apologized to them for whatever she had done.
“Becks, are you okay? You’ve been acting really weird since yesterday.” As much as she wanted to continue her pity party, she didn’t want to arouse suspicion. Becky lifted her head up from the desk and plastered on a faint smile.
“I’m alright, just a little sick.” She certainly was sick of something, alright. “Thanks, though. I appreciate it.” She stood up and gathered her things into her backpack, unsure if she was actually excited to go home or not.
“Okay, I’m glad. I was worried it was something I had done.” Oh, if only he knew.
“No, you’re fine.” They made their way out of the classroom and started walking to the exit. Becky figured it was as good a time as any to start digging for information about the alleged interview she was supposed to have today. “I’m surprised you got an interview arranged with Wordgirl so soon after yesterday. I mean, don’t you think she’s a bit tired and busy and annoyed to death from the gossip from today?” She had to bite her lip to prevent any more of her bitterness from leaking through.
“I’m not entirely sure if it’s happening today, actually. I sent her a video message before school today but she hasn’t gotten back to me yet. I just assumed she’d agree though, because she always makes time for me the same day I message her. It’s weird, but it makes me feel special.” Aww, it felt nice to be appreciated like that. And just like that, her option of simply not attending the interview evaporated into thin air, because there was no way she could disappoint Scoops like that.
“Yeah, I bet she will.” And the interview taking place today likely meant there would be another edition of the newspaper going up tomorrow, didn’t it? So she would have to relive through the same experiences she had gone through today once again tomorrow. Wonderful.
“I have a feeling it’ll go well, especially because of the date she has tonight. Tobey’s been telling the whole school about it.”
“Of course he has.” That wasn’t actually a surprise— it would’ve been more shocking if he hadn’t managed to blab about it to the entire school already.
“Oh, here’s the library.” Scoops walked to the door and waved at her. “Do you want me to send you the article when I’m finished writing it? It’s totally last minute, so I understand if you can’t preview it this time.” Becky smiled.
“Yeah, of course I’ll read it.” Scoops smiled back at her, and she added a bullet point to her mental list of reasons she had made the right decision. Because if the article made Scoops this happy, she couldn’t have made all that bad of a choice, right? He quickly disappeared into the library, and Becky waited until the door fully shut before she brought her backpack to her face and screamed in frustration.