Chapter Text
“So, Vi. I think it’s about time we got you a girlfriend.”
Violet’s eyes darted up from her homework to Louis sitting across from her, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head, looking smug as hell. “Excuse me?”
“I just think you’ve done enough sad sulking on your own, y’know? Scratching swear words into the school’s property in class and doing graffiti on the walls outside. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone’s name to scratch into your table? Or someone to keep watch while you do graffiti?”
“Fuck off, Louis,” Violet snapped, shaking her head and returning her attention to the essay questions for English in front of her.
“Aw, c’mon, Vi,” Ruby said persuasively from her seat next to Violet. Glancing out from the corner of her eye, Violet saw her smiling encouragingly. “I think it’d be good for you! Get out a bit, have some fun…”
“Oh, so I need a girlfriend to have fun, but neither of you need a girlfriend or a boyfriend to do the same?”
“No, we don’t,” Louis replied. “We have our natural charm. You’re not exactly a ‘people person’ – and you said that yourself, don’t bite my head off – so you need a little help. And that’s what we’re here for, obviously!”
Violet groaned, rolling her eyes exasperatedly and putting down her pencil in defeat. “All right, fine, fuck it,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “If I do it, will the two of you stop bothering me about dating?”
Louis and Ruby shared a quick look, Louis still smiling deviously. “Sure.”
Violet took a deep breath. “Okay. God, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I don’t even know who I’d… choose.”
“Look no further, because we already chose someone.”
“Guess I should’ve seen that coming.” Violet put on a mock smile and tilted her head to the side. “All right, Louis, who did you choose?”
Louis leaned in over the table conspiratorially, glancing around the room to make sure the lucky elect wasn’t around, and said in a low voice: “Clementine Everett.”
---------------
The sharp sound of bats striking balls rung in Violet’s ears as she stood by the exit to the baseball field, waiting for practice to be over. Louis had insisted that Violet ask Clementine out as soon as humanly possible, which was that same afternoon after baseball practice. Ruby had tried to argue why they should give Violet a few days, at least, but Louis had been very insistent, saying that the ‘cogs had already been set in motion’, whatever that was supposed to mean.
Now Violet was watching the team in pairs on the field, pitching to each other and swinging their bats around, and she regretted every decision in her life that had led to this moment. Clementine was well-liked among nearly everyone at Ericson High – talkative, outgoing, friendly, all the good traits – while Violet had less-than-gracefully established herself as a black sheep, rarely participating in social events, only talking to the few friends she did have, and, as Louis had mentioned, destroying or defacing school property. She silently cursed herself for agreeing to let him set her up, knowing full well that Ruby was only along for the amusement. For once in his life, Louis was the brains behind the operation.
The wrap-up of practice came a lot sooner than Violet had hoped, leaving her with little time to prepare. Soon, a line of students dressed in blue and white baseball jerseys, pants and caps passed by Violet on the way to the locker rooms, excitedly talking amongst themselves about the lesson. Violet wasn’t sure why Clementine’s team, the Ericson Echidnas, needed any kind of practice. As far as she knew, they won all their games, probably due to the fact that their coach was none other than Javier García, famous pro baseball player retired to the simple life as a high school teacher and coach. Violet had never cared much for sports, but Mr García was “important” and it was “an honour” to be taught by him, apparently.
He was approaching now alongside Clementine, who was speaking animatedly about strategies and the team’s progress. She was clearly excited and smiled from ear to ear as she walked with her bat resting on her right shoulder, and Violet could already feel her face growing hot at the prospect of asking someone as… lively as her out.
“Uh… Clementine?” Violet’s voice was little more than a mumble, and for a second she hoped that Clementine wouldn’t hear her and pass her by, so that Violet could tell Louis that her offer had been declined. But Clementine’s amber eyes fixed on her as soon as the name had left her lips, and Violet knew she was done for. She could already imagine the ridicule when word would go around that Violet, the lesbian, had asked Clementine out on a date.
Clementine thanked Mr García for a good lesson and remained behind by the exit to the field, standing in front of Violet. “Hey, are you Violet?”
Everything Violet had been planning to say was immediately snuffed out. “… Yeah?”
“Louis talked to me. He said that a girl named Violet would meet me today to ask me out?”
Violet waited for the disgusted sneer or the furrowed brow, but none came. If Clementine were feeling anything other than mild confusion, she hid it well.
“Yeah. I guess I’m that girl.” Violet sighed and ran a hand over her face. “Look, it’s my dumb fucking friends trying to set me up with someone. I don’t think they’d let me go with just one date, so if we could just… hang out a few times, tell them we’re… taking things slow or some shit, and then pretend to ‘break up’ so they’ll stop bothering me, it’d be… it’d be great.”
Clementine simply nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, sure.” Then she put a hand in her pocket and retrieved her cell phone. “Here, can you write your number into my phone so I can text you?”
Whatever reaction Violet had expected, that wasn’t it. A polite ‘you seem nice, but I have a lot on my plate lately’ at best, a repulsed ‘get away from me, you dyke’ at worst. ‘Yeah, sure’ was not and had never been on Violet’s mental list of possible responses to her asking someone out. She put it down to Clementine just being nice and wanting to help out, but she was still so shaken she almost forgot what her own phone number was.
“Cool,” Clementine said as she took her phone back. “I’ll text you and we can figure something out, yeah?”
“Y—Yeah. Okay,” Violet mumbled. Clementine shot her a friendly smile and then left for the locker rooms.
Violet stood completely still, eyes resting on Clementine’s back as she disappeared inside. She wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, or whether it was good or bad, but soon she would have her first fake date with Clementine Everett.