Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Of all the things Whitley expected to hear a week before the school year started, hearing that her family was moving was not one of them. She’d been completely taken aback when her parents announced it. As far as she knew, her parents didn’t have any plans of uprooting their daughter yet again. But there she was, staring at the building that was her new school. She didn't have the chance to meet anyone because of the moving process, and this school was considerably bigger than her old one. She was just glad that she didn't need to take the bus; she was close enough to walk, just a block away. That may prove to be a blessing in disguise later on, but for now, it made it harder to talk to anyone.

There were several clusters of people outside the school, most of them growing as students filtered off of the buses. They were all talking, loudly she might add, about their summers, their classes, and the parties they went to. It all meant nothing to Whitley. There were some whispers of clubs, sports, a million things that she was convinced she wouldn't be a part of. She never joined school clubs; she moved around too often to make much of a difference in them. Well, she said never. At her last school, the longest one yet, she was in the gardening club, just something she could do to pass the time. She’d grown to like it, enjoyed watching the sprouts grow and blossom, but it’d all been ripped away with one simple sentence: “Whitley, we’re moving again.” Now that she knew that her parents could and would make her leave her carefully cultivated friendships, she had no intention of starting something she wouldn't be able to finish.

She squeezed through the crowds of people to make it inside and find the main office. Of all the times to feel invisible, this would be the best one. If she were invisible, she wouldn't need to interact with people who would probably forget her name within minutes. She knew from experience that it would be so much smoother if she looked down at her feet the whole time, avoiding eye contact. Unfortunately, that made it harder to avoid literally bumping into people. Before she knew it, she’d run directly into a boy holding a sandwich in one hand and a package of cookies in the other.

"Whoa!" Whitley cried. She reeled back, about to fall over. The boy grabbed her arm.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

"Um,” she mumbled, her face coloring, "I’m really sorry about that…”

"Don't worry about it." She finally looked up from her shoes. The boy had a kind face, an approachable one. His dark eyes studied her face, his hands tugging on his backpack's straps. "Do I know you?"

Here goes. The speech she was going to be repeating for this entire first week. "No,” she sighed, “my family just moved here. I'm Whitley."

"Oh, I see. Nice to meet you, then." He took a bite of the sandwich in his hand- his breakfast, she assumed- before speaking again. "I'm Diamond, but most people just call me Dia."

Just seeing him eat made her own stomach start to rumble. She'd been in too much of a rush to eat anything, and with her nerves, she was certain she wouldn't have been able to eat anyway. "Um. I'll see you later."

She would've walked away, but Dia caught her sleeve. "Hold on. Do you have money for the cafeteria? For lunch?"

"Ye-" Wait. Did she grab it off of her dresser before leaving? "No, I forgot."

Dia's amiable expression turned serious fast. "That's no good, lunch is the most important meal of the day! Besides breakfast! Here, take this." He took off his bag and rummaged around for a minute or so before taking out a second wrapped sandwich and offering it to her.

She didn't take it. She could barely even comprehend what was happening. Maybe she should've had some coffee… "I can't take that from you!"

"It's fine, I always make extra. I have, like, three more." He held it out, and hesitantly, she took it. Whitley was going to thank him, but before she could, she was nearly knocked over again by what felt like a freight train hitting her shoulder. Was the universe just trying to make her have a bad first day?

“C’mon, Dia, you’re going to be late for the third time this week!” said the boy who’d knocked into her. With his annoyed face and his fair hair, he seemed the exact opposite of Dia. His voice practically radiated irritation. He seemed to be in a rush, although Whitley was fairly certain that the first class of the day wasn’t going to start for another twenty minutes. The way he talked, she wasn’t even sure if the boy was aware that this was the first day of school. Then again, he spoke fast enough that she could have misheard.

“What?” Dia said. He seemed just as confused about what had just happened as she was.

“And put down that sandwich!”

“What???”

The boy sighed and started dragging him off down a slightly more crowded hallway. Whitley wasn't sure if Dia was waving at her, or was just waving his arms in general, but it was then that she decided that this school was considerably more strange than any of her old schools. She sighed and started heading down the hall again.

Whitley’s parents had run her through the list of things she needed to do: find the main office, get her schedule and locker assignment, fill her locker, go to class, make some friends… yeah, that last one wasn't going to happen. Dia was nice, but she didn't think niceness lasted much past the obligatory first day. She just hoped there would be a classroom or somewhere more quiet than the cafeteria.

Luckily for her, she found the principal’s office relatively fast, so she could at least tell her family that she did something on the list. She took a deep breath, before plastering a smile on her face and going through the open door.

“Hello! How can I help you?” asked a woman sitting behind a desk marked Secretary. The first thing Whitley noticed about her was her fluffy purple hair. Yep, definitely weirder than my old school.

“I’m Whitley, the new transfer student.”

“Oh, hello! Madame Lusamine told me you’d be coming today!” She got up from her chair and extended her hand. Her smile, like Dia's, was perfectly friendly. “My name is Wicke. We all call each other by our first names around here, so you can call me Wicke, or Ms. Wicke, whichever you prefer.”

Whitley took her hand, noting the softness. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“Are you doing well?”

“Um,” Whitley started, remembering how she nearly fell twice in the last ten minutes. How could she sum that up? “Great. Yeah, great. I came here to ask for my schedule and locker?”

“Oh, yes! I’m sure I have it somewhere around here…”

Wicke pulled open the drawer of her desk and started rifling through it. Whitley watched in silence as she made her way through various folders and papers. As Wicke’s face became increasingly frazzled and her movements more frantic, Whitley found herself looking around. The office was relatively small, and the walls were all painted a sterile white. Not white like snow, but more like the intimidating white of a hospital room. The only other features in the room apart from Wicke’s desk were two other doors, on the left and right sides of the room. The left door, marked ‘Vice Principal Faba’ seemed completely quiet; but from the door on the right, marked ‘Principal,’ Whitley could faintly hear muffled voices, in what sounded like a rather vicious argument. She made a mental note to not enter that door.

“Oh, dear,” Wicke said after a minute. “I seem to have misplaced it…stay here please? I’m going to go down to the teacher’s lounge, I may have left it there…”

And with that, she walked over to the door and left. Whitley wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened, but she was alone in the office now, which she was pretty sure was not a thing that had ever happened in her old school. She checked the time on her phone; fifteen minutes until class started, and she still didn’t know where her locker was. Whitley sighed to herself and took a seat in one of the chairs across from Wicke's desk. It wouldn’t be her fault if she was late to her first class, whatever it was. At this point, she wasn't sure she would ever find out.

She opened her phone and started scrolling through Instagram. One of her friends at her old school had posted a picture of her friend group smiling with the caption back to school, miss you @whi-2whitley. She groaned audibly and shut off her phone. Her friends were so corny with their captions, and it hit her that she probably wouldn’t see them again, which was exactly what she didn’t need: a reason to start crying. Even though she's had to leave friends before, they were her closest. Moving from them was, perhaps, the hardest move she ever had to do. Before she could banish the thought from her head, or even form another one, the door marked ‘Principal’ swung open.

“Lillie, Gladion, you’re both GROUNDED! And I do not want to HEAR another WORD come out of either of you about it!” thundered a feminine voice from inside the door. The voice wasn’t shrill, merely sharp, but the sharpness of it’s tone cut through to Whitley’s core and gave her chills. “Now, get to class.”

A blonde boy wearing a black hoodie and a fair-haired girl in a frilly dress came out of the principal’s office. The girl (Lillie, she assumed, which would make the boy Gladion) kept her head down, and, to Whitley, it appeared she was on the verge of tears. Gladion, however, glared so fiercely at her that she felt herself turning red and started to stare at her shoes. She heard them leave, and then out of the principal’s office came a third person, a woman dressed in an immaculate white suit coat and white dress pants so clean that Whitley could not see a single speck of dust on her. The woman- the principal, Whitley figured- put her hands on her hips and sighed.

“Those children…” she huffed before noticing Whitley sitting in the chair facing Wicke’s desk. “Oh!” Her voice took on a friendly, approachable tone, completely different from the hard voice Whitley had heard earlier. The change nearly gave her whiplash. “Hello, I don’t believe I know you...? Are you a new student?”

“Um,” Whitley said uncomfortably, “yeah, I just transferred here. My name is Whitley. Are… you okay?”

“Just a little family spat, nothing more, dear.” She sighed. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Lusamine, you may call me as so, or Madame, I do not mind either one. Did you need something?"

Her saving grace appeared then- Wicke came back in, schedule in hand. "Found it! Here, let me show you how to read it, it can get a bit confusing."

By the time they finished and Whitley was on her way, Lusamine was already gone. So far, she seemed like the most mysterious principal she'd ever had, if mysterious was the right word.

Her first class was one of the easiest to find. Even if she got lost, she would be able to find it by following the smell of paint and other art supplies. Art was her elective class, just something she could take that she didn't have to stress about. She wasn't the best artist, but she wasn't horrible, either. Art grades were usually based on effort anyway, so she didn't have to worry too much.

There were only a handful of students already in the classroom. Most, she figured, would be coming in just before the bell. That, at least, was universal. The room, however, was different from the one back at her old school. Would she ever be able to stop thinking that today? The tables were tall, and instead of regular desk chairs, metal stools littered the room, some spray-painted different colors. One of the girls she saw right near the door had her head down on top of an open sketchbook and her eyes closed, so Whitley assumed that the girl was just sleeping.

"She should've had coffee like I told her." Whitley nearly jumped at the breathy voice behind her- was there anything that wouldn't startle her today? A boy with soft green hair moved past her as she took a seat near them. He started poking the girl's shoulder. "Yellow? Wake up, class is going to start soon."

"Mmm?" The girl yawned before lifting her head. Whitley stifled a laugh at the giant graphite mark on her cheek, probably a result of sleeping right on top of a drawing. "So soon?"

The boy sighed with a smile. "Please start drinking coffee like the rest of us. It makes mornings easier." He glanced over at Whitley with a grin. "Right?"

She should say something intelligent, right? Her attention shifted to the girl. "You have pencil smudged on your cheek."

Yep, definitely not intelligent, but it made the boy laugh. "She has a point. By the way, I'm Wally."

"I'm Yellow." Her words were a little garbled, given that she was wiping at her cheek with the palm of her hand. It only helped remove the stain a little. "You're new, right? I don't think I've seen you before."

"I am. My name's Whitley." Again. That's three times, right? How many more would there be? "Is this art class good?"

Another laugh from Wally, though it sounded like a borderline cough. "I wouldn't know. I'm not in this class. I just came to wake Yellow up since she wasn't in the band room."

She groaned and put her head in her hands. "I forgot about that, didn't I? I'm sorry. And yes, this is a good class. Burgh, the teacher, is very nice. He’s a bit flamboyant, though."

Good to know, for sure. An easygoing first class was always a blessing. Wally excused himself then to get to his first class- history. The bell rang maybe three minutes later, signalling the start of class and her first day.

. . .

After a grueling first half of the day and going down the wrong hallway twice, Whitley finally made it into the cafeteria. Students were scattered around the room, some at tables already, others milling around in the halls or joining the lunch line. Seeing how long the line was made her grateful for the sandwich Dia had given her earlier, tucked away safely in her backpack.

This was always one of the hardest parts of a new school: relearning the Lunchroom Code. As in, who sat where, whether or not it was worth it to buy the cafeteria food, whether or not she could hole up in a classroom to eat. After all, she knew that most people her age already had their friend groups all figured out, and didn't often have room for one more, and she wasn’t about to embarrass herself asking.

So she just kind of wandered, trying to get a feel for the place. Some of the tables were emptier than others, though some filled up quickly. She didn't see many faces she recognized from her position, only a couple she didn't talk to from her classes earlier. And sitting at a table with three other people were the siblings (she assumed) with the blonde hair. She thought back to her earlier conversation with the principal. A little family argument? Was that how Lusamine had described what had gone down between her and these students? Would that make them her kids? Whatever their relation to the principal was, Whitley did not want to get involved in it. Then she noticed she’d blanked out, and had been staring at them for way too long than was socially acceptable. The two were looking at her, a mildly concerned expression on the Lillie’s face.

“Um, can I help you with anything?” Lillie asked. Her voice was light, if a little breathy.

Shoot. “Ah, um, no. Sorry, I was just spacing out,” Whitley answered. Her face was starting to turn red from embarrassment, she could just feel it.

Gladion stared at her, his eyes hard, before he turned back to his food and said, “Well, go do it somewhere else.”

Whitley practically ran from the table over to the other corner of the cafeteria. Her heart was pounding, and she was pretty sure her face was as red as a tomato. Gladion- she made a second mental note to stay away from him. The way he looked at her, that cold, hard stare that emitted no warmth- it scared her. She sighed. Whoever said lunch was the easiest part of the school day was dead wrong.

Oh, but there was Dia and that other boy again. Was he waving her over, or was this one of those times where he was waving at someone behind her? She turned and checked just to be sure- yep, nobody- before walking over.

"Need someone to sit with?" he asked as she approached. His lunch was already spread on the table- a couple sandwiches, some snacks in open containers. The blonde boy kept sneaking his hand in the different containers, stealing pretzels and yogurt-covered raisins.

"That would be nice, thanks." She sat down across from him, next to a dark-haired girl reading a fairly thick book. "You really seem to be saving me today. First lunch, now this."

He took a bite of his sandwich. "It's really no problem. By the way, this is Pearl-" he gestured to the blonde boy- "and that's Platinum." The girl next to her lifted her head for a moment and made eye contact before going back to her book. "Guys, this is Whitley. She's new."

Recognition flashed across Pearl's face. "Hey, you're that girl from earlier! Sorry for almost running into you."

Almost? He did run into her. "It's fine, don't worry." She unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite of it. Immediately, flavor exploded on her tongue. She was expecting it to be just a regular sandwich, but this was so much better. "Dia, you made this? It's amazing!"

"Dia is a very good cook." Platinum didn't look up as she spoke, though the faintest of smiles played at her lips. "He’s the founder of the cooking club." She took a couple of yogurt raisins for herself.

"Cooking Club isn't too popular at the moment, but it's still fun." Dia pushed the pretzel container towards her. "Feel free to take some. I don't mind sharing."

“Oh, uh, thank you!” She took a handful of pretzels. She wasn’t too keen on salty foods, but she wasn’t about to refuse anything from any possible friend. She may have said earlier that she didn't need to make friends, but she had to admit, it would make the year a little easier. While she chewed, she was inwardly grappling for something to say, anything to start a conversation going. But someone in heaven had decided that she wasn’t going to have a good first day, and her mind came up blank. She swallowed.

“Uhh…” She desperately scrambled for any coherent thought, any question, no matter how dumb. Finally, one of her brain cells decided to function, and she blurted out, “What’s your favorite color?”

Ughhhh, stupid.

Diamond seemed not to mind, though. In fact, he smiled a bit. “Blue!” he said.

Platinum looked up from her book again, her lips curved into a fond smile. “It suits you,” she said. “It’s relaxing. Mine is pink." She lifted the tip of her scarf. "Like this shade, but lighter. I think it brings out my eyes. Yours, Pearl?"

Pearl looked up from his phone, which he was furiously typing on. “Huh? Oh, uh, orange.” He went back to his phone, fingers flying. Whitley sat awkwardly, twiddling her thumbs. She had no idea what to say next, as Pearl didn’t really leave her any room to work. None of them did, for that matter, and for someone who wasn't exactly a wordsmith, that was Not Good. Again, she flailed for another conversation starter, but she kept turning up blank. Luckily for her, she still had some pretzels in her hand, so she put more in her mouth to avoid having to say anything. Platinum took more snacks, and Dia kept eating- actually, he’d never stopped. Pearl kept typing; he appeared to be slowing down a bit, but the speed at which he was writing was still a whole lot faster than Whitley could ever dream of. Oh! That was a subject she could talk about!

“Wow, you type really fast!” she said. Pearl looked up again.

“Really? This is pretty slow for me.” he laughed. “Plat always has to read through everything I write because of all the mistakes I make.”

Platinum giggled, her tone still more formal somehow. “You know, you could learn a thing or two from Dia. He never has any spelling mistakes in his essays.”

“Yeah, that’s because he types at a tortoise’s pace! No offense, of course.”

“None taken,” Dia said. He turned to Whitley. “Pearl always rushes, whatever he’s doing. Even when he’s early to school, he drags me off to classes twenty minutes before they start, just because he can. I try to get him to slow down, but it never works. I’m pretty sure Pearl’s body generates caffeine the same way the rest of us make, uh, the happiness chemical. What’s it called?”

“There’s more than one,” Platinum said, listing them off. “There's dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.”

“Yeah, those. And there’s Plat for you, our walking encyclopedia, grammar checker, and the reason why I’m not failing English.”

“And the reason I’m not failing chem!” Pearl said, “What did we ever do to deserve her? I’m not really sure. Speaking of, Plat, the new sketch is finally written up. Check it for me please?” He handed his phone over to Platinum, who started scrolling.

“Sketch?” Whitley asked, “Like, a comedy skit?”

“Yep!” Pearl replied, “We’ve - or more accurately, I’ve - been writing them ever since we were little. He performs them with me.” He gestured to Dia, who was now working on what looked like yet another sandwich he had miraculously pulled out of his bag.

“I’d love to see one sometime.” And Whitley found herself meaning her words. Somehow, unbelievably, she’d managed to make a friend, maybe three! She smiled, and for once that day, it wasn’t forced.

“Wanna see it right now?”

“Uh-”

“C’mon Dia, act stupid so I can hit you!”

“Huh???” Dia said, barely paying attention. He was about to start unwrapping another container of food.

“But first, put down that snack!”

“Whaa-a-a-a-t?!?!?”

Confused and a bit concerned, Whitley looked questioningly over at Platinum, who was smiling serenely.

“This is a daily routine with them,” she explained. “Pearl usually finishes a new sketch around lunchtime, and Dia is talking into trying it.” She turned back to Pearl, who was currently wrestling with Dia for the container of food, and sighed. “Maybe just this once, instead of doing this, we could show Whitley around?”
Pearl stopped tugging at the container, and Dia snatched it and put it back in his bag. “Sure,” Dia said. “Plat and I will show you around. Pearl?”

“Yeah, why not. You ARE going to practice with me, though.” Pearl and Dia stood up, and offered their hands to Platinum, who took their hands with a soft “Thank you," and helped her up. Whitley was a bit puzzled by this- wasn’t she perfectly capable of getting up on her own? She wasn’t about to question anything, not if they were nice enough to help show her around.

Of course, since they were already there, they started with the cafeteria. "Most people eat lunch here, but some eat in the library or classrooms," Dia started, gesturing around the room. "There's a bunch of different groups here, but a lot of them aren't distinct enough to label. But there's the soccer team, which hates the football team. The girl and guy's football teams sit at separate tables, but are pretty friendly with each other. Then there's the marching band.”

“One thing you need to know,” Pearl interjected, “is that you should never, under any circumstances, get in between the marching band and football teams. Especially not between Yellow and Sapphire."

She looked to where he was pointing. She remembered meeting Yellow earlier in art class, and she seemed super sweet. But there she was, all 4'11" of her, shooting daggers at the wild-haired girl at the head of the girl's football table, who was glaring right back. Wally was next to her, frowning but not saying anything.

Pearl shrugged, tapping his foot. "You know when it really gets interesting, is when the marching band and cheerleaders join ranks once a year to prank the football teams. Nobody knows when each year, but trust me, it's something you don't want to miss. Now, c'mon, let's keep going."

He made for the door of the cafeteria, barely waiting for the rest of them. Dia really wasn't kidding, was he? She cast another glance at the ongoing argument before something else caught her eye. "Hold on, where are they going?" A group of four, a girl with a bouncy brown ponytail, a boy wearing a baseball cap, a boy wearing a tennis visor, and an older boy with green hair, were leaving the cafeteria through the opposite exit. Her eyes remained on the tallest of them, the boy with long, light green hair, until they were all out of sight. She felt redness spreading across her face for, what- the fifth time today?

Platinum cleared her throat, noticing her blush. Just her luck. “Whitley? Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah! Um...” Whitley stammered, embarrassed. She covered her face with her hands. She just couldn't form a coherent sentence today, could she? “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just, uh, who are they?”

“Oh! That’s the school’s resident band. They practice at lunch time. Even though most of them are sophomores like us, they're actually really good," Dia said with the hint of a smile.

"Why not go to the music room first, then?" Platinum suggested, nodding towards the exit where the band went. "We might be able to hear them practicing."

“Well, we have to find where Pearl went first…” Whitley said. He was nowhere to be found in the surrounding halls already, even though he’d only left a few seconds ago.

“Oh yeah, he does that. He’ll find us eventually,” Dia said, before turning to Whitley and whispering, “He’ll just follow the tracker we put on Plat’s phone. She gets lost a lot, and, well, we worry about her. I hope you don’t think that’s creepy."

Truth be told, it was a bit, but she couldn't imagine them having anything but good intentions in mind. "So, where is this music room?" Better to change the subject.

"Follow me." The halls weren't too crowded like in-between classes, which made sense. Some students were eating lunch in the corridors and talking, but few took particular notice of them. "We probably shouldn't disturb them too much, though,” Platinum said. “We don't know too much about them other than their names."

Whitley was buzzed with anticipation by the time they arrived at the music room. She could hear the music spilling past the mostly-closed door. It sounded like just a warm-up, but everyone was perfectly timed and in tune. "They're good," she breathed out. It was the kind of music she could get behind, borderline rock. She didn’t know exactly what they were playing, but suddenly, a voice started singing lyrics she recognized, belonging to a song she'd heard many times over. Something felt… off, though. They were great, of course, but the feeling of it wasn't quite correct.

"That's...not right," she said, cocking her head and trying to peer inside the room. Who was singing?

“Huh? They sound fine to me,” said Dia. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Plat?”

Platinum grimaced, looking like she wanted to pull her scarf over her ears. “This type of music isn’t really my thing, so I couldn’t tell you either way.”

“Huh. Maybe it’s just me, then.” But Whitley was sure that something was wrong. She loved this song when she heard it on the radio, but it felt different hearing it now.

When had the feeling started? Oh, right: when the singing began. Was that all that was off? The voice felt too… soft. Too sweet for this type of song. It sounded like the singer was straining to make his voice fit the intensity of the song, yet it still fell short. Now that she knew that that was it, she wasn't sure what to do with that information. So she stood outside the door, listening to the music as the band finished up the song.

“Well, they’re done. What do you wanna see next?” Dia asked, looking bored with the music wing. Whitley, however, knocked on the door and pushed it open. “Hey, wait! Where are you going?”

The four people in the music room stopped playing and looked up as she came in, having not waited for a response. She tried to not let herself be distracted by the green-haired boy from earlier. "Which one of you was singing?"

Nobody spoke. The ponytail girl, who was holding an electric guitar, and the baseball cap boy, who was sitting at the drum set, exchanged a glance. The boy wearing a visor, sitting at the keyboard, looked at her with hardened eyes. Jeez, was this the cousin of the blonde boy with the hoodie or something? Finally, the green-haired boy, who was holding a microphone, said, "That was me. Do we know you?"

Oh. Oh, shoot. Of course it had to be him. What was she supposed to say now? She couldn't lose her nerve, otherwise she would look stupid, and wouldn’t be able to talk to any of these people again. Which had happened to her before.

“Uh... Um…” she stammered. Ugh, she probably looked like an idiot. “I-”

The whole room, including Diamond, who had wandered in the open door, and who was currently chewing on yet another piece of food, was staring at her. She hated this. She hated this so much.

“I-In the nicest way possible,” she squeaked out, “I don’t think you have the right kind of voice for this type of song. Um, at all.” Jeez, she hoped she didn't sound bratty.

Immediately, a thick silence fell upon the room. She was afraid of what would come next- yelling, judging, who knew what else. But then, much to her surprise, the boy smiled at her. She was fairly certain her heart skipped a beat. "You have a good ear, then. Blake told me the same thing earlier today,” he said, gesturing to visor boy. Said boy's stare didn't lessen. “Tell me, what's your name?"

"Whitley. I'm new here." Because that wasn't obvious. She started back towards the open door. "I'm sorry to have intruded, I should go-"

"No, stay!" ponytail girl cried as she all but pulled her back. "Please, I've always been the only girl, I need someone else to keep me sane among all this testosterone."

“What, N isn’t pretty enough for you?” baseball hat boy teased. He turned to Whitley with a goofy grin. “I’m Black, by the way. As in, that’s my name. Not my race or anything- ugh. Remind me why my parents named me this again? The boy over on the keyboard is Blake- Oi, cut it out by the way, the serial killer stare, you’re scaring the new girl- this is White, my girlfriend, race does apply this time, and pretty boy over there, on the bass guitar, that’s N.”

Whitley laughed a bit. Was he for real? “Like, the letter?”

"Trust me, just the letter makes more sense than my full name,” N said, “but feel free to call me Natural Harmonia Gropius if you want to.”

“Whoa, um, I think I’ll stick with N then,” Whitley said with an awkward smile. Her heart was pounding, but there was no way in hell she was going to show it to any of these people— or Dia and his friends, for that matter. Speaking of which, where did he go?

Without asking her, Blake, whose eyes were still focused on her face, said, “He slipped out when you were talking to Black. He looked bored.” Seeing Whitley’s stunned expression, he answered another question that had popped into her mind. “No, you didn’t say that out loud. I’m just really good at telling what people are thinking.”

“Ooookay, remind me never to think of anything embarrassing around you," she said, a bit weirded out.

“It’s like, his special power,” White explained, “other than his serial killer stare. Blake’s just really, really good at reading your mind.”

“It’s called deduction, and it’s not mind reading," Blake said in a flat tone. He made no move to offer further explanation.

“Alright, enough of that,” N said mercifully, as Whitley wasn’t exactly sure what to say next. “Let’s go back to what brought you into this room in the first place. What was wrong about my singing?”

Oh great. Out of the pan, and into the fire.

“Ummm,” Whitley scrambled, a blush spreading across her face again. “It wasn’t your singing that was wrong, it was just, uh…” She trailed off, flailing for a word and some confidence when her mind was screaming abort mission! “Your… your voice. It’s too soft for this sort of song. You’d be better off singing something smoother, like a love song, maybe?”

N threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “I know! I know. That’s what I keep telling these guys, but apparently no one else here can sing!” he said, looking sideways at Blake.

“Just because I can doesn’t mean I will,” he said, arms crossed. “Besides, I don’t have the right kind of voice for rock. We already established that- at our first rehearsal.”

White sighed. “N’s the best option we’ve got. Black and I can’t sing, Blake refuses, and his voice is better for more, uh, creepy songs anyways. We could just change the genre we play, but these idiots seem determined to make this work. But we definitely could use a new singer.”

Black nodded, before tossing out -

“Speaking of, new girl, wanna show us what you’ve got? I doubt your cute little voice is right for our style, though.”

Immediately, Whitley started stammering. “Uhh, I, uhhhh-" This was a literal curse, wasn't it?

“Black! Firstly, you don’t say that to someone you just met. Secondly, her name is Whitley. Don’t call her new girl, that’s rude. Thirdly, stop flirting with girls other than me.” White turned to Whitley with an apologetic look. "Although… I’d love to hear your voice if you’re up for it."

"What do you say? Want to show me up?" N grinned slyly, and she could swear that her heartbeat could be heard from across the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Blake offer her the tiniest nod.

She had two options here. She could do this, possibly embarrass herself, or flourish. Or, she could back out of the room slowly and run away and probably never be able to face them again. ...Yeah, one of those greatly outweighed the other.

She held her hand out to N. There seemed to be an ocean between the two of them, but her heart fluttered as his hand brushed hers as he pressed the microphone into her palm. Smiling, he picked up a bass guitar off the wall, still switched on. A deep breath. Go time.

"Play that same song," she requested, taking her position in the center of their formation, and inhaling deeply. "I've got this."

One of the most likely problems with N's voice and this song was that the range was a bit high for him; the original singer was a girl. She knew she wouldn’t have that problem; she already knew her range was a good fit for this song. That, plus the style would fit her singing voice. Even though her speaking voice was high pitched and sweet, she’d discovered when she was younger she had the power to pitch it into a rather guttural and gritty rasp, which she used for singing. She hoped it was enough to blow them away, or at least not embarrass herself.

Black raised his sticks into the air, bringing them together with a staccato click. The band rose behind her in waves, and suddenly she was floating on chords like clouds and dancing atop guitar lines.

She licked her lips, prepared a breath for the onslaught of lyrics, and clutching the microphone tightly to ground herself, she began to sing. All at once she lost herself in the instrumental parts, the words flowing naturally along with the emotion. That was one thing she was good at; packing a punch with words. Even though they weren't her own, she owned them. There wasn't any other way to describe it.

Oh-hoh, I’ve been waiting, I’ve been waiting for you- Ow!
So don’t, don’t, don’t don’t tell me it’s trueeeee!

Her voice was guttural and raw, her mouth forming the words before her brain knew what to do. Gently she began to lean in, feeling the heavy thump of the drumbeat thrum like the pounding of her heart. She made eye contact with N, who was smiling at her. Too excited in the music she was making to care about how she looked, she grinned back stupidly.

OH! I’ve been waiting, I’ve been waiting for you!
So don’t, don’t, don’t just let me slip throoough!

Reaching a climax of utter euphoria, she threw a hand out and belted the final chorus, her lungs screaming and her face flushed with exhaustion and sweat. By the end of the song, she was near breathless in a very good way, and her throat hurt quite a bit. Her hands dropped to her sides as the last chord rang out and eventually faded to silence. The microphone let out a whine of feedback as she quickly drew it back to her chest and whirled around, sweating and trembling. She didn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun singing, but she also couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this nervous.

Silence boomed in the room after the closing chords. Carefully, Whitley turned off the microphone and put it back in the stand. Anticipation crawled across her skin as she awaited their verdict. The four of them suddenly huddled together around the drum set, exchanging whispers like a football team before the big play. She didn't know that just one performance like that was this big of a deal.

Finally they split apart, and after a quick glance at each other, they all turned to face. Black grinned at her, his eyes lighting up in excitement.

"Well well well, new girl!” he said. He stood up from behind the drums, approaching her with the others. “How would you like to be in our band?"

"Really?" Maybe the universe didn't completely have it in for her. This was certainly a good thing! Her parents would definitely be proud of her for this.
White grinned. "Like N said before, none of us can sing, and it'd be great to add a new member. So? What do you say?"

Was that even a question? "I say-"

The music room door slammed open. Whitley only realized then how dim the lights were in the music room as the hallway’s light flooded in. A tall figure stood in the doorway, backlit, and Whitley couldn't help but compare it to a vengeful angel from the heavens. Intimidating, poised, impatient. Powerful.

The figure came into the room, slowly but surely. Her white heels clicked on the cold tile floor as she approached. In her fitted black dress and with her perfect hair, she looked like a supermodel off the cover of a magazine, but unlike all the magazine models, her face radiated icy steel. Her piercing gaze snapped to White, ignoring the others. Whitley didn't remember seeing her yet today, but by the way White's smile slipped and Black's grip tightened on his drum sticks, she had a feeling that the girl's presence was no good.

"White," she said airily into the silence of the room.

Whitley turned to White, who lifted her chin and in the same light, yet freezing tone, replied, “Blue.”

"We have business to take care of. You in or out?"

Chapter Text

White was uncomfortable. She thought she had made it clear to Blue that band practice was off limits for business. But she couldn’t refuse.

“In, of course.” She turned to Black, N, and the others. She forced an easy smile, but she hated having to abandon them again. This was a huge problem last year, and they all knew it. “Sorry. Gotta go.”

She put up her guitar and left before any of them could say anything, but she caught the look in her boyfriend's eyes: disappointment. She knew exactly what he thought of Blue and Ruby, and she understood why he felt that way. In fact, she felt disappointed in herself for going along with the two of them, but they promised social protection for helping them out. That was an offer she couldn't refuse. That was the only reason she was in their small group. Well, to be fair, Ruby wasn't that bad on his own, but Blue was… Blue. That was the only easy way to sum up her character.

"I still don't know why you hang out with them so often," Blue said offhand as they moved further from the room. The icy, freezing tone she had adopted earlier was gone, but in its place was a slightly unnerving calm. White knew that voice. It was the voice Blue used when something was about to go down. Her heels clicked across the linoleum floor. "Like, I know your band is good, but we have more important things to do!"

"What is there to do? It's only the first day of school."

She was a little miffed, and she had a right to be. She told them to leave business out of practice. The band was her everything. She loved hanging out and playing with them, hence the reason she told them not to take her out of practice. Plus, she hated to leave Whitley there without another female presence. The boys could be overwhelming to those who didn't know them as well as she did.

Blue laughed, giving small waves to the people in the hall she knew. "We need to plan for homecoming, of course! We only have a couple of weeks before it's here, and we all need to look perfect."

Oh, homecoming. She hadn't gone to the game or the dance last year; it was before she'd been integrated into the group. Before then, she didn't go out too much. She never really had a reason to. Then she met Black and they started dating, and the band formed… "I guess you're right. Where's Ruby?"

Blue didn't answer. She was staring down the hall at someone White couldn't see yet. "Hey, do you need a ride home later? Cheer practice doesn't start until next Wednesday."

She was distracted, that was all. White had no idea who, or what, she was looking at- except, maybe she did. She caught a flash of dark blue hair turning the corner, the opposite direction as they would be going. Platinum. Class president to her VP. Of course it was Platinum. "Black and I are going to go out after school, so I'll pass."

"You know, I've said this before, but you two are seriously adorable." Blue grinned and nudged her with her shoulder. "Bet you guys are going to homecoming together, right?"

She really should've seen that question coming. "We actually haven't talked about it yet. Again, it's still the first day of school!"

"Last first day for me. Kinda bittersweet, leaving you two on your own after this year. And after one more year, you’ll be in charge.” A nostalgic look crossed her face before she sighed lightly and patted White's back. "Ah, well, that's a conversation for later in the year. Ruby is waiting for us."

White hadn't seen Ruby since the beginning of the summer, not since he was busy either with his own girlfriend or visiting family out of town. No doubt going on college visits, too. White was glad she didn't have to worry about those quite yet.

The room they used for business was actually a classroom just off of the gym, close enough that when the door was open, they could hear the students in there for free gym. They never kept the door open.

"There you are! Found White, I see." White smiled a little. Ruby was actually one of her first friends in high school, since they were both at the planning meeting for the drama club's production, her as student producer and him as wardrobe, hair, and makeup. He froze when he saw her. "Um, White, what the hell have you done to your hair?"

She touched the tips of her ponytail. Her hair was a little straighter last year, when she actually bothered to use a straightening iron. Now that she knew how to deal with her natural waves, she didn't. "I-"

"And why aren't you wearing makeup? You look pale as a ghost. Come here." He already had out a makeup kit and assorted extras.

She knew better than to argue with him, at least. He never went too overboard with her; her natural look ‘just needed a little help shining through.’ Or so he said. Frankly, she didn't like makeup much, but at least it wasn’t heavy.

Blue took a seat on one of the desks as Ruby got started on White. "Alright, my little bitchlets, we've got work to do."

That was something else about Blue: she called them her bitchlets. Which, admittedly, was a little funny. "Homecoming. And by that, I mean homecoming king and queen."

"Could be two kings and two queens, depending on the running mates," Ruby pointed out, gesturing with a makeup brush. "GSA had that officially changed last year. Close your eyes."

White did as she was told. "What about it?" she asked, her lips barely moving- Ruby's hand was partially resting on them. "Black and I weren't planning on running, if that's what you were getting at."

"Neither am I. Too busy making matches to get one of my own." Blue shrugged, then pointed her gaze at Ruby. "That leaves…"

"I'm trying to convince Sapph," he sighed, moving to put a little color on White's lips. "I don't think she's too keen on the idea. After all, she'll be busy celebrating the win they'll get with the boy's football team. The dance is just an extension of that."

Blue made a frustrated noise. "Well, one of us has to run! Us Bitches need to show everyone who's boss, don't we? Anyway. In other news, I need to show that bitch Bianca the same thing ASAP."

White paled underneath her makeup. She’d been best friends with Bianca before high school, and yet in her freshman year, Blue and Ruby had swept her away, while Bianca was left alone.

Even with the band, White barely had the time to hang out with her old friends. And now she had business regarding Bianca to take care of?

"Ugh, her again? What did she do this time?” asked Ruby, who had taken out a straightener and was starting to undo White’s ponytail. As much as she wanted to fight it, she would be burned by the flat iron, so she forced herself to sit still.

“Wait, again?” White had no idea that something had happened with Bianca in the past. It must’ve been when she wasn’t a friend of the Bitches, a name passed down through multiple generations of this school. “What’d she do?”

“Fucking pushed me into the rain when I was wearing that leather dress Ruby made for me, while we were showing the freshmen around during orientation. And this is the third time she’s done something like this. It already wasn’t okay the first time, but now I’m pretty sure the bitch is doing it on purpose. And now she’s going to get it.”

White groaned inwardly. That's why she didn't remember; she was in N's group for freshman orientation. Bianca had always been a bit of a klutz, but she’d never imagined it could get her into this much trouble. Because when you were a repeat offender, you were given no mercy. That was the law laid down by the original Bitches, one that was never broken. Even White knew that much.

Ruby sighed, leaning away from White. "You're done. As for you, Blue, you're right about that. You should've seen my reaction when she told me, White. Leather dresses take a much longer time to make, more care. Speaking of making, though, the vest and shorts you’re wearing. I was right, they look good on you."

White smiled, nearly forgetting everything for a moment. "Thank you! And thanks for making them."

"Guys!" Blue slammed her hand down on the desk, the other on her hip. White was the only one who jumped. "Come on, how are we going to stick it to her? I need ideas, people!"

"Look, Blue, I understand your anger, but I'm not good at this kind of thing," White said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "Maybe she's just-"

"Pull a Carrie, use a fake date, put hair remover in shampoo and give it to her…" Ruby listed them off on his fingers. "Anything, really. You could get the cheerleaders to do something, like hold up a sign at homecoming with an embarrassing picture."

Blue nodded slowly, starting to pace the room. "Good idea. Where to get the picture, though…" When her back was to White, she stopped in her tracks, only to turn back. "Weren't you friends with her for a while?"

White's mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for breath. How could she answer this and still protect her old friend? "I-"

Saving grace- the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Blue groaned for a moment, annoyance flashing over her face like a passing cloud before brightening once more. "This conversation is not over. Oh, and White dear, have fun on your date!"

. . .

"Here's to surviving the first day," Black said with a smile, sliding his milkshake glass over towards hers for a toast. His was chocolate and hers was strawberry, both nearly spilling over the top with whipped cream. They discovered quickly once they started dating that this 50s style diner was their favorite spot to go. It was a short walk from their neighborhood and only slightly farther from the school. Not to mention, the food was amazing.

She pushed her glass into his, careful not to make them drip onto the table. Milkshakes and fries were their go-to here, ever since they’d gone on their first date here a year ago. "Finally. Only this year and then two more. Kind of exciting."

"Maybe for you, you already know what you want to do. All I've got is our band." He wasn't wrong; White always wanted to be a producer.

"About that...I'm sorry for having to ditch practice. I'll remind them to keep business out of practice time.”

Black sighed, sounding tired. “Why do you still hang out with them, White?”

She shifted uncomfortably. Honestly, she was just scared of what would happen to her if she were to leave, but she couldn’t tell Black that. He would think she was ridiculous. So instead, she opted for a little white lie.

“Well, Ruby and Blue are fun to hang out with, and I don’t know what I’d do without Ruby’s outfits for me. But, uh, anyway, how did Whitley fare with just you three? Did she end up joining?" She shifted the topic of conversation herself, knowing that it was the easiest course of action.

Black took a sip of his milkshake, letting the subject drop. "Yeah, I don’t think saying no was even an option in her mind. She was a little shy at first, but then we got talking about music, and it was like she was meant to be in the group. I'm glad we asked her to sing with us."

White recalled easily how impressed she was with Whitley's voice. Whatever she was expecting was completely shattered by her natural skill. "Me, too. I love you boys, but I wasn't kidding when I said I needed more female presence. But Black, if I catch you flirting with her…”

Black laughed, drawing the looks of the people at the tables around them. She was, perhaps, the only person used to his raucous laughter. “Nah, are you kidding? Did you see the way she looked at N?”

“What? No way.”

“No, it’s true! Blake came up to me after practice, he noticed too. And you know he’s never wrong about these sorts of things.”

If Blake noticed, then it may as well be true. His observations were usually impeccable. “Does N know?”

Another laugh. “What do you think? He’s oblivious to everything that has to do with feelings. Actually, he’s pretty oblivious to anything that doesn’t involve the band, the shelter he volunteers at, and his math homework."

White laughed with him, taking another sip of her milkshake, though she didn't want to have too much before their fries arrived. "I mean, you're not wrong, but give him a little more credit. It's extreme senioritis kicking in."

"In that case, he's had senioritis his whole life."

Their fries came not long after that, and White came to her favorite part: the fries dipped into her milkshake. The fries were always hot to offset the coolness of the shake, and- wait, did- did Black just steal one of hers?

“No! You have your own, I swear to god, you always do this!" She wasn't really that upset, but he did always steal her fries and hoard his own. She couldn't remember a single date they'd had where she'd finished all her own. "Eat your own fries."

"But yours taste better," he said through a mouthful. She couldn't help but giggle even as she rolled her eyes. Sure, Black was a goof, but he was her goof. "Oh, by the way, I was talking to Cheren earlier. How about we double date with him and Bianca sometime?"

Wait- could she even do that? It was against Bitches Code to let anyone in on their targets, even significant others. She wasn't even sure what terms she and Bianca were on, and besides, if Blue ever caught wind… "I'm not sure that would be a good idea."

He looked confused at her words, but they were all she could think of to say. "Why not?"

Come on, White, you're smart. Think of something! "I…" Shoot, why couldn't she think of anything? She was blanking! C'mon, c'mon…

"If it's about you two growing apart, I'm sure that won't be a problem." Black twirled a fry in his shake. "Cheren and I will be there, too, it's not like it'll be just the two of you."

Right, but that wasn't the problem! The problem was that she knew Blue was planning something, but she couldn't warn her. She already felt guilty that she wasn't exactly trying to stop Blue's plans. Even if she was, Blue was smart and good at improvisation; she'd find another way. "I…" She was stuck. "I don't see why not."

"Great! I'll let them know so we can set it up." Black's grin betrayed his emotions easily, but White's own practiced smile hid more than he could possibly pick up on. "It'll be just like the old times."

"Just like the old times." The old times being before high school and the Bitches, before she started dating Black, before Bianca and Cheren started dating. Before White would ever go along with a plot to humiliate her old friend.

Her fries and shake didn't taste so good after that.

. . .

The date ended up being scheduled for that Saturday. After she’d finished with Black, White had gone home right after, claiming a stomachache. And she did, but it wasn’t because of the fries, as Black had fretted, but the guilt of what she was going to have to do to her friend of so many years. White supposed it was better to get it over with than allow her guilt to stretch further and further. Besides, with Blue keeping on White's case about the pictures- which she knew she would do- she needed to do something to take her mind off of it- at least, partially.

White was so sure that she would be able to avoid Blue before classes the next morning, and since lunch was off limits and cheer practice started right after school, she was certain she'd be in the clear. Then again, it wasn't exactly uncommon for Blue to pull her and Ruby away before classes started. She just had to pray that this wasn't one of those times.

She moved within the twisting sea of packs just to get to her locker. So far, so good; not a single glimpse of Blue or Ruby. She might actually get out of this week scot-free. She pulled open her locker, slung her backpack off her shoulder, grabbed the things she needed for class. She unzipped her bag and started putting notebooks in. Everything was fine. She’d heard no staccato click of Blue’s heels on the floor, so she was probably in the clear, although she doubted she could hear them over the crowd’s chatter. She grabbed her backpack and put it back on, stepped back, and made to close the door-

But the door had already been slammed closed by a perfectly manicured hand, nearly catching her nose. White slowly looked to her right.

“White, my dear bitchlet. We have matters to discuss.”

Blue’s arm snaked around her waist as she started moving, pulling White down the hall in such a way that it looked like White was merely walking with her. The sea of people parted as Blue approached, giving her quite a bit of space. Most kept their heads down, but some gave friendly waves and laughs to those that were in Blue’s inner circle. Still, White was being pulled along. Her side hurt where Blue was digging into in with her long, perfect nails.

"Is this about- you know, what we were talking about yesterday?" Better to rip the band-aid off, and she knew she wouldn't get a straight answer until later if she didn't. She would rather know what she was getting into.

"Good memory. Told you this conversation wasn't over," Blue hissed, before going back to giving friendly smiles and compliments to people in the halls. Her grip, if it could be called that, lessened as they approached the classroom, one of the only ones that was mostly abandoned until right before classes started. Not even the teacher stuck around in the morning. "Anyway. We have a little more brainstorming to do, then you're free."

Ruby was busy on his phone when they entered, barely looking up. "Is this going to take long? Sapphire has something she wants to show me before classes."

"That depends heavily on how much we can get done in, let's say, ten minutes. And by that- White, do you or do you not have pictures from when you and Bianca were younger?" White nodded, trusting body language more than her voice. "Good. That'll be our last resort. I thought of a few more things last night we can do in the meantime."

White all but collapsed into a chair as Blue started talking. One thing after another, plans upon plans that she documented in her head. She didn't mind being the organizer of the group; it was good practice for her future as a producer, but this was the one thing she didn't want to organize for them. All of the plans were well thought-out; and she wouldn't expect anything else. Blue was nothing if not thorough.

“...Put really ugly hair dye in her shampoo, although we have to gather some intel about whether she shampoos in the gym showers or not, spill something on her clothes-”

“I like that one,” Ruby interrupted, “does justice to the original crime. But it has to be really nasty. Bianca has to pay, and we can’t go easy on her.”

Blue nodded at Ruby in approval, but White was shocked at the venom in his voice. Ruby was the nicer one: he made clothes, helped her with her outfits, and was generally neutral towards the plans. The only other time he sounded this invested in this sort of business was when it involved a makeover, or something to do with clothes. Which, she supposed, this was mostly about.

“Also,” he suggested, “we could steal her phone and drop it in the toilet, or write some really embarrassing confession from her and put it back. White, she trusts you, right? You could get it.”

“Wow, Ruby, you sound, uh, really invested in this,” White said. She was starting to become uneasy with the intensity of his voice and the ruthlessness of his suggestions. Usually, this sort of business ranked only a six on the priority scale, but this, she assumed, Blue and Ruby took as a personal insult.

“Are you kidding me? Of course I am! Do you know how much time and material leather dresses cost to make? Blue always takes really good care of my creations, so I decide to make her something really special for her birthday, and that bitch ruined twelve hours worth of work in a few seconds!” White could practically see the steam coming out of his ears, and she put her hand on his in an effort to calm him, while mentally trying not to start hyperventilating. She had absolutely no idea how she would protect Bianca while still keeping her status as a Bitch. Blue watched from the corner, an unreadable expression on her face.

“And of course,” Blue purred, “we can always embarrass her with some details from her past. Can’t we, White?”

“Um, yeah. I’ll see what I remember,” she said, desperately trying to think of a way to change the subject. “Uh, Ruby? It’s been way more than ten minutes. You have about five till class starts.”

Ruby checked his watch, a panicked expression forming on his face. “Oh, shoot! Aw man, Sapph’s going to kill me. I gotta run. See you all later!”

He ran out of the classroom. White made to leave as well, but the same claws latched onto her shoulder as she reached the doorway, and pulled her back.

“White, dearest, I have something to ask of you before you go.”

Shoot. Freedom was so close! She swallowed dryly. “Yes?”

“I know you’re going on a double date with Cheren and Bianca.”

Shit. White turned around to face Blue, who’s expression was still neutral. Her poker face was too good.

“No, I’m not mad, if that’s what you’re thinking. At first I was, my dear. Do you know what I thought when I heard the news?”

White shook her head. Her throat was too dry for her to speak.

“I thought, how could one of my own betray me? My own little bitchlet, laughing and smiling with that snake? My own kin, socializing with a target? I was horrified, dear. Because you realize, of course, it goes beyond the dress. If she pushed me and I'd been injured, there goes cheer for a good portion of the season. I'll be honest, I thought of replacing you right then and there. What’s the president of your class named again? Platinum?”

Of course it was Platinum.

“Yes, I’ve been thinking for quite some time now. Platinum would make quite the Bitch if we managed to make her see things our way. She has something that you lack, I can see it in the way her eyes aren’t quite as bright as yours. Platinum seems like she would be good at carrying out my wishes. She has the resources, the smarts, the obedience.”

Please, White thought, make her stop.

“But in the end of your freshman year, I chose you. Do you know why?”

She shook her head again, and Blue laughed, a sharp, freezing knife that cut into White’s soul.

“Because you, White, had potential. Platinum is good at following orders. She’d never be able to lead the Bitches when Ruby and I were gone. She just doesn’t have quite the same...creativity that you or I have. But I would’ve chosen her. I would’ve! But then… I saw what you did to little Lillie.”

White’s heart nearly dropped into her stomach, and it took all she could muster to stand still, and not run away from Blue and hide in a corner, bury herself six feet under, and never, ever return.

“It really was quite clever. A little bit of payback for...what was it again? I seem to remember rumors swirling that Lillie was the one to almost have your band stopped from practicing at school, on the grounds of the music being, quote, annoying, loud, and unsuitable for the school environment. And to take eyes off of your band, to cause some other, bigger problem so that Madame would be distracted… you outed her to her mother.”

She remembered, as much as she wished it was erased from her memory. She was blinded with anger; her band was one of her favorite things in the world. There was no way they could practice outside of school, between N’s volunteering, Black’s soccer practice, and Blake’s refusal of meeting outside of school. But she couldn't let the band’s practices stop, it was the only thing she had before she had joined the Bitches, and the only way she could think of to save it was to distract Madame Lusamine. Whitley had asked why the band practiced with the volume quite low, which was a rule instituted by White as a way to try and make up for what she did. But there wasn’t any way to make up for it. There would never be. Seeing the fallout of what she did tore her up inside. She didn't think Madame Lusamine would react like she had. She wanted to believe that she would never have done that if she knew.

“I must say, I never would’ve guessed that after Madame lost it over Lillie, the brother would come out as well. You caused quite a stir when you left that picture on her table, dear. She completely lost it, spitting quite foul words at her daughter… and when her son announced that he was dating that green haired boy… No, not N, the other one. I think his name is Hau? No one was safe from her wrath that day.”

White closed her eyes with shame, her face turning red and hot. She remembered, oh so vividly, how she had seen Lillie and Moon in an empty classroom, so close to each other. She knew Moon was part of the GSA, of course; she was out openly. Lillie, on the other hand...well, she had thought Lillie was the S in GSA. Madame Lusamine’s children had to be perfect, after all. And when they started kissing, her mind had only jumped to one place, the darkest place, and her hand had almost instinctively reached for her phone, had opened the camera, had pressed the button. She remembered how Moon had moved to shut the blinds, mouth never leaving Lillie’s, and how she had ran off with her phone containing the evidence that had caused the relationship between Madame Lusamine and her kids to shatter.

“You have talent, White. I don’t think I’ve heard of this big of a mess since Elesa, one of the original Bitches, cheated on three guys at once. It’s been months, and Lillie’s family is still fighting about it. I heard Madame’s husband left her over it. And you know what the best part of it is? All of this, it’s all…”

Blue’s hand came up to grip White’s chin, and tilted it up so she was looking directly into White’s eyes.

“Because…”

Her grasp was so tight, her claws were cutting into White’s flesh. Blue’s stare was unyielding, icy blue eyes boring into her skull.

“Of you,” she hissed. She leaned in even closer, so she was speaking directly into White’s ear. “So what do you think will happen if the whole school finds out that you were the one that left the picture on Madame’s desk?”

White inhaled sharply. If she lost her cool or broke down crying, Blue would kick her out of the Bitches in a heartbeat, and an ex-Bitch was the worst, the most despised, the lowest of the low. She would be tormented constantly, Blue would most likely expose her anyway, and she’d have no option but to move to a different school. Away from the band. Away from Black.

“...I understand,” she breathed. She hoped she didn’t sound like she was about to cry.

“So then you’ll get Bianca’s phone for me at your date, won’t you, dear.” It wasn’t a question.

White had no other option.

“Yes.”

Goddamn you, Blue.

Chapter Text

God, it’s so much fun being me.

Blue let go of White’s chin, who’d turned completely pale, and watched as she practically bolted from the room. After White had left her sight, Blue sat down in a chair, and started to giggle. This whole situation was just so, so, funny to her. Honestly, she didn’t even care about that leather dress much anyway - sure it was nice, and sure it was a gift from Ruby, and she was pissed about Bianca ruining it, but did that mean she deserved the full wrath of the Bitches? Of course not. If she didn’t have a reputation to uphold, she wouldn't have done anything to Bianca; well, anything major, at least. Sure, she deserved some public shaming and petty pranks, but the reason she was making such a big deal out of it, the real reason she enjoyed doing it, was to watch White squirm.

That was a hilarious pastime to Blue. Watching White grow uncomfortable, playing the villain, oh, it was so much fun. The previous head of the Bitches had gone soft, forgoing the old ways of making the new person wriggle, holding the piece at the bottom of their carefully constructed tower of social presence, and Blue wouldn’t stand for that. When she was new, she’d been greeted warmly, and then brutally blackmailed by the former head. Her name was Jasmine, a sweet looking girl with a totally unreadable expression. She was something else, something new, that Blue had never seen before. The frigidity of Jasmine’s gaze had always made her shiver, and the way she spoke so calmly, so soft, had always been something Blue had admired. Because underneath the silky tones of her voice, there was cold, hard steel.

Blue had learned much from Jasmine, and her reign was heavily influenced by her former tutor. For after Jasmine had revealed she had the power to completely disassemble Blue’s entire reputation, Blue had become an even better Bitch than before. It had become simple - Jasmine gave her things to do, and she did them. Otherwise, her tower would fall. She’d hated Jasmine at first, but gradually, she began to respect her, and even more slowly, the other way around became true as well. Blue had kept coming up with more and more creative ideas, and Jasmine had kept fueling her fire, and here she was, about to take over as head Bitch, and goddamn ready for it, too.

She’d told the truth to White - she saw herself in those blue eyes, in the way she had been reluctant to help at first. That was Blue when she was younger, before she reached and exceeded the potential Jasmine saw in her. She saw that potential in White, and she knew she could break-- no, make her better. Because if she called what she was doing ‘breaking’ White, then that meant that Jasmine had ‘broken’ her. That was most certainly not what had happened. What had happened was, she was rebuilt. She had been reformed into a new version of herself, with an endless supply of confidence and a sly smirk, a tight black dress and a penchant for mischief. And she saw that in White. She could rebuild White into something beautiful. She smiled, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, and checked her phone. For now though, she sighed to herself, no building could be done; she was approximately three minutes late to class.

. . .

Lunch was by far the loneliest time for Blue. White was off at band practice, and Ruby always ate with Sapphire. She had plenty of other friends, of course, but none of them quite knew her like her Bitchlets did. There was one other person, however, that she could count on whenever she was in need of someone to talk to. Someone who she’d known since they were kids, someone who she could drop the façade around. She swept through the cafeteria, the click of her heels warning others of her presence.

“Hello, Silver, darling.”

In a table in a corner, all alone, sat a redheaded boy in a black jacket. There were whispers about him, that he was the son of a crime lord, that he once beat someone up with one arm. But whatever the rumors were, Blue didn’t start them. She didn’t care, either.

He stared at her with his shiny grey eyes, before a small, fleeting smile flashed across his face.

“What took you so long?” he asked. His voice was low and smooth, with the same cold undertones as Blue’s own. But whereas Blue had learned hers from Jasmine, Silver appeared to have been born with the steel under his voice.

“Oh, stop it with the ice, you’re going to make me think you hate me,” Blue sighed as she sat down. As much as she loved being the center of attention, she didn't mind spending lunches barely noticed. That was how she used to be, after all. And it was nice not having to constantly keep up her appearance. “You have got to stop dressing in black all the time. Nobody’s going to talk to you when you look so unapproachable.”

“I do not dress in only black.” He sounded indignant. “Look at this jacket!”

“The zipper being red doesn’t count, dear. You have the color scheme of a Disney villain, especially with that hair of yours. I can get Ruby to make you something-”

“Blue, you know I won’t take it.”

“You took the gloves I made for you, though! What’s so different about a shirt or something?”

“The difference is, you made that for me yourself! It’s a meaningful gift!” Silver looked at the black gloves on his hands, lined with red trim. Blue had spent hours slaving away trying to figure out how to make them, and the quality of her work definitely wasn’t anywhere near the quality of Ruby’s clothes, but she’d never seen Silver smile quite as big as he did when she gave them to him. She’d also never seen him without them on after that, even during the summer months. “If you get one of your bitchlets, or whatever you call them, to make something for me, it wouldn’t be the same!”

Blue sighed. Silver could be quite stubborn when he wanted to be. But if he would only accept things from her…

“Then how about this," she said, energized by a new idea. “You come with me after school today, and we’ll go get some new clothes for you. I’ll pay.”

Silver turned red, and glanced away. “I don’t know about that…”

“C’mon! It’s been ages since we’ve done anything together. You said your dad is away at the moment, right? You can’t have anything else to do after school!”

“What about cheer practice?”

“They don’t start until Wednesday.” She turned her face into a sad pout. She knew he couldn't resist that look. “C’mon. I miss you! And you need some friends! Let me help you for once!”

Silver turned a few shades darker. There was silence for a while. But finally, softly, he said, “Alright.”

“Thank you, finally you agree to something. And we could make you some friends with you wearing this already, you and Madame’s son Gladion seem to have the same sort of style. Or that boy Blake, in White’s band. He has the same serial-killer stare you’re so good at doing.”

He shifted uncomfortably, his perpetual frown deepening a touch. “Did you come here to insult me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, what’s wrong with them?”

“Gladion is completely unapproachable. The only way to make friends with him is to befriend his boyfriend, and honestly, Hau annoys me. Like, a lot.”

“Mmm,” Blue nodded, “too friendly for you?” Silver didn’t answer. “Well, what about Blake? He’s nice, at least, White says so.”

“Blue,” he said, exasperated, “his dad is a cop. He aspires to be exactly like, no, better than his dad. How do you think he’d react to me? My dad… well, you know. He might be good to me, but you know better than anyone else what he is. I’m better off staying as far away from Blake as possible.”

Blue exhaled through her nose, perching her chin on her fist. "I get it. It's fine, I just don't want to see you eating lunch alone."

"I'm not alone. You're sitting here, aren't you?"

"And what about next year, once I graduate? I'm not going to leave you alone, not if I can help it." She didn't know what more to say on the matter, not then. Silver's gaze shifted off of her, moving across the room. She turned to see what or who he was looking at, but his gaze moved too fast for her to tell. Suspicious. "Anyway. Have I asked you whether or not you're going to the homecoming game?"

"Only about ten times, and I feel like you're going to make me come anyway."

Blue smirked at him playfully. "Of course I am! Don't you want to see the real stars of the show- the cheer team? And you’re going to be my date to homecoming - that is, unless you find someone to go with first.”

“Yeah, I know, I know," he mumbled. Blue had made him go with her for the past two years, as a friend of course. It was an excellent incentive for him to find a date, or maybe just another friend he could go with, as Blue had shown him the first year, but he kept refusing, opting to go with her instead. But she was determined to help him find someone this year. She couldn’t just indict him into the Bitches - he didn’t have the right energy for the group, and of course he would refuse anyway. “Isn’t it time that you get going? To meet your ‘bitchlets’ or whatever you call them?”

She checked her phone; Silver was right. “Alright, you’re spared for now, but meet me by my locker when school’s over.” She grabbed her purse, and started rifling through it. Where was that goddamn tube? “And before you ask, that’s a threat, darling.” Her fingers closed around it’s smooth surface. “Oh! Found it!”

She pulled the small black case out of her bag, and tossed it to Silver, who snatched it out of the air before it could hit his face.

“What- what is this?” He sounded confused, examining it. Blue allowed herself to giggle, before explaining.

“Open it there, and twist the bottom.” she said, gesturing to the center of the case. She watched as Silver pulled off the cap and twisted up the bottom to reveal a tube of black lipstick. He looked up at her in disbelief.

“Are you serious? Blue, tell me you’re joking.”

“Nope! I don’t usually wear this type of thing, but it seemed right up your alley. It’s a gift! You better not throw it away, it cost thirty dollars.” Blue spun on her heel, and started to leave the cafeteria. The conversation was over. But she looked over her shoulder when she was quite far away to see Silver reading the note she’d affixed to the cap.

Wear it! she’d written, It’ll look great on you!

She’d totally stolen the line from Ruby, but if it got Sapphire to accept her boyfriend’s gifts, hopefully it would work on Silver. She watched as he laughed, shook his head, and closed the lipstick before putting it in his bag. She smiled and walked out before anyone could ask her what she was smiling about. The answer to that would not be as easy as would be expected.

. . .

Blue watched as Silver came running up to her locker. Much like they did for her, the sea of people gave him a wide berth when he went past. And the reasons were basically the same as well; the crowd was scared of them. Sure, it was for different reasons, but ultimately, it all came down to fear and the ice behind their eyes. He panted as he stopped, slowing down his speed as he approached her.

“Sorry… I’m late…” he said in between breaths.

Blue snapped her eyeshadow pallet shut as she watched him. She always found it best to give herself a glow-up before going out. “Five minutes late, to be precise. Why are you so tired? You used to be able to run three miles before stopping.”

“That… was when my dad was around all the time. He used to force me to train with him. Now that he’s… busier, he’s become more lenient, and I kind of took advantage of that. I'd rather not get up at the ass-crack of dawn just to run.”

“Tell me later, when we don’t have business to attend to.” She shut her locker, and started walking towards the entrance.

“Could you… not?”

“What?” She buried a hint of the steel deep in her voice. Silver, however, wasn’t intimidated. She honestly couldn’t see how he could be at all, living with his father. Then again, he knew her too well, too.

“Don’t use your Bitch lingo with me. Business - why can’t you just say we’re going to the mall or hanging out?”

Blue was miffed. Silver knew she’d drop her façade as soon as they were safely out of view of anyone from the school. “Because,” she hissed, “I have an appearance to keep up!”

"I don't see why you have to act like that, it's just us." He followed her to her car, sliding into the passenger seat. "I'm still wondering if not talking you out of the Bitches was a mistake."

She snorted, turning on the engine. "Please. Besides you and cheer, the Bitches is the best thing that's happened to me. Social immunity is everything here." She leaned over and turned the radio on before pulling out of the parking lot. They were both silent for a good portion of the way to the mall, which was only about ten minutes away. The Bitches was one of the first things they'd ever really argued about, but she liked it, so he couldn't talk her out of joining them. Besides, it gave him social immunity, too, whether he knew it or not. He was under their protection, which was a rare thing. Not that he needed it with his reputation, of course.

"Where are we starting?" he eventually asked, all but slamming the car door shut when they arrived. Obviously he still wasn't too keen on the idea of a shopping spree, but she couldn't help but be excited to not only help him, but spend a little extra time with him. "Please tell me not a men's boutique or something."

"Noooooo." Yes. But he didn't need to know that yet. She had to butter him up first. "Are you hungry? I'm in a soft pretzel mood."

She pretended not to see his posture lift for just a second. "Sure." He kept pace easily with her then, rather than falling a step or two behind. Soft pretzels were always the way to go for bribing him, especially the cinnamon sugar bites. They were one of the only sweet things he could eat a ton of, and she loved them too.

So that made their first stop, her treat. They took turns pulling the little pretzel bites out of the container, sometimes trying to fight each other over specific pieces like they were little kids. Blue wasn't sure she'd seen Silver smile so genuinely in a long time, and she was almost certain the same could be said for her.

They finished them as they approached their second stop, the dreaded clothing store. Silver slowed just a touch as they came closer, clearly reluctant to even step foot in the place. She sighed and pushed him forward into the store. "I promise this won't be so bad, okay? Just a little looking, maybe try on a few things. If you don't like anything after trying, then you don't have to get anything, deal?"

Silver grimaced at the mere thought of it. “Deal.” And with his agreement, Blue grabbed his hand and pulled him into the store.

At first, Blue had to drag him around by his sleeve. He’d floated behind her, not really looking at any of the outfits she thought were cute or the shirts she recommended. It just felt like he was trying his best to get it over with, which he probably was. She kept talking to him all the while, and the conversation, which had started off a bit stiff after their earlier fight, became more casual and friendly, and she could see him visibly start to relax. Still, he didn't seem nearly as into this as she was, but luckily, she always had a trick or two up her sleeve.

"What do you think of this one?" She purposely picked the least likely thing he would wear, a hot pink leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders. Something she knew they would both agree looked completely ridiculous. She could tell by the look on his face that he couldn't tell if she was serious or not. That only made her poker face more fun to keep up. "Ooh, or this!"

Eventually Silver realized what her game was and took the clothes from her, suppressing a laugh. "None of these," he said, piling them on a stack of graphic tees. He took a slow look around before his eye was drawn to something else completely.

“See something you like?”

He hummed in response, picking up a pair of skinny jeans. "I've wanted to try these," he muttered. "Never got around to it."

She took a step back, eyeing them and then him. His frame was a bit on the thin side, though his jacket hid most of his muscles. Skinny jeans wouldn't be a bad look on him. "Go for it, then. You don't have anything to lose." Quickly, she looked around for something he could try them on with. She took a thin, long sleeved black shirt off of a rack. "Here, try them on with this."

His nose crinkled a bit, even as he took it from her. "Are you sure?"

"Which one of us is friends with the most fashion-forward boy in this school? Yes, I'm sure. Honestly, Silver, I think after two years of hanging around him I’d have picked something up.”

“Alright… I’ll go put it on now.” He made for the nearest fitting room, disappearing inside. Blue stood outside, opening her phone’s messaging app.

Blue sighed at her phone. Ruby could be so nosy sometimes. But it was that which made him such a good Bitch: he could always be counted on knowing what’s happening anywhere at any given time. A true legend in his field, really. She stared at her phone, waiting for the little dots indicating Ruby typing to appear, when the curtain swung open.

“Uh… how do I look?”

God, she really did learn something from Ruby. The Silver who pulled open the curtain looked completely different from the one who had closed it. The thin shirt covered up much less than that jacket he wore all so often, so his lean frame was much more visible. Same with his jeans, they showed off his legs in a much more flattering way than the pants he was wearing before. But still, even with the vast improvement, there was something missing.

“C’mere for a second.” she said, digging through her bag for a spare hair tie. Silver walked over to her, confused.

“Blue, if you don’t like it, you can just say so. It’s no big loss to me, you’re the one who picked this and if it doesn’t look good, I get to make fun of you."

“Oh, shut up. Turn around.” Blue gathered his hair together at the base of his head. She pretended not to feel him flinch slightly when she accidentally brushed the back of his neck with her hand. Silver had been touch averse ever since they were children, and she was pretty sure that that was why he clung to the gloves she’d made for him so much; they protected his hands from anyone who might touch them. She pulled the long, red mess through the hair tie a couple of times, making sure to leave the bits covering his ears out, before stepping back and admiring her work.

The ponytail she had made looked much more natural with the outfit, and since apparently Silver never bothered to brush his hair, it was quite bouncy, much like White’s when it wasn’t straightened. She tossed him a pair of sunglasses, which she had also pulled from her bag. “Put those on top of your head.”

Silver did. He looked like he was about to go on a vacation, much more laid back and approachable in these clothes than he was in his regular ones. He still looked a bit uncomfortable in them, though, which Blue hoped would go away with time.

“Okay, you can look now.”

He turned to look at himself in the mirror behind him. His eyebrows raised in surprise at his appearance. “Oh!”

“What was all that about not being sure that these would look good on you? Honestly, you should just trust me sometimes. But… you’re still wearing your gloves?”

“... I like them. They remind me that someone actually likes me in this world.”

Blue sighed, though the sentiment was sweet. “Silver, darling. I love you, but you’re so stubborn! Take them off! I know I gave them to you, but it won’t hurt to leave them behind for a day! If you feel that strongly about gifts from me, wear the lipstick I gave you today. I promise I won’t be too hurt.”

After much silence, Silver slowly and very reluctantly began to peel the gloves off of his hands. Once both of them were off, he folded them neatly, and put them in his backpack. He pulled the small tube of black lipstick out too, and stood, paralyzed, looking at himself in the mirror.

“Here,” Blue said, “let me do it.” She grabbed the lipstick from his hand, and he flinched openly this time. "Shit, sorry." Before doing anything more, she pulled her own pair of white gloves she’d made at the same time as Silver’s out of her bag and put them on. She leaned a little closer to him as she opened the lipstick and dragged it over his lips.

“Open your mouth.”

Hesitantly, he obeyed, and she put some on his inner lip. She worked quietly, remembering the time as children where she had tested various forms of makeup on him and accidentally made him look like he’d been punched in the eye. She suppressed a giggle. “Alright. There you go.”

He glanced in the mirror again. Black coated his lips, making his metallic eyes even shinier. “What do you think?”

He turned to her, eyes softened. “I love it!”

And for the first time since they were kids, Blue heard no steel in Silver’s voice.

. . .

Blue appreciated beauty sleep, especially along with breakfast that she and her parents made together. Maybe it was "uncool" for teens to get along with their parents, but she was very grateful for hers. They were, again, two of the few people she could be herself around. But today, she couldn’t spend much time around them. Not when there was business to do.

She sacrificed the last hour or so of her precious beauty sleep in order to get ready, as much as she hated getting out of bed so early. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand.

She tossed it on her bed and waited for a reply. In the meantime, she flung open her closet.

What to wear, what to wear. She didn’t want to go for her usual look, a black dress and white heels, as it would make her instantly recognizable to anyone from school she might come across. She pawed through the clothes, dress after dress, before finally arriving at a thin black jumpsuit, which would do for now. She couldn’t be too casual, after all, for what would she do if anyone saw her in a t-shirt? Jasmine had always looked impeccable, especially in Blue’s darkest moments, and so would she. Her phone buzzed on the bed.

The Crepe Place, huh? Lots of corners in that place, high booths...it's like the universe knew that she would be looking in on their little double date. Plus, she'd been in the mood for strawberry and nutella. All of the pieces were already falling perfectly into place.

She hummed as she blotted foundation and toner onto her face. Nothing too different with her makeup, she’d spent a year perfecting her look, and even when she didn’t want to be recognized, she wasn’t going to give it up. Eyeliner, mascara, blush, and… done! She glanced over to her lipstick drawer. This was the final piece. She rummaged through the tubes, contemplating which color would go best with her jumpsuit, when a singular tube in the back of it caught her eye.

It was a tube of black lipstick she’d purchased a while ago, the one she’d originally intended to give to Silver before… before her parents found out who Silver’s dad was. They’d screamed at her that his dad was dangerous, that he was dangerous, and she shouldn’t hang around him. In fact, they'd refused to let her be near him. They told her to make some normal friends for once, so she accepted Jasmine’s invitation to join the Bitches, in the hopes that it would get her parents off her back. And it worked, but they still refused to let her see her friend. But she found other ways. She knew they wanted to protect her, but it annoyed her to no end that they didn't even give him a chance.

She closed her hand around the tube, and uncapped it.

. . .

“One strawberry-nutella crepe and a cup of fruit tea, is that right?”

“Yes, thank you,” Blue said to the blue-haired waiter taking her order. She caught a flash of his name tag, reading Cress.

“It’ll be out shortly.” He left, leaving her to wait for her little bitchlet to finally show up. She crossed her ankles- for crossing legs would lead to spider veins- and kept a sharp
eye on the door. She was just far enough away for them to not notice her, just close enough where she'd be able to hear their conversation.

Just a little reminder for her youngest bitchlet wouldn't hurt. She didn't need to know that Blue was here, and Ruby surely didn't tell White anything. Of course he wouldn't, he knew how much she trusted him. To betray that trust would be to betray the legacy of the Bitches.

Her tea came, and Blue was starting to get bored waiting for her little bitchlet. People-watching in the meantime, at least, was interesting. It was always a favorite pastime of hers, and was what made her so good at reading people. Studying enough of them gave her the means to easily determine their weak points, among other things. That's part of what made her such a good Bitch: observation.

White and the others walked in not too long after, taking a seat right within her sights. Perfect. Her tea came not too long after, which was even better for her dramatic stake out. At least, that's what she liked to think it was. Imperative business such as this was perfect for a stake out.

Wait- the pink haired waitress taking care of them looked familiar. Blue stared a little extra hard, trying to remember where she'd seen her before. Suddenly, it clicked in her mind. That waitress was a former Bitch, the one who graduated before Jasmine! Oh, but she couldn't recall her name for the life of her. Still, this could have some benefits…

"Excuse me!" The moment the waitress was near her, she flagged her down. Whitney, that was her name! "You wouldn't happen to be the same Whitney who went to the high school on Indigo Road, would you? The Whitney who was in the Bitches with Jasmine a couple years ago?"

Whitney stared at her, trying to figure her out. “...Yes, yes I am. And you are..?”

“My name is Blue, I’m the current Head Bitch. Jasmine recruited me after you graduated.”

“Oh my god, is it really you?!” Her mouth hung open in disbelief. “You look so different from when Jasmine first sent me a picture of you! I’ll admit, I had my doubts about you in the beginning, but Jas said you had really good potential, and look at you now! Head Bitch, two other members. You turned out great!”

Blue smiled. This would be easier than she thought. “I have a little favor to ask of you, if you wouldn't mind returning for a few minutes. One Bitch to another."

Whitney glanced around to make sure nobody was looking before sliding in the booth opposite her. "What do you have in mind?"

"Nothing big, don't worry." She pointed over to White's table. "Ponytail girl over there is White, one of my bitchlets. The blonde is our target. Now, White already has her orders, but if an accident were to happen and the blonde were to get a drink spilled on her…"

"I see where you're going with this. Let me see what I can do." With a single nod, Whitney left the table and disappeared into the kitchen. Blue sat back and took a sip of her tea, still perfectly hot. All she had to do was wait.

Her crepes came within five minutes, the nutella melting onto the strawberries. She ate while she watched Whitney deliver their drinks and crepes, while she listened to the awkward conversation between the girls.

"So, how've you been?" Bianca asked White, an innocent smile on her lips. She didn't know what was coming, and that made this entire exchange that much funnier.

"Fine. Busy with the band and everything." White's head bobbed up and down as silence fell upon them. The boys didn't do much to remedy the situation, which she would have predicted anyway. The boyfriend didn't usually get in between his girlfriend's spats. She could barely contain her laughter as they kept avoiding each other's glances, looking at each other and then looking away. This was punishment enough for White, poor thing. Hopefully Whitney would come soon and take them both out of their misery.< /p>

Bianca looked like she wanted to keep trying to talk, but she never said anything even though she opened her mouth multiple times to. Whitney chose that moment to strike, offering up a refill on tea before "tripping" and spilling at least a cup and a half of it on Bianca. A little splashed onto Cheren and Black. Only White, by sheer chance, was left dry.

"I'm so sorry!" Whitney said, putting on an incredible show on such short notice. "I can grab towels-"

Bianca shook her head, standing. "It's fine, I can dry off better in the bathroom. I'll be right back." She hurried off, soon followed by the boys. Whitney left the way she came after helping White wipe the table with napkins, winking at Blue on her way. Blue smiled right back, keeping a close eye on White. First step was complete, now White could follow through and take Bianca’s phone. She snickered; this was why she never left her bag and phone behind when she used the bathroom.

White seemed to be very nervous about what she was going to do. Of course, she didn’t even know that Blue was right there behind her, watching her every move, which would add so much more pressure. Blue could tell that White knew that this was the perfect opportunity. Very reluctantly, her hand inched towards Bianca’s bag. Her hand stopped right outside the unzipped side pocket. Blue could tell that she was having second thoughts, which was completely unacceptable. This job needed to be done, and it needed to be done now. When else would she get the perfect chance? Never, that’s when, especially given that the double date was tanking. Even Black and Cheren, who normally got along well, were awkwardly avoiding conversation.

“Come on, you little bitch,” she muttered into her tea. She sent multiple thoughts White’s way, not that she had any way of receiving them. White’s fingertips slid into the bag, slowly, carefully. Almost there…

Her hand shot out of the bag, nothing grasped between her fingertips. The boys were already back from the bathroom. Blue resisted the urge to smack her head against the wall multiple times. She knew the saying, though; if she wanted the job done right, she had to do it herself. White failed this one; a strike against her in Blue’s book. If she failed the rest of this, not only would Blue throw her out of the Bitches- publicly, she might add- but she would play her trump card and expose White’s secret. It was no skin off her nose. Actually, it would be quite fun, but then she would have to go through the trouble of finding another Bitch to replace her. Even though she already had Platinum in mind, the girl was horribly oblivious to her advances.

She burned a hole in the back of White’s head with her eyes, as White awkwardly offered her sympathy to Bianca, who had a giant brown stain over the front of her shirt and jacket. If she strained herself, she could just make out their conversation.

“Wow, I can’t believe it! I’m so sorry, Bianca. Here,” White said, “I have another shirt in my bag you can use-”

Was she seriously offering to spare a target from humiliation? Oh hell no. That was breaking the Bitch Code, to help a target. Although, White had no idea that Blue was behind this, so she supposed she could give her another pass. But still. That was another strike against White. One more, and she’d be O-U-T out of the Bitches.

“Oh, no, it’s okay. I spill stuff on myself all the time, I’ve gotten pretty good at getting stains out. Honestly, I’m pretty sure everyone’s used to me with random blotches on my clothes by now.” Bianca’s tone was light and cheerful. Too cheerful. Blue hadn’t really cared about the dress incident, but she wanted Bianca to feel as bad as she did when her clothes were ruined. Bitch probably couldn’t afford anything expensive, anyway.

White shifted uncomfortably once that topic was run dry. “Um, so, how are you?”

“Good! Cheren and I have been dating for a year now, so that’s, um, exciting.”

White and Bianca sat in silence for a while. White nearly looked pained from the lack of conversation, while Bianca smiled obliviously. God, these two were the awkwardest people she’d ever seen. And the boys still weren’t any help, carrying on their own conversation. If Blue weren’t trying to be incognito, she would march over there and give them a nudge- though she was sure that even if she did that, White wouldn’t appreciate it too much. She needed to work on that, appreciated all Blue’s done for her.

“Hey, um, do you still have those pictures of us from middle school?” Blue leaned forward a little, eager to hear. She had an inkling as to what White was getting at, and while it would’ve achieve the actual target…

“Yeah! Can you believe how much time has passed since then? We were so small.” Bianca pulled out her phone, likely bringing up the pictures. “I mean, just look at us.”

Blue just barely saw White flinch at the pictures. If they were that embarrassing, then they were more valuable than she’d predicted. “Would you mind sending those to me? I lost my copies forever ago.”

Bianca looked truly overjoyed by that. She probably thought that it was so they could rekindle their lost friendship. She could just imagine Bianca’s reaction when she found out it was the exact opposite! “Sure thing! Just give me a second.”

While Blue couldn’t see White’s face, the way her posture caved in on itself while Bianca’s eyes were off of her told her what she was feeling. Frustration bubbled inside her. How long had she spent between last school year and the summer priming White to be the best Bitch she could be? All of that training was going to waste here. Bitches were confident; they never slouched like that. Maybe Blue would’ve been better off leaving her alone and choosing Platinum instead.

Actually, there was still time if she wanted to do just that. It would really drive the message home, especially since Platinum and White were both student body president and vice president, respectively. If push came to shove and White had a third strike against her, Blue couldn’t think of a better person to replace her with.

Conversation leveled off steadily once their crepes arrived, leaving Blue bored. She was almost done with hers- she was stalling in order to observe their entire date, but if they were just going to do this the rest of the time, she wasn’t sure staying was worth it.

“-those other two, Ruby and Blue?”

What?

“They’re nice,” White said. Blue could just barely pick up on a defensive undertone in her voice. Obviously whoever asked wasn’t too keen about them. “They took me in, you know? They’re good people.”

Well, Ruby was, maybe, but Blue’s reputation said otherwise. It was better to be feared than loved, after all. “Aren’t they mean? I’ve heard so much about what they’ve done in the past. Everyone always talks about how stuck-up, dramatic, and coldhearted they are, and I can see it in them. I can’t imagine you hanging out with them,” Cheren said, turning his attention onto her.

White shifted, seemingly uncomfortable. “They’re not mean to me. Ruby actually makes a lot of clothes and helps me with my hair and makeup sometimes, and Blue is sweet once you get to know her.” What she said about Ruby wasn’t completely wrong, but lying right to their faces about Blue? Well, she could accept it for now. It showed her skill for lying. She was better at it than Blue thought. “Can we talk about something else, please?”

Hmm. Blue should keep this conversation in mind, shouldn’t she? They really should be careful about what they say in public. It’ll always get around to the person they were talking about, one way or another. And if, just maybe, their opinions circled to the wrong people…

She slid her phone back into her bag, taking out her wallet to pay for her food. She’d gotten all she could out of them- more than she expected, at least. The rest of today was in White’s hands. Whether she passed or failed was up to her.

She lingered outside for just a minute or two, asking herself if she should really entrust this job to White of all people. Something this important and all. She had half a mind to go in there and just take Bianca’s phone herself.

Movement in the window caught her attention just before she left. She backtracked a couple of steps so she could properly see in without being seen herself. As they talked, White’s hand moved under the table, snaking over to Bianca’s bag, where her phone was nearly falling out of the side pocket… And since everyone else was too distracted by a story Black was telling, nobody else’s eyes were on her. She doubted Bianca would even be able to tell in her peripheral vision that something was happening.
White slipped the phone into her own small bag, a conflicted look crossing her face for just a split second before she went back to laughing along with everyone else. Blue nodded in approval, a small smirk growing on her lips. She knew White would pull through eventually.

Chapter Text

Blue is an idiot.

Nothing would ever change that. Even though Silver had known her for years, god, she still got on his nerves sometimes. Dragging him shopping, dragging him to homecoming, pressuring him to try and make friends- he knew she had good intentions, but man, could she be annoying. He sighed and dropped off the bag of clothes Blue had bought for him. In addition to the shirt and jeans, he’d been forced to bring home a leather jacket (too much work for him, couldn’t wear it in the rain, couldn’t wear it in the snow), a pair of sunglasses, and many other shirts, most of which Blue had picked out for him. He had to admit, they looked good. But they pinched in places that shouldn’t pinch, and the material wasn’t what he was used to. Nothing was what he was used to.

Sunday came and went, and still his dad hadn’t returned. Normally he was punctual with his returns, which was at least a schedule Silver could rely on. No surprises at all. Honestly, he was starting to get a bit worried. Had something happened? Well, if it did… Silver wasn’t really sure how to feel. Happy that his dad was getting what was coming for him? Even more worried, because he was, after all, his dad? He resolved to feel nothing. Merely to go to school, and come back home, and if his dad wasn’t there, then he could make up his mind. Nothing would really prepare him either way. Going through with a normal day was the best course of action.

He got out of bed and pulled open his closet door. He knew he’d be expected to wear the clothes Blue had gotten for him, but in all honesty, he hated them more and more with every passing second. It was like he was her charity case: something to fix. He still knew that if he didn’t wear at least one thing, though, she’d lose her shit.

Ugh. She wanted me to be more approachable, right? I’ll just wear the least approachable outfit out of these.

He grabbed the bag and tossed the contents on his bed. More approachable...had she even thought that he might like himself the way he was? Whether or not he was “approachable” wasn’t his problem. He rifled through the clothes, not bothered if they wrinkled. Which would be the least approachable out of them? What could he wear to intimidate?

Eventually, he settled on the black jeans he’d tried on Saturday, the ones he actually picked out himself. At least he could have some say in his own outfit. That, and a black shirt with a rather simple band logo on it. He had no idea who it was, of course, but the text was red and it matched his hair. He felt that something was missing, though. He still looked like someone who wouldn’t mind a conversation, and that wouldn’t do. What could he do to turn up the intimidation factor? He glanced through his closet again, and his eyes caught a sleek leather jacket in the corner, gathering dust. The jacket that his dad had bought him before he left. As with all presents from his dad, he’d pretended it didn’t exist, hence why he never wore it before. Hell, he forgot he even had it.

He approached carefully, like it would start moving on him. It seemed like something that might happen. The fabric was cool and smooth, if a bit dusty. It didn’t feel stiff like his new one did; this one was more worn in, like it had already been worn, despite still having the tags on it. He couldn’t believe he was about to do this.

He took a shaky, shallow breath, and slipped it on carefully, brushing the dust off of the shoulders and trying not to breathe it in. It fit...perfectly. That was as much of a surprise as anything. He didn’t even think his dad knew his size. It felt…good, like it was meant for him. Like it fit him. He turned to the mirror.

Holy shit.

It looked a lot better than he originally expected. It looked like it belonged on him, which was much more than he could expect of his regular clothes. Still, though, looking at himself in the mirror, the way it just seemed like… like it was meant to be on him, that scared him. It was his dad’s gift. His dad was an awful person. He’d seen his dad in leather jackets all the time, and to be honest, Silver looked like him. Same expression, same cold vibe. It wouldn’t do. He was his own person, and he’d make it his own. Slowly, he pulled open the drawer of various bits of makeup and gifts Blue had given to him over the years. He’d make it his own.

. . .

“Silver, darling, what the HELL are you wearing?”

“What you gave me.”

He smirked a bit as he saw Blue’s incredulous expression turn into one of shock. She looked him up and down again, and her frown lightened into a vague smile. “So you are. Actually, you don’t look half bad! The lipstick I gave you looks good. Still have a way to go on approachable, but…” Her eyes froze on his face. “Yeah, come with me for a sec.”

Confused, he did as she asked, following her into a barren classroom. “What’s wrong?”

“Your eyeliner. Sit down and let me help you.” Drat. He knew he did something wrong. He hadn’t exactly used eyeliner before, and already it was a pain in the ass to put on. “Look up so I don’t poke your eye.”

Luckily for him, her gloves were already on, since the heel of her hand rested on his cheek as she worked. It took a lot less time than he expected, but it wasn’t exactly something he wanted to do himself.

“Alright. You’re good. Open your eyes now.”

Silver did, and found himself facing a mirror. He looked… different. The eyeliner made his eyes look even more cold and unflinching.

“Tilt your chin up, dear. No looking down. You wanted to look unapproachable, you gotta act it too.”

He turned to Blue.

“Shut up.”

“Oh. Whoa. You got it now,” she said, no trace of iciness in her voice. In fact, he could detect a bit of shakiness in her voice. Was she… scared? Of him?

“Blue? You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, still a tremor in her voice. She shook her head, before looking back at him. “It’s just… you look so much like… like your dad.”

Immediately Silver turned red, and started pulling off the jacket like it was a hot coal draped over him. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen.

“I’m sorry!” he gasped, barely restraining himself from throwing the jacket across the room. “I’m sorry. I-”

Blue put her gloved hand on his. “No, no, keep it on. It looks great. You might give off the same vibe as him, but you aren’t him. You’re Silver. Right?”

He took a few shaky breaths. “Right. Right.”

“Don’t cry on me now, or I’ll have to redo your makeup. Honestly, I might just take you to Ruby. I don’t keep makeup wipes on me. Come on.”

She moved his hand from his jacket to his side, gently stroking the back of it.

“Look in the mirror. It’s you, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“And you look goddamn fabulous, right?”

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “I don’t know about that.”

“Well, you do. So act like it. You should go. Class is starting soon.”

“Okay.”

Blue studied his face for a moment, before turning around to leave. Before she crossed the threshold of the classroom though, Silver called out.

“Blue!”

She swiveled around to face him. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

She smiled, a wide smirk spreading across her face.

“Well, of course. We bitches help each other, after all.”

She left, and that was that.

. . .

God, this class is so boring.

Silver was in chemistry, absentmindedly spinning his pen. The teacher was droning on about thermodynamics and entropy... no, enthalpy? Exotherminity? Elephantry— honestly, he didn’t care about any of it. The gnawing thought at the back of his head made it hard to focus on anything else- whether or not his dad would come back. Would he be wounded? Silver recalled a time as a young child where his dad had been out a day longer than he said he would. He’d been so scared, he’d almost called the police, but then he remembered his father’s threats about what would happen if he did, and the thought was out of his head immediately. Eventually, when he came back home, he was clutching his side, blood soaking the fabric of his trench coat. Silver had been so scared, so anxious, but he was still only a young child. He had no idea what had happened. Would that happen again? He hoped not. He didn’t exactly remember the first aid course he took four years ago. He stared at the whiteboard, lost in thought, not listening to anything the teacher was saying at all.

“Hey. Heeey!” A finger tapped his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

He blinked, startled, and turned to the boy in the seat next to him who had poked him. The first thing he noticed was the boy’s amber eyes, filled with mischief under the concerned expression he put up.

“Yes, I’m fine.” He turned away. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment.

“Awww, come on. Don’t be like that. What’s your name?” Silver wrinkled his nose, annoyed. He chose to ignore the question. The boy huffed. “Well, if you aren’t gonna tell me, I won’t tell you mine.”

“Fine by me.”

“Ugh. Called my bluff. I’m Gold. And yours is Silver, right?”

Silver whirled around, shocked. “How’d you-?” He saw Gold grinning, twirling Silver’s student ID in his hand, and his backpack unzipped on the floor.

“Heh. We make a fine pair, don’t you think?” How did he even do that? “I suggest you pay a little more attention, Mr. Dark and Broody. Never know who could be going through your bag.”

Silver snatched his ID from Gold, tossing it back into his bag and kicking it more under his seat. He wasn’t going to dignify that with a response, even though he was right about one thing: he needed to start paying more attention. To the class, that was. Class was more important than anything someone he didn’t know had to say. But the class was over, and everyone was getting up to leave as the teacher shouted homework instructions. He reached down for his bag to copy it down, but it was no longer there. Immediately, he turned back to Gold, who was, as he suspected, holding it.

“I don’t know if this is your idea of a joke,” he snarled, “but you’re going to give me my bag back right now.”

“Why? What’s so important about it?” Gold asked, before glancing at his eyes. His expression shifted into one of shock. “Woah. Scary. Anyway, I was just getting your bag for you. Here.” He held out the bag. Silver reached out for it- but at the last second Gold dropped the bag, snatched his glove off his hand, and ran out of the classroom door.
Silver froze, staring from his bare hand to the door. Rage burned in his chest as his gaze hardened even more. His hand balled into a fist as he shoved it into his pocket and slung his bag on his opposite shoulder.

The way he moved in the hallway was like that of a lion on the prowl. He saw Gold turn out of the classroom, in the same direction as his next class. He didn't care if he was late, but he still moved quickly, weaving in and out of the crowds. If they parted for him before, his murderous expression made them turn tail and run. In any other situation, he would be glad for the change. He barely paid attention to it then.

Each step he took felt more and more desperate; he needed his glove back, just like he needed to make Gold pay for taking it.

"Silver?" Blue. Her steps quickened to match his. She tried to peer at his face, but his eyes remained on his target. "Silver, what-"

"Not. Now." His voice was a near growl, all from his throat.

From the corner of his eye, he saw surprise register on her face before her steps halted. "We're talking about this later!" she called, something he wasn't used to laced in her voice. He didn't bother trying to figure out what it was; he had a target to find.

And find he did. Gold stood in the center of a group of football players, both male and female. Silver didn't know many of them by name. His vision tunneled on their laughter, their gleeful smiles. Gold seemed proud, brandishing Silver's glove. Still, though, whenever any of the football players tried to grab it out of his hand, he clutched it closer to his chest. Did the football teams put him up to it? That only made the situation worse: a crowd, and other people who would side with Gold. He strode up to the edge of the group, shouldering past people he didn’t know. His eyes were only focused on Gold.

“Ay! Emo boy!” a voice called after him. Silver recognized it as Sapphire’s, the captain of the girl’s football team. “What did ya do that for?”

He ignored her. Gold caught sight of him, and his smile faltered. He started trying to make his way out of the middle of the group.

“Oi!” Sapphire cut in front of him. “I said, what did ya do that for! Say yer sorry!”

Silver tried to elbow past her again, but she didn’t budge. She was definitely much stronger than her was. Over her shoulder he could see Gold running down the corridor.

“Tch! I don’t have time for this,” he muttered. “Move.”

“What did ya just say?” She glared at him, most likely trying to intimidate him. Even though he was taller than her, she radiated an aura of fury. Normally he would’ve just apologized and moved on, but not today.

“I said, move.” He glared at her, hoping whatever had scared Blue about him earlier would work on Sapphire too. It appeared to, for she mumbled “O-oh” and stepped aside. He could see the fear in her eyes, which bothered him a bit, but he banished it to the back of his mind. He broke through the other side of the group, but he could no longer see the yellow of Gold’s hat anywhere in the hallway. And so he stood there, dripping with fury, hand still in his pocket.

He didn’t see Gold for the rest of the day, but when he walked into chemistry class the next day... That bastard was dead.

. . .

5:08 PM, the front door to Silver’s house creaked open. He barely looked up from his homework, but he recognized his dad's footsteps anywhere. He was late- they both knew it, but Silver knew that neither one of them would mention it. That was how their relationship worked: don't ask, don't tell.

They did not greet each other so much as acknowledge each other with a glance and a nod. With one glance, Silver gleaned the reason for his late arrival: his shirt was oddly wrinkled around his midsection (bandages, he knew) and there was a more grim look on his face than usual (from disposal of...well. He didn't want to think about it).

“Welcome home,” he said, his eyes dropping back down to his notebook. Nothing good would come of asking about anything, not even checking to see if his dad was at least okay. It was better to not bother at all.

“Did you do all the chores I asked you?” His dad wouldn’t mention it either. Even though Silver could hear his ragged breathing and see him wince as he moved over to the fridge out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah. Everything’s done."

“Good.” Silver felt his dad’s eyes move over to him. “Silver?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re wearing the jacket I gave you. And… makeup.”

Oh, shit. He’d forgotten to take it off. As for the makeup, he wasn’t exactly sure what the reaction would be. He almost didn't want to know, but it was too late now. He looked up at his dad’s face, expressionless as always. He’d always thought his dad would be killer at poker.

“...The jacket looks good on you. It suits you well. And the makeup looks good, too. I don’t recall ever buying you eyeliner or lipstick. Was this Blue’s work?”

Would it be better to stay silent? Probably not, not with a direct question. He’d find out anyway. He always did. “Yes.”

“She has a knack for makeup. Tell her Ruby has some competition." His eyes wandered down to Silver's hands. "Where’s your other glove?”

Silver’s face started turning red with anger. Pretending to be a part of his life by name-dropping people he knew. Despicable. He resolved to stay calm- he didn’t know what would happen if he lost it around his dad after he’d just returned from a trip. “Some boy at school stole it.”

“Mmm. You just let some kid steal something I’ve never seen you without?”

For the first time in months, Silver dared to look his dad in the eye. He was getting just as fired up as he was when the glove was originally stolen, the steely look returning to his face.

“He’s not going to get away with it.” His voice was cold, sharp. Deadly. His dad stared at his face, before bursting out into a throaty laugh, which slowly devolved into a coughing fit.

“You know, if you tell me this boy’s name, I can help you. He sounds like he needs to be taught a lesson.”

Like hell he would. “No. I’ll do it myself.” Honestly, Silver was disgusted at the idea of letting his dad do all the dirty work for him. And his dad’s punishments were… extreme. There was a case of multiple kids going missing at the old school he went to. He’d never made the connection until years later. It sickened him to even think about. "Just stay out of it."

His dad held his hands up in a surrendering gesture, but Silver would be a fool to think for a second that he was surrendering. His dad never surrendered; merely retreated for a while. He gathered up his homework and made to move to his room.

“Silver,” his dad called. “You’re doing well.”

What?

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, you remind me of myself when I was your age. Use your anger. You’ll go far.”

Silver didn’t know what to say. What could he say? That he was the one person in the world he didn't want to be like? He settled on something he knew wouldn’t upset his dad. “Um. Thanks.”

He shut the door to his room. His dad was right, as much as he didn’t like to admit it. He would go far. But first, he needed to make Gold understand what happened when people messed with him.

. . .

There he was. Sitting on the other chair of Silver’s desk. Alone! Didn’t he know there was safety in numbers? Didn’t he know what was going to happen to him? Gold sat, fidgeting nervously, his eyes shifting around the room. Silver’s glove was in his hand.

Silver dropped his bag with a loud thud, making Gold jump. Okay, so that was a little amusing, but he didn't have the time to laugh. "Gold."

“Oh!” he stammered. Silver was starting to understand why Blue found it so amusing to mess with people. Watching Gold squirm under his gaze made him smirk. “I was… waiting for you.”

“I can see that. And you have my glove.” He raised his eyebrows. “You aren’t trying to run, so I assume you’re here to give it back?” He could see Gold swallow dryly, betraying just how nervous he was. God, it really was fun.

“Uh, yeah. But first, I wanted to apologize.” Oh? “Um, what I did was… wrong, and I want to tell you I only did it because the football teams dared me to. I, uh, I’m sorry.”

A sincere apology. I haven’t heard one of those in years. Silver felt the urge to smack Gold start dissipating. He resolved instead to remain expressionless.

“Um, here’s your glove back.” He held it out. Hesitantly, Silver removed his ungloved hand from his pocket and reached out to take it. As he grasped it, he felt his hand brush against Gold’s and pulled it back like it had touched a hot coal. He knew it wasn’t intentional, but he still flinched at the contact.

“Are you okay?” Gold’s face had turned from one of nervous guilt to one of genuine concern in the matter of a couple seconds. None of the mischief he saw the day before. Before Silver knew what was happening, he reached for Silver’s hand. “Is something the matter with your hand?”

“Don’t touch me!” Silver gasped, yanking his hand away. Red hot pain seared through his body and fear started coursing through him. He snatched the glove from Gold with his covered hand and quickly pulled it on. The feeling that had come with the contact still wouldn’t go away, though- he knew it would be hours until he felt right again. Stupid! Why did he use his bare hand? He knew better than that!

“Oh, um, okay. Are you alright, though?”

Silver sighed, trying to rearrange his expression into what it was before. “I’ll be fine. Just don’t touch me. Ever. Got it?”

“Yeah, okay. I won’t.” Gold stared down at his shoes, and he was quiet for once. Silver scoffed, before turning to pick up his bag and moving over to his desk. Why had he told Gold he would be fine? Why had he talked to him at all? Silver didn’t know. He’d just looked so worried, so scared that he’d done something awful. Which he had. But he didn’t know he was doing it, so he supposed he could give him a pass. Just once. Gold had stolen his glove, but he gave it back, and apologized, so… Silver resolved to feel neutral about the boy sitting next to him.

The rest of the class was borderline awkward, even though there were no opportunities for them to talk to each other. Silver could feel Gold stealing glances at him instead of paying attention. It was kind of annoying, but there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment. Chemistry wasn’t going to pass any faster by doing something, unfortunately.

“Work on this individually, just so I can see where everyone is on this subject,” the teacher said, passing out a worksheet. Silver studied it; it didn’t seem too long, just a page and a half. “Lab partner assignments will be on the board once you’re done. And just so you know, there is no switching, no exceptions.”

Fine. He glanced over at Gold, who groaned at the sight of the worksheet. He pitied the fool who would be assigned Gold’s lab partner. Chemistry didn’t seem like his strong suit.

As for Silver, he wasn’t the best, but he was nowhere near the worst. He recalled a lot of the information from previous science classes; most of this unit was just basic thermodynamics and other topics from the previous year, stuff that was basically drilled into their heads before. This unit wouldn’t be much of a challenge at all. A worksheet was given to him, and he set to work. As he suspected, nothing difficult. It was a secret, but Blue had given him tutoring in science over the summer; she was actually quite good at it. He answered the questions with ease, but Gold, he saw, was struggling. In the time he’d finished, Gold had only made it past the front side of the first page. He seemed like the type of student to do the work slowly, but rush through the quizzes only to get the same grade. Whether or not the work would pay off was up to his studying schedule- not that Silver actually cared. That was just based on his own experience.

The teacher was steadily making progress on lab partner assignments by the time he looked up. His name wasn’t listed yet. Then again, neither was Gold’s. Name by name, neither of theirs showed up. Silver was honestly starting to get a bit nervous. He was running out of other people to be paired with. There was no way the universe was this evil, was there? Surely it recognized he had enough suffering for a lifetime, right? Please, put me with someone else…

Fewer names. Eight. Six. Four…

Gold and Silver.

Well, shit. Whatever was in charge of the universe was out to get him. If the universe hated him so much, could it open up a hole in the ground and swallow him? Certainly that would be better than forcing him through a semester of torture with Gold as his lab partner.

Gold didn’t exactly seem happy about the arrangement, either. The slight, concentrating frown on his lips had deepened into a hard-set scowl. He stole a glance at Silver, this time his gaze remaining on him for more than a second. “So,” he said tentatively. “Lab partners.”

“I’m as happy about it as you are,” Silver muttered, checking his worksheet against the key on the other side of the board. “Don’t burn anything down, and we’ll be fine.”

Gold blinked, his scowl lightening. “Was- was that a joke? Did you just make a joke?” Silver shook his head vigorously, but Gold’s lips eventually turned up into a smile. “Hey, maybe this won’t be so bad after all! As long as you have a sense of humor, we’ll be the best lab partners in this class!”

Wonderful. Just what he needed. To be friends with this idiot.

“Don’t get your hopes up. It doesn’t happen often.” That once was a fluke, not that he expected Gold to know that already. Better he learned now, though.

“Hey, I’ll do the joking. All you have to do is laugh.”

“That doesn’t happen often, either.” Of course Gold was less intimidated now. It was like Silver’s entire appearance had disappeared as Gold started talking more and more. Everything would’ve been so much easier if he had gotten a different partner, a quieter one, but it was obvious that they were going to be stuck with each other. “Can we agree that this will be a minimum-interaction thing? I prefer to work alone, but that’s not going to happen.”

Gold shrugging, leaning back in his seat. Silver noticed that he hadn’t fixed the answers to his worksheet. “We’ll see about that, I guess. I mean, we’re going to be working together a lot, aren’t we?”

Preferably not. ...But he had a point. “This class only.”

“What?”

“We work together in this class only. There’s no need for us to pretend to like each other outside of this class. Got it?” He tried to turn up his glare, deepen his scowl, anything to seem more intimidating.

Something crossed Gold’s face, but Silver couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was. The only thing he knew for sure was that it wasn’t fright. “Whatever you say. If you want us to go through this class hating each other, well, guess I can’t stop you.”

He was right about that; he couldn’t. Going through like this was the easiest way; he wouldn’t have to make unnecessary conversation, and he wouldn’t have to pretend to like this idiot.

“Seriously, though,” Gold muttered, “I know I stole your glove, but I am sorry. It’s your own fault if you don’t give me a chance.”

Silver chose to ignore that, instead turning his focus back to the teacher. Gold…technically had a point, but that didn’t mean he had to acknowledge it. He wouldn’t if he could help it, though he had to admit to himself that the apology went a long way. And they did have to work together for nearly the entire year as lab partners. Would it be so awful to give him the light of day?

Well. He could cross that bridge when he came to it. It didn’t matter now; for now, Gold was more or less dead to him. Whether or not that changed in the future would depend on many factors, none of which bothered him now. That was Future Silver’s problem, as silly as it sounded. For now, he could ignore Gold and keep going with his life like he did before meeting him. It was just that simple.

He got up and left right when the bell rang. His next class was nothing special. Nobody he really knew well was in it. He could just float through the entire year like he’d been doing up until chemistry. At least this class didn’t require lab partners.

...Which, for some reason, his thoughts kept circling back to time and time again. All day they plagued him, no matter how many times he tried to shake them out. It was annoying as all hell. He just couldn’t live in peace anymore, could he? What a joke.

The rest of the morning was relatively quiet, just the way he liked it. Nobody bothered him, or even looked in his direction the wrong way. It wasn’t like he was trying to exude an air of intimidation, but that was exactly what came off. He had to hide his satisfied smile the entire day. It took him this long to figure out how to do this, but he was going to make himself enjoy every second of it. Who knew when this would happen again.

Even at lunch, he was relatively undisturbed. It was the greatest feeling in the world to him. A couple times, Blue passed by, but she didn’t stop and sit with him. Sure, he liked her enough to actually stand her, but he was somewhat relieved that she didn’t feel like talking today. He certainly didn’t.

Once he finished eating, he busied himself catching up on some homework so he wouldn’t have as much to do later. Free time in the evening was something he actively enjoyed. Just before he could finish his math homework, however, two hands planted on the table in front of him. He looked up through the tips of his bangs at a girl he didn’t know well, but one he recognized. How could he not? She was set to be valedictorian of their class.

Without an invitation, she sat down across from him. “I’ll make this quick for you,” Crys said, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder. “I know how much of a...difficult lab partner Gold can be sometimes. He and I are kind of friends, so I guess if you have any problems with him not getting the work done, let me know. I’m also a tutor, so I can make sure it gets done so your own grade doesn’t suffer.”

By the way she was talking freely, he figured that she wasn’t very intimidated by him, and he didn’t really know how to deal with that. But still. Interesting. “...Thanks?”

“I’d go into more detail, but I’m almost late- I told someone I’d help them out with homework this period but of course they decided to not let me know until now that they needed my help.” She sighed, standing again. “Anyway. Nice to officially meet you, Silver. Good luck in chemistry.”

Chapter Text

“Come on! I know this is a cooldown, but I wanna see you sweat!” Sapphire yelled back to her team. She was leading them, her pack, across the field. She was easily the fastest of them, especially after a practice, hence why she was already almost half a field in front of the others. Her team was still unused to practice, especially the freshmen, but that wasn’t going to be any excuse. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Football always gave her an emotional high. There was nothing like running across the field, turf flying up and getting in her cleats. It was one of her favorite feelings in the world, second only to coming home after a long day of practice and hanging out with her dad. She’d been on the team since freshman year, just like a lot of her teammates, and every day, it only got better and better. Her team had better have the same drive she did, because she was hellbent on maintaining her— well, their undefeated streak.

By the time they were done, everyone was breathing heavy and going right for their water. She couldn’t blame them; she was winded herself, but only a little bit. She could easily go for another hour or two. That kind of stamina only came from years of practice and patience. The latter of which, ironically, she did not have much of, most of the time.

She put her hands on her hips and watched the rest of her team leave as their coach dismissed them. She had to admit, they were a pretty well-balanced team this year. Sometimes they could be unbalanced skill-wise, but even the girls starting on the bench could easily get a chance to shine and use it to its fullest. This was exactly the kind of team she could lead, even as a junior.

Ruby sat up in the stands, one of his sewing projects clutched in his hands. He was completely bent over it, not really paying attention to the practice. That was alright with her; he didn’t even have to wait for her if he didn’t want to. If he’d wanted to go home after cheer practice ended, he could’ve. She waved for a second, trying to get his attention, before grabbing her bag and meeting him up there.

His nose wrinkled a little as she sat down next to him. Sure, she was a little ripe, but that was just proof of what she put into practice. Ruby always minded it much more than her, especially since he made sure to clean up after cheer practice. “Ready to go, then?”

“Yep.” They lived across from each other since Ruby moved there when they were ten, and they’ve walked home together ever since. “What are you working on?”

He finished his stitching and held it up to show her. “Just fixing some gloves. I won’t be able to survive the colder games without them.”

She grinned, remembering one of the first game they went to together, before she was old enough to be on the high school team. She’d grown up seeing people in the stands on TV all bundled up. Ruby, on the other hand, had not. He was freezing all night. “You’ll be warm if you’re doin’ your cheerleader thing. Gotta be heard if it’s not a home game.”

“It’s not going to keep you from winning if I don’t,” he said, though she knew he would still be cheering loudest of all of them, image be damned. “Let’s get going.”

She stood with her bag and waited for him to gather his supplies neatly. If it were her, she would’ve already shoved them in her bag and left, but he was much more particular than her. “Oh, hey, remember I was tellin ya about the mascot? We got him to do it.”

A puzzled look crossed his face. “Do what?”

Just thinking about it made her laugh. To think that Gold was dumb enough to actually do it! “He stole that weird kid Silver’s glove! You shoulda seen it, the kid followed him and everything just to get it back!” Of course, she wasn’t going to mention the absolutely murderous look he had. Or that she’d been a little scared of it, because she hadn’t been. His attitude was just a surprise, that was all.

Ruby stopped in his tracks. “That was you?”

“Whattaya mean?”

“Saph, Silver is under Blue’s protection. She was upset that someone was messing with him, but he wouldn’t tell her who. If this gets out…”

Oh. “I didn’t know that.” She didn’t consider herself a mean person. Sure, she liked the occasional joke and messing with Gold, but no harm, no foul. Screwing with someone under Bitch protection was a huge no-no. She herself was under their protection because she was dating Ruby; same with that kid Black because of White. And, unfortunately, Yellow, since she and Blue have some sort of history with their friendship. Honestly, who was or was not protected seemed to shift every few months. It was hard to keep track.

“I only know because Blue told me. Most people keep a wide berth around him anyway. Let’s just not let this get out.” Even though her palms were still a bit sweaty, her fingers sticky from the grime on the ball, he took her hand in his. If football gave her a high, they way Ruby made her feel got her even higher.

It wasn’t long before they got home and said goodbye for the time being. Chances were, they’d both end up at one of their houses for at least an hour. That’s usually what happened. Sapphire’s dad wasn’t home, but Ruby’s mom was. She waved before going inside, dropping her bag in her room before turning on her shower. Her dad still wasn’t home by the time she was done. This happened sometimes, where he would lose track of time at work. All she had to do was give him a quick call and he’d come home.

He picked up on the third or fourth ring. “It’s already late, isn’t it,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

“Kinda.” She couldn’t help but muffle her laughter. Already a couple weeks in and his routine was back up and running. “Want me to start dinner?”

“Try not to burn down the house.” He hung up as she sputtered indignantly. It was one time, and she took care of it before there was any damage!

She tossed her phone on her bed and went down to the kitchen. Dinner, they’d already decided, would be frozen pizza, a once-every-two-weeks treat. Some salad, too, that she’d mixed from vegetables Ruby’s mom gave them from her garden. At least this dinner was easy. She’d have plenty of time to get her homework done, not that it was ever a real issue. Her dad’s help did go a long way sometimes, though.

There aren’t any games on TV at the moment, just some sitcoms she and her dad sometimes watched. She paid only half attention to them while the pizza cooks. Deep in her muscles, she could feel fatigue start to set in from practice. That was another great thing about football; it tired her out just enough to make her fall asleep easily. Plus, she got more sleep than most of her peers. She had to, if she wanted to stay in peak physical condition.

Dinner was on the table by the time her dad got home, briefcase full of papers in hand. Still warm, thankfully. Sometimes there were nights when she would call and he would finish “just one more paper” and, long story short, dinner was cold by the time he got home an hour and a half later. “Thanks so much, Saph,” he said, planting a quick kiss on her head before washing up. “Anything good happen in school today?”

“Just practice.” Practice would always be her favorite part of her school day, followed by gym and lunch. Studying wasn’t really her thing, apart from field biology. Field biology was really the only class that held her interest before she was able to take AP Biology her senior year. Plus, she was good at it. But that didn’t change the fact that the majority of school was boring. There were too many rules restricting her. That’s why she liked football so much; simple rules, but a myriad of plays to make. “Have fun at work?”

“As much fun as can be had at work.” But as soon as he said it, he laughed. Sapphire knew her dad loved his work; that’s why he lost track of time so easily. “The team doing well so far?”

“As well as we can be doing.” Still, she made a face; she knew there was so much more they could be doing. If practice was longer, or they practiced more times a week, she knew they’d be up to where they were last year. “First game is Friday. You’re coming, right?”

“Of course! I’m not going to miss any of your games.” She smiled; he never did, not unless he was sick. It never hurt to make sure, though. “Who are you playing against?”

Immediately, she replied, “Goldenrod High. They’re not too great, but we can’t afford to start the season off sloppy.” The incoming freshmen needed to be able to look up to their football team. What else would they do on Friday nights if it wasn’t cheering them on? “We’ll be ready.”

The rest of their dinner conversation wasn’t too memorable, mostly a blur. That’s the way she liked it: nothing serious, just some joking and talking about their days. She didn’t have to spend as much energy paying attention to what they were saying, something she already spent a lot of energy on in class. It was exhausting, really.

So by the time she was done with dinner and her dad was doing the dishes, she was set and working on homework in her room. Or, rather, working on homework and checking her phone periodically. She wasn’t waiting for any messages, per se, but it was more the expectation of something unexpected. That feeling often left her disappointed, since nothing usually happened when she expected it to, but there was always the off chance that it would.

Honestly? Her world was kind of boring when she wasn’t at practice or a game, when she wasn’t with Ruby. She could hardly recall any fun moments that hadn’t come with him or her dad or her team or even the boy’s football team. It was strange, but oddly true. Maybe that was sad, she didn’t know.

For once, though, her phone lit up with a text. It was probably just Ruby, wanting to know if she and her dad wanted to come over for dessert. Which was what made her even more surprised to see the message she was sent.

She had to be kidding. Why did she even have Sapphire’s number? Why would she even send that text to someone on the freaking football team? She made a deep noise from the back of her throat and replied back with only a middle finger emoji.

Right, she was supposed to believe that.

Oh, right. She hated that project. Yellow did little to nothing other than decorating the posterboard for them. All of the research fell on everyone else, all of the writing on the posterboard. She was just in charge of the visuals, which didn’t seem fair in the least. At least they did well on that project. If they hadn’t, Sapphire would’ve had more of a problem with her.

She didn’t bother following up with anything. Anything else she said would be likely to escalate the two of them into another argument, and she didn’t have the willpower for that tonight. “I’m going on a run!” she called down to her dad. Her homework was mostly finished anyway; what remained could wait a little while longer. She grabbed her earbuds and started pumping her music, the playlist she always had on for personal workouts. She designed it specifically to pump her up and keep her going for as long as she wanted. Not once would she quit early.

Her usual running route wasn’t exactly long, which was why she normally went around upwards of three times. Even in the winter, if the path wasn’t too icy, she would go around to clear her head. It definitely helped quell her anger, burn up some of that energy. Still, the marching band had the audacity to advertise themselves over the game itself? The football players were the ones who were going to get full rides to college. She didn’t see any of the band people getting full rides like that.

She had a couple of months until she had to start worrying about committing, though. She’d know in the spring which colleges wanted her, and she’d take her pick from them. It was never too early to start performing at her best, though. Keeping up her performance was imperative.

Something else she liked about her normal route was that there was never really anyone on it. Sometimes she’d see someone walking their dog, or the occasional couple, but other than that she was alone with her thoughts. It was kind of nice when she needed it. Even when she didn’t, it was refreshing, helped her get oriented.

All that was with her then was the music setting her pace and her own footfalls. The path ahead of her was easy, much easier than sprints they would do during practice. This was her own sort of conditioning. And even though she was less angry now, she still made the extra push to run just a little faster, go just a little farther.

It was starting to become dark by the time she got home. The street lights were turning on one by one, illuminating the streets in an orange light. Her dad was at the kitchen table, doing some work with the news on in the background. “Have fun?”

“Yeah. I’m feeling much more relaxed now.” Even though she had homework to get back to, that was. But either way…

She went upstairs to finish that up, turning off her music. Her finger hovered over the messages, blocking the number and deleting the messages. Out of sight, out of mind.

. . .

“It’s stupid,” she grumbled on the way to school the next day. “I blocked her number. I’m not dealing with her again.”

Ruby hummed under his breath, the hand not holding hers wrapped around a travel mug filled with tea. She knew he couldn’t stand the taste of coffee. “I know that you aren’t fond of the marching band, but aren’t you making too big of a deal out of this? Just let it go; I’m sure she really did accidentally send it to all of her contacts.”

Right, she was making a big deal out of this. That was exactly what she wanted to hear. Although, she had to admit, he had a point. She needed to let it go and go on with her life. She needed to focus so she would perform well on Friday. There was no way she was going to risk their win by being distracted by this.

“I guess you’re right.” She glanced over at him, thankful once more that they didn’t have much of a height difference. The little they did have, though, was all her. She was just a fraction of a centimeter taller than Ruby and never let him forget it. “You have anything fun goin’ on?”

He just kind of shrugged, looking ahead at the path to school. “Nothing much. White’s been a bit more mopey than usual, which has been putting Blue in an irritated mood, so no, not fun.” He pursed his lips in thought. “Sometimes I wonder if the Bitches are going to last when Blue’s gone.”

“What do you mean? You’re leading them next year, you’ll do fine.”

“I’ll be leading, but I’m not like Blue.” He shook his head. “Nevermind. That’s a worry for a different time. Have you studied for the math exam?”

She groaned, slowing her steps a bit. “Don’t remind me. I don’t wanna take it.” Her exaggerated movements elicited a smile out of him. Good.

“You’ll survive.” Math wasn’t her strong suit, but she was at least better at math than at English. She sucked at writing all of those essays. “Want to go out after practice today?”

She smiled a bit. He read her mind. “Sounds great. We’ll need to freshen up, but I’m in the mood for a date.” Leaning in, she planted a quick kiss to his cheek. Naturally, he decided to turn it towards her and kissed her on the lips next. It was like a little game of one-upping each other, the winner being the first to land an actual kiss on the lips. They thought it was sweet. Their friends thought it was cute but ridiculous.

Well, neither party was exactly wrong.

That detour gave them only a couple minutes to get to first period when they got to school, but it was definitely worth it. “See you later,” Ruby said, giving her one last kiss on the back of her hand before heading down the opposite direction. Once again, she wished that they had any classes together, even lunch. Her day was that much more boring without him. Hopefully senior year would be better with that.

Even with minutes to the bell, there weren’t many people in her history class. She never really got why so many people didn’t mind being late. If she were late that many times, she would risk detention and possible suspension from the team. She couldn’t risk that, and it was better to be safe than sorry anyway.

History was one of her least favorite classes, but at least all she had to do was take notes. It wasn’t too hard, just boring. She much preferred science. Science, at least, was interesting.

Still, she paid attention in all of her classes. She took diligent notes and performed well. Any less and she wouldn’t be on the team, much less the captain.

But she didn’t have field bio until last period, so she was wishing the time away until lunch. Lunch was fun, especially since a lot of her team had the same lunch. She sat next to the only freshman on the team, since the freshman had no other friends in her lunch. Sapphire had to admit, she was a bit skeptical when she heard someone named Yvonne was trying out, but Y showed a lot of promise on the field. She was definitely better than other freshman, both skillwise and personality-wise, but that didn’t save her from the occasional teasing remark.

“Ready for your first official game on Friday?” she asked, taking out her lunch. She didn’t necessarily dislike the cafeteria food, but what she packed for herself was definitely healthier.

“Let’s hope so,” Y said, biting into the pizza that was only two steps up from cardboard and wax. “I’m excited to beat the crap out of the other guys.”

Ah, yes, the most fun part of the game: winning. Nothing felt better, and especially at a home game. She grinned wildly. “It’ll be a thrilling game.” Of course it will be, who was she kidding? The games are never dull, even if the team they’re playing against isn’t a good one. Something always happens to spice things up. “If we win, we’re goin to that ice cream place nearby. We always do. You in?”

“Are you kidding? Of course!” Y broke into a wide grin, looking beyond excited. Sapphire was glad. Y’s really found her place on the team already. Maybe she would be the captain once Sapphire graduated. She kinda wished she had a say in it. “My friends are excited to watch it, especially since it’s gonna be their first football game. It’ll be funny for me after, since none of them know the first thing about football.”

Sapphire didn’t really know how that went, since her friends mainly consisted of Ruby and the rest of her team, and naturally they all knew about football. Still, it sounded funny. “Your parents coming?”

Y made a face, chewing thoughtfully before answering. “Maybe. My mom doesn’t really like that I’m playing football. She wanted me to be a horseback rider like her.”

Sapphire almost choked on her apple. “You’re not serious.” She couldn’t imagine Y doing anything like that, despite having only known her for a few months.

“I am! I love football itself, and I also love that it really sticks it to her.” Sapphire noticed that she didn’t mention anything about her dad, but she wasn’t going to ask. She knew how annoying those questions could be. “She’ll be sorry when I get a scholarship in a few years.”

Sapphire laughed. “You don’t have to even think about that yet, little freshman. Lucky you.” She, on the other hand, did have to think about that. But a scholarship was practically written into her future. She’d have her college picked by the end of the year, no doubt. She already had a couple in mind; she was just waiting for the scouts to watch her performance and the colleges to recruit her. Simple, yet stressful, especially with getting her performance in top shape.

She’d be fine.

“Be sure to keep your guard up,” she mentioned then. “It’s usually around a game day that the marching band and cheerleaders set out to prank us and the guys’ team. It’s never anything too big, but it’d be good to keep an eye out so you’re not too caught off-guard.”

“Oh, I heard about that last year!” She brushed her hair back behind her shoulders, gathering it into a low ponytail. “I was wondering about that. So I should watch around the boys’ game days, too?”

Sapphire nodded, finishing off her apple. Last year, it was a couple of days before homecoming. It was pretty funny, actually; they’d attacked with water balloons and paint balloons during practice. She had paint in her hair for days afterward, but Red had managed to get his hands on some of the paint balloons and fired them right back, getting quite a few of his friends splattered with paint. She still wasn’t sure how he could be friends with people as prissy as the cheerleaders (Ruby excluded) or as cocky as the marching band, but somehow he managed.

Anyway, it felt nice to be a mentor of sorts to Y. She already knew that if a professional career didn’t happen for her, or even after it did, she would become a coach. She’d be able to be involved in the sport as long as she wanted. And wasn’t this basically coaching off field?

The two of them spent most of lunch chatting about the upcoming season and what their win-lose ration would be. Ideally, it would be a solid undefeated season, but that wouldn’t come easily, especially with some of the teams they’d be facing. A few of them were pretty tough. That just made it all the more important to keep practicing so they could top them all.

“Hey, ladies.” Sapphire looked to her side as Red sat down next to her.

“Y, you remember Red,” she said, sticking her spoon in a yogurt cup. “What’s up?”

He shrugged, leaning on the table. “Just thought I’d check in and see how practices are coming along. I’m already pumped for your game!”

Sapphire couldn’t help but grin. The captains always went to all of the games, and most of the teams usually went, too. It made conversations the few days after more interesting, comparing different plays. “Let’s just say that our team is gonna have a better season than yours.”

Challenge gleamed in his eyes. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The field is ours for the taking.” Given that last season ended with the same undefeated streak, either of them could be right. Sapphire couldn’t wait to prove that she was.

Her grin turned teasing and a bit wicked with a sudden thought. “Speaking of fields, still having troubles with the soccer team?”

He put a hand to his chest in a mock-wounded expression before lightly punching her arm. “Me? Troubles with the soccer team?” At Y’s confused expression, he explained. “The soccer team is to us as the marching band is to you, essentially. Still don’t get why that is. The band kids are nice.” He sent a wave behind them to who-knew-who, though likely it was to Yellow and that other kid she hung out with. Because of course.

“I’d rather not unpack all of that right now,” she said, sending a sideways glare to him. He knew exactly why. She’d rather not get angry right now, not when she’d had a good lunch. Besides, there was still practice and her date to look forward to.

Y looked up from her phone at them. “Where’s the place after the game? My mom wants to know.”

“You know, the ice cream place.” She was blanking on the name. Even though she was good with directions, street names and place names evaded her. “The one with the really creamy ice cream.”

“Steve’s,” Red supplied at Y’s increasingly confused expression. “It’s right down the road from the field. Most people just walk.”

She nodded and started texting that to her mom. Sapphire watched her for just a second more, noticing something shift on her face. “I’ll see you at practice,” she said, picking up her empty tray and leaving. Strange.

“What do you think that was about? Was it something I said?” Red asked, his eyes following her.

“Nah, she probably just remembered she had to do something.” She decided not to dwell on it too long. Instead, her eyes drifted to the bag of pretzel bites in her lunch. She grabbed the bag, taking out out and shouting “Go long!” Red barely had time to open his mouth before she launched it at him, laughing when it hit his cheek.

He grinned at her, her challenge accepted. “Oh, it’s on.”

. . .

Steve’s ended up being the location for her and Ruby’s date. She loved it there; the ice cream was great and, most importantly, cheap. She could afford it just from doing odd jobs around her neighborhood every now and again.

“You’re quiet,” she noted, licking her chocolate cone. Chocolate milk was good for post-practice, and chocolate ice cream was close enough. “Math exam not go the way you thought?”

“No, that went fine.” He stared down at his strawberry-banana smoothie, swirling it around in its cup. “It’s nothing, really. Just tired.”

It wasn’t really nothing, then, and they both knew it. She could see it written all over his face. “Was cheer practice good?”

He seesawed a hand after a moment. Bingo. “We were running stunts so much today that my muscles hurt. Coach wants us to be in top form Friday, which is understandable, but we were all exhausted too early. We were lucky that nobody hurt themselves.”

“We can start home, if you want.” If she was being honest, she would’ve mind that. Her muscles were tired from practice, too. She bit a large portion of her ice cream off, somehow managing to not get it all over her face. “C’mon, we can at least have a nice walk.”

Pure relief washed over his face. “Thank you.” Just like the day before, he took her hand as they exited the shop. Each step they took made her more and more glad they were headed home. She needed to stretch a lot more than practice had time for. Maybe it was just her- she’d have to check with her teammates tomorrow. After all, top form.

“At least you don’t have to worry about competitions yet, right?” she said, trying for a light tone. She knew how much effort competition season took for the cheer team; she saw the effects it had on Ruby. And because he was a base, sometimes those effects included a lot of bruising.

“November starts the winter season, so it’s not that far off.” He took a sip of his smoothie, relishing at the bittersweet taste. “This helps.”

She took another bite out of her cone. “Ice cream helps everything,” she said as sagely as she could before laughing. For the life of her, she couldn’t sound serious when saying that, even if it was true. They were coming up on their neighborhood then; it really wasn’t far, which was very convenient. “Tell your parents I say hi, alright?”

“Naturally.” Sapphire checked her driveway; her dad was already home for once. So was Ruby’s. His slight surprise was noted. Usually he didn’t get home until late. This was a step in the right direction, at least in her book. Now if they could just get him to come to a game to see Ruby cheer…

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before crossing the street. She watched him disappear into his house before turning and going into hers. Whatever was going on, if there was something going on, she’d hear about it from him later. He wouldn’t leave her in the dark. He never did.

After greeting her dad and tossing her stuff on her bed, she stretched more, feeling the familiar ache from practice and the stretch itself. All of her muscles were working just as they should. And of course, they’d feel amazing after a win on Friday. No way around it; they’d still be undefeated.

Chapter Text

Art was always Yellow's best- and favorite- class. She loved trying the different mediums, and there weren't any essays to write or books to read. Perfectly easy, not to mention she loved talking to her classmates.

This unit was pencil sketching and shading, one of Yellow's best mediums. "What are you going to draw?" she asked Whitley, tapping her pencil against the paper. There were only a few minutes left in class after introducing the assignment and proper technique, and her idea needed to be perfect. She needed more than a few minutes to start it.

"Probably just...whatever this is." Yellow glanced down at Whitley's paper; she was drawing what seemed like the band she'd mentioned she'd joined. It was just a rough sketch so far, but Whitley wasn't half bad. She was sure to get a good grade once it was finished. "You?"

"I have no idea." Better to be honest. She yawned, erasing a stray pencil mark from her paper. She knew that if she couldn't think of something soon, it would consume her thoughts for the rest of the day. Whitley looked like she was trying to figure out some way she could help, but Yellow shook her head. "I'll figure something out."

She packed up her art portfolio a minute or so before class ended. If she wanted to get this done on time, working on it outside of class was necessary. She just had to hope that she didn't get much homework, because between that and marching band, she was usually swamped. Unless, of course, she stayed up late…

It wouldn't come to that today. She'd work harder, maybe get some done during lunch or on the bus, as distracting as that was. She was already exhausted; she'd need the sleep.

That was the curse of having art at the beginning of the day; the rest of it was so much work, and even though Wally made it a lot easier, she hated it.

"At least you can take a nap in Lit since we have a sub," he suggested good-naturedly on their way to history. She'd forgotten about that.

"I'm just going to get whatever math homework I have done." Her load was pretty heavy even though she didn't take any honors courses. Being able to understand the work was worth it, even if she was the only junior in her algebra class. The rest of her class had either dropped math, moved onto Pre-Calc, or was in a different class.

It wasn't that she was dumb; she just learned better at a slower pace than the advanced classes taught at. She valued grades over a class's weight, and it's not like her uncle would be furious if she wasn't in those classes.

Still, a sub in lit class was a godsend. That meant no trying to analyze chapters she hadn't finished reading. Maybe she could multitask in art tomorrow…

History, at least, was tolerable, especially since they were finishing watching a video in class. Even though she didn't have to, she took notes on that, adding them to her sparse, doodle-ridden notes. It was a wonder she wasn't failing this class, but that was thanks to Wally helping her study. Without him, she'd definitely be failing (and asleep in all of her classes).

She yawned into her hand before resting her chin on her fist. She knew firsthand that she'd get caught by the teacher and be reprimanded in front of the class if she fell asleep, so she had to try her best to not succumb to the warm, dark room. Even if she did fall asleep, band next period would wake her up in an instant.

Thanks to the video, the class passed by quickly. It was alright if she moved a little sluggishly now, only because the band room was right down the hall from the history room.

"Yells, you're moving slower than me today," Wally commented after she took longer than he did to pack up her notes. "You okay?"

"Just need to wake up." She ran her fingers through her messy ponytail, only messy because she slept in it. She didn't have the time to redo it that morning. "How many weeks until the first concert?"

He laughed a bit. "That's not until November. All we've got before that is marching band."

She glanced over at him, puffing her cheeks. "Alright, tell me again how that's 'all we've got.'" They both knew as well as anyone how much work really went into marching band practice. No matter how tired it made them, they had to sound good and look good for competition season.

They both had that on lock.

She grabbed her piccolo from her band locker and went to her chair to warm up. The ensemble sounded pretty decent so far this year, if she did say so herself. She might be the only piccolo, but she had her act together. She turned in her seat and gave Wally a little wave, sticking out her tongue just because she could. He returned it from the marimba, quickly readying himself to play when the band teacher called attention. Only then did she turn back, a smile still on her lips.

Class was no more than working through a couple pages from a couple songs. It wasn't too awful, thankfully; she had the air for high notes- well, really high notes- but that didn't mean she wanted to use it all class. Poor Wally, though; these pieces had pretty taxing percussion parts. He could work through it, their marching band music was more complex. He'd done so before.

Band, like art, was one of those classes where she just existed. She had to put in effort, of course. She wouldn't be any good if she didn't. But her thoughts released; she didn't have to worry about understanding what she was doing like she did in her other classes. Dyslexia was just like that sometimes, but with music notes, it was so much more clear. She wanted to stay there as long as possible, and always dragged her feet getting to her next class. Even though she was a lot better than she used to be with reading and comprehension, writing and spelling, she still didn't like it. Just because she was better at it didn't mean it wasn't hard anymore.

She floated her way through class, wishing the rest of the day away as quickly as her favorite classes went. As tough as practice was sometimes, it was one of the best parts of her day. After going home and spending time with her uncle and her pet rat, of course. There wasn't much time between being home and practice- they started a half hour or so after football practice ended- so Wally usually came with her and the two of them would walk back to school. His parents usually picked him up from there, but she walked home since that was around the time her uncle got home from work. Thankfully, it was still light out when they were done, otherwise she wouldn't have been as keen to take the shortcut through the woods.

"Think we're going to be home show ready soon?" Wally asked, nudging her on their way to her house after school. Her head was clouded all day, thinking about the homework she still needed to do and the tests she needed to study for. She was a solid B student, but if her grades dropped too much because she didn't study for a test, she could be suspended from marching band, and then where would she be? She honestly wasn't sure where most of the day went. "Yells?"

"Walls?" He looked so confused when she said that, shortening his name like he did with hers. She couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face, and he soon joined in. "What was the question?"

"Do you think we'll be home show ready soon?" he repeated with a knowing smile. Thankfully, he'd stuck around with her long enough to know that sometimes she thought too much to listen.

This time, she giggled. "Like we're ever home show ready. We'll be at the ninety-nine-percent ready mark like usual." It was always the same tune; being not quite perfect for the home show, always having room to improve. Although, she supposed that was true of everything. Their band director was always nitpicking the tiniest details, the smallest of missteps, to iron out the next time they performed. There must've been method to the madness, otherwise they wouldn't be one of the top marching bands in the region. "As for soon, I don't know. First we need to finish learning the program and hope he doesn't make any changes to it last-minute like last year."

He bumped into her lightly. "We rocked those changes, though."

"Can you believe we only have this year and next year left?" She was known among her friends to remind them of that cursed information, if only because she was excited to finally be done with school.

"Gotta make the most of it!" That was usually his response. Hearing it again made her smile before taking his hand and tugging him to walk a little faster. She'd noticed that something about having contact with him made her skin tingle. She liked the feeling. "Hey, what's the rush?"

She could tell him. "I just want to play with Ratty," she said instead. Ratty was named when she adopted him a year ago, and even though she was fifteen, she'd never been good at naming anything. Knowing Wally couldn't resist her brightest smile, she put it on and felt him relax into her grip.

Their after-school routine was down pat; go to her house to grab a snack, maybe play with Ratty, and go back for practice. He was over at her house so often that they still have one of his inhalers there, just in case he needed it.

She flopped onto her bed, lying on her back with her head hanging off the edge. "Can you French braid my hair, please?" she asked. He was already settled on her beanbag chair right next to her, carefully tugging out her hair tie. All she knew how to do with her hair was a ponytail; French braids were a Wally Special.

"I'm still amazed at how soft it is," he said, weaving strands in and out.

"Like yours isn't?" If she could reach it, she'd ruffle his hair. So fluffy and light!

He leaned closer, his forehead close to hers to make sure everything was even. If she shifted just a little, they'd be face-to-face. It wasn't like they'd never been so close to each other. For years growing up, they'd sit on each other or, more often, fall asleep during movie nights. This was really no different.

"All done." He shifted so she could see him smiling before disappearing from view. She could've sworn that she felt the lightest of pressures on top of her head, but it was likely just him tucking in a stray hair.

She sat up, twisting around so she could take Ratty out. He nestled right into her hands as she and Wally stroked his fur. "Is it bad that I want to ditch tonight?"

Wally laughed, shaking his head. "But you're not going to."

"Maybe not today." She wasn't one to ditch practice. "We should grab a snack and get there a bit early. Maybe antagonize the football players a little."

He eyed her carefully. "You really want to stir that pot?"

She paused, letting out a long breath that made her bangs, left out of the braid, flutter. "No." She wasn't one to pick fights- she only ever defended herself and her friends. "Why do you have to remind me that I'm a rule follower?"

"Someone has to reign in your wild spirit." At this point, she was well aware he was poking fun at her. Since it was him, she didn't really mind. His stomach growled. "I will take you up on the offer of that snack, though."

. . .

By the end of the day, Yellow still had no idea what her sketch was going to be. She stared at her paper during art class, wondering how she was going to pull this one off in time if she didn't have a clue what she was doing. She'd tried a couple ideas on scrap paper in-between (or on) homework assignments, but none of them felt right for this. Eventually she just pushed her paper aside and rested her forehead on the table.

"Are you alright?" Whitley asked after a moment passed. Yellow had noticed that her sketch was coming along amazing.

"No." She picked her head back up, tightening her ponytail. "How did you choose what do draw?"

She blinked, glancing down at her own project. "I don't know, I just started drawing. Maybe find a picture?"

Yellow perked up, picking up her phone. "Got it, thanks!"

Not a minute later did Emerald send it, knowing exactly what she was talking about. She and Wally were in the background, trying to push each other off of a rock they were sitting on, while Emerald was in the foreground, only partially in the frame since he was taking the selfie, laughing. It was one of her favorite pictures. Absolutely perfect.

She got to work right away, trying to utilize all of her time without making many mistakes. It was nowhere near as clean and defined as she wanted it to be, but she still had a few days to work on it.

Whitley peeked over at it once. "That looks nice! Who's that, though?" she asked, pointing at Emerald.

"That's Emerald. He and Wally have been friends almost as long as Wally and I have, so we're kinda friends by default. He's a cool guy." She started packing up her portfolio, sliding her piece in carefully. "I'll have to introduce you sometime, you two would get along well."

"I'll keep that in mind." Whitley gathered her own things, smiling as the bell rang. "Have a nice day!"

"You, too." She yawned before exiting the classroom. She'd gone to bed relatively early- midnight- but six hours wasn't quite enough sleep for her. Maybe she'd nap through lunch instead of eating… Or maybe not. Even if she did that, she'd barely have any energy for later.

"Again. Coffee. Like a normal person." Wally tried passing her a half-full cup of it in the hallway as they met up, but she shook her head with another yawn. "I'm never going to understand you."

She laughed lightly. "Please. You understand me better than literally everyone else already." Which was true. She told him secrets she didn't even tell her uncle. She always had. "You should know by now that coffee is disgusting."

He nudged her side lightly. "Only to you. You'll give in one day. You better get used to it, you'll need it to get through tomorrow." He nudged the cup under her nose again. She screwed up her face before taking the smallest of sips to appease him. "See? Not so bad."

Please. She stuck out her tongue in disgust. "I'm never doing that again."

He chuckled, taking another sip himself. "If you say so. At least start getting more sleep."

She dropped her books on her desk in history. "Can't make any promises, but I'm gonna need it if I'm going fishing with Uncle Wilton next week." The thought of it filled her with the energy she needed. A fishing trip with her uncle was a treat, one she always looked forward to. "We're partnering for the group project, right?"

"Naturally, but we'll be put with a couple others." She didn't mind that part; everyone in their class was cool in her books. They wouldn't mind if she handled the visuals. If she did it on her own, it was pulling her own weight without her dyslexia threatening to screw her group over.

They jumped right into the fray of choosing groups when the time came. Neither of them exactly wanted to be split into two separate groups. They had to be groups of four, and she knew that there was usually a group of two they could pair up with: Moon and Platinum. They normally paired up with each other, if only because neither of them had any really good friends in the class and could count on each other to get a good grade on the assignment. She figured that sisters often worked that way, but she didn't exactly have a reference.

"The assignment is a project on Europe," Platinum said once the four of them were settled in. "Any era, any country. Any suggestions?" Yellow wasn't the best at history, so she didn't really have any preferences. Moon seemed to have something on the tip of her tongue, but Platinum interjected, "Perhaps not the bubonic plague."

Moon frowned a touch. "Not my fault the plague is interesting."

Wally tapped the tip of his pencil against his notebook. "What about the storming of the Bastille? If we need to, we can expand to the French Revolution."

Yellow pictured it before nodding. It was definitely doable. "When are you two free to work on it? Right after school is usually best for us."

"Any day except for Wednesdays," Platinum answered, titling her notes in a neat script.

"And next Tuesday." Platinum glanced at her sister in surprise. "I have plans."

Yellow and Wally glanced at each other. "Okay, then. We should discuss what aspects we should focus on. The Bastille, obviously, but…"

Much to her frustration, Yellow found her attention waning. Her note sheet was quickly taken up with doodles of the Bastille (or what she thought it looked like), guillotines, fancy French clothes, anything her mind could grasp pertaining to the topic. By the time she tuned back into the conversation, Wally's note page was already full. Same with Moon's. Platinum's was two pages long. She tilted her notebook towards her chest so they couldn't see. Hopefully they didn't notice she didn't contribute much.

"So we're clear on what needs to be done between today and tomorrow," Platinum said a minute before the bell rang, and Yellow just knew it was directed at her. She nodded, trying to keep a poker face. Platinum sat back with a small smile. Either she was feigning it or she actually believed that Yellow was paying attention. Needless to say, Yellow was quick to pick up her belongings so she and Wally could get to band.

"Need me to fill you in?" Of course he noticed. She'd almost be concerned if he hadn't. She nodded. "We can stay after and get work done here before marching band, then."

Ugh. Her feet dragged the rest of the day, between literature and math and chemistry and gym. All she wanted to do was crash and either sleep or work on her art project. She'd be sleeping for a long time on Saturday.

. . .

By the time Friday night came, she was exhausted but riding high on the adrenaline that came with having an audience. She was pretty sure half the marching band would be relying on muscle memory even though they'd already had a regular rehearsal; she was certain that her sleep schedule was better than some of theirs.

But still, being under the stadium lights for halftime was going to feel amazing. She heard the fans cheering from down the road. They'd only start towards the field when the second quarter started. She couldn't be sure which team was winning. School spirit obligated her to say she hoped theirs was.

Their instructor kept pacing around the sections, making sure everything was perfect. Of course, they'd still have a while to go before competition, but she wanted the group to look their best in front of their peers. They all wanted that.

She focused on the head of the person in front of her the entire way to the field, marching down in twos. No stumbling, no being out of step. They all had to look their best. The scoreboard counted down the seconds before the quarter ended. It looked like the home team was winning so far. Good for them.

The players cleared off of the field when the buzzer sounded. She kept her gaze on the field as they got into position. She knew that at least some people were here to see the marching band, mostly their families but also some friends. They always told as many people as possible when they were performing at halftime. Now was their time to shine.

The pit members set their instruments up quickly, and soon they were ready to take over. Yellow really liked their program this year, and she hoped it tested well with everyone else. After all, they needed an audience for the home show. That was almost the most fun all year in her opinion.

They didn't have the lighting effects this time, since they still needed to figure some of them out, but with the colorguard, marching, and the music working so well together, she was positive that the audience loved it. She didn't fail to notice before that a good portion of the people in the stands exited to get snacks or whatnot, but they would still be able to hear their performance.

She was warm, between the field lights and her uniform and the marching. The night was cool, so she didn't mind it as much as the heat from parades in the summer. She preferred this to the performances when it was freezing outside, too. This month or two of performing were the only times she could be a comfortable enough temperature.

Before she knew it, their show was over. It always went too quickly for how much time they put into rehearsals. Still, the applause was nice. They even got a few cheers and whistles, likely from family members but still nice nonetheless. Then came changing and putting everything away and receiving notes while the game continued, their show all but forgotten in favor of the football team winning once again. The buzz faded slowly, but it was still there when everything was done and they could leave.

"Great job out there!" her uncle said, greeting her with a hug even though she was kinda sweaty. He'd been waiting for her with Wally's parents, like always. They usually sat together in the stands. Wally was a couple meters off, being congratulated by his parents as well. "What do you say we head home and watch a movie? There's still time in the night."

"I'd love to!" Her homework could wait for tomorrow. Wally had helped her through most of it (read: badgered her to do most of it) before practice, so she had a manageable amount for once. She could actually have some time to work on her art project this weekend without staying up extremely late. "My turn to choose, remember."

She gave Wally a quick hug from behind as a goodbye even though she was sure they'd be texting later that night before following her uncle to his car. Most of the crowd would be leaving soon after them, so the traffic would be awful if they didn't hurry. She hated the traffic almost as much as he did even though she wasn't the one driving. It was just annoying to be stuck in. At least most of the football team went out after games, so she didn't need to worry about them adding to the traffic.

Compared to how busy the game was, home was almost too quiet. A movie would change that, especially as her uncle put a bag of popcorn in the microwave while she scrolled through movie options. Once she settled on one, she grabbed a couple of blankets and started burrowing, making herself comfortable just in case she managed to fall asleep during a comedy. Her phone lit up once with a notification.

She grinned at the message. Of course he came; he was captain of the boys' football team. Still, it was nice of him to say so. Maybe once upon a time, her face would've lit up in a bright red blush at his kind words, but she was long over that crush. He was basically her brother. No, as far as she could tell, her crush meter for anyone was at zero.

"Alright, kiddo, let's get this movie started." Her uncle put the popcorn bowl between them before turning off the lights so it was like they were in the world's most comfortable movie theater. After all the work she did this week, she deserved the night off.

Chapter Text

"Homecoming's coming up, are you planning on going?"

Whitley couldn't even count how many times she'd been asked that question. As far as she knew, it was still a couple weeks away in early October. She'd never gone to a homecoming game before, even though some of the schools had dances afterward. In fact, she was pretty sure she heard that this school did. But with that came getting a ticket to the game and the dance, probably getting a dress, the scary possibility of needing a date… And besides, hadn't the football season just started Friday? She hadn't gone herself- sports weren't really her thing- but it was obvious coming into school on Monday who had won.

"Football's pretty popular here, isn't it?" she asked Blake on the way to the band room. Even though she loved the band, she felt a little guilty ditching Dia, Pearl, and Platinum at lunch. They had been so nice to her since her first day! She made sure to make up to it by hanging out with them before classes started, and she'd decided to start going to Cooking Club on Wednesdays, too. At least, she would go to the first meeting. She could decide for certain after that.

"Yeah." As she quickly noticed since meeting him, Blake was a man of few words. She didn't have any classes with him, so she wasn't sure if he was the same there. With her and the band, he was near silent. Which made walking to the band room with only him a bit awkward, but she could deal. Probably.

Maybe she would've dealt better if they weren't the first two people in the band room. No Black, no White, no N. No conversation, either, as they set everything up. Every time she glanced over at him, he was focused on something else. Once everything on her end was set up, she took a seat against the wall and simply observed. She ate the lunch she brought with her while she did so, adding to her mental notes on Blake.

He must be strong, to move some of the equipment so easily. He never said anything when it wasn't necessary, not even to White, who seemed to treat him like a brother. That said, he was very good at what he did. When she commented on it the first few times, she didn't even get a smile from him. Definitely not an expressive sort of person.

Five minutes passed before N and Black came in. With nothing to do in that time but watch, it felt like a freaking eternity. "Thanks for setting up," N said, dropping his things in the corner of the room. He sent her a genuine smile. She tried to hide her blush. "We'll take care of putting it all away."

"It's no problem," she hurried to say, trying to ignore Black sending her a goofy grin. ...Wait, what was that supposed to mean? Did he know, somehow? She tore her eyes away from him, trying to banish the thought. There was no way he could know, she hadn't told anyone, not even White. Speaking of- "Hey, uh, where's White?"

The smile slipped off of Black's face, replaced with a look born out of worry. "She stayed home, said she wasn't feeling well." Jeez, every year Whitley forgot how quickly colds spread once school started. "She said she just needed some rest, we can practice without her."

"Oh, that's where she is." Blake stood up, getting ready to practice. Probably he was used to her always being there, she definitely seemed like she was the kind to not miss school for anything. He looked at them when they stayed where they were. "Well? Let's get on with it." And apparently he was impatient, too, at least when it came to practice.

They didn't sound as balanced without White there, but they at least managed to make their songs smoother. It wasn't hard to focus on what they could. Smaller details were fixed, things like dynamics or tricky chords. It wasn't perfect, not even close, but the practice was much less stop-and-start than it had been. Only a couple of weeks and they were already starting to resemble the sound of a real band- not that they weren't a real band before. She wondered briefly how long the band had been together before she joined. She'd actually never asked.

"That sounded good," N said at the end of their set, glancing at the clock. Lunch period was almost over, they still needed to pack everything back up. "Let's wrap it up."

"Any word on gigs?" Black asked, as Whitley noted he did every practice. He was eager like that. "White told me this morning she didn't have anything new."

N shrugged, already busying himself putting things away. "There are already rumors of a Halloween party. I can ask around, see if we can provide live music. The only question we need to answer before that is whether we're willing to not be paid. It's a high-school party, I'd be surprised if we were."

They glanced around at each other. "Well, it's exposure," Black offered after a second of thought. "And we're not exactly doing this for the money."

"It should be fine. Exposure is good." She wasn't really sure she had too much say in the matter, but it would be fun even if they weren't paid. It wasn't like she usually did much on Halloween anyway. She hadn't gone out on Halloween in years.

"Blake?" He only nodded in response, so N dusted his hands off. "We've got some time before October even hits, so we can ask White what she thinks once she's feeling better. This is probably right up her alley if she wants to be a producer."

White as a producer? She could see that. Lucky her, though, knowing what she wanted to do. Whitley still had no idea. Good thing she had a couple years to figure that out. They all did- well, except for N.

Unfortunately, what she didn't have was time before her next class started. Having gym right after lunch was nowhere near a good scheduling choice, but she couldn't exactly do much about it. Gym was not her best class, not even close, but she wasn't completely awful, especially because they were starting the volleyball unit. Volleyball was one of the more straightforward sports, easy to deal with. Probably one of her best sports, actually.

Thanks to not knowing the vast majority of people in the school, she was often the one left without a team until she was assigned one. In a way, she didn't mind; it was a way to get to know people. Given that they talked to her, that was. It was always a gamble. On the other hand… well, it was embarrassing. She hated being lumped into a team who probably didn't want her. It was just awkward for everyone involved.

"Hey, you! We need another player, are you in?" For a minute, she wasn't sure the black-haired boy was talking to her, but he was looking right at her. She nodded, moving closer to him and his friends so the gym teacher would know that she had a group for once. The boy grinned at her. "Great, we need all the help we can get if we want to beat Moon's team." He sent a wave to the dark-haired girl on the other side of the net. She stared back, the hint of a smirk on her face. "I'm Sun."

"Whitley."

He clapped her on the back, just hard enough that she had to take a step forward to balance herself. Surprising, given that she was at least an inch taller than him, if not more, and he looked a bit like a twig. "Great to meet you! And, I guess I should warn you, Moon's team usually wins. Just try not to get in the way of her spike and you'll be fine!"

...What did she get herself into?

She reluctantly got into her position across from Moon's team. Moon's stare was just as intense as that boy Gladion's on the first day, though it wasn't aimed directly at her this time (thankfully). It was a little different, though, more analyzing. Whitley gulped, not looking forward to this game. Sun smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up. "Hey, relax! This is meant to be fun, some friendly competition."

Right. She shook out her arms a little and made sure her hair wouldn't get in the way of her line of sight. When Moon served the ball to start, she was more or less ready to win.

At least she was kinda good, returning the ball when it came her way. She tried her best at the very least, which was more than she could say about some of the players on the other teams. She watched them when the ball was being retrieved from halfway across the gym. Some of them didn't bother moving at all, they just watched the ball bounce past them. She couldn't imagine not trying, how frustrating it would be to be on a team with them. She was lucky that Sun snatched her up.

Honestly, the game was more fun than she thought it would be, especially since her entire team celebrated every time they got a point. Even though they lagged a little behind Moon's team, it felt like they were going to pull ahead at any second thanks to the team's cheerfulness. It was nice of them to include her in the celebrations, giving her high-fives and cheerful shouts when she scored a point. None of the other teams she'd been on before in this class were like that.

By the time Moon was in the front by the net, Whitley was in the back, so she didn't really need to worry about her spike. Sun, on the other hand, was in the front. Despite the words of warning he had given her, he had the volleyball smashed into his face almost instantly. From the blood coming out of his nose, she had a feeling that this wasn't just a walk-it-off situation. She was about to go into Panic Mode when Moon sighed and ducked under the net. "C'mon, doofus, I'll take you to the nurse again. This is why you don't play volleyball with your face."

Whitley blinked as Moon led him away, still a little shaken. "Is this a regular thing?"

"More or less, yeah," someone on her team answered, picking up the ball and wiping it off with a tissue from a nearby box and some hand sanitizer. Cold season came in handy, apparently. "Should've seen him during the kickball unit last year. That was wild."

She glanced down at the tiny spots of blood Sun left behind on the floor. Wild indeed.

She hadn't noticed until Moon was gone, but Moon had held the other team together. Without her, Whitley's team managed to overcome them and win. It felt good, being part of a small victory like that, especially when her teammates celebrated again with high-fives all around. The victory carried her on a high through the rest of her day. Nothing got her down, and it definitely helped that she didn't have much work to do in some of her classes.

True to her promise to herself, she didn't get involved in any after school clubs. Well, the Cooking Club on Wednesday technically counted as a point against her, but that was a favor for people she was pretty certain were her friends. It was more like hanging out with a small group, something she much preferred and could more easily condone. So she could go home right away, walking in the nice sunlight down the block.

She slipped in her earbuds, cranking her music so she couldn't hear anything under it. Dangerous to do, but it allowed her to slip away from school and homework for a little while. It was fine, she only needed to cross one street anyway, and it never seemed to be very busy.

Her parents weren't home yet; they'd get home in a couple hours, so she had the house to herself. It was still a bit odd to be in this house; she wasn't quite used to the layout. Her room wasn't like her old room, either, but she could make do. She always found a way to be comfortable in new bedrooms. For now, it was bland and bare, with a couple of boxes still floating around. All she'd unpacked so far were her school supplies and her clothes. She'd finish unpacking everything else when she felt like it. Maybe this weekend she'd get around to decorating her room.

For now, though, she flopped onto her bed, switching between the apps on her phone. It seemed to her like there wasn't anything interesting on social media, so she resigned herself to her music, playing it without headphones. She stared at her ceiling for a minute before sighing and grabbing at her phone again.

She more or less stared at the screen waiting for a response for a full minute. Naturally White wasn't going to answer right away, chances were she was sleeping or on the phone with Black to catch up on the work she missed. She switched between her email and the message for a while before finally getting up and getting her homework from her backpack.

Music helped her focus on her work, usually, so it was a bit of a breeze. Definitely helped that the load was light to begin with, but she was almost done by the time her parents got home. They checked in on her quickly before the two of them started dinner. Dinner was always a bit of a family affair, something that never faded no matter how many times they moved. Ever since she was little, her mom and dad made dinner together. She helped sometimes, when she didn't have homework to finish.

She was just finishing her math homework when her phone vibrated with an incoming text- and then another.

Well, for starters, she only vaguely knew who they were. She hadn't had any conversations with them at all. A couple of weeks wasn't enough time to meet everyone, but she'd seen White hang out with them. Less and less so this past week, she probably had work to do as student body vice president. Whitley wasn't sure she had ever seen White not working on something.

She watched the three dots appear and disappear again and again for a few minutes before White sent another message.

Oh, alright. She shrugged it off, turning back to the last bits of her homework. Probably she was just wondering if they'd asked about her absence; they might not have texted her. Still, that was a lot of time for just those two words. Maybe she was distracted?

Once she finished her homework, she turned her phone over on her desk, heading downstairs to help with dinner. "What can I do?" she asked, surveying the scene. With her dad out by the grill, it looked like they were having veggie burgers, but she could never be completely sure until they told her.

"Here, slice this up," her mom said, tossing her a freshly-washed tomato. Veggie burgers, then. She was right. "Nice and thick, alright?"

"Got it." Just how they all liked them. She grabbed one of the kitchen knives and a cutting board, starting in. "Oh, by the way, I'm staying after school on Wednesday."

Her mom glanced over, intrigued. She knew how Whitley felt about this kind of thing. "Really, what for?"

"Cooking club. I promised a couple people I'd go." She tried to sound nonchalant about it, like it was no big deal. It really wasn't, it was just her hanging out with some...friends? Acquaintances? Probably friends, but she wasn't about to ask them if they were. It was probably alright to assume in this situation.

"Good for you!" Her mom knocked on the kitchen window, getting her dad's attention. "Hon, Whitley's staying after for a club this week!"

She felt her face heat up- Honestly, they couldn't even wait for her to be out of the room? She should've guessed. "It's not a big thing." Not like the band was, but they didn't know about that yet. She figured she'd wait a while before telling them, just to ensure that everything worked out. It would just be awkward to tell her parents one thing and then have to go back on it later. Not to mention disappointing for herself.

Her dad brought the veggie burgers in, putting them on the table. "That's great! Make sure you bring some food home for us to try."

"Can't promise anything if it turns out really well." She put the tomato on the table and sat down. The first thing her mom did each evening was set the table, so Whitley only did the odd job for dinner and cleanup if she had homework. "Hopefully it goes well."

"You should invite your friends over sometime, we'd love to meet them." Her mom somehow managed to maintain meaningful eye contact while assembling her plate. The thought made Whitley squirm a little.

"Maybe." She picked at a piece of lettuce for a moment before changing the subject. "How's everything at work?" Her parents were both veterinarians, so they had interesting stories about the animals they worked with. She liked hearing about them.

Her mom smiled. "I met the sweetest rescue pup today, she behaved so well during her checkup. Actually, I'm pretty sure her owner goes to your school, he came in after school was out. I think he goes by N? Wonder if it's short for something."

She nearly choked on her food. "Yeah, I know him," she eventually got out, her eyes watering. "He's a senior." Seems to be everywhere, doesn't he?

"Looks like someone has a crush," her dad teased, and she frantically shook her head. Why did her parents always jump to that conclusion? Every single time she brought up a boy! "Come on, you can tell us. You're all red!"

"Um! That's from- the- the lack of breathing." She took a sip of lemonade, thinking of what she could possibly say to divert the subject again. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything, so she returned to what she did during lunch on the first day of school and took a bite of her burger. Hopefully she wouldn't choke this time.

Her parents made up most of the rest of the conversation, and she was okay with that. Whitley didn't exactly want to risk saying something that would seem like a big deal to them about friends or school or N. Of course, she chimed in here and there, but mostly she just enjoyed her food.

She helped clean up after dinner before running upstairs to grab her phone. The screen was still on her messages with White when she unlocked it. She almost exited out of it, but the dots were still appearing and disappearing periodically on White's side of the conversation. She watched them carefully, wondering if White knew who she was texting. After all, she had her boyfriend, the rest of the band, Ruby, Blue, and probably a lot of other people. Why would she text someone she just met a couple weeks ago?

The dots disappeared again shortly after that thought. White must've had the same one.

"I'm telling you, this is the manzai that's going to get us recognized!" Pearl exclaimed without looking up from his phone. His fingers were flying across the keyboard, just as they had during lunch on the first day.

"That's great," Dia replied. "We still have too many ingredients for just three of us to use."

Whitley and Platinum shared a glance from their respective kitchens. She wasn't sure how many people would be showing up, but she thought it would be enough to force them to work in pairs. Apparently, not, though; it was only the four of them. Maybe she'd have some food to spare for her parents after all.

She looked down at the recipe Dia had given her when she came in. All they were making today, probably to ease them in, were chocolate chip cookies. It didn't look like Dia would be convincing Pearl to put the manzai down anytime soon, so she shrugged and started preparing her portion.

"I trust you're adjusting to everything well," Platinum said after a minute or two passed in relative silence (apart from Dia and Pearl). The kitchens they were working in were adjacent to each other, making it easy to converse. That was much better than having to yell across the room.

"I am, thanks! It's... starting to feel more normal." She started creaming the butter and sugar, pretending to ignore Platinum copying her movements almost exactly. "Everyone's pretty nice."

Platinum hummed under her breath, her expression unreadable. "Some are more friendly than others, as I'm sure you've seen."

Well...yeah. There was that boy Gladion on the first day, and her bandmates (sans White) gave her the low-down about the aptly named Bitches on her first day as well. She wasn't going to get on their bad side anytime soon, hopefully. And then there was this one guy who looked like he'd dipped his hair in dye the color of hot sauce she'd seen in the halls that seemed downright unapproachable… "I guess you're right. I'm glad I've found friendly people, then."

"Hey! Give that back!" Pearl whined from across the room, stealing her attention away from her mixing bowl.

Dia pocketed Pearl's phone before washing his hands again. "Cookies first, manzai later." Pearl pouted, but eventually grabbed his ingredients. Whitley was already finishing her dough and putting it on the cookie sheet. It was so tempting to eat it as-is, but Dia would probably end her if she tried. As would her mom, if she ever found out.

Soon enough, the smell of the baking cookies filled the air. Nothing smelled like it was burning, so that was a good sign as to how edible they were. She did her dishes quickly, though she looked up to see Pearl flicking soap bubbles at Dia. And, once more, Platinum was doing exactly what Whitley was doing. Had she never done the dishes or made cookies before?

"Hey, is there anything fun to do around here?" she asked, elbow deep into the warm water. Her parents had been talking about exploring sometime, but she wasn't sure when they would have the time to do so. "I haven't had the chance to go anywhere yet."

"There's a mall nearby," Platinum mentioned after some thinking. "It's a short drive from here, plenty to do."

Dia rinsed the soap bubbles off of his arm. "There's ice cream about a block from here, too. Hey, why don't we show you around this weekend? My mom could probably give us a ride to the mall if you want."

"That could be fun," Pearl agreed, almost dropping his mixing bowl into the water.

She laughed a little, drying her hands off. Most of her dishes were done. "You three keep being my heroes. That sounds great."

Her cookies came out of the oven soon after. She let them cool on the wax paper so she could finish washing the cookies sheets. They smelled so good, she wanted to eat one already, but didn't want to burn her mouth.

Not like Dia, who, despite being the leader of this club and therefore knowing better, bit into one right out of the oven. Whitley watched in wide-eyed fear as he finished the entire cookie. "They're good!" came his cheery assessment.

"They're extremely hot," she managed, looking to Pearl and Platinum to see if they were as dumbfounded as she was. They were not. In fact, they were barely paying him any mind. Apparently this was normal.

"Eh, they aren't that hot." He shrugged it off, reaching for another.

Hers were sufficiently cooled by the time she finished washing and drying the cookie sheets. The cookies came out really well, she was quite proud of them. Pearl didn't look nearly as satisfied with his, but Platinum's came out well, so she gave him a few of hers. "You've improved a lot," he commented, shoving an entire cookie into his mouth. "Tastes a lot better than last year!"

"I have great teachers," Platinum said with a soft smile. Whitley could tell that she was proud of her apparent improvement. Dia and Pearl (or, really, just Dia) seemed to be great teachers indeed.

She started packaging the rest of her cookies in a little baggie when the door to the room swung open. "Almost done? I'd like to get home sometime tonight." The person who came in, Moon, stole a cookie from Platinum's pile and bit into it. "Oh, you did better on these."

"We're just about done. Whitley, this is my sister Moon," Platinum introduced with a slightly more loose smile. Whitley didn't think she'd seen that one on her before. Maybe that was a by-product of being around her sister.

Moon glanced over at her, recognition flashing on her face. "I know you, you're in my gym class."

Whitley laughed weakly with a nod. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to act- more friendly, or more like an acquaintance? "Yeah, nice to finally meet you. You have a wicked spike."

She smirked a little, finishing the cookie she took. "You'd think Sun would know by now not to get in the way of it. He's lucky he didn't break his nose again."

Huh. Then it did happen often. "Moon, you have the house to yourself Saturday, we're going to the mall to show Whitley around," Platinum said, shoving Moon away from taking another cookie. "Are you alright with that?"

"Of course. Lillie and I will probably just be hanging out or something. Hope you guys have fun." Lillie, huh? That girl from the first day… Actually, Moon looked like one of the people she and Gladion had been sitting with in the cafeteria. How had she not noticed before? She didn't think her memory was that bad.

Moon stole one of Pearl's cookies before he could stop her, snapping Whitley out of her thoughts. He didn't even seem like he was going to stop her, instead trying to get his phone back from Dia so he could work on his manzai more.

"You should join us next time to make your own," Dia suggested, and she got the feeling that he'd said it many times before. This time it was more joking, like he didn't think she would accept.

As she predicted, Moon shook her head. "Sorry, archery comes first."

That sounded pretty cool, actually. None of the schools she'd gone to had an archery club. Maybe it would be cool to check out, but as she knew from previous gym classes, she was a terrible shot. She checked the time absently; she'd need to be home soon. "I've got to get going, I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She did a quick check to make sure she had everything before exiting, the halls eerily quiet. Not many people stayed after on Wednesdays, apparently, or they stayed longer than she did. She took another cookie from her bag, giving her something to munch on as she walked.

She was close to the entrance when she heard music coming from what she thought was an empty classroom. The lights had been off and the shade drawn, but she guessed it wasn't locked like it probably should've been. After a moment, she realized it was White in there; that was most definitely an electric guitar practicing a song from their set. The same part was repeated over and over, sighs and noises of frustration heard at the end of each repetition. That was the same part White had been tripping over during practice. That was the only part she had ever heard White get stuck on.

For a moment, she debated going in, but she really needed to get home, she had homework to do and didn't want her parents to wait for her to have dinner because of it. Maybe she'd text White later, see if everything was alright. She hadn't been as present or talkative at practice since coming back, so maybe she still didn't feel great. She'd file that away for later.

Her walk home wasn't anything special, more or less the same as any day. The only difference was that there were less people walking in the same direction. Given that this area was supposedly incredibly safe, she was fine with that.

Unsurprisingly, she still had half an hour to work on homework before her parents got home. First, though, she wrote in her weekend plans on the mini whiteboard on her wall. Pink for social events, blue for family things, orange for birthdays, and black for everything else. She'd rather not get too attached, just in case, but she couldn't help but want to see more pink.

She lingered with her thumb over her messaging app for a minute after turning her music on. Was this concern she was feeling for White? She hadn't known her long, but something sat in her uneasily. White was probably still practicing… Maybe she should text Black? But she didn't want to make waves, it wasn't her place to say anything…

Hm. She was probably just imagining things. After all, she didn't know what to look for. Everyone else had known each other their entire lives. It probably wasn't something to concern herself over.

Besides, they weren't even a month into school. What was the worst thing that could happen?

Chapter Text

"Try not to burn the house down with your, your poisons, or that chemistry set Mother got you while I'm away, alright?"

Moon sighed, rolling her eyes at Platinum. Such confidence she had in her sister. "As long as you try not to get abducted in the short span of time you're out. Seriously, we have that tracking app for a reason." It was ridiculous for Platinum to not trust her of all people; at least she knew how to not be an easy target. Hopefully the others would discourage anything like that happening again. "Go, have fun, everything will be fine when you get back."

"Have fun yourself," Platinum said as Moon practically pushed her outside, meeting Diamond, Pearl, and Whitley in Diamond's mom's car. Moon watched out the window and waved as they left, turning down the street. A moment later, she texted Lillie.

Of all the people in the world Moon would deliberately piss off, Lillie's mother was at the top of the extensive list. However, if she wanted to see Lillie at all in this lifetime, she had to play nice for the time being. All bets were off after graduation.

Moon nodded to herself, thinking. As far as she knew, Sun wasn't doing anything today, but just to be certain, she shot him off a quick text telling him not to go anywhere for a few hours. She was almost certain Lillie had already thought of that, but it was better to be safe than sorry. That was more or less routine; she was grateful that he was willing to help them out like this. It helped that they'd known each other since diapers, but she had the feeling that even if they hadn't, he would help. That was just the kind of person he was.

Maybe it was the anxiety of being on a date, but she found herself waiting by the door for Lillie. Lillie didn't live far away, only a couple of blocks, but Moon didn't want to keep her waiting when she arrived. The house didn't need tidying; Lillie had seen the house looking worse, an actual disaster area. Maybe she could get some snacks out…

Lillie arrived, knocking on the door, while Moon was finishing up plating some cookies. Easy to assemble snacks like that were found often in her house, thanks to Platinum's near incompetence at cooking. "Thanks for coming," Moon said as she opened the door. She barely waited to close it before she kissed Lillie quickly, a blush growing on her own cheeks like it did on Lillie's. Kissing never failed to make the butterflies grow in Moon's stomach. "I have snacks if you're hungry."

"Yes, please." Their hands slipped together as they made their way to the kitchen, the lights off to allow the sunlight to filter in through the window. It shined really nicely off of Lillie's pale hair, but if Moon said that she would likely never live it down in her own mind. She had a reputation to uphold. "I keep forgetting how quiet it is when there's nobody else here."

"Trust me, I need this silence every now and then." She loved Platinum and their parents, she did, but they weren't exactly the most quiet at times. Between the laughter from Platinum having Dia and Pearl over a very good portion of the time and her parents often loudly debating different merits to their research papers, it was hard to catch a break at times. "And now we can do whatever we want without any interruptions."

Which sounded more…rated R than she meant it. When the house was full, there was always a good chance of interrupted conversations (or, honestly, makeout sessions). It was a rarity for there to be nobody around, to the point where Moon was almost expecting someone to show up. Maybe Platinum and her friends would come back, having ditched the mall early.

But no. It was just her and Lillie. And even though this was nowhere near the first time the two of them had been alone, Moon was not in the calmest state of mind. If she was telling the truth, she never was when it was just her and Lillie, especially not once they started dating. "You know," Moon said after nibbling on one of the store-bought cookies she put out, "we're gonna need to fit in as many dates as we can before the fencing season starts."

"Don't we still have a few months until that? You're nearly as eager about that as everyone else is about homecoming," Lillie teased, finishing her first cookie. Not a crumb remained on her face, which was some sort of domestic superpower. "I still think homecoming is being oversold, it wasn't that fun last year."

"It's never fun for the freshmen." Which Moon only knew in a weird sense. She skipped a grade in middle school, so she was supposed to be a freshman with Lillie, Sun, and Hau last year, but instead she was a freshman when Platinum and Gladion were. It didn't feel like she was a freshman that entire year, more of an imposter of sorts. "I have a feeling, if you want to go, that it's going to be a lot more fun this year."

Lillie made a face, or at least as much of one as she could. She was never one to make faces. The attempt was actually kind of cute. "Mother wants me and Gladion to go since she's chaperoning. Which probably means she'll try to keep an eye on us all night, or she'll have Vice Principal Faba do it for her."

Moon opened her mouth, but shut it before she could say anything. As many faults as she had, Lillie loved her mom, and Moon would be cruel to say anything mean about Lusamine in front of her. As easy as that would be at any given time. She had to remember to talk to Platinum later. "At least you have Wicke on your side, and we have an actual chance of being homecoming queens together."

Lillie's eyes brightened as she leaned a little closer. "Thanks to your hard work." Moon had been the one to make the motion to have that changed. She wasn't surprised in the least when the rest of the GSA agreed and gathered support from a lot of other students. With so many in support of the idea, Lusamine quite literally couldn't say no. The look on her face when she realized that was priceless.

"I think we're a shoe-in. There's literally no couple in our school as great as we are." She shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Only if you want to run, though. I don't want to force you."

Lillie winked, the sunlight making her green eyes sparkle. "I think you've sold me. But...we should probably wait until the last minute to be put on the ballot."

Right. That way Lusamine wouldn't shut it down. So many hoops to jump through for something so simple… "I'll get Platinum to do that." Even though she knew for a fact that Platinum had little to no clue what she was doing as student body president, like hell was she going to bring this to White. Not when White started this mess in the first place.

Moon's mood sank just a touch. She tried to avoid White as much as possible, easy thanks to White being a sophomore. Although she had no concrete evidence, she just knew that White had been the one to tell Lusamine. So whatever contact they'd had before as previous classmates was cut off. Given that White never fought that fate, there was a good chance that she felt guilty.

Good.

"Hey." Lillie reached for her hand, holding it gently. Moon's fingers tightened around hers a touch. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah." At least, mostly. After another cookie, she would be much better. She picked up the plate and a couple of napkins. Her parents would murder her if they got ants because of a few crumbs. "Let's go upstairs."

In Moon's completely unbiased opinion, her room was the best one in the house. It held her favorite books, her favorite blankets, and most importantly, it was the quietest place in her house when she wanted it to be. The only downside was that Pearl never knocked when he was over. It was only a matter of time until he regretted that.

She and Lillie settled onto her bed, pulling her blanket up around them. Her window was open, allowing the breeze to flow through her room. It was kind of chilly in a turning-autumn kind of way, the best kind of way. She couldn't believe how long it had already been since the beginning of the school year. It was nice that she'd fallen into the new schedule easily.

For a moment, the two of them simply looked at each other, sharing an entire conversation via expressions. Then, with just a slight upward tick in their lips, they were kissing. Or, more accurately, making out, but what they called it didn't matter. Simply put, it was one of Moon's favorite feelings in the world. When they'd started dating, neither of them were very experienced with kissing. Moon hadn't dated anyone before Lillie, and she knew the same could be said for Lillie. Not to mention, Moon was Lillie's first kiss, both seriously and from a dare back in middle school after Moon had come out to her friends. They'd both become better at kissing since then.

Lillie's hair was soft when Moon ran her fingers through it. She loved playing with Lillie's hair. "I love you," she whispered, disconnecting for long enough to say that.

In all honesty, she had not been expecting many makeout sessions like this at first. She had known Lillie practically since they were born and never once thought that Lillie would like this. So it was a pleasant surprise for sure.

A handful of minutes passed before they disentangled themselves from each other. Lillie had that pretty pink blush on her face, her lips just a tad swollen. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, and Moon could tell from the look in her eyes that she had something she wanted to say. "Dad called Gladion yesterday," she blurted out, notes of excitement and apprehension lingering in her voice. "He wants to see us soon."

"That's amazing!" And something she wasn't sure would happen, in all honesty. Moon saw firsthand that Lillie had a rough time when her dad left, after...everything last year, though Gladion mentioned offhand before that Lusamine's reaction was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was absurd that Lusamine had managed to snag near full custody, apart from holidays. She even had Lillie and Gladion during the summer, which- it was ridiculous. Moon thought so, Gladion thought so, and even though she would never dare say it, Moon knew that Lillie thought so, too. But in all the time since then, their dad didn't try to fight harder, or do something like this. "How is that going to work?"

"I'm not sure yet. Dad called at the end of study hall and Gladion couldn't sneak his phone to his room last night and he left early today, so he'll probably tell me later." She stopped to take a breath, smoothing her mussed-up hair. "I mean, this is a good thing, right? He didn't do anything wrong."

Even though that was true, Moon ran through her thoughts quickly. "It's a great thing, but you should be careful. Just in case he could possibly get in trouble for this." Lillie nodded resolutely, but Moon knew the hope in her eyes would edge out over caution in the end. At least in this case, there was little chance of her dad somehow getting in trouble. Moon was more afraid of Lillie and Gladion being caught sneaking around. "I'm impressed that wasn't the first thing you said coming in."

"I was going to tell you sooner, I wanted to, but Gladion told me while Mother was on the phone with Vice Principal Faba, and my phone was already off for the night." Lillie bounced a little in place before going in for another cookie. "How are your parents?"

Moon shrugged, reclining against the wall. "The same as usual, always discussing one paper or another." Her lips quirked up into a smile. "Though Platinum swears she heard them discussing some sitcom the other night. She'd just had caffeinated tea, though, so who knows."

Lillie laughed so abruptly that she nearly choked on the cookie crumbs she inhaled. "Come on, I'm sure your parents watch something other than documentaries."

"I doubt that," she said with a playful roll of her eyes. As long as she could remember, documentaries were one of the only programs on the television in her house. Though she couldn't complain; a lot of the history documentaries her family watched were interesting. She sometimes found her attention slip to them when she was in the same room. Her phone vibrated, but she set it aside once she made sure it wasn't Platinum, her parents, or Sun. Chances were, in that case, it was either Hau or the group chat created for her history project, and could therefore wait.

Lillie adjusted the blanket around her, covering her cropped jeans. "I'm surprised that Platinum wanted to go to the mall, is there some special occasion coming up?"

Moon shook her head, shifting so she was covered by the blanket too. Her socked feet brushed up against Lillie's. "They went with that new girl, Whitley, so they could show her around." She seemed nice, apart from the fact that she was in White's band, a fact that she only knew because Dia mentioned it offhand after Whitley left cooking club the other day. Moon wouldn't judge her on that alone. "She has gym with me and Sun."

Lillie winced with a small, knowing smile. "So she saw you spike the ball into Sun's face again?"

"Hey, I warned him. You'd think he would've learned after the first time." The first time being elementary school. Possibly before, she couldn't remember. She shifted so she was laying on her back, staring up at Lillie. "Is it bad that I'm ready for school to be over with already?"

"Coming from someone who complains all summer that she's bored and wants school to start?" Moon laughed to herself; she'd already known that answer. Lillie laid down next to her, her eyes trained on the ceiling. "We'll be on break before you know it. And then we'll be going somewhere every day and it'll be great." Her hand found Moon's again, holding it more tightly than she did before. Moon felt her chest warm. "Even better, you'll be a senior! That'll be wild."

That was one way of putting it. "And yet Platinum still treats me like a toddler, do you know she told me not to burn the house down? Like that would ever happen."

She was met with a politely skeptical look. So what if it had nearly happened a handful of times over the years? She'd never actually burned anything down that was not meant to be burned down and she was going to keep it that way. There was a greater chance of Platinum and Pearl setting the kitchen on fire when Dia was trying to teach them how to cook. Though she was a big enough person to admit that it was a nonzero chance of that happening eventually…

"Okay, fine." She turned her head, kissing Lillie quick on the cheek. After that, they were silent for a while, but that was just fine. They'd known each other for so long, they were perfectly content to just...exist. That's how they've always been, the quietest two in their friend group. Between Hau and Sun and even Gladion, there was never much left unsaid.

...And, okay, yes, both of them may have drifted off to sleep after a few minutes cuddled together like that. There may have been a little bit of spooning. It wasn't Moon's fault or Lillie's that school overworked teenagers and that they were both tired. The only thing that woke both of them up was Lillie's and Moon's phones vibrating off the hook.

"What's going on?" Lillie asked, rubbing at her eyes as she clumsily tried to unlock her phone. It was just barely out of her reach to begin with, making her stretch.

Moon reached around Lillie, swiping open her phone. She had a fingerprint identification, making it much easier for her to get to her messages and read quickly. "Code White. Sun's on his way already."

Lillie shot up, trying to fix her hair to be as immaculate as it was when she arrived. "No, no, no," she groaned, texting quickly, likely to Gladion. "I missed a call from her two minutes ago. That must be why. How long were we asleep for?"

"Only an hour." She double checked just to be sure. "Yeah, an hour." That was still no reason for this to be happening. Platinum wasn't even home yet, it hadn't been two hours. If she or Moon missed a call, their parents would simply call again in five minutes. "I'll grab the posterboard if you bring the cookies downstairs. Sun should be at the door any second."

Lillie nodded, grabbing the plate of cookies while Moon took out their usual "we're working on a group project" supplies. Every one of their friends always had a stash of said supplies, in case they ever needed to cover for someone. Code White was the worst of those times, when Lusamine would show up virtually unannounced. It rarely happened more than once a month, but it was always when everyone least expected. Checking back on the messages once everything was in place, it was a good thing that Gladion had returned home early to pick up something he forgot. They definitely would've been busted otherwise.

"I'm here," Sun called, nearly crashing into the kitchen counter. Once more Moon did not regret giving him a spare key years ago. "I ran all the way."

"We can tell," Moon said, looking over his sweaty and panting frame. She pushed the plate over to him. "Cookie?"

He nodded, eating and catching his breath while they discussed what their "topic" would be this time. This had to look as real as possible if it was going to fool Lusamine, and that meant putting as much thought into this as they could before she arrived. And, honestly, Moon was surprised it ever worked given that she was a junior. Lillie and Sun were both sophomores. If she ever did catch on, Moon could simply say that she was helping because she'd already taken that class.

But she would make sure this would not be the first time Lusamine caught on. By the time Lusamine arrived and rang the doorbell, the three of them already had a pretty good "presentation" put together. Either they were getting faster at assembling fake posters, or Lusamine was not as fast to get to the house as she usually was. "Hello, Moon," Lusamine said once Moon opened the door. As usual, though, she was barely looking at Moon, more looking around her to see inside. Lillie and Sun both waved at her happily, if a bit nervously. "Lillie, time to go."

Moon turned inside to help them "pick up," rolling her eyes so only Sun could see. Lillie...loved her mother. Moon didn't really know how she could after everything Lusamine had done and continued to do, but she wouldn't tear that away from her. That would just be cruel. "Thanks for coming," she said in a false positive voice, the one she always put on when her parents had colleagues over. It was the voice that said "I've never done anything wrong ever" as opposed to her usual "I've almost poisoned Pearl a handful of times in my life" tone.

"Thank you for having me." The forced polite response hurt to hear. They were dating; they didn't need those thank-yous to be voiced. Lillie was always welcome at Moon's house. Lusamine tugged her gently outside and shut the door, leaving just Moon and Sun.

Who walked to the window and looked out to try to see if anything was happening. "What was that?" Sun asked first, ducking behind the curtains to remain unseen in case Lusamine's gaze fell on them.

"You think I know? We were asleep until our phones tried to vibrate themselves off of the bed. Lillie said she missed a call, but I don't know." She shook her head, letting the curtain drop when Lusamine's car was out of view. They didn't even live that far, Lillie usually walked. "Thanks for coming, I owe you one."

"Snag me some of Dia's cookies next time he makes some and we're golden. Store-bought just isn't the same after you've tasted homemade." Sun winked and grinned, perfectly content with just that. "Seriously, though, that was weird. Code White never happens so early in the school year."

"I know." And she hated that Code White happened at all, that Lusamine was that controlling that she would drop in unannounced to catch them in whatever they were doing. Anything to get her kids in trouble. "Gladion was a true life-saver this time, I should bring him cookies too." She picked up her phone to tell him just that, scrolling past the Code White messages. A couple of notifications remained from her actual group project chat, as she thought. It was mostly Wally and Yellow asking what supplies they may need- they were both out near the craft store- and Platinum supplying an answer. Well, couldn't be helped that she missed that exchange. "Do you have to go, or do you want to hang?"

In response, Sun went back to the kitchen and took another cookie, breaking it in half. "I can stay as long as you want me. How'd your date go?"

She shrugged, leaning on the counter and breaking off a part of another. "Up until the Code White, amazing. We're going to run to be homecoming queens when the time comes."

"That's great! Unless Hau and Gladion run, I'm voting for you." She rolled her eyes, but knew he was only joking. No way would either of them want to run, not seriously. Gladion didn't have any interest in the homecoming court, and Hau just went to homecoming to have fun with everyone else. It was one of the biggest social events of the school year; anyone who didn't go wouldn't stand a chance in the halls. "Jeez, everyone's already getting excited for homecoming."

"What did you expect? It's basically the biggest dance other than prom." None of them had gone to prom before, of course; that was a juniors-only event unless they were invited. Meaning Moon would be taking Lillie, and Gladion would probably bring Hau. Maybe she could talk Platinum into inviting Sun so the five of them could hang out. That would be the most fun. Then again, they had much longer to wait for that. "You've already had yearbook meetings this year, right?"

"Yeah, we're voting for officers on Tuesday. I'm a shoe-in for treasurer, of course, now that the treasurer from last year's graduated." As he'd wanted for a year. It became a joke in their friend group not to trust him with money, but in truth, he was very responsible and fit to be treasurer. He laughed to himself. "Actually, I'm running unopposed, but I would've had the votes either way!"

Moon nodded, tapping her fingers gently on the counter. They barely made any sound at all; she kept her nails neatly trimmed at all times. "I highly doubt you'd have much competition anyway. Everyone knows you're good with money and math. You should be on the math league."

He rolled his eyes, though his smile remained intact. "If I wanted to, I'd already be meeting with them. I'm good with only one or two clubs at a time. Yearbook has my full attention right now."

Sun stayed around for about an hour before he was called home; apparently he had ditched chores to help with the Code White. His departure left Moon alone, only partially guilty about finishing the final couple of cookies. She'd work them off somehow, probably during archery or on a run.

Being alone also left her free to think and free to plan. She would readily admit it if she was asked, but- well, she was really worried about what was going to happen. Lillie and Gladion were no strangers to being grounded for things Lusamine didn't like, especially once their dad left. Moon didn't want to see them face punishment for meeting up with their dad in secret. It was their decision, though, and she would support that either way. That was her duty as their friend, first and foremost.

She returned to her room after getting rid of the evidence of the cookies. The poster would be repurposed eventually, probably the canvas to another flow chart of her own creation. For now, it went in the stack of used posters in her closet, away from the neatness of the rest of her room.

Sitting down at her desk, she opened her notes and textbooks. It was still the school year, after all, and she had tests to study for. Might as well use the remaining time she had alone to study.

The instant she heard the front door open and Pearl's voice clearly even though her bedroom door was closed, she knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.

"-and that's when Blake just gets up and leaves!" Hau said during lunch on Tuesday, pausing partway through his malasada. No matter what he brought for lunch, it always had malasada. "I swear it was the best thing to ever happen in math class, of all places."

Moon suppressed a laugh, rolling her eyes just a touch as she ate the leftovers she brought for lunch. That was one of the good things of Platinum, Pearl, and Dia basically pooling together their lunches; Moon always got dibs on the good leftovers. "Does anyone even pay attention in math anymore? I think I stopped back in eighth grade."

"I do," Sun said, putting a hand to his chest in faux offense. He flicked a carrot stick at her. She tossed it back at him, and he caught it perfectly in his mouth. "Hey, your aim's getting better!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, my aim's always been perfect." Under the table, she felt Lillie take her hand and give it a light squeeze. It was unfortunate, but this was the most they could do at school, despite the entire student body knowing they're together. Lusamine had eyes seemingly everywhere. Across the table, Gladion and Hau were doing the same. Gladion was more the kind to not care about what Lusamine thought, but one could be grounded for only so long before they stopped defying rules.

Gladion checked around the cafeteria subtly before leaning in towards the center of the table, his voice lowered. "Any chance you all can cover for me and Lillie on Friday? That's when we're going to see you-know-who."

Moon's eyes darted to Lillie. That was awfully soon. Were they rushing into it? The reason clicked right away, though. "I assume Friday because your mom will have to be at the game?" Gladion nodded. "Okay. What's our cover story going to be?"

"Movie night?" Hau suggested after a moment of thought. "We haven't done one of those in a while. You could even have your mom drop you off so it's more believable. You just have to be back before the game ends."

It would be easier for them to make this into a sleepover, or it would if Gladion and Lillie were allowed to. The amount of rules they had to follow was incredibly ridiculous. Lillie nodded enthusiastically. She really was excited about seeing her dad, wasn't she. "Sounds perfect! But you don't mind missing the game?"

There was a pause before they all laughed. The only football game any of them went to was homecoming. Not that any of them had anything against the football players; the captain of the boy's team was actually pretty nice. It was just that none of them were athletically inclined in the traditional sense. Moon was the athlete of them with fencing and archery, thus Friday nights were usually spent at someone's house or the mall when they could.

"Hau, can we do it at your house?" Sun asked once everyone's laughter died down. "It's furthest from here, so-"

"-it'll give us more time to get back," Gladion finished with a satisfied nod. He would be the one to point out potential flaws in the plan, so it looked like everything was set.

"Sounds good to me! I'll let Grandpa know." He slipped his hand out of Gladion's to make a quick note in his phone. "What time does your mom need to be there? We can order pizza or something."

Gladion opened his mouth, but closed it quickly and leaned back to his original seat. "Vice Principal Faba," he said, sounding to Moon like he was trying hard to stop himself from sighing. Lillie's hand jumped from Moon's to her lap in a split second. "To what do we owe this visit?"

Please, Moon thought desperately, don't let it be Lusamine.

"Simply making rounds," Faba said after a beat passed. He stroked that greasy little beard of his, studying the five of them. This always seemed to be the one table he stopped at. Go figure. "I suggest you all finish your lunches, the period is going to end sooner than you may think."

Sure. Moon glanced at the clock behind Faba; they still had fifteen minutes. That was more than enough time to finish eating and finish their plan. Out of the corner of her eye, she analyzed Faba's stance. What were the chances that he heard part of their plans? Anything he heard could and would be used against them by Lusamine. "Sure thing!" Sun said for them all, putting on his usual wide smile. Faba's frown deepened at it, but he nodded at them and started to walk away.

Until he was on the other side of the room, not one of them spoke. "That was close," Lillie sighed, breathing like her breath had been held that entire time. "Good eye, Gladion."

"We need to be careful with this," came his response. His glare followed Faba, even as his back was turned. How someone like Faba had come to work with kids, Moon would never know. She was certain she had never seen or even heard of him having a positive interaction with anyone in the school. "She usually goes at six, so we could tell her to drop us off at five-thirty so pizza works."

"Great." Moon put her fist in the center of the table. The others followed suit quickly; five-way fist bumps were their sign-off for every plan they'd ever made. This one was already set in motion; now they simply needed to ensure the execution went off without a hitch. She listened intently to another one of Hau's stories as she finished her leftovers. Somehow, Hau was always around for the funniest moments in school history. It made for many interesting days at lunch.

With Faba in the room, knowing he was likely spending some time actively watching them, Lillie didn't start holding Moon's hand again. Instead, she leaned a little closer, almost imperceptible. No matter what they did, they needed to tread lightly. Nothing was ever simple. Lillie was absolutely worth it, but Moon would be lying if she said she wasn't sick of it.

Movement caught her eye with a couple of minutes to go in the period. That kid in White's band, Blake, crossed the cafeteria with long strides. "What's he up to?" she murmured, trying to figure him out. She didn't know him too well; she didn't think many people did.

He stopped too far away for her to see who he was speaking to, but from his stance she could tell he wasn't happy. If she tried to see, she would most certainly be busted for being nosy. Normally she wasn't, but… Well, everyone who knew about the band knew that lunch was for them and them only. For one of them to leave even a couple of minutes early, that was almost unheard of. Whatever business he had must've been important.

She was so distracted by him that she had to scramble to get her things together when the bell rang. By the time she looked up again, he was gone. She shook her head and buried her curiosity, instead focusing on her next class.