Chapter Text
Everyone knows about the overused high school stereotypes. Be it the sports star whose father is just a little bit too overbearing, or the popular girls who everyone hates, the nerds who need to have some massive makeover to 'become' attractive, or the one gay kid whose bully ends up being closeted themselves.
Bottom line was, Scylla really didn’t like those stereotypes but what she disliked, even more, was that she definitely played into them.
Popular party girl with a tragic backstory? Check.
Popular girl, who never actually opens up to her 'friends'? Check.
Could be top of her class if she actually applied herself but doesn't because she hasn't been motivated since middle school? These are starting to get a little too personal.
Scylla would rather not fit into any of these stereotypes but sometimes doing so was easier. And no, she wasn’t waiting for someone to come along and fix her with their ‘love’ because Scylla wasn’t broken. She might’ve thought she was broken in the past, but someone once told her that no one is ever broken, they’re just in pain.
So now? Now she was just wishing for high school to be over so she could leave town and completely forget about everything that had happened over the last five-or-so years.
Present Day, Biology Class
Scylla didn’t know why she came to her Biology classes anymore; it wasn’t like she ever enjoyed them and she didn’t even have any friends in her class to distract when the boredom kicked in. That’s probably why she had been scribbling down song lyrics on her page for the last half an hour, rather than listening to her teacher, Ms Alder, drone on about… whatever it was she was supposed to be learning about. That, in turn, was probably why she became very confused when her name had suddenly been called out.
Scylla whipped her head up, expecting some sort of lecture about how she should be listening and how Biology was one of the most important subjects. Instead, Ms Alder simply kept listing names off a list, a list Scylla wasn't sure why she was on.
"What the hell is going on?" She whispered harshly to the girl sitting next to her, feeling slightly guilty as the girl winced at the sudden elbow to her bicep.
“Jesus, that was a bit unnecessary no?" She whispered back, not taking her eyes off the front of the classroom.
“Sorry,” Scylla did genuinely mean it but the girl just sighed and rubbed her arm.
“She’s putting us into partners for the class project”
“Class project?” She really should pay more attention.
"Yeah, you know the typical project which doesn't actually make up that much of our overall grade but that, for some reason, teachers obsess over and insist on putting us into pairs for 'team-building' but no one ever makes friends through those things unless you're in a badly written coming of age film." How this girl was managing to speak so clearly whilst whispering and taking notes, Scylla had no idea but she had just developed some respect for this random kid.
“Wow, that was very descriptive thanks. You don’t know who I’m paired with do you?”
“Raelle”
“Sorry?” Scylla was starting to feel more and more stupid with every word that came out of her mouth; the eye rolls she kept getting from this kid, whose name she couldn’t quite remember, weren’t exactly helping her either.
“You’re with Raelle, you know blonde that sits at the front, kind of my friend so like maybe pay more attention when you’re working on this project.”
Crap.
Scylla wasn’t sure if her respect for this girl was increasing or decreasing with every word she said so she simply huffed and turned her attention to the back of Raelle’s head.
12 years ago, Scylla’s first day of Elementary School (aged 5)
"Good morning class, I hope you're all excited for your first day!" Scylla's first thoughts of her first-ever teacher were that she was loud and very smiley.
As she looked around, Scylla noticed that all of the other kids were happily agreeing with the teacher, asking questions over each other and generally being just as loud as Miss Graves was. This was until her eyes landed on a small blonde girl sitting at the back of the group, she didn’t seem interested in what the teacher was saying and instead was fiddling with something in her hands.
Scylla thought the girl looked very pretty and was instantly curious about what she had in her hands. Without actually having to stand up, she managed to slowly shuffle over to the girl who didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence, even when she was sat right next to her. Scylla tried, in vain, to peek over the girl’s shoulder at what she was holding but the intriguing blonde simply held it closer to her chest.
“I’m Scylla” It was the least she could try, and her mom had told her that it was important to try and make new friends.
The blonde girl looked at her cautiously before smiling slightly, “I’m Raelle”
“What’s in your hands?” Scylla was always a curious child so no one could really blame her for getting straight to the point.
Raelle furrowed her brow slightly, as if contemplating whether she should share this intriguing secret, before she opened her hands and stretched her arms out towards Scylla to show her a golden chain with what looked like a bird claw, carved out of matching gold and holding a gemstone, attached to it.
“That’s weird” Scylla regretted what she had said the moment she had, the smile on the blonde’s lips instantly vanished and she snatched the necklace back against her chest, turning away from Scylla.
“It’s still cool though…. cool weird” Scylla wiggled her eyebrows for good measure, hoping to get Raelle to at least look at her again and it seemed to do the trick as the blonde tried to hide a giggle.
“My mommy gave it to me” Raelle let her hands drop in her lap but kept her focus firmly on their teacher. “It’ll keep me safe”
Scylla took a closer look at the necklace, it still looked weird in her opinion but if it could keep her new friend safe, it must be pretty cool.
“Who’s going to keep it safe though?” Scylla stated, watching as Raelle’s forehead crinkled yet again.
“My mommy didn’t say it needed to be safe” Raelle turned her full attention to Scylla now, looking genuinely concerned for her poor necklace.
"Well how about I keep it safe? Scylla the... keep safer of the necklace!" She puffed her chest out and placed her hands firmly on her hips, even though she wasn't sure if keep safer was even a word, but it had the desired effect anyway as Raelle let out another small giggle. "That way I can keep it safe and make sure that it's safe to keep you safe."
Raelle seemed to ponder the thought for a moment, her small fingers rubbing at the necklace.
“Okay, and I will also keep you safe so that we are all safe, pinky promise!” She said it with such sincerity that it made Scylla laugh and soon they had both dissolved into fits of giggles, only stopping when the teacher scolded them for being too loud.
“Do you want to sit with me?” Raelle asked after a few moments in silence.
“Hmm?” Scylla replied having drifted into a daydream.
Raelle slipped her necklace over her head as she stood up, turning to offer her hand out to Scylla. "Miss Graves said to sit at tables to we can get to know people, do you want to sit with me?”
Scylla smiled brightly, accepting the hand “Of course, I have to always sit with you so I can do my important job!”
Raelle smiled brightly, not letting go of Scylla’s hand until they were sat at a table towards the back of the classroom.
Present Day, Biology Class
“Right everyone, I’ll give you these last five minutes to get together with your partners and sort out how you're going to break up these next two weeks" Ms Alder's voice broke Scylla from yet another daydream and she cursed under her breath as she realised she had been staring at the back of Raelle's head the entire time.
"Okay Scylla, keep it together" She muttered, tucking her hair behind her ears.
As she looked back up she realised Raelle had moved, she tried to scan the room to find her but was stopped halfway through by a small "Hey" from behind her.