Chapter Text
There was already someone on the roof when Kate shouldered past the heavy doors on the sixth floor of Grosvenor Prep.
It was a complete accident that she’d ended up here to begin with. Kate had only meant to go to the fifth-floor library for independent study, but two hours of sleep and zero caffeine to compensate had taken its toll on her and she’d barely noticed the numbering in the stairwell until she was facing a grotty set of double-doors that was curiously unlocked.
For a moment, Kate was taken ahold by the idea that she might do something rebellious for once in her life- flout convention and all those other romantic notions- so she unthinkingly pushed through the doors-
Only for that brief rush of adrenaline to disappear instantly because up ahead, sprawled on the dusty floors was a girl in an oversized hoodie, seemingly occupied by whatever was on her phone. Her backpack was carefully propped up by a lone pot that was unoccupied by any plant.
What was the point of being rebellious, Kate thought petulantly, if someone had already beaten her to it?
And it wasn’t just anyone, either. It was Siena Rosso.
Siena looked up just then, her grey-green gaze raking over Kate before she glanced behind her. “Damn,” Siena finally spoke, “I must’ve forgotten to lock the doors.”
“I can leave-” Kate began to blurt, but Siena waved a lazy hand to cut her off. “Nah, stay.”
Kate remained rooted on the spot. She could hear the sound of Midtown traffic below her, cacophonous as always.
“Aren’t you… don’t you have class right now?” Kate cringed at how roundabout a way that was to inquire whether Siena was ditching. She’d never felt more like a nerd than she did now.
Siena cocked her head and raised a single eyebrow. “Independent study?” is all she said.
Oh yeah.
Kate flushed, embarrassed that she’d just assumed , especially when she now remembered two days ago, that Siena had been in the same classroom as Kate when a teacher had approved their independent study topics for the semester. She’d been in the back of the room, the same Grosvenor hoodie engulfing her uniform and her mass of unruly curls, and the teacher had to bark at her to remove the hoodie so she complied with uniform regulations.
Kate remember being briefly amused at Siena’s meager attempts to hide- if that was what she was trying to do- when all it did was single her out further.
Someone like Siena Rosso could never blend in.
Now Siena was looking at her through her clear, grey-green gaze. Kate shifted slightly. If there was one thing she found more awkward than scrutiny, it was silence. “How did you even get up here?” Kate asked, loosely gesturing to the door behind her.
“I know the janitor,” Siena replied with a mischievous smile. She fished a jangling set of keys out of the cavernous pocket of her hoodie and flashed them at Kate.
Kate imagined some faceless classmate making a sneering taunt in response: Of course you’d be friends with the janitor. Or maybe something with a little more wordplay to it: Makes sense, one of you is trash and the other picks it up for a living .
Kate winced, rattled by how easily she could formulate classist comments in her mind after three years at this school.
But Kate, because she was Kate and could therefore never settle for being the less interesting person in a room, settled on a dry, “I see you took our school’s networking advice to heart.”
Kate could tell Siena wasn’t expecting that by the way her eyes widened a fraction before she huffed out a single, sarcastic laugh.
(Kate imagined she too was recalling the almost-frightening regularity with which the school advised them to make and leverage their connections to get, well, anything. I mean really, what happened to good old hard work and persistence?).
Kate took the laugh as an invitation to sit across from Siena, extract her laptop, and half-heartedly began googling anything that vaguely pertained to her paper.
They didn’t talk for the rest of the hour, until the bell rang and Kate wordlessly stood and began walking towards the doors when Siena’s voice stopped her.
“Next time you come up here,” Siena said behind her, “lock the door behind you.”