Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All it took was one day for Cleo to lose everything. Everything was going great at first! She was the most popular girl in school, she had the looks, the sass, and her boytoy Abe. Sure, he wasn't the most well-liked or most handsome guy, but his patheticness was irresistible. If Cleo told him to jump in a volcano to get her a pretty dress, he would do it, though usually after going through several shenanigans with his short friend, Gandhar, or whatever his name was. Everything was set up to be one of the most magical nights of her life, and not just because the prom theme was "Magical Night in the Meat Locker," but because she'd finally get what it'd be like to bang the clone of the 16th president of the USA. Sure, JFK was good in bed, but it would have been so nice to see all of Abe's little reactions as he lost his V-card. The guy was already so oblivious, she probably would have had to show him where to put his hands! Although, that would have been nice to get to boss him around in-

Nevermind all that! It's over now. Thanks to the wonderful work of the pink-haired freak named Joan. After Cleo had gone OUT OF HER WAY to help someone who has been nothing but her rival (except for that one time), giving her an incredible makeover to make her look actually passable, Joan had to go and make Abe attracted to her, right before they were about to have sex! After all this time of trying to steal Abe away from Cleo, she finally did it, and it didn't even matter because guess what? Joan also banged JFK in the exact same time. So now, Joan has the heart of both Cleo's ex and her current boyfriend, when they used to be fighting for Cleo instead!

That's not even getting into the fact that they had been frozen for 20 whole years! Everything has changed now, and it's all for the worst. Now, being a freak is the new cool, being ugly is the new hot, and being a hot, popular, sexy teen who was cloned after the Cleopatra, makes you nothing! What has the world come to? Even though she watched that presentation the principal put on, it still didn't make any sense.

This brings Cleo to her next point, Frida Kahlo. What could have possibly occurred within the last twenty years that somehow made Frida the most popular girl in school? She has a unibrow, a flat chest, boyish looks, and even facial hair! How is that possible? How is someone like Frida seen as the ultimate female icon while once again, the clone of CLEOPATRA, with a perfect chest, hips, an incredible tongue, and a perfect face is completely ignored?? She's the peak of feminine beauty, and yet people are treating her like she's nothing but a random bitch!

Nobody cares about her! It's all about Joan, Joan, Joan, and Frida, Frida, Frida. The two new popular girls, along with the other one she doesn't remember. Joan gets to be girlfriend/boyfriend with JFK, Abe only has eyes for Joan, Joan and JFK are the most popular couple in school, Frida is seen as the peak of this entire school, and no one gives a damn about Cleopatra.

Oh, she wants to simply wake up from this nightmare, but given that her self-mutilation only landed her in a hospital, this probably is meant to be real. And now, Cleo has to wake up, do her makeup routine, and go to school every single day with the knowledge that everything's different, and that she has absolutely nothing.

"Hey, Foster Mom?" Cleo calls out from her bedroom, (at least Joan's no longer staying here, or else she'd attempt another homicide). Her drunk caretaker tumbles into the doorway, rubbing her head.

"M not in the moooood for any noises right now," she slurs. "Just take the fifsky and go get new shoes or sumthn."

Well, nothing but money, Cleo supposes. One of the only things she has on Joan is that her foster parent is still alive. Not that she'd miss Toots being in her house either. The guy kept using her hairdryer to dry his clarinet for some reason.

Cleo took the fifty dollars and saved it in her wallet, in case she felt like shop-binging later. One of the benefits of 2023 being the accessibility of online shopping. She thought about opening a tab on some makeup store, but her new phone buzzed in her hands. The screen showed Abe's old number, jeez, the guy couldn't even get a new phone. After staring at the ringing number for a couple of seconds, Cleo decided to take the call.

"You have exactly sixty seconds," she stated as cooly as possible. She didn't want to give this loser any more attention after this.

"Oh, ok! Well, I uh, well to start I-" the voice fumbled through the speaker. Cleo sighed, wondering how she ever managed to find his patheticness an attractive feature in the first place. He wasted seventeen seconds trying to collect his words.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for how things happened last night, I mean, twenty years ago, though that makes it sound like it has been a long time since prom happened, even though it technically was, for us it was on-"

"ABE!" Cleo snapped at him. "I don't want your apologies, what I WANT is for everything to go back to normal again!"

Abe continued, unperturbed. "I know, right? It's like saying anything even slightly offensive leads you to being-"

Cleo interrupted whatever he was about to say by hanging up. She jumped onto her bed, and groaned loudly into her pillow.

"No love-m'kin' right now! 'M trying to sleep!" her foster mom yelled from downstairs. Cleo continued her groans of frustration, albeit slightly more quietly. She curled up, holding out her phone while scrolling through random stuff on FlipFlop. What was the point of even having video content if it was less than a minute long? Scrolling through various accounts, and ignoring three calls from Abe, Cleo eventually stumbled upon Frida once more.

Her popularity in high school followed to her social media account, showing thousands of followers that really should be following Cleo instead. All her posts showed her with these happy and smug faces, almost as though Frida was digitally trying to agitate Cleo. All she saw were those same features, features that should've made Frida be considered a loser in school, but instead brought her fame and admiration. Seriously, what was it that attracted so many people? There had to be something that Cleo was missing! And there also had to be something that Cleo could use against her, something that these people would actually care about.

Nothing would stop Cleo from taking back her throne.

Chapter Text

It was something AM in the morning, and Cleo was still searching through Frida's page to find anything that would work. She was hooked on the page, hoping to find some sort of ammo, but all she found was random stuff filled to the brim with a bunch of words she didn't know the meaning of. How was she even supposed to find something to use against Frida, if she didn't know what half of these things are?

That seminar didn't cover nearly enough to summarize the two decades that had passed. Like, what the hell was 'simp' supposed to mean? She saw Frida say it to some brown-haired shortie, but what was it? It must have been some kind of insult, Cleo supposed, just because of the reaction the guy got from it, but how was she supposed to know if that was considered 'cancellable' to these new clones?

At this point, it was starting to become less about finding weaknesses and more about learning exactly the kind of person she's dealing with. While it may be hard to find something that's considered a flaw in Frida, at the very least Cleo was gaining some insight. It was harder than Joan, to be fair, as Cleo knew what those types of girls are like, but now there are new types of girls like Frida who she doesn't understand. Not that she understands how someone could be as much of a bitch as Joan.

There was one video where Frida was playing Truth or Dare with Harriet and Mr. B of all people. It was kind of weird to think about how they've interacted with Mr. B, and made memories with a person Cleo knew, all while she was stuck frozen in a meat locker. Sure, Mr. B was still a faculty member, but he was definitely one of the coolest ones. Although that'd be like saying that Joan is the most goth student in Clone High, not like there's much competition there.

"Okay Mr. B! It's your turn!" Harriet grinned. "Truth or Dare?"

"Ummm...truth."

"Tell us who you have a crush on!"

"Uhhh... I mean, dare."

"Okay, I dare you to tell us who your crush is!" Frida chimed in, smiling in excitement.

"Ok fine," Mr. B shrugged. "In spite of my cold robotic heart, deep down, I have feelings for... Wesley."

Frida and Harriet looked at the camera in shock, as if they were able to understand who he's referring to. Harriet shouted "I knew it!" while Frida made a very exaggerated face that almost made Cleo laugh. Almost.

After staying up almost all night, going through video after video of Frida's Flipflops, she finally found it. Something she could use. It was hard, given that most of the things that she would usually say about Frida are now considered positives, but she finally found something that surely be seen negatively by the other teens. In the six-hundredth and eighty-fifth video, (not that she was counting), Cleo heard digital Frida offhandedly mention something about being "pan-sexual".

Cleo rewatched the clip to see if she heard that right. Did this girl seriously just admit that she was attracted to kitchen supplies online? What the heck is wrong with people? It'd be one thing if she said she was attracted to one of the servants from Beauty and the Beast, at least that was understandable, but actual, literal pans? Doesn't matter how messed up the world is right now, anyone would consider that kind of thing to be freaky.

Well, now she got something, and she could also get some beauty rest. Finally putting her phone down, and putting it in a charger cable, Cleo got changed into her form-fitting nightgown and prepared her sleep routine. It's not easy being this beautiful, but it's time well spent. She finally laid down on her wonderful, soft bed, shutting her eyes peacefully, and plotting vengeance.

Cleo had stayed up later than she thought. At the moment she fell asleep, her alarm went off, telling her to get ready for school. Ugh, maybe she could do some of her make-up on the way. It would be rushed, but given the current standards of beauty, would it really matter? Cleo reached out for her alarm, snoozing it for another half hour.

She dreamed of trimming unibrows, funny enough.

She darted straight for the bathroom mirror once arriving at school. Finishing off the last of her fine eyeliner, Cleo thought up a plan for exactly how she was going to go about this. If there was one thing she was good at, besides looking fabulous, being sexy, a great kisser, etc., it was spreading a good old-fashioned rumor. She was almost tempted to confront Frida about it first, but it was too risky, she only had one shot at taking her down.

Leaving the bathroom, Cleo thought up a plan. Given the obsession with FlipFlop, it might be best to start there. But, her account didn't have much traction, only being followed by three people. She needed someone with a higher following, but someone who isn't super close to Frida and would try to protect her. Someone who spends a lot of time on FlipFlop, and the internet in general, so that they would know how best to make a callout video. Someone who is well-liked within the school, so people will listen to them. But who?

For a brief second, Cleo could have sworn she heard some guy's voice calling out her name, and a flash of blue hair, but it quickly vanished. Jeez, she must be more tired than she thought.

You know what? Maybe it would be fun just to see Frida's face when Cleo exposes her secret. Just watching that natural smug smile turn into panic as Frida's creepy attraction to pans is exposed. Just to watch her try to stop the inevitable. Sure, it means that Frida will know exactly who spread the rumor, but if Cleo gains all the popularity, she'll be touchless.

Cleo smirks, and walks through the halls to find her high school rival. (Ugh, the fact that Frida could even be her rival is sad). Spotting the pink hair of Frida's friend, she spots the short girl nearby, rolling on a skateboard.

"Heeyyyy, Frida," Cleo waves, trying to hide her excitement.

"Oh, hey Cleopatra," Frida nods her way. "What's up?"

"There's something I really want to talk to you about."

"Does it have something to do with all my FlipFlop videos you had been watching?"

Frida's unibrow curved upwards, that smug smile quickly gaining on Cleo's nerves. She tensed, wondering how she had managed to figure that out.

"H-how did you know?"

Frida took out her phone and scrolled through her account, "You liked every single one you went through. I woke up to like a billion notifs of you liking all my content."

Wait, what?!? Cleo didn't like any of them! She watched them, sure, but she didn't like any of Frida's videos.

"I didn't mean to like anything!" Cleo said a little louder than she intended to. "How did that happen?"

"Did you double-tap on the videos you were watching?" Harriet chimed in, hiding the amusement in her face behind concern.

"I- I don't think I did. I didn't! Why would I.... ohh."

Frida patted Cleo on the back. Or, more of her lower back given the height difference. "It's okay man, we all make embarrassing mistakes like that."

Ugh, she was being pitied now. That's even worse than being ignored and pushed aside. She didn't need pity, and she certainly didn't need it from Frida Kahlo.

"Yeah? Well, I wanted to talk to you about a certain mistake, Frida," Cleo crossed her arms, looking down at her rival.

"What's up?" Frida asked, looking completely unbothered.

"In one of your videos, I saw that you confessed to being attracted to PANS!"

Frida and Harriet both looked at Cleo like she had grown an extra head. She figured that they were trying to save face, but then Frida "Ohhh'd" and started chuckling. Uh oh.

"Are you referring to me being pansexual?" Frida said in between laughs. This made Harriet start giggling too. Oh shit, this wasn't how this was supposed to go.

Cleo tried to remain cool and unphased. "Uhh, yes! I mean, what kind of freak is sexually attracted to frying pans of all things!?"

This caused both Frida and Harriet to burst out in laughter, as if Cleo was the crazy one here. What, was an attraction to kitchen supplies also seen as okay in 2023? After the irritating laughter began to die down, Harriet spoke up.

"Do you, pfft, do you know what pansexual means?"

"Huh?" Now Cleo was the one left confused.

"Pan is a Greek prefix for all," Frida explained. "I'm attracted to all genders, not frying pans. I thought that joke was dead already."

"Wait, WHAT?" Cleo shouted this time, disturbing the hallways. "You're gay?!"

"Oh yeah, you're a 2000s person, right," Harriet said, looking sad. "It's too bad you missed out on all the progress of the LGBTQ+ movement."

"What is that even supposed to mean?!" Cleo stared, both bewildered and extremely frustrated.

"It's not just gay or straight, Pats," Frida said, making Cleo growl at the nickname. "You can like both."

Cleo just stared at the two girls, unable to completely process what they just said. Since when is liking both possible? It was either men OR women, you couldn't choose both!

The three girls just stood in silence for a solid minute, before the bell rang for the next class.

"Oh, we have to go!" Harriet turned to Frida. She gently poked Cleo to see if she would react, but Cleo stayed frozen. "What she would do about her?"

"Let her be for now," Frida replied. "Clearly she needs time to process everything. We should probably bring her to her class though."

With that, Harriet carried the statue-like Cleopatra through the hallways, taking her to their next class all while Cleo was having yet another internal crisis.

Chapter Text

Tap tap tap

Cleo's fingernails continued to tap on her vanity. She was leaned back against her chair, trying to come up with a fun makeup style to try out, but her mind just kept thinking of Frida and what the girl said last week.

Since then, Cleo had been doing research. Purely to make sure that Frida and Harriet weren't just bullshitting her and to learn more about her high school rival, of course. So... you can like both now, huh? It hadn't been something she considered back in 2003. It was always guys or girls, never an option for both. And there were so many words for it now! It wasn't just straight or gay, but now pansexual, polysexual, bisexual, asexual, demisexual, and the list goes on! How could anyone manage to keep track of all of that?

Cleo bit her lip in a sort of pout. Stupid Frida, now making her have to process all this extra information when she's already having to process the last 20 years. The worst part was, she was always so subtle about it too. At least Joan would make it obvious that she didn't like her, but Frida pretended to be all chill and cool while casually winning another one against Cleo. It was so annoying!

Tap tap tap

She needed to do something that could gain her back her popularity, but what? Most of the things that worked in the 2000s don't apply anymore, and Frida's friendly and chill persona is too tough to crack, and she doesn't have anything that could be considered "cancellable" in this day and age. So what the hell is Cleo supposed to do? She can't just NOT be popular, she's Cleopatra! Cleopatra would never let someone like Frida be at the top of the social ladder!

There had to be something she could do, but what?

Her foster mother crashed into her room with some random young guy.

"Why are you in my bedroom?"

Cleo sighed, "This is my bedroom, your bedroom's on the left-hand side of the house."

"Oh yeaaahhhh," her foster mother dragged on the last word. "Come this way, cutie!"

She dragged the young guy over to the next room, and through the mirror, Cleo was regrettably able to see his shirt that read "I Love MILFs". Cleo really wishes the principal hadn't explained that development during his seminar.

Tap tap tap

She kept getting distracted, she needed to focus. She needed to come up with a plan. She needed to be popular again.

Cleo searched through the cabinets for some nail polish. Nail painting was always good for concentration. She opened the blue to purple nail-polish cabinet, (it was always best to organize by color), only for three bottles of nail lacquer to fall out. One hit her directly in the face and bounced to the floor, one somehow flung across the room like a dart and created a splash of light blue on the wall, and the last fell right into Cleo's hand.

She looked at the polish caught in her hand, it would perfectly match the color of her usual eye shadow, and it was polite enough to fall into her palm. Cleo set the blue bottle on the vanity while going to pick up the other one that had gotten lost somewhere beneath the furniture. She had to practice her bend and snap abilities, after all.

As Cleo reached for the nail polish, she spotted something weird and fuzzy further back. At first, it looked like a disgusting rat, making the teen flinch and bump her head trying to get away. Upon further inspection, however, she was able to make out those symmetrical curls that she immediately recognized.

Reaching down again, she pulled out Joan's fake mustache, from the time she pretended to be John Dark. Or was it John D'arc? Whatever, didn't matter. That was such a weird time for everyone. It actually led to her and JFK bonding a bit over their bizarre attraction to Joan in a mustache.

Tap tap tap

She was tapping on her vanity again. Frida had a mustache, a real one. It was a couple of hairs, but damn was she tempted to just pick them out. If you're going to grow a mustache, at least make it a nice, thick one! Like John's, or Joan's. It looks sexy that way, or at least how sexy Joan could possibly be given that she's Joan.

You can like both, huh? Perhaps there was a way to gain her popularity back. If you can't beat them, join them. It wasn't the first time she had seduced her way to popularity, and it could probably still work, even in 2023. Abe became popular after dating her, so why couldn't she become popular from dating Frida?

That's it! She'll date Frida by pretending to be a man like Joan did, and get her popularity back! That was the correct conclusion to come to, right?

Cleo went to plan her most masculine outfit, even going so far as to wear jeans. She could get ready before school starts, and she could also buy another fake mustache because she refused to wear Joan's twenty-year-old plastic one. The jeans were already enough as is.

She could pull this off. If Joan could manage to pretend to totally seduce her as John, then Cleo could do the same with Frida. If there was one thing she was good at, besides looking fabulous, being great at kissing and spreading rumors, etc., it was being sexy.

Cleo pulled up to Clone High in a most luxurious mustache. Seeing the way people looked at her, as if there was a new kid in school they never heard about, some teens whispering how hot Cleo looked, it made her understand why Joan would go this route. It was actually kind of fun, if you got past the awful fashion.

She found Frida painting a bench outside, just minding her own business. Oooh, perhaps Cleo could wait for her to drop her brush, and then pick it up for her when she reaches down like in her favorite movies. Too bad she was pretending to be a guy though, cause then she could have tried to get Frida's attention with her breasts. Eh, whatever.

She walked towards the bench, only for her ex-rival and ex-boyfriend to notice her. Joan looked at Cleo with a raised brow, as if she was able to see through her disguise. JFK also looked at her with a raised brow, although it wasn't nearly as judgmental.

"Cleo? Is that you?" Joan asked while the couple moved towards her. That bitch! How did she figure out already?

"Uh... no. I'm not Cleopatra, I'm uh," she thought for a moment, hoping that her sweat wouldn't make the mustache fall off. "I'm Kleó...patros? Totally different!"

Joan groaned, but didn't say anything else. JFK just stared at Cleo while holding Joan's hand.

"I, er uh, glad that I'm in a totally monogamous relationship with Joanie, or else I er, would probably be questioning things right, uh, now," JFK said, squeezing his girlfriend's hand tightly. Cleo tried to avoid looking at their hands, or think about whatever JFK might be implying. Though perhaps she could use that to revenge on Joan later, maybe. But her mission for popularity came first.

Cleo walked past the couple, and back towards Frida. Her rival had just finished painting the bench, which meant no sexy brush pickup. She had it covered, though.

"Heeeyyy, good-looking," Cleo leaned on the bench, forgetting that the paint would have still been drying on it.

Frida looked halfway up, only noticing the now stained arm. "Oh, sorry! Just finished painting the bench! But hey, now you've reminded me to but a sign or something telling people not to sit just yet. Thanks, man."

That's when the teen looked up properly, and noticed Cleo's expert disguise. She furrowed her unibrow for a second, then quickly smiled.

"Nice mustache you're growing out there Cleo! I'd say it's even better than mine!" Frida winked, playfully brushing at her few little lip hairs. Cleo stood there in shock, again. How is it that whenever she has a perfect plan, Frida always manages to see through it?

"I'm not Cleo!" she shouted, cause God forbid that Frida is able to ruin another one of her ideas.

"Woah woah, sorry, I didn't know," Frida said, remaining chill as ever. "I promise I won't deadname you again, what's your preferred chosen name?"

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was this part of Frida's games? Just spouting out made-up words to confuse her? Damn, she's better than Cleo thought.

"Ugh, nevermind," Cleo sighed, ripping off the fake mustache. "You got me, I was just pretending to be a guy so that I could ask you out."

That finally made the shorter girl lose her chill demeanor, she stumbled with her paintbrushes, dropping a few of them on the grass.

"You-you wanted to ask me out?"

"Uh, yeah! Why else would I have worn such tacky clothing?"

She could faintly make out a bit of blush on Frida's face, which made her feel a bit confident. At least she has the ability to fluster her rival, if she so chooses.

"But wait, why did you feel the need to dress up as a guy to ask me out? I literally just told you I was pan like a week ago!"

Now it was Cleo's turn to be a bit flustered, again. She stuttered, trying to come up with some sort of reason. Why did she go through with all the trouble of pretending to be a guy in the first place?

"I- it, it doesn't matter now! Do you wanna go out with me or not?" Cleo did her best to regain her composure, she was tired of Frida always winning their little conversations.

"Oh, uh... sure. I'm free tomorrow night, if you want to hang out then," Frida replied, appearing nonchalant, but Cleo had enough experience with flirting to recognize the slight flush of the cheeks, and the little fiddling with hands. She's already taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker.

"Okay then, Friday night it is," Cleo placed her clean hand on her hip, feeling much more in her element now.

"By the way Pats, do you need any help cleaning off all that paint?" Frida asked, pointing to her stained arm.

Cleo shrugged, and simply tore off the clothes, revealing her usual wear underneath. She tossed the ripped outfit into the trash, in memory of Ponce. Frida just stared, and slowly went to pick up the dropped paintbrushes.

Maybe Cleo isn't so unlucky after all, she thinks to herself, walking over and bending down to help Frida out. Now that she had her regular clothes on, she was able to emphasize her cleavage as she picked up three brushes and handed them over to the other girl.

"Do you have anything specific planned?" she whispered seductively.

Frida's ears were completely red. It was almost cute. After taking the brushes, she thought to herself for a moment, then replied, "I've got a pretty cool idea in mind."

"Hmm, cool," Cleo winked, walking away from Frida before she started to giggle in excitement. Oh, things were finally going her way. She was going to climb back up that social ladder again, and her flirting was already working on her rival! Oh, she couldn't wait to be queen bee again. It was only a matter of time.

Chapter Text

Cleo has exactly seventy-five minutes to prepare before her "date" with Frida. The only problem was that she had no idea what she was going to do. Normally, she could just dress up and look extremely sexy, and that was enough to seduce a guy, but Frida was different. Not just because she wasn't a guy, but because she was just... different.

How exactly does one prepare for a date with a girl like Frida? Should she go for a more casual approach, given her laid-back personality, or should she try and be extra-sexy since she needs things to move quickly? Admittedly, most of the boys she had tried to seduce earlier, like JFK and Abe, were already taken just by her looks, but would the same thing work with Frida? She only had one shot at this, after all. If this failed, what else could Cleo do to try and gain back her popularity?

Frida did react to her showing off her chest earlier, perhaps that method would work. Besides, no one could resist such perfect curves. Cleo still didn't know what Frida was planning for their date, and if it was anything like her previous partners, she would at least need to wear a nice bra.

She started planning, she needed something that would make her look absolutely irresistible. Even if Frida was a little bit different, that didn't mean that Cleo's old methods wouldn't still be effective. Ooooh, and she had the perfect dress for this occasion!

It sometimes looked gold and white, but then other times it looked blue and black! Completely transformative, and totally stylish. Gold and blue always looked good on her, so it was a win-win either way.

She waited by her windowsill, looking out for any cars coming her way. Frida's would probably look like a crazy colorful one, so it wouldn't be hard to miss. She scanned the area for a bit, hoping that she hadn't been no-showed by Frida freaking Kahlo.

Then, she finally saw her. Except, there was no car. Why was there no car? How were they going to get anywhere with no fancy car? Cleo rushed down the three stairs of her house, making it right to the front door when she heard Frida knocking. Cleo opened the door, not seeing her rival, then remembering that Frida was like a foot shorter than her and looking slightly down. There she was.

She actually didn't look too bad, in a strange way. It was a colorful tux, with a black skirt and bow tie. She also had a paintbrush in one of the buns in her hair. It was... different, but not completely ugly. Perhaps Cleo had the artist part of Frida to thank for that. Hell, she even combed her unibrow.

"You look really pretty Pats," Frida smiled awkwardly. She tried her best to look cool, but her hands were fiddling in her suit pockets.

Although she was distracted, Cleo managed to respond with a "Yeah, you too". She was too busy thinking about exactly what was going to happen on this little date.

"So, uh, where's the car? We're not... walking, are we?"

Frida chuckled and held out two skateboards. Cleo didn't understand at first, but with horror she realized what was being implied.

"No, no. WE'RE NOT- I'M NOT- NO!" Cleo shouted as quietly as possible. She didn't want to wake up her foster mother. Although, if her foster mother did wake up and interrupt this, maybe she wouldn't mind so much.

"Don't worry," Frida replied, pulling out a helmet and some knee pads. "I got safety gear for you, and we can go slow."

Great. Now she'd get helmet hair too. This was ridiculous. "I am not riding on any skateboards!"

"Oh, sorry... to be fair, I probably should've asked you first. I just wanted to surprise you. We can call an Uber or something if you'd prefer..."

She looked rejected. Shit, this was supposed to be about making Frida fall in love with her. Even if that meant having to skateboard. It's not like she wasn't able to settle. Her and Abe getting so close to third base was proof enough of that.

"Actually, it's fine. I'm a very flexible person," Cleo winked, hoping to salvage this. It worked, if Frida's surprised beaming was anything to go by. God, it was just like that stupid smile Abe got when she accepted his crappy promposal. It brought a little sting just thinking about it.

Reluctantly, she put on the helmet and knee pads. She was so not looking forward to this. Frida excitedly led her to the sidewalk, and carefully helped Cleo get on the skateboard. How anyone managed to prefer these as modes of transportation was beyond her.

"Our destination isn't too far away, so we can take things slow."

Frida held onto Cleo's hands, helping her balance on the tiny little thing. At least she didn't wear heels, that would have been a nightmare.

"Okay, now just put one leg on the ground, and push it off."

"What if I fall over?" Cleo asked, gripping tightly on Frida's hands. This was such a bad idea.

"I'll be here to catch you, I promise," Frida replied, blushing a little. "Just try to stay calm, and follow my lead, k?"

Cleo bit her lip, but nodded. She softly pushed her foot against the ground, making the board move forward a little. Frida followed next to her, keeping the same rhythm. She continued to hold onto her hands, trying to keep Cleo relaxed. Her legs were shaking, but she managed to keep her posture. She pushed off the ground again.

"Muy buena, you're doing a great job, Pats!"

"Exactly how far is this destination of yours?" Cleo asked, gripping Frida's hands hard enough to turn her knuckles white. She absolutely did not like this, in fact, she totally hated this. Every second of it.

"Not that far, just down a couple streets," she chuckled. "It's not like I would make you skate across town or anything."

Cleo grumbled, but kept going. At this point, it probably would have been faster to just walk, but that didn't matter now. Over time, she was able to get some hang of it, or at least enough to only need one of Frida's hands to hold on. Oh, she hoped her foster mother hadn't seen her leave, this was so embarrassing.

"Okay, we're here!" Frida grinned, letting go of Cleo's hands and helping her off the rickety skateboard.

"Thank God! We've been doing this for hours!" Cleo groaned.

Frida looked at her weird computer watch. "Uh, it's only been twenty minutes..."

Cleo bit her lip again, it was starting to become a bad habit with Frida. She took off the helmet and went to try to fix her hair. The shorter girl went over to help brush some locks back.

"Don't worry, you look beautiful..." she blurted out, then flushed immediately. "I- I mean, your hair's really soft and nice, you uh... You did a good job brushing it! Y-yeah, it's not bad-looking! You don't need to worry about it!!"

She forced a very uneasy smile, giving a shaky thumbs up. Her ears had turned completely red again. This was it, this was Cleo's chance!

"Thanks, your hair is quite pretty too." It wasn't a lie, either. Even Cleo could admit that the hair was clearly groomed nicely, and the flowers were a nice touch too.

Frida was sweating, while a very tight grin. She was all taut up, and damn did it make Cleo feel good. Not because she liked her, of course, but because it was flattering to know that even her high school rival couldn't help but crumble at her feet.

"So, now that we're all alone in this..." Cleo looked around. It just seemed to be an empty park trail. "...place, what do you plan on having us do?"

She emphasized this with a slight tug at Frida's collar. She wasn't completely sure how two girls had sex with each other, but she could probably make it wonderful either way, that's how good she was at this.

Frida gripped her pant leg as tightly as Cleo had been gripping her hand earlier, and chuckled nervously.

"I, uh, I was hoping to show you the flower meadow nearby. Most people only go there during the day, but at night you get to see all the lightning bugs, and you don't have to worry about the bees that much. I figured you wouldn't want to have to deal with all the bees..."

Cleo was taken back a bit. Did Frida actually consider that for her? Usually, her previous partners would say "fuck it" and act like the stinging was all part of the fun. It was weird to think of someone carefully planning a first date for her.

"You ok?" Frida gently touched her arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she shrugged it off. "Let's go see this flower field of yours."

The two girls walked over to a very impressive field of various blooming flowers. Cleo recognized a couple of orange and pink ones as the roses in her date's hair.

"Oh, is this where you get those flowers for your hair?" Cleo asked while sitting down on the flower bed. Frida sat facing her and nodded cheerfully.

"Yeah, there's an abundance of flowers here, as long as you're careful not to squash too many of them. You can make all sorts of cool things!"

Cleo picked a lavender, playing with the petals. Frida was giving her a smug look.

"What?"

"Oh nothing..." she smirked. "It's just very ironic that you picked a lavender of all things."

She had no idea what Frida was getting at, so she just pretended to ignore it. "So, are we going to make something, or what?"

"Oh yeah, this one's super popular on Stumblr," the shorter girl held up her phone, showing pictures of flower crowns.

What are they, five? What kind of first date was this? She at least thought they'd be making out or something, not doing arts and crafts! Frida was showing her how to tie the flowers together, talking about different meanings and symbolism and all that. Cleo had barely been following along. She just needed to be patient, she would be the popular girl again soon.

Cleo picked a bunch of different flowers, some columbines, a geranium, one Frida referred to as an abatina, and something called a rhododendron. Why did they give some flowers such long names? How was anyone supposed to remember all that?

Finally, she tied the picked lavender around the front. Hers was much messier compared to Frida's, who clearly had more experience. She had picked a bunch of orange and white flowers, most of them appearing to be daisies.

"It's crazy to see so much variety of flowers like this," Cleo said, trying to keep the conversation going. "It's like you could find almost every type of flower here."

"Yeah, it's almost like someone came in and just sprinkled a bunch of different flower seeds around..." Frida grinned. Cleo stared at her for a moment, before catching on.

"Wait? YOU made all this?"

Frida's face became that eager little smile again. "Me and Harriet bought a bunch of different seeds one day, and just threw them around the park. The park was pretty shitty, so we thought to make it more fun by adding a bunch of flowers. No one really cared enough to stop us from watering them every day."

"It's strange to think that, while you were out doing all that, I was just a frozen popsicle somewhere in the meat locker..." Cleo said, picking at the petals on her dress.

Frida looked at her emphatically, rubbing at the back of her head. "Well, at least the circumstances have led us to being here now, sharing this moment together."

Cleo looked back at Frida, not sure what to make about that. Sure, for Frida this was probably great, but Cleo's lost everything.

"I just wish things hadn't changed so much..."

Frida scooted closer to her, holding her arm. "Hey, it's okay. I'm sure that it's been pretty hard adjusting to all of this, but you're gonna be okay."

Why did she always have do be so chill about everything? Well, chill about everything except for flirting apparently.

Frida lowered her unibrow, "After all, you are the genetic clone of the Cleopatra."

Cleo smiled a bit at that, she always enjoyed that kind of flattery. "Thanks, Frida."

"No problem, now look behind you, they usually come out at around this time."

Cleo tilted her head, confused, before she turned around and saw it. It wasn't a lot, but there were a few glittering bugs up ahead.

"Wow, they actually look kind of pretty for being gross bugs," Cleo said, leaning over to Frida.

"Well, it's probably best you watch them from a distance, just sit back and relax."

She did, leaning over to Frida to try and keep the romantic mood. You know, perhaps this wasn't such a bad idea. She's had her ups and downs in relationships before, why wouldn't she have some for a fake one?

Slowly, Cleo pressed her hand against her date's thigh, leaning into her. As expected, Frida stiffened from her touch, heat radiating from her body. Ah, this was going to go well, she could already feel it. It wouldn't be long before Cleo was finally back on top.

Chapter Text

So...they were "dating" now.

As much as you could consider these things dates, to be fair. Cleo was surprised that there had been no sex, making out, or anything that could technically distinguish their hang out as a date. When she asked Frida, the other girl just said, "Hey, let's not U-Haul things," whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

Hell, even with Abe she had at least kissed him before! But there was nothing! Not even hand-holding, unless you counted Frida holding her hands for that traumatic skateboarding experience (Cleo didn't). She supposed that this should've made things easier, as she didn't have to go all out on being romantic with someone she detested, but at least something to show that they are actually a couple!

Speaking of couples, Cleo had the wonderful experience of passing her ex and her ex-rival making out in the hallways (at least they knew how to get it on). She hoped to have just passed them by without having another awkward experience, but then her supposed-girlfriend rolled on over her skateboard.

"Hey, JFK, Joan..." Frida made eye contact with Cleo and nearly tripped over. "...and Pats, wow, I- uh, you- you look nice today."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that nickname. She wasn't in the mood for this.

"So, you and Cleo, huh?" Joan said, looking smug.

"Yeah," Cleo responded half-heartedly.

Joan looked at the two of them, then back at Frida. "Just make sure you get her far away from other people when you two do it. She's loud."

That got a reaction out of both girls, with Frida's face turning almost completely red, and Cleo biting her lip hard enough that it started to bleed. Ohhhhh, she HATED Joan at that moment.

After a very awkward silence, with a few snickers from JFK, Frida finally managed to pull herself together, trying to put on that chill persona she used so much. She leaned onto the lockers, but Cleo could tell by her nervous glance that it was all a front.

"I uh, don't think we're at that stage yet, but thanks for the advice!" she winked.

Cleo's eye just twitched, and she stood there, not knowing what else to do at the moment.

While Frida tried to remain cool, she was also clearly flustered, desperate to change the subject. It was almost endearing how hard she tried. All endearment left Cleopatra though the moment Frida made her suggestion.

"Hey, I was thinking. Would we have a double date after school?" she asked Joan. "You and JFK, and Cleo and I."

It was at that moment that Joan and Cleo outright glared at each other, neither one of them actually wanting to spend time with the other. Joan having to stay at her house had been enough as is. But then, she noticed a hint of suspicion in her ex-rival, the smallest furrow of her brows giving off a sense of... judgment? As if Joan was in the position to judge Cleo after everything that happened!

"...yeah. I think it'd be fun," Joan replied, still glaring at Cleo as if she was the one being weird here. Yeesh, what was her problem?!?

Everyone turned to look at Cleo now, including JFK who just seemed to be fine with going along with this. Ugghhhhh, she really didn't want to do this. She was so tempted to say no, or even just tell Frida that she'd rather have a solo-date, but something about the way that Joan looked at her made her nervous. It was as if she was testing her, subtly telling Cleo that if she didn't accept the date, it would expose her as a fraud.

Well then, if that's how this was gonna be played, then Cleo could play this game. She walked over to Frida, rocking her hips side to side just for that extra bit of sexy, and spoke in her softest voice.

"Of course, babe. I'd love to spend some more time getting to know you."

Cleo proudly watched Frida nearly stumble while leaning on the locker. Now it was endearing to see.

"I'm guessing with you Joan, it'll be the Grassy Knoll?" she turned back to Joan, smirking proudly. The teen mumbled out a small "yes" to that.

"I can er, show you my favorite make-out spot in the parking lot afterward. If that's, uh, okay with you Joanie."

Joan's little grumpy face smiled at that. She wrapped her arm around JFK, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Ohh, JFK..." she said, looking at him all lovingly. Ugh, was this what Cleo was going to have to deal with later today? Gross!

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice called out behind them. As if the day couldn't get any worse...

Everyone turned to look at Abe Lincoln, who was standing next to some shorter white guy. Yeesh, and Cleo thought that Ms. Sampson woman was pasty. Abe just grinned at everyone, like they hadn't just been in the middle of something.

"Just talking to my bestest new buddy since Gandhi left me, To-"

"We're not buddies," To interrupted.

"Sorry, my close male acquaintance named Topher, and I noticed everyone here talking with each other, so I wanted to ask what you guys are up to, since there's definitely no underlining drama or tension with anyone's relationships with each other in this group of people."

God, he was an idiot. Sure, it made him easy and gullible before, but now it was just pathetic.

"Hey man, we're just talking about going out together after school, no biggie," Frida shrugged, completely unaware of how bad of an idea it was to tell someone like Abe this information. Stupid Frida for being so friendly and approachable! What happened to popular girls being completely unobtainable?

"Oh, that's cool!" the absolute doofus beamed. (Oh, how could things that used to be so charming become so annoying?) "Can I come along too?"

No, no, no, no. Absolutely not! She is NOT going to have TWO exes on a double date in a completely non-sexy, specifically awkward for her way!

"Well, actually Abe, it's a double date, not a double-and-a-half date, so... maybe next time!" She forced a completely cheerful smile on her face, because at least she knew for a fact that Abe was dumb enough to fall for it.

"Sorry dude, but she does kinda have a point," Frida said, coming up from behind Cleo and rubbing her shoulder. Huh? Was this an attempt to soothe her in some way? "I mean, if we invited you, then I would obvs need to invite Harriet, and then from there, it just kinda loses the whole point of being a double-date. But we can totally hang out next time!"

Cleo looked at Frida, genuinely kind of impressed. Abe, on the other hand, was dejected, but it was clear he wasn't going to give up so easily. Yep, definitely not looking forward to this date. It'd probably be worse than that blind date with the clone of Genghis Khan.

She did her best to ignore him, however, turning her attention back to the group. "You aren't going to have me skate all the way to the Grassy Knoll too, right?"

"I can er uh, drive you all there!" JFK chimed in. Oh yeah, his car got fixed. His dads must have had good insurance.

"I guess we'll meet you two after school then," Joan said, smiling kind of awkwardly. She and JFK walked to their next class together, when Cleo looked back at Frida.

"Uh, thanks for getting my ex to back off," Cleo whispered over to her, turning to see if Abe was still near them.

"No probs, Pats," Frida purposefully patted her back at the last word. Hmm, she was surprisingly calm about the whole situation. Cleo was used to guys fighting over her, or at least some detectable jealousy, but the shorter girl was just relaxed, not even hiding this time.

Hmm, perhaps the best way was to take some initiative. She expected Frida to be the one moving things forward, but the girl was a lot more anxious and flustered than Cleo expected. Frida was the calm one until it came to flirting, that's where Cleo had all the expertise.

And so, Cleo leaned down over to Frida and kissed the top of her head, right above her unibrow. She figured that would be just the right amount of forward with someone like Frida. And judging by the amount of blushing that nearly matched the lipstick mark Cleo made, it definitely did the trick. You know, Cleo did actually kind of like her like that. The little lipstick marking signified that Frida was already taken, so she wouldn't have to worry about any competition here. Not that it seemed like it'd be an issue. Still, it was a nice, subtle way to make sure people back off, without coming off as possessive or envious.

With a small giggle at the sight of Frida's flushed face, Cleo walked away. Not to go to her next class, of course, but because she was going to need a whole lot of shopping therapy after this, and she needed to look up the hottest new clothing stores.

Chapter Text

Cleo patiently waited for the end of sixth period. Thankfully, everyone had agreed to pass on extra-curricular stuff for today, which was good because Cleo didn't exactly have an extra seventh period like the new "popular kids" did. Ugh, she'd get there eventually, she just needed to push things forward a bit. Frida was definitely more aware than Abe, so this meant that Cleo had to be more subtle about this than she had been before.

Of course, she had math at the end of the day. It was just soooo dull. She didn't get how the other students managed to pay attention to everything, what with the teacher going on and on about the same types of problems for way too long. It felt patronizing.

So, instead of practicing her inverse functions, she redid her eyeliner. Unfortunately, this one wasn't nearly as good as her original eyeliner, but the brand was long gone, mainly due to its "unethical business practices".

Oh, how much Cleo just wanted to go home, lie down on her bed, get her credit card, leave home, go shopping for a bunch of cute new outfits, then come home again and rest. But, she had to do this. Joan was challenging her... for something. She didn't know what, but she wasn't going to let Joan pull another win over her. She needed that recognition again, the attention, the feeling of being in the spotlight, with everyone looking up to her, either literally or metaphorically. She needed people to look at her like she was the most beautiful, wonderful thing in the world. She had been deprived of this for months now, and the withdrawal had been horrible.

The bell finally rang, and the teacher dismissed the class. Cleo pruned her outfit, as she didn't have the time to prepare a proper get-up, and left for the hallways.

The car ride felt familiar, although Cleo had been used to driving in shotgun. Instead, she got a full view of Joan's dyed hair. She turned to look over at Frida instead, who was tapping her fingers along to the music from the radio. She looked at peace, completely unbothered, totally calm, and it made Cleo feel a pang of jealousy. Then she thought about how flustered she could make Frida, how easy it was to break through that cool exterior, and it gave her the perfect idea.

It was an old trick, even for her, but she figured it would still work. Cleo feigned a stretch, and took the chance to wrap her arm around Frida's shoulder. She could feel the other girl stiffen upon contact, and it made her feel good. Frida looked at Cleo, now a tiny bit flustered, and she couldn't help but smirk. She loved making guys fall at her touch, and with Frida, this was no different.

Once she was able to relax a bit, Frida leaned into the touch. She reached for Cleo's hand, little painted fingernails rubbing against Cleo's pinky. Well, at least they can get to 1/4th base.

It was cute how slow she was taking things. As though touching pinkies was a huge step in their relationship. Once again, Cleo took an extra step, grabbing her hand completely, feeling her palm against her own.

Her hands were surprisingly soft. Cleo wanted to assume that it had something to do with her being an artist, but she couldn't necessarily make any conclusions from it. Instead, she simply stroked Frida's hand, watching eagerly as the girl's face turned red again.

Neither had noticed that the car had parked until JFK yelled, "Look guys, I did a perfect double-parking!"

Both girls turned to look at him, and then at the two cars surrounding their front and back. Huh, that's actually kind of impressive for him. JFK was grinning like it was of the biggest accomplishments of his life. Joan chuckled at him, and gave him another kiss on the cheek.

"Maybe after this, I could er, practice double-parking my penis between your legs," he whispered back to Joan. Ugh, definitely not one of his better sex-jokes.

"Let's focus on this date for now, babe. Okay?"

JFK nodded, and soon enough, everyone had gotten out of the car and headed into the Grassy Knoll. She did not understand how Joan found this place lacking any sort of change to be comforting. Sure, Cleo was also struggling to get used to their new life, but having the Grassy Knoll specifically be one of the only things that haven't changed in the last twenty years felt more eerie than nostalgic.

The group took a seat in one of the booths, with Cleo's various memories of her mistakes running around in her mind. Ugh, why did she agree to this again?

When Joan gave her that suspicious look again, she was reminded. Oh, if only she had succeeded in smothering her to death all those years ago. Cleo waited for someone to bring the menu, tapping her fingernails along the counter, trying to pretend she wasn't bored out of her mind.

"Hey, Cleo," her date nudged her elbow gently. "Are you feeling okay?"

At least she didn't use the nickname, this time. And at least she was more self-aware than-

"HEY GUYS!"

Everyone turned over to see Abraham freakin' Lincoln, holding hands with that shorter clone from earlier. The guy simply stared at his phone, not making eye contact with anyone, while Abe was grinning with a face that only meant stupid ideas.

"So, I thought about what you guys said about how this was supposed to a double-date, not a double-and-a-half-date, but I thought, what if it was a triple-date?"

"You mean..." Joan looked between Abe and the other one, completely baffled. "You're dating...him?"

"Don't worry, it's purely carnal," the pasty guy replied, completely unfazed.

Abe didn't seem to understand what that meant, because he just nodded his head eagerly. Oh, coming here was such a bad idea.

"I guess we're, uh, gonna need a bigger booth," said JFK, who was also stunned, but seemed to not care as much. Cleo hoped that this wasn't actually happening.

Apparently, it was. The group moved to a triple-sided booth, allowing all the "couples" to sit next to each other. The only positive was that Joan was staring at Cleo anymore, too focused on Abe and his new "boyfriend" to care.

"So, this is Topher, my dating buddy- I mean, my dating boyfriend." Abe had awkwardly introduced Topher to the rest of the group, even suggesting everyone shake hands. But no one actually wanted to touch Topher, and Topher didn't seem to want to touch anyone else either.

"Hey Topher, why are you holding such an ancient-looking phone?" Frida asked, making Topher look up for the first, and probably only time during this date.

"This 'ancient-looking phone' is actually a 1999 Nokia 8210, and it's perfect to avoid any tracking," Topher said nonchalantly. "Abe let me borrow it because we're 'boyfriends' so that I may make completely legal calls."

"Yeah, turns out my 4 year-old, I mean, 24 year-old phone is actually really helpful in this day and age!"

Topher patted his shoulder. "Exactly, 'Abe babe', now could you help explain to me how this works?"

Cleo was about to die of second-hand embarrassment, but at long last, they got menus, which meant that Cleo could pull hers up to block Abe, as well as Topher, for good measure.

Given that her options were her exes, Joan, and whatever Topher is, she decided that Frida was the one who deserved her attention the most. Her date looked back at her with concern, before wiggling her unibrow oddly. Wait, was that-

"Hold on, you know eyebrow language?" Cleo furrowed her brows back at the shorter girl.

"Mhm. So, are you doing okay?"

Cleo bit her lip, and curled her left brow. "I've been on worse dates."

"Well, how about I make it up to you?"

"Hmm?"

"You can come over to my house this Saturday, I think I have an idea of something that we can do that we'll both enjoy," Frida took a moment to blush, then frantically shifted her unibrow. "Not like, that, I mean, it'll be in the afternoon and stuff, and that way you can actually have some fun."

"I'll be there."

Cleo was about to turn away, but before that, Frida wiggled her entire unibrow, and made a tapping gesture with it, communicating a small compliment to her eyebrow language. Cleo smirked, and winked back at her. You know, the unibrow did actually make it easier to read.

For a while, there was silence. Everyone got their drinks, and some food, all of it garbage anyway. Then, Abe spoke out again.

"So, what have you guys been doing recently?"

JFK proudly pointed at Joan, much to Abe's dismay.

"I've been hanging out with Frida and Harriet lately," Joan replied. "Turns out, girls have strong friendship groups now!"

Frida happily chimed in. "Yeah, like that awesome sleepover last week!"

"And I, er, hung out with _________! He showed me the world of Flipflop!" JFK beamed. For some reason, Cleo blanked out on hearing the name.

"Oh, nice! Me and Topher were hanging out on a sleepover too!" said Abe. "But then, Topher got distracted on Flipflop trying to argue with this other guy."

JFK's eyes widened. "Wait a second. You were also arguing with a guy on er, Flipflop?"

He turned to look at Topher, who was just finishing one of his totally legal phone calls.

"Why yes, I was simply trying to educate a very rude fellow on racism against Italians, but he, unfortunately won the argument."

"That's, er uh, very ironic, cause I actually won the argument against the other guy, thanks to _________ correcting his grammar."

Topher put down the phone, and glared at JFK, "Wait a minute. What exactly is your username?"

"I don't have one, I was using _________'s account."

"And what was his username?" Topher squinted at JFK in pure, raw anger. Joan looked towards Frida and Cleo in worry. Hell, even Abe looked kinda nervous.

"Well, uh... I don't remember it," JFK shrugged, allowing the rest of the group to blow a sigh of relief. "Oh! But I do remember the other guy er, username!"

"Fuck," Cleo heard Joan whisper out, before JFK naively went on. To be fair, she probably didn't need to worry about her boyfriend specifically, as he could easily snap the short man in half, but that didn't mean this wasn't going to be awful. Drama's a lot more fun when you're not in it.

"It was, er, top-her69! I remember it because 'top' and '69'!" JFK smiled back, almost entirely unaware of Topher's face becoming beet red. But not like, cute, like Frida's blushing, this just made him look like he spilled ketchup all over his face.

In a flash, Topher was attempting to pounce on JFK, with Abe having to hold him back.

"YOU ABSOLUTE HALF-BRAINED BUFFOON!!" the man clawed at his enemy like a feral cat. "THIS IS WHY GENTLEMEN LIKE ME DON'T GET ANY RESPECT ON THE INTERNET, BECAUSE OF DUMB JOCKS LIKE YOU!!"

"Hey!" Joan punched him in the face. "Don't you dare talk about my boyfriend that way! Especially right in front of me!"

"Aww, Joanie," JFK said, holding his hands together.

While Abe was keeping Topher from committing a felony, he looked at Cleo, "By the way, I didn't get a chance to hear what you've been up to lately."

"Is now really the time for this?" she glared at him.

They were interrupted by Topher shouting at Joan now. "Ugh, I don't understand why women always go for guys like JFK, when there are perfectly fine men that don't just want them for sex!"

"Simp," Frida murmured under her breath.

"I know you're probably still hurting from our break-up, but can't we at least be friends again?" Abe asked, attempting to do the hands of sincerity, only for him to unleash Topher.

Joan took this as an opportunity to grab him by the neck and shake him like a bobblehead. JFK was chanting "Go, Joan! Go, Joan!" like he was her own personal cheerleader.

"After how you abandoned me during prom, after how you left me for Joan after I went out of my way to give her a make-over for you, all so that you could decide to switch your feelings to Joan during what was supposed to be the most romantic night of OUR LIVES?!?" Cleo yelled back at Abe.

"Wait, you uh, you like Joan?" JFK asked, now seeming actually kind of upset for once.

"HE-HELP!" Topher barely managed to choke out as Joan threw him against the table.

Cleo decided that she really needed to go to the bathroom right at this moment. Thankfully, she was on the edge of the booth, so she didn't have to scooch past anyone. She took her makeup bag with her, because she was sure that the stress of this moment was probably ruining her eyeshadow somehow, and excused herself.

The quietness of the bathroom was like a graceful serenity, despite being a public restroom. Cleo checked her face in the mirror, and sure enough, her lipstick was slightly fading away, which meant that she would need to spend time redoing her makeup. Thank God.

About a few minutes into redoing her blush for the fifth time, Joan stormed in. She went right up to the sink, and splashed water on her face to calm down.

"Do you think anyone would mind if I killed the clone of Christopher Columbus?"

Oh, so that's who he was supposed to be. Cleo almost thought it was another John Dark situation.

"I mean, Abe would probably mind, considering that's his 'boyfriend' now," she replied, making little air quotes with her fingers.

"Maybe," the red-haired girl sighed. "So, what's up with you and your 'girlfriend'?"

Joan also made air quotes with her fingers when referring to Cleo's date, making her nervous.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, cut the BS! I know you're just using her, just like you did with Abe!" Joan pointed a finger at her, stepping closer.

Cleo shrugged it off, trying to pretend that she hadn't been caught. "Please, as if anyone uses people as romantic partners these days!"

"First of all, you don't know that! Second, I'm not having you manipulate another one of my friends into doing your bidding!"

"Huh," Cleo merely chuckled. "If anything, Abe was the one who used me!"

That only made Joan angrier, as she got right up close to Cleo's face. "Who was the one that ruined the other's sleep schedule with the promise of sex? Who was the one that made him run for study body president just so they could abolish term limits for you? Who was the one that tried to get him to abandon his friends for open-mouth kissing? Who was the one that pressured him into snorting freaking raisins?"

Guess she wasn't going to escape the yelling. "Okay fine! Maybe at the beginning, I was using him, but I did like him! I wanted him! I even tolerated you because you were his friend! I gave you that makeover! And then, he freaking threw me away when he saw you in that sexy whore outfit!"

"That's not MY FAULT!"

"YES IT IS! After all, I've done to show how I've cared for him, after all, I compromised for him, he ditched the moment there was another girl that looked really hot and sexy!"

Joan's anger quickly shifted to confusion. "Huh?"

"I-I mean, hot and sexy to HIM, obviously!" Cleo crossed her arms, looking away from Joan. Please, as if she looked good in anything but a mustache and sports tee.

"Uh, okay, well if you had liked Abe so much, then why are you avoiding him now? Is it because you're too embarrassed at the idea that a guy isn't attracted to you?"

"Because it hurts, okay!?" Cleo admitted. "I wanted him so bad, but now all he wants is you, and you don't even want him back now! I thought things were finally looking up, but then everything was taken away from me!"

Joan's accusatory stare became softer, as Cleo went on.

"We didn't even officially break up! He just left me in the meat locker to go find you! I could've just dumped him so easily before everything happened, because he was being so frustrating, but I liked him, and I wanted him to be with me! But he chose you instead..."

"Cleo, I-"

"And now everything's different! Now I'm no longer popular! No one likes me! No one wants me! It's like I'm completely invisible!"

"I've felt that too..." Joan spoke quietly.

Cleo barely held back a tear, not wanting to ruin her makeup after spending so much time working on it. She didn't need Joan's pity, or empathy. She just needed to be the popular girl again. She was the clone of Cleopatra, she wasn't to be ignored.

"Tell your new boy toy to pack it up and drive us home. I'm not hungry anymore."

"Look, Cleo, I'm sorry-"

"I don't want to hear it right now! I just want to go home."

Joan scratched at the back of her head, unsure exactly what to do. With a sigh, she nodded, and went back outside. Cleo turned her back away from the other girl, listening to the sound of the door closing, before falling to her knees, and sobbing on the cold, dirty floor.

Chapter Text

Cleo felt completely numb on the trip home. She mindlessly waved as Abe said his goodbyes, she continued ignoring Joan's worried glances from the front of the car, and when Frida asked her if she was alright, she simply shrugged. She didn't care enough to continue playing this game.

Home wasn't much better either. Upon seeing Cleo's sullen expression, her foster mom complained that it was going to give her wrinkles. Then she simply gave Cleo a glass of wine to "drown out the bad feelings." At this point, she found no will to go out for some shopping-therapy. She'll just get something online, she didn't want to be seen in public.

She felt stupid for her conversation with Joan. She felt stupid for agreeing to this whole double-date idea in the first place. Her brain could only think of the things Cleo should've said, and all the ways that things could have gone better. That led to her thinking about how much better her life was back in 2003, and how the world just made sense then. Things just don't make sense anymore.

The next morning, Cleo reluctantly went back to school, not looking forward to all the people she was inevitably going to have to have conversations with. She just had to act like everything was fine, like nothing had happened back at the Grassy Knoll. It shouldn't be too hard, Cleo had already been lying her way through most of her life.

First, there was Joan, who Cleo just gave passive-aggressive remarks to until she got annoyed and left. Then, there was Abe, telling Cleo that they hadn't gotten the chance to talk much yesterday, only for Cleo to say that she didn't want to talk to someone that's dating a guy that somehow lacks more melanin than Joan's foster mom, and walked away. Of course, the mere mention of Joan was enough to distract that tall idiot, who was now mumbling to himself about what could've happened to Toots.

She was a little caught off-guard when JFK of all people asked her if she was okay after what happened yesterday, but Cleo assumed that Joan must have told him. As she hadn't been prepared, Cleo gave him a bitter response, mentioning how JFK didn't care about their problems back when they were dating, so why would he give a shit now?

The only one left was Frida. Now, she did actually have to be careful with her, Frida's opinion of Cleo mattered. So, when the two met each other in the locker rooms, Cleopatra decided that this time, she could actually be more vulnerable.

"You doing okay? Joan told me about how you and Abe used to date, and then he dumped you at prom."

Cleo bit her lip to prevent the automatic response that she was the one to dump Abe, not the other way around, but in this case, she needed the pity.

"It's true, he broke my heart, all because he saw some other girl that he thought was sexier and hotter than me, and he just left me all alone, by myself, in the cold, dark meat locker..." It wasn't hard to feign her sadness, since it did come from a genuinely hurt place. If there was one thing she was good at, besides spreading rumors, looking incredible, being sexy, and giving the greatest kisses, it was pulling at other's heartstrings.

Frida was definitely more concerned than Cleo's last few partners. Already she was rubbing her shoulders, and Cleo didn't even have to fake a tear yet.

"Sounds like he only cared about your looks, not about you," Frida said. Technically, it wasn't completely true, Abe also cared about her commitment to community service, but yeah, looks were definitely part of it. They were always part of it.

"I just wanted to be with you, and move on from him, but he keeps trying to bother me!" Cleo finally got herself to feign a tear, letting it roll down her cheek, only for Frida to wipe it away.

"Hey, it's okay," Frida looked up at her gently. "I didn't know, but now that I do, I'll make sure he gives you space until you're ready to talk to him again."

Huh, that wasn't quite what she expected. Usually, they'd try to get in a fight with her ex or something. Whatever, she supposed that this would still be acceptable, although the thought of Frida using her short stature to bust Abe's kneecaps would have been kinda hot.

What Cleo certainly hadn't expected, however, was Frida wrapping her arms around the taller girl, giving her a tight hug. The height difference actually made Frida fit perfectly into Cleo's chest, like a small puzzle piece fitting into a bigger one. Huh, interesting.

"You shouldn't have to go through all this stress, especially right before pre-midterms."

Wait, what.

"Pre-midterms?" Cleo asked, backing out of the hug to look at Frida.

Frida looked at her, confused. "Yeah, did you not know that we have a pre-midterms test tomorrow?"

FUCK.

"B-but, that's a Wednesday! Who has pre-midterms on a Wednesday?!"

Oh god oh god oh god, she wasn't prepared at all.

"Hey, at least you still have one more day to prepare, right?" Frida asked, trying to make light of the whole thing.

"I haven't studied at all! I'm the clone of Cleopatra! I can't just not ace the pre-midterms!!"

Oh, she was panicking, she could feel the stress wrinkling her face again. She was going to have to steal some of her mother's anti-wrinkling cream when she got home.

"Okay, okay, how about we practice studying today?"

That made Cleo pause, as she remembered her last time having a study buddy. C-could she use this? She knew that Frida was definitely more aware than Abe, so she might not fall for it, at least to the extent that Abe did. Hmm, it was worth a shot...

"You know what would really help me with all this stress right now? A pumpkin-spiced latte would do wonders to help me destress."

"Uh, well. Caffeine might not be the best solution here, but we could listen to lo-fi while we study together!"

Welp, there goes that plan down the drain. She figured that Frida wasn't going to indulge her the way Abe did. And what was lo-fi anyway? How would that help them destress?

Frida continued on, "We can start at lunch, I'm sure I can convince Harriet to let you in the popular table, unless you want us to sit somewhere else-"

"NO NO! That's perfect!" Cleo quickly interrupted, excited that she was already receiving popular girl benefits. Sure, she'd have to sit next to Joan and JFK, but the fact that Frida was already letting her in with the other popular people was a step in the right direction.

"Okay, well, see you at lunch!" Frida smiled, leaving the locker room to go to PE. Cleo finished putting on her cheerleading uniform, (she unfortunately wasn't captain anymore, but that would hopefully change soon enough) and she left to go with the rest of the cheerleading squad, making a mental note to give a little wink towards Frida during their routine.

Chapter Text

"So Cleo! Frida's been telling me so much about you two!"

Harriet was leaning over across the table to look at the other girl. Normally, Cleo wouldn't give her the time of day, but she had to play nice for Frida, and she also preferred it over the other two people sitting at this table.

Casually filing her nails, Cleo looked at the pink-haired girl and smiled, "Oh, really? I hope only good things."

"Of course! She's constantly telling me about all the stuff she has planned, how much fun she has spending time with you, and how cute you look when you bite your li-"

"Hey, hey! I think that's enough info there!" Frida cut in, her ears flushing a very deep red.

"Oh, sorry," Harriet rubbed the back of her arm. "It's been kinda hard, you know? Being the fifth wheel in this lunch table."

"Well, most vehicles have five wheels," Joan chimed in. "Two pairs of wheels for driving, and the fifth for steering."

JFK joined in as well. "Yeah, Harriet! You're our steering wheel!"

"Aww, thanks guys!" Harriet held her hands together, smiling.

With that, the group continued eating. It was strange that everyone here already managed to have such comradery, it wasn't something Cleo ever had in her old popular cliques. If someone didn't have a partner, then they were just shamed for it.

After eating, and trying to avoid eye contact with Joan, Frida brought out some stuff.

"Okay, just remember Pats, no matter what score you get on the pre-midterms, it has nothing to do with your actual intelligence."

"BUT WITHOUT AT LEAST AN A- GRADE, YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A CHANCE AT GETTING INTO COLLEGE!" Harriet shouted, clenching her fists.

"Wait, you can't get in with even a B+?" Cleo asked.

"NO!" the pink-haired girl cried out. "Now when the district sees your test scores, they shorten it to the letter, so a B+ is just seen as a B!"

Cleo was left completely confused. "What even is the point of doing that?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!" Harriet said, dramatically raising her fists in the air.

Frida leaned over to Cleo and whispered, "She's worried about failing the test and becoming a wine mom."

That made Cleo think about her own foster mother for a moment. Yeah, fair enough.

So, she pulled out the first paper, this one being about their English Lit. class. Scanning the paper, Cleo noticed that there had been a bunch of books that she hadn't read, mostly because she hated the books they had been assigned, but also probably because of her time in the meat locker.

"Don't worry too much about those, there's plenty of websites and Youtube videos we can watch that sum up everything that happened," Frida said, taking the paper.

"Wait, you are suggesting we cheat?"

"Uh yeah," Frida shrugged. "I mean, most of those books are ancient texts with messed up morals and casual racism and misogyny. I mean, why does it even matter if we read Lord of the Flies?"

"Because it teaches us about the darkness of humanity, and that without rules in society, we'll turn completely barbaric!" Joan said, pausing her make-out session with her boyfriend to speak.

"Pfft, that only happened because the kids were a bunch of white British boys, not because they were human."

Cleo wasn't quick enough to hide the little snort that came out of her upon hearing Frida say that. Everyone turned to her, looking shocked. She felt warmth in her cheeks, with all these eyes on her, but Frida thankfully kept moving the conversation along, bringing everyone's attention away from Cleo.

"I'll find links to a bunch of Youtube videos, don't worry about it, now..." the shorter girl beside Cleo sifted through some other papers, "...math, is something we should actually be paying attention to."

Ugh, not math. Cleo hated math. Which she supposed should be all the more reason to study, but anytime she was learning about math she felt instantly bored out of her skull.

"Okay, so, let's practice some functions... if g(n) = n^2 +5, find g(4)."

Cleo paused for a moment, thinking out the equation. After a few seconds, she replied, "Twenty-one."

Frida turned to look at her again, "Wow, you got that pretty fast. Okay, let's try this one."

"Find h(-9), with h(n) being equal to -3|n+2|-2."

Cleo thought again, her mind keeping track of each step in the equation. It only took a few moments for her to find the answer, replying with "Negative twenty-three."

"Wow, you're pretty fast with this," Frida said, looking quite impressed with Cleo. "Maybe I should give you a harder one."

Cleo resisted the urge to roll her eyes, instead tapping her nails on the lunch table. Ugh, she hated math.

"What's the inverse of this function?" Frida pointed to another problem on the practice sheet. Cleo looked over, and once again, thought about it in her head, before saying, "Three x minus twelve divided by four."

"Wow," Frida just stared at her in pure amazement. It was quite nice, actually. It reminded her of the 2000s. Although, she didn't get why Frida was this surprised in the first place. This was all basic stuff. "You're incredible."

That caused another flash of heat to rise in her cheeks. It was probably because of how long it had been since someone admired her like that. She wasn't used to it anymore. Still, it caused Cleo to look away for a moment, giving herself the time to think properly.

"It makes sense," she heard Harriet saying. "The original Cleopatra was a huge mathematician, it only makes sense that Cleo also got those good-at-math genes."

That caused Cleo to look back, staring at Harriet.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, Cleopatra knew like, a bunch of different languages too, and she studied politics and math and a bunch of other stuff."

Cleo didn't know that about her clone parent. In fact, she had no idea that was something her clone mother even cared about. Politics? Math? Languages? She thought that Cleopatra was all about power, fame, and beauty. To be fair, her history classes never actually talked about Egyptian history, mainly focusing on American and European history, but still, even then they would mention Cleopatra every so often, and there was never a mention of her being a...

"A NERD?!" Cleo shouted. "MY CLONE MOTHER WAS A NERD!?"

Chapter Text

Cleo had tried to be focused on her test when she took it, but her mind was elsewhere. After finding out about her clone mother's skills in math, she began frantically researching online to see if it was true.

It was.

And that's not it, either. Not only was the original Cleopatra a math nerd, but she had been one of history's biggest nerds! She had known economics, astrology, science, all that glam too! How is it that it took SIXTEEN (technically thirty-six) YEARS to know about this?! This was what she had been told in any of her history classes. Granted, perhaps they found out more information within the twenty years the clones had been frozen, but surely something this critical about herself had to have been somewhat known!

She barely managed to finish her first test in time, too busy wondering about what this meant for her as Cleopatra's clone. She spent her whole life up to now trying to live up to the impossible standards of the ancient Egyptian queen, with a very specific picture in her mind about what those standards were, only for someone to tear off the paint and reveal a completely different image of fantastical expectations. Once again, Cleo's whole world had been turned upside-down. She knew that teenage life was supposed to be like a rollercoaster, but she's pretty sure this isn't something regular teenagers have to deal with.

Heck, even most of the other clones don't have to deal with this. She thinks of that little guy from the diner, who she learned was the clone of Christopher Colombus. Given the public perception of Colombus, that pasty kid didn't even have to try in order to surpass the expectations of his clone parent. And most of the other clones had it easy too, their clone parents were just regular humans who made or did cool things, but they weren't Cleopatra. Cleopatra was the ruler of Egypt. Hell, people practically worshipped the original Cleopatra like a goddess! And they used to do that with Cleo, too, until...

"Hey Cleo, are you okay?"

Cleo heard a voice that immediately triggered a burning fire in her chest. "Leave me alone, Joan."

The red-haired girl looked at her guiltily. She probably felt bad for what happened back at the diner, but Cleo didn't care. It was a minor slip-up, just a spur-of-the-moment mistake. She hadn't actually meant anything by it, things had just become so overwhelming.

"Look, I know you're mad at me, but I've been thinking, now that we don't have to fight over Abe anymore, I was thinking we could put the past behind us. I'd be willing to give it another chance if you are."

Joan reached her hand out in the hope that Cleo would take it. Instead, Cleo just looked her up and down, a hand resting on her hip.

"What happened to me taking advantage of your friend to get what I wanted?"

It was a little satisfying just to see the small loss of hope in Joan's eyes at that. To be fair, she deserved it.

"I-I'm sorry I accused you of that," Joan bit her cheek awkwardly. "I see now that I was wrong, and that you two just like each other. I shouldn't have assumed."

Cleo thought on this for a moment. While the option to just reject Joan was tempting, especially because it was always fun to get a reaction out of the other woman, she thought about this in terms of her plan. She didn't want to slip up again around Joan, who probably was the one who would most likely come in between her and what she wanted, as always. Joan was Frida's friend, and Frida was definitely the type of person who would care if her girlfriend and friend didn't get along. While it wasn't something Cleo would do under any normal circumstances, this was likely the best choice to get what she wanted. Actually, with Joan being a, ugh, popular person in this school now, it would help to be in good graces with her as well.

Trying her best to look as though she totally wasn't imagining all of Joan's hair falling out, Cleo took the other girl's hand in her own. The faint memory of what John Dark's skin felt like back all those years ago causing her to pull out fairly quickly. As hot as it might have been, the idea that she could have been having Joan's entire silky smooth skin against her own as some point was something that made her stomach turn in a way she really, really hoped was disgust.

"So, does this mean you would be up for another double-date?"

Cleo was pulled out of her thoughts by Joan's question. She giggled, gave the redhead her biggest, cheeriest smile, and said, "Absolutely fucking not."

The rest of the week went by as bizarrely as things usually did at her high school. That new blonde lady introduced some anti-anxiety mascot, that actually caused even more anxiety. Apparently, the mascot saw her as stressed. Ha! As if. Her foster mother taught her to stop having stress at age four, saying it would give her wrinkles. At least she was taken to some relaxing spa afterward. Well, at least she thinks so. She remembers Ian Ziering handing her a pamphlet, but not much else. She must have been super relaxed.

After pre-midterms, there was the Broad Daylight Swimsuit Dance. For most students the dance had been awkward, but Cleo had been genuinely excited. If there was one positive to being pretend-girlfriends with Frida, it was seeing how much she could fluster her. Just knowing that she had the power to make the normally chill-to-the-bone girl become a blushing mess made Cleo feel good about herself. At least someone out here was appreciating her natural beauty.

With that, she wore a one-piece swimsuit that showed just the right amount of skin, and hugged around just the right curves. Upon seeing Frida, who was simply wearing a black tank top and magenta trunks, Cleo absolutely delighted in seeing Frida's face turn red as a tomato, somehow managing to sweat in such a heavily air-conditioned room. She missed seeing people react like that to her, but Frida was enough for the time being. Cleo assumed it had something to do with how calm and collected Frida normally behaved. Gosh, and they hadn't even kissed yet! What would happen then? While sitting with the other girl on the bleachers, she fought with the urge to kiss her right then and there.

That's when she got the brilliant idea to do it during their Saturday date. After all, she had already gone so far in her plans to gain back popularity, and she wasn't going to convince anyone if she didn't learn how to get used to kissing Frida.

And maybe, if just a part of it was because of how she wanted to see Frida fall apart under her lips, well, then that doesn't have to mean anything.

She went over to Frida's house on Saturday afternoon. She hadn't been completely sure what Frida's foster family was like, given neither of them ever really talked about their home lives, so she made sure that any sexy outfits would be covered by some plain-looking hoodie that she was pretty sure Joan left behind. On the way, she had entertained just arriving in a skimpy outfit, even if it would have enraged the parents, a forbidden sexy affair was hot, but she decided against it.

The house looked alright. Not particularly impressive or lackluster. It was similar to Abe's house, really. She needed to stop thinking about him.

Before Cleo even got the chance to ring the doorbell, the front door opened, revealing Frida.

"Hey, Pats! I'm happy to see you!"

Cleo was about to ask how Frida knew exactly when to open the door, but her thoughts were interrupted by someone shouting from inside.

"Frida! Is that your girlfriend?" a feminine voice called out from inside.

"Yes Maman!" Frida shouted back before making eye contact with Cleo again, "That's my foster mom. Come on in."

Cleo followed the shorter girl, taking a glance around the house. The place looked pretty nice, actually. She noticed that a couple of paintings looked similar to some of Frida's artwork around the school.

"Did you paint these?" Cleo pointed to one portrait of a girl laying on a flowerbed hanging above the stairs. Frida looked over and nodded.

"Yeah, that was about a year ago. My parents keep hanging up my artwork around the place, the fridge was getting too crowded."

For some reason that caused Cleo to imagine a fridge with a bunch of actual framed paintings being hung all over the fridge somehow. The image was a bit funny, and caused her a slight giggle, which made Frida smile back at her.

Cleo was immediately able to tell which room was probably Frida's, given the mural on the door. An older-looking man walked down the hallway across from them, noticing the two girls and shouting, "Frida, is that the Cleo you keep talking about?"

Cleo cringed at the loudness of his voice, he probably had some sort of hearing problem. Frida seemed used to it though, yelling back, "Yes, Amu!"

When the "Amu" got closer, he smiled and reached out his hand for Cleo. "Glad to finally meet you, Frida talks about you all the time!"

"No I don't!" Frida started sweating profusely.

Cleo shook the older man's hand, and Frida immediately opened her door and brought Cleo inside. She closed the door, until Amu had yelled "three inches!" and she left the door slightly open.

"Was that your dad?" Cleo asked. She hadn't heard the word 'Amu' before.

"Nah, that's my uncle. He lives here with us."

With that, Frida took a seat on her bed, which was filled with paint supplies and sketchbooks. The room honestly felt like being inside of an actual Frida Kahlo painting, which was strange. Frida had clearly painted the walls herself, and even the ceiling somehow, which given the girl's height, was quite odd. Hell, even the furniture had small little painted patterns on them, it's like the entire bedroom was a canvas.

Frida must've noticed her checking out the place, because she then said, "Yeah, I know it probably looks like a Mexican version of Rapunzel's tower in here, doesn't it?"

Cleo didn't exactly understand what that was supposed to mean, so she turned to look at the other girl in confusion. After a short minute of silence, Frida's eyes widened.

"Oh shit, you wouldn't have seen that movie, I forgot," Frida started tapping her finger on the mattress. "I'm going to have to start figuring out references that you would know."

Right. They were from different times. Both as the historical figures they were cloned after, but also as clones themselves. It was always awkward whenever one referenced something that the other didn't understand. Hmmm...

"I know Principal Scuds gave you guys that whole seminar thing, but I doubt it actually recapped everything for you guys."

Cleo shuddered, "Yeah, it definitely did not."

"Well, maybe while you're here we can watch one of your movies. You know like, Kill Bill, Lord of the Rings, Shrek, that kinda thing."

"Shrek?" Cleo raised her brow.

"Yeah, I mean, they're gonna be making a fifth movie and all, might as well catch up."

"A FIFTH?!" There were FOUR Shrek movies now?!

Frida just shrugged, "Yeah, everything's always sequels and reboots nowadays, but at least the second one was a banger."

Cleo really needed to start catching up on the movies that have come out in the last twenty years, that was for sure.

"So... what is it that you planned for us to do?" she asked, genuinely curious what Frida had planned to do together in the bedroom, given that it definitely wasn't sex.

"Oh, right!" Frida's eyes lit up at the question, and she leaped off her bed to pull out a canvas with some painting supplies. "Okay, are you good with staying still for a while?"

Cleo was a bit confused at first, not understanding what Frida was getting at. It took a solid moment for her to realize, her eyes widening, and the faintest bit of heat rising at her cheeks.

"Are you going to paint me?"

The words fell from her lips in a voice Cleo hardly recognized. While sure, plenty of people had practically worshipped her, no one ever painted her before. Frida didn't seem to notice her shock, however, too flustered by the question itself.

"Yeah, well, I thought that maybe, it would be something that we'd both enjoy. I asked Joan the kind of stuff you liked, and it sounded like you would appreciate to have a painting made f-for you, so I, uh, I thought, um..."

There was a long moment of extremely awkward silence between the two, both girls too flustered to say or do anything. Cleo was the first to talk, trying to remind herself that if anything, this was simply like a reward for all her patience, something to make up for the fact that most people didn't care about her anymore.

"I suppose so, if there's one thing I'm good at, besides being a great kisser, sexy, and looking fab, I would say it's modeling."

She knew that it was probably best not to mention her skills at spreading rumors.

With a gulp, Frida finally managed to speak again. "Soooooo.... is there anywhere that you'd think be comfortable to sit on?"

Cleo looked around the room again, spotting a lounge chair near one of the windows. A small little idea popped into her head. She would have to hope the movie stayed popular enough for Frida to get the reference though. She carefully rested on the couch, in a suggestive pose, and winked at Frida.

"Draw me like one of your French girls, Frida."

Based on the deep red painting Frida's cheeks, she had gotten the reference. Well, that was certainly rewarding. Frida pulled a chair across from Cleo, and started getting to work.

While Cleo was certainly used to modeling for pictures, she wasn't quite used to the amount of time it took for someone to actually paint her. She tried distracting her mind with different things, occasionally glancing at different places around Frida's room, thinking about what certain murals were suppose to resemble, staring at Frida's concentrated face, and resisting the urge to giggle at the way Frida's little pink tongue poked out.

You know, Frida wasn't the worst. Even though the two were nothing alike, and Frida was still kind of technically her high school rival, Frida was probably the only person she actually enjoyed being around. Wasn't that just sad? The one girl she should probably hate, and now she was actually starting to like her, because at least Frida actually understood what pure perfection looked like. Originally, Cleo had thought to try to fully steal away popularity from her, but maybe, just maybe, she could share it. It would be nice to be part of a popular clique again, and she knows that it would lack most of the usual drama that her old cliques would have. That would be nice. Of course, she definitely needed to find a way to kick out Joan and JFK, Harriet was still for debate, but Frida? Frida had been kind to Cleo at her worst, and Cleo was benevolent enough to not let that kindness go without reward.

Speaking of reward, Frida said she finally finished the rough sketch, meaning that Cleo could sit up and move around now. After getting up from a position that was actually quite uncomfortable (How had Rose managed that for so long?) she ended up simply resting on the chair, and entertaining herself by seeing what was outside the window.

"If you look to your right, there's a small bird's nest on one of the tree branches," Frida called out from behind the canvas. Sure enough, there was a tree to the right that had a nest hanging close to the window. There were two baby birds nestled inside, and the sight was enough to make Cleo "aww" at the cuteness.

"Been feeding Mama Bird some birdseed every now and then, imagine my excitement when I saw the eggs!"

Cleo hummed in response, deciding that watching two little birds in a tree was going to be her entertainment. The birds were clearly very young, but they thankfully were old enough to have grown their feathers. (Newborn birds always grossed Cleo out).

"I'm going to guess you've probably painted here," she said, her eyes still focused on the window. She heard some shuffling from behind her, but she wasn't really paying that much attention.

"Yeah, I made a painting of Mama Bird, though I have been working on one with the baby birds too."

The two talked a bit more about the birds, before Cleo started asking questions about Frida's foster family, which then led to Frida asking about Cleo's foster family. Cleo kept it short, not wanting to go into much detail. She quickly moved on to talking about what the 2000s were like instead, since Frida had been pretty interested in what it was actually like, and Frida then talked about some movies and stuff that had come out since 2003.

"So, let me get this straight, the second movie was the best, the third movie was the worst, and the fourth was alright?"

She didn't know how the conversation came back to Shrek again.

"Yeah, the second movie is honestly even better than the first."

"And there was also two movies that aren't Shrek, but are related to Shrek?" Cleo reiterated.

"Yeah, those are the two Puss in Boots movies, the character gets introduced in the second Shrek movie," Frida replied, eyeing her canvas very carefully.

"So they made not just one, but two whole movies based on a separate character, that is in the movie Shrek, but Shrek isn't in these movies, but it is canon to the Shrek movies? Am I missing something?"

"Nope, you've pretty much got it."

Cleo crossed her arms, completely baffled by how that works, "That's so weird! And you're saying that the sequel to this movie that is based on a character of the Shrek movies but not a Shrek movie is, what was it, 'lit'?"

"Yep," Frida snorted a little, finding it kind of funny how much this seemed to puzzle the taller girl.

"I'm starting to think you're just kidding with me now."

"Naw man, look it up."

Cleo did exactly that, and sure enough, Frida was right. Cleo was about to prepare herself for a "told you so" moment, but instead Frida let out a huge sigh of relief.

"It's done!"

Cleo looked up from her phone, finding Frida holding up the canvas proudly, before running over to where she had been sitting. The shorter girl held the canvas out, revealing it to Cleo.

She looked... beautiful. Really beautiful. It was one thing when a photographer showed off photos they took of her, but something about the way that Frida had managed to create this completely by her own hand, with the method of painting allowing her to add on roses and patterns into the art, it just felt... different. Cleo slowly looked up at Frida, who was staring at her with a big, warm smile. The two were completely silent again, although there wasn't that awkward tension making Cleo feel like she had drowning. If anything, it was quite the opposite. Cleo felt like she was flying, like the painting had lifted her up into the sky.

It was at that moment that her idea from yesterday popped back into her head. She leaned forward, planting a warm kiss on Frida's lips. She had her eyes closed, but she could feel Frida tense at first, before melting into the kiss completely. Frida's lips were, surprisingly, very soft. Cleo could taste a bit of chapstick on them, the tiniest hint of artificial cherry as she began pulling back. She wanted to see what Frida looked like now.

It was even better than she thought it would be. With Frida looking like she'd been trapped in a sauna for the last hour. But what was definitely the best part was the look in her eyes, a look that made Cleo smile involuntarily, because oh, it was just too cute to see what undone Frida became at her touch! She couldn't even deny it anymore. She thought back to the usual relaxed smile Frida had, and she was relishing in the pride of having the power to completely undo it.

"Thank you," Cleo said in a gentle voice, watching Frida completely space out, and desperately find a coherent sentence.

"You're welcome. I mean, uh, thank you too! Cause I- I, um, thanks for the kiss I mean! Ah, I mean-!"

Cleo couldn't help it anymore, she started laughing. She placed another kiss on Frida's cheek, and nearly laughed again at how the color nearly blended in with Frida's flushed face.

Oh, she had been thinking about enough already, but it really was just so satisfying watching such a normally cool girl stumble over her own feet for Cleo. It made her think of what her life was like before. She was glad that it was becoming easier to pretend to be into Frida. She would have done this anyways, but she's glad she can at least find a little enjoyment with this.

She and Frida spent the rest of their time just talking. It was long until Cleo got a call from her foster mother, saying that Cleo needed to drive her somewhere because, of course, she was too drunk to do so herself, and she didn't want another DUI. So, Cleo said her goodbyes, with Frida insisting that if Cleo wanted to take the painting with her, she could. So she did, and made sure to wave goodbye as she went back to her mother's house.

"Thankssssss for picking me up," her foster mother slurred beside her, barely keeping herself awake. "You're a goood daughturr."

Cleo rolled her eyes as her foster mother failed to pat the top of her head, instead patting the top of the seat. Cleo honestly did not care.

While she dealt with the very drunken woman sitting shotgun, Cleo would glance behind her, the sight of Frida's painting making her feel just a little less solemn.

Chapter Text

Within the Clone High School, there was a room that had long since been abandoned until a very few months ago. Now, it had been abandoned once more.

When the students were finally free after spending twenty years in the meat locker, they enthusiastically exited the room, some even going so far as to push others out of the way so they could feel the warmth of the outside.

Abraham Lincoln, or rather, his teenage clone, was the very last one to exit. Somehow, something felt...off. Perhaps it had something to do with just now finding out that he was hopelessly in love with his best friend who had just slept with his love rival, JFK. Yes, that was probably it. That missing feeling... it must have been the feeling of missing Joan, who was now moving on from him. That had to be it.

If he only bothered to turn his head around, then he would have realized what he was leaving behind. But he didn't. Too caught up in his own persona drama to see the small statue behind him.

But, as he was still deep within his own head, Abe hadn't bothered to shut the door of the meat locker.

The students all walked passed the door to the meat locker, nobody bothering to close the door, or even approach it. Even Candide, in all her efforts to get rid of the memory of the clone still trapped inside, hadn't bothered to check that the door was fully closed.

And so, the heat got in. And very, very slowly... the ice started to melt.

The first thing to thaw was a nose. A nose that somehow managed to have a rib bone shoved into it.

Wait, hold up. How did even get th-