Chapter Text
Scooter is the coolest girl in school. She skateboards. She's friends with every guy in her grade. She's not afraid to call out the system for being wrong or unjust. She's strong, she's loud, and she's rebellious without bragging about it. She's borderline perfect.
Clover hates her with every fibre of her being.
She couldn't fully explain why, but Clover just hated her. Hated her with a passion, like nothing she had ever felt before. Every time she saw Scooter, it felt like something strange took over- she felt lightheaded, strangely anxious, and had an intense desire to both look at her and avoid her at all times. It drove Clover mad.
Even now, lying in bed at 1 in the morning and scrolling through her phone, Clover was thinking about Scooter. They had had class together that day and the scene was playing out in her mind perfectly- Scooter had been correctly answering questions in algebra the entire lesson, and had looked stupidly handsome the entire time. Acting as if she wasn't driving Clover mad with her mere existence.
Clover scowled. It seemed like she was on her mind all the time, no matter how much she tried to squash it. It only irritated her more.
Stupid Scooter. Ruining my life when she's not even here.
A text notification from her phone dragged her out of her sulking. It was from Amy.
-You alright? You seemed really mad today.
Clover quickly texted back.
-I'm fine. Just dealing with some stuff.
She sighed. She did feel really bad. Ever since she had started noticing Scooter a few weeks ago, she had been acting strange. And of course, it was only a matter of time until her friends picked up on it. Clover had been trying to hide it well, but something had slipped through today. Clearly, this was a sign that she needed to work on this hatred before it got out of hand.
Clover suddenly had an idea. She began texting again.
-Hey, have you ever hated someone so much that just the thought of them makes you mad?
-Like what do you mean?
Clover thought about that. Her thoughts drifted back to Scooter, which immediately gave her an answer.
-I mean like, your heart races so fast, you get all shaky around them, you get all hot and heated. Even just thinking about them makes you feel flustered. And you can't even look at them or else it just gets worse. Y'know?
There was a long pause between messages.
-That sounds more like a crush to me.
Clover's heart stopped.
No. Absolutely not. Amy was not implying what Clover thought she was.
-I'm being serious Amy
-Okay okay, why do you hate them? Because if you really hate them, you should have a reason to.
Clover went to respond. But she couldn't. Amy had a point.
Why did she hate Scooter so much?
Clover put her phone down and stared at her ceiling. Twiddling her thumbs, she thought about it. Scooter was… well, she was perfect. In Clover's eyes, at least. She was by far the coolest girl in school. Hell, she could even skateboard, a sport that Clover could never do with her clumsiness. And she could do it well! Whenever Clover caught her outside of school skating, she couldn't take her eyes off her, no matter how irritated it made her feel.
The way she acted too. Really that's what annoyed Clover the most. She just acted like she was always so relaxed and chilled out, as if nothing bothered her in the world. At the same time, Scooter was always the first to call out people for their unfair nonsense, from other students to even the teachers. The amount of times she had gotten detention for calling out the school system was admirable.
And she never bragged about being such a rebel either. Rebel was a strong word, but it was the only one Clover could think of. Posers would relish in the fact that they're "rebellious"- when really they just "rebelled" for bragging rights. Scooter, on the other hand, seemed so genuine. When she stood up for something, she never used it to seem better than anyone else. Hell, thinking about all of this was making Clover's heart beat wildly against her chest.
That's when it clicked. That's why Clover hated her so much- Scooter made Clover feel strange. She made her feel vulnerable and weak, like she couldn't control her emotions. She wanted to simultaneously be around her but also avoid her at all costs. Almost like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Clover paused on that last comparison. A crush…
…
No. No fucking way. That's not possible.
Clover snatched her phone back in a panic. Amy had been messaging her.
-You know, I remember I got mad at my first crush, because I didnt realise thats what it was.
-He made me feel things and all I knew is it made me mad.
-But once I figured out what it was, I was fine! The brain is kinda stupid like that. Maybe thats what you have?
Clover's hands were shaking. There was no way she could have a crush on Scooter of all people… right? She literally just thought about all the reasons she hated her. You couldn't love someone you hated, that was just asinine. And yes, that crush comparison was a bit strange, but that didn't mean anything!
She threw her phone beside her and sighed. This was a conundrum. One part of her was dead set on Amy being wrong. The thought of liking Scooter? That was crazy. Besides, Clover had never had a crush on anyone in her life. To her, it'd be pretty obvious if she liked someone.
But on the other hand…Was that why she hated her so much?
Clover turned to face her window. Everything she listed wasn't really hateable. Really, Clover should like someone like Scooter. She was incredibly charming (annoyingly so), and had the same morals and values that Clover shared. She had everything that Clover liked- and yet, Clover had felt nothing but irritation towards her.
Unless it wasn't irritation she was feeling. Maybe, her brain was just so not used to feeling romance that it instead just misled her to feel anger. Clover thought that she would've known when she got a crush- but clearly, she had been misled. Maybe Amy was right.
And besides, wasn't feeling strange the biggest sign of a crush? And Clover had just thought on and on about how strange Scooter made her feel?
…God I am an idiot.
Clover turned over in bed and covered her head with her pillow. Amy was right. This really did sound like a crush. This was so embarrassing. This entire time she thought she hated Scooter's guts, when really her brain was too stupid to realise it was love. She prayed that Scooter hadn't noticed her hostile behaviour the last few weeks. That would be the final straw for Clover's embarrassment meter.
Closing her eyes, she thought about Scooter again. But this time, there was no clear anger when she thought of her. Her face flushed and her heart began to beat harder- and yet there was no desire to hate Scooter for her mere existence. In fact, whatever anger she would have felt turned into elation. It was a weird feeling, but it was nice. In fact, it was really nice.
Clover was in love. Too bad it only took her 3 weeks to notice.