Chapter Text
*High School, Freshman Year*
The hallways of Notre Dame de Namur were full of chatter and happiness, most of the girls being excited to be back at school with their friends. Dee trudged through the groups of girls, trying to be as invisible as one could be with a full back brace. She stops in front of her locker, sighing with the realization that it is a bottom one.
“Excuse me, are you gonna open your locker? Because I need to get to mine,” a girl interrupts Dee’s self-deprecating thoughts.
“Oh! Go ahead, mine is on the bottom, I don’t think I’ll be able to get into it anyways,” Dee forced a smile, stepping back. The girl frowns at her.
“How about we switch?” the girl hands her a slip of paper with the locker combination. Dee’s shock showed in her face, no one at her old school had ever been so kind to her, nodding as she takes the paper and pulls out her paper, handing it to the girl. She smiles in return and shifts off to the side, waiting patiently for Dee to put her stuff in her locker.
*High School, Sophomore Year*
Y/N walked through the halls, head held high, as she laughed along with the other girls from the soccer team. Out of the corner of her eye, a flash of light reflecting off metal grabs her attention, prompting her to excuse herself from the group. Rushing down the hall, she easily catches up with Dee, “We still on for tonight?” she asks the taller blonde girl.
Dee jumps slightly, but smiles when she sees it’s just Y/N, “Yeah! I think my brother is having Mac and Charlie over again too, but I’ll tell him to leave us alone.”
Y/N smiles, but feels heat slowly rising up her neck, “Thanks.”
That evening, Y/N spent a little longer in the mirror adjusting her looks than she’d ever admit. “Y/N!” her brother yelled from down the hall. Y/N rushed to finish packing her bag, shoving random items in at the last second. “Y/N, c’mon we gotta go,” Mac burst into her room.
“Hey! Ever heard of knocking?” she throws a hairbrush at him. He easily caught it and brought it back to her, knowing she intended to pack it.
“We still have to pick up Charlie,” Mac urges, “Hurry up!”
“Fine! Fine!” Y/N yells, shoving a random pair of pajamas into her bag, “I’m ready, let’s go!”
“Finally!” Mac cheers, running to his room to grab his bag.
“Bye Mom!” Y/N and Mac yell in unison as they exited the house, hopping in the car.
“I still can’t believe you , of all people, like going to sleepovers,” Y/N wonders aloud as Mac drives towards Charlie's house.
“Hey, hey, they are not sleepovers , they are hang outs,” he argued.
“Sure, sure, whatever it is, you and Charlie never used to do it before Dennis,” Y/N states.
“I could say the same thing about you and Dee,” Max raises an eyebrow, looking in your direction.
Y/N holds her hands up in surrender. “Okay, touché.”
When Charlie stepped onto the porch, locking eyes with her, Y/N instantly felt her cheeks flush. She looked away quickly, while Charlie said goodbye to his mom and locked the door.
“Hey hey heyy!” He exclaims as he slides into the back seat.
“What is up man?” Mac questions.
“Oh nothing much, nothing much…” Charlie’s voice trails off as he observes Y/N.
“Alright! Let’s get this show on the road!” Mac brushes it off.
At the Reynolds house, Dennis and Dee greet the trio.
“Hello, Y/N, looking lovely as ever,” Dennis flirts.
Y/N gives him a tight-lipped smile, “Thanks,” and before she could say anything else, Dee was dragging her up the stairs to her room.
“I have got to talk to you,” Dee says, her grip still holding onto Y/N when they reach her room. When the door closed, Dee was instantly rambling, she never talked much at school, but when the two girls were alone, Dee confided just about everything in the other girl. “So, I was at physiotherapy and I saw Matty-” Y/N smiled sweetly as she listened to her friend, she adored the love those two had for each other, and she always told Dee to say something to him about it but she never did.
Later that night, Y/N stood from her spot on Dee’s bed stretching, “I think I’m gonna grab another pop, do you want one?” she asked, as Dee paused the movie.
“No, I’m good, but help yourself!”
Y/N nodded and left the room. She skipped down the staircase and admired the art on the walls- the Reynolds house was much more fancy than their house, the only thing that decorated their walls were water stains and cracks. She turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs, a smile on her face, and when she entered the kitchen, she only saw that the fridge door was open, and couldn’t tell who was behind it. Before she could get her bearings the fridge door closes, revealing Charlie, pop can in his hand and chips in the crook of his arms. For the third time that day Y/N began to get redder than her natural colour.
“Hey,” she squeaked out.
“H-” cough, “Hey.”
Y/N gestures towards the fridge.
“Oh, yeah, go ahead,” he goes to move out of the way, but so does Y/N and they end up going back and forth a few times, before they smile at each other sheepishly and Charlie successfully steps around Y/N, “Bye.”
“Bye,” she glances back to see him still standing in the doorway, he nods and continues to the living room.
In the living room, Charlie plops down on the couch next to Mac.
“Who were you talking to?” Dennis asks, eyeing Charlie suspiciously.
“Oh, Y/N was in there, we ran into each other, it was kind of funny,” Charlie shrugs, trying to act as nonchalant as possible, popping open the bag of chips. Dennis perked up at Charlie's words, earning him a glare from Mac.
“Really?” Dennis stands, straightening out his shirt.
“Dude,” Mac complains weakly, but it’s too late and Dennis is already making his way to the kitchen.
Y/N grabs a Sprite and examines the other contents of the fridge, sighing, she closes the door and exits the kitchen. As she rounds the corner she nearly collides with someone else, they reach out and grab both of her arms firmly. Y/N tries to step back, but the arms keep her close.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Dennis’ voice rang in her ears.
“It’s cool,” she tries her best to smile back at him, but he’s so close their faces almost graze, so she opts to look away.
“What brings you all the way down here?”
“Just grabbing a pop,” she attempts to show him, but his arm is still in the way, holding onto her.
She was racking her brain for a way to get him to leave her alone when someone spoke up from behind Dennis, “C’mon Dennis!” Charlie rounds the corner from the living room “Mac really wants to start the movie…” Dennis turns slightly, loosening his grip just enough for her to slip loose.
Y/N shoots Charlie a look of thanks, “Yeah, Dennis, you should get back,” she pats him on the shoulder awkwardly, before turning and running up the stairs.
“What the hell dude!” she hears, followed by the sound of a smack.
As Y/N reached Dee’s room, she pulled open the door aggressively, closing it quickly behind her. “What took you so long?” Dee asks.
“I have to tell you a secret,” Y/N sighs, flopping down on Dee’s bed.
“What? I thought I knew all your secrets?”
Y/N shook her head lightly, “Not all of them,” Dee looked at the girl expectantly, “Ever since we started highschool.. I’ve had feelings…” Y/N paused for a moment too long for Dee’s liking.
“Spit it out!”
“I like Charlie,” Y/N breathed out.