Chapter Text
“…and finally, the moment you’ve been waiting all Spring for, the highlight of the Valoran City Academy Spring Gala – winners of both the Hottest Talent music contest and the Cutest Couple award…”
Bright pink paper flowers in trailing lines and coils whispered in the breeze of spring; there was still just enough lingering chill behind it not to turn yet another school dance into a sweaty miasma.
And this one, like all the others, was just a warmup for the looming colossus that was the annual Heartbeat Ball.
Caitlyn smoothed her immaculate skirts and faked a wry smile at Corina’s last snarky comment about the ‘sugarpop twins’ as the announcer, some bubbly second year, droned on sycophantically.
“…they’ll be performing their latest collab, 'You Got Me Lovestruck', please welcome to the stage Valoran’s sweethearts, Ezreal Lymere and Luxanna Crownguard!”
Caitlyn sighed under her breath as the happy couple lit up the stage – figuratively and literally. She liked pink as much as the next person, she was currently wearing a good deal of it, but there were levels…
Caitlyn felt the tension spike in her shoulders as the inevitable commentary started at each of her flanks.
She’d have to have words with Lux about it later.
The spotlight flashed down on Ezreal, blonde spikes tastefully squished by his neon headset, jacket glowing blue and pink like a synthwave album cover, his boyish energy and swoony ocean-eyed wink winning hearts in the crowd, even before he lit up with that cocky little smirk hiding just a hint of soft fragility and started singing his little heart out…
“Oh babe, the moment I saw your eyes –”
Lux skipped onto the stage, snug sleeves and pink nails and a frilly little white crop top, glittering golden waves flowing from behind her pink hairband, her face a teenage dream of sky-blue eyes and clear skin and Valoran’s sunniest smile. She fairly beamed at Ez, locked their azure stares adoringly together, and brought the mic to her strawberry-glossed lips.
“Oh sweetie, the moment you touched my life –”
“What’s with the his-and-hers chokers?” Qiyana whispered behind her hand, “Oooh, think she keeps him on a leash?”
“The big plastic hearts stuck on their chests are certainly a statement,” Cassiopeia glanced up from buffing her nails on her lapel, “Please tell me that’s not the new look in Demacia?”
Fiora didn’t dignify that with a response beyond an icy arch of her brows.
On stage, the two sunny lovebirds flashed each other flirty winks and touched the hearts in question – the heart-rate-monitor squiggles on the front of each lit up in neon as the song hit its first chorus –
“You Got Me Lovestruck – oooh baby I’m comin’ unstuck – I’m never gonna be the same – whenever I’m together with you—”
“Oh my god they’re so cute!” “We love you Lux!” “Ezreal! Ezreal!” the crowd screamed, going wild for the gimmick.
Caitlyn flickered a little smile and made sure to freeze her brows just a little into a smug perch so the others wouldn’t pick it.
“You’ve got to admit,” she said pleasantly, “It is a bit cute.”
“Ughh,” Qiyana rolled her eyes, “If you’re into watching two yappy blonde chihuahuas eye-humping on stage…”
Caitlyn chuckled, “Do try to have some school spirit, Qi.”
Caitlyn was keenly aware that a good deal of her Squad’s snipping at Luxanna Crownguard was jealousy – the younger girl was a transfer from Demacia like Fiora, but one who seemed to breeze through the social strata each of the girls beside Caitlyn had clawed their way up tooth and nail. Lux had simply coasted in on her immaculate grades and apple-pie wholesomeness without a damn care in the world.
She might be a year behind them, but Lux was the next big thing, and there was nothing the Squad could do to stop her.
Yet.
And that was what had Caitlyn just a little worried for the girl.
Words like shrill and twee and naïve might apply, certainly, Caitlyn considered, and both her picture-perfect face and her picture-perfect boyfriend aside, the titanic name of Crownguard had certainly contributed to her rise to untouchability as the fresh princess of the VCA…
But Caitlyn, of all people, knew what a name could weigh.
“I’ll never find love – oh I’ll never find love – I’ll never be Lovesick like I am for you…”
As the song changed keys, Fiora muttered softly under her breath.
“What is she doing? She is a Crownguard,” she said, for Caitlyn’s ears only, “Acting like a common hussy with this Piltover boy…pardonne, Caitlyn, but if she is going to display like this, it doesn’t matter who her family is. She’ll never be you.”
“Of course, she won’t,” Caitlyn chuckled, “That seat is taken.”
It was nice of Fiora to think she’d need reassurance, but Caitlyn had no fear of the sunny little creature making heart eyes at her beau on the stage. In her experience Lux might actually be as sweet as she seemed. She certainly had not a bad word to say about anyone, which was more than Caitlyn could say of her friends in the so-called Heartthrob Clique…
No, Lux wasn’t a threat. Not to her. Lux might be a princess, but Caitlyn was a queen.
Qiyana’s critique wasn’t entirely without merit, she had to admit. The girl’s voice was chipper and shrill, her timing with Ezreal a little off. They kept winning these Gala music contests on the charm of their double-act, but Sona was a true virtuoso at the strings, Akali’s rapping hit home every time, and Seraphine’s angelic-sounding name scarcely did justice to her voice…
It was unfair. And, though she’d never admit it aloud, unfair was something that itched in Caitlyn’s skin, not that she could balance the scales, even sitting on the committee. Lux and Ezreal had won the judges over; theirs was an undeniable chemistry, even if its primary ingredient seemed to be ‘sugar, buckets of it’.
The whole of Valoran City Academy seemed to be high on it anyway.
“Well,” said Cassiopeia, “He’s cute enough if you’re into pretty boys. Though, isn’t he a little beneath her? I mean, she is a Crownguard…and isn’t he a bit of a troublemaker?”
“Ezreal? Well, I suppose,” said Caitlyn, shaking her head, “Rather more class clown than delinquent. I expect she finds the rebellion exciting – I doubt her parents approve, but I’d say he’s safer than she’d like to pretend. She could do a lot worse…”
Caitlyn refused to look over to the Heartache Crew. They sat at the corner of her vision like a shadow, a blotch of off, clashing colors, punky styles, ripped fishnets and studs and garish hair all draped in their dark corner casting the occasional churlish eyes and sarcastic catcalls at the performers.
They mostly radiated bored and listless and too edgy for this shit.
Even in periphery, it was hard to miss the ringleader, Miss Stands-for-Violence herself, sucking from a battered sports bottle dwarfed by the giant Atlas gauntlets she refused to take off even outside of the gymnasium. Apparently, she’d cited it as ‘training with the weight’ and the faculty had somehow reneged.
Caitlyn thought, for a horrible moment, she’d felt Violet Lane’s eyes on her, but a chilling side-glance showed her exchanging a crude joke with that nasty Draven boy.
Disgusting.
“…and his parents are both professors,” Qiyana agreed, “Ezreal might never act it, but he’s from money. I get that he’s not your type, Cait, but if you’d pulled a guy like that, you might have an edge on her…”
Caitlyn’s breath stilled in her nostrils.
A guy like that.
A pointed look from her clique had drifted over to the Heartthrob boys; in particular, to Jayce, rolling his eyes and running his hands through his perfect hair at another quip from his friends.
He made eye contact with Cait and gave her a casual finger-guns, knowing exactly what it’d provoke. The ass.
“Aren’t you and Talis-”
Caitlyn was glad the crowd squealing for the song covered for her burst of laughter.
“How many times am I going to have to explain why that’s a no?”
“Whatever! So, when are you going to date, like, anyone?”
Caitlyn breathed out and forced herself to face her friends with a frosty, judgmental waft of disapproval.
“Why, Qiyana,” she remarked, one brow raised, “Are you offering?”
Qiyana’s cocky smirk fell off her lips.
“N-no, I was just pointing out, you’re still-”
“Single,” Caitlyn replied, as she had a hundred times before, and would need to again, “Is that a problem?”
“Well, it’s just a bit…weird, isn’t it?”
Caitlyn didn’t let her smile crack.
“Don’t overstep,” she said, and turned back to the performance.
They’d never see the way the practiced smoothing of her skirts hid the tremors in her fingers.
Lux stepped backstage as the applause roared behind her, glowing with the heat of attention, giddy with the sudden plunge from stage lights to comparative darkness, and hand in hand with Ezreal.
“Oh my god, what a show-” Taliyah gushed, swooping on them from backstage, “You guys were adorable up there…”
“Aw, shucks,” said Ez, biting his lip through his grin and locking eyes with Lux, “Hey, we just gotta be us, you know?”
She fluttered her eyes back at him and gave him a bright giggle with just a hint of dreamy sigh.
“They’re going to need a new yearbook shoot,” Senna chuckled as she strolled past with a clipboard, “Cuz I think ‘green’ just became the most popular eye color at VCA.”
“Gosh, Senna,” Lux rubbed her warm cheeks, “Um, you really think so? We just wanted to make everyone smile…”
“Share the love around a bit, you know?” Ez said with a wink, squeezing her hand, “I mean, figuratively, cutiepuff, you know I’ve only got eyes for you…”
“I know, sugarbun,” she sighed back, tipping her head to her shoulder and playing with his fingers, “I don’t have to worry about my man.”
“Killing me here, lovebirds,” Senna groaned, “You’re worse than Xayah and Rakan.”
“Hey!” a warm voice cut in, and Lux turned from shaking the heat from her hair and letting a hint of breeze cool the sweat on the back of her neck to see Seraphine approaching, dolled up for her turn at the stage, a nervous little smile touching her lips, “Wow, what an act to follow. You guys are amazing, and so, so sweet…I could really feel your harmony.”
‘That was Luxanna Crownguard and Ezreal Lymere, and wow, I feel sorry for whoever has to follow that amazing energy. Are you feeling the love here tonight VCA because I sure am!’
“Thanks, Sera…” Lux smiled at her, brightly, but she had to fight to keep it on her face as she saw that tiny note of sadness in Sera’s eyes, “You’ll knock ‘em dead up there, I know it!”
‘And this year’s runner up, with a reprise of her performance of ‘You Don’t Need To Be Strong’, our heavenly songstress, Seraphine!’
The howls of the audience rose again.
But, though punctuated by a shrieking first year Lux glimpsed standing on a chair waving her SERAPHINE FAN CLUB sign above the crowd, they weren’t as loud as they’d been for Ez and Lux.
“I’ll do my best,” Seraphine said, taking a deep breath, “Just got to stay positive!”
And she was gone through the curtain.
Lux bit her lip.
“Hey, pookiebear,” Ez slung an arm around her, the familiar scent of his clean sweat and slightly fruity deodorant hanging surrounding her, “You okay?”
“Sera,” she leaned into him and sighed a little, lifting blue eyes to his. “I mean, listen to her.”
Her voice rose above the cheering crowd, gently stilling their raucous energy to soothing calm, her melody pitch-perfect, thrumming with real emotion and deep, passionate talent.
“…she should’ve won.”
Ez’s smile faded a little, “…yeah, probably, but there’s next year, right? We had to take our shot, and hey, c’mon, we earned it.”
He tipped her chin up, where everyone could see, and kissed her.
Lux tensed only briefly before she hummed into it, leaned, and lingered until he broke away with a flash of a wink over the giggling of their observers.
“C’mon,” he tugged her hand, “Gotta get our stuff from the lockers, then we book.”
“You guys are leaving before the last dance?” said Taliyah, peeking back from watching Seraphine with rapt attention, “You off on another hot date already?”
“Nah, just figured we’d go back to my place,” said Ez, with only a slight wiggle of his brows, “Dance is cool and all but, my parents aren’t home tonight and… y’know.”
“Oh, Ez, don’t tell everyone,” Lux flushed and batted at his arm.
“Oh my god,” Senna groaned, “Get out of here, you two, and use protection!”
“A true hero,” Ez spread his arms and grinned, “Always does!”
“You’re so cheesy, Ezbunny,” Lux trailed after him to the lockers, rolling her eyes and giggling back at the other girls.
Senna mouthed ‘ezbunny’ back at Taliyah and made a faint gagging gesture.
Lux opened her locker, right next to Ezreal’s, and paused.
“…crud,” she muttered under her breath, “My phone…I must have left it in the changerooms.”
“Okay, I can wait outside,” Ez said, peering over at her from typing a text, shutting his own locker and shouldering his bag.
He glanced over his shoulder to see a couple of second years whispering behind their hands and smirking at the two of them. Ezreal flashed them a smug smile and bumped Lux’s shoulder, “But don’t make me wait too long, cutie…y’know how I get impatient.”
“Oh, you know me,” Lux trilled, “Never do…”
She bumped her hips to his and scooted off, bag swinging against her back, away from the rising giggles and murmurs. Her heart pounded, and she wasn’t quite sure why…
…but as she stumbled into the changerooms, she saw it, lying next to the makeup kit.
Her phone. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lux snatched it up and unlocked it.
She had a new text blinking away, at the bottom of a row of them:
JustEz: Heya, sorry for laying it on extra thick today.
JustEz: That creepy Eve girl keeps making passes at me and I needed to scare her off.
JustEz: If it got annoying, I’ll make it up to you tonight. Pizza and ‘flix, or burgers and boardgames? Your call! Seeya, L.
And, from a few minutes ago;
JustEz: Hope you found your phone. I’m in the carpark.
Lux let out a soft sigh and texted him back:
LuxCG: Got phone! No sweat. Pizza sounds good. Don’t think I have the spoons for boardgames. Thanks, E.
She took the opportunity to peel herself out of her costume and change back into her uniform, relieved, but unable to shake the vague sense of stale stickiness clinging to her after the heat and energy of the stage. As she walked back out of the changerooms, her sunny-bright message tone pinged again;
JustEz: hey you found your phone! Cool. Meet you outside.
“Oh, hello,” said a crisp voice, and Lux nearly jumped out of her skin as she looked up – having almost smacked right into a girl walking out of the restrooms – almost smacked right into Caitlyn…
…Caitlyn Kiramman …ohhh no.
Lux’s heart pounded, from the startlement, sure, but also from being sweaty and disheveled and six feet from the Ice Queen of VCA.
The tall Piltovan girl regarded Lux with a frosty, amused look. Her makeup was flawless, her pale rose coiffure spilling in immaculate spirals from beneath a soft plaid beret in the same pastel Freljord Violet as the pattern on her skirt and jacket.
There wasn’t a hair out of place or a single fleck of lint on her attire.
“Great performance, Lux,” Caitlyn smiled, her sharp brow arched, “Very pink. Checking your evening plans?”
Lux flicked her eyes back to the phone and swiftly switched from JustEz’s thread to EZBUNNYXOXO<3<3 before she turned her phone around.
“Oh, you know,” she giggled, biting her fingertip, “Just a bit of ‘us’ time after the big win.”
Caitlyn’s lips drew thin at the sight of a garish torrent of “OMG LOVE U” and “hey bae thinking hot thoughts of u <3 <3 <3 <3” and “here’s a pic of us lookin’ cute XOXOXO” and “omg I woke up last night from dreaming of kissing u again” and a very prominent “parents out tonight u know what that means pookiebear, victory celebration! Mm can’t wait xoxoxox” from just before the show.
To her credit, Caitlyn glanced only briefly before averting her eyes as if she’d walked in on something private, “…I get the picture.”
She glanced down the hall, where the Heartthrob Clique waited for her in a languid huddle.
“Well, congratulations on your victory, and goodnight, I suppose.”
“Thanks!” Lux sang, and turned to skip off, swallowing down a brief pang that she wasn’t staying to chat.
Sooner or later, Lux would have to take the plunge; join the Heartthrobs or stay on the ‘out’ for good. She’d been very, very careful to ensure she ticked all their boxes, but they circled her like wary sharks, taking little nibbles where they could; her hair, her clothes, her music, her perfumes, her cheerleading, even her boyfriend…
Caitlyn had always been the nice one, to Lux at least. They’d even worked well on projects together; Caitlyn was incredibly conscientious, the kind of girl who couldn’t just attend a school event without also sitting the organizing committees, curating the promotions, and managing the teams.
Lux knew exactly what it was like to have Responsibility grilled into you from day one. Maybe, being born to rich families with soaring expectations, they had more in common than the other girls, but Lux kept her at arm’s length, nonetheless. The Heartthrobs were a notoriously difficult clique to break into and they could be totally brutal with anyone they found lacking…
She couldn’t shake the feeling that Caitlyn might just be playing Good Cop.
“Lux.”
Caitlyn’s voice cut into her thoughts, and Lux looked back at her. Caitlyn faced away from the other girls, and for a moment, when the others weren’t looking – it might have just been her imagination but there was a flicker of something crossing her porcelain façade.
“…If you’re ever in need,” she said, “I am about.”
Lux stood caught like a deer in the headlights as Caitlyn turned and strutted back to her Squad, wondering if she’d imagined she’d heard that, and imagined she’d seen that look on Caitlyn Kiramman’s face she’d never thought could have lived there–
A smile; small, friendly, and sincere.
Only in the passenger seat of Ezreal’s car, texting her brother to tell him she was going to ‘a sleepover with the girls’, did the weirdness of the encounter with Caitlyn fade enough that Lux realized something else had been bothering her.
She never, ever, answered “JustEz” messages at school. That was the deal…
But she’d done it this time without thinking, because when she’d unlocked her phone in the changerooms, it had already been open to that thread.
Bumping into Lux was, as it turned out, only a brief respite of awkwardness in a night otherwise determined to plunge.
“Come on, Caitlyn!” Cassiopeia chuckled, “The Spring gala was yet another big win because of you. Come out with us! Do some celebrating.”
“Never know, we might even find you a special someone…” Qiyana added with a wink, “Or someones.”
“Tonight might be the night Ice Queen Caitlyn finally cracks,” added Corina, with a coy smirk, “Stranger things have happened.”
Caitlyn opened her mouth to dismiss them, as they strolled out into the front courtyard of the Academy; the words were stolen from her mouth by a heavy thud and a gasp of air from the wall not far from the main doors.
Black and red and white flashed just in the periphery of her vision; Violet Lane stood with her forearm across the throat of one of the other Undercity students; Devaki, a particularly greasy third year, pinning him to the wall.
Caitlyn’s brows furrowed.
“Don’t,” Cassiopeia warned, hand on Caitlyn’s arm, “Heartache bullshit’s not our business.”
“It’s on school grounds,” Caitlyn scowled, “And I’m on the Safe Spaces committee-”
Devaki was muttering something as Vi lifted him off his feet, her own face a storm of knotted anger, and slammed him into the wall so hard that brick dust rained into the garden.
Thank the Aspects she didn’t have those giant bloody gloves on, she’d have broken his neck. They lay nearby, like she’d dropped them in her haste to body slam the boy. Brutish things they were, all of metal strips and spikes, fit only for punching the training mecha in the Battle Gym where she spent most of her time.
Caitlyn’s blood boiled. Sooner or later, Vi was going to kill someone with those hideous things…
She turned back and overheard heard snippets of the exchange – “-mer” and “-irst yea-” and most prominently – “cave your ugly skull in, got it, asshole?”
Caitlyn started forward, gritting her teeth, but her friends held her bodily back.
“Look, we all know you’re Miss Social Justice, but if you want to pick a fight with Violence Lane,” Corina murmured, “You’re on your own.”
Caitlyn stared at them, and haughtily tugged her arm from their grip, a tiny flicker of a scowl sent their way as she unrumpled her sleeve.
“Go on without me,” she said, “I’ve just remembered I’ve some admin notes to finish in the media room.”
The Squad looked at the tower of blood-red hair, fishnets, and spiky studs that was Violet Lane and exchanged glances, and various subtle tweaks of perfect brows and glossed lips, before they turned from Caitlyn and walked away.
“Suit yourself,” Qiyana shot over her shoulder as they went, “But if you’re a bruised pulp in the school newspaper tomorrow, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
“…lie down with dogs,” Fiora muttered as she walked off with them, “Get up with fleas…”
An icy crack of rage broke Caitlyn’s façade, but none of them saw it – except Vi, who had her fist raised, paused, her gaze turned back over her shoulder to lock eyes with Caitlyn for the first time.
Caitlyn stared back at her.
Now they were here, face to face, the queen of the Heartthrob Clique staring down the ringleader of the Heartache Crew about to beat a guy into the brickwork, Caitlyn had absolutely no idea what to say.
It wasn’t Vi’s deep carmine eyes or the faint furrow in her scarred brows. It couldn’t be anything so simple.
Vi growled, “…What?”
It was just a word, but it broke the silence. Caitlyn pursed her lips and let her blank stare sharpen into a glare, whilst she searched for…something. Words. Something!
“Got something to say, Cupcake?” Vi chuckled, “Or you just like to watch? I mean, if it’s your thing, by all means…”
Devaki took the opportunity to wiggle fruitlessly for escape, and Vi smacked him into the wall again without looking away from Caitlyn.
“Stop it!” Caitlyn hissed, “Leave him alone!”
Vi furrowed her brow again, her goth-lipped moue seeming genuinely surprised.
“Or…?”
“You’ll be reported to the school disciplinary committee,” Caitlyn thrust a finger at her, “Obviously!”
Vi stared at her, stunned, for a moment; then she laughed out loud and turned back to Devaki.
“Hear that, Dev? She’s going to report me for picking on you. Y’know what that means, right? We both get hauled into Ferros’ office for a ‘stern talking to’…”
Caitlyn had expected relief, but Devaki went pale.
“…whatcha think, Dev?” said Vi, her tone casual, but something ugly, nasty, and fierce under it, in the faint narrowing of her eyes and the tension in her neck and her forearms, “Should we let Miss Goody Two-Shoes take us in and explain the sitch?”
“N-no-NO!” he shouted, voice quavering, eyes panicked as they turned to Caitlyn, “Uh! I mean I’m good, we’re good, just havin’ a little bit of a Zaunite pow-wow, you see? Ha ha, bit of roughhousing between friends…”
“Yeah,” Vi said, her smirk cold as the steel of her studded headband, “Real good mates.”
She let go of him, abruptly, and he tumbled in a heap of gangly limbs into the garden, gasping for air.
“Run along now, buddy,” she said as he hauled himself to his feet – right into her smoldering glare and the jab of her fingertip to his thin chest – “…and remember what I told you. Don’t want to have this chat again, do we?”
“G-got it Vi…” Devaki cringed, with another frightened look to Caitlyn, and snatched up his fallen hat as he fled into the growing evening.
Leaving her alone with Violet Lane.
Caitlyn blew out a heated breath.
“Care to explain?”
Vi quirked a brow at her and walked back to her gloves, leaning down for them, “…nope.”
“You pushed that boy so hard you’ve left damage in the school façade,” Caitlyn chased her a few steps, fuming, “How can you be so callous?”
It was the wrong thing to say. Vi’s brows furrowed and Caitlyn saw the muscular swells of her shoulders – bared by her torn white crop top – tense.
Her heart started, inexplicably, beating faster as Vi dropped the gloves again and turned to her with a dark-cherry smirk.
“Oh no,” she teased, “Whatcha gonna do, Sheriff Kiramman? Dob me in to the faculty and bat an eye to get me kicked to the social curb, like you did my sister?”
Caitlyn’s next words died on her tongue. She scowled, “-w-well Jinx was defacing school property and in possession of extremely dangerous chemicals, someone could’ve been seriously injur-”
Vi snorted, “Powder got dragged over the coals because of you. Do you have any idea what it did to her?”
Caitlyn faltered and stood with her arms by her sides, staring in confusion. Vi, sneer twisting her lip, suddenly stepped closer, getting right into Caitlyn’s face.
“You think that ‘taught her a lesson’? Like something like that just rolls off people like us? Screw you!”
Caitlyn blanched back, tripping over her shoes and tottering to stay on her feet –
But Vi didn’t hit her. Instead, she leaned in close – close enough that Caitlyn could make out the scars on her lip and brow, the furrow above her intense red eyes and the black-and-red broken heart scribbled below the left…right on the faint freckles dusting her cheeks.
Her scent wreathed Caitlyn, sharp and earthy from her fight practice before the dance. Her breath tickled Caitlyn’s face, spiced with hints of clove cigarette smoke and the unexpected sweetness of cherry lipstick.
“You think you’re the law here,” Vi murmured, low and cold, “But you don’t know us. You don’t know us for shit. We take care of our own and we don’t need you.”
Caitlyn held her ground, but when she tried to speak, all she could do was lick her lips and fumble with the start of a sentence, “I…”
Her words had completely failed her.
Vi gave a grim smile and pulled away, picking up her massive gauntlets and slinging them over her shoulder with a clank of spiky metal.
“Stay in your lane, Piltie,” she said over her shoulder.
And then she was gone.
Caitlyn waited until she was sure she was alone and then let out a steaming growl. She kicked a loose paver so hard she scuffed her favorite shoes.
Calm. Control. Discipline. Get it together, Kiramman! You do not show this sort of base display of emotion. Be rational. Be productive…
Caitlyn fought to control her breathing. Productive. Yes.
She couldn’t just leave, not rattled like this, not if she was going to meet with the Squad. She’d told them she was staying behind, and she was going to stick to it.
She was a Kiramman, after all.
Maybe a little after-hours admin work in the musty quiet of the media room would be nice. And the wrap-up notes for the Gala really did need to be completed.
Caitlyn closed her eyes, took a deep breath in, and let it out.
The hubbub of quiet voices snickering and the clicking of keys and computer mouses did not penetrate the turbulent wall of her thoughts as she strode to the media room. Caitlyn didn’t realize her mistake until it was too late; until she’d clicked the door open and strolled inside, and one of the voices sharpened to brittle spite.
“Well look who it is,” the voice hissed, and Caitlyn’s eyes narrowed as she turned to spy two second years sprawled in the computer lounge, their workstations cluttered with fast food wrappers and smuggled-in gaming controllers.
Even if she hadn’t recognized that voice, the boy’s baggy patched jacket and ice blue tipped locs and the girl’s spiky choker and twotoned lipstick, not to mention the neon graffiti scrawled all over their threadbare clothes and well loved personal effects would have drawn anyone’s eye.
Ekko winced slightly as he pushed his headset off and nervously fixed his locs, “Uh, heya, um, Caitlyn…”
Caitlyn smiled at him. “Ekko. Working late for extra credit, I see.”
She turned to the girl beside him. Glinting pink eyes bored into hers. Caitlyn would never get over the color.
Shimmer. Never thought I’d see it at this school…
The girl flicked her long neon-green-and-purple braids over her shoulders and smirked back, with an exaggerated roll of those eyes.
“Oh no,” she groaned, “It’s Sheriff Cupcake! Am I under arrest?”
Caitlyn drew her lips into a thin, long-suffering smile.
“Hello, Jinx.”