Chapter Text
It was like any normal day in St. Cassian High School, Penny was sitting in class, studying for the upcoming test for next weekend, of course, she would be focusing on that if not for the tall Ukrainian kid standing in front of her desk all of a sudden, it happens to spook her for she was focused on her paper, “Ahh! Uhh Oh, Mischa what are you doing, shouldn’t you be studying”
Mischa only stared down at her with an apologetic smile “Sorry Penny, I did not mean to scare your fragile heart, also school ended like 2 minutes ago, I was confused why you weren’t getting up so I decided to talk to you”
Oh, she was so focused on studying she didn’t even hear the bell ring and all the students leaving, good thing this was the last class of the day or things would have been awkward.
Penny then started putting things away in her backpack, once she was done she looked back up at Mischa, “So did you need to tell me anything?”
“I was just about to say that, ok so, I tried asking Poet this, but he said it wasn’t a good idea, he then said that I could try telling someone else to do it with me, I didn’t wanna ask Constance because she's too innocent, Ricky left early today so I couldn’t ask him, and Ocean, don’t even get me started, I already know what she's going to say, anyway what I am trying to say is would you…”
He paused for a moment and slowly continued, “Like to help me commit arson” he said this with such enthusiasm it instantly convinced Penny to do it but only with a pause
“I would love to help you, you came to the right girl but one thing though, why arson of all things, I hope nobody catches us because you know I already get bullied enough, I don’t want to be kicked out again like I did the other school's”
“I already had a plan written down, that’s basically what I have been doing the whole time in class, but this is more like going to be a surprise, i was planning on bringing the umm what was it called, uhh, you know the things that happen during the new year?”
Penny looked at him confused and tilted her head, “You mean fireworks?, you want to burn the school down with fireworks, I mean I guess that would work but where are you going to get—”
She was cut off by Mischa “Penny, Penny” he put his hand on her shoulder “We are not burning down the school, we will be lighting the fire in the choir room, also my new parents had some spare fireworks in the basement from last year.
“Oh… ok so- WAIT, YOU WANT TO SET FIREWORK’S OFF IN THE CHOIR ROOM-“ her eyes went wide at the realization, “Mischa, do you realize how angry Ocean is going to be, she’ll start yelling at us for even having a lit match in that room”
“Shh, keep your voice down Pen, don’t want anyone to hear and besides I don’t think Ocean will yell at you more than she will yell at me and besides, it’s not going to be as bad as I say, it will only just be two fireworks one for each of us, and then after tomorrow we can go into the choir and set them off when we have choir practice, it will be a big celebration for all we have done in the choir! and every choir member will be amazed at my idea!”
Mischa's eyes lit up in excitement, Penny's eyes were slightly full of fear but she shook it away quickly, as he said, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as he was saying, and besides it had been a while since she had caused some mischief of her own. if she’s going to be doing this with Mischa, might as well go out with a bang, and hopefully, that bang doesn’t end up killing them, because if that doesn’t end up killing them she has a sneaking suspicion that Ocean will.
“So, are we planning to get the fireworks tomorrow or-“
“Since there is no school tomorrow because of the snow, how about I pick you up in the morning at your house and we can go grab those fireworks, you could help me dig them out, there are a lot of boxes in the basement”
“Sure that sounds good” Then it dawned on her how long they had been talking and realized “OH! Shoot I missed the bus” Of course it didn’t matter if she rode the bus or not considering that it would only take her about 5 minutes to get home considering that she lived close by, and also it wouldn't take long to get anywhere in Uranium City Saskatchewan, Canada, considering how small the town was but the only reason why she wished she didn't miss the bus was because of the snow, it was early December after all, and she didn't want to walk for 5 minutes in the freezing temperature's if only she drove her car to school today.
Gladly mischa spoke up in time before the panic set in
“Don't worry Penny, I can just drive you back home, lucky enough I drove to school today”
“Oh thank you mischa, that's very kind of you,” Penny said with a genuine smile, she was surprised when she learned that Mischa got his own car, whenever Ocean learned this she thought he just stole one off the street but turned out his new parents got him one for his “3rd” birthday, ever since he turned 18 years old, he surprisingly has been a very good driver, he would often give rides to the other choir kids by taking them home or to other fun places, sometimes they would drive to Constance's family cafe and hang out their for a bit.
Once they were done talking they both went out to the parking lot and got into the car, Penny has been in his car a handful of times but it still surprises her at just how comforting and just how “Mischa” his car is, it has some mixtapes and stuff in the back and he has a small dice hanging on the front mirror, and it has a couple of air freshener's that smell like mint.
Once she got settled in she fastened her seat belt and they began to leave, Penny wasn't the talkative type so they sat in peaceful silence, she would sometimes talk about the upcoming test and how Mischa was doing and once they noticed they were at their destination, she got out of the car and waved bye to Mischa, “See you tomorrow Penny, I’ll pick you up around 10:00 am so try not to sleep all day, also tell Ezra I said hi”
“I will don't worry” he then began to drive off, she watched him drive down the street until he disappeared down a corner, she only then turned around after she took a glimpse of the house that was three houses down across from hers, that was where Ocean lived, she then started hoping that what they were going to do after tomorrow wasn't going to cause trouble, she didn't just care if she was going to get in trouble she also cared if this ended up getting Ocean in trouble aswell, she wouldn't want that to happen, as much as Ocean can sometimes be a little stuck up and sometimes rude she didn't want her getting in trouble with Father Marcus about a literal fire, and also the fact she kinda has a soft spot for Ocean, she knows Ocean can be mean but she also knows that deep down she doesn't mean it, I mean whenever she was together in a room with her, Ocean would start apologizing if she said something rude, and surprisingly only to her, she didn't know if she ever apologized to anyone else but it still made her happy inside.
After she noticed she had been staring at Ocean's house too long, she turned towards her house and unlocked the door with her home keys, ever since her parents got sent to jail for selling drugs and stuff she had the whole house to herself.
“Penny! Your home, can you help me make this sandwich it almost caught on fire”
At least that's what she wished, turns out Ezra, her younger 14-year-old brother, got home early and decided to nearly burn the house down by making a sandwich, there were bread and ham slices everywhere.
She just sighed and readied herself for this chaos, “Ezra how in the world does your sandwich almost catch on fire”
“I tried putting it in the toaster”
“Why would you do that—” she then gets hit in the face by a flying piece of burnt toast from the toaster.
After a couple of hours of chaos and cleaning up, Penny told Ezra that she was leaving early tomorrow for some undisclosed business and headed to her room, as curious as Ezra was he was getting tired and decided to head to bed early as well.
Once Penny got changed and laid down, she got her favorite blonde doll that sat by her bed and then tried to fall asleep, but once she started hugging up the doll she had the memory of when she first got it, it was a couple weeks ago, whenever her and the rest of the St. Cassian chamber choir kids went to the fall fair festival, after they were done with their competition they decided to go on a couple rides and when she went by a stand she saw this beautiful blonde doll with curly hair and these big black porcelain eyes with rosy cheeks and a wonderful little smile, it also had on a beautiful white dress, she just had to get it but turns out she didn't have enough tickets and just when she was about to be disheartened, Ocean out of all people came up to her and gave her the rest of all her tickets, Penny just paused at this she couldn't take her tickets, she could be using those for other more important things but Ocean insisted and said she doesn't want to use them, and that most of the games their are rigged, which is true, so she reluctantly took them. she was so happy that she got the doll she wanted that she hugged Ocean, she blushed a bit when she did, and when she looked down, “considering that she is 6.0 feet tall and Ocean is only 5.4”, she noticed Ocean almost turning as bright red as her own hair she quickly let go and apologized, but to her surprise, Ocean quickly comforted her by saying that's she is ok and that she actually enjoyed the hug, that ended up making Penny's whole day and then her and Ocean spent the rest of the day walking around the fair together.
After that memory she drifted off to sleep, she dreamed of Ocean standing on a dock overlooking a small pond, it was frozen and there was snow everywhere as she walked up to her, fireworks started shooting up in the background, and they lit up Ocean's face so nicely, she looked stunning, it was almost as if Penny was hypnotized by her beauty that she started to lean in closer and before she could make contact with her friend's lips, she awoke to the sound of a firework in her ears, but it turns out it was just her alarm going off, she quickly sat up and turned off the clock, the time read 9:00 am, she had to leave in 1 hour, as much as she had to get ready she was still stunned by the thoughts of her dream.
Was she really just about to kiss Ocean, of course, she had a feeling she had a crush on her but with all the bullies in school calling her a lesbian, she may have started to think they might be correct, but would Ocean even like her that way, I mean come on it's Ocean, she's too perfect, how can someone whose so perfect fall in love with someone who is invisible to the whole school other than being pushed down and upstairs all day, all she can do is just wish on a shooting star, more like a shooting firework.
“I need to get ready quickly, who knows what chaos is going to happen today” She then quickly got out of bed and got ready but before she left her room she went back to her bed tucked her doll into the blankets, and gave its forehead a small kiss. “goodnight Dolly, see you tonight”