Chapter Text
Stephanie Lauter found herself, at the popular kids’ bench, watching the nerdy prudes from afar at lunch.
She fidgeted with her green, flannel overshirt as her eyes continued to analyse the nerds, watching their every move.
She had admired them ever since the incident at the old Waylon place.
Herself, Richie Lipschitz, Ruth Fleming, Grace Chasity and Peter Spankoffski, all nearly murdering the top of the school’s food chain, the biggest bully in Hatchetfield High.
Max Jägerman.
Luckily, Peter had caught him before the rotting wood gave way, otherwise he would have fallen three storeys. That would have been nasty.
Regardless, that day she bonded with nerds.
The Stephanie Lauter, bonding with nerds?
If anyone found out about that, it would ruin her reputation immediately.
Sure, Max didn’t bully them quite as much anymore because they saved his life and were nice to him, but still.
They were the weirdos. The Unpopular kids.
And Stephanie Lauter - the mayor’s daughter - had standards.
But at the end of the day, she cared about them all.
Even with Peter’s horrendous bowtie and incredibly nerdy grades.
Or Ruth’s lack of filter and lust that makes everyone increasingly uncomfortable within a mile radius.
Or Richie’s obsession with anime and his horrific sense of fashion.
Or Grace’s…
Grace Chasity.
There was something different about her.
She was most definitely not the most normal of the nerdy prudes, not by a long shot, and yet, Stephanie didn’t have the same feelings about her that she did for the other nerds.
The bell rung out, signifying the end of lunch, quickly followed by a cacophony of groans and the table of nerds all covering their ears momentarily.
“Ugh, Music…” Stephanie murmured, to nobody in particular.
“Mhm! Now hurry up-” An upsettingly familiar voice rung out from behind the now startled Stephanie.
“-Or I have a detention slip with your name on!” Grace Chasity threatened, earning a sigh from the popular girl.
Against her better judgement, Stephanie stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder.
“I’m going, I’m going, relax. You coming with?” she asked, instantly regretting her decision.
She had just risked having to deal with Grace’s non-stop talking for a whole five minutes.
Grace stopped in her tracks for a second, in thought and surprise, but quickly sped up to walk alongside her.
“Well, I must make sure you get to lesson without being tardy, I suppose.” Grace mumbled, pretending to be aloof yet unable to make any form of eye contact to the now annoyed eighteen-year-old, and stumbling through her words.
The walk to Music was disturbingly quiet, which concerned the usually uncaring girl.
Usually, when she had the displeasure of walking with Chasity, for whatever reason, or just being around her in general, it was a constant waterfall of random nonsense.
About cancelling Homecoming, about abstinence camp, about nerdy nonsense.
But this time, she was silent.
Not a word.
Not even any looks in her direction.
Stephanie swallowed, then sheepishly asked a question.
“Hey, Grace? Are you, like, okay?” She asked quietly. Grace didn’t respond.
Instead, she just walked faster and turned into class, finding her seat and sitting down, shaking slightly with a red face.
Stephanie walked into class a few seconds later, perplexed by her reaction.
Yet, despite her concerns, she went and sat in her seat, surrounded by all the popular kids.
A few tables over, she heard the nerds discussing something.
She swore she overheard her name a few times and caught a few confused and surprised glances from them all.
All except Grace Chasity.