Chapter Text
Perla sat outside the principal’s office with her legs crossed one over the other, picking at one of the many colorful bandages that decorated her perpetually bruised fingers. A small sucker dangled from her lips, tempting to slip out onto the tacky, outdated carpet beneath her feet.
Getting lectured was always a major drag, especially when that lecture came from Principal Diavolo. Unfortunately, neither Perla nor her best friend Trish could go a week without hearing him run his mouth. The fact that he was Trish’s father definitely played a major role in it.
The door to the principal’s office swung open once again, and out strolled Trish. Her lips were thinly drawn and her expression was blank, serving to not betray her true thoughts. Perla stood up to meet her, folding her arms.
“Guess who just got grounded.” Trish sneered once she was close, stiffly adjusting the golden chain of her crossbody bag. Perla groaned, throwing a nasty look at the office door.
“To no one’s surprise, Mr. Kira ruins something for us yet again,” She said, rolling her eyes, “Enrico’s probably going to do the same to me once we get home. So much for hanging out this weekend, huh?”
“It’s whatever. My dad doesn’t even like that pompous prick, so I’m not too worried about it. I'll be free in like two days, tops.”
“I wish my brother saw things the same way. I’m like, 99 percent sure Enrico and Mr. Kira are best friends on the downlow. It’d make a ton of sense considering they’re both lameasses!”
Perla raised her voice as they marched past the front desk together, not bothering to spare her brother even a passing glance. Perla could feel him burning daggers into the back of her head, but found herself relieved that he decided against making a scene for once. He always tried to come off as cool and collected around the other students and staff, after all. Her constant antics with Trish put a wrench in that, but both girls cared very little.
Stepping into the hallway, Perla immediately began to recount a bit of gossip she heard while waiting for Trish.
“Okay, okay. So you know Leaky-Eye Luca, right?”
“Who doesn’t? It’s a wonder why everyone else still tolerates him. He’s a complete menace.”
“Well, while you were getting chewed out, I overheard some of the ladies in the office talking about him! Someone put him in the infirmary earlier. No one knows who exactly.. but people are saying it’s that Giovanna kid.”
“I don’t buy it for one second. Why would they even be talking to each other? Giorno’s not the type to go out of his way to provoke people. He's always kept to himself.”
“True, but we all know how Luca is. If you look at him the wrong way, he’s already spitting in your face.” Perla rolled her eyes, “I really think he should find a hobby. Maybe it’ll help sort out those anger issues of his.”
“He already has one. It’s called picking on the underclassmen because it’s the one thing in life he’s actually good at.”
Perla successfully bit down the urge to laugh as they turned a corner, heading towards the quad.
“Isn’t that kinda harsh, Trish?”
“As if. I'm just saying what we’ve both been thinking.” Trish said as her eyes settled on a tall boy with a beanie approaching them, “Oh, it’s him.” She seemed annoyed at the sight of the boy, but both he and Perla knew better than to take her at face value.
“Mista, hey!” Perla said cheerfully, clapping his shoulder.
“Took you two long enough. Break’s almost over.” Mista squeezed in between the two girls, irritating Trish.
“Ugh. I thought something reeked.” Trish wrinkled her nose as she ducked away from Mista, who smirked.
“I think that’s just from all the shit you keep talking, actually.”
Perla, sensing an argument was brewing between her friends, quickly interrupted, “So, where’s Bruno? He was supposed to go over my study guide with me.”
“Oh, he said he had to talk to someone. I think it’s supposed to be the guy who beat the crap outta Luca, but don’t quote me on that.”
“I hope he wraps it up soon.” Trish said, “I saw Prosciutto and his little yesmen sneaking around earlier, and I bet they’re up to something nasty.”
~♡~
Lucy pressed her books against her chest firmly, keeping her head down whilst she tried to make her way to her math class in peace.
She hated school. Okay, maybe not school as a whole– she genuinely did enjoy learning, and all of her teachers were very kind too. Her actual problems lay solely within a few of the older students. Due to reasons that Lucy could only describe as painfully petty, she found herself the main target of an infamous group of popular kids.
Before this year, she hadn’t spoken a word to them. In fact, the only upperclassmen she really spoke to were her step sister and her small group of friends, but they’ve long since graduated. Thanks to that, she wasn’t very thrilled at the prospect of being a punching bag due to association.
After the third time of having her things stolen and scattered across the building, Lucy devised an almost foolproof strategy to avoid them; She’d always find some sort of excuse to leave her classes five minutes before the bell rang, and made an immediate beeline for some of the lesser used hallways. While it wasn’t an ideal situation, she figured it was better than the alternative.
The back halls were still quiet around this time, a fact Lucy was grateful for. She wasn’t one for interacting with her fellow classmates anyway, bullying aside. If she could have her way, she’d take all her classes at home. But of course, her parents didn’t agree. A growing girl like her needed to get out there and socialize, and no, her garden in the backyard wasn’t a suitable replacement. Lucy herself would beg to differ.
“And what are you doing out of class so early?” A mocking voice asked from somewhere behind her, “Maybe I ought to go straight down to the office and tell them there’s someone wandering around while her classes are still in session.”
Lucy tensed up immediately, face growing paler. No, no, no‐! This wasn’t right.. why was he here now of all times? The bell wouldn’t ring for another three minutes! Had she miscalculated? But she left at the same time she always did..
“I... I'm really not in the mood to talk today, Prosciutto.”
“Not in the mood to talk, eh?” The older boy sneered, taking a threatening step closer to her, “We haven’t seen each other in almost two weeks, and this is the greeting I get.” He said, now looming over Lucy, “I’ll admit you had the rest of us worried about your little disappearing act, but it was all a matter of asking one of your teachers where you were.”
“I don’t understand why you and your friends have to mess with me all the time… I haven’t done anything to any of you.” Lucy stuttered, hands trembling. Her eyes darted around, trying to figure out which way to run before he finally closed in on her.
“It's because you don’t even bother standing up for yourself; it’s pathetic to watch.” Prosciutto spat out venomously with narrowed eyes, “But don’t worry. I fully intend on breaking you out of that mindset, even if it takes the entire school year.”
“Something the matter here?”
Lucy looked up in surprise to see another student standing behind Prosciutto, digging his fingers into Prosciutto’s shoulder in a way that made him tense up. Either this mystery person was extremely brave.. or extremely stupid.
“Mind your own business, Bucciarati. this doesn’t concern you or your little gang of misfits.” He scowled, grabbing the person’s wrist.
“It does concern me when you decide to pick on people who don’t fight back. Now, why don't you go ahead and run along before this gets ugly? We all know you can’t fight without needing your friends to bail you out.”
“You think you’re so much better than me just because you’re not a sniveling little fool anymore? Consider yourself lucky that I'm not in the mood to put you back in your place.” Prosciutto shrugged the other boy’s hand off, face growing hot, “But fine. It’s not like I give a damn about her anyway.” Before he marched off, he fixed Lucy with an icy glare– a look she was intimately familiar with by now. It meant that she needed to figure out a different way home today, lest she get chased down for half a block.
The boy, now known to her as Bucciarati, turned to Lucy, his demeanor noticeably more gentle, “Are you alright? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She shook her head slowly, staring down at their feet shyly, “Um.. no, he didn’t. Thank you for getting him to go away.” Lucy said gratefully.
“Just out of curiousity, does he pick on you often?”
That was something Lucy didn’t want to answer. Even if Bucciarati and Prosciutto had their own shared history with each other, she saw no reason to get him involved with her problems. They barely knew each other, and a part of her wondered if Prosciutto had a point; She was halfway through high school and still cried like a baby when people raised their voice at her. That was something even her younger step brother didn’t do anymore. And considering who their sister was, Lucy figured some of her toughness should’ve rubbed off on her too.
“He doesn’t,” Lucy lied, nervously twisting her hair around her finger, “He’s just trying to look out for me in his own way, that’s all. You don't need to worry.”
“Is that so?”
From the skeptical tone of Bucciarati’s voice, Lucy didn’t need to see his face to know he didn’t believe her. She could feel a bead of sweat begin to roll down the side of her face too, which didn’t exactly help her story. Thankfully, before she could come up with another impromptu lie, the bell rang.
“Thank you again, Bucciarati.. but I should really get going now. I don’t want to be late for math.” She smiled apologetically as she turned to head down the halls that were beginning to flood with more students. She could sense that he had more to say to her, but she wasn’t really interested in hearing any of it. She didn’t need a misguided attempt to help her making things worse in the long run.