Chapter Text
Westeros High School was always booming with life, more so when the football season started. Given it was the first day, the halls were packed with people talking loudly to each other, they were awaiting the ceremony they hold every year the first game day of the season. The football players and cheerleaders would walk down the hall together, hyping everyone and themselves up for the game.
Alicent Hightower stood off to the side with her best friend, Helaena Targaryen, they were waiting patiently for it to start, but they made sure to stay out of the way of anyone else. They were loners, but Helaena’s older siblings, Aegon and Rhaenyra, were star athletes at Westeros so not much happened to them. Their other brother, Aemond, got the worst of it because even Aegon and Rhaenyra gave him hell.
Both of the kids loved sweet Helaena too much to let anything happen to her. They didn’t stand up the same for Aemond. They’d never let anybody truly harm any of them, but they unleashed some horrible words. Alicent was sure Aegon and Rhaenyra had learned their harsh ways from their uncle, Daemon.
Alicent had been friends with Helaena for years after they’d met on account of their fathers being business partners. None of the other kids spoke to her much, but Helaena got on along with her just fine and she was the only one she cared to speak to now days.
Looking in to the family, Viserys and Aemma were sweet and caring parents, but they couldn’t handle the eldest two once Daemon had gotten a hold of them. Rhaenyra was the oldest and she was almost just the female version of Daemon. Everything about them was similar, if not the same.
Daemon wasn’t part of the rest of their upbringings much, but Rhaenyra shaped Aegon into a mini version of herself. They were both holy terrors that nobody could get under wraps, except their uncle because of how he matched their chaos with more chaos.
Helaena was the calmest of all her siblings, but she was a little stranger than them too. She took up hobbies the rest of them felt were odd. She was all in all a nerd and a geek, but it didn’t bother them much, they loved Helaena all the same.
Aemond wasn’t as lucky as Helaena on that count. Rhaenyra and Aegon constantly bothered him because of his nerdy and geekish habits. Aemma tries to stop them when she can, but Alicent notices Viserys usually turns a blind eye to the behavior. Rhaenyra can hardly do any bad in Viserys’ eyes and Aegon can hardly do bad in Rhaenyra’s, so he’s protected by association.
Alicent was pulled out of her thoughts as the speaker came on with a loud screech and static as the principal began to speak, “Please give our fantastic football and cheer team some good luck for tonight!”
With that statement, the doors were pulled open by two students and the football players ran in, they were in regular clothes with their jerseys over top of their shirts. There were cheerleaders wrapped up in the mix of people, they were dressed in their actual cheer uniforms. They wore them to school every game day.
To nobody’s surprise, the group was led by the team captains, Aegon and Rhaenyra. They walked through and greeted people, laughing and talking as they made their way through. Helaena was smiling brightly as she waited for her siblings.
Alicent was pulled away from watching the scenes as somebody walked up to them, it was their other friend, Criston Cole, he was dressed in his football jersey, but didn’t walk in with the rest of the team. He wasn’t very popular on the team as he was a younger player who happened to have performance anxiety more times than he didn’t.
The coach kept him on the team so he’d have the right number of players, but Criston did not perform to his best ability at all times. He claimed he couldn’t help it, but Alicent didn’t really understand it. He was good when he could actually perform for the team.
“Hey, why aren’t you walking in with them?” Alicent questioned the boy and watched as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
“Aegon didn’t want me to,” Criston said and Helaena put a hand on his arm, “I’ll say something to him tonight,” She replied and Criston shook his head in disapproval.
“That’s alright, I don’t want to cause any issues and I didn’t want to walk anyways,” The boy explained and Helaena just nodded as if that was enough for her, she was back to smiling towards her siblings and clapping in no time.
Alicent gave Criston a weak smile and patted his arm. She truly felt bad for the boy. The girl missed how he blushed hard at the contact and fidgeted beside her.
They were both caught up in their conversation they didn’t realize the line had reached them or that Criston was in the middle of the walkway. They were soon enlightened about the fact.
“Move it one kick wonder.” Aegon spat out, shoving him out of the way. The nickname had been a running thing since Criston’s last season when he only kicked one of his field goals right. Rhaenyra snickered from beside him, smiling once she saw her sister.
“Aegon!” Helaena cried out, grabbing on to his arm, “That was not nice, you need to apologize to him,”
Rhaenyra grabbed Helaena’s hand and pulled it into her own and off their brother’s arm, “Laena, get excited! It’s our game night, don’t be a buzzkill.”
With that, Helaena moved past the issue and jumped on her siblings, hugging them both. She began to jump up and down while squealing and they jumped with her. It was a pure sight to see when they interacted with Helaena so differently then they did with others.
They pulled away from her and Rhaenyra kissed her on the cheek, “We’ll see you at the game, we won’t be coming home tonight.” Aegon nodded in agreement and gave her another hug. Before their sister had time to argue or question anything, they started to walk off.
Rhaenyra stopped to look Alicent up and down one time and offered up a small, “Hey Alicent.” with a warm smile before she continued on. Rhaenyra had gotten the nickname ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ from some of the less popular kids at school, but she’d only ever been nice to her. Alicent thought she was a very sweet girl, she just had some cruel tendencies and wild habits, but never towards her or Helaena.
Their eyes followed the siblings as they traveled further down the hallway. They ended up bumping into Aemond a bit further down the hall and they watched as Aegon put a whole palm on his face and shoved him backwards into the lockers behind him while Rhaenyra laughed loudly.
Helaena let out a sigh as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. She excused herself from them and made her way towards Aemond after they’d walk off from him.
“So, are you coming to the game with Helaena tonight?” Criston asked, pulling her attention back to him. Alicent smiled and nodded, “Yeah, we’ll probably ride together.”
“Great,” Criston exclaimed before continuing, “You two should come to the party out in the old field after, I heard Rhaenyra and Aegon are throwing it. Helaena should know all about it though...” He trailed off with a bitter tone to the end of the sentence, which Alicent assumed was because he obviously had not been actually invited to this party.
“You know they don’t involve her in any of that.” Alicent protested, “She is not like them,” She said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Criston sighed and deflated at that, “You’re right, I’m sorry.” His apology fell on deaf ears as it seemed insincere. Alicent hated that Criston had such a grudge against the entire family because he sucked at football and Aegon gave him shit for it.
She sighed too before picking up the conversation again, “I’m not sure if we’ll go, I’ll ask Helaena when I pick her up.”
Criston nodded, “Alright, cool. I’ll see you later than. Bye, Ali.” With that he made his leave. Alicent cringed at that because she hated that nickname, but it made him happy so she just left him alone about it.
Now the only issue with that would be convincing Helaena to go to the party and convincing her siblings to let her.