Chapter Text
Hazel was not mentally prepared for school today. Yesterday’s events had been absolute havoc on her mind and now nothing felt the same anymore. Sure, a good thing did happen- Dev had apologized for being a huge jerk as of late, even cried in front of her and made promises that he’d do better and wouldn’t push her away anymore. Great, great stuff… but the path to get there, oh boy, what a mess she’d put herself in.
It started out as a completely different problem, tiny and stupid in retrospect. She’d said another student’s name wrong and gotten so embarrassed that she wished for a do-over, ultimately resulting in her getting through 13 attempts before blurting out Dev’s name as a fake crush in a bid to dissuade the other student’s crush on her. Which sent her down yet another path of problem-solving that, at least for the moment, had ended in her current predicament.
How had this even happened? They’d gone from a bully-and-target dynamic to friends to enemies back to friends. Or they were supposed to just be friends. Dev had made the strange offer for Hazel to keep pretending to have a crush on him so she could have an excuse to turn down any unwanted suitors, since he felt responsible for getting her into the awkward situation with Jenkins. It was only partially his fault- Dev hadn’t actually known that Jenkins had a real crush on her and Hazel never bothered to tell Dev that she had been using Time Loops cereal and making the situation increasingly chaotic.
Hazel had accepted that offer due to having no other ideas, making it very clear to Dev that he wasn’t to imply that he might reciprocate her false crush. He had agreed that doing so would make the story too complicated and they left it there.
But then Hazel had gone home and mulled over the day’s events. With a disconcerting flutter in her stomach, she came to the startling conclusion that, at some point, whether it solidified just today or if it went further back, she had developed a real crush on the wealthy boy. She didn’t just like him as a friend, she like-liked him. And it was terrifying.
She couldn’t pinpoint when those feelings started. All she knew was that they were here now and it didn’t seem like they’d be going away any time soon. Small moments from their conversation yesterday played unbidden in Hazel’s mind. The heart-shattering tone in Dev’s voice when he said he didn’t deserve her- the way he held onto her and softly begged for Hazel not to cry- the hesitant sparkle hidden deep in those blue eyes as he declared he wanted to do better, to be a good friend for her.
“Yeah, a friend. We just reconciled our platonic relationship, I can’t just- it’s not supposed to be- this can’t be happening…” Hazel muttered frantically to herself as she paced the bedroom floor, dragging her hands down her face. She wasn’t sure she could handle having a crush on anyone, let alone Dev. Was it normal to feel all warm and jittery and dazed- it felt almost like being ill. How could she ever face him again if she felt this anxious when he wasn’t even in front of her?
Anxiety. That was the other thing lodged in her brain from yesterday. Dev had casually referred to Hazel as having social anxiety, a conclusion he’d apparently arrived at by simply observing her and noticing familiar behaviours. Which was interesting on account of a) Hazel not being diagnosed with any anxiety disorders, and b) his use of the word ‘familiar’ making Hazel suspect that maybe Dev was?
If that was true, Hazel really wanted to talk to him. Well, now she seemed to want any excuse to talk to Dev, but this was actually a good reason. Maybe he could help her understand, so that she could feel certain that he’d been correct in his assessment. Then she should probably talk to her mom about it- of course she could talk to her first but… Hazel didn’t want to do that. Her parents always said she was so mature for her age, they’d never given any indication that they believed their daughter to have an anxiety issue. It’d be easier if Dev could… reassure her first, yeah, that’s why she needed to ask him about it instead.
She came back to reality as her parents called through the apartment. They were going to drive her to school in a few minutes. Hazel tapped the side of her head. Focus, focus. You absolutely cannot act suspicious.
What painful irony- practically everybody in the school knew about her crush except for Dev himself, because she’d convinced him yesterday that it was a silly mistake, just an excuse she stumbled into. If her parents found out though, Hazel might have to just die of embarrassment. The idea of them talking to her about her first-ever crush was the most mortifying scenario her 10-year-old brain could conjure.
Antony was out of the question too- he might’ve shared his own crush with her when he last visited but it felt like a bad idea to tell him about Dev. He knew that the Dimmadome heir wasn’t exactly… the best-behaved kid around and that he and Hazel clashed more than they’d gotten along recently. She worried that her big brother might discourage her from exploring such a crush.
GAH! Not that I’m going to pursue it, right?! It’s ridiculous, it’s totally insane! I can’t do that, Dev doesn’t feel the same anyway… technically I don’t know that for sure but…
Hazel sighed. Enough stalling- it was too late to pretend to be ill, she was going to school whether she wanted to or not. She quietly called Cosmo and Wanda, who promptly appeared in their fidget toy disguises, and she hurried out of her bedroom. Following her parents downstairs to the car, she miraculously gave away nothing in spite of the swirling pit of emotions in her heart. They dropped her off at school none the wiser to her internal distress.
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She ducked inside through the swinging doors as another student exited, trying to act as normal as possible. If she went around being all meek and nervous, she’d be more likely to draw attention to herself. Once she made it to her locker, Hazel took a moment to actually scan the area. Not seeing Dev in the hallway, she grimaced at the bizarre sensation of her brain feeling relief while her heart struck her with a pang of disappointment.
Why, why… what would you even do if he was out here? Are you going to run over and confess, how stupid would that be? Get a hold of yourself, Wells.
After nobody had come up to question her about the rumours of her crushing on Dev, she was feeling a tad calmer. Perhaps word hadn’t spread as fast as he’d predicted, after all there were plenty of students around but nobody was paying attention to Hazel. Or… oh, maybe this was Dev’s ‘status’ at work, keeping everybody at bay for the time being while they assessed how Dev himself was reacting to that information.
He had warned her that the protection provided by his status would be temporary. Eventually, people would get too curious and start pestering Hazel about it and she needed to be prepared when that happened. Hazel hoped that wouldn’t happen for a while- she’d been too preoccupied with constant thoughts of Dev yesterday to even begin thinking about how she was going to respond to any questions.
She felt too exposed here in the hallway and she hadn’t noticed where Winn or Jasmine were located, otherwise she might’ve joined them. Instead, Hazel decided it was best to hide away in their homeroom until class began. Weaving through the crowd and deliberately avoiding eye contact, she successfully darted into the room without anyone stopping her. It looked to be empty in here- Hazel’s heart slammed violently against her ribcage in protest.
Shoot shoot shoot-
Dev was at his desk, of course he was already here. Hazel froze up, certain he would notice her entrance. His sunglasses hid any evidence of him looking in her direction but… hold on, he was wearing his headphones (which were actually Peri in disguise) and leaning back against the Au-Pairs, feet kicking rhythmically without any faltering. He was listening to music- he hadn’t spotted her!
Hazel forced herself to move, walking swiftly to her own desk and sliding into the seat, irritated at the amount of willpower it had taken just to walk here instead of towards Dev. Her fairies immediately shifted to their pencil and eraser disguises and she could see in their faces that her twitchy behaviour had not gone unnoticed.
Wanda risked speaking first. “Heeey kiddo… are you doing okay? You don’t really seem like yourself.” Cosmo only made an affirming sound of agreement to his wife’s point. Hazel could feel her eye twitching from the stress, definitely not helping to convince anybody that she was perfectly alright. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine, just didn’t sleep great, yesterday was, ha-ha, a lot.” Her reply came through gritted teeth and she was staring intensely towards the floor, part of her focus unwillingly searching for any sign that Dev had moved from his position.
“You did have a rather… emotional day. Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Hazel winced- Wanda was only trying to look out for her, that was part of the duties the fairies were meant to fulfill as godparents. Cosmo softly chimed in, “We’re here to help, whenever you’re ready.”
Wanda side-eyed her husband, confirming to Hazel that she was thinking the same thing as herself. Which was that Cosmo was still holding the opinion that Hazel was actually crushing on Dev and that he was reminding her that she could ask the married fairy couple for romance advice.
Hazel slowly lowered her head to the desk. Unfortunately he’s right- I wonder if Cosmo realized even before I did or it’s still a misunderstanding on his part. I guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m not actually going to tell them the truth anyway, I think.
Dev was listening to music- that seemed like a good idea to Hazel, maybe she could drown out her thoughts that way. “I wish I had a pair of comfy earbuds,” she mumbled, half-watching the door for any entering students. Wanda looked like she wanted to try to keep talking, but Cosmo poofed the objects up right away. The girl grabbed them, quickly syncing the devices to her phone and finding something to listen to.
Good god, was the universe taunting her? Clicking absentmindedly through her DimmVid recommended videos, the algorithm was persistent in suggesting songs with romantic themes. Hazel even found herself listening to some of them! When she started getting a powerful desire to stare at Dev during one of the songs, she realized her mistake and frantically selected an anime OST video, something strictly instrumental so no sappy lyrics would start digging into her brain again.
Hazel sighed deeply, ignoring the concerned faces of her fairies and closing her eyes. How did this happen so fast, it doesn’t seem possible, it doesn’t even feel real. Have I liked him for a while and it only just hit me yesterday? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I had noticed earlier.
After a few more songs, she felt somebody very gently tap her arm. For a split second, Hazel was terrified to open her eyes, certain she’d see herself reflected by dark sunglasses or even worse, those pretty blue eyes piercing into her soul. When she did look though, she found only Jasmine and Winn staring curiously at her. She removed the earbuds, desperately hoping that she looked calmer than she felt.
“Hey Hazel, everything okay?” Winn asked. The girl shrugged, careful to stay focused on her friends and to not glance behind herself. “Sure, why?” Jasmine shifted back and forth on her feet. “Well… you kinda disappeared yesterday? You weren’t in the last class of the day and neither of us saw you leaving school. So are you okay?”
Hazel coughed awkwardly. “Oh, um… yeah I’m fine. I wasn’t in class because…” Make something up, quickly! Ugh, no, making things up has not gone well for you recently. “It’s kind of a long story. But it’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
Winn and Jas exchanged a look, then suddenly moved to stand very close to Hazel on either side of her seat, leaning in conspiratorially. Jasmine spoke in a nervous whisper, “Haaazel, there’s a rumour going around that, well… you have a crush on Dev. Jenkins has been saying that you told him that as you turned him down and that Dev overheard you AND Dev even came over to you- is that all true?!”
Winn nodded sagely, looking just a bit too smug for Hazel’s liking. “And if it is- well, it was kind of hard to miss that both you and Dev were absent from that class. So what’s really going on, Hazel? We’d rather hear from you than the rumour mill, ya know?”
Anxiously tapping her fingers on the desk, Hazel had to take a few moments to consider her response. She had warned Dev that she would probably tell Jasmine and Winn the truth about the plan- the whole faking her crush on him as a buffer, that it was Dev’s idea, and that he’d apologized and they were on better terms now. All of which were still the truth. Except for the part about her crush being fake. Dev hadn’t been against her doing so, only saying to really think about it before going ahead. If either one of her friends spilled the beans on the plan, the whole protection from his status concept would be out the window, so Hazel had better really trust that they’ll keep quiet.
Hazel did trust them and honestly, if she didn’t have somebody else aside from the fairies to somewhat discuss this situation with, she might go crazy. She took a deep breath and motioned her friends to get even closer.
“Okay- so yes and no. Yes, I did say that to Jenkins and Dev did hear it- no, I don’t actually have a crush on him. I was trying to turn down Jenkins and sort of fumbled it bad by saying ‘Dev.’ Also yes, we skipped class, only because Dev was pretty insistent on getting an explanation like, that second, especially since we’d been fighting a bit-”
“Understatement.” Winn muttered, getting a sharp nod from Jas, but Hazel had to keep plowing through her explanation so she wouldn’t lose her nerve. “It caught him off-guard or whatever. Anyway, I clarified it and we sort of got talking about the fighting and stuff and basically cleared the air and we’re friends again? Oh, and came up with the idea for me to keep faking the crush to deter anyone else asking me out- because Dev thinks his status will give me a kind of buffer against that. But that’s a secret, so keep quiet about all that! It’s a bit silly, maybe, but I really didn’t like confronting Jenkins about that and Dev figured this was a way he could help me avoid that again…”
“That seems kind of complicated… but then again, he is a Dimmadome, that does give him a lot of influence…” Jasmine pondered the idea silently, allowing Winn a moment to scare the bejeezus out of Hazel by looking her dead in the eyes and asking: “So, you’re going to let the whole school think that you do, but you really don’t have a crush on Dev?”
The girl avoided their gaze, feeling an uncomfortable warmth blooming across her face again, responding in a whispered hiss, “No, I don’t.” She didn’t like how skeptical Winn’s expression was, but they didn’t press the issue so she tried to let it go. Jasmine came back into the conversation, patting Hazel’s hand and shooting a suspicious look at Winn. “Anyway, have people bugged you about it yet?”
Hazel meekly shook her head in the negative. She had genuinely thought this whole plan, while a bit convoluted, was a decent idea. Dev had been very convincing. Oddly enough, realizing that her crush was real meant that she technically wouldn’t be lying whenever anybody questioned her about it. Not being great at fibbing, that kind of worked in her favour, otherwise she risked getting caught in the lie. But now that she had gone ahead with letting Winn and Jas in on the plan, Hazel also now had anxiety that they would figure out the truth of her feelings about Dev.
There were more students filing into the room and Mr. Guzman had returned, so her friends went off to their own desks. Hazel was too scared to look behind her. Had Dev spotted them speaking all-sneaky-like with her? Would he ask her about it later- no, he’d probably try to keep his distance for a bit, at least while the gossip was so fresh.
The thought made her sad. They were supposed to be friends again but this absurd situation now meant they might be spending minimal time together at school. That wasn’t fair, Hazel wanted to be around Dev, how else were they meant to uphold their friendship if they couldn’t hang out?
Do I want to spend time with him because of our friendship or because I’m crushing on him? Is both an option? I definitely do want us to be able to do all the regular stuff we did when we were friends- or I guess, ‘regular-magic-stuff’ if I’m being honest. What’s so different, really? I want to, what, hold his hand? It’s not that crazy, no need to get so flustered about it. I guess it’d be nice if maybe… Dev would give me a hug, just on his own. That’d be different, he’s never done something like that. I’d also like to be able to just tell him that he’s really cute, or how pretty his eyes are…
The starting bell jolted Hazel from her thoughts and she scarcely held back from yelping. As if she wasn’t feeling embarrassed enough. Class was beginning properly now and truly not a moment too soon, she couldn’t believe how quickly her brain descended into pathetically fantasizing about interactions with Dev. Hazel willed herself to focus on the lesson, trying to forget about the red-haired boy sitting at the back of the class and how easily he could be watching her right now.