Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Watch it, gothy, and take your nerdy little boyfriend elsewhere.” Heather snapped, shoving Gwen into the row of blue lockers.
“What?” Gwen rubbed her arm, frowning at Heather. She had her hands on her hips, her silky black hair falling over her shoulders.
“You’re standing in front of my locker.”

With a roll of her eyes, Gwen sighed with exasperation as Heather’s friends caught up to her. Lindsay Sylvester, the stereotypical ditzy blonde; Katie Roy and Sadie Yun, best friends who had unintentionally become Heather’s dogsbodies in exchange for status; and Beth Brown, a short girl who followed Heather around like a lost puppy so she could avoid all the teasing that would’ve been thrown at her instead. Heather Kasuga was the self-proclaimed queen bee, and no one dared argue that.

Gwen grit her teeth. The last thing she wanted was to be hounded by five girls who wanted her gutted and chopped up into little cubes.
“I wouldn’t have been standing in front of your locker by now if you didn’t bump into me in the first place.”
“Sorry?” Heather's mouth twisted into a sickening grin.
“Nothing.” Gwen murmured.

“No, no.” Heather placed a firm hand on Gwen's shoulder, “Double down, Gwen.”
“Guys?” A new voice entered. The person stepped forwards, revealing Courtney Satella, a confident, competitive A-Type pupil who had a personal vendetta against Gwen, making it all the more easy for Heather to fall back on her.
“Heather, let's not waste our time on skanks like her.” Courtney smiled sweetly, her eyes filled with malice. “Let's go to lunch, so Gwendolyn here has more time to make out with her boyfriend.”

With that, Heather flipped Gwen the finger before sashaying away, minions in tow.

Gwen frowned, Boyfriend?
That was the second time in five minutes someone had said that, who were they talking abou–
“Tough crowd.”
A small, scrawny, brown-haired boy looked up at her. He grinned, showing the gap between his two front teeth.

Cody Anderson. The only person who actively sought her out in this hellhole, and that was only to hit on her.
He seemed to think if he kept asking her she'd finally relent and go out with him. She wouldn't, and she'd told him so many times, but he just never seemed to get the hint.
“Y’know, after all that commotion, you're probably a bit shaken up. How about I take you out for a drink after school?”
Gwen only responded by shooting him death glares.
“Y’know, new school year, new us… I think we could have it a go.”
“Get lost, man.” She sighed in exasperation. “I'm not gonna go out with you.”

Cody shrugged, “Fine, last year of school, though...”
“But could you tell me why Courtney hates you so much?”
Gwen didn't answer, beginning to walk away, just for Cody to follow after her like a lost puppy.
“Do you know why?”
Gwen's eye twitched. He needed to leave her the fuck alone or she was seriously going to blow a fuse.
“Or do you just not want to tell me?”
“She doesn't like me because she thinks I have a thing for her boyfriend.” Gwen spat to get him to shut up.

“Who's she dating?” Cody asked, before answering his own question. “Ohhh, Duncan, right?”
Gwen nodded.
“Didn't you two used to date?”
“Yeah, but we broke up, like, over a year ago.”
“Do you still like him?” Cody pressed, “Oh wait, you dumped him, right?”
Gwen balled her hands up into fists, “Shut up and piss off.”
“Touchy subject?”
“No!” Gwen snapped, spinning around to face him, “You are just seriously creasing me right now and we are going to have a serious problem if you don't leave. Me. Alone.”

“So is that a no to the drink?”
Gwen didn't even respond, marching off to the cafeteria.

After retrieving her lunch from her locker, Gwen mentally prepared herself for the chaos that was the cafeteria, hoping to avoid any edible projectiles or legs intending to trip her up.
Unfortunately for her, the only half-empty table was across the other side of the room.
She took a deep breath before making her way over to the other side of the room, speeding up as she passed the “popular” and “jock” table, consisting of Heather and her cronies along with various other people she had only seen before. Surprisingly enough, Cody sat with the rest of his band The Drama Brothers just a table over!

“Hey Gwen, come sit with us!”
Gwen hunched her shoulders and sped up, ignoring Heather's shrill laughter after her teasing comment.
She dumped her lunch down on the table sitting down in a spare seat.

This was the table where only the quote-on-quote “weirdos” and “loners” sat. A group that Gwen happily slid into. She had no qualms about where she fit into the societal stucture of her highschool. Where some people would do anything to change where they stand, Gwen was comfortable at the bottom of the hierarchy.

After finishing the first half of her sandwich, she picked up the second triangle, about to take a bite until she felt a knock against her chair.
“OHMYGOSH! Guys I found the spider!” A loud, energetic voice rang out, “C’mon Mr McLeggy…”
Gwen looked towards the sound of the voice to see a girl crawling under her chair. Gwen yelped, jumping out of her seat.
The girl popped up, red curls bouncing and a massive spider in hand.
“Oh hey, Gwenny!” She smiled. It was Isabella O’Connor - Wawanakwa Highschool’s resident 'crazy girl.'

Gwen gave her a tight smile, “Izzy… What’ve you got there?”
Izzy grinned, “This is Mr McLeggy. He's my new pet. Wanna stroke him?”
Gwen tentatively stroked the spider’s hairy body with her middle finger. It was surprisingly soft,
“Cool, right? I found him in the trash.”
Gwen retracted her hand instantly, eyeing the spider in Izzy’s hands. She was trying to suppress her look of disgust so as to not offend Izzy, but the redhead was more focused on the piece of ham she’d found in her hair. Off the cafeteria floor no doubt. Izzy sniffed it before popping it in her mouth with a grin.
“I thought you weren’t coming back to school this year?” Gwen frowned.

Izzy shrugged, “Nah, I escaped to Michigan across Lake Huron because of a felony charge, but then I had to come back because I nearly got arrested for entering the US illegally.”
Izzy stroked her spider, “So I’m lying low for the minute.”
Gwen pursed her lips, nodding slowly.
“ANYway!” Izzy sniffed loudly, letting her spider crawl over her lower face, “Bye Gwenny!”

Gwen watched Izzy turn round and begin to leave, shouting across the room, “NOAH! NOAH! NOAH!! I FOUND MR MCLEGGY! NOAH LOOK!! NOAHHHHH!!”
The boy in question, Noah Jai, looked like he wanted to die, burying his nose deeper into his book. He was a tall but scrawny boy, often referred to as a 'know-it-all' due to his sarcastic nature.
Another boy appeared behind Noah, carrying a full lunch tray. “OWENNNN!!” Izzy yelled, “LOOK I FOUND HIM!! WE DON’T HAVE TO HOLD ANOTHER FUNERAL!!”
She was causing quite a commotion, but it was nothing short of normal lunchtime shenanigans. Owen Hastings, however, clearly loved her chaos. Noah, on the other hand, didn’t. All she knew about Owen was that he liked to eat and he was loud. She tried her best not to associate herself with anyone that would draw attention to her, but sometimes Izzy people just sniffed her out anyway.

Gwen rolled her eyes, sitting back down and turning her attention back to her lunch until she got tackled from behind, almost sending her face-first into her lunch.
“Hi Gwenny, we’re actually gonna sit with you because everywhere else is full!”
Gwen slumped, “Wonder why that is,” she muttered.
“Exactly.” Noah replied, sitting in the seat across from Gwen. Owen sat down next to him and Izzy situated herself across from him and next to Gwen.
Gwen could feel peoples eyes on her, Izzy hadn’t been particularly discreet about coming back over to her.

“Gwenny, this big guy here is Owen, and this little twink here is Noah.”
“Izzy. Fucking. Shut. Up.” Noah snapped.
Gwen smiled awkwardly.

“Guys, this is Gwenny Gwen Gwen-Gwen Gwen.” Izzy harshly threw her arm around Gwen, trapping her in a tight headlock.
Noah narrowed his eyes, “Are you Gwen Ingrid-Baughan?”
She nodded, “Yeah. I think I’m the only Gwen in the school.”
The goth girl raised an eyebrow, “Why?”
Noah shrugged, “No reason.”
“Fine,” he relented. “I’ve just heard your name… through the grapevine.”
“Right.”

Gwen sat and ate her lunch quietly, just a tad awkward about the fact that Izzy and these two practical strangers were suddenly sitting by her for the first time in… ever.
She’d known Izzy for years, since before elementary school, she’d hardly changed, still as unhinged as ever. But before that moment at the lunch table, she’d spoken about ten words max to Owen, and even less to Noah.
She did, however, take note of the missing person who usually hung out with Izzy.
“Uh, where’s your other friend?” Gwen asked. When she was met with confused expressions, she elaborated, “The tough girl.”
“OHHHHH!” Izzy exclaimed, making someone a few tables over to spill their pepsi all over themselves and the person beside them.
“That’s Eva Kováč,” Izzy polished off her plate of food, licking it clean. She burped loudly, “She goes to the gym every Thursday lunchtime. Know her?”

“Well, obviously she doesn’t!” Noah rolled his eyes, “Come on. Do you really think she’d be asking who Eva was if she did?”
Izzy shrugged, coaxing her spider into making a home out of her mouth, it crawled onto the ginger girl’s wiggling tongue. Noah looked disgusted, Owen wasn’t paying attention, instead swiping various items off Noah’s lunch tray and Gwen suppressed a gag, looking away.
“I’ve heard of her, ‘Kováč’ isn’t a name you hear around here everyday.”
“She’s also really scary,” chimed Owen.
“That’s ‘cause she doesn’t like ya, Big-O!” Izzy grinned cheerily.
“She doesn’t?!”
Izzy laughed for a few seconds before abruptly stating: “I need to take a shit,” hopping off her seat and heading for the bathroom.
“Oh, me too!” Owen squirmed off his seat before attempting to catch up with Izzy.

Gwen just rolled her eyes, spitting an orange pip into her lunchbox.
“Nice knowing there’s some semi-sane people left at this school.” Noah closed his book with a snap.
“Everyone’s sane compared to Izzy.” She remarked, picking up another segment of orange.
She popped it in her mouth, chewing slowly.
“So,” Gwen fished a stringy piece of pith out of her teeth. “How do you know me?”
Noah rolled his eyes, gnawing on a stick of carrot.
“I have a friend who talks about you nonstop.”

Gwen raised an eyebrow. Noah didn’t look up, sticking his half-eaten carrot into Owen’s dollop of hummus.
“Ooh, double dipping,” Gwen leaned forward, resting her hands on her cheeks, “won’t he be mad?”
Noah shrugged, licking the hummus off before finishing the rest of his carrot.
He picked up another carrot stick, “I doubt he’ll even notice.” He swiped a hefty portion of hummus, “Even if he did, he wouldn’t care. He ate a cupcake off the floor once.”
Gwen wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“To give the guy some dignity back, it was mine, I tried to dump it in the trash.” Noah shrugged, “But he said it would be a waste! He ate it, wrapper and all.”
“Okay? Cool.” Gwen pursed her lips, “Who’s your friend that talks about me?”

“Cody Anderson.” Noah didn’t miss a beat.
“Really?”
Noah smirked, “I’m more surprised he actually knows you.”

“Oh my fucking God… Of course you know Cody,” Gwen murmured. “Is it too late to escape?”
“Nope,” Noah grinned, “but consider this your final warning.”

Chapter Text

A few weeks passed, nothing short of mundane.
22nd October. The day started off as normal. Izzy kept blowing up Gwen’s phone with messages since their encounter in the cafeteria after begging for her new phone number, additionally to her, Noah, Owen, and occasionally Eva joining her at lunchtimes. Much to Gwen’s chagrin.
Izzy kept adding her to group chats. Lots of them, with lots of different people she didn’t necessarily know, i.e. people she didn’t have in her contacts. All of which Gwen left immediately without saying a word, Izzy promptly added her back every time with no explanation, so she stopped trying, and just muted the chats.

Fortunately, it did give her some warning when Izzy would message her to say her lunch would be intruded on.Gwen didn't think Izzy particular knew or cared who the messages went to because she once got a forwarded a message from Izzy that said:
Heyyutyy, Geennny, weRe gobna ve sittign eith tou rkfay.

There was a message from an unknown number underneath that said: Izzy sent me this, I'm assuming it was for you.
Gwen had no clue who sent it until she asked. Turns out it was Noah and he had found her number via one of the many group chats they were in.

It felt weird texting other people. She never really did.
She was nearly eighteen and only had her close family and Izzy in her contacts.
How did Izzy get a hold of her number? She didn't know, nor did she want to. It was probably borderline illegal. But as soon as she had got her first phone in middle school, Izzy had hounded her for it. 
Gwen had made her promise not to give it out to anyone and Izzy had responded with “I swear on the lives of my seventeen hamsters I will never give your number out!”
But then they grew apart and Gwen’s number was changed after her phone contract expired and she needed a new one (one that didn’t lose her number if it wasn’t renewed on time), so Izzy was all over her until she relented.

Gwen was also pretty sure that less than half of Izzy's hamsters were still alive. Throughout the years she'd heard many stories about a tragic hamster death being told dramatically from the back of the classroom. Anything from drowning in the sink, getting eaten by a dog, to walking straight into an open fireplace.
Gwen could write horror stories about the shit that happened to Izzy’s hamsters. She was also pretty sure Izzy over-embellished her classroom stories and posted them on Reddit.
Not that Gwen went into hamster death deep-dives on Reddit, but she remembered seeing a couple similar stories here and there.

Gwen had managed to avoid eye contact with anyone for less than five minutes since she walked in through the school's front doors.
Unfortunately, it was Cody, and he did try to talk to her. Fortunately, Eva was walking to her locker after an early morning gym session and gave him a glare for her. She could clearly tell that he made Gwen uncomfortable, so she started scaring him away. She enjoyed it, and Gwen was incredibly thankful.
She gave Eva a smile of thanks and was met with a curt-but-polite nod in response.

Cody had seemed disheartened, but she didn't doubt it would last for long.

Gwen didn't make conversation with anyone until the end of lunchtime. She had just had a rather gruelling game of field hockey in PE, where Heather purposely smacked her shins as hard as she could with her stick and Courtney barrelled into her more than a few times, sending her skidding into the mud. Not that it was particularly difficult to do so. Gwen was ‘built like a twig,’ as her mother oh-so-helpfully loved to point out, and Courtney was not built like a twig. So Gwen grit her teeth and bit the bullet.

“Pass!” Gwen's teammate called from across the pitch. She looked around, surveying her options. She successfully made the pass and as soon as she did, Heather dealt her a nasty smack to the shins.
“Oops! Sorry, Gwen!” She feigned innocence, batting her eyes. “I was trying to hit the ball through your legs to my teammate over there. I guess I just missed it.”

Heather was also a massive fucking bum-suck, earning her the title of ‘Favourite student but-if-anyone-asks-I-don't-have-favourites-as-it’s-unprofessional.’
While Heather's methods were quick and she slickly slid under the radar, Courtney was amazing at accidentally-on-purpose injuring her - considering she planned on attending law school and needed a clean slate.

Turns out, teachers just didn't care whether or not people got injured at the hands of their classmates. If only that was the case during last year's Halloween week when she accidentally tripped up a blonde, freckled girl so she landed flat on her face.
It was completely and utterly an accident. Gwen didn’t even know the girl’s name! She remembered apologising profusely just for it to be shrugged off by the blonde girl due to her own clumsiness.

But several shin smacks, grazed elbows and an unfortunate split lip later, Gwen sat in the cafeteria nursing her bruises and licking her wounds, figuratively and literally.
She languidly chewed on her cheese and cucumber sandwich, her lip was throbbing and her head was pounding in the form of a dull ache by her temples. She rummaged in her bag and brought out a box of acetaminophen tablets, she popped two out of the bubble packet, before double checking the dosage and realising that each tablet was 500mg.
Considering she had no idea what the maximum dosage of the painkiller was. 1000mg did sound like a lot and she didn’t want to risk overdosing.

She popped the pill into her mouth, not even bothering to chase it with water. She was in an unbelievable amount of pain. The loud cafeteria was only giving her a migraine. Scarfing down the rest of her lunch, she got up out of her seat to escape the hustle and bustle.
Gwen was tired and felt downright yucky.

She didn’t really have the energy for anything. All she wanted was to go home - at least there she could hole herself up in the darkness of her room with no one to disturb her.
Making herself scarce was never really that difficult, though as much as it was a blessing and a curse, she wouldn’t change it for the world.

She fished her earphones out of her skirt pocket, plugging the jack into her phone and pressing play on whatever playlist showed up first in the list on Spotify.
The Sisters of Mercy blasted into her ears at a booming volume. She fumbled with her phone to turn the music down, pursing her lips. She reached the door of her locker, absentmindedly opening the lock.
Gwen shoved her empty lunchbox inside, switching out a couple of her books for the afternoon.
She shut the door with a clang.

“What the-!” Gwen jumped in her skin. Noah was standing nonchalantly beside her.
“Hi,” he said, gritting his teeth. “I have a favour to ask of you.”
“Okay…” Gwen frowned, turning to face him properly. She was getting an odd feeling from the entire interaction. “What is it?”

Noah seemed to have sensed her unease, as he clarified, “It’s nothing indecent - I swear.”
Gwen quirked an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue.
“I’ve got two tickets to a gig at a live house tonight. A bunch of small, local bands are performing and I don’t wanna go alone. I promised a friend I’d show up.”
Gwen spluttered, dumbfounded, “Are you hitting on me?!”
Noah flushed, “No! Not at all.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “You’re not exactly my type.”
“Huh?”

“Nevermind that!” Noah changed the subject, “Do you wanna come, or not?”
Gwen paused, throwing the suggestion around in her head.
“Why me?” She asked him. “Why not invite someone else?”
Noah deadpanned, “Eva hates shows; Izzy is, well, Izzy; and the venue is indoors and I’ve had no time to scope it out for a ‘lay of the land.’ And if I brought Owen he’d end up hot-boxing the entire place with his farts.”
“So you landed on me after that?”
“I have no other friends.” He told her, “And I didn’t want to invite any of my sisters.”

“What kind of bands?” Gwen pressed.
“All sorts, so I’ve heard. Pop punk, goth, grunge–.”
“Okay. I’ll come.” Gwen interrupted, “You had me at ‘goth’.”
“Good. I’ll text you later.” Noah pulled a pen out from his pocket and scribbled something onto the back of his hand.
“By the way, what happened to you?”

Gwen sighed, “PE, Courtney, Heather.” She held up a hand, ticking them off on her fingers.
“Yeah, that tracks–”
“Seriously?” A new voice entered the conversation. “Typical Heather, right?”

The two whipped around to the owner of the voice. Someone Gwen didn’t know and had only seen in passing, but Noah clearly did.
He was taller than both of them, aided by high-heeled boots he’d paired with… stirrup pants…
That was a look for sure, and he was certainly able to pull it off. He had glossy, dark brown hair tucked behind his ears and a playful grin on his face. But Gwen could see the insincerity behind his eyes. It was disconcerting.

“Alejandro.” Noah gave him a tight smile.

Well that certainly helped clear things up. This guy was clearly Alejandro Burromuerto - a name she had yet to connect a face to. But things were starting to make sense. She’d heard Heather mention his name a couple times, Gwen knew they had a complicated relationship to say the least.
Furthermore, it surprised her that he had some kind of rapport with Noah of all people - not to sound like a total bitch. Noah didn’t particularly put himself out there, and Gwen didn’t blame him.

“Noah,” Alejandro smiles. “I don’t believe your friend and I have met yet…”
“Thanks - I’d like to keep it that way, Alejandro.”
He beckoned for Gwen to follow him away from Alejandro.

“You’re Gwen Baughan, right?” Alejandro asked, smiling.
“Ingrid -Baughan.” Gwen corrected.
“Right, of course, my apologies.”

He scanned her up and down. “Heather mentions you a lot. You seem to always linger in the back of her mind. It’s rather odd, considering how much she claims to hate you.”

“Heather’s odd like that,” Gwen replied, “says one thing, often means another. I’m sure you’ve known her long enough to figure that out for yourself.”
She was being slightly passive-aggressive, but there was something about this guy that rubbed her the wrong way.

Alejandro opened his mouth to speak again before Noah harshly grabbed Gwen’s arm and hauled her down the hallway.

“What was that about?” She asked him.
“Trust me, you’ll thank me later.” Noah replied, letting her arm go as they turned the corner. “He’s bad news.”
Gwen scoffed, “Do tell. He can’t be worse than Heather.”
“You’d think that. But he’s worse.”

Noah shuddered dramatically. Gwen just stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
“He is as slippery as an eel swimming in motor oil.” Noah spat. “I’ve said this to Owen, I’ve said this to so many of my friends who just turn a blind eye, but he’s like if Heather had proper social skills. He says one thing, means another. He’s a slimy bastard.”

“Explains why he hangs around Heather Kasuga,” Gwen agreed, referring to Heather’s way of putting on airs. “Or so I’ve heard.”
Noah clenched his jaw and fist. “People like them, they deserve each other.”

Gwen raised an eyebrow, smirking at the bitterness seeping out of him. “Has anyone ever told you that you have issues?”
“You sound like my mother.”
“But seriously, what did he do to you?”

Noah shrugged it off. “Nothing.”
“Right.” Gwen bit, “Nothing is why you look like you want to bite the guy’s head off. Come on, tell me.”

“Like I said, nothing of importance.”
Gwen’s ears pricked up. “You changed it just then, ‘nothing of importance’.”
“Maybe I was hoping you’d drop the subject,” his tone grew sharper on the last word, the same venom from just minutes ago, being injected into his words again.

Gwen dropped the subject promptly. She didn’t want to irritate him anymore - it might cost her a ticket to a live show. Not worth it.

She did begin to wonder if she had accidentally pushed too hard. It was weighing on her mind for the rest of the day. After all, they were kind of, sort of friends now. Going to concerts was a thing friends did, right? She thought so, her brother went out to concerts with his friends all the time. But then again, he was twenty times more sociable and ten times less socially awkward.
That was why she tended not to have friends. She’d end up scaring them away again. Which is likely the only reason Izzy stuck around - she couldn’t be scared away from Gwen. If anything, it’d be the other way round with the way Izzy presents herself as a minor threat to society.

When Gwen arrived home she flumped down on her bed for a stretch after a long day. She idly checked her messages to see that Noah didn’t go back on offering her the other tickets to his friend’s gig thingie so she set herself the task of getting ready. Better to be early than late.

Gwen often found that her time blindness made her all the more annoying to be around. Getting ready in the morning was a pain all too familiar, getting up early only to end up running late because she’d got distracted. She never heard the end of it from her mother.

She put some music on as she got ready, padding along to the bathroom to wipe her face clean of makeup to re-apply. Drying her face on the hand towel, she stared at herself in the mirror. Much to her chagrin, she had an angry red pimple sitting under her eye. The temptation to pop it was growing a little too much for her liking, so she headed back to her room to get dressed.

Sorting through her wardrobe was always fun, thinking up different outfits was a pastime she’d had since she was little and never really seemed to grow out of.
Gwen pulled a long black skirt off its hanger and wriggled into it, adding her usual corset and a black cropped top with lacy sleeves that she’d DIY’ed a few years back. She hadn’t grown much, so it luckily still fit her.

She smoothed her hair down, pulling her fingers through the knots that had accumulated throughout the day.
“There we go.”