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“Ah, Caitlyn, thank you. You can take the seat next to, hm…” Heimerdinger glances over the seating chart. “Violet, over there. Do you know her?” He points at the empty desk next to a pink-haired girl, standing out in the crowd of students with naturally-colored hair. Because everyone else is following the dress code. But of course the rules wouldn’t apply to Lanes.
“No, but thank you,” Caitlyn smiles politely, inwardly wondering if it’s too late to change her schedule again .
She doesn’t know Violet “Vi” Lanes, other than the general Piltover rumor mill. She does , however, have the unfortunate luck to know her sister, Powder “Jinx” Lanes.
If the sister is half as frustrating as Jinx is, then Caitlyn will be seeking a transfer, damn her GPA. She doesn’t know what crime she committed in her past life to be stuck sitting next to another one of the Lanes for the second year in a row.
Caitlyn brightens up a bit, though, when she spots Jayce in the seat in front of Violet—it seems that the seating chart fails them all, sometimes. Caitlyn starts to wave, only to be stunned as Jayce turns around and starts talking to Violet.
His eyebrows are furrowed, looking confused as Vi gestures with her hands, until he glances up and spots Caitlyn. He smiles widely and waves even though she’s only a few feet away.
“Cait! Hey, you didn’t tell me you were transferring.”
Caitlyn sets her backpack down next to the empty seat, trying to focus on Jayce rather than Vi even when she feels Vi’s eyes on her. She thinks that her best strategy to survive this class is to simply ignore the other girl. She doesn’t need to get distracted from her studies, and she certainly doesn’t want to accidentally say anything that could make Vi decide to bother her.
“It was a last second decision,” Caitlyn tells him. And by that, she means that she had sent an email half-way through July when realizing that her schedule had been messed up, and they only managed to fix it yesterday. Two weeks into the start of the semester. According to Heimerdinger, she’s already missed a quiz and four homework assignments. “My journalism class was removed because of my free period, so I had to replace the free period with a different class. This was my alternate.”
Vi snorts. “AP Stats to replace a free period? That’s fun.”
Caitlyn’s instinct is to laugh and complain about the scheduling department in return, and she would have if it weren’t for the shock that Violet—Vi Lanes—seemed to be saying something… nice to her.
Or at least, it doesn’t seem malicious. It could be empathetic, even.
She turns to the side, about to say, I know, right? when she’s put into another state of shock—this time by Vi’s face.
She’s pretty .
Why the hell does she have to be pretty?
She’s seen a few photos of Vi posted to their school’s official Instagram account, usually for some sort of sports success, and she’s had to look up some pictures occasionally for her column in the school paper, but she’s never paid close attention. Now, she’s forced to.
The mess of short, layered pink hair frames her face perfectly from this angle, though a few strands fall into her face, covering one of her eyes. The other one, though, is the most gorgeous light blue—almost gray—that Caitlyn can’t look away from. Light freckles cover her face, and she’s wearing a nose ring .
Caitlyn isn’t sure if that’s also a dress code violation. What surely is, though, is the lack of uniform—a concert hoodie of a band that Caitlyn doesn’t recognize and some ripped jeans are a stark contrast from the rest of the class’s Piltover High School t-shirts and khaki pants.
“I-” Caitlyn manages, just barely, quickly preventing her jaw from dropping. “Right. Yes, it was unfortunate.”
Vi raises an eyebrow, which Caitlyn shouldn’t find attractive because she’s aware that she’s being teased, and yet—it doesn’t hurt like Jinx’s taunts and scoffs from last year’s Engineering class (and how embarrassing it was to be mocked by a freshman) or the general blank stares she receives when she tries to talk to people casually (she’s aware she hasn’t quite figured out how to do it).
Thankfully, she’s spared the risk of embarrassing herself further as Heimerdinger calls for the class to start. Caitlyn pulls out her notebook and focuses solely on writing down the definitions on the board, ignoring the tapping sound of Vi’s pencil against the desk next to her.
-
“— Because he keeps rejecting my article suggestions despite the fact that I literally run the school paper, and he just needs to sit there and give us a passing or failing grade. And he doesn’t even have the authority to do so because none of my drafts have been against school guidelines, but if I don’t follow it I run the risk of him failing me in my junior year, which—”
“—would effectively ruin your life. Yes, we know, Caitlyn,” Mel sighs, sitting down on the bench. “But do you really think he’d be able to fail you? I’d just take it to administration.”
“The administration here is bullshit ,” Caitlyn scoffs. She’s been ranting to Mel since they both left Journalism, unable to keep her frustration to herself and knowing that Mel will simply let her complain rather than Jayce’s, though well-intentioned, attempts to solve her problems. “Seriously, I had to wait over a month for a class transfer. To a class that wasn’t even full. From a free period !”
“Ah, is that the reason you were in Statistics today?” Viktor’s voice comes from behind them, and he and Jayce take their seats on the opposite side of the bench. “I thought you said you were planning on prioritizing your mental health this year.”
“I was—“
“And then the scheduling department ruined her life,” Mel summarizes, her eyes on her phone. “But realistically, Caitlyn, you could have chosen a study hall period. There was no reason to replace it with an AP class.” She rolls her eyes. “And a math class at that.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Jayce asks her, pretending to be offended. At this point, he knows it’s a lost cause trying to defend the subject. “Besides, now Cait gets another class with us.”
“And with Violet,” Viktor adds. “It would be good for you to make some friends in your year, yes?”
Caitlyn grimaces as Mel puts her phone away, now looking interested. “Violet? Which Violet?”
“ Vi ,” Caitlyn tells her, shaking her head, “Lanes. Viktor, don’t you think I could trade seats with you?”
“Mm, no. I appreciate the short walking distance from the corner of the room to the door.”
“Vi Lanes ,” Mel gasps, ignoring Viktor. “You’re sitting next to her now?”
Caitlyn nods with a frown. “Unfortunately.”
“Isn’t she gay, though?”
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Caitlyn says, ducking down to pull her lunch out of her backpack so that Mel doesn’t see her face turn red.
“She is,” Jayce says helpfully, as if anyone wouldn’t be able to tell when seeing the girl. “She made fun of me for being straight last week.” He pauses for a moment, opening his lunch container, then frowns. “Shit, she thinks I’m straight.”
“Can you blame her?” Caitlyn deadpans, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, it’s pretty obvious. She even has a lesbian flag on her phone case.”
“Oh?” Mel raises an eyebrow. “You noticed?”
“Mel, there are a total of three out lesbians at this school and two of them are my exes. Did you think I wouldn’t know this? Also, have you seen her?”
Mel leans back, raising her arms in mock surrender. It’s a simple argument to win, really, but Caitlyn knows that she hasn’t heard the end of it. The simple truth is that the dating pool for her is insanely small, but she doesn’t quite mind. High school romances don’t last, anyway, and just because Vi is one of the most gorgeous girls she’s ever seen doesn’t change that.
Besides, if she truly tries to think about it, the long run would end up with her being in-laws with Jinx. The thought is enough to make her cringe and return her focus to her pasta.
Jayce, however, doesn’t let up. “So you’re saying third time’s the charm?”
“Shut up.”
“Is Ekko coming?” Vi asks as Powder hops into the passenger seat, tossing her backpack to the back row and kicking off her shoes.
“Nope,” Powder shakes her head, “Engineering club is going overtime.”
“Aren’t you in the engineering club?”
“ I am hungry and want to take a nap. Ekko said he’s gonna try and get Viktor to drive him.”
“Bold move,” Vi chuckles as she tries to reign in her frustration with some of the stupid parents.
Vi, with the long distance from Piltover High School to their house just on the outskirts of the city, has been the designated driver for the family since she got her license last spring. Usually, with the litany of extracurriculars and clubs and sports that everyone in the family is a part of, it means that she’s on campus until the gates close, but for a rare afternoon, Powder had texted her that she was ready to leave and Mylo and Claggor were driving home with some of their other friends.
Vi, coincidentally, also doesn’t have practice, which allows her to leave the school sooner than usual, but also forces her to deal with student parking lot traffic.
Someone honks, and Vi has moved about one inch in the past five minutes. She needs a break. “Jericho’s?”
“ Yes .”
Without any other words, Powder reaches forward and plugs her phone into the aux, playing her music at a relatively decent volume. She hums along, scrolling through her phone as Vi attempts to move into the line of cars that’s leading out of the school.
Her thoughts drift to her classes, as they unfortunately do when she’s had a boring day. She mentally lists out the tasks she has to do when she gets home, automatically crossing out the things that are due more than one day away and calculating that she’ll probably only have to stay up until two or three if Vander asks her to cover a shift at the bar when she gets home.
Her courseload isn’t the easiest this year, but she thinks it’ll be manageable. She’s gotten more used to taking the challenging classes since her freshman year grades had managed to bump her up to some Honors classes her sophomore year.
Then, when she had managed to pull through that with nearly straight A’s, she risked the chance to do it a third time despite all of the talk about junior year being the hardest.
Vander had been counting on her to give the snobby private Piltover school a real chance. After they’d all moved closer to Piltover, just on the edge of Zaun, and their family had gotten the fancy scholarships to send all four adopted kids to Piltover High School, it would be pointless to throw away the opportunity for nothing.
She’d still had her own priorities—Powder’s freshman year had been tough for her, having had probably the worst last year of middle school as the transfer student who had skipped a grade, and if Vi’s GPA dropped a bit in order to keep Powder afloat and help her not lose her chance at college, then so be it—but it had all worked out in the end.
And yeah, she’s not getting a lot of sleep, and no, she doesn’t always manage to turn in her assignments on time because there’s a higher chance of her getting an athletic scholarship than an academic one, and of course she’s still busier than half of the fucking Pilties who don’t have to worry about losing scholarships or working on the side, but—
For once in her life, she feels like she’s actually getting somewhere with it all. Powder, too, if the snort she lets out as she aggressively types in her phone says anything. Even Mylo and Claggor seem to be finding their place in the world.
It’s enough to make Vi smile for a brief second, just until some asshole cuts her off and she has to breathe in slowly to not encourage road rage in her younger sister. The things she does for Powder.
She recognizes the person in the back seat, though, which is another reason for her falter. If Kiramman had been the one driving, she’d be pissed at her, but now she’s just slightly distracted.
Caitlyn Kiramman had been something Vi hadn’t expected. She’s still turning over the conversation they had earlier in her head, unsure of what to think.
On one hand, she could consider Caitlyn’s stiffness, weirdly formal language, and apparent avoidance of saying a word to Vi really fucking rude.
On the other hand, it was kind of cute. In an awkwardly endearing sort of way. She doesn’t know much about Caitlyn’s actual feelings toward her, whether she actually thinks that she’s above speaking to a scholarship kid when Vi knows she’s one of the richest motherfuckers in the school for rich motherfuckers, and she doesn’t quite care to find out.
But the way Caitlyn’s eyes had widened when turning toward her, the soft blush that spread across her cheeks, and the way she had been anxiously tapping her foot on the ground for the rest of the class makes Vi think otherwise.
She doesn’t actually know much about Caitlyn, other than the fact that she was on a fuckton of yearbook pages the past two years, present in at least half the academic club photos and a few of the sports pages as well, and that her name is constantly showing up in Vi’s school email under new articles for the school newspaper. Vi doesn’t read them, because she really couldn’t care less about what goes on at this school, but she hasn’t bothered to figure out how to turn the notifications off.
And, she vaguely remembers Powder mentioning her last year. “You used to share that class with Caitlyn Kiramman, right?”
Powder scoffs. “Ugh, Kiramman. Yeah. She’s such a loser.”
“Really?” Vi, quite honestly, doesn’t know what she wants to get out of this.
“Mhm, why?” Powder glances over. “What’d’ya wanna know about her?”
Vi shrugs, turning onto the freeway and trying not to think of Caitlyn’s face that morning. The way that she frowned with her eyebrows furrowed when Heimerdinger mentioned another quiz, her neat half-cursive handwriting on her notes, the way she bit her lip while doing one of the practice questions. It’s not like Vi was trying to watch her, but—well. She’s in Vi’s line of vision when trying to look at the board. Could anyone blame her?
“Dunno,” Vi says, “She sits next to me in Stats.”
“ What ?”
“Transferred today,” Vi continues, “It was the only seat open. Anyway, I think she’s friends with Jayce, right?”
Powder groans, dramatically slouching in her seat. “I still don’t get why you’re friends with him. But still—what do you wanna know? That she’s obnoxiously annoying and can’t handle a joke to save her life?”
Vi simply hums, not totally disagreeing with the joke thing. Caitlyn’s face when Vi had spoken to her earlier—the only few words she said all class after Caitlyn sat down—was of pure shock, as if she had never heard sarcasm in her life.
Unfortunate , she had said. Vi snorts at the thought of how she had said it—all serious in her Piltie accent.
Powder looks at her suspiciously, then returns her focus to her phone and whatever weirdly specific wikipedia page she’s stalking now. “Either way, she definitely doesn’t like me. Probably hates you too.”
Vi bristles. “What did I do?”
“Have pink hair. You know she kept going on and on about dress code violations and shit every morning? It was ridiculous— she’s ridiculous.”
Vi frowns, unsure of whether to continue her train of thought out loud—which would be trying to prove her sister wrong by saying that Caitlyn was actually alright to sit next to. Possibly a bit distracting, but that’s Vi’s fault and not hers.
“She didn’t say anything about my hair,” is what Vi settles on. And then, for some reason, “She’s gay, isn’t she?”
Powder squawks, throwing her phone into her lap as she sits up, nearly shooting out of her seatbelt, and points a finger at Vi. “ That’s what this is about! You think she’s hot!”
Vi rolls her eyes, taking a hand and moving Jinx’s hand out of her face. Well, duh , she wants to say. “I have eyes, dude. But I just wanted to know if she was chill or not. She doesn’t say much.”
“Yeah, she’s such a nerd,” Powder says, completely ignoring the fact that she is the very definition of a nerd. Vi will be a good big sister and not point that out right now. “But Kiramman’s definitely straight. She’s too lame to be gay.”
“I thought she dated Maddie last year—before she transferred.”
“Shit, really?” Powder cackles. “Breakup so bad that the girl left?”
Vi allows herself a chuckle, even though honestly? She’s fucking glad that Maddie Nolen left. She always did rub Vi the wrong way. “That’s what I heard from Steb, at least.”
“Steb talks ? Hey, what’s up with you befriending all these losers? First Jayce, then Steb, now fucking Kiramman?”
“Listen, do you want me to pay for Jericho’s or not?” Vi asks as she finally manages to turn out of the parking lot, giving Powder a look that says your nerd friend group is just as lame as mine .
Powder groans, but nods quickly. “Yep. And Kiramman is a saint. Can’t wait to crash your guys’ wedding.”
“ Powder .”
-
Vi seriously tries to keep her eyes open during Stats—she does , but when Heimerdinger is droning on about different types of studies, and she’s running on about three hours of sleep after cramming for a history test, and it’s only 8:00 in the morning?
Maybe she just needs a few seconds. She won’t fall asleep that easily. It won’t be obvious. If she just shifts her head slightly to the side of Jayce so that Heimerdinger doesn’t see…
There’s a sharp kick to her leg, and it shocks Vi so much that she nearly says ow , out loud, before she quickly catches herself. Her head whips to the side, watching Caitlyn Kiramman’s eyes dart back to the board as she takes notes. Vi scowls, about to whisper over to her what the fuck was that when Caitlyn rips a piece off the corner of her notebook and slides it over.
He was about to look your way , it says in neat cursive ink. Of course she’s the type of person who uses pen for a math class. Vi squints and has to take an extra second to read it because she hates cursive and is already half-asleep, but when she does, she finds herself stumped.
Huh .
She leans forward, straightening her back and accepting the fact that she’s not going to take a nap because she really doesn’t want to have to be saved by Caitlyn again. Even though, as Vi glances to the side, she notices that Caitlyn doesn’t look frustrated or anything—she’s frowning, but over the past few days Vi’s sat next to her, she’s concluded that that’s just how Caitlyn normally looks.
She grabs her pencil and jots down a quick thanks on the torn piece of paper. She hesitates for a moment, but then decides to add, didn’t sleep much last night .
Vi’s not usually a sleep-in-class sort of person (except for the classes that deserve it), and for some reason she doesn’t want Caitlyn to think that. Something tells her that Caitlyn definitely wouldn’t approve of it—and, oddly enough, Vi kind of wants her to have the right perception of her.
Vi almost snorts to herself, thinking that Powder would most certainly say that’s gay if she were here.
And maybe it is. Sue her. She is gay, so she’s allowed to have gay thoughts. Even if they have to do with Kiramman.
It feels like now that Caitlyn sits next to Vi, she sees her everywhere.
Caitlyn’s always been an observant person. She memorizes the names of classmates on the first day of roll call and knows which students will partner up during group projects. But when she’s outside of the classroom—in the hallways, by her locker, at lunch—she doesn’t really notice her surroundings, her thoughts consuming too much of her focus.
Until Vi. Now, every turn she takes, there’s a flash of pink. It’s two seats away in AP Lit, at the bench by the office at lunch, running through the halls during passing periods, and opening the locker beneath hers.
Vi is everywhere. And Caitlyn has no idea how she hadn’t realized that up until now, while she’s waiting by her locker as Vi slams hers shut and tosses her bag over her shoulder.
Mentally, she realizes that it was a stupid thing for her to not assume—K and L are next to each other in the alphabet. She wonders why she never interacted with Vi beforehand, considering their schedules seem to be parallel this semester.
“Do you not have a lock?” Caitlyn asks before realizing she’s speaking.
Vi raises an eyebrow, glancing at what is now an empty locker. “I had one freshman year. Lost it.”
”And you didn’t buy a new one?”
Caitlyn recognizes too late that that might seem offensive, but Vi just shrugs. “Nope. Just stopped using it.” She pauses for a moment, grimacing. “Might have to this year, though. I don’t wanna keep carrying that Stats book around everywhere.”
Caitlyn can’t help but glance at the girl’s arms, clearly not lacking muscles. She stops that train of thought abruptly, stepping forward in Vi’s place to open up her own locker.
“You can borrow mine,” she says once it’s open. “In class, I mean. If you want.”
Maybe, she thinks, if she’s nice to Jinx’s sister then Jinx won’t accidentally get pink paint on Caitlyn’s monochrome sketch in their AP Art class. Caitlyn doesn’t even know where she got pink paint from.
Vi’s eyes crinkle at the corners when she smiles, a lopsided sort of grin that Caitlyn shouldn’t find so endearing. Still, there’s a fluttering sensation in her stomach.
And then Vi goes and ruins it. “Thanks, cupcake.” She gives Caitlyn a wink before turning around, her backpack still hanging off the side of one shoulder.
Caitlyn sputters, “Wh—” she glances at her open locker door, the cupcake magnet that Jayce had gotten her as a gag gift last Christmas still the only decoration. “It’s Caitlyn!”
Vi’s laugh echoes down the hallway.
-
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-
Monday 1:32 AM
vi4violence
hey cait
do u know if we have to use quotes in the lit discussion post
It’s not specified but I’d assume so.
Rather safe than sorry.
fuck
k thx
Are you really finishing the assignment now? It’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?
ur up too
and yea i didnt have time to read the chapters before now so
was hoping i could just skim and read it tmrw but anyway
There’s a rather good quote about Elizabeth’s reaction to Darcy’s letter on pg 200.
If you were to be responding to one of my questions.
youre a lifesaver cait
thank you
Just try not to fall asleep in Stats tomorrow?
ha
gn :)
You liked this message.
Wednesday 6:32 PM
Vi, are you in Calc AB this year? Did you happen to write down the homework today? Shoola still hasn’t posted it.
yea actually i started it in class
pg 54 #1-15 odd
pretty short but the last few are all multiple parts
so yea
Thank you!
I figured it wouldn’t be that easy lol.
See you tomorrow :)
see ya :)
Thursday 11:13 PM
do we have a history quiz tmrw
mylo said smth abt it but i cant find it anywhere??
No, we don’t.
It appears Mylo was lying to you.
fucking knew it
thanks
There is the study guide due, though.
yea i finished that one
just figured there wouldn’t be a quiz before the lecture
Goodnight, Vi
:)
gn!!
Friday 11:01 PM
Have you done #21 on the Stats hw?
I keep getting a different answer than the answer key.
u doing hw on a friday night???
no i havent but send a pic of the question ill look
Yes, I don’t like having homework to do on the weekends.
[ one image attached ]
Here’s my work:
[ one image attached ]
i think u needed to use geometriccdf instead of binomial
no fixed number of trials
Shit, you’re right.
Thank you
I was reading the question wrong
no worries lmao
want me to send mine when im done so we can check our work?
That would be great, if you can
yea ofc
ill prob do it on sunday tho
like a normal person
Lol
Sounds good
It’s a rare occasion that the entire family is free to have dinner together, but Vander tries to make it happen once a week, if he can.
Tonight is one of those nights, because even though Mylo is missing out on a gaming night with his friends and Powder has an engineering project she really needs to finish, it’s all adjustable to the family schedule.
The kitchen light glows warmly as they take turns sharing their stories from the week, with Powder talking about her new art project, Mylo complaining about his lit teacher, and Claggor sharing a funny story from lunch earlier that day.
Vi usually does try to pay attention to these things, because she cares about her siblings even if she’s heard all of the rants already throughout various drives to and from school. Today, though, her phone has been going crazy pretty much all day, and it makes her wonder how Caitlyn is one of the top students in their year if she’s constantly dealing with this.
This being a group chat that Jayce had added her to earlier that day in Stats. Caitlyn had tried to stop him, and though Vi had been slightly offended at first, she quickly realized that Caitlyn had just been trying to protect her sanity.
It’s been a constant flow of messages ever since. Mostly Jayce, and then Mel and Viktor (who Vi barely knew before now, but apparently she’s close enough to two people in the group to be added to this chat) occasionally chiming in to answer his questions or put an end to his rambling. Caitlyn seems to have muted the chat because she hasn’t sent a single message all day—a fact that the others clearly are not okay with, considering they’ve now started spamming Caitlyn’s name in hopes of getting her to appear.
Vi keeps an eye on her phone underneath the table, having to suppress a chuckle when Caitlyn is typing… finally shows up and the chat erupts into total chaos: keysmashes, gifs, emojis, and Viktor telling Caitlyn to get out again while she still can.
When Caitlyn’s message finally sends, it says: Vi, have you finished #22 on the Stats hw?
Vi can’t help it; she laughs.
It rings out through the kitchen before Vi even realizes she’s done it, her phone nearly hitting the bottom of the table in the sharp movement. All eyes turn to her, Vander’s words being cut off, and Vi doesn’t know why she laughed because it wasn’t even that funny—
Okay, it kind of was. She’s come to learn over the nearly two weeks of knowing Caitlyn that the girl doesn’t really have a sense of humor—instead, what makes her so funny is the complete lack of it.
Like this. Building up the entire chat in anticipation, and when she shows up, of course it’s just to ask about homework. It’s so Caitlyn that it’s hilarious. She’s probably entirely serious about it too.
“Vi?” Vander’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts, and her gaze shoots up to see him looking at her with one eyebrow raised. “Something interesting?”
There’s some suppressed laughter from the others, and Vi knows why; she isn’t usually the one that’s caught on her phone during a family dinner. It’s not really a laid-out rule, because yeah, sometimes the others’ rants can get a bit long and they’re all teenagers so of course they’re gonna be checking their phones. They’re just not supposed to get caught.
“ Yeah , Vi?” Mylo says loudly, because he’s annoying.
Vi shoots him a look and shuts off her phone, ignoring the stream of messages she’s seeing pour into the chat. “Nope, sorry. Just a homework question.”
“A homework question?” Powder turns to her, scrutinizing. Vi tries to look as innocent as possible, because yeah , it was just a homework question. Obviously.
“Alright, then—” Vander says, trying to turn to the attention back to Claggor, but Powder doesn’t let up.
“You’ve been glued to your phone all day,” Powder says, eyeing the phone in Vi’s lap. “Who’re you texting?”
Vi sighs, grabbing her fork and stabbing it in some of the chicken on her plate. “No one.”
“ Vi —”
“It was just Cait, and it was just a homework question, okay?” Vi rolls her eyes. “Clagg, keep talking.”
“No, no, wait— Cait ?” Mylo asks, leaning forward with a giddy look on his face. “Who’s Cait?”
“Caitlyn?” Powder’s eyes widen. “Are you talking about Caitlyn Kiramman ?”
“Who’s Caitlyn Ki—”
“—How do you know C—”
“—Wait, who?—”
“ Quiet ,” Vander says with his voice raised, not shouting but just loud enough to get the table to shut up. Vi sends him a grateful look, up until he turns his focus on Vi. “Is Caitlyn a new friend?”
Vi’s betrayed eyes stare into Vander’s, whose are light with humor. “Yeah,” Vi mutters, poking around her food more. “She sits next to me in Stats, and it was really just a homework question.”
“That was important enough to check during family dinner ,” Mylo points out, his grin wide. “I dunno, Vi, are you sure that’s not a girlfr —”
“Shut up, Mylo,” Vi scoffs. “You don’t even know her! Literally just—”
She pulls out her phone, opening her texts again to hopefully pull up the message, except the chat is completely illegible at this point. It’s all four people, very obviously active, having some sort of argument that makes zero sense to Vi because she missed the beginning of it, clearly.
Her confusion and interest must both be visible, because she’s so distracted that Powder takes it upon herself to pull the phone out of Vi’s hand and read through the chat. “Jayce? Mel? Vik—Hey, since when are you friends with Viktor?”
“Uh,” Vi blinks. “Today, I guess?” She still knows barely anything about the guy aside from what she’s learned through Powder or Jayce.
“There’s no way this is Caitlyn Kiramman,” Powder says firmly, scrolling through the chat even as Vi grabs for her phone back. “Wait, what the hell? Maybe she isn’t straight—”
Vi finally manages to pull the phone back out and holds it out of reach. “Yeah, I could’ve told you that ages ago. Anyway, she asked me about a stats question and that’s literally it . End of story. Claggor, you were saying—?”
Vi’s voice must make it clear enough that she doesn’t want to talk anymore about the subject, because Claggor hesitantly starts talking again, and Vi sits down with her phone tucked into her back pocket, shoveling food in her mouth. They skip over Vi’s turn to talk about her week, thank god, and Vander gives them general gossip and updates he’s heard from the bar.
It’s only when dinner is over, as all of the others have disappeared into their rooms to do who-knows-what, and Vi is helping Vander clear the dishes, that Vander brings up the subject again.
“So, Caitlyn?” he asks casually, scrubbing a plate in the sink. “Haven’t heard of her before.”
Vi groans loudly in an attempt to get him to switch topics, but it’s no use. Eventually, she just sighs and shrugs. “Yeah, she transferred into the class. Like, two weeks ago. We share a few classes and we’ve been helping each other with homework. It’s really no big deal.”
“Then what were you laughing at?”
“Just—this group chat, it’s nothing. Her friend—or, my friend too, Jayce, he added me to their group chat and they were just. I dunno, it was funny at the time,” Vi trails off, focusing on piling up the dishes next to the sink. “She’s just kinda funny sometimes.”
Vi makes the mistake of looking up and seeing Vander smiling at her, in that way that means he’s proud or something sappy like that, and Vi hates it so she looks away again. “It’s not like that. Just ‘cause she’s gay too doesn’t mean—”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“—anything—oh.” Vi flushes, staring at the ground. “Well, anyway. I’ve got homework. Can I—?”
“Yeah, go ahead, kiddo,” Vander waves her off, chuckling as she sprints out of the kitchen.
-
CAITLYNNNNNN
Today 7:21 PM
jayce
okay but where IS vi
VIIII pls
caitlyn
You scared her off. Great job
jayce
viiiiii
i did NOT vi tell cait i didnt
jayce renamed the chat to VIIIIIIIIII
mel
I am going to mute this chat.
caitlyn
I told you to do that ages ago, didn’t I?
And you were part of the whole problem, you know.
jayce
VI WHERE ARE YOU
and viktor wehred you go
viktor
I am here.
Do not rename the chat in my honor
jayce
i should do that just bc you said not to
but anyway
do we think heimerdinger graded the tests yet
mel renamed the chat to Stats E Set
jayce
idk why it takes him so long to grade
dont tell him i said that
caitlyn
[ one image attached: a screenshot of Jayce’s most recent message. ]
jayce
NOOOO CAITLYNNNN
caitlyn
[ one image attached: a screenshot of an email draft addressed to Cecil Heimerdinger with the attachment of the previous screenshot. ]
jayce
CAITTT CAIT PLS
HES WRITING MY LETTER OF REC U CANT
caitlyn
Can’t I?
cait
Today 7:34 PM
I told you not to let Jayce add you to the groupchat.
Did you happen to finish #22 on the Stats hw?
im honestly scared to go int here now
but yes
one sec
[ one image attached ]
Thank you!
Ah. Wrong distribution again.
np!
Stats E Set
Today 7:40 PM
he better have fucking graded them
jayce
VI
VI IS BACK
bro i wsa having dinner
jayce
ooh what food did you have
also cait asked you a question earlier
chicken and pasta
caitlyn
Yes, Vi already responded to me.
jayce
cait LOVES pasta
she eats it everyday
was it good pasta
?? yes?
k gotta finish lit hw
jayce
damn u and cait
such nerds
caitlyn
[ one image attached: a picture of Jayce in sixth grade holding up a Science Fair trophy. ]
[ one image attached: a picture of Jayce in seventh grade wearing a ribbon in front of an Engineering project. ]
[ one image attached: a picture of Jayce in ninth grade holding a plaque next to Heimerdinger. ]
jayce
OKAY STFU
LMFAO
cait send more
caitlyn
I need to finish Stats.
Will send them later.
jayce
CAITTTTTTTT
-
The next day, sure enough, Heimerdinger has graded the stats tests. Considering they were the first test of the year, Vi thinks it took way too long, but she also hadn’t been extremely focused on it with all of her other classes taking up her attention.
Vi walks into the classroom next to Caitlyn, having spotted her in the hallway on a rare day that she wasn’t in class extremely early and rushed over to join her. It’s probably weird that she’s now actively looking for Caitlyn throughout the day, choosing to walk next to her or talk with her when they’re not having class, but Caitlyn doesn’t seem to mind.
Vi’s about to make a remark about how Jayce must have called it, but then she can feel Caitlyn tense up next to her as soon as they see the upside-down papers laid out on the desks, cutting her off mid-sentence.
She almost tries to comfort Caitlyn in some way, but doesn’t really know how to. Vaguely, she wonders if they’d even be close enough for that, considering most of their conversations are still only school-related.
She doesn’t have much time to ponder on that, though, because when they reach their seats Caitlyn immediately flips over the paper before even sitting down. Vi glances away to avoid looking at the test, moving to her side of the paired-up desks, but then she can’t help but look up again to watch Caitlyn.
She’s a hard person to read. Vi can understand why other people might consider her intimidating—Vi probably would if Caitlyn had ever looked at her in the way that she’s now looking at this sheet of paper.
Her eyebrows are furrowed, her sharp blue eyes piercing the paper with… Vi honestly can’t tell. It doesn’t seem to be shock, but definitely some sort of frustration. Her lips curve slightly downward, and Vi can tell that she’s biting the inside of her cheek as she flips the page to look at the other questions briefly, and then harshly puts her paper back down in its original position.
Vi’s gaze lingers a moment as Caitlyn stares down at the desk, but when she moves to put down her backpack and sit down, Vi hastily does the same and flips around her own test.
- 98. She doesn’t really know what she expected, so she can’t really say that she’s pleasantly surprised. She doesn’t think the unit was too hard for her and she still studied a good amount, but math tests have a way of tricking people, so she hadn’t gone into it with any expectations.
“Nice job,” comes Caitlyn’s voice from next to her, and as Vi had been digging through her backpack for her folder, she hadn’t realized that Caitlyn was looking at the face-up test. There’s still some stiffness in her voice, but Vi thinks that that’s just how Caitlyn talks—she does seem genuinely happy for Vi.
“Thanks,” Vi returns, and considers for a moment whether Caitlyn would be alright with Vi asking about her score. In the end, she decides to bite the bullet and ask, “How’d you do?”
Caitlyn’s face tenses again, but she doesn’t seem mad at Vi for asking—rather, with the way her eyebrows knit together and her nose scrunches up, it looks more like she’s upset with herself . “Not as well as I’d hoped,” she answers, before shaking her head in one sharp movement and going to grab her own binder and shoving the test paper in. “It’s alright, though. This unit was just harder than I expected.”
Vi hums, nodding because she can’t really think of anything else to say. She’s about to let it go, just wait in silence until Heimerdinger starts the lesson, but then she blurts out, “Do you wanna study together next time?”
Caitlyn freezes, and Vi’s almost about to take it back, because as far as she knows Caitlyn might take that as an insult, but they’ve already been exchanging homework for weeks so—
“That would be nice,” Caitlyn says quietly, and Vi watches a small smile slowly unfurl on her face. “Thank you.”
“‘Course,” Vi says, almost wishing she could lean over and squeeze Caitlyn’s hand in reassurance. But that’s stupid, because they’re not even really friends, just two people who share a few classes and share notes and homework occasionally.
But, Vi realizes with a start, she wouldn’t mind having Caitlyn Kiramman for a friend. She wouldn’t mind at all.
Caitlyn had never been to Zaun before starting to study with Vi. Originally, they had planned to simply FaceTime their study sessions, but the WiFi in Vi’s house made it a constant struggle to get connection, and after a few minutes of Caitlyn attempting to make out what Vi was saying, they decided that they would just meet after school in the learning commons.
And that worked for a few weeks, up until Vi asked whether Caitlyn wanted to come over to her house, since she had to drive her siblings home early, and that she could also drive Caitlyn to her house later that day if she wanted, seeing as Caitlyn didn’t have her license yet.
Caitlyn normally isn’t one for after-school hangouts. Her social battery is usually so drained by the end of the day that it seems like torture to extend that even longer—but she supposes that for studying, and for Vi, she can make an exception.
So this is how Caitlyn finds herself in the passenger seat of Vi’s car, glancing out at the view from the bridge Vi crosses every day to get to Zaun, with Mylo and Claggor in the backseats arguing about some TV show.
Thankfully, or else Caitlyn wouldn’t have even considered the idea of going to Vi’s place, Jinx is staying over at her friend Ekko’s house tonight.
They arrive at what looks like a bar with a sign above the door reading The Last Drop . Vi parks along the curb and Mylo and Claggor immediately hop out, yelling out quick good-bye’s as Vi turns to face Caitlyn with a grin. “C’mon.”
Caitlyn waits for Vi to get out of the car before opening her own door and pulling her backpack on, trying not to look too out of place in the streets of Zaun, even though she’s sure that Vi is definitely thinking she is.
She knows that she could have invited Vi to her place—except that would involve telling her mother beforehand, which is much more trouble than it’s worth. Thankfully, Vi hasn’t questioned it.
Vi wordlessly leads Caitlyn inside, opening up the door and then walking through the customers, throwing a wave to a large man behind the bar—Caitlyn assumes that must be her father, even though they don’t look much alike—and then opening another door that leads to a staircase.
They go up the stairs and then through a very narrow hallway that eventually leads into a slightly more open living space, though Caitlyn knows that compared to even just her room it’s rather cramped, and then another doorway that Vi gestures toward—except it has a large JINX sign tapped on the door.
“I share a room with Pow,” Vi explains as she opens the door, revealing a small room with bunk beds in the corner, and one small desk that’s covered with paint supplies, as well as a huge cardboard model of a rocket(?) in the corner. “Sorry, she’s got the desk right now for her art project—you share that with her, right?—so yeah. But I’ll move the stuff to the side and you can have the desk; I’ll just work on the bed—”
“Oh, no, it’s alright,” Caitlyn quickly assures her, not really wanting to touch anything of Powder’s. “The bed is fine.”
Vi sends her a slightly questioning glance, but then shrugs and drops her backpack near one side of the bed. She flicks on the light as Caitlyn sets down her stuff as well, sitting stiffly down on the other side of the bed as she takes in more of the room’s details.
There are photos across the wall, so many of them, as well as several paintings and sketches. They don’t all look the same, and Caitlyn wonders to herself whether they’re all Jinx or whether some of them were also Vi’s. There’s a duffle bag in the corner which must be Vi’s, because it’s red and it seems like most things in this room are color-coded by the colors of the sisters’ hair.
“So,” Vi says before Caitlyn can even recognize that there’s a saxophone tucked next to the desk, and some band posters plastered onto the walls, and a pile of magazines nearly falling off the top bunk. “Stats?”
The entire room is practically overflowing with character—and Caitlyn needs to find the restraint within herself to not ask questions about every single bit of it. She clears her throat. “Yes. Um—have you done the review questions yet?”
“I started ‘em,” Vi says, immediately leaning over to find a folder in her backpack. Over the weeks that Caitlyn has gotten to know Vi, specifically her studying habits, she’s found that Vi nearly always starts her work in class, and then finishes it at the last second.
At first, Caitlyn had wanted to admonish that habit—honestly, in her opinion, leaving projects for the last second is just too stressful for her to do—but she quickly learned that Vi simply has no other choice. She is constantly busy. Mostly for her family, whether it was “helping out around the bar” as she’d so often explained, or driving her siblings here and there because none of them had their licenses yet, or going to football practice or her own extracurriculars. Of which Caitlyn is slowly realizing there are much more than she had thought.
“I haven’t,” Caitlyn tells Vi, because they had just been assigned earlier and though she likes to get her work done as soon as possible, she isn’t a fan of the small desks they have to write on in class. So everything gets done at home as soon as she gets there. “I thought we could just start with that?”
“Sounds good,” Vi sends her a quick smile before opening her notebook, and Caitlyn does the same.
Eventually, they end up moving to the floor, elbows touching as they share Caitlyn’s textbook to jot down their answers. More often than not, Caitlyn has to pause and ask a question about how Vi did a certain number, and Vi will explain it the best she can—usually pointing out a simple mistake Caitlyn had made, or putting the concept in words that just make so much more sense than Heimerdinger’s.
Because of this, Vi finishes earlier, but doesn’t say a thing about sending Caitlyn home yet. Instead, she simply pulls out her history textbook and the study guide for that, biting the end of her pencil as she fills out the questions.
This, it seems, is something that Caitlyn can help her with—she’s unfortunately had the history of Piltover engrained in her head since she was a child.
And so they go back and forth trading questions and writing notes, and Vi even rips out another sheet of paper from her notebook and creates a cheat sheet specifically for Caitlyn to use, with reminders about the mistakes that she tends to make more often; Caitlyn does the same for important dates that Vi’s quick to forget, and it devolves from them doing their own homework to then quizzing each other on everything they’ve written down.
Somehow, Caitlyn feels more productive than she has in ages. She had always turned down study sessions with her friends because they never really helped, and instead she just got distracted—she had been sure that the silence and comfort of her own room was the only way that she actually learned.
And yet, Vi makes it all so easy . Even in a location that Caitlyn isn’t used to, cramped together on the floor in between the wall and the bunk bed, Vi makes Caitlyn feel more comfortable than ever going through all of their formulas and timelines and study guides.
When the sun finally sets and Vi’s dad knocks on Vi’s door telling her that dinner’s ready for her and Caitlyn when she wants it, Caitlyn realizes that she’s spent the entire afternoon with someone else and isn’t even tired.
They bring their dinner to Vi’s room and take a short break from studying, which Caitlyn almost thinks is going to end up awkward—school is really all they talk about on a normal basis—but it isn’t.
Vi asks about Caitlyn’s odd study schedule, what she does over the weekend if all her homework gets done on Fridays, and Caitlyn responds by sharing her hobbies, how she likes to go to the shooting range when she has the time and is often also working on articles for the school paper, which she doesn’t really consider work .
Caitlyn returns the favor by asking Vi what her favorite sport is, because she knows that Vi is part of several at their school, and the answer is boxing—Caitlyn almost laughs, remembering one of the first articles that she had written for the school that Marcus had turned down, about how some people were pushing for boxing to become a school sport, and then they’re ranting about teachers, and homework, and Deckard who’s always being an idiot in Lit, and Heimerdinger who just makes it impossible to stay awake during stats.
And when Vi drops Caitlyn off at her house, she realizes with an ache in her heart that she hadn’t really wanted it to end.
-
Vi
[ three files attached ]
^notes
Thank you!
[ two files attached ]
I had a really good time today, thanks for inviting me :)
ofc cait
youre welcome at my place anytime
u wanna come over next weekend? pow’s got that engineering comp out of town so you could stay over if you want
for stats
bc its right before the test
That sounds perfect <3
“So, Vi,” Jayce starts as he takes his seat in Stats and immediately turns around to face her. “Do you have any plans for Homecoming?”
Vi blinks, and then glances at Caitlyn, who’s very obviously trying to suppress giggles, and then back at Jayce. She clears her throat awkwardly. “Um, dude. Bro. You’re a great friend, but, uh—I’m very gay.”
“Wh— no , Vi, what? I know that.”
Vi’s more confused than anything, especially as Caitlyn bursts out into laughter next to her, and Jayce is staring at Vi with thinly veiled horror. But Caitlyn’s laughter is contagious, so Vi finds herself letting out a short chuckle before leaning back in her chair in relief. “Phew. Okay, yeah. Just thought, y’know—”
“I was not asking you out.”
“Good, good. Just clearin’ the air.”
“I—oh God, Cait, stop laughing—”
“She thought —” Caitlyn wheezes, wiping a tear from her eye. “I told you not to lead with that.”
“I thought it was obvious !” Jayce huffs, rolling his eyes. “What I wanted to say was that we are gonna probably be going somewhere to eat beforehand, and we wanted to know whether you have any plans before Hoco. To hang out. As friends . Though I’m sure if you asked— Ow, fuck, Cait!”
This time it’s Vi’s turn to break out laughing as Caitlyn twists Jayce’s arm backwards, her face now dead serious.
When Caitlyn finally lets go of the arm, and Vi’s done laughing, she tells Jayce, “Yeah, probably nothing. I mean, I have to drive my siblings there, and I dunno if they have plans before…”
“Can’t your dad drive them?” Jayce asks, because he’s Jayce, and Vi just raises an eyebrow.
“Well, we only have one car, so.”
“Ah, okay. Well, we could pick you up if you want, or we could just do something after too, I guess—?”
“No, no, it’s fine. You guys have fun, I’ll meet you there anyway.”
“You sure?”
Vi nods her head firmly to make sure Jayce knows it’s all good, which, really—it is. Vi doesn’t really know when she became a part of their friend group and started being involved with all these things—she still sits with Mylo and Claggor’s friends at lunch and hangs out with other people throughout the day.
But somehow, unintentionally, she’s fallen into her circle. And even though they definitely are a bunch of nerds—rich, posh nerds for that matter—she actually really likes them.
“So Cait, you’re gonna go now too, right?” Jayce turns around even more to face Caitlyn, who now freezes up for a second before rolling her eyes.
“I already told you I wasn’t.”
“But Cait—”
“What, what?” Vi asks, looking at Caitlyn. “You’re not going?”
Caitlyn bites her lip. “No. I wasn’t planning to.”
“Okay, but—”
“School dances really aren’t my thing.”
“Vi, tell Cait that she should go,” Jayce pushes, causing Vi to almost do the opposite out of spite, but—
Well, she actually would really like to see Caitlyn there. Usually, Vi will go to a school dance because all her siblings want to go and then stand up against the wall to people-watch and try to overhear some gossip while making sure her siblings don’t get into too much trouble Sometimes she’ll dance, but it also isn’t usually her thing .
“It’d be really fun,” she offers to Caitlyn, who turns slightly red and sends Vi a betrayed look. It makes Vi laugh. “C’mon, Cait, please?”
Caitlyn doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, focusing intently on her desk before sighing. “Fine. I’ll talk to my parents.”
Jayce lets out a whoop of success. He lifts his hand to fist-bump Vi, but Vi just stares at him deadpan until he turns around to get his notes.
She turns to her right to share a small smile with Caitlyn, and tries to ignore how the look on Caitlyn’s face makes Vi feel butterflies in her stomach.
-
cait
Today 7:02 PM
Are you there yet?
onour way
sry
trying to get everoyn ine the car
Lol
Don’t worry, we’re not there yet either. Jayce wanted to stop for food.
jayce is a smart person
sometimes
Heavy on the sometimes
did mel end up taking you shopping
Unfortunately, yes
I already had dresses to choose from but she insisted
ooh whatd you guys decide on
It’s a surprise :)
caiTJFSDJFSKDF
HI VIS GIRLFIRNED
is this caitlyn kiramman
Hello?
Is this one of Vi’s siblings?
HI CAIT SORRY
mylo stole my phone then pow stole it from him
anyway
ignore that message
Ha ha no worries :)
illsee u in like an horu
hour
See you then, Vi
“I still don’t know how you convinced me to come here,” Caitlyn grumbles under her breath, adjusting the neckline of her dress for the ten millionth time. She’s not really a fan of formal wear, or at least she’s gotten tired of it through the various events her parents drag her to. It’s not really what she’d consider a good use of her free time.
“Oh, I didn’t,” Jayce says, a bit too gleefully, “ Vi did.”
Caitlyn shoots Jayce a glare, but he doesn’t notice. She huffs and crosses her arms over her stomach, walking behind the rest of the group as they head toward the gates.
Unfortunately, as much as she hates that Jayce can point it out so easily, she does wish Vi were here already. She did come for her. Not as a date or anything, no matter how much Mel says it is, or how Vi’s siblings may refer to her as her girlfriend. It’s not like that.
Even if some small, miniscule, tiny part of Caitlyn wishes it was.
She lets the others go on in and ignores their knowing looks when she says that she’s going to wait for Vi. It’s just the courteous thing to do.
Thankfully, Caitlyn doesn’t actually have to wait long. She scrolls through her phone mindlessly, looking up every few seconds and eventually spotting Vi’s truck roll into the parking lot.
She tries not to make it obvious that she was looking, going back to her phone, but at this point there’s nothing really interesting there and she’s just checking the weather app for the tenth time.
When she finally feels that it’s been long enough, she looks up to see the group walking towards her, Jinx leading the way with Mylo and Claggor right behind her, and Caitlyn can’t get that good of a look at Vi until—
Well. Caitlyn had known that Vi was going to dress up. It’s a school dance. There’s a dress code. Knowing Vi, there’s really only so many options for what she was going to wear in the first place.
And yet, Caitlyn’s mouth goes dry seeing her walk over. Vi runs a hand through her hair as she turns around, holding her car keys in the direction of the car as it locks, and the sleeves of her white button-down are rolled up just slightly.
Maybe it’s just because Vi tends to wear large, oversized hoodies at school so Caitlyn doesn’t usually see her in clothes that are more fitted that she reacts so visibly to Vi’s formal wear. No matter the reason, though, Caitlyn can only stare for a few seconds before she forces herself to snap back to reality, just in time for Jinx to spot her on her way to the entrance.
“Kiramman,” she says loudly as a greeting. Caitlyn swallows, wondering vaguely to herself why Jinx has taken it upon herself to now show even a semblance of respect. They’ve tolerated each other more in their art class this year—or rather, Caitlyn just sits on the other side of the room and avoids Jinx as much as possible—and have avoided each other in any circumstance where Vi and Caitlyn are meeting each other.
“Jinx,” Caitlyn nods in response. She notices Mylo and Claggor are already right outside the gates, with Claggor throwing Caitlyn a quick wave before following Mylo in. And Vi, it appears, is checking her car for something as she’s back at the truck with her head leaning into the front seat.
Caitlyn waits for Jinx to walk away and follow the other two into the dance, but she doesn’t move. Her arms are crossed over her white dress and cropped leather jacket, with her normally braided hair worn down in loose waves.
“I don’t get why Vi likes you,” Jinx starts, her voice sharp, and Caitlyn resists the urge to roll her eyes.
I could say the same about you is what she would say if she weren’t actively trying not to antagonize the other girl, except it’s not true at all because with the way Vi describes Jinx—Powder—Caitlyn would get it. Somehow, the picture that Vi’s painted in her stories of her little sister throughout their study sessions is an entirely different person.
Jinx continues, “But for some reason she does. A stupid amount. So don’t hurt her.”
Caitlyn lifts an eyebrow. Her instinctual reaction is to say something snappy back—she supposes that that’s how this whole rivalry began, because Jinx made some stupid assumptions about her being too stuck-up to have friends, and Caitlyn had taken that a bit too much to heart, considering she hadn’t really had friends. And so she had bit back a remark about Jinx’s clothing being out of dress code, because it had been something she noticed when she first walked into class.
But now she recognizes what Jinx is saying for what it truly is—a peace offering. A display of genuine care for her sister, and the willingness to put their underclassmen stupidity (though Jinx still is an underclassman) aside.
For Vi.
“I won’t,” Caitlyn says honestly. She holds Jinx’s gaze for a moment, trying to prove in some way that she’s telling the truth. That she cares about Vi, too. Probably more than she’d like to admit.
Thankfully, though, they’re interrupted by the sound of Vi jogging over, shoving her phone in her pocket as she looks nervously between the two. “Hey, you guys good?”
Caitlyn’s head snaps over, taking in Vi once again, this time up close. She’s now, rather unfortunately, wearing a large jacket over her button-down, but now that Caitlyn has a better view she can see the top two buttons are open, and she seems to have slicked back her hair, even though it’s barely noticeable due to her probably running her hand through it so many times.
“Ugh,” Jinx makes a disgusted sound, and then when Caitlyn finally looks over, she’s walking away and throwing them a brief wave, calling out, “Get a room!”
Caitlyn blinks, staring at where Jinx had just been walking for a moment before letting out a breathy laugh. She looks back to Vi, who is… staring at her?
“Vi?” she asks hesitantly, a trace of a smile still on her face as Vi snaps out of her daze. Vi’s eyes quickly flicker up and down Caitlyn before settling on her face.
She had chosen a simple navy dress with a halter neckline from the first store that Mel had taken her to because she hadn’t wanted the shopping trip to last longer than it had to. It’s not the most comfortable, but it also isn’t too frilly and it has pockets so Caitlyn tolerates it well enough. She’s also wearing slight heels which makes the height gap between them slightly more pronounced, though Vi doesn’t seem to have really noticed that yet.
“You look good,” Vi blurts out, then immediately avoids eye contact again. “I mean—yeah. That’s a nice dress.”
“Thank you,” Caitlyn says with a smile, trying to not let out a giggle at Vi’s stammering. “You look quite nice yourself.”
“Uh—thanks.”
“Shall we go inside?” Caitlyn asks, gesturing in the direction that Jinx had gone, and Vi quickly nods in response, falling in step as they enter the dance, showing their school ID’s and tickets, their hands only brushing against each other twice.
Caitlyn doesn’t really know what this is. It’s not a date, because Vi had only asked Caitlyn to join the group at the dance and not asked her out specifically. But Caitlyn also feels that she’s made it very clear that she’s only here tonight to be with Vi, and if she’s not mistaken, Vi wouldn’t be against it being a date.
But Caitlyn doesn’t want to assume, because at this point Vi’s friendship means too much to her to mess up. It’s not just because of studying, though she has been doing better on her stats quizzes since working with Vi—it’s Vi’s late night texts, and her laugh when she actually gets Caitlyn’s jokes, and the way she’ll make fun of Caitlyn’s study habits and smile at her softly when driving her home and doodle little cupcakes in the corner of all their shared notes and—
Shit .
Caitlyn realizes with a start that she may like Vi much more than she had thought. More than a simple crush. The beating in her heart is unlike anything she’s ever felt before.
“Cait?” Vi asks, and Caitlyn realizes she’s stopped in the middle of the hallway, with the music blaring loudly in her ears even from a distance. She doesn’t like school dances. She doesn’t know why she’s here. It’s not a date.
Caitlyn blinks a few times to try to tune out the music, facing Vi again. “Yeah? Sorry, I—Let’s go.” She keeps walking, waiting a moment for Vi to follow her again, and turns the corner into the gym where the music is even louder and the lights are even brighter and there are people crowded around everywhere.
“Cait, are you—”
Caitlyn grabs Vi’s hand and walks firmly into the gym, holding her breath as she tries to find a glimpse of Jayce because he’s the tallest of them all. She doesn’t see him. The music is pounding in her ears, or maybe that’s her heart racing, because fuck , she really likes Vi and she sits next to her in stats every day and studies with her at least once a week and shares like four classes with her and—
There’s a tugging on her arm, and she lets it pull her away without paying attention, her mind a blur of people passing by her and flashing lights.
It only clears up once she finds herself outside, breathing fresh air, sitting down with her back against some lockers.
“Hey,” Vi’s voice says, and Caitlyn’s head snaps around to see Vi sitting next to her. She’s missing her jacket—Caitlyn realizes a beat later that it’s around her shoulders. “You good?”
Caitlyn swallows and nods. She’s not. Not really. Vi being so nice about it is only making it worse.
She doesn’t say anything, letting her breathing even out and her vision refocus. Then, she manages, “Dances aren’t really my thing.”
Vi snorts. “Yeah, I figured.”
For some reason, that makes Caitlyn laugh. A short, quick laugh that spirals into another, and then giggles are spilling out of her lips and she’s breathless for an entirely different reason, her head falling back against the locker when she eventually calms down.
“Sorry,” Caitlyn murmurs once it’s over, unsure of what Vi thinks at this point. If she were to ever have tried to make this a date, well—it’s safe for her to assume that now, that opportunity’s gone. “You can go back inside. I’ll call my father and see if he could pick me up.”
“What?” Vi asks, making Caitlyn turn her head around to face her. “‘Course I’m not going back. I can drive you home if you want.”
“But—Vi, really, I’m fine—”
“Dances aren’t my thing either,” Vi says, getting up and holding her hand out for Caitlyn to take. “I’m only here because Vander didn’t want the others to go alone, but they’ll be fine.”
Caitlyn stares at the hand for a moment before taking it, letting Vi help her up. Her breath hitches when she stumbles slightly in her heels, her face just an inch away from Vi’s. Caitlyn pulls back sharply.
“But you can still find Jayce and the others…”
“I’d rather be with you.”
Caitlyn blinks at the admission, looking back up into Vi’s eyes. She searches for some flicker of annoyance, of insincerity, but she doesn’t know why—Vi has always been undoubtedly honest.
“Alright,” Caitlyn says quietly, and Vi offers her a small smile before walking back down the hall. Caitlyn realizes a beat too late that she still hasn’t let go of Caitlyn’s hand.
-
“I’m sorry I made you come to the party,” Vi says once they’re in the car. “I thought—I thought it’d be fun, but I didn’t want—”
“It’s not your fault,” Caitlyn murmurs, pulling Vi’s jacket tighter around her waist. “I still chose to go. I thought—I haven’t gone to one since Freshman year, and I thought it’d be fine.”
Caitlyn thinks she would have been able to tolerate it, had she not been distracted by… other realizations at the same time. Her aversion to music and lights and people isn’t usually so obvious, so all-consuming. She’s gotten better at hiding it.
“Still,” Vi says, turning to face Caitlyn properly. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Caitlyn repeats, but she chooses to look at Vi as well because it seems like they’re not actually leaving. She leans her head on her hand, her elbow on the console. “Really.”
Vi looks so beautiful like this, with the night breeze blowing against a few strands of her hair, and her freckles illuminated by the moonlight. Caitlyn tries not to stare, but she can’t help it; thankfully, Vi doesn’t bother to point it out either.
“Did Powder say anything to you earlier?” Vi asks quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.
Caitlyn’s nose scrunches at the thought of Jinx, but she just shakes her head. “Nothing important. She’s not my biggest fan, you know.”
“She had a rough go of it last year,” Vi shrugs slightly. “I think she might’ve judged a lot of people wrong. But she’ll get over it, eventually—I’m sorry if she’s been bothering you, or anything—”
“Oh, no. No, she’s been… alright, recently. I was—I think we just both got on each others’ nerves a bit last year.”
Vi chuckles, “Yeah, that sounds right. I’m sorry she stole my phone earlier.”
Caitlyn rolls her eyes, about to say again that that obviously wasn’t Vi’s fault, but then her mind shifts back to one of the texts she had gotten from Vi’s siblings earlier—Mylo, probably. “Oh, yeah? Was she the one who called me your girlfriend?”
Vi’s chuckle turns into a cough as she chokes, turning red alarmingly fast. “No—no, that was Mylo. He’s an idiot. Don’t listen to him.”
“Really?”
“ Really.”
Caitlyn’s gaze flickers down to Vi’s lips, and a vague voice in the back of her head reminds her that this was very much not a date, and that she’d probably ruined it all already, if it ever had the chance to be. But Vi’s eyes seem to be asking Caitlyn a question, and her face seems closer than before, and she’s really just so gorgeous and caring and sweet that Caitlyn can’t even understand how she hadn’t realized she was in deep trouble up until now.
Vi exhales shakily. “But—if you wanted…” she whispers, just barely audible, and Caitlyn looks up to her eyes again. “I mean—if I could—if you—”
“Just kiss me, Violet.”
Vi’s eyes widen, and Caitlyn finds a small smile spreading across her face before Vi’s shooting forward, crashing her lips against Caitlyn’s.
It’s better than she could have ever imagined. Vi’s lips are so soft, and Caitlyn finds herself leaning in more, tilting her head and cradling Vi’s jaw with her hand to kiss her deeper.
Caitlyn doesn’t know how a few minutes ago she had been stressed about this—now, she’s here, and Vi’s kissing her, and it feels so natural , so perfect. How could she have thought she had messed this up? How had they not done this before?
When Vi finally pulls back to breathe, Caitlyn gets an even closer view of Vi’s eyes, that powder blue that Caitlyn had recognized from the start, but now she notices some darker blue flecks that Caitlyn can only see up close. And then there’s the scar on her eyebrow, and another on her upper lip that Caitlyn had felt while kissing her. The urge to do so again is so strong that she can’t resist it, meeting Vi’s lips once more in a much softer, slower kiss.
She can feel Vi smile against her lips at a certain point, and then she can’t help herself from smiling as well, and so even though they keep trying to kiss each other again, it devolves into a small giggle spilling from Vi’s lips, and then Caitlyn doing the same.
“So,” Vi says, and it makes Caitlyn laugh all over again at the slight awkwardness in her voice, “You wanna go out sometime?”
Caitlyn rolls her eyes, wondering how someone so wonderful, so kind and smart, could possibly also be this ridiculous. She pulls Vi in by the collar of her shirt, smiling once more against her lips before pulling back to see the stunned look in Vi’s eyes. “Yes, Vi. That would be lovely.”
The dazed smile that breaks out on Vi’s face makes it all worth it.