Chapter Text
Shauna entered the halls of Wiskayok High School ready for another day of complete boredom. No one used to talk to her, not like she wanted them to. Except that now she was practically forced to join the school's journal by the principal, who said she needed an extracurricular activity.
And that's how she met Taissa Turner, a player of the school's soccer team, who's also really popular among the students, she's like a legend to the team, something like that. Shauna always thought athletes, especially popular athletes, were extremely mean and would probably try to make her life miserable, but Taissa is actually pretty chill. She's not a ray of sunshine like her best friend, Van Palmer, also part of the team, which makes Shauna like her a bit better.
The good part about knowing Tai is that now she didn't have to eat lunch in the bathroom because there were no tables available for her to sit alone. So, now, every day, she sits with Taissa, Van, Natalie Scatorccio and Lottie Matthews. She thinks it's a really weird group, considering Taissa and Van are both soccer players, Nat is a junky and Lottie is a cheerleader, but, oh well.
Lottie knows a lot of people, and Shauna thinks that's fascinating. She never even talked to more than 15 people at that school, and Lottie probably has 50 friends just there.
Obviously, Shauna knows everyone at that school, they just don't know her. She remembered watching the cheerleaders walk together for the first time, when Lottie, Mari Ibarra, Laura Lee and Jackie Taylor joined them. She remembered Jackie Taylor very well, how her heart stopped at the sight of her big green eyes and her sweet smile. The smile she gave to Shauna. She thinks she's delusional sometimes, but that smile really seemed directed to her.
"Yes, Travis Martinez!" Shauna went back to reality, not knowing the context of the enthusiastic conversation between Nat and Van.
"No, you're totally lying. I thought Travis was gay!" Van answers her, laughing almost historically, before Tai slapped her shoulder for her to be quieter.
"If he's gay, he's a very good kisser." Nat said, smirking and fidgeting with the lighter she has in her leather jacket's pocket.
Lottie, who was silently eating her lunch, rolled her eyes. No one noticed, but Shauna did. "He can't be that good."
"He's better than Bobby."
"That's not exactly hard, to be fair." Taissa finally manifested.
Shauna usually preferred to not participate in the group's chatter, they knew a lot about each other, things that Shauna didn't even want to know, most times. She feels like an outsider even if she "belongs" now.
Shauna and Taissa enter the room that was assigned for the school's paper, which was basically just a dirty, abandoned room that was unavailable for classes because it's basically falling to pieces.
"I don't understand why we have to come here every single day when there's no news. Wiskayok sucks! And there's, like, 4 members in this club." Shauna complained, only for Taissa to hear, who chuckled a little.
The president of the club is Akilah, who's genuinely really nice, and Misty Quigley. The annoying, obsessed stalker, yes. But she's very useful, given the fact she knows every news around the school.
Shauna hates these hours of the day the most. She'd rather much be in her bedroom, alone, writing in her journal about how much she hates all of this, and not here, listening to Misty talking extremely rapidly about what she found out, most of it being rumors.
On her way out to go home, she meets Nat on the back of the school, where she's smoking. Another one of the 30 cigarettes she smokes every day, Shauna doesn't know how she's still alive. Nat exhales and offers her a drag.
"I don't smoke."
"It's just a cigarette, you look like you probably need it. Did you love hearing Misty for 2 hours?" Nat likes to provoke Shauna the most. The girl barely talks, she's a mystery to everyone, even Tai, and she gets irritated easily.
"I don't want it, do you know how dangerous those things are? No, thanks." Shauna rolled her eyes. Sometimes, she couldn't bear Nat. The girl thinks she's more than she actually is. She doesn't even have a good reputation, Shauna doesn't know why she talks so little of people sometimes.
Nat simply chuckled, she knew Shauna would become furious as soon as she even opened her mouth. "Yeah, well, how's Jackie?"
It was no secret to anyone that Shauna had a small (really big) crush on the cheerleader, but she never actually admitted it. She doesn't talk feelings, it's not her thing. And it's not Nat's thing either.
"How's Mari?"
Nat's smile faded. Mari was sort of a fling she had, Shauna had caught that from one of the conversations at lunch, but then Mari broke things off because they were too different— her being a cheerleader and Nat the town's slut, that is.
"You think you're clever with that one? I'm way over her. And if you keep your eyes on Jackie, you'll end up the same way. She's probably vile underneath the sweet smiles. She'll humiliate you and you'll end up worse than I am."
"That doesn't scare me, bitch." Shauna never really means to be so stupid, but usually the insults just come out of her mouth.
Before she could have a confrontation, she simply left the spot, but as she turned, she could see Nat flipping her off from the corner of her eye.
Unfortunately for Shauna, this week she was with her dad, which means she'll eat pizza every day for dinner. And just as expected, they went to his favorite pizza place to eat. As he was ordering the pizza, Shauna heard a laugh behind her, a laugh she recognized from somewhere.
She turns her head around, and at a circular table, there was Jackie Taylor, laughing like there was no tomorrow. She's leaning against Jeff, his arm wrapped around her waist. Her heart twists a little at the sight and she makes an involuntary eye roll. Mari, Laura Lee and Lottie are also there.
When her dad returns with the pizza, Lottie and Jackie passed through them, headed to the bathroom. On their way out, Lottie notices Shauna and comes talk to her.
"Shauna, hi, I didn't know you were here!" Lottie said with a shy smile, Jackie standing beside her still, for some reason. She could've just walked away.
Shauna felt stupid and disgusting, she had just shoved half a slice in her mouth. She simply waves, trying to swallow as fast as she could.
"Hi, Lottie. And... Jackie, right?" Shauna tries to sound as clueless as she could, like she didn't write about her in her journal every single day.
Jackie nodds, smiling at her. That same smile from the first day they locked eyes. Shauna couldn't help herself but to smile back.
The silence was a bit awkward, so Lottie simply said they should go back to the table before Mari ate all the pizza, and they left.
Shauna lets her head fall against her hands in embarrassment, her ears becoming red. Her dad raises an eyebrow but decides not to mention it.
Shauna went home and felt incredibly stupid for acting like that. Her voice cracked in the one sentence she said, her hair was probably all messy and her mouth corners full of tomato sauce. She's an idiot, now Jackie will never even look at her again.