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faye looks around the cafeteria, something she's done a lot before. she fiddles with her hands slightly as she looks to her side, zoey, the only person who's been there for her, right next to her.
"so, like, it's completely rude of them to like, hate me, right? I mean, jjs understandable. but, seriously? Taylor and casey too?" zoey huffs, ranting as she picks at some gross school food. "ugh, I miss my dads credit card…" she whispers.
faye doesn't hear what zoey says, and responds to her earlier question. rhetorical or not. "yeah, yeah. I didn't really know jj—or casey —but they seemed cool. but of course! you are cool too. that's not what I meant, uhm…."
faye weakly trails off, only then realising that what she said might have been offensive.
"calm down," zoey respectfully puts her hand on fayes shoulder, not tightly, faye could lean away at any time. "you know that I've said things I haven't meant before too? im not gonna be mad at you for calling my old friends cool. yeah…they are cool. just not nice. to me anymore, at least." she reassures before pulling away.
"hey, how's kai?" — zoey says lightly, changing the conversation to more of a casual style. "im assuming he’s called you, yeah? how's the Olympics?" she smiles, trying to get fayes mind off of…everything.
"oh…kai, yeah, I've been meaning to call him." she pauses, swallowing hard, before talking again;looking like a frightened animal. "uhm, would you excuse me? im gonna go...uh, yeah." faye stands up abruptly, Zoey flashes her a glance, but faye ignores it, she also ignores how jj glares at her.
faye walked into the fairly empty hallways, letting out a low sigh as she leaned against one, the cold metal hitting her back through her clothes. slightly grounding, but the harsh white lights blinding her ruined the effect.
"mmh, that's my locker, you know that, right? I mean, basically everything in this school is mine." a voice makes fayes eyes snap open — none other than the queen herself: casey smith.
"yeah, yeah, I know I give you a hard time, im not here for that, honestly, im too tired pretending im not homeless to almost everyone in the school." casey laughs dryly. "ya’know… cause, im the queen?…yeah — okay, anyways." she shifts awkwardly.
after a few silent moments, casey looks at faye. — looks at her. "what's got you looking like a kicked puppy?" she humms quietly, giving faye room to talk.
"i’d…prefer not to talk about it." faye answers back weakly, and a bit too quickly.
"look, I know I can be, ah, what's the word, intimidating? but hey, when its just the two of us — no jj, no Taylor, and for gods sake — no zoey, we don't have to pretend we hate each other. so, go mope around. I won't tell anyone." casey gives faye a confident smile, before walking away — just a few steps later, she cranes her head back to faye.
"no, but seriously, that's my locker. I'll let you borrow it for now, but don't stay there too long." and with one final confident smile, her dimple showing, - she strides off, her kindness not going to be forgotten anytime soon by faye.
Faye nodded softly, gently picking at the skin beside her nails. she slumps down, eventually until she was sitting.
faye wasn't used to having to fight. she wasn't used to popularity. she wasn't used to being in love, and it was hard, — really hard, because all she ever knew was her family — more specifically, her bestfreind, (her brother), and her smarts.
back in her old school, faye never had to compete, at all. although she was basically a nepo baby, she was a nerd, with her blonde ginger-ish hair and slightly pink-dusted cheeks.
she was fine with that life, truly, but she always wanted to try something else out, something bigger. something that shone more, so, she didn't expect it would ever actually happen.
when they were getting ready to move, kai and fayes parents had said gently;"carry the boxes to the car, if you do, we’ll get some fast food on our way to the new city." faye and kai, obviously eager, started carrying the boxes like nobodys business.
as faye and kai took a slight break, kai broke the silence.
they were both sitting against the brick wall of their technically "former" home.
"you know you can kinda reinvent yourself now, right?" he looks over at her, that protective, brotherly look in his eyes, like he was tired of faye being miserable from not being herself. he shifted on the grass, looking more at her.
"ya’know, cut your hair short. maybe dye it. experiment with your style. im sure you could figure something out." he smiles. "you’d be cool. I mean, you already are, but like, you’d be extra-extra cool."
"ah, like you're planning on doing at the olympics?" she teases, looking up at her brother, slightly scared of him leaving, but not bringing it up. this isn't the time for it.
"har-har, so funny Fayfay." he sarcastically laughs. "dunno. I mean, I guess. whatever I do will be true to myself, right? plus, its a while’s away. I'll still be helping you navigate the school for the first few weeks, yeah? and its only training after all." he nudges her shoulder.
"Mm, yeah, sounds nice. I'll miss you." she pauses, before smiling back. "but let's keep lifting boxes so we can get that food." she giggles, nudging him back, with a bit more power,
"you bet," he springs up, immediately running to the driveway and picking up a box, he carries it to the back of the moving van and sets it down with a thump.
"I think that's the last one," he says confidently, panting slightly from the excessive weight of the boxes. "why are we so rich? can't we have like, less stuff?" he laughs.
—
when they got there, things were quite different. kai stuck true to his promise, helping her figure out her sense of style, cutting her hair for her — and dying it, while, in all, teasing her like a good brother does.
but when she walked in that hallway, and she saw Zoey, she wanted to run back to her nepo-baby-nerd-life.
days after that, she tried to convince herself she wasn't inlove with one of the most popular girls. she couldn't be, she's taken.
fayes starting to miss her simple life.
she closes her eyes, bringing her knees up to her chest solemnly as she could feel her eyes glisten with tears, She stands up quickly, walking to the bathroom as she shuts the door, she couldn't cry in the middle of a hallway.
it wasn't a good bathroom, not even really clean at all, but it was quiet, and none of the popular girls were there, so that's all she needed.
she groans when the door opens. she quickly wipes away her tears, and trys to steady her breathing, which, since she's gotten there, has rapidly quickened.
"why can't I not get a moment of rest in this school?" she whines, not even turning her head to see who it is.
"yeah, its a bummer, i’d know." Zoey giggles warmly, walking up to fayes side.
"I knew something was up when you left during lunch. I actually went against everything that's good for and asked casey where you were." zoey smiles softly, putting her hand comfortingly on fayes arm.
"yeah. you never mentioned she was secretly nice," faye laughs against quick breaths.
"Mm, yeah, guess I was spoiled with her being nice to me because she is — was, my best friend. forgot she's not nice to just everyone." zoey fidgets slightly with her own ginger hair, a defense mechanism. "you okay?" she nudges slightly, letting faye talk on her own time, but keeping her tone light.
"yeah, um, —" faye cuts herself off, forcing her tears not to spill any more than they already have.
zoey swallows quickly, moving her hand up to run through fayes hair, gently bringing her down onto the floor of the restroom.
"hey, hey," she coos slightly, wrapping her arm around faye, "is this about kai?" she humms softly.
"kinda — I don't know, its about alot of things, I thought this school would be a new fresh start, but, now almost everyone hates us, and I don't have my brother to help me, — I don't know what im doing wrong." faye finally sobs, breaking down in her girlfriends arms. trusting & vulnerable.
"yeah, well, when you put it that way, it doesn't sound that good." zoey giggles nervously, — a reflex, realising that faye was actually finally opening up to her. "but, hey, you have me, right? you have *me*. and, yeah, kai is gone, and we screwed up, right? but we already messed up big time — and there's no fixing that, but atleast when we make tiny mistakes, it doesn't seem that big." she speaks softly to faye, a tinge of blush on both of their cheeks.
"look, I don't know exactly what you’re feeling, or thinking, but I'll stay with you. okay?" Zoey lets faye rest her forehead on her shoulder.
faye sniffles, still breathing quickly. after a few minutes — maybe 5, she calms down. "prove-it kiss?"
zoey chuckles. "yeah, prove-it kiss." she leans in, kissing faye sweetly.
"now, i’d say we should get up from this god-forsaken dirty floor, and you can order us some food because your parents don't mind, eh?" she teases.