Chapter Text
If there was one thing that Harley dreaded more than anything, it absolutely had to be school or an obnoxiously loud morning. Unfortunately for her, both often made reocurring apperances in her everyday life. She sighed, sinking into the chair opposite of her bed.
The first day back after break practically demanded chaos. Tracking down the twins shoes, helping Rachel straighten her hair, gathering miscellaneous trash on the floor that suspiciously resembled her Slam Dunk manga smothered in peanut butter... you could say she was prepared for the worst.
Attempting to scramble eggs while simultaneously gathering Daphne’s mussed up hair in a ponytail proved to be a mission in its own league. The girl couldn’t sit still without squirming and kicking for the life of her. Siblings shoved passed each other, Lewie’s forehead meeting the wall. Ethan called out for the millionth time, asking where his guitar pick went without regarding the fact that it was only 7:30 and no one had time for his nonsense.
Harley barked. “I told you already, you dont need it at school!”
“Yeah but-“
“Go ask Beast!”
Harley bumped past two of her siblings on the way to her shared room, while munching on a boiled egg. Only a foot in, Harley eyed Georgie scratching her back with Harley’s brush. “What are you doing?”
The older girl looked at her as if the answer was obvious. “You know that back scratches help with my eye twitches,” Chided Georgie, totally unfazed.
“Can you not? I literally use that like, everyday.”
Georgie muttered to herself incoherently, before returning to her backpack, stuffing in anything that crossed her line of sight. Rachel shook her head disapprovingly. Apparently, a large red clock and two Nightwing action figures were also required at school, as Georgie seemed hell bent on fitting them in the enclosed space.
Eventually the house began to clear. Dad grabbed his keys, pulled the younger three kids out the door, and into his car. Mom followed with armfulls of potplants. Not long after, Rachel hitched a ride from Malia; Georgie mounted her bike. Finally, Ethan cave-manned his skateboard, swerving hectically over the driveway and onto the sidewalk, leaving Harley all on her lonesome.
Harley allowed herself a moment’s peace, taking her time to touch up and slick her hair back in a neat ponytail, before making her way down the flight of stairs and out the door. She twisted the key on the way out, hoping that today would at least be productive. She had been procrastinating a lot lately. Especially when it came to her inventions.
——
Arriving at school was the easy part. Enduring it was a whole nother thing.
Harley could already feel her eyes droop slightly, letting a soft yawn escape her lips while she marched on. She attended homeroom and was heading to math. The bell pierced through the air, a reminder that intervals between classes only lasted about five minutes. A drilling headache made itself at home. This was a pre-determined bad omen. ‘Great,” she thought to herself. ‘I just got here and I already feel like a zombie.’
Harley slid into the desk, flipped through the pages of her textbook idly, landing on a page filled with dense blocks of text.
“Alrighty grade 10. I’m Mr Perryn, your math teacher. Lets begin. When I call on you—in the name of tradition—tell me something about yourself. Who doesn’t love a good old ice-breaker on the first day back?
The class collectively groaned at the mention of an ice-breaker. Today seemed like one of those days. One of those days where life was adamant on denying even a sliver of hope that maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad. Even the class appeared weary. Guess she wasn’t entirely alone on that one. Abruptly, a familiar voice cut through Harley’s sleep deprived daze and she met the face of a boy, two feet taller than her.
“Miss me, flea-az?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Harley rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose in dissaproval. Of course she was stuck with Aidan again. The guy she had spent the whole summer trying not to think about. The one she had spent months pining over without his knowledge. She supposed the universe had a sick sense of humour. It explained why her skin was burning crimson.
Aidan helped himself to the seat beside her, readjusting the sleeves of his sweater. He flashed his canines, twisting the rest of his body to face her.
Mr Perryn continued will roll call. “Leka Fotuaika?”
“Here.”
“Remember, one fact about yourself,” added Mr Perryn.
“I hate pears.”
“Kodee Mcallister-Sakuragi?”
“Here. Um, when I was six, a basketball hit my face and ruined my teeth.”
Aidan whipped a packet from his pocket, arm out-stretched encouragingly. “Laffy Taffy?”
“Nah. It’s only 9:15.”
“Your face is all crunched up. You look like you could use one,” he grinned, posture relaxing.
Harley scoffed, arms crossing over her chest. “Sorry,” she supplied, “I’m not in the mood for diabetes.” Her gaze fixed on the whiteboard, deliberately avoiding Aidan’s deep brown eyes.
He reached into the packet of candy, took one out, and laced it with noodle seasoning. “Suit yourself,” he shrugged. Around him, Harley and two other classmates physically cringed.
“Okay, that is disgusting. Candy and noodle seasoning?”
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m not smiling.”
“Ehhh... you are.”
“So what?”
“So... nothing.” Aidan started to laugh, the muffled it with his fist, disguising it as a cough. “It’s just... you’re doing that thing you do, and it’s messing up your stuff.” He chuckled once more.
“What thing?”
“That thing.” He gestured to the pen between her fingers. She paused, staring at the violent scrawl of script between her hand and the page. He wasn’t wrong. That so called ‘thing’ he was reffering to, was really one of her nervous habits. But he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know why she was nervous. She hadn’t been looking while writing, and now there were jumbled words and numbers all across the paper. “You should pay attention more, Díaz.” Aidan cocked his head to the side, tauntingly.
“Shut up.”
Harley bit back her growing smile, forcing her head away. Sometimes she really didn’t know what she saw in him. Up until late last year, he was just an ordinary, annoying, obnoxiously loud teenager. Just her best friend’s cousin. Just her neighbour. Her enemy. Her very... cute enemy.... ‘Get a grip, Harley,’ she muttered to herself.
Mr Perryn kept on, “Harley Díaz.”
“What? Oh- here.”
“And?” The teacher pushed.
“And... I have six siblings.”
Pleased, he called on another few students before beginning the lesson.
The class had managed to prolong their engagement with the work for about ten minutes. The quiet murmurs of the class enveloped them like a thick cloak. At some point, Aidan stopped pretending to take notes and instead, snatched Harley’s pencil.
She turned, face painted with a scowl. “Hand it over.”
“Hand what over?” Aidan asked in mock innocence. He shrugged like he hadn’t the slightest idea what she was referring to.
“Your not funny.” She threw an eraser at him, who ducked it from months of practice. “Where did you put it?”
He grinned, about to use the one-liner he’d been hoping would come in handy. “Did you check your butthole?”
“Do you want me to break our fence again?”
Completely ignoring her question, he rolled the pencil between his fingers, clearly amused by Harley’s annoyance. The steam piping out her ears was almost tangible. “You’re kinda cute when you’re mad,” he quipped, leaning in to mock her.
“Yeah?” Harley shifted her position, making herself increasingly more intimidating, although there was a huge height difference between the two. “Well I’m about to get real adorable.” She shot her arm out to grab at Aidan’s school bag in an attempt at a stalemate.
Then, a tallish-wide silhouette stood afront of them.
“Look guys. Yeah. Hormones. They suck,” he paused to look between the pair. “But c’mon. Save the flirting for later.”
Harley was already defending herself. “But Sir, we weren’t-“
“Yeah next time—detention. Got it?”
“Yes, Mr Perryn.”
The teacher sighed, pointing his body to Aidan. “You too.”
“Fair.” Aidan fiddled with his hands. “Sorry Sir, wont happen again.”
The whole ordeal drew a chuckle from the crowd of peers. Harley was blushing amber, hands covering her slightly ajar mouth. She stole a few glances at the boy beside her to gauge his reaction—who for some odd reason—had taken to an extensive sudden interest in his palms. He seemed quiet. Uncharacteristicly so. Maybe even embarrassed. But why was he blushing? Who cared. It’s not like she did. She definitely did not care at all.
“What, Harley?”
“Now you’re the one doing that thing.” She bumped him on the shoulder.
“What thing?”
Her finger shot out to point at his hands that were now drumming on the desk like a soldier marching home. “That thing.” She smiled, “For the record, I totally won.”
“Right.”
Eventually, the pair cut the teacher some slack. The rooms bustling and booming, reducing to a quiet hum. Mr Perryn waved dramatically in front of the board, going on and on about congruent and similar shapes. What could possibly be so intriguing about geometry that would result in a full on rant about the damn thing? Whatever, at least Harley was focussing.
In all honesty, Aidan wanted Harley to be distracted. Distracted by anything. So much so, that she wouldn’t clock how much his eyes sought her out in this very room. She was enamouring. Her honey-brown skin, freckled with specks of coffee. ‘Stop, no. Thats Flea-az,’ he frowed, as if the thought itself were contagious. ‘Seriously, snap out of it.’
Truly, Aidan was utterly encaptured by Harley the first day that they met. She was devastatingly pretty and inconcievably smart. Ellie had told him about her before he moved in with her, but he never anticipated Harley making a home for herself under his skin. It scared him sometimes. How easily she could undo him with just one smile. How she bled into everything he touched. So instead he cowered around it. He hid behind snarky remarks and infuriating habits, praying desperately that she wouldn’t catch on to how his heart pounded uncomfortably warm—almost fearfully. Gosh, this was pathetic. She could never know.
——
After English, Gym and Science, a collective relief spread throughout the student body. Voices rose, chairs scraped and you could feel the pitter patter of feet throughout the hallway.
Ellie attached to Harley’s hip on sight and they walked down the rather lively hall to the cafeteria, where laughter and footsteps blended together into one un-harmonious song.
“So,” Ellie announced, grabbing Harley’s hand and weaving through the crowd. “For lunch, I’m feeling a chicken sub and a Fuze tea.”
“No chocolate?”
“Always chocolate. I just dunno which to get.”
The cafeteria welcomed the two with high volume chatter and the unmistakeable screeching of chairs. Banners and posters for various extra-curricular clubs adorned the walls and bulletin boards while long white tables stretched across the ever increasingly full building. A wafting smell of toast and feet blanketed the room, many pupils scrunching their faces in disgust. The pair sat together in the back and the background noises faded mute.
Ellie placed her forearms on the table, excitedly, swaying back n’ forth, like a child who had just been offered cotton candy. Well technically, she was still a child, but that was besides the point.
“Harls! I have so much to tell you,” squealed Ellie, jumping up and down like an electrified cat. She took a sip of her peach fuze tea, slamming her palms on the surface of the table, and intensively locked eyes with Harley. “Aidan likes someone!”
Harley practically choked on her sandwich, hand in a fist as she broke out into a fit of coughs. Her entire face turned a deep scarlet, and she wondered if anyone could hear her heart pound faster.
“You, uh...” Harley rested her arms on the table cooly—trying and failing disastrously—to act like she didn’t care. “You said he likes someone?”
Ellie paused, noting the change in Harley’s tone. Although her face remained a constant fixture of neutrality, Ellie knew that there was something suspicious about the latter’s curious demeanour. She tilted her head slightly, evaluating every detail of her face. “Yeah. He likes someone.”
“How d’you know?”
Ellie tried hard to pinpoint what exactly, Harley was hiding. Though she had a good idea on what it was. “Well... I overheard Ethan and Aidan this morning, by the lockers.” She very un-subtlety glanced at Harley every few seconds. “Ethan was all like, ‘Just tell her,” and Aidan was all like, “Nah. It’s gonna ruin everything.’ Crazy right?”
“You’re so right. This is totally crazy,” added Harley in an overly monotonous tone. Emphasis on monotonous. Ellie could tell she was tryna play this thing cool. Harley’s fingers tensed at the edge of the table.
A moment passed before Ellie spoke again. She slammed her drink down, and leaned closer, voice lowering to a whisper. She wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed, but she could tell when her BFF was- “Harley, I know you still like Aidan.”
Ellie fixed her eyes on Harley, daring her to speak. She had embarrassment painted into every detail of her features. Harley told her last year that she didn’t care for Aidan anymore. Yeah right. She sighed. Hard. The kind that could extinguish candles.
Harley dragged a hand down her face, attempting to smother any emotions from surfacing. “Thats not-“ she began, but stopped herself. The lie caught in her throat. Her fingers tightened around the table once again; her pulse thundered in her ears. ‘Oh poop,’ she thought. ‘Ellie’s good.’
She fought back the urge to bolt out the cafeteria and dash home, but she supposed there was no getting out of this situation. It was better to get it done sooner than later since Ellie had a tendency to bring up topics like this at the worst possible times. Worst possible times equals worst possible outcomes. So reluctantly, she craned her head up, bracing herself for the extremely humiliating conversation heading her way.
“You know I’m not gonna tell Aidan, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, whats wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Harls, C’mon.”
“This is so embarrassing!”
Ellie frowned, sending her a look or pure puppy pity. She snaked her fingers around Harley’s. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
Harley buried her face in her hands once more, groaning into her sleeve. “Why does he have to like someone? Seriously! I spent the whole summer trying to not like him, while he’s out here all, ‘I like someone else!’ Come on!”
‘Ohohoho! She still likes him too!’ Thought Ellie, as if she hadn’t known this already. But this was interesting. She was fully invested. Ellie had known, since last year, that Harley liked Aidan and vise versa. She found out about Aidan liking Harley, back when she accidentally eavesdropped on the boys at a sleepover with Harley. She’d heard him mention how he would’ve asked her out already, if she didn’t hate him or weren’t so stubbornly busy all the time. Ellie snorted, just thinking about it. The joke was on him. Aidan didn’t know what Ellie knew. Well actually, the joke was on her. It was so utterly exhausting watching those two dance around their feelings all day. This wasn’t a disco for Pete’s sake. And no, just because Harley was Ellie’s BFF, didn’t mean that she was about to out her cousin to her. That would be a next level low. Ellie refused to steep to Aidan’s level. Besides, she knew firsthand that pushing these two would only make them take so much longer than necessary. They had already wasted six months, last year.
“Harley, have you ever tried, y’know, asking him to hangout?”
Harley looked at her with absolute distaste. “Ask him to hangout? Ellie, he totally hates me. I’m like the cat to his mouse. And you just said that he likes someone else anyways. No can do, girl.” Harley made an ‘X’ symbol with her arms, in a small act of rebellion.
Yeah. Ellie guessed she should’ve saw this coming. Bringing up that Aidan likes someone to the girl he likes who also happens to like him back? Sometimes, she really wished she could just shut her mouth. “Fine Harls. Don’t ask him. But you can’t just sit around waiting for love. For all we know, he could like you.” Ellie nodded to herself as Harley winced at the word love. She straightened her sweater, as if needing something to physically anchor herself before speaking.
“He doesn’t.” She got a far-off, thoughful look in her eyes. “I just know.”
‘Oh girl, if only you did know,’ Ellie thought to herself. She crossed from the other side of the table, plopping into the chair next to Harley with an exaggerated sigh. The space between them shrank to nothing as Ellie’s arms snaked around Harley’s like a boa constrictor. “Hey, maybe let’s just... forget about it for today,” hushed Ellie. “We could go to the park after school?”
Harley nodded. A desperate pull seemed to tear through her from the inside. Yet, if something abnormal happened, it hadn’t left any visible trace on her. Her fingers folded together in deliberate precision. It kept her steadily grounded. “Sorry, Ellie. I can’t. The Laundro-mate waits for none. I appreciate it though.”
“Eh. Was worth a shot. But... those new trucks we ordered... they came in! Tomorrow, you have to come over and try them with me!”
“Duh! First rule of being besties and neighbours!”
——
Harley sat stiffly on the wobbly wooden chair, wrench heavy in her hand. Her bedroom was engulfed in a familiar haze, barely broken by the bluish-black light filtering through the low window by Rachel’s bed. Scattered on her desk were various parts and trinkets for her latest invention. An over-sized hoodie sat by her feet, to which she kicked aside. Constant mess was guaranteed for all inventors, and it was a given—living in the Díaz house and all.
The Laundro-mate’s main function was to half the time it would take to fold clean laundry. It was originally one of Dad’s old brief cases that had fallen victim to Lewie and Beast. But now, it was in the process of being repurposed by none other than Harley herself.
The concept was that it would fold out flat from all sides and you would spread out your shirts, tops, sweaters, hoodies, or anything else on top of it. It was supposed to fold in on itself, sleeves first. Then, it would press the garment in half, horizontally, leaving the item folded perfectly. Genius right? Harley even ordered extra hydraulics for this very invention. Only problem was, whatever rags went on, they flew straight off. Like toast flinging out of a toaster! But not in a good way.
Harley worked her way around this issue for days, but nothing was working. Nothing! She suspected it had to that damned wire that kept poking out—no matter how many times she re-tightened it. What a pain.
Across the room, Georgie lay fast asleep, sleep-talking every few minutes. Her leg sticking out like a rocket taking to the sky. Thankfully, Rachel wasn’t there. She would’ve pointed at her with an exagerated grimace, all too willing to yell and wrestle about losing beauty sleep. Hypocrite.
When Rachel reaches a perfect slumber, the whole house knows. Rachel snores like a divorced 45-year-old man with an alcohol adiction. You wouldn’t want to witness it.
Oh no! The Laundro-mate! It let out a loud clang, threatening to wake Georgie. Thin wisps of steam curled out of the cracks and crevices like cigarette smoke. The smell of burning plastic and faulty wires, sharp on Harley’s nose. ‘Come on!’ Harley internally cursed. When you’re a Díaz kid you’re always explaining yourself. How would Harley explain this?
She stood abruptly, knocking a few of Geogie’s TMNT figures while she was at it. Her frustration was growing furiously. Why couldn’t this family just pick up their stuff? Annoyed, she ensured the device would not blow up in her face and pushed aside to the rest of the parts for later. She crawled out the window by Rachel’s empty bed, awkwardly planted on the house’s roof. At least now, she couldn’t clock the smell of the Laundro-mate’s smoke and Georgie’s feet. She didn’t even want to THINK about her failure. Instead she focused on the night sky.
Low hanging clouds filtered the deathly pale moonlight. The breeze lifted a few strands of Harley’s velvety, dark brown hair. The garden was deserted at that hour, which was in her favour. No squawking twins around meant yes to stargazing. If only it weren’t for those blasted clouds blocking the way. No matter. The air smelled of Star Jasmine (from the garden), dampened earth, and something else... contained electricity. Odd. Maybe it was going to rain soon?
Whatever. Harley grabbed her phone-sized notebook from her pocket, scribbling in five things she could see, four things she could feel, 3 things she could hear, two things she could smell, and one thing she could taste. Just like the school councillor had taught all the juniors the year before.
Harley’s list:
See: Mom’s flowers. Broken pool noodle. Moon. Aidan’s lacrosse ball. Overgrown weeds. Grey clouds.
Feel: Rooftop tiles under me. Wind. Pen. Hair in my face.
Hear: Wind (again). Morepork. Far away cars.
Smell: Dirt. Star Jasmine.
Taste: My mouth? Idk.
Harley placed the notepad down.
Whenever Harley wasn’t hanging out with Ellie or cleaning up after messy siblings who would jump at the chance to blame anything on her, she’d usually spend her time inventing. Typically, her knowledge on electronics and broken objects bid her well. One glance at an object; a vague once over of it’s frame and Harley already knew exactly what the issue causing disruptions was. It had earned her quite the reputation as a handy-man. Or handy-girl. Or handy-woman. But today was like she’d had a lobotomy. She recalled the way the smoke had spurred up in her face like a failing ute motor. Pathetic. She paled. Once again, the memory of her disastrous creation flashed a searing burn of inadequacy as her already honey-brown eyes appeared to darken further. Today was not it.
“Hey, Harls!” Her neighbour’s voice snapped her out of her gloomy daze. The boy frowned up at her, part disturbed, part concerned. “You Look like Elsa up there. Gonna invite me up, or am I gonna have to invite myself?”
Reluctantly, she shuffled off to the side as Aidan gripped onto the pipe, hauling himself up to the roof like a burglar. He sure looked the part. His hair was all mussed up like he’d lost a fight to his pillow. Shrugging off the puffer he had on, he placed it on Harley’s shoulders as he sat beside her. He noted how her eyes, pretty as lotus petals, were slightly lidded.
“You okay?
At first she didn’t answer, picking at the flimsy pyjama buttons on her top. He shifted slightly, clutching his knees to his chest. “Harls?”
“Hm?”
“You okay?”
Harley exhaled, already exhausted. The world seemed to shrink by a few centimetres. “I think it’s just school.” She brushed a few strands out of her face, peering through her lashes to look at Aidan.
“Oh.” The midnight air was icy, but not enough to numb the warm pressure that started under his sternum and spread like shivers throughout his body. This close, he could see a faint constellation of freckles littered across the bridge of her nose. Would it be weird if he started counting them? He pushed aside his thoughts at the memory that Harley probably took his zoned-out silence, for awkwardness. “So. Do you always sit out here like a gargoyle when you’re tired, or just today?”
She chuckled, but then frowned at herself as she recalled her desk area being clouded by smoke. “Mm no, just today. I botched an invention real bad. It looked like there was a smoke machine in my room.” She shook her head at herself.
“You don’t say. I coulda sworn that smell was my Aunt Bethany making kale chips again.” Aidan grimaced. He got a violent memory of the last time he ate one of Bethany’s questionable provisions.
Harley was still as a statue. It was unlike her and somewhat concerning. Her usual spirited aura, now displaced by a reserved wall. The silence between Harley and Aidan was thick enough to feel like a third presence. This felt like something he wasn’t meant to witness. Despite Harley probably just being tired, Aidan still felt compelled to comfort her. Even if he didn’t know how.
Her features hardened for a moment... then softened. “Why are you here?”
“What?”
“Why did you come here, Aidan?”
Aidan opened his mouth. Closed it. For a single horrible second, Harley sat frozen watching him. “I- I dunno.” He sat up straight, letting his arms cross over his torso before straightening his back and facing Harley yet again. His heartbeat quickened at the memory of her proximity. “I guess you just seemed off. Earlier at lunch, I mean.”
“I was with Ellie at lunch.”
“You realise that our tables were next to each other, right?”
“Oh.” If Aidan had heard Her and Ellie’s discussion earlier, she would be sure to go for a nice long walk tomorrow. Off a bridge. “You didn’t hear what we were talking about, did you?,” she grumbled through chattering teeth, making an effort to avoid his eyes.
Surely he couldn’t have heard anything over the loud booming of the cafeteria, aye? And if he had, Harley could come up with a plausible excuse to placate his already inflated ego. Or not. Telling someone you don’t like them can be humiliating. Even if they don’t like you back. Maybe something along the lines of, ‘Oh, I meant that you’re a great lacrosse player,’ or, ‘You’re like a brother to me’. Yeah... no. Aidan could be rude and stupid and ignorant and pushy and annoying but he wasn’t stupid. He would see right through her lies and she would never live this down. That was her second worst nightmare. First would be getting her eyebrows shaved like Ethan and Georgie.
“No, but now that you mention it, there anything you wanna tell me, Díaz?” He playfully nudged her on the shoulder, grinning like he’d won a game of pinochle against her.
“Shut up.” She nudged him back. Looking at her watch, she stood up and brushed down her top. “It’s getting late. You should probably go.”
“Yeah.” Aidan stood too. He launched off the roof and onto the trampoline, wincing from the ground shock. “Night, Harls.”
“Whatever, Aidan.” She waved goodbye.
Harley crawled off Rachel’s bed and sat onto her’s. From inside her pocket, she pulled out her small notepad once more. She opened it, and under her list from before, she began to write:
Aidan just sat with me on the roof. It was... enjoyable.