Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Nicole's Fault"

That's all it said.

Nicole looked at the suicide note, than back at her father, head blown off by a shotgun. She looked at the note once again, tears welling in her eyes.

But only one came out.

One tear, small and insignificant, fell down her cheek and landed on the top of the note. She wanted to cry more, but her body wouldn't let her. Nicole stood up, the smell of copper seeping around to other portions of the house. Nicole didn't understand why her father blamed her for his suicide, but it could've been worse.

He could have said it was Nathaniel's Fault.

God, she hated that name. She hated how it stood for her past and how it stood for her body, the one that she could never get out of. Nicole was not always Nicole. She was born Nathaniel Wilson on April 7th, 1991. Her father and mother got a divorce when she was 4 years old, and ever since then life had been a downwards spiral. She was forced to live with her mother and brother since her father couldn't pay child support. Her mother, desperate to get more money, married another man soon after. They quickly divorced, and she moved on to another man. This went on until she had divorced her 8th husband. Every divorce, every heartbreak from her mother, she was forced to move to some god awful school on the east coast. She spent kindergarten in North Carolina, first grade in Florida, second and third in Atlanta, fourth and fifth in fucking VERMONT of all places, sixth in South Carolina, seventh in Southern Virginia, eighth in West Virginia. Finally, right before ninth grade, her mother swore off ever marrying another man and moved back into Georgia. She was nowhere near Atlanta, which kinda sucked because she was hoping that maybe someone from second grade would recognize her, but she remembered that she didn't really make any friends back in elementary or middle school.

Except for one.

When she was forced to live in Vermont, she had actually made a friend. She could still remember her name. Emily Hall. She was blonde with blue eyes and didn't give a fuck what anyone thought of her. Nicole thought she was cool, so they started hanging out. It was around this time where Nicole really began to sit and think about if she actually liked being a boy. She did not, and didn't know what to do. So she talked to Emily, who said that it was cool as fuck that she could end up a girl like her and wanted to start by giving her a new name. She wrote down some and said to come back tomorrow with one picked out. Unfortunately, her mother had gotten another divorce and didn't tell her they were moving that night. That turned out to be a very bad idea, and Nicole almost ran away until her brother grabbed her and forced her into the car. So she never got to tell Emily her new name. In fact, she didn't decide on a new name until seventh grade, where she found that paper stuffed inside of her old guitar. She looked through the names and her eyes fell on one name that was accidentally written twice by Emily.

"Nicole"

She looked at the name over and over again until she knew that that was who she wanted to be. She didn't want to be Nathaniel. She wanted to be Nicole. However, with her mother still trying to find her one true love, she didn't tell her until the start of ninth grade. Well, she didn't tell her because when she tried nothing would come out of her mouth, so her dad did. She had told him a couple days prior about what she truly felt, and was surprised when her father hugged and comforted her. He had grown in Arkansas, she thought he would kill her on the spot. Instead, he helped her tell her mother, who was also surprisingly fine with it, and a couple months later they had started getting hormones to start her transition. The only one in the family who wasn't ok with her being trans was her brother, but he was in the basement all the time, he wouldn't even have to see her. She had been on hormones a little over a year when it happened.

The incident.

Her body wouldn't even let her talk about what happened, and her mother was so horrified that she decided to move right there on the spot. They had found a decent place in Lake Braddock, Virginia, about 15 miles outside Washington D.C. She asked her mom if she could say goodbye to her father, who agreed. She walked to the other side of the neighborhood where her father lived and was just about to open the door when she heard a loud bang come from inside. She kicked down the door, which didn't take too long considering it was unlocked, ran into the kitchen, and found her father with a missing head and a shotgun by his side. She stood there for a few moments, taking in the gory scene right in front of her, and looked at the fridge. Right there, stuck to the fridge with a Cookie Monster magnet, was his suicide letter. All it said,

"Nicole's Fault"

She went and called 911 on the phone after regaining some composure. The called ringed twice and then someone picked up.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"My dad killed himself."

"Excuse me, what?"

"My. Dad. Killed. Himself."

"...Okay, stay there, we're sending someone your way, where do you live?"

She told the dispatcher her dad's address, and about 10 minutes later an ambulance and a cop car arrived. They went and helped her out of the house and called her mom, who came about 2 minutes later bawling her eyes out. She immediately went and hugged Nicole as hard as she could, and they stayed there for a couple of minutes. The EMT's had brought out the body in a body bag, while another police car had shown up. She watched as they entered and exited the house with one question on her mind.

"What did I do?" 

She didn't understand why her father, who had been completely normal since she moved back to Georgia, would kill himself and blame her. Her mind raced with ideas. Was it because she was trans? No, her father didn't deadname her on the note. Was it to get back at her mom? No, they had somewhat repaired their relationship the last couple years. Not enough to ever want to be romantically involved with one another, but enough to tolerate each other's presence. Was it because he thought that everything he had done in life was a failure. No, he didn't put any mention of her brother.

Fuck, why did he kill himself?

That thought lingered in the back of her mind for days until they finally moved into their new house near Lake Braddock Secondary School. She then had to wait a entire month before she could leave the house and start her junior year of high school. But she still couldn't believe that her deathly loss was real. She couldn't stand the hell she felt. But she would just have to bottle it up, like she had done with all her emotions after her father decided to paint his kitchen blood red. She woke up on the first day of school with only one goal for the remainder of her high school years.

No one could know anything about her.

Chapter Text

"Won't you believe it? It's just my luck."

Those words were on repeat as Nicole walked to her first day of junior year. Nicole usually didn't tell a lot of people about her music taste. Whenever she talked about it, some degenerate virgin with more grease in their hair than a fucking Super-Sized McDonald's meal would call her a mainstream poser for actually liking and listening to Nirvana or Metallica. Anything from Bleach (Besides About A Girl), however, usually had people back off on those comments. It didn't matter, she connected her earbuds to her iPod so no on but her could listen. As she walked to school she thought about how exactly to make sure personal details don't get out. About 15 minutes before the bell rung Nicole had arrived. She entered through the cafeteria doors and saw about 75 people sitting around and talking. She walked past and went into the hallway to look for her first class. Compared to some of the other schools she went to, it was quite large. As she was walking she saw a fairly tall jock say something about their senior prank for the year.

"Hey, so for the senior prank this year, what if we, like, parked our cars where we don't usually park them!"

A girl with very red hair responded nervously to him.

"Oh my god, that is like, so funny."

"Heh, yeah, math class with Mr. Burleday, huh, yeah like, fuck Mr. Burleday dude!"

Nicole turned off her music and walked past somewhat annoyed and made an off-hand comment on the situation.

"God they are never funny. It's like the girls just laugh to avoid sexual assault."

Another guy, shorter and definitely NOT a jock came up to her to talk. She knew all he was doing was trying to flirt, so she decided to lead him on a little. Maybe it'll help sell the fact that she was a real woman.

"Hey yo, you new to this educational prison?"

Nicole gave out a fake laugh and answered back sarcastically.

"Wow, yeah, that was funny."

"Yeah, I'm getting into like humor and stuff. Anyway, you know anyone around here? Know where your classes are?"

"I mean kinda, there's like numbers on the doors, I think I can figure it out."

She knew he was just trying to flirt with her in the hopes that since he was the one to talk with the new girl first, he would have an advantage in getting with her. Nicole had seen this play out before. It hadn't happened to her, but she saw how boys would try to flirt with the new girl. He also didn't get the hint that Nicole wanted to end the conversation, and continued to annoy her.

"No no no no no, I could show you around. Like a school tour? You wanna do that? You up for that?"

Nicole realized she needed to end the conversation in a way that he would understand, because apparently he couldn't understand sarcasm.

"School tour, that sounds nicely mediocre but I'm just gonna go to class, see ya."

"Oh, well yeah I'm Crispin by the way. Yeah, we should hang out sometime. Yeah okay! Alright bye yeah!"

Nicole went to her first 2 classes. Nothing of note happened, which was good for Nicole, as she didn't want to deal with anyone after talking to that kid Crispin. After her second class she went to the cafeteria for lunch. Well, at least it was supposed to be lunch. She didn't feel like eating so she just sat down at a random table. She was looking through her iPod for a song when a girl with blonde hair and gold eyes came up to the table. 

"Hey, is anyone sitting here?"

"Uhh, no, go on ahead."

The girl sat down and started talking with her.

"So what's your name?"

"Nicole."

"That's a nice name, I'm Jecka."

"Jecka, that's a unusual name."

"It's short for Jessica, not that unusual."

"Why do you not go by Jessica?"

"Because it's a name that screams married at twenty."

"I understand. So how've you been?"

"As good as I can. I just got out of Chemistry, god my lab partner is such a fucking loser."

"How so?"

"He wouldn't shut up about this new DLC thing that's coming out, like bitch do I look like someone who knows what a DLC is? After that, he changed the conversation to about how Mountain Dew makes guys sterile."

"He's desperate, every guy I've known goes to that fact when they have nothing to say."

"I know, at least he shut up halfway through the class."

"Well I'm happy for you about that. On a related note, I also had to deal with some annoying dude earlier."

"Really? What was he like?"

"He said that this was an 'educational prison' and then when he didn't get that I wanted out of the conversation, he asked me to take a school tour with him."

"Did you?"

"Fuck no, I told him I was going to class. He didn't stop talking until I turned the corner."

"Did he tell you his name?"

"Yeah, Crispin."

"Holy shit, that's who my lab partner is!"

"Really? Damn, looks like we both had to deal with his bullshit."

"And do you wanna know the worst thing about it? He's not even the worst person here."

"Damn, it gets worse?"

"Yeah, have you met Jeffery?"

"No, but by the way you sound I hope I never do."

"I also hope you never do, he's the definition of a social outcast. Dude just won't shut the fuck up about his mangas and animes."

"Oh so he's THAT kind of outcast."

"There's different types?"

"Yeah, there are 3 types. First, you have the people like Jeffery who deserve to be outcast. Second, you have the people who did one really stupid thing that caused everyone to distance themselves from them for a good reason."

"And the third?"

Nicole hesitated a little before responding.

"You have the people who are different. People who don't fit the norm. People that no one takes the time to understand. They haven't done anything wrong, but because so many people are close-minded morons, they just bully and reject them."

"Damn, I'm sorry for how people have treated you."

Nicole was visibly shocked by what the blonde girl said. They had met five minutes ago and she actually showed compassion for her? Shit, the only people that had ever cared for her was her mom, dad, and Emily. She sat there for a good 10 seconds before finally responding to her.

"Uh, thanks? Shit I don't know how to process this, I usually don't meet people that care for random people."

"It's fine, why were you a outcast anyway?"

Nicole almost told her the truth. Almost. At the last second she stopped herself. They had only talked to each other for like 5 minutes, could she really trust someone she barely knew with that information? She knew the area was pretty democratic, they lived just outside of D.C. after all. But Nicole was trans. Sure, people had been warming up to the idea of gay rights, but trans rights? She couldn't afford to let anyone know. Just to make sure that "it" didn't happen again. So she settled on telling her a half-truth.

"I've moved a lot in my childhood. I've been to at least 7 separate schools, it's kind of hard to make connections with people when you move somewhere else every year. I made a friend in like fifth grade, but when my mom decided to move again, I was so upset that I tried to stay away from people because I didn't want to lose another friend."

"Shit, that's heavy."

"I mean, good news is my mom is dead set on staying in our new home, so I believe I could stay here to graduate."

"That's awesome! You want to hang out after school today? I don't have anything planned."

"Shit, my mom wants me home today to give me my hor- medicine."

"Medicine?"

"Yeah, uhh, I have really bad anxiety so uhh, she helps give me my medicine. I could probably convince her to let me hang out tomorrow."

"Okay! See you then."

The bell rung and Nicole and Jecka went to their third periods. Nicole didn't pay attention in her next class, she was too busy thinking about how a random stranger, who from the looks of it was a very preppy bitch, had actually somewhat cared for Nicole. She was so in her thoughts that the next bell visibly scared her, so she got out of class quickly and went to the bathroom. Inside, she saw another blonde girl, this one with blue eyes, looking to sell something.

Wait, blonde hair and blue eyes? No way, she lived in Vermont, Emily couldn't be here.

Right?

"Hey, you gonna stare or are you actually gonna buy something?! I don't have all fucking day here!"

"Wait, what are you selling?"

"I have Adderall, Morphine, and Xanax."

"How'd you get Morphine?"

"One of the guys I'm fucking was too stupid to realize I took it after we had sex. I don't know how he didn't realize, he lasted thirty seconds. He couldn't have had that long to recover."

"Okay, really don't wanna know about your sex life, but I guess I'll take some Adderall."

"Cool, that'll be 12 a bean."

"12 dollars for one pill?!"

"Yeah, supply and demand, it's basic economics. Tell you what, since your new, I'll give you one on the house. I want to make sure you come back after all."

"Thanks, I guess."

"No problem. Don't tell anyone though, or I'll make sure your stay here ends early."

"Ok, alright, jeez. I wasn't going to anyway."

Nicole walked out just as that red-haired girl from earlier walked in. She could hear there conversation as she left.

"Hey Emily, you have the addies right?"

"Yes Ari, I have your addies. You ask that every time you come, when have I ever been out of addies?"

Emily. The blonde haired girl was named Emily. The blonde hair girl with blue eyes was named Emily. Holy shit, was it actually her? No, it couldn't be. There were way too many blonde haired blue eyed girls in the United States named Emily. The chances of that being the Emily from fifth grade? Low as hell.

But there was still a chance.

She was even deeper in her thoughts when she walked into Gym. She saw that Jecka was in her Gym Class, so it wouldn't be too bad. The coach then stepped out of his office and started to call names.

"Jessica Andrews?"

"Here."

"Kylar Miller?"

"I'm here Coach, you always know I'm here."

"That's why you're on varsity lacrosse!"

Varsity Lacrosse? Holy shit that's a lame ass sport. Nicole waited as the coach called other names of people she didn't care for. She only cared when the last name was called.

"Let's see uh, Nathaniel Wilson?"

Nicole froze. All the other teachers had called her Nicole, why had the coach called her Nathaniel? How did he even get the name Nathaniel? Her mom promised that she sent all the right paperwork with her new name on it. She didn't know what to do. Everyone else had already been called, so they all looked at her. Shit, she needed to find a way out of this.

"Uhh, I think you might have the wrong sheet, my name's Nicole."

"Nicole? It says here Nathaniel, but you don't look like no Nathaniel to me."

"It might have been a typo or they may have accidentally got my named mixed up with someone else?"

"Hmm... come with me into my office, we'll figure this out together."

They stepped into his office where the coach dialed the office. After a two minute conversation that seemed to last hours, the coach hung up the phone.

"I'm sorry Nicole, guess I did get the wrong name."

Nicole breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank you for fixing that."

"No problem. I needed to help my new student. Especially a new student who's a smoke show!"

"Uhh, what?"

"What do you mean? You just came here and you're already one of the prettiest girls here! You help make my job better every day."

"Sir I'm 16."

"I know, but it's best to prepare you for studs like me early!"

"I'm gonna head back to the Gym now."

"Okay, but make sure you stop by often Nicole!"

Nicole walked out in disgust. He wasn't even being subtle about wanting to fuck her. He had to be, what, double, triple her age? She tried to ignore what had happened and finished out the day. She returned home and her mother greeted her. 

"Hey honey, how was your first day?"

"It was fine."

"Well, that's good to hear. I finally got you your estrogen and antiandrogen pills from the pharmacy. Remember, take 2 estrogen pills and 4 antiandrogen pills a day. Don't take too much or you can get blood clots."

"Okay. By the way, I met this girl, her name is Jecka. Is it alright if we hang out after school tomorrow?"

"Well, as long as your back by 9, I guess it's fine."

"Thanks Mom!"

Just then her brother came from the basement.

"Wow, didn't know a faggot could make friends."

"Dude, just shut the fuck up and go yell at little children online."

"Whatever, fag. Keep living in your fantasy world. You'll never be a woman, get it through your skull."

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! JESUS CHRIST YOU SAY THE SAME SHIT EVERY DAY!"

Nicole stormed upstairs as her mother began to talk with her brother. Nicole knew it wouldn't work, her mom had the same conversation with him about twenty separate times, only for him to say the same thing every day. She got up to her room and began to really take in what her brother had said to her. Before, she would cry in her room while drowning out the sound with something loud. But ever since her dad killed himself, she found it physically impossible to cry. So she just laid in her bed and pressed play on her iPod. It was the same song as before school, and she began to sing along quietly.

"Won't you believe it? It's just my luck."

Chapter Text

For the first time in what felt like ages Nicole woke up somewhat excited for the day. Sure, she had to go to school and deal with the weird kids that she may or may not have met already, but after school she had plans to hang out with Jecka. Nicole couldn't drive, her mom never bothered to teach her, so she was hoping Jecka had some sort of car. She went downstairs to eat and saw that her brother had already gotten to the table first. He had taken almost all of the bacon and pop-tarts laid out. Nicole wanted to call him a fatass, but she didn't want to ruin her mood. So she grabbed a pop-tart and two strips of bacon and started making her way to school. When she got there she saw Jecka at the front of the school and went to say hi. When she got closer Jecka turned around and started a conversation with her.

"Oh, hey, Nicole! How are you doing?"

"Fine. My brother tried to steal all the bacon for breakfast, but other than that its been fine."

"Damn, your brother fat as fuck, isn't he?"

"Yeah. He's also 26 and refuses to get a fucking job."

"Oh my god, I can smell him already. What does he do all day?"

"Just sits around and plays on his Xbox."

"Of course he does."

"Yeah Xbox gamers are fucking pigs. I have a PS3 but only cause my mom said that if he gets a console, I get a console. I don't think I've ever played a single video game on it."

"So it just collects dust or...?"

"No, it can play movies so sometimes I'll turn it on to watch some."

"Oh, Okay. I don't know shit about any of that so..."

"I could tell."

"What do you mean you could tell?"

"You're a skinny white girl who wears preppy shit to school."

"Bitch, the only reason I wear this stuff is because my mom works corporate for some department store so she gets this for basically free."

"So your mom is the preppy bitch?"

"Yeah."

The bell rung and Nicole and Jecka made their way inside and to their classes. Nicole went and sat down when one of the boys went up to talk with her."

"Oh, hey. I think that's my seat."

"Does it matter? There's no assigned seating, we can sit wherever we want."

"Yeah, but I like having that seat."

"Is your name on it?"

"I inscribed my name underneath the desk."

Nicole looked and actually saw a name underneath the desk. It looked like it had just been put their recently, so whoever this kid was, he wasn't lying. Nicole looked under again to see what name was under there. It said Jeffery.

Shit. Jecka had warned her about him. Now that she got a better look at him, he did look like a social outcast. Type 1, obviously.

"Holy shit, FINE! I guess you can sit here."

"Thank you, I like this desk because it lets me read my manga in peace."

"Dude no one gives a fuck about your stupid fucking picture books."

"HEY! I'll have you know that a lot of people care about manga, especially in Japan!"

"Cool, where are we right now?"

"In school."

"No, dumbass. Where in the world are we right now?"

"The United States?"

"Yeah, and is the United States the same thing as Japan?"

"Well, no, but they influen-"

"No. We're not in Japan. So shut the fuck up about your little books. Actually, just shut the fuck up in general."

"Oh. Okay."

Jeffery sat down in his chair looking defeated. Nicole went to the back of the class to find another seat. She looked under the desk to make sure no name was on it, then sat down. When the bell rang again to tell everyone that school had begun. A blonde girl entered the room.

The same blonde girl from the bathroom yesterday. The blonde girl named Emily.

'She wasn't here yesterday. She probably skipped to sell more pills' Nicole thought. Emily went to the back of the room so the teacher couldn't see what she was doing. That seat just so happened to be the seat right next to Nicole. Emily recognized her from yesterday and began to talk.

"Hey, I've got some Xanax, and I know Mrs. Ames is a bitch to deal with. You want some?"

"Oh, uh, no. I don't have money on me right now. I'll bring some tomorrow though."

"It's fine. One free pill isn't going to bankrupt me."

"But I already got a free one yesterday."

"Yeah, but you look cool so I'll give you another free one."

"Okay, Thanks."

Nicole popped the pill and sat still for a minute. Emily began to talk to her again.

"You look familiar."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I think we've met before."

"Well, we met yesterday, so..."

"No, no, before that. Like a long time before that."

Nicole's heart stopped. Did Emily recognize her? She couldn't have, it had been at least half a decade since they've seen each other, no way Emily still remembers. Plus, she was an entirely different gender, how could Emily have known?

"On second thought, never mind."

Nicole breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've never met each other in our lives before yesterday."

"True, but hey, now you know your local drug dealer! Who just so happens to also be the hottest fucking thing in this school."

"Damn, ego much?"

"When your pretty like you and me you get to have an ego."

Pretty like you and me? Emily thought she was pretty? Well, it at least helped out Nicole's self confidence a little. They made small talk to each other for the rest of class and when the bell rang Emily went back to the bathrooms to sell more pills as Nicole went on with her day. She sat with Jecka at lunch again and Jecka said that she could drive Nicole to the mall with her after school. The day went by quickly after that, and before she knew it she was in the passenger seat of Jecka's car. 

"What do you want to play?"

"What?"

"On the radio?"

"Oh, uh, it's okay, you probably wouldn't like my music taste."

"Nicole, I'm full of surprises, whatever you listen to, I'll probably like it."

"Really? Cause you seem like the type of person to only listen to pop or something."

"Sometimes. But I prefer other music genres better."

"Okay then, do you like uh..."

Nicole tried to think of a band, but for some reason she couldn't think of one. After an embarrassingly long time one band finally came to her mind.

"...Alice in Chains?"

"Ooh, they're pretty good, but I don't think I have anything from them. Let me check."

Jecka looked through her CD's to make sure.

"Yeah, sorry, I don't have them. I do have Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden if that's fine with you."

"Yeah, totally. I'm cool with Soundgarden."

Jecka put in the CD and they drove off as 'Rusty Cage' began to play. They got halfway through 'Slaves & Bulldozers' before arriving at the mall. Jecka said that she wanted to go to Hot Topic first to check if there were any MSI shirts. They went to the Hot Topic and began browsing when one of the staff went up to them.

"Hey, you guys looking for anything specific?"

They turned around and Nicole saw the red-haired girl from school. Apparently this was her job. Go figure. Jecka began to talk with her.

"Hey Ari, do you have any MSI shirts available?"

"Um, I believe we have a couple left. Let me look. You can follow if you want."

"Okay then. Hey Ari, have you met Nicole yet."

"Who?"

"Oh, she's the girl right next to me."

Nicole nodded at Ari, and Ari answered Jecka's question.

"Oh, I've seen her around school, but I haven't met her yet, no."

Ari looked at Nicole and waved.

"Well, I'm Ari, it's nice to meet you Nicole!"

"Yeah same, I think I saw you buy Adderall from Emily in the bathroom yesterday."

"Wait, you did? I thought it was just me and Emily that knew."

"Well, I didn't see you, but I heard you talking to each other about addies so..."

"Are you going to tell anyone? Please don't."

"What? No, matter of fact I had just bought some addies from Emily right before you came in."

"Oh, good. I really don't want anyone else at the school knowing. My parents would freak out."

"Like in an abusive way or in a 'you're getting grounded' way?"

"It's a 'you're getting grounded for a year' way." 

"Damn, well just be careful and you won't get caught."

"I know that, I'm still just paranoid that someone else is going to find out and they won't be as forgiving as you are."

"Relax, you're just imagining things."

"Well, okay. Hey Jecka, I found your MSI shirt. I can check you out if you like."

Ari brought Nicole and Jecka to the front checkout so they could get the shirt. After Jecka paid for the shirt, Ari waved goodbye as Nicole and Jecka began to go somewhere else. The two walked for about 5 minutes before stopping at the FYE.

"Nicole, you said you watch movies on your PS3, maybe you want to look for another?"

"Nah, I'm good. You looking for anything specific?"

"I wanna see if they have Season 6 of Smallville yet. Season 7 starts in a few weeks, I want to catch up."

"You watch Smallville? That shit sucks, no offense."

"Smallville is good! You just haven't given it a fair shot. What your favorite show, huh?"

"I like watching MythBusters."

"MythBusters? You don't get to talk about shitty TV shows when you watch fucking MythBusters."

"Bitch, it is good. Every other episode they show you how to cook crack, it's awesome!"

"Whatever, you actually gonna get any games for you PS3?"

"No, I'm just gonna look around."

The two walked in and about 5 seconds later someone came rushing up to meet them.

"Welcome to FYE! What are you- Oh, hey Jecka! I know how much you wanted to get the Smallville DVDs, so I saved one extra just for you!"

"Aww, thanks Kelly!"

"Oh, and who's the girl right next to you?"

"Her name is Nicole, she just moved here."

"Oh, Hi Nicole! I'm Kelly, I think I may have seen you in gym class with Coach Colby."

"I don't think I saw you but it's nice to meet you."

"Are you looking for anything special?"

"No, just looking."

"Actually, she has a PS3 that she watches movies on so she might want something like that." Jecka chimed in.

"Oh, okay! Do you play any video games or do you just watch movies with it?"

"Just movies, and like I said I'm just looking."

"Aww, come on! It's no fun to own a console without any games! What do you like anyway?"

"Why are you so adamant about me buying a stupid videogame?"

"Ohh, sorry. I'm used to trying to get a lot of guys to buy videogames here. They usually just go to GameStop, but I've gotten some guys to buy here."  

"It's cool. I don't really play any video games anymore, so I don't know what video games I'd like or even if I would even like any of the video games here."

"Do you like any music? We have some CD's here if you like!"

"Do you have any grunge like Nirvana or Alice in Chains?"

"Well, I think so. Let me check."

Kelly left to see the music selection. Jecka and Nicole began to talk amongst themselves.

"Hey Nicole, do you play guitar?"

This was a tough conversation to have. Nicole did know how to play guitar, her dad had taught her when she moved back to Georgia in ninth grade. She wasn't amazing or anything, but she was pretty decent. After her dad died, however, she hasn't even touched her guitar. She kept it hidden in her closet behind her clothes. Nicole didn't want to tell Jecka too much, or else she thought would risk saying something that needed to be kept secret. So she tried to give as vague as an answer as possible without downright lying to Jecka.

"Uh, a little? Why'd you ask?"

"Look over there. It's some guitar video game, maybe you'd like that one."

Nicole looked and saw a poster advertising the game Guitar Hero 3. She actually knew the guitarist in the center, his name was Slash. He used to be the guitarist for Guns N' Roses before leaving to do his own thing. Nicole saw that it came out in about a month and a half, October 28th.

"Maybe, I might see what it is when it comes out, but it actually looks interesting. I'm tired of seeing only WW2 video games showing up."

"There are that many video games about WW2?"

"Yeah, and all of the have some form of screaming slurs at people you don't know halfway across the country."

"Damn, I guess your brother plays that shit on his Xbox, huh? God that must be annoying."

Kelly came back with a CD.

"Here, I have Dirt, weird name for an album but oh well."

"Cool. Jecka, you want this?"

Jecka seemed somewhat surprised by what Nicole had said. She thought Nicole was buying it for herself. In hindsight, why would she want to play Alice in Chains in the car without owning an album or two.

"Uhh, sure! Why not? We can play it on the ride back."

"Okay! I'll check it out for you, don't worry! Alongside the Smallville DVD, of course."

Kelly got up to the counter and eagerly checked out the items for the two. Once they paid, they left with the items and decided to go home. They walked out of the mall and went back to Jecka's car. When Jecka turned on the car, Nicole put in the DVD and waited for it to play.

"Hey Nicole, can you tell me where you live so I can drop you off?"

"Sure, it's close to the school so you can head there first."

"Alright. Ohh, and another thing."

"Hmm, what?"

"I'm really glad we did this today, we should hang out some more! This was really fun."

"Ohh, uhh, thanks. I guess I could probably convince my mom to let us hang out more."

"That's great!"

"..."

"..."

"...Is this CD gonna play or what?'

"God, I really hope Kelly didn't give us a defective CD."

"Yeah, that would fuc-"

"AHHH!"

"Well I guess it does work."

Jecka and Nicole drove away from the mall while Them Bones was playing in the background. After about 20 minutes (It could have been 15 but Nicole was bad at directions), Jecka arrived at Nicole's house. 

"Thanks for dropping me off, Jecka."

"You're welcome! I'll see you tomorrow Nicole!"

"Same. See you tomorrow."

Jecka drove off as Nicole walked into her house to greet her mother, eat dinner, and went into her room to rest. Nicole still had the visit to the mall on her mind. Thinking about the Guitar Hero poster, the Hot Topic visit, and Jecka.

Mainly Jecka.

It was a little too much Jecka.

"Shit, do I like Jecka?"

"..."

"Maybe."

Chapter Text

The next few weeks passed and it was now early October. Nicole went through the first month of school with nothing of importance happening. Sure, the gym teacher would make offhanded comments about how sexy she was, but he did that to all the girls, so it was nothing special. She had become close friends with Jecka and hung out with her basically every day. She had also became friends with Ari and Kelly, the two girls who worked at the mall. Nicole also made friends with Emily, and sometimes they would skip Ms. Ames' class to go hang out or get high together. She still had a feeling that this Emily was the same Emily from Vermont, but most of the time she was able to put that in the back of her mind. She walked to school on October 3rd feeling pretty good about how she had handled the first month of school. She had decent grades, made some new friends, and no one was even close to finding out that she was trans. She walked into her English class to sit next to Emily, but she wasn't there today. Usually Emily would tell Nicole whether or not they were skipping beforehand, so she checked her phone to see if there were any messages. When none appeared, she decided that the next best step was to call her. The phone ringed for a bit before Emily answered.

"Hey, Nicole. What do you need?"

"I don't see you in Ms. Ames' class, are you skipping without me?"

"Huh? No, I'm sick right now. I threw up a lot last night so I'll stay home and take whatever will help me get better."

"Does that mean going through all your pills and seeing which one will get you fucked up the most?"

"Its only been a month, and you already know me so well. It's like we've known each other for years!"

"Oh, um, yeah. I'll tell you everything you need to know tomorrow, if your able to come back."

"If I take enough pills I should be able to come back tomorrow."

"Or you overdose."

"Relax, I've taken so much that I'm practically immune. Bye!"

Emily hung up the phone and Nicole was left with her thoughts again. Those same thoughts that she tried to put in the back of her mind. All because Emily had made a comment on how they've known each other for years. Did they? Or was Nicole overthinking again? She tried to figure that out when Ms. Ames' announced the day's assignment.

"Alright guys, settle down. Today we're going to write a partnered paper about each person's favorite things. This will help you practice how to get better at flowing from paragraph to paragraph in future essays. I'll call out partnered pairs. Trody and Hunter, Nicole and Jeffery..."

Fuck.

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck. 

Out of all the people to be paired with, it just had to be Jeffery. She would've been fine with anyone else, even Braxton, who she suspected was a white supremacist. But no. She had to write a paper with Jeffery. And not just any paper, a paper on their favorite things. Nicole really wished she could skip with Emily, but unfortunately the universe had given her a big fuck you that day. Jeffery had seemingly rushed over to her table to start working. He looked a little too excited to write this paper with Nicole. She looked at the clock and saw that there was still over an hour left in that class. She gave heavy sigh and began to get the paper done as quick as possible.

"Alright lets get this shit over with quick."

"Well, I really think we should take the time to brainstorm topics and-"

"I don't give a fuck what you think. Just write down whatever comes to mind and be quiet doing it."

"Well you have to tell me your favorite things so I can put it down."

"Oh my god, fine. I like rock/metal music, sleeping, and stereotypical nerds shutting the fuck up."

"Hey! I can't put that last one down!"

"Then come up with another way of saying it, damn."

"Does peace and quiet work?"

"Yeah, sure, fine. I don't care."

"Okay, let me write those down real quick."

"Good. Now you can leave."

"Wait a minute, I have to share my favorite things too!"

"Can't you just write them down without telling me?"

"Wouldn't that defeat the point of the project?"

"Holy shit you can't read any social cues can you?"

"I don't know what that has to do with the project."

"Oh my god, FINE! Tell me, but make it quick!"

"Okay. Well, I really like anime, especially Naruto and One Piece, those are my favorites. I really like the storytelling and arcs in each of-"

"I said make it quick, dumbass."

"Oh, well, I also like manga, which is just written anime. And the last thing is... um..."

"You can't even come up with a third thing? Really?"

"No, I can, I'm just too embarrassed to put it on paper. So I'll just say video games." 

"Why would you be embarrassed? Everyone knows you're weird, you don't have to hide it."

"I don't thing it's school appropriate."

Nicole first shot Jeffery a look of disgust. She thought about what could be so inappropriate that he couldn't even put it down on-

Oh.

OH!

He has to be into some depraved shit. 

Nicole thought it over for a moment. How fucked up could this kid be? Then an evil idea spawned in her head. If Jeffery told her what his weird fetishes are, she could tell the school, which in turn would make more kids bully Jeffery and fuck up any chance he ever had of a social life. Nicole had to get Jeffery to say his weird fetishes.

"Can you tell me what the last one was?"

"Video Games?"

"No, silly. The other one."

"Oh, well I don't want to put that on paper."

"You don't have to put it on paper, you can just tell me!"

"I don't know if I should do that."

"Please, Jeffery? You would make me very happy if you did!"

"I would?"

"Yeah, it would make my whole day if you did!"

"Oh, okay. Well, I like tall women. Not like 7 or 8 feet, more like 40."

"Oh my god."

"Yeah, and I also like girls to step on me."

"Jesus, you are depraved."

"Well, there is one more, but I really don't think I should tell you."

"Please, Jeffery? It would make me the happiest girl in the world if you told me!"

"Alright. I really, REALLY like uh..."

"Come on, say it!"

"...Futanari."

"Futanari, what the fuck is tha-"

"Alright class! I'll be nice this time and won't make you present these to the class, you guys have a great day!"

Nicole quickly left and the rest of the day went how it usually did. Nicole had the information she needed. She knew Jeffery liked impossibly tall women. She also knew that he liked getting stepped on, and probably just feet in general. The other thing was that he liked futanari. Nicole had no clue what the hell that even was, so after hanging out at the mall with Jecka she went home, ate dinner, and went up to her room to search it up.

"Alright, lets see. I can probably just sound it out in my head. I can always use autocorrect if I mess u.. HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?!"

She looked over the images that had popped up on Google and was horrified. She figured out earlier that futanari was probably a name for certain women, but she never expected this. She had learned what a futanari is.

A women with a dick.

Nicole closed out of the tab and quickly sat down on her bed. She didn't even know what to say. Well, she had three things to say. One, none of those proportions were even remotely close to what any woman actually looks like. Two, how the hell did he ever find this shit. And three, what if Jeffery finds out that Nicole is trans? His depraved brain probably would call her a futanari and try to get Nicole anyway he could, and Nicole was never willing go remotely close to Jeffery. She tried to wrap her head around her thoughts when one more came to her, this one worse than the rest of them combined.

What if Jeffery already knew?

Chapter Text

Nicole could barely sleep that night. She tossed and turned in her bed worrying about the next day. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what Jeffery would do. Her mind thought of every possible outcome of events that could happen and that could ruin her life. She woke up exhausted and just wanted to go back to bed. Her mom didn't let her, so she stumbled her way to school. When she finally got there Jecka was waiting for her.

"Hey Nico- Damn you look like shit."

"I feel like shit, I didn't get any sleep last night."

"Damn, what happened?"

"Um, well, shit I don't have the mental capacity to tell you, can you wait until lunch?"

"Sure, you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll just skip with Emily if she's here."

"Uh, okay, see you later."

Luckily, Emily was at school today, so she was able to skip with her in the morning. Nicole decided to tell Emily about what she missed yesterday.

"Yesterday we had this stupid partner assignment and Ms. Ames decided to partner me up with fucking Jeffery of all people."

"Damn, that sucks."

"Yeah, and the assignment was about things we like, so of course Jeffery had to go on about anime and manga."

"Did he say anything specific or..."

"I don't care enough to remember. But I manipulated him into telling me his fetishes."

"Ew, why the fuck would you do that?"

"Because I was gonna use that information to ruin his social life forever."

"Damn, I didn't think of that, that's smart."

"Yeah, but now I'm worried what he'll do if I do tell."

"If Jeffery tries anything at all, I'll beat him within an inch of his pathetic fucking life. What did he say?"

"Well, he told me that he likes tall women, like REALLY tall women."

"Like 7 feet or..."

"40 feet. Speaking of feet, he wants to be stepped on by women as well."

"Holy shit he is depraved, but to be honest I kinda expected it from him."

"He also likes this shit called Futanari."

"The fuck is a Futanari?"

"I had to look it up, worst decision of my life. Apparently it's girls with dicks. Like HUGE dicks."

"Oh my God! I take it back, he is more depraved than I thought, he deserves to have his life ruined forever."

"Emily, don't tell anyone about it yet."

"Why not? The faggot deserves it."

"Can you even say that?"

"I'm bi, so technically, although I don't know if I can say the whole thing or just fag."

"Oh, cool. But I really don't want him doing something like shooting the school up or stalking us."

"He doesn't have the balls."

"Just please don't Emily."

"Fine, although I will use this information to bully him even harder."

"That's fine, you have any Xanax, I wanna get fucked up."

Emily took out some Xanax and gave it to Nicole. They spent the rest of the morning talking about whatever came to mind, whether that be how creepy the teachers are or how slutty Principal Lynn looked. When lunch began Nicole left the bathroom and went to get some food. After waiting in the line for God knows how long, she went and sat down next to Jecka.

"You ready to talk yet Nicole?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm feeling better than I was earlier."

"Cool. Why didn't you get any sleep last night."

"You remembered that all day?"

"Obviously."

"You must be obsessed with me."

"I'm not- That's not what I- well- Just stop dodging the question!"

"Okay, yesterday Ms. Ames made me pair up with Jeffery. I may have manipulated him into telling me his fetishes because I wanted to use it against him so I could ruin his life, but when I found out what they were I was fucking terrified of what he would do if I told anyone."

"Why did you think that was a good idea?"

"I don't know, I was annoyed at him and knowing how you guys treat him I thought he had it coming."

"I mean he does have it coming, I'm not gonna say no to that."

"I was also contemplating whether I should keep it a secret or tell everyone but he could be psycho for all I know."

"What was so bad that he would go psycho on you if you told anyone?"

"Well, he likes tall women, like unrealistically tall women, and he also likes to get stepped on."

"I mean, that's bad but I kinda assumed that he already was creepy like that."

"He also likes Futanari."

"The fuck is Futanari?"

"Women with big dicks."

"Holy shit he's fucked up."

"Yeah, I want to ruin his life but I don't know what he'll do if people found out."

"So your only against this because of what will happen to you, not because of any morals or something?"

"Yes."

"Well, if it was anyone but Jeffery I'd be kinda pissed but I think Jeffery had it coming."

"Emily said something similar to that."

"You told Emily?!"

"Yeah, why?"

"She's fucking insane, Nicole! She's gonna tell everyone about this! You're fucked!"

"No I'm not, watch. Hey Emily, come here!"

Emily came rushing over to her table.

"What's up Nicole?"

"Have you told anyone yet about the Jeffery thing."

"No, I'm not a lying hoe like that, at least to people that are cool."

"Good."

"Do you want me to?"

Nicole thought it over. On the one hand, Jeffery may or may not know about Nicole's secret. This really could come back to bite her if Jeffery tells people about it. On the other hand, however...

Fuck him.

Fuck Jeffery.

He deserves to suffer.

"Yeah, just don't let Jeffery know until everyone else knows."

"Thank god, I needed to tell someone about Jeffery, if you hadn't called me over I might have told someone on accident."

"Alright, well I'm skipping the rest of the day. See ya."

Nicole got up and walked out of the school. She didn't know what would happen, or what Jeffery was going to do about it, but she knew one thing.

Jeffery deserves it.

Jeffery deserves it. 

Chapter Text

Jecka and Emily spent the rest of the week telling the rest of the school about Jeffery's weird fetishes. Well, they really only had to tell Kelly, who spread the information like wildfire from there. The girls were careful enough to make sure Jeffery didn't know that anyone knew. There was one close call with Kelly, but Emily "convinced" her to not tell him. Nicole spent the weekend hanging out at Jecka's house, and when Monday came around Jecka ran up to Nicole as soon as she saw her.

"Nicole! You ready for the big reveal?"

"It's only a reveal to Jeffery, but sure, why not?"

"Okay, I've planned it out. Emily and I will go up to him leading him on, and when he doesn't suspect it we'll tell him that we know and draw attention to us so everyone sees."

"Why am I not involved with this?"

"Jeffery already knows you know, if you went up to him telling him that you know his secret he wouldn't care."

"Shit, you're right. Can I at least watch?"

"Sure, just make sure Jeffery doesn't see you."

"Alright, cool."

A few minutes before the big reveal Nicole spotted Emily smoking something behind the school and went up to talk with her.

"Hey Emily, you ready?"

"For what?"

"The big reveal?"

"Oh shit that's today? Fuck, probably should be sober for that."

"What did you take?"

"Nothing serious, just a little weed. This is my first, so I should be fine to go on with the plan."

"So Jecka already told you?"

"Yeah, I got her phone number last Friday when we were telling the school."

"Shit, you have mine right."

"Yeah. There's another reason I got Jecka's phone number. It in case she does something to you."

"What would you do?"

"I'd probably tell her to kill herself and if she doesn't then kill her myself."

"Damn, overprotective much?"

"Yeah, you're like, the coolest girl to come here in years, I can't have her ruining it."

"Okay, well I think Jecka needs you now."

"Oh shit, you're right. I'll see you soon."

Nicole went to where Jeffery's locker was and hid right behind a corner. While hiding, she thought about what Emily said. Why did Emily think she was the coolest girl to come here in years? Jecka's really cool, but maybe Emily just doesn't click with her. Ari is chill, but cool? Nope. Shit, it was the way she said it though. It had almost like a flirty feel to it. She did state she was bi so...

Wait, was Emily trying to get in her pants?

Nicole couldn't think about that for long, because Jeffery arrived at his locker, and Jecka and Emily were right behind him.

"Hey there Jeffery! Things better with your dad yet?"

"Oh, hello Jecka. Unfortunately no. He used my toothbrush to clean out his new assault rifle he bought from China."

"Wow, messed up much? Anyway, could you buy me another Diet Coke?"

"Sorry, but I can't anymore. My mom's been wondering where all my lunch money's been going."

"Aww, you're mean, you don't like me anymore."

"Again I'm sorry I just don't know-"

At that moment Jecka and Emily grew sinister grins, and Nicole, knowing what was about to happen, couldn't help but grin herself.

"Maybe if I grew 40 feet, then you'd really like me!"

"Hey! How'd you? ..Rrgh!"

Laughter soon began to come out of Jecka's mouth. Then Emily's. Then Nicole's. Soon everyone began laughing at Jeffery. A kid named Kyle jumped in to harass Jeffery more.

"Maybe if you took your shoes off and stepped in his face!"

"I can't believe this! She told everyone?!"

Well, Nicole only told Jecka and Emily, who then told Kelly, who then told everyone. But Nicole was still gonna take all the credit. Jecka chimed in while the laughter got louder and louder.

"It's okay, Jeffery! Run away with me, I'll stuff you in my back pocket!"

"Ugh just shut up!"

This was the moment when Emily decided to join in. She had saved the worst for last.

"He's feisty today! Maybe he'll shut up if I put my massive fucking cock in his mouth!"

Jecka looked back at Emily and pretended to be surprised.

"Oh my god, I almost forgot about that!"

"You want me to cum down your throat Jeffery?"

Jeffery stepped back until his back was against the locker.

"I can't believe this!"

Jeffery began to run away. Unfortunately, he was running directly to where Nicole was hiding. Nicole tried to get out of his line of sight, but Jeffery saw he as he turned the corner. As Jeffery ran away he looked back at Nicole with tears in his eyes and gave Jeffery the deadliest glare Nicole had ever seen. Nicole smiled back at him, but as soon as Jeffery got far enough away hew smile disappeared and turn into a look of worry. He did talk about his dad having assault rifles.

Oh fuck.

She probably just made the next school shooter.

Nicole tried to psych herself out. He doesn't have the balls. He'd probably just kill himself. Yeah. Definingly. Nothing to worry about here. Nicole tried to get that thought out of her head for the rest of the day until she had to go to her civics' class where Principal Lynn was filling in for the day. This class had her, Jeffery, Emily, and a few others she sorta knew. After the lesson was done Principal Lynn decided to confront the class about the recent signs being out up on her door.

"So again, while I find the notes flattering, the boys need to quit writing 'Bad Bitch' on my office door. I'll start tracking who left them if it continues."

Kyle mumbled something under his breath.

"Well it definitely wasn't Jeffery."

"Oh?"

"Fuck, you heard that?"

"Why is it definitely not Jeffery?"

Emily grew a sinister grin on her face as she answered the question.

"Cause you don't have a dick!"

Laughter erupted from the classroom. Principal Lynn tried to get everyone under control.

"Settle down now, I've heard the rumors going around about him and you should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

Jeffery slouched back down in his chair with relief.

"Thank you, I was really-"

"Just because he prefers alternative forms of sexual intercourse does not mean that he should be ridiculed."

"Ugh..."

Emily's grin grew wider as she responded to Principal Lynn.

"Sorry, I'm a little out of the loop, what do you mean by alternative?"

Jeffery braced himself for what Principal Lynn was about to say.

"Jeffery here prefers to be stepped on by women with male sexual anatomy as opposed to standard intercourse with a women."

The class erupted in laughter once again. Jeffery looked terrified.

"Will this stop?"

Luckily for him, the bell rang, and Principal Lynn dismissed the class. Everyone left the classroom except Jeffery, who spoke to Nicole in a menacing tone.

"You did this."

Nicole turned around and looked at Jeffery's eyes staring into her soul. She was a little bit terrified, but she wasn't gonna let Jeffery know that.

"Did what?"

"Told everyone my darkest secrets... that was in confidence."

"Guess I did, sorry."

"You ruined my life. I can't even look at my manga anymore. Not even cartoons can entertain me."

"Relatable."

"Do you even care? Do the results of your actions mean anything to you?"

"Yeah, when they affect me, sure."

"No one in the realm of the living ever liked me anyway. Maybe things would make sense if I was dead."

"Maybe."

"I've been in a horrible mental state since you betrayed me Nicole. I waited for everyone to leave just so you'd be the only one to hear this. Tonight, when when my Mom's out with her new boyfriend, I'm gonna take her entire bottle of pills. I'm going to kill myself."

"What?"

"You chose to start this... but I won't give you a choice at stopping it."

"I'm sorry, did you think I have any form of emotional attachment to you?"

"Why else would you talk to me? Why would you want to hear my likes and secrets?"

"It... It was funny? I knew you'd say some embarrassing shit?"

"So you used me... You were a new student trying to look cool, so you just used me."

"No shit. In what world does a girl like me take interest in you? If you're that fucking stupid maybe you should kill yourself."

"Fine... I'll give you your satisfaction, but not before getting mine first... You're the only girl I ever loved, even if it wasn't real."

"You've known me for a month, bye."

Nicole walked out of the classroom with worry in her head. Did she make a new school shooter. Nah, he's still too much of a pussy to go with it. She let that thought go and went to hang out with Jecka. Jeffery, however, stayed behind in the classroom. As he watched Nicole leave he had one thought going through his head.

Her punishment for what she did?

She belongs to him.

Chapter Text

Nicole arrived at school the next day looking calm but panicking inside. She couldn't get the thought of Jeffery coming to school and shooting her with a gun. She tried to forget about it with some Xanax, so she skipped Ms. Ames class with Emily. While in there, Nicole and Emily began to have a conversation about yesterday's events.

"Emily, how fucked up do you think Jeffery is?"

"Why are you asking me this? We already know he's fucked up."

"Yeah, but is he even more fucked up than we thought?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"I don't know, when we told everyone his fetishes he mentioned that his dad collected assault rifles."

"Don't worry about it. Jeffery's too weak to hold one of those. Besides, he doesn't have the balls to go through with it."

"Yeah, yeah. But are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. You're just paranoid."

"Ok, than give me something so I won't be."

"Fine, here's your Xanax. Happy?"

"Somewhat."

"Good enough for me. Hey, let me prove to you that Jeffery's not a threat."

"How?"

"Let's go back to class and subtly bring it up."

"Won't Ms. Ames mark us tardy?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because if we're tardy, she'll give us detention. And I really don't want to stay here any longer than I need to."

"Okay, we'll wait until after. Come to think of it, schools would rather you skip your classes than show up late, huh?"

"Yeah that's weird, like why does being tardy give you a bigger punishment than just skipping altogether?"

"I don't know, and I'm not complaining."

"True."

Emily and Nicole spent the rest of the period talking about whatever came to mind. 5 minutes before the bell, Emily and Nicole left to wait silently outside Ms. Ames' door. Unfortunately, Crispin decided that was the perfect moment to talk to them.

"Oh, hey guys. Didn't know you guys would be here."

"Why wouldn't we, it's school, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but, like, I figured you guys might be, like, insi-"

"Kill yourself and make sure your bloodline ends."

Crispin laughed awkwardly as he walked away.

"Damn, Nicole. Didn't know you had that in you."

"You should've. I've been wanting to tell him that from day 1."

The bell rang signaling the end of the period. Jeffery walked out of class while snickers could be heard inside the classroom. Emily made sure to jump scare Jeffery before antagonizing him.

"Little Fucker."

"Ahh!! Oh, it's just you and ....Nicole."

"Yeah, bet you would've heard us coming if we were, say, a little bit taller?"

Students began to gather around and started laughing. One of the girls, Megan, who on the outside looked like a perfect student but on the inside was a narcissistic bitch, decided to join in with Emily.

"It may had also helped if you had stepped on him afterwards!"

More laughter began to erupt as Emily went in for the killing blow.

"I think what would've helped the most is if he heard out massive cocks dragging on the floor!"

The crowd that had gathered could no longer contain their laughter, as Jeffery ran away on the verge of tears. Nicole looked at his backpack as he left, and saw that it was way too small to fit an assault rifle in. This relieved Nicole and she forgot about him until lunch when Jecka brought the topic up again.

"So how's Jeffery doing?"

"Terrible. Emily and Megan decided to fuck with him even more today."

"Wow, how many people were there?"

"Like 20 to 30, not nearly as big as the crowd you pulled in."

"Thank god, I don't know how I could live with myself if Megan of all people drew in a bigger crowd than me."

"You have a really big ego, you know that?"

"Yeah, but I'm the only perfect 10 in this school, so it's justified."

Nicole certainly couldn't argue with that.

"Am I at least a 9?"

"Yeah, maybe a 9.5. Still not prettier than me though."

"Well than you do have a big ego, cause I'm a ten easily."

"Yeah, maybe if you didn't have tiny tits."

Nicole visibly recoiled at the comment. She didn't want to be reminded that her chest was more boy-like than girl-like.

"Oh, shit, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry!"

"No, it's fine. I just, uh, overreacted. Besides, I could probably just get some guy in the future to give me bigger ones in exchange for sex or something."

"You would do that?"

"Fuck no. I'd lead him on and once the surgery is done I leave him behind with debt and no tits."

"Shit, you have this all planned out, huh?"

"Yeah, although I hope it never comes to that."

"True, he could like revenge-murder you or something. Anyway, I have to go. See ya!"

"Yeah, see you too."

Nicole sat alone for a minute and thought about the comment Jecka made. Had it been anyone else, she wouldn't have hesitated to knock them to the floor. But Jecka? She just couldn't. Why did she treat Jecka differently than everyone else. Was it her crush? No, after the trip to the mall she thought she had gotten rid of that. But it was also the way she immediately apologized after. She didn't know anyone else who would do that, unless it was because they liked someone or somethi-

Wait, did Jecka like her?

Nicole quickly got that thought out of her head. She knew that Jecka didn't, it was just a big fantasy. Besides, she didn't have a crush on Jecka, it was just a good friendship.

At least that's what she said to herself.

Jeffery waited quietly near Nicole's locker. He knew that soon Nicole would go there and get something for later. He didn't care what she was getting out, he just wanted her alone. The night before he had come home and made a plan on what to do. Hell, he skipped his homework so he could perfect the plan. He knew that he couldn't fail. He had it all planned out. He poked his head around the corner, making sure his breathes were silent, and saw Nicole unlocking her locker. He decided to walk towards her. There was no going back now.

"Shit, did I leave the Adderall at home again? Fuck, guess I have to ask Emily for some extras. God, I sound like a broke bitch."

"Hello, Nicole."

"What th- oh. It's you, Jeffery. What do you want?"

"You outed my deepest, darkest secrets to everyone."

"Dude, is this the same conversation from yesterday? Get over it, people were going to find out eventually. Just move on and people will stop."

"I can't just 'move on' Nicole. I'm the laughing stock for the rest of high school."

"You already were, so shut the fuck up about it."

"I have a question. Did telling my secret give you satisfaction?"

"Uh, yeah. People deserved to know who you really are."

"So you got your satisfaction, correct?"

"Yeah, what are you ev-"

"Well now it's time I get mine."

At that point Jeffery lunged near Nicole. He grabbed Nicole's groin to start his plan, and Nicole froze. This was how it originally started.

How 'the incident' started.

Jeffery meanwhile had a look of confusion on his face. He was expecting a pussy, not whatever this was. He moved his hand up and a giant smirk appeared on his face when he released what it was.

"Oh my god. I didn't know you people were real! I know your secret now. You're a futan-"

BOOM!

Nicole punched Jeffery square in the jaw and Jeffery collapsed to the ground.

BOOM!

Another punch. Nicole got on top of Jeffery and began to wail on him.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Nicole was relentless. She would have killed Jeffery right then and there if Kelly hadn't stepped outside the restroom to go back to class. She rushed over and struggled to pull Nicole off of Jeffery, but was eventually successful.

"Nicole! What the fuck are you doing!"

"HE FUCKING DESERVES IT! LITTLE PERVERTED ANIME FUCKER!"

"Nicole, his face is broken! I can't even see his eyes anymore! His nose is bending the wrong way, what the fuck is wrong with you!?"

"HE'S A FUCKING RAPIST! HE TRIED HIS LITTLE SHIT ON ME AND I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO!"

At that point Jeffery decided to do the stupidest thing he could possibly do.

"Nicole... is... a... Futa..."

BOOM!

This time Nicole punted him in the head, and he fell unconscious.

"Nicole! You may have fucking killed him!"

"I DON"T CARE! HE FUCKING DESERVED IT!"

"Calm down! Please! What the hell was he even talking about, did he call you a futanari?!"

"HE JUST TRYING TO FUCK WITH ME! I HOPE THAT WAS BECAUSE OF THE BRAIN DAMAGE I GAVE HIM!"

"Holy shit! Is he even breathing?!"

"I HOPE HE ISN'T! HE DESERVES TO ROT IN HELL JUST LIKE THE OTHERS!"

"What others?!"

Nicole froze. She stared at Kelly, than Jeffery, than back at Kelly again. She began to panic and did the only reasonable thing that she could do.

She ran.

She ran all the way back to her house. Meanwhile, Kelly called 911 on her phone and explained that Jeffery may or may not be dead. She than rushed to her classroom to get her teacher, Mr. Lorre, to help get Jeffery medical assistance. Back at Nicole's house. She ran inside and right up to her room. Her mom wasn't home, so luckily she wouldn't get a rant about skipping. She closed and locked her door and through her things on the ground. She took a few steps before collapsing and doing something she hadn't done since the incident.

Nicole cried.

Chapter Text

Jecka, Ari, Megan, and Kelly walked into Mr. Lorre's class to start their brand new art project. Jecka didn't need to take art, but she took it so that she could get another A on her report card. In fact, almost the entire class took art for the easy A. The only one who took it because they liked art was Ari.

"Alright class, today's project is simple, you will draw half of a self portrait."

Kelly raised her hand.

"What do you mean half of a self portrait."

"Great question. You will partner up with someone and draw either the left or right side of your face. You will then match your half with your partners half. Do we have any other questions?"

The room went silent.

"Great! I'll let you choose your partners for this project. Good luck!"

Jecka decided to work with Ari on the project, while Megan took Kelly. As they began, Ari started to ask Jecka some questions about a certain someone.

"Hey Jecka, why do you always hang out with Nicole?"

"Because she's cool? Why are you asking?"

"I just noticed that ever since the beginning of this year, you and Nicole hang out with each other everyday. You guys always sit together during lunch and I always see you guys leave school together. Why is that?"

"...Because she's cool? Why do you care so much?"

"I don't know, Nicole is the new girl and honestly I'm kinda surprised you guys became friends so quickly. You guys seem like complete opposites."

"Well, we really have a lot more in common than you think. Sure, I may look like a preppy blonde bitch, but that's only because my mom gets me these for free. Wait, are you interested in her?"

"What?! No, I was just curious, that's all."

"Sure you were."

"I'm not gay, Jecka!"

"Ari, the closet's made of glass. Besides, no one will care if you are gay."

"Can you stop with this?! I'm straight, I've always been straight, and will continue to be straight!"

"Then why have you never dated a man before?"

"B-Because my parents won't allow me to until I'm eighteen!"

"What's with the stutter?"

"I didn't stutter!"

"Why does your face look like a tomato?"

"Because, uh, well fuck you, Jecka!"

"I know you want to."

"Ugh!!"

Kelly, who was working right next to them, entered the conversation.

"What's Ari blushing about?"

"I'm not blushing, it's just hot!"

"It's like 70 degrees in here, get real."

"I'm serious Kelly! Just leave us alone."

"Fine. I'm going to the bathroom."

Kelly left to go to the bathroom while Jecka and Ari continued on their project. Megan was working on her part of the project and was a little annoyed at how long Kelly was taking.

"Come on, it can't take that long to pee."

Jecka responded to Megan.

"Why are you so mad?"

"I'm not mad, just annoyed. I'm almost done with my part, and Kelly has barely started hers."

"How can you almost be done, it's been 30 minutes?!"

"Because I'm a fast drawer."

"Are you a good one?"

"Obviously."

"Well, your probably not as good as me."

"You really think that? Let me show you mine real quick. Be ready t-"

At that point Kelly came rushing into the room, eyes wide with terror. She ran up to Mr. Lorre and told him the news."

"Mr. Lorre! Mr. Lorre! Jeffery's bleeding out! I can't even recognize his face anymore!"

"What?! Where is he?!"

"He's right outside the bathroom! Look!"

Kelly ran out of the classroom with Mr. Lorre as Jecka, Ari, and Megan looked at each other with confusion. Why was Jeffery bleeding out? Was he sick of all his fetishes getting exposed that he killed himself? Kelly also said he was unrecognizable, so maybe he shot himself? Oh god, did Jecka make Jeffery kill himself?! She tried to calm down and after 5 minutes she heard an ambulance outside. Curiosity got the best of her and she left to see what happened. She was followed by Ari, than Megan, than basically the entire class. When they reached the ambulance they saw Jeffery being carried in a stretcher. Kelly was right, he did look unrecognizable. Jecka saw Principal Lynn and Kelly talking and went to listen in on the conversation.

"Kelly, what exactly happened?"

"Well, I found Jeffery unconscious and called 911 and got Mr. Lorre to help me."

"Was there anyone else there?"

"What?"

"Did you see anyone nearby, anyone who may have done this to Jeffery?"

Kelly thought long and hard about that question. On the one hand, Nicole may have killed Jeffery, and it would be really bad if she didn't tell anyone what happened. On the other hand, Nicole said that Jeffery sexually assaulted her. Was she telling the truth? With the emotion she said it with, she must have. Kelly made her decision.

"Uh, no. No one was around. He must have been beaten up when I was in the bathroom and whoever beat him up was gone by the time I was finished."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm positive."

"Damn, we don't have working security cameras where Jeffery was found. Shit, this is gonna be a long investigation. And a shit ton of paperwork."

Jecka decided to go back inside and continue on with her day. She was going to tell Nicole what happened, but she couldn't find her for the rest of the day. She assumed that she skipped and left early and Jecka was gonna have to tell her tomorrow.

It was now Friday. Jecka found out that Jeffery was alive, but badly injured and was going to be hospitalized for a few days. But something else was bothering Jecka. Since the Jeffery beatdown, she hadn't seen Nicole at all. Not at school, not at the mall, not even in the bathroom skipping and taking pills. She sat by herself at lunch again. She knew that Nicole had something to do with this, but didn't know what. Jecka decided to talk with Emily to see if she knew where Nicole was.

"Hey Emily, have you seen Nicole? It's been days since I've seen her."

"I haven't seen Nicole since the Jeffery thing."

"That was the last time I saw her too! Do you think she had something to do with it?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah she probably did. But how would we know?"

"I know Kelly was the one who found Jeffery, maybe if we asked her she could tell us."

"Alright, I just saw her going to the bathroom, let's go."

Jecka and Emily went into the girls bathroom and saw Kelly washing her hands. Jecka decided to be friendly with her and start asking about what happened to Jeffery.

"Hey Kelly, you saw what happened to Jeffery, right?"

"Yeah. He was beat up pretty badly."

"I know that. But did Nicole have anything to do with it?"

"What?!"

"I said, did Nicole have anything to do with it?"

"No, nothing. I was the only one there when I found Jeffery, and there was no one nearby."

"Kelly, are you telling the truth?"

"Yes I'm telling the truth!"

"Than why has Nicole been gone since the incident?"

"I don't know, it's probably just a coincidence? I swear, I don't know who did it!"

Emily at this point had enough of Jecka trying to be friendly, so she grabbed Kelly by the collar and pushed her into the wall.

"Listen slut, we know Nicole had something to do with this. So tell us the truth Kelly, or I won't hesitate to slit your fucking throat right here in the fucking bathroom!"

"I don't know anything!"

"I brought a blade with me, I'm not fucking around."

"Okay, okay! Nicole was there, I'll talk, just let me go!"

Emily let go of Kelly's collar and she dropped to the floor. She didn't dare to get up so she told them what happened while sitting on the bathroom floor.

"Ok, I left to use the restroom during art class. Once I finished, I came out and I saw Nicole beating the shit out of Jeffery. I tried to stop her but Jeffery said something that made Nicole punt him in the head and then he went silent."

"Did Nicole say anything?"

"Yeah, she was screaming that he was a perverted anime fucker and that he tried to rape her or something."

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, and after that she just ran out of the building and I haven't seen her since."

"Why on earth would you not tell anyone that?!"

"Because Jeffery did something to Nicole. He touched her somewhere and she looked terrified. I think he groped her and tried to pin her down, but Nicole overpowered him. I couldn't let her get in trouble, she was justified!"

"Jesus Christ Kelly, why didn't you tell one of us?"

"I don't know! No one asked me and I was scared that if I told anyone they would tell Principal Lynn and Nicole would get in trouble."

"Fucking hell, let's go Jecka."

Jecka walked quietly behind Emily as they left the bathroom. When Emily turned around to talk to her she jumped back in fear.

"Listen, we need to find Nicole. Now."

"I know, she may be at her house. I have the address, let's go."

"Ok, but by the way Kelly was describing Nicole, that's not how Nicole normally acts."

"She was about to be raped! Anyone would be terrified!"

"Yeah, but between that and how we haven't seen Nicole since, do you think she-"

"Oh my god! We have to go now! My car's fast, just follow me."

Emily followed Jecka to her car and they quickly left to go to Nicole's house. They didn't know what they were going to see, but they had to be ready for anything.

Because Nicole needs them.

All they can do is hope they're not too late.

Chapter Text

Jecka didn't care how many traffic laws she was breaking. She didn't care that any cops could see her and give her a ticket. She could just charm her way out of it (or have Emily threaten their entire family). All that mattered was that she got to Nicole in time. After arriving at her house in record time, Jecka and Emily ran towards the front door. They tried to open the door, but realized that knocking would be easier than breaking down someone's door. They knocked three times before Nicole's mother opened the door.

"Oh. Jecka. I wasn't expecting you. And who is this?"

"Names Emily. Where the fuck is Nicole?!"

"She's upstairs in her room."

Jecka and Emily pushed Nicole's mom aside and barged up the stairs. When they got to Nicole's room it was dark. They didn't know if Nicole was still their. When they were about to leave something stirred on the bed.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?"

It was Nicole. She looked paler than usually and only had pajamas on. Jecka answered Nicole.

"Looking for you! We haven't seen you since Tuesday! We thought you died!"

"Unfortunately, I'm still very much alive."

"Well why haven't you gone to school?"

"Because I don't want to... what the fuck kind of question is that?"

"The kind of question someone asks when their worried for someone Nicole!"

Emily decided to enter the conversation.

"Yeah! Ms. Ames has been on my ass in English and it doesn't make sense to skip without someone!"

"That's the only reason you're hear?"

"No! I'm also worried about you! I saw you use the depression excuse but I didn't think you actually had depression!"

"I don't. I'm not going because there's a certain someone I don't want to see."

"Jeffery?"

Nicole shot out of her bed as Jecka decided to finally turn on the lights.

"How do you know?!"

"Well, you haven't been to school since Jeffery got sent to the hospital. It wasn't hard to put two and two together."

Jecka added to Emily's statement.

"Besides, Emily may have threatened Kelly's life if she didn't tell us what happened."

"What the fuck, Emily?! Why would you do that?!"

"Because, like I said earlier, we're worried about you! So I said I would slip Kelly's throat if she didn't tell us every detail."

"How much do you know?!"

Jecka decided it would be better if she explained it calmly rather than Emily.

"Well, Kelly was in my art class, so I saw her walk out to use the restroom, as well as tell Mr. Lorre that Jeffery was hurt. She said that when she left the restroom, she saw you beating the shit out of Jeffery and pulled you off him."

"Anything else?!"

"I'm getting to it! Anyway she said that Jeffery said something that made you punt his head and then he went silent. When trying to ask you why you were mad, you screamed that he was a perverted anime lover who tried to rape you."

"..."

"..."

"Is that it?"

"From what she told us, yeah."

"... There's a little more to the story."

Emily got mad at that statement.

"You mean she didn't tell us everything?!"

"No, she told you everything she saw. There's just parts of the story that only I know."

"Well what happened?!"

"Well, I was about to go to you to get more Adderall, but Jeffery stopped me. He did this little speech about how I ruined his life and then said that since I got my satisfaction, he was gonna get his. So he grabbed at my crotch and I beat the shit out of him. After that, Kelly came out of the bathroom and pulled me off of him. Jeffery said something, then I kicked him in the head and ran home."

Jecka asked a question.

"What did he say?"

"What?"

"Right before you kicked him in the head, what did he say?"

"He sai- Well he tr- He called me a futanari."

"What?! Why?!"

Nicole almost told Jecka and Emily the truth. But she stopped herself and told them the same thing she told Kelly.

"He was trying to get Kelly to turn on me, so I shut him up. He's a fucking liar."

"I figured. Look Nicole you need to come back to school."

"Why? I'll just go back and get expelled by Principal Lynn."

"Nicole, Kelly didn't tell anyone about what happened until Emily made her."

"Bullshit. She had to have told someone."

"No, Nicole. I heard her speak to Principal Lynn as Jeffery was going into the ambulance. She said she didn't see anything except Jeffery's body lying there."

"... So no one knows?"

"No one. They couldn't even check security footage because the cameras were broken. The only people who know are me, Emily, and Kelly. If Kelly tells anyone, Emily would probably kill her."

Nicole stood there in silence. Now that she knew she wasn't getting expelled for what she did, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know whether Jeffery was going to tell anyone, but with Emily by her side, the chances were slim at best.

"... Thank you."

"What?"

"Thank you. For not telling anyone about what happened."

"You're welco- what are those marks on your arm?"

Nicole looked down at her arms. The marks were from when she cut herself after getting home that day. She tried to hide them again, but before she could do that Emily took off her sweater that she always kept on. Her arms were covered in cuts. She had double, maybe even triple the amount of cuts that Nicole had. Emily talked to Jecka about the marks on their arms.

"It's called cutting. You use a razor and you slowly cut open your skin. It usually happens when someone wants to kill themselves."

"Wait, Nicole, you were going to kill yourself?!"

Tears formed in Jecka's eyes as she could barely contain herself. Nicole didn't want to hurt her by lying, so she told her the truth.

"...Yeah. The only reason I didn't is because there's no good place to hang a noose here. I didn't want to make a place so I just decided to cut myself in the bath."

At this point Jecka was full-on crying. She rushed to Nicole and hugged her with the biggest hug she had given anyone in years. Nicole just stood there and let Jecka cry into her shoulder. They stayed like that for 5 minutes, while Emily decided this was the perfect time to smoke a cigarette. When Jecka had somewhat calmed down. Emily asked Nicole a question.

"So, you coming back to school next week?"

"Sure. I don't think I could put you guys through all that and then not come to school."

"Cool. Well you wanna skip with us? We could probably go to the mall. I know Jecka likes it and I can sell some shit to the crackheads outside. It's a win-win."

"Why not. Although I probably need to clean up a little first. You guys can wait downstairs, it'll take 10 minutes at most."

Jecka wiped her face off and she and Emily headed downstairs while Nicole took the first shower she had taken in days. After a few minutes she came downstairs and was ready to go. However, her brother thought that this was the perfect time to come out of the basement and get another full course meal, or what he considered a "snack".

"Oh look. The faggot made some friends. Watch out, they'll run away wh-"

BOOM!

Emily punched him in the face and Nicole's brother was knocked out. Jecka questioned Nicole on the comment her brother gave her.

"Nicole, why did he call you that?"

"Well, shit, I'm bisexual. I know Emily doesn't care but... do you?"

"Fuck no. That shit doesn't even matter. Now come on, I want to see if Hot Topic has any new MSI merch!"

Nicole walked outside and got into Jecka's car with her and Emily. As they drove to the mall, Nicole realized something.

Something else matters.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks went by without any incidents. Nicole had returned to school and did the same things she did before. She would hang out with Jecka, skip with Emily, and take pills in between classes. Jeffery returned soon after, but when he tried to tell everyone Nicole's secret no one believed him. In fact, he made the mistake of telling Emily and if Principal Lynn wasn't right there she would've killed him. Nicole was also able to convince Principal Lynn to move Jeffery out of any of her classes. One afternoon in late October Nicole and Jecka went to the mall with each other and decided to visit Hot Topic for a bit. When they entered Ari was there to greet them.

"Oh, hey Jecka! Hey Nicole! You guys looking for anything today?"

"No, just looking around."

As Jecka looked around Ari began a conversation with Nicole.

"So, do you like any bands? I'm sure I could find something you would want."

"Well, I like Metallica and Alice in Chains but I'm not looking to buy anything today."

"Aw, that's a shame. We got some really cute crop tops with Kill 'Em All on them."

"Sounds cool, but I'll probably wait on buying it for now."

"Really? You would look super hot in it."

"No, not today. Are you flirting with me?"

"Wh-What? No, I'm just... tr-trying to sell some stuff?"

"I don't care if you flirt with me."

"I-I'm not flirting! I only date men, I'm not gay!"

"Woah, when did I say you were gay?"

"When yo- damn it! How long is Jecka gonna take?!"

Jecka approached the two with a new bracelet in her hand.

"This one looks pretty cute. It's got like, this pink hue to it and on the inside it's made of felt. It's super comfortable."

"Oh yeah. We got those in a few days ago, you wanna buy it?"

"Sure, just ring me up."

Jecka walked to the counter while Ari tried to convince Nicole that she was only trying to sell her something.

"You want a bracelet too? We've got some in black if you want."

"Depends. Do you think I'll look cute if I wear them?"

"N- Well- I mean- kinda? I don't know, I'm not into women."

"Oh. Sorry not buying it."

"I mean yes! Yes, you would look cute wearing them!"

"Well in that case my answer remains the same."

"Ugh!"

Ari stepped behind the counter as she began to help Jecka check out. Once she finished she handed her the bracelet and Nicole and Jecka left the store. As they were wandering around, they began to talk about Ari.

"Jecka did you see how Ari acted back there? Her closet is made of glass."

"What?"

"She was trying to sell me som-"

"No, the closet thing."

"Oh. When someone hasn't come out as gay yet, it's called being in the closet."

"Okay. So if it's made of glass that means you can see right through it, correct?"

"Basically, yeah."

"That makes so much sense. Whenever I'm in art with her she makes these off-handed comments about other girls in the class and wishes she was pretty like them. I've teased her a couple times and she always gets red in the face, it's adorable."

"Same thing happened back there too. I'm pretty sure I caught her looking at my ass."

"You sure she didn't look at mine?"

"Yeah, looks like I'm better than you at that."

"Nicole, your ass is not better than mine."

"Really? You wanna compare."

"Wh- No! I just know mine's better, that's all."

"Sure."

Jecka rolled her eyes and continued walking. Eventually the two reached the FYE and decided to browse around. Nicole let Jecka wander as she looked to tell Kelly something. She spent 5 minutes looking for her and assumed she left the day off before finding her restocking.

"Hey, Kelly."

"Hi Nicole! You looking for any movies? We just restocked, so there should be something you like. We just got the DVD for 28 Weeks Later."

"No, I'm not buying anything today. I actually wanted to talk to you for a minute."

"Oh? What's up?"

"...Thank you."

"What?"

"Thank you for not telling anyone about the, you know..."

"Oh! I wasn't gonna let you get in trouble just because you were protecting yourself. You had every right to attack Jeffery."

"Yeah. That really helped me, Kelly."

"Yeah, well, I kinda had to tell Jecka and Emily or else I would've bled out in the bathroom but other than that no one else knows."

"I know you told them. Emily made it very clear to me what she would've done to you if you hadn't."

"She made it very clear with me too."

"I bet she did. Anyway, I'm gonna see where Jecka is."

"Ok! And you're welcome, by the way."

Nicole smiled at Kelly as she walked off. On her way to the front she passed by the Guitar Hero 3 poster again. This time, however, instead of saying October 28th, it said out now. Nicole was confused until she remembered that it was the 29th. She looked around and sure enough, she found the game and guitar she was looking for. The box said PS3 on it, and Nicole pondered about the situation. She had told herself she wasn't buying anything today, but it did look pretty cool. She looked at the price tag and saw that it costed $100. She put the box down but then thought about it some more. She thought about how Kelly had helped her by not telling anyone, and looking around she saw that the shelfs were pretty much full. She knew that Kelly was the manager, and a big purchase like this could help her out. So she picked it up and walked to the checkout where she saw Jecka empty-handed.

"You didn't find anything?"

"Nothing really stood out to me. What's that?"

"This is that guitar game that they advertised over there."

"I thought you said you weren't buying anything."

"Yeah, but I realized that this place doesn't get too much business and Kelly could use the extra money. Besides, she helped me out by not telling anyone about what happened, so I figured I owe her one."

"That's nice, but I thought you said you don't play video games?"

"I mean, if you think about it, is this really a video game? It doesn't use the usual controller and it doesn't look that complex, so in reality I'm just buying a cool guitar that I can connect to the TV."

"That actually makes sense. I'm not paying for it, though."

"Relax, I'll pay for it myself."

"Aren't you broke?"

"I'll have, like, $35 after I buy this, it's fine."

"That's not a lot of money but alright."

The two stepped up to the counter as another employee checked them out. Nicole figured she would tell Kelly about the purchase tomorrow. After that Nicole and Jecka decided to call it a day and they began driving to Nicole's house. When they arrived, Jecka let Nicole out and made sure that she was safe in her home before leaving. As she drove away she thought about the earlier conversation about Ari and how she was still in the closet. She thought about how her love life went. She dated guys and found guys attractive, but didn't really connect with any of them. But Nicole? It was obvious from Day 1 that they had some sort of connect. It didn't help that whenever they hung out Jecka noticed that her chest got tighter and her legs felt-

Wait, was she in the closet?

She quickly got rid of that thought, as she was attracted to guys, she's not gay. It's probably just a friends thing, right?

Right?

Nicole entered her house and went upstairs to open her purchase. She turned on her PlayStation and inserted the new disc while plugging in the dongle that was in the box. As it downloaded her mind wandered to Jecka. The conversation they had earlier about being in the closet, Nicole had told Jecka she's bi but didn't tell her about being trans. So technically, she was also still in the closet. It didn't help that she felt somewhat scared of Jecka finding out and breaking their friendship, as Jecka was one of the only ones who actually cared for Nicole. She had proven it when she came to Nicole's house and helped her out when she was in a really dark place. Her reaction to when she had mentioned suicide also showed that she didn't want Nicole to leave. She also felt that her friendship may be a little more, but before she could really think about it the game finished downloading and she was ready to play. The game opened with Even Flow playing in the background and she started the career mode and chose Casey Lynch. And as she pressed play on the first song, the opening to Slow Ride played, and she strummed along.

Chapter Text

As October turned to November Nicole continued to do what she usually did. She went to school, occasionally skipped with Emily, and went to the mall after school with Jecka. She also played her Guitar Hero when she was unoccupied, and managed to beat the game on medium in 2 days. About 2 weeks into November Nicole and Jecka were talking during lunch about what they would do after school that day, when Jecka brought up a new idea.

"What if we hung out at my house after school?"

"I mean, sure, why not. Any reason you don't want to go to the mall?"

"The manager at the Waldenbooks keeps hitting on me and I really don't want to deal with that today."

"Then just don't go to Waldenbooks."

"You know how he is, Nicole. He'll make up some excuse to leave and try flirting with me if he sees me anywhere close to the store."

"True, plus I haven't been to your house yet so at least I can see how you live."

"Ok! I'll pick you up after gym. See ya!"

Jecka left to go to her next class as Nicole finished what she was eating. The day went by as it usually did up until gym class with Coach Colby. After Nicole got changed she saw Kylar being a little too excited. She knew that if Kylar was excited it was going to be a brutal class. Coach Colby exited his office with a large sack and placed it in the middle of the gym.

"Alright class! Today is gonna be good, cause we're playing dodgeball!"

"Aw fuck yeah, dude! I'm totally gonna crush these bitches n' shit."

"Lets start off simple, Boys vs Girls. Boys, head over there. Girls, come over here."

As the first game began Nicole tried to stay in the back, but since Coach Colby was right behind the girls side (go figure), she had to move up to the front. The game lasted all but 5 minutes. The boys quickly beat the girls, with Jecka being the last one standing and managing to pick off 3 boys. The next few games were random pairings but somehow Kylar's team managed to lose almost every game. On the last game of the day Kylar was teamed up with Nicole, and he was getting mad.

"God dammit, our team keeps fucking losing! So fucking gay!"

"What's your problem?"

"You fucking whore! Shut up!"

Nicole looked around to see if the coach was going to do anything. She eventually tried to call him on the matter.

"Hey coach are we just...?"

Nicole realized that he wasn't paying any attention at all, so she turned back to Kylar.

"Okay no discipline for that one, go on."

"I didn't get into the lacrosse team I tried out for, such bullshit!"

"Well maybe just... get better at it?"

"No, you don't understand, like, there's all these dumbass under-privileged student passes. They're doing so many that like 20 percent of the sports are automatically filled. All these Mexican kids act like America's so racist when they got the fucking red carpet rolled out for everything."

Braxton decided to enter the conversation.

"You mean like affirmative action? I think that's what they call it."

"I call it fucking gay! Who's with me?!"

Nicole tried to get Kylar back in the game because the sooner it was finished, the sooner gym would be done.

"Just shut up and throw the ball, jackass."

"What?! How can you side with that?!"

"No one gives a shit except you and men who smoke at chain restaurant bars."

"Oh yeah, nothing matters unless you care, I see how it is."

"Can you just assume you won the argument so I can stop hearing this?"

"Fucking women gotta go too, dude. I wanna move to the Middle East, a country that stones loud women to death."

"Sorry, what country is that?"

"I just said, the Middle East! For such a smart-ass you don't know books too good."

Nicole stared at Kylar dumbfounded before asking him a question.

"Sorry, I don't know the politically correct way of asking this, but are you actually retarded?"

"Uh... I don't know who told you, but when I got tested that was supposed to be a secret. Fucking Trody can't keep his mouth shut!"

"Just having a friend named Trody."

"What're you trying to say?"

"You are a quintessential dipshit."

"Quin... uh... I don't know what the fuck that means but I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"You're gonna hit a girl?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Think I care?! You don't know me, I'd beat the shit out my mom if she was asking for it!"

Nicole knew she had to let the coach know what was going on, so she screamed loud enough for everyone to hear.

"AH! HE'S GONNA BREAK MY NOSE! STOP IT!"

"Screaming won't save you now."

As soon as Coach Colby heard Nicole's voice he rushed over to the scene.

"Hold on, hold on, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Nothing coach, I'm just gonna punch this slut in the face until one of her eyes stop working."

"Kylar, you won't be laying a hand on our lovely and very beautiful new student Nicole."

"Ah, what the fuck, everyone's against me! I WANNA GO HOME AND STAB MY HAMSTER!"

"That's it, son! I like the competitive fervor! Get out there and use that energy to win this game!"

"Heh, you got it coach!"

With this newfound energy, Kylar managed to single-handedly get everyone on the other team out in just 2 minutes. After the game was finished, class was dismissed and Nicole went to change into her regular clothes and go to Jecka's house. She had put everything on except her shirt, which she couldn't find for some reason. She was about to give up until she saw Coach Colby walking to her with her shirt in hand.

"Having trouble, Nicole?"

"Can you- You can't be in here!"

"I found this on the ground, just wanted to give it to it's rightful owner."

"Oh thanks... Stop looking... Now please."

"Y'know something, you're feisty. I like that in my female students."

"I got a feeling you like something else in your female students too."

"See? You just snap back like that. I like it, it's sexy."

"You are saying this to a 16 year old in the girl's locker room."

"C'mon, what's age? Look at you, you're mature enough."

Nicole was much smaller than Coach Colby, and she knew that if she were to scream for help, he could just silence her and do unspeakable things to her. He would also find out about her secret. So she did the only thing that should do, and that was to humor a literal pedophile.

"I guess, yeah. So what's up?"

"Just wanted a chat with a pretty girl..."

"About?"

"Oh I don't know uh... I just like looking at ya."

"Why do girls say they like older men? You're just as boring as younger men."

"I could show you a fun time a lot of these high school boys couldn't."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, and I'll prove it too. Hang out by the back entrance and I'll come around in my pickup truck."

Nicole knew that she had to end this fast.

"Hey man I'd love to catch an R but I got homework, it's a weeknight, you know?"

"Aw, I guess you're right. Hey but one day we'll make something happen? I can't let my sexiest student get away now."

"Oh my god, you're so bad."

"Your gym coach has been around the block, sweetie."

"Yeah well, sorry it didn't work out. I've had less periods than states in America, but again, sorry it didn't work out."

Nicole quickly packed up her things and made her way to the front of the school where Jecka was waiting for her.

"What took you so long? I thought you left without me."

"Sorry, I got held up by Coach Colby after class. He was trying to get me to fuck him."

"Oh my god!"

"Yeah I kno-"

"No. Oh my god, as in he tried doing the exact same thing to me!"

"Really? Did he tell you that you were his hottest student?"

"Yeah obviously."

"He said the same thing to me. I was able to get him to go away on his own though."

"How? That man is like, twice as big as you."

"I told him I had homework every night and couldn't do it on weekdays so he backed off."

"Damn, Ari had to come in and save me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she came in like 'Are you trying to grab some minor ass?' and he backed off from there."

"Your ass is only minor because it's underage, I'd say it's pretty major to be honest."

"Aw, thanks! But I already knew that. You're ass is pretty good too."

"Thanks. So we're heading to your place right?"

"Oh yeah. Come on!"

The ride to Jecka's house was relatively short. When Jecka pulled in her driveway Nicole was stunned by how good it looked.

"Wow. You're really rich, huh?"

"I mean, kinda? The inside looks worse than the outside. I'll show you around."

The two made their way inside the house, but before they could get upstairs, Jecka's father appeared from the kitchen.

"Hey Jessica, how was school?"

"It was fine."

"That's great. And who is this young lady?"

"Oh, it's my friend Nicole I've been hanging out at the mall with."

"Well, it is nice to finally see you Nicole, I've heard good things about you. Alright, I'll let you guys go. If your whore of a mother asks, I'll be at the b- er, office."

Jecka's dad waved goodbye as he went to the "office". As the two made their way into Jecka's room, they started their conversation.

"Why'd your dad call your mom a whore?"

"Oh he does that sometimes, it's fine."

"It doesn't seem fine. But whatever, you have homework?"

"Since when have you cared about homework?"

"I don't, but Coach Colby may have followed me here, so if he sees me not doing homework, he'll know I lied."

"Why do you think he would follow us?"

"Why do you think he wouldn't?"

"Touché."

"So, Thanksgiving Break is coming up soon, what do you plan on doing?"

"Well, my mom's inviting her side of the family, so it'll be pretty packed. I just hope it doesn't end up like last year and we get into another fight over politics. What about you?"

"Nothing much. It'll be just me, my mom, and my brother eating whatever's on sale from Walmart or whatever."

"Damn, no family?"

"Yeah, my mom's family isn't around anymore, and I doubt that one of her ex-husbands would want to have Thanksgiving with her."

"I mean, if it's okay with you, you guys could spend Thanksgiving at my place."

"Really?"

"Yeah, even if all of my mom's family shows up, we'll still have at least 5 chairs left, so if it's just the three of you it should be fine."

"Oh. Um.. Sure, I'll come. I think this will be the first proper Thanksgiving since I was like, 5 or 6."

"Perfect! I'll check with my dad about it and we'll see if we can set it up!"

"Thanks."

"No problem!"

The two began to work on their homework until Nicole needed to go home. Jecka drove her their but when she got back she noticed her father's car already in the driveway. She nervously stepped into the house where her father was mumbling to himself.

"Stupid designated driver rule..."

"Oh, hey dad."

"Jessica! I thought you were upstairs with your friend Nicole."

"I was, but she had to go home for dinner so I drove her back to her house."

"Well that's nice dear. You finish up all your homework?"

"Yeah, I made sure all of it was completed."

"Good, because I don't want to see your grade failing."

"I know dad."

"If you ever were to fail your classes I guess I'd have to KICK YOUR FUCKING TEETH IN!"

"Dad!"

"DON'T YOU DAD ME! IF I EVER CATCH YOU FAILING I WILL NOT HESITATE TO BEAT THE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF YOU!"

"OK! I'll promise to keep my grades up, now please don't hit me!"

"That's good dear. Now run upstairs, I guess you can watch your little show now."

"Thanks, dad. Oh, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure dear, go ahead."

"Nicole and her family really don't have a place to go for Thanksgiving, so I was wondering if they could come here?"

"Well, that depends. How many of them are there?"

"Just Nicole, her mom, and her brother."

"Well in that case I guess they can."

"Thank you!"

"My pleasure. But if they break anything I'll MAKE SURE TO BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS!"

"They won't break anything, I promise!"

"THEY BETTER NOT! NOW GO UPSTAIRS AND GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Jecka rushed upstairs and locked her door as tears began to fall down her face. This had become a regular occurrence after her dad was fired from his previous job. She hopped on her bed and looked at the ceiling. She began to really think about the past couple of years. Sophomore year had sucked. She didn't have any actual friends, since the one she did have she pushed away so she could be popular. Her dad was just the same as he was now, beatings included. The worst part, however, was the constant bombardment of guys trying to fuck her, whether it was legal or not. The past summer had been hell. There was nothing for her except the abuse from her dad and the occasional trip to the mall. Most of that had stayed the same up until now, the beatings, the guys, the mall trips to get out of the house. But starting Junior year something in her life changed, and she knew exactly what did. She now had an actual friend, Nicole, who seemed to care for her and wanted her to get better. Jecka thought about what Junior Year would've been like without Nicole, but no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't imagine it.

Jecka had gotten attached to Nicole, and now she couldn't live without her.

Chapter Text

For the first part of Thanksgiving Break, Nicole did basically nothing but relax. She would play Guitar Hero from time to time, but she sent most of her time texting Jecka. She felt this weird obligation to keep in touch with her almost 24/7, even if they weren't in school. When Thanksgiving rolled around, Nicole and her mom left their house in the early afternoon to make their way to Jecka's for Thanksgiving. Her brother didn't go because he decided his time was better spent yelling slurs at minorities on whatever shooter he was playing. That didn't stop him from demanding leftovers from when they got home, to which Nicole's mom reluctantly agreed. On the way to Jecka's house Nicole and her mom had a conversation.

"So Nicole, seems like you've made some new friends."

"Yeah, mom. They're pretty cool."

"It was so nice for Jecka and her family to invite us over. This is the first time we've been able to celebrate Thanksgiving in years!"

"Jecka's cool like that."

"Have you met anyone else at school?"

"Yeah, some people. I usually hang out with Emily in the morning. I also know some girls named Ari and Kelly, they work at the mall and go to school."

"Well good for them. How have the boys been at this school?"

"Oh, um, they're there, I guess. I don't really hang out with them. Nothing of importance whatsoever."

"Really Nicole?"

"Yeah Mom, I don't know who most of them are. How soon will we be there?"

"In about 5 minutes."

"Cool."

They spent the rest of the car ride in silence with some generic pop song playing that her mom liked. Nicole could tolerate it, but she would rather listen to rock or metal. When they got to Jecka's house, they knocked on the door and were greeted by Jecka.

"Hey Nicole! Hi Ms. Wilson!"

"Hello Jecka! It's so nice to finally come over and meet your family!"

"Well, it's just gonna be my mom and dad."

"Really? I thought you said your family was coming over?"

"Yeah, but they had to cancel. There are transportation issues where they are, so they couldn't make it."

"Oh, that's alright. It'll still be a good time!"

"Yeah... Hey why don't you guys come on in?"

"Okay."

Nicole and her mom made their way inside. Nicole's mom went to meet Jecka's parents as Nicole stayed with Jecka.

"Tell me the truth."

"Huh?"

"There's got to be a better reason than transportation issues on why your family couldn't come."

"Alright fine. A lot of my family have been trying to distance themselves from my dad. His side of the family has already done so, but it seems that my mom's side is finally coming around."

"Damn, is he like, abusive?"

"What? No, he's just... a dick. That's all."

"Okay. So you wanna just hang out in your room until dinner's ready?"

"Sure, why not?"

While Nicole and Jecka were talking to each other, Nicole's mom introduced herself to Jecka's parents.

"Hello! I'm Nicole's mom, Ms. Wilson. It's nice to finally meet you guys!"

"Why hello there! I'm Mary, and over here is my husband Jonathan."

She pointed over to the other side of the kitchen, where Mr. Andrews was sitting down.

"Jonathan Andrews, nice to meet you."

"Susan Wilson, it's nice to meet you too."

Mrs. Andrews made her way over to the table where they were both sitting.

"Well, you came at the perfect time. The turkey's in the oven, and once that's done it's time to eat."

"Wonderful!"

The adults spent the next 30 minutes talking about where they worked, what they liked to do, and of course, politics. Jecka and Nicole were waiting in Jecka's room while also having a conversation.

"You're still doing schoolwork? Bitch it's Thanksgiving."

"Well, it's SAT prep, and I have to do good on it or else my parents won't help me pay for college."

"Damn, you're actually going to college?"

"You aren't?"

"Bitch, fuck that. I'll just find some job or keep living with my mom."

"Do you think she'll let you stay after high school?"

"She let's my brother stay, and he's 27 years old. So I'm probably fine."

"At least until your get married, right?"

"Bitch fuck that! When I play Fuck, Marry, Kill, I say Fuck Marriage and Kill Myself."

"Damn."

"Wait, you actually plan on getting married?"

"Yeah, but only to some rich guy so I can get some money."

"I can respect that."

"Yeah, and absolutely no kids. They're fucking evil, I swear." 

"Yeah, they destroy everything you have and then think they did something amazing. I'm never dealing with that."

"True. Who do you think would be the first to have a kid at our school anyway?"

"I don't know. Kelly's basically slept with half the school, so it's only a matter of time. Megan seems like the person to get married straight out of high school and become a trad-wife. Emily would kill anyone who fucking thinks about having a kid with her."

As Nicole was about to name off more students Jecka's dad called them down for dinner. Once they got down and started eating, Mr. Andrews started the conversation.

"So Nicole, you doing good in school?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's good. I know Jecka's been doing great, isn't that right sweetie?"

"Yeah dad, I'm doing awesome."

"That's my girl. I know she's been practicing for the SAT."

"Yep, every day."

"She knows what'll happen if she gets a bad score, so she studies basically every day."

They sat in silence for a minute until Mrs. Andrews decided to speak.

"So, Nicole, you have any plans for college?"

"Uh, not really, no. I don't think college is the right thing for me."

Mr. Andrews spoke up.

"But you will get a job, right?"

"Yeah, something that pays decent and isn't hell to work at."

"That's good. I just want to make sure my daughter hangs around people who are good influences like Karen. Say, Jecka, whatever happened to Karen?"

"Oh, uh, we just kinda went our own ways so that we could do better in school."

"Well, it sucks that you two don't hand out anymore, but if it helps both of you get good grades, than I guess it's alright."

The group finished eating and Jecka and Nicole made their way back upstairs to hang out before Nicole had to leave. While they were up there, Nicole brought up Karen.

"I didn't know you used to hang out with Karen."

"Yeah, back in elementary and middle school, but we kind of stopped being friends in 8th grade."

"Why?"

"Well, I wanted to be one of the popular girls so one day I abandoned Karen to go smoking with some of the other girls and we haven't really talked since."

"Just like that?"

"Well, there were some words that were said but that doesn't really matter."

"Damn, that sucks. I really didn't make too many friends because I moved so much. The one time I did back in Vermont I wasn't able to give a proper goodbye so I kind of just abandoned her without warning. After that I really didn't socialize too much."

"Oh damn, I'm feel bad for you."

"No it's fine, I haven't really thought about it in a while, so it's okay."

At that moment Nicole's mom called for Nicole and she said goodbye and left to go back to her house. Jecka said goodbye as well and when Nicole left she was left alone in her room thinking about the conversation. Specifically the conversation they had about Karen. Jecka knew that she was wrong, not immediately but sometime around sophomore year. She wanted to apologize to Karen, she really did, but whenever she saw her she just didn't. She would walk away feeling conflicted. Maybe when she got back to school she would finally apologize for what happened. 

Nicole and her mom had just arrived home as Nicole's mom went to give her brother his desired leftovers that consisted of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, casserole, and an entire pumpkin pie. Nicole made her way up to her room as she sat down on her bed. She was thinking about the conversation she had with Jecka. Specifically the conversation about Emily. Nicole had lied to Jecka, she did think about Emily. A lot. Especially since coming to Northern Virginia and meeting the Emily here. She wanted to believe that she had finally seen her friend that she hasn't seen since 5th grade, but she knew it wasn't her. Sure, she had blonde hair and blue eyes just like the original Emily but there's no way she would have ever moved. Her family was pretty well off and were big contributors to the town they lived in, so if she ever wanted to see her again, odds are she would be there. So she accepted the fact that she would have to wait until graduation to even have a chance at seeing her again. Even then, between the time she left and now she had transitioned and looked like a different person, so the reality of the situation was that she would probably never see Emily again.

Why was life so cruel to her?

Chapter Text

It was now December. Nicole's first semester at Lake Braddock was coming to a close. Her grades had stayed decent, she still skipped with Jecka and Emily, and had started hanging out with Kelly when they had the same class. The week before Winter Break was filled with midterms, some hard, some easy, but Nicole was able to manage them. That Wednesday Nicole and Jecka were having a conversation during lunch, like they usually did.

"Jecka, do you have a class with Mr. White?"

"No, I don't do fucking photography, why?"

"Well I was walking by his class this morning, and I heard him talking to one of his students about White Pride."

"Really? So is he, like, a racist or something?"

"Probably a white supremacist, he said that all of his students should be terrified of black people."

"Jesus Christ, that's fucked up. Do you think we should get him fired?"

"Nah. I don't think that would work. He didn't say any racial slurs, so I don't think we can hold anything against him."

"Damn."

"Yeah, he did say he had plans for the next Puerto Rican Bingo Night, but that shit's in April."

"You think he's gonna do something extreme?"

"He doesn't have the guts. Besides, he's too old to do any harm to someone."

"True."

Just then Kelly came up to their table with a big smile on her face.

"Hey Nicole and Jecka! I just wanted to give you guys these invitations to my annual Christmas Party! It's this Friday, the 21st. I hope to see you guys there? And remember, bring swim trunks."

Kelly happily skipped away to give away more invitations, as Nicole commented on the situation.

"I mean, it's cool I guess, but I probably won't go."

"What?! Why Nicole?!"

"I don't know, I've been to these types of parties in the past, they're pretty boring."

"I forgot you've never been to a Kelly Party!"

"A Kelly Party?"

"Yeah! Her family's super rich, so they live in a mansion. So sometimes when her parents are gone, she holds parties that are massive! She has an indoor pool and everything!"

"So that's why she told us to bring swim trunks."

"Exactly! And the pool isn't even the best part! So are you going?"

"I mean, I don't have anything going on that day, so I guess. I don't have a ride though."

"I'll drive you! We can go as friends!"

"As friends?"

"Yeah! Friends, nothing more, no ulterior motive whatsoever."

"...Ok then. But I don't like swimming, so I'm just gonna go in basic clothes."

"Ok then. The invite say 6, so I'll come over at about 5."

"Sounds good. I'll see you later."

"Bye Nicole!"

Nicole and Jecka got up and went their separate ways. Jecka was a little annoyed that Nicole wasn't gonna where a bikini, but that wasn't gonna stop her. She just wishes that she could see Nicole in one too. Her nice ass being surround by...

Shit she was thinking it again.

She told herself to stop trying to sexualize Nicole. They're just friends, nothing more, nothing less. But Nicole did seem to open herself up more around Jecka, maybe proving that they have a...

Shit she was thinking it AGAIN.

Jecka tried to get Nicole out of her mind as she went on with her day, but eventually she just gave up and let her roam free up there.

It was now Friday the 21st, and Nicole was getting ready to go to Kelly's party. She didn't want to look like a total bum, so she wore on of her nicer shirts and put on some black pants that contrasted nicely with the rest of her outfit. Right as Nicole finished putting on her clothes the front door rang and she came downstairs to answer it. Standing in front of her was Jecka with a pink hoodie and gray sweatpants.

"I thought you said you were wearing a bikini?"

"I am under this! I'm not going out in freezing weather in just a bikini!"

"So that's why you decided to dress up like a hobo."

"Yeah, if a hobo was hot and had good fashion sense."

"Whatever, just come inside. We can eat dinner and go."

"Sounds good."

The two girls headed to the kitchen where Nicole pulled out some TV dinners her mom had left over and they started to eat. Nicole wasn't the biggest fan of this stuff. She would much rather prefer something she could put in the oven for 15 minutes. Sure the wait was longer, but the food was better overall. Anyways, after they finished, they hung out in the living room for a little bit before getting in Jecka's car and going to Kelly's party. Jecka decided to put in her Temple Of The Dog album as Nicole relaxed in the passenger seat. Suddenly, she remembered something about this album and grabbed it to make sure she was right. Sure enough, she immediately recognized the third song. Hunger Strike.

Her dad's favorite song.

Nicole choked up looking at the name. She looked out the window so Jecka couldn't see her. She hoped that the song wouldn't play, because she might not be able to contain herself. Luckily, the first song, Say Hello 2 Heaven, lasted 6 and a half minutes, and the second song, Reach Down, lasted over 11 minutes. She was able to take her mind off of her dad for a minute to try and wrap her head around why someone would make a song over 11 minutes. As she was pondering this, the car slowed down before eventually stopping right in front of Kelly's house. Jecka wasn't kidding, Kelly's family was rich. The house looked like cross between a mansion and a castle. Nicole stepped out of the car and approached the building. As she got closer, she was able to see tiny details that stunned her. The lines in the bricks, how the windows blended into the walls, and the chimney had a fucking Gargoyle on top of it. She reached the door as she heard music coming from inside the house. She rang the doorbell as Jecka stood beside her, and waited until Kelly opened the door.

"Hey guys! Welcome to the party! I have extra guest rooms if you need somewhere to put your stuff."

Extra guest rooms?! Nicole's house had only 3 bedrooms, Kelly just giving out bedrooms like she has 15 of them. As Kelly led the way to their room Nicole realized that she had overestimated the amount of bedroom's Kelly had.

She only had 14.

They reached the room as Nicole sat down on the bed and Jecka sat down in one of the chairs nearby.

"Told you her house was huge."

"I didn't think it'd be this big."

"First timers usually don't."

As she said that Jecka began to take off her hoodie and sweatpants to reveal her bright pink bikini to Nicole. Nicole took one look at her and was stunned. She knew Jecka was hot, but this was on a whole different level. Her skin was perfectly tanned, not too much to make her look sunburnt, but not too little to make her look pale. She had a sixpack that looked like it was carved into her by Michelangelo himself. Not to mention her perfectly sized t-

"Nicole, you're staring."

"Oh, what? No I wasn't, I was just looking in your general direction."

"Hmm, sure you were. Come on, you have to see her pool, even if your not going in it."

Nicole followed Jecka out of the room and into the back of the house where the pool was. As Nicole walked through each new thing she saw amazed her. There was a buffet, a bar that served non-alcoholic drinks (Jecka said that was because the last time there was alcohol Kylar drove into a street lamp), and an entire band. Sure, they were just a cover band, but a band nonetheless. Finally, Jecka and Nicole reached the pool. Nicole had expected something big but not too big. But this was an Olympic sized swimming pool with a hot tub built into one of the corners. Nicole stood there amazed as Jecka went to say hi to Ari, who was wearing a monokini.

"Hey Ari! How's the party been so far?"

"Oh, hi Jecka! It's been alright."

"That's good, this must be a dream come true for you."

"Wait, why?"

"Well it's just that there's all this entertainment and fun and half-naked women!"

"Wha- Shut up Jecka!"

"Ari, your face is as red as your hair!"

"Well, let me ruin yours!"

At that moment Ari pushed Jecka into the pool, and jumped in soon after. The girls were having fun in the pool, so Nicole decided to see what they had in the bar. She saw many different drinks and was pretty sure she saw vodka, but before she could get a good look an annoyance came up to her.

"Oh, hey Nicole! Didn't know you'd be here, the party's pretty cool, isn't it?"

Oh god it was Crispin.

"Oh, uh, yeah? Sure? I don't know I just got here."

"Yeah, did you see the band? They're doing covers tonight, but they actually make there own music and preform it in other places sometimes. I went to one of their shows, it was pretty good."

"Uh-huh, yeah. And do you remember the name of the band?"

"Well, uh, I think it was like, named after an animal or something."

"Or something?"

"Yeah, it may have been Modest Mouse or something similar."

"Dude just shut the fuck up. Modest Mouse is too big to preform at a high school party."

"Oh you know that band too?"

"Yeah, among others. Hey, do you know Sonic Youth?"

"Uh, like the video game?"

"Get the fuck out of my face."

"Oh, well, it was nice catching up with you Nicole! I'll see you tom- no Mo- wait, next year! I'll see you next year."

"I hope your wrong."

Nicole slouched in her seat and tried to forget about the experience by ordering some vodka. Unfortunately, she was wrong about it being vodka, and she got a big glass of mediocre sparkling water. Maybe she should have listened to Jecka. 

Speaking of Jecka, about 15 minutes later Jecka came to the bar with a towel around her and sat down right next to Nicole.

"Hey Nicole. How's it been so far?"

"Um, it's been alright. Besides my encounter with Crispin, I've had a good time."

"Yeah, that happens. At least it wasn't Kylar."

"Why not?"

"Freshman year, he came to a Kelly Party and started flirting with Jenny Fillmore. A few minutes later, she was out cold."

"He drugged her?"

"Not only that, he used that experience to lose his virginity."

"Holy shit he's fucked up. And Kelly let him over afterwards?"

"Yeah, she didn't know until this year! She only stopped inviting Kylar after the streetlight incident."

"Well I'll think twice the next time I see him."

"You should. Fucking benzosexual." 

The two girls spent the next couple of hours talking, drinking, and partying together. Near the end of the night the band decided to play a slower song, so Nicole and Jecka used that as an opportunity to rest for a bit.

"Holy shit I'm tired."

"Me too Nicole. Fuck, partying really takes a lot out of you, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Hey Nicole."

"Huh?"

"Would you say this party was better than any of the other parties you've been to?"

"Yes. A lot of the stuff was the same as the old ones, but hanging out with you made it ten time more enjoyable."

"Really?"

The two inched closer.

"Yeah. At other parties I didn't really do anything because I had no one to do anything with. But here, I was able to do everything I wanted."

"Me too."

The two inched even closer, now inches away from each other's faces. They could both feel the others breath.

"Jecka?"

"Yeah?"

"I wante-"

The band stopped the song and made an announcement.

"ALRIGHT FUCKERS! WHO'S READY FOR SOME LIMP BIZKIT?!"

The band turned up the volume of all their instruments and started playing Rollin' to end the night. The suddenness of the song made both girls back up from each other. They both let out a little laugh, and went back out on the dance floor to finish the night. They grabbed their stuff from their room as they saw Kelly go into one of the rooms with 3 different guys (wonder why). They left the house and saw that it began snowing outside. They got back into the car and drove to Nicole's house listening to Christmas music, since the snow put them in the mood for it. When they reached Nicole's house Nicole gave a goodbye to Jecka and went inside her house. She took off her clothes and put on some pajamas with one thing in mind.

She couldn't wait for next year.

Chapter Text

Christmas wasn't anything special for Nicole. She got some new music, clothes, and accessories, the only thing Nicole really wanted. Still, it stung seeing that one less present was underneath the tree, but she still had a good Christmas. Nicole also kept in touch with Jecka, who said her Christmas had gone roughly the same, getting new clothes and such. The girls spent a good portion of the break talking to each other over the phone, and when they weren't Nicole would either play Guitar Hero or just do nothing in her room. She spent her time grinding some of the tier 8 songs, and managed to (barely) pass The Number of the Beast. When school started back up again in January, Nicole was eager to see Jecka again. At lunch the first day they got back they were in the middle of a conversation about what they had heard earlier that morning.

"So apparently the police found what Mr. White was going to do at that Puerto Rican Bingo Night later this year and now he's in a federal penitentiary for attempted terrorism."

"Jecka, I don't think it's called attempted terrorism."

"Well I don't know the actual charges but what I do know is that Photography is no longer an elective."

"They couldn't find another teacher?"

"Apparently no one wants to work here because it's a 'toxic work environment'."

"You're telling me."

"Hey Nicole, am I able to come to your place after school? The mall is still closed from the snowstorm the other day and I don't want to immediately go home to my dad berating my mom."

"Um, yeah sure. I don't think my mom will mind. Just watch out for my brother."

"Oh yeah, I still haven't even seen him. He didn't come to Thanksgiving."

"Well that's because he'd rather yell slurs at children online then leave the basement."

"Well if he stays in the basement he shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?"

"Let's hope so."

"Anyway, I've got Art coming up. I'll see you after school!"

Jecka waved goodbye and walked away to Mr. Lorre's art class. Nicole sat there and finished her lunch before going back to class. The school day went by pretty quickly after that, and before she knew it she was in Jecka's car and on the way back to her house. Once they arrived Nicole realized that her mom was still working, so they basically had the house to themselves. Jecka pulled out some cigarettes and handed some to Nicole as they started smoking inside. When they took the first puff, Nicole asked Jecka a question.

"Why is smoking indoors so bad anyway?"

"Because it makes the carpets smell like cigarettes."

"But it smells good, cigarettes are like air fresheners."

"They make you look cool too. I feel like a doctor in an 80's movie."

"Yeah, take a fatass drag before you tell a mother of 3 she has cancer."

"Like sorry bitch, I'm just living over here."

"Emphysema? Never heard of her."

"I'm so glad we could do this, it's so hard to smoke behind school now."

"What happened?"

"So my perfect time to go smoke is like 9-9:30, and in the last two weeks of last semester the counselor was always out there trying to talk to me."

"Cause you're in trouble?"

"No, that's why it's weird. It's like some small talk, commenting on my outfit, saying that I'm too pretty to smoke, it just ruins the vibe."

"Does he use the dress code to hit on you?"

"Every time. 'That looks a little low cut for school' while looking right down my tits."

At that moment Nicole's brother thought it would be the perfect time to come out of his basement to get some food. When he saw them, he freaked out.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?!"

"Uh, doing what?! I don't know what your talking about."

"You see all the smoke in here, Mom said you can't smoke in the house!"

"Mom also said 'move the fuck out, your 27' but I guess that didn't register either."

"As if. I don't even know what your talking about."

"Sorry, I didn't know the basement was your video game office you sleep in seven days a week."

"I don't sleep there every night! I've got other places to be and shit."

"Since when were you so defensive about living in the basement? I thought you liked it."

"I'm not defensive, and I don't even sleep there!"

Nicole turned around and realized why he was being so defensive.

"Oh, I know why."

"What?!"

"You're trying to look cool cause there's a girl here."

"No! All I did was come up for my second lunch, and now my appetite's ruined because of how bad it smells in here! So do whatever the fuck your want because I'm snitching."

"Dude, can't you just go back in the basement and play with your stupid toys?"

"They're not toys! I'm calling Mom!"

"Wait!"

"This better be good."

"What about your second lunch?"

"Huh?"

"Don't call Mom, we'll just get you a pizza."

Jecka joined in to help Nicole out.

"Yeah, you can't miss lunch, you're going to be so hungry."

"Aw, say it like that again, it's hot."

"God damn it."

Nicole, visibly shocked by the comment her brother made, quickly turned the conversation around.

"Dude, if you look the other way, we'll get you a pizza, okay?"

"Okay. Just get me my normal order."

"And what is that?"

"Pepperoni, ham, bacon, meatballs, sausage, sliced sausage, chicken, buffalo chicken, and extra cheese."

"Is that a pizza or a grocery list?"

"My pizza dumbass! You got all that right?"

"Yeah, could we borrow some money?"

"No!"

"Fine. Come on Jecka let's go."

As the girls left the house and closed the door, Nicole's brother mocked her behind the door.

"Stupid faggot! I had McDonald's downstairs the whole time! Now I have a third lunch!"

Nicole and Jecka had just gotten back home from getting pizza. It took 30 minutes because of how much shit her brother wanted on it. When they got back they saw his laptop sitting on the kitchen table.

"Dude, I got your pizza!"

No answer.

"Hello?"

No answer.

"Dude where is he, the grease is gonna get solid. Hello?!"

No answer. Jecka tried to reason where he would be.

"What if he's in the shower?"

"Good one."

"Were there this many scuffs on the carpet before we left?"

"Yeah, and why is his laptop open here?"

"Is that usual?"

"No, what's on it anyw- oh god that's a lot of porn."

"How much porn?"

"Let me count. Uh... sixteen."

"Who needs that many porn tabs open?"

"That's not all, each one is a different fetish."

"Like what?"

"Let's see, JigglyJihadists.com, BelowTheBorderLatinas.net, AsianGirlDynasty.org..."

"I didn't think your brother would be into that much racially charged porn."

"I didn't think my brother was into women at all... wait."

Nicole took a closer look at the tabs.

"MILFdaycare.com, KidnappedBabysitters.html, BarelyLegal.gov, and AlmostLegal.co.jp?"

"I've heard of Barely Legal, what the hell is-"

Nicole clicked the tab.

"HOLY FUCK TOO YOUNG!"

Jecka took a closer look.

"What, is she Asian- OH THAT KIND OF TOO YOUNG!"

Nicole went into the kitchen and puked in the sink. Everything she had eaten in the last day came out of her mouth and into the drain. She knew her brother was fucked up, that's for sure, but child porn?! Nicole was about to puke again when Jecka came in and puked in the same sink Nicole had. After they had puked every bit of food left in them they sat down in disbelief. Jecka asked a question with a horrified expression.

"Oh God, are we in the system now?!"

"I'm not a lawyer how the fuck should I know?!"

"We only looked for a second, five second rule right?!"

"That's for food on the floor, not child porn!"

Just then a cop entered the home.

"What are you girls doing here?!"

"I live here! What are you doing here?!"

"We made an arrest here 10 minutes ago but we forgot to collect the evidence. He's one sick fuck I'll tell you that."

"You arrested my brother?!"

"For possession of child pornography and attempted solicitation of a minor!"

"He did that too?!"

"Yep. Luckily for us, he messaged one of our decoys, and we caught him with his dick out, literally. The shit on that laptop made me puke."

"Us too!"

"You saw it?!"

"We had just gotten back from getting a pizza and it was just right there!"

"I don't remember leaving that tab open, fucking Jerry must've seen it after me and kept it open. Anyway, we have to take the laptop as evidence, and the owner of this house will be here shortly. I hope you girls are alright. I've got to go."

The cop left and Jecka and Nicole silently agreed that it would be best if they spent the rest of the day alone. Nicole's Mom got home soon after, Nicole told her what had happened, and she went to her room for the rest of the day. She tried eating dinner, but anything that went into her mouth just came back up. She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't even think.

All she knew is that her brother was a pedophile.

Chapter Text

It had been a month since Nicole's brother was arrested. Still, she couldn't get those images out of her head. The stuff she saw on that laptop made her physically ill. So much so that even weeks after, she still couldn't eat. The only things she put in her body were her hormones, coffee, and the occasional breakfast. Anything else would either not be allowed in her body or come right back out. Nicole was passing out almost every day, mostly at home. Nicole decided to meet up with Jecka at her house to explain the situation. She knocked on her door and waited for an answer. A few seconds after the knock, Jecka opened the front door.

"Nicole, I didn't expect you. Why didn't you call?"

"I forgot. Can I come in? I need to tell you something."

Jecka's heart skipped a beat. Her thoughts raced as she led Nicole up to her room. Was Nicole about to tell her what she wanted to hear? Was she going to tell Jecka the thing that she wanted to tell Nicole? The girls stopped in Jecka's room and sat on her bed.

"Um... what did you want to tell me? Is it anything good?"

"...I think I have an eating disorder."

Oh.

Oh no.

Jecka's face visibly saddened as she began to at least attempt to help Nicole.

"Oh my god, what happened?!"

"You were there. The whole CP thing with my brother."

"Oh no! I remember you puking in the sink, but I didn't think it was this bad!"

"Yeah, the thing is, I don't know why. It's just that every time I try to eat, I either can't swallow or it comes back up."

"Jesus, Nicole, why didn't you tell me?!"

"I don't know!"

"It's been a month, this can't be healthy!"

Jecka's eyes were beginning to water. Nicole looked away because she couldn't handle looking at a sad Jecka.

"Nicole, can you at least tell me what you do instead?"

"I drink coffee. I didn't drink a lot of coffee before, but I do now because it helps alleviate hunger. If I do eat, it's only like 200 calories at best. Every day, I try to eat, thinking that today will be the day I return to normal, but it just doesn't happen. I feel like shit, Jecka. I thought that since my body still looked the same, I could just let it pass. But today I woke up and I could begin to see the outline of my ribcage."

"Nicole, I-"

"I'm scared, Jecka. I know I usually don't show a lot of emotion to anyone. I know it may not seem like it on the outside, but I'm scared. I don't know how much longer I can go."

Jecka pulled Nicole in for a hug as tears came down her face. Nicole, somehow, kept her blank expression throughout the conversation.

"It's gonna be okay, Nicole. It's gonna be okay."

"I hope so."

"No, I know so! I'm going to make sure you beat this. I don't want to see you go. I'll do everything in my power to make sure you go back to being you."

"...Promise?"

"Nicole, I would kill my dad if it would help you."

"What?!"

"Well, no, that's just uhh... an exaggeration. But seriously, you're gonna beat this, Nicole. And I'm gonna make sure you do."

"I was hoping you would. That's why I came here. I need help. And I know you can help me. When I walked over, I knew you would help me, but I had these thoughts of if you couldn't. I don't know why, deep down, I always knew you would. I guess I'm used to abandonment."

"I will never abandon you. Never. Not in a million years."

"You mean it?"

"I mean every fucking word. Let's see if there's something downstairs that can help."

Nicole nodded as she got up, but when she did, she began to feel dizzy. She took one step and tripped over herself, but Jecka was able to catch her in time. She helped guide Nicole to her kitchen and found a granola bar. She figured it would be best if she started small and built up from there.

"Here, Nicole, could you try this?"

Nicole took the bar and began to eat it. She was almost done before the gagging started. Jecka tried to encourage Nicole to finish it.

"Come on, Nicole, you can do it. Do it for yourself, please."

Nicole continued to gag.

"Do it for me."

After hearing those words, Nicole was able to finish the granola bar. Jecka hugged her tightly as Nicole began to speak.

"Jesus, you're gonna make the bar come back out if you keep hugging me this tight."

"Sorry! I'm just really happy you were able to make progress. I didn't think it would be this soon!"

"Yeah, well, your encouragement helped. A lot. But as soon as I get back home, it's just gonna be the same."

"No, it won't, Nicole. Even if I'm not physically there, I'm still encouraging you. Always."

Nicole sat there in silence as she processed what Jecka had told her.

"...Thank you. I knew you'd help, but you went above and beyond."

"No, I just did what needed to be done. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Well, in any case, you may have just saved my life. Again."

"And I'll save your life a million times over."

"Thank you."

Nicole paused before asking her a question.

"Why didn't this happen to you?"

"What?"

"I mean, you were there too. I thought that if it happened to me..."

"Nicole, I didn't eat for the next twenty-four hours after that. It did happen to me, just not on this scale."

"But why?"

"I don't know, but it might have to do with the laptop being your brother's."

"I fucking hate my brother. Why would him being gone affect me negatively?"

"Maybe it was the fact that it was in your house."

"That... makes sense. Now that I think about it, a lot of my thoughts were about how long that stuff had been there. I never once felt any sort of pity for my brother. He was a piece of shit since I could remember. Damn, you'd make a great counselor."

"Better than the one at school."

"Yeah, but that bar's so low it's halfway into the ground. I mean, like, a really great counselor."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow and tell you if I was able to eat anything else. Bye Jecka."

"Bye, Nicole! Please get home safely!"

Nicole nodded as she left the house. Now alone, Jecka realized something.

She just found her future career path.

Chapter Text

It was the last week of school before Spring Break. Nicole, using the method that Jecka taught her, gradually began to eat more and more. It was at the point where she could eat almost an entire meal. Not a whole meal, but she was getting closer. Anytime she was eating lunch at school with Jecka, Jecka would help encourage her to finish her meal, which worked. One day, while they were eating, they struck up a conversation.

"You doing anything for Spring Break, Jecka?"

"No, not really. My dad wants to stay home this year for some reason. Usually, we travel a couple of hours up to New Jersey, but he said something came up at work, so..."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not going anywhere either."

"Does that mean we can hang out over the break?"

"Definitely. Plus, now that the basement is open, I've been able to move some of my stuff down there."

"Thank god, your room was cluttered with shit."

"It still is, but like, slightly less shit than normal."

Just then, Kelly approached their table.

"Hey guys! I have invitations to my pool party! You guys wanna come?"

Nicole felt a lump in her throat. She knew what would happen if she did go into the water. How the clothes would stick to her body and reveal too much.

"Uh, I'm fine, thank you."

"Aww, really? There's still a lot of stuff you can do besides the pool."

"Sure, but I kinda wanna relax over the break, so while I appreciate the offer, I'm not going. Sorry."

"Well, I hope you can go to the end-of-school party!"

"End-of-school party? Jesus, how many parties do you throw?"

"Well, obviously the Christmas one, the pool party, the end-of-school party, the beginning of school party, the homecoming afterparty, the prom preparty..."

"Wow, okay. Don't you think that's a little much?"

"Not really. Everyone loves them, so why stop?"

"I mean, I guess."

Kelly walked away after leaving an invitation for Jecka on the table. Nicole asked Jecka about the party.

"Do you think you're gonna go?"

"I don't know, probably not. My dad's been stricter on me leaving the house lately."

"Did something happen?"

"No, he just read something on his computer that was probably not real, and since he's a dumbass, he'll believe anything."

"Anything?"

"There are limits to anything, Nicole. Trust me, I tried."

Kylar thought this would be the perfect moment to come up and talk with them.

"What's up, bitches? You got an invitation, Jecka?"

"What does it look like, dumbass?"

"It looks like an invitation. Can I have it?"

"No! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Damn, why not? I heard you say you're not going."

"Yeah, that doesn't mean you get to have it. Besides, you had sex with Jenny's unconscious body! Why would Kelly ever want you there again?!"

"Because I'm, like, funny as shit."

Nicole was about to tell him to fuck off when she came up with an idea.

"Hey, Kylar, how bad do you want it?"

"Um, like really fucking bad."

"How far would you be willing to go?"

"Do I have to fuck you for it? Hell yeah!"

"What?! No! You just have to, um, destroy the photo lab."

"...Well, that's easy."

"Yeah, but we have to see that it was you, so make sure to record yourself. Once you show us the video, you get the invitation."

"Aww, hell yeah! Easy invitation!"

Kylar walked away as Jecka turned to Nicole.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Relax, he's not getting the invitation. Besides, he's gonna get himself suspended, so we won't have to deal with him for at least the rest of the month."

"I mean, I guess that works out. I don't wanna deal with Kylar anyway, so I'm okay with him being an idiot."

"Well, I've gotta go to class,  I'll see you after school."

"You too, Nicole!"

Nicole left and moved on with her day until gym class. She didn't feel like doing physical activity, so she put in the minimum amount of effort possible. Afterward, she was in the changing room getting her gym clothes off and her regular clothes on when she saw a flash. Then another. She turned around, expecting to see the Coach being an even bigger creep than before.

Good news, it wasn't the coach.

Bad news, it was Jeffery taking pictures of her nearly naked body.

"What the fuck?! How'd you get in here?!"

"No locks on the doors. I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"What the fuck! Did your cartoons tell you to do this?!"

"It's anime-"

"Did your anime tell you to sneak into the girls' locker room and take pictures of nearly naked women?!"

"Oh, Nicole. If only your brain were a big as your penis. Then you'd understand."

"Who the fuck do you think you are, Jeffery?!"

"You're anger will only make the development of this photograph all the more satisfying. I had my perfect revenge for what you did to me. Unfortunately, you manipulated everyone into believing you. So you left me with one option. To show the school that I wasn't lying. Once these photos are developed, the whole school will know the truth. It's only a matter of time. I'll make a giant poster and hang it up in the cafeteria, so as soon as they walk in, everyone will see your body."

"No you won't, you little shit!"

Nicole chased after Jeffery, but he left the locker room before Nicole could reach him. She put on the rest of her clothes and exited the locker room, but Jeffery was already gone. She rushed to the front of the school and found Jecka.

"Jecka! We've gotta problem. A major problem."

"Wait, what happened?"

"I was getting out of my gym clothes, and all of a sudden, Jeffery comes in and takes pictures of me!"

"Oh fuck!"

"Yeah, we've gotta make sure he doesn't develop any of them, let's go! Now!"

Nicole and Jecka made their way back inside the school and rushed to the photography room. When they got there, it was in ruins. There was no way any of the photos could be developed. Jecka turned to Nicole.

"Holy shit, Kylar was dumb enough to do it."

"Thank god. At least we have a little more time."

"Yeah, do you think you can come up with a plan by tomorrow?"

"Probably. At least I can sleep in peace tonight."

Nicole and Jecka left, and Nicole walked home. Once home, she went up to her room and lay on her bed. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of a plan. But the only thing that came to mind was what would happen if Jeffrey succeeded. Although she said that she would sleep in peace tonight, Nicole tossed and turned with that thought in mind. The next day, she entered school to meet up with Jecka and try to come up with a plan with her when she was called to Principal Lynn's office. Once there, she took a seat as Principal Lynn told her why she was in there.

"I've called you in here because I was given an anonymous tip that you were the one who destroyed the photo lab."

"What?"

"I know it may seem like a baseless accusation, but it's all we have to go off, so if it was you, please tell me the truth."

"It wasn't me! I swear!"

"Well, can you explain why the tip also stated that you didn't want certain pictures getting out?"

"They were almost naked photos of me!"

"Well, even so, we can't allow students to destroy thousands of dollars in equipment without some sort of punishment."

"It wasn't me!"

"Nicole, from what the tip said and of what you've told me, all the breadcrumbs lead to you."

"I swear, it wasn't me!"

Just then, Kylar entered the room.

"Hey, sorry Ms. Lynn, my mom's car broke down, so that's why I'm late. Could I get a- Oh, Nicole! I did the thing!"

"What?"

"You don't remember? About the invitation? I have proof!"

"Proof?"

"Yeah, watch!"

Kylar pulled out his phone and began to play the recording of him smashing the photo lab.

"Yo, what's up? This is Kylar, and let's break this gay ass photo lab!"

The video proceeds with Kylar smashing things into each other and glass shattering onto the floor.

"Fuck photography! It's for people who like animals!"

Principal Lynn looked at Nicole, then Kylar, then back at Nicole.

"Nicole, you can leave my office."

Nicole walked out as she heard the start of a rant against Kylar for what he did. Thank god Kylar was so stupid. But she still had something to worry about. Jeffery had the photos, and it was only a matter of time before he could develop them.

She needed to act quickly.

Chapter Text

Nicole rushed into the bathroom that she always used to skip English Class. Nicole looked around and saw no one. Frustrated, she went into a stall to wait. Five minutes later, someone entered the restroom. Nicole left the stall, and she saw exactly who she was looking for.

"Emily, I have a problem. A big problem."

"Damn, what the fuck even happened?"

"You remember when we told everyone Jeffrey's secret and how he tried to have his way with me?"

"Did he do it again? If so, I'll make him dig his own grave and then stab him and throw him in!"

"No, he didn't touch me."

"Oh, then what did he do?"

"Well, he snuck into the girls' locker room and took photos of me almost naked. Now he's trying to circulate the photos around school."

"Wait, isn't the photolab destroyed? Oh my god, you did it! That's cool, you even made mustard gas!"

"Wh-No! Kylar destroyed it on a bet. It just so happened that he destroyed the photolab before Jeffery could develop the photos."

"Ok, so Jeffery can't develop them. But what's the issue?"

"He still has the camera he used to take those pictures of me. It's only a matter of time before he finds somewhere else to develop the photos, so we have to destroy his camera!"

"Oh shit, you're right!"

"We have to confront him and take it from him. The problem is he isn't in any of my classes anymore, so we need to find him during lunch. The problem with that is that Jeffery could easily make a scene and get us in trouble while he runs away with the camera. So we have to find him during lunch and not make a scene about it."

"Well, what if we got him to go outside to the courtyard and confront him there?"

"That could work, but how would we get him outside?"

"...I might have an idea."

Jeffery sat down to eat his lunch. He was angry about the photolab being destroyed, and he was angrier still that Nicole had gotten away with it. Sure, everyone was saying that Kylar did it because he wanted to get into Kelly's parties again, but Jeffery knew it was just Nicole manipulating the school like she did to ruin his life countless times before. Luckily, he still had the camera, so all he needed to do was find another place to develop the pictures. He figured he could do it over Spring Break, so that Nicole could hopefully forget, and by the time everyone came back, her body would be all over the school walls. He daydreamed about the karma Nicole would get. How she would weep in front of him. How everyone would turn against her. How he would finally-

"~Hey, Jeffery!~"

Jeffery turned around and saw that Kelly was right behind him.

"Oh, Kelly! Um, do you need anything?"

"~Yeah, I do, I need your help. I'm having trouble with my homework. It's... hard.~"

Kelly winked at Jeffery while he visibly blushed.

"Um, well, um, what is it about?"

"~It's about science. I'm having trouble trying to find out which pipes are short and which pipes are... long. I figured you would be the best one to help me.~"

"Oh, um, sure! I guess I could help. Although that doesn't sound like what we're doing in science..."

"~Thank you, Jeffery! I promise to give you one of my... special rewards. My stuff's outside, follow me!~"

Jeffery immediately stood up and didn't think twice about following Kelly outside to the Courtyard. When he got outside, he went to sit down where Kelly's stuff was when he was grabbed from behind and slammed into the wall. He fell and saw Emily looming above him.

"The camera. Now."

"Wha- I don't know what you're talking about!"

Emily picked him up and slammed him into the wall again. This time, she kept her grip and pinned him to the wall.

"You thought Nicole would keep that to herself? She told me everything about what you plan on doing, and I'm putting an end to it. So, I'm asking- no, I'm telling you to give me the camera."

"Even the part where she's a futa-"

BOOM!

Emily punched Jeffery in the face. His glasses fell off, and when Emily noticed, she stomped on them, breaking them into pieces.

"Hey! I can't see without those!"

"Does it look like I give a fuck? I'm gonna tell you this one more time. Give. Me. The Camera."

"I don't even have it with me!"

Emily threw Jeffery to the ground as she searched his backpack. Sure enough, the camera was the first thing she found.

"Looks like you lied to me, Jeffery. You should know by now that I don't like liars."

Emily picked Jeffrey off the ground.

"Do you know what I do to liars like you?"

"N-No?"

"Then I guess I have to show you."

Emily threw Jeffery into one of the tables and picked up the camera. She then took the camera and beat Jeffery with it until she knew the camera was unfixable. Once that was done, she picked up Jeffery, who was crying in pain. She did a hand signal, and Nicole stepped outside to confront Jeffery.

BOOM!

Nicole punched Jeffery in the face, and Emily threw him into another table. Emily then pulled out her knife and pointed it at Jeffery.

"If you talk about any of this, I will rip your fucking heart out. Don't fuck with me."

Jeffery silently nodded as he whimpered in pain. The two girls went back inside, where Kelly was waiting for them.

"So? Did you get the camera, Nicole?"

"Well, Emily got it from him. She also destroyed it, so that's not a problem anymore."

"Oh, that's good. Every day, Jeffery seems to get worse and worse. We should report him to the police!"

"We can't, now that the evidence is in pieces. Thanks for getting Jeffery to come outside."

"No problem! It was easy, I just did the same thing I do to guys if I want them to fuck me!"

"Ok, too much information, Kelly. I'll make sure to make it up to you."

"You're good, Nicole. Emily already has it covered."

Kelly walked away with an unusual grin on her face as Nicole turned to Emily.

"What did she mean by you having it covered?"

"When I asked her to help, she was hesitant at first. But then I promised her the 'time of her life' and she agreed instantly."

"Oh, uh, that's on me for asking that question."

"Don't worry about it, Nicole. Although I could always add another person into the mix..."

"NO! No, I'm good. I really don't wanna think about that."

"Wait, I thought you were bi?"

"I am, it's just, um... I'm saving myself for the right person."

"Oh, I get it. You wanna lose your virginity to Jecka, huh?"

"Wha- No!"

"Nicole, I see the way you look at her. I never stop hearing about her when we skip English. You tell me all the things that you guys did the previous day. You like Jecka, Nicole. It's obvious."

"Not like that!"

"Nicole. You can trust me, I promise."

"...Fine. I do. I like Jecka. I Like-Like Jecka. I like hanging out with her, I like talking with her, I like how she looks, I like how she presents herself, I like that she's always there for me... I like her. A lot."

"Knew it. Why don't you just ask her out?"

"I don't know if she likes me back! Well, I know she likes me as a friend, but I don't think she wants to date me!"

"What if she does?"

"What if she doesn't?!"

"Then you guys stay friends."

"Or she could end the friendship! I can't risk that, I need her."

"Ok then. I'll ask out my crush if you ask out Jecka."

"Wait, you have a crush?! I thought you already had a boyfriend!"

"I did, but we broke up, like, two weeks ago. Besides, I only dated him for the drugs; the sex was awful. He fucked his shit up on heroin."

"Ok, then who do you like?"

"..."

"..."

"Ari."

"Ari? The girl who's so far in the closet she lives in Narnia?"

"Yeah, Ari. She's pretty, like really fucking pretty. Her red hair is the icing on the cake. She's really timid as well, and I like that."

"Okay, but if you ask her out, she's gonna say no. She's still closeted."

"Then we just have to get her out of the closet."

"What?"

"If we make her admit to herself that she's a lesbian, she'll say yes when I ask her out, and then you can ask Jecka out!"

"...Okay. I guess we've gotta get her out of the closet."

"Thank you, Nicole! I'm gonna leave for the rest of the day. Kinda boring to go to class after something like that. I'll see you later!"

"Okay, bye."

Emily walked to her '98 Saturn and drove away. Nicole sat outside thinking about how she was going to get Ari out of the closet. Then it hit her.

Nicole had lied to Emily.

She didn't like Jecka.

She loved Jecka.

Chapter Text

Spring break had come and gone, and Nicole spent that time either hanging out at home or with Jecka. Emily's deal was still in the back of her mind, and she knew that she would eventually have to come face-to-face with her feelings, but for now, she was content with just relaxing. However, her sleep over the break was awful. It seemed like every night she was waking up from a nightmare.

NIGHTMARE 1

Nicole had arrived at school that day with nothing on her mind when Jecka came up to her.

"Nicole! Mr. Lorre's having a breakdown in the art room! Wanna check it out?"

"Eh, sure, why not?"

Nicole and Jecka made their way to the art room. When Nicole opened the door, she couldn't find Mr. Lorre anywhere. She turned around to see if Jecka was playing a prank on her, but Jecka had disappeared. When she turned around, she noticed that someone else was in the room with her.

Her dad.

With a shotgun pointed at his head.

"This is your fault, Nicole."

The shotgun fired.

NIGHTMARE 2

Nicole was running away from something. She didn't know what it was, but it was something. Something big. She made her way through the forest that she had come upon and took a moment to catch her breath. She stayed still for about 5 seconds before hearing the thing come up behind her. She started to run again and found a cabin in the woods. Thinking she could hide, Nicole darted to the cabin and locked herself inside. When she turned on the lights, she saw someone else in the cabin.

Her dad. 

With a shotgun pointed at his head.

"You did this, Nicole."

The shotgun fired.

NIGHTMARE 3

Nicole was stranded outside in the cold. She was beginning to catch Frostbite, and it was only a matter of time before she would die of hypothermia. She tried to make her way towards the nearest civilization when she tripped. But she didn't land on the snow. She fell through it. She landed in an area devoid of light and filled with nothing, except for one thing.

Her dad.

With a shotgun pointed at his head.

"All of this is your fault, Nicole."

The shotgun fired.

Nicole jolted out of sleep. She looked at her clock and saw it was only 3 AM. These nightmares had come and gone in the past, but now they seem to come more often. Usually, these nightmares came once or twice a month. This was the third time that week. Something was up. She was heading back to school in the morning, and she needed to figure out why this was happening. She wasn't about to see the counselor, though. She knew that she would be told it was "hormones" and probably also get weird advancements made on her. So when the morning finally came, she got ready and walked to school. Once she got there, she found the person she was looking for.

Jecka.

She had told Jecka about some of her nightmares before, and Jecka was able to help calm her nerves and get Nicole in a better headspace. But that was just one nightmare at a time. Three of them may be too much.

"Hey Jecka, can we talk for a minute. In private?"

Jecka looked at Nicole as her heart skipped a beat.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Let's go behind the bleachers; the teachers don't check there."

Jecka and Nicole made their way under the bleachers. Jecka's thoughts were racing through her head. What did Nicole want that she needed to keep secret? Was it something that only Jecka could know? Something that only applied to Jecka. Maybe it was finally about to happen.

"So, what did you want to talk about, Nicole?"

"The nightmares."

The nightmares. Jecka had been with Nicole to talk through the previous nightmares. Usually, she was fine with talking about them during lunch, so why did she want to make this conversation secret?

"Damn, what happened?"

"Well, in the first one, I was coming to school when-"

"Wait, first one?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You had multiple?"

"Three to be exact."

"Were they all over Spring Break?"

"Yes."

"Were they, y'know... about your dad?"

"All of them."

"I... I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."

"It's fine, just do what you normally do, and I'll be on my way."

"No, Nicole. This isn't normal, and you can't keep kicking the can down the road. You need help, like, real help, better than anything I could give you."

"I'm not going to the counselor."

"Well, obviously, he supports pedophilia. I mean a real therapist."

"I'm not paying for a therapist. All I need are answers."

"Answers?"

"Why did my dad kill himself? And why did he blame me for it?"

"Nicole, I know you want to know, but you're never gonna get an answer to that question. Just go to therapy and you'll be fine."

"Fuck therapy! I don't wanna go to therapy and have those people know my secrets!"

"Nicole, you've told me all of your secrets already. What's wrong with telling them to a professional?"

"I, uh, yeah, have told you all my secrets. Totally. Look, can you just come over after school, and we can see later?"

"...Fine. But we're fixing this, I promise."

"I don't think you can."

"Don't underestimate me."

Jecka walked away to go to class, and Nicole decided she didn't want to go to English, so she went to skip with Emily. When she got there, however, she saw that Emily had already struck up a conversation with Ari.

"So, Ari, you like your job at Hot Topic?"

"Kinda, it gets really boring sometimes. Plus, some of the customers are really weird."

"That sucks. You know, if I worked there, you wouldn't have to deal with those people."

"Since when did you wanna work at Hot Topic?"

"Since I realized I could probably get free stuff. And because of a certain other reason..."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know..."

"No, I don't."

"Did you know I love the color red? It's just something about it, but I can't quite put my finger on it..."

Emily went and put her hand through Ari's hair.

"Um, can you please stop?!"

"Sure, but it felt so smooth, I'll have to do it again sometime..."

"I'm not fucking you, Emily."

"When did I ever say that?"

"You didn't, it's just your tone. You do this shit all the time."

"Well, I want to do you."

"Well, too bad. I'm straight."

"Bitch, no you're not."

"Yes, I am! I will never have sex with a woman! I don't even find them attractive."

"Your face is turning red... I like that."

"No it's- Fuck you!"

Ari stormed out of the bathroom, blushing like she was in the Arctic. Nicole stepped up to Emily and began to talk with her like they normally did.

"I think you did a little too much there."

"Well, she's not gonna come out herself!"

"I know that, but you have to start slowly, otherwise you can't build up trust with her."

"Oh, I see."

"Thank you."

"You're just scared to ask out Jecka."

"Wha- No! You have to ease into things. Haven't you dated before?"

"Yeah, but with men, all they want to do is fuck me, so I just do a little flirting and I'm done."

"Well, it's gonna be a lot different with a woman, considering they have standards."

"True. Fine, I'll go slower. But you still have to ask Jecka out when Ari starts dating me."

"I know, and I will, can we just get fucked up already?"

"I was getting to it, relax."

Nicole and Jecka were in Nicole's room after school. They sat on the bed and began to talk to each other.

"Wow, this is a lot cleaner than the last time I was here."

"Yeah, I was able to put some of my stuff in the basement since my brother isn't here."

"That's good. So about therapy..."

"Right now? Really?"

"I'm not budging, Nicole. Just look for someone who won't charge $40 an hour."

"I don't need a therapist."

"Nicole."

"Look, can we just talk? Together? Without any therapists?"

"Fine. But if we can't figure this out, then I'm signing you up for one."

"Okay."

"So your dad shot himself and blamed it on you, right?"

"I've already told you this, yes."

"Do you ever see him do it? Like, pull the trigger and see his body?"

"No, I wake up before any of that. I didn't see him pull the trigger in real life either; I just heard the gunshot and saw his body."

"...And the note?"

"And the note. With a fucking cookie monster magnet."

"Nicole, be real with me. Did that note say anything else?"

"No. It just said, 'Nicole's Fault'. That's it."

"...Okay. Did your mom know why he would've done that?"

"No. They only talked to each other when I had something going on; they didn't talk much outside of that."

"Do you know anyone else who might know why?"

"..."

"..."

"...Holy shit, I do."

"Wait, what?!"

"His old coworker, Brian, helped tutor me in 9th grade. They were good friends, and I could give him a call."

"Okay, then call him!"

"I don't remember his number."

"Did you write it down anywhere?"

"Maybe. I could check downstairs, my mom keeps a lot of old papers, it might be in there."

"Okay, let's go!"

The girls made their way downstairs and found the drawer where all of the papers were. After 5 minutes of searching, they found a list of phone numbers, and sure enough, one of the numbers belonged to Brian. Nicole quickly pulled out her phone and dialed the number. The phone rang 3 times before someone picked up.

"Hello, this is Brian Parkson. Who's calling?"

"Hey Brian."

"Wait, Nicole?! Is that you?!"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Wow, it's been ages since we've talked. How are you doing?"

"Not good. Look, remember what happened to my dad?"

"...Yeah, I do. I miss him every day. Schizophrenia's a bitch."

"Schizophrenia?! What are you talking about?!"

"He never told you?! Well, I guess it makes sense. He never told your mom either."

"So who did he tell?"

"As far as I know, only me. And he only told me about 2 months before he died."

"So he killed himself in a schizophrenic episode?"

"Probably. Outside of his episodes, he loved his life. He loved his work, he loved his home. He loved you."

"Then why did he blame me in his suicide note?"

"Because it was a bad episode. He was probably seeing shit and freaked out. He wasn't in his right mind. The note means nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nicole, he loved you. Every day, I'd have to hear him go on and on about how much he loved you. He loved his life, sure, but he loved yours even more. That's why he got me to help you when you were struggling freshman year. That's why he accepted you for who you are. Because he loved you. And he made sure to show it."

"Um, thank you, I'll call back soon, I guess."

"Well, goodbye, Nicole. Like he always said, 'I'd go on a Hunger Strike for you. '"

Brian hung up the phone, and Nicole sat there in silence. Jecka came up beside her and comforted her.

"...He didn't mean it, Nicole."

"..."

"Nicole?"

"..."

"Are you okay?"

As soon as Jecka asked that question, Nicole broke down into tears. Jecka quickly hugged her as Nicole sank into her arms.

"It's okay, Nicole. It's okay."

"...He loved me."

"He always did."

"...I miss him so much."

"I know."

Nicole continued to bawl her eyes out as Jecka continued to comfort her. After about 15 minutes, Nicole had stopped crying and began to speak again.

"Thank you, Jecka. I've never met anyone else who would go to these lengths for me."

"You're welcome. By the way, what did he mean by accept you for who you truly are?"

"Oh, uh, I already told you, I'm bi."

"Oh yeah. That makes sense."

Jecka and Nicole went back upstairs to hang out and chill for the rest of the day. And Nicole finally got her answer to her agonizing question.

It wasn't her fault.

Chapter Text

Nicole woke up on a Monday morning. But this wasn't a normal Monday. It was April 7th, 2008.

Nicole's 17th Birthday.

She got ready for school and walked to school with a smile on her face. Despite everything that had transpired in the past year, she had overcome it and become one year older. Now there was just one more year until she turned 18. As she arrived at school, she reasoned with herself that since it was her birthday, she might as well skip English and hang out with Emily in the bathroom instead. Sure enough, when she entered the bathroom, Emily was leaning on one of the stalls, smoking a cigarette.

"Hey, Nicole. Happy Birthday. You're 17, right?"

"Yeah. 17 years old. One more year before I get to do what I want with my life."

"Why can't you do what you want now?"

"Well, I can, for the most part. I meant like having no authority figures like Ms. Ames or Principal Lynn looming over me."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense. Anyway, I got you something."

"Wait, what? You got me something?"

"Yeah, it's your birthday, so I decided to give you a gift."

Emily reached into her bag and pulled out a tiny box. She gave it to Nicole, and when Nicole opened it, she was dumbfounded by what was inside.

"Is this just Xanax?"

"Yep. 17 pills for 17 years. On the house."

"Oh, um, thanks. I'll try not to take them all in one sitting."

Just then, Ari entered the bathroom.

"Hey Emily, do you have anything? It's an emergency."

"What emergency?"

"Well, something kinda happened earlier, and I just want to forget about it."

"Did someone call you gay?"

"Wh-How did you know?!"

"Because you are gay, Ari."

"No, I'm not!"

"Ari, it's blatantly obvious at this point. It would be better for you in the long run to just admit it."

"Well too bad, because I'm not gay. I don't know how many times I have to tell you guys!"

"Okay, fine. Here's your addy's. If you ever do come out of the closet, give me a call."

"Oh my god, just fuck off, Emily."

Ari walked out of the bathroom as Nicole started her conversation again with Emily.

"You're a little aggressive, you know that, right?"

"Yeah. Ari's not gonna say she's gay unless we push her a little."

"Well, I think she just needs to reflect on herself, trying to get her to come out to herself isn't gonna work."

"Well then, what will?"

"Look, it's obvious she isn't gonna do it soon, and every time you try and get her to say she's gay is only gonna push the eventual realization further and further away. Just don't comment on it, and at the most, flirt a little. You need to give her space so she can say it and not feel pressured."

"But that's not fun..."

"Emily."

"Fine. I'll listen. But only because it's your birthday."

"Works for me. You wanna pop some birthday Xanax?"

"Hell yeah, I do!"

The two spent the remainder of the morning chilling in the bathroom, having conversations about random things that came to their minds. When lunch began, Nicole went to look for Jecka, but couldn't find her. Suddenly, her phone vibrated and she saw a message from Jecka.

come outside bday bitch! got a lot planned don't be late ;)

Nicole went outside and saw Jecka waiting for her in her car. Nicole opened the door and was greeted by Jecka blowing an airhorn right at her.

"Happy Birthday, Nicole!"

"Shit, that's loud."

"I know, but that's just the first surprise, come on! We're going to Dave and Buster's for the rest of today!"

"Aren't you usually against skipping so you can get into a good college?"

"One day won't hurt, cmon! Besides, I could convince my dad that it's a system error or something."

"Well, if you say so..."

Nicole hopped into Jecka's car as the two drove to Dave and Buster's. They spent the first few hours playing games and trying to obtain tickets for a piece of paper that could be plugged into a laptop to display anything on it. They started to grind the tickets for it when Nicole said she could display Kurt Cobain's suicide note on it. They were about 5,000 tickets away when someone approached them from behind.

"Oh, hey guys, hey Jecka."

The girls turned around and saw a man around their age. Nicole recognized him as one of the first people to make fun of Jeffery for his fetishes. Jecka, however, did not.

"...Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm Kyle. I sat behind you in French last year."

"Frenched who now?"

"No, French the language class, remember? I let you copy off my test?"

"Okay, hi, I guess."

"I didn't think I'd run into anyone here, you guys skipping too?"

"Maybe, why are you skipping?"

"Just wanted to blow off some steam. You guys wanna hang out?"

"Do I wanna hang out or do I wanna go out?"

"Uh, both, I guess?"

"No, I don't even know you."

"We had class last year. Besides, you've gone out with guys you've never known before."

"How do you know that? I've only had one class with you."

"Forget that, what did the other guys have that I didn't?"

"They were more attractive."

"So it's all about looks to you?"

"It's not just looks, they had actual characteristics and weren't just an extra in a movie."

"But let you copy off my test, you got a B+!"

"We're fucking over B+'s now? At least lie and say it was an A."

"If it was an A, would you have considered it before?"

Nicole and Jecka just stared at him maliciously.

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"Don't be you."

Nicole wanted this interaction to be over with, so she just said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Kill your mom. Even I'd go out with you then."

"What the fuck?!"

Jecka looked at Nicole and knew what she was doing, so she joined in too.

"Yeah, then you'd actually be cool."

"You guys can't mess around like that!"

"We're not messing around. It's me or your mom, choose one."

"Oh, come on!"

"Oh, I'm serious, kill your mom and you'll be all mine."

"Uh... Wait, I left my credit card in my car!"

Nicole decided to speak up on the matter.

"Credit card?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Is it Visa, Mastercard..."

"No, it's the credit card you use to play games here."

"This is why you're a virgin."

Kyle walked away defeated as Nicole and Jecka started to talk with each other.

"You were actually gonna go out with him if he had money?"

"Of course not. I would've convinced him to buy me shit, and if he didn't, I'd say he doesn't really love me."

"Oh yeah, that's what I do when older guys try to hit on me."

"Wait, do you think he would've given us his game card if we asked?"

"Definitely."

"Shit, we could've used his tickets and gotten the prize sooner!"

"It's fine, let's just earn the tickets that we need, and we can go to your place."

"Alright, I'm cool with that."

Nicole and Jecka continued to get tickets until they could earn the paper. Once they did, they left and went back to Jecka's car.

"Hey Nicole, I've got one more thing for you..."

"Oh, okay."

Jecka began to lean closer to Nicole. Her heart started beating faster and faster. Was Jecka actually going to kiss her? Right here in her car, unprompted? Where people could potentially see? Her mind was racing. Suddenly, Jecka turned her body and reached into the backseat and grabbed a box with Nicole's name on it.

"It's your present, open it!"

Nicole opened up the small box, and when she saw what was inside, her mouth dropped.

"Are these Pearl Jam tickets?!"

"Yeah, I know you like grunge and stuff, so I bought tickets to go to their show in D.C.! It's not until June 22nd, but I got us good seats!"

"Wow, thank you, you didn't have to do this. The barcade was enough."

"No, I know what you've been through, Nicole. If anything, I should've gotten you more."

Nicole hugged Jecka tightly as she closed the box and set it right next to her.

"Thank you, Jecka. For everything."

"You're welcome. You deserve it. Now let's go to your place and take a good look at Kurt Cobain's suicide letter."

"Yeah, let's do that."

The two drove back to Nicole's house, and once they had eaten dinner, they went up to Nicole's room and used the paper they had won for what they had wanted to do that entire day.

Chapter Text

May had arrived. School would be out in a few weeks, and Nicole wanted nothing more than for the school year to be over. Once that passed, she'd be able to spend her summer doing what she wanted. A lot of the things she wanted to do involved Jecka, including the Pearl Jam concert that she was preparing for. However, she would have to wait a little longer. One day, Jecka and Nicole decided to hang out at Nicole's House instead of the mall due to the fountain overflowing. They were hanging out in Nicole's room when Nicole decided to get on Guitar Hero 3.

"You still play that? I thought you only got it as a thank you to Kelly?"

"I did, I just decided to complete it."

"Why?"

"...For Kelly?

Jecka rolled her eyes.

"...Okay, if that's what you say. Have you completed it?"

"I need to beat one more song. I swear to god it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"Oh, come on. You've taken Pre-Calculus."

"No, that's just you, Ms. Overachiever. I've only gotten through Algebra."

"Oh, yeah, you're right."

"Hold up, Jecka, it just loaded up. Let me show you just how hard this is."

Nicole loaded up Through The Fire And Flames as her go-to character, Casey Lynch. After about 5 seconds, Jecka's jaw had dropped.

"Holy shit, how did you do that?"

"Practice. More than you'd realize. Still haven't made it to the end."

"How long is it?"

"About 7 minutes."

"Jesus Christ."

At that moment, Nicole flubbed up the inputs and failed the song.

"Shit!"

"Damn, that's really hard. You'll get it next time."

"Yeah, I should have done an easier song first. You wanna see me play Even Flow? We are seeing them next month."

"They have that?"

"Yeah. Along with a lot of others. I'm pretty sure one of the songs plays almost all the time in Hot Topic."

"Which one?"

"I can't remember, let me check... Miss Murder."

"Oh yeah, I've heard that one play in Hot Topic too."

"Yeah, it's the definitive song for people who waste their lives buying Hot Topic shit."

"Don't we buy stuff at Hot Topic all the time?"

"Yeah, but we don't waste our lives there. We have other shit to do."

"So people like Jeffery?"

"Fuck Jeffery. He'd probably jerk off somewhere in the back of a Spencer's. He's too lame for Hot Topic."

"True."

Nicole finally started playing Even Flow and Jecka watched as Nicole began to play flawlessly. She was amazed. Jecka knew she could never do that. After the song ended, the game showed Nicole had hit 100% of the notes.

"There we go. That's actually the first time I've beaten the song with no errors."

"Is that the first time you've ever 100-percented a song or..."

"Oh, no. There are a lot easier songs before this."

"Oh, okay."

"Well, I think I'm ready now. Let's try it again."

"Okay, good luck, Nicole!"

Jecka stayed silent for Nicole because she knew Nicole had to be focused. The song began, and Nicole got through the opening of the song pretty easily. As the song went on, the notes and rhythms got harder and harder, as Jecka could clearly see. Jecka was amazed by how quickly Nicole could move her fingers could move up and down the plastic guitar. She was moving faster than Jecka could keep up with. Jecka looked at Nicole. She noticed how determined Nicole was, and she thought it was hot. Really hot. Not the mention the fact that Nicole was already hot as is. Jecka began to wonder if Nicole's fingers could move that fast, how good would they feel inside her-

Oh shit.

Jecka was getting turned on.

She needed to think of something else. Quick. She didn't want something to happen. Actually, maybe she would. Maybe her fantasies could finally be pl-

"HOLY SHIT I DID IT!"

Jecka stopped daydreaming as she looked at the screen. It wasn't 100%, but for how hard it was, an 86% wasn't bad. Nicole pulled in Jecka for a hug, which she didn't expect.

"Thank you, Jecka!"

"For what?"

"Emotional support."

"But I didn't do anything."

"You were here. That was enough."

As the hug got tighter, Jecka began to think back on her relationship with Nicole. About how they couldn't be separated. About how happy they made each other. About how they completed each other. And at that point, Jecka could no longer deny it.

Jecka was gay for Nicole.

Ari sighed as she worked her shift at Hot Topic. The fountain had overflowed, and she was still called into work because her manager was too busy getting high. She grumbled to herself as she looked around the empty store. No one wanted to go to the store because it was right next to the fountain, so it would make their shoes soggy. Ari thought over that and got angry as she realized she should never have been here in the first place. She felt like she was going to punch something until a customer entered the store. She put on her customer service face and went to welcome the customer.

"Hello, welcome to Hot To- wait, Emily? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey Ari. Just wanted to see what's here. No one else is here, so I should be able to get some good shit that no one else has."

"I thought you would just steal it."

"Oh, I usually do, I'm just not in the mood right now."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I don't buy it. Why are you really here?"

"Well, if you wanna hear the truth... I'm here for you."

"Don't start this shit again, Emily."

"No, not like that! I meant I'm here to sell Addy's to you."

"Oh my god, please! My manager has been such a bitch today, I really need something to take the edge off."

"Well, here you go. $6 a pill."

"Really? I thought it was usually $12."

"Well, given the circumstances, I feel like you needed a discount."

"Okay, I'll take 6- no wait, 7."

"Alright. That'll be $42."

"Here. All cash. Thank you so much, Emily!"

"You're welcome. Oh, and one more thing."

Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out a little sheet of purple cloth.

"Here. Take it."

"Why?"

"As a little memento."

Ari wanted to ask what Emily meant, but she had already walked out of the store. Ari opened up the cloth. It revealed a double-headed ax behind a black triangle with a purple background. Ari didn't know what it meant. She stuffed it in her pocket as she continued her shift. Once she finished (there wasn't a single other customer that day, so she was angry at herself for not leaving earlier), she headed to her car and went home. She got home at around 10:30 pm. She went up to her room and was ready to go to bed, but her curiosity made her look up what Emily had given her.

"Alright, Emily. What are you trying to say to me?"

She typed the description into Google, and the answer appeared.

It was the Lesbian Flag.

"Of course. I should've known."

Ari was about to go to bed, but she saw a couple of links about the flag. Curiosity got the best of her, and she clicked on the top link. She finally got off at around 3 am. All of the new information about Lesbians was floating around in her head, and one thing became clear.

Ari was gay. And in hindsight, it was pretty fucking obvious.

Chapter Text

It was now June 17th. 5 days before Nicole and Jecka were going to see the Pearl Jam concert. It was also the last day of school. The last day of junior year. Nicole couldn't wait for the summer to begin and to get away from all of the other annoying kids. Not Jecka, of course, it was mainly the boys (except for Megan) that she found annoying. As she sat in the cafeteria with Jecka, they began to converse with each other.

"Nicole, how did you think junior year went?"

"It went alright. Well, except for the obvious."

"Yeah, I think this year went alright as well."

"Hopefully, next year will be better and we won't have to deal with any of the boys."

"I don't know about that. Crispin is still trying to hit on me. I've told him plenty of times that I'm not interested, and he still persists."

"Well, I could have Emily help with that."

"What do you mean?"

"I told her about boys flirting with me, and she helped get rid of them."

"How?"

"She found their emails and started leaving death threats."

"Oh shit, I don't think I should do that."

"Why not? Gets them off your back."

"...How effective is it?"

"Haven't had anyone ask me out since April."

"Wow, uh, maybe I will, damn."

"I'll just let Emily know."

"Not now, only when it gets really bad."

"Hey, I forgot to ask, when is your birthday? Is it over the summer?"

"Oh no, my birthday is September 15th. We weren't really friends yet, so I never told you. Probably should have later, but it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"No, I don't give a fuck. We had only hung out, like what, 3-4 times? Besides, I already got you that CD, so you can consider that your birthday present if you wish."

"I think I will."

"..."

"..."

"How long until school gets out?"

"About an hour and a half."

"You just wanna leave now?"

"Yeah. I just have to grab something from the counselor real quick."

"Alright, I'll wait outside for you."

"Actually, could you come with? I don't really trust the counselor, especially on the last day of school when he can get away with anything."

"Sure."

Nicole and Jecka made their way to the counselor's office. Once they got there, they were greeted by the counselor and went into his office.

"Ah, Jecka. I was expecting you. And you brought Nicole."

"Yeah, can I get my-"

"You know, these past few months, I don't think I've ever seen you girls apart. Let me ask a question: do you have thoughts and feelings for each other?"

"I, uh, what?"

"I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. Is there something between the two of you that you may not realize?"

"What does any of that even mean?"

Nicole decided to butt in.

"He's asking if we're lesbians."

Oh shit. For a child molester, this man could see emotions pretty damn well. Jecka felt like the counselor was staring a hole right through her. She did have thoughts and feelings for Nicole. A lot of thoughts and feelings. Some cute, some more... not so cute. Jecka knew that she had to tell Nicole sooner or later, but if she said it here, the counselor would probably force them to do what he wanted, so she pretended not to have a crush on Nicole.

"Oh, you'd just love that, wouldn't you?"

"Now please, there's no need for contextual assumption."

Nicole decided to butt in again.

"We could say the same to you."

"Be mindful of your venomous commentary. In my professional opinion, I believe it would be helpful for both of you to trial some sort of affection for each other."

Jecka was confused.

"Trial affection? Wait, are you telling us to make out in front of you?!"

"No, I'm asking you to physically express how you feel about one another in the safety of this judgment-free room."

Nicole did not like the situation that they were in, so she tried to get herself and Jecka out as quickly as possible.

"Okay, fine. Pat on the back, good job, champ. Can we leave now?"

"Nicole, would you please refrain from being intellectually and emotionally dishonest?"

"This isn't American Pie, you can't just get hot girls to tongue-kiss in front of you."

"Well, I'm afraid you're only hurting yourselves in fighting this exercise."

"Who the fuck let you work here?!"

Just then, the person who let the counselor work there, Principal Lynn, entered the room.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything serious."

"No, this is pretty fucking serious."

The counselor immediately stood up and walked over to the principal.

"What can I help you with, Principal?"

"If I could borrow your help for a moment, there's a student entirely passed out in the hallway."

"Oh my! Of course I can help. Who is it?

Nicole and Jecka looked at each other and hoped it wasn't a girl.

"It's Kylar. I found him on the floor unconscious."

"Don't worry, I know CPR! Jecka, your score is on my desk."

The two adults rushed out and left Nicole and Jecka in the room with each other. Jecka grabbed the paper off the counselor's desk.

"What did he mean by score?"

"Remember the SAT school day?"

"Yeah, I skipped with Emily and got high, why?"

"Well, I took the SAT and this is my score. Let me see what I got."

Jecka opened the piece of paper, and her face lit up immediately.

"1470! FUCK YEAH!"

"Can't you only get one hundred?"

"It's out of 1600, and less than 1% of people got a higher score!"

"Wow, great job. What is it for?"

"This can get me into basically any college I want!"

"Even Harvard?"

"Fuck no, besides, Harvard isn't for me."

"Then what school do you want to go to?"

"I've been looking between Florida and Maryland. Florida is farther away, but it does have the best program in the country for my major."

"What is your major?"

"Well, I want to do counseling."

"Counseling? Like the molester over here?"

"Nicole, I'd be a lot better than him, and you know it."

"Obviously, but that bar is low. Still, why would you want to go and spend your whole life at school?"

"Because of how awful this school is. If there were a better counselor who didn't want to fuck children, this school would be a lot better. I want to make sure the next generation of kids don't end up becoming Kylars or Jefferys. Besides, I realized I'm pretty good at it."

"How'd you realize that?"

"With you."

"What?"

"I've seen how you've been when you get help, Nicole. Like, genuine fucking help. The Jeffery thing, the brother thing, the dad thing. You've become stronger than ever. And I realized that I want to make other kids feel stronger as well. I want to make them feel-"

"As if they're not alone."

"Wha- How'd you know what I was going to say?"

"Because that's exactly what you've done. You've shown that I'm not alone and people do care. After my dad killed himself, I really thought that no one cared for me. I almost killed myself after the Jeffery thing, but you cared enough to help me. I starved myself after the thing with my brother, but you cared enough to make sure I was eating and staying healthy. After the phone call about my dad, you cared enough to stay by my side and grieve with me. You've shown that you genuinely care for other people. You would make a great counselor, Jecka."

Jecka was tearing up as Nicole spoke to her.

"Th-Thank you, Nicole."

"Thank you, Jecka. The world is fucked up, but I know you're gonna help fix it. Just like you fixed me."

Jecka and Nicole embraced in a hug as tears ran down Jecka's face. The past school year, the two girls went from not knowing each other to a genuine bond that couldn't be replicated. 

And both of them wouldn't trade it for the world.

Chapter Text

The long-awaited day had finally arrived. Nicole and Jecka were going to attend the Pearl Jam concert. Jecka pulled up to Nicole's house at around 3:00 on June 22nd. Jecka didn't even have time to ring the doorbell before Nicole opened the door to invite her in.

"Nicole! Are you ready for the concert?!"

"Yeah, but why are you here so early? The concert doesn't start until 8:30?"

"That's when Pearl Jam actually gets onstage; there's an opening act before that. Add in the traffic in D.C., the line to get in, and dinner, and it's gonna take a long time."

"True. Where are we getting dinner?"

"Well, I spent a lot of money on these tickets, so we can really only get fast food. You down for Chipotle?"

"I'm cool with that."

"Great! I'll wait for you in the car while you get your things."

Jecka went back and waited in her car while Nicole grabbed what she needed. She got her phone and put on her bracelets. Once that was taken care of, she got in the car with Jecka as they headed into Washington, D.C. Just as Jecka figured, it was a bitch trying to get into D.C., even at 3:30 in the afternoon. Once they finally arrived, they drove around until they found a Chipotle. Once inside, they were able to get to the front of the line fairly quickly as Nicole began to order her food.

"Burrito?"

"Yeah, burrito."

"Black or brown bean?"

"Brown beans."

"What kind of meat?"

"Extra chicken."

"Extra Chicken?"

It was clear that the woman taking Nicole's order wasn't that fluent in English.

"Yeah, 'Exteela Chiken.'"

Jecka, who had only taken French, looked at Nicole, amazed.

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish."

Nicole glared at Jecka, wondering how she ever got into Advanced Placement classes as the two finished their orders and waited for their food to be done. Once the food came out, they paid and left with the burritos in hand as they entered Jecka's car and headed for the concert.

"These smell so good! God, I'm starving!"

"Me too, Jecka. We can eat on the way there."

The two headed to the Verizon Center, where the concert was held. As they drove there, they proved why 17-year-olds should not be eating and driving at the same time. Eventually, they made their way to the arena and found a good parking spot. As they got out, Nicole threw her wrapper away when she noticed that Jecka had barely eaten her burrito, contrary to the bad driving she had just experienced.

"Are you going to actually eat that?"

"Yeah, later. I'm full."

"You only took like, 3 bites."

"Well, I did have to drive here, and while trying to get these 3 bites in..."

"...you almost hit 2 cars and an old lady crossing the street."

"Exactly! I'll finish it inside."

"You think they'll let you take that in there?"

"Yeah, they have to, otherwise they're prejudiced against burritos."

"I don't think that's how that works."

"Doesn't matter, let's get in line."

The girls made their way to the front of the line as Jecka realized they might have left a little early for an 8:30 concert, seeing as it was only 5:00. They had to wait another hour and a half before they were able to be let in, during which Jecka completely forgot about the burrito in her hand. Once the clock hit 6:30, the doors were opened and the girls were allowed in. That was, until one of the security guards noticed the burrito in Jecka's hand.

"Sorry, ma'am. No outside food or drink allowed inside."

"Oh, come on! It's just a Chipotle burrito!"

"You could've just finished it at Chipotle."

"You expect me to finish this at Chipotle?! No one finishes their burritos at Chipotle!"

Nicole decided to step in, seeing that Jecka was getting angry, and the security guards looked like they were about to burst out laughing. 

"I told you they weren't gonna let you take that in. Can you let us stay here until she finishes it?"

"We can't just hold up the line, ladies."

"You can let people in while she finishes."

"Alright, fine. We'll wait."

The security guards let in the people behind them as Jecka finished up her burrito. Once she was done, the girls were able to enter the arena. When the girls had gotten out of earshot, the security guards began to talk about them.

"You know, that blonde one reminds me of my wife."

"How?"

"'Cause I want to fucking kill her."

"Hah! Same, man."

"Yeah, I wish I could just blow her fucking brains out on the tiled floor right here."

"Yeah, man. So should we continue our job or..."

"Oh yeah, right, we have to check people."

"Have you been checking?"

"...No."

"Same!"

The two girls made their way to their seats, which were pretty close to the stage. 30 minutes before the opening act came on stage, Nicole felt a vibration from her phone. She picked it up and looked at who had texted her.

got a surprise for u later tonite - Emily

Nicole had no idea what Emily was trying to convey, so she put her phone away and waited for the opening act to begin. At 8:00, the opening act, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, took to the stage. Nicole had never heard of the band before, so she didn't know what she was getting into. Despite her doubts, the band sounded really good and she was impressed. But she knew that wasn't why she came. At around 8:30, Pearl Jam finally got onstage. The crowd was deafening as they started with Hard To Imagine, which Nicole thought was somewhat soft for an opener. It didn't take long to kick up, though, as a few songs later Do The Evolution began to play. Nicole looked to her right and saw that Jecka was trying to tell her something.

"Have you ever seen the music video for this song?! It's incredible!"

"Yeah, actually. I saw it when it first came out on MTV. I was, like, 7 at the time."

"Wow. Your parents must have wanted to get their little girl into some good music quick, huh?"

"Wha- oh, yeah, of course they wanted their daughter to get into good music. Not like anything else was a factor towards it."

Nicole quickly focused back on Pearl Jam as they continued to play song after song. They played Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, followed by Evacuation, which Eddie Vedder "evacuated" halfway through to play Corduroy. The crowd was really getting into the song, and the girls were being pushed closer and closer to each other. As I'm Open began to play, the two girls were unknowingly hugging each other, which they didn't notice until Daughter. They looked at each other and decided to stay in the hug for the time being. However, they soon became giddy when Even Flow began to play.

"Nicole, you played this one for me, remember?!"

"Well, on a fake guitar, yeah."

"You still played it for me."

"True."

After a little while, they settled back into a hug that lasted at least an hour. During that time, Nicole thought she felt a vibration in her pocket, but ignored it for the time being. Nicole and Jecka stayed in the hug while swaying to Black, sang at the top of their lungs for Last Kiss, and did both at the same time for Alive. After that, Pearl Jam did a cover of All Along The Watchtower, which Nicole wasn't expecting, before finally playing the last song of the night, Yellow Ledbetter. After the show, Nicole and Jecka spent way too long trying to get out of the arena. Once they finally made it to the car, they began to reflect on the night.

"Holy shit, Nicole, that was amazing!"

"Yeah. That was the best concert I ever went to."

"Same! The vibes were immaculate! It seemed like it flew by. What time is it anyway?"

"I don't know. Let me check."

Nicole pulled out her phone to reveal it was 11:14 at night, when she realized she had received 2 new messages from Emily. As the two drove back to Virginia, she began to read the messages.

time to uphold your end of the bargin - Emily 

Nicole was confused until she saw the second message, which was a bunch of photos.

A bunch of photos of Emily and Ari making out.

Aggressively.

Nicole felt her heart stop in her chest. Emily had actually convinced Ari to come out of the closet. And get with her as well. Nicole knew exactly what Emily was going to do the next time they saw each other. So when Jecka dropped Nicole off at her house, she realized it was only a matter of time.

Nicole had to tell Jecka she loved her, face-to-face.

Chapter Text

Ari had just clocked out of work. After dealing with all of the weirdos that came in, including Jeffery trying to buy $400 worth of anime shit, she really needed to eat. So she drove to Chipotle to get herself a burrito. The service was pretty good, but when she left with her burrito in hand, she was met by Megan. She had a sign in hand with a burrito behind a no circle. Megan ran up to Ari as she exited Chipotle.

"Do you know who really owns this place?! How's it feel supporting McDonald's?!"

"...Was I not supposed to do that?"

"Read the news. This cute little Mexican grill is puppeteered by McDonald's corporate. Enjoy your selantro-dipped McNuggets."

"Aw, man."

Ari began to walk away when...

BOOM!

Ari turned around and saw that Megan was knocked unconscious. She saw someone standing over Megan's body. Someone she knew.

"I've always wanted to do that."

"Emily?!"

"Oh, hey Ari, just picking myself up some Chipotle. Although after what just happened, I may need to find somewhere else to eat."

"Why did you knock her out?!"

"She was annoying. Besides, she didn't see me do it. She'll never know it was me. A besides on top of the besides before this besides, you really never wanted to knock her out?"

"Well, I mean... she was pretty annoying at times."

"Exactly. So, you heading off to work?"

"No, I just finished my shift. And after today, quitting is a really tempting option."

"Damn, you wanna talk about it? I'm free for the next two and a half months."

"I mean, not really. Besides, where would we even talk about it?"

"At my place."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I can see right through you. You do want to talk about it deep down."

"...Ok, fine. I'll head to your place."

"Great! Get in my car, we'll be there in no time."

"I can't just leave my car at Chipotle! Can I at least drive it home first?"

"Sure. Besides, I get to see where you live. Another besides, I can see how valuable your car is, in case I need money."

"Why do you want to know where I live?"

"Reasons. Besides, in an emergency, it could be a good thing to know."

"You really like the word besides, huh?"

"Yeah, it's something that you wouldn't expect to sound cool, but it does. Besides, I can say it basically anytime."

"Ok then. Follow me, I guess."

Ari got in her car and drove home while Emily followed her. The whole ride, she was debating with herself whether or not accepting Emily's offer was a good idea. As she wondered if she was going to survive the night, she pulled into her driveway and looked back at Emily in her car. She could make up an excuse right now. She could get out of it. She could guarantee her survival. But for some reason, she hesitated. She looked at Emily, then at her house, then back at Emily, then back at her house.

And she got into Emily's car.

"So how far away are you from here?"

"Kinda far. But driving like I drive, we'll be there in five minutes."

"What do you mean-"

Suddenly, the car accelerated at a rate Ari didn't even think was possible. She held onto her seat as Emily put on Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crue. Sure enough, within 5 minutes, they had arrived at Emily's house. Once they got out of her car, they entered her house and immediately went to her room.

"Emily, are your parents home?"

"No, not now. My dad's probably trying to do something to save his reputation or something. Ever since that sexual assault case when we lived in Vermont, he's been trying to clear his name."

"Is he innocent?"

"He was caught on 3 different security cameras."

"Oh."

"Yeah, the only good thing about it was that it forced us to move here."

"Oh yeah, you came here in 8th grade. Same year as Jeffery."

"Oh god, don't remind me of that."

"I heard he moved because his older brother, Christian, was doing some weird stuff."

"I mean, with a last name like Chandler, it's no wonder they're both weirdos."

"Yeah, huh. So, you wanna talk about what happened at my work today?"

"Nah, I have a better idea."

"What?"

"Adderall. Want some?"

"Sure, I need some after today."

The two girls sat around and talked about random stuff for an hour until Ari asked Emily a question.

"Why did you give me the flag?"

"Huh?"

"The flag. The lesbian one."

"Oh, yeah. I thought it would be a little funny since-"

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Thank you for giving it to me. I did some research on the flag and went into a deep dive into other stuff and... I can finally say to myself that I'm a lesbian."

Emily sat there, shocked, before picking up her phone to text someone.

"Who are you texting?"

"Nicole."

"Why?"

"So she can uphold her end of the bargain."

"What bargain?"

"Well, I made a deal with her a few months ago that if I got over my fear and started dating you, then she would finally-"

"Wait, what?! You want to date me?!"

"...Probably could've phrased that better."

"So that's why you've been hitting on me. You weren't trying to be a bitch, you were trying to win me over."

"Did I succeed?"

"..."

"..."

"...Yeah. I think you did."

"Can you prove it to me?"

"Sure. Why not?"

Ari and Emily leaned into each other and kissed. As this was Ari's first kiss, she didn't know how to properly do it, so Emily helped show her. She showed her all types of kisses, from normal to French to some with way too much tongue. After a good 15 minutes of nonstop kissing, they finally stopped, not realizing that Ari was completely on top of Emily.

"Oh, sorry! Should I get off?"

"No, no. Stay on. I like it like this. Just let me grab my phone."

"Okay, what for?"

"I'm good friends with Nicole, but she isn't going to believe me if I don't send her proof. Besides, I want this moment to be immortalized."

"Wait, I'm not so sure you should do that."

"Why not?"

"I don't want anyone else to know about me being a lesbian."

"Ari, we live 15 minutes from D.C. Who the hell cares about that?"

"Well, some people might."

"Let me give you a helpful tip. Don't listen to other people's bullshit. All that does is bury you in the ground. You need to just be you. And then, you can sprout into a flower. A rose, because of your hair, of course."

"Really?"

"How do you think I became the person I am today? By listening to other people's complaints about me? No, I became the person I am because I didn't. And I know you're happy that I didn't listen to the bullshit, now aren't you?"

"...I am."

"I know. So don't listen to someone whose entire goal is to put you down. Be you. The real you. And give them the middle finger while you're at it."

"...Alright. Take the photos."

"That's my little rose."

"Already with nicknames?"

"Well, by the looks of it, that nickname made you as red as one."

"Oh, shut up."

"So, how many do you want?"

"...I need as many as you possibly fucking can."

"That's what I was planning on doing."

Emily and Ari made out aggressively as Emily snapped photo after photo. By the time they were done, she had taken almost 50 different photos.

"I can't send all of these to Nicole. I guess we just have to keep some for ourselves."

"Perfect."

"Although I was thinking of doing some stuff that we can't take photos of..."

"Like what?"

"You know."

"I do."

Thank god Emily's parents weren't home that night, because the moans could be heard well into the morning.

Chapter Text

Mid-July had rolled around. Nicole had hung out with Jecka a couple of times since the concert. Well, it was more than a couple of times. It was basically every day. Except today. Jecka had called Nicole to tell her that her dad needed help, so she couldn't hang out today. Nicole was bummed out but understood why she couldn't come over. So she spent her day rotting away in bed. She was complaining to herself that she was bored, but didn't do anything about it. That is, until she heard a knock at the door. She looked outside and saw a blonde girl waiting at the front door. Nicole rushed downstairs to greet who she thought was Jecka, but it turned out to be another blonde she knew.

"Emily? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just checking up. I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Okay, why?"

"So you can complete your part of the bargain."

Shit. She had forgotten about the deal they made.

"Oh yeah, that, well, you see-"

"I don't want to talk about it out here. Let me in so I can at least get some AC. It's really fucking hot out here."

"Alright, fine."

Nicole let Emily inside, and the girls headed upstairs to Nicole's room. Once they got up there, Emily started questioning Nicole.

"So why haven't you asked out Jecka yet?"

"Oh my god, do we have to start with this?"

"Yes, we do, Nicole."

"Ok, I haven't had the time."

"Bullshit. If I've had the time to go on multiple dates with Ari, then you sure as hell have had the time to hang out with Jecka."

"How many dates have you guys had?"

"9. Today will mark our tenth."

"Damn. It's been less than a month."

"It has. Still enough time for you to hold up your part of the deal."

"I'm getting to it, alright?!"

"You better be. Don't cross me, Nicole."

"Oh, believe me, I know not to cross you. I heard what you did to Braxton."

"Good. Little shit thought he could try and scam me. How's twice the lethal dose of morphine, jackass?"

"Damn, that much?"

"Yeah. Shame he lived."

"How?"

"His friends. I will say, I thought his friends would just leave him to die, so they're better people than I thought."

"No offense, but I don't think you should judge the goodness of people."

"I don't think you should either."

"Touche."

"That doesn't matter now. What matters is that you hold your end of the bargain, Nicole."

"I will, alright?"

"No. I'm giving you a deadline. If you haven't asked Jecka out by Halloween, you're going to regret it, Nicole."

"Ok. Halloween. Got it."

"Good. So do you want to hang out or..."

"I mean, you're already here. Why not?"

"Great. Do you want to hear about my date with Ari?"

"Which one?"

"I don't know. I think it was the sixth or seventh date we had."

"Okay, fine. But please leave out any risque details, alright?"

"Fine. So me and Ari met up at Applebee's..."

Ari had just pulled into the parking lot at Applebee's. She was wearing something fairly formal, something she did every date night. When she got out of the car, she made her way to the entrance and was greeted by Emily. She was wearing whatever the hell was on her floor that morning, something she did every date night.

"Hey Ari, looking sharp as ever!"

"Hey Emily, looking... like you usually do."

"Aw, thanks. But we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"There's a line to get in. I asked the guy seating people how long it would be until we could be seated, and her said about an hour."

"An hour?! Really?!"

"Yeah. I tried to see if I could speed up the seating process, but apparently, the guy is this thing called a 'Catholic', so he 'can't do drugs like Ecstasy.'"

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah, so, tell you what. You go back home and drop off your car. I follow you and pick you up when you're done. We leave, get some food, come back to my house, and do whatever we want. You down?"

"Uh, sure, why not?"

Ari got back into her car and drove back to her house with Emily right behind her. Once she dropped off her car, she got into the passenger's seat of Emily's car and they drove off. Along the way, Emily and Ari decided to go into the Burger King drive-thru and get dinner.

"Hello, welcome to Burger King. What will you be having today?"

"We'll take two whoppers."

"Okay, that'll be-"

"Wait, I wasn't done!"

Emily turned to Ari.

"What do you want?"

"Wait, those two are for you?!"

"Yeah, why?"

"I thought we'd each get one!"

"Nope, both of those bad boys are for me."

"Well then, what should I order?"

"I don't know, same as me?"

"Ok, fine. Two whoppers then."

Emily turned back to the speaker.

"And two more whoppers."

"Four whoppers? Got it."

"No, we want two whoppers and two more whoppers."

"Yeah, four whoppers."

"No, two whoppers, and two more whoppers."

"...Two whoppers, and two more whoppers, is that all?"

"Yes."

"Alright, pull up to the window."

Emily pulled up to the window, and Ari was surprised to see who was working.

"Karen?! I didn't know you worked here!"

"Hi Ari! I only do this part-time; I need to start saving up for college. Also, why is Emily here?"

"Oh, she's my date."

"Your date? I didn't know you dated Emily."

"Well, it's been about two weeks since we got together."

"Well, in any case, good to finally see you out of that glass closet."

"You knew too?!"

"Obviously, even though I'm a nerd, I'm still a girl. The only people who couldn't see it were the guys. They don't know anything."

"I mean, yeah, that checks out."

"Ok, here's your fo- I mean, two whoppers and two more whoppers."

"Thank you, Karen!"

"You're welcome!"

As Emily and Ari drove off with their food, Emily began to talk to Ari.

"Karen's her name? I never knew that."

"How?"

"Didn't care at the time. I just called her the one girl that won't buy drugs off me."

"Wait, every other girl buys shit off you?!"

"Yeah. Well, ever since Jenny Filmore bought from Kylar. We all know where that went." 

"Oh yeah. Well, she's chill, so I like her."

"More than me?"

"Wha- no! I like her as a friend, not a lover."

"So I'm your lover, huh?"

"I mean, for the past two weeks, yeah, you have been."

"Will I be forever?"

"I hope so."

"I know so."

Emily and Ari made out in the car, even though Emily was going 70mph down a residential street. By some miracle, they arrived at her place unharmed. A few minutes later, and that "whatever they want" had turned into hours-long lesb-

"Emily! I told you to leave out the risque details!"

"Why? Because you'll get horny?"

"Wh- No! I don't want to hear about your sex life, that's all."

"Nicole, don't worry. I'm not gonna cheat on Ari. No matter how horny you get."

"Emily."

"Fine. So you wanna tell me about what you've been doing over the summer?"

"Did I tell you about the concert?"

"Not all of it."

"Okay then, so-"

"Wait, play your little guitar game while you tell me."

"Why?"

"I need music to focus on stories."

"Like how you need Addrall to stop at stop signs?"

"It's like we've known each other for years."

Nicole booted up Guitar Hero and picked out the song that Emily chose, which was from Slipknot, as she began to describe the concert that Nicole and Jecka had gone to.