Prompt link: tba
A/N: This is only version 1 because I have no idea if I'm allowed to use role swaps that other people came up with, but I really wanted to do this because this role swap AU is just too interesting. Version 2 will use my own role swap idea, though. I tried to still keep some of their original personalities, despite swapping roles. I hope westcubes doesn't mind that I'm using their role swap AU. You can find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/995418129?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=link&utm_content=share_reading&wp_page=reading_part_end&wp_uname=ISignedUpJustToRead&wp_originator=iqDIf2%2FQVEAtlhPJ16rZ68qnen4dng9PcvTv8GCLH2OaERXcaeObKnkhr2KxApD759D22%2Fw4wsGVS9AMJdcQfA1233b3i7XMk9g5anI4dSOimi9Gv1%2FiUGE4Pqs3oSJ0
"Pence Pence, wait!" Match yelled, running after the BFDIA newbie.
Pencil stopped, turning back and pointing a finger in the direction of her friend. "Why do you keep making yourself suffer like this, Match?"
"I'm not... I'm not like, making myself suffer..." Match muttered.
"Then why are you still trying to befriend Book?" Pencil asked, sounding exasperated. "She's nothing but a stuck up know it all who thinks she's better than everyone!"
"That's... that's not true," Match said. "Well, maybe, like, a little bit, but I thought everything was fine... Book seemed to finally be warming up to you."
"And? She warmed up to me by talking trash about her best friend. Not exactly the type of person I even want to be friends with," Pencil said, rolling her eyes.
Match's eyes widened. "Okay, like, what the actual- I mean she might not like us, always gets mad at Flower, and heck, even occasionally makes fun of Snowball for his low intelligence, but Book would never do anything against Ice Cube. Are... are you like, sure you didn't mishear her?"
"Oh, I know I didn't mishear her," Pencil said. "Besides, even if I did mishear her, those reasons that you just listed should be enough for you to see how bad of a person she is!"
"...Nobody's keeping you here, Pencil," Match said, dropping her usual nickname for her, in order to show that she was taking this seriously. "I'll miss you if you leave Freesmart, but if you really dislike Book that much..."
Pencil laughed bitterly. "That's the thing. I can't leave you here alone, Match. You're the closest friend I have on this whole show. That's why I can't stand back and let you keep trying to please Book, when clearly she only cares about herself. I just don't understand why you're so insistent in joining Book's group!"
"...Alright, I'll like, tell you why," Match said, sighing. "When I was younger, I would do Sudoku puzzles with Firey. I was way faster at it than him, but I thought that was just because he's dumb. Turns out, I was some sort of prodigy at Sudoku or something. ...But I didn't want that. I was scared. I thought you had to choose one or the other; brains or popularity. I chose popularity. I mean, it's not like I actually don't like shopping or fashion, so it's not like I'm even pretending to like anything. I just ignored some of the other things that I may or may not like. I thought that I had to. But then, I met Book. She managed to have both brains and popularity," Match recounted. "She was great at writing and knew a lot of things, but she also had the charms and social finesse to be pretty popular. I mean, heck, she was like the last person to ever get a vote during season one. But as brave as she is now in showing off her intelligence, she couldn't have always been like this, right? Maybe we have something in common then. Maybe she understands how I feel. Or like at the very least, she could give me some advice."
Pencil sighed. "Match, I'm sorry, but I think it's too late for that. While I've watched season one and found Book not as bad back then, by now she's basically drunk with power and tries to micromanage everything we do, expecting nothing less of perfection from us."
Match frowned. "Maybe, you're like, right. But I'm not sure now is the best time to break away from Freesmart. I'm not sure if the others would like let us stay with them, since Book's definitely gonna kick us out if we leave."
"I know," Pencil nodded. They were both silent for a moment before Pencil broke the silence. "...If only I came sooner. If I had just joined in season 1, you wouldn't care about what Book thinks about you. If I had met you before you met Book, you wouldn't be suffering like this. Heck, I think if I had joined the show when Book did, and if she had only joined later, none of the rest of the Freesmarters would be under Book's reign."
Match said nothing. She knew it was true. Pencil was just as, if not more, charismatic than Book. So much so, that Match felt that if she had met Pencil first, she would have not even noticed Book.
Honestly, being with Pencil was like a breath of fresh air for her. Book really was uptight, and recently Match felt as if she was walking on eggshells around the blue and green object. Pencil, on the other hand, was more relaxed, which led her and Book to clash often. Despite that, while not exactly being academically intelligent, Pencil's creativity and motivation skills proved useful to the team, so Book begrudgingly let her stay. Of course, even while staying in Freesmart, Pencil would show nothing but annoyance to all of Book's rules and nitpicking. Her brazenness had even started to rub off on Match too, occasionally.
Still, Match knew this situation wasn't ideal. For quite some time, she had the nagging feeling in the back of her head that Pencil was only staying in Freesmart because of her. And now, Pencil had literally just confirmed it. But as Match had said earlier, they couldn't just leave now. Especially after finding out that even Ice Cube wasn't safe from Book's criticism. Pencil might be okay with leaving the rest of Freesmart to Book's whims, but Match wasn't so sure.
She closed her eyes, thinking about the "what if" scenario that Pencil had brought up earlier. Maybe if Pencil and Book just swapped places, things would be clearer.
Or maybe, it wouldn't change much. Because maybe Pencil and Book were more alike than they'd care to admit.
A/N: Does anyone else remember when Match finished a whole Sudoku book in like, 5 seconds? Sure, that was pre-canon, but I think about it sometimes. Also, I kinda needed a reason for Match to want to befriend Book so yeah, Actually Smarter Than She Seems! Match headcanon (?) or AU. (Idk whether I actually believe this or whether I just want Match to have more layers to her character) Also, like I said, I swapped roles, but I tried to keep as much of their personalities the same so that it isn't just a name and object swap. Yeah canon Book may have just not brought up what Pencil said about Match so as to not cause drama, and probably just gently convinced Ice Cube to leave Freesmart some other way, but Role Swap Pencil isn't going to just stay quiet about what she heard. She's also more aggressive I guess about getting Match to leave Freesmart because that fits in more with Pencil's personality. So yeah. Also, this takes place shortly after IDFB. My only problem with this is that I literally can't imagine Book calling Ice Cube needy, (in fact, Book would probably secretly enjoy it and just swoop in to play the mom friend again if she ever found Ice Cube to be anything remotely close to needy) but oh well. I ended this by bringing it full circle, back to the idea of swapping, because I love me some delicious irony.
