movie nights - casey gardner (discontinued)

season 1 - chapter 21

casey and harriet were sitting on casey's bed doing homework when elsa came into the room, they seemed to spent most of their time nowadays running or doing homework so harriet decided to have a nap. she had only just woken up about five minutes ago and her eyes were still half closed from the tiredness.

'knock knock. i solved your problem i called jj's mom.' it seemed like she was talking directly to casey seeing as harriet had no idea what she was talking about. 

'i specifically asked you not to call anyone.' she said, sounding rather agitated. she had been rather uptight since the whole track team stopped talking to them. 'why are you lying down?' she asked and picked up her notebook of the bed, as elsa began making herself comfortable. harriet just looked over at elsa in a sleepy manner and tried to make sense of what was happening. from what she had heard so far she gathered that casey had told elsa about the track team and told her not to do anything about it but elsa is elsa and did something about it anyways. thinking about it harriet thought that casey would probably have done the same thing if she was in elsa's shoes. the two weren't as different as casey wished they were. 

'turns out someone made a mountain out of a molehill.' elsa continued.

'this molehill is seeming pretty big if you ask me, elsa. the whole team stopped talking to us.' harriet chipped in.

'the girls are not angry at you.' but harriet found that very hard to believe. 'they're just sad that you're leaving'

'no, im telling you they're being assholes.' casey said, eyebrows raised, tapping her pen on the page for dramatic effect. when she gets no response from her mother she continues, 'alright, whatever though. some lady that you barely know tell you that its not true, you just listen to her.'

'um april turner is not some lady that i barely know.' she says, offended, as if she had known april her entire life and knew all of her secrets. 'we almost shared a room together at the ramada inn for one of your out of town track meets.'

'almost?' harriet says, raising one sleepy eyebrow.

'we would have except i had a scratchy throat.'

'oh well in that case.' harriet doesn't know why she's being mean to elsa, maybe it's the sleepiness.

'i don't know why i assumed you would listen to me anyway.' casey said, like she was done with the conversation which she most likely was.

but elsa keeps on pushing, 'april assured me that jj is dying to hang out with you guys. 'she said that all the girls are getting together to go dress shopping for the dance.'

'pass.' casey jumps in almost immediately and harriet silently seconds that. it was bold enough for elsa to assume she was going to the dance nevermind wearing a dress.

'call her.' elsa says but casey keeps shaking her head. elsa starts to sit up, looking a lot more serious now and harriet just rested her head on the side of casey's arm. 'sweetie, listen to me. i know teenage girls can be mean and bitchy. i was actually like that myself sometimes.' 

casey fake gasps and says, 'you?' which made harriet hide a laugh. 

'i don't care about the other girls but you and sharice are best friends. don't let something like this break up your little trio.'

casey doesn't have anything to say to that, she clearly hadn't been thinking about it that way. however, harriet had, that was the only way harriet could see it. one of her best friends in the whole world was willing to give up their friendship because she was moving to a better school? it didn't seem very fair to her. 

'i love you.' elsa said, looking between the two. she flashed them a small smile and left the room. 

'i also love you.' harriet joked and made kissy faces at casey, who laughed and slightly blushed. 'i don't get it, we didn't do anything to them. i can't see why they stopped talking to us.'

casey nodded and started writing down some answers on her homework sheet, 'me neither, it's stupid' 

'are you actually doing the homework?' harriet asked, lifting her head up from casey's arm and standing up off the bed. 

'im trying to.' casey asked and looked up at harriet. 'why?'

'i mean we could always have a break. go get coffee or something.' harriet suggested with a shrug but secretly she really hoped that casey would say yes.

'since when did you drink coffee?' she said, with a playful smirk. 

'well...okay, maybe i would've gotten a hot chocolate but like you could get a coffee if you wanted.' harriet said, laughing.

casey swung her legs to the side getting off her bed, 'sounds good to me, red.'

'okay, let's go, then.' harriet said, walking to the door and pulling on her shoes and a jumper, casey trailing behind her down the stairs.

casey had been right. harriet ended up ordering a hot chocolate and casey had ordered a black coffee. harriet didn't know how casey could stomach it. even the smell of it made harriet feel a bit nauseous. 

'how can you drink that? it smells like toilet water?' harriet said, looking down at the drink, if you could even call it that, and looking disgusted. 

'uh you smell like toilet water.' casey said, laughing and taking a long drink of the coffee.

'there is something seriously wrong with you.' harriet laughed and took a sip of her hot chocolate which left a line of froth on her top lip that looked like a moustache. 

casey laughed and wiped the moustache away from harriet's top lip. harriet did a fairly good job at hiding the blush that formed on her cheeks.

after a few minutes of comfortable silence casey asked, 'are you nervous about going to clayton?' her voice was quiet and it was almost as though she was telling harriet that she was nervous rather than asking harriet if she was.

'yeah. i guess so. i think i'm more excited than nervous, though' she looked up at casey who was looking down into her drink. 'why?'

she shrugged and after a few seconds she met her friends eye before looking away again. 'i'm worried about leaving sam. i know he said he didn't need us at the school but i'm worried that something will happen again like it did when we went to the meeting.'

harriet held casey's gaze, a soft understanding look in her eyes. 'sam will be fine. he has people at the school who will look out for him. everything's going to be fine' harriet reached over the table and put her hand over casey's. she didn't know why she did it. maybe it felt like the right thing to do  but the electricity that she could feel running through her veins when their skin touched almost made her pull back but it didn't and casey looked up at her friend with soft eyes.

right at that moment a familiar voice broke the silence. 'harriet! hi!'  she looked up to see fred kingsley grinning widely and walking towards her. 

'fred, hi.' harriet said, shifting over to let him sit down next to her. at any other time she would've been happy to see one of the only friends she had left but he was interrupting her time with casey, which had annoyed her but she didn't want to hurt his feelings but showing it.

'what are you doing here?' he asked, then laughed. 'sorry that's a stupid question.'

harriet laughed, despite herself and turned to face fred. casey hadn't said a word to him yet which seemed a bit off but when she looked back over to her, she was typing on her phone. presumably to evan. 'drinking coffee... well, hot chocolate. i actually hate coffee with a passion.' 

fred laughed and casey spoke up. 'it's true she thinks it smells like toilet water.'

'that's ridiculous! coffee is amazing' fred exclaimed, sounding deeply offended.

'that's what i said!' casey said, giving fred a high-five. the three of them laughed and harriet was suddenly aware of how happy she was in the moment.maybe she didn't have the track team but she knew that she would always have casey and fred. and even evan.

author's note: omg im so sorry this took so long. i just completely lost motivation but lord behold i've found it again and i'm going to try and update every day to make up for lost time <3