don't blame me

two

"Mhm, hold that." Toni holds the camera up to her face and snaps a picture of Shelby sat on her desk chair. She's wearing a black suit with a black shirt. "It would look better if your top button wasn't done though." She mumbles under her breath.

"I'm not showin' my skin for your stupid homework." Shelby snaps back, fixing her collar with her slim hands. It's a Saturday afternoon and Mr Palmer had to basically set a date and time for the two to complete Toni's homework. "Y'know I'm still expecting to get something for all this." She half-jokes.

"Oh, you wanna get some, huh?" Toni raises her eyebrows and lowers the camera from her eyes. "Didn't think you'd be so forward about it, to be honest. I admire it." She teases Shelby, watching her immediately sit back in her seat and flush red.

"In your wildest dreams." She mutters, playing with the swirls of honey that dripped down from the top of her head. Toni smiles and raises the camera back up and quickly takes a picture without warning Shelby. "Hey!"

"Hi." Toni laughs playfully as she goes to check the film, clicking through all the pictures that they've taken so far.

"I wasn't ready for that." Shelby groans, reaching out to take it form Toni's hands, but Toni's reactions are too quick and she pulls away.

"Oh shut up, you perfectionist." She says, falling back onto her bed. "You look great in everything. I mean, you actually win awards for it." She chuckles almost in disbelief. What a fucked up competition.

Shelby sucks her cheeks in and rolls her eyes. "Can we just get on with it. I wanna go home." She spins around in the chair and taps her fingers on the arm rests.

Toni pouts dramatically and sits back up. "Are you not enjoying our bonding?" She mimics Mr Palmer's words of advice. She continues to take a few more pictures of Shelby at different angles. Honestly, though Toni will never admit it, Shelby has the perfect facial features to portray her character.

"It's amazing!" Sir says when Toni hands it in on the next Friday. "And what was all that bollocks about you guys not making a good team, huh?" He gently shoves Toni's shoulder. He flicks through the photographs and smiles to himself. "Really, really good work there, Shalifoe. Keep it up." He nods proudly, setting them back down on her desk.

It makes Toni's day. She loves academic validation. She also loves athletic validation, which is why she's a basketballer. In fact, that's where she's headed now. "Hey Toni." Marty runs up to meet her in the corridor, her hands busy shoving her books into her bags.

"Hi Marty," Toni grins. "How was biology?" She asks whilst she grabs Marty's hands when they're finished zipping the bag up.

"Eh, so-so." Martha shrugs, clasping her fingers around Toni's and letting her swing them back and forth. "Is basketball on tonight?" She turns to face her, but Toni is distracted.

Toni catches Shelby giving them the dirtiest looks, staring directly at their intertwined hands. "She's fucking straight, you prick." Toni states, loud enough for most people in the hallway to hear. Shelby looks up and makes eye contact with her and almost looks embarrassed. Almost. "Jesus Christ, Shelby. Get a life." The brunette tries to stop in front of the cheerleader, but is pushed away by Andrew, Shelby's stereotypically 'manly' jock boyfriend, and dragged on by Martha. That doesn't stop her from scowling sourly at her until the waves of students come crashing out of the classroom.

"Toni." Martha sighs exhaustedly, pushing her carefully against a row of lockers once they're far enough from Shelby and everyone else. "You've got to stop caring about them." She scolds her.

"Kinda hard to ignore her when she's pretty much always at my house." Toni scoffs, looking aside and acting completely uninterested in the conversation. Which, to some extent, she was. No matter how many times Marty will tell her to 'pay no attention to them', Toni will never allow herself to let them get the easy satisfaction. Dumb fucking homophobic cun-