DECEPTACON

002.

"So did you actually drop out?"

Devi's face was scrunched up in confusion, voice laced with thick concern for Pepper, who was laid out comfortably across her bed.

"Well, technically, I left. We -y'know, the school, my parents, and shit- decided that Cherry Hill was no longer the environment for someone such as myself," she explained with a sick sense of glee. Almost like she was proud of leaving Cherry Hill, the place she had dreamt of escaping to for so long.

"Wait!" Eleanor cut in, dark eyes wide. "Did you" -her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper- "get kicked out?"

Fabiola and Devi gasped, eyeing Pepper suspiciously. She lifted herself off of the plush orange comforter of Devi's bed with a laugh.

"No way. You have to majorly fuck things up for the Hill to kick you out."

Pepper hadn't done anything too awful in the three-and-a-half years she had spent in Michigan, boarded away at Cherry Hill, only the best institute in the nation for emerging artists. She had originally gone for theatre, then joined the film program in the eighth grade, egged on by her Scorsese-loving roommate, Maudie.

Pepper was known by everyone at Cherry Hill, from the traveling elementary school kids, to the for-lifers, seniors that had been shipped away by their parents at an unbearably young age. She was practically an institution on campus, wearing fluffy pink cowboy hats and never without her camcorder.

The only possibly punishable offense Pepper Cruz had committed at Cherry Hill was being a rebellious smartass. She always had a comeback, something she had learned from summers spent with Devi, Fabiola, and Eleanor. She didn't know when to stop. She was smart, but she didn't like to show it. She'd rather sneak out of the dorms with Maudie, kiss UMich boys on break, film their late-night escapades.

So when her grades dropped -no Princeton for Pepper. Sorry, Daddy!- the Cruz parents received a call. Pepper received a stern talking-to. Multiple, as a matter of fact. From everyone imaginable. She wasn't very receptive, the first few times. So after midterms wrapped up, as the Cherry Hill sophomores were preparing to go home for the holidays, Pepper was in the headmaster's office. Her parents were there too, though they weren't acting like much of a family.

She was asked to leave. She dropped out. She left of her own accord. Her parents made her leave. They never supported her anyway.

However Pepper spun the story, it had the same ending. She wasn't going back to the Cherry Hill School for the Arts. She thought she was dreaming when she first got in. When her parents actually let her go.

Pepper woke up from that dream, at the end of winter break. After nearly four years.

"So are you going to tell us why you've seen Batman ten times?" Fabiola asked, looking at Pepper with expectant eyes.

Pepper giggled, eager to shift topics away from something so... personal, so achingly close to her heart. "Because I love Paul Dano!"

A collective groan went around the room, Devi burying her face in her hands, Eleanor squeezing her eyes shut in over-exaggerated disgust.

"Oh, come on, you guys. He's fucking hot. And talented! That's, like, gotta do something for you, Eleanor, right?"

Eleanor only scrunched her face more, shaking her head slowly. Pepper glanced at Fabiola with wide eyes, who held up her arms defensively, and Pepper gave her an apologetic look when she realized why. She then looked at Devi last, but she already knew she was a lost cause. Her type was unbelievably attractive guys with the personality of a blank piece of paper. Pepper -obviously- couldn't relate. Instead, she tended to go for boys with floppy hair and what some might call a male manipulator's taste in music.

She waved a hand at Devi dismissively. "Whatever. You're a lost cause, Miss Paxton Hall-Yoshida. Keep dreamin', or whatever."

Devi rolled her eyes. "I'll have you know Paxton and I are technically dating now."

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Pepper all but exploded, jumping off the bed, hair flying everywhere. Her dark eyes widened with excitement, breath quickening in an instant. She knew she had missed some Sherman Oaks drama while she was caught up in her own brand of Cherry Hills shit, but she didn't know she had missed this much. Last she had heard, Devi was on the outs with all of the men in her life. Paxton Hall-Yoshida and Ben Gross. Two polar opposites.

Well, they had one thing in common, Pepper figured. They both apparently adored Devi (which was an easy thing to do for Pepper. Others? Not so much. They just didn't get Devi as well as she did). So the fact that Devi had both Paxton and Ben fawning after her was the second craziest thing in the world.

Her dating Paxton was the first.

As Devi opened her mouth to smugly explain her situation, Pepper's phone buzzed aggressively in the back pocket of her jeans. Once, twice, and a third time. Everyone glanced at her, waiting for her to get her shit figured out so they could start helping Devi. Pepper shook her head slightly, reaching behind her and fishing out her phone. Her brows knit together as she eyed it.

"Who is itttt?" Eleanor sang out in that patently nosy way of hers.

Pepper shook her head again, a bit more determinedly this time, and simply replied, "Just Maudie."

She looked back up at her friends, slipping her phone away. "So motherfucking Paxton Hall-Yoshida, yeah?"

Devi's face nearly cracked in half with a blinding smile.

PERCY SPEAKS !
i'm back and better than ever! today is also a double update day so get excited!!!!!!
<3, percy