All That Glitters

Lions Den

Tw: violence

There were two things Kie hated when it came to being a kid from Figure Eight. The shallow conversations with people that normally wouldn't give her the time of day being one. The fact that none of the people her mom wanted her to hang out with cared about anything she cared about being the other. Midsummers was the epitome of self righteous assholes playing pretend while the rest of the world suffered. Like every other year.

Kie scanned the party for anyone she knew. Anyone she didn't know. Someone that she could actually have a conversation with without feeling like she was choking. Someone that made her feel like doing the choking.

Her mother's hands wrapped around her from behind.

"Are you sulking by yourself again?"

"Mom, nobody here likes me. I'm the joke of the Kook academy. Why did you force me to come?"

"Kiara, they don't hate you. You've gotta give them a chance."

"I already did." And then she spotted Pope. Wrestling with coolers that were too big for him to lift on his own. "Gotta go." She withdrew from her mother's arms. Hearing a faint sigh dry up on her lips.

She swiftly weaved through the crowd of kids she was fine never speaking to. Coming out just next to the grill Pope was setting up.

Kie watched him at work. Not paying attention to what was going on around him. She smiled and stepped up. "Excuse me, sir. Do we have to shuck these ourselves?" She played it up with a terrible English accent. Watching his face go from bothered to surprised in a split second when he caught her in his eye. "'Cause it might mess up my costume." She gave him a bright smile.

"Well we wouldn't want that now, would we." Pope leaned in initiating their handshake. "That accent was bad."

"Yeah it was. I was gonna let it go." She snickered. "You ever seen this many Kooks in one place?"

"Yeah, last year." Pope continued working.

"We're in the lion's den."

"Exactly." Pope pulled down the cover for the grill I was watching, turning to Kie. "Hey, have you heard from JJ?"

Kie looked to the floor remembering the feeling of watching him switching with Pope. "No." She paused to bite her lip. "He'll be alright. He's got the survival instincts of a cockroach."

"It wasn't that that I was worried about."

"Yeah... me too. Don't feel bad though. You've got that " it's all my fault " look about you. Don't sweat it. Topper almost killed you. And JJ—" She met eyes with Pope. "He'll be alright."

"I hope you're right. Rafe stole his ring. I can't even imagine what's been going through his head."

"Speaking of, Rafe's here. We could confront him about it."

"What good is that gonna do? Like," Pope gestured over to where Rafe was showing off to a few girls at the party, "Look, he's not even being subtle about it. He's not gonna just give it to us if we ask nicely."

"So don't ask nicely. Have you learned nothing from JJ?" She scoffed and headed over toward Rafe.

"Kie! Wait!" Pope rushed after her. Gaining a glare from his father and a few confused glances from other guests. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Kie, wait. He's a psychopath. Wait until he's alone."

"Pope, if you don't have the balls to stand up for your best friend you could've just said." She ripped her arm out of his hand.

"It's not that. I just think we could go about this a different way. Wait until he's too drunk to notice he lost it. Y'know? Let's be smart about this."