𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 | 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

78| Tim McGraw.

78 | Tim McGraw.

| 3rd POV |

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"Can you tell she recently picked up a new elective?" Rory asked, looking behind her at her mom, then back into her sister's room.

In the center on the floor atop a fluffy green rug, Sage was lying on her stomach, Ivy curled between her legs and Willow rubbing her head on her shoulder. In front of the girl, there were three textbooks lying open flipped to various pages, five notebooks covered in handwriting, two books written in Greek, one in Latin, and a multitude of books on Greek and Roman mythology sat in stacks as well.

"Surprisingly," Lorelai said, stepping into Sage's room and sitting down on her bed. "Not really." She smiled, watching Rory follow her actions shortly after.

"I can hear you two. It's completely unnecessary to speak about someone in the third person while they're in fact not only in the same room, but well within hearing and speaking range." Sage said, grinning faintly as she glanced up at the girls.

"And besides, Classics is barely an elective for me anyway. I already know pretty much everything they're teaching me, so it's essentially just a chance for me to put my hours upon hours of reading into actual assignments and essays that will not only give me extra credit, but also improve and increase my set of excuses to say up all night reading." She said. "It's a flawless system."

Lorelai looked down at her eldest daughter, her eyes glistening as she laughed. "You're crazy."

"Actually it's pretty smart. I should probably do that more often." Rory shrugged, petting Willow when she walking up to her.

"I take it back," Lorelai smiled. "You're both crazy."

The girls both rolled their eyes, the younger of the two moving to sit on the floor with her sister. In the process of watching them talk about prose and literary/historical fiction, Lorelai had gotten tired even simply listening to them.

"Alright, I need to sleep. I love you both and I will see you tomorrow." She said, sighing as she got up. "Oh! And wish me good luck with the PTA, success-school-talking thing."

"Good luck," Sage said. "You'll do great." Rory encouraged.

"Don't die in your sleep!" They both called out.

"I won't if you won't!"

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"Sage—ugh, come on, walk faster!"

"Huh?" The girl said, barely looking up from the book in her hands before Rory was grabbing her arm and pulling her away from almost running into a telephone pole.

By the time she caught her bearings from that, Lane was grabbing her other arm and dragging her towards a set of stores in the complete opposite direction they had been going in previously. "Okay, what is happening—"

"I'm taking a stand against my mother!" Lane said, her feet moving in the direction of the hair store. Sage didn't actually know what it was called. It was one of the few stores she'd never bothered to wander in. All she knew was that it was pink (like a bubblegum fairy monster was about to pop out a dunk her hair into magenta hair dye against her will) pink.

"Lane—you might want to think about this." Rory warned, but she shook her head. "No, this is happening."

"Well could you possibly reschedule said stand taking for when I'm not trying to read about Creators, Conquerers, and Citizens of Ancient Greece and Rome?" Sage requested, but when she got no reply, she sighed. "Please?"

When Lane's grip on her arm didn't loosen until all of their three sets of feet were inside the store, Sage muttered, "guess not."

"What are you doing?" Rory groaned, following Lane as she wandered aimlessly through the isles. "Choosing a color." Her friend replied.

"I'd recommend a dark cherry red, it would go good with your skin tone and eye color." Sage informed, even if it was pointless seeing as neither of them were listening to her. She ignored Rory's pleas for help as she readjusted her book in her hands, bookmarked it, and slid it back into her backpack.

While the two of them moved through color options, Sage looked around, trying not to get a headache from the colors surrounding her. She wasn't against the color pink. I mean, it wasn't her favorite but she wasn't about to go around starting riots about it. However, the room itself with the brightness and chemical smell nearly made her dizzy.

As her eyes wandered, they landed on the same blonde haired girl she'd seen way too much of in the last few weeks. Not that that was her fault, nor was Sage blaming her for it. More times than others, it sucked living in a small town.

"Um, Rory—" she went to say, but her sister and Lane were already walking past her to the register, dye in one of their hands, bleach and gloves in the other. "Nevermind," Sage mumbled, following shortly behind them.

"It's a good day today, isn't it?" Lane smiled, while the girl—sorry, Shane—nodded, her lips pressed tight together.

Trying to divert her eyes everywhere but directly at Shane, Sage glanced down at the table. "Purple? Is the goal to look like Juliette Lewis?"
In response, Sage only got a simple look of confusion from Lane and a small smile from Rory.

"Twelve fifty two," Shane said, as a soft ding came from the cash register.

"And I've got exact change for you." Lane said, more enthusiastically than Sage felt necessary, but she couldn't judge. "Super," Shane said.

Sage resisted the urge to look away when the girls' eyes snapped onto hers. But the more persistent and vaguely painful urge she couldn't quite resist was her brain spiraling at the dark brown of her eyes. From there, her focus redirected to her hair. Bright blonde. Then, her thoughts trailed to her legs and the way they increased her height in the way Sage's didn't.

And even more than that, Sage couldn't help but think about the fact that her eyes were blue, her hair was dark brown, nearly black, and she didn't have to look down at Shane.

Her face was more round whereas Sage's was more defined. She wore one pair of gold hooped earrings and no other jewelry while Sage had four silver ear piercings in each ear and she was essentially made of necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Her features were soft and gentle when Sage's were sharp. They didn't dress the same in the slightest.

Shane didn't really look skinnier than her per se, but somehow Sage knew Shane weighed less than her.

"Sage, you okay?" Rory asked, nudging her shoulder. Snapping her eyes back to the floor, she nodded. "Yeah, sorry."

She had never really been one to stress or panic about her looks. I mean, she wasn't necessarily confident, but she wasn't incredibly insecure either. Yet the entire time she spent with her friends dying Lane's hair purple then redying it black and even the entire walk home, Sage couldn't stop thinking of everything she had that Shane didn't.

And more so, everything Shane had that she didn't.

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