the buddy system / lrh 🍒

1:5am

Initially, Katherine was ecstatic when old, semi-deaf Mrs. Reynolds announced that they'd be going on a field trip to the zoo.

Sure, it wasn't the best place to take a lot of moody, reckless, seventeen year old high schoolers, but it meant getting out of school, and Katherine liked the thought of that.

Well, she did until she found out about the buddy system.

--

Like any Australian autumn morning, It was cold. Cold and 5am, two things Katherine hated with a passion.

She didn't understand why they had to show up to school exactly an hour earlier than usual when the zoo was just about twenty minutes away.

It was crappy logic and it dawned on her how she'd rather be sleeping right now.

Yet here she was, shuffling in the chilly autumn air behind crowds of other, much taller students as she struggled to understand what the fuck was going on beyond that ocean of people.

She stayed close to the tall black haired kiwi boy standing beside her in a faded Green Day hoodie and jeans, mainly because he was tall, and y'know, the only one that bothered to talk to her.

You see, Katherine Heally was not a very approachable human being. She was bitter, pessimistic, and could quite possibly qualify as the all around definition of "asshole" in the dictionary. It was also probably the reason why she didn't have a lot of friends, which she was generally pretty okay with.

After all, she had Calum, who, though was probably being bribed to hang out with her, seemed to enjoy her presence enough to stick around for almost four consecutive years.

Katherine looked up at him, whispering into the cold.

"Psst" she hissed, tapping on the boys shoulder. "What's going on?"

Calum stayed silent for a bit before responding back in a bored tone. "She's been trying to read the same paper for about twenty minutes."

The red headed girl frowned. That was pretty understandable, considering that Mrs. Reynolds was practically ancient and should possibly consider retirement.

Katherine sighed in exasperation. She was so fucking done with being a short person stuck in the back. It was infuriating, even with Calum telling her everything.

She walked away from the dark haired boy she called her best friend and shoved through the crowd.

"Katherine, where the fuck are you going?" Calum questioned as she disappeared into the crowd of people like a fish in the water.

Katherine ignored the annoyed remarks of "what the fuck?" And "oh, it's just her."

Quite frankly, she didn't give a flying fuck whatsoever.

Well, she didn't until she walked straight into someone and fell on her ass.

"Ow!" Katherine groaned, getting up and wincing at the pain in her ass. She hoped that would go away.

"Watch where you're fucking going" a deep voice sounded, tone full of distaste.

The short redheaded girl opened her mouth to fire back a taunt, just about ready to give whoever the fuck knocked her over a verbal smackdown, until she saw him.

Standing at 6'4, with pretty blonde hair styled into a quiff, blue eyes that made almost every girl in the school swoon, and a lip ring, Luke Hemmings was just like Katherine. He was an asshole. The only differences? He had money, popularity, and he was probably a bigger asshole than her.

No, Katherine knew he was a bigger asshole than her and that made her blood practically boil with anger.

"What's the matter, Katherine?" Luke questioned, his lips formed into a his signature smug ass smirk. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Shut the fuck up, Hemmings" she shot back, ignoring the snickers and laughs that had ensued from Luke's stupid squad of idiots as a result of the blonde's remark. "And wipe that smirk off your face, it doesn't make you look as hot as you think it does."

Luke stared at her in a mixture of disbelief and utter distaste. "You know fucking wha-"

"Thats about enough, Mrs. Heally, Mr. Hemmings" Mrs. Reynolds piped up from her position in front of the two. She was old, Katherine admitted, but she wasn't an idiot and she didn't put up with shit.

"This is inappropriate and unfit for school behavior, what do you two have to say for yourselves?" She questioned, looking at the both of them expectantly.

"Mrs. Reynolds, i'm sorry for them, they're stupid and-" stated both Michael and Calum at almost the exact same time, only to be cut off with a prompt raise of a hand.

"Mr. Clifford, Mr. Hood, this doesn't concern you" the old lady said sternly, glaring at the both of them through her thick, ancient looking glasses that seemed to make her eyes look ten times their actual size.

Katherine stayed silent, occasionally glaring at the blue eyed asshole beside her as Mrs. Reynolds cleared her throat, her gaze still fixated on the both of them.

"Now, if you two had been listening, you'd know about the buddy system" she explained, Luke's hand shooting up immediately, like an eager kindergartener that knew the answer to a question.

"What the hell is that?" he asked, tone dull and annoyed.

The old woman sighed, holding onto the metal railing of the wheel chair ramp as if the blonde boy was a physical pain on her poor, old heart.

"Mr. Hemmings, watch your language" she started, tone mimicking his in dullness and annoyance, like, she too was fed up with Luke Hemmings' shit.

"The buddy system is a system where you're assigned to a partner the entire day. Stay with your buddy, make sure your buddy's okay, and, most importantly, don't kill your buddy. It's fairly simple."

"Well, i'll be partnered up with Calum, right?" Katherine asked, eyes wide with the thought of having to be stuck with anyone other than the raven haired kiwi boy.

The old lady seemed to glare at her through the shine of the waking sun dancing across her glasses.

"You, Mrs. Heally, will be partnered up with Mr. Hemmings."

--
This shit is like 1,000+ words i swear, but needed to get my point across in one chapter.

The other chapters will hopefully be a bit shorter?? But idk.