𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄, original applyfic

✷ 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 .. marella is on what?

malachi's pov 🥊

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Malachi Ashbluff took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. He watched as the basketball that had just left his hands go through the net. He could hear his younger sister, Marella Ashbluff, cheer and holler, getting up from where she sat on the bleachers. She helped Malachi clean up his things, and the two walked towards the gym exit, his arm over her shoulder.

"I don't get why you quit the school team, Kai." Marella said as he shoved his stuff in his locker. Malachi sighed as he shut his locker, and the two of them walked out to the courtyard. He shook his head and said, "I've told you, Ellie. I don't want to be associated with a bunch of pothead idiots. I wasn't even that good anyway."

"Bull!" Malachi heard someone say. He looked up to see his close friend, Elizabeth "Libby" Hawthorne, shaking her head at him, a smile on her face. "You were on the varsity team our freshmenyear. That doesn't happen to "not even that good" players."

"Yeah Mal," echoed another voice. Malachi looked to the left of Libby to see Lavinia "Vinnie" Hamilton. Libby turned to smile at Vinnie. Vinnie's cheek flushed pink as Libby looked at her, but Libby didn't seem to notice, and continued talking to their other friends, Mattheo Greythorne, Priscilla Evergrow, and Zayne Wilder. Malachi looked over his right shoulder, where Marella had once been standing. He assumed she had headed to cheer practice. He looked down at phone, where a text from Kaytlyn Ashton, who Malachi had been friends with since the 3rd grade and was on the cheer team with Marella, confirmed his suspicion.

"Ashbluff, don't piss yourself, but you'll want to hear this."

Malachi rolled his eyes as he recognized the voice that had spoken. All of his friends' smiles faded as they looked behind him. He reluctantly turned around to come face to face with Alicia "Lacey" Bridgets. Beside her stood three of Mariella's friends. Ryan "Will" Rhodes, Anastasia Bridgeforth, and Theodore James. Anastasia gripped Will's hands, and the two of them had troubled look on their faces. Theodore's hand was gripped in a fist, and was shaking. He looked pissed. Anastasia placed a hand over his, and his frown softened slightly.

"Bridgets, what did you do, and why does Theo look like he's about to beat someone's head in with his skateboard?"

"Malachi, before you or Hamilton punches me, I promise you I hate this and find it just as disgusting as you do." Lacey said, putting her hands in the air. "Marella did nothing to deserve this."

Malachi's stomach dropped.

"Deserve what?"

"Me and Will were tutoring Theo in the library, when my phone buzzed." Anastasia explained. Her voice shook as she spoke, as if she were on the verge of tears. Will squeezed her hand tighter, and wrapped his other arm around her shoulder. "I looked at it, and it was a notification from the website."

Time seemed to move slower. Malachi couldn't breathe. This couldn't be happening. Not to him. Not to Marella. Not to his Ellie.

"Marella was in the headline." Will finished, since Anastasia's voice suddenly left her, and she was unable to finish her sentence. "It was rumor that she and senior Lucas Moretti had sex. And now she's pregnant."

"Which is bull!" Lacey said, rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms, and an unusual ( well, at least, unusual for Lacey ) look of concern crossed her face. Malachi had always disapproved of Mariella's friendship with Lacey, but even he couldn't doubt that Lacey cared for his little sister. Anger clouded his judgement as he began to stomp towards the football field.

"Malachi!" Lacey yelled as he stormed towards the football field, where the football team was practicing.

"Lucas!" He yelled out, his hand tight in a fist. The boy turned towards Malachi just in time to get a fist to the face. His head snapped back, and he fell onto his butt.

"What the hell, Ashbluff?" Lucas yelled, one hand pushing himself up, the other pressing lightly on the forming bruise on his cheekbone. He punched Malachi back, and Malachi would've thrown another punch if Zayne and Mattheo hadn't grabbed him by the arms, pulling him back.

"Boys!" Coach Gilbert yelled running up to fight. He put himself in between the two boys, one hand on Lucas' chest, the other on Malachi's. "Break it up! Ashbluff, go home. Moretti, in my office."

"But Coach! He's the one who-"

"Office!"

Lucas shot one last death glare at Malachi before stomping towards the school. Zayne grabbed Malachi by the arm, pulling him off the football field. He shook his head. "Let it go for now. It's not worth it, man."

"I would get suspended 100 times if it meant Ellie didn't have to deal with this." Malachi muttered, arms crossed. Lacey's eyes flashed to his arms, which were outlined by sleeve of his shirt, a muscle t-shirt he'd worn to shoot in. She felt blood rush to her face, and she averted her eyes, her head spinning. What was that about?

"Okay, great, you're a good brother." Lacey said with an eye roll, shaking her head as if she could shake the weird feeling off. "But what good are you gonna do her if you're suspended and not here to protect her?"

"Yeah," Malachi muttered, slumping on the bench behind him. He didn't even register the bruise forming on his face until Marella came running up, worry written all over her face.

"Kai, what did you do?" she exclaimed, touching the forming bruise lightly. Malachi winced slightly at the touch, and his gaze softened slightly as his little sister interlocked her fingers with his. "You've been doing so good about not getting into fights..."

"Yeah, well, Lucas was being an asshole." Malachi said with an eye roll, earning him one heck of a seat stare from Lacey.

"Lucas? Like Lucas Moretti?" Marella whispered. Her face went pale, and Malachi's stomach fluttered. The rumor couldn't be true, could it?

Malachi immediately wanted to smack himself for thinking such a thing. There's no way Marella could do something like that, and even if she had, she would've told him. He let go of a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Kai, he's captain of the football team, and his parents literally find every academic program at this school. They're crazy rich." Marella sighed. "They could press charges if they wanted to. And we don't have the kind of money to defend ourselves."

"Yeah, I know," Malachi sighed, looking over at his and Marella's friends. They had moved away to give them some privacy, and he smiled slightly. "let's go home."

author's notes

sorry guys i know i literally took a million years to write this 😭 im a major procrastinator and take forever to do this kinda stuff, so it'll probably be a while before you get chapter two, but slowly but surely, we will get there!! this chapter was meant to mostly introduce the characters, give you a little bit more of a background on malachi and marella's lives. hope you enjoy!!