Hermit Highschool AU (with Angst! waaooo!)

Chap 8: Pearl

Pearl walked beside Grian as he explained his embarrassing day to the moth girl. She was sympathetic, but Grian could tell by her twitching antennae that she was trying not to laugh. 

"Pearl it was horrible! They all heard me! Scar  heard me! Do you not understand how embarrassing this is!"

"At least you didn't purr," Pearl snorted.

"Not funny. Im never going to be able to go back to school... EVER." Pearl looked anxiously at her little brother, who was stubborn when he got something into his head. As much as Pearl teased him, she also was fiercely protective. 

"Why do you care what Scar thinks anyways? You don't even really know him, you'll probably never talk to him again!" 

Grian seemed to deflate even more. "Not after this I won't, thats for sure. He thinks Im a raving chirping lunatic. With some kind of... fetish or something." Pearl chortled before looking at her brother. He didn't look like he was joking. 

"Why would you think that Grian? Did he say that to you?" Pearl's wings seemed to inflate with rage as her hair whipped in the sudden gust of wind created by a slow fanning of her fuzzy appendages. 

"No!" Grian looked surprised. "Not- not at all! Well, not yet." Pearl didn't know Scar at all, except by look, but immediately decided she despised him. He must have done something to get Grian in this state. But seeing how upset her brother was, she tried to calm down.

"It'll be ok Grian. People will forget about it by tomorrow! You'll be fine."

When the siblings got home, their mother was waiting, dressed impeccably in her business outfit as usual. She also had wings, but never showed them. They were camouflaged to look like a cape. Grian and Pearl had only seen her wings once, when she got angry at their dad before he left and lost control. 

"You two took a while," she scowled.

"We were just walking slow," Pearl shrugged. 

"Homework please! Remember, I want to check it when your done Grian." The blonde boy scowled as he tore open his backpack and yanked out his homework. 

Their mother looked at Pearl with a desperate glance and walked over to Grian carefully, stroking his hair. "What happened this time?" She sighed. Pearl shrugged. "Well, I dont care what mood you're in as long as you dont disrupt me. Im late to my important meeting because I was worried sick about where you were." 

Grian rolled his eyes grandly but Pearl smiled a small, sad smile. That was the equivalent of an "I love you" coming from their mom. She seemed to always care about Grian. When they were younger she would always tuck him in, give him a goodnight kiss, bake him cookies randomly, treat him special. The most Pearl ever received were coarse greetings and farewells and scolding about her grades, which were always good. But Pearl didn't mind, because she knew her mother cared for her. She was just trying to make her successful. Well, thats what Pearl told herself every night when she was younger listening to her mother sing songs to Grian. 

Besides... Pearl always had Dad. Or at least, she used to. He was gone now, and their mother said it was for the better. Pearl knew he hadn't been good to their mother, but she still wished she could see him once in a while. Grian didn't mind dad being gone... it was so long ago, neither of them really remembered.

Pearl whipped through her homework and took time to help her little brother, who's already disappointing grades were made worse by his stubborn aversion to being taught. After dueling with Grian for a few minutes, Pearl gave up, showed her completed homework to her mother, and went up to the room she and Grian shared to study for her AP History quiz. 

A/N What was this POV? Filler filler FILLER im so lost rn 😂 Also im listening to Hozier's "Too Sweet" and just got to the chorus and im vibing  🎵 I take my whiskey NeeeeAEAEAEaEeT my coffee black and my bed at threeeee 🎶 Now im listening to Espresso... what is this playlist??

Grian's POV (First Person Oh God)

 Mom made me spend another DECADE on my homework as she walked me through it. I don't understand why she hates me so much. She never nags Pearl about her homework! After what felt like hour fifteen of homework review, mom finally let me go to my room. It's a pretty big room. My half is bright yellow with a blue ceiling and clouds. My bedspread matches, as does my carpet and desk. There are a bunch of pictures of birds, because they're my favorite animal besides cats. Speaking of cats, my cat Maui was torturing my parrots, Pesky and Xelqua. 

"Cut it out Maui," I gasped, scooping my cat. I glanced to the other side of the room, and my eyes rested on my sister, whose figure was slumped over her textbook at her desk. Her cat Nugget was sitting on Pearl's bed, blinking sleepily. I smiled and moved across the room. 

"Pearl? Peeaarrrlll? Wake up!" She sat up quickly and groggily, and Nugget quickly ran to her, purring. 

"Oh... hey G! What happened?" 

"You fell asleep," I smiled, helping her up. She grinned back, collected her pajamas, and went into our bathroom to get changed. "Thanks Gri," she called over her shoulder.

I sighed, tired, before jumping into pajamas and sliding into bed, phone in hand. As I plugged my device in and it began to reboot, my phone exploded with the pinging of notifications, mostly texts from my friends. 

Lifers~

Timothy: Hey babe, hey "Birdie"

ShortBeans: Sup

ShadowLD:  Hey Grian do you want me to give you Scar's number 😜 

You: That's not funny. I dont even know him. 

ShadowLD: But he knows you 🤣 

I scowled slightly. Pearl walked back into the room and saw me, before asking what was wrong. I showed her my phone, and she smiled. "It's not FUNNY pearl! They are never gonna forget about this."

"Sure they are. You just wait... and it's not like anyone else knows what happened!" Just then my phone pinged. It was a picture from Jimmy. I read it aloud for Pearl.

"'Look guys! I finally have a viral post!' With a link to our school blog..."

"Open it!" Pearl encouraged, grabbing the phone from me and clicking the link. She giggled, but then her mouth dropped into an "o" shape. 

"Hey! What was that! What happened?"

Pearl quickly regained a smile and did something on my phone before handing it back to me. "Oh nothing! Just some stupid thing about... birds... you wouldn't like it. I saw her visibly wince when I clicked on the link for myself.

The title was "Resident Bird Boy makes a fool of himself in front of his crush?" with a quick caption explaining everything that happened earlier today. I couldn't believe it. I had never been more mad in my life. Mad at Pearl, for hiding it, mad at Scar, for being the reason it happened, at Joel for letting it happen and Lizzie for pushing me. But especially Jimmy. 

"HE BETRAYED ME!" I screamed. "YOU! You tried to HIDE it from me! IM NEVER GOING BACK!" I glanced at the number of views and likes and nearly fainted. I pointed to the number and showed it to Pearl. "THE WHOLE SCHOOL HAS SEEN IT! INCLUDING TEACHERS! AND PROBABLY PARENTS!" At this point both of our cats had fled the room, and I heard footsteps as our mom came up the stairs, but I didnt care. All I could think of is the utmost embarrassment I'd have to face tomorrow. I curled up in a ball and wailed. I heard my mom yelling at Pearl for upsetting me, but I was to mad to correct her. I heard my mother walk back down the stairs after a bit more yelling, and then heard Pearl sigh as she turned off the lights. I couldn't feel bad for her though. I was too busy pitying myself.  

What the heck was this..... I just randomly wrote this after school and... not my best work but oh well 🤷‍♂️ I kinda got the point across that I wanted... i was SOOOO tired when I wrote this and welp, this is what i get for that. Also, I just saw a mouse in our house, caught it, and now it's outside but I want to keep it. His name is Gerald 😉 and he's so SMOL 😭 anyways, STAY COOL YALL ✌🏽 

-Shade