FTRS Short Story

So It Begins

Gilly's P.O.V.

"Up, lazy bones! Up!" A voice yells, yanking the covers away from me.

"Noooo," I groan, "Let me sleep!"

"Nooooo!" Kayla imitates my tone, "Get up and spill the beans!!!"

"What?" I say sleepily, "There aren't any beans up here! Go down to get them."

"Oh my goodness, I'm gonna strangle you!!! Spill the tea!!!"

"Again, there's no food up here!!" I moan, turning around and using the pillow to cover my ears.

There's a sound of a body flopping down onto a bed, followed by muffled screaming. "Ok, Gilly, I'm gonna ask you a question, alright?"

"As long as it has nothing more to do with food and allows me to sleep, sure," I mumble

"You can sleep after you answer my questions," Kayla responds, "So... what happened yesterday?"

"I was forced into a dress and dragged to a ball I didn't want to be in," I murmur.

"I want details! What happened?"

"Why do you want to know that? Weren't you there? I want to sleep!!!"

"Yes, I was there, but I wasn't glued to you, you know. And I want to know because there's what looks like Jax's coat from yesterday draped over a chair in the room right now, so I want to know what happened leading to the coat being here."

"What are you? A detective?" I groan, sitting up. At this rate, I was too awake to go back to sleep, so sad.

"Yay!" Kayla cheers, "You're finally up! Guys, she's awake!"

I blink and look around the room. Maxine and Kayla are sitting on the bed across from me, and AG and Jocelyn are standing in front of the door.

"Why are you here?" I ask, pointing at Jocelyn.

"Why do you think? I'm here for the gossip," 

I scowl at that, but before I can snap back, Maxine speaks up.

"So! Back to the point," she looks at me, "Care to share?"

"Umm, yes, but fine." I sigh, "What do you want to know?"

"What happened after we left the stage," Kayla pipes up, propping her arms up so that she could rest her chin in her hands.

"There's not much to say, me and Ollie found the food then got bombarded by a bunch of crazy people - ninety per cent were Jax-fangirls - so I ran off to hide, and it just happened that Jax was already hiding in the spot I was hiding in."

"That's so cuuuuu-" Maxine squeals before Kayla whacks her arm lightly to get her to stop.

"Umm... no. Moving on, I was tired of the ball already  so we asked Raz if we could leave-"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kayla interrupts, "What do you mean we?"

I stare at her blankly. "Me and Jax. He said he wanted to leave, too. So anyway, Raz said we could and came with us, too. It was cold, so Jax lent me his jacket. Then I fell asleep and have no idea what went on the rest of the ride."

"Well if that isn't the most boring retelling of events, I don't know what is," Jocelyn says.

I glare at her, "Hey! I'm telling it as it happened! It was very boring! I don't know why you want to know anyway!"

"Well, thanks for telling us, Gilly! We'll be off now. Get ready, and meet us downstairs for breakfast when you're ready!" Maxine claps her hands, her face in a humungous grin.

"Let's go, let's go," Kayla ushers everyone out of the room, leaving me in peace.

*Time skip*

"Hey, guys," I say, plopping down onto a seat next to Jax with a plate of food in hand. "Oh yeah, Jax, here's your jacket. Thanks for letting me borrow it yesterday," I hand the coat over to him.

"Oh, it's fine. I don't really need that jacket anymore anyway, knowing Raz, she'll make me get a new one at some point so you can take it. I have a growing pile of coats already."

A sudden fit of coughing sounds from across the table, I turn around and see Kayla choking on her breakfast, Maxine patting her back vigorously - which seems to be making it worse, not better. I turn back to Jax.

"You sure? I have jackets back at home. They're not fancy, but they work perfectly well."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Jax reassures, "I've got plenty more where that came from,"

"You two done yet?" Jocelyn says dryly, "Some of us would like to go through breakfast without watching whatever in the world this is."

"Jocelyn!" Kayla yelps, "Be nice! And some of us don't mind,"

"How could you say that, Jocelyn? It's-" Maxine begins but we don't get to hear the rest of her sentence because Kayla slaps her hand over Maxine's mouth, holding it tight.

I've got some weird friends, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I vaguely hear Kayla whisper something that sounds like "No need to weird them out, Maxine," but brush it off lightly and get back to my food.

*Time skip*

"Hey, Gilly?" Kayla's voice asks. We're in the library - Maxine, Kayla, and me - doing an assignment, or at least trying to, in my case.

"Yeah?" I respond, happy to have a distraction from this abomination of an assignment.

"Do you like Jax?" Maxine jumps in before Kayla can speak, "And I don't mean the like as a friend like, I mean like like."

I can feel the blood rushing to my face, "Umm, what? Why are you asking me that?" I stutter.

Kayla shrugs, "I just had a feeling. So, do you?"

I open my mouth then close it again, then repeat the actions once more.

"I think the silence speaks for you," Kayla smiles, Maxine looks like she's about to burst.

"Oh my goodness, please let me help you out with this! I know I technically don't have any personal experiences but I've read so many stories!" Maxine calls out.

"What? No! I'm not sacrificing our friendship for this!" I yelp, "Besides, to him, I'm just his best friend! No need to destroy that!"

Kayla and Maxine look at each other from the corner of their eyes, having a silent conversation. 

"English, please!" I say, waving my hand between the two of them to break the connection.

"Look, Gilly, just trust us on this ok? We've been observing things long before you even knew about your feelings. So just sit back and let us handle this alright? All you need to do is cooperate without objections." Kayla says, patting my shoulder. "Now, be a good girl and do your assignment while me and Maxine figure this out,"

Before I can protest, the two of them turn me back around towards the sheet of paper in front of me and put a quill in my hand.

"It's due tomorrow, by the way!" Maxine yells as Kayla drags her away.

*in a super dramatic narrator voice* So it begins, the plan to get Jax and Gilly together.