Under the Stars (a lunar chronicles Modern AU)

Chapter Three: He's such a Dork

Classes began first thing the next day, and Scarlet wasn't sure if she was relieved or not that Cinder was in her English class.

None of the other girls were with them, so they claimed seats next to each other without a word. Scarlet supposed she should be happy, it was the first day and she already had three girls to hang around, even though she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to call them friends, they were all just a bit too... close to each other for her to comfortably join this group they had going on.

She and Cinder didn't speak throughout the lesson, or after, in fact no one spoke to her until lunch. She was greeted by Cress and Iko when she joined their table, but once again Cinder remained without words for her.

"I don't think Cinder likes me," she told Cress when they returned to their rooms that evening. She had been alone in all her other classes throughout the day, and she was sure she could hear mutters nearby, many including the term, 'Winter's replacement'.

"Why would you think that," Cress asked, the typing that could be heard from the top bunk pausing followed by the creaking of the ladder as Cress hopped down onto the ground and sat down beside Cress.

"She just... doesn't seem to want to talk to me... at all, we had English together."

"Well have you tried talking to her?" Cress asked.

"No, I guess... I'm just a bit nervous, that's all."

"Well, if Cinder didn't like you she would say it outright, or she would tell me at least, besides, she wouldn't have invited you to Thorne's if she didn't."

"Have you ever met him?" Scarlet asked. Cress nodded, a flush creeping onto her cheeks.

"What's he like?" she asked.

"Well.... Cinder always goes on about how she hates him, but Iko and I hardly believe her," Cress answered.

"You're avoiding the question," Scarlet pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Cress asked.

"I asked what you think of him."

"Well... I guess he's... a bit overwhelming, and... A little forward I guess," Cress stuttered, her face flushing further. It was almost amusing to see her like this, and Scarlet had to restrain a smile.

---

"You've got to stop having a mental breakdown every time you see Kai," Iko warned, scrolling through her instagram feed.

"Well it's not my fault he's so..." Cinder said, but stopped before she could embarrass herself with what she was about to say. Iko smirked.

"Beautiful? Cute? Hot?" Iko suggested, nudging Cinder who couldn't help the smile the forced its way onto her lips.

"No..." Cinder protested, flushing.

"Come on then, tell me what you like about him if you don't think he's attractive," Iko insisted.

"I never said I didn't find him attractive," said Cinder.

"That's not a good enough answer, keep going!" Iko said.

"Okay, well I like how respectable he is, I mean like how he got those boys to leave us alone yesterday. He hangs around with them, but he doesn't seem to want to join on with it all."

"Anything else?" Iko asked.

"Well, I guess, there was this one time last year when we –"

"Wait. Did you just say we?" Iko asked.

"Yes, now do you want to hear what happened or not?" Cinder asked. Iko giggled and let her talk.

"We talked in the queue at subway, and he just seemed so..."

"So?"

"So different form when he's around his friends. I mean, he just acted so dorky," Cinder said, blushing harder.

"And let me guess, it was super cute?" Iko asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Cinder said, wanting so badly for the conversation to end. It didn't.

"Why don't you, you know, talk to him?" Iko asked.

"IKO! Are you kidding me! He's super popular and he's two years older than us! It'd be humiliating!"

"Not if you catch him alone. If he's really that dorky I doubt he'd say anything to anyone else, and as you said, he doesn't seem interested in everyone else's games."

"I would have a mental breakdown before I even opened my mouth, besides, how am I supposed to get him alone?" Cinder asked.

"You're considering it?" Iko asked, surprised, "Wow, I must be more persuasive than I thought!"

"Just... help me out here Iko!" Cinder insisted. Iko didn't.

"What would you do if he kissed you?" asked instead.

"IKO!" Cinder screamed, loud enough that Cress could probably hear them from down the hall.

"What? What's wrong with kissing?" Iko asked, almost laughing at Cinder's angered expression.

"Nothing, just, why would you say that?" Cinder asked, her face bright red.

"I'm just teasing," she nudged Cinder, "Now, let's get down to how you're going to get Kai alone."

---

A/N:

I know, short chapter, but I though that was a nice place to end it!

I know the pace of this is pretty slow compared to most fanfics, but just give it a chance, I'm just trying to ease into it slowly

Also, extremely important question: how do you guys feel about bisexual Scarlet?

Okay, so I am not suggesting anything yet (I totally am), but I just want to know just in case I... accidently take the story a differant way

I'm trying to be subtle here okay, but I'm not good at it

I'm going to tell you outright right now that I will be sticking partially to the ships (as you can probably already see with Cresswell and Kaider), but I am going to mess about with it a bit, and if you're not up with it then you probably shouldn't read on, but there are of course going to be cannon ship moments because... I'm a fangirl for gods sake! I'll die without my ships!

But I do want to play around with this a bit, so if you want to see something that's a little differant (well, at least from what I've read, I haven't read every single lunar chronicles fanfic out there, but I'm getting there) then read on! I wan't to try and make this interesting as possible, but like I said, you'll have to get through the fest few chapters first (actually, I think we've already done that)

If you write lunar chronicles, shadowhunters, throne of glass or ACOTAR fanfic please do tell me and I will most likely read it. I'm back to school now so my evening are full of not being able to sleep so going on wattpad instead...

But I talk too much...

Way too much...

So yeah, I don't mind it you advertise yourself on my stories as long as you're not being forcefull about it

I write really long A/Ns don't I? It's more like authors manuscript... That's what I'm going to start calling it from now on, A/M - authors manuscript

Hope you enjoyed!!!