peaches | fillie

two

Millie watched the group of darkly-dressed teenagers float over to her and her friends. She rolled her eyes, knowing what they wanted. It wasn't her first experience with bullies, and it wouldn't be her last. Her reaction caused Gaten and Noah to glance backward, but they had already made their mental bets on what lay behind them. 

The group was intimidating, no doubt about it, but the dreamers were unfazed. Gaten groaned, turning back to face the lone female.

"Do all bullies just not have a sense of style?" He whispered, laughing at his own joke. Millie giggled, remembering the agreement she had made with the boys years before. 

The close group had just encountered their first dumb older kids who thought they were better than everyone else, and Noah made the others promise that they would never lose sight of the love they shared for each other, no matter how many people tried to change their views. Four years later, they were all still best friends.

Millie glanced up, feeling the gaze of the leader on her. He had almost made it to them but was pausing for a reason she couldn't fathom. It wasn't like they looked terrifying all of a sudden. 

She smirked at him, which made his cheeks turn a bright shade of red. 

The only female of their clique hurriedly questioned the leader, causing him to remember what he was doing. The group continued forwards once again and Millie watched curiously as the boy awkwardly shuffled the rest of the distance.

Gaten and Noah began to stand up once the other association reached them. Millie stayed down, knowing it would get her something to act as the "damsel in distress" of this situation. She might have been overly happy, but she wasn't an idiot.

***

Finn closed the gap between the six students, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

What are you doing?  He asked himself.

Once again, he fixed his posture and cleared his throat. Just as before, it did nothing to help him feel more confident. Caleb noticed this and decided that he would do the talking this time. When he opened his mouth to speak, though, Finn interrupted him.

"Hey, guys," he began, "We don't want any trouble," 

"Sure you don't," Gaten spat out. Noah hardened his expression, trying to look tough, but ultimately not succeeding. "Yeah, there's no way in hell you just waltzed over here looking to have a tea party or some shit," Noah added. Millie cringed. This was going to be painful to watch.

"Seriously, I just wanted to ask you guys something," Finn responded. Sadie and Caleb glanced at each other, confused. Finn never got like this when trying to harmlessly torment some kids. 

Gaten nodded him along, accepting this reasoning. 

Finn didn't know what he wanted to ask. His original plan was to create trouble, but now that he saw them up close, he didn't want to hurt anyone. He searched his mind for questions and finally decided on one that seemed appropriate.

"Um, well, I want you guys to show me how to be, uh," Finn said, looking down at his shoes. He cleared his throat for the fifteenth time and stood up straighter, rephrasing the question to a statement, "I want to learn how to be happy." 

Millie snorted from behind the boys, which made Finn glance around to her. 

"Yeah, and I want to be the queen of England," she retorted, "Not everything is within reach, kid," 

Finn's face fell. He had thought this was his way in, his way to get to know this mysteriously beautiful girl. 

Noah cocked his head. "Group meeting!" He announced, turning back towards the circle. They spoke in hushed voices, but it was obvious that they were arguing over Finn's fate. After about five minutes of hovering awkwardly over them, trying to listen in, Finn realized that Sadie and Caleb had left his side. He knew this wasn't what they wanted, the only reason why they had ever become friends with him in the first place, anyways, was that he promised them a spot to be the scariest kids in school. 

Finn sighed, which caught the attention of the huddle in front of him. Noah hushed the others and turned towards the "bully" again. 

"We have decided to give you a chance," Noah spoke.

Finn felt a smile creep onto his face, but it became less wide when he saw an annoyed Millie sitting with her arms crossed. 

"You don't have to do this," Finn argued, but Millie held up a finger, silencing him. 

"I might not want to, but, if we're being honest here, this actually might end up being fun," she said, a matching smile finally appearing on her face.

authors note:

thank you for reading!

the plot will get going a little faster within the next few chapters :)

thanks again!!!

-paige

{3/3/2018: i rewrote most of this chapter! it's not anything that will change the plot, just some revisions because my writing style has changed. ignore this update if you'd like!}