The Small Town

How to deal with Lance

Pidge stopped walking, opened her mouth to speak before shaking her head, and continued walking. She pushed past Keith with her head down.

"School." They walked in silence for a few more minutes.

"But like, did you guys work together or something? I need to know if I can punch him." Keith placed his hand on her shoulder and bent down slightly to look at her in the eyes. He stopped her from walking and she looked at him with a death glare.

"We were paired for a project," she snapped. Keith gave her a look telling her to go on. "I did all the work, but he presented it, so he got all the credit. Then, he had the nerve to mock me. He was just a total jerk. And then, get this, he thinks it's a great idea to ask me to this school dance. I said no and now his 'squad' hates me for it. It's stupid, but I put up with it. I don't care anymore."

"Pidge, that isn't okay. Have you told anyone?" Keith let go of her shoulders, but stayed in front of her, not letting her walk by.

"Matt." She shrugged. "Lance and Hunk. It's not that big of a deal anyway. Again, I don't care."

"Pidge, you should care, okay? It's not a good thing. It's manipulation, and that's wrong." Keith stared at her dead in the eye.

"Oh well. I can put up with it. It's not like I haven't dealt with it before. For two years." She added her last sentence under her breath, barely caught by Keith, but still caught it.

"No. Two years? No. Not okay. Screw that."

"It is fine though, I never gave a crap what he thought. I passed him in all of our classes and I haven't paired with him for another project. Besides, it was in the eighth grade. Again, don't care, now can we get home? Matt's gonna have a heart attack if we don't show up soon." She pushed past Keith, bumping into his shoulder on the way by him. He followed after her, keeping a bit of difference between him and the furious girl.

Eventually, they arrived back at the Holt residence, and Matt rushed out to meet them. He grabbed Pidge by the shoulders and looked her up and down, making sure there were no cuts or bruises evident on her. Pidge shoved him away and gave him a glare.

"I'm fine, Matt. God! Why does everyone treat me like a baby?" she crossed her arms and leaned against a tree.

"Cause you are a baby. Compared to the rest of us at least." Matt furrowed his eyebrows. "You're sure you're okay? You seem pissy."

"I'm always pissy." Pidge steadied herself and walked into the house. Matt watched her go with a frown on his face.

"Is she- how old is she?" Keith asked Matt, after staying quiet since they got back to the house. Matt turned back to him, a weak smile on his face.

"She just turned fifteen back in April. Still a little baby," he sighed. Keith laughed slightly but was also quite shocked. What?

"What? I thought she was a junior?" Keith asked. "She's in my grade, right?"

"She skipped a grade." Matt shrugged. "Too smart, I guess. Come on, we made lunch."

Keith followed Matt into the house to hear a smoke alarm going off, Shiro running to fan away the smoke and Pidge wandering around, ignoring the commotion, and getting tools and things and placing them in a toolbelt on her waist.

"What happened?" Matt yelled over the sound of the alarm.

"Dad tried to cook!" Pidge yelled back. Both of them started laughing as Matt led Keith into the kitchen. Keith offered to help with something but was immediately shut down by Colleen.