A Red Queen AU

-Part One-

Maven's POV:

Sometimes I just hate being home.

Mom and Dad were at it again, yelling at each other in the kitchen. They seemed to do this almost every night, screaming at each other until I fell asleep.

I collapsed on my bed, sighing my guts out.

I have a big house, I guess. It's not enough for Mom, though. She wants everything. We have maids, and "helpers" as my mother  likes to call them. She doesn't like the fact, that her son needs a tutor. Cal says I'm a pretty smart kid. I roll my eyes when he calls me kid. Just because he's 2 years older, doesn't give him the right to a nickname. But too late to tell him that, because I'm already "Mavey".

I go to Archeon Academy. It's not the most prestigious school, so Mom had a cow when I was enrolled. But, as soon as she learned that Cal was going to the same school, she was fine with it. I wonder why...

No, I don't. I know she hates Cal. My literal only friend growing up. It's because he is everything I'm not. Let's list a few things, shall we?
1. He's stronger.
2. He's more good looking. (Maybe because he actually has a skin color besides eggshell white.)
3. He has a girlfriend.
4. He plays piano. (Apparently that's more sexy than my clarinet, but I have to disagree on that one.)
5. He's smart.

Now, I could go on and on about this. But I figured 5 was a good place to stop for a list, such as this one.

I got up, and found myself in Cal's room. He was seated at his desk, typing something that was probably for school. Like the whole house, his room was mainly red, black, and silver. Mom wanted a color scheme for the house, and those colors just happened to come up.

"What do you need, Mavey?" Cal asked, not looking up from his screen.

Mavey.

Ugh.

"I don't know, just felt a little bored." I replied.

He finally spun towards me in his spiny chair, as I sat on his bed.

He had on a tight gray t-shirt that accentuated his bulging muscles, with a pair of comfy black sweatpants. He had on his famous crooked smile, and his hair was combed neatly back.

I looked down, and I had on a big Pokémon t-shirt, and over sized shorts.

Wow.

"Wha- what are you doing?" I asked, trying to get rid of the thoughts in my head.

I didn't it think it was possible, but his smile grew.

"Ah, just doing something for school. Finishing up a group project. My partner couldn't get it done in time, so..." He trailed off.

"Let me guess. Was your partner, Evangeline?" I said her name in the most girly way I could, it always made him laugh.

"When did you become so smart?" He chuckled.

Why, you little-

"Dude, you need a new girlfriend." I said instead. "You don't even like her."

He laughed. "Dude, that's not how it works." Now it was his turn for an Evangeline impersonation. "I'm popular and she's popular, so in order to maintain, or even grow popularity between us, we should date. Like, now."

My laughs melted into his. "That's so good."

My brother was dating Evangeline Samos. Class Bitch. Usually with Elane Haven by her side, she was the... She was the... I really don't know how to explain it, without it sounding extremely cliché. You should get the idea.

Suddenly, Cal's face became kind of somber.

"Do you know how long they've been fighting? They were doing it since I got home."

I sighed. Of course he would assume I was home all night. After all, I don't have any friends. Not really. My only real friend, Thomas, died in a fire when I was 10. I was heartbroken for a long time, but I'm fine now. I still miss him, though.

"All night, Cal. All night."

He sighed. I didn't really think he even cared. We don't share the same mother, after all. Cal's mom died when he was a baby. Dad used to talk about her a lot, but Mom "talked" to him about it, and it's like Coriane never existed.

"Alright," Cal got up from his chair and drifted over to his plushy bed. "I'm going to bed. We have school in the morning."

I nodded, walked out and headed to my room.

WORD COUNT: 753 words.