𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐞, john lennon

chapter two. "they think you're cute!"

mardy bum. noun. informal northern english. a sulky, petulant, or grumpy person.

the meeting was soon over for the quarry bank highschool paper. francine, being one of the journalists and photographers, stood up from the desk she was at and approached the girl writing on the blackboard. she chewed on her pen, then quickly retracting it away from her mouth, realizing her bad habit. "um, adrienne, i'm assigned to write for this month's music section. are there any specific or particular topics required for it?"

the girl turned her head and looked at fran up and down. "um, wait a moment." she put the stick of chalk aside and went over to a desk to grab a clipboard. "oh, yes. you're supposed to interview a band or musician from liverpool—and see how they impact our highschool youth."

fran nodded politely at adrienne and thanked her before grabbing her bag and swinging the door open, seeing pattie who had just come from student council waiting for her outside. pattie was smart, outgoing, and most of all, an eye catcher to the boys at school. her round eyes which were tinted like ocean waves and her cheery smile easily stole plenty of guys' hearts.

being known as the both pretty and smart girls in school, fran and pattie were always welcomed to eat with the other student council members and athlete students, but they never considered themselves a part of their groups. though they've all gotten along extremely well and had a ton of friends, they weren't close friends with anyone from there. the two just liked hanging out with each other as they were inseparable since the kindergarten years.

as time went on, pattie became the one who was most frequently asked out among the two of them. francine on the other hand, only went out with two guys in the past year, both of which had not lasted long. whenever some guy went out with pattie, they'd occasionally ask if she's got a girl-friend for one of their guy friends, and the four of them would go out on a 'double date' or whatever pattie liked to call it. fran never cared about her friend getting all the guys as she was quite popular herself and had a high status at her school.

the only difference between the two girls is that pattie was all sunshine and rainbows. no guy would ever lay a hand on such an angel like her. however, in fran's case, boys so often enjoyed teasing her to get on her nerves, then she'd just sneer at them and give flip them off each time. in the previous year however, some guy yelled, "davis, your stepmom is gonna be scored on more times than you!" and then fran decked him in the face, breaking his nose and glasses—the one and only time she's ever earned a detention.

"you're never going to guess what happened!" pattie exclaimed, still glancing at her mirror once in a while to fix her makeup. "we finally convinced mr adams to let us have prom this year! the student government was so busy last year that we were never able to slip prom in, but this year we finally made some time."

fran pursed her lips together and nodded. "well, that's great! but you know i don't go to prom." she shrugged. "it's some rubbish school tradition that forces you to dress up and take out a guy you don't even like. that's in my case. i don't date quarry bank boys, they're all sods."

"come on, fran. they're only like that because they think you're cute! —and considering that they only ever have your attention whenever they tease you. loosen up a bit!" pattie slightly shakes fran's shoulder.

"they think i'm cute? i don't think so. lennon and his friends still call me mardy bum. that literally means a mingy arse. i'm an arse to them aren't i? besides, wasn't that all the way from the fifth grade?" pattie evidently tried not to laugh but let out a giggle anyway. "ahh, don't let him get to you. the boy's nonsense." she says as fran got out her water bottle and took a few sips. "he lost his virginity on top of his uncle's gravestone, for god's sake."

fran spit out her water.