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“First impressions,” his mother had said, “are everything, Griffin.”
His first impression of her is that she's thin and frail looking, her pink hair more like cotton candy than anything else.
But when she loudly calls a classmate a whimpering bitch in class, and subsequently gets admonished for it, Griffin can't help but snicker.
"Fuck are you laughing at?" She hisses at him, eyes narrowed in a scathing glare.
Any other classmate would probably be apologizing by now, but Griffin just squares his shoulders. "At your pimply face," he says.
"Kill yourself."
Griffin smirks. "I'll make it a murder suicide then."
"Rope or what?"
"Stab you with an icicle and then stand on a block of ice to hang myself."
Keri wrinkles her nose. "That's fucking stupid." She turns back around.
Okay, maybe she's not as frail as she looks.
This is further confirmed at lunch a few days later.
Keri’s tray loudly clatters against the table, making Griffin pause as he drinks from a carton of milk.
“Whats up, freak?” He asks.
“Can it, bitch.” Keri says, standing oevr the table with her arms folded.
“Make me,” he says back.
Keri rears her hand back and slaps him with all her might. It makes Griffins ear ring but he recovers quickly, launching himself over the table. He spills his milk in his grab for Keri, and it pools around their feet as they grapple with each other.
A group of kids have started chanting fight at them and Griffin wants to ask what the hell do they think they’re doing if not fighting.
Keri’s got a hell of a slap in her and it makes Griffins ear ring. He’s able to get back at her though, Keri sporting a bleeding nose and a split lip. And a missing tooth, as he later finds out.
They both get shuffled to the principles office together where they get sat next to each other, under the watchful eye of Ms. Libbie, who is snoring.
They’ve been watching each other out of the corner of their eyes, glancing away when the other looks.
It’s broken by the occasional sniffle from both of them.
Griffin catches Keri’s eye and she sneers at him and something in his chest just goes all ruddy and warm.
“Gum?” He asks after taking out a piece.
Keri casts him a wary glance but he can see the moment she softens like him. “Hell yeah,” she says and snags a piece from him.
She blows a loud bubble when they get interviewed by the principal and Griffin is pleased to find out that both of them refuse to say who started it.
They get sentenced to detention together, cleaning up the band room. And then they hang out in class. Then lunch. And then Griffin invites her over.