Chapter Text
The first day of school.
She only had 183 days after today and then she would, God willing, never have to set foot in Vista Primavera High School ever again. Though now that she thought about it, if she was a senior this year, it was likely something closer to 170, especially if she managed to avoid having to come in to take any final exams at the end of the year.
At least her parents were still asleep when she left this morning, so she won’t have to see either one of them until maybe dinner at the earliest. That’ll be a bit of a relief; part of why she took up going on her early morning bike rides every day this summer was so that she could have at least a little bit of time where they wouldn’t be able to take their anger and frustrations out on her, and she could have a daily chance to try and forget that they even existed.
And besides, it made her feel good. Sometimes she would push herself and get her heart really pounding, and the pain would distract her from everything else around her. Hard to dwell on anything else when you’re too busy gasping for air. Granted, after every ride one of the first things she would become aware of was how disgusting she smelled, and that would lead to her senses quickly becoming acutely aware of other insensitivities and displeasures, but she had laid out her shampoo and soap in set places and at this point by the time she got in the shower she could just close her eyes and wash it all right away as she leaned in under the water, moving through each step directly on to the next almost as if it was a tightly rehearsed work of choreography.
That was how she’d seen the new girl who just moved in before almost anyone else in the whole school had had a chance to. She was apparently quite the skilled athlete, and apparently had quickly found a kindred spirit of some kind with Taylor Scott, as she had seen the new girl running out the door and over to Taylor’s place several mornings, and had one morning even seen Taylor going over to the new neighbor’s home instead.
She should probably learn the new girl’s name though at some point; couldn’t just keep calling her “New Girl” forever, right?
As she went to her locker to put away books she wouldn’t need to lug around until later this afternoon, or even in some cases not even until tomorrow, she couldn’t help overhearing a conversation two other girls were having a few lockers down from her.
“It just really sucks, I feel so bad for her; she moves all the way out here to get away from what happened back in New York, and her new friends convince her to go to one party and meet some new people, and BAM!” the girl speaking strikes her locker to accentuate her point. “It happens to her all over again. Poor girl just can’t catch a break.”
“Yeah, I hear you on that,” the other girl said, nodding along. “I heard that she just like… froze up, and like three other girls had to pull him off of her. Justin was pretty pissed about it, but just between you and me, I don’t know how much of that was actually being mad that it happened or him being upset at how many girls took off and ditched the party after that. You know how guys are, after all. I know Taylor and her friends took Maxine home since they had come to Justin’s together, but like apparently once they left, most of the other girls started trickling out until the whole thing descended into a total sausage party,” the second girl accentuating her point by rocking a closed hand back and forth in an evocative gesture.
“I’m so glad that Taylor was there to take charge and get her the ‘h-e-double hockey sticks’ out of there. Can you imagine how awful it would be if Taylor hadn’t been there to take her home?”
Maxine… if she just moved here and Taylor had given her a ride to, and ultimately from, the party then she was probably the New Girl that she had seen going over to Taylor’s almost every morning.
And it sounded like something awful had happened to her at Justin Lawrence’s birthday party. Oh, she definitely hadn’t and wouldn’t have gone, even if she had somehow actually been invited, but even she didn’t live under a thick enough rock to not know that it had happened, and that anybody who was anybody at Vista Primavera High had been there. Sounded like some creep had forced himself on her, and decided that her freezing up likely in terror wasn’t a loud enough “no" for him. She hoped that Maxine was alright, but hadn’t actually met her yet and it seemed like a really poor way for her to try to introduce herself.
“So yeah, so, not only is Justin pissed at Clinton now for ruining his birthday party, but I think Gordo kinda blames what Clinton did for Taylor dumping him, too. Oh, yeah, to say nothing of how Taylor and Willa basically have the whole cheer team, and probably with them half the girls in the whole school pissed at him too. That guy’s social life, like, full-on dead and buried,” the first girl continued. “If I was his parents, I’d try and get him into a different school for the rest of the year and hope his reputation doesn’t precede him.”
Yeah, imagine your parents moving you to a whole different school and having it be to protect you instead of being about protecting them. Wait, Taylor Scott had dumped Gordo ? What in the world could have made the Platonic Ideal of Cheerleading Spirit break up with the king of all meatheads, unless-
Unless he tried to get handsy with her. Which is why he was blaming Clinton, because whatever happened to Maxine must have been bad enough to make even the queen of the cheerleader hivemind break things off with him. Because obviously dudes like Gordo couldn’t ever possibly be at fault for anything that happened to them. It was like once a guy got good enough at throwing a ball or running real fast, or in Gordo’s case running into other guys really hard, it stopped mattering if they did anything wrong off the field. And the better they were at it, magically, the less any wrongs they did to anyone else mattered. Hadn’t that been part of why her dad had been so hard on her when she was younger? Pushed her to be more like him? In his own weird, fucked-up way, had he actually wanted what was best for her?
No, absolutely not. She knew better than to try to let that line of thinking go anywhere, and definitely not try to weasel its way into convincing her to forgive him. Her mom had tried for the entire way back to California to convince her that while yes, her father had gone and done something incredibly stupid and awful, that he had done it because he loved her and wanted what was best for her. And she had promised herself that she would never, ever forgive him for that.
The chime of the warning bell shook her attention back to the halls of Vista Primavera High, which were now starting to fill with more students. The girls she had overheard earlier had already moved on, so there wasn’t much more of a reason to hang around here in the halls. So she gathered up the last of her things, closed her locker with the little cartoon cats taped to the inside of the door, and made her way to start the day.
She had barely made it a handful of yards down the hall when a commotion was raised behind her. Turning around, she saw Taylor Scott showing Maxine Whatever-Her-Last-Name-Is her new locker, which apparently was going to be just a few lockers down from the one she had just finished using. She didn’t dislike Taylor personally, she just did her best to keep her head low and avoid cheerleaders. Just keep below their radar and they won’t make your day any worse than it already is, after all.
She got through her first two periods of the day without issue; it was the first day, after all, so it was mostly the typical “Welcome to my class, I’m your new teacher! Let's all do great work together this year!” type of fluff. She wasn’t sure why they made them all come in and get their textbooks so far before school started, but they had at least been able to take advantage of it to read ahead in a few of her classes. She felt pretty confident that none of the cheerleaders would have thought to use the lead up to school to do the same. But when she sat down at her desk in her third period, she saw that Maxine was sitting at a nearby desk and looked more than a little stressed out already.
Another girl she didn’t recognize bounded into the room though and made a beeline for her, grabbing her up from her desk and into a hug.
“Ohmygawd, Maxxy! There you are, I’ve been looking for you all morning! Are you ok? Has everyone been giving you room? Is this all too much? This is probably all too much. I’m sorry, let’s start over. I’m sorry about what happened at Justin’s party, and I’m glad you seem at least mostly ok. If he comes anywhere near you, you tell us immediately and we will end him, you understand me? Tell me you understand me. C’mon, nod that cute face of yours, gimme a nice smile and tell me you understand, and that you agree to tell us if he, or anyone else gives you any trouble whatsoever.”
The unfamiliar girl finally stopped to give Maxine a chance to reply, mostly because by the end of all of that she had needed to catch her breath. “Maxxy” gave her a smile and mumbled that she understood and agreed to the terms being forced on her by the aggressively perky girl.
“Thanks Angie, it really does mean more than you could know,” Maxine replied as she pulled the other girl in tight. “I know I might seem a little overwhelmed, but I really am thankful for you, for Taylor, and for everyone who’s been making sure I’m ok. It really is a world of difference having that support.”
What?
Surely, it couldn’t be. She had to be mishearing her or hallucinating, her ears looking desperately to find something that wasn’t actually there. Maybe whatever that asshole had done to her at the party had done something to her voice. After all, how unlikely would it be that Maxine could move in right around the corner, and turn out to be…
She hadn’t heard anyone whose voice sounded like that since….
Nicole.