𝖇𝖆𝖗𝖇𝖎𝖊 ‣ ʲᵉˢˢ ᵐᵃʳⁱᵃⁿᵒ

𝟐 ‣ this not a drill

     Their best friend directly contributed to the murder of Fernando.

     "Hello? Willow, are you listening?" Rory questioned, her perfectly shaped eyebrows turning downwards.

     "Yeah, of course," Willow nodded, sharing one last fleeting glance at Kanan, before giving her full attention to Rory.

✎

HARTLEY WAS sat in the back of math class drawing a rather unflattering picture of Madame LaMontagne when the fire alarm went off. She had jumped and her pencil shot across the paper, a sickening crack sounding out as the tip of it snapped. With her drawing ruined and her pencil out of commission, she was thoroughly pissed off.

And having to stand out in the town square with the cold Autumn air nipping at her bare arms definitely didn't help.

Willow and Kanan were quick to find her—the lucky bastards had second period psychology together—the former immediately pulling Hartley into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're not 'Joan of Arc'ing it, right now," Willow huffed, pulling away just long enough to grab Hartley's face. They could hear the sirens of the fire truck quickly coming closer.

Hartley swatted her hands away, "what do you mean? Isn't it a false alarm?"

"I don't know, but everyone was saying that the math room caught fire," Willow babbled.

"Actually, one person said that and they were very clear that they weren't sure," Kanan corrected, sending a glare Willow's way. She ignored his clear agitation, reaching down to grab Hartley's hand.

The Morales girl allowed this, knowing physical touch was the only thing that grounded Willow when she went on one of her crazy spiels.

"Well, considering there's no smoke coming from the school, I'd say it's just a drill," Hartley stated.

"This is not a drill!" Kirk's shrill voice shouted over the crowd of students. He was wearing a fireman's outfit—which was comically big on him—and he was violently waving his arms in the air, while the other firemen actually did their job.

Willow let out a breath of relief, "well, if Kirk thinks it's not a drill then everything is definitely okay."

"I would say that's a fair assumption," another voice cut in.

Lane Kim had approached them, Dean Forrester following behind. Their height difference was laughable, though, every height difference was when Dean was in the equation. In truth, the only person there who was even remotely close to him, was Kanan, who came in at a whopping five foot eight—only one inch taller than Hartley.

     "Bean," she greeted with a glare, causing the boy to scoff.

     See, Hartley hadn't been fond of Dean—whom she'd nicknamed 'Bean' because he was built like a string bean— since he threw a hissy fit about Rory not saying 'I love you' back. Of course, Rory was almost completely unaware of their rivalry, thinking quote, 'you two just don't know each other well enough,' end quote.

     "Bart," he said back, straightening his posture.

     "I hate you," she deadpanned, crossing her arms.