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In Which Marley Eels Has to Deliver Some Bad News to Eden Roy

10) Your character receives an unexpected gift from an anonymous person.

Although Marley would rather hide under the bleachers during gym class and draw bunnies on her notebooks than participate in any activities, today's been an unusually nice day in terms of weather—it's one of those days where it's sunny but the heat still isn't suffocating—so she's decided to sit on the bench by the basketball hoops, part of her hoping that someone's willing to challenge her in a game or two.

She's a little surprised when Daphne Flowers breaks free from her friends and approaches Marley. She only knows that, like herself, she's above average in English but below average in math (or they're both at least below average in math; unlike Daphne, Marley's just below average in everything) and that she's one-third of Ingrid Fitzgerald's inner circle (along with Zelma), but neither of those help to determine how well Daphne is in terms of athletics.

Before Marley is able to challenge Daphne in a game of basketball, though, Daphne begins to look around and brushes her bangs away from her face as she asks Marley, "Do you know where Eden is?"

Marley thinks for a minute before realizing that she actually hasn't seen Eden today and shakes her head.

Daphne squints, crossing and uncrossing her arms. "Oh," she grunts in a monotone voice. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled up piece of paper with pink hearts dotting the edges, asking Marley, "Well, when you see her, can you give this to her? It's from Ingrid."

Marley nods and accepts the letter, prompting Daphne to smile a little before brushing her windblown hair away from her face again as she starts to walk away before Marley remembers why she had originally anticipated Daphne coming over to talk to her in the first place. "Wait, Daphne," she quips.

Daphne stops in her tracks and turns around. "Wanna play me?" Marley asks as she gestures towards the basketball court, hoping that some secret, unforeseen athletic talent will now shine through in a game against her.

Her spirits are hampered when Daphne makes a face, pursing her lips together and muttering, "Nuh-uh," as she twirls a strand of bright red hair around her finger before brushing it all away again.

Marley grunts and admits defeat, nodding her head as Daphne trots back to her group of friends. She looks back down at her hands and thinks, engaged in a brief internal debate over whether or not she should read Ingrid's note to Eden before she takes all of the neon hearts surrounding Eden's name as a good sign and proceeds to unfold the letter.

Written in Ingrid's perfect calligraphy handwriting, in yet another big heart that's surrounded by even more tiny hearts, is a big "NO!"

☀︎☼☀︎

didn't even notice that this was supposed to be anonymous until i had the entire chapter written for some reason so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

and also to @vangoghoe and @stereoactive, i am sorry

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