𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 ✧ 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜

chapter one.

"you must be jackie." kiley, a girl also in our grade, had seemed to have beaten me to introductions, "im kiley." she was alex's, one of the walter boys, best friend.

"nice to meet you." the new girl was only a little shorter than kiley, so average height, and dressed like she was in an interview. her dark, thick, raven black hair was pulled back in a scrunchie, and her smile was small. innocent.

"you moved in with the walters, right?" the words had come so naturally, and so did the big huff and the "yes." from jackie.

my eyes found grace's, and both grew in size in sync.

"wait, wait, what!?"

 i guess that distant family was the walters.

grace chased after the pair of girls, my introduction quickly falling on her list of priorities, and i followed a half step behind for the entertainment. but at the mention of the walter's, i unconsciously kept my distance.

"alex told me." kylie shot over her shoulder, jackie bounced her eyes between the two girls.

"woah! jackie, youre like the luckiest girl in the school!" grace immediately got giddy, and i scoffed.

"grace." kylie dead panned.

"yeah, please." i rolled my eyes.

a girl moving in with the walter's?? there was already eleven boys, and one girl. who was, im sure, just like one of the boys, being raised surrounded by them.

thankfully, this was a girl girl.

but... a girl...

"what? you know that she's practically landed in boy heaven, right? i mean there's like eleven of them to choose from." she pronounced the first E of the number very loudly to make her point - jackie was in the dream house. "like, there's danny with the actor-brooding thing, alex with the nerdiness-" i closed my eyes as i listened to grace list off each boy and their signature personal trait/thing, like i had a thousand times.

one of the ways grace is like every other girl in this school, is she is deep in the details of the walter boys. i tuned it out as best i could, but ill recall it for your sake.

danny, the actor. twin of cole.

alex, book lover / nerd. friend of kylie's.

nathan, the musician.

isaac and lee, cousins.

and the list went on of the boys that socially dominated this school and physically dominated the girls within it. i sent a finger to my mouth and gagged.

"-and, then, there's... there's cole."

 i did it a second time, louder.

cole walter. the hottest brother (again, only public).

"i dont get it, what makes him so cool?" it was time for my eyes to widen at the new girls words, and i sped up to walk next to her.

i seemed to startle her, and she sized me up, "ignore my bestie here, she is just as under the cole effect as every other girl in this school is." i smirked, "every girl but me, that is." she smiled up at me, "im harper. and stick to your perspective as best you can. those boys, and that house, is only trouble."

"ignore her," grace mocked my words, "harper is our true little contrarian." she patted my head like a dog, and i squinted my eyes at her.

"this is all ridiculous!" jackie stopped to turn and talk in the hallway, "i'm on harper's side here. i mean the cole effect?" we high fived, and i giggled with accomplishment.