STEPSISTER [Discontinued]

John and Charles

First period, woah, okay, he can do this, right?

He hesitates at the entrance for a few seconds and fiddles with the ends of the blue and obnoxiously comfortable dress he's unfortunately wearing. It's gonna be fine, Philip tells himself while he steps inside his first period classroom.

Everything seems fine at first, the teacher doesn't seem to mind since she's too focused on that picture of her Siamese cat on her desk, most students don't even glance at him which doesn't really surprise him considering that most high school students don't give three flying fracks about the world around them, so he's calm, fine, absolutely chill.

"What the fuck are you wearing!?" Someone laughed behind him.

"Butt Breath" Philip mumbled as he turned around.

"What are you, a tranny?" He snickered.

"No, but Im cooler than you, George Bicker" Philip said with crossed arms and started heading toward his seat.

"Seriously? That's the best you could come up with?"

"What was that?" Philip asked. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of me NOT CARING!" He was red with embarrassment but still held his chin high as he sat down. George rolled his eyes and left him alone for the day, which calmed down his nerves.

"Yo, George Bicker? that oughta be the single best thin' I've heard this entire year" The boy besides him said.

Philip looked at him, he had noticed his classmate yesterday but didn't really look at him, now that he did, he had to admit that he was kind of handsome, and if he liked boys he would totally crush on that. He had dark sepia skin and wavy black hair, judging by his light colored eyes he might be half white (or something along those lines, Philip wasn't sure). His most prominent characteristic, though, was his big, extroverted smile . The kind of smile that made you want to smile with him.

"I'm John Mulligan" He offered.

"What a coincidence, both of my stepdads are called John too" Did Laurens count as a stepdad? Possibly, Philip wasn't sure about the rules of step-family.

"Yeah, it's kind of a common name" John shrugged.

"I guess" Philip awkwardly replied.

John smiled, showing his dimples, and Philip smiled back. It was a little awkward but so was basically every human interaction Philip did, he at least hoped he could consider John a friend from now on, he seemed like a very nice guy with a very nice smile.

<<—~•~—>>

"Is it normal to find someone attractive but have like, zero romantic interest at all?" Philip asked Theodosia during lunch.

"Dude" She raised a brow at him. "That happens to literally everyone. Unless, y'know, you're asexual or something along those lines"

"What's asexual?"

"You're hopeless"

"Hey!" A voice boomed behind them, Philip instantly knew it was John.

"Hi" Philip said back. "Theo– can I call you Theo?"

"Of fucking course you can"

"Well, Theo, this is John, and– uh, who's him?"

Behind John stood a shy but kinda grumpy looking boy. He had blonde, almost white hair and pale skin. His eyes seemed bigger than they probably were behind his glasses, they were a grey-ish hue of blue. He was thinner than John and just a few inches smaller, and seemed to be leaning on him nervously.

"This Charles Adams, my—"

"Friend" He interrupted. "I'm his friend"

"Your name is Charles Adams?" He asked as both boys sat down. "It must be so cool to have the same name as the president. You should know, I'm a personal fan of Abigail Adams"

"God, you're such a nerd, Hamilton"

"Hamilton?" John gasped, apparently the name talk was going to keep rolling.

"As if, the best lawyer ever Alexander Hamilton!?" Charles continued. He saw Theodosia frowning briefly but commented nothing about it.

"...Yes?"

"Bro, that's so goddamn cool. We, Charlie and I, want to participate in his internship program when we go to college" Said John excitedly. Philip had to admit he was a bit weirded out by the conversation, it was not everyday that your new friends fangirled over your dad.

"So, how is he like?" Charles asked.

Philip thought about it for a moment. "A total dork" Everyone in the table laughed and he felt good about himself.

From there forward the conversation evolved to a series of random topics which, unfortunately leaded to Theodosia mentioning Virginie.

"Oh yes, Philip is totally crushing on her" She had said. John raised his eyebrows obnoxiously at the comment and Charles chuckled at his friend's goofy mannerisms.

"He even spoke to her this morning and said some shit in French that I didn't understand"

"Hey, if she didn't say anything about the dress—"

"He looks amazing in that dress" Theodosia commented.

"—then it's true love"

"True love is bullshit" Charles said and stuck is tongue out, making a grossed out expression.

"You're such a hypocrite"

"Ohh, does Charlie like someone?" Theodosia teased him.

"Call me Charlie again and I will stab you with a fork"

"He's such a sweetheart" She joked and everyone laughed, specially John, who was laughing hysterically, causing the frown on the pale boy's face deepen even more (woah).

<<—~•~—>>

"Is John here?" He asked Frances while they entered the house.

"Nope, he still must be on his way here from the hospital"

"I thought he did courtroom sketches?" Philip asked, deeply confused (which was nothing new at this point).

"You're so behind, Pip"

"Don't call me Pip"

"Dad did courtroom sketches to pay for med school, he has been working at the hospital for two years now" The girl explained as she threw her backpack somewhere and started calling for Brutus.

"Ohh" He dumbly said. Meanwhile the pudgy cat waddled down the hall, moving clumsily and waving her tail.

"There's my girl!" Frances squealed as she picked her up.

"How can you even hold her? She looks so heavy"

Frances shrugged. "Half of her weight is fur. Anyways, how did it go with Virginie?" A smile immediately threatened to appear in the freckled boy's face.

"It went fine, I think she liked me" Frances nodded. "So, what's the next step?"