Zarlie Shorts

Blurry

A/N: Of course I had to start with the ship that was completely robbed of its potential. I'm apologizing in advance if my Charlie dialogue is bad, I haven't been to the UK in seven years and even then it was just a few weeks so most of my slang or whatever is from tv. I also thought it'd be nice to throw some Persian in because Zari uses it a bit in season 5 but I want to apologize if the translation is wrong.

Inspiration: Anna Cartullo and Samantha Kingston's encounter in the novel "Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver
(Obviously, I altered the plot a lot but I still want to give credit)

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10,000 word AU: Zari hybrid that's a bit of 1.0 and a bit of 2.0 is skipping class and bumps into an extremely flirty Charlie

*MATURE LANGUAGE WARNING*
*DRUG USE WARNING*
*ALMOST SMUT BUT NOT QUITE*

Zari's POV

I love Behrad, I really do, but going to school with your twin is not as fun as "Liv and Maddie" makes it seem. He's always picking on me in history, just to get a couple of laughs out of some popular high school idiots who won't mean anything to anyone in a few years. Normally, I'd just sit back and take it as a part of my calm cool and collected attitude but today I just can't deal with his childishness; that's saying a lot considering I've been tolerating it for all of my life aside from the 16 seconds I was out of my mother before him.

Instead of taking the left to the hallway that houses all of the history classes and could use some fresh bulbs in the light fixtures, I go down stairs.

I hit the bottom step just as the bell rings and make my way over to the only teacher who will let me skip in his class when I need to get away: Mr. Stein. He teaches advanced math and is every student's favorite teacher, even the ones who don't have him, because he hands out life advice like a kindergarten teacher hands out gold star stickers. Mr. Stein isn't too popular among the faculty for that very same reason, I pin it as jealousy but they would deny it if I said that out loud.

I hear an all too familiar set of heels clacking of high heels against the floor and a jingle of a bunch of keys. What sets the warning for me is the booming voice that fills the next hall over that I was about to take. "You two! Get to my office! Now!"

Principal Sharpe. She runs this place like a prison where she believes she has every single inmates respect and admiration when really she just makes it all the easier to love her co-captain Vice Principal Lance. She's the chill laid back one- behind Sharpie's back of course- that is a better counselor than out actual counselors. I swear the two of them are screwing or something because one time I was going to talk to VP Lance and heard hushed, sweet nothings being tossed around between them. Ew.

I make a u-turn and decide the head old bathroom at the far end of the science wing is my best option until the school's dictator clears out. People barely come into this one because a newer bathroom- that's vents work and toilets don't clog 24/7- was installed between the labs.

As I speed walk away, I feel the impending danger lessen as the barking at students and hell fire beep of walkie talkies drops away, until they sound like the white noise of the ocean from far away. I'm not a very anxious person but I've been sent to the office way too many times for my liking this year and it was supposed to be the year I turned my act around. I even put myself in all AP classes because I know I can do it easily.

The science wing is empty, as expected, and smells, as always, like chemical cleaners and sulfur. Today there's something else, though: the smell of smoke and something earthier and more pungent. I push against the bathroom door and for a second nothing happens which is weird for a door that has the word "push" on it. I push harder and there's a grating sound; I jam my shoulder against the door because I hear the familiar clacking of heels against the ground that I just escaped coming toward me.