SETTING: REDMOND HIGH SCHOOL
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
TIME: 11.43 p.m
IVY'S DEAREST BELOVED CLASS WAS ENGLISH LITERATURE yet today, one would say she felt the complete opposite. Distant stare glazed over her eyes, her deeply toned hand traced a pattern over her notebook, the class topic blaring in her thoughts over and over. Angels, Heaven, Devils, betrayal. The allegory's swirling around her mind like a fucking glowing halo, she wished she payed attention but she didn't.
What the hell is wrong with Ivy these days, she was the biggest goodie-two shoes to exist in the past three years of high school but in the foregone month, lessons flew by and she couldn't name a single piece of information in awhile. Ivy didn't actually hate it as much as she thought she would, feeling dumb was kind of—freeing. Autarkic. She liked it.
A pen balanced between her plump lips, as the background noise of class echoed through her ears. Ivy couldn't wait until lunchtime, the spicy pasta her mother made was already salivating in her mouth.
"Ms. Dulce!"
Miss. Habdole snapped her fingers sassily, her hand flat against the pine wood table, the leather pumps tapping impatiently against the floor.
Ivy stared at her blankly, her name is called without a question following it. "Mhm."
"Would you care to elaborate on the topic, since you seem so interested?" She paused, allowing the class to snicker immaturely. "The discussion is Angels Vs. Devils. Like to expand on anything we were talking about, if you were even listening."
Oh God. She raised her bushy eyebrows, letting the pen descend from her plump lips, in which she replied, "Elaborate? Um-" The impatient expression the teachers face held, quickened the pace in which Ivy tried to find her answer. Picking up her glasses from the desk, she adjusted the lenses upon her nose, the slightly blurry view turning hd.
Religion wasn't a vocal point for Ivy in the slightest. Her mother was Catholic and attempted to take her to the local Cathedral every so often below the age of ten. They both sort of, gave up after a while, the attending starting to feel like a burdensome chore. She believed in a God, but wasn't very educated nor close to the idea of Him.
"Uh-" She breathes feeling the million of eyes dispiriting her confidence. Clearing her throat, "When one thinks of Angels vs Devils, you automatically think of imagery for evil vs good. Angels painted in this like, pure white portrayal, depicting goodness. If you're pure, well it 'equals' good, which I already heavily disagree with. Being one hundred percent pure doesn't automatically mean good, no-one is ever fully pure. Which ties in with, you know, the toxic ideas about virginity and sinning and other stupid things I hate." She started on a tangent but refocused.
"But, fact of the matter is, Angels vs Devils reinforce this idea of being entirely one thing and another—That's not the case at all. Even the Devil was an angel once, so there are blurred lines between the two. I've done "bad" things before, I've lied, I can be prideful and I've been envious before, therefore sinning but I wouldn't call myself a bad person because of it. There's people out there who will always perform good and evil things in the world and if you try and classify it behind Angel vs. Devils, I think you're extremely deluded." She finished.
The class was deathly silent, just the ticking of the manual clock filled the silence. Her teacher stammered for words, her hands linked behind her broad back.
The teacher was thrown off on how quickly Ivy answered, her face dripping with admiration. "Great job. You have your clear viewpoint underlined. You should write an essay on it, I'll be willing to give extra credit on that."
Ivy shrugged, she would be obliged to give that essay in an heartbeat. She had nothing better to do, she didn't really have friends ( plural ), so why not.
She settled smugly in her seat, hoping not to be picked again, until a low and sarcastic chuckle from across the goddamn room caught her attention. She turned her head very slowly, already knowing who that laugh belonged to because it's so damn familiar. Her eyes locked in with Vinnie's. This is the only class they share, yet she felt like she's seen his face so many times in the past month.
Ivy wanted to keep quiet like she usually does because she's always been shy, confrontation isn't really her thing. But when she's around Vinnie, she has this boost of fiery confidence. "Would you like to comment on what you think is so amusing, Vinnie?"
He glanced at her, with one hand teetering the silver ring that adorned his slim fingers so blasé. His casualness unnerved Ivy, as she scrutinised him with her nose scrunched in annoyance.
"I just disagree." He plainly uttered.
"On what exactly."
"On everything you said." He relaxed his broad shoulders before continuing. "One can be purely a Devil, purely evil. Such as murderers, kidnappers and so forth. Sociopaths don't even feel empathy, so they can murder without remorse, therefore all evil. And the Devil, himself. Yes, he was once an Angel, but that doesn't mean he was half - half. He brewed deeply evil thoughts even when he was 'good', wanting to overthrow God. It's rare but all good and all evil does exist, that is. However innately good or evil is a different argument because I guess not everyone is born with these qualities."
Ivy's eye twitched in frustration, her cheeks flowering a rose-red colour. "Okay. Give examples of those who are completely good then."
"Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the list goes on." He named.
Ivy scoffed, "Gandhi was a pervert and a racist. He wanted white people to stay in power and believed Indian's are above black people. If anything, he's clearly on Santa's naughty list."
"Okay but Hitler was all bad."
"Let's not even get into that. Not everyone is good nor bad. I'm sure Martin Luther King did bad things. Maybe he lied about taking a cookie from the jar. As lying is a 'bad' thing. He was an overtly good person, yes but he wasn't one hundred percent perfect. Perhaps ninety-seven percent. Not one person on Earth is all good, and you're possibly a prime example, dumbass." Ivy's voice climbed up the volume scale, her face burning.
"Miss. Dulce, language please! You two both make valid points but let's calm down. Thank you for participating Mr. Hacker but clearly you two have some issues outside the classroom that you sort out in your personal time. Not here, in my class. Anyways, the hour's up—Class dismissed." Their teacher interrupted.
Then, nothing. Ivy stared at him an odd look on her face, lightly frowning at him as he glanced at the teacher and made no effort to verbally disagree to respect her wishes.
She took a deep breath in before swinging her bag over her shoulder, and quickly leaving the room through the open door, not one returning look at Vinnie's handsome face.
_____
"I JUST DON'T GET IT!" Ivy stuffed her head further into Aurora's cotton pillow, her tan thick legs swinging in the air as her best friend ran her pale fingers through Ivy's messy light brown highlighted curls. The small room was incredibly warm so Ivy had taken off her brown cardigan and her socks, the covers bundled beneath her body.
"He doesn't hate you." Aurora attempted to comfort her best friend but her tone was so disingenuous that Ivy made the effort to roll her eyes within the pillow. "He hates everyone."
"Yes, okay but he hates me the most. So I hate him." She whined, her voice cracking halfway. Aurora stays quiet, confirming her negative thoughts.
"I called him a fucking dumbass, in class. He riles me up so much, I hate it. I hate him." Ivy repeated the last bit, because she did.
She couldn't even form into words how much she hated him. Everything about him: His ginger hair, his angled cheekbones, his always glowering lips and his blazing amber eyes—She hated that feature the most. The eyes that always shot daggers her direction for no apparent reason, and had so many burning questions behind them. If she could, without the repercussions being lengthy jail time, she'd brutally gouge those eyes out with a damn fork.
"Yes, we understand that you hate him Ivy." Aurora paused, her blonde eyebrows floating into her forehead. "Wait, you called him a dumbass? During class? I take back everything I said, you do not hate him."
"Aurora, what? Speak sense."
The fair - haired friend took a deep breath in, preparing for the worst reaction because Ivy had the most defensive disposition. "Well. Ivy, I've known you for almost thirteen years. Thirteen shitty years. Not once have you ever talked in class like that, it's crazy. The fact that you're even swearing right now is melting my fucking brain. You've never been like this, it's so weird to see, oh my God. This boy is affecting you because you don't hate him. You like him."
Ivy lifted her head from the pillow, her bleary eyesight blinking away the more she stared at her best friend. She stuttered, the second time today she was rendered speechless. She was fed up of this feeling. Aurora cocked her head, anticipating all of the lies Ivy was going to throw at her, her patronising smile glistening on her glossy lips.
She stuttered, "I- No. What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm fucking talking about, don't act stupid. Clean your dirty ears if you can't hear what I'm saying. You. Like. Vinnie."
"No I don't. I've told you this, time and time again, I despise him. We are complete opposites, he is mean and I'm not mean. He's stupid, I'm not. Boys and I don't mesh well, do you even listen to me?"
"Mhm. Anyway, you like him." She sipped her hot coffee, using the thin metal spoon to melt the unmelted sugar that settled at the bottom of the mug.
Ivy shook her head defensively, her hands pinching Auroras leg tightly to cause pain. "No I don't! Take it back."
"Never!"
Ivy flopped her head back onto the headboard, giving up on her weak argument. Aurora was one stubborn girl, so convincing her otherwise of an idea that she is stuck on is completely impossible. "Whatever. I don't even wanna talk about it anymore before I pull your locks out and make a pretty, blonde wig-"
Aurora gasped. "You wouldn't."
"-Oh, I would. Cut the front hairs for a cute little fringe. I'll hang it on my wall for memories." Ivy creepily said, wiggling her brows. "Moving on, what's going on between you and Huxy boy?"
"Who?"
"Jordan Huxhold? Your new little boy-toy. What, I can't have a nickname for him? I think it's pretty cute."
"No you can't. And yeah, it's going pretty well. He's just super adorable, I'm obsessed. Did you know he has over fifty freckles on his face?" She sighed lovingly into the cool air.
"You literally spent your time counting his freckles? Oh no. This is the start." Ivy groaned.
"We went to his house and I counted each and every one of his freckles. And I'll do it again. You know what the weird part is? We laid in his bed for hours and he didn't try anything. Not one fucking thing. He barely even touched me, we had a few kisses and that's it. He's such a gentleman, I think I really hit the jackpot, Ivy." Aurora stared into space as she talked, her eyes glistening in fondness.
Ivy watched her worriedly, her eyes tracing Aurora's face. The standard was so low, it was so sad to watch. She's been treated like such shit in the past, the fact that Aurora got excited over simple things like this was heartbreaking. Jordan is the boy Ivy has been desperately waiting for her best-friend to meet so she finally receives the love that she deserves.
"I'm just happy you met him, Rora." She bit her lip. Aurora smiled at the nickname that Ivy called her, not hearing that name in years. It was comforting.
"So am I."
____
(authors note.)
strange little chapter. things will pick up
very very quickly after the next chapter—
more interactions between the group, more blossoming & more excitement :> so pls hold on don't get bored yet.
—Parissa🌹