Before Deena can even get a word wrote on the paper, the bell rings and everybody gets up and leaves the classroom. She puts her English books in her locker and waits for Simon and Kate, as she can see them in the distance. "What're you so moody about?" Kate asks once her and Simon get close enough to Deena.
"Have fun in English," she scoffs, "Mr. Spotsor is making you write essays about somebody in your class. Hope you two get each other so it won't be as awkward doing it for you two than how awkward it is for me."
"Woahh, woah. Who did you even get paired with?" Simon asks. Deena stares at him, pure anger in her eyes. But it wasn't at him. Simon and Kate knew that when Deena was that angry, she would just combust, as she had all that bottled up anger from previous times kept up in her, and eventually, once she reached her breaking point, that bottle would spill out, and they both knew more than well to not mess with, or somehow anger Deena more in those times.
But Simon and Kate were confused as to how getting paired with somebody for a stupid essay would somehow anger Deena that much. Unless she got paired with one of the jocks or the homophobic dudes who hate her guts. Who are also usually the jocks, but still.
"Samantha Fraser. Yeah, as in the Sam Fraser. The popular cheerleader everybody drools over."
"Holy shit," Kate says, "Damn, good luck to you," She laughs, Simon joining her. Deena smiles, then laughs, which wasn't usual in Deena's anger moments. They would usually have to leave her alone until she cooled down, but sometimes, Deena couldn't handle being mad and somehow letting that poured out anger spill onto them.
She did once and she regretted it for years, she probably apologized over a thousand times. Simon and Kate were quick to forgive her, but Deena still felt like shit and felt that she just had to keep apologizing. Simon and Kate couldn't blame her for letting that anger spill out sometimes, with Deena's life, and her bottling up those emotions, it would be expected for her to just spill sometimes.
"Good luck to Sam too. I mean, a popular cheerleader who's having to write about an outcast who looks depressed all the time except when she's with her friends? That's gonna be hard to write about. Does she even know you?" Simon asks with his little giggle.
But Simon and Kate still didn't know why being paired with Sam was making Deena so utterly angry. From their memory, Deena also used to drool over Sam. Kate and Simon had a bet, Kate betting that she still does drool over Sam, and Simon betting that she had let her go.
"Fuck you guys, first of all," she jokes, "and I don't know. I know for sure that I know her. She knows I exist, but I don't know if she ever thinks about my existence. We've gone to the same schools since middle school, you guys remember? She was always laughing around at lunch? The girl who fell off the playground and twisted her ankle?"
"Yeah, how could I forget. She fell and tripped on my mashed potatoes and I got in trouble! It's not my fault I dropped my tray!" Simon says, frowning as he throws his hands up. Deena and Kate laugh, Simon shortly joining them.
The bell rings and Deena is headed to her next subject, math. She hates math, even though she got good grades in it. She spent all night some years studying math just so she knew how to do the work. and somehow she's still bad at it.
Her teacher wasn't the nicest, either. She was strict, and always shitted on Deena just because she was a lesbian. She recalls the one time the teacher thought that Deena was studying all the time and getting good grades to make her like her. She cringes at the thought of it. Deena only wanted good grades to make herself feel good about herself, and to be a good influence on Josh.
But on the bright side, she has math with Simon and Kate. And Sam, but the only reason that thought popped in her mind was because of the essay.
She grabs her books and walks to the classroom, taking a seat. She spots Katw, in her seat next to her, but not Simon. "Where the hell is Simon?" she asks loudly, quieting down after the teacher gives her a look. "Went to get stuff from the vending machine. Don't worry- I told him to get you something also. I'm a real one."
The teacher looks at them as Simon walke in and takes a seat next to Kate, and the blonde boy stuffs the snacks into the desk, scared to be caught. The math teacher, Mrs. Sandy was never nice about punishments when students didn't behave, especially if she didn't like yo.
The teacher definitely shouldn't of put them in seats together since they mess around sometimes, sometimes being a lot, but Deena, Simon and Kate don't complain about it.
Simon slides Deena over a chocolate chip peanut butter granola bar, her favorite. He gives a chocolate chip cookie to Kate. Deena puts the bar in her pocket, but then hears her stomach roar.
"Deena," Kate sighs. "What?" Deena asks. "Don't," Simon says, "Come on Deena, you know what."
"Deena, what exactly did you have for breakfast this morning?" Kate asks, arms folded. "Um, a banana. But I'm not hungry! Don't wor-"
"Deena, do not start with your don't worry shit as if we won't worry. We're your best friends, we know when somethings up with you. Are you okay?"
Deena looks into her two friends eyes, sighing. Deena would usually never talk about her feelings, as she couldn't without feeling annoying or not knowing how to word it, or where to even start. She never talks about her emotions, she just sits there when something bad happens, or she gets hurt, her dark eyes staring into the distance, as she stays quiet. Simon and Kate know it too well.
It hurt her so much to say three words. That she wasn't okay. That she needed help. Because she couldn't stand to see her friends sad because she's sad also. But she knew her not talking about it made them feel even worse.
It's not like Simon or Kate are therapists, but when talking about her emotions, when she rarely does, she only wants to talk to them about it. Because she trusts them so much, with everything in her she trusts them. She loves them.
And though sometimes Simon and Kate didn't know how to put what they want to say in words to help her, sometimes just having them listen to her, genuinely listening and trying to help her made Deena happy. Simon and Kate could relate to some parts of Deena's life, so they could understand why she felt all the emotions she did, but they could never really fully understand where she was coming from, only partly.
"I'm," she spits out, her voice cracking a bit, "I'm not fine. I'm just, depressed. Not really motivated to do anything but consume myself with school work or other things so I don't have to be alone with my thoughts. I don't have motivation to eat."
"Deena," Simon frowns, "We get it. And we care about you and are here for you."
"Now," Kate says, gently pulling the gronala bar out of Deena's jean pocket as she stares, "I'm not going to force you to eat this. But I'm going to encourage you to," she says, sticking it out in front of Deena's face. "Fine," she finally accepts it, "but just so we're clear, this is because I'm hungry. Not because you insisted."
"Mhm. Whatever you say Deena," Kate smiles. She knew Deena was eating because she insisted, but she didn't care. As long as Deena was eating. As long as she was happy, it made Kate happy. Deena eats the granola bar, her crumbs plummeting onto Kate's lap.
Kate doesn't even jokingly joke about it like she usually would. She just wants Deena to know that she's there for her and she's happy that she's eating.
"Hello, good morning class. Today, we're gonna do a review on what we learnt last week."
"Is everything us reviewing something from last week?" Simon groans and whispers to Deena and Kate.
After listening for a bit, Deena realized this was just a review on stuff she knew how to do for once, so she started daydreaming again. She did until the end of class, and if it wasn't for Simon scaring her and snapping her back into reality, then she could've possibly just sat in that room, daydreaming, for a lot longer than the period actually was.
"What're you daydreaming about?" Simon smirks.
"Nothing bad, you weirdo," she says as she punches him on the shoulder softly.
"Oh, also," Kate smirks, "have fun in drama."
"What? What's that supposed to mean?"
Kate laughs with Simon as the two walk away and the bell rings. "What is that supposed to mean!?" Deena yells at them, but it's clear they're not going to answer her. Her next period is drama too. She sighs as she walks to the theatre room, taking a seat in one of the red and black chairs.
She looks at the door, watching as people walk in. What could Kate of possibly meant by that? And Simon knew too! They laughed at it together!
As soon as everybody came in, she sat up in her seat, her legs bouncing. She was stressed, she didn't know what to be prepared for.
The theatre director, Mrs. Jane goes up to the microphone. She taps on it a few times to catch everybody's attention. Deena starts biting on her fingernails, she does that a lot when she's stressed. Along with the leg bouncing, but she tends to do that one when she's excited, or just randomly sometimes also. "Hello, everybody. as some of you might know, or some of you might not know, there's an upcoming play that people will, well, act in."
Is this what Kate meant? If so then she was all stressed for nothing. Plays are normal at school.
"A play that you all will participate in."
Okay, that's slightly worse, it's annoying but it's still not the worst.
"And the roles of which I picked out for all of you are the roles you will be playing," she continues.
Okay, it's getting worse but it's still not horribly bad yet. Deena thinks, what else could there even be?
"It's a romance, a genre which we haven't had a play in for months."
Most romance plays are corny, but they're a good laugh. It's not that bad yet.
"A play that will show lgbtq+ representation."
How is that bad? It's good this school shows some lgbtq+ representation with all these homophobic stupid students.
"Now, doesn't sound so bad does it? I'll hand out your papers, showing your role and if you're the main character then your characters love interest role will also be on it, and your script will be on it also. Here we go, don't freak out about it."
"That wasn't so bad," Deena mumbles to herself. She picks up the script and drinks a sip of water as she picks it up.
Character: Hazel (Deena Johnson)
Love Interest: Ophelia (Samantha Fraser)
Deena spits out her water, it going all over the seat in front of her. "What!? What the fuck? What the hell?" she mumbles. How did Kate and Simon even know about this? Is it a play including the whole grade or something? What is it?
First the essay, now this?
Looks like Deena and Sam are gonna have to get to know each other, wether they like it or not.