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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʀ ꒱
❝ I GUESS YOU COULD SAY THAT
THIS IS A STICKY SITUATION ❞
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While Shawn's shorter hair was something to get used to after only knowing him with longer hair for so long, Juliet certainly wasn't complaining as her fingers tangled into the spiky strands. She lay half on top of her boyfriend as their lips moved hungrily against each other. Shawn's arms held her securely to him as they kissed, heedless of the other couple that was occupying Celeste's bed while she was out.
When they finally pulled apart, the redhead enjoyed the happy daze that always came from their lengthy make-out sessions. The dark-haired boy looked over at the friends. "Hey, how come you guys aren't going at it?"
Topanga sat next to her husband and both had reading material open in front of them, though Cory's space was messy with the popcorn that had missed his mouth. "Shawnie, you don't understand what I got here. I mean, once you start up this engine it's nonstop to Puerto Rico."
"What are you, a locomotive?" the redhead snarked.
"I don't even know what he's talking about," the other girl said.
"That's right, papa don't make sense."
The door swung open to reveal Rachel as she stormed into the dorm. "I hate this job!" she exclaimed furiously. "'Rachel, the shower drain's clogged!' 'Rachel, somebody puked in the hall, go clean it up!' 'Rachel, the candy machine's out of corn nuts!'"
"Is it?" Shawn asked. When she didn't answer, he added, "well, fix it!"
"I am a resident adviser, not a vending machine stuffer! I took this job for the one stinking perk they give you. Do you know what that is?"
"A friend that you can rant to?" Juliet offered.
"A parking spot! That's what I get. A place to park my little beetle near my room."
Cory stood and took up the remaining space next to Shawn as he leaned towards his best friend. "I've never seen our favorite redhead so fiery!" This statement was immediately followed by an "ouch!" as Juliet swatted him. "Second favorite redhead," he amended quickly.
"I had to walk a mile and a half because of some stupid, spot-grubbing moron!" Rachel growled, ignoring the correction.
"Maybe the moron didn't know it was yours," the dark-haired boy suggested mildly.
She turned on him as her eyes glinted furiously. "You! You parked in my spot?"
"Don't have a hissy fit."
"If you don't move your car right now, I will use my powers as RA to see that you do!"
"Whoa! Whoa-ho-ho-ho," Shawn mocked her as he stood. He raised his hands as he did so. "What are you gonna do, ban me from the soda machine? Revoke my corn nut privileges?"
"Oh! She can't do that!" Cory added.
"Because there aren't any!" The two boys glanced at each other before they gave Rachel a loud "ha!"
A fond smile curled on Juliet's lips at the sound as she remembered the times before when they'd one-upped someone. Rachel must have caught her expression because her fury only increased. "Okay, that's it! You're breaking the rules right now because you're in the dorms after hours! I'm banning you from the dorm. Get out!"
"Can she do that?" Shawn asked nervously.
"I just did," the redhead snarled. "Goodbye."
"Hey, wait a minute," Juliet said. "You aren't the RA of these dorms so you don't have any jurisdiction over here. You can't make them leave." She let out a "ha!" of her own.
"Yes, yes," her boyfriend agreed as he settled back down next to her. "Very good point, babe. I'm shocked and dismayed that she would think she has that much power."
"Well, now, you can't be both," Cory told him. "You be shocked, I'll be dismayed."
"Fine!" Rachel exclaimed with a sarcastic smile. "I should have known that you were going to side with them anyway! I'll leave."
🌎🌎🌎
The next afternoon found Juliet back in her dorm but with a far less enjoyable activity. Her extremely dry notes for her Judicial Process class were spread out before her as she attempted to complete the weeks' reading, though her eyes were starting to blur. She was grateful for the knock at the door which provided her with an impromptu break. She was even more pleased when she saw who was on the other side. "Shawnie?"
"Hey, Julie," she was surprised by how soft his voice was. Despite her confusion, she allowed him to reach for her and settle his hands on her waist. In his next puzzling (but welcomed) move, he greeted her with a firm kiss on the lips that lasted for longer than what she'd been expecting.
When they pulled apart, her eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. "You're up to something, aren't you?"
Shawn tried to look innocent. "Up to something? Whatever makes you say that, Julie? In fact, I'm offended that that's your first conclusion. Can't I just give my girlfriend a nice kiss?"
"Well yes," the redhead began, "but your clothes are wet and I was woken at six in the morning by someone screaming. I can do the math to come up with Cory and Shawn did something."
He looked at her fondly. "You really are brilliant."
"Nah, I just know you guys really well. Besides, you're petty enough that you'll retaliate against the slightest inconvenience."
He gave a faux-offended gasp. "Me? Petty? Never!"
"Uh-huh," Juliet said disbelievingly as she poked his side gently. "So, what did you do and why are you trying to seduce me?"
The dark-haired boy scoffed. "Puh-lease. If I wanted to seduce you, I would do something like this." He pulled her closer and met her eyes. He allowed a faint smirk to appear on his lips as he gazed down at her.
Against her will, she felt her heart speed up at the change in his expression despite knowing exactly what he was doing. With a huff, she pulled away from him and crossed her arms resolutely. "It's not going to work until you've told me what you've done."
"I think you're wrong," Shawn announced in a teasing tone. Her move turned out to be a bad idea because he came up and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He rested his chin against her shoulder and lowered his voice as he finally explained, "Cory and I put a car in Rachel's room."
Juliet tried to be mad (really, she did; Rachel was her friend), but she couldn't help the smile at the rare show of their genius. "So that's why I heard someone scream," she realized. "Huh. You know she's gonna get even, right?"
"Oh, she already did. Or at least, she tried to," he told her. "She dumped water on Cory and you're experiencing Angela's work right now."
The redhead made a face at that but it wasn't enough to make her pull away. "So I'm guessing it's war?"
"Yep," he agreed, "and I'm trying to get you to be on our side. Is it working?"
She smiled with amusement, though the dark-haired boy didn't see it. She was glad since she was fully intending on taking advantage of her upper hand. "I'm not sure. Maybe you should try a little harder?"
"Oh, I can give you hard alright. Shall we go see if a shower's free?"
Juliet let out a good-natured huff. "I walked right into that one, didn't I? Yeah, okay."
🌎🌎🌎
She, of course, took her boyfriend's (and best friend's) side after having grown up with the boys' hijinks. They were now gathered in the boy's apartment with the "opposing" team of Rachel and Angela as they divided up the rest of their friends. Juliet was pleased to find out that Topanga had joined her husband's side.
"You know what, Jack, I'm having trouble opening this jar," Eric said.
"That's because it's a can."
Rachel grabbed the older Hunter's arm. "We choose you."
"No, choose me!" Cory's brother insisted loudly.
"You have to be on our side, we're outnumbered," Angela explained to Jack.
"I'll be on your side."
Eric's offer went ignored as Shawn pulled his brother over to their half of the room. "Jack, you're my brother. Brothers can't be on opposite sides of a war. Sorry, ladies, but that's the way it is and there's nothing you can do to change that."
"Actually," Juliet spoke up, "brothers are often on opposite sides of a war. The Civil War was famous for it. You know Lincoln's speech, 'a house divided cannot stand?'"
Shawn's hand came to rest gently over her mouth. "Shhh, Julie. As much as I love how smart you are, points like that aren't gonna help us win." In retaliation, she licked his hand to free herself of his grasp. Her boyfriend gave her a smug look. "What, you think that disgusts me?"
"Juliet does make a good point," Rachel said. "If we want to be historically accurate, Jack should come with us." She walked up to him and placed her hand on his arm. "After all, it could be really fun to be on the same side."
"I'm fun," Eric cut in again.
"You think?"
"Jack, you know how good Cory, Juliet and Shawn are at this. You don't want to go against them," Topanga pointed out.
"You know, Jack, we were close once. Who knows what can happen when two people are caught up in the heat of battle?" Rachel suggested.
"Hold on!" Cory exclaimed. He tossed a red napkin to the floor. "That's a foul. No fair offering cookies."
"Did Jack forget how good my cookies were?" the older girl asked as she stepped closer to him. She moved her mouth to the boy's ear.
"I'm with her, guys. Sorry." Jack caved easily despite the obvious manipulation.
"Yeah, so am I," Shawn agreed. He flinched as Juliet poked his side harshly. The action caused his hand to finally fall from her mouth as he took refuge farther away from her. "No, okay."
"Alright, look. I know both sides want me but I'm gonna reserve my decision until I hear all the pitches, okay?" Eric told them as he walked over to Angela's side.
The brunette quickly put her hands out. "No, see, you're Cory's brother. You need to go over to his side."
As she pushed the boy in their direction, Shawn shot his girlfriend a pointed look. "This is when you should have used that history fact."
Cory sent his brother towards the other side. "No, he's Jack's best friend! He should be on his side."
"Stop fighting over me, guys! Stop fighting over me! I've already made my decision, alright? Um. . ." Eric than spun around and pointed as everyone in the room ducked. Eric stopped and pushed Cory to the ground. "I'm not really on your team. I'm a spy." He then pushed Jack on the couch. "I'm a spy."
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"The Civil War was one of the darkest moments in the history of our nation. Once united, we were now on the precipice of a terrible conflagration which would cast friend against friend and brother against brother," Mr. Feeny said to the class the following day.
"Mr. Feeny, this war must be stopped!"
"Your passion for the material is admirable, Mr. Matthews, but not to worry. The Civil War was fought over a hundred years ago."
"No one cares about that crap. I'm talking about now!" Eric explained. "I just don't want to see anyone get hurt!"
"Mr. Matthews, I have no idea what you're talking about and that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it," Mr. Feeny replied dryly. "Tomorrow we'll begin with the first shots fired on Fort Sumter."
After he finished the lecture, there was a rush as everyone raced to get out of class first. The two parties at war remained behind to continue their altercation, though Eric was the first to break the frosty silence. "I can't take this anymore! Friends against friend, brother against brother. Don't you realize that nothing good can come from this?"
"Hey!" Cory said, ignoring his brother's futile attempt to get them to stop.
"What?" Topanga asked.
"I'm stuck!"
At her friend's words, Juliet tested her own seat and felt her heart sink. "I really liked these jeans."
"Superglue on the chairs," the dark-haired boy remarked.
"My skirt is ruined!" the blonde complained.
"The old superglue trick. Amateurs," Shawn observed, entirely unaffected.
"You're not mad?"
"Eric, this is nothing," the curly-haired boy reassured him. "It's not even clever."
"You don't think so?" Jack demanded.
"Not worthy of comment," his brother replied.
"Well, what if it isn't over?" Rachel walked over to the blackboard and pulled on a chain that definitely hadn't been there yesterday. Without bothering to look back at them, the trio left the room.
Thick, golden liquid fell with a wet thud onto Topanga's books. It took a minute for her to recognize the substance but Juliet's eyes widened as the glob of honey fell onto her three friends. Her relief at choosing the second row didn't last long, though, as their opponents had apparently taken her seating into account. "Oh, gross!"
"Honey," Topanga said as she came to the same realization.
"What?" Cory asked, since he thought that she was talking to him.
"No, honey!"
"What?"
"It's honey, idiot!"
"I guess you could say that this is a. . . sticky situation," the redhead commented. Despite the disgusting, syrupy feeling against her skin, she wasn't really upset and so she didn't mind making light of the circumstances.
"Not the time, babe," Shawn sighed. "This is pretty good but not great." A loud growling noise made them look up and their eyes widened in horror. "Now it's great."
They wasted no time in cutting their losses with their pants in order to escape the classroom.
🌎🌎🌎
"I've heard that using hand sanitizer or peanut butter is good for getting this sort of thing out," Juliet said to Topanga as they entered the Student Union. The blonde had been complaining that her hair was still suffering from the effects of yesterday's prank.
"I'll have to try the peanut butter. Maybe I could get some bread and make a sandwich," she joked before they joined their friends. It only took a minute for them to notice the tense air of the group. "What's going on?"
"Oh, as if you didn't know!" Rachel exclaimed accusingly.
"Our team just got even. Their team's being a bad sport," Cory explained.
"Are you two gonna pretend that you don't know what they did to me?" Rachel asked the two girls before she reveal the enlarged image. "They blew this up for the whole world to see! Fun, huh?"
For the second time in as many days, Juliet's eyes widened in horror as she came to understand the gravity of the situation before she swung around to glower at her boyfriend. Cory picked up on Topanga's equally displeased expression and smiled at her nervously. "The legend continues."
Taking a deep breath, the redhead stepped towards the other girl. "Rachel, Topanga and I are so sorry. We had nothing to do with this."
"Why didn't we have anything to do with this?" the blonde added fiercely as she glared at the boys.
"Uh-oh," Shawn taunted the curly-haired boy.
"We're on your team, remember?" Topanga snapped.
"Uh-oh."
"We make decisions together, remember?"
"It was Shawn's idea," Cory said quickly.
"Why am I not surprised?" Juliet sneered. "Who else could have come up with such a half-baked, hare-brained, ill-conceived, idiotic idea than you? Did you even stop to think for a moment about anyone but yourself? Did you even—"
"Hey, hey, hey. I'm still your boyfriend, remember? Maybe don't go biting my head off—"
"Uh-oh!" the curly-haired boy chimed in unhelpfully.
"I thought— if anything— that it was supposed to be the two of us against the world," the redhead said sharply, ignoring the interruption. "Even more so since the wedding—"
"Thank you for bringing that up," Topanga cut her off. "You gave such a nice toast, by the way. 'It's Cory and Topanga now. Cory and Topanga are best friends, not Cory and Shawn.' I thought we were a team."
"Hey, look, we're all in this together," Shawn tried to calm the two girls down but if anything, his words only made it worse.
"Yeah, for once, I thought we were!" Topanga shouted. "For once, I thought it could be the four of us. That's why I wanted to be on your guys' team. To be part of the legendary team, but I guess I'm not. Rachel, I'm sorry."
"Why are you all taking Rachel's side?" Cory demanded. "You've known me, Shawn and Juliet all your life. You've known Rachel for what? A couple of years?" Cory realized how is words came out and turned to Rachel, who looked hurt. "Oh, Rachel. I'm really sorry. That's not how we think of you or anything."
"No, it's not," the dark-haired boy agreed.
"How stupid am I?" the older girl wondered bitterly. "I actually thought that you guys were my friends."
"Of course we are!" Angela exclaimed.
"Rachel, you were in our wedding," Topanga added.
"I really thought that you guys let me into your special world. I guess the joke really is on me."
After she walked away, Angela turned to them. "And I guess it's no accident the way the teams are picked around here."
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "What a coincidence, huh? Life-longers versus. . . I guess I really don't know what we are."
As they followed Rachel's exit, Cory glanced at the remaining three. "It's okay. It's okay. It's you and you and you and me now."
Juliet sent the two boys an annoyed look before she gave one to Topanga as well for a good measure, her reasoning being that the blonde had kept her from "biting Shawn's head off" as her boyfriend had put it. Then, she stalked away in the opposite direction.
[written jan. 2022]
[edited jun. 2022]