━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
chapter three: gwen's boys
a/n:
i hate this chapter.
anyway, gwen's literally insane but that's okay bc she's hot and girls are allowed to be a little deranged as a treat. also, I genuinely don't care that rick wears button-downs to school in canon. I've basically rewritten his character, so I might as well give him a better fashion sense.
tw(s) -- mentions of the banks' kids poor home life, mentions of sex, mentions of past and current bullying, descriptions of poor mental health, and gwen really hates mindy. i think that's it.
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
"You're freaking out." It's the first thing that Alexa says in fifteen minutes.
It's also, incidentally, the first thing that Gwen has heard clearly since her revelation. The ringing that had settled in her ears starts to fade as she meets the other girl's gaze.
"No, I'm not." Her voice is strangely raw. "I'm fine."
Gwendolyn Banks has never, not once in her eighteen years of life, made an error quite as grave as sleeping with Brody Cargill.
It's a side effect of the childhood she had. A never-ending balancing act performed by anything other than a professional. Be a good sister, Gwen. They'd told her. You have to look after your brothers, Gwen. They're only little and you, at seven years old, are the lady of the household, now, Gwen. Make sure that your dad's still breathing, Gwen. Having to keep her footing with three other lives tucked under her tiny, ineffectual arms meant there wasn't enough wiggle room to not be perfect.
Though, if she were to think back on every single mistake she's ever made, she'd be truly hard-pressed to find something else of this caliber.
That one time she kicked a whole case of beer off the counter when climbing to reach the non-perishables in the top cabinet? Whatever. Her father started speaking to her eventually, and she only got glass in her feet once or twice when she was cleaning it up. That time she broke a nail down to the quick because she fought a boy for making Jake cry? That was barely a scratch. Antibiotics cleared the resulting infection right up, and the nail grew back the correct way a month or two later.
This, though?
Sleeping with the enemy?
Letting Brody Cargill, the perpetrator of the biggest scandal to hit Minnesota high school hockey and the sole reason the Eden Hall Warriors almost got second in state championships last year, get into her pants? See her naked?
Yeah, there's (very easily) no coming back from this.
"I'm not." She insists when Alexa stares back at her disbelievingly. "I'm just—— maybe I drank a little more last night than I should've?"
Gwen is definitely freaking out.
The two of them stand together outside of the auditorium, a little to the left of the door that their peers pour out of, the walls reverbing their chatter about the assembly and how it ended. Gwen watches them with a heavy feeling of unease, this wide (incredibly fake, probably twinged with insanity) smile gracing her face whenever one of them glances her way. She wonders if any of them also taste bile in the back of their throats, but she has no desire to commiserate with any of them over this. The presumption that, if she were to let any of them see past the facade and share with them how every second feels like another second she gets closer to the chopping block, then her social life would certainly meet its dreary end, prevails.
So, as she mulls over how she got into this position and every potential outcome from this situation, she just breathes in deeply, assumes this false sense of "HEY! EVERYTHING IS JUST FUCKING PEACHY!", and hopes for the best.
Alexa, meanwhile, tilts her head to the side and continues to stare at Gwen like she can see right through her.
"Bullshit." The shorter girl declares, eyes narrowed slightly. "You just told me you were fine, and I've seen you sick—— " (A distant memory of her first time drinking lingers amongst the thoughts of social ruination and the loss of her best friends.) " ——and this isn't that."
"I slept with him, Lex." Gwen's voice shakes with the frustration that her friend can't seem to grasp the severity of the situation.
What could have happened at that party that was severe enough to push her into his arms?
It isn't like the list of guys who'd fuck her is short. The boys here at Eden Hall might be terrified to cross whatever line they think Rick and Scott have drawn in the sand, but she knows Golden Garden boys would be more than happy to climb fences for it. Brady Hoffner, their enforcer, has been trying since they were freshmen; and she once wrote a fake number on a band member's music folder.
Thus, in theory, she could have anyone she wanted. That's always been the case with her.
So why on Earth did she go home with Brody?
The vague recollection she has of Rick and his infuriating tolerance of Mindy's presence does very little to help her. Why would she go and sleep with his arch-nemesis over that?
"So?" Alexa snorts. "You'll just wait a few weeks and take some tests just in case."
The thought of little Brody babies sends a shiver down her spine.
Perhaps this is just divine intervention. A comedy for the gods. You're the child of an alcoholic, a voice says in the back of her mind, you're the idiot for even drinking in the first place.
"So, I'm fucked if anybody finds out about this."
(The redundancy of this conversation, albeit hushed, happening in a crowded hallway isn't lost on her.)
Alexa's gaze turns flat. "Gwen, you are eight feet tall, your boobs are perfect, and your hair is down to there. If I was you, I would walk around naked all day. I wouldn't be a cheerleader, I wouldn't be training to be a doctor —— hell, I wouldn't even bother to read." She's undeterred by her friend's wide eyes. "I'm sure nobody'll blink over this, babe, because if you're not at the top, then Mindy is, and nobody likes her except for... Mindy."
To that, the blonde has no immediate response. Her mouth opens and closes once or twice, but no words come to mind.
On one hand, Alexa is right. She is hot, and nobody likes Mindy. And that's relieving because she worked hard to get herself to this point. She dealt with the bitches of yesteryear and lived to tell the tale, learned quickly during her mistreatment that there were two people she could be and which one she had to be to survive high school in a place like this. The thought of losing all of her progress when freedom is so within her reach, no matter how delusional or unlikely, was far more likely to make her puke than four glasses of tequila.
On the other, Alexa isn't taking all of her worries into account. Alexa doesn't know the inner workings of Rick Riley like Gwen does. The only other person who could understand how delicate his temper is would be Scott, but she could never come clean to him, either. In order to cheat correctly, Brody had to fuck with Scott, too, and she's more than sure that there's a grudge there.
So, all she can say is, "Rick and Scott... they're gonna kill me."
(Now that catches Alexa off guard. She had a pep talk planned out from the minute that she found out her bombshell blonde disappeared into the night with her poor choice of flavor of the week, and she was sticking to it pretty well up until that statement. Every word she'd practiced in the mirror dies on her tongue.)
"Huh? Why's it any of their business?"
"Because it is, okay? Because this is more than just an 'I fucked up' thing with them. This is... 'crack in the foundation of our relationship' bad."
Alexa blinks up at her. Gwen blinks back.
She sounds deranged.
"Wow... you really are freaking out."
With a throaty, exhausted groan, the blonde rubs the heels of her palms into her eyes. She, like the politician her mother always wanted her to be, opens her mouth to continue denying Alexa's claims only to have to stop when a third person saddles up beside her. Their presence effectively puts a cork in their conversation and Gwen is glad because she doesn't even have to look to see who it is.
The weight of the arm that drapes itself around her shoulders and the smell of the cologne that wafts over her is the only evidence she needs.
"Gwen doesn't 'freak out', she's just a little neurotic." Scott says breezily, pulling her into him. He glances her over and blatantly ignores the way Gwen glares up at him. "Geez, you look worse than your brother. What the hell happened to you, Winnie?"
"You're such a dick." Gwen scoffs but makes no move to shrug his arm off her.
"Hello to you, too, Scott." Alexa snarks with a sly grin. Scott smiles sarcastically back. "She's freaking out because she slept with—— "
A sharp glare from Gwen shuts Alexa up. The goalie glances between the girls inquisitively. She avoids his gaze, in no mood to divulge back into the argument they were having in the car.
...
Wait, what did he just say?
"What did you just say?" Face scrunched, Gwen breaks her internal contract to look anywhere but him and squints up at the boy whose body engulfs hers.
"Hm?"
"About my brother." She sounds faintly breathless. "What did—— What's wrong with my brother? Which brother?"
Does she even have to ask anymore?
"Adam. He is, and I quote, 'mourning the end of his social career.' Thinks that kids are going to drag him through the mud because of that spill on stage."
"Of course, it's Adam." It's always Adam.
Scott grins crookedly at her murmured statement of sisterly love."Yeah. Y'know, if I didn't already know he was your brother, this would make that abundantly clear."
Gwen sighs a sigh that ages her and shoots him a dirty look.
The assembly's culmination was the least of Gwen's concerns.
Any shame or horror she might (should) have felt at the sight of her little brother and his peewee friends tearing down the school's ancient auditorium curtains had evaded her. It rolled off her like beads of water roll off a duck's back. At the time, there had been more pressing matters to attend to —— like how she was going to save herself from the potential nuclear fallout of the only real friendship that she's managed to sustain for more than a year —— than her littlest brother being swept up in something and being laughed at for it.
Adam's never taken well to the thought of mockery, though. Not even when he was peer pressured into being on the mocking side.
Guilt starts to creep up her spine.
"Go." Alexa urges, the expression on her face clearly communicating that their conversation isn't over. "I'll see you later, alright?"
Gwen nods. Scott stares so intently at the side of her face that she thinks he might burn a hole into it.
"So, Alexa gets to know who you slept with, but I don't?"
"Don't be offended, Holland. She just likes me more."
He turns to Alexa, eyes narrowed to slits, and flips her off.
Amused, Gwen rolls her eyes and slaps his chest with the back of her hand. "C'mon, Scooter, I've got a little brother to go talk down from the ledge."
Maintaining eye contact with Alexa until he can't, Scott manages to trail after Gwen as she turns on her heel and marches off in the direction of the principal's office in search of the junior varsity team.
"You never answered my question."
"What?"
"Alexa gets to know and I don't?"
"Yeah." She shrugs. "Rick gets to know who you slept with and I don't?"
"Touché."
As Scott's arm finds its way back around her shoulders, Gwen pulls her ponytail tight and higher, that same faux, bright smile on her face.
Time to get our shit together. She thinks to herself. Nobody dangerous knows what we did. We are going to be fine.
(But we do. We know it. And that might just be the worst part of it all.)
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
Adam is, frankly, in dreadful shape.
He's leaning against a wall when she finds him, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes, wide as saucers, trained on the floor. Charlie Conway has a hand clapped on his shoulder, speaking to him in low tones as the rest of their friends stand slightly off to the side and watch.
They're not the only audience they have..
A handful of Eden Hall kids linger toward both ends of the hallway. Some underclass, some upper, but all staring at the new kids, her struggling little brother included, and whispering.
Something bristles in Gwen's soul.
"Hey!" Every head in the hallway snaps toward her. "I don't recall stare at them like they're a bunch of freaks being a part of Buckley's welcoming speech. Why don't you dicks scuttle off to class before I have half the mind to do something?"
"You heard her, maggots, get lost."
The Eden Hall kids disappear like bugs under the light. Charlie's expression borders on gratitude.
When it's just them in the hallway, Gwen lets her shoulders relax and meets her brother's gaze. "Oh, Adam."
She doesn't want to "mom" him.
Not in front of his friends. (Jake has made his opinion on that very clear.)
But Adam moves toward her of his own volition and practically throws himself into her arms, and she stumbles slightly under the sudden weight of him.
"Gwen." Adam's voice warbles, thick with emotion, to the point where he's gargling his words. "I think I'm gonna die, Gwen."
"You aren't going to die, Adam."
Perhaps there's something to Scott's claim that their neuroticism is one and the same.
Congratulations, little brother, it's a family thing.
It's in your blood.
And, if it isn't, it's certainly my fault for teaching it to you.
"Yes, I am. Or, at least, I wish I was. Didn't you hear them? They were laughing! Everyone was laughing."
"I wasn't." She says unhelpfully, rubbing his back.
Too busy having a mental breakdown of my own for that.
A strangled sound comes from the back of his throat. Gwen strains until he lets her pull back from the hug.
"Adam," She puts both of her hands on his shoulders, "look at me, hon. They weren't laughing at you, specifically, they were laughing at all of you."
One of them, Lester Averman she thinks, says a quiet, "Gee, thanks, Gwen."
Gwen ignores him and adjusts the neck of Adam's sweater vest.
"You are going to be just fine, okay?"
"But——"
"Trust me, Adam, you are fine. You are my little brother—— my baby brother—— and they're all scared of me." She smiles in the vain hope he'll reciprocate. "They know I'd burn them to cinders for you without even blinking an eye. And I would. You know that, right?"
He looks a little perturbed by that but does manage to nod and does spare her a smile. She accepts it even if it's just to sate her.
"Now, is everyone alright? Nothing broken, nothing bruised?"
"Nope." Charlie shrugs. "Just our egos."
Gwen snorts a laugh and punches him very lightly on the arm. "Yeah, well, a few of you need the humbling, Conway."
The majority of their gazes drift in the direction of Luis Mendoza, who rolls his eyes.
"I want you guys to try to have a good first day, alright? That means no sticking your necks out, no quacking at adults whom you disapprove of—— better yet, just try to keep your heads down for a bit, yeah?"
After a bit of coaxing, the blonde gets a few hesitant agreements out of some of them. (Dwayne, who's red in the face, is one of them.) Just when she thinks she might be getting through to them, though, Scott slides back into the hallway with a dramatic flourish and a nervous smile.
"Hey, so, uh, I found Rick."
"...I didn't know we'd lost Rick."
"Yeah, well, he convinced Cole to harass Jeremy Adamson for him. Jeremy is being dangled over a trash can as we speak."
(So much for doing his calculus homework all year.)
"Oh, Jesus Christ."
Adam audibly gulps from beside her.
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
After the thrills of the morning die down, the day starts to look up, and their first few classes are a breeze.
AP government involved the near-ancient teacher, Mr. Binns, reading his syllabus out to them instead of actually handing out copies. It elicited an amused, bordering on derisive, exchange of glances. Scott mimed shooting himself from across the class and Rick, who'd been sat behind her, would occasionally mumble god, you should just fucking retire into his fist because he knew the adult wouldn't be able to hear him. Gwen kept good notes knowing that at least one of them would be needing them later.
The AP Literature teacher collected their summer homework before doing anything else and Gwen hoped that, because she's new and doesn't know any of them yet, the older woman wouldn't notice that Rick's homework was heavily influenced (see also: practically rewritten) by Scott and herself.
Calculus was over before it began, and Rick made the chivalrous decision to store all of their textbooks in his locker because it was closest to the room.
The fast-paced rhythm of it kept her mind off the Brody situation.
Now, there's never been an easy transition between summer and school at Eden Hall.
Homework in the first week is often a rude awakening to all students, and the testing schedule for some classes would make any rational person's head spin. But, this year, with the majority of her classes being college-level, she finds that she's got more things to do on the first day than she ever has.
Despite that, though, and the time she had to spend between classes making sure her brothers hadn't started any fights or taken any flying leaps off the roof, Gwen started to feel like her day was looking up.
And then, AP Chemistry.
It's her last class before lunch. Rick took an easier class instead and Scott had to use the bathroom, so she's forced to enter the class alone and takes a seat at one of the tables on the far side of the room. The assigned seating chart is already on the teacher's desk, and Mr. Johnson has never failed to partner her and Scott up in the three years he's taught them science, so she doesn't say anything when someone hesitantly slides into the seat next to her.
"Hey, Gwen." Elaine Greenberg grins and settles into her seat. "How was your summer?"
"Hey, Lanie. It was busy. How was yours?"
Even if they're only friends in a looser sense of the term, Gwen has always liked Lanie.
Lanie's the kind of girl who compliments strangers. The one who always has gum and extra tampons in her bag, and is never mean when people ask her for things. The one who told Alexa that Gwen had left a party with a boy, not because she was judging Gwen for her choice of men but because she was concerned for Gwen's safety.
And who couldn't like a girl like that?
"It was alright I guess." Lanie shrugs and then sniffs. "My dad took me on a tour of the southwest, which was pretty cool."
Gwen smiles. It's been a long time since mentions of dad-daughter things made her squeamish. They pause to greet Alexa as she takes one of the seats directly in front of them, and then greet Rachel Oppenheimer, who sits next to her.
"Sounds bitchin', actually. Take any pictures?"
Lanie's face lights up but she, as she opens her mouth to speak, gets cut off.
"Say, Gwen?" Rachel, a fellow cheerleader (and a bitch, but Gwen can't fault her for that), leans over the back of her seat and smiles cloyingly. "You passed chem with a ninety-nine, right?"
Gwen lifts a brow skeptically. She wishes that Scott would get to class, or that their teacher would get his bearings already and start the class, or, in the best-case scenario, both.
"Yeah, I did. Are you trying to get into my pants, Rach? Because reminding me how smart I am is the way to do that."
Alexa rolls her eyes and Lanie giggles, but Rachel's expression does slip into a much more natural grin.
"One day, her body's going to grow big enough to fit her ego."
"I don't know about that." Lanie shrugs. It makes Alexa's smile widen.
Ignoring them, Rachel rests her chin on her hand. "Sorry, Gwen, but I don't swing that way—— I was just wondering if you wanted to, I don't know, partner up or something? Because I have no idea why I'm still in this class after that summer homework."
Alexa shakes her head. "You poor fool."
Gwen smiles, though, if anything to direct Rachel's attention away from her friend's comment. "I mean, I'll help you, but I don't know about the partner thing. He always puts Scott and I together."
(Saying things like that and not including Rick's name feels strange.)
Rachel glances at the other two girls for confirmation and proceeds to groan when she gets it. Truly a good sport, she accepts her fate and goes to turn around, only to pause when Lanie's quiet "speak of the devil" catches her attention.
Gwen looks up to the door and is rendered speechless almost immediately.
"Who's he with?"
"Is that?——"
"Uh-oh."
When she left Scott so he could go use the bathroom, Gwen didn't think he'd come to class with a girl. Especially not with Cindy Katz.
"What the fuck?" She can't help but scoff, watching them as they sit together in two of the only remaining seats.
Cindy is Mindy's best friend. Or, at least, she wants to be. In reality, she's the leader of Mindy's flock of blithering sycophants, a mousy brunette whose entire existence revolves around metaphorically sucking Mindy's dick at all times. The Heather Duke to Mindy's Heather Chandler (or, more aptly, the Renfield to Mindy's Dracula), she's just as vindictive as her living god. Cindy's just as likely to put gum in a girl's hair or call her fat just to watch her squirm, but she's also, somehow, dumber. Dumb enough to think that Mindy actually likes her, that Cole is funny, and, probably, to stare at a bottle of orange juice for twelve hours because it said concentrate.
Maybe Gwen is in no place to judge.
She's not very nice. She's nicer than both of them, of course, but that's not something worth bragging about. She's also a bit of a whore herself if everyone being surprised at who her one-night stand was and not that she'd had a one-night stand is anything to go by.
So, maybe, that makes her a bit of a hypocrite.
Maybe she's stooping to their level when she's thinking of them —— and their attitudes on life, and their voices, and their choice in men —— with such vitriol.
But, at least she understands how this works.
The only time they are together is cheer. Outside of it, they sit at different tables at lunch and they keep to different sides of the locker room, and they leave each other's shit alone. What's theirs is theirs, and what's hers is hers. She keeps to her side of the street and they do theirs.
Cindy, with her hand on Scott's arm and her batting eyelashes, is breaching the terms of their unspoken agreement.
Gwen's boys have long since crossed over to her side of the street.
"Gwen," Alexa warns, "whatever crazy shit you're thinking of doing, I am asking you not to do it."
Rachel shrugs. "I say do it. She's had it coming for a while now."
Lanie reaches forward to slap Rachel on the arm for that.
"Y'know, he slept with someone last night." Gwen hums, eyeing the pair critically. "How much are you guys willing to bet that braindead over there is the lucky candidate?"
"Unlikely." Rachel says, the disgruntled and disapproving sounds from Lanie and Alexa going disregarded. "But if you are willing to bet a new pair of those cute shorts you wear to practice, I'll take you up on it."
"Deal."
Gwen knows she made her own mistakes last night. She knows that too well. But at least Brody Cargill has some substance to him, and the overwhelming itch to rip that dopey little smile off that girl's face overpowers any rational thought.
Johnson finally starts with a headcount.
He gives them a syllabus and tells them about the expectations for both the class and the lab portion. He tells them about a special book they'll need to use when studying for the test and briefly goes over lab safety with the few willing class participants.
Gwen occasionally looks up from her notes. Scott and Cindy talk through his lecture.
The partner assignments come after the lecture is over and Johnson does exactly what she said he'd do. He sits Scott next to her. Lanie evacuates the seat immediately and whispers a wish of good luck with a small smile. Good luck in dealing with Scott? Good luck in resisting the urge to murder someone? She isn't sure, but she takes the wish to heart, anyway, and keeps her eyes trained forward as he sits next to her.
As soon as the adult's attention is off them, Scott turns to her. "Hey," He puts a hand on the back of her chair and leans over her so he can whisper in her ear, "can I borrow your notes? I didn't exactly get that last bit."
Gwen taps her pen on her lip as if she's actually considering it before she shakes her head. "Hm, no. Why don't you ask your new friend? Oh, wait, she doesn't have them either."
He lifts an eyebrow and tilts his head to the side very slightly.
"Where's this attitude coming from?"
"What attitude?" She asks in an attempt at flippancy. Her faux doe-eyed look garners an unimpressed expression so she lets her face fall flat. "She's an idiot. You could do so much better."
The teacher (who is, as of five minutes ago, also an idiot in Gwen's opinion) is too dedicated to another pair of students to notice their bickering.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on, Scott." She scoffs and faces him fully. "Can't you tell? You just listened to her yammer on for fifteen minutes. It's like—— it's like the wheel is still spinning but the hamster is dead."
Scott's mouth falls open, but his lip is quirked up. "Wow."
"Yeah, and you're, like, a genius, so you can see where my disappointment lies."
"Jesus, Gwen, who said I was doing her?"
Gwen's eyes dip down to the quarter-sized bruise on his neck and he breathes a laugh.
"What happened to not giving us any grief for who we're sleeping with?——"
"So you are? You are sleeping with her?"
Scott grins crookedly, shaking his head as he sucks his teeth, "You know, Gwendolyn, you can be such a sweetheart when we're alone. I kind of miss it when you look at me like you're going to geld me."
She narrows her eyes to slits. "Don't call me that."
"Down, kitty." He puts a hand on her knee and leans forward. "I didn't sleep with her. I promise—— now, the hamster thing, that was just brutal."
He draws a mirthless laugh out of Gwen who, glaring around him and at Cindy, slides her notes to him anyway.
"Why don't you just bite me, Scooter?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely."
She goes to tug her notebook back when he bites the air in her general direction but he holds it down with an iron grip.
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
After the bell rings and the class ends, Gwen and Scott, as they normally do, go find their friend so they can walk to lunch.
Rick's standing by his locker when they find him and, for whatever reason, they both find themselves silent in their approach. His gym letterman is slung over his shoulder, leaving him in the tight black t-shirt he wore to school today, and he's leaning over as he fervently roots through his book bag for something. There's still a faint sheen of sweat to his skin and his cheeks are reddened from Phys Ed, and his hair hangs down over his face in whisps. Her fingers twitch with the want to fix it for him.
He looks up at them, seemingly knowing that they were there without them having to announce anything, and smiles, "Hey, how was Nerd 101."
Gwen smiles back, albeit snidely, as he abandons his search and straightens to his full height. "It was certainly better than whatever the hell you were doing."
"Yeah, man, you're still sweating."
Rick purses his lips. "Thanks. You guys really know how to make a guy feel good about himself." He throws the jacket at her and she catches it. "We just ran the mile a few times, that's all—— can one of you help me put this on? I can't get the thing in the hole."
Scott wordlessly takes the chain from him and walks around him to put it on him, and Gwen, the varsity coat now on her shoulder, takes one of his hands in hers.
"Maybe it's a sign that you should stop biting your nails so much." She mumbles thoughtfully as she turns his palm over. "And you should drink a Gatorade with lunch. Get your electrolytes back up so you're not in pain all day tomorrow."
(Rick isn't stupid. He's been an athlete all his life. But, to humor Gwen, he nods.) "Yes, ma'am."
His eyebrows pinch together when she stands up on her toes to run her fingers through his hair and get it out of his face. Scott shrugs unhelpfully when he walks back around him.
"So, Gwen, I was thinking—— "
"Dangerous pastime for him." Scott tries to cover it up with a cough and Gwen can't help but snort a laugh.
Rick glowers at him.
"Anyway, I was thinking that we should take Adam out to eat after school, 'cause, y'know, the kid's scared shitless."
Gwen's lip twitches up into a smile. "You're the one that's scaring the shit out of him. What's this I heard about you threatening them during the assembly?"
Rick doesn't hold an ounce of guilt on his face but Scott at least has the humility to look away from her.
"I only promised to leave your brother out of it." He has his finger in her face for all of two seconds before he has the sense to rethink that action. "But, yeah, that's why I want to take him out. My treat. Jake can come, too."
She almost has the gall to remind him that he's leaving Adam out of it because he, in some capacity, loves both of her brothers like he loves his own, but she doesn't. She thinks about his offer for a moment before humming.
"Jake's only gonna come if James comes, too."
Scott shrugs, "Well, James likes you best, so you have to talk to him."
"He does not like her best."
"He does."
"C'mon, man, he's my little brother."
As the two of them start to bicker over the complexities of Gwen and James' relationship in comparison to his relationship with Rick, Gwen grapples with something else. She sees Mindy's approach out of the corner of her eye, a reckoning that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand. She knows what the blonde intends to do before the blonde even does and side-steps around Rick to hold her gaze, a clear warning from one girl to the other.
Mindy opens her mouth to say something, anyway, but Gwen cuts her off. "Walk away, Mindy."
The boys stop talking immediately.
"I was just—— "
"Y'know what, I don't care."
"But—— "
"Gwen," Rick interrupts, only for his eyebrows to shoot to his hairline when she grabs his jaw, thus forcing him to be silent, and pushes his head back slightly.
"Shut up." She says, then turns back to the other blonde. "Walk the fuck away, Mindy. You lost every right to even look at him and you know it."
After a beat of tense silence, Mindy sucks her teeth and walks away. As soon as she's out of earshot, Gwen releases her hold on a very shocked Rick, and he wets his slightly parted lips with his tongue as Scott claps him on the shoulder.
"I forgot to mention that Gwen is in a mood today." He grins. "It's like this angry, territorial animal has replaced our best friend."
"If you keep comparing me to an animal I will geld you."
"Y'know, Gwen, next time you're gonna cover my mouth with your hand, at least take me to dinner first." Rick takes his jacket back and starts putting it on.
"I was just looking out for you." She crosses her arms over her chest. "If I hadn't shut you up, you were going to let her speak to you because you're a man. Men are weak and stupid, even the good ones. That's why women were invented. To think for you. Otherwise, you'd be dead."
They blink at her, and then Rick turns to Scott.
"What the fuck did you do?"
"I talked to Cindy."
"Ah. Okay."
"She cheated on you." Gwen huffs. "You shouldn't even let her breathe the same air as you without giving her shit for it. If you don't then she's getting away with it and not learning her lesson."
With his book bag finally on his back, they start making their way to lunch. "I broke up with her already. Wouldn't she just learn her lesson from that?"
She shakes her head patronizingly. "You're so lucky you're pretty, Rick Riley."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"She's calling you stupid, numbnuts. Didn't you hear her? We all are."
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
Gwen abandons the boys as they enter because she's hungry and Rick makes a point of stopping to pick on some of the new JV kids, something she wants no part of if anything to save herself the grief later. She cuts the lunch line with a few apologies by sliding in next to Rachel, who hollers her name with this smile on her face until Gwen's close enough for her to grab, and vows to herself that she's going to learn all of her brother's friend's names by the end of the month.
She's still looking over in the direction of her brother and his friends when Rachel nudges her with her hip.
"So, did you kill her?"
"Hm?"
"Cindy." Rachel elaborates as they both grab a tray. "Did you kill her yet?"
"Oh. No."
They move along the line. Gwen gets a portion of the least gnarly-looking meat option and a dessert, and Rachel gets a big helping of salad by sucking up to the lunch ladies.
"Aw, that's a shame. I was hoping she'd find herself at the bottom of the flight of stairs before practice tomorrow."
"Yeah, well, there's still plenty of time till after school tomorrow."
Rachel smiles widely, her nose scrunching.
(Okay, maybe there are more people that Gwen should consider closer to her than she does. Rachel and Lanie, for example, are probably —— definitely —— her friends just as much as Alexa is. And, even if Rachel can be a bit of a bitch, she's a likable kind of bitch, and she's always been the girl who'd drop everything to back Gwen up in a fight. Alexa's good nature is good for Gwen, and Lanie's a solid shoulder to cry on, but it's always nice to have someone in her corner at all times.)
"Y'know, I don't think she slept with Scott." Rachel continues in a soft voice as they walk to join Alexa, Lanie, and a few other tolerable members of cheer at their table, "I think she might've slept with Cole."
Gwen glances at the varsity enforcer when the brunette jerks her head in his direction. Surely enough, Cindy has abandoned her attempts to woo Scott and has planted herself in front of a very disinterested Cole who, as he eats bits from a stolen lunch, meets both of their gazes almost immediately. He waves awkwardly, a gesture that Rachel mirrors, and Gwen catches on to Rachel's tone, then.
"Really? Cole?"
"Oh, shut up. You're not making the best romantic decisions right now either, genius."
"Fair." She ignores the lump that jumps to her throat. "I just think you're too hot for him."
"Yeah, well, he can be sweet..."
All Gwen does is nod. If Rachel isn't wearing rose-tinted glasses, then maybe Gwen just hasn't gotten to know Cole well enough, yet.
Besides, she slept with the worst person ever, so what does she know?
"Hey, Gwen, which one is your brother?" Lanie asks as they take their seat, drinking out of a juice box as she looks at the JV kids over her shoulder.
"The Aryan-looking one." Is Alexa's input. She doesn't even look up from her book. "He looks just like the middle one."
Kicking Alexa in the shin with the toe of her shoe, Gwen leans forward in her seat. "You see the blonde one all the way to the right? The one who looks like he's going to shoot himself when he gets home?"
Both Rachel and Lanie strain their heads to look through the masses.
"Oh, I see him. The one in the sweater vest?"
"Yeah, that one's mine." She sighs, stabbing some food with her fork. "That's my Adam."
"Aw, he looks sweet." Lanie coos and faces forward again. "I'm sorry he's not having a good time."
"Well, he's certainly having a better time than any of his friends." Alexa shrugs. "Rick really wouldn't give it up?"
Gwen shakes her head, and the look on her face must communicate how tiring the process of trying to get the captain to back down was because Alexa winces at her.
Rachel's the last to take her attention away from the JV kids. "I don't know what you were talking about, Lex. Adam doesn't look like Jake at all——"
"Yeah," The disembodied voice of Jake Banks cuts Rachel off and, as his hands slap down on the back of her chair, Gwen jumps, "I'm way hotter than that twerp."
"Christ, Jake, don't do that." She says, her tone sharp as she looks up at him. "And don't talk about him like that——"
"I know, I know, I have to be nicer to Adam. We've gone over this, mom."
Gwen purses her lips. James, from the other side of her brother, smiles.
"Hey, Gwen."
"Hi, James. How are both of your days going?"
The sixteen-year-olds shrug synchronously.
"Okay then. So, is there a reason you've descended upon me like vultures, or are you actually happy to see me?"
Jake and James exchange a glance, and Gwen wonders if she's going to have to pretend to be her father and manipulate Buckley into letting them off with a warning.
Again.
"I forgot my wallet at home," Jake starts, all of the suave he just pretended to have melting from his face, "and Jake spent his whole allowance on this cool Discman..."
"And Rick wouldn't give you guys money for lunch?"
(And he wonders why James likes her better.)
"Yeah. He told us to go ask you."
"Of course, he did." Grabbing her wallet from her bag, she thumbs through what she has. "Maybe I should start packing you brown bag lunches, Jake. Wouldn't that be nice? Cute little notes and sandwiches with the crusts cut off."
A few of the girls snicker to themselves. He narrows his eyes down at her.
"I'd let you cut all the crusts off my sandwiches any day, Gwen." James winks, and she rolls her eyes.
"Dude."
"Here, is twenty-five enough?"
"Sure."
She pulls it back when he goes to grab it. "Promise me you'll get actual food."
"What?"
"Actual food, Jake. I don't want you to spend twenty bucks on pop and chips."
"I'm not five——" Jake sighs heavily. "I promise we'll eat a vegetable, okay?"
"Good."
He snatches the money from her when she allows him.
"Oh, and one last thing," Gwen says before they can leave, "Rick wants to take Adam out to eat after school because he's not feeling too great. His treat. Do you guys want to come?"
"His treat? Dude wouldn't even spare us lunch money."
"Yeah, well, he steals his lunch from kids, so he's not exactly a great example of human kindness."
The two of them exchange another glance and Gwen, miraculously, doesn't feel quite so nervous this time.
"He'll pay if Gwen's eating." James shrugs.
"Alright. We'll go." Jake concedes, leaning down to hug his sister. "Is that all?"
"Yeah. That's it."
As they walk away, though, Gwen calls after them, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
Jake's sarcastic thumbs-up makes her suck her teeth.
"These boys are going to be the death of me." She says as she returns to her lunch.
And none of them know which of her boys she's talking about.
━━━━━━ ꕥ ━━━━━━
a/n:
i have no idea how to write popular people in high school (bc I was not a cool person in high school.) can you tell, or do you not care?
my favorite parts of this chapter were scott ratting on rick like a child, the adam-gwen parallels, gwen physically shutting rick up, and the crumbs of jake and james. how about you?
me when cole is a semi-decent guy and has two hot girls lowkey fighting over him (as if I am not literally writing this fic):
i have a whole cast for the other cheerleaders but idk if you guys care lmao. i wonder if we can already see the background ships forming?
comments and votes are super appreciated! they let me know that you guys like my writing and I cannot stress how much they motivate me to continue! thank you