Chapter's song: Overture - AJR
The new century had barely begun and good news had just started to spread about the future for women in that new era. Angelica Schuyler Jefferson became the first lady inside the Congress and her first big motion was to change rules for women education, and after an entire decade of fighting for it, in May 1805 her motion was finally put into action.
A few daughters of important congressmen and war heroes were selected to join the Columbia College classes that year in an experience time to see if the faculty could adapt to them and if the women would be able to handle it.
The girls started to attend college classes for a couple of weeks now and even if many teachers and students wouldn't admit aloud, some were the smartest people they ever met.
...
It was a nice Friday evening and a well-known group of friends came down the street, just as loudly as usual.
"GIVE ME THAT MUFFIN!" the tall dark-skinned Lafayette boy, Georges, shouted as he held his friend's head in a headlock, making the boy complain as he slapped his arm to make him release his neck.
"NO WAY! YOU ALREADY ATE YOURS! BACK OFF!" the famous Hamilton's son shouted back. Many people used to say how similar he looked to his father, the differences between them being mostly his darker curlier hair and the few freckles that spotted on his nose.
The two boys had been friends since when Georges came to America several years ago when he was still a kid, no much longer after his mother passed away, and Philip was the one who helped him adjust to the new country and language he used to struggle so much with back then.
Theodosia giggled at them as she walked at their side, her heavy black locks and ribbon bouncing softly with her laugh. With the recent Hamilton and Burr tension, it surprised people that the girl would still hang with that specific group once her father shot the treasury secretary who barely survived the duel a year ago, but Theodosia and Philip had a deeper connection that couldn't be broken even by such a huge conflict between their families.
The tired Laurens' boy sighed and rolled his eyes, the only moment they left the pages of the book he was reading. "Really guys?" he mumbled in his usual monotone and deep voice as he shook his head lightly.
His twin sister pulled an arm around his shoulder with a grin, "Just let them be, Steph!" Frances had just as many freckles as her brother. They also had the same hazel green eye color, extremely curled light brown hair and tanned skin; impossible to say they weren't John Laurens' kids.
Stephan shrugged and Frances rolled her eyes as she chuckled and retreated her arm as he said, "As long as they don't obligate me to bake more muffins for them..."
"Hey, Steph!" Georges called with half of Philip's muffin in his mouth, Philip grumpily walking beside him with crossed arms and Theodosia patting his back in a comforting way, even if she had to stiff in a laugh. Stephan simply sighed as the Frenchman continued, "How about you bake some more for us and end this discussion?"
"Why don't I just keep my mouth shut...?" Stephan mumbled.
"Aw, could you, Steph?" Susan quietly pleaded with a tiny smile spotting from behind her long bang that usually covered half of her face, "They are so delicious, if you could bake some more for dinner it would be the perfect dessert."
Stephan felt his heart speed up and his cheeks burn every time she would look at him with those sweet almond eyes, and he stuttered, "I-I-I uhm-"
"Do it, do it, do it, do it," The group started to repeat it and Stephan felt the urge to run away or simply stick his head in the ground to hide from that humiliation.
"Ok, ok, I will!" He fastly said and the rest of his friends cheered, his sister clapping just to make him more embarrassed as he buried his head behind his book once again.
Mary scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Don't even remind me of that dinner, why do we still have it anyway? To someone ends up getting killed?"
"It would be nice if that someone were you, Jefferson," Frances sharply replied cocking an eyebrow, looking directly at Mary, who stared back with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.
"Oh, not again..." Susan mumbled, holding at her stepbrother's arm as he finished eating the muffin.
Mary and Frances would fight at any opportunity they had just by the simple pleasure of irritating the other since when they were teens. The girls were about to start their second argument of the day when a petite bubbly girl popped into the middle of them.
"Oh Mary, it is simple! It's because it is wonderful to reunite the whole family! We laugh, and talk, have dinner, and even play some games if no one fought until then!" Angelica said with a giggle as she gestures with her hands, unaware that she just stopped another fight.
They all chuckled and Stephan's cheeks became red once again at the sight of Susan giggling with Violetta.
Violetta was an interesting addition to the group, one they never thought that would happen. The blonde-haired girl was the second oldest child of Samuel Seabury, the second of five, and being so she was extremely religious and would be much more harassed by the fact that her father spoke in the name of the king during the war times if it wasn't for her childhood friend.
"LOOK OUT!" Theodosia screeched, shrinking and covering her head. Georges managed to dodge in time right before a ball hit a wall behind him, ricocheting and hitting Philip's scruff and Stephan's head in sequence, his book flying from his hands. He knelt down to grab it but the ball hits him again when it falls from the sky, the boy hit face-first at the ground with a yelp.
Susan knelt by his side, trying to help him get up as he held his weight up at his elbow. "Stephan, are you alright?!" She said in worry.
He groaned in pain, "Ye-Yeah I'm fine..."
"Did you see that?!" They heard someone shout from afar with some background laughs and the group turned in its direction, finding a group of around six boys laughing. "I got the Hamilton and the weird Laurens TWICE! This just gotta count 10 points!"
Frances huffed and stood in front of her brother, opening her arms and dropping them furiously at her sides as she shouted, "YO! WHATTA HELL?!"
It was only then that the boys that were making fun of them looked at the group, suppressing some laughs while others didn't give a damn and kept on laughing. Frances recognized them as some of the players from the College's soccer team. The principal had come up with the idea of bringing the soccer practice to New York after some trip to Europe a couple of years ago and since then other institutions adhered to it, forming teams of their own after noticing they could actually earn some money with the matches.
The team captain had a confident smirk pasted on his face as he eyed the group not far from him and turned around to fist-bump one of his mates and saying something to him before walking towards the other group.
"Sorry, love, but..." He raises an eyebrow as he stops in front of Frances, who furiously stared at him with her hands placed on her hips, "Isn't this the weirdo squad?"
She didn't know what pissed her off the most. His confident attitude, the way he acted as if everyone adored him, the stupid mole over his lip that apparently made every other girl sigh whenever he smirked at them, the haircut that was so similar to hers and so many time made Frances regret having an undercut; even if his' wasn't as short as hers; or being the son of the man that humiliated her father in the past.
Being the soccer team captain was also a big plus to her loath because the team was considered a bunch of male chauvinist empty heads that many girls used to run after by their status. Maybe all of the previous suggestions were reasons for her to hate Alfred Lee.
Frances took a step closer and grabs his cravat, pulling his face down, close to hers, the boy still smirking with his eyebrow up high even with her deathly stare.
"Listen here, asshole. The only person who can bully my brother is me. Got it, flower boy?" She calls him by the name she knew that hit a weak spot, achieving her goal when she saw his confident smirk twitch. The Lee's family had a flower shop and not many people knew that Alfred used to work there, but Frances wasn't one of those people, "And call me love one more time to see what is gonna happen to that pretty face of yours."
He chuckles and purrs, well aware that it would make her mad, "So you think I am pretty, love?"
"Oh, you-" She groans raising her fist, ready to punch him, but Theodosia quickly grabs it in worry and sternly says, "Fran."
Frances still held her furious expression and hesitated, but ended up letting his cravat go. He straightens himself saying, "Sorry you have that bad impression of me... But for you ladies, I'm always a gentleman, ya know?" He purrs and winks, making Susan look away in embarrassment as Frances looks back at Theo with a glance that basically asked for permission to punch him.
"You can't get into another fight," Theodosia whispered and Frances sighed, knowing she was right.
Violetta shrugs and says with a light blush tinting her cheeks, "That was very unkind, Alfred..."
Frances snorts and smiles in amusement as she crosses her arms, "Sometimes it's so good to be reminded of your name," He looked at her questioningly, to which she added, "If it wasn't bad enough to be a Lee, your first name only makes you sound stupider!" She laughed more before continuing, "Your name sounds like you're some old British dude!"
Her friends started laughing and snickering as well while Alfred grew slightly embarrassed, "Yea, but what can you say? Your name means "France" and your parents don't have A THING related to it."
Stephan sticks up a finger, visibly timid, as he hugs his book, "Ahm, actually... One of our father's best friends is French so..."
Frances held a superior smile as she cocked an eyebrow at Alfred said, "As for you-" She points at his chest, her smile completely gone as that old threateningly expression returned, "Try not to let your ego be as big as your mouth."
The two exchange challenging glances for a few moments before Theodosia grabbed her friend's arm and pulls her away as she fastly spoke, "OkguysIthinkweshouldgonow! Your folks won't like to know we were messing around when you all should be getting ready for the dinner tonight, and you Stephan still need to bake those muffins! BYEVI!"
Violetta waved as the group left and she walked up to Alfred's side as the rest of the team couldn't resist but checking out the gorgeous and curvaceous black powered Jefferson girl as she passed by them.
Mary quickly eyed the group, finding the red-haired Jason between them and, well aware of the effect she used to cause in men, carelessly caressed his face and smirked at him as she slowly kept on walking, making the boy sway forward slightly at the loss of contact, hypnotized by her light amber eyes in contrast with her dark skin. She chuckled in amusement by his reaction before winking at the group and leaving the boys with a little argument on their hands about whom it was for.
"What do you mean? Of course, she winked at me," Jason cockily said, passing his fingers through his ginger hair as he kept a grin on his face.
"No, it was not, she was clearly looking at my direction," Kyle, one of the triplets, replied. The three brothers had olive skin and curly brown hair, and people struggled to tell them apart.
"And what was that thing with you, Jason?" Owen, the triplet who had a white birthmark at his hand, said with an annoyed expression and crossed arms.
Jason cockily scoffed, "Ok, fine. What Mary and I have it's been... Happening for a while. I didn't tell you guys, but Mary and I already got to... Ya know" He cocked an eyebrow and his grin only grew as he left the message to his friends' imagination.
"What- For real?!" Owen replied exasperated and Jason nodded, still smirking, "But she keeps on flirting with me all the time!"
Henry, the last triplet, spoke more silently than the rest of them "Uhm... What if I say she already kissed me once and-"
"Wait, so you're saying she already flirted with all of us?" Kyle asked with a frown.
Jason chuckled, "I am honestly not surprised by that. We always knew she and Alfred already had-"
"Yep, no need to talk about that!" Alfred quickly interrupted him, still at Violetta's side as the girl covered her face in embarrassment and he cleaned his throat after speaking, looking away.
"Aham~" Jason teased but continued to speak. "Anyway, the entire city already heard she is a big flirtatious woman and we obviously aren't the first nor the last guys she will ever flirt with! No feelings attached. Right, Chris?" He nudged the tall blonde who was quiet until that moment.
"If you say so," He shrugged and looked away, "But I can't really say I am into that kind of girl and..."
"What kind? Hot?" Jason joked and the rest of the boys laughed.
"Haha, no. Vulgar" He says looking down but quickly stealing a glance at Violetta's direction.
The boys mocked and made fun of Chris as they walked away, still discussing that same subject until Jason started another argument when said that he was surely more special for Mary than the rest of them, just to make sure he was better and above them. They continued to talk as Violetta and Alfred followed in silence.
"Why do you always do this, Al?" The girl suddenly asks looking up at Alfred, but he only looks down at her for a moment before looking back at where they were heading.
"Do what?" He shrugs.
"Be mean to people. Especially with these guys..." She motions back at where they had the conflict with the other group, "I know you are not like this, you never were. And I'm honestly tired of asking so can you just please tell me why-"
"HEY, FRED!" Jason shouted from ahead of them, with one hand close to his mouth to make his voice louder while the other hand beckoned at them, "COME ON! THE GAME STARTS IN 30 MINUTES!"
Alfred raises an eyebrow, his old smirk back on his face as he points at the team with his thumb, "Are you coming, mascot?"
Violetta sighs and slightly lowers her head before looking up at him with a kind smile, "Of course I am, what kind of best friend I would be if I didn't?"
He pulled an arm around Violetta's shoulders and they start to walk towards the rest of the team, "GOOD! Because I couldn't count on anybody else to take the responsibility to give us luck during the game!"
Violetta shook her head, "It's not luck, Al. It's God!"
"Sure, sure" He dismissed her commentary and they headed towards the small field hosting that night's game.