𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎
Teagan firmly believed in abolishing the hierarchy and giving the middle finger to authority figures. She would gladly overthrow the government in battle if that sort of thing hadn't gone out of style centuries ago.
But even she couldn't disagree with the highest authority going. Sister Micheal.
Erin, — despite Claire storming out and teagans suspicious protests — had decided to go ahead and print the wee anonymous lesbians story.
The others, bar a hesitant James, were completely fine and on board with the idea.
Apparently they saw nothing wrong with publishing someone's secrets.
Erin only started to doubt if it was a good idea when she suddenly remembered all issues of the paper needed sister Michaels approval before being printed.
Teagan, — who had worn herself out by protesting against the story, — couldn't believe that Erin, Michelle, Orla, or even James couldn't see the problem with exposing the poor wee closeted lesbian. Teagan knew all too well of the burden.
Erin rallied her troops — basically told them to follow her — as they marched towards sister Michael's office, well, Teagan ditched them in the corridor. She wanted absolutely no part in this and besides, she had lessons to be in. Well, technically, she had no intention of going to double PE.
That lesson was her own personal hell on earth.
Teagan sat in the toilet stall for what felt like eternity, but when she checked her obnoxious hello kitty watch (a beloved birthday gift from Orla) it told her it had only been forty - five minutes. Christ.
By now in PE she would be weighing up the pros and cons of knocking herself out with a Camogie stick or asking Erin to hit a sliotar her way.
The cons were pain, having to go to ancient school nurse who could give sister Micheal a run for her money when it came to scariness, and having to deal with the sliotar sized bump on her forehead.
She sighed and placed the lid back on her black sharpie.
A poem, of sorts, about a certain Jenny Joyce was now written in block capitals over the back of the toilet door.
When she was satisfied with her graffiti,
Teagan placed the pen back in her blazer pocket that was draped over the back of the door on a fragile looking hook that would probably break any second under the immense weight of her blazer, heavy black bag and her uncomfortable shoes that she had tied up their by the laces.
Her tight covered legs were under her knees as she rested her head on top. Christ, who knew the was something more boring than PE?.
She'd skipped lessons before. Many times, but she had Michelle with her, or Jenny Joyce and Aisling caught her before she hit the forty minute mark.
Before Teagan could descend into madness and start questioning the meaning of her miserable life, the sound of the toilet door quietly opening and closing with a bang made her nearly Yelp in shock. Her hand instantly flew to steady herself on the stall wall, she nearly fell on the floor, that would of been grim.
Her other hand covered her mouth, not allowing a single breath to be heard.
Fuck. Sister Micheal had found her. If the situation wasn't so tense Teagan might of congratulated herself for surviving so long.
A sob echoed in the small room and whoever it was started to sniffle, okay, it definitely wasn't Sister Micheal. That woman had no emotions.
Teagan was caught in a moral dilemma — should she go and comfort the person or should she just stay hidden to avoid the emotional conversation?
She battled with her self for a few seconds before deciding to try and get a look of who it was. Quietly and cautiously, she stood up off the toilet and peered through the minuscule gap in the toilet stall. Blonde hair....short.....
It took a couple of seconds for her to distinguish the person, but when she finally pieced it all together she unlocked the door instantly and barged out.
"Claire?"
The weeping girl immediately turned around and stared at Teagan in shock, looking like a deer in headlights.
Claire's lip quivered and fresh tears still fell down her cheek. Teagan went back into the toilet stall and grabbed a few sheets of toilet paper for Claire to wipe her eyes.
"Claire what's wrong?" Teagan asked as she wiped Claire's tears for her. Teagan hated emotions especially when others expressed them, but something overpowered her awkwardness and sent her into therapist mode.
The sight of Claire so upset made her want to punch whoever did it to her. Claire cried at everything. her wee friend Kamal, those adopt a snow leopard adverts on tv.... but Teagan had never seen her so distraught like this.
"Claire?.......," She urged.
"It's nothing, just nothing, I'm fine" she unsuccessfully muffled her cries in an attempt to sound normal.
Teagan clicked her tongue and moved her arm to hold Claire in a side hug, "Claire you're a blubbering mess and despite what my mock results say...I'm not stupid"
Claire shook her head and moved towards the door, "leave it Teagan. I'm fine"
Teagan ran past Claire and blocked the door "come on Claire, I'm your friend, you can tell me"
"Erin" she reluctantly whispered so quickly that Teagan almost missed it. But she definitely heard her.
"Erin's made you cry?," she asked in disbelief, Claire and Erin were the closest out of all of them, Christ they had matching friendship bracelets.
How in the name of Christ had Erin made Claire cry? "What did she do?"
Claire sniffled again. Teagan could tell she was fighting back tears.
"I could beat her up for you if you want" Teagan offered, intending for it to lighten the mood, but Claire only shook her head.
"Claire, please just tell me" she insisted. The whole Situation was out of Teagan's comfort zone. It seriously grossed her out.
"If I tell you...you'll hate me too!"
Teagan rolled her eyes but instantly shook her head at the rude gesture. She wanted to help Claire feel safe. Not feel like she was annoying her.
"Claire I promise nothing could ever make me hate you. Remember all those times you grassed on us to Jenny Joyce? If our friendship can survive that I can survive anything!"
Claire looked up at Teagan through her misty tear stained eyes and blinked, "promise you won't hate me?" She asked.
Teagan's lips formed into a thin lipped smile, trying her best to reassure Claire.
She held out her pinkie to her, "I even pinkie promise, it's legally binding Claire" she winked.
Claire locked her little finger around Teagan's and latched on for dear life.
She sobbed again, but this time she spoke through her tears, "it's me" she whispered in a strained voice.
Teagan blinked — "What's you?"
Claire's shoulders hunched as she took a deep breath in. "It's me....the wee lesbian" she rushed out. "I'm the wee lesbian"
Teagan's brain slowly adjusted to the information, and she took in the information but nothing changed the way she thought about Claire. The only thing that wasn't the same was that she now knew Claire liked girls. It's As simple as that. Girls were class.
Claire's eyes went wide and she stepped back from her friend, fretting and mumbling "god now you hate me!" She cried
"No! No! I don't hate you" She did the first thing that came to mind and engulfed Claire into a bone crushing hug, tucking her head onto the smaller girls shoulder. Claire's body shook with sobs as she wrapped her arms tightly around Teagan's body, too afraid to let go and get upset again.
Suddenly, the dots connected in Teagan's head and she pulled back from the hug in disbelief. "You're upset because of what Erin said to you," she slowly said, before her eyes snapped to Claire's quivering face, "what exactly did she say to you, Claire?"
Claire hesitated. Should she tell her what Erin said? Would Teagan agree with her?
The furious look on Teagan's face made her gulp and blurt out — "she .. um she told me to go back in the closet, to go back to being straight"
"I'll kill her" she fumed, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
Claire protested, "no, please don't. It's fine honestly"
"It is not bloody fine Claire!"
"I don't want to cause drama, please Teagan, if you cause a scene then everyone will find out and I don't want that"
Teagan unclenched her jaw and sighed, "fine"
"Look, sit with me at lunch today yeah? I'll sit with you for as long as you need" Teagan offered. "Me and James are here for you.
I won't tell him!" She quickly reassured her as she saw the panicked look in Claire's eyes.
It wasn't her secret to tell, but Teagan knew James wouldn't question why she and Claire suddenly broke off from the group, he'd follow along. Claire grinned before wrapping Teagan in another hug.
Just because she promised Claire she wouldn't beat Erin up, it didn't mean she couldn't think about it.
In fact all Teagan had done since she left Claire's side twenty minutes ago was imagine everything she wished she could say to Erin's face.
Teagan thought she was doing an okay job at hiding her frustration from everyone in the classroom, but James knew her too well to not notice the small things that gave her mood away.
They always sat next to each other in history, back when they were only friends Teagan told him it was so she could copy his work, but she later admitted it was because he made the lesson worth going to.
They'd always whisper to one another to make the lesson go faster.
she hadn't spoken to him once today.
Then the was the cute way her eyebrows were scrunched up, Something James knew she only did when she was deep in thought, and the dead give away was her nostrils flaring. A sure sign that Teagan was angry.
Plus she was griping the pencil in her hand so aggressively he was sure it would snap and cause a splinter any second. their classmates probably thought James was just being a weirdo just staring at the side of her face.
"Teagan..." James started, not sure how she'd respond.
She absentmindedly nodded her head at him, signalling she was half listening to him, half still trying to murder Erin.
"Um, are you okay?," he asked, "it's just you seem a bit, um — agitated?" He tread softly around the subject.
" I'm per - fect !" She spat through clenched teeth. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Um, Well — you see I don't believe you if I'm being honest, and as your bo—" James cut himself off and rephrased his sentence quickly,
"as um — who I am to you, um I know you're in a mood about something. And you were off in the library before, is this to do with that?"
Teagan finally snapped the pencil clenched in her tight grip and ignored the dark pieces of wood and led as they clattered onto her and James's open history books.
She wanted to shout out the truth at the top of her voice, to finally get the secret she had bottled up for years out — but she couldn't so didn't.
Instead she shook her head and ran a frustrated hand through her mess of fading blonde hair. She wasn't as brave as Claire has been today. But she was definitely as petrified of the outcome as Claire was, she didn't want the same reaction from James that Claire had received.
So instead of telling James everything she wanted to, she put on an act and rolled her eyes and edged further away from him on her seat.
"If I'm in such a mood why don't you leave me alone?" She questioned, a bitter tone taking over.
James blinked, once again questioning what the hell was going on with her. Whenever he tried to get through she put up a wall to keep him out — and honestly he was sick of it.
All he wanted was to be nothing but open with her but she just couldn't seem to lower her guard long enough to reciprocate.
After her speech at Jenny's party he thought she was up for being in the relationship, but he was honestly beginning to reconsider if they had both made a mistake. Maybe they acted too quickly on their feelings.
He tried his best to come off as kind, after all he never got angry, but even he could hear the slight hint of anger in his tone as he raised his voice more. "just tell me what's up" he implored, practically begging. All he wanted was to cheer her up.
"Oh just piss off James!" Teagan yelled, not meaning to say it out loud. Fuck.
The whole class gawked at the two of them, mouths wide open in shock — Teagan O'Ryan and the wee English fella were fighting already?
Teagan cringed with guilt as she saw the unsettled look on James face. She didn't mean to take it out on him, god she never wanted to upset James in anyway, but when she was in a mood she just couldn't control her temper and instinctively lashed out if talked to.
Before she could utter her much needed apology, their teacher — who Teagan couldn't remember the name of — slammed a book on the desk in front of the two of them and scowled
"Miss O'Ryan! — ....... English one!," she began, struggling to remember his name, her voice getting more angrier as she went on —
"since you two seem to have a lot to talk about, why don't you both take a lunchtime detention to catch up instead of using my lesson?"
James gulped under the intense glare the teacher was sending them whilst Teagan sank down into her chair and huffed. Great. She had to spend a whole hour with James when all she wanted to do was avoid him like the plague.
———————
27/12/20
This is possibly the worst thing I've ever wrote idk I'm not vibing with this chapter for some reason.
Please let me know what you think 🥲 and thank you to everyone who's been commenting support and asking me to update, it's really pushed me to want to write knowing people do actually want to read this.
ALSO I HOPE EVERYONE HAD AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS / HOLIDAY SEASON!!
With my terrible updating schedule this will probably the last update of this year so I just want to thank everyone who's voted, commented and read this book this year!