⋘ 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦... ⋙

Ludicrous
|Adjective|
So foolish, unreasonable, or out of place as to be amusing; ridiculous.

          When Delilah walked into the cafeteria for Lunch, she wasn't expecting to see Griffin Stagg--someone who she had recently found out to be Vance Hopper's younger brother--sitting by himself. After only meeting the boy for a couple of minutes the previous day, she was expecting to see him hanging out with some other kids his age, not sitting by himself as he ate his lunch.

Not wanting to invite the boy over herself, Delilah looks around the gym, waiting until she spotted the little sister of someone she was recently getting to know. Once Gwen came into view, sitting at a table with two other girls, she walked over to the group, offering the other two a smile before she sat across from Gwen.  The girl looks at her with a smile, not having seen Delilah since the weekend. "Hey, Delilah."

"Hi, Gwen." She returns the favour quickly before she turns her head so she could spot Griffin again. "You see that boy over there?" She questions, pointing to the boy as she waits for Gwen to turn her head and find him.

When the girl does, she nods her head. "That's Griffin, he doesn't have many friends." She explained, thinking the information would be useful to Delilah.

The other girl only nods her head, already knowing that. "Why don't you ask him if he wants to sit with you at lunch? Or in class even?" Delilah asks Gwen, staring at the younger boy across the room in pity. She tried to get rid of the expression, but there wasn't much she could do when he sat by himself like that, hunched in on his already small figure.

"If I do that everyone is going to think I like him," Gwen says in exaggeration, looking away from the boy sharply and staring at Delilah with a scowl. "I don't want rumours like that to spread about me." She says, disgusted with the idea.

Delilah rolls her eyes at that, the younger girl blowing the implication of being seen with Griffin out of proportion. "I hang out with Bruce and no one thinks we're dating." She states, trying to reason with the girl that it would all be fine if she was caught talking to the other boy.

Gwen shoots her a quick look, her brows furrowed. "Do you really think that?" She questions the older girl, staring at her unimpressed.

At Gwen's silence, Delilah's eyes widen slightly. "I am not dating Bruce Yamada. I actually have standards." She says with her own disgust washing over her face.

"Don't let anyone hear you saying that," Gwen warns, looking sceptically around the room. "Some of his friends might try and kill you for saying something like that." She comments, making sure no one had overheard their conversation. "Besides, he's not the only one people think you are dating."

"What? Does the school suddenly think I'm snogging Robin and Billy now?" Delilah asks, unimpressed as she waits for Gwen to shake her head, but when she stays silent like before, a new wave of disgust washes over Delilah as she shudders slightly, disturbed by the knowledge and wishing she had never asked.

"Why do you want me to be his friend anyway. If you like him that much why don't you go and do it?" Gwen asks, moving on from that conversation and getting back to the one they had grown side-tracked from.

"'Cause he's Vance's little brother." Delilah shoots out, finally annoyed at Gwen's refusal as she continued to shoot her down every second. But eventually, she realised what she had said and terror dawned on her. She wasn't meant to reveal that to anyone--or she didn't think she was allowed to reveal it to anyone. "Well, step-brother." She tries to save with a grimace.

But Gwen had already heard the news, now looking at Griffin with a newfound interest. "He's related to Pinball Vance Hopper?" She questions, sizing the small boy up. At Delilah's nod of affirmation, she carries on. "He doesn't look like much."

"Thought the same thing when I first saw him with Vance," Delilah said, shrugging her shoulders a little. "But he's in your year." She suggests, trying to get Gwen to go up to the boy.

"You still need to tell me the full story of how you and Vance became friends, or better yet, how he didn't kill you when you questioned his pinball skills," Gwen says, going off topic again as she looks back over at Delilah, ready to hear the story then and there. She could always invite Griffin over in their next class or at lunch tomorrow.

"Well, I'm not really sure- that's not a story for now!" Delilah cut herself off, forcing herself to stay on task for the real reason she came over to see Gwen, even if she loved gossiping with her, there was a time and a place, which wasn't now.

"If we can have a sleepover where you tell me all about Vance and everyone else, then yes, I'll go over there and invite Griffin over right now." Gwen sighed, grinning at the offer she made to the older girl.

"Deal. But we can't do my house. My mum either won't let us or won't leave us alone." Delilah nodded quickly, agreeing to more than what Gwen was letting on to be.

A smug grin spread across Gwen's face. "Perfect." She said, getting ready to invite the short boy over. "Now why don't you go back to your friends so he doesn't think you forced me into doing so." Gwen shooed Delilah off, ready to use the seat she was currently in for Griffin if he comes back with her.

"Sure," Delilah muttered, picking her back up as she got ready to find her friends. "Just so you know, he's a biter," Delilah says before she spots Robin at their normal table, knuckles bloody for some reason.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gwen calls after the taller girl as she makes her way over to the table, waving Gwen off as she remains unanswered. Delilah doesn't look back as she sits down next to Robin, facing the table where Gwen had wandered off to, striking up a conversation with Griffin as Delilah kept a close eye on them.

"Who's the kid you're looking out for?" Robin questioned, never spotting him before as he watched Gwen talk to him. Robin was smart enough to put two and two together, figuring out that Delilah had set the younger girl up to go and talk to him after their conversation after the fleeting glances they had both sent his way on numerous occasions.

Delilah looked back over at Griffin, looking away from Robin as she watched the short boy walk back with Gwen to her table, unaware of the eyes on him and the negation behind getting him to go with her. "Just some kid I met recently." Delilah shrugs him off, moving the conversation along. "How was your last period?"

"Bored out of my mind," Robin states, thumping his head onto the lunch table. "Math just makes no sense to me. The teacher can't explain anything, I don't know how they ever got a job here." He complained lightly, malice in his voice at the mention of his math teacher.

A snort left Delilah as she stared down at the other boy. "I'm sure you'll be able to find someone who can help you with math." The blonde girl reassured, grinning at the huff Robin let out before the other boy was sitting up in his seat, putting his tough guy act on quickly once more, no longer willing people to see this 'weaker' side of him.

"There is this one boy," Robin states, eyes briefly scanning the room for the boy in question. "Our teacher has paired us up a few times to work together on worksheets and he always explains it better than the teacher does." He explained, looking back over at Delilah.

"That's good." Delilah nodded, glad that her friend was already halfway there to figuring his math class out. "Who is it?" She asked a few moments later, pulling some food out of her bag to eat in the time she had left for her lunch break.

"Finney Blake, Gwen's older brother."

Delilah stopped still at the mention of the boy's name, looking over to Robin with pinched brows. "I didn't know the two of you are friends?" She questioned slowly, frowning slightly.

Robin shook his head lightly, hair jostling around his bandanna. "We're not that close." He announced. "He's helped me with math a few times, and I've scared off some of his bullies, but we're not exactly friends." He explained to the blonde girl, watching as she paused her chewing to listen to the other boy's words, taking them in carefully.

"You could talk to him?" Delilah shrugs, taking a final bite of her food before she wraps it up and places it back in her bag, leaning forward on her arms afterwards, letting them fold under her head so she could get comfortable. "He's in my science class. We've been paired up for the term to be partners and he's nice. Very enthusiastic about the subject but still nice."

"Are you two close?" Robin asked in return, repeating Delilah's earlier words back to her to a certain extent, raising a brow at the girl laying down across from him.

Delilah shakes her head into her hands. "Not really." She states, keeping her head downturned as she stared up at Robin from the corner of her eyes. "We've only spoken once, I wouldn't call us close." She explained to the other boy. "I do share a class with him today so who knows? Maybe we'll do some more talking like you two should." Delilah hints, staring at the boy with raised brows.

Robin looked down at Delilah with one of his brows arching, keeping his stare on the unblinking girl, waiting until she was either going to blink rapidly from the extending amount of time with her eyes left open, or when she would hopefully look away. But that never happened as Delilah continued to stare at Robin, only widening her eyes more at the look Robin was trying to send her. So in the end, it was Robin that looked away briefly, muttering a "If I see him I'll ask."

That got a content nod from the light-haired girl.

"Aren't you being quite the matchmaker today?" Billy said, arriving at the table with a slam of his bag. A small grin made its way onto Delilah's face at the arrival of the new boy, his beige hair ruffled as he took to the seat across from Delilah, getting ready to indulge in a wild story that had taken place throughout that morning.

By the time lunch had finished, Delilah had been filled in on all the ways Billy had nearly smuggled his dog--Teddy--into the school before he was found out and forced to take his Golden Retriever home, returning back to the school after his dog had been dropped off. Even on the walk to and throughout their geography lesson, Billy talked Delilah's ear off about his dog, which the girl absently listened to, today being the first she had ever heard of Billy's companion.

By the end of the class, Delilah could proudly say that she proudly knew nearly everything about the golden god, maybe even more about it than Billy's own parents. But she couldn't say she was too disappointed when the class came to an end, ready to head to her shared class with Bruce, which she hadn't heard much of recently.

On her way into the class, she sent the Spanish teacher a toothy smile, the woman's dark skin shining in the mid-afternoon sunlight. The boy she was searching for could be found standing near the side of the classroom, talking to a certain boy with fluffy brown hair, someone Delilah had been talking about to Robin earlier that day, preaching about how he should will up the courage and talk to him. Only now, it looked like she would have to be the one to speak to him.

Walking over to the pair, Delilah towered over the boy who sat in his seat, Bruce crouched down by the edge of the seat, leaning on the table next to Finney. "Hey Brucey," Delilah greets first, regarding the boy as he stared up at Delilah with a scowl before she turned to face Finney, the boy canning his neck lightly so he could stare up at Delilah. "Hi, Finney." She said with a small smile.

"Hi, Delilah." Finney fumbled over his words, trying to sound casual as he greeted the taller girl as she leaned forward on Finney's desk, trying to level herself with the boys. The blonde girl met him with a subtle grin before her attention was being stolen away by Bruce, making him stare after the taller girl with pleading eyes, his lips sealing shut into a thin line as he watches her get consumed by the other boy.

"What took you so long?" Bruce had asked her, not bothering to be overly polite with the girl. "Normally your racing round the corner to find me but today you took longer." He stated with an air of arrogance surrounding him.

Delilah's top lip curls up at Bruce's words, nose scrunching at the interaction behind them. "I think you're the one who can't get enough of me." She states firmly, answering his question next. "Billy was telling me his adventures in dog smuggling, quite the interesting tale that I would rather listen to than be stuck in your presence for the next two hours."

A scoff parts from Bruce's lips at Delilah's words. "How rude. You're comparing me to a dog and somehow I'm on the losing side." He said with an upturn of his nose, narrowing his eyes at Delilah as he watched the girl.

Delilah was about to make another retort, the corners of her lips already curling upwards. But before she could utter a word, Ms Perez was stepping into the class, hurrying them all into their seats. Because of the quick instructions, Delilah found herself sitting on the left of Finney, closest to the wall while Bruce sat on the other side of him, getting ready for the class where Delilah hoped he would botch some more of the phases.

From the last lesson, Delilah could remember some of what she was taught, some of the meanings behind the words vanishing from her mind but the actual pronunciation stayed clean in her head. However, today they were learning how to introduce themselves, some simple phrases like 'Hola, mi nombre es (Delilah).'

Delilah could see Finney scribbling lightly in his notebook, small doodles in the corners of his pages containing stars and planets with rings surrounding them. Delilah tried not to look too openly at the book, staring at it from the corner of her eye as he didn't pay too much attention to the lesson Ms Perez was teaching. A soft smile rested on Delilah's face once the boy looked up a little frantically at the mention of practising what they had learnt, looking to Delilah with curved brows as he hoped for some form of explanation from the girl.

"Hola, mi nombre es Finney." Delilah offered the boy, waiting for him to return her words.

The boy nodded his head quickly, hair bouncing around his ears. "Hola, mi nombre es Delilah." He said, saying the blonde girl's name instead of his own.

A warm smile spread across Delilah's lips at the small mistake. "No, that means your name is Delilah." The girl said, staring amused at the boy as his face flashed with the dawning, mouth dropping a little as he began to shake his head.

"I thought we were saying hi to each other or something since you said my name." He quickly justified, shoulders bunching up to his ears as he leaned in on himself, trying to make himself seem smaller after his mistake, offering Delilah a nervous smile as he waited to see how she would react.

A soft chuckle seemed to leave Delilah's lips as she shrugged. "That's probably my fault for not saying something else." She said, waving off Finney's reaction. "But hey, you pronounced everything correctly. That's better than what Bruce over there can do." She said with a small jab at the other boy, a head of dark waves whipping around to scowl at Delilah because of her words, not doing much to alter her mood.

Finney's face lit up at the compliment he was given, even if Bruce was the downfall of it. For the rest of the lesson, Delilah worked with Finney on what they had learnt, repeating phases back and forth until it had hopefully sunken into their brains. So when the lesson came to an end, Finney was slightly disheartened to see the girl go.

The rest of the day went rather quickly for Delilah. During her P.E. lesson, she spent most of the time with Alina once more, and Bruce talking to the two girls during the breaks in the practical lesson. Once again, they had been split into two different teams. Mr Brebita had tried to put Delilah on Bruce's team, but the girl only swiped teams with one of the other boys, sticky by Alina's side so the girl wasn't alone all throughout the lesson.

When the day had finally come to an end, Delilah was content with it, cycling home slowly to enjoy the scenery that she would normally race past, content to either get away from her house quickly or return to it before her mother beat her to it.

Today her mother had promised to be home early, wanting to prepare a dinner for the two of them to share since she felt as if it had been a while since they have had a civil meal together, meaning Delilah would have to do her best to hold her tongue, until the night's end, hoping for it all to go well.

Arriving home, Delilah parked her bike near the porch of her house, leaving it undercover so if it was ever to rain it would hopefully stay dry. Wrapping the bike lock around its wheels, Delilah checks twice to make sure it was properly locked before she gets her key from her bag and enters the house. Delilah couldn't yet hear her mother, but the afternoon was still young and Delilah could tell that the woman would be arriving soon.

And arrive soon she did as a familiar car pulled into the house's driveway a few hours later, Delilah saw the vehicle from her window. Contemplating on going down to greet Raina, Delilah decides to walk down the stairs to say hi. Instead of making a homemade meal like her mother had originally insisted on, the older woman held a large plastic bag of takeaway food, smiling at Delilah as she saw the girl waiting on the staircase for her.

"Hi Honey," Raina says as she walks in further into the room, flashing Delilah a logo on the bag, making it apparent what she had brought home for the two of them to share. "How was your day at school?" She questioned, walking past her daughter as she heads to the dining room, placing the plastic bag on a large wooden table.

Delilah trailed after her mother, sitting near the head of the table as Raina went to grab some plates and utensils. "It was good. I got to hang out with friends in most of my classes so I wasn't bored." She explained, pulling the plastic bag towards her and taking out some of the containers our, filled with items like rice, black bean noodles and wonton soup.

"You'll have to introduce me to some of your friends, I haven't met any of them yet." She states as she places the plates down, settings the utensils down in a clump as she took a seat. "Are you still friends with Bruce? He hasn't been around the house recently."

Nodding her head quickly, Delilah picks up a spoon, and opened the container of plain rice. "Yeah, he's in a few of my classes and we hung out last weekend." The blonde girl confirmed for her mother. "Can I have a sleepover with my friend? We don't know when yet but she offered her house so we'll be out of your hair for the night." Delilah asked after a few minutes, her plate loaded with different foods.

Raina didn't answer immediately, staring down at her food as she pushed it around with her spoon. "Sure, but if you need to you can always come back here." The older woman grinned, sharing a large smile with Delilah which the younger girl quickly returned, glad she would be able to keep the promise she had made with Gwen earlier that day.

"Thanks, mum." The girl smiled, content to sit in silence as she ate the food presented in front of her.

Throughout the night, the two would converse, acting like a proper family for once. Delilah could finally say she was glad to spend the time with her mother, not dreading her next words or waiting for the older woman to explode on her like she normally would.

When dinner came to an end, Delilah offered to do the dishes, allowing her mother to relax for the night. The brunette woman only sat in front of the television, keeping an ear out for Delilah as her favourite program came on. After she had completed the task, Delilah sat next to her mother for a bit, vaguely listening to what was going on in front of her before she went up to her room, turning in for the night.

After getting changed into some suitable clothes for the night, Delilah resided to her bed, ready to fall asleep. But as the night went on, she felt herself twisting and turning. At one point, she could hear her mother turn off the television downstairs, making her way to her own room to settle down. That only made her realise how long she had been laying awake.

Thinking of everything but at the same time nothing, in particular, a light tapping at her window awoke her from her trance, pulling her toward the glass pane. Sitting up slowly, she treads lightly towards the sealed window, ready to open it when a small rock comes flying at it, bumping against the window with a tap before it fell lifelessly down.

Staring at it with furrowed brown, Delilah pushes the window up, ready to stick her head out when another rock flies at her, barely missing her as it fell to the floor. With a scowl, she let her head hang out the window, looking down at who had disturbed her sleep only to find Vance Hopper staring up at her.

"What are you doing?" She called in a snap, waiting for the boy to plead his case as to why he had shown up to her house in the middle of the night, thinking it would be a good idea to fling pebbles at her window.

"Fucking finally," The boy said instead, his hands manoeuvring so they could rest crossed over his chest. "I know what you did at school," Vance states a few seconds later, not elaborating too much further as he stared at Delilah with fierce eyes.

"What?" Delilah questioned, leaning forward further out her window as her hands rested on the ledge, trying to see and hear Vance better in the darkness.

"Don't act like you don't fucking know what you did." He snaps at her, voice raising harshly at Delilah's continuance to stay unenlightened.

"Look I'm sorry if I've offended you, but yelling at me in the middle of the night isn't-"

"Thank you. For Griffin." Vance cuts her off, giving her a curt nod. "He told me about Gwen, and I know she wouldn't have gone up to him if it wasn't for you meeting him the other day."