GITTB, Year Three

I hung out with Jacqueline a lot throughout August. I found out she had a habit of dropping random lore from her family and childhood, and a surprising amount of the random things she said involved Mitchell.

I told her about Lucas and Delphine, and she didn't have anything to say other than "Aren't they a little young?"

On September 1st, I pulled on my purple t-shirt and jeans. Fiona, Delphine, and I had decided to dress like the Chipettes from Alvin and the Chipmunks for fun. I was purple, Fiona was green, and Delphine was pink.

"You know what I love about this school?" Delphine said as the usual "Good morning, everyone! Welcome back to Fangirl School! Please find your fandom's bus and take it to your school building. Have a great day!" played over the PA.

"What?" Fiona asked.

"The fact that we don't have cliques," she said. "No snobby cheerleaders or jocks or 'nerd kids.' We're all the same. Well, there's also the separate group of girls who are bit-bleeep!"

We turned to see Jacqueline and Mitchell, grinning widely, Mitchell holding his bleeper button.

"Didn't catch that one on time," he said, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

There was a round of hugs and high-fives as we greeted them. Delphine and Fiona didn't know them that well, but I did, and I was so happy to see them again.

"How have you guys been?" I asked.

"That was the most boring summer of my life," Jacqueline said at the same time Mitchell said, "I went to Italy."

"Italy? That's so cool," I told him.

"Yeah. I cosplayed my Camp Jupiter shirt and everything," he replied.

"His family offered to bring me along," Jacqueline grumbled, "but my darling mother said no."

Mitchell patted her arm. "There, there."

I realized that, for the first time, Mitchell was taller than Jacqueline. She'd always been a couple inches taller than him, and the mess of red curls on her head certainly helped her look taller, but now she was at eye level with his nose.

Jacqueline seemed to realize what I was thinking, because she said, "I know. Laugh it up. He's taller than me now."

Mitchell smiled and leaned his elbow on her shoulder. "This feels so good. She started getting taller than me when we were ten, and now I've finally caught up."

Jacqueline rolled her eyes. "The bus is gonna leave without us. Come on."

She dragged Mitchell away, still teasing her. Fiona stared after them.

"Not to sound whiny," she said, "but I want what they have."

"Don't we all?" I said. "Also, I really think we should get on that bus."

We found the Titan's Curse year bus. This time of day was always the most messy, because every single person in every single fandom was in this same courtyard. We had eighteen-year-old Harry Potter fans mixing with terrified eleven-year-olds in the Hunger Games fandom. It was such a mess, most of the time we didn't even bother to meet up until after we'd taken the bus to our building.

Delphine made her way to the back of the bus, where Lucas and Walker sat. Lucas was sporting a Minecraft t-shirt and was heavily engaged in conversation with Walker, who sat by the window. Fiona and I followed.

Delphine sat on Lucas's other side, taking his hand. Fiona sat next to Delphine, and I sat by the other window.

The ride wasn't long. The longest bus ride I'd ever taken in this school was exactly five minutes long, and that was to the main school building for the Fight For The Fandoms.

We all got off the bus and went into the building. Last year, we'd made a surprise turn to the Hunger Games school for the reenactment, but this year we went to ours. The teachers herded us down to the auditorium.

"Good morning, demigods!" The principal of the Percy Jackson branch greeted us. "Welcome back!"

As soon as everyone was seated, she began talking.

"As you know, every year Fangirl School has something special called a Get-Into-The-Book event. This year, it'll be done a little differently. This year, we will be taking students from different fandoms to act out a couple of popular scenes from another fandom's book, based on their looks. They will be rehearsing after school hours, but classes will be off today so they and possibly their closest friends can get to meet their cast members."

People started whispering. Of course, if you had that brown eyes black/brown hair combo, they wouldn't want you, because authors just have something against brown eyes. However, there was a very high demand for blue-eyed blondes, especially here in the Percy Jackson fandom.

"Going to the Harry Potter fandom..." The principal opened a letter. "Oh! We only have one student. Walker Norman as Ronald Weasley."

Walker groaned. "Not again!" But he went to the stage anyway.

"Going to the Hunger Games fandom..." the principal continued. "Lucas Crystalos as Peeta Mellark, and Delphine Garcia as Rue."

Both of them went up to the stage and stood next to Walker.

"Going to the Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom... Fiona Albert as Sophie Foster, and Mitchell Anderson as Fitz Vacker."

Fiona didn't seem too happy, but she took a spot next to Delphine. Mitchell followed.

"And... that's it. Thank you."

I turned to leave, but Mrs. Golde told me I would be allowed to go meet the other cast with them, so I went outside to wait for the busses with the others. Jacqueline was there, too, examining Mitchell's face in her hands.

"I don't get it," she said. "This Fitz guy is supposed to have teal eyes and be super hot. That doesn't look teal or super hot to me."

Mitchell grumbled and shoved her away, but his face was pink.

Everyone was meeting in the main school building. They led us past the meeting room where we'd argu- talked with the founders to change their minds. We were ushered to a large corridor in the basement. I saw some familiar faces, but my mind couldn't place just who they were until the boy kissed the girl's cheek.

Hayden and Amandine. I tended to forget that we were the same age, because they just looked and acted so much older and mature and couply.

Walker seemed to spot them, too, because he grabbed my hand. "Hey, look! People who tried to kill us! Come on, let's go say hi."

"I am not going to go say hi."

"Yes you are."

He dragged me over. Mitchell and Jacqueline followed. Despite that being the way we met, I kept forgetting they had been in the reenactment with us.

"Hello, lovely people of the Hunger Games fandom! Remember me?" Walker said, pulling me beside him and letting go of my hand.

"Oh! You're the people from the reenactment!" Amandine said excitedly.

I'd never gotten a chance to properly study her. Her eyes were a sparkling green, and her hair was light brown that complimented her pink lips and cheeks.

I could tell Hayden had a mixed complexion, with soft South-African features. He had dreads, too, that reached just over his ear. Last year, his hair had been curly.

"That's us," Mitchell said. "We kinda lost."

"At least you actually played," Hayden said. "We got stuck with the career alliance, so we never got to actually try and play. You guys kinda ate."

"Yeah. Congrats on the win," Amandine told me.

We made a little more small talk, then I asked them why they were here.

"We signed up to help with the productions," Amandine said proudly. "I'm making the costumes. Hayden's a set decorator."

"It's almost our last year at Fangirl School, and we thought we'd do something to contribute. Since you did so much to make the school treat all fandoms equally." Hayden wrapped his arm around Amandine.

My face flushed. Did people talk about me like that in the other fandoms?

Before I could say much more, Delphine dragged me away to help her try on her costume.

It was a simple outfit, nothing special, really. The standard Hunger Games clothes, I assumed. Fiona and I helped her slip into it. Lucas and the rest of the cast were wearing the exact same costume, in different sizes.

I switched around between the Keeper of the Lost Cities rehearsals, Hunger Games rehearsals, and Harry Potter rehearsals. They mostly did table readings, and trying to get into character. Personally, I felt like the casting was pretty off, because Amandine showed me a picture of Peeta Mellark, and he looked nothing like Lucas. Lucas's features were soft and his hair fell into his eyes, having grown back unbelievably fast during the summer. He was tall, not tall like Walker but not short, either, and he definitely wasn't all bulky and stocky like Peeta Mellark. And Delphine was a bit darker in skin tone than Rue, but I didn't say that aloud because of course, in today's society, anyone would take offense over that.

I was with the Hunger Games group when at around one PM they issued a half-hour break. Delphine went to make friends with the rest of the cast, and I sat with Lucas.

He was sitting on a rectangular black block, his back against the wall, his face scrunched in thought.

I went over to him. "Mind if I sit?"

He looked up. "What? Oh. No, go ahead."

I sat next to him. I wasn't sure why. I just didn't want him to be alone. "How's having eight siblings treating you?"

He sat up a little straighter. "Well, I met them for the first time a week ago when they started moving their stuff in, and they seem like they hate each other."

"How so?"

"Well, the twins scream at each other every time their eyes make contact, Peter and Lauren keep giving each other backhanded compliments, and they don't seem to be getting along with my siblings either. Their dad had to stop Miles and Peter from breaking each other's necks the other day."

"Are they bothering you?" I asked.

"So far, no. Lauren totally judged just about every aspect of my appearance, Hyde only knows I exist because I'm the only one in the room who doesn't have a bunk bed, and Peter and Hailey haven't even looked in my direction. And that's fine. I mean, I'm tight with my siblings, but these new step-siblings are kind of ruining our lives."

"So they aren't bothering you?"

"Not directly. But that's because I've kept my mouth shut and head down every time they're around. Although they moved in yesterday, so that's gonna be hard to do from now on."

"Well, if you ever need out of the house, you know where I live." That slipped out before I could stop it.

"Yeah, thanks."

Stupid, Y/N, stupid! He's dating your friend!

But he looks so happy, the other side of my brain argued. He had smiled when I said that, and his mood seemed generally better after that.

This dating thing is already making life so complicated.

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