— ❝natural instincts.❞

To say Estelle was surprised to get an email about a new meeting this soon was an understatement. Yesterday, PJ mentioned the next meeting to be in a week. Now, they wanted a meeting the same day they found an advisor.

            Mr. G. How to best describe Mr. G? A walking chaos would be the best description. He had this way of speaking that never made him sound serious, even when he was talking about the most serious topics ever ( being a history teacher, he had to do that quite often ). Estelle was convinced the man had been a hippie in the 80's.

            The email she received had said class starts at 3:15 PM. It was now almost 3:30 PM and the girls in the gym were still waiting on PJ and Josie to even arrive. The group was pretty much the same as yesterday. Estelle counted three more girls, which she guessed was a good thing.

            They'd taken out all sorts of artifacts to warm up with until PJ and Josie would come and tell them the planning. Some girls were hula hooping, others had a jump rope, there were skateboards. Hazel was spread out over some black mats. Estelle was bouncing beside her on a skippy ball.

            When PJ and Josie came in, she stopped bouncing on the ball. Hazel's head shot up towards them. Her hand motioned a wave. "Hey, guys." She smiled.

            A girl in a tight, red dress walked in. She wasn't there yesterday, but Estelle knew who she was. Everyone at school knew who she was. Besides, numerous photographs in Hazel's home showed the friendship between Stella-Rebecca and Hazel since they were young.

            "Hey, ladies," Mr. G's voice boomed through the gymnasium. He came in from the other side. "Let's get it poppin' in this motherfucker." He ran in a bit of a clumsy way towards the group of girls. Mr. G waved at some of his students.

            Josie attempted to gather everyone and have them listen to her, but her voice wasn't coming through. No one heard her, nor did they stop what they were doing. It was only because Estelle was close to them that she heard her.

            "Hello, everybody," She spoke. She noticed no one was paying attention. "Okay, excuse me. Sorry, I feel... Sorry. Uh."

            Meanwhile, PJ wasn't about to sit around and wait for her friend to get the attention. She walked to the cleaner's cart the cleaner had left in the gym near her and grabbed a mop. She took the bottom part off, so that the stick was all that remained and slammed it against the floor until everyone was turned around.

            "Everybody, shut the fuck up!" She yelled. If the others hadn't yet stopped doing what they were doing, they had certainly done so now. PJ moved around, intimidating some of the girls by getting close to their face with an expression that screamed authority ( that was what it was supposed to scream, at least ).

            "This isn't a little hang out, okay?" She moved towards Cynthia —whose head was hung low— and Sylvie —who had this intense, straight stare in her eyes as she nodded vehemently to what PJ was saying. "Oh, it's not a sleepover, playtime. There's serious rules that we need to establish, 'kay?"

With the mop in her hand, PJ continued down the line of girls. "First... Listen. Second," The stick thudded against the floor again. "Be. On. Time. Yeah," She motioned towards Mr. G. "Except for you. You come whenever you want. What time is it?"

Annie quickly answered the question. "3:30!"

"3:30! Club starts at 3:15. Not 3:16," PJ scoffed. "Not 3:17, but the doors close at 3:15," She used the stick to thud it against the floor for extra effect. "No exceptions."

Though what PJ said was completely valid, Estelle couldn't help but shrug her nose. PJ was saying how bad it was that it was 3:30 already while the rest had been here since 3:10. They were the one to come in late. She kept silent, letting PJ finish her speech.

            "I don't care if you're like 'Oh, but I had to go to extra help for math, because I– I need to get a full ride because my mom lives in a trailer and she loves her boyfriend more than me. La, la, la. Blah, blah, blah, blah! Shut up, okay?" PJ explained to the girls in a very... unique way. "My dad left me, and I'm incredibly punctual."

During her incredibly inspiring speech, the doors opened again, this time revealing two more girls. Every head —except for PJ's— turned in the direction of the clashing doors. Isabel and Brittany paused at the end pf the bleachers, listening to PJ talk about punctuality.

With a few nudges from Josie, PJ finally turned around. Estelle and all the other girls watched how her entire demeanor changed when the popular girls walked in. Hazel and Estelle shared a glance. PJ's voice suddenly went soft and... nice? "Um, hey, guys. Come on in," Isabel and Brittany walked further towards the group of girls. "Uh, we're just getting started here. So, um... Today I think we're gonna start with some body contact. We're gonna do wrestling. I think I need a volunteer. Brittany, you're close to me. You wanna..."

Annie was the only one to say anything about the drastic personality change. She mentioned, "I'm sorry. I thought we weren't allowed to be late."

PJ and Josie both scrambled for a valid reason to still seem cool towards Brittany and Isabel, yet without making the rest suspicious. They eventually settled on the fact that it started counting from next week.

            "Okay. I'm sorry. I just want to make sure," Annie said again. "This is a self-defense club, right? Where we can learn to protect ourselves against, like, football players."

            Sylvie raised her hand immediately. Her voice was shaky, showing the signs of fear. "And Huntington? 'Cause, um, they're gonna pork us," She took a ragged breath. "They're gonna pork us."

            "I thought we were fighting each other for money," Stella-Rebecca shared. "There's a cash prize, right?"

            Isabel spoke up for the first time since she'd come in. Her voice was soft. "I thought this was to be part of, like, a local underprivileged female community."

            Brittany shrugged slightly. Her voice stayed monotonous. "My identity is completely attached to hers, so I just kind of go wherever she goes."

            "Everyone's here for a good reason," Josie shrugged her shoulders, her hands in the pockets of her pants. "So, uh, you know, like... Why are we nitpicking reasons?"

            "Yeah. How about this?" PJ agreed with her friend. "Let's jump in, right?"

            Estelle's head turned to the sound of moving paper. She looked at Hazel, turning a page in her notebook and continuing to write things down. She couldn't resist the smile building on her face at the sight. Hazel had these little habits that she found so cute.

            She had missed Pj and Josie rambling some more in her enchanted state of mesmerization. Annie's voice brought her out of it. "I'll go." She raised her hand.

            PJ didn't seem too satisfied with that. "Great. Yeah." Annie walked closer as Josie walked further. Annie hadn't even properly stopped when PJ pushed her on the ground.

            Mr. G stood up from the mat. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," He said. "I don't know about this shit."

Annie grunted when she hit the floor. She rose to her feet again. "What the hell? You didn't even warn me."

"Okay? We didn't get warnings at juvie." PJ retorted. Estelle diverted her gaze to Hazel once again, this time finding the girl already looking at her. They knew they were thinking the same thing.

"We can take it slower." Josie offered. Mr. G's expression was enough for her to consider the consequences of what might happen if he said this was too dangerous.

The man scratched his face. "Maybe, yeah, try that."

"Look, you just use your natural instincts, just come at me. Whenever you want, 'kay?" PJ told Annie.

Annie seemed reluctant at first, but then she pushed PJ with the same force PJ had pushed her. The girls gasped. PJ got up at her feet with a slight hop. "That's great. I say that we go again." She grunted, before pushing the bigger girl.

This time, Annie connected with the floor harder. A loud thud could be heard when her back came down on the floor. Annie complained about her back hurting.

"Oh, shit. Man, we gotta shut this down."

"We don't have to shut it down. She's fine," Josie was quick to exclaim. "Are you fine? Are you okay?"

She was most certainly not okay. Even Estelle could see that. She was clutching the sides of her body tightly, trying to soften the pain.

"Yeah, she's okay. She's totally fine." PJ agreed. She only took a quick peek at Annie.

Mr. G shook his head. "Shut this shit down."

"No, wait, Mr. G."

"Shut this shit down."

He was about to blow on his whistle when Josie cautiously put her hands in front of her, interrupting the blow of his whistle. "No, don't blow the whistle. Don't blow the whistle. I know that, you know, this is a little messy right now but, like, the only way that we can learn how to defend ourselves is by teaching each other. Huntington is coming. We need this. I know that things might seem scary, but that's okay, because..." She was at a loss for words. "Because.."

"Because you're gonna be fucking pros!" PJ finished her sentence for her.

"Is what I was gonna say."

Hazel gave the couple a thumbs up at their speech. Everyone seemed to think they were believable, which was something Estelle had not imagined. She'd expected their grand scheme to have fallen within the first week ( technically, it still was the first week, since it was only the second meeting ).

PJ turned to a girl standing a little further in the back. "Crystal, I'm thinking of you. You are never gonna get assaulted on your birthday again."

"Lucky number seven, okay?" Josie held up seven fingers. PJ nodded along.

"And I... I'm gonna finally reverse-stalk my stalker." Stella-Rebecca interjected.

"Yeah, absolutely." PJ responded.

And I'll finally be ready to kick my brother's ass, Estelle was ready to say. But she was not ready to share such an intimate part in her life. Questions would undoubtedly follow, in the best case. Worst case scenario, she would be reported for being unfaithful to the man of the town.

Then, it was Sylvie's turn to speak. "And for me, I'll be able to kill my stepdad." She said it so casually, no one really knew how to respond to it. She only got half-hearted responses.

"And if you believe in yourselves and you believe in us and then you trust us, I'm like, 'Let's fucking do this!'" PJ announced, receiving a big applause. Estelle finally stood up on her feet next to Hazel, who was clapping vigorously.

In fact, Hazel was so excited about them, she praised them. "So good." She shouted out. The moment was soon cut short when Sylvie started screaming from the top of her lungs. Estelle was ready to place a bet on the fact she would not have a voice anymore tomorrow— that's how hard she screamed.

Author's Note
okay so i dont know if u guys care about this but when i was watching this i noticed something. So the scene before this one, PJ and Josie pick mr G as advisor but BEFORE class ends there are like extras in the back. there was this one girl behind PJ and Josie in that scene. she was a redhead and the literal EMBODIMENT of what Estelle would do in that class

so in my mind shes canon. cant take that away from me. she kinda looked like violet as well.

also, the fact estelle hasn't said a word this chapter is actually the most real thing ever. BUT TRUST THE PROCESS!! there will be character development.