LIKE YOU MEAN IT
CHAPTER THREE !

AS SOON AS THE school day was over, Nell was quick in heading for the front door. All she wanted in that moment was to head home, take a shower and clean all the mud off of herself and get into bed. Nothing else. After the shitty morning she had had, nothing was more appealing to the Hewitt girl than burying her head into her pillow and blocking out the world.

She'd just stepped outside the main exit and begun making her way towards the main road, choosing the forgo cutting through the park after what had happened, when the faintest sound of someone calling out for her caught her attention. Nell spun around on her heel, narrowly avoiding banging into the other students who continued to walk on, her gaze landing upon a red-faced Hazel.

"Eleanor!" The Callahan girl cried out, waving her hand in the air as she manoeuvred through the sea of students. She sounded totally exhausted to Nell who remained standing in place to allow the girl to catch up. "Hey, wait up."

After dodging her fellow students and thankfully not falling on her face, Hazel finally made it to Nell. She was gasping for a fresh and steady breath of oxygen as her heart aggressively pounding against her ribcage. She threw herself forward to grasp her knees, her head basically between her legs as she desperately attempted to settle her breathing.

"Give—give me a sec." She haggardly said, still sounding like she'd ran a marathon. She was usually so fit, why was she suddenly out of breath after running only a short distance?

Nell gripped tightly at the straps of her backpack while she looked down at the girl in concern. "You good?"

Hazel slowly pulled herself back up, hand over her chest and her heart still pumping away though thankfully not as hard as before. Her shoulders shook as she took a deep and steady breath before exhaling. "Yeah yeah, I'm good. Listen, I wanted to ask if you maybe wanted to help with the club."

"You want my help?" The Hewitt girl questioned in surprise. She assumed that Josie or PJ would be taking care of club business but the fact that it was Hazel and that Hazel wanted her help surprised Nell.

Hazel breathed out a chuckle at the wide eyed expression that Nell wore. "Yeah, we could go around and ask a bunch of girls if they wanted to join. I figure, two heads are better than one."

The students around them had pretty much dispersed by now, leaving the two as the only students still standing along the footpath.

"You're not wrong." Nell muttered as her head tilted ever so slightly to the side in contemplation. It did sound like fun plus maybe it would give the chance to really get to know Hazel. A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she nodded her head while saying, "Yeah okay. That sounds cool."

"Great. You wanna work on an itinerary for the club too?" A joyful grin, one that mirrored Nell's grew upon Hazel's lips as she spoke. "I would ask PJ or Josie but they're pretty distracted by Isabel and Brittany right now to care too much."

Nell couldn't agree more. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense that it would be up to them to deal with the logistics. PJ and Josie were really only interested in the club to get laid. "They're totally pussy-whipped." The Hewitt girl replied.

She was quick to continue. "That sounds fun. Do you wanna give me your number or you know, y-you could come over to my house and we could work on it there?" She stuttered out.

What the fuck? She wondered. Why did I get so nervous all of a sudden? She could feel the unmistakably warmth building up throughout her body, blood rushing to her face to expose her.

If she clocked the nerves that practically blanketed Nell, Hazel didn't let it show. Instead she just continued to grin. "Yeah. Fuck yeah, I doubt my mom would even notice I'm gone. She's still reeling after the divorce."

This was new information. Nell had been none the wiser to Hazel's parents divorce because well, why would she know about that? Not really knowing how to respond, the Hewitt girl just reached out a hand and awkwardly patted the doe eyed girl upon her white cardigan covered shoulder.

The moment was cringe.

Hazel had just stared at her, gaze soft and lips pouty. She looked like a confused little puppy, wondering why it's owner had pretended to throw the fuzzy yellow ball. She looked positively adorable but Nell was unable to appreciate it due to the sting of cringe that bit at her skin. A part of her regretted asking Hazel to come over as she now, more than ever, wished to scream into a pillow.

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THERE WAS AN INVITING warmth to the bedroom. That was the fist thing Hazel had noticed as she entered behind Nell into her bedroom. A golden glow from the bedside lamp cascaded along the walls. Nell had ventured on into the room, leaving Hazel to step inside and take in the sight with a sense of wonder.

The room was compact. Small. Well, smaller than Hazel's though that wasn't really a surprise due to the difference in the size of their homes. Hazel was well aware of her wealth, knew how lucky she was and how others certainly didn't have it as easy as she did. The size actually made the place seem more endearing. There was less space that had to be filled, less corners left bare. Everywhere you looked, Nell had something sitting there. From a collection of DVD box-sets by the television, to the ton of books and thrown aside magazines, to the pile of folded laundry on her desk chair, her room looked exactly how Hazel had imagined.

It was somewhat frantic yet calm at the same time. It was just so Eleanor Hewitt.

            "Your rooms cool." Hazel complimented with a soft smile as she moved further in, closing the door behind her and tossing her backpack by the legs of the desk.

            The long haired girl returned the smile. "Thanks. It's kinda messy, sorry about that."

            Hazel shook her head. As she crossed the room, hands now shoved into the pockets of her pants, she replied, "Don't be. It's nice to see your natural habitat." As she spoke, the blue eyed girl sat down on the edge of Nell's bed, sinking down into the mattress.

            Nell simpered at this. As she tugged her sweater up and over her head, she couldn't help but chuckle. "Natural habitat? What am I, a zoo animal?" She questioned while moving to stand in front of Hazel.

            The Callahan girl tilted her head back to look up at Nell,  practically gleaming with amusement. "More farm animal cause of how messy it is."

            "You're talking shit?" Nell lowly quipped with a growing smirk. Filled with a desire to mess with Hazel, the Hewitt girl reached out and playfully ruffled the short locks of brunette hair. A gasp became trapped in Hazel's throat as Nell muttered, "You little bitch."

Hazel's shaky gaze remained upon Nell as she pulled away and moved across the room, completely oblivious to the flutter that had begun to fester within the pit of Hazel's stomach. She felt flustered beyond belief. Never before had such a playful act rendered her tongue tied.

At the silence that consumed the room, at the lack of response from the Callahan girl, Nell spun back around on her heel to glance over at Hazel, who looked very...flustered?

            Hazel's gaze darted away from Nell, the short haired girl hoping she hadn't been caught staring. She awkwardly cleared her throat as she stuttered, "We should, uh—we should start writing up the itinerary, right?"

Nell was confused by the redness that bloomed across Hazel's cheeks. She didn't wish to verbally question it just incase it was perhaps a medical condition but it confused her. Was Hazel okay?

She bit her tongue, holding back from pointing out the obvious rouge tinge that was painted across Hazel's face. Her head nodded instead, the girl shooting the short haired girl a smile. "Yeah. I'm just gonna head downstairs to get something to drink. You hungry?"

            A feeling of relief enveloped Hazel. She was glad that Nell hadn't noticed how red-faced she'd become, little did she know.

To answer Nell's question, she wasn't. Her food at lunch had been pretty filling and left her pretty much satisfied hunger-wise but Hazel still found herself asking, "Do you have any snacks?"

            Snacks were a necessity these days. You needed to snack on delicious junk food if you were to revolutionise a school by starting the first all female fight club. Plus, it would help to distract herself from the butterflies that still lingered in her tummy.

            Nell nodded her head with a small smile. "Yeah actually. In that drawer." The Hewitt girl explained with a gesture towards the bottom drawer of her beside table. She always needed a snack nearby.

Hazel shot her a look of utter perplexity before looking over at the drawer. She weakly stifled a giggle at the contents of the drawer as she pulled it open. Sitting inside was an arsenal of snacks, from different types of chips to candies, there was an assortment of just about everything you could want when you wanted something to snack on. A plethora of treats.

           "I sometimes wake up hungry and I never really want to go downstairs and wake my dad...hence the drawer." Nell explained with a shrug. Her snack drawer was a genius move.

            Hazel chuckled at this as she began to rifle through the drawer, taking out whatever packaging looked the more appealing to her. Nell allowed her eyes to linger upon the girl for a moment before looking away and heading down the stairs to the kitchen. After grabbing a couple different cans of soda, mostly coke and Mountain Dew, she headed back to her room.

            The first thing she saw when she re-entered the room finding Hazel with her shoes off and relaxing into the comforter. She had out a notebook and pen and was seemingly doodling. The Callahan girl glanced up at the sound of Nell's footsteps upon the hardwood floors, shooting her a smile of appreciation when she was given a drink.

            As Nell moved to relax on her bed, Hazel began. "So I'm thinking we go around school tomorrow in between classes and just chat up the club as much as possible. Maybe bring up the Huntington attacks and hope it convinces them to join."

"Good idea." The Hewitt girl replied before taking a sip of her drink. As she set aside the can, she sighed. "It's like you said, there is a serious lack of solidarity amongst the girls at school. Maybe if we explain that every girl is an equal target for attacks, hopefully the more popular girls will consider joining up."

            "Definitely. That sounds like a plan." Joy overtook the features of Hazel's face. Her eyes practically sparkled as she grinned. She was excited for the club, excited this could be a place she could go to meet some new people. "That didn't take as long as I thought it would."

            Nell laughed. As she relaxed back into the pillow, she looked up at Hazel opposite her. "Yeah, we honestly could have just done it at school but hey, we're here now so you wanna watch a movie or something? You don't have to go home yet, do you?" She questioned. Nell found herself not wanting Hazel to go home until she absolutely had to.

            The butterflies that begun to settle down suddenly fluttered their wings like crazy. Hazel gulped down her nerves before nodding her head. "Yeah, that sounds fun. And no, I could probably stay here all day and my mom wouldn't really notice. She's been pretty—busy lately."

            "Busy? Do you mean busy or—" Nell smirked as she then gyrated her hips ever so slightly. "Busy?"

            Hazel's eyes widened as her gaze travelled down to Nell's hips. Her jaw dropped in shock while she began to laugh in utter disbelief. "Dude, stop."

            Her response caused a tittering laugh to tumble free from her lips. Any chance of her feeling bad for laughing at Hazel's reaction disappeared when the Callahan girl began to laugh along with her. Their laughter intertwined, reverberating off of the poster covered walls of Nell's bedroom.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter three. not proofread.
so this is like a filler chapter. I'm trying to slowly build their friendship before they begin dating. I hope you enjoyed :)