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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴍʏ ʙᴇsᴛ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ's ɢɪʀʟ ꒱


❝ IT'S A NEW YEAR, A NEW ME ❞

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As Juliet walked down the short hallway of her apartment, she tiredly rubbed her eyes. She'd stayed up a bit too late on the phone with Jack last night and now she was paying the price. It was the first day of school, too, which was unfortunate. As she entered the kitchen she stopped and stared, now fully awake, at the never-before-seen sight in front of her: Daly Capelwood, home on a Wednesday morning, talking on the phone and occasionally giggling.

In her entire memory (save for the first few years before she met Shawn) Juliet could not remember the last time she'd seen her mom at home in the morning on a Wednesday. Or ever. Either something terrible was happening or something very good; it seemed to be the latter since her mom certainly looked happy— she had a bright smile on her face and her emerald green eyes sparkling.

"Mom?" Juliet asked, completely caught off guard.

Daly looked up from where she'd been playing with the cord and her smile grew larger at the sight of her daughter. She placed a single finger to her lips and then pointed to the phone as if it wasn't obvious what she was doing. When she stopped talking and started listening to the other person's reply, she mouthed good morning to her daughter.

"Uh, yeah, good morning to you, too, mom," the red-haired girl said awkwardly. None of her questions had been answered but a quick look at the kitchen clock— though ten minutes fast— told her that Jack would be there soon to pick her up. "Uh, I gotta go. I'll. . . see you later?" she asked uncertainly.

When the woman nodded, Juliet grabbed her bag and waved goodbye to her mother before she exited their apartment. After heading down the dark hallway with its flickering lighting, she took the narrow stairwell to the first floor and pushed open the door to walk to the main entrance so she could wait outside. She sat on the curb when she got there and puzzled over her mother's strange behavior.

Not too long after, a familiar, black car pulled up next to her and the back window rolled down to reveal Jack's face. "Hey, Ocean Eyes."

The girl stood and smiled happily at him and opened the door to slide inside. "Hey, Jackie."

She still couldn't believe that he was her boyfriend. He'd finally managed to 'woo' her enough to say yes at the end of the school year last year. Then, they'd had a whirlwind summer as they took both day trips and several-days' trips to places all around the U.S. and even overseas. She'd learned that Jack could be very spontaneous and a day of doing nothing could turn into a day of jetting off to France for dinner. She'd hardly been home at all and missed spending time with Cory and Shawn. As John handed her a brown bag containing her breakfast, she felt Jack's eyes on her. 

"What?" she asked curiously as she turned to him.

The blond turned faintly pink. "Nothing. It's just, um, you look really nice."

Juliet gave him a shy, pleased smile. "Thanks," she said, still getting used to how often he complimented her— and the best part was that it seemed incredibly genuine.

It wasn't even like she was wearing anything distinctly fancy— just a cream-background sundress with blue flowers scattered over it. She wore a buttery-leather jacket on top with matching ankle boots. Her red hair had grown out even more over the summer so that it fell down her back in a flaming waterfall.

John-the-butler glanced up into the rearview mirror to take in the girl's outfit and he smiled approvingly. "It seems as though France has agreed with you, Juliet."

"The whole summer has, honestly," she said as she gave Jack a happy smile. "I don't think I've ever had a better one."

"I'm glad I could give it to you, Ocean Eyes," the boy said, leaning over to place a kiss on her cheek.

Juliet quickly busied herself with her breakfast as John pulled away from the apartment complex. Now that Shawn wasn't living in the trailer park anymore she didn't have to worry about waking him up on time for school or walking there with him so she got to enjoy a luxury car ride instead. While the change was slightly bittersweet, it would be welcome once the cold set in.

🌎🌎🌎

As Cory and Shawn walked down the school hallway the curly-haired boy boasted about his own changes. "It's a new year, a new me. You notice the spring in my step? Boxer shorts."

"Oh! You wild man," Shawn said.

"Oh, yeah."

They stopped near their lockers and Cory's gaze fell on Topanga. He stared at her. He couldn't help it! She looked beautiful. Shawn noticed his gaze. "Cor, Cor, there she is."

Except, when he turned to talk to the boy, Cory wasn't next to him anymore. Rolling his eyes slightly, he joined his best friend next to the statue. "Cory, what is this?"

"It's John Adams. He was a president. School namesake. He was the father of our country," the boy answered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Cor, why are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding," Cory searched desperately for a distraction and— bingo! "hey, there's Jules. You haven't seen her all summer. Why don't you go say hi?"

Shawn refused to fall for the bait. "Come on, Cory. Just go up to her and say hi."

"No, I'm serious. She's right over there, with Jack," he pointed to somewhere behind the dark-haired boy.

At the mention of Jack, Shawn turned reluctantly and wished he hadn't. Now he knew how Cory felt. God, had she gotten prettier over the summer? Something had changed about her. She seemed to smile more, seemed more confident, and he could almost hear her laughter from the opposite side of the hall.

"We're screwed," he remarked faintly to the boy next to him.

"We've known them our whole lives," Cory started, "we can do this. They're just girls, Shawn."

"They're not just girls," Shawn countered, his eyes never straying from the redhead. "God, I almost miss her more now that I see her."

Cory, looking at Topanga, nodded in agreement. "Wow, she's pretty," he mumbled, "it's almost like they're not the people we've always known. They go away for the summer and come back women."

"Cory, look," Shawn started, "we've been over this a thousand times. I mean, it's a little different now but on the count of three, we'll go up to both of them and just say hi. You can still ask Topanga to go steady."

Cory couldn't help but feel guilty about the last statement. He wasn't sure about what had happened at the end of last year but Shawn had been furious with him for the first few weeks of summer until the boy's disappointment had toned down. After Cory had promised not to meddle in his love life ever again (a promise that he would not keep), Shawn had eventually forgiven him.

"Okay, here we go. Three."

"Two."

"One."

Neither of them moved.

"Cory? Why are you still next to me?"

"I could ask the same about you. Aren't girls supposed to be your thing?"

"Not this girl," Shawn sighed, "not when it matters."

"Okay, we'll try this again," Cory said, "three."

"Two."

"One." 

This time, Shawn's feet moved. "Hey— hey, Cor. You're not next to me." 

He kept his gaze locked on the red-haired girl that he was moving closer to. Then, he was behind her and he hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder. He hardly got a moment to look at her before she squealed his name happily and threw her arms around him to pull him into a tight hug. He hugged her back and closed his eyes, relaxing now that he knew she was okay. Of course he'd known she was, but it was nice to actually see for himself.

When the redhead finally pulled away, Shawn found that he couldn't remember how to speak except for: "hi."

The girl beamed up at him cheerfully as her ocean-blue eyes sparkled like the sun hitting the waves. "Hi."

They seemed to both forget how a normal conversation went after that and continued just to look at each other before the girl seemed to jolt back to her senses. "Shawnie, you would not believe what happened this morning! We have so much to catch up on since I've hardly seen you all summer and—"

A throat-clearing cough sounded above the girl's enthusiastic chatter and brought her to a halt as she turned to look at the blond boy who was smiling at her fondly. "Oh! And you remember Jack, right? I dunno if you know this but he's my boyfriend now," she announced proudly.

Shawn suddenly remembered how to speak as Jack nodded to him. "Hunter."

"Montacute," he responded, his voice considerably colder. He flinched as Juliet poked him in his side in a traditional reproach. 

"Be civil, Shawnie. You two actually have a lot in common if you'd just talk to one another," then she started to chuckle slightly.

"What?" Shawn asked, confused.

"Is that your bathrobe?"

The dark-haired boy looked down at what he was wearing and began to giggle awkwardly. "Yeah, yeah it is. Oops."

"You're such a dork," Juliet said fondly as he lifted his head back up to look at her amused expression. Some of his hair fell into his eyes and he made to push it back with his hand, but she got there first.

Almost instinctively, the redhead had reached up to push the boy's brown hair away from his face as her fingers slid gently though the soft strands. Shawn stared at the girl with wide eyes as his breath hitched in his throat and he abruptly stopped breathing. As Juliet pulled her hand away, she gave it a confused look as if she wasn't sure why she had just done that and shot Jack an apologetic one, though the boy shrugged nonchalantly.

He figured it was a habit she'd started because of him due to all the times his blond hair had fallen into his face. He'd startled slightly the first time she'd done it but after the girl had shyly explained that she liked seeing his eyes, he'd let her do it a thousand times. The trio fell into silence until Shawn glanced over at Cory, who was back by the lockers. 

"Uh, bye," he said and quickly backed up to be with the other boy.

"How did it go?" he asked his best friend once he was there.

"How do you think it went?" he sighed, "how did it go with you?"

"I only made a complete fool of myself but other than that, fine," Shawn pushed his hands through his hair. "Why am I so cool around all of the other girls and then the one I actually want I act like a total dork around?"

A small smile showed on Cory's face. "Because you actually care about her. I mean, look, we're talking with each other just fine, but the second we talk to either of them we become— we become sea monkeys."

"That's a bad animal, man," Shawn agreed.

Mr. Turner ran up to them. "Hey guys, guys, guys, guys. You didn't hear, did you?"

"What?"

"This year, when the bell rings, it means get to class."

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet stood at the front of the classroom with Topanga to help her pass out papers. Shawn leaned forward to whisper in his best friend's ear. "Here's your chance, Cor. Just ask her out for movie night."

"Try and stop me," he said back, "what about you?"

"Don't worry about it," Shawn told him.

The two girls came around with Topanga first giving her paper to Cory, who looked up at the girl. "Topanga," she paused and smiled as he raised his paper. "Thanks for this," he finished with a salute.

Juliet dropped Shawn's paper on his desk and teased, "you're not gonna salute me, too, are you?"

Shawn rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Julie, I'm way cooler than that. Thanks," he added, and then, inexplicably, he placed the tips of his fingers against his chin and then pulled them away, towards the girl in what would've been the sign-language equivalent for thank you.

She raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Cooler. Right."

As the two girls moved on, Cory turned around to stare at Shawn. "I saluted."

"I did this," Shawn copied the gesture again. "I don't even know what it means!"

"We just have to act natural," Cory decided, "look, we can try again."

Cory stood to talk to Topanga as Shawn called Juliet back over. While he didn't approve of her boyfriend, he wasn't going to get in the way since it made her happy. Therefore, he couldn't ask her out to the movies as a date. He could ask her if she was going to go, though. The redhaired girl stopped by his desk on her way back to her seat. "What's up, Shawnie?"

"Are you going to the movies on Friday?" he asked, though his voice sounded oddly robotic.

"Uh, yeah. Jack asked me earlier. Are you goin'?"

"Yep."

"See you there, then, I guess?" Juliet was giving him a slightly weirded-out look.

"Okay," he agreed, raising his hand and pressing his thumb and pointer finger together in the okay sign. Once she sat back down, Cory stood in her spot. 

"I did this," he gave Shawn a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, well, I did this," Shawn repeated his okay gesture.

Cory sighed, "we're so toast."

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet watched as Cory slammed his arm and then his head against the vending machine as Shawn left the cafeteria. Her brows furrowed in confusion, having watched most of the what seemed to be a heated exchange. She started to rise out of her seat to see what was going on but Jack stopped her. "You don't have to solve every single problem they have, Julie."

She glanced at the blond boy. "I know, but if they work it out themselves it'll only end up being worse." She gave Cory another glance before she sank back into her seat.

As Jack put his sandwich back on his tray, he gave her a curious look. "What did you mean by 'you would not believe what happened this morning?'"

"Oh," Juliet's expression grew serious. "My mom was home. Talking on the phone. She seemed. . . happy."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?"

The red-haired girl shook her head. "I dunno. In ninety percent of my living memory, my mom has never been home on a Wednesday morning talking on the phone. Especially being as happy as she was. I didn't get a chance to ask her who she was talking to but I at least don't think it's bad news."

Jack's reply was cut off by Cory's arrival as the curly-haired boy sat in an unoccupied seat next to his best friend. "I've got terrible news."

Juliet gave him a worried look. "What's up, Cor?"

The boy buried his face in his hands and said, "Shawn asked Topanga out."

She froze. 

Shawn asked Topanga out. 

She couldn't believe it and the shock of the news made her half-rise from her chair as she exclaimed, "what? But they're total opposites!"

Cory threw his hands up in the air. "Thank you!"

"But—but Shawn can't have asked Topanga out," she continued. Shawn asked Topanga out. "He doesn't— well, he likes her more than he used to, but he doesn't really like her." Shawn asked Topanga out.

"I'm an idiot," the curly-haired boy sighed as he folded his arms on the table and placed his head on them. "I'm an idiot. I should've asked Topanga out when I had the chance."

Shawn asked Topanga out. 

The words made sense but Juliet seemed to be unable to process them. It was like— like some sort of terrible nightmare come to life. "But Shawn wouldn't do that to you, would he?"

"He said she was looking hot today, Jules," Cory mumbled.

"But— but— but—" was the only word she seemed capable of saying. The image of Shawn and Topanga together was the only thing her eyes could see. She felt like throwing up.

"He asked her to the movies," the boy said miserably, "I was gonna do that." He raised his head and looked at the wide-eyed girl who seemed to be stuck, staring into space with her mouth slightly open. "Jules?" He sat up fully, now concerned for the frozen girl. "Jules, are you okay?" he reached out and placed a gentle hand on her arm, causing the girl to jerk out of her daze and sit down with a heavy thump.

"Shawn asked Topanga out," she repeated numbly.

"Yeah," the boy agreed with a sigh. They sat in silence after that with Jack giving the redhead a worried look. He didn't really understand how the trio's friendship worked but he knew the boys were important to her and she wouldn't be reacting this way unless it was something really bad.

"Hey, uh, I'll see you after school, okay?" Jack said gently as he wrapped a comforting arm around the girl's shoulders. "If you want, you can talk to me about whatever this is then. Or not, whichever makes you feel better."

This seemed to pull the girl from her stupor and she turned to face the blond boy. Her expression became guilty. "I'm— I'm sorry, Jackie. It's just that— that—" she struggled to explain.

"Hey," he repeated, "you don't have to tell me anything right now. Just breathe, okay?"

Juliet made a visible effort to take normal breaths until she felt like she could actually talk. "I'm sorry," she apologized again.

"Don't worry about it," the boy told her, leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek. "I'll see you later."

When she nodded jerkily, he stood and cleared his space. "Ocean Eyes," he called the girl's attention. "Just remember to breathe, okay?"

She flashed him a grateful look and he left the two to work things out. Juliet turned back to Cory. "Are you absolutely sure that's what happened?"

The boy gave her a bleak look. "What else could have happened?"

"Well, that just doesn't— it doesn't seem like something he— he would do," she stumbled out, unable to actually say Shawn's name. "He knew you really liked her. He wouldn't do that." It seemed as if she were convincing herself of this fact.

Cory studied the girl next to him. Her face was pale and her blue eyes were still very wide. She couldn't still like Shawn, could she? he wondered, slightly confused by how shaken she was. She's Jack's girlfriend now. If she liked Shawn like I thought she did, wouldn't she have waited for him?

An idea sparked to life. "Jules," he said suddenly, "I've got it."

She blinked dumbly at him. "Got what?"

"We could go to the movies together," he explained confidently. It would totally work. Topanga would be jealous since Juliet was one of the more popular girls in class and Shawn would be jealous because Juliet agreed to go on a date with him, Cory.

The girl opened her mouth to agree, her nightmare about Shawn asking Topanga out turning into the best possible scenario: Shawn realizing that he was jealous. She could almost picture the entire scene of what would happen if she and Cory showed up together pretending to be on a date and. . . her daydream was cut off abruptly by the memory of bright-blond hair and baby-blue eyes that she'd spent the whole summer staring in to.

She gave her best friend an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Cor. I already promised Jack I'd go with him."

The boy slumped next to her. "Great. Just great. My two— or, I guess I should say one best friend already has plans."

Juliet looked around the cafeteria for inspiration and the shock of Shawn asking Topanga out wore off as she set out to break them up. Two girls— one with long blonde hair and one with much shorter brunette hair— were sitting several tables away from the pair as they giggled over a magazine. "Cor, I think I've got your answer," she said slowly, "since your best friend can't help you, go for someone else's."

"But you're Shawn's best friend too," Cory said, confused.

The redhead sighed, "not him. Topanga's."

"Trini! Of course!"

🌎🌎🌎

As Juliet and Jack walked hand-in-hand into the theater, the blond boy gripped her hand tightly so he wouldn't lose her in the crowd. They found their seats in one of the rows and the boy pulled her down next to him, comfortably wrapping his arm around her. After she'd explained what happened at lunch, he understood why she'd reacted how she had. No good friend would ask their friend's girl out. Even if said friend hadn't technically asked her anything.

The redhead looked up as two people entered the row and she immediately wished she hadn't. Shawn was leading Topanga by the hand to seats immediately next to her and Jack.

"Uh, hey," she greeted him awkwardly while pointedly not looking at him.

Shawn used his free hand to run it through his hair as he smiled at the pair. "Montacute, Julie."

The blond boy gave the brunet a confused look at his friendliness but shrugged it off. Instead, he turned his expression on his girlfriend, who had curled up against his side and propped her feet up on the edge of her seat. While he wasn't unused to her cuddling, it was a bit odd that she did it in seats that clearly weren't meant for the activity.

Cory and Trini joined the group at the end of the row with Topanga greeting them normally. "Hi, Cory. Hi, Trini. I like your hair."

Cory giggled. "Oh, thanks."

"I think she meant Trini, Cor."

"Hey, you wanna step outside?" Cory asked aggressively.

"Cory!" Topanga scolded him.

Juliet leaned around Shawn. "Hey, you don't like my hair?"

"Ocean Eyes," Jack said as he pulled her back.

The lights dimmed and the red-haired girl resumed her original curled-up position, wrapping her arms around Jack's waist. Shawn laid his arm comfortably across Topanga's shoulders and Cory copied the gesture with Trini, grumbling: "some people can't even make it through the cartoons."

Juliet glanced up to look into Jack's face. "I don't like horror movies," she pouted, "will you protect me, Jackie?" she knew she was laying it on thick but she didn't care.

"'Course I will," he promised her as he wrapped his arm more tightly around her shoulders. The redhead buried her face against the familiar, soft feel of his button-up and missed Shawn's irritated look at the blond-haired boy. In retaliation, he dumped breath mints into his mouth.

Cory tried to keep up by leaning in to kiss Trini but she blew a bubble that popped against his lips. "Oh, great. I've been gummed."

Eric stepped out after the cartoon was over. "Hey! How about that coyote? What a moron, huh? Alright. Well, on behalf of the Film Society and their friends, we would like to thank you all for responding to the underground invitations stuffed into your lockers. And now, here to introduce Leon's Revenge, the man you've all been waiting for. He played Leon the Gut Sucker in parts one, three and four. Here he is, direct from the pits of hell, your worst nightmare. Come on! Here he is!"

The curtains opened and a light shone on the stage revealing the silhouette of Mr. Feeny, who solemnly announced: "boo."

As everyone scrambled to leave, Jack and Juliet followed Shawn and Trini out of the theater. The latter pair stopped to look in the windows before they quickly disappeared from sight. "Hey, I think it worked," Shawn said.

"What?" Juliet asked in disbelief.

"We had a plan," Trini explained, "since your little badger friend wasn't making any moves, we kinda. . ."

"Forced his hand," Shawn finished, "made him jealous."

Juliet almost fainted with relief. Shawn hadn't asked Topanga out. She should've had more faith in him and now she felt slightly guilty for trying to make him jealous. (She hadn't been doing that for him though. Of course not.) She changed the subject. "Hey, you're not acting weird anymore."

"Weird? I wasn't acting weird."

"Oh please. You were doing sign language."

"That's what I was doing?"

"Yup."

He crossed his arms. "Well, what about you and Jack getting all cozy?"

"Jack is my boyfriend, need I remind you?"

The boy's expression hardened as he glanced at the blond. "No need. You certainly weren't hiding it."

Jack placed an arm around the redhead's shoulder's again and gave the dark-haired boy a slightly smug look. "Jealous, Hunter?"

Juliet placed a hand on Jack's chest to stop him from escalating. "Boys, please. I think there's a bigger mission at stake here," she pointed to the theater.

"Cory!" Shawn exclaimed, and the four of them hurried back inside to see the curly-haired boy kissing Topanga.

[written dec. 2020]
[edited may 2022]