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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ sɪsᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇsᴀ꒱


❝ IF I'M TRYING TO WOO
YOU I BETTER SUPPORT
THE THINGS YOU LOVE ❞

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"So my mom says 'why don't you try being polite for just one day and see if people don't notice,'" Cory told Shawn and Juliet as he rolled his eyes.

"Hey, for what it's worth, Cor, I think you're polite," Shawn said. "Then again, polite in my family means wearing a tie for your arraignment."

"Even without the tie Cory's polite— most of the time," Juliet agreed.

The redhead laughed at the boy's offended look. Mr. Feeny passed by them with a student covered in white foam. "I appreciate your quick response with the fire extinguisher, Mr. Mendoza, but in the future please wait for a fire."

As the student left, Mr. Feeny sneezed.

"Oh, bless you Mr. Feeny," Cory said.

"Oh, thank you." His eyes widened as he saw who spoke. "Mr. Matthews, that's surprisingly considerate."

"Good, tell my mother." Once their teacher was gone, Eric passed by them. "Oh, now watch as I shift into turbo polite."

"Hey, Juliet."

The redhead turned to see Jack approach her. "Hey, Jack."

Next to her, Shawn stiffened slightly. The blond nodded to him. "Hunter."

"Montacute," he responded.

Juliet rolled her eyes at their frosty interaction. "What's up, Jack?"

"Are you, uh, free after school? I was thinkin' that we could hang out," he said hopefully.

"Su—"

"—absolutely not," Shawn cut in emphatically. "She's very, very busy. Lots of homework and—"

"—nothing else to do," Juliet interrupted him with a slight glare. "Yeah, I'm free. You wanna meet at the front entrance after school?"

Jack gave her a bright smile. "Sounds good. See you then, Ocean Eyes."

"'Bye, Jack."

Once he'd left, Shawn turned to her, "what was that?"

"That was me having a new friend."

"He seems to want more than friendship from you," he commented, turning his gaze to the path Jack had taken to glare after the boy.

"Well, so what if he does? I don't have a boyfriend and he's quite attractive."

He looked back at her. "Attr—"

Cory rejoined them and held out his palm. "That girl, she wrote seven numbers on my hand. What could that possibly mean?"

Not having seen the interaction, Shawn grabbed the boy's hand and studied it for a minute. "It means call her," he said.

"Shawn, how can I call her when I don't even have her—" Cory started before he froze. "Oh!"

🌎🌎🌎

"You know, last night T.K and I talked on the phone for, like, two hours! It beat my previous time with a girl by, like, two hours. She even asked me out to the movies this Friday night."

"She asked you out?" Shawn asked.

"Yep, and I might just let her take me."

"Yeah, well, Jack and I spent four hours together after school working on homework. Unlike you guys, he actually cares about his grades," Juliet added. 

"Just homework?" Shawn asked suspiciously.

"Just homework, Shawnie," the redhead said, "and we went for ice cream again. I have seriously never met someone who loves ice cream like Jack does."

"Alright, homeroom announcements," Mr. Turner began, interrupting their conversation. "Uh, stay awake. Chess squad. All students interested in trying out for the fast-paced world of—" He stopped and looked up from the paper to see everyone was watching him with a blank expressions. "Yeah, um, let's see. Jumping to relevant stuff. Item eleven: due to a freezer mishap fish kebabs will not be served in the cafeteria today as scheduled."

Juliet clapped with everyone as Shawn stood up and bowed. "Thank you, thank you."

"I don't want to know," Mr. Turner said. "Uh, item fifteen—"

"Hey." A girl wearing a leather jacket entered the room.

"Hey back," Mr. Turner greeted her.

"Ah, there he is. There's my guy," she said, heading over to Cory.

Juliet guessed that this was the famous T.K.

"It's funny, I got this thing here called homeroom—"

"Yeah, this note covers it."

"T.K., what are you doing in my homeroom?" Cory asked.

"Our homeroom now, sweetie."

"Okay Theresa, welcome aboard," Mr. Turner said. "Pick yourself a desk."

"Mr. Turner, is it okay to sit two to a desk?"

"I'm thinking no."

"For a five spot?" she negotiated. Their teacher shook his head and motioned for her to sit down. She followed his directions and sat across from Cory.

🌎🌎🌎

"I can't believe you've never been to a pawn shop before," Juliet remarked she and Jack walked down the main street of town.

The boy shrugged. "It's not really my scene. I usually catalog order or my mom does it for me."

The redhead rolled her eyes. "New stuff is so boring. There's no background to it! The stuff you get second hand always has an interesting history or you can make it up. Tony keeps a record of everyone he buys from and tells me how he gets his stuff."

She pushed open the glass door to the dark shop. Rows and rows of miscellaneous items sat on every available surface in no particular order. The shadowy lighting made the maze of goods seem to stretch on forever. Jack shifted behind her. Juliet turned and shot the boy a smile. "You're not scared, are you?" she teased him.

"Scared? No," he answered. "A little intimidated? Yeah. How d'you find what you need in all this stuff?"

"I've been coming here for years. Usually I just stick to the book section; it's the only one he keeps in any sort of order." Grabbing the boy's hand, the redhead pulled him deeper into the shop towards the checkout desk that stood hidden somewhere in the middle. Approaching the stand, the girl nodded to the older man behind the counter. "Hey, Tony."

His bearded face creased into a smile. "Ah, Bookworm, my favorite customer." His eyes flicked to the boy behind her. "That's not your usual tagalong," he observed.

"Nope, this is Jack. Jack, Tony."

"How do you do, sir?"

Tony winked at the girl. "A polite one, eh? Did he open the door for you on the way in?"

"She was faster than me," Jack responded with a grin. "Otherwise I would've."

"You finally ditch Hunter then?"

Juliet's eyes narrowed before her expression smoothed out. "Of course not, Tony. He and Cory are just busy doing somethin' stupid and I felt the need for different company. Besides, Jack's never been in a pawn shop before."

"Never?" the older man said as he scanned the blond-haired boy. "Nah, doesn't look like it. You look like one of those rich folks from the country."

"I'm just a friend of Juliet's from school," Jack answered easily.

"He likes to dress all fancy and put us normal kids to shame," Juliet teased him.

"Hey, first appearances matter and I'd rather put my best foot forward."

"Smart boy," Tony praised him before he turned to the other side of the counter. He bent slightly and after some shuffling of unseen items, he straightened and placed a stack of books on the counter. "Just got these in this week, Bookworm," he told the girl. "One dollar."

The redhead pulled the novels towards her to see their titles: The Picture of Dorian Gray, A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby and Jane Eyre, all paperbacks.

"I'll take the lot, thanks, Tony," Juliet said and she reached into her pocket to pay him. Jack was faster. 

"Keep the change," he added as he handed the man a ten dollar bill.

Tony gave the boy a suspicious look. "What's the price of allowance these days?"

"I wouldn't know," Juliet replied honestly. "Jack, you don't have to do that."

"I know, but this is your favorite place, Ocean Eyes. If I'm trying to woo you I better support the things you love."

Oh.

That thought made her insides feel warm, the same feeling that came from spending time with Shawn or when she held his hand. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Juliet shot Tony a smile. "Thanks for the books, Tony. I'd show Jack around but the boy needs his ice cream or he'll melt," she joked. "We'll be back some other time for the grand tour."

"Any time you want it, you got one, Bookworm," Tony told her. "You take care of her now, Jack."

"Of course, sir," the blond boy agreed. He gently nudged the girl out of the way to scoop up her new-to-her books.

"Jack!"

"Shush, Ocean Eyes. It's not even that many to carry."

"Which is why I can do it," she grumbled.

The boy rolled his eyes in a fond sort of way. "I know you can but I'm only following instructions." He gave Tony a grin before he shifted the books carefully to one arm. His free one looped around the girl's shoulders.

After saying their goodbyes, they exited the shop with the boy holding the door open for the redhead.

"So, how long have you known Tony?" Jack asked her curiously as they made their way down the street.

"My whole life practically. He lives in the trailer park next door— in a different area than Shawn, though. He's the only one I've ever bought books from."

"Hunter's from the trailer park?" he sounded surprised.

"Is that going to be an issue?" Juliet asked testily.

Jack gently squeezed her shoulders. "'Course not, Ocean Eyes. He's your best friend. I just didn't think that was where he lived. I suppose I could see it now, though."

"Well, don't make a big deal out of it," the redhead warned him. "If I ever have to chose between you and Shawn, Shawn will win every single time."

The blond boy looked down at her and gave the girl an admiring look. "I would never make an issue of it," he reassured her. "Though I do find your loyalty a particularly attractive trait."

The girl turned pink at the compliment. "'S nothing, really. I've just been best friends with Shawn for so long that any competition would be hard pressed to win against him."

"So I guess I'm gonna have to work super hard to woo you, then?"

"Maybe not so hard. I did only start like-liking him at the end of sixth grade."

Jack sighed. "You're so lucky to have these strong bonds. I've had a few friends, of course, but never like yours."

"What I have is very rare," she agreed. "I try very hard not to take it for granted. I kind of think of it as karma, though, since it all balances out in the end."

"How so?"

"Well, I know I've told you that I have half a mom and I don't usually talk about my dad, but that's because he left either before I was born or just after— I was never told the details. To make up for that absence, I have a really good group of friends. I think that if I had a dad I wouldn't have had such good luck in the friendship area," she explained.

"I can see that," Jack allowed. "I have a dad and not many— or any, really— good friends. He says I'm gonna inherit his company one day."

"Company? What does he do?"

"He's a banker. My mom doesn't work so I'm also really close with her. Her favorite thing to do is garden," he revealed. "She spends hours tending to her plants and things like that. I used to help her when I was little but not so much anymore."

"I don't even know what my mom likes to do for fun," Juliet said, "although I think my first answer would be spending any free time she has with me. She tries to take off work during the holidays but isn't always able to. Otherwise she's busy trying to make ends meet."

"She sounds like an incredibly strong woman," the boy told her as he pushed open the door to the ice cream shop. "She used to be an actress, right?"

"Yeah," the redhead said, following him inside. "She was a kinda big star on Broadway before she met my dad. Then they fell in love, had me and he left. She doesn't talk about him much but she says I have his eyes."

The two joined the line for ordering. "Well, if he does, I can see why she fell in love with him." Jack looked down at her to meet the girl's eyes. "They're quite bewitching."

Juliet rolled said eyes. "Now you're just laying it on thick."

"Am not! I'm telling the truth. If your hair wasn't so striking the first thing I'd notice would be your eyes." He paused. "And I meant striking as a good thing, by the way."

The girl shrugged. "Not many people would love having red hair but I'm quite proud of my Irish heritage. You've got blue eyes, too. Who do you get yours from?"

"My mom," he answered immediately. "She has blonde hair as well, so I look the most like her. I've got my dad's face, though. People say that if I had darker features I'd look just like him."

They stepped up to the counter, their conversation cut short for a moment.

"Afternoon, Montacute," the employee behind the counter greeted him. "The usual?"

"Please," the boy replied with a nod. "Ocean Eyes, what d'you want?"

Juliet frowned and studied the options thoughtfully. "Strawberry ice cream and mint chocolate chip, please."

"Feeling summery today?" Jack asked with a grin.

"For some reason yeah, I am."

Juliet knew not to even try to pay for her own ice cream so she left him to pick up their orders and grabbed a table towards the front of the shop. Jack rejoined her a moment later and handed her the order. As they began to enjoy their treat, the redhead gave him a curious look. "I've been meaning to ask, why d'you like ice cream so much? I mean, you've totally got good taste but I swear you have it every day."

The boy laughed before he answered, "yeah, I love ice cream. I dunno why but cold things have just always been something I like. Ice cream, winter, cold drinks, you name it. If it's cold, I like it. Although," he added teasingly, "that doesn't apply to my taste in women."

Juliet turned pink again and busied herself with stabbing her ice cream with her spoon. "Well, do you have any theories? Did your mom eat a lot of cold things while she was pregnant or something?"

"Not that I know of. I just like 'em," he shrugged.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes while they ate their ice cream. With a jolt of surprise, Juliet realized that aside from their conversation, Shawn hadn't cropped up in her thoughts at all. She'd actually just been focused on hanging out with Jack which was a nice change of pace from constantly thinking about the dark-haired boy. She supposed that meant that Jack was doing a better job at wooing her than she was willing to let on. Good, she thought, then I can get over this whole I-have-a-crush-on-my-best-friend thing.

While it wouldn't be an immediate recovery, she could eventually just put these feelings behind her and focus on being just best friends with Shawn again. 

[edited may 2022]