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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴɪɴᴠɪᴛᴇᴅ ꒱


❝ YOU ONLY GET COOLER
WITH AGE, LIKE CHEESE
OR SOMETHING ❞

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"Thus the transcontinental railroad spelled the end of the Pony Express," Mr. Feeny continued. "Mail was faster, more reliable." He grabbed at the currently-passing notes. "Letters no longer had to be passed from hand-to-hand." He showed the notes he'd picked up before he opened them. "This just in: Miss Wilder wants to know what Miss Harrington thinks she should wear to her party. Miss Harrington wants to know what makes Miss Wilder think she's even invited."

"I'm not invited?" the girl with the last name Wilder gasped.

"We'll just see, o-kay?" Melissa replied snootily.

"Mr. Matthews wants to know 'is this going to be a make-up party?'"

"Well sure Cory, you can borrow my lip gloss," Melissa told the curly-haired boy.

"Out! Not UP!" He tried to correct the mistake. "A make-out party."

"Ah, so it is. Mr. Matthews wants to know if this is going to be a make-out party."

"Not for him," Shawn laughed.

🌎🌎🌎

"I blew it," Cory sighed as they left History. "There's no way Melissa's gonna invite me to her party now."

"So Feeny cut you off at the knees. People will forget," Shawn tried to cheer him up.

"It's only a party, Cor. There'll be others," Juliet added.

"You think?"

"'Course," she reassured him. "People have the memory of goldfish."

"This is high school. Too much is going on to remember anything," Shawn agreed.

Harley, Joey and Frankie came up to the trio and their leader addressed the curly-haired boy: "don't think I forgot about you, baboon. Don't think I forgot about last Tuesday. You sat in my chair in the cafeteria."

"I'm sorry, Harley. I didn't know it was your chair," Cory apologized.

"Everybody knows that's Harley's chair. Everybody knows it's always been Harley's chair and it's always gonna be Harley's chair every year he's a senior. Ain't that right, Frankie?" Joey looked to his friend for backup.

"What are you sayin'? I like my sister?" Frankie questioned him.

"No, no! I'm not sayin' that. I'm just sayin' you have a very close family. Hey, where ya goin?"

"I wanna call home," the larger boy said as he continued towards the phone.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Juliet asked, watching him leave.

"He's got a few issues," Harley answered. "I, on the other hand, have one issue." He looked at Cory. "And that's you, baboon. I don't like you. I look at your face and I wanna hit it. Is that so wrong?"

"Yes, yes it actually is," the redhead retorted as she shifted in front of her friend. "That's called assault, which is basically illegal."

"So there I am, finals of the chess tournament— a mere three moves away from checkmate— and out of nowhere I swallow my rook," a passing boy narrated to his friend.

"Pardon me, it's my eleven o'clock," Harley excused himself and walked away.

"You don't have to stand up to him every time, Jules," Cory told her.

"Yeah I do. I'm not gonna let him push you around or kill you," she stated firmly.

"I almost wish he did kill me this time," the boy sighed.

"How come?" Shawn inquired.

"Then I wouldn't be here to be humiliated when I'm not invited to the party."

"C'mon, Cor, it's just a party. Let it go," the redhead insisted.

"Jules, this is the first party of our high school lives. I mean, it'll divide our class into two groups: those who were invited— the cool guys and those who weren't— the geeks."

"Or in a strange turn of events, all the cool guys might not get invites. Just relax, Cor."

"You're losin' it, Cory," Shawn conceded as they walked to his locker.

"Yeah, I'm losing my whole future. No one will ever talk to me again. I might as well grow a hump, find a tower and ring the bell."

Juliet rolled her eyes at his complaints as Shawn reassured him, "don't worry, man. There's always room for you on our couch."

"I thought your Uncle Frank was on the couch."

"No, not anymore. He won the lottery and stopped talking to us."

"What? What did he win?" Cory wondered.

"Six bucks," came the boy's response before he added, "don't look now but the Pony Express just pulled into town."

Melissa appeared at the top of the short flight of stairs with envelopes in hand. "Oh no, she's handing out invitations!" Cory exclaimed. He leaned against the lockers to enhance his "cool" effect.

The girl came down the stairs and delivered one of her invitations to Cory. Another landed in Juliet's hands, then she was gone.

"Guys, there's been a miracle!"

"Yeah, whatever."

The redhead stared down at the envelope with wide eyes. What sort of crazy universe was this?

"We're gonna be late for class," Shawn spoke again.

"Class? We don't need no stinkin' class! Our futures are set. We are high school gods," Cory enthused and struck a pose. "Come, let us repair to the gym and rejoice in our invitations."

"It's gonna be kind of hard since I didn't get one," Shawn pointed out.

"What?"

"Even I got one," Juliet protested, staring at the boy in surprise.

"It's no biggie, I didn't get invited."

"There's gotta be a mistake," the curly-haired boy maintained. "You're the coolest guy in class! You've gotta be invited."

"Yeah, well, looks like I'm not."

"I'm gonna find out what happened," he decided.

"Let it go, okay? Just let it go."

"Sure." Juliet shrugged. "You got a pair of scissors on you?"

Both boys gave her slightly nervous looks and tried to ignore her question as Cory double-checked, "you want me to ask her?"

"Yeah, would you?"

The redhead rolled her eyes at their lack of response and dug through her own bag to pull out what she was looking for. As Cory went to talk to Melissa, Juliet situated the scissors on her fingers.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" Shawn exclaimed in a slightly panicked voice.

"I'm letting it go." She made to cut up the invitation but a hand on her wrist stopped her. Her face immediately warmed as his fingers curled around her bare skin, firm but gentle as they kept her from moving.

"Use your words, Julie."

"I don't care about the stupid party and I'm gonna show it by cutting this dumb thing up."

He relaxed slightly. "Oh, thank god. I thought you were gonna do something drastic. Hey, don't worry about it. You can just come with me to Chubbie's instead."

She glanced up at him. "It would still make me feel better if I cut this thing up."

"Have at it then, if you insist."

Juliet made to move her hand but realized Shawn was still grasping her wrist. "Uh, Shawn?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you let go?" She really, really didn't want him to.

"Oh, sorry."

As he released her wrist and she began the process of cutting up the envelope, Cory joined them. "Right, look. From what I gather in the last three seconds everything in the world has changed."

"What d'you mean?" Shawn asked as Juliet turned the invitation into white strips.

"I'm not sure. I mean, you guys, you're much cooler than I am. Maybe not you, Jules. At least, I thought you were."

"Gee, thanks," the redhead scoffed as Shawn countered, "trust me, I am."

"Then how come we got invited and you didn't?"

"So I really didn't get invited?"

"Unless it's a big surprise party for you." The boy finally caught on to what the girl was doing. "Do I wanna know?"

"I'm not going. If Shawn's not invited too then she doesn't deserve my presence."

Cory's expression became understanding, then suddenly smug. "Are you sure it's not because you wanna spend alo—"

"Yes, it's exactly the reason I gave," Juliet reiterated forcefully as she glared at him.

Shawn looked between the two of them, confused. "Am I missing something here?"

"No," Juliet dismissed him at the same time Cory taunted her, "yes."

At the girl's irritated expression, he quickly changed it to 'no' before he continued: "well, what are we gonna do?"

"You're gonna go to the party."

"I'm not goin' to a party than neither of you are not going to."

"Oh, don't sweat it, Cory. Julie and I will grab a burger at Chubbie's." Shawn wrapped an arm around the redhead like he'd done all the time in middle school.

Juliet tensed slightly before she forced herself to relax against the boy. She ignored Cory's knowing look. "No, you won't."

"And why not?"

"Because I'm cool now, which means I run with a very influential crowd, which means all I got to do is pick up this telephone and pull a few strings to get you invited to the party." He did as he said but paused after he finished speaking.

"Who are you gonna call?"

"The Ghostbusters!" Juliet exclaimed enthusiastically, causing the boys to roll their eyes at her.

"Well, normally I'd call you," Cory reasond.

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet and Shawn did end up going to Chubbie's that night. It was relatively empty when they first arrived so the line was short as they waited to order their food.

"It's just like old times," Shawn observed with a smile as he looked down at the redhead.

"Almost," she allowed,. "Except I'm not in braids and you're way cooler now." She hoped her face wasn't too pink.

"You think so?"

"I know so," she confirmed. "You only get cooler with age, like cheese or something."

The boy next to her let out a loud, genuine laugh at her comment, causing the girl to straighten and beam happily. She'd never really thought about how rare it was to see Shawn laugh like that, yet she'd been the one to make him do so.

"This totally beats any dumb party that we could've gone to," he announced and he threw a casual arm around her shoulders.

Juliet tried not to stiffen like she had earlier and smiled at him happily instead. "Go easy on Cory, Shawnie. It's the first time he's almost cooler than you."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I mean this in the best way possible but he could never be on my level."

"You certainly are one of a kind," the redhead agreed. She turned her face away slightly to hide her definitely red cheeks.

They stepped closer to the counter, now only behind one person. "You're really laying it on thick tonight, Julie."

"I'm just telling the truth!"

"Well, at least it's the truth I like to hear," he teased her. "I mean, I'm not complaining. You can keep talking about how great I am."

"Maybe our roles should be reversed," she suggested. "You're only fishing for compliments."

"And I'm quite the catch," Shawn answered easily. "So c'mon, what else?"

Juliet rolled her eyes. "Oh, look, we can order now."

He huffed in amusement. "Saved by the bell," he quipped as a literal bell went off to signal that an order was ready.

After they decided what they wanted, Juliet reached into her pocket to pull out her payment only to be beaten by Shawn, who had handed the money over.

"Shawn!"

"What?"

"I can pay for my own stuff!"

"Think of this as a compliment."

"What, that I need to eat more?"

Shawn shook his head. "No need to be difficult, Julie."

"I was only joking," she countered, "but it's not a date— you don't have to pay for me."

Almost immediately, she regretted her words and tried to wiggle out of his grasp. Unfortunately, his arm was too heavy to shake off. "What, I can't treat my best friend to a meal once in a while? You can pay for the next one if you're really that upset by it."

At the promise of a next one Juliet relented. "Fine," she grumbled as they went to sit at a booth. The rest of the evening went rather well in her opinion; she didn't think she slipped up at all with letting him on to how much she actually liked him. Almost an hour later, though, the restaurant filled up surprisingly quickly as other kids that she supposed hadn't been invited to Melissa's party came to Chubbie's.

For some reason, everyone gravitated towards their table and surrounded the two in a large group. In an effort to prevent the redhead from being pulled away from him, Shawn had thrown his arm around her shoulders again. Juliet had decided to make the most of the crowded space and her position by wiggling as close as she could to the boy and (subtly) sliding an arm around his waist in response. He made no mention of it and the redhead was very comfortable with their current seating arrangements.

A shout from Mr. Turner quieted the restaurant: "hey, hey— everybody! Hand in your homework right now." Everyone turned to him. "Shawn, Juliet, you're friend's here. I was just kiddin' about the homework. Good night everybody."

Shawn and Juliet slid out of their booth to join the curly-haired boy who smiled weakly at them. "Don't worry about me, guys. I'm just leaving."

"Why? I got an order of chili cheese fries, extra gravy," Shawn informed him.

"No, you're too busy with those other guys."

Juliet's brows furrowed. "What other guys?"

"The other thousand guys at your table," Cory sneered. He pointed to the booth they had been sitting in.

"So, they'll make room," she shrugged.

"Guys, they're gonna see you talking to me," he tried to object.

"You know, you've been acting really weird since you got invited to this party. You don't wanna hang out with us anymore?" Shawn accused him.

"I'm a geek!" he exclaimed and everyone turned to look at him. "Oh, like you didn't know."

The three of them moved to an empty booth. "Cory, what are you talkin' about?"

"I'm the worst kind of geek: I'm a geek who didn't know he was a geek."

"Cory?"

"Yeah?"

"Do either of us hang out with geeks?" Shawn demanded, motioning between him and the redhead.

"No, that's why I'm leaving."

"Cory, sit down. We're not letting you go this easily," Juliet said calmly.

"You just gotta loosen up," Shawn agreed.

"You don't think I'm a geek?"

"Of course not."

"You think I'm cool?"

"Of course not."

"Then what am I?" he questioned them, confused.

"You're Cory, she's Juliet, I'm Shawn, just like it's always been. What else do you need to know?"

"I need to know how to be cool, like you guys. I mean, Juliet cut up her invitation. I want to not care like that."

"We're not cool," Juliet protested. "I was invited to the same party you were if that's any indication— no offence, Cor."

"Yeah, well, you didn't go. I mean, look around you. This is the cool party. You and Shawn are the center of the cool party."

"This is the cool party?" Shawn echoed.

"Yes."

"Then let's bail." The redhead shrugged. "I never cared about parties anyway."

"What?"

"This place is a zoo, let's get out of here," Shawn clarified.

"Oh, I get it. You're trying to teach me how to be cool."

"What?"

"You're trying to show me that it doesn't matter where you go because if you're truly cool, wherever you go is the cool place to be," Cory explained. "Right?"

"Cory?" Juliet asked.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," Shawn finished.

"A very cool thing to say." 

[edited may 2022]