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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʀᴀᴠᴇ ᴏɴ ꒱


❝ THEY HAD THE
RIGHT INTENTIONS! ❞

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Juliet stood with Cory and Shawn in the main hallway of the school while Mr. Feeny tore down a banner advertising a rave that would've happened in a few days. The watching students booed him loudly.

"You know Mr. Feeny, just between you and me, it's stuff like this that makes you really unpopular," Shawn told him.

"Sure, and it's lonely at the top but I save a lot of money on call waiting," Mr. Feeny answered.

"What do you have against throwing an illegal rave?"

"Uh, maybe because you used the word illegal?" Juliet pointed out, causing the boy to roll his eyes.

"Now you're sounding like Feeny, Julie."

"There's worse people to sound like, Mr. Hunter," their teacher said sternly.

"Hey, what is a rave anyway?" Cory asked.

"Really, Cory?" both Shawn and Juliet questioned him at the same time.

"A rowdy underground party. Get hip, Mr. Matthews," Mr. Feeny told him before he walked away.

"Topanga," Cory addressed his girlfriend, "do you think I'm unhip?"

"Of course I don't," she replied, "oh, you left your earmuffs at my house."

"Nerd alert," Juliet fake-coughed. Cory narrowed his eyes at her as Shawn tried to hide his laughter.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Julie."

"Please, I'm way more hip than he is," the redhead scoffed slightly, "I was even going to go with Jack."

The mention of the blond soured Shawn's mood slightly and he quickly moved on. "So, Cor, any advance word on where the party's gonna be?"

"How the heck would I know?" Cory asked.

"'Cause Eric's throwing it."

"What? He hasn't said a word to me. Since fifth grade, actually," the boy answered. His gaze fell on his brother before he walked over to him.

"I can't believe you're going with Montacute," the dark-haired boy said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Juliet gave him a faintly irritated look. "He's my boyfriend Shawn. We've been over this."

"But you were arguing with him just last week!"

"And we got over it because that's what people in relationships do," she informed him, "we work things out."

Shawn opened his mouth to (probably) not say anything good back but he was saved from replying by Cory rejoining them. "Shawn, Jules, guess who's—"

Eric covered his mouth. "Hey!"

🌎🌎🌎

Jack's head rested in the red-haired girl's lap as they relaxed on his bed later that night and Juliet ran her fingers through his soft blond hair. There was a movie playing in the background that neither of them were paying attention to; the boy was too at ease and the girl's mind was too preoccupied with other thoughts focus on it. They'd been sitting in a relatively comfortable silence for awhile until Jack finally broke it. "Penny for your thoughts, Ocean Eyes?"

"I'm just thinking about my mom is all." And Shawn.

"What about her?"

"I just— I can't stop thinking that something bad is going to happen soon. She's been gone even more frequently now than when she was working full-time at the diner. She doesn't even come home for several days straight and most of her clothes are gone from her closet." The girl let out a shaky sigh. "If I lose her too, I don't— I don't—"

The blond sat up abruptly and his blue eyes stared at her intently. "Hey, listen to me. You're not losing her, okay?"

The girl gave him a lost look. "How do you know?" she asked, "how can you say that so certainly? She's the only parent I have left, Jack. If— if she leaves—"

The boy's hands came up at gently cupped her face. Juliet did her best to relax in his grasp, knowing that he had no intention of hurting her despite the uncomfortable warmth. She knew it was supposed to be a comforting gesture so she tried to let it go as he said firmly, "she's not leaving, Ocean Eyes. Sometimes people have to get farther away before they grow closer. If you do have anything to worry about— which I'm sure you don't— you always have a place here, with us. I'm sure the Matthews would help you out if you needed it, too." He was careful not to mention Hunter.

Juliet didn't look any more reassured, though, and her brows continued to be pinched together as worry remained apparent in her expression. Jack sighed and leaned forward to place what he thought was a comforting kiss on her forehead before he placed another one on her lips. He luckily pulled away before she had to respond. "Look, we've got that date Friday night at the rave. Try to focus on the events you can control instead of worrying about the ones you can't. You might feel better if you do. Besides, it's late. Nothing ever looks good when you're tired."

"You're right," she agreed. The girl shifted so that she could stand up and the blond gave her a puzzled look as she did so.

"Aren't you going to sleep over? The room next door is ready for you."

"Thanks but no thanks, Jack. I think I just want to go home."

The boy frowned, disappointment evident on his features, but he nodded without pressuring her to stay. "I'll have John drive you home."

🌎🌎🌎

At school the next day, it came as no surprise to Juliet that Eric had booked the rave on the same night as their parent's anniversary, requiring the group to scramble something together.

"I got you a band," Topanga announced.

"They're old guys in their thirties but I think they'll be okay," Juliet agreed, "I listened to them."

"Also, I checked and double checked that Chubbie isn't coming back for a week," Cory said, "we're good."

"And Cor, I got you a guy who'll jump out of a cake," Shawn added.

"Why would I want that?"

"It was six bucks, man," Shawn told him.

"You paid a guy six bucks?"

"No, he paid me."

Eric came up to them holding two balloons and a small brown bag. "Hey, Cor. Check it out. I got the balloons. Usually it takes two or three days but I turned on the old Eric Matthews charm and got three hundred of these babies printed up. Check it out."

Cory grabbed the balloon to read: "happy twentieth, Amy and Ellen.'"

"What?"

"You better get your money back, Eric."

"Oh, what? Am I supposed to do everything?"

"Fine, I'll do it. I'll do it all!" Cory exclaimed as he grabbed the items Eric was holding.

His brother shrugged. "Okay. I'll see you at the party."

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet arrived at Chubbie's with Shawn, Topanga and Cory. She'd cancelled her date with Jack under the impression that the rave was off and was more than happy to spend the evening with her best friends. She even made an effort to put all thoughts of her mom out of her mind as they walked up to the building.

"Well, you pulled this off, Cor," Shawn said as they climbed the steps.

"A full anniversary party in twenty-four hours."

"Thanks to us," Juliet added, smoothing down the front of her skirt.

"Eric, what is this?" Cory demanded as they saw the line of people heading into Chubbie's.

"A surprise party for mom and dad," Eric answered.

"Yeah, and who are these other people?"

"These are our friends from school."

"And what are they doing at our parents' party?" the curly-haired boy asked.

"That's right, I didn't tell you. Good news, bro. We're throwing both parties. The raid is on!"

Juliet left the Matthews brothers to follow Shawn and Topanga inside. "Whoa," she said as her eyes widened at the sight of so many strangers. "This is bad."

"You think?" Topanga answered sarcastically, "this is worse than bad."

"What do we do?" the redhead wondered.

Cory came down the stairs at met them at the bottom. "Jules, Topanga, I need your help. We gotta clear out the ravers before it's too late."

"Cor? It's too late," his girlfriend told him. The boy looked around the room and gasped loudly at the party-goers. 

Shawn ran over to join them, exclaiming: "guys, guys, guys, the cheerleaders are chocolate-wrestling in the kitchen!"

Juliet made a face as Cory replied, "well, stop 'em!"

"Oh, okay, but I'm gonna need a can of whipped cream and a really big spoon!"

The redhead forced her attention from the dark-haired boy and her eyes widened further as she saw Jack's familiar blond head bobbing through the crowd. Detaching herself from her friends, she wove her way towards him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Jack?" she called above the noise.

The boy turned around and his eyes blinked in surprise as he stared down at the redhead. "Ocean Eyes? What are you doing here?"

She crossed her arms. "I happen to be here for my best friend's parent's anniversary. Why are you here?"

"Uh, for the rave."

"But I cancelled our date," she pointed out.

"I can still go out, can't I?"

The girl's eyes narrowed. "The rave isn't supposed to be happening. I told you that, Jack. We had to cancel it for the party."

"Does it look cancelled to you?" the blond asked as he gestured to the ravers.

Before she could answer, Cory hit a drum with the drumstick to get everyone's attention. "Hey, there. Alright. Hey, how are you all doing?" 

Everyone cheered in response and the boy continued: "yeah! See, guys, for this party we're gonna try something a little wacky!" he paused to let the encouragement die down. "Okay, see, this party's got a theme, guys and that theme is— are you ready? That theme is a wedding anniversary!"

There was far less enthusiasm but the boy was undeterred. "You know, uh, like a surprise party. So let's pretend that the next two people walking down those stairs are a celebrating their anniversary. Now, when you see the happy couple, I want you all to shout 'surprise!' Fun, huh?" There was some awkward support and Cory shook his head, "oh, kill the lights."

The room went dark and two shadowy figures walked down the stairs. As the lights turned on, everyone jumped up shouting, "surprise!" only to reveal Mr. Feeny and Mr. Turner.

"Now I know why I never come here," Mr. Feeny said.

Jack smirked at the redhead. "Great anniversary party, Juliet."

The girl flushed. "The rave wasn't supposed to happen! Eric went ahead and did it anyway."

"Some rave. Now both parties are ruined and I was looking forward to going out."

Juliet's eyes narrowed. "They had the right intentions!"

"Oh, like forgetting about the anniversary entirely and leaving it to the last minute so everyone else suffers?" the boy scoffed.

"Those are my friends you're talking about!" she snapped back, "I wouldn't say that if I were you."

"They're idiots, Juliet. I don't know why you hang around them."

The girl's face turned redder and her hands fisted at her sides. "They're not idiots!" at the boy's disbelieving look, she huffed, "they're not the smartest but at least they're good people!"

"What, and I'm not?"

"Don't put words in my mouth, Jack. I didn't say that!"

"That's about the only thing I can do for you these days," he retorted, looking annoyed. His bright blue eyes flashed with annoyance.

Juliet opened and closed her mouth soundlessly for a moment as she stared at the blond boy before she burst out: "just because I don't want to kiss you twenty-four seven doesn't mean you can say things for me!"

"And I just wanted to have a fun night. Why do you have to make this about yourself?" the blond demanded angrily.

The girl threw her hands up in exasperation. "You're the one who made this about me, so go— have your fun night, I won't stop you. Just leave me alone!"

"Fine!" the boy snapped, copying her gesture. "I had other plans anyway. I don't need to be here to have fun if you can even call this— this party that," he sneered. He turned on his heel and stomped out.

Juliet felt drained as she watched him leave and sat down heavily at an unoccupied booth. There was a shout nearby as Topanga's anger flared but she couldn't bring herself to care as she folded her hands on the table and rested her chin on them to gaze blankly out into the distance. She didn't know why she was so short-tempered with Jack recently except that sometimes the very sight of the boy irritated her. He certainly didn't deserve everything she'd said to him (some of it, yes, but not all of it) and it was understandable that he'd gotten angry.

She'd been staring off into space for some time before she felt a light weight land on her head, making her jump. Tipping the brim of the hat up, she looked up to see Shawn grinning down at her, though the look quickly faded as he took in her expression. "What's wrong, Julie?"

"Don't you have some cheerleaders to break up?" she asked bitterly.

The boy sighed and ran his hands through his newly-freed hair now that his hat was on her head. "They broke themselves up. I didn't care about them anyway," the redhead gave him a flat, disbelieving look to which the boy only shrugged. "I do care about how you're feeling though. D'you want to talk about it?"

The girl let out a breath and shook her head. "Not really."

The first few notes of a very familiar song began to play and the dark-haired boy's expression began to brighten. He held out his hand to his best friend. "Dance with me, Julie?"

"'I got sunshine on a cloudy day. . .'"

Juliet listened to the words before answering, not really in a dancing mood. But, as she looked up at the boy's happy, hopeful expression and let the familiar notes of the song swirl around her, she found that she didn't have the heart to say no. Instead, she wordlessly put her hand in his and tried to ignore the sparks the flew up her arm at the contact or the shiver that ran down her spine as he pulled her gently to her feet.

Shawn led her out to the space cleared for the dance floor and turned to face her, carefully placing a hand on her waist and turning the one her was holding so he could interlock their fingers together (this wasn't strictly necessary but he'd be a fool to pass up the opportunity.) Juliet placed her free hand on his shoulder and the boy began to dip their arms more energetically than necessary to the music in an effort to make the girl smile, to which he was eventually successful as the small quirk of her lips turned more genuine.

As they turned on the dance floor to Juliet's favorite song, she couldn't help but feel that this moment was absolutely perfect as she looked up into the boy's bright blue eyes. Jack was far from her thoughts as were her worries about her mother and all that her world contained was her best friend and the song they danced to.

"'I guess you'd say what can make me feel this way— my girl. Talkin' 'bout my girl. . .'" 

[written dec. 2020]
[edited may 2022]