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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐖𝐎 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴡᴇsᴛ ᴇɴᴅ ɢɪʀʟs ꒱


❝ YOU THINK YOU'RE
MAD, TOO UNSTABLE ❞

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While other girls that she went to school with changed their outfits at least once a day, Jessie's outer appearance remained the same. Her t-shirt and jeans were always covered by her father's olive-green army coat, she owned one pair of beat-up sneakers that needed to be replaced and her hair remained tied in twin braids. The consistency was reassuring while the world around her changed and she could always expect people's reactions to her; if she wore something else that would introduce a new, unfamiliar variable which might lead to a worse situation.

She also occupied the same spot in the cafeteria every day since the first year of elementary school. While other tables were crowded with students sitting with their friends, hers remained empty except for, well, her. This hardly bothered her in the slightest; there was so much noise from the cafeteria already that any more would further her discomfort. Instead, it allowed her to continue to wear her Walkman without appearing rude. Rather than talk with her peers, she kept her eyes focused on her tray as she ate the mostly unappetizing school food.

While she maintained her daily routine, she didn't notice the girl with flaming hair— Max— sit at the opposite end of her table. She also didn't notice the four boys whose eyes were suddenly (and obviously) glued to the potential interaction. Jessie remained intent on the tray before her, oblivious to how the red-haired girl shot glances her way or the fact that every two minutes, she surreptitiously shifted down the bench a few inches closer to the brunette.

When Max had pushed her food until she was sitting nearly opposite of the other girl, she stood and went to get some napkins as a nonchalant way of announcing her presence. Upon her return, she jokingly reached out and tugged on one of the girl's twin braids. Jessie startled badly at the contact and, without stopping to take in who it was, she leapt to her feet. Her hand flashed out, grasped Max's wrist in a tight grip and in a second, she had the redhead's arm pinned behind her back as the girl let out a pained yelp.

The sound was swallowed by the noise of the cafeteria but their rapid movements had caught the attention of some of the students. A few sent mutters of "loony" her way before they turned back to their meals. It was only when the familiar flame of red registered in her line of sight did she realize what had happened. 

"Oh!" Jessie exclaimed. She quickly released the girl.

"Jesus," Max complained as she rolled out her shoulder and rubbed her wrist at the same time. "What sort of crazy person reacts like that?"

"I, um—" The brunette sat down quickly. "Instinct. Sorry."

"Again, what sort of crazy person reacts like that?" she repeated as she retook her seat.

Jessie shrugged. "I've learned that if I don't make the first move it turns out a whole lot worse for me."

"First move? For what?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit unpopular," she commented drily. She waved to the rest of the empty table. "If I don't stand up for me, no one will. I can't let the enemy have the upper hand."

"Enemy?" Max echoed, staring at her. "We're at school."

The brunette shrugged again. "Case in point. It took me a few years to learn that reporting it results in nothing so I had resort to defending myself."

"I don't get it," the red-haired girl said with a frown. "You don't have the plague, do you?"

She chuckled lightly. "No, I've got something worse. Although, if you ask anyone here, they'll say it's. . . something wicked. You'll hear about it soon enough."

"Can't you just tell me yourself?"

"Trust me, the rumors are more fun. You should probably find another table to sit at unless you want to be ostracized."

"Nah, I'm good here," Max replied easily. "Anyway, are the stalker boys your friends? I saw them talking to you earlier."

"Yeah," Jessie agreed. "Well, sort of. Not really. We're more acquaintances than anything else. We helped each other out a lot last year and so there's a sort of mutual respect. They're not bad, just really, really awkward."

The redhead sent her a faint smile.  "What, and you aren't?"

"No way," the brunette told her in a completely serious tone. "I'm the epitome of 'totally tubular.'"

Max let out an entertained huff. "Now you just sound really, really awkward. No one actually says that, you know."

"Totally tuuuu-bular," Jessie repeated the word with even more exaggeration, bringing an amused smile to the other girl's lips. The bright expression on Max's face reminded her of the spark before the ember blazed to life and it caused her to lean forward, entranced by the radiance of the flare. The bell rang suddenly and jerked her out of the daze she'd willingly allowed herself to fall into. 

The redhead stood and gathered her bag. "Well, I'll see you around, kooky."

"Alright, Benny."*

The last glimpse Jessie got of Max was of her rolling her eyes at the badly-used surfer slang before she was lost in the crowd of students.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

Of course, the boys were waiting for her at the door to the cafeteria. With some manhandling, they ushered her into an empty classroom as Dustin spoke up first: "what happened?"

"What did she say?" Mike demanded.

"Why did you look like Bambi's mother before she caught the bullet?" Lucas finished. At the weirded-out looks the boys gave him, he raised his hands. "Hey, my sister was the one watching it!"

Jessie watched them boredly and waited until they were finished before she spoke: "not much. I just asked her why she was sitting at my table and made fun of her Californian slang. Seriously, guys, it wasn't that interesting."

Mike sent her an irritated look. "You're supposed to be our ranger, Jessie. How are you going to find out the threats if you don't talk to them?"

"Max isn't a threat!"

"Oh, so she has a name now?" he sneered. "What, are you gonna join her side next with your—"

The way he finished the sentence made the other three boys give him affronted looks accompanied with exclamations of "dude!" and "not cool!"

Jessie shrugged, having heard worse. "Well, maybe I will. In fact, I might tell her everything and you wouldn't be able to stop me."

"You'd be out of the party," he threatened her.

The brunette let out a mocking laugh. "I'm hardly in the party. You only talk to me when you need something. So, I'll keep you updated on the Max front but otherwise stay out of my business." With that, she left the room and returned her headphones to the proper position on her head. 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

When Jessie arrived at school the next day via bus, she shook her head at the boys' unfortunate miscalculation. She would never be caught dead wearing a costume even if she could afford to waste money on one. The memory of their most recent argument was still fresh in her head and she pointedly ignored them on her way to her locker. It was Dustin and Lucas who approached her first, looking reasonably uncomfortable. "Hi."

She kept her head in her locker but waved a hand in their direction to acknowledge their presence. Lucas continued: "well, as you can probably tell we thought everyone was gonna dress up today for Halloween—"

"Yeah, everyone," Dustin agreed.

"But obviously you had the same message everyone else did and now we're the morons—"

"Not usually," the other boy said quickly. "Just today."

"And since you're in regular clothes, we wanted to know if you'd ask Max to come trick-or-treating with us," Lucas finished.

"No," she replied simply.

"If we wait too long she'll be invited to hang out with someone else," Dustin pointed out pleadingly. "Come on, Jessie."

"You know I don't celebrate Halloween. It was originally a Pagan holiday that—"

"—was adapted to be more 'Christian-suitable.' Yeah, yeah, we know. You've told us before. You don't have to come with us. We just can't ask Max when we're dressed like this." Lucas gestured to their costumes.

"What's in it for me?"

The boys exchanged a glance. "Half of our Halloween candy?"

"Minus the nougat," Dustin added quickly.

"How about twenty bucks instead?"

"What's this, a flea market?" Lucas retorted. "Besides, I spent all of my quarters at the arcade. It's the candy or nothing."

"Fine, but only because Mike didn't come with you." Jessie grumbled as she slammed her locker shut. "If she says no, that's on you."

"Fair enough," Dustin allowed.

As she shouldered her bag they looked at her expectantly, which prompted her to ask, "what? You want me to ask her now?"

She rolled her eyes at their extremely uncool hasty agreement before she made her way over to Max's locker down the hall. It was quite unusual for her to approach anyone and she wasn't sure exactly what to say to get her attention. Thankfully, Max seemed to pick up on her presence without her needing to speak up. "Hey, kooky."

"Hey, Benny. Um—"

"Do the stalker boys want you to ask me something?"

"Yeah," she admitted, not caring that she was throwing them under the bus. "They want me to see if you'd like to go trick-or-treating with them."

"And you're their messenger because. . .?"

"They're really, really awkward," Jessie finished with a faint grin. "So, what do you want me to tell them?"

"Well. . . are you coming?"

"M-me?" the brunette asked with surprise. "Why would that matter?"

Max's gaze darted away from hers to land on the two boys across the hall. "No reason, just wondering."

"I don't believe in Halloween," she replied, "and I refuse to celebrate it, so no."

"Oh," the redhead said, sounding oddly disappointed. "Well, you can tell them that I'll think about it." 

*Benny= non-local

[edited jul. 2022]