Based on a prompt given by anon on Tumblr.
Would you consider writing a fic where Misty & Cordelia are students (what they're studying is up to you). Initially they don't get along, but after getting paired for a group project they start to like each other then eventually end up as a couple?
From the moment Cordelia read the syllabus on the first day of class, she dreaded this day. It was the week after the mid-terms, and she would give anything to time-travel to the finals week.
"Group project," her creative writing English teacher read the syllabus aloud in his monotonous tone. "As the part of requirement for this class, the students are required to participate in a group project in pursuance of better understanding of not only their own, but others' writing."
And he continued to talk about the goals for this stupid project and what not. The students had to read each other's work and give them advice. They had to take into account the advice and improve their papers. Basically he didn't say anything Cordelia hadn't already read on the syllabus and couldn't recite by heart.
This is absolutely a huge waste of time. She buried her head in her hands, glaring at her own syllabus the teacher had told the students to bring.
"Ok, so—" The teacher, Mr. Gordon, took his notebook out and ripped a page out, jotting down something as he spoke. "I need to apologize in advance that I forgot to revise the syllabus. This class is relatively small, so instead of groups, you'll be working in a pair."
The blonde student shot her head up, wide-eyed, her forehead twitching.
That's worse than a group! What if I was paired with a f**king moron? It's not even an apology in advance! This English teacher can't use English properly for crying out loud.
If there was anything she hated more than stupid people, it was working with stupid people. She was the kind of person who despised relying on others. And yes, she was the kind of person who censored her own internal monologue.
Gordon held a tiny red bucket in the air. "Ok. So, here's how it works. There's fourteen of you in this class, which means there'll be seven pairs. You pick one out of this,"—he held a small folded piece of paper between his chubby fingers—"and you look for the person who has the same number. That person will be your partner for the rest of the semester. Ok, here you go." He passed the bucket to the girl who sat in the rightmost seat on the front row.
Cordelia sat in the opposite corner of the classroom, and it was obvious she was going to be the last one to have the bucket. The best things said often come last. She sincerely hoped so. But when the bucket finally came to her, there was not just one, but two pieces left inside.
After giving the toy bucket back to Gordon, she sat back in her seat, waiting for her partner. The paper in her hand said number 3. Her eyes scanned the room as the other students formed pairs, and within a minute everyone sat with their partner, except for Cordelia.
"Ok, if you found each other, I want you to write down your pair number and your names on a sheet of paper. You can exchange your numbers afterwards." Gordon said and walked closer to the lone blonde.
Cordelia straightened her back. "I can work on my own."
"Oh no, you do have a partner. Don't worry." He smiled, oblivious to the student's fervid wish to maintain her partnerless status. "Just write down your number and your name."
Glaring at the back of the teacher as he walked away, the blonde let out a not-so-subtle sigh. She looked around to figure out who her partner might be, though it felt like a fruitless act. Her level of indifference toward her classmates was so high she wouldn't know who was absent and who wasn't.
But there was an exception, albeit an unpleasant one.
Oh F**K. As soon as her brain registered the absence of one person, she knew her semester was over.
The door swung open in the middle of the class, and there walked in a girl with wild blonde hair. The hippie. The flowerchild. The girl Cordelia would give anything to avoid.
"Sorry," the girl said to Gordon with a sly smile as she sat in front of him.
"It's alright." Gordon waved his hand, as though being 30 minutes late to class wasn't big a deal. "We were paring up for the group project, and you'll be pairing with Cordelia." His finger pointed at her in the back.
The wild blonde said thanks to the teacher, picked her hippie bag up, and sat next to Cordelia. The heel of her boot lightly kicked the leg of Cordelia's desk as she crossed her long legs. "Hey. So, I guess I'm your partner? I don't know what that means, though." Her giggles were annoyingly optimistic and oblivious. "I'm Misty. What's yo name?"
With her lips tight, Cordelia gave her the sheet of paper.
"What's this?" Misty raised her eyebrows, her smile full blossom in amusement. "Pair number 3. Cordelia Goode. Hmm. Your name sounds a little uptight, ya?" She took a pencil out of the bird nest that was her hair, scribbling her own name before flashing a smile. "But you're living up to your name, I think."
The serious blonde swallowed the urge to storm out of the room. If they would spend the rest of the semester working together, she'd have to learn to dislike the hippie girl less.
F**k, f**k, f**king creative writing. FUCK.
ooOooOoo
-what's today's hw?
Cordelia's phone vibrated in the middle of her evening class. Her frown deepened when the name of the wild blonde popped up. Exchanging their numbers was a regrettable decision although nearly obligatory. Being the girl that she was, Cordelia didn't have so many numbers in her phone, so it made her feel violated in a way to see the girl's name on the screen.
-It's on the syllabus.
-c'mon halp a girl out. I'm your partner :(
She let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose to relieve her headache.
-Dialogue that drives a scene's underlying suspense/conflict. Five pages. Due next Tuesday.
-not this thursday?
-No.
-welp I didn't have to worry about it then. Thanks 3
Cordelia narrowed her eyes at the last text. The wild blonde obviously believed she had more than enough time, which was not true in the slightest. They had to read the textbook and incorporate the illustrated techniques. The one week given was not for partying.
Not to her surprise, her prediction was proven right when after a week Misty said, "Oh crap, I forgot to do that."
Cordelia couldn't find the energy to roll her eyes. The class objective for the day was centered around the assignment. Not having done it equated to not attending the class.
"That's fine," Gordon said. "Just do it as soon as you can. What you can do today is to tell Cordelia what kind of scene you're planning to write and how you're going to employ the techniques you read in the book, ok?"
"Ok." Misty grinned, without a hint of exasperation or anxiety, so relaxed and so stress-free that it stressed the other girl out. She turned to face Cordelia, crossing her legs and kicking the desk again. Countless of beads clattered around her wrist as she held her hand out to Cordelia. "Let's see what you got here, shall we, miss?"
The serious blonde handed her work to the other, full five pages, flawlessly stapled in the left upper corner.
"Neat." Misty raised an eyebrow.
It was basically a purgatorial nightmare to wait while the flowerchild read her work. For the first couple of minutes she watched Misty's lips twist in a smile, in a frown, and in bizarre indecipherable expressions. Equally eloquent was her eyes, which narrowed, widened, crinkled up, and shone in a matter of twenty seconds Cordelia stared.
It was like watching a child read a kids' book.
The ringed fingers turned the page back to the cover, and Misty beamed. "I like it!" It was an obvious feedback. She moved her chair closer to the other, leaning in, their elbows touching. "Especially right here, when she tells him about her pregnancy."
"It's the peak of the scene." Cordelia leaned away in her seat as the girl's curls tickled her arm.
"I like it. The tension, and the way she reveals it is so sneaky. You are mighty good at it, aren't ya?"
The patronizing tone, as if to praise a kid's drawing, irritated Cordelia. "Well, thanks." She reached for her paper, giving up on more useful feedbacks, but Misty shielded it with her body.
"Ain't done yet," the hippie said. "I like this scene as a whole, but—right here? The guy's wording? I don't know, it feels a li'l forced. Outta place, I guess, slowing down the tempo of the scene. It's like another person got into his body to say this one line, y'know?"
It left Cordelia astounded, her prejudiced underestimate backfiring at her. But her expectations toward this girl were still ground-level low. "I felt that too," she said, playing with her pen. "There just wasn't enough time to revise."
"Very well, then." Misty hummed, pursing her pink lips, drawing a smiley face and a 9.9/10 on the front page, and giving it back to the girl.
The brown eyes of Cordelia narrowed at the doodles, and she erased them with no reluctance, ignoring the whiny protest of the hippie artist. "Your turn. Tell me about your scene."
"Haven't decided on nothing yet." Misty rested her elbow on the desk and her jaw on her palm. "Any ideas?"
Cordelia took a deep breath, silently and patiently. There were just so many things she wanted to yell at the wild blonde, but she kept them in. Calm down, her grades are none of my concern.
"Hold on—" Misty's eyes sparkled as she took her notebook out. "I just got an idea!"
For the rest of the class, Misty jotted down her ideas while everyone else revised their papers. Cordelia would frown sometimes when the hippie girl hummed beside her, but the relative silence put her at ease. But alas, her inner peace was such a fragile bird. She glanced at Misty after her own revision was done, only to find her texting on her phone, the pen and paper abandoned.
It wasn't until Gordon dismissed the class did the girl look up from her phone.
"Wait, what'd he say about the homework?" she asked Cordelia, who had waited to put her stuff away until the teacher's last word.
"It's on the syllabus."
"Who reads syllabi?" Misty snorted, but her smirk shrunk a little when Cordelia threw a dry glare. Shoving her things in her bag, she followed the shorter blonde out of the classroom. "No, I was listening alright, but what'd he say we should do after writing?"
"Upload it on E-campus. There's a submit box." The brown eyes kept looking straight.
Misty let out an ahhh sound. "Not sure if I know how to use that website. Didn't really use it last semester."
Cordelia abruptly stopped and turned around, people's shoulders bumping into hers. "How did you—how do you check your grades, then? Do you even check? Wait, what year are you?"
Misty gave her V sings with both of her hands. "Oh wait, that ain't right," she said, and quickly dropped her right hand, only holding two fingers up in total. "What 'bout yourself?"
"Junior." Cordelia began walking away, absolutely fed up.
It was incredulous that someone, despite being a sophomore, still had no idea how to use their school website, where professors posts students' grades and course materials. More ridiculous was that she had to spend her precious time with that person. It was insanity.
"I thought you were younger than me," the wild blonde said, following her like a duckling. "What's yo major?"
They walked out of the building, and the October sun welcomed them. Their college was one of the biggest in the state, which meant a large variety of courses and high quality of education, but it also meant walking across the campus a lot.
The older blonde put sunglasses on, already feeling sweat trickle down her neck. "Psychology," she said. "And I happened to have a class in ten minutes. Could you stop following me?" And she walked away.
ooOooOoo
That evening, Cordelia was sitting like a plant in front of a computer in the library. She, except for her fingers and eyeballs, hadn't moved an inch since forever, as it was her rule to finish homework the day it was assigned.
English homework was done, and the last assignment was half done. Then someone tapped on her left shoulder. She turned her head to that way and saw nobody. The seat on her right side creaked.
That hippie girl was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey. What're you up to, doll?"
The library had two wings and three floors each. Cordelia always chose to study in the corner furthest from the elevator on the third floor of the east wing, because it was the most deserted area of all. She liked the quiet, she liked the peace. She was not ready for the girl to destroy it.
Cordelia's eyes returned to the computer screen. "Studying."
"Yeah, me too. What a coincidence." Childish chuckles escaped her lips, and Misty got her chair to align with Cordelia's, the curious blue eyes on the homework. "Child psychological development and self-fulfilling prophecy…Hmm, that's neat. What does that mean?"
The girl's raspy voice was rather loud in the library at 8 p.m. on a Friday night. The few people sitting nearby gave them stern or exhausted looks, thinking Cordelia was an accessory to this destruction of peace.
"Look, if you don't have anything productive to say, just leave me alone," Cordelia said.
With a proud grin as if to say I do indeed have something, Misty held out a paper. "I finished the dialogue assignment. Wanna read?"
"Would you go away if I did?"
The wild blonde stared at her and smirked, which Cordelia couldn't decipher if it meant yes or no. The older blonde sighed and took the paper, running her eyes through it halfheartedly.
The scene was set in a classroom, with the two characters working in a pair. Very subtle. Cordelia fought the urge to roll her eyes, as she wished not to waste a second on the girl. She suppressed her grumbling all she could, until Person A called Person B uptight in the heat of the argument.
"I'm not uptight!" Cordelia angry-whispered, slamming the paper down on the desk, knitting her brows at the other.
Misty raised her brows, as if the older blonde was throwing a tantrum. "No idea what you're talking about. It's fiction, Delia."
"Don't call me that, and that's bullshit. You can't do this. It's— it's—"
"What? Plagiarism? I stole none from nobody."
"You—" Cordelia searched for words, her hand waving and drawing a furious line between them. "This—you took this and just put it into words. That's cheating."
"Cheating? To get inspired by things that happen in real life? Then you gonna have to start calling most artists cheaters." The little feather earring peeked from between her wild strands as she tilted her head. The low raspy voice and the piercing eyes sent chills down Cordelia's spine. "And your work, too. Don't deny that your life and other people's lives influence your writing. There's no such thing as creating from ground zero." Then, her icy eyes crinkled, a huge grin spreading across her face. "That's my art teacher said. Pretty neat, huh?" Giggling like a child, she tilted her head more to look into the face of Cordelia, who tightened her lips and dropped her gaze. "But if you really don't want James to read this, I can write something else."
In the middle of the mortification, Cordelia wondered for a moment who James was, and then realized it was their teacher, Gordon. "No." She feebly shook her head, giving the paper back. "Keep it that way. It's really well-written."
"You think so?"
Cordelia gave her a nod and watched the way Misty's cheeks colored lightly. Conflicting thoughts crept across her mind, that her opinions on this girl had been unfair and incorrect, that she was hating on the girl for something she was not.
"I tried to write like you did, y'know?" Misty grinned. "Your writing's really, really good."
The endearing words tickled something in Cordelia. "That's…nice of you to say. I think yours is just as good , if not better." A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, probably for the first time with the wild blonde around. "And you know what can make it even better?"
"What?"
"Use Times New Roman." Her slim finger pointed at the paper in the girl's hands. "No one takes you seriously if you write in Comic Sans."
The blue-grey eyes gaped at the paper for a couple of seconds, as though she was looking for a single typo. "Oh hey, how'd that happen?" Then she wiggled her brows. "It's prettier this way, though, no?"
Cordelia rolled her eyes, an amazed glint in them. "Yeah, no."
They spent the next thirty minutes semi-together. Misty moved to sit next to Cordelia and revised her paper, while Cordelia worked on her own. People around them left one by one, calling it a night and ready to take a break from school for the weekend.
After having her revised paper checked by the older blonde and receiving a thumbs-up, Misty said, "You hungry? Wanna go grab something with me?"
Although there remained a paragraph or two to write, Cordelia found the offer tempting. But the idea of going somewhere with the younger blonde held her back. Her stomach growled as though it just remembered how empty it was.
Misty smirked. "I'll pay for your food."
Then Cordelia saw it as a chance to surrender.
Walking down the street filled with wasted college kids, Misty led Cordelia to her favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown.
"This one's my favorite." The girl's ringed finger pointed at a picture of a burrito.
Cordelia leaned in and narrowed her eyes at the three red peppers below the picture. No way she was going to get that. Spicy food was never a friend to her.
Misty must've seen her reluctance, because she looked into her face with that Misty Day smirk. "Reaaaally spicy stuff. I don't think you could even swallow one bite."
So Cordelia decided to have that.
With a victorious grin, the wild blonde took her wallet out of her bag, checking the number on the cash register. She counted her cash, more than once, but no matter how many times or how hard she counted, it always gave her the same answer. It wasn't enough for both of them. Eventually she crouched down on the spot, rummaging through the bag, not minding her notebooks scattered about on the floor.
"Do you want me to pay?" Cordelia took her card out.
"No!" The blue-grey eyes glared for a second, before she shifted her attention back to the inside of her bag. "I know there's a five somewhere." Her lips were pursed like she was fighting tears.
The sight gave Cordelia some unnerving feelings. It was upsetting, not because of the girl's callous manner, but because of the eyes of the other people, looking down on her from their seats, shoving food in their mouths, as though she was a monkey in a zoo.
Cordelia bent forward and handed her a five dollar bill, gesturing towards the cashier boy. "You don't want to keep him waiting."
The girl stared down at it, but eventually decided to take it.
"I get paid like the day after, so I'll pay you back," Misty said after walking out of the place with their orders.
"You paid for my food. You don't owe me anything."
"But I made you pay. I promised." The wild blonde knotted her brows, tight-lipped, her gaze staring down at her toes as she walked.
A quite sigh escaped Cordelia's lips, and then she stopped walking. "Fine." The brown pierced into the blue-grey. "You will give me five dollars back if and only if, um—"
"If?"
"If…I could finish this." She held out the bag with her burrito in it. "No, wait—that's the other way around. You will pay me if I couldn't finish this burrito, because I certainly can and I will."
"What? That's—you're altering the rules to your advantage. That's literally cheating."
"Shut up. Are you in or not?"
The wild blonde gawked at her, bewildered, trying to make sense of everything. Then, the corner of her mouth turned upward. "You are very weird."
"I am not!"
The defensive tone of the older blonde made her giggle even more, making her forget how upset she was a moment ago about money. "You're gonna need a gallon of milk," Misty said.
###
After wandering around on the campus, they decided to eat on top of the hill behind the library, where they could look over the downtown. The summer breeze made their hair dance, cooling down their skin that shimmered with sweat.
Cordelia took a small bite out of the quesadilla Misty'd gotten herself, drinking water every five seconds to relieve the burning in her mouth, while the hippie girl devoured the three-pepper burrito that Cordelia had given up after two bites and a half.
"You're weak," Misty said.
Cordelia narrowed her eyes as she took another sip of water, her lips tingling and buzzing. "Shut up." She took another sip.
Even from the hill, they could hear the music and the roars and the cheers of students having the time of their lives. Their college was infamous for its party culture, and to those party people, the weekend started on Wednesday. Friday nights were practically the peak of the mayhem.
"You don't look like a party person," Misty said after learning all the information from the older blonde.
"Because I'm not. But before I moved here, my mother bought me a house near the dorms. There are a lot of Greek houses there, too."
"Wait, what?" The wild blonde widened her eyes, her Burrito-filled mouth agape. "She bought you a house?"
"Yeah. She was like, it'll be much cheaper than paying the rent for four years, Delia." Cordelia lowered her voice to mimic her mother, rolling her eyes at the end of the ingenious reenactment. "Little did she know the area was called the Vegas."
"Delia. Is that what your mama call you, Delia?" with a lop-sided smirk, Misty asked, which received a scowl. "What? What 'm I supposed to call you, then? Cordelia sounds sooo uptight. And Cordy is like…Corgi, and you're more like a cat than a puppy."
Shaking her head, Cordelia remained quiet, determined not to be affected by the girl's unconstrained free-spirited nonsense. It was an unfamiliar thing to her, that spontaneity, the way the wild blonde seemed to float so freely around the world. It piqued her interest, but it was like being curious about a wild carnivore. She had to be careful, otherwise it'd only result in injuries.
"Dee!" Misty's squeal echoed in the deserted campus, bouncing against the buildings' brick walls.
"Huh?"
"How 'bout Dee? I sure like the sound o' that."
Cordelia chewed on her quesadilla, a hint of amusement tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You are weird."
"I am. But you're weirder." Misty grinned. "And weaker."
Cordelia got her five dollars back three days after that evening. Misty got an A on her dialogue assignment.
ooOooOoo
Despite her initial anxiety, Cordelia had come to love the English class over time. More than any of the classes she'd ever taken, in fact. The start was tough for sure, but nothing particularly bothered her after teaching Misty how to use E-campus.
The one time they had an assignment to write fiction, the wild blonde again used their shared moments for inspiration. Some parts were exaggerated, some were completely made up. But it didn't frustrate Cordelia like the first time, and in fact she found it extraordinary, even wished they had really experienced those things together, not just in the fictional world, where they were simply Person A and Person B.
The girl was still late to class and forgot to do homework from time to time, leaving Cordelia with no feedback on her papers as well. But the frequency of those bungles had decreased without a doubt, and it was satisfactory enough for Cordelia to stay calm.
Each week, she learned about Misty's life little by little, sometimes through their conversations, sometimes through her writing. At an early age she lost their parents in a car accident, which led her to live with and be raised by her religious grandmother. Because of her orphan state and her eccentricity, she was an easy target of bullying in high school. What got her through tough times was Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Although Cordelia couldn't be sure if all of this was true as the girl had a tendency to exaggerate, it squeezed her heart every time nonetheless.
Cordelia herself had been very truthful, not that she could lie. She wrote and told Misty about her broken family and cheating mother, being the teacher's dog everyone shied away from in high school. All of those soul-baring secrets that would've killed her with mortification if it had been anyone but Misty.
They were the oddest pair in anyone's eyes, including their own eyes, and they were the most compatible somehow, compensating each other's imperfections.
-meet me in the cac
Cordelia received a text from the wild blonde on a sunny day.
The Creative Art Center was located on the edge of the campus, isolated from the cluster of buildings most students used.
-I'm by the weird blue statue near the main entrance.
she texted, hoping to be rescued soon. Having taken no Art class, Cordelia had never been inside the CAC, and standing inside the alien building made her feel quite out of place.
"Dee!" Misty ran up to her as soon as her mischievous blue-grey eyes found the fidgeting blonde. Her long legs and taut stomach were hidden under a worn-out overall, quite contrary to her usual flashy way of dressing. Seeing the slightly confused look on Cordelia's face, she grinned and twirled on the spot. "I look cute in this, don't ya think?"
"It's certainly a different look." Cordelia cocked her brow, never giving what the girl wanted to hear.
Misty led her through the cold hallways like it was her home, which seemed utterly impossible to Cordelia as the building was called a labyrinth by many.
"So, I haven't told you, but I'm an art major," Misty said.
Cordelia had seen her bring a huge canvas to their class more than once. One time, she even found the tip of her wild curls covered in blue paint. It had become her habit to watch the wild blonde draw rather meticulous doodles on her notebook while Gordon was speaking, and lately those doodles seemed mainly of the older blonde herself. "Yeah. I sort of figured that out," she said.
"Ok. But you cannot guess what my final project for my sculpture class is."
"Oh, so that's why you're dressed like that? Sculpture, huh?" Cordelia took a brief look at the outfit, spotting some dried paint here and there.
After some turns and doors, they walked into a room at a cul-de-sac of the labyrinth. In the huge art room were several other people, all dressed similarly, working on whatever. Misty led her through, greeting others as she made her way, stopping in front of a huge chunk of wood in the corner.
As they came near the sculpture, Cordelia could make out the details of it. It was a bust of a woman. The flow of hair was rough, the bridge of the nose a bit high, the forehead narrow. But all of them were sculpted finely enough for her to know it was her, the eyes half-closed as though gazing down at something.
"Ta-dah!" Misty proudly stood next to it, grinning from ear to ear as the older blonde gawked at her wooden self. "Impressed yet? Of course, it's not even close to finished. It's just an outline, you see?"
"That's— it me." Pleasantly surprised, Cordelia forgot for a moment how to speak with proper grammar.
"I write about you in the English class, right? So I figured I should just make everything about you."
Cordelia let out a dry snort. "Right, because less time to decide on a theme."
"Exactly!" Misty said. "You like it?"
"Honestly? Yeah, I do. I think—I think you're really talented," the older blonde said. Then, it finally dawned on her why the girl was always drawing her in the class. She'd thought it was just Misty's innovative way of annoying her and killing time in class, but it was so much more. Something tickled inside her chest as she watched the wild blonde pick up her carving tools. "It's really good…but you know what can make it better?"
"Use Times New Roman?"
"Yes, please by all means, do use Times New Roman if you could." A sting of chuckles escaped her lips as she shook her head, scrunching her nose up. "I was saying, if you want to make it more realistic you have to make it a little, you know, uglier."
"Just a little?" Misty raised her eyebrows, which earned a smack in the upper arm. "Hey hey, careful. I got weapons in ma hands!" She held her hands up in the air, and with her distinctive smirk she shrugged the advice off. "I ain't changing nothing. This is exactly how I see you. Your eyes, your nose, your lips."
"Go get glasses." Cordelia giggled, biting on her bottom lip the way she always did in awkward situations. Her face was hot, she could tell.
"You're blushing!" The blue-grey eyes twinkled as she let go of her tools, coming close to the shorter blonde, cupping her cheeks in her warm hands. "Little Dee is blushing."
"I'm just embarrassed by your weirdness."
"Thanks. You're weak, doll." Misty winked.
"Shut up."
When the hands let her go, Cordelia immediately missed the warmth.
###
After the wild blonde was done with her work for the day, they went to the Mexican restaurant, got themselves some burritos, and ate on the bench on top of the hill. It was their routine lately. Every time, Cordelia ordered the three-pepper nemesis of a burrito, and Misty, knowing she would have to eat that hot burrito eventually, got something non-spicy the older girl could eat.
With her upper lip perched on the edge of her water bottle, Cordelia texted someone on her phone.
"Who you texting?" Misty asked, and after making sure the brown eyes looked at her, she covered her mouth with a hand, making a fake-appalled face. "Other project partners?"
"I don't have other project partners. It's just my mom." She put her phone down and watched Misty slurp her banana milkshake. "Do you?" she asked.
"Do I what."
"Have other partners?"
The wild blonde crossed her legs, putting her elbow on the backrest of the bench. "Oh yeah. I have tons of partners. There's Jackie, Robbin, Queenie, and… They are all suuuch sweet people by the way."
The brown eyes narrowed. "Why do I feel like you're saying I'm not sweet?"
Misty shrugged, a sarcastic smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You hated me." Then her smile fell. "Wait—hated or hate?"
"I hated you because you were rude," Cordelia said as she gave her a frowny smile. "Always late to class, forgetting to do homework, calling me uptight."
The wild blonde rolled her eyes like Cordelia would. "Fine, fine. What changed your mind? My beauty? My charm? I bet it's my charisma."
Then the older blonde rolled her eyes, like an expert that she was. "Yes, your Majesty. All of the above."
"Very well, then."
Cordelia received a text from her that night after they'd gone home, telling her to check out the English homework the girl just submitted online. The assignment of the week was to write a poem mimicking the style of a published poem of their choice.
The beginning of the paper stated that Misty had chosen Bear In There by Shel Silverstein.
Queen In There
There's a Cajun Queen
In the Atelier—
She likes it 'cause it's serene in there.
With her feet in the woodchips
And her strands in the sky
And her brushes and silver gouges
On the wooden statue,
She's carving the shoulders,
She's whittling away at the cheeks,
She's caressing the hair,
She's chiseling the lips.
And she gives you a scowl
If you come close to them.
And it sends me a shiver
To know she's in there—
That Cajun Queen
In the Atelier.
It made Cordelia laugh, not just once, but every time she remembered it. Because of that delightful distraction, she had to give up sleep that night, and despite of having done her homework already, she decided to write another poem.
About a wild bird she had tamed.
ooOooOoo
"Dee? Wanna do something fun?" Misty asked on one Saturday afternoon as they strolled down the riverside trail.
"Does that include some illegal activity?"
The girl took a couple of seconds to think, pursing her lips and tapping fingers on her thigh. "Nope," she said.
Although the answer did nothing but increase her apprehension, Cordelia let the girl march to wherever she had in mind. They strayed from the trail and were now walking through the bushes and trees. Misty took her hand as the path became steep and slippery, and they descended to the river. The soft wind stroked the water surface, the sunlight shimmering on the waves.
"I feel so gross. Let's take a dip." Letting go of Cordelia's hand, the wild blonde took her shirt off. She apparently didn't find the idea of a bra much appealing, because there was no more article of clothing under it.
The older blonde looked away, taking an interest in a twig floating on the water all of a sudden. "Someone might see us."
"Ain't nobody gonna come here but us, Dee," Misty said as she removed her shoes.
Cordelia bit her lip. "You know what? I wish I could, but I just remembered I had homework due tomorrow."
The eyes of Misty had a taunting light as she took her shorts and underwear off, her bare ass facing Cordelia. "If you say so, darling," she said, looking at the older blonde over her shoulder. "Better run before the scary river monster can get to ya." With that, she jumped in the water head-first.
The girl on land dashed to the very edge of the bank. "I'm not scared!" she said when Misty's head appeared.
"Oh kitty, it's alright. Everyone has a fear or two or ten or fifty or—"
"I don't have that many fears! And this is certainly not one of them!" On the spur of the moment, Cordelia removed all of her clothes, save the bra and underwear. She tried to get in the water gently, but when her toe touched the water, Misty came closer and dragged her in. A yelp jumped out of her throat before she completely went submerged.
The wild blonde was laughing hysterically when Cordelia surfaced, gasping for air, spitting water out.
"Yes, college life!" The wild blonde threw her head back and screamed to the sky.
"Jesus Christ, what's wrong with you!"
"My name ain't Jesus. I'm Misty Albert Einstein Day!"
"I almost drowned!" Eager for retaliation, she swam closer to the girl, but once they were within each other's reach, she yelped again, holding onto Misty's arms. "There's something in the water. It touched my leg." Her face went pale rapidly as she imagined herself getting devoured by a crocodile.
"It was my foot, silly," Misty said, putting her hand on Cordelia's back, pulling her closer. "But if you're scared, you can go home and do homework for your Scaredy-Cat 101 class." Her smirk grew even bigger when she received a smack in the shoulder. "Oh wait— you are a junior, so maybe you're already taking Scaredy-Cat 401."
Cordelia wanted to smack her more, but Misty caressed her bare back, consciously or unconsciously putting her at ease. And she realized how close and naked they were, limbs tangled, chest to chest, absorbing each other's body heat. "Fuck you," she said, resting her fist on Misty's shoulder.
The wild blonde gently bumped her forehead against Cordelia's, giggling as their nose touched. "I love it when a cute girl curses at me."
The older blonde closed her eyes. "Go to hell."
ooOooOoo
The event at the riverside awakened something in Cordelia, and never in her life had she been more confused about her feelings. Now she couldn't look at the girl without the tickling feels inside her chest all the time. Misty's lithe body, the way her wet wild hair stuck to her neck, the little distance between their lips. They all came flashing back to her way more frequently than she'd call appropriate.
Even though everything seemed under control on the outside, it was wreaking havoc inside her heart and mind. And it wounded her sensitive heart to think she was the only one who seemed affected. Misty was ever the same, if not a little more flirty, more tactile, but it was probably the weather that was getting colder by the day.
Lying in her bed, she let out a sigh as she read a text from the oblivious wild blonde.
-check out my hw!
She opened her laptop. The topic of the week was free/open, sort of a practice/rough draft for the final paper. It was a 'fictional' story about two girls. Typical of Misty. It was becoming like a series, and she'd been told many times that Gordon was a fan of those girls.
Cordelia, too, loved reading about the girls despite knowing Girl B, who the wild blonde named Cat, was based on her. It was like experiencing their real life conversations and adventures all over again, through the eyes of the girl she adored.
Her cheeks hurt from smiling too much and too long as she read. It was a twenty-page story. She turned the pages, almost halfway to the end. Her pace was rather quick, until she got to a scene where the girls played in a lake. Her smile fell.
"Are you sure it's safe? What if there was something living in there?" Cat said with knotted eyebrows, wrapping her arms around her body.
"Like what, Kitty Cat? Sharks?" Daisy laughed. "Come on, munchkin. I swear there's nothing."
"I told you not to call me that!"
Cordelia had to close the document. She didn't know why, but she couldn't read anymore.
Her phone rang as if on cue, Misty's name on the bright screen.
"Any thoughts on my latest masterpiece?" the raspy voice said. But Cordelia stayed silent. "You there? Hello?"
"I don't like it."
Misty chuckled in Cordelia's ear. "Oh no. What'd I do this time? I thought I used the correct font. Wait—did you secretly watch me write this naked? 'S that it?"
"I'm serious, Misty."
"Of course, you are, darling."
"Misty," the older blonde said it again, with enough coldness to stop the girl from giggling.
"Oh, you really—but—but, why? What—"
Cordelia could practically see the wild blonde scratching her head, confused and slightly panicked. "You wrote about us. The river. You shouldn't have."
"I don't get it..."
Neither did Cordelia. It wasn't like Misty had done anything like this for the first time. There were many times that came before, and it never made Cordelia feel the way she did now. She couldn't figure out why this had to be different, why she was so upset.
And then, she realized it wasn't anger that was squeezing her heart. It was sorrow. Disappointment.
"You know what? Forget it. I'm—" Cordelia felt a lump in her throat, her voice threatening to crack. "I gotta go."
"No. Just tell me. Please," Misty said, but heard nothing but silence. "You at home? I'll be there in ten, ok?"
True to her word, the wild blonde came in ten minutes, not even giving the older blonde enough time to compose herself. She stood in the doorway, panting and sweating a river.
"You ran?" The older blonde creased her forehead as she let her in.
"I don't got no car. And there are college kids getting drunk in the streets. I almost maced one o' them. Fucking swear he was trippin'"
With her lip-biting smile, Cordelia let out quiet laughs, as though nothing had happened between them.
Then, Misty calmed her breathing after a while, wiping her sweat off her face. When the blue-grey eyes looked at the other, there was no playful shine. It was the first time she ever looked at Cordelia like that, without a hint of glee in her eyes, without a teasing smirk. The gaze so serious and penetrating that the older blonde felt her ears burn.
Misty came closer slowly, like testing the boundaries. Her hands rose and cupped Cordelia's cheeks, but the shorter blonde grabbed them around the wrist and lowered them, sighing, but not letting go of the wild blonde.
"What's wrong?" Misty asked. "Tell me."
Cordelia shook her head, forcing a smile. "It's ok...it's nothing. I was just being childish. You didn't have to come all the way for me." She laughed, fiddling with the collar of Misty's sweaty shirt. "Look at you, all sweaty."
The wild blonde took the hand, kissing the back of it. "Cordelia." Misty barely called her that. "Please. I'm—I'm so dumb I can't know how you're feeling unless you tell me."
The skin where her lips touched buzzed, and the older blonde swallowed quietly. "You aren't stupid, Misty, ok? The total opposite of it, actually. You're a smart and sweet person. Anyone who can have you in their life is darn lucky, and I get to be one of them, which I'm really grateful for." A sigh escaped her lips. "But…" She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat somehow. It made breathing hard. "You have many friends, and probably I'm just one of the many. Probably what happened at the river isn't as important to you as it is to me. But I'm not like you, I don't have a lot of friends, you're the closest friend I have here or anywhere. And…I don't know." Her brown eyes stared down at their connected hands, momentarily mesmerized by the way Misty's rings glimmered. "I didn't want anyone else to read or know about us, about what we shared at the river. I wanted this to be our secret. I'm sorry."
Misty slowly let go of her hand, and cupped her cheeks again, waiting until the brown met with the blue. "You're special to me, do you hear? There ain't nobody like you, Cordelia Goode. You put up with my nonsense, make me feel worthy of somethin'. Nobody like you, ever." Her slender fingers tucked a strand of Cordelia's silky hair behind her ear. "And don't you ever believe for a second that just because I'm willing to share our stuff with other people that I don't care about us. I do care, so much I have to fight everyday not to shout from the rooftops about us for everyone to hear. People have different ways of expressing their emotions. There's no such thing as superior form or inferior form. Any form is valid and beautiful." Then a small, but genuine smile spread across her face. "That's what my art teacher told me."
Feeling those words tickle her heart, Cordelia bit her lip and laughed. "That's neat."
The wild blonde grinned, moving her hand to the back of Cordelia's head, pulling her closer until their foreheads touched. "I love you, kitty."
Cordelia couldn't find any words worth more than this silence, so she nodded, closing her eyes as Misty pulled her into a hug. When her cheek touched the wild blonde's sweaty neck, she scrunched her nose up and giggled.
"Ewww, Misty, you're all sticky!" She held her at arm's length.
The sweaty blonde caught her by the wrist. "Imma get you sticky, too!" She pulled her in and rubbed her cheek against Cordelia's.
The ever silent house was filled with giggles and delightful screams for the rest of the night.
ooOooOoo
The fall semester was over. Cordelia passed all of her courses with A's as usual, while Misty was proud not to have failed any course. After promising to spend some time together during the winter break, the older blonde went home for a week.
It was possibly the longest they ever spent apart from each other. Only a week, but to Cordelia every second felt longer than a day. Having had no close friend besides Misty, the older blonde didn't know if this was how people felt about their best friends.
Goosebumps covered her skin as she walked down the hallway to Misty's apartment. It was the night of Christmas, almost the end of it.
Her eyelids were threatening to close completely after driving for three hours from her home. It had crossed her mind that the wild blonde was already asleep, tired of waiting for her, but she'd promised to drop by. The idea of her Misty spending the holy night alone in her apartment was too unbearable.
With her shaking hand, she knocked on the door. When it swung open, she didn't have the time to even greet as Misty pulled her in for a tight, tight hug.
"God, thought you'd never come," Misty said, her face buried in Cordelia's hair.
"Sorry, the traffic. I drove as fast as I could."
"I missed you. So damn much. Thought I was gonna die."
Cordelia ran her hand up and down the girl's back. "It was only a week, Misty."
"I was running low on my kitty. I die if I don't get my daily dose of you. It's doctor's orders." The wild blonde nuzzled further into the crook of her neck, humming as their hearts beat in sync. "How was your week? Spent some time with yo mama?"
"She was too busy to see her only daughter apparently. It's ok, though. She gave me lots of money to compensate. How was yours?"
"Work. Work. Work. And—oh!" Misty suddenly lifted her face, the blue-grey eyes sparkling. She led Cordelia to the small kitchen, where bowls and boxes were scattered about. "I made some brownies. Want some?"
"Did you put weed in them?"
"Have ta eat and find out." Misty winked, which received a raised brow from the older blonde. Waving her hand, she shrugged. "Nah, it's just regular brownies."
Taking some of them on a plate, Cordelia walked to the living room. Quite unlike the older blonde, who was a great neat freak, Misty was the kind of person who believed tidying up to be a waste of time. The way a half of the couch was covered with the laundry and books spoke volumes. Cordelia sat there, putting some of the stuff down on the floor.
Misty brought two cups of cocoa, joining the other on the couch, stealing some of her brownies.
"I got you some Christmas gifts," Cordelia said as she sipped her cocoa.
She took out a bright blue shawl, which the wild blonde wasted no time to put on and twirled in, and after the girl was satisfied, she gave her a small box.
The sparkle in Misty's eyes intensified at the key inside. "You got me a car?"
"It's my house key, so you could come in anytime you want. And, you know, when your lease ends in summer, maybe you could move in?" It was her way of offering help, as she knew the wild blonde had struggles with paying the rent from time to time.
Misty tilted her head. "Are you asking my hand in marriage?" Her raspy voice was one octave higher in a patronizing tone.
The older blonde shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You wish." She giggled and wiggled her brows the way Misty did.
But the wild blonde looked down all of a sudden, a little grimace between her eyebrows.
"What's wrong?" Cordelia put her hand on the girl's.
Misty's eyes were trained on her lap. "I didn't get you anything…"
"It's fine, Misty. I know you've been busy."
"But…"
"You are here with me. That's more than I could wish for." The older blonde intertwined their fingers. "God knows this is my first time ever to spend Christmas with someone I care about. You know my mother. I was always alone. You are my family, and it's worth more than anything tangible anyone could ever offer."
"You mean it?"
"I mean every single word."
Feeling her heart swell, Misty threw herself into Cordelia's arms.
The older blonde let out giggles as the weight of the girl got too much, both of them collapsing in the couch. Just the moment she thought her smile couldn't get any bigger, Misty always found a way.
After rubbing her cheek against Cordelia's and receiving a halfhearted protest, Misty got up, hovering above her with a devious smirk. "I got you nothing, but it don't mean I have nothing to give ya."
"Oh no, I'm terrified."
Misty hummed in response, and shouted, "Take my gazillion kisses!" Then she began peppering kisses on Cordelia's cheeks, holding her tight by the waist so the wiggling blonde couldn't escape.
"Ewwww." Cordelia laughed out, throwing her head back, (pretending to be) trying to get away. "Oh God, Misty. That tickles! Stop!" Her hands flew to Misty's around her middle.
"Oh yeah? How 'bout this?" Her ringed fingers loosened their grip, and started to tickle her instead.
A laughter mixed with screams filled the room. "I mean it. Stop!" Cordelia was running out of oxygen rapidly. As she was freed from the tickling, she heaved a sigh of relief, struggling to catch her breath. Her cheeks seriously hurt from smiling and laughing, her stomach soon to follow.
Misty got up and grabbed something from the table, straddling Cordelia again. With her impish grin, she held a tiny twig above their heads, dangling it as though she was teasing a dog with a toy. "Oh, what's this, Dee? What do you think this is?"
The brown eyes narrowed. "That's…mistletoe."
"And where are we?"
"…under the mistletoe."
Misty raised her free hand to cover her mouth. "Oh no. Now I'm gonna have ta kiss you on the lips. Sorry, I don't make the rules." Still chucking, she leaned in, only to stop once her lips hovered above Cordelia's. "This is your last chance to chicken out, kitty."
Cordelia could feel the heat radiating from Misty's lips. "Right back at you."
The first kiss was gentle, only lasting for one second. The second one was longer, but still too tentative. The third one taught them the softness of each other's lips.
Cordelia felt dizzy, overwhelmed, and it didn't matter how slow and timid those kisses were. They had time to figure this all out, more kisses than they could ever count. They both breathed out as their lips separated, resting foreheads against each other, listening to each other's breathing.
"I love you."
"I love you, too," Cordelia said.
And she saw the all-too-familiar grin spreading across her queen's face.
"I love you three," Misty said.
"God, you're so weird."
"And you love me for it."
Cordelia hummed, her fingers playing with the wild curls. "You got me there."