Title: First Impressions
Pairing: Alex/Stevie
Disclaimer: First attempt at fanfiction. This pairing/point in WoWP was a little too untouched for my liking though so I'd thought I'd throw my hat in. Since, you know, I was busy not owning the show itself.
A/N: Not sure if it stands alone well enough as a one shot. Let me know what you think.
It had all the marks of a great prank. Destructive, ironic, creative, required a lot of time that could have been otherwise spent doing something productive, easily blamed on someone else. It was a masterpiece. It made dodge balls filled with jelly look juvenile. Alex was begrudgingly, dare she say it, impressed.
She knew each and every troublemaker in this school inside and out and not one of them was this good. So either someone upped their game (highly unlikely), or there was new competition. Did someone deflect? She smiled momentarily as she imagined Harper joining the dark side. And the outfit that would eventually accompany that. Harper could totally pull off a catsuit. Focus. Was it Zeke? Even more unlikely. Alex was finishing her list of possible not-so-goodie-two-shoes when she sauntered in.
"Prisoners. Warden. Sorry I'm late, I had a phone call. With your mom. She said: get out of my chair." Alex looked on as bullies scrambled away as she flicked, stole and berated them. All without managing to seem the slightest bit interested. New girl has style. Alright, I'll bite.
"Who are you?"
"Stevie. Last name…I don't want to know yours so why do you want to know mine?"
Before she could appropriate a response that would deflate that cocky smile, Mr. Laritate intervened to tell them to mind themselves while he was off, doing whatever it is he does with his free time. Alex glanced around the people in the office. None of them seemed intelligent enough to pull this off with the exception of Stevie, who as far as Alex knew, hadn't even started classes yet. Uh. It's too early for this. A few more hours of shut-eye, a gentle rain to cover the sound of the mouth breathers, and maybe she'd have the energy to deal that.
Throughout detention Stevie proved herself to be promising, insulting the biggest knuckle dragger the school had to offer and helping her put away her hammock after her alarm malfunctioned and sounded early, conveniently while in the hands of Stevie. How long was she perched above me? Alex thought she noticed something flash in Stevie's eyes when she woke up. Amusement? Appreciation? Alex would deal with that later. First thing's first. The prankster. She'd have to really focus. Not that Mr. Laritate was making it easy, kicking her out once detention was over. She was going to have to break into his office on top of finding clues? Uh, work.
A quick flick of her wrist and Harper was there. She could use someone to bounce ideas off of and to do some (most) of the work. Uh.
"Harper. I need your help. I've got to find out who pulled off one of the best pranks I've ever seen. Because there's no better person to help me win than a fellow prankster." She was really going to need the extra time being Speaker would give her now that she had true competition anyway. Her stomach rumbled. She could have probably figured this all out earlier if Harper would have brought her snacks in detention like she usually did. How was she supposed to think on an empty stomach? Wait. Why didn't Harper bring her snacks?
"Where have you been?"
"Oh I was stuck on top of the Coney Island Ferris Wheel with your dad and Max."
"Coney Island? We're banned from there."
"No. You are." Alex let that sink in for a moment.
"Oh. So. You all went without me?" An explanation that involved an "Alex free day" let them enjoy that one and one finally successful freeze-stop later, and Alex and Harper were pouring over the principals covered office, looking for clues.
Who did this? What kind of stuff did Stevie do at her old school that…no. No. Focus. Wow. Even the stapler was wrapped. Even Harper was impressed. Though Alex wasn't sure if it was because this involved Justin's image plastered repeatedly or if she could appreciate the work that went into pulling this off. The subtle complexities were enough to almost make Alex swoon, if she did that sort of thing. When she found out who did this, she might even consider letting them date her. If they weren't hideous.
"If only these posters could talk." And that's why Harpers here.
"Harper, you're a genius. They saw who did this." A quick spell, "Posters posters on the wall, now it's time to tell us all," and the once silent posters began babbling incessantly. Yay, they've retained his dorky personality. She was almost inclined to leave Harper in there to listen to the Justins until her friend was forever cured of her unfortunate crush, but she had an agenda. Find the prankster, win the election and spend the year shirking her one duty to make the school days more interesting. Eyes on the prize.
"Okay okay, everybody hush up. Now. Who did all of this to Mr. Laritate's office? You, only you."
The lone Justin spoke up, "I promised her I wouldn't say."
"Her. So it's a girl."
Harper helpfully chimed in. "It's a girl. With nimble fingers. And lots of downtime. Are you sure it's not me?" Alex spared a disbelieving glance at her Watson before directing her attention back to the posters. "Her who?"
"I can't tell you because she's going to vote for me. And every vote counts."
"And she's going to vote for him. Are you sure it's not me?"
"It's not you Harper. And I'm not going to say because this election is too important to my senior year. I'm done talking now." Justin and his stupid senior year. I hate when he cares about things. Alex waved her wand around and flashed her and Harper out of the office.
"Okay. So, it's a girl. That narrows it down to 207 minus 1 because we're pretty sure it's not me."
"Harper. Forget it. It's over. People have already voted. So we just have to see who wins, plant cheat sheets in their locker and you're looking at your new Speaker of the Assembly."
"Where are we going to get cheat sheets?" Alex couldn't help but chuckle proudly and gesture to herself, Harper should really know her better by now. They joined the rabble gathered around Mr. Laritate as he announced that Justin, somewhat predictably, won. Alex contented herself with just rolling her eyes. She wasn't there to ruin Justin's moment, she was there to hear whose reputation she had to tarnish to get an easy year. But when Justin was disqualified, she found herself atop a bench protesting.
"No. No, no, no, no. Justin should be president. He didn't do it!"
"Well if he didn't do it, who did?"Alex paused. Struck by one of her first moral dilemmas. She didn't want to take credit for a prank she didn't do, especially such a good one. This was copy write infringement. Which, as an artist and a fellow prankster, she felt oogy about. But she couldn't let Justin be disqualified for something he didn't do."I did it." She couldn't quite muster up the steel to be convincing but she confessed.
"Well then, we have a confession. Justin Russo is your new class president and Alex Russo is disqualified from running as Speaker of the Assembly."
"Hold on." Despite herself, Alex was impressed by the way the crowd parted for Stevie. "Hold on. Everybody, stop pointing your fingers at her and start pointing them at me. I did it. These nimble fingers wrapped your office in Justin's posters." Stevie leaned in closer to Alex and gave her a salacious wink. "Even the stapler."
Alex kept her eyes on Stevie as Mr. Laritate said something she didn't bother to pay attention to, probably concerning the Old West, that had Stevie swaggering over to open her locker so that a cascade of posters could pour out dramatically. She planned this.
"You are in a wagon load of trouble." Stevie just smiled, rumpled his belly and mustered a western accent.
"Eh. Bring it on, Wild Bill Laritate." "Very well, I'll see you the next three Saturday detentions."
"Hey, I'm not busy on the fourth Saturday. Maybe we can do something?" Alex followed Stevie to the bench where she confidently reclined, looking pleased with herself.
"Alright. What's going on? Why'd you do it?"
"I figured if Justin got into detention, he'd get the votes he needed to win."
"Alright. What's the real reason you did it?" Stevie smirked before leaning forward.
"The second biggest trouble maker at the school is the sister of the president," a dreamy look crossed the mischievious girl's features, "there's a lot of ways to go with that." Alex sat down on the bench beside Stevie.
"You know, all we have to do is work on your evil laugh and we could be good friends." Harper coughed a warning, obviously alarmed at the many terrible ways this friendship could go. Alex lowered her voice, "tell her, her dress is pretty."
The self proclaimed, biggest trouble maker in the school smiled before confidently complimenting the quirky designer. "Your dress is pretty." Harper immediately melted as her best friend knew she would and took the seat between the two delinquents. "Aw, thank you. We can all be friends." Stevie genuinely smiled before she got up. "Well, as much as I'm enjoying the love-fest, I've got to be going. Be seeing you." She eyed Alex and then sauntered away. Harper smiled after her somewhat obliviously before turning her head in just enough time to miss Stevie tripping a freshman.
"So, what'd you think of the new girl? She seems nice." Stevie glanced back and made eye contact with Alex before turning the corner and going out of sight.
"Well, she isn't hideous."
