Cosette had never seen so many people her age at one time before. Throngs of students lined the halls, all talking in small groups which made her feel like even more of an outsider as she walked from class to class. It wasn't until lunch when she was sitting on her own that she finally had a conversation with someone other than a teacher.
"Hello!"
A young boy grinned at her with a couple missing teeth, kneeling on the chair opposite her.
"Hi.." She replied hesitantly, offering him a small smile. He took this as a sign to continue.
"I'm Gavroche, you're the new girl right? What's your name?"
She smiled properly now, "My name's Cosette, I-", before she could continue the boy ran away across the cafeteria to another table where a group of boys about her age sat talking and laughing merrily. As she watched in confusion, he approached one of the boys and started talking to him with a wide grin, arms flailing about as if describing something. She could swear she saw them both mouth a word that looked suspiciously like her name before Gavroche ran back. As he ran the older boy looked up at her, she smiled politely and he grinned before quickly looking back at the group.
"The guys invited you over to the table, if you want." Gavroche chirped as he came back over. Cosette smiled outwardly, but inside her stomach twisted into knots.
"Thanks Gavroche." She said as he stood up, bringing her lunch with her as she walked to the table. One seat was available at the end next to a boy with a green hoodie and dishevelled, black curly hair. He smiled lazily at her as she sat down, tucking her dress underneath her legs and greeting the group with a warm smile.
"Sup, Grantaire." The guy next to her tipped his head before glancing over at the boy opposite him who had blue eyes and hair as blonde as her's,
"And I'm Enjolras," He introduced himself, rolling his eyes at Grantaire, "Marius told us your name's Cosette?" The boy who had smiled at her before, obviously Marius, quickly stuck out his hand in greeting, almost knocking over a bottle of coca-cola at which Grantaire was very alarmed.
"Hi!" He said, breathless. Cosette shook his hand, grinning.
"Yes," She turned to the rest of the group letting go off his hand, "I'm new here, thanks so much for letting me sit with all of you."
"It's nothing really." One of the boys piped up.
"Yeah, it's not like we're overly popular here."
"This is Prouvaire," Enjolras began, gesturing to the boy on his left, "Feuilly, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Bahorel and Joly." Each of them greeted her in turn, the last (Joly) almost fell off his chair leaning back to wave at her from behind Grantaire, causing them all to laugh. "You've already met Gavroche," Enjolras continued, unfazed by the interruption, "and there's also Eponine but she's away today."
—
They continued chatting amongst themselves until the bell rung and they parted ways to go to class. As Cosette walked into her literacy class she was surprised to see Grantaire there, the seat next to him was empty so she sat there. They sat in silence for a minute, his head on the desk, she though he was asleep until he spoke.
"It was Marius y'know."
"Sorry?" She asked politely, but just then the teacher walked in shushing the class as she begun to talk about poetry. Cosette groaned inwardly, she hated poetry, even though her father adored it. But right now she couldn't concentrate on taking notes, "What do you mean?" She whispered to Grantaire who turned his head to peer at her over his arm.
"He made Gavroche come over and talk to you."
"Oh." Cosette took a second to process this, it made her feel a little awkward, "Why?" He looked at her for a long second before resigning to a shrug.
"Maybe he just thought you needed a friend, or ten."
Cosette gave a small laugh, causing the teacher to spin around from the board with a sharp glare. She pursed her lips and looked back down at her book, but as Grantaire winked at her she couldn't help grinning into her hand.
—
Cosette's last class of the day was sport and she found herself on the field playing football with a different group of students. Luckily Bossuet, Joly and Courfeyrac were also there, but as hard as she tried to get involved in the game another group of students seemed determined to keep the ball as long as possible.
Eventually she resigned to the back of the field at the goal where Joly stood gazing absently at the clouds.
"Who are those guys?
"Oh!" He snapped out of his stupor and looked back at the people hogging the ball. "They're the school football team, explaining the.." He gestured and she nodded, understanding.
"You're a bit of a day-dreamer?" She chuckled after a couple minutes, Joly looked surprised at first but then grinned sheepishly.
"Enjolras always tells me to snap out of it."
She smiled, "My dad always day-dreams, he says it helps him look at things differently."
"That's a nice way to look at it." He grinned, they both chuckled as the coach blew her whistle in the distance calling off the game. As they begun to walk off the field, Bossuet and Courfeyrac came over towards them, but before they could join them a boy and a girl stepped in front of Joly.
"Hey Joly." The girl smirked, "We were just wondering if you would mind playing Juliet in our next musical." The boy laughed behind her as Joly looked down at the ground and kept walking. Cosette followed next to him and saw the others glance at each other with concern, picking up the pace.
"Oh come on!" The two football kids called after them, "We thought you made a beautiful girl!"
"Specially the part where you sung!"
As they howled in laughter Cosette's sense of duty won over and she turned, straightening up and fixing them with a hard cold glare.
"I suggest you stop making fun of my friend here." She called, hands balled up in fists by her side. The girl snickered.
"Yeah? Or what blondie?"
Her eyebrows raised, making her look more stern, "Or I will file a bullying report with the headmaster." That shut them up. They looked at each other in silent conversation for a second before deciding on the more peaceful option.
"Fine, no need to get all bent up out of shape." The girl smirked.
"We were just having some fun, weren't we Joly?" The guy sneered at Joly who didn't meet his eye. For a minute it looked as if he might persist but one look at Cosette told him that was enough, and the pair stalked off to join up with the rest of their group. As Bossuet and Courfeyrac approached she saw them glance at each other with a questioning look.
—
At the end of the school day Cosette finally met up with everyone again, and she was back to her cheerful self as they chatted out the front in the pick up zone. Joly thanked her for sticking up for him during sport and Enjolras seemed to study her closely the entire time until one of their buses arrived.
"Cosette…" Enjolras began slowly, everyone fell silent as this was the first time he had talked since they had just met up. "Would you be interested in joining our school.. club?"
"That sounds awesome! What kind of club is it?" She mused with a warm smile. He looked around before leaning in closer.
"One of rebellion," He talked in hushed tones but the excitement in his voice betrayed him, "we're forming a revolution against the school's unjust teaching and protection of students. The others told us what happened at the fields today and we've decided you would make a great addition to our cause, that is if you agree of course?" He said the last part like only an idiot would disagree, Cosette grinned in excitement despite trying to keep a serious face.
"Yes, I agree wholeheartedly and would love to join." Truthfully, she didn't know enough about the school to agree fully, but what she had seen so far did seem to agree with his description.
The others cheered until Enjolras scowled and they lowered their cheers to small whoops with pats of the back.
"Welcome to the revolution." He gave her a determined smile and handed her a pin that was striped red, white and blue. "We meet at lunchtimes and one o'clock on Saturdays." She nodded back happily, pocketing the pin as someone cleared their voice to her right. Straightening up she saw it was Marius who smiled at her, she hadn't noticed how freckly his face was and found herself snagged on this thought as he begun talking.
"-so I wondered if you could, umm-if-" He stammered shaking her out of her thought as she mentally scolded herself for not paying attention.
"Sorry Marius, what was that?"
"If you would give me your number-for our group I mean just in case anything.. comes.. up?" He said that last part hopefully, Cosette smiled and fished for a piece of paper from her bag, most of the group started leaving, getting in cars or buses and waving goodbye to each other.
"Just a sec, have you got a pen?"
"Oh umm-" He stuck a hand into his pocket and produced a stub of a pencil, handing it to her awkwardly as she smiled again. She had just begun when a call from the pick up bay made her stop.
"Cosette!"
"Just a minute father!" She called back, trying to hurriedly jot down her number, which was made difficult with what could barely be called a pencil. Marius didn't seem to notice her struggle.
"Your dad picks you up from school?" She nodded, distracted. He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck, "My mum always picks me up."
"I don't have a mother." Cosette mused gently as she finished, pressing the paper and 'pencil' into his hand. "I have to go, see you tomorrow Marius!" She called as she jogged to the car, he stammered out something that was half an apology and half a goodbye but she was already gone.
—
Marius' mum arrived just after, and as they pulled away from the curb he told her enthusiastically about the new girl who he had befriended.
"She joined our group mum! And she gave me her number - for group reasons only obviously - but still- OH! That's her over there!" He pointed out his mum's window at a car just ahead of them where Cosette sat talking excitedly with her father, who smiled down at her, often laughing. Marius could swear his heart melted as he saw her laugh back, his mother however was more interested in her father.
"You say they're new to town?" She inquired glancing at her son.
"Yeah…" Marius almost sighed.
"Her father is quite a handsome man, his wife is very lucky."
"He doesn't have a wife.." Marius mumbled.
"Really? So he's single?" She was very curious now.
"I guess so.."
His mother's eyebrows raised and she smiled picking up her phone and pressing the contact of another mother from the school she was friends with, "Francine, there's a new bachelor in town and you won't believe how hot he is—"
—
"And father they invited me to join their.. club!" Cosette chatted happily as Valjean unlocked the front door to the house.
"It sounds like you had a great day after all sugar-bear." He chuckled, she smiled back before something caught her eye and she turned to inspect the garden. Then with another smile she walked over to a large bush and plucked a pink tulip from beneath it. "That's a good one?" He asked, she confirmed with a nod, stepping into the house and hanging her bag on a hook by the door.
"I think I'll give it to pére." She mused, Valjean laughed.
"Pink?"
"I think it would look beautiful on his lapel." She giggled, pulling off the dead leaves and straightening the petals just as she heard the crunch of boots on gravel from the front path. The pair both smiled brightly, Cosette immediately going to open the front door where she stood at attention as The Inspector walked in with a serious expression.
"Inspector Javert." Cosette stood straight with her hands behind her back, looking straight ahead. He in turn stood at attention.
"Mademoiselle Valjean." He replied, addressing her in a tone just as monotonous, before adding "Might I say capitaine, I love your floral dress." Cosette couldn't help herself and she burst into giggles, only stopping to catch her breath as her father hugged her to his chest, he was laughing also.
"That's- very unprofessional of you Inspector!" She laughed.
"Really?" He mused, "I think that you're impersonating a capitaine Mademoiselle."
"You have no proof!" She giggled, trying in vain to escape. But before she could he had started tickling her sides and she dissolved into laughter.
"Confess!" Javert tried to sound stern but laughter overcame him.
"Stop, stop! Alright-alright!" Cosette lay on the floor wiping away tears of joy as she was finally able to breathe, still laughing between every breath. Javert stepped back next to Valjean who was laughing as well but still joined his fingers in his and kissed his hand.
"Cosette has something for you, if it hasn't been crushed that is." Valjean chuckled as she pulled out the tulip which somehow was still intact.
"Here you are dad." She was still giggling as she gave him the flower. He raised an eyebrow as he took it.
"Pink?"
"She wants you to wear it on your lapel." Valjean laughed quietly. Without much hesitation he produced a pin from his pocket and fastened it to the collar of his coat.
"What do you think?"
Cosette broke down into another fit of giggles at which Javert feigned a look of hurt.
"I think it's stylish." Valjean grinned, before kissing his husband's cheek.