Disclaimer: I don't own Les Miserables.
A/N: I love Les Miserables to death (heeheehee) so I thought I would mess around with it in a modern setting: high school. It's going to be cheesy, I'll just say that now, and I promise I'll give Eponine more direction after this chapter. From Cosette's POV. Enjoy and review!
Dad warned me about this. I've been dreading it for weeks, and it's as terrifying as I imagined it to be: a school cafeteria. I've been homeschooled my whole life, so this is the first time I've ever seen a real one. It's just like in the movies, every clique at its table, nowhere for the new girl to sit. At the best table (furthest from the garbage and closest to the salad bar) sat the popular kids. The academic decathlon team sat in the corner with textbooks and bag lunches. The stoners lay outside on the grass, joints in hand. The point is, there was nowhere for me sit. Bathroom it is.
I turned around and instantly ran into Marius Pontmercy. I had done my research (thank god for Instagram) this last week, and I knew every face that mattered. And this one mattered. And I had just dumped meatballs on his lacrosse jersey. Great.
"Watch where you're going, klutz." A small girl that stood beside him spat at me.
"Leave her alone, Ponine." Marius gave her a look that told me it wasn't the first time she had lashed out at someone like me. He turned to face me. "You all right?"
"I'm fine." I said quietly. "Are you all right?"
He nodded. "Let's clean you up." I started to protest, but he silently pointed at my yellow sundress, which had become an unfortunate shade of orange. I groaned and allowed him to pull me to the bathrooms. I could feel the girl he had called Ponine watching us.
Marius started to take me into the boys room. "But I can't—"
He cut me off. "No worries. You're not the first girl a guy's snuck in here." He grinned. I nodded like I had heard a million comments like that from cute boys my age. In reality, Marius was the first one I had ever spoken to.
"Why haven't I seen you before?" he looked up from his hand-washing.
"This is my first day. I was homeschooled up until now."
"Why stop in the middle of sophomore year?"
"I wanted a change of scenery." That was the understatement of the century. I couldn't stand being cooped up in that big house in the middle of nowhere, with only Dad for company.
"What do you think of it all?"
"Of what all?"
"Barrier High."
I said the first thing that popped into my mind. "It's huge. And loud. And no one's very nice. But you're nice. You're the first nice person I've met here."
He grinned at me in that way again, the way that tied my stomach in knots, good knots. I loved that grin. "It's an honor, miss—"
"Cosette. Cosette Valjean." I curtsied a little.
He laughed and gave me a bow. "Marius Pontmercy."
I looked up at him and suddenly couldn't remember how to form words. "I know. I mean—we have Math together." Good save.
"I'll see you around, Miss Cosette Valjean."
And so it began.