okay, so. high school au mary/conde. not necessary? probably. but the last episode (2x20) fucked me up so much that i needed to write a fic to fix everything. greer and leith are still together in this, as are bash and kenna. mary and louis end up together even though she's dating francis in the beginning, so if you're here for francis just leave. because i despise him.


Maybe it's the bitter wind
A chill from the Pacific rim
That brought you this way (that brought you my way)
- Gotten, Slash feat. Adam Levine


Mary is running unacceptably, annoyingly late for practice. You'd think she'd have learned by now that getting up fifteen minutes early isn't enough time for her to get ready, but nope. She continues to lay in bed for as long as possible, trying to calculate how long it would actually take to drive to school if she left a little later than usual.

When she eventually struggles out of bed, she seriously thinks she's going to make it, but then she spills her morning smoothie all over her cheer uniform, and of course she hadn't washed her spare, so she has to spend an extra ten minutes cleaning out the berry stains from the crotch of her skirt to make it look like she hadn't, in fact, pissed herself.

And then of course, of course, Francis has to text her "hey babe, are you ready yet?" and she wants to fucking scream because NO, she wasn't ready the one time her boyfriend was on fucking time. Jesus, what a day. She finally made it out of the house at six forty-five, already fifteen minutes late for practice, only to find someone else sitting in her seat in Francis' car.

She throws her backpack and cheer bag with a tad more force than necessary into the backseat of Francis' disgustingly expensive Mercedes, crawling in and probably giving her neighbors a view of her ass that they didn't need.

She takes a deep breath, ruffling her ponytail and trying to look presentable, despite being in the worst state of dishevelment she's probably been in since freshman year. "Hey, sorry, I'm having the worst morning," she manages to get out as Francis pulls out of her driveway. "You know those days where every single thing seems to be going wrong? Yeah, multiply that by a hundred, and you have my morning." Francis gives her a tight smile in the mirror and her stomach churns, and she suddenly remembers that she's not the only one late to practice.

The guy in the seat next to Francis chuckles warmly, and she's thrown slightly off track by the sound of his voice.

"I definitely know what you mean," he says, turning around to smile warmly at her. See, now why couldn't her boyfriend have responded like that? Ever since Aylee—actually, no, she doesn't want to think about that right now. Francis is tired, she's tired, they're both late, it's fine. They're fine.

""S okay, babe," Francis says, turning the corner off of her street. "This is my cousin Louis, by the way. He just transferred here. I'm forcing him to join the lacrosse team." He punctuates this by jabbing Louis lightly in the stomach, smiling crookedly in that way that she loves. Oh yeah, she thinks, they're definitely fine. Louis just laughs again, which makes the situation seem less tense, for whatever reason.

She gives Louis a polite smile in the mirror, hoping that she hadn't seemed like too much of a bitch when she'd gotten in the car. His brown eyes watch her for a second and then turn back to Francis, who's explaining the dynamics of the team to him.

Lacrosse at Scottsdale High wasn't something people took lightly. Other schools had their soccer and their football and their whatever, but Scottsdale had lacrosse. Francis was team captain, of course; he wouldn't settle for anything else. His brother Bash was second in command, and Mary's friend's boyfriend, Leith, was on the team too. Basically, playing lacrosse and playing lacrosse well, unlike some of the poor freshmen who tried to make it on the team, guaranteed people a spot on the top tier of the SHS social ladder. From the look of Louis, with his tan skin and obvious musculature, plus the support he automatically had from Francis, he'd definitely make the team.


Mary kisses Francis on the cheek before leaving to meet the rest of the girls where they were waiting near the bleachers on the other side of the practice field, giving Louis a passing wave and a quick "nice to meet you". Lola, Greer, and Kenna are already waiting with the rest of the team, and she could see them physically give a sigh of relief when she finally showed up.

"Coach is late too, you lucky girl," Kenna announces with a laugh when Mary finally ambles over. Oh, thank god. She did not need that lecture today.

Mary tries to get through practice like normal, but she's too distracted, constantly stealing glances at Francis (along with Louis) on the field. Why hadn't Francis told her he had a cousin? More importantly, why had she never met him? She's met his other cousins, so it's not like he keeps them a secret. They tell each other everything.

Their families have been friends forever. Mary's mom knew Francis' dad in college, and when they both got married they ended up in the same general area of Scottsdale. Their lives were literally a Taylor Swift song ("Mary's Song", know that one? Oddly prophetic, that Taylor). They grew up together, were best friends as kids, teased each other in middle school, and finally (emphasis on the finally, because their parents had been waiting with bated breath) got together in high school.

Everyone expected them to go to the same college, get married, and eventually have two kids and complete the little Valois-Stuart family circle. And she was fine with that, for a while. She loved Francis, she really did. And they were great together.

But lately, ever since Aylee's accident, something just didn't feel right. She felt... stuck, almost, and she didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't Francis' fault, really. He hadn't done anything wrong, per se, but he wasn't really doing anything particularly right, either.

A sudden wobble in her foot broke her out of her thoughts, and she let out a high pitched squeal as her ass hit the mat. Ow.

"Oh my god, Mary, are you okay?" Lola's kind voice broke in through the rest of the squad surrounding her, right at the same time as Coach yells out a sharp, "MARY!"

"Yeah, Lo, I'm fine," she whispers, trying to pay attention to Coach's tirade and get off the floor at the same time.

"You've been off your game all practice," Coach Anna concludes, her arms crossed in that this-means-business way of hers.

"But Coach," Mary protests, even though she knows Anna's right, "I'll do better, I promise."

"Sorry, hun, still gotta bench you for the rest of practice. Sort out what's going on so it doesn't happen again, yeah? We don't need you getting hurt out there."

She grumbles out a "yes ma'am" and sits down. From her spot on the bench she looks over at the lacrosse field, where Francis is running around all sweaty with his friends, frowning slightly. She starts when she sees Louis' eyes on her, blushes and sharply turns her head away.

Way to make an impression, Stuart.


After everyone's showered after practice, Mary makes her way to first period English, Greer and Francis on either side of her. Francis had tried to hold her hand but she shook him off, along with the weird look that he'd given her.

Mr. Narcisse, their AP English teacher this year, looks the other way when they settle in a few minutes late to class. Most teachers that know (or care) about the lacrosse team's practices usually do, but something about Narcisse just weirds her out. He gives off a sort of predatory vibe, and it doesn't help that Lola has the most irrational crush on him, either. Good thing she decided to take AP Lit this year instead, even though she was completely bummed when she found out that Narcisse was switching classes.

Greer leans into Mary's desk once they've gotten their books out, completely ignoring the whole syllabus spiel their teacher was giving, like pretty much the rest of the class was doing.

"So who was that guy that you and Francis drove up with?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. Greer's not normally one to gossip, but new people in Scottsdale were rare, and being one of the school's so called "elite" meant needing to stay on top of your game.

"Francis' cousin, Louis," Mary whispers back. She hates Narcisse as much as the next person, but she's not about to get kicked out of class on the first day, especially with the day she's been having already. "He just transferred."

"How come you've never mentioned him before?"

"Francis never told me about him," Mary says, furrowing her brow. At that exact second, the door opens and a confused and out of breath looking Louis walks through the door. Speak of the devil, she thinks.

He's dressed surprisingly nicely, she notes, in a button up black top and slacks. She hadn't noticed what he was wearing in the car, too absorbed in her own mediocre problems, and most of the lacrosse guys tended to stick to jeans and expensive t-shirts, so his outfit was kind of a surprise.

He quickly walks up to the front of the classroom to show Narcisse his schedule, and sits down after a quick nod from their teacher. She finds herself looking at him a little too long, suddenly finding it odd that he hadn't walked to class with them. Did Francis not know his schedule, or did he not even bother to ask? She feels incredibly rude all of a sudden, and embarrassed on her boyfriend's behalf. Francis was his family for pete's sake, couldn't he have helped him out?

She tries to give Louis what she hopes is a friendly, apologetic smile, but he doesn't look her way for the rest of class.


Lunch is uneventful, as always, all of her friends piled up around the same table they've sat at since freshman year. She picks at her salad, idly tracing the heart she had drawn in pink pen around her and Francis' name on the table sometime between tenth and eleventh grade. Greer and Leith are as nauseatingly cute as ever, the blonde sitting in his lap.

She envies them, sometimes, and the way they've managed to stay so perfectly in sync since they got together (in the freaking sixth grade, by the way). Leith still looks at her like she's the actual sun, and Greer still smiles at him like she can't believe he's actually hers.

Francis, on the other hand, is busy talking to a member of the team, a guy that everyone calls "the General" because of his superior game strategies, or something. She actually doesn't even know his real name, and she doesn't think anyone else does either. They're discussing different kinds of sticks, or whatever. She's too zoned out to care.

Mary looks around the cafeteria, completely bored and wishing that Francis wasn't ignoring her. She spots his sister, Claude, with her own group of friends, and then, all alone in the corner, Louis.

She sits up a little higher in her seat. Why hadn't Francis invited him to sit with them? She looks back over at her boyfriend, then at Kenna and Bash and Greer and Leith, each couple completely engrossed in one another. Lola decided not to have a lunch this year in order to take an extra class, that little overachiever, so Mary's basically all alone.

She gets up from the table, causing a few people to look up in confusion, and walks over to where Louis is sitting, slinging one then another leg across the bench.

"Hey," she says, and he looks surprised too, not that she blames him. "Want to come sit with us? You look pretty pathetic sitting here all by yourself," she teases, causing him to laugh that deep, warm laugh she had heard earlier that morning in the car.

"You sure Francis won't mind?" he asks, glancing over at where her boyfriend is most likely glaring at them.

She rolls her eyes, then shrugs. "You're family, are you not? I'm sure he'll be fine."

They walk silently back over to Mary's table, and she makes him sit next to her, so as to not ostracize him. It was she that forced him over here, anyway.

It's tense for a while, but she awkwardly throws out a, "So, Louis, where are you from?" into the mix, and that seems to get the conversation going. Bash and Kenna detach from one another, thank god, long enough to add something to the conversation too, and she feels pretty proud of herself.

Louis is starting to look more at ease, too, which is a decent change from the stoic guy she'd seen earlier that day.

Maybe her day wasn't going to be that bad, after all.


Nope, she was wrong. Yet again, Mary Stuart overestimated just how far being nice could get her.

Francis, apparently, wasn't too happy with her stunt at lunch. He was completely silent in the car up until he dropped Louis off at his house, where Louis was staying for the rest of the school year, and the second the door closed and Louis got out, he opened his mouth.

"What is with you today?" he asks her, and she has to struggle to not roll her eyes in annoyance.

"What are you talking about?"

"First you screw up at practice - and yes, I saw that, I don't know who didn't - then you act super weird on the way to class, and then that whole thing with Louis at lunch? What was that?"

"Oh come off it, Francis," she sighs. "I was just being nice. He's your cousin, why didn't you ask him to sit with us?"

"We're not all that close."

"And yet you drove him to school and let him sit in my seat?"

"Dad didn't really give me much of a choice."

"Okay..."

"Look, Mary, just forget it. I don't want to fight."

"I don't want to fight, either."

"Can we just forget this day happened? It's been complete shit," he asks, pulling into her driveway.

She leans over and presses her lips to his, running her hands through his soft blonde curls. "I am totally fine with that."

"I'll see you at the party tonight?" Shit. She'd completely forgot about the party that he throws every year to celebrate school starting, but she nods anyway. "Of course. See you at eight."

"Nine," Francis says, his mouth turning downwards into a slight frown.

Fuck. "Right, nine, right, sorry." She gives him another quick peck on the cheek, grabs her bags, and runs into the house.

Christ, what is going on with her today?


Francis has been throwing his annual party since they were fourteen, and it had become sort of a tradition. Each year, as they gained popularity, more and more people came. And, each year, more and more drugs and booze were added to the mix. His parents tended to look the other way, but after Aylee's accident last year they'd gotten more strict. Her stomach churned whenever she thought about it, and she pushed the thoughts away as the doorbell rang.

Greer, Kenna and Lola arrived at her doorstep at precisely seven-thirty PM, just like they'd done every year, so that they could get ready. The empty spot where the other blonde should've been didn't go unnoticed, but Mary just squished the feelings down again and let her friends inside. She took them upstairs to her room, her steps seeming too loud in the empty house.

Her mother, ever the businesswoman, had taken the late shift at the law office tonight, in order to let her and her friends have the house to themselves. On nights like this she felt her father's absence the most, but she tried to put on a brave face. He died when she was just a toddler, but she still remembers his kind smile and they way he used to carry her around on his shoulders. Her mom had to work more often now to support them both, and Mary was extremely proud of her, if not sometimes annoyed. It was great that her mom had work to throw herself into, but sometimes Mary felt like she did it as a way of avoiding her actual problems.

Kenna's voice interrupts her thoughts. "So I brought this blue dress and a black one, but I'm not sure which one I like better. Mary?"

She looks up, studying her friend's reflection in her lengthy mirror. Obviously Kenna would look amazing in whatever she wore, but Mary says "the black, definitely" anyway.

They finish getting ready along with the obligatory Snapchats and Instagram pictures, of course, and leave the house at eight fifty-five, not wanting to be too early but still wanting to get there somewhat on time; Francis' house was pretty close anyway.

Mary decided on a simple black and grey dress that she thought looked nice, hoping Francis would like it as well. She felt bad for being so cold with him today, and hoped she could make it up to him at the party.

She walked in with her friends and tried to ignore the way that everyone looked at them; she never really asked to be popular, which is such a cop-out thing to say, considering the privileges that it granted her. Still, at times like this, it felt suffocating to know that everyone was watching her. She decided that she needed a drink, leaving her friends to their boyfriends (and Lola alone, which she felt awful about but ignored, knowing that if Lola had wanted a date she could've easily snagged one), and made her way to the kitchen.

She poured herself some punch and turned around. It ended up being a too fast of a turn, because she immediately bumped into someone and spilled said punch all over her dress. Great.

"I am so sorry," the voice above her says, and she looks up to find Louis' wide eyes staring back at her. She hadn't noticed how tall he was before, either, but now that he was so close it was all she could think about. "Let me find some napkins," he blurts out, desperately searching around the kitchen for something to clean her dress with.

Mary quickly pours herself another cup and downs it, feeling ridiculously unlucky. He's still looking when she lets out a laugh, reaching up into a cabinet to grab herself a dish rag. After being in Francis' house so often, she's basically memorized where everything is.

"It's fine, Louis, don't worry about it. This dress isn't new or anything."

"I'm an idiot," he says with a low chuckle, his eyes flicking down to the wet spot on her chest. Her face warms up. Shit.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. Do you know where Francis is?" she adds, remembering the entire reason she'd worn the dress in the first place.

"He's in the backyard, I think?" Louis tells her. "They've got a bonfire out there and everything."

"Oh," she says, which makes her feel like she sounds really dim, but she can't think of anything else to say.

"Come on, then," she gestures to him, hoping that he understands her invitation. He does, thank god, following her through the patio door and into the backyard, where Francis is in fact sitting around the bonfire.

"You do this every year?" Louis asks as they walk to join him, and Mary just nods, not wanting to say anything else that will make her sound stupid.

She settles her arms around her boyfriend's neck when she gets there, whispering "Guess who?" in his ear. He just laughs, clearly on his way to getting completely smashed, and pulls her onto his lap.


Somehow the bonfire conversation turns into a round of truth or dare, and then into Never Have I Ever. Mary's finally having a good time, settled in Francis' lap and sipping her punch.

"Never have I ever tried Oxy," Kenna slurs out, and a few of the guys laugh and take a drink.

"Never have I ever OD'd," says the guy next to her, and Mary feels her heart skip a beat. Everyone else tenses, and she's frozen in Francis' arms for a good twenty seconds before someone else opens their mouth.

"Am I missing something?" Louis asks, and Mary suddenly feels sick, her drink sloshing around awfully in her empty stomach. It's an innocent enough question, since he's new. What's not so innocent is when Francis adds, "We don't really talk about it; don't worry man."

She immediately extricates herself from his lap, tossing her drink on the ground and running to the nearest bathroom. She loses her entire stomach's contents in the toilet, and realizes that she's crying as she gets up to wash her face.

She's unaware that Louis had followed her into the house until she steps out of the bathroom, where he's waiting by the door.

"Are you okay?" he asks, his eyes searching her face.

She hopes her face doesn't betray that she was just crying, and nods, giving him a wobbly smile, "Yeah, I just felt sick all of a sudden. It happens."

"Mary, I know we just met, but you can talk to me," he responds, obviously not buying her "I'm totally fine" act. And instead of feeling like he's encroaching on her personal space, she feels relieved. No one ever wants to talk about it. But she does, and she needs someone to listen.

She grabs his hand, which is warm and callused, she notes, and drags him up the stairs and into an empty hallway. She sits down and he follows her, close enough that she can whisper but not too close.

He looks at her with those kind brown eyes and she finds herself spilling everything.

"My friend Aylee overdosed last year during the party. She wasn't like, a drug addict or anything, but we were all kind of going crazy that night. It was the first time any of us had tried drugs of any kind, and her body just couldn't handle it, I guess." Mary stops to take a deep breath, wishing that she could stop herself from crying. "She was one of my best friends, and no one wants to talk about it. One day she was there and we were having fun and everything was great, and now she's gone, just like that. And I feel like no one cares but me, you know? Francis never wants to talk about it and doesn't even visit her grave with me, and I'm just hurting, all the time. First my dad and then Aylee and I'm-" her voice cracks, and she can't seem to make herself talk anymore.

Louis is silent for a while, then he says, "Both of my parents passed away. That's why I'm here."

Oh my god. "Oh my god," she repeats out loud, "You probably think I'm so stupid for whining about my dad and Aylee when you just-"

"Mary, stop. Loss isn't a competition. I just wanted to tell you because, well, because I know how you feel. I don't think Francis knows what it's really like to lose someone, so he's closed himself off to it."

"I mean, he tries, I know he does-"

"Because he loves you," Louis adds with a weak smile, and she finds herself smiling back, even though the sentence sounds wrong and foreign, somehow.

"Yeah, because he loves me." Why doesn't she feel like it's enough, though?

"But before my parents died, I didn't know what it was like either. Be patient with him, and be patient... with yourself. You can't expect to get over your friend's death so quickly."

"You're right," Mary says, and she feels lighter, almost, now that she's gotten all this off her chest. "I guess I just felt like I don't have a right to be upset, you know? Like I'm still mourning my dad after all this time, and then Aylee, I guess I just feel kind of selfish."

"Mary, you are the least selfish person I've ever met, and I know that from being around you for a day. You have to let yourself grieve."

His words make her chest feel tight, and her stomach flutters. She looks at him for a while, not saying anything. Why is it that he had been able to tell her exactly what she needed to hear, but Francis couldn't? She just needed someone to listen. And Louis had.

She surprises herself (and him) by scooting over and giving him a hug. "Thank you," she says, and gets up to join the party again.


tell me what you guys think! i've edited this a little bit since the first posting, but not by much.