This is my first fanfic, so I'm a little nervous. Please let me know if there's anything I can do better!
The music scholarship she'd been awarded last year only paid for half the trip to the state capital. The other half she'd taken from her parents pitiful bank account in secret, intending to make enough while in the big city to pay them back. That meant skipping out on half of the scheduled activities and sneaking away from the choir, but Eponine would do anything for her Marius.
She was the first on the bus and sat alone, her clothes for the next week in a plastic bag on her lap. It was all she could smuggle away without her parents being any the wiser. They never would've let her leave if they had known it was for an entire week. They needed her for their scams! Who else could play the pathetic teen mother who needed money for her unborn child? Azelma was too coarse looking to be pitied and her mother was too old to be taken seriously. No, Eponine was the bread winner when it came to pity even when she wasn't trying.
Mr. Valjean boarded the bus, his pretty little daughter trailing behind him. As predicted, they sat in the front, which is why Eponine was in the far back. She wanted time with ALL of Marius. Whenever he was around that blonde thing he ended up ignoring Eponine. It wasn't fair. He'd been so involved with all of his friends up until this year. Now that they were off to college in the big city, she was all he had left. At least that was how it was supposed to be. Then their old director quit and Valjean moved into town during the second semester, bringing his gorgeous daughter with him. Marius was bound to love such a lithe little thing like Cosette. She was an angel in every sense of the word, and Eponine? She was just Eponine. There wasn't a snowflake's chance in hell that she would be able to capture Marius' attention now, but that didn't mean that she couldn't try.
He boarded late, and Eponine waved him down before he could glance Cosette's way. She saw him watch her as he passed by her seat. It was obvious that he was torn between being polite and doing what he wanted. The knowledge was like acid in Eponine's stomach. There was no winning this thing, was there?
"Hey, 'Ponine," Marius said sparing a glance at her grocery bag. "What'cha got there?"
"Nothing," she answered nonchalantly, storing it beneath her seat. He was prone to sympathizing over her home situation. He was always trying to give her advice, but he wasn't very good at it. Besides, being pitied wasn't being loved or even well-liked. In fact, it was practically being looked down upon. She wanted his adoration, not his sad little knee pats. At first it had been nice, being listened to and cared about, but of late she was realizing he cared about her life in the superficial way one might care about a vaugely amusing television show. It was maddening.
Marius nodded, accepting her suspicious behaviour without question as usual. He slouched in his seat, taking out his ipod and A Tale of Two Cities. Eponine groaned inwardly. The bus ride was practically the only time she was going to get to spend time with him throughout the entire trip, and he was going to ignore her for his homework and some showtunes. She would have taken a hundred sympathetic knee pats over him being worlds away right next to her. Hell, she would have even taken the glazed look he gave her when she knew he was thinking of Cosette instead of what she was saying.
About a half hour into the ride, Eponine formulated a new plan to make him notice her, and feigned being asleep. She tried to slowly let her head fall to his shoulder, and maybe have him fall asleep and lean against her as well. If they weren't going to talk, she at least wanted to touch. As soon has her head brushed his arm though, he moved away, letting her drop into empty space, jolting her from her reverie.
"Do you want my pillow?" he asked taking out his headphones. Eponine took it grudgingly, a hot blush rising in her cheeks. Sure, it smelled like him, but he smelled like him too. She felt stupid for even trying to get his attention. This time, she fell fitfully asleep against the window. When she awoke they were at the capital, and Marius was in the front with Cosette, sharing his music with her. Eponine punched his dumb pillow a few times. Why hadn't she thought of that? Further more, why hadn't he offered to share with her too? Her insides felt like they were covered in permafrost. How could she have ended up so friendless all the time? What was wrong with her?
A/N: This is set in an America where war and famine have ravaged the land, causing the government to take drastic action and inadvertently turn itself into a dictatorship. No worries, it will all be explained in further chapters!