It started out as an innocent night, as most nights do. An eighth grade graduation party was the last place Lynn would have expected to be bombarded with something so...adult-like. She wasn't even technically a high school freshman yet. There was an entire summer separating her from the horrors of a whole new world. She didn't really like socializing with the girls in her class all that much, they were petty and all cared more about what she'd worn to the party than that she'd actually come, and the boys were right in the middle of puberty and just downright awkward. Which would be how she found herself outside. One minute she was standing outside in the mellow, delicate wind, maybe feeling a little underdressed in her cutoff shorts and tank top, and the next minute she smelled...smoke. Had someone lit a fire? She looked around at the house behind her in panic, not seeing anything set ablaze, and there was no smoke coming from the chimney. Was it legal to start a bonfire on a residential lot? Lynn was pretty sure it wasn't. Maybe she was smelling something from one of the neighbors' houses.
And then, smoke again. This time closer to her face. She coughed a couple of times, covering her mouth after hearing a sound from over by the house's garage. Peeking around the corner of the house, she saw a figure, dimly illuminated by the porch light...holding a cigarette.
Naturally, Lynn knew what a cigarette was and how it worked, as most fourteen-year-olds did. She'd read and heard about them enough times that she knew it was incredibly unhealthy. This figure wasn't much taller than she was, so either it was a short adult or one of her classmates. Lynn, being the stubborn person she was, had a mind to do something about it, so she listened to the tapping of her sneakers against the pavement as she approached the person. As she got closer, she realized there was more than one figure, and the number actually totaled to three. The first figure's face came into focus, and Lynn raised an eyebrow in confusion. He wasn't in her class...was he? None of them were.
They looked...older.
The one girl looked about Luna's age- they all did, actually- and had a noise piercing, which Lynn tried not to cringe at. She hated needles in general- she didn't even have her ears pierced. The boy next to her took a long drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke into the air, making little rings. Maybe that was kinda cool, but still, it was unhealthy. Lynn crossed her arms defensively, and the first boy she'd seen looked over at her.
"Oh god, one of my brother's classmates found her way over here." he muttered, looking towards his snickering friends. "Look, kid, get lost. Go...pin the tail on the donkey or something."
Lynn's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a baby. I'm fourteen." she replied, hoping to sound intimidating, but instead the older kids just laughed. Were they mocking her? She'd come over here to keep them from poisoning themselves and this is how they thank her?
"I know you. You're Luna Loud's kid sister." the other boy commented, shaking his head in disdain. "One of 'em, at least. From what I hear your parents are practically rabbits." Were they making fun of her family? Lynn was about ready to let all hell break loose.
"Get lost." the older girl commented, rolling her eyes and holding a cigarette to her mouth.
"You know that's bad for you." Lynn retorted, adjusting her arms but keeping them crossed. "You could really damage your lungs."
The girl laughed again. "You're cute." she said, purposefully blowing smoke in Lynn's general direction. "But you're not my mom." Lynn started coughing again, and when she stopped all of the older kids were laughing. She narrowed her eyes to try to look intimidating, but instead found a cigarette held in front of her face by one of the boys.
"You want one?" he asked, and her chocolate eyes went wide. She blinked a couple of times, looking from his face to his hand and back to his face again.
"No WAY." Lynn shook her head aggressively. Of course not! Wasn't she just telling them how dangerous it was? She'd have to be a complete hypocrite to-
"Baby." the boy mumbled. Yet he didn't retract his hand. If there was anything that would send Lynn over the edge, it was telling her that she couldn't do something, or that she was wimpy. Her dark eyes narrowed, and she placed her little hands on her hips.
"I'm not a baby. I'm just...trying to quit." she lied, hoping they'd believe her and that she could leave without being pressured into anything she didn't want to have to do. She was practically in the mind-frame where she was going to snatch the object out of the boy's hand just to prove that she wasn't...a kid. Lynn desperately tried to keep her hands secured on her hips, because she didn't want to take the cigarette, and if theoretically she did take it and any of her older sisters found out...she was dead. Worse than dead, actually. She'd have to sit through lecture after lecture after lecture about things she already knew.
Suddenly one of the boys grabbed her hand and shoved the small cylinder into it, closing her fingers around it and smirking before letting go. "If you're really trying to quit, it's nice to have a little consolation once in a while." he said, pulling a lighter from his pocket.