Laura gazed at LaFontaine, still with cup of warm cocoa in her hands. They were sitting in diner near their highschool, skipping on a lunch break. LaFointane wanted to take Laura to cafeteria, but blondie insisted on drinking her cocoa. She liked it, and somehow it made her feel better, especially when she was upset and LaF clearly was able to see it. They agreed without much of a fuss. Now, with hands cupping the coffee cup, they were listening to other girls rambling. Laura, on the other hand, was narrowing her brows furiously, sitting stiff like a board. She already placed her mug on the table, now she was moving her hands in air chaotically, trying to highlight her own words. Her heart was racing, mostly because of anger and disappointment, and she couldn't control it. Laura was rather more expressive when it comes to emotions, often even exaggerating a bit.
"I can't believe it, Laf! I did everything I could, but she's just unbearable! I've tried, but no matter what I do it's pointless! She's always rude, acting like she's forced to even go to school, you know? It's just -" she didn't even have occasion to end, before being abruptly cut out by Laf.
"Laura, breathe. Maybe you should give her a chance? Chance to meet her better, instead of judging her after... how long? One day of spending together, really? She's new, maybe she needs some time to get around," Laf said with a skeptical look on their face.
"I gave her plenty of chances, Laf! Why should I care about her when she acts like apathetic, spoiled brat who hates people, not only just me?" Laura almost shouted, her lips formed into one thin line.
"Come on. Maybe she had some tragic backstory involving being abducted by unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial beings?" they said, laughing, while Laura frowned more and rolled her eyes.
"Can you be serious for one second, LaF? It's a serious matter!"
"Right, right. Like I said, try and give her a chance. Maybe she's a good person in depth, but she's shielding herself because of some Idontwantobehurt issues? You'll never know if you don't try, Laura," LaF said, deadpanned.
They never really spoke to Carmilla before, but they saw her during lessons sitting in the front. She was rude, snarky and unapologetic even while speaking with another classmates. LaF never really took the opportunity to approach her, especially since she always gazed down at everyone. Carmilla was type of person that everyone avoids, not like it was hard. She often vanished during breaks, no one knew why. Perry always keep saying that Carmilla is smoking somewhere, due to her stereotypical punky attire. Lola, on the other hand, really dislikes Carmilla. She keeps saying that her attitude won't do her any good later in life, and at the end she'll be alone, but it doesn't seem to bother Carmilla at all, or at least she seemed unphased.
It was a week after brunette's transfer and Laura never spoke to her after that day when she had to show her around. Obviously she saw her during lessons, staring at her back. Carmilla often would catch Laura's gaze and smile, which made her turn her head in another direction. It was weird for blondie, since their last meeting ended with a nasty blast. She thought that Carmilla just wanted to see her embarrassed as much as possible, which wasn't exactly untrue.
While Laura was showing her around, she tried to make snarky remarks about everything. At the end her and Carmilla argued heavily, mainly because blonde couldn't handle it anymore. Laura was done with her façade and started to point out Carmilla's disgusting behaviour. She had no time to wrangle with unapologetic and vain people, especially in school where everyone could see them. Carmilla started to call her names and so on, acting like she didn't do it for previous hours. Laura walked off on her, leaving her standing deadpanned. She was sure she had never been so angry like that day, not because of one person. Now she's upset again, mainly because she had to tell LaFontaine what happened. They asked her over, and she really didn't have any time to meet with them this week and talk.
"Why are you defending her?"
"Because I know that people are complex. They're not plain as you might think, and I think that there's something under her horrible façade and punk clothes. Maybe she is a decent human or maybe my judgment is wrong. It's not for me to see," they said, smiling behind their empty coffee cup.
"Fine, I give up. Maybe I should have talked to Perry about it." Laura said, hiding her face in her own hands.
"Perry would tell you the same. Just don't be so critical. It's not like she will use you."
Laura felt familiar sting in her heart, her face dropping immediately. Her grip loosened, eyebrows rising up. It reminded her of that moment when her heart fluttered, when she felt in love with someone who used her. She thought she was over it, but deeply she will never be.
"I'm sorry Laura, I didn't mean to. I think we should come back though, what do you think?" they offered her a reassuring and apologetic smile, but Laura just shrugged and smiled widely like there was no pain in her chest, standing up and throwing the paper cup away.
Laura sat in her class, looking at the board. She was sitting in the second row, first one entirely occupied by Carmilla and several other girls. Now, she wasn't here, leaving an empty space ahead of her. It wasn't like it occupied blonde's mind at all, it was just new. No one really seemed to notice the absence of her though, which was a little sad. Supposedly being the only one new student in class is a really rough time, especially to break ice with others and befriend someone. Laura thought about what LaF had said hour ago, but she still was reluctant about listening to her friends advices. It wasn't like LaFontaine isn't the best, just sometimes their help wasn't exactly what she wanted. That's why Perry is here – to correct their mistakes whenever they were wrong.
Laura didn't even notice that people around her started to pack their things. She stared in amusement at them, trying to move on her thoughts. However, she was interrupted by no one else but Danny herself. The big one was standing here near the door frame, looking at her. Danny was the captain of their Baseball team, plus she was already a senior so the possibility of losing her next year was crucial to Laura. She didn't want to part with her friend, but she would have to.
Blonde walked to her, smiling sincerely for the first time today. Danny was wearing her special captain jacket with their team's emblem on it. She smiled back, hugging the little girl and pulling away really fast.
"Hey there. Ready for training, small one?" she said, starting to walk behind the group of kids.
"Hey. Of course I am, see this big smile? I'm so ready for it." Laura said a bit too eagerly, and even if Danny caught it she didn't comment. The truth was that Laura didn't want to go to training today, but she couldn't tell that to Danny and disappoint her. She was one of the few people who had the biggest expectations of her, or so thought Laura, and she didn't want to let her down. All of her life she had to cope other's expectations towards her, but the redhead somehow was special, mostly because she was one of her dearest friends whom she knew for so long. Laura really couldn't tell her that she can't practice today because of LaFontaine and some stupid girl who made her angry.
They walked towards the locker rooms, Danny rambling about something and Laura pretending that she heard it all. She didn't want to be rude to her, she just turned off along the way. Everything she heard at the end was just Danny talking about Zetas and their party, and this guy Kirsch who invited her.
"You should go with him, really. He seems... nice." she said.
"I know he does, but he's from Zetas. He's always talking about his bros and some nonsense, besides he seems pretty blunt. He annoyed me a year ago, but now I'm considering it." Danny sighed. It was true, these two had a really strong argument a year ago. It ended with Danny throwing something at Kirsch and insulting his Zetas, while he kept calling her weird made-up phrases with "amazon" in it. They never got along, but it looks like time changes everyone, even the biggest enemies.
"If he's sincere about it you should say yes. Maybe he changed and his intentions are pure. Everyone deserves the second chance, don't they?" Laura said, smiling at Danny weakly.
"I guess they do, but I still don't trust him. Remember the time he and his Zeta dumbasses threw worms at our team last year? It was some kind of a prank, but even today it sounds stupid. What if he treats it as some kind of a prank again?" Danny aforementioned with some uncertain light in her eyes, and even the sign of it made Laura feel bad for her friend.
"Be prepared and go. High School is all about wild experiences, not worrying if the boy you supposedly dislike might throw a prank on you. Have fun and don't sweat it."
"I guess you're right, Laura"
Laura stood here, with a bat in her hands. Her grip hardened, eyes focused on the ball flying so fast in her direction. In the last second she moved her arms, then shoulders and hips all at once and hit it. The ball flew above Danny's head and Laura drop the bat in a second, her legs shot to run as fast as possible. Laura almost stumbled and fell at first, but she kept her balance. She ran past Danny, who was now smiling at her. One of the girl's caught the ball and threw it to another, who now touched Laura before she could reach the base. Laura threw her hands up in the air with angry sigh, stomping her foot on the ground.
Danny and a few other girl's laughed at this, but Laura was just irritated. She almost always could have made it, but now she wasn't in her best condition. Danny put her hand on the smaller girl's shoulder in a protective manner, teasing her a bit before resuming their little warm-up match.
Laura stood here at the first base, stretching a bit. Suddenly she caught brief glimpse of something, or rather someone sitting at the bleachers. She didn't really care who it was, more focusing on her objective than random spectators.
But it wasn't someone random, it was Carmilla.
She sat here all day behind the bleachers, hiding from the eyes of stupid people. She got tired and skipped the class, but she had to be sneaky and not let anyone catch her. It got boring after one hour of looking at anything in particular, so she decided to read Descartes or any other philosophy book she had in her backpack. It always fascinated her how complex humans were and how many other outlooks they can have. She became interested in it during her last year of Middle School, and she couldn't help but fall in love with philosophy. It was her jam.
Carmilla didn't even realised when others showed up, breaking her perfect silence she found herself into. She climbed onto the bleachers, looking straight at people practising right now. It was quite entertaining, she might've said. Not in her tastes, but it somehow made her evening feel less dull.
It was true that Carmilla behaved terrible towards people, but even someone like her had the right to peek in. Especially after she saw that tiny blonde girl she really despised. It didn't matter that her character was nothing but horrible mess, she was something worth looking at, even if Carmilla didn't have the willpower to admit to herself that she can actually enjoy the view. So she leaned backwards and, with a smirk on her face, watched their practise.
Laura smiled to Danny, whom she was walking out of the locker rooms with.
"Do you want me to walk with you? That's not a problem, really."
"No, but thank you, I can handle things from here".
They said their goodbyes and parted near the bleachers. Laura was in high spirits now, until she heard the raspy voice cutting her through like a knife. Immediately she regretted her decline to Danny's offer.
"Nice one, cupcake. Didn't think you had this in you, the willpower of a lioness." she said with a distant voice full of wonder, unlike her normal hasty and despising tone. Laura looked up, startled by unsuspecting appearance of Carmilla.
"Jesus, Carmilla, do you enjoy startling people? You scared me." she said, sighing loudly. Laura sounded exhausted, just like she looked.
"Well, not everyone, just the certain person standing in front of me. Rough day?" and now Carmilla is back to her vain self, how sweet.
"It was more pleasant without your sudden appearance."
"Now, I was here first, but you just overlooked me. Not very nice of you."
"What do you want, Carmilla? Trying to bring me down again, just like you did previously? I really don't need to deal with your snicker right now. Can't you just try and be nice for ten minutes?" she started to lose her façade, fists clenched and shaking.
"How very thoughtful of you, but maybe you should have considered that I'm not a pleasant person at all? That maybe no one cared how well I behaved, there would always be no one who cared. No one really cares, even if they say so." she said with blank expression on her face.
"I would care, but why do you seem to bother about anyone else's opinion when you don't care about yourself at all?!"
"That's not what I-"
"That's enough, Carmilla. Maybe you should have considered that there are people who actually wanted to get to know you. They wanted, but then, you didn't care. You never really did."
"What a fierce judgment. You thought you got me all cracked after a week, didn't you? Well, that's not how it is, sweetie. The world doesn't revolve all around you and your opinions. Why would I care about someone as blunt as you are," now, it wasn't all apathetic, it was pure anger in her eyes burning.
"Right, especially since you didn't even bothered to get to know me at all, not even a bit. You started up by insulting me straight up, and whose judgmental here?!" Laura shouted.
"Well, maybe you should have thought about why that is. You're not as innocent as you view yourself, buttercup."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
And with that, Carmilla jumped out of the bleachers and stood here face-to-face with Laura. She was maybe two, three inches taller than blonde. She smirked, but it wasn't sincere, it looked like devilish grin. She leaned a bit and Laura suddenly felt intimidated by her presence.
"It's supposed to mean that you're one of a two faced, fake bitches who's trying so hard to maintain her reputation. What are you scared of? People knowing your little secret and hating you? Bullying? Tons of hateful gapes instead of kind ones? Are you really that hollow and swallow, sweetie?" Carmilla couldn't hold it any longer, she just busted open like a volcano, angrily clenched her jaw and, oh boy, it hurts. Her hateful gape was entirely focused on the smaller girl, who now looked like she was about to cry. Laura's face was red, her fists shaking so hard she was barely able to keep them under control.
Just that she didn't keep, and there was a loud thud, swirl of air and one hand flying.
"Maybe I am, but you're worse than me. You, Carmilla Karnstein, are horrible human being, and when I was about to follow what LaF said, you've ruined it all, again. I hope to never see your face or hear your voice again," single tears started to fall down her cheeks, with such a heartbroken expression on her face that it made Carmilla melt inside. Laura turned around and headed up to the end of the stadium, while she was wiping her tears brunette never felt worse in her life, nor had she really made someone cry. The red mark on her cheek started to itch.
And Carmilla couldn't stop but gape at Laura when she was walking away.