Cheryl Blossom does not like her.
Like, at all.
And Toni gets it. She gets the entire 'Blossoms hating the Serpents' issue, the whole Northside-Southside rivalry, the 'Moon is in Mars so I have a reason to hate you' thing. But it doesn't make Cheryl seem any less of a mystery she wants to discover. She gets called 'Cha Cha' and 'Queen of the Buskers', and all it does is make her wonder more about who the girl wearing about ten invisible layers over herself actually is.
Because no matter how difficult Cheryl seems to be, there are a million other small things she has seen that refuse to let her drop her into the category of 'Evil'. There seem to be a million strings attached to her back, strings that are forcing her to keep standing straight with no reprieve, no break. Toni knows all…this, this pain causing doesn't happen unless there's at least an equal amount of pain suffering happening inside, and that fact alone makes her curious. How does this girl, manage to function with all of that pent up inside?
"Did you, or did you not," Fangs starts one day, when she is obsessing too much over her "Promise to not fall in love with her?"
"I did," she admits "Although I do not see what that has to do with…."
Sweet Pea gives her a look, and she shakes her head in denial, furiously.
"Oh no. This is just, interest. Completely human curiosity and interest and its totally natural, and you both are complete assholes, Goddamn it!"
She ends up chasing both of them all around a classroom, and the discussion has ended, but that doesn't stop her from wondering.
She's in one of the cubicles in the girl's washroom, when she hears Cheryl spill the beans about a kiss that shouldn't have been, and she feels like she has to say something.
Cheryl looks her up and down, spews some spiel about how she is the Queen of the school, how powerful she is….
"I need no reason," she says, voice high and dripping with the classic 'Mean Girls' tone "I simply…am. Feel free to tremble."
And Toni listens to this girl talk, and all she can think about is how sorry she feels for her, to have to carry all that pain all by herself. Which is why she speaks next, instead of just breaking her nose like she would have if it were anybody else.
"I have a better idea," she says, hand reaching up to touch her shoulder "Why don't you tell me what's bothering you, because clearly, you're in a lot of pain."
"Get your Sapphic Serpent hands off my body!" Cheryl throws at her, voice rising in pitch till it is almost a shriek, and storms off.
Well. Could've gone better.
She has plans. Big plans. Most of those include tying Cheryl up and forcing her to talk, but they are good plans, nonetheless.
"You're an idiot," Jughead tells her, in his usual deadpan voice "Like, a really big idiot."
"Thank you, Jug," Sweets says, thumping the Beanie-wearing boy on the back "See? Even Juggie thinks it's stupid, and he's been around for most of the stupid decisions in this town. He speaks from experience!"
"I just, want to talk to her. Is that really so bad?"
"Yeah, because you plan on falling in love with her."
She does not.
Really.
Seriously.
She just wants to get to know the girl with the red hair who carries around more than her bag's weight every day, the girl who lost her twin brother because of her murderous father, and still manages to be a fully functional, albeit a rather assholistic, human being at all times. She wants to get to know the girl behind the fake smile and the angry eyes. And luckily enough, fate gives Toni her chance on a rainy Thursday afternoon after school.
She's driving her bike back to Serpent area, earphones in, listening to some song, when she sees Cheryl walking beside the road. Her steps lack the arrogance she displays while in school, and her head isn't high up as always. Toni pulls up beside her, slowly, and turns off the engine.
"Hey," she says.
Cheryl Bombshell takes one look at her, and irritation blooms on her face "Why can you not leave me alone?"
"Why can you not be nice to me?" she asks, feigning offence.
Cheryl ignores this, and keeps on walking, so she hurriedly gets off her bike and drags it beside her, catches up gradually.
"What?"
"Nothing," she replies "I just feel like you should be nicer to me."
"I don't like you," Cheryl tells her, and Toni isn't fazed in the least.
"That's okay. You don't have to like me. My friends don't like me very much either. They think I'm an asshole, which, I guess is true, but mostly, it's because I keep making lame puns all the time, and, you know what…"
She goes on rambling for another two minutes before she realizes that she's walking alone. She turns back to see Cheryl staring at her curiously.
"What is this?" she asks "Why do you….? Why are you doing this? I don't quite understand…this."
And she genuinely looks curious, like she is wondering who this stupid girl is who's crashed into her life, and is demanding to be friends with her, and it breaks Toni's heart a little inside.
"I want to be your friend," she says, simply.
"I still don't like you," Cheryl says, a reflex response, and Toni smiles.
The best things take time, she thinks, and launches into another story.