Chapter title: If you fall I'll catch you, and maybe steal your stuff too (stupid character limit, get on ao3's level fanfic)

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Ellie hated being the "new kid"; although it was inevitable being bounced around from foster home to foster home she never had the chance to really settle in one place. Sure it would be nice to stay one place for an entire school year, make friends that she wouldn't have to say goodbye to in three months, and god if she had to stand in front of the class one more time while the teacher introduced her she was going to crawl out of her skin.

But whatever, she pushed those wishes aside a long time ago, for now she would bide her time at this 'Joel' persons place, and keep her head down at school and wait to be shipped off to another foster home or, she shudders at the thought, another group home.

Shrugging her backpack onto her shoulder she makes her way from the principal's office headphones on her ears and locker info and schedule in hand. She sees kids milling about in the hall waiting for the homeroom bell and ducks her head any time looks like they were going to turn her way. Peeking out the corner of her eye she notes the numbers on each locker looking for the number 160.

210…

200…

190…

180…

And then suddenly she's falling. A small squeak escapes her throat as she lands face first onto the linoleum floor. Slightly disoriented she hears chuckling above her, getting her bearings again she pushes herself up and reaches for her book bag just to have it kicked out of her grasp contents slipping out of it. Ellie turns to glare at the offender and sees four guys standing in a half circle behind her. The tallest one laughs and begins to speak when he catches Ellie's eye.

"Aw poor new kid, you should be more careful you wouldn't want to hurt yourself."

Ellie bites her tongue reminding herself to not respond, she knew people like this were just looking for a reaction and honestly she could not afford another blow up like what happened at her last school (which she thinks was blown out of proportion, she didn't mean to stab that kid with her compass he shouldn't have invaded her personal space like that, in her opinion it was self defense). So she just reaches out to retrieve a notebook but her hand freezes in midair when a foot comes down onto of the book.

"Hey new kid, didn't you're parents teach you to speak when you're spoken to?"

Ellie feels her fist clench ready to swing, a harsh retort on the tip of her tongue ready to spit venom in the boys' face when a loud voice echoed in the hallway.

"Hey Crawford why don't you and your goons piss off, it's early and your stupidity is giving me a headache."

Crawford scoffs, "This doesn't concern you Abel"

Riley takes a menacing step forward, "Why don't you just get out of here before I knee you so hard in your balls your future kids will say ow."

They both stare at each other for a long moment and Ellie isn't sure who to keep her eyes on, but eventually Crawford turns away and scurries off down the hall. Riley lets out a chuckle and tugs on the lapels of her leather jacket, "That's what I thought" she says under her breath. Riley turns to Ellie and smiles, "You good? Crawford is a dick but his bark is worse than his bite."

Ellie mumbles a "fine" under her breath before averting her gaze from this girl. Just one look and Ellie could tell this girl was super pretty, honey eyes, tan skin, inviting smile, plus she's sort of a badass (she's even wearing a leather jacket for god's sake!)

Being the awkward lump she always was around pretty girls with nice smiles Ellie quickly started to gather her scattered belongings. As she reached for the notebook that Crawford had stepped on her hand brushed over another warm one. Flinching back she sees Riley pick it up and pile it with a small pile of papers that were also Ellie's.

Slowly getting up and grabbing her book bag along the way she finally looks at the girl in front of her again seeing that her smile was still in place and Ellie returned with her own tightlipped one.

"Thanks…"

"No problem, I'm sure Crawford is gonna have a stick up his ass about this for a while but I'm sure you'll be fine, just find some friends and stick with them he only likes to pick on people that seem to be alone."

"Then I guess we're gonna have a bunch of repeat performances, I'm not really the type for friends, not like they stick around for long…"

Riley eyed her critically and Ellie felt herself shuffle under the scrutiny.

"You've got some trust issues new kid, you should work on that."

Riley stepped forward reaching for Ellie's book bag and depositing her things inside of it before stuffing her hands into her pocket.

"My name isn't new kid, it's Ellie." Ellie huffed

"Hmm Ellie, pretty name, fits a cute girl like you. My name's Riley, maybe I'll see you around." Riley winked at the red-head before walking off and Ellie was left standing there a light blush dusting her cheeks. As soon as Riley was out of sight Ellie rushed to her locker, looking at her locker info she took note of the combo, 35-30-31, and tried to commit the numbers to memory. Stuffing most of her stuff inside she patted her pocket looking for her walkman, panicking when she didn't feel the familiar lump, she quickly dug into her book bag but realized it wasn't there either. She remembers seeing Riley stuff her hands into her pocket and suddenly it clicks in her mind.

"Son of a-"

The homeroom bell rings, and Ellie vows to punch Riley right in her pretty face.

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MC: So the prompt for this one was: Someone tripped me in the hallway and you're the only one that helped me up AU. Whoop I made this one under 1k (so it was 994 words but it still counts) way more drabbly than the first. Honestly writing less than 1kfor things is super hard for me, like physically painful. Anyways thanks for the reviews, favs, and follows, really makes a girl feel good. As for that multi-chap I was talking about I have officially written 55 words of the 1st chapter which is progress! (While I've written 3.5k for my other multi-chap story haha…) It'll get there eventually so at least you have something else to look forward to other than these drabbles. Till next time everyone!