Hey! As promised, here's chapter two!
Happy belated Halloween!
I'm not Victor Hugo.
As soon as Cosette returns home, she drops her bag on the floor of her bedroom and collapses face down on her ivory comforter covered bed.
What have I done to deserve this? She asks, Haven't I always been good? I always volunteer at shelters and I've been a straight-A student for as long as I can remember. Why did she come back?
Cosette cringes and rolls on her back as she remembers all of the abuse she endured from Eponine and her nefarious mother.
"Cosette!" Eponine croons mockingly. "Cosette, mama says we're going to Town Square for New Year's Eve-and you can't come!"
The small girl remains intent on not looking up from her work as she answers her taller adversary. "Go away, 'Ponine."
Eponine smiles cruelly and leans down so that her face is close to Cosette's. "Aw, do you miss your mommy, Cosette?" She shrieks. "You're just jealous because my mother loves me and yours doesn't!"
"That's not true." Cosette says quietly.
Eponine cackles. Her blonde hair is perfectly curled, her eyes are big and green, framed by long lashes, and her pale skin is smooth and flawless. The perfect gold curls that Cosette has always envied are held back by a pink ribbon, and Eponine is dressed in a delicate white dress with a matching pink sash. It will always be a mystery to Cosette that someone so pretty and so well dressed could be so wicked.
"Little thing?" Papa asks from his office down the hall. Papa arranged to work from home so that he could be there when Cosette came home from her first day of high school.
"Yes, papa!" Cosette says, getting up and smoothing her clothes. Just because her day turned out to be awful doesn't mean she should worry Papa. After all, this is only her first day, and if Papa knew she couldn't handle the outside world, he'd lock her up and never let her go out. Cosette practically had to beg him on her knees to let her go to high school.
Taking a deep breath, she walks into his office.
"Cosette!" Papa smiles and opens his arms. Cosette grins and runs into his lap, embracing him. She knows she's getting too old to sit on his lap, but today, of all days, she needs it.
"Oh, Papa, I had such a wonderful day at school!" Cosette says, proud of her acting skills. "I met so many new people, and the students and teachers are so nice, and the classes are so wonderful!"
"That's wonderful, Cosette!" Papa smiles down at her. "Say, what do you say we walk through Central Park and you tell me about your day? I want to hear every detail."
"Okay, Papa." Cosette gets up.
I can do this, Cosette thinks as she grabs her bag and accompanies her father out the door. Didn't you used to tell yourself stories about how you wish the day had went when you were young? This will be no different.
However, despite Cosette managing to squeeze out all good elements of her day into what anyone would think was the best first day ever, something stops Cosette from telling her papa about undeniably the best part of her day.
Marius Pontmercy.
"Hey, Mister Marius!" Eponine calls as she makes her way through Central Park. She grins at the unruly black curls and the Roman nose. Despite her tough ways, Eponine has one thing that she won't admit to anyone: She has it bad for Marius Pontmercy.
Marius Pontmercy! Of all the people in the world, she had to fall for a polite, sweet, nerdy, awkward law student. Eponine knows she's only talked to him once or twice, but he's shown her some of the only kindness that she's known in years, and he's cute.
He looks up from his book, frowning slightly when he sees her, but replacing it with an awkward smile. "Uh, hey, Eponine!"
Aw, he's nervous about talking to me, Eponine thinks joyfully.
"What's up?" She bounds up to him and grins happily.
"Erm...nothing, I guess." He says. "How was your first day back?"
"It was okay." She says, frowning at the memory of her. "Ugh, I saw this girl today that I knew as a child and I hate her, but I set her in her place." Eponine says, grinning at the thought of Cosette's woebegone expression as the mean, hateful whispers passed her in the hallways. I'll bet anyone five bucks that she's out by the end of the month.
"Did you?" Marius looks worried. "You didn't...punch her or anything, did you?"
Eponine snorts. "'Course not!" She exclaims, laughing, "Look at my hands." She says, "Clear as butter!" Eponine holds up her tanned, weathered hands, and despite their hardness, there is no sign that they've been engaged in any sort of violent activity. "Nah, I just played a little trick on her, and everything turned out fine."
"A little trick…" Marius still looks perturbed. "Did you happen to lock her…" He doesn't finish his sentence as he spots something overhead, grins, and waves.
Pissed, Eponine turns around to see what took Marius's attention. And who should be there but the delicate little twat herself?
Great.
She's escorted by a hulking-Eponine estimates him to be 6'7 or 6'8-old man, maybe seventy or eighty. His hair and beard are white as snow, and despite his hulking size and burly physique, his eyes are soft and warm, and he smiles benignly at Cosette as the two make their way through the gardens.
"That's her." Eponine stands on her tiptoes and hisses in Marius's ear, "That's that delicate little fuck that I told you about."
"Yeah," Marius says, clearly not interested. His green eyes have lit up in a way Eponine has never seen before, and his mouth is curled in soft smile.
Cosette can feel a pair of eyes watching her, and, turning her head, finds herself staring at the same emerald eyes that she was thinking about earlier. She smiles and waves at him.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a small teenage girl scowling at her. She has thick blonde hair, and she's wearing eyeliner, red lipstick, a camouflage jacket, denim cutoffs, fishnet tights, and combat boots. Eponine!
"What's wrong, little thing?" Papa asks her, concerned.
"Nothing, Papa." Cosette says, finally taking her gaze away from Marius and turning to face her father. "I just saw a few people from school."
"That girl over there, with the boots?" Papa says apprehensively. "I don't think she looks like a very good girl, Cosette."
"Oh…" Despite everything, Cosette still feels the need to defend her. "She's very nice, Papa."
"Well, how about I go get us some hot dogs and you can talk with your friends, alright?" He says.
"Oh...thank you, Papa." Cosette says. "I'll see you in a bit!"
As she makes her way through the crowd, Cosette prays to all holy deities that blessed the nuns who raised her for four years: Please don't let Eponine be there by the time I see Marius.
Thankfully, by the time Cosette reaches him, Eponine seems to have disappeared, and Cosette mentally thanks every saint that she can remember. "Hi!" She squeaks. "Fancy seeing you here, right?"
"Yeah!" Marius says, looking down at her. "Did your first day go alright?"
"Yeah, I guess." She looks down at her boots. "Thank you, by the way."
"You're welcome." He smiles nervously. "How did you end up in that closet, anyway?"
"Like I said earlier, it's a long story." Cosette says.
"I'd love to hear it sometime." Marius looks down and smiles at her from his lashes. "Can I have your cell phone number?"
"Well…" Cosette contemplates what to do. On one hand, she hardly knows him, and he's so much older.
But on the other hand, he's one of the only people who's been nice to her all day...and Cosette can't deny the little fluttering she feels in her stomach when she's around him…
"Okay." Cosette says. She gives it to him. "Hey...you're not going to give it to any of your college friends, are you?" She jokes with a smirk and raise of her eyebrow.
He laughs. "Gee, I don't know. I think you might like some of my other friends."
Cosette feels a surge of excitement. She's flirting! "Maybe you can introduce them to me another time."
Marius nods, his eyes sparkling. "I'd love to. However…" He leans in, his voice dropped to a dramatic whisper, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "a word of advice: Don't give Grantaire alcohol, and don't get Enjolras started on the one percent."
Cosette laughs. "I'll keep that in mind." She says. "Do you want to meet me here on Friday? I can tell you all about why I ended up in that closet."
"Sure. 8 o'clock?"
"Absolutely." Cosette says, turning around. A sneaky thought strikes her, and she turns her head, smiles coyly, and says, "See you, Pontmercy."
As she walks by, though she keeps her composure, inside she's jumping around and squealing. She was flirting! Pathetically, she admits, but still flirting! And even if she doesn't marry him, maybe this will come in handy. After all, she's in high school, and she needs to learn how to flirt somehow.
"Who was that boy, Cosette?" Papa asks as he comes back and eyes Marius apprehensively.
"Oh, just a boy I met today." Cosette says. "So, what's for lunch?"
On the the other side of the park, Éponine watches with her eyes narrowed. What the hell were they talking about? She thinks, furious.
Standing up from her place in the bushes, she storms through Central Park as she tries to formulate a plan to save Marius from Cosette. Obviously, she's trying to use her seemingly sweet and delicate ways to make him fall for her so he'll bow to her every will, she thinks urgently, I have to save Marius from Cosette! But the question is, how?
Slowly, she begins to formulate a plan.
There it is! So, I know there isn't as much from Éponine's point of view, but I really wanted to push in a lot of interaction between Marius and Cosette. I just love that couple!
I'm sorry if their chemistry sucks. I'm currently trying to read every well-written romance fanfic between all my OTP's, so I'm planning on doing an OTP fanfiction marathon once I have the time so I can take notes.
Although, I kind of like the chemistry between them being awkward. Like, Marius is antisocial, and Cosette hasn't interacted with any boys other than her father, baby Gavroche, and Msr. Thénardier, so it figures their interaction would be really awkward and derpy.