1: a bet on his locker
JACK SAT DOWN on the table—literally, he sat with his feet up, crouching with a devious smirk on his face. His friends, who were all sat around the thing, eating lunch, scowled at him. They stopped doing what they were doing and looked up at the boy with an annoyed scowl.
"Jack, get. Off. This. Table," Astrid said, thinking that it was too early for a banter. Jack ignored her and kept his eyes on a certain ginger.
"I spy with my little eye—"
"A boy with hair dyed white," Eugene finished for him, emphasizing on the word 'boy' since he knew Jack hated it so much.
"Stop it. I'm a maaaaan," Jack whined, despite being one of the youngest of the bunch, he liked to act like the eldest . . . Even though his childishness contradicted that entirely.
"Not with that attitude," Hiccup stated, scoffing at Jack's womanizing attitude. Jack looked at his friend with a slight glare and then decided to ignore him.
"With my little eye I see, a blonde with hair of strawberry!" Jack repeated, adding a lot of enthusiasm at the end.
"A redhead?" Rapunzel asked, Jack shook his head.
"A weirdo with a green hat?" Tooth asked, pertaining to another boy named Peter.
"Hiccup's right here," Rapunzel said jokingly.
"I don't even like green anymore," Hiccup said, playfully scowling.
"Oh, please," Astrid said as she tapped the green sweater he wore.
"This is sea green with a hint of blue," he quipped.
"You're so pretentious," Eugene said, laughing. "Shut up, it's fucking green!"
"Oh, for Pete's sake, it's the transferee student!" Jack said finally, all the other members of the group looked to where he was looking and saw Anna, the junior Rapunzel's met in her drama class.
"Interesting," she said, looking back to Jack. "I thought you'd like her sister more."
"Elsa? Nah, she's not really my type."
"Ooh! You have a type!" Eugene teased.
"Shut up," Jack told them, his friends only laughed to themselves. "What is it with you people, anyway?"
"Nothing, nothing," Rapunzel said to him with a smile. "It's just that, shouldn't it be time for you to stop dating girls for the heck of it?"
"Only when there's none left," he said.
"Well, that's disappointing," she replied.
"You're expecting a 'until I find the right one', aren't you?" Jack asked. Rapunzel nodded admittedly and he continued, "Don't worry, Punz, that's also one of the reasons. I just don't think that certain girl's in this particular school. So while I wait, I might as well have fun." He displayed a goofy smirk.
"Well, that's sad," Rapunzel replied.
"Punz," Jack groaned, like a kid being told to stop having fun. Rapunzel rolled her eyes. Then, the rest of them continued eating.
Jack sat down—finally—beside Tooth and then pulled his phone out, he began to text a good friend of his when suddenly, his collar was pulled out and a hand was slapped—with too much force—on his cheek, reddening it. Everyone who was sat on the table (Rapunzel, Flynn, Hiccup, Astrid, Tooth, and Aster) were stunned. They stopped eating and instead watched Jack as he received a scolding from one of the popular redheads in school, Ariel Benson.
"Jack! I swear to Neptune, if you don't leave my sisters alone, I'm going to murder you!" she shouted. Jack felt his lips getting swollen. This must be about him dumping Alana.
"Don't worry, Ariel. You're the only one left. I won't go two feet near you." And for two reasons: Eric (her boyfriend) gets jealous easily, and Ariel's not really the type of girl he'd go for.
"You rude bastard!" She slapped him again. "Do you know how much she cried last night?! How much they all cried every time you dumped each of them?!"
"I'm sorry?" She slapped him again.
"Leave. Them. Alone," she said in an assertive tone, and then left back to her table.
Jack sat back down and began rubbing his cheek. His friends resumed eating—and so did the rest of the people in the cafeteria, they were all apparently watching their conversation.
"Geez, that girl gets stronger and stronger these days," he said.
"Well, you did date all six of her sisters," Eugene replied.
Jack sighed.
"If you just stop this attitude, Jack, girls aren't . . . objects for you to play with," Tooth said.
"Well maybe I will, Tooth. Nobody's left, anyway. And besides, none of them are good enough for me."
Tooth sighed in dismay and resumed eating.
"I think you mean the other way around, mate," Aster said. "A bunch of them Sheila's are too good for you."
"I'm not really believing you, Aster, so can you just—"
"I agree," Eugene said.
"Me too," said Rapunzel.
"Oh, who is better than me?" Jack asked.
"One, Elsa. Two, Ariel. Three, Merida—"
"Whoa, Merida? That girl isn't too good for me."
They laughed, irritating Jack.
"Hey, no! How—She isn't better than me! Look at her!" he said, pointing at the table where the redhead was sat. Nobody really looked since Astrid gave an immediate answer.
"Tell that to her six trophies and archery skills."
Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah, but look at her!"
They all did. There they saw Merida eating a hamburger as the person opposite her, Ariel, was venting out her anger upon a certain white-haired boy. Meanwhile, the other person sat on their table—Peter—was sticking spoons all over his face. Merida's expression was a mixture of bored and annoyed. She literally goes through this every month.
"Peter's being disgusting," Eugene said, turning away, "as per usual."
"I wonder why they even hang out with that twelve year old . . ." Astrid added, using an expression to describe Peter's childish manners despite being seventeen years old.
"Our point here is Merida Thompson," Jack said. "She's so . . . Merida."
"You say it like it's a bad thing," Tooth said as she played with the salad on her plate, "when in reality, you're just like her."
"I am not like Merida Thompson," Jack said firmly. Rapunzel, Eugene, Hiccup, and Astrid all sniggered.
"Jack, look at her," Rapunzel said, he did. "For one thing, you both don't care about your friends. Two, you get into detention or into the headmaster's office so much, I'm thinking you and Mr Geller are already friends. Three, you—"
"Okay! Okay, that's enough. How would you know about Merida anyway?" Jack asked. "And I don't get to the principal's office too much."
"She and I are friends. We talk together every Maths, AP Literature, and Arts. She's pretty much out of your league, Jack," Rapunzel said, shrugging with a cheeky-yet-honest, quirky smile.
"I—
"Jackson Overland, please go to the principal's office. Jack Overland, please go to the principal's office," they heard from the speaker, Tooth silently giggled and Aster chuckled as the other four gave the boy a knowing look.
"Better go, Jackson," Eugene said.
"You guys are bullies," Jack joked as he stood up with his bag on one shoulder, off to the principal's office.
He walked slowly since all of what Astrid and Rapunzel's said made him slightly interested about the redhead Scot. He was crossing their table—the Redhead Club, as Peter sometimes called it—and there he saw her. Her cheeks were greatly full of what he assumed, burger and patty, and her eyes had a tired look in them. She wasn't even listen to what Ariel was rambling about, she was just eating while looking at her friend. Suddenly, the speaker was used again.
"Merida Thompson, please go to the principal's office. Merida Thompson, please go to the principal's office."
Her reaction was a mix of relief and pain. It felt quite possibly irritating because she was already tired and Mr Geller wants to see her. He'll probably scold her for something she didn't do, or something she only did for the sake of defence. And also relief, because walking away meant she won't be dealing with Ariel's tantrums for today.
She stood up with her bag in hand, waved good-bye to the two, and walked away. Jack followed after her.
Merida arrived later in the office than Jack did since she had to go to the girl's room. When she arrived the office, and after the secretary told her to go ahead and go in, she saw Jack sitting on one of the two chairs with a bored-yet-playful smirk and Mr Gellera bored-and-painful frown. Upon seeing her, he smiled kindly.
"Merida, finally. Please, take a seat," he said, she sat down on the chair beside Jack's.
"Hi, Princess, what took you so long? We couldn't start without you," Jack said. Merida glanced at him and sat down. Jack felt mildly pissed after he was ignored.
"Okay, the reason why I called you both here is for separate reasons," Mr Geller said. "Merida, yours is about your practice schedules and whatnot. Jack, yours is about your behaviour."
They both nodded and waited for him to continue.
"I called you both here at the same time because despite those reasons, you two did something against school rules."
Jack was slightly surprised, the girl beside him was often quiet. She was only either shooting arrows or horseback riding, he didn't quite expect her to be capable of breaking the rules.
As for Merida, she wasn't too shocked the boy known for his mischief did something against school rules. What she wondered about, though, was why she was being accused for that action she did.
"Merida, why did you hit Jack's locker with a sword?" Mr Geller asked. Jack immediately looked at the redhead, she did that? He thought it was Ariel! But on a more important note, how did she sneak a sword in school?
"First of all, it wasn't me," Merida said. "It was Ariel."
"We have CCTV footage, Merida."
She shrugged rather cockily.
He sighed. "Why?"
"Yeah, Princess, why?"
She groaned and rolled her eyes. "One, it was a bet. Two, Ariel wanted me to do it, and Peter urged."
"A bet? You made a bet on my locker?" Why must it be mine in the first place?
"I made a bet I can split things in half using my sword. Peter wanted me to prove it, Ariel suggested your locker. I said I can make serious damage with one strike." She was so chill about it. "They gave me fifty bucks. Not that I need them."
"Hand them here," said Mr Geller as he pulled up a box that was labelled 'donations'. Merida placed the money inside and then leaned back on her seat. "Now, apologise to Jack."
"I'm sorry, Jack," she said in a dreary tone.
Jack gave her a look, how could he forgive someone whose apology was the complete opposite of sincere? "Okay."
"Okay?" Mr Geller asked, as if the problem was already solved.
The two of them nodded, and he smiled.
"Okay," he continued. "Now, Jack, you're here because . . . ?" He wanted the boy to finish it himself.
"Because I flashed the cafeteria lady?"
"You did what?!"
"Nothing! That was a joke, ehehe," Jack said, improvising suddenly. Meanwhile, Merida couldn't care any less, she wanted to leave this office. "Uh, is it because I caused a fire in the science lab?"
"Yes. It is definitely about that. You ruined ten beakers, seven Florence flasks, and burnt three aprons. Your mother is going to have to pay for you, again." Jack sighed, knowing his mother won't have the ability to do so, he'd just offer himself for community service, again. "Same goes for you, Merida."
"Yes, Mr Geller."
"Okay, the last topic I have for you is your practice schedules and requirements to enter the unit meet—Jack, you may go," said Mr Geller. Jack gave a small salute before leaving the room with his bag.
It was time for him to clean the cafeteria tables again.
But on a side note, what was a unit meet? And why was Merida in it?
A/N: i decided to cut it here, since it was getting too long. thank you so much for reading, don't forget to give me reviews / tell me what you think so far :-D
(just in case any of you wonder why jack's a womanizing asshole . . . there's a reason. but it's not too cliché so don't worry ^_^)
