1 year later.
"Where did you put the milk last night?"
"Since when did you drink milk?"
"Is that a euphemism?" Jim's eyebrows knit together.
"Is that a question?" Nim cooly answers.
"Is that an answer?"
"So what if it is?"
The lunch bell rings its five minute warning.
"You think I can't handle it?"
Nim threw her hands up. "Are we still playing the question game?"
Jim raised an eyebrow and steals one of her fries. "Are we?"
"Can you keep up?" She stuffed her sandwich in her face, wiping at the mayo that dripped down her chin. Ignoring Jim's judgmental eyebrows, she pokes his face instead.
"Can you stop eating so messily?" He grunts, swatting her hand away.
"Can your eyebrows stop judging me?" She shoots back.
He raises one eyebrow and she puffs her cheeks and exclaims, "there!" loudly.
"What?"
"Don't tell me you don't know! I mean, look at those babies. They're ready to jump off your face and start a solo career." She leans toward him over the table and wiggles her own eyebrows suggestively. "I think I heard Sarah talking about how she's going to disown you if you don't start plucking them."
He merely rolls his eyes heavenward and shoves her face away, muttering something about her picking on his eyebrows under his breath, but she can see the small uplift of his lips, and that practically translates to a full smile for him.
Score.
"Shove over." Without waiting she plants herself right next to Jim on the couch and proceeds to steal the remote.
Ok, so she didn't end up stealing it, but that's only because Jim had a recent growth spurt, and suddenly he's looming over her 5"4 (which isn't that small, c'mon) by more than a just a few inches. But seriously, in the kitchen that morning she had to go on the stool to grab the fruity loops when Jim just had to reach up and grab them. That had never happened before. Growing up was weird.
Neither of them were really watching the t.v. so she decided to octopus her limbs and ended up sprawled half off the couch and a half on Jim, who only grunted moodily. Which, come to think of it, was also happened a lot these days.
"When'r you gonna stop groooowing?" She whined. "I don't like being shorter than you. It's not fun. Stop growing"
He decided not to grace her with a reply so she shifted a bit and ended up with her chin smushed against her chest and Jim's arm around her shoulders, which tightened microscopically when she burrowed further downwards.
They watched stuff being blown up on the screen for a few silent moments before Jim's cell rings and he rises to take it in the other room, which is nice of him since she was actually interested in what was happening on screen (when was she going to a piano being blown up again?).
When he returns it's possible that he's even moodier than before. He sits back down in his broodiness and stares at the screen.
"Erica?" She guesses, and by the tick in his eyebrow she's gotta be right. "What is it is this time? You forgot to call her? You forgot her birthday?!" She sits up straighter when he doesn't reply and widens her eyes comically. "Seriously? The last time you forgot the two month anniversary she blew a fuse. T-b-h, I'm not sure why she's still with you. And if you ask me, she's a bit of a bitch." She throws up her hands. "Just sayin'."
"People actually say 'tbh' these days?" Jim averts the topic. Really badly. He should know her better than that.
"Please stop changing the topic."
"Yes, it was Erica," he says. If possible, his eyebrows sink even lower on his brow. "She's having a hard time at home right now. So don't act like you know everything. She's acts like she does to protect herself."
And that right there hurt. Because Jim actually sounded angry at her, and this time it wasn't for something stupid like breaking a plate or mixing up the salt and pepper, he was angry at her for calling Erica a bitch. Jim was plenty loyal and she knew that firsthand, so she sat there and tried to suck up the rebuke.
She wasn't very good at that.
"Still. She doesn't have to look at me like I'm the gum on the bottom of her shoe. I never did anything to her, and actually you know what, she looks at everyone like they personally killed her Boston terrier. I just can't take that-. I don't like taking people's shit," she tells him very seriously.
He looks at her for a long second, taking in her set jaw, before snickering.
"What?"
"Just, I don't think anyone would give you any shit. Not looking like…" he stops talking abruptly and smooths his facial features in a span of a second.
She narrows her eye. "Looking like what, Jim, dearest of mine?"
Jim winces microscopically. "Don't get all offended on me. You have a metal eye. You look badass. I'm surprised she's managing to get under your skin."
"Yeah?"
"I feel like anything I say will be the wrong answer," he answers wisely, and she agrees.
"Duck tape is silver, but silence is golden," she says, stroking her fake beard.
"Just watch the show," he says and throws a pillow in her face.
Most teachers take one look at her and immediately balk, wondering how to act around the school's special case. Oh you know that girl, the one who had an accident and got a fake eye…it's creepy isn't it? It's almost like she can see through your clothing…you can never tell if she's looking at you or not…
Well it didn't matter. She went through school as a face among the crowd. Just people knew her name. Nim Hawkins was recognized, and not because she was the best employee at the Benbow inn.
So new teachers usually stiltedly nodded at her before asking if she wanted a seat at the front of the class, just in case of her eye, and she always replied with a: "no. I'm fine, and I would appreciate if you treated me and my eye just like you would treat anyone else."
So that's how she always ended up near the back of the class. She and her eye managed just fine, thank you very much for worrying. Classes lasted 45 minutes in length, and she had lunch with Jim every other day. The off days was where Erica and Jim's schedules coincided and they ate together.
Erica didn't bother Nim that much. She would just like her a lot more if she didn't act so rude to her for no reason.
"Excuse me."
"Excused," Nim said before even turning around. Because that voice would be recognized anywhere. She shifted to the side and waited for Erica to walk by her.
"I don't know how they let you walk around here, you can barely see what's around you," Erica muttered, brushing by her a tad bit too strongly. Nim barely stopped herself from face-planting.
"Yes, thank you for worrying so much about me. I didn't know you cared so much," Nim said in a saccharine voice and placed a hand over her heart. "You should of told me how much I meant to you earlier, maybe then I could forgive you for being such a bit-"
"You don't know anything!" Erica whirled around and hissed, pointing a finger in her direction. Nim's eye zeroed down on it, taking note of dried blood under the nail, and she furrowed her eyebrows.
"Are you bleeding?" Nim asked, rolling her eyes at Erica's shocked face. "Geez, sister. Not like that. I mean, did you cut yourself recently?"
"Why?" Erica sounded venomous, and for once, Nim was starting to feel…scared of her.
"Just, no reason." Her instances where telling her this was a good time to retreat. "I just saw you have some dried blood under your nail…and you know what, it's probably nothing," she hurried, nearly falling down from her haste to get away.
"You're a freak, Nim," Erica's eye flashed. She stalked forward on her heels, getting too close to Nim for comfort. She could see her skin perfectly without even using her eye and that meant there needed to be a lot more space between them. "I don't know why Jim even talks to you. I want to throw up whenever Ilook at you."
"Funny. I feel exactly the same," Nim answered and turned on her heel, ready to take the other route to her bio class when something clamped down on her arm, proficiently stopping her.
"Dude-!" she was ready to yank her arm away, because as much as they grated on each others nerves before, it never came to violence, and she would like to keep it that way. "What's your problem?!" She hissed to Erica, trying to move her arm, but the other's grip was surprisingly strong for the mayor's daughter, who was stick thin.
Erica's eyes bore intensely into hers in a way that made her feel violated and she unconsciously squirmed. The hallway was empty by now. Class would start any second, the bell would ring and they would both be late, and she couldn't guess why Erica was doing this.
"Golden leaf," Erica said in a low, steel voice, and in that exact moment Nim felt her blood run cold and her stomach take a dive. Her heartbeat beat strongly in her ears, blood rushing through her head and a head rush was coming; she knew.
"What?" she sputtered, trying to maintain a decent composure, but something was telling her nothing would fool Erica's brown eyes.
"Golden leaf," she repeated, nails digging into Nim's arm.
"I don't understand." Nim's hands started sweating. "How the hell do you know? Is this a joke? How the hell do you know?! Who the hell are you?"
She was ignored.
"I said, golden leaf," Erica spat, moving to twist her arm behind her back. Nim felt the pain and saw white for a second. She'd never seen someone move so fast in her life.
"Golden leaf does not have anything to be shared with strangers," Nim replied, emphasizing the last word. "Golden leaf needs proof that messenger is valid."
This was apparently the right thing to say (thank the heavens she memorize the instructions a year ago), because Erica's grip went lax and she reached into her bra to pull out a slip of paper, dangling it inches from Nim's nose. Nim kept one eye on the paper; one eye on the girl.
"I don't understand," she repeated slowly.
"I'm finding that enjoyable, actually," Erica replied, smiling dryly at her. "The paper's yours, golden leaf."
"Why you?" she asked, taking the paper gingerly, careful not to touch the poison spiked nails.
Erica brushed lint off her shirt and shrugged. "No one would guess."
"It's only been a year, though," Nim said under her breath, more to herself than to Erica.
The bell rang and they both looked at the clock.
"Shit, I'm late," Erica said, throwing a look at Nim. Like she asked for this.
Nim's fingers curled around the paper protectively. "Are you actually a high schooler?" she asked, her brain put pieces of information together and she took a step back. Erica was bloody dangerous. "Are you actually the mayor's daughter? Does the mayor even have a daughter?"
"Don't be stupid," Erica shot back, keeping a blank face. Though her eyes shined with annoyance. "Mind your own business."
Mind her own business..? What the… She was asking that now, after revealing herself to be an undercover agent under the government? No. Just, no.
"Jim," she then breathed out, a slightly flutter of her eyelid followed and she tried to think clearly. "What are you doing with Jim?"
Oh? Erica's eyebrows seemed to say, and she didn't bother answering. Just walked off, and Nim couldn't move a muscle. She was surprised when she looked down and found that her hands were shaking. She almost laughed at the sight.
Look at me. I'm not even going anywhere and I'm scared out of my mind. How the hell could I help the anybody in a war? What are they thinking?!
The evening, if she was any quieter or more jittery than she normally was, Jim didn't say anything.
But he did ask her if she was ok when she dropped her second glass of water, and when she replied everything was "just dandy," his eyes followed her sharply out of the kitchen, where he remained sitting on a barstool, the purp in his hand forgotten.
A week later Nim found herself at the post office mailing a letter discreetly. Enclosed she stated she was available to be picked up from a designated location on the night of the first full moon from tomorrow.
Which gave her a rough 30 days until she left everything here for good.
Grimacing, she tried to ignore the image of Jim's face whenever his father was brought up, and instead thought about how at least he'd have Erica's shoulder to cry on.
Which made her skin crawl even more, but she stalked that up to the northern wind.
Which, it only came during winter months.
It was summer right now.