Thalia wasn't quite sure when it had happened since they'd always been such rivals in everything—even in gym class where both were lacking—so it didn't seem to make sense when she first discovered that Hamish Watson-Holmes was attractive. Her mind could barely process such thoughts since much louder thoughts were drowning them out, thoughts like," he's your enemy, he can't be hot!" So she tried harder in everything she did until she just couldn't take the pressure of succeeding anymore and hid in the locker room of the gym that was no longer in use. No one would think to look for her in there, not Thalia Moran, she was too stuck up to skip class. But here she was, curled up in a ball and trying not to cry.
It was hard to keep her grades up and deal with the other kids' cruel words at the same time; they made fun of her for having two dads, they made fun of her for being a virgin, made fun of her because she wasn't the prettiest girl in school. Sure, she had a big brother that helped when it came to bullies, but Alex couldn't be around all the time. She'd shouldered the taunting for years until a B-minus on her history essay sent her over the edge. She couldn't do it today, she didn't want to be Thalia Moran in that moment, she wanted to be someone normal like the kids that surrounded her every day.
Unfortunately for her, Hamish had the same thoughts that led him to skipping his advanced placement calculus class and heading for the abandoned gym. He'd gotten an even worse grade on his English paper and felt like taking his anger out on the punching bag he had hidden in the locker room.
When he first entered the room, he didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary until he heard a faint sniffle and the sounds of someone crying. His curiosity rising, he tiptoes further into the room and finds his rival curled up in the corner, her history essay crumpled up on the ground beside her, and her eyes red and puffy. His first thought was to taunt the girl—they did hate each other after all—but he didn't feel like it today, so he sat on the cold ground beside her and patted her shoulder awkwardly. She scoots just out of his reach, trying her hardest to stop the tears from falling.
"Bad day," he asks after a moment.
"You could say that," she returns quietly. And while she tried to compose herself, Hamish studied her like he never had before. Sure, he knew she was a girl, but she was also one of the only people in the school that had a thought process similar to Hamish's. Her strawberry blonde hair fell down her back, straight except for a small curl at the ends, her skin was pale like his own, and her eyes were always wide; she wasn't exactly skinny, but she wasn't chunky either, and her fingers were long and slim. She didn't meet the beauty standards set by the teenagers in the school, but he didn't think she was ugly like a lot of the boys and girls said when she outsmarted them in class. "Why are you skipping?"
"Didn't feel like being the smart kid today." She nods, slowly sitting up straighter and looking over at him.
"Me either." And the pair sat like that until Thalia began to shiver, then Hamish scooted over and wrapped his thick coat around her shoulders. That's when it started, the real attraction that went beyond their looks, and Thalia would realize that years down the road when her daughter inquired about it. There were rumors when the fourteen year olds emerged from the gym, their cheeks and noses red from cold, and the pair ignored them as they always had, but this time they did it together and didn't have to shoulder the abuse alone.
This time they had each other to lean on.
