A/N: Here is Be Nice to Me in its original, unedited form - as it was posted when I began posting it in August of 2015. I am thankful to this story for helping me to grow as a writer, but I can't say that the mental burnout, the harassment, or the invasion of privacy I've had to endure over it was worth the experience. I never intended to keep this story from those who were genuine fans of my writing, but the few bad apples were overwhelming and I doubt I will ever recover from that.

So why post it now? I can assure you it has nothing to do with the people who years later continue to message me fairly frequently asking for me to send them the story privately. If anything, I would have reuploaded sooner if not for them. Don't get me wrong, I truly appreciate that people have become so invested in something I wrote merely as a coping mechanism. But even after I said I would not post it I continued to receive these messages. It always felt as if those people feel obligated to my story. There was also an incident when I first removed the story where two people tried to obtain it to use as their own personal work - for monetisation - that soured the idea entirely. Of course I know that not everyone messaging me has poor intentions, but it is very hard not to scrutinise every message I receive now. That being said, I am posting this story once again for my own personal and private reasons.

I still plan to finish this story one day, but as I have moved on to other creative endeavours and continue to view this story in a very negative light, and as life itself is currently overwhelming, it will take me some considerable time to get around to finishing it. I will be posting only a few chapters at a time. Thank you for your understanding, for your readership, and for your patience.

Sincerely,

Cyr

Chapter 1 - Bonnie (Originally Published: 7 August 2015)

The colourful autumn leaves crunched underfoot as Bonnie made her way to the large double doors of Whitewater High School. Aeryn walked in stride beside her, short black hair bouncing with every step. Her canvas bag, ornamented with dozens of novelty pins that she and Bonnie had found together, made a distinct clink-ing sound wherever she went. The late September air felt crisp and clean as a cool morning breeze blew over them, marking the end of summer. Bonnie pulled the sleeves of her cream coloured sweater down over her arms to soothe the unsightly goosebumps that had arisen. Faint chattering echoed from within the school as students exchanged greetings and boasted of the adventures they went on during summer vacation. For underclassmen, the first week of school was just the menial start of another year. For Bonnie, it was the last year before the rest of her life. She was excited to put in college applications and finally be done with this town.

As she strolled into the building, she glanced around for anyone she knew. She saw Phoebe Edan and Leslie Peterson standing in front of the auditorium handing out flyers for the drama club, which Bonnie always thought was an accurate name for their little clique. In front of her was the oddball blonde girl that she had seen year after year. They had never shared a class so Bonnie hadn't chanced to learn the girl's name. She recognized several other people from her graduating class, but none of them were people she really talked to. She glanced through the window of the front office in time to see Principal Earle guiding a student and her father into his office. Their backs were turned to her, so she couldn't be sure, but she guessed it was a new student enrolling.

The combination lock opened with a click as Bonnie's deft hands manipulated the dial. After four years with the same locker, she was sure she could do it with her eyes closed. The inside had been decorated with polaroids of her and her friends. Her books were neatly stacked and organized by period and a mug Aeryn had made her for her birthday one year held all her pencils and pens. She pulled out the books for her first two classes as well as a new pair of gym shoes, and shoved them into her worn backpack.

She heard her name being called and looked up to see Finn Mertens walking towards her, his older brother Jake in tow. Finn held out a steaming cardboard cup with a huge smile on his face and Bonnie wondered if the boy had any other emotion besides overwhelmingly happy all the time. She took the proffered cup and thanked him. Jake hadn't said hello yet. He was more interested in something on the other end of the hall. He wasn't very tall, so he stood on tiptoes trying to see over the crowd.

"What are you looking at?" Aeryn asked.

"Did you see who moved back?" Jake directed the question at Bonnie, almost completely drowned out by the bell signifying the beginning of first period. Around them, kids scattered like a wild herd.

"What do you mean 'moved back?'"

Jake pointed over his shoulder to the door of the front office. Standing outside were the two people she saw earlier, only now that she could see their faces she recognized them. It had been only six years, but the man's hair was almost white with age. The girl with him had much longer hair than she did when they were kids, and she dressed differently, but it was unmistakably Marceline. Bonnie's breath caught in her throat. She hadn't seen her best friend in such a long time. She wanted to run up to her and tell her how much she missed her, or say hello, or something.

Aeryn tugged on her arm. "Come on, Bonnie. We're going to be late for class. You can say hi at lunch." She didn't want to wait that long, it had been nearly six years. Bonnie didn't even know what she was going to say to her. Would Marceline even recognize her? Bonnie hadn't changed drastically, but her hair had darkened from light brown to auburn since they were younger. She also hadn't put much effort into looking presentable today and she felt a tinge of embarrassment at that. She let herself be dragged away, suddenly concerned with her appearance. It had been six years, she could wait a few more hours.

Bonnie shifted restlessly in her seat, keeping her eyes trained on the wall clock above the door.

"Ms. Bauers?"

"Here," she muttered. The sudden burst of laughter shook her out of her trance. Her classmates had turned to look at her, some of them cackling obnoxiously. Mr. Glover however, looked unamused.

"Ms. Bauers, I took attendance ten minutes ago. But since you've proven how well you've been paying attention, would you like to come up and solve the problem on the board?"

Bonnie flushed. The problem was just review work, and she understood it well enough not to embarrass herself any more. When she sat back down, there was a folded up piece of paper waiting on her desk.

"Are you okay?" It was in Aeryn's flawless calligraphy.

"I'm fine. Just anxious." Bonnie wrote back. When Mr. Glover turned around to write on the board, she tossed it onto Aeryn's desk. After her friend read it, she gave Bonnie a warm smile and mouthed "It'll be okay."

Bonnie knew she was just saying that to make her feel better, but it worked. It meant a lot coming from Aeryn. She wasn't just someone Bonnie had met from school like Finn or Jake. She had been her friend just as long as Marceline had.

They were eleven when Marceline's father had been killed in a car accident. She had never known her mother, so Marceline was taken into custody by an old family friend, Simon Petrikov. Bonnie always loved when he visited them as kids. Simon was an antiquarian who had traveled all over the world in search of old books and trinkets. He would sometimes bring them back souvenirs from other countries. His travels were once something that Bonnie loved, but when he adopted Marceline that changed. Simon brought his new daughter with him when he traveled, schooling her himself while they were away from Whitewater.

In the first few months after the accident, Marceline called her every day to make up for her absence. She still remembered the way she felt on the first day that Marceline missed a call. Bonnie had waited up all night for the phone to ring, until she eventually passed out. She tried to convince herself that Marceline had gone somewhere where the timezone threw her off, but several days later Marceline called to talk as if nothing happened. There was no explanation for her absence and Bonnie thought it would be tactless if she asked her friend to explain herself. The calls dwindled into nothingness. She would still get postcards after they stopped talking, sometimes with funny anecdotes attached to them, but that too soon faded.

At the end of class, Bonnie shoved her memories to the back of her mind. She jotted down the homework assignment in her planner and put her things in her bookbag. Aeryn waited for her at the door so they could walk as far as the west wing of the school before going their separate ways.

"I do not want to go to gym. I don't even have class with anyone we know so time goes extra slow in there."

"We should trade. I have second period with Leslie Peterson," Bonnie pretended to gag, "but, I bet you'd like to watch Jake lifting weights for an hour." She nudged her friend and received a death stare in return for the comment. Aeryn eventually laughed though, unable to be so serious for too long.

Aeryn said she would see Bonnie after class and disappeared into a sea of teenagers. There were still a few minutes until class started and hers was the first one on the hall, so she took a detour to the restroom.

The restroom smelled as one would expect it to after being seat to hundreds of teenagers with questionable diets. She stared back at herself through a cracked mirror. Graffiti dappled the walls like vulgar freckles around her reflection. Bonnie turned her head to each side to get a good look at herself. She ran her hands through her hair to give her curls some extra volume and checked her teeth for any remnants of this morning's breakfast. I look pretty hot, she decided, and with a wink at herself she was off to her next class.

Bonnie liked her science class, for the most part. Her teacher was lively and didn't mind talking one-on-one if a student didn't understand the lesson. That wasn't really a problem for her though; science was her strong suit. She also liked the alphabetical seating assignment. It meant she sat in the first seat, far away from the vice president of the drama club.

Leslie was probably the meanest girl Bonnie had ever met. She was charismatic and witty, making it easy for people to take her side in an argument - a bad thing, because she was also notoriously two-faced. When they were freshman in high school they had had the same class and Bonnie had thought they were friends. She confided in Leslie, telling her that she had received her first kiss from a guy on the football team who had a girlfriend. By the next day, Bonnie was public enemy number one. Leslie had dropped a huge drama bomb on her, and it took another year for people to leave her alone. By then, Phoebe had started at Whitewater and attentions turned from Bonnie to the exceptional beauty who became president of the drama club in her first year. She and Leslie had become best friends, clicking instantaneously, and Phoebe was the only person exempt from constant bullying. Bonnie didn't know the younger redhead, but because she was friends with Leslie she had to be just as awful.

The professor bumbled into the room five minutes late. His clothes were disheveled and his briefcase had papers sticking out every which way. He was a joke to the other teachers at the school, but the students loved him. Professor Carson clapped his hands together.

"Okay, class. Let's get started, shall we?" He smiled toothily. Every time he smiled his ears pushed his glasses down his face, and he smiled a lot, so he was constantly pushing them back up his nose. "Let's start with a joke. Two chemists walk into a bar. The first one says "I think I'll have an H2O." The second chemist says "I think I'll have an H20 too." and he died. Now, can anyone tell me why that is?"

Bonnie smiled at the bad joke and raised her hand. Before she could be called on, a voice from the back of the room spoke up.

"Because H202 is hydrogen peroxide."

Professor Carson smiled his signature smile again. "Very good, Ms. Peterson!" He wrote the two equations on the board and started explaining the chemical makeup of the substances.

Bonnie turned around in her seat to see Leslie squinting at her. Bonnie just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the board.

Professor Carson went through the lesson with big, boisterous gestures. He was such a theatrical person that it was hard not to get lost in his bad jokes and entertaining metaphors. He finished the discussion early and they were given worksheets to do for homework. He let them have the last twenty minutes to get a head start on it. Bonnie didn't have the focus to look at the homework right now. Her brain was preoccupied with what she was going to say to Marceline. She didn't know if the other girl still considered them to be friends after not talking for so long, but she had to think of something. Everything she came up with was coupled with an underhanded remark about the lapse in calls and letters.

She could hear Principal Earle's shrill voice outside her classroom. His words were muffled by the door between them, but it drew Bonnie's attention nonetheless. Through the narrow window, she could see Marceline nodding at whatever he was saying. She wanted to walk outside the room, just to show her face so Marceline would know that she still existed, but before she could ask for leave to go to the restroom they were gone. Bonnie let out a frustrated sigh, earning a raised eyebrow from the boy sitting next to her. She resigned herself to doing her homework until the bell rang, but she couldn't concentrate. Class ended after what felt like an eternity. She was the first one out the door. There was just one more class before lunch.

She pushed past the people in the halls on her way to the gym, keeping a careful eye out for a familiar face. When she got to the front of the school, the Mertens brothers and Aeryn were standing outside the gym talking.

"Hey Bonnie," Finn said.

She acknowledged him and gave Aeryn a side hug. "Where are you off to now?" Bonnie asked.

"History. I hate my schedule this year. Do you remember last year when you, Jake, and I all had the same schedule?"

"Almost the same. I had a different teacher for science last year," Jake said.

Finn threw his hands up. "I don't know what I'm going to do next year when you guys all graduate!"

"Make some new friends, little bro."

Bonnie and Aeryn laughed at that. Finn was a great guy, but eventually he was going to have to learn to stop relying on his brother so much. The warning bell for third period sounded off and Aeryn said bye to the three of them.

Finn and Jake said bye to Bonnie as well, heading off to the little room at the back of the gym. It was a Tuesday, which meant that the girls ran laps and the boys went off to lift weights. On Fridays they all got to play team sports together. The girl who ran the most laps and the boy who showed the best progress would be used as team captains. Bonnie always made sure to run slower than the fastest person in the room since Jake was the strongest of the boys. That way when Friday rolled around he could pick her for his team.

She changed into the athletic clothes that she kept in her backpack, laced up her shoes, and went out to the floor to start running. It was calming to have to exert herself physically. She didn't have to think about anything, she could just put one foot in front of the next and run. She wasn't really the athletic type, although she could see why people were. She wasn't sure how many laps she made around the gym. Her head was clear and she was determined. With fifteen minutes left in the period, she ran to the showers and scrubbed the sweat off her skin. She applied minimal makeup to her face in the mirror and brushed her hair out. By the time she finished the bell had already rang. She didn't see Finn and Jake when she came out of the ladies' locker room. They had probably already gone to lunch. She decided to change out her things before she met them in the cafeteria.

Bonnie opened her locker and put her gym shoes in the bottom cubby. She exchanged her books from her first two classes with the ones she would need after lunch. When she closed the door, Aeryn was standing there, grinning from ear to ear. Bonnie almost screamed.

"Don't scare me like that. Wait, why are you smiling?"

"Marceline's in my history class."

"Really?! Did you talk to her?" She was jealous that Aeryn got to see her first, and even have a class with her, but she was more excited to hear about Marceline. I wonder what she's like now...

Aeryn wrinkled her nose up, a nervous habit she had. "No, I didn't get the chance to. Ms. Pearl is super strict about not talking during class. To be honest, I don't think Marceline even saw me. She was sitting with Guy and Bongo though."

Bonnie had never spoken to the two, but she knew who they were. She had had a class with Bongo a few years ago. He always slept in class. Every time the teacher tried to wake him up, he'd just go right back to sleep until she eventually stopped bothering him. He was almost inseparable from his best friend Guy, so Bonnie would always see the shorter boy waiting outside the classroom when she left. She knew that Guy was dating a girl named Keila who Marceline was also friends with when they were kids. Her sitting with the two boys meant that Keila had probably spoken to her already, and that stung a little bit. She had a class with Keila, and if she didn't see Marceline before then she would ask Keila to deliver a message for her. She made her way to the lunch room, walking in silence with Aeryn. That was one thing she was thankful for; Aeryn could read Bonnie well enough to know when she just didn't want to talk. They got their food - Aeryn picked grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and chocolate milk; Bonnie got a salad and water - and they sat down at their usual lunch table. Finn and Jake had beaten them there and were already wolfing down their food.

She looked around for Guy, Bongo, or Keila, but they didn't appear to be in the lunch room yet. So, she picked at her salad, half-heartedly joining in on the conversation when it concerned her. By the end of lunch, she had still not seen Marceline or any of her friends. She would have even thought she had mistaken the new girl for her friend if Aeryn hadn't told her they had a class together. She threw away her half-eaten salad and said bye to her friends. They probably watched her go with concern written on their faces. She didn't know. She didn't look back.

She was frustrated. To make matters worse, she was in art class now. Bonnie didn't understand why she was required to take an elective. She wasn't any good at art, but it seemed the easiest so she jotted it down on her class selection sheet the last year. Apparently it was a thought that many before her had also had, because the teacher promptly informed the class on the first day that they were mistaken if they thought it was going to be a cakewalk. With that sort of attitude, they would never pass the class. She sat at the middle table in the back row of the room, staring at her paper with disinterest. They were supposed to be using contour lines to make a self-portrait that they would then paint with only a trichromatic selection of colours. She was faintly aware of one of the front office pawns walking into the room to give the art teacher a note.

"A transfer?"

Bonnie spun her head so fast that she could have given herself whiplash. Next to the office helper was the eccentric blonde girl that she had seen countless times around the school. The art teacher put her hand on the blonde girl's shoulder.

"This is Marybeth. She just-"

The girl whispered something to Mrs. Hannigan.

"I apologize. She would like to be called Bea. Please make her feel welcome." She patted Bea on the back "You may sit wherever you'd like. We're doing a study of contour lines. I'll bring some supplies to you and you can ask someone to help you out."

Bea looked around the room nervously, holding her school books close to her chest. She was short, probably shorter than Finn, and wore a teal and black raglan shirt. Her blue gray eyes made contact with Bonnie's and she smiled. There were two empty seats at Bonnie's table, and she could already tell what the girl was thinking.

Bea plopped down in the seat next to her, setting her notebook down in the far corner of the table. "Hi, I'm Bea." She was so cheerful when she talked, if not a little trepidatious.

"I'm Bonnie. It's nice to meet you."

Mrs. Hannigan set a large piece of paper down in front of Bea and a set of HB pencils. "Bonnie, could you explain to Bea what we're doing?"

When the teacher walked away, Bonnie took her pencil and put it down in the middle of her paper. "Okay, so basically we're supposed to draw a picture of ourselves without picking the pencil up. All the lines are just one really long one. When we get done we're supposed to paint it, but I'm not satisfied with any of my pictures so I'm probably never going to get done," she explained.

Bea was quiet for a moment. She picked up her pencil. "Maybe you're being too critical."

"Have you seen my picture?" Bonnie gestured at the crude representation of herself. It looked like a chewed up wad of bubblegum to her.

"You're not finished yet. Every work of art starts off unsatisfying, but when you give it the love and attention it deserves it becomes something great. Even if you can't see it with your own eyes, there's someone who will see what you do as a masterpiece," Bea said. Her cheerful demeanor was so contagious that Bonnie had to smile. They had just met and already she thought highly of her.

She watched Bea draw for a time before getting up to get enough paint for both of them. "You're really good," she said when she got back.

"Thank you." Bea stopped drawing for a second and gave Bonnie a warm smile. "Art is my passion. I've been drawing since I was three."

"You can really tell. Is that why you got transferred?"

The cheerful look on Bea's face dissipated. She wasn't sure what she said wrong, but Bonnie felt bad. "I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about it."

The other girl wrung her hands together. "It's okay. I'll tell you about it later. Maybe."

Bonnie just pulled one of her hands away and gave it a gentle squeeze. She didn't say anything else. She didn't want to make things worse, but it seemed to help nonetheless.

Eventually her new friend cheered up and they talked quietly amongst themselves as they worked. Before she knew it, the bell had rung. She told Bea to have a good day and slung her bag over her shoulder. History class and still no sign of Marceline - it was time to talk to Keila.

Bonnie ignored the whispers and the glares coming from Leslie and Phoebe as she entered the room. She held her head up high and walked with brisk, determined steps. Keila must have heard her coming, because she looked up and her caramel coloured skin seemed to go white.

Bonnie dropped her bag on the desk in front of her. "Is this seat taken?" Without waiting for a response she sat down. "Good."

Keila's eyes went wide. Her mouth gaped open and she looked like some kind of fish caught in Bonnie's angry headlights. "I guess you heard Marce was back," she finally said.

"Is she avoiding me?" Bonnie squinted at her, daring her to lie.

"What? No! No way. I'm sure she just hasn't even seen you yet."

Part of her was relieved that Marceline hadn't been outright avoiding her. On the other hand though, she hadn't tried very hard to look for her either.

Ms. Pearl tapped a ruler on her desk to get everyone's attention. "Class has begun and there will be no talking." Without missing a beat, she dove into the lesson.

Bonnie quietly tore off a slip of scrap paper. "Can you tell Marceline to meet me somewhere after school?" she wrote, and pretended to stretch so she could drop it on Keila's desk without seeming too suspicious.

Enough time had gone by that Bonnie began to wonder if Keila had even read it yet. Maybe it fell off the desk. There was shuffling behind her and then Keila walked by her desk, dropping the slip of paper off. She gave the teacher a different paper and walked out the door.

Confused, Bonnie opened the note. "Sorry, Bonnie. I won't see Marceline until tomorrow. I have a dentist appointment."

She ripped up the paper, wondering why all the forces of the world were against her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Her eyes burned. Ready to be done with the day, she put her head down and went to sleep. She was so fed up that she even slept through her next class.

Aeryn woke her up at the end of literature. Bonnie didn't want to get up, but she wanted to at least try to look for the ever elusive Marceline. They made a full circle around the school before coming back to their own lockers. They hadn't seen any trace of Marceline or her friends. They hadn't even seen their friends.

"We looked everywhere. She might have already left," Aeryn said.

"I know." Bonnie slammed her locker closed, frustrated with the entire stupid day. She would just have to try again tomorrow. This whole thing was so stupid that she wanted to cry. She wasn't even sure why she was trying. Her best friend had probably moved on with her life.

"Bonnibel? Is that you?" asked an almost familiar voice.

Bonnie spun around and there was Marceline's stupid face and her stupid red flannel and her stupid ripped jeans. Just then everything she wanted to say to her went out of her head and she threw her arms around Marceline's neck. She held on tight and promised herself she would never let go.