Chapter 2: How?!

Before The Letters Went Out, First Day of School

Life after Harriet went to France for college was weird.

Though Jay still sent random memes to Harry, he had stopped coming by the Hook household, and the few times they had unintentionally bumped into each other in town had been awkward and seemingly forced at best. Harry was frustrated and honestly, a bit hurt, but he really couldn't blame Jay. When they had first started dating, Harriet had done the unthinkable and had made the infamous playboy Jay change his ways. If that wasn't telling about how much Jay liked his sister, then Harry didn't know what else could. It would take a while for his friend to get over his sister. Harry just hoped that Jay getting over Harriet didn't mean that he lost the most important person to him outside of his family.

"Um, are you just going to sit there like a zombie, or are you going to drive us to school?" CJ snapped him out of his daze from her place in the passenger seat. "Because I mean, I'm not against cutting school, but could we at least go somewhere fun?"

"Shut up," Harry sighed as he put the car that he used to share with Harriet into drive, tuning CJ out as she complained about how boring 6th grade was going to be. Less than half an hour later, CJ was dropped off at school, and Harry found himself entering the halls of Auradon High.

The halls were filled with people. Teachers making their way to their classes with large coffee-filled thermoses. Students comparing schedules with each other for the umpteenth time. Jay at his locker, making eye contact with Harry when he looked up.

It felt like the world had slowed down when their eyes met, Harry holding his breath, wondering if Harriet breaking up with him meant that Jay didn't want to be friends with Harry any longer. But then Jay flashed him a smile. It wasn't as big as it usually was, but Harry found himself smiling back, feeling a little more confident that maybe, things wouldn't have to change between them.

He was still smiling at Jay, turning to walk backward to keep the other boy in his sight for just a bit longer when he bumped into someone, pushing them into their locker.

"Hey! Watch it!" a familiar voice shrieked.

It took a lot of effort for Harry to not roll his eyes at her attitude and walk away, but Harriet had literally beaten into him to always be a gentleman, even with arrogant brats like Audrey Rose, his ex-best friend who stood before him in all her powder pink glory.

"Sorry, Audrey," Harry sighed, hoping a quick apology would end things quicker.

"Oh, you would be sorry if you got any of that damn fishy smell from that hand me down leather jacket of yours on my new outfit!" Audrey hissed, nose scrunching in distaste.

Harry grinned, ready to let out a cutting retort when a slim arm hung itself off of his left shoulder. "God, Audrey. Let's just be honest, Harry has better style and can whip out a better eyeliner wing than you'll ever be able to dream of, Princess."

Mal, Harry's second-best friend, and Audrey's worst enemy, grinned as Audrey's face squished up in anger before she spun on her heels and angrily stumped away, students quickly moving to the side to get out of her way. "And people call me a dragon-bitch," Mal chuckled, removing her arm from Harry's shoulder before looping it with his.

"Ye do know I could have handled that, right?" Harry essentially pouted as Mal tugged his arm, leading him to their first class.

"And pass up on an opportunity to piss little Miss Priss off?" Mal scoffed. "No way!"

Harry snorted as he tried to hold back laughter. "Don't come complain' to me when the Powder Puff tries to scratch your eyes out with those perfectly manicured nails of hers in your sleep."

Mal snorted tugging on his arm down the hall. "Like she would try. Besides," she paused, looking at him from the corner of her eyes, "didn't you hear? Audrey and Uma split up again over the break so she's been spending more time at her dad's place. Aurora is worried because Audrey won't talk to her and mom is brooding because Aurora is worried, and-"

"And what about you?" Harry asked with a frown, stopping them in the middle of the hall.

Mal's expression was blank before she smirked. Despite Audrey and her mother having moved in with Mal and her mom after Audrey's parent's very public divorce at the start of seventh grade, Mal never really shared much about her actual feelings in regards to her pseudo-step-sister outside of the usual barbs Mal tossed out when Audrey crossed paths with Harry. "I'm just happy that I can take a shower without all the hot water being used up for once," she answered with a smirk before tugging him along once again behind her.

Fine, if she doesn't want to talk about it, Harry thought, I'm not going to force the lass. Glancing over his shoulder and no longer seeing Jay anywhere in sight, Harry sighed. He already had his own drama to worry about.

The beginning of junior year was relatively uneventful save for just how weird and off things felt between Harry and Jay during the first two weeks. They still met up every Tuesday and Thursday for lunch on the bleachers, but conversation felt stilted and slow between them, the once easy dialogue between them gone.

"Ugh," Jay finally threw up his hands one day during their lunch. Harry who had been trying to balance an empty water bottle on his finger startled at the loud noise. "This shouldn't be weird. We're not weird. Just because things between Harriet and me are- are-"

"Sunken like the Titanic?" Harry tried to finish, earning himself a none too gentle punch in the arm.

"Shut up, dummy," Jay said, though his tone had no heat. "As I was saying before, I was so rudely interrupted. Even though things didn't work out between Harriet and me, you're still my best friend," he said so softly. And oh no, that funny feeling like dolphins doing flips on steroids in Harry's stomach started up again like it usually did when big tough Jay showed this rare soft and vulnerable side of himself.

Hoping his cheeks weren't a prominent red, Harry cleared his throat, looking down at where his hand was so close to Jay's on the bleachers. It wouldn't have been the first time they held hands, both boys very comfortable with showing each other physical affection since they were young, even until now. But as Harry sat there with Jay's attention entirely on him, he couldn't help but feel like if he reached out and held Jay's hand, something would fundamentally shift between them. And despite the edgy, devil-may-care personality that Harry attempted to give off, everything felt like it was happening so suddenly, changing quicker than he could keep up with. Couldn't everything just stay the same?

Licking his lips to give him one extra second to compose himself, Harry grinned easily at Jay, throwing an arm around the other boy in a way that only years of casual friendship would allow.

"And you call me the dummy. Of course, I'm still your best friend! Who else do ye think will deal with your annoying arse?"

A snort-like laugh escaped Jay's mouth as he pushed playfully against Harry. "Asshole. Hey, did you catch that new movie last night?"

And just like that, the awkwardness eased. Jay was still healing from his breakup with Harriet, but Harry was just happy to have his friend back. That was enough. Things had changed, like Harriet being on the other side of the world, but despite that, Harry felt like this school year would be just like any other school year. Harriet would find some way to hark him about his math grades. Mal would continue to sneak off campus for her strawberry smoothie fix. Audrey would still be stuck up bitch. And Jay…devilishly handsome Jay would be right by his side for whatever junior year had in store for them.

Harry firmly believed that right up until the next day when Uma Tritaea shoved him against a locker with one hand gripping his collar, a familiar envelope with her name on it, written in his handwriting being shoved into his face with the other.

"You better start explaining what the hell you're up to with sending me this letter, Hook!" she snarled, brown eyes lit with righteous fury.

Blanching, Harry's mind short-circuited. How? Was the only word that went through his mind. How?

Before he could even figure out what to say or even ask her how she had gotten the letter that admittedly was written to her detailing all the embarrassing details of his little seventh-grade crush on her but was never actually meant for her to ever read, he saw Jay walking towards them over Uma's shoulder. Relief bloomed in Harry's chest before cold dread instantly set in. Another familiar letter that Harry instantly knew had Jay's name written on it in his own damning handwriting and that described much more recent details of Harry's crush on him in his hand.

HOW?!

Hours later, alone in his room, Harry would wonder what the hell was going through his head with what he did next. Looking from Jay's almost unreadable expression as he approached closer to Uma's enraged one, Harry didn't think. Just acted.

And that was how he found his lips pressed against a suddenly frozen Uma's for their second kiss, Harry's second kiss he had first been kissed by her in that game of truth or dare back in seventh grade. At that moment, Harry realized two things at that moment: 1.) Uma was going to kill him and 2.)...her lips still tasted like her favorite gummy fish candy.

Hey folks! It's been 3 years since I've updated this story! Wow! Hope you're all doing well.

I'll be 100% honest. I don't know yet if I'll continue this story. This chapter has been in my documents for at least a year and I was and still am not exactly happy with it. I'm also not totally sure exactly where this story will go. Obviously, things will have certain plot points similar to at least the movies (I haven't read the books) but I didn't just want it to be an exact retelling of that story, especially since Harry and Uma are very different from Lara Jean and Peter. So essentially, if this story gets updated, yay! If not...well, it wouldn't be the first time a fanfic was left incomplete.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this!

Until next time...