Note: A little warning that multiple characters in this story misgender Lake.
It was a normal day at school for Jesse and Lake. They finally had a break after one of their classes, which meant Lake could finally spend a little time with Jesse before their next class started.
Spending time with Jesse was the only thing Lake enjoyed doing at school. Everyone else seemed to look down on them for being "that weird metal person". There weren't any clubs or cliques where Lake fit in, and many didn't believe they were even a real person. In fact, the school only reluctantly started considering them a person when they did a DNA test on Lake and found that their DNA was identical to that of a girl from Minnesota named Tulip Olsen. The school's staff still don't know why that's the case, and Lake knew that trying to explain that to them would just make them even more confused.
Jesse, on the other hand, seemed to get along with everyone at school. He knew that he shouldn't let other people take advantage of him, but he couldn't help it. Lake was always quite annoyed that everyone at school considered Jesse a person and liked him but no one at school considered them a person, despite being Jesse's best friend. So when Jesse started talking to another person, which happened quite a bit, they got quite annoyed. In this case, that person was a conventionally attractive white girl with blonde hair.
"Have I seen you before?" said the girl.
"We're both in the same math class" said Jesse.
"No wonder you seem so familiar. I'm River by the way."
"I'm Jesse."
"River?" Lake asked. "That sounds an awful lot like my name, Lake."
"You didn't invent being named after bodies of water, chrome girl" River snarked.
Lake hated that label. They already hated it when they were stuck on the train, but they now hated it even more since they no longer saw themself as a girl.
"I'm not a 'chrome girl'. I'm a person!" Lake shouted. At this point, they were getting really angry.
"Some friend you have there, Jesse."
After hearing that comment, Lake couldn't help but try to punch the girl. But before they could actually do so, one of the teachers called them.
"Lake. To the principal's office, now."
Lake hated going to the principal's office. They ended up there a lot due to their constant outbursts, but they still felt that the reason they ended up there so much was due to the school's staff seeing them as a danger due to being made of metal.
"Lake Cosay, how many times do we have to tell you that you shouldn't try to beat up people" said the principal.
"I can't help it. They don't see me as a person" said Lake.
"It's not like they can fight back. You're literally made of metal."
"That's the problem! They don't see me as a person because I'm made of metal!"
"That still doesn't give you an excuse to hurt people that can't fight back."
"You don't understand! No one else has faced as much discrimination as I have!"
"If you paid attention in history class, you'd know that many people have faced more discrimination than you have. Even today, there are tons of children who live in cages because their parents get deported."
"That still doesn't excuse that person calling me a girl! I'm not a girl!"
"I'm pretty sure you're a girl, since your DNA is exactly like Tulip's."
"I'm not Tulip! I'm my own person!"
Lake continued arguing with the principal, but it was no use. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't convince him that they were a person.
Lake ended up spending the rest of the day in the principal's office due to 'bad behavior'. To make things worse, Jesse had spent that time bonding with River and even decided to go to her house to study with her. That meant Lake had to spend time at Jesse's house without Jesse. While Jesse's parents were more understanding of them than the school's staff after they explained to them why they spent half of their day in the principal's office, they still agreed that it was wrong of Lake to try to punch someone. They ended up spending the rest of the day doing homework on their own, sad that Jesse wasn't there to comfort them.
Over the next couple of weeks, Lake noticed something odd. Jesse was spending less and less time with them and more and more time with River. Lake was looking through the things they had written down, looking for something to keep them entertained while Jesse was gone, when they found Grace's address.
Jesse had previously told Lake that Grace had moved to Arizona because after getting off the train, her parents didn't want her to live with them anymore since she was now eighteen years old. Being very wealthy, the parents gave Grace some money, which was enough to move into a small apartment that was coincidentally fairly close to the Cosays in Arizona. Lake found it weird that Grace would choose to move to Arizona willingly, but at this point they were desperate for someone they could talk to that would listen to them and understand what they went through.
Grace was pleasantly surprised to see Lake when they rang the doorbell in front of their apartment. When they entered the apartment, they were surprised to see origami cranes all over her living room. They also noticed a tank with a turtle in it.
"What's that over there?" asked Lake.
"That's Hazel! Her previous owner couldn't take care of her anymore, so I took her in" said Grace.
"You got a pet turtle and named it after one of the denizens the accompanied you?"
"Exactly! I don't like her as much as the real Hazel, but she's still good company. Why did you decide to visit me, anyway?"
"Jesse has a new girlfriend, and now he's spending more time with her than with me."
"People get romantic partners all the time, that's just part of life."
"Yeah, but I don't think she's a good person. She misgendered me and is very rude. I don't understand why Jesse likes her!"
"Love can be very weird sometimes. I still remember loving Simon until the day he died, and now I don't know why I ever loved him."
"Wait, Simon died?"
Lake just knew Simon as that guy who was mean to them and tried to saddle Alan Dracula while they were in the mall car. She also knew that Simon was pretty young, so it was a shock to them to find out that he died.
"Yeah, a Ghom killed him."
"You don't seem to be too upset over the fact that your boyfriend died."
"I actually was at first, but then I realized that he wasn't going to change like I did. If he survived, then I probably wouldn't have been able to convince the Apex that they should change as well, and they would probably still be trashing cars and wheeling denizens. Now when I think about it, I can't believe I ever loved Simon. But when I first met him, he seemed like such a cute guy."
"I can't believe I feel bad for you, Grace, but it must be awful to lose a friend like that. I was lucky to have a friend with me on the train who not only survived, but took me home with him. Maybe if I talk to him when he gets home, he'll break up with her."
"It's certainly worth a shot."
When Lake got home, they saw that Jesse and River were sitting on the couch together talking to each other.
"Hi, Lake. I didn't expect you to be back here already" said Jesse.
"Jesse, we need to talk" said Lake.
"That's fine with me."
"That was easier than I expected" Lake thought. Lake and Jesse went to the other side of the room where River couldn't hear them.
"Listen, Jesse, you're girlfriend is trash."
"I know."
"You… know? Then why are you dating her?"
"To try to get closer to other people besides you."
"So you don't like me?"
"No, of course I like you. But it was hard for me to defend you when you tried to punch River at school."
"I can't help it!"
"I know you can't help it, but all the people who work at school know that you need to learn how to control these impulses."
"So you don't like me because I can't control myself?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying at all! What I'm saying is that I love you, Lake, but you really need to work on trying to keep yourself under control, even when those other people at school are being jerks to you."
"Then perhaps I should try something different to get my message to you. Jesse, are you going to break up with River?"
"I will" he said confidently.
Unfortunately, River had overheard the conversation and had already left by then.
"Or maybe I'll just explain everything to her at school tomorrow."
"Sounds great to me. Also, if you were wondering where I was, I was talking to Grace. She has a new pet turtle that she named after Hazel."
"That's so cool! I want to meet her!"
"Don't worry about that, Jesse. I have a feeling I'll want to see Grace again very soon."
Author's Note: I originally planned on having this story be much longer, but ended up condensing it into a one-shot once I realized that it worked better that way. This happens to pretty much everything that I make because I tend to make ambitious plans in my head but prefer to write things that get to the main point right away. While this is almost certainly the last we'll see of River, this probably also isn't the last we'll see of Lake and Grace's budding friendship.