a/n: me: says i won't leave another upload break of two months
me: has not updated in over two months
...
... merry christmas, i guess? also pls don't kill me
but seriously, i hope you enjoy this chapter! what with exams and my play and personal stuff this chapter has been a long time coming, so i hope you all enjoy! also, it's christmas break now so i hopefully will have time to write more. my new year's resolution is to finish this fic so hopefully there'll be a lot of new updates next year!
Peridot nearly forgets about Lapis' blue hair. When she opens the door Monday morning she nearly has a heart attack, and it's the same thing again the next day.
Lapis blushes as Peridot gapes at her for a few seconds.
"Still getting used to it?" her friend asks as they walk along Peridot's driveway.
She nods. Maybe it's just the shock of seeing such a bright colour so early in the mornings.
" … Though it is fun having all the Freshmen stop and stare at me in the mornings."
Peridot zones back in, realising Lapis had been talking the entire time, and made a speedy recovery with a quick nod in reply, hoping it would suffice. The sparkle in Lapis' eyes lets her know that her friend sees right through her, and Peridot gets a shiver down her spine. They really can read each other well. Sometimes it does seem more like she's an open book and Lapis is on the top shelf on the restricted section, under lock and key. No matter how many times she tries to mask her feelings, her friend always sees right through her – and yet, when she tries to do the same, it's like there's an iron wall between them, and there's no way she can see through. And, if she doesn't even know her what her own emotions are, how can she expect to know Lapis'?
"Amethyst seems really pleased as well. She did a good job – hey, maybe she could do your hair next? How about it?"
Peridot pulls a disgusted face. "Ugh, I'd rather not. No thanks."
"Come on, not even green? You'd look good; it'd be all luminous and cool!"
Peridot chuckles. "I don't think that sounds like a good idea," she says. "Beach or boardwalk?"
"Hmm," Lapis thinks. "Boardwalk. I want to get frybits."
"This early in the morning?"
"Mmhmm!"
"You have an iron stomach, my friend," Peridot replies, shaking her head as Lapis happily makes her way along the boardwalk to Beach Citywalk Fries.
Ronaldo is lazily leaning on the counter, his attention solely focused on his phone. That is, until they walk over. He jumps about ten feet in the air when he sees Lapis, and points a shaky finger at her hair.
"Lapis Lazuli Kealoha, don't tell me the mermaids finally got to you as well!" he exclaims.
"Er … what? Why are you using my full name?" Lapis looks around, confused, hoping for someone else to say something.
Peridot rolls her eyes. "We'll take an order of frybits," she says.
Ronaldo nods and backs off, his eyes never leaving Lapis' hair and his expression mesmerised.
"Don't let him take a picture or you'll be all over his blog labelled as the siren of Beach City in the next two minutes," Peridot murmurs as they wait for their food.
Lapis smirks. "Oh no, and then all the twelve people who read it will think I'm a monster!" she exclaims, and they laugh together.
Lapis pays and they make a quick escape from Ronaldo's unwavering (and frankly disturbing) gaze.
"Catch," Lapis says, throwing a frybit in the air. Peridot lunges and catches it in her mouth, biting down with a small smile directed at her friend.
"It tastes greasy as fuck," she complains.
Lapis throws another one in the air. "You're still gonna eat them though."
"That is true," Peridot says, as she does a dramatic spin in order to catch it.
"Show off."
They continue to walk to school, sharing frybits as they go. Even with the stop for food, it still takes them less time to get to school than if they walked on the beach, since Lapis tends to get distracted. Soon they've arrived, and Lapis chucks the paper bag in one of the bins, wiping the back of her mouth with her hand.
"And thus another lowly day in high school begins," Lapis says dramatically shoving her hands in the pockets of her navy blue hoodie. Even though it was mid-April, it was an unusually cold day, and the wind was now whipping Lapis' hair into a storm. With the new colour it looked like waves crashing about, and Peridot could almost see the appeal of dying your hair a strange colour; it suddenly made everything about you seem more mystical.
"What's your first lesson?" Peridot asks as they walk along the corridors to their lockers.
"Biology," Lapis replies with a shudder. "Not looking forward to that one."
Peridot's about to reply when she feels an arm being looped into hers, and hears an obnoxiously loud voice bellowing in her ear.
"Hey Peri!" Amethyst yells with a grin. Although Peridot's small, Amethyst is what some might call tiny, and it's amazing she managed to reach Peridot's ear. Garnet and Pearl are standing behind her as well, smiling and holding hands. Peridot glances at Lapis, and sees that she's staring at the wall just beyond Pearl.
She winces at the nickname. "Not you too," she mutters under her breath.
"Why'd you ditch us on Saturday, man?" Amethyst continues. "The party was just getting started and all."
"I'm not much of a party person."
"Whaaat? You're clearly the life of the party, Peri?" Lapis butts in, and Peridot sends her a death glare. Lapis merely grins at her.
Garnet places a hand on Amethyst shoulder and semi-forcefully drags her off. "Don't harass people," she says in a calm voice.
Amethyst pouts. "You gotta ruin all my fun."
Peridot remembers, then, what Lapis told her on Sunday.
"We'd double-date all the time with Garnet and Amethyst."
She looks at them, at Garnet's hand touching Amethyst's shoulder, at the way they tease each other, and wonders if Pearl knows. She must know, they've been friends for as long as Peridot's known them. She wonders what Pearl thinks about it, and what Amethyst thinks about Pearl and Garnet.
She guesses it must be what Lapis feels every time she sees Pearl. She doesn't know how any of them can stand to be around each other for more than a second. Feelings are just too confusing. She can't even figure out her own ones. All she knows is that she can't stop thinking about what Lapis told her about kissing girls, no matter how much she wants to push it to the back of her mind and forget about it.
The bell rings just in time to pull Peridot out of her own thoughts. The others wave goodbye and Peridot heads off to homeroom, Lapis trailing behind.
"You have history today, right?" Lapis asks.
Peridot groans. Just great.
"Yeah, last lesson, and we're meant to be working on our project after school. We don't even have any real ideas. All I know is that we're doing it on Pandora's Box. I have no idea how I'm gonna survive. I just want to crawl into a hole and ignore everything."
"That's not a very wise life philosophy," Lapis says. "It's more likely that people will just start ignoring you, anyway."
"Tch. Whatever. I just don't want to deal with Jasper today."
"Why not? I thought you too were all buddy-buddy now."
Peridot shrugs. "I guess, but … she's crass and loud and aggressive and invasive and pretty much the exact opposite of me."
Lapis simply raises an eyebrow. "You have no chill, Peridot."
"I have plenty of chill!" Peridot exclaims. "Jasper's the one you should be worrying about."
"Okay, I take that back. Neither of you have any chill. So you should get along perfectly." Lapis smiled at her.
Peridot grimaced. "In theory, yeah."
They reach their rooms and smile at each other, parting ways for the rest of the day.
"It's a pity I have swim practice after school, or I'd come help you guys out. But I'd just feel like a bit of a third wheel between you guys to be honest."
Peridot blinks. Surely Jasper would be the third wheel around her and Lapis? She shakes her head slightly.
"I'm sure everything will be fine!" Lapis says, before going into her room.
Peridot's mood brightens. Maybe Lapis is right. Maybe Jasper will actually be bearable today.
"Yo, Peridottie, I have to ask you something. You gotta know about Lapis' new hair, right? 'Course you do, you're practically joined at the hip. Anyway, so, what's the truth? Does the carpet match the drapes or what? Everyone's dying to know, and I figured you're the most reliable source," Jasper garbles out as she takes her seat next to Peridot, sitting relaxed and drowning the last few sips of a canned energy drink.
"You're disgusting," Peridot mutters.
Jasper crumples up the can and throws it with her eyes closed. It lands straight in the bin and she flashes a smirk at Peridot. "I'm just the voice of the people, my dear."
"You're creepy, that's what you are. Stick with the regular nicknames, please."
Jasper shrugs. "Suit yourself. Anyway, more importantly I have yet another great idea for our project."
"Do go on," Peridot asked, opening her notebook and getting a pen to make it seem like she was about to write something down. In reality, Mr Lewis was walking past and she didn't want him to think they were doing nothing.
Swiftly, he reached down and pulled Jasper's Snapback off her head and placed it down on the desk. "No hats in class, Miss Keeley," he said in a dull voice.
Jasper sighed. "One day I shall not let authority get the better of me."
"God help us when that day comes," Peridot muttered. "Anyway, you had an idea?"
Jasper brightens up. "Yeah! But you're gonna have to wait until we get to my house, it's kind of in need of a visual introduction."
Peridot groans, closing her eyes and thumping her head on the desk in despair. She opens one eye to stare at Jasper with the most withering exasperated glare she can manage. "So once again we're stuck with nothing to do this lesson? That's smart. Really clever of you."
"Nope. You have a PowerPoint to work on, remember? Leave me to worry about everything else, and just do what you do best."
Peridot blinks, propping herself up on her arms slightly. "Was that … a compliment? From Jasper?" she says, a smile beginning to bloom.
Jasper tries to glare at her, but can't keep a straight face. The gentle smile she gives Peridot kind of ruins the whole tough girl image.
Then again, Jasper has just been surprising Peridot more and more lately with how much she didn't fit the image Peridot had in her head of her. The big, rough jock who couldn't give a damn about anyone else … That wasn't really Jasper at all. Jasper was, of course, still rude and prickly, like a crab with a shell to revert into. Confronting her would be like facing a bull head on. But she was also … kind of a dork. Peridot didn't really no how else to describe it. Jasper cried in public after angrily kicking trashcans over. Jasper loved Iron Man and Blondie. She texted like a four year old had gotten hold of her phone, she wore odd socks, and she knew when to make stupid jokes and when to back off and be gentle.
And Peridot found she liked the real Jasper a whole lot more than the Jasper in her head.
"Hold onto that compliment while you can, shortbus, because it's not happening again," Jasper commented, putting her hands behind her head and relaxing, her chair dangerously tipping back and balancing precariously on one leg.
Peridot smirked. There she went again, brushing off her emotions like they didn't mean anything. But Peridot knew better than that. In that way, they were both open books.
"Alright, then," she replied, getting her laptop out her bag, and beginning to work.
It wasn't long before Jasper started to get bored.
"I hope there aren't crappy transitions and animations," she commented.
Peridot stopped what she was doing and sighed, glancing at Jasper out of the corner of her eye. And so it begins, she thought to herself.
"No, Jasper," she replied, mustering up what little patience she had, "there will not be crappy transitions or animations. I'm not in the fourth grade, you know."
"You're short enough to be," Jasper grumbled to herself.
"Ha ha," Peridot laughed, her mind half on what Jasper was saying and half on considering what information to have on the slide and what to put in the notes.
There was silence for a few blissful minutes.
Then Jasper spoke again.
"Will there be GIFs?"
Peridot huffs, blowing a strand of black hair out her face. "Why would there be GIFS? This is a presentation on Ancient Greece!"
Jasper shrugs. "Maybe the Greeks like GIFs."
"Maybe they did," she replies, and she finally thinks she's satisfied Jasper when suddenly she's right next to her, their chairs pulled close together, though Jasper's is a bit behind. She can feel the warmth of her breath on her ear, and hear every little intake of air. It creates goosebumps on her skin and shocks her to her core.
"What design are you gonna use?"
She can practically see the smirk on Jasper's face, even though she's not looking at her. She's frankly scared to look over her shoulder, because she doesn't know how close Jasper's face will be.
In fact, she does know, and that just scares her more.
"E-Elemental," she manages to stutter out, her senses in overdrive.
"That's this one, right?" And Jasper places her hand over Peridot's on the touchpad, clicking on the design. Jesus Christ, she thinks, is Jasper trying to kill her?
"Hmm, the colour's kind of bland, don't you think? How about red?" Jasper muses, her hand still over Peridot's.
Peridot screams internally.
"Red is fine," she gasps out, and finally Jasper's hand leaves hers. She breathes out slightly, and Jasper moves her chair away again.
"Well, that was fun! Now pack up, I wanna get back to my house so you can leave before it's dark."
"How considerate," Peridot mumbles, once again amazed that a History lesson could fly by so quickly just by Jasper being aggravating. Her heart is still beating like a drum in her chest, and she pulls the sleeves of her black jumper down after she's packed her stuff up. She doesn't want to think about what just happened with Jasper. All she knows is that a few days ago she was inexplicably fantasising about feeling Jasper's breath and touch on her body, and now it's just become a reality. That's just what her troubled identity crisis needs to help it along.
In one final act of defiance, Jasper places her Snapback onto her head at an angle, and flips off Mr. Lewis. Luckily his back is turned.
"Up yours, Sir!" Jasper says cheerily, a bit too loudly for Peridot's liking, and she jumps, doing her best to drag Jasper out the classroom, the other girl laughing the entire time.
"You are a menace," she says with a gasp.
Jasper grins at her, feral. "Damn right."
Jasper has a keyring of the arc reactor, Peridot notices. There are two more: a basketball and one of a weird 'Y' inside a 'G' that she assumes is some band logo.
Jasper lets them in the house. "Keep your shoes on and follow me."
Peridot follows her through a small living room, kitchen, and laundry room before opening the back door and leading Peridot out into the garden.
The garden was as narrow and oblong as the rest of the house, and the grass was awkwardly cut, longer in some places than others, as if someone who had no idea how to use a lawnmower was in charge of maintaining it, but still gave it their best shot anyway.
There was an old, rickety-looking shed at the bottom of the garden taking up most of the space, and again Jasper used her keys to unlock it. Her body continued blocking the doorway.
Drama queen, Peridot thought to herself with a smirk.
"This is what I meant by visual introduction."
A small window shone a thin ray of sunlight onto a massive workbench that took up most of the room. And on it, there were boards upon boards of wood, a saw, and the beginnings of what appeared to be a wooden box, in the middle of construction.
She turned to stare at Jasper. The other girl gave a small shrug.
"I didn't take you to be the arts and crafts type," Peridot said, mainly to fill the silence with conversation. Really, she had no idea what to say to this.
"I'm full of surprises."
She walked over to the shelf lining the wall, filled with other small creations, carvings so intricate you couldn't help but stop and stare.
"You make all these yourself?" Peridot asks, turning her head. Jasper has come to stand beside her, looking upon the carvings with pride in her eyes.
"Yep. I work for the carpenter shop in the city. I make most of the furniture for them, and anything else they need, plus custom orders people give me. When I graduate, I'm taking over the shop full-time officially. It won't be anything different from what I do now. I'll just get my own office, and the apartment above it. Plus a cool nametag." Jasper grins at her, and Peridot feels a sudden rush of emotions. What emotion that is, however, she doesn't know. But she can't help her face from stretching into a grin to match Jasper's.
"So, basically, my idea was to make Pandora's Box. Like, a real one. And then we have your presentation in the background, and we say some good shit, and then I'll put some cool stuff inside like whatever the evil spirits were in the myth. And then we can paint it up all fucking nice and bam! We've got our grades."
"Don't forget the hope," Peridot reminds her.
Jasper waves a hand. "Yeah, that too."
Peridot exhales. "You know, this isn't actually a terrible idea."
"You underestimate me, Peri. I'm hurt. Really, I am."
"Sure you are," she says with a chuckle, lightly slapping the side of Jasper's arm.
"Are you sure you want to punch the woman with a glue gun and a saw a couple of feet away from her? Also, I could bench like ten of you." Jasper laughs. Peridot doesn't know why the last line makes her mouth dry.
"Yeah," she simply replies. They stare at each other in silence for a few seconds.
Jasper raises an eyebrow. "So, Pandora's Box?" she asks, rolling up her sleeves.
Peridot nods. "Pandora's Box."
a/n: peridot, honey, ur mouth is dry because ur thirsty, u useless lesbian
woah ok, so a lot of stuff went down in this chapter, usually i like to talk about down here but i feel like a ramble on a bit hahah, idk
but one thing i do want to say is finally the history project returns! i bet you all forget about that lmao. and with more focus on the project this means more jasper! and more jaspidot!
holy shit this chapter was really gay
please leave reviews telling me what you liked, if you have questions i'll answer them as well (as long as it isn't too spoilerific). please just comment my ass is thirsty for praise
(much like peri is thristy for jasper) okay i'm going now bye