"Hey, dork," a gravelly voice grumbled from above and Pearl was brought out of her thoughts and back to reality as she looked up. Pearl had been sitting alone at a table in the cafeteria, trying to ignore the irritating chatter that seemed to swell whenever she tried to focus on thinking. It was one of the three school friends she had been thinking about, Jasper. Jasper was loud, proud and tended to come off as aggressive, she was the only girl on the football team and wrestled in her spare time. She was a jock, basically, minus the straight, cis white boy image. She was also all bark and no bite, behind her bluster was a really loyal, good person who cared deeply for her friends. Along with this, Jasper was a trans girl as well, and she and Pearl had bonded over this and their mutual hatred of the ignorant fuckboys that went to their school.
"Hi Jasper. Uh...what's that?" Pearl asked, suddenly noticing a huge purple bruise that circled one of Jasper's eyes, standing out against her pale stripe of vitiligo that spread across the big girl's eyes and half of her nose.
"Fucking Darryl," Jasper spat the words, pulling up a chair next to Pearl. "He was being a transphobic ass and I let him know."
"So he punched you?" Pearl inquired. She wasn't at all shocked. Jasper got into fights a lot.
"Yeah, but not before I fucking punted him in the dick," Jasper smirked, her golden-brown eyes blazing with pride as she glanced over to the other side of the cafeteria. Pearl followed her eyes and saw a stocky blond boy wincing slightly as he sat, and chuckled despite her disapproval of Jasper's rather immature, violent ways.
Jasper grabbed Pearl's lunchbox and rustled around in it, looking for food that wasn't "some healthy-ass dandelion shit." Before Pearl could snatch her lunch back two more people sat down at her table, in the middle of their usual oddly flirtatious banter.
There was Peridot, short, easily pissed off Peridot who covered curves (that were actually goals, Pearl secretly thought) with baggy shirts and hoodies from various conventions. Peri's hobbies were coding, yelling and yelling even louder. They-Peri was nonbinary and used they/them and she/her pronouns-had gotten into Diamond High after getting the highest score ever on both the math and science exams. This Peridot never let her friends forget.
Peri's yelling was usually, and currently, directed at Lapis Lazuli. Lapis sported a cute pixie cut dyed blue and big, round eyes that made her look incredibly innocent. This was the exact opposite of the truth. Literally the first conversation Pearl had ever had with Lapis involved Lapis being dared to make sexual innuendos about everything in the science lab. Lapis had completed the dare and earned the respect of all the gross boys in the grade. Lapis identified as bigender, shifting between agender and female, and she used she/her pronouns only. Pearl knew this because she, Lapis, Peridot and Jasper had all been the only students to show up at the GSA meetings.
Lapis was, at the moment, poking at Peridot's triangular tuft of fluffy, bleached-blond hair and Peridot was screaming in her nasal voice about Lapis being a clod and Lapis also close to being shipped to Canada and murdered there on Peri's orders. Lapis and Peridot had an...interesting relationship. Everyone kind of shipped them but said nothing because Peridot would kill them if they brought it up. The one time Pearl had mentioned it to Peri, the smaller nerd had blushed furiously and threatened to stab Pearl with a spork.
Lapis and Peridot were in the midst of one of their intense debates about a video game character's merit and Jasper was ranting about Darryl once again when Pearl's phone buzzed. She grabbed her phone, and saw a text from Amethyst.
cute purble:
hey P some shit just went down
cute purble:
my parents found out about u and garnet from some fucking snitch and kinda flipped out
pierogi:
Oh my god, amethyst, what's happening?
Pearl stood up from the table and bolted out of the cafeteria, her heart in her throat. She knew what Ame's parents were like. Both of them were incredibly homophobic and actually thought that Amethyst was straight, somehow, despite their daughter literally nailing a rainbow banner above her bed. Pearl guessed that they simply ignored everything that hinted towards Amethyst's gayness because they wanted so much for it not to be real. However, now they couldn't deny it anymore.
And Pearl didn't know what they would do.
cute purble:
they didn't kick me out dont worry. but theyre saying im confused and i cant see you guys anymore
pierogi
Shit.
Pearl was standing in a locked stall in the girl's bathroom, head spinning. What would they do? Amethyst's parents were really strict, they wouldn't hesitate to watch their daughter 24/7 and never allow her a chance to sneak out. Pearl felt herself getting dizzy and looked down. Her legs felt foreign, like they weren't connected to her body. Symptoms of an upcoming panic attack.
Shit.
She heard the bathroom door swing open and slam against the wall. The next thing Pearl knew, Jasper was stomping over to the stall Pearl was in and pounding her fist against the door.
"Pearl? What the fuck just happened, you just ran in here. Are you okay?"
Pearl opened her mouth to answer but the only noise that came out was a sort of strangled sob. She started shaking and shivers coursed through her body.
"Dude, I'm going to break this door down if you don't open up."
Pearl tried to clear her head of the intense panic and focused on unlocking the door. Finally, she managed to undo the latch and Jasper immediately pushed her way into the stall. The other girl took one look at Pearl and frowned.
"What happened?"
Pearl took a deep breath, trying to form words. "I-I...Amethyst…"
"Sssh, dude," Jasper looked around, trying to figure out how to help her friend. The taller girl apparently reached a decision and suddenly dropped to the tiled bathroom floor, sitting with her legs crossed. "C'mere."
"B-but…" Pearl had no interest in touching the dirty tiles.
"No. Sit on my fucking lap. I'm gonna hug you until you fucking feel better, okay?" Jasper growled, grabbing Pearl's pale arm and pulling the thin girl onto her huge, muscular thighs. Jasper wrapped her big arms around Pearl's bony figure and Pearl pressed herself into the bigger girl's front, sniffling and shaking still.
"You can talk when you feel better, alright?" Jasper said, her voice slightly muffled her face was pressed against Pearl's strawberry-blonde hair.
Pearl managed to nod before she totally broke down, sobbing in Jasper's arms.