Part 2: The High School Chronicles

Chapter 14

October 24th, 2002

"You don't seem to be handling this well."

"Yeah, no fucking shit, what did you expect?"

"C'mon, you can-"

"It's been a month and a half and he's already forgotten about us, tramping off with Captain Butt-slut and her harem."

"Okay, that's-"

"Like, out of nowhere, she comes up to him and demands attention! Like who the fuck does that! After all the stuff we've done together, he goes off and abandons us. Like what the fuck. I've never abandoned you for someone else, have I?"

"Well, no, but he's not abandoning y-"

"She's literally the worst. How can he not see that. We're his real friends, she just wants him for herself, what a fucking bitch."

Em blinked slowly at me.

"Gosh, tell me how you really feel."

"Like, have you seen how many guys she's banged? She's gotta be a complete swimming pool of STD's and cold sores at this point. Goddamn village bicycle."

"Wow, that's obscene."

"I'm so angry."

"Weiss, it's fine. You haven't been abandoned."

"Yeah? Then explain where the fuck Jaune is."

Emmy put her face in her hands, nearly jabbing herself in the eye with her pencil. Lucky for us, the library was quiet at lunch time, since I was making quite a lot of a scene.

"Can you please stop."

"No. I hate that girl, and I hate Jaune for leaving us for her."

"He just said that he was asked to have lunch with her, come on, Weiss. Don't fuckin' overreact so much. Besides, they could be talking about something to do with Port's class, seeing as that's the only one we don't have with him, c'mon."

"I can bet you a thousand dollars that they're doing something that's not studying."

"What, like fucking?" she joked. How dare she. "I highly doubt that."

I pouted and slammed my textbook shut and threw it at the table.

"They could be."

"They're not! You freaking little psycho!"

"I'm not a psycho, she is! She took Jaune away from us and that's unforgivable. She's a slut, he shouldn't be hanging out with her anyways."

Emmy just chuckled at me. I seethed back.

"Fuckin 'Captain Butt-Slut', you maniac."

"It's true!" I yelled. And received a shushing from the librarian. So I gave her the Evil Eye.

Perhaps I should explain my actions. In the last little while, our beloved friend Jaune had accidentally by no known effort of his own caught the attention of a girl in our grade. By the name of Blair, who I didn't like. She had history class with Jaune, and unfortunately that meant she had seventy minutes of uninterrupted contact with him, and due to his unfortunately stupid and charming attitude towards everyone, she'd decided she wanted to give him a shot. And since he couldn't ever say no to anyone…

...He'd found himself a girlfriend.

"I'm so frustrated."

"Honey, you're being stupid."

"Why doesn't he come to the library with us?! Doesn't he care anymore?"

"I'm sure he cares, dumbass. Besides, I don't mind that my boyfriend doesn't spend every waking second with me, and I'm perfectly comfortable not spending lunch hour with him."

I lolled my head back over the arm of the couch and glared at her upside down.

"Number one, you don't have a boyfriend, and number two, Jaune's not my boyfriend, he's my best friend. The constituents of being as such include coming to the library every day and hanging out! Like you do!"

"Excuse you, Andrew is absolutely my boyfriend."

"When was the last time you went on a date with him, Loser."

"Well… what do you classify as a date?"

"I 'unno, dinner and a movie? Romantic walk in the park?"

I watched a sly smile cross her face. Her mind was always formulating, and I was literally never prepared for it.

"Uh huh, didn't you do exactly that with Jaune last Sunday?"

My face went red. I struggled to roll over and sputtered out a response.

"Yeah, but…. that's different!"

"Explain." She glared back over the top of her notebook.

"It is! We all do that, don't we? I've taken you to the movies, haven't I?"

Em picked up her travel mug and took a sip of coffee. Still can't believe she can tolerate the taste of black coffee, but to each her own.

"Can't help but notice you always take Jaune places without your sister, though. Just sayin'."

"Yeah, well…" I sputtered for a moment. "I bet Andrew hasn't even asked you out yet!"

She glared at me over the top of her cup. "He will. Soon enough."

"Oh, so you guys aren't even dating?! And you have the gall to question me?!"

"Look, I bet they haven't even held hands, dumbass. You're making a big deal out of nothing."

"Don't change the subject!"

"No, you don't change the subject! Their 'relationship' is barely started, you don't have to go all Spanish Inquisition because she bothered to ask him to expend a little bit of his attention on her! And if you're so upset about it, tell me why you never asked him out!"

"This isn't about me wanting to date him, that's gross!"

Emmy crossed her arms at me. "Really? Because it kinda seems that way."

"He's my best friend, and that cunt muffin thinks she can take him away from me, and that's not okay. I'm not having that. Jaune belongs here at my side, letting me bother him and letting me take all of his attention. Not some slut from history class."

I paused to seeth for a moment. Jaune having a girlfriend was not okay. That meant he would be spending less time with me, his best friend. And how Emmy couldn't understand this, I would never know. Jaune didn't deserve the pain and suffering that dating entailed. The heartbreak, the sorrow. He deserved the calm, bubbly friendship that came with hanging out with me, goddamnit! I'd have this bitch's head if it wasn't against school policy to attack your schoolmates.

"Wow you're… really bent out of shape about this, aren't you?"

"Seven years, Emerald. I've known him for seven years. That's half of our lives. She's known him for a month and a half and thinks she has claim to him? Bullshit."

"He's not abandoning you. Look, I'll call him."

"Em, don't-" I reached over the arm of the couch and swatted her phone out of her hand and into her lap. "I'll talk to him later."

"But why? You seem upset by this now. Why not deal with it now?"

I slung my arm over my eyes, darkening the world to me.

"Because I don't wanna go talk to Blair, she's mean."

"Pfft, no she's not. At least, not compared to the verbal mutilation you seem so fuckin' fond of."

"I'm angry. Let me have this."

"What if I go with you? Provide some moral support?"

"I'd be afraid you'd get caught in the crossfire."

She chuckled. The nerve.

"What, are you planning some kind of old-timey gunfight with six-shooters or something? Bit of banjo music too?"

"Take this seriously, Emerald."

"You take this seriously. You're overreacting."

"I'm not."

"Tell ya what. Give it a week. See how this develops. If it turns out she's after ill-gotten gains, then you may throw down. Until then, don't fuckin' assume shit like they're eloping, you crazy person."

"Yeah, but by Friday they could be."

"I guarantee Jaune isn't the kind of guy to to that."

"It could happen. She's a snake, Emerald. And she's got him all coiled up in her greasy body."

"You're a fuckin' maniac."

"Bite me."

/.../

So I let a week go by. It was hard, but I managed. Watching that lecherous girl fawn over him from afar. But by Wednesday, I started to realize that I might be overthinking things. I was far too harsh for what it was worth. I should be happy. Jaune's always had a hard time making friends, especially with that adorable Parisian accent and his highlighter-bright blond hair. Kinda sticks out. Makes social interaction hard. I had started to notice that my suspicions of Blair actions weren't exactly unfounded, with the way she would stare at him from the end of the hall, the way she'd brush her hair behind her ear and look at the ground whenever he'd say hi to Her. I unfortunately had a front row seat to all of this, as I still made an effort to see and talk to Jaune between classes.

Emmy had promised to run reconnaissance for me, using her supreme powers of communication and the knowledge of what's 'cool' to infiltrate any and all social circles and cliques within the school, and had discovered the depth and density of Blair's infatuation with my best friend. According to Blair's version of Emmy, she was determined to have him ask her on a date for the weekend, but not anything super serious like to a wedding or for a stroll down the Champs-Élysées or anything extravagant like that. She'd planned no more than a bike ride around Barrhaven, a trip that by my calculations would be no more than an hour and a half. Besides, biking wasn't a date. Jaune and I had gone biking together twice a week like clockwork basically for the last four years. We'd even done the Butch Cassidy scene together in a field near Jaune's place. So you can't fool me into thinking that Bicycle rides are dates.

So by the time Friday lunch period rolled around, I had backed myself into a corner of concern and trepidation, all with a sense of guilt that I was being too mean for mine and anyone else's sake. Well, I had only myself to blame. There was nothing wrong with this poor girl, she was just infatuated. I don't blame her anymore. If anything, it was Jaune's fault for being so damn interesting.

"I'm distraught." I said, sipping my juice box hard enough to collapse it.

"You are always distraught." Emmy flippantly ignored me, skimming through her book as we sat in the noisy cafeteria. "You need to lighten up."

"But what if they are sneaking off to make out? Then what, Emerald? Then what?"

"Then you can say 'I told you so', but my intel says they aren't and I trust my intel."

"Maybe I should confront her. Get closure."

"Maybe, or maybe you should finish your lunch. We have a presentation to finish."

See, this is the point I saw Jaune and Blair enter the cafeteria. Together. Holding hands. This… was an interesting development. But not interesting like the dynamics of falling celestial bodies or like a cool snake in the grass. This was interesting like finding out you'd been betrayed by friendly forces is interesting. Like watching a sand castle you'd spent and entire day constructing get consumed by the sea is interesting. Like how when you spend seven years worming your way into what you thought was the perfect friendship to suddenly realize you were as disposable as a used napkin is interesting.

And wouldn't you know it, that boy was pink in the face.

"Maybe I should confront him."

"Yeah, maybe you should." Emmy finished slowly, eyeing them up and down with disdain.

My glare followed them across the lunch room to the far side, next to the array of windows onto the soccer field. The worst part I could notice from this was the lack of even a passing glance over to myself and Emerald. No wave, no nod, nothing. They sat down together, her clique on one side and her and Jaune on the other, sitting uncomfortably close. I had to clench my hands into fists to stop from throwing something, which very nearly happened as I watched his arm go around her back.

I stood with purpose, whacking the everloving shit out of my knees on the underside of the table, and started to march over. Emmy, bless her, came around to my side of the table and stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Whoa, wait, slow down." Her calming tone did nothing of the sort.

"I must speak to him." my voice came out shaky and slow.

"No, you must use your head." She flicked my forehead. "I can go in first, mingle, figure out the situation. That's what I'm good at."

"But Em-"

"No buts. Besides, I`m a lot more intimidating than you." she did a little flex, slapping herself on the bicep like some kind of weightlifter. "People run in fear when the Iranian Queen is near."

This made me chuckle.

"I like how you still remember that."

"More importantly, I remember a time when Jaune would hang out with us. Let's go solve this, eh?"

"Right."

I straightened my stance and bushed passed Emmy, who pulled in behind me as we crossed the cafeteria. I had to control myself from sprinting over and tackling either one of them and making them beg for a mercy they would not receive. The worst part was that I could hear her weird, piercing hyena laugh all the way over as she no doubt was over emphasizing how funny something he'd said was. I strolled up behind them, carefully preparing a script to lay into them with. Which unfortunately flew out the window the instant I had to watch Blair do the 'elbow in the ribs' thing to him. I cleared my throat.

"Excuse me."

They both turned. To his credit, Jaune seemed pleased to see me.

"Oh, hey Wei-"

"Jaune, shut up." I cut him off, directing a completely fake smile at his companion. "Blair, hi, d'you… mind if I borrow Jaune for a second? I need to talk to him."

She returned what I can only assume was an equally fake smile. Bitch.

"Anything you want to say to my boyfriend, you can say to me too."

Ah, I see. So that was how it was. My eye twitched as I watched Jaune's face have the audacity to flush. I was gonna smack that stupid grin off his face if it was the last thing I do.

"You know what, you're right. I do have something to say to you. Why don't we step out into the hall. Leave this boy alone for a minute."

"And why would I do that?"

God, I hated her whiny voice. It was like a knife being pushed directly into my ear canal, coated in gasoline and burning. Every ounce of me wanted to tell this girl to shut her ugly mouth, but I resisted.

"Bit of girl talk. C'mon, chop chop." I said, snapping my fingers and pointing over my shoulder. "Tout suite."

Somehow, I don't even know, this got through to her, and she spun in place on her seat and got up, shrugging Jaune's arm off her. She diligently followed me out of the cafeteria and into the hallway, Em staying behind for a second to carefully explain that we'd 'just be a moment' and to not worry. I figured Jaune might worry anyways, as that's basically all he does with his spare time.

As soon as we rounded the corner behind the cafeteria I spun in place and came to a rather abrupt halt, making Blair almost run directly into me.

"D'you think it's fun, showing off like you do?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Galavanting around the school, your arms wrapped around Jaune. Do you think that's fun for everyone else?"

"The fuck does 'galavanting' even mean?"

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"Mein gott, ich hasse. It means to wander about seeking pleasure and entertainment. And you'd know this if you spent even a fraction of your time reading a book instead of messing around with every guy you see."

This is the point Em stepped in.

"Hey, hey. Lay off. Be nice, you said you would."

I sighed. "Right, of course. Sorry, you've just gotten on my bad side."

"Why?" Blair sneered at me. "Because I'm showing affection to my boyfriend? And he want to show affection to me, his girlfriend?"

Her pointed use of inflection had grated too far into me. She was very clearly shoving it in my face, and fuck it hurt.

"You're not his girlfriend. You barely know him."

"And you're saying you are? And you do?"

"I could do a lot fucking better than you could."

"Yeah?" she taunted. I resisted the urge to punch. "Well that's too bad, because I got to him first. I didn't realize you could get so jealous, for a Kraut."

Oh, that had done it. I twitched again.

"Excuse me?"

"So why don't you and your little Packie girlfriend wander off and leave me and my Jauney alone now?"

"See, I knew I had a reason to hate you, Blair. Emmy said it was unfair to judge a book by its cover. Well, looky here, the cover says 'bitch' on it."

"You're just jealous." she sneered at me. I could feel the snark in the way she held her body. "You should go back to the little foxhole you crawled out of this morning. I have important things to do with my boyfriend now. So shoo."

"You don't even know a damn thing about him. What's his last name."

"I'm sure I'll find out. Run along."

"What's his favourite album? What's his dog's name? Where did he go to elementary school? What's his favourite video game? What do you actually know about him, and are you prepared to admit you're only doing this to get a rise out of people? Do you actually know anything about any of the people you associate with, or are you just a facade for mummy and daddy to show off at cocktail parties like some kind of prized cow?"

She gasped. Em gasped. I gasped. Had I really just said that? By the look on her face, indeed I had.

"You don't even know anything about me! How dare you!"

"You're right, I don't. But you don't know anything about Jaune, so that puts us on a level playing field." I tried to keep all the venom out of my voice and stay on message, but Blair was intent on making a scene. "You know, if you hadn't been so repulsive in the way you act, I'm sure we could have even been friends."

"I'd never be friends with someone like you."

"I take that back. Perhaps I'll tell Jaune about your escapades from last year. Because I'm sure he'll be happy to hear about what his girlfriend gets up to when her boyfriend is otherwise indisposed."

"What does that even-"

"Do the names Alejandro and Giuseppe De Luca mean anything to you?"

Her face went sheet white. Good. Give in to your hate.

"How would you even know about that?!"

"I have friends on the inside. Now, if Jaune knew that you're like that, dishonest, untrustworthy, two-timing. I'm not sure he'd want to be with you."

"That was a long time ago-"

"That was in April." I paused. "You're not good enough for him."

She was on the verge of tears. Well, so was I, actually, I just hid it better.

"And you are?! You little German bitch-"

she went to move forward at me, an accusatory finger directed straight at my face. Before it had a chance to contact, Emerald had already come around between us and slapped the hand down, stopping Blair from advancing with a well placed hand on her chest.

"Hey, whoa, both of you, stop!"

"Don't touch me with your dirty hands!"

I sneered at Blair, ready to whip into her with as much as I had.

"At least I don't have to resort to placing the privileged girl card."

"Yeah? At least I don't have to use blackmail to get my way!"

"At least-"

"Both of you shut the fuck up!" Emmy commanded, pushing Blair back by her boob, maintaining a fairly protective stance in front of me. Blair advanced again, like a viper ready to strike.

"How dare you touch me, you-"

"Don't." Emmy lashed, with a pointed finger, stopping the girl dead in her tracks. "I've had about enough of this shit. You've already used two race cards, pray you don't use a third. I suddenly understand why Weiss doesn't like you. You're a bad influence for her best friend, and you're just a plain old bad person. But honestly? I could literally not care less what you do with your free time. Just as long as you don't act like a thundercunt around my friend. Got it?"

"I don't have to listen to someone like you."

There was actual fire in Emerald's eyes as she slowly straightened her back. Now, by current standards, she's not particularly a tall girl, but being a lofty five-foot seven in ninth grade made her an absolute beast compared to the rest of us. So suffice to say, Blair shrunk down into herself.

"Oh, I think you do. You need to change your attitude, and you need to change it fast. Or I'll be forced to intervene again. And do you really want someone like me doing that? Huh?"

I don't think Blair had ever been disciplined before, judging by the way she seemed to tear up and go red in the face.

"Now, you're gonna keep on doing what you're doing, and Weiss and I will judge your actions towards our best friend from afar. If you even slip up once, we're going to make life absolutely hell for you, do you understand? I love this boy like my own brother, and I'm sure Weiss feels the same way. If you even hurt a hair on that pretty blond head, you're going so far down you won't even be able to decipher which way's up again."

I was starstruck. Never before had I seen Emerald act so defensively for someone else. This was completely new for me. Where was the snarky, aggressive recluse who only ever hung out with me in our sulking corner? Well, actually, where the aggressive part was was pretty obvious. It was busy tearing a strip into this poor girl.

"Now, step one. Change you fuckin' attitude. Man up. Don't hide behind slang and prejudice ever again. Because God knows Jaune don't like a racist. Ask Zack Marchand for proof of that."

For reference, that was the fool who's face Jaune had rearranged last september.

"We're gonna let you have this, but only if you can prove yourself good enough. No, actually, we won't settle for good enough, you'll have to be the best girlfriend Jaune's ever seen. And if you're not…"

A simple tilt of the head was all it took for Blair to wince back in horror.

"Now, beat it."

And she did, turning around and strutting back to the cafeteria to no doubt tattle on us to Jaune, and make us look like the two worst villains for picking on the pretty little rich girl. As soon as she had rounded the corner, Emmy turned to me, placed both hands on my shoulders, and glared into my face.

"What?"

"You need to work on your anger. That escalated far quicker than it needed to. You didn't have to bring up the De Luca twins incident. Although, at the time, it was funny, it's not funny now. Because now it's just blackmail potential, and we're above that, right?"

I sniffled, wiping my nose on my sleeve.

"Mmm."

"Right?" she squeezed on my shoulder.

"Yes, alright. We're above that."

"If we're really concerned, we can go to Ines and Francois. Let's make sure it doesn't have to come to that, because you and I both know that when your parents tell you not to do something, that's when you do it even more intensely, especially when it comes to dating."

"Yeah, yeah. Hopefully Jaune has more respect for his parents than that, though."

"I was hoping he'd have more respect for us, if I'm honest."

"I can't believe you're letting her get away with this."

"I'm not quite. Remember, I'm your friend on the inside. Getting information is what I'm good at. But I'm also good at spreading it."

"Huh."

"I'm intrinsically believable. Unlike your new best friend's chest, I might add."

I blinked twice at her.

"Excuse me, what?"

Em looked down at the hand she'd used to stop Blair. "Yeah, I got a handful of those a second ago, and let me tell you, they're basically entirely toilet paper."

"No way."

"Very way. That figure is a lie, and now she knows that I know. I don't want to put this image in your head, but if their relationship moves up a few levels, Jaune's in for a nasty surprise."

"Wow, that's rude."

"And what you just did to her isn't?"

"... touche."

"Look, we're gonna work through this. Without blackmail, okay."

I nodded.

"Alright, fine. But the De Luca thing is really abhorrent."

"Ugh, yes, I know. But let's not."

"Seriously! I watched her tongue-punch Gio on the second floor, followed her down a flight of stairs and watched immediately play tonsil hockey with Ally!"

Em laughed.

"Right, and as slutty as that is, we're not gonna get into it. We're gonna let things play out, and we will make our observations and act as necessary."

"Ugh, I just don't want her getting her gross lips all over his face."

"And we're not gonna let her. I certainly don't want to follow that, and I'm sure you feel the same way. She's not right for him." She lightly caressed my cheek with a soft clap. "But we want him to figure that out."

"No, I understand that, but you've seen Jaune around girls. He's really stupid."

"Only when it comes to you, it seems. He'll come around. Besides, I'm pretty sure he's not gonna be kissing her any time soon. She smells like half a pack of menthols."

"Oh, they're gonna break up. Jaune hates people who smoke."

"We'll see."

"I certainly hope so."

At this moment we were rudely interrupted by a particular boy coming around the corner at us, nearly knocking Em into me. She turned, prepared to give him a piece of her mind, only to fluster and babble her way through her thoughts as she went pink in the face. It was Andrew, as it turned out. Suddenly I realized why Emmy wanted so bad for him to be her boyfriend. His mysterious good looks, his perfect, sweeping brown hair, his perfectly ironed cardigan.

"Oh, hey Andrew." she tried to sound composed. I wasn't buying it. "How's it going?"

He swished his hair at her, those piercing green eyes darting over to her. She maintained a very convincing honest smile for as long as she needed to.

"Oh, hey." came out like a soft flutter of feathers as he continued on, not bothering to stop walking, and disappeared around the corner like mist.

Emmy slumped as he left earshot.

"That was Andrew?"

"Uh huh."

"And who was that girl under his arm?"

She sighed. "His girlfriend. Erica."

"Man, high school fucking sucks, doesn't it?"

"I hate this place and everyone in it."

I shrugged.

"Well, if all else fails, we have each other."

"That we do, Weiss. That we do."