Chapter 3
Veronica tried valiantly to avoid the scrutiny of her cousin's gaze, but it was to no avail. Janis wouldn't let it go.
"Ron. You've been acting all shifty all day. What the hell's up?"
"Nothing!" Veronica tried, sounding as exasperated as she could. Janis responded with a quirk of her eyebrows and an expression that could melt granite.
"Ugh. " She finally relented. "Fine, fine, basically I let Duke use my pen for the day cuz she forgot hers." She said it all quickly in basically one breath, before meeting Janis's gaze with "Happy now?"
Janis frowned slightly. "That's what's been on your mind the whole day? Lending a pen to some chav?"
"H-hey, she's not that bad, actually!" Veronica hurriedly defended for who-the-fuck-knows-why, waving her hands frantically.
"O-k." Jan rolled her eyes disbelievingly.
"She's really not!" She elaborated, "She's actually pretty cool, like- did you know she reads divergent?"
The other girl actually looked pretty surprised at this, "She does?"
"Yeah!"
"...Cool. I guess."
Veronica could understand why Janis was so reluctant to believe that one of 'those people' was actually bearable- she'd been friends with one of them in Primary school, and the girl had abandoned her to be 'popular'. Then it happened again with this new girl who joined in year 10 - abandoned again.
But I mean, at least Cady (the one who'd joined in Y10) had tried to get better, and they were trying to rekindle their friendship.
Regina George wasn't.
She was still as bitchy as ever, and Janis still had an absolute hate boner for her.
It was an honest-to-god obsession, and honestly, Veronica was actually tired of hearing about Regina this and Regina that.
An awkward silence sunk down the hallway as they walked, and Veronica found herself thinking about what exactly awaited her in Form.
They finally got to the door of their Form room, Veronica recoiled slightly at the sheer noise outside the door.
Yep, lined up outside their Form room was their entire Form, talking at a volume that actively pierced the ears of everyone unfortunate enough to walk through their corridors.
The main group talking?
You can pretty much guess who it was:
Heather Chandler, Heather Mcnamara and...Heather Duke.
Heather Duke, who currently had Veronica's pen in her blazer.
Heather Duke, who was making the least noise out of the trio, choosing to impassively observe instead.
Heather Duke, who wasn't really paying attention to the conversation, and was scanning the corridor, seemingly looking for someone...
Heather Duke, who was staring directly at her, and was pushing off her place leaning against the wall to approach her-
"Hey." Duke greeted, hand outstretched with the pen resting in her palm like a peace offering.
"Uh. Hi." Veronica managed to speak, despite the glare pointed at her by Chandler, who was swinging her red lanyard like she wanted to strangle the girl with it.
"Um. Here's your pen, thanks again for letting me use it." Duke muttered, clearly wanting to get this conversation over with.
"Thanks!" Veronica took the pen, offering the shorter girl a small, but genuine, smile.
Duke seemed to recoil at the smile, bringing back her hand like she'd been burned.
'Oh shit, did I do something wrong?' Veronica thought.
Duke was hurrying back to her group, just short of running, so Veronica just shrugged it off and walked to the back of the line, where Janis was waiting.
"Ron." she started dead serious, "You're blushing."
"Wh-" Veronica spluttered, "No the fuck I'm not!"
"Yeah, I'm just messing with ya." Janis smirked, before everyone began to file into the classroom.
"Man I fucking hate you." Veronica muttered as she followed the rest of them into the classroom.