go get 'em

“Yeah, that is a killer combination. … literally, if you eat too many of them. But feel free to stop by. Maybe we can trade a little bit, save some money.” Violet nodded as the other girl explained her volunteer history. “I haven’t been too altrustic since I moved here. I guess part of that’s my fault, but I just haven’t felt… connected, you know? But that’s nice. Even if it comes with a nickname.” Violet’s smile grew into a more reassuring one as the girl joked again. She even chuckled, slightly. “It’s my first Christmas here too. I couldn’t tell you where to go or what to do if my life depended on it. – Wait, are we still allowed to make that joke here?”

“I’m in,” she confirmed brightly with a nod of her head, a coffee in exchange for a donut or two seemed like a fair trade if they both ended up with what they wanted and more importantly, Nik’s manager didn’t spot her during the transaction. “What kind of coffee do you drink?” she’d learned that Northlakers tended to be very serious about the types of hot beverages they were willing to consume or alternatively, didn’t care much at all. “Yeah, I really do know,” she agreed, “-I mean, not- I’ve never been like a philanthropist or anything but I get not feeling connected. I don’t know what it is,” she said with a soft sigh trailing her words, hoping she didn’t sound like an asshole. She laughed at the joke whether they were allowed to make it or not and shrugged “I think you get a free pass when you’re volunteering at a fundraiser,” she decided, whether it was true or not.

“Christ, it’s fucking cold out. Game of Thrones wasn’t kidding when they said winter is coming. It’s fucking here and frigid.” He blows into his gloved hands before rubbing them together. “How’s the market treating ya?”

Nik listened to Tristan complaining and a moment later she leaned over the counter at the hot drinks stand to pass the Jock a fresh cup of tea, “How long have you lived in Wisconsin?” she asked skeptically, thinking he’d probably get used to it by now. She had an excuse, she’d already informed her parents that Wisconsin was statistically colder than Illinois, adding to her many reasons why they should move back to Chicago. “It’s going okay, it’s not as busy as I thought it would be,” she admitted with a shrug, “You here by yourself?” Nik’s turn to point out the fact that he was alone.

Rowan picked at a hole in her gloves as she listened to her friend, “Like how early? What time does the Market even open?” It was good to have Nik’s dad around, with everything that had been happening. “That sounds like fun! You get to have hot chocolate all day, right?” The brunette nodded, “Yeah. I’m on the ornament decorating stand. I embarrassed myself by bringing some designs as if I was applying for an actual job. They liked them and thought the whole thing was cute, so I’ll be there.”

“Market starts at eight, I think, I’ve got my alarm set for five so I can go for a run and shower before showing up for my shift,” she explained with a shrug, “I think I’m on for an eight o’clock start, I don’t know who else is working hot drinks” she smiled at Rowan’s enthusiasm and nodded her head, “Caffeine and chocolate, I guess I shouldn’t complain,” she agreed, it was easier to be positive about the whole event with Rowan acting so excited over it. She chuckled at the revelation and pictured it in her head, thinking it was all very endearing, “I’ll have to come and visit on my break- I’m not much of a painter but I guess I could give it a shot. My Mom banned my Dad from putting Chicago Bears ornaments on the tree so maybe I could make one in blue and orange to make up for it- it’s not like she can ban a lovingly handmade gift from her one and only daughter,”

Violet was actually excited about the Holiday Market. It was the first thing she’d heard of so far that wasn’t explicitly all about Christmas. She was more than happy to give up some of her time to sell some sufganiyot… especially considering it gave her a chance to do something closer to her own family’s traditions than that of the rest of town. “I’m going to be there from the very beginning too… so don’t worry, you’ll have company. I’ll be at the sufganiyot stand – the jelly donuts. I’m surprised, though. You’d think that they’d get some people volunteering for the hot drinks that actually work in coffee shops or whatever. But it’s an easy enough gig, right?”

“Jelly donuts? I’ll definitely be paying you a visit, nothing like coffee and a donut,” she chimed with light enthusiasm, trying to get into the festive spirit. “I’ve been working at Friends of Ours for a couple of weeks now- that and the holiday spirit of my Dad made sure I was the first person to get roped into volunteering. They’re still calling me Rookie at the shop but somehow I’m leading the team in at the stall, go figure,” she offered with a shrug, it was less about her being skilled and more about her being available and being young enough to be told what to do without much argument from the Artist. “Any other stalls you can recommend? It’s my first Christmas in Northlake, I want to get the full experience,” whatever that meant, she supposed.

hanna chuckled at that, nik was the only person she knew that could make coffee, at least out of students. “ have they got you set up with a machine and everything? or have they just given you a coffee pot and said go nuts? ” she asked, teasing tone to her voice. not that the riley stall was particularly well put together. she nodded as she listened to nik’s tale of eric, though really, she could have been talking about any one of the popular kids and the story would have fit. “ i don’t think eric has ever done anything genuinely nice in his life, at least not without wanting to make himself look better and be able to brag about it which cancels out the nice anyway. ” hanna wasn’t close with them, but from her limited interactions with the popular kids of their school, she had her opinions. “ at least tilly and tristan are honest about being the worst. ” she says, shaking her head for a split second before she realised what she’d said and had to recover. “ sorry, i know you and tristan are like, hanging out of whatever. but he’s really just, the worst. ” fuck it she’d said this much, a deep breath in and she continued “ and honestly, i’m not saying it to be mean, or anything, but he’s just really not a good guy to hang around. he’s best friends with eric for pete’s sake. ”  

“Big coffee machine, it’s actually kind of fancy, I think it was the one the coffee shop used to use before they got an upgrade- or maybe Dairy’s, something like that anyway,” she chimed almost proudly as if it was some feat of her own.

“I know,” she agreed with a nod of her head, gaze dipping for a moment “I know that- it’s just- I don’t know, he’s like...he’s funny and in a weird way I don’t hate being around him when he’s not making fun of me- not properly making fun of me, I mean. He’s always cracking jokes but it’s almost endearing,” she explained, evidently confused by her own words, “-and he’s weird. Like, really weird. I don’t know why I get such a kick out of that- I guess it’s because he’s like this macho popular Jock stereotype but...he’s not...he’s soft and lame and kind of a dork,” she sighed heavily, “-but I don’t know if we’re going to be hanging out much anymore, anyway, so maybe it’s non-issue. He asked me out on a date and I think I might have totally wrecked him,” she wrinkled her nose, “For the record, I was trying to be kind about it, it just came out in a sort of...savage way. I told him there was somebody else and then told him there wasn’t and then told him he wasn’t my type and then made him drive me home so,” she clicked her tongue, cringing at her own words and how awfully the whole scene had played out for both parties. 

“your dad’s a genius, dude. it’ll be early and cold so the first place people are going to is the stand with hot coffee.”    and by people she means her own father.  “no worries, we’ll run into each other. i will be hustling miniature spider plants to a cart for about three hours bright and early -  and i’ll be wanting to jump off of a bridge for two of those three hours.”

“I’ll be sure to let him know you think so- I mean, Hanna’s already claimed him as her best friend so you’ve got some work to do but I’m sure he’ll appreciate it no less,” she said with a chuckle, tucking her hands into her jacket to keep them warm. “What’s a spider plant? Sounds...spooky?” she wasn’t exactly sure on her words but they were sufficient, she supposed, “If you roll by me, I’ll save a latte for you- or a mulled wine depending on how tight security is,” she offered, “If Tilly, Tristan or Eric come anywhere near my stall, I’m going to chug it and then maybe join you on that bridge,”

smile spread on her lips again at the correction, a small chuckle leaving her lips again. although not necessary, it was appreciated. “ turns out, old people have a lot of time on their hands. ” hanna noted, with a slight nod, but grin remained. she was proud of her grandparents, finding creative drive in their old age and sharing that with the northlake community even after they’d been so hard done by by that community. she nods at the first explanation, that was a relief, no tristan. “ you’re working hot drinks, i’m guessing. ” she ended with a tone that implied a slight question but she couldn’t imagine it another way. “ but, uh, no, i’m good. on all fronts, thank you. ” she smiled, she was quite particular with what she put in her body. she liked to see things made if she could, and she didn’t have time for that. “ but uh, no good on that front? i heard you and eric got put together on that group project, has he accepted that you’re smarter than him yet? ” she asked, trying to keep it light as she continued to tip toe around the tristan situation.

“Who’d have thought,” she chimed lightly though she definitely knew it to be true given the number of geriatrics who parked themselves in the coffee shop from open until close some days. She nodded her head to confirm the fact, “They wanted somebody experienced in making coffee,” she explained with a shrug, “I told them I didn’t know anybody,” she joked at her own expense, she was perhaps one of the more qualified of her peers but she was no expert barista just yet. “Cool,” she agreed, perhaps Hanna didn’t like coffee or tea or perhaps she wasn’t thirsty, it was hard to say but it was a sharp reminder that Nik knew far, far too little about the other girl despite how deeply she cared what Hanna thought of her. She laughed humorlessly and rolled her eyes to the ceiling of the gym, “Forced,” she corrected with a cringe, “He’s seriously the worst- like he can’t have a single conversation without being obnoxious. He called me crazy the other day, he said I had a tendency to go crazy and yell at him when he tries to be nice. It must be so nice to be a guy like that and think that everybody around you is either stupid because they’re not you or crazy because they don’t like you,”

“It’s not about you being a girl. It’s about you blatantly overreacting.” Eric huffed out a sigh of frustration at her all too familiar words. “Yup. M-hm. Asshole. Got it.” She wasn’t telling him anything she hadn’t already said. Eric offered her a thumbs up, only barely looking up from the textbook long enough to show the gesture before returning to his scanning of the page before him. “Have you thought of any topics you wanted to research or…?” he asked randomly, changing the subject before they got into another argument without getting any work done. 

“Oh, mature. So mature,” she responded to his thumbs up, the gesture was nothing more than salt in the wound and she was silently cursing whoever it was that partnered her with such an unbearable human being. She huffed out a sigh, willing herself to get through this afternoon without leaving Eric to sort the whole thing out by himself while she did literally anything else to take her mind off of it, “I was thinking we could look at testing for substance abuse in professional sports,” she offered, “We both like sports, we could meet with local teams and administrators and then we could emulate the tests with different substances to show what the whole process looks like,” 

His eyebrows shot up at her willingness to put in more of an effort. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at her words. Of course he wasn’t going to exclude her from doing any work. He would never let her just piggyback off of his efforts. “If you insist.” Eric had to make sure he double -no- triple checked everything after she was done with it though. She may have been improving, but Eric still didn’t trust her. If they had to share a grade, he didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Plus, there was no doubt that she hated him. Who was to say she wasn’t going to make the whole process harder on him on purpose? “I’d offer to help you with that-” he responded, referring to the presentation portion, “-but you tend to go crazy and scream at me when I offer to do something nice so I’ll just stick to whatever task you deemed worthy of this dumb old jock.” Eric pulled out his textbook and began searching for a topic for them to do the project on. 

“Just a suggestion,” she said with a soft sigh, thinking it had been a pretty sound idea but thinking now that no matter what she said, it was going to be challenged. At his next words she raised her eyebrows, “Are you serious?” she couldn’t believe he was bringing this up again, “Why do guys always think that a girl is crazy when they don’t like something she does or something she says? It takes a big, big ego to think like that. You thought you were being nice, you thought it was a nice gesture but you were being an asshole, Eric, you sounded like an asshole and I reacted to you being an asshole,” she didn’t hesitate in her delivery, making it clear that she was confident in her own words, “Just like I’m reacting to you being an asshole now, it doesn’t make me crazy,”

nik’s voice had surprised her. her grandparents had decided to take a break, her grandfather’s knee wasn’t made for this, and hanna thought he was an idiot for insisting that he could man the stall, let along help set it up. “ so, last resort, got it. ” she teased, giving a nod of her head before smile formed and chuckle. “ well there’s all sorts of stuff to organise. i don’t really know how my granny planned on displaying all these paintings, but she dragged them all down here. ” she said, indicating down to the small stacks of painting around her feet. “ what are you doing here so early? and who’s we? ” she asked, raising a teasing brow and saying a silent prayer that tristan wasn’t about to pop out from behind her.

Nik wrinkled her nose, making a playfully scrunchy face at Hanna’s observation the moment the other girl had spoken. Yes, that was exactly had it had sounded even if it wasn’t how Nik had meant it, well not exactly anyway. Of course, Hanna’s booth was just about the only booth she could bear to spend more than a few minutes at but saying so might have been worse than calling her the last resort, if only marginally. “Saved the best for last,” she corrected, making an attempt to rectify the connotation, keeping her tone light and her words in jest. “Wow,” was just about all she could say in regard to the number of paintings the Riley family had prepared for the event, Nik wondered if this was a regular thing for the other girl’s family, perhaps they were known for their art displays in town, though nobody had said anything like that since Nik had arrived. “We, me and my manager at FOM -and my step-dad was nominated as some kind of overseer guy thing- I don’t know but anyway, he dragged us down here to make sure everything’s ship-shape,” actually her step-dad had never used the phrase ship shape and neither had Nik but she had lost her way with words as of late, it seemed. “Want me to grab you a coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate? We have non-dairy options, I asked,- and hot apple cider...and mulled wine but I’m saving that for when Tilly and Eric and Tristan and all of those guys get here,”

“You know, I read somewhere that, that isn’t the whole saying. Hold up.” If only to make a point, Eric pulled out his phone and began typing away the familiar part of the phrase on google as he settled in. Before he could finish, the saying in its entirety showed up and he began reading aloud. “‘The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.’ I guess in this situation I’m the mouse so…” Eric stared at his partner for a moment. She really had done nothing. “Um okay… Well, we could start off by splitting up some of the work. I think I should handle the hypothesis, recording numerical data, and we can work on the actual experiment and the forming of a conclusion together. Did you want to be in charge of the presentation itself?” She was the artist after all.

Nik rolled her eyes and scoffed at Eric’s argument, “That’s not the saying, that’s just what people say to the early bird instead of worrying about being on time,” she insisted, already feeling as if their afternoon meeting was going to be a struggle from this point onward.  “ Okay, so, I think we should both do the hypothesis so that we both know what we’re doing, we should both record data and then compare to eliminate any user errors and then we can split the write up and work on a conclusion together,” she couldn’t help but feel like she was getting the simpleton tasks, anybody could put a powerpoint together after all, “I can do the presentation though, it won’t take long,” she added, throwing him somewhat of a bone since it hadn’t been a terrible idea.

“Nope. Stuck working Saturday, but I’ll still hang out around the place when I can.” Normally, Dax was into all that holiday stuff but lately she’d felt like kind of a third wheel, so she wasn’t actually too bummed about not being able to go. “Does this mean when I see you I’ll be the customer? Role reversal. Let me know if you need to borrow an apron.” Billie was mostly teasing, but on the other hand, those things were kind of handy.

“I’m pretty sure the whole event will get old after an hour or two so I doubt you’re missing much,” she wasn’t sure if that was actually the case but she didn’t want her friend to feel cheated by having to work on Saturday. That said, at least Billie would be getting paid. “Wow, how the tables have turned. I’ll have to sneak you a hot cocoa or a latte to make up for all the fries I owe you. Deal?” she offered with a smile, “I’ll even foot the bill for extra whipped cream if you play bodyguard for me. I’m pretty sure Tilly and Tristan will be lurking around all weekend, I doubt they volunteer for anything aside from voluntarily making everybody else miserable,” it was a little harsh on Tristan but the words rang true for Tilly, if anything, Nik was being generous while she spoke about the Queen Bee.

“Need an extra pair of hands?” Nik asked lightly, wiggling her hands in the air to demonstrate that she, in fact, had two of them on offer as she approached what would eventually be the Riley family’s arts and...assorted memorabilia? stall. “We just finished setting up hot drinks and I’ve been told not to stand around,” she prefaced, “I’m terrified of the Prinz family, there’s a couple of guys arguing at the Dairy’s stall and I’m not going outside in the snow to set up anything so,” she offered, just in case Hanna was deterred by the fact that Nik was intentionally hovering around her instead of minding her own business or finding somebody else to bother.

“You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” he deadpans. He holds the expression on his face for a second before easing his lips into a polite smile to respond to her next words. “I’ll see you at school, West.” It’s a promise. He’s not throwing away all of the fucking time and effort he put into her. He can’t. “Have a good run. Say hi to the parentals for me.” At least he assumes her parents are home with the car out front. Damn, maybe he should’ve taken the offer to go inside. He could’ve made West uncomfortable at a whole new level. He’s surprisingly great with parents.

Nik was pretty sure her heart had momentarily decided to stop beating in her chest when Tristan spoke. A moment later she found her muscles easing and her heart beating at least relatively normally again as she matched his smile and rolled her eyes. “See you,” she said again, delivering a light tap to the roof of the car as she pushed away from it, closed the door behind her and moved around the front of the vehicle to get to her front door, simultaneously digging her keys out of her bag in the process. Despite her efforts to stay stoic, she couldn’t help but steal another glance over her shoulder as she pushed her key into the lock, perhaps just to make sure that Tristan hadn’t broken down into tears yet.

More and more, Tristan feels like the invite to her home is less of an invite and more of something blurted out in the awkwardness of the moment. Which truly: he can’t fault West for. He’s said some embarrassing things since they’ve left the cafe. “I think I’m good. Besides: you need to run, don’t you? Sun’s going down and everything?” He reminds, teasing her somewhat because it’s fucking bright out still. At her words, he’s amused. It’s nice of West to shift power back to his side. He feels that way anyway. He smirks, regarding her for a moment with a tilted head. “Yeah, what’s your name again? Nicole North?” Tristan teases, unable to help the chuckles that slip past his lips. “Yeah, West. Don’t worry about it. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not inhuman and the ability to switch my feelings on and off isn’t something I’m capable of.” A beat. “Yet,” he adds, for humor or whatever the fuck. He feels like it’ll be easier for the both of them if he keeps it light. The ride here was fucking awkward. “I’ll have to wean myself off of you like all bad addictions.”

“Yeah,” Nik confirmed, relieved that for once she was able to say something that was completely true, instead of trying to beat around the bush or outright lie to the Jock. She did need to squeeze in a run before the sun went down or before it got too ominously dark at the very least.  She laughed at his rhetorical question and nodded her head, “East but you were close,” she assured him, playing into the gag though she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering to the night of the Halloween party, outside of the Roberts house when Eric had called out for ‘Nicole’ in the dark. “Okay, cool,” it wasn’t exactly cool to be perfectly fair, maybe it would have been easier on Tristan if he could just switch his feelings off but regardless it made things easier for Nik and she was relieved by that fact if nothing else. She grabbed her bag and unbuckled her seatbelt, another soft laugh passing her lips, “I’m not that bad am I?” she joked in an effort to dodge the fact that he’d just called her an addiction of any type at all as she climbed out of the passenger side door and leaned into the car to say her goodbyes, “See you at school,” she echoed her own words, offering a small, unsure smile at the male. 

Eric stumbled into the room, adjusting his coat and huffing slightly as he did so. “Sorry I’m late, but you know the Queen lady in the movie my mom forced us to watch over the weekend always said that she wasn’t late, everyone else was simply early so… What’d I miss?” 

“Early bird gets the worm, so” Nik retorted with a shrug of her shoulders, thinking it was better to be early than late, particularly if it meant she got to hold it against Eric for the remainder of their study sessions. “I haven’t really done anything yet, I cleaned the whiteboard so we can use it to workshop some ideas for our presentation, made sure my water bottle was filled,” she held up the water bottle in her hand and gave it a little wiggle with another shrug trailing her words, she didn’t want to be one of those group assignment partners that totally took control of everything.