Sasha/Raquelle Headcanon
I was just thinking about Sasha (which is rare because I usually focus on Glorbie) and I keep thinking about what would happen if Raquelle existed within Barbieland; like I can see her having this secret connection to Life in the Dreamhouse where her and her friend group still quote and meme it, but Sasha has this quiet relation to Raquelle and that part of her teen attitude comes from seeing herself in her. I headcanon Raquelle as Camila Mendes and Brazilian-American (a little different from LITD canon I know).
She's not of course telling anyone this, and of course when Barbie breaches into the Real World, she dismisses that Raquelle is part of Barbie's world because she's kind of thrown off by everything.
But while her mom and Stereotypical Barbie are trying to fix the other Barbies and stop the Kens, she ends up bumping into Raquelle (who is immune to everything as a not-Barbie) and...she's stopped.
Raquelle in her actual living form (for Barbieland of course) is gorgeous. Her voice is hot and somehow, Raquelle immediately recognizes her. "Ah, hey Sash," she says, and it shifts her entire world and they stop for an hour or two and end up talking about their lives. It's something that throws her off, but she likes it.
But she can only picture herself friendly to Raquelle and does so; she's not her same age, and though she knows the shine between her mom and Barbie, Sasha herself doesn't really think it connects the same way because she's still a teenager. After their one meeting, Sasha returns to the Real World with Gloria, and then later Barbie, and of course they have that inter-dimensional connection which results in them being soulmates who are such U-Haulers it's ridiculous, her dad moves out on good terms, and life happens with Barbie her stepmother and her mother beyond happy.
In her own life, the teenage years happen; she has her first kiss, her first boyfriend (for a day when she realizes she doesn't bend towards men), her first girlfriend and everything that comes with being a high schooler in the 2020s. Her and Jade eventually fall in love, but they realize after prom, when Jade gets accepted to UChicago and she ends up getting a soccer scholarship to her mom's beloved alma mater of USC, that they cannot keep a long-distance relationship and they platonically go their separate ways. Cloe goes with her to USC, but they've never felt anything but friendship for each other, though she with the other three gals are all supportive of each other and have the deepest of bonds.
She gets settled into campus, gets comfortable with her teammates and figures out how to balance both sports and academics along with everything else. She's about two months in when Cloe texts her and asks her to pick up a coffee order at a cart she loves before they meet in the library. Sasha's an energy drink girlie so she's not usually near a coffee cart, but she knows her friend can't survive without a certain type of caffeine.
Sasha steps into line, orders the drink (a big and syrupy sugary iced coffee; even for her Red Bull-chugging self she can not understand the big deal about so much syrup, sugar and caffeine) and talks with the barista about it. "I promise I wouldn't order this for myself," she explains, "I affectionately refer to my friend as Ghostie, that's how much she IS a white girl."
"Yeah, my girl Barbie, she orders all the caf and all the sugar." Sasha pauses as she processes the sound of her mom's name, and then...
"Ken's is worse though, all the milk and sugar, it makes him hyper–" The freshman turns around as the barista makes up her drink. "Hold on, how do you..." Her voice lowers as she looks up, seeing those familiar deep browns and that small nose...and ugggh, she still found herself waking up in a cold sweat when those eyebrows were raised at her in a fantasy.
"¡No me digas!" The second generation Honduramerican throws herself back in shock. "Raquelle?! What the fuck?" The Brazilian former doll indeed throws up an eyebrow, while pushing $15 onto the barrista's counter. "Didn't expect to see me again, filhinho?"
Sasha is flustered. Shit, she's so...ugggh. "What...how are you, I...thank you, the hell, Raq?" she takes the drink placed in her hand with a rushed out thank you as the girl knows she's gone, then Raquelle grasps her boldly by the shoulder to pull her away. She doesn't question it, and they sit down on a bench just a bit away as the beautiful woman settles Sasha down. "Hey, oh, you've grown into yourself," she compliments. "I hope you didn't mind that we met so soon." "So...soon?" Sasha looks away. "Huh, I, uh, um..." Her gaze sticks onto Raquelle. "I..." she points. "No, I...what?"
"That writing prompt in that class, I heard it and I had to talk to Ruth, get here. I'm a senior TA with Dr. de Seixas over in the linguistics department, so my–" "Fuck, it was that poem." Sasha locked into the assignment from two days ago. "I was caring for Moira and then I put that into that work and after I sat down...that was how Mom felt." "It was, you got a doll from the Mattel site for her. I know I'm a bit of an asshole, but that you help sit your roommate's kid and I'm sure she's very grateful for that." "No big deal," Sasha brushes off. "I said I didn't mind kids when dorms were handed out and Tegan created a cute gal; pity about her dad, though."
"Asshole, definitely." Warm brown eyes regarded the other young woman softly as she commented on how Moira's father and family wanted nothing to do with her. "Never wouldn't thought that Barbie would settle down and have a wife."
"And kids?"
"The biggest surprise." Raquelle giggles knowing that she'd have to check in with her longtime frenemy, now six months pregnant through IVF with a girl, one of Gloria's eggs saved from her college days soon to be Sasha's biological sister. "We were always at it in Barbieland but you can't deny her motherly instincts and your mama only helped." She brushed her fingers against Sasha's hand. "An ol' and sassy chip off the ol' block."
"Oh." Sasha shudders, her usual nature to be cool and collected slipping away as she internally felt warm having Raquelle's voice so close to her...along with her lips. "You...you have a...role here? Now? Like Barbie?"
"All human here, mija. Promise. Though like B's age adjusting a few years younger to your mami's when she went through the kitchen I'm a bit more less Miranda Priestley to you, more closer to Olivia Rodrigo. But I'd say I'm much more attainable, my dear little S. Te adora."
Sasha gasps deeply, the feelings so strong for her own ex-doll, she couldn't believe it. "She's gonna freak the fuck out, you know," she asserts. "And dear God, when Barbie–"
"We settled our shit from the Dreamhouse days, I've tempered in old doll age, I promise ya...amorzinha." Raquelle notices Sasha about to spill her friend's coffee. "Let's get this to Cloe, and maybe you can catch me up on a few things...like how you tuck me into bed after Moira finishes her play the same as your mama did with Barbie when you were younger? I always sleep better thinking of you."
This time, Sasha felt the electric connection and her nerve finally return, and she sucked in her lip, rubbing Raquelle's thumb. "So if you know that, you definitely know that–"
"Your 'personal massager' your ex gave you for your last birthday has my name etched onto it and about your explicit self-insert fics about yours truly on your GDrive?" Sasha's personal space is but inches, with the deep russet lip which contrasts well with Roquelle's dark and broad eyebrows, her winged lashes just utterly undoing the usually bitter and sarcastic girl, who had her mom's temperament and looks, but definitely had her father's wariness and sense of humor. "The one where we ended up in the club bathroom was especially...arousing."
With her pulse pounding, Sasha threw caution to the wind. "Definitely need to sooo live that out with you, Raqui." She takes the other woman's hand and pulls her in, and Cloe's latte clatters gracelessly to the ground.
"Sash, shit–"
"Clo can live without her energy boost, I've waited five years to truly know you, mi princesa vanidosa." All rationale thought is lost between the young women as Sasha closes both the dimensional and physical space between them for the first time...
