#zip x reader

In retrospect, maybe studying while on break was a good idea. Your math test today wasn't exactly easy or anything. Actually, it's probably the worst one you've faced so far.

You hated calculus so much. You glared at the paper in front of you as if it would burn to ashes if you stared at it harder.

A part of you just wanted to say 'fuck it we ball', but you know how that would end. Teachers in this school weren't the most forgiving for failing a test. You've lost a few friends because of that.

You kind of gave up trying after a while. The mortality rate of this school doesn't give you confidence when trying to make friends.

"You all get half an hour to finish this test, after that, I can grade your tests and pass them around." Mrs. Circle announces, with a bit of sadistic pleasure with that last comment. That shit-eating grin on her face doesn't make you feel much better about any of this.

She grabs her phone and sets a timer. "You may begin~" She sings, pressing the timer on her phone. Everyone shifts their attention to their tests.

You wonder if you could copy off of someones test.

...Maybe not.

You start looking over the test. In truthfulness, it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be once you started getting into it. Of course, you still weren't really getting the correct answers, you don't think, but maybe it'll be enough for you to slip the teacher a crisp five dollar bill to let you off the hook just this once.

Or a box of Oreo's. She liked those.

She took a few of your friends away from you. You didn't really know the rules of this place when you got in last year, and the fact you made it about two months before finding out about what it really was is really lucky, you think.

You tried to help them where you could. But time after time they dropped. Time after time you kept losing people you've told secrets in confidence. You couldn't comprehend it at first, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

...That's what you keep telling yourself, at least.

You felt so empty. Not like, apathetic or anything like that, but just so...

...You felt something hit the back of your head.

You let out a sigh. Just keep your mouth shut, they'll leave you alone at some point. Just grin and bear it.

Another. It falls behind your back between you and your chair. You ignore it.

Another. It gets stuck between the crook of your neck.

Another, it lands on your desk. You brush it aside as you feel your annoyance building up inside you.

It wasn't until the eleventh time it hit you that you finally actually reacted it it by crushing the plane in your hand and tossing it to the side.

...Five more replace it. You figure they'll run out of paper eventually.

"Ten minutes." The teacher named after a alternate name of circular announces. She definitely noticed you getting pelted with paper airplanes, only snickering as a response. As well as the culprits behind you.

Other students noticed, obviously. It's kind of hard to ignore the planes covering the ground around them. It's not like they could say anything though, on account of Mrs. Circles 'no speaking during tests' policy.

She was strict with that. Not with the little group behind you, though. They're her favorites.

You let out a sigh as another hit you. You crumple it into a little ball and toss it behind you in hopes that maybe you hit them in the eye or something.

You don't. The ball just finds it's way back onto your desk.

You uncrumple the ball, ready to write down some very not kind words on it.

...You weren't expecting answers inside the ball. You nearly feel your heart jump as you look at it.

It's a trick, you immediately think. Obviously it's a trick, you know that much. But with you looking over your own answers... You think you were wrong about your previous assessment about it not being that bad.

It was completely polar opposite of what the answers in the ball were. You knew a lot of them were wrong, definitely to the point where you would get a failing grade.

...What the hell, you're going to die either way.

You started erasing your previous answers and putting down the ones on the ball. You write on the ball too, just to make it seem like you're taking notes.

Technically it was no longer a ball, but crumpled up piece of paper that has answers on it doesn't have the same ring to it.

You wondered if Mrs. Circle knew you well enough to know whether or not you actually did that.

Either way, the ten minutes are up and she gets some other poor sap to pass the tests to her.

The voices start up almost immediately after the test is over. Socializing takes place around you while you have nobody to talk to.

You just started doodling randomly on another paper airplane that hand landed by you. This... also had the answers on it. You're pretty sure that if you checked the others, they would also have the answers on it. Whether or not they were different answers is up in the air, you weren't really paying attention to the ones you were putting on your own test.

Eventually, the student that had collected the tests were now passing them around again, with grades. Mrs. Circle seemed strangely upset about something. She was muttering under her breath, though you couldn't really make out what she was saying, but she was darting glares at you.

Probably not a good sign.

Eventually, the student came around to you. Getting a closer look at him now that you actually are paying attention to your surroundings, he seems like he's a newer student.

"Thou hast a shiening reviewe, dear studente!" He says in such a old timey Shakespeare accent that it almost makes you do a double take. "Congratulatones, for thoust great marks!"

You give a awkward smile. "Uh, thanks." You say, giving a thumbs up. Shining marks may be a bit of a stretch though, you think as you look over the paper, which has shining marks on it.

100%.

Your jaw drops.

They actually gave you the right answers?! Other students couldn't even do that if they bargained their souls, so why did they give you the right answers?

Some part of you couldn't process it. You literally stare at your paper as if it was some kind of trick.

"Surprised about something?" A voice catches your attention. You snap your head up to see Mrs. Circle hovering over you, giving the fakest smile you've ever seen.

With out missing a beat, you say, "I just wasn't really thinking that studying over the weekend would get me this accurate of results"

She only lets out a small hum before she walks away to go check over other students.

...That was a fluke, you think. Maybe they guessed and just actually got the same results you did.

Well, maybe not, considering the other papers (that you had quickly gathered and stuffed away) all had the same answers. Maybe that wasn't a fluke.

"Ugh, would you just stop that?!" A female voice yells a few tables next to you. You switch your attention over to the situation where it appears that somehow more paper planes surround a girl that you didn't really catch the name of. Her friends don't look too pleased, either.

The culprits of who also pelted you with the same thing just laughs at their expense. "What, you can't take the pressure of dozens of planes?"

"Not when it's twenty of them in a single minute!" She snaps back.

You didn't get twenty in a single minute, so that little extra 30 seconds was probably just them writing down the answers.

You look over to the group you really didn't want to look at. Most people, including you knew who they were. Oliver, Zip and Edward, the 'bully squad' some called them. You just call them assholes to simplify it.

You just roll your eyes and start packing up your supplies to get ready to go to the next class. The papers you had collected earlier, however now crowds a lot of your bag. You're spending a minute trying to sort that out before you can hear footsteps approaching you.

"A thank you would be nice." A male voice announces. Oliver. In a smug voice. When you look up, you just see him with his arms crossed, looking down at you while you grab your items.

Zip is still over tormenting the other students you still don't know the names of while Edward took notice of what Oliver was doing and started walking over.

"I'm sure it would." You clap back. "If you were anyone else, I probably would have."

He just snickers as Edward joins him, snickering along with him. "What, we can't do a little niceness once in a while?"

"The last time you did something nice for anyone was not showing up to school," You glare at him. "which is why I know you didn't do it out of the kindness of your own heart."

"Your wounds hurt me so." He puts a hand on his chest. "Bold of you, honestly."

"So I've been told." The bell rings (finally) and you don't waste any time getting away from them.

The weird air the hallway has whenever you exit a classroom hits you like water in a dry desert. That whole thing was weird, a part of you thinks it's that weird things bullys do to try and get on your good side just to screw you over in the end. You'd rather not buy into that like you did when you were younger.

You were honestly glad the rest of your classes were electives, you weren't in any rush to go to more school after just getting off the most stressful test of your life.

You exited the school and just sat with your back to the school wall. You took a huge breath. Closer than you would have liked, for sure.

You take out your phone and scroll over to your gallery. It's something you'd like to do to take the edge off, just looking back at better times. You and your friends hanging out at local restaurants, cafe's, or just food trucks.

Going to parks, carnivals (the ones that were local at least) or just doing anything you guys had wanted to.

...And this school took it all away from you. Time after time until the last one dropped.

You hated this place.

"Hey!" A girls voice calls from your side. One that was familiar, and not the good kind of familiar.

You sigh. "If you ask me for a thank you-"

Zip cuts you off. "Blah blah blah, I get it, you're going through a edgy mood today," she mocks, making that stupid hand mocking gesture along with it, "but you can't act like I didn't save your skin back there."

You blink at her, unamused. "You?"

"Yeah, me!" She smiled, jabbing at herself with her thumb. "What, you think the others cares about what happens to you?"

"No," You bluntly reply. "And I know you don't either, so I don't even know why you're trying to get me to give you validation."

Her eye twitches and her smile a bit more forced. "Wow, Oliver was right, you really are acting like a moody teenager."

"I am a moody teenager, are we done here?"

"You have no idea how pathetic you sounded there."

"For the record, I know it wasn't you who had those answers. I've seen your test scores when you actually try." You jab at her, switching the topic before it got too far hot on one side.

You weren't wrong, you don't think. You've had it where Mrs. Thavel got you to pass around tests while Zip was in your class and you've seen her Spanish answers. Not pretty. Somehow enough to not end up on the chopping block.

Her smile doesn't flip. "Yeah, I got Edward to do them."

"Shocker."

"You're so painfully boring." She comments, crossing her arms and raising a brow at you.

You look up at her. "Then why are you talking to me?"

Her smile returns after a brief break. "To watch you squirm."

You blink at her. You don't feel surprised or angry, just done. It's a feeling that can't really be described as anything else.

"I'm glad that's boring for you then." You stick your tongue at her as you get up from your spot.

She scoffs. "You're boring when you act like this instead of yourself." She walks up to you and presses a finger against your chest. "Trying so hard to act like you don't feel anything when I can see it does."

"Just you, huh?" You remark.

She rolls her eyes, her smile never leaving her. It's... weirdly genuine? "Like the others would notice the smaller reactions of some nobody."

Nobody.

"You have no idea how reassuring that is to hear." You say, grabbing your bag. You glance at her, she still has her arms crossed, but now she seems disappointed by something.

...You shouldn't.

You really, really shouldn't. But something inside you just feels like it's too rude not to.

You walk past her, stopping briefly, turning back to her.

"...I don't know why you did it, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't really care why, but," You catch your tongue for a brief moment before sighing quietly. "Thank you. For 'saving' me back there." You quote the 'saving' with your fingers before walking off.

It's when you walk away that Zip finally lets the mask slip.

"...About time." She says, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a phone. Yours, to be exact.

She looks over your phone, which obviously had a password lock. "It'd be so funny if not sad that I was able to get this from them so easily." She remarks under her breath. You hadn't even noticed that she had snatched your mobile device when she was jabbing her finger against your chest.

The immediate password she tries is your birthday. Surprisingly, it works. She lets out a small 'huh' before snooping around your apps.

A fitness app that you never used, which came with the phone. Faceboop, Sandagram, Shivver, surprisingly you never used much of these apps. There are a few family photos you've posted that she gagged at.

There wasn't much meat here at all! Not even blackmail material. It annoyed her. She thought there'd be more here, but it's just junk. It's like you're allergic to technology or something. Bold coming from a pirate wannabe though.

She clicked on your photo gallery, just to see if there was anything she'd missed.

...She didn't hate it when you said thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music class was certainly an experience. You had to present a project where you made your own music piece. Some of them were good, others... meh.

Not exactly your taste in music. A few of them had swears in them, so they immediately got marked down as not graded and they probably failed. You've never seen Mr. Demi actually do anything hostile.

You don't even think he has a mean bone in his body, really.

"O-okay class, that will be all for today." He announces, voice shaking slightly. "And although that was more about elephant anatomy than I ever needed to know, I really enjoyed hearing everyone's pieces! Once the bell rings, you're all dismissed."

Felt almost robotic the way he said those last sentences.

The ring bells to you and classroom out walk.

It takes you a moment to rewire your brain from your funk of just blanking out the entire class, even after you presented your piece.

You walk down the hallways over to your locker. In all honesty, this wasn't the worst school day you've had, if not stressful. Though, you weren't expecting a bailout from the people who occasionally throw people into the toilet for fun.

You go to your locker. You think you're going to go home early, you were already doing well in your history and art, you didn't need to keep up. That was probably your procrastination talking, but whatever. This was just something you weren't willing to deal with today.

You only halfway down the corridor to the exit of the school before your arm gets caught on something.

Or, actually, by someone.

Zip is hugging your arm and burying her face into you. Your immediate response probably should have just been to pull away and just walk away, but the suddenness and absurdity of the situation left you just stunned for a moment.

"What are you doing?" You attempt to pull your arm away, but her grip only gets tighter. She unburdens her face to look at you.

"Bonding, duh~" She answers, reburying her face into your arm as you continuously try to pull away. You visibly cringe as the person who regularly torments people is just hugging you like a sloth to their mother.

You eventually give up trying to pull away after you almost trip over yourself. "Do you mind? I'm trying to leave."

"So soon?" She asks, finally pulling away but holding your hand with an almost iron grip. "But we were having so much fun!"

You can feel your eye twitch. "We've only talked once today."

She rolls her eyes as she just drags you along, not entertaining your response with an answer. You try to pull away, but she just tugs harder. You're sort of lucky nobody else was here to see you getting dragged by someone who you weren't sure how to feel about anymore.

"Seriously, do you mind? I wanted to go home." You start tugging harder to get free, to no avail.

She doesn't look back at you. "I do, actually. We were just starting to get along, and now you want to leave before I get to know you further!"

"All I said was thank you!" You argue back.

"Something you didn't say to either Oliver or Edward, so that automatically makes us friends."

You almost lose your words as she rounds a corner. "T-That is not how that works."

"That how it worked for me." She blissfully replies. "How'd you think I met the others?"

'By being yourself.' you bitterly think to yourself. Regardless, your next stop is history, apparently as that's the door Zip opens and enters with you in tow.

You had given up pulling away at that point, you're already seen by the history teacher, who greets both you and Zip. You catch her glance looking at your hand interlocking Zip's.

You note that neither Oliver nor Edward are here. You think that's good, you didn't need the extra harassment against you. Or, really, anyone else.

Zip and her captive (you) plop down at a few desks at the back of the room where you couldn't really see anything of what Mrs. Emily is writing down. Not that Zip really seemed to care, though. She just pulls out a piece of paper and starts doodling.

You force yourself just to look at what Mrs. Emily is writing down. You have to squint, but you can barely make out that it's supposed to be about the Industrial Revolution. Basically the era where the economy explodes and implodes.

You lay your head on the desk. You've already done this topic a few times in the past, it doesn't really make you excited doing it the fourth time doing it. You repress a sigh as she starts going into depth of the topic.

"Boring~" Zip sings in a hushed tone. You spare a glance at her, where she's still doodling but somewhat listening.

You look down at her paper, trying to take a quick peak at what she's drawing. It's just random doodles, really. Random faces, objects, some characters that you don't recognizes, probably her owns. For what it's worth, they don't look half bad.

You bite your tongue telling her that.

All you can say is 'mhm' to what she comments.

"If we're doing a project, you're doing it." Zip whispers to you, still not looking up from her doodle page. You only huff in response as you switch your gaze back to the board the teacher is writing on. You don't really care, you've already done this topic a few times, chances are you could probably ace it.

The teacher would probably notice the difference between your work and Zip's though. You'd have to figure that out.

Or not. You're not really obligated to bail Zip out. Maybe if you did she'd leave you alone. It wouldn't hurt to try, right.

As it turns out, Zip was somewhat a prophet as Mrs. Emily decided to present a group project. Meaning you and Zip would have to work on it. And like what Zip said earlier, it'd probably be only you working on it.

She pokes at your face with her pencil. "Well would you look at that~" She sings, looking at you with the smuggest look that could rival Oliver's. You barely react as you pull out one of your study books from your book bag.

"Do you know anything about the Industrial Revolution?" You ask. You already know the answer to that question though.

"About as much as the next guy." She replies. You raise a brow at that, looking at her as if you didn't believe her.

She puts both of her hands up in mock surrender. "What, you don't think I got through this whole thing alive by just being fun, do you?"

"Something tells me you got help." You antagonize. She just taps the desk.

"For some of it, sure." She says, gaze switching back down to her doodling page. "Like math and stuff, all the things I couldn't really get the hang of. But you know, I kinda had to actually learn to get through this special case of a school."

You're... actually not sure how to feel about that. For the longest time she felt one-sided that it feels like you're not supposed to be hearing any of that.

You think back to your friends. Well, old friends.

"...Did you ever-" You cut yourself off, shaking your head. "Nevermind."

She blinks at you. "Well now you got me curious. Don't leave a friend hanging!" She leans towards you with fake puppy dog eyes, trying to get something out of you.

"We're not friends, first off," You scoot away from her slightly. "And it's not any of your business."

"Ouch, such a way to treat a friend." She places a hand to her chest. "And here I thought we were bonding."

You stifle a laugh under your breath. "You were fighting ghosts with that one. My friends don't harass other people for fun."

She hums. "Sure they don't." She rolls her eyes playfully. "Say, where are your friends, since you know so much about them."

You flinch.

"C'mon, don't leave me hanging here, I've never seen them before!" She raises her brows at you, motioning with her hand for you to talk.

You don't. You clench your mouth shut as you look away from her.

She places her head on her hand, just staring at you. "Well?"

You still don't talk.

"Come on, don't make me start poking you~" She sings as she pokes your side with her pencil. You swat it away.

You glare at her. "Stop talking." You say threateningly.

"Oooh, scary~" She wiggles her fingers mockingly. "Fine, you win." She says, waving a hand at you as she surprisingly backs down from her provocations.

Silence reigns between the both of you as you finally just start writing down notes from your 'broad history book', as it was called. Mainly on the few parts the mention the industrial revolution. It's not much by itself, more of a jumping off point.

Zip just stares at you while you work. She doesn't really do much other than just look at your answers and doing some mild corrections, mostly with dates.

You glanced at her in mild surprise, wondering how she knew the answers. You see her with your book.

You don't really have the energy to try and fight for it back. You just let it go, you don't really care right this second. You will, but just not this second.

She notices your lack of reaction. "Pff, your no fun."

She digs around in her pocket. "You dropped this by the way."

You glance to what she was holding out to you. You can feel your heart drop as you see your phone in her hands. You quickly snatch it out of hers and check over your phone, quickly putting in your password and checking around to see if she messed with anything important.

"Geez, what's the anxiety about?" She muses, looking at your panicked face.

"What did you mess with?" You immediately question. She waves her hand at you.

"Nothing," She sings. "not for a lack of trying though, I couldn't figure out your stupid password."

You let out a small sigh of relief. "At least there's that."

She tries to snatch the phone out of your hand, failing just short as you react quick enough to shove your phone back in your pocket.

"Aw, come on," She whines, "what kinda juicy secrets do you have~?"

You can feel your heartbeat calming down. "Nonyabuisness." You stick your tongue out at her.

She whines a bit further before finally just giving it up. Way easier than you expected. Way easier than what seemed to be in character for her, considering.

She didn't feel like the type of girl to let something she's really interested in go like that.

You squint at her, but decide not to say anything. She either didn't see or didn't acknowledge your weird look at her as she looks up at the board, seeing more information she'll probably forget. Or not, you weren't really sure anymore given what she told you.

...You probably shouldn't be taking her at face value, she did give you answers from a book she stole from you, after all.

Zip continuously pokes and prods at you for the rest of class. It's not really intense, actually you'd consider it lukewarm at best as the worst that she does is just mildly bug you while you did the beginnings of your projects.

She was surprisingly lighthearted with you. Not really malicious but still... teasing. As if you were really friends. Then again, she seems to think you're her friend despite you telling her off multiple times, so that's par for the course, probably.

Maybe this will keep them off your back.

...No, you know better. This will probably just keep them on your back more. The looks from the other students really don't make you feel secure. Most of them are distaste as Zip continuously talks to you.

You don't like the way they look at you.

Soon enough, the bell rings and everyone begins to pack up.

"Hey," You begin, not looking at Zip as you pack up your stuff. "How'd you know I have this class today anyway?"

She freezes, eye going wide for a moment before she waves her hand dismissively. "I didn't, I just dragged you along with me." She looks at you. You didn't seem to notice her break in character. "So good thing you were supposed to be here, huh?"

"I suppose." You reply as you put the bag on your back and begin to walk out.

"Hey, wait for me!" She complains. Against your better judgement, you do decide to wait for her. You turn towards her, waiting for her to pack up.

She gets up after finally getting everything together. Weirdly longer than you would think, considering the only thing she took out of her bag was paper, but whatever.

She walks up to you. "Thanks." And then she walks past you.

You somewhat follow behind her. Moreso just because the direction of her next class is on the way to the exit. You were still planning on skipping out on school, somewhat.

Your curiosity gets the better of you. "So what's your next class?"

She sighs dramatically. "Music." She seems weirdly annoyed. "Mr. Demi never makes it interesting. I put so many bees in his desk and he never opens it-"

"That was you?" You gape. "The janitor had to go to the hospital because of you!"

"So what?" She shrugs, giving a lopsided smile. "It's funny, even if I wasn't trying to go for the janitor."

"You almost killed him, the dude was allergic to bees."

She looks at you, expression somehow getting brighter. "Really? Nice, I'll keep that in mind for next time~"

You expression shifts, now dejected. "Don't actually, the last thing we need is more corpses piling up."

"O-kay~" She says in a singsong voice. Her expression tells you she's probably not going to not try the killing blow against a poor janitor. You should probably warn them.

...Maybe not, you're not sure how the teachers would react to a unprovoked police response.

Is it weird that you're getting more and more desensitized to everything that's going on.

"Is there a reason you're such a annoying pri-" You bite your tongue. "...Jerk?"

She raises a brow at you. "Cuz it's funny." She looking over your face, trying to find something, though what, you are not sure. "What, you think I'm some misunderstood bumblebee?"

"Even if you were, it doesn't justify anything you do or did." You shrug, trying to be nonchalant. "I dunno, maybe try not being so annoying and maybe people would see you as misunderstoo-..."

You come to a realization. Is that what she's trying to do to you? Make you feel like she's the misunderstood one?

"What's with that weird look on your face?" She raises a brow at you, now out of legitimate confusion.

You shake your head. "It's nothing, nevermind." You say walking past her. It doesn't take her half a second to catch up.

She opens her mouth to say something, but you cut her off. "You almost had me there." You muse bitterly.

"What?" She says, legitimately confused. "You can't just say cryptic shit and expect me to know what you're talking about."

You legitimately chuckle slightly. "Sure I can, my dad does that to me all the time."

"I'm not your dad." She gives you a look.

"No," You say, glancing at her. "But you sure do act like him."

She squints at you. It seems like she wants to say something, but just decides to drop it. "Whatever."

Her gaze flips back to you after a minute. "What about you, what class do you have?"

You adjust your bag. "I'm not sticking around, I'm headed home."

She gives you a bored look. "Seriously, you're still doing that?" She rolls her eyes. "Boo." She gives you a thumbs down.

You brush her off. "Boo for not sticking around for one more hour class, yeah." You look at her, coming to a complete stop. "You gonna try to stop me?"

Zip blinks at you before a smug smile slowly creeps up on her face. "Are you asking for my permission to leave?"

You sputter. "What- no I--"

"You are permitted to leave, servant." She declares, waving a hand at you. "Shoo now, you must return tomorrow, so gain your rest while you still can~"

With that, she walks off, tail swaying side to side behind her. You just give her a mean look while she's not looking and turn the other way to head home.

"Whatever."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What is up with you and that dude?" Edward asks as Zip turns the corner. She flinches slightly before relaxing.

She shrugs. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She responds, walking past the porcupine haired evil scientist. Or engineer, whatever he decided to proclaim himself as.

Edward scoffs. "Sure you don't, you normally decide to attach yourself to random people rather than hang out with your established friends." He jabs at her with his elbow. "If you're going to lie, at least be more creative about it."

"Who's lying?" Zip smiles manically. "Not me~! You just never noticed I did this until now."

Edward just lets out a little 'uh huh' before dropping the subject.

Zip looks around a bit, seeing students talking to each other or making their way to their classes. She notes a lack of Oliver in the group and out of the open.

"Where's Oliver?" Questions Zip, looking at Edward with a mildly curious look.

He only rolls his eyes. "Hanging out with Alice." He sticks out his tongue in disgust. "Walked in on him and her in the middle of a impromptu make-out session."

Zip raises a brow, amused. "And she didn't try to kill you for it?"

"Oh no, she did." Edward chuckles. "Just didn't go through with it after Oliver stopped her."

Zip only lightly chuckles as she pulls out some stuff from her pockets to sort out. It wasn't anything Edward recognized, but it looked... valuable. Not really monetarily valuable, but valuable to someone.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing at a weird picture Zip had pulled out.

She waves him off. "Just some memorabilia from that nerd I was hanging out with earlier." She answers, sorting out more pictures. "They had a lot of them, weirdly enough. Just imagine all of the black mail." She muses, giggling at a particular one.

Edward snickers sinisterly with her. "Oh I can only imagine the look on their face."

Zip pockets the pictures. "So can I."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You flop on your bed, sprawled out.

The exhaustion from today finally hitting you. It's weird how you don't feel anything at one point and then the world crushes you down as soon as you re-enter your safe space.

Today was way too weird for you. The first part of the day was fine, sure. But you shouldn't have really survived that math class. At all, considering all the answers that Zip had given you were right. Well, the answers Edward gave Zip were right, anyway.

Zip was weird today. Well, she's weird everyday, considering what she does for fun, but this one was definitely out there.

...Come to think of it, she's been trying to talk to you more. Some of it subtle, others not so, including today. But this day was the one where she just outright just... forced time with you.

You didn't trust it. You don't think she's tried a get close and stab tactic before, but you didn't want to fall for it. That 'thank you' you gave her earlier is the closest she's going to get from you. Her and her group she hangs out with.

You don't even realize your drifting off to sleep thinking it all over. Before you know it, you're out like a light bulb.

ᜊ. It was Zip's idea to have a sleepover, seeing that it was the weekend with nothing to do, she took the chance and popped the question the moment it came to her mind, which you all agreed to.

ᜊ. The sleepover started off simple, playing video games while screaming at each other, silly games like truth or dare and afterwards settling down for a movie! Horror, to be more specific.

ᜊ. The weather was already bad, or as in Zip's words "it's more fitting for what we're gonna watch". The rain was already light, soon turning into heavy rain with thunder emerging from the dark clouds, if any of you even went outside, you'd definitely be met with the harsh wind.

ᜊ. The movie wasn't bad, it was actually pretty good for a horror movie! Of course, if you ignore Zip's constant talking during the movie, Oliver's comments on how boring it is and Edwards provoking words on you being the first to scream if something scary happens.

ᜊ. Once finally getting to the more "scary" parts, female actors screaming around while the killer was getting more closer to ending either of their lives. It was getting exciting! Until the TV suddenly goes off.

ᜊ. Nothing seemed to work all of the sudden, lights not turning on, the TV not turning on either no matter how many times you press the "on" button. Even your friends have surprisingly gotten uneasy by the blackout, the weather was not even helping at all.

ᜊ. Recommending to go and search for a flashlight (which all three of them reluctantly agreed to), all four of you went to the basement to retrieve the flashlight, with some bickering on the way on who should go get it.

"[Name], C'mon you get it! What do you mean I should get it?! You go!" Zip's voice spoke up, sounding less playful and more nervous on heading down to the basement, even pushing you towards the door to go first.

"Yeah [Name], don't be a wuss about it. Was your idea after all." Oliver was just the same, sounding less like him and more nervous, even Edwards little "exactly!" wasn't helping any of them out either.

ᜊ. The blackout didn't last long anyway, while getting lost in the bickering and shoving on who should go first to get the flashlight, the lights turn back on which stops the bickering from continuing.

ᜊ. Awkwardly, they laughed it off with Edward later on saying on saying that all of you should finish watching the movie and afterwards go to sleep, and you guys did just that.

ᜊ. Your friends behavior was odd to say the least, not once have they reacted so nervous and reluctant to something silly like a blackout, at least you got something to tease them about later on.

both you and zip weren't originally that close before Chip's incident yesterday.

she's starting to show up wherever you go.. with Chip following her from behind of course.

you still don't know about her being part of bully. when you found out about it, the relationship between the two of you started to break down and you started avoiding her… except for Chip, you don't dare to ignore that boy.

when you start avoiding her, that's where Zip starts to get frustrated and asks Oliver for advice because he is the wisest in the group (in her eyes).

He did all the advice oliver gave her! buy flowers for you? you don't like flowers… how about chocolate!? you give it to her brother.

When zip started to get frustrated and ran out of advice, chip instead sitting beside her while nomming the chocolate that was initially given to you but instead Chip got it.

but one day you started approaching her again and that made her happy!

just a happy dino girl with her pretty/handsome partner…

I'm still confused, because someone said she's a devil while others say she's a dino… WHICH ONE IS THE REAL ONE?! — Crysalsx 💎

On top of you unknowingly choosing to partner with Zip, not even realizing that you could have chosen another classmate to do the project with, she is not, by any means, a pleasant partner to work with in a complicated project such as the Industrial Revolution.

In fact, she seemed more interested in poking around things in your room rather than paying attention to whatever you're trying to tell her. Deemed too boring in her eyes, she decided to dig around in your drawers, you cabinets or your computer. (She didn't get too far without your password, which you refused to tell her. Whatever attempt she made before that seemed to have annoyed her.)

"I know you don't care about our project," You start, pinching the bridge of your nose. "But could you at least not dig around my personal belongings while you're here?"

She cackles. "Why? Got something embarrassing here?" She asks, crumpling up paper and throwing it at you.

"You wish." You reply sarcastically. "I'm just not comfortable with you trying to find every little detail about my life just for blackmail." You sigh. "Besides, it's not like you could, you don't have a camera in my head."

Zip's smile never leaves her. "Oooh, good idea! I'll try that next."

You scoff. "Don't you have a little brother to take care of or something? He usually attached to you whenever you're not around the other assholes."

She blinks slowly. "For your information, we're only classified as 'assholes' because you can't find the humor in our pranks."

What humor?

"Second off, Chip's being taken care of by our parents for the day." She puts up two fingers. "God, I should call you wimp or something, you're such a wet towel."

...What does that even mean???

You decide to not entertain that with a response. She either doesn't notice or doesn't care as she continues to snoop around your room. If your parents were home, they'd kick her out immediately.

"Why are you here?" You mutter. It's just barely loud enough for Zip to hear.

"Did you forget already?" She snarks. "We're doing our projects, nerd." She teases, raising a brow at you.

You roll your eyes. "Which you don't seem to be doing."

She snickers. "Whaddya mean, wimp? I'm being extremely helpful.

You don't respond to her.

"Wimp~?" She repeated. "C'mon, don't ignore me."

You continue not to respond to her, keeping your eyes on the paper in front of you.

"Ugh, fine," She says your name. You finally perk up.

"About time you used my real name." You say, scratching your arm. Come to think of it, did you ever tell her your name?

Maybe you did and you just didn't remember it. Or maybe she figured it out off of someone else, who knows.

You tap your finger against your desk. "...Seriously though, are you going to contribute at all, or just snoop around my stuff."

She blinks at you, slowly before sighing dramatically, rolling her eyes. "Fine, what do you need."

You can feel your eye twitch, but you won't refuse any actual help. "Could you grab me my notebook from on top of the kitchen counter, I forgot I left it down there."

She simply gives you a thumbs up before walking out of the room.

You sigh. Honestly, you should have known better than to allow her to do that by herself. Well, it's not like she can really do anything bad to you, per' se. You don't need to tell her anything.

A crash rings out from outside your room. Even in your own thoughts, you aren't safe from jinxes.

You rush out of the room and look around. You rush into the kitchen when you didn't see her anywhere else and see her holding her arm, muttering curses as you notice the wound on her arm.

It's bleeding. Not bad, but you can tell that it hurts.

"Shit," You curse silently. "Hold tight, I'll be right back." You promise, running off into the living room. Zip hadn't noticed you until you had said anything, so she flinches when you did speak.

Zip surprisingly does as she's told as she just holds her arm in pain. She isn't crying, she'd never be THAT weak to cry like that.

You bring in a med kit, opening it and pulling out gauze. You should probably have disinfectant with it, but you don't see it in the med kit so you'll just work with what you have. Which is the sink.

"Put your arm over the sink real quick." You say, making your way over the sink.

She gives you a look. "Are you kidding? Do you know how much that hurts?"

"Well," You roll your eyes. "You COULD always just have me put the bandages on and risk your cut getting infected and, you know, lose an arm."

Zip blinks at you, looking between you and her arm. "Ugh, fine."

You turn on the sink as she walks over. She flinches back as the water almost grazes her arm before just quickly putting her arm over the water. She sucks a sharp breath through her teeth, trying to hold back a whimper as you wash it with soap.

"Fffffuck-- that stings-" She bites her tongue, trying to appear strong.

You turn off the water and grab a towel to clean out the water from the wound to try and make it as clean as possible before finally putting the gauze on.

As you double layer it, she just stares at her arm with a look you can't quite describe.

Once you finish, you motion her to sit at the dining table. "Just take a breather."

She does, sitting at the end opposite of your as you sit down with her. She's rubbing her bandages lightly, still giving a look at her arm.

"What happened?" You finally decide to ask after a minute of silence.

She scoffs. "I was trying to find snacks to steal from you, and you end up having your whole knife collection up there. I lost balance and landed on the knife weirdly." She glares at you, as if it was your fault she decided to rummage through the cabinets. "Who are you, Riley?"

You'll pretend to know who that is. "For the record, it was my dad's decision to put those up there." You raise a finger before putting up a second one. "Two, if you wanted snacks you could just ask. I don't mind sharing."

You blink. "Actually, I don't mind stealing from my parents, as most of the stuff in there are theirs."

She blinks, looking caught off guard about something before rolling her eyes. "Sure, okay."

You look at her arm. It seems fine right now, seeing that she doesn't seem too in pain. "How's the arm."

She places both hands on the table. "Oh, you know, cut open." She remarks. "...It doesn't hurt as much anymore."

"That's good, right?" You say, smiling reassuringly. "Unless you're a masochist, that is."

Zip chuckles lightly. "You heard me already, I-" She shuts her mouth, pupils shrinking for a moment before smiling widely. "I should honestly tell everyone that you did this to me."

You blink, being caught off guard by that. "...If you think that's what you want, then go for it." You mutter, defeated. You had already told yourself to not get close to her, that she'd do something exactly like this, and now you had done what you had told yourself not to do.

Zip slowly lowers a brow. "You're not going to try and talk me out of it?"

You scoff. "Why bother?" You say, rolling your eyes, putting your head on the table. "It's not like I can do anything to stop you. I can't punch my way out of a paper bag, let alone be charismatic enough to be convincing. What's the point?"

...Why did her heart sink when she heard that?

No, it's just not fun if she does you in like that. Anyone can do that! Just make assault accusations and get away with it, where's the fun in that?!

"...Geez, you really are acting like a moody teenager." She laughs, putting a hand up to her mouth. "Relax~ I won't tell anybody that."

Confused, you look at her with a suspicious look. "...You're lying."

She snickers at the look you're giving her. "Now what would make you say that?"

Well, she's openly spoken about secrets from other students, towards you (in the little recent time you've spent talking to her over the week) and to her friends, she's openly hit people in school and rarely gets suspended for it, she keeps throwing paper airplanes at people who repeatedly told her to stop, you could go on if you were actually talking.

"Nothing." You lie, rolling your eyes.

Zip's phone rings. She pulls it out and looks through her message app, only for her eyes (or, eye in this case. Her hair is blocking out the other one' to go wide.

"Shit," She mutters. "Yeah, as great as this was, I really gotta get goin' now. Good luck on the project nerd!" She yells as she rushes out of your house.

And now you're alone again.

Okay.

Yeah, sure this is fine. No more random girl rummaging through your cabinets getting themselves cut or snooping around your stuff. This is better, you think.

Sure, she's been coming over your house over the past week (after you gave her your address for project purposes) and dulling out the crushing silence that always embraced you whenever you went home.

Typically, about now you would have went out with friends, but... well, you couldn't.

...You should socialize more. Right?

Why bother, though? They'll just end up killed like the rest. You... don't really know what the correct move is anymore.

So you just put the med-kit back where you found it, cleaned up what blood was left on the tiled floor and just went back to your room.

Look at it like this! Now you don't have to have someone snooping around your stuff anymore! Now all you have is the suffocating silence in it's place.

You continue your project.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, you can admit that Zip... wasn't the worst company to be around. You've (surprisingly) seen her softer sides. Small bits of actual help here and there (giving you a pencil without you asking), giving you some actual compliments ('huh, you... actually did really good on that project, huh? Good job, I guess.') and just bits and pieces more.

She's (luckily) hasn't involved you with her other friends, which you very much prefer. You know how they are by this point, you really don't need more smug assholes in your life right now. A point you've made very vocal with Zip, which you don't think she cares much for.

...Actually, now that you think about it, she's been much more attached to you since you've helped her out with her arm. You don't know if the other bullies have noticed. If they did, they didn't make it known, nor did Zip really know when you brought it up to her.

It's been about a month by this point. The Industrial Revolution project came and went. You didn't get the highest score, sure. No help from Zip, like you expected but you definitely did better than how you thought you would.

You had honestly thought that with the Industrial Revolution project gone, Zip would have just dipped back to her friends, but now she's dragging you to her house because she 'needs extra hands with my little brother' she says. Sure, you can do that for her.

You don't know if you consider her a friend yet, but you're on good enough terms with her that you could help her out. Just this once, you think.

"I don't think I've met your brother yet." You say as you walk beside her on the sidewalk. You had decided to walk because you didn't trust your parents enough to not go 'sure child, we can make time to bring you to a friends house' and Zip didn't have a car nor wanted to drive.

You doubt she had a drivers license, actually.

"That doesn't surprise me." She says casually, shrugging. "Me and Chip rarely spend time together in school due to me being in twelfth grade and him being in Kindergarten."

You chuckle. "Yeah, that makes sense, huh." You say, putting your hands in your pockets. "Do you at least walk him home? 'Cause he isn't here with us right now."

"He was sick today." Zip comments. "And yeah, I usually do. Our parents can't help us today because of a promotion or something stupid like that," She sticks out her tongue in mock disgust. "so I'm- or I suppose we-" She smugly smiles at you, jabbing at you with her elbow. "are going to take care of him today."

You smile, waving her off. "Yeah, yeah. I know." You come to a stop as a car comes by at a intersection in a neighborhood. "It's only fitting that I see your house after you've seen mine, no?"

Zip only shrugs. "I mean, it's not like my house is some top secret government building, there's nothing big to it."

As you turn the corner, you see a completely normal house at the end of the street that Zip points to. "That's it."

It's two stories, presumably for a family of four. The front yard looks... somewhat tidy, all things considered. Stray pirate items like hooks and flags litter the front fence, sure, but otherwise looks fairly clean.

"You- uh... really like pirate stuff, huh?" You say as your shirt gets stuck on the fence.

Zip smirks. "How do you think I got so good at stealing? Can't be a pirate if you don't know how to steal."

"Sure." You say, finally getting your shirt unstuck. You and Zip walk to the front door as she digs under the floor-mat to grab the key. Honestly the sole purpose of floor-mats seem to just be a convenient hiding place for keys.

You huff in amusement as Zip unlocks the door. "What?" She asks, turning her head towards you.

"Nothin'." You answer, raising a hand up. "Just thought of something funny."

"Uh huh." She squints at you suspiciously before turning and entering her house, leaving the door open for you.

When you enter, it's not exactly what you expected. Well, more accurately, for her character, this house is surprisingly clean. There are a few toys scattered all across the place, sure, but disregarding that it isn't as trashy as you almost expected it to be.

"Well, here we are." She says, seemingly unimpressed by her own abode, which makes sense, you would say. "Welcome to my 'humble' abode." She says, putting quotations around the 'humble' in her sentence.

You smile. "Humble indeed, huh."

She rolls her eyes playfully. "Yeah yeah, I get it, the house looks cool compared to yours." She says insensitively, which doesn't make you flinch. You're kind of used to this behavior at this point.

...That's probably not a good thing, right?

She looks around before putting her hands up to her head, cupping her mouth. "CHIP, WHERE ARE YOU?!" She screams. You're shocked by her sudden outburst before glaring at her.

"Did you have to yell?"

"Yeah." She says, smiling smugly at you. "How else am I going to get everyone in the neighborhood's attention?"

Zip feels something run into her leg. She looks down and see a toddler hugging her leg. The same toddler with a fish attached to it's back. You honestly aren't sure if it's stuck to his back or not.

"Hey, Chip!" She says, leaning down to pat his head. "How was your little nap?"

Chip doesn't respond, but somehow Zip knows exactly how he's feeling. "That's great, bud."

"He's a quiet one, huh?" You comment, looking down at the child hugging her leg. "Does he know how to talk?"

"He sure does!" She exclaims proudly, hand on her hip. "It's just that he doesn't like to talk much. One of those silent types, y'know."

"I see." You say, putting your hands in your pockets. "Well, it's nice to meet him. Cute guy."

"Isn't he?" She says.

"I never thought I would see you gushing over someone, honestly." You say, finally snapping her out of her funk.

She stutters for a moment, trying to think of something. "H-hey Chip, how about that show you've been watching, huh?" She says, smiling nervously at her brother. "What was it called again...?"

"Dog." Chip simply responds.

Zip snaps her fingers. "Courage the cowardly dog! That's it." She turns to you, smiling at you with brows raised. "Now who does that remind me of?"

Chip tugs at her dress. "Hungry."

"Yeah?" She says, smiling down at her brother. "What do you want to eat?"

Chip only blinks at her. Zip blinks back.

You just stand there awkwardly. "What does he usually like to eat?"

Zip pauses, blinking slowly. "I'm... honestly not sure, as of recent." She says, gesturing a bit as she picks up Chip, holding him with one arm. "Honestly, he's been kinda weird lately with what he wants to eat."

She pokes her brother's nose, which makes him swat her away playfully. "I mean, last week he was addicted to bologna, now he's going through a burger queens fries phase."

"O-oh?" You say, cringing slightly. "Seriously? Burger Queens? They barely put salt on those fries."

"I know!" She relates. "But this little guy," she boops Chip's nose again. "has been adicted to them for the last week, so I'm going to try and get him hooked on something better."

You're almost afraid to ask. "Which is?"

"Candy."

Oh boy.

She immediately rushes into the kitchen to begin her absolutely foolproof plan.

-------------------

You had managed to talk Zip out of giving a child more candy than their body could possibly handle. Just a moderate amount seemed to leave Chip content for now. It was actually kind of cute seeing him fall asleep in Zip's arms.

She laid Chip down on the couch, putting a little blanket over him, with courage the cowardly dog playing on the TV in front of you both as you both sit down.

"He's so low maintenance that it almost feels criminal." She says, laying back and sighing. "Honestly, the only hard part about him is when I can't find him."

"When you can't wha-?" You sputter, raising a brow at that sentence.

She lazily raises a brow at you. "Relax, he never gets out of the house. It's usually just him being in his toy box or in cabinets or whatever." She waves off. "...It sometimes gets exhausting, just because of how many times he does it."

You tilt your head. "Do your friends not help you?"

She scoffs. "Nope, they always have 'Something better to do'." She says bitterly. "Doesn't matter how badly I need them at that moment, they're always busy. Cause' Oliver always busy making out with his girlfriend."

"Oliver has a girlfriend?" You ask in disbelief. He seriously has a girlfriend?

"Ho'h yeah." She says, exasperated. "Alice. I'm sure you've already heard of her so I'm not going to explain to you who she is."

She was right. You were painfully aware of who she was. Mostly through rumors of terrified classmates, but it was enough to know that you didn't want to get within twenty feet of that doorknob.

You tap your foot nervously. "Well, you at least have fun with them, so that means something right?" You say. "Unless you're secretly a laid back individual."

"Nah," Zip waved off, laughing lightly. "I'm more of a fun motivated kind of gal, you know?"

"With that fun being tormenting other students?" You ask, raising a brow.

Zip nods furiously. "Yep! It's pretty lucrative, if you ask me and the others."

You swallow. "Yeah, right." You say solemnly. "It's good you have friends like those, I suppose."

Zip blinks, clearly confused. "What do you mean?"

You laugh somberly. "You have no idea how much of a weight lifter it is to just have someone to actually confide in." You say, looking to your side. "I mean, you can't imagine how lonely it feels just... not feeling safe enough to feel like you can't tell your friends your darkest secrets."

Zip blinks. "I- uh...?" She doesn't know how to respond to that, so you just continue.

"Like, I used to have friends that I could actually confide in like that before... well, you know." You gesture your hand up to your neck. "After that, I kind of just..."

You sigh. "Gave up, I guess?"

Zip stares at you, not quite sure what to say.

"W-Well, point is--" You stammer, trying to correct yourself in front of the person you've explicitly told yourself not to tell anything you don't have to to. "It's good to have friends you can confide in."

Zip stays silent for a moment, dragging her claw across the wooden crevices in the floorboards. "Right."

You grow silent. Did you offend her?

"I-I mean," You start, raising a hand up in mock surrender. "I hope you have someone like that."

She shakes her head, smile returning like nothing happened. "Of course I do, it just isn't you." She points and snickers. "Like I would tell you any secrets of mine."

You chuckle genuinely. "Honestly, I'm not sure that I even want to begin knowing your secrets." You joke, waving off the comment in general. Maybe you hit too close to home, but she actually... didn't seem upset at you.

More conflicted is the emotion you can read on her face. "...You know, I-" She swallows. "Most people don't really... see the way I treat my brother. They just assume I do the same to him as I do everyone else."

You blink. "And you've never told them otherwise?"

"Why bother?" She flops a hand on the couch after raising it for a moment. "'s Not like anyone would believe me."

"Well, they just don't know you then, huh?" You say, settling into the couch finally. "Though, that's probably what you want, huh?"

"Yep!" She says, chest puffed out. "Why do I want a bunch of idiots knowing anything about me? Just causes them to be mushy with me and all that gross stuff."

You chuckle lightly. "Like the way you were treating Chip earlier?"

She blinks before stuttering. "Wh- w- He's just a kid!" She defends herself. "And my brother. I..."

...She looks guilty about something.

"...I actually tried not caring 'bout him." You blink. "...And?"

She sighs, sinking into the couch as if she wishes it could take her. "I ended up almost throwing him off the roof."

Your heart immediately sank upon hearing those words. You decide not to say anything, to just hear her out.

"And then I looked into his stupid, big eyes..." She grips her hands, closing her eyes tight, as if reliving a bad memory. "And I couldn't. That's all." She tries to brush off, her eyes meeting anywhere but you.

...You wonder if your parents ever felt like that when they looked at you. They weren't abusive, sure. But they were never there, in a sense. You wondered if throughout all the asking them to spend time with you that maybe once, that's how Zip felt when she almost did that to Chip.

...Who knows, who cares. This isn't about you.

"That has a strange effect when you have the same blood, huh?" You comment, offering light sympathy.

She blinks at you. "What do you mean, you speaking from experience."

You scoff. "I wish."

Silence reigns between the both of you for only a moment.

You sigh. "For what it's worth, your secret is safe with me." You say, reassuring her. Well, you think you reassured her, but she just gives you a stare, as if you learned something you weren't supposed to know.

Her stare softens. "...Right, after everything I've done to you, like I'll trust that."

"Trust it or don't, I'm not going to tell anyone." You say. "Something tells me you don't do that with your other friends, so I'll just be the first to say, I won't use your personal life against you."

She looks at you, brows lowering. "Even after everything I did?"

"I don't hold grudges." You say, waving her off. "Way too much energy for something that just makes you dead inside."

Her look softens. She doesn't say anything else, just turning her attention back to the TV.

...

Something switched inside her. She can't describe it, it's a feeling that nobody else has ever given her.

She doesn't know whether to hate it or to embrace it, and that's the frustrating part about all of it. She's trying to justify it to herself, saying that things are going to plan, but...

Does she really believe that herself? She's not sure.

She scoots closer to you. She feels... content. That's the word she's looking for, right?

She likes this feeling. Whatever it is, she likes it. She needs more of it. Something that her other friends have never given her, and she wants so, so much more of it.

And she can't just describe what it was about you that made her feel like that. You weren't understanding since the start, but you've been getting more open with her these past weeks.

...She doesn't get it. She thinks she hates the way you make her feel, like something entirely foreign that she's not supposed to be feeling right now.

Whatever, she'll figure it out later. Right now, just focus on the stupid TV.

Her parents will get home later, and you'll leave.

...She didn't want you to leave yet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone is weird recently.

Not in the school murder kind of weird, more like avoidance kind of weird. When you went to your locker, everyone seemed weirdly avoidant of you, quickly closing their lockers and moving on. That immediately set off red flags.

When you went nearby a conversation happening, it switches to whispers. You don't get it.

You don't know what you did. You know you were standoffish to everyone else, but you didn't think it was to a point where nobody wanted to be near you.

Or look at you.

...Or even just say hi like they did before. Even when you greeted first.

It's weird how lonely that feeling is. How... crushing it is. You weren't a social butterfly, not anymore at least, but even you want to at least have some kind of social interaction.

Was it you? What did you do wrong.

Zip still hanged out with you though, seemingly disregarding all of the dirty looks sent towards you and her.

You would initially try to brush her off. You would have, you really would.

...But she's the only one who's been talking to you lately. Well, her and the rest of her group that is. Though, you'd rather not talk to them rather than her, considering how disregarding they are towards you.

Another day you can hear the whispers again, but they're getting louder. The dirty looks continue and the dirty looks are no longer constricted to just you and Zip. Just you.

...

Is this what being abandoned really feels like?

Ha...

It's not a welcome feeling.

"Am I doing something wrong?" You mutter absentmindedly. Zip, who had decided to hang out with you at the cafeteria today glanced at you rather than her food or phone.

"Whadoya' mean?" She asks, raising an eyebrow as she chews on her food.

You let out a sigh. "I just don't get what's going on. Everyone is being so..." You wave your hand around, trying to figure out the right words. "Distant. Like, more than they usually are."

Zip shrugs. "I never noticed." She takes another bite of her food. "But then again, they're usually like that to me that I don't think I would have anyway, heh." She chuckles to herself.

You don't chuckle with her. "I mean, they would at least say 'hi' if I say hi to them first, you know?" You pinch your forehead. "But they just turn their nose at me."

She gives you a look you can't exactly describe. Maybe annoyance, but not directed at you. Or maybe it was, you weren't really great with reading faces anymore you think.

"I just don't get it." You mutter. "It feels so... wrong? That's the right word I think." You lie your hands flat on the table.

Zip only shrugs. "You get used to it."

You're not sure if you want to get used to it. Your heart sinks further upon hearing those words.

You stay silent, you're not sure what to say anymore. You're not even sure she cares.

...She doesn't, does she?

"I'm going to sit somewhere else." You announce to nobody in particular. The only other person sitting at the table shoots her gaze up at you, seemingly caught off guard.

"Wh- why???" She whines, grabbing your hand. "C'mon, don't leave me here alone!"

"You have your other friends." You point out, nodding towards the Oliver and Edward, who are talking to each other about god knows what.

She scoffs. "What, after all this time we've spent talking to each other, you really still don't consider us friends?"

You...

...Aren't sure anymore.

"I don't know," You say finally. You're finally speaking what's on your mind, truly. "I can never get a read on you."

She blinks at you as you sit back down. She doesn't say anything, just letting you continue.

"You- you're a total asshole to everyone else, but for some reason you just won't leave me be." You say, putting a hand on your head.

She lets go of your hand.

"You've been friendly towards me, and I don't get it." Says you, voicing your frustrations. "What did I do to get you to just not leave me alone?"

Zip smirks. "You're cute."

You go wide eyed, slowly turning towards her. "What?"

"What? You being cute isn't enough reason to just be hanging around you?" She admits, putting her head on her hand. "Jeez, how oblivious have you been?"

You're not sure what to say. You can't tell if this is a confession to love or a confession to why she's just been sticking around you. You're not sure which one you'd prefer.

"Besides," She waves her hand, going back to eat her food. "It's not like those other people were hanging out with you anyway."

You just blink at her, never tearing your gaze away.

"I mean, can you imagine how much energy is being wasted trying to get other people to like you when they're clearly not interested?" She laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. "Even the one's you really want to have a relationship with."

...

"I-"

"Save it," She puts a hand up. "Honestly, I don't mind wasting all the energy. You were cute, so I wanted to hang out with you." She finishes. "Does that answer your question?"

...

Not all of them, but some of them. You feel so guilty, and you don't know why.

You didn't hate your time with Zip so far. Sure she's rude and way too over-energetic for you sometimes, but...

...She's been fun. You can see why the other two actually want to hang out with her, even if all three of them are... Uh, brutes, you could say.

Then again, in this school, it's brute vs brute, and the quiet ones are just trying to go unnoticed.

You sigh, putting your head on the table, burying yourself in your arms. "I just don't know anymore."

"Didn't I just tell you?" She raises a brow at you.

"Not that, just..."

You let out a breath you didn't really know you were holding. "Nevermind."

She shrugs and goes back to her meal. She looks around the cafeteria out of bored curiosity, noticing a few students who are looking at you and her.

She smiles manically, waving at them wildly. Oh, she is SO going to mess with them later. She cackles to herself internally.

She looks over back at you. How... pathetic you look. Honestly, it would be the perfect time to just throw you down to the ground, beat you down until you just decide to kill yourself. You had nobody now, you had just ADMITTED to it!

Oh, she could just see it now. You trying to hold your feelings in while she laughed at you. Seeing your entire world crash around you and you finally just grabbing that rope and...

And...

And for some reason, that makes her sick to her stomach.

She couldn't really grab satisfaction thinking about you doing that compared to literally anyone else. She hasn't been able to do it since the start.

It's weird how well her initial plan had worked, just for you to have GUESSED it only moments later! Honestly, Oliver was shocked you had found out that fast that they were only leading you on. It was made so secret that they didn't even tell Edward.

...Honestly, that part was probably unnecessary. She and Oliver just liked messing with Edward to bring down that smart guy persona.

This was the plan from the start. She had managed to salvage it, she had managed to get close to you, to get on your good side, you had just confided to her in confidence. Stupid of you, honestly.

And she just can't bring herself to do anything to you.

It honestly pisses her off more than she would ever admit. She sticks her fork at the tray in front of her, glaring at it as if it were the one making her feel like... this.

Was... was it the way you had treated Chip? No, EVERYONE treats Chip like how you did, he was just a child, of course.

...Honestly, maybe in part that's why it made her feel bad about it, but not sick. She can't explain that part.

What was it about you that makes her repulse the though of actually hurting you. It was so... easy before. Just jabbing at you, albeit lightly just to get on your good side, sure but, like-

She hates feeling like this. She hates it so much, she's not supposed to be feeling like this.

She used to fantasize about beating you to the ground. Now it's like your a flower she's desperate to get blooming again.

...How does she fix this?

She doesn't know. She doesn't know if she can.

she looks back over to you. You still have your head in your arms.

I̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶.̶

...What?

That is not a thought she's having right now. Nope, nadda, nuh uh, no.

You still looked cute though. That much she could admit.

Before she could really say anything, the bell decides to interrupt her thought bubble.

'Annoying.' She thought.

You sigh. "And that's probably my Que." You say. "...Sorry for dumping that all on you."

She shrugs. "Meh, I'll--"

'Probably forget about all of it later.', she almost said. For some reason, the words felt more bitter than what she deemed necessary for you. Or, really warranted against you.

...Wait, why does she care what's warranted against you? She doesn't...

"...I unno'." She sticks her tongues out playfully. "Don't know why you decided to tell me of all people that, but you know." She winks. "Your secret is safe with me."

You blink. "Something tells me it isn't." You sigh, getting up from your seat. "Well, I'll enjoy the next ten minutes where my insecurities aren't leaked to the public."

You look at her. You just can't bring yourself to dislike her anymore. "See you around, Zip." You stop before you could get to far, just for a moment. "...And for what it's worth, your secret is still safe with me. Even if you leak mine."

You walk off.

...

Do you really think the others deserve to know about your deepest insecurities? Nope, that's her secrets to hold. She is your closest living friend after all.

All those photo's she stole earlier felt like good blackmail material, but now it's just something to keep so nobody else has it.

She could physically feel her eye twitch. "Right, as if anyone could really get to know your secrets."

She swallows. "God, what's happening to me?" She runs a hand through her hair. "This is so stupid, I wasn't-"

She bites her tongue. She wasn't actually supposed to get close to you.

...Why did you actually have to care about her? The other two was just out of pure circumstance, but you...

Fuck. Why are you making this so complicated for her? She hates all of the stupid emotions that are running through her.

Visibly annoyed as she is, she still decides to keep her mask up in front of the others. They don't need to know her... rapidly shifting priorities.