Who: Marlene and Stiles Stilinski What: First meeting/New Friends Where: Hallway When: Backdated to Sunday evening Warnings: Mar. And Stiles. Status: Closed, Complete
Marlene was the epitome of a girl hyped up on crack, sugar, coffee and speed. Except she’d never taken drugs (never saw the point of them, anyways). She was one of life’s naturally cheerful hyper people. She’d been told a few times she needed to calm down, but what was the point? Back home life was all about living it up. Not being bored and a stick in the mud. When things went south, she’d come here to escape it, but that didn’t mean she needed to stop having fun.
What was the point of life if you couldn’t have fun? She’d decided to bother poor Miss K about music, which meant she was currently carrying around a book on sheet music, trying to absorb it. But it wasn’t the same as something more fascinating - like meeting new people, parkour around the city or tattoos. So she tucked the book under her arm and grinned as she turned the corner and almost ran into the new kid, Stiles.
“Stiles! Hi! I’m Mar.” she grinned widely. “You settle in okay? You should totally come with me and explore the town, it’s a nice place.” she nodded sagely, then grinned again. It was hard to be mopey around Mar.
***
Stiles had been headed back to his room, and he skidded to a stop as Mar nearly plowed into him. He threw his hands up to try and avoid a collision, but she had good reflexes and didn’t mow him down. Small mercies, he supposed.
One hand dropped to his side, the other pawed at his neck. “I...don’t know,” he told her. He’d once been an easy going guy who adapted to the world around him with a sunny disposition and zest for life. Now, though, he felt like a faxed over carbon copy of himself, haunted by life and the things he’d recently been through making him hesitant, panicked, and reserved.
HIs palms felt sweaty, and he brushed both of them against his shirt. “I should...study.” Which wasn’t true, especially since he hadn’t even attended his first class.
***
Mar cocked her head to the side, rocked on her toes and smiled at him. “Classes haven't even begun yet, chill on the studying.” she was one of those people who just couldn't sit still. Often.
She reached out and poked him lightly in the center of his forehead. “Relax, this place is pretty awesome.” She was down right earnest and grinned. “I know where there's the best pizza in town"
Mar only gave him a few seconds before she stuck her arm around his and practically dragged him towards the exit. “Promissssseee" ***
Stiles wanted to go with her, he really did. The thought of going to get pizza with a complete stranger was so far out of his current comfort zone, thouh, that he found himself back pedaling. He’d never been that...carefree. Well, no, it was more fair to say he’d never been in this position before.
He’d never been one of the popular kids at school. He was one of the nerds, one of the kids who was over looked, unless he acted up or acted out and drew attention to himself, which he did. Often. But he wasn’t popular, and the only person he’d ever gone out for pizza with, really, was Scott. And usually his dad, or Scott’s mom, went with them.
He felt his back hit the wall. Why did he feel so small? “I don’t think I should,” he said, and his mind was reeling, thoughts jumping erratically, as he tried to come up with a more viable excuse than studying.
***
Marlene just stared at him.
Then beamed a bright smile. “Nervous nelly, I don’t bite. I promise. I just like pizza and friends.” poor boy had no idea he’d run into a female version of him, minus anxiety. Mar was also stubborn headed and once she set her mind on something? She generally got it.
“Come on, it’ll be fine, you’ll have plenty of time to study and be anti-social later.” she said honestly, bobbing her head a little. Marlene was an easy going, carefree, lover of life, kind of girl. Not much phased her, and she tried pretty hard not to let much phase anyone else around her. She was the perfect new friend for Stiles. Even she thought so.
“Come onnnn” she was not a nerd. she loved sports and doing crazy things. “at least I’m not asking you to play Dauntless games with me. Come on it’s just pizza.”
**
“What is a Dauntless game?” he asked. Because his brain needed to focus on one thing at a time, and that got first priority because he didn’t know what it meant. He knew what the word dauntless meant, but not how it applied to games.
It was a delayed reaction, but he reached up and rubbed at his forehead where she’d jabbed him with her finger. Something about her reminded him of...well, himself. Before the nogitsune broke him, and showed him just how much heartbreak and pain there really was in the world.
*** “Crazy, we did things like jump off the tops of buildings.” she beamed at him. “Fearless. Things to prove it.” she grinned brightly. “I let one of my friends shoot a muffin off my head.” she was rather proud of the fact, too.
Marlene didn’t like people being down in the pits. She liked people ~happy~. She was a happy person, people should be happy. Marlene was just a bundle of joy. Even if she had her down times and bad moments, she really worked to not let anyone see them.
**
Stiles went wide eyed while she explained what Dauntless meant. “Okay...yeah, no.” He reached up and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m not into that.” He might have gone forit all at one time, but...not now. Now? He preferred to keep both feet on the ground, but even that wasn’t any kind of assurance of anything.
“Maybe just pizza, though. I can handle that. If Malia can come with us.” Not that he needed Malia to escort him. He just didn’t want to go anywhere without her. He wanted her included. Besides, he knew she was hungry because she was always hungry.
*** “But they’re incredible amounts of fun.” she said honestly. She laughed a bit. “We do obstacle courses too. It’s so fun being Dauntless.” mostly. Sorta. depending on the week. She wasn’t about to admit that sometimes it was a little overwhelming though.
“That your girl?” she asked with a wide smile. “Certainly, she new too? I don’t think I know her yet. But totally, invite her along. Pizza? Is best shared with friends.” she nodded sagely as if the world revolved around friends.
Mar? Liked friends.
***
“Yeah. Malia’s my girl,” Stiles nodded. It was more complicated than that, but...but in generic terms it worked. Because she was so much more than just his girl. She was his lifeline, especially here in this place where nothing was really familiar.
“Let me text her, and have her come meet us. It’ll only take a second.” Stiles pulled out his phone and started typing without waiting for a reply from Marlene.