Porthos du Vallon (humanhurricane) wrote in the100, @ 2016-04-09 19:43:00 |
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It wasn’t that Sarah wasn’t a social person -- she had friends, she spoke to people. She liked jokes and stories and was very kind. Still, she was most definitely more introverted, and these larger events just weren’t really her style most of the time. She’d make good excuses usually -- too much homework, her family would be out of town, she didn’t want to buy a dress she’d wear only once, tickets were too expensive, it was all just a popularity contest. In reality, they made her uncomfortable, tapping into that sense of insecurity that was definitely there under the surface. She was the quiet middle child, after all. She made good grades and flew under the radar, and that was the way she preferred it. Dances usually were just too much risk with not enough reward. She could get stood up, or not pick the right dress, or get left behind, or not be asked to dance, or be mocked, or be elected queen only to have pig’s blood dumped on her head. (The social situations in Carrie had traumatized her when she’d watched it in middle school at a sleepover.) But this one was supposed to be different. She had a boyfriend. (She had a boyfriend!) Isaac did wonders for her, too -- it was amazing what a few compliments and a handsome person to walk around school with could do for self-esteem. Sarah had picked a dress she felt very pretty in, and she’d chosen well. She’d not been stood up. They’d already danced half the night away. No one had laughed at her. No pig’s blood in sight. All was well, and she was having a blast. She smiled at him as the song ended, her heart fluttering just a little at how nice the night was going. “I’m glad you convinced me to come,” she said. Isaac wasn’t exactly a dance person either, but he was a teenage guy who liked to party and who liked his girlfriend. As introverted as Sarah could be, she had a good heart and a pretty face, two of Isaac’s biggest weaknesses. Sometimes he was convinced he asked her out the first time specifically because of how good she was, how square, really. Like she’d balance him out somehow. Keep him from going dark side. And she kinda had. He was still trouble, but he stayed quiet about it. He didn’t hurt people. He just took what he needed - and, rarely, what he wanted - and anytime Isaac thought about doing something truly stupid, he thought of Sarah. It worked. So far. It worked to get him here, at a dance, in a suit, that was for sure. Sarah was smiling up at him and he grinned back down at her. That part was easy. So was pulling her in and talking close to her ear, quiet and warm. “I’m glad you’re glad,” he murmured. He would’ve said more on the subject, but Milkshake’s unmistakable rhythm started and he pulled back, making a face at the nearest speaker. “You know how much I love this song...” Isaac wrinkled his nose and smiled. “...But you wanna grab some punch and go for a walk? Please?” It was their very opposite personalities that had drawn Sarah to Isaac as well. She was such a good girl that she bordered on boring. She craved a little bad in her life — not the sort that would make her feel like a terrible person by association, but enough to keep her intrigued. Isaac had proven to be that exactly. He wasn’t too much, as far as she knew. They did balance each other, as far as she could tell. She liked that. It felt like having a purpose. And it helped that he looked so darn pretty in his suit. He was a beautiful boy, and that was exactly the term Sarah used in her diary. She was as smitten as a teenager in her first romance could possibly be. Goosebumps sprouted all over her as he leaned close and spoke in her ear. She hmphed at the starting notes of the song, more than willing to do as he asked. “That sounds so much better than listening through this torture,” she said, smiling and offering a nod. “Let’s go.” “Knew I liked you for some reason...” Isaac hooked an arm around Sarah’s back with a rumble of a laugh. Steering her towards the punch table, he quickly snagged them two cups and nodded subtly towards the emergency door of the gym, tucked back in the corner. Everybody knew it hadn't been attached to the alarm for years. God knows Isaac had abused it to sneak in and out of the gym more times than he could count. “I wanna show you somethin’,” he leaned in to whisper. It was a half-truth - he had something in his locker he forgot to give her earlier - but mostly he wanted to sneak into their economics class. There was a big test coming up and the teacher was a real hardass. Chances were, Isaac could make a ton of cash selling the answer sheet, or at least use it to earn a big favor with someone. Never knew when that might come in handy. Isaac smiled, handed Sarah her glass, and pushed through the door with his back. “I sure hope there’s more than one,” she responded with a brighter grin and a laugh. She let herself be led, accepting the drink when he snatched it and following him through the door. She felt a rush of adrenaline as she passed through it — it was like being bad. A simple naughty act, maybe, but it was more than she ever usually did. “Oh really? Okay,” she said, blushing at the whisper. All of those little gestures made her feel so warm. It was quiet out in the hall, the music pumping more in the background. It made it so that they could actually hear each other. The hall was dark, the lights out, and that made it feel even more secretive. “Where are we going?” Still walking backwards, Isaac winked and took a drink from his cup. Whoa. Someone had definitely snuck some booze in there. He was impressed, really. The chaperones had been watching that bowl like hawks. Whoever got liquor into the punch may as well have used magic. No doubt he’d find out on Monday, when some asshole was bragging for hours on end. “We’re going to my locker. There was this big old book with this etched cover and these drawings? And well, it was cool and it made me think of you, so I--here we go.” Isaac stopped in front of his locker, smoothly avoiding any talk about how he had definitely not checked the book out in any conventional sense. He was a little less smooth about getting into the locker, though. Damn locks were so touchy. Good practice for a thief, but still. He wasn’t trying to fight his locker right now. Finally getting the door open, he grabbed an oversized book and held it out towards her. Then he slowly glanced towards the nearest classroom with an easy-going smile. “Hey, why don’t we go sit in there? Drink our punch, have a little read?” Steal an answer sheet. “What do you say?” Sarah had so little experience with alcohol that she really didn’t even notice that the smell was definitely there. She grinned as she followed Isaac’s lead, holding onto his arm and sipping from her cup. She noted it tasted a little different, but it wasn’t something she hated. “You actually have books in your locker? I thought that went against your code,” she responded, teasing lightly. “I like that it made you think of me, and that definitely makes me curious to find out what it’s about.” She leaned against the locker beside his, drinking from his cup. The classroom seemed like a good idea, even if it meant being alone in a room with her boyfriend. (Something she was sure probably would be frowned upon.) “Okay. I’m not ready to get back into the Milkshake situation anyway,” she agreed, one arm full of the book and the other holding her cup. “Let’s go,” she said, actually taking the initiative to lead the way. She entered the classroom, moving to set the book and her cup down and taking a seat up on one of the desks. “It’s so weird to be here at night, isn't it?” “I had a book in my locker,” Isaac joked back. He did actually like books, especially practical do-it yourself guides, but shit like Heart of Darkness could suck his big toe. He smiled wider when Sarah took the lead and followed behind her after shutting his locker without a glance. “It’s so weird. Always,” he agreed. He'd probably been at school late quite a few times more than she had, but that never stopped it from being weird. Plopping down into the teacher’s chair, he took another drink of punch and spun in a slow circle, smiling over at her. “Go on, dig in,” Isaac nodded towards the book. “At least give the pictures a look. I used up good distraction techniques to get that away from a weird guy in a peacoat without him throwing a fit.” “Oh, excuse me. Didn’t mean to offend or pass an implication,” Sarah responded, still teasing. She was feeling warm — the effects of both being with Isaac and of the alcohol in her cup — but it was a very content feeling. Sarah felt happy, actually. She’d never imagined a night out like this could be as enjoyable as it was, with so little stress or panic or second-guessing. It was a lovely thing. She smiled and set her cup down so that she could pull the book into her lap. “I’m not sure I really want to know. A book from a weird guy in a peacoat,” she said, making a face, her eyes focused on the book and a delighted grin filling her face. “Ooooh. Isaac, this is incredible.” “Yeah? You like it?” Isaac kept half his attention on Sarah, and the smile on her face. It made his own smile brighten. But the other half of his attention was on quietly jimmying open the locked drawer of the teacher’s desk without leaving a mark. There was a chance the test answers where in the file cabinet behind him, but that would be harder to open without Sarah noticing, and he really didn’t want her to notice. If she knew nothing about this, she was blameless if it ever traced back to him “Enough to forget what I said about the peacoat guy altogether, I hope,” he chuckled. The drawer popped open with a quiet squeak of metal and Isaac opened it a few inches to sift through the papers inside. “It’s amazing! These illustrations are so fantastic,” she said, looking through the book still. “And I think it’s a really early edition, too. These are pretty rare, actually.” Sarah usually tried not to let her literary nerdisms come out too often, especially around Isaac. She didn’t want him thinking she was a know-it-all or anything, after all. But it was sometimes impossible to keep from being too excited over something like this, and she couldn’t contain herself. “You may have to tell me a little more about your peacoat guy, though, if he can get ahold of books like this.” She smiled still as she looked up, her head tilting with curiosity as she saw him fiddling a little with one of the drawers. “What are you doing?” Isaac laughed, seriously wishing he’d never brought up the guy in the coat at all. Of course he didn’t waste any time dwelling on that since her next question jerked his attention up and away from the answer sheet held between two fingers. “Hm? Doing?” Shit. Isaac had never been much of a liar, at least not with people he actually cared about. He could bury his social worker in bullshit all day, but looking over the desk at Sarah, his heart wasn’t in making something up. Sighing, he pulled the test sheet out and waved it in the air. “Would you believe I just wanted to borrow some paper?” He squint-smiled, guilty but not avoiding her gaze. “...With answers on it?” Sarah knew what he was doing pretty quickly, to be honest. She ignored that reality, though, because Sarah was absolutely not someone who cheated or knew cheaters or had ever really witnessed cheating. Still, she moved closer to him, pushing from the desk to look over the teacher’s and see what was in his hand. Her mouth opened in surprise. “You’re… wait,” she said, frowning. “Were they just… on the desk? And you’re putting them back?” “Uhh…,” Isaac winced and blew out a loud breath. No doubt he should’ve felt guilty, but mostly he was just disappointed he got caught. He was getting sloppy. Eying the plastic cup he’d drank way too fast, Isaac sighed. “No. And no. I mean, that wasn’t the plan, no. Kinda defeats the purpose of jimmyin’ the lock open to begin with,” he shrugged, looking up at her with a patient sort of ‘how big a problem is this gonna be’ set to his eyebrows. Sarah was so upset. It showed in her face, which fell very quickly. “Oh,” she said, moving back to her cup and drinking from it while she tried to collect her thoughts. “So is that why you came at all tonight? Just to steal the test answers?” She chewed on the inside of her cheek, her emptied cup in her hand when she turned back around. “If you need help, I’ll study with you. You don’t need to steal answers.” “What? No, no.” Isaac left the paper on the desk and stood up to walk around towards her, waving his hands in front of him. “I wanted to go to this dance with you, period. The two things have nothin’ to do with each other,” he promised. Glancing back over his shoulder at the answer sheet, he grimaced and shuffled a hand over his tie. He should’ve thought this through but it was too late for that. “I don’t need them. I mean, I’d probably use them, but I don’t need them for me. I just...know a few people who would pay really well for ‘em.” It wasn’t really fair of her to immediately feel like this had to do with her, but her insecurities made that really difficult not to do. She still frowned, her eyes at her feet. “But you wanted to come to this classroom, in the middle of the dance, because it was quiet and you knew there would be no teachers here because they’d be in the gym,” she said. “You were going to sell them to other people? Isaac. What if you’d gotten caught?” It was a little crazy how innocent she was, at least it made Isaac a little crazy. Even as it drew him to her, and charmed him plenty, it frustrated him sometimes too. “I thought about it while we were dancin’, that’s all. It’s not like I planned it out before I even asked you to this thing.” Frowning, Isaac grabbed the answer sheet and a blank piece of paper nearby with every intention of jotting down the answers while he talked. It didn't quite work that way, of course. He ended up leaning over the desk, pencil frozen to the paper, and his disgruntled attention on her. “I'm not gonna get caught. And even if I did, you were never here, you hear me?” He pointed the pencil at her, eraser end first. “You never gotta worry somethin’ I'm doing is gonna come back on you, Sarah. I promise.” “You knew exactly where they were so clearly you thought about it before,” she said, shaking her head. Sarah was starting to feel a little queasy — she wasn’t sure if it was the nerves that came with this type of bad behavior, the frustration and disappointment she felt with Isaac, or the alcohol sitting in her stomach. She couldn’t believe he was still looking to get the answers, even now. “How can you even say that, Isaac? You have no guarantee you won’t get caught. You don’t think Ms. Stewart isn’t going to be baffled when half of her class suddenly has all of the answers? You don't think she’ll start exploring and investigating and it’s not going to come back to you? There’s no way you can be sure you won’t get caught, and I’m definitely involved because I am here and I’m watching you do it.” She shook her head. “This is so dumb! You are so much smarter than this.” Now Isaac was getting mad. Did he have a right to be? Hell no. Even he knew that. But he was a cocky seventeen year old with a chip on his shoulder, no matter how good he was at hiding it sometimes. “Hey, I'm not an idiot,” he growled petulantly. “I wouldn't sell the answers to half the damn class. Three people, tops. And only ones I trust not to be the kind of dumbasses who answer every question right.” He angrily scribbled the first five answers down, lowering his voice at the same time. If they got caught because of this fight, he was really gonna kick himself. “This isn't my first time at the rodeo, babe,” he added, glancing up at her through his eyelashes. “It’s really not that big of a deal.” “I know you aren’t! So don’t act like one!” Sarah was sure she was being too hard on him, but she was so frustrated with him. “Do you know what will happen if you get caught? The school has no tolerance for cheating! You could get into so much trouble. You and all of those dumbasses. And probably me too for being an accessory to it.” She chewed on her lip again, crossing her arms over her chest. “No, I guess it’s not. So you just do this all the time, then? You just cheat your way through things? Or sell them to other people so they can cheat their way through?” She shook her head. “How can you say that! Of course it’s a big deal. You cheat on small things now, but where does it stop? Isaac, you’re better than this.” “Jesus. Keep it down, okay?” Isaac hissed. “Or somebody’ll find us and you will end up an accessory, no matter what I tell them!” He held the pencil so tight, the tip snapped off and rolled away. Grumbling a curse, he slipped the answer sheet back in the drawer and reengaged the lock with a bent paperclip. When he came around the desk, he was glowering and stuffing his half-finished answer sheet in his inner coat pocket. “I don’t cheat my way through things. I do what I need to do so I never have to rely on anyone. Ever. I take care of myself.” Isaac stopped in front of her and crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring her stance. “You wouldn’t know what that’s like,” he added in a low voice, not mean just matter-of-fact and a little tired. Sarah was so upset with him for actually going through with taking what he had, and she crossed her arms even more tightly over her chest. She shut up, though, because she didn’t want to get caught. She’d already be up all night worried and upset over this, so she didn't want to give up and give in and draw attention to herself. “This is not taking care of yourself, Isaac. This is going the easy way, and you are so much better than it. But if this is who you’d rather be, then fine. Fine,” she said, shaking her head. When he continued, her mouth opened to say something and then she blinked, startled. “What is that supposed to mean?” she said, quietly. “You don’t think I take care of myself?” “I think you have family,” Isaac clarified, dropping his arms away in a huff. He hated that they were fighting, that he could see her thinking less of him by the second, but something about this whole thing just made him feel more stubborn by the second. “I think you don’t really know how easy you’ve got it. And I think we should finish this argument somewhere else,” he stage-whispered. A jangle out in the hall had just barely caught his attention, and only just in time too. Isaac grabbed Sarah by the biceps and hid her behind him on his side of the door, where they would be in the darkest shadows. One of the school janitor’s peeked through the window in the door for only the briefest second and then he was gone. Apparently, he hadn’t seen anything noteworthy, because within a few seconds he was down another hallway altogether. Isaac huffed out a breath. “We need to go.” Sarah was so overwhelmed by his answer, and so unsure of what to say. “Isaac, I don’t — this doesn't have — you can’t punish me for —” she didn’t even know which response to give. “How does me having a family or having it ‘easy’ have anything to do with you stealing test answers and selling them to classmates?” She gasped, her heart stopping when they came so close to being caught, utterly terrified at the sight. She was relieved when the janitor moved on, but that didn’t settle the churning in her stomach, which was gradually becoming more and more oppressive. “Where?” Answering her first question would’ve just been a whole other fight, so Isaac gently let go of her and grabbed up her book. “We should get back to the dance.” His gaze tracked over the teacher’s desk, double and triple checking that nothing was out of place. All his bravado aside, he really didn’t want to get caught. He didn’t want to be one of those foster kids who stayed in the system for life. That was the point, after all. “Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Isaac handed her the book, finally a little sheepish again, chin down and frowning. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into this. Let’s just get back to the gym.” “Fine,” she said, nodding, her eyes diverted from him while she tried to deal with everything that was going on. She accepted the book when he handed it to her, hugging it to her chest. She shrugged a shoulder at his apology. “It’s fine,” she said, chewing on the inside of her lip and still keeping her eyes diverted. “Really,” she added, looking up at him a bit and nodding before moving to the door to go through it. “Let’s go.” |