ep 1
This is all your fault.
Sorry, but it is. Things didn't have to turn out this way. We could've found another way. Instead, you...
Ah, jeez. There's really no point in getting mad at you, is there? Not when you aren't here to defend yourself.
We thought... well, the others think this plan is like a million to one. That it won't work, and I... you know I can't accept that. Not after everything that's happened.
So I'm here to tell you a story. To bare my soul. Maybe fix you enough that I can punch you across your stupid face and not feel bad for doing it.
This story... really, you know this story already, but I’d like to tell it again. It’s something of an old story—one that began before you or I were ever born. A tragic comedy, where evil reigns as king and queens seek only ruin. You might think it a story of love, or hate and horror, but in truth, this story is far simpler than that.
It is the story of the greatest fool ever born and how she managed to destroy the world.
It was becoming harder and harder to stay calm as she distantly listened to Abigail's updates beyond the terrible roaring in her ears. Weeks of planning down the drain! And all because Billie Resting's a petty bitch who wouldn't know the word sorry if it slapped her across the face then spit on her for good measure!
You know, Mia's father often told her that she should always give others the benefit of the doubt. You never really know what somebody is going through, he said, and sometimes the reason they're hurting you is because, really, they're in pain themselves.
Mia's father is also a stinking cheater and had never suffered the displeasure of meeting Billie fucking Resting.
Billie Resting doesn't know what pain is. Ah, sorry, that's not actually true—she is very talented at teaching others what pain is. She'd just skipped out on Suffering 101 and went straight to sucking all that was good and holy out of the world.
Next to her, Abigail Winter gave her a weird look. "I feel like you're overreacting."
No surprise there. Abigail had no idea what an angry Billie Resting looked like. She was the biggest gossip around but somehow always ended up coming out on top with nobody mad at her. Probably because she was such a fence-sitter that Mia didn't wonder if she didn't have a stick up her—ahem! Anyway. Mia also didn't like the smile on her face so she said as much.
"Most people would call me pragmatic."
Sure, if pragmatism involved pandering to both sides in a petty argument and making the situation invariably worse, then absolutely.
"Since you guys basically hate each other now, I just suggested she alter her birthday plans because she kept complaining about it. I had no idea she'd react by coming up with something so… insane!"
She snorted. Insane indeed. Mia and Billie (well, mostly Mia.) had come up with the perfect sweet sixteen, complete with food, hired entertainment and even fireworks! It's really quite ridiculous how much effort Mia put into planning that lying, stinking toad's party! And what thanks did she get from the girl she thought was her best friend?
Billie announces to the world that she's dating Sam Taylor, the most popular boy in their school and only the very person Mia's been in love with since before she could talk! Not like it was a secret, either. Billie knew first, of course, because she knew everything before anybody, but Abigail figured it out and told stupid Meredith Park and now every girl in their year knew about it!
But that was whatever. Everybody had crushes and most were even common knowledge. Tara Reece had a huge crush on Andrew Garde (who had the world's most obvious crush on Mia) and everybody had liked Robert Lane at some point in their lives. Crushes were completely normal and people knowing about them was only the end of the world until a new piece of gossip came along.
What was the end of the world, you might ask? Billie Resting walking into first period last Friday, hand in hand with Sam Taylor!
And Mia might’ve forgiven her if she'd said something about it, but nope! Nothing. Zilch, nada! Complete radio silence the day before and then Billie shows up with Sam Taylor on her arm, no explanation and a staunch refusal to elaborate on the most ridiculous event since Leslie Stibbins tried to embarrass Billie's cousin Finn Waldron on his first day by calling him out in the middle of History and got pushed out a window as a result.
It was a first story window, of course, but Finn Waldron got suspended and Leslie Stibbins had a limp for a month. He kept forgetting which leg had the limp and eventually just stopped pretending, which was probably for the best. The limp just served as a reminder of how soundly Finn Waldron had humiliated him.
"You better not be going," she told Abigail with a scowl. "In fact, you're not allowed to go. I forbid you from going."
Abigail just gave her a look. Mia sighed. Well, it was worth a try. Maybe if she was a criminal mastermind like Abigail she'd know how to stop all their friends from going to Billie's completely necessary birthday bash in freaking Covenant House, but alas she was not. Honestly, she didn't even really want to. Not to brag or anything, but Mia was very good at event-planning. So much so that Mrs. Resting had actually hired her for her daughter Penny's going away party last year.
So what Mia really wants to know is what sort of 'party' Billie had come up with all by herself. Pfft, she could see it now. Billie was going to lure their friends into that decrepit old building, ply them with loads of alcohol and absolutely no food and then convince them to brag about how it was the greatest party ever! Stupid Meredith was sure to go along with it because she was obsessed with getting Billie's approval, but the others would tell Mia the truth if she asked. The guys were too honest and Abigail was far too much of a gossip to lie. If she wanted to hear about how terrible this party was sure to go, Abigail wouldn't hesitate to fill her in on all the lurid details.
But that's not enough. Mia wants to see this stupid, unsafe party blow up in Billie's face. She wants to be there. No, she will be there.
She looked back over at Abigail with narrowed eyes. "What time did you say the party was again?”
Finn had the unfortunate occupation of being a student. It was still the very worst part of having to live in Oakfield. He had to go to classes and deal with petty teenagers who had nothing better to do with their time than sit around and gossip about who got caught with some other girl's boyfriend or who was the most good-looking guy on the football team.
As far as cousins went, Finn was sure he'd drawn the short straw when he got saddled with Billie Resting.
Even worse, he'd passed his driving test this summer and his uncle Dick had bought him a car. One of the conditions of using that car, however, was he had to drive Billie places when Dick or his wife Jane were too busy. Far be it for his precious angel to have to walk to places!
If he was being honest, driving Billie around wasn't even that much of a chore. Billie herself barely even asked for him to drive her places, and that was limited to the few times when Dick was too busy to chauffeur her around himself. And it was whatever. Driving with Billie to school and back was just another terrible part of being a student. Sometimes they picked up Billie's friend Mia, but she was cool as long as her weird mom wasn't hanging around.
At the very least, she was way better than this Meredith bitch who Billie insisted they pick up today despite her living like two minutes away from school.
And they should've been at school twenty minutes ago but apparently Meredith Park gets coffee every morning, and she insisted that they head to the fancy new place across town which Finn privately thought was a front. For the record, Finn had said no to driving her across town for a vile cup of poison that could be purchased in literally any corner shop or local cafe, but Billie had said it could be his birthday present to her. Nevermind that he was already supplying alcohol to the stupid party she was dragging him to tonight and had actually bought her a present. With his own money, too. Not crap he’d stolen off of daddy.
He irritably peaked his head out the window, where Billie and Meredith were whispering about something. Meredith had a cup holder and seemed in no hurry to get in the car. Finn let out a frustrated curse then slammed his hand on the beep once, then twice. After nothing happened, he repeated the pattern until Billie hurried over to him.
"What are you doing?" she demanded in a hushed, embarrassed whisper.
"I know it's your birthday and all," he started, not at all managing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, "but time's still moving for the rest of us. You planning to get in anytime soon or should I pay for parking?"
"You hate school," she said accusingly.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I like being late."
Billie huffed but slid into the backseat, her annoying friend not far behind her. Finn huffed and drove off. They had plenty of time, really, but that didn't stop Finn from going faster than was strictly necessary. Call it payback.
"Uhh, Billie...?" Meredith called worriedly.
"It's fine, Mer," Billie said, annoyingly unaffected. "Don't mind him. Anyways, back to what we were talking about..."
Finn flicked on the radio and tuned them out. He could still sort of hear them nattering, but he resisted the temptation to turn the radio up as high as it could go. Billie and Meredith only fell silent at one point—well, Billie fell silent and Meredith did too after she realised she was being ignored. Curious, Finn glanced in his rear view and snorted when he saw Mia Granger and that friend of hers who always looked high walking to school. In the back, Billie scowled fiercely and didn't say anything as they completely passed Mia and her friend by. As a matter of fact, she didn't say anything at all for the rest of the ride!
Finn whistled along to the song on the radio and couldn't contain a satisfied grin as he drove on. Apparently there was still some goodness left in the world.
English with Ms. Meadows was probably Finn's favourite class. Not because he particularly liked English, but because Ms. Meadows seemed inclined to do anything but teach. She sat at the top desk with a book in hand and only acknowledged the general chaos around her when the noise got so loud that it threatened to bother the next class over.
Typically, Finn used Friday's first period English to catch up on homework with his headphones plugged in. He used to just skip it entirely, but he'd gotten caught too many times by Mr. Park and now his uncle Dick had added the area around the school to his morning patrol route. Well, patrol was a strong word. Usually, he just drove by the school but sometimes he stopped in to pay a visit to Ms. Meadows. That those visits were always scheduled during Finn's class in particular was sure to be a coincidence.
But it was whatever. Passing forty-five minutes in the morning with a nap or some homework was fine. Great, even. He didn't actually have any friends in this class so everybody tended to leave him alone. Well, then again, he only had the one friend so that wasn't actually a very uncommon occurrence.
What was an uncommon occurrence, you might ask? Andrew Garde dragging his chair from across the room and trying to talk to him. Finn didn't know if he was more offended by the fact that Andrew was bothering him or the garish pink hoodie he'd paired with his bright orange hair. He was also getting into Finn's personal space. Finn tried to lean away, but Andrew obliviously followed him. Eugh.
And what was he talking about? Well, Finn honestly wasn't too sure. Something about Mia Granger, but Finn had zoned out almost immediately and had stopped paying attention entirely when Andrew had flushed and stammered about her lovely eyes. This was the second time his day had been inconvenienced by the concept of Mia Granger. If people kept acting weird over her, Finn might have to downgrade his opinion of her from 'Kinda cool' to 'Please get out of my life'.
What he really couldn't understand was why Andrew was talking to him over this. They weren't friends. Finn had shared maybe two conversations with him, and they were all accompanied by the one person in the school Finn actually considered a friend, Robert Lane. As a matter of fact, Finn had been under the impression that Andrew didn't like him. He'd formed the opinion sometime between when they first met and Andrew gave him the cold shoulder and straight up told Finn, "I don't like you."
With that in mind, Finn felt pretty confident in interrupting Andrew. "Why are you talking to me?"
"Well, you're going to Billie's party tonight, aren't you?"
Finn snorted. Party was a strong word. Billie actually did have a party scheduled for tomorrow night, but after she got into that fight with Mia she went crazy and cancelled everything. That was whatever. Great, even. Dick’s wife, Jane, had been stressing all month about the logistics of having all those strangers in the house or something and it was driving Finn insane. Cancelling the party had been a wonderful turn of events. But then, Billie somehow got it into her head that she should have a party after all. Not at home, though. That was too basic. She wasn't planning to rent out some restaurant either.
No, apparently Dick owned some fancy house on Covenant that had been left abandoned since it was too expensive to do up or something and Billie had nicked the key. Now Finn had to spend his evening dead sober in a structurally unsound building with a bunch of drunk teenagers making a mess of the place. At least Billie had cut him a nice deal for bringing some drinks and driving her home afterwards. One evening of suffering was definitely worth a thousand bucks. It was kind of ridiculous that Billie just had a thousand Knights lying around the place, but he wasn't about to punch a horse in the mouth or whatever the saying was.
"Sure," Finn said, with a frown.
"Think you could score me an invite?"
This wasn't the sort of party where Andrew needed to 'score an invite'. The guest list was tiny, sure. Only like five or six people were even going tonight. Billie had known better than to host a giant party at that house on Covenant. Finn was pretty sure that Billie had only changed her mind about the whole party thing last minute because she wanted to hang out with her new boyfriend. That and something about annoying Mia Granger. Regardless, Andrew was friends with Robert Lane, who definitely was invited tonight. Why Andrew was asking Finn to invite him made no sense, and he said as much.
"Rob said to ask you," Andrew shrugged. "And that I gotta apologise." Finn waited, but he stopped there. Andrew stared at him with big, imploring blue eyes, and missed the part where he was supposed to give that apology entirely.
Finn sighed. "Why do you even want to go?"
“Well, y’know how Sam’s with Billie now? I was just thinking that, since he’s outta the picture and all, now might be my chance to… y'know. Ask her out.”
Funny how that didn’t make sense at all. Finn tilted his head in confusion and asked, “...Robert’s told you why Billie changed her party plans, yeah?”
“Yeah, she fought with Mia,” Andrew said guilelessly. Finn blinked. …Alright then. He didn’t really want to know more about Andrew’s clearly absurd thought process. If he wanted to ask Mia out at a party she wasn’t even invited to, then who was he to stop Mr. Loverboy?
“‘Course you can come,” Finn said with an easygoing smile. “But I was actually wondering about something. Your dad owns a liquor store, right?”
Lunch was a weird affair. Which was even weirder than weird because she usually loved lunch. After literal hours of suffering through gruelling lectures and being saddled with tons of homework (because God forbid she has a free weekend), the lunch break was like a gift from God. A free hour where she could meet up with her friends and catch up on all the latest gossip. Maybe head into town and treat herself to lunch at Reece's or go home for a bit to decompress.
But Mia was, inexplicably, alone. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been alone for her lunch hour. Probably before her and Billie were even friends. No, even then she'd had Abigail and Sam around. Now, she awkwardly stood next to her locker and tried not to look obviously lonely. The last thing she needed was for Billie to see her in the hallway and notice the fact that she was alone.
Because, of course, Abigail had ditched her. She was off scouring the woods behind the school for a new dealer or something. Ever since Henry Meadows had that breakdown and ran away from Oakfield (not that Mia could blame him. Honestly, who wouldn't run away from this place?), Abigail had been on the lookout for somebody new to sell her weed. Mia had suggested asking Finn Waldron, but apparently the fact that he looks like a stoner doesn't actually mean that he is one.
She can't sit with Sam, since he's probably off with his new girlfriend, and Mia is nowhere near desperate enough to join Andrew Garde at his table with the football team. The football team's not the problem, of course. Andrew Garde's painfully obvious crush on her is. She could only spend so long pretending to ignore his painfully obvious hints before the game got old. Tara Reece is an option. All Mia has to do is switch off her brain and nod every few minutes and she'll get through the lunch hour intact.
But now that she considers it, that's the last thing she wants to do.
After all, Mia's only alone because Billie Resting is the most selfish and annoying person in the world, right? Crashing her party tonight is definitely gonna drive her crazy, but that's not enough. It's the little things that get to Billie. Little things like Leslie Stibbins and his overinflated sense of self-worth.
Mind made up, Mia pushed off her locker and headed for the cafeteria. Billie's there, of course, sitting at a table with Sam Taylor and Meredith Park. Eugh. Mia could forgive Billie for a lot of things, but replacing her with Meredith Park was not one of them.
Because Mia had the worst luck in the world, Billie looked up at that moment and caught her eye. Mia sometimes hated Billie's eyes. They were the brightest shade of blue, the kind that seemed to pierce right through you. Mia didn't want to look away first. It felt like a concession. But she wasn't here to win any staring competitions.
Mia graced her with her meanest smile before she broke eye contact and made a beeline for the loudest, most obnoxious table around. Funnily enough, Tara Reece was here too, but talking with Tara Reece wasn't going to enrage Billie.
"Hi Leslie," she said sweetly. "How are you?”
Leslie Stibbins regarded her with a narrowed eyed stare. Mia had never approached Leslie for anything in her life, so he was probably thinking she was here on Billie's orders. Of course, since Abigail was a giant gossip, everybody knew about their falling out. Actually, since it was Abigail, there were probably rumours floating about that she and Billie had fought a duel for Sammy's hand or something equally ridiculous.
Regardless of what rumour was floating around, it must've been damning enough because Leslie slowly returned her smile and said, "Well, I'm definitely enjoying the look on Billie Resting's face right now. Please, sit.”
Tara Reece scooted over to let her slip in between them. Across from Mia sat a blonde guy she'd seen around the school for years but whose name she couldn't remember. Or maybe she'd never learnt it. Mia didn't actually pay attention to a lot of people in her year.
"Can I just say—I love what you've done with your hair," Tara said, resting a hand on Mia's shoulder. That would've sounded like an insult from anybody else. Mia hadn't done anything with her hair save throw it into a bun atop her head. Tara Reece, however, struck up every conversation by professing love for one's hair or outfit. She hadn't realised it until Billie pointed it out to her, and now Mia couldn't help but take notice every time it happened.
"You're here to make Billie Resting jealous, right?" Leslie asked, obnoxiously biting into his apple with an audible crunch.
"No, I just want to annoy her a little bit," Mia said, wrinkling her nose. Sometimes she forgot why she disliked Leslie Stibbins and then he came out with the weirdest things. It was honestly very nice of him. God forbid she forget how horrible he could be to people and he not do her the favour of reminding her. "As payback."
"Payback for what?"
"Are the rumours true?" Tara asked eagerly. "Did Sam Taylor reject you for Billie?"
"Wha—no! That's not what happened."
Leslie suddenly let out a bored huff. He leaned away from Mia, suddenly much less interested in her presence. "So Abigail was telling the truth."
"The truth?" Mia pressed. She still didn't know what rumour was floating around and Leslie Stibbins wouldn't hesitate to tell it to her straight, because he was delighted by pain and suffering. Much like Billie, actually.
"That you got uninvited from her birthday party and now you're sulking," he said, shaking his head in clear disappointment. "What are you, five?"
Huh. That's not really the truth either. It was Billie being replaced by some pod person that was really annoying her (and okay a lot of her anger was actually over the party), but if this was the rumour Abigail chose to spread then Mia was suddenly very thankful to have her for a friend. Who knows what people would be saying if Meredith Park had half the network Abigail did? At least Abby has tact.
Leslie bit into his apple again, but now he seemed content to ignore Mia's presence entirely. He was actually slightly turned away from her, too, so he was facing out towards the cafeteria. Tara faltered next to her, cutting off what was surely a very intelligent sentence as she shifted her gaze between Mia and Leslie with an impressive lack of subtlety.
Mia didn't appreciate being dismissed, of course, but as the table settled into an uncomfortable bout of silence, Mia's gaze drifted across the hall, to where Billie Resting was staring her down with a knowing, evil grin.
Well, screw her!
"Hey Leslie," she said suddenly, then faltered. Crashing Billie’s party was one thing. Crashing her party with Leslie Stibbins on her arm was downright unforgivable. But so was Billie dating the one guy Mia had ever expressed interest in… wasn’t it? Was it unforgivable? Was she really never going to be friends with Billie again because of some stupid guy? Her stomach rolled and she didn’t feel so angry anymore.
“What?” Leslie asked, looking down on her like she was a particularly bothersome worm. Like hell was this guy worth it. On the other hand, if she said nothing now, she’d probably be stuck with some label like ‘Moron Mia’ or something stupid like that which would follow her around for the rest of her high school career. Everybody still called Fred Grier ‘Fingers’ because of that rumour about him and… well. His own fingers… Mia knew it wasn’t true, of course, because she’d helped Billie and Abigail concoct the rumour, but her point still stood.
She thought quickly, pulling at the first slightly scandalous story that came to mind. “Have you heard anything new about Henry Meadows since he ran away?”
Leslie’s eyes lit up and Mia relaxed. Crisis averted. Now to sit through whatever version of the story he’d heard… When’s lunch over again?
Finn choked when a hand clapped over his shoulder. His hands fumbled, accidentally dropping the cigarette he’d just lit out the open window when a tinkering laugh rang out. He whipped around, catching sight of wild black hair and tawny skin.
“Jesus, Abigail,” he huffed, relaxing. Abigail Winter was probably the last person he needed to worry about catching him with a cigarette. Not that he had one anymore. Since she caused him to drop it out the window, and all. That was the last of his pack, too. “What are you doing up here?”
“Looking for you, actually,” she said. Finn blinked at her in surprise. He’d been using this classroom on the third floor to hide out during lunch whenever he didn’t feel like dealing with other people. It was relatively unused during the day and nobody came in here during lunch. Not once had he been bothered when hiding out up here. Until today, apparently.
“How’d you know where to find me?”
“I’ve seen you sticking your head out that window a few times,” she said, hopping onto a desk. “Anyways, I’ll make it quick. I don’t wanna stop you from fulfilling your role as a high school stereotype, after all.”
Finn almost argued against that, but he also considered it a fair assessment, so he crossed his arms and asked, “What do you want?”
He could probably guess what it was. He and Abigail had shared maybe two conversations before, all in the presence of Billie and her friend Mia. If Abigail was approaching him for a favour, then she likely wanted his help in getting them to make-up. Why she was approaching him, of all people, was kind of insane. He had acquired very few skills throughout his life, and mediation was certainly not one of them.
And you know what? Finn was getting kind of sick of Mia Granger. First Billie and her annoying new friend, then that idiot Andrew Garde and now his refuge of solitude was being invaded by a girl he’d come to know as the biggest gossip in the entire school. All because Mia Granger fought with his cousin. The world ending would probably be less annoying than this crap.
But Abigail did not answer him. Instead, she shrugged off her backpack and dropped it onto the table next to her. She reached inside and pulled out a thin object wrapped in pale, grey fabric. The fabric fell away as she pulled it out, revealing sharp, gleaming silver and a black hilt. A sickly green gem sat in the base.
A knife. Abigail had pulled out a knife.
He only just registered that when she stabbed it clean through the palm of her hand and stared at him with glowing, green eyes, the same colour as the gem that sat in the hilt of the knife.
“Hello darling,” she said, her voice coming out in a strange, doubled effect. “I just wanted to check in and give you a few updates on certain… developments.”
