CHAPTER 1
⌗ 𓂃 𖥔༌ ᰷ ﹅doodles and chem﹅ ᰷ 𖥔༌ 𓂃⌗
JANUARY 20th, 1975, MONDAY.
"finney, wake up."
"finney, I said wake up!"
I threw a pair of my brother's jeans, that were previously draped over his chair at his face, jolting him awake from his bedsheets.
"I'm awake!" he yelled out, tiredness slurring his words. I shushed him, ceasing his yelling.
"get up. get ready." I ordered before leaving his room to go and wake up gwen.
gwen was always nicer to wake up.
"hey, gwenny, wake up," I gently shook gwen's shoulder, causing her to groan and roll over.
"morning," she murmured, tiredly.
"morning. time to wake up sweetie," I whispered, but couldn't resist dropping one of her many pillows on her face as I left.
as I walked out, I bumped into my dad on the way to the bathroom.
"good morning," I muttered as I passed him.
"good morning," he mumbled absentmindedly as he walked past me to the kitchen. he seemed hungover, most likely was.
I finally made it to the bathroom and began to do some light makeup and brush my teeth. finney joined me soon after as I started brushing my teeth.
as I entered the kitchen, I felt the mood shift. gwen sat opposite dad, taking small bites of her toast. dad frowned at his newspaper as he read, sighing and shaking his head occasionally. the tension was definitely there as gwen and I tried to be as quiet as possible.
"gwenny, have you brushed your teeth?" I asked her gently. she put the last corner of her toast down with a slightly guilty look.
"no." she muttered.
"don't be unhygienic, gwen." dad grumbled, started to get annoyed.
"go brush them for me sweetie, i'll clean up your plate," I placed my hand on her shoulder as she jumped up from her chair and ran off back down the hall.
I took her plate up to the sink and ran the tap. as I was scrubbing the jam away, the wet plate slipped from my grasp and fell into the sink with a thud followed by a slight clang from the metal sink.
"shit." I muttered under my breath as I heard dad's newspaper crinkle under his balled fist of anger. "I'm sorry, dad. I-I didn't mean to. it just slipped-"
"I thought I raised you better than this, y/n." he grumbled, standing up and making his slow way over to me.
"dad, honestly. it was an accident!" I turned the tap off and turned around as I wiped my hands down on my jeans.
"don't give me that crap!" dad shouted and pointed his finger in my face. I flinched. "what have I told you-"
"I'm ready to go to school." finney stood in the doorway of the kitchen and the hallway, fiddling with the strap of his messenger bag as his eyes nervously darted between dad and I. gwen stood behind him, her face twisted in anxiety.
"have you eaten breakfast?" my voice came out wobbly.
"no. but I'm not hungry." he replied.
"take an apple, at least," I picked one up from the fruit bowl beside me and ran it under the tap before hurrying past dad to press the red ball into finney's hand. "c'mon, let's go."
I hurried the kids out of the front door without a second glance to dad, who was still stood their fuming. there was an angered shout from within the house a brief second after the door closed and I hurried the kids down the path and out of the chainlink gate.
***
we'd reached the elementary-middle school fairly quickly. the two schools had been joint into the bigger middle school which wasn't too far of a walk from our house.
"ok, have a good day, kids. don't get into any trouble with people you don't want trouble with. answer questions in class and do the work, i'll meet you back home," I dusted the kids down and sorted their collars before pressing a kiss to gwen's head and ushering her off. as I went to kiss finney on the head he shied away from me. "what? too cool to let your older sister give you a kiss on the head?"
"no, just too old, don't ya think?" finney retorted, a small smile tugging on his lips. I smirked back at him.
"how bout you fuck off into school then?" I joked. I was always more jokey with finney; he was older and understood my humour better. he flipped both his middle fingers up as he walked backwards and slowly turned to face the school building. "hey, I don't wanna be hearing from your teachers that your giving kids at school the finger!"
"yeah, yeah!" he laughed.
"he's lucky I even let him get away with that." I muttered with a smile as I turned to walk to the high school to start my day of classes.
***
I span my combination into the lock on my locker.
"y/nnnnn!" my best friend, bruce yamada, leant on the locker beside me.
"hey," I replied, unable to suppress the smile he brought to my face. I pulled the books I needed from my locker into my bag and grumpily slammed my locker shut.
"howww isss life?" we both turned from my locker to head to class. I knew what he was referring to, it's not like he could outright ask me 'how's your home life, is your asshole dad still abusing the will to live out of you for every little noise you make?'.
"alright, had a stand-off in the kitchen with dad cuz I dropped a plate and finney had to save me from getting my ass beat." I scuffed my shoes along the floor, still grumpy. bruce was the only person who knew about my dad and his drinking problem. he briefly placed a hand on my shoulder in comfort. "whaddya got first?"
"chem, you?" I returned the question.
bruce was about to respond before he cut himself off.
"dude. is that vance hopper?" I glanced in the direction of where my best friend was looking.
stood beside his locker was the one and only 'pinball' vance hopper. he was in our grade, 11th, and barely ever came in, he usually lingered around the grab'n'go, dominating the pinball machine. everybody knew not to mess with him or his game if they valued their lives or their faces.
"damn, third week of the year and the main man himself shows! big early don't ya think?" bruce joked.
"leave him alone, he obviously finds it tough to come into school. I heard his stepdad's a dick," I stuck up for the blonde, understanding what it's like to have a dad who doesn't have the greatest temper.
"why don't you take time off for your dad?" bruce questioned.
"I don't exactly wanna be around him, he doesn't work full time so he gets some days off," I replied. "plus, he'd beat my ass if he found out I was bunking off."
"fair, fair." bruce nodded his head. I stopped outside my classroom, bringing bruce to a halt too. "i'll see ya later then, dorkface."
"in a bit, asshat," I joked. bruce was about to leave before vance hopper came up to the door beside me. he was holding a crumpled sheet of paper as he glanced between the door and the paper with a confused face. bruce eyed him with a mix of excitement and caution.
"is this 6S?" the blonde boy turned to us with a frown. bruce turned to me with wide eyes, surprised that pinball vance hopper was interacting with us. it made sense he was asking, the number to the classroom had been scraped off the wall. public school shit.
"yeah it is. are you in here next?" I asked as I gave him a friendly smile. bruce nudged my foot warning as I spoke so I kicked him back.
"ow!"
"yeah... is it chem?" vance asked.
"yep." vance grumbled in distaste at my answer. the rest of the class started to loiter outside of the classroom, waiting for 9:00 to come around.
"I'm gonna go, see ya," bruce said to me as he waved at some cute girls checking him out.
"wow, I can see your ego growing!" I remarked sarcastically. I heard vance snort at my joke. bruce widened is eyes at me in surprise again. "see you at break."
***
"...so the molecules of hydrogen..." I sighed as our chemistry teacher rattled on about molecules and H2O.
I gazed out of the window beside my seat at the back. I heard hurried scribbles from beside me and quickly looked over. pinball vance was in the seat beside me, furiously scribbling in his book. I felt like vance wasn't exactly the type to take notes but checked anyways.
"hey, are we writing notes?" I leaned over and whispered to him.
"hm?" vance's head shot up to look at me, ceasing his scribbling.
"what are the notes? I missed it," I repeated.
"notes?" vance looked confused.
"no? I just... heard you writing quickly I thought we were taking notes." vance looked at me with a blank face. "forget I said anything."
I looked back out of the window as vance bent his head back over his page.
I rested my chin on my hand and gazed out of the window again, daydreaming. I heard something slide on to my desk and looked over. I saw vance place his spiral notepad on my desk before he retracted his arm as he eyed me cautiously.
I looked at the lined page and saw it filled with doodles. there was a pinball machine, a crushed coke can, a pile of candies, a cadbury's candy bar and many other little things. in the bottom corner, there was a small signature. 'v Hopper.' it read. I picked up my pen and waved it at vance in a question. vance nodded. with it, I drew a small outline of an angel *see bottom for reference* and signed my name at the bottom in the same style but swirlier. I handed the notepad back with a smile. I noticed a small smile tug at vance's lips too before he pushed it back down.
I noticed him run his fingers over my doodle and smirk fondly before I looked back out the window, not wanting anyone to think I had heart eyes for violent 'pinball' vance hopper.
we finally reached the end of class and I began to pack up when something was slipped onto my desk by a pale hand with a leather wristband adorned wrist. I looked up to see a blonde mop of hair walking away from my desk and out of the class. I looked down to see what vance had placed on my desk to find a messily folded piece of lined paper. already half-sure of what it was, I unfolded the piece to find all of his doodles and my angel's hair coloured in with neon blue highlighter. I smiled to myself with a chuckle as I stuffed it into my back pocket.
***
"hey, kids! how were your days?" I asked as I closed the front door and locked it.
"good," finney responded absentmindedly with his eyes glued to the tv screen.
"uh huh, sounds good, y/n," gwen followed up in the same state as finney.
"didn't even... y'know what. never mind. d'you guys want chicken fingers and chips for dinner?" I asked them, making them look up.
"seriously? but... it's wednesday." finney stated, confused.
"wow, great observational skills finney! yeah, I can't be bothered to cook, so." I joked. "turn the tv off now, come set the table."
***
THIS IS THE DOODLE IF YOU WERE WONDERING
FIRST CHAPTER YIPPEE SORRY IT'S SHORT
MORE WILL HAPPEN SOON THIS WAS JUST SETTING THE SCENE HEEHEE