██████████ 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .
▌│█║▌║▌║ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞 ║▌║▌║█│▌
⋘ 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡... ⋙
Malia entered her History classroom, a confused expression on her face. Her usually empty two seater desk, which she sat at alone was not empty.
Instead, a brunette girl, with shoulder length hair and dark skin sat on the seat next to hers. Fixing the bag thar hung on her back, she hesitantly walked forward taken her seat.
The girl looked up, her eyes wide and innocent. For reasons unknown, Malia already felt protective over her. "Hey." She smiled softly, placing her bag on the floor. "Are you new?" She asked, though winced when she realized how obvious the answer was.
Breathing out a chuckle at her reaction, the girl nodded. "Yeah, I'm new." She said, her voice clearly anxious. "I'm Dylan."
"Malia, nice too meet you." She grinned, taken note of how Dylan anxiously played with her fingers. "I hope your good at history, cause I really need someone to copy off of."
Dylan laughed, nodding her head. "Only if your able to help me with my English work. I've never been good at it." She admitted, feeling a little more confident the more the two talked.
"You've got yourself a deal." Malia agreed. "Do you have any plans for break?" She asked, realizing Dylan probably didn't know anyone.
Dylan shook her head. "None." She shrugged, whispering as their history teacher entered the class.
Malia moved closer to her slightly, making sure her voice was quite. "You can hang out with me. I'll introduce you too my friend, you'll love him."
By the time class ended, the two girls had gotten to know each other better. Whilst doing their work, they'd also spent the time talking which resulted in their teacher handing them out several warnings.
"Liam!" Malia called, catching sight of her best friend who had been talking to three boys.
Nodding at the three, Liam left them, making his way towards Malia, his eyebrow raised slightly in confusion as a girl stood next her, looking nervous. "Alright?" He greeted.
Malia hummed. "This is Dylan, she's..." but she was suddenly cut off.
"They." They corrected, their voice small but both Malia and Liam heard clearly. Clearing their throat, they spoke a little louder. "My pronouns are they/them."
Malia nodded her head, before continuing to speak. "They've just moved here. Their in my history class, and so far they're really cool."
Dylan smiled gratefully, feeling their heart burst with happiness. Not only did Malia accept her without judgment, she didn't ask questions.
Liam nodded his head, a little confused but he would talk to Malia about it later. "Nice to meet you." He nodded his head. "Liam O'Donovan, smartest, hottest and best person in Malia's life." He grinned, throwing his arm around Malias shoulders.
Malia scoffed, "you sure about that, O'Donovan?" She asked, though she made no attempt at moving Liam's arm.
"I know so, love." He shrugged, bringing her closer if possible. "You can't even deny it."
Dylan looked between the two who looked at each other, jokingly arguing with one another. "Are you two together then?" They finally asked, minutes later when they still couldn't work it out.
Both Liam and Malia's checks flushed red, something that Dylan made sure to take a mental note of.
After a second, when neither of them answered, Malia scoffed. "He wishes." She joked, checking the time on her phone. "Come on, I'll show you too your next class.
Detaching herself from Liam, Malia looped her arms with Dylan and began to walk away, looking over her shoulder to send once last smile towards Liam.
"Listen..." she began once the two were in the building, heading towards science. "About earlier, I should of asked about your pronouns instead of just assuming."
Dylan shook their head, the smile still on their face. "Don't worry about it, you didn't do anything wrong. Most people stop and ask questions, you didn't and I appreciate it."
Shrugging, Malia stopped in front of a classroom door. "It's not my place to ask questions. That's who you are, no one needs to question it."
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･
Sitting in an empty classroom, Malia stayed silent as she watched Pearl, her social worker smile guiltily. Pearl had changed a lot since the last time they had saw each other. Her hair was now much shorter, her curly hair was tied into a bun, whilst she looked skinner then before.
"I'm sorry for not coming too see you sooner Malia. I had planned on it, and then something happened and I've just been struggling to come to terms with it." Pearl sighed, her eyes looked haunted.
Malia smiled at her sympathetically. "What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" She asked softly, scared she had over stepped.
Pearl hesitated before answering, the events of the past few months shining in her eyes almost as if she was reliving it. "My sister, she died in a car accident." She explained, her voice cracking as she blinked back tears.
"I'm so sorry." Malia signed, she didn't have any siblings of her own, but if something happened to someone from elmtree house, she could only imagine how she'd feel.
"You don't have to apologize for not talking to me or coming to see me, I understand why. It wasn't your fault, you needed time to grieve." Malia said, smiling warmly towards the older woman.
"Your very kind, Malia." Pearl said, it was evident how much the young girl had grown. "Mikes told me how well you've settled in. Do you enjoy it there?" She asked, smiling more brightly now.
Malia nodded her head. "At first, i thought I'd hate it and everyone in it, but I really like it there. It helps that Liam lives there as well, a bit of a surprise when he turned up through a window mind, but still."
Pearls smile dropped and was replaced with a confused look. "Who's Liam? And why was he climbing through a window?" She asked, breathing a laugh when she heard how odd it sounded.
"Liam's my best friend, we were friends before I was put in care, turns out he just so happened to be living at the same home I got put into." She explained. "I don't really know why he was climbing through a window, then again, I don't know why he dose most stuff."
☾ ⋆*･:⋆*･
After a long conversation with Pearl, where the two got caught up, Malia left the room feeling a lot happier.
Though she couldn't help but feel bad for her social worker. Losing her sister must of been really hard but it also made her admire how strong she was for coming back to work so soon.
It wasn't until she felt a body bumping into hers did she realize she had walked into someone. Shaken her head, refocusing her vision, she saw the face of James.
"Shit, Malia, I'm really sorry." He apologized, his hands on both her shoulders to steady her.
Malia blinked before answering. "My bad, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She apologized, feeling awkward with him touching her.
With Liam, it felt natural, normal even. She felt her stomach go funny and her cheeks go hot. She didn't feel that with James.
"What class do you have next?" James asked, removing his hands. "I'll walk you." He suggested, grinning hopefully at her.
Clearing her throat, Malia nodded her head. "I'm actually heading towards the science block, I'm meeting a friend." She explained, trying hard to mask the awkwardness in her voice.
She'd talked to James a handful of times, she wouldn't even consider him an acquaintance, let alone a friend. She couldn't help but feel awkward.
"I'll walk you anyways." He shrugged, heading in the direction of the Science block. "How have you been?" He asked.
Letting go of the side of her mouth which she had been biting, Malia gave an awkward smile. "I've been good, you?" She asked, trying to be polite.
"Yeah? Me too." He smiled before looking towards her. "We haven't really hung out at all, do you want to?"
Malia furrowed her eyebrows confused. "Do I want to: what?" She asked, confusion evident in her voice as she stopped in her tracks.
James stopped walking as well, leaning against the wall next to them, he shrugged. "Hang out sometime, just us."
If Malia was confused before, it was nothing to how she was feeling now. "Why?" She questioned, not understanding why he was asking. He'd never cared too before.
"I just realized we don't know each other much, I guess." He'd admitted, folding his arms in front of him. "I'd like to get to know you, you seem cool."
"Yeah, alright then." Malia finally said, knowing she'd only feel bad for saying no. "One day, maybe."
☾ ⋆*･:⋆*･
Once Liam and Malia had gotten home, they'd changed into their normal clothes and sat in Liam's room. Neither had said anything, purely just enjoying one another's company.
"Lia..." Liam began, holding the tennis ball in his hand which he had previously been throwing up and down. "Can I ask you something?"
Malia put the book she was reading down on her lap before nodding her head. "Anything." She smiled.
"You know your new friend, Dylan." He began, a little hesitant. "I don't understand, why don't they call them selfs a boy or a girl?" He asked. He wasn't against it by any means, just confused and curious.
"I don't know Li." She sighed. "I don't understand it completely myself, but it's not our place to ask. There's loads of things we don't understand, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't accept it.
I mean, for example neither of us fully understand how the world was made, why shouldn't we accept the fact it was made?" She shrugged, not knowing if that made sense or not.
"Probably not the best example to use." Malia snorted. "However, it's how Dylan sees themselves that matters, and they feel like they don't fit into being either a boy or a girl, so their non binary. That's not for us or anyone else to judge."
Liam nodded his head, somewhat understanding what she had meant. "I wasn't judging them or anything." He quickly reassured.
Malia only smiled. "I know you weren't, and I'm glad you asked me instead of staying confused. You know how you get when your confused."
"Piss off." Liam laughed, throwing the tennis ball at her, once again ignoring his feelings for her and hoping they'd go away soon.
An: hey bbys!! This is just
a little filler chapter, but
i wanted to show Malia's
relationship with people
outside of tdg.
Dylan is the first ever non
binary character I've
writing, so if I make any
mistakes, please don't
hesitate to correct me.
I wanted to make a
character like Dylan to
hopefully make others
who don't identify as
either a boy or a girl
feel included.
I also think it's good to keep
in mind that all these characters
are going to play huge parts
in this book, especially in the future.
I decided to change Pearls fc.
Although I love Zendaya, I
feel like she's used a lot for fcs
whilst there's so many other
beautiful people who could
be used. So if you want to check
the new fc out, feel free, it'll be
in the "cast" chapter.
I've yet to pick a fc for James,
but once I do, he'll be up as
well, same with Dylan.
Also, I desperately want to
change Malia's fc I just don't
know who to. It has to be
someone who has a quite a
few scenepack of them so I
can make edits so if you have
any suggestions, please let me know.
I love you all!!
Malia's outfit is just her school uniform since she was mainly at school this chapter 🫶🏻🫶🏻