Chapter Text
Clover is special. She's the drummer for Scarlett and the Shakers, arguably the biggest underground alt band out there. She's bubbly and clumsy, and everyone finds it easy to talk to her. But she's also humble, an advocate, and someone you'll find standing up to injustice.
Scooter is horrendously in love with her.
Scooter figured it out pretty quickly. Clover came up to her once (once!) to apologise for something Scooter couldn't even remember, and boom. Immediate crush. It was actually kind of embarrassing how fast it happened. And it sucked.
Scooter had never been in love as hard as she was now. And she hated it. Everytime Clover crossed her general direction, she became a flustering mess, and it was embarrassing. Especially since her friends refused to let it go. You could only act so tough when your friends knew your weakness is another girl.
Which is why she planned on getting over this. By asking Clover out. She had everything planned for how it would go. She'd wait for class to end and ask Clover to meet her after school. Then that's where she'd ask her, right in front of her locker. It was perfect.
Unfortunately for Scooter, things did not go to plan.
First of all, it was the wrong day. She, in fact, did not have any classes with her. Annoying and anxiety-inducing, but whatever. Scooter could just slip her a note in her locker.
The second thing was a much, much bigger problem.
"What do you mean she's not here?!"
Wylan, Scooter's best friend, just shrugged as he rummaged through his locker. "I dunno. She just texted me and said she's not coming."
"But why?!" Scooter's anxiety was increasing.
"Why do you care so much?" There was an evil glint in Wylan's eyes that said he already knew the answer.
"Shut up."
Wylan pretended not to hear that.
"Anyways, she's probably just skipping for practice or somethin'," Wylan shut his locker after grabbing out a hefty textbook. "She'll be back. She's gotta tutor Connor today."
"Oh," A wave of relief washed over Scooter, knowing that she'd at least be back. Suddenly, it came back. "Wait, tutoring?"
"Uh, yeah? She tutors Connor in English. I thought you'd of all people would know that since you-"
"Ok cool, gotta go!" Scooter quickly rushed off to her next class, not wanting to wait around and listen to what her friend was going to say next.
The rest of the day went by without Scooter processing anything going on. The only thing on her mind was Clover. Every class was spent going over the new plan in her head- find Clover after school, talk to her somewhere in private, and then she would ask her out. And hopefully Clover would accept.
By the time that last bell went, Scooter was shaking from nerves. She immediately jumped out of her seat and rushed out of the classroom. She had no idea when Clover would get here or which way she'd go, but Scooter had ultimately decided on just waiting near her locker. It was on the way to where most of the English classrooms were anyway, so she was bound to pass through at some point.
The actual wait for Clover was painful. Every minute that went by made Scooter more anxious. She scanned the crowd of students trying to look for her, but she wasn't there. The crowd slowly dissolved into a few students, and there was still no sight of her. Scooter's patience was running thin, and she debated whether or not it was even worth waiting.
Just as she was about to give up and leave, she spotted Clover, carrying a large textbook. A sigh of relief and a wave of anxiety crashed simultaneously with each other. She was relieved to see her. On the other hand though, Clover being here meant that Scooter absolutely had to go through with this now.
Before she could even try and catch her attention though, Clover spotted her. Scooter's heart stopped for a moment, waiting for her to do something.
Clover smiled and immediately began walking towards her.
Oh god what is she doing.
Desperate to stop her hands shaking before Clover got to her, Scooter immediately grabbed her skateboard off her back to hold. The closer Clover got, the more Scooter could feel her anxiety growing. She felt like she was going to die if Clover kept looking at her.
Amazingly, Scooter was the first to speak when Clover got close enough.
"Uh, hi."
Clover just blinked back at her. She quickly broke into a smile though. "Hi! Wylan said you wanted to talk to me after school."
That bastard! Scooter silently cursed to herself. Of course he would've told Clover, just to make sure she actually went through with it.
"Are you alright Scooter?"
"Huh?" Scooter hadn't noticed that she hadn't responded. "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You look really sick."
Fan-fucking-tastic. Just what I needed.
"I'm sure." Scooter stared down at her hands. Shit, I really do look sick. Her eyes darted to the nearest thing to stare at instead, which happened to be Clover's boots.
"Uh, Clover, can I ask you something?"
"Sure! What is it?"
Scooter's heart was racing wildly. What was she even going to ask? Ask to go out with her? Ask to date her? Hell, was Scooter even sure that Clover liked girls? Her jumbled thoughts made Scooter mumble out the most pathetic-sounding sentence of her life.
"Do you like girls?"
…why did I ask that.
There was a very long pause. Scooter had to fight through her embarrassment to even get a glimpse of Clover's face. She seemed… embarrassed, almost? As if she got caught off guard.
"Uh, yeah? I don't really hide it very well. Why's that?"
"Um…" Hurry up Scooter, think! "Because I uh, I have a crush on you."
Scooter felt an extremely heavy weight suddenly drop on her feet.
She could hear Clover frantically apologising for dropping her textbook, but nothing she was saying was registering in Scooter's brain. Her brain was too fried from embarrassment. She could not believe she had actually gone through with it. Sort of. She wasn't really focused on how Clover was reacting. But she hadn't been slapped or yelled at, so clearly it wasn't going entirely awful.
Slowly, Scooter brought herself back to reality. Clover had stopped talking by that point, but she looked extremely flustered. Her face was burning red, which made her bright blonde hair stand out. If Scooter wasn't equally as embarrassed, she probably would've been thinking about how cute it made her look.
This conversation could not get any worse.
"I'm sorry," Scooter was gripping her skateboard so hard that her knuckles were going white. "I-"
"No! Don't apologise!" Clover interrupted her before Scooter could explain herself. "I-I was just surprised! I wasn't expecting you to say that. I didn't know that you, um… liked me back."
…
That revelation shot a nice boost of adrenaline into her.
"Excuse me?!"
"Were you not listening?" Clover, thankfully, did not seem angry- she just seemed more flustered. "I didn't think someone like you would like me."
The absurdity of the situation made Scooter laugh.
"What the hell made you think that?!"
"I don't know!" Clover's demeanour had also relaxed slightly. "I just thought that, I don't know, you were too cool for me or something."
Clover thinks I'm too cool for her?! Seriously?! The thought made Scooter feel almost giddy. Before she was given the chance to even think of a response, a small buzz came from a phone. Clover dug into her pocket to pull it out.
"Shoot- I'm so sorry, I was supposed to be at tutoring ages ago," Clover frantically texted something back before shoving her phone in her pocket. "I'm so, so sorry, I really need to go."
Scooter quickly spoke again before Clover could walk off. "Uh, before you go, can I get your number?"
"Huh? Oh! Um, of course!" Clover opened her textbook and tore off a piece of blank paper she had been storing in there. Pulling out a pencil from her pocket, she frantically scribbled her number down before shoving it into Scooter's hands.
"Text me, okay?" Clover smiled at her, sending Scooter's heart back to racing rapidly. She watched as Clover turned around and started running towards the classrooms.
Scooter had never felt so dangerously ill yet so exhilarated in her entire life.