Archive of Our Own ^beta

Savannah fumbled back as a skateboard flew at her, gone just as fast as it came. 

The boy on it laughed as he barrelled away. She clutched her green hat and trudged on.

She bumped into another girl– 

“Hey, are you new?”
“Am I that see-through?”
“A little, but that's fine.” She smiled gently. “Angelina’s my name, but not Angel. I hate that–! .. But Lina is alright.”

“I’m Savannah. It’s nice to meet you!”

Then she realized there was a second girl. She held out her hand. “I’m Gennivieve. But you can just call me Genny.”
“Well, nice to meet you too, Genny.” She took Genny’s hand and shook it. 

“Do you need a paw?”
“Yes please, oh my dog–! What do these papers mean??”

Lina took the paper into her own hands and examined it carefully. “Hey what a surprise, your lockers right by mine– let me show you around Orange County Day School!”

“Long for OCD. The school where the kids ar–”
“Oh, c’mon, Genny. No.” She elbowed her friend dressed in a green crop top and wide dark jean shorts; they look like they’d once been big baggy jeans that had been cut.

Lina herself wore a blue t-shirt far too large, sleeves ending just at her elbows; tucked into an actual big pair of baggy jeans, in white. She also had vitiligo, lighter patches covering each joint and bend in her hands and elbows and face. Savannah felt a bit silly with her white collared shirt, ¾ buttoned up green cardigan, and black skirt that peaked out of the big cardigan. It was rather warm..

“You may have heard the thrills from Beverly Hills– y'know, the whole, ‘the sky is never cloudy, the ground is like a grill’. Only half true. The ground is like a grill. And there's clouds out right now . But hey, at least it's a sunny day.”

“Ah, yeah, the ‘dream right by the coast’ nonsense. I mean, it is nice, but they sell it too hard.” Genny shrugged.

Lina suddenly stopped. “Ah, here it is. So your locker should be somewhere around hereee..” She looked back down at the stolen paper. “Ah! There it is.” She pointed curtly.

“Oh, thank you.. I.. I just.. Can’t believe I’m here, y'know? I’m so excited to start the year!” She was handed back the schedule paper.

Genny sighed. “Who’s gonna tell her about the Barbie Dolls?”

“Uhhh.. you did it last, I think. So me.”
“The Barbie Dolls?” Savannah tilted her head.

“Okay, so, uh.. Y’know those girls that you just.. Know to evade?”
“..No.. I was, uh, homeschooled.”
“Oh. Um.. so, at the top, is the queen who rules over all, sorta. Her and her goons are called the Barbie Dolls.”
“Who..?”
“Brooke Hayes, Alica Hamilton, and Rachel Rivera. Just a bunch of dumb girls.”
“Brooke?”

“..Yes..?”

“You’re kidding.”

“Don’t tell me.”
“I was her best friend!”

“Oh.. Hm. Where are you from?”
“Montana.”
“Hah! So she lied about being born here. Knew it.”

Now it was Genny’s turn to shove. “Not the problem, Lina!”
“You’re no fun,” she pouted. “But whatever. I just wanted to test my theory.”
“C’mon, we all know Brooke is a chronic liar. Nothing to test there.”

“True.”
“She never lied to me..?”
Both Genny and Lina exchanged a glance.

Lina was the one who spoke. “...just how naive are you, by the way?”

“Plenty not.”
“Are you… sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure, jeez. People just.. Change.”

“You’re not going into this thinking ‘I can fix her’, right?”

“No. I just.. Wanna see her again.”
“Then knock yourself out. Just don't lose any teeth.”
Lina gently pushed her closer to the center of the wallway, right where–

…right where Brooke was walking to. 

Savannah heard Genny chastise her in angry whispers. But that wasn’t the problem.

Brooke was right here. She was right here, and nothing how she remembered her; fluffy pink skirt, her black glasses gone and replaced with a string of pearls around her neck, revealing clothing, just– nothing like the nerd she knew when she was 11, 12.

And she was gorgeous. She dared to be absolutely gorgeous, too. Great.

“...Brooklyn, listen, I–”
“Sav?” Her eyes were wide.

“Brooke? Are you–”
“Savvy, I’m so sorry.”

“I– it’s okay, Brooke, it wasn’t up to you–”

Brooke was trying to be gentle with her words, but Sav could hear the slight.. impatience?

“I’m sorry I left you behind, okay? But can we– talk about this somewhere else?”

“..Sure–?”
She was pulled behind a vending machine in seconds. “ What are you doing here?”

“My dad, we had to move for his job–”
“How did you afford this place?”
“...Er.. a lot of our money’s going here.”

“ Savannah! Please, that is not necessary. I’m not worth you going broke.”
“But you are. You’ve been my best friend since I was just a puppy!”
“Well, I grew up. You need to get your tail out of here. This place will eat you alive.”
“It’s the only school nearby!”

“And the most expensive one in the county! Come on. You can’t stay here, Sav.”

Savannah stared at her with big eyes, but squinting at her once she thought about it more. “Why? What, do you not want me here?”

“No, anything but that! I just–.. It won’t be good for you. Prestigious schools aren’t all just about good grades, not in California of all places. People care about looks, okay? And I don’t want you trying to change yourself for vanity and attention.”
Savannah stared at her with half lidded, unimpressed eyes. “You’ve already done that.”
“I didn’t want to. She made me. They all made me.”
“..Brooke, who–?”

She suddenly snapped, straightening up, her spine as straight as a pencil. “That's none of your business!”

Brooke turned her back to her, arms crossed. “Meet me here by this vending machine tomorrow during lunch. Or don’t.” 

Savannah watched Brooke storming off as her poofy skirt floated on the air. Watched as her middle school best friend walked away from her.

Watched as her possibly final chance slammed the door in her face.

She stared at where Brooke used to be.

The two girls she befriended found her and placed a hand on each of her shoulders, turning her away and prying her from the spot; but gently, gently guiding her away.

Genny and Lina invited her to sit with them. She assumed they probably would, it was her first day and she needed somewhere to sit.

All she could think about over lunch was of the first ever time she got to sleepover at Brooke’s house. It was nearly a castle, spacious and tall with something expensive on every wall, and a huge chandelier hanging down far out of reach, yet still perfectly shiny. Her bed was large and the softest fabric her paws had ever touched, and the sheets and pillows were perfectly flat and pressed. It almost felt like it was a brand new dollhouse, right out the box, unplayed with. Unlived in. 

She remembered making it feel lived in. She remembered rolling all over the bed, shuffling the pillows around, hitting Brooke over the head with them. She remembered tossing the blankets out of the way to lay under. She remembered leaving a handful of markers out of their places in the cup, she remembered crumpling a messed up drawing and it getting thrown at the trash can and missing, over and over again until she got it in. (She’d do a lot of things for that picture she drew.)

Hell, she even remembered the mediocre dinner. There was just so much awe. It was just about any young girl's dream to live in a big pink castle, and that's practically what Brooke had.

Genny gently bumped her shoulder, and she finally came back to the real world. Savvy tried not to frown as the memory faded, going to finally eat her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and apple without much thought or care.

Brooke stared, uninterested in the leftover salad from last night she’d taken for lunch.

She had far too much to think about. Who in dog's name did that beagle think she was, waltzing back into her life like nothing had changed?

She sighed. 

She remembered the various visits she’d made to Savannah’s house for sleepovers. The way her whole room was darker, muted colors, to be nicer on the eyes. The way everything in the house seemed to be very well loved. The shelves that leaned, the cracks in the floor, the stained countertops and floors. The dirty boots by the front door with still-wet umbrellas, the worn welcome mat. The way her bed dipped in the middle, the way the blankets were messily laid about, the way the sheet slightly came up and off at the corner, the way her pillows were creased, the way her plushies were naturally worn with play and love. The way it was so peaceful. The smell of hearty soup from the kitchen she could smell even up in Sav’s room, the way the bowls they were served in had a chip or two on the outside of the rim, the way none of them seemed to match. The way the whole place was the perfect size between small and medium. The way every part of the house felt like a secret nook. The way the tiles were broken at a few corners of a few squares. The way the walls still had marks mostly covered with new paint or furniture.

The way she felt like she had nothing to worry about.

The way Savvy’s mother gently greeted the two, the way her phone had a crack in a screen.

The way everything was messy in the perfect way. Just ever slightly. Only a smidgen to the left.

She remembered every dinner Savvy's mother made for them. Every single one was delicious and filling. She wished her mother could cook as well, let alone at the very least give her something edible.

She remembered once Savvy's mother giving her a pat on the head and telling her she was 'a good kid'.

She remembered going home to her own house and being told Savannah was a bad influence. ('Where?', she wanted to ask. She was in no way a bad influence. Brooke's mother seemed to fear the poor kid.)

She remembered. She wouldn't forget.

Tomorrow would come. She couldn’t stop time.

She wished she could.

“I can’t be your friend anymore, Savvy.”

She stopped right in her tracks. “What? Why?”
“I can’t tell you that,” She got defensive, and Savannah backed up. “Just– we can’t be friends anymore if you keep walking around looking like a geek. I have to be pretty, I ..”

She hesitated. Savvy couldn’t remember Brooke ever hesitating, 

“I cannot lose my status. My mother, she–... I have worked too hard for all this. I can’t just throw it away for you.”
Her words had always been sharp, to the point. So why was she getting soft around the edges, flowery?

“I want to, Savannah. I want to.”
“Then do it, Brooke. You were never a coward.”

She bared her teeth, her muzzle inches away from Savannah’s. “Don’t you speak to me like that!”
“Then say what you mean, Brooke!”

“I did!” 

Brooke’s shoulders fell, after a second.

Now she couldn’t tell if Brooklyn Hayes was crying because she was genuinely distraught, or if she was trying to manipulate her.

“Give me a reason to trust you again! Is this you trying to test our friendship? Don’t do this to me, Brooke. Don’t break my heart.”
“I mean it, Sav. I mean it. I don’t want to mean it.”
“Then you don’t have to! You don’t have to, Brooke, we can just– go on, just like we had been! There’s nothing we need to change, nothing worth changing. I know you’re still that nerd with broken frames that watches anime. You just aged a few years, started wearing contacts, and got a trip to the hairdresser. Underneath all that glamor, you are still you. The you I was friends with. The you I couldn’t bear to live without, my best friend, the–..”
“What? Spit it out, Sav.” She suddenly smirked– laughing slightly, tears still in her eyes, one even falling down her cheek as she spoke. “Say what you mean.”
“The you I loved.”

Brooke stopped dead in her tracks. “What?” She practically spat on her with her tone.

“You were my best friend, Brooke. Of course I loved you. I always did.”
“Stay away from me.”

Brooke shoved her into the wall and, yet again, walked away.

It’d hurt every time before, but that time seemed to drive a stake straight through her heart.

She didn’t even have the strength to stand again.

Again. Again, she just sat and watched her go.

She wanted to stand. She wanted to run up to Brooke and grab her wrist, pull her back, tell her it’ll all be fine.

She, maybe, just maybe, wanted to kiss her. No, that’d be silly. Never happening.

She wasn’t sure California was such a good idea anymore.

The bell showing lunch was over rang.
 

With shaking arms and weak legs, she stood and walked the hall, going to the next class.

She’d make herself someone Brooke would have to see. She wouldn’t be ignored anymore.

Genny and Lina invited Savannah to the mall. Truth be told, she had no idea they had been planning exactly the thing she had been, but she couldn’t complain.

“So, Savvy, what did your mom say?”
“That I’m not going blond today. But she said I could do a less harsher hairdo, like a red.”

“Hey, wait, we can make this work!”

Lina nodded. “Redheads have a lusty lure.”
Genny looked at her. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Nothing. Just– let's give you a unique look, you don’t wanna be Brooke!”
“Well then– go ahead! But–.. I’ve never done something like this before..”
“Once we’re done with you, you’ll be transformed!”

They did it all very gently; carefully applying just the right amount of dye, making sure not to get any in unnecessary areas, combing and brushing in such a way to not tangle or get caught on a snag. Being almost soft with the hairdryer. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get this kind of quality at an actual barbers shop.

They handed her a mirror.

She was.. A little scared to see what they might’ve done, but still.

“You’re all ready, Savvy!” Genny smiled.

She took a deep breath and picked it up to her face.

 “Oh my dog. It's… it's perfect! It’s like I’m a new girl! I.. wow..”

Lina grinned just as expected, in the same sort of sly way she always did. “Glad you like it! Tomorrow is Monday, you get to show it off so soon! I’m so excited to see the look on her face.”

Savannah hadn’t been sure she’d ever been more excited to see Brooke before.

Lina whispered, “They’re, uh.. Looking at you a lot.”
Genny and her constant assurance everything would be great. “Yeah, cause you’re totally hot!”
“Thank you, guys..”

And as expected, there she was. The queen bee.

They glared into the others soul across the hallway. (It was interesting how fast they caught the others eye.)

Brooke could only think of one thing.

‘Oh no. She’s gorgeous. Great.’

Savannah smirked in an odd and twisted way. Almost evilly. 

She barely had any time to think how unlike her it was, to smile at giving Brooke a heart attack. To smile in the midst of her childhood best friend ever so slightly shivering at the sight of her.

She always knew it would work. She had to win her back.

Brooke’s arm seemed to instinctively guide itself to hand around Sage’s neck, burying her face in his chest and varsity jacket.

What was that supposed to be? Ignorance? A flex? A show she's not single?

That’s fine. If Brooke wanted to flip her world upside down as a kid, Savvy would flip Brooke’s.

Whatever it takes to make her heart burn so long and bright as it did for herself, and make her feel the crushing weight.

But at least this time, she’d finally end the tension at the end of the cat and dog game. 

God knew Savvy needed it more than Brooke.