Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was a beautiful day. Sun was shining, birds were singing. Jecka hadn’t seen hide nor tail of Nicole or Ari. For once, she didn’t have to put up with their bickering. Truly it was blissful. She idly listened to whatever Kelly was saying in the cafeteria, enjoying the white noise. Kelly’s monotony was preferable to the incessant whines of both Nicole and Ari any day.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

“Bitch.”

Jecka whipped round to see who said that, only to see a flash of brunette hair. Fuck was her problem? She wasn’t going to take this lying down. She stalked after her, grabbing her by the shoulder and forcing her around.

“Nicole, what the fuck is your prob – wait…”

It was not Nicole staring back at her, but instead Ari. A rather moody looking one, at that.

“Get off me! And no I’m not fucking Nicole.”

“I can see that! But why is your hair not red?”

“It’s called hair dye, no surprise a bimbo like you wouldn’t know.”

“What is happening.”

“Nicole that was totally uncalled for!” Kelly joined the fray. “Oh wait, Ari?”

“Can’t even recognize me? Guess you flirt with everyone so we’re all just blank faces to you.”

“Was she always like this?” Kelly asked Jecka.

“No, I think she’s doing a bit. I hope she’s doing a bit.”

“It’s no bit, I’m just saying it as it is. None of this should be a surprise, all the whores in this school are saying this shit behind your back. I’ve just got the decency to say it to your face.”

“Did Nicole put you up to this?” Jecka asked.

“Blink twice if you’re being held hostage!” Kelly added.

Ari did not blink. At all. She just stared into Kelly’s soul.

“Um, Ari…you’re making me uncomfortable…”

“Hot bitch making you uncomfortable? That’s a first.”

“Fuck you, we just wanted to make sure you were ok!”

“I was until you two started talking to me.”

“You ran past me and called me a bitch!”

“It’s not wrong, is it?”

“Have we walked into the Twilight Zone?” Kelly asked.

“Kelly we are both way too young to know that reference. Pretty sure my dad watches that shit.”

“Well how do we explain…this!”

Thankfully for them both, Nicole showed up in the nick of time.

“Fucks sake Ari, I said to wait.”

“I don’t do what you tell me to.”

“Since when? You love it when I order you around.”

“Well that’s changing. From now on, you can be a little bitch.”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“Nicole, what is going on!?” Jecka whispered to Nicole.

“I don’t know! Ari’s just become super bitchy all of a sudden!”

“So you didn’t put her up to this?”

“No! I just switched around her hair dye!”

“Her…hair dye? That’s it?”

“Yes! Had enough of it looking like a head injury. Thought I’d show her just how much better if she had hair like mine.”

“So it’s magic hair dye,” Kelly added to the conversation, in a tone of awe. Apparently Nicole and Jecka had not been whispering quietly enough.

“Fuck you mean it’s magic hair dye?”

“Well you dyed her hair to look like you. Now she’s acting like you. Makes sense to me.”

“She’s not acting like me at all!”

“I mean…” Jecka started.

“Oh come on, am I usually that bitchy with you?”

“Well no, but other people.”

“She’s just having some episode, she isn’t acting like me. I’ll prove she’s not acting like me.”

Nicole called over Crispin, much to the surprise of the others.

“What are you doing bringing a guy like that over here!?” Jecka asked.

“Just watch, it’ll be fine.”

“Oh hey guys what’s up.”

“Ari here said she wanted to hear about your favorite bands.”

“Oh wow really.” Crispin approached Ari, who had been giving a standoffish look to the rest of the gang.

“So um,” Crispin started, “I’ve been listening to a lot of, like, Bad Religion lately.”

“You look like a Bad Religion fan.”

“See!?” Jecka said.

“That proves nothing, she probably overheard me say that.”

“They’re pretty indie, ya know, not many people heard of them. Their songs are like, so underground. Have you heard You?”

“I’m hearing you right now and I want to rip my ears off.”

“Haha that’s pretty funny. No I meant like, the song.”

“Which song?”

“You.”

“Me what?”

“No You.”

“No you to what!? Do you ever try making sense or do you think girls will fuck you if you string a bunch of random words together!?”

“Whoa whoa I never said anything about sex. But hey um, if you’re interested, I’m down,” Crispin added with that witless smile of his.

“Even if I was into guys, I’d never fuck you. Even Kelly wouldn’t fuck you.”

“Hey!”

“Would you fuck Crispin?”

“Oh god no.”

“See? Biggest slut in the school will fuck everything that moves apart from you. You might as well be subhuman.”

“Ok I’ve never gone that far!” Nicole told the others.

“But have you thought about it?” Jecka asked.

“Well…”

“We’re done here. Go bother someone else,” Ari told Crispin.

“Oh! Um, catch you later. Maybe we can exchange phone numbers? You know to like er-”

“Have sex?”

“No I wasn’t gonna say that! Just like, hang out.”

“No girl would ever willingly give you their number.”

“Ah ok cool I’ll just get it from you later,” Crispin said as he walked off.

Ari just sighed with a “harrumph!” as Crispin finally stopped bothering her.

“Now do you see it Nicole!?” Jecka asked.

“The power of magic hair dye…” Kelly added in awe.

“I don’t see another me. I just see a hot bitch coming into their own.”

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but…Nicole, if she’s still like this, you can’t control her.”

“Yeah I know but I wanna see where this goes. It’s just a for now thing, we’ll put back her hair dye back after.”

“So it is magic hair dye!”

“Stop calling it magic! If anything it’s more like the Stanford prison experiment!”

“Think I watched a porno called that once.”

“Oh yeah me too.”

“How much porn do you two watch!? You know what, I don’t care. I’m talking about the experiment where a bunch of people pretended to be guards and prisoners. Then the fake guards started thinking they were real guards!”

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m saying because Ari has hair like mine, she’s now thinking like me. It’s just basic psychology. Not magic,” Nicole added, pointedly looking at Kelly.

“Whoa, psychological hair dye…”

“Well, whatever it is, don’t expect me to sit at lunch with you both now.”

“Why not?” Nicole whined.

“Because it’s bad enough with one Nicole and one Ari, and I really don’t want to find out what it’s like with two Nicoles. We need to get going anyway, let’s go Kelly.”

The two walked away, with Nicole catching snippets of their conversation.

“Do you think I’d become a lesbian if I dyed my hair red?”

“You don’t need red hair to be a lesbian, Kelly.”

“But imagine the possibilities…”

Kelly’s imagination going wild was the last thing Nicole heard from the pair. She turned, seeing Ari stare vacantly back at her.

“So are we skipping?” Ari asked.

“You…actually want to skip?”

“Yeah, fuck school. Let’s face it, we’re just gonna be delivery drivers or some shit once we’re out. Not like either of us have anything to live for.”

“Knew you’d come around to my way of thinking,” Nicole said smugly.

The troublesome twosome decided to skip at Nicole’s place. The lounge was full of smoke, the offenders sitting on the couch.

“Didn’t know you liked this shit.”

“Wanted to try it before but always bitched out. Figure might as well do what I can before I kill myself.”

“That’s the spirit! What else do you want to do then?”

“I’ve got an idea.”

Ari removed the cigarette from Nicole’s mouth. She took a puff of her own, removed it, then placed her lips onto Nicole’s. Ari exhaled, letting her firsthand smoke become Nicole’s secondhand, the fumes filling Nicole’s mouth as Ari’s tongue made itself feel at home there. It was intoxicating, the drug of both the kiss and the tobacco filling the both of them.

Once Ari was done with her sloppy makeout session, she returned the cigarettes to their respective owners. Nicole was too stunned to say anything, in shock at how much more forward Ari was being.

If I knew it would be like this, I would have dyed her hair ages ago.

“Do the same to me,” Ari ordered.

Usually Nicole would take affront to such orders, but seeing as for once Ari wasn’t being completely hopeless, Nicole was more than happy to oblige. She inhaled her own puff, and just like how Ari initiated, Nicole exhaled inside Ari. There was something deeply satisfying about doing it, like the two were sharing some taboo secret that nobody else could know.

Not knowing what else to do with themselves, the duo took it in turns, the only moments taken for breaths were when they needed to take another hit.

Eventually the cigarettes came to an end, and so did their bliss. Smoking only went so far though; they needed something stronger. To end on a literal high. Fortunately, Nicole knew just the thing.

“Wanna raid my mom’s cabinet and take mystery drugs?”

“Got nothing better to do.”

It didn’t take long for Nicole to set them up in her bedroom. A table was sat between Nicole and Ari. On the table was a mishmash of various drugs, all ready to enter the girls’ systems.

“And now, we – hey!”

Ari hadn’t listened, instead just burying her head into the utopia before her.

“At least leave some for me! Jesus!”

Nicole pulled Ari up, wondering if she was about to have a seizure. Though if nothing else, the look of Ari having white powder stuffed around her face was priceless.

Before Ari could have another go, Nicole took her turn, taking what little lines were left.

“Whoa this shit hits quickly…” Ari said.

“Yeah drugs hit so much faster when you snort it.”

“Why aren’t we snorting drugs everyday?”

“That’s what I keep saying!”

“Ah, fuck…” Ari angled her head upwards, choosing an interesting spot on the ceiling to look at. “Shit, what if we die here?”

“Then at least we died doing what we loved.”

“Still seems kinda boring.” An idea occurred to Ari. “You know, never had sex while this high.”

“You’re seriously doing this now?”

“Just say no if you don’t wanna.”

Usually there would be much more of a song and dance whenever it came to Nicole and Ari’s activities in the bedroom. But the drugs were doing a lot of persuading. As was Ari being the second coming of Nicole. Nicole had already mentioned one piece of pop psychology today, but what was that other thing where you wanted to fuck yourself? Sexual narcissism? Yeah, something like that.

Nicole slid onto the bed, gesturing for Ari to get on. Ari certainly didn’t need to be told twice.

That night, Ari reached a high she never thought possible.

A new day dawned. Nicole and Ari had decided to rock up to school this time. In spite of Jecka’s protests, the two actually did join their table. As did Kelly.

“What the fuck.” Nicole asked intelligently.

“Do you like it? I did it yesterday!”

The other girls could only stare at Kelly’s hair, now shining red. Any brighter and it might have blinded them.

“Is it just me or are all girls 10x hotter today?” Kelly asked as she took her seat.

“They’re at their usual hotness, obviously. Dyeing your hair won’t fucking change anything,” Ari said without a hint of irony.

“Well you’re already gay so they’re all hot to you anyway! What about you, Nicole? You used to be straight.”

“Haven’t noticed anything different, no.”

“Hmm…do girls find me hotter then? Oh, maybe I should ask someone not in a relationship! Jecka, what do you think?”

“Kelly she’s not going to find you hotter just because you’re wearing red hair dye, that’s not how the hair dye thing works,” Nicole interjected.

“Actually the red’s doing it for me.”

“Oh,” Nicole responded, not sure what to say about Jecka’s casual admission that she was attracted to a redhead Kelly. Jecka had made borderline homosexual comments about Ari before; maybe redheads were just her type? Well that was fine, because Ari was now a cool brunette.

“Do you wanna make out?” Kelly randomly asked Jecka.

Jecka looked over to the others, well aware she was now dealing with two Nicole’s.

“Oh definitely,” Jecka said with eagerness in her voice.

“Not right in fucking front of us,” Ari said with scorn. Fortunately Jecka and Kelly got the hint, deciding to go…wherever they could make out in peace in the school.

“Who knew it was that easy to score with Jecka.”

“She’s Herpes Fully Loaded. Honestly it’s weird Jecka and Kelly haven’t fucked with how they’re the two easiest people in the school.”

Nicole took a second to think about it.

“You know what? It is weird.”

Weirdness personified made itself known, as Jeffery approached the table.

“Fuck off virgin,” Ari had said it before Nicole got chance.

“Hey guys!” Jeffery said as if he hadn’t literally just been told to fuck off.

Jeffery tried to sit down, but Ari leaned her legs across, blocking off his seat.

“Oh that’s ok, I’ll just take the one next to it.”

Nicole did the same as Ari, blocking the other seat.

“Oh…it’s ok, I’ll just stand.”

“I already told you to fuck off. I’m not gonna tell you again,” Ari said.

“You know Ari, you could stand to be nicer to me.”

“Oh this oughta be good,” Nicole said.

“You and I…we’re both outcasts. You’re gay, I’m a nerd. And us outsiders, we gotta stick together!”

“I’m sitting down with my girlfriend. How the fuck am I an outsider?”

“Well, you know, on account of you being gay and all,” Jeffery repeated his prior argument, as if that made it any better.

“So because I’m gay, I have to be an outsider? Are you trying to fucking tell me I’m a loser for being a lesbian!?”

“Well…no. Not in those words, anyway.”

Ari got up.

“I just meant you’re socially ostracized and none of your peers like you!”

That did not help Jeffery’s case.

Finally fed up, Ari came up behind Jeffery. Jeffery said something, presumably to ask what Ari was doing, but only mutters escaped his mouth as his head collided with the edge of the table. A surprising amount of blood gushed from his forehead as he lay on the floor.

“Damn! Did you kill him?”

“I hope so,” Ari said as she sat back down.

Nicole looked at Ari, a surprising look of affection in her eyes.

“What the fuck are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” Nicole smirked, “just thinking that brunette suits you.”