Hello ! Iâm ( Veru )ca , I really only made this tumblr to post about catcf ( movies and musical ) so if it suddenly gets abandoned or posts dwindle , I most likely just moved onto some other interest
I will be posting my personal headcanons , au ideas , possibly more Xenos and just pure bullshit
My carrd
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Tag names :
1971 ! Wonka - Grandpappy
2005 ! Wonka - Daddy Issued Chocolatier
Musical ! Wonka - Murderous Fruit
Augustus + Veruca - Bad Fudge
Augustus + Violet - Pop Piping
Augustus + Mike - Tiny Piping
Augustus + Charlie - Golden Fudge
Veruca + Violet = Bad Pop
Veruca + Mike = Bad Teavee
Veruca + Charlie = Golden Ballet / Bad
Bucket
Violet + Mike = RoyalDuo / Teavee Queen
Violet + Charlie = Golden Queen
Mike + Charlie = Tiny Bucket
All of the children = GTWs
The guardians of the gtws = The Chaperones
A high school au that crosses over Mean Girls and Be More Chill with Catcf = High School With the Chocolate Factory
Golden Ticket Winner thanksgiving except all silverware has to be plastic and plates paper because somebody ( mike ) has violent urges and will try to injure somebody
Tws / Cws : Thereâs play fighting but definitely with murderous intent
Genre : Fluff (?)
Word count : 1,043
Parings : Veruca Salt + Mike Teavee , Oleg Salt + Ethel Teavee
Note : This wasnât supposed to be pjo oriented but the autism took over
Veruca and Mike hated when their parents made them have playdates , Veruca despised having to be in Mikeâs too-small-for-her house and Mike despised Veruca existing near him. Yet their parents decided to be good friends , despite several protests , complaints and failed sabotages , which meant they wanted wine and movie nights. It also meant the children had to be near each other.
Usually , Mike would hide away in his room playing Kill All People while Veruca locked themself in the guest room and called her friends back in Russia , but all doors aside from a bathroom were locked upstairs. Mike wouldâve just broken his door open but he didnât want to lose his IPad and PC privileges. Which led them to be stuck outside in the backyard , pouting and sitting in old plastic chairs on opposite ends of the patio.
It was a surprisingly nice evening , only warm with a small amount of wind , not that either were appreciating it. Mike was busy tapping away on one of his burner phones , aggressively subtweeting every small movement Veruca made , like he did every time the ballerina was in his vicinity. Veruca , on the other hand , had clocked out , mentally going over the choreography for her next performance. Laughter could be heard from inside , mainly from Oleg , his laugh could and has shaken the house. Both kids automatically rolled their eyes , how dare they get along when their darling children hate each other.
After a while of silence from the two , Mike groaned in frustration , dropping his now dead phone onto his lap and dramatically threw himself back in the chair. What was he supposed to do now ? He didnât want peace and quiet or to go inside and listen to Oleg be best friends with his mother and he definitely wasnât going to sit and stare at Lola Bunny over there. He sighed , looking around the yard for <i>anything</i> entertaining. Jumprope was too girly , banned from frisbee for the year , wall ball gives him a headache , trampoline was boring.. oh. His old toy armory was out here.
He shoved his phone in his pocket and pushed himself off the chair , walking over to the toys. He cringed the second he looked at them , cheap toy swords and that pop out shield from Percy Jackson that he begged his mom for a few years ago. Of course heâd reinforced them since there was no way they wouldâve survived him otherwise. He hated remembering that interest , it was embarrassing how into it he was. He didnât even like Percy , he liked Luke , but they didnât sell things for him so he was stuck with the water boyâs things.
âIs that a riptide ?â
Mike flinched , almost swinging the toy as he turned to face that bad nut , how do they always manage to sneak up on him ? And.. did her outfit change ? Where does she get the time.
â⌠Yeah.â
Verucaâs eyes had this light to them , it usually meant she wanted something , or liked something , there was no difference with them. He hated that look. He glanced between the sword and them , deciding that he did actually want to swing the sword at her , it would be better than looking at that stupid face. It was a low swing so instead of letting it hit her , they moved so she could swing her foot down onto the sword , sending it to the ground and basically making Mike kneel. Where had Mike seen that before ?
Oh god. They watched that damn musical too.
While Mike took his seconds of shock , Veruca grabbed a nearby stick and the other sword , very glad she picked out a red outfit for today. The shorter scoffed himself out of the shock , snatching the shield , attaching it to his arm as he stood up.
âOf course you like Clarisse.â He sneered.
âYou like Percy.â
âDo not ! They donât sell things for Luke , idiot.â
The ballerina cocked her head , that did make sense. Heâs too much of an angsty freak to like someone normal. This. No , this definitely pissed her off for whatever reason theyâll give later , they needed to hit this guy. She swung their weapons like how the choreographer had taught her to , it looked ridiculous to outsiders but they felt cool , thatâs what mattered.
She stuck to the choreography taught while he reacted off of instinct and muscle memory , albeit awful muscle memory , of which Veruca mocked him for. The only move Mike could fully remember was blocking while half spinning around her , of which he executed well for a shut in. The taller was a bit impressed , they only went harder , cycling through every motion she was taught to do after that move. Mike , of course , tried to cheat his way into winning , Veruca shut those down almost immediately.
Oleg joined Ethelâs side at the sliding backdoor , self pouring another glass of wine as they watched their kids. He grinned as he watched his daughter play fight , so thankful that thisâll take most of her energy for the rest of the night. He lightly elbowed his best friend.
âWho do you think will win ?â
â.. I love Mikey but heâs not winning.â
Oleg chuckled , sipping his wine. âMy Veruscha wouldnât let him.â
âAt least theyâll be quiet tonight.â
âIf Mike lives to see tonight.â
She looked at him with a half raised eyebrow , he pointed outside before taking another sip. She looked back out to see Mike on the ground with Veruca pointing their sword at his throat.
âShit-â She pulled the sliding door open as fast as she could. âKids , pie !â
Both children immediately dropped their weapons , racing to the door , shoving each other in the attempt to get there first. Ethel took out and set two smaller pies with plastic forks onto the kitchen island , chairs set up so they could see the movie on the living room tv. The two parents settled back on the couch as their kids fought over seats and who got which pie. They were both the same.
Oleg glanced back at the two , he didnât stop them , there was no way to without breaking some kind of law. Sigh. Another , longer sip of wine. Theyâre going to hate finding out theyâre staying the night.
Different Wonkas if they were asked if they were cis
Wilder ! Wonka :
- Wouldnât actually answer the question , ESPECIALLY if heâs being asked by one of the golden ticket winners or their parents
- Definitely wouldnât answer in english
- âIl n'y a pas d'identitĂŠ de genre derrière les expressions de genre... l'identitĂŠ est constituĂŠe de manière performative par les "expressions" mĂŞmes qui sont censĂŠes ĂŞtre ses rĂŠsultats.â
( There is no gender identity behind gender expressions... identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are supposed to be its results. )
- He actually doesnât care about his gender identity but he doesnât fully subscribe to the idea of being cis
Depp ! Wonka :
- Looks at the asker like they just asked something in complete gibberish
- âWell , arenât you nosy !â
- Smiles and keeps walking
- Heâs not cis in the slightest , itâs just unclear in what way
Borle ! Wonka :
- Disgusted that someone would even ask
- Would say heâs âsisâ
- Corrects the pronunciation of anyone who says heâs cis
- Heâs very confusing about it and it may or may not be on purpose
Post bus accident Veruca who only knows how to show affection how their father did vs post squip Mike whoâs very confused on why he got a pride flag launched at him
The gtws , who all wanted to seem mature , stopped believing in Santa at an early age and bully charlie for still believing , only to get floored when he actually visits the factory
Parings : Itâs supposed to be general but thereâs some Veruca Salt + Mike Teavee and Charlie Bucket + Augustus Gloop
Note : Happy Halloween đ
The five kids sat in what was basically their common room , each in the places they sat the first time they were in the room , all adjusting and adding last minute details to their costumes. They were dressed as each other but none of them wanted to be wearing each otherâs clothes normally since thatâd make it look like they were friends , so they were either zombified or murder victims.
Veruca got stuck being Charlie , her costume of course being an unfittingly high quality version of Charlieâs usual outfit covered in fake blood and torn up around the stomach where grossly realistic plastic intestines hung out. They made sure that her makeup made her look dramatically pathetic and sad , only because they knew Charlie wouldnât correct it.
Mike was sacked with Augustus , which he whined and complained about to his mother , who put the costume idea together in the first place so she wasnât much help. He had little say in what he actually had to wear since he did ask for a fat suit and for once Ethel wouldnât let him , so he had an ugly lemon yellow bowl cut wig from Amazon and one of Augustusâ old sweaters which he cut up. He made sure that he looked like a totally cool zombie in this stupid outfit , though he insisted on doing the makeup himself so his face was left bright teal and any gore was horribly smudged or just applied wrong. He wouldnât let anyone fix it.
Violet got Veruca , she wouldâve whined about if it didnât mean she got to see her favorite makeup artist again. Her costume of course looked perfect , she even wore a blonde wig , despite Verucaâs critiques on every detail that only she would notice. Like a sequin being in the wrong place or slightly the wrong color. Violet ended up paying her makeup artist extra to add a fake slit neck and facial bruises , the ballerina stopped paying attention to her.
Augustus and Charlie helped each other with their costumes , Charlie being Violet and Augustus being Mike. They were using an aggressive amount of hairspray for Augustus , they might as well been gassing the room out. Nobody was too angry about it since the others basically inhale makeup powders and hairspray daily but they were still a little grumpy. Charlie didnât exactly know how anatomy worked so his fake guts were definitely in the wrong places but no one cared enough to correct it.
Eventually all the kids either got bored of fixing their costumes or actually finished them up and one by one started to file out the door to go be forced into pictures by their parents. Mike was the only one to whine about it , he didnât want proof of him being dressed as Augustus to exist anywhere and he knew those photos were being put up on her Facebook.
After an awkward and hatefilled group picture , they grabbed their unfortunately on theme backpacks and ran out of the side door that led to a low part of the gate the kids usually jump to run around the neighborhood. They all jumped it with varying degrees of success before locking onto the first house they saw and booked it over there. None of the adults volunteered to supervise them since the parents wanted to have a wine night and the Oompas would rather fight a Knid empty handed than run after the brats all night. Which meant the kids were going to be totally unsupervised. For three hours.
They all caused petty amounts of chaos in between raiding unattended candy bowls , stealing candy out of the hands of kids younger than them , paying parents for their childs candy bag , smashing pumpkins , laughing at kids fear. Whatever problems they could cause without getting in too much trouble. Everyone at least caused one problem , minor or not , except Charlie , who had to be talked out of only taking one piece of candy from bowls several times before he finally started to take handfuls.
The group was occasionally stopped by fans or parents of fans for pictures or autographs , their autographs were sloppy since nobody but Veruca knew how to write in cursive but it didnât seem to matter for the fans , they were overjoyed either way. It took a lot to drag Violet away from taking pictures with fans , especially when some of them were dressed as her , but nobody was waiting fifteen minutes for her to shut up so they would have to grab her arms and pull her.
Once it was near sunset , they all decided on one last street to fully raid before lugging their way back to the factory. They took all the candy they could , even if their bags couldnât hold anymore , theyâd just grab the bowl and go to the next house. They stuffed candy in their pockets , hoods , socks , sleeves , water bottles , small extra bags , anything to hold more.
By the time they circled back to the start of the street , their phones were blown up by Mrs. Teavee worrying about the fact that Mike wasnât answering her as if he ever does. Mike checked his phone and groaned , seeing all the missed calls and text messages , why was she so embarrassing. They were only a minute past when theyâre supposed to go back anyway. He slowed down to be behind the group , begrudgingly calling her back , he couldnât even get a âWhat ?â in before she started talk-crying.
âMikey ! Where are you ?!â Her words were slurring , sheâs obviously already drunk. âWhy havenât you been answeringââ
âCalm down , old lady ! Weâreââ She kept trying to interrupt him , blabbering incoherently âWeâre on our way !â
âHii , Ethel !â Mike jumped out of his skin , when did they get here ?!
âDonât call my mom by her first name !â
âMikey , is that Veruca ? Put me on speaker !â
It was too late by the time he went to actually do as told , Veruca had already snatched up the phone and booked it , which lead the group to also run by instinct. Even while running , she was using their horrible fake sweet voice to talk to Mrs. Teavee , assuring her that theyâd be back very soon and faking being humble when Ethel thanked her. Mike of course was trying to run after her but running with six pounds of candy on your back is significantly difficult , he didnât know how they managed to be so fast when she probably had more candy than most of them.
Veruca ran the group all the way back to and over the gate they jumped , finally stopping once they were through the side door enough for everyone else to run in.
âWeâre back , bye Ethel !â
âBye sweetheart !â
Mike snatched his phone back directly after she said that , too out of breath to pick a proper fight so he resorted to glaring and huffing. Veruca just smiled innocently , prancing back to the common room before the adrenaline wore off and the fatigue from the night caught up to them. The rest of the group was left to try to cling to theirs before half shuffling after the ballerina and collapsing in their usual spots. A random horror series played on the tv , giving off enough light for the overhead to not have to be on. Not that anyone wouldâve turned it on anyway.
Veruca was already separating her candy when everyone else was just starting to unload their bags and various holding spots. There was a collective sigh of relief when they finally could pull off those heavy bags and their jackets and sweaters. It seemed like the room automatically adjusted to be colder , theyâve stopped questioning why anything happens like it does in this place long ago.
Everyone made their piles of candy they liked and didnât , except for Charlie , who wanted to try everything since heâs never really had anything other than Wonka whipple scrumptious fudgemallow delights. Once trading had started , half of everyoneâs âNoâ candies went to Charlie , he didnât complain.
Nobody had the energy to properly argue over the fairness of trades so they remained somewhat peaceful until someone decided Violet was scamming him.
âSeven lollipops arenât worth three KitKats !â
âTheyâre totally worth it !â
âYouâre scamming me !!â
âWhat do you think theyâre worth then ??â
âSeven KitKats , seven lollipops.â
âThatâs not fair !â Plink. He launched a whopper at her. âNow youâre not getting any.â
Mike was ready to wage war but the moment he tried to stand , he fell back down. Too much movement even for him. Veruca started snickering before clearing her throat like they werenât doing anything , she couldnât help it.
âCan it , bad nut.â
âYou can it !â
Plink.
âYouâre dead in the morning , Tiny Television.â
âNot if you die first.â
Veruca rolled her eyes , not giving that freak any more of their already low energy. They would never die before him. Sheâd make sure of it one way or another. Mike also seemed to give up wanting to fight , finally accepting the three KitKats. They were full sized anyway.
Everyone gradually shifted their attention to the only light in the room aside from the plastic light up pumpkins placed around , making the room a fitting red when the showâs lighting got darker. Trades were either fully finished or only done in lazy whispers and sliding candies across the floor to the other.
One by one , they started to fall asleep. Augustus slumped against an ottoman from his spot on the floor , Violet swore she was just going to hang her head for a second before she was out cold , Charlie curled in some uncomfortable looking position on one of the chairs.
Mike and Veruca took the longest to fall asleep , mainly because of Mikeâs snoring. He was across the room from them and he still managed to bother her. She would flick small candies they didnât want at him to get him to stop, which would wake him up briefly but heâd just grumble and go back to snoring. They eventually gave up , settling down on âherâ couch like a princess would , in her mind , and finally getting their beauty sleep.
Theyâd all wake up with Halloween themed blankets somehow covering them but for now theyâll sleep peacefully.
Tws / Cws : Suicidal Thoughts / Suicidal Ideation , just shitty mental health in general
Genre : Angst + Fluff
Word count : 1,074
Parings : Jeremy Heere x Michael Mell
Note : This is outside of my usual content but I love bmc and itâs super easy to project onto Michael Mell
11:30pm.
Most knew that Michael wasnât the most stable individual , not by choice , it was just obvious. Almost weekly if not daily counselor visits , zoning out in class , starting to grey at 15 , barely functioning if he wasnât high out of his mind. No one was more aware of it than Michael himself. Now he sat in his bedroom , staring at the wall because he couldnât bring himself to look at his phone. He didnât want to look at the time again , even if Jeremy texted , he couldnât handle seeing how close it was to midnight. Itâs too close to his birthday.
Ding.
Jeremyâs probably confirming that heâs on his way or heâs here. If he was , one of Michaelâs moms could let him in.
11:42pm.
Jeremy slowly opened Michaelâs door , a small plastic bag in one hand and a shitty blueberry muffin from Seven Eleven in the other. He knows Michael hasnât been big on his birthday for a couple of years now but he didnât like the thought of not getting him anything so he always got something small.
He met the tallerâs eye as he set the goods on the side table , he obviously hadnât slept the night before , his nails were halfway peeled , hang nails torn off. He wonât mention any of it , Michael barely was in a condition to talk , let alone about this.
11:44pm.
Jeremy saw how Michael turned away when he checked his phone , that was his mistake , he should be used to not checking until it was at least 1 am. He took his and Michaelâs phones and put them in a drawer , grabbing the wii remotes. He handed one to Michael and sat back down , setting the tv up to play Super Mario Bros.
Michael considered declining , he didnât feel like he could distract himself this year , he knew this was his best bet to not feel the existentialism however.
11:56pm.
Michael found himself pleasantly distracted , he shouldâve known. Jeremy has known how to distract him since diapers. Every time loading takes a little too long or he has to wait for Jeremy to win for them , he can feel it clawing at the back of his mind. <i>Itâs getting close to midnight.</i> he thinks. The game starts again and he feels it fade , being replaced by the competitive nature he definitely got from one of his moms.
It was game , wait , dread , game , repeat. It was a distressing cycle but distracting enough for him not to spiral. Thatâs all that mattered to the both of them.
11:59pm.
Jeremy quickly checked his watch while Michael was distracted , looking back up at the boy yelling at the game for something that was entirely his fault. He smiled , knowing he did his job correctly. He rolled his hoodie sleeve back up. âYou know that was totally your fault , right ?â
âIt was the controller ! Itâs old and the buttons donât work !â
âExcuses.â
Michael sighed , exasperated , while Jeremy laughed at his dramatics.
12:03am.
Jeremy spotted one of Michaelâs moms , Rosemary , cracking open the door to quietly check in. He gave her a smile and subtle thumbs up that Michael was too busy singing along to the AC/DC vinyl heâd put on when he decided it was too quiet to notice. Rosemary grinned , slinking in to hand the boys the bowls of mac and cheese she usually made when they stayed up late.
âYou boys donât stay up too late now.â She ruffled Michaelâs hair on her way back to the door , to which Michael groaned , trying to get his hair back to normal while still dancing in his seat.
âIâll make sure he goes to sleep soon , Mrs. Mell.â
âThank you , Jeremy.â
1:02am.
The boys had winded down by now , Michael putting on some documentary about dolphins , knowing that Jeremy had no say in the matter of what they watched. The shorter rolled his eyes , choosing to check his watch again.
In years passed , this would usually be the time heâd retrieve their phones and wish Michael a happy birthday but he knew better than to do that this year. Michael never actually thought heâd make it to 17 , something heâd only admitted once to Jeremy but explained a lot about his attitude towards birthday celebration. Every other year since he turned 13 was a possible last year but this one , now , was proof that he did make it. Itâs something he should be proud of , itâs definitely something Jeremy and his moms were , but it felt weird.
Living passed what you were supposed to was an interesting experience , it felt numbing knowing you now had to plan your life , but it also was a relief. Itâs nice to know you can prove yourself wrong.
Michaelâs not thinking about any of that though , thanks to Jeremy , who grabbed the muffin and bag before cuddling into his best friendâs side. He held them just in case Michael didnât want to take them just yet but he surprisingly took the small bag from him.
There were just a few new pins and patches for his jacket in there , some retro patches Jeremy found off eBay and Bob Marley pins. Michael smiled , hugging the other closer. âThank you , Jerem..â
Jeremy returned the smile , pecking his cheek. âOf course , Micha.â He held up the muffin. âWanna split it ?â The taller nodded , both of them trying to split the pastry best they could. It kept breaking off in smaller pieces or just crumbling all together so they gave up after about thirty seconds , resigning to just eating the pieces and taking bites from their halves.
1:53am.
Rosemary came by to check in once more before she joined her wife in bed , slowly opening the door to see them slumped against each other , fast asleep with Michael snoring into Jeremyâs hair. She softly crept in to turn off the record player and restart the documentary that autoplayed.
She paused to look through the drawer , taking the boyâs phones out. She caught a glimpse of Michaelâs notifications as she did , multiple messages from him and Jeremyâs new friends all wishing him a happy birthday with stupid and excessive emoji combinations. She smiled and left the phones on the bedside table , leaning over the bed to kiss Michaelâs forehead. âHappy birthday , baby..â She whispered before leaving the boys to sleep , sheâll give Michael his gifts in the morning.
Parings : Regina George and Rich Goranski / Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee , Vague Rich Goranski x Jake Dillinger
Ever since they started middle school , Veru and Mike never on the same social tier. Veru was typically treated how she always was at home , like the queen bee , she rose to popularity quick. Mike , on the other hand , wasnât as easily accepted. Being home schooled all his life and his general not wanting to interact with anyone attitude meant that he was largely bullied or otherwise ignored.
Thatâs how it was up until their Sophomore year , Mike had stopped showing up at Veruâs house to bother her when their friends werenât around a few weeks before the school year started , which she wouldnât admit that she did anything but not care about that fact. It felt off but whatever , he still texted them at ungodly hours. He most likely got himself sick from being outside for more than a minute or something even more stupid. She wouldnât put it past him. Unfortunately , he did show up at his usual time so they could drive them to school , but he looked a little different this year. Thankfully , he wasnât wearing any of those ugly Underarmor shirts he owned , instead he wore a blue sleeveless shirt with an eye and his camo pants were actually normally colored this year. What a miracle.Â
She gave him an unenthused stare while she grabbed their things , adjusting their outfit as she dragged him out of the house. âWhy do you..â She couldnât ask him why he looked cool , thatâd be admitting that he was. âWhyâs your hair pink.â
âBecause I wanted it to be ?â
She slowed down their pace , turning and squinting at Mike. Where the hell is his lisp ? â.. It looks soo good.â
âHey , the ladies will love it.â
They rolled their eyes , âthe ladiesâ havenât loved anything heâs done since he was born. She threw her bag into the back of their car , âGet in the car.â and got in , Mike following suit. She took another glance at him before starting the car , he looked too weird like this. Not just the clothes , his posture was straighter , a green bandanna in place of the headphones heâs been wearing since they met , just weird. At least he didnât look like a ten year old dressed him anymore.
They eventually pulled into Veruâs designated parking spot that she technically shouldnât have yet , her stopping to adjust their makeup in the rear view mirror. Usually Mike would begrudgingly stay in the car with her and fuck around with his phone since there was no one to run off to and bother but this time he almost immediately go out , leaping over the car door to jog over to Jake. âYo , Jakey D !â Veru almost stabbed themself in the eye with her mascara from how fast they turned their head to the boys direction. She watched , bewildered , as they dapped each other up like theyâve been friends forever. What the fuck happened over those weeks.
Whatever. Whatever , they were going to ditch him for Gretchen and Karen anyway. At least she wasnât going to be bothered about every little thing she did. They put their makeup in her bag and got out to go meet up with her friends , now that they were finally pulling up , they tried to push how Mike was acting to the back of her head for now. This could be dealt with later.
Unfortunately , later meant Mike sitting with Jake at her lunch table. Damn. She inwardly huffed as they sat down next to Gretchen , who was way too excitedly questioning Mike and Jake. âAre you sure youâre not new ? I donât remember you.â
âYou just didnât notice , nobody did.â
Karen butt in , âAre you a magician ?â She unfortunately sounded like sheâd believe him if he said yes.
Veru cut him off before he could answer to ask her own question. âMike , did you get rejected from your loser table ? Why are you here.â
âI hoped you wouldnât mind , I wanted to invite my boy to eat with us.â
âI didnât know you two were that.. close. Good for you.â She eyed the two , putting on that âally !!â Type smile.
âItâs not like that !â For whatever reason , Veru genuinely laughed at that , maybe she didnât believe it or Mike was suddenly funny.
âWhatever you say , Michael.â
Actually , Veru found themself half stifling laughs at a lot of the things Mike said during lunch , everyone at the table seemed to agree he was funny. Mike was never this funny before. Not from what Veru remembers. But at least he was tolerable now.
At some point two geeks walked by , Veru never remembered their names , just the red hoodie and the awkward one always with the red hoodie. Mike suddenly turned , putting his leg out and tripping the awkward guy. She had to take a second to process what just happened , Mike just tripped a guy on purpose ? And heâs not getting his ass kicked ?? Either way , she couldnât hold the snicker this time , joining her table in laughing at the poor guy , whoâs already been hauled up and away by red hoodie.
The table spent the remaining time laughing the losers , watching the boys make competitions out of throwing trash and Karen occasionally asking Mike questions. Apparently , Mike now skateboarded and was best friends with Jake , who he only started talking to in those few weeks he was gone. So thatâs who she was ditched for. Huh.
In the middle of their conversation , the lunch bell rang and the entire table sighed. Nobody wanted to go to their next class , almost all of them had the same math class with the worst teacher ever. They cleaned up and got their stuff together , Karen and Jake splitting off to go to their classes and leaving the rest to talk as they walked. Veru knew they didnât have time but stopped Mike before they went into the classroom anyway , Ms. Smith can wait. âI donât know what happened to you but you should totally sit with us. You actually qualify now.â
âYou want me near y-â Mikeâs posture straightened a bit more as he cut himself off. âYeah , cool.â
Veru took Mikeâs hand , interlocking their index and pinky fingers in the handshake that they made when they were young. âYouâre still weird.â They let go , both of them walking in to Mrs. Smith already yelling about lateness.
