plain looks — trade with @notmyy4
summary: plain nacha dating the school's heartthrob is bound to get some looks, but when she was insulted on a double date for resorting to wearing her mom's dress and her boyfriend didn't do anything about it, she stormed out on them and met a certain strange boy who always sat alone during lunchtime.
word count: 2093 words
warnings: period-accurate sexism, ron granger
a/n: getting to trade with my most favorite tnmn artist EVER???? someone pinch meeeeeeeee is this the real life or is this just fantasy /lyr i had fun writing the milkbread dynamic in this one and made it extra sweet considering the og future stuff they will have is so freaking bitter (/pos). LET ME AT RONNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!! hey, if you're curious about trading with me for a fic, read this post!
credits: @notmyy4 for the amazing francis and nacha thumbnail art & @/strangergraphics for the ao3 dividers
Nacha knew full well she wasn't your run-of-the-mill popular girl who's extremely pretty---she wasn't perfectly skinny and even she didn't bother with a few bed hairs here and there---, but she was the straight-A student of her school who had her entire future set for her because of her intellect.
And Ron, the guy she was dating, was the school heartthrob. Nacha was smart enough to figure out that talks were gonna happen before she even agreed to him asking her out, but knowing something didn't equate to being unaffected by it. In fact, all it did was make her more frustrated, because people, as they were, couldn't somehow find it in them to mind their own businesses even after how many days had passed.
She would even go so far as to say that it was worse than their usual school gossip, because at least those faded into obscurity the moment someone opened their mouth about another one of Stacy's flings, but this didn't.
People would always think of her as the girl that never deserved Ron.
And it was even more obvious now, in front of her supposed friend with her boyfriend as they stared at her with a look that bordered on disgust mixed in with confusion. What they were so confused about? Probably strands of her curly hair that had gone rogue, maybe the way she had her back slightly hunched, or even her slightly wider nostrils from breathing slightly harder! They always found something to pick on when it came to her, and who wouldn't when the man next to her had looks equivalent to that of a Greek statue?
"Nacha…" That pitying tone… Nacha chewed on her lower lip, already aware of what was coming next. "That dress… isn't it a little too plain for a double date?"
Nacha's eyes blinked open wide. Of all the things they could insult her with, it just had to be her dress. The double date had come on such a short notice and before that, her only other dress that came in handy for these ostentatious events had been ruined when someone accidentally spilled their potent drink on her and ruined the color. Her mother lent her a dress from her own wardrobe, knowing she was distressed from not having anything to wear, and she had thought the blue polka-dotted dress was cute and modest enough for their tastes. But it seemed as if nothing she ever tried to do for these people was enough for them.
"Hah, that's what I told her!" Nacha's pupils moved quickly towards the corner of her eyes where her boyfriend sat languidly with his arms stretched wide over the seat's headrest behind him. His leg crossed over the other as he smirked. "It looks like something my mom would wear. Like, sheesh, what are you? In your 50s?"
The entire table burst into laughter except for Nacha who clenched her hands in her lap and gritted her teeth. What kind of boyfriend says that about their girlfriend in front of others? Nacha told him the circumstance surrounding her wardrobe change and he chose to make fun of it anyway?
"Haaa…" Ron wheezed loudly and noticed his girlfriend's dim expression. After rolling his eyes, he nudged her shoulder playfully in an attempt to coax her into speaking up. "Come on, babe, you should learn to take a joke."
"A joke?" When she finally bit back, the table around her turned silent. "I've been the brunt of the same joke ever since I started dating you, Ron, and it's getting fucking old!"
"Yeesh, smarty pants, tone your language down." Her 'friend''s boyfriend sassed and making Nacha's cheeks flush even more.
"You're not part of this!"
"Babe, calm down, are you on that time of the month again?"
At this point, Nacha could practically feel hot steam sizzling out of her ears and making her even angrier. "No! I'm not on my period-" Ron cringed, "-and I'm done hearing talks of how I'm out of your league so many times!" Tears began gathering in the corner of her eyes.
"Baby, you're embarrassing me right now…" Ron groaned. "Let's be reasonable here. It's just a dress, why do you suddenly have to make it all about yourself? You're fine the way you look! It's just the dress…"
"This was a dress from my mom, alright?!"
…
Silence ensued as the girl in front of her and her boyfriend looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Makes sense." Ron shrugged.
Nacha has had enough. She pounded both hands onto the table, gathered her bag and slung it around her shoulder before storming out on them. Stupid Ron and his stupid friends… Nacha wiped at the corner of her eyes stricken with tears, and turned a sharp right towards a corner of the diner. Unable to take any more of the emotions that were begging to explode on the surface, she ended up slumping onto the dark red wallpaper beside her.
With her back to the wall, she slowly slid off while sniffling and eventually fell completely onto the floor completely sobbing. She wrapped her arms around her knees and cradled her head in its confines while weeping.
Ugh, look at you… Nacha sniffled and wiped at her cheek for the beads of sadness that streaked down the slope of her skin. Pathetic, just as ugly as they say…
Her sobbing continued on for minutes until she felt something foreign touch her cheek and when she opened her eyes to see what it was, she saw ---even in the blurry haze--- a paper tissue being handed towards her.
"Here…" A soft-spoken masculine voice called out to her and it made Anastacha's cheeks flush with more than just the previous anger that had built up.
Ugh, of course someone can see you, Nacha… You're crying in the middle of a restaurant, not in a bathroom. Still, the thought of how she must have looked like in that moment made her unable to speak. Instead, she swiftly grabbed the tissue from whatever good Samaritan decided to grace her with their presence's hand and quickly fixed herself up with it.
"Careful… Don't do it too fast…"
She slowed down somewhat but was still in an obvious hurry to remove all evidence of flimsy emotion in the heat of the moment from her face. The man who had given her the tissue sighed as she finally opened her eyes to look up at her savior, fully intending to thank him until she saw what she was looking at and the words vanished before it could leave her mouth.
It's that kid… Nacha's eyes widened slightly, taking in his features--- the tired eyes, the sharp brown hair, and that hooked nose. There was no denying it.
"Mmm… You looked sad… No one usually cries in the middle of a restaurant…"
Nacha narrowed her eyes at him and pouted, not sure what to make of what he just said --- Was that an insult or…? Thinking about it, however, it was true that people didn't usually make floor break(down)s in the middle of a public establishment, lest they want to make a fool of themselves and be on the headlines of her high school's school-sanctioned newspaper. At that, Nacha let out a snort and hauled herself up, "Yeah, you're right. I'm the first one who's done it."
As she sat down next to him, he arched a brow towards her. "Why are you so sure of that…?"
Nacha rolled her eyes, it was so obviously a joke and yet it still managed to fly over his head. Oh well, she supposed from the dark bags under his eyes, he probably didn't have half a mind to think of anything too deeply.
"It's a joke, I'm Nacha. Nice to meet you."
"…Francis."
So it is him. Nacha swallowed. "I've seen you around. You always liked to sit by yourself, I'm surprised you're letting me sit with you."
Francis blinked. "You sat down yourself…" Nacha's brow twitched. "Besides… People don't usually sit with me, that's why…"
"Really? You don't seem mean-" Maybe a bit of an airhead. "-and you handed me that tissue just now so you must be really nice."
"That's not what they say…"
"Is it the eyes?"
Francis nodded, but didn't explain any further. Silence ensued for a few moments before he spoke up once more, "That, and I just try to get by… What's the point of befriending people in high school…? We'll all… yawn… graduate anyway…"
"That may be true, but you might go to college with some of them."
"Mmm…" He waved his hand dismissal. "It's a slim chance…"
Nacha sighed, somewhat annoyed by his pessimistic ideology. Still, he seemed to be genuine about it, and that just made it more sadder. "Why were you crying anyway…?"
"Oh- that…" Nacha frowned, recalling what they said about her and pinched the fabric of her dress to stretch it absentmindedly before releasing it with a sigh. "Hey, if you were to date the prettiest girl in school, how would you feel about being compared to her all the time?"
"The prettiest girl in school…?" Francis blinked. "That's subjective…"
"It's a hypothetical!" Nacha sighed and crossed her arms. Why was she even getting so worked up about his obliviousness? Whatever. "The point is, they keep comparing you to her, saying how she's much better than you, saying bad things about your looks and all of that…" She groaned. "It's a just an 'if' statement, alright?"
"…So that's what happened to you…"
"I'm not saying- ack- okay, fine! It is what happened! But with Ron…"
"Who?"
"Don't tell me. You don't know who Ron is?"
Francis shrugged.
"Oh my God…" Nacha couldn't help but cover her mouth to stifle a giggle. "You said you're just trying to get by and you don't even know some of the biggest names in school."
Francis tilted his head to the side, "I don't know him, but… I know you."
"Huh?" Nacha's face lit up.
"You're that girl who always took up the window seat in the library… You always look so focused while reading, it makes me wonder what it is you're reading…"
Nacha blinked twice and her face heated up. "You- you noticed that?"
"Mmm… Yeah… And you have pretty red curls and freckles and blue-and-green eyes… It's hard to forget you…"
She couldn't believe it. Was she really hearing all this from someone she only saw at lunch and didn't label further than the 'weird kid who sat alone at lunch'? And why was she getting so excited and flustered over it anyway?!
"Hah… You're just saying that. People say my clothes are plain, I don't have the energy or time to fix all my bed hairs down, and compared to-"
"Would I have recognized you if you looked plain…?"
"What- what does that mean…?'
"Mmm… I don't know…"
Nacha blinked and sighed. What did I expect… Still, hearing that from someone who barely interacted with anyone and looked like he was two nights of unrest away from stepping out of his body, it was… oddly nice. And definitely sounded more genuine than whatever Ron was even trying to pull back there. He has a point, Nacha herself barely saw other women who had all the features he listed about her. And wasn't that the reason why Ron approached her in the first place? …Okay, probably not. But still, if her looks caught the attention of someone who looked so absentminded and didn't even know who Ron is, then she wasn't at all the plain ugly girl that they gossiped in halls about when referring to her.
Finally, she stood up.
"Mmm…?"
Nacha shook her head. She wasn't just going to storm out and prove to be nothing more than a cowardly dog with her tail tucked between her legs! After all, she was Nacha Mikaelys; a straight-A student, the one who caught Francis Mosses's attention, and Ron Granger's girlfriend.
"I'm going to go back."
"Go back where…?"
"To my date. I kind of stormed out on them." Nacha scratched her cheek and smiled sheepishly.
"Okay…"
Nacha smiled and waved him goodbye, sprinting back towards her abandoned double date with renewed confidence. And in the back of her mind, as she sat back with her group and they laughed and chatted on like nothing happened, she made sure that next time, she would leave a thank you note on that lonely desk Francis always sat on.
