It’s a boring, boring lunch period. There’s not much to talk about, so Sarah and Peppa sit on their phones, blogging away.
It’s not until there’s a surprise pop in that they both perk up.
“Hi!” Lucy greets, literally popping up from the other side of the table.
“Oh my god!” Sarah gasps. “Lucy, what the hell?”
Peppa, also stunned for a bit, doesn’t freak out after. In fact, he’s laughing a little bit. “Same old Lucy,” he sighs happily. “What’s up, cut up?”
“I got the info you wanted!”
“Oh, awesome!” Peppa grins, spreading out across the table. “Tell us, tell us!”
“It’s…” Lucy looks around, up and down, and then comes close to the other two. “It’s Paige Woods!” she whispers.
“No way!” Sarah gasps. “Pa—”
Peppa hits Sarah lightly. “Shh!” he quiets. “Not so loud!”
“Oh, right,” Sarah smiles awkwardly. “Sorry! But you know I just love juicy secrets.”
“I’m glad I could help on your secret finding endeavors!” Lucy laughs, only to get serious a second later. “He’s a shy guy, though!” she warns. “So maybe don’t ask him about it? He’ll get all flustered and probably have a heart attack to boot.”
“‘Kay,” Peppa nods. “Thanks for the info, Luce!”
“Anytime, Pep!” And with that, Lucy waves and leaves.
The second she’s out of earshot, Peppa looks at Sarah mischievously. “So, we’re definitely asking him, right?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Yusef is a lot of things. Has been called a lot of things. Has done a lot of things. Things that have sharpened their resolve, sharpened their senses, and most importantly, things that forced them to sharpen their claws.
There’s very little that didn’t set Yusef off. They’re able to keep a good half of it in check, but the other half? Well, let's just say they’d been in more fights than strictly necessary. Fights that started and ended in minutes, fights that they were goaded into, fights that shouldn’t have happened… Yusef had seen them all.
They could go from completely calm to clawing at someone in a second. People had called them volatile, unstable, a mess of a person.
Thus, without their permission, they were dubbed the Yin Yang Cutter. The sudden yin turned yang and their nails ripping through whoever was stupid enough to fight them is what popularized it, or something like that. Yusef didn’t really care.
What Yusef did care about though, was… less tangible.
You see, coming from a troubled home, they didn’t really get much in the love department from any side. So when they overhear that stupid Sharp kid whispering about getting admirer notes when he was rich and famous and probably had a loving, caring family who tended to his every whim…
Well. Yusef didn’t take it lightly.
The rage that filled their heart over the idea of someone who didn’t need it, didn’t deserve it, getting love notes? It made them want to throw up. Out of everyone in the school, why him?
…Why not them…?
Yusef’s mind is suddenly filled with the need to destroy anything and everything that that stupid kid loved and held dear. How to go about that exactly was a toss up, but they were ready for any type of possibility to open itself to them.
And open itself it did.
Yusef is returning from the bathroom when none other than the Sharp kid comes down the hallway. He’s in a rush, which is just perfect.
Yusef grins with sudden manic energy, quickly putting the 3 second plan they’d thought up into motion. As the Sharp walks by, they quickly trip him, leaving him on the floor in a heap.
“Ow!” he hisses, holding onto one of his legs. “What the hell, man?”
Yusef puts on a fake pout. “I’m sorry,” they say. “Does your leg hurt?”
“Yeah, no thanks to you!”
Yusef smirks. “Let me help make it worse, then.”
“What?” the Sharp asks, letting his leg straighten.
Big mistake.
“You have everything,” Yusef grumbles, beginning to loom over the other. “You have absolutely everything someone like me could want. Do you know that?”
“Man, I don’t even know who you are,” the Sharp says, rolling his eyes.
“Well,” Yusef chuckles, raising their own leg. “This’ll make you remember me for a while.”
Yusef brings their leg down onto the Sharp’s, indulging in the crack that splits the air.
He screams.
Yusef grins happily.
Serves him right.