CHAPTER TWENTY

new perspective



the only homework i had that night was the fennel project. of course, i had no way of doing it if it was a partner project and my partner hasn't spoken a word to me. i explained this to dad, and he responded shockingly positive. "i'll give you your phone back for an hour and you'll find her on instagram."

"sounds good." i was handed my phone and, like any sane teenage girl would do, i went up to my room and texted my friends.

you

guys. i'm grounded big time.

maeve

really?

walker

is it because you were marked absent?



i explained what happened in detail, from the electronic diet to how i was calmer than i thought i would be in these circumstances. they took a while to respond. i didn't know if that was because i wrote a paragraph longer than three fennel emails combined or because it was so stupefying.



walker

okay. this isn't the end of the world. we just need to think about how we're gonna cast after school on thursday.

you

i've got that figured out.

maeve

what's your evil plan?

you

i'm going to tell my parents i'm going to chemistry extra help because i missed so much when i skipped.

walker

you're so smart

maeve

this is a whole new person. i love her.

you

thank you, and also thank you.

and don't worry, walker. i'm going to find some way to see you on friday.

walker

i was hoping you'd say that.

you

sitting next to violet isn't horrible so far. but i miss sitting with someone whose favorite bagel flavor i know.

walker

yeah. wish i could relate. madeline has been telling me a lot about herself.

maeve

i was about to say to get a room but now i need to know what she's said.

walker

she made it clear before we even said hi that she in fact did not cheat on whoever michael is. she said the other guy had the same hair as him and she thought it was her boyfriend.

didn't you say that i have michael's hair too? how generic am i?

maeve

don't worry. madeline is obviously saying that so you consider dating her. she's trying to clear her record so you can turn it, if you know what i mean.

walker

i actually don't know what you mean

you

i think maeve should get her phone taken away instead.

maeve

me too

walker

okay well i understood the first part. i agree. she's definitely trying to get me interested in her.

i mean, she's pretty. but she's also pretty annoying if i'm being honest.



as i read that text, my insides turned inside out and then back within seconds. i never thought i would be so happy to see the word "but."



you

yeah

maeve

totally. i went to elementary school with her. some people don't change.

but i'm glad you have, y/n.

you

i haven't changed completely. i'm still gonna go for now because my dad said to connect with violet.

plus she's probably going to beat me to it sooner or later. isn't she a good student?

maeve

i'm pretty sure.

actually, i have no clue. i know nothing about her apart from the fact that she's friends with madeline.

walker

same. she hasn't talked my ear off enough to tell me about her friends.

you

i'll let you guys know what she's like. see ya tomorrow!



i swiped up the messages app on my phone and opened instagram. copying what walker did to find me, i searched up violet on the school's page. it read "no users found" in gray. then i checked my class list and found her last name. owsinski -- you don't hear that everyday. i typed that in to see if maybe her username had her last instead of her first name, but i got the same note. so i went to madeline's profile in hopes of violet being tagged in one of her posts.

there was a post from this year's homecoming dance. i found the caption hilarious: "happy hoco to my loco hoes!" i prayed that violet would be one of those loco hoes. but in the picture where seven clones, one of them being her, were sticking out both their tongues and butts, no one was even tagged.

i got bored and decided to scroll through my feed while i could. after some time, someone knocked on my door. "come in!"

dad kicked his way inside with an overflowing basket of laundry. "hey, this is clean." he set it down on my bed and glanced at me sitting at my desk. "how's it going with the project?"

"good. she can't work on it today, though," i masqueraded.

"well you were going to have to work on your laptop anyway. the hour is up."

already? how long did i scroll for? i sighed and, before giving my phone to dad, i silenced all notifications from instagram and messages.

once he left the room and my only company was the stuffed animal on my dresser, i took up dad's suggestion of using my laptop, realizing i finally had the time to write. i couldn't recall the last time i had no homework and could hear the sweet sound of the letters on my keyboard forming words.

when i lifted the laptop's monitor open, i was not anticipating seeing that maeve's fanfiction was open on my screen. everything except the conversation walker and i had yesterday must have escaped my memory until the jump scare of spencer reid x reader was in front of me. that was the first fanfic she had ever written, and after walker left, we reread it just to make fun of it.

i scrolled to the bottom of the website to check out how many reads this vile work had. seventeen thousand? not too bad! especially for something written by a sixth grader about two genius f.b.i. agents working together to kill their boss.

then i checked the comments. i needed to know if they were mostly taking it seriously or they were cackling like maeve and i were. the top comment read, "oh my gawd am simping harder then ever he's so cutie uwu xpppp i cant this is so good ! im crying tanks for righting this masterpeace."

oh wow, okay. looks like someone was getting into the f.b.i with that level of intelligence. i couldn't even tell if the commenter was being pensive with it or not. the "two weeks ago" beside the commenter's name was where my eyes darted to next.

then, i read the username. "vi.owsinski" was in bold above the non-grammatical sentence, along with a profile picture of spencer reid with bunny ears. no. way.

had i just unearthed the most blackmail worthy thing on the internet? never in my life did i expect a girl who i thought was basic and just a carbon copy of the others to be a fanfiction reader !

i clicked on the profile, making sure i read the username correctly. i did. her description said, "my name is violet and i'm sixteen. biggest flex: i go to high school with walker scobell. and don't forget spencie bear is mine." sorry violet, but i really, really want to forget.

it got better. i scrolled down and saw the abundance of fanfictions that she herself wrote. they were all either of criminal minds, the show spencer reid is from, or of anime. she was not only a fanfic reader, but a writer too. my jaw was not dropped but thrown to the ground by the force of pure shock.

for some reason, this revolutionary discovery made me less intimidated by the girl. in fact, it made me pity her a little. her friends were the type to lampoon people like this. she was the quietest out of all of them, too. now i wondered if she was just like me and chronically thinking about her favorite celebrities or fictional characters. wow.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

walker and i were in class earlier than most, as always. there were ten minutes before first period began, and less, i assumed, before violet arrived and he would have to go back to his regular seat next to madeline.

i told him briefly about what i had accidentally dug up the night prior. "what do i do with this information?"

"make sure it doesn't get around," he said. "i know this school well enough by now to know that, the second someone else hears about it and spreads it, she'll be bullied out of the state."

"truth! we wouldn't want to be the ones to cause that." i mimicked him and gave a thumbs up like he does all the time.

the classroom's door opened and madeline, jaime, violet, and tasha flooded in with their fresh starbucks coffee and iron-curled hair. they all looked so similar. but now i knew that they really weren't.



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thank you for reading chapter 20!

thank you for 4k reads! that's coocoo cray bananas