PING!

Abel took a long drag of his cigarette before putting it out on the side of the school building. Flicking the ashes off, he dug his phone out with the other hand and stuck the cigarette butt in his back pocket. He was many things, but a litterer was not one of them.

[ABEL & SAMUEL]

dickhead🥰
wya

Abel
why?

dickhead🥰
come to the gym after
school. it's important

Abel
how important?

dickhead🥰
if you don't come,
i'm unfriending you

Abel
not important enough

dickhead🥰
i have pizza

Abel
...on my way

dickhead🥰
you're such an asshole

Abel
i know

He chuckled and put his phone away.

The bell rang just then, dismissing the last period of the day and Abel walked out from behind the locker rooms to join the stream of teenagers heading home.

"Abel! Abel!"

He'd know that voice anywhere.

Pretending he couldn't hear her, he tried to walk faster when a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to turn around.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me calling you?" Jenevieve said with a big smile.

Abel shrugged, her hand falling away and her smile doing the same when Jasper ran up and grabbed her in a loose headlock from behind. She shouted in surprise and shoved him away, the boy laughing as she scowled at him.

"Where you guys goin'?" Jasper asked.

"I was heading to the gym, but I wanted to—"

"Oh, cool. I'm going there, too."

"What?" Abel glanced between them. "What are you guys going to the gym for?"

"Logan said there's a study hall going on." Jenevieve replied.

Jasper scrunched his nose.

"Samuel told me there was gonna be strawberry shortcake."

Before Abel could say anything, a sharp whistle sounded and all three teenagers turned to see Samuel and Logan standing by the entrance of the gym, the latter with crutches and a nervous look on his face.

"You guys comin' or what?" He shouted.

Jasper took off in a full sprint as Abel and Jenevieve merely looked at each other.

"I'm not telling him."

"Well, neither am I."

When they finally reached the gym, Abel was surprised to see more of his classmates and friends there. They were sitting on a little section of the bleachers talking to each other and he knew that they had been lured there by their own preferences. Hence, Jasper's ticked off expression at the fact that there wasn't actually any strawberry shortcake.

That's when he saw the two new kids walk in. He was a bit fuzzy on the day he met them, but he didn't really care either way.

"Hey, guys!" Samuel clapped his hands together. "Thanks for coming...I guess. But, anyways as you can see there's no pizza, no study hall, no strawberries, no alcohol—"

"Jackass," Melanie muttered.

"What are we doing here?" Miriam demanded. "I have better places to be than the gymnasium after school hours."

Samuel let out a dramatic gasp.

"Oh, I apologize for imposing on your precious reading time, but you guys are gonna wanna hear this."

He gestured for the Cupids to step up and the teenagers watched in silence as they glanced at each other as if to say you first.

When no one said anything, Samuel huffed in annoyance.

"Fine. I'll tell it." He pointed at his friends before Sebastian could stop him. "All you idiots got paired up with the wrong person because these two idiots didn't do their job right. Their job, you ask? What is their job? Thank you for asking, Stella."

"I didn't—"

"They're Cupids. Cupids? Yes, those stupid winged babies with heart-shaped arrows, Liam."

"Wh—"

"Except they don't have arrows. They have dust. And they dropped it in detention last Friday and now you're all head over heels for the wrong moron."

He turned to smile at a glaring Scarlett.

"Did I miss anything?"

"You delivered it all wrong," she muttered.

"What are you on, Sammy? 'Cause I'd really appreciate it if you shared." Melanie said loudly.

The others laughed and Samuel rolled his eyes when Logan carefully stood up and faced them.

"He isn't lying." He protested. "This is real. And they need our help to get us—er, the matches back together so they can Ascend."

"You're kidding me, right?" Abel shook his head. "That is the most bullshit thing I've ever heard in my life."

"Yeah, I don't know. But, if this was an attempt at pranking us, it was pretty mediocre." Liam said, picking up his backpack.

"Scarlett?"

A different voice, one that caught all of the teenagers attentions, sounded from the front of the gym and they watched as a stunningly beautiful woman with shoulder length blonde hair and glimmering green eyes slowly walked in. She was wearing a tan trench coat over her clothes that flowed right above her ankles, a strange bulge slightly protruding from her back.

Sebastian hurried over to her side.

"What are you doing here?"

She sighed, looking over at the girl.

"I knew they wouldn't believe you or the boys. So," she rolled her shoulders back a little and lifted her chin, "I'm here to help."

"I don't understand—"

"Seb, I told her everything last night." Scarlett interjected. "About you telling Samuel and me telling Logan. She was mad at first—like, really mad—but we talked it out and she said that she would..." she lowered her voice to a mumble, "show them that we're real."

"NO, NO, NO. Does Dawson know about this?" He hissed.

"He doesn't need to know."

"This is getting out of hand, Scarlett. She could go to Limbo!"

"I thought I was the adult here!"

"You're sure not acting like it—"

"Say that one more time, kid, I dare you—"

"Okay, okay!" Scarlett shouted, bringing their argument to a close.

She pulled her hands down her face with a groan.

"I'm sorry. This was a stupid idea."

Samuel, who had been listening closely to their whisper-shouting, threw his hands up in the air.

"Really? After all that, you're giving up? I thought you were made of tougher shit than that."

"Piss off, emo boy, I don't need you to tell me how tough I am." Scarlett snapped.

"Emo boy?!"

"I don't know about anybody else," Jasper suddenly stood up, "but I'm out. The fact that you never had any strawberries in the first place is enough for me to never trust you again, man."

"Aw, Jasper—"

"No, you know how I feel about strawberries," Jasper said, his voice breaking in a faux attempt to make himself cry.

Jenevieve rolled her eyes as he sniffed pathetically and got up, patting his shoulder before forcing him to sit back down.

"I have no idea what," she gestured at Scarlett, Sebastian and Kat, "this is, but I trust Logan. He wouldn't have lied about a study hall just so I can listen to some nonsensical rambling."

The boy gave her a tentative grin and she nodded once.

"Yeah, but on the other hand, you're also asking us to listen to Samuel." Miriam said flatly.

"That's a very good point," Asher snickered.

"A point," Kaia chimed in, "I'd like everybody to really think about."

"I oppose that statement for the sake of my boy's rep." Abel lifted a hand. "Guess I'll listen to whatever crackhead shit you guys got goin' on."

"I appreciate that, bro."

"This is really weird. Can I leave?" Anastasia asked.

"No," Samuel said sharply, "we need to get this figured out."

"We don't need to listen to you."

"Has anyone ever told you just how unlikable you are, Miriam?"

Scarlett and Sebastian watched helplessly as the teenagers suddenly began to shout at each other, turning the already chaotic situation into a heated argument.

"Just cause you don't trust him—"

"Whatever, Abel. If your head wasn't so far up your—"

"Stop, stop, stop!"

"My strawberries..."

"Your strawberries? My alcohol!"

"Shut up about the strawberries!"

"Don't tell Jasper to shut up!"

"Or what?"

"Guys!" Stella pleaded, her attempts at stopping them going unnoticed as everyone began to stand up defensively.

Their raised voices bounced off of the gym walls and Samuel was just about to step in as Abel and Liam began to face off with each other when a loud gasp sounded and everyone turned to see what Kaia was pointing at, her mouth wide open like a fish out of water.

"What the hell?" Liam breathed.

The glow of Kat's wings as they slowly stretched out and expanded to their full glory was enough for all of the teenagers to fall silent in gaping wonder, the Cupid sighing in relief to have them free as her trench coat dropped to the floor. She was emitting a soft white glow that pulsed gently when her wings quickly flitted before tightening against the grooves in her back.

Her expression of worry was enough to explain the sudden action, but she put on a brave front for Scarlett and Sebastian who looked afraid for her.

"Is that—is she an angel?" Melanie said in a hushed tone.

"No," Logan was smiling excitedly at Kat who returned the gesture with hesitation, "she's a Cupid."

A shrill ring suddenly broke the stunned daze of which they were all stuck in and Sebastian pulled out his phone.

His heart stopped at the name on the screen and he looked at Scarlett when the Cupid Agent laid her hands on their shoulders with a reassuring grin.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine."

Sebastian slowly answered, putting the phone up to his ear.

"Kid...," the boy flinched at how sharp Dawson's voice was, "mind telling me what you guys did this time?"

"Whaaat?" He laughed nervously. "Wh—why would you even think...think that?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the Elysian Court is knocking on our front door?"

——————-

ngl, this chapter was chaotic asf—
i swear i had this whole plot planned out,
but it's being entirely derailed by my
sudden inspirations and turning into a hot mess...

i still love it tho hee hee

and you guys!!! can't forget to express
my ultimate love for all of youuu <33