YOU WERE A CHAPTER IN MY BOOK BUT I WAS MERELY A LINE IN YOURS

millie dreamt of the stars, the kind she saw in the eyes of the people she loved. but no matter how hard she tried to touch them she could never reach them before she would wake up. she always thought it was a sign of some sort, like maybe the world was telling her that all the happiness she wants is impossible to reach. like nothing ever really matters.

millie suddenly woke up from her sweet yet dangerous dreams as she heard the loud rattling sound of her alarm clock, telling her to wake up for school. she dreaded every first day of school, ever since she can remember. she hit the snooze button on her phone that had the alarm on it and slowly sat upright in her bed, the curls of her short brown hair falling in her face. she then pulled the covers off of her small body and got out of her warm bed she just wanted to lay in all day. millie walked to the bathroom near her bedroom and brushed her teeth and put the top half of her short hair into a small ponytail, making it stick upright, but she didn't have time to fix it.

millie walked downstairs to see her mother passed out, most likely drunk or hungover from the night before, on the couch in their living room. some people might say millie comes from a broken home considering she lives with her drunken mother and doesn't even know her real father, but millie says that's just how life is nowadays.

"mum, get up you need to take me to school." millie said to her mother as she kicked her with her boot. her mother just groaned in response and groggily got up off the couch, setting up her almost-empty bottle of some alcoholic drink on the table.

millie walked out the front door and headed to her mother's car that was one speed bump away from breaking down, as it barely worked enough for them to get to one destination and back. she got into the passenger seat and watched as her mother stumbled out of the house and into the car, fumbling with the keys until finally starting the car and drove millie to school.

neither of them spoke until they arrived at the entrance of millie's school 10 minutes later, her mother telling her a sort of rude goodbye, as if it were mandatory for millie to say it back to her, but millie ignored it and walked away into the pit of hell she was supposed to sit in for the next 8 hours. she opened the doors and immediately saw a few people she knew from the school sitting or standing around, and all the others were either freshman or new students to which millie didn't recognize and so she wasn't even going to try and talk to them.

millie walked over and sat down next to her two best friends, noah schnapp and grace vanderwaal, who were sitting at one of the cafeteria tables while talking and sharing a snack. they both greeted her with a simple hello as she sat down, but were immediately interrupted by the sound of the first bell of the school year ringing over everyone's head as it was a signal for everyone to start heading to their first class of the day. all three of them cursed to themselves and that they already knew what kind of hell this new year would bring for them. millie walked with them until they were all separated into different halls of the school, finding herself walking next to some people she was in the same grade with but hasn't ever really talked to and some of the upperclassmen she knows. as millie was walking she turned to see one unknown person next to her, who had short length dark, curly hair, and saw he was wearing a red sweater with dark pants and boots similar to millie's, and she thought for a split second that he was actually kind of cute. but after glancing at his face she realized who this boy was; finn wolfhard.

just thinking his name made millie physically roll her eyes as she scoffed toward him and turned back to face forward to continue walking down the hallway. she has never liked finn. he always did what he was told, regardless of who tells him; the teachers, his family, his friends, and even people who just wanted to mess with him. he was just...a tight-laced know-it-all.

they both walked next to each other down the hallway, but kept their respectable distances as they entered the school's art class. millie took her seat near the very back, finn sitting in the row in front of hers, which she wasn't exactly happy with but at least he wasn't trying to talk to her. their teacher, mr. johnson, soon walked up to the front of the room and explained what they would be doing during the new school year, to which millie didn't even try listening to. she saw him point out the canvas boards at the back of the room to everyone, meaning they would actually be doing something today.

he explained that everyone will have to paint something or someone that inspires them, leading millie to scoff at his idea. she wasn't going to put any actual effort into this project because she only works hard on things she cares about, and this isn't one of them. millie then figured out that one of the best ways of getting the project done without putting in as much effort was to color the whole canvas black. she figured she could make up some bullshit spiritual thing about how "the color black tells her anything is possible within the depths of the black abyss that is her mind," when she turns it in to get full credit. she knows her teacher is into that sort of stuff so he should believe her, right?

millie walked up to a canvas board on one of the wooden stands at the back of the room, so did everyone else including finn. millie walked away from her board to go get black paint from the teacher, and when she got back to her space she saw finn setting his stuff next to hers.

"hey wolfhard, what do you think you're doing?" millie said towards finn, making him turn around and give her a confused look. she noticed that he had already opened his brightly colored paint set he had obviously brought from home and had started setting up his brushes along with a small cup of water for the brushes.

"what's it to you, brown?" finn said in a snarky tone to millie, who stood directly in front of him with a half gallon of black paint and a rude look plastered on her face.

millie walked back over to her canvas after not saying anything back, but rolled her eyes at him before she did so. finn laughed a little under his breath thinking millie didn't have a witty comeback for once, but she really just wanted to let it go and not drag anything out longer than necessary. he turned back to his blank canvas and grabbed a brush with baby blue paint on it and started working.

after almost 5 minutes of working from both of them, millie decided to mess with him a little, without causing harm to herself of course, and quickly but swiftly switched out finn's blue paint with black paint. he didn't notice the sudden change and when he went to dip his brush for more blue, he got a huge chunk of pitch black paint instead. he swept the paintbrush across the canvas, and soon looked at it in absolute horror.

finn dropped his messy brush and looked as a huge black line covered most of the beautiful blue he had already composed on most of the canvas. he turned to millie, who was laughing at him, with a look of frustration. he quickly replaced it with a sarcastic little smile as he walked over to the teacher and grabbed a half gallon of cherry red paint, dipping the biggest brush he could find in it and smearing it over millie's almost completed project. her jaw dropped as she watched him, but took her black paint covered brush and smudged a little bit of it onto finn's cheek. there was now a small black line there, which caused him to stick his hand in a tub of green paint near by and fling it at her, mostly getting her face but also the floor.

at this point, half the students were looking at them, the other half was invested in the project. the teacher had noticed something was going on, but didn't do anything at first. he looked up from his paperwork at saw for a quick second that finn was now splattered in red paint, getting ready to throw another color at the girl in front of him, who was none other than millie bobby brown.

mr. johnson rushed out of his seat and over to his paint covered students, noticing that all the other kids had taken notice themselves and were cheering either finn or millie on.

"what on earth do you guys think you're doing?!" he yelled as he stepped in between the two, who had another handful of paint in each hand ready to throw, "i don't care who started this mess, both of you down to the principal's office, now!" the teacher said as both finn and millie tried to say their sides of the story before he harshly insisted they get to the office immediately.

finn walked out the door while millie followed behind him, both of them walking next to each other in silence, the only thing audible was the clattering of their boots stepping on the tile-like floor of the hallway and the distant murmurs of yelling coming from mr. johnson down the hall.

they reached the principal's office after 5 very awkward minutes of silence, sitting down in the two uncomfortable chairs in front of his desk. there were all sorts of novelty items that millie would love to steal, but restrained herself. the principal himself, mr. heaton, was already sat behind his desk typing away on his computer. he glanced up at the sloppy teenagers and saw all the splatters of different colors that covered them head to toe, eyeing them up an down and then pulling out a notepad from one of his desk drawers, to which millie knew was for detention slips.

"do you want to tell me what happened or should i guess?" heaton said as he laced his fingers together in front of him and smiled a little at finn and millie.

finn spoke up after a few seconds of silence, "she started it. I was defending myself." he put his hands up as a sign of defense, not caring if all the blame was going to be put on millie.

millie turned to finn with wide eyes, realizing that he basically just ratted her out. "listen, bub. I may have started it but you sure as hell didn't back out of participating-" millie said through gritted teeth as she turned in her seat and poked her index finger on finn's chest, but was cut off by mr. heaton before things escalated.

"that's enough ms. brown. finn, did you say millie started this?" he asked him, finn nodding a small 'yes' in reply. "and millie, finn obviously participated as well seeing as you're covered in paint too." millie smirked, knowing that she's not going to be the only one in trouble.

both finn and millie saw him start writing on the detention slip, first writing out Millie's name and information and then doing the same for finn on a separate slip. she looked over at finn, who was staring at the floor with a blank look upon his face. she turned back to look at mr. heaton who handed them their own detention slips.

"now, both of you will be serving an after-school detention every Tuesday through Thursday for the next month. and since tomorrow is Tuesday, I expect you there immediately after school. I hope this will teach you both a lesson, yeah?" he said to them before telling them to go to the bathrooms and get cleaned up, to which they complied and left his office and headed to separate bathrooms.

millie was barely able to clean herself up, using the shitty school toilet paper that was paper thin and the foul-smelling water to wipe everything off, and knew that the paint was going to end up staining and ruining her favorite Fleetwood Mac shirt along with her worn out blue jeans.

after everything was taken care of, she pulled out one of the five singular cigarettes she keeps aligned in one of her back pockets and the lighter she keeps in the other. she quickly fired it up and took a long and slow drag, leaning against the sink she was using. luckily, she was in one of the bathrooms hardly anyone uses so she was in the clear to do this. she stood around and huffed in her cigarette several times before throwing on the ground and stomping on it, pushing it under the many sinks for no one to find.

she washed her hands to get rid of the smell, not really caring if she smelled of smoke anyway, and headed out the door and was going to go to her locker. but before she could even make two steps out of the door, she noticed finn standing in front of her, not looking very happy.

"can I help you with something?" millie said as she crossed her arms and closed the door behind her, scoffing at the boy in front because he was angry over a little detention.

"yes actually, I do," he continued, "this is all your fault, millie. I don't know how I'm going to explain a months long discipline to my parents and it's your fault I have to even think about it." finn angrily spat at millie.

"you deserve this punishment just as much as I do because according to my  stained clothes, you also had your hand in this. don't play the victim, wolfhard, because I will catch you in your bullshit." she retorted, pushing past him and going to her locker to prepare herself for second period.

finn just stood there, in the same place until second period, dreading about tomorrow.

a detention. his parents were going to kill him. literally.

~

this chapter is dedicated to ;  sam, el, molly, hailee, & izzy.

we may not be at the best of places right now, but I still love you.