"Sheeps?" Vance stuck his head around Mr.Yamadas door on Friday, knowing she's be in here. "You're eating with an old man again?"

"Vance." she scolded him with a look of disbelief.

"Old man?" Mr.Yamada gave him a wild look. "I'm in my 20s."

"Okay." Vance rose his eyebrows. "Keep telling yourself that...old man."

"Vance." she scolded him again. "Behave."

"Look." he held up his paper. "B-"

"B-!" Sarah stood up quickly.

"Don't make it-" he began to scold her before Sarah started to squeeze the life out of him. "-a big deal."

"Look at you! Look at this!" Sarah took the paper in pure excitement. "I'm gonna stick it on my fridge."

"Okay, i'm leaving." Vance turned around to walk away.

"Wait, don't go." Sarah tried to stop him, but Vance paid her no mind as he kept going. Sarah gave her friend a smile as she pushed the ungraded papers onto his desk. "I'll be right back!"

"Don't run!" Mr.Yamada called to her, but he didn't scold her when she did.

"Hopper!" Sarah ran down the hallway. "Wait, i'm not done talking to you."

"Well, i'm done talking." he called over his shoulder before giving a sudden stumble at the weight tossed one his back. "What the fuck!"

"Wanna celebrate?" Sarah asked from his back as Vance slowly found his balance again, trying to knock her off him. "We can do whatever you wanna do. We can go to the drive-in, I think something good is playing. Or we can go shopping at Gimbels, Bingo needs a new water bowl. Or we can just hang out. Oh! Or we can go to your place. Grab N Go. I know you love that place."

"You're doing it again." Vance sighed.

"Sorry, shutting up." Sarah nodded from his back as they headed down the hallway. "So-"

"Jesus christ." he huffed.

"You've been talking my ear off about that high score." she pointed out. "Are you chicken?"

"What?" he asked in disbelief. "Because I don't wanna celebrate?"

He paused when her hands flew over his face, feeling around. "What are you doing? Stop!"

"Vance Hopper not wanting to play pin-ball? Do you have a fever? Have you cracked the case on body swapping and changed places with someone else? Are you even Vance? Am I lovin-up on a stranger right now?" she listed on, her voice getting higher and higher each time.

"Sarah, would you stop being so annoying?" he dropped her down onto the ground before spinning around. "I'm busy today, I can't celebrate tomorrow."

"Busy with what?" she rocked on her heels.

"Non of your business." Vance rolled his eyes and started to walk away.

"Fine." Sarah sighed as he continued to walk away. "I'll just sit here and die of curiosity!"

"You do that." Vance hummed. "Nice knowing you, Sheeps."

"Sarah Barns, born on January 23rd, 1961. Died March 13th, 1976." she continued to mock as he rounded the corner. "Gone but never forgotten!"

"You're doing it again!" she heard Vance's voice echo from the other hallway.

"What was that about?" a voice caught Sarah's attention, looking over her shoulder as Bruce walked from the bathrooms. "You're tutoring Vance Hopper?"

"For two more months." she gave a smile. "English and Science are looking mighty fine if I do say so myself."

"That's nice of you." Bruce smiled at her. "Hey, I've been meaning to talk to you, actually."

"Sure, what's up?" she nodded, walking closer so they weren't practically yelling from across the hallway.

"So, you know how baseball season starts in May?" he nodded to her as Sarah hummed in agreement. "Well, my coaches have been talking about a couple of the guys on the team have been failing their classes and they're worried they won't have them up by May. If we're not passing, we're not allowed on the field."

"That's disappointing. Who are your friends?" Sarah nodded her head. "I'd hate for your team to have less players."

"I know, right?" he agreed with a wild look. "But, the guys are embarrassed to ask for tutoring. I guess they feel less....manly?"

Sarah gave a weird look. "I'm tutoring Vance Hopper and they're worried about their masculinities?"

"Their words, not mine." Bruce tilted his head with a smile. "So...how would you feel about hosting a group class?"

"What?" Sarah's jaw fell.

"There's fourteen of us. We could use to dug outs. Just once or twice a week, hour max. It'll be fun...like a big study group." Bruce nodded with that typical 'boy next door' smile in hopes of winning her over. "What do you say? I'll ever make them call you Miss Sarah."

Sarah inhaled deeply. "Fourteen people? Fourteen boys? It sounds like a nightmare come true."

"They're not bad guys. You know me, I wouldn't be friends with them if they were." He gave her a knowing look. "You met a few last year, when you went to Finneys game and went on a rant about how it wasn't far eighth graders were playing sixth graders."

"Still don't think it was very fair." she pointed out yet again, but Bruce gave her a pleading look once again. "One rude or unnecessary comment, and i'm out of there."

"Swear, i'll keep them in line." he promised her with a large smile. "Besides, no one's gonna mess with you if you're walking around with Vance Hopper now."

Sarah went to explain they wouldn't be hanging out for much longer, but Bruce kissed her cheek when the bell rung. "You're the coolest, Sarah Barns! You won't regret it!"

Then, he was gone down the hallway. Just like Vance was.

"Sarah." Ella, Sarah's mom, got her attention when she came down the stairs with wet hair. "What's this on the fridge?"

"Oh." Sarah cracked a smile. "The boy i'm tutoring passed his test and i'm really proud."

"Oh, that's sweet." she used the magnet to put it back. "I haven't seen a boy around here. Is he coming over when we aren't home?"

"No." Sarah lied when she saw the questionable look. "We mainly just study at Grab N Go or school."

"He's a nice boy? He's not being rude to you?" she always questioning Sarah on the matter. She worried that other kids were cruel to her at school, with her lack of friends. Ella knew she had Billy, but that had been a year ago, and she'd never heard about anyone else aside the Blake's and Yamadas, considering she'd been their babysitter.

Sarah would never describe Vance as nice, he wasn't even really nice to her. But, he wasn't a horrible human being. He was rude, sure. And scary, obviously. But he hadn't necessarily been a bully. He picked fights, but only when it was truly necessary. Sarah wasn't sure where he laid on the nice or mean level, she'd never really stopped to think about it. "I like him."

That was enough. Ella trusted her daughter wouldn't like someone who was rude to her, so that was enough. And for Sarah, not knowing where Vance laid, didn't matter because she did like him. He'd made it onto the list of people she actually liked to be around, and that had been a pretty small list.

"What are my girls talking about?" Jason, Sarah's father, walked from the garage. She was beyond shocked they had both been home, especially before dinner. It was rare she'd see them both before going to sleep, let alone to eat.

"Sarah's got a friend." Ella tried to remain as normal as she could, but it was beyond clear she was happy to see her daughter blossom outside of Billy Showalter.

"Oh yeah?" Jason pretended not to be just as happy as he got himself a cup of coffee, Sarah realized he'd probably be up late on a case. "And what's this friends name?"

"Mmm." Ella leaned close to the paper on the fridge. "Vance Hopper."

Jason froze, stopping stiring the spoon of sugar in his mug. Sarah shut her eyes for a moment. She knew it had been coming, she knew it would have come out sooner or later. She wouldn't be able to tutor Vance without her father somehow catching a wift of it. He looked over his shoulder at her. "Vance Hopper? The boy in your grade?"

Sarah inhaled as she looked to the side, staring at the phone on the wall. "He's not so bad."

"Not so bad?" Jason gapped. Sarah couldn't necessarily blame him for this reaction, she'd likely do the same if one of her kids was hanging around a known criminal. "Sarah, he broke a kids face in multiple areas and now he's got a speech impediment."

Ella gasped. "What?"

"Yeah, and do you know why he did it in the first place?" Sarah asked without fully thinking how it would come out.

"Sarah!" Ella scolded her. "There's no excuse for that type of violence. Why are you defending it?"

"I'm not saying he should have gone that far, but you're making it seem like he wailed on this kid for no reason." Sarah got to her feet, ready to prove as many points as she could. "But, that kid was a real jerk. He said horrible things, I was there. And it was a long time ago."

"It was five months ago." her father stated.

"That seems like a pretty long time to me." Sarah sighed with a shrug, knowing her parents were not buying it. "Look, i'm not saying i'm gonna bring him home for holidays and we're gonna get matching friendship bracelets, but he is my friend. And Bruce made a really good point today, that I didn't realize. No one's picked on me since we've been seen together around school."

"No one?" Ella asked, that was something she'd wanted to hear more then knowing she had another friend. "Not even that senior boy?"

"No." Sarah shook her head. "And no one's said anything about Billy."

Aside Vance, but she knew better then to say that.

"I just don't want him getting you into trouble, or hurting you." her father pointed out, rubbing her upper back after circling the counter. "Can you at least promise me that you're only school friends?"

"We don't really like the same things, I can't image we'd ever want to hang out outside of school." she gave a tight lipped smile. "I promise."

But, even Sarah could see her own lie in those moments.

•

kylie speaks

those two bruce fics are
looking mighty fine in the
drafts rn