PEYTON entered the classroom with interrogation as she noticed Josie and PJ's names were on everyone's lips. She came to sit in her chair and took her things out of her bag when she felt someone tap on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Hazel who was sitting in the row behind her. She was leaning forward in her chair to speak to the Holloway girl.

       "Hi, Peyton." the dark-haired girl smiled.

       "Hi, Hazel." she greeted.

       Before another word could be told, PJ and Josie came into the classroom and everyone stared at them. Peyton still didn't know what they did but they were the center of attention.

       "Holy shit. Are you guys okay?" Hazel asked them.

        PJ looked at her with imcomprehension. "What? Yeah, why wouldn't we be okay?"

        "All right, kiddos, welcome back to class." the teacher interrupted them. "Check it out. Today I got this special lesson for all of you."

       PJ and Josie took their things out of their bags and a girl leaned forward to talk to them. "Josie, so, how'd you do it?"

       "Do what?" she replied and at that exact moment, Jeff entered the classroom with difficulty standing on his crutches. He gave a dirty look to Josie as he went to sit down.

        "No, literally, how did it go? Did he fight back?" the same girl insisted. "Did you broke a bone?"

        Hazel leaned forward to tap on Josie's shoulder. "If you need a shoulder or anything, just let me know."

       "You had a fight with Jeff?" Peyton asked her friends with surprise.

       "They ran him over! No, but honestly how did you do it? I heard—"

        Hazel interrupted her. "Oh my God, Annie, they went to Juvie! That's how, okay?"

        A voice started calling Josie and the girls all turned to look at the back of the class. Jeff showed them a glass bottle he was holding. "This, is you." he said to Josie before smashing the bottle against the table.

       "Jesus, Jeff, what the fuck!" the teacher exclaimed. "Hey, you couldn't make that analogy with your fists?"

       The three ringtones announcing that the principal was going to speak rang out, silencing the class. "Hello, this is Principal Meyers with an important Huntington update. So listen to this girl." the voice changed and a girl started to speak. "So last night, outside the fair, a Huntington player followed me home, pinned me against his car and punched me in the face. And now my face is totally fucked."

       Everyone shared concerned and worried looks before the principal started to speak again. "We haven't faced the violence on Hunthington for 20 years. They think they can get in our heads by picking on our weak and defenseless. Well, we can't let them break our spirit, folks. Keep your heads in the game."

       Sylvie stood up abruptly and yelled. "They're gonna pork us! We're fucked!"

       The teacher asked for silence. "Calm down, calm down for a little bit."

       The bell rang and everyone grabbed their stuff to go out. As Peyton stood up, Hazel tripped and fell on her. The blonde bumped against the table while Hazel immediately straightened up, clutching her book to her chest.

        "Oh my God, I'm so sorry."

        Peyton shook her head. "It's fine, don't apologize."

       The dark-haired girl nodded with a soft smile and they went out the room together. People looked at them because literally everyone saw them kiss the night before. Well, obviously the rumor was spreading fast, meaning that Allan was probably going to leave Peyton alone. At least, she hoped so.

★

        The four girls were eating on the bleachers. As always, Peyton was holding her camera in her hands, taking pictures of everything. Her friends, her food, the field. She loved taking pictures more than anything in the world.

      PJ and Josie had been called into the principal's office to talk about what had happened to Jeff and they had told him that it was to practice defending themselves against the Huntington boys. They said they wanted to open a fight club for girls and principal Meyers agreed to it.

      "Can we join?" Hazel and Peyton asked at the same time.

      The two best friends stared at them with perplexity. "Okay, this is weird. I didn't even know you were friends but now you're dating?" PJ asked.

       "We met, we clicked, and now we're dating." Hazel replied before changing the subject back to the club. "I can't believe they're letting you guys start a fight club."

       Josie shook her head. "They're— they're not. We're not."

       "What are you talking about? We're gonna do it." PJ said. "We're doing it."

       "PJ, I wasn't being serious!"

       "Josie! Did you see the way that Brittany and Isabel were looking at us?" Josie sighed at her best friend's words. "Also, you heard the announcements! Girls are terrified. It's perfect, they need this."

        Josie contradicted her. "No, what they need is, like, mace, maybe. We can't do that, okay? We'd be misleading them."

       "Guys do that all the time!" PJ exclaimed.

       "Literally. And we do not want to be like them." Peyton pointed that out.

       "That's the point of feminism." PJ told her.

       "That's not the point of feminism." Peyton replied before Josie added. "You also don't care about feminism. Your favorite show is Entourage!"

       "You're missing the point!"

        "I don't really think we are. We don't know how to fight." Josie told her friend.

       "You guys probably fought girls in Juvie." Hazel declared.

       PJ rolled her eyes. "No, we were lying about that, obviously."

        "About Juvie?" the dark-haired girl asked in a hurt tone. "Why would you lie to me?"

        "You were the one saying we went to Juvie, I just didn't correct you. Listen! Self-defense is instinctual common sense." PJ changed the subject. "You try to punch me in the face, I stop it from happening." she said as she mimed the action. "Whatever! I don't care, it's easy. Look, this is how we do this."

        "Okay, we start with Taekwondo." Hazel talked. "Which I've got covered."

       Peyton raised an impressed eyebrow as she turned to look at her. "You know how to do Taekwondo?"

       "Yeah. And then, you guys can move out to air punches." the girl replied.

       "Okay, okay, okay. Who do we know? Who do we know?" PJ nodded.

       "I'll bring Stella-Rebecca." Hazel said.

       PJ and Josie looked at her and talked together. "You know Stella-Rebecca? Stella-Rebecca who models at car conventions in Chicago on the weekend?"

       Hazel shrugged. "Yeah, we're family friends."

       "Okay, great!" PJ exclaimed. Josie sighed as she put her head in her hands and her best friend looked at her with a smile. "We're doing it, Josie."

       "No." the girl grunted.

       "Yes! We teach a bunch of girls how to defend themselves against the evil, Huntington killers. They are grateful to us. We build a community, we bond, we share, we connect. We're punching each other, adrenaline is flowing, next thing you know, Isabel and Brittany are kissing us on the mouth!" she leaned towards her friend. "Josie. Isabel knew your name."

       "If we do this—" Josie replied. "Very big 'if'! We just run the risk of becoming even more losers that we already are right now. And I hate to break it to you but we're pretty big losers."

       "And that is the beauty. That is the beauty of this." PJ smiled. "Because we are literally at the bottom. We're the lowest of the low. We have nowhere to go but up."

       "Listen, I think this is a good idea." Hazel agreed as she looked at Josie. "There is a serious lack of female solidarity at this school."

       "Not the point, Hazel, not the point." PJ sighed and Hazel and Peyton shared a confused look.

      Sofia ran up the stairs to stop in front of them. "Hey."

      Peyton raised her camera and pointed at her cousin. "Smile!"

      She took the picture but Sofia was just staring at her. "Not the time, Pey. I need to talk to you."

      "About what?"

      "Yo, Sofia!" PJ exclaimed with a big smile. "We're starting a fight club for girls, because we noticed there is a serious lack of female solidarity at this school, you wanna join?"

      Hazel frowned. "But you just said—" PJ gave her a quick glance, quietly telling her to shut up.

      "Just come with me." Sofia rolled her eyes and grabbed her cousin's arm to make her stand up.

      "Jeez, okay." Peyton just had time to hand her camera to Hazel before Sofia dragged her down the stands. "What's wrong?" she asked once they were far enough of her three friends.

      "You're dating Hazel Callahan!" her cousin exclaimed.

      "You wanna talk about Hazel?" the blonde asked, surprised.

      Sofia rolled her eyes. "No, I don't wanna talk about Hazel. I wanna talk about why you didn't tell me about her."

       "It's new." Peyton lied. "We only made it official yesterday."

      "But I thought you would get back with Allan."

      "I won't get back with Allan. Never." Peyton said. "Why would you think that anyway? You didn't even like him."

     "No, but he's friend with Corey. I liked our double dates."

      Corey was her annoyingly perfect boyfriend. He was everything Allan wasn't. Nice, caring, understanding. In a way, Peyton had always been jealous of her cousin because of him. Not because she liked Corey, absolutely not, but because Sofia had found a boyfriend that was perfect for her. Allan was far from perfect, especially when it came to taking care of Peyton.

      "We can still go on double dates. With Hazel. I'm sure she would like it." the blonde girl spoke.

      Sofia pouted unconvincedly but she finally nodded. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

— thank yall so much for all the votes and the support i appreciate it so so so much 🥹