Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wendy Christensen felt her bangs shift under the breeze from the open window in her room. She was hard at work sketching a self portrait for her AP Drawing class, but as the sun went down, her artificial lamp light strained her eyes. The sound of The Cranberries from her cd player quietly centered the girl while she continued to sketch.

Next door, her rowdy neighbor Kevin Fischer was just getting out of the shower. He made sure to obnoxiously blast Shake it Fast as soon as he entered his room and did as the lyrics suggested. The towel around his waist struggled to hold on as his hips circled around. The sound of his off key karaoke travelled through his own open window and right into the eardrums of the girl one house over.

She huffed and took a deep breath. Ignore him. Her pencil glided against the paper in tiny strokes but her focus was broken. Wendy stood up from her desk and leaned out the window. The sight of the boy dancing around his room was enough to make her gag.

”Can you-!?” A screeching voice crept into Kevin’s room and his body turned to the window. He saw his next door neighbor’s head stuck through her curtains and the dusty pink pajama top that covered her body. 

“What?!” Kevin yelled across the gap, his own body slanted out the open window.

”It’s too loud! Can you turn that down?!”

The thumping bass was enough to distort her voice enough that he failed to understand a word she said. Kevin grimaced and pushed his body further out, reaching a hand up to cup his ear like a cartoon, “what?!”

Wendy groaned and rolled her eyes. She tried to make a motion so he would understand to turn his music down, but by the look on his face, she knew he took it the wrong way.

She wants to jerk me off? He made a makeshift megaphone with his hands, ”I can’t hear you!”

”Exactly!”

When Wendy saw his body disappear from the window, she gladly returned to the warmth of her room. The goosebumps had just begun to fade from her arms when Kevin’s damp hair came back into sight. He hadn’t turned the music fully off, but it was low enough to make the crickets outside noticeable.

”What were you saying?” The confusion on his face made his face look melted and Wendy stuck her head back out in annoyance.

”Your racket is hurting my ears,” she said while she brushed her bangs as far behind her ears as she could.

The boys gasped and put a hand to his heart, “Racket, my ass! That’s Mystikal!”

”I don’t care, just keep it down.”

Thoughts swirled through the boy’s head until a certain idea struck him. Wendy’s eyebrows dropped as he began to speak once more, “that’s something I could do…if you flashed me!”

She gasped and instinctively covered her already covered breasts. Before she could call him a pervert, his comments jumped over the gap again, “fair trade off, I think.”

”You are vile!” 

Kevin only laughed to himself as he watched her aggressively shut her window. To her dismay, the bottom of the fabric had gotten caught under the wood and when she turned around, her pajama top didn’t follow her. In a panicked fear, she turned around to retrieve her shirt until she realized that he was still watching.

Wendy thought her heart might stop. Kevin looked as though a simple feather landing on his head could’ve caused his whole body to topple out the window. Her hands flew to cover her exposed body but he was already pointing at her.

Score! Kevin fist pumped the air, looked at himself in the full length mirror beside his door, and dropped his towel. Naturally, in preparation for bed.

Rats! Wendy grabbed her shirt back and put it on. While she redid all the buttons, her cheeks felt like they were being barbecue grilled. It was hard to remember a time when she wasn’t interrupted by the latest “Kevin Fischer shenanigan.” Multiple uncompleted canvases leaned against a corner of her room, each with a memory of such tied to it.

Her fingers rubbed her temples and she tried her best to stop thinking about the brute that lived next door. Tomorrow was Monday and she was not in the mood to start the week off with dumb jock disease on the brain. 

Chapter Text

If you, if you could return

Monday. Her eyes opened quickly to the dreamlike sounds coming from her alarm clock. The thoughts of last night were pushed from her head and she awoke with a clear mind, ready for the day.

Smack that, all on the floor. Smack that, give me some more

The covers over his mouth couldn’t hide his grumbling snores any better if they were made from noiseproof glass. His hands flew to his face to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He then remembered the tit shot he’d gotten the night prior; he smiled.

On her way out the bedroom door, she made sure to check if the top she’d picked out was compliant with the dress code; low rise jeans were her favorites, but some shirts showed too much skin. She carefully stuck two fingers out in a gun shape and checked if the gap showing was larger, to which she grinned and made her way out and down the stairs.

He didn’t know what he was grabbing. The jeans he chose were straight from the floor, under his bed to be specific, and he hadn’t bothered to smell them. The boy groaned as all the shirts on the chair by his door were visibly stained. After a moment however, he swiped one that had only been shot with ketchup a few days earlier—courtesy of Jason of course.

“Honey! The letter arrived today, we are so proud of our little girl,” Wendy’s mother cooed as she spotted her daughter trailing down the stairs.

Letter? Yale! Wendy’s ears perked up and she scurried to the table, “no way! My interview is already scheduled?” Her hand flew to the paper in her mom’s grasp and her jaw dropped. “Awesome!”

“Good job, kiddo,” her dad’s voice traveled idly across the table and from behind his newspaper to the grinning girl.

“Kevin Fischer, you get your ass down here and eat with your family!” His eyes rolled to the back of his head on his way down the stairs. Waking up to that everyday was hardly anticipatory.

Fuckin’ okay.. “I am, mom!” He had to dodge a headbutt from his younger brother on his way to the table but his win the night before didn’t let it phase him. As he sat down, he yawned and grabbed a piece of toast, ferociously stuffing it down his throat.

Kevin’s father sat beside the boy at the table. He gave a laugh and slapped his son on the shoulder, “now that’s how a Fischer eats!”

By reflex, he gave his dad a grin and started hooting and hollering. The silence from his mother didn’t go unnoticed, however, and he discreetly wiped his mouth before kissing her on the cheek on his journey to the door, “see ya, guys. Ry.” He pointed at his idiot brother who was slurping up his eggs. He then slung his bag over his shoulder and opened the door.

She sat with her head down, still reeling from nerves at the thought of interviewing at Yale. Though she was appreciative of the oatmeal her mom had made, Julie had taken over all conversation with the rest of the family. So, Wendy didn’t get a chance to say thank you. 

Every once in a while, Julie’s eyes turned to the letter resting on the kitchen counter. Wendy could tell by the way Julie was gripping her spoon that she was proud…but jealous. Wendy was always the one who got good grades and had ambition, Julie was just the pity case with the heart condition.

“So Perry was saying that she didn’t even like him even though he was, like, totally obsessed with her. And it’s so obvious too like-“ Julie’s continuous gossip about her boatloads of friends always made Wendy’s head spin. 

The last time Wendy had spent time with that crowd was freshman year..when she was dating Jason Wise. The girl shuddered and stood up abruptly, “I’m gonna get a headstart so i don’t miss the bus.”

Her family’s eyes all turned suddenly to the girl, her mom nodding slowly, “oh, okay. Have a good day, sweetheart.” She then focused on Julie and asked, “now will you be-“

“Yeah. Perry’s picking me up in a few,” Julie interrupted and took a bite of oatmeal. The proud gleam in her eye was enough to make Wendy sick.

She’s so damn arrogant. Wendy sighed to herself and walked to the door. She made sure to grab her bag and a light, red colored jacket which she quickly slipped on. Her bangs blew in the wind on her way out and she pushed those aside.

“Yo, J-dog!” Kevin yelled as he saw his best friend pull up in his beat up convertible.

Jason’s car stopped conveniently overtop of the curb, making an unpleasant screech. “Fisch!” 

Wendy’s gaze turned to the scene beside her to which she vomited inside her mouth a bit and looked away almost instantly. There wasn’t a thing she hated more than to see Jason every day with her second least favorite abomination on the planet: her neighbor. Her feet traveled at world record speeds on her way down the sidewalk, even though the blasting music of Eminem was still audible to the girl as she walked.

“How’s it hanging this fine morning?” The boy let his raggedy Adidas shoes take him down to the curb and he hopped inside, tossing his bag in the backseat.

Jason dapped his friend up and punched his shoulder, “to the floor, my man. How’s about yourself?”

“Ah, I’m aight.” Kevin drummed the glovebox in front of him while the car began to accelerate, “but remind me to kick Ryan’s ass tonight.”

Jason gave him a look, not taking his foot off the gas for a second, “he piss on your pillow again?”

“Nah. President little nuts left a hunk of Shred’s shit outside my door. Almost fuckin’ stepped in it, man.”

Jason bursted into laughs, his fist punching the horn and causing many walkers to scowl in their direction. “He learned that shit from you bro, you did that to yourself!”

“Yo, yo, yo, hold up..” Kevin’s eyes turned to the figure of one Wendy Christensen strolling by a particularly large puddle. Bingo.

Jason noticed the sight as well. He smirked at the boy in the passenger seat and drastically aimed the car to hit the puddle. It did. The boys howled in laughter while the car sailed into the water and sprayed Wendy all the way down.

Wendy froze in shock. All of a sudden, she was soaked head to toe. A vile voice rang through her head even after it had passed by, “still getting wet for me, huh babe?” Jason. That prick.

She swallowed hard. Her hands slowly wiped down her face, her light makeup was already running. She brushed the wet hair behind her ears and began to walk again. First she missed the bus and then she got targeted by her evil ex and his devilish friend. At least her letter came, that’s all that really mattered.

Chapter Text

“Three, two, one,” Jason counted down in a whisper. Right when he opened his car door a familiar beat up van swerved around it last second. Jason howled with laughter at his planned antics as he watched Ian McKinley struggle to park his van.

Kevin was already halfway up the concrete steps to meet his girl by the benches. Shiny lipgloss and a tight zip-up caught his eye on the way. 

“Kev!” The squeaky voice he’d come to expect filled his eardrums as he welcomed her into his muscular arms.

He glanced down to see if he could catch a glimpse to compare to the pair he saw the night prior, “hey, babe..” Carrie in response used two fingers to move his chin back up and meet his lips in a sloppy kiss, making sure to leave residue of her gloss behind.

The sound of Ashlyn’s yelp filled the benched area as her newfound boyfriend wrapped his own arms around her waist without warning, “Jay!”

“Looking mighty fine for me today,” He whispered into her ear and started nibbling on it. His hands began to wander as Ashlyn shimmied out of his grasp and glanced around the crowd.

She took to biting her lip as his eyes burned into her chest—regret filled her as she remembered the low cut top she’d chosen that morning. A weak protest escaped her lips, “save it for lunchtime, kay?”

Jason leaned right back in to cover the girl’s cheeks with his lips, not minding the taste of setting spray. The girl swallowed hard and turned to Carrie who was fiddling with Kevin’s collar.

“You’re not supposed to wear stuff like this,” she scolded, “how am I meant to look when you can’t even manage to wear a clean shirt?!” Carrie huffed and shook her head. 

Kevin glanced down at his shirt and shrugged, “you look sexy, what’s the problem?”

Carrie’s eyes rolled to the back of her head before returning to Kevin’s, “I know I do, but I’m not going to win prom queen alongside someone in a ketchup covered t-shirt.” 

Shit, she’s hot when she’s bitchy. “I’m not wearing this to prom,” he replied cluelessly. Carrie, holding back her fit of rage, shook her head and clenched her jaw.

At that point, she saw a figure walk up the stairs. In reply, Kevin frowned and followed her gaze.

Wendy shivered though she tried to walk as nonchalantly as possible. Her socks squished with every step and her wet bangs drooped into her eyes. Great. Everyone’s looking at me.

Though her eyes usually chose to remain downturned on her way through the school’s entrance, that day was different. She’d gotten an interview at Yale and that counted for something. 

The smug grin of Jason Wise plagued her mind on her way past him, but she chose to ignore whatever vulgarity he’d chosen to torture her with. What surprised her more was that his newest fling, Ashlyn Halperin, was looking at her with a mirrored downturned smile. It was almost as if she pitied her, with no cruel intentions at all. Like she was apologizing for him, or something.

Wendy had no personal problems with the girl, anyway. Other than the Ashes’ reputations, to which she found superficial, they’d always been friendly to her. And friendliness at McKinley High School was hard to come by. 

“Wendy!” Erin Ulmer’s concerned tone traveled right over to Wendy’s attention. That along with the sight of her skinny jeans and converse.

Wendy gave a half smile and let her bag fall on the bench Ian and Erin had inhabited. “Erin..Ian,” she greeted with a nod at the gothic pair.

“What the hell happened to you?” The boy sneered with crossed arms. Though his tone was harsh, Wendy knew it came from real interest.

Her body collapsed onto the bench and she rubbed her temples, “you don’t wanna know.”

“Let me guess,” Erin scoffed as she picked at her already chipped black nail polish, “it starts with J and ends with asswipe?”

In response to Wendy’s nod, Ian chimed in, “that jockstrap almost made me crash my van too. Could’ve killed us..motherfucker. You had to have been pretty low to ever suck that guy off.”

Erin frowned at her unfiltered boyfriend and elbowed him angrily. He hissed and rubbed his side, “I’m just saying, She picked the wrong dick.”

“Just, cool it, okay?”

As the two started arguing—about her and her past choices no less—Wendy shook her head and let her eyes wander over to said dick. Well, said dick’s best friend to be exact. 

She watched as Kevin was practically fondled by Carrie. Save some groping for the bedroom, huh? Wendy could picture a night he’d left his curtains open while Carrie was over. Forget renting a porno, she thought she’d have to bleach her eyes after that night..and she’d only seen about two seconds before her hands practically tore her curtains down in an attempt to shut them!

“The bell rang, let’s go,” Erin’s voice pulled the girl from her disgusting train of thought.

“Oh, right.”

Chapter Text

Wendy didn’t tell Ian or Erin about the letter, not yet anyway. Instead she split off from them to find her locker and grab her english textbook. The greatest living American is..damn Mr. Horsen.

As she arrived at the locker, two particular people happened to be there at the same time. She couldn’t quite remember why Kevin Fischer’s locker was swapped over to be so close to hers, but she cursed the one who did it every day.

“Careful, Kev. The wannabe ‘freak’ is entering her lair,” Carrie did nothing to lower her voice. Kevin’s eyes turned to the slightly drier Wendy. She hadn’t even tried to fix her hair or anything.

Wendy scoffed and slammed her bag into the locker. “‘Wannabe freak?’ Don’t you have anything better to do than to tear me down? I haven’t done anything to you..either of you!”

Kevin’s eyes widened and his whole body peeled off of Carrie’s so he could face Wendy. She speaks..?

“Oh, exactly! You’ve done nothing. Cause all you do is hang out with the devil worshipers and dress like a 40 year old mom with two toddlers hanging off each leg,” Carrie’s fake cheer was enough to make Wendy die of an aneurysm right there. And by the look on the boy’s face, he was agreeing with every word his skanky little girlfriend was saying.

Kevin flinched when Wendy shut her locker and walked up to the couple. The hallway was surprisingly empty and her voice echoed.

“Y’know, Carrie? I feel sorry for you,” she said plainly. Her biceps clenched as she held her textbook in front of her chest.

Carrie gave a small chuckle and glanced at Kevin, “sorry for me? That’s a joke! You’re just jealous you’re not a part of our group anymore. That Jay dumped you.”

Dumped me? That was enough to make Wendy burst into laughter, but she didn’t; her gaze remained trained on the dimwits in front of her, “yeah, I’m real jealous. I mean, you have fake friends and slutty outfits..your IQ isn’t enough to get you into a good college but, your short lived modeling career is bound to get you somewhere, right? And while Kevin here is spending his days playing football with a bunch of lowlifes who peaked in high school as well, you’ll probably be sleeping with his friends behind his back—even if you do get married. Your lives will consist of wishing you were back here, getting plastic crowns for prom or being the most “popular” even though everyone secretly hates you..and for that, I’m the one who feels sorry for you,” Wendy grinned sweetly, “see you in class!”

Carrie gasped and watched Wendy walk away with her jaw on the floor. Kevin blinked about a hundred times before turning back to his girlfriend, “you’re gonna cheat on me?”

A loud grunt came from the girl and the crash of her fist against the locker proved to consume the hallway. She couldn’t even bear to look at Kevin after that, “no! That..bitch!”

Tell me about it.. Kevin slipped his hand into his own locker to grab the textbook he’d stuffed in there the previous Friday. Wendy had never blown up about all that before. His fingers clutched the book on his way to Mr. Horsen’s classroom.

Yes, they’d grown up living next door to one another, but Wendy was one he failed to understand. Freshman year replayed in his brain while he walked through the mostly empty halls, Carrie’s absence leaving him with time to think. 

Jason dragged her to almost every party, but sometimes Kevin thought it was her dragging him. He remembered how Jason bragged about their wild nights together—he could practically feel the jealousy he’d felt for Jason at that time, knowing he was getting it and he wasn’t rising up once more.

Kevin’s ratty shoes took him up the flights of stairs necessary and his grip never loosened on that book. Wendy only suddenly stopped talking to him, Jason, Carrie..their whole group. The Summer after Freshman year was the last time he’d even tolerated her. Why doesn’t she just talk?

“Mr. Fischer! So glad you decided to grace us with your presence,” Mr. Horsen’s voice snapped him out of his daze, signaling that he missed the bell entirely and was actually late.

Typical. Wendy decided to keep her eyes away from the boy she blew up at only minutes before, for her own sake. The blackboard had enough to copy down, however, that it was easy to continue her note taking and ignore her chronically late neighbor.

Kevin immediately noticed the fact that Wendy wasn’t looking at him. He exhaled quickly through his nose before speaking, “sorry, Mr. H.” He trudged over to his spot beside Jason and accepted the low five.

“Prissy pants hasn’t looked at me once, man,” Jason whispered as he leaned over to snicker with his best friend. “I’m starting to believe that shit about her becoming a robot after we stopped fucking.”

Kevin, still slightly entranced by the fact he was completely emasculated by the girl not ten minutes ago, was quick to hop onto laughing at her. Anything to bring her down was enough for him. The desk he’d plopped down on screeched with his leaning body which earned him a couple dirty looks by the tryhards in the back row.

“Bro, trust me, it’s real. I think I’ve seen her grease up before bed a couple times..”

Jason snorted at his friend. The noise made the teacher call the boys out—but Mr. H was a huge football fan, he simply laughed it off.

Wendy groaned to herself at the coddling. She’d heard their girlish whispering during class almost every day and he never did jack to punish either one. So they can talk all they want but Erin can’t answer her mom’s call?

She knew Erin through a creative writing class from Sophomore year. After destroying her reputation and trying to start anew, Erin and her boyfriend were…hesitant, but glad to welcome her in. “Anyone who hates Jason Wise is a friend of ours,” she remembered Erin telling her.

The couple were nothing like Kevin or Carrie or..Jason; they cared about their studies and wanted to ditch the small ass town to make something of themselves. Wendy admired that. She guessed that’s why she stuck around with them so long, it was better than being alone anyway.

Chapter Text

Wendy climbed onto the bus. The instant stench of teenage debauchery hit her nose, making her frown. Hope Erin was successful in claiming the back row…

Kevin banged his fists against the side of the brightly colored bus alongside his best friend’s hollering. Since they were going to some lame museum for Social Studies, he was sure to make the most out of the bus ride there.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. The further back Wendy walked the closer she got to the visual of Carrie outstretched along the entire back row. Ian and Erin both caught her eye and Erin’s voice filled her ears, “duchess frosty lips won’t budge.”

“Awesome,” Wendy replied with an eye roll before taking a seat across from the couple in the aisle.

“Let’s get this party started!” Kevin yelled as soon as he entered the aisle. As soon as all eyes were on him, he strutted down the runway and obtained high fives from most of the student population. That is, until he pulled his hands away in time to pass Wendy and her freaky friends.

From behind, Wendy could hear Carrie’s squeals, and she wished she’d brought her ipod. Her eyes drifted to Erin across the gap and they exchanged gags.

“Baby! I saved you a seat right by me..” Kevin grinned mischievously and took his seat, instantly wrapping an arm around the girl and smirking. What could be better than this?

What could be worse than this? Wendy groaned and wished she’d sat anywhere else, dreading the noises of the future. If she heard another giggle she would walk up and drive the bus herself…right off a cliff.

Erin took her out of the fantasy, “asshole alert.”

Wendy put her face in her hands and tried to prepare for whatever shit her ex boyfriend was about to pull, but it didn’t come. Well, it might’ve, she just chose to stare at the brick wall outside the window instead of his obnoxious and uncontrollable ego factory.

“My sweet Ash and her sweet ass, how are you baby..?” Kevin watched as Jason took his own seat right beside his own girlfriend. As his gaze drifted, however, he noticed Wendy’s fully dried mess of a hairdo behind the grey seat. Sitting by no one, not even the vampires.

Though the moment he felt lips on his neck, glossed ones..not baring teeth, his mind quickly got over the sight of his neighbor. He moved his hand to the shoulder beside him and relished in the feeling, knowing that this was better than any old and boring History lesson. Way better.

Chapter Text

As the girl walked into the museum, the grating voice of Mr. Winstead filled her and her classmates’ ears. “Now, in order to keep order, please partner up with a peer to complete the worksheet,” he said.

Naturally, Kevin’s body was turned toward Jason’s, who was groping an unsuspecting statue at the moment. The pair were snickering at his actions before they registered the teacher’s words. Wendy, on the other side of the large entrance, had given the sight a scoff. Her eyes traveled then to Mr. Winstead with plans to request a solo exemption.

However, both Wendy and Kevin’s plans were foiled when Mr. Winstead frowned deeply under the dim museum light, “Mr. Wise and Mr. Fischer? Absolutely not. Mr. Wise, you partner up with Miss Ulmer, and Mr. Fischer, with Miss Christensen.”

Erin, who had snuck up behind Wendy with plans on surprising her–Ian not far behind–gave herself away with a loud “what?!” This of course wasn’t registered by Wendy, who was not sure if the fake heart attack ploy was even necessary to get out of partnering with Kevin; she might’ve actually been at risk of having one right then and there on the marble floor. No, no, NO.

Jason, in reply to the partner announcement, threw his hand instantly in the air to rebuke, “uhh excuse me, shouldn’t it be a rule that our partners have to have a pulse?” His voice was half mischief and half repulsion, earning a matching laugh from Lewis Romero a few feet to his left.

The guy he expected to laugh was in fact not laughing. Kevin was too busy watching as Wendy’s eyes bore into Mr. Winstead. His own palms started to sweat. She had to have learned some witchy spells from the demon couple, right? I’m so gonna wake up with an extra arm tomorrow…

After being met with a disagreeable shrug and scolding from the teacher, Jason and Erin met up in order to complete their page. Wendy clenched her jaw and smoothed out her hair while Kevin picked himself up off the rigid reception desk to land beside her.

“So, we gotta find all this shit then, huh?” He tried a friendly approach at first, not wanting to get on her bad side once more. She’d proved that she knew more words than he knew earlier and he wasn’t about to poke a dead bear…or whatever that phrase was. 

Gosh, he’s so vulgar; it’s a scavenger hunt for heaven’s sake! “Uh, yeah. That’s kind of what a scavenger hunt is,” she replied with snark. Her weight shifted from foot to foot as she began digging through her bag to find a pen.

Kevin suddenly felt the urge to roll his eyes. Does this girl have any sense of humor? “I know, I was..just…saying,” he trailed off. She wasn’t listening. She dug out her pen and started to walk away.

He quickly followed, almost marveling at her walk speed. “Damn, where are you going?”

“To the tesla coil. It’s the first thing on the sheet.”

And they eventually found it. In an effort to avoid all eye contact, Wendy remained trained on navigating the museum—which wasn’t difficult since she had gone with her mother not long ago. Kevin, on the other hand, had stayed busy by trying to find a pair of tits in every room they passed through; he'd found 5. They’d only been in 5 rooms.

“Here it is,” Wendy said to the boy who was frantically scanning the room. “Kevin!”

At her snap he stopped looking at the walls and looked at her. “What?” He shrugged in annoyance.

His face was about to contort even more until he saw the giant coil and deflated, “oh.”

The girl pulled the sheet from his weak grasp and began to read the directions, “okay, we have to each put our hands in the two gloves and describe what we see and feel.” 

“Wait, we have to get electrocuted for this?” Kevin knew Wendy thought he was an idiot. So, at his automatic joke, he instantly regretted acting like a dimwit; there was no way she would know he was kidding. Her blank stare proved him correct.

Idiot. Wendy walked over to the enclosure and waited for Kevin to follow her, right near the two glove holes. “No, the glove doesn’t let you get electrocuted, Fischer. Just stick your hand in, okay?”

Kevin huffed but the flickering of the coil was enough to hold his attention. He nodded at the girl and stuffed his hand in the glove, “okay, okay, I am. Just don’t be surprised when you wake up tomorrow completely invisible”

Wendy didn’t entertain his first comment, only responding to his second. “Good,” she said, “write down what you see.”

He frowned, “it said to do it at the same time.” His eyes glanced at the other glove in an attempt to get the girl to do the same. From there, he watched the electricity connect to his glove’s fingertip and smiled.

“I know,” she huffed back. Wendy, more hesitant to touch the inside of the glove, slowly reached her hand in.

“Damn, it’s not gonna slice your hand off. Hurry it up, neighbor!” He gave her a look and suddenly wished he never said anything. The girl yanked her hand away and put it on her hip.

“Do you have somewhere else to be? You wanna finish up here so you can reenact your favorite museum based porn flick with your bimbo girlfriend?” Wendy was sick and tired of being rushed by people, she had enough of that from her father. She wasn’t about to be bossed around by Kevin Fischer.

With that, he took his hand out and turned to face her as well, the white noise of the museum around them fading into obscurity. “Don’t talk about Carrie like that! And no, I just wanna get this over with so Mr. Hardhead doesn’t fail us for not completing this dumbass scavenger hunt!“

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize she was so astute. Do you two analyze War and Peace as a form of foreplay?”

The tone Wendy used made Kevin’s fist clench. He hated when she acted like Carrie wasn’t a good friend of hers in the past, “just stop it, okay? Put your hand in the glove!”

Under the hum of the coil, Wendy chose to ignore the seriousness she saw in his eyes. Only he could defend the likeness of Carrie—or Jason, for that matter. And he was right, she wanted to get this done too.

Eyes locked, the pair put their hands in the gloves and stuck out their pointer fingers. A rush of wind blew Wendy’s hair, though no windows were open and no one was around them. The moment the tesla coil’s electricity hit their gloves, a large zap could be heard. 

Ouch! Kevin winced and shook out his hand after pulling it out. His brow furrowed; he wasn’t supposed to feel the surge.

What the heck? Wendy jolted away from the enclosure when she felt a current of electricity through her veins. How was that possible? She knew the glove was designed to keep the power inside, not actually electrocute the user.

“The fuck was that about?!” He ran his hands through his hair frantically and kept his eyes on Wendy, who seemingly had felt the same thing.

She maintained her confused expression as her eyes did the same to him, “I- I don’t know. That’s not supposed to happen.”

“Well that’s something to write down!” Kevin snatched the pen from Wendy and began scribbling his thoughts on the paper.

That of course brought a gasp from the girl, and she took a step towards him, “hey, what are you writing?” Don’t write something dumb…

“Uh, that we just got flippin’ electrocuted!” He turned his head a moment in order to see her eagle eyes watching him. Can she just trust me for once?

Wendy groaned and turned her gaze to a painting on the wall, “you cannot write that. It’s an anomaly! Mr. Winstead won’t believe us!”

“I don’t care if he believes us, it still happened!” Kevin’s carefree and impulsive behavior reminded her of the night she, Jason, Carrie, and him had gone to the lake after dark. He ensured there wasn’t a night watch program. There was. She practically sprained her ankle trying to run and Carrie got cut up by some bush on the way.

“If it’s not correct, he won’t even count that we did it! Saying we got electrocuted is like saying we didn’t do the activity and just figured people can feel the ele-“

“Too late! I already wrote it, so just chill the fuck out.”

Wendy clenched her jaw at his interruption. He’s not worth it. After a hard swallow, her hand reached for the paper and pen in silence. Kevin paused to take in the sight of Wendy giving up, almost relishing in it.

“Let’s just get this shit done,” she said on her way out the door.

When he knew she couldn’t see him, Kevin smirked ever so slightly at her words. On his way through the door, he felt a small tingle between his eyes. It was like he was watching his own body walk into the next room.