Three

1987


Three

Luckily, the end of my stint with Theatre just so happened to coincide with the beginning of senior year, so I wouldn't have to miss my decrepit, old cinema fix much – not that missing it was a remote possibility, mind you. Not a week or two after the Great Theatre Disaster of 1987, I found myself rolling onto campus in the passenger seat of Jessica's totally cute drop-top corvette with the latest Tiffany bop blaring through the radio speakers. Heads turned to stare as we jerked to a stop in-between two parking spaces, and my BFF yanked the keys out of the ignition without bothering to straighten the vehicle.

"If I don't take up extra space, people will, like, totally scratch my baby with their car doors," was always the excuse.

I pulled off my oversized sunglasses and leaned into the rearview mirror, checking my wind-fluffed hair for perfection to make sure I looked as flashy as possible for the day ahead. Once I was assured my appearance was up to standard, I popped the door open and took a practiced step out of the car, swinging my book bag over only one shoulder so as not to wrinkle my acid-washed jean jacket.

Jessica fell into place beside me and nudged me in the shoulder. "Greasy biker, ten o'clock," she scouted, flashing a flirty tease of a wink at some grody nerds with their pants pulled up to their s as we passed. I immediately glanced up to find Kai leaned against his bicycle on the right – not exactly the position my Barbie-blonde BFF had reported, but since when did I expect her to know how to read an analog clock? Like, everything on the planet was digital these days, anyway.

I couldn't help but swoon a little as my eyes graced his in' bod. True to his style, he wore only a jean jacket, ped and hung wide open with no shirt underneath. I had no idea how he got past the school dress code with a wardrobe like that, but bless Dennis Quaid's fine did it make him look bad. And by "bad" I mean totally, wickedly good. Not even sparing a casual glimpse in my direction, he lit up a cigarette and stared straight up at the sky as he puffed on it.

And just like that, we passed him by. Needless to say, I felt more than a little jipped. I mean, I had been waiting all summer just to show off my new nose, and he didn't so much as glance at me! Well, I could always catch his eye at lunch later, I inwardly huffed as Jessica and I marched away.

As always, we made a beeline for the cobweb-ridden ladies' room down by the gym and pushed our way inside. Like a cliché scene out of some teen flick, the restroom was packed with adolescent school girls trying to sneak a smoke before class; word must have gotten out that this was the only toilet on campus with a broken smoke detector over the summer. But for Jessica and me, who the entire female student body was totally jealous of, the crowd parted like the Red Sea as we entered, and only a few oblivious brace-faced freshmen remained at the sinks by the time we arrived. Neither of us paid them a second look as Jessica lit up a cigarette and I leaned into the mirror to fluff my bottle-red side ponytail yet again.

Before I even realized what was happening, a swarm of faces decked out in full metal headgear popped up behind me in the mirror, all gawking at me as if I was some sort of Hollywood star (but hopefully not Molly Ringwald because I was so over being compared to that brat on hair color alone). I raised an eyebrow, straightening up as I wondered why I was suddenly being fawned over.

"You're so pretty," one of them finally spoke up, gaping starry-eyed at my new visage. I couldn't help but smirk at the compliment. This was exactly the kind of reaction Daddy shelled out so much money for, after all.

"Aw, thank you," I cooed. "I wasn't always this pretty, but then I met Dr. Kim. He totally works wonders. You should consider a consultation once you get those braces off."

Jessica snorted from beside me, but before the freshman could even react, the first bell abruptly shrieked through the flimsy bathroom speakers, and the stalls immediately cleared of goody-two-shoes scurrying off so as not to be late to class. Rolling her eyes, Jessica stamped her cigarette out in the sink before flipping the tap on to flush it down the drain.

"Mila, you coming?" she called back as she sashayed toward the exit.

"I'll be there in a min," I replied. I had to, ahem, tinkle, and I certainly wasn't going to take care of that sort of business with an audience listening. After all, one of Jessica's golden rules was that a girl should never use a public toilet for anything other than powdering her nose and giving the occasional toilet head. I would totally have loved to adhere to that guideline, considering the bathroom smelled like it hadn't been cleaned since the 70s, but when you gotta go, you gotta go.

The halls were literally empty as I finally waltzed out, at least five minutes overdue for first period. According to my school schedule, which was absolutely bogus this year, considering I only had one class with my bestie, the first class of the day was Biology. I had never been overly fond of the idea of picking dead animals apart in the name of science, but the scheduling department insisted that the class was required for all seniors, so what could I really do about it?

The heels of my white pumps clicked against the linoleum floor as I found my way to Wing E, Room 4 and swung the door open. Like a Hollywood movie scene, the breeze from the door blew through my poofy pony, and a classroom full of seniors slowly turned to peer up at the oh so fashionably late arrival with curious eyes. My gaze swooped across my BFF, who had graciously saved a seat for me, probably by enchanting some dweeb into freeing up his own, and Kai himself tucked into a desk in the back corner. He smirked and shook his head as I entered, and I couldn't help but notice how my heart skipped a little beat simply by being sighted by him.

But just as suddenly as I had entered, the crusty, old grouch leaning against the teacher's desk cleared his throat, promptly bringing everyone's focus back to the front of the classroom. I froze in place, staring at him like a total deer in headlights as he proceeded to size me up and then droned, "Well, well, well. I see you, too, have finally decided to join us, Miss..."

"Mila," I peeped in introduction, my voice automatically shrinking back in mortification. Being chewed out in front of not only my entire Biology class but the biking bad boy himself, too, was not exactly my idea of an excellent entrance. I chanced a fleeting glance at Jessica, and she bit her lip and shrugged apologetically. "Mila Ahn. I'm sorry I'm late. I had to use the little ladies' room," I excused myself.

But the crab rolled his eyes intolerantly. "Then I'm sure you won't mind joining Miss Jessica in detention after school," groused the evil, cantankerous teacher whose name I definitely would never be bothered to remember now. Detention on the first day of school? Eek. How embarrassing. Well, there went my plans for exfoliating at Sica's private spa later.

Luckily for me, though, the rest of the first day seemed to pass without a hitch – unless, of course, you count the fact that Kai vanished without a trace by lunch period, again foiling my plans to catch his eye with the runway-worthy walk-by I had secretly been practicing all summer. Not to mention, sixth period study hall was going to be so totally ZZZ-inducing this year without Sica to help pass the time. I mean, I just couldn't wrap my head around why the administrators wouldn't just let us leave early or something. Like, wasn't homework supposed to be done at home, anyway? It was literally impossible to concentrate in the first place with the super nerds playing paper pong to the left of me (don't ask me how that works) and the Bambi-eyed kid banging his Rubik's cube on the desk to the right.

By the time the final bell let out, I was begging the cosmos for a breath of fresh air. But unfortunately, there was still an hour of dull, dreaded detention to face before I would be free for the day. Listlessly, I packed up my belongings – a Walkman with Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual on repeat and the latest copy of Vanity Fair with some TV anchor bimbo on the cover – and slipped into the shoulder straps of my backpack before flitting down to the dean's office. I had never seen it in person before, but I had heard plenty of legends about the place. The teacher who covered detention was supposedly a laid-back post-hippie, and I was banking on that fact at least making the punishment period tolerable.

To my surprise, Sica was actually present when I arrived to the detention classroom; I had half expected her to skip, bat some eyelashes to the principal, and get it cleared from her record before even thinking about serving time. Maybe she just decided to show up to keep me company, I figured and shrugged it off. Unsurprisingly, a circle of desks had been cleared of all occupants around her. Most of our peers were too intimidated to sit directly beside the school princess, so it was no biggie, really.

The rest of the room was roaring, though, with the usual class clowns and troublemakers teetering on the edges of their desks and spitballs whizzing back and forth across the room faster than the speed of light. The rumors of the indifferent detention supervisor were clearly true, and that combined with a set of already, well, delinquent kids made for a thunderous environment.

I slid into a seat beside Jessica, and she groaned immediately in greeting, "Ew, the new teach is, like, such a Hitler. Like, barf me out. I was only, like, two secs late."

"I know," I sighed and reached a hand into my bag to pull out my compact mirror. Even if no one important was going to be seeing me in detention, I couldn't risk sitting around wearing a face full of gnarly, smeared makeup, could I? Better safe than sorry, like Jessica always said. "Mrs. Lee last year wouldn't have even noticed us being late. This is so bogus. Like, gag me with a spoon."

"Like, how am I going to live without my morning smoke?" she pouted, folding her arms crossly. "I am so not waking up five minutes early just because of that old grouch. There has to be something we can do about this, you know?"

I nodded understandingly, simultaneously flipping open the compact and holding it before my face. A few wild strands of hair needed a little taming, but apart from that, all of my cosmetics seemed to be in proper working order. And, most importantly, my nose was still just as button-like as the last time I had seen it. Satisfied that my appearance was up to par for now, I readied my hand to clamp the compact shut when something suddenly caught my eye in the reflection behind me.

I froze on the spot, feeling my heart literally drop out of my chest. Literally. Because right through the detention classroom doorway had just walked a teenage boy who looked very, very unfortunately familiar. I hadn't seen him in a week or two, but I would recognize that fuzzy, brown mop of a haircut anywhere.

Theatre boy.

 

Author's Note

This fic is, like, sooo hard to write for some reason. :\ I have so many ideas for the future, though, and the next two chapters planned out! But with writing right now, Pokémon is just like "NOPE NUH-UH PLAY ME INSTEAD I'M MORE FUN LESS EFFORT MORE REWARD POKEMAAAAAAAAAAAAANZ!!!!!!!!!!!1" (Does anyone play B2W2, though? Or PokéMMO, even? /slapped)

Anyway, fun fact of the day: I basically shaped this story around three things, the first of which was wanting to write a protagonist who'd had plastic surgery. I had this character idea in mind for a while but didn't have anywhere to place Mira, so I had to build 1987 around her.

Finally, sorry for this lame chapter, lol. Had to introduce some things before settling into detention. I'm pretty sure at least 50-75% of my subscribers have probably abandoned this already, but... my b for not updating. :\

Thanks for voting, TeenIdle, munjae, chokyulat, vivalavina, phaeson, pandagirl753, leebyungiee, HAHAHAhannahL, shinyiuhan, Eiran_02, TheAwesomeWise, hanseoul, Lijiax15, priscillaxdoll, cherieinspirit7, midnightgirl, xiu_pao, isiss1994, Blueroses236, weirdo_scene, woowoon8o8, Amimiammiam, omonatae, Catherine, randomsparadise, TheChanel, ehminnie_18, EXOticBaekon, HoyaticTOC, PandaSulli, callmeoppa, sayuriNami, starchild98, KarraAriana, baeklightful, JinChan, lekriswifey, shimanrui, anneeeyyyy, nami23, 10apples, livingzombie, yoshiko-, ProstibeggarKitty, Koalas, wooyifan, pita21, 100percentASIAN, Akaiito, Ro0ska, Jessica101, JustMeee, Daisuke_Tsubaki, _gonzhu, Lovely1501, durian2003, LoveKpopBoyBand, Loknessmonster, mymikp, Harin_ahn, DiOsaur, Yoshikuni_Ayumu, trixyBee, ChaeYo, Sofeuh, Suddenrush-, Jackson00, iJAYYO, Jaejoonginyourbed, berenice, kaupunkilapsi, animeotakupooh, kiwikawaii, fistfulofcolours, Samandy79, insertnamehere1 -dreamingatdawn-, krixtalify, han_minyoung, Baekhyungry, MapleAngel19, aninfinitedyingfan, NicolaCamille, llama0lover, _absolute, ghei-ish, J13elieve, mir0694, Khahyeon, Euna004, and seoulreaper! Holy @#$%, that was a lot of names to type!

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exolotl
25 streak #1
I realise this will most likely never be completed, but damn... this used to be one of my favourite stories! I had so much fun reading every chapter and loved how cute and funny everything was.
Alishaboro #2
Chapter 8: Okay, period is kai gay?
crazyfantassii #3
Chapter 9: I was just LITERALLY staring at my cieling and I suddenly remembered this fanfic. I cannot believe I read this almost 5 years ago.
onlyixing
#4
Chapter 9: can't wait to see how their relationship will progress! love this
AngelKat
#5
Chapter 9: Honestly, she's a bit of an idiot
ariadne22
#6
Some of the pictures on here are broken btw~
HyunYoungPark
#7
Chapter 9: I was just scrolling my bookmarks when I came across this fic, it has been a long time (3 yrs) since I'm here (aff). when I saw the title, all memories came flooding back and I thought the fic had already been completed but sadly it was not. I just want to say that this is a great fic, I really really like it. maybe you can finish this fic in the future? take your time and do what you have to do first. I hope I can read the next update even though I need to wait for it. sending thousand of hug and love. ❤
sobinoodles
#8
I just wanted to say that I love your writing! Ahn Mira is not like any other OC I've seen on AFF - the usual meek, good-natured woman but Ahn Mira is unique, bold and wacky. I love it. It's a bit sad that you don't write anymore and this chapter ended early.I can't help it but have a lot of speculations about Kai and Lay. Totally love Theatre Boy and Popcorn Head moments! I guess I can only predict what's going to happen next in my own head hehe. Thank you for delivering such a unique storyline :)
TheHotSquadRP #9
CUTE
chanbaekedt
#10
Chapter 9: chapter 10