WYATT'S COFFEE CUP READ 'JULIA' AND HER SMILE SCREAMED 'SMUG.' She continued to smile as she took the frappuccino from the barista before stepping out into the early morning light. The last day of school and her last day as a sophomore, she was more than happy to say that her birthday was going to be a great one. It wasn't going to be anything too big, just hanging out with her friends, but even the weather seemed to acknowledge the way everything was aligning, giving her a brightly lit overcast day.

She made her way to school, her head raised and heels clicking against the concrete as she continued along her way, catching sight of the gate leading into Standard High. She'd started at the beginning of the second semester and was honestly surprised she hadn't yet gotten herself a reputation, what with all the girls she had tried—and failed—to win over. She had tried to see if she could, perhaps, like boys as well, but that had been a short and futile effort, as she didn't truly didn't care much for boys, much to her slight disappointment.

"Why do you want to like boys?" Sabine would ask every time she complained, and it was a trial each time to explain it to her.

"Because at my old school the boys were all unappealing, so I never had to mind. But some are actually cute and respectable here, and while the girls, as always, are much better, I'd have more to choose from," she would sigh, dropping her head onto the table to moan woefully while Matthew rubbed circles into her back.

Speaking of her friends, she found them waiting for her at her locker as she rose up the stairs, catching sight of the streamers and balloons that were strung along it. She grinned and raced towards them, laughing as Sabine surged forward, the small freshman hugging her tightly and giggling. Sabine Kawahara had been her first friend, and it had been up to them to convince Matthew Mitty that he could still have them.

"Happy birthday!" the boy called, reaching out to hug her as well, laughing as she wrapped her arms around him tightly, having to jump up to reach his neck.

"Are you getting your car today?" Sabine asked, the two freshman continuing to loiter, helping Wyatt take off the items from her locker, which had already been cleaned out.

"I'm pretty sure, my license came in and my parents promised," she said, sighing as she glanced towards the clock in the hallway, "You kids ready for the last of finals?"

"I'm ready to die, does that count?" Matthew asked, and she snickered, aiming a swipe at his foot, the taller boy laughing as he turned his cap backwards, leaning against another locker.

"What are we gonna do tonight?" Sabine asked, "Since you don't wanna spend it with your parents." There was underlying question and slight judgement in her tone, but Wyatt didn't mind; Sabine didn't know.

She felt her lips curl into a smile as she looked between the two of them. "You guys up to do something illegal?"

º º º

"Where-where you off to, sweetheart?"

Wyatt sighed as she set down her mascara, looking away from her vanity to see her father standing in the doorway, looking rather uncomfortable as he fidgeted, not looking into her room without her permission.

"I'm going out with my friends. I'm taking the car. Thank you for it, again," she said shortly, turning back to her vanity, desperately wishing that he'd leave before she wound up in a bad mood.

"Sure," he said, taking a deep breath and sighing, "Your mother wants to know what time you'll be back, to see if we need to stay up. Call if you need anything, you know the drill."

"Yeah. I do," she said, motioning for him to go, "Midnight, okay? Don't worry about it, it's not like you guys ever worry anyways."

Her father opened his mouth to argue, but decided it against it, sighing and grabbing the door handle, closing it and leaving her alone in her room. She sighed heavily, feeling less motivated to do anything but sleep. But it was her birthday and she was going to have some fun. Even if it was illegal.

She stood and went to her full body mirror, humming. While the plan wasn't anything to draw too much attention to, she figured that if they were going to play out a teen movie, she was going to dress like she was in one; over the top and completely unrealistic. Of course, it wasn't too unlike her regular attire, a cropped love sleeved top and short skirt with heels. Some would say impractical, but she knew how to run in them.

With a sigh, she grabbed her purse, stuffing in her phone and her wallet as she made her way down the stairs, her car keys in her pocket. She scarcely called out a goodbye to her parents, the two in their room, stepping out into the summer night.

She sighed as she made her way to her new car, climbing in and calling Matthew who always picked up.

"Hey," he greeted, seemingly having waited for her call, "So Sabine and I are here, and we're really scared. Also, when you said dress up, did you mean in all black to avoid detection or, like, cute and whatever like you actually wanted, 'cause we're both dressed up, but we're regretting it."

"No, you did good," she said, turning out of her neighborhood, "Listen, I'll be right there. Just breathe and listen to some music, and stay hidden."

"We're hiding in the bushes," Sabine called through the receiver, Matthew making a point to breathe into the receiver, though he sounded like he needed it, all things considered.

Wyatt hung up, smiling as she thought of the two friends she had successfully gotten for herself. Of course, they were a year younger than her, but they were just as fun, even if Sabine wasn't always allowed to hang out and Matthew often couldn't handle most of what they wanted to do; she liked them just the same.

She drove the fifteen minutes it took to get to suburban neighborhood, parking in the shadows to limit the number of people who might want to catch her license plate.

Climbing out, she caught sight of Sabine and Matthew who were sitting on the curb playing cards, the two looking up when they heard her coming.

"Did you bring the stuff?" she asked, and they nodded, Matthew reaching into a reusable bag to show three cartons of eggs, his lips pulled into a grimace.

"I don't really want to do this..." Matthew said, and she frowned down at him, raising an eyebrow.

The reason they were at the neighborhood in the first place was to get back at one of Matthew's classmates who had decided to trash his locker and his house after he had come out as bisexual, as if chasing him off the team wasn't torture enough. They had been planning this ever since it had happened, and all that Wyatt wanted for her birthday was justice; she was given enough money to buy herself anything else that she wanted.

"Matty," she sighed, looking to Sabine who shrugged, "I know they were your friends, but really—"

"No," he sighed, shaking his head, "I just don't like the idea of us trashing their stuff, because they're not paying for anything. Their parents paid for everything, and none of their parents had any problem with me, so why are we torturing their parents to get back at them?"

Wyatt pursed her lips. "What, so you wanna ditch?"

"I'm fine with whatever you wanna do, but don't mess with stuff that isn't theirs," Matthew said, crossing his arms, "I'm not as angry as you are, I'm just sad."

Wyatt bit her lip, glancing towards the house, a slow smile curling onto her lips. "Okay. We won't trash their houses. But we're still gonna ruin their lives. Stay here and watch."

With her head held high and no fear of the consequences, Wyatt made her way to the front door of the house, popping a stick of gum into her mouth and leaning her weight to one side. Pressing a manicured fingernail to the doorbell, she glanced over her shoulder to find her friends peering out from where they were hiding in the bushes, Matthew filming tentatively.

She rang the doorbell again for good measure, listening to the sound of muffled footsteps and hushed whispers as it carefully opened, revealing a man in a robe with a baseball bat, a woman right at his side.

"Can we help you?" the man asked, clearly unnerved as to why a girl wearing a crop top and high heels was standing in front of him at too late in the evening.

"Yeah," she said, chewing the gum obnoxiously, speaking with an accent much different than her own, "Listen, I don't know who your son and his friends think they are, but they've got some nerve talking shit about me and my sisters like that."

"I-I'm sorry?" the woman said, looking wholly affronted at her words.

"Yeah. Yeah, he thinks they can just come in, drink our booze, spray paint dicks on the side of our sorority house, and shit talk us online like he's some kinda a god? No way, call him down, I just wanna talk," she said, stomping her foot and waving her hands, shaking her head.

"Our son would never—" the woman tried, but Wyatt cut her off, reveling in the way she could raise her voice as loud as she want, putting all her feelings into her words as she screamed.

"Terry Botto, yeah?" she said, holding up a hand, "Little blond twerp who thinks he's so hot 'cause he'll whip out his dick if a girl even looks at him, yeah, we know 'im. Kid gave everyone his address, I got a list of his friends, I wanna know where they live, 'cause I'm not leaving 'til I get some answers."

For thinking on the fly, she was fairly proud of herself. She didn't dare glance over her shoulder, but she hoped that she could be heard. She raised her eyebrows challengingly as she watched the faces of Terry's parents twist into expressions of pure disgust.

"Terry!" his mother screamed, stomping over towards their stairs, "Terry, get down here right now!"

"Here, do you have any evidence of what happened? Actually, you know what, I don't care, here, how much to get you and your...sisters to never talk about this to anyone? We can pay for the damage, anything, but don't get the police involved, we'll be sure to talk to their parents, everything, just—I mean, they're just kids." Terry's father fumbled about for a wallet that wasn't there.

"Yeah. Some kid you got," she snarked, reaching into her purse and grabbing a pen and paper, scribbling down the names of the other boys that had bragged about trashing Matthew's house and his parents' cars, shoving it into the man's hands, "Fifty bucks cash, and we'll call it square. I don't wanna see your kid or any of his rat-mustached friends anywhere near me or my sisters again, and I want the other parents to know."

"Yeah, we-we can do that," the man said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "What's your name?"

"Thea," she replied smoothly, not faltering for a moment, "They'll know who I am."

She waited for the man to grab his wallet, handing her a fifty dollar bill. She gave him a tight smile, nodding over to Terry whose mother was shouting to him about respecting women and making responsible choices, and it seemed to be the right sort of talk he needed, so she simply pocketed the money and walked away.

She allowed herself a smile as she looked to Matthew and Sabine who rose out of the bushes as soon as the door closed, the two staring at her with wide eyes and dropped jaws, Matthew hardly able to take the money that was shoved in her hands.

"Terry saw me, so he's gonna know what happened and why I was really there. You'll be okay," she said, and Matthew laughed softly, hugging Wyatt who immediately went to hug him, patting his back.

"I don't like hate crimes. Trust me," she said simply, shrugging as she made her way to her car, "Come on. I told my parents I'd be out way later. There's something else I wanna do."

º º º

"Thank you," she chirped, taking her receipt from the cashier, making her way to Matthew, handing him his change and giving him his frozen yogurt cup, the boy thanking her as she hopped up onto the chair.

Sabine swallowed her spoonful of chocolate yogurt, tilting her head. "Are you sure this is what you wanna do for your birthday, I know you didn't do much with your parents."

Wyatt shrugged, glancing down at her cup. She liked getting frozen yogurt, it was like a buffet for her sweet tooth. There was nothing pretty about what she had gotten, layering flavors with toppings, tossing them in haphazardly, trying to make everything taste good, mixing fruit with caramel and chocolate sauce, creating a concoction as strange and unreadable as her own self was.

She raised her head up to the two friends she had. To Sabine who had approached her in the cafeteria with an extra fruit cup and a compliment on her highlights. To Matthew whom she had found eating alone in the math room, playing his guitar and crying. She felt a need to protect them and they her, and it was a cycle of safety that she couldn't find anywhere else.

She looked around at the near empty late-night frozen yogurt stop, taking in the white tables and walls and corny logo mascot plastered on the side. She nodded to herself turning back to them with a smile.

A genuine smile.

"Yeah," she said, taking another bite of her yogurt, "I'm happy with this. Happy Sweet Sixteen to me."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This chapter was supposed to be a little teen movie kitschy but it'll get a little more realistic but also it'll keep the same kinda fantastical teen movie vibe just 'cause that's the way I want this story to go, it's a purposeful choice. 

Wyatt's relationship with her parents is gonna be a focal point of the story, because she really doesn't like them, and they don't really like her, and they have their reasons, it's this whole thing, you'll see.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed