Chapter Text
Bea Hughes was a lot of things, but she was not a coward. So when Poppy sent her an ominous string of texts about meeting up, she did not freak out, she just screamed, started rummaging through her closet and showed the messages to Zoey.
”Meet me here at 8 PM, do not look up the place beforehand. If you do not show up there will be consequences.” Zoey read the messages with an amused look on her face.
Bea groaned.
”What did you do this time?” Zoey inquired with a raised eyebrow, while picking up a dress that Bea laid on the bed and examining it.
”That’s the thing! I don’t know what I did! Other than the usual.” Bea kept running circles around the bedroom while Zoey was busy actually trying to put together an outfit.
..
”Well, you know Poppy, you do not really need a reason for her to destroy your life”. Zoey said as she tried to choose a pair of heels. She huffed and went inside the closet.
”Am I going to get kidnapped?” Bea asked, turning to look at her friend. She sounded desperate.
Zoey smiled and bit her lip.
”Probably.”
”Zoey!”
”Well, it’s Poppy we are talking about here! But if you do get kidnapped, I’ll hire the best investigator ever to save you, you are too hot to be murdered.” Zoey smiled softly.
Bea couldn't help but smile back.
Bea finally stopped pacing. ”So what are we going to do?”
”Well I don’t know about me, but you are going to bring Poppy down and look damn good while doing it.” Zoey said, as she lifted up the outfit she chose along with a pair of heels.
The place Poppy chose was, to no one’s surprise, expensive. An elegant cocktail bar that managed to not be overtaken by the Belvoire crowd yet. When Bea entered, Poppy was already there, sitting alone on a high top table.
”You are late.” Poppy said, she looked radiant as ever, wearing a form fitting pink dress with a very low neckline.
Bea suddenly felt undressed on her blue body con dress. At least she wore the body chain.
Poppy probably told her to not look the place up so she can have the clothing advantage.
What a bitch.
”It 's 8:02.” Bea answered, looking at her phone, there were a string of Zoey messages wishing her luck and asking for details later.
”Yeah well, you are still late.” Poppy said, fixing her hair and sipping her very costly looking drink.
An uncomfortable silence fell between them when Bea sat down. Poppy cleared out her throat and tried to break it.
“So, uhm… How was your week?”
Poppy Min-Sinclair attempting to make small talk? With Bea of all people? This had to be a trap.
”Well, bad. One of my old classmates found the hog-calling remix and now all my hometown friends have it.” Bea answered, raising an eyebrow.
Poppy almost snorted before composing herself.
”Well that’s unfortunate… not as unfortunate as your outfit, anyway.” Poppy looked her up and down as she smirked and twirled the straw on her cup.
Yes, banter, that is familiar, Bea can do that. Fight with Poppy, figure out what she wants and get out, hopefully safe and sound.
”Well I didn’t get many hints of what to wear in your very helpful text.”
Poppy raised an eyebrow. ”Wait, you actually didn’t look the place up? What a doormat.”
“Well you told me not to do it!” Bea argued back.
“Since when do you listen to me, Farmhand?”
That.. was actually a pretty good point. Bea bit her tongue and they fell into silence again. Great, she was even more confused now.
Poppy sighed, rolled her eyes and called over the bartender to order two drinks Bea had never heard off before looking back at her.
”So how was your life back at Farmsville?” Poppy asked, she sounded genuinely curious and, is Bea being hopeful or she even sounded a bit nervous?
Okay what was actually going on? Poppy just took her to a bar to ask her questions about her life back at her hometown? (Which Poppy has deemed embarrassing since the moment she stepped on campus.) And buy her drinks? What is she planning?
“Since when do you care?”
Poppy looked away and bit her lip. The waiter chose that moment to hand them over drinks, Poppy still didn’t look at her, so Bea spoke.
“Do you want to do another truce?”
Poppy finally made eye contact. Her expression is impossible to read.
“Not quite.” Poppy looked at her. Eyebrows furrowed.
“What is it, then?”
“Well I was just curious to see how you adapted to this clearly superior lifestyle after living in that hillbilly town your whole pathetic life but consider me uninterested now.” Poppy rolled her eyes and Bea noticed she already drank her cocktail already and was signaling to get another.
“I just don’t get what you want from me right now.”
Poppy sighed and looked down at the table. “Are you stupid, hogmeat? Or are you trying to make this even more embarrassing to us both?”
Bea looked puzzled, Poppy must have noticed because she continued talking.
“Well I thought we were going out, you know? As a date?” Poppy sounded disgusted when she said the last word.
What-in-the-actual-fuck? Did Bea hear that right? Was she drunk already? Did Poppy Min-Sinclair just ask her out on a date?
“You threatened me if I didn’t come.” Bea said, flabbergasted.
“And I stand by that.” Poppy answered, looking severely unimpressed.
“But, you hate me! We are rivals.” Bea threw her head in her hands.
“I am painfully aware of that fact.” Poppy looked at her nails, levelling Bea down.
“So why are you asking me on a date?”
Poppy sighed heavily, drinking a big sip of the cocktail before facing Bea again.
“Veronica seems to have the wonderful idea that I secretly like you, so she dared me to ask you out on a date.” Poppy smiled. “And you know I never back down from a challenge.”
“So.. you decided to text me like you were going to kidnap me.” Bea is trying to put the pieces together, her head a million thoughts.
“Well yeah, how else was I going to get your attention?”
“By, you know, actually asking me nicely on a date?”
“Do I look like I do anything nicely?” Poppy leaned back on her seat. “And you should feel lucky. You know how many people would kill to have a date with me?”
“You have been making my life impossible since I met you. Why would we go out?” Bea said in an incredulous tone. She wasn’t even trying to lecture her or anything. Just trying to understand this whole mad situation.
Poppy looked at her, a wrinkle between her perfectly groomed eyebrows.
Bea noticed how angry and defaced Poppy looked, but as soon as she opened her mouth to try and explain herself, Poppy stood up, grabbed the drink she bought Bea and poured it all over her.
Before Bea could react, Poppy was out of the door, and Bea could not help but feel a little bit amused with it all.
Zoey gave a knowing smile to her friend as she sipped her soda. They were at Spicey’s, having lunch, it had been three days since the meeting (Bea refused to call that a date) with Poppy and she had been distracted and her friend couldn't wait to hear what the bitch had done now.
“So how was hanging out with Satan?”
Bea played with her food and looked everywhere but Zoey’s eyes. “It was a date.”
Zoey’s eyes widened impossibly wide. “What?!” She almost screamed, making some people sitting in the restaurant turn around to stare at them.
“I didn't know that! I think Veronica dared her or something!” Bea tried to backtrack but Zoey was still laughing at her.
“So how was your date with Satan, then?”
Bea sighed. “Well I think she thinks I rejected her and she’s probably planning my downfall as we speak.”
“Oof, what did you do?”
“Just.. asking her why the change of heart. She took it quite badly.”
Zoey leaned in, putting her elbows on the table.
“What did she do?”
“Dump a drink on me.”
Zoey threw her head back laughing. “Oh god, has she done something at Belvoire?”
“Nothing. We haven't even crossed ways.”
Zoey raised her eyebrows. “Oh, she is planning something. We need to get ahead of her.”
After that, Bea was on the lookout for days, expecting some cruel joke from Poppy as payback. But it didn't come. The answer was radio silence, the only time her and Poppy crossed paths was in Miss Kingsley class and Poppy made a point of not looking her way.
Bea started thinking. She hasn't seen Poppy since the meeting, and the girl always makes a point of making her presence known, but Bea can't help but wonder if maybe Poppy is feeling embarrassed? Bea’s sure the blonde is not used to being rejected, even if Bea didn't even mean to do it in the first place.
She didn't want Poppy to feel rejected. Even if that's a dumb thought, the blonde is evil personified, but thinking about someone as effortlessly confident as her being embarrassed is a picture so bizarre Bea can't even make sense of.
Maybe it's that same good girl complex that leads her to text Poppy that night. She had everything planned to get her attention, after all, Bea had spent months observing the girl.
“hey, just wanted to say the drink tasted nice, even more so splashed in my face"
“would love to go for another on here”
Bea attached a link to a place nearby campus that she and Zoey have gone to some time.
Poppy read the messages almost immediately, but she didn't respond. Bea got even more worried, what was Poppy planning?
But an answer came at 3 AM, Bea was woken up by the notification.
“I am not going to that shithole of a place. Who do you think I am, Farmhand?”
Bea didn’t answer. She didn’t know what to say. Poppy really was a puzzle wrapped in a riddle and some really hot clothes.