Chapter Text
What the brunette hears first when she wakes is a low groan behind her.
She tries to turn toward it — to see who, or what, made the sound — but a sharp spike of pain shoots through her neck and stops her . The attempt ends before it begins.
She’s tied up.
“What the hell?” Shauna mutters, her voice rough with sleep and confusion. She flexes her fingers instead, testing what little she can reach without moving her head—without moving much of anything, really.
Because she fucking can’t.
"Shauna? Shauna." Is what she hears next. Her hearing is muffled, but when the person speaks again, she realises who it is.
"Natalie! What the fuck is happening? Where is Javi?" She basically shouts and immediately goes quiet as she hears a wince coming from where Natalie sits.
"I— I don’t know. They must’ve took him." The blonde tries reaching behind her back, but it’s no use.
"Fuckin’ hell.." Shauna looks around, looking for something—anything—that could help them.
"There!" She hears Natalie exclaim, looking at the desk where Nat jerked her head towards.
"Let’s— let’s try and move there." The brunette nods, trying to encourage Natalie (and herself).
The two of them—backs pressed against each other, tied to the chairs—try and shuffle towards the desk. The first few tries? Were perfect. They couldn’t help themselves but grin and laugh in almost-relief. But just as they were about to reach the desk, they fell to the side.
Shaunapeaking is what the brunette puts on first thing in the morning.
Her co-worker, Natalie, handed the cd to her one day and said that it would improve her music taste. Whatever that means.
But when she heard the opening notes of "Silver Springs"? Immediate no. She quickly turned that shit off and put on her own music.
As Shauna rolls out of her bed, the guitar notes of "My Name Is Jonas" fix her mood in seconds. Even though it’s Saturday and Shauna doesn’t have work until like 3, she has to get ready—for her best friend. Who is she to not agree to tutor Jackie? Her amazing, beautiful, talented.. friend.
After taking a shower she checks her watch and sighs in relief, realising she has around an hour to get ready and mentally prepare herself.
The brunette furrows her eyebrows in thought as her eyes flicker between her favourite flannel and the comfy hoodie that she once lent to Jackie and that still smells like the shorter girl. When she finally decided what to wear, she packs her things and leaves her house.
Shauna starts to get on her beat up bike before something—someone’s voice—caught her attention.
Natalie. Of course it fucking is her.
"Dawg, I already said I’m sorry! Stop fucking chasin’ me!" The fake blonde shouts as she speeds on her even more beat up bike. When she catches Shauna’s eyes, her expression immediately turns into relief and she stops for a second.
"Shauna—" She gasps, bending almost in half over her bike. "Help a girl out."
The doe eyed girl raises an eyebrow in disbelief before sighing heavily and getting on her bike.
"Let’s go." She mumbles, clearly annoyed. Even though she had plans, she wouldn’t leave a friend in need. Especially not Nat.
The two of them speed through the street, Shauna keeping her head forward and Natalie peeking over her shoulder anxiously as the mad gas station worker started to get tired over time.
When they finally stop by the Starcourt Mall, Natalie is practically panting, arms thrown over the handlebars and a mop of bleached hair resting on top of them.
"What did you even do to piss that guy off?" Shauna asks as she fixes her hoodie, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.
"There’s a possibility. Like, hypothetically.. that I may have stolen something. But I apologised! And I gave— threw money at him!" Natalie finally straightens up, throwing her arms up in defence as her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "It wasn’t that big of a fucking deal."
"Oh my god." The brunette closes her eyes and rubs them with the heels of her palms.
"Let’s— let’s at least get something to eat." She murmurs after a few moments, not even bothering to wait for Natalie as she walks into the mall.
"I was supposed to go to Jackie’s." Shauna grumbles, her arms crossed as they walk through the mall without a point.
The blonde groans noisily and throws her head back in mock annoyance.
"Oh my god. You’ll see her soon, frickin’ lesbian."
The brunette glares at Natalie for that, her dark eyes narrowing and eyebrows furrowing.
"I already told you— I’m fucking bisexual! Not a lesbian.”
"…Oookay, so an evil bisexual. Got it." Natalie grins as Shauna raises her hand to smack her head, easily avoiding it—knowing the exact way Shauna’s nostrils flare when she’s about to do it.
After spending a few hours of absently walking from shop to shop, Shauna calling Jackie to cancel their plans and eating some food, their shift finally came.
The two girls went into the ice cream store’s backroom and changed into their uniforms.
Natalie cackled at Shauna struggling with the Ahoy! hat and went to serve the customers.
The first customer? Kevyn.
"He-"
"I swear, if you’re here to make fun of me, just.. don’t."
The shorter boy gasps, placing a hand over his chest as he gapes at Natalie.
"Me? Make fun of you! Ha! I just want to get frickin’ ice cream."
After a few minutes of the blonde glaring at the emo boy, with him humming the whole time in thought, he finally spoke.
"Can I get the chocolate ice cream? In a cup." He grins cockily as Natalie audibly groans and scoops the smallest portion possible into a cup.
"Three dollars."
"What, no discount for a friend?" Kevyn fake-pouts, trying to give Natalie his best puppy eyes.
"Oh, because you’re such a princess that you need discounts?" She scoffs, shaking her head in amusement.
Kevyn shrugs as he places the spoon into his mouth and turns around.
"You two better not be late to practice tonight!" The boy calls out as he leaves the store, his ice cream already half-finished.
Natalie puts the scoop back into the warm water and wipes her hands on her uniform before quickly walking into the backroom where Shauna sits.
"Come on, Shipman. Get your ass up and get to work."
The brunette huffs as she puts her phone back into her pocket and follows Natalie out of the backroom.
"Jackie isn’t texting me back." She frowns as she rests her lazily crossed arms on the countertop.
"I’m sure she’s just busy." The blonde says with a shrug. Her neutral expression quickly turns into a bright grin as she sees a flash of her favourite red hair.
"Natalie!" Van raises her arm to dap the blonde before putting her hands on her hips.
"Is Javi with you?" Natalie asks the redhead, leaning over the countertop to peek over Van’s shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah. Travis said he’s going to be busy this afternoon, so me and Tai saw this as a chance to practice our maternal skills." Van says with a hand pressed to her chest and the other hand wiping her fake tear.
She moves to the side to reveal Travis’ brother, the 13 year old waving at Natalie with a shy smile.
"Hi, Javi." Nat waves back at him as she hands him a cup of cookies and cream ice cream.
"Anyways, are you coming to practice?" The blonde asks Van, who’s now tasting the ice cream Javi got for free.
"Mph- Yeahm! Obviously. None of you guys would be able to write a line without me. Except for Shauna."
Shauna nods in agreement at that, her lips pressing into a thin line.
"Anyways, there’s this weird signal coming from the speakers in the backroom.. You think you could check it out?" The doe eyed girl asks Van, straightening up.
"Yeah dude. Come on, Javi. You’ll see your aunt in action!” The redhead smiles cockily as she walks into the backroom, Javi following after her like a puppy.