Chapter Text
Shelby was so excited to be back at school and start another year. And yes, she knew that she was probably the only high school student to be genuinely excited to go back to school. She couldn’t help it though.
Summer break meant that her and her family returned to Texas and spent the entirety of their summer there. That always confused Shelby and made her question why on earth her parents moved her whole family to Minnesota if they just went back to Texas for like three months every year.
Though, it didn’t matter what she thought, she just had to do whatever her parents wanted. While it was nice to go back to Texas and spend time with her grandparents and her cousins, she always missed her friends.
It didn’t help that her parents were very strict with phone rules, especially when they visited family. Shelby had limited screen time which made it difficult to keep in contact with all her friends.
They were a bit of a rag tag group, not the most expected collection of friends, but it worked for them. They referred to themselves as the Unsinkable Eight, mainly because Fatin had decided that they needed a name.
No one fought her on it and it just sort of became known around school that that was who they were. The group was made up of Shelby, Dot, Fatin, Leah, Rachel, Nora, Martha, and Toni.
While they were all friends, Shelby admitted that she considered Toni to be her best friend out of all the girls. Out of anyone, they were the most unexpected duo, at least on the surface.
Complete and utter opposites was how they were often described by those who didn’t really know them. Shelby certainly understood where that assumption came from.
Shelby was blonde, southern, had two younger siblings, and came from a very religious and traditional family with married parents who were high school sweethearts. Her favourite colour was pink, she did pageants, she loved to bake and scrapbook.
On the other hand, Toni was Minnesotan through and through, she never knew her father, her mother was in jail, she lived with Martha and considered her family more than her own blood. Toni was scrappy, no stranger to getting into a fight, the best basketball player their town had ever seen, and she held the record for most detentions served at their high school.
Yet, despite all of that, the two were basically inseparable, much to the chagrin of Shelby’s family. They most certainly did not approve of Toni and were not shy when they told Shelby that they didn’t think Toni was an acceptable choice of friend.
Shelby never listened to them, she knew Toni more than her parents ever cared to and she knew without a doubt that Toni was the best choice of friend Shelby had ever had. Toni may seem closed off to others, but once you got under that tough exterior, she was such a sweetheart.
Toni was incredibly protective, loyal, and caring. She just didn’t show that side of herself to many people. Shelby was honoured that Toni shared it with her.
Something that Shelby had learned about Toni was that she liked to fiddle with things in her hands. Toni had told her a story about the one time she remembered her mum taking her to the beach and how Toni had sat there and played with the sand for hours.
Her mother had put some of the sand into a little jar for Toni to take home considering she’d had so much fun playing with it. It had been one of Toni’s most prized possessions until she’d lost it one day when she’d had to suddenly move foster homes.
The foster parents had dumped her things into trash bags and left them on the front porch for Toni to take when the social worker turned up. It hadn’t been until Toni had gotten to her new placement that she realised that precious jar of sand had been left at her previous house.
She knew that there was no way she would ever get it back. Toni had only told Shelby that story a few months ago.
Simply put, it had broken Shelby’s heart, and she’d vowed to herself that when she went back to Texas for the summer that she’d bring back a little jar of sand for Toni. Nervously, Shelby unzipped her bag and checked for the hundredth time that she did put the jar in her bag before she left for school that morning.
As she hoisted her bag back onto her back Shelby made her way onto the school grounds and in search of the Unsinkable Eight. She checked her phone and saw that Fatin had messaged them all in their group chat telling everyone to meet at the courtyard before school.
Before she even got to the courtyard, she knew that her friends were there without even seeing them. She heard them. There was the rhythmic bouncing of a basketball, the excited squeal that could only be Martha, and the loud and corralling voice of Fatin.
Once Shelby emerged into the courtyard, she beelined towards her friends and almost tripped over her feet when Toni turned around and saw her. Toni smiled and it was the softest smile that Shelby liked to think was reserved just for her.
She never saw Toni smile at anyone else like that and she tried to ignore the butterflies that erupted in her stomach at the thought. Launching herself at Toni she heard the shorter girl grunt as she wrapped her arms around Shelby to keep them both upright.
“You miss me or something, Goodkind?” Toni teased as she squeezed around Shelby’s waist and leaned back, making Shelby’s feet leave the ground. Shelby squealed into Toni’s ear as she wiggled in her arms to be put down.
Once her feet were firmly planted back on the floor again Shelby smiled at Toni and said, “Maybe.”
Before the two could get too swept up in each other, Fatin’s voice interrupted them. “Hey, short stack’s not the only one you haven’t seen in months,” Fatin yelled as she barged her way between Toni and Shelby and pulled Shelby in for a hug.
That seemed to set off a chain reaction as everyone gathered around Shelby for their turn to hug her. Shelby noticed the way that Toni always stayed close to her though, never straying too far away.
Once everyone had greeted Shelby, they all turned back to their own conversations and left Toni and Shelby together.
Shelby looked a little shy as she reached out and tugged the bottom of Toni’s shirt to get her attention.
“Hmm,” Toni hummed as her soft gaze landed on Shelby’s face. Shelby desperately tried to tame the butterflies that had only gone crazier in her stomach.
“I, um, I have something for you,” Shelby whispered as she took a step closer to Toni.
Toni’s eyebrow quirked at Shelby’s words and her head tilted to the side like a confused puppy. Quickly, Shelby took off her bag and rifled through it, producing the jar of sand. She held it out to Toni with a small smile on her face.
As she stood there, she began to panic, thinking that she might have overstepped by getting Toni something that was one of the only good memories she had with her mother. It didn’t help that Toni hadn’t said anything, she just stood there and stared at the small jar in Shelby’s hand.
Just as Shelby started to apologise and pull her hand away, Toni’s hand shot out and gently encircled Shelby’s wrist. When Toni’s eyes flicked up and met Shelby’s, Shelby saw the unshed tears that had gathered in Toni’s eyes.
“For me?” Toni choked out as a stray tear escaped from her eye. Shelby delicately wiped it away as she nodded.
“I remembered that story you told me, about your mum,” Shelby started and at Toni’s nod she continued, “I just thought that... I know this doesn’t make up for that, but I thought it might be nice.”
Shelby had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Toni launched herself at her and wrapped her arms around Shelby’s shoulders. She whispered a continual stream of thanks into Shelby’s ear.
On her shoulder Shelby felt her shirt get a little damp from Toni’s tears, so she held her there so that the other girls wouldn’t see them. With a squeeze to Toni’s body and a soft kiss to her cheek, Shelby released Toni.
Fatin’s voice interrupted them, again. “God, are you two finally dating? It’s about fucking time,” she exasperated, which drew the attention of the rest of the girls.
Everyone stared at them and Shelby didn’t think that they’d start this again so soon. All of the girls had been convinced last year after Shelby came out to them, that her and Toni were going to start dating. Ever since then, anytime that the two got remotely close to each other, everyone just assumed that they must have started dating.
“We’re not dating,” her and Toni corrected, their voices in sync after having done it already so many times in the past.
Fatin just gave them a look, like she didn’t quite believe them before the bell rang and interrupted them.
As Shelby made her way inside, she thought about how often she and Toni had to correct people on their relationship. Everyone always assumed that they were together, just because they were both gay and, yeah okay, maybe Shelby was a little touchy.
But they were not together, and if they had to keep correcting people on that for the rest of their lives, then Shelby guessed that’s what they had to do.
Ahead of her, Toni turned her head over her shoulder to check that Shelby was behind her and extended her hand behind her back, wiggling her fingers. Shelby smiled and reached out, connecting their hands and intertwining their fingers.
As the pair made their way through the halls, lots of students noticed their joined hands and offered smiles to Shelby. She simply smiled back, not wanting to correct everyone.
She and Toni were not together, and Shelby was absolutely, one hundred percent, fine with that. She didn’t like Toni like that. At all.
Not even a little bit.