Polar

Pairing

AN: Hi, hello! It's Lexi again, with another fic!
Yes, yes, you're probably thinking this is just another highschool AU fic meant for another ship, but uh...you're sorta wrong? Kinda? This fic wasn't meant to ship Taco and Suitcase together, that just wasn't my intention when I was planning this out and writing it. (If you ship it, you go dude, I genuinely don't care, I just don't have strong feelings for it myself.)
Though I do want to clarify real quick, the way I'm writing Taco in this fic is how I interpret her personality would be if II had never existed in-universe: I feel like she'd be a healthy blend of the personalities that's she's exhibited over the past 2 seasons: intelligent, but still goofy and fun-loving. She isn't manipulative by any means, but she does retain some of her "evil" tendencies.

While for the most part this fic is pretty lighthearted, just gonna put out the main TWs that might pop up here and there for this fic:
child neglect/abuse
toxic relationships (platonic)
blood

If there's anything else, I'll update it in here later. Anyways, enough talking, into the fic! Hope you enjoy! :)

"It kinda feels crazy, y'know?" Paper said, hands shoved in his pockets as the group of four sophomores walked together, OJ and Paper walking alongside each other, Pickle following close behind, hunched over a handheld game console, his face scrunching up as he mashed buttons rapidly in sequences, his best friend Taco walking on a small stone wall next to the three of them, her arms outstretched and her tongue sticking out as she concentrated on balancing. "It's already been almost, what, a month since sophomore year started? It's almost insane!"

"It kinda is, yeah," OJ agreed, tucking some hair behind his ear. "I mean, before we know it, we'll all be graduating high school soon..."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Taco piped up, hopping down from the wall. "I mean, we'll finally get a chance to blow this lame Oregon town, won't we?"

"I wouldn't say Porthwell is lame," Paper said slowly. "I mean, it's not the best, I admit, but—"

"But nothing fun happens here!" the short girl exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Literally, the most exciting thing that happened this week was when Lightbulb got her arm stuck in her baritone during band class."

"Oh, I heard about that," Pickle glanced up from his game. "Was she okay?"

"Yeah, the band teacher called the weird janitor to grease up her arm so she could slide it out. But still!" Taco grumbled. "I just want some excitement in my life, man..."

"C'mon Taco, lighten up! The year's still fresh, and besides, later this year we'll get our driver's licenses, and then we can finally go places without having to ask our parents for rides..."

Taco sighed deeply, blowing some of her bangs out of her face. While she did admit her lifelong best friend did have a point, she was craving a bit more spice in her everyday life. Unfortunately, the one thing she could count on in Porthwell is for everything to stay the same; Salt and Pepper getting their morning frappuccinos from a local coffee shop, Soap's father driving home from another long night shift at the hospital, and Suitcase only a few steps away from walking right into a bunch of traffic.

Wait, what?!

Taco quickly did a double take, her eyes boggling at the scrawny girl who was walking on the sidewalk opposite them, barely even paying attention to where she was going as she approached the road, completely oblivious to the cars speeding by in front of her.

"Holy fuck! Suitcase!" Taco swore loudly, spooking her small friend group as she dashed to the other side of the street, grabbing Suitcase by her oversized coffee-colored cardigan and yanking her back, a large pickup truck zooming right in front of the small girl's face as she tumbled to the sidewalk, scraping her knees on the concrete as she fell.