k-12: the shadows

༺ strawberry shortcake ༻

a/n:

lmao i dont care who you are and what you're doing,, stop it right now and go watch the strawberry shortcake music video right now because its message is so fucking important

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alexis

alexis glanced down at her schedule. swim class today; to her surprise, she noticed that the usual laps had been changed to synchronised swimming.

she tucked her timetable back into the book she was carrying and began to make her way down the corridor, to the door that led to the girls' changing rooms.

outside, there was a crowd of blue, all bouncing over each other in an attempt to see something.

as she drew closer, alexis realised that the blue was entirely made up of boys, who were attempting to see into the changing rooms and view the girls in their skintight bathing suits.

alexis wrinkled her nose in disgust. she and celeste often discussed the immaturity of teenage boys who all wanted the same thing, but seeing it as extremely as this physically repulsed her.

she cleared her throat loudly, heavily implying for them to move. once they saw it was alexis, the girl who'd fought viciously with her own twin sister in the cafeteria just a short while ago, they all scurried away with their tails between their legs.

alexis chuckled to herself at how immature so many of the boys at k-12 truly were, and pushed open the pastel pink door to the girls' changing rooms.

the changing room was filled with benches, lined with pegs for the girls to hang their dresses from while they wore their bathing suits. alternately, there were seven or eight pastel pink changing cubicles along one wall.

alexis decided to change with her friends, who had already settled in a spot where the benches met to create a corner.

"hi guys," she greeted her friends lightly, approaching the half-changed group of angelita, celeste and magnolia. they all greeted her in return. "seen crybaby anywhere?"

they all shook their heads at her in unison. alexis didn't worry too much; it was the norm for crybaby to be late to lessons.

"so i hear we're doing synchronised swimming today," alexis grinned as she too began to change into her bathing suit, wiggling her eyebrows.

"sure are. wonder who'll drown themselves first," came angelita's reply.

celeste let out a pfft noise. "it'll more likely be kelly drowning us," she half-joked.

"not if we're not in a group with her," magnolia pointed out. "which we won't be if i have anything to do with it."

"i'm not really in the mood for her bullshit today," alexis admitted, "-or any day for that matter."

the four girls continued to chatter in a similarly idle manner as they changed. after a few more minutes, the swim instructor came in and told them to start heading through to the pool. alexis realised that crybaby still wasn't here. a small frown settled on her face as she tried to think where the shorter girl could be.

"alexis," celeste whispered. "are you coming?"

alexis cast her eyes around the changing room; they landed on the one cubicle door that was still locked, despite everyone else having already left the changing rooms.

"i'll be right out," she said hastily. "i just need to..."
she began stepping awkwardly backwards, towards the changing cubicles.

celeste nodded slowly, clearly still confused, before shrugging and hurrying off after angelita and magnolia.

alexis waited until she heard the changing room door click shut before she knocked gently on the cubicle door.

"crybaby?" she said quietly. "i'm pretty sure it's you in there. it's just me."

"i'll be right out," came the weak reply. "you go on ahead."

"no, i wanna wait for you."

"you don't need to."

"what's wrong, crybaby? i'm here for you, you know that."

the cubicle door slowly creaked open to reveal a physically trembling crybaby, her robe still covering her body.

"is everything okay?" alexis asked gently, stepping towards crybaby.

"i just... i feel really uncomfortable in my body. i don't feel pretty," crybaby admitted.

alexis's jaw dropped. "what- why would you ever-"

"it's the boys! it's the fucking boys, lexi," crybaby shouted in frustration. "they make me feel like- like a pretty thing for them to stare at, instead of a woman with a heart and feelings. they just act like- they've never seen skin before, you know? the boys outside earlier were all trying to get in and stare at us, and i just- i know this stuff happens. i'm aware that boys our age act like this, and it's totally normal, but- seeing it happen- it just makes me feel..."

she trailed off, and smeared angry tears from her eyes. "i don't know."

"hey. look at me," alexis said gently, lifting crybaby's chin up with a soft hand so that their eyes met, and so that crybaby knew alexis was speaking from the heart. "if any boy ever shows interest in you solely for your body, then that makes him nothing more than a horny fucking idiot. if a boy can't look past your appearance to see how pretty you are on the inside, as well as out, then he isn't worth your time, okay? he doesn't deserve to be able to look at you. you, crybaby, are worth so much more than being objectified for teenage boys' pleasure, and you should never feel like you have to cover yourself up to hide from them. you should feel free to dress however you want, and their reaction is their own fault, not yours."

crybaby soaked this in for a moment before nodding slowly, and leaning up to press a brief kiss to alexis's lips.

"thank you," she whispered a little huskily. "i just- thought no one would understand, i guess."

"every girl will understand," alexis promised her gently. "ask angelita, celeste, anyone. every girl will have had an experience like this. and as women, it's our job to keep an eye out for each other, okay? so come on. let's go show those horny teenage motherfuckers that we don't give a shit that they've noticed we have tits." she held out her hand.

crybaby giggled softly, and nodded, clasping alexis's hand in both of hers.

"okay, let's go."