ONE EVERYTHING IS JUST PEACHY

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          Being fifteen years old was hard enough as is, but for Lyra, it was even worse than that. Not only was she a teenager navigating the world of high school, but she was also undoubtedly cursed. No one knew the age at which the curse would actually start affecting her as her mother had been lucky enough to be spared until she was twenty-nine. However, every year, the approaching birthday was a cause for fear that just maybe this would be the year. Of course, there was a chance she would be spared. Her grandmother, Angelina Jericho, was one of the oldest surviving members of the Jericho bloodline.

"Dude, you've been so on edge lately, what's up with you?" her best friend, Melody, asked her with a shoulder nudge as the two walked to class. It was their sophomore year at Midtown high and Lyra already couldn't wait for it to be over. They were just a few months out from June, but it couldn't come soon enough. However, that meant Lyra would have to survive the curse for at least another year before she got the sweet taste of being one of the upperclassmen. "Even now, you're totally spacing out."

"You know you can tell us if something's wrong, right?" her other close friend, Archie, cut in with a similarly concerned expression.

With a sigh, Lyra began to work on her best damage control. "Guys, I'm just tired. You guys are totally freaking out over nothing, I just ran out of coffee so I didn't have enough this morning."

"You shouldn't rely on coffee to keep your energy up, it's so bad for you," Melody lectured like she always did, "I swear, caffeine addiction is a real thing and you shouldn't fuck with addiction."

"I'd rather be addicted to caffeine than cocaine," Archie interjected with a nonchalant shrug causing both him and Lyra to stifle their giggles as Melody glared at both of them. "What! Don't tell me you'd rather do crack! Mel, are you hiding something from us?"

Melody snorted, shoving him gently, just enough to shake him but not enough to make him stumble as they walked. "You are such a dick, Lyra, why do we keep him around again? I'm starting to forget."

"Because you love me!" Archie reasoned with a scoff.

Lyra, however, just shrugged, "To keep the gender ratio at least someone balanced."

"Wow, just wow," Archie shook his head, a resigned sigh escaping his lips, "You guys are just plain mean. I mean, I'm in awe. You think you know someone."

"You are so dramatic!" Melody scoffed, tossing her braids over her shoulder as she shoved their friend to the side with a laugh. Lyra laughed gently to herself, shaking her head at the antics of her friends. At least in these dark, unknowing times, she has her friends by her side. They may have no idea what's going on, but they don't need to know — they make her feel better without even trying. Heading into their first period geometry class, they settle into their respective desks. Unfortunately, their math teacher knows the three of them are bad news when seated together, so they're all at opposite ends of the classroom.

Just before the bell rings, Peter Parker sits down next to Lyra like he does every single morning. He seems a little worse for wear, tired and looking sore, but Lyra refrained from saying anything other than shooting him a small smile.

"Uh, Lyra," he spoke, which surprised her as they aren't usually on a speaking basis, "You did the homework, right? I'm not sure about one of my answers and I wanna see what you did."

The girl nodded, "Yeah, yeah, gimme a sec, lemme find it. Hey, you okay? You look a little... tired. Oh, sorry, that could have come our way nicer."

Peter laughed quietly, "No, yeah, um, I'm fine. Thank you... for asking. If it makes you feel any better, my friend Ned told me this morning that I look like I got hit by a bus so... you definitely said it a lot better than he did."

"Ah, well, Ned just said what everybody's thinking," Lyra teased, pulling out her homework, "Anyway, what problem were you not sure about?"

"Uh... number 16?"

As they looked over their homework, Lyra felt her phone buzz on the desk. Glancing at it, she could see a text from Melody. She handed her homework over to Peter to look over and checked it, laughing when she saw the message: stop flirting with Parker it's too early for this shit

Stifling her giggles, she picked up her phone and texted back, It's not flirting, we're comparing homework

That's how nerds flirt, came Archie's response in the same group-chat. Turning to the corner where the boy sat, she stuck her tongue out. He responded by flipping her off, a typical interaction for them.

I'm not a nerd, we're all sitting in the same AP class, fuckass, Lyra responded, putting her phone down when the teacher came into the room to the start the lesson. Peter handed her the homework back and thanked her, sending her a generous smile that she was happy to see considering the boy looked utterly exhausted. Granted, she probably looked just as exhausted but that was because she couldn't sleep at night knowing how near her birthday was. Her sleeping habits got worse and worse the nearer it got, but she couldn't tell anyone. Her mother was dead and her father would never understand since men never seemed to be affected by the curse. Ironic considering it was a msn's fault in the first place, but that's pretty much just a metaphor for life as a woman anyway.

Sighing, Lyra wondered why she had to be stuck in geometry class when her life could possibly be hanging by a thread. Her birthday was in a week and she wouldn't be at peace until she saw that no scars or markings appeared on her skin the way they did on her mother. This curse drove her mother to end her own life just to keep Lyra and her father safe and Lyra was too young to die. She had barely started living. That being said, she knew what she would have to do if this was the year. The moment she saw that scar, she was going to kill herself before the curse killed her first. She couldn't risk hurting her father or grandmother, not to mention her friends. She wouldn't let this curse consume her the way it had so many of the women in her family. Worst case scenario, she had a week to live. Best case scenario, she nervously awaited another year. She anxiously fiddled with her mother's necklace that stayed around her neck, her brain filtering out anything her teacher was saying.

"You okay?" Peter leaned over and whispered with a furrowed brow and concerned expression.

With a fake smile, she hoped he wouldn't see right through her as she answered, "Yeah, yeah, everything is... just peachy."

this honestly might be one of my absolute favorite friend groups to write melody and archie are so funny they're like two halves of a whole brain except Lyra is the one that got the brain anyway peep the new sign off!