Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"... Now you boys will need to be on your best behaviour because she is depending on us. And I swear on all of your lives, if you do anything to scare that poor girl away again, so help me I'll never let you leave this house again!"

Lois was wrapping up her lecture to Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey, to which they were all exchanging confused looks about. They would have asked but their mom never let them get a word in edgewise.

Once her pause lasted longer than two seconds, Malcom finally spoke up, "Okay, we won't cause any trouble, mom. There's just one thing we need to know."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Who the hell are you talking about and why do we need to impress her?" he exclaimed.

"Didn't I tell you?" Lois asked.

The three boys all shook their heads and Malcom said, "No, you just got off the phone and started lecturing us."

"We have literally no context for this one," Reese affirmed.

Lois sighed, "Kevin and Angela Renaud are moving back to New York but their daughter, Michelle, wanted to stay. Her aunt would've been moving in to take care of her but she got into a freak accident and they needed somewhere for Michelle to stay until her aunt's recovered."

"And you said she should stay here?" Malcolm exclaimed.

"A girl? In this house?" Dewey added.

"Even by my standards, that's a terrible idea, mom," Reese nodded, "She's gonna get eaten alive."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Lois folded her arms, "You boys have no idea how hard it is living in a house with no other girls. We may be doing these people a favour, but this girl might be able to teach you something about empathy, human kindness, and general hygiene."

Dewey sighed before getting back to his keyboard, "I'll go write her a funeral march."

"How are you so sure she'll be a good influence on us? Girls are way more cunning and manipulative than us," Malcolm argued.

"And they smell funny. How do we know they're not even dirtier than boys?" Reese added.

"I'm also hoping living with another girl will stop you two being so sexist. And the last time her parents let her near you boys, she was really sweet with you. I'm not going to let you stomp all over her feelings like you did last time," Lois shook her head at them

"Wait we know this girl?" Reese asked.

"You don't remember little Michelle?" Lois scoffed, "She used to follow you boys around all the time. Francis used to babysit her!"

"Hmm no, not ringing any bells," Reese shook his head.

Malcolm rolled his eyes, "Frog Breath."

Malcolm still felt a little bad about the incident. At the time, it didn't seem much worse than anything else they had done but it was clear it really hurt Michelle. After a while, he couldn't exactly blame her parents for keeping her from even talking to the boys. Especially after she had to go to the hospital.

Reese's eyes lit up in recognition and he grinned at the memory, "Oh yeah! That was a good one."

"You're despicable. Remember, if you ever pull anything like that again, young man, she'll be taking your bed," Lois scolded him.

"Wait, where is Michelle gonna be sleeping?" Malcolm asked.

"Well, the best we can do for now is the couch by the fireplace. It's better than the one in here. If she tried to sleep on that, she'd probably die from methane poisoning," Lois shook her head.

Reese's eyes lit up again and he started to smile before Lois tugged on his ear, "Don't even think about it."

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

A few days after it was arranged, Michelle had everything she needed packed up into a suitcase and several duffel bags, ready to head down the street to the Wilkerson house.

Safe to say, it had been a rough week. Hell, a rough couple of months. Michelle knew these were pretty good problems to have but it was hollow comfort when her life hadn't felt harder than the last time she had encountered the Wilkersons. They really were a different breed.

Even when she wasn't allowed to so much as look at anyone from that family, she was a witness to their never ending stream of 'incidents' as many adults took to calling them. Michelle could only hope that her hard-earned wisdom from her last encounter with those boys would serve her well in the coming months.

When the news came about her Aunt Liza's accident, Michelle was devastated and she was kind of ashamed to admit it was mostly for selfish reasons. But to be fair, she had every right to be worried. She was only fifteen years old and as far as she could tell, she was all on her own for the first time in her life. And it only got worse from there once her mom begrudgingly told her that the Wilkersons were the only ones who could take her at such short notice.

Michelle tried telling them that they had nothing to worry about and that she could handle herself until someone better came along but her dad had to remind everyone of the Bikini Kill incident. It wasn't fair, Aunt Liza got away with it so many times when she was Michelle's age.

Whatever. Nothing could change the fact that Michelle was staring down the barrel the hardest level of school so far, her parents had left her, her favourite family member was in critical condition on the other side of the country, and now she was forced into the hands of people she used to regard as her sworn enemies.

Michelle struggled to stay mad at most of the Wilkersons over Frog Breath Gate, as her family took to calling it. Hal and Lois were completely oblivious about the whole thing and she trusted that they punished the boys severely for it. If memory served, Francis was off doing something even worse at the time and threw his brothers under the bus to avoid punishment. Dewey was a toddler and had no idea what was going on. Malcolm had contributed a lot to it at the time but he was mostly just following someone else's lead. Reese's.

That boy had a killer instinct for that kind of thing. It was almost impressive how Reese could be such a picture perfect image of a bully every day of his life. He had it down to an art, even when he was only eight.

Fortunately, he wasn't the only one who had mastered the art of disturbing the peace. Michelle had spent the last year and a half learning everything she could about disrupting the system and manipulating wicked little boys just like Reese. If he planned on turning their house into a warzone, she had Athena on her side.

Once she arrived at the house, it was in the same state it was always in. That is to say, shambles. It was almost a relief, really. She would've felt really bad about turning up in just a sweaty Green Day shirt and crumpled low-rise jeans with her Star Wars boxers peeking out. She picked those out, knowing she'd need her strength to deal with these boys.

When she rang the bell, there was a mild spike in the shouting from inside the house before she was greeted at the door by Lois Wilkerson, trying her best to give Michelle a friendly smile.

"Michelle, how are you, sweetie? Come on in," she ushered the girl inside, taking her towards a room off the main living room with a fireplace and a large sofa, "Here, just leave your bags here. Boys, she's here!"

Lois took her back towards the kitchen where Malcolm, Dewey, and Reese were standing at attention, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. The feeling was mutual.

Although, Reese couldn't remember the last time there was a girl in the house that wasn't either completely loathsome, swapping spit with Malcolm, or both. Time would only tell for this girl, but she seemed pretty cool. Definitely seemed like less of a priss than the last time he saw her. Okay, he might've thought she was a boy at first, but those jeans showing off just a little bit of her swaying hips as she walked towards him? Okay, maybe having a girl around his age in the house wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

"I know the last time you all spent time together, it didn't go well, but I'm hoping we're all more mature now and understand what is and isn't right to do to someone," Lois spoke, her voice tightening as she glared at the boys before she turned back to Michelle, "I'll get you your sheets."

Michelle smiled back at the woman as she left down a hallway, "Thank you so much, Mrs Wilkerson. I really appreciate all of this."

Malcolm and Michelle exchanged awkward thin-lipped smiles and nods, "Michelle."

"Malcolm. Still missing normie class?" she gave him a playful smirk.

Malcolm blinked before smiling slightly, "At least I'm actually learning something these days."

"Good. Throw us underachieving nerds a bone when you're a CEO or something," she said, averting his gaze.

Malcolm was relieved Michelle didn't seem to hold any contempt from eight years ago. He did remember she was one of the better students in his grade before he was made a Krelboyne. Maybe he'd actually get along with someone in this house for once.

Michelle then turned her attention to Dewey, "Dude, it's been ages. I saw you at the school concert last time, you killed it. You'll have to show me a thing or two on the piano sometime."

Dewey smiled, "It's nice someone came to see that. You were also pretty good at the concert. How did you learn to scream like that?"

"Fear and frustration," she told him with a dead-eyed smile.

"Awesome."

Lois then came back through the hallway, carrying a duvet and two pillows. Michelle immediately pushed past the boys and took the bedding from Lois, "Thank you so much, these are wonderful."

"Let me just set you up there," Lois began.

Michelle shook her head and chuckled, "No, please. You've already done more than enough. The least I can do is lay some sheets out on a couch."

Lois smiled at her, "Still such an angel. By the way, I love what you've done with your hair. When did you decide to cut it? I remember you used to grow your hair out like Rapunzel. Your mother told me it used to trail everywhere."

Michelle chuckled along, keeping her eyes focused on the bedding as she replied in a jovial tone, "Oh well I'm glad you like it. It's funny, I actually had to cut it because a few weeks ago, some jerk at school stuck gum in my hair."

Malcolm noticed Reese's eyes widened and he started to tense up.

"That's such a shame, you have such nice hair too," Lois shook her head.

Michelle shrugged, "I know, I guess he thought so too. But the funny thing is, when I went to the hairdressers to cut it out, she said the gum stank like you wouldn't believe."

"Really?" Lois exclaimed.

"Really. Guess that jerk should've held onto that gum. Bad breath can screw you," Michelle sneered as she stared down Reese.

Malcolm glared at Reese before dragging him into their bedroom.

"You didn't," Malcolm groaned once he shut the door.

"I didn't know it was her!" Reese exclaimed.

"How? She's one of the only girls at school who knows we exist, and not in a good way!" Malcolm grabbed Reese by the shoulders.

"I don't pay attention to casual stuff like gum-hair. That's just part of the job," he shrugged Malcolm off him.

Malcolm fell to his knees, "But why did it have to be her?"

"Relax, she's just a girl. What's the worst she could do?" Reese scoffed.

"She's dangerous, Reese. She's popular, but not enough to be an airhead. She's smart, but not enough to be a Krelboyne. She's interesting enough for people to respect her but she flies under the radar enough to not care what people think. She started a screamo band for one talent show and ended it just because she could."

"Woah," Reese's eyebrows raised because even he had to admit, that was pretty cool.

"You stuck gum into that girl's hair, and now all of us are going to pay for it," Malcolm brought him back to reality.

"But she didn't seem mad at you or Dewey," Reese said.

Malcolm's eyes widened, "You're right. I'm in the clear! Good luck with that."

Reese shouted at Malcolm as he walked out the door, "Don't leave me! Traitor!"

For the next few days, Reese got nothing from Michelle but glares and side-eyes. Malcolm had been right, she was terrifying. Reese woke up every day anticipating some kind of horrible prank against him but there was nothing, which was arguably worse.

Michelle's stuff took up way too much space in the bathroom. It was bad enough the boys had to share it with their parents but her too? What was stopping her from using the secret bathroom for everything? Reese had tried bating in the sink before and it wasn't as bad as it sounded.

Every day, Michelle just either called her parents or went out to see her friends. The boys suspected it was just an excuse to not be with a bunch of "icky boys" all day but they could never prove anything. What's worse is how much their mom loved her. They were chatting almost all the time during mealtimes.

"Why won't Michelle talk to you?" Dewey asked Reese one slow afternoon.

"He was the one behind Frog Breath," Malcolm answered for him.

"Don't say it so loud, she can hear through the walls," Reese hushed him.

"I still don't remember what Frog Breath is!" Dewey exclaimed.

As Reese glared at him, Malcolm explained, "Michelle got called Frog Breath in grade school because one time when she was over here, Reese got her to kiss a frog."

"Ugh, you're terrible at this. You're leaving out all the cool details," Reese scoffed.

"Yeah, he deserves to know what a jerk his brother really is," Malcolm muttered.

"Michelle used to follow us around all the time because she thought we were friends, even though she was just a whiny little priss and she never did anything fun. I decided to teach her a lesson one day. She was always talking about fairy tales and princesses so I thought a good way to get her back would be to give her a frog and tell her to kiss it so it'd turn into a prince. And she actually did it!" Reese exclaimed with a proud grin, "Not only that, she did it eleven times!"

"Yeah, because you said she had to keep going if she wanted her dreams to come true, and when she said it wasn't working, you said her heart must've had no love inside. That's why she wasn't allowed to even look at us for eight years," Malcolm frowned at Reese.

"You're still leaving out the main part. She was missing from school for a few days because of some doctor's appointment so we told everyone what happened and everyone started calling her Frog Breath! It was hilarious," Reese grinned.

Dewey blinked at his brother before shaking his head, "And you wonder why girls don't like you."

One evening, Reese Malcolm and Dewey were boredly watching tv. She was just walking past at first but she saw the tv and just stood there, right behind Reese. He cringed in anticipation of anything, a smack up the head, a flick to his nose, maybe even a punch, but she just kept staring at the tv. Maybe he finally found her weakness. He could calm the flames of her fury with mind-numbing television!

"Yo is this Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?" Michelle asked to no one in particular.

"Uh yeah, it's awesome," Reese side-eyed her. Maybe she was friends with some cool dude who told her about it.

She then grinned and jumped over the couch into the empty spot between Reese and Malcolm, "No way, I love this movie."

This movie? Frog Breath Michelle loved this movie? Even Reese thought it was basically half nonsense. That's what he liked about it. He and Malcolm exchanged surprised looks before returning their attention to the movie.

"Haha, reverse shot," she called out at the screen.

"Huh?" Reese turned to her.

"Nah that was just a reversed shot of someone pushing a tomato into a sink. You can even see there finger right there!" She pointed at the screen, chuckling.

"Woah, how'd I never notice that?" He questioned.

"Because you always get distracted by the goofy noises," Malcolm answered for him.

"They are hilarious," Reese grinned.

Michelle giggled along before she started making the tomato noises along with the movie. Reese joined in, the two having wild grins on their faces as Malcolm rolled his eyes.

Once the movie was over and Lois made sure they all went to bed, they all collectively groaned and Michelle said to the two boys "Goodnight."

"Night," Malcolm muttered tiredly.

"Night, Michelle," Reese replied, still in a pretty good mood.

"Hey," she called back to Reese, "You can call me Mitch."

"Why?" He asked.

She snickered, "'Cause my friends do," before grabbing her pyjamas from the sofa and heading into the secret bathroom.

That evening, Reese decided that it wouldn't be so bad having a girl like Mitch in the house.

Chapter Text

Once school started up again for the kids, the boys noticed a shift in Mitch's behaviour. For the last week of the summer they spent together, she'd basically worn the same three big black band shirts in steady rotation and the same pair of boxer shorts with her jeans occasionally worn on top.

On the first day of school, however, she finally took her pair of Star Wars boxers out of the equation and wore her jeans with a red tank top with a heart-shaped guitar on it and a varsity-style hoodie that was splayed with various different types of flimsy-looking patches that had been sewn on with varying degrees of success.

What was really a mystery to Reese was Mitch's face. It was like she magazine-ified her face or something. She looked... shiny.

Once the four kids started walking off to school (because the boys knew Lois would tear them a new one if they said anything rude to Mitch in her presence), Reese brought it up "You look different. What'd you do with your face?"

She rolled her eyes, "You really know how to make a girl feel special."

"Why are you wearing makeup today?" Malcolm asked.

Reese blinked, "Wait, that's what makeup is?"

"It's just a little eyeliner and lip gloss, I don't see what the big deal is. I'm not gonna get written up for it it's long as you can keep your mouths shut," she folded her arms.

"Yeah but why for the first day of school? Aka one of the worst days of the year," Malcolm asked.

"It just helps me feel confident enough to get through the day," she tried to explain.

"If you felt confident, you wouldn't feel the need to explain yourself. Are you trying to get a boyfriend?" Malcolm pushed.

Mitch's mouth fell open, "You seriously think the only reason I'd put on makeup and wear different clothes is because I want to swap spit with some boy?"

Reese shrugged and nodded along with Malcolm, "Yeah, pretty much."

She folded her arms and continued to rant as they approached the school, "I'll have you know, jerks, tgat I don't need some impish little boy on my arm to feel good about myself. A girl is capable of existing for herself and not just to make you boys happy. I'll have you know, I LOVE wearing makeup and I use it to brighten up my day all the time!"

"Which is why you've never done it since you've moved in with us," Malcolm muttered.

She scoffed, "Unfortunately, not even makeup can make me feel better about being around you guys. And you'd think it was about you, which you're doing right now!"

Malcolm's eyes widened, "I never said that!"

"Yeah but you implied it," she smirked at his fluster.

"I didn't imply anything! Reese, did you pick up on any implications?" Malcolm turned to his brother.

Reese gave him a puzzled look, "Class hasn't even started yet."

"Look, even if you didn't mean yourself, the fact that you automatically assumed that the only reason I'd be looking pretty is because of a boy means that you do assume the world, or at least women revolve around men," she continued to lecture him with a proud smirk as they reached the school entrance, "But the fact is, I couldn't give a rat's ass what any grody little teenage boy thinks about my appearance, and if you boys can't keep it in your pants, that's not my problem."

Just as she finished her sentence, she bumped backwards into a boy in the grade above her.

She immediately turned red and gasped out an apology, "Sorry, Freddie."

He hadn't even noticed her until she said his name, "Huh? Oh, no problem. I like your shirt."

She giggled, "Thanks. Your jacket looks awesome," she opened her mouth to continue but he walked away, talking to his friends, leaving Mitch with a smug-looking Malcolm and a confused Reese.

"You're a real feminist," Malcolm smirked at her.

"Just shut up," she pouted as they walked to class.

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

The weeks following the start of school had been comparatively uneventful. Yes, something happened near enough every day but that was par for the course. That was until one afternoon when Reese, inspired by Mitch's miserable failure at getting Freddie Taylor's attention, he was looking for one of his favourite old shirts that, in his opinion, was one of the coolest things he owned. Sure, it had bleach stains and more holes than he had eyelashes, but Reese loved that shirt, which is why he was getting so frustrated that he couldn't find it.

After long enough of searching around, Reese turned his attention to his two brothers who were minding their own business, reading comics, "What have you done with it?"

"What is it this time?" Dewey asked, bored already.

"My favourite shirt. What have you guys done with it?" he demanded.

"The one that's on death's door? Ask mom, she probably threw it out," Malcolm told him.

Reese's eyes widened and he went to confront Lois who was organising the laundry in the kitchen, "Where is it?!"

Lois rolled her eyes, "You're talking about that disgusting shirt you wouldn't let go of, aren't you."

"You better not have thrown it out," he scowled at her.

"Oh, relax. I was going to, but Michelle actually asked if she could take it. She said it's for a craft project she's working on," Lois explained, "She has her whole punk rock thing going on, she really likes upcycling."

Reese's eyes widened and he turned his attention towards the lounge room where Mitch was folding her own laundry. And possibly his too.

"I gave her a few of Malcolm and Dewey's shirts too," Lois added.

"You what?!" Malcolm exclaimed, him and Dewey rushing out of their bedroom.

Lois sighed, "You boys really need to stop overreacting like this at any sign of change. This could actually teach you something good. I've seen her work, she's very handy with a needle."

The boys exchanged looks of horror before they all ran back to their room in a huddle.

"What the hell?! Is she crazy?!" Malcolm slammed the door behind them.

"Mom or Mitch?" Dewey asked.

"The real question is, who's crazier?" Reese exclaimed, "What the hell would she want with our shirts? And why was mom bringing up needles?!"

Malcolm's brow furrowed in concern, "Maybe Mitch is more boy crazy than she's letting on. I mean, think about it. She's clearly too much of a feminist to tell us how she really feels, especially when it comes to liking guys, and after Freddie ignored her on Monday, she needs some guy to fill the void."

Reese gasped in horror, "Or three?!"

"I don't think that's it," Dewey interjected, "She asked for my shirts too."

"You don't know how much of a freak she really is!" Reese took his brother by the shoulders, "None of us do."

Malcolm nodded, "For once, Reese is right, Dewey. You've never been in the same grade as her, but she's always been crushing on boys, ever since kindergarten."

"Yeah, it's how I got her to kiss that frog eleven whole times," Reese added, a proud smile temporarily etching away his fear.

"She's been kissing boys at school since she was seven. I don't know if there are any limits to her boy craze," Malcolm said as the boys all huddled together.

"So what do we do?" Dewey asked.

"We have to find a way to get our shirts back and get Mitch to stop creeping on us," Reese said.

"I'm still not totally convinced. Even if she's doing something weird with our shirts, I don't think it's because she likes you guys," Dewey said.

Malcolm and Reese frowned at him, breaking the huddle, as Malcolm asked, "Why? What's wrong with us?"

"Yeah, girls like us. We're hot," Reese spoke indignantly.

"Well, even if either of you could ever bring a girl home, this girl has to live with you all the time," Dewey explained.

Malcolm and Reese exchanged looks, "So?"

Dewey sighed, "Coming from someone who also lives with you, I can't think of a single solitary reason why any girl would ever go out with you. So I'm guessing an actual girl who lives with you would have a hard time finding one too," he then returned to his comic book on his bed.

Malcolm and Reese exchanged glances, mulling over Dewey's words, before they both shook their heads, Reese saying, "No way. She's definitely into us."

"Definitely. I mean, things just happen when girls spend this much time with guys. It's just biology," Malcolm smirked.

They then crept up to the door and peeked out to see Mitch helping Lois with the laundry.

"So, what do you think she's doing with our shirts?" Reese asked.

"I don't know. Mom said something about a craft project, so she's probably cutting them up and turning them into little voodoo dolls of us," Malcolm said as he gripped the doorframe.

"Gross," Reese shuddered, his eyes not moving from the girl, "Do you think she's sleeping with them too? And sniffing them so she can pretend she's in bed with us?"

Malcolm nodded with wide eyes, "Definitely."

Chapter Text

The following days, Malcolm and Reese had taken Dewey's advice and tried to calm down about Mitch's possible boy-craziness and just got on with life as normal.

However, they couldn't help but get suspicious about certain things. She kept coming home with a bunch of stuff from the store like fabric and thread. Malcolm had spotted her taking the scissors from the kitchen a few times, as well as putting stuff into his mom's purse when she wasn't looking.

One afternoon, Lois called out from the kitchen, "Boys, what are your favourite musicians again?"

Reese spoke up first, "Offspring."

Then Dewey, "Bach."

"Uh, They Might Be Giants," Malcolm finally responded, getting Reese up to peek through the door to see Lois relaying the information to Mitch.

Reese had planned on just rummaging through all of Mitch's stuff but Malcolm reminded him that if they got caught by their mom, they'd probably be punished by getting forced to sleep on the couch with Mitch taking one of their spots in their bedroom, and that was the last thing they needed.

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

Mitch had noticed how strange the two boys had been behaving but she put it up to them still not being used to having a girl in the house all the time and getting flustered. After all, why else would they be so secretive, yet interested in her business, and unable to look her in the eye when they spoke but incapable of taking their eyes off her when she was just minding her own business and turning red as soon whenever they looked at her? She honestly found it kind of cute.

Malcolm was unfortunately right that Mitch was incredibly embarrassed and disheartened about what had happened on the first day back with Freddie. She had spoken to him backstage at the last school concert and, from her perspective at least, they really hit it off. She figured he must've just ignored her because he was with his friends and didn't want to be seen chatting up a fetus freshman. She didn't want to be with a jerk like that anyway.

But it did make Mitch question why she had such a hard time at getting a guy she liked. Sure, every now and again, a boy might give her his attention, or even ask her out but it was always either a Krelboyne who'd made a few weird remarks in front of her before, or some mouth-breathing idiot who smelled like paste. And she didn't have any problem with those boys putting themselves out there, but would it really be so much to ask that a pretty boy would like her back?

Mitch would've even considered Reese pretty cute if he weren't such a repulsive jerk. He certainly had nice hair, and puberty was treating him pretty well. Too bad it didn't make up for his incurable instinct to make everyone around him miserable. At least he knew a good b movie when he saw one.

Malcolm wasn't too bad in Mitch's eyes. He didn't have the best track record when it came to girlfriends, but if he asked her out in a good way, she might not say no. It would be a terrible idea and it definitely wouldn't last long but out of every boy she had a rapport with, Mitch certainly did enjoy talking to Malcolm, even if he had a tendency to piss her off. That wasn't uncommon for a lot of boys lately. Mitch certainly knew how to pick 'em.

All of these thoughts were swimming around the teen girl's head one evening when she had very little to do. And so, even though she hoped she'd never force herself to make another one of these, Mitch pulled out the magazine page from her memory box. Following the instructions, she pulled together her candles, incense, lighter, quartz stones, swan ornament, seashells, an old saucer with pink and gold embellishments, and a curvaceous statue that rested in the same box. She then rifled through the empty kitchen until she found some chocolate. She only took a couple of squares since she knew it was a bad idea sneaking food in a house full of boys, especially when she wanted to keep this a secret.

The boys were still on the couch watching tv, it was all they seemed to do, but they paid her no mind. At least, she certainly hoped they didn't. There's no way they'd understand.

Mitch was about to head outside until she looked over the checklist and went back to her memory box to pull out a little cut-out of Rob Lowe from the a newspaper ad of Youngblood. She then stepped out the back door into the cooling night. She smiled up at the moon. It wasn't full but hopefully it'd be good enough. She then knelt down in one of the flower beds that was shrouded by a wilting tree, and laid out everything she had been collecting.

Mitch arranged the rose quartz into a circle with the two candles on opposite sides. After lighting them, she placed the seashells around the edge of the circle and the saucer in the middle. The swan and chocolate then went on the saucer before the crowning glory took her place overseeing the whole thing. Aunt Liza's statue of Aphrodite.

Mitch then knelt before the shrine, took a deep breath and summoned all the devotion and passion in her heart before she flipped over the magazine page and started reading.

"Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless
Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you,
Don't - I beg you, Lady - with pains and torments
Crush down my spirit.

But before if ever you've heard my pleadings
Then return, as once when you left your father's
Golden house; you yoked to your shining car your
Wing-whirring sparrows-"

Mitch's eyes shot up as she heard a footstep crush the grass on the lawn behind her. Shit. Screw it all to hell, there is no way she just got caught. Okay, if it's Hal or Lois, it might not be the end of the world.

"What are you doing?" came Reese's voice.

Mitch mentally begged Aphrodite to kill her as quickly as possible.

She pursed her lips before turning around to face him, "I could ask you the same thing."

He frowned at her, "I asked first."

She rolled her eyes and sighed, "I'm just... praying."

"I think God can hear you from inside," he raised his eyebrow at her.

Mitch smouldered because there was no way Reese Wilkerson was judging her right now. She shook her head and scoffed at him, "Ugh, I'm not praying to God."

"What? So who are you praying to?" he asked, looking as if she just spoke another language, "And what's that smell?"

She smirked at the thought of discombobulating his brain permanently with what she was actually doing, "It's incense. Rose. And I'm praying to a goddess. Aphrodite. The Greek goddess of love, passion, beauty, sex, and just generally awesome stuff."

Mitch didn't expect the look of fear on Reese's face once she explained. What the hell was going through his head?

"What did you need all that stuff for?" he asked, his eyes wide.

She blinked at him for a moment, confused at his reaction, before explaining, "I rebuilt my shrine to her and gave her an offering. All of this stuff is meant to please her and allow her to bless me."

"What happens when she blesses you?" Reese asked, leaning away cautiously.

Mitch gulped, "Well, I'm hoping... that she'll get a cute boy to actually like me. I know it's stupid, I shouldn't care about this stuff but... it's just disheartening, y'know? Like, I don't think I'm that fugly or anything, but it's like the universe keeps telling me that I am, what with all the boys it sends my way," she didn't miss the mildly offended look Reese shot her, "Present company excluded, you know I don't think of you that way."

Reese bit his lip and averted his gaze, "Right. Do all girls do this sort of thing?"

Mitch pouted and shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe? I mean, I know my aunt used to, but she wasn't exactly the standard girl when she was young."

Fearing the growing awkward silence, Mitch broke it by saying, "So, if you ever have girl trouble, you know who to go to."

Reese awkwardly chuckled, "Yeah, I'd probably ask you anyway."

Mitch blinked and chuckled awkwardly, "Oh uh, I meant her, but um I'm glad. I could probably give you better girl advice than Malcolm anyway."

Goddess, what was wrong with her? Why was she offering girl advice to her literal childhood bully? She should've been tearing him out for even expecting to be able to ask for that kind of thing from her in the first place. Why did she enjoy laughing with him at Malcolm's hypothetical terrible advice?

"What kind of advice does Aphrodite give?" he asked.

She chuckled, "She doesn't exactly give advice. She just kinda make things go well for you, y'know? Like one night, you pray to her. The next day, you'll get a note in your locker from your crush. At least, in theory. I've never been so lucky."

Reese scratched his head before crouching beside Mitch, "Maybe I should give this a try. Does she take the same stuff every time?"

"It doesn't have to be," Mitch smiled as she flipped over the magazine page, "See, other offerings can be apples, perfume, feathers..."

Mitch's mouth hung open and the two teens stared wide-eyed at the bullet point on the page, reading ' - orgasms'.

"Um, yeah," Mitch nodded, folding up the page and not daring to look Reese in the eye, "You can do all sorts of things to get her on your side."

Reese gulped as he shuffled further away, "Cool. Sounds like something I could get behind. Is there a god that could help me win in a fight?"

Mitch thought for a moment before telling him, "Actually yeah. Ares, the god of war. Athena is also the goddess of war, but I think Ares is a little more your speed. It's funny, you and Malcolm are a little like Ares and Athena. They're siblings too."

"Because we're as strong and awesome as the gods of war?" Reese smirked at her.

She snickered, "No, but you guys might wanna consider building a couple of shrines of your own. Malcolm could pray to Athena to not get into any fights to begin with, gods know he doesn't have the brawn to win any. But if you're interested in having the strength to win more fights, Ares could give you a hand. He's all about the guts and glory. He doesn't care who lives or dies, he's just a pure embodiment of the passion and violence of the battlefield," Mitch gazed off as she rambled, "That's why he gets along so well with Aphrodite, because they don't care about consequences, they just adore passion and brutality. That's where the saying 'all's fair in love and war' comes from."

"Wait so what's Ares deal with Aphrodite? Are they siblings too?" Reese asked.

Mitch snorted and exclaimed, "No! Ares is a son of Zeus. Aphrodite isn't really related to them like that, she just emerged form the sparkling sea foam in the ocean one day. And she and Ares are lovers," she looked Reese in the eye as she spoke, making him gulp.

He was kind of nervous about where this was going, but for some reason, he felt the need to keep Mitch talking about this stuff. To get her caught being a creep! Definitely...

She shook her head with a smile, "Their story is kinda crazy, actually. Zeus married Aphrodite off to his other son, Hephaestus, the god of craftsmen and metalworking, as a gift. Zeus is a sexist bastard, what else is knew? Anyway, Aphrodite didn't really love Hephaestus because he didn't really care about any of the stuff she literally lived for. Not beauty, romance, nor passion. But Ares did. And, I don't know if it's true but most depictions of Ares are much more handsome than Hephaestus, so I can't exactly blame her," she giggled, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"So, they started an affair behind Hephaestus's back and it kind of became an open secret with the rest of the gods, so one day, Hephaestus planned a trick to get them back. He crafted this huge net of chains so tiny, they were invisible. He then put the net over their bed and lied to Aphrodite, saying he'd be going off somewhere on official god business. So, when Ares inevitably came over to have sex with her, they both got caught in the net over the bed and Hephaestus refused to let them out until Zeus gave him a refund on his wife!" she cackled with laughter as she finished the story.

"Oh my god, that's hilarious," Reese giggled along with her, "So what happened with Aphrodite and Ares? Did they break up?"

Mitch shrugged, "I dunno. I don't think so. I imagine they've always had this kind of on-again off-again sort of thing. Those two are going to be fucking til the end of time. I mean, love and war go hand in hand. Even in Romeo and Juliet. It's amazing how long these stories have lasted, these crazy gods have been worshipped for three thousand years."

Reese's eyes widened, "Woah. Time doesn't even go back that far."

She bit back a chuckle, "I know, right? And I like them way better than other deities because no one portrays them as perfect, all-knowing, and compassionate. These gods are selfish and weird, just like people are. I don't want to act like the kind of god that would tell a guy to kill his son for him is kind and benevolent! I trust a goddess who just asks for prayers and chocolate. It's what I'd do if I were a god."

Reese's brow furrowed in thought, "You're right. I think I like these gods. And they're okay with swearing too?"

"Well, yeah! They don't have a problem with any of that moral stuff, as long as you worship them. You can swear, get in fights, have sex, whatever! There's even a goddess of chaos!"

"That's way better than church. I don't even care if it's real, that's just awesome," Reese exclaimed.

"I know, right? No idea if it'll work, but here's hoping this prayer will do something for me," Mitch said as she picked up the page with the hymn on it again.

As she started to read from it again, Reese stood up and went back inside in a good mood.

Malcolm glanced up from his homework, "What were you two talking about out there?"

"Mitch told me about all these awesome gods that can help you win fights and get girls and you don't even have to stop swearing or go to church!" Reese exclaimed, "I'm gonna ask her about making an Ares shrine tomorrow."

Malcolm scoffed at him, "Cults are gonna love you someday. What was she using all that stuff for?"

"She was praying to Aphrodite to get a cute guy to fall in love with her," Reese said, his smile fading once the words left his mouth.

Malcolm shared Reese's fearful expression, exclaiming, "What?! She was casting some kind of love spell and you didn't even stop her?"

"She made it sound cool! It's not my fault she's a master manipulator," Reese exclaimed, clutching his head.

"Oh god, what if it was part of her plan to get caught? You were sitting under the moonlight with her, giggling and talking about love," Malcolm ranted.

"She seemed kinda mad that I was there at first?" Reese exclaimed, peeking through the curtain to the garden, where Mitch was still praying.

"It's all an act," Malcolm drew the curtains shut, "Don't look at her. Tell me everything you don't like about her."

Reese took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Okay, uh. She kinda smells funny when she dresses pretty for school."

"That's perfume," Dewey rolled his eyes.

"Really?" Reese blinked before shaking his head, "Whatever, uh. I find it kinda annoying how offended she acts when I push her off the couch. It's kinda rude that she doesn't think we're cute. She talks a lot about stuff without stopping. It's annoying when she sits on the couch with her knees up 'cause all I can see is her legs."

Malcolm grimaced, "Ugh, stop talking. I didn't think she would really do all this occult stuff before, but if she's making shrines in the garden now, she might actually be making voodoo dolls of us to get revenge for Frog Breath."

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

The next day, Malcolm and Reese had enough of waiting around. When Mitch went out to go to the arcade with her friends, they wasted no time in digging under the sofa in the lounge room and he found three little bags labelled 'Malcolm', 'Reese', and 'Dewey'.

They had hit the motherload, they were sure of it. Their minds swam with thoughts of what could've been in those bags. And the nerve to include Dewey in all of this? Sure, Malcolm and Reese were at fault but Dewey was barely two when it happened. Poor kid didn't even remember what had happened. When their mom got home, she was going to hear all about the freaky stuff Mitch had been up to.

That evening, after dinner, Mitch said that she had something she 'made for the boys', before she excused herself and got out the three bags from under her bed.

Malcolm sent Reese a look that said, 'Yeah, this is it.'

Reese sent him one back saying 'Nice knowing you, brother.'

Mitch laid the three bags out on the table with an excited glint in her eyes.

"Is this what you wanted our old shirts for?" Reese exclaimed.

She averted her eyes and let out a small, embarrassed chuckle, "Yeah. I thought it'd be more personal that way."

Malcolm's eyes widened in horror, "Oh my god, this is disgusting!"

"Malcolm!" Lois scolded him.

He threw up his hands, "How can you be okay with this? I've given her the benefit of the doubt, but she's been stealing our old clothes, and turning them into god knows what for her freaky, cult worship!"

"It's voodoo dolls, isn't it!" Reese accused her.

"What?!" Mitch exclaimed, shooting a look of betrayal to Reese.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Lois shouted at the two boys.

"I'm talking about this!" Malcolm shouted back, shoving his hand into the bag in the middle and pulling out... a patch for They Might Be Giants, "Wait, what?"

Mitch folded her arms, embarrassed, "I'm assuming you didn't think I was making you guys gifts for letting me stay with you."

"Oh, Michelle, you didn't have to do that," Lois gushed.

"Yeah, I am starting to regret going to this much effort for them," Mitch sighed, "But I made you guys merch for your favourite musicians and some other stuff I thought would be cool. I also threw in some stuff you guys needed, like hair gel and pens. I don't have a great grasp of what guys are into but... I tried?"

The three boys went through the bags to find spike bracelets, various patches with iconic lyrics, album covers, even Dewey got a patch with Bach wearing sunglasses saying "Turn up the Magnificat".

"This is the coolest thing I own now," Dewey said, gazing at the patch.

"But...," Malcolm looked around in confusion and guilt, hoping to find something he could turn on her, "What about mom's purse? I saw you putting stuff in there. What's that about?"

Mitch sighed before turning to Lois, "I didn't want to make a whole song and dance about it because I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything, I still owe you the world for everything you've done for me. I've been slipping some of my babysitting cash in with yours. You're feeding me and keeping a roof over my head, I just thought it's the least I could do."

Lois gasped and wrapped her arms around Mitch, "Oh, sweetie. You didn't have to do that. It's a pleasure having you here."

Mitch shook her head with a grateful smile, "You just do so much for all of us, I like to feel like I'm pulling my weight."

"Well, that's very sweet of you, but you ought to save up your money for yourself," Lois told her before scowling at the boys, "Especially after all the effort you went through to make these extremely thoughtful gifts!"

Malcolm miserably sunk back into his seat, still holding the admittedly very cool patch in his hand. It was kind of flimsy but he could still hardly believe Mitch made this herself. She had to have faked it or hired someone or... something. Anything that would make him feel slightly better for acting like such a scumbag.

Lois put her hands on her hips before ripping into the boys, "I hope you know how disappointed I am in you boys. I mean, for god's sake, Michelle was just doing something nice for you and you assume she's doing some kind of devil worshipping? I know she's a little more punky than the rest of us, but that's no reason to treat her this way."

Reese shook his head, "It's not because she's punk! I think it's cool that she's punk! It's because she was taking our clothes and making shrines."

Mitch immediately glared at him from across the table, her mouth open and cheeks bright red, "You jerk!"

"Shines? What are you talking about?" Lois asked.

Michelle's mind scrambled for ways to make it seem less creepy, "It's nothing really, it's just that high school's been a little rough and... it's something me and my aunt used to do together. I made a little shrine to Aphrodite and said a prayer one night," she admitted with a bright red face, her eyes on her knees, "I promise, I put everything away afterwards, everything is just the way it was, I'm so sorry."

Lois shook her head, "That's... fine, Michelle. That's your business. You're excused," she then turned her fury back towards the boys and continued to rip into them.

Once the unusually embarrassing lecture was over, the boys all exchanged miserable looks and walked towards the lounge room where Mitch was reading in her pyjamas. Once she noticed them, she put the book down and looked up at them, waiting.

Malcolm was the first to speak since he was objectively the most guilty one of the trio, "I'm so sorry, Mitch. We all are. We had no idea that's why you were doing all that stuff. I can pay you back for all the stuff you bought to make those gifts."

"And the stuff you made was really awesome," Reese added.

It was kind of terrifying how un-furious she seemed. They all flinched slightly when she let out a calm sigh.

She blinked at them, confused at their reaction, "I'm not mad at you. I'm pissed off and insulted, but there's a difference. I don't have the energy to stay mad at you over something this comically dumb. If you give me a good enough reason, I might show you how to sew those patches to your bags and jackets. I just wanna know why it was one of your first assumptions that I was doing something freaky and culty with your stuff. I know you guys are jerks to each other, but I thought at least you were cool with me?"

Reese couldn't believe it but he actually felt genuinely bad when he saw the confused and heartbroken expression on Mitch's face. He hadn't seen her look so innocent and sad since he told her to pucker up for Kermit. He wanted to tell her that she was cool with them, that she was one of the coolest girls in the world.

Unfortunately for him, Dewey decided that this was the perfect moment to speak up, "They both thought you were taking their shirts to bed and sniffing them. Also that you were casting love spells on them."

All three of the teen's eyes widened and cheeks reddened.

Michelle was the first to break the silence, "And you thought I was the freak."

Chapter Text

Since she moved in with the Wilkersons, Malcolm had noticed a pattern with Mitch. Whenever she would say "Oh my god," something actually insane usually followed. Every time he heard the phrase used by others, it was usually a preface or a punctuation to something that was either already obvious or plain unimportant. Never with Mitch, however.

She'd always come out with something interesting. One time, she was pretending to examine a bruised apple at the store when a guy walked past, "Oh my god, did you see that guy?"

"No," Malcolm replied. He had seen him, but he had to know what Mitch had to say about the guy.

"Dude, he had this gross little rat tail, it looked like his hair was taking a really skinny shit," she exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Malcolm snickered, "No way, really?"

"I know, I'm the one who had to look at the thing," she chuckled along with him.

Another time, all three boys were unfortunately dragged to the makeup aisle with Mitch and she glanced at the samples while she was walking out with her cheap eyeliner and, pointing at a gross clump of foundation, she said, "Oh my god. It looks like if the elephant man forgot to untuck his dick."

As they continued walking, the three boys having to cover his mouth to restrain their laughs, she added, "Poor diva."

Another time, they were hanging out at the arcade when a girl with black hair and a Rocky Horror shirt walked past and Mitch gazed at her, "Oh my god."

Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey looked at leach other, waiting to see if she'd drop another nuke of absurdity.

"She's so hot, she looks like she gets off on Vincent Price movies. I wish I could join her," Mitch spoke quietly.

This time, it wasn't even that funny to them, but it was such a wild statement, the boys couldn't help but laugh.

"Isn't he that old timey horror movie guy?" Reese asked, still chuckling.

"Oh yeah. There's something about him, y'know?" She said, knowing the boys wouldn't know or understand at all.

"How can you even tell?" Malcolm asked, still grinning.

She shrugged, "I dunno, I just guess. But you can picture it, right?"

Reese smirked, "Now I am."

"Perv," Mitch rolled her eyes and shoved him.

Mitch understood that it was probably not such a great idea to keep making such vulgar and sexual jokes around two teenage boys, and especially not a nine-year-old, but it seemed like the easiest way to impress them and she didn't want them to keep thinking she was some kind of freaky delusional witch girl. Of course she didn't care what they thought of her! She just thought it would make it easier living with them if they all got along. Definitely.

These previous occasions were a prelude to one evening when Mitch, Malcolm and Reese were watching Attack of the Clones on the couch.

There was a scene of Hayden Christiansen overacting and Mitch eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head, saying in a low, focused tone, "Oh my go-od."

Malcolm and Reese smirked at each other, ready for Mitch to rip him to shreds.

"I need him carnally."

That was the day the boys realised Mitch had a type.

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

One afternoon after school, Mitch came home looking abnormally happy. She flopped down backwards between Malcolm and Reese on the couch and watched the tv upside down, grinning against gravity.

"You gonna say what you're happy about or...?" Malcolm asked.

She giggled, "I just had a super great day."

"Ooo have you finally got a boyyfriend?" Reese teased her.

"Hopefully," she bit her lip through her grin.

"Wait what?" Both boys' eyes widened.

"So you know that guy, Dave Spath?" She told them.

"Oh, that idiot. Did your boyfriend beat him up for you?" Reese asked.

"What?" Mitch's expression shattered immediately.

"Dave Spath has been a shithead since he was in kindergarten. There is no way he asked you out," Malcolm scoffed.

Mitch frowned and told them, "Actually he was getting pretty flirty with me. We hung out after music class and he said one of my performances was really impressive. He said we should jam together sometime. He even asked for my number!"

"Well if he did, you're gonna want to tell him to go to hell," Reese told her.

"I am NOT doing that! He's one of the cutest guys in the whole school. Girls have been after him for ages," Mitch exclaimed, "There is no way I'm passing up a chance like this."

Malcolm shrugged, "Your funeral."

Reese shook his head, "Come on, you can't go out with him. He's a total loser!"

Mitch scoffed, "Well, if I ever bring him back here, god forbid, at least he'll have plenty in common with you!"

She considered storming off to her couch but she didn't feel like it. There was no way she would give the boys the satisfaction of knowing they got to her. Plus, she was kinda getting into this cartoon.

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

The next few days at school were pretty rough for the trio of teens. Mitch was being really catty to them and wouldn't listen at all to what either of them had to say. Well, it was mostly Reese.

"I still don't see why you're so worried about her. If she wants to date him, that's her mistake," Malcolm told Reese after walked ahead on their way to school.

Reese rolled his eyes, "I'm not worried about her. I just know that when she sees that jerk for the jerk he is, we're the one's who are gonna have to hear about it after we told her."

"You also could just... not watch movies with her every day," Malcolm raised his eyebrow.

Reese scoffed, "Why should I change my schedule because of her? It's our house. If she wants to bitch and moan, we can just kick her off the couch. Hey, Bitch and moan. Mitch and bone- nope, never mind."

At this point, Malcolm started getting suspicious of Reese. His brother never once in his whole life cared about a girl's feelings, and now he was actually taking time out of his busy schedule of not thinking at all to worry about Mitch getting let down by Dave Spath.

Mitch managed to avoid the boys for the rest of the day and focused her thoughts on how nice it'd be to see Jeremy in class again. Hopefully. Nope, she was not going to trust Malcolm and Reese Wilkerson's taste in guys over literally every other girl in school. Mitch hadn't heard a single sincere thing against Dave except from other guys, which is a clear sign that most of the male student body is aware and threatened by how cute he is.

During lunch, Mitch brought the good news to her friends, Mimi and Juliette, "Ladies, my ship has come in."

"Freddie? Or wait are you still talking about Stu?" Mimi asked.

Juliette shook her head, "No, Stu was before Dan."

Mitch rolled her eyes, "No, I've totally moved on from those guys. They're not worth my time anyway. They hardly ever even spoke to me, but this guy is showing real promise."

Mimi grinned, "Well, don't keep us waiting. Who's the lucky fella?"

Mitch bit back a goofy smile and said, "Dave Spath!"

Her friends' amused expressions vanished and they stared at her, wide eyed and mouths hanging open, Juliette saying, "What!"

"Jeremy. Matthews?" Mimi grabbed Mitch's shoulders.

"I know! He literally asked for my number, but it was so embarrassing when I had to tell him I couldn't give him one," Mitch covered her cheeks with her hands.

Mimi smirked, looking across the schoolyard, "So that's why he's been crashing into more trash cans lately."

"It's about time a hot piece of ass like him noticed a hot piece of ass like you," Juliette nudged Mitch.

Mitch giggled, "Thanks, and that's what I'm saying! That's what I've been saying!"

"Do your live-in dorks know yet?" Juliette asked

Mimi nodded, "Yeah, they've gotta be fucking distraught."

Mitch rolled her eyes, "You won't believe it, they literally tried talking me out of going out with him because he's, and I quote, a shithead, an idiot, and a loser. I must be getting them harder than I thought!"

The three girls cackled, clutching each other's arms, to the disturbance of various students around them.

After the laughter died down, Mitch asked the two girls, "Okay, but how long do you think I should string him along before we take it further? Like I want to keep him needy but I don't wanna break him too early, y'know?"

Juliette blinked, "Wait you're not actually going out with him, right?"

Mitch's smile faltered, "Why shouldn't I?"

"I mean, it'd be a crazy power move, but you know it's a terrible idea, dude," Mimi leaned towards Mitch with her brows furrowed.

"Hold on. Why would it be a terrible idea?" Mitch shook her head.

"Well, he is an idiot," Mimi said.

"And a loser," Juliette added, scratching the back of her head.

"And just a tiny bit of a shithead," Mimi said, biting her lip.

"Seriously?!" Mitch exclaimed, "I've literally had a thing for him since sixth grade and now you're telling me I shouldn't even bother?"

"Look, he is cute, but come on, you're not going out with him," Juliette told her.

Mitch blinked, "Why? Wait, oh my god, tell me it's not because he's into me."

"What are you talking about?" Juliette asked.

"Look I want to believe you guys wouldn't do this, but it kinda sounds like you're just jealous that one of the cutest guys in our grade actually sees me as an option, so..." Mitch folded her arms, "Prove me wrong, I guess."

Juliette rolled her eyes and Mimi scoffed, "What? You're kidding. Mitch..."

"You can do way better than him, you know you can," Mimi tried holding Mitch's hand.

"Y'know that's what I've been telling myself for the last two years, but I think it's kinda wild that a cute guy is literally served to me on a silver platter and you two are still telling me I shouldn't bother. I don't wanna be single forever, you know!" she exclaimed.

Juliette and Mimi leaned in either side of Mitch, holding her shoulders gently, Mimi telling her, "It's not so bad being single, y'know?"

Juliette nodded, "I just don't think you'd have a good experience with him. There's no shame in waiting."

Mitch glared at Juliette, biting back a remark about her already having a boyfriend and instead just groaning, "But I've been waiting my whole life! And how am I supposed to know if being single would be better? I have no basis for comparison."

Mimi and Juliette averted their eyes but kept their comforting arms on Mitch's shoulders.

She sighed, "Look, I know you guys just want the best for me. It's more than I can say for Sicko and Krelboyne. But Dave could be my first actual boyfriend. I'm going to keep talking to him, and I'm going to go on a date with him, and if Aphrodite smiles upon me, I'm going to ask him to be my boyfriend."

The other two girls sighed, but before either of them could respond properly, Mitch stood up and walked off. She didn't exactly know why, something about needing to be in the right. God, those Wilkerson boys were really rubbing off on her. She shuddered at the thought.

Mitch felt bad for ditching her friends. After all, she didn't really believe they had anything but her best interests at heart. It just hurt to want something for so long and have the people closest to you tell you that you shouldn't actually want it.

Chapter Text

The Wilkerson boys spoke very little to Mitch over the following week. She mostly just existed in her own little bubble. She did bring up "a boy" at dinner just to spite Malcolm and Reese for being jerks which always prompted arguments that Lois had to break up, but some nights, she'd even pass on watching some random old movie that was on tv. Reese once even called out to her from the living room but he got no response, making him wish he could blow up the world.

That Saturday, Reese was just minding his business, looking for something to destroy, when he saw a girl in a short red dress with denim shorts underneath and black boots was just sitting in the living room amongst all of Mitch's stuff and looking in a small mirror. It was really weird. When she caught him staring, he saw she was wearing some sharp eyeliner and dark purple lip gloss. Oh god, she was walking towards him.

She snapped a finger in front of his face, "Did you have a brain tumour for breakfast? What's with the staring?"

Reese blinked and flinched back, "Mitch?!"

"God, maybe you did. My condolences," she looked him up and down before pulling out the mirror and checking herself again, "I underestimated my ability to look perfect in a reasonable amount of time so I've got half an hour before I need to head out."

"Head where? You don't dress like this for your friends," he asked.

She scoffed, "Sorry, I'm bad at keeping track. When exactly did it become your business how I dress? And you don't know, me and my friends could be going to violently makeout in a park somewhere."

He wasn't able to stop himself from letting out a snort before his eyes widened, "There's no way you're going on a date with Dave Spath."

She looked up to pretend she was thinking, "Uh, I am. I don't care what anyone has to say about my choice in dates. I don't even care if it isn't perfect. I'm the captain of my own goddamn destiny. I never stop you from doing something crazy or stupid! Why's everyone trying to stop me?"

Reese gave her a puzzled look, "Do you think this is crazy or stupid?"

She blinked at him and paused for a moment, "No. Why would I be doing this if I did?"

He shrugged, "I dunno! You do weird stuff sometimes."

Her face cracked into a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "Oh yeah, like making voodoo dolls out of your shirts so I can make love to them at night while I worship my sex goddess."

"That's not what I meant!" he blushed and averted his eyes.

She scoffed, "Whatever. If I keep letting you piss me off, I'll look older than Dave's mom by the time our date actually rolls around," she then turned to the wall, "Which is in half an hour so I'm out. Time sure flies when you're wasting it."

Reese watched Mitch walk out the door with his mouth hanging open, hoping for words that never came. Idiot.

"Don't wait up," she added before shutting the door behind her.

.꒷꒦♡꒦꒷˖

Mitch came back to the Wilkerson house after dinner with no questions. Apparently, she had the foresight to just let Lois know what she was doing and faced no consequences because she hadn't done something horrendous in the past week. Or month. Or the entire time she'd been living with them, come to think of it. Reese momentarily considered trying that tactic before disregarding it. He'd be giving up way too much fun if he tried to abide by his mom's definition of 'well-behaved'.

At the sound of the door opening and the sight of Mitch not being completely besought with happiness, Reese and Malcolm exchanged a look, understanding smugly that the date had not gone well. They anticipated a night full of tears and rants about how boys are utterly heartless pigs and how she'll never love again.

What they did not anticipate was Mitch taking off her boots by the door, fiddling with something on her back, and assuming her usual position on the couch with her knee bumping Reese's and her shoulder bumping Malcolm's. No tears, no yelling, just usual boredom as she zoned out on the d-list wrestling match on the screen.

"So, how was Dave?" Malcolm asked with a raised eyebrow.

She let out a half-hearted hum, "Hm. Fine."

"Anything happen?" Reese prodded further, both the boys' suspicion growing.

"Nah, not really," she mumbled before letting out a yawn.

The two boys frowned at each other, unprepared for her nonchalance. Malcolm simply rolled his eyes and amused himself with the tv along with the girl on his shoulder. However, Reese was not satisfied. He refused to believe Mitch genuinely had a decent time on her date with Dave Spath.

He would've been satisfied if she was prancing around the room, gushing about what a good time she had, because then he'd be able to tear that apart because nobody has a date that good in high school. But she was just completely unfeeling. She seemed a little tired.

And then he saw it.

It was barely anything at all. She just curled up her bottom lip into a pout. But he knew. It was the same face she made when he would initiate a game of footsie at dinner, before she'd join in and she'd try to act like it wasn't getting to her, but that pout was her tell.

It took Reese longer than it should have for it to click that Mitch was trying to act like she was fine when she definitely wasn't. For some reason, he wasn't filled with the pride of being right, for once.

It was like when she tried to hide her Aphrodite shrine from him, but he kinda understood why she was hiding it now. The last time she told him about anything important to her, he and his brother called her a creep in front of his whole family. For one of the only times in his life, Reese felt genuinely bad for another person.

He really had expected Mitch to come back talking about how great her date was, and then he would've said there's no way it went that well, and then she would've shown some stupid little photo booth picture they got together with them looking stupidly adorable. But why did Reese expect that so much? Why did he believe in his bones that's what would've happened?

Reese looked back over at Mitch, still in her makeup and red dress, and he knew better than instinct that Mitch deserved a good date. This is the girl who had to make a shrine and pray to a statue just to get a cute guy to know who she is, and she still couldn't get a good date? Well, of course, Dave Spath wouldn't show her a good time. His idea of a good time is pulling girls' hair before sticking gum in it. Okay, Reese couldn't really talk.

But it wasn't as if he'd be going out with her! He may have been an idiot but he could see what was clear as day. He knew what was right and wrong and even though she annoyed him to kingdom come, he knew it was wrong that a girl like her had a bad date. It was wrong that a girl like her would go out with a guy like Dave Spath and think that was the guy she'd been waiting for? The guy sent from the gods to make her happy?

For the first time in his life, Reese felt a need to right a wrong done unto Michelle "Frog Breath" Renaud.

How the hell was he supposed to do that? The first thing that came to mind would be to beat him up at school Tom Monday, but questions would come. Why'd he do it? Because he wasn't nice to Mitch on their date. Any proof? No. Sounds like he's obsessed with Mitch and he would beat up some guy just for going out with her. Hell no.

The next clearest course of action appeared to be to... talk to her? But wait, the entire point of this was so that he wouldn't have to hear her talk about her feelings. Who'd have thought it's worse when girls wouldn't talk about their feelings?

After a while of just laying in front of the tv nearly motionless, Mitch went into the lounge room where she intended to sleep the night away, Reese followed her to find her frowning into her pillow.

"How did it really go?" He asked, with a disturbing amount of sincerity in his voice.

Mitch didn't hide her surprise nor her suspicion on her face, but when Reese's expression didn't falter for a moment, she pouted, "This better not get back to your brothers."

"It won't," he promised.

Still giving him a dubious look, she sighed, "He wasn't a jerk. He didn't make fun of me or do some big stupid prank. He just... He was asking a lot about my friends, and I thought that was fine, nice even. Showed he cared about me that much. But he just kept asking about them, what we do together, what we like, what they're interested in. And then he kept asking about Juliette. I think I gave up on everything when he asked "Is she still going out with that Tim guy?""

Reese's eyes widened, "What did you do?"

Mitch glowered, "I left. I made up some excuse about needing to work on some songs and I just walked out of the diner. And y'know that isn't entirely untrue considering how emotionally traumatic that embarrassment was," she frowned before flopping back onto the pillow face-first.

Reese's brows knitted together, "So wait. He asked you out... so he could ask your friend out? And she already has a boyfriend?"

She pulled away from the pillow and groaned, "Just lay it on me, man. I deserve it."

Every impulsive impulse told Reese to just say 'I told you so' and be done with it, but even with her asking for it, it felt wrong to him.

Reese grimaced slightly, sitting down on the arm of the sofa, "Wow. He's evolved. I thought he was just a primate. Turns out he's a parasite."

Mitch glanced up at him, waiting for the digs at her to come in, which they never did. Reese's next words surprised her even more.

"I'm sorry," he put a hand on her shoulder.

Mitch glanced at his hand, then at him.

The world was ending. The sky runs red with blood. Hell has frozen over. There is no way Reese Wilkerson just shared empathy for another person.

"You didn't do anything, what do you have to be sorry for?" Mitch shook her head, giving him a chance to start making sense again.

"He's the one who should be sorry, but jerks like that never are. It's not fair and you deserve a guy who cares about you," he looked her in the eye as he spoke.

Mitch was terrified at the genuine smile that started to pull at the corners of her mouth. She didn't feel like saying 'What, like you?' or that she doesn't need some guy to care about her. Because goddamn, as terrifying as it was that he could just turn around and take back everything and make her kiss another thousand frogs, she really needed to hear those words from someone.

"Thank you," she whispered, and the words never sounded sweeter to Reese.

"I just..." she began, still scared he would scream at r run at the first sign of verbalised emotion, "I really thought he was interested in me, but I feel like such an idiot. Especially after everyone warned me how much of an idiot he is. Not just you, but my best friends too."

"Well, that's stupid," Reese scoffed as he sat down on the couch cushion next to her, disregarding the strange, lumpy thing he must've been sitting on.

She gaped at him, "Oh, thanks! You know, I really thought you'd be able to relate to another human on an emotional level but-"

"It's stupid that you feel like an idiot. You said it yourself, he's the idiot. And ignoring warnings is practically my job. Have you met Francis? That shit goes through his blood. Whenever anyone tells him to do something, he physically has to do the opposite," he elaborated.

Mitch fought a chuckle as she recalled Francis's past antics, "Yeah, that tracks."

"So don't waste time on stupid things like feeling bad about yourself because someone else treated you like dirt," he gripped her shoulder tightly and pulled her into a hug.

If Reese was being honest, he wasn't expecting the hug either, so he couldn't blame Mitch for going stiff when he did it, her back arching slightly away from him. As awkward as she was being, she did partially reciprocate it by wrapping her hands around his ribs. It felt different than he expected. Stronger, but not aggressive. It felt... secure.

After a few seconds, he felt her pushing him away slightly and she refused to meet his eyes, so he asked, "Are you okay?"

Her voice came out soft and strangled, "Um, I'm not... wearing a bra."

Reese instinctively started to glance down but stopped himself and released her, muttering out a small "Sorry."

Mitch chuckled slightly and looked away from him, beginning to muse again, "It just sucks being lonely, y'know? Like, not just for 'high school cool points', but because it'd just be so nice to have someone who loves you like that, to know someone worth loving believes you're worth loving. I guess it's like Hey Ya."

Reese turned to her and screwed up his face in pure confusion.

"The song. It's all about how people are scared of not being in a relationship because we've been taught to believe that romance is all you need to survive. But that's bullshit. But it's still hard to unlearn. It's like..." a forlorn expression suddenly washed over her face, "It's like kissing a frog, hoping it'll turn into a prince. But instead, I went to a diner with Dave Spath hoping he'd turn into Hayden Christiansen," she huffed out a small snicker, shaking her head, "I need to either be happy alone or lower my standards like crazy."

"I don't think so. There's some idiot out there for you. Our school is huge. It's just your job to sift through the shit and find your Hayden Christiansen," Reese told her.

"You don't think it's asking too much?" she asked.

"Of who?" he scoffed.

"The universe. To give me someone I want who wants me back," she explained.

"No way. How come you're so dumb when it comes to this stuff? Even Malcolm has had girlfriends before. Girlfriends. If that dweeb can like someone who likes him back, you can easily," he said, "Don't stop holding out for Hayden."

Mitch couldn't help but smile at Reese and pull him into a hug herself, before remembering that she still wasn't wearing a bra and quickly pulling away again.

"Where's all this coming from? You holding out for Kate Moss?" she nudged him.

He scoffed, looking away from her, "Pff, no. It's... Hillary Duff."

"Yeah, she is pretty hot."

Chapter Text

Lois had been right in hoping that Mitch would teach the boys more about empathy. Only, it's safe to assume none of the boys anticipated being taught via an axe wound.

The ordeal of freshman year had concluded for Malcolm and Mitch. Certainly not without incident, but overall, they came out with their social lives still intact and no criminal convictions on their records. The summer welcomed even more chaos and misadventure for the Wilkerson household to unleash onto the world, but little did the boys know that a whole world of terror would be unleashed onto them by one of their own.

One Saturday, with nothing better to do, Mitch and the boys were watching tv when, during the usual half-hour routine of shifting positions so they wouldn't merge with the couch, Reese nudged Mitch with his elbow.

She scowled at him, "Ugh, do you mind?"

He glared back at her, "What's your problem?"

"My problem is that I'd like one day where I don't have to deal with your annoying ass pushing and shoving me all the time," she told him.

He frowned, "Oh come on, I barely touched you."

"You did, and you always say that," she said before the two devolved into arguing and, ironically, continuing to push and shove each other.

Malcolm and Dewey lazily watched on as the two hot-headed teens rose from their spots on the couch.  Malcolm considered how unusual it was for Mitch to join in on a petty argument, much less initiate one. He supposed the prolonged exposure to the chaotic energy would've started showing changes at some point.

Then, just after Mitch shoved Reese in the stomach, he shoved her in the lower abdomen and she had to bend over the couch as she groaned in pain.

Reese rolled his eyes, "Please, I've got two younger brothers. You think I haven't seen that move before?"

"You dick!" She continued groaning and Malcolm noticed tears starting to form in her clenched eyes.

His eyes widened and he looked at Reese, "I think you really hit her."

Reese frantically shook his head, "I didn't! I've been going easy on her. You know I don't hit girls for real!"

Mitch fell to her knees and muffled her face with the couch cushion, "Fuu-uu-uuck."

"She's totally faking!" Reese exclaimed as Malcolm swore he saw something weird.

Dewey looked over at Mitch for a few seconds, analysing her position and expression, before shaking his head, "Not faking. I'm a professional, and I know real from fake."

The shapeless nightshirt Mitch was wearing started riding up as she clutched her lower stomach and Malcolm could swear he saw blood.

"What the hell?" he muttered before glaring at Reese, "What did you do?"

"I told you, I didn't do anything!" Reese exclaimed.

"She's bleeding!" Malcolm shouted.

Reese looked at him in horror, "What?!"

Taking deep, dragging breaths, Mitch slowly rose from her knees, still hunching over her belly and scowled at them through her tear-crusted eyes, "You... morons."

She then started walking to the bathroom painfully slowly, taking her excruciating time and occasionally leaning against the wall, scrunching up her face and letting out another flurry of sobbing groans. As she went, a little drop of dark red fell from her hunched form. It was followed shortly by a small stream of red in her inner thigh.

As the three boys turned to each other in horror and confusion, Dewey asked, "Is she dying?"

"Nobody ever told me how fragile girls are," Reese muttered before turning to Malcolm, "Who was the guy who got Francis all those fake IDs? I think I need to flee the country."

Once Mitch reached the bathroom and shut the door, the three boys pressed their ears against the door.

"Reese," Mitch's strained voice called, "There's a stuffed duck next to my pillow."

The boys nearly started crying at how sweet her attachment to her stuffed animal in her dying moments was.

Reese nodded, "I'll bring it to you now, don't worry."

"No, I want you to put it in the microwave," she told him.

The trio collectively recoiled from the door.

"What?" Reese asked.

"Microwave one minute. Then bring it to me," she told him, starting to sob through her groans again.

Reese gave his brothers a befuddled look before he went to do what she said, too frightened to disobey her in her volatile final moments.

"Mitch, setting fire to the house might not be the best way to-" Malcolm began to plead with her.

"Shut up! Malcolm, in my suitcase, there's an opened blue box with Mooncup on it. I need it right now," she told him, mostly to get rid of him.

As Malcolm went to retrieve what she asked, he saw Reese cautiously putting the stuffed duck in the microwave and turning it on. The two boys eyed the microwave cautiously, but when it shockingly didn't burst into flames, Malcolm shrugged and went back to his search for this Mooncup box, whatever that meant. He figured it must be some kind of painkillers for her injury?

However, when he found the box, it wasn't pills of any kind. It had black fabric inside. He pulled it out, thinking she must've kept them in some little bag for safekeeping, but when he unravelled it, he realised it wasn't that at all. For the first time in his life, Malcolm was holding a girl's underwear. And he was freaking out. Why did she want him to get her panties? Didn't she have bigger priorities, like taking care of her injury? Was it some kind of weird dying wish for him to have them???

Malcolm snapped out of his spiralling thoughts at the sound of the microwave dinging and remembered she asked him to bring them to her. As he followed Reese back into the bedroom, the older boy caught sight of what Malcolm had been tasked with bringing her and started blushing as well.

As Dewey continued listening, the bathroom echoed with the sounds of the tap running for a while and desperate slurping before the groaning subsided. Then, there were no other sounds for about a minute.

Dewey whispered, "Is she dead?"

"I'm not dead, morons!" She called out from the bathroom, making the boys collectively sigh, "I just got my period, and getting punched in a spot that's already getting railed by Mother Nature didn't help much."

"What's a period?" Dewey asked.

Malcolm spoke up, "Sometimes, girls turn evil because they're bleeding and-"

"What's are you talking about? No, gimme my underwear. I'm telling him," Mitch opened the door a crack, sticking her hand out for Malcolm to cautiously give to her.

Reese blinked, "Wait, were you not wearing panties earlier?"

Malcolm shook his head, "No, she was!"

"What the-?! Nice of you to keep track, perv!" Mitch called out before keeling over and groaning again, "Dewey, women have the power to create life inside them. But if it were easy for us to exist, we'd be too awesome. So it's possible for girls to become pregnant a decade, sometimes more, before her brain is even fully developed. No girl wants to be pregnant that young, but as if the threat of our lives being ruined forever wasn't enough, Mother Nature gets our ovaries all pretty and nice for a dude to show up and make a baby," she was interrupted by another violent groan.

"When no guy comes along and gets us pregnant, she rips away all the stuff that would make it nice and comfy for a baby to grow inside us. It's like a massacre of stuff that didn't even exist, and then it gets forced and flushed out of us. That's why I'm bleeding from my secret hole that you boys don't have."

Once Mitch disturbing, confusing, rambling explanation concluded, the two boys were silent, somehow even more horrified than when they thought Reese killed her.

"Yep. I hate it too. Just be glad you boys don't have to deal with it for the rest of your life until you're out of commission."

She then emerged, still looking wrecked but was at least steady on her feet, and her eyes lit up at the sight of Reese with her ducky.

"Oh, ducky," she yanked it from his hands and immediately stuffed it up her nightshirt, just above her crotch, making her eyes roll back and a dazed smile wash over her face as she leaned her head on Reese's chest and sighed out, "Thank you... so much. This is just what I needed."

Reese gulped, his cheeks flaring red again, "No problem. So do you need to go to the doctor?"

She blinked at him, "What? No. I just have to deal with it."

He gave her yet another horrified look, "What?! We thought you were dying!"

She shrugged, "It feels like it every time. One of the many reasons I complain about female disadvantages."

Malcolm shot looks at both of his brothers before asking, "How can we make you feel better?"

Mitch blinked and smiled slightly, "Well, I kinda just wanna curl up on the couch and watch Star Wars all day. Do we have any chocolate left in the fridge?"

The three boys frowned before Malcolm said, "I'm just gonna run to the store."

"Oh, if you're going, could you also grab me some pads? I'm running low," she asked.

Malcolm's eyes widened, "I can't go out in public with those!"

Mitch frowned and shrugged, "Oh okay, that's fine. I'll just use your pillow then," she made a move towards Malcolm's bed before he intercepted her.

"Okay, fine," he groaned, before his eyes lit up with an idea, "But do you really wanna be stuck here with Reese?"

Reese frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You two nearly tore each other's necks out earlier. Mitch, I think it'd be better for you to avoid popping any more veins today," he told her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Mitch rolled her eyes, shifting his hand off, "Not how that works, but alright," she went back into the bathroom and dug through her toiletries bag before producing an empty plastic wrapper, "Reese, I'll give you the packet so you know exactly what to look for. There's a lot of different brands so I'll need you to get this exact one. You got it?"

"But wait, why do I have to go?" he whined.

"Because you don't want me to bleed on your pillow," she patted him on the shoulder before squeezing his skin down to the bone, "Remember, you're getting another packet of these, and a block of chocolate."

His eyes widened and he nodded before heading off. For the first time in his life, Reese felt like he was living in a horror movie. He felt like everyone he encountered was giving him strange looks. It felt like a scene out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Ironically, Mitch would be the one person who would understand and make him feel better about it but it seemed she was out of commission for the day, taken over by the evil entity she called Mother Nature.

Maybe chocolate was the antidote! Reese grinned as he thought of the comparison and made sure to get back to the house as soon as he got the stuff she needed. He was going to defeat this evil creature and get his friend back!

When Reese arrived back at the house, Mitch looked nearly catatonic. She was on the couch next to Malcolm, staring at the tv like a braindead zombie. Okay, that wasn't exactly unusual. But Reese knew just what to get her back to normal and ready do actually do something fun.

"Hey, I got the stuff!" he said, putting the haul on the coffee table and holding up the block of chocolate, "Quick, eat this. You'll feel better."

Mitch slowly glanced over at him before closing her eyes and leaning on Malcolm's shoulder.

Malcolm glanced over at her before asking Reese, "Can you pass me that bottle?"

Reese looked at the table where a bottle of ice water was sitting, building up condensation. He handed it to Malcolm, who rubbed it on Mitch's pale forehead before opening it for her and holding it in front of her face until she took it and started sipping from it.

"This is actually really interesting. I've started learning how she communicates without using words. For now, she's too tired to have a fit over anything, so as long as we keep her calm, she's like a baby," Malcolm told Reese, not noticing her frown at the comparison.

"Don't infantilise me," she murmured.

"But we need to stop this now," Reese demanded, "I have what she needs right here. We can end it all right now."

"Don't push her, she needs to rest," Malcolm hushed him.

"Quit acting like she's your girlfriend just because she touched you," Reese argued, "You don't see me fawning over her when we watch movies together."

"You're one to talk, errand boy. You're the one going out and buying her stuff," Malcolm pushed back.

"I'll pay you back..." Mitch muttered, staring at the tv.

"And who's idea was that, wife guy?" Reese folded his arms, standing over Malcolm.

"It's not my fault you annoy her more," Malcolm sneered at Reese.

"You so annoy her more than me," Reese scowled back.

As their argument devolved into a back and forth of "do nots" and "do toos", the boys didn't notice Mitch frowning from the noise and noticing the chocolate on the coffee table. She unwrapped it, broke off a piece and popped it in her mouth, humming in contentment and stroking her ducky that was still pressed above her crotch.

"Mmm that really hit the spot," she smiled, turning to the arguing boys, "Thanks for getting that, Reese."

Reese grinned and hissed at Malcolm, "Suck it," before taking a seat on the other side of Mitch, "So, what do you wanna do now?"

She blinked at him, "Nothing, are you kidding? I'm off today."

Reese's grin disappeared, "But I thought you felt better now."

"I feel better than before," she shrugged, "I'm still way out of wack though. I'll be a little better tomorrow but I won't be back to normal probably until... Wednesday, maybe? My cramps usually aren't so bad by then. I'll still be bleeding until next Sunday though."

Reese's horrified expression from earlier returned, "All week?! You're bleeding for a whole week?!"

She patted him on the shoulder, "Now you understand why I'm such a heinous bitch all the time?"

Reese sighed, "Well, at least we won't have to worry about it again until next summer."

This time, both Mitch and Malcolm looked over at Reese in confusion before Mitch told him, "Reese, it's not once a year. It's once a month. Every month. For the next forty years."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Chapter Text

"For the last time, it's not prissy. It's so much funnier and cooler than the original!" Mitch chased Reese into his room.

"I don't care, I'm not watching some dumb musical!" Reese argued back.

"The plant literally rips up a whole building and takes over the world!" she tried to convince him further.

"I don't wanna watch some dweeb sing love songs with some chick!" he scoffed.

Mitch groaned, "It's. Satire! Malcolm, tell him he should watch Little Shop of Horrors with me."

Malcolm shook his head, "No, he's got a point. Musicals are dumb."

"Whatever, you're a Shakespeare fan," she scoffed.

Malcolm frowned at her, "What's wrong with Shakespeare?"

"He's not that intellectual. He literally just wrote romcoms and like two good horrors," Mitch folded her arms before turning back to Reese, who thought he evaded capture, "Whatever, we're getting off topic. Dewey?"

Dewey looked up from his homework, "Hm. I'm conflicted between my respect for music and my loathing of something so socially feminine."

Mitch groaned, "Whatever. You liked the original! I rented that movie with my own money, you're the only person in this house that cares about b horror comedies. We're watching it."

Reese raised his eyebrows at her, "Bite. Me."

She frowned and within two seconds, she was dragging Reese by the ear out in front of the tv, put the tape of Little Shop of Horrors in the vhs player and shoved him down on the couch, all while he begged for mercy.

Although Mitch had to keep Reese from running off, even sitting on top of him at one point, he did eventually give up and pay attention to the movie. As much as he tried to hide it, Mitch did hear Reese laughing along with her at times and she could see him grinning ear to ear every time Orin was on screen.

When it was all over, Mitch looked over at the boy and smirked, "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

Reese immediately tensed up and folded his arms, "Uh yeah it was. Actually it was worse. I can't believe you put me through that. I hope you know this is gonna cost you lunch tomorrow."

"That's why you were laughing at all the jokes and undressing the dentist with your eyes, huh?" she smirked as they both stood up, Mitch to put the movie away, Reese to retreat to his room.

"Whatever, freak," he said as he left.

Mitch only got more smug when she was waiting to use the bathroom the next morning and heard Reese humming the beginning of the dentist song, "... To make your natural tendencies pay. You'll be a dentist!"

She strolled in, singing backup, "You'll be a dentist!"

"People- ah! I'm not done in here, get out," he shoved her towards the door.

"Sorry, I didn't realise this was the recording studio," she smirked, holding herself in by the doorframe.

He folded his arms, "That's rich coming from you. You never shut up in here."

"Yeah, but I'm not the one who was wrong," she bumped him out of the bathroom with her hip and shut the door behind her.

Reese groaned, "She is so weird sometimes. She definitely has a thing for me, right?"

Dewey and Malcolm exchanged glances, "... Definitely."

.꒷꒦♡꒷꒦˖

The next afternoon, as Malcolm, Reese, and Mitch were walking down the school halls to head home, Mitch spotted a flyer on the wall.

"Wait a minute," she muttered before walking over to it, "No way! Reese, check it out!"

"Nice, spreading the good word of horror," Reese nodded once he saw it too.

Malcolm joined them in front of the flyer, "What is it?"

"The school musical this year is Little Shop of Horrors! Auditions are Friday, I am so there," Mitch exclaimed, clapping her hands in glee.

Reese rolled his eyes, "Great, even more singing."

"You can help me practice!" she grinned as she grabbed Reese by the wrist, before turning to Malcolm, "You wanna audition with me?"

He blinked at her and looked away, "Uh no thanks. Musicals aren't really my scene."

"Plus he hasn't set foot on a stage since he forgot all his lines in that fairy show," Reese smirked.

"It was A Midsummer Night's Dream and it turns out theatre isn't for me," Malcolm rolled his eyes.

Over the following week, Mitch nearly wore out the tape of the movie from how much she rewound it to practice. Thankfully, she didn't hear anything about it from the rental place but she never heard the end of it from the boys. Mornings became much more melodious thanks to her and they were none too appreciative. The cracks of tiredness even started showing on Lois's face. That was when the boys saw their chance.

"Mom, this musical stuff has gone far enough. Even you're getting tired of it. You're the only one she listens to. You have to tell her the singing has to stop," Malcolm pleaded their case one morning when Mitch left the table to get dressed for school.

Lois sighed, "Look, I know it's a little annoying sometimes, but I think it's good that she's putting her time towards something important. You boys ought to take a leaf from her book," her eyes then landed on Reese and lit up in a way that terrified the boy, "In fact... Reese, while you're grounded, I want you to go to Michelle's audition with her. It could teach you a few things about commitment."

"What?!" he exclaimed, "How is that fair? I'd rather be regular grounded."

"It's fair because I say so. Now I'm not going to hear another word about this from you," Lois told them.

Reese didn't tell Mitch that he got roped into her audition because he knew she'd feel bad about it and tell him not to come but then his mom would get mad at him and it'd be a whole thing. It was definitely going to suck, seeing all the idiots from school butchering all the songs from this... kinda ok movie.

The day rolled around and it was all Mitch could talk about all morning. Reese had to admit, he struggled imagining Mitch dressed up as Audrey with an old fashioned hairdo and a long pastel dress and singing in that high voice, but he was curious. Although he tried to drown it out most of the time, her singing never sounded bad.

When the day finally ended, Malcolm and Reese met up in the hallway, getting right to complaining about the musical and Mitch's singing as they walked.

"And it's only going to get worse when rehearsals start," Malcolm told his brother.

"Seriously?" Reese groaned.

"Yeah. But maybe she'll find someone else's house to practice at. Plus, she'll be doing most of her singing at rehearsals," Malcolm explained.

For some reason, the thought of Mitch singing those romantic songs in the auditorium seemed really nice. It'd certainly be better than at home. But in someone else's house? That felt stupid, she could just practice at his house. Sure, they complained about her singing all the time but she knew that didn't really matter, right?

Reese ended up getting so lost in his thoughts he ended up getting halfway home before he remembered.

"Wait," he stopped in his tracks.

Malcolm looked at him from a few steps ahead, "What?"

His eyebrows knitted together, "I was dreading this afternoon. I was supposed to be doing something horrible right now."

Malcolm's eyes widened, "Reese. The audition."

"I know, it's annoying, but I'm trying to-" Reese frowned and met Malcolm's eyes.

"Shit!" They both yelled before sprinting back towards school.

It wouldn't be until later that Malcolm would realise he didn't even need to be there, but that didn't matter while they ran.

Once they finally reached the school, they realised how little time they'd actually spent in the auditorium and spent a while arguing over where it was.

"Sorry, who's been in a play?"

"I sneak in there to leave traps for nerds sometimes!"

They then began a mad dash through corridors, crossing over like a Scooby-Doo montage, before they finally ended up at the auditorium. There were various groups of students sitting both backstage and in the audience, but the space was completely dark, save the stage itself, with a voice cracking boy trying and failing to land a Hugh Jackman vibrato, and the teacher's desk.

Malcolm looked at a run order blu-tacked to the wall, "Crap, all the Audreys have already gone up."

Reese craned his head around before saying to his brother, "I can't see a thing in here. Hold on," before rushing up towards the stage.

Malcolm hissed at him, "Wait, Reese you're not supposed to... ugh!"

Reese pushed past various guys practicing tough guy faces and ended up on stage as he tried to look out into the audience for Mitch, he bumped into the voice cracking dweeb.

"Oof! Do you mind?" the dweeb stumbled back.

Reese frowned at him before groaning in frustration, "Ugh, stupid Mitch! Christ, I'm a friggin scatterbrain!"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" the teacher, Mr Grieb asked.

In that moment, Reese locked eyes with Malcolm and shared his brother's panicked expression, "Uh, I'm Reese. Wilkerson."

"Huh," Mr Grieb's eyebrows knit together as he looked down at his sheet of auditioners, before he looked back up at Reese, "Okay, keep going."

Reese's eyes widened and he grabbed the dweeb by the collar, just as he was edging towards the wings, "What am I supposed to keep going?"

The dweeb held up his script which Reese snatched away, "You're reading for Orin."

Reese skimmed over the words before his face lit up, "Oh sick, the dentist! Can I keep him? I'm better with someone to work off of."

Mr Grieb waved his hand in permission and Reese pushed the dweeb back onstage. As Reese read Orin's lines with the dweeb onstage, Malcolm kept his head down as he weaved his way between various kids lined up with scripts and made his way backstage. After shuffling past the Audrey 2 group, Malcolm huffed in frustration and slammed his head against a wooden beam.

Just as he did, he heard a familiar voice say from behind him, "Malcolm? What are you doing here?"

His eyes widened and he turned around to face the girl he and his brother had been looking for, "Mitch! I thought all the Audreys already went. Aren't you supposed to be in the audience?"

She chuckled, "What? I'm auditioning for Audrey 2."

He shook his head, "Huh? Wait, the plant?"

She shrugged and smiled, "Yeah? Wait, you guys have been complaining this whole time about my singing and you didn't even realise what character I was playing?"

Malcolm nervously chuckled, "It's kinda hard to imagine you as a terrifying, deep voiced plant."

She smirked at him and struck a pose, "You think I'm more of a Donna Reed type, huh?"

"I guess," he shrugged, still smiling.

She shook her head, "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to set foot in here ever again."

"Yeah, I am kinda trying to keep a low profile," he said, lowering his head as a crew member came walking past, "But Reese and I... we just wanted to come support you. We've been complaining about your singing so much so it's the least we could do since it's so important to you."

A smile spread across Mitch's face and she wrapped her arms around Malcolm in a hug, "Aw, that's so sweet of you! But where's Reese?"

Malcolm gulped, looking up at the stage above them, "Uh..."

They went to the wings to find Reese finishing up his audition, "Say AHH! Now spit!"

Mr Grieb slowly clapped as Reese made his way offstage towards the wings where Malcolm and Mitch were waiting.

"Hey, where were you?" Reese ran up to her, smiling.

"She hasn't gone yet," Malcolm told him.

"You seriously didn't realise I'm auditioning for Audrey 2?" she raised her eyebrow at Reese, only half-mad.

"Uhh... my bad?" he scratched the back of his neck.

Mitch started to smile at his nervousness and pulled him into a hug, "Ah, I can't stay mad at you. It's really sweet of you two to come to support me."

Malcolm gave Reese a look and he went along with it, "Oh, well yeah it's no trouble. Sorry we've been complaining so much. Your singing is really good though, you'll probably get the part."

Mitch bit her lip, "Do you think so?"

"Yeah. You put your whole ass into it in the shower. It's gonna sound way better in here," he told her.

"Thanks, and you did pretty great too. I'll see you guys after," she smiled at them as she went backstage again.

.꒷꒦♡꒷꒦˖

The cast list went up the next day and Mitch dragged Malcom and Reese to see it after school. She had a smirk on her face as they went which worried the boys.

"Did you get the part?" Reese asked.

"Not exactly. I got Audrey 2's understudy, but they did cast me as Chiffon. You know, one of the doo-wop girls? Anyway, I won't be alone in rehearsals," she grinned cheekily at them as they came up to the poster.

The two boys' eyes widened as they read towards the bottom of the page:

'Orin Understudy - Reese Wilkerson'

"Understudy? I thought his last name was Deedeeis," Reese said, confused.

"What? Where'd you-?" Mitch began before her eyes widened, "D.D.S. He's a dentist."

Chapter Text

The musical went really well. Even though they didn't have many scenes together, Mitch and Reese still practiced nearly every day with each other. They ended up getting into a routine of renting another old monster movie every week and watching it and eating snacks until they either fell asleep or threw up. It was awesome.

They hung out all the time backstage during shows too. Mitch would occasionally have to explain to other cast members that Reese wasn't blackmailing her or threatening her family and that she was in fact hanging out with him willingly.

While backstage, the two got into the habit of lip syncing together along with the performers onstage, which got them in a bit of trouble with Mr Grieb but he stayed distracted with everything else going on.

One night, the senior playing Audrey 2 landed in a spot of trouble and couldn't make it, so Mitch got her chance. After briefly celebrating with Reese, she took Mr Grieb and the Krelboyne playing Seymour aside to explain her ideas as quickly as possible, Reese following behind.

"Now, I already have my costume made, I've worked out all my blocking," she then nudged the boy with her finger, "All you need to do is stand still and keep being geeky while I do my thing. Trust me, everyone's gonna love it!"

Mr Grieb frowned at her, "Look Michelle, it's very nice that you went to all the effort, but I just don't think we'll have the time to execute all this."

"Well, everyone here is pretty good at following orders. The only difference is that it's from me and it only applies to like three people in the cast and a few crew members. And it'll be easier on poor Ricky's arms. He can hardly high five anymore. Let him take a break for one night, come on," she smiled at Mr Grieb.

The teacher put his hand on Mitch's shoulder and told her, "Michelle. I know you've got big ideas, but you're just a freshman understudy, okay? You just need to learn where your place is and stick to it."

As soon as he saw Mitch's face deflate, Reese spoke up, "Uh sir? The smoke coming from the dressing rooms smells kinda funny. I saw some juniors go in there earlier but I thought they were just going to make out."

Mr Grieb seethed before running off, "Those kids."

Reese then turned to Mitch, "Who do we need?"

"Ricky, Ella, Marge, Danny, Malik... and we've already got Paul here, haven't we?" The two teens turned to the geek, who, despite being two grades older than them, caved and nodded meekly.

The two spent the day making Mitch's plans real, with Mitch convincing and explaining the plan to the few kids they needed on their side, and Reese starting all sorts of fires for Mr Grieb to put out. At one point, literally.

He kept it up all day and night until Mitch had her big scene with Feed Me, which he went up to the wings to watch.

"Feed me Seymour, feed me all night long..."

She was terrifying. She was loathsome. She was sly. She was... really hot.

Even when Mr Grieb tried to kick Reese out of the auditorium for all the trouble he caused, Reese just brushed him off and kept watching Mitch onstage. She was decked out in this raggedy old green dress covered in sequins with her hair done in little tight curls to look like tendrils and this bright sci-fi makeup that curled her mouth nearly up to her ears. She looked so freaky and so awesome. And who knew she was such a natural at playing a carnivorous plant from another planet trying to take over the world?

And most of the audience was on board with it. Sure, it was mostly just friends and family, but Reese heard a few enthusiastic cheers after some of Mitch's songs. That was enough for Mitch to get away from Grieb scot-free. Reese wasn't so lucky, but the worst he got was getting banned from the auditorium permanently and he never would've ended up in the stupid place without Mitch so he wasn't complaining.

After the play, Malcolm met up with Mitch and Reese outside the auditorium.

"You were great! As we thought, better than in the shower," Malcolm said.

Mitch rolled her eyes and smiled, touching his shoulder, "It was very sweet of you to come and see me tonight."

Reese raised his eyebrow, "Uh hello? Who's been coming to see you here every day for the past week? Plus, I'm basically the only reason any of that cool stuff happened so I deserve at least half of that applause."

She shoved him, "Oh shut up, I thanked you like fifty times today."

"By the way, did you lose your clothes or something?" Malcolm gestured to the costume Mitch was still wearing.

"Oh, no I just like wearing it. It makes me feel scary and powerful," she smirked as they walked back home.

.꒷꒦♡꒷꒦˖

A week had passed and, having been somewhat blacklisted from the theatre kids for their stunt, Mitch and Reese returned to their routine of movie nights. Sometimes they shook it up with an action movie or a musical, but they generally kept it to movies that seemed goofy, low-budget, nonsensical, and hilarious. Mitch occasionally snuck in stuff that had Reese asking existential questions as he tried to fall asleep, but they generally enjoyed them a lot.

"Holy crap finally!" Mitch exclaimed, her eyes lit up on a spot on the shelf in the musicals aisle in the video store.

She then ran to the action section where Reese was just about to pick up a copy of Die Hard before Mitch grabbed his hand and dragged him back to where she was.

"Dude check it out!" She exclaimed, grinning wildly and pointing at a copy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Reese's eyebrows knit together as he leaned towards it and stared at it, "Is this a porno?"

Mitch giggled insanely, "Bordering on it. For the 70s at least. It's such a good movie, we're getting it right now. It's like all our favourite creature features rolled into one with bullying and glitter and cannibalism thrown on top!"

She practically sprinted it up to the register and the two were home watching it before Reese knew what was happening.

The movie was a wild ride and Mitch sang along to all of the songs, even getting up and dancing. During the Time Warp, she pulled Reese up with her and told him to do it with her. He appreciated the interactivity of it all but it was a whirlwind to say the least. He got kinda bored towards the end though. Mitch was never bored though. Even Reese could see that while she was watching, it was like she was talking to an old friend. She knew almost all of the lines, and quipped during every gap between dialogue and practically held her breath during dramatic moments as if the movie itself was her national anthem.

When the movie was over, Mitch flopped backwards onto the couch and sighed, still grinning and wiping away her tears shed earlier, "That was awesome. What did you think?"

Reese shrugged, saying, "It was fine," he then looked over at her, "Wait, are you crying?"

"It got me during I'm Going Home," she chuckled, "What was your favourite part?"

"I guess I liked it when Frank N Furter murdered that guy," Reese looked up as he thought.

Mitch nodded along, "Oh yeah, she was so boss in that scene. I actually really enjoyed Planet Schmanet Janet this time around. And who was your favourite character?" she fully faced Reese, sitting on her feet.

"I guess the blond guy was kinda cool," Reese shrugged.

"Riffraff or Rocky?" she asked.

"I don't know. The one with the muscles," Reese rolled his eyes, sensing the smirk coming on Mitch's face.

"Yeah he does seem like your type," she nudged him, giggling.

The two then fell into silence for a bit.

Mitch broke it by asking Reese, "So did you, y'know... like it?"

"Eh, it was kinda weird," he replied without meeting her eyes,"The motorcycle was cool. I liked the murder and everything, but there were songs like every five seconds, and there was way too much guy on guy action."

Mitch's expression fell but she tried to keep the conversation light, "Come on, it was like once. And technically Frank's both."

"Nah, it was just weird," Reese shook his head with a grimace.

When he said that word again, Mitch's heart dropped. So she dropped the topic.

She shook her head and began to pack up the movie, "Never mind, forget I said anything. Let's just... go to bed."

"Are you... alright?" he raised an eyebrow at her, reaching his hand out towards her.

She immediately recoiled and shrieked, "I'm fine!", sending them both into shocked silence, before Mitch let out a shaky breath, "I'm sorry, just forget about it, okay?"

Reese couldn't get another word in before Mitch was back in her space in the living room, leaving Reese in the dark. Figuratively and literally.

Chapter Text

Mitch had been avoiding Reese for a few days by the time he came up to her and her friends during lunch. He believed he had a right to know why she was making him suffer. Not that he was suffering from not being around her! He just... needed an excuse to watch cool dumb movies with someone.

As Mitch was discussing her weekend plans to Patty and Juliette, the two got sour looks on their faces and started glaring at something behind Mitch. No, someone.

"Can we help you?" Patty raised her eyebrow.

"Can it. This is between Mitch and me," he glared back at the blonde.

Sensing a fight brewing between her trickiest friends, Mitch stood up and walked with Reese away from their spot, "I don't want any trouble. What do you want?"

Reese folded his arms, "You're avoiding me."

Reese could've sworn that, for the first time since she was seven, Mitch looked scared of him, before frowning again, avoiding his eyes, "I have a right to avoid people."

"And I have a right to know why," he stepped up to her.

She glared at him, and stepped back, "I don't have to tell you anything!"

"You've been acting weird ever since we watched that movie so just tell me what I did!" He whined.

She rolled her eyes, "Why do you care if I'm avoiding you?"

"Because I miss you!" He blurted out.

Mitch's eyes immediately shot over to him, wide and shocked as his own. There was no way he just said that. The only person this boy 'missed' was Francis, and even then he rarely admitted it out loud.

As she noticed people starting to notice them, Mitch pulled Reese closer to her and whispered, "Look, let's talk after school," before tilting her head to get him to notice all the onlookers as well.

Reese nodded and they went their separate ways. When Mitch walked back to her friends, they were looking at her with admittedly warranted wide eyes.

"Oh my god," Patty glared with a sneer, "He wants you so bad."

"Yeah, what the hell was that?" Juliette raised her eyebrow nearly as high as her hairline.

Mitch shook her head, "Its nothing, I've just kinda stopped hanging out with him lately because..." she trailed off.

Patty sighed, "He tried to kiss you. I knew this would happen. Listen, I can try and get you a good hidey hole at my place. It's still a Machiavellian death trap but it'd be better than that house."

"No!" Mitch exclaimed, her cheeks flushing, "We were watching Rocky Horror and I just... I kinda forgot he was a straight guy."

"He watched Rocky Horror with you?" Juliette repeated, before glancing at Patty, "Have you actually cast a spell from your witch book? Because I think it might be working."

"Holy crap, a man servant is just what we need right now," Patty grinned.

"No, shockingly, he did it willingly," Mitch admitted, "But he just didn't get into it like I hoped he would."

"Well, what did you expect would happen?" Juliette asked, "I know he's kinda your friend now, but he's still Reese."

Mitch sighed, "I know. I kinda hoped he'd be less... confused? We understand each other so well when we're watching other movies like it, but it's like he just kinda switched off. And I'm kinda worried I... said too much."

"How so?" Juliette asked, the two girls giving Mitch their undivided attention at her frightened tone.

"I'm worried he might know. I mean, it's unlikely, he's Reese. But he knows something's up and it's going to come out sooner or later," Mitch told them, fiddling with her fingers.

Patty put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, if you want me to come up with a fallback lie, I've got hundreds you could choose from."

Mitch gave her friend a half-hearted smile, "Thanks, but you know how bad I am at big lies like that. He knows too much to go back. I just have to figure out a way to get him to be okay with it when he does figure it out."

"Don't tell me you're going to try to fix him," Juliette folded her arms.

Mitch shook her head, nearly laughing, "No way! But I am capable of convincing him to do things. I mean, all it took for him to watch Little Shop with me was nagging. He was literally an understudy with me in the production last month. I think I can get through to him. And if I can't, I'll just have him suffer my absence even longer until he combusts."

.꒷꒦♡꒷꒦˖

After the final bell, Mitch found Reese pacing by the school gate, biting his lip and fiddling with his hands. What Mitch planned on asking of him tonight would either be a sick humiliation ritual, or it would prove that Reese wasn't as much of a threat as her instincts led her to believe. Even if she felt like a sick bastard for it, Mitch did get a kick out of seeing Reese so nervous over getting her attention back. Maybe he did have some kind of twisted little crush on her after all. She scoffed at the thought as soon as it came. He's Reese. His heart had no love inside.

Mitch decided to put the boy out of his current misery and went up to him, "What's up."

"What did I do?" he asked, starting to walk down the street with her.

Mitch eyed him, "Wow, my day was good too. Are Malcolm and Dewey coming?"

"Doesn't matter," Reese shook his head.

Mitch cut him off, "It matters to me. Where are they?"

"They can walk themselves. But I'm serious, why have you been so weird about that movie and what do I have to do to get you to stop avoiding me?" he asked again.

"Dude, you need to chill out. I didn't even know you were capable of having emotions up until a few weeks ago. You're kinda scaring me," she chuckled slightly.

"For the love of god, woman, TELL ME!" he exclaimed, much to the disturbance of various other students making their way home.

"Jesus Christ, okay!" she exclaimed before sighing, "You got me. There is more to it than the movie, but there is no way I can tell you until I know I can trust you."

Reese groaned, "You're kidding. I'm not going to go through a whole humiliation ritual just to get your dumb little secret. Just tell me what I did wrong and stop avoiding me!"

She shook her head, "It doesn't work that way. If you want to know what you did wrong, you'll know the secret. Either you prove I can trust you and tell you, or I keep avoiding you until the sun blows up. Your choice."

Reese rolled his eyes, "Okay, fine. We'll do it your way. What do I have to do to earn your trust, oh wise one?"

Mitch put her hands together, "So we're watching the movie again, but we're going to do it the proper way. I'm pulling out all the stops so you better appreciate it this time. I'm talking newspapers and super soakers, throwing popcorn and yelling at the screen, and full on singalongs."

Reese's shoulders slumped down and he grinned, "Wait, that's all I have to do? You should've told me that in the first place, I would've done that ages ago!"

She held up her finger, "And we're dressing up."

He blinked, "But... why?"

She folded her arms, a smirk getting held back from her lips, "Hey, you wanna make it up to me so bad? These are the terms and conditions."

He nodded, "Okay, fine. What do I have to wear?"

Reese regretted those words as soon as they left his mouth.

.꒷꒦♡꒷꒦˖

"Ugh, do we have to do this here?" Reese whined as Mitch did up his corset for him.

She scoffed, "I'm sorry, would you rather go to the movie theatre looking like this?"

Reese grimaced, "Oh god no, don't get any ideas!"

Mitch giggled, "Relax, I'm not that evil."

Reese's eyes trailed over to the clothes laid out on Mitch's sofa bed. He pointed to a pink frilly skirt and asked with a frown, "Is that for me?"

She shook her head, "At ease, soldier. I won't put you in a skirt unless you really want it."

He folded his arms, "You're enjoying this way too much!"

"And you seem to be complaining a lot for someone who said he would've done this ages ago," she said with a smirk before pulling out her makeup bag, "Now just some finishing touches before we get the shoes on."

"No way! I'm not getting in any of that white-faced drag queen stuff!" Reese held up his finger up at her, as if trying to ward off the evil spirits of her powder brush.

Mitch shook her head with a smile, "I'm not going the whole way. Just a little lipstick. And maybe some eyeshadow. I'm not going to change the structure of your face though. I'll be wearing the exact same thing as you."

Reese blinked at her and lowered his hand, considering the benefits of seeing Mitch in a girly getup too. She didn't wear that much pretty girly stuff around at home. He didn't even know she owned corsets until she pulled a couple out of her seemingly endless suitcase. He spent a few moments weighing out whether it would be worth it to get in some makeup in order to both see Mitch in the same thing and keep Mitch in his life.

He pouted up a storm before slumping his shoulders in defeat, "Okay fine. Make me beautiful."

Mitch sat Reese down on the floor and got him to lean in close to her. Once she got her blue eyeshadow pallet out, she put her hand under his jaw and gently pulled him towards her.

Mitch told him, "Okay, close your eyes and raise your eyebrows."

It took Reese a couple of tries to get it right but Mitch was surprisingly patient. It must've been a girl activity thing, he supposed. As she lightly brushed the powder against his face, Reese realised this was the closest he'd probably been to a girl before. Sure, he held hands with Wendy Finnegan in 7th grade, but besides a few failed attempts at getting other girls' attention, that was pretty much it. He'd certainly never gotten this close. And Mitch didn't even like him that way. Sure, some of her behaviour was kinda confusing to Reese, but there was literally no logical explanation as to why on earth Mitch would have a thing for him.

That didn't stop Reese from enjoying the feeling of her smaller, slightly calloused hands slowly tracing around the edge of his face to hold him in place, and little breezes from her nose brushing across his skin every now and then.

As Mitch patted the applicator against his eyelids gently, Reese smirked, keeping his eyes closed, and told her, "You can go harder if you want. I've had more bruises on this eye than I can count, I'm not going to get hurt by a little brush."

Mitch snickered, not looking away from her work, "No, it's better this way. I want your first time to be good."

Reese smiled, "Thanks," before he got confused, "What are we talking about?"

Mitch smirked, "Whatever you wanna talk about," she then gasped, "Oh my gosh wait, you would look so good with some eyeliner, hold on."

"Wait you said it was just two things!" Reese opened his eyes to glare at Mitch as she dug through her makeup bag.

"It'll be over in a sec, I promise, just close slightly for me," she leaned in towards him again and held his cheek.

Something about her hand holding his face made Reese comply immediately, despite his gripes. And fear over Mitch sticking a pencil in his eye. But as always, she was gentle and took her time, and Reese didn't kick up a fuss.

"You're doing really well. I was expecting you to fight me so much, you'd come out looking like you got shot in the face with a clown," Mitch chuckled.

A smile tugged at Reese's lips at her praise, "Thanks."

After about a minute on each eye, Mitch pulled away and smiled at her work, "Okay, perfect. Now it's the easiest part, the lipstick. Just go like this for me," she told him before spreading her lips out over her teeth.

He mimicked her and she painted his lips with some bright red stuff that momentarily distracted Reese from the various other senses that were attacking his mind. With his eyes open, Reese noticed the way Mitch's lips parted as she worked on him. There was something that felt amazing about having her focus so intently and closely on him and nothing else. This punishment wasn't so bad. And having her lips so close to his... What, who said that?

When she pulled away for the final time, Mitch's eyes lit up and she smiled excitedly at her work. Not in the way she'd been smirking and teasing him all afternoon, "Perfecto."

She looked genuinely delighted at what she was seeing. She looked so happy to look at Reese.

He immediately knew he must've looked like some alien creature or something so he immediately demanded the mirror, "Don't keep me waiting, what have you turned me into?"

She handed him his reflection and he really didn't recognise himself at first. Not because he looked alien and inhuman, but because he looked so familiar, yet so different. He felt strange but he really liked the way Mitch made him look. It was almost as good as how he looked when he got his hair looking just right in the morning.

"How did you...? I look hot!" Reese exclaimed.

Mitch grinned, grabbing his wrist, "Do you think so?"

"Yeah!" Reese grinned with her, unable to look away from this crazy image of a pretty boy-girl in his hand, "I look cute as hell! I get why girls wear makeup now!"

Mitch giggled and threw her arms around his shoulders, "You get it!"

He giggled with her for a few moments more before he puffed up his chest and said, "I wouldn't let a living soul see me like this, but this is pretty neat."

She swiped the mirror away and got straight to work on herself, "Think of it as a secret superpower in your back pocket. If you ever need to look like a pretty girl with frosted tips, you have the power."

Mitch was done with herself within a couple of minutes, having a natural familiarity with her own face. She still looked just like herself, just more. Bigger, brighter, bolder. Reese supposed that's how he looked too. Also girlier.

"You make it look so easy. But it's gotta be harder on guys," he said as she worked.

"No, not really. A face is a face. Everyone has different faces," she told him.

"But you even made me look pretty," he snickered.

"Well yeah, you already are. I just accentuated some of your prettier features," she said with a shrug.

Reese blinked at her words. She already thought he was pretty? Well, Reese did think he was pretty, but nobody else did. Certainly not someone who was already actually pretty. Like, girl pretty. He was pretty for the frog of a boy he was, but he wasn't exactly a pretty boy. But Mitch thought he was.

"Okay, done," she set the mirror down and picked up her skirt, corset, and heels from the sofa before heading towards the secret bathroom, "You get your heels on while I suit up."

Reese still found it stupid that he could get undressed down to his shorts in front of her, but she still wasn't allowed to take her shirt off in front of him. She said she was doing it out of respect for his parents' rules, but come on. They'd hugged when she wasn't wearing a bra before, it wasn't a big deal!

Reese had finally managed to put on the black chunky heels left out for him when Mitch emerged from the bathroom in her outfit, almost identical to Reese's. But damnit if she didn't wear it better than him. He'd never seen her in something so tight, but she wore it like a superstar. He'd never seen such a tight waist on her but it was impressive. She was a completely different shape than normal. If he found his corset tight, surely she must've been choking to death with hers rearranging her anatomy.

But when she posed jokingly, she didn't show any signs of agony or windedness. She was a natural.

Mitch was also impressed with how Reese looked. Sure, he looked very awkward, all lanky and gangly in an outfit designed by a girl with a much shorter, curvaceous figure. But she realised she hadn't seen all that much of Reese in anything but his typical t-shirts, baggy jeans, and hoodies. Ironically, in a girly corset, heels, and makeup, he never looked more built. He looked like a fish out of water, but she'd be happy to teach him how to walk. Mitch hated to say it, but damnit if she didn't make her roommate the bully look sexy.

She took him by the hand and walked him over to the tv where the movie and their various props waited for them.

Reese hated to admit it, but he actually had fun with the movie this time around. He usually had to fight tooth and nail to keep his attention on a movie for a long time, but with all the extra stuff going on, plus looking over at Mitch and then himself, knowing that he looked almost as hot as her, this was one of the best nights he had with Mitch in a while. He even did the time warp with her willingly!

Reese still put up a front of begrudging throughout the entire thing, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he was expecting.

The two spent nearly hours chatting on her sofa together after the movie was over and Mitch tidied up. Reese even put the super soakers away for her. He must've been through some kind of brainwashing, because he's not Machiavellian enough to go this far to lure her into a false sense of security before doing something terrifying and probably illegal to her, and there was no way Reese Wilkerson actually enjoyed rewatching The Rocky Horror Picture Show with her, in drag, dancing and singing along, and helping her throughout.

As the two were catching their breath from laughing, Mitch gazed over at Reese, looking so very pretty in his makeup and corset, feeling like she could truly trust him if he was willing to do all of this for her. She opened her mouth, but her smile immediately died from the fear of what she was about to do.

Reese noticed and caught her gaze again, "Mitch?"

She pursed her lips and tried to steady her breathing.

Reese then realised what she was about to do. He leaned closer and whispered, "Are you gonna tell me?"

Mitch slowly nodded, still taking slow breaths in and out, eyeing Reese like he was a predator, "Look, before I tell you, I want you to know that I don't want this to change anything. I've known this for a while and I know you're going to feel different about me when you find out, but I just don't want you to think I'm a freak or a psycho or evil or anything."

Reese blinked at her and leaned away slightly, "Wait, have you been making voodoo dolls out of my old shirts?"

A fit of giggles bubbled up through Mitch's throat, bursting away some of her nerves, "No, you creep!" Before her smile faded completely, she managed to quietly get out the words, "I'm bisexual."