S1 Week 15 Bonus Story: Birds of a Feather

The Nerd and the Queen Bee

Welcome to Trainwrecks, a free-to-read fiction serial that follows a group of six Seattle-adjacent friends from the year 2004 to the year 2015. Join Luna Cruz, Sebastian Velasquez, Dimitri and Victoria Hale, Duke Kingston, and Jasmine Nolan as they stumble their way from adolescence to adulthood, falling in love, making mistakes, overcoming their pasts, and staying together through it all.

Friday posts are for paid subscribers. For $5 a month or a discounted rate of $50 a year, readers get four bonus stories which dive into character backgrounds or expand on the present day narrative. This bonus content is not necessary to understand the main story. Money raised by paid subscriptions gets reinvested into the series in the form of art and advertising, so do consider upgrading if you’d like a more robust Trainwrecks experience!

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Summer 2003

Luna took her job as a church greeter almost as seriously as she took her American Sign Language lessons. Her goal was to someday join the interpretation team and worship with their Deaf members, but since there were no Deaf kids attending youth group, she spent her Friday nights saying hello and handing blank sermon note pages to everyone who walked in instead. She never would have done something like this at school. Even with Duke around to protect her now, she tried to refrain from standing out more than she already did.

But the kids at church were nice, even if she didn’t really fit in with any of them. She was the only one who liked anime and wasn’t sure how to talk about much else. Still, it felt good to be said hello to. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed such simple interactions, ones where she didn’t have to flinch or brace herself for whatever scathing words came next.

She stood by the sanctuary door one Friday evening in May when a beautiful Asian girl walked into the church, dressed in low cut jeans and a form-fitting t-shirt. Luna blinked. She knew this girl, she realized, and the icy finger of dread dragged down her spine.

It was Jasmine Nolan. She’d graduated middle school the same year as Sebastian, the queen bee of the eighth grade, feared by girls and drooled over by boys. Luna had seen her in the halls sometimes, strutting past with her posse, laughing at some cruel joke or merely staring ahead like school and everyone in it bored her to death. She’d been glamorous and cold, a big cat prowling the halls, looking for someone to devour.

In other words, she was the complete opposite of Luna. But at least she’d never bullied her. Someone like Luna was so far beneath the notice of Jasmine Nolan that she wondered if she even knew she existed.

Jasmine stood in the foyer, a small purse slung over her shoulder, but otherwise empty-handed. She scanned her surroundings almost warily. Cast something of a longing glance behind her. When the pastor’s wife spoke to her, she took a step back towards the door as if preparing to run. Luna observed all this in silence, her initial fear giving way to confusion. Was it her imagination or did the queen bee look… nervous? Then her fear returned as Jasmine started towards her with all the confidence her beauty afforded her, her expression smoothed into its usual haughtiness.

Smile and greet. Smile and greet. Luna forced her mouth into a grin and thrust a sheet of sermon notes at her before she could get past her. “If you need a pen, there’s one at the end of every pew!” she said.

Jasmine took the sheet wordlessly, stared at Luna for a second, then kept walking. Maybe she’d recognized her after all? She blew out a sigh of relief. What a weird night! She’d have to tell Sebastian about it when she got home.