Tribute To The Mean Girl (TF)

Kenny pulled into the driveway of Claire's house, and he could already hear the sound of the music from there. He slightly winced, cautiously peering over to his girlfriend, uncertain of how she would feel about her own birthday party starting without her, "Awesome, it's already started! Now we get to make a grand entrance; this worked out perfectly!"

Kenny's worries were immediately alleviated, "Right...should have known being fashionably late was a good thing." Kenny weakly joked, shutting off the car and climbing out, following Claire up the driveway and to the two-story house. Before either could even reach the door, however, it immediately pulled open, and Claire let out a little excited squeal as Kennedy stood on the other side, her eyebrow raised and a sly smirk on her face.

"About damn time, Claire; I'm sick of putting up with your cronies," The blonde's attention then shifted to the teen next to her. "Ooooh, I'm shocked you are bringing the troll to this party; what will people think?" Kennedy immediately taunted, and Kenny sighed; this nasty habit of "playfully" teasing him in front of Claire all the time was certainly getting grating.

"What do you mean? He's my boyfriend! And I'm happy to show him off." Her twin merely replied as she grabbed Kenny's hand and led him inside.

Kenny and Kennedy shared a momentary glance, one just solid and cold enough to convince Kennedy she needed to go a little further, "That's sweet of you, of course; make sure he knows where the exits are in case too many big scary people frighten him. Poor Clark isn't used to being so social." She added with a taunting pout.

"Kenzie..." Claire gave her sister a side-eye while Kenny shifted back, doing his best not to react to her words. If there was one thing that he picked up so far it was to not feed into Kennedy when she was like this...of course, that sometimes backfired as ignoring her only made her try harder to get a reaction sometimes.

"Oh, relax, Clark, knows I'm just joking," Kennedy gave him a relatively sharp hit to the stomach, "Don't you, Clark!"

"You know, Kennedy...I do have a first freaking name. You know, Kenny?" The teen muttered back as he rubbed his stomach, "And it's fine," He turned his attention back to Claire with a warm, calm expression in his eyes, "Don't worry about me; tonight is your night." Claire returned the sentiment with a loving gaze of her own.

"See? Clark's fine!" Kennedy's voice cut through the moment like a chainsaw, giving Kenny a loud slapping pat on the back. Then without warning, Kennedy snatched the set of gift boxes that Kenny had clutched in his hand. "What do we have here?"

"Hey, give those back!" Kenny quickly reached out, having a brief tug-of-war with Kennedy,

"Ugh, ew, Clark, get away from me!"

"Stop, that's Claire's present!"

Claire let out a small gasp, "Aw, you got me something else?! I thought part two of my gift was coming way later..."

Kennedy's body cringed, and all the fight left her. As Kenny grabbed the gifts back from the blonde, she receded back a step, "Oh God, gross...ugh, I so didn't need a reminder of you and Clark doing that shit..."

"Jesus, grow up," Kenny muttered under his breath.

"Claire!" The blonde girl's ears perked, and she looked over, seeing Ellie and Lila waving her over from the living room, where a group of teens was mingling, dancing, and waiting for the girl of the hour.

"Oh my gosh," Claire excitedly hopped in place, "I gotta go say hi to Ellie and everyone! Kenzie, do me a favor and show Kenny where the gifts go, please."

"Fine," Kennedy rolled her eyes, "But then I'm done. This is your damn party, not mine," Claire reached in, giving her twin a thankful kiss on the cheek, which Kennedy instantly wiped off. "Nope. Uh-uh, didn't need that."

"You're the best," Claire flashed a smile at her boyfriend, "Once you're done, meet me in there. I want to dance!"

"W-Well, I don't need to put your gift on the table. I can..." Claire had already rushed off before Kenny could finish his thought, "Give it to you after..." He let out a small sigh, a bit miffed that his gift was going to join the sea of others.

Kenny looked down at the boxes in his hands, thinking it all over for a minute until he felt a hole burning into the side of his head. He looked over and found Kennedy impatiently staring back at him, "Are you gonna fucking follow me, or are we standing here like two fucking dumbasses all night?" Kenny blew out another annoyed exhale and silently motioned for Kennedy to go ahead with his hand.

Following the blonde through the house, she led Kenny into the first-floor guest room, and Kenny was beyond shocked to find the bed, side table, and even some of the floor covered in gifts varying in size. "Holy shit...you guys get a lot of gifts," Kenny murmured as he separated Claire and Kennedy's gifts into either hand.

"You mean Claire gets a lot of gifts. I don't do this birthday shit," Kennedy crossed her arms and stared off, clearly keeping her eyes off the gift mound.

"Wait, what?!" Kenny shook his head in disbelief, "These are all for Claire?" Kennedy hummed a yes, "Jesus..."

"When you're a friendly slut, people tend to like you," Kennedy snarkily whispered, "I'm sure if I give myself a bubbly attitude and spread my legs for every douche with an IQ of a shrimp, I'd get the same treatment." She gave a small bitter shake of her head, "But whatever, Claire gets what Claire wants. She's the good one."

Kenny tentatively made his way towards the pile of presents and absently set down his necklace, feeling all the more insecure with the massive comparison around it. "Uh...Kennedy?" The blonde looked over with a frown, "Look...I didn't really know you were against this stuff. Or, well, Claire told me it wasn't your thing, but I had figured that since it's also your birthday too, uh --"

"Jesus fucking Christ! Uh Uh Uh, How about you spit it the fuck out already!" Kennedy exclaimed, only for her entire aggressive stance to foul as Kenny suddenly extended a small black box to her, "What the fuck is this?"

"I was trying to fucking tell you that I got you a gift, okay?" Kennedy took just a moment before snatching it from his hand.

"You got me a gift?" Kennedy let out a dismissive scoff, "And what the hell do you even know about what I'd like? What is it? Some stupid gag? A gift card to some really girly store?" Kenny tucked his hands into his pockets, silently standing by, letting Kennedy's words bounce off him. Kennedy untied the bow and had an antagonizing half-grin on her face as she pulled off the top. Then, her eyes softened, and her smile faded. "What the fuck..."

"It's a bracelet," Kenny clarified with a small shrug, "When I was getting Claire's gift, I remembered she told me that you were really into space or something like that?" He took a half step forward, pointing his finger to the silver band, "It's the Orion star belt, I guess. I wasn't really sure what you'd like, so I just took a shot."

"I...I don't give a fuck about space. Why would Claire tell you that?" Kennedy's voice was lacking any of the standard hostility that Kenny had come to expect, but the teen was so focused on the idea that she hated the gift he didn't even notice.

"Yeah, sorry, I don't know. Claire was telling me a story about why she got into astrology, something about how you two used to spend all night looking at the stars. She said if it weren't for you being into space, she probably wouldn't be into it either." Kenny explained, and Kennedy blinked a few quick times as she stared at the bracelet a little longer. "I left the receipt in the bottom of the box, though; they offer full returns, so you can bring it back and keep the cash. Hopefully, get something you'll at least like for your birthday."

Kennedy was silent; for once, it seemed like she didn't have a thing to say, and Kenny had to admit, it made him feel beyond awkward. "Kenny!" Claire's voice suddenly rang out, and the teen poked his head out from the guest room, "Come on, let's dance! And you have to try the punch...we spiked it up a notch," The blonde playfully winked.

"Oh yeah?" Kenny lightly laughed, "Sounds good!" He took a step out of the room before glancing back, "Uh...happy birthday, Kennedy." He halfheartedly told the blonde, who didn't respond as he turned and headed off to link back up with Claire and the rest of the party.