"Millicent, or maybe just Illi" Chapter 1

[A/N: HEYYYY this is the first fic i've ever posted publicly and it's also the first one i've written in a WHILE so don't critique it a ton :,) also idk if this'll just be a one-shot thing with additional related one-shots or if i wanna carry out an actual plot with this so just lemme know what you think LOLZ -PATCH]

[A/N (as of 8/5/25): this fanfiction is now posted on AO3! my username is the same one on here (thebombdotcomv2) so feel free to check it out!! -PATCH]

Millicent McMillin was the girl nobody wanted to be around.

She always smelled like stale coffee and long-smoked cigarettes, and the scent emanated from her breath whenever she’d lean over to ask someone to copy off of their worksheet during class. Her hair was beyond greasy, most of her classmates whispering among one another that they could start a fire if they had a single strand of her hair waving over a Bunsen burner in the science labs. She had this haunted stare whenever she looked at someone, like she was constantly seeing something nobody else could see. It was bad enough that people had started a rumor that she could see the supernatural, and that the school was heavily haunted.

She had made herself a prominent issue among school faculty one morning when she had decided to come into school in the girl’s uniform, demanding that everyone call her “Millicent, or maybe just Illi”. She was promptly brought into the principal’s office and told to change, a call being sent home to her parents about the incident. She complied, but she wore a shit-eating grin with her discolored teeth (whether from her excessive coffee drinking or poor hygiene, nobody could tell) while she made her way to the nurse’s office to change back into her slacks. The skirt never made a difference to her, and although she sometimes wore it on top of her trousers, none of the other students seemed to mind or even care about the fact that she had seemingly become a girl overnight.

The teachers, on the other hand, made it more of a deal than it needed to be.

They spent more time fussing over scribbling out her first name and replacing it with the one in the system than actually grading her worksheets. After all, it was the name she scrawled onto all of her papers in her strangely neat handwriting. It wasn’t as perfect of a script as some of the other girls in her school, but it was definitely better than the block letters her younger brother wrote in, or the near chicken scratch her best friend scribbled carelessly onto his papers.

Her friend group was splayed across the four high school years at the private school her parents had somehow managed to pay for.

She was in her second-to-last year at the school alongside Ray Toro, who frequented the school’s attached library and sometimes volunteered there. Illi’s younger brother, Mikey McMillin, was in his first year, and had somehow already managed to catch the eye of several girls. Even Illi wasn’t sure how that happened, but it seemed that her brother’s socially inept demeanor came off as almost endearing to the girls in his grade. The youngest of the group was Frank Iero, who had been allowed to skip a grade despite being the most rowdy and unkempt of the group. Even with his behavioral problems, anyone from the school’s staffing could see just how remarkably brilliant Frank was...when he turned in his work, that is. He was stuck in the year ahead of Mikey, proving this friend group to be a serious case of polar opposites somehow becoming friends.

It was the beginning of the school year once again, the four outcasts crowded under the stairwell, most likely to hide from hall monitors that would try to kick them out and send them back to study hall. Handmade comic books were sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the group, all of whom were sitting cross-legged to the best of their ability. Mikey and Ray sat on one side of the slightly crumpled pages, while Frank and Illi were settled across from them, the latter of the two rambling incessantly about the comics.

“I swear, this is totally the best idea I’ve had in a while! It’s like—it’s exploding my mind right now!” Illi exclaimed, gesturing wildly as she spoke. A soft snort escaped Frank as he watched the girl ramble on, though he quickly composed himself, crossing his arms as he interjected.

“What, so there’s a girl that goes to this school, and she’s…a vampire? Dude, that’s totally just a comic about you.” He smirked.

Illi scoffed in reply, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow. She mumbled a small “Nuh-uh!” before continuing on, reiterating the plot she had in mind for her comics as if she hadn’t been talking about it for the past twenty minutes.

“She got attacked her senior year of high school by another vampire, and so now she has to live out the rest of her days as an angst-filled teen while she…I dunno, watches everyone die, I guess? It’ll get better as I write the rest of it out, but—“

“No, you totally just wrote a comic series about yourself as a vampire! She even looks like you, man!”

“Ohmygosh, shut up! I didn’t draw her like that on purpose, dipshit, that’s just the typical vampire look, y’know?”

Mikey and Ray watched as Frank and Illi bickered about whether or not she was writing about herself as a vampire for her latest comic idea, both equally amused at the spiral this had taken. They were sure the lighthearted arguing echoed into the barren hallways of the private school, but neither of them seemed to alert the other two about this.

“Even if she was writing about herself as a vampire, so what? It’s her comic, let her write what she wants to write,” Ray added, finding his way into the natural rhythm of conversation. Mikey hummed in agreement, his deadpan voice following suit.

“Also maybe don’t call her ‘man’, that seems counterproductive.”

Illi pointed at Ray, giving Frank a look that said “See? I told you so!” before she spoke again, a small chuckle bubbling up between her words.

“Thank you, Ray! And don’t worry about the whole ‘masculine terms’ thing, I don’t really care about all that junk,”

Mikey merely shrugged, going back to doing god knows what on his cell phone. He technically wasn’t supposed to have it during school hours, but it was small enough to be hidden in his jeans so his teachers wouldn’t notice it.

“Whatever, you denied it in the first place…” Frank grumbled under his breath, leaning against the cool brick wall behind him. He zoned out for a few minutes, the conversation mellowing out to coincide with the typical ambiance of the old school’s creaking walls and the boiler room hissing softly in the room under their feet. Eventually, he let out a small snicker, grinning slightly as he changed the topic.

“Hey, did you guys hear about the homecoming theme this year? They’re finally letting us do a costume party…”

“Oh yeah, sure, like that’s a good idea with Illi McMillin attending this school—“ Ray laughed, rolling his eyes as he gestured towards Illi, whose face had lit up like a christmas tree at the mere mention of a costume party.

“Wait, did they actually say that? Do—do you know how long I’ve been waiting for something like this?”

“Since you were, like…conscious? I swear, Mom hasn’t had a day of peace since you begged her to keep the halloween decorations up in your room back in elementary school.” Mikey commented, a rare smile tugging at his mouth.

“As if we would actually go to a stupid school event like that. C’mon, they probably have to crack down on what we can wear and it’s probably gonna be crazy expensive to get in because the school is falling to pieces, and—“

“Okay, well if you don’t want to go, I can just take Ray with me instead!”

“…Just Ray?”

“Mikey doesn’t like school dances as a rule, regardless of how many chicks ask him to go with them.”

Mikey gave a thumbs up in confirmation, causing a small laugh to leave Frank’s throat.

“Dude, as much as I respect your brother’s ability to pick up chicks, I don’t even think he likes chicks in the first place.”

“Not true, I’ve kissed girls before.” Mikey stated matter-of-factly, crossing his arms as he finally put his cell phone down.

“Kissing girls doesn’t make you any less gay, Mikey, trust me.”

“Oh, like you would know?”

Illi cackled at how quickly Mikey shot back at Frank for assuming that he was gay, practically doubling over, her hands clutching her sides as she wheezed and snorted. She couldn’t even get a word out, and she was almost afraid her mascara would run down her face at any moment just from how hard she was laughing.

It eventually caught on, Ray bursting into his own fit of laughter as he pushed his curls out of his face, his grin spreading from ear to ear. The combined laughter from the two of them caused all four of them to break out laughing, basking in the moment before them until they heard the all-too-familiar sound of the bell that signaled to them that they should be heading to class.

Illi quickly gathered her comics, stuffing them into her messenger bag as best she could while the others grabbed their respective backpacks and made their way out from under the stairwell, still recovering from laughing so hard. Frank had lingered behind ever so slightly to allow Illi to catch up, his hands stuffed stubbornly into his trouser pockets as the two of them walked side by side.

Millicent McMillin was the girl very few people wanted to be around, with her distinct smell of stale coffee and cigarettes, with the way her eyes settled so eerily on those who met her gaze, with her weird obsession with wanting to be a vampire living out her teenage years forever. And despite all of this, it seemed that Frank Iero wanted to be around her more than anyone else in the school.