Chilly, that is a good way to describe the weather in Westworth today. It wasn’t predicted to get much past mid sixties - a hopeful high temperature - and autumn was in full swing. They had a few weeks still before the first snow would come to blanket the town with full-blown cold and, until then, it would be chilly. As such, Jareth was already wearing three layers - a weathered The Devil Wears Prada band shirt, a dark grey unzipped hoodie for insulation, and a black faux leather jacket. One earbud was fished through the layers and disguised by his styled mop of ebony locks so that he could listen to music in his right ear and still appear to be paying perfect attention in class throughout the day.

Jareth shut his locker and spun the lock’s dial a few times to scramble it before heading towards homeroom. There was some important meeting today about their senior trip or something like that, so it was actually worth being punctual in his eyes. Just outside the classroom was Desi, all huddled up next to the heater. Jareth laughed and dramatically imitated her crossed arms and pout, adding in a full body shiver for emphasis.

”Morning, Des!” he said in his cheerful morning person voice, as he had already been up for an hour and a half to go running before school. Though, not as cheerful as he usually was because, Mariah was right, it was fucking cold.

Mariah stared at Jareth for a few moments, her reaction to the mocking delayed--probably as a result of the temperature around her (and it was only going to get fucking colder). She stuck her tongue out at her friend and stuffed her hand into the pocket of her hoodie, fishing around before she retrieved a gummy bear. She pulled it out and looked at it. Finally, the cold girl smiled. Cherry!

She popped the chewy snack into her mouth before tugging absently at her hat. ”Well, I’m glad you didn’t say good morning, because it’s not a good morning, it’s just cold.” Bitterly, she adjusted her hat around her ears properly and stood up after checking her phone for the time. ”We should go to class before we’re late. Hopefully the heater has sufficiently warmed my chair so it isn’t just frozen plastic.” She stuffed her hand back into her pocket to withdraw another gummy bear…

Lemon. Gross.

Mariah held the snack out to Jareth, ”Gummy bear?”

”Ooh, yellow? What a blessing, I feel loved.” Jareth quipped snarkily, but took the offering and popped it in his mouth. He knew she didn’t like lemon, he was doing her a favor, truly, but he didn’t mind, sugary treats are sugary treats after all! Together, they departed from the inviting warmth of the heater to join up with the rest of the junior class.

Inside one of two history rooms, designated for junior homeroom, Remy Delaney held onto a blue marker and stared at the whiteboard contemplating what to write on it. He wore a white beanie, that made his darker attire pop (gray/black All Time Low shirt, black tight jeans, navy blue converse). Plus, beanies were comfy and hid his bed hair, which was inevitable because Temperance was in the shower FOR-FUCKING-EVER. This change was going to be a pain in his ass - with his dad being engaged and all. Behind him was Mr. Clarke’s podium, that he had placed a couple of packets on. One about Spirit Week, another about Auditions for Monsters Inc the Play, a student made production, and another one about the Halloween dance, seeking a committee and chaperones. All that good stuff. Since he was the secretary of their homeroom council, he had to do the work that nobody wanted to do, but that’s okay. Someone had to.

In the back of the classroom, a nervous Temperance was flipping through her messy notebooks, wild eyes scrounging for an important assignment due in History class today. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found, lost forever in the eternal abyss. She was going to fail! The world was spiraling around her, the bricks of reality falling apart one by one. Her pulse escalated, her breathing went heavy, and the clutches of anxiety threatened to choke the life out of her. Averting her gaze upwards, the frantic girl spotted her step-brother at the front. Her saving grace: Remy, the Knight in Shining Armor, the Illuminated One! There was no fear anymore, only hope found in her brother’s lanky form. The glimmer of a new dawn radiated from Temperance’s bold, green eyes, and with an impulsive shout, she called to her would-be savior. “Remyyy! Can I copy your homework!?”

By now, Remy had written “FUNrai” but when he went to the “s” a loud piercing voice entered his head causing him to make an unnecessary scribble. Glancing to the door, he tried to catch Mr. Clarke’s strides, which were usually prominent, due to his dress shoes. It didn’t sound like he was anywhere near, yet. Did she forget that homeroom was just about to begin in like… his eyes trailed to the clock, two minutes. Turning on his heel, he stared at the nervous wreck that would be his darling sister in the spring and gestured at his desk, by the window, with his book pack. “Green notebook, give it to me at lunch.”

Conveniently for her, Lorelei Foxley, or Lala for short, Temperance’s friend since they met at Sunday school many years ago, was staring out the window and biting the end of her pencil waiting for something exciting to happen (anything really, she was bored as fuck). Playfully rolling her eyes at Tempy’s outburst, she shifted her body to face Remy’s desk and took it upon herself to dig in his backpack, which was extremely organized and smelt like spring. After grabbing the notebook, that had marker doodles on the cover, she strolled to the back of the room and offered it to the frazzled blonde, “Gotta’ learn to pipe down if you’re gonna do shit like this. What if Clarke heard you?”

“Oh yeah… Um… Well…” Temperance stammered out, practically jerking the notebook from her friend’s hand. There was no doubt that her insistence on copying Remy’s homework would result in dire consequences, but sometimes you had to do what was necessary to pass! As the saying goes, C’s get degrees. Hastily, the girl brought out her thermos of coffee, unscrewed the top, and took a sip of the bitter, black liquid inside. She was poised and ready to focus on the homework she had to copy! Unfortunately, as she went to grab a pencil on her desk, her hand swiped the topless thermos. Fate was against her today, as the flask toppled and its contents spewed everywhere: on the desk, the floor, the notebook, and her lap. With a yelp, Temperance shot up from her seat, the hot liquid scalding her through her blue jeans. Now the room reeked of black coffee and steam rose all about the blonde’s desk. A mousey blur, Temperance embarrassingly took off towards the bathroom to clean herself up. Doom! That was all that could be foreseen today. Hope had faded, as not only did she not have her homework, but she had destroyed her future sibling’s as well. Like peasants facing a demonic deity, they were but mere morsels for the beast that awaited them in 8th period.

“Slip at her finest.” Lala brought her attention to the front, where Remy was staring at her and the disaster. He kept a smile on but she knew he was freaking out on the inside. This was like a month or two of detailed notes? Now drenched in coffee. “My notes are basic, but you can copy it.” Yeah, she was not cleaning this mess up. Nonchalantly, she went to her seat, which was in between Temperance’s and her boyfriend’s desks (nice big circle), and rested her feet on it.



Aggressively, Remy underlined the header with a red marker. Extremely peeved at the incident that happened moments ago. Luckily for Remy, there was at least one person in the classroom who had an idea (or perhaps two). With his sunglasses hanging off the front of his shirt, and his hat twisted on backwards, Christopher Robin strolled up to the whiteboard, grabbing the blue pen off of the ledge. ”Here, I gotchu, bro.” He said to Remy with a wink before he moved the pen across the whiteboard in careful strokes.



”There’s your funds, right there.” Mission accomplished, Christopher Robin dropped the pen on the floor and folded his arms over his chest. BOOM.

”Pooh bear, no.”

”What?! I’d wear one.” Christopher Robin said glumly, sitting down at his seat. He just wanted to help!

”Well, I’m all for it, then!” Jareth said with a chuckle that was more like a pot giggle than a full laugh. He tipped back in his chair as he thought of a suggestion that might be helpful. ”Oh! What about that cookie dough one, where you can eat it raw or bake it? That one.” He leaned forward to get up and his chair clacked down noisily. Jar wrote ‘COOKIES!’ in his all-capital-letters, chicken scratch handwriting right below Winnie’s suggestion before returning to his seat between Christopher Robin and Desi. There, he participated… which should both please Remy, and keep him from having to pay too much attention or getting called on again for a while. Win-win!

Yeah, these ideas would not be enough if they wanted to outdo their parents, and grandparents, and every alumni ever. Right by Jar’s suggestion, Remy added: > Could be Bake Sale w/ Food Challenge. Perhaps before they think of ways to raise money, they should figure out where they wanted to go and how much they’d have to save…

”Yo, I bet we could get together like a… a…” Christopher Robin searched his mind, trying to find words to explain what he was thinking to his classmates. He pulled his sunglasses off of his shirt and gnawed on the end of one of the arms. ”Westworth Olympics, bro. I could put on a show with my board, right? And you guys could… you guys could be there!”

Lala tapped her pencil on her leg, observing her class, before interjecting, “These ideas sound all cool and dandy, and I think we should do them all. Including like, iunno, like a massive hangout in the gym where parents pay a fee to not deal with us and teachers can supervise and we do… stupid shit… so they can go out and be adults, but how much we have to make? Where the hell are we going? Disneyland and world is out of the question, so is a cross country roadtrip, can’t really go to Montreal either. We have less than two years to make bank. Let’s make it happen.”

”Swiss Alps. Definitely the Swiss Alps.”

”NO. I don’t wanna be cold!”

”Man, they got lodges…”

Keeping attentive, Remy listened to people’s suggestions and started to make a list besides the fundraising ideas of possible locations they could strive for. Eventually, they’d just do cross elimination until there was one place standing. He couldn’t think too much of his ruined notes and homework, since he had to keep the class focused (though, so should Desi, Temp, and Lila - HE WASN’T THE ONLY COUNCIL MEMBER). Okay, class didn’t technically start, but he still felt like he should get the creative juices movin’ in his classmates’ noggins.

“I feel like I just walked into a cafe, you all drinking coffee?… oh, Remy.” Mr. Clarke strolled on in and went to the scrawny boy with the white beanie, “Here. This is for yesterday, since yeah, I forgot my wallet. And this is for today.” The history teacher gave the boy an envelope of cash, “Same spot?”

“Yepp. I’m surprised you haven’t like… iunno, you buy a lot.”

“It’s what keeps me goin’, kid. I need it to teach you slackers.” Neither of them needed to specify what Mr. Clarke was buying because all throughout the day, you can always find a piece of cheesecake on his desk. He was a faithful customer of Remy’s grandpa’s food - especially his cheesecakes. “Okay, what’d I miss? Lala, get your feet off the desk. You like Joe, don’t you? Don’t make his job harder by putting your muddy shoes on the table.”

“This desk should be the least of Joe’s worries.” Lala glanced at the mess Temperance left behind, but still obeyed Mr. Clarke since he wasn’t a man you wanted to test. However, he was still a cool dude, when he wanted to be.

“Currently, we’re trying to figure out where we even want to go. Everyone has great ideas. Big, very big. But--- not enough to be… reasonable?” Remy scratched his head with the end of marker.

“It’s a start. Okay. Class. Reasonable or not, I want you all, even if you already suggested, to give a place you’d like to visit. Remy will write it on the board and we’ll do a vote. Got it? Go.”

With his cheek propped up lazily on his left hand, Jareth sketched in the corner margin of his notebook paper whilst his classmates suggested their various ideas. Jar shaded in the exposed jawbone of an apocalyptic version of their math teacher, Mr. Thorne. What? It wasn’t weird, it was from a dream that he had, one where all the teachers had become some form of undead creature. He looked up at the white board finally, where Remy had scrawled out a growing list of fundraiser and trip destination ideas. The Swiss Alps? Desi was right, too cold, not to mention expensive. His friend and coworker, Oliver, suggested LA, which, in Jareth’s opinion was a better idea in terms of temperature… but also kind of boring, it was a bit too close to home. Europe sounded adventurous and fun, a lot of Jareth’s favorite bands were from there. Hawaii! Now, that was the best idea yet!

Jareth tapped his pencil absentmindedly against his lip rings while he thought. If he could go anywhere in the world, where would he want to go? Amidst this thought process, a very energetic Delilah hurricaned into the classroom. She was a bit much for Jareth, but she had a kind heart, and she was right - it was great to see Oliver and Madison back. Piggybacking off of the Hawaii idea, Jareth finally came up with one of his own.

“What about Jamaica? That’d be great… the beach, local reggae music, drinking out of coconuts!” Not to mention dank-ass rasta reefer, but Jareth edited that part out of his reasoning. Anyone that knew him, though, would know that that was reason numero uno. Before Remy could write it down, Jar said: “Wait, let me write it. It’s my idea.” The accent resembled a sassy valley girl, and was done so sarcastically, kind of. The emo made his way up to the board and grabbed the marker from Remy, bumping his best friend’s shoulder playfully. “Board hog.” he said quietly with his signature crooked smirk.

Jareth wrote a ‘J’ on the board and then made a face before smudgily erasing it with his hand. Blue was totally not the right color for this. Browsing the marker selection, Jareth picked up the green one - it was much more fitting, being that it is in the flag’s color, and it is also one of Jareth’s favorite colors. After writing ‘JAMAICA’ in all-caps, as always, Jareth added a green check mark next to ‘Hawaii’, because he really liked that idea too. He turned to Remy and, instead of giving the marker back like his friend expected, he offered a beaming smile and stepped aside to give Mariah the marker, “For you, Ms. President.” Jar was about to head back to his seat when Remy stopped him.

“Oh no you don’t.” Remy, who wasn’t that peeved at the fact that Jareth was poking fun at him, but more so at the disgusting smudge that tainted the once so refined and clean white board, grabbed the sleeve of his friend’s jacket to stop him in his tracks. Homeroom was only so long, and he needed to make a proposition to his dear friend before he decided to take a nap in class. Since Remy was loved by most, if not all, faculty and staff, practically the school pet, he knew he wouldn’t have much of a problem temporarily leaving the classroom. Bringing his attention to Mr. Clarke, while still very much holding onto the emo’s sleeve, Remy asked, “Hey, Clarke, can I talk to Jar real quick in the hall? It’s school related.”

“Sure, make it quick. You still need to think of a place yourself.” Mr. Clarke started opening the wrap off the delectable cheesecake, ready for his first piece of the day. How did he maintain his weight? That was a good question. He would surely die from diabetes. In good nature, Remy brought his attention to Jar and stuck his tongue out. Of course, he was keeping the mood lighthearted so he could convince the dark haired boy to do his bidding.

Jareth rolled his eyes a bit at Remy’s teasing facial expression. Great, this was bound to be good. He should know better than to instigate too much, karma was a bitch. Even still, Jar nodded and followed Remy out into the hall, hands in his pockets in a pre-emptive sulk. “What’s up?” Jar opened quietly once they were out in the hall, he leaned his back against a locker and faced the blond, tapping his fingers on the metal to the beat of the song playing in one of his ears.

Alright. Remy. You got this. After what happened last week, he couldn’t stop thinking about this one thing. He understood it wasn’t something his friend would be fond of doing, but maybe, if he just asked politely… he could convince him. This wasn’t necessarily a big favor in his opinion, but for someone like Jareth, he knew this kind of favor wouldn’t be a freebie. Without some kind of compensation, the likelihood of the emo kid being a champ for his buddy ol’ pal was zero to none.

Play up on your adorable whims and cuteness, maybe he will be easily swayed if you begged him. Stuffing his hands in his pant’s pockets, Remy tried to be as cool as Jar and lean up against a locker as well. This was business talk. He swished his head ever so slightly to get his bangs out of his face, before gleaming his pearly teeth at his best friend in the whole wide world, “Gas prices.” He was totally going to make light of this situation until he could spill the beans.

Remy’s words were met with a silent icy blue gaze. After a moment of quiet, Jareth’s eyebrows knitted together and he gave his friend a weird look. “Right… you brought me out here to discuss the economy?” he asked in a blank tone, his half smirk betraying his slight amusement.

“Oh y’know, that, and…” While Jareth’s gaze only slightly hinted at his emotions, Remy’s brown orbs expressed his racing thoughts even if his expression was as bright as day. Nonchalantly, he made his proposition as if it was not a big deal (but it was totally a big deal), “You should be the new Blaze, with me, because the guy before totally wrecked his leg.”

If Jareth was only slightly amused before, it had grown to full-on hilarious proportions in just seconds. The raven-haired boy laughed, no, guffawed at the notion. Him? In a dragon furry suit? Dancing?! No way on this side of heaven OR hell! He managed to get his laughter under control when a teacher peeked out of a nearby room, raised an angry brow, and then shut her classroom door. Jar looked to Remy now, who looked totally and completely one-hundred percent serious about this. Oh… shit. “Wait… are you? Are you high right now?” he asked somewhat incredulously. “Me? You think I w--”

“If I said you can be blazed while being Blaze, would you do it?” Desperate times called for desperate measures. Remy didn’t want to hold auditions only to be disappointed, at least with Jar, he could just let him do what he wants and somehow, he’d make the crowd go crazy, because Jar just had that in him. He could shit on a lawn and people would still find him cool. “Just give it a go, please?”

“ Awwe, c’mon. You already got me to join the marching band. Isn’t that enough school spirit? That’s so not--”

Here it came.

Remy’s token I-want-something-from-you-Jar face. The expression that could be related to canines when they saw food on the table and wanted something good to eat. His head tilted down, his eyes looked up in the sweetest of ways, wide and clear as the morning sky, his eyebrows rose, and his bottom lip stuck out making that infamous pout only Remy could do. The worst part about this was that Remy made sure he locked his gaze with his best friend, holding him in his deep stare.

Jareth’s mouth gaped instead of finishing his monologue as he intended to. Great, now he was making The Face. The Remy face, everyone knows the Remy face. Jar pursed his lips in a straight line and tried to steel himself against it, but the eye contact made it hard. Too hard… he caved. “Ugh, finneee.” Jareth drawled out in the perfect groan-whine hybrid that only angsty teens pulled off so well. It was like he was being asked to clean up his room, or take out the garbage. Remy’s face perked up almost immediately, to which Jareth responded with a quick retort. “But I’m totally going blazed as Blaze. That’s actually… genius. I’m kind of proud of you.” Jareth was going to regret this, he could tell already.

“Okay! Yeah! That’s fine. I’m so stoked. You and me on the field. It’s going to be great. I’ll need to take you to the locker room to try the suit on at some point… before Friday’s game. We’ll figure it out.” The dynamic between these two was incredibly drastic. One boy’s emotions were on his sleeves and glowed in vibrant colors, while the other masked his emotions behind a gray storm and used music as his form of expression. Somehow, Remy was able to crash into Jareth’s parade a couple of years ago and, since then, they were practically inseparable.

The bromance of the century!

Doing a victorious fist bump with himself, Remy turned on his heel, practically jumping in place out of pure excitement, “Alright, lets go back to being students.” He turned his head back to look at Jar and smiled, all the while showcasing his dimples.

Oh boy, what did Jareth get himself into? At least Remy was happy and smiling, and not thinking about the coffee-soaked history notes awaiting him in homeroom. Because, yikes, Jareth thought he was gonna come apart at the seams for a moment back there. The smiley blonde grinned back at him as Jareth shuffled behind, hands still in his pockets. He hid his own smirk by pressing his lips together and moving the pair of rings around, making a show of rolling his eyes as he followed Remy back into class.

Speaking of coffee-soaked, Temperance was back in class, and offering her own suggestions for the trip. Jareth and Remy came back in just in time to hear: “Amsterdam! 4/20, blaze it! Smoke weed everyday!” Jareth chuckled at that as he took his seat once more, offering a muffled ‘hell yeah’ in agreement. Now that he had unofficially signed his soul away, it was time to face the rest of the school day with as much disinterest as he could muster. Except for lunch, Jareth had some exciting news to share at lunch!

Man these guys were weak. Why didn’t they ever want to do anything wicked awesome? The Swiss Alps were lit as fuck; there was snow and like lodges with saunas and stuff, Mariah didn’t have to be such a BABY. And, like, Jamaica? Hawaii? AMSTERDAM? Christopher Robin had already made what was by far the best suggestion that any of them could possibly come about! The Swiss Alps had the stomping grounds for fuck’s sake. Glumly, Christopher Robin sat down at his desk and folded his arms.

He looked like a pouting two year old, and honestly; he knew that, but he didn’t care. ”Swiss Alps a best,” he grumbled. The young man folded his arms over his chest and reached into his backpack, pulling out his history book and notes. Yeah, he was so upset he was going to do homework.

This discussion was agonizingly painful for Lorelai. While everyone was offering their ideal places to visit, she was balancing her pencil on her pointer finger. Couldn’t they just do some random lottery or something? Or even better, the teachers decide and the students don’t find out where they’re going until they get their plane tickets! Regardless of where they went, her main priority would be making sure Christopher Robin enjoyed himself, even if the place itself wasn’t where he’d want to spend his senior trip at. Temperance would be happy wherever as long as Lala went along, so that wasn’t much of a concern for the tom boy. Her brown orbs glanced over toward sad face Christopher Robin, who was actually doing his homework, all the while she balanced the pencil on her finger. ”Piglet, I’m sure you’ll go there anyways. With or without classmates.”

”Yeah, but it won’t be free.” Christopher Robin grumbled, making a note on his paper. All these fuckers were gonna vote for some island paradise and instead of boarding on the school’s dime, he’d be doing surfing or, like, sitting in the sand. At least he could be a sand castle? But snow was better for that anyway! This was all Mariah’s fault, probably. Or maybe Remy’s. Yeah, those two. Fuck ‘em, they brought the sand upon him. Probably, maybe other people would vote with him and he’d win.

Grabbing her pencil with her free hand, Lala twirled it once and then went to a blank piece of composition paper to doodle. She started tracing a pouty chibi-version of Christopher Robin, since chibi art was the only kind of drawings she could do, or shitty stick figures, anything else, was pure crap. While she drew a small crown over his head, since he was her baby prince, she absentmindedly responded, ”Money is not an issue for you. You just want the slopes.” She would draw him sitting on a sand hill, decorate it with shells and sea animals, and have him grumble, “I hate it.”

”Hey, money is always an issue. Moms always says ‘if you can get something free, get it free.’ How you think they stay millionaires?” Christopher Robin asked, looking over at his girlfriend with a crazy look on his face. Was she serious? Come on, now. Free was a positive thing. ”What would I even do at a beach? They’re lettin’ me down, man.” He muttered, turning back to his notes. At least old wars were pretty cool. History in general was super lit, Christopher Robin dug it. All those old dudes did a lot of cool stuff! From what Christopher Robin could gather, the French sucked and were really angry about furs, or something… He wasn’t totally clear on what happened, but like.

”Did you know people used to like ride elephants into battle? That’s so cool. Like a tank, only alive. And, like, bigger. Man, history is so dope.”

”And now they’re among the most abused animals in countries like Thailand and Vietnam because of tourism and entertaining the public so we can ride ‘em. I’m pretty sure they’re held captive and dying off… but that’s a depressing topic. Let’s not talk about that.” Lala was focused on her drawing, but if there was one thing she wasn’t afraid to do, it was speaking her mind to her boyfriend. ”Also.” She glanced up to look at Christopher Robin’s face, ”Y’know there’s more to do at countries than go to the beach, like if we go to Hawaii there is the Waimanalo Reservoir which is basically a giant ass slip and slide. Or I’m sure we can find people that offer helicopter jumps or… let’s see what else, we could totally get flyboards and go over the water while our classmates swim. That’d be fun.”

”Sometimes things have to die so we can ride them, dude. Elephants lived a long life, they get to be in comfy zoos now and ridden by soccer moms. I wish soccer moms would ride me. I don’t even know what a flyboard is. There can’t be much more than the beach, it’s like an island… I’m grumpy now. I don’t wanna go to no island. I don’t like the ocean!” Christopher Robin blew a raspberry and slammed his history book shut. Work was done, what was he supposed to do now? Complain, duh. ”If ya’all vote for some dumbass island you best prepare yourselves for a Christopher Robin that you ain’t never seen before. I’ll bitch so much it’ll make Jar’s emo level look D-Tier at best.”

How to keep an upset Christopher Robin semi-happy and not continue complaining? After placing her pencil down, Lala grabbed her backpack from the floor and pulled out a gray thermo. Bringing it near his face, she smiled, “Here.” They had this thing where they always came prepared to make the other happy when he or she got suddenly emotionally stirred. Lala had more than this on her, but his favorite drink was the easiest medicine for her distressed Piglet.

Chocolate milk.

She wasn’t even going to bother responding to anything else he said, he was in no mood to have a conversation. Her solution: give him something he loves and then he’ll keep down and not disturb homeroom every five seconds, with huffing and puffing. While still holding the thermo, she looked up to the class and offered her vote, suggestions, or whatever, ”Alps gets my vote. Weed too. Creepy dolls, sure. But like Si, I… don’t care. Though, fuck tans. And a talent show?” Lala chuckled at the thought. A few of their classmates had talents that couldn’t be showcased on a stage, like her. ”Yeah. I’ll blow glass for ya’ll for like an hour. It’ll be dope.” she teasingly joked and gave Sierra a lighthearted wink.

”You guys are on a roll today with the profanities.”

Making a face, Christopher Robin snatched the thermos from his girlfriend and pushed it open, sipping at the chocolate milk. At least bae knew what he liked. Wife material, that girl was… ”Look, teach. I had a long weekend, I’m having a long Monday. It’s gonna sleep man I can’t nerf the way I talk every day, I’ll get confused.”

Mr. Clarke raised an eyebrow at Christopher Robin and then let out a light chuckle, ”And I’ve had a long life, you’ll be okay.”

Being the class president and all… wasn’t really that great. The old disney show made it seem WAY cooler than it actually was. There weren’t any sweet perks, she didn’t get to control the school lunches like in that episode of American Dad… really, what did she get to do again? Right, write on the whiteboard. Maybe she could convince the Principal to give her a private jet. She could like… do not a whole lot with it. Maybe a helicopter would be better, yeah? She could fly that from her house to school and park it atop the store. That’d be alright, Mariah figured.

She fumbled around in her sweatshirt pocket and withdrew a green apple gummy bear, popping it into her mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, Desi stepped up to the whiteboard and uncapped the marker that Jareth had handed her before he disappeared with Remy to do… whatever it was they did behind closed doors. Gross, it was probably gross.

She wrote on the board carefully, and in neat, large block writing began to compose a list a list:



Here she paused for a moment, wondering how many ticks the Alps got. Winnie’s of course. But would Lala just blindly vote with her boyfriend? Eh, probably. She probably would. Without actually asking, Mariah returned to her list:



Here, the president paused again. She pursed her lips for a moment, before ultimately smudging Europe away, deciding to consolidate Madi’s vote with Nick’s. Finally, ticking her own vote (Jamaica, if only so she could get a hilarious t-shirt that said ‘Jamaican me crazy!’), Mariah finished her list.



”So there’s all the suggested places. All good places, you know… except for the fact that… One little detail we forgot in our spamming of our incredibly expensive tourist destinations…” Mariah sighed and scribbled on the board (in her normal handwriting, a bit less uniform than the actual list):



She closed the marker and tapped at the words she’d wrote on the board fervently. ”First things first. We gotta get some cash because we are straight broke, man. We got about enough cash to buy Jar some skinny jeans from Hot Topic, and maybe like each of us a Frostee from Wendy’s. One of the cheap-o 99 cent ones. Except for Jar. In this scenario, Jar is getting skinny jeans. Not a Frostee. Sorry, bud. And we gotta do this right. Which means! Yes, Winnie, I’m lookin’ at you. We can’t have our rich parents bail out our poor asses,” a wink and a smile and Mariah clasped her hands together.

”So, before we do anything like… decision wise on where we go… we should get some capital. We got time to pick a place, but hey, Gramps always says time is money — bear in mind that Gramps also says ‘Wee-Fe’ instead of Wi-Fi, so take this as you will — anyway, my point is. Time is money, and we’re wasting time circle jerking about where we should go instead of focusing on the here —” Mariah tapped the words she’d written on the board again. ”— and now. Any questions?”

An idiot.

Yup, that is what Jareth Michael Wells was… no, is. Honestly, what was he even thinking? Somehow, he had let his best bud - his closest friend in the universe - Westworth's own ray of damned sunshine, Remy Delaney, convince him to be Blaze. The fucking Face, that was his downfall. He had crumpled like a pathetic little sucker, just like that. And now, because of this momentary lapse in judgement, this not-so-tiny slip up, now he had to dance around in a furry suit. This was humiliating, embarrassing, unbelievable - all of the above. But it was too late, he couldn't take it back now. Maybe, if Jareth played his cards right, no one would know it was him? Jar cast a wary glance at his exuberant bestie... nope, that wasn’t likely. Remy was definitely going to tell people, he couldn’t help it, talking was in his blood, or something like that.

Jar was staring up at the ceiling tiles, counting the dots, and praying that some god that he didn’t even believe in might show some mercy and smite him right then and there. Well, he wasn’t smote, but Sierra did tear into the classroom like a very-much-welcomed bat out of hell. Si was chill, one of the closest to being a natural born Westworth emo that there was, and if she weren’t so torn up of Jay still, Jar might try to make a move on her. Maybe eventually, if he could get past the fear of ruining a friendship part. Regardless, he returned her fistbump silently, smirking when she lovingly called the group of them ‘fuckers’.

What Jareth wasn’t prepared for was the sudden attack and accusation that he was a jacket thief. Well, she wasn’t wrong there… he was the biggest jacket whore of them all. He knew it, she knew it, everyone knew it; But Westworth gets cold, and he is a very skinny boy! Jar sheepishly smiled in some form of an apology, but didn’t really promise any return of the aforementioned pilfered garments.

The welcomed break from the mundane was once again eclipsed by talk of destinations and fundraising ideas. Sierra suggested a talent show, which Jareth supported wholeheartedly. He loved the stage, he lived for it, even if it was in a shitty little small town school. Someday it would be bigger, hopefully, that was the goal. Christopher Robin brought up the Alps again, which was mildly amusing, especially when Mr. Clarke piped in and shut down the whining with a patronizing ‘you’ll be okay’. Jareth laughed through his nose quietly at that.

Nicholas offered up Italy as a suggestion, as if it were some kind of peace treaty between sand and snow. Jareth didn’t even know what you could do for fun in Italy besides, like… eat pizza? That sounded like it would get boring quick. Apparently, his classmates did not agree, because suddenly Desi was responding to people switching their votes, and adding new tally marks on the board. It was quickly becoming Italy vs. the Alps. Everything else only had one single tally mark, except there were two for Jamaica, Jar assumed this was because of Desi’s own vote. Good, at least someone else had taste, he should have known that he could count on her.

Mariah went on to reiterate that they had no money to go on any trip at all, bringing the whole thing full circle. Well, duh, wasn’t that what this meeting was for? Jesus, Jareth wasn’t a part of the student council, or government, or whatever it was that Remy and Desi were in, so why did he have to sit through a financing meeting? To go on a free or discounted trip, he supposed… but still, if he had to sit through this torture, they should at least go somewhere that he thought was cool.

Jareth turned to Sierra, looking utterly betrayed when she put her vote towards Italy. “Really, Si? Of all people, I thought you would at least back me up on Jamaica.” he tsked in disappointment and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. “If it’s going to be Italy versus the Alps, I guess I’ll have to go with the Alps. Shredding with CR promises at least one exciting thing to do.” Jareth told Desi before turning his attention back to Sierra. “Looks like I might need to keep your jackets after all, it’ll be cold in the mountains.” he teased quietly and then offered a beaming smile, which was a rarity reserved only for those closest to the emo’s heart.

With a random bag of rolos in her hand, Lorelei leaned back in her seat and munched on her morning chocolate like it was nobody’s business. Seemed like it was a battle between the Alps and Italy now. The pda between Lila and Oliver was eye catching. Best friends or not, that was begging for attention and to be misunderstood. Or was it not a misunderstanding and actually reality? The sight of the two friends being intimately close with one another did get Lala to wonder how affectionate she was with CR in front of everyone. When individuals are around each other for so long, being too close for comfort just became habit. It was still weird to see.

Raising an eyebrow at Sierra’s pleasant comments toward Christopher Robin, Lala responded with a purposefully loud, ”Ha.” If there was one thing that Sierra and Lala had in common, they were two girls that didn’t hold their tongue, no matter how harsh their words came out, ”Can you be any less butthurt? If anyone knows about bitching, that’d be you.” Rather than repay Si with an eyeroll in return, Lorelai crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. Yeah, she didn’t give two fucks.

Soon after, her mind returned to more important things.

Time to ignore the rest of the class now.

From her seat, Lala took aim, ”Slips, open wide.” This had a huge chance of going terribly wrong, but that’s okay. At least she would grab her friend’s attention while having fun.

Take aim. Fire. The chocolate darted toward the ditzy blonde.

Temperance was busily rubbing her palms against the denim fabric of her jeans, focused intently on her familiar wooden desk. Her train of thought flew ahead like a freight train as her mind tumbled around the words that Jareth Wells had uttered. “Hell yeah.” Remy’s best friend had agreed with her... and did she see him flash a coy smile at her?! Jar looked like the classical emo/scene kid, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t attractive! In fact, the bleakness of his clothing and the boy’s ability to get her dark humor made him quite appealing. With that glance and agreement… could it be that he liked her?!

A thump against her head brought her back down from the clouds. A rolo clattered to the ground, and her green eyes wandered to her friend’s form. “I think I’m going to ask Jar out.” Temperance whispered bluntly to the girl beside her, nothing but astute seriousness laden in her voice.

Not fazed by the sudden comment from her friend, completely use to it by now, since they knew each other since childhood, Lala put a handful of Rolos in her mouth and humorously shook her head in disappointment, ”You could’ve caught that. Now there’s a rolo on the floor… wasted.” Ah, but Temperance's mind was stuck in the clouds. The gloomy, dark rain clouds that was… Jareth. After placing the bag of candy on her desk, she leaned in closer toward her friend, resting her arms on her own legs, and clasping her hands together.

Her brown gaze scanned the fair face that sat before her before her lips curved into a smirk, "Oh, will you?" Her eyes lit with intrigue and anticipation. Intrigue to watch the results of Temperance and Jareth becoming a thing. Anticipation for the inevitable disasters that would occur from said results.

Temperance nodded to her friend, sternly and with purpose. “Deus Vult. I will conquer Jerusalem and slaughter the Saracens. If you know what I mean.” The historical reference would surely go over her friend’s head, but c’est la vie.

”Okay nerd. Conquer his D and slaughter your competition. Do it. You won’t. No balls.” Whatever. Lala didn’t understand the reference, but she would take it and make it her own, then egg her friend on who’s never been kissed before to be stupid. Being stupid was fun. Watching dear loved ones be stupid was better. There was far more entertainment in watching stupidity and eating chocolate, all at the same time, than being in a room filled with boring kids that didn’t know how to live. If Temperance wanted to get on Jareth and claim him as her own, to the best of her capabilities since Jareth wasn’t one to commit (or date for that matter), then by all means, she should do it.

“W-Wait, what? I didn’t say I was going to… um… do uh… that with him!” A scarlet flourish zapped onto Temperance’s cheeks. Lala could be so crude sometimes! She didn’t know Jareth well enough to expect a tumble in the hay, but… oh gosh, the thought of it was incredibly hot. Her and him… in a barn… and actual hay… For a second, the blonde spaced out, daydreaming about a snippet of a potential romantic evening with the raven haired boy. “Fine, fine. I’m doing it now. I’m just going to… just do it. And everything is going to be great, and I will not be crying tonight because oh my god I’m so lonely.” she half-whispered to herself and her friend. Pulling out a sheet of paper and a pencil, the girl began to write a secret message to the boy of her fancy.

At first, Temperance thought about simply asking him out on paper, but that seemed so… elementary and impersonal. So her words laid out a plain sentence: 'Hey, Jar… Can you meet me before English? -Temperance' It kept the surprise alive, yes, but it also made her more anxious. Oh man, this was going to be awful.

Folding the note into a little paper football, she took aim at Jareth, and flick, it was sent sailing into the air. Unfortunately, the blonde wasn’t known for her accuracy… and her note ended up hitting her soon to be step-brother’s shoulder. That was definitely not the guy she was trying to date. Doom and gloom could only be seen in the horizon now.

Remy was dazed, contemplating if he should choose Italy or Alps. He already knew what he wanted to choose, but he was worried of the backlash that could occur with his choice. Opening his lips to finally give his opinions, he paused when he felt something hit his shoulder. His lips immediately closed shut and his gaze darted toward the paper on the floor. Bending over, he picked it up and glanced around in the room to find the culprit only to see an alarmed look on Temperance's face.

Of course.

Rolling his eyes, he opened the paper to read it and rewarded the paper with narrowed eyes. What does she want with…

Whatever.

This wasn’t any of his business. Maybe. Though, it did annoy him that she went the whole paper route rather than pulling his friend aside. Well, she was a teen. Typical. Annoying. After folding the paper back up, Remy got up from his seat, went to Jareth’s desk, slid the paper on his friend’s desk not so subtly, and then turned to his class, ”Hi. Um… so, I think I’d like to go with…”

Pausing briefly, Remy nervously cleared his throat and then said his peace, ”I... the bigoli I heard is amazing in Italy. And the lampredotto is a must eat in Florence too. The ultimate 'poor kitchen' dish! I could learn a thing or two there…. so, yeah, that’s where my vote goes. _Italy” Avoiding all his friends’ gazes, especially Jareth’s, Remy scurried back to his seat and contemplated how he’d salvage his history homework before history.

Why would he forget? He always got his homework done. How could he forget that disaster?

His homework was ruined.

And now he voted against not only his closest friends, but his BEST FRIEND. All for his future… heh.

The bell was going to ring soon....