Sean’s room was becoming very comfortably outfitted. It wasn’t as flashy as his sister’s, nor was it quite as gaudy as someone with the last name ‘Sterling’ should decorate their room, but it was home. It was home to him. He knew that was what mattered, the more comfortable he was in his own room, the sooner he’d be happy. True and complete happiness, he’d realized, would elude him for a while. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t do his best to enjoy what he could.

His room was home to a huge window, outlooking the estate. The window sill was massive, designed once upon a time for the then incredibly nerdy Sean to have an alcove to read in. The alcove had been repurposed by the now grown boy, who wasn’t quite as fond of reading. It now housed what was essentially a personal kitchen, with a small electric heating plate, a few pots, a collection of seasonings he was fond of, and a miniature refrigerator.

Sean himself was working on his supper for the evening. He wasn’t a huge fan of the posh foods that his parents ate, and had instead found himself immensely attracted to straight junk food. Deny a person something for too long, and then suddenly allow them access to it, and the game changes. Sean was constantly eating crap, ranging from Oreo’s to delivered Papa John’s.

Tonight, however, he was in the mood for a lazy classic. On the stove top in his window still, water had been brought to a boil. Dashed with a generous helping of salt, Sean had boiled a pack of instant ramen, something he’d taken a liking to, much to the chagrin of his parents. He didn’t care, though. It was easy, and with the addition of three eggs (simply cracked into the bowl once complete), it was a good source of protein. And Sean needed a good source of protein, he had muscle mass he needed to retain.

So, Sean Sterling had a snack. A bowl of Top Ramen, with three eggs he’d cracked over the top of it, along with a tablespoon of peanut butter. This added protein, and a lovely peanuty flavor. Sean fancied himself a bit of a chef, but really he’d just Googled ‘how do I make instant ramen better,’ and had tried a few different things until he came to a conclusion that he liked what he’d made.

A snack wasn’t the only thing Sean Sterling had. He also had a television, which was currently playing something he’d found on YouTube. A large collection of Tom & Jerry, a show that Sean was fond of. Sean’s opinion on Tom & Jerry was a little, well, a little unpopular. Sean thought that Tom had a pretty good point. All he was ever trying to do was his job: protect his house from mice. And Jerry was always coming up with increasingly elaborate schemes to ruin Tom’s day, and in a lot of ways, ruin his life.

He was the villain, but he was a sympathetic villain, in Sean’s opinion. In some ways, Sean might even go so far as to argue that Tom was an anti-hero. He was driven to insanity by the mouse, always escaping despite his best efforts to simply do his job. And the audience? They sided with Jerry, because the mouse was a bit cuter than Tom. In every way that Sean could look at it, it wasn’t fair.

So, Sean rooted for the villain. As far as he could think, Tom and Jerry was a lopsided show. Maybe it’s because it was designed for children? Maybe he was just getting old. Maybe that’s why he sided with the cat trying to best the cute mouse, rather than the mouse who seemed to set out every day to ruin Tom’s entire life, much more than just his day. Sean slurped the noodles into his mouth, and considered his plan for the day.

It took him only two seconds to realize that he didn’t have any plans. He never did, and there were a variety of reasons for that. Firstly, Sean had no friends. He had his sister, and realistically, he knew he could leech off of her for social life. She seemed to have no shortage of it, anyway. Alternatively, he could text Brynn, but to tell her what? “Hey, Brynn, why don’t you come over? What? You want me to come take you out? Sorry, can’t do that. I don’t have a vehicle.”

That was the second reason why Sean had no plans. With no mode of transportation, Sean was landlocked. He could drive one of the vehicles in the garage, he was certain, but the options were not in his realm of interest. From the bright pink Maserati, to the Aston Martins, and even the luxury BMWs that would all surely drive themselves. Sean didn’t like the very idea that vehicles could drive themselves; he wanted control. All the vehicles he’d used while at the Academy didn’t have the autopilot function, which he vastly preferred. Sean liked having control.

Sean slurped the rest of the ramen noodles down, and idly stared at the screen. “I should have watched Scooby Doo. Maybe I wouldn’t be thinking about how I don’t have anything in my life. I have to get a vehicle, man.” Sean said, to no one in particular — though his Assistant, Harrison responded.

“We are in accord.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna go talk to father…” Sean said as he hopped up to his feet, and slipped out of the room. He walked down the hallway, and to the first of two stops for the evening, his father’s office. He opened the door and saw the older man, sitting behind the massive oaken desk, who was going over some paperwork.

Pearce looked up from his work, and raised an eyebrow. Sean hadn’t spoken to him privately since the day he’d come back, so this had to be good. “Yes, son?” He asked, leaning forward.

“I need a vehicle,” and though Pearce almost immediately went to speak up, Sean was quick to keep going and cut him off before he could say the inevitable of ‘you can have something from the garage,’ “I want a bike. A Ducati Monster. Something that I drive, without the autopilot function, and it runs on gas.” At this, Pearce leaned back in his chair, and considered it quietly.

“Are you licensed?” Pearce asked, receiving a quick nod in response. “Well, I don’t care. But, your mother isn’t going to like it. I hope you have a plan there. If you want my advice? I’d go buy it, and ask her for forgiveness afterwards. Unless you have a powerful case built up in your head, she’s not going to like it. She won’t see what you want, she’ll see you in a crumpled mess on the side of the road.”

Sean shrugged. “I intend to talk to her. There’s no point in driving a bigger rift between me and my parents — you included. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but I think this would be a good first step toward eventual happiness, right? After all, they say the first step when solving something is simply to admit you have a problem. Well, I’m admitting it. Besides, I can’t show up to school in Selena’s pink car every day, I’ll look like a fucking clown.”

Pearce chuckled, but gave his son a nod. “Then, good luck. Do you need money?” Sean shook his head and Pearce smiled. “I wish you even more good luck in getting her to let you pay for it yourself.” Pearce laughed again and Sean nodded firmly, turning to leave the room with an air of fresh confidence about him.

Sean had spoken with his father, and that hurdle had been as easily jumped as he’d suspected. His mother would be tougher, he knew that much. His mother was a bit of a control freak, to the point that the only one Sean knew of who handled it competently and consistently was his father. Asking her for what he wanted wasn’t exactly going to be ‘easy,’ but then — Sean didn’t plan to really ‘ask’ either. He was giving her more of a courtesy before he went and did it anyway. If she ended up okay with it, good. If not, oh well.

Sean couldn’t continue to show up to school in a sparkly pink Maserati, and even if he did, he needed a mode of transportation all his own, and he had his eyes set on something specific. He wanted a street bike, one of the new ones. Something that ran on gas, and had no autopilot. He liked to be in control. Most likely, he’d inherited that from his mother.

Sean stood in front of the door to her office, dressed in comfortable sweats and a white t-shirt. He knocked, and then let himself in, raising an eyebrow briefly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d really been in here, and honestly? It wasn’t much of an office. His mother sat on a posh sofa, and the wall in front of her was a bright, LED screen, displaying her shopping site. Sean cleared his throat, “Mom? Do you have a second? I wanted to talk about something.”

A blonde woman, who hardly looked a day over fifty, save for the gray hairs and fine lines between her brows and around her mouth — put there by the stresses of having two sets of twins more than the passage of time. Gray hairs were easily treated with expensive dye jobs, and wrinkles could be masked by making the use of her professional makeup artist skills. At this time of day, however, the mask was off, and Cassandra Sterling was relaxing. Cassie looked up from her internet shopping — Gucci was certainly stepping up their handbag game lately — and she gently set down her glass of rosé on the end table when she heard her first born speak.

“What is it, baby?” She asked, looking over her shoulder towards the door and smiling at him. The mother then scooted over and made room for him on the fluffy white sofa, patting at the overstuffed cushion beside her.

Sean did not take the seat on the sofa, instead he chose to sit down on the equally fluffy carpet in front of the sofa. He crossed his legs and placed his hands on his hands on his feet; Sean was very deliberate about this whole process, as if he’d been trained to sit that way.

Cassie watched her son curiously as he chose sitting on the floor rather than taking a seat next to her. Should she feel offended? Her son had been gone for so long, perhaps the distance had created some kind of wedge between them. Or perhaps, he was just growing up… or this was just some part of the lingering sadness that had been clinging to him since he arrived back from his private school. “Why are you sitting on the floor like that, dear?”

Sean looked up at her, his eyebrows furrowed. He hadn’t even considered it as being strange… ”Uh… it’s honestly really comfortable. I don’t know. I’d prefer to sit here.” Sean explained, before he carried on, attacking the subject he wanted to bring up in the first place, “I’ve been thinking. Now that I’m back here for good — and I am back here for good — I need a way to get around from place to place. I’m not interested in Selena carting me around constantly in that… gaudy pink monstrosity.” Sean looked to the sky briefly, hoping this went well.

“I spoke with father already, and he doesn’t much care what I get; mostly, I assume, because I’ll be buying it with my own money, that I earned from my jobs while at the Academy. However, he mentioned that I might want to talk to you about it before I buy it. May I?” Sean reached out for the tablet expectantly, planning to pull it up so that she could see what he had in mind, rather than he explain it.

“Of course, darling!” Cassie exclaimed, shocked that he expected that he needed to ask for such a thing. “The Maserati was Selena’s sixteenth birthday gift… we didn’t get you a car because you weren’t here to drive it, but we can certainly fix that now. And you absolutely do not need to spend your own money on it, your father and I could cover it. What did you dislike about the ‘monstrosity’, just the color, or the style? We could look into another make… perhaps a Mercedes? Or a Porsche?” His mother was being completely agreeable, excited even, at the thought of helping her son get a new vehicle. It could be a good bonding experience, and dropping that kind of money in a night was simply nothing to a Sterling. Cassie went to work clicking away on the tablet that was on her lap, which switched the LED wall-screen from designer purses, to luxury car brands.

Sean frowned. First and foremost, even if he wanted a car, it wouldn’t be a luxury car. It would be a WRX, or something to that extent. Maybe an NSX, but certainly not one of these sedans that his mother seemed to want to push on him. And why couldn’t he use his own money? He’d worked hard for it. “No, I’ve already picked it out. Let me show you.” Sean said, taking the tablet away from her, and looking down at it. He did not turn away from her, wanting to gauge her initial reaction to see how the play should go.

A couple of taps, a quick load, and the vehicle was on the screen in front of her. “I want that.” Sean said, pointing to it, as if for unnecessary emphasis.

Cassie silently blinked her blue eyes at the screen a few times. Oh no, that certainly wasn’t what he was asking for. A two-wheeled death machine?! Absolutely not, she would not allow that. She wasn’t about to lose her beloved eldest boy to a vicious motorcycle accident. “Very funny, Sean. But no. You are not getting on a death trap like that.”

“It’s not a joke,” Sean said defensively. He’d expected a similar reaction, now came the hard part: convincing her that it was fine. “I’m already licensed to ride one. And I’d rather drive something I’m in complete control of. No computer that can interfere. Besides, mom, if you really think about it I’m way safer on that than I would be in a car. I can get out of the way of other people much more quickly on that, and it’s more maneuverable.” Sean chose to gave ‘simple reasoning’ the first round.

“Not if you don’t see them coming! Everything else on the road is bigger! I’ve watched the accidents on the news, and I won’t have that be you. I can’t lose my boy when I just got him back.” Cassandra said sternly, thought her lips danced into a sad frown at the last part. This request genuinely worried her. “Anything else, Seany. You can get anything else… something safe.”

Sean frowned. Well, simple reasoning didn’t work. Sean looked at his lap and pondered his next move, “I don’t want us to fight,” he said after a few moments of quiet contemplation, “but this is what I want. Nothing else is going to be good enough, and I grew up hearing from you and father alike that a Sterling isn’t going to have anything that isn’t good enough.” Sean tried another route, still keeping himself away from aggression. That would come as a last resort, and in some ways, he could see where his mother was coming from.

The Sterling matriarch studied her son. Sean’s frown broke her heart, broke it enough to make her want to cave, but she couldn’t fight her own motherly instincts. A mama bear had to make sure her cub was safe, even if that cub was tall, and strong, and growing up far too fast. Cassie sighed and took a swift gulp of blush colored wine before speaking again. “You are right, a Sterling doesn’t settle for anything but the best. If you have done your research, let me see the safety ratings. If you insist on a two-wheeled death machine, then I insist that you pick the safest one.”

Sean helplessly shrugged his shoulders. He only saw this going two ways: option A) was he went and bought it alone with his own money, without the okay from his mother; and option B) was he and his mother set a date to go and pick it up together. He much preferred option B, it would keep things from getting too stressful and dramatic around the house. Once she cracked, there was no denying the whisper of a smile that graced Sean’s face. “Thank you. I’m glad this went mostly well. I don’t want our relationship be rocky, but I do have my wants and needs and I will stand up for myself when I need to.” Sean pulled up the safety ratings, rather reluctantly, but looked at his mother, his face very serious. “Consider that me saying ‘I’m growing up, please don’t stifle me.’”

Seeing her son smile, even slightly, melted her heart. Sean didn’t smile nearly enough for her liking, and if buying this ridiculous vehicle made him that happy… well, she could at least try to be supportive of the idea. She certainly didn’t like it, but she could try. When he said the last part, though, she lost it. Maybe the wine was getting to her, or it was just her overly dramatic nature, but Cassie quickly got down off of the couch to be beside him. She had knocked over the glass of rosé in the process, but she hardly noticed, as she flung her arms around Sean to pull him into a big hug. “Nooo, you’re not growing up. You’re gonna stay my baby, my little blue-eyed boy.” Cassie said into his hair, kissing the top of his head and hugging him tighter.

Oh, geeze. Maybe that had been a mistake. Sean had to quietly hope that this wouldn't take away the work he’d just completed in convincing her to let him get the bike that he wanted. Sean rather awkwardly wrapped his arms around Cassie, trying his best to give an appropriately tight hug. “It’s okay. I’ll still be your baby. Just… independent. And that’s okay. Because I’ll still come to you when I need help, plus… it’s easier to be friends with your kids when they grow up, right? Rather than just a parent.” Before getting into a rather philosophical discussion with his slightly drunk mother, Sean pressed on. “So… do you wanna head to the dealership? Like, tonight. Now, even.”

Cassie sighed against Sean again. She shouldn’t be caving, but here she was, doing exactly that. Cass cleared her throat before speaking to her Assistant. “Myrtle, when does the nearest Ducati dealer close?” The feminine voice responded with a confirmation that they had a few hours to shop around, it also provided the address and the traffic patterns of the quickest route to the dealership. “Everything stays open so late in LA… well, let’s go do this, before I change my mind.”

It is not easy to describe the emotions that were flowing through Owen Lyon at the moment that Jamie Callaghan left the gym. None of the emotions, though, were good. Raw, unbridled anger and hatred flowed through him. He should have hit the little bastard harder, should have kicked him while he was down. Should have stomped his face into the cement.



Jamie was sticking his nose somewhere it didn’t belong, and interfering in something that didn’t include him. Owen should have beat him senseless. He didn’t know what had happened, nobody did. Cheating on Trixie? Were they crazy? Owen had loved her with everything he had and then some — he still did. She was ripped away from him; he hadn’t been given a chance. And Jamie Callaghan thought he was going to fix it? Jamie thought he’d be the reason Owen had a chance to say his side of the story.

Fuck that. Fuck him. If Owen saw him again, he’d fuck him up himself. Didn’t matter if Marshall liked him; Marshall didn’t like Owen anymore. Owen was now widely considered to hate the gays, because of one thing. Five years during which Owen had been Marshall’s best friend, didn’t matter. It’d gone up in flames.

The truth was? Marshall had asked for it too. He’d tested him, tested Owen when he’d already been made volatile.



Owen was his father’s son, and when confronted by Hailey, Ophelia, and the rest of them, Owen had reacted the same way Troy would have. Troy might even have been proud; Owen was ready to take on the whole crew, he’d looked at it as just a bigger piece of cake to chew hole through. Then that new asshole had stepped up, another person who had no place, interfering in something that didn’t involve them.



That kid was dead. He was dead as soon as Owen got his hands on him, it didn’t matter that he was a Sterling, it didn’t matter if the Sterlings were close to his family. None of it mattered. Jamie, Marshall, the new kid. He’d break them all. Backing down had been the mistake. The party had been his chance to knock them all out of the way and take Trixie back.



The stunning silence of the gym was broken suddenly as Owen screamed, at the top of his lungs, staring at the ceiling. He stomped toward the door, as if he was going to walk out of it and chase after Jamie to deal with the problem now, but instead he put his head against the grey, cement wall. Owen put his left fist against the wall and pushed, pushing with his head. Control? Where was his control? He’d lost it.



Owen felt the burn of angry tears begin to flood down his face. He pulled his fist back, cocked it, and drove it into the cement wall. Then he did it again. And again. On the fourth hit, blood was left on the wall. Owen lifted his head up and looked down at his left hand, the one that had been punching the wall. Inherently, he knew the knuckles were probably broken.

Why did Trixie talk to him? Why did she hold the words of others so highly? Why did Marshall do the same? This was Ophelia’s fault — it had to be. She’d learned from the best on how to manipulate and turn people to her view. Why did she do it? They were supposed to be family, weren’t they?

So many why’s. All Owen had was questions. Questions that would never be answered it felt.



Owen’s greatest regret was leaving Trixie in that state. He’d lost control then, just like he’d lost control now. If he was able to keep a level head, maybe things would be different. But he couldn’t. He had too much pent up emotion, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t get rid of it all. He wasn’t happy anymore. Ophelia and Hailey stole his smile.



His mind circled back to Marshall, who was the biggest offender as far as Owen was concerned. Marshall had been his best friend, and Owen had confided in him many times, but Marshall too had allowed himself to be blinded by lies and outrage. He hadn’t given Owen a chance to defend himself.

Owen had to stop hitting the wall. He’d do more and more damage to himself; already he had blood dripping from his fist and onto the ground beside him. But, that didn’t mean he had to stop hitting things. He was too angry to stop, too furious to give up.

It all kept replaying in his mind. He’d bottled emotions up for too long, and now it was exploding. He stepped away from the wall and grabbed a wooden chair that was there for people to sit in to rest, and spun with it in his hands, hurling it against the cement wall. It shattered into a million pieces, and he felt a bit better. But only a bit.

Owen stepped over to one of the weight racks, where a heavy bar sat. He hefted it in one hand and walked across the room to the vending machine. Staring at the glass window to the drinks, Owen pretended it was Marshall’s head. He swung the forty-five pound bar with all his might, moving it as if it were a baseball bat, and the glass shattered.

Owen roared again, and thought about how good it felt. He took a few steps back, and looked at the snack machine. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he pretended it was Jamie’s face in the reflection, rather than his own. He took both hands and hurled the bar like a spear, and it flew through the air and pierced the glass, causing it to explode.

Glass was working.

He picked up a dumbbell, and walked to the manager's office, throwing it through the window he chose to believe was that blonde kid’s face. Owen felt like a great weight was being lifted off of his shoulders, and he looked around the gym for more things he could break. The receptionist desk was his next target, and he broke it with a plate, slammed down through the center of it.

Owen spent the next thirty minutes trashing the place.

It wasn’t until he ran out of things to break, and again punched the wall, that the adrenaline faded, and he realized very suddenly that he was in pain. He walked to the manager’s office again, carefully stepping over all the glass, and pulled out the first aid kit. He wrapped his hand, broken, bleeding knuckles and all with gauze, and looked around at the carnage of the gym.

“Fuck.”

Owen stepped out of the office, carefully flexing his fingers to see how it felt. The answer was not good. He noticed how sweaty he was, and he carefully surveyed the damage… He had lost himself in a blood rage, and the end result was catastrophic. The vending machines, the receptionist’s desk, the manager’s office, the glass door, and even the window looking outside, were all broken. Shatting glass worked, but the temporary relieved feeling that Owen had was washed over by a huge wave of regret.

He wanted to puke.

And then the bell signaling someone had walked in jingled, and Owen assumed it was Jamie, probably with back up. He spun on his heel, ready to fight to his death…

And then he realized who it actually was.

“Oh. It’s just you. Madi, the sign says closed.”

Not that it mattered — there was almost no door left.

Damian O’Connor’s no good, terrible, very bad day had been on nothing but an upswing since his meeting with Joy in the library. Was he still upset about getting kicked off the team? Fuck yeah, but he had a distracting, and in a lot of ways, having a distraction was the best way to get over something! Plus, he was gonna get laid, and dammit that was always a good thing.

Damian was now at home, alone. His mom and dad were out doing something or other, True was… well, Damian didn’t know where True was. But that was okay, he’d outgrown babysitting her ages ago. Damian was all alone, and it was awesome. Well, not entirely alone. His Assistant was there.

Damian was downstairs in the gym, lifting weights to get his pump on and make sure that his arms looked awesome, and that he looked awesome. It had to be perfect, to ensure that Joy was as attracted to him as possible. Damian had been down this road quite a few times, and he knew what he had to do. Sitting down on the machine, with a decent amount of wait selected.

“That’s lightweight, baby.” The charming accent of Damian’s assistant, Snake Plissken. Damian nodded his agreement as he put his hands on the bar, and got ready to bust them out. Damian situated himself, and spoke to Snake before he pushed the bar forward.

“Everybody wants to be real jacked, dude!” Damian shook himself, waiting for the drop to come. As the beat built up, closer and closer, Damian continued. “But don’t nobody wanna lift these heavy ass weights! I do it though.” The drop hit, and Damian set to work, pushing the weights forward, and then letting them come back. Over and over.

Normally, he’d do more weight, since he’d be trying to bulk up and hit records and keep his competitive, friendly rivalry with Trevor going, but Damian was just looking to get the blood flowing, and the muscles swelling. He did a few sets on the important spots (chest, biceps, and triceps), and he was satisfied. The song came to a close, and Damian hopped off of the machine with an enthusiastic, “Woo! Snake, let me see myself.” Damian ordered, and in front of him, the wall opened up to reveal a full size mirror, which Damian stared into, turning to the side to look at his arms.

“Look at how FUCKING vascular I am. Look at that definition. That muscle tone. Jesus christ, Snake, I’m a goddamn animal.” Damian flexed, watching as his muscles tightened and expanded. “Twelve inch PYTHONS for arms, dude. I might not get to eat any goddamn carbs, but this is worth it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Your arms look great.” The Assistant replied in a sarcastic tone, and Damian shook his head, flexing one last time.

“I’m just saying, if I wanted to? I could fuck everyone else’s girlfriends. I don’t want to. But I could.” Damian said, nodding to himself in the mirror. “I got good genes, baby. Goddamn. What a fucking animal. I got a date tonight, Snake. Let’s get crackin’.”

“A date, or a date?”

“The latter, dude. Come on. Start the shower.” Damian toweled the sweat off of himself, and stripped his clothes off, before he stepped into the shower, letting the hot water pound down on him. Nothing in the world felt better than a hot shower after you’d gotten your pump on. Arnie had been right, way back in the day. It was better than sex in almost every way. “You gotta know me better than that, dude, I don’t do real dates. The boyfriend life is not the life for me, and that’s for damn sure.” Damian explained as he scrubbed the sweat and grime of the day away with the brush, lathering himself in Old Spice flavored body wash, while Snake’s incessant rambling carried on.

“Well, who is it? Brynn? Becca? It’s not Selena is it. Nah, she’s too good for you.”

Ouch.

“Ophelia? Too girly. Miriam? Too religious. I got it: Quincy. No, none of those? Let me look…”

“Hey, going through my DMs is cheating!” Damian protested, but it was too late. The Assistant was poking around in his phone, and it was only a matter of seconds before it dawned on Snake.

“Joy? Joy Darling? Mate, that’s dangerous. Better get ready to jump out of the window and change states if her dad finds out.” Snake warned, but Damian shrugged his shoulders as he toweled off.

“Whatever, man. She’s hot, and like the sweetest person. She made me happy, even though the whole thing happened… So, yeah. I wanna sleep with her.” Damian said, and in his head, it sounded right, but Snake’s next words hit home.

“Sure it’s just a hook up and not an actual date?”

Damian froze after pulling on his shirt, almost ready to head out the door, before he yelled his response, “Yes I’m sure!” He barked, before slamming the door for emphasis.

From the speaker of his phone in his pocket, Snake chimed in. “You know I’m still here, right?”

“It’s the principle of the thing!”

The Candyland headquarters, so to speak, was in one of the four mega mansions belonging to the Lyon family. It was on the second floor, fourth door to the left, of the Westernmost mansion. It was a huge room, far bigger than it had any right to be. Attached to it, was a huge bathroom (the Eastern wall) that included no less than six full sized bathtubs (bubbly baths were an integral part of sleepovers, in the Candy group), and a walk in closet (the Western wall) that spanned two stories (it went downstairs into what was a repurposed bedroom, which also housed a second, more modest bathroom). Three of the walls of the room were painted a hot, almost bubblegum pink, with soft cotton candy blue lines that went across the midpoint of the wall. The carpet was so plushy that when you stood on it barefoot (and you would be barefoot, shoes weren’t allowed), it sprung up between your toes, with a stark white color.

In the center of the room was a giant, rotating bed shaped like a heart. The Eastern wall was lined with vanity tables, for makeovers. The Western wall was similarly lined with vintage, pink beauty salon chairs, equipped with built in hair dryers, and feet massagers. The Southern wall housed the door, but the doorway itself was surrounded from the floor up by baskets containing a variety of candies, ranging from Jolly Ranchers to the ever elusive Hershey’s Hugs. The sweets in the room were not limited to these, however, as the Southern wall also had several candy dispensers mounted on it, some of which contained Jelly Belly’s, gumdrops, gumballs, M&M’s, Skittles, and Reese’s Pieces (all carefully labeled, of course). In each corner of the Southern wall, there were ice cream dispensers, one which dispensed soft serve vanilla, and the other soft serve chocolate ice cream. Both dispensers had ample variety of topping dispensers nearby, including caramel and chocolate sauce fountains.

Despite the beauty of the amenities in the Candyland HQ, they were not the main attraction. The main attraction was on the Northernmost wall: the Shipping Wall. The Shipping Wall was a glass wall; in the center of it was a door leading to the balcony. When the Candies assembled, the glass wall darkened, and its secondary function came into play. The glass wall doubled as a giant LED, motion, touch, voice, and bluetooth controlled screen, upon which Ophelia and her legion of cupids played their game.

Candyland wasn’t as vicious as Hailey was. They weren’t as brutal as she was, and they weren’t as… evil. For all intents and purposes, the Shipping Wall, and the game that came with it, were good. Ophelia and her friends used the wall to play matchmaker, setting up their peers in ways that they thought would work well. Currently, there were few possible ships, and even fewer canon ships on the wall. This, of course, was no good. The only ship that was marked as canon was dead in the center, ‘Q&A,’ with the most recent yearbook photos of Quincy Hart and A Double, surrounded by a heart. A heart dictated a relationship as ‘canonical.’ The pairing were officially and publicly together. Pink lines between two faces indicated it seemed likely, a yellow line indicated potential, a black line indicated ‘never happening’, and finally, a blue line indicated the pair needed a little Candyland magic and a push before they could progress to pink or a heart!

Two faces were deemed out of play by Ophelia, and thrown to the bottom left corner. These were Trixie Kingsley and Owen Lyon.

They remained in their heart, with no explanation from Ophelia.

One of the newest Candies, however, did not care about these things. Kit wanted to sleep, and she planned to sleep on the bed, which she’d nearly ran to, throwing herself face down onto it. Kit was now taking what she had promised Ophelia would be a ‘cat nap,’ while Ophelia and the other girls got situated.

Everytime Cassie waltzed into the Candyland HQ, she was reminded of just how rich Ophelia was. The luxuries in the room never failed to blow her away, no matter how many times she saw them. Of course, she masked this surprise every time. She couldn’t let the others see how shocked she was by what seemed perfectly normal to all of them.

As the girls entered, Cassie made a beeline for the Shipping Wall, turning around to face the others. ”So, Brynn, do we need to put you and Seannie up on the board, or has that ship sunk?” Cassie asked, smirking as she pulled up a picture of Brynn from last year’s yearbook, along with an empty square with a simple ‘S’ in it, to represent Sean. It was a pain that they didn’t have any pictures of him yet, but she was sure that wouldn’t last long.

Brynn trailed behind the others, not exactly looking forward to this shindig. The conversation she had earlier with Sean did not go as planned in the slightest, and it made arriving at the Candyland HQ a little less sweet than usual. No matter what she had said, he didn’t seem bothered by her promiscuous qualities, so unfortunately, he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Her fellow Candies would not be too pleased with her, especiallyOphelia, since she was the one who told Brynn to drop him, and quick.. Sitting down in one of the chairs near the Shipping Wall, her face paled at Cassie’s remarks. “Um… I don’t know if that’s exactly necessary.”

Ophelia was sitting in one of the various silken bean bags in the room, staring at the Shipping Wall as she stuffed Cheez-Its into her mouth, but when Brynn's words hit her ears, Ophelia leaned her head up until it was almost backwards and she could peer at Brynn. “What are you talking about?” She asked, frowning. “You guys totally belong on the wall. I only said that stuff at the tryouts to cut the sitch before it got nastier. It was supposed to be a happy day and you guys were being wicked catty. I'm trying to figure out if you should be in a heart or not, right now.”

Brynn’s eyes widened, making her almost resemble a bug or a deer in headlights. “Oh no no no… we’re not… I’m not…” She struggled to form words as embarrassment overcame her. She and Sean were not confirmed. No way, no day. “Were just having fun, nothing more. You know how I am.” Brynn tried to convince both Ophelia and herself that this was the case.

Ophelia popped a Cheez- It into her mouth, with a shrug of her shoulders. “I know how you were. Shit changes, Brynn. Times are changing, you're changing. You found a man. Embrace it, don't fight it, or you're just gonna hurt yourself. And I don't want that, I love you.”

“He’s not my man, but fine — put us on the wall, if you so desire.” Brynn started, walking over to the wall of food and grabbing some Sour Patch Kids. “I never get hurt, so don’t worry about me.”

Marshall knew that he was late, and the girls would expect that of him. The candy boy packed his schedule on the weekdays so tightly that it was a miracle he made it to any social gatherings at all. But, of course, this was a Candyland meeting, and those were an absolute must for Marsh to attend. He loved his girls, and he loved love, so that meant that the Candies came first, always. Even when he had the worst school day ever, and drama club, and voice lessons after drama club, and he was exhausted, and in a bad mood. Perhaps the mood could be alleviated by being around his bestie, Ophelia, she always knew the right things to say to cheer him up.

In the overly dramatic fashion that was only appropriate for Marshall Radley, the door to Candyland swung wide open, interrupting any hope of conversation that might have been taking place. Marsh looked… frazzled, for lack of any better word. The dark-haired boy didn’t take the time to account for who was present, assuming it was the same crowd. Only Candies were allowed in Candyland, after all. Instead, he beelined right for the candy dishes. He didn’t give a fuck about his diet, who did he have to look good for anyway? None of it mattered. Bitterly, he palmed out a handful of gumdrops. He loved gumdrops, they were a comfort food, and Ophie knew that about him.

Marsh had a lot to say, and dammit, he was finally going to say it. All of it, right here, right now. These were his best friends, and they needed to know that he was coming unravelled at the seams, in the event that they might have to run some kind of emergency damage control as a result of it. He kept the handful of gummy treats in his hand, rather than eating them before trying to speak (because that would be gross), and he began his rant.

“Everything sucks! Literally everything, Ophelia. I don’t know how much longer I can keep smiling and pretending everything is cool. I’m an actor, but it’s really hard to hide real life feels. My stupid mirror in my locker says ‘smile’ on it, and I felt like it mocked me so hard today that I wanted to smash it. That’s not me! This isn’t me! Everything is busted, and I can’t fix it. I just keep making things worse, I think.” Marshall was making his way towards Ophelia. He only took a breath from his monologue long enough to kiss Ophie on both sides of her cheeks, like they usually did when they saw each other after being apart for a period of time. And then he went right back into it.

“It’s all because of Owen and Trixie. He cheated and he ruined everything, and I still can’t believe that he would do something like that to her. It’s awful. And then, we had that stupid party. We shouldn’t have gone, I shouldn’t have gone. We started shit and triggered Owen just by being there, and we know how his temper can get. And I was even more of an idiot, getting all chihuahua because of the things he said to you — which I would do again in a HEARTBEAT, you know that. But, seriously? How fucking dumb am I? Now my best guy fri— err, my ex-best guy friend wants to kill me. I saw it in his eyes, he literally wants to murder me, Ophelia. I feel like I can’t walk anywhere alone, I’m scared as fuck… and also, really sad. Because he was my best friend…” Marshall’s lower lip quirked like he might just cry at that, but there was still more gas in the tank. Keep going, get it all out, Marshall, you haven’t even gotten to the worst part.

“Worse yet, at that stupid party, I royally fucked things up with Jamie. Seriously, I am quite sure that he hates me because he thinks that I am secretly sleeping with someone.” Ophelia’s eyes raised curiously at that, and Marshall immediately cut that down. “Which I’m not, you would be the first one to know if I was seeing any other dick than my own these days. I’m not. That’s beside the point, because he thinks I am, because I came out of the kissing closet with another guy, the who doesn’t really matter, because I certainly wasn’t kissing him. I was crying in there, because my best friend tried to kill me in front of the whole school, practically, and that’s just like… a lot to take in? Anyway, then there’s the Weekend Warrior, who made me look like some pussy twinkboy victim, which, none of this was about me being gay. So, that’s just ridiculous. Gossipy sensationalist bitch, I swear if I ever figure out who it is, she’s gonna feel the full rage of my unchecked homo fury... whatever that’s gonna look like. Oh! And then there’s Damian. He showed up at drama club all peacocking like he was gonna take over. Which, I was already in a bad mood, so I couldn’t handle that in proper. Thank god Shauna shut him down, but then. BUT THEN. He asks me to be his talent show partner? That got my mind thinking, hmmmm, Owen hates me. Damian and Owen are close friends. Damian is trying to get closer to me, which can only mean one thing: The muscle squad is making plans to gang bang me in the locker room or something — and I’m not talking the fun consensual kind that you see on Pay Per View either — I’m talking about an actual, legitimate gay bashing bonanza—”

Truly Bliss’ eyes widened from the chocolate ice cream dispenser. Her goal was to make a giant sundae, but she got super distracted with Marshall’s rant, and her ice cream started overflowing. “Uh…” Her brother? Gang banging? Trevor? Gang banging? Owen? Gang banging? What was Marshall on? Was he high? Did someone need to bring him back down to Earth? Her brother was too busy trying to get in Owen’s sister’s pants! And like, he was super straight. Sure, he had bromances going on but that didn’t mean he wanted to fuck his bros. Though, if Trevor was a hot redhead with boobs, that would totally be a done deal. A little frazzled with the assumptions, True turned back to her sundae and hurriedly cleaned her mess.

“—Did I mention that Jamie hates me too? You know, that’s like, really shitty. Because all I wanted for my birthday on Monday was to finally be able to put my tongue in his mouth. His stupid… soft-looking... mean mouth.” The monologue ended with a pathetic, whiny moan, as Marshall let himself collapse backwards onto the heart-shaped bed. Now he was good and thoroughly exhausted, but he felt at least mildly better. It wasn’t long before Marshall realized that he wasn’t alone on the bed, a tiny blonde girl was situated next to him, curled up like she had been sleeping.

“Oh hiii, sweetie. Who are you?” Marsh asked before finally popping a much-needed gumdrop into his mouth, his face was literally only inches from hers, but he didn’t mind. She was accepted into Candyland, so she must be good people.

Okay. Marshall raised a lot of good points, and he certainly had a lot to say. Ophelia listened to it quietly, and she ultimately had to agree: this was all because of Owen and Trixie. But that was because of Hailey.

A little known fact about Ophelia Brycen (Marshall, and Cassie knew) was that she was a bit of a Star Wars nut. This led to her making a lot of mental analogies and comparisons between her real life and the Star Wars universe. For example, Ophelia felt like the Sith were onto something with the Rule of Two.

The Rule of Two says simply that there must always be two parties of power; if there is only one party, then that party will be left unchecked and out of control.

The blame for Trixie and Owen's situation, Ophelia decided, rested with the Helmsley three. Their being around acted as a buffer for Hailey, keeping her from doing too much that was out of line for herself; they kept her in check. The Rule of Two.

They had been gone for AGES now, and this had led to a power shift. Hailey had more, and did more, and faced no consequences. Honestly? It was getting scary. Ophelia had agreed, almost six months ago, to break Trixie and Owen up, out of fear for her own life. If she hadn't Hailey might have ripped her heart out.

Family or not, Ophelia was more than upset with the Helmsley three for their extended absence. It was beginning to affect everything.

She took a deep breath and smiled at Marshall, “I'm sure that's not the case! Maybe he just wants to partner with you because you're the best, darling.”

Meanwhile, on the bed, Kit opened her mouth to respond to Marshall, but found herself interrupted.

Cassie pursed her lips, listening as Marshall spilled his guts to the room, and then flopped on the bed. Cassie nodded her head in agreement with Ophelia. “I doubt Damian and his meatheads would ever do something of the sort. Here, ask his sister! Damian’s Little Sister! Help alleviate our friend’s stress,” Cassie called out, gesturing to Marshall. She then turned around, facing the wall again, and connected Brynn’s face to Sean’s box with a thin blue line. Perfect.

True didn’t mean to come out as frank as she did, but the whole Damian spiel was laughable, and she wasn’t necessarily attached to the drama boy to really sugar coat her words, “Why would my brother want to fuck you?” True took a spoon full of chocolate and placed it in her mouth before continuing, swinging her spoon around as she talked, “One, you got a penis, and sorry man, that’s an automatic lose for you. Two, you don’t got red hair. Three, you’re attached to Hailey and he hates Hailey. Four. You’re a wee bit dramatic, and he got his own dramatic shit — two dramatic people would never end well. Five. I can see you totally invading his personal space, which would kill him. You’re probably the type of lover that wants to feel the love. All the time. Even when it doesn’t lead to sex. And six. If you ain’t Joy, trust me, you are NOT on his mind right now.” And another spoonful of ice cream.

It was then that Kit finally managed to get her piece in. Having been assured by Ophelia that this was a safe place, she was comfortable saying how she really felt. “I'm Kit. I'm here because I told Ophelia I love Selena and she wants to help me. Also, I haven't slept in almost 40 hours, so I'm trying to take a nap…” Kit explained, rubbing at her eyes and staring at the nre person.

“I think you misunderstood me, gingersnap. I said it wouldn't be the fun kind of gang bang, no love there, really. Just a whole lot of pain, and domination. Just, nevermind that I said anything…” Why was there not one, but two newbies in the ship room? Had Marshall known this, he might not have… you know, spilled his deepest, darkest, innermost feelings for all to see. But… he did, and in front of Damian's little sister, no less. This day honestly couldn't get any worse, maybe he should just full suicide it and pay Owen a visit, offer himself as a sacrifice. When the other new girl spoke up, Marshall's eyes widened, and it pulled him from his darker thoughts. Marsh propped his head up on his elbow and rolled on his side to face her. “Selena?! ...oh, honey. There's ninety nine reasons why that isn't a good idea. You're adorable, but she's as het as they come. Spare yourself that heartache, it's not fun, trust me.”

Cassie was wrapped up in her own world, playing Cupid at the Shipping Wall. Lips pursed in thought, she found the location of Jamie and Marshall’s photos, connected by a yellow line. She changed the line to a blue one, took a step back and crossed her arms. So much blue, so little time. If they wanted these ships here to work out, there was going to have to be some serious Candyvention. Candy intervention, that is. Cassie turned around to face her friends. “Girls and gay best friend, I don’t mean to interrupt, but this wall has way too much blue for it to be any good. I mean, I’ve just added Brynn and Sean, blue until Brynn can admit she’s caught feelings. And if Jamie really hates you, Marshall, then we’ll have to fix that too, which means more blue!” Cassie explained, spinning around to face the wall again and drawing a blue circle around Selena’s portrait. “And speaking of Selena, might as well paint her ass blue, cause if she wants to get laid, she’s gonna need all the help we can give her. Kit, if you could turn Selena, it would be wonderful. Girl could use a good time,” Cassie said, shaking her head and waltzing over to the candy dispenser, popping out a Warhead and placing it in her mouth, barely even wincing at the sour zing of the candy. “My point is, we are not doing well in the shipping department. The seas are stormy, and so far, we’re shitty lighthouses.”

“Have you guys ever thought about… asking for advice? From the first Candies? Isn’t Ophelia related to the OG Queen? And my mom is kind of one of Belle’s main lieutenants. And Kit’s mom is kind of Belle’s princess, like Selena is for Hailey, but strictly Candy. If you want to get something done, you gotta’ go hard.” True would, however, keep her crush a secret. She could handle that matter on her own. After placing her bowl down, True pranced to the wall beside Cassie, “You should add my brother and Joy Darling. His endeavors are taking a lot longer than usual. Put him beside Trev and Sav, because it just makes sense!”

Ophelia turned her attention over to Cassie and True, before shrugging her shoulders, and responding. “Well, I don’t like asking them for advice, really. I’ve gotten plenty already, and I should be able to handle everything nowadays… Plus, I talk to Belle every day. A meeting with the old guard might be cool — if we actually take the time to have some successes on our hands. We just look lazy right now,” Ophelia said, with a big shrug of her shoulders.

Kit, on the other hand, was having an existential crisis. She laid on her stomach, her eyes wide open and bloodshot, a direct result of the rather intense tiredness she was feeling. “I hope you’re wrong, because if you aren’t, then all of this is for naught, Mr. Gay Best Friend. All of it. I changed my entire life so I could be more appealing to her, did you know that? I don’t really like dressing like this. I don’t like cheerleading. I like playing soccer, and video games. And pizza. Lots of pizza.” Kit explained, turning her head to face Marshall again. “I don’t know if I can accept that answer, without even trying.”

“That’s what I love about you, Kit! You try until you know for sure.” True bull rushed to the bed and threw herself on top of her friend. “Never give up, is my motto.”

Brynn sighed, having been zoned out for most of the conversation from staring at the blue line connecting her and Sean. She didn’t want it to be there, but she didn’t want to make too much of a fuss. Returning from her daze, she tuned into Ophie’s thoughts about asking Belle for assistance. “I agree, I mean when was the last time that we successfully changed a blue line to a heart on here?”

“It’s been a long time, really… A Double and Q got together of their own volition. I mean, I dunno. There’s only one heart on the whole screen!” She fumed, folding her arms over her chest. “We suck at being Cupid. I think it was easier for Belle because she matchmade her friends, rather than going with her friends to matchmake others. It’s not as easy as they made it seem.” She protested, glumly looking over her shoulders at Cassie and Brynn. “Valentine’s Day is soon… ish. Let’s change some lines for that.”

“Are we going to do the Candy Grams like we did last year? That definitely was a smashing success.” Brynn asked, stuffing her face with more Sour Patch Kids. “Weren’t there three successful couples that emerged from that?”

“Yeah, we’re definitely gonna do that, don’t worry. But we should run more… active interference. This is all just speculation and talking. We’re not really involved! Let’s see… I vote we get involved with Jamie and Marshall first off. Gumdrop, what do you think?” She turned her head again, this time focusing her attentions on Marshall. “That one will be uber easy, I think. Jamie’s probably super easy. Although, we’ll have to keep Hailey from feeding him unidentifiable objects…” She mused, tapping her chin.

Kit, now squished underneath her best friend, held up a thumb. She could watch how they worked out Marshall and Jamie, and go from there! Maybe she could even get some sweet tips. She wasn’t going to give up on Selena, not yet. It was way too early for that! Besides, she didn’t know anyone else that went to the school that was worth crushing on.

“You shouldn't have to change who you are to get someone to like you, sweetie, being yourself is the best thing that you can be. Trying to convert a straight is bold, and bold is good, but you should just… be careful.” Marshall gave his genuine advice to the baby candy-to-be. This wasn't going to work out, he knew that, because there was no such thing as “turning” a straight. It would be one thing if Selena was bi-curious, but the girl was closer to asexual than she was to being bi.

At Ophelia's voice, Marshall turned to face his bestie. This was the first time that he openly had admitted his interest in the sandy-haired journalist to his friends, and his cheeks felt hot at the thought of becoming the next targeted ship of his friend group. This is what he wanted, though, he was admitting that he needed help. “Well… I don't think he's easy. And I don't really want easy, I'm kinda over the whole playing around phase. I… yes. Yes, please help me.”

Cassie grinned. Finally, a mission. “Perfect! First we fix this Jamie situation, and then we can get Selena laid, because let’s be honest guys, she’s way too stressed these days,” Cassie said, her mood having done a total turnaround as she looked up at the board.

“Of course we’ll help you, Marshall. You’re our top priority. But as soon as we can get Sel off my case… the better.” Brynn stated, shuddering slightly at the thought of Selena’s bitchiness towards her earlier today. If things did work out with Sean — which obviously, they weren’t going to — she’d have to deal with Selena for the rest of eternity. How very.

“I can handle Sel. It’s not that big of a deal, I assure you. I’ll talk to her about it.” Ophelia promised, before looking over at the bed, where Truly Bliss was being truly unblissful, and had jumped on her very own friend. Ophelia snapped her fingers at Marshall and True alike, “Gumdrop, True, off of the bed. Let Kit take a nap. We’re all gonna go downstairs and get soda. Which shouldn’t be a problem… I finally told Belle I want at least four of those soda machines. The ones with like, infinity combinations?” Ophelia shrugged her shoulders.

From underneath True, a muffled Kit spoke out in jumbled tones, “Does anyone got any weed or pizza? Both would be best.”

Ophelia blinked a couple of times, but looked around at the girls. She had neither of those things…

Kit was craving the right stuff. Though, True had never tried weed before. If her mom caught the smell on her, it would the end of all days. Slipping off the bed, True ran her fingers through her hair and eyed the door, “I could go get those things? Or leave with Kit and we could go do stuff… I need to go home soon anyways and she should probably be on a bed where her parents can find her.” So much time was being wasted! Who knew what he was up to now.

“Just leave me here. The Doc knows where I am, Truly. It’ll be okay,” Kit muttered, snuggling a pillow and closing her eyes tightly. True would find her way home.

“Okay, awesome, cool. Well I’m outtie then! I need to plan Damian’s funeral.” True shuffled toward the door, making sure no one was going to stop her. Slowly but surely she will escape.

Cassie looked up as True made her way to the door, grinning. ”Bye Damian’s Little Sister! Tell your brother we say hi!”

Madison was jogging along the road, heading to the 365 combat club, as she did about three times a week though there was no hard or fast rule on which days or even what time she’d show up. It was turning dark, but Madison, like her mother before her, didn’t really care, running alone on the street in the dark. Like her mother, there were few men she couldn’t easily kick the crap out of. Granted, her mother was once a soldier and had taken lives, but even so, they’d both had similar amounts of legitimate MMA training, even if Madison couldn’t wrestle and had no interest in doing so.

It was dark when she actually arrived, and the first thing that she noticed was the sign on the door, so she looked at her sports watch. The sign said ‘closed’. Her watch said ‘not yet, it’s not’. She made this call a lot, but as she was bros with Owen, she usually got away with it. Upon entering, she froze in the doorway, with her eyes and mouth both wide open, looking around at all the damage. She didn’t even hear Owen’s comment about the sign. After an age, her gaze made its way to him.

”What the fuck happened?" she asked in a shaky voice, with the emphasis strongly on ‘fuck’.

Owen stared at Madi, and carefully considered his words. What had happened here? He couldn't tell her the truth. Well, he could, but she'd surely judge him. He wasn't ready for that right then… Owen took a breath and paused, before offering, “there was a big rat?” Hopefully, Madi caught the hint and didn't press him for any details yet.

“I got him, but I had some trouble. Wanna help me clean?” He asked, looking around at the mess of a gym.

Madison blinked, and nodded while looking around. She’d caught the hint. The rat story was horseshit, but she knew Owen well enough that she knew this was his way of saying he didn’t want to talk about it. If a punk had done this, he’d have told her, so it was either a fight, which didn’t make sense as the damage wasn’t in one area but literally everywhere. The other possibility was that he’d trashed the place himself. Which was much more likely. She wouldn’t press it.

”Alright, yeah. Where do we even start, though?" she replied.

“With the… glass.” Owen muttered, gesturing at the broken glass that more or less covered the floor. Without another word, he disappeared to a janitor’s closet, returning with a broom in each hand. He held one out to Madi, and let out a long breath, the gauze on his left hand showing red spots from the blood underneath it. “Long day,” explained, before heading to the glass and beginning to sweep some of it up, slowly. Owen was coming down from a very emotional outburst, and he would talk about it when he was ready. “I’m gonna have to get this fixed before tomorrow…” He said glumly, sighing.

Madi started sweeping too, though she wasn’t doing it slowly. She wanted to get this mess cleaned up pronto, and she came here in the hopes of getting some exercise and/or kicking somebody’s ass, so she was dearing to go. ”This isn’t the workout I was expecting to do tonight. Maybe if we get everything cleaned up and there’s still time, we can do some actual sparring."

Madi kept sweeping in silence until the glass was all in a neat pile, before getting the dustpan from where she knew it was kept, without asking for permission, and brushing it all up and dumping it in the trash. She looked around. ”What should we tackle next?"

“I mean, there’s a lot more glass.” Owen grumbled, gesturing at the blowed out vending machine, and manager’s office windows. He dropped the broom, as Madi had cleaned up most of the glass in front of the door. Owen stepped over to the vending machine, and pulled the bar out of it, turning to face Madi as he walked over to the bench. “Rat wanted a protein bar, I guess.” He said, shrugging his shoulders, as he racked the bar back onto the bench. Madi’s response to that comment was to look away and bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself laughing.

“I appreciate you helping out, by the way. I’m gonna have to call my parents though. I’ll wait till you leave.” Owen said, running his good hand through his hair, before his thoughts went back to Madi’s earlier statement of sparring, and he held up his bandaged left hand. “I’m not gonna be doing any sparring.”

”That’s a shame," Madi sighed. She made her way into the hall, and started to pick up the splintered wood. As she did so, she got a splinter and swore. She dropped the wood and looked back at Owen. ”Must have been one fucking big mouse, Owen. It better start squeaking soon or I might start losing my patience." she said in a pretty intense voice as she turned back at tried to get the splinter out with her teeth. She eventually gave up, stormed agrily over to where the gloves were kept, put one on, and lifted the wood again. ”Where do I put this?"

“Well, they weren’t mice. I like mice. These were rats; one or two of the beasties may have been snakes. If I had to name them, I’d say… Jamie, Marshall, Hailey, and Ophelia would be good names. What do you think?” Owen asked, as he sweeped some more of the glass up into a pan, and frowned. “I fucked up.” He said in explanation.

“Jamie came here, to talk to me about Trixie. He said he wanted to publish a story out of it. I didn’t want to do that, but he kept pushing. Called me a homophobe. It set me off. So I knocked him upside the head and kicked him out, then I lost my mind and I trashed the place. Blame the snakes and the rats and the general populace of our high school.”

Madison nodded. She was on the cheerleading team. She knew all about the snakes and the rats. Lee, her best friend, she was hesitant to admit, was among them. ”I’ve never paid much attention to gossip, but maybe it’s time I started. Hailey and Ophelia haven’t earned any love from me today. Hailey had a golden girl, and Ophelia kicked a perfectly talented freshmen off the team to make room for them under Hailey’s orders. I don’t really know Marshall or Jamie. I like to think I know you, though. I don’t think you’re a homophobe. Hell, I don’t even think you chea…." she trailed off. Her name might be the last thing he’d want to hear tonight. ”Anyway, where do you want me to put this wood?"

“Just put in the trash can. And of course I didn’t cheat on her, but I feel like the only people who know that, are the people who workout here. It sucks,” Owen said, dumping more of the glass into a trash can. How was he going to explain this away to his dad? “I’m definitely not a homophobe. Marshall was my best friend for like five years, but he gave up on me too.” Owen was miserable, and he could feel his head starting to throb.

“Not important. It’s over now, I’ll tidy up around here, and maybe nobody will even notice. I’ll buy new vending machines. And a new door. I hope we don’t rent those machines… But, I don’t think we really rent anything, so maybe it doesn’t even matter.” Owen looked around the gym, which was slowly beginning to look usable again.

Madi nodded as she looked around and dumped the wood in the trash can. They were making visible progress. She looked back at Owen. ”I’ll keep quiet if you want, but I feel like this situation is either going to stay fucked, or get even worse, if we leave it alone."

“Doesn’t matter to me. He ain’t comin’ back, and if he does, I’ll break his neck.” Owen said, walking over to the broken vending machine, reaching inside and withdrawing a bag of chips. “You want a snack? It’s on the house.” Owen said, gesturing toward the loot of the vending machine.

Madi nodded and wordless took a bag before opening it. By saying ‘doesn’t matter’, he may not yet realise that he’d basically given her permission to get involved. And she was going to take it. It’s not how she imagined her journey to be a more active part of the social scene would start, but it was what it was. ”You need to work on your temper, and your ability to let go of grudges. I mean that as the advice of a concerned friend. Not suggesting you try to mend bridges with anyone connected to the H.O.T girls, though. As far as I’m concerned, those bridges are better off not existing."

“Maybe. I think they’re just warped by the hive queen herself. And my temper isn’t that bad, I just get a little upset sometimes. Look, I don’t need to be lectured. And I’m upset about it still because it wasn’t even that long ago. It only happened like two months ago. Let me grieve.” Owen replied tersely, crunching on a handful of Funyuns. He looked down at the bag and frowned, “I don’t even like Funyuns. Why did I grab these?” He asked, his mouth full of more Funyuns.

”This is a blessing in disguise. Now you can buy a vending machine that sells good shit. Maybe one with protein shakes," Madi spoke, not being afraid of saying those sorts of things, because they’re bros. She knows Owen well enough that changing the subject like that was a good move, and her not being polite about it just means she’s not faking. After finishing her own Funyuns, she threw the empty bag in the trash from where she was standing. It would have gone it but bounced off the wood. ”I’ll help you finish cleaning up, then I’ve got to bounce. Can’t spend all night here."

“Don’t worry, I’ll be staying here all night, Madi.” Owen grumbled. It wasn’t like he really went home, anyway. He liked it at the gym, plus he didn’t have to deal with his mom being… well, emotional… “I appreciate the help though, I really do.” He said, with a smile shot in Madi’s direction.

After a while more of cleaning up, it was finaly free of glass and debris. Things still needed to be fixed and replaced, but nothing Madison could do there. Sh took the glove off and put it back, and headed to the front door. She turned back to Owen before leaving, and held her fist up for a bump. ”I’m off. Take care of yourself, bro."

Owen nodded, bumping her fist. “Yeah. Okay.” He said, shaking his head as she walked away. Owen walked over to the drink machine, reaching inside and grabbing a Monster. He cracked it open, and drank from it before he walked back to the ring. He laid down in the center of it and pulled out his cell phone, staring up at the ceiling and thinking back to how it got this bad. He scrolled through the contacts until he reached his mother, and tapped her smiling face. He held it to his ear and listened to the dial tone. When she picked up, Owen hardly gave her a chance to talk.

“Mom? I fucked up.’

How many sixteen year olds received private jets when they turned seventeen? Not many, but the Helmsley three had each been gifted one, and Brian Helmsley was sitting in his now, silently mulling over his plan. He had roughly… twelve percent of a plan. Really, he preferred not to get involved; Brian was well aware of his place in the social realm of the school, but he didn’t like to publicly play the game. Whoever wrote the Weekend Warrior, though, had crossed the line. Henry was supposed to act as a buffer, but that had apparently failed.

So now, Brian would have to get involved. He looked down at the piece of paper he’d been writing notes on. He had been in touch with Damian before Damian had explained he was shutting his phone off so his mother didn’t bother him, and Brian thought he had most of the story. He’d also printed off a copy of the Weekend Warrior, underlining the parts that mattered most to him.

He had now, perhaps fifteen percent of a plan.

Leaning back in the comfortable chair he sat in, Brian tapped his pen to his lips. All this, for her. He could have stayed in Sweden, where he was safe and free from this nonsense. He could live anywhere on the planet, and do anything he wanted; but before he could do any of that, the crown prince of the Helmsley family had work to do. Brian didn’t care about the bits involving Hailey and her crew; though he’d saved the video of the Owen and Marshall confrontation.

Owen, what are you doing? The last that Brian had checked, Owen and Marshall were best friends. Owen, for all intents and purposes, seemed to have lost his fucking mind. Brian would have to talk to him when he got a chance, but first he had things to handle.

Apparently, the Weekend Warrior had led to Damian getting kicked off of the team. Without the captain at its helm, Brian saw no point in maintaining his star position on the team. No one else would be able to lead them to victory, and besides; Brian stood with his captain. He had texted the coach, and had not received a reply. The text had been simple, and straightforward, expressing Brian’s resignation from the group. He assumed he was not receiving a reply because the coach was angry.

It would be dealt with in time.

After that, Brian had sent out two more text messages. One, went to his group chat with Trevor and Damian:

To: My Golden Lovers
I heard about Damian getting kicked off. I’ve already texted the coach; I’ll be quitting too.

And one went to Riley Wells, whose number he had to pull off the school’s website:

To: Riley Wells
I’ll be joining you as one of your cohosts! Have some plans for Tuesday’s episode. Will discuss later tonight! Call me by 10:30 tonight, thanks!
B

The third Helmsley needed a platform to help propel himself into the student eye, and besides: this was part of his plan. He’d take control for one show, and then Riley could go back to his regularly scheduled programming. Brian Helmsley would be center stage alongside his sisters soon, it was unfortunately necessary in order for him to right the wrong.

Brian scribbled out the note on his paper indicating that he had fifteen percent out of a plan, and replaced it with a sixty-seven. He had some ideas floating around now, and things were starting to formulate in his head. “Anastasia? Do me a favor, and text Mother and Father. See if the Destiny is available tomorrow evening. And tell them if it isn’t, to make it available.” Brian said to his assistant, referring to the superyacht owned by his family.

“Oh? May I ask what for?” The Assistant replied, in a voice with a light Irish accent, and Brian nodded.

“It’s all part of the plan, Anastasia. Don’t worry. The Weekend Warrior, and — from what Damian has told me — Hailey, have stepped out of line in the absence of myself and my sisters. The Weekend Warrior especially has attacked someone I care about quite a bit.”

“Have they now? And what are you gonna do about it?”

Brian looked down at the wrist of his dress shirt, absently fiddling with the cufflink. “I’m going to make them regret it.”

“Devilish. You sound just like your father! I approve. We’ll be touching down soon.”

Brian nodded and looked down at the paper, scratching out the sixty-seven, and replacing it with an eighty-eight percent. There was only one step left.

Once the plane touched down, and Brian was back in the comfort of his own home, he went to the conference room he and his twins had secured for their own purposes, years ago. Once a place where business of great importance that influenced the world as a whole was conducted, it now served as a place for the Helmsley three to meet and conduct business of far greater importance that led to the way the social life of their peers functioned.

Brian pulled out his phone and texted his sisters.

To: Twin 1 Twin 2
Meeting.

He picked up his pen, and reached down, scribbling out the eighty-eight. He replaced it with a one hundred percent, and circled it.

Dingggg!

Damian smashed the button, and listened to it ring throughout the house. He’d been here a lot, way back in the day. Sometimes in recent years, but not as often as he’d like. He was very happy to see that Joy had been telling the truth: Jude and Ender were gone, their cars weren’t out front. He ran a hand through his hair quickly and grabbed the ring that hung on a necklace chain around his neck, and stuffed it down his shirt. He didn’t think Joy really needed to see that…

Damian was dressed comfortably, in a pair of loose fitting jeans and a shirt that was designed to show off his chest muscles and his biceps. Damian knew why he was here, and the tight muscle shirt was proof that said pretty clearly: We’re gonna bang. Damian was confident they would and this time? No fucking booze, so he wouldn’t get puked on…

There was no Mitty pep talk beforehand. No, everything that has transpired after the party was entirely on Joy’s own accord. She wasn’t dumb, far from it. She knew why she invited Damian over. He made her feel things that night that she wanted to explore. Was this going to be a friends with benefits thing? She had no idea. She didn’t even know if that lifestyle was for her, but she did know her body craved him. He was someone she never could have, not like she cared. They were from from two different worlds. Stereotypical jock and nerd. If there was one thing Joy was too busy to think about, it was feelings, love, and sex. At least until recently. Closing the guest room door room behind her, which was designed for her babysitting needs, Lil’ Boss was now asleep and she could hear the doorbell ringing.

"WOOF!"

From outside, Rocket, the family’s rottweiler, was leashed to a tree, staring at the boy, whose visits became sparse as the years went on. He didn’t trust him! It didn’t matter if he use to be over every day when Joy was tiny. His scent may be the same, but he was a stranger! STRANGER. The big master and mistress weren’t here. It was only his best friend in the WORLD and the cutest, little boy ever. Lil’ Boss. His friend. This boy, however, Mister Big Muscle Guy, needed to leave. Right now. The big dog growled and gave the ex-jock an unpleasant glare.

Oh, shit. Damian had kinda forgot about the dog. This might end to be a bit of a problem… Damian stared back at the dog, thinking to himself. How do I deal with a dog? None of the other girls he hooked up with had dogs. Especially not big, muscular, Rottweiler dogs… Damian had to think fast. What did dogs like? Peanut butter, right?

Damian took a knee and gestured for the dog to come over. At least he knew his name; Ender talked about Rocket a lot. “Hey, Rocket. I got something for you.” Damian pulled out of his pocket, a peanut butter protein bar. He tore a piece of it off, and held it out as an offering. This either worked, or he got bit by the dog.

Hopefully, Joy would tell the world his story: Damian O’Connor did it all for the nookie.

Rocket cautiously prowled closer, keeping his eyes on the boy’s face. Something smelled real good. He couldn’t deny whatever this boy had was something worth eating. A temporary truce. For food. And the boy remembered his NAME. This was important in the Rocket judgement process. The big dog approached the stupid, handsome boy and chomed the food out of his hand. Oh this was really good. Okay. This boy gets points. He knows how to treat a dog. Rocket’s attention immediately turned to the open door and the dog started wagging his tiny tail and bouncing around the lawn. Joy! Joy! Joy!

"WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"

The small redhead was wearing a small tank and shorts since she was comfortable in her skin and this is how she dressed in her own home. She came up beside Damian and knelt down, giving her Rocket pets, and rubbing his belly. “Thanks for getting him quiet. He would of woken up Bartimaeus.” Rocket was so lovable! She would be so sad if she ever lost him.

Rocket rolled off the ground and licked his mistress’ face, then he gave Damian a challenging look that read: she loves me more. Once he made his message clear, he pranced on her. Joy couldn’t help but giggle.

Damian was just happy to be alive. That dog was a big motherfucker. So was Damian, but dogs had a much higher bite force than humans, and Damian was willing to give up one of his protein bars to make himself more likely to live. He looked over at Joy, finally giving himself a chance to take in what she was wearing, He nodded, more to himself than to her, but he smiled. “Yeah, no problem. Is Bartimaeus the kid you’re babysitting? That’s a very… unique name.” Damian said. He wisely chose, however, not to get involved with the dog giving Joy love. Instead of pulling her away, or trying to tug the dog out of the way so he could get a kiss, Damian had a better idea. He unwrapped the rest of the protein bar, and tossed it off to the side, in an effort to get Rocket to shoo, without offending him.

Pets were important. Sure, none of the girls he’d hooked up with before had dogs. But they’d had cats, and he already knew that if a pet hated you, their owner would. So he had to play it safe with Rocket. He wanted to have at least some good faith with the dog. “So what’s the plan for the night?”

Wiping her face of the dog slobber, Joy watched Rocket prance off excitedly before turning her attention toward her friend. “Bartimaeus is named after Mr. Locke himself, father to our lovely ‘Queen’ and your boy, Henry. My uncle is like best friend’s with the dude. I call him Lil’ Boss because it has a nice ring to it and his actual name is a mouthful.” Joy had a warm glow of confidence emitting from her and a smile that were like a ray of sunshine as she led Damian inside. “I was thinking we watch something. I don’t want anything too loud. There’s a little kid sleeping upstairs.” The nerd shrugged, turning on her heel to face her childhood friend. Teasingly, she batted her eyelashes, “Unless you had something else in mind?”

Damian watched as the dog walked away, and smiled to himself. That was a success, as far as he was concerned! He stood up to his full height as Joy did, and he listened to what she had to say. Yeah, ‘Bartimaeus’ was a bit of a mouthful, Damian had to agree. When she mentioned not being too loud, Damian almost (though he didn’t) made a dissatisfied face. He shut the door quietly behind himself, and when she suggested that he might have ‘something else’ in mind, Damian looked surprised, and touched his chest in a way designed to show off his biceps, and he spoke in shocked tones. “Me? Never.” Then his face burst into a huge smile and he gestured toward the interior of the home. “Lead the way.”

“How about the basement? We have a nice home theater setup.” Along with comfy loveseats, the atmosphere downstairs felt just right. It made you want to cuddle. What should they even watch? Joy walked ahead, leading them downstairs. Hooked on her pants was the baby monitor, in case the toddler woke up.

Damian could work with basements. Basements were private and chilly, which led to easy cuddling. Plus, if he knew Ender (and he did), then there would be a pretty dope setup down there. Ender had a thing for bigger, more cinematic movies, and that was sure to lead to a nice stereo system, BUT, that didn’t really matter. Unless they were watching something so mind numbingly good that it distracted Damian from his goal. “What are we watching?”

Shrugging to his question, Joy grabbed the remote and leaned on one of the chairs, her butt being nicely displayed. Turning the television on, her eyes brightened. Her mother left her reruns playing for American Wrestling Entertainment. Both her and Damian would know this like they knew the back of their palms. Their parents were major fans of the show and well, his dad was Morgana’s cousin. This would be a good
thing to leave on! They could have it as background noise and get straight to business. But she probably should be a good hostess first. Turning her body to face him, she tilted her head and asked, “Do you want anything to eat? Drink?”

Oh, right on. Damian had been staring at the butt that was being displayed to him like an offering, but then… wrestling was on, and Damian’s eyes moved toward the TV. He found his way to the loveseat and plopped down, before glancing at her and responding to her question. “Huh? Uh, I like orange juice. And popcorn. But… not together. Maybe just the popcorn?” Which episode was this? He should know this stuff, this was golden era AWE.

For some reason, Joy had a sudden bad feeling about this but she shrugged it off and let him do his thing. Luckily, there was a small kitchenette down here, by the bar, so providing popcorn in less than five minutes was no problem. She would hold off eating until after her pursuit, which honestly, she had no idea what she was doing, she was simply going off articles she’s read online. In time, Joy placed the popcorn on the side stand beside Damian and then boldly went on top of him, wrapping her arms around his neck and saying, “So are we going to do this or what?” Man, if her parents heard the words coming out of her mouth.... Joy hoped Damian didn’t get upset with this move — he seemed to like sexual advances when it came to girls touching him. And this was pretty sexual. She was practically riding him.

As Joy walked off to make popcorn, it slowly dawned on Damian what episode was unfolding before them. This was the one where Caiden Winters attacked Roddy Quinn. And it still, to this day, looked real as far as Damian was concerned. There was no way that was a rigged window, right? Roddy bled after getting his head thrown into it! That meant it was real, right? Damian leaned closer to the TV.

Then, Joy threw herself at him, and Damian had to slightly move his neck to see the TV. Whoops, losing sight of the end game here, Damian. He turned his attention back to Joy, “Yeah, Joy. Totally gonna do this.” Damian reached his hands around her and grabbed at her butt, simultaneously moving his neck again to confirm… yeah, commercial break. We’re good.

The butt grab caused her to flinch a little and give out a little yelp. Okay. It was time. You got this, Joy. Part of her wanted to admit she was kind of scared, but another part of her wanted to follow the excitement. Kylie did make this seem like the best thing the world had to offer. She gently leaned in and kissed his warm lips. Unlike the kisses before, the one at the library, the make out sessions at the party, this one was softer, kinder, as if Joy was recognizing the situation she was in and wanted to ease into things.

Damian recognized the speed Joy was going and what she wanted. Almost as if to signify that he got it, and was going to take it slowly, Damian slid his hands off of her butt. He let her guide the way at first, and when the time was right, Damian would swoop in and handle business. For now, he kept the kiss light and slow, keeping his hands away from her more delicate areas.

Their breaths mingled, as she ran her fingers through his hair. Leaning in closer, giving them no space in between, Joy could feel it was time to crank it up a notch. As such, she slipped a surprise in his mouth and grew in heat and intensity. She couldn’t ponder over anything else besides making this kiss worth his time. Was she even good at this? Joy was locked in the present and she hoped Damian was too.

And Damian was into it. He was totally into it, and his hands had slid back down to their original place, to pull her closer, before one of them slid around her waist and to her stomach, gliding up underneath her camis, before Damian’s eye caught the show clicking back on. He pulled himself away from her and twisted around to watch the screen, “Hold on, Joy. Just oneeee second, this is the best part.”

Ouch.

Yeah, there was the bad feeling again. Joy, still very much straddling him, stared at the boy who needed to see this part, even if he’s probably saw this scene countless times. Her heart sunk and she didn’t necessarily understand why. The feeling was strange. The excitement that was inside of her gulped into something… dark? The fire in her eyes were dowsed with ice water. She wasn’t crying, but her stare did grow distant. What was she doing? Why was she trying so hard to lose her virginity? With a childhood friend too…

Joy could get up and end things right here and now. Or she could wait. Maybe the feeling would pass. She didn’t know what to do, so she did the one thing that made sense. She turned her body around, to where her bottom sat on his lap, rested her head on his chest, and watched the screen in silence.

Damian had a feeling he’d done something wrong. It wasn’t hard to see the light in her eyes go out, and he felt bad as she turned away from him. She snuggled against him, though, so there was at least that. He silently wrapped his arms around her, and did focus on the TV, watching as the part he’d waited the whole show for popped on: Caiden Winters’s interview with Joy Ryder.

This was where he beat up an old man! Nice.


This was a really good part for AWE, she’d admit and the woman that shared her name was phenomenal at her job. Her mother told her that no one prepared Joy Ryder for this interview. She had no idea and so all her expressions when Caiden started to beat Roddy up were genuine and purely in the moment. Caiden was such a beast too. He truly changed things up for AWE, for the better. Those were the best days for the show and her parents still mark out to this day. Her mom is surprisingly a huge wrestling fan, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. It was tradition at the Darling house to invite family over and host AWE PPV viewings.

The feeling was still there but it could be worse. Joy Darling had AWE to keep her mind busy, not thinking of things like did she bore him? What did she do that he didn’t like? How could she do better? If anything, that was all her emotions talking. What even were emotions? The rational side of her brain knew that the O’Connors loved this show just as much as her family did. Damian’s current distracted self had nothing to do with the lust that had transpired a few minutes okay. She did nothing wrong… but then why was her brain being dumb? She felt dumb. Not good enough. This was so dumb.

After the segment was over, Damian was much more interested in Joy. He pulled his shirt off, and picked her up, turning her around so they were once again facing and she was straddling him once more. It was easy for him to lift her up — Damian was real jacked. And now, he was shirtless; and this time she wasn’t too drunk to not appreciate him. “Where were we?” He asked, kissing her lips softly.

This was sudden and unexpected. Her mind was completely frazzled with him moving her with no effort at all. And for the first time in their teen lives, Joy had a good glimpse of his body. He was swelling with muscle and strength and wow. He was huge. His skin was so tempting to touch and like the curious person she naturally was, she let her soft, delicate hands that held the innocence of a young girl explore his broad shoulders, his arms, his chest… was this even real life? He was chiseled to perfection like some greek demigod or something.

Okay, she needed to stop admiring his body and get to work. Nuzzling his neck with delicate kisses, they felt like whispers, she could feel herself trembling with anticipation once more.

Yeah, that worked. Damian could tell she was already back into it, and he smiled as she felt him up, giving her a nod that seemed to almost encourage it. See, Snake? The work out before hand helped. It tightened the muscles and made them harder without him flexing. It was hot, the internet told him so. As she peppered him with kisses against his neck, Damian again slid his hands up her shirt. This time, for sure, they’d get somewhere.

It tickled. His touch caused her to squirm a little, but she was focused on the project at hand. Warmth spread out through her entire body, as she took in his scent and continued to give his neck attention. A kiss was one of the most strangest things that led to even more stranger things. Things that were beyond her but she kind of liked it. After taking a deep breath in, she started to suck his neck… they call this online a hickey.

Damian was focused now, using his hands to carefully grope her. So focused, in fact, that he forgot about the TV, and… well, most of what was behind them. This led to him not noticing when the door opened, and the kid that Joy was babysitting stood there, totally focused on Joy and this new guy wrestling while they watched wrestling!

Bartimaeus was jealous and he totally wanted in. And the new guy didn’t have a shirt on! He didn’t want a shirt on! The kid ripped his shirt off and screamed a battle cry, “HIYAAAA!” While he charged the pair of them, jumping up onto the couch and punching the new guy — play punches, of course. Daddy had taught him well.

Oh shit. Joy instinctively hopped off of Damian and allowed Lil’ Boss to spar with her… visitor. Play it up like you weren’t just going to go for his… “Lil’ Boss, showing an immense amount of confidence here in the beginning of this match! What an explosive start. Can you hear the crowd go wild? Big Dog doesn’t stand a chance!” Tyty was far too young to be corrupted by her, so she’d play it off like she was the Wade Palmer of this show.

Damian looked up as Joy jumped off of him, turning to face the source of the punches he was receiving, just in time to get one right to the face. He leaned back, holding up his hands, “Wait, wait, wait! Time out.” He protested, and the little dude stopped, his eyes wide. He’d just busted Joy’s friend in the face… Oops. “We can wrestle, if that’s uh, what you’re going for… do you want me to try hard?”

“Yeah! Try your hardest!” The little dude replied, and Damian shrugged, getting down on his knees on the carpet, gesturing for the little guy to try again. Steadying himself this time, Damian watched as the little guy went back to the doorway, and sprinted at him again, with his seemingly customary battle cry, “HIYAAAAA!” The little guy jumped in the air to karate kick Damian in the face, only this time, Damian caught him.

Damian caught the little guy by the leg and spun him around, before tossing him up into the air. The little guy’s eyes went wide — he had never been this high up before — but before he could truly enjoy it, he came back down! And Damian caught him again, holding him in a full nelson. The little guy struggled, but there was nothing he could do to break the big guy’s grasp.

After almost two entire minutes of struggling, the Lil Boss stopped and panted, “Okay, I think I’m done now. Wanna play Mario Karts? I get to be DK.” Damian dropped him down, and shrugged.

“Sure, why not?”

Joy couldn’t help but smile at the display. Quietly, she let the boys set up the game and she went upstairs to the kitchen to get Bartimaeus juice and apple slices, with peanut butter on the side. Jericho would be home soon to pick him up.

After a few minutes of set up, the two boys were racing Mario Karts. Both of them were notably still shirtless, and Damian was lying on his belly on the carpet, with Bartimaeus sitting on his back, straddling him in a far less lewd way than Joy had before, with his juice cup by his side, and his plate of apple slices on Damian’s head. They raced a few times (Damian even let him win once or twice, but they mostly did team races), before Damian announced that it was time for him to take off. He gave Joy a kiss, and a promise to do it again — soon. The little dude demanded a hug, and was given one, before Damian slipped off, after reluctantly pulling his shirt back on.

The little guy allowed himself to be redressed by Joy, before his father pulled up to the house and knocked on the door. After being handed over, Bartimaeus eagerly told his father about his night, unintentionally spilling the beans for Joy. “I got to wrestle! Cuz I came downstairs to the basement and Joy and this guy were wrestling, and I think she was winnin’ cuz she was on top and he had his shirt off and I think that’s means he’s losing! But I dunno and I just really love Joy and want her to win cuz she’s best but anyway after they stopped wrestling, I wanted to wrestle him and I lost cuz he’s really big and strong, but then we played Mario Kart and I beat him cuz I’m real good at Mario Kart.”

Jericho listened to everything his son had to say, before taking a chance to look at Joy, raising an eyebrow as he spoke, asking the little guy a question, “Wrestling, huh? That’s cool, I’m glad you had fun!” He kissed Bartimaeus’s forehead, before again turning his gaze onto Joy. “What was his name, buddy?”

“Damian!”

“Damian? Uh-huh. Well, let’s agree to not tell mommy about this, sound good?”

“Yeah huh!”

Jericho took this chance to give Joy a chance to respond.

Joy’s cheeks were scorching red, like her hair, as she mumbled, “...keep it a secret, for now. My parents don’t need to know what I tried to do today, under their roof.” She couldn’t look her uncle in the eyes, that’s how embarrassed she was. Joy never got this emotionally worked up about anything unless she was watching Star Wars or something. Her attention went to Lil’ Boss. as she twinkled with an adoring smile, “I love you too, Lil’ Boss. Next time. I’m sure you’ll take him down.” Wait, there was going to be a next time? Joy wasn’t helping her case, at all.

“I won’t tell ‘em anything. And when you do do the do, let me know. I’ll run defense and help with the explanations. Just… just make sure he wears a… rubber… mask. Or, something. I dunno. I trust you.” While Jericho talked, the lil guy snuggled up against his father. Bartimaeus was sleepy. “Alright, I gotta get him home. Amie will be mad if he’s asleep when I get him inside. If you need help, you can call me. With this stuff, I mean.” Jericho waved, his farewell, and got inside the car, after loading Bartimaeus in the backseat.

“Uh, okay… bye Uncle JJ.” Joy watched the man take his leave. Her heart somehow returned to that hopeless feeling from earlier. She wanted to try again, but what if the repercussions were horrible?

What was this feeling…

Rose didn’t know how she should feel about her day so far (especially after the Shauna and Damian showdown in drama). She hadn’t yet gotten an opportunity to talk to her brother about everything because he’s been preoccupied with Quincy ever since the party — who wouldn’t? Quincy was so nice, so chill, and so pretty, it made complete sense that her and her brother clicked. Her brother deserved someone like Q to give him butterflies. How did butterflies feel? Rose’s cheeks shifted to a light pink as she thought about the party, again.

Damn that party.

Q would be one of the only girls Rose felt comfortable with getting advice from, that wasn’t her mama, or her auntie Lala. Rose didn’t have many girl friends. There was Pippa, but Pippa had gotten sick and taken an underdetermined leave of absence. Then there was the rest of Justin Credible’s crew and their wives and their children, but they weren’t necessarily the core of Rose’s family. Usually, it was Rose, A Double, and the boys. Quincy was a perfect addition, having joined the group a little less than a year ago, and eased in like it was nothing, which reminds her! Rose needed to ask Q if she could take pictures of her around the city. Maybe they can set some time aside tomorrow to do that.

Parking the Trip Ship (also goes by Weed Wagon and the Burn Bus) in front of the Taco Spot, since more often than not, Rose drove everyone around, and her mama wanted her to have a safe ride, but a big ride (just in case). The blonde hopped out of her vibrant car, which could be seen a mile away. It smelt of fresh, very fresh weed, since Rose took the time after theatre to smoke the rest of Doc’s stuff, having spread her weed throughout the school day. Absolutely necessary. She was fortunate that her mom got her a car she could make her own. Personalize it however she’d like! In another life, perhaps Rose would’ve been a hippie, but in this life, she was a girl with a van, and lots of friends that made her happy.

Entering the Taco Spot, Rose gave Larry Boy, the usual cashier working when they came by, which was at least three times a week, a big grin and kiddish wave, before making her way to the table she knew that her brother would be at. Their table. They were regulars. Tacos were amazing. Even better when high.

And weed, for Rose, was the best thing known to man, ESPECIALLY when you had anxiety out the wazoo, like her. She felt like she could now talk about things in a calm and orderly manner. Her eyes lightened up when she saw Q and Wyatt too. “Hihi! How’s everyone?”

Quincy was tucked under A Double’s arm, leaning into him as they waited for the others. When Rose walked over, she grinned, and waved. “Hey, Rose!” she said. Rose was good people, in Quincy’s book, at least. She was eccentric, sure, and yeah, people thought she was weird, but she was always nice to Q, and that’s what mattered.

When Q greeted Rose, Wyatt looked up from his phone and a grin burst across his face. “Rose!” he exclaimed, patting the seat next to him, his way of saying ‘Sit next to me.’

When Rafael had received the group text for tacos towards the end of anime club, he had quickly agreed to join the rest of his crew. He was stoned, and when he was stoned, he got hungry as fuck (who didn’t?). Riff invited his new, small, pretty friend to join them, and she had mentioned that she needed to head home first. The Taco Spot was quite a distance from the school, but if Raf got on his board and headed there right after club, he would probably beat Gib-Gab. As it turns out, he did beat Gabriela, but the rest of the gang was already seated upon his arrival.

Rafael skated in through the restaurant doorway, which was propped open to allow some ventilation through the crowded dining area. Larry gave Riff a stern glare and called him out by name to put the skateboard away. Raf obliged, buckling the board up to his backpack once more with an apologetical smile and a friendly wave towards the clerk.

“Holaaa” Rafael greeted his friends happily, jogging towards their shared table. Using his speed and momentum, Riff jumped up and slid into the booth — crash landing into Q and A Dubs. He was small, so it didn’t really hurt, it just smooshed the three of them into the bench seat together. Cozy… it felt nice. “What’s up? I think I could eat like… fifteen tacos right now.”

A Double was busy, and hadn’t really looked up at either Raf, or Rose. His nose was buried in his phone, and the one who had the most of his attention was Q, who had pulled his arm around her of her own volition, snuggling into him. A Double was busy, he was playing Pokémon, and he had priorities. He didn’t have to make his order, they knew what he wanted, he got the same stuff almost every day, and he wanted to play Pokémon.

As soon as they’d walked inside, A Double had sat down at the table, and pulled out his phone, downloaded a GameBoy Emulator, and Pokémon Yellow. Now, he was playing it. He’d made it through the first route, and was currently doing his best to beat up Brock. It wasn’t working.

When he felt Raf shove into them, though, he finally looked up, blinking twice as he saw Rose and Raf having arrived. “Oh, hey guys! When did you get here?”

“Just now, Double A.” Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance, crossing her arms as she sat close to Wyatt. Not as close as Q was with her brother, but close enough to show they were buddy buddy. “I have stuff I need to tell you, when you can take time out of your busy schedule for me.” He was such a butt.

“Oh… right… I have stuff to tell you too. But like, everyone, not just Dubs.” Rose had unintentionally reminded Rafael that he needed to tell them about their potential sixth arrival. He probably should have included that in his text to the group chat, but oh well, in person was better. “I found someone shorter than me, guys. At anime club. So maybe I won’t be the babiest burner now. I invited her, and she’s cool, and likes DnD and anime and stuff, so, I hope she comes.”

As if on cue, the door entered, and in walked a girl who was indeed shorter than Raf. She had medium length blonde hair that looked as if it had recently had a battle with a hairbrush and won. Her roots were very dark, though, and her hair was an unnatural, silvery blonde. She was definitely born brunette. She was wearing boots, skinny jeans, and a leather jacket over a t-shirt with a rickroll meme on it. At odds with this meticulously crafted ‘don’t give a shit’ look was her conspicuous lipgloss. The girl grinned a giddy smile as she made her way over to the group, waving.

Q grinned at the new arrival. It wasn’t uncommon for them to invite different people to hang out with them, in fact it was pretty normal. But for Raf to invite a girl? And a pretty girl at that? Well, that was new. Quincy looked her up and down, analyzing her. She’d clearly been going for an easygoing look, something that screamed ‘I’m fun! But wholesome!’ The lip gloss though, was a clear sign that she wanted someone to notice her. Smirking, Q turned to Raf. “Raf, why don’t you introduce us to your friend?” Q suggested.

While Q was clear of the new girl’s intentions, Rose was sipping Wyatt’s cherry coke through a bendy straw, she has a bunch of bendy straws in her bag, staring dumbly at the girl. The girl was cute. A new person! Hopefully she was cool and didn’t mind weed. They all smelled like it, most definitely. Rose was never one to understand when people made subtle, or blaring obvious, advances… she was a cinnamon roll.

After explaining that they should expect a newcomer, Rafael immediately went to work on snacking. There was a huge platter of loaded nachos in the center of the table, and they had Raf’s name all over them. Oh, wow, was it possible for a boy to be this hungry and not be dying? It sure felt like death. Riff meticulously crafted the most ideal bite of nacho known to man — precariously balanced atop a single tortilla chip — and went to lift it to his mouth.

“Huh?” Raf looked over to Quincy when she spoke, clearly disturbed that his enjoyment of this perfect nacho was interrupted. He went back to attempting to eat it as he followed her gaze to the doorway. Woah. The chip halted in it’s journey, caught in limbo, as Rafael stared at the new arrival. There he sat, stunned and frozen in time, with his mouth agape and a chip poised in front of it. And he just… stared.

A Double did not speak. He did, however, put his phone down and lean across his lover, reaching out with a single finger, and closed Raf’s mouth for him. A Double didn’t want like… a bug to fly in there, or something.

“Or don’t. Sorry about him, I’m Quincy,” Q said, grinning and waving at the new girl. Raf was head over heels, clearly, but hopefully Q could distract her for a second, so Raf could at least remember how to speak. “This is my boyfriend, A Double, and that’s Wyatt, and this is Rose,” she explained, gesturing to her friends.

Raf’s reaction honestly caught Gab off guard, and for a moment, she was as stunned as he was, but it passed long before his did. She’d dressed to make a good honest impression, minus the lip gloss. Was that for Raf?....yes. Was she expecting this reaction? Even after this afternoon, no. Not at all. Raf was doing his best impression of her when he told her he thought she was pretty. It was flattering, but a little embarrassing. And they were in a group. She turned her attention away from him for now and turned to Quincy. “Hey!” she greeted to every member of the group in turn. “I’m Gabby. Gabriela Garcia. Nice t’meet you all!” She then sat down at the last available space; opposite Raf.

“Gabriela,” Raf greeted her without using her nickname, which led him to fall into a mexican accent as he said her name in full. He smiled then, having fully recovered from his stoned and stunned state. Riff wasn’t shy by any means, he simply didn’t expect her to look like that when she walked in. She didn’t look like that earlier! It wasn’t his fault… “You made it! Yes, this is Gib-Gab. She’s gonna be our new DM, and make us play regularly. Maybe.”

“Oh heyyyyy GG, Double G, G-aroni! It’s nice to meet you.” Rose can get behind the name. Lots of nickname potential. “I love dungeons and dragons. Ma and dad use to play it all the time. Now they’re in Japan having the time of their lives without meeeeee.” Gimme some Nachos, Raf! Rose went for the food. She was famished.

Wyatt waved enthusiastically at the new addition to their ragtag little group. “Hi! I’m Wyatt! Well, you knew that, but y’know. Just making sure. Just warning you about our D&D team though. We tend to suck. And by that, I mean we get stoned and never finish,” Wyatt explained, grinning. “You go to BHHS?”

The moment she heard Rose’s first sentence, she knew she’d like her. Wyatt also welcomed her. After listening to them both, she tried to answer them both at once, too excited and not having the patience to answer one, and then the other. “Yup! I go to BHHS. I’m a freshman. And I’ve never been a DM before, but how hard can it be? I’ve seen it done for years!” She then leaned towards Rose. She wouldn’t try and copy Rose’s nickname game. Besides, Rose was perfectly fine. “So, Rose. Your parents are in Japan? Sugoi! I’ve always wanted to take a vacation there!”

“Mhm! They’re in powder heaven, Niseko United, with Adubs’ parents. Livin’ uncle’s dreams on the slopes. Oh, and so you’re not confused when someone out of the blue calls me Ana, my full name is Ilyana Rosalyn Powers. It’s rare though, since that’s my grandma. She’s number one Ana. And Adubs and me are basically related.” Rose clicked her tongue, a gentle smile gracing her face, when suddenly their table was blessed with TACOS. They were regulars so usually the employees just gave them a bunch of food they usually ordered.

The waiter was surprised at the lively bunch. No, not really, this wouldn’t be the first time someone new has shown up at their table, nor was it the first time these kids were loud and full of energy. He happily stared at the newcomer. “What can I get you?” He patiently asked. Maybe she’d become a regular and he wouldn’t have to ask for her order. That would make his job easy as balls.

Gabby hadn’t even looked at the menu yet, and quickly grabbed it, scanned it, and selected the first thing she saw that she thought she’d really like, which was the second thing on the menu. “Yes, could I have the crunchy beef taco special, please? The waiter graciously nodded and went off on his merry way, having forgotten to ask her what she wanted to drink.

Wyatt’s eyes widened as the waiter set a platter of tacos down on the table. He grabbed one and took a bite, then looked up at Gabby. “Hey, do ya smoke, Gabby? ‘Cause, if so, we’ve got a ton of weed,” Wyatt said, his mouth full of taco. Q reached across the table and smacked Wyatt on the shoulder.

“Wyatt, you can’t just ask people if they smoke!” Quincy scolded, grabbing her own taco. Wyatt furrowed his brow, confused.

“But then, how do you find out if they do?” Wyatt asked.

Q rolled her eyes. “You don’t call them out on it in the middle of a taco restaurant, that’s for sure.”

“YES!” A Double shouted, before he looked up from his phone. He had been totally removed from everything for the past like, however long it had been, but it had been worth it. It had been worth it for two reasons, one: there were tacos now! Exciting. And two? “I beat Brock. I have my very own Boulder Badge.” A Double explained excitedly, reaching out and grabbing a taco of his own, stuffing the carne asada goodness into his mouth.

Then, he looked at Rose. “What do we need to talk about? I mean, I guess we can talk about anything. But maybe you have something specific to talk about. I dunno. I guess it’s impossible for me to know… since you never told me what you have to talk about. I don't think you did. Unless I missed it. I’ve been really paying attention to this game, cuz it’s real important I think.”

Rafael kept quiet, because food was here now, and food took precedence. He listened to his friends chat as he hungrily munched on tacos, occasionally stealing glances at Gabby. What? She was pretty, and her lips were all shiny now, and he was totally into it.

Now her brother wanted to talk. Tongue click. “Later. Not here. Let’s eat tacos.” Before taking a massive bite out of her burrito supreme, she glanced over at Gabby and gleamed, “Welcome to the table of Misfit Toys. We have our quirks, but I think we’ll be the coolest people you know. Cool people attract cool people, and I think you’re cool.”

“Thanks for thinking I’m cool!” Gabby replied to Rose, before turning her attention to Wyatt, after their last conversation was interrupted by pokemans. Gabby suddenly got quiet, and leaned in. “I’ve never smoked before, no. I’m fifteen. But, uh, I wouldn’t say no,” she smirked.

Wyatt nodded as he chewed his food, swallowing before opening his mouth. “Dope”

“Literally,” Gabby shot back, giggling at her own joke as she sat back. She spared a glance at Raf to see how he was doing and caught him staring, which made her cheeks color a little.

“You’ve never smoked?” Riff spoke up after swallowing a bite. He was already two and a half tacos in, so he felt sated enough to speak again. “I feel like I started way earlier than fifteen, but that’s prolly ‘cause I was hanging out with these older goofs.”

Ever the helpful person, A Double dug around in his pockets, before withdrawing his dab pen, which he held out to Gabby. “Here. It’s Mountain Dew flavored, which sounds gross, but really it just tastes like Mountain Dew. To be honest though, lately it’s been tasting like Q cuz she does this… thing. But you’ll be okay. I don’t think she’s gonna do that thing. You just put the pipe piece in your mouth and press the button and suck in until the button is red, then you take it out of your mouth and remember, if you aren’t coughing, you aren’t trying hard enough.”

Gabby took the dab pen, and stared at it, with a very nervous, giddy wide grin. “You know that scene in Harry Potter One where he gets his wand and then his hair starts blowing?” She asked to nobody, before staring at it a second or two longer. Then she just went for it. She did exactly as A Double instructed and sure enough she was coughing and spluttering up a storm. She handed the pen back to him. “Holy hell! How do you get used to that? It feels like if jaegerbombs weren’t a drink but were breathing in smoke from a fire!”

“Cute.” Riff remarked with a grin, having finished taco number three. “You get used to that, or, you just start to not mind it.”

Q chuckled at Gabby’s reaction, and gently took the pen from A Double’s grasp, taking a hit and exhaling like a trained professional. “See? It’s rough sometimes in the beginning, but you’ll get the hang of it,” Q explained, placing her head on A Double’s shoulder, and returning the pen to his hand.

“Especially if we take you to the 500 Acre Woods. You’ll get an automatic contact high.” Rose reached for a napkin and gently patted her face. For a moment, she forgot Gab wasn’t yet part of the group so she wouldn’t know that the 500 Acre Woods was also Dreamland which also was the place her and Adubs lived which use to have a massive weed farm but now is like a giant playground for them and her parents.

“The 500 Acre Woods?” Gabby inevitably asked. “Is that like a forest you all go to get high, or something?”

A Double shook his head, pocketing the pen back into its rightful home as he thought about how best to phrase this. “No, it’s like this place where we do fun stuff and smoke weed and stuff and chill out… and stuff. It’s called the 500 Acre Woods on account of my dad’s name being Christopher Robin. You know, like Winnie the Pooh? Anyway, we do cool stuff there. Like, uh, have you ever played golf? We play golf there. Only, instead of golf balls we use pocket bikes. And, instead of golf clubs we just drive the bikes. It’s called fifty golf. And we have a mega ramp and like a lil skatepark and stuff. It’s just five hundred acres of fun stuff, to do. And a big house. And like, an underground house, too?”

“Meanwhile, my dad likes to call it Dreamland, because that’s where their dreams came true! That’s where the magic happened and they became the extreme athletes we know today. JUSTIN CREDIBLE. Say-it-fast!” Rose’s eyes twinkled thinking about her dad performing live in front of everyone. They could’ve died countless times! But they’re still alive and probably still being insane in Japan.

Gab listened to the description of the 500 Acre Wood. “It does sound amazing, and I’d love to go there one day with you guys, but I prefer Dreamland. It’s snappier.” At that moment, her tacos arrived, and she rubbed her hands with glee and started to tuck in.

Everyone was enjoying their food in all its glory. The best feeling in the world. For a good long while, all you could hear was the sound of chewing. Stoners had priorities. Food was one of them. “Maybe this weekend? If that’s alright with my bro, which reminds me!” Rose enthusiastically chirped. “Quincyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy—” One sec. Nom. Bite the burrito. Okay, continue. “—yyyyyyyyyyyyy. Can I take pictures of you tomorrow in some of your favorite places? It’s for photography and I think you’d be the perfect model.”

Quincy grinned, covering her mouth and swallowing a bite of her taco. “Yeah, sure. I’ve gotta warn you though, I don’t think I’m that interesting,” Quincy said with a shrug. ”But if it helps you out, I’m all in.”

A Double reached for a taco, but found only despair, as his hand grabbed nothing but the cold, damp air of sadness. He stared at the platter, once full of delicious food, and felt his heart slowly drop down to the floor. He was… still hungry. He kissed Quincy, and then stood up, slipping away from the table after squirming his way past Raf. A Double wandered, like a lost puppy, to the cashier desk.

There, he spoke with the waiter, then handed him a credit card. A Double twiddled his thumbs for a few minutes, before the waiter came back with four giant bags hanging on his arms. He transferred the bags to A Double, and A Double brought them back to the table. “Me and Q are going to Dreamland to watch cartoons,” he announced. “I was still hungry, though, so I got a few more tacos. Like… like I think thirty more tacos. And some other stuff, too.”

Q shook her head, smirking, before getting up out of the booth to join A Double, relieving him of two of the bags. She turned to the others and waved, the bag in her hand flopping around. ”Bye! It was nice meeting you Gabby! I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” she said, grinning and walking out with A Double, into the mid-day warmth of Beverly Hills.

Trevor spent the remainder of his afternoon feeling guilty. He had never been in a fight before. That’s what happened out there on the football field between him and Jacob, that was a fight, he was pretty sure of it. Fights generally had winners, but Trev couldn’t tell who that was in this case. He had a busted lip, and he felt incredibly ashamed, so maybe that made him the loser? Crap… he was going to have to explain this lip to his fathers.

Staring in the visor mirror of his army green Jeep Wrangler, Trevor pondered what he would say. He couldn’t really lie to them, he loved his dads too much to lie about it. There was that, and the fact that Trevor wasn’t really capable of telling lies, unless they were the little white variety, intended to make someone else feel better. Trev sighed deeply and rubbed his hands over his face. The back of his head throbbed dully as constant reminder of the altercation that he would rather just forget about. This sucked.

He would find Riley first, Rye would know what to do. Hopefully. There was that, and he had been meaning to find Riley all day, after witnessing the crapstorm that was the Morning Show. Something was up with his little brother, and he wasn’t about to let that go undiscussed. Kicking off the engine, Trev grabbed his backpack and tossed his keys in his jeans pocket. He hoped his dads, specifically Remy, weren’t immediately at the door awaiting his arrival, so that he could find Rye.

The Wells household usually smelled delicious. Rem was always cooking or baking something fantastic, and today seemed to be no exception. Trev inhaled the pleasant aroma of something sweet and fragrant with herbs. The sounds of pots and pans could be heard from the kitchen, along with the murmur of a conversation. Good — dads were busy. Trevor headed upstairs to his brother’s room... and found it empty. Darn. He should be home by now, he hadn’t texted Trev saying that he needed a ride or anything.

There was one other place that Rye would likely be, especially if he was having as bad of a day as Trev thought he might be. The treehouse. Trevor quietly made his way to the backdoor, managing to successfully avoid the attention of his fathers again. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Trevor retrieved it to read a message from Brian Helmsley in their group chat.

From: The Dream Team
I heard about Damian getting kicked off. I already texted the coach; but I'll be taking my leave from the team, too.

Trevor stared down at the phone, deeply disturbed by the words he was reading. So much so, that he stopped walking in the middle of the backyard, and read them over three times, hoping that they would change. They didn’t. The team was losing both Damian, and Brian, and Jacob was suddenly on a rampage. Great… the BHHS football team was likely doomed.

The redhead’s first thought was to try to call Damian, to see what he knew about this. Maybe the ex-captain could convince Bri to stay on the team. No such luck, though, because Trevor’s call went straight to voicemail. Whatever, he’d deal with that later too, he guessed. Back to the task at hand. Trev approached the treehouse that had grown with the Wells boys throughout their childhood, and climbed up the ladder.

Riley was indeed in the treehouse, lying on the ground, staring at the small, hanging light bulb pendant that his dad installed three years ago. Jareth, not Remy. Remy was far too clumsy to handle something like that, but he’d at least whine to dad until he and his brother got what they wanted. Every year, their treehouse would upgrade a little. It was starting to be more like a guest house on top of a tree than a playhouse for children. The dark haired boy was having a pretty shitty day and now he was staring at a text from someone with the first initial ‘B’ saying he was joining as a co-host. How odd. How omnious. How annoying. The anonymous person even told him to call by 10:30 tonight. Why did he only put B instead of his name? There were a lot of kids with B names at their school.

Pocketing his phone, Riley wondered how his brother would feel about him almost making Savannah cry. She may have kept her composure, but Rye knew his words were harsh and ruthless. He basically called her story dumb and pointless without meaning to. There were better ways to give constructive criticism. Who’s he kidding? He didn’t really care about that.

What the boy cared about was losing his brother to someone else. To a girl, who could and would do things that Rye would never do, which ultimately would make Trevor extremely caught up and enthralled with her. Riley had no doubt Jamie had a thing for Marshall, because his expression after they came out the closet wouldn’t be engraved in his damn mind if he didn’t. And somehow, Riley took part in ruining whatever chance those two could’ve had together. At least that’s how it felt like. And now he can’t just be happy for his brother, because he knows things won’t be the same once he and Savannah announce they’re boyfriend and girlfriend.

Shit was stupid.

The trap door-like patch of floorboards at the entrance of the treehouse flipped over, and up popped a tuft of red hair. They had to widen the entranceway two years ago, so Trev could actually fit though it. He was a wide dude these days, thanks to his friendly competition with Damian. Trevor looked around the treehouse and saw Riley… laying on the floor.

“Oh, good. You’re here.” Trev said quietly and pulled himself all the way up, closing the door behind him. The eldest Wells brother sat down cross-legged next to Riley. “I wanted to talk to you about… stuff.”

“Stuff?” Rye looked up at his brother’s face, noticing his lip, before bringing his attention back to the ceiling, “Like you and Jacob duking it out on the field? You know when dad sees your face he’s going to flip.” Straight to business. Never one to dance around subjects, unless they dealt with him. They’re here to talk, so they’re going to talk. Riley wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t waiting for Trevor to seek him out.

“Err—” Trevor looked both uncomfortable, and incredibly guilty. “So… you heard about that… does, like, everyone know? And, I know he is, that’s why I came to you first.”

Sitting up, Riley shook his head, “Nope. Not yet. But I’m sure that’ll be one of the many things talked about tomorrow.” Taking out his phone once more he opened the Weekend Warrior, scanning Sunday’s post, before saying, “Savannah told me.”

“Oh.” Yeah, there was that. Surprisingly enough, Trev had yet to reflect on the fact that Savannah saw the fight. Of course she had, she was right there in the bleachers, and whether or not she knew it, her presence was partially the cause of the scuffle. Trev went to chew on his lip anxiously, and then winced. That stung. “Jacob said some really out of line stuff. That’s not the reason it happened, you know me, I can handle smack talk, but like… he was out of his mind. He tackled me, and threatened to hurt her too. It was… wild. I think the team is pretty doomed.”

Trevor sighed, letting the anxieties and frustrations out in that breath. At least, he tried too. This isn’t all that he had come up here to talk about, though. Something was wrong in Ryeland, so this conversation should go both ways. “And you? What was this morning about? …that wasn’t really like you, either.”

No, it wasn’t. He was right. Briefly dodging the question, Riley looked at his brother’s lip again, “Did you clean your lip and apply antiseptic lotion?” Not waiting for his brother’s reply, Riley picked himself up and went to the bathroom, yes bathroom, in their treehouse, and got the first aid kit. His dad was super paranoid sometimes.

“What? And face dad like this? …no way.” Trevor responded to his brother, who was already up and walking away. That quick shift in subject wasn’t a good sign. Something must really be bothering him. At the sound of Trev’s slightly louder speaking volume, there was a rustling sound in the room to the left. Probably a spooked squirrel or something.

When he returned, only then did he respond, while cleaning his brother’s face to lessen their father’s reaction, “Trixie is doing this new thing, which is why Brynn is a co-host now. I have a feeling the newspaper club isn’t doing so hot. I don’t know how I feel about her, she’s kind of a bitch, but then again, the majority of the girls at our school are kind of bitches.” Dancing around the actual issue. “Doesn’t help that A Double bailed. Though, I gotta give Owen credit. That stuff was hilarious.” Riley really didn’t want to mention Jamie or Marshall, maybe his brother wouldn’t notice him avoiding his eyes…

“Yeah, Owen’s camera skills were pretty laughable.” Trev joked, glad that Riley wasn’t super upset about that side of the wayward show. His face grew more serious, though, because all of that still didn’t explain his behavior. That, and Riley was looking anywhere but at Trevor… despite the fact that he was actively trying to fix his face. “You sure that’s it? You don’t seem okay.”

Riley kind of sucked at hiding his feelings from Trevor. Granted, if he really was trying. he wouldn’t be in the treehouse. “I think I fucked something good up.” Going to this school ‘fucking good things up’ seemed like a common trend. Not once did anyone suspect Owen and Trixie were having issues until the scandal broke out. “...but that doesn’t matter! How does it feel liking someone? You know, Damian being at dinner will totally make dad keep all his emotions on the inside, and worst case, you can totally tell him you have a thing for Savannah.” His brother’s happiness did matter to him, even if that meant they wouldn’t be close anymore. He wasn’t going to fuck his brother’s life up like he did to Jamie and Marshall. Even if it made him grit his teeth a little.

Trevor was gonna ask about Damian coming over, which he wasn’t aware of, but was never unlikely, when Riley quickly switched the subject again. “Savan—” Trev’s surprised response was cut off by the sound of more rustling. This sounded bigger than a squirrel, maybe a raccoon? Both of the Wells boys were looking cautiously in the direction of the sound — Trevor being ready to potentially fight off any rabid beast that might jump out at them.

A rabid beast appeared in the form of a short emo boy. JD stepped out of the nap room, his hair sticking up in all different directions, and there were red imprints along his cheeks in the from of crinkled sleeping bag material. He looked sleepy, and yawned as he stretched in the doorway.

“Dixon — what are you doing here?” Trev asked in surprise. At least he didn’t have to fight off a wild critter. Although, that description could be used to accurately describe the honorary youngest Wells sibling just as much as it could a rabid raccoon. There were certainly some similarities.

“Huh?” JD rubbed his eyes and then blinked a few times at the older redhead. “Whaddyu mean? I was waiting for you guys… but, I guess I fell asleep. It’s the first day back at school, so we have family dinner. ‘Member? It’s like… tradition. Even if my parents are home.”

“Have you…” Been here this entire time? Riley’s cheeks may have turned a little pink. “You were asleep, right? You didn’t hear anything?” He cleared his throat. The last thing Riley needed was JD hearing him talk to himself about his issues regarding two boys. He loved JD, don’t get him wrong, but JD wasn’t Trevor, and Riley was having a hard enough time telling his actual brother.

“What? Yeah… I was asleep. Why, were you guys talking about something good? C’mon, spill, I’m old enough!” The young teen grinned expectantly. What could the older boys be talking about that they would be scared of him overhearing besides something racy? Maybe one of them had a girlfriend… or… a boyfriend?

Waving his hands, Riley tried to change the subject yet again, “It’s nothing, nothing! We were just talking about Trevor and his girl.” Yes, use your brother as a distraction. Throw Trevor to the JD.

“Oh, well, uhh. Yeah, I mean, I hope she could be. I kinda did ask her to the movie this weekend.” Trevor admitted sheepishly, but a wide, proud smile crept across his face. He didn’t care if it hurt his split lip, Savannah was worth smiling through the pain.
The two boys exclaimed in near perfect unison. Dixon then followed it up with an additional question. “Who?!”

“Why so soon?!”

Unfortunately, their queries were not answered, as the trap door burst open again, and Damian’s head popped up, “What’s up, boyos?” Damian asked as he pulled himself up into the treehouse. He looked around at the crew that had assembled, and grinned. The gang was mostly all here! “I dunno if Trevor told you guys, but I’m gonna be stayin’ here for like, a couple of weeks probably. Until my mom calms down.” Damian explained, something that he had not yet even told Trevor. He’d even barely mentioned it to Remy in passing while slipping inside the Wells residence.

Suddenly, the treehouse had four grown teens in close proximity to each other. Cracking his knuckles, slightly uneasy, because he was slowly getting the courage to tell Trevor about the closet incident, Riley nodded his head, acknowledging Damian’s troubles, “Yeah… she was intense.” This boy right here got front rows seats to the ex-jock’s mom and her fury.

“Dude, I think she’s lost her whole mind. I dunno what got into her, but I’m screwed at home, until I have something… better to distract her with? I dunno. Anyway, what’s going on here? Anything cool happening in my absence?” Damian asked, digging into his pocket and pulling out two protein bars, one peanut butter fudge flavored, and one cinnamon roll flavored, and then he offered the cinnamon roll one to Trevor. “Here, dude. I always bring two for you, so… here.” Damian explained, shrugging his shoulders as he smiled at his best friend.

“Fantastic.” Trevor responded, happily accepting the protein bar. Dinner was probably soon, but he had football practice today, and that always left him hungry enough to eat at least two full dinners. Let alone having practice and a fist fight. “You know what’s not fantastic, though? Brian’s message. Did you get that? — also, your phone was off earlier.”

“Dude, believe me, I know it’s off. I shut it off because I knew mom would be blowing it up, and I was trying to get it in.” Damian explained, to which JD raised his eyebrows. Damian pulled his phone out and stared at it. He wasn’t exactly sure if he should boot it up quite yet… He sat it down on the floor between them, “I don’t exactly want to turn it on now? Uh, I was talking to Brian though. I think he found out about the Weekend Warrior and the way it framed _{You Know Who}, and got pretty upset. From what I gather, he’s on his way home to ‘make them pay for it,’ but I don’t know what that means, really.” Damian explained, rolling his eyes. “Why? Did he put something in the group chat?”

“Yeah… he quit the team, dude. Apparently already told Coach, too. So, basically… we’re toast this season.” Trevor sounded utterly defeated, and deflated. Damian probably didn’t want to hear about the football team, but Trev was nothing if not a completely honest person. Football was a big part of both of their lives, so he couldn’t really delete it out of their conversations entirely. “Also, Jacob pretty much attacked me today. He wants captain like, really bad or something. The team’s a mess, bro.”

“That reminds me…” Riley rubbed his head and gave his brother a sheepish smile, “I might have critiqued Savannah’s article about you—err, the team pretty harshly.”

“Is that the who? Savannah?” Dixon chimed in inquisitively. If the boys weren’t going to explain, he’d have to sleuth it out. Savannah was a unique name… he didn’t really know a lot of upperclassmen, or upperclasswomen, but he could probably figure out who she was with a name like that.

Damian had to think about things, and process the information that had been presented to him. Jacob had attacked him? Brian quit the team? What was going on in this school? Shit was out of whack… “He quit the team, really? That’s crazy. That like, really sucks. He’s pretty key in the whole… winning thing we have going on, y’know? So I don’t know what we’re gonna do about that. And Jacob attacked you? … let’s jump his ass.” Damian wasn’t a big fan of Jacob, anyway.

“Damian, you really don’t need another article about you.” The last thing Trevor’s best friend needed was more dirt for the Weekend Warrior. Riley knew if Damian wanted things to calm down about him, he’d have to stay lowkey. Plus, Riley really didn’t want his brother to make it to a headliner post of that blog.

“That, and I already have to try to explain this away.” Trevor pointed to his lip. “Dad’s gonna freak, and I need y’all to back me up. You and me gotta have a set of parents to stay with for the next few weeks, Dames. We can’t jump anyone until your mom’s feeling less crazy.” Rye gave his brother a quick dirty look. What the hell, Trevor?

“Kidding.” Trev said in response to Rye’s glare. Jeez, he was high strung these days.

“Guess you got a point. Could crash at the Helmsley’s, though. I bet Brian would be okay with it… Geez, he busted you, huh? I hope you beat his fucking ass bad, dude. If you didn’t, I just might.” Damian said, frowning. “Hey, are we gonna ask about my night, or what?”

Trevor shrugged in response to Damian saying that he hoped Trev beat Jake’s ass. Did he? He certainly wasn’t the only one who took hits… he just didn’t stick around long enough to know what Jacob looked like after the fact. Instead of Trevor, Dixon responded. “Who was the lucky lady this time?”

Damian grinned. It was time to talk about his night! He liked doing this; call it a bragging thing, but he loved it. Damian clapped his hands together, and began to talk about his night. “It was Joy Darling. I didn’t get it in yet, but I almost did, so that’s good enough for me. She was in, like, short shorts… really, really short shorts, and one of those shirts that girls wear when they go to sleep that are like super hot. I don’t know what they’re called, but I know she wore it and it was hot and I want her to wear it again. But, like, I got distracted? Because she put on AWE, and I… I really like AWE, okay? I can’t help it. So I stopped sucking on her tongue to watch part of it and she got pretty upset, then I did the whole thing where I take off my shirt and she was super duper into it, then I went to take her shirt off and like the kid she was babysitting showed up, and he hit me in the face… not as hard as Trevor got bopped, but anyway. He wanted to wrestle. So I wrestled him! And I fucked him up, cuz he’s a kid. Then we played Mario Kart and then I left and now I’m here. Anyway, that’s my night. Now I can look Ender in the eyes and say ‘I’ve slapped your daughter’s ass and groped her boobs.’ Not that I would, because he’d probably… kill me. Like, with a gun?” Damian said, absently fiddling with the ring on his necklace.

“Wait. Joy? Most likely to be valedictorian Joy? The girl who could do a rubix cube really fucking fast… Joy? The one who probably should be a mathlete but avoids all school clubs Joy?” Riley could go on and on and on about Joy and her quirks… but Damian most definitely got the point. This didn’t sound like her at all, but what did Riley know! His brother seemed like he would fight Jacob again once things calmed down. That didn’t sound like Trevor either.

“Yep! One and the same. We’re totally a thing now, I’ve resolved to make her mine and this was just me sealing the deal.” Damian explained, grinning widely. “That’s why I’m in such a good mood even though I didn’t technically get laid. I have a girlfriend now. So that’s new! It’s the first time, I think… But I really dig her, so it’s all good. I mean, she puked on me. So she has to want to date me, right?”

What the hell was Riley’s life? Everyone was getting girlfriends. First Trevor, now Damian. Riley snapped his head to JD and barked, “Do you have someone I don’t know about?”

“W-what?” Dixon’s cheeks flushed red hot at that. His mind immediately wandered to someone, but that… that just pissed him right the fuck off. Crinkling his eyebrows together, he practically grimaced at Riley and snapped: “No! Of course not!” JD crossed his arms in a thoroughly grumpy gesture.

“HEY!” A familiar voice called up the ladder of the treehouse.

“Sup, Pops?” Trevor called back down to his father — the one that would be slightly less likely to freak about his afterschool activities.

“Dinner’s ready. Get your asses at the table, all four of ‘em. I know you’re all here, and Rem cooked enough for a damn army.”

As Becca’s car glided along the streets of Beverly Hills, bringing her the short distance to the Green’s estate, Becca realized that she had missed this place. The luxurious, over the top mansions, the trimmed hedges, the blue skies. The untamed hills of Sweden, where one of her family’s castles was nestled, could never offer the same appeals that home could. She grinned. Sweden’s made me sentimental. Wild, she thought, as her vehicle pulled up to the gate that closed off the Green’s driveway.

Once through the gate, the car pulled up to the front of the house, where Becca got out and strutted towards the door. The Greens were long time friends of the Helmsleys, and Becca and her siblings had practically grown up with their children. A sinister piece of her was hoping that Hailey would be home, to witness her return, but that wasn’t the main goal of her mission today. She was here for Henry. Well, really, she was here to get laid. Henry was a vehicle for that purpose. Smirking ever so slightly, and tousling her dark hair, Becca waltzed up to the front door and pressed the doorbell, sounding a loud bell throughout the interior of the modern day palace.

It didn’t take long before the door swung open, though rather than Henry or even one of his siblings or one of his girls, it was a servant. They took one look at Becca, and knew who she was here for. They lead her through the winding halls, and up the staircases to the room she already knew the location of, and opened the door for her. Henry Green was sitting at his desk, typing furiously at his computer — it didn’t take a genius to guess that he wasn’t doing homework. When the door flung open, he spun around, squinting.

He was going to be angry; he’d very specifically said not to bug him, but when he saw it was Becca, he channeled his anger elsewhere. The servant pushed the girl inside, and pulled the door shut, and Henry jumped to his feet, “Shit is FUCKED!” He snapped, standing up and crossing the distance to kiss her. “Stupid sister and the stupid Weekend Warrior got way too heavy way too fast. And I misplaced —” Henry was very particular about his word choice, and he used his hands to emphasize his point, “Min and Parker! It’s been a shit day. And I got detention every day, and I have to try and help the yearbook committee. All I wanted, was for Parker to have a moment in the spotlight, man.” Henry pulled a pen out from behind his ear and hurled it at the wall.

“FUCK.”

Becca raised her eyebrows at Henry’s outburst, smirking a bit before bending down and taking off her shoes. They both knew the routine. This may have been their first meeting in quite some time, but you never forget how to have casual sex. Well, Becca never forgot. Once her shoes were neatly placed against the wall, she closed the gap between her and Henry, kissing him once more before pulling away. “Christ, I have missed making out. How the hell do you lose two people? Wait, why do you have detention?” Becca asked as she dipped in to kiss Henry’s neck. If there was one thing Becca could do, it was multitask.

Henry let himself fall back onto the bed, bringing Becca with him onto his lap. He furrowed his brow slightly at the question, though he tilted his head a bit to give her more available access. “I thought you had the deets already? Whatever. Damian and I got the axe for the party, dude. He got kicked off the team, and we both have indefinite detentions. I have in school suspension every Friday, too. It blows.” Henry wasn’t quite as acute at multitasking as Becca was, but he’d figure it out. “What do you mean you missed making out? Were there no cute Swedish boys?”

Becca pursed her lips for a moment as Henry explained the situation. Damian kicked off the team? Both him and Henry saddled with detentions? She’d been gone for too long. Clearly, Hailey had been working hard. “Surprisingly dry in Sweden. There were a few that were up to my standards, but they weren’t any good,” Becca explained, leaning down to make out with Henry for a moment, then coming back up so she could pull his shirt off. “So you have a plan right? We need to retaliate. I didn’t come back from Sweden to be your sister’s bitch every day at school,” Becca said.

Henry let his shirt be torn off and thrown to the side, before shaking his head. “No, I don’t have a plan. The Weekend Warrior shit talked Parker, though, so I was actually hoping You-Know-Who might do something about it… I mean, I kind of have a plan. I was thinking like, maybe we could have Damian do an interview with whoever writes the slam blog, and maybe set a couple of things straight. Becca, all of my brain blood is in my boner, dude.” Henry said finally, pouting. “I’ve had to do everything myself with you guys gone and it’s not workin’ at all. She’s lost her mind! She made Owen and Trixie break up.”

“Wait. She did what?” Becca asked, the shock and awe clear in her voice. Hailey going after Owen and Trixie, now that was a power move, Becca could admit that much. She pulled off her shirt and threw it to the side, then looked down at Henry. “Y’know, I fucking hate your sister,” she said, grimacing and running a hand through her hair. “If you can figure out how to get in touch with the Warrior then let’s do so. Getting Damian’s voice out there will be good. Martyr him, make people feel bad,” Becca said, before going in for another kiss. “Tell the boys that we’re meeting tomorrow to discuss our next move,” Becca said before her phone vibrated. She pulled the device out of her pocket, and saw a text from Brian pop up on her screen. “One sec, it’s Brian,” she explained as she read the text.



So her twins were home. This was perfect. The Helmsley Three worked best together. “Sorry, but, duty calls,” Becca said, flashing her phone at Henry before getting off of his lap and reaching over to grab her shirt. She paused for a moment, then grabbed Henry’s instead, studying it. ”I like this. I’m keeping it,” she said, slipping it over her head and flashing him a grin.

Hey, what? She was just bailing? But, but… No way! “You’re an asshole, Becca Helmsley,” Henry glumly mumbled, sitting up, now shirtless. “And you’re stealing one one of my favorite shirts? That’s fucked up, dude. You owe me.” He said, and gave her about a half a second to respond, before he realized that he’d forgotten something when he was listing off Hailey’s dirty deeds. “Oh yeah! She declared Q… no, wait, Quincy? No, that’s not right either… Uhm! Jennifer. That’s what she used to go by. She declared Jennifer Hart excommunicado. AND, she kidnapped my drug dealer!”

The Helmsley grinned. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it up to you,” she said. She looked up as she strapped on her heels, intrigued by the info Henry had just given her. “Jennifer’s out huh? Not shocking, she was going off the deep end when I left. But, what the hell does she want with Hana Park?” Becca asked as she stood up, walking over to Henry’s mirror to make sure she looked alright. Spoiler alert: she looked great.

“Probably to fucking eat her. I don’t know, Becks. Get out of here before I pull you back,” Henry said, waving his hand at her as he rolled over and off of the edge of the bed, onto the plush carpet.

Becca smirked and strutted out of Henry’s room, then downstairs and outside to her car. Brian and Bailee were home, which meant her team was coming together. "Watch out Hailey. There’s a tornado headed for Oz.”

Brian had made sure to set up the war room before even bothering to invite his siblings in for a meeting. The table, a technological marvel, was capable of projecting holograms, and the surface of it was a giant touchscreen. He’d copied his notes to the computer inside the table, and placed copies on the screen in front of both of his siblings preferred spot, while he took the head of the table this time — usually, whoever called the meeting took the head. Alongside the handwritten, scanned in notes, Brian had opened the Weekend Warrior, highlighting the relevant parts.

In the notes, he had the basic outline of what they’d missed out on since their departure, based on what he’d heard from Damian. This included Hailey declaring Jennifer Hart excommunicado, and her shift into a burner — apparently now A Double’s queen to his king. More importantly, it included Hailey’s breaking up of Trixie and Owen, with a few different theories on why that may have happened.

In a separate window on the screen at each seat, was the video clip from the Weekend Warrior of Owen’s outburst, in its entirety. The clip was slightly edited by Brian — he’d been busy. He’d circled a few parts he considered important, including Hailey grabbing Trixie’s arm to stop her from interfering, and that stupid smile that was on her face the whole time.

The final piece of the puzzle had been pulling up a hologram of The Destiny, the family’s superyacht. The 3D model of the ship was in the center of the table, slowly rotating in a circle.

When the door opened, and Bailee walked in, Brian smiled at her, “hey, glad you could make it. Becca should be here soon, I hope. We have work to do. If you look at your seat, I think I laid everything out for you and her. At least as much as I know. I have a plan to deal with things; I guess Hailey has gone overboard while we were gone, and more importantly: the Weekend Warrior put the spotlight on You Know Who.”

Bailee approached her brother and kissed him on the cheek before circling around to her designated seat in the meeting room. “I appreciate you getting me out of my meetings for the rest of the day- They want to move up the Reynolds Contract by three weeks, which I did not want to deal with today. I’m jet-lagged as it is.” Sitting at the table and taking out her compact once again as well as her lipstick, she touched up her makeup as the two waited for the arrival of the twin that completed the trifecta. While they waited she leafed through the files her brother had presented her with and prepared herself for his master plan of redemption. She had heard fragments of the gossip from various sources, and had preemptively taken a gander at Weekend Warrior- she enjoyed staying up to date with BHHS’s journalist at-large.

“Hailey certainly did more than she should have in our absence- guess we’ll have to rectify things immediately.” She let the video play from Owen’s momentary lapse of judgment, and grimaced at his harsh words and actions. “Someone needs to get that boy a therapist.” She remarked, noting everything wrong with that situation before looking up at her brother through the hologram in the center of the table. “Or a straitjacket.”

Becca marched into the war room, ready to go to battle. Of the triplets, Becca was always the one ready to act. A bit of a hothead, she was happy that Brian had called this meeting. It meant they were making a move. ”We’re on vacation and suddenly Hailey decides to go full Stalin on the school,” Becca exclaimed, walking over to Bailee to give her a kiss on the cheek, then to Brian for the same. Finally, she took her seat, going through the files Brian had left out for her.

”I just got back from Henry’s. The Elite is on the bench right now from what I can tell. The Weekend Warrior’s article dealt a blow. Damian’s off the team, which might actually be a blessing in disguise. But, I’m assuming you both know that much. What’s your plan so far Bri?” Becca asked, looking up at her brother.

Brian smiled, and stood up, leaning onto the table. The team was reassembled, and now it was time to lay things out for them to either decline or get on board with; and if he knew his sisters, it’d be the latter. “Bailee, Owen’s crazy, but he’s still our cousin. Therapist — no straitjacket. Alright. Obviously, their original plan of throwing a party to get everyone together and make them feel welcome and like we’re all one big happy family didn’t work out — makes sense. It was a stupid plan. I don’t know what happened at the party, and frankly? I don’t care. We’re going to move past that now.” Brian tapped the hologram, then looked at his sisters again, “Phase one of the plan is pretty much the same as what they did; only this time we’ll be there. We’re going to throw a party, on the Destiny. Bailee, you have until tomorrow night to make sure everyone in the school knows about it. Yes, tomorrow night. Yes, I talked to mom and dad already. Yes, they said okay. Becca, you and Damian are hosting it. No, I haven’t asked him yet. No, I don’t care if he protests. Make him agree. It’s important that we use this to make everyone see that Hailey; I’m taking liberties here, and assuming she’s the one who got him punished, can’t break someone that easily. If Damian throws another party, this close to the last one, he looks invincible.”

He spun the ship, “A ship is a bit better for our purposes, I think. If anyone starts too much shit, we can throw them off. And we will throw them off. I’ve also quit the football team, in case you guys haven’t heard yet. Word travels fast around here, it’s pretty wild. I’m gonna be one of the co-hosts on Riley’s TV show. I’ll use that to advertise the party. I guess it’s time for me to stop lurking around in the shadows, which sucks, but whatever. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Any questions, comments, or suggestions?” There, Brian had laid out phase one.

Bailee took in her brother’s words, in result, the wheels began turning in her head. When given a task, she always went the extra mile, and this situation wouldn’t be any different. A Tuesday night was risky for a party, but if there was no risk, there wouldn’t be any reward. In regards to advertising the boat celebration, Bailee loved a good, sexy marketing plan, and would make sure each and every person at school knew about it before third period. It’s what she did best, after all. “Party starts at 8:00 PM and the boat leaves the dock at 8:45 PM sharp. If you show up at 8:46 you will be waving as the Destiny sets sail and leaves you behind.” She clarified for the twins typing this all out on her tablet. Looking up at her siblings, she smirked deviously. “Do we make everyone pay an entrance fee? After all, we do have some leverage in this situation...”

Becca grinned. A boat party. Just the kind of thing to welcome the siblings back home. Show everyone, including Hailey, that they were still the head bitches in charge. ”I vote yes on the entrance fee. Why not make some money off of this,” Becca said, already planning out the party in her head. She’d have James pick up supplies tomorrow. They’d need a lot of booze, and a lot of drugs...fuck. ”Drugs. Henry said that Hana Park is with Hailey now. No Pizza Man means drugs are gonna be a bit harder to come across,” Becca said, chewing her lip. ”A Double could hook us up with weed, but the harder shit is gonna be a pain,” she explained.

Brian frowned and looked down at his notes. He saw nothing about this bit on Hana being with Hailey now. That was… unfortunate, and would make things slightly more of a struggle for them. “Gonna be a hard no on the entrance fees. We need to have as many people as possible — sorry. Besides, don’t we have enough money already? I mean, in the time I said that sentence, our fortune probably grew a million dollars. Now two. Just saying.”

“You can never have too much money, Bri. Never.”

“Well, we have enough for now. The drugs thing is fine. I’ll see what I can come up with, there might be a couple of people I can ask. See if Henry knows anyone, Becca. You’re always on his dick anyway; and if someone knows where to get drugs, it’s Henry fucking Green. He spends more time high than a normal person does sober…” He looked up at the ceiling briefly, before turning his attention back to the others. “Do what you have to do to get the party together, alright? And, apparently, Damian has a girl he fancies now? I only paid so much attention to him after he’d told me the thing about You Know Who. I was busy trying to think up a plan. And this is what I came up with. Once we’ve calmed the Hailstorm, and gotten things back to a more level playing field, we’re gonna cut the Weekend Warrior down; by any means necessary. But, I’ve listened to dad talk enough to know that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Point is, maybe he can bring the girl. She can wear a bikini; if I knew Damian, that’ll entice him. Becks, you can get the finer details of the party together — I don’t really… party. I guess I’m going to now, but I’m definitely not a planner.”

He paused for a moment, giving them a smile. “You guys in?”

Becca turned her head to face Bailee, making brief eye contact, grinning, then turning back to Brian. ”Of course I’m in, Baby Brother.”

Bailee couldn’t help but smile as well, looking over at both of her siblings. “Count me in, too.” She replied, tossing her hair behind one shoulder. This was going to be fun.

“Let’s remind Hailey and the rest of BHHS who really runs the show around here.”

Like any self-respecting, mediocre student, Shiloh had waited until the last minute to get a project started. To be totally fair, this wasn’t a schoolwork project, and it was the first day back at class after winter break… so, could you really blame her for procrastinating? The project in question was, of course, her photography club “A Day in the Life of…” project. Many of her peers had already completed the project prior to or during the break, and Shiloh, well... Shiloh hadn’t even picked out her subject yet.

What?

If there is one thing that Shi had learned from growing up being both surrounded and raised by musicians and eccentrics, it was that creativity could not be forced. In Shiloh’s mind, you could not and you should not put a date, nor a deadline, on art. Teachers tried to do so, and teachers were stupid for it. Creation is like a sense, it should come naturally, unbridled and uncontrolled… at least that’s what Cooper’s influence on Shiloh had led her to believe, and Shiloh was nothing if not a product of her eclectic upbringing.

The pink-haired punk arrived well-past fashionably late to Mrs Winship’s homeroom, and gave absolutely no fucks about it. With a slightly out-dated professional grade Nikon camera strapped around her neck, Shi stepped into the classroom like she owned the place. Everyone seemed to be thoroughly immersed in their conversations and, for a time, Shiloh simply stood in the doorway and observed the environment. She was like a lion, hiding in the tall grass, attempting to select the tastiest looking meal amidst a herd of antelope-like students.

Who would be her subject? Certainly not any of the It girls or their posse, they got far too much attention as it was. Disgusting. Certainly not any of the Elite or jocks either, no thanks, that’d be too smelly of an endeavor. Shiloh was friends with many of the burners, so one of them would be a safe choice. Safe choices were boring. Shiloh was not boring. Finally, her blue eyes settled on the perfect specimen. No one was farther from phrases such as “safe choice” and “boring” than Parker Ashford.

With a wide grin and a sudden spike of inspiration, Shiloh made her approach. She loudly marched over in chunky combat boots that were so battered and worn that one might believe they had seen actual combat, rather than simply being a grunge fashion statement. Parker was sitting next to Henry and Min-seo, whom Shiloh knew enough about to recognize as her close friends. Shi knew a surprising amount about most of the BHHS student body, despite her stance on disliking the majority of them. Her guilty pleasure reading of the Weekend Warrior blog helped with that knowledge. Seriously, whoever is the author of that blog is Shi’s hero, whether or not they know it. What a champ.

“Hi!” Shiloh greeted the group of her classmates in a cheerful tone. She pulled up a chair and sat beside them, as if this was her usual, everyday group of friends. It wasn’t, but she could be very friendly… when she wanted to be. “You might know me as ‘that girl with the pink hair’, but my name is Shiloh. Or just Shi. So, hello to you. I have a proposal for Miss Parker, here. But first, would you mind if I…?” Shi pointed a purple fishnet-gloved finger at the bag of gummy worms, requesting permission to partake in the goodies.

Parker wasn’t nearly as familiar with the students of BHHS as they might have been of her; she knew the names of those she was friends with and some names she was told to remember as a way of staying away from them, but given that Parker’s mind operated a bit differently than some there was little room for remembering everyone by name. Naturally when an unknown, but vibrantly hair colored, student joined the proceedings Parker looked towards Min-seo for answers but was met only with a shrug. There were two things Parker was certain of, though. The first was that this new girl had hair that was like cotton candy and Parker really wanted to know if it was, in fact, actual cotton candy. The second was that anyone who asked for a gummy worm probably wasn’t a bad person.

The short sophomore nodded to Shiloh and held the rapidly decreasing bag of worms out while Parker was still idly chewing on a yellow and green-colored one. Whoever this sugar-haired girl was, she wasn’t here just for the worms. “YOUR HAIR LOOKS COOL IS IT CANDY?” Parker wanted to know. Parker needed to know. So, of course, she simply asked. What she didn’t do, was wait for an answer, because she had finally processed what Shiloh had said.

“PROPOSAL? OHMIGOD LIKE A WEDDING? YOU WANNA GET MARRIED? OH WOW, I CAN WEAR A DRESS AND IT CAN BE PRINCESS THEMED AND MUSIC OH WOW.” If Min-Seo hadn’t tapped Parker on the shoulder and told Parker to first hear out Shiloh, it was quite possible she still would have been rattling off ideas for a hypothetical marriage ceremony. If nothing else, Parker was now willing and able to hear about this sudden proposal of Shiloh’s.

Shiloh blinked at Parker. Oh yes, this was ideal. Parker might turn out to be the most fun school project that Shiloh had ever worked on. First though, she plucked a red and green gummy worm out of the bag that Parker had offered. Chewing on the treat, she frowned slightly. “Awwe, they aren’t the sour kind. Sour gummies are best gummies, hands down. Speaking of candy, my hair is unfortunately not cotton candy — but that would be cool! Rather unfortunate in the event of rain, but that is what it is… anyway, thank you for saying that! Cotton candy is definitely an aesthetic inspiration that I was going for. ANYWAY…”

Shiloh took a break in her response to catch a breath. It was obvious that she was feeding off of and matching Parker’s own enthusiasm. “It’s not a marriage proposal, we’ve only just met, of course!” Shi laughed lightly at that. “I’m in the photography club,” she said, holding up the camera hanging from her neck with emphasis. “-- and we club members have a project due tomorrow to take ten pictures of a day in the life of a student in BHHS, and I would like for you to be my subject. Would you mind?”

When Shiloh was done with her proposition, Parker didn’t respond right away. She was leaning forward, staring intently at the photographer’s hair as if she wasn’t convinced it wasn’t actually cotton candy. The diminutive sophomore started to extend a hand towards Shiloh’s hair for confirmation but it was quickly and lightly slapped down by Min-seo, who had once dealt with the grabby hand of Parker one morning after Min’s bed hair looked like ‘little black twizzler things’. Parker looked towards Min as if Parker had just been gravely offended, but it lasted for all of two seconds before Parker was back to normal and asking Min what Shiloh had said. Parker had been too focused on the cotton candy-colored hair.

Min explained it as best she could and Parker understood the gist of it. If it were possible for her to widen her eyes in excitement more than they normally were, she would have done so in this instance. “I GET TO BE IN A MAGAZINE? COOL! YOU’RE COOL, I WANNA DO IT!” In Parker’s mind, the only people that had professional photographers take professional photos were the famous people in the magazines with the fancy dresses and suits and therein was a flaw in the otherwise brilliant plan. ”WAIT...I DON’T HAVE FANCY CLOTHES THOUGH. IS THAT BAD?”

Shiloh grinned at the exuberant sophomore. She was perfect. “Yes, you’re gonna be on the cover! And, no, my magazine’s not for people with fancy clothes, so no worries.” The club project didn’t originally include physically printing a zine, but for Shiloh, it did now.

---

After receiving much-needed consent to photograph, Shiloh went about her task. Shi had ensured Parker that it would be best if she just, did all of the normal things that she did. Perhaps normal was the wrong word to use with Parker... She should just do all of the usual things, then. No, that still wasn’t right. Just be Parker — yes, that was perfect. Shiloh took the first of what would total to be a series of ten final photos right there in homeroom. Conversation had continued whilst Shi had sat beside the group, and she managed to snap a joyous candid of Parker eating her sugary treat. A yellow and green gummy worm (they must be her favorite) had hung limply from her lips while the blonde wore an expression of pure, childlike joy. It was an amazing candid shot, and Shiloh was pretty sure that she could even pitch it to Black Forest for advertisement, maybe even make some bank on it. Plans to be decided later on that thought…

Shots two and three were taken throughout the school day itself. Part of the deal that Parker may or may not have realized that she agreed to was that Shiloh was now going to be her consensual stalker for the next eight to twelve to who-knows-how-many hours. So stalk, Shiloh did. Shot number two was taken in the hallway. Shiloh had been following Parker from a slight distance, as to not spook her, or ruin any potential candid moments. Parker was switching out books in her locker and Shi managed to snap a pic of Parker looking up, her lips were parted slightly, as she reached up on her tippy toes to grab a book from the top shelf of the open locker. It was perfect — school brochure-worthy levels of perfect.

The third photograph came to life in math class, of all places. Well, not in the classroom, per se, but it was during that period. Parker seemed to be even worse at math than Shiloh was, because the teacher had assigned her to needing a tutor in the form of the upperclassman stranger-slash-genius, Sean Sterling. That was interesting. Shiloh wanted in. So, when the pair had taken their tutoring session outside, Shiloh found a way to follow. She was trash at math, but she was able to charisma check her way out of class for a few moments by name-dropping the photography club project. Shot number three was a beautiful sunny Californian afternoon picture, with Parker and Sean sitting under a tree working on math problems, surrounded by books and papers that fluttered up with the breeze.

---

The final bell rang, indicating that the first day back to school was officially dead and gone. Finally! Thankfully, as they were both sophomores, Shiloh shared many classes with Parker, including this final one. She still had several more pictures to go before her project could be considered complete. Seven pictures, to be specific. Shiloh had reviewed and deleted all but three photos so far. Now the real fun could begin, now came the time to discover what a Parker does outside the confines of BHHS. “So, where to next? Do you go straight home after school?” Shiloh asked, skipping over to Parker’s side as they left class together.

When the bell rang, Parker was out of her seat with the first ding. On a normal day she would have ran out and practically sprinted her way to her locker or out the front door, but today she had to wait for someone and it wasn’t nice to run off. Fortunately she and Shiloh shared the last class of the day so Parker was able to wait by the door while bouncing on her heels like a puppy excited to go for a play outside. To say Parker fully understood the proposal from earlier would be a half-truth. She still didn’t know just why Shiloh was hanging around her all day, but it didn’t matter. Shiloh was nice and her hair, while decidedly not cotton candy, was really cool, so Parker had committed the photographer’s name to the banks of her memory vault.

“SOMETIMES I HANG OUT WITH HENRY AND MINCY. DID YOU KNOW MINCY LIVES TOGETHER WITH HENRY? SOMETIMES I GOTTA PUT ON NEW CLOTHES AND GO TO A DINER. NOT TODAY BUT SOME DAYS. I DON’T HAVE A HOME!” Parker let that last bit go without explanation as she picked the books she needed for homework out of her locker - though it was just as likely that her homework would be finished by Min-seo tomorrow anyway. “DO YOU WANNA SEE WHERE I LIVE? NORMALLY I DON’T LET ANYONE COME IN WITHOUT A PRESENT BUT YOU CAN COME IF YOU WANNA.”

“Yes, I would love that. Just — take me through what you would normally do after school, and I’ll just follow along. I have seven more pics to get.” Shiloh explained, walking beside her fellow loud and obnoxious sophomore. Shi was probably one of the few people in BHHS that didn’t mind Parker’s volume or eccentric behavior. It was interesting, and interesting people made the world go ‘round. “You said you don’t have a home… so where do you live? Is it like an apartment or a trailer or something? Oh— and do you ride the bus usually? I can drive us if you want… I don’t have a super nice car like most people, but that’s because most people suck. I don’t suck. You need a ride?”

Parker shook her head with an intensity that had never really been matched with her present and general demeanour. When she shook her head at the questions of housing, it wasn’t the playful Parker but one for whom it seemed the subject of living arrangement was a serious issue. “I WALK OR SOMETIMES THERE’S A CAR FOR ME AND THE DRIVER GETS ANGRY IF I DON’T TAKE IT.” Parker wasn’t even sure the actual address of her house and fortunately she didn’t need to. Most days when she wasn’t going off with Min and Henry to play games or whatever, there was a car waiting for her to take her home; she didn’t know why just that it was always there. Sometimes she ignored it and walked instead, but every time she got lost, and every time it was a small hassle.

Today was one of the days where she opted for the car. She trickled outside as other students dispersed to go about their afternoons. She forgot to say bye to Mincy and Henry but Mincy would probably tell Henry the situation. The driver of Parker’s car waved at her and Parker pointed to the car for Shiloh’s sake as she skipped over towards it and jumped - dived really - into the back seat. Head first.

The remarkable thing about being driven was the realization of how close Parker lived to the school. Her house, such as it was, was within walking distance, as it was only about a mile and a half away and tucked into a rather quaint suburban neighborhood. The house the car stopped in front of was a comfy, cozy upper middle class suburban two floor, three bedroom affair. But when Parker walked up her front steps she paused and turned to Shiloh. “WAIT HERE OKAY?"

“Okay!” Shi nodded at the blonde. She had managed to get shot number four in the back seat of the car on the way to Parker’s house… but… not a house? Shiloh was still a little confused about that. Anyway, the picture was an angled shot of Parker peeking out of the back seat window, her hands eagerly placed on the door frame as she watched the people and cars whiz by.

With the confirmation that Shiloh would stay, Parker opened the front door with the sole key on her key ring, and disappeared inside. Shi took a picture of the front yard of the home, being careful to avoid any address markers or anything else that would be uniquely identifiable. Shiloh didn’t want anyone to actually stalk Parker after this project was through. Picture number five achieved — halfway there, now!

Less than a minute later, the front gate to the right of the house swung open. The top of the gate was pointy, which is probably why Parker didn’t just climb it. And because of her height. “OVER HERE, SHI-SHI” Parker led the way again, this time to the backyard of the house and, specifically, the tent strategically placed in the center of it. “YOU CAN COME IN IF YOU WANT I’LL FORGET THE GIFT THING THIS TIME.” There was even a little sign out front that said ‘No Entry Without Present’ that she found at a store not knowing it was just a joke meant for people to put on their roofs for Christmas decorations.

Parker entered her home and plopped herself on the air mattress, the squeak of grape juice boxes sounding like a bed spring. Casa De Parker was a bit smaller than advertised.

“Oh man! You have a tent?!” Shiloh snapped a photo of the entire tent from a distance. She then stepped forward and got a close-up shot of the sign out front, which was clearly holiday themed, and totally adorable. “This is so fucking cool! My Uncle Lenny would love this, I bet he’s lived in a tent like this before.”

Shiloh began to dig in her backpack then, her camera swinging loosely around her neck as she did so. After a few moments, a crinkling sound indicated that she had found what she was looking for. She pulled out a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos that was fastened closed with a chip clip. Shi offered them to the other girl upon entering her uncommon domicile. “I ate some of them already, but, here! Now you don’t have to forget the gift thing.”

The very first thing Parker did when settled on her air mattress (which was home to a single pillow with a pillowcase featuring Disney princesses) was open the cooler to the right of the mattress and pull out her half-eaten bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows. It was hard to tell how heavy the bag was at full volume, but it was at least well over a pound; the only other items in the cooler were plastic wrapped grape juice boxes. If there was ever any wonder about Parker’s hyperactive self, the fact that her diet was sugary cereal marshmallows and sugary grape juice helped answer some questions.

Parker shook her head at the bag of red corn puff snacks. Red stuff was generally bad and it made her mouth hurt. She unfurled the marshmallow bag and stuck her arm in, grabbing a handful and going straight to town as if it were the most normal thing in the world. And in Parker’s world it absolutely was. “I FORGOT TO ASK,” Parker didn’t wait until she had finished chewing her marshmallows, or rather swallowing them given how easily they broke up under any bit of moisture. “AM I GONNA GET GRADES ON THIS BECAUSE I GOTTA TELL MINCY TO MAKE IT GOOD.”

“No, no. No grades!” Shiloh assured her cheerfully. When Parker had turned down the offering, Shi shrugged and opened the bag of spicy cheese corn snacks to partake of them herself. She knelt down and laid belly-side down on the floor beside Parker then. “It’s just for fun, we’re almost done, too. Wanna see?” Shi brushed the cheese dust from her fingers off on her jacket before pulling the camera strap off of her neck to go through the photos.

That was a relief at least. It was the easiest project Parker had ever been part of. All she had to do was hang out with Cotton Candy and that was definitely something she didn’t have much of a problem doing. Another scooping of marshmallows went from palm to mouth as Parker shifted over to get a better look at the photos taken thus far. They had almost been unrecognizable and the little blonde was utterly amazed by what she saw. Her gasp was audible and she even set aside her marshmallows which was only further proof of her opinion on the pictures. “WOW, YOU DID THAT? IT’S LIKE BETTER THAN MAGAZINES. YOU’RE REALLY REALLY GOOD AT THAT.” It may not have taken much to impress Parker, but her genuine nature made her enthusiasm all the more authentic.

“Thanks!” Shiloh said with a wide grin, clearly pleased by the praise. “It helps to have a good model, I told you it would be fine if you just… did Parker things.” The pink-haired girl then repositioned the camera so that the lens faced them, selfie-style. “Quick, make a goofy face!” Shi instructed, sticking her tongue out at the camera whilst holding up a Cheeto with the free hand that wasn’t holding the camera.

A goofy face? Now Shiloh was speaking Parker’s language. It didn’t take much provocation for Parker to comply. Her mouth opened and her head tilted back like she had just smelled something foul while one eye opened wide and the other was hovering near to shut, stuck in almost a wink. She left her tongue in place but her teeth were showing in her rather strange expression that more and more looked like someone that just drank sour milk. One thing Parker was sure of in life was her affinity to contort and express her face in a variety of ways. And judging by the pictures she saw, Shiloh was sure to even make this silly one look good.

Do you want me to pick you up?

Brynn stared down at her phone, eyes fixed on her latest text message from none other than Sean Sterling. After last night’s Candyland events, she was even more determined to make him disappear from her life, on the account that her friends thought it’d be good for her to settle down. Since when was that a good idea? It didn’t even occur to her how she could even get hurt by this guy- she was the one in control here, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

Picking up her cell, she opened the message from the blonde and began to type out a response. Should she take the ride or no? She decided yes, mostly on the account of she was terribly lazy and didn’t want to drive to school.

Sure, why not. 17 Oceanview Way, you can text me when you’re outside.

Sean Sterling was up and raring to go much earlier than normal. Maybe it was the excitement that had blossomed from the purchase of the bike. He’d already left the house by the time his sister had dragged him out of bed on Monday. He’d gotten on his bike and taken it out, giving it another go. This time, without his mother breathing down his neck, Sean was helmetless. Dangerous? Yes. Comfortable? Very. Besides, he was okay with the danger. Did that make him a bad boy?

Fuck, he was turning into a stereotype. Dressed in black, sunglasses on his head, sitting on a black motorcycle, no helmet because he didn’t give a damn. And what did he do? He asked Brynn if she wanted him to pick her up. Sean assumed she didn’t, and nearly headed off to school when he got the text back. After he’d received it, Sean stuffed the rest of the McDonald’s hash brown he’d bought for breakfast into his mouth, keyed in her address, and zipped over.

Once there, he shut the bike off in front of her home and leaned forward on the handlebars, typing out a quick message to her.

Here.

Brynn’s phone ‘dinged’ and she looked down to see Sean’s text notifying her of his presence. Grabbing her tote bag, she headed down the large winding staircase of her home, and towards the front door. Looking out of the peephole, she scanned to see if Sean was actually there, but unfortunately, she didn’t see his car. All she saw was a kid on a motorcycle, who wasn’t- oh my god. Realizing that Sean was the kid on the motorcycle, her jaw dropped. Since when did he drive a two-wheeled death machine?

Walking out to greet him, she gave him a puzzled glance. “Hi… new ride?”

Once Brynn appeared, Sean straightened up and took his sunglasses off to turn his attention to her. He nodded in response to her question. “Yeah. I got it last night because I got sick of riding around in Selena’s… princess carriage. I’ve never felt more out of place than the first time I got inside that. Besides, that drives itself and is electric. I drive this, and it runs on gas. You can just get on the back. Trust me, I know what I’m doin’ on here, so you’ll be safe.” Sean said, giving her a short grin. “I don’t… have a helmet, but it’s better without one. Just hold on tight and don’t lean against me on the corners.”

Brynn swooned hardcore when Sean took off his sunglasses and stood up against the bike. His bad boy vibes were evident, and she was all for it. Snap out of it, Brynn she thought to herself, trying to downplay the situation as much as she could. “Okay, I trust you. Hopefully, we make it to school in one piece.” She replied, climbing onto the bike behind him and wrapping her arms tightly around his torso.

“On the bright side, if we don’t make it to school in one piece… at least we don’t have to be at school.” Sean replied, flicking the sunglasses back open and putting them on his head. He started the bike and revved the engine, before kicking off the curb and pulling onto the road, zipping up to speed and cruising along. So. Much. Better. Than. The. Pink. Monstrosity.

Brynn held on tighter to Sean as they began zooming towards the school, getting a rush out of feeling the wind blow through her hair and watching the passing cars go by. This was a thrill, Sean was a thrill, Sean was hot and this added to the list of pros that she had made on his behalf.

Sean shifted the bike, and the speed kicked in instantly. This bike was fucking dope — the biggest downside was that their ride had to come to a close so soon. Within a few more minutes, they were parked in the school parking lot, and Sean looked over his shoulder at Brynn as he put the kickstand down. “See? I told you we were safe.”

Brynn laughed, resting her head on his shoulder. “It was touch and go there for a second… but like I said-“ She gave him a kiss on the cheek, “I trust you.” Brynn replied, removing her head from his shoulder and taking a look around at everyone going into school. Hopefully, none of her hookups would see this, since she had big plans for the day.

“And you should. You’re pretty much safer on the back of this bike than you are on your own two feet.” Sean took the opportunity to kiss Brynn on the lips before he got off of the bike and nodded to her. “Alright, I guess I’ll see you around. Let me know if you need a ride home, I’ll be happy to accommodate you.” Sean, on the other hand, did not have big plans for the day — unless sleeping in every class possible counted as ‘big plans,’ but he suspected it did not.

Brynn gracefully made her way off of the bike, fixing her hair quickly before looking up at Sean. “Yeah, I gotta run and do the morning show, but hopefully I’ll see you later. Maybe in a janitor's closet, maybe not.” She replied with a wink, referring to their rendezvous yesterday during homeroom.

“We’ll see what I have on my busy schedule. I’m a tutor now, did I tell you that? For some girl named Parker.” Sean explained, before he stole another kiss from her, and even gave her a wink. “Just in case I don’t see you again.” He said simply, before turning and jogging off into the building.

Ophelia had seen Brynn off with Marshall and Cassie, and now they were going to get the stuff that Kit had asked for. Kit’s friend, True, had already disappeared. The three remaining Candies : Marshall, Ophelia, and Cassie, were clambering into Ophelia’s luxury sedan, with Ophelia quipping, “Does anyone know where we actually get weed from? I’ve never bought it before, I just bum it off of Belle, sometimes. But I can’t do that now, and I don’t have any on me...” She muttered, starting the car, and looking at Marshall and Cassie expectantly. “One of you has to know, right? Plus we need pizza… what kind of pizza do you think she likes? I hope she doesn’t totally give up… but she seemed uber disheartened after that.”

“Uhh…” Marshall thought on that for a moment. He didn’t really do drugs that often, the most he dabbled with were edibles at parties. Smoking wasn’t really a good look for him. “I don’t really get it for myself, either. Like, really, it’s just around at parties sometimes, and I bum it too. I think… I think Hana Park deals? Or A Double, he definitely at least knows where to get it. As for Kit, she seems really sweet, but I do think she should try to go for someone else. Is she full lezzy or nah?”

Cassie chewed her lip. Like the others, she wasn’t big on drugs, not enough to buy her own. She tended to just bat her eyelashes and bum weed from a cute boy or something, but that didn’t seem like it would work here. “If anyone knows, it’s A Double. Ophie, don’t you have his number?” Cassie asked from the passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt. “As far as I can tell, poor girl is Selena-sexual. She’ll get over it, just like I got over my thing for Damian. She’s like, twelve, she can’t be that in love.”

From the driver’s seat, Ophelia shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno if she’s fully lezzy or not. And, dude, Cassie, you may be ‘over’ Damian, but you still totally chew on your lip when he takes his shirt off at P.E. Not that I think anyone blames you. Uh, I do got his number, hold on.” She started the car and handed the phone off to Cassie. “Here, text him. He’s in there under Burntown King, I think… Or something dumb like that. There’s a picture of his dumbass face, you can’t miss it.” She pulled out, backing up.

Cassie laughed as her fingers tapped away a message to A Double from Ophelia’s phone. “Of course I stare, that boy is gorgeous! Too bad he’s going for this Joy chick,” Cassie said, pouting. With a dainty tap, Cassie sent the message to A Double, handing Ophelia’s phone back to her.

To: Burntown King
Hey, do you know where we can get weed? Our friend needs some…

Before Ophelia could get her phone back, though, it buzzed with a response from A Double:

From: Burntown King
i can give u some just mee us at captain cuddles i guess see u there

“We’ve got weed! We’re meeting him at Captain Cuddles,” Cassie said, typing out a quick response back to A Double to let them know they would see him there.

“Oh, wow, I’ve never participated in like… a drug deal before?” Marshall replied, realizing the gravity of the situation at hand. Sure… weed was legal in their state, but it was still a drug. How uncharacteristic… yet, it felt right, after a day like today. “I think I’m gonna do it too.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. I think you should do it, too, Marsh. Maybe if you guys are both high, you can talk her down from Selena, or something… we need pizza too, so Captain Cuddles is the perfect place for our meeting!” Ophelia said as she drove the car down the winding driveway, “Hey, but won’t he be with Quincy, most likely? She’s gonna be pissedddd to see us. We’re like, Hailey’s friends. And doesn’t she hate Hailey or something? Because Hailey kicked her out.”

Cassie shrugged, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger as Ophelia got out onto the road. “Well, I mean, sucks for her. It’s not my fault her boyfriend’s a drug dealer,” Cassie said nonchalantly, staring out the window. “Marshall, make sure Shauna doesn’t get all sharky with Kit after Sel breaks her heart. She’s nice, and Shauna’s icky,” Cassie said, turning so she could face the boy.

“Don’t worry, I’m all over that.” Marsh responded and attempted to stretch out his long legs in the back. Luxury sedan… tiny back seat. He had taken one look at the itty bitty Candy prospect and knew that she would be an easy Shauna target, especially if she already admittedly liked girls. “I’m gonna adopt the little blondie. Be her gay dad. She needs guidance, and I need the distraction.”

“Well, good luck, Gumdrop. You know what’s tough, though? She doesn’t have a whole lot of options, as far as free, willing, lesbian or bisexual girls around the school… I dunno where we’d find more, though. But at that age, the easiest way to get over someone is to immediately jump onto someone else!” Ophelia explained, turning toward Captain Cuddles. “Someone should put our order in, ahead of time. So that we can just pick it up at the same time!”

Cassie pulled out her own phone and dialed the number for Captain Cuddles. “I’ve got it,” she said, holding the phone up to her ear. “Yes, hello? I’d like to place an order to go! Yeah, so, well, like we’re gonna have two large pizzas, one pepperoni, one cheese. Oh, Cassie. C-A-S-S-I-E. Okay, thank you.” Cassie put the phone down and grinned. “Okay, that’s taken care of. Anyways, girls who like girls are hard to find. What about that Shiloh girl? Y’know, with the pink hair? She likes girls.”

“She likes older girls. Kit’s a baby,” Ophelia explained, as she shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t really know what they could to do handle Kit, it seemed like a lost cause, at this point, almost. “Maybe we can find a bicurious girl? It’d be easy to get someone to shift with the right moves, y’know. I mean there’s technically like me, and Brynn, and Cassie, but I don’t wanna get with Kit.” Ophelia shook her head helplessly.

“Hmmm…” The drama king mused, deep in thought. He had abandoned trying to find leg space, and was simply lying across the back seat of Ophie’s car at this point, with his head leaning against the armrest. “I mean, maybe she’s into guys too? I don’t have her totally figured out yet. Though… from the way she described herself, she sounds like a natural born butch trying to masquerade as a girly girl. I’ll work on it, make it my special Candy project. She’s my new daughter, after all.”

“Sorry, but I’m not trying to cradle snatch,” Cassie said. Ophelia soon pulled her car into the Captain Cuddles parking lot, and parked towards the front. “So is this a we go to him, or he comes to us situation?” Cassie asked.

The answer to the question that Cassie asked came in the form of a tap on Cassie’s window. A Double was standing outside, waving dumbly. On his arm, was Quincy, who was holding no less than three bags of Captain Cuddles’ famous ‘cheese explosion’ appetizer collections, consisting of cheesy bread, mozzarella sticks, and fries with cheese sauce, and the ‘potato collection’ of fries, baked potatoes, and potato skins. Ophelia rolled down the window, and A Double spoke. “Hey, what’s up? This is Q.”

Quincy was not pleased by this arrangement. Nevertheless, she came, mainly because A Double promised food, and she was stoned. As A Double introduced her, she rolled her eyes and turned away, not in the mood to deal with Hailey’s minions. She heard Cassie shout from the passenger seat, “What do we owe you?” Like this was her first drug deal. Well, come to think of it, it might be.

“...huh? I, uh. It’s free? I dunno. I don’t usually charge friends, and you guys are cool. Anyway, I think my girlfriend doesn’t like this, so here, take this.” A Double said, stuffing a small paper bag onto Cassie’s lap. He gave it a little pat, and then led Q away.

“...that was really… easy.” Ophelia muttered, looking at Marshall and Cassie quizzically.

Marshall sat up and peaked over the seat. He peered at the mysterious small paper bag. It looked sketchy as hell, this totally was a drug deal! Even if they didn’t really have to pay for it... “What’s all in it? Is it just, like… loose leaf?” He asked curiously, as if they were discussing tea or something.

Cassie shrugged and opened up the paper bag to discover a ziploc bag filled with nugs of weed. ”I don’t know why, but I expected something different. Huh,” she said, staring into the bag, mesmerized by the drug resting on her lap. So this was what weed looked like, outside of a joint. Interesting.

“What do you mean? You just… roll it up and puff it? I’ve helped Belle with it before! But I have a feeling that Kit’s gonna want to do it herself… Who wants to go inside and get our food? Marshall should, because I think he’d be funniest, since he’ll be nervous after participating in a drug deal!” She said, smiling into the rear view mirror and reaching back to tap Marshall on the leg.

“Puh-leeease.” Marshall exaggerated both syllables and jokingly rolled his eyes at her in the mirror. He scooted towards the door in preparation to go get the eats. “I’m an actor, darling. I can hide my nerves very well. Besides… I’m not the one whose hands are dirty.” He said with a smirk, looking at the paper bag on Cassie’s lap, and then hopped out of the car. He would return in a few minutes with some hot and ready pizzas, hopefully.

Once Marshall went to get the pizzas, Cassie turned to Ophelia. “So, Ophie, what do we do about Marshall’s situation? With Jamie, I mean,” Cassie asked, taking Marshall’s absence as a chance to meddle in his love life. Sanctioned meddling, of course. Not that Cassie cared much about sanctions, so long as the end result was positive.

“I think the first step is to talk to Jamie… Since, it seems that Marshall is like 98% sure that Jamie hates him, so I think we need to figure that out first. But we have to be careful, because he seems like the type that would freak if we were too, like… pushy?” Ophelia explained, reaching over and looking into the bag. Cool, looked like they probably had plenty. Unless Kit was like, some kind of pot fiend. Which was totally unlikely, right? She was a kid!

“Yeahhhh, he does have that kind of vibe doesn’t he? I don’t know, I feel like Marsh could do better, like he could land AJ if he wanted!” Cassie mused, twirling a strand of hair around her finger as she watched the parking lot. Truth be told, Cassie wasn’t the biggest fan of Jamie. He had a habit of sticking his nose in dark places and bringing light with him. When your life is a lie, that’s not exactly the kind of person you want to be around.

“AJ’s a shitty person, the exact kind of guy we don’t want with Marshall. Really, it sucks, but Jamie is like the best option we have. Gays aren’t exactly in high number here at Beverly Hills… Maybe we just need to widen our horizons… Nah, it’s gotta be Jamie! Marshall adores Jamie, man, it’s the only right option.” Ophelia turned and smiled at Cassie, “If they’re not together by Valentine’s day, then we know we’re bad at our jobs…”

Cassie frowned. “Yeah, you’re right. Well then, we talk to him tomorrow and make him pull his head out of his ass. In nicer words, of course,” Cassie said. Maybe being around Jamie from now on would be inevitable. Hopefully Marshall could at least keep the boy from going full Veronica Mars on her ass. She’d built herself a strong reputation here. She didn’t need Jamie Callaghan coming in and ruining it for her.

“Yeah, totally. Way nicer words.” She reached into the paper bag and pulled out the plastic baggie, withdrawing one of the the nugs from it. She lifted it up to her nose and sniffed it deeply, pulling backwards from the smell. “Whoa… smells like Skittles, dude.” She sniffed it again, before holding it back to Cassie. Written in blue sharpie on the baggie was the word ‘Skittlez.’

Cassie cautiously held the weed up to her face, as if it might bite, then inhaled through her nose. Oh wow. “Oh wow, that smells great! Where the hell is Marsh, he needs to smell this!” Cassie shouted.

As if on cue, Marshall arrived back at the car. With two boxes of pizza balanced in one hand, he opened the door with the other. “Holy fuck, this smells so good. I want to put all of it, in my face. Just, full on eat my feelings.” Marsh announced as he re-entered the back seat, pizza boxes first, body second. He then looked up at his friends who were… sniffing weed? “What the hell are you doing? I’m not really an expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s done.” Without really responding, Cassie instead shoved a second nug under his nose.

Momentarily shocked by the gesture, Marshall pulled his head back. And then… he leaned back in to get a second whiff. “Did he… did he give us candy weed?” How apt.

“Yeah, I guess he did!”

Cassie grinned. “Alright guys! Let’s go get high with a freshman!”