[center][img]https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ShrillTallIlladopsis-max-1mb.gif[/img]

[color=slategray][sub][@Lovely Complex] and [@Universorum]
Featuring: [color=0598bc][b]Brian “The Only Man Who Makes Phone Calls” Helmsley[/b][/color], [color=426f6f][b]Riley “Please Assist” Wells[/b][/color], [color=6174ff][b]Joy “Why Doesn’t Damian Brag About Me?!” Darling[/b][/color], [color=ff9c23][b]AJ “No Alcohol?” Tyler[/b][/color], and [color=e2e520][b]Scott “Not even a [i]little bit[/i]?” Lyon[/b][/color]
Location: All over the place, baybay
Time: Right after the morning show. It’s a flashback, aight?[/sub][/color][/center]
[hr][hr]
[indent]Immediately after the outro of the show, Brian silently prepared to leave the area. He had nothing to say, and in truth, his mind was already made up. He had calls to make and plans to put into action. Mentally, he made a list of the phone calls he needed to make: AJ Tyler, Damian O’Connor, and Scott Lyon — if he wasn’t with AJ, which he probably was. Sunday he had made calls back home, and got a few people to set up a few modifications on the boat. Hopefully those were going well without a hitch, and everything would be ready by the time he arrived.

Brian had a few ideas to flush out the Weekend Warrior, though past that he didn’t know what his plan was. A confrontation? That might work, but he’d cross that bridge when he got there. His first and most primary objective was to expose them; plaster the face of the biggest problem in the school all over the internet and the campus. When he was finished, everyone would know. From there, maybe nature would run its course, and he wouldn’t need to talk to whoever it was that wrote the stupid articles. He would go to sleep, and wake up the next morning and piss on the ashes of their house.

Then, and only then, would all be right in the world. The Weekend Warrior had become an unwanted and even perhaps unwilling participant in the game that Hailey played with the student body, and Brian had no desire for such a volatile, unpredictable force to be involved. Besides, they’d attacked Parker, and he [i]knew[/i] it was leading to people talking about her in a negative light. That, the prince would not stand for.

[color=0598bc][b]“Thank you again for your time,”[/b][/color] he said over his shoulder, before he disappeared out of the room and away from Brynn and Riley both.

His presence would not be left alone for too long because right behind him, lightly jogging to catch up, Riley followed. [color=426f6f][b]“Hey, Brian! Can we talk for a sec?”[/b][/color] Riley didn’t have much time, because he had first period to get to, but he didn’t want to lose this opportunity. He didn’t want this connection to sever, all because of bad first impressions. Brian had ideas for the show that could make it better and more importantly, long lasting. He could help Riley give RISE the foundation it needed to survive the years after he graduated. The darkly clad boy didn’t know how successful this would be, but it was worth a shot. He’d hate himself more than he already does for not trying to end things on good terms with Brian. For the sake of his show, of course. Riley didn’t necessarily know how they’d connect outside of business and it wasn’t like Brian needed to know any of his troubles. The boy had bigger things on his mind like throwing a boat party, this very day. 

Brian paused as he was approached by Riley, turning his head to look at the other boy. Brian had to admire his tenacity; apparently, a no wasn’t good around these parts. While annoying, this wasn’t necessarily a bad business tactic. He sighed, and stopped in the hallway, turning to face Riley. [color=0598bc][b]“I suppose it’s the least I could do. What’s up?”[/b][/color] He asked, before gesturing for Riley to follow him, [color=0598bc][b]“Walk with me. Talk and walk. Multitasking is the future.”[/b][/color] With that, Brian began to stroll down the halls again, his hands in his pockets.

Matching his pace with the Helmsley kid, Riley was quick and straight to the point. [color=426f6f][b]“To be real, I want you on the show. Your return, along with your sisters, is going to be the hottest topic for at least the next week or two. On top of that, you not so subtly called out the Weekend Warrior. Everyone’s going to want to see your face.”[/b][/color] Crossing his arms, he took a moment to clear his throat, before continuing his proposition, [color=426f6f][b]“You’re a busy guy, I get that, but part of me thinks you have some interest, don’t you? If you didn’t see potential, I don’t think you would’ve used the show to get your message across.”[/b][/color] 

Uncrossing his arms to glance at the time, making sure he wouldn’t be late to class, Riley finished up his spiel, [color=426f6f][b]“If not that, at least help me make it better. I know where my strengths are and I know where my weaknesses are. You just so happen to be better at producing than me. I’m here, extending an olive branch, for the betterment of our school. So, maybe, think about it?”[/b][/color]

Brian stopped in the middle of the hall and looked over at Riley. He let his mind run through what he said quickly, before nodding. [color=0598bc][b]“Yeah, I can think about it. But I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really like having my face in the spotlight. This was a special occasion. I can possibly produce things. I’ll have to make some phone calls. No promises, but I’ll see what I can do.”[/b][/color] Brian shrugged, and looked at a door. [color=0598bc][b]“Alright, this is where I take my leave. I’ll see you later. Maybe tonight at the party, yeah?”[/b][/color] Brian asked, putting his hand on the doorknob to duck into the random room.

[color=426f6f][b]“Uh, you don’t have a class?”[/b][/color] Riley rose an eyebrow, as he watched the other boy enter the vacant room designated for french lessons. French class was never first period and the teacher was okay with students using it when it was her free period, but still, for a kid that just got back, not seeing him go to class was odd. [i]Slightly[/i] annoying. Was he already playing hooky? If Rye’s dad found out he ever ditched class, it would be his funeral. RIP Riley Wells. The day he decided to throw his grades out the door. 

Having entered her Statistics class, Joy sat in her designated seat, which was the far back, closest to the window. As one of the favored math students, throughout the school, she was able to request her seat prior to the year beginning. She was [i]tired[/i] of sitting in the front, so this year she wanted the back. In addition, this subject was easy and she didn’t really think her being in the front would be beneficial to the other students that needed to learn. 

She took out her scarily organized planner, opened it up, making sure it was symmetrically centered on her desk, and took out her color-coding stickers. Most were circles and stood for something, like if a date had a dark blue circle on it that meant she had a doctor’s appointment or something medical related. This kept her monthly calendar less cluttered, so she can write more detailed descriptions in her weekly calendar. Behind the stack of circle stickers were star stickers that meant special occasions. She decided to change their meaning to Damion related occasions. 

Taking a star out, she flipped the pages until she found today’s date. With quiet precision, she placed it at the bottom right corner of the box, then she turned the pages to the same date, but this time in her weekly section. Glancing up to make sure the teacher was preoccupied, she bent down to her backpack and pulled out her Star Wars pen purse. After rummaging for a second, deciding what color to use, taking out her blue and red pen from its holder, she wrote: [color=0072bc][i]Helmsley Boat Party with[/i][/color] in blue and [color=ed1c24][i]Damian[/i][/color] in red. Going back to the blue pen, she wrote in smaller text: [color=0072bc][i]Attempt to convince parents.[/i][/color]

A sudden thought popped in her head which caused her to swiftly swipe to her note section. It was important to remember this! [color=0072bc][i]Need birth control. Call Mitty.[/i][/color] Her concentration was broken when she felt her phone vibrate in her bag, by her foot. No one called her this early. It had to be important. After closing her planner, she reached in her bag to see who was calling. [i]Unknown number[/i]. 

To ignore or not to ignore that was the question. Deciding that she wasn’t going to pay attention to her lesson anyways, Joy pulled out her phone, stood up and pocketed it momentarily, then shuffled to the front. [b][color=6174ff]“Can I get a hall pass, Mr. Lindemann?”[/color][/b] The only time Joy got up from her seat was to use the bathroom, which was rare, so it didn’t take long for her to be given a pass and set free. The phone kept vibrating. 

As she walked down the hall, she pulled it out and answered it, [b][color=6174ff]“Hello?”[/color][/b] No need for formalities. This was her personal phone and a [i]stranger[/i] was calling.

Sitting in his ‘office,’ a modified janitor’s closet that Brian’s parents had obtained for him following a sizeable donation to the school board, he faced a moment where he questioned if Riley’s show was even worth the effort. Before words came through the phone to Joy’s ears, there was a sigh. Then, Brian spoke. [color=0598bc][b]“Joy? It’s Brian.”[/b][/color] Honestly, how did people not know it was him calling? He was the only person left on the planet that called phones.

[b][color=6174ff]“Brian who? There’s like six Brians I can think of and none would call me.”[/color][/b] Not being a popular kids came with its perks. You didn’t know everyone. Including the person throwing the boat party you’d be attending. 

[color=0598bc][b]“...Helmsley.”[/b][/color] For Joy’s words, Brian chose to blame her mother. If Jude lived in one of the four corners, like the rest of the Lyon clan, then Joy would know who he was, and they could have skipped this entire fiasco and gotten straight to the point. [color=0598bc][b]“Brian Helmsley. Is this a bad time?”[/b][/color] Women.

[b][color=6174ff]“Ah.”[/color][/b] Was the first word to come out of Joy’s mouth. Somewhere deep down the rabbit hole they were related. Not enough for Joy to consider him an immediate contact, but hey, family was family. [b][color=6174ff]“I answered, so I’m free.”[/color][/b] Men. 

[color=0598bc][b]“Riley… Wells wants me to help him with his show. I told him I would, but I’m going to need help with a few of the more tech-y things. Can you do it? I assume you either can, or you can convince your uncle to do it. You know which uncle.”[/b][/color] Interlaced with his words, was the noise of a keyboard, and the crunching of food — probably chips. [color=0589bc][b]“I figure you could do it. You’re hardly ever busy.”[/b][/color]

[b][color=6174ff]“What makes you think I’m not busy?”[/color][/b] Joy retorted. [b][color=6174ff]“Last time I checked you’ve been gone for an exceedingly long time. You don’t know what I do during my spare time.”[/color][/b] Joy leaned her back on one of the lockers. Of course she could do the job, it was easy, but don’t make it seem like she doesn’t do anything with her time. She does. Her times just recently been consumed by a boy! Hmpf. 

[color=0598bc][b]“Well, from what I understand, you spend most of your after school time babysitting. If not that, you’re probably playing video games — given your heritage and what I know about your family. If not doing that, the only other possible thing you can do, unless there’s been some kind of thing that happened that I haven’t found out about yet, is hanging out with Katie and Noah. I understand your schooltime is more or less completely consumed by academic pursuits and the occasional extracurricular activity, but this would just be another one of those. I’m sure it would look lovely on a college application.”[/b][/color] [i]More crunching.[/i] [color=0598bc][b]“That was a little rude of me though, sorry. I could have phrased it better.”[/b][/color]

[b][color=6174ff]“Okay, you know me. Sure, I’ll help, but we’ll need to go over what you want exactly. I’m assuming you want to upgrade his set, yeah? It’s kind of outdated. I’ll need to know when I can have access to the room so I can do my thing while working around my [i]busy[/i] schedule. Can’t have sporadic meetings. I, Brian, think video games are [i]important[/i]. Thank you very much.”[/color][/b] Subconsciously, Joy was also preparing for time spent with Damian, since it seemed like they were getting close again. And she liked it. 

[color=0598bc][b]“We’ll look at tomorrow at lunch, and then get started tomorrow after school — so make sure you’re available. Assuming everything goes well at the party tonight. You should come, it ought to be fun. Damian’s going to give a speech.”[/b][/color] Brian said, and there was more clacking on a keyboard to be heard. [color=0598bc][b]“You [i]do[/i] know Damian, right? There’s like two or three of them at this school too. I’m talking about O’Connor.”[/b][/color]

A faint blush graced her cheeks. [b][color=6174ff]“Yes I know him, you monkey! I’ve known him since diapers.”[/color][/b] And they’ve kissed. A lot. At the New Years’ Party. Didn’t Brian know Damian for a long time too? Was he dumb? Or did Damian seriously not consider her important enough to mention? WHY was she getting offended over this?  

[i]Crunch.[/i]

[i]Crunch.[/i]

[i]Crunch.[/i]

[color=0598bc][b]“Your mother know how well you know him nowadays?”[/b][/color] That answered all of Joy’s questions, all but one.

[b][color=6174ff]“I’m hanging up now.”[/color][/b] [i]Click.[/i] 

[color=0598bc][b]“Well, I guess that answers that…”[/b][/color] Brian tipped his head back and munched on the last crumbs. [color=0598bc][b]“Is that a full list?”[/b][/color] He asked, speaking to his Assistant as he looked at the spreadsheet he’d worked on, organizing the majority of his peers — minus the freshmen and sophomore. Brian planned to take note of whoever attended the party, and then cross reference it with this list to figure out who the Weekend Warrior was. There were a few flaws in his plan, but he hoped to press on anyway.

[color=e212ca][b]“Yes, but I’ve been thinking myself: what if this is a Shakespeare scenario? You know; they say that it’s possible he wasn’t [i]one[/i] person… What if the Weekend Warrior is [i]group[/i] of people?”[/b][/color]

[color=0598bc][b]“I doubt that’s the case. The writing style is pretty similar throughout all the blog posts, but yes. I’ve considered that possibility. If there’s more than one, then I’ll find them all. Besides, not that many people hate Damian enough to write angry blog posts about him. He’s actually pretty popular. Call AJ and Scott.”[/b][/color] There wasn’t a response, as his Assistant set about making the conference call. Now, Brian just had to wait.

[color=ff9c23][b]“HEYO, BRIAN!”[/b][/color] AJ proclaimed. His voice was a little distorted and softly in the background the purr of his speeding vehicle could be heard. [color=ff9c23][b]“What’s up, my dude? I saw Becca’s post. Welcome back. It’s been a good minute since I’ve seen my boy.”[/b][/color] 

[color=0598bc][b]“Yeah, well, I couldn’t stay away forever. Turns out if I leave, Damian makes awful decisions and people say Henry date raped Parker with a brownie.”[/b][/color] [i]Crunch.[/i] [color=0598bc][b]“One second…”[/b][/color] Brian said, before there was the sound of someone else answering the phone.

[color=e2e520][b]“The prodigal son has returned. But is he here to wipe the blood from the pretenders off of the throne and reclaim what was once his?”[/b][/color] There was Scott’s voice.

[color=0598bc][b]“That’s more Becca’s vibe. Look, how would you guys like to go to this party tonight — and just not be intoxicated at all?”[/b][/color]

[color=e2e520][b]“Well! That sounds just [i]fucking awful.[/i]”[/b][/color]

[color=ff9c23][b]“No alcohol… at all?”[/b][/color] Aw shit. AJ wanted to forget what he did to Bails by washing it away with alcohol. This would be entirely against what would be good for him. Being [i]sober[/i] at a party one of his bros was throwing. A bro whose sister he offended and who may or may not be there, depending on if she wanted to spend the night sulking and reading business proposals or some shit. [color=ff9c23][b]“Why we ain’t drinking?!”[/b][/color] 

[color=0598bc][b]“Because I need help. I’ve decided that I’m done with the Weekend Warrior BMing everyone everytime anyone does anything fun. There’s no logical reason for it, other than they hate people and fun. This isn’t a party, this is a trap. We’re gonna isolate and decimate, which means I need you two to spend the evening people watching. Look, if it’s that big of a deal you can come to the house and drink the really expensive stuff that Mom saves for herself as a reward for dealing with all of us.”[/b][/color] Brian explained.

[color=e2e520][b]“You can’t say you need help, that obligates us to help!”[/b][/color]

[color=ff9c23][b]“And if we don’t help, we’ll feel like shitty friends and we got to honor our friendship. We can’t let down a brother. We didn’t let you down ten years ago, we didn’t let you down five, and we ain’t gonna’ let you down today.”[/b][/color] Sober AJ at a party. He could handle it. He could do it. [i]Please[/i] have Bailey not be there. 

[color=e2e520][b]“I guess we can be sober. But what if Katie’s there? If I’m not drunk I’m gonna get in a fight with her, dude.”[/b][/color]

[color=0598bc][b]“Two things: First, can you just hate fuck her and get it over with already? I’m so over it. Secondly, good. More drama is a positive thing. The Weekend Warrior only reports drama, right? So make some. Make as much as you can. Start a fight, throw someone overboard. Make it loud and obnoxious, so I can review the tapes and see who was in range to get an accurate view of it. Then I can figure out what they write about, and maybe narrow the list — at least a bit.”[/b][/color]

[color=e2e520][b]“This is a lot of work for an autistic girl…”[/b][/color]

[color=0598bc][b]“She’s not autistic!”[/b][/color] 

There was a pause on AJ’s end. The ocean could be heard now. [color=ff9c23][b]“I could make a scene…”[/b][/color] He had to use his words carefully. [color=ff9c23][b]“But it may involve your sister.”[/b][/color] There was already a video circulating of them, which he just got notified of. 

[color=0598bc][b]“Works for me. That will be all, guys. Show up early if you want, that way you can get a feel for where you want to do whatever you’re gonna do. Just make sure it’s good enough to be in the stupid blog. Again, she’s not autistic.”[/b][/color]

[i]Click.[/i]

What a productive use of his time.[/indent]