[IC] CANCELLED.

[Grimoire Gaming]

_{The first date of Savannah Matthews and Trevor Wells
Location: The Erickson Household → Trevor’s Jeep → Creamistry
A @melissahart and @Silent Observer Collab}

One very awkward photo session later, and everyone’s favorite redheads were now heading down the driveway together to go on their very first date. Trevor might have expected embarrassment on that grand of a scale from Remy, but not Josephine. She took pictures like it was their first day of kindergarten or something. Still, Trev couldn’t help but laugh as he walked up to the passenger side door and opened it for Savannah. “That was… something. Haha—”

Sav’s cheeks were still flushed from Josie taking pictures, still completely and utterly mortified. It was a first date, not prom! She couldn’t believe her friend had done something so embarrassing, but at the end of the day, she didn’t expect anything less from Josie. At least if things go well with the pair, and they become something more, they’ll have pictures to document the occasion. As the two walked towards Trevor’s car, she couldn’t help but swoon as he opened the door for her. Savvy was a sucker for good manners and chivalry; she was from the south, it was how they lived. “Yeah, sure was. Josie was extremely excited… a little too excited if you ask me.” Smiling at the redhead, she nimbly stepped into the car. “But I don’t blame her, she lives with all guys, so she doesn’t get the whole girly dressing up thing a lot.”

“I don’t blame her either... It is pretty exciting.” Trevor’s face lit up with a small smile. He was, of course, still blushing as well. Savannah hopped up into the lifted Jeep with ease, as if she was accustomed to getting into large vehicles. She was from Texas, and they say everything is bigger in Texas, so maybe she was used to it. Once Sav was settled into her seat, Trev carefully closed the door for her and swung around to the driver’s side to get in himself. The engine revved to life and the radio turned on to a local station at low volume. “Feel free to play DJ, my Assistant’s name is Rudy, he could play whatever you’d like.”

Sav nodded, also agreeing that this was exciting. She was on a date! With the hottest boy in school! As she sat in the car while he made his way to the driver’s side, she had to will herself to not act like an idiot. Play it cool, Sav. Just play it cool. She thought to herself, taking a deep breath to slow down her heart rate. But it picked up again as the engine revved, and Trevor asked her to choose the music. Hopefully her tastes wouldn’t be a turn off. “Okay, um, Rudy, could you play… some classic rock? Like the Stones or something?” Savvy asked; she inherited her love of the oldies from her mom.

“Nice choice.” Trevor smiled at that. Gosh, she really was a dream girl, wasn’t she? Rudy started playing Sympathy For the Devil and Trev clicked the volume down a few notches. Music was nice, but it shouldn’t be the center of focus on their drive. This was a date, and Trev was going to try his damnedest to talk to Savannah (hopefully without sounding too foolish). He put the Jeep into drive and pulled away from the curb to head to their destination. “So, have you been to Creamistry before?”

“Thanks,” Sav smirked, mentally sighing in relief that she had picked something that he didn’t hate. As they began to drive, she tried her best not to look down at the ground, nerves attempting to take control of the moment. She just had to relax, this was going to be fun! “No, I actually haven’t. I’ve only hit a couple of the main spots in Beverly Hills since I moved here, but I’ve got a killer sweet tooth, so I’m excited.” She’d only been around for six months, so exploring happened naturally, but she still surprisingly hadn’t been to the key places in the city. “You can’t really go wrong with ice cream though.”

“Yeah, it’s really great, but you’ll soon find that out.” The redhead was struggling to keep his eyes on the road. In between traffic signals and at red lights, he would steal glances at her. She was wearing her hair in loose curls, more curly than he had seen it before. They looked soft and touchable, the red strands appearing almost golden in the late afternoon sun. Of course Savannah looked even better in the sunshine, it was like she was made to be in it — though, if she was from the same gingery stock as him, the easily sunburnt skin would disagree. “What about before you moved, then? Tell me about Texas, where was your favorite spot there?”

At the mention of home, a wishful smile formed on the redhead’s face, memories instantly coming to mind. She missed home quite often, and loved talking about her roots and her hometown. “The food is so good in Texas, better than here, I’m not gonna lie,” Savvy started, laughing slightly at the difference in cuisine. Here in Beverly Hills, it was salad, green juice, and more salad, which was sacrilegious in Hico. “But my mom and I used to go to this bakery a few blocks from my house, and they made the most amazing sugar cookies- probably because they added a whole load of butter to them. I would beg to go there after school every day to get one, they were that good.” She smirked at the memories of dragging her mother down the street, on the hunt for the delectable treats after pre-k. “You must get spoiled in the food department though. Your dad’s a chef, right?”

“Yes I do, and he sure is.” Trevor responded with a laugh. His father practically never stopped cooking. Being a chef wasn’t just his career, it was his way of life. “He works Captain Cuddle’s with Ty — that’s Hailey’s father, which… you probably know. But, uhm, we’ll be going there this Friday, so you’ might meet him. And… it may or may not be as embarrassing as the JoJo situation, knowing my father.” Trev chuckled again as he flicked the turn signal on to pull into the plaza where Creamistry was located.

Savannah gulped. Meeting the family? Already? It’s like the super fast forward button was being pressed on her life! “Oh, okay! Don’t worry, I think if I can handle Josie, I can handle anything.” She stated, unsure if that was the actual truth or not. But Savvy put on a smile, hoping Trevor wouldn’t notice how anxious that made her.

“He might be really busy, though, Friday nights are kind of crazy there. Either way… you don’t have to worry about him. Dad’s really nice.” The ginger easily picked up on her nerves. He hadn’t meant to scare her, but the more he thought about it, he’d be pretty freaked out if the situation was reversed. Trev made a mental note to instruct his dad not to be too extra if he did see them on their date on Friday. After pulling the Jeep into a parking spot, Trevor killed the engine. The building facade in front of them bore thick vertical stripes of white and pale blue. Creamistry was emblazoned in pastel pink cursive font that was set up to glow after the sun sets. The sign also included an anthropomorphically smiling mint green bowl of neapolitan ice cream. “This is it.” Trev looked over to her with a grin and then opened his door to get out.

Sav mentally sighed in relief; she’d be happy to meet Trevor’s dad, she was just incredibly fearful that he wouldn’t like her. She smiled as they pulled up to Creamistry- this place was so cute! Getting out of the Jeep, she smoothed out her dress and brushed some loose hair behind her ear. “I can’t believe I haven’t been here yet- definitely seems like somewhere I would go.”

Trevor walked around to her side of the vehicle as she got out. Somewhat awkwardly, he waited for her to smooth out her dress and start walking. He mentally battled with himself on whether he should offer her his elbow… or try to hold her hand. His confidence waned and he did neither, instead he simply started walking beside her as they headed inside. The interior of the ice cream shoppe was just as adorable as the sign outside had suggested. The decor was all in soft, pastel colors, and the workers wore cute aprons with smiling ice cream cones, bow ties, and dainty soda jerk hats. “The ice cream is fantastic, but this place is really all about the toppings.” Trev gestured to the long bar of endless serve-yourself toppings in the center of the restaurant. Retro-style white leather booths lined the perimeter of the room, where a number of people sat and enjoyed their sweet treats. “So… what’s your favorite flavor?” He asked as they stood in the line to place their orders.

Savvy walked beside him- also quite awkwardly. Should they hold hands? She wondered what it would be like to hold Trevor’s hand… Following him inside, her eyes lit up at the sight of the interior of the ice cream store. It was even cuter than she thought it’d be. Stepping into line next to her date, she smirked at his comment. “Asking the tough questions, I see,” Savvy laughed finding her comment slightly funny. “Probably Mocha Chip or something of the coffee/chocolate variety. What about you?”

“Strawberry, definitely strawberry. Though all ice cream is ace in my books.” Trev beamed at the other redhead. Yeah… strawberry was absolutely his favorite. He was beginning to think that red might become his favorite color, too. Trevor was distracted from admiring his pretty date when the clerk called them up as next to the counter. “Oh, uh, I’d like two scoops of the fresh strawberry. Tipped in a dish, with the cone on top, please.” He grinned at the clerk and then turned to face Savannah. “... what would you like?”

She smirked, chocolate and strawberry certainly did go well together. “Could I have a scoop of Mocha Chip in a dish, please? Thanks.” Sav reached down towards her purse and pulled out her wallet. “Now, the next tough question is what type of toppings you’re gonna get.” She laughed, trying to decide what to put on her ice cream; there were so many options! Now that her nerves were somewhat gone, Sav realized how easy it was to talk to Trevor. He was also easy on the eyes, which didn’t hurt in the slightest either.

“Endless toppings for both of those, please.” Trevor finished the order to the ice cream server. He had noticed Sav going for her purse, and that would not do. He would pay for this date, and the next one, and any other date that she’d be willing to go on with him. He hoped there would be many. Trev passed his card over the chip scanner as soon as the total flashed on the screen. They stepped over towards the pick-up section of the counter so that the next customers could place their order. “I’m a simple man, I really like chocolate sprinkles. I used to like them because they looked like tiny ants all over the ice cream — which is kinda gross — but little boys like gross stuff.” Trev laughed at himself softly. “Rye and I used to get ice cream with the other kids back in Colorado. I’d get chocolate sprinkles, and he’d get rainbow.”

Sav smiled at Trevor’s chivalry as she watched him pay. It was old fashioned, but that was the way it was in the South, so she appreciated it more than he knew. Her mother would never approve of a guy who didn’t offer to pay, so he passed test number one! “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.” Listening to him talk about the sprinkles, one part of his response stuck out to Sav. Other kids in Colorado? She didn’t quite understand what he meant. Maybe he had family there or something? Deciding to ask, she cleared her throat. “Oh, do you have relatives there? In Colorado?”

“Oh… uh,” It was easy to forget that not everyone knew about the Wells boys. Trevor didn’t make a big deal about his upbringing, but he was a popular face in school, so people talked. BHHS was a gossip mill, everyone knew everything that there was to know about somebody — but Savannah was new. That was refreshing. But, he wasn’t about to keep things from her, she deserved to know just as much, if not more than anyone else, if she was going to be his girl. “I did, but not anymore. Rye and I are adopted, and from different families. We became brothers the day we met, though, at a Children’s Home in Denver.” Trevor shared openly, it wasn’t a sensitive topic at all, at least… it wasn’t anymore. Their dishes of ice cream were placed on the counter and Trev picked up both, handing Sav’s to her, before heading towards the topping bar. He immediately went for the sprinkles and scooped on an unhealthy amount of them — endless toppings meant endless, after all.

Oh. Well, Sav felt like a Grade A idiot, why did she have to ask something so sensitive? Stupid, stupid, stupid… She thought to herself, trying to think of a recovery in some way. But, the damage had been done, so she just proceeded as normally as she could, taking her ice cream from Trevor, their hands brushing ever so slightly. “Oh, I didn’t know you were adopted. So are your parents from Denver or from here?” Sav asked while gazing at her topping options. She spotted some of the frosted animal crackers that you buy in the big tubs and immediately put some on top of her ice cream in addition to some fresh strawberries and a few raspberries.

Trevor joined Savannah by the fresh fruit section. Their hands bumped when they both simultaneously reached for the strawberry scoop. Looking at each other quickly, they both turned the color of the berries themselves. Like a proper gentleman, Trev let her grab a portion first. “They’re both from Colorado. Pops was born in Denver, and he actually was adopted from the same Home when he was young. And Dad is from a very small town north of Denver called Westworth. They, uh, met in school there. High school sweethearts and stuff.” Trevor smiled brightly at Savannah. High school sweethearts had a nice ring to it, didn’t it? He returned his gaze back to his sinful cup of dairy dessert, it was almost perfect. Trev plucked up a can of whipped cream, one of those fancy ones for fresh cream like they use at coffee shops, and expertly swirled a spiral of cream over his mess of toppings. “Whipped cream?” Trevor asked Savannah, gesturing with the can like he was offering to make a masterpiece atop her own ice cream. He was. “I’m kind of a professional at this.” He said with a smirk, finally feeling comfortable and in the moment with her.

The female redhead listened and put two and two together, noting that Trevor had two dads. When she met them, how would she address them? Mr. and Mr. Wells? Yeah, that sounded right. She hoped. “That’s so sweet. High school sweethearts aren’t too common, so that’s really special.” Savannah replied, her blush from Trevor’s touch fading slightly. She thought to herself that Trevor, Riley, and their dad must have a unique connection, all having been adopted from the same Children’s home. Letting out a laugh at his dish, she held out her own ice cream with a smile. “Well, I better leave it to the professional then.”

Trevor beamed and happily obliged. With the most focused and careful precision of his entire life, Trevor swirled a pristine peak of whipped cream on top of Savvy’s dish. “Ahh, perfection!” He exclaimed with a proud grin and set the canister down. The pair made their way to an empty booth and sat across from each other. Trevor couldn’t imagine a more perfect moment if he tried. This was fantastic, at least he thought it was going fantastically, and he hoped she did too. Moreso, he wanted to know about her as well. “So what about you, is your whole family from Texas?”

Sav grinned as they sat down, having a full view of Trevor all to herself. Man, was she lucky. At the mention of family, a topic that was once not so easy to discuss, she smirked, now able to talk about her relatives in a normal, not weird way. “Well… sort of. My mom is, but my dad isn’t. She came out to Beverly Hills to become an actress when she was 22, but instead met my dad, and left when she found out she was pregnant with me. I didn’t know who my dad was until a few years ago.” Taking a bite of her ice cream to break up her sentence, she continued after patting her lips with a napkin. She did want to be open with him too, especially since he had been so willing to talk about his past with her. Relationships were built on honesty. “But as you can see, I live in Beverly Hills now, and that’s cause I moved out here to get to know him. I spent my whole life wondering who he was and what he was like, so it’s pretty surreal that I’m here.” Savvy took another bite of her ice cream. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. This is so good!”

“Isn’t it? Totally worth the extra reps I’ll have to do to make up for it. It’s hard not to be a million pounds with Remy as a dad and an achilles heel for ice cream.” Trevor laughed genuinely and then scooped in a mouthful of strawberry goodness. Mmm, delicious! He opened his eyes after enjoying a moment of bliss with the ice cream and refocused on Sav. “How’s getting to know your dad going? That’s a big move to make, and I’m sure you had like… expectations or something. Do you like him?” More importantly, do you like being here? Trevor didn’t ask that, but he thought it. What if it wasn’t going well and she would be moving back to Texas with her mom soon?

Ugh, now Sav was imagining Trevor at the gym, god he probably looked great with his shirt off… Refocusing after her micro daydream, she ate another scoop of ice cream. “If I’m being honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I heard stories about him from my mom, but I also heard things about him from the tabloids and stuff-” She stopped to clarify, realizing he may not understand what she was trying to say, “My dad is a producer, so people usually have a lot to say about him- but coming out here was the best decision I think I’ve made in a long time.” She completed her sentence with a smile, a genuine one. “I really do like my dad, we’ve become very close. And the move has been better than I could have imagined, I’m loving it here for so many reasons.” Savannah blushed, thinking to herself a very specific reason why she was so happy.

“I love that you’re here too.” He had said it without thinking first. Oh gosh, was that too much to say? It probably was. Should he try to make up for it… and say something else? No, that’d be more awkward. Just eat some ice cream. Trev did his best to prevent his face from going completely red and shoveled in another bite. He wasn’t quite able to form words again yet, so he hoped that she would somehow continue this conversation.

Sav’s heart skipped a beat at his comment. Josie was right, Josie was always right. This was going amazingly. Taking another spoonful of ice cream, she gave Trevor a reaffirming smile. “So how was your day today? Were your classes interesting?”

“They were all right. ‘Cept english, we got assigned our senior research projects today. I have to come up with a topic idea by next week… and I really dislike writing papers, so I’m not looking forward to it.” Trev admitted, knowing full well that he was talking to a junior journalist. She was probably stellar in english, A’s on every paper. She was probably good at everything, if he had to guess. “How about you, any nightmare projects?”

Sav smirked, knowing that this would ensure she’d get to hang out with him again soon. “I can help you if you want? English is kind of my thing.” On the subject of nightmare projects, her mind flipped to this afternoon’s events with Jacob. Man, that kid was nothing but bad news. Bringing it up as nonchalantly as she could, especially since she witnessed the two get into a fight, she tried to downplay his attitude. “Actually I do have one of those… Jacob and I have to do this project for our Mythology class. I’m usually fine working with a random partner, but he really rubs me the wrong way.” She explained, tossing her hair over her shoulder so she wouldn’t get ice cream in it… that would really suck.

“Oh, help me?” Trev blushed at the thought of being tutored by someone like Savannah. Normally he was the one doing the tutoring, but with younger kids that didn’t have to write research papers yet. It might be embarrassing, but it would also mean more time with her, and it would definitely help his grade. Win-win. “Sure, yeah, that’d be great. I’d like that!” Trevor agreed happily. His mood shifted considerably at Sav’s next comment. He got defensive at the mention of Jacob, and him being in any close proximity to her after what he had said. “Did he do something to rub you the wrong way?” His voice was calm and steady, but his heart was racing at the idea of possibly having to have another confrontation with the blond male. He’d set him straight if he had to.

Savannah sighed, looking up from her almost empty dish of ice cream at Trevor. She could tell he wasn’t too pleased with the fact she and Jacob were working together, and neither was she, especially after the way that the blonde hurt him yesterday. Ignoring the fact that Jacob practically flipped her textbook off the desk when he opened it unwantedly, she continued, trying to downplay this as much as she could. “No, he didn’t do anything… he’s just very abrasive and aggressive. The way he talks about football makes it seem like it’s a war to him.” Sav breathed another deep sigh, stirring her ice cream spoon a few times. She shouldn’t have brought this up, but it was too late now. “I’m not gonna lie, he does makes me a little nervous, I mean he busted your lip...But it’ll be fine, we only have to do a few more things for the project and then I won’t have to talk to him again.”

Trevor pursed his lips in a straight line as he clenched his teeth together. His facial expression plainly voiced his concern even if he did not vocalize it. Trev was overwhelmed with the feeling of wanting to protect her, and keep her safe, much like he had felt when he first met Riley, and still did. “You don’t have to be nervous around him. Not as long as other people are around. And if he says or does something off color, let me know. Okay?”

Sav sighed in relief, all the while realizing how kind Trevor was, willing to help her like that. Especially since she had seen him get angry at Jacob before, the redhead had a feeling she’d be fine as long as he was around. “Okay, yeah I’ll let you know.” Deciding to be bold, and even shocking herself, she reached out her hand and took a hold of his across the table. “Thank you.” She stated simply, a glimmering smile on her face.

In an instant, his mood shifted once again. His cheeks blazed with heat as he stared down at her hand. She was touching him. And she was so… soft. Trevor chewed at his lip and then, in a surprising feat of bravery, he laced his fingers through hers. Trev looked up from their hands and gazed into her eyes. “Of course.” He smiled, and everything was right in the world once more.

[Fabricant451]

_{Don't you make him mean and cross; 'Cause he'll show you who's the boss}

For the first time in a while, Roz really wanted a cigarette. Not many knew that Roz used to be a smoker - but then no many know anything about Roz, even her trusted confidant only knew enough to make Roz consider him useful and a great friend. Like many youths who pick it up, she thought it would make her more mature but all it did was make her cough and feel miserable, and high school was miserable enough without also adding nicotine and crippling addiction to the mix. The cravings had since subsided but every so often something around the high school campus stirred up the feelings of really needing to go behind the bleachers and steal a quick smoke.

Something just felt off about today. Given that she was already on edge given her mysterious benefactor meeting tomorrow, Roz arriving to school with a healthy bit of paranoia wasn't unusual. She could smell it in the air as soon as she walked up the steps and entered the building. It was there, right with the odorous stench of hormones, body spray, spray tans, and the wafting cloud of fecal matter and smug from everyone having their heads so far up their asses they had shit for brains. She paused in the entrance hall and had a cursory glance at the student body coming and going, not really acknowledging her as she listened in to the noise.

A crying short girl brushed past Roz's shoulder, another casualty of the shamrock slut no doubt. The tone of conversation seemed unusually upbeat for being a Tuesday morning at the worst place in the greater Hills area. Roz perked up her ears trying to pinpoint exactly what had people in a state of elation. Something smelled fishy, and it wasn't coming from between Brynn Payne's legs this time. Not yet anyway. It was early still and that was more a second period matter.

Beverly Hills High had a vibe to it and Roz liked to think she was tuned to the right frequency to pick it up. She had to be. She had to keep a note of every student that was noteworthy. Or at least those who went around acting like they were noteworthy because they drew the winning hand in the game of life by being popped out of some bougie beaver or else had made up for a distinct lack of personality by having a distinct amount of drugs and sex so that by age twenty one they'd already be set up for a life of disappointing sexual encounters and spousal abuse due to their impotency.

But the vibe was different today, as if someone had thrown a boulder in the pond and everything was rippling and breaking the surface. It wasn't just the heightened bit of paranoia over tomorrow's brunch. Roz could feel it in the atmosphere. And then she could hear it. Quickly turning as a gaggle of gals walked past, she heard a name that gave her pause. Helmsley.

If ever there was a family that could use with a lesson in safe sex and the dangers of inbreeding, it was the Helmsley's. Roz could neither confirm nor deny that any inbreeding actually occurred within the Helmsley family tree but with a family so obsessed with legacy and dynasty she wouldn't put it past them. They had enough money to have doctors fix up any birth defects. Except they had eight defects and the law frowned on murder. The Helmsley's were close with the Greens, if Roz's research into the matter was accurate, and it seemed oddly timely that days after she put a Green on blast so publicly that people were calling him a rapist damn near to his face that now the Helmsley's were on the lips of the student body.

"Thanks." Roz snagged a flyer from a passing student and was walking down the hall before the student could even respond.

This was a new one. Not even a week after the now infamous beach party and there was another one in the works. Tonight. A school night. Not that that mattered, these students could fail all of their classes and still get into fucking Harvard by having their parents build a sperm bank on campus. To contain the jizz from their self-aggrandizing. It still felt unusual. Parties were weekend things. Friday into Saturday. Saturday into Sunday. But Tuesday? On a boat?

Roz considered shooting Lucky a message, he was better at mingling with a certain crowd of person so it was possible he had some more information than just the existence of a party, but as the bell rang signaling home room and the start of the school day she decided against it for now. Roz simply crumpled up the flyer and tossed it in the nearest bin. The last thing she wanted to do was go on a fucking boat with these people. At least a beach house had exits and an escape route. This was like a Titanic situation in the making.

As Roz was settling into class, wondering if she could just get away with blasting the party pre-emptively then just piecing together a story from sloppy posts on social media, the morning show came on in all its awkward splendor. Whoever was in charge of producing these could really use a lesson in reporting and presentation. The topic of an upcoming Sadie Hawkin's dance made Roz scoff. Like she was going to be asking someone to that shitfest; though she might have to go stag depending on how things progressed with her Right Hand Man and his trip to the petting zoo.

But then Brian Helmsley appeared on camera. So the whispers weren't just talking out of their ass. Since when did the school let students advertise parties - parties hosted by Damian O'Connor who was surely still reeling from the attack Roz had done on his last shindig. But she figured when all you have to offer the world is money even staff members allow it with the right paycheck in the pocket. As others in the class seemed to not really listen or care much for this portion of the show, Roz listened and listened closely.

Brian had, after all, mentioned her by name.

Roz didn't let it show on her face but she was staring at the television as if Brian and she were the only ones around. Brian Helmsley was sending a message and suddenly the smell she sensed earlier was taking shape. The fact that there was a party so soon after the last, that involved Damian, and that had one of the hosts personally inviting her to the festivities...it all smelled suspicious. The question Roz had to answer was simple. Did she accept the invitation or not, knowing full well it was as suspicious as an unlocked car with the keys in the ignition.

'What's your angle, Helmsley? And how badly does it fuck it up if I decline?' Roz was deep in thought even though she had already made up her mind.

Brian Helmsley had essentially made Roz Norcross the guest of honor. And she would hate to disappoint when someone rolled out the red carpet for her.

"Consider me your fucking iceberg."

[Grimoire Gaming]

_{Featuring: Dixon & Lucas
Day: Tuesday After School
Location: The Hardy-Piccoli Residence}

Tap. Tap. Taptaptap. JD drummed the eraser of of his number two pencil in time with the song playing through the speakers situated atop his work desk. He likely had his mother to thank for his perfect sense of rhythm as he kept tempo with the heavy tune. The book that was serving as a drum in this instance was his trig textbook. While Dixon was a freshman, he was actually ahead of his peers in math, and had tested into trigonometry a year early.

Math was easy, and it always had been for him. What was not easy, was trying to stay focused on fucking proofs when he had agreed to go to a party tonight. A party. A real high school party, probably one with lots of sex, and alcohol, and drugs, and dancing — all things that one Johnny Dixon Piccoli did not participate in. And on a school night, no less! At least tomorrow was a late start day. Oh well, he had said he would go to Katie and definitely-not-cute bible dude, so he would. All he had left to figure out was how to get to the Wells’ without raising suspicions… and getting ready, of course. He’d already gotten half-way through the first part by talking to his mother.

Dixon quickly scribbled out the rest of the answers to his homework assignment and then shoved it into his backpack, which would be going with him to the Wells’ later. He stood up, stretched out of his study-induced slump, and made his way over to the full length mirror beside his closet. There was just enough room between all of the band stickers covering the glass surface to see the vague outline of his body. Dixon bit at his lip rings and then blew a loud raspberry as he gazed at his reflection. He roughed up his helplessly limp green locks and frowned. His whole look needed some work, to be honest. He started with changing his outfit — which equated to exchanging one hoodie for another, and keeping the same black band shirt and ripped skinny jeans on.

The teen boy ducked into his ensuite bathroom, where there were enough hair and makeup products for it to pass as a teenage girl's room. Fuck your gender stereotypes, JD doesn’t give a shit you think. He plugged in his straightener and, whilst it heated up, he worked on his face. Without any precision or artistry, Dixon roughly lined his eyes with a jet black gel pencil. Capping the liner, he admired his work in the vanity briefly, and then he viciously rubbed at both of his eyes with his fingers. It was barbaric, and completely not the way that you were supposed to smudge out your liner, but it was his way of doing so. It wasn’t a true emo look unless you looked like a drugged up raccoon with bloodshot eyes.

Next, JD ran a flat iron through his verdant locks. He brushed them out and added powdered texturizer for extra volume. With a few hand scrunches and shakes of his head, he looked like a proper anime character once more. His music playlist had shifted to one of his favorite Deciduous Dreams songs, and Dixon was helpless but to sing along to the chorus, using his hairbrush as a microphone.

“I feel weak.
Thrown in wide open spaces.
We turn ourselves inside out,
expose what we're afraid to see.”

Dixon danced around the bathroom as he sang along. You know that phrase “dance like nobody's watching”? JD was living that — shaking his thin, skinny jean-clad hips as he moved about the room. He spun around on the smooth tile floor, his socks making the motion slick and fluid. “And I know wh—” His rendition of the song was cut short by the sight of his father standing in the doorway. JD quickly lowered the microphone-hairbrush. “Oh, hi, dad.”

Lucas smirked at his son with his arms crossed over his chest. Raising a jokingly false judgemental eyebrow, he spoke. “Well, if you’re trying to compete with Jareth, you might not want to quit your day job just yet, kid. You got your mom’s looks, and my awful singing voice. You’re welcome.”

“Shut up.” JD rolled his eyes and turned around, returning the brush to the counter. “What do you want, anyway?”

“Hey! Don’t ‘what do you want’ me, punk.” If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black. Lucas would have never thought that he’d live to see the day that he called someone else a punk. Luke also hadn’t ever imagined himself becoming a father either, but here he was. And the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, it seemed. “Your mother said you had something to ask me. She said it with that tone of voice that implied it was a favor, too, so maybe you shouldn’t be such a little shit, eh?”

The son turned around and returned his father’s smirk. This kind of banter was the usual in their household. Words that might upset folks with certain sensibilities were used as terms of endearment among the Piccoli’s. “Yeah, can you give me a ride to the Wells’?”

“Again?”

“Yup, I’m gonna stay there tonight.”

“On a school night?”

“Ma already said it was okay. It’s a late start day tomorrow.” He said defensively as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black and red striped zip up hoodie.

Luke raised his eyebrow once again. “Oh, did she, now?” Luke asked with mock-disbelief. He gave his son a full once over — taking in the slightly different outfit from the one he had worn to school that morning, the coiffed hair, and the makeup. “Since when do you put on eyeliner to go to the Wells'? You sure you aren’t meeting up with some secret girlfriend?”

That brought forth another moody eye roll and wave of teenage angst. “No.”

“Boyfriend, then?” Lucas pressed, knowing full well that it would get a rise out of his son.

“NO!” Dixon’s eyes went saucer-wide as he barked out a response. Before he could blush at that, he kept his mind focused on his edgy facade. A grumpy JD was a normal JD, and one that didn’t raise any unnecessary suspicions of boyfriends, or lack-thereof. “Look, I’ll just walk, nevermind.” He said and started to head for the door, attempting to storm out of his own room, as teenagers do.

“Uh-huh...” Luke mused and turned to watch his son walk away with a victorious grin. He had every intention of giving JD the ride that he had asked for, he was just giving him shit about it first. Dixon was an awful liar, and both Regina and Lucas already knew that he was up to something suspect tonight. The truth was, they didn’t care about him going to a party half as much as he thought that they did. They’d gotten up to much worse when they were his age, and they’d done so without being straight-A students. “Just finish prettying yourself up and let me know when you’re ready to leave.” He said and left his son to finish getting party-ready alone.

[LovelyComplex]

_{Trixie & Marshall
In the morning, during school hours at Sunset Castle
Collab with @Silent Observer}

If Marshall wasn’t the gayest boy to ever exist in the teen drama that was set at their school — eye candy, with the right air to him that has earned him a standing ovation on numerous occasions — and if Trixie wasn’t still fixated on her seasoned warrior ex, the lion she knew who had more courage than any person combined, who was breathlessly sexy and made her reevaluate her life in a way no one else could, this would’ve been a perfect wet dream. For boys and girls alike. But, he is very gay and she is very hung up on her ex, so their nakedness was a non-issue, for them.

Both Trixie and Marshall had been given a massage by the twins and now they were in a large, spacious room with a variety of pool options, including a hydrotherapy one. The lioness was given a splendid massage from Luna, so she didn’t think it was necessary for hydrotherapy… but aromatherapy, on the other hand. The pool that drew Trixie near was the flower bath, which emitted the warmth and atmospheric mood of a hot spring, but also was surrounded by romantic candles. They were the only ones on the co-ed floor (which was the third floor), since the second floor split into two, for distinct genders. The bottom floor was for the salon, but it also led to the backyard, which had outdoor spa anementies for their guests as well.

Usually in the co-ed area, it was required to wear a bathing suit, but Julie said she’d close it off for them for a couple of hours, making a simple excuse that there was an accident and the janitors were getting it cleaned up. Julie wanted her niece to have her mind at peace for once, and she knew that the crowd didn’t help her sister’s mini-me with that. Peace of mind also included unlimited, complimentary alcoholic beverages. Both high schoolers could get behind that, even if they were underage. It wasn’t like they didn’t have ‘adult supervision’.

In Trixie’s hand, as she sauntered her way to the pool adorned with an immense amount of petals, was a delicious pina colada. One of her preferred day drinks. She wore a beige, silk bathrobe that complimented her latin curves, but not for too long. It was only necessary while they walked out in the halls. Now, they were alone together, in a room that had pools, saunas, and a view of the gardens out in the back.

After placing her glass down on the edge of the pool, she smoothly undid her robe and let it drop to the ground, exposing her nude back. Her entire body out for display but only for her gay friend, Marshall, who was trailing behind her in much better spirits. Oddly seductive, she turned her head, looking over her shoulder, and smiled, “Just what the doctor prescribed, don’t you think?” And with that, she dipped her toe in the pool to feel the heat, before stepping down into the pool and taking her seat. Being inside the pool gave her a better look at the colors that overlapped with vibrancy. Her fingers gently touched the perfumed scales, as she waited for her friend to join her.

Marshall followed behind Trixie at a leisurely pace, he wasn’t in any rush. Why would he be? This place was better than heaven itself, not that he fancied himself much of a religious person. If church involved more naked spa time… then maybe he would be, but it didn’t. The spa also had much more to offer than skunky church wine — Marshall instead sipped at a decadent peach bellini. When his pixie-girl turned to address him, he agreed wholeheartedly.

“Ugh, abso-fucking-lutely. I vote we just… never leave.” Marshall said as he followed her lead in stripping himself of the silky beige robe. Unlike most boys in their grade would have done, his gaze didn’t linger on her nude form in the slightest. He instead swished a foot in the water and let the healing warmth greet him. Humming with sheer delight, he stepped all the way into the pool. The heated water wrapped around his body like the best of hugs and Marshall nestled himself into the rounded seat-like indent in the pool. He had become the epitome of cozy. Breathing in the floral aroma, Marsh smile blissfully. “It’s magical, Pix.”

“To think, I’m just a house away and I haven’t used the spa nearly as much as I should.” Previous times she was here, she was helping her aunt out downstairs. The downside of popularity, at least for her, was making time to relax and cater to herself. The years were kind of a blur since she told her mom that she wanted to go to school in LA, now that she thought about it. From her lustful addiction for her ex, to her obligation to her cousins and the school, when was the last time she truly, deeply treated herself? Well, there was the Hummingbird Creations, but that was only a temporary escape every so often from the chaos, where she could read and write. This felt like the first time, in a long time, that she had set aside time to make her body, mind, and soul happy. At peace. “And you know eventually we’ll have to leave. But that isn’t right now and I’m sure as hell not thinking about leaving anytime soon.” She reached for her glass and took the pineapple garnish off of it, to nibble on delectable, tart fruit. She was already pretty tipsy, but not drunk enough to where she’d make bad decisions like spamming her ex’s phone.

“I suppose we will have to show our faces at the Helmsley soirée eventually.” Marshall pondered the idea of going to the party. We wasn’t quite in his cups enough to be able to enjoy that, given the morning he’d had. Especially not if Jamie was going to be there. Or AJ. Worse yet, if both of them would be there… together. In an attempt to blink away that mental image, Marshall gulped down more of his drink. Eager to distract his mind, he would instead ask about the topic of their silent truce this morning, now that is was just the two of them. “So… Owen’s locker this morning? You wanna talk about it, or nah?”

Trixie put the pineapple skin on the marble ledge and allowed herself to chew before she responded. She knew it was going to be brought up sooner or later. Yet, she didn’t mind talking. She didn’t get to talk often about her inner turmoil and so far, it’s been with either people she wasn’t necessarily close with like Elodie and Isaac, or with her cousins, Lu and Stel. Even then she filtered her words.

She wished she could bring down all her defenses and tell someone everything that was going on. It was hard, though. Finding someone to completely trust when one thing you say could immediately be turned against you. She’d talk… she didn’t know how honest she’d be, but she would talk and make an earnest attempt to tell him what was going on in her. “I was returning a favor.” He left her things in her locker and she did the same thing for him. Left her things in his locker. It made sense at the time, since she knew that wasn’t how he wanted things to end. If she left his things, rather than her own, that would mean they both were finally done with each other… she didn’t know if she could accept that reality. “He left something for me, and so I too, did the same thing.” This was a start. She wasn’t lying, but she was being extremely vague.

Marshall nibbled on the slice of booze-infused peach from the rim of his glass. The alcohol mixed with the temperature of the beverage gave the fruit and interesting duality of cool burn as he swallowed it down. “Oh?” He responded with a quirked brow, clearly curious. Were they starting to patch things up between them? Why else would they be leaving each other things? “Like… gifts? That sounds like a good thing. But, your face wasn’t really reading ‘good thing’ earlier…”

“Maybe more of a… gamble.” Trixie could feel her stomach turn with the thought of what her message could lead to. “To patch things up, of course!” She brought her drink to her lips and took a long gulp of the cold drink, before blurting out in tipsy emotion, “The last time we had a moment, which wasn’t even a moment, was when he was going to kill you. How the hell do I extend an olive branch when I can’t even look at him without wanting to cry?”

Ever the intent listener, Marshall nodded along with her words. A gamble? Gambles of the heart were risky, especially with someone as volatile as Owen. Marshall couldn’t blame her though, the heart wants what it wants. He could only hope to support his friend. Marsh smiled faintly when she mentioned patching things up. Wouldn’t that be nice? If only they could all just erase these past few months from existing, and go back to the way things were. And then, of course, she brought up the attempted murder. Marshall cringed. What was worse, was the look on her face when she admitted the emotional effect looking at Owen brought upon her.

She looked like she wanted to cry then, and Marshall wouldn’t have that. He was usually a hugger in this type of a situation, but a naked pool hug was a bit too awkward, even for someone as bold as himself. He settled for the next best thing, and scooted a few spots over so that he was right next to Trixie, and then he leaned his head on her shoulder comfortingly. “I miss him too. I guess I kind of had a bit of a moment with him this morning myself. He scared the shit out of me, and I broke my best mug… but, he gave me tea. My favorite kind, too.”

If there was one thing Owen was capable of doing, it was scaring people due to his building anger, but she knew deep down, he’d regret the moment he ever laid a finger on Marshall. Marshall was his best friend. It would be hard for him to erase the history they’ve created together. Owen’s willpower might be weak, but it was only because he felt alone and cornered in. Corner a dog, the dog may bite. Especially if the dog got angry like Owen does. “He’s pretty good at remembering the things we love, isn’t he?” Her eyes softened with the thought of his gestures. The note. His desire to get in contact with her, and not knowing how to approach it.

After placing her glass down, she turned her body toward her friend, her face shifting with sudden seriousness, “I’m going to see him. I haven’t really picked out a night, but I want to see him. I need to see him. I just… there’s so many things going on in my head right now, you’d think it would be easy to grab the courage to talk to him, right? But that’s like also the most daunting thing ever. I want to know things, I don’t want to know things. I’m scared, I’m not scared. I couldn’t give him a call last night because I really wanted to call him, but I convinced myself not to, so the only way for me to really take this on is if I just go and do it. Give myself no other choice but to hear his truth.” At this point, Trixie felt like a blubbering mess and she hoped to god this didn’t get to either Ophelia or Hailey’s ears. But no more. No more playing this stupid game of pretend. She didn’t want to pretend anymore. She missed him so fucking much.

Marsh lifted his head up when Trixie shifted to turn towards him. They were much closer now, and he was able to see the effects of their alcohol consumption in her eyes. That didn’t matter. Drunk words were sober thoughts, so they say. Marsh nodded and offered a soft, reassuring smile. “I think that’s a good idea, Pix. It’s totally understandable to be scared, sharing a heart for as many years as you two did, only to have it broken… that’s bound to leave a few scars. But they’re scars now, not fresh wounds. Truth will be good for you guys, I think — and I’m pretty sure I know you both well enough — but, I think that you both need to talk about it. Not talking is only hurting you more. You know?” Marshall chewed on his lower lip. Now he was babbling, and he felt like he might have said too much. “Sorry if I’m like, overstepping, or anything. I just really love you. Both of you.”

“No, no, you’re fine, Marshall.” Trixie brought one of her hands out the water to wipe a trailing tear from under her eyes. “I need to hear that. I haven’t heard such genuine words from a friend, in a while…” And the thing was, Ophelia and Hailey were family, yet they were so caught up in her being angry and hating Owen. How can you hate someone you loved for years? How can you convince yourself it’s all over when it feels like the chapter is still being written? “I think my heart just needed to be ready. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, given our position… at the school.”

Which reminds her!

“How ‘bout you?” Her sudden transition was complimented by her hand splashing in the water. “Why were you, as Stel’s puts it: a sad potato?” He didn’t have to answer her if he didn’t want to, but she wasn’t going to say he had the option like he did for her. She wanted to know what was going on in Marshall’s world, and to see if she could help.

Oh, jesus. In his tipsy state, he didn’t remember that the other half of their silent truce involved, well, himself. As quick as ripping off a band-aid, Marsh blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Your assistant editor sucks... and not at all in the way that I would like him to.” That was it, he didn’t even mention Jamie by name. Marshall was just going to leave it at that, and sink beneath the water until it hopefully swallowed him up whole. But… Trixie was just completely raw and honest with him, she at least deserved the same level of transparency. Marsh sighed and took a few long swigs of his drink for courage.

“Okay, no, there’s a bit more than that. Uhh—” He looked up to the ceiling, as if it would offer him guidance. “Well, I’ve kind of been head over heels for Jamie since he interviewed me after the play last semester. For the paper. I mean, it was probably before then too, but we were both single then, and his hair does this thing now and — it was just then that I really realized it, you know? But he’s got the world’s worst ex, which is intimidating, and he’s close to you, so I wouldn’t want things to get messy and… and everything’s just been a big miscommunication since that interview. And I thought he was into me too, but, he’s not. I found that out this morning, so… sad potato.” Marsh finished with another sigh and actually did begin to lower himself to chin-level in the water now. His fingers absently toyed with a rose petal as a distraction.

The tipsy Trixie raised an eyebrow at this new intel that she obtained and, without hesitation, she went from emotional teenager to inquisitive journalist real quick, inquiring more to understand the story, “How do you know? That he isn’t into you. Did he blatantly draw a line and say Marshall, there’s no chance in hell we’ll be together?” Her body slowly sunk down into the therapeutic water, but her head still poked out. “What happened this morning to make you give up? Does he even know you have feelings for him?” Her face felt warm. This tub was nice and smelled really good. While her body was is heaven, her mind was curious. She shot questions at her friend from left to right, like there was no tomorrow.

Marshall eyes closed tight at her inquiries. He thought that maybe if he closed his eyes, it would all go away. Unfortunately, his eyelids couldn’t keep out the mental picture of the scene that would forever be seared into mind’s eye. Marsh made a disgruntled, pouty noise before speaking. “He didn’t need to say anything. Tongue wrestling with AJ right in front of me drew a pretty damn solid line. And… no, he didn’t know yet. I was going to tell him... maybe. I was at least going to imply it. But, wow, am I glad I didn’t now. It was mortifying enough to find out that he was secretly back with his ex, let alone having to find out right after admitting feelings. Woof...” More alcohol, he needed more alcohol for this.

Trixie felt the need to make things light hearted, though she didn’t know if it was appropriate… that didn’t stop the words from escaping her lips. She popped up and gave a cheesy grin, “I mean, if Owen came out of nowhere and stuck his tongue in me… woo! I don’t know if I could refuse.” She brushed her hand in front of her, as if accepting that her mind had momentarily went into the gutter, but then she went back to being the friend that Marshall needed. Just a friend that felt really good from the alcohol. “AJ Tyler, right? The guy that was doing the same thing with some random yesterday under the bleachers? Well, you wouldn’t know that, because I saw it… you should seriously talk to Jamie. He’s a goddamn pain in my ass, but when he decides on something, he doesn’t turn back. He broke up with AJ for a reason. I don’t think he’d take that back unless AJ really fucking redeemed himself, which would probably take way more than a couple of months.” Nodding at her words, sounding eloquent and proud that she sounded that good, she reached for her glass to drink more.

“Talk to him?” Marshall’s eyes went wide, as if that was the craziest advice he’d ever heard. You know, the same advice that he’d just given her regarding Owen. Totally crazy. The brown-haired boy peeped up from the water long enough to finish off his drink. “I think I’d need to be high first. Or really drunk. Probably both.”

“Hey, meeeeee too! That’s why tonight would be perfect, don’t you think? We’ll go to the party, have a good time, making Jamie want you so bad that he’d be begging for a moment with you. Then wallah! You have your chance, to tell him to stop sucking in the way you don’t want!” It was a bulletproof plan. At least in her happy mind. “We’re gonna grab our boys—” Oops. No, Owen wasn’t her’s. “—the boys and tell them how we really feel. How’s that sound?”

Marshall looked back at his friend with a raised brow and the faintest of smirks. Was this a game? No… it was a gamble. A gamble with their hearts, the dangerous kind, but the potential payout was so much more valuable than gold. “Deal. I’ll talk if you do.”

“You got it, handsome.” She winked at Marshall, then brought her glass towards him, “Cheers! We’ve got ourselves a date.” Risky business, chasing the whim of love, lust, and all things in between, but that’s what made this worth their while. They were chasing what the heart wants. What their hearts wanted in this case, was in the form of two, very different boys, where their chances were getting dim, the more they prolonged communicating with them.

Despite the somber tones of their previous conversation, Marshall laughed at that. It was hard not to feel carefree here in paradise with good alcohol and an even better friend. “But first, I need another drink. More tropical fruity goodness. Oooh, and facials! We gotta arrive looking fresh as fuck, am I right?”

“Trust me, we’re booked for the rest of the day until that party. But you know, I don’t mind getting kind of dirty tonight.” They’d be fresh for only a second, and then it’s straight to the dance floor where they’ll get sweat dripping down their bodies and their inner freaks would come out to play. If you don’t let loose, you aren’t partying right. “As for more drinks, we should go back to the bar then go to our next stop.”

“Dirty, hmm? I like the sound of that.” Marshall mused with a devilish grin. He couldn’t let one bad morning ruin him, he was the star of the show, and the show must go on. “Those boys can eat their hearts out wishing they were on the dance floor. I wonder if Josie will be there… we could have a dance off!” Marsh beamed at the thought. “Yesyes, a trip to the bar and then our next stop!” He paused in thought for a moment. “... what is our next stop?” Did it involve pants? He was quite enjoying not wearing pants, so he hoped not. The robes were okay, though.

Hm. They could go to the saunas, or they could get something out of the way that absolutely needed to get done. “While we’re feeling this good, lets get waxed! And then, yes, we can get facials to recover from the pain.” That seemed like a reasonable course to go on. There were endless options, but waxing was probably the worst option… beauty, however, was pain.

He hadn’t even considered the prospect of manscaping on this spa day. That might be a good idea if he was hoping to land his man tonight. That being said… that shit hurt like a bitch. “Oh man, this hot water has probably got our pores all open… it’s gonna be so owie,” he pouted. “But okay. Now or never, right?” Marshall sat up straight in preparation to get out of the pool.

Joining him in standing up, she pleasantly nodded, “But first, the bar. Then now or never.” Today was going to be a good day. All in preparation for tonight and, most importantly, a day that they both needed.

A treat yourself day.

[Fabricant451]

After an exhausting day the only thing she wanted to do was to retire to the comfort of the attic and warm herself by the fire. It wasn't the easiest life, dealing in goods and services that would be frowned upon in proper company, but when it came to those who came knocking it wasn't proper company they were after. One benefit to the job, and there weren't many, was getting around and hearing tales. No one really paid any mind to a plain little scullery girl delivering baskets of bread to various individuals who weren't exactly interested in the news of the day. The delivery girl who was a scullery maid by outward trade, would not really turn heads in any context. Her hair, black as the starless sky, was in a constant bit of disarray, her face was rather rounded in the cheeks and coming to an awkward point along the jaw, and when she wasn't trapped behind a crooked pair of glasses she was trapped in patchy clothing often covered in flour or other strange powders and stains. It wasn't by choice that she slaved away, making home deliveries and cleaning up after older sorts; her family needed the help and the money as their business was in danger of failing. With her brother off drowning in a sea of loose morals and looser women and her sister currently imprisoned for falsifying her qualifications in order to join the armed forces, it fell to the poor scullery girl who desperately wanted to live for herself.

"A parcel came for you." The shrill voice of her mother pierced her ears as she returned from her final delivery of the day, this one to a rather important member of the nobility who wanted more than just a loaf of sourdough. This particular client had been a preferred customer if only because he provided the delivery girl with the most information of all. He had rather a fondness for loose lips and when he wasn't having his way with a different woman even eve sometimes he even enjoyed gossiping a fair bit. He paid well, but the tragedy of the secondary occupation was that she couldn't exactly charge outrageous prices given that she was delivering bread so at most she only saw a few paltry pennies extra as compensation. The rest went to her family, leaving her with barely enough to enjoy a drink.

"Did you hear me, girl? You've got a parcel. Have you a suitor you've not told us about? For our sake I hope he has some money." Her mother continued, bringing the baker's girl out of her little stupor. A parcel? That seemed strange, the post had come and gone hours before. "Go on, then. It's in your room. And don't dawdle, you've the dishes to do."

Up the rickety ladder to the attic that was her room, a cramped space with barely enough spot to lay out a blanket and pillow. Unassuming on the best of days, there was a generously wrapped package sitting in the middle of her bed, with a note signed anonymously. The note was what she read first. There, scribbled hastily, was a simple message: Wear this. Don't make me wait. You know where. Inside the package was a choker necklace of ornate gold but the pièce de résistance was a shining sapphire in the center. That would have been incredible on its own, but inside the package was also a piece of clothing. And while it resembled the clothes a nightwalker might have worn, with its leggings cut so short it left little to the imagination, it was made of material far better than any common lady of the night would ever likely be able to afford.

She had never been given such a gift but she didn't think twice before agreeing to the words on the attached card. Had she a mirror she might have observed herself in the form fitting clothing, but instead she did as she had done many times before and opened the window to step out onto the rickety roof of her house. She couldn't exactly go out the front door what with her parents there and their need for questions. Crossing to the neighboring roof and climbing down the trellis was old hat at this point. So much of what she was doing, and had been, seemed wrong. Her parents would say as much. Her friends, had she any. Her favored customer had whispered warnings. But if this was so wrong, why did it always feel so right?

An abandoned house stood at the edge of the street, so abandoned because the previous tenants were evicted due to tax reasons. The price on the house was such that no one could truly afford it, and given that the ones who owned the property were quite wealthy, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be purchasing it. It was furnished, though, and well kept for despite its status as abandoned it saw use fairly often. And it was into this house that the pauper slipped, footsteps gliding on air up the steps to the overhead chambers where the master of the house would have likely slept.

"You're late. You know I hate to wait when I want something." A sharp voice cut through the relative silence of the house, speaking as soon as the pauper shut the door behind her, making the poor girl jump. No matter how many times she heard the voice, it still made the baker's daughter quiver. "Turn around. Slowly. Don't talk." The voiced purred out a command, its tone sharp and authoritative, but edged with sweetness. The pauper did so obey, slowly turning 'round, the hem of the shortened skirt lifting up to provide the briefest glimpses at what lay underneath, and as she rounded to forward the reasoning for her obeying became all the more clear.

Sitting on the bed, in a state of undress that hovered between nude and without a top, was a figure of both beauty and grace, of youth and maturity, a sterling example of what it meant to be a proper lady, albeit one who took pleasures where they came. Her hair was as beautifully dark as an obsidian gem, with lips full and shining red, skin so soft and spotless that even touching it seemed like it would be a grave offense, and hanging on a chair off in the back she could see the finery that had been stripped away, neatly put in place. Standing there, staring at a vision so blessed, put much into context for the pauper. She didn't meet those standards of beauty; she wasn't a looker, even wearing the revealing clothing she felt inferior and her shaky, nervous thighs which were a sight less slender than the elegant woman in the bed, were a testament to her complex. This wasn't the first time the baker's daughter had seen this woman so, but every time it took her breath away and stole words right from her throat.

After all, who else in the town could say they had seen the Queen in all her royal splendor?

"Sorry, my lady, it was hard to sneak aw-" the Pauper's voice was shaky and soft, not out of fear but out of a different feeling that was welling up in the core of her being. Seeing the Queen so was like hearing the sweetest, most perfect piece of music or taking a bite of the most delicious food ever conceived.

"I told you not to talk. There must be dough in your ears. We need to work on your listening. And your timing. Take it off. All of it. Don't make me wait." The Queen decreed and the Pauper obeyed, taking note of the way the Queen watched with attentive eye and smirking lip.

The Pauper still couldn't believe that she was here and had been for weeks now, ever since a wayward delivery had the Pauper accidentally step in front of the royal carriage. She had assumed she would be given jailing or at least a fine, but instead the Queen gave her a ride back to the bakery - but not before trailing a finger along the Pauper's face because there was 'A bit of sugar' that the Queen then made the Pauper lick off. From that moment, their fates had been sealed. Not a night went by when the Pauper didn't think of the Queen, as if it had been some kind of dream. She had almost started thinking it had been, until a tall, imposing figure known only as Guard knocked on the door of the bakery for a special delivery. It wasn't bread the Queen was interested in, but something soft, fluffy, and warm all the same.

Nights went by with the Pauper wondering what this meant, and nights went by with the Queen calling upon her. Never had the Pauper drummed up the courage to ask why, as if asking it would ruin everything. Her parents couldn't know. The Queen could do as she pleased and it seemed all she wanted to do was the Pauper.

"Good girl." The Queen beckoned her lover with a finger, and soon enough the finger was a hand slapping something soft and round as both punishment and reward. The reward was the sound her favored person made with each healthy slap. "You know, you should just live with me. That way I wouldn't have to wait for you. I could have you whenever I wanted. And..." The Queen's speech was interrupted by the Queen drawing her Pauper into a kiss. Their hands locked together and they fell back onto the bed, enjoying the company of one another as the kiss lingered. "...I always want you."

This was it. The Pauper knew that if she didn't ask she would regret it and if she did at least she would know. She had feelings for the Queen, feelings she had never known and feelings she was warned about. But she didn't care. Nothing in this life had made her feel the way the Queen had. And she had to know if they were shared. Moreover, there was something she had to know.

"Why me?"

A fair question that wasn't answered with words but a laugh. A sweet giggle that was punctuated by a hand stroking the Pauper's hair, curling strands of it around a regal, slender finger.

"Isn't it obvious? Because I l-"

---

---

_{@smarty0114, @Silent Observer, @Fabricant451, @Universorum Collaboration
Location: Homeroom
Featuring: Kit ‘Motor Mouth’ Thomas, Hana ‘Uhhhhh’ Park, Cassie ‘Make ‘Em Blush’ Clark, Ophelia ‘Spit Take’ Brycen, Hailey ‘Tell Them the Truth’ Green-Locke, Jamie ‘I Swear I Just Ran Right Into the Door Knob’ Callaghan, Selena ‘Does She Ever Shut Up?’ Sterling
Interacting with: Each Other}

Kit was surrounded, on all side, by all stars. It was a weird experience. Honestly? She wasn’t sure she belonged here! Kit had taken a seat in what was basically the lion’s den. On her right? Hailey Green, with some random Korean looking girl tucked under her arm. On her right? Ophelia, the most attractive girl in the whole school (even Kit had to admit that — sure, she was into Selena, but Ophelia was something). On the other side of her, was Cassie Clark. She was pretty, but she was also pretty funny! Kit was a big fan of Cassie at the moment, they’d had a good time the night before!

Speaking of the night before… Where was Marshall?! Marshall seemed necessary for this situation! Maybe he was just late… She’d see him soon enough, no worries on that front! That left… Jamie! Whoa, Jamie looked like he’d been busted in the face. Kit made a mental note to ask about that… She loved fights. Karate movie fights, real fights on YouTube, wrestling on TV, fighting games. Fighting was dope! There was only one person left: Selena Sterling. The one. Kit’s heart… well, at least she used to be… since talking to Marshall, Kit was curious if Selena was the girl for her! Maybe she wasn’t. So, Kit was observing, and she was doing a pretty damn good job of not staring.

True would be proud.

But maybe the main reason Kit wasn’t paying attention was because she was nose deep in her phone. She was watching a recent Vanilla Sunrise video! Apparently she got a wicked sick drop. Good for her. Kit had one headphone in and the other was dangling at her side as she stared at her phone. “Oh, wicked sick. I wish I had an Axe of the Crimson Lotus,” Kit said in discontent, shaking her head.

Hana was being rude. She had, for the moment, been rather absorbed in the story on her laptop that she had forgotten that she was among others. Quickly she had to shut the thing or risk being seen as just rude. The story could wait, even as it was getting to the good parts. She was nervous, though. The genre was...quite different. VanillaSunrise dealt in boys love fiction but this was...different. Different, but pulled from life as all good art did. This was yet another new experience and as it turned out the new experiences didn’t end at Hailey’s house. As Hana had quickly found out, they carried on to school itself. She was now among a group of people she’d only ever seen in passing. More than that, though, she was among a group of popular students, while Hailey Green had her arm around Hana like Hana was a trophy. She wasn’t sure she was worthy of the distinction but complaining was not in her repertoire. Given the events of the previous night, Hana certainly felt like a winner. If Hana was a trophy, then Hailey was Hana’s prize. These were Hailey’s friends and by association they were Hana’s friends now too. Was that how it worked?

Hana wasn’t quite sure what to say. She wasn’t exactly well versed in popular topics and at the moment all she was doing was smiling (because of Hailey’s presence) and gently massaging her wrists. She did happen to hear something that got her attention. “Do you play that game?” Hana asked to the phone video watcher, unaware just whose video they were watching. “Oh..uh…” Hana realized she was speaking up now and decided that maybe she could introduce herself. In an official capacity.

“I’m...uh...I’m Hana. Hana Park. I think you’ll be seeing me around now.” She was bad at this, but at least she didn’t stumble.

Cassie was, needless to say, shook. Here she was, minding her own business with Ophie, when Hailey comes and sits down with some random girl with bruises on her wrist and a choker. Bruises! And a choker! Cassie knew the marks of kinky sex when she saw them. If she had to guess, she’d say that choker was covering up more than a few hickeys. Or scratches. Who knew how kinky Hailey could be? What Cassie didn’t know, was what to make of it. She, like most of the BHHS student body, was pretty sure that Hailey would cook and eat any sexual partners she might have, but clearly she didn’t. Or at least not all of them. So was this girl Hailey’s girlfriend? Sex slave? Both? She was a bit too smart to ask, so instead, she settled on introducing herself. “I’m Cassie!” the brunette said, bubbly as ever. The least she could do is make sure the girl didn’t feel like a zoo animal.

Then, it was Ophelia’s turn. Much like Cassie, Ophelia was rather stunned that Hailey, of all people, had brought someone to the party! It made it even better that she had the choker on. Was this a girlfriend? A pet? A toy for Hailey to play with and throw away when she was bored?! So many questions, and no easy way to get an answer! Luckily, Ophelia had a plan to get to that, and she had her beloved Cassie here to assist. No Marshall, though. He seemed to be having a terrible time, based on his text messages. Ophelia would tackle that horse later, instead she’d deal with this. She turned a huge smile onto Hana, as bubbly as ever, and purred out, “Hana, hmmm? I’m Ophelia. You must be the new cheerleader, right? I’m the captain! It’s nice to meet you.”

Well, this certainly was an interesting turn of events. The same Hailey Green-Locke that had just told Selena that she was resigning as queen and going on vacation yesterday… was now entering homeroom with a female drug dealer romantically doting on her arm. Was the young Green having a mental break? Sel couldn’t really blame her if she was. That being said, she looked… happy. The happiest Hailey had looked in, well, ever, as far as Sel could remember. Ever the proper girl that her mommy and daddy raised her to be, Selena extended an extremely well-manicured hand, bedecked with sparkling diamond rings and bracelets, towards Hana. “Pleased to meet you, Hana. I’m Selena Sterling, one of Hailey’s cousins, and also a member of the cheer squad. We look forward to having you.” The pearly white smile that she flashed looked nothing other than completely genuine.

So, these were some of her newly minted cheerleading partners. Hana would be sure to keep that in mind, considering she had effectively been placed on the team because of nepotism the last thing she wanted was to make them resent her just because of that. If they were committed to taking her in, she was committed to performing with them and learning the routines. Hana paused a moment at Selena’s hand, not because she didn't’ want to shake it, but because it would make her wrists all the more visible. It would have been rude not too, however, so Hana took Selena’s hand in her own with a simple shake, quick to pull back and resume massaging her wrists.

“I’ll do my best. I might need some practice, but don’t worry, I can handle it. Nice to meet you all.”

“Sorry, but we’re all thinking it, what’s up with the bruises?” Cassie blurted out, looking over at Hana. Sometimes, Cassie had a problem controlling her filter, especially in times like this, where the elephant in the room was practically trumpeting. She just had to ask. I hope I’m wrong and she’s just some sort of ace trapeze artist who got her wrists stuck in a swing or something. That would be so much better than hearing that Hailey is some kinky sex dragon Cassie thought, bracing herself for the answer Hana was about to give.

Hailey had a smirk on her lips from when Hana had to reach her hands out, to when Cassie asked the question. Hailey had known that someone would, it was just a matter of who, as far as she was concerned. With it done, Hailey leaned down to Hana’s voice and said in a soft, breathlessly sultry whisper, “_{Tell them the truth.}“ Now to sit back and watch the fun! Hailey liked this much more than she’d thought she would.

Hana didn’t want to answer the question, but it was likely clear enough given how upon being asked, her face flashed red and her eyes glanced downward, as if they were looking for answers that weren’t there. She even looked towards Hailey, thinking that maybe her girlfriend would be able to use her clout and change the subject. The exact opposite happened and Hana squirmed — and visibly so — in her seat after the whisper. An awkward situation was now getting more awkward as it felt like the entire table was hanging on her next words.

“The...bruises?” Hana was stalling. Her voice didn’t have the pleasantries of her introduction, but the awkward titters of someone trying to think on the fly. “The...bruises.” She looked again to Hailey but knew only that if asked Hailey would likely just repeat the instructions. “I...was...I mean...I...They’re from...h...H...Hai….handcuffs.” She said it, after much verbal deliberation. It didn’t get any easier. “H...Hailey...had me wear them...all night. After we..um...had a...night….together.” In the most vague manner possible, Hana had given the honest answer.

Cassie nodded, the discomfort clear on her face as she tried to feign nonchalance. “Well that sounds...fun,” she offered, before letting the table fall into an awkward silence. Hailey had brought an outsider to their group, something most of them wouldn’t dare. They held power because they made the other students believe they held power. Hailey reaching down and plucking Hana Park, drug dealer extraordinaire out of the masses and elevating her to their status with a snap of her fingers? That was unprecedented. And yet no one dared to speak up against it. Welcome to hell, Hana Park. Enjoy your stay.

Meanwhile, Jamie had spent the majority of this awkward introduction elsewhere. Marshall had seen AJ kiss him. And he’d kissed AJ back. There wasn’t much he could do about that one. Currently, it seemed like he and Marshall were very much, not meant to be. He did come to attention to give Hana a curt nod, and once again when she mentioned her and Hailey’s night. Oh. Wow. he thought, examining Hana before noticing the freshman girl who was seated at their table. Kat? Kit? Kate? He couldn’t quite remember much about her, other than that she was Ophelia and Cassie’s little pet. She was staring at him, from across the table, so, figuring the day couldn’t get worse at this point, he cocked an eyebrow at her. “Can I help you?” he asked, slightly curious, slightly annoyed.

Kit looked over at Hana, speaking quickly. “I play that game… sometimes! Not a lot. More on that in a second, I’m burning with the intense desire to ask this guy a question.” She pointed at Jamie, in a completely rude and almost accusatory manner. Kit wasn’t good at interacting with people! But she’d learn. She placed her phone down carefully, and then SLAP! her hands came crashing down onto the table, before she blurted out her question, “Did you get in a fight? Did you beat the other guy up?”

Kit squinted at Jamie and looked him over, before she shook her head. “Nah, I bet you didn’t. Cuz you don’t look like much of a fighter. If I had to guess, I bet you got fuuuuuucked up.” Kit said, and a stifled laugh came from Hailey, who quickly recomposed herself, leaning slightly against Hana before the queen spoke up.

“I like her, Ophelia, Cassie. Well done. Please, Jamie, enlighten us. Did you get, ahem, fucked up?” Hailey asked, turning her attention over to Jamie, with her normal cold smile upon her lips. This was the kind of thing she enjoyed!

Jamie was of the mindset that first impressions were not a good basis to judge someone on. That said, after his first impression of Kit, he hated her. He probably would’ve gotten snarky too, if Hailey hadn’t gotten into it. Hailey wasn’t the type to fuck with, everyone knew that. He wasn’t trying to end up like Jennifer Hart for God sakes. “Hate to disappoint, but no fight. My sister threw me a book and it hit me right in the eye. Softball players am I right?” he lied. This wasn’t the place to reveal his spat with Owen. Especially since Trix wanted it kept secret.

Kit was not satisfied. That much was obvious from the way she squinted at Jamie, but… She was a kid. On this day, Jamie Callaghan was saved by the short attention span of a freshman. The young girl shrugged her shoulders, and her attention was turned to Hana. Hana wanted to talk about video games. Jamie wanted to lie about being in fights. Do the math. “So, anyway, about the game! I play sometimes, but really I just like to watch this girl’s content. One time, I was featured in this fail compilation, y’know? Only, it was just me bodying this other player and her raging on the other end. She sucks at fighting games, so I just slapped her around for like ten minutes. I don’t think she’s played one since then! And really? That makes me feel bad, because fighting games own. Soooo, I watch all her content so I can feel like I make it up to her? Her name is Vanilla Sunrise. Pretty good at strategy games and MMOs, not very good at fighting games. Absolute butthole, to be honest.”

Hailey giggled again, and Kit wondered if she should have stopped talking, but rather than stop… she just kept going. “So, anyway, I watch her stuff sometimes. She’s funny and has a smooth voice. This video is her most recent, she just got a new legendary drop from Final Fantasy 14, which I only play because of her videos. Square Enix should sponsor her.”

Hana didn’t appreciate the tone from across the table… Cassie was the name? Perhaps Hana was reading into it a bit incorrectly, but the way the brunette seemed to dismiss Hana’s response with a roll of the eyes felt incredibly judgmental; Hana would know, she was exceptionally good at being judgy. She had half a mind to speak up, to remind Cassie that yes it was fun, and that Hana exploring herself consensually with another was nothing to shy away from. Even if speaking about such matters in front of others still made Hana visibly nervous, which might well have been why Hailey had Hana do it in the first place.

Hana’s consideration on speaking up ended as her attention was grabbed by the young video watcher. She tried not to do a double take when she mentioned ‘Vanilla Sunrise’ but Hana’s face was rather expressive — as Hailey well knew — and her attempt to not freak out was undone by her eyes blinking very quickly and Hana clearing her throat. Should she tell the girl? Would that be gauche? Vanilla Sunrise was her online handle, and her videos were noted mostly for her tanking guides for dungeons and raids. The other videos on her channel were mostly just one-off experiences with other games, or her secondary series, which was detailing her climb in a strategy game from intentionally placing in a low rank at the start of a season. Her channel also had a link to her blog, which was where her fanfiction was hosted.

“I’ve...heard of her, yeah.” Hana decided to try and play it cool. Her anonymity was great and she wasn’t exactly trying to be some kind of internet gaming celebrity. “I hear that Square Enix featured her on their ‘Player of the Month’ feature last year. She was probably really excited.” Hana was not very good at being subtle.

Selena had been distracted from the conversation, as she had caught sight of her brother in homeroom. So… he had made to school this morning after all. When she had woken up to get ready for school, she had of course made her way to Sean’s room to wake up her sleep-addicted brother… only to find his bed empty. If she was being honest, it broke her heart. Sean was finally home, but he felt more distant than ever. Sel was pulled from her melancholy by her best friend’s voice. “Katie threw a book at you?” she asked quietly in disbelief. Something was up, he was lying, and she could tell. There was a story to be teased out there later. Selena’s attention was now on the conversation at present, which was lead mostly by the small blonde girl that they had accepted into the squad yesterday. Good god, did she ever shut up? Sel all but rolled her eyes and instead chose to focus on Hana, Hailey’s apparent new play thing. “So, when did you and Hailey meet, Hana?”

Hailey spoke up before Hana had a chance, choosing to take this one for herself. “She was coming by the estate for my brother. I assumed she was a prostitute.” At this, Ophelia almost spat her tea out, but Hailey continued without missing a beat, “After finding out she wasn’t, I asked her to come get tea and a pastry with me instead. She agreed. I took her to the bakery, and we enjoyed a pleasant date together. Afterward, I sent her home to send me pictures of herself in her softball uniform and less than that.” Once again, Ophelia almost did a spit take. “Then, I was in the mood. So I sent a car to fetch her. She came over, we had sex and she slept in handcuffs. We woke up, and discussed it more formally, and now we’re dating. I like her very much, and I would ask that the rest of you like her just as much. And, Ophelia, Cassie, make sure that it doesn’t take much longer before she has her cheerleading outfit.”

Selena blinked slowly in response. Well, that certainly was a long winded, detailed explanation, of something that she really didn’t need to know the details of. “Ahh, I see.” She daintily cleared her throat. “I’m sure Ophelia has already placed the orders for the new uniforms. She’s always on her game.”

If it was possible to die from embarrassment, Hana was about to find out. While what Hailey had said wasn’t wrong, Hana would probably have started and stopped the story at ‘making a delivery for Hailey’s brother’. The way Hailey spoke, however, Hana was almost convinced that was the point, to see Hana squirming and going the color of a tomato. Was it too late to curl up into a ball and roll away? She would have to settle for burying her head in the nearest hole: in this case that was Hailey’s arm. It didn’t exactly hide Hana’s face as the more personal matters of their whirlwind night, but it helped. “Hailey,” Hana was whispering, though it was likely her voice was heard by more than just the intended audience. “You didn’t have to tell them that. They’re gonna think I’m...weird.”

Of all the possibilities, weird seemed the least likely to be what the others thought of Hana Park.

Hailey looked at her girlfriend and smiled plainly, lifting Hana out of the comfort of her arm and holding her so that Hailey and Hana’s eyes had contact, and Hailey spoke to Hana as if she were the only girl in the world. “But, Hana, you are weird. You’re weird, and I love you because of it. It doesn’t matter what they or anyone else thinks.”

The others around the table all but fell away in that instance. Hana only had eyes on Hailey, and the embarrassing blush lightened into a gaze of genuine affection. It hadn’t mattered what was said before about their meeting, what mattered was what had just been said. Hana’s heartbeat was rising but more than that she was in awe of how casually and sincerely Hailey could drop a word like love, especially in front of other people. The sentiment wasn’t just a one sided matter, but Hana didn’t respond with similar words, but a simple action. It didn’t matter that they were in public and that Hana was still very much in that awkward phase of not really knowing how to be a good girlfriend, in that moment it was just the two of them, and that was what had Hana being comfortable enough to respond to Hailey’s words with a kiss. It was hardly fancy, but it was enough to show the affection Hana had, enough so that the normally reserved (around others, anyway) former softball player was willing to do so in public.

“You said you loved me…” Hana would be thinking of those words for the rest of the day. “That’s definitely going in the story.”

[smarty0114]

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_{A [@Universourm] and @smarty0114 collaboration
Featuring: Jamie “No Spine” Callaghan, Ophelia “Perf as Fuck” Brycen & Cassandra “Damn Right” Clark}

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Jamie was alone in the journalism room when Ophelia and Cassie walked in. His notebook was out on the desk in front of him, turned to a page filled with scribbles of his handwriting, all relating to one thing: the breakup of Trixie Kingsley and Owen Lyon. The biggest mystery of BHHS since the rumor about Brynn Payne’s sex tape started up.

So far, he had nothing. Owen seemed as guilty as they come. There were pictures of him with a girl, a girl who was still unknown, and his attitude about the entire situation only painted his hand redder. Why be so secretive if he had nothing to hide? What the hell was he hiding? Was he protecting the identity of the girl? Or his own reputation? Everyone already knew he cheated so it must be something other than that. Jamie had too many questions, and very few answers, which made the entrance of the two Candies all the more frustrating. He knew enough to be sure that they weren’t here to braid his hair and talk about boys. “Ophelia and Cassie. Nice of you to visit,” Jamie said, gently closing his notebook.

“Thanks!” Ophelia said brightly, looking around at the room. Despite being one of Trixie’s best friends, Ophelia didn’t often spend time in the journalism room — it wasn’t really her style, so to speak. Plus, most of the people who hung out in here were just… depressing. Like Jamie, for example! Really, a truly perfect example. Bitter, angry, broke her best friend’s heart. It was too bad Hailey wasn’t around to feed Jamie some kind of drug laced pastry!

Ophelia took a seat across from Jamie and leaned forward, gesturing for Cassie to sit next to her. “Jamie Callaghan. We need to talk.” She said, leaning toward him with a serious look on her face.

Cassie took a seat, nodding enthusiastically. “We really do,” she added, staring down Jamie.

Jamie arched a brow. He was tired. Tired of dealing with Trixie and Owen’s mess, tired of people asking him about his stupid eye, tired of stressing about Marshall. Wait. Marshall. That’s why Ophelia was here. She was probably on a warpath after what had happened this morning in the hall. His walls dropping faster than Brynn’s panties, his face turned from cool indifference, to frantic surprise. “Look what happened in the hallway, it wasn’t what it looked like,” he said, hardly knowing where to even begin. “AJ and I...it’s complicated. But it’s done.”

Well, that was fast. Truth be told, Ophelia didn’t really care all that much for AJ. From what she understood, and had experienced, he was a bit of a fucker. Ophelia just wasn’t a personal fan of people who didn’t try at… well, anything. “Yeah, well you’d best fix it. I’m sick of you and Marshall not being a thing. It’s literally teetering on the edge and I hate it. Now, thanks to AJ, it might literally be dead forever. Here’s the deal, though. I want Marshall to be happy.” Ophelia paused and brushed a piece of her hair out of her eyes, and frowned. Her face was washed over with a wave of sadness and her eyes glassed over a bit, as if Marshall’s apparent sadness was her own. Then, with a brief second of readjusting herself, she was back to normal. “Look, Jamie, we might not agree on… well, anything. And we don’t! And I don’t like you much, and you probably don’t like me much. But Marshall is my best friend, and he has been for a long time, and I want him to be happy. If he thinks you’ll make him happy, then you make him happy. I know he’d make you happy. If he wouldn’t, you wouldn’t have been nearly as immediately defensive.”

“Ditto. Look, hopefully Marshie will be at the Helmsley’s party tonight. A little drugs, some shots, you’ll be well equipped to win him over,” Cassie said, grinning at Jamie. If Marshall liked Jamie, then Marshall liked Jamie. He needed a boyfriend, it had been far too long. It being Jamie Callaghan, well, that was a nuisance, but it was one that could be dealt with.

Jamie leaned in his chair, his head tilting up towards the ceiling as he released a sigh. His mind was rushing with emotions. Elation, annoyance, anxiety, and everything in between. He’d gone and fucked things up with Marshall over some bullshit, and now he had to fix it. He straightened himself out, looking back at Ophelia and Cassie, chewing his lip for a moment as he mulled over his words. “Y’know, as much as I do want to talk to Marshall, I doubt he feels the same way. I mean, I made out with my ex boyfriend right in front of him,” he said, shaking his head and looking down at his feet. “God I’m such an idiot,” he muttered.

“Maybe you need another cupcake from Hailey.” Ophelia suggested, shaking her head. Jamie seriously needed a confidence booster of some sort, but what did she have to offer? NOTHING. “Look, you’re definitely an idiot. There’s no getting around that, you made a mistake. But here’s the biggest secret I’ll ever tell you: everyone makes mistakes. Marshall makes them! You make them! AJ makes them! I… I don’t really make them. Neither does Cassie, we’re perf as fuck.” Ophelia paused briefly to kiss Cassandra on the cheek, before she returned to her rambling. “And love — or lust, or infatuation, whichever one of those emotions you and Marshall feel towards each other — beats mistakes. You just have to find it in yourself to ask for forgiveness. Do it at the party, I guarantee you it’ll work. Just get a couple of drinks in your system, a drug or two, and just go for it.”

Jamie took a deep breath, held it in for a moment, and exhaled. They were right. He needed to just suck it up and go for it. That was life right? There wouldn’t be a notebook or an article to hide behind forever. “Marshall’s lucky to have you guys, y’know,” Jamie said, looking up at Cassie and Ophelia.

Cassie scoffed. “You’re damn right he is,” she said, grinning.

[Hey Im Jordan]

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_{Location: School Hallway, After School
Featuring: Jamie “Talks Too Much” Callaghan & Owen “I Still Hate You” Lyon}

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Jamie was already having a shit day when they showed up. By now, the school was mostly empty, and Jamie was just about to head home, after he put away his books in his locker. And then, Jeremy Macintosh and his two henchman slammed his locker shut. Jamie looked over at the culprit and sighed. Today, was not the day. ”What is it today, Macintosh?” Jamie asked, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy Macintosh, up until last month, had been dating Kristina Mcpherson. That is, until Jamie published some very incriminating pictures of Jeremy with Kristina’s best friend, Maddie White. Needless to say, Kristina didn’t take it well. School had been out for break the next day, so Jeremy hadn’t had a chance to catch Jamie alone. But today he’d gotten lucky.

”You broke me and Kris up, you piece of shit,” Jeremy hissed, seething. By now, Jamie was no stranger to disgruntled subjects. It’s what happened when you published the secrets of the students, with zero anonymity. But, most of them were scared off by his close proximity to Trixie, and in turn, Hailey. Except today, the Helmsley’s had returned, pulled Damian out of the pits of Hell that Hailey had cast him into, and effectively became heroes to those who hated the It Girls. Fuck

One of Jeremy’s henchmen, Derek Clayton, made his way over to Jamie’s left side. They had effectively trapped him up against the locker, with no way out. ”I don’t remember telling you to cheat on Kris, Germy. Now scatter, before I let Trixie know to make an announcement that the three of you, are blacklisted. Wanna have a dry spell that lasts until you graduate? Huh?”

Jeremy smirked. ”Callaghan, I think you know better than me, Trixie and the rest of the Bitch Brigade aren’t in anymore. We ain’t afraid of them,” Jeremy sneered. ”Aren’t.”

”What?”

Jamie sighed. ”You said ‘We aint afraid of them,’ but what you should’ve said is, ‘We aren’t afraid of them,” Jamie explained.

”Okay, so now you’re smarter than us?” Jeremy asked, his voice raising.

”I kinda thought that was a given.”

Jeremy screwed up his face in rage and pulled back his fist. ”Fuck you, fag!” Jeremy launched his fist forward, at Jamie’s face, but missed, hitting the locker behind him. Jamie had ducked down, evading the punch. ”Alabama called, they want their mindset back Jeremy,” Jamie taunted. Derek and the other lackey, some meathead sophomore, hauled Jamie up, pinning him against the locker. Jeremy, out of retorts, resorted to going straight for the gut. One. Two. Three. Like sledgehammers his fists fell into Jamie’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Fuck.

Owen Lyon was having an okay day. All things considered, it had went alright. Sure, his hand still stung. On the bright side, however, his cousins had returned from their extended vacation to Sweden, and with their help he was relatively confident things would shift back to normal. He’d had his moment with Marshall in the morning, which had briefly reignited his anger; though it was quickly quelled by something he found in his locker: a note from Trixie. Maybe, just maybe, he was doing things right.

All good things, though, had to come to an end. This one came to an end because he saw Jamie, who was becoming somewhat of a thorn in a side. Jamie Callaghan had escalated from a thorn in the side to a huge pain in the ass, as Owen rounded a corner and found the self-proclaimed investigative journalist shoved up against the wall, getting his ass handed to him.

Truth be told? Jamie probably deserved it. Kid had a big mouth, and Owen very much wanted to abandon him, and leave him there until he was properly beaten and pissed blood. The only thing that made Owen interfere was the thought of what his father would do. Troy would have saved Jamie, no matter what was happening. Owen would do the same.

With a heavy sigh, he approached the situation. “Ay! Drop the asshole, or we can get retarded. I’ll fuck around and you’ll get slaughtered.” Owen said, and for emphasis, he popped the cinnamon gum in his mouth, standing his ground.

This is so on brand

Jeremy froze in the middle of his next punch, slowly turning around to face Owen. ”Owen, why don’t you simmer down, okay? Look, I’ll let you have the next few punches even, just chill,” Jeremy said, grinning and stepping back from Jamie, offering Owen the next chance to torment the journalist.

Jamie meanwhile, was still upright against the lockers, doing his damndest to keep the pain off of his face. He looked up at Owen, his left eye swollen and bruised from their last encounter, and fixed him with a blank stare, daring the boy to join in. He wasn’t going to beg for mercy here. ”Come on. Do your worst.”

Owen let out another one of those sighs, while staring at Jamie. “Jamie, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Never forget that.” Then, he turned his attention to the three surrounding boys, lifting up and pointing with his busted up hand. “If you guys don’t bug out of here, then I got some bad news for you. Your head, is going up his ass. And your head is going up his ass. And you,” Owen pointed at Jeremy. “You drew the short stick, because your head is going up my ass.”

Jamie was a little shocked to see that Owen was actually on his side with this one. He was fully expecting Owen to hit him square in the face again, but he had to admit, he liked this scenario a bit better. Not much better. He was still having his ass saved by Owen Lyon. But ass saved was better than ass whooped.

Jeremy motioned with his hand for his goons to form up on him, Derek taking the left and the sophomore taking his right, letting Jamie free from their grip. The boy rubbed his wrists, wincing, but glad to be free, for now.. ”I think you’re all talk Lyon. Ain’t no way you can take the three of us,” Jeremy taunted.

Aren’t!

Though Owen didn’t look at Jamie, it was clear his words were directed at him. “I don’t like bullies.” Owen said, before he spun on his heel and lifted his foot up, kicking Jeremy in the chin, and watching him crumple to the ground — a spinning roundhouse? Excessive, but flashy enough to hopefully make the other two fuck off. Then, he turned his attention to Derek and the remaining kid. “You got one chance to dip.” He said firmly, planting his foot back down on the ground. A spinning roundhouse, really? Owen supposed he was doing it to show off; being flashy and acting confident was an easy way to make people think you’re a threat — which Owen thought he certainly was. Owen still chose not to acknowledge Jamie. He would deal with the snake after the two more immediate threats were dealt with.

Derek, for all his looks, wasn’t exactly a bright boy. Rather than run in the opposite direction he charged at Owen, shoulder down, going for the tackle. His friend, the sophomore, came at Owen from the other side, trying to catch him off guard. Owen blamed Jamie for this. He so, passionately blamed Jamie for this. He only had one hand, for god’s sake! And it was his good hand that was taped up! If he could stand to look at him long enough, Owen would have demanded Jamie buy him food after this.

Undoubtedly, Owen had to eat one of these hits. It was just a matter of which one he wanted to take. Of course, the choice was simple. Derek was a football player, and the sophomore kid was just that: a sophomore. Besides, Owen was a trained fighter. A couple of douchebags? They might as well have been stationary targets. Owen held his leg out, twisting his body to the side slightly away from Derek and toward the sophomore. He put his hand on the back of Derek, using his own momentum to send him tumbling down and across the hall, into the rest of the lockers. He accepted the rush from the sophomore, which pushed him back a bit, but Owen was quick to handle that one as well.

He caught the kid in a grapple, holding him in place with his superior strength, before he brought his knee up to the younger boys stomach, slamming into it.

The youngest boy fell to the ground coughing, and luckily, stayed there. Jamie looked down at the scene around him, pleasantly surprised. This had gone a lot better than he’d figured. He bent over and grabbed his bag and began walking over to Owen, giving Jeremy a swift kick in the stomach as he passed. ”Uh...thanks. I owe you one,” Jamie said, looking over at Owen. He wasn’t happy, saying those words to Owen, but he wasn’t so proud that he couldn’t recognize that Owen had helped him out. As much as it pained him, Owen had saved his ass.

Owen turned his still fiery gaze onto Jamie, and pointed at him accusingly. “I can't be everyone's guardian! Learn to handle yourself.” He hissed, before stomping past Jamie, making a point of knocking his shoulder against the other boy. Fucking idiot.

Jamie watched Owen storm off and shook his head. It couldn’t have been anyone else?

[Silver Carrot]

_{Starring: Gib-Gab and Rif-Raf
Location: Math class.
Time: 11:50 am
Featuring: @Silent Observer}

---

---

Gabriela Garcia, despite appearances, was smart. She was sitting in math, leaning back in her chair, finished with today's work, and she had also finished her homework too. It was ten minutes until the bell, and she wasn't allowed to leave. 'Somebody shoot me now,' she thought to herself. She really ought to have paced herself with the math questions, but she got carried away. When she started math, she couldn't stop. It was addictive, like a drug. Man, she really was a nerd! Didn't hurt that trigonometry was one of the easier fields, or at least easiest to power through very fast.

Still, this gave her time to think, and on the topic of drugs, last night's meetup for tacos was very fun! She still couldn't quite believe that she dolled herself up solely for the sake of Raf's reaction, but she'd never had a guy tell her she was pretty before. How do all the other girls in this school handle that kind of power without letting it go to their head? Maybe they didn't. Maybe that's why so many of them were vapid preps, and Gabby would have to be more careful from now on to avoid becoming one of them. She was a nerd and she had loyalties to her nerd brethren!

Besides, she didn't want to be too forward. That's not who she was. She was chill. She was looking for friendship and laughs together and hanging out. She was not ready for a relationship yet, and she doubted that Raf was either. Or if he thought he was, he was mistaken. A big part of why he liked him was that he was endearing and the most chilled guy she knew, and a geek to the core. He might ruin that by growing up or sorting his life out. Would he even be Raf anymore?

She couldn't forget about everyone else either. Rose seemed like an incredibly fun and kooky person to be around, and wanted to hang with her a lot more. Q was the slightly more level-headed one and A Dubs was a typical stoner. He didn't seem as fun as the rest of them, but he was definitely chill, and it's better to be no fun than have no chill. The ideal meetup would definitely need Wyatt and A dubs to balance out Rose and herself, and Q to give the meetup it's structure and backbone. Up until now she hadn't thought of Wyatt. She didn't know him very well. She didn't know any of them that well, admittedly. Not even Raf.

At that moment, in a moment of perfect timing that proved that the universe wasn't totally random, Gab's phone buzzed. She discreetly checked it under her desk. It was from Raf!

"hey, we're gonna grab wings and tato wedges from the place down the street for lunch, wanna come?"

She discreetly texted back.

"Sure! Sounds like fun! I'll wait for you at the entrance! :D"

She pocketed her phone and smiled to herself. Her school life was really starting to look up this week! Things were kicking off!

[Melissa]

---

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_{A @melissahart & @smarty0114 collab
Featuring: Becca Helmsley & Bailee Helmsley}

---

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Becca’s day at school had been rather uneventful, although these days, most things as mundane as school were uneventful to Becca. Brian’s announcement on the morning show had gone off without a hitch, and Troy had been a dutiful servant all day. In fact, the most intriguing part of the day could hardly even be considered an event. Her sister had gone missing. She knew Bailee had been around that morning, but she never showed up for homeroom or any other classes after that. She’d sent a quick text around lunchtime but had been met with no response. Curiouser and curiouser.

Once Becca had seated herself in her limo and James had begun driving the pristine carriage to the Helmsley estate. “James, was Bailee at home when you left?” Becca asked, pulling out her phone and doing the tedious work of scrolling through her Snapchat stories, skipping through most of them. The peasants of Beverly Hills rarely had anything interesting enough for her anyways. “Her car was parked outside when I left,” James said, his eyes locked to the road, earning a nod of acknowledgment from Becca.

At the estate, Becca strutted inside, followed by James, her bag slung over his shoulder. As he moved to go up the stairs, Becca placed a hand gently on his shoulder, smiling at him. “James, be a dear and find Bailee for me. Tell her I’ll be waiting outside, by the hedge maze,” she instructed, before strolling outside, back into the crisp January air. She waited, outside the hedge maze, looking back at the palace that was her home. When they were little, the triplets had loved the maze. They’d spend hours running through the labyrinth until their parents or James or some poor maid had to come drag them out. Becca smiled. Those had been the days.

Bailee’s day, in stark contrast to her twin sister’s, was quite eventful. Getting into fights was out of the ordinary for the brunette, especially a fight with her best friend whom she hadn’t seen in months. In complete disbelief of the situation that had occurred, Bailee walked away, ran out of the school to her car, and fled back to the Helmsley Estate. Distraction was the name of the game for the remainder of the day, as she had binged an entire season of crappy Netflix whilst lying in bed in her pajamas.

That in itself was extremely out of the ordinary.

Three raps on her door brought Bailee momentarily out of her blues. Pausing the millionth episode in a row of Gossip Girl she had watched today, she yelled out to whoever wished to speak to her. “Enter,” At her call, in walked James, who stated that her sister wanted to meet her down at the maze. Grumbling, she clamored out of bed, walking down the grand staircase towards where her sister awaited. “Hey Becs, how was your day?” The disheveled girl asked, stepping next to her twin.

“It was fine. A bit lacking though, considering your absence,” Becca said, looking her sister up and down. “Bails, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like a mess,” she said, her eyebrows raised in concern. It was rare to see Bailee this disheveled. Her sister was always dressed to impress, so disappearing for a day of pajamas and bed rest was strange indeed for the young workaholic. “Where the hell were you today?”

Bailee rolled her eyes sarcastically, “Like I haven’t noticed I look like a mess,” She replied, followed by a sigh. There was a huge mirror in her room; it wasn’t like she could avoid her reflection all day. Crossing her arms over her chest, Bailee walked slightly in front of her sister, looking out over the maze pensively. “I left before homeroom, there was an… incident, and I didn’t want to stay.” Turning back around to face her sister, she raised her eyebrow. “The flyers?” Bailee asked, curious as to how her campaign went over in her absence.

“The flyers went well, so did Bri’s announcement. Most of the school will probably be there tonight. We’ve done good, Little Sister,” Becca said, her hands toying with the leaves of the hedge wall. “What was this incident?” Becca pried, giving her sister a teasing glance. Becca was perhaps the nosiest of the Helmsleys. If she wanted to know, she’d find out.

“Great, I’m glad.” Bailee truly was happy that her marketing ploy was a success, but that wasn’t the only thing on her mind, which caused her reaction to seem dull. Exhaling audibly, she looked over at Becs. “I ran into AJ today for the first time and it was while he was ruining his ex-boyfriend’s life…” She started, shaking her head in the process, still in shock of his harsh actions. “I got upset with him and called him Alfie and he went absolutely livid,”

Bails took a shaky breath before continuing. “I’ve truly never seen him so mad. He said I was stupid and dumb and he practically smashed my head in, but he hit the lockers instead…and then I slapped him.” Bailee’s face paled, “He said that I didn’t know how it feels to be led on and dumped and that the only risks I’m willing to take are with the company. And then he stormed off.”

“Didn’t he and Jamie break up months ago? God, I can never keep up,” Becca said, rolling her eyes. “Y’know sis, he isn’t wrong,” Becca said after a moment, doing her best to phrase her next words as carefully as possible. “You work all the time. I mean, when was the last time you really let loose, huh? The company is important, but there’s a lot more to the world than board meetings and business deals,” Becca said, looking over at Bailee, trying to gauge her reaction.

“Yeah, they did, but AJ clearly doesn’t care cause he literally walked up to Jamie and started making out with him, while he was talking to Marshall …” Bailee recounted. At her sister’s next words, the brunette looked down at the ground, ashamed. Helmsley Enterprises was her absolute world and everyone knew it, which did cause her awareness for the other parts of her life to be seriously lacking, which everyone knew too. “How can I let loose, Becs, I don’t have time! I have so many things to do. Board meetings and business deals are my future. They’re my present too. I could be taking over the company tomorrow if Dad wanted.”

Becca arched a brow, looking down at her sister and smirking. “Bails, Daddy doesn’t want you to take over tomorrow. You do. There will always be time for tomorrow, Helmsley Enterprises won’t disappear if you let loose every now and then,” Becca said. As harsh and careless Becca could be with those outside of her family, Becca loved her sister, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t somewhat worried about the toll the family business was taking on her. “Tonight why don’t you enjoy being seventeen and filthy rich for once in your life. Take shots, make out with a cute boy, have fun,” Becca suggested, grinning.

Bailee sighed. Her sister did have a point. As much as she wanted to, she knew that she truly wouldn’t be taking over her father’s business in the near future. The fact was, Bailee didn’t exactly know how to let loose. Rebelling and having fun, to her, was skipping a meeting every now and again, or sleeping in an extra hour when she shouldn’t. The girl didn’t even drink hard alcohol- the most she had ever had to drink was when she had an extra glass of wine at a business dinner and got a little tipsy. Looking up at her sister, she shrugged. “I really don’t have a clue as to how to enjoy being seventeen.” She admitted, even though she already knew her sister was well aware of this reality.

“Well aren’t you in luck. It just so happens, that I do,” Becca said, grinning and taking her sister’s hand and leading her back towards the house. “Now, let’s go get you out of these rags, and into something that will remind everyone in these hills that the Helmsleys are still the hottest sisters at this school.”

Bailee gave her sister an appreciative smile. It was moments like this that made her feel especially lucky that she was one of three. “I’m telling you right now though, I am not wearing anything too tight, and I am definitely NOT taking shots.”

[Hey Im Jordan]

_{A @Universorum and @Fabricant451 collaboration
Starring: Kit ‘Just Send Lewd Things!’ Thomas and Min ‘Is This How America Does It?’ Seo
Location: Professor Savage’s Classroom}

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Kit checked her phone’s clock and frowned. She was probably going to be late to science AGAIN. Which meant that, once AGAIN, Professor Savage would have some kind of snippy remark to make. This time, however, Kit had been distracted by flyers! There were flyers all over the place in this damn school. Flyers for a party, flyers for clubs! Kit had exactly four she was carrying to science class. Two of which were for her, and two of which were for her lab partner!

Kit looked up and could see her target at the end of the hall. She checked her clock again… Forty seconds remained! Oh man, maybe she could be on time. Kit moved as quickly as she could, wiggling between the larger students in the hall, she put her hand on the doorknob and slipped inside… Ringggg! The bell went off, and though she wasn’t in her seat, perse, Kit was in the room! “Yesssssss! I’m the best.” Kit exclaimed happily, scurrying to her spot beside Min-seo before Professor Savage could say a word.

As the class began and the children set about working on their class projects once more, Kit settled in beside Min-seo, once again setting up her table to catch what she was saying and quickly write it down for Min to read and respond to. After that, Kit handed Min the two flyers she’d brought for her: one for a, no, the party, and one for a club. “Did you hear about the party? It seems bretty dope. If I know the three Helmsley kids — and I do, I go to their house for food all the time — then it’ll be litty. You wanna come with me?” Kit chose to not yet acknowledge the second flyer. She’d get to that later. “...like friends, not as a date or anything.” Kit added quickly, before her inner shitposter took over.

“Baka.”

Min-seo was unusually quiet this morning, which was saying something as she was typically quiet in classes other than math. In her defense, she had quite a lot on her mind and the day was still rather young. Still, where before science was a class she dreaded now there was at least something to look forward to, that of course being her first friend she had made on her own terms. Her friend who was, looking at the clock, dangerously close to being late. What did that girl do that made her so late? Maybe an alarm clock would help.

There was a third member of the lab station today, and he was even more quiet than Min-seo. Donald Duck was seated on the desk and until the door swung open to reveal a buzzer beating Kit, Min-seo was communicating with him by way of lifting his hands and fiddling with his hat. As cute and wonderful as Donald was, he wasn’t exactly a very talkative sort no matter how many times Min-seo adjusted his hat or poked at his billed feet. Fortunately, Kit had the luxury of being human. A fast talking human, but a human all the same. Min-seo was determined to have a conversation without the use of a written medium between them.

When Kit sat at their lab station, Min-seo regarded her with a nod, and even waved Donald’s hand as it would have been rude for the third member of their station today to go without saying hello. It seemed this party was the talk of the school. Americans seemed to really enjoy any excuse to drink and embarrass themselves.

"Party...yes. I..I hear.” Min-seo nodded but her face showed a bit of worry as Kit continued. "Oh..no I...I am going with...someone. I was asked...Henry...and...yes.” Min-seo seemed genuinely upset that she had to decline her friend. "I can ask...if you come too?”

Oh, hey! Min had a cute stuffie. KIt was jealous. Stuffies were pretty much one of Kit’s favorite things. She loved to cuddle them while she laid in bed and tried, often unsuccessfully, to go to sleep. Kit eyed the Donald Duck for a few seconds, before she grabbed safety glasses from their desk’s drawer, and stuck them on the stuffed animal, before she looked over at Min, “gotta make sure he doesn’t get anything in his eyes!” She said excitedly, before finally considering all the stuff Min had said to her. Min had a date to the party…? Geeze, Kit sucked at dating.

“Nah, definitely don’t. I don’t wanna be a third wheel, I’ll just stick with Ophelia and Cassie, they’re actually being pretty cool with me… You have a boyfriend now!? That’s crazy, Min, I’m jealous. You’re getting way ahead of me, way fast…” She shook her head in amazement and patted Min on the shoulder with a beaming smile on her lips. “I hope it goes well! Are you making sure you text him lots?”

If Min-seo had known the gesture she likely would’ve slapped herself on the forehead. Of course! How could she have forgotten the safety goggles? This was a science lab after all and it wouldn’t do well for Donald to get some dangerous chemical in his eyes. The image of the stuffed duck with a pair of glasses resting on his bill was too cute not to snap a picture of. Min had to be quick about it, but fortunately their table was nearer to the back so sneaking a phone snapshot was easy enough.

"Boyfriend?” After saving the photo on her phone she could return to the topic at hand. "No...no boyfriend. But...maybe? He asked me so...so I think...maybe?” Min-seo wasn’t exactly against the notion, especially since she had learned that she was vastly incorrect in her assumption about Parker and Henry. Her only concern was if it was considered strange to go on a date with the host family’s son...but there hadn’t been anything in the forms saying she couldn’t. Besides which, Henry had asked her. It would be rude not to go with him.

"Text? Should I? What do I text?” This was why she was glad to have a friend outside Henry and Parker. Kit knew things about American boys. An idea came to her and she showed Kit the process. The photo of Safety Glasses Donald was attached to a message and Min-seo sent along the message ‘Donald in class!!! Learn lots!!!’ and sent it to Henry. "I did it!”

“That’s a good start! And you should think so. Look, boys around here don’t specifically take someone to a party unless they wanna date them.” Kit tapped her chin after watching a reply zip in from Henry, a simple, happy emoji. Hmm, what would Ophelia recommend that Min-seo do in this position? What about Cassie? Or Brynn? Or Marshall? Kit had only really learned one lesson from them, and it had to do with attitude. “You should text him, like…” Kit’s voice dropped to a low whisper as she leaned in closer to assure that no one else would hear her.

“_{...lewd things.} American boys love it when girls do that,” Kit said with a sage-like nod. Clearly, she was an expert on this subject, and Min would do well to follow her every suggestion.

Emojis were basically the universal language so when the response from Henry came back positive, Min-seo smiled in response. Texting wasn’t so bad, she’d texted people back at home but her list of contacts on this side of the ocean was a lot smaller than anticipated; which of course made the ones in her contacts all the more important. To her right, Kit was making a lot of sense. She wasn’t really asked to the beach party so much as she was dropped off and told to serve drinks. This one was specifically a date. Henry had said as much, and it was only on reflection that Min-seo realized the seriousness of those words. She had to do well on this date. What were the chances of getting another?

"Lewd things?” Min-seo’s voice went above a whisper and she was certain the students in the stations around them heard, or at least she assumed their snickers were because of that. "What is that? Example?” Min-seo had typed the words ‘lewd things’ in the text window for Henry. Had she not turned to Kit for advice it was likely she would have sent it as is.

Kit froze and shook her head, holding a finger to her lips to try and indicate that Min should talk in hushed tones. Kit reached out and touched the backspace button, quickly deleting what Min had already typed, then Kit spoke again, trying to lay it out as simply as possible. “No, Min, not like that. Like, uhm, sexual stuff. Naughty stuff. Inappropriate things,” Kit explained, in her best attempt to make it as blunt as possible. She wanted things to go well for Min!

“Henry’s pretty cool, so I want you guys to work! I’m sure if you put in the work, he will… too. I don’t fully know what that means, but I’m pretty sure that’s what Brynn would say — and Brynn has lots of boys that like her.” Kit said, with another sagely nod.

Things definitely were different here and Min-seo’s face was burning at the simple mention of ‘sexual stuff’. That was a few steps up from what she had considered appropriate to send a date and potential boyfriend. What she had been thinking of were simple phrases that were used back home. Phrases like ‘jeongmal jalsaenggisyeoseoyo’ which just meant how handsome girls thought their crushes were. Flirting and texting was on a whole different level here, breezing far past the cute giggling phase of things.

"I can’t...we’re in class. Everyone will...see.” Was that the only way? Kit seemed to know what she was talking about, and why wouldn’t she? See was cool and cool kids always had the best advice. "What about...this?” Min typed another message for pre-sending approval. It was a bit more involved than ‘lewd things’ but still hovered in the ‘PG’ range of things. The message in question simple stated ‘I am excited for you tonight’, aided by Min-seo’s grasp of English, it perhaps sounded more risque than she had aimed for.

“That’s better! Send that. No, wait, add an emoji.” Kit suggested, tapping to add a blushing kiss emoji, before she nodded happily. Then, she tapped the send button, and laid back, waiting for the response. “Trust me, this is gonna make sure that your night owns.” Kit said encouragingly. She patted Min on the shoulder, and watched as Henry’s response came in. This time it was significantly quicker: Ya? ;)

“See, dude? Told you. Just keep it up and I’m certain you’ll have a boyfriend by the end of the party. Maybe even before it.” Kit cooed encouragingly, holding her hand up to Min for a high five. This was great! She was a professional, once she found someone easier to crush on, she’d have a significant other in no time.

Min-seo had to hand it to Kit, she clearly knew her stuff. The response from Henry was not expected so suddenly but it also wasn’t at all unwelcome. She was getting the hang of it, or at least she assumed she was. A winky face meant she was doing well, and it meant that Henry was equally as excited as she was to go to the party. Her initial uncertainty after her little secret being divulged was slipping away, though it was easy to claim excitement when removed from her date for the night; it remained to be seen how Min-seo would be once they were actually at the party and dancing and having a good time.

"I should...reply?” She asked Kit but it was also her confirming the idea for herself. Another message she tapped out. ’tonight you have greatest memory’ and not one but two blushing kiss emojis. If one worked, two would have to work twice as well. She didn’t even ask Kit for proof-reading, instead giving her a thumbs up and a word of thanks. "I will be happy just going, I think.” Min-seo nodded to Kit; despite Min’s enthusiasm for texting, she was honestly just looking forward to being on the other side of the fence for a party.

Perhaps this time she would not be left alone ten minutes in.

[LovelyComplex]

_{A @Lovely Complex and @Universorum collaborative project
Starring: Joy ‘Just One Slice’ Darling, and Damian ‘I Got You’ O’Connor
Featuring the Supporting Cast of: Erick ‘The Concerned Father’ Darling, Jude ‘Drink Your Juice!’ Darling, Rocket ‘DON’T LEAVE ME JOY’ Darling, Artemis ‘The Underminer of Authority’ Darling, Apollo ‘She’s Right There…’ Darling, Bryant ‘What the Fuck?’ O’Connor, and Melody ‘You’re Tearing the Family Apart!’ O’Connor
Location: The Darling Residence —> Damian’s Car —> The O’Connor Residence}

Having one of the best perspectives of the city of fallen angels, toward the end of Oriole Way, sitting above Sunset Strip, a modern family habitation resides — fabulously high-tech, contemporary, and in union with the slope. Visitors are always reminded of the precarious geology. The house is laid out with three levels, the basement with a huge committed theater, exercise center, a guest bedroom, and a absolutely necessary wine room. The main floor comprises of living, eating, and kitchen spaces, as well as a family room, for game nights. The upper level consist of two bedrooms, with an attached office to each, an extra room for the man of the house, and a rooftop porch over the expert. Each floor has a bathroom. The house utilizes marble, dull rock, chrome, and the highest tech known to date, with the Assistant Apollo as the main control and security system, while the Assistant Artemis is second-in-command, assigned to the only child of the household.

Welcome to the Darling residence. The home of American entrepreneur, inventor, industrial designer, and one of the CEOs of ASMR, Jude Darling, and American football tight end for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL, Erick “Ender” Darling. Both winning honors and awards in their profession and both known faces in their desired pursuits. Technology and Sports.

Joy Darling sat on the right side of her father, who was at the head, and across from her was her mother, who was sitting on the left side of the only man of the house, aside from Rocket who was laying on his back by the fireplace in the living room. They sat on one side of the table, in close proximity with one another, leaving the other end bare. Most nights, dinner started with Joy and her father, then her mom would come home five to ten minutes later, rushing in to join the family. Being together at dinner was valued in this house. Both Ender and Joy took their time, knowing very well the matriarch of their humble abode was a busy woman. Today, her mother arrived home earlier than usual and actually was the one that prepared dinner for once. Homemade pizza. Grandma Nana’s recipe. The crust was the most mouthwatering piece of crust anyone’s ever tasted. Sure, there was Captain Cuddle’s pizza too, which was good, but nothing beats Grandma Nana’s pizza. At least in Joy's book.

Joy’s fingers played with the placement of her utensils, even if this meal didn’t require utensils, all the while Apollo played a smooth song on low volume throughout the household. Her mother raised an eyebrow at her daughter’s actions. Why hasn’t she touched her food yet? Joy not being the first to eat? Something was wrong. After giving a quick side glance to her husband, to see if he too acknowledged the way their daughter was acting, Jude cleared her throat and inquired, “Anything new and exciting happening at school?”

Glancing up from her plate, Joy met her mother’s curious gaze and shrugged, “The Helmsleys are back. That’s about it. Kids wouldn’t shut up about those three.”

Ender looked up from his food, and over at his daughter. “I didn’t know they even went anywhere.” He said, furrowing his brow. Usually he stayed up to date on the Helmsleys; they were more or less family, but apparently he’d let them slip through the cracks. Shaking his head, he stared at Joy for a few seconds, before he leaned forward, “hey, are you okay, honey?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Ender was blunt and to the point, same as always.

Looking up at her father with her big eyes, Joy considered what she should tell him. She didn’t like hiding things from them, but right now, she felt like it was necessary. It was too soon to introduce Damian, out of all people, as her boyfriend. That could lead to restrictions and god, who knows what else! It was only today she realized he even was her boyfriend. On top of that, she didn’t know how she would ask them about going to the Helmsleys' boat party, on a Tuesday night.

Her life was becoming one big fat lie.

Is this what it feels like... being a teen and actually trying to explore things beyond school? Up until now, her life was kind of clockwork, full of pattern and routine. A life solely focused on her doing her own thing. Now, here she was, with a boyfriend, having done borderline sexual stuff with him and was probably going to do more tonight if she got the greenlight to go. For once, Joy didn’t have a solution. As a child, things were simple. All she wanted was to fly around space, visiting planets and meeting extraterrestrials. Now she wanted to spend an unreasonable amount of time with a singular entity, who was inhumanly handsome. Her mind briefly shifted to the memory of her staring at the ex-jock during gym class, before she realized there was a long pause of her not responding to her father. “Oh, sorry, I’ve just been thinking a lot about the science fair.” False. Although she should be thinking about her project, the only science that’s been on her mind was sexology… with Damian.

What was she getting herself into?

Her attention was ripped from her father to her phone vibrating in her pocket. She gave her dad, and then her mom, who was watching in silence, with a concerned, yet contemplative look on her face, a reassuring smile. “I’m okay. I promise.” Truth. Even if she didn’t know what she was doing nowadays, she wasn't depressed or sad. Actually, she was more excited about her high school days than she’s ever been. High school was becoming kind of fun for her and it was all because of one person. With that, she pulled out her phone only a smidge to check her text.

From Damian

I lied. I’ll be there in like four or five minutes. I forgot how close you lived LOL

Ender shrugged his shoulders. To be honest, he trusted Joy. If she said she was okay, then she was certainly okay. She knew herself better than he did; and he wasn’t about to argue or duel her over that. “Okay, Joy.”

In contrast to her husband's apathetic demeanor, Jude pouted, “You still need to eat. I don’t want you to go hungry.” Mama actually cooking a family meal was rare and she made pizza just for Joy! Only to find out the end of the world was near and her Joy was not hungry. When wasn’t she hungry?! Was there something she needed to know? Why couldn't Joy openly tell her things? All Jude desired was for her child to come to her and tell her personal things. Little things. Love things. Anything! Joy, unfortunately, wasn't comfortable with that. Yet.

“Okay, okay. I’ll eat.” Joy absentmindedly responded back as she texted Damian.

To Damian

What?! I haven’t even asked yet! I don’t know what to say. Should I just be honest? SOS.

From Damian

Don’t even trip, I got u. Maybe go upstairs and get a backpack and stuff ur outfit for the night in it.

Shoving her phone back in her pocket, grumbling to herself, she looked up at her parents again, then down at her pizza. In a matter of seconds, she gobbled down the slice, stuffing her face in the most unlady-like way before grabbing a napkin and wiping her fingers and lips clean. After swallowing the last bit of her food, she hastily dismissed herself, “I got to… use the bathroom.” She stood up, avoiding eye contact with her father, and without further adieu, ran off.

“Wait, just one slice? You didn’t even drink your juice.” Jude furrowed her eyebrows. What was going on with her daughter? This was not like her at all. Well, the shoving her face with food was kind of like her but not the running off so urgently with the excuse 'i have to go pee'. Unable to complain anymore, Jude bit into her slice, tired from her long day at work and worried with the changes that have been happening recently with Joy. Her eyes trailed to the archway and widened a little when her daughter came running back in.

“You’re right. I’m taking my juice with me.” With her glass in hand, Joy once more prepared herself to dart out the room again but then...

Ender looked down at his phone, vibrating with a phone call. Normally, he wouldn’t answer phone calls at the table, but this was a special case! He tapped the green button and put the phone to his ear, “hey, Damian. What’s up?”

Errr… Joy needed to pack but she was curious how this phone call would go. However, she couldn’t be suspicious and show intrigue. With her mother’s attention now on the phone call, Joy turned on her heel and exited the room. Instead of going upstairs and packing for her night adventure, like Damian had asked her to do, she stood hidden, by the wall, near the entrance to the dining room. Eavesdropping. Hoping this would end well. Bringing her glass to her lips, she waited patiently to hear her father’s responses to her secret boyfriend. She sipped her delicious juice quietly.

“Here, let me put you on speaker so Jude can talk too.” Ender took the phone off of his ear and put it on the table, pressing the button. Once he did that, Damian’s voice came over the line, as happy as ever.

“Hey, Auntie! I’m actually outside, like right now?”

“You are? Then why don’t you come inside?” Ender said, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at his wife. Like always, though, Damian had a response prepared.

“I’m on the clock! Sorry, I’d love to drop in. I’m here to pick up Joy! She and I have an astronomy project we’re working on together — the teacher paired us up at random, isn’t that crazy? Anyway, we’re supposed to go to the observatory tonight. I figured it’d be okay; but don’t blame her if it slipped her mind. She has all kinds of ideas for this thing, I’m planning on just riding her coattails, haha. After the trip, she’ll probably crash at my mom and dad’s. I’m staying at the Wells’s right now, because I’m kinda in trouble…”

“Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure it’ll all blow over soon. The only grudges your mother can hold for a very long time is anything in regards to someone interfering with your dad. You know, girls that dared to try and steal him away from her.” Melody was indeed a jealous woman and when trespassers tried to touch what was her's, a vicious beast unleashed.

Jude felt much better after hearing Damian explain in more detail of what was going on with Joy. If there was one thing her Joy hated, it was spontaneous projects that conflicted with what she wanted to do. From the stress of the science fair and this sudden astronomy project, of course, her baby has a lot on her mind. Don't even get her started with the gossip that has most definitely been going through the halls today with the Helmsley children back in town. Joy was never fond of BHHS' school politics and the showmanship of the popular kids. If only Joy ranted to her, Jude sighed. Mama could ease her stress.

Having responded to her god son, Jude called out to Apollo, “Apollo, can you tell my daughter that Damian’s here to pick her up?”

“She’s not very far away…” Came the reply from Apollo, but he quickly followed up with, “Very well. Joy, if you would please step back into the dining room, your mother would like to inform you that Damian is here to pick you up.”

“Just a minute!” Joy called out from the living room, causing Rocket to wake up from his slumber and roll on the rug, wanting belly rubs. In hushed tones, she talked to her phone, denying her pup from love and attention, “Artemis, mirror mode.” Joy was internally freaking out. Why was he here so fast?! So soon! She didn’t even get a change of clothes. While her dog was giving her the puppy dog stare from behind and whining.

“I don’t think mirror mode is necessary. You look fine, Joy.” Artemis’ tone had a hint of sass. “You shouldn’t keep them waiting.” Rocket howled. LOOOOOK AT MEEEEE, JOYYYY.

… her phone declined her. “I’m supposed to be your master! I feel like I need to fix my bangs. Come on, Artemis. I don’t have all day.”

There was a sudden camera snap. “I sent a picture of your face to Damian to be the judge of that. I also informed him you do not have a change of clothes.” Joy’s face visibly displayed ‘what the fuck’. Rocket growled at the phone.

“Alright, well, thank you guys! I’ll stop by sometime soon, I promise.” With the short farewell, Damian hung up and then looked at the text message he’d received from Joy.

From Damian

You look cute/10
and u dont really need a change of clothes, you can just sleep in mine or something. we’ll figure it out, come on let’s roll.

“Joy?” Jude called out.

Joy was glaring at the camera lense, as if it were Artemis’ eye. “I hate you.”

“You’ll thank me later. Now drink your juice and go.” Artemis teased before going completely quiet.

Hissing at her phone, Joy shoved it in her jean pocket and marched into the dining room AGAIN. Holding her finger up, letting her parents know to hold up a sec, she chugged down her juice and lightly slammed it on the table. “I must flee.” She made her round of giving both her parents’ kisses.

Stupid Artemis, not doing as she says.

Leaving to reunite with her boyfriend, Joy could hear her mother's voice from behind her resounding throughout the room, “Good luck, my angel! Call us if you need anything. And try not to stay up all night working on the project. I’m sure you two will get an A!”

“Please make sure he gets an A. Damian’s a good looking kid, and he’s funny, but… he ain’t all that smart. Carry him like JJ carried me.” Ender said, as he gave Joy a wave as she headed toward the door. Once the door was shut, and Joy was off in the wild to work on a project, Ender looked at Jude, “I’m gonna call Connor, and make sure it’s alright that she crashes there. I’m sure it is, but a fair warning is never a bad thing.”

Jude nodded in full agreement. It’s been awhile since Joy went over the O’Connors' place. Melody would be ecstatic. “Isn’t this exciting though? Joy is spending time with Damian again. I seriously thought those two had a huge fall out.”

The car door opened and Joy hopped into the passenger seat. Rocket was by the big glass window staring down at them while barking. His master was leaving! When would she be back?! ALONE FOREVER. Closing the door behind her, she playfully glared at her boyfriend, “You did not give me enough time, at all.” Leaning in, she gave him a feathery light kiss and adoringly cooed, “However, I forgive you. Let’s get out of here.”

“Told you I’d handle it.” Damian said with a sly smile and a wink, before he shifted the car into gear, and pulled off onto the road and toward the party, “One stop left, though.” He had to pick up Riley and the littlest of their friend group: JD.

Meanwhile…

The O’Connor Residence

“Yeah, no. That’s totally fine. Yep! I’ll see you on Thursday. No worries, buddy.” Bryant O’Connor (Connor, to most people), Damian’s father, pulled the phone from his ear and looked over at his wife, who was sitting at his dinner table with him — both children were missing — Connor turned his attention back to the phone, which still had Ender’s contact on it. “That son of a bitch.”

“What else has he done? This family is falling apart.” If it weren’t for the food in front of her, Melody would’ve probably face planted in the outmost dramatic way. “Who was that?” Melody grabbed her fork and fiddled with it, as she waited for her husband to reply. These past couple of days were the absolute worst and gave her anxiety! She felt like she could break out with awful zits any day now.

Connor looked up at the ceiling and then back to Melody, before he shrugged his shoulders. “Uh, that was Ender. Damian stopped by their place. He let Jude and Ender know that he and Joy have an astronomy project together, and that Joy is probably going to be spending the night here after they get a headstart on the project at the observatory tonight.” Damian and his parents had once had a talk. In an effort to both establish a strong relationship and trust with their child, while still letting him be a kid and have freedom, they had set up a way for him to get away with certain things while not lying to them about what he was up. The ‘astronomy project’ play was one of those things. Simply put, Damian told the parents of whatever girl he was taking somewhere to party and have sex with that they had an astronomy project together. The deal was, Connor and Melody would back him up on it, no matter what.

And now Ender had called with the same story they’d heard a hundred times before.

Sparks coursed through Melody’s brain, trying to connect the dots but only ending up causing a short circuit. Her eyes popped and her mouth dropped. If she were a cartoon, her jaw would probably touch the table. She was shook.

Frozen and completely petrified, Melody didn’t know what to think! The party was one thing, but never in a million years did she think her son would go after her god daughter. FOR SEX. Her brain could not formulate thoughts or words. She couldn’t even move and for some reason, oxygen was not going in and out of her nostrils.

Letting out a loud gasp, Damian’s mother came to realize she had stopped breathing, having been caught unaware and unprepared. Catching her breath, she finally stood up and reacted in total Mel fashion, “He’s going to fuck Joy?!”

[smarty0114]

---

---

_{Featuring: Jamie “Dubiously Consenting Kisser” Callaghan Katie “No Knock” Callaghan & Noah “Please Don’t Make Me Go” Nichols}

---

---

Jamie flopped down on his bed, letting out a long sigh of relief. The comfort of his home was refreshing after the day he’d had. First AJ, then his run in with Jeremy Macintosh had Jamie ready to crawl into a hole and die. The only silver lining, oddly enough, was that Ophelia and Cassie had come to talk to him about Marshall. And that meant, he had to go. He had to do this, tonight, or else him and Marshall would be an ongoing saga of not knowing, and Jamie couldn’t deal with that. Sighing he rolled over, letting out a scream into his pillow, before sitting back up. “Alright Callaghan, let’s get ourselves a boyfriend,” he said, getting up and walking over to his closet.

Meanwhile, right next door, Katie had already begun putting the finishing touches on her own look. Noah had helped her pick an outfit hours ago, but had since lost interest in her preparation. He’d returned to his natural form, curled up on Katie’s bed, sketching away. Katie applied her last bit of makeup, ruby red lipstick, and turned around to face Noah, posing. “Tell me the truth. How do I look?” Katie asked. She was dressed in a pale blue crop top, and tight black jeans, with black booties finishing off the look. A necklace hung down her chest, a blood red jewel ornamenting it. Her red lips were accompanied by smokey eyes. In other words, she looked hot.

Noah looked up at his friend for a second and nodded. “Yeah you look fine,” he said, his attention quickly returning to his sketch. Katie rolled her eyes and turned back around, shaking her head. “You are no help,” she said, before nodding to herself in affirmation of her outfit. She turned back to Noah, walking over and snatching his sketchbook from his hands and closing it. “Hey! Katie! I was working!” he protested, reaching for the lost book to no avail. Katie shook her head, smirking. “All work and no play, makes Noah a dull boy,” she teased, dragging his unwilling self off the bed.

“Can’t we just skip the party and watch a movie instead?” Noah pleaded as Katie hauled him over to Jamie’s room.

Katie scoffed. “Noah! It’ll be fun! Plus, I already forced JD to come, and he needs this party too. Maybe you guys can hang, out, god knows you both need to let loose,” Katie replied, grinning, before barging into Jamie’s room.

“Jesus Christ!” Jamie shouted, rushing to cover up his naked torso with his hands.

“Nope, just me. But, I’ve been told we have some striking similarities,” Katie said, waltzing past the half naked Jamie and into his closet. “What the hell are you covering anyways? It’s not like you have tits or anything,” Katie said, digging through Jamie’s shirts, looking for a suitable one for Noah.

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Some people have modesty you slag,” Jamie spat. “Noah here doesn’t need to see every inch of me for fuck’s sake. You’re lucky I had pants on! Oh, and hi Noah,” Jamie said, finishing his rant with a slight wave to a crimson red Noah Nichols, who was standing in the doorway, looking like he’d rather burst into flames.

“Do you have anything that doesn’t look like our grandpa bought it? I’m trying to find an outfit for Noah to wear to this party,” Katie shouted from the closet, her voice slightly muffled.

“A, fuck you. And second, since when are you going to the party?” Jamie asked, pulling a shirt from a pile on his bed and trying it on, checking himself out in the mirror before taking it off again.

“I want to go watch drunk people act like idiots, and Noah here needs some adventure,” Katie explained.

For once, Jamie could admit his sister was right. Noah was a nice kid, he’d been one of Katie’s best friends for years now. He was over so often, he was practically Jamie’s brother at this point. He was nice, and wicked talented, but he wasn’t exactly outgoing. “Did Noah agree to this?” Jamie asked, trying on another shirt.

”No, I didn’t!” Noah said from his spot in the doorway.

“Oh hush!”

Jamie grinned, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I’m taking my baby sister to a party,” Jamie said in disbelief. Katie popped her head out of the closet, a scowl on her face. “Jamie, I’m a year younger than you!” she shouted before popping her head back in, only to pop it out a moment later. “Also, why was there a video of you and AJ swapping spit going around? I thought you guys were done.”

Jamie sighed. Of course there was a video. This was Beverly Hills High, why wouldn’t there be a video? “WE ARE DONE!” Jamie shouted, his frustration clear.

“Didn’t look like it!” Katie taunted, emerging from the closet with a pile of shirts she’d deemed acceptable for Noah to wear.

Meanwhile, Noah had taken a seat in a beanbag chair across the room, next to a large window. He’d known Katie and Jamie long enough to have become familiar with their fights. The barbs and the shouting didn’t even faze him anymore. He watched as the siblings rolled their eyes, shouted. Red burst from their mouths in waves, bright and passionate. It wasn’t anger but the kind of unconditional love you only saw in family.

“AJ came up to me while Marshall was probably trying to fucking ask me out, and shoved his fucking tongue down my throat!” Jamie explained, his frustration obvious.

“Sure didn’t look as non-consensual as you say it was,” Katie teased, tossing a button up shirt at Noah. “Try this on,” she ordered, flopping down on Jamie’s bed.

Noah looked down at the shirt, then at the shirt he was wearing. He timidly pulled it up and over his head, and hurriedly slipped into the shirt Katie had given him. It fit perfectly, and he stood up, looking to Katie and Jamie for an opinion.

“What’s the vibe here Jamie?”

“Eh, too me. Try that green t shirt, and then that jacket,” Jamie advised, giving Noah a quick glance and gesturing to some of the clothes Katie had pillaged from his closet.

Noah grabbed the shirt and changed into it as Jamie continued to explain his day to Katie. He looked at himself in Jamie’s mirror, bright green covering his torso. He was reminded of JD, the radioactive boy, and how he’d see him later tonight. His stomach clenched with fear and excitement. He slipped on the jacket Jamie had mentioned, leather with a gray hoodie attatched.

“Oh wow! Noah! You look like a badass!”

Noah blushed, turning around to face Katie and Jamie. Jamie nodded in approval, having finally decided on a shirt, a navy blue button up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. “God, I may not be able to hold a relationship, but damn can I dress people well,” he said, smirking, causing Noah’s cheeks to flush red. It wasn’t everyday he was told he looked good. Especially not from other guys.

“Hey, what are you telling Mom?”

“I don’t know, what are you telling Mom?”

Jamie rolled his eyes, chewing his lip, before nodding his head, as if in approval of his own plan. “Okay, here’s the deal. You guys are going to Joy’s for a study group, and I’m going to Selena’s to hang out. We’ll be home by midnight. Got it?” Jamie asked. Katie and Noah nodded in affirmation. Jamie looked over at the clock that rested on his wall. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

[Grimoire Gaming]

_{Collab with @Universorum
Family Dinner Featuring: Selena “Oops” Sterling, Amanda “HIYA!” Sterling, Alistair “I’m Hungry!” Sterling, Sean “Not Going” Sterling, Pearce “You Should Go” Sterling & Cassandra “He’s Going” Sterling
Setting: Tuesday Evening, The Sterling Residence
Mentions Jamie @smarty0114, Brynn @melissahart}

“Your mother requests your presence in the dining room, Miss Sterling.” Lucius’ familiar British accent echoed through Selena’s powder pink and purple bedroom.

The eldest Sterling daughter held her hand steady as she used a pair of tweezers to pinch a band of falsies to her own eyelashes. Waiting a few moments for the glue to hold, Sel released them and inspected her handywork. Her eyelashes were only half done at this point, but the rest of her makeup look was complete. Selena’s cheeks strobed with a stunning highlight, a formula made of her own design, and her eyelids sparkled with shimmering rose gold that was complemented by warm brown and rust-colored shadows. The beauty queen was prepping to put on the second band of false lashes when her Assistant spoke again.

“Miss Sterling, your mother—”

“Yes, Lucius, I heard you the first time. You can see that I am a bit preoccupied, can you not?”

“Of course, Miss. I will let her know.”

With that out of the way, Selena went back to her work. Did she need to put in this much effort to look good? No, absolutely not, Selena was blessed with her mother’s flawless skin and near-angelic looks. But, also like her mother, Sel enjoyed this. People that didn’t put effort into their appearance were lazy, and laziness is far more unattractive than any other personality trait out there. Lazy people were gross, case and point. Sel’s phone buzzed against the vanity’s surface with a text from Jamie, indicating his plan to use her house as an alibi for the party tonight.

To: Rita Skeeter
No worries, I got you, boo.

Just as Selena sent out the text, the door of her bedroom crashed in. Sel jumped and scowled at the door, primed and ready to berate the offender. In the doorway stood the younger Sterling daughter, with her foot poised high above her head karate-kick style. “Cool! You like that? Seany taught me how to do a new kick!”

“WHAT do you think you are doing barging into my room like that, you imp?” Selena hissed at her little sister, not bothering to respond to her question. No, she did not like having her door kicked in. Closed doors were meant to stay closed. Did privacy mean nothing anymore?

Amanda lowered her leg and frowned in disappointment, having not received the praise and recognition that she so desired. “Whatever… Mom said it’s time for dinner and to not stop pestering you until you leave this stupid princess castle.” She was paraphrasing, of course. Mandy’s irritated look was quickly washed away by a mischievous grin. The spry fourth grader wound up and shot across the room like a bullet, jumping high, and diving into Selena’s perfectly made bed.

Selena stood up out of her chair and marched over to the bed. “Get off of my bed. Get out of my room. Now!” Mandy looked up at her older sister with wide eyes and quickly rolled away before she was mercilessly beaten with the down pillow held in Selena’s grasp. The young Sterling scrambled out of the room and down the stairs with haste.

“I DID IT, MOM!” Amanda called down the hallway as she retreated. Selena followed after her in much less of a rush. The rest of the family was gathered around the grand dining room table for dinner. The parents sat at both ends of the table, the head chairs, and the younger twins sat on the left side of their father. Selena took her seat next to her mother and across from Amanda (who was sticking her tongue out currently). In the seat between Selena and her father, which had been empty for far too long, sat her twin brother. And because of that, all was right in the world.

“Can we eat now?” The youngest male Sterling asked, looking from his mother, to his father — adding in his two older siblings for good measure. Alistair could only assume he was the hungriest at the table, as no one else seemed to feel like it was a great travesty that they had to wait for the entire family to assemble before they could eat. “I don’t think any of my friends do ‘family dinners.’ We’re weird.” He complained, folding his arms over his chest.

“Just a little bit,” Sean replied to Alistair with a wink, before he looked at his father. Honestly? Sean was kind of hungry too, which was probably bad. He’d eaten all kind of junk food over the course of the day — he was of the opinion that Moon Pies were his favorite. His mother thought it was icky of him to wander the unhallowed halls of places such as Wal-Mart to buy disgusting, preservative filled foods, but Sean saw it as somewhat of a rite of passage. Besides, he had his own money, and had already shown that he’d spend it how he wanted.

“Yes, we can eat.” Pearce said after a period of silence that existed almost solely to mess with Alistair.

“FINALLY.”

“Now that Selena has so kindly graced us with her presence, we can eat.” Cassandra, the matriarch, spoke up before picking up a silver fork. She poked at the fresh garden salad in front of her and softly chewed a bite of it while she stared at her daughter. After swallowing, Cassie addressed her. “You look nice, is there a special occasion?”

“There sure is! Did you know that Sean got a MOTORCYCLE?!” Mandy exclaimed, causing Cassie to stab at her salad a bit more aggressively.

“Yes… I do. I was there when he bought it.” Cassie cleared her throat and looked across the table towards her husband. She took a dainty sip of white wine to settle herself so that she didn’t have a complete conniption at the dinner table.

Selena was about to explain that, yes, there was a special occasion, when she was so rudely interrupted — yet again — by Amanda. The subject of the interruption, however, was the real shocker. “Wait... what?” Selena looked to her brother for confirmation… and explanation.

Sean nodded, swallowing down a mouthful of food. “Yeah, I got it last night. She wouldn’t pay for it though, so I bought it with my own money. I couldn’t stand riding around in your — well, it’s a great car, and I’m sure you love it, Sel — but it’s kind of a pink monstrosity… Plus, it drives itself. I don’t trust that. I wanted something that runs on gas and is fully human driven. Mom bought me a car though. She was a little wine drunk, so dad had to come and drive it back. Thanks, Dad.” Sean said, glancing over at his father with a small grin and a nod.

“Uh-huh.”

Selena nodded slowly. This was an interesting development. Today was full of those, so it seemed. Sel made a mental note to check out the bike, but did not vocalize these intentions. She was similar enough to her mother to know that she was upset about the motorcycle, and the conversation might go more smoothly if they changed the subject. “I’m sorry my top of the line vehicle isn’t good enough for you, brother.” She smirked, her words clearly having no ill-meaning. Her car was the least masculine thing on the planet, she couldn’t blame Sean for wanting something different. Something of his own. “About the special occasion,” Selena looked to her father now. “Did you know that the Helmsley triplets were coming back today, Daddy?”

Pearce looked up, and shook his head, “no, I thought they weren’t due back for another few weeks, actually. Ryan got back today as well — I imagine his wife will be here soon too. He did mention something involving Brian, but he didn’t give specifics, and I didn’t ask.” Pearce said, shrugging his shoulders. The Helmsleys and the Sterlings were quite close, but both families were almost equally secretive. Neither tended to press issues with the other, and they both liked it that. After a brief pause to take another bite of food, he spoke again. “I suspect the special occasion involves them?”

“Indeed, it does. In true Helmsley fashion, they’re hosting a gala on their yacht tonight. They went all out, with posters and flyers, they even televised it. The whole school was talking about it. The boat leaves in a few hours, actually. Which reminds me, Mother, if Jamie’s mom calls later, can you cover for him? Say we’re shopping in the hills — somewhere that the reception’s bad, or something.” Selena looked from her father to her mother, smiling bright and hardly touching her own dinner.

“I can. Though, I don’t understand why Mrs. Callaghan can’t accept that teenagers go to parties… it’s silly to prohibit them entirely. That makes things more tempting, and encourages secrets and lies. That’s not a healthy foundation for a family to have…” Cassie took a judgmental sip of her wine.

“Riiight…” Selena remarked at that bit of irony, as if the Sterlings didn’t run on the power of secrets and lies. Sel couldn’t prove that yet, but she had an inkling that not all the glitters was gold — or silver, in this case. “Anyway, Seany and I will be attending, of course. You are going… right?” Selena smiled at her twin.

“No, I have no intentions of going to another party. The New Year’s one was my first, and it will be my last.” Sean said to Selena with an apologetic look on his face, before he looked at their younger siblings, “besides, I’ve already promised my evening to the twins. They want to watch my shows with me.” He explained. The last party had nearly devolved into a fight at the beginning. Sean had met Brynn because of it, yes, but that didn’t make up for the unnecessary stressors that it could be. And that party? That had been on land. A cramped, floating vehicle with no way out but the cold ocean seas? No thank you.

“Yeah, take that, Satan. Brother’s ours tonight.” Mandy piped up joyfully.

“Amanda!” Cassandra scolded.

Mandy barely looked ashamed whilst Selena glared across the table in annoyance. Rolling her eyes, Sel actually started to eat some of her dinner. If she was going to drink at all tonight, she should at least consume a few calories first. “That’s a shame, you should really reconsider, Seany, for a number of reasons. One, it would make me very happy if I didn’t have to go alone. Two, this will be a million times better than anything Henry and his goons could throw together. And Three, it’s a Helmsley affair. It’s simply good for family relations if we attend, isn’t that right, Daddy?” Sel wasn’t above pulling the Daddy’s Girl card, it had its uses. Hopefully it panned out.

“She’s not wrong.” Pearce said, turning his attention to his son. At this, Sean frowned. Was his father going to pressure him into going? That would end poorly; Sean was not going to take orders from anyone at the table. “You probably ought to go.” Sean gave his twin sister a look that was undeniably a sour glare, before he cleared his throat, and fought for himself.

“Regardless of who throws the party, the people that attend this school are scum. There will be fights, and shouting, and awful loud music. Underage drinking, an excessive amount of drug use, probably more than a little underage sex. I have no qualms with the Helmsley family, but I have no respect for gatherings such as this. I won’t embarrass the family by attending another. Don’t you agree, Mom?” Sean said, glancing over at his mother, before he slipped his phone out of his pocket to check a text that had been sent to him.

“It isn’t fair if Sean has to go! We never get to play with him.” Alistair grumbled, before looking down at his now completely empty plate. “And I’m still hungry!”

“It sounds safer and more respectable than a motorcycle.” Cassandra quipped, clearly still fired up about what she had deemed as “death-on-wheels” since her brief bout of poor decision-making on the night prior. If Sean didn’t want to go to this event, her suggesting that he should go, along with Pearce, would be his punishment for insisting on buying that death trap. “I trust you’d know how to handle yourself like the responsible gentleman that your father and I raised you to be. You will go and represent our family along with your sister, and make sure that she gets home safely.”

“But Mommmm,” Amanda drew out a whiney complaint.

Sean quickly slid his phone back into his pocket, before he gave his mother a look that said a thousand words. He’d given her a chance, but she had made the wrong choice. “It’s alright, Amanda, I have a better idea. How about, this weekend, I’ll take you and Alistair to the Honda shop, and we’ll get you guys little dirt bikes? I’ll teach you to ride them, and maybe if we have time, we’ll go to a gun range. After all, since I’ve been so rudely taken away from our plans together, it seems only fair I make it up to you.” Sean said to his younger siblings, before smiling at his mother.

“THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY WICKED!”

“YEAH!”

“Ab-so-lute-ly not. You may be an adult that can make your own decisions, but Amanda and Ali are not. You are not the parent here! ...Pearce?” Cassie shot her gaze across the table towards her husband once more. Was he going to sit there and do nothing?

Selena sat back slightly and watched as her family dissolved into chaos. This… this was not her intention. Not at all. Now Sean would probably be angry with her when all she was trying to do was find ways to spend time with him. “I-it’s fine. Nevermind. I just… I didn’t want to have to go by myself. I’ll find Jamie when I get there or something.” Sel admitted, nervously reaching for the crystal glass of sparkling water in front of her.

At this point, Sean took his attention away from the discussion at the table. As far as he was concerned, it was over and he’d won. He was good at that; if nothing else, the Academy had taught him how to win. Staring at the phone, he furrowed his brow at a picture message from Brynn, tapping the download button. He waited a split second, and then his eyebrows shot up briefly.

From: Brynn

more of that to come if you show up to the party~

As Sean slid his phone into his pocket once again, his demeanor seemed to have shifted slightly. Silently, though, he waited for his father to speak.

Pearce was presented with a choice. He either dropped it and left his daughter in her sorry state, sided with his wife and risked losing his son, or sided with Sean and risked not having sex for the next few months. No option was a good one, so Pearce attempted to do what he thought was the best option: compromise. “Hold on, Cassie. I think Sean deserves some time with his younger siblings, and what he chooses to do with it is his choice. I trust him enough to know what he’s doing with the twins. However, I think he should go to the party. So, how about this, he’ll go to the party, and on Saturday or Sunday, he can take the twins for the day. You can go to the spa for the whole weekend, and Sean will make sure to send you photographic evidence that proper safety gear is being used. How does that sound?”

“Agreeable, if not favorable.”

“Selena?”

“I already said nevermind. I don’t care what he does with the hellions.” Sel said unhappily, sliding a piece of lettuce around her plate with her fork. She wasn’t hungry anymore. “I’m going to go finish getting ready.” Selena slid her chair back and excused herself from the table before heading up to her room.

Cassandra sighed and watched as her daughter retreated back to what was no doubt her safe space in this lonely castle. The Sterlings were a shining example of how money couldn’t buy happiness, though they all tried their hardest to pretend that they were. “This family is falling apart.” Cassie remarked quietly and finished off her glass of wine.

Sean walked away from the table after his mother spoke, considering his work done. The conversation, however, was not. “...is that a yes?” Alistair asked cautiously, looking at each of his parents for confirmation, with his breath trapped in his lungs.

Meanwhile, Sean walked to Selena’s room and lightly knocked on the door, “are you ready, yet? We ought to leave soon, or we’ll be late.” He asked in a gentle tone, patiently waiting for his sister to answer. Sean knew her well enough to know when she was upset. And she was definitely upset then and there.

“There’s no we, Sean.” Selena said through the closed door. She wasn’t sulking or crying into her pillow like one might expect of an upset teenage girl. Sel was far more poised than that, even in the privacy of her own room. Still, her own words hurt her more than she cared to admit — that sounded like such a final thing to say to her twin. She frowned at her reflection in the mirror after pulling her pre-selected party dress over her head and modeling it. Once again, she spoke from inside the closed off room. “I’m not forcing you to go anywhere that you really don’t want to, and I’m definitely not getting in the middle of whatever is going on between you and Mother.”

Sean sighed. He should have suspected something like this would happen. Idly, checking his phone and downloading another picture, he spoke again. “At this point, I’m going either way. We might as well go together, don’t you think? There is nothing going on between me and her, don’t worry. We’re just having a dispute over me growing up. She doesn’t like it very much.” Sean tapped on the door again, “I insist that I drive us, though.”

“Whatever you say, Seany.” Selena responded before opening the door. She grabbed a deep plum-colored clutch off of her vanity and checked to make sure it was packed with the necessities for a party: her phone, her lipstick, credit cards, ID, nail file, and a condom — just in case tonight was finally the night she traded in her v card. It probably wasn’t, but a Sterling was always prepared for anything to happen. “Fine. Let’s go.” Sel snapped the clutch closed and brushed by her brother on the way out of her bedroom.

Well, she was very clearly in a poor mood. Sean would have to fix that eventually, but some other time. For now, he was focused on the night ahead. Would he have a good time? Unlikely. But, at least he’d get laid. “You don’t have to be so passive aggressive. At least be fully aggressive,” Sean said, shaking his head as he stepped toward the garage, where his chariot for the evening awaited.

As they walked, he tapped out a quick text on his phone.

To: Brynn

I’ll be there.

[LovelyComplex]

_{During the beginning of homeroom
Mentions of Fawn @Kitty & Roz @Fabricant451}

Helping? He helped her at the party? Lucky Cross, having taken a shower after his sprint on the field and early morning work out, sat in the boys' locker room, on the bench, with wet hair and his body fully clothed. He stared down at a note attached to a bag with 3 cookies inside of it. He was the only one in here (homeroom would begin soon), and yet he chose to take his sweet fucking time. This was far more intriguing than whatever the morning show would showcase today.

The girl he had ‘shadowed’ at the party felt inclined to thank him. Thank him out of all people. All he did was give her a good time, like any gent would do when they saw a pretty, tiny, and naive girl. A girl that reminded him of a baby lamb or hell, even her namesake, a widdle fawn. That night it became his duty to make her less squeamish. Give her a reason to loosen up and forget about the violence. Not every party resorted into kids using other kids as punching bags. Only the best ones did. That simply meant his fellow peers were indulging in sin and letting out a side of them they’d be afraid to let out during the daytime. It’s like Dwight L. Moody said: Character is what you are in the dark. Alcohol brought out the truth, sex gave people something to talk about, and violence meant there was something to avoid, something to be involved in, or something to watch. Depends on the person or the day or both.

Peering down at the cookies, Lucky opened the bag and took in the scent of the sugary-sweet aroma. His actions may have been in the present, but his mind was stuck in the past. Thinking of a distant memory of a long, long time ago.

Even if his jeans weren't faded in, his white shirt wasn't covered with stains, and his jacket wasn't ripping at the seams, there was something with the way Lucky held himself that made him stand out from the crowd. That made him not belong. The attitude and mentality of an outsider. The clothes gave him the ability to blend with his peers, while his stand-offish quality dared contact, without an invitation. He knew he was blessed with Miss Fortune after he lost the one thing that made him susceptible to hurt. The one thing that made him vulnerable in this dog eat dog world. Hell was on Earth and he knew he would forever be at the core of the burning flames, unless he, himself, climbed out of it to find Paradise. His paradise. Ah, but for him, he liked how things were. He liked not giving a shit. He liked taking part in the damnation of his peers’ lives. He liked hurting people.

Life could easily take away the things you loved the most, especially when you least expected it. Life wasn't going to spoon feed him, or give him shelter, or protect him. No, not like she did. He learned the hard way he had to work for what he wanted and that meant he'd make Lady Luck his bitch to get where he needed to go, regardless who he hurt on his way. He couldn’t afford to feel. To love. To be careless and allow himself the pleasure of forgetting. The pleasure of being ‘happy’ in the way that others deemed happiness to be.

Advancing in this world — love was not in the prerequisites. He made the mistake of growing attached to one person already at this school. Roz Norcross. There were fine lines in their friendship, neither knew much of the other, but respected and appreciated the companionship given when there was no one else. That didn’t change the fact that she was the only person Logan “Lucky” Cross had an inch of feelings towards and as a result, a man who didn’t want any weaknesses, had a weakness. He’d ruthlessly go miles for her because he cared. Like a hound cared about protecting his master and her belongings. Protected her from trespassers. Those that weren’t welcomed. A hound that would vigilantly stand at her side, because the world they were part of, with the beautiful, the dirty, and the rich, were against them. Always, against them.

Not romantically though. Roz, as sad as it sounds since they were more associates than friends, was the closest thing Lucky’s ever had to a ‘best friend’. He didn’t want to make the same mistake again. He knew one wrong move and all his efforts would crumble to the ground. He’ll be back at square one. It was just nice, to have someone like Roz. She helped make this petty existence of his a little less shitty.

Now, here was this other girl, who hardly knew him, thanking him for being there for her when all he did was give her drugs, dance with her, let her dose off on his shoulder on the couch, and drop her off wherever she wanted to be dropped off at. That was nothing to thank him about. And yet, here in his hand were cookies. He pulled one out and examined it. Felt the texture and focused on the detail.

Home cooked. Fresh. Warm. Filled with care.

One bite and he would choke on the distant memories that something so sweet reminded him of. Memories of his mother. If he had milk, he could wash it all away, but he didn’t have milk and he wasn’t sure he wanted to take a bite into his feelings. Would it make him rude if he didn’t eat her gift? The aromatic fragrance was already bringing him back to his old bedroom, which honestly wasn’t a bedroom, just a mattress on the ground in a living space, with cookies and milk beside it, and a fairy tale story filling the air by a timid, yet tantalizing woman’s voice. A voice that reminded him of the radiant sunset.

For a woman that showed so much kindness, why did she do what she did? Lucky could still remember her face, even if he was young and he hardly knew who she was as a person. All he knew was, there was a lot of pretending. Pretending to care. Pretending to love him. Pretending to be his mother. When in the end, she packed her bags and left. If it was the abuse, why did she leave him behind? If it was the circumstances, why didn’t she run away with him and create a better tomorrow, for her and her baby? If it was because of him… why did she pretend? He would’ve preferred not knowing the feeling of being loved, as brief as it was, than having her and losing her in a blink of an eye.

To add salt to the wound, she died. He was too young to understand at the time, but when he was able to access a computer at the local library, he found out her death made it all over the papers and that she was actually someone important in this world. His existence was truly meaningless to her. They, as in him and his deadbeat father he no longer talks to, were kept a secret to protect her. Her fame. Her wealth. Her reputation. Was she actually protected at the end, if her last breath was taken from her by a bullet to the head?

Funny how life works, don’t you think?

Coming back to the present, his current reality, Lucky noticed that the cookie he took out was crumpled in his hand. He stood up and walked to the trash. He let the crumbs slowly slide off his hand, leaving a small piece for him to consume. Bringing his hand to his lips, he grabbed the piece with his tongue and ate it in still silence.

They were good.

He looked at the rest of the cookies. He’d give the rest to Roz. Glancing at his smartwatch, he sent a quick text to the kind sophomore.

To: Fawn Woods
Thanks.

Lucky

His eyes trailed to his notifications. Someone had posted an instagram picture of the flyers scattered throughout the halls, with the caption and a smug emoji face: Exclusive party. On a boat. #NewYears #Take2. He scrolled down to see another picture, on Becca Helmsley’s instagram, of her and her twins. Saying “Three is better than one.” It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. They’re back.

He’d need to see Roz.

Give her cookies and see what’s brewing in that head of her’s. If she was going to the party, he’d attend to. If she wasn’t going to the party, he’d still attend, on the account of being her hound and gathering intel when she couldn’t, while making a few people cry along the way. Maybe he’ll invite a little someone to soften the knife’s edge that was him and Roz, but also be his way of saying thank you for thanking me. He’d wait to see. Once he decides, he’ll extend an invitation to the baker girl behind the cookies.

Roz would like these cookies.

[Silver Carrot]

_{@Silver Carrot @Lovely Complex collab
Featuring: Charity Spencer and Trixie Kingsley
Location: Art Corridor.
Time: 12:55 pm
Mentions: Marshall Radley (@Silent Observer)}

---

---

During lunch, Charity had been asking round, enquiring into whether anybody had seen Trixie. Most people she had asked hadn’t. From a few seniors, however, she had learned that she had left the school with Marshall, and two other girl that nobody recognised. Why, on all days, did she have to leave school today?!

Relax. Just, relax. Charity considered the turn of events. Perhaps this was God’s plan, in some way. A message of some kind. But, then what did it mean? Should Charity hold off on asking Trixie? Find and talk to Savannah first? Charity always found that rather than trying to fight fate, it was a far more Christian act to obey it, and for that, she had to forget all about God’s plan and do what comes naturally, which in her case was to phone Trixie, wherever she was. Charity had a promise to keep.

---

Taking a break from spa day, Trixie and Marshall had left Sunset Castle, exiting through the back patio, and strolling to the Locke estate, only minutes away. They found themselves around 12:50 pm in Trixie’s bed, still with bathrobes on, snuggling four dogs, Auntie Julie’s three pomeranians (Tootsie, Goldie, & Sugar) and Trixie’s big boy husky, Atlas, while Moulin Rouge! was playing on the TV and there was Chinese take out on the surrounding tables. Yes, a cheat lunch. Marshall had dozed off, all three pom-poms around him. Goldie was in his embrace, as he laid on his left side, facing Trixie’s desk and window. Tootsie’s butt was against the back of his head as she curled up on the cloud that was Trixie’s pillow. While Sugar was on top of his feet, keeping them warm. Trixie, on the other hand, was sitting up on her bed, with Atlas resting on her lap. She gently stroked him in silence, his eyes were closed and his breathing was light. He too was sleeping. With her free hand, she scrolled through her phone’s gallery, looking at pictures of her ex.

Owen was truly handsome. No matter the shade his eyes were, they’d still be beautiful to her. His eyes contrasted his Incredible Hulk exterior. They were gentle and honest. The person that Owen is, was, and always will be, is what makes her want him. To feel his touch on her curves and body. His kisses claiming her all over. Those eyes, those beautiful eyes, on her as he whispers sweet nothings to her. His soul was brighter than people cared to notice. She noticed.

And yet...

Her smile turned into a frown. “I made people believe you were something that I know isn’t you… I know that boy isn’t you…. I know you…” Beatrix whispered to herself. The alcohol was getting her to feel things. Pure, unrestrained emotions, leaking out of her kind of things. Closing her eyes, she swallowed the building sadness in her and took a deep breath in. Exhaling out, she decided she didn’t want to cry. Not right now. She was tired of crying. She wanted to be happy.

Opening her eyes steadily, she noticed Atlas was staring at her, no longer asleep. Those gorgeous heterochromia eyes that stared into her soul and knew when he needed to comfort her. He brushed his nose against her stomach, causing her to give him a weak simper. Arching her body downward so that she could get closer to her husky, Trixie placed her head on her dog’s forehead, having a moment with her lifeline. Her everything once she lost Owen. Her dog.

The moment was ruined with the sudden ringing of her phone. With widened eyes, she quickly silenced it, alert and fully attentive to her surroundings now. Hoping the sound didn’t wake Marshall up, Trixie turned her head to look at her soundless friend. After giving a sigh of relief when he didn’t budge, Marshall was out cold, the latina scanned the name on her phone and raised an eyebrow at the sight.

Charity? From club?

Man, what a buzzkill. She didn’t want to talk about school. Grumbling to herself, Trixie contemplated if she should pick up or just ignore and send Charity to her voicemail. Another grumble. Deciding the former would leave a better impression and make her not seem like an insensitive twat, Trixie gently nudged Atlas off of her, got up from her sitting position, and tiptoed out of the room to briefly talk on the phone. She didn’t want to risk waking Marshall up. He deserved some sleep.

Finally, she picked up.

“Hello?” Trixie kept it simple and short, like she didn’t just spend a few seconds deciding whether or not she should pick up.

”Hello, Trixie. It’s Charity here. Listen, where are you right now? Am I calling at a bad time, or can you talk?”

Leaning against the outside of her bedroom door, Trixie raised an eyebrow. Charity’s tone made this call seem rather urgent. Hopefully it was. “Nah, you’re good, Charity, What’s up? Or would you rather talk about this in person?” Trixie considered her options. Depending on the importance of the matter, maybe it would be better to talk it over while getting mani-pedis, as well as her hair and makeup done, for tonight’s party. When was the last time little miss church girl treated herself in the form of washing her hair with divine product, cleansing her pores with blessed face wash, rather than her soul in the tears of Jesus, and taking care of her appetite of desire, instead of her need for faith?

Probably never.

This could be Trixie’s charitable work of the day — being the Fairy Godmother for Charity Spencer, for one night, showing her a world outside of the good book. Ending up answering the questions for Charity in her head, Trixie interjected before the girl could speak, “Forget what I had asked. Yes, we’ll talk about whatever in person. I’m sure what you have to tell me involves something stressful and something school related. Both things I don’t want to hear about right now!” She put a strong emphasis on ‘I don’t’ to get her point across. Today was a ‘me’ day, don’t ruin that for her, Charity. “After school, head to the Sunset Hair Salon & Spa. It also goes by the Sunset Castle on google maps. The sooner you get here, the better. Then, and only then, will we talk about whatever you want. Understood?” This was more of a decree than a request. If Charity wanted answers, she would have to go out of her way to get them. The life of journalism: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. It was clear that Trixie was resolute on her decision.

Before they would end their call, Trixie probably should attempt to tell Charity she was going to drag her to the party… or she could surprise her when she was here, giving her less of a choice and free will. If she prepared her on the phone, there was a chance for Charity to decline her. Hm, decisions. Decisions. To be a good person and prepare the church girl? Or to throw her to the wolves, in this case Stella and Luna, and see where that goes? She’d be lying if she didn’t think the latter felt more exciting. More fun. Worst case, she could say this would be good for Charity’s image at the school. Coming to the party with Trixie & Marshall. The hottest not-couple that Beverly Hills’ High had to offer. What a sight that would be. Extra brownie points for the preppy, pious, and pretty zealot that prolonged the life of the school newspaper, covering up the bad with the seemingly good. Hm, decisions. Decisions.

There was a pause on the other line. Charity would, of course, much rather talk about this in person, and wasn’t in any rush. The only person she was worrying about disappointing with a delayed story was Trixie herself, who could hardly complain in this case. The decision to meet up after school was a good one. But why a spa? Well, likely in preparation for the party. But why the spa during school hours? It was probably connected to why she was snappy with Charity. Something was stressing her, and she wanted to avoid school topics. She didn’t hold much hope for fulfilling her promise with Henry. Then again, she never had.

”That’s actually perfect,” was Charity’s reply. ”I’d also rather speak in person. I’ll be there straight after school. See you there!”

Charity hung up, having no idea that she had denied Trixie the chance to tell Charity about her plans for the evangelical sophomore. Lunch was over at this point, and her next class was Art. Great...She was terrible at art. She never really understood why. Even though Miriam was so good at it, Charity just had no eye for creative expression. What she did have was the ability to write a good story, and one way or another, she was writing this one.

[Hey Im Jordan]

_{Featuring: Owen ‘Domestic Sentencing’ Lyon, Troy ‘Seriously?’ Lyon, and Oreo the cat
Location: Owen’s Room}

---

---

Owen had been home from school for a few hours now. He was planning on ending up at the gym, yes, but not quite yet. He had a few things he wanted to accomplish on the homestead before that happened. For now, though? He was patiently lying on his bed with Oreo on his stomach, enjoying the peaceful comfort of his home and his own bed. That stopped, however, when there was a knock on his door. “Come in.” He said, sitting up and pushing Oreo to the side. After the door opened, revealing his father standing there, Oreo immediately set to hissing at him; though that ceased when Owen put a hand on his head.

“Hey, bud. I got some bad news.” Troy explained, and Owen tensed up, waiting for the blow. What was it going to be this time? His life was turning into a bad Hallmark movie. First he got dumped for something he didn’t do, then his ex-best friend got him fired up at a party, then Jamie, then Jamie again. What could have possibly happened now? “You’re suspended. For that fight you got in today. Until Monday.”

Owen balled one of his hands into a fist, and Oreo hissed again, feeling the emotions his human was. “Oh.” Owen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to cleanse his mind before he got snappy. They hadn’t even really talked yet, he could handle this. “I don’t think I did the wrong thing. Do you know what happened? They were beating Jamie up. Jamie Callaghan? I think it was because he’s gay. I don’t know. I just don’t like bullies, dad!” Well, Owen was getting heated.

“I hate Jamie, don’t get me wrong, I hate him. But I can’t watch as someone just takes advantage of someone else. What would you have me do?” Owen stood up from his bed, his temper now ignited. Why was he being punished for this!? “Three on one. Three. On. One. Was I supposed to stand idly by and let them kick his ass? What would you have me do? I did the right thing. I did the only thing. I gave them a chance to walk away, and they didn’t want to, so I put them the fuck down. What would you have me do?” Owen demanded, stepping closer to his father, who hadn’t moved from his spot in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest and his face a stony mask of indifference.

“I did what I had to do, and if they want to punish me for it? Then fine. I’ll take it, I don’t care. I’d do it ag—” Owen said, though he was suddenly cut off by a question from his father.

“A roundhouse kick? Seriously? Are you a bad Steven Seagal movie?”

Owen’s passionate rant was cut short by his father, and he froze, before shaking his head, “Huh? What’s a Steven Seagal?”

“Ugh. You’re making me feel old. Why did you use a roundhouse kick? That’s flashy, and not effective. I taught you better than that, didn’t I? In a situation where you’re outnumbered — and you were — speed and efficiency is preferred over making a show. Or were you showing off for someone?” And just like that, Troy had turned the tables. From being on the offensive, to immediately having to defend his decisions. Troy was good at this, if nothing else.

“Yeah, I was outnumbered. By three douchebags in the school hall — I was never going to lose that fight. I thought if I did the roundhouse, it might make the other two run. It obviously didn’t work, but it was a calculated decision. You and Gramps always tell me that any move in a fight should either better my position or worsen my opponent’s position. It was intended to do just that. I wasn’t wrong,” Owen protested defensively, and Troy rolled his eyes.

“Whatever man. It’s still fucking gay and it made you look like a asshole.” Troy said, chuckling to himself as Owen sat back down on the bed. Anger defused.

Owen ran a hand through his hair, and asked a question with a hint of finality: “...so, what’s my domestic sentencing?”

Troy waved his hand, “Nothing. Your mom and I talked about it already, and we can’t punish you for doing what I would have done. That’d make me hypocritical, and I’m not that. Just keep your head down for a bit, and we’ll be fine. Besides, I know you aren’t long for this place anyway. You’ll be back at the gym before we can blink,” Troy shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave, adding over his shoulders. “Ya did good, kid. You did good.” With that, Owen’s father left the room and shut the door behind him.

Owen threw himself onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling as Oreo climbed back onto his chest. “Well. How about that?” He asked softly, scratching Oreo’s head as the cat happily meowed.

[Melissa]

_{A post written by one @Universorum and a person named @melissahart
Featuring: Kit ‘Shop Sucks!’ Thomas and Wesley ‘No It Does NOT’ Bristow
Location: Woodshop
Time: 6th period, Tuesday}

---

---

Kit hated woodshop. Like, she really truly did. It wasn’t that she didn’t have good ideas, she had those. It was that she wasn’t good at it! There was too much to think about. It wasn’t as simple as measuring and cutting, and it wasn’t as true as numbers, or even science. At least those things made sense. Woodshop was so much more than that! She had to think about what kind of wood she used. There were hardwoods, softwoods, and all this other kind of stuff in between. Truly, that isn’t even scratching the surface. It went so beyond that! There were over eighty five tools in the woodshop. Eighty. Five. Eight. And a five. It was obscene.

What was the difference between a router and a lathe? A drill and a hole saw? They both did the same thing, but had different bits! Why were they even called bits!? They were extensions, not bits. Kit had spent all day Monday trying to decide on some kind of project to do, and she’d finally decided she’d just woodburn her name, along with the Tekken logo, into a nice piece of dark oak, which the shop teacher had insured her would look lovely.

That was all well and good, but Kit had no fucking clue what she was doing. She had plugged the woodburner in, and found a piece of wood. She had planed it down to a smoothness, and then sanded away any bumps. That was easy. But she had no idea how to tell when the woodburner was at the proper temperature to… well, burn wood. Kit picked it up and stared at it for a few seconds, looking around for the teacher to ask for assistance…

No! She didn’t need help. She’d just figure out if it were hot the same way you figured out if anything was hot. Kit reached out with her index finger, and touched the tip. “MOTHERfucker!” She squealed, dropping the tool to the ground and stuffing her finger in her mouth.

Well, it was hot.

Wesley was sitting on a stool in the back corner, minding his own business while sanding some planks for a new project. Shop was his time to do what he wanted- he was in here enough that he and the teacher had an understanding of sorts. Wes was allowed to use the shop whenever he pleased, no questions asked, and in return he served as the pseudo “TA” of the course. It wasn’t a real position, as all the blonde boy really did was make sure that no one fucked around with the tools and machinery and do any permanent damage…. to the equipment, the teacher couldn’t care less if a student lost a finger to the bandsaw. So, Wes sat there, overseeing the rest of the students whilst plotting his next creation.

Things seemed calm for a Tuesday, too calm, so it didn’t surprise the boy in the slightest when a shriek came from the right half of the classroom, where a small Freshman stood sucking her finger like a baby sucked a pacifier. Jesus. Walking with a sense of purpose, Wesley grabbed the woodburner off of the ground, and put it back on its holster. Turning to the young girl, he couldn’t help but scold her.

“You’re not supposed to use it without gloves. It’s literally written in bold letters.” He motioned to the tell tale sign on the countertop where the woodburner sat, where in very, very large font read “CAUTION: WEAR GLOVES WHILE USING, EXTREMELY, HOT”. Taking her shoulders, he guided her towards the sink and flipped on the cold faucet to its absolute maximum. “Soak it.”

Kit let herself be led over to the sink, and stuck her finger under the running water. She let it soothe her hand for a bit, before she began her protests, “I wasn’t sure when it was hot! I didn’t know how else to check it. I guess I could have touched it to the wood but then it would have smudged the wood and the whole project would have been ruined. Woodshop sucks! I wanted to make a box, but noooo, I can’t make another box. I have to do something unique and fresh.” Kit huffed, blowing a raspberry with her lips before she finally retracted her hand. She held it up close to her face and blew on it. Red? Yes. Burned? Yes. Blistered… nope, that wouldn’t be happening this time! She was satisfied. “Thanks! I’m Kit.”

Wesley let the girl ramble on, rolling his eyes in the process as she defended her decision to touch the versa tool. Like, who does that? Quite frankly, he didn’t care that she had burned herself, Wes was more concerned with the fact that this freshman was even allowed in the shop. “Sacrifice the project, not your skin. Bad choice, in my opinion.” Wes huffed, leaning against the wall next to the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well Kit, woodshop does not suck, you just gotta figure out what you need in life and the rest is easy.” You could make absolutely anything in the shop, much more than a silly box. “I’m Wes.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Wes. Here’s the thing: I don’t need anything. I just want to pass the class and move on, man.” Kit complained, looking back at the station where she’d left the piece of wood and the wood burner. “Well, what do you think I should make? I’m open to suggestions! My thing is, I don’t really need a whole lot. I would like to make a grandfather clock, but it’s wayyyy too complicated for me. You have to build the clock, then the mechanisms of the clock… I don’t even know how a clock would really work! Maybe I can make one though, I’m pretty… smart.”

Wes chuckled, “Can I let you in on a secret? Everyone passes this class. Do you see the teacher anywhere?” He motioned around, and sure enough, the instructor was nowhere to be found. “He doesn’t care what you make. But, making a clock isn’t as hard as you think it is.” He walked over to one of the cabinets on the side of the room and pulled out one of the few Clock Hands kits that was in there. “This here is all you need. It runs on it’s own motor, so you don’t have to deal with the mechanisms and shit.” Wes held it out to her with a smirk.

Huh. She had never realized how inattentive the teacher was in this class… that seemed unsafe, to say the least. Then, this guy showed her a collection of kits! Kit was a big fan of kits. They made it easier to do work, because you just had to follow instructions. She may not have been an ultimate shop master, but she could follow instructions and put a kit together! “That’s totally wicked, I’ll just make a clock then. But I’m gonna need more wood. And more plans. Which means more drawing. Which means more time…” Kit blew at her blonde bangs dejectedly, but ultimately looked toward the room where the wood was stored. “I guess I’ll go see what we got…”

“I’m sure it won’t take you too long, since you can dictate how complicated you make it.” Wes stated looking around the room at what the other students were building. There were birdhouses, boxes, and lots of miscellaneous items, but no one else seemed to be making a clock like Kit wanted to. “Plus, you’d be the first to make a grandfather clock, which is pretty neat if you ask me.” He encouraged her, just like he did his little sister, who was also a Freshman. Kit reminded him of her in all of her innocence.

Kit was again being presented with choices… She’d have to look around on the internet for design ideas… She was creative, but that was mostly applicable when she was playing video games. She was creative in the sense that she was good with mixing up her moves and throwing off the opponent. Building grandfather clocks? Not as much. “Well.. I guess that’s cool. I’ll figure something out and get something done. Thank you for your help, Mister Wes! If I never anything else, I’ll come to you first.” She said, beaming at him. She gave a wide wave, and ducked into the wood room. Time to think.

Wes watched as she fled to the wood room, a chuckle escaping his lips. Mister Wes? What was he, 30? The freshman were getting younger and younger every single year. With a sigh, he meandered back over to his stool, ready to sit back and relax, when a shrill scream came from the other side of the shop.

So much for sitting there and doing nothing.

[Fabricant451]

_{@Silver Carrot @Fabricant451 collab
Featuring: Madison Weaver] and Shauna Flynn
Locations: Outside School - Beverly Hills Boutique
Time: 4:30 pm}

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As Madison leaned against the wall at the school’s entrance, repeatedly checking her garmin for the time, she reflected heavily on what both Hana and Lee had said. They’d both acted like Shauna was bad news. And to be fair, she was, but that wasn’t a reason why you couldn’t befriend her. After all, nobody had really tried, Madison included until now. Shauna had gained a deserved reputation as ‘the Shark’, but did people forget that she was actually human?

Unlike the freshmen Shauna preyed on, Madison was older and wiser when it came to relationships, was confident in her own sexuality, and most importantly, didn’t want to date Shauna. In fact, she didn’t want to date anyone. Or at least, she wasn’t going to try and make it happen. She wanted to make friends. That was something she sorely needed more than a ‘third time lucky’ relationship. She didn’t have a social life.

Plus, Madison felt a bit bad for Shauna. Granted, she’d chosen her life and was, for all Madi knew, happy with her life, but Madi herself had been on the receiving end of high school gossip to the tone of ‘Ew, Madison Weaver was praying on a freshmen!’.Come to think of it, it was only when Shauna started seeing the dyed-haired freshman that people started to realise that Shiloh was Shiloh, and were finally ready to even listen to Madison’s side of the story! So, in a way, she owed Shauna one already, and after today, she’d owe her two. Shauna wasn’t the type to do anything for nothing, so Madi mentally prepared herself for a lot of flirting in the next hour or two. Still, this wasn’t a date!

Shauna exited the school fashionably late as always; if Madison was waiting long it was because Shauna knew the value in anticipation. She located Madison and the sideways smirk that Shauna used so well crept up along her lips as she made her approach. Shauna did so love it when they waited for her. ”You look lost, Madison.” Shauna announced her arrival as she sauntered her way towards the cheerleader. ”Don’t worry, I’ll guide you to safety. I know just how to make a girl find just what she needs.”

If there was an award for subtlety, Shauna would never have been in the running. She threw her arm around Madison’s shoulder in order to walk with her out into the parking lot towards Shauna’s car - the same one that this morning was host to a crying Freshman who didn’t make the cheerleading team. ”And I know just what you need, Madison. A girl on your arm. On both arms. A drink in hand. Eyes on you, just dying to know what’s underneath. And I know just how to make that happen.”

While laying it on thick, Shauna arrived at her car, even opening the passenger door for Madison. ”All I ask...is that you trust me.”

Madison hadn’t shrugged the arm off. She didn’t want to seem rude, yet it was clear she hadn’t exactly appreciated the gesture. Her eyes had a weary lack of lustre to them when she turned to Shauna after the car door had been opened for her. ”I do trust you,” she replied, ”To help me get ready for this party. I wouldn’t have asked for your help if I didn’t trust you to do an amazing job with me.”

Madison then got into the car without any other comments or clarifications. Had she really answered the question? Did she or didn’t she truly trust Shauna as a person? In truth, Madi hadn’t answered because even she didn’t know the answers yet, but by the end of this trip, and subsequent party, she would. She’d know whether or not she could realistically be platonic friends with Shauna or whether she was a fool for asking a favour from the Shark in the first place and everybody was right.

”Try to sound a little more excited, Madi, or I’ll start to think you don’t like me. And I’m very likeable.” Shauna’s smile was more crooked than a used car salesman and it lingered well after she had settled into the driver’s seat. The car came to life and immediately the sounds of Truly Madly Deeply filled the car. Shauna wasn’t about to turn the song off, she in fact seemed to turn the radio up just a bit in case the lyrics weren’t audible.

”Now where I’m taking you is going to change your life. And don’t worry about cost or anything. I have an employee discount and being the daughter of wrestling’s beloved on screen manager has its perks.” Shauna flicked down the sun visor, and out dropped a credit card. The car rolled out of the parking lot and out onto the street, heading towards a place Shauna knew rather well.

”But first, tell me what you want out of this party. Are you looking for love or are you just wanting to turn heads when you walk through the door? Do you intend on wearing it all night or will it be on the floor in an hour? Details, Madi, details. Your desire is very important to me.”

Madi wasn’t convinced she even could improve her mood. She just wanted to stop worrying about trying to make this friendship work and be herself. Thankfully, something happened that made it easy; Shauna’s song choice. Madi put her elbow on the side of the door, her forehead in her hand, and chuckled. ”Oh my god. Wait, were you listening to that with the Freshman you pissed off this morning? That would have been a frosty car ride.”

She was starting to warm up, and smile, and laugh. That was a good sign. The ice only got broken further when Shauna mentioned her AWE connections. Madi had forgotten they had that in common. ”You don’t need to tell me about the perks of AWE parents. I have two of them. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to pay full price for fitness gear.” she mused. ”As for the details, well, I haven’t really thought about it. Well, I’m definitely not looking for any kind of love or long term thing. I also don’t want too much attention. Turn some heads at the entrance, yes. Maybe get a few compliments during the night. That’s fine, but I don’t want to be the Belle of the Ball. I basically just don’t want to make any kind of fool out of myself, and you only blend in at a Beverly Hills party by standing out.”

”You don’t want to know what I was listening to this morning, and I don’t want you to hear it. But what’s wrong with this song? It’s romantic and sweet and so very ‘of the era’. You know the nineties were so iconic.” Shauna almost sounded nostalgic there, or at the very least she sounded more sincere than she’d typically sounded around others. The scary thing was, as Shauna was starting to pick up on after she had laughed at Madison’s offhand remark on the music choice, that this was sounding very similar to a conversation. An honest, actual conversation between friends.

That couldn’t be allowed.

”You know you shouldn’t be afraid to draw attention to yourself, Madison. You’re a cheerleader, you wear skirts and your physique is better than pretty much the entire girl’s athletic department. You’d kill it if you showed off more.” It might have sounded a bit on the leery side, but Shauna was being rather honest about it. ”The problem is that I doubt this is a black tie affair so as great as you would look in a dress, we’re going to focus on making the social casual stand out. You don’t want to be the girl that shows up overdressed but you also don’t want to be the girl that shows up in a thong bikini because that’s trashy and you are anything but.”

The song ended and switched over to another romantic song from the nineties, and Shauna turned it down accordingly as she turned them down a road and approached a fancy looking boutique. ”Think of it like...okay, the AWE. Sure, people enjoy the wrestling part but the attire and showmanship of it all is just as important. My mum made business attire look sharp. It’s a matter of playing to your strengths and accuentating what’s already there. Come on, let’s get you in front of a mirror.”

The car pulled into an employee parking space and the engine shut off. Shauna was now in her element of a different sort. Clothing. Style. Women’s fashion, and she was determined to find the perfect outfit for Madison or die trying.

Madison didn’t think it was leery to talk about her body at all. The phrase ‘she knew she had a great body’ brings with it connotations of vanity, but in Madison’s case, she accepted it as plain fact, because it didn’t usually matter for her. For her, the great body wasn’t the goal, it was the by-product in her quest to get better at running, better at cheerleading, better at MMA, etc. It’s not as if she was really self-conscious about her body either. Fitness gear and hooded sweaters were simply her preferred everyday look, drawing from her passions in life.

She listened at Shauna spoke, as was feeling more and more like Shauna was the right choice. Madi would go as was as to say she was wise in the field of clothing and outfits. She followed the fellow as they both exited the car and entered the shop.

As soon as they entered, the woman behind the counter arced an eyebrow at Shauna, her expression flatly speaking loud enough. ”Another one, Shauna? It’s Tuesday.” Shauna was quick to dismiss the claims with a wave of her hand and an admission that this time was ‘different’. The clerk’s rolling eye said it all, as did Madison’s eyebrow raise and smirk. Regardless, Shauna led Madison over towards the back of the shop where the mirrors and tailoring sections were located. The Irish actress told Madison to stand front and center as Shauna worked the folding mirror to capture every angle before standing behind Madison.

”You look into the mirror and what do you see? You know what I see? I see a girl, no, I see a woman who has a confident body but a clueless mind. I don’t mean you’re stupid, I mean you don’t really know how to show it off sensually, casually, or even seductively. So many women would kill for your figure, and you can’t just wear sporting gear forever.” While Shauna spoke she was grabbing a few things from the racks. Starting with a top would be easier. During her little speech she was holding up different clothes in front of Madison.

”The first step is your shoulders. Do you know why I never wear t-shirts? They’re unflattering. T-shirts are what you put on in the morning when you’re coming down for breakfast in a stranger’s home. You’ve got an athletic figure so you need to show it off, and it starts at the top. Flatter the shoulders, accentuate the arms, a sloping neckline is what you want. Fortunately, you have many options, but for you I think a halter strap is in the cards.”

Shauna held a purple top in front of Madison. It was a halter top, v-neck, with triangular straps. ”Rule number two is to never wear anything that broadens your build. You want to show off your muscles and form, not smooth them. That’s why you should never, ever, under any circumstances wear horizontal stripes. Given that this party is on the water, something breezy is what we want, but not too breezy as to be a bother. You want to tease and be alluring and noticeable, you don’t want your clothes being in danger of a malfunction at the slightest wind. Try this on. Don’t worry. I won’t look.”

Shauna handed over the halter top and stepped away.

Madison listened with a rather bemused look on her face. She hoped she wasn’t supposed to be taking notes! She also hoped that she wasn’t being expected to make drastic changes to her everyday wear, though Shauna’s comment about shoulder and arms did make her think about maybe getting a couple more vests. Sure Cheerleading made Madi look and feel feminine for once, but Shauna was making her think feminine.

The halter top held in front of her...it really wasn’t the type of thing Madison would really wear, and she wasn’t sure how well it would suit her. She did do a double take when Shauna asked her to get changed here, though. Madi wasn’t bashful, she just thought that Shauna was really pushing her luck. Well, fine. Never show weakness. Never draw blood in shark infested waters. The moment Shauna ‘turned away to not peek’, Madison got changed into the halter top. She practically lived in changing rooms. This was nothing to her. Madi didn’t know if Shauna peeked, and she didn’t really care. If she didn’t, good, she’d made some progress earning Madi’s trust. If she did, her attempt to try and be forward had just backfired on her.

Even so, Madison looked at herself in the mirror, and...it actually worked! She did a few quarter turns while she examined herself. ”You’re a fashion Guru, Shauna,” the jock chuckled.

True to her word, Shauna didn’t peek; she might have told many white lies and false promises in her time, but she wasn’t fully a liar. Peeking would’ve likely been fun, sure, but it would also have been a step over the line. One of these two was adamant that it wasn’t a date so the least Shauna could do was act decent. There would come a time for selfish needs and wants, but it wasn’t here or now. This was about Madison and Shauna was going to ensure that.

”Oh, not at all. I just know how to make a girl feel good. Look good. Slip of the tongue, that was.” Though even so, Shauna was still Shauna. ”But what did I tell you? Gorgeous. I won’t always be around to design your wardrobe, but just try to keep in mind that shoulders are for more than just resting a head on. Of course, no amount of my excellent eye for figures and sales techniques matter if you forget the golden rule: wear what’s comfortable. Yes, I could lecture you on why t-shirts are the worst, but if they make you feel good then they make you feel good. Style is individual no matter what the magazines or models tell you. If you’re confident, then your outfit is too. Confidence is sexy.”

Shauna had in her hand a selection of pants, some jeans, but mostly pants with a chic design. ”Legs are like shoulders in that you want to accentuate them. While the eyes are drawn to the upper body, that’s no reason to skimp elsewhere, because if they’re looking up there, they’ll be looking down here too. I’ve known many girls with a muscular physique assume that short skirts or mini dresses are the one-stop shop for sexy, but trust me, most clothes aren’t tailored towards builds like that. Don’t get me wrong, skirts are good, but you don’t want to go too short and have everyone stare for the wrong reasons. You’ll look like sausage stuffed in a bag.”

Shauna stood just behind Madison, holding up different pant options and shaking her head at some that didn’t hit the mark. ”Avoid tight pants no matter how great it makes your ass look. Key words to look for are roomy, fitted, and stretchable. It might seem good to draw eyes to your curves, but not if it means you’re killing your blood circulation. Getting something that you can move in while also fitting your form will accentuate your curves far better than something you need to squeeze into. Think of it like this...when you work out, do you go for form or function? You’re not going to wear something that makes it so you can’t move and lift, so why should you do the same for regular clothes? Here.”

Shauna handed a pair of dark blue pants, mid-rise to hug the waist comfortably while giving the added allure of longer legs. ”Go on. Try it on and look in the mirror. Tell me what you see looking back at you.”

Madison did try them on, though not before checking Shauna was once again turned round. She had to admit, while Madi wouldn’t have gone for skirts in a million years, she would have made several mistakes before getting to this point, but now she knew better. This was pretty educational! The pants were a blend of comfortable and good-looking in a combination Madi knew that she would not have been able to achieve alone, even with her mother’s help. Dawn Weaver. Sydney Ellis. Possibly the only young woman in the world who had a more skewed attractive body/fashion sense imbalance than Madison has now. Then again, joining the army at 16 would do that to you. Back to the present, Madison was staring at herself in the mirror, and grinning. It was clear in her eyes that she was looking forward to what was next.

”My my, I think she likes it,” Shauna stood just behind Madison once more, admiring the athlete like a proud parent, or at least a proud saleswoman. Again she placed hands on Madison’s shoulders while she beamed from ear to ear. ”A little care with your hair, some makeup, and I’d say you’d be able to charm anyone tonight. It’s working on me, and I’m your wingman.” Another line casually tossed out, perhaps to test the waters or perhaps to remind Madison that Shauna was still, at the end of the day, Shauna, even if she was showing a more genuine side. The side that clearly had an eye and passion for fashion and making girls more comfortable with themselves and their clothes.

”How are you in heels? Don’t answer that. You never want to wear heels at a party that involves a lot of standing or walking especially if you’re not used to them. No one out there is going to change their mind because of shoes, not when everything else is so eye catching. Heels are for special occasions, and a party isn’t it. But, if you’re happy with this outfit then it’s on me. Consider it a present, and when it works tonight I want to hear all about it.”

Madison didn’t even mind the sleazy lines any more. She was expecting worse, and they hadn’t detracted from anything Shauna had been saying. In fact, they’d been strengthening all of her genuine compliments. So she gave absolutely no reaction to them, as if she’d never heard them. What did get a reaction from her was heels being brought up, she immediately looked at Shauna and shook her head. Heels were absolutely out of the question.

”Thank you so much, Shauna. I really owe you one after this.” she instead answered. If it was anybody but Shauna, she would have hugged them right now. A handshake would be too stiff and formal. A fistbump too masculine. She was actually at a loss for what gesture to make, so just stood there with her broad smile slowly deflating. It was harder than she’d first thought, trying to make friends with Shauna. Of course, in Madi’s mind, they were already friends. The challenge from here would be Shauna’s mind.

”No, you don’t. It was my pleasure, and besides I did promise to help you. Just promise me one thing.” Shauna took a step back but not before giving Madison a light pat on the shoulder - a gesture that seemed woefully pedestrian by Shauna standards but a friendly one all the same. ”Have a good time tonight.” Given the situation, it was understandable that Shauna couldn’t help but to keep smiling as she admired her handiwork.

”I’d be upset if you didn’t.”

”I promise to have a good time, and i’m fairly confident I can honor that promise, thanks in no small part to you.” answered Madison. ” Now, didn’t you say you also wanted to look at my hair and makeup? Not that I’m trying to demand any more of you. I could take it from here and it wouldn’t be a disaster.”

”Trying to get rid of me so soon? Oh, sweetie, I’m not letting you out of my sight until the party starts.” Shauna led the both of them away from the mirrors and the back of the store back to the front, where Shauna handled the payment and the benefit of an employee discount. No amount of eye rolling from the on-duty clerk could keep Shauna from feeling positive about this whole matter.

”Unfortunately this place deals only in clothes so we’re going to have to go elsewhere. But don’t worry, I know the best place for cosmetics and hair care in the city. I wish there were more hours in the day, but we’ll make do. Come now, Madison. You’re to be my finest work and to do that we’re going to have to draw out your eyes.”

Even though it wasn’t technically a date, Shauna was having more fun here than she would have been had it been a date with anyone else. And that had to count for something.

[Hey Im Jordan]

<sub>Note: The attached gif is unrelated. It instead represents my feelings after trying to make a collage for this.

A Hailana post
Written by @Universorum & @Fabricant451
Location: Hailey’s game room
Taking place after school, duh. They’re good students, they wouldn’t skip class to play video games.</sub>

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“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” Hailey hissed at the servant who had been trying to help her and Hana set up Hana’s station in the game room. Across the hall from Hailey’s bedroom proper, the game room was designed for Hailey to relax and play video games, but today she was going to play with Hana beside her. Hailey had set one of the newest hires in the Green household to plugging things in, and had taken Hana to her bedroom for twenty more minutes of getting to know each other, but when she’d returned to the game room, the boy was standing there with the job half done, at best. Was it that hard to plug in cables? She knew there was enough room on the desk for both of them! It shouldn’t have even been a remote challenge.

The boy couldn’t have been much older than Hailey herself — perhaps 19 or 20 — and he stared at her, before shaking his head, “n-no, I’ll handle it, really. I can do it!” He protested. He turned to look back at the machine and finish getting it setup, before Hailey snatched the ethernet cord he held away from him, waving it in his face.

“Boy, I would reconsider your current course!” She scowled, though she may not have looked as intimidating as she’d intended to; not many people did, when threateningly waving a network cable around. Regardless of how she looked, her voice was dripping with venom, and it was effective. “Go away, before I force you to the unemployment line.” She snapped, and the young man quickly hurried out of the room, and Hailey looked at Hana.

“The nerve of help these days… Absolutely useless. I shouldn’t have loaned Butler out. Now I have to do everything on my own.” She grumbled, leaning over Hana’s case to plug the ethernet cable in.

Some might have considered Hailey’s tactics a bit harsh, but given the nature of what was surely a simple task Hana had no sympathy for the hired help. Had the two of them not spent the previous twenty minutes in a state of comfort, they likely could’ve been finished with the task and still have fifteen minutes to spare. The wires and cables were all clearly labeled as were the ports they plugged into! Hana, who remained silent as another verbal shellacking happened to poor help, cracked a smile when the room was whittled down to just the two of them.

While the rest of the school was concerning themselves over a party, Hana and Hailey were having their own - and in Hana’s mind superior - type of party; that, of course, being a LAN party. Abby had given her younger sister a strange look when Hana brought down her rig and explained she was spending another night with her friend Hailey, but after Hana explained that at least Abby wouldn’t have to call in the middle of the night this time.

”I guess the standards for hired help are lax around here?” Hana offered in a light hearted manner as she aided Hailey by connecting the cables that were left on the floor. ”Are you sure you don’t want to go to the party? I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. I just thought someone like you would, like, have to make an appearance.”

“My parents insist on taking on any little yahoo from the streets to work around here. I swear, the only trained staff we have are the three Butlers, and mine is the only one on premise; and I had to give him to Henry for the evening. I felt bad. That Parker girl is autistic, sad, and apparently she lives in a tent. She doesn’t deserve that. So, Butler is helping Henry move her in.” Hailey explained while screwing in the video cable connected to the monitor. “Let the record show that even I have a heart.”

After that, Hailey set about plugging in the various USB cables, carefully running them through the guide in the monitor’s stand, to keep them out of Hana’s way while they were busy with gaming. Speaking from behind the computer again, Hailey dismissed Hana’s question, “yes, absolutely. I hate parties. They’re unnecessary, and in a lot of ways frankly quite gross. I was at the beachfront one solely to stir things up. Having succeeded in that, I left before I even had a drink, and I returned home where I happily slept in the comfort of my own bed, and woke up the next morning with a mind as sharp as ever. On the next school day, two important things happened.” At this, Hailey straightened up and stepped toward Hana, smiling down at her.

“Number one. I decided that I was bored with being a queen and that my game was won and there would be no challengers. Because of this, I transferred all duties of my position to Selena. Now, number two.” Hailey leaned down and placed a feathery kiss onto Hana’s lips, “I met an angel, and I claimed her as mine.” Another kiss from the queen. “Now I doubly have no reason to attend parties, because my angel is perfectly happy here, playing video games with me.”

Hana wasn’t overly familiar with this Parker girl but it seemed Hailey was, no doubt due to the fact that Henry seemed to keep her around like a puppy; and she was certainly loud enough like a barking pup. That wasn’t important, what was was the admission that Butler was otherwise indisposed for the moment which was a bit of a comfort for Hana. Butler seemed nice and knew when to stand on the other side of the door, but he was still kind of an intimidating presence, and not in the way she loved with Hailey.

”I know you have a heart, Hailey. You’ve stolen mine, after all.” Hana’s comment made her blush but it was said as sincerely as it sounded, and it stood as a prologue to the kiss, which lingered on Hana’s lips as her body warmed at the compliment. An angel? She could get used to that. ”The only party we need is a dungeoneering one.” The romantic moment had passed and Hana swung back into her nerdy self.

”I would’ve brought my laptop but it’s not exactly up to par gaming wise.”

Hailey waved her hand and spun on her heel, plugging in the final USB. “This is hardly a big deal. We’ll just have to have a better discussion with the person who I tasked with setting this up. I’ll do it when I’m not around — you aren’t exactly in a position where you need to see me discipline someone.” Hailey explained, hitting the power button on Hana’s machine — like clockwork, it booted up. “See how easy that was?”

She sat down at her own station, turning on her machine, before casually adding, “I was thinking I might just buy you a computer for here. That way it isn’t such a pain to play with me. I’d rather you be able to play often and frequently than us have to go through this experience everytime. You’ll have to tell me what kind of LEDs and games you like, so I can make sure you are properly represented.” Hailey explained, turning to smile at Hana.

“Now, there is no wrong answer here, I want to stress that. But you can sit down at your side of the desk and troll around the internet, or you can sit on my lap and we can make out while we wait for the games to patch.” Hailey explained, as both computers loaded up the patcher. She gave Hana a smile and gestured with her finger. Wasn’t really a question.

The chime of a system starting up was like a beautiful symphony that lasted all of a few seconds. The hard part was over, and judging by the fact that she could still see light through the window, Hana suspected several hours would soon whiz by. ”You don’t have to go through the trouble for me, Hailey. I’ve still got your brother’s cocaine money, so I can buy a rig and leave it here.” As much as Hana might have enjoyed being doted on, she remained firm in her stance that it wasn't because of money that Hana was with Hailey - and she knew there would be those who assumed as much.

”I disagree, though. There is definitely a wrong answer.” The question was straight out of the ‘false choice’ handbook. Who in their right mind would have opted for simply browsing the internet; everyone knew patching made internet browsing a little bit slower anyway. The answer, and thus Hana’s choice, was clear.

”It might be a bit. I haven’t updated in a few patches.” That was a boldfaced lie, but if it meant extra time enjoying kissing her girlfriend, Hana would take it.

“Six hundred dollars from giving Henry drugs isn’t going provide you with a machine capable of doing much other than playing Minecraft, and even then not very well. Shush, I’ll handle it.” Hailey said as she pulled Hana onto her lap, “besides, you’ll have to buy a chair, a new mouse, a new keyboard, LEDs, RGB… It’s just overwhelming and far too much,” Hailey explained with a teasing wink and a poke on Hana’s nose. Hailey had a feeling what Hana was trying to do. Don’t use Hailey for her money.

Admirable, but ultimately pointless. Hailey already knew that Hana was more or less with her because she loved her (though Hana had yet to say it). The line about stealing her heart had solidified that for Hailey. She was confident and comfortable that their relationship would last for a while, unless someone interfered, but who would dare? No one.

“You should save that money for something nice. We ought to get you some of those gel bracelets.” Hailey suggested, idly fiddling with the gem hanging from Hana’s necklace. “You know? The different colored ones. I’d like that.”

”You’re forgetting the ten thousand he gave me for the New Year’s party. But if you insist, I’m not going to press it. Thank you, Hailey.” More to the point, Hana saving what were her final two drug payments meant she could use them on more important things than computer parts. That, of course, meaning a gift for Hailey. Hana was convinced that they would certainly last longer than any spectator’s might assume and wasn’t it common for there to be a little one month anniversary gift or the like? Ten thousand was enough to get something that Hailey would love.

”Gel bracelets?” Hana couldn’t hide the smile she had, not at the mention of gel bracelets but from the way Hailey was admiring the gemstone in Hana’s choker - which she had not taken off once since being given it. ”I guess those could be cute. Despite my style I’ve never exactly been good at accessories. Will you help me pick them out?”

“Actually, I had every intention of picking them out for you,” Hailey explained, her eyes staying on the gem. She didn’t speak for a few seconds, before looking up at Hana and smiling warmly, “would that be alright?” She asked softly, before leaning forward and kissing at Hana’s neck. Hailey was getting bored with talking, and the games were still patching.

Though Hailey was now showering Hana’s neck and collarbone with feathery kisses, she still patiently waited for the answer to her question. Was she distracting? Maybe a little, but Hailey had found that a distracted Hana was the most fun. Besides, Hana was about to experience what it was like to be a proper pocket healer, and that would lead to more than a few distractions. Hailey was just doing her the good service of making sure she had a bit of practice before being thrown to the dogs.

”Well, you have a good eye for style. You picked out this necklace for me, which I adore, so I trust you with the bracelets.” Hana was fond of the choker, it matched her eyes and it made her feel special. Who else had a necklace like that? From Hailey Green herself no less. How could Hana not feel special about that?

With the question answered, talking seemed to slide down the list of priorities as Hana turned her attention to turning her neck into the kiss. Lips had so many more uses than just sitting there talking and chatting up a storm. Why bother when they could be used for something much more appealing. Hana purred, the warm feeling of the night before returning as she gazed into Hailey’s eyes, preparing herself for what was sure to be another great memory shared between the two of them.

Hailey nodded, “then we’ll grab them before our brunch tomorrow,” she said, before she pressed their lips together, and slid her hand up Hana’s shirt…

This continued for a while, until Hailey was sure she had Hana up on the edge. Then she broke their kiss, and looked at the computer screens, “Oh! The game’s finished,” Hailey cooed in delight, gesturing at Hana’s chair, “let’s play now.”

Never before had Hana been annoyed at a game for something other than its content. Hailey had a way of making Hana forget about anything and everything around her other than Hailey and herself and this was no exception. As they had been locked in the throes of love and passion, the idea of a LAN left Hana’s mind. There was only her. And there was only Hailey.

Reality was like a bucket of cold water on wakeup but Hana was savvy enough to not let her slight disappointment linger by forcing a smile before turning to confirm that, yes, the games had indeed been patched and ready to play. ”Well...there’s...no time to waste. Drops and spawns and queues and all.” It was only with a heavy sigh that Hana even had the motivation to move from Hailey’s grasp to the computer chair.

Hailey rolled her eyes and reached out with a hand, giving Hana a little slap on the rear. “Oh, don’t be such a baby. If you’re a good pocket healer, I promise you’ll have a wonderful night.” Hailey teased in a voice that was perhaps more firm than she’d intended, as she rolled her chair closer to the desk and got situated, punching her information in to login into the game.

As the screen spun and she waited, she looked over at Hana, “You’re not allowed to heal anyone else without my okay. Understood?” She asked with a small smirk on her lips. “This is your first chance to really impress me — let’s see if you have what it takes, alright?” She asked, blowing Hana a kiss. Hailey had every intentions of making Hana look like a bad group healer, but ultimately that wasn’t going to be Hana’s job. Some other player would have to take over the job of healing the rest of the team. Hana’s duty? To keep her Hailey alive.

If ever there was a way to get Hana to focus fully on a task, Hailey’s tone was it. The voice hadn’t even been near to the intimidating or commanding that Hana had witnessed firsthand but the teasing promise and the way Hailey made Hana promise to solely pocket heal was enough to get her focused on the game. Fortunately she did have a healer at an appropriate level, though not with the full set of amazing armor that her former main character had. Somehow she doubted that would matter.

Hana logged into her healer and quickly checked her keybinds and shortcuts. ”I promise you’ll never wipe, Hailey.” It was a bold claim, but if this was a chance to impress then Hana was taking it seriously. Her only hope was that no one in their groups noticed or pointed out the preferential treatment Hailey was going to be getting.

Hailey gave Hana a nod as she logged into her tank. She turned in her chair briefly, “well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?” She asked, before spinning back to face her screen. She sent Hana a party and a friend request, before admitting: “I don’t have a proper guild we can play with. Do you? I try to keep a relatively low profile on the internet — I’m sort of a celebrity. If not, we can just queue with randoms, but I think it’ll be much more fun if you do this in front of your friends,” Hailey explained with the same crisp, brutal honesty that she always had in matters such as this.

While they got ready to queue up, Hailey set about jumping in circles. “I think it’s important you use voice chat. That way if anyone has anything to say about your playstyle, they can speak up as they feel is necessary. After all, we want people to voice their concerns, don’t we, my vanilla bean?” Hailey asked, trying out a new pet name for her sweet angel.

The party request was accepted as was the friend one, and Hana even made sure to add a little note on the friends list consisting of a simple ‘<3’. ”Uhm...kind of?” Hana had a strange history with guilds. She never ran one herself but she had been a member of a fair few in her time. She’d been part of some raiding guilds but left and when her video guides garnered attention she was getting guild invites on the regular. Since then Hana had kept her main character out of guilds but her healer was a member of a casual, though still serious about content, guild.

”There are some people online. Do you want an invite to it?” Hana was putting the feelers in guild chat but was hesitating on the voice chat comment. She had a habit of getting...angry on voice chat. But that was when she was tanking. When she was leading. She hadn’t even considered using voice chat. And then Hailey called her a vanilla bean and she was practically melting into the chair.

”Y...Yeah...voice chat...okay.”

“Yes, invite me. Do you like that pet name? I was trying it out. since I know how much you love vanilla, and I know how much I love you…” Hailey explained with a smile, before she pulled her headset on and turned on the party chat. This would be the way they’d communicate for now! That way their eventual team could communicate with them. “We’ll just be doing a Deltascape. After all this is your practice run. If you do good, maybe I’ll let you pocket heal me on harder raids. If not, then you’ll just go back to your tank, and we’ll find another game to play together.” Hailey explained, leaving no room for error. The string was pulled to its tightest.

Time to be the clutch player you’d always considered yourself, Hana.

”I love the name.” Hana’s enthusiasm was clear as she sent the guild invite and rounded up some DPS players to join the trial run. She had loved the nickname. It made her smile and it made her blush which was all she ever wanted out of a nickname. Plus it was specific to Hailey; she was Hailey’s vanilla bean. ”I...I won’t..let you down.” She wasn’t exactly swimming in confidence but Hana was nothing if not determined to prove her mettle as she adjusted her microphone and connected to the voice chat.

With the party formed, Hana hit the queue button and before long they were all ported away to a mechanical cavern looking place. Hana’s character stayed practically in lock step behind Hailey’s as the dungeon began. Hana was used to simply grabbing all the trash mobs and taking them down but the trash mobs seemed to be causing some trouble for the party, who were taking hits they could’ve avoided. ”Jesus, DPS, are you even trying?” Hana’s game persona was poking through.

Hailey was enjoying herself. Was she trying? It was questionable; otherwise the mobs may have been pulled and micro’d a bit more professionally. Hailey was enjoying the attention she was getting from Hana, and she smirked to herself as Hana got a little snippy. The next voice to enter their headsets wasn’t Hailey’s, or even Hana’s. It was one of the people they’d queued with, “I’d do better if I was getting healed…” The masculine voice muttered.

Hailey leaned back in her chair silently, AOEing a few more mobs into her range. She could handle this relatively easily; it wasn’t a complicated map, or raid. It wasn’t even something new to her, in fact she’d ran this more than a few times. She could have spoken up for Hana, and helped her out, or explained things… But this? This would be more fun! Besides, it was a test. Still, Hailey decided she’d pick up her play — best they not get a bad rep in the guild.

”Excuse you?” Hana heard the DPS speak up and criticise. Typical DPS, they take one hit and they practically begged to be healed even though they still have ninety percent of their health. If they weren’t good enough at their rotation to kill things quickly and while taking minimal damage, it wasn’t Hana’s fault. ”Learn your fucking rotation. That red cone isn’t there for you to stand in. Idiots.” As Hana refreshed Hailey’s heal over time stacks, she continued to insult their lackluster DPS.

Hana tended to take these things seriously, even when a more casual setting was involved. It had made her an effective raid leader over the years. If this was a trial run or a first run through or even one of her lessons she hosted she wouldn’t have gotten so worked up. But these people were said to be experienced with the content, it’s why she invited them from the guild. ”Look at the meters, the tank is doing better numbers than you.”

Were vanilla beans usually this toxic? Hailey made a mental note to look into later, but she looked over at Hana as she continued to berate their teammates. Hailey decided she’d had enough. Her character stopped moving, and she leaned across to Hana, raising up a hand, and flicking her girlfriend on the nose. It wasn’t hard enough to cause pain, but it was hard enough to be felt. With that, Hailey spoke — knowing full well that her mic wasn’t muted and she was going to be heard loud and clear. “Hana, play nice. Apologize to our friends. You’ve been very rude.” She said, meeting Hana’s eyes with a sleek smile and a wink, before she got back to her side of the desk.

Speaking into the mic, Hailey stole the chance to speak for Hana. “I apologize for my healer. She’s a bit feisty. I’m working on it.” Hailey was cut off by the voice from their DPS speaking before she was finished.

“It’s, uh… okay.” The voice said, and Hailey’s face crinkled into one of disgust, before she spoke in a snappy, fierce voice.

“Shut. Up.” She hissed, and then Hailey waited, counting her head to five to make sure that she wasn’t spoken over again. Once she was certain, she spoke again, this time to Hana. “What do you have to say for yourself, Hana?” Hailey asked, finally giving Hana the chance to speak. Honestly? Hailey was very much enjoying herself. This was more fun than she thought it would be.

Had Hailey not stepped in it was quite likely that Hana would’ve continued to show off more of her domineering side. She had a reputation for a reason; while many felt she could be too strict, none could deny that it got results. Hana was around for various world firsts for a good reason. But when her nose was flicked and she let out a little pained gasp, it was like Hailey found the ‘off’ switch and Hana was quiet and more similar to how she had been the night previous. Albeit without handcuffs limiting her movements.

She was out of line. That much was obvious, and Hailey was there to remind Hana of that fact. There was quiet in the voice chat for a moment as Hana searched for the proper words. ”Sorry…” Her voice was softer, fidgety, and like a complete one eighty from before. ”I didn’t mean it. I was...I was out of line.” Hana offered a verbal apology and looked to Hailey for approval - though before doing so she gave one of the DPS a heal in apology. It seemed like a way to apologize in case her sincere words didn’t cut it.

Hailey was very nearly satisfied. Things were going perfect. There was an apology, and Hana was back to being diminutive and submissive, the way she normally was. Everyone got a little salty at video games, but Hailey drew the line. If she and Hana were going to play together, she was going to keep things under wraps and down to a certain level. The flick had put things back in perspective, but then she healed the DPS.

Hailey’s aura and tone shifted immediately. “Hana, why are you wasting your mana on someone else? I don’t recall giving you permission to heal someone else. Do I need someone else to focus on me? Because apparently you’re not good at it…” Hailey sighed deeply, and the DPS spoke up again, in apologetic tones.

“Uhm, it’s okay? I’m sorry for being healed? Thank you, though.”

While Hana had earlier shown off a bit of her ferocity, it was still nothing compared to Hailey’s barbed words. They had gotten Hana to apologize and now they had her stammering and squirming like a dog who was having their nose rubbed in it. Of course, it was to be expected. Hana remembered now. Hailey had said at the start that she wasn’t allowed to heal anyone else without permission.

”I..I..misclicked. It...it was...an accident…” Hana knew her excuse was as flimsy as wet paper but it was the first excuse she could think of. ”I’ll heal you! I...I can do it!” From domineering to demure in five minutes, and all in front of others.

“Uh-huh.” Hailey said dryly, in an attempt to convey that she didn’t yet fully believe Hana yet. Hailey was playing a game with Hana and she reached over to Hana’s knee and grabbed it, squeezing it to give her a brief physical reassurance. She didn’t want Hana to think she was starting to hate her — just that she expected a better job from her. “Let’s get this done now, please, people.” She said back into her microphone, returning her attentions to the raid.

After the past few minutes, Hailey had risen to being the leader of the raid. She looked over at Hana, who was shifting and fidgety in the chair. “Mmm, Hana. When you get like that, it really puts a smile on my face.” Hailey purred, and indeed, there was a smile on her face.

“You two are weird.”

“Don’t be jealous, you virgin.”

“...ow, my pride.”

The simplest things had the greatest effect. The physical affection shown to Hana’s knee had a calming effect but it still made her shaky and nervous, with fingers shaky as they hovered over the keyboard. It wasn’t nervous fidgeting but happy; being touched just so by her girlfriend was exhilarating and that brief contact made Hana momentarily forget that they were still very much being verbal. So much so that her little gasp of a squeak at the touch transmitted to the party, and that just made her go red.

Weird. That’s what one of the other voices said. And with it, Hana’s little squeaking titter became a happy little sigh. Didn’t she say she was weird earlier today? And didn’t Hailey say that that was why she loved her? Suddenly ‘weird’ was a compliment where Hana was concerned.

”We can clear it. I know we can” Hana was still fidgeting in her seat, but her determination was there, and as the raid continued she again stuck to Hailey like glue, going so far as to purposely not using her AoE heal ability. That would go against the rules.

Hailey was all smiles by the end of the raid. Hana had done a good job, and under Hailey’s lead they had made it through with almost no casualties. Once they arrived to the zone before the raid boss, Hailey paused the group. “Alright, Hana. I suppose you should go ahead and top the others off.” She said, then immediately the DPS from before spoke up.

“Finally.”

Hailey scowled at the screen, “Not him. His demeanor is that of a pouty child.” She said, looking over at Hana expectantly. “Don’t AOE him on ‘accident,’ either.” She said firmly, before Hailey set about the best part of MMOs: making your character jump around in circles.

Hana was about to hit her AoE heal when the particularly snippy DPS spoke up only to put his foot firmly in his mouth. Rather than him getting heals, he had to watch as Hana topped off the other members of the party and then put her cursor back over Hailey’s character. She didn’t feel all that bad, actually. There were potions and food in the game for a reason. ”Oh, Hailey, your buff stacks…” Hana had almost forgotten to refresh Hailey’s buff to health and defense, but Hana made sure to top Hailey off.

All things considered Hana figured this was a good run. She wasn’t used to healing at this level so she had a tendency to overheal Hailey and thus draw aggro but Hailey didn’t seem to notice or mind as far as Hana could tell. They’d made it to the final room without a full wipe even with the complaining - some of it done in the party chat - and even if the DPS failed and died to the boss, Hana was confident they could clear it. Because their tank would always have full health and in that battle of attrition they had the advantage.

”Okay...ready up!”

Hailey smiled, comfortable in her position of power. Being a tank was fun, she’d decided. She more commonly played DPS, but they didn’t get to boss people around. Maybe it was just her personality, but the entire raid had been listening to her — possibly because they didn’t want to get snapped at like the one boy who kept speaking out of turn. “Here we go,” she said, as the final members of their small raiding team hit the ready up button…

After a few minutes, they’d won. Hailey glanced at the loot table for a quick second, before she took her headset off and stepped behind Hana’s chair, draping her hands down into Hana’s lap. Hailey tipped the chair backward and bent her body forward in a fluid motion, then kissed Hana on the forehead. “You did very well.”

Hana let out a sigh of relief when the boss was downed and the color-coded drops littered the ground at his feet. There were a few hiccups but by and large the first run of the night was successful - in spite of some sour DPS that were being needy and rude. The newly mained healer was about to see if there was anything that dropped for her - perhaps a new mainhand or something to increase her healing numbers - but her world was taken over by a bit of Green.

The kiss to her forehead and the congratulatory remarks were better than any piece of legendary gear. ”I only did so well because I had a wonderful tank to protect me.” Hana turned to offer a happy smile at Hailey. It must’ve been a good run, a passing test, if her reward was a kiss - to the forehead or otherwise. ”I think I can get used to being your healer.”

When Hana turned to face her, Hailey smiled back down at her. She had a good time, and that was what was most important in this sort of thing. After all, it was still a game at its core, and Hailey strived to not take it anymore seriously than necessary. “Good, vanilla bean. I hope you can used to it — because I wouldn’t let anyone else heal me, anyway.” She reached down and twirled some of Hana’s hair around her finger, staring into her girlfriend’s eyes the whole time… Enough video games. There were physical games to be played.

Hailey leaned down the rest of the way, and gave her a proper kiss on the lips, before she spoke into the mic boom. “We’re leaving now. Bye, boys.” With that, Hailey took the headset off of her girlfriend and looked at her watch, “If we order pizza now, I think we’ll have twenty minutes before we get here. I can make twenty minutes last a very, very long time, Hana.”

Vanilla bean. It was just as good as being told ‘good girl’; it had the same effect to boot, that being to get Hana smiling, lowering her eyelids, and being consumed by affection towards Hailey. It meant a job well done, and it meant that Hailey was happy. That happiness went both ways even if Hana was still figuring out how to showcase that publicly. There was no one else Hana would want to pocket heal, and that counted for everything.

”Well then what are we waiting for? Twenty minutes, I’m yours.” For the first time in her life, Hana suspected she might be upset to see a pizza delivery person.

[Kitty]

As Miriam packed her books into her backpack at the end of the day she heard the buzz of her phone indicating a message. Zipping up her backpack and putting it on she grabbed her phone from the bottom of her locker before closing her locker, curious about who could be texting her. Unlocking her phone, the message opened and with every word she read the more uneasy she felt.

From Trent:
Tonight you are going to be my date to the party. That means you need to look the part, the little church girl look isn’t going to cut it if you are going to be my date to a Helmsley party. Don’t worry about figuring anything out on your own though I went ahead and took care of everything myself. Just show up at the Revolution Salon at 6, I know a few of the girls there. They will take care of you. That also means I will know if you show up or not, so you better show up unless you want your poor, poor brother to be outed to the whole school and our whole church.

I’ll pick you up from the salon at 8:15.

Taking a shaky breath and clenching the phone a bit tighter in her hand, Miriam mentally cursed not only Trent’s name but her parents’ names too. All three of them were guilty in her mind, all three of them horrid people. But that didn’t matter, what mattered was taking care of her brother. No matter what Trent wanted.

Miriam left the school and found her brother, going home until it was time to go to the salon. When the time rolled around Miriam got an Uber over, mentally preparing herself for whatever was going to happen at the salon. When the Uber rolled to a stop, Miriam internally cringed. The salon while it looked very nice also was very expensive looking. She could just tell she was in for a hell of a time.

Entering the building she was greeted by a young blonde receptionist with a fake smile. “You must be Miriam, Trent told me about you on the phone. You don’t need to worry about anything we will take care of you. Come right this way.” The receptionist stood and began walking, her heels clicking with each step. They eventually reached a stylists personal room and the receptionist opened the door for Miriam. “Anthony will be doing your hair and makeup, his assistants will do your nails and then they will get you dressed to match the makeover just in time for Trent to pick you up.”

The young Archer nodded and tried to enter the room but before entering a hand tightly gripped her bicep causing her to turn back to the receptionist who was now glaring at her. “I dont get why he’s treating you so specially. You are nothing special, honestly you aren’t even attractive but whatever. When he gets bored of you he’ll come right back to me.” With a smirk the receptionist turned on her heel and walked off just leaving Miriam staring after her slightly shocked.

“As if I want any of this…” She whispered under her breath before shaking her head and entering the room. Miriam instantly regretted entering the room as two woman grabbed her hands and pulled her to the middle of the room where a man then began to circle her like she was his prey.

“Hmm what type of look would be best and the most daring and shocking transformation with minimal effort. Right now she screams good girl with the long hair and conservative outfit but I think we can make this good girl look more… femme fatale. That is of course you are okay with that sweetheart?”

It took Miriam a moment to realize the man, Anthony she believes it was, was talking to her now. Actually asking her if she was okay with the transformation. As if he could read her mind he smiled kindly. “I’d never do a makeover without actually consulting the one being madeover. I know the boy who got you this appointment had very specific details and things he wanted… but to me I can almost feel the fire burning in your soul and I want to bring that to the outside. No girl hidden away, no sexy bunny or whatever ridiculous thing that boy wanted. Just you. Beautiful. Gorgeous. You.

Only if you want though.”

Awestruck. This man left her awestruck. He was not what she was expecting and for that Miriam was thankful. Unable to find the words she just nodded, giving the man the go ahead to transform her. Tonight anyone at the party would see a whole new side of her and she was ready now more than ever.