[IC] Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

[afycso]

_{featuring @spooner @Dirty Pretty Lies @voltaic}

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NOW PLAYING: DRUNK DRIVERS / KILLER WHALES ◄◄ ⠀▶⠀►►

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Kirk wasn’t a big fan of typically romantic parties, for obvious reasons, so upon the mention of the word ‘Homecoming’ he was already half-zoning out, tempted to slip his earbuds in and let someone snap him out of it later. Normally Kirk wasn't the arrogant, attentionless type, anyone could tell you he kissed ass more than anyone in the school, but a dumb gathering by dumb old cronies who think it’s fun for horny teenagers to grind against each other to Despacito was just that — dumb. Of course, the hopeless theater teacher on stage instantaneously put a stop to any lack of concentration on the boy’s part, in a dramatised and uninspired act of “pairing up” said horny teenagers. One after the other, pairs of names were called out, drawn from two bowls that seemed to be separated between boys and girls. It was surprising, to say the least, from a school that treated theater like a serious subject.

The alphabetical curse of the Weber name being ever-present, Kirk was seated and attentive for a very passionate explosion of his thoughts, to the selfsame tune and words — Archer. The aromantic boy felt choked by romance, but the fiery smoker boy could experience it, yet was denied the pleasure regardless. It was a thought he would linger on as Mari sat Archer back down, his attention being concentrated on Mrs Sanders once again. Names drifted by like the waves of the ocean, Kirk shifting back and forth as they did, swimming in mystery and anticipation. He wasn’t particularly excited about the whole ordeal, but at least he could make some fun out of overthinking how to say “I don’t feel romantically attracted to anyone, so your Homecoming is gonna suck even more than it would’ve with a regular stranger”.

“...Mr. Weber and Ms. Regan shall be in each other’s company for the night!” Kirk instantly deflated in his seat, the force of tension leaving his body, its rigid form collapsing. He knew Trip well enough for Homecoming to be at least tolerable, though the two had a lot of ground to cover in terms of actual friendship, or knowing her as a person instead of a name and a face. With a groan, he got out of his seat, eyes scanning the horizon. Most of his friends, or people he valued, seemed to have already gotten lost in the crowds of other 12th Graders, so he slumped his shoulders and made his way to the outside world. He needed some air and a lot of time to think.

While Kirk was busy with his philosophical analysis of the situation he was in, Marisol and Salem were making the way down the hallway, their arms still absentmindedly linked together. Salem hung back slightly and let Marisol slightly lead the way to the cafeteria, since he was still a bit unsure of where he was going in the school.

“Soooo…,” Salem started, staring at the walls and the posters displayed, “What’s your favorite food?”

“Fucking enchiladas, man,” Mari’s response was instant, eyes glowing at the thought of her grandmother’s delicacy, and it was said with such passion that it was obvious that the answer came straight from the heart. “My abuela makes them when we go visit twice a month, and I fucking swear to God that shit is like an orgasm in my mouth. Every. Freaking. Time.”

He laughed in response, his nose scrunching and his curls bouncing with the movement. Ruffling his hair with his free hand, Salem gestured vaguely in the air in front of them while shrugging his shoulder, “Well, you are definitely going to have to bring me some of your abuela’s enchiladas sometime. And I’ll bring you some of my nonna’s amazing cannoli. It has the taste of heaven, I fucking swear it.”

Marisol grinned. She'd tried the Italian delicacy on a family trip not that long ago, and it had definitely been an experience. She could only imagine how they would taste when being homemade.

“Deal,” she responded, offering up her pinkie for the two to make their first unbreakable promise.

Chuckling in amusement, Salem clutched Marisol’s pinkie with his own, giving a slight squeeze playfully. “Yeah, deal.”

As they entered the school building Archer and Marlene were met by a strange scene. Not only was Jun holding hands with Victoire, but not far away Marisol was arm in arm with a mystery man. Archer shot Marisol a confused look as the pair arrived at the scene. “Oh hello! Uhmmmm, who are you? And also… Why are you touching my friend?” Archer grinned at them.

The sheepish look in the girl’s face was instant. Marisol wasn’t exactly known for being physical with anybody that wasn’t close to her, so it made sense that Archer would give her that look when seeing her so comfortable with a complete stranger. But even then, she made no motions to unlink her arm from his… Because she really didn’t mind it. “Archer, this is Salem,” she explained, waving a hand in the newcomer’s direction. “Salem, this is Archer, one of my best friends,” she told him, repeating the motion but in Archer’s direction.

Salem waved his hand currently not linked with Marisol’s awkwardly, feeling oddly guilty for being friendly. He hoped Marisol didn’t feel pressured to continue linking arms with him, or that he had accidentally invaded her boundaries. Salem relaxed the arm Marisol was holding, giving her a chance to pull away if she wanted to.

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you.” he said courteously, putting his previously waving hand into his jean pocket. Nodding towards the general direction of the cafeteria, Salem added, “We were just heading to get lunch.”

Still smiling, Archer gave the newcomer a friendly wave. “Yeah, nice to meet you too, dude!” his eyes lingered on their linked arms. “I can see that… I might just join you. I mean, if I'm not interrupting something?” the curly haired boy raised a quizzical eyebrow towards Marisol.

“What the fuck could you possibly be interrupting?” she scoffed, shaking her head with a smirk.

“I don't know. You tell me, Slim.” He shrugged as he turned around to ask Marlene if she wanted to join them for lunch, but she had already gone off to aid Victoire. He turned back to face them. ““Well? Shall we?”

“Yeah, sure, let’s go!” Salem said amicably, tousling his hair once more. The Italian-American began walking towards the direction in which he was seventy percent sure the cafeteria is located, Marisol following right beside him. “Hope the cafeteria food is good here.”

“Our tuition is the third highest in the country. You bet your ass our food is good,” Sol started as they walked down the hallway.

As the newly united Homecoming date (with bonus third wheel) set off, the realisation came to Kirk that today wasn’t going to be a quiet one. Even the path to fresh air and contemplation was wrought with drama and sexual tension, worst of all between people he knew and valued. The scene was like something out of a bad young adult novel, except the reader was being held at gunpoint to read it. The Weber boy felt he was in the same situation, probably because of some rare undiagnosed and unknown anxiety — if he couldn’t go around, under or over it, he’d have to go through it, so go through it he shall. He seemed to have a good enough understanding of the situation to hop in.

“So, guessing this handsome loverboy right here is your school board-sanctioned Homecoming date,” Kirk teased, in his typical cliché bored voice, sidling up next to Mari. To say ‘next to’ would be a bad term for it, really, since the boy never walked ‘next to’ anybody. He had a tendency to linger to the bottom-right corner of a group of people, with quick diagonal access to any sort of escape route he might need. Not that he felt uncomfortable or unsafe (to an extent) around Mari, Archer, or even the ‘random-guy-I’d-fuck’; it was more of a force of habit. If anything, it was an act of being uncomfortable with himself more than anyone else.

“Fuck yeah he is,” Marisol declared with a sly smile, gently squeezing Salem's arm, and a hint of pride in her voice she didn't even realize she had in the first place. She looked around Kirk's direction and frowned. “The fuck is yours at?”

“Oh, uh, I kinda abandoned mine. I say abandoned, but I don’t think she was looking for me. Didn’t see her, so,” he responded, snapping himself out of idle thought.

Salem preened at the unsaid compliment Marisol’s voice implied, his smile turning crooked with gratification. “Hey, I’m Salem Rivera.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that kinda name. ‘Salem’,” he rolled the name around his tongue, like he was savouring the flavour, “Huh. Nice to meet you. Now, I’m hoping Mari is leading us to the cafeteria and not towards some romantic bench where we can all sit and watch the world pass us by, because my stomach is rumbling with furious fire a’plenty.” He stopped himself from rambling again. The typical quiet type would be speaking as little words as they could in this situation, murmuring responses when needed, but Kirk often found himself overtalking when faced with a stranger. Not that Salem was a stranger, of course — Kirk knew his name now! Instant friendship.

Archer couldn’t help but scoff, he hadn’t heard Kirk talk this much in… well never. What was going on today? Did he miss something in the auditorium in his fit of rage? “Well you know, what’s in a name and all that!” He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pocket as he trudged behind the gang.

“‘That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.’” Salem quoted, earning himself a bewildered look from his homecoming date. Romeo and Juliet being one of his favorite Shakespeare plays, he could almost recite the entire play verbatim. “On an unromantic note, my name is my ma’s middle finger to Nature Conservancy after they called her a ‘witch’. If you ask her, she’ll lie though and say its to honor her Jewish father.”

“So Salem would, were he not Salem called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title,” Kirk grinned faintly, “I love an interesting backstory, even if it makes my name ever more boring. I don’t really get the trend of naming your kids after yourself.”

“You guys are fucking dweebs, I swear to God almighty.”

“Aw, c’mon, you don’t like a little bit of Romeo & Juliet? Not even the Leonardo DiCaprio movie? I thought you were a real romantic, Mari.”

The girl scoffed. “Romance can suck my big fat dick. I don't believe in that shit.”

“Preaching to the choir, don’t you think?”

“You’ll have to excuse Marisol, she’s not used to guys reading… let alone them being able to.” Archer quipped dryly in Salem's direction. Not sure if Sonny or Jun had even ever picked up a book without boobs on the cover.

“Fuck you,” came Mari's quick reply, using her unlinked arm to playfully shove her friend. Salem laughed in response.

They entered the cafeteria together and Salem grabbed the first free table for them all to sit at. It was near a large window with the light filtering in and Salem swung his bag down from
his back to claim his spot. With his bag saving his seat within the group, Salem turned to Marisol, “I’m going to get my lunch, I’m absolutely famished.

Salem pursed his lips and added, as an afterthought, “Since I’m going up there anyways, let me get your lunch for you, Marisol. Anything in particular you want me to get?”

To say that the green-eyed girl was completely taken aback by this was an understatement. In fact, she had been rendered speechless: an event that happened once in a blue moon for someone as mouthy as she was. Never in her eighteen years in this Earth had anybody outside her family and close friends offered to get anything for her. This was a whole new experience for her, and her wide-eyed self had no idea how to react to such niceness coming from someone who was pretty much a stranger.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, she cleared her throat awkwardly. “A mushroom Swiss burger with fries and a Coke sounds fucking amazing right now,” Mari admitted, already savoring the delicious combination in her mind.

Giving a thumbs up, Salem wandered away from the table. In all honesty, he would have offered to get the others their food too, but he only had two hands. Since Marisol was his mandatory homecoming date, it was only natural that he get hers and treat her nicely. Besides, she seemed like a sweet girl and he wouldn’t mind using this homecoming opportunity to make some friends in Palm Beach. The past few days he had been miserable in his solitude, with only one ray of sunshine lighting up his world the few times she could. As if summoned by his thoughts, his phone buzzed in his pocket and Salem smiled. He’ll respond in a second, after getting some grub.

As Salem walked walked away, Archer stared at his small friend until she gave him her signature annoyed face. It didn’t stop him from continuing to stare, still confused.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on? Who is this kid?” he finally said.

“I already told you. The dude is my homecoming date, he's new to the school, so he asked me to show him around. That's all that's going on,” Mari explained to Archer through gritted teeth in an exasperated tone of voice. “What's so weird about trying to do something nice for a change?”

Rolling his eyes he decided to drop it. A little change in company couldn’t really hurt right now. He started to pack up his lunch made up of leftovers from last nights shift. “I think you know why it’s weird, but I’ll leave it at that.” he said as he poured way too much ranch dressing on his Caesar salad, not noticing Marisol rolling her eyes at him. “Anyway, back to me! What the fuck am I going to do about this whole Judas situation?!”

“Ignoring the backstabber is always an option,” she told him with a shrug, placing her belongings on the table and taking the seat facing Archer that was next to Salem, arms crossed in front of her. “That or you can follow my example and just let it go. Because if I was able to let go of most of the crap that happened last month, you can let go of what Judas did. Now, before you chew my head off: letting go does not mean forgiving and forgetting. To me, it just means that you stop giving a fuck and are too busy living your best life to let shit people like that take up any of your headspace. You get what I'm sayin’?”

He sighed “I guess…” he said once again stabbing at his salad. “I don’t have much of a choice do I?” deciding to himself that he would look Ariel up later.

“Not if you want to graduate,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders again.

“Getting nailed to a cross and becoming eternally recognised sounds like a fun time. Least you’d get a kiss out of it,” Kirk piped up from the edge of the table, chewing on whatever snack he found in his pocket while waiting for the lunch queue to thin out. He wasn’t particularly good with these types of situations, so a more facetious approach came naturally to him.

It was around that time that Salem ambled back over to them, precariously balancing food and drinks in both his hands and in the crook of his elbows. With the careful way he placed the food in front of Marisol and rearranged items so he wouldn’t drop everything, he could have been a juggler in a circus. The curly-haired Italian-American let out a loud, relieved sigh as he finally sat down.

“I love you so fucking much right now,” Mari declared, her eyes glued to her food. Without wasting any time, she quickly wolfed down a few fries and took a big bite out of her burger. “Thanks, dude!” she told Salem through a mouthful of food, giving him a thumbs up.

“It’s really no problem. Least I could do since you’ll be stuck with me at homecoming. Anyways, what did I miss?” he said before taking a bite of his burger, fully expecting a ‘nothing’ response. A recounting of a ten-minute conversation seemed a bit unnecessary, especially since Salem might not understand the conversation fully.

“Oh you know, just wallowing in endless despair.” Archer smiled pleasantly up from his lunch at their new found friend.

“Nice, wallowing in endless despair is one of my hobbies!” Salem said while covering his mouth, to avoid giving them a front row show to the mushy-moshpit in his mouth.

“He gets me… I like this dude,” Archer said, pointing towards Salem with his fork giving the new guy a quick wink.

“Let’s be fair, he gets all of us.” Kirk smirked, standing up and preparing himself to face the queue. “I’ll return with whatever crap was left over, I guess,” he mumbled, walking off towards his goal.

Not wanting to seem rude, Salem only shot off a quick text to Gwendolyn telling her he will respond later before looking up and acknowledging their comments with a shy chuckle. He would definitely have to tell her about the homecoming situation; Gwendolyn was understanding, though, and he had no doubt she would realize the situation was out of his control. He truly was blessed with such a thoughtful girlfriend. His heart ached a bit thinking about her. Ah, the tribulations of young love.

[AlteredTundra]

_{L O C A T I O N / / The perfect seat for the Jun and Victoire Vareity Hour
I N T E R A C T I N G W I T H / / Tim-Tom-Tam [NPC] and Nadia}

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As the duo of Sonny and Nadia made their way to the cafeteria, Sonny had told Nadia to save them a table as he went inside to get their lunches. For Sonny, his go-to always has been and always will be pepperoni pizza. There was no if, ands, or buts about it. To him, that was the only pizza he would ever recognize as proper pizza. A second place would be a meat lovers pizza that had three types of sausage in addition to pepperoni. How people can choose Hawaiian pizza over the classic staple of pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, and a thin layer of red sauce was beyond his comprehension. For Nadia, he got her a salad. She seemed like the type who enjoyed a nice Chinese chicken salad.

“That’ll be how much?” Sonny thought he heard wrong.

“Thirty Bucks, Sonny,” Timmy, the poor nerd who worked in the cafeteria, said.

“Fuck, that’s a ripoff, Tommy.”

“It’s Timmy.”

Rolling his eyes, Sonny handed him a fifty dollar bill. “Give me that change, Tammy.”

Timmy glared at Sonny as he gave him a twenty dollar bill in return. “There ya go, Sunny.”

And that earned Timmy a glare from Sonny.

He tried to shrug off the annoying feeling that nested itself deep in his stomach. “That Tummy Scott sure has a lot of nerve. Maybe Kavi should pay him a visit.” Sonny contemplated the entertaining thought of sicking the mixed pitbull on the nerd. He knew Kavi enjoyed tormenting those who were a lot weaker than he was. Usually, Sonny wasn’t supportive of it, but in this specific case, he was more than willing to turn the other cheek.

As he shook his head, he decided to save that for later as he came to the view of the table spread throughout the quad/courtyard (it was called a lot of things). It only took him a second scan to find Nadia. She had saved them a seat somewhere in the middle of it all. He rushed over to join her, handing her salad. “I didn’t know which one you liked, so I just got this one. My sister loves it and you two seem to have similar tastes,” he shrugged, taking a bite of his pizza, letting his eyes wander around the quad.

He saw a lot of faces that he recognized. Some were those he didn’t particularly like and some he did but didn’t feel like disrupting his time with Nadia. To his surprise, he actually found himself enjoying her company. Who would’ve thought that, of all people Sonny could’ve been paired up with and of all the possible outcomes, he’d find himself not minding the more mellow, if not somewhat cheerful, company of Nadia a breath of fresh air. She was nothing like that Victoire. God, if he never had to see her again, he’d still think it wouldn’t be long enough.

“So, what I’d miss--”

Before Sonny had a chance to finish what he was going to say, he first heard the familiar voices of Victoire and Jun rush past him, though they seemed to stop not far from where he and Nadia were sitting. At first glance, he rolled his eyes. Sonny didn’t mind Jun all that much anymore. The past month had been good for their building friendship (if you could call it that), but seeing Victoire still made his blood boil. But that’s all it was - a first glance. It was as it appeared to be. Sonny noticed a particular irritation from Vic as she spoke to Jun in a way that seemed way too familiar for the teen.

Sonny couldn’t help but utter a loud, noticeable laugh. “Get her, Jun!” Sonny whistled, cheering on his fellow misfit.

The back and forth between Jun and Vic had Sonny actually enjoying lunchtime for once. It had gotten to the point where Sonny pulled out his phone and started recording the conversation. From Jun being Jun and Victoire doing everything that she could possibly to rid herself of him. That was something Sonny could relate to, but heaven be damned if it wasn’t entertaining as fuck seeing her get the just deserts that she had been asking for since the party.

As he watched and recorded, laughs soon consumed the chuckling air that Sonny consumed. It was that use of nothing that always seemed to be an indicator of how Vic often felt about someone. Stella had told Sonny about how she said ‘I nothing you’ to her, but just like Stella didn’t, Jun wasn’t giving up. And just when Sonny thought Jun couldn’t top his previous line of the use of ‘Viccy’, he did it.

“He fucking did it!” At this point, Sonny was ready to become a real-life version of the common abbreviation of ‘rolling on the floor’ as his laughter could be heard from the parking lot to the history department nearly a half a mile away (not literally but that’s just how loud he was laughing). “I’m..gonna need a minute,” he said to himself. He made sure to save the video. He never knew when he might need to use it.

About three or so minutes later, though Sonny had some chuckles that remained, there was no doubt it mostly passed, so he was finally able to eat his pizza. He could see the apparent displeasing nature in Nadia’s eyes as she ate her salad. He didn’t pay that any mind. It was so worth it because he just knew it would come in handy one day. If Victoire’s reaction to Jun was any indicator, using this video was the key to getting to her as well. As he took a bite out of his pizza, Sonny wanted to check out the tables, seeing who might’ve shown up. At that moment, Sonny regretted doing just that. And before he could take the act of curiosity back, there four tables away from where he and Nadia were sitting, at their table, was Marisol, Archer, and two nobodies that Sonny didn’t recognize. Well, he recognized Captain Kirk, but the brown boy who, at the moment he saw them, had his arms around Marisol.

“And just who the fuck is that?”

[SpicyMeatball]

Normally April would’ve been excited for homecoming, let alone her final homecoming in King’s Academy. But this year was different. This year she had no idea if she was even wanting to go. Ever since the events in Santiago’s bedroom back at the party six weeks ago, she’d been thinking all too much about Santi and what she really meant to him. It hadn’t exactly been radio silence between the two since that fateful night. Santi had sent a few texts to her, only some of which April actually responded to. Most ended in one of them not responding to the other, with only one occasion of the conversation lasting more than a few minutes.

But one text. One single text from Santiago flipped her world upside down.

Look stop ignoring me sorry I slept with Xixi

When she saw that text, something snapped inside of her. April’s mind raced faster than she drove, a mix of resentment and sadness building inside of her. That was it. If Santi could do whatever--or rather whoever-- he wanted to, whenever he wanted to, then as far as April was concerned she was no longer his little Tiger Lily. Enough with the games, it was time to move on. It was time to stop thinking with her heart and to start thinking with her head.

“Hello Seniors!” Mrs. Sanders’ irritating voice brought her back to reality. “As you all know, our school’s Homecoming dance is scheduled to take place next Saturday evening. I’m sure you all have your little outfits picked out and all of that, maybe even have an idea of who you’d like to attend with… … ... But we’re actually changing things up a little this year.” Uh oh, that didn’t sound good. What the hell did this sociopath have planned this time? April narrowed her eyes in suspicion, glancing to Chanel and Julie to see their reactions. “What is she up to this time?” If Mrs. Sanders even considered ruining homecoming in her final year, April might have run her down in the parking lot.

As Sanders droned on and on, spewing the bullshit facade into their faces like they were young children, April sat on the edge of her seat in anticipation. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what could possibly be going on here. “Oh wait.... No...she wouldn’t--” April’s self-talk was interrupted by Mrs. Sanders once again,“So for this homecoming dance, I’ll be in charge of deciding who attends the dance with who, with a little help from these bowls here.”

“What the fuck!” April exclaimed a little more loudly than she had intended, drawing a few eyes from the crowd and a stern glare from Mrs. Sanders before the speech continued. April gritted her teeth and looked to her partners in crime for something...anything. “She can’t do this, can she?”

“Mr. Salvador, you are paired with Ms. Foster.”

Salvador? The name rang a bell somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain, but she just couldn’t place a face to it.

Oh. Right. Kavi Salvador, the only person on the planet who could properly piss of Santiago. The one person that Santi would absolute hate to have partnered with her. April looked back to Santiago himself, sending him a smug look that just screamed *This is what you get* before returning her gaze to the front. This was too perfect. The person Santi couldn’t stop hating partnered with the one he was closest with. The fact that he was easy on the eyes was just bonus points now. This homecoming would certainly be the most interesting one yet.

As the assembly came to a close, she said a quick goodbye to Chanel and Julie before turning and following Kavi out. She stayed back for a bit so that it wasn’t super obvious, but then sped up as they got closer and closer to the cafeteria. Upon arrival, April went about her own business and grabbed a few items for her lunch, timing it so she’d be right behind Kavi when he got in line. It almost felt like she was on the hunt. Hunting for prey that was already hers for the taking. In a...happy, not blood shedding way though. As she walked up, April carefully balanced her tray on one hand while she quickly tucked her hair to the side with the other.

With a stupid grin plastered across her face, she walked up behind Kavi “Cute butt, is it free for the taking?”

[spooner]

_{Archer & Ariel}


But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No, you didn't have to stoop so low

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Replaying the last thirty minutes or so in her head as she walked through the lunch line, Ariel was completely baffled by the recent events that had occurred in her life. Why couldn't the faculty just let people stay at home for homecoming? Why did they feel the need to push them into some social experiment? Why the actual fuck was she paired with Archer of all people? Why?

It wasn't that Ariel didn't like Archer. She had always liked the guy. Out of the Misfits, she had always been the closest to Marisol, then Archer, then Kavi. When she had made the semi-conscious decision to drop her friends, Archer had tried to reach out to her longer than anyone, resulting in an argument where she had called him Marisol’s sidekick. She had said a lot of hurtful things that day….

Grabbing a bottle of water, paying and scanning the crowd, she quickly found Archer sitting at a table. The look on his face was pure anger - such as was expected. Taking a deep breath and walking that way, Ariel took the seat slightly across from him, holding onto the water bottle with both hands for a sense of security.

”Archer. We need to talk,” she said tonelessly.
Archer looked up slowly as the girl spoke still chewing, he swallowed and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Hello Serafina, I guess we do.” he threw his napkin in the plastic bowl and threw the whole thing into a nearby trash can. He brushed his uniform for any crumbs and stood up grabbing his bag.

“See you guys later.” he nodded at the others with one last pleading look to Marisol that only she could see.

The curly haired boy composed himself and looked to his former friend clearing his throat “Shall we?” he ask as he walked towards the exit not really waiting for an answer. Hardly even looking back to see if she was following him Archer stepped out of the cafeteria and walked over to a special bench in the courtyard, what used to be their bench. He slouched down and looked up at Ariel “So?” he asked expectantly. He had decided to take Marisol’s advice, he would let go of his grudge and hear her out. But he was far from ready to forget what she had done to him.

His response was actually better than what she had expected. The way he called her by her first name practically made her skin crawl. Watching as he turned to walk away, she scrambled to quickly grab her things and follow him. Once he sat down on the bench, she forced herself to face him. She had avoided this spot for nearly two years now. Not having really planned what she was going to say, the young woman decided to wing it. Most definitely the wrong choice.

”I hate that we have to start talking like this, Archer, I do. But… the school has forced us into a really awkward situation and I guess we need to make the best of it.” Noticing how fast she was speaking, Ariel took a breath to calm herself. ”But first… I have to say I'm sorry.”

He just looked at her for a long time before he spoke softly and quietly “You’re sorry?” he paused seemingly deep in thought. He let out a small laugh “You know… that’s not good enough babe.” his eyes shot up to meet hers. “I kinda need an explanation from you. Let’s go through it shall we? We were so close Ari… It was you, me and Mar. And then you just decide to not be friends anymore? You don’t speak to me for months on end and when I try to figure things out you just say that you’re tired of hanging out with an annoying sidekick?” he let it all flow out of him like he had been waiting for this moment the last two years, in fact he had. “And now… because you are forced to… all you can say is that you’re sorry? Well I fucking hope you are!” you could practically see the steam rising from the boys forehead.

You deserve that, she thought. Hell, she fucking more than deserved it. In all reality, she was just glad that he didn't get up and stomp off. As it turns out, winging it couldn't have made anything worse. His reaction was more than expected.

An explanation? She could give him one, but did she want to bore him with all of the gory details? Worse - would he even believe her? She felt her face getting hot again. Crossing her arms, she sat down beside him. ”Archie… I-i was going through a really, really rough time. Instead of leaning on my friends, I pushed them away like an idiot for my own selfish reasons. Reasons that I've tried to convince myself were okay, but they aren't. I'm sorry I said those things but it was easier to push you away like that then to let you see what was going on with me. I didn't know who I had become, and I still don't. I'm trying to fix it. I've already apologized to Kavi, and soon, I will Mari too. It's just been… rough.”

Archer nodded along as she spoke, his heart couldn’t help but break a little when he saw the pain in her face. “I get it Ari… I had it really rough as well.” He began thinking back to when he came out two years ago. “My family practically disowned me, you guys were all I had. I would’ve never treated you that way.” he said feeling his throat getting tighter.

He looked away towards the ground kicking at some small rocks. “If you don’t want to tell me what happened, that’s fine.” He stopped again “But Ariel, you do understand that this is not going away just because you apologized… right?” he whispered.

”I just… I wanted to open up to you guys so bad back then, but my dad had told me so many times that no one would believe me about what he did. And after you hear something so many times, you start to believe it. So I figured why burden you guys with my problems?” She lowered her gaze, looking at the ground now. Archer was right. They had been a family. So why didn't she come to them? Who knew.

“And, yeah, I know. Believe me, I do. But it's been long enough, and I really would like to have my friend back, if that's okay? I don't expect you to trust me right away again or anything. I just… I've missed you.”

The young man's eyes shifted from the ground to Ariel. After a beat of silence he let out a sigh. To be completely honest he had missed having Ariel as a friend. He loved Marisol with all of his heart but sometimes she could be less than sensitive. Usually when he came to her with a problem her response was often “Do you want me to punch him?” or “Do you want Marco to punch someone?” which wasn't always what he wanted. Ariel had been the one that had played that part and when she decided he wasn't good enough he had to deal with those things himself.

“Maybe we can try to salvage this somehow…” he whispered as he shifted uncomfortably. “But we'll have to figure out how to be friends again.” he sighed.

“I'd really like that, Archer. But you might have to avoid me just a few more days until I can explain everything to Mari,” she said with a small laugh.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion “You really think it'll be good if I'm not there to keep her subdued? Whatever you say Babe.” it shocked him how easy it was to slip back on how he used to talk to her.

He looked down at his phone and let out a groan “Sorry Ari, I need to book it if I want to make it to French. Call me later and I guess we'll plan this disaster of a date. I have the same number if you didn't delete that too!” he said with mischief in his voice and a quick smile before he rushed of towards the school building.

[AlteredTundra]

---

---

---

There was a lot happening around her that, if she was being totally honest with herself, she found a bit overwhelming. Everything from her pairing being someone who, up until just a few moments ago, didn’t know all that well. She knew Oliver, of course, but only through passing glances. She didn’t interact with that particular crowd he often rolled with. She always saw him with Raven, the girl whose three names confuse Stella. Every time she would try and guess which name was the right one, she just found herself drawing a blank. Then again, Stella didn’t really talk to Raven or Oliver enough to wage whether either of them was particularly fond of her. She knew how she could be. And what was even worse for the poor girl, she wasn’t even sure what to make of it all.

And of course, Kavi’s words about how she was least likely to get laid of the three seemed to bother her more than it should’ve. Okay, sure Stella wasn’t like a lot of girls at the school - especially not if the rumors were true about that XiXi girl. And definitely nowhere near the levels of some of the guys in their class (yeah she’s looking at you, Kavi Salvador), but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be up for it. If Oliver was a gentleman or if they clicked, she wouldn’t turn it down, but there was just something about the way he dismissed the possibilities of her ever getting laid with Oliver was what had the brunette in a rare state of equal annoyance and irritation. Okay, both were the same, but to Stella, they were two sides of two very different coins.

“Kavi can be a jerk all he wants. I’m not gonna be unlaid come next week. He can bet!” Stella told herself, huffing as she went to eat her salad.

And as her own words of encouragement drove the girl to chomp hard on her leafy greens, from behind her, she heard Oliver speak to her. "Stella, my darling. Any chance we could discuss the news over lunch?"

“Oh,” Stella managed to utter a single word, though she said it a surprised, almost-hushed tone, so it was practically mute at this point. “I mean, hey, yeah! Go ahead and join me,” she said to the blonde teen, gesturing him to take a seat at the empty table she was sitting at. “What’s on your mind?”

”Nothing much,” he replied, taking the seat across from her. ”I figured that since we're being forced to go to homecoming together, we better make the best of it. So… uh… did you already have a dress picked out or anything?”

Stella smiled at Oliver, though there was a moment where she thought he didn’t know her at all. Even at a passing glance, it was obvious what kind of girl that she was. “I had mine picked out since labor day. My Aunt Florence took me shopping in New York,” she told Oliver with a smile. “Do you have your tux? Or are you one of those blazer kinds of guys?” She asked him.

A special shopping trip to New York? Wow. ”In all honesty, I was planning on sitting this one out,” he said laughing. ”But definitely more of a tux guy. I'll try and pick one out real soon. Did you want my tie to match your dress or anything?”

On that note, Stella instantly perked up, a smile that could light up the stars went off. It was as if her wishes of the perfect date had finally been answered. So, as her brown eyes sparkled with an imaginary shade of bright orange like a sun within the night sky, she pulled out her phone. “This is the dress my aunt got for me. They even photographed me and everything. It’s lavender, so if you could get something similar. Maybe a lavender tie with a darker shade of purple. Or maybe cornflower blue with a lavender tie!” Stella found herself thinking out loud. After the second suggestion, her mouth kept rambling on and on as if it faded into white noise, though her voice certainly would carry.

Nodding along as she spoke, Oliver’s eyes widened as he looked at the picture. ”Dayum… You look freaking stunning. Well, I mean, you always do, but anyway.” He cleared his throat, taking a moment to think. ”I actually love cornflower blue, but are you against bowties? That's a bit more my style than a tie.”

She didn’t know why, but when he called her stunning, her cheeks turned a shade closer to strawberry red rather than the fleshy tone of peach her skin has always been post-makeup time. This alone had her looking at Oliver in a new light. The words Kavi had spoken to her started to fade as Stella was now actually starting to see Oliver as someone she could see herself with.

To hell with Lucas Anderson, she thought to herself, the thought itself taking her by surprise. Was she really that kind of girl now? It was her fault for not following up with Lucas, wasn’t it? No, that wasn’t why. She didn’t follow up that night with him because she found out he was Diablo’s best friend. She didn’t want anything to do with him, so she punished Lucas for it. Oh God! I’m just like all those bitches from those mean girls-type shows..

Completely beside herself, Stella just tossed those thoughts out of her mental window as she chose to focus on Oliver - sweet, sweet Oliver. “I love bowties! And you’d look super cute in one, I’m sure of it!” She couldn’t believe she actually said that, but to her surprise, Stella wasn’t going to take it back. She just smiled at Oliver, slightly batting her full eyelashes at the blonde teen.

Everything was going so smoothly. Stella was just as great as he had always imagined and heard about - though he would admit he was still a tad curious about the rumors of what a party girl she could be. Most of the others were probably at their appointed partners throat. Some of those pairings had been interesting, to say the least. He noticed her blushing and felt a small sense of accomplishment. His passing for straight was working. (Well, it had been working for the last eighteen years, but you get the point.) And he had gotten her approval for the bowtie!

”So…” Oli said thoughtfully, squinting his eyes slightly in concentration. ”Excellent homecoming partner, check. Wardrobe, check…. Was there anything you wanted to do beforehand? I known of this great Japanese joint about fifteen minutes from the school.”

“Wait, you mean Kiyoshi’s Sushi Bar!?” Stella had to ask. If true, then she loved him even more than she was starting to already.

He laughed seeing how her face lit up in excitement. ”Yeah, that's the one. I freaking love that place.”

Oh. My. God!

Yeah, Stella was practically freaking out right now but in the best of ways. They were so in sync that they might as well be saying Bye Bye Bye! to this place and make a beeline for the sushi bar. How could someone be so perfect for her and she not even know they really existed? Well, she knew about Oliver - that was a no duh, but what she didn’t know was, in the ten minutes they’ve been talking, she has gotten to know him more than she thought she was gonna. They were, if anything, one of the best pairings to come out of this arranged ordeal.

“I love-love-love-love their spicy tuna roll. It’s so yummilicious!”

This was starting to get a little crazy - but in a good way. Stella had excellent fashion taste, shared the love for his favorite restaurant, and was actually quite… adorable. If he was into girls, she would most definitely be his type.

”That one definitely makes my top three. It's delicious.” Still thinking, he ran his fingers through his hair. They had discussed wardrobe and dinner plans. That was about it for homecoming plans. Oliver found that small factoid to be disappointing. He really enjoyed talking to Stella. ”Was there anything you wanted to add?” he asked, out of ideas to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, uh, there is something,” Stella said, though she hesitated from saying anything further. A part of her grew embarrassed, her cheeks unintentionally flushing a slightly darker shade of pink. “You’ll have to pick me up. My dad is - how to put this gently - over-excited for homecoming. When I told you my aunt took me to NYC for shopping, what I left out was that my dad came along and he picked out all of the possible dresses.” She seemed to be regretting this particular mention. She loved her father, but he was way too excited for his own good. “So, when I got my dress, he told me that whoever my date is, they have to pick me up and meet him, my mom, my Aunt Florence, Uncle Wesley, and basically the entire Lambert clan.” She could feel a familiar anxiety building up as she went to a mental place that made her think this would scare him off.

Well, it wasn't the scariest thing he had ever done or been propositioned, but it was definitely up there on the list. He hardly knew Stella personally, and here he was more or less invited to meet her whole family. It couldn't be that bad though, could it? All of his friends mom's had always liked him. Dads had always seemed indifferent. There were worse things in life that could happen. However, meeting the family meant he would have to keep his sass toned down to a minimum. Or maybe her family was super sassy too, and they could all just have one huge sass party. Okay dude, chill. You're anxious. You're over thinking. It's okay.

Regaining his mental composure, he smiled at her reassuringly before speaking. ”Honestly, Stella? I really don't see a problem with that.”

”Well, uh, well shit..”

That was the only thing that had made it out of her mouth and it was so unbecoming for someone like Stella. She hardly ever cussed and when she did, it usually was in a positive manner. Her brother, cousins, father, and friends all had a sailor’s tongue, but she never showed signs until now. Truly, when she was as taken aback by something someone says, she really didn’t know what to say. That was exactly what was happening right now. She half-expected Oliver to be jittery or be overconfident about it. She also thought he was going to back out. This obviously wasn’t the case.

Collecting herself, Stella coughed, letting out a few, short, awkwardly-nervous laughs as she fixated on the eyes that, at this moment, felt like they were the only thing able to calm her down. “I mean, if you really don’t mind my family’s erraticness, then I guess it’s a date..” She uttered slowly, a smile of relief forming where anxiety previously resided.

Oliver grinned. This had truly gone way better than expected. ”Sounds good to me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go catch up with Martha,” he said grabbing his things.

“Wait!” She stopped him real quick, “let me give you my number,” she said, pulling out her iPhone 9. “Ya know, just so you can text me or whatever.”

”God, yeah,” he said, laughing a bit and handing her his phone in return. ”Almost forgot that. I feel like such an idiot now.”

She waved up her hands. “Oh, no it’s my goof! I should’ve asked for it before now,” she told him, holding up his phone and taking a selfie, and set it as the pic that came up whenever she would call him or text. “And done. I even added a cute-ass selfie for you too.” There she went cursing again. And what’s this? She winked at him. God, Stella what is up with you?

Oliver smiled, looking down at his phone and seeing the picture. ”Awesome. I'll catch you later, Stel,” he said pocketing his phone and turning to walk away.

When she was left to her lonesome, Stella was gushing and just staring at her phone with Oliver’s picture there as well. Well, it was a quick shot from earlier, but she had it and goddamn he was cute. His blonde hair, his eyes, his dimples - everything about him made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She hasn’t felt this way about anyone since the days she and Santiago were dating. Okay, so it wasn’t dating in the traditional sense, but they went out on a date or two and she thought he actually liked her, but now? She really felt like Oliver liked her in the way she has always wanted a guy to like her.

“It’s just perfect!” She squeed to herself, getting up as she knew the first person she just had to tell!

[Venus]

<sub>Fuck my life, can't save that, girl
Don't tell me you could save that shit
All she want is payback for the way I always play that shit
You ain't gettin' nothin' that I'm sayin'
Don't tell me you is
Nothin' like them other mothafuckas'
I can make you rich
I can make you this, baby, I can make you that
I can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
Growing sick of this and I don't wanna make you sad
Do I make you scared?
Baby, won't you take me back?

Down another lonely road, I go
Just another lonely road, oh</sub>

The past six weeks had been the most depressing ones Santiago Fernandez had experienced, only coming in second to the ones right after his grandmother’s death. Ever since that fateful night of his back to school party, things had snowballed into a shit-storm that had left him with only misery to keep him company. His hookup with Ximena and the company of his friends from out of town had been nothing but a mere band-aid, keeping his bleeding heart whole until he eventually had to rip it right off.

Whenever his mind wanted to revisit the unfortunate series of events that led to this pathetic state of being, Diablo had to muster up all of his might to avoid doing so. The kiss with mousy little Bea had most certainly not been worth all the crap that happened afterwards, and just thinking about it made him want to bash his head against the nearest wall. But even in such turbulent times, he’d learned a very valuable lesson: he really needed to stop thinking with his head instead of his dick.

When the assembly was announced, Santiago didn’t think much of it. He figured it was just the school coming up with some stupid, useless new rule to further instill in the students a desire to die. And technically he wasn’t wrong… But the situation was far worse than anything he could have imagined. The whole idea of randomly assigning the Homecoming pairings wasn’t what had Diablo worried. In fact, what really had him internally panicking was that 99.9% of real possibility of seeing April being paired off with someone else. And when it was announced that she would be attending the event with none other than Kavi Salvador, it took all of his minuscule restraint to not jump out of his seat and wreck havoc at the auditorium. Her smug little smile at him really didn’t help the case, and neither did hearing that his date would be the ‘charming’ president of his hate club: Mara Lubitsch. It was the cherry on top of this shit sundae.

The minute they were dismissed, Santiago angrily grabbed his belongings and stalked off in the direction of his car. It wasn’t long before he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and just reading the sender’s name had his eyebrows knit together in a nasty frown. But when he read the contents of the message, Diablo literally thought he could feel the steam coming out of his ears.

Good luck getting Mara to put out, Santi. I'll be sure to give April my love for ya. ;)

“Touch her and I swear to God I’ll put you in a coma,” he typed up immediately, thumbs flying across his phone screen even if hands were shaking with rage. But as soon as he took a second to really think about it, Santiago cursed out loud, shook his head and deleted the text message. Responding to it meant that Salvador was getting to him, and he would be damned if he gave that living, breathing piece of shit any of his time. As much as he wanted to pull a Marisol Castillo and destroy the dude, he needed to be the bigger person. So instead of giving Salvador what he wanted, he texted his charming Homecoming date:

“See you next Saturday, Blondie. I promise I’ll make it a night you’ll never forget.”

Once that text was sent, Diablo pocketed his phone and left the school building. He wasn’t going to give April or Kavi any chances to further push his shortening temper, so he opted to skip lunch altogether. His furious body was begging for a round at the gym, to imagine Kavi’s fucking face on his favorite punching bag and beating the crap out of it until his arms tired out. And if that’s what his body wanted, that’s exactly what Santiago would give it.

[AlteredTundra]

^{_{featuring Nadia Josette Aurelios}}

---

---

After the general outrage of the homecoming pairings, lunch was turning out to be a rather enjoyable affair. If Mari had, to be honest, this Salem guy was honestly pretty damn cool, even if his dweeb side was showing occasionally. He was a combination of her older brother Marco Jr.s’ quick sense of humor and easygoing attitude, Archer and Kirk’s love for literature, and her younger brother Marshall’s playful sarcasm. It didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes and that he was getting along so well with two of her dearest friends. Even if she wouldn’t admit it outright, Sol was always happy to have more people in her friend circle. And, curiously enough, it looked like Salem Rivera was fitting right in.

Fate really was a funny thing.

On the other side of the coin, Salem was enjoying himself too. He had good company and the food at King’s Academy was especially good, better than his last school that cut corners despite the outrageous tuition fee. It was so good, Salem had scarfed down his fries before he even realized it; it hit the spot, but it left him wanting to more. Cheekily, Salem sneaked his arm around Marisol so he could steal her fries from the other side. When she didn’t notice, Salem internally shrugged his shoulders and continued to gather some of her fries.

Taking a moment away from the conversation to look around the room, her eyes fell on Sonny. Smiling, she waved enthusiastically at him, motioning for him to come over to their table. In other circumstances, she would have given him the darkest of death glares for having chosen to spend his company with Nadia instead of them. But she was in a terrific mood today, and not even his ‘who the fuck is that’ face could get her out of it. Hell, not even Judas coming up and snatching Archer away could pop her happy bubble! She would obviously ask him all about it later, but her focus was on something completely different now.

As Sonny saw, he just ignored them. He was curious, of course, but there really was no way in hell that he was going to willingly go over there. He would look like a fool, but there was something eating at him about who that guy was that was with Kirk and Archie and Marisol. She had no problem avoiding him for god-knows-why, but she had no problem perking it up with some new nobody.

“Can you believe the nerve of her?” He said to Nadia, clearly annoyed.

Stopping midchew, the redhead looked at Sonny with a mildly confused expression. ...uh...no?” Came her muffled response, although she would finish before looking towards the target of Sonny’s ire. ”I thought you two were friends.”

She had him there. “She’s the oldest friend I have, but as of late, she’s been acting like a big you-know-what. Avoiding me as if I did something wrong. And this is after her meds had her speaking nonsense. And now she’s throwing all of it in my face as if I’m the one who did something wrong.” Sonny let out a slight huff, looking over at Marisol who was still gesturing to him. “And now she wants me to go to her? That’s some mixed signal kind of shit, which I should know since I invented that shit.”

Despite not entirely understanding the situation, Nadia would slowly nod. ”Have you tried asking her what’s going on?” She asked. ”When people do that, it usually means something’s wrong.” Granted, she was more than certain that it had some sort of relation to the entire Sonny/Vic kiss back at the party that resulted in a car getting smashed, but there was no way she was going to say that out loud.

Damn it, he really hated when people used common sense when talking to him. Just for once, Sonny would like people to side with him - even if he was being unreasonably unrealistic. “The last time I talked to her, she said she loved me, but she was also high on those bipolar meds they had her doped up on, so she obviously wasn’t really meaning it,” he said in reply, scowling somewhat. “But fine! I’ll go over there.” He uttered as he stood up, looking over at Marisol’s unnerving grin and her willing hand waving at him still. “If it’s a trap, I’m doing my wiggle dance naked,” he teased Nadia, leaving their table.

Nadia’s jaw dropped for multiple reasons, although she closed her mouth, shaking her head at him. ”I’ll...be waiting here,” She said as she looked down at her salad, albeit with a small smile.

As Sonny casually made his way over to the Misfits Table - the table that he should’ve been at, not the Fakefits - he had a looming thought the back of his mind that this was just another attempt for Marisol to embarrass him. She had no problem doing it when she practiced her batting swing on Victoire’s car and sure as hell had no problem doing the same thing when she said those out-of-character things to him a couple of weeks ago. He just knew nothing good was going to come from this, but there was a small part of him that was hoping this was going to be different. She didn’t seem like the usual bitchy self she tended to be and in good spirits. Despite everything, he was glad she didn’t have the cuckoo clock popping out of her chest as she had before.

He stopped in front of the table, though he didn’t take a seat. He didn’t see himself staying that long; it was only going to last for a few minutes so she could say what she needed to say and so that he could find out who the walking churro was. “I’m here. Now start talking.”

“Well, hello there, Sugar!” Mari said cheerfully, shooting Sonny a wink. “I just wanted to introduce you to someone.”

The ‘someone’ Marisol just so happened to be referring to shoved the last of his stolen fries into his mouth before sheepishly lifting his hand in an indolent greeting. Salem chewed furiously, hoping he could finish the food and swallow quickly enough that he avoided an awkward silence on his part. It was only polite that he introduced himself, especially to the guy his new friend had been excitedly gesturing over for the past minute or so.

“Uh, hi,” Salem said ungainly, having chewed his food too slow and feeling as if he should have waited to eat his fries after the introductions were over with – even if it meant his thievery would be discovered. Being the new kid was hard. “I’m Salem Rivera. Uh, I’m new here and...yeah.”

Well no shit.

That was Sonny’s first thought when Salem — what a stupid name — had said he was new. Yeah, of course, he knew, or else Marisol wouldn’t have introduced him to her best friend of eighteen years as ‘somebody’. Had he been here for a while, Sonny would’ve run into him at some point. So, him saying he was a new student wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that required a doctorate to see. And god, he cringed at the name Salem. His parents must’ve hated him from the moment they laid eyes on him.

As he swallowed the urge to say what he was really thinking, Sonny simply gave …Salem a nod of acknowledgment, shook his hand and turned his attention to Marisol. “So is that it?” Sonny asked her point blank. She better have more than just introducing him to this newbie.

The attitude earned him an eye roll and a frown from Marisol. “What’s up with you?” she asked him back, taking a few fries from her plate and stuffing them in her mouth. “You pissed because I called you away from Little Miss Sugar over there?”

Sonny had to laugh. The fact that she even acknowledged Nadia was proof enough that she was bothered by it. “You jealous that I chose to spend my lunch with her instead of your jealous ass?”

Marisol scoffed, and even though she rolled her eyes again there was no hiding the anger that was slowly boiling up inside them. Tensions were slowly building up between them, the way it always did when two stubborn bulls faced each other head-on. “Give me a fucking break. The world doesn’t revolve around your vain, narcissistic ass, Sonny.” she spat, getting upset that her stupid best friend didn’t know how to take a fucking joke these days.

Well, this sure as hell was awkward for Salem. Did they have some sort of relationship? If they did, he really didn’t want to be the one to get between them when he was a non-issue in the first place. Either way, Marisol was a friend and Salem doesn’t think he really likes Sonny if this is how he treats a lady and a friend or a lady friend. Salem was still confused about their relationship.

Hesitantly, not wanting to overstep his boundaries by getting involved but also not wanting a spectacle to take place or Marisol’s feelings to get hurt, Salem lifted an arm in between them as if a barrier. His outstretched palm slightly brushed Sonny’s shoulder in a non-aggressive motion for him to step back.

“Hey, let’s just relax, guys.” Salem attempted to soothe.

As soon as Salem decided to open his mouth, Sonny’s immediate attention was directed at him, a scathing gaze taking the place of his previous neutral expression. “The grownups are talking, Sally, so just sit there and try and remain as boring as possible. I’m sure someone like yourself can manage that much,” Sonny calmly stated, smiling

Frowning in annoyance, Salem stood up to his full height, towering over this Sonny guy by at least six inches. He didn’t bother getting into Sonny’s space but rather glowered by Marisol’s side with a scowl that twisted the scar on his chin menacingly. “Really, you’re calling yourself a ‘grown-up’? All I see is a skinny punk picking a fight for no substantial reason. Why don’t you take your supposed mature ass back to your table, because I think we’re done here.”

“Because I was called over here to meet somebody Marisol thought was worth my time, but all I see is an overconfident giant who is two seconds away from finding out he’s got nothing but height over me,” Sonny remarked. He wanted Salem to try it - he really did. It would give Sonny just enough justification to floor him and make Marisol realize he’s just like every other man in her life.

“Jesus fucks, man,” Marisol cursed out loud, shaking her head while she got up from her seat to stand right between Salem and Sonny. This was not how things were supposed to go. All eyes were on their little scene now, and it was frankly pushing her off. “Both of you: drop it. Son, I was just playing with you in the first place. All I wanted was for you to meet this dude, but I'm sorry it was such an inconvenience to you,” she spat, grabbing her belongings from the table. “Guess you better go back to Sprinkle Shine,” Sol said sarcastically, giving Sonny one last scathing glare before turning on her heel and walking away.

As he watched Marisol walk away, Sonny’s eyes casually glanced towards Salem. Just as he was about to rush after her, Sonny stepped in front of him, stopping him. “Word of advice newbie: watch out for her. Once she tires of your good guy act, she’ll toss you aside for the next flavor of the month,” he said, smiling at the lanky fellow. After a brief shoulder pat, Sonny motioned his head towards Marisol. “Go on, little chihuahua. Your master’s waiting for you.”

Salem stared Sonny down but didn’t deign to respond to him. Huffing air through his nose, Salem swung his bag over his shoulder and ran after Marisol.

[Hero]

The sheer amount of hatred radiating off of Victoire only fed into itself, perpetuating an alarming but typical scowl etched on her face. She hated everything on a normal day, but it was as if the universe had kicked it into overdrive. She had no idea how she was going to manage Homecoming without murdering that moron Jun, nor was she willing to hold back on that end. He got one over her, that much she couldn’t deny, but she was going to make sure she paid it back with interest.

It was hard to deny the embarrassment didn’t affect her, as nearly everyone she made contact with had some sort of stupid smile on their face. The only reason she had yet to hear anything after seeing them was that her death glare was especially on point due to her anger. And so she would forgo going to the cafeteria; she could just eat later, if she saw another stupid face approach her she would probably end up punching someone.

“Victoire!!!!”

And as if on queue, coming from behind came a surprise, literal glomp from Stella Lambert to Victoire’s surprisingly sturdy vertical frame. Her arms wrapped around the dark-haired girl and gave her a hard squeeze. “I’m glad I found you before you left! I have so many things to tell you!!”

Of course. Because the universe needed to test her patience further.

That wasn’t right. Stella did nothing wrong to her. She needed to rein in her anger for a moment. Taking in a deep breath, she turned her face towards the smaller girl. ”Do you now?” She couldn’t help but ask.

Stella gave Vic a nod, followed up by a repeated ‘mhm’ sound that was muffled by her closed lips. “Yes I do!” She repeated herself, nodding again. “God, it’s just so amazing and I knew I just had to tell you!”

Victoire only looked at Stella. After a moment of not saying anything, she remembered how dim the girl was and said, ”So are you going to tell me?”

”I, uh,” Stella hesitated, looking at Vic. “Are you okay? You don’t seem like yourself,” she said, concerned for her friend.

”I’m always like this,” She replied. ”There is never a day where life isn’t needlessly annoying.”

Stella now felt really horrible. Here she had her own, selfish news about Oliver that she wanted to tell her, but then here was Vic seemingly in a constant state of negativity. “I can go if you want..” She looked at Vic, unsure. She didn’t want to cause yet another level of irritation for Vic.

The girl looked like a kicked puppy, and now it was Victoire's turn to feel bad. She shouldn't let her emotions get the best of her, especially as the last thing she wanted was to talk about that moron. ”No, it's fine, I'm just annoyed that people seem to blame me for this Homecoming fiasco,” She dismissed the girl's concerns. ”You should have seen the way Diedrikson looked at me.”

“You mean people aren’t happy with it? I’m ecstatic! It’s such a neat idea. Instead of going out of our way stressing over who to ask for, the choice has been made for us. It’s so exciting! Don’t you agree?”

At that moment Victoire subconsciously liked Stella to an adorable baby sheep. ”Considering the blowout, I can't say I agree. If I had a more likable partner, then maybe, but I am stuck with the class clown who is set on making my life hell until the dance.”

Was there really a blowout to it? Stella understood that not everyone was happy, but she didn’t think it was as bad as Vic was making it out to be. “Class clown? Oh right, you were paired up with Jun. Is he really that bad?” She asked Vic.

Victoire gave Stella an unamused look. ”Yes.”

Stella was confused and she didn’t understand it entirely. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, extending an ear if Vic needed it.

Fuck no. ”No.”

“Oh. Well, okay that’s fine!” She smiled at Vic. It was no problem for her at all. Whenever Vic was ready to talk about it, she knew that Stella would be there for her. “In any case, about what I wanted to tell you!” Her slight smile shifted into a wide grin laced with a layer of nerves that seemed to threaten to break her curved lips. “You know the boy I was paired up with, Oliver Greyson, right?”

”What about him?” She asked.

“I think he likes me,” she stated simply, though her cheeks flushed bright red as soon as she did.

Raising her eyebrows slowly, Victoire had to take a moment to really take in that information. Stella looked positively peachy about it, but something felt a little off. As far as Victoire had been aware, she couldn’t recall Oliver ever going out with anyone. She actually thought he was like herself in a way when it came to relationships, albeit she had no proof. But that was neither here nor there; she supposed if Stella had her eyes on someone who was a million times better than her idiot brother, then good for her.

”What makes you say that?” She asked, somewhat curious.

“Well…” Stella hesitated for a minute. She gripped the side of her arm with her other, darting away from Vic’s direct gaze for a moment. It wasn’t until she thought about it herself that she seemed sure of why. “The vibe I got when we talked earlier just seemed like there could be something there. I know I don’t have the greatest track record. I mean, not that you would know that, but I was burned pretty bad by Santiago and I just couldn’t handle Lucas after the party, but with Oliver, it just feels natural. And I’m pretty sure he was flirting with me.” She was rambling, but it was the only way she knew she could get her thoughts out without sounding like a complete dumbo.

Wow, this girl had it bad. Victoire nodded slowly as Stella spoke, a little curious but unsurprised by the Santiago remark, but otherwise, she certainly seemed excited. But she couldn’t shake off that itch, that feeling that maybe she should advise her to be cautious. ”Natural, huh,” She said, pausing for a moment. ”Well, if you’re sure, then I wish you the best. At least you’ll have fun at the dance one way or another.”

“I sure hope so! I’m like really nervous. Or I would be if -- aaah!-- if he wasn’t so damn cute, ya know? You’ve seen him, right?” Stella didn’t wait to answer him and she pulled out her phone and showed her the one picture she had of Oliver on her phone. “Just look at him. Isn’t he the dreamiest cutie pie you ever seen?” She asked Vic, her big eyes looking to her friend as they always had done.

”He’s no Kavan Varma, but yeah, he’s cute,” Victoire agreed, her eyes going from the phone to Stella. ”So, what, you’re going to ask him out?”

“Oh, you must not have remembered, but he’s my date for Homecoming,” she said, replying rather swiftly, which was unlike her. She usually fumbled.

She had to remind herself to be patient with the little sheep. ”Okay, but that doesn’t answer my question,” She said. ”What are your intentions with him?”

“What do you mean?” She asked, confused. “I mean, I guess dancing?” Stella said almost as if she wasn’t sure herself, though she was more perplexed by Vic’s question more than what she was actually going to do with Oliver. “Should I have any intentions?” A question escaped her lips that, in her mind, she thought it was going to be something she’d say to herself, not out loud. Too late now.

Jun had already filled a majority of her idiocy tolerance so Victoire had little patience for Stella’s airheadedness. ”If you think he’s cute then yes. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time,” She decided to be as upfront as possible. ”But that’s up to you, I have my own ‘date’ to worry about, unfortunately.” Just thinking about Jun again got her riled up.

“You’re saying exactly what Kavi implied.” In the place of a confused expression came a slight pout-like frown.

Getting compared to that other idiot did very little to uplift her already sour mood. ”If you hear the same thing more than once, it’s for a reason,” Victoire advised her.

“Yeah but Kavi’s a dum dum! And you’re not!” She exclaimed rather passionately. As she thought about it more, Stella just looked at Vic for a moment. Could she be right? Could Kavi be right? Maybe she wouldn’t get laid or close to it. “Am I really so innocent and wholesome that people assume I wouldn’t get laid like most girls in our class would?” She asked Victoire. Truly she didn’t understand it one bit. It wasn’t like she hadn’t slept with guys before, but ever since Diablo, she hadn’t put herself out there.

‘Innocent’ wasn’t the word Victoire would have used. Nadia was what came to mind when she thought of the word innocent, Stella was more insecure and unsure. ”What I mean is that you’re too passive. Some aggression would do you well,” She told her.

“I don’t want to be mean to anybody. I wasn’t raised to be a bitch -- no offense to you, of course. I know it works for you, but I’m not sure it’s my thing, ya know?”

”I’m a bitch because I hate everything,” Victoire spelled it out for her.

“Well, that’s a lie. You don’t hate me!” And just like that, Stella’s frown was turned upside down, directed in full at Vic.

Victoire chose not to respond. ”My point stands. If you don’t put in some effort to get what you want, you’ll find yourself sitting there alone with no one to blame but yourself,” She said.

”I suppose you have a point.”

Stella did agree with Victoire. She didn’t like it, of course, but there was no denying the truth in her advice. The reason Stella was in this position was due to her lack of confidence in herself. Where it came from was another matter. She wasn’t like this when Sav was still around. Maybe that was the problem. Her leaving really did a number on the brunette and it just drove her to do a lot of the wrong things for what she thought were the right reasons. Obviously that wasn’t true. But Vic’s words rung true for her and it was only after she let them sink in did she seem to finally get it.

Looking at Vic for a moment, Stella finally responded with a smile and a sudden, tight hug. “Thank you so, so, so much for your wonderful advice! You really are something special!” She said warmly, letting out a breath of warmth as she made the hug last for a few, long moments.

”You’re very touchy today, aren’t you?” She couldn’t help but ask.

Stella might’ve lacked aggression, but she certainly knew a sign to let go when she heard it. “Oh my God, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to..I’m just really happy today and talking to you really just helped me even more. But I’m sorry! I guess you’re not used to impromptu hugs, huh?” Her question was followed by a nerve-ridden laugh.

”My personal space is important to me, so my reaction would have been the same regardless of who it was,” Victoire replied somewhat dryly.

“Oh, I totally get that. Like, I’m just -- uh, what’s the word? Oh, yes,” she smiled at Vic, ”I just like hugging you. It’s weird, but you just have a warm presence and totally not bitchy at all!”

”You flatter me.”

”You deserve to be flattered!” She replied with gusto.

There were quite a few people who were likely to disagree with that statement. Still, Victoire decided to humor Stella, if only for the sake of not wanting to get touched again. ”I have a few things to take care of, so just remember what I said. Best of luck,” She told her.

”And to you as well! Jun’s not that bad of a guy - he just jokes a lot,” she said, hopefully giving Vic some peace of mind. As she said that, she went to hug Vic again, but she remembered that she didn’t like it when Stella hugged her not once but twice without saying anything. So, in the place of her arms wrapping around Vic’s slender body came her right hand extended out with her fingers straight, though Stella’s big, bright eyes full of honey sweetness. “A shake for good luck, perhaps?”

Lord have mercy, this girl was hopeless. Making a mental note to bring plenty of tissues for the inevitable rejection, Victoire shook her hand. ”Good luck.”

[AlteredTundra]

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Since departing the auditorium and getting to the cafeteria, there wasn’t a moment that Kavi didn’t think about how perfect everything was falling into place for him. Not only was the teen able to snag the last calamari dish the cafeteria had, but the thought of how bothered he knew Diablo was going to be when he received the text Kavi sent shortly after leaving the assembly. He just knew it would get under the candy man’s skin. And how did he know this? Well, Kavi knew Diablo. Or at least he knew how much he apparently cared for April. The rumors of their on-again-off-again spread like wildfire. If someone hadn’t heard about their mess of a relationship, then either they lived under a rock or simply didn’t care.

Good thing Kavi did. And he planned on using it to his advantage.

“Thanks, keep the change,” Kavi handed the Timmy, the vendor two twenty dollar bills as he took the styrofoam package that had his sticky rice and calamari with spicy soy sauce to dip it in. Just like how grandpa makes it.

He couldn’t wait any longer. Kavi wasn’t even three feet away from where he had purchased it when it propped it open, but before he could get his claws into it, a voice from behind stopped him from taking his first bite. In the back of his mind, he was ready to pummel who it was, but the words in addition to who it was didn’t make it seem like that would be wise on his part.

“First use is free of charge, but every other use requires payment.” He smiled at April, taking no shame in looking her from head to toe and then back up, stopping at her eyes that, even in the artificial lighting the cafeteria lights had, had a brilliant, sweet, sultry honey shade to them. “Though, for you, I might make an exception.” With charm on overdrive, Kavi kept the smile, holding his styrofoam package in one hand while running the other through his dark locks.

“An exception huh?” April grinned. If one thing was for sure, it was that Kavi’s charm was almost intoxicating to the brunette. She watched him with playful eyes as he looked her up and down, smiling as a sudden wave of self-awareness hit her. It wasn’t a new experience for her--Diablo did it damn near every time she saw him--but something about it being Kavi made the experience all that more foreign. Surreal almost.

Maybe even fun.

April sped past him and grabbed a table not far ahead, placing her own tray down before sitting opposite to Kavi. It was evident that she was excited about this entire thing; the stupid smirk that she had originally greeted her newfound homecoming partner with had yet to leave her face. There was a moment--and it was a good long moment--where Santiago had entered her mind and she wondered if he would’ve been alright with this. But then she remembered what the past month had brought to light and any shred of guilt that had been present disappeared in the blink of an eye.

”It’s Kavi right? Or as Mrs. Sanders called you, Mister Salvador.” She said, making her voice sound all whiny and irritating as she mimicked the older teacher. April took a moment to down some of her garden salad after carefully drizzling it in balsamic vinaigrette, before looking back to her partner. With her eyes still ever playful, April sipped her coffee as she watched him over the lid of the cup. He’s certainly easy on the eyes she thought to herself, before putting down her coffee. “So, we’ve never really talked a lot before...how’s life?”

“My life has been pretty great, actually.”

Kavi didn’t really think about it; he didn’t feel the need to. When it came to how great he’s been living the past month - hell, the entire school year - has been nothing short of amazing. From dates with the most attractive girls at the school to being rewarded with a new car from his father just last week, Kavi really didn’t have anything to complain about. It was perfect - just like him.

He glanced at April. “It’s a shame we never did, though. I know we would’ve been a great item,” he unashamedly stated.

His statement took April by quite a surprise. The brunette’s eyes widened and her cheeks gently flushed before she looked down and composed herself quickly. Did she really just hear him say that? April looked up to him once again and made sure that he knew she contested the idea, even if it was just a bit. Her eyes spoke volumes in conversation.

“That’s a rather bold assumption, don’t you think?”

Ah yes, that was right. The name came back to her. Next to Santiago, Kavi was one of the main self-proclaimed womanizers. It certainly explained the attitude he brought. April briefly pondered about clearing the water of any assumptions early but kept quiet for the moment. She wanted to see how he’d react first.

“Bold and true,” he admitted, “I know you know I date a lot. This isn’t because I think I’m the gift that keeps on giving; they just come to me, ya know? And at some point, these girls just seem like blank faces, but don’t think I haven’t been watching you, April.” He said to her, leaning against the wall behind him. “The number of times you and Santiago have broken up can’t be counted on my fingers. He treats you like yesterday’s garbage. Or maybe I’m wrong here. If I am, then do correct me. I just know if you were my girl, the number of times we would have gotten back together would be this many.” He held up a hand that was balled up, showing her the number he spoke of was zero.

His piece about Santiago hit her like a freight train. Absolutely every bone in her body screamed at her to defend him, but she found herself hesitating. Everything he’d said had been true. Santi had never really been with her. He knew it and April had tried to forget it. What little they had between them was hidden behind a purely physical relationship and Kavi had just uncovered the whole mess. “I...I can’t say that you’re wrong.” April looked down to her food and let out a deep breath.

“And is that because we’d just be so in love, or just because we’d hate each other so much that we’d never want to speak again?” She replied, offering a gentle smirk before leaning in to sip her coffee. Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she spoke, trying to put the thoughts about her dear El Diablo out of her head.

He didn’t know if she intended to, but her comments forced out a laugh from Kavi. He collected himself, giving April a smile, though the chuckles still remained. “Sorry about that, but you thinking we’d hate each other is so funny to me. Nobody hates the Kavimiester, April,” he arrogantly stated, a familiar pride in his ego present. “There’s a reason people love me so much. I’m the kind of guy that will give you a night you won’t ever forget - that’s a fact.” Again, Kavi was showing no sign of his ego taking a break from assuming what April might think. “Unless you somehow disagree?” He knew it was unlikely to be the case, but the question still had to be asked.

April gritted her teeth. Kavi’s arrogance and over-inflated ego were beginning to get on her nerves. As mad as she was at Santi, he kept his ego more in check and didn’t act like an over-confident asshat. Right now, Kavi was being just plain irritating. “Do you honestly think you’re funny? Arrogance is not attractive Kavimeister, it’s irritating.” She looked at him impatiently as she put down her fork, contemplating what to say next. “Honestly Kavi, I completely disagree. The only reason I wouldn’t forget it is because it would be the night that held the record for the shortest time it’s taken for me to dump someone.”

He just sat there, eyes fixated on April round face. Thoughts swirled around as he contemplated what to say. He had a lot of things he could tell her. He could say she was wrong and that a time with him was unforgettable. He could remind her just who he was and how good at what he did he was. Reputations aside, Kavi knew that was the absolute truth. Another truth he knew were her truths -well, at least one that nobody at King’s Academy could afford to ignore.

Taking in the moment, he offered her a smile, unbeknownst to her there was something quite sinister lurking behind it. ”In your own words, you said ‘arrogance isn’t attractive’, yet you keep crawling back to the only person at this school who has a bigger ego than I do,” Kavi told her in a casual manner as he chomped on his lunch nonchalantly, his brown eyes occasionally glancing up at April.

April could feel her temper rising as her previous sarcastic smile faded into a look of pure venom. Those once welcoming, sweet brown eyes now stared daggers into Kavi’s perfectly punchable face. “And yet somehow I find you infinitely more irritating than he ever was. Having a big ego and flaunting it around are two very different things.” Her voice was unnervingly calm for the amount of anger behind the words. This control she had wouldn’t last long and she knew it. If the conversation didn’t end in some way soon, April was going to lose it. “And besides, I knew going in that Santi and I wouldn’t be serious. You assuming that we would be? That’s a whole new fuckin’ level of low, even for you.”

There was a moment for Kavi where he considered correcting April about a few things. But in that same moment, he saw something that, for the three seconds that followed, Kavi actually found himself ...wait for it! Feeling bad about what he said. Yes, it was possible for Kavi Salvador to actually feel regret and it was brief, but something in his gut tossed around, settling in nicely as a slight aching feeling in his stomach started. This had him gripping his stomach to help quell it. ”There is nothing low about it, sweetheart. At the end of the day, I know what I am. I have never shied away from being, as some would put it, an arrogant ass,” Kavi corrected her about her assumptions that what he said to her was ‘a new low’. ”Can you say the same about Santiago?”

Sweetheart. Little pet names like that made her skin crawl. Who the actual fuck did he think he was? April wanted to explode. She picked up her coffee and downed the rest as fast as she could. “I’m gonna be honest Kavi, I really, really wanted this to work for homecoming because I wanted to make a point for Santiago to see. But you are an absolute asshole.” There. It was out. “And call me sweetheart one more time and you can say goodbye to that perfect little smile of yours.” April tossed her lunch dishes out in the conveniently located garbage bin just next to their table before turning back to Kavi. “Anything else in my life you want to tear apart or can I stop wasting my breath and go do something productive?”

”Oh, lighten up. You’re acting as if I called you a bitch or something.” Kavi responded back, annoyed himself. “You really did hit the lottery, because I also want to rub it in Santiago’s face, too. He’s nothing more than a poor excuse for a latino. I know, right about now, he’s probably seething that we were paired up. And if not, then my text I sent out to him sure as hell would get him there.”

April stood from her seat, grabbed her now empty tray, and turned to walk off. She stopped briefly, turning to Kavi once more. “I guess we’re both going to homecoming alone because I’ll be damned if I’m spending another minute with your egotistical ass. Free or not, it’s not worth my time.” The brunette took in a deep breath in an effort to calm herself, much like she had to do back at the party. Her fists clenched, she waited a single moment to see if Kavi had anything left to retort with.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Kavi simply said, hoping that would catch her attention.

“Why shouldn’t I? You’ve given me absolutely zero reasons to stay. You’ve continuously rubbed my dysfunctional relationship in my face and on top of that, you don’t even seem to give a shit about it.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, staring down the irritatingly attractive teen.

“All true, April. I don’t care about your relationship with Diablo. Honestly, I don’t think anyone really cares about it, but they still talk about it like we’re talking about it right now,” Kavi stated bluntly. “Given the state of your relationship with him, you shouldn’t either, but you do, don’t you?” He didn’t need an answer. He could see it in her eyes. “You don’t like me and that is your right, but I’m the only one who can get exactly what you want. I can get under Santiago’s skin in the way you want.”

Damn it! Why did Kavi have to be so unbelievably right? April inhaled deeply, running the thought through her head over and over. “Alright, fuck it.” She conceded. The end result was too valuable for her to give it up over a minor speed bump like Kavi. She walked back to the table and took her seat once again. “On one condition.”

Well, that was easier than he thought it was going to be. “And what would that be?” He asked, wholly curious.

“If for some unknown reason one of us ends up at the other’s house after homecoming, I am not sleeping with you. Period. So get it out of your head before the idea even grows on you.” She said, her voice stern. She made the point clear and concise, phrasing it as something not to be questioned. There was a certain point that April would go to prove a point to Santi. Sleeping with someone? That was well past it.

Kavi laughed at just how serious she sounded. “A lot can happen in a week, darlin’.” He shot her a teasing wink. The fact that it crossed her mind even for a second was plenty of room for Kavi to work with. If he truly wanted to get her into his bed or work his way into hers, there was always a loophole to exploit.

After a moment of silence passed, Kavi returned to his slightly-straight posture. “Well, if that’s it, you better run along, or maybe you wish to spend the rest of the lunch period telling me off some more? I always welcome the company.”

“I think I’d better run along before people get ideas about us. I guess I’ll see you at homecoming.” April stood once again, before turning and walking off. What the actual hell are you doing April… She thought. This homecoming was certainly going to be interesting, and for better or worse, she was stuck with it.

[Venus]

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Salem found her in the hallway after she walked away from the cafeteria confrontation. Marisol’s back was to him as she stalked off and Salem felt more guilt run through his veins than blood. He had no right to get into their fight like that; no right to plausibly cause their fight like that. If it were him, Salem would be downright furious if someone got between Gwendolyn and him. Then again, the Italian-American would never speak to Gwen like that - maybe he was old-fashioned, but respect towards women was always an important virtue to him. Still, he had no right to judge their relationship and intervene as he had; Marisol was a big girl and she could fight her own battles, if she wanted.

So lost in his thoughts, Salem didn’t realize the gap between them had grown and he had to start jogging to catch up, “Marisol, wait up!”

“It's fine, I'm okay!” she told him out loud, really more so to reassure herself than to reassure Salem. Sol quickly wiped away the few angry tears that had been running down her cheeks before turning to him with a close-lipped half-smile. “Sorry for leaving like that. What's up?”

Salem halted in front of Marisol and swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. It wasn't that he was inexperienced in consoling girls; though Gwen never really exploded with emotion (he still doesn't quite know what exactly happened back there), he had girlfriends before her that had. It's just that he didn't know Marisol well enough to be chasing her down like this and attempting to soothe her. In any scenario, Salem still would have gone after her, but the main drive for him in that moment was the guilt at having some hand (even if he didn't know what) in exacerbating the situation.

“Hey, uh, listen, about back there…” Salem started unsurely, gesturing behind him with his thumb, “I didn't mean to start anything with you and your boyfriend. I should have stayed out of it. Uh, I guess I just have a hero complex or something.” Salem nervously ruffled his hair and let out a small puff of air that was half a sigh and half a chuckle.

“Trust me, Sonny is not my boyfriend,” Mari stated, shaking her head in disapproval. “And I'm sure if you ask him that's what he'll say is my problem. But the truth is that I've been purposely trying to wean myself off spending time with him. Like, don’t get me wrong: the dude has been my ride or die since the day we were born. But we kind of got into some shit this past summer that left me all kinds of fucked up, and it ended with me in the loony bin for 2 weeks and stuck working until I come up with the money to pay off my parents for taking care of the legal shit that went down. I'm sure you'll eventually hear the story from someone else or even see the video that's been floating around,” she rambled on, taking a deep breath. Why did she always end up having therapy sessions with strangers?! Maybe it was because it was easier to talk to somebody who didn't know who she was, or maybe she was just that needy. As the mystery of how many licks did it take to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.

“The point is, Sonny was one of the reasons I was going insane. Not on purpose, of course: it's not really his fault. But in order for things to go back to the way they were I'm putting some space between us. That make sense?”

Sonny is a little shit as far as Salem could tell; but by the way Marisol talked about her friendship with him, Salem doubted it would go over well or do much to cheer her up. His first week at King’s Academy was busier than he had anticipated, between the homecoming dictatorship and the lunchroom fiasco. The locker behind him looked comforting and he leant against it, with the lock digging into his spine uncomfortably and his legs crossed in front of him. Salem focused on his shoes, the space between his eyebrows crinkling and his lips twisted slightly down in thought.

The truth was, Marisol is an unknown factor to him. He couldn’t approach her like he did with Gwen, and he couldn’t approach her like he did with his ex-girlfriend Noelle. The first one was steely and took everything in stride, and the second one was soft and needed constant reassurances. Don’t get him wrong, Salem was no casanova or player or fuckboy; but his ma told him to treat girls well and Marisol was sharing such intimate details of her life. The least Salem could do for her, after her openness and honesty, is think how to console her correctly before he acts.

“Yeah, I think I understand,” his nose scrunched up and he didn’t look up from his shoes as he thought carefully on what to say. “Before Gwendolyn, my girlfriend, I was dating this girl...her name was Noelle. Sweet girl, but she didn’t...I don’t know, it just wasn’t give and take with her. And we started losing touch with each other? We no longer had that intimacy we used to have, I guess. I knew, eventually, she would leave me. I only had so much I could give her at that time, and I just sort of … shut down on her, spent less and less time with her, because I knew I was going to be too hurt afterwards if I didn’t. If I lost her as a girlfriend, I still wanted to keep her as a friend.”

He cleared his throat before continuing, finally glancing up into Marisol’s eyes and laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I think I understand. You need space from him, to give yourself time to return to a place where you can keep that friendship.” Salem stopped, observing Marisol to ensure he wasn’t saying anything wrong. “Am I getting this right or reading the situation completely wrong?”

Mari was quiet for a few seconds, staring at Salem with wide eyes. “Shit. You’re good,” she told him in awe, shaking her head. “Yeah, that’s exactly what’s going on. Son and I have been best friends for eighteen years now. I can’t imagine life without him, but we’re both so damn stubborn and hot-headed that if I don’t put some space between us now while I still can, I know we’ll end up saying and doing a ton of shit we don’t mean and tearing each other apart.”

He could say that it might be a bit too late, that they seemed to be tearing each other apart quite well a moment ago. The reply seemed particularly unwise, though, and there wasn’t really anything he could say to make her feel better.

Smiling cheekily, a sudden shift from his serious expression before, Salem pawed Marisol’s beanie from her head and tousled her hair playfully. In between messing up her hair, he tickled her sides, eliciting giggles from her as she attempted in vain to defend herself of brush his hands away.

After a few moments, Salem stopped, his cheeks hurting from grinning so hard, and gestured grandly towards the yawning hallway. “Would you do the honors of showing me around the halls, homecoming date?”

“I will if you give me back what’s mine!” she replied, taking the chance to lunge at him to playfully try and wrestle the beanie off his hands.

Salem sing-songed, “You’ll have to catch me first!” And took off down the hallway.

Rolling her eyes with a smile on her face, Marisol hurried off after Salem, the sound of her footsteps and her thrilled laughter echoing across the empty hallway.

[Okonuki]

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"Well, a lot of things are bad for me. Apparently. Everyday there is a new silent killer on the news. I mean, vaccines have done enough damage according to some. Nothing at all to do with the fact it runs in my family."

‘Oh yeah, you gotta watch out for those vaccines. Last week I was walking in a dark alley and an MMR jumped out at me. Thought it was going for my wallet but the bugger ran off with my terminal rubella.’ Jordan sneaked a peek at what she had been drawing but Bea flipped her sketchbook closed before he could recognize any of the shapes. At her invitation he slumped on the edge of the curb next to her, sprawling his long legs over the concrete and putting his hands backwards to steady himself.

"Want something to eat? What did the powers that be want?" Bea enquired, taking a drag on her smoke. She seemed to be slightly jittery, but Jordan was still too preoccupied with the results of the assembly to ask about it.

‘Homecoming… they’ve decided to take the choice out of it this year and force pairs. Any chance you know Mr. Varma? Cause you might be spending a bit of time with him. And me with ‘Ms. Martin,’ whoever she might be.’ He took a moment to stare at the pavement and pick distractedly at the grass between his fingers.

‘Guess that puts play to us going together, huh?’ Jordan said offhandedly, tying two stems of some wayward flowers together in the beginnings of a slightly miserable-looking daisy chain. He had asked Bea about the homecoming earlier that week, a few days after their night on the beach and her answer had been evasive. To be honest, the whole Bea situation was just confusing Jordan, but he guessed that was what happened when you hung with someone on the spectrum. He was used to most of her quirks by now, but the way she almost seemed to ignore the night they’d spent hurt a little. Or maybe she’d just been too drunk to remember it. Either way, Jordan would be spending the next special night with someone else- whether he liked it or not.

[Venus]

The halls of King's Academy were never dull. Sometimes you can see a student throwing a spoiled tantrum because their parents wouldn't get them something they wanted. Once in a while you would spot someone having a public meltdown. And other times the Misfits would be up to their shenanigans with whatever prank they used to one up one another. Lucas usually enjoyed the pranks; laughter is the best medicine in the world of high school, so despite having no affiliation with the group, he did try to keep an ear to the ground to make sure he always caught the show

Today was no exception, although this was probably the first time their unfortunate victim was his sister, Victoire. He was genuinely surprised all things considered, especially after the entire incident with Marisol. But hey, maybe it wasn't so surprising seeing as she got paired with Jun Wang. Despite knowing that he should have sympathized with his sibling, he still found it funny, but he wisely chose to go outside to avoid Victoire catching him laughing. His eyes roamed the courtyard, on the lookout for Santiago. His stomach growled, insisting that the young man eat first before looking for his friend. Probably for the better, he could just text Santi to see where he was.

There was a table that had a few seats open where a cute brunette sat. Grinning, Lucas approached the girl. “Mind if I have a seat?” He asked her. “Just until I find my boy, haven't seen him all day.”

Martha Radley jumped up at the sound of the unknown male voice. She’d been sitting in her usual courtyard table, completely immersed in the latest Anne Rice novel while she waited for Andrés to let her know what would be their lunch plans. For whatever reason, her Colombian love was taking a lot longer than he should be, which had left her exposed and vulnerable to interactions with guys like the baseball captain whose name Mar had completely forgotten. Why he wanted to sit with her of all people was a mystery, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some company.

“S-sure,” she said faintly, putting her book away and gathering her stuff from the table so the boy could have space to place his things if he wanted.

“Thanks, doll,” He grinned somewhat cheekily, placing his book bag onto the table as he plopped down. Her face looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t quite match a name to it. “I’m Lucas. What’s your name?” He asked.

“Oh!” Mar said out loud, eyes wide as the realization of who exactly was sitting in front of her clicked and the nerves immediately kicked in. “Lucas… You’re Mr. Anderson, aren’t you?!”

It took Lucas a second to realize what she meant, but he ended up breaking into a grin. ”It’s a small school after all, huh?” He laughed, shaking his head. ”Mind if I get a first name to it?”

“I’m Martha Radley, your appointed homecoming date!” she exclaimed, pointing at herself and struggling to believe that she had been paired with the third biggest player in the school. Just being this close to him made her nervous - terrified, even - that he would even think of attempting to make a move on her. It took a lot of her willpower to stop her voice from breaking or wobbling.

“Gorgeous,” He complimented her name, pausing for a second as he would send out a text to Santiago. Once he finished he would give the girl a majority of his attention. You’d think giving out first names would make things a hell of a lot easier, right? Not sure why they went the whole last name route...pretty sure everyone that wasn’t entirely pissed off was just left confused because of it.”

Martha chose to brush off his compliment of her name, to instead focus on his latest statements. “Oh, I certainly agree,” she replied, nodding at Lucas. “Even though I've been a student here for a while I don't pay attention to the last names. I'm not really close to anybody else here except Oliver, so it’s not like it matters anyway.”

Lucas was in the same boat. Sort of. He knew a lot of people and could match names to faces, but aside from Santiago, he couldn’t say he was too close to anyone. He preferred to watch things from a distance, and the whole Victoire-Marisol incident made him keep his head low in case he did something stupid. ”I feel you,” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. ”C’est la vie. Anyway...so, do you want to ride together, or match or...I usually just hang out at dances, I don’t really go with anyone to be honest.”

His answer made Martha laugh a little. Of course he wouldn't commit himself to going with anyone. That would be limiting himself from the ‘playground’ of available girls, which was definitely not something a guy like Lucas Anderson would want to do. She wanted to make some smartass comment about this, but decided not to in order to not appear like a complete bitch.

“Oh, I completely understand! It's the same on my end. Only reason I even attend these events is so Darling Oli doesn't go by himself,” Mar admitted, rolling her eyes but smiling to let the young man in front of her know she wasn't really bothered by it. “Anyway, you can certainly pick me up if it's not too much trouble. And don't worry about matching outfits or anything like that. I think that's tacky and corny.”

Well, that was easy. Quick and painless, more than what he could say with any other girl he could've gotten paired up with. Then again, maybe he should consider himself lucky, Martha didn't seem as crazy as most of the other girls in the school, so maybe they'd have fun.

[AlteredTundra]

---

_{Location: Crown Heights Country Club
Time: Starts at 7pm, ends at midnight the votes being tallied at 10:00, king and queen being crowned at 10:30}

---

Every year the exclusive private school of King’s Academy holds their Senior Homecoming Dance near the end of September and/or towards the beginning of October.. And every year, both the location and theme vary on who organizes it. Usually, the ones who organize it are the Senior Class Student Council. If that was true, then the most likely of venues that would be chosen to host the Homecoming dance was likely to be on the boat of some generous alumni who may or may not have their child attending the current class of 2019 of King’s Academy, however as it was revealed just last week during an assembly hosted by the teaching staff, as well as the Principal of King’s Academy, Principal Franklin, they revealed this year's would be different. Instead of a boat or maybe by the beach like it usually would, the Homecoming Dance was going to be held at the Crown Heights Country Club.

And boy was it met with mixed reactions. While a good majority of the senior class seemed to applaud the innovative idea and motivations from, there had been an uproar from the rest of them because they felt like they were being forced to participate in something that should’ve up to the student council to decide, not the staff. Their concerns were understandable given the people they were to arrive with was chosen for them and if they didn’t show up, it meant they risked getting expelled, so it was less of an enjoyable experience for some, though that was the case for roughly a handful or two of the senior class. Regardless of anything they were feeling at the time of the announcement, this was their reality.

As it was finally the day of Homecoming, when the students would arrive, the set up is like a lot of things within the gated, private community of Crown Heights, over the top in every possible way and with more glamour than all of the private schools in the southern part of Florida combined. Though it’s technically set up inside the ballroom of the Crown Heights Country Club, it simultaneously has its base of operations set up outside in the form of two separate greenhouse-like tents that are as transparent as they come.

From the outside, it’s just a bunch of lights, but inside these two tents are two decorative representation of Stars and the Moon. Lights flicker where the ground and the edges of the tents meet, leading all the way up to the various ornaments shaped like a moon, colored with alternating hues of silverish gold like the moon is when it’s completely bathing in the sun’s light and the sort of blue that one would see reflecting from the ocean, the moon’s form subtly hitting it with its shining brilliance. On the inside of the tents, a better look of the lights and hanging ornaments could be seen, but there’s also a more detailed arrangement of tables that spread across the entirety of the tent starting where one enters to where there is a stage where the live DJ will set up shop shortly but more importantly, it was where the King and Queen would be coronated three hours after the dance started.

It is here the King’s Academy Homecoming dance of 2018 will happen on a night of a thousand stars that shine brightly of the reluctant and willing.

[Venus]

Homecoming week had gone by a lot faster than Marisol Castillo would have liked. In between homework, tests and her job at The Surfer's Hut, the clock and the days seemed to have sped away. But it hadn’t always been all work and no play. During her breaks, she’d spent her free time getting to know Salem Rivera. He’d seemed like an alright dude upon first impressions, and had proven himself to be a pretty damn awesome guy. Sal was always joking around, and his smile was so infectious it was impossible to be in any sort of bad mood around him. The more time they spent together, the happier Marisol felt about being paired up with him. This had not gone unnoticed, of course. Family, friends and therapists were thrilled with the progress Marisol was making, and encouraged for her to keep developing this bond that was doing her so much good. With how much fun she and Sal had together, there were absolutely no intentions to screw up a good thing.

The subject of this being Marisol’s last Homecoming dance - and the fact that she would actually be attending it - spread like wildfire through the Castillo-Zima-Brady family. Her aunt Marcela jumped at the chance of getting her dress, so she sent out for her favorite designer to take Mari’s measurements and make her the most breathtaking creation he could come up with. The young woman’s only conditions were that the dress could not be poofy, frilly, in pastel or bright colors, and the designer had promised he would make her something stunning and fitting her personality. Her grandmother Marlena had taken charge of the jewelry department, lending her first granddaughter with a matching diamond and gold earring and necklace set and a few golden rings. With the dress and jewels now taken care of, her aunt Callie had volunteered to provide Marisol with hair and makeup prep. Callie’s excitement at having the opportunity to glow up her oldest niece had been so much so that she’d flown all the way from LA to do the honors. All in all, it did take the better part of four hours to achieve the final result. But when the masterpiece was unraveled, there were nothing but smiles - and even a few tears - in the room.

Of course, then came the mandatory photo session. Marisol posed with every present family member at the house: her parents, her brothers, her aunt, her cousin Nicolás (who had surprised them all by showing up in their doorstep earlier that day), one with each parent separately, one with each brother, a family portrait, solo photos, video calls with both sets of grandparents… By the time she was done, it had been a while since Salem had been patiently waiting for her downstairs, and a long enough time for the both of them to have developed the little nervous butterflies in the stomach.

Smiling brightly, the brunette skipped out the door of her room and slid down the wooden railing of the stairs. A loud cry of laughter and excitement was heard before there was a loud thud when the girl made the clean landing of a person with years of experience at it.

“Ready to go, partner?” Marisol brightly asked Salem, offering up her arm to him with a grin.

Upon first impressions, Mari was completely unrecognizable. The long, dark hair that was usually under a beanie was styled in soft waves in a half-up, half-down hairdo, with a few stray strands as decoration. Her face, normally without a single drop of makeup on, was now sporting a bronze glitter half cut-crease smokey eye, combined with the whole nine yards of defined contour, blinding highlighter and a dusty rose matte liquid lipstick. A pair of diamond studs decorated her ears, while a thin gold chain with a single diamond pendant hung from the girl’s slender neck, and gold rings called attention to her delicate fingers. The long fingernails that were painted black or sported chipped nail polish were manicured to perfection, in a gorgeous selection of metallic bronze.

But the real pièce de résistance was her dress.

The family’s designer had indeed made good on his promise to make a showstopper that was completely fitting of Marisol’s personality. His creation had been a short, long-sleeved, deep V-necked dress, with a black fabric base but covered in gold and bronze sequins from top to bottom. Even when paired with her trusty white Vans sneakers, there was no doubt that all eyes would be on Mari when she arrived. The way the dress shone when the sequins caught the light was truly stunning.

[fledermaus]

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^{𝑺 𝑨 𝑳 𝑬 𝑴 𝑹 𝑰 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑨}

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In truth, Salem had decided homecoming preparations on his part would be lax after getting to know Marisol a bit more. Gwendolyn always had a thing for color-matching, an aesthetic itch from her time in the New York fashion scene. Homecoming junior year Salem was expected to wear this ugly salmon pink tie and uncomfortable shoes to match Gwen’s heart-stopping, drop dead gorgeous dress. He didn’t mind it, wasn’t particularly irritated by it, and enjoyed the happiness it brought Gwen – but it was downright exhausting. He spent hours shopping, having to do multiple fittings, and trying to understand the difference between coral and salmon pink. This time around, though, it is Mari and Mari is rather easygoing. Salem was just going to throw on his favorite casual suit and call it a day.

Until Margherita Rivera came to the residence, two days before D-Day. Probably knowing she had an audience out of him by spotting his 1962 Aston Martin, Margherita flung the doors open in her most dramatic manner. A coat elegantly draped over her shoulders flapped with the force and her blue locks cemented with hairspray budged not even a millimeter.

Her presence brought terrible foreboding and Salem carefully placed his collector’s edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which was frankly giving him a headache, and attempted to flee to his room. Like a woman possessed by otherworldly forces, she descended on him at the foyer with a relaxed perfect posture and her leathery, boot-worthy skin.

“Nipotino,” she had said, clasping her hands in front of her with a creepily serene expression, “will you join me for a quick nibble?”

Without awaiting his answer, she had tucked her arm under his and forcefully steered him towards the dining hall. He was the prisoner to her warden, and when she broached the subject of homecoming between careful bites of her favorite American food (Hamburger Helper, of all things), Salem realized his crime was not running away faster and his punishment two agonizing days.

Two agonizing days it was. His nonna had dragged him designer store to designer store, making him try on ridiculously pricey suits – some of which he argued were too formal for homecoming. Every article of clothing and pair of shoes he tried on were designer made and perfectly tailored to his body, much to Margherita’s delight. Retirement had given her much enjoyment and freedom with her time and money, but only brought stiff resignation and aching feet to Salem.

“What color dress is she wearing?” Gwen’s voice on the phone snapped him back to the present, where he was staring at his blue striped blazer in the full-length bedroom mirror.

“Uh,” Salem’s mind stuttered, preoccupied with picking off a piece of lint and only the resigned amused sigh prompted him to continue, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Her voice wasn’t condescending or disbelieving, just simply confirming and he hummed his agreement to show she had heard right. “Did she not tell you?”

“She’s not like you, Saint Nick. She’s not…” Salem trailed off, taking a breath to select a good word to express his thoughts. This was dangerous waters, and though Gwen would likely not get upset, he still didn’t want to hurt her feelings or make her think he thought bad of her.

Before he could think of anything, she filled in the brief silence with an amused teasing tone, “You mean she’s not a priss like me.”

“I wasn’t going to say that.” Salem answered immediately, hackles rising and his voice immediately defensive. Gwen made a soft sound in the back of her throat, an irritated warning for him to calm down, and he shook out his right hand to let out any jitters. “I was going to say detail-oriented.”

After fixing his suit and smoothing out any wrinkles, Salem stayed on the phone for a few minutes to talk about recent events in Gwen’s life. Eventually, he had to say his goodbyes and made his way to his expensive classic car. Salem wasn’t much of a car man, but he loved collecting old things and his car was one of them.

The drive was relaxing and the arrival to Mari’s house somewhat awkward. He stood downstairs waiting for her, and when she arrived she arrived like a shooting star. No, honestly, shooting. Marisol slid down the banister, her dress glittering in the artificial light of the house. Salem rushed to her side and his hands automatically lifted to her waist to make sure she was steady on her feet, though his instinct was hardly necessary since she landed rather sure-footed.

It was only with his hands on her hips, towering over her, that he got a good look at her. She honestly was dazzling, in all senses of the word. Her dress, her hair, her makeup, it was all so gorgeous and Salem told her so.

Before taking her arm, Salem reached behind him for the sunflower he had set on the entrance table to give to her.

“A beautiful flower for a beautiful lady.” He said dramatically, with overexaggerated wiggles of his eyebrows. It was only when Marisol’s items were procured, and the sunflower secured in her grip that he guided her hand into the crook of his elbow, cheekily replying, “Ready to go, partner.”

[Sugar and Spite]

The week leading up to homecoming hadn't been that eventful for Ariel. She had managed to stop by the mall and pick up a decent looking dress in between her time at school and work. She and Archer hasn't talked all that much, but she had sent a few good memes his way like she used to in the old days. The young woman had been doing her best to focus on her school work, though she had found enough time to perfect playing November Rain on the piano.

In all truthfulness, Ariel kinda hated school events. They were always packed with people who wanted to act like complete idiots, or they required some sort of dress code. Staying at home binge watching Supernatural was the perfected way to spend the evening, but graduating depended on attending homecoming; so here she was, making her way through the small crowd that had gathered while waiting on Archer to arrive.

[Ejected]

It hadn’t been long after the assembly that Jordan had met the elusive ‘Ms. Martin.’ Or more accurately Chanel had come to him, somehow already halfway through meticulously planning out every detail of the two’s outfits. She had caught him on the back foot, still in a post-assembly funk when she started firing off questions about his preferences, his measurements, his colours… he’d struggled to answer most of them. Capped off with what seemed more of a demand than an invitation to meet her at an expensive tailors that weekend, he had been a little bemused at what seemed to be her very extreme measures.

But looking at himself in the mirror the night of Homecoming, it seemed those extreme measures - and the hefty check - had been worth it. The suit fitted like no other he’d worn, and he had to admit- he looked fine. Damn fine. The black jacket and pants were a classic look, slightly offset by the addition of a brightly-coloured orange tie- his submission to Chanel’s ‘outfit coordination.’ He’d even managed to somewhat tame his wild mane with judicious application of gel and brush. Smiling at his reflection in a slightly egotistic way, Jordan ran a comb through his hair in a last minute touch up with one eye on the wall clock. He’d promised Chanel he’d pick her up at seven, and the minute hand was getting awfully close.

---

Meanwhile, Chanel had just finished putting the final touches on her own homecoming ensemble. As the young woman took a quick peek at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but think back on the many hours she’d spent just a few days before, tirelessly working at her sewing machine; finally being able to take in the final product made her crack a satisfied smile. Although the dress itself was fairly basic, the accessories and subtle, bright orange designs that Chanel had embroidered along the sleeves made it look like something you could definitely see hanging on a clothing rack in a high-end shopping outlet. Chanel took great pride in her fashion sense, something that could easily be noticed within five minutes of talking to her, so it surely made sense that she'd want the man who'd be accompanying her to the homecoming dance to match her fly. The young woman chuckled to herself as she thought back to when she finally got ahold of the mysterious ‘Mr. Henderson,’ but wiped the grin off her face when her door suddenly burst open.

“Could’ve sworn I’ve told you and Unc multiple times to knock before coming into my room,” Chanel said as she turned to face her older brother, “I could’ve been walking around in my wig cap or something, Dre.”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before, loser,” the older boy said with a smirk as he strolled inside, “Besides, Uncle J told me to come get you. Your little date just pulled into the driveway and he wants me to take pictures of you two before you leave.” As soon as those few words came out of Andre’s mouth, Chanel couldn’t help but groan and roll her eyes. Sure, Chanel loved taking pictures, especially when she knew that she looked good, but she didn’t want to stay at the house longer than they really needed to; knowing the overprotective nature of both her brother and uncle, Chanel didn’t want them to be too much of an embarrassment.

---

The door was pulled open within a second of Jordan’s knock- the tall black boy on the other side must have been waiting for him. He looked college age. Probably an older brother. Sticking his hands in his suit pockets, he plastered a lazy smile on his face to match the other boys. “Hey, I’m Jordan. Is Chanel in?”

“Of course she is,” Andre said, a wide grin plastered on his face as he placed a heavy hand on the young boy’s shoulder, nearly dragging him through the front door. “She'll be coming down soon; she'd mentioned something about fixing her makeup while I was up there. I told her that you were here, but you know how some girls can be... Chanel, especially.” As the older boy spoke, he kept a firm grip on Jordan's shoulder, leading him towards the bottom of the staircase to wait for Chanel to descend. “But that gives me a little time to get to know a bit about the guy who'll be taking my sister out... maybe even go over a few rules, right, fella?”

Jordan raised an eyebrow at her brother, tilting his head slightly towards the implied challenge in the other boy’s hefty hand. Plus, he didn’t get his clothes ironed very often and their grip was totally ruining his jacket’s creases. “Hey now, a look is free but touching costs extra,” he said, before checking his wrist for an imaginary watch and making an exaggerated grimace. “Ooh, that is a shame. I’d absolutely hate to be late. Might just have to skip those rules and run off with her eyelashes half-on, eh?”

“Absolutely not,” Chanel suddenly interjected as she made her way down the stairs, holding the bottom of her dress and taking quick, careful steps so she wouldn't fall down. Once she reached the bottom of the staircase, she hastily motioned for her brother to begin taking the photos her uncle wanted; the boy hesitantly removed his hand from Jordan's shoulder before grabbing the Canon camera that dangled from the strap on his shoulder. “Don't let him intimidate you, Jordan. It's all just a front.”

Jordan turned away from Andre to focus on his date, sidelining the boy as the main attraction approached. “You look amazing,” he said, flashing a grin. He’d gotten a vague idea of the dress from when she’d been organising and coordinating earlier, but it was a different experience in- and on- the flesh. “Did you make that yourself?” he asked, nodding at the flash get-up.

“Why, of course I did,” Chanel said with a wide grin as she did a quick twirl, “It took me forever to get the stitching just right, but the final product made it all worth it, don’t you think?” But before she could say more, Chanel caught a quick glimpse of her brother’s exasperated expression and decided to save that conversation for a later date. Instead she intertwined her arm with Jordan's and let her usual, goofy grin bow wide across her mouth. As soon as her older brother took a couple of pictures of the two with his camera, she went speeding out of the front door with Jordan in tow.

[AlteredTundra]

_{featuring (clickable names)
The Lambert Family: Frank Lambert and Melissa Monroe-Lambert
The Cross Family: Wesley Cross, Florence Lambert-Cross, Abraham Cross, and Winnie Lambert}

The last week or so leading up to homecoming, Oliver and Stella had shared a few texts back and forth. Though the conversations were never all that serious, Oliver had enjoyed them. Upon hearing that he was attending homecoming, his mother was ecstatic. She had taken him to the nearest mall to buy a cornflower blue suit, Oliver not really wishing to make that big of a deal out of homecoming. Much to his pleasure, he had also managed to find a bowtie that matched the exact shade of Stella's dress. He had managed to get his mom to let him borrow her 2019 Jeep Cherokee for the night as well. Everything was falling into place perfectly so far.

Arriving at Stella's house, he walked up to the door before ringing the doorbell, waiting patiently.

But before the bell even had a chance to be rung, the door was opened, giving Oliver the sight to a rather menacing older woman with black hair and dressed like she was ready to take on the world. She wore a candy apple red dress that was intricately laced with white, small dots going from the right shoulder to the left hip with intersecting dots of black going from the left shoulder to the right hip. Where they met in the middle, the little circles created a mock-yin-yang symbol.

As she met Oliver’s gaze, it was clear to her the boy was sweating bullets. “So, you must be Oliver,” her voice, so silky smooth, was that of a New Yorker with the slightest drop of Quebec French. She held out her hand, reaching for Oliver’s. “Florence Lambert, Stella’s aunt. Please, come in.”

Shaking the woman's hand, Oliver walked through the door with a nervous smile. ”Nice to meet you, ma'am.”

Florence gently pulled the teen inside, leading him from the porch to the first right where he’d see the Lambert clan. “Allow me to introduce you to the family.”

One by one, Florence gave the introductions. First was Wesley, who was drinking the bourbon, smiling politely at Oliver. Next to him was Florence’s children with Wesley, Abraham, a med student and Winnie, a college freshman going to NYU Film School. All of this was stated as she warmly introduced them. Before she could get to Stella’s father, however, he beat her to it.

“So you’re Oliver, huh?” Frank stood up, looking Oliver up and down. The older man, who bore a short, yet sleek, hairstyle, gave Oliver the intimidating dad stare before smiling and pulling in Oliver for a surprise hug. “Man you’re a stud, aren’t you? No wonder my Stella talked so much about you.”

When Stella had said ‘The Whole Lambert Clan’ she had really meant it. While Florence introduced him, Oliver gave small waves, polite smiles and shook hands. Once coming to a stop in front of Stella's father, Oli didn't have to wait to see if he should say something first. While the glare was expected, it still filled Oliver with a slightly scared feeling. With his mouth dry, he couldn't find what words to say before he was pulled in for a hug. Luckily Mr. Lambert released him before he could figure out whether to hug the older man back or not.

”Y-yes sir. A pleasure to meet you,” he replied, clearing his throat. So Stella had been talking about him? A lot? There was no way. Sure, Oli had been thinking a lot more than he would care to admit about Stella, but that didn't mean that she had done the same… right? ”Where is Stella? he asked curiously. .

“Oh, Stelly will be down in a minute,” Winnie said, propping next to Oliver, smiling at the teen. “Tell us about you, Oliver. What’s it like being the fabulous Oliver Greyson?” Winnie asked, a playful tone in her voice. “ - Stelly’s words, not mine by the way,” she noted, giggling.

Fabulous? Not by a long shot. What was he going to tell them about himself? He was the school gossip, not some really impressive jock. ”Well, there's not really all that much to tell. I've lived in Crown Heights practically my whole life. I'd consider my grades to be pretty okay. I usually make B's and C's. Oh, and I like to write.”

“Well, that’s impressive. Most around here get so self-absorbed that they forget about their studies,” Abe commented. “Good to know my little cousin found herself a self-aware man,” he said, a slight smile forming on his face.

Frank went to open his mouth, but instead of saying something that was directed at Oliver, instead his words came out to be directed at the person standing at the entrance wearing a lavender dress with the faintest hint of a certain blue that matched Oliver’s suit. She finished off her elegant, yet comfortable dress with a pair of salmon-colored heels. The color pop could not be denied.

The young man followed Frank's gaze, his eyes landing on Stella just like everyone else's. She looked even better wearing the dress in person than she did in the picture. ”Stella… wow.” he commented, otherwise speechless as he pulled the corsage from his pocket. (The color would match her dress, of course.) ”I, uh, got this for you.”

While Stella was still in the state of shock when she saw that her entire family was practically making googly eyes at her, for the most obvious reason ever - especially when it came to the mind of one Stella Lambert - the way she was looking at Oliver was pretty clear: She thought he looked so handsome and that her family didn’t scare him off. At the back of her mind when her father said he wanted to meet Oliver, she thought he’d scare him off, but when he was right there, pulling out the lavender corsage. She didn’t know what to say. She was even more surprised when he took the initiative to put it on her wrist.

“Oh my god, thank you. It’s beautiful!” She replied, dividing her attention from it and him. The more she did that, the more she looked at Oliver. Goddamn, he was fine. “You look great, Oliver!” She finally said. The way her eyes shined at Oliver was pretty clear to her family, especially Winnie.

“Picture time!” Francis said, breaking up the love fest. He was partially doing it so he didn’t have to witness his princess and her prince make out. Francis was already set for when they were ready to pull their eyes away from each other.

Smiling as he finished putting the corsage on her wrist, Oliver looked up to find all of the attention still on Stella. At least that meant that her family might stop asking questions - not that he had minded them that much. His skills lied in talking about others, not himself.

”You really don't look that bad yourself, Stel,’ he said wrapping his right arm around her waist awkwardly as he turned to smile at the camera.

She was just as prepared for that as she was for her father’s sudden snap of the camera, the flash catching her gasping expression as her head had been on Oliver. She quickly collected herself as her father, as well as the others, took their photos. After what felt like a lifetime, the ordeal of smiling through so many flashes of camera phones and traditional cameras was done. It would only finish as she hugged her parents, giving them a tight hug (more from her father to her than her mother to her).

And when she was finally able to leave, she let out a loud sigh when she and Oliver had reached his car. “Oh my god, I thought it would never end!” She said, leaning against his car, looking at him. “I’m sorry you had to endure the torture of my father’s need for flash photography. He refuses to update like the rest of us have,” she said apologetically.

Cheeks still sore from smiling, Oliver opened the passenger side door for Stella, allowing her to climb in. ”It's no problem. Your family actually seems quite charming,” he responded. Walking to the other side and climbing in the car himself, he turned to look at her one last time before cranking the car and giving his attention to the road. ”Ready to get this night officially started?”

She smiled at him, nodding. “Let’s go! I’m ready to party-arty-arty!”

[eclecticwitch]

And I'll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
'Cause everyone knows that's how you get famous

8D74AD

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Penny had spent hours on herself, as was usual when going out. She wasn't dressed to the nines, she was dressed all the way up to eleven. If she had to be forced to attend the party with some rando who had barely spoken three words to her, she was at least going to blow EVERYONE out of the water. She hadn't gotten any hint of what he would wear. Just that she had to meet him at the venue. No piacking her up. No ordered limo. No. She had to be driven there. Natrually Penny hired her own limo and planned to invite some people out for a small after party at the beach to drown away their sorrows of failed dates. And get the chance to enjoy the people they really wanted to.

She stood outside of the country club, her beautiful pink dress hugging her every curve and the skirt falling around her like a spring time waterfall. A real live fairy tale princess. In her little clutch she merely carried her cards and phone. She hoped whats his nuts would at least remember their goddamn tickets. Penny had decided to let her curls hold their natural state and had only added decorative ornaments of butteflies and flowers to it. She sparkled and shimmered for all the world to take notice.

The young woman was imaptient. She tapped her foot on the asphalt and checked her phone. It had been five minutes. He really should have been waiting her for her. She was half tempted to go in with someone else and pay her own way. Fuck all to graduating, she certainly didn't need to. Tucking the phone away she watched as people pulled in all happy and smiles and ready to enjoy their night. Penny feared this mood would leak into everything else and make her commit a murder.

At long last her date appeared and she tried her best to give him a smile. All she really wanted to do was chew him out. That bastard.

[Hero]

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Humming to himself, Lucas slid his way through the halls, feeling particularly fancy. It was a dark navy suit with a white dress shirt underneath sans tie. It was probably a little more casual than it should have been, but honestly, he loathed ties and avoided them as much as he could. He figured Martha might not be too happy, but all Lucas wanted was to get to Homecoming in one piece, make his way through to the dance floor, and hopefully not get his flask confiscated. All easy, he had a rather cute and casual date, so he had very little to worry about. Except, he had a feeling he needed to keep an eye on his boy. He said it didn't bother him, but seeing April with Kavi of all people might just be the last straw to cause Diablo to snap. And as his friend, he needed to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

Easier said than done, but whatever.

Strutting his way into his sister's room, he paused. Nadia sat perfectly still on her chair as one woman finished with her hairstyle, the other working on her makeup. The plunge of the dress was more revealing than he would assume she had the guts for, but the skirt was sort of girly so it balanced out. He didn't know shit about makeup, but he thought she looked pretty. He hung around until the two women were done, Nadia finally getting up and striking a pose for him. She seemed excited, which made him a little wary. She had been so worried over getting paired with Sonny, but her excitement looked legitimate.

"You look nice," He told her as she slipped into her heels.

"Thank you!" She replied happily as she got to her feet, putting on a pair of gold earrings. "You look very handsome as well. But aren't you missing your tie?"

"Yeah, uh...Bethany Johnson nearly choked me with my tie at Junior Prom, so...no thanks," He shook his head.

"That's because she caught you making out with Diana Mayes," She grinned as she put on her necklace.

"Hey, it's why I'm flying stag this time. Pairings notwithstanding," He replied. "Less about me, though, you look excited to be going with Torvald, of all people."

Nadia grinned, though she didn't respond. She wasn't good at keeping secrets, and she was too aware she would give herself away if she said anything. Lucas narrowed his eyes at her, only diverting his attention to see Victoire emerging from her room. The brunette didn't look too happy, slightly pulling on her white dress. He felt like she and Nadia were wearing each other's colors, he was genuinely surprised to see Vic in something so bright, she almost looked pure.

"What?" She snapped at the staring siblings.

"Why would you wear white? Jun's blood is going to ruin it when you finally snap and kill him," Lucas commented shaking his head as he twirled his keys around his finger. "Welp, I'm off, need to go pick Martha up. Nadia, if Jun says anything funny, relay it to me!"

Victoire rolled her eyes as Lucas walked past her, glancing at her phone. Like hell was she going to have Jun pick her up. She looked up as Nadia was admiring her. "What? It's a nice dress," She said, mildly annoyed.

"You look like an angel!" She exclaimed, grabbing her gold clutch before following Victoire towards the living room.

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