[IC] Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

[Hero]

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“Last night was a fucking disaster,” Came the predictable, irritated huff from Victoire before her lips would claim her straw.

She was in a bad mood that hadn’t lifted in what seemed like forever. The last thing she wanted to think about was the shitshow of a dance that Homecoming ended up being, but from the initial forced pairings to Jun’s constant texts, her mood was permanently turned to sour and grumpy, needing weeks to recharge. Honestly, she probably shouldn’t have been as mad as she was, but everything was getting more annoying by the second.

And what else was she to do but kidnap Mara and drag her to brunch so she could freely bitch?

“I’m just glad it’s over. Hopefully, the administration realizes that their attempt to bring us all together didn’t work.” Mara uttered, following a silent yawn.

Victoire didn’t bother resisting the urge to roll her eyes, instead shaking her head at the blonde. “On the contrary, I’m sure they’ll find plenty of other reasons to pair people up, regardless of what anyone says,” She said before turning her attention to her notepad, scratching off a phone number as she rubbed her temple. “Meanwhile I get to handle more problems because apparently it’s my fault no one liked to get paired up, if I have to hear another complaint I’m pretty sure I’ll be throwing myself off the school roof.”

“I just want to graduate and never see these people again.”

Mara finished the last of the coffee in front of her. She may have had the energy to be awake, but she couldn’t deny that her body was fighting her decision to pull an all-nighter. But she was young, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to power through to Sunday dinner.

“I’m sure people will stop bothering you after a few weeks. You could just turn your phone off. Or get a second phone. Or something.”

Sighing in agreement, the brunette tapped her nails on the table for a moment, mulling over Mara’s words. “I can’t change my phone yet, I’m still waiting for some calls back from my applications,” She shrugged.

““Right. So you’ve gotta put up with it, then?”

“For now, yeah.”

“Fun. Hopefully it doesn’t make your entire October shit.” The blonde remarked as she twirled the fork between her fingers before pressing it down into the salad in front of her. At this point Mara had fantasized about leaving King’s Academy for awhile now and with only a few months left to endure while she waited to hear back from the universities she applied to she could only feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that she would only have to put up with everyone for only a few more months. Freedom was not so far, but yet at the same time she was worried all the same about how Bea was going to adapt going forward. She glanced down to her phone on the table and wondered if she should bother with her dumb party. She had given her the silent treatment long enough.

“So. What’s next on the big agenda? Halloween Party? Coordinating Cheerleading? Screaming at the faculty?”

“If only. Pretty sure I’ll hear something tomorrow,” Victoire mumbled, pausing for a moment. “Nadia was supposed to get some more cheerleaders, but her head’s always in the clouds, so who knows if she was successful.” Not that she cared, really, but it had come up some time ago.

“It’s a big school. It isn’t like we’re lacking in that department. But yeah, Nadia seems to have other things on her mind if the gossip mill is to be believed.” Mara shrugged, not really trying to perfectly recall certain whispers at the dance made by some of their underclassmen.

Victoire grimaced at Mara’s words; unfortunately, she remembered the little statements, especially when she had apparently walked out hand-in-hand with fucking Sonny Torvald of all people. “Don’t remind me, it’s like she wants that psycho Marisol to go after her,” She scoffed, waving her hands in front of her. “All I need to focus on is my college applications and my future. Everything else is irrelevant.”

“I mean, it’s not like you have to babysit Nadia. Sonny’ll make her break down crying in like a week.”

“I just don’t want her coming crying to me when it happens,” She pointed out. “When did I get Nadia and Stella to look after? I feel like a teen mom except I didn’t get the excuse of having a shitty baby daddy who gives great sex.”

“I mean, does that kind of thing happen a lot?” Mara snorted. “The coming to you part.”

“Unfortunately. God only knows why…”

“When was the last time?”

Victoire took a moment to think. “...When Nadia found out she was paired with Sonny,” There was probably something after that, but she genuinely couldn’t bring herself to care.

“Oh. Cool. So it’s going to be like the Kavi thing but worse. Your October is going to suck, Vic.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“What? Did you want me to pretend that they were going to work out and nothing bad will come back to bite you? I can do that, if you want me to. I’d be lying, though.”

“You got me there,” She shrugged, focusing more on her smoothie before deciding to follow up with, “So how about your babysitting job, then?

“Ha. It’s cute that you keep calling it that. Don’t let anybody tell you that you don’t have a sense of humor.” Mara rolled her eyes as she let out a sigh in frustration. “She wants to hang out tonight.”

“I don’t know how you have the patience for someone like that, where do you even find the time?”

“We’ve been friends a long time. Honestly, I feel obligated to. I know this whole ‘friends’ thing is like a foreign language for you, but I can translate if you want.”

“No thanks, that would require both time and effort I don’t have to spare, not to mention using one of my precious fucks to give,” She declined the offer.

The blonde shook her head, laughing. “But yeah, it's like. Sometimes I get the impression I’m supposed to look after her, but she’s old enough to not need a babysitter. But I’ll probably end up going. Benefit of living in a gated community, right?”

She didn’t seem too impressed, but she didn’t find a reason to say otherwise. “Maybe you can braid each other’s hair, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys,” She couldn’t resist the tease, raising an eyebrow at Mara.

“Shut up. I’m not twelve years old.”

“Everyone has to indulge themselves once in a while, I guess,” Victoire mused.

“Whatever you say, Vic.”

---

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[mickilennial]

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_{Palm Beach, Florida
October 7th, 2018}

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“A movie?”

The utterance was said midway between Jun stuffing his mouth with his lunch. The plan was to go back home, play some guitar, and maybe give Kavan a ring, but he hadn’t shambled over to Bea’s in a good while so he felt like this was a good opportunity to fix that. The idea wasn’t a bad one, just one that sidelined his plan for the day. Using his hands he swiped across his phone, responding to Bea with an “omw” before he hastily continued through what he had been doing. Jun wondered what exactly Bea had in mind, though. Would she want to go out to see a movie or would this scenario be more of them just chilling in Bea’s house as they joked about what to watch through Netflix or some other service. Honestly, with as stressful as things were lately he preferred being outside – or at least close to outside.

There was just something about a jam session annoying the neighbors with the garage door open.

He shrugged. There’d be plenty of time for that later. God knows he dicked around whenever he could. Watching a few movies was a fine enough trade-off. Though, he really did need to send Kavan a message when he had the time. Finding a new drummer since the last one went off to college would’ve been a good decision, too, but the year was almost up and Jun was never very good with time management. But for now the plan was to finish lunch and head over to Bea’s.

[ineffable]

Interacting with Beatrice Endive and Millie Jean Nicholson

Georgie smiled warmly at the other girl before she fished her phone out of her pocket and looked quickly at the time.
"Yeah, I'm going to Bea's party as well." Her hand lingered on the handlebar of the Vespa and she scooted a tiny bit closer to it, eager to get going. She usually would've offered Millie a ride but the other girl looked uncomfortable enough and she also had her cat so Georgie was pretty sure she wouldn't want to get on the scooter, especially with someone like Georgie who was pretty much the opposite of who Millie would've liked to hang out with. The girl seemed to like the quiet, which Georgie absolutely couldn't stand and while sweet she wasn't really social enough to hold a conversation that Georgie would deem entertaining to her.

Georgie flipped up the helmet, fastening it securely under her chin before she straddled the seat and waved a hand.
"I'm so sorry, I would offer you a ride but..." She gestured towards the cat and flipped up the scooter's breaks. She did want to become friends with Millie but then there were other opportunities to do that, right?
The silence was starting to become unbearable so Georgie kickstarted the engine and pulled her hair out from the strap of the helmet.
"Well, I'd better get going? I'll see you there, yeah?" And with that Georgie took off, hoping that it did not seem so rude, turning back again to smile at Millie and to beg that she understood.

~ ~ ~

The wind blew by her hair as Georgie threaded through the crowd of cars, whose inhabitants took turns honking at each other and yelling out curse words into the hot, humid air. She loved LA. A grin threaded its way across her face as she slowed down to a stop at the light. Today had been a pretty good day overall, she thought to herself. A day filled with cute boys, the feeling of sunshine on her skin and ending with a nice day with Bea and all the others.

Georgie rolled up to the front of Bea's house and put down her foot on the ground, sliding out her phone from her pocket to text Bea:

GEORGIA F: Hey babe...I'm @ at your front door!

[AlteredTundra]

You're the only friend I need
Sharing beds like little kids
Laughing 'til our ribs get tough
But that will never be enough
_{Featuring Sonny "Dipshit" Drake and Marisol "Upfront Crazy Girl" Castillo}

”It’s been a few months since we were last here.

It didn’t matter how many days went by since he was last at The Cove with Marisol, it still felt the same. The secret beach hangout that only a few knew about, those few being the Misfits. It was only accessible through a hidden path along the eastern part of the Crown Heights beach that led down via a spiraling flight of stairs to a casual spot below a deck that had a couple of couches with some shitty table in the middle and other miscellaneous items scattered about.

What Sonny like most about the self-named Cove was one, it was only known to those who actually took the time to make sure it was kept together and not flooded by non-Misfits but he also liked that the sounds of the ocean added a nice ambiance to the whole point of it existing, which was to fucking relax. After a long day at school or a long day in general, before shit blew up — before everything that fucked up his attachment to the group — Sonny would come to the cove either with Marisol and the others or just by himself to unwind.

As he took a seat on the couch to the right, he breathed out a totally relax moan. “Feels nice to be back here,” he mildly murmured, looking at Marisol.

“Yeah, it's been a while…” Marisol said gently, taking a seat on the couch next to him and sliding her legs onto his lap. Her green eyes were staring at the coming and going of the waves, lips curled up in a soft smile. “I've been back a few times by myself, but it was always better when we came together.”

Sonny nodded silently.

He had missed this. Lord knew it took Sonny way too long to get back to a point where he wasn’t a total dick all of the time. Whatever drove him to act like he had to flaunt and tease everything in her face was definitely going to come back and haunt him. But, for the time being, he just wanted to enjoy this moment. Marisol wasn’t trying to bite his head off. She eased into their usual position with her laying back and enjoying the waves while her skinny stick legs were on his leg. As for Sonny, he did what he always did when she did this: start to massage her feet.

“How long has it been? Three months? I can’t even remember if I’m being totally honest with you.”

“Two, I think,” Mari clarified, tilting her head back to rest against the couch before closing her eyes. “Things were already tense beforehand, but everything went to shit after the Diablo party.”

Part of Sonny really wanted to avoid the mention of everything, but that wasn’t going to be likely, so better get it out of the way first before Marisol mistook his silence for cowardice. “So, I suppose we should talk about how our shit got so shitty, huh?” Sonny asked, now looking at her.

At his words, Marisol let out a long, deep sigh. Although it had been her idea to confront their issues in the first place, there was no denying she was nervous to talk about things. “Let me just start out by saying I’m sorry,” she began, staring at her lap and picking at one of the holes in her shorts. No matter how many times she’d rehearsed this in her head for weeks now, it still felt weird saying everything out loud. “I know I should have just told you how I felt right after the camping trip, but the last thing I wanted was for you to think I was being pathetic or crazy or something…”

To prevent the risk of ruining things even further, Sonny chose not to make any backhanded comment about her being crazy. Instead he chose to not be a dick for once and say something he never thought he’d say. “And when you did tell me, I shouldn’t have blamed it all on your pills making you say that. For that, I am sorry.” Sonny sighed, taking his eyes from the beach on her. “And for the record, nothing you ever did would make you pathetic. Pathetic is Victoire purposely kissing me to get on your nerves, not you deciding to not tell me how you felt almost immediately,” he tried to assure her in his own, weird way.

The short girl shook her head while letting out a chuckle at her best friend’s words, thinking of her impulsive response to the snogging news. “And pathetic is taking a bat to Vic’s car just because she kissed you,” she admitted, finally looking up at Sonny with an amused smile. “I mean, I know it was a shit move and I was lucky her dad was cool enough to not press charges, but you gotta admit it was cool.”

“Thinking back on it, it was pretty hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that girl lose her shit as much as she did when you started going full Carrie Underwood on it.” He had to laugh at that. “I’m sure she was wishing Jesus would’ve taken that bat away from you, huh?”

“Probably,” she replied, joining in Sonny in his laughter for a few seconds before sobering up, getting nervous again. “But anyway… I also want to apologize for not being upfront with you about why I ghosted you. I just-” she hesitated for a moment, biting her lip while deciding whether to come completely clean or not and choosing to do so anyway. “I knew I should have just told you I needed some space. But you made me feel so stupid when you said it was the pills talking, that I figured the best thing was to do away with the mess of emotions as soon as I could. So I thought that if I ignored you and was alone long enough, the feelings would go away, and you would realize that’s why I was pissed at you. A stupid plan, now that I think back on it, but at the time all I wanted was for everything to go back to the way it was.”

“Same.”

Sonny didn’t know exactly what he should say or what he wanted to say. He knew she was right about everything. Be it the divide he created or how poorly he handled her confession to him, Sonny could have done it all differently. He wished he could go back in time and redo a lot of what went down between them but he knew that wasn’t possible. The only thing that he could do was put his best foot forward and make it right in the now.

He took in and exhaled a breath. “I’m not sure we can go back to the way it was. The only thing we can do is just go forward with a slightly smarter game plan. With less flexing, if at all possible,” he joked but also spoke a truth he believed to be a fact.

“Honestly? I think we can,” Mari contradicted, a frown in her face as she mulled it all over for a moment. “We’re both on the same page about not wanting to fuck up our friendship again, right? So that’s that. I mean, I’ve kind of already started moving on from all of that mess…” she admitted, looking away before Sonny could see the small blush on her cheeks as a quick memory of her night with Salem flashed before her eyes. “And from the looks of things, you have nothing to move on from, because nothing ever changed for you. So, basically, all we need to do is stop being little bitches, move the fuck on and go back to being the fucking hailstorm we are together.”

“I guess you have a point,” Sonny breathed out a chuckle. “But what about the people who were caught up in our little war? I mean, when we were, as you put, being little bitches, it wasn’t exactly a clean battlefield.”

The girl let out a long sigh, the mind immediately jumping to Archer, Salem, Julie, and -surprisingly- even Victoire. As much as she hated apologizing and admitting her wrongs, she knew that it was the least each casualty of their war, as Sonny put it, deserved. “We take up the same stance: we stop being little bitches and say sorry,” Mari finally said, looking at her friend with a determined expression. “It’s not their fault that we were acting like petulant children. They should at least get an apology from our sorry asses.”

“I doubt Vic wants to speak to me or you for that matter. So it’s probably best we both stay far away from that particular brand of deceptive crazy,” Sonny laughed, “I prefer the upfront, in your face kind of crazy,” Sonny grinned at Marisol, though he winced a second later because of his nose.

Again, Mari laughed along with him, thinking about just how pissed Vic would get if she or Sonny even attempted to breathe the same air as her. Apologizing would probably cause Miss Stuck-Up President to say something that would piss the shorter girl off, thus the whole intention of her selfless action would probably end in more violence. “You're damn right about that. I mean, I've still got at least two more months of work left to finally pay off the fees of fixing up her stupid Mercedes, so that should be enough of an apology, don't you think?”

Sonny didn’t want to ask just how much the repairs were. That kind of Mercedes was top of the line. Being from a family of mechanics had taught him at least that much. Victoire Bailey’s Mercedes was no junk car. So whatever the price was, he knew it was no joke. “Yeah, I think that’s an apology enough. But I’ll let you in on a secret,” Sonny leaned close, “Vic wasn’t that great of a kisser.”

Marisol’s eyes widened, letting out a small giggle at both Sonny's confession and his breath tickling her ear. “Really, now?” she asked him, green eyes sparkling with mischief. “So does that mean that Step Sister Dearest has her beat on that field? I'm sure you guys had more than enough time to have a few tongue wars on the way to the dance, that trip to the hospital and the time spent waiting for them to fix your nose.”

Of course she had to mention Nadia. Sonny rolled his eyes. “What exactly do you think happened?” He asked, smirking.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know? I wasn't there. That's why I'm asking you,” Mari replied, raising her eyebrows at him. A tiny sense of dread ran cold and fast down her spine. Part of her wanted to know everything that had happened between him and Rainbow Brite that last night, while the other part was telling her there was no purpose of knowing things that could hurt her. But it shouldn’t hurt, because she and Sonny had just agreed they were nothing more than the best of friends. And this was the perfect chance to show him she had meant what she said.

Sonny shrugged. “Well, since you’re so dying to know, I’ll tell you,” he said, sighing. “We haven’t kissed yet. She went with me to the hospital because she was worried about my nose and after we left, I took her home. That’s it.”

“Oh…” was all Mari would say as she kept her face as expressionless as she could, afraid that her glee might shine through any further words she dared speak.“Okay. Cool.”

“Now it’s your turn,” Sonny said after a long moment of awkward silence passed. “What’s really going on between you and Salem?” He asked point-blank.

Marisol pursed her lips together, debating whether to own up to everything, some of it or none of it. But if Sonny had been honest with her about Nadia, then she needed to return the favor.

Finally, after a few more seconds of silence, the brunette finally spoke up. “There's nothing going on per se. We're just friends-” she began, and upon noticing his skeptic expression, she quickly added, “Now that doesn't mean nothing happened between us! After the fight you guys had, we went over to his place to watch John Wick, but one thing led to another and we ended up… You know…” Mari admitted, cheeks blazing scarlet now. “That's why I didn't make it home last night. I actually left his place like two hours ago.”

“So you two fucked.” Sonny didn’t mean to say it so distastefully, but now that it was out, he couldn’t very well take it back. “Cool. I’m happy for you,” he said, smiling at Marisol.

There was something about the way Sonny was smiling at her that made Marisol feel incredibly guilty about what she's just said. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she could tell he wasn't feeling as happy for her as he said he was. Eighteen years of being friends with the guy was enough for the green-eyed girl to know when he was and wasn't being completely honest.

“Thanks,” she said slowly, biting her lip again and shifting her eyes to stare down at her shorts again.

The way she seemed to be acting, one would think she was just punched in the gut or something. “What’s wrong now?” He asked her.

“It’s nothing,” she told him, looking up at him with a soft smile before curling up next to him with her head on his lap. “I just want to chill with you right now. Fuck everyone and everything else. Let's just enjoy being together again.”

There was something there. Sonny knew Marisol too well for it to be as she said. As much as he wanted to press her on it, he knew she would talk about it when she was just damn near ready to. So he wouldn’t do anything to force yet another round of ‘fuck off, Son’ like the past couple of months had been. No, he would just give her a nod and lean back, patting her legs.

“Then, that’s exactly what you’re going to get, little missy. One serving of exclusive chill time with The Other Sonny D coming your way!”

Marisol groaned loudly at his terrible attempt at humor, but eventually let out a loud laugh. “Shut up, dipshit,” she ordered with a smile, grabbing a nearby cushion and softly whacking Sonny's face with it.

And right then and there, Marisol and Sonny's worlds were finally at peace again.

For now, at least.

[eclecticwitch]

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_{Location: Grocery Store
Interactions: Talking to Carter
Color: E0633C}

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Bea watched the conveyer belt slowly work the groceries toward the older woman who quickly scanned the items before pushing them toward the bag boy. There was a click as a divider was placed down and someone else's items joined hers. She watched for a moment, noticing that they were much like her own - snacks. Her eyes returned to her own things. She began to dig through her fanny-pack to get her wallet when the man next to her spoke.

"It's Beatrice, right?"

Stopping the digging, hand still in the pack, she turned her face toward the stranger. Who was this? How did they know her name? She frowned slightly - just a small twitch of the corners of her lips and a furrow of her brow. It was brief but he might have caught the minor instance of an expression on her cold face. Tilting her head to the side, the curly haired girl responded, "That's correct." Her voice was a soft, gentle monotone. She then put her attention on the woman handling her things as she had almost finished ringing her up.

"You having a party or something?"

He was still talking to her? Bea was surprised, she didn't know him. Attention back on the young man beside her, she chewed her lower lip as she took an uncomfortably long time studying him. "Ah," she finally said, eyebrows raised and a kinder tone warmed her bronzed face. "I go to school with you. Yes, I am having an 'or something.' You are welcome to come if you like." She dug through her fanny pack and pulled out a little notebook and pen. She quickly scrawled out her name 'Bea' and phone number. The handwriting was elegant and almost like calligraphy. She pushed the paper into his hand as the woman who was checking her out recited - "Your total comes to $123.89."

Bea then, like the strange little hurricane she was, quickly paid for her items and left the store.

[AlteredTundra]

If there was one thing Kavi hated, it was how the little kids who hopped on Black Ops tried to act all hard when they got fragged in the face while trying to camp. He didn’t like to brag about his skills, but when they assaulted his mother by claiming that they did things with her he never wanted to think about or call him the wrong racial slur, Kavi had no problem repeating to them exactly what they said to him just at the start of the game five minutes ago.

“And tell your mom I’ll see her tonight, little boy!” Kavi’s final words before he threw a frag grenade at the twelve-year old’s character and their body went flying several yards in the opposite direction.

When he heard many, many, many racial slurs being thrown his way, Kavi decided, for his own sanity, he would log off for a little while. His neck was cramping up having spent almost an hour crushing bored husband and bored preteens in Free For All. He always did prefer going in solo. There was nothing more satisfying than going at it solo and killing the little kids who thought they could play with the big boys.

Kavi ventured from his gaming/study desk where he had three monitors (two computer screens, one television) and had gone to his bed. When he decided to lay back, it was in that very moment that he soon realized it was going to be impossible for him to bring himself back up if he needed to do much of anything. He was so relaxed on his memory foam mattress and a pillow that felt like a cloud comforted his aching body more than any amount of whining little kids on Black Ops, crying about their killstreak ending. When he thought about that, the teen smiled widely, though it was probably too widely because he soon whined himself from his cheeks forcing the makeshift brace holding his broken nose in place -- a brace that was not yet ready for impact.

“This is going to suck,” Kavi whined, even more, eyes started to water from the pain. No, he wasn’t crying. The pain was just so great that it caused an unintentional reaction.

Laying there for about ten minutes, Kavi must have fallen asleep for a short period, but he soon woke up to the vibrating noise of his cellphone. He really didn’t want to look at what kind of alert it was. Kavi was very much enjoying the peace and solace that came with being left alone. Nikki hadn’t decided to both him and with Kavi being grounded and his mother not giving two shits about what her kids were doing because of the Dolphins game on, Kavi had the benefit of being able to just relax. He sure as hell wasn’t going to go out. He didn’t feel like enduring the heat and, honestly? Kavi was more than content just relaxing.

Buzz! Buzz!

And yet, his phone wasn’t feeling the same way. Whoever kept buzzing him, after ten of them in less than five minutes, he had enough of it. Kavi gave into it and saw they were all notifications for his Instagram account. He stared at the list of growing notifications for a full minute. He must’ve gotten about fifty now. And every time he got another, his phone buzzed and buzzed. Kavi was growing weary of it, so he opened up his Instagram app and saw they were comments on one fucking video that he was tagged in.

@KavMeister getting arrested by the @PalmBeachPD after getting punched by @AGrey

The video itself made Kavi roll his eyes. A poorly looped video of Ariel punching his nose and Kavi’s body staggering as the overproduced trap remix of a pretty shitty trap beat looped in with Kavi’s grunt and the slew of curse words he had said when Ariel punched him. Even as he watched the minute-long video that had a youtube link attached to it, the only thing he seemed to care about was how many comments there were. Some in support of Kavi for taking that punch while others seemed to be sending the laughing emoji way too many times. Whatever the reason, as he scrolled down, he got tired of it and clicked out of the app.

“Fucking idiots,” Kavi muttered to himself as he put his phone on his nightstand.

There was no way in hell he was going to entertain those trolls with another minute of his time, though he figured he should at least give Ariel a heads up. That was when he picked his phone back up and called her. After a minute of nonstop ringing, he heard her voicemail message and, with no surprise, it was of one of the bands she loved listening to. Whatever the reason about it was, this made Kavi smile widely. And, again, he winced.

“Hey, I’m not sure when you’re going to check your phone, but some idiots tagged us in a video of you punching me and looping it with some footage of me getting arrested. Safe to say, I’d avoid Instagram or any other social media.” There was a one to two-second pause of silence from Kavi’s end. “Anyway, guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good one, Ari.”

Kavi soon hung up. Even though the thought of the comments he read lingered for a few minutes longer than he would’ve preferred, he started to wonder eager someone must’ve been to not only put those two separate videos together but also be so into the goal of making sure everyone saw it to tag both Kavi and Ariel in it. Whoever that person was, they were a sad excuse for a human being. Kavi wasn’t perfect, but even he wouldn’t do something like this. Whoever that person was, Kavi was above trying to find them and give them a beating they deserved. Instead, he’d let Karma take care of that.

Shrugging it all off for a final time, Kavi proceeded to lay back, letting himself get the nap he knew he deserved. Or if not deserved, then what he’s been wanting for a couple of hours.

[spooner]

But this time it's real
It's something that I feel and
If it feels like paradise running through your bloody veins
You know it's love heading your way

---

---

Archer’s finger traced the curves of Kavans chest absentmindedly as they both still lay in his bed. They hadn’t moved for a couple of hours just staying in bed talking and laughing, in utter paradise. Suddenly they were pulled back to reality by the sound of the front door opening and the murmur of voices. Archer could feel his friend tense up under his hand he looked up at his eyes seeing them widen… was that panic?

“Maa, daddy you’re home early!” you could hear Amoli saying from downstairs almost as a warning.

Kavan shot out of bed scrambling to get his clothing on at the same time he was running his hands through his hair making it more presentable. “Is…” Archer started a feeble attempt to get Kavan’s attention.

His friend looked around his room before he looked back up at Archer’s worried face. “I think you better go home for now…”

The words smacked him hard in the face. His eyes rose and fell slowly “Oh… oh yeah sure… of course.” He said as he quickly got dressed a million thoughts running through his head as he did. As Archer passed him in the doorway to his room Kavan gave him a strange look that seemed to be a mixture of regret and apology.

As they reached the first floor Kavan’s parents warmly greeted them as they usually did when Archer was over at their house. “You’re going already Archer? Not staying for dinner?” Mrs. Varma asked.

Archer struggled to plaster a smile on his face “Oh… Uhm no I need to get back home. I’ve been gone way to long… you know my mother will worry Mrs. Varma. But thank you for the offer.” he stuttered out. He turned around to face Kavan again “I… Well thanks for the study session dude. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow” he said not knowing what to do with his hand so he settled with an awkward shoulder pat before rushing out of the front door.

When he reached his car he sat in it tightly gripping the steering wheel for a few minutes breathing heavy. He tried to shake of the feeling he had ruined something before he drove away towards his house.

His finger tapped nervously on the side of his phone as he stared at the screen. Archer let out a puff of smoke through the open window. He had sat there since he had arrived home trying to get his thoughts straight. He killed his sixth cigarette before flicking it out of the window as he closed it. Archer’s thumbs now flowed over his phone typing the text that he had ran through his head a thousand time since he had arrived home. He erased and retyped it a few times before he sent it with a huge sigh.

His green eyes stayed on his message bubble to see if Kavan would open the text immediately. He did not. Obviously he is busy. He has a lot to do. And it’s not like he thinks about me all the time. He doesn’t have his phone glued to his hands like I do. Archer reasoned as he threw his phone on the small table beside his bed and connected it to the charging cord.

A small grown escaped him as he flopped onto his bed staring up at the ceiling. What should he do? Maybe call Marisol? No she would not get it… he could hear her now “Well you got laid! Be fucking happy!”. No that wasn’t going to help. He decided to process this on his own before talking to his friend about this tomorrow.

Deciding to push this to the back of his mind for now he grabbed his current reading book and tried to busy himself with immersing himself in the world of the book. This was a feat proving to be to hard for him because every two minutes or so he checked his phone to see if a reply had been received.

Even a twitter video of Ariel punching King's resident douchebag Kavi couldn't keep him from worrying about the text. He commented a few cryinglauhging emojis and tagged Marisol. Then went back to staring at blue bubble. After a while he could at least see that the message had been read. Which made it even harder to concentrate on anything else. A faint gasp left him as he checked for the last time before deciding to go to sleep, the dreaded gray monster.



He flipped his phone upside down and turned his back to it forcing himself to shit his eyes and drift of to sleep.

[SpicyMeatball]

_{Starring Chanel | April | Julie}

April’s signature white Maserati roared through the small suburban streets as she made her way to Julie’s house first, the phone still ringing on her end of the call. “Come on Julie, pick up!” she practically shouted, coming to a stop at an intersection. After looking both ways, she slammed down the throttle and took off once again, only slowing down as she passed her red-headed friend’s house. She looked down at her phone and raised a brow. April hadn’t noticed the voicemail originally, but it looked to have been there for a good ten minutes now. Damn it.

After listening to the rather awkwardly worded voicemail, April pulled a quick three point turn in her car and took off back toward Chanel’s house. As it came into view, she slowed down and drove like a relatively normal person who wasn’t just about to explode with emotions, before pulling into the driveway slowly. She quickly straightened her hair in the visor mirror above her before exiting the car, walking right up to Chanel’s front door. With a deep inhale, she calmed herself back down a bit before pressing the doorbell. “Here goes nothing.” she muttered to herself.

Only about a half of a second had gone by before the door was suddenly pulled open; a freshly showered and neatly groomed Chanel Martin stood in the doorway, her hand placed on her hip and a bright smile spread wide across her face. "Well, long time no see, stranger," the young woman said with a laugh as she quickly pulled April into a hug and pushed the door closed behind her, "I missed you at the homecoming dance, girl. We could've taken some pics together or something." As soon as Chanel had released the girl from her embrace, she began to lead the way back to the kitchen. It was upon their entrance that the pair would be able to spot an assortment of snacks and sweets that Julie and Chanel had laid out on the counter not too long ago. "Julie already told you about the good news in the voicemail, I think... right, Julie?"

Julie’s head snapped up from her phone when she heard the two girls enter. A nervous smile lighting up her face. “Oh, yes… I think I did!” She stood up and walked over to the snacks taking a few skittles and popping them in her mouth. Not really because she was craving the sugary sweet taffy but mostly she wanted her mouth to be busy with something else to do than talk. But, alas the skittles only lasted so long. “So uhm…” she began as she fiddled with her phone. “You said you had something to tell us? Something about your dad’s new flame?” she asked confused to why this was important for April to tell them.

April smiled to Chanel before being led into the kitchen. She nodded to Julie before taking a few Skittles for herself. As the candy flavour filled her mouth, she looked up to Julie and inhaled deeply. She’d had it with the awkwardness between herself and the redhead, it was time to break the ice once again and rid themselves of whatever tension hung between April and Julie. “Before anything, I want to clear the air between us Julie. We’ve been silently avoiding the topic for ages now and I’m tired of it hanging above me.” she’d look to Julie, April’s hands playing with the hem of her own t-shirt nervously. This was not what she had planned on doing and had no game plan to drive the conversation. She was winging it.

“I want to apologize Julie...for taking Santi’s side over yours way back even though he treated you like shit. I don’t know why I did, but I’m sorry.” Hopefully that was enough. It’s all she had.

This was something that Julie had been waiting for almost their whole high school career. And now that it was happening, she couldn’t keep the shock of her face. “Oh… uhm.” She began looking to Chanel for some sort of help. But this was between her and April and it was time. “You know April. I’ve had this conversation in my head so many times.” she looked down at her hands as they fidgeted on the countertop. “But I don’t think we need to go any further. I’ve put it behind me now.” It was true she couldn’t care less what Santiago did or said now, but hearing April apologizing did make her heart lighten. Julie looked at her friend with a warm smile. “I’m just glad to have my friend back.” The redhead whispered holding back the tears she could feel building up in her eyes. She stood up and closed the distance between them and embraced April in a long overdue hug.

“Aw, well would you look at that,” Chanel said with a cheesy grin as she stood by the snack counter and watched her two best friends hug it out, “It’s about time you guys got your shit together. For a while I thought I was gonna have to lock you two in my bedroom until everything was resolved.” And although Chanel let out a chuckle as she stated that last sentence, she was being completely candid and meant every word that she had said. Although Chanel would always try to lighten the mood and contribute positive energy to the group, a certain tension had been lingering heavily in the air whenever the trio would hang around one another; it would’ve only been a matter of time before Chanel would snap.

When they finally pulled away from each other Julie sat back down dabbing at her eyes letting out a small laugh. “Well, So I’m guessing that wasn’t the only thing you came here for. What was so important?”

“Yeah, what did you have to tell us?” Chanel said as she reached for an unopened bag of gummy bears and took a seat next to Julie. “Something about your pop’s new fling, right? He didn’t get her knocked up, did he?” She said jokingly.

April went quiet following the questions from the two of them, looking down at the floor for a moment to collect her thoughts. “Yeah, as I was leaving this morning I caught him ass-naked in the living room with a woman. I didn’t even ask, just got out of there as quick as possible.” She laughed nervously, shaking her head as the images of the morning ran through her mind.

“That’s not actually my big news though.’ she said quietly, looking to both of her friends. “This can not...will not leave this room, promise?” The brunette waited for an answer from each of them. Life-changing news was not something she took lightly and if this spread through the school, it’d only be a matter of time before her father found out from other sources. She had to stay on top of the situation. April nervously grabbed a handful of Skittles and snacked on them, once again breaking eye contact from her two best friends to look at the floor.

Julie’s eyebrows knitted together as she watched her friend twisted and turned where she stood. She nodded slowly and shot Chanel a concerned look before turning back towards April “Sure… of- of course…” she sputtered.

“Of course, I promise…” Chanel said slowly as she returned Julie’s concerned look with one of her own. “You know you can tell us anything. April, what’s going on?”

“I...I may be slightly….pregnant.” she’d say, not even looking up to Julie and Chanel. She felt her heart pounding hard against the walls of her chest and her head was spinning. God she hoped they wouldn’t hate her for this.

As soon as those words had finally come tumbling out of April’s mouth, Chanel found herself frozen in place; her mouth had stopped mid-chew, and her eyes grew wide as they flickered from the stomach of her “slightly pregnant” best friend to Julie’s face, eager to see if her facial expression matched her own. A million thoughts began to race through Chanel’s mind as she slowly continued to eat her candy; She was at a loss for words.

Julie’s hands dropped to her side, dumbstruck her face blank with shock. She didn’t know what to do or say. “Are you...sure?” she asked softly almost a whisper. “I- I mean…” she stopped. What could she say? Her eyes searching April’s face for even a trace of this being some sick kind of joke. She found nothing.

“Y-yeah...I’m sure..” she said reluctantly, her voice quiet. Looking up to her friends, both in some sort of shock, she’d offer a small smile to them both. “I’m going for an ultrasound in a few days.” She inhaled deeply, going to get herself a glass of water. After retrieving a glass from the cupboard, she’d look back to Julie and Chanel as she filled it. “Surpriiiise?” she said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

[spooner]

_{Waltz to the end of time |
You’re always wonderful girl}

---

---

The Wallenberg son was absent mindedly stroking the golden fur of his animal best friend Charlie letting out bored sighs. Max had come home from drinking some beers with his friends about an hour earlier had been bored ever since. Max was a resilient man and he could withstand a lot of things but being bored was not one of those things. He suddenly flipped his legs over the side of his bed and stood up. Making Charlie jump up excitedly. Max stood at the door leading out to the balcony as his dog circled his feet. The breeze flowing through the trees filled the young man with inspiration to go on a run.

“You want to come with me on run boy?” He asked happily as he bent down petting the dog on the side of his body. Charlie barked excitedly jumping up and putting his paws on Max’s chest as an answer. “Alright buddy! Let me just get ready!” he said as he removed his buttoned down shirt and replacing it with a more workout friendly t-shirt. Soon he had put on his running shorts and he and Charlie were bounding downstairs.

“You going out again Max?” His father asked from the living room where he and his wife were curled up together watching a movie.

“Yeah I’m going for a run! I’ve been a lazy bastard this weekend.” Max called out as he got on his running shoes the signature Wallenberg booming laugh could be heard from the other room. “I’m taking Charlie with me!” he yelled as he opened the door and exited his dog running ahead of him.

“Be back before eleven!” his mother's voice could be heard through the closing door.

Max started of down his street towards Ocean boulevard so he could run with the ocean as a backdrop. His music was pumping through his airpods and getting him into his usual rhythm. Max smile widened as he saw how excited Charlie was as he ran in front of him sitting down and waiting for his friend to catch up.

Before he knew it Max had been running for an hour. He had not really payed attention to where he had been going. Charlie barking louder and more frequent made Max snap back to reality. He reached up and paused his music to find out what got Charlie so riled up.

“Hey, hey, hey what’s up buddy? Huh? Why are you so…” he hunched down trying to get his friend to calm down. He looked around and saw that his subconscious had brought him to a very familiar place. The Nicholson home.

After standing looking up at the hose he had spent the better part of the summer in. Max turned around and left the same way he came. “Come on buddy.”

[Ejected]

<sub>I don't think that they'd understand

Location: Home
Interacting With: Archer Diedrikson || Mr. and Mrs. Varma || Amoli Varma</sub>

---

---

Kavan Varma was twelve years old when he kissed a boy for the first time. Michael Callahan was his name; he was a tall and lanky black boy who'd just moved to the area with his single, active duty father and his step mother who drank too often and smoked like a chimney. It happened during seventh grade Physical Education class, right after the young man and the rest of his classmates were supposed to have changed into their gym uniforms. As always, Michael had waited until the majority of the other boys had cleared out the locker room before he started to get changed... something about him not being comfortable with getting undressed in front of large groups of people. And being that Michael was Kavan's only friend at the time, the young man decided to linger behind so that they could enter the gymnasium together when Michael was finished. To keep things brief, it took Michael and Kavan a lot longer than it should have for them to join the rest of their class.

It was Amoli Varma, Kavan's older sister, who was the first to hear about this monumental occurrence in her little brother's life. But it was also Amoli who had initially warned Kavan to not share this information with anyone else, especially not his parents. "You know how some Indian parents can be," Kavan's sister had told him, "Especially ours. Gay, Bi... whatever you plan on identifying as once you figure yourself out... if it isn't straight, they won't accept it, bhaee. They won't accept you."

His sister's lecture was the first thing that popped into his mind when he heard the distinct sound of the front door being pulled open; his eyes widened in panic and his heartbeat quickened as he strained to listen. "Mama, Papa... you’re home early!" Kavan heard his sister say loudly, as if sending a warning to her brother and the boy who lay naked in his bed. After a split second of intense panic, Kavan unwrapped himself from Archer's embrace and shot straight out of bed; in swift motions, the young man began to pull on his clothes and running his hands through his hair in an attempt to make himself look more presentable. It was after he took a quick glance into his mirror that he finally redirected his gaze to Archer; a sharp pain shot through his chest as he noticed the boy's crestfallen expression. “I think you better go home for now,” Kavan said hesitantly.

"Oh… oh yeah sure… of course," Archer responded before rising from the bed and fumbling around for his own clothes. Kavan watched silently as the boy walked past him through the doorway; he wanted to say something. He really did. But for some reason, for the first time in forever, he just couldn't find the right words. Instead, Kavan just followed the young man down the stairs, trying his hardest to regain his composure before he'd have to face his parents.

As always, Mrs. and Mr. Varma greeted Archer Diedrikson with warm smiles and kind tones; they even asked the young man if he wanted to stay for dinner, but he politely declined much to Kavan's relief. Before Archer left, he offered Kavan an awkward pat on his shoulder and thanked him for their study session. "I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he'd told him, and Kavan felt another pang of guilt in his chest as he watched him leave the Varma residence and rush out to his car.

The first thing Kavan did once his parents had finished asking him about his weekend was seek out Amoli. The young woman had ascended the stairs at some point during their parents' questioning; Kavan found her sitting in the center of her bed, her cell phone in her hands and her credit card resting in her lap. "Doing more online shopping, huh?" Kavan said as he entered her room, pulling the door shut behind him. "Don't you have enough makeup palettes and brushes by now?" Rather than shoot her brother a witty response, Amoli simply offered him a small smile and patted the empty space next to her her; without hesitation, Kavan climbed onto the bed and laid his head in his sister's lap. They sat in silence for a full minute before the sound of Kavan's phone notification broke it, and it was then that the tears began to flow down his cheeks.

---

---

It was after Kavan had finally made his way back to his bedroom that he opened the message he'd received from Archer. He began to feel an all too familiar feeling well up in the pit of his stomach as he let his eyes read over the text. He stared at the thread for a few minutes before he finally began to type in a response.

text

[Venus]

It didn’t take a genius to deduce that drinking and smoking one’s problems away usually did more harm than good to a person. But Santiago Fernandez was no genius, and had never exactly been the sharpest tool in the shed. This was why, for the second time that Sunday, his head hung on the toilet as he once again threw up the contents of his stomach. At this rate, it was a miracle how the boy hadn’t died of alcohol poisoning yet- he had his Latino heritage to thank for that.

The time spent with his friends had done him good in a twisted sort of way. Just like he’d hoped, his boys were by his side no matter what. Sure, they all shared the same sentiment at him becoming a dad so early on: dread, horror, amusement, worry, concern, disbelief… But in the end, they’d been nothing short of supportive. Even if he would never admit it any time soon, Diablo had never been more grateful to have The Alphas. They’d promised each other they’d be there for each other in the good, the bad and the ugly, and they were certainly making true to that. It made all the negative feelings about his issue just a little easier to handle.

After much fighting, Santiago finally managed to get up from the bathroom floor and trudge to the shower. He let the stream of warm water bring him some sort of comfort and relaxation, before exiting it a while later. Still feeling miserable, the devil of Kings made his way back to the bedroom, where he pulled on some boxers and got ready to call it a night. The young man eventually fell backwards on his bed and shut his eyes, willing himself to sleep and praying that tomorrow would bring a better day.



[CaliforniaState]

_{This post is very ugly. Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk}

Aaliyah narrowly missed a deadly encounter with JJ on her way perusing through clothes and make-up. After explaining the night she would never forget, her mother could see why the girl was so distracted. Before they left the food court, her mother imparted her wise womanly knowledge. With all the shopping finished it was time for Aaliyah to set her eyes on her first ever hang out. The nerves slowly began to creep back up her spine as the ETA moved close and closer to 0.

Pulling up to Bea’s house, Aaliyah was greeted by a house modest in comparison to the top of the top. Not knowing what to do or who to text, Aaliyah sat in the car fumbling with the door.

“Are you going to get out honey?” Her mom asked.

Having both parents turn to face her only surmounted more pressure onto the poor girl.

“Yeah I was just uh making sure this was the right house number...hehe”

Her excuse was as bad as her laugh. Regardless she forced herself out the car with her bag clutched in her hands.

”It can’t be that bad right? Right? Just breathe and knock” The more she focused on the door the further it had gotten away from her. The space between the top of the steps and the door stretched miles. Honestly if anyone saw her from a window they would have been confused and just sent a recording to worldstar. Hoping no one would see her and her confidence slowly rising. Aaliyah took ACTION, which was really just ringing the doorbell and running into the nearby shrubbery so no one would see her.

Spitting a leaf out of her mouth and slapping the branches out of her face, Aaliyah peered from around the vegetation waiting for Bea to emerge. Hopefully this was the wrong address, because this girl had no clue what to say. As the door opened Aaliyah has realized the luggage tag attached to her bag had fallen onto the front porch. This was it, her career was over.

[AlteredTundra]

_{A Collaberation between @Altered Tundra & @eclecticwitch
F e a t u r i n g S t e l l a & P e n n y}

After the rush and thrill of picking out swimsuits, accessories and whatever else Penny decided they needed, she lead the way out of the door and into the hot pink Porsche Donny had bought her. She hopped into the driver's seat and started her up. The beautiful beast purred to life with a rumble and Penny turned to Stella with a huge grin on her face. “You ready, darling?”

The confirming sound of a slammed door was the first thing that Penny should take as Stella’s nonverbal ‘yes’, but as she brought her brown eyes to Penny’s, she gave nothing but a calm, happy smile to her friend. “Yep, yep, yep!” She happily said back to Penny. “Let’s go hit the beach! I’m so ready to soak in some rays!”

“Me too,” she said, perhaps with a bit too much enthusiasm. She was desperate to get Stella away from this house. Within moments they were driving off, sun shining and the top down. The wind blew Penny’s hair and made the curls absolutely wild! She pulled an iPod out of a little compartment and handed it over to Stella. “Play whatever you want!” she shouted, the wind sweeping most of it away.

Had Stella not already had practical bed hair, she would’ve been up in arms about her chocolate hair flying all over the place. But honest to every god in every religion, she was having too much fun. With verbal permission from her friend, Stella chose to stick to what she felt was the perfect road trip song to the beach. Even though it would only take them ten or so minutes, Stella took it upon herself to switch to the pop radio station that Penny seemed to have programmed. To her surprise, it was the same one she listened to.

“Oh my God, you listen to The Claw 99.3 as well!?” Stella gasped at the top of her lungs, mostly due to how the wind forced her to practically scream.

“Hell yeah babycakes!” The two girls jammed out on a short trip to the beach. Penny was feeling better, her smile was more honest, which was something Stella took notice almost immediately. Once there she parked the car and grabbed the bag she had brought with them which held essentials. “Where to?” she asked, gesturing to the expanse of sand.

“Oh!”

Without even thinking, Stella saw the perfect spot right by where the water was. It was maybe a yard and a half away. Most importantly, her eyes homed in on how nobody took the spot. It was just too perfect. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too humid, either. Usually, Florida humidity was a common thing this time of year (Which Penny’s hair was often too happy to communicate), but on this particular Sunday, it was low and cool. Plus, the breeze coming in from the ocean was just what the girls needed to relax fully.

Stella absentmindedly took hold of Penny’s hand and led her to the spot. Quickly when they arrived, Stella would once again take the initiative by taking the blanket that Penny had packed into her bag and lay it out (with Penny’s help of course). When it was secure on the sandy beach, she sat down on her knees and smiled at her friend. “It’s so nice out here, isn’t it?” She asked cheerfully.

Penny flipped off the hat that she had placed on her head in the brief moments from car to blanket and laid back rather dramatically. “I’m ready for my close up, Mister Demille,” she said cheerfully as she posed, one arm holding her up and the other holding the hat aloft. Her legs were crossed sensually across the blanket. After a moment longer, she collapsed backward with a small laugh. It was just what she needed.

She looked up at Stella, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore. “Love,” she asked lightly, “If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you be?”

“Paris, France,” Stella said without even so much as thinking about it.

“My dreamy romantic,” she replied and closed her eyes for a minute. Penny enjoyed the rays of the sun and the warmth of the day. A day away from a weekend she was already dreading. “Why France?”

“Well, I come from French ancestry. I’m not sure if you knew that. My father’s family comes from France. My father's ancestor s who would be my ancestors, too, originated from a small town called Sauveterre.” When Stella spoke, the slightest hint of a French pronunciation came through her normal feminine voice. “We still have some relatives that live there even though most of my cousins live in Paris. I just want to go there as soon as I can. I miss seeing Annabelle,” she somewhat muttered to herself.

As Stella spoke, Penny could hear her going back to the places she had visited before. She lay on the blanket, chin propped up on an upturned palm and just watched the young woman nearly reminisce. “Mmm, it sounds delightful. I wish I had something like that. All that family and history.”

Though she was still smiling, Stella became mindful of Penny and tried to cool it back a bit. “Where is your family from Penny? I’d love to know!”

How could she answer that honestly without souring the mood? Penny sat up and stared at the waves. The silence dragged on. She didn’t want to lie to Stella and that was the true struggle. Had it been anyone else she could have come up with something, anything to deflect. She cared far too much about this girl to lie to her. Penny turned her face and studied Stella for a moment. “They all passed away,” she finally responded. “All that is left is Don. And he’s not even blood.”

Stella was drawing a blank as she trying to unconfuse herself. “Was Don the one I met earlier?” Stella asked her friend.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was.”

Admittedly, Stella was more relieved to hear that confirmation that she let on. She grinned happily for Penny. If not to hide her own whirling thoughts about how weirded out she was seeing that kiss between Penny and her non-blood relative, Donny, then just to preserve the overall enjoyment she felt being with Penny and having fun beachside.

And that’s when Stella, instead of wanting to pursue the thought in her mind about Donny, she had decided to focus on how amazing the water looked. “Y’know, I’m half tempted to take a dip,” she smiled through her words. “Though, maybe I should put on some sunblock.” The rare moment of a mindful Stella reached into Penny’s bag. She knew she saw sunblock in there before they left her house.

A quick rub of sunblock all over her body, Stella stood up and offered to do the same for Penny - at least her back. Once it was done and once Penny was able to do that as well, she smiled at her friend. “Let’s hit the water!”

[fledermaus]

𝙰 𝙸 𝙳 𝙴 𝙽 𝚆 𝙴 𝙸 𝙽 𝙼 𝙰 𝙽 𝙽

“I’ve missed you.”

Aiden held the smoke until it felt like his lungs were swelling out of his chest and released it smoothly, watching the stream cloud the air in front of him like a steam train chugging to nowhere. He wanted to roll his eyes at his “benefactor’s” sentiments, but his face felt way too numb with the alcohol buzzing his brain and the marijuana turning his nerves to sludge. Richard Leeson, his main sugar daddy, stood up and buttoned his white shirt with his back turned to him. He wasn’t that attractive to Aiden – he was a seventy-one year old man, after all – but he had hella money and knew what he was doing in bed. Still, Aiden was being paid to make him feel wanted and the nineteen year old did always pride himself on being a hard-worker.

Richard only jumped slightly when Aiden rested his chin on his shoulder and slung his arm possessively around his chest from behind, “Going back to the wife already, Dick?”

Richard’s chest puffed with laughter and Aiden could feel the vibrations under his hands, “Was that a nickname or name-calling, babe?”

“Both.” Aiden replied cheekily, pressing a chaste kiss to Richard Leeson’s chin.

“Stop,” Richard grunted, “if you keep teasing me I won’t be able to leave and ‘the wife’ is expecting me soon.”

“Fine, fine.” Aiden removed himself from Richard’s back to stab his blunt into the ashtray by his bed. “I’ll see you soon then, yeah?”

“Of course, babe.” Richard kissed him a bit longer than necessary before leaving the condo.

Once he heard the door shut, Aiden flopped back onto his back and pulled up his phone to scroll through his texts from his other sugar daddies. He scrolled past messages from the sugar daddies that knew he was back in town and sent off messages to the ones who didn’t. Most of his sugar daddies wanted to continue their contract, but some didn’t text back which left Aiden a little bit bitter. Being a sugar baby was effort, pretending to be attracted to old flabby men, and they should’ve appreciated him a hell of a lot more. Business was going to be slow this next week.

𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝚓𝚎𝚊𝚗

Millie Jean felt relieved when Georgie left her, but she also felt a bit bereft. It was a weird feeling – not wanting to be near anyone yet yearning to be wanted nearby. Such contradicting thoughts gave her a headache and running into Georgie left a taste in her mouth that made her decide to go home, whether it would hurt Bea’s feelings or not.

The walk back home was blurry – she walked on autopilot, sometimes tugging on Puppy’s leash to stop her from running off and halfway through she must have picked up Pepper but she doesn’t really remember doing it. Upon entering the house, she rushed to her room and released the cats from their leashes. She should text Bea and tell her sorry or make up some excuse – it sounded like a lot of effort, though.

Instead, Millie Jean sat and watched her butterflies flutter within their terrarium and wondered if she was cruel for keeping them there.

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^{𝑺 𝑨 𝑳 𝑬 𝑴 𝑹 𝑰 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑨}

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Salem bought a new phone and returned to his car. Instead of starting it and driving back to the house, he sat in silence – didn’t even turn on his Bluetooth. The bag with his new phone sat in the seat next to him. He had bought the most expensive model he could find despite knowing it wouldn’t even put a dent in his funds; still, it was the only rebellious thing he could do. Salem rested his forehead on the steering wheel and wished he was back in New York.

He doesn’t want to call his dad and he doesn’t want to see Marisol (Marisol who was his, his, his last night in his arms and was so warm and soft and perfect) with that rat-faced Sonny. In New York, things were a lot simpler. It was funny he had only been in Palm Beach for two weeks and already everything that was precariously balancing on the edge was falling. His relationship with his dad had finally burned through his tough skin and there were so many more things Salem wanted to say to his dad, things he knew he wouldn’t be able to take back, but he wanted to say them anyways. His relationship with his mother remained the same, but he could feel the peace between them fracturing and one tap would cause their perfect vase of a relationship to break. Meanwhile, Gwen – god, what was he going to do with Gwen.

It must be all the Vitamin D he’s getting that’s making him so impulsive. Or maybe this is who he is, and he’s just like his father instead of his mother (and fuck if he hadn’t already known that, known that he was a waste of space and a fuck-up and a filthy –).

Salem should call his dad. Picking up his phone, he scrolled down his contacts which had been transported from his old phone’s backup, and thumped a name on impulse. The ringing felt like a knife about to clatter onto the floor.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Gwen, sorry I hadn’t called. My phone broke.”

[NeoAJ]

No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter
You're my experimental game
Just human nature
It's not what, good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

The blinds were open at the guest’s request, allowing the sunshine to peer in and illuminate the decadent sins that were occuring in the upstairs bedroom of the palacious home at the end of Via Las Incas. Two young women were occupying the spacious bed, just voraciously eating, not a spot of cream escaping their tongues as they attacked the feast that lay between the pair. The previous occupant of the room would be horrified to know what her younger sister was doing right now, as the display grew to the towering crescendo of a finale.

Shawna dropped the last bite of her banana cream cupcake into her mouth with a flourish and clapped her hands. “And boom! I officially ate healthy today. Thank you, fruit!”

A round of laughter erupted from the opposite side of the bed, where Kellie Anne had been tackling a cupcake from her own batch of six. “I suppose the same rule counts for me, then,” the girl said with a smile, dropping her now empty cupcake wrapper inside the cardboard box. “Carrot cake is healthy, right? Even if it was topped with this delicious cream cheese frosting?” she asked Shawna, wiping some of the frosting from the corner of her mouth with her thumb and licking it off.

The hostess nodded and tossed the wrapper with that of her first cupcakes, one of the red velvets that was decidedly not on the food pyramid, and went for a second helping of the deep crimson goodness. “Seriously, it’s all about balance,” she noted as she peeled away the paper keeping her from the baked goodness within.

“Exactly! I stuff all six of these today, then sweat them out during dance practice this week. See? Balance,” Kellie confirmed, shooting the young woman in front of her a complicit wink before grabbing the peanut butter cupcake from the box.

“Shoot, forgot about that part of the equation. Hmmm, guess I did go for a run this morning. I’m good,” Shawna reasoned, counting her mad dash to meet CJ at Green’s as her exercise. “So...I never did ask you,” she motioned to the other woman as Kellie Anne also appeared to be ready for another cupcake, “What happened? I mean, you look like you’ve got a lot going for you, Kellie Anne. Why are you joining me in this cupcake binge?”

Having just taken a decent bite out of her cake, it took a second for Kellie to answer her new friend's question. She chewed the delicious dessert slowly, downed whatever was left with the glass of milk her hostess had so graciously offered her earlier before replying. “My ex-boyfriend is being a piece of shit,” she declared, eyebrows knitting together in a frown while she took an angry bite.

Shawna’s eyes widened a bit at that news, before she sagely nodded as if she knew exactly what she meant. “Ah yes, men being men. I get that.” She did not get that, aside from the Netflix shows, but she wasn’t going to show that card yet. A sip of milk prepped her body for what was to come. “So what’s his poison? He not taking the hint and leaving you alone? He spreading rumors? Does he keep thinking you’re on a break? What’s the asshole doing?” She took a huge bite of the red velvet cupcake, as big as she could muster, while she waited for an answer.

Kellie shook her head, her sugar craving evaporating on the spot as she thought of Max and his escapades. “In the two and a half months we've been broken up, I've seen him hang out with about seven different girls, made out with six of them, and slept with at least three,” she admitted sadly, placing her half-eaten cupcake back on the box. “It's as if the half year we spent together meant nothing to him. I gave him everything -everything-, but it still wasn't enough for him.” The dancer let out a sigh, picking away the crumbs from her shorts. “I mean, I'm not saying I'm completely innocent for what happened- but can you blame me for being a little insecure? Max isn't known for being a good guy. He's best friends with the devil, for crying out loud! I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to kiss him that night…”

The green-eyed girl swallowed hard while listening to the litany of crimes listed off by her cupcake-eating partner. Having never actually been in a relationship, Shawna didn’t have much of her own experience to go off of. However, she did know the feeling of giving all your effort to something and not having it pay off. Knew that way too well. “Hey, hey, hey…” She figured a reassuring pat on Kellie’s knee was necessary here. “You know, you can’t blame yourself for what someone else is doing, and you can’t let it just wreck you like that. You got no control over it.” The brunette leaned back. “You didn’t know what you were getting into, and it didn’t work, and that’s OK. You just, um, you just gotta use this knowledge and try to, um, figure out what works for you. What you need. Cause like, obviously this didn’t work out, right? That means you just move on and figure out what makes you happy, and you do it.” Shawna was spitballing a little, but hey, if the advice was good enough for her and she was getting more out of life, it couldn’t hurt to see if it would help her new friend.

“But I did know what I was getting into,” Kellie argued, lower lip sticking out and trembling. “I always knew of Maxie’s player reputation. But I thought that I could fix him, you know? Change him for the better. That I actually meant something to him because I was the first serious girlfriend he had. Obviously I was wrong…” she trailed off, wiping away the tears on the corners of her eyes.

Clearly, Kellie needed more than the meager life platitudes Shawna was offering. This Max person meant a lot to her and he did her wrong. The hostess looked up and spotted a relatively abandoned box of tissues and hoisted herself up to grab it off the shelf. Once it was acquired, she plunked herself back down on the bed, closer to Kellie, “Here,” she offered. “Look, I don’t know this Max kid, don’t know what he’s about, but he sounds like an asshole. Dumping a sweet girl like you? Clearly isn’t bright either.” She didn’t know exactly what she was doing, relying on more sitcom sayings to try and help lift Kellie’s spirits. “A guy like that, he’s just probably broken himself trying to fill that hole in himself, and he’s not gonna be able to do it, because he’s going about it the wrong way. And if you tried to help him see that and he couldn’t do it, well then you are a saint for trying.” She looked down. “And you earned those cupcakes.”

The brunette shrugged her shoulders, graciously taking one of the tissues Shawna was offering while listening to her new friend. She laughed at her attempts to cheer her up, even if they didn't have the desired effect. “I am so sorry for just dumping this on you, Shawna,” Kellie apologized, taking a second to blow her nose loudly before looking up at her hostess with a sad smile. “Everybody else I trust is already sick of me talking about it, all because they told me he was trouble in the first place and I didn't listen.”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey…” Shawna said, placing an arm on Kellie’s shoulder, as the TV guides she was now using to help steer this conversation taught her to do. “First of all, you aren’t dumping anything. I’m glad you actually want to talk to me about personal shit like this. I don’t get that a lot here. Don’t know if you can tell, but this place is pretty dead. Second, you gotta do what you gotta do for you, and don’t listen to other people anyway. If I did that, I wouldn’t have done this.”

Shawna adjusted herself on the bed and pulled the hem of her t-shirt down to reveal the sizable wolf tattoo on her left shoulder. The black bra strap was covering it partially, but there was still plenty of wolf to be seen. “If I had listened to the people in my life, I wouldn’t have gotten that. And it still kinda hurts, hurt a hell of a lot more a few weeks ago. But I’m still glad I did it for me. And you know, you may be hurting now, but that hurt is gonna fade, Kellie. Because you are dealing with the pain now, but you are gonna find something beautiful at the end of it.”

“Oh my God, that's really pretty…” Kellie complimented Shawna on her tattoo, letting one of her fingers gently graze the inked skin of her bare shoulder. She stared at the wolf on the other girl's tanned skin for a while longer before letting her brown eyes lock with Shawna's hazel ones. “Why a wolf?”

The tattooed girl completely missed the visual cue and let out a shrug. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” It was accurate, the drugs convinced her it was a good idea. She lifted her shirt back up over her shoulder. “I just wanted something wild. Something free. Something to symbolize, like, my independence. And you know, wolves are pretty badass. Especially lady wolves. Lady wolf saved Mowgli from getting eaten, you know?”

“Really? Must have missed that part of the movie,” Kellie admitted with a shrug. Growing up, she'd been more of a Barbie movie fan than Disney- and it moments like this, it showed. “But I get what you mean. And I think it's a really beautiful piece. It suits you.”

“Thanks!” Shawna beamed as the decision to get the badass tattoo was now fully justified in her mind. “Oh, I didn’t show you what’s underneath it! Um…” The brunette lifted her t-shirt off her body, letting her wavy hair settle before pulling it off to one side. The bra strap obscured the bottom half of the wolf, but the words “Live Free” were written in cursive underneath. “See, like I said. Independence symbol.”

Although she kept her cool, there was no denying the greedy way Kellie eyed the exposed parts of Shawna’s body. This wasn’t the first time she’d caught herself staring at a girl like this either, or having rather interesting thoughts about one. Ever since she’d made out with Lorena Galvez back in California, it was more than obvious to the dancer that her sexuality wasn’t limited to the male species. But an innocent kiss at a sleepover with her best friend was one thing. Having this sort of contact with a girl she’d just met was another thing… But she wasn’t about to stop now.

“Can I touch it?” she asked Shawna in a low, shy voice, cheeks blushing a little.

The green-eyed girl locked eyes with the hazel-eyed girl again, looking over the shoulder, this time catching a bit of a blush. She wasn’t sure how to proceed, but if she just wanted to touch it again, it wasn’t like it felt bad before. “Sure, but be careful. I’m just out of the healing stage, so like I said, it’s still a little tender. And make sure there’s no icing on your hands.”

“Why? That just means I can lick it right off,” she said in a mocking seductive voice and wiggling her eyebrows at Shawna, bursting out in a fit of laughter as soon as the words left her mouth. The other girl giggled in kind. Once she had composed herself, Kellie slowly extended her arm and let her fingers trace the outline of the cursive letters, enjoying the feeling of the soft, warm skin under her touch. When she had admired the work enough, she pulled back with a satisfied grin.

The tattooed girl almost felt a tinge of regret when the other girl pulled away. It was still tender as she warned, but it was a good kind of tender. It was warm and it felt so good to have another person touching her in that way. Even if it was another girl.

“You know, I have something I can show you too. It's definitely not as cool as your tattoo, but I think it's cute!” the dancer told her hostess before pulling one side of her shirt up, revealing a rather curious light brown birthmark on the right side of her tanned-skinned midriff. “See? If you look at it closely, you can sorta see it looks like a heart. Right? Or am I just being crazy?”

Shawna turned back around and leaned in for a closer look at Kellie’s torso to see if she could spot the heart that was indicated. She traced around the shape without asking, figuring it was ok since Kellie did likewise. “No,” she stated. “No, I don’t think you’re being crazy. I can definitely see the heart shape. Like it’s a little smushed but it’s there for sure.”

It wasn't a secret to those who knew her that Kellie Anne was ridiculously ticklish. She couldn't count the amount of times her brothers and Millie had used this against her, or how awkward the first time with Max had been when she squirmed away in a fit of giggles at his every touch. This was why it took all of the girl's self-control to not impulsively jerk away from Shawna, brown eyes filling up with tears of held-back laughter. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, and the next thing either girl knew, Kellie was falling backwards on the bed, collapsing with laughter.

Shawna was a bit surprised to get such a reaction from her prodding at Kellie’s birthmark, but she lit up in a big smile. “Ohhhhhhhh,” she commented. “So you’re that ticklish, huh? OK, OK, gonna have to remember this if I catch you in a rut or something. This is good info.” She realized she was already making plans to see this girl again, but why not? Kellie was a solid hang. She seemed to be full of energy and she needed a friend. Shawna needed anyone in that category. Plus she didn’t have any desire to smoke up since Kellie walked in the door. It was hard to remember the last time that was the case, especially when it played such a big part in inspiring the tattoo that Kellie had adored before her giggle fit. “I guess a mean person would use this for evil. Luckily for you, I’m not that mean…”

“‘Not that mean’?” Kellie repeated in a teasing tone, smirking at Shawna. “What's that supposed to mean? What do you do when you are being mean?”

Shawna tilts her head back and forth. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to be mean before. Been the recipient, never really been the person being mean.” She got a devious look in her eye. “But if I was, gotta imagine I would do things like this!” She lunged forward, brushing both sides of Kellie’s torso with her fingers to try and get the same reaction she did before out of the dancer.

A combination of loud shrieking, giggles and pleading filled the empty rooms of the large house as Kellie Anne was attacked with tickles. She squirmed and fought with the darker girl until she was atop Shawna, grabbing her by the arms and pinning them over her head.

“What are you gonna do now, bitch?” the brunette said in a taunting voice with her face inches away from Shawna's, pretending to sound menacing but letting out a thrilled laugh.

The green-eyed girl wriggled as much as she could, but she was no match for the far more athletic dancer who was now on top of her. She looked up into those hazel eyes and tried to put on her best puppy dog face. “P-Please, ma’am. I’m so sorry. I was drunk on power and didn’t know what to do with it. I’m not made of stone! Spare me and I shall greatly reward you!” Shawna was doing her best to try and be cute, but she was a little out of practice, having not relied on this tactic since she was nine.

Kellie snorted, corners of her mouth curling up in the beginnings of a smile before she cleared her throat and focused on appearing dominating instead. “And how exactly will you reward me, peasant?” she replied in a fake posh tone, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at Shawna.

Shawna was trying to think of what she could offer to play along, but her options were limited. Her ability to do a bad British accent was not though. “I’m afraid I don’t have much, queen. I’d give you cupcakes, but I know you ‘ave plenty. I’d give you money, but I gave it to other peasants.” As she continued to gaze up at the girl who had her in such a compromising position, it was funny. She actually felt more at ease with everything. It felt good. “All I can offer you my queen... is myself…” Shawna actually blushed slightly when she said that, partly because she was still playing along, but partly because it started to sound like something she wanted. Despite just meeting this girl this afternoon, she was just really enjoying herself. It was intoxicating.

Shawna’s terrible British accent sent Kellie into a fit of giggles. It took all of her self control to stay in character and not loosen her grip on the girl, but there was no hiding just how funny her new friend sounded. However, the taller girl’s proposition sent a blush of equal proportions to spread her surprised face. If you were to ask Kellie, she would justify everything with ‘it’s just a silly play pretend game we’re playing!’. But if she was really honest with herself, the scene that could possibly unfold if she did this had been nagging at her ever since Shawna took her top off.

And before she realized it, Kellie found herself lowering her head, pressing her lips against Shawna's and begin to softly kiss the girl underneath her.

Shawna’s eyes opened wide, as if she wasn’t prepared for what was happening. She could feel it coming, however, there was no real way she could prepare. Wha….my first kiss!?! Now!? Really? I... I… Her thoughts seemed to dissolve as she melted under the touch of Kellie’s mouth on hers, a rush of euphoria flooding her body. She closed her eyes, wanting only to experience this moment and that beautiful touch forever more.

It seemed like a lifetime later that Kellie Anne and Shawna finally broke away from the sweet kiss they’d shared. Not a word was exchanged between the two girls as they willed their fluttering hearts and labored breathing to steady. As Shawna looked up and Kellie looked down, their eyes locked onto each other, not daring to look away, just taking in the full extent of what just happened and where they go from here. One thing was certain, though.

Their kiss had tasted like cupcakes.

[eclecticwitch]

---

_{Location: The Beach
Interactions: Texting with Archer
Color: 98AC90}

---

It was calming, sitting by this ocean shore. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes. He breathed in each time the sound of waves crashed against the sand and out again when they returned back. His mind drifted and wandered, he did not stop the thoughts. Sad things. Simple things. His dreams of supporting his family. His ethic of working hard. The burn out he had been feeling, pressed on by a strict father began to settle. His soul was less restless.

He opened his eyes and watched the waves with a small smile on his face. At this point, he decided to walk along the sandy beach. He removed his socks and shoes and rolled up the bottoms of his slacks. The heat of the sand felt wonderful against his soles and when the cold water lapped over his feet it cooled the burning sensation. He walked for about fifteen minutes before setting side his shoes and taking out his phone. There was inspiration burning in his belly but he did not know in what way he should express it.

Guy snapped pictures of the ocean and shoreline. After a bit, he sat down and studied the pictures. It then came to him. He tapped out a poem on his phone and then thought of the only person he would really love to send it to. Get feedback or to just share in this. He opened up his texts and then sent a single picture along with the words he wrote.

It was into the ocean's waves
I thought that I should slip.
Carry me on azure boughs
Away from rigid sandy shore.
In the quiet of the depths
of dark and unknown things
is where I'll ask a modest prayer
to soothe this luckless soul.

He hit send before tucking the phone back into his pocket. He expected no immediate response. He drew his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and setting his chin upon his knees. Again he watched the waves and forgot how long he had been out beside the ocean.

[Venus]

Monday, October 8th, 2018

It was just your usual Monday morning: the start of a new week for the residents of Crown Heights, Florida. For the Senior class of Kings Academy, it was the first time back at school since the fiasco that was their Homecoming dance, and they were certain that the incidents that had transpired that night would not go unnoticed by the faculty. It came to no surprise to absolutely anyone that the second the teens entered their homeroom classroom, they were notified that their presence was requested at the auditorium for an emergency assembly. And so, the seniors left the same way they had gone

“Good morning, students,” Mrs. Chamberlain began in her usual strict, brisk tone of voice, giving them all a stern look before clearing her throat and continuing. “First of all, I would like to address the appalling and absolutely atrocious behavior my faculty and I witnessed at the Homecoming dance last Saturday. Fist fights, underage drinking, suspected drug use, the involvement of the Palm Beach PD in one particular case-” she paused, shooting Kavi Salvador a meaningful look. “These are not the morals and values we teach and abide by at this school. All students guilty of any of these transgressions will be contacted throughout the day to be penalized accordingly, and I will personally be keeping an eye out for any further mischief from this point onward. If this unacceptable behavior continues to occur throughout the year, I will have no other choice than to declare a cancellation of this year’s Prom Night.”

A wave of angry, outraged whispers and mutters echoed across the auditorium at the threat. Yet being as experienced as she was with dealing with snobbish, entitled, ungrateful children, Mrs. Chamberlain didn’t so much as flinch at the attacks, choosing to merely roll her eyes at their childish reaction and raising a hand. “Enough,” she commanded, keeping her cold, unflinching stare upon her students until there was only silence in the room once more. “Keep each other in line and there shall be no reason for me to penalize.”

There was a pause as Mrs. Chamberlain let the words sink in, waiting a few more seconds before continuing on. “In other news, I am proud to announce that the Homecoming King and Queen for this year’s graduating class are Santiago Fernández and Julie Macmillan. Mr. Fernandez, Ms. Macmillan: please present yourselves to the stage now for the official coronation. Congratulations to both.”

The room filled up with honest and hypocritical applause alike as a smug Santiago and a visibly uncomfortable Julie made their way up the steps and to the center of the auditorium stage. The two teens stood side by side while the ever-cheerful Mrs. Sanders placed the sashes and the crowns on their heads, and then made a few poses for the yearbook photographer. As the flash of the final photo vanished, something on the crowd caused the boy to immediately tense up, jaw squared and a frown on his handsome face just before he and Julie were ushered out of the stage.

Once they had taken their seats, Mrs. Chamberlain continued. “Finally, I have taken the liberty of appointing you all here today for the purpose of three educational lectures that will cover topics of utmost importance to this vulnerable stage of your young, tender lives. I am confident each of you will find them useful in your own way, and hope that the valuable information provided is taken to heart and put into action as soon as possible.”

And for the next three hours, the seniors of King’s Academy were subjected to three lectures about the consequences of underage drinking, drug use and sexual activity. They were spared of no details: being told and shown in graphic detail the damage alcohol caused to the body, mind and soul, how marijuana was a gateway drug that would lead to an eventual heroin overdose in a dirty alleyway of some shady city, how straying away from the path of God and refusing to be abstinent was the biggest mistake they could ever make, how being sexually active would lead them down a sinful road of perversion and depravity, and how an unplanned pregnancy basically meant that the rest of your life was officially over. The minutes spent in the room were grueling and mentally scarring for all of them, and not even the pocket-sized bag of condoms and lube handed out were enough to make them forget the insanity of what they had just seen and heard. After what seemed like an eternity, the bell signaling their early lunchtime gave the teens the begged-for, sweet relief from the faculty-imposed torture.

[Hoekage]

^{★★
Time// MONDAY, 10/8, 0:00
Location // ASTOR RESIDENCE, ROOFTOP PATIO
Interactions// OLD MEMORIES
★★}

“Oppa! I looove you!” The sound of infectious giggles erupted from the speakers of the phone as the illuminated screen showed a cute korean girl being picked up and spun around. Ah, young love, how disgustingly naive, and terribly consuming.

For an hour the video looped, with every oppa and every outburst of giggles a hollowness shoveled itself deep into the chest of the recently turned masochist. What am I doing?

---

^{★★
Time// 4:00
Location // Astor Residence
Interactions// ASTRAIA
★★}

“Rel… Reli… Aurelio, come inside.”

The feminine voice cut through the dreamland easily, as deep pools of chocolate brown eyes blinked, a state of confusion played in his irises before a melancholic realization washed away the drowsiness. Falling asleep up here, on the rooftop, while watching a video of a different day had become some sort of sad routine for Aurelio in the past two weeks. With a soft sigh, the obviously heartbroken boy smoothly got to his feet, brushed off his clothes and glanced at his sister, who looked equally as bad as him.

“You look like shit, did Ximena sucker punch you in the face after you told her how bad you fucked up, or are your dark circles that bad?”

The simple roll of her green eyes was telltale enough that his worse-half was not in the mood for their usual sibling bullshit. With a sigh he shook his head, the past two weeks had been enough time for him to work through his anger and realize his sister wasn’t malicious, but a dumbass. You can’t blame her for being a dumbass. So despite his annoyance with her, he threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a side hug ruffling her bed head, and walked with her back inside the house. With a half-hearted grin, he pushed her lightly towards her door

“Go back to bed Ass, you’re gonna need all the energy you can get to face what’s coming for you.”

“Ugh… don’t remind me… I’m half tempted to go play tag with the cars on the freeway.” Yessi groaned in response earning a chuckle from her twin. Their eyes met for a second and a look of understanding passed between them. For this week at least, they’d be on each other’s side no matter what, they had both left behind a few unhappy people back in Sophomore year when they disappeared.

“I’ll probably be gone when you’re up and functioning. I’ll see you at school, though.”

---

---

^{★★
Time// 7:35
Location // MacDaddy’s Residence
Interactions// Wherefore art thou Julie(t)?@spooner
★★}

The morning, once everyone was up and bustling about, had gone smoothly. Aurelio had mastered the art of shaking away the exhaustion that lingered after his lonely nights. Between the hot shower that washed away his sorrows, lol or not, and the Pear flavored Red Bull he pounded back, he was ready to roll out when 7 o’clock came around.

With his heart-pounding, an affirmation to Aurelio that he still had the stupid thing, and DNAbumpin’ in the matte black helmet he weaved in and out of traffic effortlessly on the busy highway receiving more than a few honks and angry birds. As the song changed and the honking was more easily heard in the small second of silence, he chuckled to himself and shook his head in amusement. Was there any other way to ride a motorcycle? Honestly?

Soon enough the blurring scenery had slowed to sprawling mansions and his baby had quieted to a low purr as he stopped in front of the house that had not changed from the image he had in his memories. As he slipped off the Agusta and made his way up the tiled driveway a bundle of nerves had unfolded in his stomach. With a quick exhale and shake of his arms he knocked firmly against the door and stepped out of sight of the windows alongside it, “Delivery for Ms. Macmillan!” his voice was raised a few octaves as he leaned against the wall, trying his best to appear cool and collected, despite the chaos occurring inside him.

“Wow I didn’t expect it to arrive this fast!” Julie’s voice sounded out from behind the door before it slowly opened to reveal the smiling redhead. The girl stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes fell on the man standing in front of her. You could see that behind her light blue eyes two years of memories were flashing in an instant. A small breath escaped the girl's mouth before she slammed the door shut.

Damn she's gotten even more beautiful, was the only thought that crossed his mind in the brief moment his eyes connected with hers. As soon as the door slammed shut a hearty laugh left his mouth as he pushed off from the wall, she hadn’t changed a bit from the spitfire girl he loved back in Sophomore year. Knocking again this time a bit gentler, he expected her to be on the other side of the door still, he called out in his normal tone, which had grown deeper since 10th grade.

“You know, in the movies I’ve seen, the girl is supposed to run and jump into the arms of the boy.” Aurelio paused for a moment before continuing,” I’ll start serenading if you don’t open the door!”

On the other side of the door, the Macmillan girl leaned against it with her arm crossed and a frown plastered on her face as she listened to her ex-best friend speak. Finally, she whipped around and wrenched the door open.

“It’s because you watch garbage movies Aurelio” she spat. “What are you doing here? What do you want?” she asked as her icy stare surveyed him.

Despite the venom in her voice and ice thick in her eyes, Aurelio couldn’t help the radiant smile that played at his lips. The sadness in his heart seemed a little more distant as he faced the rage of the beautiful girl in front of him.

“Who knows, maybe Korea ruined my movie tastes.” He replied lightly giving a shrug as he looked over the girl, nodding his head absently in approval he ignored her questions,” Have you gotten hotter since the last time I saw you? Or is this time playing a trick on me?”

Julie’s face faltered for a split second before it rearranged into a look of disgust. “Korea!? So I’m guessing that’s where you’ve been?” she sighed her expression softening. “Reli… seriously?” the girl whispered as she smoothed out her skirt. The redhead closed the space between them looking at his brown eyes blinking slowly. Suddenly she punched him as hard as she could on his shoulder before walking past him her bag slung over her shoulder.

“The least you could do is give me a ride to school.” she huffed swinging her leg over the Augusta.

Yup, Julie Macmillan was the same girl he remembered from Sophomore year. “Who taught you how to throw a punch, Jules?” He questioned joining her at his bike. There was a lot the two had to catch-up on, Aurelio already had a million and one questions zipping through his brain that he wanted to ask her, but that would have to wait for later.

“Don’t complain.” He warned as he slid the helmet he had been wearing over her head and gave it a firm pat, just for a little extra measure. The Astor boy situated himself in front of Julie, revving the engine a couple of times before kicking up the stand, “Hold on tight, but don’t let your hands get too wild.” Reli teased throwing her a wink over his shoulder,” Ready fiorellino?”

“You’re an idiot.” she whispered as she rolled her eyes from under the helmet. Her arms wrapping around his waist a bit tighter than she intended, maybe she had missed him after all.

---

^{★★
Time// Lunch time
Location // King’s Auditorium
Interactions// Monday’s are for… Sex Ed?
★★}

To say the morning had gone smoothly after rescuing the princess from her castle would have been a big ass lie. Much to the dismay of both the just reunited friend, even though Jules dear wouldn’t admit to it, Aurelio had to head straight to the office. Though with a promise to find the redhead earlier he seemed to have left on an... okay note?

Then, the office was far more interesting than it should have been. Aurelio had entered to see his twin comfortably sitting outside the registrar’s office, except maybe not so comfortable. Between her fisted hands, bouncing leg and the Medusa-rivaling glare, there was no mistaking that Astraia was pissed. What the fuck had happened in the three hours since he had seen her?

Well, there was no time to grill her about her bad attitude as they were sent to the Dean’s office to discuss some pressing matters, guess Papa Alessandro was smarter than they both had thought. Given their expectations, and a handful of hard stares towards Yessi, Aurelio was the angel child he only got I trouble because they were a package deal, they were given their locker assignments, class and books list and told to head to the Auditorium for an emergency assembly.

What the fuck is an emergency assembly? Did someone die?

Aurelio was barely holding in his laughter while he considered how the day was already derailing for his sister. With an arm slung over her shoulder they entered the auditorium, only gaining a few eyes from the crowd, Yesenia’s bad mood was already spurring her to flip off whatever poor bastard had got her attent-

Oh. Ha, what a lucky fucking day it was for her. Aurelio couldn’t hold back the chuckle as his eyes landed on the pretty boy his sister had fallen head over heels for back in Sophomore year and the last person she wanted to run into today.

”¡Callate, coño!”

Aurelio’s taunting smile had turned into a smirk as his eyes drifted to Julie, pursing his lips in a way to blow a kiss towards her and shot a wink before Astraia pulled him down to the bench.

Then the school faculty got to business, and for three hours drilled into them the importance of safe sex.

Between Twitter, Reddit, and sending stupid memes to Julie, the three lectures were hardly even heard by the boy. Only when a condom and a sample size of lube were thrust into his lap was his attention pulled away from the smartphone in his hand.

“Shit, over already? The welcome ceremony at that private school in Korea was worse than this.” Reli spoke only to realize his sister was already pushing out of the auditorium. When was she ever going to stop being dramatic?

Sighing he stood up, took a moment to stretch and followed the group of people out of the room, though he leaned against the wall across from the doors, instead of running off to the cafeteria, waiting for Julie to make her exit. Maybe those memes had done enough to make him bearable to be around?

[AlteredTundra]

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_{Collaboration between @Altered Tundra & @HaleyTheRandom
^{Featuring The Parata Men & The Greys, and Principal Chamberlain}}
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The weekend for Ariel had been seemingly uneventful. Work was work, her father was his usual self, and her talk with Kavi… well, it had gone kinda smoothly. She had stayed out of the house as much as she could, but eventually, she had to speak to her father. She woke up Monday morning getting ready for school. It appeared that Trillian had already had left the house, thank the gods. The assembly was a bore. A stupid, unnecessary bore. No doubt the fist fight bit was aimed at her in some aspect. Homecoming had been a train wreck, but shouldn’t they have held this assembly before the dance? Teachers had the best of timing.

Ariel was making her way down the hall towards the lunchroom when Mrs. Chamberlain herself approacher her. “Ms. Grey. I believe we have some business to attend to regarding homecoming. Follow me, please.” With no need to argue, Ariel simply rolled her eyes and followed the older woman as told. “Don’t worry, darling,” Mrs. Chamberlain said. “I’ve already taken the liberty of calling your father. He should be here any moment.”

Don’t worry???

Ariel wasn’t worried until that moment. Granted she knew her father was going to be called in for the meeting regarding her breaking Kavis nose, but the assembly had shoved that fact to the back of her mind. What if Kavis parents wanted to press charges? What if her father flipped in front of everyone? What if - what if -...

Ariel felt her breaths quicken, her chest tightening. There was no need to panic, it was going to be okay. Everything was going to be fine. Nothing was going to happen. She repeated those lines to herself over and over as she made her way to the principal's office - and for a moment they worked. Right up until the moment she walked into the room, Kavi and his father were sitting on one side of the room, her father, looking as pissed off as ever, on the other.

Kavi offered Ariel a small wave, though Kai quickly kicked him on the side of his leg, glaring at him to quit that. They whispered amongst themselves until Mrs. Chamberlain sat across from them. This promptly shut up Kavi and actually made him sit upright. There were few people in this world he was deathly afraid of. One of them was sitting next to him and the other was sitting across from him. Even though his mind wasn’t quite sure where it wanted to focus on the fact that Ariel’s father was sitting no more than three feet from him. Whatever was going through that man’s head, Kavi was wary about directly looking at him. Whether or not what Nikki told him was the truth, it had been in the back of his mind since yesterday and that resulted in Kavi glaring at him somewhat.

As Mrs. Chamberlain coughed and pulled her chair closer to her desk, the sounds of the wheels softly rolling on the wooden floors, she demanded the attention of the parents and their children. “I thank you both for being here. I understand it was a bit sudden but I wanted to personally handle this. I usually hand this off to my Vice Principal, but seeing as how this one of the things I mentioned during today’s assembly, I wanted to handle it myself,” she stated to Kavi, Ariel, and their parents present.

“Well, my wife and myself have already grounded Kavi. Is he in trouble here? Because he’s the victim here. He was the one who got his nose punched in, not the other way around,” Kai stated rather honestly, his brown eyes darting to the young Grey girl and her father, the high-class lawyer.

“Yes. We are aware of how your son is the victim here, Mr. Parata. That is not the issue here. It’s your son’s actions leading up to it that we’re here to discuss.” Before she could get another word, an interruption came from the opposite end of the room.

“Honestly, there were no actions,” Ariel began. “There was a lot of stuff building up over the week--”

” We all know my daughter has the tendency to overreact,” Trillian said, shooting his daughter a glare that clearly stated for her to shut up. ” While I realize that punishment has to be dealt, I hope that you go lenient on Serafina. I must admit that I’m curious, as to what your son did to provoke such a reaction out of my daughter, Mr. Parata,” he finished, leaning back in the chair that he was seated in. Briefly making eye contact with Ariel. Yet another look that meant for her to keep quiet. One that stated not to speak unless spoken to.

The young woman shifted in her seat as well, leaning away from her father and more towards the side that Kavi was seated on. She became very aware of the fading bruise on her neck, nonchalantly adjusting her jacket to cover it.

His head didn’t shift to look directly at Ariel, but Kavi’s eyes did move slightly to see her move her jacket. He was trying his best not to directly gaze at her because of her father. Hearing how he spoke about Ariel really made him understand how the rumors got started. If they were true, this guy who spoke like how he described his own daughter was definitely capable of the same acts but in physical violence instead of verbal.

“I must admit I am perplexed about what led to Ariel punching Kavi as well,” Mrs. Chamberlain admitted, her eyes darting to Kavi and his father.

Just a moment after, Kavi found himself being looked at like he was under a microscope by everyone in the room -- everyone except Ariel, that is. “What? Dad, you know why. And Ariel, you know why as well,” he silently cursed, sighing. “Look, I get I fucked up--"

“I understand it’s tough, but try and remember you’re at school, Kavi,” Mrs. Chamberlain advised him.

“Right. Well, whatever the case, I know I messed up. I paid for it. My nose is busted and yeah, I just don’t get why this is such a big deal. I’m not angry at Ariel,” he said, this time looking directly at her, ignoring her father. “And I’m sure my dad or mom won’t be pressing any charges. So, again, what the hell is the problem here?” At that moment, Kavi found himself looking at Ariel’s father, his brown eyes staring down the older man.

“Your class has been… difficult. The actions at homecoming was something else, and the case between you and Ms. Greys is just one of many reasons for this meeting with your fathers.”

Trillian Grey returned Kavis gaze, unwavering, before turning back to his daughter. ” Well it seems as if I’m a little left out here. Why on earth did you break the Salvador boys nose, Serafina,” he asked sternly, sitting up so his elbows rested on his knees. ” I mean, you’ve had detention a few times, but never anything this serious. So tell me,” he said, his voice raising slightly, ” Why did you break Kavis nose?”

”He… h-he has…”

” He has what, Serafina. Just spit it out.”

Ariel pulled the sleeves of her jacket down into her palms, the young woman suddenly seeming more interested in the edges of her sleeves than anything else. ” Kavi has a reputation f-for being a b-bit of a sleaze, father. He two-timed me and another girl, and we both sort of overreacted, I guess,” she said, careful not to look at the man. She lifted her head, her face beginning to feel warm. All she wanted right now was to be out of this room - to just proceed with her normal school day as usual. ” I’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit, Mrs. Chamberlain. Can we please just get this over with so Kavi and I can go back to class please?”

It was clear to anyone that things were quite different (possibly stricter) for Ariel when it came to her father. Kai felt a little uneasy. Kavi sure as hell didn’t like the way Trillian was speaking to Ariel, not to mention repeatedly calling her Serafina. He just looked at his father who shared his son’s feelings but he was more fit to respond properly than how he knew his boy was about to.

“Is there anything else you want to talk to us about, Mrs. Chamberlain?” Kai asked her.

“Not at this moment. I do think, given what has happened, these two will be serving detention together. I feel it would be for the better. Maybe, with the time spent in a closed space, they will be able to reflect on their actions and might be able to move forward and be better students for it.” She informed the parents and their children. “I believe two weeks of after-school detention will suffice."

“I agree!” Kai smiled, then looked towards Trillian’s way. “What do you say, Mr. Grey? Instead of bringing the law into this and making things worse for our two kids, how about we just let the school handle it?” He asked him.

It was true that Trillian didn’t want the law involved, though if he had it his way, something else would have been done. Then again, in Mr. Grey's case, there was always an alternative method of punishment. With the adults seeming to come to a conclusion, Ariel felt her chest untighten just a bit. Trillian only nodded in agreement.

“Very well. Ariel, Kavi, you two may go to lunch. I still have a few things to discuss with your fathers,” Mrs. Chamberlain informed them, giving the teens that much-needed break from the jailhouse (as the kids called it).

Kavi felt a wave of relief pass through him and gave Principal Chamberlain a smiling nod as he left. “See ya later, pops!”

[eclecticwitch]

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_{Location: Her car in the parking lot
Interactions: none
Color: E0633C}

---

Bea awoke to the same schedule she always did. Exercise, bathe, eat, and then drive herself to school. The morning was very uneventful, and she was just fine with that. It wasn’t until she entered the first class and was told to go to the auditorium that things became a bit unglued for her. She never handled unexpected schedule changes very well and now she had to sit with a bunch of people all crowded together. Her body felt stiff as she made the trek from the classroom to the auditorium. It felt like hours before she finally arrived. She sat as close to the doors as possible and held her book bag in her lap, hugging it close.

“Good morning, students,” The Trunchbull – Miss Chamberlain said in her no-nonsense tones that always made Bea shudder. “First of all, I would like to address the appalling and absolutely atrocious behavior my faculty and I witnessed at the Homecoming dance last Saturday. Fist fights, underage drinking, suspected drug use, the involvement of the Palm Beach PD in one particular case. These are not the morals and values we teach and abide by at this school. All students guilty of any of these transgressions will be contacted throughout the day to be penalized accordingly, and I will personally be keeping an eye out for any further mischief from this point onward. If this unacceptable behavior continues to occur throughout the year, I will have no other choice than to declare a cancellation of this year’s Prom Night.”

She hardly paid attention. None of these things were particularly concerning to her and her eyes were glued on that auditorium doors. The sudden whispers and angry notes around her brought her attention back to the present. Having missed what the woman had said entirely, she looked around wide-eyed and nervous. Then she heard something about prom and relaxed a bit. Fuck prom. The faculty would probably do something to fuck that up too.

“Enough!” Miss C declared and just about made Bea shit a brick. The girl was so over this and it felt like her skin was trying to crawl away from her at this point. If she could just go and get out into open air and calm down… “Keep each other in line and there shall be no reason for me to penalize.”

“In other news, I am proud to announce that the Homecoming King and Queen for this year’s…” Her attention was now on trying not to have a panic attack or meltdown or in any way draw attention to herself. Her leg bounced and she closed her eyes. The noises around her made things worse and she clasped her hands over her ears in the hope that she could just make them all go away.

She started to come back to herself toward the end of the drugs and drinking seminar. Blinking she was having trouble understanding the transition. But things had quieted, and she wasn’t nearly so restless. All she knew was that she would most certainly be spending the rest of the day in the art room. Then there was a seminar about the dangers of sex. She rolled her eyes at this. Yeah, yeah, she had already been told all of this stuff already. All in all, it was boring.

Finally, it was over and as she left the auditorium, she was given a little pouch with lube and condoms in it. She stared at it in disbelief as she made her way outside of the building. Just what the fuck was she supposed to do with this? She put it into her bag, not thinking much on it further. Once outside she breathed deeply before going to her truck and sitting in the driver’s seat with the door open. Shaky hands had trouble lighting up her cigarette, but the first inhale of that sweet flavorful toxin made all the tension inside of her go away. For now.