[IC] Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

[Erklings25]

Johnny Baxter

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Parties. Never again would Johnny attend a party, or talk to anyone who has been to a party within the last 48 hours. Sure, he hadn't screwed up his social life, but pretty much everyone around him had. It was Bea's big damn miss that really stressed him out. He talked to her a little, but didn't feel the need to bring it up. But honestly, he was mostly worried about what this meant for the rest of the year. After all, it was garbage like this that split apart friends. On the upside, it was garbage like this that sparked good ideas.

Johnny had spent the rest of the weekend at his laptop, typing until 4:00 A.M., Monday morning. His eyes went red and his finger looked bruised, but his face bore the kind of satisfied smile that only a writer has, knowing that their writing their Magnum Opus. This certainly was a magnum opus: a screenplay, feature-length, about a party. No frills, just a party. He liked that, a long movie with a small scope. It would probably have minimal dialogue, maybe Enter the Void style visuals. The very thought of it made him giddy with excitement.

Class was nary but a swirl of ideas. He tried to concentrate, but it was fun to watch the electric tension in the room. From what he gathered, everyone had kissed everyone, blows were traded, and he watched his classmates glare at each other with pleasure. He didn't judge them- well, he did, but didn't think of it as such. It was just helpful critique, that's all.

It was at lunch that he decided he'd had enough. He was sat on the hood of his car, tearing into a packet of crisps when it happened. Marisol Castillo walked across the car park with a baseball bat. Oh, damn. He sat up a little, anticipation swirling inside him. When she raised her baseball bag at Victoire Bailey's car, however, he began to feel the anticipation turn to dread. He quickly pulled out his camera, hoping to get a good couple of shots of the incoming carnage. Truly, it was a spectacle. As soon as the baseball bat swung down, he clicked his camera. The cat-fight that ensued was enough to make him put down his camera. The teachers wouldn't appreciate it. He watched from his vantage point, but as the situation unfolded his attention was stolen away. "Poor bloke!" He mumbled as he watched Archer Diedrikson slip out of the crowd, hurrying towards the teachers.
Archer was the nicest misfit there was. It upset Johnny that he happened to have such terrible friends. Johnny had always thought he was a nice guy, but there was something else there. Archer put him on edge, he felt like his words ran all over the place whenever they talked. It was weird, but kind of nice.

The poor guy was probably a bit stressed out by all of this car-wrecking business. He shook his head, deciding that he would maybe talk to the guy later. It was when he saw Archer leave the building that he decided he would seize his chance. "Hey, Diedrikson!" He called, jogging over. "Listen dude, I, uh, I guess I wanted to 'check in' on you. Not very manly, I know, but, uh, I'm kinda worried about you, kid." He put a hand on Archer's shoulder, unsure if it was weird or not. "It's just that, I wouldn't be doing so well being friends with someone who is clearly undergoing a mental collapse, so I guess its not fun for you either. I don't know what I'm talking about, ignore me." He put his hands in his pockets, awkwardly laughing. "Just, if you want to, I don't know, chat about it or anything, we can hang out. Weird request, I know. But if you want to, say, grab lunch or whatever, I'm cool with that. Right now, if you like." He smiled, trying to figure out if he was being nice, or asking the guy out.

[Venus]

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The day was September 28, 2018: the Friday a week from King’s Academy’s Homecoming dance. On this morning, the school’s senior class was called to the auditorium for what was described to them as ‘ a special assembly’. No other details were given, and not even those students part of the school council had any idea what this meeting would even be about. When every member of the graduating class took their respective seats, they were greeted with a scene straight out of The Hunger Games. Two glass bowls were standing on each side of the wooden podium, each of them with a small stack of folded papers inside. As they realized this, the buzzing sound of whispers and mutters began to fill the room. The King’s Academy Seniors exchanged a variety of looks, ranging from surprise, curiosity, concern and even worry. But all of their questions would be answered with the arrival of a faculty member, who quickly took the podium to address the thirty teenagers in the audience.

“Hello Seniors!” the school’s theater teacher Mrs. Sanders exclaimed brightly, opening her hands in a welcoming motion towards the students. “As you all know, our school’s Homecoming dance is scheduled to take place next Saturday evening. I’m sure you all have your little outfits picked out and all of that, maybe even have an idea of who you’d like to attend with,” she said with a wink to the class before continuing. “But we’re actually changing things up a little this year.”

“See, we’ve noticed that even though most of you all have been with us here at King’s since preschool, there is a severe lack of group unity, particularly in this graduating class. It was especially put into perspective after the colorful incident in the parking lot last month -” At this, the older woman shot a stern look in the gum-chewing Marisol Castillo’s direction, who merely grinned and gave her a shameless thumbs up. “- And that is not what we want. King’s Academy is a prestigious school that prides itself upon its values, and some of the core values we attempt to ingrain in each of our students are friendship, empathy and, above all, respect.”

“So for this homecoming dance, I’ll be in charge of deciding who attends the dance with who, with a little help from these bowls here,” she explained, gesturing to the mysterious bowls on either side of her. “The left bowl has the names of every male student in this class, and the right bowl has the female names. I shall pick a name from each bowl and announce it until everybody has been partnered.”

Taking advantage of the sudden silence that fell upon the room, the woman continued. “And now, for the most exciting part: the pairings!” Mrs. Sanders said excitedly, clapping her hands together. Smiling wide, the older woman dipped her hand into the left bowl, twirled it around the small pool of names for a few seconds, then pulled out a small, folded piece of paper. She did the same with the right pool, announced the pairing, and then repeated the process with the right bowl a further fourteen times until no names remained on the bowl.

“Mr. De La Fuente, you shall be in Ms. Macmillan’s company for the night.”

“Mr. Varma, you shall attend with Ms. Endive.”

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

“Mr. Grayson, you’ll be joining Ms. Lambert.”

“Mr. Diedrikson, you’ll be having Ms. Grey.”

“Mr. Wang, you shall be taking Ms. Bailey.”

“Mr. Reyes, your company shall be Ms. King.”

“Mr. Fernandez, you’re up with Ms. Lubisch.”

“Mr. Henderson, you are paired with Ms. Martin.”

“Mr. Baxter, you’ll be joined by Ms. Garcia.”

“Mr. Anderson, you shall attend with Ms. Radley.”

“Mr. Drake, you shall be taking Ms. Aurelios.”

“Mr. Rivera, you are partnered with Ms. Castillo.”

“Mr. Turei, you will be joining Ms. Richards.”

“Which means that Mr. Weber and Ms. Regan shall be in each other’s company for the night!” Mrs. Sanders finished with a smile, turning back to stare at each of her beloved students for a second. “Now remember: Homecoming is a week from now. Attendance to the dance is mandatory for each and every student that wishes to graduate, and there shall be no exceptions made for anybody, under any circumstances.”

Sensing the displeasure of the class, Mrs. Sanders clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Now, now, guys, don’t see this in such a negative light! Use this opportunity to get to know your fellow classmate instead! Who knows? Maybe you’ll find friends in unlikely places… You are dismissed!” she told them, giving the students a parting wink before exiting the auditorium.

[mickilennial]

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School Auditorium | Palm Beach, Florida
September 28th, 2018

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I want to die.

Mara audibly groaned as she crossed her arms, her focus in the auditorium nearly fading into a blur as her teeth began to grind together in anxious annoyance. Had she not been so unbelievably surprised she knew she would've been beyond angry. It wasn't just the concept of forcing students to attend their little Homecoming spectacle but the fact they had decided in their infinite wisdom to pair her with the worst person to ever exist in the history of King's Academy. Diablo Fernandez. The Devil of Palm Beach. Caligula. In Mara's mind, this decision was a slight against everything she had ever worked for at King's Academy, a mockery of her accomplishments in Academic Decathlon, Debate Team, and National Honor Society. To force her to do something without her consent was in no way acceptable by any definition.

On this day, Mrs. Sanders had made an enemy of Marlene Lubitsch.

As Mara composed herself, the unease of her peers beside her growing with their own confusion and discontent, Marlene looked over to her friend and classmate – the supposed Class President – as if Victoire Bailey had an answer for her or anyone else.

“What the literal fuck, Vic.” Mara muttered under her breath as she pushed her glasses back up to her face.

Before her other friends could take notice of her mood, she grabbed her bags and moved away from the crowd to confront the one person who was supposed to help arbitrate for the students in assinine situations like this. Mara didn't particularly care that it seemed like Vic was just as shocked as everyone else or was trying to compose her thoughts away from the bulk of students who were equally outraged and confused that this idiotic stunt had been thrown on them. As she pushed herself to Vic's location, she nearly found herself screaming. Fortunately, she decided to not to scream at the only ally she had in the Student Council.

“I can't believe this shit.” Mara stated as she pushed her back against a nearby wall. “Are we really being held hostage because our class year is filled with assholes and neanderthals?”

Victoire raised a curious eyebrow at her, only breaking away to throw a glare at some approaching students. Only when they quickly diverted their course would the brunette give Mara her attention once again. “Are you actually surprised, or did you forget one of those assholes totaled my car?” She asked, shaking her head lightly. “The real tragedy is that I had no idea this was going to happen, but who do you think everyone’s going to go and bitch to?”

“Well, not Mrs. Sanders. Obviously.” Mara quipped, obviously annoyed that the teacher essentially ran away from the crowd of students without answering any questions.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, the brunette took a few seconds to recompose herself. It wasn’t like her to be so aggravated, but all she wanted to do was scream. Punishing the majority for the actions of a few was an easy way for the faculty to get on her nerves. She had the utmost respect for authority, but Victoire disliked getting fucked over by anyone, period. Taking in a deep breath, she exhaled slowly, shaking her negativity away.

“Obviously. But business as usual… if they’ve gone ahead and made the announcement, then there’s nothing I can do but lay there and get fucked over.” She huffed.

“I don’t exactly think our class year has the balls to protest when it’d put our GPA in the hole, either. Thank you, Marisol Castillo.” Mara sighed, “At least you have a scapegoat.”

Victoire let out a single, rather loud laugh.

“Unlike some people, I don’t cower behind insecurities. I don’t need to resort to physical violence, either,” She scoffed, appreciating the laugh at least. “It’s not my fault that the so-called ‘bad bitch’ of the school doesn’t have the balls to claim what’s hers.”

“Personally? I blame Caligula.” Mara replied, groaning at the mere thought of him showing up to her house in a suit with his smug little grin. She visibly gagged at the concept. “Ech. And I’m stuck with him in this dumbass experiment. Kill me, Vic. Kill me now.”

Bringing up her left hand, she curled in three fingers, her pointer aimed at Mara. She made a small ‘pop’ sound with her lips, letting out a small sigh as she looked down at her hand. “I think I got the class clown. We might have to make a suicide pact.” She muttered.

“If only. They’d have to go with each other to prom. Wouldn’t that be just the best.”

“Better than anything else I could imagine,” She agreed, bringing out her notepad with her ‘to do’ list. “I’ll have to add ‘get a dress’ to my plans for today since it’s now ‘mandatory’ to go.”

“Same. Was planning to stay home, but you know, I’d like to graduate on time.”

“Doesn’t look good on your transcript to fail due to missing a dance, now does it?”

“I guess not. I hope Marisol is happy she’s responsible for this.” Mara replied, as she eyed the crowd in the auditorium, thankful that they were busy complaining amongst themselves rather than rushing in to interrupt her and Victoire’s conversation.

Rubbing the back of her head where she had gotten injured, the brunette followed Mara’s gaze for a moment. She wasn’t entirely sure if she agreed as that would be giving Marisol way too much credit in her opinion. Another cog in the grand scheme of things, though the faculty certainly jumped on the opportunity. Narrowing her eyes, she lifted her gaze from the crowd, deciding that if she kept her head low, she could probably avoid getting too many questions. Optimistic, but it was all she had at the moment. Instead she focused her attention on Mara once again.

“Considering she didn’t get paired with her ‘man,’ I doubt it.” She mumbled as she closed her notepad, stuffing it into her bag.

“She didn’t get paired with anyone in her little ‘group’. I guess that’s the silver lining in all this shit. If there’s any silver lining at all. Which there isn’t.”

“Misery loves company, I suppose.”

“Yeah. I guess it does.” Mara replied, trying to find the humor in the entire situation, though she admittedly and a lot more on her mind than being upset at the faculty.

As the blonde-haired teenager paused for a second, thinking back to the idea of going out to buy formal wear for Homecoming and not knowing the first thing about it she took a light breath to contemplate her nerves. In middle school she had not even shown up for Sadie Hawkins and every occasion she had the chance she had avoided it unless her parents “encouraged” her to do so under their supervision. Victoire was more experienced in this matter, or at least that was how she figured it with Victoire’s ability to make appearances and direct things. Though, this was a question she never wanted to ask, especially not with the current events happening around them. But she didn’t have the time to be sheepish.

“So, would you mind showing me the ropes in this dress finding thing? Since you’re going out to look.” Mara uttered in the least awkward way she could possibly do so under the current circumstances.

Victoire’s eyebrows shot up at Mara’s words. “...’the ropes’, huh?” She repeated her words slowly. “What, you never had the fortune of making an appearance at a dance?”

“Not really, no.”

Mara knew the question would come up sooner or later. The last time she had participated at a dance was at her uncle's wedding, an event that had been nine-or-so years removed from the present. As far as Mara could remember, that was back when she was in elementary school and she had decidedly avoided repeating the occurrence for her entire time as a student since. For a girl like Victoire she was sure that it seemed insane and ridiculous. Shit, it probably was, but it was Mara's truth.

There were a million things that Victoire could say, but she chose instead to sigh.

“Well, at least you aren’t laughing hysterically.” Mara muttered, noticing Victoire’s immediate reaction.

“Mostly because that’d be much too cliché. So I take you dress shopping, it’s followed by a promise for a ‘makeover’ and that handsome young man you’ve been crushing for will finally notice you at the dance.” Victoire recited the tropes in a rather deadpan voice.

“Do I really look like Rachael Leigh Cook to you? Augh.” Mara groaned at the concept.

“No, but shit, Mara, you’re two steps away from the plot of literally any teen movie from the nineties.”

A sigh left Mara's lips as she rolled her eyes before looking back to Victoire. “I live to be a stereotype. Apparently. So are you going to answer the question or is this ‘make fun of Mara’ day?”

Victoire looked Mara up and down, lips in a slight frown. “No, you don’t look like Cook at all,” She responded in earnest.

“Well no shit, Queen Victoria. I’m blonde for starters, unless you haven’t noticed. Razor sharp wit aside, are you dragging me off to dresses “r” us after school or not?”

Nodding, Victoire beckoned for the girl to follow her. “Come along now, let’s see what I can do, then,” She told her, shooting her an amused smile. “You’ll be the belle of the ball in no time.”

“Whatever you say, your majesty.”

[AlteredTundra]

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Whether it was at King's, home, their respective afterschool activities, or in their dreams, the trio of Sonny Drake, Kavi Salvador, and Stella Lambert all that their respective schedules to keep with all three busy in their own ways. Sonny was dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Marisol that hit the shores of King's Academy just last month. Kavi was having the time of his life as he found himself being able to juggle two dates in one weekend that, as he might tell someone if they asked, went rather well. Meanwhile, the ever-jittery and energetic Stella was actually having a better week than she was post-Santiago's party. She had accepted that Lucas and her weren't going to happen. If it was, then she'd welcome it, but given she was way too busy with the sudden arrival of her cousins from New York, as well as her Uncle Wesley and Aunt Florence, coming to live with them for the remainder of the fall whilst their house gets renovated. Of course, this meant her free time has been limited - especially with her on-again, off-again best friend and favorite cousin, Winnie has been keeping her attention.

At some point during Friday, the trio of Sonny, Kavi, and Stella was under the impression this assembly that was supposed to be filled with pep and school spirit, seemed to have this unreasonable amount of tension and worry. There was something of a nauseated feeling among the trio as they took their seats. You see, these three, though they might not seem like it, actually go way back. They don't look it, but at one point, in addition to the likes of Marisol, Archer, and Jun, they used to be all really good friends. When Kavi wasn't such a smelly, mixed bag of dickweed and ass-munching hair, he was a swell, if not still somewhat-conceited, guy. And Sonny - well, SOnny's the same he's always been. There was really no mistaking that. As for Stella, she was under Savanna's thumb at the time, so she was a lot more confident than she has been in recent months. Bottom line, seeing these three together, let alone taking a seat together as opposed to Sonny taking a seat next to Marisol or Jun, Kavi sitting with Nadia or Ariel or Jason, who as he looked around, wasn't anywhere in sight, or Stella parking it with her new cheerleading buds, the three opted to sit next to each other; but they were nowhere close to the front. Only nerds sat in the front of an assembly.

When the room filled up and the seats were taken, the eyes were all on the ever-present and ever-attentive Mrs. Sanders. Her poise was somewhat crooked, but that was her thing. She never stood straight. A quirky adult through and through. She stood next to two bowls. The confusion lingered as she took her sweet time actually opening her mouth about why they have all gathered here so abruptly, not to mention the urgency of the assembly. It had been emphasized all week that there was some big mystery with this assembly. It really started last Monday when the news that the Homecoming budget was cut by nearly half of what Victoire Bailey, their class president, had requested. The rumors started to spread about how the school was going to cut other programs in favor of sports. That wasn't so much a bad thing for - oh let's say nerds like Mara whateverhername is and Aaliyah King, the girl named after the dead singer - but for the likes of Santiago, Kavi, and Sonny, who all were apart of sports teams, it meant things were looking up for them. Even Stella, though she was still plenty anxious (that was due to her hating surprises), wasn't particularly sad.

"I still say the nerds are losing their chess club," Kavi commented, laughing to himself.

"Do you really have to act that way with us, Kavi Antonio?" Sonny asked him, rolling his eyes at the mixed bag of Dickweed.

"Act what way? Like a boss?"

"Come on, guys! It's been so long since we've been together like this. Even if we dont' do it enough, let's not fight before Mrs. Sanders has a chance to tell us why we're all here." Stella tried to calm whatever tension was between her two, high-testosterone friends.

Sonny gave them both a shrug. "Fine, but be sure to tell Kavi that."

"Maybe you should just relax, Torvald. Or is the mighty Thor Jr still reeling from Hurricane Marisol?"

"Seriously, you gook! I will pummel your face."

Kavi smiled. Whatever his intention was, seeing Sonny raise his voice somewhat was exactly what he wanted. "It's okay, Cracker Jack. Not all of us can be as amazing and better than you," Kavi proudly proclaimed, smiling arrogantly at the short, caucassian teen. "And for the record, I'm more than just a gook. You might not remember, but I'm also part spick, too!" What was normally an insult from someone, Kavi stated it with a certain amount of pride that made both Sonny and Stella laugh, though the former was less willing in it.

"See? Didn't you two miss this?" Stella smiled, looking to both her left and her right. What was a situation for the perverted mind's dream, Stella was between her two, oldest friends. The only thing in her mind that would make this better was if Savanna was here to mellow out the two. Alas, Stella would have to let go of that particular dream.

As her eyes glanced from the two, there was a more dominating sound of Mrs. Sanders from below clearing her throat into a microphone, effectively silencing the entirety of the class as she began speaking. The generic 'welcome' introductions aside, she didn't waste any time to remind them all about homecoming and how it was jus a week away. She also didn't pretend to hide the fact that most, if not all, of the students, had already picked out their outfits. What she didn't say was how, at least for Stella, she didn't have a date, but she did have an outfit picked out. Mrs. Sanders obviously was talking to the entire class and her mention about outfits and how some had an idea of going out with certain people. It wasn't until she mentioned something about shaking things up did panic and worry take over.

"Wait what?" Sonny murmured, "did I hear her right?"

"Pretty sure we all did," Kavi affirmed Sonny's worry.

"I'm sure she was mistake--"

Stella's train of thought was inturrupted by the startling revelations about the truth of the Homecoming Dance and how exactly they all would be paired up. Of all things, fates of the pairings were going to be decided by randomly-picked names out of bowls. BOWLS! Seriously? That had to have been the most authoritarian, bullcrap that Stella or Kavi or Sonny heard of in their lives. Putting aside the odds of each of them getting exactly who they wanted, there was no way this was going to end well for the majority of the students that the trio knew. For Sonny, he was more curious about who the others were going to end up with rather than who his predetermined date was going to be. Kavi, unlike Stella, was amused and watched Mrs. Sanders intently, both curious about his own pick and entertianed by this sudden development..

But Stella? she was horrified. She was beside herself with the overwhelming fear that she could actually be paired up with Santiago. The odds were slim to none, especially given there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of names in the male and female-colored bowls, but just imagine being in her shoes for a moment. If there was even a small chance the name of Stella Lambert and Santiago Fernandez could be paired up was enough to drive the girl a little bonkers. She tried calming herself down, but it was too much for her. She almost got up, but Sonny stopped her.

"What's up, Stella?"

"I..I need to use the restroom."

Sonny knew that was bullshit. "I know that's bullshit, Stella. What's up?"

"You're just going to laugh."

"I might, but Sonny won't," Kavi added.

"You're not helping."

"I wasn't trying to."

Sonny ignored Kavi's comments and gestured Stella to do the same as he fixated his gaze on her. "Focus on me. What's up?"

"I..just--"

Again, Stella's thoughts were inturrupted by the sound of Mrs. Sanders' voice, but this time it wasn't to explain whatever it was she was going to explain; no instead, it was about the big reveal. The pairings were about to be drawn. The first four was an instant hit with the trio. The first one aside, Kavi actually was quite pleased, though Sonny certainly had a few things to say about that. "Oh, isn't that cute? You got the greese monkey."

"You sound jealous."

"Not at all, Kavi," Sonny assured him. He actually wasn't jealous. If anything, the Drake teen felt bad for his somewhat friend. It wasn't because April was necessarily a bad person, but it was who her on-again, off-again boyfriend was that made Sonny smile. Better Santiago focus his efforts on Kavi than him or Stella for a change. "You have fun with that one. You're going to need all the good luck."

Kavi shrugged, only offering Sonny a smile as the next series of names were called. To the trio's surprise, who Stella ended up being paired up with resulted in the girl letting out a somewhat vocal "Yes!", earning a surprised grin from both Kavi and Sonny. "I mean, it's not Santiago, so I'll take it!" She coughed, clarifying her earlier, sudden comment.

"So, that's what was eating you up before," Sonny deduced.

It was obvious the weight of Santiago being her homecoming date was almost too much for her. It almost had Sonny want to go over to that asswipe and kick his ass in front of everyone. Sonny didn't show it a lot, but he did care a great deal for Stella. Their families have been friends for years and if there was anything Sonny hated more than anything in this world, it was seeing his friends fearful of asswipes like Santiago. But that obviously was a worry for another time.

As Mrs. Sanders called the next name, Kavi's smile went from a U-shape to somewhat neutral, instantly turning the man's entertainment into something resembling jealously, though when it clicked with him who Mr. Diedrickson was, he laughed. "Score one for the Fairy," he commented.

Sonny laughed as well, recalling how Ariel and Marisol might not be so close anymore. He could just imagine her reaction when Archer was announced to be with Ariel. He'd soon find himself laughing a little louder than he thought he would be when the next pairing of Jun and Victoire was announced. "Oh, now that's just too funny!" Sonny said through his uncontrollable laughter. "To think, of all people, she'd get stuck with Wang,"

"Is it really that funny?" Kavi asked.

"Of course it is! Do you not remember how Jun gets when he really wants to troll you?" Sonny asked, a grin on his face. "I know and I hate it when he does shit like that, but this just means more entertainment for me when I know he'll do that with VIc, which makes me so happy. Karma truly was a bitch and she was going to get hers!" Sonny had found himself saying, eager for the next series of pairings to be drawn.

And as he leaned forward, the pairing of someone named Reyes and King was announced. Sonny didn't know who that was, but Kavi sure as hell did. It resulted in his smile to return, only for him to think about who exactly this Reyes guy was. He would have to look into that at a later date; for now, he put all of his attention on the next pairing.

"Santiago was paired up with who?" Stella asked as his pairing was announced.

"Isn't she that one Nazi? She's got a mouth on her or something," Sonny said, trying to recall exactly who she was. His memory was pretty shit compared to some, but then again Mara never did make a lasting impression on him, so that could be why. "Either way, that should be fun to see. Santiago is an asshole and Mara, as I recall, is equally a bitch."

Even though she didn't intend to, Stella found some delight from that news as she turned her previous frown upside down into a wide smile, a laugh escaping her lips. "Well, maybe they'll annoy each other and leave us the heck alone!" Another uncharacteristic comment coming from Stella's lips.

"Great, Torvald, you've influenced the innocence out of her." Kavi said with the hopes of getting a reaction from Sonny. Unfortunately, Mr. Drake was too focused on the announcement of the next couple of pairings. Kavi managed to tune in just in time to hear Sonny was being paired up with Nadia. "Oof. That's going to be a boring date, buddy."

Sonny let out a sigh. "Welp. At least I can focus on getting plastered that night."

"What are you guys talking about? Nadia's a great person! You'll be surprised at how pleasant she can be, Sonny!" Stella assured Sonny, hoping to get him to see that just because Kavi's date with her went south, that didn't mean Sonny's had to. "I promise you she's great."

"I guess," Sonny's lackluster reply was met with a laugh from Kavi and a sigh from Stella.

There wa sno denying that Sonny wasn't exactly thrilled about his pairing with Nadia. Of all people he could've been paired up with, given what Kavi said could hold some merit, he wasn't looking forward to having to deal with Nadullia, especially if Kavi was right about her being boring. He'd wouldn't ever say it because he knew it would go straight to Kavi's head, but what if he was right? God-forbid that actually was the case, but there was a cloud over his head about Nadia Josette and the possibility that she wouldn't even present a fun evening. At least with Vic or some of the other members of the senior class, he'd be able to say without any doubt they would be a lot more interesting than Nadia fucking Josette.

As the students started to dessemble, the trio took their sweet time to - well, leave. It was mostly due to Sonny being lost in his own thoughts and the other two talking whilst Sonny spaced. "Tooooorrrvaaalllld!" Kavi tried to get Sonny's attention.

...But to no avail. It took Stella's pinching of his cheek to make sure he was still alive for him to bark back at her. "What!?"

"Glad to have ya back, brother!" Kavi teased him. Sonny knew it was bullshit when he used terms of endearment.

"As I said: what?"

"We were just talking about our dates. Kavi brought up the subject about who is more likely to get laid."

In an uncharacteristic change, Sonny was borderline-disgusted by Kavi right now. "Seriously Kavi? Is that all you can think about?"

"Oh tell me you're not curious if the virign of Saint Mary will put out for you?"

To Stella's surprise, Sonny fell silent. "Sonny!" She gasped.

He offered them a shrug. Why would he bother explaining himself? He knew Kavi was right as that was one of the main things he found himself thinking about aside from the obvious of 'why me?' Even still, that didn't mean it was the only thing plaguing his mind. Actually, Sonny was more curious about how she was reacting to all of this? If he recalled, she was pretty close to Victoire. All of Kavi's jokes put to the side, there was something quite intriguing about this pairing for Sonny. It was almost at the point where he wanted to speak to Nadia about this personally.

"So, I don't know about you two, but I know I'm definitely going to get laid that night."

"What? You can't be serious, Kavi!" Stella was shocked by how brazen he was with his words.

"You aren't going to make those first moves, Stella and Sonny here has more of a chance of getting Josette to put out than you doing that exact thing."

Stella was clearly annoyed by his insinuations. "Oh shove off! I will have sex with Oliver!"

"Is that a dare?" Kavi could always smell bullshit a mile away, but a challenge was a challenge.

Stella narrowed her eyes at him, finding heself becoming more and more annoyed with him the more he ran his mouth, though it was in a rather playful manner rather than genuine annoyance that SOnny previously displayed with Kavi. "So what if it is?"

"Then I would tell you that you're probably going to lose. There's no way Oliver gives into your...charm before April give into the temptation of the Kavimister."

Stella found herself visibly cringing when he referred to himself as 'Kavimister'. Truly, his ego had gone far beyond the point of ever returning to the humble Kavi from First Grade. "Sonny, a little help, please!"

Without even speaking, Sonny got up and left, clearly his mind was elsewhere. This caused Stella to punch Kavi's shoulder. "Ow.."

"You made him leave, dummy." Even if it wasn't the absolute truth, Stella still found enough, though she didn't wait for him to reply as she too left Kavi alone.

Meanwhile, Kavi was still in a state of absolute pride when was left to his thoughts. Obviously the news of being paired up with April was better when he had the time to think about it. Actually, Kavi was so deep into his own thought that he pulled out his phone and texted Diablo himself.

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

[spooner]

High won't hold, won't hold, and I have no more, than all you left of me
I have, I have, I have no more, than all you leave
I'm nothing more than a page unwritten on the pavement, blowing in the wind

---

---

The last month had been pretty uneventful, considering Marisol's little incident. Right after Archer had been furious with his petite friend and accusing her of never ever thinking things through. He had spent a week sulking at home writing in his journal and sulking alone at school reading in the library. But the pair had reunited and talked it out. Marisol had explained herself and promised to make it up to him somehow and Archer knew he couldn't make it through this year without her so he had just smiled and hugged her for a long time.

Now things were back to practically normal. The mundaneness of school had settled in and it was business as usual for the students of King's. Especially for Archer Diedrikson who was already counting down the days towards their winter break. He had even gotten an part time job to make the days go faster and to also earn extra cash for his after graduation plans. He was now the proud employee of “The Print & The Pot” where he spent most of his free time anyway so why not get paid for it? He was even allowed to do school work during his shifts so he was in good spirits this Friday morning.

When they were all called in to a assembly first thing in the morning the curly haired boy was just glad to miss out on Mr. Hernández homeroom. So he took his seat beside Marisol and slumped down in his seat so he could rest his head on her small shoulder. He lazily watched as Mrs. Sanders walked out on the stage with the two big glass bowls, he snorted when she mentioned Marisol's incident and waved along with his friend.

It wasn’t until the mention of homecoming and how it was mandatory Archer sat up straight in his seat, turning dumbfounded to look at Mari. “What the…” he whispered before turning his burning gaze back towards Mrs. Sanders as she continued her speech. When she announced the grand scheme behind this whole assembly Archer just couldn’t hold it any longer. He cupped his hands around his mouth and let go.

“This is some heteronormative bullshit! It’s homophobic as fuck!” he yelled as loud as he could.

He was in fact so enraged that Marisol had to grab him by the shoulder to push him back into his seat. Mrs. Sanders barely faltered before she carried on with announcing the pairings. The young man crossed his arms and sat simmering in his own anger, he turned around, it couldn’t only be him who was disturbed by this. He locked eyes with Marlene, his sour blond friend was scowling. “Fuck this” he mouthed at her, she nodded in agreement.

He whipped his head forward when he heard his name being called, as if his life couldn’t be worse his date was none other than “Judas” herself Ariel. Archer scrunched his face in disdain and fell back in his seat letting out a long whine. “Kill me now.” he said defeated. As the pairings were finished and everyone was getting ready to leave he turned to face Marisol and saw that she had an almost bored expression on her face “This is… this is fucked! You have to agree this is a disaster!” he spluttered frantically.

The brunette shrugged “Could be worse…”

Archer was stunned, nothing could be worse than being forced into an interaction with their ex-friend that just threw him away like he was a dirty rag. Without a word he got up, hoisted his bag over his shoulder and stormed of.

He glared at Mara and Victoire as he passed them “This really is hell!” he said on his way out of the auditorium. He really needed a cigarette, so he pushed his way through the crowd of seniors and out into the morning sun. Instead of going to his first class he made his way over to his blue SAAB and plopped down on the trunk. He rummaged for a while in his bag and finally fished out his pack of cigarettes. He lit one and took a long drag, closing his eyes and exhaling slowly trying to calm himself down.

[Hero]

---

---

---

---

"Well...that was a thing," Lucas muttered as the auditorium erupted into a low buzz, the multitude of seniors speaking with one another.

Saying it was a 'thing' was quite the understatement. Essentially breaking apart planned couples and forcing people to interact with one another was more than just a shock. For some it was an outrage, for others it seemed like a good idea, but it was safe to say the majority was simply confused. No doubt the consensus was 'mixed' at best, this much Nadia could tell. She was personally disappointed and mortified all at the same time. Not only was she denied going with her choice, but she got paired with probably the second most dangerous person to avoid--Sonny Torvald of all people--specifically because of the first most dangerous person--Marisol Castillo. She must have cut off some voodoo priest in traffic or something, because she had absolutely no idea how she managed to draw this badly. Even Diablo would have been preferable, at least she wouldn't have to worry about someone coming after her with a bat if she was with him. She looked over at her future brother. Lucas was one of the many who was simply confused, a curious expression on his face as he looked around, though he decided to get up since they were dismissed.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Nadia followed his lead, pulling her messenger bag's strap onto her shoulder. "I can't believe this," She couldn't help but whine as they walked together. "Of all the people in our grade, I got Sonny!"

"Is that who you got?" Lucas asked, surprised, although he burst into a fit of laughter shortly afterwards. Go figure, the timing of it was a little too perfect all things considered. "Well, shit, make sure you carry a weapon on you in case Marisol decides to go postal on you, too." He couldn't help but tease.

The redhead let out a whimper as she punched his shoulder. "That's not funny, Lucas! I don't understand why this is happening!" She pulled on her hair, frustrated. "What did I do to deserve this?!"

Deciding to have a little more sympathy, Lucas tried to be more compassionate. "Relax, Naddie, Marisol won't do anything to you," He assured her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders protectively. "Unless you decide to make a move on her guy. Then I can't make any promises."

Nadia pouted, hanging her head in defeat. She was really hoping she could have gone with Kavi, but it seemed that was a foregone conclusion. If she remembered it right, he got paired with April. She didn't interact much with her, but it was still a massive disappointment on her end. Letting out a sigh, she looked over at Lucas, trying to shift the focus onto him. "So...you and Martha, hm?"

The guy's jaw dropped slightly, his lips forming an 'o' in understanding. "Is that who I got? Go figure, the whole last name thing didn't help much," He shrugged it off. "...uh...actually, I have no idea who that is."

"Lucky you," Nadia muttered.

Lucas grinned, though he didn't say anything else. He supposed the mix-up was a blessing in disguise; he thought he would have gone somewhere with Stella, but her schedule was apparently too busy for her to squeeze him in. Sad, but Lucas wasn't a stranger to cutting his losses and moving on. Maybe Martha could be a next target, or at the very least they could have some wholesome fun. Before making any plans, he made it a point to at least meet the girl and learn a little bit about her.

Nadia continued to sulk until she spotted Sonny not too far ahead of them. She shrank back a little even though there wasn't much of a chance of him seeing her. Lucas eyed her somewhat warily, giving her a questioning look. He saw Sonny as well, pulling his arm from her and gently pushing her forward. When she gave him a confused look, he pushed her again.

"Marisol won't do anything to you," Lucas told her, gesturing towards him. "You're just going to get on his nerves if you cower anytime you see him. Go talk to him."

The redhead looked at the back of Sonny's head, contemplating Lucas' words. After a few seconds, however, she ended up walking towards her 'date'. Approaching him somewhat cautiously, she took in a deep breath to calm herself. Lucas was right, she was worrying about nothing. She may as well make the best of the situation. Putting on a much more cheerful expression, walking up to the guy so she was right next to him.

"Hello!" She greeted him, hands behind her back as she walked. "Looks like we're paired together for homecoming."

---

---

---

---

[mickilennial]

---

Parking Lot | Palm Beach, Florida
September 28th, 2018

---

Without having any room to breathe, Mara found herself chasing off after Archer after telling Victoire she was going to make sure “he wouldn't do anything stupid”. Victoire being Victoire gave it a shrug as they headed off to the administrative office to prepare for whatever business she had to do, though Mara wasn’t sure how the rest of the day was going to go considering the emotions that the faculty had inspired with one simple ultimatum. The blonde-haired teenager was admittedly worried about her friend’s well-being, given that he had the distinct pleasure of being one of the few students at King’s that were gay; closeted or otherwise. Being forced to pretend to his father was bad enough, but now he likely wasn’t comfortable in his own skin at school. It was bad enough they threatened that it was mandatory for those who wanted to graduate on time.

Mara knew exactly where he would be.

The Parking Lot was a refuge of sorts and Archer had a particularly bad habit of easing his anxiety by smoking. The blonde-haired teenager looked behind her to make sure there were no faculty members around the parking lot to see Archer (or her being present) fumbling for his cigarettes in the trunk of his car.

“Do you want to get suspended?” Mara bluntly stated. “Are you dumb?”

Archer turned his head slowly toward his blonde friend, he took a drag and blew a cloud of smoke away from her.

“Maybe…” Archer stared off into the distance, taking one last drag before putting out his cigarette on his car, flicking the butt away from them. “I just feel... defeated, you know? Like, I get it! We’re all in this shitty situation… but… I don’t know.”

The boy shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah. But do you really want to be held back a year because of this stupid experiment?” She asked, one hand on her hip. “I mean, I’m not in your shoes. But I am stuck with the worst possible human being ever. Is Ariel really that bad?”

Archer shook his head lightly “I guess.” He whispered and looked at her in earnest as he ran his hand through his hair and bit his bottom lip deep in thought. “But Mara, this little experiment is literally putting me back into the closet. And I am being put there by the people that are supposedly shaping us for our future.”

“They were never your allies in the first place. This whole thing being announced only a few days before Homecoming is them making sure we can’t do anything about it. We protest, we’re held back. We appeal, we’re hand-waived away. We can’t even transfer schools in eight days. It just shows that these assholes don’t care about any of us or what we think.” Mara sighed, “Even Vic had no idea about these changes to Homecoming and she’s on the student council. That’s how much they respect us.”

Archer rolled his eyes “I know it’s stupid!”

He stood up off his car, squirming where he stood. “I guess I just need to get over myself. But did I really have to be partnered with… her?”

Mara wasn't exactly sure what Archer's deal with Serafina “Ariel” Grey was. In fact, Mara wasn't even exactly sure who the hell she was and she had probably been in King's Academy for as long as anyone else. But whatever Ariel had done, it was apparently enough to get on Archer's bad side; though Mara supposed it was more of a melodramatic side. However, before she could ask about what Ariel had done Archer raised his hand as his face fell into a grimace of sheer disappointment. Mara decided then to remain quiet and let Archer say his piece.

“I know! Caligula, whatever… fuuuuuck.” He stretched with the syllables of his last word. “Fuck it! Let’s just do it, I have a thing or two to say to her anyway!”

He swung his bag back over his shoulder and started to walk back towards the school building.

“Well, as long as you don't do anything stupid.” Mara laughed as she pulled out her phone and starting going through her texts and making sure she wasn't late for lunch. What a day it was; and it was only just getting "better" by the minute.

[AlteredTundra]

_{L O C A T I O N / / School Auditorium/Gates of Gehenna
I N T E R A C T I N G W I T H / / Little Red Boring Hood}

---

Sonny didn't realize how long he had been lingering in the area around him and several other students in his Senior class until he heard various voices become quite vocal in the aftermath of what Mrs. Sanders had revealed. Some welcomed the change while others were quite against it. Sonny wasn't exactly sure, but off in the distance, he could've sworn he heard the far-off voice of Vic and Mara. It was too distant for him to make it out, but he could've sworn he heard one of them say something about hostage or something similar. Either way, he didn't care enough to search for them. Sonny's mind was better left to his own situation.

He still couldn't get past who he had to pair up with. It wasn't as bad as some might've thought about who they were paired with. Sonny's mind had to wander to how the likes of Santiago and Mara felt. It wasn't a mystery that neither of them liked each other, let alone how Santiago might respond to the news that Kavi was going to homecoming with his supposed 'girl', April Foster. That was plenty to make Sonny laugh. He knew Kavi was going to rub it into Diablo's face. The question that Sonny was asking himself was how far was Kavi going to go with the teasing? It wouldn't be a wise thing on his part to poke the devil too much. That was something he knew Kavi did too much of. Whether it was teasing Elijah Abrams and incurring the wrath of Johnny or flaunting April in front of Diablo, what Sonny knew - and maybe even had feared for Kavi - was how those careless antics of his will come back to haunt him in the ass. He just wasn't sure who was going to crack their fists over his jaw first.

"We shall see," Sonny murmured to himself. Only just a moment later, Sonny felt someone lightly tap him on his shoulder. He barely felt it, but it was enough for the teen to turn around. To his genuine surprise, it was Nadia. She's not wasting any time, huh? Sonny thought, doing his best to fake a welcoming smile, but it came across as an obviously-fake attempt, so he just gave up on it and kept his neutral, 'don't' bother me' almost-pout. "I guess we are," Sonny mouthed, giving her a lackluster response. "Oh god, don't tell me you expect me to ask your father's permission? Because I'd rather get expelled than kiss his ass like that."

[Hero]

---

---

---

---

Sonny's super fake smile actually unnerved the redhead for a moment. It was probably by instinct that she kept walking as a majority of her wanted to go running back to Lucas. He ended up dropping it outright, but she wasn't entirely sure if his regular expression was any better. Still, appearances were deceiving, so she managed to stay somewhat optimistic...until he spoke and threw all that optimism out the window. Okay, so Sonny was about as enthusiastic as she was about all this. No problem, she wasn't thrilled either. But seeing him annoyed actually got to her for some reason. He was acting like it was some sort of punishment or something. Well, maybe for him it was. Maybe he had someone else in mind, too.

When he mentioned her father, Nadia became quiet for a moment. Not like Sonny or anyone else would know about her home life, so it shouldn't have been surprising for him to crack a joke like that. All in good fun, no harm intended. "Well, I haven't seen my father in years, so you don't have to worry about it," She replied in earnest, slightly shrugging. Trying to find some humor in the situation, she decided to try to crack a joke. "...and you'd have to fly to France for that! Not worth the trip." She forced herself to laugh a little.

Clearing her throat, she tried to get back on track, but something about his attitude really struck a chord with her. "It's...It's not that bad that we're paired together, right?" She asked him cautiously, trying to gauge his reaction. "I mean, I was just going to ask if you wanted to ride together, or...something."

---

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[mickilennial]

---

School Auditorium | Palm Beach, Florida
September 28th, 2018

---

“Man, Florida is fucking crazy.” J.J. Reyes uttered underneath his breath.

The spectacle that the school had put on had set the crowd of students off and J.J. was standing confused. He had never heard of a school deciding a dance was mandatory for graduation nor the idea of pairing people up by randomly deciding who was taking who. It was like the Twilight Zone, though J.J. was still waiting for the cryptic monologue. As the teacher who announced their little event ran off J.J. took a light breath, realizing that the one little thing that made this less stressful was that this was a situation that was exclusive to the class of 2019. So essentially he wouldn't have to put up with Maya whining about what “wack ass white boy” she was partnered with. At most she would be laughing at his misfortune of being forced to pick up someone for Homecoming whom he had never even talked to in his month or so at King's Academy.

The name “Ms. King” didn't mean much to him particularly, so he was sure when Maya found out he wasn't going to hear the end of it. But he didn't care all that much like the rest of the students who had predisposed opinions of everyone in their class and had been making plans for weeks and weeks on end. He was still the new guy at the school and outside of Kirk and Trip he hadn't really talked all that much to anyone. He imagined it sucked for everyone else, though. It was a thought that made him realize that Kirk or Trip would know who his date was supposed to be and to see if he even had any classes with them.

The best thing he could do is look through the crowd for Kirk or Trip and go from there.

That is, if they weren't too busy being upset.

[Okonuki]

---

Assemblies had never been fun at his old school. Generally they meant an hour of listening to the principal drone, half-hearted claps for the preps getting awards and playing a game of ‘Who can nap the longest before the teacher catches you?’ with his mates. He turned his head to look at the empty seat on his left he’d saved for Bea. She hadn’t turned up and with a teacher standing on the stage testing the microphone it was looking increasingly like she wasn’t going to before it started. He should have known being in a hall full of people wouldn’t be her thing. Too overwhelming.

“Hello seniors!” He didn’t recognize the lady on stage, but she must have commanded at least some respect as the talking dropped to hushed whispers and most of the eyes in the hall focussed forwards. The admin hadn’t told anyone what the assembly was supposed to be about, but rumours were it concerned the upcoming Homecoming dance. Hopefully they’d realised the mistake of cutting the budget in half last week. It had been an unpopular move- no one wanted a half ass dance for their senior year and there was surely no way a school like this was really struggling for money enough to be penny pinching.

“As you all know, our school’s Homecoming dance is scheduled to take place next Saturday evening. I’m sure you all have your little outfits picked out and all of that, maybe even have an idea of who you’d like to attend with.”

He’d brought the subject up with Bea a few days ago. Too be honest, he still wasn’t sure if the blushing and stuttering had been because she was too embarrassed to say yes or too embarrassed to say no. It was a little worrying. Not that being embarrassed was out of character for Bea, but she’d been acting strangely ever since the night of the party. Perhaps he’d come on a little too strong with the kiss. Was it him or her who initiated it? The night was still a little blurry in his memory, fogged by alcohol and the rush of the experience. She’d almost seemed to brush off every attempt he’d made about talking about it- he was planning on bringing it up again today if he saw her.

“But we’re actually changing things up a little this year.”

At this, expressions changed in the audience and the whispers dropped even further into silence as everyone leaned forward in interest.

“See, we’ve noticed that even though most of you all have been with us here at King’s since preschool, there is a severe lack of group unity, particularly in this graduating class. It was especially put into perspective after the colorful incident in the parking lot last month and that is not what we want. King’s Academy is a prestigious school that prides itself upon its values, and some of the core values we attempt to ingrain in each of our students are friendship, empathy and, above all, respect.”

Oh god, what kind of bullshit were they planning on subjecting them to now? ‘Group unity’ was always the kind of crap teachers talked about before they handed out detentions for shit uniforms or dropped a mandatory assembly on everyone.

“So for this homecoming dance, I’ll be in charge of deciding who attends the dance with who, with a little help from these bowls here,” she explained, gesturing to the mysterious bowls on either side of her. “The left bowl has the names of every male student in this class, and the right bowl has the female names. I shall pick a name from each bowl and announce it until everybody has been partnered.”

The crowd seemed almost stunned into silence at the announcement, probably shocked at the blatant abuse of power the school was exhibiting. After a few seconds the students burst into unhappy, subdued matters. Or not so subdued in the case of some.

Seemingly deaf, or perhaps just not giving a shit about the mood of the room, the teacher began the proceedings with a wide grin on her face. Dipping a long-nailed hand into each of the glass bowls- what was this, the Hunger Games? - she extracted the small slips of paper and began announcing names. Jordan didn’t recognize many, to be honest, and it didn’t help that she was going all formal with the surnames. The only ones that stuck out was Bea’s and his own. Of course it would have been too much for the admin to put them together- they seemed to have gone out of their way to pair established couples.

Varma and Martin… the names swirled around in his head. Varma sounded familiar- possibly the Indian guy with long hair he’d met briefly at Santiago’s party. Martin meant nothing to him however. Hopefully Bea would know. With a reminder of how absolutely essential to their grade their attendance was, the teacher dismissed them. The hall was full of frenzied talk and unhappy groans as people compared their partners. Jordan ignored most of it, pushing out his chair and making his way to the green exit sign.

Bea was just outside, perched on the edge of the parking lot kerb. She seemed unperturbed by the flood of pissed-off students coming from the hall, and as he got closer he noticed the headphones over her ears and the cigarette in her hand. A small sketchbook was balanced over her outstretched knees, a half complete drawing of a face covering the page.

‘Bea?’ Still a little grumpy from the assembly, he only managed a small smile. ‘Don’t you know those things are bad for you?’ he said, gesturing at her cigarette.

[AlteredTundra]

---

---

---

“A good thing? Perhaps,” Sonny offered nothing but a few words for Nadia, following it with a shrug at her final words.

Sonny was going through some stuff and with Kavi’s teasing, what happened with Marisol, and now the uninspiring homecoming revelations that placed him in a no-escape date with Nadia, it wasn’t exactly a favorable situation in his eyes. Nothing about this was what he wanted. Up until the sudden announcement by Sanders, he didn’t have homecoming on his mind. What he did have on his mind was taking his truck and going to Miami Beach for the weekend with just him and his solitude. He was going to surf and allow himself get lost in the scenery, but now? Now, Jackson Drake Jr was forced to actually go to that overhyped danced among pretentious douchebags with, as Kavi said, someone who was a bore.

But was that really fair to Nadia? Probably not. She didn’t do anything to Sonny’s recent memory. He didn’t know her aside from being closely related to Viccy and Lucas. Even that much was very limited, so why was he holding that against her?

As he looked at her, he saw a girl with a frown on her face - even more so with his sudden silence. He offered her a shrug again, though this time it was followed by words. “I guess we can hang. I usually eat lunch with the others, but I can ditch them for you.”

The redhead perked up immediately, somewhat surprised by both the offer and the break in silence. It was so out of left field but it was incredibly kind for him to offer, so she decided to agree. “Oh, sure!” Maybe to some her agreement was a little too immediate, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t one to turn down anyone.

That being said, the situation reminded her a lot of what happened with Jason. Deciding to approach Sonny with the same energy, she made sure to calm herself down slightly. “This whole thing is a mess, isn’t it?” She decided to poke his brain for his opinion.

Sonny didn’t have an immediate answer for Nadia. He had to think about it. Calling it a mess wasn’t exactly accurate. Was it unfortunate and somewhat bizarre? Yes, without a doubt it was. There was nothing traditional about this. Homecoming was the dance that people went with whoever it was they happened to be dating. Or if not, then they went with friends. For the homecoming couples of their class to be decided by the accuracy and sure-fire process, in the same way, one would conduct a raffle was, if nothing else, an innovative way, but Sonny wasn’t sure if he approved of the motivation.

“I’ll say this,” he said, letting out a drawn-out sigh, “the excuse that people stick to their own groups is bullshit. This school has always been pretentious and way beyond anything I prefer. My father has stated that the inclusion of uniforms that was put in place three years ago was absolute bullshit. Now they’re trying to control who we choose to interact with? That, if it’s nothing else, is bullshit, Nadia.”

Nodding in agreement, she noticed the amount of contention he felt for the school as a whole. It sounded like something Victoire had told her once, but she didn’t dare bring her up. She instead tried to look at the positive. “The intentions are alright, I guess, but the methods...could use some work,” She admitted. “Maybe it’s their way of trying to get us out of our comfort zone. My first thought was that we were being punished for something.”

“Punished? For what?” Sonny asked her. “I’m not asking you rhetorically. I’m genuinely curious why you think they’re doing this to punish us. The school’s graduating average is the third-highest in the state and test scores are second only to that even more pretentious school way across town. Gang affiliation is basically non-existent. The only relations we have to gangs are Santiago’s pill-popping ass and general distribution of weed. And don’t even get me started on the cocaine presence, yet even that’s not as high as some of the schools in Miami. So, tell me, Nadia, what exactly do we have to be punished for?” As he stood there, stopping his feet from moving, Sonny let out a heavy sigh, looking to Nadia. “Sorry, that wasn’t--I didn’t mean to shout.” Again, Sonny’s uncharacteristic behavior resulted in a surprising apology.

Nadia shook her head at him, lightly dismissing his words. She knew he didn’t mean any harm. “No, maybe punishment was too harsh of a word,” She hesitated for a moment as she looked at him, debating internally on whether or not to tell him what was on her mind. After a moment, however, a decision was made. “Well...I don’t know if you remember, but there were budget cuts before. They happened because supposedly some of the financial backings of the school had pulled out. The short version of it is that they did that because of our class. They think we’re going to be the ones to mess up the school’s image. So this…’bullshit’ that’s happening, it’s a warning. If we keep our heads down and do things right, they’ll leave us be. Otherwise...well…”

Ruin the school’s image? Sonny scoffed at the insinuation that he or anyone else was a bad news bear. “Like I said it’s bullshit,” he repeated himself from before. Now he was in a nastier mood. “Now I’m thinking this dance isn’t even worth it. Maybe I should just be act how they assume I’ll act and give them the finger as I take my truck and leave this school for good.” He was talking out of his ass probably, but damn it if it didn’t feel good to say. He looked at Nadia with a grin, seeing her give him the most distraught expression. “Oh relax, I’m not that angry, but you should totally see your face right now,” he said, laughing.

Somewhat surprised, her face quickly turned into a pouty one as she let out a huff. “W-Well, I wouldn’t want to get in trouble because of you!” She couldn’t help but exclaim. “We’re in this together, remember?”

He kept laughing. “Okay Troy Bolton.”

Nadia was one of the worst people to take seriously and it was a fact she was all too aware of. She should have at least gotten mad, but all she could do was huff again. “I’ll make sure to make this easy for you, then,” She told him. “I already had my dress picked out for this, so I just need you to have a gold tie, you can wear whatever else you want.”

Sonny didn’t know if he should commend Nadia for being so organized or laugh at her again for choosing gold as the color of her dress, but he then had another thought. “So, all I have to wear is the gold tie? I guess I’m definitely going to be expelled for indecent exposure,” he told her, grinning.

The girl stared at him for a moment, somewhat confused, but after a few seconds, it hit her, her face as red as her hair as she shook her head feverishly. “N-N-No! That’s not what I meant!” She hastily corrected him.

“I’m hurt. Don’t you want to see all of this?” Sonny wiggled his eyebrows as he walked backward, shaking his hips at her.

For the sake of her sanity, she was not going to give him anything. Or at least, that was what she told herself as she resumed her rather fast paced walk, throwing him a dissatisfied look as she passed him.

Wow that usually worked on girls,

Sonny was just a bit surprised that Nadia didn’t react in the way most tended to. His antics, his teasing ways all had some kind of reaction, but the only thing he got in return was her disapproving glance. Maybe Kavi was right about something, but maybe Kavi just didn’t have a little patience. Then again, Kavi was more of a multi-woman man. Not that Sonny had any intention of getting into Nadia’s pants, but she wasn’t as boring as his friend implied that she was.

He picked up his pace and caught up with Nadia. “That was a little rude, ya know. I was doing my hip wiggle dance and you didn’t even wait for me to finish.”

There was more?!

Nadia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, brushing a little of her hair off her face as she looked at him. “You’ll have plenty of time for any dance you want at Homecoming,” She informed him.

“So you do want to see the rest of it, then?”

“If you’re fully clothed, sure.”

He couldn’t help but just give Nadia a teasing grin. “Sounds like a date, then!” Sonny found himself saying, feeling this whole conversation went unexpectedly. He didn’t think there would be an easy connection between him and the prude, but maybe she wasn’t as uptight as Kavi led Sonny to believe she was.

Nadia shook her head slightly, but she was smiling nonetheless. Silly Sonny, though she was really glad she ended up talking to him anyway. Lucas had been right, she didn’t have anything to be afraid of. Maybe they could even be friends or something. At minimum, they could enjoy homecoming and then part ways.

[Ejected]

_{Location: King's Academy
Interacting with: Julie Macmillan and April Foster}

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_{They ain't tryna' to see me shine, shine
Bullet on my time, time, but fuck it, I'll live forever}
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"Oh, so when I try to pair people together, all hell breaks loose... but the faculty can just go and steal my ideas?"

To say that Chanel Martin was excited about her last High School homecoming dance would be a bit of an understatement; in fact, the young woman had started searching for the perfect dress and matching accessories months before school had even started. It wasn't until a couple of weeks before, however, that she decided to stop browsing online shops and to just go ahead and piece together her own dress instead. After all, Chanel was probably never going to find the perfect ensemble she was hopelessly searching for online, and she had just enough experience with a sewing machine to create something that suited her perfectly. Now, a week before the dance, Chanel had everything: the bright orange hair, the beautiful black dress, the death-defying high heels. All that Chanel was missing was a date. After everything that went down with Marcus Donaldson a month before, Chanel decided that she wanted to focus all of her time and energy on maintaining a high GPA, improving her dance skills, and preparing for cheer tryouts. Finding a date to homecoming was no longer a priority; she figured she wouldn't need a date, anyway, as long as she had her girls to tag along with.

But as Chanel sat in her extremely uncomfortable seat, nestled right in between April Foster and Julie Macmillan, her neutral facial expression instantly turned to one of immense panic as Mrs. Sanders announced just why the entire Senior class had been called into the auditorium that afternoon. "Oh, shit..." Chanel muttered in response to Julie's comment, "What are we, District Twelve? Please tell me this is some kind of sick joke." But as the theater teacher continued on to draw names from the two large bowls, Chanel came to the sudden realization that this wasn't some big prank; she was really about to be forced to attend the dance with some random guy in her class. See, Chanel was perfectly fine with helping Julie set other people up, but she wasn't down with letting it be done to her.

After hearing the first pairing, Chanel couldn't help but let out a snicker as she nudged her best friend in the arm. "Sort of funny how you were trying to pair him with Martha last month, and now he's your homecoming date." Soon to be announced were April Foster and Kavi Salvador, to which Chanel simply shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "That's going to be a very... interesting date, to say the very least. Good luck with that, girl." The next couple of pairings were honestly a bit of a blur for Chanel; she was listening carefully to find out exactly who it was that she'd be partnered with. The only pairing she did happen to catch before hers, however, was Aaliyah King and someone whose last name was Reyes. "We just have to work our magic on her for homecoming, Julie," the woman whispered excitedly, "You know, invite her with us to pick out dresses or something since we have yet to conduct our little experiment."

Finally, Mrs. Sanders picked Chanel's name from the large bowl, and upon hearing who she'd be attending homecoming with, Chanel simply couldn't mask her confused expression. "Mr. Henderson..." the young woman trailed off, raising her eyebrow as she scanned the room. In all her years at King's Academy, not once did Chanel run into someone with that last name. She tried to spot if anyone had reacted to their name recently being called, but Mrs. Sanders had already moved on to the next pairing before she could find who it was that she was searching for. Frustrated, the young woman sat back into her seat and folded her arms across her chest. "Of course I'd end up with someone I don't know," Chanel said to her two friends, "Any chance either of you know who this 'Mr. Henderson' person is?"

[eclecticwitch]

I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds.
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

8D74AD

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She had spent some time with a lively and energetic latin dancer after Diablo's party. Her nights had been filled with passion and her days of languid doting. All good things had to come to an end so she went back to school and did all the things she was supposed to. Behaved rather well, for Penny at least. This was what had caused her to come to the assembly. Had to show up and be a model student after all. A good girl. She had missed quite a few days all ready. Nothing Daddy Donny couldn't fix though.

The curly haired girl sat in the front, her body a little turned so that the students behind her could get a good view of her form. At least she would give them something nice to look at instead of the crochety president and Mrs. Something or another with cobwebs up her vagina. She yawned lazily, placing a dainty hand over her mouth before stretching up in the hopes that someone might enjoy the show.

The talking started and Penny mostly drowned it out. She twisted her hair around her fingers and watched the woman speak as if she were relaying some sort of exciting news. It wasn't until she had announced how homecoming couples were to be assigned that Penny sat bolt upright and glowered. What in the bloody fucking hell. Didn't she realize most students would have dates by this point? This would ruin everything! She would have to get a new dress to match her new beau. Or wait. A new dress. Perhaps not so bad.

When the name of her match was called in conjunction with her own, Penny's brain seemed to stall.

Who the fuck?
Why the fuck?
Was he good looking?
She looked around behind her to see if she could tell which stranger it was. Nope. No idea. She groaned and leaned back in her chair, dramatically. Penny was already done with today.

~~xXx~~

E0633C

Fly away on my zephyr
I feel it more than ever
And in this perfect weather
We’ll find a place together
Fly on my wind

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The announcement of the assembly was enough to throw the poor girl off her entire game. She spent the rest of English uncomfortable. She shifted in her chair often, tapped her hand hardly against her leg hard enough to bruise. She barely took notice of Jordan even. When class was over she stuffed all of her things away before dashing to the art room. Here she found solace. The familiar scent of charcoal and oil paints, the way the sun came through the windows to catch on the glittery floor, and the comforting feel of a paint brush in her hands. She was working on a fairly new painting. It was full of bright colors and flowing lines. An extremely realistic image of a quiet river in the forest. A bright form came in and began to add surreal colors to the painting. Where the light touched turned the river tumultuous.

When the assembly finally started, Bea could not stand to be in the building. Instead she moved out to the edge of the parking lot and sat on the streetcurb. Here she lit up a smoke and lost herself in a world of drawing. It started out with the view across the way. As her body calmed with each inhale of the sweet smoke she flipped the page and began drawing a face. It was somewhat abstract in that littler images of things made it up. Things like icecream cones dripping icecream, casset tapes, and flying kites. While still unfinished the likeness of this collage portrait was similar to Jordan.

A shadow fell over her and she removed her ear buds to hear the last of the sentence. Looking up to reveal her paint smudged face she responded, "Well, a lot of things are bad for me. Apparently. Everyday there is a new silent killer on the news. I mean, vaccines have done enough damage according to some. Nothing at all to do with the fact it runs in my family." Bea breathed in deeply and exhaled the smoke away from Jordan. She flipped the sketchbook closed and tucked it away. Her heart was doing that weird fluttery race that worried her. But she did not want to worry Jordan. "Take a sit," she patted the curb beside her. "Want something to eat? What did the powers that be want?"

[fledermaus]

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While most of the school were beside themselves with anger and outrage about the way things would be happening on this homecoming dance (including Archer, who had stormed out of the auditorium before she could even talk to him properly), Marisol was just chill. During the course of the last few weeks, she'd been religiously taking her medications and attending therapy, so her anger issues and rollercoaster emotions were taken care of properly now. Had this been done a month ago, Sol would have been the first one up in arms. But today? She simply accepted it. Okay, yeah: not being able to attend homecoming with one of her friends was a really shitty thing. But, hey: the faculty never specified they had to stick to their dates during the night. So if push came to shove and her date was an insufferable person, the option to ditch and be with friends was on the table.

The real question was: who was the mysterious Mr. Rivera?

Ever the determined, impatient and curious one, the short young woman marched straight to the stage, climbed up and turned to face whatever classmates were remaining on the scene.

“YO! Who the hell is this Rivera dude?! Anyone know who the fuck that is?” Marisol shouted across the room in her usual blunt tone of voice, squinting her eyes while looking around the auditorium. “This last name crap is bullshit. I don’t know y’all like that.”

Salem Rivera looked up from where he was doodling penguins on his forearm in Sharpie, hastily pulling his sleeve down. Being rather new, only just Christened as a King’s Academy student three days before, Salem didn’t really care much about this homecoming business. He paid attention enough to realize what had been happening - and wasn’t this quite an unfortunate situation - but never thought his nonexistent profile would cause such a spectacle.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Salem casually walked to the stage and raised his hand leisurely. Salem smiled charmingly, “I’m the ‘Rivera dude.’ And would you happen to be Miss Castillo?”

To say she was surprised was an understatement. In all honesty, Marisol had been expecting the face of one of her pasty-ass, plain Jane classmates of a million years. She had already pictured herself bored out of her mind and bailing on her poor date at the thirty-minute mark, making up some stupid excuse about not feeling well and needing to go home. To find herself paired with a person she’d never seen before, and who had absolutely no idea of who she was or what her past misdeeds were, was a blessing Mari planned to take complete advantage of. Plus, his face wasn’t too bad to look at, even if he did look a little too goody-two-shoes for her tastes - not that it mattered. She wasn’t here for that shit.

“Damn straight. The one and only,” she replied with a nod, extending her fist as a greeting in his direction and never once ceasing her habitual gum-chewing.

Salem’s smile turned more boyish, causing his hazel-brown eyes to glisten like a puppy’s and there was an amused, humoring quirk at the side of his lip. While staring into Castillo’s eyes, Salem leaned forward and bumped his fist against hers, never once looking away.

During his quick assessment, Salem Rivera concluded that his homecoming date was beautiful. She had a natural doll-like quality to her, with her small nose and plump lips in relation to her pointed chin and narrow jaw. The way her beanie pressed her brown hair against her face only emphasized it, and the extraordinary light blue of her eyes. Salem had gotten lucky with the name drawings, that much was for sure.

Honorary fist-bump greetings over with, Salem reached into his back pocket with his broad hand and retrieved his phone. In one smooth motion, Salem unlocked it with his fingerprint on the back sensor and extended the phone out to the girl.

“For the record, it’s Salem Rivera.” He threw an over-exaggerated, purposefully-cheesy wink at her. It was done more playfully than teasingly, a light-hearted jest rather than a mean-spirited joke.

Marisol immediately grimaced at the name. Oof. Poor dude. Whatever parent decided to give him that name must have been high as a cloud when they did. “Shit. I don’t know who the fuck names their kid Salem, but whatever. That’s none of my business,” she said with a shrug, taking his phone, adding her contact information and finishing it off with a sweet selfiefor good measure. Satisfied with the results, Mari handed the phone back to Salem with a closed-lipped smile. “There. Shoot me a text so I can have yours.”

“Of course,” Salem cocked his head to the side as he looked down at the name in his phone, “Marisol. Pretty name.”

The green-eyed girl’s smile widened for a split-second before falling back to her usual nonchalant expression. “Thanks.”

Salem slapped the phone against the palm of his hand and smiled sincerely, looking at her from where his head was still angled towards his phone. The curls of his brown hair swept into his eyes and he blew a puff of air from his lips to blow it away.

Backing away, still facing Marisol and blindly trusting that he wouldn’t run into anybody, Salem offered his parting words. “I guess I’ll see you again. Alla prossima.”

“Wait, where the fuck were you going?”
Marisol asked him with a frown, crossing her arms across her chest. “Aren’t we going to do the whole ‘getting to know each other’ thing, or are you one of those dudes who likes to ‘be mysterious’?” she added, throwing around some air quotes as if to emphasize her words.

Salem stopped moving away, but he didn’t move closer to Marisol either. With nonchalance, he shrugged his shoulders and threw her a grin, stuffing his hands in his pockets, “No, I’m one of those dudes who likes to eat lunch. You can join me, but I have some stipulations.”

When he mentioned lunch, Marisol was overwhelmed with the sudden urge to facepalm herself. Leave it up to her to start making assumptions about people, be completely wrong and embarrass herself in the process.

“Stipulations, you say?” Mari repeated, a questioning eyebrow raised at the same time the smirk of before made its appearance. What on Earth could this new dude want from her. It couldn’t be a date, because they already had that (“Thanks, King’s Academy”). It couldn’t be sex, because Sol would break nose if he dared to ask. A kiss? Well, that could be negotiable. Anyway… Whatever it was, she was definitely eager to hear it. “Go on. I would love to hear them.”

He bashfully scuffed his shoe against the floor, looking up at her with a small shy smile. Looking at her and the curiosity in her eyes, the confidence came back to Salem and he straightened his shoulders. “You’ll have to show me where room 213 is. I was almost late to the assembly, I got so lost.” Salem gave a disbelieving laugh, ruffling the back of his head as he turned his head and observed the auditorium they were in. “My last school was a lot smaller.”

“That’s it?” she asked. Well, that was a lot more boring than she expected. Marisol was sure her disappointment was evident all over her face, and judging by the young man’s reaction she’d been slow on hiding it.

Salem scoffed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with his amusement at the thought that he would ask for something even mildly inappropriate. To Salem, that shit was earned and he wasn’t going to go perving on a girl asking for favors when he could be given them without askance due to good behavior. “Was there something else you expected me to say? ‘Buy me lunch?’ Maybe to serenade me? Recite Shakespeare for me?” Salem quirked his lips in hopes she wouldn’t take his teasing tone as him being harsh when he was just playing around.

Now it was Marisol’s turn to scoff, giving Salem the first genuine smile since the start of their conversation. Easy on the eyes and with sarcastic humor? This new guy was certainly earning himself a spot in the very limited list of people from Palms she could care about. “You fucking wish,” she replied with sass, blowing up and popping a minty-fresh gum bubble.

He ruffled the top of his head to get the curls out of his face once more and glanced around the place, seeing that everyone had started moving out. Giving an exaggerated bow and offering his arm out, Salem said, “Well, my leading lady, shall we go get lunch?”

Marisol turned to look in the direction of the door, and found herself staring as Sonny and Nadia were getting into some amicable conversation, even leaving the assembly together. Although there was always the familiar stinging feeling in her chest, the time spent in therapy had helped the young woman come to terms with the fact that it was in everyone's best interests to not pursue any sort of romantic relationship with her best friend. When she had openly confessed her feelings towards him back at the preserve, Sonny had merely brushed them off as ‘the meds talking’ and continue to act as if nothing had happened. This had been the sign Sol needed to fully convince herself that her number one priority should be her recovery and loving herself. And loving herself meant letting go of things that set her back. As long as he was happy, she would be happy for him. That's what best friends were for.

Turning back to Salem after taking in a deep breath, Mari linked her arm with his and shot him a small smile. “Hell yes. I'm fucking starving. Let's go.”

[Sugar and Spite]

[center][/url][/center]

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Lyrics

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When one attended Kings Academy for As long as Ariel had, you got used to the mandatory assemblies that they called from time to time. The young woman assumed that the one for today had to do with homecoming, and she was right.

When walking into the auditorium, her skin crawled as she took in the scene around her. Something was different. Something wasn't... right. Giving no comment on the situation, Ariel simply took a seat in the third row, waiting patiently as the room feel silent and the teacher started to speak. She took in the information, shocked at how the school could so something so.... so.... stupid. It felt like the schools administration was trying to control the student body. Sure, there were cliques and people stuck to their own crowd, but it wasn't because they didn't respect each other. Doing so was a sign of respect in Ariels opinion. People respected that no one wanted a fight, and there for stuck to their own clique. It wasn't that damn hard to understand.

All around, murmurs of disapproval spewed from people's mouths. The scene was literally straight out of the Hunger Games, and the teacher was doing one Hell of a job playing the part of Effie. However, something told Ariel that no one would be volunteering as tribute. With angry shouts from the crowd, the teacher pulled the names from the two bowls, calling out last names. Ariel thought that was stupid. You didn't introduce yourself by your last name. Everyone knew everyone else by first name. No doubt that would cause some confusion.

As she sat and waited anxiously for her name to be called, Ariel paid attention to a few names getting called. More specifically, Kavi's. He was paired with none other than April. While Ariel had no problems with the girl, and, as far as she knew, April had no problem with her - wasn't April dating Diablo? No doubt that would cause problems there. Sonny was paired with Nadia. Boy would that be a duo. The rest of the names came in a blur, right up until the point when her name was paired with Archers.

At that news, her stomach did a back flip, her palms starting to sweat. Once again, she had brought this upon herself. If she hadn't have kicked Archer to the curb like she had Marisol and proceeded to call him the other girls sidekick, then maybe they would laugh at the joke. But no. Ariel had done those things, so now she had to grow a pair and face the consequences. After all, she had spilled her guts to Kavi. Why couldn't she do the same with Mari and Archer?

With a mind full of thoughts, she got up to walk out of the auditorium.

[mickilennial]

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School Halls | Palm Beach, Florida
September 28th, 2018

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A wide, devil-like smirk crossed Jun's lips as he adjusted the collar of his blazer. His eyes looking to Marisol as he passed her by. Had she been paying attention she would know just what exactly he was up to -- or at the very least she would know there was about to be a show.

Victoire Bailey was probably the worst person to be paired with him as far as he could tell. Even with his opinion of Mara being a little rocky, Victoire was someone he didn't particularly like. A pretentious overachiever who carried herself like she was better than everyone else. The kind of smug personality that reminded him of a relationship he was trying to forget. As far as he can tell the faculty wanted him to make a mockery of the whole situation and pairing him with Victoire was license to do so. For the time being the only thing that proved a challenge for what Jun had in mind was finding Victoire before she headed off to lunch.

Fortunately, he had spotted her in the halls, seemingly waiting for someone. A perfect opportunity.

“Viccy! Where are you going, my love?!”

Before Victoire could respond she found her hands cupped by the asian teenager's own, a wide smile for days upon his lips and a wickedness that Victoire could not have anticipated. She had aptly described him as a class clown in the past, but for him to expose his antics before everyone as she was waiting for Mara to return so they could leave for lunch? Victoire was undoubtedly smart, but not omnipotent.

As Jun made his declaration a few of the students, particularly underclassmen, began to stare and laugh at what they were seeing. The words "oh my god" could be heard particularly from one pair of students that were also on their way to the cafeteria. The longer Jun stood holding Victoire's hands was the longer that the spectacle would go on. But Jun was a fan of spectacles, especially with girl's he particularly didn't have a high opinion of. He only hoped that Marisol and Sonny could pass by in time to see it as well. The embarrassing joke was only so much better when the Misfits got a laugh out of it.

“This is a sign. We are soulmates.” He declared, “I confess, I was skeptical at first. But I believe in us.”

Son of a bitch.

The moment Jun's hands touched hers she just knew he was up to something. But today was just full of surprises, so why not add onto them? Disbelief was plastered onto her face at first, replaced by realization as she noticed everyone looking at them, the irritation slowly settling in. The universe was intent on pushing her buttons today, and who better to slam them down repeatedly then Jun Wang?

“What are you doing? Victoire outright decided to ask him.

“Oh, don’t be like that! I know this is hard, but all relationships go through tough times!”

Victoire's jaw actually dropped, her eyes widening in horror. What the actual fuck was he talking about? What relationship? Jun had managed to accomplish something very few had: the brunette was stunned. But Victoire being Victoire, it didn't last long. Yanking her hands away from him a little harder than she should have, a headache began to simmer in her head as she threw a glare at him.

”My God, you've finally lost it,” She said as she rubbed her temples. ”This must be some kind of special hell, isn't it?”

Jun falsely frowned, as if he was being attacked. “I knew it. You’re seeing someone else, aren’t you? I’m hurt, Viccy. Devastated.”

“Someone else? No--”

He cut her off. “--It’s okay, though! I forgive you! We can make it work!”

If her glare had any sort of power, she would have burned holes in Jun's skull by now. “We are nothing!” She raised her voice, doing her damnest to make it as clear as possible.

Jun turned around dramatically, returning to her glare in a single swoop. “Nothing?! You’d say that in front of everyone? I can’t believe you would say that after everything I’ve tried to do? I care about fixing this, Viccy. I care a lot.”

“The only thing you need to fix is that puddle of mush you call a brain!”

“Like daggers through my heart! You’re so abusive, Viccy. I don’t know why I try.”

It was clear that Victoire had enough, or rather her stupidity tolerance was nearly filled and it was only halfway through the day. Taking in a breath to calm herself, she raised her chin at Jun as if to show him she wasn't going to let him get to her, even if the amount of whispers around them were too loud for her liking. She decided to walk past him, but not without ramming her shoulder into him as she passed.

However, there was one thing she underestimated in Jun – how far he would take a joke. As the asian-american held his “bruised” shoulder he kept his eyes on Victoire as she shuffled through the crowd, laughter, and eyes all on her as she ran away from Jun's idea of a practical joke. As far as he could tell, his excessive ribbing of their whole pairing for Homecoming had reached it's most sensible conclusion. While the brunette was still within his line of sight he shouted dramatically outward which almost caused the largest crowd of laughter he had ever gotten before. In a lot of ways, Jun felt satisfied yet at the same time he knew he had eight more days of opportunities to make hilarious spectacles; or at the very least careful ones.

“You can’t run from our relationship forever!”

He shook his head as he headed in the opposite direction. A good joke built up a man's appetite and as far as he could tell, it was lunchtime.

[Ejected]

_{Location: King's Academy
Interacting with: N/A}

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_Higher

The past month of school flew by a lot faster than Kavan Varma had anticipated. It was just so surreal to him, the idea that in just a few more months he'd be walking across a stage and receiving his diploma. Shortly after that, he'd be free to do whatever it was that his heart desired; maybe he'll take after his sister and head to a four year university, or maybe he'll forget about school all together and travel the world. Anyway, that was what Kavan was thinking about as he sat in the very back of the auditorium, his earbuds in and his feet resting on the seat in front of him. He wasn't fully sure why the entire senior class had been called in for an assembly, but he simply figured that it had something to do with preparing to order caps and gowns for the time coming or perhaps going over the rules for homecoming.

Homecoming. Unlike most of the senior class, Kavan had not originally planned on attending. "I went to the one last year," the boy had said to a friend not too many days ago, "And it honestly wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. Just turned out to be a waste of my time and money." Since he wasn't going to the dance, Kavan didn't even bother purchasing a new suit or getting a haircut, and securing a date was certainly out of the question. Well, it was until Mrs. Sanders, the theatre teacher, announced why they'd been called into the auditorium that afternoon. In an instant, Kavan yanked out his earbuds and sat upright in his seat, his eyes focused on the older woman that stood at center stage. Was she being serious?

“The left bowl has the names of every male student in this class, and the right bowl has the female names. I shall pick a name from each bowl and announce it until everybody has been partnered,” Mrs. Sanders continued. Though he wasn't entirely sure why, upon hearing that there would only be male and female pairings, Kavan immediately felt a twinge of disappointment, but shrugged it off when the woman continued to speak.

It was in that moment that Kavan heard none other than Archer Diedrikson loudly call out from the crowd. "This is some hetero-normative bullshit! It’s homophobic as fuck!" Kavan couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head as he watched Marisol shove the young man back into his seat. While he wholeheartedly agreed with what Archer had said, he knew better than to believe that the school would actually give a damn. As expected, Mrs. Sanders barely faltered as she continued to announce the pairings.

"Mr. Varma, you shall attend with Ms. Endive," Mrs. Sanders called from the front, and after wracking his brain for a brief moment, Kavan slouched back down into his seat, feeling a slight sense of relief. While he and Bea were not the closest of friends, Kavan thought the young woman to be pretty cool when she wasn't hanging around cry-baby Baxter. Mostly, he was just glad that he didn't end up being paired with someone he didn't know too well or someone who'd probably wreck his car with a baseball bat if he made a wrong move. For the rest of the assembly, Kavan simply assumed his previous position; he kicked his feet up on the seat in front of him, put his earbuds back in, and blasted his music until he noticed the other students begin to exit the room. Without hesitation, the boy jumped from his seat and made a beeline for the school cafeteria; he was starving.

[Sugar and Spite]

Oliver & Raven

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"Man, school assemblies always suck," Raven began, walking alongside Oliver down the hall. "I mean, I just wanted lunch. But nooo. Gotta go to some stupid mandatory assembly." As she finished her sentence, the young woman rolled her eyes. It was true - Raven had always hated the assemblies. School activities were pretty much overrated in her opinion, and the assemblies were usually used to talk about such things. Trip had always been the kind of girl to crash the party, and with homecoming, her plans were no different.

Oliver, on the other hand, w asnt planning on attending at all. Sure, he looked great in a suit. Sure, it was senior year and they should all make the most of it. But he didn't have a date, and he didn't have a suit that fit anymore. As usual, his only reason for going - if he were to go - would be for the gossip and if Raven wanted him there. Even if she asked, he would most likely decline. Since Santiagos party, he had felt like more of a burden than anything.

Walking into the auditorium, the two of them took a seat towards the middle of the room, making casual jokes about the Hunger Games. Couldn't Kings Academy just be original for once?

Once the teacher started to speak, the room fell silent. When names started to be called, Oliver's palms began to sweat. What kind of shit was this? You couldn't just force people into an experiment and expect it to go your way. Had none of these people seen the latest Purge movie? Not importantly, didn't they know that not everyone was as heteronormative as them? Then again, why would they care about the sexualities of the student body? This was punishment for their class making them lose their precious endorsements.

"This is bullshit," he mumbled. "Complete and utter bullshit."

Raven just sat there, legs crossed, giving the woman on stage a murderous look. Now she had to make sure her 'date' was okay with spiking the punch and other such shennanigans. Worse. What if her supposed partner in crime was someone she hated?

Soon enough, both of their names would be called. When Oliver recognized Stellas name, a weight was lifted off his shoulders as a smile appeared upon his face. "Oh, Stella! I've always adored her. She's like a little cotton candy ray of sunshine."

"Yeah, yeah," Trip responded impatiently with a wave of her hand. "Maybe you'll finally get laid."

At her comment, Oli's mouth went dry, leaving him with nothing much more to say. Sure, he had always adored Stella. Now he was aiming to give her the night of her life. He'd where any for she wanted, take her to whatever restaurant she wanted to go to. But the sex part? Well ladies and gentlemen, there might be a problem there. Besides. Stella wasn't the type to just jump into bed with anyone, right? Surely Oli didn't have to worry about that.

"Weber... Weber..." Trip mumbled. "Sounds familiar.... Oh! Oli. Remember that sort of alt dude that was kinda hot that I pointed out to you from math class a while back?"

"Er.... yeah."

"Well, that's who I got. Pretty chill dude."

Oliver cleared his throat, snapping back into reality. "Mm... yeah. That's good and all, Princess, but I'm going to see if I can catch Stella real quick. Have fun," he said distractedly, getting up and kissing her on top of the head before turning to leave.

Before Trip could say anything, Oliver was already out the door. Standing up herself, she spotted JJ through the crowd. Maybe he needed some more guidance. No doubt he didn't have any idea who Aaliyah was. Shouldering her back pack, she made her way through the crowd before tapping him on the shoulder. When he turned to face her, Trip gave JJ her best smile. "So. What do you think of all this mess?" she asked.

Once outside the door, Oliver scanned the halls for Stella. Vic and Jun seemed to be having an intense conversation, among some others. As luck would have it, he quickly spotted her, and more or less jogged to catch up to and get in front of her. Walking backwards, he gave her a grin.

"Stella, my darling. Any chance we could discuss the news over lunch?"