[IC] Rosefell High.

[Hey Im Jordan]

Featuring: Joey P and Arthur Constantine

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Joey Powers’ day started at six thirty in the morning. That was when he dragged himself out of bed, and did his morning yoga. Deep down, Joey P wasn’t sure why everyone didn’t start their day with this. It was the best way to wake up and start your day! Yoga warmed the body up and prepared the mind for the day to come. Plus, it was like, a great way to stay in shape.

The next step was to head to the kitchen at around six thirty, where he saw his mom every morning. Without fail, for as long as Joey P could remember, his mother was always doing the same thing in the morning… cooking breakfast. Unfortunately, ever since high school had started, Joey P and his mom had a problem: Joey P just didn’t have time to sit and eat breakfast nowadays. He was too busy!

“Are you leaving already?” She asked, as Joey ducked underneath her arm to get to the toaster, catching the Poptart that hopped into the air (cinnamon brown sugar, to be specific). Watching her son take his first bite of the ever tasty treat, she sighed. The lack of answer was all the answer in the world. “Just remember that thing I told you.”

Joey P paused mid chew, to stare at his mother. “Uhm, which thing? You’ve told me like… so many things, Moms.” Joey spoke with a mouthful of deliciously sugary Poptart, waiting patiently for an answer. Maybe this was easier for other people, but for Joey? Remembering things extracted a heavy toll, as far as brain power went. Maybe it was the weed — but who didn’t wake and bake in 2019? For fuck’s sake, it wasn’t like he was some kind of… some kind of genius. In fact, he was barely getting straight C’s!

Joey P was inching toward the door, the whole time. A man on a mission; he liked to skate early in the morning, it was when he hit some of his best lines! “Uhm, look both ways before crossing the street?” He offered with a cheesy grin, grabbing his hat off of its hanger near the front door, and tugging it down on his head, spinning it so it was backwards as he waited for his mom to answer.

“...yeah, sure. Just don’t die, okay? It’s your last year.”

Joey P gave his mom a thumbs up, slinging his backpack over his back (Joey was a two strapper — one strappers were so twenty twelve), and popping his headphones in. Finally free, Joey stepped out into suburbia, and once again wondered why they lived in Columbus, and not somewhere like LA. He’d never get to skate Venice Beach at this rate, which was a tragedy in its own right.

With a quick glance down to his watch, Joey had a reckoning of how much time he had to skate before he needed to do the only thing required of a guy his age, and go to school. He grabbed his skateboard from its spot on his front porch, and with a running start, he began his trip.

With the soothing sounds of Guerilla Radio, blasting on his ears, Joey P was on the fast track to tinnitus, but it wasn’t like it mattered. The music helped him hit sweet lines! Without it, he wasn’t sure he could do things he was able to do. Maybe he was weird, but hearing the blaring guitar made him feel more confident that he could things like…

Joey shifted his weight and feet so that he could ollie the board up, and grind across a bench near a bus stop, before jumping again and kickflipping, smoothly landing it. Things like that. Or even less technically impressive things, like kicking the tail end of the board up so he was riding on two wheels across the sidewalk. Then, he pivoted so he was riding backwards, and slid his feet as if he were moonwalking across the street, with both hands in his pockets.

Sure it wasn’t particularly hard, and he couldn’t do it for a long time… but it sure as hell looked cool. It was doing that kind of stuff which made the risk of tinnitus all too worth it. Besides, it couldn’t be that bad, right? It was just ringing in the ears!

Joey P was finding his groove as he cruised toward the school, but it all came crashing to a halt when he had to stop very suddenly, when something flew in front of him. Having almost died, it took Joey a moment to collect himself and look at the offending object in front of him: a football. Joey pulled one of his earbuds out, and bent down to pick the ball up.

“Yo! Joey P!”

_earlier…

Arthur Constantine’s day started at six in the morning, when it was damn near still dark out there. He’d rather sleep until he had to get up, but unfortunately these were the hazards that came with the job. If he didn’t get up this early, then he wouldn’t have time to do all the things required and expected of him. First thing’s first.

Grumbling, Artie pulled himself out of bed and rubbed at his eyes. He made his way to his dresser and pulled open the gym drawer, digging around until he found a compression shirt. He lifted it up to his nose and sniffed. Yeah, okay… that’ll do. He thought to himself, before tugging it down over his body. Stretching his arms over his head, Artie found the remaining parts of his morning outfit: a pair of boxers, and a pair of running shorts. Stretching as he went, Artie headed toward the door.

The only good part about being up this early was pretty simple for him: at least everyone else was asleep and it was quiet. Artie liked the quiet, that’s why he didn’t run with earbuds in. Besides, he definitely didn’t want to get tinnitus. Constant ringing in the ears? That sounded like hell itself.

For the first hour or so of his day, Artie liked to run. It was a good way to warm himself up and get ready for the real workout, which would come later. He had a pretty simple loop he liked to run — it wasn’t like there were many options. Around the neighborhood a couple of times and he was done, and back in the house. The next part of his day was arguably the hardest. Before he could shower, or even complete his workout, he had to do the job of an older brother.

Lance would find his way to school, he always did, but unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about his younger siblings, Tristan and Morgana. Luckily for Artie, at least their rooms were next to each other. Artie knocked lightly to announce his presence, before he opened the doors, “Morg, Tris, roll call. You got twenty minutes to get ready. We leave in thirty.” Artie was a professional, he’d done this a hundred times by now. They tended to listen to him, or at least Tristan did. Morgana was a bit harder to work with, but at least in the mornings, she seemed willing to comply.

Artie had one last obligation to do before he could take a shower that was way too hot and get on with his day. Snatching his water bottle from its place in the fridge, Artie was on the way to the backyard. He took a sip from the water bottle, swished it around in his mouth and spat it out as he passed through the door. “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but ain’t nobody wanna lift these heavy ass weights.” Artie rolled his neck and sat down on the bench and situated his elbows for preacher curls. “I’ll do it though.” The wisdom of Ronnie Coleman. The dude had a point.

While Artie lifted the weights, he took careful care to make sure to keep his wrists straight. That was an old tip he’d picked up from YouTube videos — not the same ones he’d gotten the thing about lifting heavy ass weights. The straight wrists he’d gotten from none other than the Terminator himself. There was an older interview from Arnie where he claimed that keeping your wrists straight would help you get bigger biceps.

Of course, Artie had also once seen a video where Arnie had claimed that lifting weights and getting the pump was better than cumming, so Artie wasn’t sure that there was scientific evidence to backup the claim of straight wrists helping you build better biceps…

Still, Arnie had made a living out of it, and Artie sure as hell hadn’t done that. He wasn’t about to question god himself on whether or not his methods works. Arthur was jacked anyway, a tip from Arnold wasn’t gonna hurt. Quietly pumping his arms, Arthur only stopped when he heard the sound of a skateboard approaching.

He stood up from his bench, and peered over the short chain link fence in his backyard, before finding the source of the noise: the ever focused Joey Powers. “Hey, Joey.” Artie said, trying to get his attention, but he found himself completely ignored. “Earth to Joey… are you there?” Arthur frowned, before stepping off of the bench and toward the fence. Why was he being ignored?

It was then that he noticed the headphones in Joey’s ears. That explained it then — Joey listened to music louder than anyone else that he knew, so it wasn’t too surprising if he was blasting music. Artie bent down to grab the football he tossed around with his siblings, and casually tossed it in Joey’s direction. With the expert precision of someone who’d spent the majority of their life throwing a football, Arthur was able to direct the ball to land square in front of Joey, who came to a stop and then pulled an earbud out…

“Yo! Joey P!”

“Artie? What’s going on, dude?” Joey P was glad it was someone he knew, and just… like, some kind of random person throwing a ball at him. That sort of thing would be awkward… He’d have to give the ball back, and say it was no big deal, and all kinds of other stuff… Stuff he really didn’t want to do. But this, this was super easy. He grabbed the ball from the ground, and casually popped it back over to Artie — or at least as best he could. It kind of floundered and flopped through the air.

Nonetheless, it was easy for Artie to snatch it out of the air. He was the franchise player for the Knights, after all. “Not much, getting ready for the last first day… What are you doing? Shredding before school, right? Jesus, dude, turn that music down. You’re gonna get tinnitus.” Artie suggested as Joey approached, and Joey just kind of stared at him for a moment before pausing the song. Artie rolled his eyes, before pressing on. “You want a ride to school? If you wait a minute, we’re about to leave —”

“Nah, it’s cool. I’m just gonna keep doin’ what I’m doin’. I’ll get there, ya know?” Joey P said with a grin and a casual shrug of his shoulders. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be late, he’d be fine. Joey stretched his arms side to side, as he headed back to his board. He was ready to hit the grind again. “I’ll be seein’ ya around, right?” He asked, glancing over his shoulder as he got back to the skateboard, seeing Artie nod and give a thumbs up.

“Do a flip.” Artie suggested, but he had a feeling Joey P couldn’t hear him. The earbuds were back in, and he was sure that the music was kicked back on. As Joey P began to push off, Artie got ready to turn around, but Joey P hopped the board and flipped it, before heading off. Artie smiled and laughed, heading into the house.

_{some time later}

Before long, Arthur was showered and in the van, having collected his younger siblings. As he dropped them off at the primary school, Artie saw a face from before: Joey P was there again, casually hitting the stairs. With only a few minutes left before they’d be late, Artie leaned out the driver’s window. “You want a ride now?” He asked, and Joey P nodded his head, skating over and hopping into the passenger’s seat.

“Thanks, dude. I kinda lost track of time… it happens to me, sometimes. Ya know? I just kinda… skate. It is what it is.” Joey shrugged his shoulders, as Artie drove them toward the high school. Joey looked out the window, casually adding. “If I messed around any longer, I probably would have been later than the twins… They’re probably not even out of the house yet, huh?” He said, and Artie chuckled.

“You’re not wrong, that’s for sure. Hey, weren’t you dating one of the twins?” He asked, and Joey nodded his head. “Daze, right — well, that’s a pointless question. It has to be her. Jules would never.” That was a definite, there was no way that Juliet would date anyone — let alone someone that smelled like weed like Joey P did. Joey nodded again though, giving confirmation.

“Yeah, we broke up though.” Joey P replied with a shrug.

“Aw, dude, that sucks. Why?”

“I dunno. These things happen for a reason. I’m sure she’ll find someone better for her than me. A lot of people break up and they’re like ‘oh no I’m so sad, I got dumped,’ and it’s like don’t be all like ‘they’re gonna find someone better than me,’ and it’s like… nah, dude. Stop being so negative, and like, self-deprecating, ya know? Just be positive… they ain’t gonna find someone better than you, they’ll just find someone better for them.” Joey P shrugged as they pulled into the parking spot in the senior parking lot. “Thanks for the ride, dude.”

“You’re a weird guy, Joey P.”

“Thanks, dude.” And with that, Joey P was out of Artie’s car and on his way to the mandatory auditorium, skating toward the door, with Artie walking casually behind him.

“A real weird dude…” As he headed toward the auditorium, King Arthur finally reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone to text his friends.

red leader signing in
i’ll be there in a second, save me a seat, okay?

[KZOMBI3]

_{Outfit of the day Daze right/Jules left}

_{Collab with Jordan}

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Being twins, Juliet and Daisie Park shared a lot of things in life. A room, a car, a Keurig machine, k-cups... they even worked at the same job and shared shifts. Sharing a room meant that they shared alarms — unfortunately, both of them also shared a habit of hating the very idea of getting out of bed. For Juliet, the world was cold and loud and not nice. Her bed on the other hand was warm… soft… comforting. She didn’t want to leave it! That was why she’d mumbled to her phone.

“Siri, turn it off…”

And snuggled deeper into her bed. It wasn’t like it was that important! They’d been late before, why did it matter anymore if it was the first day of school or not, they could be as late as they wanted. What would they seriously miss? Some stupid first day of school ceremony? She didn’t want to…

“Oh my GOD, Siri, I said to turn it off!” Jules barked at her phone, diving to stuff her head underneath the pillow. “Is that one even mine? Daze, turn your alarm off! Whose idea was this!?” Juliet had forgotten that they’d made the terrible decision of alternating alarms between their two phones to make sure they woke up in time for school. Juliet had never, in her life, regretted a decision so much “I wanna sleeeppppppppy.” She whined loudly, still hiding beneath her pillows.

The mornings were never kind to them.

At the incessant complaining coming from across the room, Daze grumbled and tried any and all positions that would help her pass back out. No such luck.

It was the same Every. Damn. Morning. Regardless of school or any other event that required their presence at a specific time. The twins shared everything and that included the mutual distaste of waking up. It had been that way ever since Daze could remember. She liked to think that it was because of all the nights she would stay awake, sitting in front of the television - at an unhealthy distance mind you - and binge her favorite anime. However, that excuse couldn’t be used to plead for her defense this time. Sure, she played League of Legends with Sam last night, though she logged off at a decent enough time in order to prep for the last first day of high school hell.

With the muffled cries of her twin, barely audible through foam and fabric, Daze growled out again and fumbled around on her nightstand, blindly searching for the culprit. Once found, she squinted at the illuminated screen and hit the snooze button.

“We got like, 10 more minutes…” her own voice laced with sleep. It didn’t take long for the two of them to drift back off into the land of slumber.

Round one was won by the Park twins, who found their way back to the welcoming comfort of sleep. Unfortunately, they may have won the battle, but they were going to lose the war. When she’d slapped the snooze button, Daze’s finger had missed its mark — and instead, she had turned the alarm off. Ten minutes quickly turned into thirty, and Juliet’s eyes opened without the screaming of her sister’s phone, blaring an alarm in her ears…

Happily, Juliet yawned, stretching her arms over her head, and wondering how this had happened. She beat the alarm? This was different! With a slightly smug look on her face, she glanced over at Daze, reaching out for her phone with one hand. She clicked it on, and her eyes immediately widened, with a look of horror quickly replacing the smug one. THEY WERE LATE. INCREDIBLY LATE.

“Daze, Daze, Daze, you gotta get up! WE’RE LATE!”

It took a moment for the words to reach her sleeping form but when they did, Daze shot up from her comfy position, sheets and comforter pooling at her waist, “Hm, what?! I’m up, I’m up!” Clearly. Rubbing the sand from her eyes she turned in the direction of her twin as she scurried around the room doing fuck knows what. As articles of clothing were being carelessly tossed a rogue, crumpled blouse honed in on Daze’s location and smacked her in the face.

It seemed that that was what did the trick in order to get the older sister up and out of the bed, throwing her legs over the side she ran her hands down her face a few times, smacking the skin lightly in order to rouse herself from her drowsy state. She soon began to trudge her way to the foot of the bed where her outfit lay from it’s placement there the night before. While Juliet was wasting her time in deciding what to piece together from the large selection in their shared closet, Daisie was at least smart enough to plan ahead of time.

A brisk walk carried the blonde twin to the shower where she cleaned up quickly before hopping out and getting dressed. When she turned to head back to the counter and fix her hair and makeup she was thoroughly disgruntled to find that Jules was hogging it.

“Get ouuuuut,” Daze could no more than pout and lightly nudge her sister out of the way causing a stray line of black to skirt up to her hairline. The glare Daze received through the mirror just added to the hardship of trying to hold in her laughter.

When Daze bumped her and messed up Juliet’s makeup, a scowling look immediately crawled across Jules’s face. “I told them we needed two bathrooms,” she hissed. Or at least, two vanities. It was bad enough she had to share a room with her sister, having to share a bathroom just made it worse. Firstly, Jules was a lot cleaner than her sister, and it just got kind of worse in the bathroom… “It’s hard enough for me to get ready when you’re not in the way, wait your turnnnn.” Juliet whined, shooting a look over at her sister.

“Now I have to fix this, and it’s just going to take you more time to get your turn.”

Groaning out of frustration at the issues she just cause for herself, Daze gripped at her hair tugging it and storming off back into their room to look for anything that could constitute as a makeshift vanity. Her gaze lingered a bit longer at her computer set up on the other side of the room and instead of just going down the hall to use her brother’s bathroom, ‘ughh no,’ she physically shuddered at the thought of what that would smell like - she instead plopped herself in front of the screen and booted it up.

Impatiently bouncing her right leg Daze rushed back into the bathroom, dodging through Jules to grab her makeup bag. With the bag in hand, Daze went back to her desk and opened up the webcam and began to apply her face. Not too much longer after she began she was done - something simple for the first day. It wasn’t like anything spectacular was going to be happening today. Why waste the effort?

“Jules~,” she sang out to her twin, “Are you almost done?” She had stood from her desk and began the Keurig machine to supply them with their morning drug of choice. An extra pep for their sluggish steps. If anything could get Daze and Jules through morning hells - it was coffee. And since they had a machine in their room, it was a daily ritual to grab a cup, or two, before officially leaving the comfort of their home and beginning on their adventure.

Jules was done with the bathroom; with her makeup finished, and her hair done, she was put together for the day. Unfortunately, for Daze though, Jules’s tiny frame was blocking the door to the bathroom; and it didn’t look like she was going to give any time soon. Both parties knew that there was almost no chance Daze could slip by Juliet, so for the time being, Jules was in control of the situation and the promised land.

There was only one thing that the princess had in mind. There was only one thing left to complete her morning. She was put together, dressed, and cutie-ified as much as she could be. Now, she just needed one last bit to make everything livable. “Did you start coffee, yet?”

"Yeah, yeah, now get outta the way," and with that Daze traded spots with her sister as she began to blow dry her hair. Upon checking the time on her phone, which was laid out on the cluttered counter between her and the mirror, she let out a surprised squeak.

Daze ruffled the last bits of her damp hair, it'll air dry on the way, she called out to Jules to pack up her shit and the coffee and to get ready to bounce.

"We gotta go!" Snatching her neon green tumbler from Jules outstretched hand she dipped to grab her pin and patch embellished backpack and was heading out the door and down the stairs and towards the front, only pausing to lace up her faded yellow Dr. Martens and yell back to her twin.

"Jules! C'mon!"

“Don’t rush me! We’ve been over that.” Jules responded, sipping from her thermos. Unlike her sister, Jules was walking at a normal, casual pace; she had a philosophy, and she was going to stick to it: if you were a little bit late, you might as well be a lotta bit late. She wasn’t going to rush herself for anything, least of all school. She wasn’t going to get in trouble for one tardy, and it was her last year of school, anyway.

“Senior year, Daisie. Senior year. Don’t go into it stressed out, mmk? We gotta stay chill, or you’ll… I dunno, do something that ruins my plans of going to Disneyland again…” Jules muttered as she stepped out of the front door and toward their car. “”You’re gonna drive, right?” Of course, Jules already knew the answer to that question — in fact, she was heading toward the passenger side door.

Releasing a frustrated sigh as she stood there with the driver’s door propped open, Daze closed her eyes and tilted her head back to the sky, “It’s already gonna be a long year…” and in swift motion she was sliding into the driver’s seat and turning the key in the ignition and they were off towards the campus. “Pass me my cap please~” she gestured with her hand extended in a ‘gimme’ motion, which Juliet complied. While driving slightly over the speed limit, Jules playing DJ in the front seat, Daisie spotted someone skating up ahead.

“Oh, it’s Joey!”

Having already noticed, Juliet had hoped that Daze would drive by while focusing on the road — and therefore not notice the skater boy that Juliet had never really approved of. Unfortunately, Daze was about as safe of a driver as could be expected of the more spastic of the two Park twins… which meant she noticed before they pulled past him.

Scoffing and scrolling through her social media Juliet wore a slight frown, “We’re not picking up your ex-boyfriend, Daze. That’s the last thing I want this morning.” It wasn’t like they had the time to spend taking detours on their way to school. But it also wasn’t like they were in a huge hurry either. Like she said, they just needed to chill. Take the day as it came.

Ding.
Ding.

Simultaneously the twins’ phone’s notifications went off signaling that it was a group text. Most likely from someone in the Knights group. A group chat they’ve had going for over a year now. Most of the time filled with anything from random shit like irrelevant memes, deep thought provoking questions at 3am - all opened and responded to of course - to Sam and Daze hitting everyone up for League and other gaming sessions. During the summer there was suppose to be more meetups, but everyone working more hours and taking trips and just hanging out with other friends - “Psht as if,” Daze had joked - it was harder and harder to get everyone together at the same time.

Without looking up at her sister, Juliet’s finger was sliding across her phone screen. Jules wasn’t about to take the blame for them being late — not when Daze was the one that had missed the button and shut the alarm off instead of snoozing it like she was supposed to!

To: The Knights
we’re late again ofc daze hit the wrong buttin on the morning soooo
we’re on the way tho dwai! uwu

The rest of the ride was enjoyed in relative silence. “Think Rich is wearing a fanny pack?” Daze’s voice cut through the air and resulted in the two of them howling with laughter as they pulled into their designated parking spot that all the seniors were graciously gifted from the school’s administration. Psht. They owed them a hell of a lot more than just some dinky parking spot. Luckily for them, though, they were able to snag the spot next to Sam.

“Aiight, where they at?” Daisie was too busy stretching her tiny limbs to realize that she was about to spill her life source all over her beloved twin.

Luckily for the both of them, Jules had more situational awareness than her sister, and reached up to push the thermos away from its tipping point, before grumbling. “And people think I’m the airhead, because I like Disney… At least I don’t try to melt my sister’s face off with coffee.” Jules muttered, before sipping from her drink herself.

“Oops. Sorry.”

The entire quad was silent, for the most part, as people were shuffling their way towards the auditorium. Daze looked back at her twin, as if to point out that they were not that late. Once they poked their head into the auditorium though, Jules nudged Daze with her shoulder, and pointed out a certain someone in the crowd.

“He beat us here, Daze…” She muttered, looking at Joey P, the skater they’d passed by earlier. They were later than late! Rolling her eyes, Jules made a mental note to make sure she was in charge of the snooze button in the future, and then she headed with her twin toward the others in their little friend group.

“Sorry we’re late, guys… we didn’t miss anything like, important. Did we?”

[Venus]

_{Starring: Elijah, Aramintah and Alana}

While Eli and his friends attended the diner fairly often, breakfast on the first day of school a the diner was mandatory. When they were little, their parents would take them here. Now that they were old enough to ride their bikes and be independent, they had been meeting there by themselves.

Eli had woken up at six to get ready that morning. He messaged the group chat to make sure that the girls were up before hopping in the shower, brushing his teeth, and getting dressed. Senior year was bound to be interesting, and there was no telling what would change. He was thankful to have the familiarity of his friends and their tradition. Once he was sure that he had everything that he needed, he said goodbye to his family and headed outside to grab his bike. Starting up his playlist and putting his earbuds in, he stuck his phone in his jacket pocket before starting his way to the diner.

Once there, Eli messaged the group chat one more time to let Minty and Lana know that he had arrived. The timestamp read ten minutes until seven. Hopefully they would be here soon.

Aramintah ignored her phone vibrating in her pocket as she stood bent over her bike struggling to lock it. A loud groan escaped the girl as she straightened up, stretching her tired muscles. She was so tired she could cry and it only made it worse that she knew it was her own fault. Minty had against her mother's sound advice stayed up until 1am playing with her new set of aquarelle paints. She had woken up like a zombie this morning hoping that the brisk bike ride to the diner would wake her up… it did not.

Tired and puffy eyed, Minty walked into the diner, her dark brown eyes wandering over the different booths until they landed at the one that was undeniable labeled as theirs. And sitting in it was her favorite bespectacled, dark-haired boy. A sheepish grin spread across her face as she bounded towards the unsuspecting boy.

"Eeeeliiii! You know I love this tradition but why does it always have to be so early!?” she lamented as she plopped down next to Elijah and dramatically spreading out so that she rested her head in his lap and her legs dangled out from the end of the booth. She dug around in the pocket of her jacket and fished out her phone.

"Have you heard anything from Lana?" She asked sleepily letting out a yawn as she tapped away at the screen.

”Minty, honey, you say that every year,” Eli replied rolling his eyes as he laughed at his friend. ”If we didn’t do it this early, we’d end up being late for school. And no...” he said, pulling out his phone as well. ”I haven’t heard anyt---”

“Reporting for duty!”

A short girl in denim overalls, a white crop top and worn yellow Converse sneakers was making her way to their table, effortlessly sliding into the empty bench of their booth and offering her two best friends a bright, cheerful smile. Not much had changed about Alana Kinglsey during the summer. She was still short, still somewhat pale, and still riding her bicycle around town. Her hair, although now resting a little bit past her shoulders in shaggy haircut, was still the same brown shade it had always been.

But there was something different about Alana. She seemed particularly cheerful that morning: emitting a radiance that seemed to rival the sun outside. In fact, she’d been in the best of moods as of late: smiling wider, laughing louder, eyes shining brighter… All thanks to that one night at the park five weeks before.

“Rise and shine, folks! First day of senior year is finally here, but I’m not feeling the enthusiasm from you guys…” she jokingly lamented, shaking her head.

Minty flailed as she struggled to sit up. “Well, well, well: the filthy little hobbit finally arrives!” she grinned as she jumped out of the booth embracing her petite friend into a tight hug. To the untrained eye it looked like she hadn’t seen her friend in a year. But the truth of the matter was that the pair had seen each other two nights ago. But that's just how Aramintah greeted her friends whenever she saw them. “What made you late? Daydreaming in the shower again?” she cackled as she sat back down next to Elijah.

Alana rolled her eyes at her friend’s lame attempt at a joke. “You know, you should really pursue a career as a comedian, Minty. You’d be a star.” Lana shot back, playfully sticking her tongue out at Minty

“Thank you, thank you” Minty sighed, flipping her hair with flair before leaning back in her seat and flagging down Miranda, the waitress who had worked there for as long as they have lived. “Good morning, Randie! Can I just have the greasiest breakfast platter the kitchen can muster up? And an apple juice without ice please?” Minty turned expectantly toward her friends, waiting for them to order.

Elijah watched and listened in on the two girls exchange as they all quickly fell back into their normal routine. The friendly banter brought a smile to the young man's face as he put his phone back in his jacket pocket. There was no telling where he would be today if it wasn’t for his friends. Once the waiter had came over, Eli ordered his usual.

”The same for me, but a little less grease and orange juice, please, love.” he said giving the waiter a smile.

"And the strawberry cheesecake pancakes with extra strawberry syrup, scrambled eggs, hash browns and ham with a large glass of milk for my favorite girl," Miranda said cheerfully, a sweet smile on her face while giving Alana a kiss on the top of the head and a big hug. The two women had formed a bond during their time working together at the diner, with the short girl confiding in and treating Randie like a grandmother.

“Thanks, Randie,” Lana replied sweetly, hugging the elderly as tightly as she could before releasing her and allowing her to take the order to the kitchen.

With their orders put in Minty rested her head in one of her hands smiling at her friends. "So… what plans do we have for this year?" She asked, flicking her eyes towards Alana. "Any… boys joining us here maybe?"

"Boys? What do you mean, boys?" Lana said innocently, suddenly becoming very interested in neatly arranging her utensils on top of her napkin. It wasn't as if she didn't know who Minty was talking about. They’d been best friends forever, after all, and the boy in question had been spending a lot of time with Lana for the last nine months.

”You know… Eli said, leaning forward to rest his his chin in the palm of his right hand. “The tall ones with the messy hair and bad boy vibes you love so much. The ones with the mommy issues and soft lips. You wouldn’t know anyone like that, would you, Lana? I’m thinking I might be in the market for one.”

Another cackle escaped Minty before she turned to face Eli again, while Alana’s face flushed. "Careful, Eli: she'll spontaneously combust if she gets any redder in the face!" she suppressed another laugh as she shifted her eyes between her two best friends. She rolled her eyes and grabbed Lana's hand in her own. "Let's not try to hide from the fact that we know something went down between you and Alex…" she hushed as Miranda arrived with their food.

A buzzing from her pocket kept her from shoving her face full of fried potatoes. Aramintah's face lit up as she read the text message from Oliver. The smile lingered as she sent her reply.

Alana scoffed. "What on Earth makes you think something happened between me and Alex?" came the shorter girl's dismissive reply, now averting her gaze to her plate in a weak attempt to hide the obvious flush in her face.

Taking a sip of his orange juice before speaking, Eli did his best not to laugh. ”Come on. You keep acting all weird around him. You two hung out and then he posted a cryptic ass tweet…. Please tell me this isn’t in our heads.”

Alana was quiet for a few minutes, taking her time to chew and swallow the bite of pancakes.

"Well?" Minty demanded as she poked at her bacon.

The brown-haired girl took a long sip of her milk, a deep breath and started her story. “Okay, so about a month ago, Alex showed up here after closing,” Lana began, her expression softening up as she remembered the tall, handsome young man leaning against the hood of his car with his arms crossed in front of his chest, waiting outside for her with the most irresistible smile on his face. “We’d been texting all through the summer, but between this and that we hadn’t had the chance to hang out like we do during school. So he tells me to put my bike in his trunk and get in the car, because he’s taking me out on a date. I try to tell him that I smell like beef and grease and we should take a rain check for when I actually look decent, but he tells me he doesn’t care about that, to quit being a chicken and that we should get going. So he opens the door for me, I get in the car and he drives me to to the park.”

“We’re just walking around, chatting while he takes pictures of me and everything else, until we get to the lake. We lay down on a blanket that he’d brought and talk some more, and by this point it was getting kind of chilly, so we’re scooting closer to each other and he gives me his jacket. At one point, we’re just quiet, listening to the sounds of the night and looking up at the stars. He tells me we should take a picture together, and I say yes. So I turn to look at him so he can tell me how he wants us to pose, but we end up just staring at each other instead. Our faces kept getting closer and closer until... we just kissed…” she trailed off, heart hammering inside her chest at the memory of her first kiss: Alex’s mouth on hers, the warmth of his breath, the minty taste of his lips, the way they wrapped up against each other with no care for the rest of the world…

“I, am...quaking.” Aramintah exclaimed tapping the table excitedly making her plate and utensils clatter. “So what does this mean?” she asked raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Are you like… together? Dating perhaps?” Minty continued.

“Nah…” Lana lamented, shaking her head with a sad smile. “We hadn’t really talked about what happened since that night.” It wasn't a complete lie. Although the nature of her texts with Alex had shifted towards more flirtatious territory, they hadn't put a label on whatever it was they had.

”I knew it! Eli exclaimed, nearly choking on his pancakes. ”Why haven’t you guys talked about it? Can I play matchmaker? No offense Lana, but Alex is better than drooling over Ricky.”

The shorter girl immediately glared at Elijah. "Hey, leave Ricky alone," she snapped between chewing her last bite of food. "He doesn't have anything to do with this."

"I know he doesn't. I just always do my damndest to keep what's best for you in mind, love. I'm Team Alex."

Minty, who had been quietly gazing at her phone as her friends talked, suddenly jumped. “Shit!” she hissed. “We’re late!” she rolled her eyes as she rummaged through her bag for her wallet. The taller girl threw money on their table before jumping up. “You guys owe me lunch!” she grinned, flipping her hair as she left the diner making sure to hug Miranda goodbye on her way out.

While rolling his eyes at his friends generosity, Eli had gotten used to it over the years. Chugging the last of his juice and waving bye to Miranda, the three of them rushed over to their bikes.

”Shit,” he said, reading a text from Aria. ”They’re skipping homeroom this year and going straight to the assembly. We gotta get there quick.” Unlocking his bike from the rack, he waited for his friends to get ready before he began to peddle off from the diner. ”Last one there is the biggest loser of all,” he shouted, beginning to peddle even faster.

“Oh like your scrawny legs could get you there faster than me?!” Minty screamed as she blew past Elijah veering off into an alleyway she knew to be a shortcut.

Instead of trying to outrace her friends, Alana merely laughed and shook her head, deciding to simply enjoy the ride. This was the second to last first day of school she would ever have, after all.

After a few minutes of urban bike riding Aramintah came to a halt in front of the bike parking at Rosefell High. Panting the girl squatted down locking her vehicle before waiting for her friends arms crossed over her chest with a smug smile plastered on her face. Once they were all present they linked their arms together, walked into the auditorium and took their seats, waiting excitedly for the start of their senior year.

[AlteredTundra]

_{Featuring Jenna, Mikey, Lance, and Ricky}

There was a sleepy stillness inside the Moore home in the early hours of the morning, interrupted only by the low humming of the fan blowing marijuana-scented air around the room. Under the galaxy-patterned covers of the full-sized bed, the silhouette of two bodies lying fast asleep could be made out. On the right side of the bed was a long-haired young woman, the dark brown locks all over her face rhythmically rising and falling with her breathing. The sound of an apartment door being unlocked, swinging open and shut closed made her eyes flutter, causing the girl to drift in and out of sleep until eventually transitioning to a wakeful state.

Like most nights of the week, Jenna Moore had been up late, taking advantage of her mother's absence by having a guest stay over. Every time she and Michael Rodriguez hung out together, the promise of a good time was guaranteed. The past night had been no exception. They'd smoked, listened to some music, and ended up tangled between the sheets. Clearly, the exercise had worn Mikey out, because even with Jen making the mattress creak with her actions, the young man was still fast asleep.

“Hey M, wake up,” she whispered in his ear, taking a moment to coax him awake with soft kisses that trailed from his cheek and down to the nape of his neck. “We gotta get you out of here before my mom comes home.”

The only thing Mikey remembers before drifting off to sleep last night was enjoying some good marijuana with Jen, slipping two pills in his mouth and eventually slipping right inside of Jen-- in more ways than just one. It might’ve been a mistake, because he had fallen asleep in her bed-- which wouldn’t have been the first time, but still a mistake because her mother could walk in on them. Mikey had waited long enough to see Jen again after she had been closing down the pizzeria a lot lately, and every single time they did meet up, it was always a good time.

He felt a slight motion in the bed beside him as it caused him to stir, as well. A groan came from him as he adjusted his positioning slightly but then heard Jen’s voice echoed through his ear and felt her lips along the nape of his neck, which sent shivers down his spine and made him turn to face her. His words did not register at first but when they did, he immediately sat up with widened eyes.

❝I thought you were trying to go for a morning round.❞ Mikey spoke softly as he leaned in and kissed Jen’s lips while his hand slithered up her leg to her thigh, where he would gently claw. ❝How long do we have?❞ He asked while his kisses went from her lips to her neck along with a few bites.

She didn't even bother with a verbal response. Instead, she threw herself into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Mikey's lean figure and pulling their bodies closer together. After more than two years since the start of their agreement, it was clear that the raven-haired man knew all the right ways to shift her attention from one thing to another. Whatever intentions Jenna had to let her friend get dressed and usher him out the door vanished the second their lips met, followed by the fucks given about being caught. Right now, all the young woman wanted was to lose herself to the moment and savor Mikey all over her: his hands, his lips, his-

"Jenna?"

A raspy voice was calling out from outside JK's locked bedroom door, followed by a few loud knocks, the rattling of the doorknob in failed attempts to get inside, and some more knocking. "Jenna? You in here, girl?"

"Shit!" Jenna hissed, pulling away from Mikey and panickedly motioning for him to hide inside her closet. "Yeah!" she called out to her mother while hurriedly pulling on her clothes and rushing to the door.

When Jenna pulled their bodies closer together, he pressed a hand on the small of her back, deepening the kiss in the process. Mikey rolled so that he’s on top of Jenna now, his free hand still clawing along her thigh. He was just about to slip Jenna a little something, something - Well, a big something, something inside again until he heard a voice call from right outside their door. That caused him to seize the kissing, seize everything then go into full panic mode right there along with Jenna.

❝Fuck.❞ He muttered as he scrambled to slip out of the bed and landed on the floor with a thud. ❝Damn.❞ He whispered as his feet ran dainty across the floor so that not too much noise was made and his now half-naked body ran across the room and went inside of Jenna’s closet. There, he sighed heavily and ran his hand over his hair while also clutching a few strands. ‘That was a close one.’ Mikey thought to himself as he couldn’t help but take a peek from her closet to see what was about to transpire.

Once she was sure her unauthorized guest was nestled safely inside her closet, Jenna put up her best poker face, unlocked the door and cracked it open. "Good morning, Mother."

"Morning…" came Karen Moore's raspy reply, suspiciously looking over her daughter's shoulder. "Any particular reason as to why your door was locked, Jenny?" she asked her, carefully scanning the young woman's room with tired, yet sharp green eyes.

"Because I felt like it…? Can't I just have some fucking privacy without having to explain myself? Jesus Christ…" Jenna answered, scoffing and rolling her eyes.

Mikey watched awkwardly in the closet as her mother eyed the room, sort of checking the premises. Maybe it was because of his body thudding against the floor. It was totally his fault that her mother would be suspicious.

Karen's glare shifted from the untidy bedroom and onto Jenna. "Watch it," she growled, pointing a finger at the girl. "Anyway, it's the first day of school, in case you forgot. Do me a favor, will ya? Get your ass ready and not be late. Don't give those dickheads any reason to mess up my sleep and call me down there on the first day for some stupid bullshit like that. Got it?"

‘Oh, fuck!’ He thought to himself, totally forgetting that it was the first day of school today. Well, at least he and Jenna had one last hurrah before then and he gets to see his boys once again. Not that he hasn’t seen them or had more fun times with Jenna but now, it was all about to be like the old times again.

"Loud and clear," Jen said unenthusiastically with a sigh. "Let me go get ready now." She was about to shut the door again when Karen's foot acted as a stopper, preventing JK from shutting the door. "What?!" she hissed in annoyance, glaring at her mother.

"Next time you want to sneak a guy in here and lie to my fucking face about it, make sure to cover your tracks up better. I have a clear view of his clothes from here," the older woman drawled, nodding in the direction of the pile of men's clothing garments on the side of the bed closest to the door. With one last knowing smirk, Karen winked at her daughter and walked away.

The next words Mikey heard was directed toward him, which made him facepalm himself. He had forgotten that he had taken off his pieces of clothing on the wrong side of the bed. ‘Fuck,’ He thought as he really wanted to punch a wall right now but kept himself contained for the time being.

It was then when silence fell over the room and Mikey froze in place. On the other side of the equation, the stunned Jenna stood just as motionless on the spot as he was. trying to process what had just happened. But when she finally did, she quickly closed and locked her bedroom door again and hurried over to the closet.

"Oh my God…" she muttered, swinging the closet doors open and exposing Mikey. "She fucking knows, man! She fucking caught us!" she repeated, pressing her lips together to fight back the urge to erupt with laughter.

His heart thumped against his chest as it was Jenna swinging the closet doors opened. The look on Jenna’s face made him raise a brow because she didn't look mad or upset, but actually finding the whole thing funny. A little laugh escaped over Mikey’s lips as he walked out of the closet and aside Jenna. ❝Never thought that I’d come out of the closet.❞ Mikey joked as he walked over to sit on the edge of Jenna’s bed after picking up his clothes.

❝So, your mom seems cool.❞ He said with a nod of his head and a laugh as he started to get dressed, as well.

"I guess…" JK shrugged as she rummaged through her closet for an outfit to wear. She quickly settled for a pair of jean shorts, a blue, black and white tie-dyed Harley Davidson T-shirt and her trusty Adidas sneakers. "We don't really talk much, but I like it better this way. Less time for her to be all over my business."

❝Are we picking up the rest of the boys before school?❞ Mikey inquired as he stood up to buckle and zip up his pants but paused, his muscles flexing a little bit.

"Yeah. That's what I texted Lance and Ricky yesterday," she told him, looking around for the backpack she’d tossed somewhere on the last day of junior year nearly three months ago.

❝Or do we have time for a morning quickie?❞ Mikey smirked with his pants unbuckled and unzipped still.

Jenna didn't even bother to verbally reply. Instead, she merely smiled, hooked her thumbs on the belt loops of Mikey's jeans, pulled him on top of her and locked her lips with his.

---

---

Half an hour later, the two friends were fully dressed, out of the house and pulling up to the curve of Paulie’s Pizzeria to make their first pickup of the day.

As him and Jenna were driving down the road, the scenery looked all too familiar. Why were they driving towards Paulie’s Pizzeria? It was a question that he wouldn’t dare ask out loud especially with Jenna around. For now, he just enjoyed the drive as they going to retrieve the rest of the South Central Saints members.

As soon as Lance heard the tires crunch the loose gravel of the pizzeria’s parking lot, he glanced up slightly to see who it was that was coming to the closed establishment. Not that he really needed to check, it was just something ingrained in his mind.

“Hey,” he waved lightly, doing a double take at seeing Mikey in the front seat with her. He made sure to keep his right side down and shadowed. The last thing he needed right now was Jenna screeching at him and fussing over his newest battle wound. Besides, the swelling had gone down and he didn’t think it was that bad - not like some of the others he’s received. But that's beside the point.

A large grin spread across his features as he shuffled his large frame into the backseat behind Mikey’s chair, opting to make sure he digs his legs into the fabric to nudge his friend. “Ah, so you go pick up this fucking loser first before me, JK?! How could you,” Lance joked, a laugh on his lips.

“Move your idiot ass down a few houses from me and maybe I’ll consider it,” she quickly quipped back, grinning and shifting in her seat so she could playfully smack Lance but when she saw the bruise on his face, her grin was instantly wiped from her face. “Holy shit, man. What the fuck happened to you?!”

❝Loser?❞ Mikey turned around to face Lance, who was in the backseat, with a smirk as he noticed the shiner on his face. Before he could say anything, Jenna was the first to speak about it. He was pissed, to be honest, and had a hell of a way of showing it.

The look that flashed across his face nearly mirrored the look on hers. “Nothing, jeez. I took a bad fall last night. No big deal.” He was trying to focus on the moving scenery outside the window, hoping that his answer would satiate the driver’s worry.

Jenna immediately scoffed. “A bad fall?” she repeated, glaring at her friend. “You’re so full of shit, Lance! A bad fall? Please. A bad fall on your dad’s fist, you mean! Don’t fucking lie to me!”

Mikey eyed Lance in the mirror as he started to speak towards him. ❝Yeah, dude. You can tell us anything. You know that.❞ He muttered in an unusual tone of voice for him.

This is the exact reason he was hoping to skate by without anyone noticing. Specifically her. “Look, guys, it’s nothing alright?” He took a pause to sigh, Lance knew it was a stretch to get her to drop anything. But maybe, just maybe she’d leave it alone this time. “Just drop it, okay?”

The last thing Jenna wanted to do was drop the subject. It wasn’t the first time Lance had shown up with a few shiners on his body. But with one look from Michael, the girl let out an annoyed sigh, shot Lance one last glare before turning back around to drive them to Ricky’s house.

Lance hated the feeling of pushing everyone away, he knew she was only trying to help - in that very JK Moore way of hers - but he didn’t want to involve everyone in his issues. They all had their own, no sense in dumping his on top of it. He opted to stare at his once pristinely white high tops, chiming in on the conversation every other beat.

It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other over the summer. In fact, he doubts they all went longer than a week without some sort of visual contact from any of the members of the Saints. It’s just now, the majority of the members were going to be confined within school walls. Safe to say that Rosefell isn’t gonna experience any kind of peace for the rest of the school year.

Mikey pretty much kept quiet about everything as they drove toward Ricky’s house. It was clear that Lance didn’t want to talk about it despite Jenna wanting to talk it about. Mikey was just enjoying the ride, to be honest and didn’t really want any part of it. Lance’s father was going to get his one day and it was going to happen whenever he least expected it. That thought made him chuckle lowly, which ended with him smirking just as they pulled up to Ricky’s home.

Ricky came out with his bag over his right shoulder, wearing his usual getup of a black leather jacket, white T, blue jeans, and worn out, lost-their-color sneakers. He was exhausted, restless, and having slept like shit, in a pissy mood. So naturally, when he saw that Mikey had assumed ownership of the front seat, he rolled his eyes in a response that was reflective over his too-early-for-this-shit annoyance.

He reared around Jenna’s yellow civic. “Move your seat up so I can get in!” He demanded with an attitude.

"Watch it, asshole!" Jenna snapped, shopping Ricky a nasty glare before turning to the other boys. "Lance, go ahead and slide over to this side so Mikey can move his seat and let the princess get in."

“Well you’re a positive ray of bitchshine today.” Ricky rolled his eyes, walking in front of Jenna’s car, flipping her off with a smirk and looked at her through the passenger window. He alternated his gaze between Mikey and Jenna, sensing something in the air but had very interest in exactly what. “You heard her. Move it on up, Mr. Jefferson~” Ricky hand gestured towards Mikey.

Mikey rolled his eyes upward at the display of Ricky. Same shit, different day with him as he eyed him right after his hand gesture. ❝Should make his ass walk. He muttered towards Jenna as he adjusted his seat to move up to allow Ricky to get inside. Once he did, Mikey pulled his seat back and tried his best not to crush Ricky’s knees or legs. ❝Comfortable, asshole?❞ That was directed towards Ricky, obviously and no one else.

Lance rolled his eyes as he tried to shimmy his way to the seat behind the driver. “It’s even more cramped on this side,” he grumbled out loud. Not to mention now Ricky had a clear view of his newest facial addition and figured he wasn’t going to hear the end of it anytime soon between the constant glares from Jen and then Ricky’s generous offers to kick in his dad’s teeth.

Ricky looked at Mikey’s expression through the mirror and kneed the back of the seat as he smirked. “Perfectly so.”

❝Watch it!❞ Mikey spat as he turned towards Ricky, who knead the back of his seat. With an eye roll, he turned to face forward now, still sitting in silence.

As Ricky settled in as comfortably as he could, he was forced to sit up-right, knees practically pressing his bag against his torso, he happened upon Lance’s face. The only person who had any sense and he was the one with the big old shiner. “Jesus, Lance!” Ricky exclaimed, genuine shock covering his face as his steel eyes fixated on the bruising around one of Lance’s. “Who the fuck did you piss off?” He asked.

Heaving out another long and heavy sigh, carding his long fingers through his hair he decided to give them what they wanted. The truth. “Alright, fine. Since you aren't gonna let me live in peace,” he added a chuckle to the end to try and make light of the whole situation, “I got in a fight with the old man. Nothing new guys. Caught me off guard is all.”

Lance had to pause a moment to flash them a well-practiced grin, all cock-eyed and sloppy - a signature, “Besides, I got a good few licks in myself.” He lied, hoping that with a good bit of truth, this little lie would fly under their radar.

This was something that resonated with Ricky. It was his life until almost a decade ago. His old man beat on him too. Despite it being nearly ten years ago, the mental scars were still fresh and hearing Lance speak about him made Ricky angry. It boiled his blood to the point where his fists tightened and teeth gritted. “I hope you got him good,” Ricky commented. He took in a deep breath, trying to calm down. He reached into the side pocket of his bag and took out an oxy and popped it into his mouth rather swiftly. “Scum like that deserves every bit of punishment coming their way.”

Lance gave a slight nod in acknowledgment. He didn’t know the whole story with Ricky’s past - he doubted anyone truly knew it all, but he knew enough. And he knew that Rick would do anything to help him out if he would just give the word. Because of that, Lance had no intentions of leaving the Saints - not with someone as loyal of a friend as him.

“Got any more?” He gestured to Ricky’s pocket, hoping he did and knowing him well enough that he did. Lance needed all the help he could get to just survive the day. Especially with his face and ribs screaming at him the way they were.

Ricky smiled and nodded at Lance as he reached into his bag and pulled out two oxy pills. “There you are. These oughta numb some of that pain.” Ricky handed him the pills.

Jenna had watched and listened to the two boys' exchange in silence, her knuckles white with the intensity of her grip on the steering wheel. Although she was satisfied to hear Lance finally being honest about what had happened, the fact that he'd lied to her face and only confessed to Ricky irritated her just a little too much. With how close they'd gotten ever since she started working at Paulie's and their 'arrangement' had started, JK had figured that she'd proven herself to be trustworthy. But judging from the bruised boy's actions, she hadn't been even remotely close to the truth.

Lost as she was in her thoughts, it didn't register with Jen that they had arrived at school until she realized she had already occupied one of Rosefell's empty parking spaces. When it did, she gave each of the boys a piercing look.

"Alright, cunts: we're here," Jenna announced, killing the engine, getting her keys and exiting the vehicle. "You guys ready to tackle this year?" she asked them as she moved her seat to allow Lance to exit the car.

Climbing out of the awkward position he was in for the better part of 10 minutes, Lance got out of the car and began stretching, popping his arms and neck in the process, “Gonna make this year our bitch.”

As Ricky and Lance exchanged conversation in the backseat, Mikey stared out the window to enjoy the scenery that they passed to get to school. Sure, it wasn’t much to look at but at the same time, it did give him some to think about what this school year was going to bring and all sorts of things.

When Jenna announced that they had arrived at the school, he snapped back to reality really quickly. His eyes peered out of the window to stare at the school. ‘Same piece of shit, just a new year.’ Nothing new about the building. Mikey purposely took his time to get out of the vehicle, in order to annoy the fuck out of Ricky, which made him smirk slyly.

❝Let’s make this year and all these people our bitch, indeed!❞ Mikey added to what Lance had said before he turned to face Ricky, who was finally getting out of the vehicle.

Right as Mikey took his sweet ass time getting out, Ricky pushed past him, not letting the boy breathe. “Jesus Christ, Mike. You move slower than my 2-AM shit,” he complained, stretching every inch of his body from arms to legs. “Yeah, this is much better!” He unleashed every tense feeling in his joints, all of them cracking and making the brown-haired boy let out a loud sigh of relief. “As long as a certain annoying nosey little bitch doesn’t make trouble for me this year, I’ll be good.”

As the other Saints knew, Ricky had a very high-key dislike for that Jordan guy. Always sticking his nose into everyone’s businesses. Ricky had checked Twitter earlier and seeing him under the Rosefell High hashtag wasn’t something he needed to see this morning. That was what put him in a sour mood and if he went never starting now without seeing Jordan, Ricky would die a happy man.

Mikey shook his head at Ricky, who made a comment about how slowly he had gotten out of the car. He chuckled a little at his words then walked over to stand in between Jenna and Lance, wrapping his arms around them with another smirk.
❝So, are we going to this assembly or skipping it?❞ Mikey questioned, which was also loud enough for Ricky to hear him, too.

“I vote for attending,” Ricky sluggishly admitted with a shrug. “We don’t want to start the year off with Henderson on our asses. Plus, Coach will kill me during practice, I just know it.” Ricky sighed, already knowing coach was looking for any reason to punish Ricky during practice.

“Same,” Lance agreed with Mikey’s arm slung over his and Jen’s shoulders. He glanced around the thinning the quad as the masses shuffled to the auditorium. He was comforted being her at the campus surrounded by his friends. It was relaxing. Or maybe it was just the oxy kicking in. Either way, it seemed like it was gonna be a chill day.

"I guess we know where we're going, then," said the dark-haired girl, wrapping her own arm against Michael's torso. "Now let's go in before they come after us."

[NeoAJ]

_{A collab featuring @ayzrules and @MissCapnCrunch}

It was a familiar sight. As her fellow cheerleaders gathered in the south entrance of Ohio Stadium, Melissa Elliott felt the tingle of anticipation. It wasn’t a foreign feeling, but it still held the same kind of charge that she remembered. However, she wasn’t prepared for CJ Stroud walking right up to her as she stood in the tunnel. “Hey,” he said confidently. “I know this is a big deal, but you’ve got this. I know you’ve got this. So, get out there and be the best dot you can be, Melissa.” The quarterback punctuated this believe with a peck on the lips of the cheerleader before heading back to the Buckeyes’ sideline, lest Coach Day chew him out for being where he shouldn’t be.

Rejuvenated from the affection, Melissa readied herself against the 100,000 fans that were sure to be out there for what had to be a pivotal early-season game against Bowling Green. She turned back to the rest of her squad. “All right, we got this, you know?” she questioned the rest of her team. “We’re gonna go out there and give the show that we know those Buckeye faithful deserve! You hear me?” A loud cheer rose up behind her. “Damn straight! Let’s do this!” As Melissa led the rest of the Ohio State cheer squad out to the field, she was suddenly tackled from the side! It had to be a rogue Falcon aiming to take her out of the picture! But she wouldn’t allow it! At least, until she heard the remarks accompanying the take down.

“Melissa! Wake up! It’s like 7! You’re my drive!”

After a brief moment admitting that her sister could indeed hit people as well as any linebacker the Mid-American Conference had to offer, Melissa was annoyed at being snapped out of her usual stellar dream. A dream that was sure to be a reality soon enough. But Zoey had a point. Those realities had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was today. The first day of the last year of high school.

It was an important day. Enough that Melissa had taken no chances and laid out her outfit the night before. A pair of denim shorts that would be sure to highlight her well-toned legs, hidden behind some Buckeye-silver leggings, as well as a scarlet-red tank top and a matching bow for her pulled back hair. Melissa added a silver zip-up sweatshirt, just in case the wind decided to make itself known, but it was likely going to be just for the morning to keep the chill off.

Luckily for Melissa, Zoey’s early entrance surely meant that she wasn’t going to require the bathroom for a lengthy duration of time. After a shower and a detailed trip to the mirror, Melissa headed downstairs to the kitchen-living room that made up the first floor of the duplex she called home.

“Hey hun,” Jessica Elliott called out to her eldest daughter. “I’m sorry I don’t really have breakfast ready. Got called to the store. That damn Valerie didn’t show up for her shift.”

“It’s all right, mom,” Melissa assured her mother. “Take it out on Valerie. Hell, fire her. She deserves it. That’s what, the third time she’s deserted?”

“Fourth,” Jessica answered. “Let’s see which family member died this time…” The elder Elliott shook her head. “Are you good to drive your sister to school?”

“Yeah, I’ll get her there,” Melissa confirmed. ”You good to ride, Z?”

Zoey nodded from the living room, where a Netflix episode of She-Ra blared.

All Melissa could do was shake her head. Her sister had some strange tendencies that would instantly disqualify her from mainstream popularity. But she was an Elliott, and damn it, Melissa would drag her to the crown like Zeke Elliott dragging that 2014 Ohio State championship team. “All right, we might as well head out now then. You ready, Zoey?” A quick nod from her sister confirmed that this show was going to hit the road shortly.

“Great. Have a good day at school, girls!” Jessica called out as she herself headed out towards the door.

The Elliott sisters weren’t far after their mother. Again, Melissa was way too ready for this final first day at Rosefell, and she was going to make sure everything went as it should, right down to the length of the lead in her mechanical pencils. There was gas in her car, there was money in her purse for lunch. Everything was as it should be. And her sister was not going to ruin this day for Melissa. No, ma’am. Pulling her sibling away from the TV, Melissa quickly shepherded Zoey into the backseat of the 2011 sedan and got ready to assemble the rest of the thorns.

After a short drive, Melissa pulled her Sentra into the driveway where her second-in-command was supposed to be waiting. She turned around to talk to Zoe. “All right, Steph should be out pretty quickly.”

Zoe slumped back in the seat. “Can we at least get Taco Bell or something for breakfast?”

Melissa looked at her incredulously. “Do you want diarrhea on the first day of school? Damn it Zoe, that’s a supper place. At least ask for McDonald’s or something…” Melissa thought for a second. “Actually, an Egg McMuffin sounds good. We might do that.”

Steph was nowhere to be seen, so Melissa grabbed her phone out of the console and shot a quick text to her best friend:

Hey Pink Lightning! Where you at? I got a hungry sister to feed here!

Once she got Melissa’s text, Steph was jumping out of her seat at the kitchen table, headed for the door. Steph had a car - well, technically, she shared it with her brother Kevin - but it was a janky, ratchet-as-can-be mom van that was older than she was. Needless to say, they took Melissa’s car anytime they had to go somewhere.

Steph paused at the threshold to slip on a pair of pink boots, decorated with a cute floral design (Steph thought that they were cherry blossoms), before bounding out the door. Sure enough, Melissa was pulled into her driveway, and Steph gave her friend a cheery wave as she pulled open the door to the passenger seat.

“Hey, Melissa!” Steph paused to buckle her seatbelt, and then she turned around and waved at Zoey, too. “Hi Zoey!”

Steph put her backpack on the ground and settled back into her seat. “Have you seen your schedule yet? We should compare. I don’t know if we’ll have any classes together - ugh, it sucks - but maybe we will! That would honestly be the best thing, like, ever!

True to Steph nature, she was going a mile a minute the second she got into the car. If scientists could harness the speed of which the girl could talk, it would end the energy crisis, and ensure the south side never had a blackout ever. Sadly, it just served as an excellent wake up call for now. "Nice to see you too, Steph," Melissa offered in response. "I haven't seen it yet, but I don't have to, because I am certain we are in a good number of classes together. Especially if certain people know what is good for them." Melissa slowly pulled out of the driveway and started motoring towards the next destination to pick up the other member of the Thorns.

Steph giggled at Melissa’s response - it really was such a Melissa thing to say - and pulled up her own schedule on her phone. “Highkey, I don’t want to go to any of these classes,” Steph said, frowning. “Besides lunch. Does lunch count as a class? It should, so that we could get more time for it. Thirty minutes really isn’t enough of a break from school. Ugh.”

As Melissa started in the direction of Tiffany’s house, Steph tapped open the text message that Tiff sent the group chat.

MY DAY IS RUINED! 😭 I CAN'T STAND IT!!!

She quickly replied:

oh nooooooooo!!! :( What happened???????

"To be fair…," Melissa offered. "We do have the option of taking longer breaks if needed, especially if English is the class surrounding lunch. Honestly, who needs English? I already speak it and I don't need to read Shakespeare's fractured take on femininity any more, thanks." She glanced over as she pulled back onto the main road toward Tiff's place. "What's going on there?"

Steph nodded in agreement. “For real! We’ve been reading this jerk since, like, sixth grade! There’s literally no reason we should still have to read his stuff. It’s also sooooo confusing to try to understand!” she said, making a vague gesture with her free hand. “Like, if we’re going to be forced to read boring stuff, I think we should at least be forced to read boring stuff that wasn’t written in medieval English.”

At Melissa’s question, Steph furrowed her brow and looked back down at her phone. “Tiff said that her day was already ruined! I wonder what happened.”

"Probably stared too long at the orange juice again and got a headache," Melissa remarked. "It's hard to tell with that girl sometimes. But, I love her. Love her like a puppy." The girls lived relatively close together so it didn't take too long for them to reach Tiffany's home. "Anyway, it can't be too bad."

Steph laughed softly. “I guess that’s true,” she answered. “And I hope it isn’t! That would suck, having something super bad happen right before the first day of school!”

"Again, it can't be that bad," Melissa repeated as she pulled into the driveway. "Can you text her that we're here?"

“Sure!” Steph chirped in response, tapping out a quick hey tiff we’re here! and sending it to the group chat.

Meanwhile, at the Ashford residence, Tiffany had been reading through her dm’s and totally ignoring the text messages she had received from her girls. She knew they had responded but wanted to wait until they arrived so she could really spill the dramatics up close and personal. After she received the “we’re here” text she gathered her belongings and came out the door, a mischievous albeit dorky smile plastered across her face.

"SO!" she said as she flung up the door to Melissa’s vehicle taking a look at who was inside, "My day was ruined because I spilled butter all over my skirt, as you can see my first day outfit was in shambles!" she explained as she crawled into the car, her backpack sitting carefully between her legs. "Good morning, by the way, thanks for the ride. she cooed, thankful she didn’t have to ride in with her mother and younger sister.

This was a new one on Melissa. “Tiff… how did you manage to spill butter on… actually, I’m not sure I want to know how that happened. Some things are best left unknown. Nice to see you, girl.” The queen put the Sentra back into drive and pulled out towards the penultimate destination. “Well, if you’re still hungry, we’re stopping at McDonald’s. You will have to try really hard to spill cheese on your jeans if you want something there.”

Steph waved a cheery greeting as Tiff made her entrance. “Tiff!” Steph giggled. “How did you spill butter? Isn’t it, like, solid?”

Steph twisted around in her seat so that she could see Tiffany’s face. “Oh gosh, but I love your hair,” she said sincerely. “I can never get curls to stay in my hair. It looks so pretty!”

Tiffany looked to her best friends, shaking her head a bit disappointed, "No, no, no it wasn’t the stick. My mom’s got this new fancy butter that is already soft and like melty." she made hand movements to symbolize a squishy item, "I put it on my poptart and it just kind of-" she blew a raspberry between her lips. She smiled as Steph complimented her hair, "Thank you so much Steph, you’re so sweet!" she beamed, knowing that the curls wouldn’t last the car ride most likely.

"I really shouldn’t eat cheese, but I also really want a hashbrown.." Tiffany mumbled to herself debating whether or not she should order breakfast with everyone after just eating.

“I want a McGriddle!” Zoey chimed in.

“No you don’t, Zoey. You don’t want to be eating sunscreen,” Melissa chided her younger sister. “I can say that you still look ready to rock this year, Tiff. Even without the skirt.”

Steph nodded sympathetically as she listened to Tiff recount the story. “Aww, that sucks, Tiff!” she exclaimed, knowing that she herself would have been very put off if she’d spilled butter onto her clothes, too. “But I agree with Melissa, you know. You look fab!!!”

Steph made a face when Zoey mentioned McGridldles. “I think I’m just going to get fries. Or a hash brown. You can never go wrong with those, right?”

“You girls are really going full Irish with all the potatoes, huh?” Melissa opined.

“I want breakfast burritos!” Zoey demanded.

“Fine,” Melissa sighed, resigned to getting Zoey something that was going to make a mess. “As long as you eat the burritos at the school. You’re not getting salsa all over my car.”

Tiffany laughed out loud as they discussed breakfast, it was nice to be back with these girls after not getting to spend as much time together over summer vacation. "I think this will be a really good year for us." she commented, hopefully. It was their senior year afterall and that meant that there was no going back after this. She wondered if they would remain friends after graduation was over. Could they all throw years of friendship away like that? She hoped that wasn’t the case.

“Well, of course!” Melissa agreed. “I mean, this is gonna be it, you know? After this, we’re out of Rosefell and into the world. We have to make sure we finish our careers as Knights with an absolute bang!”

“Oh, for sure! Steph agreed. “I can’t wait for cheer season to start, too! Do you guys remember Cami from middle school? Melissa, we definitely did gymnastics with her for a while! But anyway, I think I saw on Insta that she was back in Columbus.”

Steph frowned, slightly. “Was she that one girl who had the best front punches on the entire team, in eighth grade? I definitely don’t remember. But it’ll be so fun if she joins cheer!”

“Wait, Cami? Like, THE Cami?” Melissa nearly missed the turn-off for the promised land of Egg McMuffins. Cami was a fixture of the friend group before heading off to New York with her daddy. If she was back in the picture in Ohio, things were going to get a lot more interesting. “If she is in the Bus, we have to make sure she is on the cheer team. She would be such a perfect fit!”

The three of them continued to chat as Melissa pulled into the McDonald’s drive thru, and Steph handed over a five-dollar bill in exchange for a hash brown and fries, which she happily snacked on as they continued on their way to school. She still hadn’t finished the fries by the time that Melissa was steering her Sentra through the high school parking lot, so she discreetly tucked them into the outermost pocket of her backpack, praying that the ketchup wouldn’t spill everywhere.

“Do you think that they’re going to make us do that stupid back-to-school assembly that they did last year?” Steph wondered out loud as she got out of the car, slamming the door to the passenger seat as she did so. “God, I hate those things. They’re soooooooooooooooooooo boring. Like, jeez, we’re seniors! I’d think that we would know what was going on by now.”

“It’s Rosefell, Steph,” Melissa noted. “It wouldn’t be Rosefell if they didn’t do the same back-to-school bull that they do every year.” Sure enough, as the four girls piled out of the Sentra, the announcement came blaring over the PA that there was a mandatory assembly to be held in the auditorium. “See? I’m a freaking psychic.” The hustle was somewhat on as the ladies headed into the school, and for 75% of them, it would be the last time they had to hear what was sure to be a truly insipid speech.

[Sugar and Spite]

---

---

Mr. Henderson had been the Rosefell High principal for a little over twenty years now, and every year he insisted upon a stupid welcome back assembly. The only thing that kept him from organizing them when he was vice principal was that the current principal of the time refused to do them. While the assemblies were ill received, it was a decent way to keep the students in the loop about what was supposed to happen this year, and what decisions the administration had made over the summer.

As the assigned students finished adjusting the lights, Mr. Henderson, as well as some of the other administrators and teachers took the stage.

“Good morning, students,” the man yelled through the speaker. Pausing for a moment, he waited for a response from the student body. When that failed, he continued. “Welcome to the 2020 school year. Thank you for choosing Rosefell as your home for another year. First and foremost, your guidance counselors are Mr. Adams for the seniors and Mrs. Williams for the Juniors. If you have any problems, simply need to talk to someone, or need advice for college and careers, please report to the appropriate counselor.”

Straightening his tie as the counselors waved to the crowd, Mr. Henderson continued.

“We do, unfortunately, have some bad news again this year. Funding for the music and art classes have been cut drastically due to low funds and low interest. If you have one of these classes, you are required to bring any supplies that you need yourself. While we have managed to get new helmets for the football team, you guys will have to use the same old uniforms until we can find some more funding. Football, cheerleading, volleyball, and the track team will be holding tryouts this weekend.”

“As to better our students and prepare them for life as adults, we will be doing a mandatory Home Ec class for Juniors and Seniors this year. That’s why when we asked you to sign up for extracurriculars on your schedule, you were allowed one less. In this class, you’ll learn how to cook, clean, and write a resume among other things. We will also be introducing the Baby Project this year in the Home Ec classes due to not having a Child Development elective. If you would like to create a club, please fill out the club registration sheet found in the office. The administration will either approve or deny your idea within a weeks time. Clubs can be formed at any time of the school year.”

“With all of this being said, thank you for being here. You are all dismissed to your first class of the day.”

[Bee]

---

Gathering with the Knights of the Round Table in the bleachers, Samantha looked bored as ever. The only saving grace about this assembly was that she was next to some of her favorite people at Rosefell High. That little thing made this drag of an "event" much better than it had any perceivable right to be. It was the same fucking shtick every year. Something about budget cuts, because this school was somehow receiving LESS funding every year, and something about how money was being pumped into the football team even though they could barely break even on the season. Additionally, there was the same spiel about not getting trouble and all of that fun stuff. For the freshman, it was the first rodeo, but for seasoned veterans like Samantha and the rest of the Knights, it was a speech that was more than drilled into her head.

Samantha found the little mention of choosing Rosefell as their home for another year. It was utterly redundant, as it wasn't like most, if not all of the student population could afford to relocate and move out of their little suburb. Samantha's eyes were rolling into the back of her head, and she could damn well nearly see into the back of her cranium. Speaking of cranium, she also didn't understand why it was necessary for the football team to get new helmets in lieu of funding the arts and having equipment readily available for the arts. It wasn't like the new helmets was going to help them any further or protect them any better. Their brain (or whatever was in their cranium) was still going to be sloshing around in their skulls. Samantha couldn't have cared less about the football team, but god damn it if it wasn't unfair if the arts had to suffer to fund the football team. What good was the football team going to do?

To make this assembly a little worse, the information that they had a mandatory home-ec class was something that had come as a shock to Samantha. It made sense that there was a home-ec class, but to make everyone do it was weird. Samantha wasn't particularly interested in spending an hour or so every day learning skills that she already knew. Some people were in desperate need of a lesson or ninety, but Samantha? Samantha could take care of herself. She knew how to cook, clean, and write a resume. She could already see it being a blow-off class for her, probably figure out a way to sneak her phone in and text in the back of the classroom all day. The girl was far from interested in being told how to do things she already knew how to do.

"Are you serious..." Samantha groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose. It was meant for the people in her immediate area to hear, like Daze or Rich Brian. "That's the dumbest idea I've heard... shoving all of us in those classes? Where did they even find the money to hire all those teachers? Couldn't they use that money to... I don't know... provide supplies for those kids that need to bring their own? Bruh." Samantha shook her head, "I hope we're at least in the class together... I still don't know what your schedules are."

[Infinite Cosmos]

>>Bored out of his mind<<

His phone pinged several times. Probably from the Knights in their group chat. Making his way down from the top of the bleachers after his rather...unsavory...conversation with Sage, Rich idly glanced at his phone. The twins are running late, Sam is around the assembly somewhere, and Artie called himself Red Leader. That last comment elicited a audible chortle from Rich. Replying quickly before finding a row of seats that would have accommodated the rest of the Knights, Rich sent a message back into the group

- Red Leader? Fuck off Artie lol. But yeah, I got us all seats. Come and join us in this boring ass assembly. Henderson is going on about some class stuff. Football team has try outs next week. Should I finally try? -

Scanning around the mostly faceless crowd, Rich started noticing some familiar faces. The Thorns are coming in, the Knights are filtering in, Lana, Elijah, Minty, Aria from before. Looks like the Avengers were truly assembling the way people popped out of the woodwork. Daydreaming has taken over his attention span and his bored expression was one of epic proportions. Principle Henderson mentioned some budget cuts for different programs. Luckily, Rich isn't into any of those things. He just wants to make an grand exit to his last year of high school After all, everyone always says that high school was the best years of their lives. His previous three years were good, in an unspectacular way anyways. Rumors about all of his mates swirled and spun in and out of control. Nothing really involved him. Matter of fact, if he wasn't a Knight, one can say he would have led a pretty normal, if not boring, high school career.

Scooting closer to Daze and Sam, Rich replied, "I know, for real. Why do we need Home Ec. this early in our lives anyways? Its not like I have a baby on the way or anything like that. But yeah, the football team bit. I'm thinking about maybe trying out. I wonder how I would do. Nah, I wonder what my schedule is too. If I'm not in class with at least one of you all day, I'm gonna be big sad."
Blatantly taking out his phone, he flipped through the strings of messages he has. There was one person he wanted to contact through a quick message. JK Moore. Swiping up slightly, he opened up their message thread and sent her a quick text,

- J, is your shop open? I'm in need lol -

Plopping his phone back on his lap, he spoke in a more indoor-appropriate voice to Sam, Daze and whichever Knight was nearby "So, that party this weekend, who is bring the party favors? and who is all going? We need to kick the year off with bang bro" Turning to Min Jun, Rich said "And hyung, what was your count this summer? I think I might have you beat, or at least I'll catch up after the party..." Rich chuckled. Of course, he is exaggerating. He literally did fuck all this summer. His parents were harping on him to get his college applications in line. Going to THE Ohio State University was always a stretch, but Rich applied anyways. Maybe they need to fill their minority quota or something. He also applied to Ohio University, Loyola Chicago, and a couple of schools in Minnesota. He isn't going any further North than the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Its far too cold up there already.

[Hey Im Jordan]

Arthur Constantine & Juliet Park

---

Artie was a bit late, but he caught the majority of the speech coming from the principal. He almost didn’t attend, because the ceremony was so… samey, but he figured it best if he showed up — it might look weird if the student body was lacking a football star. To the surprise of no one, Artie was quiet and respectful of the principal’s speech while he shuffled into the auditorium. As soon as he found his friend group, Artie shifted through the other students and sat down next to them while listening to Henderson finish up his yearly thing.

Once Henderson finished, though, Artie was on to the business at hand, or at least the business that his friends had brought up, starting first with the home ec class. “Home-ec is important, you can always learn something new. Luckily, we’ll probably all be in the class together, so don’t worry about that — it’s mandatory, so I feel pretty confident saying that everyone in this year’s ‘welcome to hell’ ceremony is going to be there, together.” He didn’t get what the big deal was. Home-ec was cool. Maybe they’d learn some actual useful skills, like how to do taxes, or something. Even if they didn’t, the whole baby project was cool, too. Artie would be good at that by default — thanks, younger siblings and barely present parents.

“You can try out for football if you want, Rich. It’d be cool to have some more people from my lil squad on the team. Totally unrelated, but we should probably try to hang out more… it’s senior year for a lot of us, and graduating high school usually means fucking off from your hometown, so who knows where we’ll all end up, right? Probably best to keep it tight for now.”

There was a reason Artie was the de facto leader of the Knights of the Round Table, and it wasn’t just his name. Being King Arthur was a lot more than just a title! He had to be the one to make sure they stuck together, and ‘kept it tight,’ as he liked to say. It wasn’t easy; with this many people, schedules were often different. “I’m thinking like, a weekly get together or something. Maybe a movie night —” When Artie mentioned a movie night, Juliet perked up. “—maybe a video game night.” Annnd, Juliet was disinterested again. “Something like that. Maybe board games, but no Monopoly. Goal is to keep it tight, not break it apart.”

Finally, Arthur had to talk about the party, and the party favors Rich had brought up. “We all have to go to the party. Parties are a big deal around these parts — mostly because nobody has anything better to do. As for party favors, I dunno. Isn’t that usually like, the host’s job?”

At the mention of a party, Jules had to stop herself from physically retching. Parties weren’t exactly her style, they better fit her sister, or Min Jun, or Rich. Even Artie and Sam… but Juliet? Definitely not for her. A quiet night at home watching movies or, mostly anything else, sounded vastly superior. Unfortunately for Jules? She’d have to go regardless, because her friends wanted her to — and everyone in the world seemed to have this weird pack mentality. If she didn’t go, it would be bad for her image, or something like that. “What if I just… ya know… didn’t go?” She suggested earnestly, looking at Arthur expectantly.

“Nope. Ya gotta go. Look, how many times can one person watch Lilo & Stitch, anyway? Parties are fun, Jules.”

“A lot of times. Hmph.” Juliet had half a mind to curse Artie out in Korean, but unfortunately for here, too many people here would understand her. “Alright, alright, fine. Party it is. But I’m not staying out too late.” That last part was directed at her sister.

“Sweet. Yo, in other news, I gave Joey P a ride to school today… That dude’s real fucking weird.”

And Juliet was once again glaring at her twin.

[Hellion]

The initial anticipation of the announcements began to slowly waver as Principle Henderson lowkey gut-punched many of the art students with his “budget cut” statement. Alex shouldn’t have been all that surprised considering the underfunding that has hit Rosefell long before he ever attended, but it still didn’t lessen the blow. Also unsurprisingly, the football team seemed to be -more or less- unaffected. Not that it mattered really.

He sulked at the news, nevertheless, as he continued to monitor the video camera that pointed toward the stage, making sure it didn’t accidentally becoming disconnected from its power supply. Boy, now that would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Honestly, no one would care, because the recording would simply be put into archive status, and most likely never see the light of day. Henderson liked to document school events as though it were his own family being captured, however, rarely did a lot of it end up anywhere but the cutting room floor, or just simply lost to history. Maybe centuries from now, some group of archaeologists would find the still images and video footage, and wonder what the hell kind of society they may have missed. Or, at the very least, get a laugh before setting fire to the entire collection.

The mention of “Home Ec” and the “Baby Project” classes, followed by the resounding moans and chuckles from the crowd, brought Alex back from the momentary reverie, as he too shook his head at what this year had to look forward to.

“Cooking and daycare...” He mumbled to himself as Henderson wrapped up the speech and students were dismissed to their first class.

Quickly and efficiently, the camera equipment and cables were broken down and packed away in the hard plastic case that had seen better days, and waiting a bit for the crowds to clear the stairway, he surveyed the auditorium for Lana. They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk face-to-face since that night they kissed. It seemed the fates decided to keep them apart as much as possible for the remainder of the summer break, but hopefully they have a chance to this year. As the students began to disperse, however, he didn’t notice Lana anywhere. Most likely she and her “breakfast club” of friends rolled in late to the assembly and under the radar. Either way, he wanted to see her.

Alex made his way toward the back stage and packed the video equipment in its designated storage locker, looking around for Henderson in hopes he didn’t have to get sucked into another long-winded conversation before he had a chance to dip out for his first class.

Algebra 2. He absolutely hated math, yet was still decent enough at it that most work took him no time at all to complete. But Alex wasn’t a numbers guy at heart, as his right-brained thinking kept him daydreaming of creative endeavors and far away places, beyond the constraints of academics.

Still, he wondered who might be in his first period class...

[twannyman]

Hendrik Bakker

Hendrik was seated in between two random people, for him atleast, but that was no suprise having transfered in just this year. That would mean this was his actual first day at school, although Hendrik would no show that. During the announcment Hendrik slowly lost interest, the speaker was horribly boring to listen to. Getting to learn that art classes would lose funding didn't really hit him, the forced home ed classes did however. Hendrik already knew how to do chores, cook and more. Atleast it would be a good way to show off his skills.

As Hendrik was looking around he would just smile or nod towards people whom he locked eyes with. Perhaps checking out the more "jocky" types to see what his competition at any sports would look like. Hendrik would make some mental notes on people, things like: "That girls looks kinda cute, and that dude looks like an ass." During the rest of the presentation zoning out would be everything Hendrik would be doing. He made sure he knew the face of his counciller, if that would ever become neccessary.

At the end when finally the boring Mr. Henderson would stop, Hendrik would leave towards his very first lesson which just happens to be biology, one of the subjects he enjoyed. Hendrik found the body very interesting, or atleast knowing how it would work, what a certain influx of substance would to, and what effects that would have.

Hendrik would not really take the time to introduce himself unless specifically asked to do so. And since that did not happen he would just go sit at a certain chair in the middle at the window.

[Sugar and Spite]

_Outfit
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

"Born and raised right her in Columbus," Aria responded to Cami. "Funny," she began, her eyebrows pinching together in thought. "I wonder if we ever had any classes together when we were small? Surely I would have remembered someone like you."

It would be at that precise moment that the timer she had set for the assembly went off on her phone. With a roll of her eyes, Aria stood up from the table, grabbing her empty Taco Bell bag and slinging her book bag over her right shoulder.

"I'd be more than happy to finish this conversation later," she stated. "As a matter of fact, I'm hosting a lake party with a friend of mine Friday. You're invited. I'm sure Lud can give you the directions." Aria pointed to Ludvig in a manner that suggested she was only joking about her seriousness. "And you need to help me pick out my outfit for said party. I'll catch up with you guys later!"

With the picture of Camila burned into her mind in the best of ways, Aria tossed her food wrappers into the trash before making her way to the auditorium. Being one of the last to arrive, she didn't get the best seating, so she ended up having to squeeze in between some of the loud jocks and the acne covered nerds. Said loud jocks kept wanting to mess with said nerds, causing her to miss almost half of what Mr. Henderson said. What she did hear, she wasn't happy with. Funding for the arts yet again? Oh, but you managed to get the football players new helmets and buy electronic dolls for a shit ton of students? Right. Keep lying, old man.

With the assembly over, Aria was relieved to get out of the jock vs. nerd situation. While she was considered to be one of the jocks, she had never really been one to engage in anti-nerd activities.

Pulling up a picture that she had taken earlier of her schedule, Aria seen that her first class was Honors Biology. Meandering through the lines out of the auditorium, Aria headed down the hall to class.

[KZOMBI3]

_{Outfit of the day Daze right}

_{Mentions of Sam, Rich, Artie, Jordan, Jules, Joey}

---

---

Daze was, for a lack of a better word, in a daze during the entirety of the useless assembly. Simmering with the knowledge that everyone else was being placed on the back burner, yet again, in favor of the football team. Which, let's face it, good looking men - not the most skilled. At least she was sitting with her friends and fellow Round Table members, otherwise she would have thrown a right old fit there in the bleachers. Most definitely embarrassing her twin in the process. 'Not a bad idea though...'

As the assembly of RoseHell High came to an end and others were shuffling around, Sam and Rich began delving into conversations; expecting her to chime in with her opinions. "I mean, yrah, I think it's fucking lame that the arts program is getting fucked while football reigns supreme - sorry Artie," she turned around behind her on the bleachers to place a hand on his knee, "But Red here isn't wrong about the home ec stuff either... some people clearly need it," Daze was not shy in hiding her pointed glares at the school's resident little rat as he walked by chatting it up with his potential victims friends.

Daze shot Sam a look that spoke volumes when Artie started talking about making get togethers a weekly thing; mainly because he mentioned a game night, all in the hopes of keeping it "tight". Daze couldn't help but smirk and shake her head. Daze wanted nothing more than to kick it with the most important people in her life and they did, over the summer. It was definitely going to be a little harder now that the school year was kicking off. Especially with all these new mandatory classes and sports teams demanding everyone's attention.

"What the fuck did I do?!" Daze responded incredulously at her sister's accusation. "Wha? Psht OK. So it was one, two - OK a few times," she caved under her twin's gaze, "Where you wanted to go home and I kept you out longer. But you were royally compensated with forcing me to endure awful, awful Disney sugary concoctions every 10 fucking minutes when we went." The pain in her face and tone should have spoke volumes to those around them. It was an awful time - but maybe not as bad as Daze made it out to be. Yes, they had a blast, but Jules did pay her back by requiring them to try all the desserts they could at every shop from every park. To say it made her sick was an understatement.

Daze swore off sweet for 3 months after that!

When their fearless Red Knight of a leader mentioned Joey, whatever sickness in Daisie's stomach vanished and was replaced by something a little different. "He's not weird," it was like her mouth was working on autopilot at this point, "Just, different s'all." She trailed off, grabbing her shit and started walking down the bleachers and out towards the hall of lockers, desperately trying to get outta the situation of talking about her ex.

"How 'bout those schedules, hmm? Cause I'm with Rich - if I don't have classes with you fuckers, I riot."

[Hedgehawk]

It didn't take long for everyone else to eventually arrive. No one seemed to looked pleased at all. Jordan didn't mind the assembly usually, it was a good time to scan his eyes around the room and take in everyone's faces. The juniors were of particular interest. He had lost last year's seniors which had quite a few good informants in it and he needed blabber mouths who could give him the low down on everything. Just by looking around he could see a few people who were suitable candidates, but he could also see most of his yearmates. Those were the more trickier ones. Several of them knew the games he played, and knew to stay far away. Others however, they were far easier to manipulate.

To start with Jordan phased out of the assembly, not really paying attention to what was being said. It was the normal nonsense. However it was at that point when Henderson bought up the reduction in arts funding.

It was like he had been slapped with a stale fish.

Suddenly Jordan was offended. Fully offended. How dare this old man try and attack everything that he held dear? Jordan decided to go on the attack himself, pulling his phone out he opened his weapon of war: Twitter.

My Tweets

After posting the tweets he felt somewhat better. The rage inside him had been quenched and he was now sedated for the time being. Though he was sure he would end up getting angry about it later. The assembly would finally come to a close and people began to leave. Jordan waited for a second, glaring daggers towards the stage as the room emptied. Once it was quiet Jordan would rise himself and leave, heading to his first class; which ironically turned out to be drama.

[Sugar and Spite]

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"When will you learn... when will you learn.... THAT YOUR ACTIONS - HAVE CONSEQUENCES," Eli whisper shouted as Mr. Henderson announced that the arts programs would be receiving even less funding this year. Turning to Minty and Lana he rolled his eyes. "Like seriously. As if teachers didn't already have to decorate their classrooms with their own funding. And yeah, sure. Totally great that we can get the football team new helmets to protect their last brain cell, but what about replacing the text books from fucking nineteen eighty-five."

Grabbing his bag and standing up from his seat, Eli said good bye to his friends before exiting the auditorium to head to his first class.

Going to Rosefell wasn't his dream, but it was the best his family could do. It was the nearest school where he could ride his bike or take the bus. Any other school and his parents would have to drive him. The gas bill for the family car was already high enough. With the funding being cut for music class again, Eli wasn't really looking forward to his chosen elective. Normally the thought of sitting around for over an hour with some friends playing guitar would have been a nice thought, but some of the kids in music class weren't lucky enough to have their own instrument. Maybe he could use the money from his summer job and get some supplies.

That wasn't his responsibility though! Why couldn't they just give the students what they needed?

[ayzrules]

The first one to leave her group, Juliet was one of the first ones in her class. It wasn’t that she didn’t like spending time with the Knights, it was moreover that she disliked partying, and that seemed like all they wanted to talk about. She wasn’t interested in that, so she’d slipped away and headed off to her first class, which — for some reason — was Biology, which she didn’t even like to begin with. Coupling in the fact that she knew she was the only one from her lil clique that was going to be here, and finally, top that with an icing of assigned seating and…

Juliet was crankier than she normally was.

It wasn’t like it mattered much, she wasn’t much for putting her taekwondo skills to use in anger; that was against what her teacher had drilled into her head. She was only to use it in formal spars. Though she knew her teacher’s intent had been to keep her from using it outside of the dojo, but… Juliet bent the rules a little bit and considered beating Artie and Lance up as ‘formal spars.’

With a huff, Juliet stopped to look at the seating chart for the biology classroom, and when she saw who she was sitting with, she almost immediately perked up. The chart listed her as sitting next to Stephanie Wang, her old friend from middle school! Whether that was intentional or not, Juliet was excited, and her mood was already looking up. Now with a small smile on her face, and significantly less cranky, Juliet sat down at her desk, and waited for her lab partner to roll in.

After the assembly, Steph bade a cheery farewell to Melissa and Tiffany and headed off to the first class on her schedule. Bio was, like, okay, but not the most fun thing in the world, either.

Well, whatever. Hopefully the teacher’s nice, Steph mused to herself as she made her way down the hallway, a bit sad that neither Melissa nor Tiff would be in the class with her. And hopefully they don’t assign too much homework. Homework is sooooo lame.

When she got to the classroom, everyone was crowded around a seating chart - ugh, what were they, kindergarteners?! Assigned seats, really? - and Steph patiently waited for the people in front of her to find themselves, before she stepped forward and saw that she would be seated next to…

...Jules?

I don’t think we’ve talked since eighth or ninth grade, she reflected, quickly locating the table. Jules was already sitting there, and as she got closer, Steph noted that she was wearing the cutest yellow sweatshirt.

“Hey, Jules!” Steph chirped, plopping into the seat next to her and rifling through her backpack for her pencil case and a binder. “How have you been? Did you have a good summer?”

Juliet looked up with a smile, excited to reunite with her former best friend. “Hey, Steph! Long time, no see. It’s been like… four years now, right?” Juliet was a lot happier knowing she’d be sitting with someone she knew well… or, at least used to know well. “Yeah, summer was good, how was yours?” She asked, making conversation — though there was a lot more to catch up than just summer though.

“Have you been? I feel like we haven’t talked in… forever. It’s definitely been a while, hasn’t it? I was kinda salty when I saw we had assigned seating, but this isn’t too bad. It’s kinda cool that we’re gonna be like, lab partners. How’s life?” She said, smiling, and practically ignoring everyone else as she focused on Stephanie — including the teacher that was trying to call the class to order. Something about how their assigned seating partner would be their lab partner… “You’ve been doing cheerleading still, right?”

“Oh yeah, I think so! Time flies,” Steph said with a laugh. “Oh, my summer was pretty good! Honestly, any extended period of time where I don’t have to deal with P.E. is a good time,” she answered, a bit wryly. God, but she hated being forced into physical activity. Wasn’t being a cheerleader enough? That shit was tiring! And super time-consuming! P.E. was so freaking pointless!!!!!!

“Oh god, tell me about it, assigned seating is the worst. Like, are we fifth graders??? No???? And all these people keep talking about how random bullshit will-” Steph paused to make air quotes- “prepare us for college, or whatever. I don’t think they have assigned seats in college!”

She smiled. “But yes, it’s super cool that we’re going to be lab partners. And life is alright, you know. It’s the first day of school and all; I already can’t wait for winter break.” At Jules’ last question, Steph nodded in response. “Oh, yeah! The one good thing about starting school, I guess,” she answered with a sheepish laugh.

“What about you? Do you have anything fun going on right now?”

“Uhm, well, not really. I still go to taekwondo, I still watch a lot of Disney stuff… I’m way better at makeup now than I was when we were in eighth grade, though, that’s for sure. Oh, I finally got to go to Disneyland last Halloween! That was the greatest time of my life, I think.” Juliet brightened up a bit as she looked back at happy memories. Of course, she wanted to go back there, but who knew if she’d ever get the chance! She had a plan to apply to a few schools in California, but she wasn’t sure if she’d qualify for them… she could do nothing but hope, unfortunately.

“Uhm… other than that, I work at the movie theater, with Daze… It sucks, but hey, you gotta buy k-cups somehow, I guess?” Juliet shrugged her shoulders and looked forward toward the teacher. It was weird how the more things change, the more they seemed to stay the same. Even though they hadn’t spoken in such a long time, it was as easy as ever. “You really hate P.E. that much? I kinda like it, personally, but I think Daze agrees with you… She can be kinda lazy, except for when it comes to like, eating, sleeping, and — apparently — defending her ex-boyfriend and then running away.” Juliet said that last part with a bit of uncharacteristic venom to her voice, betraying the fact that she didn’t really care for her sister’s ex boyfriend.

“But anyway, yeah. There’s a lot to catch up on!”

“Disney!!!! I love Disney,” Steph answered, beaming at Jules. “That’s so fun! And Disneyland, really???? I’m sooooooo jealous, I’ve never been! How was it?”

Steph nodded in agreement as Jules started talking about her job. “Working at a movie theater sounds really annoying. Do you guys at least get free movies though? And oh yeah, how could I forget? Tell Daze I said hi!” She paused, giggled. “I guess I just don’t like the Pacer and all that bullshit,” Steph admitted. “It’s so booooooooring.”

Steph’s eyes widened at Jules’ next words. “Oh, no! What happened?” she asked, forgetting about her hate for P.E. for a second.

“Huh? Oh, Daze was dating Joey Powers. You know, the skateboarding weed guy? I didn’t really approve, and I made that pretty clear… anyway, today, Artie came in and I guess he gave Joey a ride… He said Joey is weird, which, he totally is, then after that Daze got all defensive and like ran off to her first class. She couldn’t handle the heat, I guess.” Juliet said with a shrug of her shoulders. The way she spoke of not approving of Daze dating was almost too candid. “I just think, her time could be like, better spent doing… anything. Ya know? Dating is weird.” Juliet didn’t have much interest in dating, at least not yet. She was kind of young… There was a lot of life left to live!

“But Disneyland? It was ah-may-zing. I can’t wait to go again! There was so much food, Steph, and it was like… heaven. Oh man, it was so amazing. I got a picture with Stitch! But, it’s… kind of not a very good picture.” Juliet had a bit of a blush on her cheeks as she mentioned the picture, giving an awkwardly small smile.

“Oh, Joey? Yeah, I know him, sort of! That’s a good way of describing him,” Steph said, smiling. “I feel you, though,” she continued, sympathetically.

Steph listened raptly as Jules described Disneyland. “God, that sounds so fun! I’m so jealous now. And I’m sure the picture is super cute! Stitch is such a fun character.”

Steph paused for a moment. “Is Daze still doing dance? It’s been so long since we danced together.”

“Uh, yeah, she is. The picture is just… not cute, trust me, okay? I’m usually cute, but that wasn’t a good look for me… But Daze wouldn’t take another picture! So I’m just stuck with that one… A tragedy. Anyway, I’m glad someone agrees with me about Joey! That dude is super weird.” Juliet said, hooking a lock of hair behind her ear and shaking her head. She didn’t know what Daze had seen in Joey, but clearly it had been something, because they were still friends even now! Juliet didn’t understand. Why couldn’t Daze just wait to go date someone?

“Awww, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” she replied, giving Jules an empathetic look. “Stitch is in it! That makes it at least not horrible, right?”

As for the subject of Joey, AKA Daze’s ex-boyfriend, Steph just shrugged. “I don’t really know him all that well,” she admitted. “But his Twitter statuses are kind of funny!”

Steph took out a pink gel pen as the teacher started setting everything up for the first class. “Oh, by the way, are you going to the party on Friday? I heard that it’s supposed to be at a lake. I think I’m going - Melissa and Tiff too, probably!”

Originally, Jules hadn’t really wanted to go to the party. Parties weren’t really her scene, and even after her friends had all said that they were going, she hadn’t been interested in it. But this? For some reason, Juliet felt like she should say yes, she was going to the party…

“Uh, yeah, I think I’m going. Wanna meet up?”

“Sure! It’ll be so much fun,” Steph answered, then turned her attention to the front of the room as the teacher began the lecture.

[AlteredTundra]

After the Assembly had come and gone, Ricky was left with a sour taste in his mouth that it soon turned into bitter disgust. He sat through the entire thing trying to figure out why this was necessary. Why make a big showing out of it? Why did Henderson feel the need to point out that those who preferred the arts were getting screwed for another year and the jocks were also getting butt-fucked raw because of the lack of funds for new uniforms? Ricky surmised it was to feed the big ego that was compensating for something incredibly less lengthy.

When it was all said and done, after the students were allowed to go back to their devices, Ricky pocketed his into his jacket pocket and carried on as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

God’s honest truth was that Ricky was in a foul mood and this was long before the assembly even began. No, his mood started bright and early thanks in every part to that nose-sticking, rumor-spreading, should-mind-his-own-business Jordan Ross. For whatever reason that Ricky had yet to decide, the way Jordan not only operated but decided it was his mission to make people’s lives a living hell rubbed him the wrong way.

Ricky stared at his class schedule. Seeing which classes he had and how much he had to look forward to, his glance also would be drawn to the parking lot and the road that led towards the exit/entrance of the school. In his mind, he was considering ditching the first day, which was probably a bad idea. Then again, Ricky wasn’t known for any great ideas. No, he could very well yeet out and nobody would even give a damn. He is willing to wager that some parties would actually welcome a Ricky Quinn-free day.

As he would spend the next couple of minutes trying to decide, Ricky took out his phone and saw his twitter feed pop up. The first thing that he saw was Jordan’s tweets. “He really should shut his mouth,” Ricky muttered as he pocketed his phone and decided to see what this day had in store for him. The morning was so chock-full of peachy moments like the ones he had, the afternoon was bound to be quite eventful.

[Hey Im Jordan]

Joey P wasn’t really paying attention to the speech from the principal. He was much more focused on the business at hand — in this case, Joey P was carefully trying to roll a coin between his knuckles. It wasn’t like the principal was going to say anything he’d be interested in. Joey didn’t care about football helmets, or the budget, or the home ec class… none of that was really his thing. He’d do it, but that was only because if he didn’t, his poor mother would get arrested for his truancy. Like, how was that even fair? She didn’t do the crime, so why did she have to do the time!

He didn’t understand the American justice system, but then… did anyone? By law, corporations were people — thanks, Citizens United. It was almost like… the system was designed to not make any sense, to make it harder for the average person to get ahead…

“Whoa, I did it.” Joey mused, all thought about the justice system leaving his mind as he began to find a rhythm, rolling the coin back and forth across his knuckles. This wasn’t even that hard — the power of YouTube video tutorials made everything so easy… — but it was still pretty cool! Joey P would stick that skill in his back pocket until he needed it next.

It was gonna come up, right?

When the speech was finally over, and the students were finally allowed to leave, Joey P was one of the last ones out. Sure, everyone else was in a rush, but he learned a long time ago that this whole ‘school’ thing would go a lot more smoothly if you just chilled and took it low and slow. There was no reason to overwork yourself! They’d spend the next like, forty or fifty years working, why would he start working hard already?

With a quick glance at his phone, Joey wandered into the halls with a single question burning in the back of his mind: why did everyone seem to think that the football team was a bunch of jackasses? They were pretty much all nice, as far as he knew. Except maybe Ricky. Ricky was questionable, at times. Stuffing his phone in his pocket,

[spooner]

Minty’s eyes were almost all the way in the back of her head as their dumb ass principal was talking. A snort left the young woman as he tried to justify why they were cutting the art program from their curriculum.

“Whatever… it’s not like I was there much anyway. And besides was I the best in that class? Probably. Was I growing as an artist in that musty old room? Hard no.” Minty lamented to her friends as she sunk lower in her seat. She wasn’t really lying when she said she didn’t care that they were cutting art class, she did feel some sort of way about not having an easy A any more.

She craned her neck trying to spot her good friend Sage who most probably were holding back tears with the news that her safe haven was being cut. Minty made a mental note to check on her later.

As Eli left Minty gathered her stuff and followed suit. But while Eli turned towards a classroom Araminta continued toward the back exit. Her first class of the day was calculus and she didn’t really feel that vibe right now. Instead she made her way to one of the tables located out back where she unpacked her art pad and her aquarelles and got started on a painting.

Ludvig shifted his eyes between the two girls as the chatted away. What was that he spotted in Aria’s eyes? Was that a spark of something? And Cami certainly perked up since sitting down. He raised an eyebrow still deep in thought as Aria stood up.

“Uh… I’m taking that is my invitation?” Ludde laughed as he too stood up. “Yeah we’ll be there, right?” he turned and looked quizzically at Camila, who nodded.

After gathering their stuff the pair made their way towards the auditorium which was already filling up quick by all of the junior and senior students Ludvig let out a great big sigh. Principal Henderson usually put on a big show like this when he had something wonderful to let the student body know. Last time it was to let everyone know that they would have to cut the lunch budget which is why Ludvig brings his own lunch every day.

Squinting the slender boy scanned the seats before he spotted Artie surrounded by the rest of the knights. Ludvig nodded his head to signal to Camila to join him as he started his trek towards the others. He found himself and Cami a seat slightly behind the rest of the gang. Which ironically matched the way he felt about his status as one of the Knights… slightly behind. He felt like the odd one out if only because of his lack of interest in gaming which they were all very passionate about, but he also had this lingering feeling that most of them didn’t really like him that much. But maybe it was just his paranoia Artie always said it was just in his head and he would know right? Being the top dog of the group?

“…That dude’s real fucking weird.”

As they sat down he caught the tail end of what Artie was saying. “You talking about me again Art?” he grinned and punched the burly teen on the shoulder which felt like hitting a slab of meat. “Anyway this is…” he started before getting cut of by Henderson.

As the principal spoke Ludvig listened with a bored face. Oh of course they would have budget cuts… they always did. Not that it affected him in anyway he had put all of his focus on academics. And let’s face it the arts where not going to get him out of here now would it? Forced home ec? That was more of a chore than anything. When the assembly was done he simply shrugged said goodbye to the others and made his way to AP English.

[Sugar and Spite]

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Henderson's assemblies were possibly one of the most boring things in the universe, and Morgan was both glad and disappointed at the same time to see that the fact hadn't changed this year. The assembly just gave her more time to check her social feeds. She had gotten more donations last night which she would most likely be using to pay her phone bill, buy pizza and more band t-shirts. Morgan would save plenty enough money to buy her Uncle something especially nice for Christmas, but for right now, she was going to spoil herself. Such was a teenage girls life. She thought of sending a text to Jenna, but didn't really know what to say. She was sure that JK would be at the party though, so maybe there would be a chance for them to talk then.

Morgan was looking forward to the Home Ec class. While Richard had taught her to cook, clean, and other basic life skills like that, Morgan knew she had more to learn, and was open to learning it. Home Ec was going to be a great experience. She had heard that you got paired up in groups for classes like that. While she had never had a problem with group work, she just hoped she got paired up with decent people.

The young woman had taken the time to memorize her schedule over the last few days between doing her streams. Her first class of the day was English. Not her favorite, but also not her most hated. Grabbing her things and walking out of the auditorium, Morgan was truly looking forward to the school year.