SpicyMeatball

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — Salem University Hospital
INTERACTING WITH — Lorenzo, Grant and Elliot Horton @Hero @spooner}

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Jess glanced at her phone as Eli’s text came in, her expression changing to one of confusion as she read through. “What the hell are you on about Eli…” she spoke quietly to herself as she punched in a few replies to her younger brother, before tossing the thin metallic device back in her purse. Now it was time to have some fun.

“No fighting you two, I’ve had a long enough day as it is and I want to actually have a little fun tonight.” Jess lectured to her brothers as the three of them entered Lorenzo’s car. She looked between her brothers from the back seat and she had to admit, the two of them certainly cleaned up nice when they wanted to. With a sly, fox-like grin that could only really be portrayed right by Jess herself, she placed her hands on her brothers’ shoulders as Lorenzo backed the car out of the laneway “I have to admit boys, despite your usual attire you both look quite handsome tonight. Maybe one of you will get lucky tonight? Y’know, since Olivia drove off the last little blondie you brought home Enzo.”

It was only a matter of minutes before the trio of the eldest Horton siblings pulled up to the parking lot of the Edge. Jess carefully exited the car, opting to leave her crutches in the trunk rather than look even more out of place. At least she’d look almost normal now. She looked between her brothers and her signature grin spread across her face once again. The young woman limped along with her fellow offspring as the three of them came to the entrance and stood in line. Jess clenched her jaw as she did her best to hide the aching pain in her ankle, something she’d have to deal with for the rest of the night. Hopefully once she got enough alcohol into her, it’d be better.

After a good, long ten minutes of uncomfortable standing, the trio was finally in. Jess limped through the doors and into the cool, dark atmosphere that was the Edge. As her eyes adjusted to the new setting, she took in the new and unfamiliar environment around her. Having been rather anti-social in her younger years, going out to a club of any sort was a new experience for her, let alone a club that was as nice as this one. Before she got herself into too much trouble, she pulled out her phone and texted Eli once again.

I’ll be at the bar if you want to talk. Just come quick before I get too wasted.

The young woman squeezed her way through the growing crowd and made her way to the bar, eyeing up it’s occupants before taking her own seat alone near the end. She flagged over the bartender and slid across a crisp twenty “I’ll take two whiskey sours.”

The bartender nodded and walked off for a moment to prepare her beverages before returning a moment later with the two glasses. He placed them on the counter and slid them over to Jess, who promptly gave him a gentle smile. “I envy the gentlemen who managed to find a woman with such good taste in drinks.” A devilish grin broke out across Jess’ face as she heard the young bartender speak, before returning her gaze to him. “You couldn’t be further from the truth. These are both for me sweetie~” she spoke just loud enough for him to hear before knocking back one of the drinks in one swift movement. “Much better.”

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — The Horton House
INTERACTING WITH — Annalise @Ejected, Grant and Lorenzo @Hero}

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“Olivia! … … … OLIVIA! We’re trying to sleep!” Tom and Alice Horton yelled from their room, almost in sync. Olivia was oblivious to it, her fingers gliding across the strings of her six-string Les Paul Standard guitar as she played the opening riff to Greenday's Holiday. The distorted sound of the guitar resonated out of the amp and echoed through the house despite Olivia’s bedroom door being closed. And she couldn’t have given less of a damn about what anyone thought of her. The little dispute with Elliot had put her in an off mood for the rest of the day and now all she wanted to do was drown it out.

It was only a few more moments before Tom Horton stomped down the hallway and knocked on Olivia’s door, and once again, the young woman did nothing but keep playing her tune. Olivia heard the handle turn and watched the door as she continued to play, but no one entered. She cocked her head slightly before shaking it and resuming her playing, her loose hair flying around as she bobbed her head to the rhythm. Outside, the voices by her door were drowned out by the guitar leaving Olivia none the wiser.

“Dad, she’s had a… … …an interesting day. Let me deal with this.” Jess’ soft voice was a pacifying one, one that seemed to be able to bring down almost every heated moment. Something she had used to her advantage in the ER more times than she could count. She looked her dad in the eyes and watched as he slowly calmed down, before he nodded to his eldest daughter and walked back off to his room.

Jess took in a deep breath before taking hold of the doorknob and twisting it slowly, cautiously entering Olivia’s room. “Liv? You alright? I heard there was an… incident today, one that involved you. Wanna talk about it?” Jess spoke calmly, watching her sister carefully to see how she would react. Most of the time, the two sisters got along quite well. Being the only two girls out of the five siblings brought them closer in a way. But even then, there were some days that it seemed as if Jess’ bullheadedness had rubbed off on a Olivia, except Olivia had a more...aggressive way of showing it.

“I’m fine.” The younger sister spoke quietly as she let the final notes ring out from her guitar. Olivia took in a breath and glanced over to her camera momentarily, then back to Jess. With slight reluctance, Olivia put down her guitar and motioned for Jess to enter, before she sat down on her bed. As Jess hobbled her way in, she placed a hand on the back of the desk chair and dragged over to Olivia’s side before taking a seat.

“So, I heard you really pissed off Elliot today.”

“I don’t want to talk about it…” Olivia grumbled.

“Something about a blonde girl and coffee?”

“It looked like he was cheating on Ali! Besides, I wasn’t watching him, I was trying to watch her. Rumor has it that they’re involved with some serious criminal stuff.”

“Right. So this relates to Ali and El how, exactly?”

“She gave him those I want you eyes, and then Eli gave her some piece of paper.”

Jess blinked, cocking her head for a second. She’d never known Eli to be unfaithful to Ali. They’d been together for four years, it seemed unrealistic that he’d ever cheat on her. Plus, Elliot wasn’t the kind of guy who’d do that in the first place. Jess took in a deep breath before returning her gaze to her sister.

“And was there anything else to suggest that Elliot was cheating?”

“Well… … ... no.”

“God damn it Olivia, you have to think these things through. Just becau--” Jess was interrupted as both Olivia’s phone and her own buzzed in sync. Jess pulled the sleek metal brick from her pocket and glanced over the text from Lorenzo. A smirk came to her face as she realised what he’d meant, and proceeded to quickly type a response back. I thought you’d never ask. Can I get a ride? <3 With her message sent, she looked back to a now very irritated Olivia.

“What?”

“Of course, you’re all going out to the club right? Somewhere everyone but I can go.”

“Sorry Liv, I’ve had a long day too. Just remember, tomorrow’s the big day and we can all go to that.”

Jess stood awkwardly from her chair and hobbled over to her crutches, making her way out of Olivia’s room slowly. She then made her way back to her own room and shut the door behind her. Jess needed to look stunning for the club tonight to distract anyone from her bum leg, and she wasn’t going to settle for anything less than perfection right now. She slipped on a short, black dress and opted to leave her hair down, before beginning to work on her makeup. Conservative and well rounded, but not over the top. After she’d finished up, she used her crutches to walk over to Grant’s room where she’d heard him and Enzo talking, giving a gentle knock before entering. “Shall we, gentlemen?”

Meanwhile, Olivia grumbled in her room. She laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking of absolutely anything she could do tonight. And then it hit her. Anna was old enough to get into the club, wasn’t she? Maybe they could conspire and she could sneak Olivia in. Olivia grinned to herself, before pulling out her phone and firing off a quick message to Anna.

Hey, I have an absolutely horrible idea. Up for it?

Olivia then made her way over to her dresser and looked into the mirror that sat on its top. After staring into it for a solid minute as she waited for a response, another idea popped into her head. Pulling open her drawer, she grabbed a few bottles of hair dye that she’d had for months now, along with a pair of scissors. Looking in the mirror once again, she held the scissors in her hand smirked. “Fuck it.”

The Sands of Time

Power Outage at my place for a few days, as told on Discord I'm back. Looks like I got some shit to catch up on.

@Inkarnate

I was in the same boat, I know the feeling. >.<

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — The Brady Pub
INTERACTING WITH — Aliana @Dirty Pretty Lies, Annalise @Ejected, Colin @Altered Tundra, Elliot @spooner, anyone in the vicinity of the Pub}

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“Jesus fucking Christ Olivia!”

Olivia jumped a little bit as her brother burst in the door and stormed up to her, slamming her laptop shut. Olivia’s eyes went cold and her head snapped towards Elliot’s hand, then to his face. Her face was no longer one filled with a smug grin, but now a stone cold look of anger. Olivia was a rather defensive person and she may have cared a little less if Elliot had just grabbed her. But no, he had mistreated the gear that she paid for out of her own pocket, money that she had worked for over the past few summers. So now she looked him dead in the eyes, her normally calm blue eyes now a stormy hurricane of emotion. “You lay another hand on my shit and I’ll end your social life.”

She wavered slightly as she shouted at her once again, this time grabbing her arm tightly and knocking the camera from her hands. As he dragged her outside, the camera that was now dangling from her neck freely bumped several tables and Olivia winced at every single hit. The moment they arrived outside, she opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by her brother once again. She stood in silence as her brother chewed her out, waiting patiently with rage in her eyes. After he had finished his piece, she shoved him backwards with both of her palms before pacing towards him. “Do you have any idea how much this costs? Are you fucking kidding me?! I worked my ass off to pay for this and you just knocked it against five god damn tables on the way out!” The anger overwhelmed her brain and she let loose, getting right back into her dear brother’s face. “And on top of that, you’re the one who looked like you were asking that blonde out! All I did was preserve the moment. So yes! Yes I did show Ali because it looked like you were cheating on her!” Olivia’s voice was breaking as she yelled back at her brother.

“Just because something doesn’t look bad from your perspective doesn’t mean it looks all good from someone else’s. Do you honestly think I had any idea what the actual fuck you were saying to that Zima chick? No! I don’t have a clue what you said.”

The young girl now had tears in her eyes, but stood strong against her brother. Olivia took in a shaky breath, hoping that everyone in the pub heard exactly what she had to say. “I saw the way she looked at you! I saw the way you acted! If you really had nothing to hide, then why the hell do you seem so god damn defensive?! It shouldn’t be such a big deal if that was really just you fucking up like you always do!” She turned back to the pub and ripped open the door before stopping once again. Olivia wanted everyone to hear the last little bit of her piece “Call me shithead one more time, you human piece of garbage.” Now breathing quite heavily, the teen walked inside with a deathgrip on her camera. Olivia grabbed her bag from beside the stool she was sitting on, then her laptop from the counter. With a quick look over the camera nothing looked too damaged, just a few scrapes to the finish. Resuming her original position at the bar, she laid her baby down onto the counter with shaky hands and then looked over to Annalise, sending her a sheepish smile. “Still up to hang out?”

It was at this point that Elliot was dragged into the back room and Olivia couldn’t help but grin, even if it was only a little bit. She was about to turn around and leave when Colin scootched over closer to her and commented on the situation.

“You’ve created quite the stressful situation for my little sister, haven’t you, little Horton? Makes one wonder just what you showed Ali and how you obtained it. Care to comment? It’ll be off the record, of course.”

Olivia looked over to Colin and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. She looked at him until he turned to face her before standing from her seat and walking a few steps. Olivia stopped only a moment later while she knew his attention was still on her and spoke a few words before walking out the door, her voice having finally recovered from the huge display of anger she’d just put on.

“I plead the goddamn fifth.”

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — Salem University Hospital, then the Horton House
INTERACTING WITH — Lorenzo Horton @Hero}

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Truthfully, had she put in an hour or two of practice the crutches would probably be a viable option. But insert Jess’ bullheadedness, her brother’s laughin and the little scene she had made on the ER floor and she wasn’t having any more of it. With the crutches tucked under her right arm and her left practically dragging Enzo down for support, she held onto her brother tightly as she carefully, and quite slowly hobbled towards the ER’s entrance doors. She gritted her teeth as she hopped along, her sprained ankle held awkwardly in the air. This whole being injured thing was exhausting.

“You know what…” Jess stopped and slowly let go of Enzo’s arm before grabbing the crutches from under her own. “Fuck it, let’s give it another shot.” The young woman planted the feet of the metal crutches down onto the ground before tucking the upper ends under her arms. With a shaky breath, she carefully shifted her weight along the crutches and moved forward, letting out a sigh of relief once her good leg made contact with the ground again. Only like 30-40 more of those until they got to the car. Her arms trembled as she moved along, not out of fatigue, but more out of fear of falling again. Not that her day could get any worse, but it would certainly hurt more to fall on the pavement than on the smooth tile floor of the ER.

By the time the siblings arrived at the car, Jess was breathing a little harder than usual. “That’s...harder than it looks..” She opened the passenger side door and sunk into the seat before pulling her crutches in after her. Jess let her head fall back against the headrest and closed her eyes as Lorenzo got in the car. The last thing Jess could remember was the hospital moving past the window before she fell asleep. This injury thing was more tiring than she’d thought.

When she woke up, Lorenzo was just pulling the car into the Horton property’s driveway. Jess blinked rapidly as the sun shone right into her eyes through the window before blocking it with her hand. With a gentle yawn, the brunette sat up straighter in her seat and undid her seatbelt as the vehicle came to a stop. She reached over and gently squeezed Enzo’s hand, sending him a warm smile. “I really appreciate it Enzo.” She looked over to the garage to see their father’s car still in the driveway. “Shit, hopefully dad’s not here right now. I really don’t feel like being lectured on how I should be more careful.”

After hobbling over to the front door and using her key to unlock it, the young woman looked to her brother and smiled again “I won’t keep you occupied, sounded like Grant needed you.” Jess turned and hopped inside, remaining still as she listened for signs of life. Nothing. Good, she wasn’t sure if she had the mental capacity to deal with the rest of her family right now. Lorenzo and her had always gotten along rather well, though obviously she did love her entire family even if they did occasionally drive her crazy.

Twenty minutes and a lot of struggling later, Jess had finally made it up the stairs on her own. Though people often commented on how stubborn she was, it certainly had it’s uses. Besides, stubborn was such a harsh word. Jess preferred determined. She looked over to her bedroom door, which had never looked so far away in her life, and began to hobble in its direction. After nearly crashing into it, she twisted the handle and opened the door to her haven. Jess’ room was almost always neat and tidy. She collapsed onto her bed and let out a sigh of relief. She’d made it. Home at last. Now it was time to relax.

Jess dug out her bikini top and bottom from her dresser; a light and friendly striped set coloured white and turquoise, and slowly and awkwardly began the process of changing into it. Everything was most definitely harder to do in a cast. It could’ve been worse though. She could’ve injured herself in front of the rest of her family and hear about it for years to come. Jess shuddered at the thought. No, this day was now only for relaxing. No more stressing, no more pain. That settled it. She need a drink.

The now bikini-clad brunette carefully maneuvered her way back down the stairs and hobbled into the kitchen. From there, she retrieved one of the beer bottles she’d stashed at the back of the fridge and popped off the cap, taking a sip before proceeding back to the door. Once outside, she limped and hopped her way over to the set of lounge chairs that sat in the yard before collapsing into one of them with a rather dramatic sigh. The sun felt wonderful on her skin, warming her entire body up and subconsciously bringing a slight smile to her lips. Jess carefully slipped in her earbuds and flipped through her phone until coming to her chill playlist, to which she promptly hit “shuffle” on. As the music began, she flipped down her sunglasses and closed her eyes. Finally, she could relax in peace. The only thing wrong with the image was that a rather unsightly air-cast adorned her leg, though it was probably better than showing off the horrifying bruising that had set in around her ankle.

The Sands of Time

@spooner @Dirty Pretty Lies @SpicyMeatBall The calm before the storm, innit?

@Altered Tundra

Prrrreeeettty much.

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — Salem University Hospital
INTERACTING WITH — Lorenzo Horton @Hero}

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The longer Jess sat in the hospital bed, the more she disliked the situation and the more she hated herself for getting into this situation in the first place. It was the most abolsutely perfect day at the hospital. No crazy patients, no code blacks and no overtired doctor on shift. And yet here she was, laying in a hospital bed because she tripped. Jess grumbled at the thought of how ridiculous she must look now; she was still in full uniform, nametag and all. Just salt in the wound at this point. Hopefully someone would come rescue her.

Jess perked up immediately when she felt her phone buzz. She stifled a laugh when she saw the message from Enzo. “Overdramatic as usual..” she mumbled to herself, though instead of her usual resting bitch face, a gentle smile now graced her lips. Finally, she’d be able to get out of the hospital, and more importantly, out of this scrubs. The only problem now was that she’d have to show up to tomorrow’s celebrations on crutches. Jess scowled at the thought, wondering if she could suck it up and walk on it for the day without major reprocussions. Gritting her teeth, she cautiously put her legs over the edge of the bed and let them dangle a moment before attempting to put a minute amount of pressure on the injured foot. With a small yelp, she withdrew the pressure and quickly tried to recompose herself by assuming her original position on the bed.

Jess’ eyes darted around to see if anyone had seen or heard that, and only after she saw another nurse walk by without giving her a second glance, did she drop her guard and relax. Maybe crutches wouldn’t be that bad. It’d give her an insight into what a patient was feeling, if anything. Hell, maybe it’d be good. The whole damsel in distress thing was attractive wasn’t it? Maybe she’d get lucky and some guy would come and sweep her off of her feet.

She almost laughed out loud at the idea, covering her mouth at the last second. The idea that she’d get a guy because of her crutches wouldn’t be the worst pickup attempt. She’d certainly had a worse time at relationships in highschool. With a grumbling sigh, the young brunette grabbed her crutches and stood up from the bed, balancing awkwardly on her one good leg. It was such a foreign feeling to her. Jess wasn’t one for extreme activities, and so unlike her sister, she’d never really acquired any major injuries apart from today. She nervously put the crutches forward and took a breath, processing what she was about to do. It was a simple concept in theory, but in practice crutches were really a pain in the ass.

And so the rather experienced nurse, with three years of service to the hospital and four years of education, with numerous experiences teaching other people how to use various assistive devices, and with a rather athletic physique, fell flat on her face on the first step, sending the crutches skittering across the floor. “Fuck!”

Jess just layed on the cold, tile floor for a moment as the other two nurses on staff came running over. Without even looking, she could tell that her co-workers were trying hard not to laugh. Before coming up to her hands and knees, she looked to the side at one of them, then to the other and spoke with a very cold voice “Not a word about this leaves this moment. Understood?”

Suddenly she was glad that it was a quiet day in the ER. It had saved her the embarrassment of doing that in front of 15-20 other patients, most of which knew her face. Now back in her bed, she grabbed her paperwork once again and had just started to focus when Lorenzo came into the ER. A huge wave of relief washed over her as her brother approached her bedside. With a newfound energy, the young woman sat up from her bed and leaned over to hug her older sibling, nuzzling her head into his chest. “Thank you Enzo, its been a long morning.”

“So what happened?”

Jess took in a breath and let it out slowly before looking back up to her brother. “Got out of my car and ate the pavement. I think I must’ve still had a foot in the car cause I twisted my ankle bad. Its just a sprain.” She scowled at the sound of the nurses giggling across the room before gritting her teeth. “Oh yeah, and apparently I can’t use crutches.” She spared her brother the explaination of how she fell flat on her face not five minutes before. It would spread around town in time. Jess grabbed her bag and stuffed the folder inside of it, before standing up on her good leg. “Could you grab my bag?”

“Thank you again for this...it means a lot.”

The Sands of Time

^{LOCATION — The Java Cafe
INTERACTING WITH — Mark [NPC], Evangeline @Altered Tundra, Elliot @spooner, Aliana @Dirty Pretty Lies}

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Click…..click click...click click… … …

The shutter on Olivia’s camera clicked and clacked away as she watched the events unfold between Elliot and Evangeline in disbelief. With great effort she managed to hold back from calling out to Elliot as he backed up, and it took even more effort to hold back her own laughter as the coffee flew everywhere. It was almost as if everything had moved in slow motion and she’d been there to capture every single moment of it. Having now frozen the entire ordeal in time, even having been lucky enough to have captured the coffee cup mid-spill, she smiled to herself and lowered her guard for a moment. As she pulled the camera away from her face, she looked to Mark with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face. Nothing more perfect could top this today.

Except...what was that she saw on Elliot’s face? She looked back down the viewfinder and zoomed in on the pair. Was that…? No, it couldn’t be. At first, Olivia thought it was embarrassment that had drenched her dear brother head to toe, but as she looked closer it looked more like nervousness. That could only mean one thing. Was her brother, the same guy who had been dating Aliana Brady for just over four years now, attracted to Zima blondie? Click. Elliot’s hand running through his hair. Click. Eva’s nervous little stance right before she was led back inside.

If only she could hear what they were saying.

She finally lowered the camera and her gaze shot back to Mark, who leaned through the open window behind her. “You saw all of that, right? Do you have any idea what this means?” An evil grin spread across her face. No secrets could be held from her, especially not now when she had all of the time in world to run around town with her camera. And now that she had the pictures that she did, it wouldn’t take much to play her brother like a fiddle. It would only take quick visit to The Brady Pub to do the trick. Olivia was sure that Aliana would certainly have something to say about the pictures she’d gotten. But first, a little tormenting.

Pulling out her phone, Olivia quickly punched in a text and sent it off to Elliot: I see you’re getting nice and toasty with blondie there, El. She then pulled the memory card from her camera and copied the pictures from it to her laptop, before packing all of her gear back into her bag, leaving her camera on it’s strap around her neck. She had to be quick if she was going to beat Elliot to The Brady Pub, assuming he understood what she meant by the text. After quickly sliding down the fire-escape ladder she grabbed her skateboard and pushed off of the sidewalk, gradually gaining speed. “Hey Elliot!” she called out, before reaching down and tapping her camera.

Olivia rounded the corner and dropped down onto the road from the sidewalk, smiling as the warm breeze blew across her face and toyed with her ponytail. A grin spread across her face as The Brady Pub came into view and she pushed harder off of the pavement to gain more speed. As she came to the entrance, she quickly dismounted her board and popped it up into her arm before walking inside. Olivia grabbed her laptop from her bag as she walked and quickly brought up the picture showing Elliot running a hand through his hair and looking flustered, before looking up to Ali.

“Hey Ali, I have somethin’ to show you.”

The Sands of Time

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^{LOCATION — The Horton House, then nearby The Java Cafe
INTERACTING WITH — Mark [NPC], Annalise @Ejected}

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Freedom at last, free from the clutches of the dreaded American education system. School was out at last and summer was here. This meant a few things to Olivia. First, it meant that she could finally spend some quality time with her skateboard without pissing off the principal. Second, it meant that she could forget about algebra, biology and how long Plutonium took to decay, and focus on just relaxing and having fun. Third? Everyone was in town, and that meant everyone. All of the regular weirdo's, a few of the touristy types, and her favourite of all, the suspects. It wasn’t that they were actually suspected of crimes, but Olivia had certainly heard some juicy rumors floating around town and she’d be stupid not to act on them.

On this particular morning, she had woken up bright and early to get a headstart on people hunting. After going through her normal morning routine -- get up, eat, shower, eat again, pick out clothes and do her conservative makeup -- Olivia sat down at her desk and flipped open the Macbook that sat upon it. With a few clicks and some quick typing, she navigated to her site Suspects of Salem. She scrolled through the few dozen photographs that plastered the webpage -- all with captions that gave an air of suspicion to them, to follow her site’s weary feel -- and then looked at her newest posts.

A few comments, hardly any new hits. Just the regular crowd. Well, a crowd would imply more than two or three people and this was not that.

With a slightly frustrated sigh, she closed the lid on her laptop and stuffed it into her bag before grabbing her camera from her desk. Olivia pondered for a moment before twisting off the shorter lens that had been attached to the camera and putting on her newest acquisition. It was a longer distance lens that had cost her the majority of the earnings she’d made the past summer, but damn it if it wasn’t worth it.

With a reassuring nod to herself, she looped the camera strap over her neck and right arm before grabbing her bag. It was still open season for the most scandalous and post-worthy photos and she wasn’t gonna waste another minute. First stop? The coffee shop. It wouldn't be packed at this hour. Not yet at least.

Ten minutes later, she was rolling down the main street of Salem on her skateboard, the sound of Avril Lavigne’s "What The Hell" blaring from her headphones. Looking rather inconspicuous in her signature leather jacket, jeans and red converse shoes, Olivia cruised up to the Java Cafe. With a swift stomp on the edge of her skateboard, she popped it up into her arm before hopping in line. Having arrived quite early, the line was still quite manageable and within five minutes, she’d received her hot cup of black molten lava. The lifeblood of her existence, the thing that kept her going after long nights out. Today was no exception. She had to be at her best so she could get some awesome shots.

After crossing the road, she strapped her skateboard to the outside of her bag and pulled out her phone. Olivia punched in a quick text and sent it off to her partner in crime whose apartment she now stood in front of. Looking up to the second story window, she waited until the face of her best friend Mark popped up. Then, she approached the fire-escape and began to climb carefully with one hand, her other hand occupied by her coffee. As she reached the top Mark opened up the window and smiled, motioning to her coffee “Hey Liv, you get me one?”.

“Dude, you literally live fifty feet from the place.” She smirked at him before sitting down on the metal grated floor of the fire escape, pulling her bag over her shoulder and placing it to her side. “Anyone interesting yet?”

“Don’t look now, but Zima blondie just showed up.”

Olivia’s head shot towards the coffee shop once again and sure enough, there stood Evangeline Zima. With a smirk, she pulled up her camera and looked down its viewfinder, zooming in just enough to get a good profile shot of Eva’s upper torso and head. The camera clicked away as she took half a dozen shots of the blonde, before framing up a few other of the regular weirdo’s at the coffee shop. After a good thirty or forty shots Olivia rested the camera in her lap and crossed her legs, reaching for her coffee. The smell of the hazelnut roasted goodness filled her nostrils as she took a sip, the deep brown liquid warming her from the inside.

“Well, I’ve got an hour or two to kill here before me and Anna were gonna hang out. Care to join me while I people-watch?”

She picked up her phone and sent off a quick text to Annalise. Admittedly, she had no idea what she wanted to with her friend. Perhaps they could head to the skate park.

Hey! Just making sure we’re still on for today <3

Today would only get better from here if it followed its current trend.



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^{LOCATION — Salem University Hospital, then to the Brady Pub
INTERACTING WITH — Alice Horton (NPC), All of the Horton Children @Hero@Spooner}

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A quiet ER was never a good ER. It was like being in the eye of a hurricane; while it may be sunshine and rainbows in that moment, you just know it wouldn’t last. Out of the twenty beds kept at the Salem University Hospital emergency room, only two were currently occupied. The first was a man who claimed to be having a heart attack who in reality, just had indigestion from a party the night before. And the second? The second was Jessica herself. Yes, she’d managed to ruin a day with absolutely no one coming through the doors of the ER by hurting herself. After arriving at four in the morning for her shift, she’d tripped getting out of her car and landed awkwardly. This had resulted in a sprained ankle and as such, she now sat upright in an ER bed with an air-cast on her right foot. Certainly a wonderful way to start the day. It couldn’t possibly get worse.

“Jessica, oh my god!”

Jess inhaled deeply and pinched the bridge of her nose as the voice of her mother echoed through the ER. She was wrong, this day just got worse.

“Are you alright? What happened to you dear?”

“I’m fine mom, just fell getting out of my car. Could I ask you to grab my folder from the nurse’s station so I can actually be productive right now? I’ve got a lot of paperwork to do.”

“Sure sweety.”

Jessica took in another of what was going to be many deep breaths today and picked up her phone, scrolling through the few notifications she’d received. Then she glanced at the date. Tomorrow was the party. Perfect. Now she could show up and be the one everyone pitied, because it wasn’t enough that she’d actually have to socialize. Or see Aliana hanging off of her brother. Or make sure Olivia didn’t get herself into too much trouble with that damn camera. And if that wasn’t enough, she’d now have to tell her father that she couldn’t help set up for the celebrations because of this morning’s incident.

“Here you are dear. Don’t work yourself too hard, you need that ankle to heal. Can I get you a drink or something? You look exhausted.”

“No mom, I just need some quiet right now. Thank you for the paperwork….god did I really just say that?”

Jess shook her head and started going through her folder, flipping through the pages as she clicked her pen idly. Why did she always have to put off her patient reports? These would take hours to do, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to do in this particular moment. Her ankle had made sure of that. Her only salvation was that it was a sprain and not a break, and she’d hopefully be off of her crutches in a matter of a few weeks. There was just one tiny problem with that. At least a third of that time would be with crutches, meaning she could only do the paperwork end of her job, not the exciting patient-care end of it. Great. She needed to get out of this place. Jess glanced at her watch, she grabbed her phone and opened up her messenger app, sending out a text to her dear siblings.

Good morning fellow Horton-spawn. What’s everyone up to?

Also, if anyone could give me a ride from the hospital, that’d be great. It’s a long story.

The Sands of Time

Jessica Horton

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"When one goes through the training and education that I have, they will never be the same. I know too much. "

_{California Medication} | _{Shape of you}

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Name

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Jessica Isabelle Horton

Birthday and Age

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June 2nd, 25 years old

Gender

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Female

Sexuality

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Heterosexual

Education Level

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Bachelor’s Degree of Science, Nursing (BScN). Graduated at twenty-two, currently doing her Master’s Degree in the same area (MScN), though only part-time rather than full-time.

Occupation

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Jessica is an ER nurse at Salem University Hospital and a part time student at the University of Salem.

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^{"My family is my lifeblood. They may piss me off, drive me up the wall and frustrate me beyond end. But when they need me the most, I will be their guardian angel." — Jessica Horton}

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Appearance

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Jessica has a rather average build with a slight athletic tone to it, retaining slight curves in the right areas. The young woman stands 5’7” and weighs about 150lbs, remaining on the lighter side of an average woman’s weight. Jessica keeps her long, brown hair neat, tidy and tucked away the vast majority of the time, usually in either a loose ponytail or a tight bun (the former for casual, day to day wear, the latter for when she’s at work). Her soft brown eyes are warm and welcoming, giving off a certain feeling of comfort to those around her.

Jess has a wardrobe that could only be described as a more formal cousin of casual. She dresses for comfort most of the time, but that doesn’t mean compromising on her looks. Given that she’s normally on-call for the emergency room, most of what she wears doesn’t take long to put on, so she mostly limits herself to a clean, undamaged pair of jeans or capris; a tank top, business shirt or blouse; and a pair of comfy flats or sneakers, never heals. Occasionally, one can spot Jessica sporting a light summer dress if she felt particularly adventurous that day.

Personality

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Though she isn’t one (and doesn’t plan on it, at least not for a while), Jessica is much like a mother. Although this may have come from her career at the hospital and how she watches over her patients like a hawk, it also manages to describe her general outlook on society and its members. Any time she sees someone being taken advantage of, whether it be in the bar or out on the streets, she is quick to intervene. Over the few short years she’s spent working as an ER nurse in Salem, she’s been selfless to a fault and prioritizes her patient’s well being over anything, sometimes even family. In her mind, the moment she walks in that door, she’s no longer Jessica Horton, she’s a nurse. Nothing else matters until her shift is over.

However, not everything is sunshine and lollipops in her world. Long shifts at the hospital and her many years of study have worn on her patience, and she can sometimes be extremely harsh; brutally honest almost to a fault. Jessica is also extremely stubborn and if you contest her about something, expect her to contradict it in any way she can. Jessica is also quite a spitfire and is easily aggravated when not working, often followed by either silent judgement or an everlasting grudge. Her current career at the hospital has also led to her frequently detaching herself mentally from a situation to avoid, and has made relationships rather….difficult for her.

Upbringing

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Like literally every other one of her siblings, Jessica was born in the Salem University Hospital. Brought into the world on the morning of a warm June day, she was the third of the five Horton children, placing her in the awkward role of the middle child. Adored at first, put aside later as her parents focused on her younger siblings Elliot and Olivia. In her mind however, there was no jealousy. There was only love and acceptance from her, the unbreakable bond of family. She watched over her younger two siblings up until she finished high school, often helping them with homework or comforting them on bad days.

Speaking of her education, Jessica was an excellent student. Having been grilled to do well by her parents, she tried her absolute hardest in school, driven by the promise of a career in the medical field later in her life. Straight A’s in the vast majority of her classes, but few friends around her through high school. Jess wasn’t the social butterfly that a lot of the other girls in Salem High were. Never good in groups of more than a few people, never good at public speaking and never good at talking to guys. She was all book-smarts.

After graduating from Salem High with a really good scholarship, Jessica immediately enrolled in the Nursing program at the University of Salem. It wasn’t medical school like her parents had hoped, but they were still happy that she had decided to stay within medecine. For four years, she worked as hard as she possibly could and saw little interaction with others apart from her part time job at the Café. And it all paid off. Graduating with honors, she was almost immediately offered a position at the University Hospital in the I.C.U.

A year later, she migrated to the E.R. and enjoyed every moment of it. Something about saving people’s lives on a daily basis made up for all of the lonelier years of her childhood and teenager life. She continues to work there now, though her passion for the job is dwindling slowly.

Misc

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- After completing her Master’s degree, Jessica hopes to become a Nurse Practitioner.

_{Character Color: #699cc9 | Face Claim: Odette Annable}