Realistic or Modern Westbrook

[Soap]

Juliette

Juliette rolled her eyes, how does she not know what a salon does? ”Just... cooperate with me.” Hm. She was totally okay with teaching her. Fortunately for them, this place was could do it all. Grinning, and turning to the woman who approached them, thinking about for a moment before continuing. ”Whole package.” The woman raised an eyebrow and looked towards Ava, who Jules was more than sure she had an almost terrified face on. Eh. She’ll live. ”Whole... package?” The woman asked, and JJ nodded, with an almost devious smile plastered onto her face, whether Lonnie knew it or not Juliette was simply just doing her a favor, the redhead needed this more than her. Well, almost... No, she definitely needed it more than her.

The woman ushered them to seats beside the other and gave them pre-colored nails to look through. ”Pink?” Juliette offered, turning towards Ava, and for the first time. She was actually hoping she wasn't that upset at her. ”No, blue?” At this point, she was sure that she was giving the suggestions to herself. ”We’re going with purple.” JJ decided, pointing to the light lavender color as another 3 woman had walked up to them almost in sync. To be fair... Juliette was probably their biggest customer.

Hence the photo of her and the owner from across the room. Rolling her eyes at the sight of it, that wasn't her idea. Blame Jasmine Jameson. ’Be a good role model for the younger girls.’ This was WestBrook. Who cares about what mayors’ do anyway? It's stupid. Shifting uncomfortably, clearly agitated of the thought of her family as the woman had started on their nails. A few minutes went by, and the previous woman that were doing their nails had started on their hair and makeup. ”I know you hate this, but... thank you for doing it anyway.” She meant for today in general, for showing up. But... If she took that as in ’thanks for allowing yourself to get poked and prodded to become pretty.’ That was okay too.

Juliette was actually extremely curious what the redhead would look like with a little more effort. It wasn't like Lonnie wasn't beautiful. But everyone needs a little bit of work to become stunning Jules was almost sure if she'd invited anyone else today they'd turn her down. Or... Immediately agree with her and decide to suck up and be a total-- not the point. Relaxing time. Right. ”Besides. I didn't feel like being around anyone I actually like.” She teased, and glanced over at her, as the woman with a mascara brush was obviously having a very hard time.
Winona​

 

[Winona]

Mason

Dogs. She took him to go see dogs, and apparently to adopt a puppy. Now, Mason loved dogs, but he'd never been able to own one. Partially because of where they lived, and partially because Drake was horribly afraid of them after that time he got attacked. Leave it to his little brother to ruin even that dream and love that Mason had. Either way, maybe he was a little excited about standing in here with Belle, and listening as she got all the paperwork in order to adopt a dog. Hell, Mason thought he might fall asleep while he was waiting.

Eventually, they were being brought back to a puppy room, and Mason's eyes widened in... well... it was fucking cute. He'd never admit that aloud, but twelve puppies playing? Oh my god. Things didn't usually get to Mason like this. He never thought things were cute, or sweet, and... was his heart melting at the sight of these puppies playing? What the fuck?

He sat down on the ground next to Belle, and panicked a little when some tiny pocket puppy put its paws on his lap. Mason reached forward gently, but pulled his hand back when the puppy tried to lick it. Okay, okay, so maybe the whole watching Drake get mauled incident had left Mason a little scared, too. But these were small cute puppies, not giant monsters. So finally, he put his hand out, fully prepared to lose a finger, and... instead the puppy just started licking him and nibbling on his fingers. Oh.

Mason glanced over at Belle, smiling faintly when he noticed the puppy in her lap. "Yeah, I think he's kind of claimed you." He said with a laugh. Wait, he was... laughing and like genuinely smiling. Fuck, puppies and decent people were like drugs. He didn't like it. "Oh, uhh..." he thought about it for a moment. Show up to Adriane's house with a girl and a puppy, yeah... he was sure that that would go over great. Especially after what had happened with Raven. "Maybe another time. It's almost her nap time."

Maree

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Ash

For the most part, Jace's activities were things that Ash hadn't even really heard of. "D&D?" she echoed, knowing that it sounded familiar, and then it clicked. "Oh! Dungeons and Dragons? My brother used to play that when he was... younger." And he actually had a couple friends. Ash decided to leave out the part where she had teased him about playing it. And then there had been one that one time that Ash had had some friends over while Jace had also, and they may have gone into his room to make fun of them. Not her strongest memories, or strongest times. "But I don't know what LARPing is... why does it involve swords?" Did she even want to know?

Deciding that it wasn't important to know what these weird things were, she instead listened as he mentioned playing chess with an old guy, which was... a little weird, to be perfectly honest. It was definitely too cold for any kind of sports, but video games caught her attention. "I've never really played a lot of video games. Well, I have. Like, Jace has this whole fancy set up for online gaming, and a bunch of consoles, so I play with him a lot." Okay, so a lot meant like once a month. If that.

At his last comment, Ash just glared up at him. "I'm busy with school and stuff and like, I like going to parties. I just don't like the drama that follows." And Ash would be damned if she'd stop going to parties, or stop drinking. It was fun. And yeah, it almost always led to bad decisions, but oh well. Plus, to keep her popular girl reputation intact, Ash basically had to go to the parties. And, well, her reputation was important to her, even if it basically meant nothing after high school ended.

DrabberRogue

-----------------------------------

Ava

"What the hell is a whole package?" Ava asked, obviously terrified as she followed after Jules and took a seat next to her. They started offering pre-colored nails, and she was sure her expression was just completely disgusted. She honestly had no idea what to choose -- hell, Ava didn't get her nails colored -- and then JJ was choosing purple. Which, well, that would work. It was Ava's favorite color, and at least it wouldn't be completely horrible to have it on her nails. But then more people were flocking over, and Ava looked around at all of them suspiciously in turn.

They attacked all at once, and there were so many people coming from so many different directions that Ava couldn't even fight them all off. She tried to move her face out of the way of the makeup, and ended up with powder in her mouth. She coughed and sputtered, listening as Jules thanked her for coming. "Yeah, of course, there's nothing like getting animal fat and yak urine put on me. I love it. What a fun time." Her voice was filled with sarcasm, but Ava did like being able to hangout with Jules. Like the good ol' days.

And now mascara was coming at her face, and it looked like tar. "Excuse me, but what is that for? Sawing out my eyeball? Why would you put tar in my eye?" She asked, leaning as far away as possible from the irritated makeup lady. And then the person working her hair yanked a little too hard, and Ava settled down long enough for them to apply the stupid tar or whatever. She glanced over at Jules, sighing as she did so. "How sweet of you. I'm glad you invited me. It's nice to do something, even if it's... this."

Soap​

 

[Dede]

Professor Martin French, Ph.D., M.A., Dip.Ed.
​

Martin knew it was bad news the moment they entered Principal Nona’s office. The eeriness of the room made him uncomfortable. In a funny way, Martin probably felt more nervous to be sitting in the principal’s office than Stuart. Even though they had talked over the phone more than once, it was his first time meeting the famed headmistress of Westbrook in person. She was every bit as he had imagined her, a strong and independent woman, and still somehow she managed to surprise him.

She was small in her frame but fierce in outlook. He matched her perpendicular posture as they sat folding their hands politely over their laps. It was both extremely pretentious and unnecessary, but no way was he going to let her outdo him in the etiquette department. His son sat down beside him with a little pout; he clearly didn’t want to be there.

At first Martin couldn’t believe what was coming out of the woman’s mouth.

‘No, as a matter of fact, I did not know that,’ Martin replied. ‘Now hang on a minute—’

‘Dad.’

Martin eyed the woman with disbelief. ‘You can’t be serious.’ He scoffed. ‘Forgive me, but that is frankly quite outrageous! If I understand correctly, you're suggesting that my son be suspended for two weeks, for doing what exactly? . . . Stuart didn’t even instigate the fight, he was simply defending himself. I saw it with my own eyes. Everybody in the audience did.’

‘Dad, it’s OK.’

‘No, it is not OK, Stuart,’ Martin snapped at his son, his blood beginning to boil, ‘I’m sorry Miss. . . Nona, but as a fellow educator, I must now speak my mind.’

And speak his mind he did.

‘The way I see it, you’ve summoned all these students here having already made up your mind to hand out these. . . ludicrous, punitive measures. . . but all this time you’ve neglected to follow even the most basic of protocols, which is to first talk to your students and get to the bottom of the story.’

Stuart sank into his chair a little further as his father lashed out at the headmistress.

‘Therefore you’ve condemned without due process these innocent kids to a pointless exercise of staying at home and being a nuisance to their poor parents, who also have to make a living. . . Well,’ he scoffed again, ‘I’m not entirely sure what you intend to achieve by this ridiculous course of action, but I believe that in doing so you have betrayed the integrity of this whole school. . . And all the kids you have decided on a whim to punish will be missing out on their classes, and their grades will suffer as a result, and nobody wins.’

Martin was barely seated at this point. A bit of height gave extra weight to his grievances. He wasn't planning on being intimidated by a person half his academic qualifications.

‘Now we can agree that what the students did last week was an embarrassment, but I daresay you’ve inflicted an even greater embarrassment upon this entire establishment, by demonstrating a complete lack of respect for your students and their hard-working parents . . . bla bla bla incomprehensibly irresponsible bla bla bla utterly shameless bla bla bla criminally ill-advised.'

Of course, at this point Stu had already excused himself from the room and was now catching his breath in the waiting area outside. He sat down next to a dark-haired junior girl and their elbows connected a little by accident.

‘I’m sorry,’ the boy muttered, turning his head down with a sigh and picking away at his nails. His dad’s voice was seeping through the wall for everyone to hear. It was even more embarrassing than what happened at the musical. He just wanted to float away back to Sheep Street.

 

[DrabberRogue]

The Morning of Murder Monday found Jace Rose in a very unusual state. Ordinarily by this time he would be off chatting with one of the other students or playing games somewhere. Just entertaining himself while he waited for class to start. Indeed he was on his laptop, sitting against the wall in Westbrook's main area. Usually a sign that he was engrossed in some manner of video game. This morning was different, however. A quick glance at his screen would show the complete absence of any game, instead revealing the slides of a history presentation. The very presentation he and Ash were due to deliver later that day.

Normally such a thing wouldn't even cross his mind until the bell rang for history class. In fact he probably didn't even need to worry about it. Ash was probably gonna want to do the speaking part herself. After all it wasn't like she had stage fright or anything, the girl was practically a born actress. When she wasn't high anyways. She'd probably earn them an A just on the merit of her speaking alone. Jace couldn't help it though, the subject of their project was actually kind of interesting. It was to the point where he'd actually gone above and beyond when it came to the research, although very little of the extra things he'd read actually made it into the project. Not like they would get any extra points for rambling on about all the surrounding context, right? The teacher never asked for that sort of stuff.

Although that wasn't the only reason he was spending his morning looking over their presentation. After all he'd looked over it dozens of times while helping put it together, there wasn't really anything new to see. Really Jace wanted to make sure he could give the presentation if he had to. He remembered what Ash had said about being sent to private school. Even though she said she would stay at Westbrook, he was still a little worried that he might not get to talk to her anymore. Perhaps more pressing though was that such a situation would also mean that the blonde wasn't going to show up to class. Jace wouldn't put it past her stupid 'mother' to make her switch schools on the day that a project was due. He may not care all that much about his own grade, but he'd be damned if he was going to let Ash take any hits on such a heavily weighted assignment. A perfect girl like her probably had an equally flawless set of A's on her report card, and it would suck for her to mess that up through no fault of her own.

He was probably over preparing though. Even Ash's parents couldn't be that oblivious, right? They did raise her after all, and she turned out pretty great as far as he was concerned. Besides it wasn't that much of a hassle for him. Jace liked the subject, so it was kind of fun to look everything over and come up with how he was going to deliver it. Hell, at this point he wouldn't mind just taking the speaker roll for himself. Let the hard working girl take a break for once.

 

[Winona]

"Well Mr. French," Nona was finally able to get a word in edgewise. Her gaze drifted to the clock for a moment. If every meeting took as long as this one, then she was going to have to stay late to finish her other work. Marvelous. She had remained calm throughout this exchange, but a million more of these? Goodness, it would be completely impossible to stay sane.

"As I'm sure you know, we do have to abide by what the Board of Directors deems appropriate, which means suspension of at least two weeks for fights." Nona explained. "Whether he 'started' it or not, your son did rip down our curtain and break it, as well as smash into another student's guitar. Both of which we could ask you to cover the cost of, but instead we have decided to take the bill."

"But for these grievances... you know, looking at Stu's case again, I'm thinking that three weeks would be much more appropriate." What? There wasn't really anything that Stu's dad could do. In these days, no one held a lot of power or cared enough about some stupid suspension to step in and say something. "So, three weeks it is. Anything else, Mr. French?" She asked with a polite smile.

Dede

 

[Twin Fantasy]

Charlie McAllister
There's a song in my head: Visiting Friends - Animal Collective

And as per usual, he wakes with limbs the weight of concrete.

space0ddity: harper
yaboiharper: ya. dont u have school
space0ddity: yeah i just
space0ddity: i had the most amazing dream
yaboiharper: oh?? what was it
space0ddity: idk i had a husband and a farm and was a famous theremin player
space0ddity: we had a bunch of zebra finches and. doves i think idk
space0ddity: ...we banged in the aviary
yaboiharper: dont bang in an aviary its. gross.
space0ddity: yeah but like it was a dream whatever
space0ddity: catch me wishin i stayed The fuck Asleep
yaboiharper: dog i gotta get to school we can talk later
space0ddity: seeya

It would be a cool day. Charlie broke out one of his turtlenecks -- a black one. Today seemed like an all-black day. If he got lost wading through the fog, someone might be able to find him. As he stepped out, a layer of morning mist hung just above the ground and through the sky. His parents left for work earlier than he left for school, and they dropped off Archie themselves, so Charlie didn't worry about anyone seeing him take his guitar out of the house. He'd been out of school for months, and probably had some music class activity he needed to catch up on.

Normally he turned on some music on the walk to school. But the winds, the sparse birdsong, it was so artfully morose. An ambient song of melancholy, not written by any man, but instead made through a combination of natures song.

Every part of the universe has its own song. From atoms to galaxies, every thing and every collection of things has a song. An unwritten one, yes, but a song nonetheless. Charlie sometimes wished he could hear them all at once. The swan song of every plant, animal, and thing. Every person. Every cell, every part of every cell. On a day like this, he wondered why the fuck he was going to school at all.

It wasn't a long walk. Otherwise he wouldn't bother with it, he'd buy a bicycle or something. The local schoolbus was a fucking cesspool. A long hall of absolute depravity, a moving vehicle of apes and pigs warring and biting at one another's throats. A slur comes from the front of the bus, and is spat back from the rear. Everyone's talking about nothing. Everyone's thinking about nothing. All just gabbing, talking to fill empty space. Because nobody knows what to do with silence. Nobody just wants to crack open a window and hear the way the bus engine sings to the trees. There's no stimulation, no immediate gratification. So the yellow schoolbus becomes a noisy, bee-colored hellscape that emptied out into another hellscape known as "high school".

Walking was better. Infinitely.

On the long haul to school, it was easy to tell where the influx of students came in. Flowing from the streets and sidewalks, all siphoning into one point, one that flowed ever downward like a river. Down towards the front doors of Westbrook High, where dreams probably go to die. In the halls, people clumped together, each one a cellular unit of its very own. School. The worst fucking thing. School. Goddamnit.

It had come to Charlie's attention that he owed a paper, like, today. 'It has to be persuasive, and it has to be about ways to improve the school system.' Then the usual "this-many-pages" "this-many-paragraphs" kind of shit. But it got the dusty little gears in Charlie's head turning, as he was still laid up in bed with his mother throwing assignments at his painkiller-stuffed cadaver. He had an idea, but only barely began actually working on it, and about two paragraphs sat collecting lint on his blue flash drive. All about treating the arts as equal to all of the other garbage they had here.

After all, what made an artist or musician less intelligent than a mathematician? Other than some concept that things like reading and math were more important, even more valid than creativity. As though people who can't do math are just morons. Maybe Charlie was a bit annoyed because he was bad at math.

But it was nearing its due date, so Charlie hightailed it to the library and popped the drive into one of the anachronistic dinosaur computers they had. A white desktop, the same sort he'd probably used to play Putt-Putt Joins the Circus when he was about four years old. The keyboard made a thick, satisfying clack whenever he hit a button. Like a typewriter, almost. With his flash drive plugged in, he resumed writing the prayerbook of his thesis. Just another Monday.

Interactions: None yet​

 

[High5ives]

Cold steel, held in a trembling hand. Blood in the sink. Needles scattered across the ground. Empty bottles, shattered in the bathtub. Pill bottles spilling out from the broken cabinets. Screams silently echoing in the far reaches of Kanen’s mind. This was it. Kanen was done. He’d tried to be better, God knows he fucking tried. But he couldn’t do this anymore, the nightmares. The empty numbness that ached in his chest. What was the point now? He’d wasted away his life, squandered the opportunities he had, and ended up in Boston as some fucking Mob Boss’ lackey. No. For the first time in over a year, Kanen was taking his life, or what was left of it, back under control. His only comfort lied in knowing that this would be the end of it all. There was no one left to hurt but himself, and every story needs an end.

He stood in front of the cracked mirror, bare chested, wearing only a pair of dark jeans. The muddled mirage of tattoos spread across his body served to only mildly hide the track marks and scars that were etched into his flesh. If tragedy were an artist, Kanen had become a masterpiece. His skin a testament to pain, and his mind a mangled manifesto of suffering.

Kanen didn’t recognize himself as he looked in the mirror. His eyes had become like pits, hinting at no emotion, no meaning. A steep decline into drug dependence had left his eyes sunken back into his skull.

He looked like a corpse.

That cold piece of steel was comfortable in his hand. Kanen brushed his thumb ever so gently against the safety, feeling the little grooves. His head slowly fell, eyes coming down to gaze at the handgun. He’d used it before, something that haunted him. Guilt plagued Kanen, attacking him nightly in his sleep. This wouldn’t be the first time he discharged the gun in his hands, but it would be the last...

There was a moment of hesitation before Kanen slightly lifted his hand up, bringing the barrel to press against his skull. There was no turning back, no mistakes here. His finger rested firmly on the trigger as he stood there, staring at himself in the mirror. Kanen had thought about this dozens upon dozens of times, but now, when it was time to go through with things, he found himself second guessing himself. However, he quickly brushed the thoughts away, simply blaming his own cowardice for his indecisiveness.

As his finger began to tighten around the trigger, Kanen’s chest erupted into a scream, a loud and ungodly noise. Like a banshee screaming curses of damnation.

A little tighter and Kanen pulled the trigger.

The gun just clicked. No discharge. No bullet. Nothing.

All that build-up, for nothing.

The gun dropped from his hand, clattering down on the floor as Kanen stood there in the mirror. A million thoughts raced through his head. He was shocked if nothing else, but that initial shock quickly faded to dispair. All at once he realized what he had done, or rather failed to do. In a moment, Kanen had collapsed down, his back against the wall and his head in his hands.

Quiet sobs softly echoed out from the bathroom, only to be drowned out by the nightlife of Boston...

 

[Soap]

Grace

Her room was a disaster. A literal disaster. Grace is usually a very tidy person, usually. However, it wasn’t everyday she loses the promise ring her girlfriend had given to her days before, upset and annoyed at herself, she got up from the floor where she was previously looking under the bed. Grace wasn’t going to give up on looking for it, the last time she had it was home. It was to be somewhere. Realizing she was going to be late, she glanced down at her hands Sawyer would definitely see, biting her lip while she looked through her vanity drawers, grabbing an old pair of gloves, besides... it was cold outside anyway, they live next to the water. Yeah. It makes sense. Slipping them on and walking softly as possible downstairs, she froze when she noticed her mother.

Truth be told, Grace didn’t want to do this whole ignoring thing. They weren’t on good terms, probably the worst terms they’d ever had, but... they couldn’t stay like this forever. Despite how much Grace was sure her mother wanted to. Standing at the edge of the stairs, holding onto the rail as if she was afraid to walk down the other two steps. “...good morning.” Giving the most smallest of smiles, which obviously was the most tight lipped smile, and was probably not considered one anyway. Kate was obviously deep in thought and didn’t know how to react to the small exchange, surprisingly she shook it off and gave a nod. “Morning.” Her mother stood there for another moment before moving away from the steps to go... anywhere but here probably. Right. It was a start... again.

Later at school, most of the hallways were empty, and she had no doubt it was probably because of the whole call-in stuff with the principal, Grace was surprised she didn’t get called in, but really, she wasn’t complaining. Even if almost all of her friends weren’t in trouble, it might sound a little selfish... but she was glad she wasn’t one of them, and if she was completely honest with herself, they deserved a talking to at the least of it. Look. Despite the whole mother daughter fight, she was really looking forward to that play working out.

Everyone can say what they want to. She worked her ass off for it, and... it just went to pieces, so, believe it or not. Grace might’ve been a little upset about it. Okay, more than a little. Catching sight of Sawyer at her locker and a small smile came across her face before it faded as she remembered her stupidity, adjusting the gloves on her hands as she walked over, greeting her with a kiss on the cheek. “Hi.” Deciding to throw her mind off the guilt. Yes, it’d been days and she hadn’t told her yet. It’s fine. Because Grace is going to find it. Sawyer didn’t need to know just yet... or you know... ever. “I actually said two whole sentences to my mother today.” She pointed out the numbers on her gloved hands, and crossed her arms, leaning against the locker close to hers.

“How about you so far, hmm, any unnecessary drama of your own?” Grace teased with a raise of her eyebrows.

KingofAesir​

 

[Dazzle]

Carter


Carter made her way to school earlier than most of the Westbrook students, going by her locker to unpack her bag and fill it with the books she would need for her classes before lunch. The cold air was crisp and she was really starting to wish she lived south, 'winter is coming'. Wandering over to her favorite bench across from Nona's office, watching everyone come in and out of the office, one by one they were suspended. Murder Monday was off to a great start, she thought sarcastically to herself. The play had been one of Westbrook's biggest shit shows thus far.

At this point the entire weekend had basically been a huge blur, after the incident with the brownies Carter hadn't heard much from Mason. Which she expected at this point. Carter had thought about texting him a few times, but quickly decided against it. She knew he had a lot of shit going on, especially with Drake off his meds again.

Carter had been feeling confused since the end of the play where Mason had kissed Raven just a bit too passionately for a school play. She felt something in the pit of her stomach. The entire situation bothered her, was it jealous? She had been flirting with Raven backstage prior to the performance, but she hadn't feel this way when Raven and Alaska had been exposed on stage. Carter decide that her feelings probably had more to do with the fear of loosing Mason again, like she had when Adriane came into the picture. But Raven wasn't anything like Adriane, Raven was a good person.. and obviously she wasn't interested in Mason since she had gone on a date with Alaska this past weekend. But still Carter was having a hard time letting go of how she felt about the stage kiss even as much as she tried to brush it off like it was nothing.

Carter avoided JJ's party, and went into the next town over, there was no way in hell she was spending the weekend sober or with any Westbrook students after all the feelings she had. She needed to shut down and dissociate from everyone in her life, to be able to actually survive another week with her family, and the shitty teachers at Westbrook. Waking up in some random girls bedroom fully clothed the next morning, hungover with mascara smudged across her face. She wasn't exactly sure how she got there, and obviously hadn't had as much fun as she wanted to. But she was just happy she hadn't been able to make it home in time for church. What was the worst her mom would do? Scream at her, at least she wasn't one of the kids in the play.

Her hangover had been easy to recover from, getting home late Sunday afternoon and just laying in bed for the next 12 or so hours till she had to make it back to the hell hole they called school. She pulled out her homework folder while sitting on the bench facing Nona's office. She had a few papers she'd neglected to work on over the weekend, and was hoping that no one would remind the teacher of their due date before she had a chance to finish them.

@OPEN​

 

[KingofAesir]

Sawyer

Sawyer awoke the morning of Murder Monday to the feeling of someone or something's breath on her face. Before she even opened her eyes, Sawyer scrunched up her face and reached up to swat at the air in front of it. When her hand came into contact with warm skin, Sawyer shot backwards and her head ricocheted off the headboard. Her eyes focused as she rubbed her now sore head and the sight they were greeted with almost had her flying out of the bed again. There in front of her stood none other than Elle Andrews looking rather amused with herself. Sawyer was confused. Elle wasn't supposed to come until next week what was she doing here already? Elle seemed to read her mind and answered the question before Sawyer had a chance to ask it.


"My trip to Europe was a bust. That dig site was dry as bones and I got really bored at home all by myself so tada, here I am." Elle explained, with a flourish of her hands. Her Aunt was an archaeologist and had been in Europe for the past few months on some rumor that they'd found the remains of King Arthur's Camelot. Apparently, there had been nothing there but a few iron age house skeletons that seemed to have burned down at some point. Of course, Elle had told Oliver all of this over the phone in a rather quick tone that had had the poor guy grasping for words. Fortunately, he'd been able to piece the basics together and relay Elle's experience to Sawyer. So it seemed that with the busy body Elle was she just couldn't stay at her house doing nothing.


Sawyer was still confused as to why her aunt had been standing over her like one of those creepy kids from a horror movie, but she didn't ask. There was a long drawn out tale of her adventures in Europe as Sawyer mulled about getting ready for school. Elle told her about coming on all sorts of people as she trekked to the dig site. There was even a story about a particularly curious village that Elle swore was made up of cannibals. Sawyer didn't think much of it, Elle had a tendency to over-exaterrate and Sawyer seriously doubted that there was just a whole village of cannibals in the middle of country side Europe. She didn't want to hear why Elle thought that. The end of Elle's story was almost perfectly timed with Sawyer reaching the front door to leave. Sawyer was excited that Elle was here, she really was, but good god that woman could talk all damn day.


"That was...a lot. You'll have to tell the cannibal village one to my girlfriend later." Sawyer smiled and pulled Elle in to hug her before turning to leave. She was halfway to her car when she heard Elle practically shout "girlfriend?" and then her dad's voice starting to tell Elle about Grace as he shut the door. Sawyer shook her head and shoved her backpack in her car and drove out.


After that oh-so-familiar ride, Sawyer pulled up to the school a little earlier than unusual. She kinds just sat there for a little bit as she watched a few of...could she call them her friends? Sawyer had barely spoken to some of them, but they were all in a play together. Anyway, she was watching them walk into the school for what she assumed was Principal Nona's call-in about the weed brownies and literal fighting on stage. If there was one thing Sawyer knew about this school it was that, no matter how hard Principla Nona tried, there would never be a week that went by without some semblance of a disaster. This place was a lost cause, too far gone to be rescued. Sawye only walked in to the school a few minutes later, where she had to kick her locker to get the stupid thi g to open. She was engrossed in trying to find her history textbook in the mess that was her locker when a kiss being placed on her cheek pulled her thoughts away from that. She looked over and smiled at Grace, but raised a curious eyebrow when she raised her hands and there were...gloves on them? What?


"It was fairly drama free. My aunt is here though. Apparently she got bored at home." Sawyer's words were distracted as she was still staring at Grace's hands, "Um.." Sawyer chuckled a little, "Babe, why are you wearing gloves?"

Soap​

 

[a z u l a]

Alaska

The weekend had majorly sucked and this week was only going to get worse. Tackling Mason off stage hadn't exactly been her finest moment, and though she'd managed to escape the Lexi incident with only detention, she was certain she would getting suspended if not expelled today. The only good part of today had been seeing Raven before class started, their date had gone better than expected and she'd been looking forward to seeing her at school since she'd been grounded indefinitely, though now she had no way of seeing the pretty brunette since she was certainly kicked out of school for at least this week.

As she waited in the surprisingly long line of kids getting suspended, a particularly distressed looking boy came to sit beside her, muttering apologies as their elbows bumped. She recognized him as they boy who'd beat up Ash's brother, though it wasn't exactly hard to do. He'd also been friends with Kanen, or something along those lines, she remembered from the auditorium incident.

"Hey, you really did a number on beanie bitch." She offered, smiling in the smaller boys direction. Alaska had been a little too preoccupied by trying to bash Mason's face in to see the boys knock Principal Nona off stage, but she'd heard it had been hilarious and she was a little disappointed to have missed it. She didn't know much about the little blond but she respected anyone willing to finish a fight.

Though she'd been in Principal Nona's office before, she was much more nervous this time. This year hadn't been good for her, she'd gotten away with a lot already and she knew it was all going to catch up with her now. She couldn't even count on one hand the number of people she'd punched this year and that didn't exactly bode well for her. Her mother was positively fuming still and there wasn't really any way she could make it worse.

"I know where Kanen is." She suddenly blurted out, unsure why she was sharing this information with a boy she hardly knew. "Well, okay I don't know exactly where he is but I have an idea. I was gonna go but..." Well frankly she'd been to scared to go at first, knowing Kanen probably hated her and she had no real reason to chase after him. Sure she'd liked Kanen, but they hadn't known each other that well and driving to another state to find him seemed absolutely insane. It wasn't that she missed him or anything like that, it was the pure guilt of knowing that she'd been the one to push him that extra step too far. And now, well she had Raven and she was the happiest she'd been in a while.

Dede ​

 

[Moonshadow]

June
​

“How much?” She asked grabbing the bottles and hiding them in her bag.

The guy she bought it from claimed they were good, able to send your body into next tomorrow. He didn’t seem bothered to sell them to a minor, money will always be money. The guy stated his price and June handed him the money before getting into Grace’s car. She stopped as her phone buzzed and thought for a moment it was Grace asking her where the hell her car was. When she pulled it out, she paused to find it was Ruby. Her hands started to shake and she couldn’t even will herself to unlock her phone. All she saw was Ruby’s smiling face on the side of a large text. When she tapped the screen, she heard a rattling coming from Grace’s car. When she opened the door, she didn’t even have time to react before she was impaled by a box cutter.

Waking up quickly, she threw the blanket off of her. She looked over to the clock then her closet. School. She needed to go to school. She walked over to her closet, opening the door and quickly stepping back as a bag fell out. A bottle bounced on the carpet and June quickly grabbed it and stuffed it back inside. So annoying. She thought, pushing the bag back in with her foot and grabbed her clothes. She hesitated for a moment, staring down at the bottle before looking around. She got a water holder, pouring some liquor in before capping it. Then shutting the door behind her.


She was quick to walk to her locker, her hand clutching the bottle before spinning the combination. She got everything she needed and pausing looking at her reflection in the metal. It was like a pain that didn’t hurt as she thought about how she constantly lowered herself to everyone. Everyone always told her how awful she was. Why should she care? Why should she try to fix things? No one really cares. She cared, but at the end of the day, she might not keep a heart if she keeps offering it up for another.

She frowned and slammed the locker behind her. The noise turned some heads to her and she gave them a quick middle finger before grabbing her stuff and leaving.

@open

 

[Dazzle]

Zach


Coach finally gave him the go-ahead to get back to conditioning. Zach had been keeping up on his homework, and had actually gotten to have a little fun over the weekend. Thankfully he had avoided principal Nona's wrath after the play, since the worst he had actually done was open the curtains just a bit too early... And that wasn't punishable right? Then again with Nona you never know. But at least he had coach back on his side, especially since Marlo his mom was home she would bury him in the backyard if he got suspended.

Zach came out of the locker rooms after a much needed work out, taking a brief shower in the locker rooms. He ran his hand through his wet hair rubbing he back of his neck. Jeez he was sore after this morning. A week without conditioning and being thrown back into it full force hurt. It was a good kind of hurt though.

Zach made his way over to his locker opening it rather smoothly, when a small red head slammed the locker next to him. She seemed to be having the type of morning she was having a week ago. June... He thought to himself, she was new this year and despite that Westbrook was over run by red heads they all looked different and remarkably striking in their own ways. "Rough morning?" He said raising an eyebrow looking beyond his locker door at her. He took out his books for the first few classes and closed his locker almost silently.

Zach took a few steps towards her leaning against the locker. "June right?" He held out his hand. "You're new this year. I've seen you around." His gaze dropped for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "Zach." A kind smile graced his lips.

Moonshadow ​

 

[Dazzle]

Rae


Rae weekend had gone pretty well, her and Chase spent the weekend together mostly wandering between places. She never thought she would be that type of girl who only spends time with her boyfriend even if they weren't official yet. But yet here she was, and she didn't hate it. Chase was easy to talk to, he was the first person she had told about her mom.

Rae made her way to her locker after leaving her brother at the gym, she heard a loud slam at the lockers from across from her briefly turning around she saw an angry looking red head who proceeded to flip her off for starring. She turned back around quickly and started to reorganize her locker. Twisting a piece of hair with her free hand.

Interactions: Open|
Mentions: Moonshadow a z u l a

Mads


Madison and Rae made their way to school, fighting over the fact that she wouldn't let Mads talk to Chase but Rae and Scar had gotten to spend time together at the play. Madison thought the entire thing was stupid, making his way to the gym to de stress and play a little basketball. He thought back to his first day here when he met Ash, and gaining two close friends because of it. He wondered how Ryder was doing since breaking his ribs.

He dribbled the basketball between his legs and around his back. Madison was getting excited for basketball season, it was so close but still so far. And even more excited to have his girlfriend cheering him on from the sidelines.

He palmed the basketball before taking a shot from the three point line. He hit the rim and watched it bounce off the backboard and back on to the ground. Mads shook his head, he was out of sorts to say the least. He took a deep breathe before chasing after the rouge ball.

Interactions: open| Mentions: a z u l a Winona Rach
​

 

[High5ives]

The library was like Dian’s natural habitat, he was always in there writing up some sort of case for debate, or proofreading a paper for his college English classes. He was comfortable here, surrounded by countless textbooks and biographies. Even if he wasn’t in here doing his own studies, Dian spent a lot of time here as a tutor. It was good enough money for a high school job, and it plenty easy for the boy.
For the most part, Dian knew the students that frequented the library. He normally tried to help people with their studies, offering advice or suggesting resources for citations. As such, he was quietly walking back behind other students as they wrote their papers, occasionally stopping to correct a grammar error, or to suggest a better way to phrase things. It wasn’t until he came to some underclassmen, writing about the importance of the arts, that Dian came to a full stop. He took a moment to read over the argument, silently forming his own counter argument in his head.
“You know you’re going to fail the shit out of this assignment.” Dian said, standing behind the younger boy with his arms crossed over his chest. “The arts are purely subjective, not to mention, they lack any practical use in the professional world. It’s silly to try and say studying art is just as important as math or science for example. Art doesn’t build rockets or cure disease. It’s just a hobby.”

Twin Fantasy

 

[Moonshadow]

June
​

She looked over with a glare as someone talked to her. She was trying her best to keep calm, but she wanted to scream. “Sort of new.” She corrected and looked down at his hand. She hesitated, wondering what this dude was planning. She reached out and slowly shook his hand before taking her hand back quickly. “Well, Zach.” She said looking back at her locker then back at her bag. “I’ve had several ‘rough mornings’ and you can clearly see one of them.” Her sarcasm dripped like ice cream in the sun. She couldn’t help it. With every night and every morning bleeding into the next, everything becomes so blurry and exact. And it’s taking her this long to realize it. “So, do you have anything else far more intelligent than that stupid obvious statement you just said, hm?” She nodded her head as she crossed her shoulder and leaned against the locker, showing her clear annoyance towards him.

Dazzle

 

[Maree]

Belle Taylor

Mood: Neautral | Interacting with: June, Zach |Mentions: Moonshadow Dazzle

Westbrooke felt like a damn maze compared to Belle's old school. Having to get used to a new layout was much more difficult than she had imagined. It would have been useful if her guide hadn't ditched her for their friends at the first opportunity. she would have tracked down Alaska for help but she knew that she was apart of the serial suspensions. After overhearing a few kids call the day 'murder Monday' she found herself fearing for her sanity. If stuff like this happened every Monday she wasn't sure how she would survive.

Luckily she managed to locate her locker rather easily. Well, she had to pester a few kids into helping her but still. This place was very anti kindness no wonder Mason was so grumpy all the time. Speaking of grumpy she almost jumped out of her skin when someone slammed their locker. She peaked her head around her locker door to see a very grumpy looking fellow ginger. Who was now snapping at a cute looking guy. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to approach a grumpy person but gingers gotta stick together, right?

"Didn't your mother ever tell you never to approach a grumpy red-head" Belle spoke, joining the duo. smiling softly just to make it a bit clearer that she was joking. The girl was pretty even though she was glaring at everyone who looked at her. Then again she might be biased as they shared the same hair colour. "Then again I'm ignoring that advice too. Hi, I'm Belle" she gave a small wave. The guy seemed nice but the girl still looked like she was ready to murder everyone and everything. What did they say their names were again? June and Zach? that sounded right.

code by Ri.a

 

[Twin Fantasy]

Gyungmi Park

I Love Lucy was a cute little show, wasn't it? Just a harmless, fun little comedy romp. Cute and fun, a nice use of her weekend.

May returned to school on Murder Monday in a decent disposition. She wasn't sure why they called it MURDER Monday... Then again, her track record was pretty clean regarding drama and such. She didn't talk to that many people in school, and hadn't dated anyone since... what, elementary school? So she managed to avoid things like relationship drama and all that stuff.

Walking to her locker, she was a bit shocked by a loud slam. The only response from the person responsible was a middle finger. May considered saying something, er, signing something, but... no. That was much too scary. Tucking her head between her shoulders, May powerwalked towards her locker, standing next to someone else who appeared to be hard at work with organization. That must've been nice. May's locker always looked like a bomb landed inside of it. In fact, the moment she opened it a few loose sheets of paper and a CD copy of And Justice For All landed at her feet. She signed at the girl to her left.

'Sorry about that'

Hopefully she wouldn't be too angry about the mess.

Interactions: Dazzle
Mentions: Moonshadow

Shawn March Orozco

"Tired" seemed like a good descriptor for today. Shawn was really, REALLY tired. Mom and dad hopped back on that old green sea dragon named Mary Jane for like, two days straight. A cat got into the house, and Shawn had to politely, yet firmly, usher it back outside. Needless to say, both his arms and the household broom took a good scratching. Then on Sunday, he finally got back in full drag to post some pictures on Instagram. Then he went out for awhile so it wouldn't go to waste, got hammered, woke up in a stranger's house at 4 AM, and had to haul ass back to his house (which thankfully, wasn't very far) wearing nothing but a cocktail dress and tights.

Sometimes, weekends can be a bit too eventful. Murder Monday approached rapidly -- a sort of weekly holiday among students of Westbrook High which Shawn had managed to avoid falling victim to. Despite being one of the "popular kids", Shawn remained relatively uncontroversial. Nobody was really clamoring to start shit with him, and he wasn't sure if it was because they actually liked him, or because he did boxing and wrestling. (And was good at both, that's for sure.) Regardless, if it protected his frail skin from the claw of Murder Monday, he'd accept anything.

Entering school, Shawn was the picture of a hot chick who'd just partied too hard the night before. Smudged make-up that he'd only kind of cleaned, mussed hair, and a staggering walk. He pressed his back against a wall, wishing they kept some fucking ibuprofen in the house. Mom actually had the gall to try and pass him a blunt before he left. Like being high in class would do anything good!

It'd be fine though. All he needed to do was just... slow his brain down.

Interactions: Open

Charlie McAllister
There's a song in my head: uuu - Field Medic

Charlie was about to pop his headphones on and put on a song. Something to keep his mind at ease as he worked. But there was a presence, hovering low above his shoulder, in human form. And the way he opened. So... aggressive. But more than that, so wrong.

"I mean." Charlie's voice was low, almost as if he didn't want to be heard. "Most people don't use calculus after graduating."

He'd never met anyone who even remembered half the shit they learned in calc, aside from people entering math or science careers. And even then, surely, you didn't need proofs and quadratic formulas to tell people how the human heart works, or what an amoeba is. "Art is subjective, yeah, you can't really grade solely based on quality. Quality is subjective. But you can tell when someone gives a shit about it, when they really, y'know, uh..." He swallowed. "...put in the effort. And whenever I'm doing music, or art class, a lot of people just chose to do it because they think it's easy. And they fail."

He wiped his brow. Dammit, his mouth was just running again and wouldn't stop.

"People who can write or draw, creative people, their talent shouldn't be diminished in- in comparison with people who are good at math. I'm a musician, I play guitar, I'm not gonna need half the shit they tell me here. My bandmates aren't gonna tell me, 'dude, you can't release this album until you tell us five facts about the Odyssey'. Creative types get fucked over the way school is now."

...Fuck. "Sorry I- I went off a little, I'm..." Goddamnit.

Interactions: High5ives​

 

[High5ives]

Dian simply stood there as the other boy did his best to justify his argument before stuttering and ending his little rant. To be absolutely frank, Dian didn’t believe the arts, of any sort, belonged in school at all. They were hobbies. They didn’t belong in a high school anymore than cross country skiing or dog shows. School was meant to educate students and prepare them for meaningful career. Sure, not every student would use calculus in life, but those that do were working in career fields that were actually important. Higher fields of math and science meant higher paying jobs, and higher value to society.

Dian wasn’t offended or anything by the other boy’s argument. He was captain of the debate team, he lived for this stuff. Naturally he went on to attack the younger boy’s argument piece by piece. “Firstly, yes, many people will never have to use calculus after high school or college. But I’m certain that for every 100 students that use calculus, there is only one who goes on to have a successful career in art. And that’s a generous estimate.” Dian began, pulling a chair out to sit down next to the boy.

“The very nature of art makes it useless in any professional setting. While the creator may view his art piece as something to be marveled at, the rest of the world could see trash. It doesn’t have a definitive value. If you want to be an artist, fine, go ahead. But don’t expect a career out of it. The world doesn’t give a shit how hard you try at something, it cares only about results.” He continued. He kept his eyes locked on the boy, as if challenging him to argue it further. Confidence could be a powerful tool.

“The education system is meant to prepare you for a career where you can actively contribute to society. It’s not here to teach the basics of your hobbies.” Dian stopped. “Besides. A true artist, regardless of medium, doesn’t have to be taught. Did someone have to tell Picasso how to paint? Of course not. Picasso did things his own way. A successful artist doesn’t follow rules, and schools purpose is to teach you rules.”

“Drop the garage band. Get a degree.”

Twin Fantasy

 

[Maree]

Theodore Presley

Mood: Mischevious| Interacting with: Grace |Mentions: Sawyer | Soap KingofAesir

Another day back home in Westbrooke. Theodore was over the moon to be back at school with his classmates. Even if the majority of them were about to be kicked out. Well kicked out is a strong word they were hopefully just getting suspended for a few weeks. Hopefully. The word around town was that the principle was pretty pissed. Besides, it wouldn't be Monday without some murder. Maybe some macarons might put her in a better mood? who was he kidding she would probably crush them up and sprinkle them into the bin. Though she did feel bad walking past the kids sitting outside her office without attempted to cheer them up.

but he could not stop to assist as was on a very important mission. Somehow Theo the terrible secret keeper had managed to keep his arrival home a secret. Now he was trying to track down his favourite girl so he could surprise her. To anyone else it might have been strange how close he was with her, seeing as they were exes. But to them it made sense, they could never bear to lose each other. He loved her too much to let something like that happen, as a friend of course. They had so much history together they just kind of laughed at their attempt at being in a relationship together.

Turning around a corner Theo spotted her blonde locks down the hall. Her back was to her which would make her surprising her that much easier. She spooked quite easily sometimes it was hilarious. He pulled the neatly wrapped present from his bag before placing the bag on the ground. He didn't need the rattling of the other presents to give him away too soon. As he got closer to her he noticed she was talking to some girl, Sawyer? Remembering names after being gone for so long was difficult. Once he reached her he bent down a little so he could spook her. "Hey berry," he said right beside her ear. Once she was sufficiently spooked he held out his arms to her. "Surprise"

code by Ri.a

 

[Soap]

Grace

Grace smiled, she might’ve been a little nervous if she was to ever meet her aunt, but if she was anything like Sawyer’s dad, she was likely to be super accepting. They were incredibly sweet people and she was kind of excited to meet her. It was fairly obvious how much she meant to Sawyer. So... of course she wants to meet her. That smile immediatedly faded when she asked about the gloves, right. It wasn’t like she could tell her the truth. So, she went with the next best thing. “It’s uh... cold.” What? It was cold, kind of cold. It was a tiny lie. Lying to her made her extremely uncomfortable but she didn’t want to hurt her, that was the last thing she wanted to do. Leaving it at that and hoping her girlfriend wouldn’t pry too much.

Grace flinched when she heard a voice from behind her, she’d know that voice anywhere, and there was only one person who’d called that that semi-embarrassing nickname, he never let up on it though, so she figured what was the harm in it? She turned around and her jaw dropped in shock for a split second before a beaming smile came across her face, “Robin!” she practically jumped on top on him, wrapping Theo in one if those koala like hugs, she let out a small laugh. “When you’d get back?” Theo was the only boy she’ll ever love, he was her best friend, their relationship was her first one, and well, she was more than sure it was her last one with a boy in general.

It just kind of made sense to them that they’d get together, at the time he was the quarterback for the football team, and she’s head cheerleader, it didn’t work out but they stayed as close as they could be. It was like... they never stopped dating in the first place, just no kissing and all the coupley things. Don’t get Grace wrong though, Theo was great. Amazingly sweet guy and she loved him with all her heart. But... not that way. Releasing him from the hug and finding her way back to the floor, her smile didn’t fade though.

Glancing back at Sawyer and back to Theo, oh. Right. She probably should’ve... he was in France! She didn’t think he’d come back! But it wasn’t like Sawyer didn’t know she had a boyfriend before, right? ...okay, she should just... right. Clearing her throat before introducing them both.

“Theo, this is Sawyer.”

KingofAesir Maree​

 

[KingofAesir]

Sawyer


It was cold. Right. Sawyer found it pretty obvious that Grace was not wearing gloves because it was cold, but she decided not to think too much of it. She doubted it was anything too serious or Grace would tell her. Right now Sawyer was just content with the explanation that Grace was just weird. The subject was quickly dropped in Sawyer's mind and she was about to move on to more pressing subjects when she spotted a boy behind Grace. He sat things down and snuck up behind her girlfriend, getting uncomfortably close for Sawyer's tastes, and then she was pretty sure he called her 'Berry'. What the hell? Sawyer was even more confused when Grace turned around and practically spider-monkeyed the guy. Woah, woah, woah. Nope, this was too weird. First the gloves and now this random guy that she had never seen...Theo. Grace introduced him as Theo and suddenly Sawyer was reminded of a time when their quarterbacks name was Theo. Okay, so maybe he wasn't a complete rando, but still.


"Uh, hi?" Sawyer stepped forward to shake his hand, "Yeah, I'm Sawyer. Grace is my girlfriend." She had no idea if Grace wanted him to know that but it was a subconscious defensive move that she'd barely noticed she'd done. After a few seconds of just standing there Sawyer decided to ask the question that was bugging at her. She'd never seen Grace act like that around anyone. Could anyone blame her for wanting to know who the hell this guy was? No, so shut up.


"How do you guys know each other?" Sawyer managed a smile, "I don't think Grace has ever mentioned you." That last comment was directed more at Grace than it was at Theo.

Soap Maree​

 

[Winona]

Mason

Drake still hadn't shown up, which was kind of a problem following today. Both boys were supposed to head into Nona's office to receive their punishment, and their mother was sitting here beside Mason, glaring around at all of the other parents. She hadn't been very happy to receive the call from Principal Nona asking her to come in, and that had just resulted in a ton of yelling at Mason. Still, his weekend hadn't been terrible after spending Saturday with Belle, and then spending Sunday with Ari.

He looked around at everyone else, until his gaze landed on Raven. Mason hesitated for a moment, then he stood up and walked over, taking a seat next to her. "So how was your weekend? Did you go on a date with Alaska?" Was he asking too many questions about her relationship with Alaska? Well, probably, but... he was just curious. As a friend would be.

Soap​

 

[Dazzle]

Zach


Damn June had seriously gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. She was either always a huge bitch, or had been having a really rough time at the school. Granted this year for most people had been pretty shitty, with Murder Mondays coming about and all. As she took her hand away he could tell she was a bit uncomfortable with his presence. "I guess I don't." His eyes wandered across the hall. "But what you just put in your locker isn't going to fix it." He nodded towards the closed locker, seeing what she had brought in was definitely not allowed on the grounds. Before June could likely slap him for the intrusion of privacy another red head, one he didn't recognize, walked up to them.

This school was really starting to become over run with the red heads. "You know, I never seem to learn." He chuckled lightly thinking about all the hell he caused for Ava, and wondered where she was today. He hadn't heard from her since Saturday, and usually she would of texted him if they were meeting up in the library or not. "Nice to meet you Belle, Zach." A flirtatious grin across his lips. "First day? I'm sure I would remember having seen you around." Once again, the school had some gorgeous red heads, and they just seemed to be multiplying by the day.

Interactions: Moonshadow Maree | Mentions: Winona​

 

[Dede]

Detective Tie​

Martin’s voice carried through the wall for all the kids and their parents waiting outside to hear: ‘Well -- How absurd! That is utterly, utterly unacceptable. Well! You haven’t heard the end of this, I promise you!’

Neck Tie scratched the back of his blond head a little. ’Yeah, that’s. . . um. . . That’s my dad,’ he said, smiling weakly at the girl, completely embarrassed by the situation. Dad was making such a scene out of this whole suspension thing. Neck Tie didn’t think it was that big of a deal. In fact, since everyone else seemed to be lining up for punishment, he might have felt a bit left out if he didn’t get some as well.

His smile faded when he heard the mention of ‘beanie bitch’. He didn't want to say anything about that. Sure, he held his own pretty well in that fight, but it was only because Jace was as lanky as a straw, didn’t have a single muscle in his body, or any balls between his legs for that matter. This was a kid who, in his senior year, cowered behind a girl while bawling his eyes out and screaming like a baby, for god’s sake. So the fight wasn’t something Neck Tie was particularly proud of. In fact, for someone who had once faced the might of Mason in front of the whole school, this was a bit a disappointing sequel.

The whole situation between him and Jace was painful to even think about, to be sure. He always wanted to believe that Jace wasn’t the wimp that everyone else made him out to be. And for a while they actually managed to become great friends. At least, that was until Jace freaked out about Elise seeing his dad.

He was doing it again. Going over what happened. He promised himself he wouldn’t. But he couldn’t help it. It hurt to think that he ever looked up to Jace, thinking he was the best musician ever, and wanting to be better at music just like him. Neck Tie had also been glad when he discovered that Elise was Jace’s mum, believing that that would make them like actual brothers. Now he just never wanted to see that boy and his stupid, ugly beanie ever again. That beanie belonged at the bottom at the sea where the sun didn't shine.

So that was that. He passed a weak side-smile at the girl, wondering why she was here as well. Hopefully it wasn’t for as stupid a reason as his own. But it sure looked as though a lot of people had decided to get in trouble on the same day. . . well, this wasn't anything unusual for Westbrook.

The boy’s eyes lit up right away at the mention of Kanen. A name which hit him like a rock between the eyes.

‘Kanen?’

His body sprang up straight in the chair. Just like that, he forgot all about Jace and Principal Nona and his dad, who was still complaining away in the office. Suddenly none of those things mattered anymore, and the girl had his fullest attention.

‘Tell me!’ the boy said, a sudden desperation forming over his face. He then switched to a whisper, ‘He’s OK, isn’t he?’

Neck Tie had always wondered where his friend went, or why. When he asked on twitter, a certain GoDuckYourself and R@v3n just laughed at him. It was bad enough he never got to talk to Kanen before he disappeared. The last thing Kanen did to him was to toss him into a bunch of chairs. Then again, that was probably as good a goodbye as anybody was going to get from him. Kanen really should work on his goodbyes some more.

a z u l a