palmetto-writing-attempts

[palmetto-writing-attempts]

Random Thots

Allison and neil are obviously besties

When they go shopping allison complains abt her current boyfriend/girlfriend while she drags neil through the mall

Neil is almost too level headed and has zero problems telling her when to dump someone’s dumb ass

When neil gets overwhelmed/tired they find somewhere quiet and get smoothies (neils loves anything banana flavored, refuses to touch anything with mango) and talk about andrew (shhh)

Allison understands Neil being w Andrew more than the other foxes bc “Seth was an asshole too, okay? I know what it’s like to love someone even though they push everyone away.”

Allison is moving on but she misses Seth, especially because she knows he would have loved to prove every motherfucker wrong about their team

Nicky is frustrated about Neil never using his phone

He texts neil all the time, about whatever, practice, kevin, andrew, do you like this top neil? how do you feel about jorts- nevermind dont answer that

Neil just, doesn’t get it. Why does nicky need to talk to him constantly? They see each other at practice and in the dorms all the time? 

Neil’s one of those people who never uses punctuation or emojis, he always seems completely done (kinda like he is in real life), like you could ask him if he’s busy tonight and he answers w some bs like “no me and andrew are going to go for a sunset drive” and the foxes are like?????? Is that sarcasm? Are you kidding neil     

The girls are graduating and no one knows how to deal with that  

Dan is freaking out quietly and pretending she’s 100% confident for life after college (she spends at least one night a week panicking and talking to matt about how tf to coach a team more normal than the foxes?)

Renee is super excited about joining the peace corps, imagine all the good she can do in the world! 

But she’s also gotten used to college life, and she’s going to miss the upperclassmen and andrew and the life and family she’s found here

Andrew gives her brass knuckles with crosses on them as a graduation gift “just in case” and she loves them and also hopes to never have to use them.

Allison is gonna take the world by storm and she knows it, we’re talking has been planning her own trans-targeted fashion line since she was a child (esp. the sports line), is gonna miss her team (mostly the girls and Neil) but would never admit it

Andrew just want peace and quiet and to (maybe) play exy

He starts shutting down the goal every game and neil thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, kevin won’t stop bragging about how he knew andrew would be the best if he tried  

He still doesn’t try during practice bc he already works out with neil way more often than he wants to? And isn’t that enough coach?

Now that he doesn’t have too many idiots to watch, Andrew starts reading more, going through his list of classics and declaring most of them overrated (until he finds one he loves and then he won’t put it down for weeks)

Everyone has movie nights and occasionally neil makes matt and nicky cry bc his life is sad but! more on that later. 

Andrew is secretly obsessed with 80s slasher films bc the acting is so bad there’s no connections to the time in his life he’s actually screamed and cried or been quietly terrified (also you can tell the blood is fake as shit)

Friday the 13th movies are his fav, but he’d burn every copy of freddy vs. jason if he could  

Neil’s not really big on tv other than exy, but he kinda loves cheesy romance movies? not bc he can relate, but bc he enjoys how over the top everything is when he grew up w hella emotional repression

(also they help him get used to people like nicky who just are over the top in real life

Matt loves anything Monty Python, he makes the team watch all of their content, and someone (Dan) is going to punch him if he keeps quoting it.  

Now when they go sweeties neil orders something boring af like vanilla ice cream and andrew gets the most complex, ridiculous, concoction you’ve ever seen

I’m talking phish food w fudge and sprinkles and m&ms and the little oreo pieces

When neil is done w his lame ass ice cream he gives it to andrew who just adds it to his

Kevin is crying, nicky is making high-pitched noises, aaron just wants one (1) moment of peace. 

When the upperclassmen come with they almost get kicked out because they’re loud people and also arguing is how they show affection

Katelyn has been hanging w Aaron and the gang more often now that Andrew isn’t going to gut her on sight

And aaron can smile???? Like he looks at her and suddenly you don’t want to punch him for a few seconds 

And she and nicky start talking and they scheme to get him to a good counsellor who can help him work through his abuse and homophobia and resentment and shit

Neil is literally getting to play the sport he loves with the people he thinks he might love and only has a slight threat of death hanging over his head and honestly, what a life, unbelievable

He and andrew have been trying things to see what they’re comfortable with, and slowly expanding their boundaries (on good days, the only thing better than a blow job to both of them is holding hands quietly and just talking about whatever comes to mind)

They still have bad days, of course, sometimes weeks, but they’re learning how to give each other space and communicate what they need or what will help. 

Bee and Andrew have just gotten closer, he talks to her about how he hates how much he feels around neil, and she’s just so damn proud that he’s opening up and becoming a person he maybe doesn’t hate.

As happy as Matt is for Dan to be graduating, he also spends quite a few night wondering what the hell he’s going to do with himself when the girls are gone. 

He starts spending some time dragging Dan over to hang out with the monsters in preparation for next year 

Is all they do snap at each other and play video games and ignore Kevin?

Nicky hasn’t talked to anybody except Betsy about it, but he gets nightmares that are mixes of conversion camp/his parents, Drake, and seeing neil after Baltimore

He’s a very empathetic person and he still gets nauseous thinking about the pain his family has been through.

Talking to Erik helps and he’s determined to stay strong for neil and his cousins

Wymack is so freaking pumped that the world is finally seeing the potential in these kids, and he’s so freaking proud of them that sometimes he has to take a minute. 

He’s already looking for kids for the next season, and he’s a but worried about throwing off the balance that took them so long to achieve, but that’s a problem for next year. 

Anyway all of the foxes are moving forward and are healing and growing together thanks

[palmetto-writing-attempts]

so how bout them kids huh

They’ve been settled for a bit

Neil is obviously playing exy for a pro team

Andrew is doing something probably ??? idek im putting more effort into the child than these idiots

ANYWHO

They never planned on having kids (like talk about having terrible role models amirite)

But Renee has settled with Emilio after working in the peace corps for a bit, and she’s ready to find local ways to help the people around her

She obviously starts working with kids bc they trust her a lot

(except for the few that know enough to be wary of her and her soft smiles and seeming perfection)

But eventually this kid, just turned five, is pulled from a father who left marks somewhere a teacher would notice. And this kid refuses to talk. Like to anyone about anything. Renee has never seen a single expression on his face, and as much as she tries to keep her own judgments of the children from becoming too personal, all she can see in his flat eyes is andrew before he found something to live for.

So she calls Andrew. Obviously she doesn’t start out with “hey come relate to this traumatized child”, but just about spending time with kids in general, seeing if there’s anyway he can help them that he feels comfortable with.

(He agrees surprisingly quickly, in just over 5 days, and most of that time is actually convincing Neil to come, because what do you do with children that don’t play exy?????? But like hell Andrew is walking into this alone, even if renee is going to be there)

But they show up and Andrew immediately dislikes all the kids he firsts meets, all of them are in-your-face little shits who have chosen to be loud and act out in response to their shitty lives, and while Andrew doesn’t really care if that’s how they choose to react, he also doesn’t want to spend any more time with them than possible.

Neil gets along surprising well with these kids, he knows how to snap back at them with just as much attitude and have a good time without seriously hurting, and Andrew eventually wanders off bc he can’t deal with more than one loud-mouthed idiot at a time.

Eventually Andrew finds rooms where the other more reserved children are, but clearly none of them want to talk to him so he gives them a nod and moves on.

But there’s a room that is closed and locked, and Andrew gets a feeling that that lock contains the same kind of desperate hope he knows all-too-well.

He knocks. Fuck if he knows why, but he knocks. There’s the faint sound of clothes moving, almost indecipherable from the yelling below them, but Andrew hears. He sits down, leans his back against the door, and says “hey”. There’s no answer, so Andrew closes his eyes, tips his head back, and listens to the noise coming from downstairs and the house around him. Eventually, Neil comes and finds him, and they head home.

Renee doesn’t push (she noticed andrew disappeared, and she has an idea as to where he was, but she knows better than to assume).

Andrew eventually calls her, tells her they’re coming back. He doesn’t ask, but Renee knows he’s aware she would tell him if she didn’t want them back there.    

Neil is less than happy about going back, but it’s enough that Andrew seems interested in these kids, and no way is Neil letting him do it on his own.

(eventually, when the situation is less new and alien, Andrew becomes comfortable enough that he can go when Neil is out of town at matches or talk shows or team events)

So they keep coming back, sometimes both, sometimes just Andrew, and Andrew keeps walking the back hallways. He starts doing more than just acknowledging the quieter kids, he asks for names and ages and offers little bits of himself in return. And every time, he stops by the locked door, greets whoever is in there, and sits quietly with them.

Renee is now certain of where he’s going, because she isn’t above bribing the kids he talks to with candy if they tell her how long he spends with them.

And then one day, on about their tenth visit, Andrew sitting with his back against the locked door debating whether to try a new lemon meringue recipe that night or not, there’s the sound of someone else, someone smaller, leaning back against the door on the opposite side to him. Andrew mouth twitches in what might be a smile, but all he says is “knock twice if you don’t care if I come back or not” because he knows “wanting” might be out of this kids vocabulary. There’s what Andrew estimates is about seven minutes of stillness, and then two, soft, barely there knocks. He knocks back twice, gets up, and goes to talk to Renee about what crust to use for the pie.