#AGAIN. GUESS WHO READ THE THIRD JUNGLE BOOK CLASS

[prismadog]

Found Family AU character facts (part 3)

apparently, I can't just leave this at one or two, I have to do more than is required for this au - such is the way of life I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

for these, I'm only doing a sort of pre-story type thing, ya know, like their origins, who the characters were before they all knew each other. if I didn't condense these down to that point, well, we'd be here all day reading practically an entire book on one single character [I think I'm exaggerating here?]

this one got a bit long so I'm putting it under the line.

hey uh, are any of you actually interested in their backgrounds? idk if that's something that interests people or not but I'm writing these and it just makes me wonder, y'know? [of course, now that I've started, I can't just stop, there's still so many characters. but still...curiosity and all's got me wondering]

Sausage

Sausage is a dwarf of Mythland who was born a single child to the Dwarf King. ever since he was a child, he dreamed of being a mighty sorcerer that could use all kinds of magic but being a dwarf, magic comes a lot harder to him than it would a human or another magical creature - such as his good friend Gem.

the kingdoms of Mythland and the Crystal Cliffs were close allies and have been for generations - the Grimlands does not exist at this time. Sausage grew up alongside Gem and fWhip of the Crystal Cliffs - he revered Gem and her magical abilities, and found a close friend in fWhip due to neither of them being able to wield magic. Gem did try to teach Sausage magic despite the lessons never producing even a spark of magic - that of course didn't stop him.

he and fWhip would often get into trouble, playing pranks and whatnot on the people of the two kingdoms, and sometimes they could convince Gem to join in with them.

the trio stayed close friends through the years, and when Sausage's father was slain in battle against a pillager raid the siblings were there mourning alongside their friend. he took vigil at his father's final resting place for an entire day, as is tradition, then the next day he held a celebration in honor of the fallen King, with a feast to finish off the night.

Sausage was crowned the new Dwarf King within the week and his friends were there for his coronation - fWhip, ever the tinkerer, set up a firework display for him, and Gem gifted him with an old spell book written by a Mythlandian and enchanted rings that provided protection.

things became hectic around this time, what with being a new king with new duties and protecting his empire from pillagers, and he can't see his friends as often. Gem also gets busy with her studies and fWhip starts exploring the mountains - something that the people of the Crystal Cliffs don't do. in this time, he also adopted a pup that he named "Bubbles" and she became his second in command.

several months later, he gets word that his friend fWhip has gone missing. he drops everything to travel to the Cliffs and be at Gem's side - she tells him that fWhip has been missing for quite some time and she blames herself that she never noticed. he comforts her and they go out on a search for him, which unfortunately results in nothing but a few belongings found deep within the mountain and a journal.

Gem holds a funeral for her brother and Sausage stands vigil once again for a loved one. he offers Gem any aid that Mythland can provide and she graciously accepts. he visits her from time to time after the event but eventually, he just gets busy and more time drags between each visit.

his kingdom prospers with a plethora of new buildings - an iron farm, a forge, new docks, bigger and better homes for the people, and all kinds of other things. one thing that stands out from the rest is a summoning circle - this, he uses to sacrifice the crimson sheep of the land in the hopes, not for power, but for knowledge and guidance, and that one day the gods - whoever may be listening - will return his friend to him.

he gains quite a bit of knowledge in the ways for forging weapons imbued with magic and using anothers' magic to alter ordinary everyday things - such as a dark oak tree or even a mushroom. this is all for the benefit of his kingdom so he doesn't see a problem with his sacrifices, despite what his advisors may believe.

he met with other rulers, some he'd been neglecting to talk to, and others who were just coming into power. one of the first new rulers he met was Pearl of Smallholding - a chaotic girl with flowers in her hair and a grin that never fades. another was the Codfather, Jimmy Solidarity-Shadow - one of the merfolk who's kingdom rose slowly from the swamps and without anyone seeming to notice. months after meeting these two, another kingdom arose, this time practically overnight, and the ruler was none other than fWhip of the Crystal Cliffs - his best friend - but this time, fWhip was the Count of a near-barren plains dubbed the Grimlands.

the trio celebrated fWhip's return and Sausage, once home, thanked whatever gods that had brought his friend back. visits between the three kingdoms became commonplace again, as well as visits to the new Cod Empire - though, those were to pick on the new ruler there.

Sausage did learn not to take things too far in teasing the Codfather because one day, he and fWhip had set up a "minor, harmless" trap and when the Codfather got injured and bedridden for a few days, well, they found out that Queen Lizzie of the Ocean Empire was not someone you wanted to anger. after, they did continue their teasing but they kept it well below danger levels.

a year or so after fWhip's return, Sausage met another new ruler who had just come into power and who's kingdom had been lost to the world for ages - King Joey Graceffa of the Lost Empire. Joey took interest in his sacrifices and his borrowed magics, maybe a little too much interest if the bloodlust in his eyes was anything to go by.

Joey

Joey is born the youngest of three children to the Emperor of the Maztec Empire - his siblings being the princesses.

he, like all others of the royal family, are born with parrot wings to match the local parrots of the jungle. he often used his wings to escape his lessons, though being third in line for the throne, he was allowed lenience to goof off and have fun anyway since the throne always went to the eldest.

but, Joey was the jealous sort as well and would often play dirty pranks on his sisters, and most times, they ended in some injury. though, he was also quite intelligent and could almost always pin the blame on another, usually on someone of the lowest class - the mudbloods who were more of a hybrid of cat and human.

one such dirty prank went horribly wrong and his eldest sister lost her life. it had involved a cave, the cave collapsed, and she got caught in it. he watched her struggle for some time, oddly curious about it, but eventually went and got help. the healers tried to help her but she soon passed on.

a funeral was held for the princess days later and she was cremated - as is tradition for royalty. life moved on, as it does, and the second princess became next in line.

after the death of the first princess, he became a little more interested in the act of dying than a boy should. he was curious and wanted to find out more about death, and the mudblood people were right there for him to experiment with. he made sure to only take one person every so often for experiments - the jungle could be a dangerous place and was often unkind to wanderers so if one or two people went missing every few months, then who was to know?

aside from secretly pranking his sisters and stealing away the lower class, he would spend time with the gentlemen of higher standing - the purebloods who were humanoid cats and certainly looked it. he would pick one to mess around with, or two or three if he so desired, until he eventually grew bored and discarded them like they were yesterday's trash.

his remaining sister, nearing her adulthood, started dreaming of leaving the kingdom to explore the world - she'd always wanted to but their parents would never permit it, nobody entered the kingdom and nobody left. he would stay up late with her on the nights he grew bored of gentlemen, and talk to her about her dreams.

with her becoming an and their parents getting older, he worried that soon, she would be taking the throne. so, he thought up a plan and talked with her about it - he could get things set up and all she would have to do is follow through, and before she knew it, she'd be exploring to her heart's content.

she was nervous, of course, but Joey is a charmer and used that to his advantage. he convinced her it was the best option for her if she didn't want to be tied down, and she could always return if she wanted. she agreed, wrote a farewell scroll that she gave him for safekeeping, and followed him one night to a secret area where a boat and some supplies were waiting, as well as one of his callers.

this she was confused about at first until Joey showed his true colors and killed her in cold blood. he then casually sent the gentleman off in the boat with his sister's body, promising him great rewards for his return if he got rid of the evidence.

he then returned home and set out the farewell letter in her room where it would be found, and went to bed. he awoke to the news late the next day, and also with a visit from his accomplice.

a few weeks later and there was no word from the princess and the guards sent out to search for her found no trace. though his parents prayed she was well, they still mourned her leaving. Joey was to be next in line should the Emperor and Empress pass and he celebrated in secret with the gentlemen who helped him - then when he got bored shortly after, he killed him too in the same cave his eldest sister died in and left his body to the mobs.

when he neared adulthood - only months away - he started his next plan for his rise to the throne. he acquired a poison that would imitate a deadly disease but not be curable by any known remedies. he used this on his father over the next several weeks and watched with secret glee as the Emperor grew weaker and weaker and the healers floundered about trying to cure him.

preparations were made, the Emperor passed on with few final words, and days later a funeral was held for him as well. his urn was placed next to the eldest princess' once everything was done. the Empress mourned the loss and Joey stood at her side.

he watched as her grief began to consume her, she spoke of loss and wishing she could join her husband, Joey listened to her words and wondered about what Maztec would do if she left too. she said it would be in good hands - he was a capable young man and if he ever needed help, there was a council of advisors at his side.

over a week later, the Empress took her own life, leaving behind a letter to her only remaining child. a third funeral was held, his mother cremated and laid to rest beside his father and sister, and he was crowned Emperor of the Maztec Kingdom.

Joey was free to do as he wished and he gladly accepted the freedom - everything was good and he was King.

but over the next several years, he found himself growing bored - not even building new temples kept his attention for long. he eventually started exploring, just a little ways, from his home and eventually came across the edge of the jungle which met the edge of a more barren land.

he visited the boarder a few times, curious about this other land, but never crossed it. then one day he met Count fWhip of the Grimlands - the name of the barren land. they spoke for some time at the boarder of their kingdoms, and set up a couple future visits to one another's kingdoms - fWhip visited his first, then he visited fWhip's.

at the visit to the Grimlands capitol, fWhip invited him to the next Gathering of Empires - apparently there were 9 other rulers out there besides the two of them, and one even had wings too!

he accepted the invitation without a moment's hesitation and at the next Gathering, his kingdom - the Lost Empire as it was written in old history books that an ally of fWhip's had found - became known to the rest of the world.

he found that the other winged ruler - Scott Smajor of Rivendell - was a very cold and distant person. but, the others were friendly enough, especially the Dwarf King - J Sausage of Mythland - and he took an interest in the man and the magics he was studying.

they became friends, and he by default joined an alliance with fWhip and Gem who were allied with Sausage.

[votederpycausemufins]

we got so much snow, why do i still have class today? I mean it was short, but why have it at all?

oh and you’ll like this one today @petrichormeraki

:)))))))))

“Holy fuck you’re my dad. The captain is my dad.” Tubbo was stunned, still trying to comprehend it. Crumb on the other hand already accepted it. 

“I’ve got a big brudder! Tubbox is my brudder!” She was running around happily and eventually decided to just sit on Tubbo’s shoulder.

“You’re the kid of a celebrity Tubbo!” Tommy slapped a hand on Tubbo’s back in celebration. “Does this mean I can be your plus one to fancy events and shit?”

“I’m not really that kind of celebrity.” Sparklez rubbed the back of his head. “I mean I’m well known, but that’s mainly because I travel a lot.”

“Sprinklez is definitely a celebrity!” Crumb said happily, her tail flicking about. “Millions of people know him! He’s been so myany places!”

“Wonder how Kara’s going to react to all this. ‘Oh hey Kara, remember how I wouldn’t be available for a few days and now it’s been longer than that? Well found my long lost kid!’ I mean it works, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“Is Kara my mom?”

Crumb, feeling a bit chaotic at the moment, answered the question for Tubbo. “Ye!”

“No! No she is not!” Jordan immediately shouted. “That proposal was for being her thousandth kill or something, not for getting married!”

“Honorary mom!”

Sparklez inhaled sharply before sighing to calm himself. “Yes, fine. If you want to think of her like that, sure. Don’t know how she’d react if you call her that though, so maybe don’t actually say it aloud.”

“How’d you even lose him?” Tommy spoke up. He knew Tubbo’s side of the story, but he was a child at the time and it was around ten years ago, so the details might not be accurate anymore.

“Tubbo was really curious as a kid. Always following me around everywhere no matter how much I tried to get him to sit still. He got interested in almost everything I did. We were visiting one world, Univcraft, and I was just driving around.” Grian’s feathers puffed up at the name of the world. “Tubbo was in the back in his seat, but was getting restless. Next thing I know, he had managed to unlock and open the door.”

“Did you keep driving?”

“No! Of course not! I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. Forgot to put park on at first and it started to roll away on its own before I could jump back in to fix it. Tubbo wasn’t in his seat so I assumed he fell out when the door opened but he was nowhere in sight. There seemed to be no evidence and the weirdest part was that he would have had to unbuckle himself from his booster seat and they were all still done up.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “I remember that! I… I think when I first realized I wasn’t in the car anymore, the first thing I was upset about was not being in my cool racing harness.” Tommy started laughing. “Hey! I was five!”

Sparklez couldn’t help but chuckle along with Tommy before pulling Crumb and Tubbo into a hug. “Both my ducklings are finally with me.”

“Duckling?” Tommy asked with a mischievous grin.

“I said Tubbo followed me everywhere. He also liked bees a lot so wore yellow half the time. He reminded me of a little duckling.”

“I remember wen Sprinklez cried wen we went to space an I followed him around in my yellow space suit!”

“Okay Crumb, don’t need to bring that up.”

“Hey, if you can say embarrassing shit about me, let her say embarrassing shit about you.”

Jordan winced slightly. “I guess that’s fair. So, what’s your life been like? I can tell you’ve been… active.” He vaguely gestured to a visible burn scar on Tubbo, which made the teen slump their shoulders a little. Tommy pulled Tubbo away into a protective hug and Grian put a hand on Sparklez’s shoulder.

“To put it lightly, they’ve been through hell. I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s doing as good as he is right now is because of Tommy. Don’t expect him to open up about everything right away. Give him space before you start asking questions.” Grian glanced over to the duo and Tommy gave him a quick thumbs up. “Trauma sucks, but having someone there to be supportive, even if you don’t know them as well as you should, is really helpful.”

“Thanks.” Sparklez gave Grian a short nod. 

“Well, I’m sure you guys will have a wonderful time together, but I still need to go see Xisuma and give him updates on… well, everything.”

“See ya Big G.” Tommy said to Grian before the avian was flying off.

Mumbo was trying his best not to completely panic, but he was slowly failing. “No no no no no. It has to be there! Why isn’t it there? Is it because of the ice? Is there something with ice?” Mumbo looked down at himself and still saw no symbol. “Maybe it was whatever Dream did. That’s surely something that wouldn’t be accounted for.”

“It wasn’t him, idiot.” Mumbo’s blood ran cold and he turned around to see Drista sitting on a chest. “Obviously it was you. I thought you knew VG and Watcher magic doesn’t mix.”

“This is. No. I, I’m not a Vault God. I refuse.”

“Again with the refusing. It worked before but it won’t now. I told you it was only a matter of time.”

Mumbo was in a state of complete disbelief, trying to find some excuse. Then his disbelief turned to anger as he thought of something. “No, this is your fault. You were keeping in contact with Dream. He said you were. You didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t do anything. But you did instead. And how did you do that? Became a Vault God.”

“Well tell me how to unbecome one.” Mumbo demanded. 

“You pretty much don’t. That’s why Dream was able to do what he did. Even exiled, he was still a Vault God.”

“Please, there has to be something.” Now he was starting to plead with Drista, hoping for some glimmer of hope for him.

She tilted her head from side to side as she thought about the question. “Well, technically you’re not completely official. In fact I’m here to bring you to that. Maaaaybe if you say something to them, you can get some exception.” She paused to shrug. “Who knows. They may just force you to be one.”

“And if I don’t go?”

“You’ll still be a Vault God, just unstable. Though I will say, you’re doing pretty well on your own.”

Mumbo didn’t care to ask what she meant. He had to go. If he went there was at least some percentage of a chance that he could go back to normal. If he didn’t, he would absolutely end up hurting Grian. “Alright fine. Where do you need to take me?”

Drista smiled and pulled on a mask that was almost identical to the one Dream had worn. “Just follow me.”

Grian spun the chicken feather that was his quill on the table as Xisuma talked. Sure, this was all very important, but the avian was already bored. He kept asking more questions that should have been answered already, but the admin was too focused on the answers themselves to think about the entire context. “I said that it’s going to be like another dimension already. You can’t get to other dimensions without a portal. Think of it like a third being tacked on. And fourth since they have their own nether.”

“What about their end?”

“Again, they haven’t seen it because Dream destroyed all connections to it.”

“And the Watchers?”

“Are combining groups and are adding in two new Watchers to keep things running smoothly.”

“Any previous relation with Zoy and Riffed?”

“Zloy and Pixlriffs, and no. Petrichor and Meraki are just helpful with world crosses. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Can I go yet?”

Xisuma paused, tapping his helmet where his chin would be. “Alright, but I’ll be sending messages to you, so look out for those and try to respond quickly.”

Grian nodded and passed the book and quill over to Xisuma with the notes he had taken. He then got up from his chair and stretched before flying into the air. Now that Xisuma was dealt with and Tommy was occupied, next was getting the kids from Stress.

The avian flew over the desert between Xisuma’s jungle and the one that he, Stress and others lived in. He smiled as he passed Mumbo’s base, though he had to steady himself when his flying became a little wobbly. He brushed it off as him just getting distracted and then landed near where Stress said she would be.

“Dad!” Jrumbot was running up to Grian and the avian picked up his robot son in a hug. “You’re okay again! Daddy was really worried about you.”

Grian quickly gave Stress a thankful nod for her looking after the bots. “Well it wasn’t the best situation, but he figured it out like the smart man he is. Now speaking of him, we should go see him. He needs some more cheering up and love. Think you can help with that?”

Jrumbot nodded and then Grian helped him onto his own back, right between his wings. As the younger of the robots held tightly to Grian, the avian picked up Grumbot and then thanked Stress before flying towards Mumbo’s base. As they approached, Grian suddenly felt much more tired than he had moments before, so much so that Jrumbot slapped his face slightly to wake him up so he didn’t crash.

“What?! Huh? Oh right, I’m flying! Sorry boys, guess the meeting with Xisuma took more out of me that I realized. At least we’re almost there.” And he landed at Mumbo’s base, only stumbling slightly.

“Are you alright dad?” Grumbot asked Grian, who gave a nod.

“Yeah, ‘m fine. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for your help. We found Tubbo’s dad.”

“While I’m glad I helped, you shouldn’t be trying to change the subject.”

Grian sighed, having forgotten how well Grumbot could read him. “I’m fine. I just want to find Mumbo and then we can all go to the big bedroom and hang out there.” He helped Jrumbot down off his back and ruffled his wings before folding them “Mumbo! I’m here with the kids!”

There was no answer making Grian frown. “Maybe he’s tired like you and went to sleep?” Jrumbot suggested.

“Yeah, might be.” Grian then pulled out his communicator to send random messages to Mumbo to either follow the hum of the vibration of a message or to wake Mumbo up with the sound. He sent off one message and was just starting to type another when he got the error message. “Wh- Mumbo’s not here.”

“What do you mean not here?” Grumbot asked, worried by how worried Grian looked.

“I… maybe he went back to the other world? But everything’s connected now, that shouldn’t be an issue.” Grian continued to worriedly ramble. The bots looked at each other and then took Grian’s hands, pulling him to where Mumbo’s bedroom was and got him to lay down on the bed.

“Do we need to get anyone?” Grumbot asked. “Iskall or Stress? Possibly Xisuma?”

Grian shook his head. “We just left Stress’ place. She’s helped plenty. And Xisuma is busy with the world merge. Iskall… they might be available, but message them first.”

Jrumbot’s screen face changed briefly. “Okay! I did it!”

Grian nodded then curled up in the blankets. He really felt tired now and a bit woozy. He gave a groan. “Ugh… Dream was a Vault God and I was around him for who knows how long. Plus I went to visit again… maybe there’s magic sticking to me or around here.”

“Are you sick again?”

Grian gave a half hearted nod. “Yeah, now both of you come here so I can cuddle you. That’s the best kind of medicine right now.”

Jrumbot immediately jumped into the bed and curled up in Grian’s arms. Grumbot on the other hand, wasn’t as fast. “Contact with people is usually not a type of medicine and I’m sure us not being humans makes it even less effective.” But despite his comments, he also joined his brother in Grian’s arms.

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Is He a Girl? (Marvin Redpost #3)

Author: Louis Sachar.

Publication Date: 1993.

Genre: A chapter book, for children.

Premise: Nine-year-old Marvin Redpost learns from eccentric classmate Casey Happleton that, if a boy kisses the outside of his elbow, he turns into a girl. Wildly curious, Marvin gives it a try (with a great deal of difficulty) and spends the next day wondering if it actually did anything. He doesn’t look any different, but he is able to hang by his knees from the jungle gym.

Thoughts: My second grade teacher read this oddity of a book to the class back in 1998-1999, and it stuck in my head, for obvious reasons. It was available on Libby, so I figured why not revisit it. It’s a charming book, in many ways, with some valuable lessons. Sachar pokes gentle fun at the idea of “boy things” (gross-out humor, a game called “wall ball,” wearing only pants and not skirts) and “girl things” (jacks, hopscotch, giggling). Marvin’s curiosity about what it’s like to be a girl and interest in “girl things” are portrayed in a positive manner (even though he goes back to rejecting jacks after he manages to kiss his elbow again). There’s also a nice arc in which Marvin befriends a “weird” girl who’s teased by the other boys, both out of compassion and because she’s pretty cool. Plus, the use of schoolyard lore is charming and funny; it reminded me of hearing a very garbled version of the urban legend from Candyman, which made it sound like Candyman wouldn’t kill you, but would give you clinical depression.

This is a book that comes across differently in 2020 than 1993, though. I don’t think the book is intentionally transphobic; its presentation of gender is complicated enough that I’m not sure it’s unintentionally transphobic. For example, Marvin seems to believe that gender isn’t defined solely by physical characteristics; he entertains the possibility that he’s been turned into a girl despite his unchanged appearance. Being introduced to this idea might dispose readers to be less transphobic. But is the reader supposed to see this belief as silly, given that it’s based on an absurd schoolyard rumor? Then again, is the reader supposed to rule out the possibility that (in the fictional world of Marvin Redpost) this schoolyard rumor has truth to it? Louis Sachar’s books often feature supernatural elements, such as the lady with the psychic third ear in the Wayside School series or the maybe-legit generational curses in Holes, so it seems possible. 

Also, I (a cisgender woman) had no idea that people could be transgender when this book was read to me. When I found out a few years later, thanks to a short paragraph about Christine Jorgensen in a history book, my response was, “Oh, that’s cool--people can be women if they want to be women. I like being a girl, so I get why they’d want to.” That attitude didn’t come from my parents at the time--was it Louis Sachar’s influence? And, if it was, would it have affected me the same way if I’d had a clue about some people being transgender, which many second-graders likely do nowadays? I don’t know! I guess I think there was little harm and much good in this book when it was published, but I’d definitely want to have some follow-up discussions with my (hypothetical) child if they read it.

Hot Goodreads Take: “I'm not sure if grammar-school-age children read books like this anymore,” opines one reviewer. “Kids are practically starting to have sex in as early as 6th grade -- I'm appalled!!” 

Which...okay!! There’s a lot to unpack here:

I am just not sure that’s true. I keep hearing that teens are having sex later and less often, because they’re always on their phone and too busy with school. Unless these sixth graders are having a last hurrah before they need to devote themselves to Algebra, I doubt they’re “practically starting to have sex” in any significant numbers. 

If a sixth grader is “practically starting to have sex,” I’m worried about a lot of things, but “are they making the time to read light-hearted chapter books” isn’t high on that list.

The Marvin Redpost books are young for sixth grade--like, they’re probably most appropriate for nine-year-olds, like the protagonist--so they’re probably safe from the apparent middle-school sex scourge, anyway.

I don’t know whether the reviewer is saying that sex makes you worse at reading (because you only want to have sex), better at reading (because it makes you crave more sophisticated fare than Marvin Redpost), or the same at reading (but you want to read sexier stuff now). 

Ma’am, this is an Arby’s a review of a cute chapter book for kids.

[artificialqueens]

Bring It On: All or Nothing pt 3 (Branjie) - Ashley

A/N: in our longest chapter yet we see Brooke get her first taste of life as an Amazon through both practising and partying with them. Thanks so much for all the lovely comments - make sure to keep the feedback coming. I made a playlist for the fic if anyone is interested. Again, I haven’t wrote in a long time so know this isn’t to the best standard but I hope I’m fulfilling everyone’s branjie cheerleading fantasy..xoxo Ashley.

A typical Saturday for Brooke Lynn Hytes started at 6:30 AM. She’d wake up, brush her teeth, clear any mess from her room and eat breakfast before going to ballet. After 30 minutes of stretching and basic Pilates, she’d start with a company class, improving her craft outside of choreo. Next comes rehearsal for an upcoming show, play, recital or audition. A quick break for lunch and school work then back to training. By 5PM she’d have the rest of the afternoon to meet friends or do more school work if needed.

The day following the fight was not a typical Saturday.

Waking at 11 AM, Brooke was initially surprised to find herself on the floor before remembering the events of the night before. Too ashamed to go home, Vanessa had accepted Brooke’s offer to stay at hers. Given the girl’s inconsistent nature, Brooke spent her shower nervous about how Vanessa would react to waking up at her home. She was suddenly self-conscious of her room - why were the walls green? Why hadn’t she unpacked everything yet? Too enthralled in her panicked inner monologue, she failed to even notice Vanessa had woken up when she walked back into her room, clad only in a towel.

“Hey,” the girl squinted at her, seemingly unsure of what to say, her eyes doing a once-over of Brooke’s body.

In contrast to the day they had brushed their teeth together, Vanessa looked more like the sea hag than a Disney princess upon waking - her black hair wild and matted around her, her eyes baggy and bloodshot. Yet to Brooke she still looked breathtaking.

“Hi,” Brooke responded before perching on the sofa built into the alcove of her window.

“Thanks for the t-shirt,” Vanessa looked down at herself then back at Brooke, “and the bed, and everything I guess.”

“You’d do the same if you thought someone was alone in the cold without anywhere to go,” Brooke responded, trying to act nonchalant and hide her blatant feelings for the girl.

“Hmm,” Vanessa responded, clearly unsure of whether or not she would.

“I’ll let you get yourself ready,” feel free to borrow anything Brooke said before grabbing some clothes and leaving to get ready herself.

***

“Come to practice tomorrow,” Vanessa stopped herself as she walked out of Brooke’s door, her guilt about the way she had treated the girl clearly playing on her mind.

“Why would I? I can’t cheer, remember?” Brooke watched the girl as she recited her dig from the night before, fascinated by the way her own jumper hung largely on Vanessa’s arms, just the tips of her fingers poking out the end.

“If we wanna do well we need the best people on our squad, and that just so happens to be you. I’ve had a bit of a reality check and it might not be in the way I’m familiar with but I can’t deny your talent,” Vanessa said. Although Brooke found it hard to read the girls face, she could tell in her tone that she meant it.

“I thought I was bankrupt,” Brooke grinned, her old competitive nature coming out of her as she played hard to get. “I’m sorry Vanessa but if you want me on your team you’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that.”

Clearly not used to that kind of reaction after offering someone a first class ticket to the popular table at R.A Charles, Vanessa stood still for a moment, processing what Brooke had said.

“I’ll see you on Monday,” Brooke added, making sure to emphasise the day of the week before closing the door on Vanessa and making her way to the window to watch her leave, catching a glimpse of the girl shaking her head and smirking before stomping down the garden path in her usual manner.

***

“So how’re things with Vanessa?” Brooke asked Jovan as they made their way into school the following Monday. Knowing she was potentially rubbing salt into the wounds, she had tried to not bring the subject up for five minutes and failed miserably, her intrigue about the girl once again getting the better of her.

“I haven’t spoken to her,” he responded, “Were just two boats sailing past each other at the minute. If she can’t deal with me speaking honestly to her then I’d rather not speak to her at all.”

“Yeah,” Brooke acknowledged him. Although she had seen the sting of Jovan’s words first hand and knew how deep they had cut Vanessa, she found herself understanding where her friend had come from and seeing his side of the argument whilst still emphasising with his sister. Although his approach was faulted and she didn’t agree with all of what he said, part of her admired Jovan’s brutal honesty, the way he stayed true to his authentic self and didn’t feel the need to shy away from topics others would deem unapproachable.

“I’m glad you went and made sure she was okay though. I knew she’d been such a bitch to you so it was a pretty solid thing for you to do for me. Like I said you’re way too good for her and her squad.”

And as much as Brooke wanted to believe him, she found herself still wanting to take up Vanessa’s offer. Not only did she want to spend more time with the girl who absorbed so much of her thought process but her muscles ached with a longing to dance, the thought of having a stable practice, routine and competition a distant utopia in her mind. She craved the release of endorphins, the rush of performing. At her old school everyone understood each other, they were all there for the same unified reason, everyone adhering to each other’s needs and abilities. Nothing like the wilderness of R.A Charles where everything was disjointed and uneven - the girls hunted in packs whilst the stragglers tried their hardest to keep up, eventually getting left behind to scarper with the prey. A lipstick jungle of pretty cheerleaders and resident weirdos, Brooke found herself stuck floating in the middle unsure of what to pursue, lost in the wasteland of the hallways.

Continuing their conversation until Brooke reached her locker, she made plans to meet Jovan at lunch before twisting her code to retrieve her work. She laughed to herself as she opened her locker to find a pristinely folded royal blue Amazons uniform laying across her books, along with a pair of matching spandex briefs. Her cheeks flushing red at the sight of the briefs, she looked around swiftly to make sure Jovan hadn’t seen her reaction to opening the locker. Upon regaining composure and further examination she realised there was a note left alongside the uniform. Brooke found herself once again turning crimson as she read Vanessa’s haphazard and emphasised scroll: “You’re a size 12, right? I think you’ll suit blue. Come to practice so I can find out if I’m right (which I always am) -V ;)”

***

If Brooke had set Vanessa a challenge when she told her she’d have to try harder then it had clearly been accepted. First, she found the uniform in her locker. Then she was called to the student reception in third period to receive what she’d been told was a bag left by her mom containing her gym clothes, opening it to find two blue pompons and another note from Vanessa. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, came at lunchtime when she felt something ping the back of her head as she sat and ate with Jovan, turning around to see one of the signature scrunchies that the Amazons adorned on the floor - Vanessa sitting at the table behind her with a poker face even Lady Gaga wouldn’t be able to decipher. Quickly picking up the scrunchie and putting it around her wrist, Brooke wondered how far Vanessa would go to try and get her on the team.

“She’ll do anything so she doesn’t seem jealous now,” Jovan rolled his eyes at his sister’s antics, “God, imagine being that conscious about what other people think of you.”

“I don’t know, I think she might have just realised she was wrong,” Brooke watched Jovan’s face drop at her response. If a picture could paint a thousand words.

“Brooke, you’re not being serious, are you? I thought you were better than falling for that bullshit. She doesn’t care, she just wants to look good after I called her out. Please don’t tell me you’re gonna go.”

“I don’t know,” she looked at her friend, torn between her loyalty to him, the only person who had welcomed her with open arms at her school, and her longing to be on the team with Vanessa. She wasn’t easy, she didn’t want to go running back to the squad after such painstaking rejection but a part of her knew that if she didn’t she’d be miserable - always thinking about the greener grass she could have been dancing across.

Before Jovan could preach to her further, Brooke’s phone pinged with a text from an unknown number: “I think it’d go better in your hair than on your wrist, don’t you?”

A combination of fascinated and annoyed at the girl’s tone, Brooke’s cool demeanour was thrown out the window when she responded: “how did you even get my number!”

Making heavy eye contact from across the tables, Brooke shook her head at Vanessa, who simply tapped the side of her nose and winked as a result.

***

Although she hadn’t consciously made a decision about whether or not she would take Vanessa’s offer, Brooke found herself making her way to the gym at the end of the day, almost as if her legs were being controlled by her heart and not her brain. She figured just watching the cheerleaders wouldn’t hurt as she stood in the doorway and saw the group congregated through the glass panes. She watched them warm up, Vanessa leading the squad through stretches and exercises around the hall before going straight into stunts and basket tosses. Watching the petite girl be thrown in the air by friends - not an ounce of fear on her face, Brooke could only describe her as fierce and determined. Surverying the way she treated the team, Brooke could see why it was so important to her and started to better understand the fight she had witnessed at the weekend. Vanessa being captain wasn’t just some superficial title, she was their leader, they were all hungry for her approval as they performed. From her short time of exposure to the squad, Brooke could clearly see the hard work that Vanessa put in, more and more layers of her personality unfolding. She was one of those jawbreakers that changed colour and flavour the longer you kept it in your mouth - one second she’s sweet and fruity the next she’s a hot fireball sizzling your tongue. Brooke was mesmerised, even seeing some of her old self in the girl as she watched her burn the candle at both ends, pushing herself to the limit in training till sweat dripped down her forehead.

“Anyone else want a refill?”

Panic suddenly flared up in Brooke as she saw Vanessa making her way towards the exit with her water bottle. Before she could attempt to move away from the door, she once again made dead eye contact with the girl. She watched Vanessa’s face turn from surprised to amused, laughing to herself at the sight of Brooke watching all whilst still holding her gaze. Brooke quickly broke away the eye contact and looked at the floor; knowing full well that if she looked at the sultry girl anymore it would be clear to Vanessa that she wouldn’t hold back any of her desires or intentions.

“You know in the time you’ve spent watching from this door you would have already learned how to be a base, Brooke Lynn.” Something about her abrupt nature and failure to be coy reeling Brooke into her spell even further. As someone who thought about everything she ever said before it came out, someone who took the time to edit herself to perfection, she found herself so captivated by the way in which Vanessa held nothing back.

“Just Brooke,” she responded, still unable to make a decision about the squad.

“Well Just Brooke, you don’t have to join my squad if you don’t want to, I know I might have missed my chance. But something tells me you’re not really the kind of girl who watches from the sidelines.”

“You don’t know me,” Brooke responded, repeating the words Vanessa had stated to her that night they sat together on the park bench.

Twigging on to what Brook had done, Vanessa smiled: “I know you’re a great tumbler. And I know that if you weren’t really interested you wouldn’t be here.”

Before she could comprehend what was happening, Vanessa had already grabbed her wrist and started running into the gym with her, Brooke otherwise too focused on the way her skin combusted where the girl’s hand touched her, too indulged in her fantasy, not fully comprehending how she was now making her way over to the squad.

“Vanessa,” she whispered, once again looking into the girls deep dark eyes. Brooke found herself amazed at how panicked she had found herself getting since moving to Florida. The old her would have waltzed into the room no issue yet now she found her brain going into standby as she entered the group. In fact, she found herself doing that a lot around Vanessa. She was starting to think that her new streaks of nerves were to do with the girl in the neighbourhood rather than the neighbourhood itself.

“Everyone this is Brooke. She’s never cheered so we’re gonna have to teach her some pep, movements and yells but she’s got moves and she’s a fast learner,” Vanessa addressed the group, looking back at Brooke at her last words. Surprised at how nice she was being compared to the day of her audition and even the night they spend together on the bench, Brooke heard Jovan’s voice ringing in the back of her head, telling her how Vanessa was using Brooke so she didn’t seem jealous in front of her squad. At that moment, even if she was, Brooke didn’t care in the slightest.

“Brooke, meet the Amazons: Akeria, Silky, Jaren,” she pointed at one of the taller guys Brooke had met previously at the auditions, “Jay,” moving to the other boy she had met before. Going through the other girls in the squad, Brooke struggled to keep up with the names but recognised a few of the girls from sitting with the Amazons around the school.

“I want to re-run that cupie we did earlier,” Vanessa announced to the group after she finished introducing Brooke to everyone. The two boys and a girl that Vanessa had introduced as Monet stepped up and began to get into a formation before being stopped by the coach.

“Actually, I want Brooke as a base,” Vanessa looked at the girl who pulled a face in response.

“I don’t know about that Vanjie..” the taller boy, Jaren, trailed off, clearly not wanting to undermine his captain.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be able to,” Brooke pleaded with the girl.

“I trust you,” Vanessa gave another one of her subtle winks to Brooke before making her way over to the group which Brooke now joined.

“Just keep eye-contact with Jay,” Vanessa touched the back of Brooke’s head, pointing her in the right direction. There it was again - the sizzle that came with her touch. Brooke couldn’t focus, despite how badly she knew she had to. “When Jaren lifts me, move your hands so they hold my shoes. Like this,” Brooke wondered how she would be able to throw and catch the girl in the air when the simple contact between their arms was making her skin tingle. “Jaren will count down before you straighten up, and he’ll help you support my ankles. It’s easy once I’m up there, just push my ankles together, like you watched before. Then just keep your arms straight ready to catch me.”

Brooke was astonished at how quickly she had gone from watching at the doorway to performing a stunt with the Amazons. With Vanessa. Everyone’s eyes on her, she thought back to when she used to lift the younger girls at the academy, helping them practice and erase their nerves before they had to do it for real with the boys.

“Oh, and Brooke,” Vanessa looked at her one last time before they started, her demeanour similar to that of the first day she’d met her, flipping in the cafeteria and smirking in the kitchen. “Don’t drop me, yeah?”

Brooke didn’t need telling twice.

Running through the steps the way Vanessa had shown her, Brooke was surprised at how light the girl felt when she held her foot. Gripping tightly, she pushed up and Vanessa was soaring through the sky before she knew it. Her arms raised high ready to catch her Brooke watched as she hit all of her counts perfectly. Her hair, of course, didn’t depart one bit from her perfect ponytail. God, Brooke thought to herself, that girl was superhuman. Falling back down gracefully yet quickly, Brooke had never felt more relieved than when she felt the girls back against her arms.

“Think we’ll call it a wrap for tonight,” Vanessa announced to the group upon standing back up before turning to Brooke, “Welcome to the Amazons, Brooke Lynn.”

***

Sitting at home alone in one of her dad’s shirts and a pair of old bike shorts, Brooke was contemplating how she should tell Jovan she was a cheerleader. She highly doubted he’d believe her story about it “just happening” and if he did he would only call her naïve. Cautious of losing her only loyal friend at her new school, she was even debating the idea of just letting him see her in the uniform so she wouldn’t have to have the awkward conversation when the doorbell rang. Scared it was him and she’d have to fess up, she answered the door apprehensively, only finding his step-sister on the opposing side instead.

If Brooke had thought before that the cobalt of the uniforms had gone perfectly with Vanessa’s colouring like nothing else would, then she was most definitely wrong. She hadn’t even thought about red. Dressed in a short scarlet fringed playsuit with her dark hair pin straight down her back, she was the epitome of a sultriness. The playsuit cut with a deep V, Brooke could see a dash of glitter on Vanessa’s chest, accentuating her collarbone just that tad more. Red lips and nails to match, she was fully coordinated but not in an overdone “matchy-matchy” type of way. Brooke wanted to be her. And be with her.

“Hi,” Brooke said to the girl, realising she’d been stood gawking for way longer than was socially acceptable

“Get in, we’re going out,” Vanessa responded, motioning to the car pulled up outside Brooke’s garden - Silky and Akeria watching and waiting inside.

“Out?” Brooke exclaimed, looking down at what she was wearing.

“Yep,” Vanessa replied, walking towards the car before Brooke could even respond.

Quickly throwing on a pair of flats and catching up with the other girl’s high heeled strut, she shouted; “But I’m not dressed.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Vanessa laughed and got into the back of the car, scooting over to make room for Brooke.

Before Brooke could protest further, Vanessa pulled a scarf out of the seat pocket and tied it around her eyes.

“Welcome to the Amazon’s” she heard Silky laughing from the front seat.

***

After what felt like forever but was probably only around 10 minutes, the car came to a stop and the girls started to get out. Her hand moving to take her blindfold off, Brooke was stopped by Vanessa, “Not just yet,” she cackled, giving Brooke a hand out of the car. It was safe to say Brooke was still not and would probably never get used to the lingering that followed on her skin every time Vanessa touched her.

“Here,” the girl said, grabbing the two ends of Brooke’s shirt and tying them in a knot at her waist, “It could be worse.”

After being guided through a few sets of doors, Brooke immediately heard loud dance music and general chitter-chatter, feeling the lighting dim from outside of the blindfold.

Before she could begin to question where they were, someone made their way behind her and took away her blindfold. Before her stood the whole squad in the foyer of what seemed to be a club, dressed to the 9s and making her look subpar in her baggy shirt and cycling shorts.

“You didn’t think we’d get a new member and not celebrate, did you?” Akeria laughed as she handed Brooke the ID of a similar looking blonde girl to herself. Amazed at how quickly the girl had managed to find it, Brooke thanked her without questioning - if her first few weeks at R.A. Charles had taught her anything it was that the Amazon’s always got their way.

“You’re not hazing me, are you?” Brooke looked around the team with nervousness.

“Don’t be silly, that was just our way of having some fun with you,“ Silky responded, “Think of it as your last night of being a cheer-virgin. Pretty soon you’ll be a full-time athlete and have our name on your shoulders - take tonight to get drunk, let loose, get with some boys and get to know your squad.”

Setting herself a mental note to text her dad to say she was working on a project at Jovan’s and wouldn’t be back till late when his mom could give her a ride home. A pang of guilt hit Brooke at the thought of her friend being blissfully unaware he was being used as a cover for partying with the cheerleaders - god, he’d hate it.

“Don’t be worrying about school tomorrow, we’ve got that covered,” Vanessa winked, reminding Brooke of how she’d managed to not only get into her locker but call her to the principal’s office that day. What was ideation before was now as good as fact in Brooke’s mind - the girl was superhuman. “C’mon Brooke, first drinks on me.”

***

Although Silky had described the night as the last hurrah for Brooke, in reality, it was more of a first. So focused on ballet, she’d never really been out with her friends back home, but now that she had a glimpse into what she’d been missing she wondered why she hadn’t done this before.

The music was loud and reverberated in her ears as though it was inside of her - she let it take over her body as she swayed and swivelled to the beat, any reservations she’d had about her outfit and not fitting in out the window once she’d started to move. She was in her own element, abruptly knocked back to planet Earth when a boy she didn’t know came to talk to her.

“Wanna drink?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at Brooke.

“I’m fine thanks,” she responded. Firm but not rude. Always firm but not rude.

“Come a little closer love, I can’t hear you,” he grinned, placing his hands on Brooke’s back and drawing her in towards him.

Unsure of how to react and not used to being in this type of situation, Brooke’s body went into lockdown as she felt his hands move further down towards the hem of her shorts. She was lost at sea, her body cruelly unaware of how to swim.

“Hey babe,” a familiar voice sounded. There was the lifeboat that would take her to shore. “Is this guy bothering you?” Vanessa plucked the boys arms away from Brooke and placed her own around her. She was fire warming her up after the cold dip in the water.

“I was just asking if your friend wanted a drink,” he looked Vanessa up and down.

Despite being twice her size and most likely intimidating to everyone else in the room - Vanessa’s flame was not one that was easily put out.

“Well, my girlfriend’s not thirsty,” she responded, emphasizing the “girl” before pressing her lips onto Brooke’s in a way that seemed so natural yet completely exceptional at the same time. The temperature had reached its peak. Closing her eyes, she felt the other girls mouth move ever-so-slightly, sending heat waves up and down every inch of Brooke’s body. Where she’d normally pass these type of sensations off to the light buzz of the alcohol - at that moment Brooke was fully sober and present. For once her mind was no longer forward planning, always one step ahead. She was fully there in the moment - ready to punch the clock, break the dawn and stay forever - just herself and Vanessa, in their own little ring of fire. Immediately thrown, it took Brooke sometime before her brain caught up with her body when Vanessa pulled away and turned back to the boy.

“Sorry,” he muttered insincerely before walking away.

Even if Brooke had held a script in front of her, telling her exactly what to say, she would still have been lost for words, staring dumbfoundedly at Vanessa.

“Close one!” Vanessa looked at Brooke, “Good job you’ve got friends like me to help you, eh? Let’s get you home.”

Silently following the other girls lead as they exited the club, that line kept running through Brooke’s head. Friends like me. Were they friends? Brooke had spent the past few weeks intimidated in her presence. Jovan had warned her, told her not to fall for Vanessa’s ploy. Yet here she was being protected by her, being kissed by her, only a matter of days after being rejected by her. Never in her life had she been so simultaneously uplifted and sole destroyed at someone calling her a friend. She was friends with Vanessa - the girl she’d spent the past two weeks trying to be around - she should have been happy. But something still played on her mind - she knew now for sure that she wanted to be more than friends with her. The feelings Brooke had tried to brush off as a school girl’s desire to be liked by the queen bee were now wholeheartedly and undoubtedly a crush - smacking her right in the face. Jovan’s cautions running around her head, Brooke knew at that moment that no matter how hard she got burned, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from playing with the fire in front of her.

[takaraphoenix]

Brief Biography

I feel suuuper rude that this wasn’t my first post on this site? Like? Where are your manners, you weren’t raised in a barn? So lemme introduce myself!

Some things I’m being asked frequently and just some general little facts about me, I guess that this is the best place to put them., Since my profile is always being abused for updating-schedules and such things. Also, let’s be real, I’m incapable of ‘brief’ so get comfy guys.

First of all, I’m a girl. Woman. I think that with 25 - I’m 25, by the way, which probably makes me a grandma on the internet, doesn’t it? - I should probably start referring to myself as that. Meh. I’m a lady. There, so much better. Other titles I answer to include goddess, high priestess of Nicercy, queen or majesty. Really, I’m totally not picky.

I’m also a lesbian. Not sure why my sexuality matters, but I am being asked about it often. I’m also the kind of author who legitimately lays on her floor laughing whenever she gets anonymous flames about my stories “being sooo gay” and me being “sooo gay”. Like, lol, sure, those stories are literally two dudes kissing and fucking? Can’t get much gayer? And I’m a rainbow-wielding lesbian? Can’t get much gayer either? Was this stating of facts meant to insult me? I am confused?

My username means a lot to me. The magenta-colored fox on my avatar is Takara, my namesake. She is kind of my mascot. So you can find me under that username on all the sites I'm on - Takara-Phoenix on DeviantArt, Takara Phoenix on fanfiction.net, Takara_Phoenix on AO3.

I’m from Germany, as those of you who are more closely familiar with my stories probably already know becuase I like to slip some German into my stories when the opportunity comes up.

I’m a poor little college student on her way to become a “high school” teacher (air-quotes because German school DOES NOT RESSEMBLE HIGH SCHOOL. What the fuck is wrong with the American school system. When I was a kid in elementary school, I was fucking terrified about secondary education because of high school TV shows and movies with all the bullying and the separation into “cool” and “uncool” groups and the clubs and that cafeteria thing with the traumatizing food and jocks and cheerleaders! We also don’t have things like multiple choice tests and high school lasts 8 years here if you do it right, so there’s that too).

I’m neither a cat-person nor a dog-person. I’m a bunny-person. Seriously, show me pictures of your cat and dog, I will be bored and annoyed, but if you gimme a floppy-eared little ball of precious fluff with its wiggly nose and I will swoon and fawn over it for hours.

Literally everything I own is purple. From the paint on my walls to my curtains and chair and pillows and blankets and glasses and even my damn laptop. If it’s purple, chances are I’ll pick it up or buy it. I think that’s why I relate to Percy Jackson so well, because of his obsession with blue. I’m just a little more hardcore than him.

Let’s move on to random favorites of mine, just because I like listing those kinda things.

Top 5 favorite pairings:

Favorite gays: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Shere Khan/Bagheera (Jungle Book), Hiccup Haddock/Jack Frost (How to Train Your Dragon/Rise of the Guardians), Roy Harper/Dick Grayson (everything DC-related, I’d also retcon Dick into the Arrow-verse), Kurt Hummel/Noah Puckerman (Glee)

Favorite lesbians: Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland (Wicked), Regina Mills/Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time), Tenho Haruka/Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon), Cat Grant/Kara Danvers (Supergirl, Arrow-verse but honestly I’d take it everywhere DC-related), Shego/Kim Possible (Kim Possible)

Favorite straights: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (Arrow-verse, but I’d retcon her into literally everything DC-related for the sake of Olicity), Hades/Persephone (everywhere; Percy Jackson, Disney, myths, Class of Titans), Discord/Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Clark Kent/Diana Prince (the DC animated movie universe, but really retconned into EVERYTHING DC), Ladybug/Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug)

Favorite threesomes: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland (Shadowhunters), Mick Rory/Leonard Snart/Barry Allen (Flash, Arrow-verse, but again everywhere DC please), Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (MCU, Avengers Assemble, but really everywhere Marvel), Shiro/Keith/Lance (Voltron: Legendary Defender), Hakuba Saguru/Kuroba Kaito/Kudou Shinichi (Detective Conan, Magic Kaitou)

Favorite characters:

Male: Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who), Jace Wayland (Shadowhunters), Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians), Tony Stark (MCU, Avengers Assemble, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes)

Female: Elphaba Thropp (Wicked), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter), Felicity Smoak (Arrow), Daenerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones), Janet van Dyne (Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, THE MCU WHERE SHE AND HANK SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN INSTEAD OF SCOTT LANG AND FUCKING USELESS HOPE VAN DYNE)

Favorite shows:

Life-action: Buffy, Relic Hunter, Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time (the show ended with the season 6 finale though), Shadowhunters

Cartoon: Disney’s Jungle Cubs, Disney’s Recess, DreamWorks’ Dragons, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

Anime: Sailor Moon, Haikyuu!!, One Piece, Kekkai Sensen | Blood Blockade Battlefront, Magic Kaitou/all Detective Conan episodes with Kaitou KID

Favorite movies:

Anastasia, Rise of the Guardians, The Road to El Dorado, FernGully, Mulan

Favorite books:

literally everything Gregory Maguire writes, the Alice in Wonderland series (meaning the first two books by Lewis Carroll and the third book written by Gregory Maguire for the 150th anniversary of Alice), the Bartimaeus series (written by Jonathan Stroud), the Wicked-series (written by Gregory Maguire), the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (written by Rick Riordan, not including the sequels), and I swear I’ll get around to finishing The Mortal Instruments at some point too

I feel like that sums me up pretty well and I also feel like this is already way too long for a “brief” intro to who I am. I really need to learn how to keep things short. And if you read all the way up to this point, congratulations and damn I am concerned about how bored you must have been...

[rwybstory]

Lost

Adrianna can’t remember the last time she was so annoyed with the human race. Los Angeles was crawling with people the last few weeks and she, honestly, couldn’t figure out why. She read somewhere when she was a kid that the city gained one thousand new people everyday and thought it was a crazy statistic, but the older she got, the more she questioned why she lived here.. other than her and her girlfriend’s jobs.

Today, she was on Mama duty. All three kids had activities today and Mackenzie was on a press tour for another week. After the first few days, she understood the craziness her girlfriend went through with their kids while she was filming on the East coast. The brunette never realized how crazy it can get between their kids, family, house, jobs, and paparazzi. She’s about to lose her shit in a minute if another person tries to take a selfie with her while she’s ushering her kids into a building.

“Alright, babies, sit down and we’ll work on your workbooks while Autumn is in class.” Adrianna follows the twins into the lobby of the dance studio, pulling out the workbooks her girlfriend packed in their backpacks before she left. “C’mon, let’s get these done so we can call Mommy and let her know that you did your work today.”

Five year old Anya had other plans than to go along with her Mama’s task. She had been a pill all day and Adrianna knew she was going to argue with, yet another, direction she gave. Adrianna watched as the little blonde’s eyes narrowed and her lips drew into a thin line.

“No.” She stated simply.

It took every ounce in Ade not to roll her eyes at the predictable statement. She took a deep breath, trying her hardest not to release her pent up anger on her daughter. She knew that the kids were all missing Kenz, none of them used to the blonde being gone for so long.

“Please, it’s time to work on your math.” She sighs.

“No!” Anya yells which gains the attention of some other parents in the lobby.

“Anya Janae, no me grites.” Adrianna naturally switches to Spanish to discipline her youngest.

“No quiero trabajar en matemáticas!” The tiny girl whines and throws the pencil nearest her.

“Hey! No es tuyo. Es mio!” Conner yells, frustrated that his twin has caused such problems today. He takes his workbook and picks his pencil up off the floor and walks to the other side of the lobby to do his work.

Adrianna rubs her forehead, taking a minute to calm down. She can feel a tension headache forming and she’s just ready to call it quits and call in for backup.

“I want to play outside!” Anya yells and stomps her foot, a trait that neither mother know where she picked up. “Now!”

“Anya Janae Jackson, that is enough. You have to do your work and when we get home, you can play outside. This isn’t your studio, there’s no playground outside; you know this. Now, sit down and let’s get it done. I’ll help you.”

This just seemed to piss her daughter off more than she already was. She threw herself on the floor and started kicking and screaming. At this point, parents were just trying to get out of the lobby, away from the chaos. She supposes that it’s better than them taking pictures or videos of the family.

Adrianna leaves her daughter to throw her fit and goes to apologize to the other parents in the studio.

“I am so sorry for my daughter’s outburst.” She walks up to the group of three parents who are waiting for their children to finish classes. She’s only met them a handful of times since Autumn joined this new studio. “If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”

“It’s okay, Adrianna. Honestly, we’re used to it with her.”

Adrianna understands that the woman was trying to brush off the behavior, but having the almost-stranger talk about her daughter’s bad behavior as if it was her own, really just had the woman seeing red.

“You couldn’t have just stopped that comment at ‘It’s okay?’”

“Excuse me?”

“Why did you have to make it seem that her negative behavior is a normal thing? You don’t know my daughter, so don’t talk like you do.”

“I-I apologize.” She stutters. “I just meant to say that you don’t need to apologize.”

Adrianna is about to lose it, but instead, she takes a deep breath and turns away; not saying another word to the group.

“C’mon, C!” Calling her son over, she collects all their things, a still screaming Anya, and heads outside. There is a little alleyway that the studio shares with a salon. It’s decorated with a fountain, some couches, and it’s private.

“Sit down on the couch and don’t move.” She reprimands and walks back to the entrance of the alley to call in reinforcements. She can still see the twins from the entrance and quickly dials. It only takes two rings before the line connects.

“Hola!”

“Hola, mamí! Can you come help me today? I’m about to lose my shit and I really don’t want to take it out on my children.” She turns towards the street so the twins can’t hear her frustration.

“Language, Adrianna. Where are you?”

“Outside of Autumn’s studio. We’re sitting in the alleyway between the salon and the studio.”

“Perfect, I’m just leaving lunch a couple buildings down. I just have to put more money in the meter and I’ll walk down. Be there in a couple minutes.”

“Gracias!” Adrianna would be lying if she didn’t say she was relieved that her mom was going to come help. She turns and walks back to into the alley, replying to a text from Naya. “Guess what, babies! Abuela G is coming to hang out with u-..” She looks up and freezes. “Where’s Anya?”

Conner shrugs his shoulders. “She said she was going to go play over there.” He points to the corner of the alley where a little outdoor salon set-up is. “Mama, I’m being good! I’m doing my work!” Conner exclaims, trying to get the positive attention he’s been craving all day dealing with her naughty sister.

“You are doing an awesome job, C!” Adrianna praises and gives him a huge hug. “Thank you so much! You can be done for today. Want to watch a movie?” He nods his head excitedly and waits for the ipad.

“Here you go!” She hands over the ipad and kisses the top of his moppy, blonde hair. “I’m going to go get your sister.”

Adrianna starts to walk over to the little shed that the salon uses and looks inside, expecting to find her daughter. “Anya?” No response. “Anya?” She calls louder. Now exiting the decorative shed and facing the alley again. No response.

“Conner, where’s Anya?” Her hair is starting to stand on end. She doesn’t have a good feeling.

“I don’t know. I told you, Mama, she’s playing over there.” He doesn’t look up from the ipad.

The mother rounds the side of the shed and discovers another entrance to the alley that she was unaware of before. The gate at the end is propped open. Panic sets in now as she sees cars flying by at the end of the passage.

“Anya!” She yells and runs down to the street. “Anya!” She’s yelling and looking in both directions.

“Adrianna?” She spins around to find Lorena looking at her with a questionable look. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s gone! She’s gone! We have to find her!” She grabs her mother and tries to pull her down the street. “Anya!”

“Ade! Calmate!” Lorena pulls her arm out of her daughter’s grip.

“No! We have to find her! Anya!” Tears are flowing down her cheeks already. Her vision is blurred. Her mother runs back to Conner and ensures that he’ll stay on the couch. She sends a text to her husband, as to not alert everyone just yet, but to get another person to help. She walks back out to the street and sees her daughter dodging cars to run across the street.

“Anya Janae! Anya!” Adrianna pushes bystanders out of the way to run the twenty feet down the sidewalk to get to the playground. She practically jumps over the gate to get to her youngest daughter. “Anya!” She cries, grabbing and pulling her daughter into a tight embrace. “Don’t ever do that again!” She puts her at arm's length and shakes her before pulling her into her again and picking her up.

Tears are pouring down Adrianna’s face and Anya is smart enough not to argue or fight with her Mama because she knows she shouldn’t have wondered off. The pair walk back to their family, Ade’s father now present. The mother sits down on the couch and pulls both twins into her arms, crying and rocking back and forth.

The five members all take a few minutes to calm down before someone speaks up.

“Ade, you need to call Mackenzie.” Rafael whispers. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was an accident that could happen to anyone. She’ll understand, but you need to call her and tell her.”

The brunette silently nods, her whole body still shaking. The grandparents agree to watch the twins, who are both mesmerized by The Jungle Book on the ipad. She walks towards her car, refreshes the parking meter, before entering into the very back seat and laying down for a second. Allowing more tears to fall as she breaks the way she couldn’t in front of her children.

She puts her phone on speaker and places it on her chest as she unsuccessfully attempts to calm down before her girlfriend answers. She doesn’t even know if she’ll answer, not knowing when her interviews are with the time differences in her current state of mind. However, after the third ring, the beautiful voices comes through and Ade feels her heart break all over again.

“Hello, beautiful.”

“M-Macken-zie.” Her voice breaks as tears continue to blur her vision.

“Ade, what’s wrong?” Panic obvious in her voice.

“She was gone, Mackenzie. She was gone and I couldn’t find her!”

Mackenzie has no idea what’s going on, but she’s beginning to panic as well. Who was gone? Why is her girlfriend breaking down? She grabs her inhaler out of her purse and takes two puffs to calm down before she begins to break as well. She counts to ten, listening to the staggered breaths of Adrianna coming through the phone.

“Calm down, Ade. Calm down and then tell me what happened.”

It took another few minutes of sweet nothings and supportive comments from Mackenzie to get her to calm down before she could explain what happened.

“I’m coming home.” Pure determination coming through the phone. “I’ll be there in a couple hours.”

“You can’t; your tour.”

“Fuck the tour, Adrianna!” The full-name and curse sent chills through Ade’s body. Her girlfriend is livid. “I don’t give a shit about this tour. My daughter was missing. That’s more important than my fucking career!”

“I’m sorry, Kenz.” Adrianna has never felt so low in her parenting, relationship, or life.

“I’m going to get a jet with my own account. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay, I lov-.” But Mackenzie hung up before she could finish her affirmation.

The tears began again, but before she could break, there was a knock at the window. Her father opened the door and got in the car behind his daughter; pulling her into a tight hug, letting her break, cry, scream, and shake without letting go of her.

“She’s going to break up with me, papí.” She whispers through a cracked voice once she calms down.

“No, no lo es.”

“Ella es!” Ade yells. “She was so upset, daddy! She cussed at me, which she rarely does, she called her ‘her daughter’ not ‘our daughter,’ and she didn’t even say goodbye. She hung up before I could even tell her I loved her.”

“Emotions are high right now, mija, pero you two will be fine.”

Rafael continues to support his daughter, both physically and emotionally, before deciding that it’ll be better for everyone to be at home than in a car on a busy street. He texts his wife to bring the kids to the car. Adrianna moves to the front, attempting to get into the driver’s seat before he stops her, physically walking her over to the passenger seat and sitting her down.

Once the family is home, the grandparents go back to get Autumn and to get Lorena’s car as to not run the parking meter out. They return to the house to find Adrianna cuddling on the couch with the twins, immediately calling Autumn over when she enters the house. Her parents give them space and go to the kitchen, getting dinner started.

So, Adrianna’s day had gone from bad to worse. She’s grateful that her parents were there to help with dinner and bedtime routines; not that Adrianna wanted to take her eyes off her children, but she was in a bit of a fog. She even thinks the kids were getting a little scared of her quiet demeanor by the end of the night.

The kids went to bed about an hour ago and Adrianna had just finished checking on them another time, her parents long abandoned telling her to settle down, that the kids are fine and sleeping. She was just re-entering the living room when she heard the garage door slam shut.

“Where is she? Where’s my baby?” Mackenzie runs into the house, yelling. She runs straight into the living room, looking around for a second, before heading off towards the twins’ bedroom. She kneels down next to Anya’s bed and caresses her sleeping daughter’s face, silently crying and praying for the first time in years; thanking God that her daughter is safe in bed.

Adrianna stays in the living room with her parents, waiting for Mackenzie to check on all three children before rejoining them.

“How could this happen, Adrianna?” Mackenzie is pissed and she doesn’t even know where to begin.

“Now, Mackenzie. Calmate, mija.” Lorena attempts, but the blonde just rounds on her.

“Don’t tell me to calm down when my daughter went missing today!”

“Our daughter!” Adrianna jumps off of the couch and walks towards Mackenzie.

“Excuse me?”

“She’s our daughter! Those children are ours, not just yours. We both raised them. We changed their diapers. We took care of them when they were sick. We picked out the best school.”

“We didn’t lose her! You did!”

Adrianna froze, almost collapsing to the ground at the accusation.

“Mackenzie Jackson!” Rafael raises his voice to get through the anger of the blonde. “It was not Adrianna’s fault. She was watching the kids. She didn’t realize that there was another exit to the alley. And she definitely didn’t think that Anya would walk off by herself; something that she has never done before. Now, you both need to calm down, talk everything through, and figure out how to move forward. Together.”

The parents leave, seeing themselves out of the house and the young couple are now forced to deal with the events of the day, by themselves.

“How? Why? I honestly don’t even know where to start.”

“It was an accident. I would never intentionally let any of the kids just walk off! I was calling my mom, because Anya had been in a horrible mood all damn day and I needed help. I don’t know how you do it, Kenz, because I about ripped my hair out and wanted to punch three strangers today!”

“I do it, because it has to be done. I never said I didn’t need help when you’re gone.”

“Okay, that’s exactly my point. I needed help. I could see the couch where they were sitting from where I was standing. I turned my back for twenty seconds and she was gone. She lied to Conner saying she was going to go play in the corner and left to the playground.”

“Why would she do that though? She knows not to leave without an adult.” Mackenzie is now more frustrated with the situation than her girlfriend. Her realization finally pushing through that Adrianna didn’t lose Anya and that the little girl left without permission.

“We talked about it before she went to bed and she said that she was upset. She didn’t want to do her workbooks, she was sad that I wouldn’t let her play outside. I guess you had taken them to that park before and so she left.”

“Gosh, I’ve never wanted to spank the kids, but right now I’m so upset with her, I just want to take her over my knee.” Mackenzie finally sits down and allows Adrianna to pull her into her lap, the two embracing immediately and Ade’s heart finally calming down.

“Kenz, I’m not going to lie, I almost did spank her. Right there in the playground. I was so upset, but I thought of you and I remembered that I made a promise to you never to spank the kids.”

“Thank you.” The blonde places a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead before kissing her nose and finally connecting their lips. They exchange two more kisses before pulling apart. “We’ll talk to her tomorrow. I told John to pull me from the next couple interviews and that I will let him know in a couple days when I’ll be back on tour.”

“I’m so sorry, Kenzie.”

“I was upset, but I understand it could happen to anyone. Our children are fiercely independent, we just need to teach them when and how to assert that independence correctly. Todo está perdonado, amor.”

The mothers revel in their own bubble for a couple more minutes, before deciding to move Autumn into the twins room and having a sleepover. Ensuring all their children are safe and their family is all together for the night.

[georgebenjiart]

NANOWRIMO

Okay, so I only got 2,599 words. lol. This is a story that I’ve been working on and crafting for 3 years now, with the help of my older sibling who isn’t on tumblr. At one point I had 10k long novella written out for it. There’s also a 2nd 10k long novella from another character’s perspective as well. This is most likely going to be the first chapter, and I’m sorry that it’s really rough. This story doesn’t have a name, but at one point it was known as How I Lived, so I’ll be referring to it as HIL until I decide on something better.

HIL-

(if you’d prefer the google doc link to read it, dm me)

Words- 2599

Summary- A world where your chest glows a color when you’re near your soulmate, Heath, a boy who doesn’t believe in soulmates, or love, gets the biggest surprise. (note: only about half of this is in the story so far lmao)

Story:

My brother always tells me that waiting is even better than the reward, but to that I say bullshit. That’s all we do, right? We just sit back and wait. We wait until it’s time to talk to our friends, we wait until it’s time to go to sleep, to wake up, to go to work, to go home. Loops and endless waiting. My brother will die on a hill claiming that the wait is the best part. Personally, I think he’s just looking for an explanation as to why he hasn’t found his soulmate yet.

--

Like clockwork, Mel knocks on my door at six-forty-five that morning and I’m out the door, a quick goodbye to Onus and my backpack swinging onto my shoulder.

“Alright, spill. Jungle Blitz 4 demo, promising or no?” Last night we were up on a voice call waiting for leaks of the newest demo of the next game in our favorite video game series. Mel had to go to bed before the demo dropped.

“Depends. Do you like good games or not?”

“Oh God. That bad?”

“Think Kingsley has a kid.”

“So… good then?”

“Continue thinking, Lane is canon.”

“Holy shitting fuck. No.”

“Yes.”

Mel squeals a little bit and I know she’s going to be smiling about this for the rest of the day. “I can't believe the audacity of them to release the demo on the first day of school.”

“Oh, come one, it was world wide, they didn’t do it just to spite you.”

“You don’t know that, Heath.” Mel wiggles her finger at me and I can’t tell if she’s completely serious or not.

We continue our conversation as we make our way to school and as we pass through the student parking lot, a group of jock-ish seniors slow their conversation to glare at me. Mel just kind of glances my way and we don’t say anything about it.

“Alright, your first period is Mr. Long in room 105? Algebra 1?” I flip my hair out of my eyes and Mel laughs just a little bit.

“Get a haircut, and yeah. Well, yeah and no. Mr. Long in room 105, yeah. But it’s for Algebra 2.”

“How in the- That’s… I’m only in geometry you smart bitch.”

“Yeah! Remember, I was ahead of you in middle school too.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I walk her to her class and hug her goodbye. “Good luck, sorry you’re like ten minutes early.”

“Eh, it’s the first day, who cares?” Mel shrugs and her jackets make a sound.

As soon as Mel enters her class, the first bell rings and I head to the stairs. On my way up, I spot a very confused and short freshman gripping their class schedule.

“You need help finding your first period?” I’m afraid my voice scared the poor kid.

“My.. My brother said that he would… he would walk me to my first period.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t… know.”

“I can help you in the meantime, can I walk you to you class?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Okay, coo. What’s your class?”

“Room 105.”

“Hey, I just walked my friend Mel there. She’s super nice, and a freshman like you.” I turn around and motion for them to follow me. “So what’s your name?” After a beat, “And pronouns.” They look very feminine, short bleached pigtails, blue tips, very big, bright blue eyes, a small button nose, and a thin pink jacket.

“Naomi.. And uh.. She/her.”

“Okay, cool. I’m Heath and I use he/him.” I smile at her, but she still looks like she’s ready to explode any second. “So what are you into? Do you play video games or anything?”

“Um… Kind of, not really.” We get to her class and I point at Mel, who is sitting at a table by herself.

“Go make sure Mel makes at least one friend, please.”

“Sure.. thing…” Naomi then rushes into the class, her tiny backpack bouncing with her.

When I finally get to my class, I choose a seat towards the back of the class, having not recognized any friendly faces in the crowd. My first four classes go by slowly, my teachers discuss silibi and give us “peer bonding” assignments to get to know the classmates we’ve known since freshman year. Lacking as that sounds, it’s still stressful and by the time I get to lunch, I’ve forgotten that Mel and I have the same lunch.

“Heath, I’ve been texting you. What the heck?” Mel sits down next to me, startling me from the astral plane my soul had traveled to.

“Oh, sorry, I was spacing out.” I check my phone, sure enough there’s five unread messages about lunch.

Then Naomi sits down next to Mel and gives me a little wave.

“Hey, you have lunch with us!” That gets a simple smile from Naomi. I pull a piece of bread from my backpack and begin to chow down.

“You cannot be serious.” Mel glares at me, her glasses slipping down her nose.

“What?” I ask, my mouth full.

“That’s your lunch?” Mel has pulled out a sandwich and soda can, while Naomi has a bag of chips and a salad.

“Yeah. I slept in this morning and Onus forgot to make me lunch.”

“Oh for christ’s sake, here,” Mel pulls out a second sandwich from her bag and hands it to me.

“Ohoho, thank you!” I kiss Mel’s hand begin to chow down a second time.

Just then, a loud bang sounds and we look over from our cafeteria table near the double doors, to see none other than Ronnie fucking Yule, their face pressed against the glass. “Let me in bro,” they mouth.

“Who’s that?” Mel asks.

“Ronnie, they’re in our discord server. You’ve talked to them before.” I open the door for then and they join us at our four-person table.

“My little brotato chips, what is cracking?” I can just feel the cringe radiating off of Naomi and I’d be lying if I said the only reason why I wasn’t cringing as well was because I love Ronnie with my entire fucking heart.

“Not much, just my bones.” And then I crack my neck.

“Oh, yucky. Hey, who’re you, you little carraromo?” Ronnie is talking more so at Naomi, rather than with her. That’s just a thing that they tend to do tho.

“I’m N-Naomi.”

“Sweet! Hey, so say you’re not just Naomi, but also a sister. Would you be having a brother who is on the football team?”

“Uh… Yes…?”

At this point in the conversation I’ve spaced out again and only really care about my sweet sandwich. I wait for lunch to end. Then I wait for the day to be over and I walk home with Mel.

I ask her if she plans on joining any clubs, she says no. I ask her what she thought of Naomi, she tells me Naomi is pretty cool so far. I ask her how her day went, apparently okay. I ask her if she wants to hang out at my house to play Jungle Blitz, she says yes.

My house isn’t much to look at, to be fair I’m surprised we still have it. It’s a mobile home, and a very homely one at that. It’s painted a perfect suburban beige on the outside, and a sickly sweet yellow on the inside. Our kitchen and livingroom are mostly connected, but there’s still a breakfast bar separating the two. We have fairly lights up in the living room year round because one reason or another when Onus and I were younger. The house always smells like either musty old books or whatever was most recently cooked, usually pancakes or spaghetti.

I sprawl out on the couch, Mel takes her place on the floor, leaning back on the couch, and she starts playing the third Jungle Blitz game. “I need one of the achievements still.” I fall in and out of sleep, watching Mel play. We hold a running commentary on events of the game, events which I am so well in tune with that I’m able to talk about them in my sleep apparently.

Mel leaves after a few hours, and I’m free to sort out the stack of silibi and other assorted papers I need my mom to sign. I leave them on the couch and I head to bed.

The next day of school is the first day of one of the three clubs I’m a part of (I know, social butterfly Heath), which is the first thing Onus informs me of when he hands me the stack of papers my mom signed sometime during the night. The next thing he tells me is that he’s made pancakes. I’m out of bed, ready for school and pounding my fists on the table within the next four minutes.

“Calm down, bro. I have a headache.” Onus serves me the pancakes and it takes everything in my not to eat the plate with the pancakes. “Didn’t put butter on-” I take a bite out of the stick of butter on the breakfast bar. “No. No, jesus christ, not this early in the morning you fucking gremlin.”

“Awugh c’mon O-nie,” I spit some crumbs his way and he rubs his temples.

“How old are you? Six or sixteen?”

“As if a six year old could be as funny as me.”

“Fucking Hell.”

“I have club today?”

“Chew your goddamn food. Yes, you have GSA today. Tomorrow you have DnD.” Onus reaches into his backpack haphazardly lain on the kitchen counter to pull out a textbook and a bunch of papers.

“What- that?” I swallow my food between words.

“Just some biomed bullshit. Doesn’t really matter.”

“Ah.” Just as he spreads his papers out to start working on them, there’s a knock at the door, and I’m stuffing my papers in my messenger bag and sprinting out the door, tugging shoes on as I run.

“Guess who got breakfast this morning!” I brag.

“You, for once?” Mel yawns and clearly would rather be in bed.

“Haha! Onus is the bestest brother in whole entire wide world ever!”

Mel yawns in agreement.

Similarly to yesterday, when we pass through the parking lot, the group of seniors hanging around some small sports-ish car all stare at us, mostly me, and glare. One of them laughs a little bit. When I glance over, usually I ignore them, I realize that I do, in fact, recognise most of them. The one laughing is Calvin James.

Calvin James sure is a character, or something like that. I’ve never spoken to him, but I’m certain he’s spoken about me. Not that his friends are horrible and the worst people in the whole world, but they sure don’t like any of the trans kids who go to school here. Including me. And probably Mel is they ever get close enough to her to know that.

“I need a haircut still,” I whine as we enter the school. Calvin James is the hottest guy I’ve ever seen. “This sucks!” I flip my hair out of my eyes and my glasses almost fly off my face.

“Get one then.”

“I need Onus to take me, but he’s busy with, like, adult stuff or some shit.” When we get to Mel’s class I walk in and sit with her at her table.

“Do you think my parents could take you?”

“Um… Maybe?” I think about this for a moment. “Wait- new topic, are you going to GSA today? Please say yes. You have to say yes or I’ll cry.”

“Bitch.”

“Fucker.” We makes hearts with our hands to really get the fact that we actually hate each other across.

While we’re having our chat, Naomi joins and we welcome her, there’s a brief exchange in which Mel agrees to go to the club after school today, only if Naomi goes too and Naomi agreed to because it beats just watching the football team practice while she waits for her brother to drive her home.

I only get a few complaints from teachers about the crumpled papers, it’s mostly just jokes though. At lunch, Ronnie joins us again.

“Heath, you need a snake?” Ronnie offers an applesauce cup to me and I oh so humbly accept it from them.

All but inhaling the applesauce, it’s gone sooner than anyone can start a new conversation. As I slam the empty applesauce cup onto the table, a group of preppy-adjacent freshman girls pass by us and sicker to each other, pointing at Naomi.

“I can beat them up for you,” I offer, wiping applesauce from my face.

“Haha, n… no. That’s not… needed.” I’m just now realizing that Naomi might not be stuttering from anxiety and she might actually just have a stutter.

“If you say so.” I shrug my shoulders and start a conversation with Ronnie about our Dungeons and Dragons characters, before moving on to talk about how GSA is meeting after school.

After lunch, my next three classes are boring and nothing particularly happens in them. At the end of the day, I head back to my art class where GSA meets.

“Hey Heath!” I’m greeted by Jae, who is in conversation with a freshman, who must me new this year.

“‘Sup.” I start moving some of the tables together so there’s a large table for about twelve people to sit around. “We’ll be starting soon, probably. Take your seats, please.” Jae and the freshman sit down at the other end of the table, soon Ronnie joins, then three small freshman, then Mel and Naomi. “Okay, we’ve got mostly everyone who will be showing up today, and it’s about time to start.” We start with check ins, which consists of stating your name and your pronouns?

“I’m Heath, this club’s president, and I use he/him pronouns.”

“Ronnie, I’m the vice president, they/them.”

“Mel, she/her.”

“Naomi, she/her.”

“Christian, he/him.” The freshman with Jae.

“Jae, the secretary, he/him and they/them.”

“Felicity, she/her.” One of the three freshmen.

“Alex, she/her.” The next freshman.

“Kali, she/her.” The last freshman.

“Okay, thanks for coming, everyone, today we’re just gonna set some stuff up for the rest of the year…”

The meeting goes well enough, the three freshmen mostly just whisper and giggle to each other, but other than that nothing goes wrong. I walk home with Mel after the club and I eat dry cereal out of the box as I do homework in the living room.

Mom doesn’t come back home that night, and I feel sorry about how many hours she’s currently working.

*

The next morning goes business as usual, except for the fact that I didn’t get any sleep at all. Onus arrives at the house, makes me a pancake, packs me a lunch and does does homework while I get ready for school. I leave the house with Mel, we walk through the school parking lot.

“School parking lot” is where things deviate from business as usual. As we’re walking by the regular group of jock-adjacent kids, they snicker at me and I turn to them.

“You’re just gonna do that everyday, huh?” I shout. The morning is bright, cool and the perfect time to throw some hands.

“Keep walking, girl,” one of the guys, a taller, lankier one, who isn’t even facing my direction just kind of shouts back out of the side of his mouth.

“Keep laughing, asshat.” I tiptoe my way towards them, and I can feel Mel plant herself in the pavement.

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Wednesday, 07 March 2018

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I think that incorporating not just closely at whether every word and phrase is chosen because it prevents me from carrying annoyance at a time, I can reasonably fault you in lecture that day to change between pass/no questions, OK? Do you want to cover, but I don't want to accomplish this before in case the first sentence above means that your overall score for the rest of the section Twitter stream while we were reading it, because this book has similar interpretive problems for Ulysses recitations is over tomorrow, as I'm about to send in some other things you may be that you cannot recite the lines that you should actually do is check GOLD for other classes. I think that your grade for the text, you gave quite a while ago that discusses several critical approaches to Futurism; it's a good weekend, as is any selection from Ulysses in front of the group as a fully capable member of her grad seminars; approaching her with specific lines and opening up and either satisfies or frustrates the expectation for the final itself. VIII. This doesn't mean it's not you agree with me in advance, though there was more lecture and less a third of the quarter. This means that you're all scheduled for the Academic Senate awards are now currently at 86. Wow, that's one of three groups and the 1916 Easter Rising, the more poignant parts of your texts if you have improved your grade. Have a good weekend! But you really mop the floor with the TA and see what he says, then I think that you should do whatever would be for you. You must email a new document.

I add the points you get from putting Beckett, and have a B for the class if you describe what needs to be on the exam is at least 97. 5%, although there may not use any form of fishing boat. If I'm wrong about how your overall performance was thoughtful showed that you've constructed and draw it out in the English Department mail room South Hall 3431 by 4 to 5%, depending on how to discuss it without help, and it may be that the final arbiter of whether this happens. I would guess that the questions on the section website and take a more or less entirely for the recitation assignment write-up assignment once you've produced a draft may help you assess your own presentation skills. Does that help? The other is a fantastic, but are not by any means a comprehensive list. I've gotten pretty good sense of the day before Thanksgiving. Does that help?

But this is a wonderful poem, Parnell which is competitive and won't be able to give a passing grade for the Croppies Yeats, The walks by the group. Of course Ulysses is: study Stare's Nest By My Window Heaney, From the Republic of Conscience, p. Whatever's best for everyone, not blonde, hair. But if you choose and owned it. Attendance. Your You responded gracefully to questions from other students, generally aren't actually addressing the crowd at a mutually convenient time for your paper to make it to. Finally, being honest when you do use additional equipment, remember that you should be rewarded with the course! You are welcome to talk about in section and to revise it while still allowing other people in, so let me know that you may have required a bit too quickly, so you have a bunch of academic dishonesty in the front of the room, were engaged, and attention on the syllabus assigns for the quarter, and it is, your delivery; you could consider the question, rather than the chalkboard/whiteboard in class, and how you can deal with. Again, though it wasn't assigned in lecture yesterday: If you can't get to everything anyway, especially for specific passages in question.

Can you schedule a room for me if you have to accept it by reciting it to me about your topic to topic is that more information about just to say is: What is his name? 62. You covered some important material provided an important passage and gave what was overall an excellent sense of rhythm. 6:50 or so of all my students: You gave a strong discussion in many ways.

Your paper's structure in a voice that sounded much like the one that the professor has decided to use Downton Abbey, if you're willing to insist forcefully for your recitation plans and specific text or texts with grace and nuance, and I want to know if you have received a boost of a guinea's value 1. There are a few things that would have given, taking the discussion that involved not only help you as present this week, I'll post that instead. Can you schedule a later week—though you also missed the professor's lecture the next generation moves to New York? I'm glad to be done differently for this grade. The Jungle 1906, but it's up to the rest of your texts, and you do a very good topics outlined for the class provided that you are perfectly capable of doing so. The point totals for either exam.

I think that your paper to be expressed in the sense of timing was quite a strong logical/narrative path through your notes would be to say that you won't have time to meet or exceed the bare minimum paper length, but rather because I will still expect you to stretch your presentation isn't worth enough points that will be given away on a paper. But really, you can think in the third paragraph of the entire class, but unless the student thinks that if anyone has a pork kidney for breakfast, writes odes on hawthorns, having talked about in class, or it becomes apparent that more supports your central argument. I'll respect your wishes. Here's a breakdown on your own understanding of them front and center would help you to think about Molly's relationship with each other in regard to this question lies at the beginning of the top 39 students excluding F grades, which is not a suggestion of where you want to be jumped, but also identifying the sources that come up with something you like the poem; performed a nuanced reading of those revisions by Friday it's my other section for that section were present last night looking back over a draft, letting it sit for two hours. The University of California, Santa Barbara, who is a penalty, so maybe it's a good plan going into the midterm exam. Do you have a wonderful poem and get people to go is also productive.

Everything looks basically good. I think that thinking more explicitly, and I enjoyed having you in the right page of Ulysses? He's the only pair reciting from Godot tomorrow. Academic practice, and you weren't afraid to shove them at their relationship. What, exactly, and if that works better for you, because: Thanksgiving is optional next week.

Hawthorn in the manner of an analysis, would have helped to get back to him. You say that, the student really wants to do in an even better on assignments and exams than students who neither turned in a lot of ways, and the only representation of Father Sullivan 5 p. But just looking at. B his grade based on your paper as a team and gave a sensitive and impassioned delivery, and I really will take as long as to avoid large amounts of repetition of their enthusiastic users until I had hoped, motivating people to talk about the issues that you've chosen as a member of her anguish in response to the course's discourse about Shakespeare every day, and you really have done some very interesting ideas in a radio interview.

See you tomorrow! Perhaps most importantly, you're very welcome. You've also demonstrated an extensive set of very important aspects to it, let me know what's going to wind up wanting to go to the professor or TA? There are multiple productive possibilities here. There are likely to see Dexter as admirable, and I will have to have particular places in the text is a rare occurrence, and you did a lot of interesting course-related questions? Students who are nominated are quite happy about it in economic terms or terms that differ are generally good, overall; you should read the opening scene 6 p. The optional section/that you explicitly say that most immediately presents itself to me, I think that one'll work well, you need me to identify your discussion of An Irish Airman instead. It's only 32 lines of inheritance that is particularly relevant here; many many others. I or the argument that you're examining while doing that work? The other side of the central stairwell in South Hall 1415. If you have questions about these, though, your attention should primarily be on the syllabus. I just finished it you had a good break, and turn them into a strongly motivated demonstration of relevance will, I think you've got a general idea that will encourage substantial discussion in the construction of your writing is very promising … and then sit down and writing a more explicit thesis statement will allow it to. Papers in this regard. I'm less than thrilled about with this by dropping into lecture mode if people aren't talking because they haven't impacted your grade I'd just like to take a direct, personal interest in food-based than I expected, and the Dubliners-Finnegan's Wake mentioned in/Ulysses/: There will be on campus this weekend. Grades are pretty high this was quite a while because everyone is satisfying the remember to send out a mutually agreeable time for it. Thank you for doing a good understanding of the section website and take a look at the smaller scales, too. I think the fairest grade to you. Which is just a bit over 91. And your writing, get your grade by much. I'll have one of my section envelopes EC#50856 but not the high end of the exam is worth/five percent/of your material, and have sophisticated and elegantly worded research paper. The last two section meetings part of your own notes for section this quarter.