#Trigonometry class 10

[twinnfawn]

I’d like to think Alex Hirsch purposefully waited 10 years after the original fans grew up to be like “oh yeah btw this guy paid a LOT of attention in trigonometry class”

[dmathprofessor]

sin2A Formula | Trigonometry #shortmath #shorts #shortsfeed #short

[thepenpostblog]

Trigonometry Formulas

Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that deals with the relationships between the angles and sides of triangles. It’s a fundamental topic in mathematics and finds applications in various fields, from physics and engineering to astronomy and navigation. To master trigonometry, one needs to be well-versed in its numerous formulas and identities. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore a wide range of trigonometry formulas, making them accessible and understandable. Whether you’re a student looking to ace your trigonometry exams or a professional seeking to apply trigonometric principles in real-life scenarios, this article has got you covered.

Trigonometry Formulas List:

Let’s kick things off by presenting a list of the fundamental trigonometry formulas that we will delve into in more detail:

Basic Trigonometric Function Formulas

Reciprocal Identities

Trigonometry Table

Periodicity Identities (in Radians)

Cofunction Identities (in Degrees)

Sum & Difference Identities

Double Angle Identities

Triple Angle Identities

Half Angle Identities

Product Identities

Sum to Product Identities

Inverse Trigonometry Formulas

Trigonometry Formulas from Class 10 to Class 12

Trigonometry Formulas in Major Systems

[inspired-lesson-plans]

This is a very long post. If you do not have the time, then please at least do the quick activity up top. The lesson plan that took me 4 days to write will follow the ⁜ symbol.

HW Due Mon:

Open https://mysolartime.com/ in a new tab and allow the website to track your location.

Open https://www.utctime.net/ in a new tab.

Reblog this post the current UTC time and your local time, using the following format:

21:00 UTC, 4:00 local

4. Vote in the following poll.

⁜

Social Studies, Grade 5, Geography 6.1.5.GeoSV.3: Demonstrate how to use digital geographic tools, maps and globes to measure distances and determine time zones, and locations using latitude and longitude.

Do Now:

Provide students with a paper copy of a population density world map and 2 minutes to fulfill the following instruction:

Draw lines on the map in order to separate the world into 24 time zones. Try not to separate dense population centers into different time zones.

⁎

Class Discussion:

Use the projector to share and discuss the maps of any students who are willing to share. Have fun with this, there are bound to be some good ideas and bad ideas because 5th grade is like that.

Then, project the official world time zone map, and discuss the good ideas and bad ideas present here.

Exemplary discussion points:

The 0-point of the timezone map is the Prime Meridian, which cuts right through England. Why do you think it's in England?

How come some countries like the US and Brazil are cut into multiple time zones, but China isn't?

Why do you think the lines are pretty straight in Europe, Africa, and North and South America, but so confused in Asia and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?

⁑

Direct Instruction:

Long ago, nobody really cared about the exact time. All you really needed was sunrise, sunset, and noon, and you could figure those out with your eyes. If you wanted to be fancy, you could put a stick in the ground and trace its shadow over the course of the day to measure out hours.

Perhaps the first recorded complaint of time-keeping technology comes from Rome in 250BCE.

The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours! Confound him too Who in this place set up a sundial To cut and hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions! When I was a boy, My belly was my sundial: one more sure, Truer, and more exact than any of them. This dial told me when it was time To go to dinner, when I had anything to eat; But nowadays, why even when I have, I can't fall-to unless the sun gives leave. The town's so full of these confounded dials, The greatest part of its inhabitants, Shrunk up with hunger, creep along the streets. [x]

In other words, "Kids these days are always looking at their sundials. Back in my day, there were only three times, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. All we needed to tell the time was our stomach!"

Please note this was a satire, so if it sounds funny, you are correct.

But for 18th century British sailors, accurate timekeeping was no laughing matter. These sailors used fancy math (called trigonometry) to calculate their latitude. So long as they knew the angle between the sun and the horizon, and the time when that angle was measured.

Ship's captains would keep logbooks of these measurements. That way, another ship's captain would be able to reference the logbook in order to replicate the journey, much like replicating a science experiment.

Now... think about this... how can you do that unless the next captain is using the same time as you. We take this for granted today, but how can you be sure that two clocks are synchronized?

Scientists in the town of Greenwich, England (pronounced gren`-ich) recorded the solar noon every day of the year and calculated the Greenwich Mean Time. By keeping an accurate and exact time in one exact place, GMT eventually the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for everyone in the world. That's why in the time zone map, the 0 runs through one specific part of England.

This is important. For the first time in human history, the clocks in different places were synchronized. Solar noon happens at a different time in London than it does in Greenwich, but if they both use GMT (otherwise known as UTC), then they can coordinate their schedules. This was very important for railroads, where exact, coordinated schedules are very important.

Soon, the entire country of England existed within a single time zone.

When the United States built railroads that spanned vast lateral (East-West) distances, they needed to create different time zones for cities that were far apart from each other, such as New York and Chicago. Thus, the US became the first country with multiple time zones.

As the rest of the world industrialized, they needed to pick their time zones. You can see this on the map. Each time zone is, at least in theory, as wide as 1/24 the circumference of the Earth. It's like the space between the numbers on a clock! Most countries are smaller than this, so they can comfortably fit within a single timezone. Others, like Brazil and Australia, divided their landmasses into two or three time zones.

China did not have widespread industrialization until post-WWII dictatorial communist rule. This was a very uncaring and inconsiderate government, to put it mildly. Suffice it to say that for Chinese farmers in the far west, having to get up 2-3 hours earlier every day would have been the least of their worries.

⁂

Modeled Activity:

Show students how to use this Day and Night world map as a way to visualize the day and night cycle across the world.

Additionally, show them how to use https://mysolartime.com/ to find their current time where they live.

Give students a moment to calculate the difference between their Local Time and the official time in their time zone, and what that means.

(I am currently in Philadelphia, which is 11 minutes East of New York City)

Finally, show students how to use https://www.utctime.net/ to find their exact, current UTC.

Have students calculate the difference in minutes and hours between Local Time and Official Time.

00:41 - 19:30 = -5:11 (Philadelphia is 5 hours and 11 minutes East of Greenwich, England)

Explain that every internet connected device in the world uses a service like this one, then adds or subtracts hours to fit the time zone of your current location.

Higher Order Learning:

Students work in small groups to look up the local time in different major cities around the world, recording their data on a worksheet. As they do, they should discuss the following questions:

Are time zones still relevant in our always-online society?

If you can know your Local Time and the UTC any time you look at your phone, then what purpose do time zones still serve?

How would it feel for schools and businesses to use UTC instead?

How would you feel if your school day went from 4:20-10:50 UTC?

Finally, each student must individually write at least 3 sentences responding to the following question:

Would you advocate for or against your school district dropping references to the time in your time zone and instead referring to UTC and Local Time? Why or why not?

[dqrciedaily]

baby arsenal headcannons, arsenal wfc x teen!reader

a/n: i am so so so sorry that this isn’t an actual fic but i’ve left yous without anything for like two weeks so take this 🥰🥰🥰

warning - this isn’t proofread so pls ignore any mistakes x

-

1. she is maths no.1 public enemy - literally will stare at her homework for two hours instead of actually trying it. then the next day at school she gets in trouble for not doing it but she genuinely couldn’t care less because she’d rather have them email lia than try do trigonometry

2. her tiktok reposts and twitter likes have fans speculating like there is no tomorrow - she’s definitely liked transfer rumours on twitter before as well as reposting things she shouldn’t be and she reposts things that happened way back way but people think it’s about her current situation, leading to some very concerned fans in her tiktok comments and instagram requests.

3. baby girl has stina and laura wrapped around her finger - she’s cold? stina’s gonna give her the jumper she’s wearing. she’s hungry? laura’s up to make her something to eat, even though maus is perfectly capable of doing it herself. they’re basically on her beck and call.

4. she always curses out players in german on the pitch - when she was younger her brothers taught her the art of cursing people out in german then speaking in english to confuse them. however this did not work when arsenal played chelsea and she went flying after a tackle from nüsken, who very obviously understands german, leading to maus getting a yellow.

5. which leads to the next point which is that she gets her fair share of yellows - giving katie a run for her money, although most of hers come from back chatting the ref and not from actual gameplay, although she isn’t afraid to put in a heavy tackle here and there.

6. her + kyra = little shits on steroids - on the first media day of the season they decided to put y/n and kyra in three of the same interviews, let’s just say absolutely nothing productive happened until caitlin had to come in to do an interview with the two of them.

7. she’s lia’s no.1 reason for her early gray hairs - firstly maus is awful at answering phone calls, so if she’s out with her friends and lia needs something best believe she cannot contact her. secondly the amount of emails the school sends her may send lia into overdrive, she genuinely couldn’t care less if y/n didn’t do her homework as long as she’s passing all her classes, which she is (besides math but lia doesn’t need to know that.)

8. y/n has the best outfits - her instagram feed is filled with mirror pics of her outfits and they’re all just so good!!! she’s known for her fashionable clothes throughout the woso community.

9. she gets really really really nervous when doing interviews by herself - she already refuses to do orals in school because they stress her out too much, so after her first full 90 for arsenal she gets called to do an interview and poor girl is swaying from side to side the entire time, stumbling over her words and overall looking like a deer caught in headlights.

10. the first time she brings a girl or boy home lia gets a group of the girls to pretend they’re over for dinner without telling y/n - so then when y/n gets home she sees most of her teammates there and very hastily shoves her ‘friend’ upstairs, before going over to the girls who all tease her. then when she’s upstairs in her room with her ‘friend’ they all take turns coming upstairs to walk past the closed door to hear what they’re talking about.

11. she is a hugger of note - the first time she meant all the girls minus her shy demeanour she hugged every single teammate she met. she is also a massive cuddler, on the team bus she makes ours sit in the window seat (much to the brunettes complains) then uses kyra as a pillow which 1. forces kyra to be quiet because she doesn’t want to wake y/n and 2. she can’t move around the bus as she wants deciding to annoy everyone which the other girls are very thankful for.

12. her first crush on a girl was laura freigang, who she had seen around the german youth camps before - she even told her parents at one stage that she was going to go to penn state just like lau did but that phase was short lived when she then developed a crush on one of her teammates in her age group instead.

13. in another life she’s a dj who lives in ibiza - literally no explanation needed, she truly is a party animal at heart and would go to all the festivals and raves possible during the off season.

[emperor-forneus]

hiiiii so I have this headcanon that due to different teams/mentors/upbringing, kit and fubuki just naturally clash and have this REALLY petty rivalry. LET ME EXPLAIN.

ok so the thing is, being really little when they joined their respective teams, they kinda just copied their personalities off of the people around them (because kids do that) and because the Raging bulls and BC so are different/ rivalries, their personalities reflect that so fubuki is like the personified version of the Raging Bulls and Kit is the personified version of BC sol.

so fubuki is: (the parentheses is who they get this from)

very analytical and hardorking (this is just one of their traits, but it was reinforced by shu)

wants to do things the most "straightforward way" (trad)

dry sarcasm (shu and being around his siblings)

petty (shu)

will try their best to win (shu, but also his (fubuki's) parent's terrible upbringing of him)

lawful neutral (just them)

the "smart kid" who works hard and does their best but experiences burn out {they get back up again, tho, and end up being successful in a lot of things} (Shu and their parents)

will try to balance all subjects equally {they're like;; two grades ahead in everything} (Shu)

they have water powers {I like the ideas of elementals like having quirks {mha ref} but its only some of them and its kind of rare, and that's one of the reasons shu adopted them (just them, but shu is also a fire elemental)

AUTISTIC AF

and the thing is, you would think that fubuki would get along with kit because he's like a mini shu, HOWEVER, kit is not a mini valt. they were also raised by OTHER members of BC sol...

Kit:

ALSO very analytical and hardorking, but they're also a lot like free and are only like this when they want to be, whereas this is an always for fubuki (both free and valt)

Will do the thing in the way that seems "the most entertaining/beneficial" ex: if an assignment about say, algebra problems, is due, they are going to try and answer all the problems correctly, AND annotate the problems with red marker highlighting all the spelling/grammar mistakes and rewording it to make it more clear, and asking questions like "it asking what's the probability of drawing a queen out of a shuffled deck of 52 cards. Well, wHaT cArdS? pOkeMoN cArDs? How do I know that there's one of every card in the deck? what if they're doubles? what if its a deck of ONLY QUEENS???" (they get the "trying their best" on school assignments from Kris, but the sarcasm is from Silas)

like I mentioned before, SARCASTIC MOTHERFUCKER like this one is actually canon. scene: valt- "Im here for BC sol!" kit- "yEaH, aNd Im An AsTrOnaUt" (definitely Silas but also free)

petty (free and kris)

will try their best to IMPROVE {I have a hc that sometimes they purposefully hold themselves back so they can work on a specific skill so when they battle against someone more strong, their more powerful in that area now} (combination of free's "beyblade is only fun if you win" mentality and valts "beyblade is always fun!" so now they have a "beyblade is only fun if its challenging/entertaining")

chaotic good(just them)

the "disruptive" kid who is REALLY bored in class, either because they're so ahead in this subject or really behind. (valt and free/Kris)

does not balance shit. they really like math and science, so they spend all their time studying that, so they're like 3-5 grades ahead in that, and because of all the reading articles abt the things they like, they have a high reading level {they're just really straightforward too, like "uhh the curtain is red BECAUSE THATS THE COLOR THEY CHOSE?!?!"} they learn best at 3 am when they suddenly get an idea and they dig REALLY deep into it and well now they're an expert in chaos theory. once tried to take an online college course for physics because they thought it was cool when they were 10 but didn't understand the math so then they tried to build on THAT and that's how a 10 year old understands trigonometry {this took them around 3 months to master} and I know I'm like "this person is really smart! :)" yes but also they're SELECTIVELY smart. NO common sense whatsoever one time when something was on fire they were like "the REASON this is on fire is because of a chemical reaction between oxygen and {etc} so we should kill the oxygen molecules :D." and when it doesn't work they're like "oh wait I have wind powers lol i could have just put it out myself" also because they are selectively smart they SUCK at history because of how boring it is. (valt, free, kris)

Im sorry for rambling abt this but the thing is, they are canonically very smart. people keep saying the kurenais are really smart and stuff and they are but they forget that AS A SEVEN YEAR OLD, kit was doing MIDDLE SCHOOL PHYSICS. {WHAT SEVEN YEAR OLD KNOWS WORDS LIKE "configuration" and whatever else they say. I dont understand them sometimes 😭} {they also helped aiger with strategies} (they get this from uhh well, just them but Kris had an influence)

theyre also canonically an elemental {wind powers} (just them, but it was one of the reasons free let them train with him)

honestly I just love this character and it feels like their potential was so wasted 😔 (this is an author's note)

oh, DEFINITLY ADHD (just them, but literally no one in this universe is nuerotypical)

*ahem* sorry for my rambling lol anyways their personalies contradict each other and because of the already stated rivalry between their mentors they try to copy them and are REALLY PETTY towards each other and everyone else just thinks its ablsolutely hilarious .

to the point now, I heard that you were taking requests and can you please draw something related to this? (pleaaaaseeee... you don't have to tho lol) THANK YOU

immovable object (autism) vs unstoppable force (adhd)

[teaboot]

I'm Singaporean, I just saw the posts about schools in Canada vs Korea and now I'm kinda curious how things vary within this half of Asia.

Looking at your questions for the Korean asker, dyeing your hair isn't allowed but how strict the teachers will be about it probably depends on school. My secondary school (age 13-16) had one teacher who made a classmate with (presumably naturally) lighter brown hair dye it black, which was hilarious. If necessary for explanation, it was a Christian school with pretty strict rules on grooming no one had the energy to follow leading up to graduation.

We have uniforms up until you finish secondary school, then it depends on where you go. You have to buy them yourself unless you're on financial assistance or getting some kind of government subsidy, in which case I'm not sure how it works exactly.

And now the actual asking part of this ask: do y'all split math up into different subjects and if so, why??

Kids had to dye their hair to match as a group? What the fuck???? What the hell does hair matter???? Then again... bra straps and shorts don't matter either, and those are restricted everywhere, so maybe school is just dumb everywhere.

And math!!! Not super sure what you mean, but until about grade 10 here in BC all math is taught in one math class that's just "math". In grade 10 you can take precalculus or... the other one? And the idea is that Precalculus is for students going into university and the other one was for students going into trades. You NEEDED precalculus to go on to higher learning, is what we were told.

"Math" was just all math. Multiplication, geometry, algebra, etc.

"Precalculus" was all the basic skills meant to prep for calculus used in STEM stuff- polynomials, trigonometry, more algebra, that junk.

I failed it hard two times but passed the government exam so they weren't allowed to fail me again.

Also I'm good at math so they can kiss my ass now 👍

[bambisnc]

raspberry lip gloss

pairing : j.sc x fem!reader ish genre : angst !! (i promise its not as sad as the combo of pics i chose) cw/tw : reader is kinda confsuing (and confused) as hell + kisses + raspberry + swearing + not proofread wc : 0.8k

you were not having a great day. 

with all the projects and schoolwork your teachers sadistically enjoyed piling over you, the only thing you had to look forward to was lunch. which was now taken up by some girl, jiwoo or jisu or something – you’re not really sure, and frankly, don’t really care. 

she seems totally unaware of your annoyance, so you take it as a win; that one youtube video on how to pretend that you're not 10 seconds away from committing several criminal acts must have worked. 

jisu (or jiwoo), finally speaks up, “so uh.. please don’t take this the wrong way.. but are you and sungchan um t-together?” … she was this hesitant and terrified to ask you that?

“no? we’re just friends; what even gave you the impressio-”

“oh thank goodness!” she interrupts, sighing with relief, “that was all and i’m sorry to have taken your lunch time..”

without waiting for an answer, you watch as she runs back towards someone who you assumed was a friend of hers. you hear the other one’s critical and harshly disapproving tone, “girl how delusional can you be.. have you seen him?? the guy’s obviously fucking mad about her!”

to that jisu/jiwoo easily provides an answer, “i’m going to be so real sweetheart - i don’t care if he is ‘cause like – have you seen him?? i’d be okay being the homewrecker for that, if you know what i mean~”

you’re not a huge fan of this conversation.

“... you’re mad.” 

“ugh only for him~ like c’mon have you seen him. he’s just soo-” -

“sec c!”

“what.”

“the answer yn.. (1+sin c) divided by (cos c) would be secant c! god, i’m great at this trigonometry shit.” sungchan is rather delighted at having solved one of the easiest questions from the practice test papers you were both had been working on for the past few hours. 

you let him ramble on about how he could literally solve all of these in minutes it’s just that he chose not to, allowing your mind to drift away with his soothing voice.

you think of that girl (jiwoo.. or jisu?) and how she was probably planning on confessing to your friend sometime in the future. which was probably why she asked if there was something going on between the two of you..

“oh right!” he suddenly announces, “jisu from your class confessed to me after school today.” you definitely can sense a hint of amusement by his tone; but also..

damn jiwoo worked fast huh?

“i’m assuming you turned her down?” you quip back playfully 

“excuse me?? assuming?? what do you mean by that??” sungchan always takes your banter the right way – it’s one of the things you’re very fond of about the guy.

“just.. i don’t think you’d be here with me if you’d had a girlfriend by now~” ruffle his hair a bit to emphasize that this is friendly, you’re teasing him platonically.

his smile drops at that, “i would never leave you like that yn; not for anyone.” and there it is.

you opt to let his words sink in hang in the air for some time.

“heyy yn. what’s up with you you’ve been actin’ weird all dayy..” sungchan asks, snapping his fingers in a somewhat desperate attempt to break your haze. 

choosing to stay silent again; you’re not really sure how to answer his question. follow it up by dropping your eyes down to his lips and back to his eyes, as if posing a question of your own.

and he knows the answer. he always does. 

sungchan pulls himself closer to you, cupping your cheek with one hand. a brush of his lips to yours, as if testing the waters, before he completely closes the distance between you both. 

the kiss is long, drawn out. but at the same time it’s .. soft. when you break apart for air, his lips have the slight sheen of your raspberry lip gloss. it looks pretty on him.

“this.” you blurt out, “this is wrong. we- friends don’t do shit like this.” 

but he’s just as quick to fight back, “so let’s not be friends then. let’s be more.”

“sungchan.. i wouldn’t.. i couldn’t bear–” not being enough. not being perfect for him.

“couldn’t bear the idea of dating me. yeah okay i got it.” he’s slow to pack up his stuff, and all you can do is numbly try to process it all..,

“what are you trying to say.”

“i’m leaving. i- i can’t do this right now. i’ll see you later.” he leans to kiss your forehead lightly.

flinching slightly at his touch, you swallow the lump in your throat, to choke out an, “i think we should stop this. for good.” 

your closeness makes you feel like you physically hear his heart shatter into a million pieces, or maybe that’s just yours. 

“what happens to us then…?”

“sungchan.. that’s the thing. there was never an us.”

he leaves without another word.

-

at school the next day, you see him with his arm wrapped around jiwoo’s waist (shit no, you think it’s jisu). you can almost swear that there’s an ever so slight pink shimmer to his lips... and.. is that your lip gloss in his pocket?

notes : fell into a rabbit hole while doign chem idek </3 + [m.list]

[indelen]

The plot kicks off in earnest and the midnight hour is close at hand, it's time for honey cake (medovyk) and tea.

This is my reread of the Lockwood and Co. Books, organized by @blue-boxes-magic-and-tea, I'll make a general summary of several chapters and then post bits and pieces that jumped out at me.

Part III, Chapters 9-12:

Things continue to go pear shaped. I find it interesting how Stroud manages to thread the needle of reader sympathy towards the protagonists. The writing makes it clear that they did mess up and the house fire was avoidable. And this is not all on one person - Lockwood could have pulled rank and insist they leave but didn’t, Lucy had the chance to leave after the first manifestation but didn’t. Lockwood forgot the chains. Lucy lobbed Greek Fire indoors. All of this is bad. And when you meet Barnes you sort of agree with him to a point about them being irresponsible, but he’s so high handed and dismissive of the trio you can’t help but be on their side. The government keeps telling these kids they should listen to the government, because the government is full of adults that know so much better than they do. But if this was really the case the government would not allow children to do this dangerous work at all. You can't have it both ways! Either these kids know nothing and adults really are smarter, in which case let them go study trigonometry and pass notes in class already and, as smart adults, find some different way to battle The Problem that doesn’t involve high mortality child labor. OR. Let the kids do their job and admit you’re not operating within some perfect and fair system where the presence of an adult magically fixes everything or makes anyone safer. We meet so many adults in this universe and the majority of them are awful and take horrific advantage of children to enrich themselves on The Problem. None of them are sufficiently controlled in this universe because it is not in the government’s interest to do so. The kids sense this and revolt, if they are to die they want to die on their own terms! This is what happens when governments fail the people they are supposed to protect and when the desire to make money trumps acting in the interests of the public good.

Odds and Ends, Side A:

10/10 chapter opening. On par with “the building was on fire and it wasn’t my fault”. Reader attention fully captured.

Lucy “no I totally don’t care how I look, I swear” Carlyle maintaining if she ever came back as a ghost she’d be a hot cool ghost thankyou very much is so funny to me, just peak teenager insecurity and vanity but in a very endearing way.

There’s the thing about George – he can learn. Not just from books but in real life he can take criticism to heart if it’s laid out plainly. Even if it’s mean. This is probably his most amazing attribute. He dislikes hypocrisy and doesn’t have time for any kind of jabs or hints that are difficult to interpret. But someone lobs a criticism straight at him, he won’t dismiss it outright. In so many ways he is the most emotionally mature of the trio.

I’ve been thinking a lot in this reread about why George was so hostile to Lucy from the start and I think it comes down to the fact that he saw Lucy as someone who would make Lockwood more reckless. She is a gifted Listener, George knew Lockwood enough to realize this will make him more likely to rush off into the fray without research and Lucy being not especially academically minded would not stop him. I think he was worried that they would feed negatively off each other and outvote him. Which … they did at first, it’s true, George was completely right. Lucy goes along with whatever Lockwood says because she trusts him, because she admires him, because she doesn’t want him to think less of her. This behavior continues later too - she snarks at him plenty, calls him names, makes fun of him, sure. But ultimately she has a hard time saying “no” to him. And finding that balance of how much to go along with Lockwood’s plans and when to contradict him is I think a huge part of her arc in this series.

This pantomime of Victorian gentility is hilarious. The year is (arguably) 2013 and yet this sounds like a scene from Agatha Christie. Barnes knows Lockwood is home, Lockwood knows Barns knows he’s home but this presenting of a visiting card and “show him in” ritual has to be observed because this whole society hasn’t moved on from 1953 in six decades.

I am not the right person to give a post-colonial literary analysis of the Lockwood books but I would be the first to want to read it. There’s a lot there in terms of portrayal of indigenous beliefs, what colonial powers learn and refuse to learn from them and how they appropriate them. Barnes sees a collection of artefacts from all over the world meant to deal with ghosts and immediately dismisses them, seeing only the methods he’s familiar with as correct. He does not stop to appreciate the fact that the idea of contacting the dead and laying them to rest is an issue that in some way or another humanity has been dealing with for millennia and all around him is evidence of the fact that not one of these cultures resorted to shoving their young to act as meat shields to do it. The variety of the artifacts speaks to the idea that there may be different approaches possible, different avenues to explore. On what basis but good old-fashioned racism is this dismissal of a ghost catcher in a universe where ghosts are real and do real harm to real people? Does a country dealing with such a crisis not owe it to its citizens to investigate every possibility instead of just consigning a large proportion of their children to a very high possibility of death and telling them that they can’t even do it on their terms, no, the government and large corporations must manage how they die!

And the idea of “it belongs in a museum” is especially laughable in this context. Presumably he means a British museum despite the fact that all these artifacts are foreign. There’s something so on the nose about a very British man dismissing knowledge from other cultures as useless and indicating he views those cultures themselves as extinct when he himself lives on the bones of a long dead empire enforces the practicing the most barbaric shit imaginable.

There is also something so very sad about Lockwood’s encyclopedic knowledge of every gord and mask in the house. Like he never to a chance to know his parents to he memorized everything about their research to get as close to them as possible.

George is the most verbally brutal of the trio and I love that for him

Here again is that Lockwood duality. We later learn sleeps in his parent’s old room - the ultimate symbol of his attempts to play the adult. Like the suits, like running his own agency, like his many successful and unsuccessful attempts to mimic adult behavior. How successful he is really is … not certain. Lucy is not a reliable narrator and even she is clearly unconvinced sometimes, but he clearly can pull it off to some extent. But every now and then we get a glimpse into the fact that he also, in a very sad and stubborn way, clings to a childhood that was horrifically and unfairly ripped from him. The baby mobile in his seemingly adult bedroom is a neat encapsulation of Lockwood himself.

This man is incapable of staying angry at his beloved for more than like … 15 mins tops.

Please turn the cassette over to side B (see reblog for more)

[mush-dooms]

i wish someone would have told me at 14 that it's not that serious. I worked my ass off with APs and sports and clubs and graduated top 10 in a class of over 500 kids. I went to 6am track workouts then class then practice on five hours of sleep, spent hours hand writing definitions over and over again to prep for exams, very rarely asked a teacher for help out of pure shame, had no social or romantic life, and began the downhill mental spiral that ended with me in residential eating disorder treatment multiple times.

sure, I got help via scholarships and transferable credits to pay for college, but i still ended up in debt. sure, I attended a private university, but it has like, a 50% acceptance rate. yeah, I got a stem degree, but I still get paid as much as a retail worker. all of these things would most likely have still happened had I gotten a B in fuckin,,, trigonometry. I don't think my current employer even looked at my college gpa, let alone high school. fuck, I know people who flunked high school and they're doing just fine for themselves.

all this to say that it is truly not the end of the world if you don't pass an exam or if you fail a class. life goes on!! nearly everything is fixable, and even if it's not you'll make it through regardless!! that paper you got a D+ on is just a tiny portion of your life and says nothing about you as a person. really. you can chill.

[average-joseph]

My interpretation of the junior Welton schedule. (Naturally every grade is different.)

That clock chimes at 5 am because Welton is dumb.

I'm assuming they have an hour before they have to start actually doing things. An hour to get ready. Another half hour to eat breakfast. Then I assume an extra 30 minutes before school officially starts.

8:00 am - 8:55 am. Chemistry.

9:00 am - 9:55 am. Latin.

10:00 am - 10:55 am. Trigonometry.

11:00 am - 11:55 am. English.

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm. Lunch/recess.

12:35 pm. - 1:30 pm. Study hall. (If somebody actually knows what this class is tell me, because I couldn't figure out why Mr. McAllister would be teaching a class not in his classroom if it wasn't.)

1:35 pm. - 2:20 pm. Gym. (10 extra minutes for showers.)

2:30 pm. Dismissal.

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Whatever extracurricular they're apart of happens. (Neil has theatre from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm.)

They have some time most people dedicate to homework, then 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm is dinner then from there it's just rec time.

The study group is at 8:00 pm so I'm guessing they have 45 minutes to study, then they would have more rec time until 9:00 pm. They have 15 minutes to get ready then lights out at 9:15 pm.

[duchi-nesten]

The Mr. Lancer teaches trigonometry fic.

Summary:

Mr. Lancer hated his life as it was and now he had to be a sub for the trigonometry class? Him? An English teacher?

This day couldn’t get any worse. (Or could it?)

-

Chapter 1

Word count: 1462 || AO3 LINK

1 | ?

-

Sometimes Mr. William Lancer really fucking hated his life.

Okay. Maybe it was a little bit more than just sometimes, he was an underpaid teacher after all. And also a single middle aged man with no children or pets. (Except for the wild animals he unfortunately had to call his students.)

All alone. Lonely on every wednesday afternoon. And thursday. And Friday. And Saturday too. Lonely every day of the week. Quite a sad sight indeed.

Okay his life actually sucked really fucking bad alright.

But the recent events really took the entire cake.

It was a monday when he first received the news of the terrors about to reign on his life. His last class of the day just let out and he was left behind, doing some boring teacher paperwork. Probably giving out a lot of F’s. He had an online friend from a different school that was also a teacher and that guy liked to give out a lot of F’s. He also believed in some fairly odd parents or some shit though.

Anyway, back to OUR favorite teacher, Mr. Lancer. Lonely on a monday afternoon. He was actually supposed to watch over detention, but Daniel McFucking Fenton didn’t bother to show up and he was the only student punished today.

Sometimes Mr. Lancer wondered what happened to that boy, but he always ended up shrugging it off in the end. Two more years and that boy along with the rest of the class will not be his fucking problem anymore.

He will have another enclosure of wild apes to deal with then though.

God how many more years till his retirement? He was quite old god damn it. He deserved it already.

He was brought out of his very angry and incredibly sad thoughts by a knocking on the classroom door. He snapped his head up to look at the offending piece of wood, praying that it wasn’t Daniel McFucking Fenton who decided to show up after all. He wanted to go home earlier.

Instead of his quote on quote favorite student, he saw Mrs. Ishiyama walk in. She had a bunch of papers in her hands.

The principal came to see him, great. That could only mean more work. Just his god damn luck.

Daniel McFucking Fenton would have been so much better to deal with after all.

Still he had to act civil.

‘’Hello Mr. Lancer’’ Ishiyama said as she made her way over to his desk.

‘’Good afternoon.’’ he answered.

‘’I have a favor to ask of you.’’

Oh god jesus fucking christ screw everything fuck his life this is exactly what he expected.

Instead of voicing his displeasure he simply asked ‘’what can I help you with?’’

‘’The ghost of Hipparchus who usually teaches our trig class has had a family emergency and needed to leave for the Ghost Zone.’’ she explained looking through the papers, not even making eye contact with him. Rude. ‘’Can you sub for him tomorrow?’’

Before he could react she pulled out some papers from the ones she held in hand and put it on his desk.

‘’You’re the only teacher who’s schedule aligns perfectly. Here’s the lesson plan. I know you won’t disappoint.’’ she said before quickly leaving, not giving him enough time to protest.

She knew he would protest…

And how could he not? Fucking trigonometry class? He was an English teacher for fuck’s sake!

Maybe he should really submit that resignation paper he wrote out in a moment of weakness (which was like every sunday evening) (yes he wrote a new resignation paper every sunday evening. Don’t judge the man.)

Sighing deeply, he picked up the papers left by Ishiyama. It took only 10 seconds before the contents made him start crying like a little pathetic baby.

Tomorrow was gonna be a fucking disaster.

-

And a disaster it was. Right from the first minutes after he woke up.

Turns out drowning your issues in a bottle of gin on a monday evening was not a good idea. Especially not when one had to wake up at 6 in the morning.

Which by the way he did not do.

No, the gin made him forget to set his alarm. He felt betrayed, when he woke up at 7:30 instead. Panic filled his half awoken brain as he quickly raced out of bed to get ready. School would start in half an hour and the drive there took 31 minutes!

He was out the door after only 25 seconds, which could probably land him a spot somewhere in the Guinness World Records book.

Climbing into the car his bald head hit the roof making his already growing headache even worse. The god awful song that started playing on the radio the moment he turned the vehicle on was doubling the pain even more.

This Mr. Worldwide guy really needed to shut the fuck up for a second.

Quickly switching the radio off Mr. Lancer paused to take a little breather. Alright, he just had to run one (1) light and he could be at school in time for his first class. Which thank god was actually his english class. The mathematical monstrosity of a fucking subject was his third period.

With no further ados, Lancer drove the car out of the parking lot and sped towards the school.

On the drive there he almost got ran over by the Fentons’ ghost vehicle thing with Jack Fenton at the wheel. Probably on a blind chase after a ghost that Phantom would handle before they even got there. A normal Tuesday in Amity Park.

He kinda hoped there would be a ghost attack during his third period today. Maybe the Fentons could even come and wreck the classroom. That would definitely delay the trigonometry class until Hipparchus got back from whatever he was doing in the ghost world.

That deceased man owed him for this.

Finally. At last. His journey ended when he reached the school. He parked his car on his designated spot (thank the lord they had those) and ran into the building. He burst into his classroom right as the bell rang.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, he glanced at his students, sitting at their desks and looking at him weirdly.

Kinda rude of them.

‘’Uh… Mr. Lancer.’’ one of his students by the name of Tucker Foley started uncertain. ‘’What are you wearing?’’

He looked down at himself and noted that he forgot to change out of his pajamas. Well that certainly explained how he managed to leave the house in just 25 seconds. No fastest morning routine Guinness Record for him after all. Dang.

‘’Focus on your books instead of my attire, Mr. Foley’’ he responded, voice filled with authority. The teenagers would eat him alive if he showed anything else than confidence in that moment. As they say, keep your head held up high and you won’t see the bottom you hit.

Okay no one says that, but still.

He swiftly turned to the blackboard and decided to go along with his lesson like nothing was wrong. He could get his spare set of clothing from the teacher's lounge later. He kept them there in case Jack Fenton ever showed up to disintegrate his clothes again.

Speaking of the Fentons, right as he finished writing today’s subject on the blackboard, the door to the classroom opened up with a slam and in ran no one other than Mr Daniel McFucking Fenton.

Late again.

Like every Tuesday.

And every other day of the week.

‘’Sorry I’m late Mr. Lancer! There was a very long crack in the sidewalk on the way here and I had to walk very slowly to not step on it and crack my mother’s back-’’ the boy stopped spitting out this nonsense of an excuse when he saw Lancer’s attire. ‘’Uh… did someone crack your back and you couldn’t change out of these clothes or…?’’ he asked after a second of staring.

‘’Very funny Mr. Fenton.’’ Lancer answered, narrowing his eyes. ‘’Maybe I should crack your back, so you can’t escape the detention I’m gonna give you today.’’

‘’It’s not like a cracked back ever stopped me before.’’

‘’What?’’

‘’What.’’

Mr Lancer put two fingers to his temple to ease the ever growing headache. He was too tired for this.

“Go sit down Mr. Fenton. We’ll talk after class.”

The boy begrudgingly dragged his feet towards his seat. Which, now that Lancer paid attention he could see he was favoring dragging the left foot a bit more.

The youth and their fucking TikTok dances. They’re gonna break all their legs one day.

With a sigh the teacher turned back to the board to start on his English lesson.

[ilovebeingcringe]

Nikki's Story (TMNT!2012 Oc Fanfiction)

(A/N: This is a short two-chapter fan fiction I created for my TikTok account dedicated to my 2012 tmnt oc named Nikki. This tells the story of how she met and joined an alliance with the turtles. These two chapters take place in the middle of season two sometime after episode 10 and 11, after everyone discovered April is part alien and before Karai discovered Splinter was her true father. I'm not a professional writer so forgive any mistakes you might see or if this is cringe :| Enjoy!)

---

Chapter One: Patience and Control

   Karai stood in an empty parking garage, a safe distance away from the unnamed assassin. She ran a hand through her obnoxiously pink hair, the other one placed on one hip in a smug and casual stance.

   "Well, I have to admit, this is a first for me," The assassin teased, her voice muffled behind her led mask. "Talking turtles? Really?"

   Karai uncrossed her arms and brought them down to her sides, clenching her fists impatiently. "Your job isn't to question me. These four boys are the bane of my existence, especially their pet rat they call their master. I want to use them as bait."

   "Oh, a lil' rat trap?"

   "Of sorts, yes."

   "If you want me to bring you the turtles, why not just pick up the rat while I'm at it? Y'know, kill two birds with one stone?" The masked girl asked.

   "As much as I hate to admit it, the rat is far too skilled beyond both our years combined," Karai explained. "He dwells within their secret base anyway. Finding and kidnapping him is too much to ask for, even from you. Besides, like I said, this needs to stay between you and I only. I don't want you getting caught and our secret exchange getting out."

   The pink-haired assassin shifted forward, a short giggle escaping her lips. "Oh, that's right. Daddy said no, didn't he?"

   "Do not patronize me, Stalker," Karai snapped back, referring to the assassin as her nickname, gained from the other gangs around town.

   "Shredder has been too docile recently; too quiet. If only he'd listen to me for a change, he'd understand why this is the perfect opportunity to attack and sweep those stupid turtles under their feet while they're still off guard."

   She grumbled under her breath to herself, "Of course, he's too busy focused on completely unimportant matters... Like, expanding his already successful underground business and building that stupid mansion upstate."

   "Well, it should be a relatively simple task for little ol' me," The Stalker replied, cracking her fingers. "You want 'em warm or cold? Well, I suppose they'd be cold either way being reptiles and all, heh."

   "You may use any means necessary, but I want them brought to me alive, understood?" Karai responded.

   "Eh, less fun, but doable. I've been wanting to get my sneaky hands on these mutant rumors spreading around the city anyway. You wouldn't happen to know how your little turtle friends came to be, would you?" The Stalker asked, stretching the rest of her lanky body out.

   "That's irrelevant. Just do what I'm paying you to do. And if you get caught, keep my name out of your mouth. Got it?"

   The Stalker half-heartedly waved Karai off. "Yeah, yeah whatever fills my pockets, princess. In any case, I'll soon know more about this mutant mush than even you."

   Her advanced gas mask booted up, small beeping and pink led lights in the goggles shortly followed after. 

   "I always do."

--

   "Late, again, O'Neil," April's math teacher observed, adjusting her glasses.

   "I know, I know! I'm sorry! Really, I have a perfectly valid excuse this time!" April tried explaining.

   "I'm afraid it doesn't matter. I'll have to write you up for a detention young lady."

   "But-"

   "Morning, loser!" A peppy and unique student blurted out as she walked through the class door, equally late. "What kind of subservient, inferior, childish slop-you call trigonometry-do you have planned for us today?"

   The teacher scoffed at her rebellious student's attitude. "Excuse me? Miss Hoffman, where on Earth do you get off talking to me that!?"

   The tall girl, adorned in black and pink street-style clothing popped a gum bubble in her mouth before responding. "Uhhhh, New York City?" She replied with a cocky smirk across her thin face.

   "Absolutely unacceptable behavior Nicolette! I've had just about enough of you! Forget the detention April, go have a seat. I have my hands full with this piece of work right here," The teacher grumbled, pulling a stack of paper out from her desk.

   April sighed in relief and walked off to her desk. She eyed the unruly girl behind her before having a seat. This new peer of hers transferred to her school district nearly two years ago. Nicolette Hoffman. Lovingly referred to as "Nutcase Nikki," by the rest of the student body. She was a rebellious, strangely-behaviored, lunatic, outcasted by other teens her age that no adult in the world had enough patience for. She did and said whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted with no shame.

   However, April-with her new found sixth sense-couldn't ignore what she was feeling around Nikki. Her gut was telling her that there was something important about that strange girl. She couldn't pinpoint what it was, however. As an outcast herself, April also felt empathetic and inclined to befriend Nikki. As often as she tried, she always failed in doing so. Nikki never seemed to be interested in making friends and would dismiss April instead.

   After class, April caught up with Nikki in the hallway. Attempting to be neighborly once again.

   "Uh, hey, Nikki!" She called out, running up to the wild, pink-haired girl.

   "Ah! Hey, Freckles!" Nikki observed upon turning around.

   "Hey, listen, I know it wasn't really your intention, but I wanted to thank you for saving my butt back there. The teacher was about to give me detention before you walked in and, uh... well, y'know..."

   "Oh, it was my intention," Nikki replied before stopping at her locker.

   "I... Wh-What?"

   "Yeah, I wanted detention!"

   "What? Why?!"

   Nikki explained flatly and-oddly-casually, "Because, detention's in the library and there's a really cool hidden room behind one of the bookshelves. I turned it into a hangout. I get to sneak in there and do whatever I want if no one else is in the library with me."

   April stood and stared at Nikki, completely dumbfounded. "You can't be serious..." She replied in shock.

   "Completely!" Nikki said back with her signature crazed smile.

   "What... What do you do in there?"

   "Y'know... research. I stole a bunch of stuff from the science labs that I don't have at home and I use it in there." Nikki winked at her with a sly grin.

   "Hey, O'Neil!" Casey shouted across the hall.

   He slid up to the two girls and leaned against the lockers. "We still on for our study-sesh tonight, right Red?" He asked April.

��  April opened her mouth to reply, but stopped, eyeing Nikki by her side. "Actually, Casey... Sorry, but I can't. I, uh... have detention."

   Nikki and Casey's eyes both widened in surprise.

   "What!?" They both exclaimed in unison.

   "Yeah! Late to first period, again... Heh, it sucks, but live and learn y'know?"

   "But, I ju-"

   "Uh, I gotta run to ladies room!" April announced rather loudly, deliberately interrupting Nikki. "I need a girl buddy to come with me! C'mon, Nikki!"

   "Wait, I-"

   April snatched Nikki by the wrist and dragged her to the girls room before she could protest.

   "What, the heck April? What're you doing?" Nikki demanded, yanking her hand away from April.

   "I wanna see your hangout!"

   Nikki crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Uh-uh. No dice, little lady. It's a called a secret hangout for a reason."

   April smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Well if you wanna keep it a secret, then I suggest you show me where it is. Wouldn't want it getting rumored around the halls and discovered by the staff now, would you?"

   Nikki raised as eyebrow at the short, orange-haired girl, staring up at her with a mischievous smirk. She smirked back and huffed out a short laugh.

   "Huh, I never pegged you for the black-mailing type, Freckles. Fine, whatever. I'll sneak you into the library after school and show you the place. But you gotta leave immediately after, deal? Believe it or not, I got work to do."

   "Deal!" April agreed happily.

   "This doesn't mean we're friends by the way. I have no clue why you're so insistent on that. Trust me, we're both much better off," Nikki informed her, holding the bathroom door open.

   April walked underneath Nikki's arm as she exited the door, not bothering on ducking on account of their drastic height difference.

   "Oh, c'mon!" She huffed. "We have a lot more in common than you think!"

   Nikki laughed at the thought. "Hah! You have no idea.."

--

   At the end of the school day, Nikki successfully snuck April into the library after stopping by the principal's office to give him her detention slip. After a few more minutes, waiting on everyone to clear out, they promptly slid to the back of the library. Nikki slid a large bookshelf that was pressed against the wall to the side. Revealed behind it was none other than the secret room she promised.

   "Oooh..." April whispered out in awe.

   "Hurry up, c'mon," Nikki urged, yanking her inside before sliding the bookshelf back.

   April studied the small room. It looked to be an abandoned office space. A small window snug itself in the corner. In the middle of the area was a long table cluttered with stolen science equipment from the biochemistry lab. The walls were adorned in sheets of crumpled paper and notes, as was the floor.

   "Wow! What have you been doing in here?" April asked, Nikki.

   "Like I said, research," She replied flatly as she gathered papers and rearranged beakers, flasks and test tubes.

   "What's this room doing back here?"

   Nikki dug out a dusty textbook from a filing cabinet hidden away in a corner. She handed it to April, revealing it to be an old school yearbook.

   "Back in the late 80's, there were quite a few renovations done to different areas around school. They haven't touched much of it since then, especially the library, but somehow this little office got buried in all of it," Nikki explained, turning the pages to photos of the old library.

   "Woah, neat!" April hummed in curiosity, flipping through the book.

   She handed it back to Nikki before turning her attention to the rest of the room.

   "This whole school-heck most likely the whole city-has all types of hidden gems like this!" Nikki added. "And you know I love poking my head into places I'm not supposed to."

   April giggled as she observed one of the papers on the wall decorated with sloppy scribbles of advanced equations and formulas she couldn't begin understand. She chuckled to herself amusingly.

   "Don't take this the wrong way, but I sometimes forget how crazy smart you are. You hide it pretty well behind that spunky attitude," She teased Nikki.

   She smirked and stood proud. "I like to think of myself as somewhat of a mad genius!" She boasted.

   "Alright, you got to see the forbidden texts. Now scram, Freckles." Nikki pointed a thumb at the small window behind her, indicating April's exit.

   April whipped around, taken aback by the sudden eviction. "What? No! I wanna stay a little longer!" She protested.

   With a heavy sigh and a roll of her eyes, Nikki picked April up and flung her over her shoulder with ease. "We had a deal, O'Neil."

   "But I have so many questions! What's all this for?"

   "Nothing you need to concern your pretty little head with," Nikki shot back, shuffling towards the small window in the corner.

   April huffed at Nikki's unflattering comment and latched onto her, refusing to let go.

   "Ack! Get off you little parasite!" Nikki choked out.

   "Nuh-uh! Lemme bond with you!"

   "No, you dork!"

   Nikki stumbled around the room, awkwardly knocking herself and April into the wall and table. April refused to budge, practically glued to Nikki and determined to make a new friend.

   "Ugh! April, I couldn't even begin to explain to you what I've been studying in here! Heck, even I barely understand it and everyone knows I'm the smartest teenager there is," Nikki explained, rather boastful.

   "So then let me help you!" April insisted.

   "I don't need help! And I definitely don't needto tell you anything. This is... my thing. Now off! Get out!" Nikki attempted once more to pry the tiny girl off of her.

   "Ugghh! I want to be your friend, Nikki! Why won't you open up to me? Why do you hate me?!"

   Nikki slowly processed April's question and fell silent. April felt Nikki's tense shoulders relax as she sighed heavily. The lanky girl released her grip off April, placing a gentle, shaky hand on her back. April followed suit, allowing Nikki to slide her off her shoulder and gently set her down on the floor.

   "I don't hate you, Freckles," Nikki replied, rather quietly. She pursed her lips and awkwardly avoided eye contact. "Like I said, it's just best for the both of us if we weren't friends. I make myself unlikable for a reason."

   "But, why? Look, I know what it's like to be different. In more ways than I can say... But, what I mean is, I understand you!"

   Nikki placed her hands on April's shoulders. "No." She stopped her, a firm tone in her voice. "You really don't, April."

   Nikki sighed, a somber and regrettable look in her eyes that she desperately tried to hide. "I... really shouldn't've agreed to let you in here. You gotta go. I mean it this time."

   "Nikki, I-"

   "Just go. I have a lotta work to catch up on."

   "Alright... I'll go. I'm sorry, Nikki."

   Nikki watched in silence as April climbed out the window and finally left.

   "Yeah... Me too," She mumbled to herself before turning around and walking back to her work.

--

   Along the rooftops of New York, in the blackness of the cold night, four humanoid turtles sprang from building to building, their two human teenage acquaintances followed closely after.

   "I don't get it, Donnie, what could the Kraang possibly benefit from, from keeping files of all the humans they've captured?" Leo asked his brother as he swiftly hopped from one rooftop to the next.

   "The Kraang are remarkably organized. I have a theory they assign each human they've kidnapped into separate groups after they finish experimenting on them," Donnie replied.

   "Based on what?"

   "Well, lots of things! Strength, intelligence, endurance... From what I've studied, the Kraang have many different rankings of status and power, a bit like humans in our world do. However, they may function more like a bee or an ant colony. I can only assume they're newly abducted humans function the same way after they've been brainwashed and mutated into slaves."

   "Yeesh. Harsh, bro," Mikey shivered.

   "But, why would we need to risk our hides again, sneaking into the TCRI building for this data?" Raph asked.

   Everyone halted and regrouped on top of a high building to catch their breath.

   "If we had those files, there's a chance we could rescue any humans currently abducted by the Kraang, here on Earth. Not only that, but if we were able to completely erase that data, we could prevent anymore human kidnappings the Kraang may have planned in the future," Donnie explained.

   "We could keep them from experimenting on people and turning them into mutants!" April exclaimed. "We would save thousands of lives! Keep people from losing their family members..."

   Donnie pulled out his T-phone, projecting a small screen that displayed confidential files he'd stolen from the Kraang throughout the year.

   "It took me quite a few months of hacking and snooping around, but I managed to download the layout to the upper floors of the building. Now, we finally have an in depth map of the top five floors!" He zoomed in on a specific location on the map. "They have hundreds, if not thousands of computer rooms, but this room contains all the information we'll need."

   "Right. Nerd stuff," Casey commented, leaning on top of April's head.

   April shoved him off and readjusted her head band. "Do you think they still have information about my dad and I in there? Even after we escaped them?"

   "With the Kraang's cutthroat organizational skills, I wouldn't put it past them. Especially after we discovered that you're part Kraang, too." Donnie replied.

   "I don't know Donnie, sneaking into TCRI for this doesn't seem like it'd be worth the risk," Leo said.

   "Trust me, Leo, I've put a lot of thought and study into this! We have their blueprints. Our chances of success are high!"

   Leo crossed his arms over his chest, still unconvinced.

   "C'mon, Leo, we haven't had any good action for months now!" Mikey urged, elbowing his big brother.

   "Eh, that's true. The Foot have been pretty quiet lately. Most of our nights consist of bullying petty thieves," Raphael added.

   Casey butted in, leaning his forearms on top of Raph's head. "Yeah, I'm bored!"

   Leo rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, okay..." he huffed out, stuttering over hesitance. "Fine, we'll do it. Just... don't tell Master Splinter."

   "Yes!" Everyone cheered in unison.

   After a few more hours of patrolling, April and Casey went home-being a school night and all-while the turtles made their way back to the lair.

   "Y'know, while we're in there, I could try getting a basic understanding of the Kraang's anatomy..." Donnie murmured to himself. "I wonder if they have a queen that lays eggs too."

   "Eugh. Gross!" Mikey gagged.

   Leo grimaced at the thought as well. "Let's just focus on getting the data you need while we're in there, Donnie. I don't wanna risk any of us getting captured."

   "Oh, please those Kraang droids are getting soft! I've seen old ladies fight off purse snatchers better than could fight off us," Raph huffed with pride.

   "No way, dude, they have the advantage of being cold and slimy. I hate when they cling to my face like those tiny aliens from that one movie!" Mikey insisted.

   Donnie rolled his eyes and shook and his head. "Ugh, that movie had you too scared to sleep in your own bed for weeks..."

   "Heh, yeah... Can we watch it again when we get home?"

   "No!"

   "As the leader, I'd just rather be more safe than sorry, Raph," Leo told his hot-headed brother.

   Raphael scoffed. "Yeah, you would. But if I were leader, I'd be more fearless than that!"

   "Oh, is that right?"

   "Ahhh!"

   An unknown voice emerged from the shadows, catching Raph off guard, making him scream in a high pitched tone.

   As they listened to the strangers menacing giggling, the boys immediately unsheathed their weapons and grouped together, facing back to back.

   "Yeah, real fearless, Raph," Donnie mocked.

   "Shh! Who's there? Show yourself!" Leo demanded the stranger.

   A tall, knobby-limbed girl with bright pink hair and a led gas mask stepped into the street light, revealing herself. "Hi there!" She greeted, energetic and peppy.

    "Who are you?" Leo asked, carefully.

   The strange girl snapped her fingers. "Ahh, sorry! Giving you my name would kinda' ruin the whole "masked villain" gimmick I got goin' on."

   "I'm pretty good at giving nicknames if you want one!" Mikey offered enthusiastically.

   "Mikey!" Raph hissed at his younger brother.

   "I mean most folks around here already call me The Stalker. You could go with that!"

   Leo grumbled impatiently. "Whatever, it doesn't matter! Why are you here?"

   "Oh, hah! Sorry, where are my manners? I'm an assassin!" The Stalker, replied.

   "What?!"

   "Y'know, the guy in the movies who gets paid to kill people? Although, in your case, I'm actually here to kidnap you. Speaking of, you guys mind getting in this big Santa Claus bag?" The strange girl asked, holding up an over-sized sack.

   Donnie shook his head in shock and confusion. "What? No! Who sent you?" He demanded, carefully sticking the sharp end of his bostaff in the girls face.

   The Stalker placed a finger at the pointed tip of his blade and casually tilted the staff down. "Heheh! Easy there little guy. Don't start something you can't finish..."

   "Who sent you!?" Leo repeated, a low growl in the back of his throat.

   "Afraid I can't give that information. Anyway, into the sack you go!" The Stalker whistled at the turtles like a group of dogs.

   "Wow, rude," Donnie scoffed.

   "Okay, screw this!" Raph blurted out and lunged at the girl.

   She simply shifted to the side, causing Raphael to plunge into a pile of trash bags. She let out a sinister snicker at his slip up as the led eyes on her goggles replaced themselves with X's.

   "Well, I wouldn't mind the harder option, if that's what you want. I'll be honest I've been needing the exercise, anyway!" The girl jested.

   She unsheathed a morning star from the holster on her back and flipped it in her hand. She then pressed a button on the handle, automatically elongating its stick.

   The other three boys followed suit after Raph attacked. The assassin, however, was too quick for them. With each strike they missed, she teased them with unnecessary commentary. Her sinister mockery dug under their cold skin like needles, their patience growing thinner and thinner by the second. Especially Raph's.

   "Ugh! Hold still so I can beat your face in!" Raphael bellowed as The Stalker skillfully shifted and avoided his attempted stabbing.

   "Aww... Did I hurt your feelings little man?" The girl taunted, smirking behind her mask. "I didn't peg you for someone with such a small temper. I try not to hold to that whole short person stereotype!"

   She flipped over Raph and kicked him in the shell, sending him toppling over on his front side. Raph's face burned with rage as he sat up screaming. "Rahhhhh!"

   "Is all this mockery really necessary?" Leo scolded, attempting and failing to fight the girl as well. "You're acting really immature!"

   "Eh, maturity's not my style. I can certainly tell it's yours though, judging by that fifty-foot pole up your butt!"

   The Stalker grabbed Leo by the tails of his face mask and yanked him to the ground while kicking his sword out of his hand. She bent over, looking down at him on the ground. "Letting loose a little would do you good!"

   She jumped up and dodged Mikey who attempted to attack her from behind, sending him flying into a brick wall.

   "Agh! She's too fast!" He groaned. "How is she, like, everywhere?"

   "Simple, little buddy!" The Stalker replied, leap frogging over him, sending him to the concrete. "You're just slow! I mean your turtles aren't you? It's in your nature."

   Donnie attacked the girl from the side, swinging his bostaff down. Without a blink, The Stalker caught it in her hand and snapped her head to side. Donnie's eyes widened slightly in surprise, taken aback by her intimidating stature. She spun in the air and rabbit kicked Donnie away, sending him flying into an empty dumpster as she snapped his bostaff over her knee.

   "Listen boys, as much fun as this has been, I don't wanna really be spending all night on this job, y'know what I'm saying?"

   "We're not going anywhere with you!" Leo spat at her, finally managing to strike her in the face with his fist.

   The Stalker only reacted with a heavy sigh, cracking her neck. "Alrighty then, if that's how you wanna play..."

   She swung her morning star at Leo, who used both his swords to block it off. All four boys went back to fighting off The Stalker, who easily blocked and avoided each punch they threw at her. By the end of the battle the boys were badly bruised, exhausted and incredibly frustrated. Donnie had no choice, but to use the only smoke bomb he had left as a last resort. The boys swiftly snuck away down the man-hole in the alleyway they were fighting in, leaving the pink-haired girl alone and surprised.

   "Huh," She murmured to herself, looking around the empty alley. "That's a first."

--

   "You lost them?!" Karai exclaimed.

   "I know right? Definitely not like me!" The assassin girl bragged. "Y'know, I don't think you gave them enough credit, princess. Those boys really put up a fight!"

   Karai sighed in frustration. "Fine, if you can't do it then-"

   "Hey, hey, hey, who said I can't do it? I've never backed down on a job so far and I'm certainly not planning on doing so anytime soon!" The Stalker interrupted. "Besides, this job is... interesting. My first time interacting with mutants!"

   Karai tightened her lips and rolled her eyes. "Fine. You have two weeks, starting today. If you can't bring me those turtles then the deal is off."

   "I gotcha' princess!"

   "And stop calling me that!"

--

   "She was so fast, Master Splinter!" Leo insisted. "I could barely see her! It was like she'd disappear and reappear at random."

   He pulled his hand away from Splinter after he finished wrapping it. "She was like an illusionist! She did everything she could to distract and confuse us!"

   Splinter hummed in thought, tending to his sons' wounds. "Hmm. A trickster."

   "Yeah, not to mention obnoxious!" Donnie added. "She was so cocky and smug, just because we couldn't beat her!"

   Raph pushed away from Master Splinter in frustration, letting out an intense growl. "Oh, we'll beat her, alright! Beat her into the ground! Beat her so hard, she won't be able to recognize her own face!"

   "Yame!" Splinter scolded Raph. "We've discussed this, Raphael. That temper and violent tendency of yours is not the ninja way."

   "You don't understand, Sensei, she was so mean!" Mikey prostested.

   Donnie nodded in agreement. "It was like she knew exactly what to say to get under our skin!"

   Mikey let out a pathetic dog whine. "Yeah, it really hurt my feelings!"

   "That is exactly why she beat you," Splinter replied, closing his first aid kit.

   The boys raised an eyebrow at him.

   "I've discussed with you all before, the importance of keeping calm and collected in the midst of battle. Frustration and anger do not mix well with combat. Otherwise acting on impulse may be your biggest mistake and you might do something you would not be proud of."

   He stood up, tucking the first aid kit under his arm as stared longingly at his old family photo across the dojo.

   "Remember my meditation techniques I've taught you. This girl is using underhanded tactics as a means to distract you. Remind yourselves in the moment that these harmful words do not mean anything. You boys know your worth. You are not what a bully refers to you as."

   "So then, what do we do?" Leo asked.

   "Hm. From what I've learned in my years, the only way to defeat a trickster is to fight fire with fire. Use her own tactics against her."

   The boys sighed in thought. "Hai, Sensei," They all replied in unison.

   Splinter retreated back to his room to leave the boys to think.

   "Master Splinter's right. This strange girl is just a bully. She's more skilled than us, sure, but with proper planning, I think we can beat her," Leo told his team.

   "Yeah, beat her into a pulp," Raph mumbled behind clenched teeth.

   "With everything that Master Splinter told us, still in mind," Leo emphasized, more-so directly at Raph.

--

   Throughout the rest of the week, the turtles and The Stalker found each other again, attempting and failing to defeat her each time. Her blatant bullying and insults grew nastier and more malicious every night. The boys coped with her verbal abuse as best as they could. Raphael, however, showed small signs of struggling.

   But, with the help of Casey and April, and of course plenty of advice from Splinter, their plans and skills strengthened and they grew closer and closer to victory.

   "C'mon, why can't we come with you guys this time? We can help!" April insisted.

   "I'm sorry, April, it's just too dangerous. This girl is... unhinged," Donnie replied with a shiver.

   "So what? We could take her!" Casey shot back.

   Donnie scoffed and rolled his eyes.

   "We totally could!" Casey protested. "Just let us come with this time! April and I could be a good distraction."

   April chimed in enthusiastically. "Yeah! There's no way she could take on all of six of us at the same time!" 

   "Well..." Leo drew out in thought. "With our new plan, a few extra hands might be just what we need..."

   "Yeah?" Casey chirped hopefully.

   Leo sighed. "Alright, but I need you guys to do exactly as I say, got it?"

   April and Casey cheered.

--

   That night all six teenagers practiced their plan excessively before leaving the sewers to initiate. They found themselves in the same alleyway they first met The Stalker in, keeping quiet and heavily alert.

   "Oh, look at this..." The familiar taunting voice echoed from within the shadows.

   "Yeah that's right! You got no chance going toe to toe with the one and only Casey Jones!" Casey boasted, wielding his hockey stick.

   "Casey, shut it!" Raph hissed.

   "So sad... Needed to invite new friends to the party 'cause you couldn't handle me on your own?" The Stalker teased.

   "Ignore her..." Leo whispered at everyone as a reminder.

   "Heh, no problem for me anyway. I've had my fun and I'm getting a bit bored beating you losers up everyday. I've got a job to finish."

   The Stalker jumped down from the rooftop in front of the group, her morning star swung over her shoulder.

   "Hello again little turtles..." She greeted menacingly. "You boys picked a good night to bring your little friends along. I've been going too easy on you."

   "Yeah well, uh... So have we!" Mikey shot back.

   The Stalker snickered at his attempt at back talk, bringing her morning star down. "Yeah. Cute."

   In a flash, she lunged straight to Leo, swinging at him. He blocked her off with his swords as the rest of the group fled away in the shadows. Leo and The Stalker dueled as she continued on with her usual banter.

   "So, have you guys finally decided to give up? Or are you dorks so dense you can't take a hint to stop trying?"

   She was suddenly interrupted by a kick in the face, courtesy of Donnie, after he jumped out of the shadows. Following suit came Mikey, who clocked her in the back of the head with his nunchucks.

   Instead of shouting in pain, as predicted, The Stalker giggled. She grabbed Leo by the wrist as he swung his sword down and pulled him closer to her masked face.

   "So, is that how you wanna play? Trying to beat me at my own game? Well you boys know I love games... Heheheh..."

   Leo pulled away and swiftly shifted into the darkness.

   "Aww! Cowering away where I can't see you? Wouldn't expect less from you guys! Ahahaha!"

  The turtles, April and Casey refrained from replying or reacting as The Stalker had hoped. They only continued their plan of attacking her one by one. Meanwhile, April and Casey distracted her by pelting her with random garbage and deflecting her attention with noises hidden in the shadows. It seemed to be working, but with each punch she absorbed, the louder her maniacal cackling grew.

   "Guys... She's messing with us... I think she's letting us hit her," April whispered.

   "What? Why? That's insane!" Donnie exclaimed.

   "Seems pretty on-brand of her, D..." Mikey replied.

   The Stalker caught her breath from her fit of giggles and gasped. "Woo! You guys are fun! I've been needing motivation like this!" She cackled.

   "Okay, she's starting to freak me out..." Casey murmured, pulling at his collar.

   "Alright, that's it!" Raph growled and ran at her like an angry bull. "I'm done being patient with this clown!"

   "Raph no!" Leo shouted.

   Raph belted out a battle cry and unleashed the full week of pent up anger he had at The Stalker. She responded with more taunting giggles as she fought back. The two swung and fought with each other a good long minute as the rest of the crew went back to their original plan of attacking her one at a time.

   "You think you little dorks can tire me out!?" She asked them, her voice growing more menacing, loud and unhinged. "I'm ten times more a warrior than you mutant freaks could ever dream to be! I can do this for days!"

   "Rrrrrr, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Raph screamed in rage and punched her in the face with all his might.

   Her mask flew off, spinning in the air and skidding against the concrete. The Stalker fell to the ground, holding her face in her hands. Quickly, she recovered from the blow and stood up spinning around to face Raph. Staring at the turtle was a thinned face girl adorned in freckles and framed with a long nose. Her eyes-accompanied by dark, heavy circles-were blood-shot, bright green and tiny-pupiled, piercing into his soul. Plastered across her long, thin cheeks was a wide, crazed, toothy smile, that a stream of blood escaped from, dripping down her jaw and neck. Raph, however was more surprised at her age. She was just a teenager like the rest of them.

   "Oh-ho-ho, now it's a party!" She exclaimed, her voice horse and gritty.

   "Wha-That's!-"

   "Get her!" Leo commanded, interrupting April's exclamation.

   "Guys!" Casey called out, trying to get the boys attention.

   They were too focused on the strange girl, determined to take her down. She laughed like a hyena as they grew closer and closer to their goal. She was clearly, finally, losing the battle, but seemed far too happy about it.

   "Guys! Stop!" April pleaded, upon discovering the familiar girl.

   "April, what are you talking about?" Donnie asked from over his shoulder. He grabbed the girl by the arms from the back, keeping her restrained.

   "We know her! Stop!" Casey shouted.

   "Oh, hey Freckles! Surprised I bet, huh?" The girl greeted her classmates before getting struck in the face again.

   April ran up to the boys holding her hands out. "That's enough! She's my friend!"

   "Friend? She's a dangerous assassin, April and she's been trying to kidnap us all week!" Raphael snapped back.

   "Which is why we should talk to her instead of this needless violence!" April said back.

   "Oh, shell no! I earned this!" Raph growled. He turned back to the girl and punched her straight in the gut.

   She wheezed out from the blow and coughed. "S-S...So April, how's your weekend been-cough!"

   "April, how do you and Casey know this girl?" Leo asked.

   "Dude, everyone at our school knows her! That's Nutcase Nikki!" Casey replied enthusiastically.

   "Oh, she's that crazy girl you told us about?" Mikey asked. "The one who moved into town a few years ago?"

   "What are you on about, Mikey?" Donnie asked from behind Nikki, still holding her back while Raph laid into her.

   "Well, if you guys ever cared to listen to April once in a while, you'd remember the crazy girl that goes to her school that she keeps trying and failing to befriend!" Mikey shot back.

   "Aw, what a polite little guy!" Nikki commented. "Your friends here could learn a thing or two from ya'!"

   "Shut up!" Raph demanded, landing another blow to her jaw.

   "Alright, Raph, take it easy," Leo, told him.

   "Why should I, huh? We've been taking this psycho's abuse all week!"

   "Remember what Master Splinter told us about control! You don't want to end up doing something you might regret!"

   Raph froze, mid punch, staring at Nikki's bruised and bloodied face. She stared back at him blankly, her breathing ragged and labored. Raphael closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly, finally bringing his raised fist down.

   "Fine. I'll spare you. This time," He grumbled lowly.

   Nikki smirked. "Lucky me."

   Catching Raph by suprise, Nikki's piercing, blood-shot eyes rolled to the back of her head and she went limp. She was out cold.

   "Oh, uh. O-Oops," Raph mumbled,

   "Oh my gosh, Raph!" April scolded the hot-headed turtle, pushing him away to look at Nikki.

   Leo sighed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "April, listen, I'm really sorry about your friend, but... she needs to be interrogated. I know she seems nice back in school, but this is who she really is, whether you like it or not."

   "Just... be careful with her."

--

   In an abandoned warehouse, the crew regrouped and tied Nikki securely to a chair, waiting for her to wake back up. April paced back and forth, her brain racked with questions. Casey, meanwhile, explained who Nikki was to the boys.

   "Basically, from what I've heard, she transferred to our school district about two years ago and she's been causing trouble ever since. She's got a really smart mouth and rebellious attitude that all the teachers at school really can't stand her for. And everyone else just thinks she's really weird and... kind of creepy. So, no one really talks to her."

   "And why again, April, have you been wanting to befriend her so badly?" Donnie asked, baffled.

   "Because I keep having that... feeling, again!" April snapped back.

   "The feeling you get when you gotta throw up?" Mikey asked.

   "No! This... sense I keep having that gives me this weird feeling about certain things. It kept telling me something about Nikki that I just... had to know."

   April held her arms, looking back at her classmate, slumped over in the chair. "I would never have guessed it'd be... this."

   Donnie placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, offering his condolences. "I'm sorry, you had to find out this way, April. I guess we get now why she kept pushing you away, huh?"

   April sighed solemnly. "Yeah..."

   "And on top of this, we haven't made any progress in finding that data we still need from the Kraang," Leo added.

   "If you ask me, this whole week has been a waste of time," Raph grumbled. "We could've been kicking alien-robot, butt! Not putting up with this freak of nature."

   "Maybe take it easy on the name calling there, Raph? April's pretty upset," Donnie nagged his brother.

   "I'm just sayin'!" Raph protested. "We could've gotten all those files of all the abducted humans you were going on about and maybe, just maybe, could have even saved them! April's obnoxious little friend here has been keeping us from possibly preventing any human from ever getting mutated again!"

   "Dude!" Mikey snapped, with a disapproving glare.

   He gestured towards April, who was still clearly upset.

   "Read the room, yo," Casey said.

   "Groan..." Nikki stirred in the chair, finally coming-to.

   April gasped and turned around, slightly leaning forward in anticipation.

   "Ugh..." Nikki lifted her head up and blinked her eyes open. The unique group all stared back at her in a mix of hesitance and concern.

   "Well... here we are..." Nikki murmured groggily, plastering that obnoxious smirk across her face.

   Donnie rolled his eyes. "Wow, you never take anything seriously do you?"

   Leo stepped forward and yanked at the collar of Nikki's hoodie. "Talk."

   "'Bout what, exactly?" She shot back.

   "Oh, I am tired of your smart mouth! Who do you work for?" He demanded.

   Nikki smirked at the blue-masked turtle sinisterly. "Your little girlfriend. Karai."

   Leo's eyes widened in shock as he let go of Nikki's collar and stepped back. "K-Karai?"

   "Heh, yeah. She wanted me to bring you guys to her and use you as bait to snuff out the rat."

   "Master Splinter?" Donnie asked in shock.

   Nikki squinted at him in confusion. "Is that what you call it?"

   "Hey!"

   "Is Shredder apart of this too?" Raph asked, stepping forward.

   "Nah. Originally, daddy said no to the idea, so princess hired me behind his back," Nikki explained, casually crossing her legs.

   "What?"

   "Like many of the mobs and gangs around town-that I'm sure you hero dorks have already met-Shredder takes part in illicit practices, if you know what I mean," Nikki explained.

   "Underground business?" Donnie asked.

   "Black market, gray market, shadow economy, whatever you call it. He owns multiple, so he gets pretty busy beyond being an edgy supervillain. He's been pretty pre-occupied getting his new mansion built out in the woods upstate, so Karai took advantage of his absence. As she loves to do."

   "How do you know all of this?" Casey asked.

   "I know everything."

   "Pfft, nuh-uh."

   April stepped forward. "Nikki, I have to know... How... What happened to you?"

   "What're you talkin' about, Freckles?"

   "Why... Why are you an assassin? The skills you have... At your age, that's just something I can't wrap my head around."

   Nikki awkwardly shifted her gaze, hesitant on her choice of words. "Well... Sorry April, but that's for me to know and me to know only."

   "What? No! We have you tied, you have to tell us!" Donnie, insisted.

   "Nah."

   Nikki casually stood up from the chair, the ropes around her falling loose. The crew jumped, completely taken aback. She stretched out her lanky body and placed her hands on her hips.

   "I escaped those ropes minutes ago while you guys still thought I was unconscious. Thanks for all that information I've been needing on the Kraang by the way! That's kinda' the only reason I took up this job in the first place, heh heh!"

   "...HOW?!" Raph, screamed in defeat and frustration.

   "Don't you worry your slimy little heads. Now that I got what I needed out of this, I'm calling off the deal between Karai and I. April, Casey, it's been a pleasure! I'm sure you and I have a mutual agreement now that if you spill the beans about my secret identity, I'm telling everyone about your mutant buds here. I'll see you two losers bright and early at school tomorrow!" Nikki said, turning around and walking away.

   "Wha-No! We're not finished with you!" Raph demanded, lunging at her.

   Leo held him back. "Just leave it, man!"

   Nikki pulled a grappling hook out from one of the many pockets in her cargo overalls and hoisted herself up towards a hole in the ceiling of the run-down building. "I'll see you dorks, never!"

   She flipped and jumped away in a flash, disappearing into the black sky. The turtle crew all stood at the warehouse floor, staring up at the hole in the ceiling the mysterious assassin just escaped from, slack-jawed and at a loss for words. Raph, however, was preoccupied throwing a temper tantrum on the side lines.

------

Chapter Two: New Discoverings

Mikey sat in the middle of the conversation pit in the lair, eyes glued to the tv. On the the screen appeared a hulk of a man, fighting in a boxing arena. His moves and fighting techniques were remarkable. Sitting nearby was Leo, emersed in an action comic and Raph, idly watching the television as well.

   "Man... Chrissy Rock was so cool..." Mikey mumbled in awe.

Donnie emerged from his lab, yawning and stretching out his sore muscles. "Watcha' guys watching?"

   "Old boxing matches of Christoph Hoffman!" Mikey replied excitedly.

   "Ooh, I could go for some Chrissy Rock action!" Donnie replied, sitting down next to him.

   "I don't get the hype for this guy..." Raph grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

   "Uh, hello? Christoph Hoffman? The greatest, strongest and most inspirational warrior to ever bless this Earth?" Mikey shot back, matter-of-factly.

   "I'm just saying, it's suspicious how a rich guy could have the whole world smitten without any conspiracies about him!"

   "Well he's a cult classic, Raph!" Donnie insisted. "Christoph Hoffman will go down in history as a strong, brave, charitable and selfless man."

   "Yeah, the guys a war hero. Even Master Splinter idolizes him. He's encouraged us to study his fighting techniques for a reason," Leo added, eyes still glued to his comic.

   Donnie turned around to face his brothers. "And, along side his wife Ava Hoffman, those two became one of the most successful and ideal couples in all of New York. Ava's the smartest biochemist in the country! Her work is remarkable and has always been an incredible inspiration to me!"

   "Y'know... before they went missing and all..."

   "Yeah..." Mikey mumbled solemnly. "I really miss them. I hope nothing bad had happened!"

   "Well, we know old Chrissy has the skills to defend himself so... I'm sure they're doing just fine! Maybe just... taking a break or something," Donnie reassured his little brother, hesitance stuck in the back of his throat.

   "Aside from that. Donnie?" Leo piped up. "Have finished mapping a proper route of the Kraang's TCRI building?"

   "Oh! Nearly finished!" Donnie replied confidently. "I have it all planned out!"

"We'll be able to steal the Kraang's data of all the abducted humans they have on file, get out of there without them even realizing, and get back home faster than you can say Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis!"

"Nuh-uh! That's not even a word!" Mikey protested.

"Is too! Look it up if you want," Donnie shot back, matter-of-factly.

   He pulled a purple usb from out of his shell and held it up. "Using the Kraang's technology, I created a specialized usb that'll be able to handle taking in all the data from their computer. A regular old usb wouldn't be able to handle their advanced technology without exploding."

   "Good work, D."

   "My sons," Master Splinter announced, emerging from the dojo.

   "S-Sensei!" Leo choked, hoping his father didn't hear their secret plan.

   "I thought you boys were going out tonight."

   "Oh, yeah, we are!" Raph, replied, plastering a fake smile on his face.

   "W-We're just waiting on April and Casey to get here, heh!"

   Splinter hummed in thought. "I see. Do not stay out too late. Since this... assassin was assigned to you, I fear for what else the Foot Clan may be planning."

   "Psh, we took care of her easily!" Raph boasted, leaning back with his hands behind his head. "Trust us, Master Splinter, we can handle ourselves just fine."

   "I mean it Raphael," Splinter replied firmly. "Be careful and cautious. And look out for each other. Ooh is that Chrissy Rock?"

He sat down next to Raphael to tune in.

--

   The next night, the turtles, April and Casey emerged from the sewers, taking their plan to sneak into the Kraang's TCRI building into action. Donnie's map was fully drawn out and everyone was given strict instructions.

   On top of the roof, Leo turned around towards everyone to give his pep-talk. "Remember guys, let's make this straight forward. In and out, like Donnie planned. We need to make this quick since Splinter set that curfew on us. Full stealth mode."

   Acting fast, the group slid in through the ceiling opening, keeping themselves fully alert and pressed against the wall. They quickly made their way through the maze of hallways, skillfully avoiding any nearby Kraang-droids and quietly taking out the ones who spotted them.

   All was going well and the plan continued smoothly until Leo turned a sharp corner and rammed right into someone he least expected.

   "Nikki!" Everyone whisper-screamed in unison.

   The group of teens excessively shushed each other in a hushed panic, immediately trekking back to a more safe and hidden corner.

   "What the shell do you think you're doing here?!" Raphael whisper-yelled at the pink-haired maniac.

   "I should be asking you dorks the same!" Nikki shot back in an equally hushed and frustrated tone. "Get out of here before you armatures get me caught!"

   "No way! We were here first!" Leo insisted.

   Nikki rolled her eyes. "Doubtful."

   "We are so close to getting the data we've been needing, don't you dare take that from us more than you've already been!" Donnie growled at her.

   "What are you idiots even talking about?"

   "We planned this heist weeks ago!" Donnie spat. "We could've gotten it done and over with already if you hadn't been trying abduct us to the Foot Clan!"

   Nikki giggled. "Heh, heh, oh yeah. That was fun."

   "Guys we're way too exposed out here!" April scolded them. "We can't sit here and bicker all night. Nikki?"

   "What, Freckles?"

   "Back at the warehouse-when you pretended you were still unconscious-we accidentally gave you a bunch of information about the Kraang. That's what you're here for too, isn't it?"

   Nikki eyed her suspiciously. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. What's it to you?"

   "For now, let's just work together and help each other. With Nikki's skills, we could get what we need and get out of here quicker!"

   "What?! No way! I don't wanna work with this shady, nutjob!" Raph protested.

   Nikki scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself sweetie. I don't need you hero dorks slowing me down either."

   The group was soon interrupted by the sounds of nearby droids, murmuring to each other about the strange noises they were hearing.

   Donnie quickly pulled his map out. "Look, we know our way around this place. If you keep your mouth shut and get us where we need to go, you can take this map with you for whatever shifty plans you have."

   Nikki hesitated for a moment, torn between her enemies and the droids slowly making their way closer. With a defeated sigh, she finally gave her answer.

   "Fine! Deal."

   The droids turned the corner and Nikki promptly ripped their heads off without even turning around, catching the other group of teens by surprise. Everyone continued on as planned and, within minutes, finally found their way to the specific computer room marked on Donnie's map. They closed and locked the doors behind them as Nikki swiftly took out the droid occupying the room.

   Leo sighed in relief and turned towards Donnie. "Alright, D. You're up."

   Donnie nodded and quickly got to work, typing and searching through the Kraang's computer while everyone else stood guard.

   Nikki stood behind Donnie, her hands on her hips as she watched the screen. "By the way, I still need my mask back from you dorks," She commented.

   Donnie's eyes widened slightly and nervously he cleared his throat. "R-Right... Uh..."

   "Oh, Donnie took that apart in his lab," Mikey informed, casually.

   Nikki stared daggers at the back of Donnie's head with a crazed smile, her left eye twitching. "Did he now?"

   "U-Uh, found it!" Donnie announced, pulling out his usb stick and promptly plugging it into the computer.

   In an awkward silence, everyone watched and waited as the usb took the information from the Kraang's computer.

   Nikki let out an exasperated sigh. "This is taking too long."

   Donnie glared at her. "Well of course it is! It's decades of information."

   "Yeah, that's what Ethernet cables are for," Nikki responded pulling her own specialized tech out from her pockets.

She plugged a cable and small device into the computer, next to Donnie's usb.

   "H-Hey, wait. Don't-!"

Nikki casually shoved his face away as her hands nimbly danced across the keyboard.

   In an instant the rest of the data files quickly inserted itself into the usb, a satisfying small jingle played afterwards on the computer. Donnie stared at the screen slack-jawed.

   "Oooh, neat," Mikey observed.

   "Heh, that's the first time I've seen someone upstage you with their brain, gap-tooth," Casey snickered.

   Donnie growled and clenched his fists. "Shut it, puck-mouth! How'd you even-?"

   "It's just basic computer science, nerd," Nikki interrupted him.

   "But, y... You're-"

   Nikki began typing away at the computer once the usb was finished downloading, not even looking at Donnie. "I wasn't lying when I said I know everything."

   "Nikki is, uh, kind of a prodigy like you are, D," April explained to the dumbfounded brainiac. 

   "Uh-huh, yeah. Now! That being said, get out. You got what you needed, now it's my turn," Nikki instructed the group, flatly, eyes still glued to the screen.

   "Wha- No!" Leo protested. "You saw our plans, why don't we get to see yours?"

   "Because it's personal. Out."

   "No, it's shady is what it is!" Raph shot back. "What could an evil-genius-assassin want with personal information from alien robots?!"

"None of your business, that's what!" Nikki hissed at him. "Now beat it, losers."

   April stepped forward towards Nikki. "Nikki, c'mon. You're shutting me out again. Whatever issues you have with the Kraang, we can help!"

   "No you can't, Freckles. I'll shut out anyone and everyone as much as I want 'till the day I die. I don't want your help and I certainly don't need it either! Now leave me alone!"

   April winced at her harsh words and fiddled nervously with her nails.

   "Hey, you can't talk to her like that!" Donnie scolded her, planting a hand on April's shoulder.

   "Hah! I can talk to anyone, anyway I want!"

   "Wanna bet on that?" Raph threatened, cracking his knuckles and gritting his teeth.

Nikki turned back to him, her familiar crazed look glazing her eyes. "Oh, are you suggesting a rematch short-stack?"

   "Guys, keep your voices down!" Leo nagged.

   The computer interrupted the group's banter with a cheery beep. Everyone turned their heads towards the screen. To the turtles surprise, the face cards of their idols Christoph and Ava Hoffman appeared. Nikki quickly went back to typing on the computer, her face twisted in determination and hesitance.

   "Huh? Ava Hoffman? Chrissy Rock! This is where they've been? Abducted by the Kraang!?" Leo exclaimed in bafflement.

"What kind of business do you have with the most successful and idolized couple in New York?" Donnie asked, suspiciously.

   "Ugh! You guys don't need to see this! Just leave!" She urged, a hint of desperation in her tone.

"Hoffman? Nikki... that's your last name... right?" April asked.

   The computer buzzed a deeper, grating beeping noise, interrupting the groups banter. Nikki spun back around at the noise. In bold red letters, new information projected underneath the couple's face cards displayed on the screen.

   "DECEASED."

The room was dead silent. Quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Nikki was frozen, staring completely blank faced at the screen. Her usually exaggerated and smug expression was dead-pan and unreadable.

   "They're... They're your parents, aren't they?" April asked, her voice small.

   Nikki didn't respond. She only continued to stare at the screen, her blood-shot eyes illuminated by the bright red lettering. No one knew what to do or say next. It was an incredibly tense and shocking situation. Mikey, as he often does, broke the silence.

   "Your dad is Chris Hoffman?!" He exclaimed.

   Donnie placed a hand on his head in disbelief. "I-I thought the rumors about them having a daughter was fake!"

   "Guys, this really isn't the time..." Leo murmured through gritted teeth.

   April gently placed a comforting hand on Nikki's forearm. "Nikki... I'm so sor-"

   "Don't."

   "Ah!"

   Nikki grabbed April's wrist, rather harshly, earning a pained yelp from the ginger-haired girl.

   "Don't you dare, pretend to be my friend right now!" Nikki growled at her.

   "N-Nikki, let go! You're hurting me!" April protested.

   Nikki's voice grew louder and her anger grew stronger. "You think I want your pity!?"

   "Nikki, that's enough! Let her go!" Leo commanded, unsheathing his sword.

   "I told you idiots to get out! I told you to leave me alone!" Nikki shouted at the top of her lungs.

   "You're an assassin!" Raph responded, taking out his sais. "We have a perfectly valid excuse!"

   Unbeknownst to the group of bickering teens, many Kraang droids were alerted by their loud banter. Large groups of droids, wielding their guns all charged at the door, loudly banging on it.

   "Oh, perfect!" Raph growled sarcastically.

   "All for nothing... All this time!" Nikki's voice cracked as she broke down. She scratched at her tired, tearful eyes and pulled at her hair. Heeling over she held her head in her hands, her body shaking in a heated rage. She huffed angrily and snarled like an animal.

   A few of the teens took notice of her concerning behavior. The banging on the door grew louder and harder. "Nikki?" April called out to her friend in a hushed whisper.

   The droids finally busted the door open and burst into the computer room. Nikki sprung up, unsheathing her morning star. She belted out a banshie shriek.

   "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

   With hulk-like strength and rage, Nikki plowed through the sea of Kraang-droids. Every blow to her body she took from them was ignored, like a freak of nature. Through incredible skill, technique and mainly blind rage, Nikki guided the group of teens through the rows of Kraang, assisting their safe getaway.

   "She's nuts..." Casey blurted out in disbelief. "Insane."

   Raph smiled enthusiastically at Nikki's anger. "Incredible!" He added on.

   Soon, the turtle crew and Nikki escaped out a window of the TCRI building and retreated onto a nearby rooftop, hidden away behind garbage and clutter.

   The boys whooped and hollered from the rush of excitement, exchanging high-fives and small celebrations. April watched Nikki's meltdown from the side, in concern. Nikki ranted to herself, holding her face in her shaking hands, tears of frustration and defeat pouring from her eyes. She huffed rather heavily, trying to work herself through her panic attack, groaning from the pain of lasers and beatings she received from the many droids she plowed through.

   April tried grabbing her attention again. "Nikki?"

   Nikki was far too gone to hear her. She had grown mad from the weeks, months, years of sleep deprivation. The last two years she spent looking for her parents-all the late nights of research, the trauma she encountered while posing as an assassin in secret, the loneliness, the pain she forced herself to endure for so long...

   It was all for nothing.

   "Nikki? Hey, hey, take it easy..." April tried to coax. By then, the boys stopped celebrating, too painfully aware of the breakdown happening before them.

   "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Nikki snapped. "A-All for nothing! Nothing! Idiot! That idiot! Why? Why did he think he could... Huff, huff... Ghn! A-Ah!"

   Nikki babbled incoherent nonsense to herself, attempting and failing to stand up straight. The adrenaline had quickly subsided, leaving her aching and wincing in pain. 

   "Just-just try to calm down. You're injured!" April tried reasoning with her.

   "U-Uh, April?" Donnie piped up quietly. "I think it's best we just... let her tire herself out..."

   April remained silent, painfully watching her friend sob and scream until her voice ran horse. Nikki forced herself to stand upright, her breathing heavy and ragged, her wounds raw and exposed.

   "Pant... pant... N-Nothing..." She mumbled to herself over and over again. "Nothing... nothing... N-Nnn... Uhn..."

   Nikki's body fell limp and she collapsed to the rooftop like a sack of bricks. April shouted out in surprise and immediately ran to her aid. Donnie  and his brothers followed idly behind.

   She knelt down, frantically observing Nikki's wounds. "Oh no! No, no, no, no, no... Donnie? I-Is... Is she...?"

   Donnie promptly checked her pulse and shook his head in relief. "It's alright. She's still with us. Just... exhausted."

   "We have to help her!" April insisted, lugging Nikki into her arms.

   "Wh-And do what?!" Raph asked, exasperated. "Take her to the lair? We can't just bring an unconscious stranger into our home! Especially if Master Splinter see's her. He doesn't even know we were doing this!"

   "Nikki's not a stranger! She's my friend!" April snapped back at him. "We wouldn't have gotten out of there had it not been for her!"

   "We wouldn't have been caught had it not been for her!" Raph corrected. "If your friend wasn't such a psychopath, she wouldn't have been shouting and screaming at us and alerting the droids!"

   "She wouldn't have been shouting and screaming at us if you heartless jerks would learn to read a room! You need to understand when is and isn't the right time to keep pushing and pushing someone until you send them over the edge!"

   "What am I? Her keeper!?"

   "Guys! That's enough!" Leo scolded.

   April and Raphael fell silent, looking back at Leo.

   "April's right! We need to learn when to take responsibility. Nikki saved us and it's only right we take her home and ask Master Splinter to heal her."

   "Wh-Leo, are you nuts? We'll be grounded for months!" Donnie exclaimed.

   "He's right dude!" Mikey added. "I don't know how long I can go without watching Super Robo Mecha Force Team Five."

   "This isn't up for debate! Our duty as ninja is to set things right," He replied firmly, looking Raph square in the eye.

   Raph only crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

   Leo snapped his fingers at Donnie. Hesitantly, the brainiac lifted Nikki's unconscious body up and slung her over his shoulders.

   "We're going home. We need to hurry and get out of here before we get caught by any straggling Kraang-droids."

   The rest of the crew followed after Leo in a heavy silence, anticipating the consequences yet to come.

—

"You boys went behind my back to infiltrate the most dangerous building in the city!?" Master Splinter shouted at his sons.

"W-We're sorry Sensei, but our mission was a success!" Donnie informed him.

"And yet you are holding an unconscious known enemy in your arms!"

"We didn't know she was gonna be there Master Splinter!" Leo replied.

"Master Splinter, please," April pleaded. "I know she was our enemy, but she's a friend of mine from school! And we wouldn't have gotten out of there if it weren't for her in the first place. Nikki saved us!"

Mikey nodded in agreement. "Yeah! We're sorry for going behind your back, Sensei. But, we wanna make things right!"

"She's good, deep down. I know it!" April insisted. "Please, help us heal her."

Master Splinter stared solemnly at the group of distressed teens, hesitating a moment. He finally let out a sigh and gestured towards the dojo.

"Come."

Everyone hurriedly followed after him. Splinter instructed Donnie to lie Nikki down on the floor as he retreated to his room and returned with his first aid kit.

"While I do not approve of you all lying to me..." He started. "I am proud of you for swallowing your pride and doing the right thing. Compassion and empathy are one of the strongest weapons a ninja could possess."

He sat down along with the rest of the group as he inspected her wounds.

"This girl is a child. All of your ages..." He observed, a hint of astonishment in his tone.

"Yeah. She goes to school with April and I," Casey informed him.

"A dangerous assassin at her age..." He murmured. "How did this come to be?"

"We don't know, Sensei. She's always been so secretive. Never tells me anything," April replied. "I've been trying to befriend her ever since she transferred to our school. I can empathize with her, but she always pushes me away."

"She must have a very personal reason then," Splinter said. "I know your intentions are well, April, and you mean only to show her kindness, but you must also understand boundaries. If you truly wish to befriend this girl, you must allow her to trust you on her own time."

April looked down at Nikki, regretfully, as Splinter continued to tend to her wounds. "Yeah. I suppose you're right."

The turtle crew spent the next few minutes explaining to Splinter everything that happened and what Nikki did for them at TCRI.

"I wanna make amends with her, Sensei. As much as I hate to admit it, she has awesome skills and she's wicked smart like Donnie. She'd be a great ally," Leo told his Master.

"Mm. I can understand why, Leonardo. You may offer her your friendship. But do not push it, if she does not accept."

"Yes, Master Splinter."

Splinter packed up his first aid kit once he finished dressing Nikki's wounds. "I understand that this friend of yours is unpredictable. Proceed with caution when she awakens. But I do suggest thanking her properly for saving all of you."

"Hai, Sensei," Everyone replies in unison.

"Groan..."

"Gasp! She's waking up!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Ugh... Ngh..."

Nikki stirred and winced as she slowly gained consciousness.

"Easy, Nikki! You got really banged up," April told her, helping her sit up.

"Urg... April? Agh, my head..." Nikki grumbled. "Whas'... What's goin' on?"

She lifted her head up and gasped at the sight of Splinter. "Oh, jeez giant rat!"

"It's ok! He's friendly! He won't hurt you," April assured her.

"Yeah, trust me," Casey added. "I know he's the scariest thing you've ever seen, but he's chill."

Splinter eyed Casey down angrily at his little comment, causing Casey to smile back at him sheepishly.

Nikki huffed out and grimaced, clutching the pain in her chest. "Mrrg... 'Spose he's not the biggest rat I've seen since living in New York..." Nikki mumbled as she shifted further into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. April kindly assisted her.

"How do you feel?" Leo asked her.

"Oh, y'know, like I was hit with a million bricks. Nothing new to me though," She replied smugly, only to immediately heel over and cringe in pain.

"What... happened? Where am I? I can't remember anything after we..." Nikki trailed off, her eyes slowly widening in realization.

"Oh... "

"Um... Nikki..." April murmured quietly.

Nikki stayed silent, staring at the ground. She appeared hesitant and deep in thought.

"We, uh, we wanted to thank you for what you did for us back there," Leo told her, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yeah, I hate to say it, but you're talented. The way you tore through all those Kraang bots... that was amazing," Raphael added.

Mikey nodded enthusiastically. "You got mad skills, yo! Seriously, where'd you learn to do all that?"

"And, I have to admit, you do have an impressive mind," Donnie said. "Maybe not as impressive as mine, but-"

"What we're trying to say is..." Leo interrupted Donnie, trying to avoid getting Nikki riled up. "We're very grateful for your bravery and courage. And... we also wanted to apologize for being so... intrusive. That wasn't right."

Nikki sighed and rubbed her shoulder.

"I'm not... used to... feelings. I guess? But..." She huffed out another sigh, shaking her head. "I get it. It's whatever," She managed to mumble out, awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

"Truce?" Leo asked, holding out his hand.

Nikki hesitated a moment, before bringing her hand up too. She grumbled, "Alright. Fine. But this doesn't make us friends. Allies-acquaintances, maybe, but not friends. I don't do the whole buddy-buddy thing."

"I can settle for that," Leo replied with a smile.

"Nikki," Splinter began. "May I ask how such incredible skills came to be at such a young age?"

Nikki shifted uncomfortably at his question and hesitated. She opened her mouth to speak, but grimaced again from pain. April put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Y'know there's a lot about me I'd rather not talk about," She replied. "But... you guys did save me too, so I guess I owe you this much."

Hesitating once more, she explained, "My parents aren't as great as they perceived themselves to be. I was raised to be a weapon. Not a daughter. My dad taught me everything he knew."

"Chrissy Rock? With moves like that, I'd believe it," Donnie commented.

"What do you mean by "weapon", Nikki?" April asked.

"Well... My dad was a German mafia don. My parents ran a series of underground businesses together, which was how they gained their success. They didn't plan to have me, but when they did, they wanted to make the most of it, so they turned me into... this. And I'm leaving it that, so... there's your answer."

The group stayed silent in awkwardness and empathy for a short moment.

"See, I told you!" Raph blurted out. "There's no way anyone as crazy rich as they were could be genuinely good people!"

"Raphael," Splinter uttered firmly.

   "I can't believe it!" Mikey exclaimed in disbelief. "Chrissy Rock? He's... bad?"

   "And Ava too?" Donnie asked. "She was never using her scientific genius for good?"

  "I am shocked and disappointed as well my sons. But, regardless... thank you Nikki, for saving my family. You are immensely gifted and have great potential."

Nikki winced at Splinter's praise and waved him off. "Ehhhh, nah, maybe not gifted. Just... don't mention it... Really, don't. It was an accident anyway. Just, y'know, blind rage? Hot head here knows what I'm talkin' about."

Nikki pointed at Raph, smugly, who crossed his arms and snarled. She tried standing up, only to immediately heel over again and fall to the ground.

"Ghng!" She grunted, holding her side.

"Woah, woah, easy! You're badly injured!" Donnie told her.

"Trust me, nerd, I've had way worse. I don't wanna be here any longer than I have to be. I'm not tryin' to owe anyone any favors," Nikki grumbled back, trying to stand up again.

April helped her balance herself out. "Nikki, we didn't help you for a favor, we helped you because you were hurt!"

"Pfft! Yeah, I wasn't born yesterday. What're you, just bein' nice?"

"Uh, yeah!?" April shot back, exasperated. "What you've never seen basic empathy before?"

"Girl, look at me. What do you think?"

"Ok, fair."

"Thanks, uhh, Mr. Rat, for the band-aids," Nikki turned to Splinter, blanking on his name. "Really, I appreciate it. But I gotta bounce."

"But, you can barely walk!" Donnie protested.

"I've barely crawled my way back home, Dorkatello, I'll be just fine," She shot back from behind her shoulder.

"But-!"

"Leave her be," Splinter stopped him, holding his hand out. "She has made her decision. It is clear she knows her own limits."

"Uh, Nikki!" April called out.

"Freckles?" Nikki responded over her shoulder.

April hesitated at first. "I... I put my number in your phone. Just... text me when you get home, so we know you're safe."

Nikki stared in thought for a moment before finally cracking a small smile. "Alright. Sounds like a deal, O'Neil," She replied, hobbling away on her morning star.

(A/N: Thank you for reading! I have more stories and ideas in mind for Nikki, so stay tuned! And feel free to check out the short animatics I've made of her on my TikTok linked my bio!)

[dadmuscle]

The Rival

When I heard our principal call Jason’s name out at graduation, and saw him walk across the stage to get his diploma, that was the very last time I thought about him.

For twenty years, that is.

Let me start by saying, yes, I did grow up to be gay, but I wasn’t your typical “doesn’t know he’s gay yet” high school kid in the 90s. I was tall for my age at 5’10, blond, blue eyed, and a twink or maybe even a twunk before the term existed. I didn’t think about girls at all, but I told myself that’s because I was so happy and busy with my other school activities. My freshman year was amazing. I was in all the advanced classes getting As, joined school clubs, was in the band, and made varsity in track and field as a freshman. Being in varsity sports, because I was fast as fuck, also meant I gained access to the periphery of the popular kids’ circle. Life was pretty great.

Then sophomore year, he transferred to our high school. His name was Jason and he was practically my doppelganger in every way except for his light brown perfectly-mussed hair. He was smart and in all the same advanced classes as me. He joined clubs, and being the new mysterious kid, fell right in with the popular kids. At first, the rivalry started subtly. So much so, I wasn’t even aware of it. The first time I noticed it was in class one day as he leaned over to see that I got a 98 on our trigonometry test. He said, “Oh nice. ninety-eight isn’t bad. I got a hundred.” 

A week or so later, we were standing in front of our lockers, both doors opened as we exchanged books between classes. He closed his door to the left of me and said, “Hey Logan, are you running for any class offices?” I said, “Yeah, I submitted my petition and signatures for class president already.” He just raised an eyebrow and said, “Hm. Maybe I should run.” And. The. Fucker. Did. I won’t lie, it was a close race. The mysterious, new kid versus the guy people were friends with for a year. We each drummed up support in our different branches of friend groups. In the end, I just scraped by with 10 votes to win. I was never one to gloat so I didn’t say anything about it. Also, deep down I think I wanted him to be my friend. But him losing the vote made that impossible. Of course, he shrugged it off like it was no big deal. “I didn’t really want it anyway. Seems like a lot of work.” But the months of glares that followed proved he was hiding his anger at losing.

Then January came and track season started. This was my world. I was entering sophomore year as the fast kid who was already on varsity. The top dog on the field. But as I walked up to the field on the first day of practice my stomach sank. There he was. Jason. Doing warm ups and stretching with my teammates. He just looked at me and said, “Hope you’re ready to have another fast guy on the team this year.” Damn it. This was my place to shine. And he was inserting his competitive streak into my world, yet again. To be fair, the cocky bastard had a right to be cocky. He was fast. Really really fast. Luckily we were fast in different races. I could beat him at short distances like the 100 meter. We’d pull close to each other on the 200 meter. But he could blow me away in the 400 meter. Like our grades and everything else about us, we were evenly matched.

Because I’d suddenly had a rival thrust into my life, and I was still a decade away from coming out of the closet, I never thought about him sexually. Except for that one time after practice. We both stayed later than everyone else to do extra sprint drills. The whole team had to do the same drill over and over until failure. Most of the team gave up around the end of practice. But not me and not Jason. Neither of us wanted to let the other “win” by giving up. Finally, after an endless sprint, walk, sprint, walk routine, the coach came back out to the field as the sun was setting and said, “Alright, you both win the gold medal. Get out of here. I need to close things up.” Who knows? If the coach hadn’t come out to settle things, we might still be out there doing sprint drills.

Because everyone else had gone home long before, we were the last two in the locker room. Which also meant we were the only two in the showers too. At the end of most practices before this, the showers were always packed with the rest of our team. But tonight it was just the two of us. Hard to avoid the awkward rivalrous tension. We tried to keep our backs to each other but once in a while one does have to turn around to wash the soap off his back. And I’d lie if I said I didn’t sneak a glimpse. Like me, he had a lean tall body and a runner’s bubble butt. But as we pivoted, I thought I saw something. Maybe something big! So I looked again when his back was to me once more. From behind, in between his taut, sinewy legs, I thought there was something hanging well below his balls. 

Could his dick be that big? Did mine hang down that low too? Was he bigger than me? Why was I even wondering this? Was it because I liked his dick or just because he’d made me so competitive? I was staring at his naked body from behind, half in disbelief and half out of curiosity when he started to turn toward me. Shaken from my trance I started to turn too, but I caught a better glimpse of what looked like a big, long dick swinging around with his body motion. I heard him let out a short exhale. Surprised, I turned my head over my shoulder and he was staring in my direction. So I turned back around to face him. His eyes dropped down to my dick right as my eyes dropped to his. Confirmed, it was large. Not that I’d seen a bunch of other dicks besides mine and a few in the locker rooms. His balls seemed big too. Bigger than mine? Were big balls even a thing to be proud of? I had so many thoughts going through my hormonal teenage brain as I stared at this kid, my rival, naked and on full display in front of me. I looked up and my gaze met his. Both of us had surprised looks on our faces. We’d clearly sized up our competition in the most literal sense and both had been impressed. 

The face-to-face stare felt like it lasted an eternity, but it probably lasted five seconds or less. Suddenly it dawned on both of us that we were staring at each other’s naked bodies and dicks, so we quickly turned back around. I washed the last of the soap off, grabbed my towel, and headed back to the lockers as fast as I could without looking like I was running away. He stayed in the showers longer, probably to let me get dressed and leave to avoid any more awkward moments. Or maybe for other reasons. Who knows. I was freaked out. Heart pounding, sweating, confused. So I booked it out of there. I did my best to avoid him in the lockers or showers again that season.

Track season and the school year ended without much ado. The following year was more of the same. Little competitive jabs. I’d grown accustomed to it. Maybe I was even secretly trying to best him too, without admitting it to myself or anyone else. Then as January approached again, I was preparing myself for another track season with my rival. Would we still be evenly matched? Would we have more encounters in the lockers? But much to my surprise, he didn’t show up to the first day of practice. The coach asked where Jason was and another kid answered, “He’s going to play volleyball this year instead.” “Phew,” I thought, “finally some peace and quiet around here.” I had no idea just how wrong I was.

One week after track season started, my best girl friend, Ellen, asked if we could hang out at McDonald’s after practice – the only hangout in town that was walkable from campus. Ellen and I had been inseparable since freshman year after we met the first week of advanced English. We were platonic besties who shared everything together. Which is what made it so difficult to hear the news she shared that night and Micky D’s. As we dipped our fries into a shared chocolate milk shake, she broke the news. Ellen said, “So, Logan. Don’t be mad. I’ve been keeping something from you.” In my innocent best-friend-brain, I thought she was going to tell me about seeing the Jurassic Park movie that we’d been talking about for a week, without me or something. “So, I’ve been talking to someone recently. And he asked me to be his girlfriend today.” My stomach sank. She’s been seeing someone and didn’t tell me all the time? Wait. Why wouldn’t she tell me? Unless… No… Unless it was… 

“It’s Jason. I know, I know, I know. He’s so competitive with you and he can be a total asshole.” My stomach lurched. My heart stopped. Blood rushed to my face. My head spun. Was I going to spew chocolate milk shake fries all over the table? “I just think he’s misunderstood. He’s sooo sweet when he’s not trying to impress everyone. And he’s kind and has such a soft side. Did you know he likes poetry? He wrote me a poem!” The pale, blank look on my face must have spoken volumes. Ellen finally asked, “Are you in there? Are you ok? Are you mad?” I wasn’t mad. I was numb. In shock. But she was my best friend and I could see just how excited and happy she was. And I didn’t actually hate the dude. I just didn’t like him because he was always trying to get under my skin and beat me at everything. 

Finally, the shock wore off and my heart started beating again. I feigned a weak smile as I said, “Wow, that’s a lot. Like. Uhhhh. Ok. Are you happy?” 

She squealed, “Yes!! He’s great and I really really like him. And I promise things won’t change between us. Maybe you two will even become friends!” 

We did not become friends. And everything did change. At least for a semester.

Jason and Ellen spent all their spare time together. I saw Ellen in classes and that was it. Every other waking moment she spent with Jason. To say I was crushed would be the world’s biggest understatement. And it showed. My parents asked if I was sleeping ok because I had circles under my eyes all the time. They worried because I’d been running a little slower in track meets. I assured them I was just a little burned out. But when school was over I’d be fine. I just needed to get through the last month of the semester.

And then everything changed again! On the very last day of school Ellen and Jason broke up. It wasn’t really one or the other’s fault. They didn’t fight or have drama – which wasn’t the typical high school breakup. They just found they didn’t have a lot in common after a semester’s worth of infatuation; the honeymoon phase wore off. Ellen started calling me every night again and hanging out with me on weekends. And as the platonic best friend, I was there to pick back up exactly where we had left off.

The following year, senior year, passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. And either I’d somehow psychologically insulated myself from the rivalry, or Jason had just stopped trying. Either way, we weren’t really on each other’s radars that entire year. We got into different colleges and went our separate ways. I went to the East Coast and he went North to Oregon.

… 

It was 2015 and I was 38, living in San Francisco with a boyfriend. I had a steady job that I enjoyed, my boyfriend was handsome and kind, we had a great house, had lots of gay friends, and we traveled to gay parties from time to time. My physical appearance had changed dramatically too. Now I was a dirty blond, with a dark red beard, but still had the same blue eyes. I’d also shot up in height to 6’2 and weighed in at 195 pounds with a physique that gay gym culture demands. Tight, with abs that peeked through when I flexed really hard and had a muscular  leanness that comes from morning jogs, and dancing all night long from time to time. How things had changed since my twinky closeted years in high school. 

One day as I sat down at work, I opened up Facebook like I did every morning, so I could say “Happy Birthday” to friends. On this particular morning I also saw a few friend requests. I clicked the link and scrolled through some friend requests from some generic-looking guys that I’d probably met at some club or event. And then I saw it. A friend request that I never thought I’d see. It was him, but older. More rugged than I’d last seen him. But there he was in my friend requests. Jason. 

I didn’t even know what to do. Was I ready for a rivalry to reboot all these years later? If I ignored the request, was that playing into the rivalry by suggesting I wasn’t confident enough to let him into my social network? With a quick glance at his photos and bio info, I determined that he looked taller, lean and fit, with a beautiful wife named Jenn, and two kids – a boy that looked just like he did as a kid and a girl who looked like Jenn. While some things were different, some things were still the same. That jawline was still etched like marble and his perfectly-mussed light brown hair hadn’t changed a bit. He looked older, but in a way that made him hotter. Like an older Josh Duahmel, subtly but perfectly aged by parenthood and straight life. A hot dad.

So I thought about it for another brief moment and… Fine. Let’s do it. It looks like we’re both happy and a lot can change in twenty years. So I accepted the friend request and went about my day.

Later that night, right before bed, I got a notification from Facebook that I had a new message. I opened the app and there it was, a new direct message from Jason. I cautiously opened it, curious to see if he would open with a familiar salvo from those competitive days.

“Hey man. Long time. I was reminiscing with some friends from high school recently and you came up in conversation. They said you lived in San Francisco and were doing great. I just moved my family back from Oregon to the Central Coast. I’m a math professor at Cal Poly. I love being back in California and the family seems to be really happy here too. Anyway, looks like you’re doing great. Hope to hear from you. Maybe we can catch up sometime. - Jase”

I read the message over easily a dozen times. Searching anywhere for a hint of our old rivalry. But I couldn’t find a single hint of it. Maybe twenty years, a family, a career, and life really did change him. So I decided to respond.

“Hey Jase (is it Jase now, not Jason)? Not sure I would have expected to hear from you in a thousand years. Glad I did tho. I’m really happy to hear you’re back in California and happy. Life is good for me too. We should definitely catch up sometime. Take care,  Logan.”

And I thought that would be it. We had exchanged the ceremonial “hi how are you, great, I’m great too” greeting of distant high school connections that never tend to lead anywhere again. But then my Facebook app dinged again.

“Here’s my number. Let’s catch up for real sometime. I’ve wondered about you from time to time.” 

I had to read that last message again. Because now I was intrigued, to say the least. He wants to actually talk to me? We hadn’t spoken a single sentence to each other in high school that wasn’t dripping with competition. But now he seemed genuinely trying to make a connection. So I sent him my number too and said, “Sounds great. Would love to catch up sometime.” And I closed the app, put down my phone, and went to bed.

The following weekend, as I was enjoying an unusually warm San Francisco summer afternoon in the park with my dog while my boyfriend gallivanted at some daytime realness party with friends, my phone buzzed. It was a text from a number I didn’t have saved in my contacts.

“Hey Logan. It’s Jase. Are you free to chat?”

Surprised and laying on my blanket doing absolutely nothing, I replied, “Sure. Call?” I hit send. And the phone rang instantly.

“Hey Logan! How are you, man? Did I catch you at an okay time?”

“Jase! Hey. Yeah, I’m just having a lazy afternoon in the park with my dog while my boyfriend does his social butterfly thing at the bars. What are you up to?”

“My wife and the kids went to see the new Pixar movie Inside Out. I wanted to go see Antman so I’m boycotting and playing hooky at home. I figured it would be a good time to catch up with you without the chaos of the family in the background.”

I said, “Damn, I want to see Antman too. Love the Marvel movies! I love all sci-fi but I’ve really been loving the Marvel stuff.”

“No way man, I love sci-fi too! My family doesn’t share the love though,” he said as he chuckled.

“I know the feeling. My boyfriend Darren begrudgingly goes to the Marvel movies with me, but he always seems lost and confused. It’s not as fun when you’re constantly explaining who someone is or what happened three movies ago.”

We both laughed and Jase said, “It’s too bad we don’t live a little closer. We could go see the Marvel movies together.”

“Honestly, that would be awesome. We’ll have to make that happen sometime,” I said.

Once we had a shared common love for sci-fi and Marvel movies, the conversational floodgates burst open. We talked about everything. How college had been for each of us. What led him to be a math major and professor. What led me to consulting. Fun things we’d done in the last 20 years. People from high school we still stayed in touch with. The last time we visited our hometown. We even had similar stories about how we’d met our partners, his wife an almost-missed connection at a concert and mine a random flirtation at a bar that I never thought would go anywhere. Even our political views were nearly identical. The time flew by and it felt like we could talk like this forever. Then Jase shifted the tone.

“Hey, man. It’s getting late and I’m sure my family will be home soon. This was great catching up with you. But I wanted to say something I should’ve said a long long time ago.”

I braced myself.

“I’m sorry for high school. I don’t know why I was such a dick to you. It’s just… I don’t know. I guess I arrived at a new school sophomore year and at my old school I was just like you. Good grades, sports, clubs, popular. You know, man?” I gave a short “mmmhmm” reply as he continued. “Then I got to our school and you were already all of those things. And I don’t know what happened in my brain, but I saw you as having all the things that should be mine and it made me so competitive. I wanted to beat you at everything so bad. And I know it fucked with you, man, and you didn’t deserve that. And honestly you never did or said anything mean to me, even though I was constantly fucking with you. Anyway, I’m sorry. I hope you know I mean it. Obviously I’ve had a lot of years to think it over and settle down. I’m happy now and I’m really glad you are too. Do you think we can put that stuff behind us and be friends?”

I was silent. At a complete loss for words. Jase finally said “Are you still there? I hope the call didn’t drop, because I really don’t want to have to say all that again.” And he chuckled again. The warmth of his chuckle snapped me back into reality. 

I took a deep breath and said, “Jase… um, thank you. I think I just needed a minute because I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear you say those words until you said them. I really appreciate you saying all that. And yes. Absolutely water under the bridge. It’s actually really nice to talk to reconnect with you and find out we have so much in common.”

He said, “You know, we always were more alike than either of us probably wanted to admit. I guess it’s even more obvious now. We could practically be brothers or twins or something. Well, except for the part about you liking dudes.”

And we laughed together at that.

Jase said, “Alright, I see the headlights in the driveway. Let’s stay in touch. And Cal Poly isn’t that far from SF. Maybe we can meet up sometime. You could meet the family or something someday.”

“I’d love that. Let’s keep in touch and figure it out.”

I ended the call with the biggest grin on my face. My high school rival had just become my friend. 

Over the next year or so, time passed quickly but we texted from time to time. We also commented on each other’s social media posts regularly. Which is how Jase saw my post about being single again in early 2016. He sent a supportive text message saying, “Hey man, sorry to hear about things ending with Darren. I hope you’re hanging in there. I’m here if you need anything.” 

But it wasn’t until November of that year that we talked on the phone again. It was election night. Things weren’t looking good for Hillary Clinton. Everyone I knew was in a shell-shocked state of disbelief. None of us could sleep as we were glued to the news channels watching the states update their electoral votes. Then the race was called and Clinton conceded. My phone rang. It was Jase.

“Can you even believe it, man? What the actual fuck is happening right now? Are you doing ok?”

I wasn’t, but I replied, “I think I’m ok. Just in shock. You?”

He said, “The wife and kids went to bed. They were freaked out but I don’t think they worry about it the same way I do.”

So we talked for two more hours as we watched the map on CNN get redder and redder. We talked about life, our fears and hopes, escape plans if the Nazis took over, and more. Finally, after hours of chatting, at 3am Jase said, “It’s late man. I should try to sleep. But I’m curious. I have a question for you. My wife and kids are going to be out of town next weekend. Would you be interested in meeting up for a hike? There’s this hike in the Redwoods, about 3 hours north of you and I feel like some time in nature would help me forget about this whole mess.”

My heart skipped a beat. I hadn’t had someone invite me on a hike in ages. My gay friends invited me to clubs. The last thing I wanted to do as the world burned was dance in a dark club. I said, “Yes. I’d love to go hiking with you. That’s literally exactly what I need right now. Get some sleep and we’ll text to figure out all the details over the next few days.”

“Great, man. Sleep well. We’ll get through this shit show. ‘Night.”

“Night,” I said as I put the phone down and laid my head on the pillow filled with a mix of dread and excitement, As I desperately hoped for sleep to wash away that night’s living nightmare.

The Hike

We agree to meet at my place in the city bright and early on a Saturday morning and strike out north. If all went well, we’d be on the Redwood trail by 11am. 

Jase arrives at 8am, and as he gets out of his car, it feels entirely surreal. I still see elements of the 18-year old rival walking toward me. But there is also a new softness in his gait as he approaches my house. I can’t help but gawk a little, even if briefly. He’s my height. Fit for a father of two and professor. Sure, I’d seen the pictures, but in person, he’s even more striking. He’s wearing hiking shorts that reveal his extremely fit runner’s quads and calves. His light sweatshirt over a t-shirt still shows off his broad chest and his toned arms and shoulders. I snap out of my brief reverie, open the door and say “Jase!”

He embraces me with the biggest, warmest hug. He holds us there for a good long moment – years of tension melting away in that embrace. He pulls back and says, “It’s nice to finally see you. It’s weird, you know? I feel like I’m seeing an old friend and meeting a new friend for the first time, all at once. Are you ready to hit the road?”

I say, “I am! Let’s see if we can beat the traffic. We have hours of car ride to talk each other’s ears off.”

We stash our hiking backpacks, filled with sandwiches, water, snacks, and layers of clothing, in the trunk of his car and we head out.

It turns out the three-hour car ride was ambitious. We hit traffic an hour north of the city, as the 9am breakfast crowds and other weekend adventurers set out for the day. Which means that we have plenty more time to chat. The conversation on this mini-road trip is just like the last two times we’d chatted on the phone. So natural. So effortless. And we seem agree on everything. We constantly laugh at how one of us brings up a topic he likes and the other says, “Me too!” We really do have so much in common. Except, as Jase would say, for the “liking dudes” part.

We arrive at the trailhead an hour behind schedule, but we set out on the 5-hour hike all the same. Unlike our chatty car ride, we spend most of the time on the trail in peaceful silence. We both need this dose of nature during this turbulent time in the world. The sounds of the forest, the crisp Fall breeze, the rhythmic and lockstep crunch of our four feet on the damp trail, all fill the void left by our silent vocal cords. What little conversation we do share happens only when we want to point out things to look at along the hike.

We stop for lunch in a meadow about two hours into the hike. It’s 2pm now and the sun is just past its peak; daylight savings time has recently ended. We eat and chat briefly before picking the trail back up. Shortly after we begin walking again, the sky darkens ever so slightly. We look up to see a slight cloud cover roll in. We agree to quicken our pace in case there’s rain coming. And sure enough, with about thirty minutes left of the hike, the first drops of rain begin falling. We laugh at the fact that neither of us brought rain gear. We trudge forward quickly hoping the rain doesn’t come down any harder, but our hopes are in vain. By the time we reach his car at 5pm it’s dark out and the rain is really coming down. We stash our bags in the trunk, jump in the car, and crank up the heater to warm up our soaked bodies.

“Well, that was unexpected,” I say. “That was not in the forecast!”

“I know, man. I was not prepared for rain at all.”

Back at the road, we have cell service again. Jase futzes with his iPhone. He lets out an exasperated sigh as he informs me, “Google Maps says the traffic is snarled on 101 all the way back to the city. It says it’ll take five hours to get back to your place.”

“We’re fucked!” I say, always being one to enjoy dropping the f-bomb.

He just laughs, “Easy there, buddy. We have options. How flexible are you about getting home tonight?”

I tell him the dog is already at the sitter until tomorrow and I ask what he has in mind.

He offers a solution. “There’s a motel nearby. Let’s go see if they have some rooms. We’re soaked and I’d rather not sit in stop and go traffic for five hours while we’re sopping wet.”

“Sure, why not?” I say. “The rooms are on me since you drove. Worst-case scenario is we can still drive home if there aren’t any rooms.”

The motel is nearby and is one of those two-floor places where the doors open out onto the parking lot. We run from our car through the rain into the reception area and ask if they have two rooms available. 

The elderly woman behind the counter has a faded name tag that reads Delores. Delores says, “Sorry fellas, I can’t help you with two rooms. We only got the one room left. Queen bed. It’s yours if you want it, though.”

I look at Jase. This is totally his call. Sleeping in the same room and same bed with a gay friend is a big deal. “It’s up to you. I’m down if you are.” 

I see him mulling it over in his head. Finally he says to Delores, “We’ll take it. Let’s not drive home in the rain at night.”

I sign the papers and give Delores my credit card. As she hands us the key, she says, “By the way, there’s a pizza place nearby that delivers. That’s about all we got ‘round here that’s gonna brave these roads in the rain. It’s real close though.”

We thank her for the tip, grab the number of the pizza place, and run to our room through the torrential rain. Jase fumbles with the key, desperately trying to get into the dryness of the room. We laugh hysterically as Jase drops the key, further prolonging our exposure to the wet cold downpour.

Finally the door opens and we scramble inside. We find the light switch, and the room is exactly what one would expect. Wood paneling on the walls, a queen bed with a nightstand and lamp on either side, a small dresser with a tv, a tiny table with two chairs, and a bathroom.

“Hey man, it could be worse,” Jase says.

“This will be just fine,” I say. “At least we’re out of the rain. Let’s order a pizza. I’m starving.”

Surprising neither of us, we both agree on the exact type of pizza – an extra large combination with extra pepperoni. As I start to dial the number on my iPhone, Jase says, “I’ll shower first while you order. Is that ok?”

“Sure thing,” I say, as he walks toward the bathroom. While he moves across the 20 feet toward the bathroom, he starts peeling off his drenched sweatshirt and t-shirt, placing them on the dresser to dry. I figure that will be it before he moves into the bathroom to finish undressing. But, to my complete surprise and delight, he takes off his dripping wet hiking shorts too and hangs them on the chair.  I’m still slowly giving the person at the pizza place our order over the phone as I take in his body for the first time since high school. He’s lean and muscular just like he was in high school. He’s hairier now, a thick mat of salt-and-pepper hair covers his chest and thins out as it approaches his tight waist. As he turns around, his wet skin-tight boxer briefs cling to him. I see he still has the runner’s bubble butt that I spied all those years ago in the shower, too.

“Hey. I hope this is ok,” he says as he motions toward his clothes laid out on the dresser. “I left a little room for you to hang your stuff up later too.” He seems unfazed. Like being nearly naked in front of a gay guy is no big deal. It’s probably the locker room mentality all straight guys seem to have. Just bros, friends, buddies, teammates undressing before the showers.

I nod at him as I’m finishing giving the pizza order. “Wow, that’s fast. 15 minutes?! Great, we’re starving. See you soon!”

He’s already in the shower, the door closed and the water running. Almost five minutes later he cracks the door and says, “This water is taking forever to heat up. This might take a minute.”

“Ok, I’ll save some pizza for you if you’re still showering when it arrives.”

The pizza does arrive on time and while Jase is still in the shower. I tip the delivery guy $20 because I’m so thankful for the steaming hot disc of cheese and meat in my hands. I set the box down and dig in. I’m already on my third slice when I finally hear the water stop and Jase emerges. He has one towel wrapped around his waist, but his torso is still covered in water. He’s using a second towel to dry his hair, giving it that perfectly-mussed look, as usual. 

“Whoa whoa whoa, easy there, buddy. You said you’d save some for me,” he says as he sees three slices missing. I just grin with a mouthful of pizza and shrug my shoulders at him.

“How about you go shower now and let me have a crack at this pizza?”

I nod as I shove the last bit of crust in my mouth. I walk into the bathroom, peel the wet clothes from my body, and turn on the shower. The water heats up more quickly after Jase’s first use. And one aspect that is not lacking in this small country motel is its hot water. The water pelts my skin and warms my bones, instantly erasing the chill I’d felt for the last hour or more. My shoulders drop with relief even as my mind races with anticipation and excitement for what’s waiting right outside the bathroom door. I’m in a hotel room with my high school rival. My new friend. My straight friend. Who’s hot as fuck. And we have to share a bed.

Whatever, I’m sure it’s not like that. He’s married with kids and we’re friends now. We’ll get some sleep and get back on the road tomorrow, our friendship becoming even closer from having shared this wild detour in our hiking trip.

I finish my shower, dry off, and wrap a towel around my waist as I enter the bedroom again. He’s already eaten his half of the pizza, leaving me two more slices of my half. He’s sitting upright on the bed, propped up with pillows behind his back, his towel still around his waist. After I drape my sopping wet clothes alongside his on the dresser, I dig back into the pizza.

I sit down on the foot of the bed, scarfing down another slide of pizza, and Jase says, “It feels nice to be warm and dry again. I tried cranking up the heater, but it says it’s on the maximum heat as it is. I hope it gets warm enough to dry our clothes by tomorrow morning.”

I’m eating my last bite of pizza and respond with a half full mouth of cheesy crust and say, “Could stand to be a little warmer, but I guess you take what you get when you’re stuck in the woods.” We both laugh and he looks at his phone.

I ask, “Do you need to call your family to check in? Say goodnight or whatever?”

“Nah, I already texted Jenn with our situation while you were showering. And besides…” he trails off.

“Besides what? Everything ok?”

He hesitates another few seconds, and says, “It’s just. I was going to tell you but it’s weird, you know? I know you’ll probably understand because I think this is pretty normal for gay guys. But this is still new for me, man.”

My mind is imagining a million different scenarios for what comes next. “Ok, I’m listening. You can tell me anything. I won’t judge. Promise.”

“Oh, I know you won’t. That’s why I wanted to tell you at some point. Hm. I guess it was about a year ago. Jenn and I decided to be poly and open up.” He must have noticed my eyebrows hit the ceiling with surprise. “With some rules of course. We’ve only played apart twice so far. We choose a weekend every few months, we send the kids away to my parents’ house for the weekend, and we make plans with someone we trust and approve of, for a play date.”

I’m shocked but impressed. “First of all, thanks for sharing that. And you’re right. That’s a big thing to share, so I'm really glad you felt like you could confide in me. But I have to ask, why are you out here with me instead of with your lady lover friend?”

He laughs. “Lady lover friend? Is that what you gay guys call your fuck buddies?” We both laugh as I shrug my shoulders. He continues, “To be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it after the whole election thing. The woman I’ve had sex with twice so far is great. She’s sexy and understands the arrangement. She hasn’t once tried to ask for more and doesn’t make things weird in between. The sex is amazing. My wife knows about her. And I know about the woman my wife is having sex with too.”

My eyebrows shoot to the sky for a second time. “Really? Your wife and you both have women lovers. This is wild. Also, I can actually relate. My last boyfriend and I were open on occasion with some rules – similar but different to your rules. I’m just impressed, is all. I only have a few straight friends who are poly. Are you enjoying it? Are you handling it all pretty well? Sorry, that’s a lot of questions.”

Jase says, “I think I’m good with it. It was Jenn’s idea at first. She said she’d always had bisexual curiosities and she wanted to explore them. We talked about it a lot. It took some getting used to but I also wanted to make her happy. And not going to lie, I was secretly excited about my own opportunities too.”

I crawl up next to him on the bed, sitting side by side, propped up against the headboard. I’m looking eye to eye with this handsome high school rival of mine who has a far more interesting life than I could have ever imagined. We talk for another hour, mostly me asking him questions about the poly dynamic. I pepper in some observations from my own experiment with being open too. This turns out to be yet another thing we share and have nearly identical views on.

At this point it’s 8pm. I can see him stifling some yawns between his answers to my questions. I say, “Hey, it’s getting late. Or, well, it’s late for you. You got up so early to make up to San Francisco by 8am. Want to turn the lights out and get some sleep? We can talk about this tons more on the drive back tomorrow.”

He smiles and nods, “You’re right. I am getting tired. Let’s save the rest for tomorrow.”

He swings his legs over the side of the bed and pulls his damp towel off as he slides under the covers. He looks at me as I stare quizzically. “What?” he says. We can’t sleep in wet towels and our clothes are still soaked.”

“Okay, okay. I’m just trying to take my cues from you. I’ll be a gentleman, I promise.”

We share a chuckle as I pull a similar maneuver as his, ending up under the covers naked. He reaches for his lamp and I mimic the move. “Lights out,” I say.

“Sleep well, man.”

We lay there on our backs respecting each other’s side of the bed. A queen bed doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for two 6’2 guys with some width to their frames. He turns to face away from me, and I can’t help but think of his bare bubble butt facing me. I wonder if it’s hairy like his chest. My mind is torn between a state of excitement about a hot, naked dad in the bed next to me, and being chill and not wanting to do anything to ruin this new friendship on our first adventure together.

Eventually our eyes adjust to the darkness. The glow of red light from the “no vacancy” light outside dimly permeates the room. I can’t sleep. I’ve always been like this. When I have so much on my mind, I can’t turn it off. Even when my body is completely fatigued like it is tonight after our hike. I look at my phone for the time. It’s 9:57pm and I’m still wide awake with no prospect of sleep in sight.

Jase has been turning from his side to his back periodically. But I can’t tell if he’s just a really quiet sleeper or if he’s secretly struggling with sleep too.

And then it happens. As he turns from his side to his back again, this time his hand brushes my butt just a little longer than it should have to be an accident. I’m facing away from him and my eyes flash wide open. Is that what I think it was? Did he just intentionally touch my butt? I mean it’s a nice butt – I have decades of squats to thank for that. But he’s straight. C’mon, think! If he meant to touch it, then he’s waiting for me to make a move to reciprocate. If it was an accident, and I initiate something, it could freak him out. Or maybe he really is asleep. Fuck it. I roll over on my back, and let my right hand touch his left hand, which he’d clearly left on “my side” of the bed. Our pinky fingers and ring fingers are overlapping, touching. I wait for a sign. And wait some more.

Then I get the signal I was hoping for. His pinky finger wiggles a little. My brain breathes a silent sigh of relief. This is it. So I wiggle my fingers just a little in return. With that, Jase starts to move his hand more fully. I assume it’s to pull back completely. But what he does next surprises me. Jase puts his hand fully underneath mine and wraps his fingers in mind. He’s holding my hand! Warm electric energy runs from my fingertips, up my arm, to my chest. I’m exhilarated. He has just given me a hint, but I realize that he might need me to take the lead a little.

So I start slowly. Gently.

First I slowly pivot my body so I’m on my side facing him. I haven't let go of his hand. And then I wait. Once this new position feels comfortable for us, I slowly move my other arm toward him, placing my left hand on his hairy chest. I wait for a reaction. Finally, he inhales and exhales with a deep sigh that speaks volumes. 

I say quietly, just above a whisper, “Is this ok? Are you ok?”

I hear his head brushing on the pillowcase as he nods and says, “Yeah. I think so.”

I begin massaging his tight chest muscles. His heart is beating faster, pulsing so hard I can feel it through his chest. He starts to turn toward me, moving his face to mine.

I put my finger on his lips and say, “First things first. Is this ok? You know, with your poly rules? I don’t want to be a homewrecker.”

I feel his lips tighten into a smile. “Yeah. This is ok. In fact, a few months ago Jenn asked me if I like you ‘like that.’ Ever since we had our first phone call she says all I ever do is talk about you. Jenn says she’s happy to see me so excited about someone else.”

“I guess we have the green light then. Have you ever done stuff with a guy?”

Now with our faces inches apart, I can see him shake his head no in the faint red light of the room. He asks, “Is that ok?” 

I just nod, move my finger away from his mouth, and bring my lips to his. I leave our lips pressed together, mouths closed, to savor the moment for a long moment. My beard brushes against his three-day scruff. His lips are softer than I expected. Then I open my lips and go in for another kiss. He matches my moves and opens his mouth too. Our tongues cautiously cross into each other’s mouths and when they touch it feels like lightning strikes. By the reaction of his (body slightly convulsing, I know he feels it too.

We kiss more, slowly at first, tongues exploring each other. I bring my hand behind his head and begin slowly massaging the back of his neck and head as we kiss. He must like this because he lets a weak moan escape his mouth and echo into mine. 

He seems more comfortable with what’s happening, as he suddenly grabs my head with both of his hands and starts kissing me with abandon. Intense, fast, tongues everywhere. His body seems to be going into autopilot and taking something that it has wanted for far too long. I’m matching his pace and actions with equal intensity. He’s a phenomenal kisser. I can’t help but think how lucky his wife is to have a husband who kisses with such passion. 

We rise to our knees on the bed, lips locked and hands roaming all over our upper bodies. His flesh is searing hot, releasing all that pent-up desire. I want more but I’m still torn about being too forward. I want him to give me another sign. And he does. He takes my hand in his and moves it down his stomach toward his crotch. “Touch it.”

His wish is my command. I reach my hand out in the darkness and grasp his dick. And exactly as I’d suspected all those years before, it’s huge. I can’t see it clearly, but by this point in my life as a gay man, I can tell a big dick when I feel one. This thing is a monster. It’s so thick that my hand doesn’t fully reach around it. And it’s harder than rebar, which tells me that he’s very into what’s happening right now. So I slowly begin to stroke from the base to the head. When I reach the head, his body shudders and buckles a little. I pull my lips from his long enough to spit in my hand, lubricating it with my saliva, and placing it back around his massive cock.

He sighs and quivers as my lubricated hand begins to jerk him off in earnest now. His hips buck and thrust as he fucks my hand around his dick. We keep our lips locked as I alternate using my hand slowly and quickly, base to head. Suddenly he stops. Pulls back from my face and hand abruptly, and says, “Will you… uh…suck it?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” I teasingly reply. 

I push him back onto the so he’s laying down with his head propped on the pillow. I reach over and turn the lamp on.

“Is this ok? It might be more fun for you if you can see your dick disappear in my mouth.” The smirk on his face is the answer I need. 

I arrange my body and lower my face to his crotch. With the lights on I can see his dick in its full glory. It truly is remarkable. The glimpse I caught in high school was absolutely an accurate depiction of the giant member standing upright in front of me now. I reach my tongue out and lick the tip of his head. He gasps. This is going to be fun.

I lower my mouth over just the tip and close my lips, leaving them there as I swirl my tongue briefly around. I look up at him, the tip of his dick in my mouth, As our eyes make contact, his dick twitches. Ok, so he likes seeing me take his cock inside of me. Good.

I lower my mouth further down his shaft, then back up. I could take more, but I want to pace myself. Or rather, I’m pacing him. I want him to feel the anticipation and full range of sensations of a proper blowjob. I pick up the pace a little, taking about six inches into my mouth of what must be an almost nine inch Goliath. The head of his dick has swelled so big with all this excitement that I start to doubt if I’ll ever be able to get it fully down my throat. But I commit myself to it, knowing this is what he needs. So I inhale and punch my face downward. His fat head catches on my uvula and tonsils at first, but I persist and consciously push away my gag reflex. And just like that, it slides deeper into my throat. As my nose buries itself in his pubes and my chin rests on his heavy balls, he lets out a loud groan. I lift back up gagging a little, gasping for air.

With deep-throating tears in my eyes I look at him and grin as I ask, “Did you like that?”

He looks amazed, shocked, bewildered, and in ecstasy all at once. He reaches up to wipe the tears away and says, “Oh man, Yeah I liked it. A lot. Can you do it again?”

I respond by moving my head back down toward the tower below me, granting his wish. I deep-throat him over and over. Saliva coating his dick and pooling around the base. I do this for a few more minutes – as long as my poor throat can take it. Finally, I need air and a break from the pummeling my throat is taking.

I lift my mouth off his dick and move up to kiss him deep. The taste of his dick is all over my lips and beard. He seems to enjoy it as I feel his dick throb again in my hand as we share the taste of my saliva and his precum.

We stop kissing and just stare at each other. Electricity sparking between every part of our bodies. He finally looks down at my dick. I’m harder than I may have ever been in my entire life. And, while I’m about an inch shorter than him, I’m still pretty sizable.

He grins a devilish grin, and I respond with an inquisitive look. “What’s that look about?”

He says, “I think I finally found one thing where I’m finally the winner! My dick is bigger than yours.”

I let out a huge laugh and say, “Ok, wise guy. I guess you’re right. It only took 20 years and getting me naked to finally beat me at something. But who’s really winning here? Look at you. I’m the lucky guy who gets to suck this giant dick on a sexy fucking man.”

“You could do more than suck it, you know?”

I stop slow-stroking his dick. “What do you mean? I’m no expert here, but wouldn’t you have some safe sex rules or something? Did you bring a condom?”

He grins. “I think I’m about to surprise you again. Jenn and I really researched this stuff when she first brought up the poly idea. We learned about PrEP and so now I take it in advance of our play dates. Are you on PrEP too?”

As he predicted, I sat there staring at him in utter disbelief. This is not at all what I expected when I agreed to go on a hike with my old high school rival.

“Yeah, I’m on PrEP. Do you think your wife is going to be ok with you putting your dick in a guy’s butt, though?”

“I think she’s going to love it. But I want it too. I want to be inside of you.”

There is nothing hotter Jase could have said to me at that moment. I kiss him hard and deep, my tongue and his tongue doing battle in an effort to express our desires. I pull back and return my mouth to his pulsating dick, doing my best to repeat my deep-throating magic from before. My saliva begins gushing again, lubricating his dick.

I jerk my head up and say, “That should do the trick.”

I crawl up toward him and straddle his hips with my legs. I can feel his dick desperately seeking its target. But he’s new to this and needs some guidance. I spit on my hand, reach behind myself, lube up my hole, and lean back ever so slowly. I can feel the glistening head of dick touch the lips of my hole. Thankfully, I’m pretty well versed when it comes to riding big dicks. I should be able to take his impressive member with spit only. At least for a little while.

As his head pierces the outer ring of my hole, I let out a moan. His eyes stare at me intently with a mix of curiosity and anxiety. I just smile down at him and nod empathically telling him, “it’ll be ok, I’ve got you.” After a minute of teasing his head with my ass lips, I push all my body weight downward and engulf the entirety of his giant cock. His eyes bulge. My eyes bulge. For different reasons and the same reasons all at once. It’s a lot for me to take. Especially without proper lube. But I’m not giving up. We both want this. We both need this. So I slowly lift my body up all the way so just the tip is in me and fall back downward in one rapid movement. As I bottom out and feel his balls against my tight glutes, he lets out a guttural, feral moan. I know he’s feeling every bit as connected to me as I feel to him.

I ride him a little more slowly and reach my face down to his for a deep kiss. He begins to whimper into my mouth, clearly letting all his inhibitions go as he gives himself fully to this act he’s been wanting for so long.

Riding him and kissing him blurs into an endless loop. Time has no meaning. He’s so deep inside me that our bodies feel like they’ve become one. After what feels like an eternity in this perfect place, I pull my face back from his and lean my body fully back as I grind on this giant piece of my friend, impaling myself on it to my very core.

And then, without any hesitation, he reaches for my dick that has been creating a slick puddle of precum on his tight, hairy belly. I look back down at him and moan. He grins, clearly enjoying that he has found a way to make me groan too. As he has my dick in his hand, he also takes control of the action and starts thrusting up into me. We meet in the middle, my downward thrusts and his upward thrusts making loud slapping noises that echo off the wood paneling. He’s a goddamn natural at this. His instincts are kicking in and he’s taking more and more control. He’s taking what he wants: me and my hole.

His hand on my dick starts to feel too good. So, I reach for his hand and say, “I’m getting close. Be careful.”

He brushes my hand away and says, “Good. I’m close, too. Can I… cum in you?”

“Fuck yes, please. Cum deep in me.”

This is clearly what he was hoping to hear. He thrusts into me with abandon, never letting go of my dick. I’m moaning and grinding, he’s thrusting and jerking. For a second time we get lost in what seems like an endless loop of pure magnetic hedonism. 

Then I feel it. He feels it. Our dicks swell in unison – mine in his hand, his in my hole. We both know it’s coming. That moment where you just know it’s close and unavoidable. We quicken our pace and our intensity of thrusting and jerking. And then… everything just explodes. Our dicks, our bodies, our minds.

I grind down onto him hard and squeeze my sphincter tight as my dick unloads rope after white gooey rope of cum onto his chest. His head is thrown back, eyes shut, grunting and panting gutturally. I feel his fat dick pulse over and over again, his huge load starting to drip out of me, down around his dick and onto his balls. I pull his head back up, his face to mine, and I kiss him as our dicks convulse their final geysers of cum.

I  press my forehead against his. We stay in that position, heaving, catching our breath. His dick softening inside of me, mine resting on his cum-soaked hairy abdomen. After our heart rates return to a somewhat normal pace, I lift my head and he lifts his. We stare at each other for a long time. I scan his face for any sign of post-nut clarity, fight or flight, paranoia, regret, etc. I sense nothing but contentment in his droopy, fuck-drunk eyes.

Even with his dick semi-hard, it doesn’t fully slide out of me on its own. It’s too big. So I climb up and off of it. As I do, the rest of his pool of cum exits along with it. There’s so much I can hardly believe it. I shot a big load, but I think his load was even bigger. It doesn’t matter though. All things considered, I’m pretty sure I think I ended up the winner of this rivalry.

Epilogue

We grab a towel and clean ourselves up enough to crawl back into bed. It’s almost midnight at this point and we finally feel the waves of exhaustion sweep over our bodies. We’re side by side holding hands, and I have a million questions. But I think better of it. He’s happy. I’m happy. Let that be enough. But as if he could read my mind, Jase moves closer and lays his head on my chest. Feeling deeply connected to my friend, I nod off.

When we wake, we’re cuddled together for warmth in the not-quite-warm-enough room. Oddly enough I’m the big spoon and he's the little spoon. He has both of my arms pulled tight and wrapped around him. His entire body is pressed into mine, including his perfect bubble butt into my very hard dick. The thought crosses my mind of initiating round two, but I think better of it. Last night was enough intensity to last a lifetime. And maybe he’s not ready to bottom yet. So I just grind slowly into him as I start kissing his neck. I hear him let out a sleepy yawn as his body tenses and shivers into wakefulness.

We get up together admiring each other’s bodies and rock hard morning wood. He pulls me toward the shower with him and we make out while the shower takes its time heating up. Then we climb into the shower together, kissing and jerking each other off. We both want more but we both know there’s plenty of time for more in the future. We wash the mixture of dried sweat and cum off each other’s bodies and enjoy our hard dicks pressed up against our bodies.

Out of the shower, our clothes are finally dry, so we climb back into our hiking attire. The rain has stopped so we pile into the car and head to a diner for a quick bite before the drive home. We grin and stare at each other over eggs, bacon, and coffee.

On the ride home we mostly sit quietly. About half way home, Jase asks, “Was I ok? Was that good for a first time fucking a guy?”

I turn my head dramatically and say, “If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were lying about that being your first time. You were amazing. Top ten… no, top five experiences of my lifetime. And your dick… I may never stop thinking about your dick until the last day of my life.”

He’s blushing. “Thanks. I don’t know if you could tell, but I’ve wanted that for a long time. I think I wanted it even in high school but didn’t realize it then. You were so cute and I hated you. But I think it was just easier to feel competitive and angry at you than it was to feel attracted to you. Anyway, last night was really special for me.”

Now I’m blushing. “We’re totally on the same page. And just to be clear, I’m no home wrecker. Just like your other play friend, I won’t be weird or cause drama. I want you to know that.”

He smiles, “I know. It’s why Jenn and I agreed that if this did happen it would be ok. We both trust you.”

“Wait a minute!” Now I’m curious. “Did you plan this?” I laugh at the thought of him planning out our trip and running late and needing a motel.

He stammers out an answer, “No! No, not at all. It’s just that Jenn knows shit and she said if the opportunity ever arose between us, that it would be allowed. I laughed it off at first, but I think she saw something I wasn’t quite yet ready to admit to myself. Anyway, I know you won’t cause drama. But I was wondering. Do you think…” He trails off again.

“Yes.” I answer, not fully knowing the question. “But go on. What were you going to ask?”

“Well, I was wondering if you would, uh, be interested in doing this again the next time we have our open weekend. I really want more of you when it’s allowed.”

As my face erupts into a smile I answer definitively, “Absolutely.” 

[raisinchallah]

this math class is already turning me into the joker trying to do a basic skills test before i start the class and if i dont finish i get kicked from the class but im experiencing the most deranged sleep deprivation known to man right now and literally cannot put basic words or concepts together right now so its like a struggle anyways its like literally basic functions you know algebra for babies and i who havent taken an algebra class in 10 years click on the stupid video explanation to try and get clarification to see im not going about things wrong and do actually know what im supposed to be doing and you wanna know what the fucking video is about............ plugging the functions into your graphing calculator so it does it for you but one my graphing calculator has succumbed to battery rot and is lying in a shallow grave because its been 10 years since i took algebra and two we arent even allowed to use ur own graphing calculators ur just supposed to use the shitty little calculator widget in the online class thing that does not appear to have those functions and THREE the reason i have forgotten so much of my old math knowledge compared to my father who still remembers basic trigonometry 40+ years later is because of treating the calculator as the magic box that spits numbers out and not explaining how anything fucking works or the underlying principals and FOUR THE FACT THIS IS OBFUSCATING THE FACT ITS LITERALLY JUST A BASIC BABY ARITHMETIC PROBLEM ANYONE CAN SOLVE IF THEY KNOW WHAT EXPONENTS ARE but i am currently unable to solve as my brain has turned to liquid but i know conceptually how to solve them well i am kind of mad about it

[piece-of-the-pie-if]

Could I ask a prompt question? If not please just ignore this! I borrowed the bonus word for word from another blog so thank you to that anon lol 🩷

"📚 BOOKS - how were they at school? what is their best subject? what is their worst subject? do they have a favourite subject? BONUS: which clique do they fall under/are they in?"

Much thanks in advance

this was fun to think about, and very relevant!!

+little run down of the teachers and their subjects: professor bhart(history), mr thorp(math stats&trig), mrs halberd(math algebra), professor kiernan (chemistry), mr gigandet(p.e), mrs gigandet(p.e.), miss friek(physics), mr willingham(biology), professor lewis(social studies), mrs okoye(calculus), mr davidson(geometry), miss joubert(languages deutch&french), mr allon(language spanish&latin), mr cosi(languages german), mrs liao(language mandarin chinese), miss elphard(economics), mr dain(civics), mr darren(geography), mrs pollock(psychology) and professor grupnin(i.c.t). there are others too but... this is already long.

+let me know if you guys want to know more about the teaching faculty!

It's safe to say Dylan isn't the best at school, it's not that they don't like school or don't do the work──they just have different priorities that take president over studious things like math and science... Dylan's favourite subject will always be art and it's not just because it's the only subject they excel in──art being a creative outlet for them to channel their feelings into let's them be so laid-back and easygoing with the rest of their life, art is truly an escape and a paradise to them. Their worst subjects usually depend on what exactly is being taught... they're not bad at math but they're not good at algebra or trigonometry... they're not good at history but they know so much about the renaissance era. Their teachers usually affect their focus is class, teachers like Professor Bharti and Mr Willingham make it so engaging Dyl has no choice but the pay attention where as Mr Thorp or Miss Friek are not engaging at all and Dylan has to push themselves not to fall asleep in class!

Shay is kind of a difficult one to place. He's new, completely new to the American school system. Back in England he was fairly average, maybe above average in a few classes, but he's kind of been shoved in at the deep end right now. Technically Shay is overall good at academics, basics like math and the sciences he's got down, the subjective ones like history and english, not so much──he's got to relearn and catch up to a whole different curriculum which is hard! So I think it's a little harsh to call him bad at any subject... it's p.e. it's always been p.e──he's built like a bean sprout, a string bean. There's no stamina in those lungs, there's no muscle in those arms, he'd rather not crack a rib trying to run 100 feet, thank you very much! Shay's favourite subject is actually I.C.T or computing as the Americans call it, he's very good with the digital stuff! (and Professor Grupnin is so cool it's worth the pain of going through stuff he already knows!)

Kinsley is... Above Average. She has to be, her mother expects it. Her lowest scores are never below a C and she's always firmly in the top 10 of each class overall. She excels is civics/government as well as social studies but her favourite class would have to be art too──and not just because Dylan's there with her! Kinsley isn't particularly good at art but she loves painting, like her mother used to... Her worst subjects are actually the ones where communication and group work is essential, like her language class (mandarin chinese), or english and history because of the group work... Kin isn't the best... team player... but she's not a slouch either! It might take a while busy she does her piece, she can't bring (academic) disappointment to her family's name, you know.

In a shaking turn if events, J is actually the best performing in academics of the ROs! It started as a genuine interest is learning when they were young but was twisted into spite as they grew older and was told they would never amount to much by their father. J doesn't skip classes, especially for no reason, but with their reputation everyone thinks they pay nerds or beat up losers to do their assignments for them... J's teachers have never done anything about those rumours because when sitting tests and exams, J's always had some of the highest marks... there's no cheating off of someone who gets less marks than you... J's favourite class is history, full stop. Mainly because they're not interested in civics (government) or fictional stories (english) or fancy numbers they couldn't give less if a shit about. They like history because it's real, but it's also not at the same time, they like the challenge it brings to their mind, in what they believe history is about and if it's right. They also like p.e... mostly the running but they'd never admit it! (their worst class was government, they dropped it as soon as they could. They get enough politics at home to last them a lifetime!)

Theo tries their best at school, but it's a significant challenge when they're dyslexic. They're earnest in their enjoyment of school, as a shocker their best subject is math, specifically Mrs Okoye's calculus (because Theo is also in pre-calc!), because they're good at numbers, the numbers are straightforward and don't give them a headache just to look at. Their worst subject is probably a mix between the language (spanish) they dropped and psychology (which they're thinking of also dropping)... the big scientific words in psychology hurts their eyes and they always confuse terms, and the prospect of even comprehending english is hard enough let alone spanish! Theo's favourite subject... is the music elective with a non-teacher who comes in to... teach every thursday!

BONUS! What clique do they fall under?

Dylan──the popular by opinion clique, put there because of everyone else simply since they're so friendly and easygoing. If Dyl had to name their own clique they'd probably say something like the chill clique... because that's what they are.

Shay──the new person clique... that's to say he's too new to truly be apart of a 'clique'. Shay is quickly swept up by many different people which confused most others as to where he and his 'allegiances' should lie... He talks to both Dylan and MC daily pulling him into both the popular by association clique and the nobodies and nerds (by association) clique but he's also one of the few friendly with J placing him with the rebel kids and smokers club cliques too... maybe he should be part of the chill clique for being such the social butterfly!

Kinsley──the popular by choice and reputation clique and she's on top, at least from everyone else's perspective. She's powerful, as is her family. She's got connections. People aren't sure if they want to be Kinsley, be with her or be out of her sight! Her reputation is covered in ice, as cold as her stare and as unforgiving as her opinion of you... Though perhaps behind the scenes she's not the one pulling the strings and her facade is beginning to thaw.

J──J is a bit of an enigma at school. They're cool and therefore infamous, popular by default... but they're also scary, untouchable in a different Kinsley and Dylan are, unshakable in a different way that Shay is. Truly the embodiment of the rebel kids clique, part of the smokers clique on account that J is a smoker, not that they're friends with 'the smokers'. People tend to stay away from J simply because they don't know how J will react... some brave souls attempt to enter their circle, create a door in their walls but they're all shit down... Somehow Shay is an automatic exception and now MC is suddenly entering the ring too... it puts people on edge and the rumours we'll, they're flying.

Theo──the nobodies and nerds clique. Even though, like Kinsley, Theo's parents are powerful people they're not one for the spotlight. They trip over their words and are too anxious for they own good──they're perfectly fine living under the judgemental radar until they can get through the hellscape that is high school. That being said... being part of the nobodies part of this clique is a blessing... seeing as they don't get nearly as bullies as the losers clique. Theo often ponders if they're not there because of their parents or because they're not nearly enough of a loser to be worthy of the time to be bullied... (Theo ponders if it's because the nobodies and nerds clique are a group of close knit friends instead of lonesome losers... one person is less if a target they suppose.)