#Why listen to the lesson while u can doodle?

[skai-lly2]

doodles and sketches I drew in school

[strangeradventuresofp]

happy together (five x reader)

requested by : @asphodelshare​  -   omg would u be willing to do a five x reader harry potter au 🥺 like a collection of slytherin!five and ravenclaw!reader cute moments/little scenarios and everyone even the professors can’t deny their chemistry (dumbledore would be a shipper for sure) and just them being known as the badass, real smart, match made in wizard heaven couple 😫❤️

a/n : thank you so much this was so fun to do!! little bit of ooc five but obviously hes gonna be different in a different universe i think anyway. i loved this idea so much cus personally im a ravenclaw so it felt PERFECT but anyway thank u sm for this i hope u enjoy <33333

Everything started on the train. The train to Hogwarts, that is. You said a tender goodbye to your parents before stepping on to the train. You were so focused on waving goodbye to them that you had forgotten all about actually getting a seat, and they were filling up fast. Eventually, you got to this carriage that had only two other people in it, a boy and a girl. and you hesitantly slid the door open.

You cleared your throat. “Do you guys mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full.”

“Of course not.” The girl flashed you a friendly smile and you hummed happily in response, taking your seat beside the window, sat next to the girl. Considering she had actually answered you; you felt a lot more comfortable sitting beside her than the boy, who merely shrugged one of his shoulders when you had asked.

His hair was carefully swiped over and looked as though it was made of silk. When she caught a glimpse of his eyes, they were a piercing blue, the kind that made you squirm under the stare of them. His face was chiseled kindly and he radiated with confidence. It seemed like he put no effort at all into his appearance, but at the same time, it seemed that he put every single effort he had into it. His demeanor seemed rather uppity, like he was too good to even respond to someone who had asked a simple question.

As you studied him, you watched his brows furrow in confusion and you lightly leaned over to read what he was writing down on the piece of paper in front of him.

“Three hundred and sixty-nine, point eight. (369.8)” You answered to the question he didn’t ask. He quickly snapped his head up to look at you and you sat back in your seat, offering him a small smile.

“What?” He spat, his eyes narrowing as he looked over you. You swallowed, moving uncomfortably in your space.

“I—I said, three hundred and sixty-nine point eight. (369.8). That’s the answer, isn’t it?” To your equation.”

His eyes widened in shock as they scanned back over the page he had scribbled over, biting the inside of his lip as you pulled out a book, reading it though you could feel his curious gaze on you.

 Then, there was the sorting ceremony. You were sorted into Ravenclaw, which you knew you was your house anyway. The boy, whose name seemed to be Five, was sorted into Slytherin, and his eyes couldn’t seem to leave you as you tucked into your food.

The start of the year seemed to go on pretty similarly, Five continued to stare at you from afar or even from beside you in some lessons.

 One day, you were feeling particularly rubbish. Your head resonated with pain and the bags under your eyes could not be mistaken for anything other than complete exhaustion. When you sat beside Five for your transfiguration lesson, you had entirely expected him to make some snarky comment, or snicker at the rough sight of you, but instead he simply looked at you, offering a small smile, much like the one you had given him on the train on the first day.

“Are you alright?” He whispered.

You smiled at that, nodding slightly, applying pressure to the centre of your forehead. “Yep. I’m okay.”

“You sure? I could try a spell to fix your headache if you want.” A cheeky smirk spread across his face and you giggled quietly.

“Hm, perhaps it would feel more pleasant than—”

“Mr Hargreeves, Miss L/N. Stop talking.” The teacher glared at the two of you from the front, and the entire class turned to stare at the two of you. A pink blush dusted over your cheeks and you swallowed.

“Sorry, Professor.” The two of you said in sync, keeping your heads down to get on with your work.

Just from that tiny interaction, you were pretty much inseparable from that moment on. The two of you had made a plan of the school, so that whenever you had lessons apart, you would pass each other in the corridors. You would make sure that you sat back to back in the Great Hall, so you could chat at every available opportunity. He would walk past you in potions and steal your ingredients. You would stay late in the library with each other, doing your homework and just talking. Quite quickly, the two of you were the top of every class you had, constantly battling for the very top spot.

 Then there was Christmas. You had planned to go home, but something came up and you simply just couldn’t get home. Your parents were devastated, as were you. But at least you got to spend it with your best friend. Five hadn’t gone home. He hadn’t said much about why and you were hesitant to ask, but you were still glad that you weren’t alone for Christmas.

You skipped into the Great Hall, where he was sat reading a book. When he heard footsteps he looked up, his eyes lighting up when he saw you.

“Y/N! I thought you were going home, what happened?”

“Something came up, and I couldn’t get home.” You shrugged and he frowned, squeezing your hand gently.

“I’m sorry. I know how excited you were.”

“It’s alright. At least I’m not alone.” You flashed him a grin and he chuckled, returning your smile and you took a seat opposite him. “Why aren’t you going home, anyway?”

“Oh, I, uh… I don’t exactly have the best relationship with my family.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“Y/N. It’s okay.” He laughed and you smiled. Your gaze turned downwards onto the table, where your fingers were picking regrettably at the skin around your nails. Five’s brows furrowed together, watching you curiously. “Are you alright?”

“I, uh… I got you something. For Christmas.” His widened slightly, as if he had never received a gift before. You could’ve sworn you saw the slightest hint of a tear in his eye, but he quickly blinked it away, a confused look on his face.

“Why?” His brows knit together in genuine confusion and you didn’t quite know how to respond.

“B—Because I wanted to.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a surprise.” He scoffed at your words and you frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, why would—”

“Five.” Your stern face made his collapse and he sighed, his eyes turning soft.

“I’ve never been given a gift before. And I didn’t get you anything, I didn’t even think about it.” He admitted and your heart simply shattered for him.

“Five, I got you a gift because I wanted to give you one. You’re my best friend. I didn’t get you a gift because I wanted one in return.” You smiled and the edge of his lip turned up slightly. He faked a yawn, grabbing his books and standing.

“I’m pretty tired, I’m gonna get to bed. Goodnight.”

 Christmas morning, you made your way to the Slytherin common room, waiting outside like you said you would for Five. After a while of waiting, you sighed. You knew he wasn’t coming. Luckily, you had made chums with a fair few people in Slytherin house, and they gladly let you inside. A frown fell over your face when you saw Five sat by himself, staring into the roaring fire in the center of the common room.

“Five?” You said softly, and his head turned to you. You made your way over to him, sitting beside him. “If you don’t want it, I won’t give it to you. If it’s too weird.”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do, what I’m supposed to do.”

“You don’t have to do anything.” You smiled. “Tell you what, I’ll give it to you, you can put it n your bed now, until later. You don’t have to open it in front of anyone else. Okay?” He nodded and you smiled. Handing him the parcel that you had neatly wrapped.

That night, Five stared at the present lingering on the edge of his bed with hesitance. His arm kept stretching out to then and then pulling itself back in again, but eventually he ripped off the paper, feeling awful that you had probably spent so long making it look nice, but he wasn’t too bothered. What lay inside the paper, however, had Five bubbling with excitement. There was a notebook, a book and a small envelope. The book was all about time travel, something Five had shown a frequent interest in. The notebook was completely blank, save from a little doodle that you had drawn in on the back of the cover. It was a doodle of the two of you, of him not being able to stop reading the book you bought him and you getting angry that he wouldn’t listen to you. He opened the envelope. Its contents contained a little letter you had wrote, explaining how grateful and happy you were being his best friend and taped to the back of the letter was a small polaroid photograph of both of you, that took not too long ago at all.

Five had not noticed the stray tears of appreciation falling down his face until one landed on the note he was holding, and he gasped, swiping his tears and blowing on the paper to dry it out. He didn’t know why, but he felt comfortable being vulnerable around you. He felt comfortable showing his emotions, he had felt it from the very first time you had met. Something in his heart told him you were a good person and you wouldn’t leave him.

 The next three years carried on the very same but what was different in your fourth year was the Triwizard Tournament. You planned on asking Five to the Yule Ball, or rather you hoped he would ask you, but when he did nothing of the sort, you decided to start dropping hints yourself.

“I got my dress for the Ball. Have you got your dress robes yet?”

“Y/N, I’m not going to the stupid ball!” He snapped, completely unnecessarily rudely. You sighed, clearing your books off of the desk before clutching them to your chest, walking back to your common room without a word. It was at that moment when a boy from your own house decided to ask you to the ball, and you gladly agreed, your heart burning with excitement that you would actually get to go. You would much rather go with Five though. Your heart fluttered when you imagined the two of you dressed up, holding hands while you danced together. Years of close friendship had led to you developing deep feelings for him. But regardless of how you felt about him, you were going to the ball, whether he was going to take you or not.

The night finally arrived, and you stood at the top of the stairs before the entrance to the Great Hall. You looked incredible. Five’s eyes landed on you in no time at all, an incredulous look slapped across his face. His jaw dropped to the floor, his eyes scanning every inch of you, his heart thumping vigorously. His face fell when he watched you call out to your date.

“Sorry, Y/N. I said I’d actually go with Allison.” Your date wandered off, hand in hand with another girl and you frowned, tears welling your eyes. Storming away, you swiped angrily at the tears falling from your eyes. All you wanted was a simple dance and a nice evening. Your head fell into your hands as you sat on the steps, hot tears steaming from your eyes. A soft voice called out from behind you and you quickly wiped away the tears on your face, plastering a smile in your face as you turned around.

“Five! I didn’t think you were coming.”

“Are you alright?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” You asked, blinking away the new tears that formed in your eyes, glancing over his frame covered in his dress robes. “You look nice.”

“Y/N, I saw. Are you okay?” A deep sigh left your lips at Five’s words, and he came to sit beside you.

“Yep. I’m perfectly fine. Y’know, I didn’t even wanna go to the dance in the first place.”

“You don’t? Oh, well that’s too bad… I was gonna ask you if you wanted to go with me.” He gently took your hand in both of his, intertwining your fingers and your eyes lit up, receiving a smile from Five.

“Are you serious? I—I thought you didn’t want to—”

“I changed my mind.” He cleared his throat after a while, speaking in a whisper. “You look beautiful.”

Your eyes locked with his as you tilted your head up to his, gently pressing your forehead against his. His eyes flickered between your eyes and your lips and slowly, his face was drawn closer to yours, the temptation and want too huge for him to bear. When his lips found yours, the two of you were in a complete heaven, your lips moving together so generously, at a gentle but steady pace. The hands came up to hold your cheeks, holding your face close to his, both of your hearts racing at a lightening speed while the world around you turned to slow motion.

 When the two of you finally announced to your friends that you were dating, you were met with a sea of ‘finally’s and ‘it’s about time’s. All you would do is chuckle, pressing a gentle kiss to Five’s cheek and he smiled. You were happy. Five was happy. You were happy together.

my masterlist

[mortedeveles]

AHHH that last mha headcanon was amazing tysm! You did great!!♡♡ Could I ask for another one with the same boys? (baku,tenya & izu!) With a crush who draws a lot? Like maybe they doodle while in class and while on break, 'cause they're bored? And the bois get curious because they're ALWAYS drawing while in the middle of class and they space out! Bonus points if the bois check their notebook and there's dumb doodles of them doing/saying something funny and some with little hearts around them. ^^"

thank you!! of course, anon! here you go, I hope you like it! a friendly reminder that my REQUESTS ARE OPEN! feel free to request lovelies! i’m ready to write for whatever you guys have in mind. i have a project coming up in 1-2 weeks and i think you guys will like it 👁️👁️! i’ll be posting the bonuses of model for me soon enough and a new series (not bakuhoe) will be posted as well! so stay tuned for more <3 as always, please leave a like, reblog, follow and/or comment if you enjoyed! support and feedback are ALWAYS welcomed! <3 

PAIRING: IIDA T. X GN!READER, BAKUGOU K. X GN!READER, TODOROKI S. X GN!READER

THEMES: humor, fluff. [HEADCANNONS]

TW: cursing

IIDA, MIDORIYA, KATSUKI, TODOROKI WITH A DOODLER!CRUSH READER

Frankly, school can be quite boring. Even though you're in the hero course and you learn extraordinary things, it doesn't exclude regular civilian subjects such as history, math and so.

When you lose focus in class, you like to redirect your attention to doodling. It's fun, relaxing and effortless- it's also quite time-consuming and you've spaced out of class many times.

When you space out, you lose the function to pay attention to your reality- and ever since the first day you started doodling in class, you never noticed a pair of curious eyes watching you.

IIDA TENYA

Iida Tenya is quite the gentleman. He's also known for being strict and keeping the chaotic class 1A in order- (well, try and fail many times, but he does his best.) During classes with Aizawa, the majority of the classroom is quiet- but he always hears intense scribbling from your seat.

Usually, he does his best to ignore it and focuses on the class but you're his crush- and the fact that he always hears intense scribbling every day is quite concerning. But one day, he can't take it anymore.

It's a hot and sweltering day, it doesn't help that class 1A just finished hero training and even though everyone hit the showers afterward- the classroom is boiling.

Iida's neck is drenched in sweat, Aizawa's flat and tired voice drones on and he hears furious scribbling behind him- it's all giving him a headache.

Slowly, he turns around and stares blankly at you. Your head is lowered, hand sketching in your notebook. Your movements are fluid and bold and your arm is propped lazily on the desk, leaning your head against it.

He feels his nerves calm at the sight. But then he remembers that he's class president- you're not paying attention in class and that is not okay. Iida opens his mouth and delivers a long speech. Tenya is strict- but he's not stupid- he lowers his voice so he won't embarrass you in front of the class.

After his long speech, he expects you to look sullen or simply understand where he's coming from- but instead, you're snickering with a smile.

''I'm sorry, Iida. I just space out of class all the time and I like to doodle,'' there's a playful pout on your lips, a pleading look gleaming in your eyes.

Oh god, how is he supposed to reprimand you when you look so cute and adorable?

His voice is stuck in his throat- there's a flushed expression on his face and it only gets worse when Aizawa's voice booms.

''Iida, if you're done with your important chat with L/N, turn around and pay attention. You're class president, I expect better from you.''

Iida nearly squeaks as he turns around and nods, apologizing several times. Aizawa simply sighs tiredly and resumes the lesson.

After that time, Iida spots you doodling all the time in class. It makes him concerned- do you even pay attention in class? Are your grades failing?

Eventually, he confronts you about and explains his concerns. His face is beet red when he's done, but you simply brush him off with a smile.

Assuring him that your grades and knowledge are in perfect order, you simply doodle a lot in class. After that confrontation, Iida is much more relaxed about the situation, and every time he sees you doodle, there's a soft smile on his lips.

MIDORIYA IZUKU

Midoriya is a very observant person. He has dozens of notebooks dedicated to quirks, Pro Heroes, and so on and while he doesn't write about his friends- he tends to notice several things.

For example, you. Since you began to attend U. A with Izuku, he's noticed that you spend most of your time sketching, doodling god knows what. You've never shown him your artwork.

Another thing he's realized is that when you start doodling- only Aizawa's loud voice or the school bell will snap you out of it. Izuku's tried everything- waving his hands in your face, throwing you paper balls- nothing. It's like you've been sucked out of reality..

Your manners leave him interested, curious to know more. He's sure you're not slacking off in class- he's been in several study sessions with Tsuyu, Iida, Ochaco, Todoroki, and you- you're always on track and usually have a good grasp of the subject.

You rarely share your notes- only with Tsuyu and Iida and occasionally Todoroki.

Midoriya doesn't mind, but it makes him burn with curiosity. So on the next studying session, he decides to come up with a plan.

''Y/N, what did you get on question 43?'' Ochaco asked. She leaned towards said girl and giggled.

Izuku frowned. What was so funny? The brunette's grin grew as she stared down at Y/N's notes, who was stammering and trying to hide their notes from the public view. 

When Ochaco and Y/N rose and said they needed to visit the restroom- Izuku struck. Tsuyu was chatting with Todoroki and Iida had his nose buried in his book- so they didn't notice when he grabbed your notebook.

He flicked through pages, greedily drinking in the sight of your doodles. They were all varied- some flowers, vines, others were small and cute animals- and others were more complex but in the end, doodles. Midoriya froze when he flipped through a page and saw a... peculiar sight. 

In the middle of the page, was a heart. You had doodled several headshots of Izuku, in which some of them he was saying corny or bad jokes, and in others, he was simply smiling. His cheeks burned when he saw the small hearts that you had doodled around him.

When he heard your voice and footsteps approaching the dorm- he quickly dropped your notebook in your spot and tried to act casual. Tsuyu raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing, while Todoroki asked him why his face was burning.

He had refused to answer and remained somewhat silent during the rest of the session, his cheeks red. His heart was soaring with happiness- those doodles only meant one thing- you had feelings for him.

Once the studying session was over, Izuku would pull you aside and confess his feelings. His veins were pumping with confidence- you liked him back!

BAKUGOU KATSUKI 

Ever since you befriended Katsuki, he's noticed that you're a very attentive friend.

That is when you're not in class. You submerge yourself into your notebook with a pencil and nothing else- and pour all your attention into it.

Bakugou thinks it's rather annoying, he's tried to get your attention several times, only to fail miserably.

Today is no exception. Bakugou's ready to pop- dunceface and shitty head have been bothering him all day, stupid Deku gave a speech that made him roll his eyes and he was tired and just wanted to go to bed.

Unfortunately, he found himself stuck in class, listening to Aizawa talk like a damn zombie- trying to grab your attention, but you were too immersed in your doodles.

Irritated, he pressed his sweat hand on your neck and ignited a small spark- not enough to hurt you, but enough to startle you. The effect was immediate. You yelped and snapped your neck upwards, clutching the back of your neck. Everyone stared at you, bewildered. Katsuki grinned, satisfied that he finally got your attention but when you realized it was him- you narrowed your eyes and scowled.

''Bakugou? L/N? What's going on?'' Aizawa asked sharply.

Your scowl deepened. ''Everything is okay, Aizawa-sensei. I apologize.'' Your eyes stayed on Bakugou as you spoke.

Aizawa hummed in response and continued with the lesson. Bakugou bit down on his lip, swallowing a snicker.

After class, you smacked Bakugou on the head, to which he responded with a growl and the two of you engaged in a match of playful fighting, and between snickers and lunges your notebook fell out of your open backpack, loose sheets slipping out. 

Immediately, you jumped back and began to gather them, but Bakugou kneeled down and helped you as well. He froze as he held a loose sheet- there were several sketches of him with different expressions- in some, he was smirking, frowning or screaming- but that wasn't what made him freeze. It was the several little hearts that you had doodled around him.

You nearly shrieked when you saw which paper he was holding and snatched it out of his hands. In a blink of an eye, you had picked everything up and ran away.

Katsuki was puzzled. He stood there for a minute or two, gears shifting in his brain as he processed the situation. Once it finally kicked in, he raced after you and found you sitting in a corner, head buried between your knees.

''Um,'' he cleared his throat awkwardly. ''Hey.'' his voice was gruff and tense.

You groaned and shook your head. ''Go away, Bakugou. I know you don't like me, so just spare me from the harsh rejection.''

''What?'' he furrowed his eyebrows and kneeled to your height. ''What the fuck are you talking about? That's not true.''

Slowly, you raised your head and peered at him, narrowing your eyes with suspicion. ''It's not?''

Bakugou scoffed. ''Of course not. I like you too, dumbass,'' he grumbled the last sentence, feeling his ears and cheeks warm up.

''Oh.'' was all you said. The blonde snickered and pulled you upwards onto your feet.

''C'mon dumbass, I'll walk you home. Gotta keep you safe.''

(bonus extra!)

TODOROKI SHOUTO 

Shoto is clever and can improvise quickly- but he can be quite dense or oblivious at times. He probably wouldn't notice your doodling habits and if he did, he would brush it off. You're just doodling in class, nothing too fancy.

He doesn't understand how far your doodling goes until he asks you to lend him your math notes after class, and you happily oblige.

Shoto spends the rest of the afternoon studying and writing down whatever he missed- all thanks to your notes that were thankfully complete.

Once he was sure he'd done enough studying, Todororki began to flip through your notes idly, appreciating your writing. The more he read, the more he realized that there were doodles...everywhere.

He thought it was quite impressive that you managed to doodle so much in class and your artistic skills were quite impressive. There was a variety of sketches- plants, animals, silly faces but the ones he saw the most, were the ones of him.

Shoto felt a strange flutter whenever he saw one of your doodles that were him. You captured him perfectly and he cracked a grin whenever he saw one in which he was saying a corny or silly joke. It was refreshing.

It made his heart warm, seeing that his crush seemed to be as fond of him as he was of them. I don’t think he’d truly understand why you would draw him several times and instead, would ask you for an explanation. 

The next day, he made sure to thank you for lending him your notes- and for making such beautiful and impressive doodles. 

[rustytrident]

haikyuu boys sitting next to you in class

i miss them sm </3

ch: kuroo tetsuro, oikawa tooru, iwaizumi hajime, bokuto koutarou, hinata shoyou

cw: none

kuroo

this man,,,, he literally has no idea what personal space is. his stuff is definitely on your side but you don't say anything about it cause he's cute (i wouldn't either)

he does it on purpose tho

he actually does a lot of things to purposely annoy you cause he thinks your reactions are hilarious

catch him making fun of you if you stutter or mess up an exercise, or even telling you to be quiet at you when you choke up a laugh at yet another sarcastic comment he made like two seconds ago

but he's a nerd, don't forget that! convince him to help you at chemistry or physics once and you have a tutor for the end of the year

cocky mf

his notes are also not that bad, they're just hurried af so most of his handwriting is just,,, scribbles. u get used to it dw

always has an extra snack for you in his bag cause you tend to forget and he wants you to eat and get your docohaexegonic acid or whatever the fuck he's talking about i wouldn't know

will definitely keep you two from getting in trouble (if you forgot your hw for example, he'll just direct the conversation elsewhere until the teacher forgets about it) cause this man is SO smart ugh i love him

oikawa

he's always, always late, but he manages to be sat right before the bell rings. when you ask him about it, he usually claims he's talented like that or some shit

you know the reason why, though. coffee shops don't open until about 15 minutes before your first class, yet he always seems to walk into the room with his and your favourite drinks on hand

that and his bulky ass keys that are hooked on his finger every morning (they include a volleyball, an alien, a lip balm and a pepper spray keychain on each ring and like one (1) key sksmsksks)

you would expect him to be really talkative in class but he always pays attention in all lessons except from math and physics. he has a personal vendetta against them and you can't make him change his mind no matter what

so math and physics are notes passing time~ he will talk to you about the latest gossip of the school, how much better the volleyball team is from the one they're going against next, how bored he currently is, all that

he always smells so good tho and has the cleanest notes you've ever seen.

however, he will go fucking crazy if you so much as brush over the highlighter ink while it dries down so just,,, don't disrupt him while he indulges in his pinterest fantasy

iwaizumi

will blush if he so much as touches you or your things, especially if it's on accident oml

that OR he will literally use your things all the time (it's not that he doesn't have a pen, it's just that yours writes better)

he has godzilla themed stationary. that's it there's nothing to add here. no, you can't touch it. yes, you can be jealous over how cool he is. he won't take criticism either.

very eager to help you if you're struggling with a paper or something. he ain't the sharpest tool in the shed but he tries his hardest no matter what </33

will very aggressively whisper your name if you stop paying attention or zone off, especially in classes where he knows you have trouble following

usually listens to music during breaks or leaves to go to the other third years' classes

but if he sees you in a bad mood he'll sit next to you until you talk about your feelings for as long as you need. so far you've spent an entire lunch break just venting to him non stop

if he doesn't catch you in class he'll call your name after school and check up on if you're okay before you part ways

bokuto

he's weirdly good at math and will not hesitate to flex his knowledge

super bad in subjects like literature and history, tho. they just don't stimulate his brain enough for him to spend his time on them

so you guys help each other whenever you're stuck on a question, or exchange notes pretty often (pls tell him his notes are good and that he helped you out, he won't stop smiling for the rest of the day)

his favourite sitting position is laying back on his chair, legs sprawled out in front of him and arms either in his pockets or behind his head

usually that's when he zones out the most too, so you have to nudge him in order to keep paying attention in class and fix his posture

every break is filled with him talking to you about volleyball and how good of a wing spiker he is (just smile and nod, he wants your attention and doesn't know how to get it)

will stare at you with huge puppy eyes if you have chapstick, a uniquely scented hand sanitizer or his favourite snack just plain debating whether he should ask you for some or not

but by the time he makes his decision, you've already offered some of it to him, or have an extra just for this occasion

hinata

constantly ask you what's going on, his one braincell is activated only when he plays volleyball pls-

as a result he always copies your notes and answers to the hw cause he didn't do it. you know he didn't, he knows he didn't, boom you're the reason he graduated high school

he is the class clown, though, and does crazy good impressions of every teacher just to make you laugh

you also know everything about his personal life cause he never. shuts. up. you know what suga brought to practice last week, what natsu drew for her school project, what show he watched the night before

like iwaizumi, he has themed stationary, but his are volleyball related. just picture a mikasa ball eraser rolling around on yalls desk at all times

he makes u do tiktok dances during the breaks cause no one will do them with him and he's too shy to go to the second years' floor to do them with nishinoya and tanaka

boy doodles e v e r y w h e r e . it's borderline weird to not see a doodle at the corner of your notebook page at the end of the day

he has to keep his mind occupied and he's not gonna limit his talent just on his papers, ya know?

[latestageyouth]

When you walk away (Nothing more to say)

chapter 2 -  #Pattonisleftoutonceagain

trigger warnings: sympathetic Remus and Deceit, mention of human taxidermy (just one sentence), grave-robbing (no active grave robbing), swearing, dogs, mentions of death but no one actually dies

summary: Just the boyos bonding in an old haunted church (I am sorry Patton stans Patton just would not allow of This Behavior™)

author’s note: uploaded another one! yay! the trigger warnings on this one are wild, I didn’t even realize that haha. Anyways, enjoy!

There was something wet on his face. Virgil scrunched up his eyebrows. The wet seemed to move, it felt kind of harsh on his skin. It was shaped...like a tongue. Virgil shot up, eyes wide. He looked at the spot next to him on the couch, staring at the golden retriever who was still trying to lick him. He moved away from the couch.

He heard someone chuckle behind him, "Good morning, Sunshine," he turned around to be faced with Roman, who was eating eggs at the table.

Virgil opened his mouth to say something, but found himself stuck, as if there was a hand around his throat, but inside.

"Rise and shine," Roman took another bite of his eggs.

Virgil scrambled for his phone. Uncle Emile is gonna kill him. Sure enough, there were 23 messages and missed calls in total. He was soon typing out a response: 'Hey, Em, I'm okay, sorry I scared you, I fell asleep.'

He looked at the smudged number on his forearm and decided to save it. He also texted this number 'Remus? Where did u go? u still in the house?'

He got the response almost immediately. 'no we went to starbucks lmao'

'so u finally woke up lolololololol'

He also sent a picture of Virgil sleeping on the couch.

'so,,,bootiful,,,,,,,so,,puree'

'lmao'

Virgil huffed and began typing: 'ok, I get it, stop spamming me. Also, bring me a caramel latte would u??'

'k'

Virgil looked at the time, 7:23 shining on the screen. He opened Notes, typing out a question for Roman: 'is that ur dog?'

He turned the screen to face Roman, who looked at it and then at the dog eating from his bowl, "Yeah, her name's Princess Stain The Sixth" before Virgil could ask him what the fuck, Roman continued, "Remus named her, we just call her Princess."

Oh, that explains it. Virgil nodded. There was a long silence between the two of them, Virgil looking at Princess while Roman ate his eggs.

"So...you're mute?" at last Roman looked up at the other. Virgil contemplated the answer. He didn't want to explain his condition and answer Roman's questions, and there was not much of a chance that he will ever speak around him. He nodded.

"Ah, sorry about yesterday, there aren't any mute or deaf students in our school. I know that's not an excuse, but still," he took the plate and put it in the sink, "Though I do have one question..." Virgil raised his eyebrows, "Why do you hang out with Remus?"

Virgil began typing, well, actually deleting more than typing: 'I mean, yeah he can be a bit extra, but he's not that bad when you tune out most of the things he says.'

Roman quirked an eyebrow, "'A little bit extra'? I'm sorry, are we talking about the same person? He listed off more gory and effective ways to kill the main characters while we watched the movie. One of which included a detailed process of human taxidermy."

'Okay, he can be really fucking disgusting when he wants, but at least he's not a boring prude.'

Roman shook his head, "Try living with him, after a week you would be crying tears of happiness if he stopped talking."

Virgil stared at him.

"R-right, sorry."

Both looked at the front door as it practically flew open, "Hi bitches! Dee already went to school, but I just couldn't leave you here," Remus walked over to Virgil and handed him a Starbucks cup. He took a sip and scrunched up his face. Pure black coffee, "Oops, sorry, must've gotten them mixed up."

How can you even drink that? Virgil questioned. He wanted an answer to that, but the Latte was more important.

"Okay, so we have a few minutes before the school bell rings, do you need anything?" Roman looked at the clock hanging above the fridge, then at the other two. Virgil shrugged, there wasn't anything he could take. Remus went to his room for his backpack. Virgil got out his phone again, seeing there was 1 unread message from his uncle: 'Alrighty, just make sure that it will not happen again :) love you too, meet me at school <3' Virgil smiled a little at that.

"Okay, that's everything, let's go!" Remus was already out the door, and Virgil ran to catch up to him, Roman just stayed behind them.

They were walking too fast, so Virgil couldn't type without it looking like a bunch of gibberish. Instead, Virgil settled into listening to Remus ramble on and on about that one cute boy in Starbucks with a broken nose, how Damon got almost bit by Princess again, about what time he wants to spray the graffiti in the boy's bathroom...wait what? Virgil tried to forget about the last part. He didn't want to get in trouble on his second day, this school will be different. He's gonna be a good student...well, at least a mediocre one. Yeah, mediocre is good, none of this graffiti business. He hopes Remus won't be offended. It was nice having a friend. Were they even friends? Virgil felt a nudge on his shoulder.

"Dude, you gucci?" Virgil nodded, "So yeah, as I was saying, deodorant doesn't taste that bad."

They departed while going to their lockers. None of their lockers were close to one another, which Virgil thought was a shame, but at least Remus isn't sure which is his. He wouldn't want to open it one day only to find it filled with dead possums or whatever Remus would think of. He caught the sight of Damon talking with one of the girls in his English class. When Damon finally noticed Virgil looking at him, he wasted no time approaching him, ignoring the girl, who eventually scoffed and walked away.

"So, the sleeping beauty finally woke up, huh?" Virgil gave him an unamused look, nudging his head against the direction of the girl. Damon looked back at her, "Oh, Bailey? Don't worry about her, just gossiping," he waved his hand dismissively.

"What are we talking about?" Remus said as he leaned against Virgil's locker.

"Okay, you didn't hear it from me, but Remy was caught fucking with Nate under the social studies hallway's staircase. Again. But, like, I dunno, it's just a rumour after all..." Deceit exaggerated his hand movements for a more dramatic effect.

"Okay, we all know the last part is bullshit. Of course he would get caught, he's such an amateur," they both looked between the three, their eyes landing on Virgil, "...You don't know who Remy is, do you?" Virgil shook his head.

"Remy is the school's professional slacker. He spends all of his nights at concerts and parties, then drinks coffee to try to stay awake, which doesn't work most of the time anyway, so he sleeps a lot in class. If you offer to buy him Starbucks he will do anything for you. He's also a major slut, a cheater. He's utterly disgusting. Don't ever talk to him," the longer Damon talked the more intense his death glare got, but although it was aimed at Virgil, it wasn't aimed at Virgil.

"You're only saying that because he broke up with you," Remus smirked.

At that moment, the glare was averted to Remus and Damon looked more offended than angry, "He absolutely did not! I broke up with him. It was his fault that he was drunk and still thought we were together. I didn't even know he was drunk. It's those godforsaken glasses, he never takes them off. Why the hell does he even wear them?" Damon crossed his arms.

"Maybe he doesn't have eyes..."

Virgil squinted his eyes and let out an exaggerated cough. The couple looked up at him.

"Oooh yeah, sorry, we forgot about you," there wasn't anything malicious behind Remus' words, as far as Virgil could tell.

"Anyways," the two diverted their eyes at Damon, who pointed his finger at Virgil, "You have economics, right?" Virgil nodded, "Great, we too," Damon smirked. At the word 'economics' Remus let out a loud and exaggerated groan. Damon just rolled his eyes, "C'mon, economics isn't that bad when you actually put in effort."

Remus put his face in his hands, "I don't wanna put in effort..." he drew out the last word.

"Nevertheless, we should probably get to class," and so, the three began walking down the halls. When they did get to the classroom, Remus and Damon already sat together and shrugged at Virgil. There were two empty seats. One was next to a sleeping guy with a leather jacket whose coffee was tipped over and slowly trickled on his desk. He assumed that was Remy, no thanks, he'd rather sit next to that cafeteria kid from the other day. As soon as he sat down the stranger beamed at him and began talking. Virgil learned his name was Patton, and that Roman had already told him he was mute, so he was sorry. Virgil accepted the apology. There was just something off about him that Virgil couldn't place a finger on. It wasn't the fact that Patton was too cheery and chatty for his own good or the way he always moved his finger, wiggling them around or playing with a pencil, no, Virgil got his fair share of hyperactive friendly kids who make friends with everyone they see. Patton got quiet when the teacher walked in. Almost...too quiet, if that's a thing. Virgil assumes it is. The kid isn't even paying that much attention, much more focused on doodling flowers and cats in his notebook. Virgil decided to ignore it, he wasn't about to stick his nose up some stranger's business. The only interesting moments in the lesson were when Remy woke up and realized he doesn't even have this class, or when one of the other teenagers disrupted the lesson and Mr. Porter got all red in the face. He let out a sigh when the bell rang. As he was getting up a hand wrapped around his shoulders.

"We're thinking about skipping the rest of the day, you comin'?"

Virgil furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Damon, "Don't act like you actually enjoy school. And before you...type anything, yes, it is only your second day, which means they will most likely let you off with a warning, so even if we get caught, you don't have to worry."

"So, you goin'?" Virgil shook his head. Remus raised his eyebrows, "You sure, emo?" Virgil shook his head again, this time slower.

"Well, skipping it is then," Damon walked out of the class as the other two followed. Virgil didn't complain, but it's not like he could anyways, "Around this time, most of the school hall monitors are at the cafeteria or the classrooms, so we can just walk out. If it's not a bad day that is, but even then it's typically just Oliver, who will let you go if you bribe him. Eight dollars usually does it," they were in the door when they heard a voice behind them and froze.

"Did you think you could just skip without me?"

They turned around to be faced with Roman with crossed arms.

"I mean, yeah, kinda," Remus said.

Roman chuckled, "Just because you are the 'Bad Twin' doesn't mean I am not getting sick of this school. So, how about you let me go with you and I won't tell anyone," he held out his hand. Remus stared at it for a while before spitting on his and shaking Roman's. Really, Roman should know better.

"Deal."

"Great, the twins together. Just what I needed," Damon grumbled, and Virgil couldn't help but nod his head in agreement.

"What do you think you're doing? Also, Roman, how could you?"

"Ah shit, not another one," Damon made an actual physically pained face that that.

"Logan, where's Patton?" Roman looked around.

"In the class, like you all should be," Logan pushed up his glasses.

Remus leaned over to the three, "Let's just keeps walking and pretend we didn't hear him," so, they turned around and walked to the school entrance, ignoring Logan's remarks and shouts as he followed them while the others tried to suppress their giggles, Remus especially. It was about 3 minutes after exiting the school and Logan realized there was no chance he could go back now, gave up, and tagged along. They all talked over where they should go, but Virgil's suggestion of going to the old abandoned church won by a majority vote, which meant that Damon, Remus and Virgil were all for it and Logan and Roman tried to protest but failed. The church was about eight minutes from the school. Neither of them knew why the church was abandoned, or how long it was, but nevertheless, it was pretty cool. Virgil didn't have a lot of time to explore the town, so walking around was refreshing. Well, it would be if it wasn't so damn hot.

"God fucking damn it, how can you walk in a leather jacket in this weather and not sweat?" Damon squinted his eyes at Remus.

"I don't sweat, it's disgusting."

Roman laughed, "So that's disgusting to you? Sweating? Nevermind that, how does that even work? You just don't sweat 'cause you don't want to?" he said with a mocking tone.

Remus gave him a deadpan look, "Yeah. Sweating is disgusting, so I don't do it."

Roman didn't know how to respond to that. Neither did any of them, except for Logan, "Well, there is a condition called anhidrosis, which is a reduced ability or inability to produce sweat. Is it possible that you have that?"

"No, I think I just don't like sweating," Remus shook his head.

"Can we stop talking about sweating and instead focus on the fact that the church is surrounded by a fence?" Damon gestured his hand towards the old church which came into view, "I mean, of course, we can just climb over it, but it has spikes, so..."

"Is there a hole under the fence? Or maybe in it?" Logan pushed his glasses up. Damon looked at him.

"It's iron, try again, sherlock," the group walked closer to the church. Remus was already touching the fence, trying to climb over it while Roman tried to stop him and get him back down. They all looked around when they heard a phone ringing. Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He sighed and put the phone to his ear.

"Yes, Patton?" the other four tried to be as quiet as possible, "Ah, no, I am afraid I'm not at school, I..." Logan looked between all of them, settling at Damon who was mouthing 'You're sick', if Virgil guessed correctly, "I got nauseous, so the teachers made me go home," there is a bit of silence, only a muffled quiet voice coming from the phone that neither of them could decipher, "Yes, I would appreciate. I apologize for making you anxious...Yes, of course. See you after school," he ended the call and put the phone back in his back pocket.

"You didn't mute your phone, are you fucking mental?"

"Remus, shut the fuck up, anyways, do any of you see a gate?" after Damon stopped talking Virgil pointed at Logan. The other four looked at him confused. He gestured for Logan to move, then pointed again. The four looked in the said direction, "Oh, there it is. Does anyone know how to pick locks?"

"I do," said two voices at once. Remus and Logan looked at each other, "To be honest, I am not surprised," Logan said.

"To be honest, I am pleasantly surprised. What else can you do with those hands, nerd?"

"Right, well, Remus, I am sure you have a bobby pin in that monstrosity you call hair," Damon scrunched up his nose.

Remus pulled out two bobby pins out of his bun, "You're just jelly of my long shiny locks."

"That greasy thing hasn't been washed in three years, I am not jealous. Trust me."

Remus and Logan walked over to the lock, "Padlocks are easy to picklock, this should only take a couple seconds," Logan takes on of the bobby pins out of Remus' hand and puts it in the lock. They can't really see what the two are doing, but as promised, they hear the padlock open. Remus throws the padlock away and Loga opens the gate. Remus is the first one to run in, walking to the front door. The rest followed and quickly caught up with him.

The church itself had two large towers on either side. It had a stone structure and the left tower was missing a roof on one side. It had long stained glass windows with a pointed arch, some of the lower ones were broken. The right tower and what had remained of the left had a sharply pointed spire with a cross on top.

"I am assuming this is gothic revival church since an original gothic church would be more broken than this."

"Who cares, let's go inside!" Roman was already opening the door. Surprisingly, the door was open. They stepped inside. The inside was massive. It was long with columns on either side. Instead of the ceiling was a ribbed vault, "Holy shit..." Roman's voice echoed through the church. The crunching of the leaves on the floor echoed as well. Everything echoed.

"Remus, if you scream I swear to god..." Damon glared at the said man. Remus just smiled and shrugged. Then he screamed. After everyone was done covering their ears and the echo slowly fainted, the four began yelling at him and Damon pushed him away, to which Remus just laughed.

They explored the church for a while, which involved Remus mostly hanging off the statues and drawing on the walls with pens, Logan taking pictures and analyzing the interior, Roman standing behind the podium and preaching about Beyonce and Damon and Virgil messing with the organ. After that, they went out in the back where the graveyard was.

"I bet the church was closed down because it was haunted. Do you think someone was killed here?"

Damon looked at Remus, "It's an old abandoned church, of course someone was killed here."

"Do you think there are ghosts?" Roman looked back at the angel statue covered in moss that they passed a while ago.

"Ghosts don't exist."

"Of course they do, specs," Roman spat back.

"Is that so? Do you have any physical proof to back up your statement?"

"No, that's kinda the point of ghosts."

"My dudes, I think I just found a grave robbed grave," they turned to look in Remus' direction. The said man was looming over a seemingly empty grave. When they took a closer look at it they noticed that the casket was opened and almost invisible under the dirt that fell back in the hole. The decomposed remains of the women in it looked terrifying, "That's, like, so cool. I wish that were me."

Virgil didn't think it was cool. Actually, he thought it was revolting and unnerving. The thought of him dying and someone just digging up his corpse to look for something to make money with is disturbing. He stepped away from the grave. He didn't feel safe anymore, instead, it was replaced with an eerie feeling that someone was watching them. He needed to get out of here. He pulled out his phone and began typing. He tapped on Roman's shoulder and the shorter man eventually turned around and read the message, 'u wanna go to dennys? i havent eaten anything all day and im starving'

Roman turned to the others, "Hey, wanna go to Dennys? I am starting to feel kinda hungry."

"Glad you mentioned it, my stomach acids are literally starting to eat me up from the inside," Remus turned around to face the other two.

"Yeah, sure."

"That is satisfactory."

[quinn-firethief]

I’m Really Hurt {5/5}

Quinn can’t find his bow.

Quinn couldn’t find his bow.

He had torn up his dorm looking for it. He retraced his steps. He went up and down all the paths in Ravenwood. He dug up flower pots, he went up and down the path from Ravenwood to his favorite tavern, he asked neighbors, he asked fellow students, he asked teachers—except for Cyrus and Moolinda, he couldn’t even look at them right now without feeling embarrassment and shame—he burst into the Headmaster’s office, he got to the point where he ended up diving into the pond in the Commons, just to see if he could find it at the bottom. Someone from the school newspaper was able to get a picture of him coming out of the pond, sopping wet and frowning intensely, and it was on the front page of the newspaper. Quinn was going to find whoever had done it and burn them.

But some good did come out of that, as he received a note the day the newspaper went out.

Quinn Firethief,

I’ve heard that you’ve been looking for your bow. Have you not thought to come and see if I have it?

— Professor Cyrus

Had it been anything else, Quinn wouldn’t have gone. He would have considered it lost forever and just coped with it, probably bought something else to replace it. But it wasn’t some random hat or some scarf that his father made for him. It was his bow. He loved that bow. It had been given to him when he was ten and had to wait six years before he could even yield it. He would spend so long with it sometimes, cleaning it, changing the string, keeping it in mint condition until the day he got to finally yield it. Even now in his current state, where he drank more than he slept, he kept up with the maintenance that a bow like that needed. After every long quest, he changed the worn-out string. After every battle, he would clean it until the wood shone. Needless to say, he loved that bow. He needed that bow. The day he lost it was the day he hurled himself into the Spiral.

So he swallowed his pride, and after class was done for the day, he went to the Myth school. A few students he passed by snickered, but they all soon stopped when he glared at them as he went by. He knew what it was about; that stupid picture in the newspaper. It was mostly daring freshmen, who didn’t quite understand who he was, what he had done, or what he was going through now. The upperclassmen had the decency to not say anything about it, or laugh about it when he was around at least. God, he couldn’t believe this. He was a Prince, and he was once a great student. And now…

The last students had filtered out of Cyrus’s classroom by the time Quinn got there. When he stepped in, he didn’t see the teacher anywhere. Almost immediately his eyes darted around, looking frantically for his bow. Cyrus wouldn’t have it out on display, if he did, some Myth students in the dorm would have told him by now. Was it in his desk? Quinn hurried down the row between the desks, which were all neatly aligned. He had never really cared to notice before, but now that he was looking so hard for his bow, Quinn could see how neat the Myth classroom was. There was no doodling on the desks, no initials from students pass. No gum from what he could see either, Quinn imagined that Cyrus would never let anything like that in his classroom. The carpet looked like it was freshly cleaned, and the paintings on the walls were lined up neatly. They brightened up the room quite a bit, actually. He wondered who had made them. He lingered by the desk, eyes sweeping over the drawers, and he was about to step behind it and start scavenging for his bow when he heard someone clear their throat. He nearly jumped out of his skin and he quickly turned around.

“I can assure you, Firethief, that I don’t have any room for a bow in my desk.”

Cyrus was standing in the doorway to a back room. Quinn couldn’t see anything past him because of his tall figure, but he didn’t care. His eyes had immediately trained on what was in the teacher’s hands. His bow! Relief flooded through every pore in him and he rushed up to the teacher and held his hands out. Cyrus raised an eyebrow and when he didn’t immediately hand it over, Quinn opted for ripping it out of his hands instead. He cradled it to his chest as he took a few steps back, turning away from him to inspect his bow. He could only imagine the build-up of dust and grim! The string was probably worn down too, he doubted he had encased it right! It would take him hours just to fix...

The bow was in perfect shape. The redwood gleamed and glowed in the same way it did just after a fresh polish. He stared down at it in bewilderment, golden eyes wide and nearly full of wonder as he ran his pointer finger along the edge. When he looked at it, there wasn’t a speck of dirt or dust. He had never really trusted anyone to clean or care for his bow, even if he were wounded he’d be sitting up in bed and taking care of it. Not many people knew how to care for bows, they weren’t a very common weapon in their realms. One wrong brush, one badly misplaced touch, and it could ruin the entire bow.

“Did… Did you…?”

“Clean it? Yes. I’ve handled a few bows in my time, so I’ve had plenty of practice.”

Quinn looked back at him with wide eyes. He looked back down at the bow. “Why?” He finally asked after a long pause.

“Well, it was in need of a clean after it spent all night out in the elements beside my classroom, I’m afraid. I believe I was able to polish out all of the scuff marks, and luckily, no wood was chipped in your… Fall.” Quinn looked at him. Cyrus looked mildly uncomfortable. “Consider it an apology. For causing you harm.”

It took Quinn a moment to realize what he was talking about, and when he did, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable too. “No, it’s… It’s fine. I…” He trailed off and then sighed. He rubbed the back of his head. The cut was gone, now. If he ran his finger along the area for a bit, he might be able to find the smallest scar it had made. But it was nothing to write home about. “I deserved it. What I said… Sober or not, it wasn’t right.”

“Regardless, I should not have laid my hands on you. You’re a student, and I’m a Professor. It was improper. And I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m sorry too.”

Cyrus nodded. He stared at Quinn before he sighed. “When I was trying to help you, you said something rather interesting.” Quinn groaned.

“Listen, I’m a drunk talker, alright? Whatever I said, probably didn’t even make sense—”

“You told me you liked the pain that came after dueling. You said it distracted you.”

Quinn froze. He looked like he had just been caught stealing out of the cookie jar. He stared down at his bow before he pushed it into the quiver on his back. The three arrows he had in there clinked and clanged, welcoming the other piece of them back. “Like I said. That doesn’t even make sense.” Cyrus scoffed.

“Don’t lie to me, boy. You’re horrible at it.” Quinn frowned at him deeply.

“I took a lot of diplomacy classes growing up, I’m a damn good liar,” he growled. Cyrus rolled his eyes.

“You seem to have forgotten your lessons.” Quinn’s cheeks turned a bright red. “I haven’t brought this up to fight with you. I’m merely concerned that you’re going out and putting yourself in danger, simply to have a distraction. I’ve heard you’re still questing.”

“So what if I am? I’m allowed to. I have high marks in all of my classes and a damn good track record!”

“A good track record when you had a team!”

Quinn’s heart dropped. He swallowed and Cyrus sighed. “You are not fit for solo runs, boy. I have seen you fight, I have seen your cards and your deck. You have nearly no healing spells in there!”

“I have that fairy!” Quinn snapped.

“Three whole copies,” Cyrus deadpanned, “I’m sure that carries you through an entire dungeon.” Quinn’s temper flared.

“If you didn’t bring this up to fight with me, then what do you want?!” He shouted. “This is wasting my time! I could be studying right now, or hell, drinking—!”

“I want to mentor you.”

Quinn paused, which wasn’t an easy feat when he was in a rage. He stared at Cyrus. “You want to… what?”

“You have potential, Firethief, and I am tired of watching you drink it all away.” Cyrus stared down at him through the bridge of his long nose. “I want to see you grow, and prosper. I want to help you in any way that I can. I can teach you how to duel, and how to organize your deck better. But I will warn you, I am not an easy teacher, as I’m sure you’ve heard. You won’t be slacking, and if you drink on the day of our training sessions, there won’t be any training that day. If it happens enough times, there still won’t be any training at all. Not to mention, if I do mentor you, there will be no more questing. Not solo at least. Not until you’ve proven yourself. If you take this opportunity, I expect you to earn it.” Quinn stared at him. His eyes dropped away and he looked deep in thought before he suddenly took a deep breath.

“Can you teach me how to fight mind control?” Cyrus stiffened. “And how to free those trapped in mind control?”

Without having to kill them, goes unsaid, but not unheard. It took him a moment to find his voice, and more energy then he would have liked to admit to keeping it steady.

“Those are difficult spells, and they all stem from different branches of Myth magic. You can’t just leap into it.”

“Then I’ll start from the beginning.”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll start from the beginning. I’ll sign up for your school.”

Cyrus stared at him. “Firethief, you’re already studying in Ice and Fire!” Quinn shrugged.

“You already said I won’t be able to quest. That’ll free up a lot of time. I need to feel it with something, and that can either be alcohol, or some more classes. Which do you prefer, Professor?” Cyrus stared at him before he crinkled his nose.

“Very well. Don’t expect me to go easy on you, simply because I’m training you and you have two other schools to master. If you fall behind, it’s your own fault.”

Quinn felt challenged. He hadn’t felt that way in a while. He stood up taller and squared his shoulders before he looked Cyrus right in the eye.

“Trust me. I won’t.”

Quinn Firethief loved a challenge.

[4fates-4dorks]

Jackunzel Month Day 25: High School AU

This is definitely one of my favourites :). I also wrote a one-shot to go with it under the cut. Not sure if I’ll expand it to a full fanfiction yet.

Rapunzel had written a list of goals for the new school year:

Finish the painting in time for Jack’s birthday

Convince the librarian to order new books

Get Jack to wear shoes during winter, or at least thick socks

Try not to miss class more than once a week

The list was written on the inside of the cover of her sketchbook. It was brand new; a present from Jack. She had already covered it with stickers.

It was a sunny day, and her braid thumped against her back as she biked down the street. She passed by kids with backpacks and bright eyes and adults leaning against bus stops smoking. She passed telephone poles with posters stapled to them advertising garage sales and missing kids. She passed by dogs waiting for their owners outside grocery stores and crows fighting over a spilled packet of fries.

When she pulled into school and parked her bike she was greeted with a cheerful “Hey Punzie!” as an arm wrapped around her shoulders. She smiled and kissed Jack on the cheek.

“Hey babe.” Her gaze swept down to his feet and she gasped. “Are you wearing shoes?!”

Jack sighed and shuffled his feet, which were inside a pair of bright yellow converse shoes.

“North bought them and made me put them on. Apparently I get a prize if I can go a month wearing them.”

Judging by his grimace, it was unlikely that he would be getting that prize.

Jack was a beautiful boy with snow-white hair and an aversion to footwear. People didn’t like him. Anyone who looked at him got the sense that there was something...off about what they were seeing. He looked normal, but he looked the furthest thing from it. His skin was too pale, his hands were too cold, and there was something about his eyes.

Rapunzel quite frankly loved the heck out of him, bizarreness and all.

The fifteen minutes before the bell rang were good. They held hands as they walked to their lockers and sat in the library where no one could bother them. But after the bell rang, they had to separate for class.

“See you at lunch,” Jack said.

“Yeah.”

Rapunzel sat down in her Math class. At first, it was okay. People were too preoccupied with catching up with their friends, asking about summer activities and plans for the weekend. Rapunzel was able to focus her attention on the lesson and questions the teacher gave them.

But as the day wore on, the staring started. The whispered comments. The hands shoving her in the hallway and feet trying to trip her. She ducked her head and grit her teeth as the clock ticked closer to noon.

By lunch, Jack was missing his shoes.

“You couldn’t even last the day?” Rapunzel asked.

“No! They’re awful, okay?! I threw them onto some power lines.”

“What about your socks?”

“They’re in my locker.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Y’know, part of pretending to be human includes pretending to be normal.”

“Too boring. Unrealistic. Probably thought up by pretentious old men.”

“Did you go to both your classes?”

“Yeah, yeah. I did.”

“Good.”

Jack was a smart guy, probably the smartest in the school. But that just meant he got so bored. Everything was too slow for him, too dull, not enough fun. Everything had to be fun for him. But they were in high school, so that wasn’t something they were going to find lots of. So, he acted out a lot and got detention. He skipped class when he got bored. North and Rapunzel were trying to keep him in class and out of trouble. Of course, Rapunzel had to try to do the same herself. While Jack skipped class because he was bored, Rapunzel skipped because she was too anxious to be around lots of people. She got in trouble because she read ahead or doodled on her tests and homework.

Yeah, high school sucked.

They found a quiet corner outside to sit and eat lunch. Jack’s daily supply of marshmallows was already half-gone, a sign he had started stress-eating already.

The shining light of the day for Rapunzel came after lunch: art class. The only good thing at high school, minus Jack and the library.

She could sit quietly in the corner and paint or draw and no one would bother her. She could doodle on her homework because that was the homework. The teacher didn’t scold her when she drifted off daydreaming.

Things didn’t stay so good after art class. During English she was able to spare a few minutes to draw in her new sketchbook. After a minute she could feel someone’s eyes on her. A quick look up confirmed it wasn’t the teacher. Rapunzel dropped her gaze back to her paper. She didn’t want to know which of her classmates was judging her this time.

The thing was, Rapunzel couldn’t understand her classmates, and they couldn’t understand her. She suspected this was due to being homeschooled for most of her life (boy it had been an uphill battle to get her mom to agree to a public high school). This resulted in a certain animosity, much like Jack and his being not human.

After class, three girls cornered Rapunzel in the hall and ripped up her sketchbook.

Jack found her huddled in the library, trying to tape it back together again.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You just bought it for me and…”

“Don’t apologize, Punzie. For fuck’s sake, it’s those girls’ fault!” He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Do you want me to go track them down?”

“No, don’t. Please. I’ll just...ignore them. I’ll be fine.”

Jack sighed. “Like always, huh?”

Rapunzel checked out some books to cheer herself up while Jack finished taping up the sketchbook. He held her hand as they walked outside.

“Do you need me to walk with you?” he asked. They lived in opposite directions of the school, and Rapunzel’s mom didn’t let her go out after school or bring friends over.

“No, I’ll be okay. And my mom would be upset.”

Jack made a face but didn’t argue. He kissed her and promised to text her later before he took off running. She smiled and unlocked her bike. Her backpack was heavy with homework and the books she’d checked out.

Unfortunately for her, she found that there had been an accident, and part of the road was closed off. The detour to her house meant she arrived home almost half an hour later than she meant to. Her mother was waiting for her. Her hands clutched at her greying dark hair and she glared at Rapunzel as she approached. She was absolutely furious.

“Do you know how long I have been waiting?!” she shouted. “Where have you been?! You could have been dead for all I knew! How could you worry me like that?! Why can’t you think of anyone but yourself?!”

“I’m sorry, mother. There was—”

“No respect! You have no respect for me! You never listen to me!” Rapunzel shrank back as her mother continued to shout. She waved her arms and jabbed her finger at Rapunzel’s chest. She criticized ever agreeing to her going to a public school. She criticized Jack, calling him a bad influence. Eventually she dragged Rapunzel inside and slammed the door behind her. Rapunzel held her breath and watched as she took a deep breath and smoothed her hair. Finally, in a calmer voice she said “Rapunzel, I’m trying to raise you as best I can! But you have to make an effort as well!”

“I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Her mother smiled and hugged her.

“I know you won’t, dear. But, I do have to ground you for this. Just to your room, and just for tonight. So that this won’t happen again.”

Rapunzel’s heart sank; she had been looking forward to eating supper with her mom and telling her about her day. But she understood and went obediently to her room.

After her mother brought her her supper, she got a text from Jack.

north was pissed abt the shoes. rip me

saw it coming you should have saved them so you could wear them home

punz youre a fuckin genius goddamit

how’s your punishment

no wifi i wasnt done wachng that vine complaton

i’m grounded because I got home late.

o shit what hapend

road was closed mom was really angry i didn’t mean to make her worried i didn’t know it would take me that long

it wasnt even your fault tho!!!

i should have called her to let her know

did you tell her wat happened

i didn’t get a chance

punzie

don’t start she’s just worried about me

k fine u okay

yeah

not lonely?

no

reallly???

okay, a bit and i’m still upset about earlier i couldn’t even make it through the first day without one of them starting something

yeah i almost lost some fngers to a slamed locker door

what!! are you okay!!

yeah im fine

promise

i promise

jack

yeah?

this is unfair why is life this way

let’s drop out

no

:/ you’re no fun

[dw-writes]

Hey!! So I was wondering if you would be okay writing a scenario. About Bakugo, Todoroki, and Shinsou finding out that they all have the same soulmate -fem reader? (with like the writing on skin soulmate au?) Because she takes notes on her left arm and always has doodles of all sorts of flowers and paint smears on her right arm. Even thought they are annoyed they all secretly love her doodles and knowing what she's up to. (1/2)

She’s in the support class (even though her quirk is strong enough to be in 1A) and makes hero outfits and what not but has really poor grades and almost failed the entrance exam because some kids from her middle school bully her so bad that they sabotage her work all the time. She’s picked on because she has villian parents and because she doesn’t want to fight people - with or without her quirk - for no reason, even if they hurt her and because of it has just become really shy and docile (2/3)So the three boys have to figure out how to handle each other after finding out while all trying to impress the reader, maybe also helping her with the assholes? Angst but with a happy ending? I’m so sorry this is so long!! I just had so many little ideas for it 😶 If you don’t like it you can just ignore it, no worries! I’ll still buy you coffee when I can for your other amazing stories! ❤️ (3/3)

NONNIE I LOVE THIS?!?! THIS IS SO SWEET??? Honestly I’m so thrilled that I wrote this for you and I would love to write more for it if you’d like!!! This is gonna be so much fun!! :D I really hope that you enjoy it, really!!

Bakugo had waited far toolong for school to end, rubbing the blue smudge on his bicep as he tried hishardest to pay attention to the lesson. It was pantone color 2925 U, he knewthat much, in the shape of a delicate finger. He’d compared it to his mom’shand one day, just decided out of the blue (groan) to check and see. He glancedacross the room to Todoroki a few seats away. With the short sleeved uniform,Bakugo could see the smudge on Todoroki’s arm: pantone color 2925 U. His smudgewas a little fatter than Bakugo’s. The blonde looked up from Todoroki’s arm tofind the same pensive look on Icy Hot’s face that was probably on his own:confusion.

Bakugo was the first outthe door when the last bell rang. He waited in front of the school, pacing, bagover his shoulder. Todoroki was hovering nearby, leaning against the wall witha heavy sigh. It took too long, almost an hour, but the third member of theirparty finally walked through the front doors of the school: Shinsou Hitoshi.His mark was harder to see, but thicker given what part of the hand it had tobe from; a thumb sized smudge on the inside of his bicep.

Pantone color 2925 U.

Bakugo stomped up to him,making Shinsou stop cold. “We gotta have a talk.”

“This may come as asurprise, but I don’t actually have to listen to you,” Shinsou replied. Hestepped around Bakugo and ran right into a waiting Todoroki.

The boy frowned as heregarded the taller student. “We think we all have a similar interest,”Todoroki said slowly.

Shinsou released a slowsigh. “And what is that?” he asked. Both Todoroki and Bakugo turned their armsout, showing the matching colored finger prints on their biceps. Shinsoufrowned, then shrugged off his bag, then turned his own arm out. “It’s the samecolor,” he murmured.

Bakugo grunted as hedropped his arm, “Yeah. It is. Think it belongs to the same hand.”

Todoroki ran a handthrough his hair. “It must mean we have the same soulmate.”

Shinsou snorted at thatand pushed between the two boys. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Uraraka!”

The three boys glancedtowards the door at the sound. It was a surprise to hear someone this late atschool, but there you stood next to the brown haired heroine, talkinganimatedly about something. Your uniform was a disaster. Actually, you were acomplete disaster. It was almost laughable. Your left arm was completelycovered in ink, be it words, doodles, numbers or notes. Your right arm was acolorful array of paint. Same with your uniform. Uraraka smiled as she steppedthrough the front doors with you. You reached into your bag and stopped almostten feet from the boys, retrieving your hand from the bag.

“Oh no!” you exclaimed.Paint was stuck to your fingers, coated them in a soft blue. You knelt and upturnedyour bag, sending a few other paint covered items across the sidewalk before asquished paint tube fell out after it.

Your fingers drifted toyour right bicep.

“You’ll stain your shirt!”

You looked up at thewords as you rubbed the paint over your bicep. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Shinsouall froze as they stared at the mark. They would recognize that color anywhere:pantone color 2925 U.

Your right hand driftedto the inside of your wrist, to four words that had been there for as long asyou could remember as you stared at the three of them. Uraraka was using herskirt to help clean off some of your things.

Bakugo stalked over anddropped his bag to the ground. “Round face, you’ll stain your skirt,” hegrunted. He picked up the items on the ground and glanced back at Todoroki. “IcyHot, c’mere. Maybe you can help clean these off.”

Uraraka asked if youwould be okay, eyeing Bakugo with distrust as she stood. “If I find out youpicked on her, Bakugo, you’re gonna regret it!”

“What, ya gonna make mefloat to the stratosphere?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Heignored Shinsou as the purple haired boy knelt beside you.

Uraraka stomped her foot.“Yeah. I will. I’ve got a laundry list of bullies to deal with and you’ll be atthe top if you do anything wrong to her!”

“Uraraka, please, I’mokay!” you stuttered. You waved your hands, the paint cracking along your skin.She took your hands in hers. “My classmates just like playing jokes. That’sall. It’s really not a big deal, okay?”

“But it is a big deal.Everyone here is on an equal playing field, it’s not fair that they pick onyou,” she said. She pulled you to your feet and grinned. “If you want, you cancome with me to Gunhead’s gym! We can both teach those bullies what for!”

You declined, all tooaware of the three boys holding your things and watching you. Uraraka squeezedyour hands and leveled each of them with a spine chilling glare. “If I hearanything, you’ll all be sorry. Got it?” When they muttered an agreement, herbubbly smile returned and she left you in their care.

You squirmed as theirstares burned into your back. You turned to them, finding inquisitive stares. “Yes?”

Shinsou was the first tospeak. “You’re in the support class, right?” he asked. You nodded. “I rememberseeing you at the sports festival. You’re really good but you didn’t get far.”

You fidgeted and tookyour things, shoving them back in your ruined bag. “I am, yes. I should gethome, it’s getting late,” you stuttered out.

“You take the train,”Todoroki pointed out. He had started moving after you as you made your way tothe front gates of the school. Bakugo and Shinsou trailed after. “So do we. Howabout we walk together.”

Bakugo shrugged andwalked faster to catch up. “Why not. You can tell us about those bullies RoundFace was talkin’ ‘bout,” he commented.

You shook your head. “It’sokay! Really, I don’t want to cause trouble.”

Shinsou stepped next toyou with a tired smile. He pointed to your wrist, where their first words werecarefully scrawled around it. “You’re stuck with trouble. Sorry,” he said. Youblushed as you rubbed the mark. The ink around it faded but the words stuck. Yoursoulmate mark. “Are you actually getting bullied?” he asked softly.

You made a sound andlooked down, watching your feet. “Kids from my school got in with me…spreadrumors,” you mumbled.

Todoroki squinted at youfrom your right side. His face filled with clarity. “You’re the girl with thevillain parents,” he stated. Your hands curled into fists. “Right?” he asked.

Bakugo growled in frontof you. “Who gives a shit about parents?!” he shouted. He looked back at you. “Yougot into this school based on you. All those fucks can shove it up their assesif they think they’re better just because you drew the short straw on yourfamily!”

“I’m surprised you can benice, Bakugo.”

“The fuck did you say tome, Icy Hot!? We can throw down rightnow.”

“I’ll use my quirk on youboth if you don’t stop fighting with each other…”

You stared at the threeas they argued, their arms catching your attention with the bright blue finger prints.You smiled and waved your hands. “Hey, we’re gonna miss the train if you keepthat up!” you squeaked. They stared at you with a variety of looks. You trappedBakugo’s and Todoroki’s fingers in one hand and Shinsou’s hand in the other andtugged them back. “You can tell me about yourselves on the walk, okay? Withoutfighting?” you asked.

They dragged their feetbut relented as a brilliant smile crossed your face. How could they say no?

[thebrotherhoodofsleep]

Awakening The Zodiac (2017)

Between the murders which took place in the summer of 1968 and the 2007 release of David Fincher’s masterpiece ZODIAC, there were a handful of feature films inspired by the mystique of the still unidentified serial killer known as the Zodiac. This list includes the 1971 releases DIRTY HARRY and THE ZODIAC KILLER, both released to a public still on edge from the relatively recent murders and ongoing missives from the killer, as well as 2007’s CURSE OF THE ZODIAC, a straight-to-video mess that may well have gotten greenlit and rushed into production to confuse audiences looking for Fincher’s film.

After 2007, there is only one: AWAKENING THE ZODIAC, released in 2017 to an audience that wasn’t really ready to get hyped up about the Zodiac Killer – at least, not until a year later, when law enforcement’s success in using genealogy databases to catch the Golden State Killer reinvigorated the public’s hope that Zodiac, too, could be identified by ancestral DNA connections.

There are any number of reasons for the relative rarity of features about the Zodiac, even in our true crime obsessed moment, I’m sure – fears of exploiting the suffering of real life victims, the complete lack of information about who the killer was despite the copious theorizing – but a big one surely has to be that ZODIAC just casts too large of a shadow. It’s just too definitive, packs too much information into its nearly two hour run time, cycles through too many theories and creates such a distinctive atmosphere of paranoia and obsession that it would be a real challenge for any subsequent film about the Zodiac Killer to distinguish itself

AWAKENING THE ZODIAC takes on that challenge, asking: well, what if we simply try to duplicate that paranoiac pall, but we also add in some spooky film reels like SINISTER and some scary traps like SAW? But not too many, just like one scene of each?

The film early on addresses the potential for exploitation by positing that the Zodiac is responsible for all sorts of unsolved murders not only in California, but across the U.S., and focusing its attentions on these crimes. (This does, of course, raise the question of whether this movie really needed to be directly about, rather than “inspired by”, the Zodiac murders.) However, this isn’t really clear until later in the film, so during the opening scene which depicts the 1968 murder of a couple in their car, you may well think its depicting one of Zodiac’s canonical murders unless you happen to know that none of his documented victims were named Adam and Lula and none took place in Hunter’s Point.

Adam and Lula are dispatched with only the minor hitch of Lula stabbing Zodiac in the ankle with a knife – a detail that has no relevance as it does not affect the Zodiac’s gait later in the film – and after a brief credit sequence of a bespectacled man poring over reels of film, we flahs forward to what is presumably the present day. (There is no title to establish it, but the rest of the film takes place in Virginia in a year that has computers and cell phones.)

Here we meet Mick (Shane West of the Germs) and his wife Zoe (Leslie Bibb), a married couple doing their best to scrape by in their tiny trailer. Zoe’s had to go freelance since the salon she worked for closed, but she’s landing maybe a client a day. Mick owns a landscaping business, but it’s not particularly lucrative in a town that seems to be struggling overall. Mick doesn’t have any concrete plans to haul them out of their financial hole. Instead he dreams of striking it rich selling the contents of abandoned storage lockers with his partner Phil (Matt Craven), the eccentric vet who owns the local pawn shop.

Although he got his start with horror feature NOSTROM, writer/director Jonathan Wright has mostly spent the past decade at the helm of Hallmark romances with titles like LOVE, ROMANCE, & CHOCOLATE and CHRISTMAS JARS. It shows – in a good way! The one factor distinguishing AWAKENING THE ZODIAC from most exploitation thriller schlock is the surprising charm, humor, and affection shared by Zoe and Mick, despite their frequent and completely reasonable conflicts.

Zoe often feels the need to be the funkiller / adult in the room in response to her husband’s recklessness, but it’s a role that even she recognizes is thankless, so more often than not she gives in to the fun. Mick characterizes himself as congentially unable to take shit from anyone, but this doesn’t extend to his wife’s completely reasonable anger at him doing shit like spending their grocery money on what is basically a blind bet in hopes of striking it rich.

The action begins when Mick spends that grocery money to go halfsies on a $1200 locker, rumored to be owned by a rich old woman. They don’t find any antiques worth more than a few hundred bucks, but they do find a box of dated film reels shoved into an old dresser. One of these reels depicts the murder of Adam and Lulu, with the camera well positioned to catch the Zodiac’s full hood and black clothing with its characteristic symbol. The film once again avoids direct exploitation when the reel which was presumably going to depict the 9-27-68 murder of Cecilia Shephard (and attempted murder of Bryan Hartnell) burns before it can depict the action. Mick and Zoe are freaked and befuddled, but Harvey quickly explains who the Zodiac Killer is to these two dumb kids and we’re on our way.

Which way? Well, fortuitously, the San Francisco Police have recently reopened the case and are offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the identity of the killer. Aren’t film reels depicting the Zodiac committing murders and the lead about the storage locker sufficient information already, given that the police could follow those leads to figure out who rented the locker?

Mick watches a lot of Unsolved Mysteries, and he says no – they need to bring a definitive identification to the police in order to claim the reward. Instead, our amateur investigators decide to follow the leads themselves to discover the identity of the storage locker owner, which mostly involves a lot of breaking and entering.

It should go without saying, but: these are not actions you take if you are planning to turn over information to the police in order to claim a financial reward and not go to prison for breaking and entering. These are actions you take if you are planning to turn all this illegally obtained information into clout for your pseudonym on your murder mystery message board – and not even one of the respectable ones.

While they’re on the trail of a man who is presumably in his seventies and may very well have let his rent payments lapse because he’s dead, the film feels the need to establish stakes – and get in a rare gore scene – by having a mysterious figure kidnap and murder the manager of the U-Store-All. Mick also begins to receive some heavy breathing phone calls and hears noises outside of his trailer, becoming increasingly paranoid as the film goes on and he grows more obsessed with the case by reading message boards and listening to audio recording of the Zodiac over and over.

The film desperately wants to capture the neurotic mood of ZODIAC as the trio tracks leads, does research, solves ciphers, argues over suspects, and devolve into obsession, but it just can’t. It populates its tiny cast with red herrings – including Mick and Zoe’s neighbor Ray who portentously warns Mick, “Don’t mess around with shit you don’t understand,” claiming to have heard through the thin walls of the trailer that he’s investigating the “absolute genius”  Zodiac – but even with the established fact that the Zodiac is still alive and murdering, the stakes feel low. He’s old, guys. He’s old and you can go to the police at literally any time.

THIRD ACT SPOILERS!

Our intrepid ding-dongs eventually alight on a potential suspect – Ben Ferguson (Kenneth Welsh), the son of the woman whose name was used to rent the storage locker. He was in the military! He used to live in San Francisco! He has reels of 8mm film in his house! He wrote an article about the Zodiac, positing that he was involved in a series of murders across the U.S.! He’s totally not the killer, though, and as Mick and Zoe get no closer to the Zodiac, he gets closer to them. After murdering Harvey and Ben, the Zodiac manages to kidnap Zoe and leave a coded message for Mick, demanding that he meet him at an abandoned slaughterhouse to trade the film reels for his wife.

And who is the Zodiac? Surprise, guys – it’s Stephen McHattie, the recognizable actor who gets an “and” title in the opening credits and who previously popped up for one line as Ben Ferguson’s neighbor. Once that was established it could never be anyone but Stephen McHattie.

At this point the film devolves into farce as Zodiac sings a creepy rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy (it’s no Hurdy Gurdy Man) and confines Zoe to an electrified cage maze, telling her “I left you a way out, if you’re brave enough to try.” He monologues for a while about his “legend”, why he’s in Virginia (he stalked Ben Ferguson across the U.S., intending to kill him, but ended up liking the town), and why he missed his payments on the storage locker (his memory isn’t what it used to be). Eventually Mick arrives for the showdown and he and Zoe, who managed to find that way out, take Zodiac out for good.

However, THE LEGEND CONTINUES because even with a body, the authorities still can’t figure out the Zodiac’s original identity. At least Mick has learned a lesson, though – he tells Zoe that his former boss offered him his old job at the factory and he’s accepted: “It’s time to make a real go of things, baby.” No more storage lockers and serial killers for this couple.

Mick also decides to take some responsibility by going outside to fix a flickering light outside their trailer, which leads to maybe the most baffling ending I’ve ever seen in a film. Zoe gets freaked out after hearing a noise outside, not immediately assuming (as most would) that it’s her husband fixing that light. As we cut to outside, Mick is nowhere to be found. There is, however, a man who steps forward with a black boot – cut to credits.

That’s right – this film ends by implying that there is a SECOND Zodiac Killer who is at large and for some reason in this trailer park!

God love it, this film is a mess. A well-intentioned mess, a not completely incompetent mess (it’s dingy as hell, attempting to capture the desaturated atmosphere of ZODIAC, but it’s well-filmed), a surprisingly charming mess, but a mess regardless. It’s also the kind of mess that I almost wish was even dumber that it is – like, how great would it be if it turned out Zoe was the Zodiac Killer’s secret daughter? Once you’re in this far, you might as well go whole hog.

I watched this on: Hulu

[polkee]

And so, yesterday I passed my driving test, and it left me with mixed emotions. I'm happy because I passed on my first try. I have always had high expectations of myself and I know that I want myself to pass on my first try too. However, during the whole course of driving, I have constantly felt like a failure, like someone who couldn't drive. While most people took 20+ lessons, I took close to 40 lessons before my instructors and I felt that I was ready for the test. I'm sad because... I miss so many things about driving centre. My instructors, my car, the travelling (especially the looking forward to driving after a terrible day at work), the driving with L plate on, with instructor next to me, with an assistive brake that could save me anytime... sigh, it was such a bittersweet farewell with my instructors yesterday): This driving exam was such a traumatic one for me... I think I should journal it down here. My warm up was at 1.45pm and my instructors told me to report at 1.30pm. I ubered down from work and reached at 1.20pm. I reported to the warm up room. They took my IC and training book and told me to wait. Soon, a warm up instructor picked me up and we went onto the courses. Everything was good. I mean it was really fun that I could cut queue! Giving way to others has finally paid back! So anyways, there weren't much mistakes. Only had to do correction during crank course and a little during vertical parking (my biggest nemesis)! Hit the roads and everything was fine. Went back to the centre and he brought me to the TP centre to deposit my IC. He briefed me on what would happen next and then we went to the waiting room. Waited and waited. Soon, someone came and called my name. I followed him out and recited my IC number. I lead him to the car and settled in the car. *pretend to adjust mirrors*. TP suddenly said alot of things - 'show me how you check blindspot', 'remember that everytime you reverse, you got to check the back so that you won't lose marks', 'take your time with the courses and listen to my instructions', 'don't be nervous m, treat it like a normal lesson'. Lastly, 'if you're ready, let's go'. Turned into circuit and first stop, parallel parking. As it was such an awkward turn into the parallel parking zone, I was too close to the right. THANKFULLY I DIDN'T HIT THE KERB! Barely made it in and the moment I put the gear to 'P' and applied handbrake, he said 'you didn't check the back. Don't you know how to follow instructions?' *bite lips in regret*. Moved on to the slope, which was another very awkward turn. Ended up in the middle of the slope when I was supposed to be on either side. *bite lips again in alot of regret*. Never mind, did the usual checks and signals and went on. As I reached the bottom of the slope, there were just so many cars and I couldn't turn. Stayed there for 3 mins and somehow, managed to drive out from there. Along the bend, the command came 'turn to 13 (response ramp)'. Response ramp was fine. Though I felt that I was too close to the right. But at least I cleared that! Went on along the bend to vertical parking. Did my safety checks and parked. PHEW NO PROBLEMS KNOW! though i think i only has a 1cm gap between my right door and the kerb. But at least, never strike or mount! Phewphewphew! Turned into S course which went well too. Went on to crank course and though I didnt strike kerb, he commented that my turning angle was too wide and it was very risky, almost strike kerb. With an anxious heart, he asked me to turn right as I leave the crank course and hit the general circuit. As I was driving along the circuit, he said 'can you drive, please press the accelerator' and so I did. That point reached - that fateful E-brake point. I saw that there was no car behind me *sian* and he kept asking me to accelerate and there was a sudden 'BANG'. I braked immediately and thought that the car was gonna flip forward know! Thankfully I didn't scream! Signalled, checked and went off. Turned out of the circuit into the main road. At first glance my thought was 'shit, the road's kinda busy with heavy vehicles'. Turn left onto the main road and was given instructions to turn left again. There was a zebra crossing and a give way sign. My instructors told me if there was no car turning into that lane, i don't need to stop at the give way line. There was no one at the zebra crossing so i slowed down and checked for any traffic coming and didn't see anyone turning into my lane. Did my turn left checking and turned into my lane. TP said 'why didn't you stop? There was a motorbike coming into your lane!' And in my head it was 'oh shit' once again. *bite lips in regret again*. At this point of time, i thought i failed already cause I kinda 'caused harm' and it was worth an immediate failure. So, i just went on the test with a failed-person mentality. Throw back to talking to my social worker in the morning, what's the worse thing about failing, she asked me. And our conclusion, just pay another $600. Then we did lane change to the right to do a u-turn. He told me off for my lane change. He said that I was swerving too much. U-turn was okay. Then lane changed again to the left and he said 'why did you change lane' and when i looked up, a car just broke down on the left lane, and so i had to change lane again. He made me change to the left and suddenly gave the next command, to turn right at the next junction. I did my silly mistake again, to swerve into the next lane instead of gradually going into the next lane. Did my right turn and returned back to the circuit to stop the car. We went to the second floor and he told me to sit at the TP centre. I was waiting at the TP centre for 5 mins and I saw alot of fellow testees going into this other room. Thinking back, I didn't clarify with him where I was supposed to go and so I thought he meant go into the room and take a seat. So I went in. He came in soon after and said 'eh you dont understand instructions is it? I asked you to wait outside' *bite lips* and apologised. We went thru my mistakes, with him doodling on my result slip. My head was too much in a mess to actually count the number of points I scored. As he went on nagging, i thought i failed my exam already. And it all sounded like I don't deserve to drive): just as i was about to resign to fate and say okay, i'm gonna redo, he suddenly said 'okay ,18 points, you passed' OMG DID I HEAR WRONGLY?! I smiled and thanked him although I felt like I was on the verge of tears. He left with his final pieces of advice and congratulated me. Told me to go outside and get my license done. I left the room, took my queue number, sat on the chair and burst out in tears. Pretty sure everyone around me was shocked. Cause only people who passed will be sitting at that area and people who passed would be happy right, why would anyone cry. So anyways, got my license settled, went back to the warm up room to get my refund done and to take my training book back and waited for 4pm to come so that I can settle the safety video. Done with the safety video and was trudging out of this place where I had so much fun for the past 5 months when I saw my instructor. I waved and ran towards him and showed him my result slip. Told him all the stupid mistakes I made and how I cried after everything. He said the TP was very lenient with me already and marks don't matter. What matters most is that I passed and got my license. Yupp, I DID IT(: Though it was quite traumatizing for me, it would be an experience I will never forget. My nice instructors and TP, my super encouraging friends and family. Thank you for being part of my driving license journey(: