#also working on a couple other things like college essays and room decoration and figuring out how to style a wig

[marv3l-drag0ns]

Hi!!! How are you? I haven't really been interacting with you directly lately so I thought I would check. ^v^

HI!!!!!! omg hello how r u :D

im doin pretty good! slowly weaning myself off of tumblr doomscrolling too so you know im the picture of mental health :]

i figured out how to use my sewing machine today! i'm very wary of the beast because it bunched up the thread like 50 times but by the end of the week we shall be besties im so excited

how r ur rabbits?

[jcmorrigan]

Blakeworther,,,but college

OKAY. I SAW THIS LAST NIGHT AND WAS THINKING ALL THROUGH LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING BECAUSE THIS HAD TO BE GOOD

Blakeworther: ORIGINS (hopefully actually canon-compliant?)

-Vincent didn’t want a roommate. But RMU has a policy that unless a first-year has an extreme medical condition that requires them to room alone, they have to double up due to high attendance rates vs. limited dorm space. So unfortunately, Vincent needs to stay in the same room as this “Victor Blake” person he’s never met before and probably won’t like.

-He opens the door to their room on the first day. Victor is already there, decorating his half of the room. And you think Victor is a flirt nowadays? This is a Victor straight out of high school, with lingering teenage hormones. He takes one look at Vincent, gives him a coy smile, and just goes “Hello, beautiful.” And winks.

-Vincent goes “Don’t talk to me” and starts setting up his side of the room.

-Well, that’s rude. Victor tries to engage in conversation a couple more times, but Vincent makes it clear he is NOT HAVING IT, so Victor eventually gives up and pouts. (Vincent really is pretty. But more importantly than that, Victor kind of wanted his roommate to be his friend. That seems like a requirement for the college experience.)

-Oh, well. If they can put up with each other for one (1) year, they can request new roommates for their second year.

-Vincent sets off for his 8 a.m. on the first day. Psychology 101. He gets going at about 7 because he NEEDS to make a statement by getting there first. Back in high school, he was valedictorian, and he must continue to show people how classy, smart, and punctual he is.

-He arrives at the classroom. Seemingly empty. He strides through the door -

-The next thing he knows, he’s on the floor. Someone has screamed. He thinks it’s him. He’s disheveled, his books scattered. What just happened?

-After assessing the situation and going over the split-second incident that is retroactively gelling in his memory, he realizes that he walked through that door, and somebody who was waiting on the other side of the wall, just around the corner and out of sight, leapt out and JUMPSCARED him the moment he walked in.

-He looks up at the perpetrator who stands above him, giggling his ass off. This asshole is wearing a bright pink shirt and he’s admittedly kinda cute but also this was unforgivable.

-Victor: “What the HELL was that for?” Pink Shirt Man: “I knew someone would come along who thought they were first, and I wanted to make it clear this is my territory. I was here for fifteen minutes before you.” Vincent: “Why the HELL were you waiting here for fifteen minutes - “

-He makes a point of gathering up his books VERY ANGRILY and stomping to the furthest corner of the classroom to sit as far away from Pink Shirt as possible. Then glares at him venomously.

-So. A word on Albert. He grew up an only child with very few friends. He’s got a roommate too, but the guy’s an introvert in dark glasses who barely talks, spends like all his time watching anime, and is visibly just scared of Albert. So that friendship is out the window.

-(Yes. It’s Winston. He has not had an easy life.)

-This leaves Albert, who has no idea how to appropriately interact with people but has way too much pent-up energy, trying to figure out how to get people’s attention so he can make friends. But when I say he has no idea, I mean he has NO idea.

-So he sits down in the front row where his stuff was previously and just turns and STARES AT VINCENT until the rest of the class files in. Vincent keeps his eyes turned anywhere but at this Pink Shirt Creep because who stares at somebody over their shoulder for ten solid minutes?

-Albert chalks this up as a victory. Sure, this dude hates him, but that’s more attention than he was getting before!

-For the rest of the class, Vincent is hoping they can just move on and have a normal day in which he knocks every question fired his way out of the park. But that’s not what happens. What happens is this PINK SHIRT ASSHOLE in the front row keeps answering questions without being called on, and not even seriously. With the most MORBID sense of humor.

-Prof: “What are the three ways to study the brain?” Albert: “Smash open the test subject’s skull, rip it out, and have fun.”

-Vincent KNEW the answer was “lesion, stimulation, recording” and he’s so mad.

-He leaves this class grumpy.

-He’s on an alternating schedule, so block A of classes one day, block B the next. His next classes for A day go well and he gets to show off a fair bit of his intellect. But then the last class of block B and it’s art.

-Guess who’s there? Not Victor, unfortunately!

-Vincent walks in the door and THE PINK SHIRT ASSHOLE is there and Albert just waves at him “Hello” and Vincent is in hell.

-Same thing. Albert spends the whole class being obnoxious and annoying, but in a way that gets the other students to laugh. And Vincent just stews.

-Over the next few days, Vincent spends a lot of study time in his room rather than in the library because it’s quieter. Victor respects that Vincent will complain if there’s too much noise and so wears headphones when he’s working because he likes music in the background.

-One day, he accidentally rips the headphone jack out of the laptop and the song he was listening to blares over the dorm. He fixes the volume, already going, “Well, sor-ry for the accident - “

-Vincent: “Actually, I like that song. Have you listened to the album or do you just like it as a standalone?”

-Victor: “I...I saw them in concert, actually.”

-They have the first real conversation they’ve ever had since they moved in together because they ended up liking the same song. And they’re happy to be talking about it. This is good! Maybe they can be friends after all!

-First exam in Psych 101. Vincent feels pretty confident. This is a test he didn’t really put too much effort into studying for because he’s confident he memorized everything from high school. Well...as it turns out, he didn’t. But he fudges it as best he can, sure he’s at least doing better than the simpletons of the class. He’s the only one who takes this seriously, after all.

-Exam results come back, and the prof reveals that he’s graded on a curve. One student and one alone got a 95% on the exam; the rest failed horrendously.

-Vincent is about to rest on his laurels when the prof says “And that person is Albert Krueger.”

-Who the hell is -

-PINK SHIRT ASSHOLE stands up and bows playfully.

-Vincent now has a name for his nemesis. ALBERT KRUEGER. He’ll remember that and not be happy about it.

-So he’s chatting with Victor a lot more now as they hang out. Victor has a problem one day because one of his econ courses has a particularly picky prof who’s failed every single one of his essays to date, and he’s afraid he’s going to actually fail his favorite subject.

-Vincent takes a look at that prof’s notes. To his eyes, it’s easy to see what arbitrary hoops the prof wants Victor to jump through. It’s also easy to see that Victor actually is doing what’s asked of him and grasping the material; the prof just demands these extra trappings, probably as a power trip.

-Vincent knows exactly how to write the next paper to make it fit requirements. And so he says, “If you don’t have a problem with plagiarism, I can get the next one to pass.”

-Victor: “Well, don’t make it too perfect, or they’ll catch on.”

-Vincent writes Victor a solid B- of a paper. And it’s graded with the expected B-. Victor is SO thankful and calls Vincent a genius.

-About time someone around here did. Since it strokes his ego, Vincent offers to do any paper Victor wants for him, free of charge.

-Meanwhile! In art class, they’ve been assigned a midterm visual art project. Vincent can already tell that his piece is...good but not great. You know who’s making a fantastic landscape painting that everyone else in the studio ahhs at every day he works on it? AAAAAALBERT KRUEGER.

-Vincent is trying so hard not to explode.

-Vincent and Victor decide to eat lunch together because they like each other now. They head on down to the cafeteria, load up their plates with food, go to get the last two puddings on the shelf -

-Somebody takes the last two puddings.

-GUESS WHO?

-Albert: “I believe it is they who snooze who must lose.” He didn’t even want two puddings. But while people can get temporarily impressed with his prowess, annoying people is the only way he can REALLY get lasting attention. Most people go “Albert’s painting is so cool!” and leave. Vincent, though? Vincent keeps on making a SCENE out of it and Albert likes that. So he made sure neither Vincent nor Vincent’s friend could have any pudding.

-Vincent and Victor sit down, pudding-less. Victor: “Who was that guy?”

-Vincent explains the whole thing. He rambles for almost the whole lunch period about how much he HATES Albert. Culminating in how he knows that Albert’s art project is going to get highest marks and make Vincent’s look so much worse by its very existence.

-Victor: “You know...I have a plan, but it’s not entirely legal. If you want to get back at him, though...” Vincent: “I’m listening.”

-They break into the locked art studio after hours and RIP ALBERT’S PAINTING INTO SHREDS. That’s, like, twenty hours of work just gone. They leave no evidence.

-The following day, Albert approaches the two of them at lunch: “I know it was you. You can’t lie to me about this. From now on, we are at war. You, Vincent, are my mortal enemy. And you, Vincent’s accomplice, I know were talked into this by him, but you’re on the thinnest of ice.”

-Vincent’s fine with this. Victor thinks it’s funny and doesn’t own up to having come up with the idea.

-Anyway, Vincent and Victor start hanging out more, so when there’s a school dance, they decide to go together. Just as bros, not as PARTNERS what are you even - no. Platonic. Heheheheh

-And they have a good time dancing! Vincent doesn’t normally like this sort of thing, but Victor’s into it, so they’re cutting a rug.

-A small throng of students is gathered in the middle of the floor, watching some spectacle. Victor wants to see what’s going on. So he brings Vincent over.

-Everyone’s watching a particular student just absolutely breakdance with the greatest of skill. And GUESS WHO?

-Vincent enters RAGE MODE

-Victor: “Oh, no, here we go.” (Secretly thinking to himself that Albert did have some sexy moves indeed.)

-Vincent storms in and CHALLENGES ALBERT TO A DANCE-OFF. Albert accepts. Victor calls himself a third competitor so as not to be left out, and Vincent rules that either he or Victor winning will be a victory for Vincent.

-Well, Albert gains more applause by a LANDSLIDE. Vincent and Victor are good dancers, but Albert is FANTASTIC. Vincent complains the rest of the night and Victor’s just “Look, I know he was gorgeous and he got all the attention but please pay attention to me”

-Things continue like this until the next semester, when classes are shuffled and FINALLY Vincent is free of Albert.

-You know who walks in to find Albert just staring creepily at him from the front row of his first class? VICTOR.

-It’s Biology. Right away, the class gets a partner assignment, and the prof sticks Albert and Victor together.

-Might as well make the best of this.

-So they get to just awkwardly chatting. Victor tries to keep himself level-headed. Albert still doesn’t know it was Victor’s idea to destroy his painting. So they’re just playing it cool.

-And...it’s actually kind of fun to talk to one another?

-Albert lets slip that he likes bio a bit better than psych, but everyone’s expecting him to take up the position at Krueger Health Corp. Victor’s just like “So fuck ‘em. Switch majors.”

-Albert then blurts “Have you ever wanted to dismember someone who wronged you?”

-Victor: “Yes. All the time.”

-So for the first time, somebody is giving Albert attention that is NOT rivalry and is NOT just marveling at his talents and antics. This is new. He’s not sure how to handle it.

-For the rest of the semester, Victor is technically on Team Vincent, but he still waves at Albert when they pass on the grounds.

-Vincent and Victor go off campus to a house party with alcohol! Albert doesn’t actually show up to steal the spotlight this time. And...that kinda pisses Vincent off. Where IS he? He usually shows up to these things -

-Victor tells him to pleeeaaaase stop obsessing about Albert, please. (But Victor also kinda wishes he was there and isn’t sure why.)

-Later in the night, some beefy upperclassman starts a fight and threatens Vincent. Vincent and Victor are both buzzed and riled up. Victor jumps in and decks the guy to protect Vincent. The guy decks him right back and HARDER. So Vincent tackles the dude because now HE’S protecting Victor.

-They both end up in the hospital with broken bones. Roommates, again. And when they look at each other across their hospital room, they realize something has changed. That they now know they would defend each other to the death, and each has to repay the loyalty of the other. They’re in this for the long haul, and most certainly not going to request new roommates.

-They get their classwork shipped into the hospital and have some nice calm chats with each other, away from the buzz of student life.

-Albert, however, suddenly has his archnemesis and his lab partner both MISSING and it’s driving him insane. Where are they where are they where are they

-When they get released from the hospital and finally go back to campus, Albert has to refrain from RUNNING UP TO THEM AND HUGGING THEM BOTH. HIS LIFE HAD NO MEANING

-Instead he says “Pity. I’d’ve hoped that you’d die and be out of my hair.”

-Vincent and Victor can’t really admit how much he was the missing piece of their lives either.

-It’s gonna be a few interesting years at RMU.

[re-diesirae]

12. Claire

She had never felt so happy to wake up with the sunlight hitting at her face the way it did that morning. They didn't dare to leave the storage house until the first rays of light hadn't come out from the horizon. In part, because they had wanted a little more rest and in part because they didn't want to risk the chance of meeting another of those horrible creatures.

With the light, they could finally see what was inside the storage room, and after checking the contents of the boxes, they had come across some supplies that included more weapons, ammo, a first aid kit, and flashlights. The weaponry was quite old, and Claire knew they probably weren't as fancy as the ones Leon usually used, but it was better than nothing. They also found some cans of food and water that weren't yet due in the boxes. It wasn't a fancy meal, but the canned fruits provided the needed carbohydrates that their bodies required for energy. Claire had instantly felt a little more energetic after the small and humble meal, and she had to admit that compared to other times, she appreciated the locals for storing the food in that place. She would have thanked them if they hadn't turned into parasite controlled zombies, of course.

With their new gear, stock, and a full stomach, the duo had started their walk to the mysterious manor. So far, the way had been calm: only interrupted by a couple of the unfriendly locals that they defeated without problems.

Claire noticed that the closer they got to the manor, the quieter the forest became. Somehow that made her uncomfortable. The lack of sound was antinatural, and maybe it was her paranoia, but she felt observed, and she was half expecting another sudden monster to jump over them. She could tell Leon's thoughts weren't too far from her own as the man moved stealthily and alert at all times.

Nobody would think that, some years ago, this same man was a scared rookie cop trying to survive a city filled with zombies.

The thought of how much he had grown and become better drew a smile on Claire's face.

Just what are you feeling so proud about when this is all a mess?

She often felt proud of others, even if it wasn't something she was supposed to do. She was proud of her brother. Like hell, how wouldn't she? The man had saved many lives in the last few years. She was also proud of Moira; the girl had gotten over her fear of guns and trained under her father's eye. She was also proud of Natalia. She had a normal life now, making it through all the horrors of her past. Claire was very proud of Sherry. She had heard from Chris that the girl had become an agent like Leon, and even though Claire would have wished for the girl to live a quiet life, she respected her decision. Of course, she was proud of Leon's successful career as an agent.

"There it is." Leon's voice broke into her thoughts, and Claire stopped dryly, staring at the manor ahead, "It certainly gives me bad vibes..."

An unpleasant flashback ran through her head as she remembered the Ashford's Residence, but as she watched the house more carefully, she realized that the place was different. This house looked older, and the gray walls, covered by ivy and moss. More than a manor, it looked more like a castle. A quick scan around convinced them that there was no one around the area.

"Guess our friends from Neo-Umbrella didn't wait for us..." Leon whispered.

"Well, knowing their sense of hospitality, they probably left some of their pets behind to receive us, though."

"Most likely. That sounds like something terrorists would do," Leon sighed, "We'll have to take a look and find out. I think the thing jamming the sign of my phone is in there. If we can deactivate it, I can contact Hunnigan, and maybe, we can figure out something about what they were doing in here."

"All right, let's take a look. What could go wrong, right?"

A lot of things. The annoying little voice in her head muttered.

The duo made their way to the house with extreme caution. The place seemed deserted. The only evidence of people ever being in there was the mess inside: furniture was turned over or broken, papers scattered all over the floor along with other decor accessories. Claire found bloodstains in some of the walls, and she shuddered. Maybe their "friends" hadn't left after all, but something had gotten them before they arrived.

"Now, this looks ominous. Why are there so many papers in here?"

"They seem like medical records, but the papers are too dirty to read them," she said, picking some of the scattered sheets. The pages looked blurred with humidity, and some had red stains that covered half of the text.

"Knowing these guys, there's probably an electronic record somewhere. We need to find a computer." Leon replied, looking around the rooms with his gun raised, "There are signs of struggle. I guess they didn't leave on good terms…"

That if they had made it out alive.

"There's too much blood. Do you think one of their pets went through havoc?"

"Most likely, maybe it was the one that attacked us last night."

Claire picked a folder that was over a table. The yellowish surface had dried stains of blood, but she ignored it and flipped through its contents. Her face tensed as her eyes traveled over the printed letters.

"They were making a new virus, " she said with anger, "These people don't ever learn that you shouldn't mess up with nature."

"Any idea of what sort of virus that is?"

"No...this seems more like genetic blueprints," Claire replied, "RNA virus sequences and possible recombinations with other viral agents. I'm taking these. it might be useful later. I can look into it when we get back to TerraSave.."

"Didn't know you had a liking for this sort of mad scientist stuff. Didn't picture you like a science girl..."

"You know, I did finish college before I joined TerraSave," Claire laughed.

"So I heard, but I never asked what you majored in, now that I think about it."

"Oh, so you didn't check my background?" Claire replied, surprised.

"I don't do that with friends. It's easier to ask, so what did you major in?"

"Biology and life sciences. Did a specialization in virology after joining TerraSave," she replied, checking another pile of folders, "I never thought I'd get so much into viruses. You would be amazed by how many outbreaks TerraSave attends, and for worse or better, not all of them involve zombies. Going into virology sounded reasonable, logical, and useful. "

Claire's crescent interest in viruses had to lead to her choosing a virology specialization. She had thought that it would come in handy while working in TerraSave. The organization was founded as a countermeasure to terrorist attacks. However, as time went by, TerraSave began attending other cases, including viral outbreaks in affected zones and as they worked with WHO. As an active agent at the time, Claire had participated in many operatives. That made her interested in the subject. After thirteen years of working in the organization, Claire was a pretty respectable professional. She wasn't as prodigy as Saya or Rebecca, but her observations and criticisms were valuable, and she had permission to work on her own projects.

"Never pictured you like a bookworm, but it seems I was mistaken."

"Another con on my side, I guess. Relationship wise..."

"I doubt it. Nothing wrong with a smart woman. I find it much more appealing. So, does your scientific vision give you a lead to what we have here?"

"Unfortunately, nothing clear. There's a lot of things you can do with genomes and some genetic engineering. I am not a biosynthetic engineer, but this looks like design proposals? We have someone in HQ who could see through it or maybe in B.S.A.A. I want to look at the digital records; if we are lucky, there might be something left in there. What about your signal jam?"

"I think I might have found the cause. Up there in the tower, there seems to be an antenna of some 's a good lead..."

"Guess we found our next stop. Let's go. I've got the feeling that I don't want to be around when the night falls."

"Always trust a female's sixth sense."

Claire followed Leon through the house. The absence of hostiles was welcome, but at the same time made her wonder what could have happened to them. They found more papers on their way, but nothing that could give them a clue of what had taken place in that place. After a while, they finally arrived at the tower.

The room seemed to be the security command center as there were several screens and computers. Leon got himself busy as he started to work on the antenna right away. Without much else to do, Claire decided to take a look at the server and see if she could get her hands on any interesting data while Leon tried to fix his communication line.

Well, let's see what you kept in here.

Claire began typing. She wasn't a techie like Wallace, so her skills as a hacker were terrible, but to her surprise, the security around the server was much laxer than she would have imagined. Or maybe she was too used to her overestimated security system in TerraSave.

Sadly, the computers had no access to the research datalog. However, it gave Claire information about the facility, and just as expected, there was a large underground structure underneath the mansion; the security system provided a clean 3D blueprint of the facility, showing research rooms, animal essays rooms, and laboratories. Everything pinpointed on the screen.

What the hell were they researching here?

Claire checked the security protocols, which seemed typical procedures designed for facilities handling potentially pandemic agents. She was familiar to them as a few years before she had adapted to those same protocols to propose an effective plan of contention in case of bioterrorist attacks. There was nothing that could be useful to find out what she wanted, but she did find something that caught her attention.

Damn, if only Wallace were here. He could probably hack into the central system and get me that information.

"I think I got it." Leon's voice made her look away from the screen, "I have the signal back. I'll try to contact Hunningan."

"That's great news…!"

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

"No, and yes. I managed to hack into the security system, but the servers aren't linked, so I have no access to research data from here. I did get a nice blueprint of the facility, though. Just look at this, the main research area is right underneath us, which is not surprising at all. I also checked the security protocols, and from that, I can say they were doing in vivo essays. I found something alarming and unexpected."

"How come?"

"They have a viral repository here. It is curious because, with the T-virus, C-virus, and all those new strains that Umbrella had been spreading, most bioterrorists had dropped the use of traditional pathogenic weapons."

"By traditional you mean…?"

"Regular viral agents: influenza, Nipah Virus, chickenpox, ebola… Ring a bell? They have a bacteria stock, too. Anthrax, Tuberculosis, MRSA," she said, scrolling down the screen, " Basically Level 3 and 4 pathogens. Just what the hell were they doing here?"

" If you don't know, neither do I. Can you get the information from here?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am a virologist, not a hacker. The information should have a back up in the central server, but I am not skilled enough to break through their encryption to get it. We would need a vicious hacker for that, and the only one I know is somewhere in Hughesville."

"So, in other words, if we want that data, we'll need to go down there."

"Very sharp, Kennedy."

"Well, I guess we should bring some company down there," Leon commented, pulling his mobile to his ear. "Hunnigan… I need a favor."

NOTE: if you guys want to come and chat about the fic, or just about CLEON in general. Feel free to drop by the discord and say hi! JOIN SERVER

[artificialqueens]

Stupid For You, Chapter 7 (Crygi, Jankie, Jaida x Nicky) - Metaluna

Fic summary: A cliche lesbian AU. It’s the summer before Gigi goes to college, and she decides it’s time to take a job at a local amusement park. There, she meets Crystal, a beautiful girl that she with bonds over the anxiety of the service industry. Almost immediately, Gigi gets it BAD for Crystal. Meanwhile, Jackie definitely ISN’T gay. She likes men. Only. Men. What happens when a beautiful girl named Jan comes into the picture? And lastly, Nicky flirts with anything with a pulse. Jaida falls for anyone who gives her attention. This is going to be one interesting summer

Chapter summary: If anyone knows how to party, it’s the staff of Paradise Isle. When Brita turns 21, she’s determined to have the biggest party Paradise Isle has ever seen.

A/N: Hi everyone! I officially outlined the rest of the fic so it’s going to be 10 chapters total, three more to go!!

By the time Gigi made it down the exit ramp, all she wanted to do was leave. She heard Jan behind her, but kept moving forward. Her heart beat was pounding in her ears and she began to feel warm tears form in her eyes.

“Gigi, wait!” Jan called.

Gigi didn’t listen and instead kept walking. Jan managed to chase her all the way into The Landing until Gigi stopped dead in her tracks, rested her face in her hands and started crying. Wordlessly, Jan went up to her and wrapped her in a gentle embrace. Once Gigi broke away, Jan led them to a bench, and stayed quiet. She knew Gigi was about to explode at any second.

And she was right.

“How could she do that? What the hell? If she didn’t want to see me, she could have just fucking said something! I have no idea what the hell I did to her and why she’s acting the way she is, but I guess fuck my feelings! Right? Just fuck them!” Gigi threw her hands up in frustration before crying into Jan’s shoulder.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Jan cooed rubbing Gigi’s hair. She knew Gigi’s mascara was staining her shirt, but it was something she could worry about later.

“How could she?” Gigi’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“I don’t know, baby. There’s no way to know what’s running through her bizarre little head.”

Gigi wiped her eyes, trying to salvage what was left of her makeup. “I’m overreacting.”

“No, you aren’t. You need to feel whatever it is that you’re feeling. Your feelings are valid and you’re entitled to them,” Jan said firmly.

“I want to hate her.”

“Why?”

Gigi sighed. “I want to hate her, because that means I wouldn’t be in love with her anymore.”

“Wow,” Jan began. “I didn’t realize you were in that deep.”

“Jan, it’s bad.”

“Sounds like it.”

“If I could just hate her, I could be done and move on. I hate that when I see her pictures on Instagram with her shitty boyfriend, all I can do is think about how I wish it was me. I hate that she’s the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed. I just want to hate her.”

“Do you honestly believe do any good?” Jan questioned.

Gigi mulled it over and sighed. “No. What am I going to do?”

“I wish I knew what to tell you, Gigi, but I don’t. But, we can figure out what we’re doing tonight. Do you want to leave, or do you want to keep hanging out with everyone? After the look I gave her and what I said to her, I don’t think she’ll come anywhere near you anytime.”

Gigi looked stunned. “Jan what the hell did you tell her?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jan winked.

“I’m not going to let her ruin my night.” Gigi’s tone was determined. “Let’s go.”

–

Nicky and Jaida were awkwardly left behind in the queue. Since they were next, they ended up going on the roller coaster. Jaida had to admit, a roller coaster was a lot less fun when one of your friends was experiencing emotional trauma, even if you were in the front.

“Should we go find them?” Nicky asked as she grabbed her purse.

Jaida thought for a moment and said, “Honestly? I don’t want to make it worse. Gigi trusts Jan and I want Gigi to talk through all the emotional shit she’s feeling.”

“Good point.”

Jaida and Nicky made their way through The Backlands. Jaida knew that she had feelings for Nicky that Nicky didn’t share. Jaida also knew that every time they slept together, she felt herself falling a little harder. As much as Jaida didn’t want to break her own heart for her final summer at the park, she swore something felt different about Nicky.

As they walked, Jaida swung her hand forward making contact with Nicky’s to test her response.

“Sorry,” Nicky mumbled putting her hand closer to her side.

The response is not the one Jaida was looking for, which caused her to sigh.

Nicky slowed her pace. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Jaida forced a smile. “Just tired.”

“Gotcha.”

Jaida wondered how dense Nicky could be. Even though Jaida couldn’t be mad that Nicky didn’t return her feelings, it still frustrated her. While Jaida knew it was a horrible idea to keep going with their fling, she liked Nicky so much that she’d rather have her physically than not at all.

 Or did she?

This wasn’t healthy for her mental state. Jaida had enough on her plate already. Between writing essay after essay for law schools throughout the country as well as working six days a week, Jaida was nearing her limit. As much as she tried to tell herself that her fling with Nicky helped her decompress, she knew that wasn’t the case. It made everything much, much worse. Before she could think on it further, she was interrupted by her phone vibrating with a text from Jan.

so I honestly cant tell if gigi’s more hurt or pissed at crystal and honestly it really doesnt matter but she did say she wants to keep the night to keep going so I say let’s do it! we’re at the landing rn, where are you??

Quickly, Jaida reiterated to Nicky the situation, and texted back, Okay, good! We’ll meet you there.

The rest of the night was filled with memorable selfies, laughs that were mostly at the extent of Jan’s inability to ride roller coasters, and by the end of the night, Gigi felt great, and was determined to not let one person ruin what was already an incredible summer.  

Following National Roller Coaster Day, Jaida, Nicky, Jan, and Gigi bonded even further, and became inseparable. Through hanging out with Jan, Gigi also developed a very close bond with Jackie. Gigi never had a group of friends before, and was thankful she had such an amazing group of friends.

Gigi formed such a close bond with her friends that she all but forgot about Crystal. At times, they ran into each other in the break room, and every time, they didn’t so much as look at each other. While the environment was tense, there was never any negativity. No one was outwardly mean to each other. In fact, everyone but Gigi maintained being friendly with Crystal. Gigi couldn’t allow this to upset her, since they were all adults and could choose their friends. At times though, it did feel like a punch in the gut when Gigi was on her breaks and saw Jan stop to talk to Crystal.

One day, Gigi sat in the breakroom. As she at her lunch, Brita sat across from her.

“Hey, Brita,” Gigi greeted.

“As you know, my birthday is drawing near.”

All Brita talked about was how she was going to turn twenty one in a couple of weeks. Everyone knew it was Brita’s birthday, including people who didn’t even know Brita.

“So I’ve heard!”

“My parents are actually going to be out of town. So, I’m going to have a party. Not just any party. No, this party is going to be so big and so memorable that they’ll be talking about this like five summers from now.”

Gigi raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

Brita nodded. “I’m inviting literally everyone I know who works here…”

Gigi caught on to what Brita was saying. Even the people who weren’t well versed in what happened between Gigi and Crystal knew something was wrong. “That’s fine, Brita. I’m not going to let my relationship, or lack thereof, with someone ruin your birthday.”

“Good. It’s this Wednesday, starting at 10. That way everyone has time to get ready after work. Thank god for shortened park hours.”

The scheduling gods smiled upon Jaida, Nicky, Gigi, and Jackie. Somehow they all ended up with the same days off, one of which being Friday. It helped that Jaida always sweet talked the scheduler, and the scheduler knew who her friends were. Jaida wasn’t about using her feminine charm to get what she wanted.

The girls all agreed to get ready at Gigi’s, because she had the largest space. Getting ready with others was much more fun for Gigi than getting ready alone. Although, she had to admit it was a different feeling when she and Crystal got ready together for Heidi’s party. She forced that thought out of her head as she put on an 80’s playlist. Deciding what to wear to a party was Gigi’s favorite part of getting ready. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she wanted this party to be the exact opposite as the previous party. Because of this, Gigi opted to wear a tight orange halter top with an blue high-waisted shorts, which was the exact opposite of her black and white outfit.

“You look like your room,” Jan teased eyeing Gigi’s room decor. 

Gigi rolled her eyes. “It’s not my fault that my two favorite colors look amazing on me.”

“Fair,” Jaida mused as she rummaged through her bag. “Shit. I forgot my eyelash glue.”

Nicky, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground blending out a smoky eye tossed hers to Jaida. “Here.”

“Thank you,” Jaida smiled sweetly expertly applying an eyelash.

Jackie looked on incredulously. “I have no idea how you do it.”

“Lots and lots of practice,” Jaida said as she batted her eyelashes in Jackie’s direction.

“Do you ever wear more than mascara and eyeliner in your waterline?” Nicky questioned, admiring her appearance in a hand mirror.

Jackie shook her head. “I just… don’t know how to do anything else. One time I tried to do wings and it looked like a drunk toddler did them. No wait, a drunk toddler would have done better.“

Jan’s face brightened. “Can I please do your makeup? Please?”

After hesitating, Jackie said, “What the hell. Why not?”

Jan squealed as she made her way over to Jackie, who was sitting in the chair at Gigi’s desk. Watching Jan do Jackie’s makeup made Gigi feel a pang of jealousy. All through high school, she’d never had the desire to date. Of course, she definitely didn’t want a boyfriend. But, she never thought about having a girlfriend either, and only knew that she liked girls. She also never had a friend group like the one she had now. She also never thought she’d have a group of friends she could trust as much as she trusted the friends she made. For once in her life, Gigi felt safe enough to come out. Other than her family, Jan was the only person who knew, and the only reason she’d told Jan in the first place was because she was about to have a mental breakdown. But, it was time. Gigi paused the playlist.

“Everything okay, Gigi?” Nicky questioned.

Gigi took a breath. “Yes, but there’s something I have to tell all of you.”

Jan locked eyes with Gigi, already knowing what she was going to say.

“What is it?” Jaida asked setting down her brush.

“I like girls.”

Jaida ran to Gigi to give her a hug. “We love you.”

Jan laughed. “Welcome to the club.”

As Gigi unpaused the music, she breathed a sigh of relief as she topped her nude lip with gloss.

“All done!” Jan announced as she brushed powder off of Jackie’s face.

Once Gigi saw Jackie, she exclaimed, “Oh, wow.”

Jackie was already an extremely beautiful girl, but Jan’s handiwork enhanced her features. Because she knew that Jackie wasn’t one for the extravagant, Jan stuck with neutrals that gave Jackie the most effortless no-makeup-makeup look. Gigi knew that Jan was a talented makeup artist, but the makeup she did on Jackie proved it, because it was the exact opposite of Jan’s colorful halo eye she did on herself.

“Holy shit! I look good.”

Jan rolled her eyes. “You always look good, baby.”

“Thank you,” Jackie said as she kissed Jan on the cheek.

“We must commemorate this momentous occasion,” Jaida said dramatically as she signaled everyone to come in for a group photo.

“You have to take it,” Nicky said. “You have the longest arms.”

Jaida rolled her eyes. “Always.”

Once there were a few photos they were all satisfied with Gigi looked at her phone. “If we need to make a liquor run, we should probably leave now.”

Everyone piled in to Gigi’s Jeep, the group was enthusiastically discussing the night ahead. On the way to the liquor store, Jaida, who was already twenty one, made a list of what she had to purchase.

“Y’all are gonna make me look like I have a drinking problem. You best be Venmo-ing me interest,” she teased.

“We don’t have interest in France, I don’t know what that is,” Nicky joked.

Jaida playfully hit her. “You’ve lived here for over ten years.”

 Nicky shushed her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Jesus Christ, just kiss already,” Gigi teased as she pulled into the liquor store’s parking lot.

Once Jaida was inside the store, Jan spoke up. “What’s actually going on between you two?”

Nicky shrugged. “Just something for us to blow off some steam.”

Jackie hesitated. “Nicky, you realize that Jaida’s never had a girlfriend before.”

“Yeah, and?”

“She also falls really hard really quickly.”

Nicky exhaled. “She never told me that. She told me that she was good keeping it casual. She tried to bring it up a while ago, but I just thought… I feel terrible.”

“It’s not your fault, honey,” Jan said.

Before Nicky could respond, Jaida returned to the car.

“That was fast,” Gigi said.

“I’ve been to that store so many times, I know where everything is.”

Gigi had heard from other people that Brita had a large house, but she didn’t expect it to be quite so big. The driveway which was lined with cars spanned the length of most people’s front yards. The house looked to be three stories and was a modern build, which was a contrast to the other ranch-style houses in the area. The music could be heard from outside of the house, and Gigi mused about how Brita was lucky that she had no neighbors.

“Damn,” Gigi said as she shut her car door.

“Yeah,” Jaida began. “Brita’s parents are fucking loaded.”

“Clearly,” Jan said.

The inside of the house was just as grandiose as the outside. Gigi thought that it looked like the sample rooms inside of furniture stores. She didn’t realize that people’s houses actually could look like that. The living room was decorated with fairy lights and streamers, and in the corner were two gold balloons that said 21. The party was already abuzz, the entirety of the first floor was full of people, most of which Gigi didn’t recognize, and was almost certain Brita probably didn’t either.

Brita greeted them at the door, pulling them into a hug. Gigi could already smell the alcohol. “Hi, babes!”

“Happy birthday, bitch!” Jaida exclaimed handing Brita a fifth of Everclear.

Brita’s laugh was loud enough that it could be heard over the music. “You rotted bitch.”

“On our first season together, Brita drank way too much Everclear and got super hungover, and had to call out the next day,” Jaida explained. “You best be getting that drunk again tonight. If I see you at work tomorrow, I’m going to be pissed.“

“I have tomorrow off,” Brita said smugly.

“You’re going to need it,” Jan teased.

“Thanks! So over there we have a photobooth, beer pong in the dining room, the pool’s available if you want, too. Oh, and if you need a place to get down and dirty,” she looked at Nicky and Jaida. “Just don’t use my bedroom.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jaida said, rolling her eyes.

As everyone was about to explore, Brita screeched, “Wait!”

“What?” Gigi asked.

“Let’s do a shot of this.” Brita raised the bottle of Everclear.

“Oh dear, God,” Jackie said making gagging noises.

“It’s my birthday, bitches!”

Since nobody could argue with that, they went in to the kitchen. In the attached dining room, an intense game of beer pong was going down with Widow and Heidi against Crystal and some boy Gigi vaguely recognized as being one of the team leads in games. Trying to stay casual, Gigi waved to Heidi and Widow who smiled in return. Thankfully, Crystal’s back was turned to Gigi, and by the time she turned, Gigi had her back turned to take the shot.

“I’m already too drunk to pour the shots,” Brita slurred.

Jaida rolled her eyes as she took the bottle and expertly poured shots.

“To Brita!” Gigi said raising her glass.

“To Brita!” Everyone repeated as they toasted, set the shot on the table, and took the shot.

Gigi thought she was good at taking shots. But, Gigi had also never had Everclear. Convinced that its reputation preceded it, she didn’t properly prepare herself. She thought she was just taking a shot of cheap vodka, not a shot of rubbing alcohol.

“Merde!” Nicky exclaimed.

Jackie set her glass down as she winced. “That was so bad, Nicky forgot how to speak English!”

Because she couldn’t get the taste of shitty vodka out of her mouth, the only thing Gigi could do was to drink something else. The Whiteclaw Jaida bought for her tasted like juice in comparison, so much so that Gigi drank it a lot faster than she should have.

As Gigi felt the alcohol hit, Jan said, “Let’s go take pictures.”

Most of the time, Gigi found photobooths to be tacky. They were a staple of boring weddings and basic-ass graduation parties. But, because she already had a nice buzz going, she gladly posed with oversized sunglasses. 

Everyone sat on a red leather couch as they began drinking. Jan and Jackie shared a bottle of rum that they chased with Diet Coke. Jaida was chasing her Jack with ginger ale. Nicky, on the other hand, was shooting whiskey like there was no tomorrow. Gigi felt lame that everyone else wad drinking liquor but her, but she didn’t care. She wanted to enjoy what she was drinking.

When a Madonna song began playing, the girls screeched and made their way to the dancefloor. Gigi had decent rhythm, but tonight, as far as she was concerned, she was killing it. As she dropped low, she almost fell, but kept her balance as she made her way back up. While she watched Jackie and Jan dancing closely and watched Nicky grind against Jaida, Gigi couldn’t help but feel like a fifth wheel. She remedied the situation by cracking open another Whiteclaw. 

“I need a break,” Nicky announced when the song ended.

Jan whispered something in Jackie’s ear before saying, “We’ll be back!”

“May I have this dance, Ms. Hall?” Gigi asked holding her hand out.

“Oh, bitch, you know it.”

After a few songs, Gigi announced, “I’ll be back!”

It was the time of the night that Gigi needed to break her seal. Unfortunately for her, there was a line for the bathroom. She dramatically jumped up and down until she made it to the bathroom. Once she finished, she was greeted by a sobbing Jaida.

“Jaida, what the fuck is wrong?” Gigi asked leading her into a bedroom upstairs.

“Nicky,” Jaida managed.

“What about Nicky?”

“I went to go find her to see if she wanted to dance or something, but then… I saw her… and I saw Brita. On the couch… making out.”

It was very clear that Jaida had too much to drink. For a while, Gigi was convinced that this year would break the streak of Jaida getting her heart broken. Even though Gigi wanted to give Jaida some tough love and tell her she and Nicky weren’t exclusive, she knew it wasn’t the time for that. Instead, she wrapped her in a hug.

“Hey,” Gigi said stroking Jaida’s hair. “It’s okay.”

“I knew that she didn’t want a relationship. Why does this hurt so much?”

“Because you like her, clearly a lot.”

“Why does this always happen?” Jaida wailed.

Gigi knew she wasn’t good at comforting people, but decided to try her best. “I don’t know. But Jaida, your makeup is far too pretty to cry it all off.”

Hoping that Jaida would find her comment funny, Gigi tried to laugh. This only made Jaida cry harder. Fuck. Gigi knew she wasn’t any good at any of this, but she knew who was. She needed to find Jan before Jaida lost her mind.

“I’ll be back,” Gigi said leaving a sobbing Jaida in the bedroom.

Gigi searched the entire first floor for Jan with no luck. Eventually, she ran into Jackie. 

“Gigi, what the hell is happening? Jaida’s apparently crying, Nicky left… What’s going on?” Jackie demanded.

“I guess Jaida found Brita and Nicky making out.”

Jackie groaned. “Of course Because why would she be able to make it a summer without getting her pretty little heart broken?”

When Jackie and Jan made their way back in the bedroom, Jaida was right where Gigi left her.

“Do you know where Jan is?” Gigi questioned as Jackie was hugging a very distraught Jaida.

“I think she’s outside.”

“If anyone knows how to handle this, it’s her,” Gigi said as she walked downstairs.  

Gigi realized just how drunk she was as she stumbled around trying to find Jan. Eventually, she found her comforting some random drunk girl. To Gigi’s horror, the random drunk girl ended up being Crystal. 

“Uh, I need you,” Gigi said awkwardly walking to Jan. 

Jan looked at Gigi and mouthed, “Help me,” as she broke away from Crystal. “What’s up, gorg?”

Crystal awkwardly stood next to Jan, swaying back and forth. Gigi couldn’t help but wonder how much Crystal had to drink.

“It’s Jaida.”

“Oh my God, I haven’t seen Jaida in ages,” Crystal slurred.

Jan shushed Crystal. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She found Nicky making out with Brita,” Gigi explained.

Jan groaned. “This is bad.”

“That’s really not good. Are they fighting?” Crystal tried as hard as possible to not slur her speech. “Fighting is bad.”

Rolling her eyes, Jan said, “Yes, honey. Fighting is bad. Really bad.“

Crystal stumbled toward Gigi. “Gigi, I’m really sorry we’re fighting.”

Gigi ignored her. “Jan, can you do that thing where you comfort people when they’re crying?”

“I can try,” Jan said.

“Gigi! Stop ignoring me. We’re fighting! And I don’t want us to!” Crystal pouted.

“Crystal, we can discuss this when you’re sober,” Gigi said firmly.

“I’m sober enough!” Crystal said jumping up and down. She then stopped and put one hand over her mouth and one on her stomach.

“Crystal. No!” Gigi screeched.

It was too late. Crystal lost all the alcohol she’d consumed. Jan reacted quickly enough to take a step back, but Gigi wasn’t that lucky. Gigi screamed as her favorite boots became covered in vomit.

"What the fuck?!” Gigi screamed. 

[yeosangs-horizon]

Shared Stars (Changkyun x Reader) Roommate! AU

Genre: Fluff -> Smut Word Count: 4.8k Member: I.M/Changkyun | Group: Monsta X Warnings: Heavy smut at the end! Slow burn from roommates to friends to lovers! 

You gazed over your newly posted ad for a roommate in your apartment. You had just begun to rent the place out and being a nearly broke college student, you knew that it was impossible for you to keep up with rent and get an education at the same time. If worst comes to worst, you’d have to have a roommate, and being the only supporter of your finances you had to resort to that. 

Your apartment has two bedrooms and one shared washroom which wasn’t an issue but you weren’t used to living with others besides your family, being an only child. Either way you’d have to learn to adapt one way or another as you are now an adult. You exited out of the web page that you had posted your ad and got up from your seat to continue about your day, hoping somebody would contact you soon.

After a couple hours of finishing some schoolwork, you heard your phone buzz and you instantly widened your eyes, excited but also anxious to check the notification. ‘Hi, is this (Y/N) I’m writing to? I’m very interested to take you up on your offer for a roommate. Please send me more info about it, thanks. -Changkyun’. You beamed up, knowing that your wallet may be saved pretty soon. 

You replied back quickly. ‘Hello yes this is me! Thanks for expressing interest! I have a copy of the lease and regulations if you would want to see them. If you wanted to meet somewhere I could bring a copy for you and we can go from there?’ You stretch your legs after sending the text message and decided to get up from your seat to make a cup of coffee. It was still fairly early in the morning and you didn’t have a class that day until late afternoon.

You were rummaging through your cabinets to find a coffee filter when you hear the notification ‘ding’ sound again. ‘Sure! Does this evening work for you at the bakery by your address?’ He included a pinpointed location on maps as well, how convenient. You replied, tapping your fingers against the device. ‘Yeah that’s cool by me. Is 5 pm alright?’ ‘Yes. See you then.’ You sighed in relief as you viewed his last text. You had no idea what to expect out of this entire situation and secretly hoped that he wasn’t just a serial killer or some creepy old man.

Some hours passed as you walked out of your last class for the day, rifling through your notebook to see what other assignments you had to complete before the next day. You pulled out your phone from your back pocket and glazed your eyes over the time displayed.. ‘4:43 pm’ You just remembered your appointment with your new potential roommate. You took long strides towards the street, apprehensive about possibly being late. 

You turned the corner at exactly 5:00 PM and saw the lit up sign of the bakery just a couple buildings down. You let out a breath and smiled, wanting to make a good first impression of yourself. You turned the handle to the establishment and saw a man sitting near some tables towards the corner of the shop. His black locks of hair illuminated from the dim lights of the bakery. He had a piercing gaze that was directed towards his phone and smooth soft skin. ‘Could this be him?’,you wondered silently. He was beautiful at first sight.

“Um are you Changkyun?” you anxiously called out. He turned his head and directed his attention towards you whilst nodding. “Is this (Y/N)?” you smiled and affirmed his question. “Nice to meet you! I have all the info you’ll need so don’t worry about a thing,” you reassured while shaking his hand in a professional matter. 

You laid out the lease agreement, regulations, terms, and all of the knick knacks that had to go hand in hand with renting property out. You gazed towards his milky brown eyes as he skimmed the words etched in black ink on the papers below you both. He looked up after he was finished reading and remarked,” Everything is easily to abide by. I’ll take your offer and be your new roommate.” 

You clasped your hands together, feeling excited. “Amazing! When will you be moving in?” He scrolled through his mobile calendar and looked back up at you. “Tomorrow night if that’s fine. I know it’s abrupt but honestly living in a two bedroom studio with six other guys is really overwhelming. As much as I appreciate them I’d love to have more space,” he mused. “Six others? That’s quite something, I welcome you to do so right away then!” you let out a chuckle as the two of you stood up from your seats.

“Just drop by tomorrow night, I’ll be home and I can give you the keys and help you get situated. See ya then new roomie!” you called out whilst walking back to your own place. You saw him wave at you while striding in the opposite direction with a small smile on his face. You turn the corner and trudged up the stairs to your home. ‘He is so attractive, there’s no way this is happening.’ Your mind was boggled as you recalled the past half hour that has happened. You were only a bit intimidated by him but you were very excited that he was going to be your new roommate. 

The following day breezed by as you attended your classes in the morning, stressing over the workload again and remembering that you had to rush home to clean up your space in order for Changkyun to move in that night. You wondered slightly about what he was doing at the moment. Your thoughts concluded as a box you moved slipped out of your hands and fell on your right foot. “Shit! We love a good clean up,” you mumbled arrogantly while picking up heavy objects again. 

Time seemed to fly by as you shoved all your excess boxes in the multiple array of closets you had in your apartment. You heard the doorbell ring whilst putting up the last decoration you had by your windowsill. You rushed towards the door and turned the knob to see Changkyun, just as expected. He was dressed in a white hoodie and shorts, and damn did he look adorable standing right before you.

“Welcome to your new home! I can help you carry your stuff inside if you’d like!” you offered with enthusiasm. He looked back at the suitcase and multiple array of bags he had and nodded. “That would be wonderful, thank you.” After a couple minutes of carrying his belongings inside towards the couch, you sat down and stared up at him. “Make yourself at home, because you are at home now! Before I show you where everything is, do you want a drink or something?” 

He shook his head while placing his hand up. “I’m fine thank you, it really does feel very homey in here,” he remarked. You stifled a laugh as you replied,” If only you saw it a couple hours before.” You bounced from the couch and headed toward your drawer where you pulled out a spare key you had, just for him. “Here’s your key, don’t lose it because I don’t have another one. As you can see here this is the kitchen, utensils and plates are in this general area and the cleaning supplies are near the sink and uh, the miscanelous stuff is kept here,” you pointed out, trying to be the most helpful guide you could have been.

He took in the words coming from your soft voice as he looked around his new abode. He gazed at you walking as you made your way towards the living room again and started to speak. “The TV and lounging area is here as you can see, feel free to watch as much TV as you’d like, I don’t use it too often anyway. And over there in the halls is where your bedroom and washroom area will be.”

He picked up his bags with the help of you and made it slowly into his new room. The clean scent hit his olfactory bulb as you set his items down on the floor. “Welcome to your room! Not much to say here but if you have a question about where things are and all I’m just in the room next door so literally just knock on the wall, or text me if you’re like that too,” you remarked. “The washroom is just the door we passed and there’s a couple spare cabinets I think there to keep your stuff if you wish to do so.” He nodded while sitting on the bed already provided by you and looked around where he was going to be spending the nights for a long time.

His moment of tranquility was interrupted when you spoke again. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me, I just have some work to finish,” you dismissed. “Wait (Y/N), I never asked but what year are you and what’s your major? Excuse my interrogation but I’m really just curious,” he perked up with interest. “Oh y’know just your average psych major here. I’m a second year actually, what about yourself? You seem like you’d still be attending university,” you remarked. “Yeah I am! Third year as a matter of fact. I’m a chemistry major and minoring in music with digital media as well. If you ever need help or anything I’m always here,” he smiled. 

“Thanks Changkyun! Now to be enslaved by my work for the next couple hours,” you called out laughing as you slipped into your own room. You felt a smile slowly tug at your lips as you sat down and pulled out your assignment log. He already had captivated your attention and not to mention your interests. He did seem a bit cold but it was to be expected as you just started talking to him about a day ago but your senses strongly emphasized that you could trust him. 

You stared down at your assignment log as you skimmed over the two essays you had to do and a worksheet you had to complete before the next day. You sighed as your stress flowed back into your veins. You started to skim the prompts of your essays before deciding that you had to get a coffee. You wormed your way out of your room before you felt your body crash into another physical figure. You looked up and was flustered after you had ran into your new roommate who just so happened to step out into the hall from the washroom. You jumped back, a little bit startled and nervously laughed out of habit. “Sorry! I was too zoned out and didn’t see you!” “It’s alright, don’t worry about it,” he softly spoke out while snaking his way past you towards his room. You felt your cheeks flush up as you realized that you had embarrassed yourself in front of your new roommate. You shake off the thought quickly as you turned towards the kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee. 

The rest of the night consisted of you working for hours on your essay and sipping your coffee. The night slowly slipped away into day time as the sunlight gleamed straight through your sleeping figure and into your eyelids. You were awoken by a soft singing voice from the walls next to you as you realized that last night your new roommate moved in and you weren’t alone anymore. His voice was angelic, beautiful, ineffable. You were touched by his voice. He was practically flawless in every way. You shake off the thought as you perked up in bed and got ready for the rest of your day. 

----- 

The day seemed to mesh together as you experienced your new lifestyle with Changkyun. The first week he seemed pretty cold towards you. You hadn’t bonded emotionally or anything yet which was to be expected nor did he share too much of his past and information about himself with you. Eventually, you both started opening up to each other as you saw each other more often and the weekend approached. He asked if he could bring a couple of his friends over to hang out from his old place of residency and of course you obliged. You got to meet Minhyuk and Jooheon and those three together were total goofballs. 

You enjoyed their company a lot and began to understand Changkyun and his personality more. You didn’t have an emotional bond yet until that fateful night when you felt so distraught that it sent you into a spiral of whirling emotions that couldn’t have been stopped.

-----

It felt like your entire world was collapsing when the stress that you had felt accumulated drastically and looking at your grades, it seemed like you weren’t going to pass your maths class. On top of that, you really missed your family who was on the other side of the world and you missed your friends who you haven’t seen for what seemed like ages. You scrolled past the post of your old group hanging out and felt tears streak down your face. You were experiencing an anxiety attack, something you don’t get too often anymore compared to your days in high school. You stifled back tears and sniffled. 

Suddenly, you heard the door crack open as Changkyun stepped inside your room. You had told him he never needed to knock if he needed anything and to just come in because you were trying to be a very open person. He was only going in to ask you where the blender was kept but it seemed that now he had other priorities over that. “(Y/N), what’s wrong?” he inquired as he stepped closer towards you. You buried your head in between your knees, not knowing what to do or say as you had never been confronted during an anxiety attack. “Talk to me, I’ll listen to you until the end of time,” he comforted as he sat on your bed. You turned your head slightly, tears in your puffy red eyes as you had been crying for awhile. 

As a matter of fact, you normally suffered through these tough periods alone. You never had anybody to comfort you, being an only child and all and living alone, so it did feel odd to have someone who was willing to hear you out. Feeling weak and mentally exhausted, you slowly got up and sat next to him. Wanting physical comfort, you wrapped your arms around his figure for the first time and started to softly shed tears on your shoulder. His warm arms seemed to engulf you and make time stop. You felt your heart rate start to decrease as you sniffled and found your words to begin talking. “I’m sorry Changkyun, I just really miss my family and friends and it seems like they’ve all forgotten about me. I’m not doing the best with my schoolwork and it’s almost the end of the semester. I feel like a failure Changkyun,” you vented as your head remained down, staring at the floor. 

He gently stroked your back and wiped the tears from your eyes. “Listen (Y/N), from the time I’ve known you, I know you’re super hard working and you have to believe in yourself. You’re not going to fail, and y’know, your friends may be experiencing something but you’re living a completely new life here and probably encountering way more than they do. I know you miss them but you wouldn’t be here if you were stuck over there.” Changkyun was so glad to have met you and be in your life. Deep down inside, he already had started to develop feelings after the first couple of weeks of living with you. You embodied so much positivity and optimism, he needed that a lot of the time and you unknowingly brightened up his day. 

“Thank you Kyunnie,” you mumbled, not knowing you accidentally gave him a nickname during now of all times. He felt his chest pounding as he stared at your adorable form, leaning against his and the cute nickname that fell from your lips. He started to accept in that moment that he felt something more than just friendship for you. 

------

Another week or so passed after your break down. You and Changkyun seem closer than ever. You both started adjusting your schedules to one another, wanting to spend more time with each other. The sweet gestures he would do for you practically made your heart melt. You both also started incorporating weekend movie nights with each other, that resulted in you using your TV way more than ever. This weekend just so happened to be horror night, as it was Changkyun’s time to pick. 

You hated horror but would stick it out just for him. You both sat on the couch with comfy blankets draped over the two of you. The movie started to play as the dramatic intense sounds began to surface to life. You were already frightened as you looked up at Changkyun, his eyes intensely entranced into the screen. “Goddamn Kyunnie why did you have to chose this one? You know I absolutely despise clowns and jumpscares,” you mumbled while peeking once at awhile to the movie. 

You felt fear bubbling inside your stomach as another jumpscare lashed out at the both of you. His figure jolted as well, scaring you even more. You gravitated towards him and pretty soon, you were pressed up against his side and burying your head in his shoulder when an unpleasant scene showed up. As if on cue, the lights in your own apartment flickered and completely blackened and so did the TV. Your breath came to a halt as your heart rate quickened by the second. You had power outages before, but from the given atmosphere, it seemed like somebody was playing a prank on you two, and you hated it. You buried your head deep into Changkyun’s side as he held you tighter to him, also atmospherically frightened. 

“K-Kyunnie, I’m fucking terrified right now,” you whispered out, not wanting to look into the depths of your own living room. He tightened his arms around you as if to protect you. “It’s okay, I’m uh, sure the lights will come on, soon…” he trailed off. As if on cue yet again, your apartment lights flickered on and so did the TV. You jolted up out from his arms at that moment and declared,” Okay that’s it, no more for tonight. My heart is weak and I can’t take all of this!” You laughed at your own words and saw his face light up in a smile. 

You turned towards the darkness of your hallway and back at him. You were anxious to admit that you were scared and wanted company through the night. You were not a child but you had a faint heart. You slowly approached him with your head downs and cheeks flushed. “Can I uh, stay with you tonight. I’m… scared,” you confessed. Changkyun’s heart almost jumped out of his chest, he wanted you to himself and in his arms everyday, but was too afraid to confess. “Of course, we can be scared together,” he mused while looking up at you. 

You both made your way back into his room. You were already wearing comfy clothes and didn’t mind sleeping in them. As you slipped into Changkyun’s bed, you were shrouded by his scent and you instantaneously felt comforted. He as well got into bed shortly after you did. His arms snaked around your waist almost instinctively to protect you. You smiled and felt your heart beating quickly. You loved him at this point, but didn’t utter a word about it. Whatever happened in that moment, it felt so right. You were amazed at how close you two have gotten within the past two months of living together, and you felt true happiness in that moment. His slow breathing sent a comfort into the rhythmic atmosphere as you were taken into a deep slumber.

The following morning, you winced as you opened your eyes from the sunlight that you were so used to. You looked around, realizing that you were not even in your own room. A slight moment of confusion engulfed your cranium but you had quickly come to realize that you slept with Changkyun because you were terrified from the movie you two had watched the previous night. Your breath hitched as you couldn't’ believe that you had been so open about your emotions. You looked around for him but he was nowhere to be found. You rolled out of bed with your messy hair and headed towards the kitchen for a drink of water. You saw his figure turned towards the coffee maker and instantly the strong smell of espresso hit your sensory receptors. 

He seemed to have picked up on your presence as he turned around with a gentle smile, something that you loved seeing. “Good morning (Y/N), I hope you slept well. I uh, made some coffee for you. I thought that you’d like that....” he added while feeling a bit shy. Your face gleamed and lit up into a smile. “That’s so sweet Kyunnie, thank you,” you remarked while striding closer towards him. “Sorry about last night by the way, I don’t exactly know what I was thinking,” you apologized while looking a bit flustered. He shook his head as if to dismiss your thoughts. “Don’t worry about it, it was really nice,” he admitted. You felt yourself gravitate towards his form and wrap your arms around him as if to say ‘thank you’. He found himself doing the same while stroking his fingers through your luscious locks and his feelings for you blossoming even more. 

The fact that you two acted like a couple even though you weren’t was already enough for you. You didn’t want to confess and have a possibility of ruining the bond that you two have formed for so long. Sooner or later, if one of you didn’t, you probably had to get yourself to seeing as you didn’t want to wait any longer to officially be his.

-----

 It happened sooner as you would have thought, and in a way completely different as you would have thought. You were getting ready to shower one night and you had gotten so comfortable around your own home and Changkyun as well that you didn’t even bother to head to the washroom with a shirt on. You were just in your bra and panties as you made your way to the washroom. Changkyun had just gotten home as he passed you, just so happening to get a glimpse of you with barely anything on, heading into the washroom. 

He instantly felt his face flush and was thankful that you hadn’t seen him. He always thought that you were attractive and hot. Ever since you two shared intimate moments with each other, he fantasized about having you but of course you had no idea. He kept quiet to himself about personal details and his thoughts most of the time. He quickly headed towards his room and dropped his backpack off while laying on his bed. 

His thoughts kept replying the two seconds he caught a glimpse of you and felt a bulge start forming against his sweats. He could only imagine you in the shower as he started to rub himself with his palm against his pants. He started to softly let out grunts and moans as he thought of you over and over again. Eventually he shedded himself from his pants and palmed himself as he looked at the selfies that you sent him occasionally that he had saved. He pulled down his boxers as his erect cock sprung free, red in colour and dripping from his sensitive tip. He rubbed his finger on his own hard tip, wishing that it was you that was playing with him. He softly moaned your name out and continued doing so as he took hold of his shaft and stroked himself. He didn’t realize the shower water had turned off and still continued to gasp your name out while playing with himself. 

You thought you vaguely heard your name whilst wrapping a towel around your figure. You pushed into Changkyun’s room, wondering if he needed something. You were met with his figure lying on his bed with his hand on his leaky hard member. You gulped as your face flushed and felt heat pooling down to your core. You had imagined him like this before, but never imagined that you would see him in such a vulnerable position. His eyes lustfully stared into yours as he continued to move his hand up and down his rock hard cock. 

“I thought you called me Changkyun, I’ll uh, leave you in peace if you’d like…” you trailed off as he cut you off. “Wouldn’t you rather stay to help me?” he offered lustfully with an airy voice. In all honestly, you really did. You nodded as you dropped your towel, revealing yourself to him as he scooted back and allowed you to climb in between his legs. You lowered your mouth on his shaft as you licked the tip, stimulating him to bits and pieces. He moaned as he thrust into your mouth. You began to take his member whole and bobbed your head up and down his dick, taking it all in. You lifted your head up and began to suck on his tip, tasting his juices leaking out. He let out a soft moan of your name as you felt his cock twitching. You removed your mouth from his needy member. He felt the cold air hit his sensitive organ as your core was dripping and craved his touch second by second. 

“Can I ride you?” you asked lustfully while closing in on his mouth for a kiss. He nodded as your tongue slipped into his warm cavern as your lips interlocked with each other. You placed a hand on his member and directed it towards your wet hole. You lowered your hips and felt him penetrating you easily with how much arousal fluid you had collected while sucking him off. You felt him fully enter you and an immense amount of pleasure surged through your insides. You slowly rocked on him and found a medium paced that you both enjoyed. 

“Mm that’s it baby, you feel so damn good,” he mumbled with a deep voice that turned you on every time you heard it. You felt yourself being more aroused as his cock slipped in and out of you. You felt your core tighten as the wet sounds of your love making filled up the room. You meshed your lips into his again, craving his touch as he gently rubbed your perky breasts, stimulating you more. You felt your climax come quickly as your core started tightening on his cock. You slowed down your movements, taking every single inch of him in and grinded your hips against his. You fell into an orgasmic state as you moaned out,” Kyunnie, I’m gonna cum.” He stared up at you, and you looked breathtaking as you leaned your head back with him inside of you. He felt your walls pulsate against his throbbing member as you released onto him. The warm fluids surrounded his dick as he felt himself thrusting into you, overstimulating you at the same time. “Fuck (Y/N), I can’t hold back much longer,” he confessed while grinding his hips into yours. He reached his orgasm and bucked his hips forcefully into yours as he let himself release his seed into you. 

You both panted heavily as he went to go pull out of you. “W-wait. Can we stay like this, for a little bit longer?” You asked shyly as you stared down at his toned chest. “Y-yeah, I don’t mind,” he replied as he slowly came down from his high, moaning every couple of seconds from the over stimulation he felt from being inside of you. 

“I should’ve told you this a long time ago (Y/N), but I love you. With ever fiber of my being. I wanted you like this for so long. Please, be mine,” he confessed while staring up at your flushed being, taking in every single curve that he could see with his eyes. “I never thought you’d ask. I love you too, you weren’t the only one craving this Kyunnie,” you snickered as you leaned down. Your lips both interlocked again and it felt perfect. He was no longer your roommate, but your best friend and your lover. 

[lovelylogans]

odds are

LORELAI: Oh, come on. This will be fun. LUKE: No way, not happening. LORELAI: But this is our first Halloween together as a full-blown, committed, soon-to-be-married couple. We need to start our own traditions. LUKE: Tell you what. I'll build you the chair, help with the test tubes, and then I'm done. LORELAI: But you would be so scary with smoke coming out of your nose. I really want to see that. LUKE: Well, we're gonna be together the rest of our lives, so odds are you will.

-gilmore girls, twenty-one is the loneliest number

part of the wyliwf verse | read my other fics | coffee?

warnings: dogs, costumes, bittersweet nostalgia, homesickness, loneliness mentions, deceit

pairings: moxiety, logince

words: 4,748

notes: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! we’ve hit the last prompt for 13 days of halloween prompts over at @sanderssidescelebrations​! today’s prompt is costume party! this takes place about two years later after the events of cohabit and about nine months after the events of cocoa—so it’s logan and roman’s freshman year of college and don’t worry the whole Relationship Development and like, Other Developments that get dropped pretty soon in the story will be subject to a oneshot(s) or potentially multichap sideshire files, don’t worry boo i gotchu you can find the various foods mentioned throughout the story here.

seven days

patton has been well aware that halloween is virgil’s favorite holiday. it’s not even their first halloween since they’ve been together or lived together—but virgil’s really stepping it up this year.

“pat.”

patton makes a grumbling kind of noise—patton’s close to drifting off to sleep, which virgil knows, and virgil also knows not to really expect a lot of conversation from patton when he’s near sleep, either waking up or falling asleep—and squints. the only light on in the room is virgil’s phone.

“pat, we forgot to get a costume for cocoa,” virgil says.

patton mumbles something that’s supposed to be “we have a week,” but it comes out garbled. somehow, virgil understands it—it’s probably the almost-nineteen years of knowing him.

“i don’t even have an idea,” virgil says.

“can we figure this out in the morning?” patton mumbles. 

“it’s cocoa’s first halloween.”

“cocoa doesn’t seem to care much right now.”

cocoa is, indeed, flopped out at their feet, snoozing happily away. patton’s kind of jealous.

“but—i don’t have an idea,” virgil says, and patton sighs, adjusting as much as he can without kicking their dog, and ends up flopping most of his body on top of virgil’s torso, pillowing his head on virgil’s shoulder. this also, conveniently, brings virgil’s phone out of his sight.

“sleep now.”

“patton—“

“sleep now,” he repeats in a kind of growl. 

there’s a hesitation. then, the light clicks off, and there’s the sound of virgil’s phone being settled on his bedside table. patton almost smiles, and readjusts, getting comfy.

“...so, like, do you think we should dress her more cute or more scary?” virgil asks tentatively.

patton lets out a huff that’s the closest thing to a snort he can get, when he’s this close to dropping off. “definitely cute,” he mumbles.

“okay,” virgil says. there’s another long pause, and patton’s about to slip off into sleep, before—

“is it too on-the-nose if we dress her up like a cup of cocoa?”

“darling,” patton says, “i love you, and i will super definitely listen to your rambling as you try to narrow down your costume ideas, because that is what fiancés slash almost-husbands should do, but if you do not let me get to sleep there might just be a halloween-themed murder.”

there’s a pause.

“so no to the cup of cocoa idea, then,” virgil says, and patton laughs, pressing a kiss to virgil’s shoulder before he nuzzles against his chest.

“so if we’re thinking cute, then we’ve got a lot of options since she’s pretty ambiguous about clothes, she likes the jacket we put on her when it’s cold out, so that’s not a limit,” virgil muses, and patton falls asleep to the gentle lull of his voice as he talks about dog costume ideas.

...

six days

logan really shouldn’t still be doing this, by now. he’s been at college for nearly three months, now. it only took twenty-one days to form a habit, and it seemed the twenty-one days had snuck up on him, and now—

“hi, dad.”

“hey, kiddo,” his dad says, and logan leans against the wall of his lecture hall, closing his eyes tight. “how’s your day going so far?”

“mostly good,” logan fibs. “i just got done with my history course, so i’m done with classes for the week.”

his dad makes a sound of celebration, and logan smiles, just a little, avoiding the gazes of the anonymous sea of people flooding forth from the lecture hall.

“but i’m going to the library soon,” logan adds, and his dad lets out a familiar sigh.

“well, as long as you’re not overworking yourself,” his dad says.

logan hums, because if he says something about how he’s going to be plotting out an essay that’s due right before thanksgiving break his dad will tell him to take a break and that he can take a weekend to relax, but he absolutely cannot do that. instead, he says, “what plans do you have for the weekend?”

“oh, not much, really,” patton says. “hang around the diner, take cocoa for some really long walks before it gets too cold, try to talk virgil out of turning the front yard into a graveyard for the trick-or-treaters, you know, the usual.”

“trying to talk virgil out of what,” logan says. 

“halloween,” patton says, by way of explanation, and logan makes a noise of understanding.

it’s virgil’s absolute favorite holiday—logan remembers thinking, as a kid, that whenever virgil started getting excited about halloween, it meant his birthday was coming soon—and logan attempts to forcefully quell what absolutely was not disappointment at his first halloween approach away from sideshire. the setup’s half the fun.

“you still don’t know what you’re dressing up as?”

“nope,” his dad says cheerfully. “he insists that all of it’s gonna be a surprise, so—”

“you don’t even have the slightest idea?” logan pushes.

“well, i’m no you,” his dad points out, and laughs when logan sighs.

“are you doing anything fun, this weekend?” his dad asks, and logan ignores the little squirming guilty feeling in his stomach, the same way he always feels when his dad asks the question, and when he answers.

“i think i might go out to dinner with some people on my dorm floor,” logan says vaguely, thinking of the meal that he’ll pack away from the dining hall and eat alone in his room, “or see a movie,” he’ll be making flashcards and quizzing himself over and over and over again, “we haven’t decided yet.”

“oh, that’s great!” his dad says, sounding pleased. “let me know if you see a movie, if it’s good or not, yeah?”

“yeah,” logan says, making a mental note to look up movie reviews in case his dad asks, in their call tomorrow. “how’s work been?”

he leans against the wall, listening to his dad prattle cheerfully on, and he sinks further and further back into the shadows, relishing the autumn chill, the news of home, and the slightest balm that his dad’s voice offers against the gnawing presence of homesickness and loneliness that’s been in his chest since he was left alone in his dorm room for the first time.

...

five days

“hello?”

“hey! hey hey hey hey hey hey. hey.”

“hello. are you drunk?”

“i’m at a halloween party, and i’ve had a couple drinks.”

“mhm.”

“not many! just a couple.”

“of course.”

“a man drunk-dials you one time...”

“it’s been three times, but i’ll allow a pass, since your memory recall is clearly impaired.”

“were you sleeping?”

“no, just reading.”

“s’late. you should be sleeping.”

“roman, why would you have called if you thought i was sleeping?”

“get your logic out of here, i love you and i wanted to check in.”

“ah, okay. have you hit—what was the phrase?”

“...i might be in rambly drunk territory.”

“what a shock.”

“hey.”

“it’s true!”

“seriously, though, what are you doing up? usually you’re all about the whole... getting eight hours of sleep thing. or at least you always tell me to get eight hours of sleep.”

“i have an essay—“

“it’s the weekend.”

“that does not change the fact i have an essay, roman. in fact, it indicates the nearness of the due date. besides, i’m working ahead so i can better focus when we’re both home next week—”

“ugh, fine, fine. i’m sure i’ll remember this when i can more coherently bring a point together to tell you why taking at least one day off a week is better for your mental health and general productivity, but—“

“roman, was there a point to this call?”

“i love you and i wanted to hear your voice.”

“...you’re pouting.”

“am not.”

“are too.”

“am not!”

“are too.”

“am—“

“i’m cutting it off now, or we’ll keep going in circles until the sun rises.”

“fiiiiiine.”

“....are too.”

“hey!”

...

four days

"okay,” virgil says, checking the list that he’s taken off the wall as patton pushes the cart behind him, with the squeak-squeak-squeak of a wheel that needs to be oiled.

usually, when he and patton go grocery shopping, they go to taylor doose’s shop in town, but since they need to get decorations and bags of candy and a ton of other stuff, they’ve driven a little closer to the city so they can go to a bigger grocery store that’s got everything they’ll need.

squeak-squeak-squeak, and virgil glances up at the listings hanging from the ceiling.

“so this is food, and i guess over there might be decorations?”

“mhm,” patton says, squeak-squeak-squeak.

“we’ve gotten candy,” patton had snuck at least three extra bags into the cart and virgil pretended not to see, “we’ve gotten streamers, we got banners, i was thinking about getting some spare fabric in case my idea for cocoa’s costume doesn’t pan out and i have to go to my back-up plan, and we still need to get—”

the squeaking’s stopped. virgil turns back, curious, and sees patton stopped in his path and staring at—

oh.

virgil plods back a few steps, so he’s hovering near patton’s shoulder. patton doesn’t seem to notice, though, as he’s staring at the racks of superhero costumes—from onesies for babies to about the size logan was, when he was seven or so.

“sweetheart,” virgil says, soft and gentle, and patton jumps just a little.

“sorry!” he says, and shakes himself, reaching out a finger as if to brush it against a baby onesie, but thinking better of it, hand curling back toward him. “sorry, sorry, just—i wondered if...”

“yeah?” virgil asks.

“i was just thinking about,” patton says, and swallows. “logan, y’know. when he was this tiny.”

virgil had figured. over the past few months, he’s found patton lost in thought and staring at any number of things—the jam shelf in doose’s grocery, whenever he sees rudy out and about in town, the telescope logan had gotten for his sixteenth birthday that he’d had to reluctantly leave behind since there wouldn’t be enough space for it in his dorm room, any time he passes the press—and it’s just...

it twists at virgil’s heart, every time it happens, a bittersweetness that surges unexpectedly to the surface for him, too—making jam tarts three times a week is an exercise in making sure he doesn’t cry at work, which feels stupid, they’re just tarts, but every time he rolls out dough he thinks of all the times logan had helped him with it, the smiles he’d get whenever virgil snuck him one, and it—

it’s just. hard. kids grow up, and that’s natural, and good, but...

but, well. it didn’t stop the nostalgia.

“do you think he would have been a big superhero fan?” he asks, soft. “if they were as big a market then as they are now.”

patton swallows, leans his head against virgil’s shoulder, just for a moment. “the science ones,” he says softly. “he’d like—he’d like the science ones.”

virgil smiles a little, feeling that familiar lump in his throat. “the reporters, too. he’d have the alliteration thing going, too—lois lane logan. and roman would be superman.”

patton lets out a laugh that’s really closer to a sob, and virgil wants to wrap him up in a long, lingering hug, virgil’s general shyness about public displays of affection be damned, but before he can do that, patton turns. he’s smiling at virgil, just a little, but it’s fake around the edges.

“sorry,” patton says, and swallows. virgil nudges him, just a little.

“he’ll be home soon,” virgil reminds him, soft and quiet.

“i know,” patton murmurs, and a slightly rueful smile twists his lips. “i know, i know. it’s just—”

“i know,” virgil murmurs, and allows himself to lean over and press a chaste kiss to patton’s cheek. “it’s okay to miss him.”

it’s been a common refrain.

“i know.”

that’s been common, too.

“i miss him too,” virgil admits, quiet, and patton squeezes tightly at his wrist, before he takes a deep breath and forcefully turns away from anything resembling a baby clothes section.

“okay,” patton says, and maybe he’s forcing himself to sound a bit brighter and perkier than usual. “what else do we need to get?”

virgil lets it slide, and if he maybe hangs back so that he can hold patton’s hand as they walk through the store—well, patton’s clinging to him tightly enough that it’s clear that he needs it, too.

...

three days

"i’d had no idea you were so fascinated by halloween,” logan comments, from where he’s holding up the banner as dee affixes the other side.

“you think my spooky bitch aesthetic wouldn’t be all over this?” dee says, voice studiously bland.

“well, you were never ‘all over it’ at chilton.”

“you wore those uniforms for three years,” dee says pointedly. “and you know how strict they were with dress code.”

“true,” logan acknowledges, and steps back when dee comes to attach the other edge of the CREEPIN IT REAL banner to the wall. “are you sure you don’t want to come to sideshire?”

“i’d have to visit my parents,” dee says, with an eye-roll. “i have an invite to get wine-drunk with some poetry majors—“

“i thought it was whiskey-drunk with pre-meds?”

“—so i’m afraid i’m booked, and cannot upstage your little boy-toy with my clearly superior costume.”

“it’s roman,” logan says. “you know it’s roman. you got drunk and spilled a lot of your life story with roman, even if it directly conflicts with the varying life stories you’ve told me. you can no longer pretend that you are not on a first-name basis with him.”

“of course, sanders,” dee says, and logan rolls his eyes, before he draws his hand back from the pile of decor.

“um,” he says, and then winces, because dee can detect any sense of uncertainty in anyone’s tone, like a shark smelling blood. 

“what?” dee says, glancing at him.

“would you,” logan says, and his mouth twists, since he knows he can’t pass this off as anything but sentimental. “would you be willing to keep the fake spider webbing to your room?”

dee narrows his eyes at him. “you’re not afraid of spiders.”

“no,” logan agrees, and hands it over, conscientious of the lack of spider webbing in his halloweens all his life—because his dad’s afraid of spiders, and virgil has always catered to him. “but i’d prefer you kept it to your room anyway.”

...

two days

"all right, what’ll it be?” virgil asks, leaning a hip against the counter and readying his pen to write down patton’s order.

“thiiiiiiis whole section,” patton says, outlining the special insert of halloween-themed foods with his pointer finger. “oh, and a hot cocoa/coffee, too.”

“patton.”

“c’mon, pleeaaase?” patton pleads, batting his eyelashes at virgil. “i’ve barely tried any of them, and you only do it once a year—”

“you won’t be able to eat all that,” virgil starts.

“sample sizes, then,” patton says. “little bits of everything.”

virgil pauses.

“you can control my portions, that way,” patton points out. “and i’ll be taste-testing everything, and i won’t be wasting food. win-win.”

virgil hesitates, tapping the pen. “bigger serving of the butternut squash risotto, so you’ll have an actual meal, a side of vegetables of my choice that you’ll eat, and only one cup of caffeinated hot cocoa/coffee, it’s already late in the day.”

patton beams at him, handing him back the menu. “you’re the best.”

“yeah, yeah,” virgil mutters, and patton blows him a kiss, just for extra measure.

virgil rolls his eyes, trying to act like he’s not grinning like a lovestruck idiot, and retreats back into the kitchen to stick the ticket into the deck.

“i really should make a halloween sampler platter next year,” virgil muses aloud, and taps the idea into his phone for later, so he remembers it, before he starts readying patton’s dinner—caramel apple slices, cheesy spiders, monster pizza bites, mummy jalepeño poppers, spooky spinach dip in a bread bowl cauldron, a saucy spider, ghost toast. he adds on a couple decorated cookies that he’ll default are part of the menu, if patton teases him about it.

and, when patton makes the same happy noises that he always does whenever he eats anything that virgil makes him, well. if he’s smiling to himself as he clears out the coffee filters, then it’s no one’s business but his.

...

one day

“i got it,” virgil says triumphantly.

“got what?” patton says absently, taking out the various kinds of candy they’d bought earlier in the week to put into various bowls.

“cocoa’s costume,” virgil says. “i got it.”

“yeah?” patton says, glancing up at him and grinning. “can i see?”

“nope,” virgil says, and drops a kiss to the top of his head, before he drops into the opposite chair at the kitchen table. “but it is very cute, and it ties in with ours.”

“which i’m also not supposed to know about,” patton says.

“exactly,” virgil says, and he frowns at the bags of candy. “are we mixing or sorting or...?”

“stuff with nuts in red, stuff that’s allergen-safe in blue,” patton says, gesturing to the bowls. 

“got it,” virgil says, tugging a bag full of fun-size skittles toward him. 

cocoa, loyally, takes up her regular seat under the dining table, where she begs for scraps, and patton laughs, reaching down to pet her, tousling her fur and sending her ears flopping.

“no, cocoa, honey,” patton says, smiling, “no candy for you.”

cocoa, however, lives in eternal hope, so she sets her chin on his thigh and lets out a little sigh.

patton does sneakily pop a fun-size snickers into his mouth, though, because he’s an adult and he can eat candy if he wants. 

and a milky way. and a three musketeers. and a reese’s. and—

“it’s cute you think i don’t notice you doing that,” virgil says, not looking up from where he’s opening another bag of candy, and patton smiles at him, only a little guilty, as he tosses a handful of m&ms into his mouth.

“aw, babe,” patton teases, “you think i’m cute?”

virgil looks up at him, fond and jokingly exasperated all at once. “we’re literally engaged.”

“yeah, but,” patton says, and grins wider. “you think i’m cu-ute.”

virgil huffs, before he leans over the table, standing, to press a kiss to patton’s lips, and patton can’t stop smiling for long enough to let him do it properly.

virgil doesn’t seem to mind all that much.

...

halloween

"okay,” virgil says, and hands over a vast bunch of black fabric. patton accepts it with eager hands.

“my costume?”

“your costume,” virgil confirms. “i figured i’d do some makeup too, as we’re waiting for trick-or-treaters, if that’s cool with you.”

patton makes a distracted sound of agreement as he unfolds it—he can’t quite unparse what it is right now, but it’s virgil-made in both idea and fabric-wise, so he’s sure he’ll love it.

“okay,” patton says, and presses a kiss to his cheek. “i’ll change and take the first shift of babies trick-or-treating while you and cocoa get everything ready for the party, yeah?”

“yeah,” virgil says, looking pleased, and patton ducks into the bathroom, untangling the fabric.

it’s a black shirt, a black jacket, black pants—they all have feathery-looking accents, subtle and yet so clear, and patton tilts his head at it, trying to figure it out. it’s some kind of bird, definitely, but—

patton shrugs, and tugs it on, before he stares at himself in the mirror—it’s a bit low-cut, front-wise, but there’s threads criss-crossing in the front to seal it up, so he does. there’s a long, duster-type coat that patton really likes and might wear regularly, too, since the feather stuff is maybe subtle enough to pass off in the middle of the regular season. 

“do you have a shoe preference?” patton hollers through the bathroom door.

“black ones!” virgil calls back. 

“is this a sneak method to make me look goth?” he calls, and he can hear virgil’s snort through the door. 

“just for today,” he calls.

“am i a crow?”

“raven, actually, but there’s a specific one, you’ll realize it soon enough,” virgil says, and patton opens the door to see virgil gathering up his own swaths of dark fabric in his arms, cocoa sitting politely at his feet. patton does a little spin to show off.

virgil smiles, and presses a kiss to the top of his head. “you look great.”

“thanks,” patton says, and flaps his arms, and the duster makes it look like wings. “i really like this coat.”

virgil’s smile turns a bit more pleased. “thanks.”

“okay,” patton decides, and makes some last-minute adjustments, making sure his costume sits on him right, and virgil reaches out to correct his collar. “i’ll go out on the porch, just come on out when you and cocoa are ready, yeah?”

he presses a kiss to virgil’s lips, and the last thing he sees is virgil ducking down to cocoa’s level, unearthing a dress-looking thing.

he tries to brainstorm what it is, even as he gives out generous handfuls of candy to the tiny, toddling members of sideshire—mostly toddler-aged kids, at this time, so they don’t have to stay up late—exclaiming over mermaids and superheroes and princesses and witches and ghosts and video game characters, winking at them when he slips them extra.

when their parents ask after him, what exactly he is, he simply shrugs, beaming, before sending the kids on to the next house.

the sun’s just dipped below the horizon when he hears the door open, and the familiar click-click-click of cocoa’s nails on hardwood, then on the porch.

patton whistles lowly, and pats his lap, craning his neck to see her.

she does, indeed, look very cute. patton had been right—it had been a dress, with a kind of vest, maybe, and a tiara nestled amongst the fake flowers on her head that’s already knocked askew.

“you look so cute, baby girl!” patton gushes, getting onto his knees, all the better to pet cocoa without dislodging her costume and to adjust her tiara—it’s ringing a bell in his head, what exactly she is, but he can’t quite put his finger on it.

that is, until—

“the princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her,” virgil’s voice rumbles, and patton looks up and immediately feels his mouth go dry. “but, before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. or, uh. prick her paw, i guess.”

patton makes a noise that kind of sounds like guh?

virgil is... wow. he’s dressed in sweeping black robes that make him look taller and slimmer than he already is, imposing, somehow, absolutely towering over everything in sight. the robes have a v neck and a pointed, sharp collar that brings attention to the horns emerging from his head. his cheekbones are absolutely chiseled, his lips ruby red, his skin pale and smooth and flawless, his hair—what peeked forth from the horns, anyway—dark and lush and just begging for patton to run his fingers through it.

there’s only peeks of skin—his hands, his neck, a bit of his chest, his face, of course—but he looks so...

patton tries to swallow as he rises to his feet, mouth slightly agape.

virgil’s lips—so red, so full—quirk, and he adjusts his robes, looking self-conscious. “it doesn’t look that bad, does it?” he asks cautiously.

patton reaches up, and scratches lightly through the thin, delicate hairs at the nape of virgil’s neck. he shivers.

and then patton tugs virgil down to his level, and tries his best to kiss him absolutely silly. he threads his fingers through whatever bits of virgil’s hair he can grab, tugging him close, the other closing possessively over virgil’s hip and he just pulls him in, as hot and close and tight as he possibly can, and virgil’s lips part under his and he tastes like snuck chocolate and caramel and nougat, and he bites at virgil’s lip, almost half-hoping it’ll taste like what the color reminds him of—candy-coated apples.

when patton manages to let go of him, once he’s at least a little satisfied his emotions on virgil’s costumes have been almost-adequately conveyed, he leans back to see virgil’s slightly-smeared lip gloss that sends a thrill up patton’s spine.

“oh,” virgil says breathlessly.

“yeah,” patton says, grinning, “oh.”

somehow, they manage to haul out the two rocking chairs and sit out on the porch for the express purpose of ease of access for trick-or-treaters without patton getting distracted, though he does, for most of the rest of the time they wait for the ebb and flow of floods of kids, keep a hand on virgil’s knee, occasionally squeezing virgil’s thigh.

virgil flushes, just a bit, behind his makeup. he ends up fixing up his lips, and making sure that there aren’t any remnants on patton’s face that give away what they’d been doing, lest any of the children ask why maleficent had been kissing her raven, diaval, as they looked up from petting sleeping beauty.

and, as the promised time inches closer and closer, patton can’t stop himself from fidgeting, and virgil snickers.

“excited?” he teases.

“don’t pretend you haven’t planned out all of logan’s favorite meals for the weekend,” patton says, unable to stop his own smile at the thought—since logan’s birthday is on sunday, he’s come home early with one of the default absences that his lecture professor on friday’s given him, and roman’s coming home, too, so the kids will be around and they might have a big dinner with isadora (and probably one with his parents) but he’ll be able to spend time with his son. 

their daily phone calls are great, true, but he’s missed just hanging out with logan—their companionable silences, seeing his son furrow his brow with interest when he reads a book or an article, the meaningful, wordless quirks of his brow or twists of his lips that patton’s spent eighteen-almost-nineteen years deciphering—so he’s just. he’s really excited.

when the first guests come—emile and remy, dressed up as steven and connie—patton welcomes them perhaps a bit too eagerly as cocoa barks, tail wagging wildly, and patton tries to correct her tiara again. 

he throws himself into hosting as virgil handles the last of the trick-or-treaters that’ll be face-to-face—he makes sure their spooky cauldrons of punch are full, that the platters of themed snacks that virgil had spent most of the day preparing (and mostly preventing patton from eating) are out from the fridge and ferried about the room, and that everyone is having a good time, that he greets everyone and exclaims over their costumes, before—

cocoa starts barking excitedly from the porch, and patton grins, setting down the platter on the nearest available surface and dashing for the door, half-hanging off the ledge in order to see virgil letting logan out of a hug, and tugging roman into an awkward, one-armed kind of thing.

“kiddo!” patton says eagerly, and wraps his arms tightly around logan’s shoulders. logan tolerates it with something less than his usual stiffness—he hugs him back, and patton draws back to grin at him.

“happy halloween.”

“happy halloween,” logan repeats, and patton takes a look at him. he’s wearing a suit, and a dapper hat, and he’s holding a candy cigarette between his fingers, the box with the rest of them tucked away in his breast pocket.

“who—?”

“walter burns, from his girl friday.”

patton snorts, just a bit, because of course logan stuck so stubbornly to his interests for a halloween costume, before he looks for roman—who has matched with logan, as hildy johnson, because last year they’d dressed up as two prince charmings and it’s logan’s year to pick—and hooks him into a hug, too.

“i tried convincing him to do black-and-white makeup, but he wouldn’t go for it,” roman says.

“we were already running late,” logan begins, and they barely pause in their bickering to pet cocoa—patton’s given up in keeping her tiara and flowers straight on her head—before they disappear inside, and patton turns to virgil, grinning.

“happy halloween,” virgil says, and leans down to kiss him on the cheek, and patton beams up at him.

“happy halloween.”

(patton doesn’t wash off the bright red lip print on his cheek until he’s getting ready for bed that night.)

[un-ness-essary]

How to Improve College Writing Skills Fast and Easily

Check out https://duranbooks.org/how-to-improve-college-writing-skills-fast-and-easily/

How to Improve College Writing Skills Fast and Easily

Writing is a mandatory part of the life of students. You can’t avoid writing tasks when you enter an educational institution. There are always different kinds of assignments. And one should find the methods to cope with them at a good level to keep up with a good academic performance. It may be a real struggle for students who aren’t into writing. If you don’t like writing tasks and need some help, ordering a paper from a cheap but reliable paper writing company is a perfect choice. When you try AffordablePapers help, you can figure out the benefits of the work online. It’s a truly effective way to reduce the tension from the scheduled tasks.

How to Improve Writing Skills: An Easy Guide for Students

College life is filled with different activities. However, it still includes studying routine. And you should work on the tasks to make it a good experience. In many cases, it’s quite complicated to manage the assignments. Thankfully, there are working tips that will make you feel better about your studying routine.

Make It a Schedule

When you have so many things on your daily agenda, it’s quite complicated to find the time for some improvement tasks. If you want to get better at writing, you need time for it. It’s not enough to dedicate an hour per week. It must be a regular activity to help it work the way it should. Your major task is to create a schedule according to your daily routine. If you struggle to sit and write for a long time, you can make these sessions shorter. But they need to be regular.

Read More

You may wonder how reading may improve your writing skills. There’s a clear relation. You can’t be good at writing unless you read a lot and enrich your vocabulary with the necessary word combination. Reading has a lot of advantages. If you decide to learn how to write better, it’s time to start reading more:

When reading, you can enjoy the time with a book while still working on your vocabulary. To write at the highest level, you need to have the necessary number of active words to use in your works. If you have a restrained vocabulary, you won’t be able to discuss the topic and reveal your thoughts the way you want them to sound.

Another great benefit from the reading activity is your number of ideas. When you read a book, you make your brain work differently. You can get inspiration from other authors and perceive the same situations from a different perspective.

If you don’t want to make it a separate task, you can read a book. By reading a book, you can combine several tasks at the same time.

Reading is great. And you should try it. First, you can start with some regular stories that you like. Then you can move to some specialized literature.

Work on Your Practical Skills

If you want to be good at argumentative essays, you need to train your skills. There are two basic ways you may try to make it a better routine:

First of all, you should practice your writing through writing. Take a couple of topics and discuss them, in the writing form. You need to offer the arguments and counter opinions to make it good writing.

Another method is to communicate with others. To be good at argumentation, you should try yourself in different situations. The more topics you discuss with others, the better you can feel about writing the text.

To be confident, one should perform a high level of proficiency. Skills come with experience. And the more you try and work on them, the better you are in the end. You may like our ebook The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College Writing for Life (4th Edition) in PDF.

Make It a Pleasant Routine

If you don’t like writing, but want to make it a part of your daily routine, you need to find a great place to feel comfortable when writing. Here are some tips if you find it difficult to work from your room desk.

You can work on campus or in the library. If you find it uncomfortable to work from home, you can always find a more suitable place. The library will be a nice alternative to the bedroom. You can find your friends there and manage the tasks together.

If you don’t like the perspective of working in the library, you can choose a coffee shop. There are lots of different places you may go and work.

Finally, you can make your room a perfect place for writing practice. If you choose the necessary decoration with good lighting and set yourself in a good mood, it will give a nice result.

It’s important to have a nice place to work on your skills. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable place, it’s time to change it. One way or another, you have the chance to find yourself a truly cool place to work on your writing expertise. If you don’t mind the noise, you can go to the coffee shop or spend your time elsewhere. You can also ask your friend to join you if you find the training process a bit uninteresting. There are always lots of options for students who look for opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Writing is cool. If you know how to put your thoughts together, you can be a convincing person. But to write at a good level you need to practice a lot. In many cases, you don’t find the time or place to work on your writing skills. However, writing is crucial when you study. You have to deal with so many different tasks. And the way you write can define your success in the academic and other spheres. For this reason, it’s best to learn the working tips and write better. Or there’s another case. You can order a paper from the online platform and get yourself a well-developed paper as an option. The choice is yours.

[aaronsniderus]

Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget

As the sun sets on yet another school year, this year’s set of seniors prepare for a big milestone: high school graduation. But while these students may have just finished up the last exams and essays of their high school careers, the adults in their lives are preparing for their own, sometimes equally as stressful, milestone: the high school graduation party.

While you may have heard of folks going all out with extravagant (read: expensive) bashes with catered food, paid entertainment and fully stocked bars, rest assured that a low-key (read: low-cost) get-together will be just as memorable, while not hitting your budget too hard. Remember, it’s about your grad getting to bask in their accomplishment with the people they love, not about how much you spend on streamers.

Here’s some ideas for how to throw a grad party for the ages without breaking the bank, including ideas for some fun, budget-friendly themes that your grad will love.

The Basics

No matter what kind of grad party you’re throwing, there are a few things you’re going to want to consider early on in your planning process.

The Who

Figuring out who is invited to your grad party is an obvious first step because it will help you figure out what type of party you’re going to throw. Is it going to be a small, family affair? A shorter-lived, evening party with a little more structure, like having planned activities and a set meal time, might be a better fit for a small guest list where everybody knows each other really well. Did your grad send out a Facebook invite to their entire graduating class? An all-day, open house-style shindig is probably a better bet, as people will be steaming in and out and grazing at their leisure.

It’s acceptable to invite most of your guests via social media. However, you can have a few invitations printed to send in the mail. CVS offers some nice-looking options for as little as 99 cents each (with a minimum order of 20 cards). For an even cheaper option, Microsoft Office has all kinds of free Word templates available online that allow you to create an invitation on your computer.

The number of people you invite will obviously be a big determining factor in how much money you end up spending; a larger guest list will mean, at the very least, more money spent on food and drinks. It could also mean the difference between having the party in your backyard and having to rent out a space.

The Where

Having your grad party at your home, or the home of a nearby relative, is a great way to keep costs low. If you have a large guest list and need a big area, it might be a good idea to look into renting out a spot at the local park for the day, which can be cheaper than a private venue. Beware, though: Not only will you want to check the weather, but you’ll also want to look at your city’s rules for having events in public spaces. Depending on where you live, you might have to pay for a permit.

If you’re having the party at home, consider where the main hangout spot will be. If it’s in the backyard, do you have adequate shade if it gets too hot? Will you rent a tent for people to hang under? Do you have enough tables and seating, or will you need to rent that, too? If it rains or is unseasonably cold, do you have enough room inside to accommodate everyone?

Renting an indoor space helps avoid some of the what-ifs on the day of the party, but by being prepared and having a contingency plan, you can plan for the what-ifs yourself while potentially saving hundreds of dollars.

The When

Talk to your grad to find out when everyone else is throwing their parties. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure that your date doesn’t conflict with that of any of their closest friends.

If you’re having an open house, you’ll want to have a larger party window, like from noon to 5:00 p.m. This could also end up working to your advantage if you have a huge guest list, as you won’t have every single invitee in your living room at the same time.

The Eats (and Drinks)

Food is where your grad party can start to get pricey, so you’ll want to either budget a little bit more money for this category or prepare to be flexible and maybe even cook the food yourself.

The food you serve doesn’t necessarily have to be something fancy. If you’re having the party in your backyard, you can serve the simple and cheap staples of barbecue cuisine: hotdogs and hamburgers.

If you won’t have the time to tend to the grill during the event, grocery stores often have party trays that do the work for you. However, you can save a little money by making this food yourself, with minimum prep time required. If you want to serve sandwiches, set out buns and put together a tray with a variety of deli meats and cheeses.

Same goes for fruit or veggie trays. Buy the produce yourself and on the day of the party, cut it up into bite-size pieces and place it on a platter. Cheaper and fresher.

For dessert, don’t feel the need to get a fancy bakery cake if you’re having a big party; a sheet cake from your local grocery store will feed a lot of people at a low cost, and can be just as tasty. If you’re a big-box store member, their bakery section has reasonably priced sheet cakes. If your grad isn’t a big cake person, you might be able to save a little bit of money by opting for a cookie tray instead.

For beverages, buy two-liters of soda rather than cans, and put a marker by the cups so people can write their names on their cups and not lose track of their drinks. To save yourself the cost of water bottles (and the hassle of having to recycle a bunch of half-empty bottles scattered around your property), put out several pitchers of ice water. And make sure to have plenty of ice.

Now for the big question: Will you serve alcohol?

You don’t have to. Alcohol is expensive, and it might not be a good idea if you’re going to have a lot of underage guests. You can always have some beer and a few bottles of wine if you’re so inclined, but don’t feel like you’re a bad host for not having a fully stocked open bar at a high school grad party.

If you do serve alcohol, first make sure your grad understands what the expectations are. What are you going to do if they or one of their friends is helping themselves behind your back? You may think it’s not a big deal, but you could potentially face serious legal consequences by allowing minors to drink on your property.

To save money on booze, check out your local wholesale club. Sam’s Club allows nonmembers to purchase alcohol at the same low price as members at all locations. Depending on the state you live in, other similar chains might do the same.

Not sure how much food and drink you’ll need? Here’s a helpful guide.

The Mood

For cheap and easy decorations, discount stores are your friend. Depending on your theme, you might need to hit up a party supplies store for specific items, but you’ll probably be able to do most of your decoration shopping here, at an extremely low cost.

Colorful crepe paper streamers are a great way to liven up an area and are easy to put up and take down. Dollar Tree also sells a variety of fun centerpieces, including this graduation themed one.

In addition to decorations, you’re going to want to have something that all the party-goers can sign and write well-wishes on. For a cheap and DIY option, try this: Buy a big, inexpensive picture frame and have everyone sign the glass in colorful permanent marker or paint pen. Snap a group picture of your grad with all their guests. Have the picture printed in the size of the frame and your grad will have a memorable gift to take with them on their next step in life.

For music, hook up your phone to a Bluetooth speaker (if you don’t already have one, Amazon has some cheap options) and have some party tunes playing in the background. Apps like Spotify and Pandora have a ton of playlists for every mood and type of party. You could also personalize it and create your own playlist, utilizing some of your grad’s favorite songs.

Activities can be theme-specific or just a couple of general fun things for your guests to enjoy. If it’s an open house, having a couple of games will help entertain your guests. Have a game table with a few board games set out for people to use, or drag your cornhole set out of storage.

Theme Inspiration

To throw a truly kick-butt party, you’ve got to have a fun theme. Here are five ideas to get you started.

Ode to Your Alma Mater

Image: hwtm.com

Having your theme centered around your grad’s high school is a clever way to throw a budget-friendly grad party because the decorating for it is so simple. Just use their high school’s colors for inspiration.

Buy napkins in their school’s colors, shuffle them together and then fan them out in front of your food trays. It looks nice, and it’s cheap and low effort. Win-win.

Dollar Tree allows you to search party supplies by color, so you can cheaply stock up on plates, plastic utensils, cups, table covers and crepe paper for decorating.

Put out bowls of appropriately colored candy for a snack that doubles as decoration.

The Adventure Begins

Image: CatchMyParty.com

  This theme is based around the grad’s future plans, so the decorations are going to vary depending on your grad. If you’re crafty, you can do hyper-specific decorations without having to pay a lot.

Are they heading to college? Utilize their university’s colors in your decorating.

Are they taking a gap year to travel? Display pictures of the places they’ll be visiting. If you want to have a little fun with it, take a picture of them and tape a cutout of their body onto the pictures.

Decorate based on their planned career. If they’re on the pre-law path, take construction paper and trace gavel shapes, then cut them out and tape them on the walls. Or tape construction paper fins and tails to balloons and hang them with blue streamers for your aspiring marine biologist. If they’ve already got a job lined up, use that for inspiration. If they’re going to be repairing bikes in a bike shop, make bicycle-shaped construction paper cutouts.

If they’ve already been working and are transitioning from a part-time to a full-time position, use this as the theme. For example, if they work at the library, decorate with the grad’s favorite books.

Bake cupcakes and decorate them according to the theme.

A History Of

Image: StyleMePretty.com

This will be one of the easier and cheaper themes to decorate for because you’ve likely been gathering materials for it their entire life. I’m talking, of course, about family photos. Make the party a shrine to your grad.

Create a visual timeline of their life by hanging up pictures in chronological order, from the days of smearing birthday cake all over their high chairs to their last first day of school. WholesalePartySupplies.com even has a garland specifically for this purpose; just pop in their yearbook photo from each grade.

Create a collage of all their earliest artwork – finger painting, stick family portraits and the like.

Since they are the theme, consider putting together a platter of your grad’s favorite foods. If there’s a specific snack they’ve enjoyed over the years, include it as a special plate on the food table. Snacks such as ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins) and animal crackers are cheap to prepare and will likely bring back some memories.

For a fun activity, have a trivia game based around the grad. You can find pre-made card sets available online. “Who Knows the Graduate Best” is good for this, but you can easily make your own instead.

All Those Extracurriculars

Image: KarasPartyIdeas.com

For the grads whose high school experience was defined by their after-school activities, pay homage to the groups they’ll be saying goodbye to.

Use any keepsakes they have. This could mean hanging up all their play posters, putting out the binder where you keep all their clippings from the school newspaper, or even setting up a small table with their letter jacket laid out on display and a couple of action shots from their time on the tennis team.

Make the party activities specific to their extracurriculars. If they and their friends were in choir, set up a karaoke machine. If your grad’s fellow teammates will all be at the party, put out a game that’s specific to their sport, like a mini basketball hoop that can be hung on the door.

Have an academic superstar? Use any trophies or certificates they may have won as wall decorations, or make a collage of all their elementary school report cards. If they are a math whiz, set out a chalkboard with some unsolved equations, and challenge your guests to solve it. If you’d rather have a keepsake, have everyone sign the chalkboard and seal the writing by spraying aerosol hairspray on it.

You’re a Shining Star

Image:LemonadeAndLenses.com

This one is good for grads who have made significant achievements, such as being on the honor roll, being awarded an academic scholarship, earning a sports award or have become active participants in their community.

Display any awards or certificates they’ve received throughout the years. Maybe create a space on the wall for all their academic milestones, from their first A+ report card to the letter of acceptance into their dream school. Put up news clippings from the local paper that include pictures of their volunteer work.

Use all manner of shiny, sparkly and star themed decorations. Sprinkle star-shaped confetti along your tablecloths or use spray adhesive and dip filled balloons in gold glitter.

There’s plenty of songs out there about shining stars, counting stars, starships and the like, so this party is perfect for a theme-specific playlist.

Have advice on throwing a stellar graduation party on a budget? Let us know in the comments!

The post Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/throwing-graduation-party-budget

[aaltjebarisca]

Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget

As the sun sets on yet another school year, this year’s set of seniors prepare for a big milestone: high school graduation. But while these students may have just finished up the last exams and essays of their high school careers, the adults in their lives are preparing for their own, sometimes equally as stressful, milestone: the high school graduation party.

While you may have heard of folks going all out with extravagant (read: expensive) bashes with catered food, paid entertainment and fully stocked bars, rest assured that a low-key (read: low-cost) get-together will be just as memorable, while not hitting your budget too hard. Remember, it’s about your grad getting to bask in their accomplishment with the people they love, not about how much you spend on streamers.

Here’s some ideas for how to throw a grad party for the ages without breaking the bank, including ideas for some fun, budget-friendly themes that your grad will love.

The Basics

No matter what kind of grad party you’re throwing, there are a few things you’re going to want to consider early on in your planning process.

The Who

Figuring out who is invited to your grad party is an obvious first step because it will help you figure out what type of party you’re going to throw. Is it going to be a small, family affair? A shorter-lived, evening party with a little more structure, like having planned activities and a set meal time, might be a better fit for a small guest list where everybody knows each other really well. Did your grad send out a Facebook invite to their entire graduating class? An all-day, open house-style shindig is probably a better bet, as people will be steaming in and out and grazing at their leisure.

It’s acceptable to invite most of your guests via social media. However, you can have a few invitations printed to send in the mail. CVS offers some nice-looking options for as little as 99 cents each (with a minimum order of 20 cards). For an even cheaper option, Microsoft Office has all kinds of free Word templates available online that allow you to create an invitation on your computer.

The number of people you invite will obviously be a big determining factor in how much money you end up spending; a larger guest list will mean, at the very least, more money spent on food and drinks. It could also mean the difference between having the party in your backyard and having to rent out a space.

The Where

Having your grad party at your home, or the home of a nearby relative, is a great way to keep costs low. If you have a large guest list and need a big area, it might be a good idea to look into renting out a spot at the local park for the day, which can be cheaper than a private venue. Beware, though: Not only will you want to check the weather, but you’ll also want to look at your city’s rules for having events in public spaces. Depending on where you live, you might have to pay for a permit.

If you’re having the party at home, consider where the main hangout spot will be. If it’s in the backyard, do you have adequate shade if it gets too hot? Will you rent a tent for people to hang under? Do you have enough tables and seating, or will you need to rent that, too? If it rains or is unseasonably cold, do you have enough room inside to accommodate everyone?

Renting an indoor space helps avoid some of the what-ifs on the day of the party, but by being prepared and having a contingency plan, you can plan for the what-ifs yourself while potentially saving hundreds of dollars.

The When

Talk to your grad to find out when everyone else is throwing their parties. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure that your date doesn’t conflict with that of any of their closest friends.

If you’re having an open house, you’ll want to have a larger party window, like from noon to 5:00 p.m. This could also end up working to your advantage if you have a huge guest list, as you won’t have every single invitee in your living room at the same time.

The Eats (and Drinks)

Food is where your grad party can start to get pricey, so you’ll want to either budget a little bit more money for this category or prepare to be flexible and maybe even cook the food yourself.

The food you serve doesn’t necessarily have to be something fancy. If you’re having the party in your backyard, you can serve the simple and cheap staples of barbecue cuisine: hotdogs and hamburgers.

If you won’t have the time to tend to the grill during the event, grocery stores often have party trays that do the work for you. However, you can save a little money by making this food yourself, with minimum prep time required. If you want to serve sandwiches, set out buns and put together a tray with a variety of deli meats and cheeses.

Same goes for fruit or veggie trays. Buy the produce yourself and on the day of the party, cut it up into bite-size pieces and place it on a platter. Cheaper and fresher.

For dessert, don’t feel the need to get a fancy bakery cake if you’re having a big party; a sheet cake from your local grocery store will feed a lot of people at a low cost, and can be just as tasty. If you’re a big-box store member, their bakery section has reasonably priced sheet cakes. If your grad isn’t a big cake person, you might be able to save a little bit of money by opting for a cookie tray instead.

For beverages, buy two-liters of soda rather than cans, and put a marker by the cups so people can write their names on their cups and not lose track of their drinks. To save yourself the cost of water bottles (and the hassle of having to recycle a bunch of half-empty bottles scattered around your property), put out several pitchers of ice water. And make sure to have plenty of ice.

Now for the big question: Will you serve alcohol?

You don’t have to. Alcohol is expensive, and it might not be a good idea if you’re going to have a lot of underage guests. You can always have some beer and a few bottles of wine if you’re so inclined, but don’t feel like you’re a bad host for not having a fully stocked open bar at a high school grad party.

If you do serve alcohol, first make sure your grad understands what the expectations are. What are you going to do if they or one of their friends is helping themselves behind your back? You may think it’s not a big deal, but you could potentially face serious legal consequences by allowing minors to drink on your property.

To save money on booze, check out your local wholesale club. Sam’s Club allows nonmembers to purchase alcohol at the same low price as members at all locations. Depending on the state you live in, other similar chains might do the same.

Not sure how much food and drink you’ll need? Here’s a helpful guide.

The Mood

For cheap and easy decorations, discount stores are your friend. Depending on your theme, you might need to hit up a party supplies store for specific items, but you’ll probably be able to do most of your decoration shopping here, at an extremely low cost.

Colorful crepe paper streamers are a great way to liven up an area and are easy to put up and take down. Dollar Tree also sells a variety of fun centerpieces, including this graduation themed one.

In addition to decorations, you’re going to want to have something that all the party-goers can sign and write well-wishes on. For a cheap and DIY option, try this: Buy a big, inexpensive picture frame and have everyone sign the glass in colorful permanent marker or paint pen. Snap a group picture of your grad with all their guests. Have the picture printed in the size of the frame and your grad will have a memorable gift to take with them on their next step in life.

For music, hook up your phone to a Bluetooth speaker (if you don’t already have one, Amazon has some cheap options) and have some party tunes playing in the background. Apps like Spotify and Pandora have a ton of playlists for every mood and type of party. You could also personalize it and create your own playlist, utilizing some of your grad’s favorite songs.

Activities can be theme-specific or just a couple of general fun things for your guests to enjoy. If it’s an open house, having a couple of games will help entertain your guests. Have a game table with a few board games set out for people to use, or drag your cornhole set out of storage.

Theme Inspiration

To throw a truly kick-butt party, you’ve got to have a fun theme. Here are five ideas to get you started.

Ode to Your Alma Mater

Image: hwtm.com

Having your theme centered around your grad’s high school is a clever way to throw a budget-friendly grad party because the decorating for it is so simple. Just use their high school’s colors for inspiration.

Buy napkins in their school’s colors, shuffle them together and then fan them out in front of your food trays. It looks nice, and it’s cheap and low effort. Win-win.

Dollar Tree allows you to search party supplies by color, so you can cheaply stock up on plates, plastic utensils, cups, table covers and crepe paper for decorating.

Put out bowls of appropriately colored candy for a snack that doubles as decoration.

The Adventure Begins

Image: CatchMyParty.com

  This theme is based around the grad’s future plans, so the decorations are going to vary depending on your grad. If you’re crafty, you can do hyper-specific decorations without having to pay a lot.

Are they heading to college? Utilize their university’s colors in your decorating.

Are they taking a gap year to travel? Display pictures of the places they’ll be visiting. If you want to have a little fun with it, take a picture of them and tape a cutout of their body onto the pictures.

Decorate based on their planned career. If they’re on the pre-law path, take construction paper and trace gavel shapes, then cut them out and tape them on the walls. Or tape construction paper fins and tails to balloons and hang them with blue streamers for your aspiring marine biologist. If they’ve already got a job lined up, use that for inspiration. If they’re going to be repairing bikes in a bike shop, make bicycle-shaped construction paper cutouts.

If they’ve already been working and are transitioning from a part-time to a full-time position, use this as the theme. For example, if they work at the library, decorate with the grad’s favorite books.

Bake cupcakes and decorate them according to the theme.

A History Of

Image: StyleMePretty.com

This will be one of the easier and cheaper themes to decorate for because you’ve likely been gathering materials for it their entire life. I’m talking, of course, about family photos. Make the party a shrine to your grad.

Create a visual timeline of their life by hanging up pictures in chronological order, from the days of smearing birthday cake all over their high chairs to their last first day of school. WholesalePartySupplies.com even has a garland specifically for this purpose; just pop in their yearbook photo from each grade.

Create a collage of all their earliest artwork – finger painting, stick family portraits and the like.

Since they are the theme, consider putting together a platter of your grad’s favorite foods. If there’s a specific snack they’ve enjoyed over the years, include it as a special plate on the food table. Snacks such as ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins) and animal crackers are cheap to prepare and will likely bring back some memories.

For a fun activity, have a trivia game based around the grad. You can find pre-made card sets available online. “Who Knows the Graduate Best” is good for this, but you can easily make your own instead.

All Those Extracurriculars

Image: KarasPartyIdeas.com

For the grads whose high school experience was defined by their after-school activities, pay homage to the groups they’ll be saying goodbye to.

Use any keepsakes they have. This could mean hanging up all their play posters, putting out the binder where you keep all their clippings from the school newspaper, or even setting up a small table with their letter jacket laid out on display and a couple of action shots from their time on the tennis team.

Make the party activities specific to their extracurriculars. If they and their friends were in choir, set up a karaoke machine. If your grad’s fellow teammates will all be at the party, put out a game that’s specific to their sport, like a mini basketball hoop that can be hung on the door.

Have an academic superstar? Use any trophies or certificates they may have won as wall decorations, or make a collage of all their elementary school report cards. If they are a math whiz, set out a chalkboard with some unsolved equations, and challenge your guests to solve it. If you’d rather have a keepsake, have everyone sign the chalkboard and seal the writing by spraying aerosol hairspray on it.

You’re a Shining Star

Image:LemonadeAndLenses.com

This one is good for grads who have made significant achievements, such as being on the honor roll, being awarded an academic scholarship, earning a sports award or have become active participants in their community.

Display any awards or certificates they’ve received throughout the years. Maybe create a space on the wall for all their academic milestones, from their first A+ report card to the letter of acceptance into their dream school. Put up news clippings from the local paper that include pictures of their volunteer work.

Use all manner of shiny, sparkly and star themed decorations. Sprinkle star-shaped confetti along your tablecloths or use spray adhesive and dip filled balloons in gold glitter.

There’s plenty of songs out there about shining stars, counting stars, starships and the like, so this party is perfect for a theme-specific playlist.

Have advice on throwing a stellar graduation party on a budget? Let us know in the comments!

The post Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/throwing-graduation-party-budget

[mikebrackett]

Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget

As the sun sets on yet another school year, this year’s set of seniors prepare for a big milestone: high school graduation. But while these students may have just finished up the last exams and essays of their high school careers, the adults in their lives are preparing for their own, sometimes equally as stressful, milestone: the high school graduation party.

While you may have heard of folks going all out with extravagant (read: expensive) bashes with catered food, paid entertainment and fully stocked bars, rest assured that a low-key (read: low-cost) get-together will be just as memorable, while not hitting your budget too hard. Remember, it’s about your grad getting to bask in their accomplishment with the people they love, not about how much you spend on streamers.

Here’s some ideas for how to throw a grad party for the ages without breaking the bank, including ideas for some fun, budget-friendly themes that your grad will love.

The Basics

No matter what kind of grad party you’re throwing, there are a few things you’re going to want to consider early on in your planning process.

The Who

Figuring out who is invited to your grad party is an obvious first step because it will help you figure out what type of party you’re going to throw. Is it going to be a small, family affair? A shorter-lived, evening party with a little more structure, like having planned activities and a set meal time, might be a better fit for a small guest list where everybody knows each other really well. Did your grad send out a Facebook invite to their entire graduating class? An all-day, open house-style shindig is probably a better bet, as people will be steaming in and out and grazing at their leisure.

It’s acceptable to invite most of your guests via social media. However, you can have a few invitations printed to send in the mail. CVS offers some nice-looking options for as little as 99 cents each (with a minimum order of 20 cards). For an even cheaper option, Microsoft Office has all kinds of free Word templates available online that allow you to create an invitation on your computer.

The number of people you invite will obviously be a big determining factor in how much money you end up spending; a larger guest list will mean, at the very least, more money spent on food and drinks. It could also mean the difference between having the party in your backyard and having to rent out a space.

The Where

Having your grad party at your home, or the home of a nearby relative, is a great way to keep costs low. If you have a large guest list and need a big area, it might be a good idea to look into renting out a spot at the local park for the day, which can be cheaper than a private venue. Beware, though: Not only will you want to check the weather, but you’ll also want to look at your city’s rules for having events in public spaces. Depending on where you live, you might have to pay for a permit.

If you’re having the party at home, consider where the main hangout spot will be. If it’s in the backyard, do you have adequate shade if it gets too hot? Will you rent a tent for people to hang under? Do you have enough tables and seating, or will you need to rent that, too? If it rains or is unseasonably cold, do you have enough room inside to accommodate everyone?

Renting an indoor space helps avoid some of the what-ifs on the day of the party, but by being prepared and having a contingency plan, you can plan for the what-ifs yourself while potentially saving hundreds of dollars.

The When

Talk to your grad to find out when everyone else is throwing their parties. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure that your date doesn’t conflict with that of any of their closest friends.

If you’re having an open house, you’ll want to have a larger party window, like from noon to 5:00 p.m. This could also end up working to your advantage if you have a huge guest list, as you won’t have every single invitee in your living room at the same time.

The Eats (and Drinks)

Food is where your grad party can start to get pricey, so you’ll want to either budget a little bit more money for this category or prepare to be flexible and maybe even cook the food yourself.

The food you serve doesn’t necessarily have to be something fancy. If you’re having the party in your backyard, you can serve the simple and cheap staples of barbecue cuisine: hotdogs and hamburgers.

If you won’t have the time to tend to the grill during the event, grocery stores often have party trays that do the work for you. However, you can save a little money by making this food yourself, with minimum prep time required. If you want to serve sandwiches, set out buns and put together a tray with a variety of deli meats and cheeses.

Same goes for fruit or veggie trays. Buy the produce yourself and on the day of the party, cut it up into bite-size pieces and place it on a platter. Cheaper and fresher.

For dessert, don’t feel the need to get a fancy bakery cake if you’re having a big party; a sheet cake from your local grocery store will feed a lot of people at a low cost, and can be just as tasty. If you’re a big-box store member, their bakery section has reasonably priced sheet cakes. If your grad isn’t a big cake person, you might be able to save a little bit of money by opting for a cookie tray instead.

For beverages, buy two-liters of soda rather than cans, and put a marker by the cups so people can write their names on their cups and not lose track of their drinks. To save yourself the cost of water bottles (and the hassle of having to recycle a bunch of half-empty bottles scattered around your property), put out several pitchers of ice water. And make sure to have plenty of ice.

Now for the big question: Will you serve alcohol?

You don’t have to. Alcohol is expensive, and it might not be a good idea if you’re going to have a lot of underage guests. You can always have some beer and a few bottles of wine if you’re so inclined, but don’t feel like you’re a bad host for not having a fully stocked open bar at a high school grad party.

If you do serve alcohol, first make sure your grad understands what the expectations are. What are you going to do if they or one of their friends is helping themselves behind your back? You may think it’s not a big deal, but you could potentially face serious legal consequences by allowing minors to drink on your property.

To save money on booze, check out your local wholesale club. Sam’s Club allows nonmembers to purchase alcohol at the same low price as members at all locations. Depending on the state you live in, other similar chains might do the same.

Not sure how much food and drink you’ll need? Here’s a helpful guide.

The Mood

For cheap and easy decorations, discount stores are your friend. Depending on your theme, you might need to hit up a party supplies store for specific items, but you’ll probably be able to do most of your decoration shopping here, at an extremely low cost.

Colorful crepe paper streamers are a great way to liven up an area and are easy to put up and take down. Dollar Tree also sells a variety of fun centerpieces, including this graduation themed one.

In addition to decorations, you’re going to want to have something that all the party-goers can sign and write well-wishes on. For a cheap and DIY option, try this: Buy a big, inexpensive picture frame and have everyone sign the glass in colorful permanent marker or paint pen. Snap a group picture of your grad with all their guests. Have the picture printed in the size of the frame and your grad will have a memorable gift to take with them on their next step in life.

For music, hook up your phone to a Bluetooth speaker (if you don’t already have one, Amazon has some cheap options) and have some party tunes playing in the background. Apps like Spotify and Pandora have a ton of playlists for every mood and type of party. You could also personalize it and create your own playlist, utilizing some of your grad’s favorite songs.

Activities can be theme-specific or just a couple of general fun things for your guests to enjoy. If it’s an open house, having a couple of games will help entertain your guests. Have a game table with a few board games set out for people to use, or drag your cornhole set out of storage.

Theme Inspiration

To throw a truly kick-butt party, you’ve got to have a fun theme. Here are five ideas to get you started.

Ode to Your Alma Mater

Image: hwtm.com

Having your theme centered around your grad’s high school is a clever way to throw a budget-friendly grad party because the decorating for it is so simple. Just use their high school’s colors for inspiration.

Buy napkins in their school’s colors, shuffle them together and then fan them out in front of your food trays. It looks nice, and it’s cheap and low effort. Win-win.

Dollar Tree allows you to search party supplies by color, so you can cheaply stock up on plates, plastic utensils, cups, table covers and crepe paper for decorating.

Put out bowls of appropriately colored candy for a snack that doubles as decoration.

The Adventure Begins

Image: CatchMyParty.com

  This theme is based around the grad’s future plans, so the decorations are going to vary depending on your grad. If you’re crafty, you can do hyper-specific decorations without having to pay a lot.

Are they heading to college? Utilize their university’s colors in your decorating.

Are they taking a gap year to travel? Display pictures of the places they’ll be visiting. If you want to have a little fun with it, take a picture of them and tape a cutout of their body onto the pictures.

Decorate based on their planned career. If they’re on the pre-law path, take construction paper and trace gavel shapes, then cut them out and tape them on the walls. Or tape construction paper fins and tails to balloons and hang them with blue streamers for your aspiring marine biologist. If they’ve already got a job lined up, use that for inspiration. If they’re going to be repairing bikes in a bike shop, make bicycle-shaped construction paper cutouts.

If they’ve already been working and are transitioning from a part-time to a full-time position, use this as the theme. For example, if they work at the library, decorate with the grad’s favorite books.

Bake cupcakes and decorate them according to the theme.

A History Of

Image: StyleMePretty.com

This will be one of the easier and cheaper themes to decorate for because you’ve likely been gathering materials for it their entire life. I’m talking, of course, about family photos. Make the party a shrine to your grad.

Create a visual timeline of their life by hanging up pictures in chronological order, from the days of smearing birthday cake all over their high chairs to their last first day of school. WholesalePartySupplies.com even has a garland specifically for this purpose; just pop in their yearbook photo from each grade.

Create a collage of all their earliest artwork – finger painting, stick family portraits and the like.

Since they are the theme, consider putting together a platter of your grad’s favorite foods. If there’s a specific snack they’ve enjoyed over the years, include it as a special plate on the food table. Snacks such as ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins) and animal crackers are cheap to prepare and will likely bring back some memories.

For a fun activity, have a trivia game based around the grad. You can find pre-made card sets available online. “Who Knows the Graduate Best” is good for this, but you can easily make your own instead.

All Those Extracurriculars

Image: KarasPartyIdeas.com

For the grads whose high school experience was defined by their after-school activities, pay homage to the groups they’ll be saying goodbye to.

Use any keepsakes they have. This could mean hanging up all their play posters, putting out the binder where you keep all their clippings from the school newspaper, or even setting up a small table with their letter jacket laid out on display and a couple of action shots from their time on the tennis team.

Make the party activities specific to their extracurriculars. If they and their friends were in choir, set up a karaoke machine. If your grad’s fellow teammates will all be at the party, put out a game that’s specific to their sport, like a mini basketball hoop that can be hung on the door.

Have an academic superstar? Use any trophies or certificates they may have won as wall decorations, or make a collage of all their elementary school report cards. If they are a math whiz, set out a chalkboard with some unsolved equations, and challenge your guests to solve it. If you’d rather have a keepsake, have everyone sign the chalkboard and seal the writing by spraying aerosol hairspray on it.

You’re a Shining Star

Image:LemonadeAndLenses.com

This one is good for grads who have made significant achievements, such as being on the honor roll, being awarded an academic scholarship, earning a sports award or have become active participants in their community.

Display any awards or certificates they’ve received throughout the years. Maybe create a space on the wall for all their academic milestones, from their first A+ report card to the letter of acceptance into their dream school. Put up news clippings from the local paper that include pictures of their volunteer work.

Use all manner of shiny, sparkly and star themed decorations. Sprinkle star-shaped confetti along your tablecloths or use spray adhesive and dip filled balloons in gold glitter.

There’s plenty of songs out there about shining stars, counting stars, starships and the like, so this party is perfect for a theme-specific playlist.

Have advice on throwing a stellar graduation party on a budget? Let us know in the comments!

The post Throwing a Graduation Party on a Budget appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/throwing-graduation-party-budget

[musicallygiftedfangirl]

The past few months

This is incredibly long so you don’t have to read it if you do not want to.

The past couple of months have been months of testing. In July, my boyfriend of a little over a year left to join the military. While he hasn’t exactly succeeded at that yet due to medical and health issues, he is still away. I thought all the time before he left that I would never be able to handle him leaving. If we are being honest it really sucked and honestly still sucks. But the thing is I have handled it.

               The first month I got upset a lot and it didn’t help that I had a coworker who was a jerk about the situation. I found myself slowly slipping back into a depression that I had no intention of coming back to. I had long shifts at work, I had my accident so I didn’t have a car and it seemed that all I was doing was eating, sleeping, and working. Not having a car wouldn’t have been a big deal besides the fact that I constantly had to rely on other people anytime I wanted to do something. I strongly dislike having to rely on other people. This lifestyle caused me to not feel confident with my body or myself. All I was eating was fast food and the only exercise I was getting was the walking I did at work. I woke up every day wanting to go back to bed after work. I went into work immediately wanting to go home. Every time someone who isn’t morbidly over weight says that they are unhealthy, people automatically say something along the line of “but you’re skinny” and forget that skinny does not mean healthy. I ate fast food nearly every day for an entire summer because all I really did was work long shifts. I can barely walk upstairs without feeling physically exhausted.

               By August I was about to start my first semester at my local university. I still missed my boyfriend, dreaded to go to work and still felt rather unhealthy; yet I was also getting excited for college. When August 18th came around I moved into my college dorm. Between my mother and my sister, that proved to be a challenging task. For starters, although my house is five minutes away from my university, my family still wanted me to pack up my whole room. I had been working on it all summer but truth be told I finished it at 1 AM on August 18th (the big move in day). Naturally I wanted to make sure I was early so that I had time to get settled. We loaded up the car with most of my stuff that I was taking and went to the university at about 8 in the morning. So, with the help of volunteers, all of my stuff was moved to my room and we began unpacking it. Essentially my mom and sister obsessed over decorating while I sat on my bed awaiting instructions from them.

               Things seemed to be going great. I mean my roommate is nice, I had friends who lived a couple doors down from me and I have an easy class load. By this time, I was on vacation from my job so that I could get settled into the college life. On August 21st, it was my first day of classes as well the day of the solar eclipse. I happen to live in a place that had a total solar eclipse which was amazing to watch. My first week of college was amazing but it also kind of gave me some clarity. Up until this point, I had lived my life in a state of anxiety, always too afraid to do anything by myself. I clung to friends and got upset if they didn’t reciprocate those feelings. I always stayed to the side because I was too afraid of what the consequences might be. I realized that I had been in a bunch of friendships that were incredibly one sided. The friends who live right down the hall, barely talk to me and then act like its such a surprise that we have hardly seen each other. I am never a priority with them and although I suppose I am still friends with them it appears that our friendship isn’t how it used to be. I believe these friendships to be one sided because I am always up to do things that they want to do but when it comes to things that I want to do, they don’t seem to reciprocate the same feelings.

               Anyways, during my first week of being at the university I had so many wonderful opportunities. I got to watch the eclipse, I watched a pretty amazing magician preform at my school, and I saw and met the Ready Set when they did a concert at my school. I joined clubs and now I am one of the officers for one of the clubs. These activities made me realize my one-sided friendships. I ended up going to the concert by myself even though some of my friends had made plans with me to join me at the concert. I started the concert off to the side and ended up crying because my friends who were supposed to be good friends of mine bailed on me for yet another event that I had wanted to go to. Eventually I moved a lot closer to the crowd at the concert then I had been at the beginning. After that my “friends” essentially stopped inviting me to things that they were all doing together and forgot I even existed at some points in time. Just like that concert I have pretty much done half of the activities at the university by myself or barely with them.

               Now it is the middle of September. My school had our first home football game, which we won by an extreme amount. I went to this game with my roommate and one of her friends and we pretty much hung out most of the day. Towards the end of the game one of my other friends showed up (one of the ones who lives down the hall) and we kind of hung out for the rest of the game. During this game, I realized that I really want to be a part of the dance team at my university but I am incredibly out of shape. At the end of this month I am going to see Rent with my school and friends who will just choose each other over me. I also plan on going on a volunteer trip with my school during my fall break.

               These past couple have honestly taught me so much about myself and my friends. To start, I realized that I don’t need other people to have a good time. It doesn’t matter if my friends don’t go I no longer have to talk myself out of going. I still am very anxious but I realized that I don’t need to rely on my friends because if I do then I will never have fun. It has been so nice having those people hold me back. Although I haven’t exactly made new friends here I have stepped out of my comfort zone and actually talked to new people. They are at least my in-class friends if nothing else. I made friendship bracelets and played games with the people who are in my building which was fun. I did this without anyone I knew being there.

               Secondly, I realized how much I really miss some of my friends. There are four people who I miss the most. Those people include my boyfriend, my two best friends, and my next closest friend who is very close behind my two best friends in levels of friendship. I love them all so much and without them it feels so weird. I got to facetime one of my best friends recently who went to a college that is like 6 hours away. He also wrote me a letter and sent it to me which was supper nice of him. My other best friend and I talk over snapchat but we haven’t really had time to hang out because she is in high school and in band. I really miss her and my other friend. I honestly haven’t heard from my boyfriend in such a long time (about a month) and it makes me really sad. I really miss those wonderful souls.

               Next, I realized that I have to follow through with my dreams no matter how silly they may seem. I want to minor in dance and have fun. I want to join my schools dance team. That dream may or may not be achieved but I am at least going to try my hardest and get in enough shape that I will be able to audition for the team. Even if I don’t make the team at least I can say that I gave it my all and tried my best. The thing is you’ll regret it more if you never take a chance. I also really want to study abroad and join the peace corps. I want to help people and I want to explore. I’m so tired of being stuck in the same little town that I have been in my whole life I want to get out in the world. I want to get married one day and have kids but not at this current moment. I still have my whole life to figure out and I am definitely not ready to settle down and start a family not really anytime soon. Granted I still want to be with my boyfriend, I don’t want to put all of my dreams on hold. I believe that we can still be together without destroying our dreams and goals. If I could talk to him in person I would tell this to him just so he really understands. I’m still young and I have a whole world to see hopefully with him by my side supporting me.

               Finally, college in some senses is not as difficult as many high school teachers make it out to be. I suppose that may be because I only have 13 credit hours and I have dealt with more before, but so far it hasn’t been extremely difficult. I have binge watched almost all of How I met your Mother (I’m a couple episodes away from the very end of the whole series) during the past month that I have been in school. Along with binge watching I have also: gone to all my classes, complete all of my homework on time, study for two exams and pass them both, eaten, slept, been a part of 3 different clubs, done activities in my building and for different groups I’m a part of, crocheted and painted. I have done all of this and yet I still have time to type this up and go to the gym. So far college has been a lot less stressful then high school ever was. I have a lot more time and it feels so nice to actually accomplish things as well as do things that I enjoy doing.

               To conclude, (I didn’t know this was in essay format but look at that) step out of your comfort zone and try something that might otherwise scare you because you might appreciate the surprises. You never know what you can do until you try something new. Life is pretty short but in the years you do live you don’t want to look back and wonder about all of the what ifs of the world. The world can be a scary place but the world can also be a lonely place. You have the choice to make your life something worth wile. Don’t give up on your dreams because at least at one point in time they were important to you. Fall for that boy (or girl, etc) that might seem all wrong at the time because they could turn out to be the love of your life. Make sure to tell the people important to you that you love and appreciate them. Do things with passion and don’t hold back!

[mcp-ethnography-blog]

Jottings for Final Essay

Kuma Ani - 6PM Street parking, in Albany so not that much space I don’t even see the place on the way in Small sign Seems like you have to know about the place to think about going there Walk in, we made reservations Less than 3 mins, get sat at table Wooden table with decorative pillows on it Meant to seat many, there were 3 or 4 of these wrap around booth things Booths also made of wood Place felt sorta like noah’s ark to me Ambient music playing, easy listening music, soft volume Sushi chefs behind bar, always busy 3 chefs, very concentrated Chalkboard mural on back wall Glass divider so people at bar can see sushi being prepared Not many other people in with us One group of asian girls probably in their late 20s Group of kids who probably go to college nearby, I see greek letters on one guy’s sweatshirt. Waitress comes over with menus, asks what we want to drink Menu isn’t normal menu, all you can eat but made to order $20.99 for all you can eat, pay per piece uneaten From my perspective, you could see this as a challenge. Leave no piece on the table. Definitely not a place you’d go alone We circle the items we want and when the waitress comes back, we give the sheet to her Interesting style of service, multiple servings also welcomed She initially gave us 3 sheets for ordering, 4 people at the table Sit around, watch sushi being made, talk about each other’s days People walking by on the way to the bathroom, I notice it’s mostly asian and white people here. Moderate price tag, might cater to the middle class Older white man sitting at bar, drink in hand (can’t tell what he’s drinking) Looks like he comes here often I can see other people in the waiting area Aside from the wooden booths there are also a few tables for 2 Everything is full Young family is in waiting area, toddler son walking around, walks by us Sushi comes out on wooden boat Grandiose Looks like others don’t always get boats Only at a certain amount of sushi Different types of sushi are separated out on different sections of the boat We each have a dish that we can pour soy sauce into, soy sauce bottle is on the table We eat with chopsticks, no other silverware is provided (obviously) Once toward the end of the first round, we try and decide what we want next Fill out another card, with almost as much as before Give to waitress I notice she’s not stopping by our table too often, but it’s probably already pretty clear whether or not we are done, we kinda just wait till she’s nearby and ask her to take our next card Sitting around waiting again Talk more about how much we hate school, look forward to graduating, etc. I’m watching the TV a bit, some sports highlights are on but nothing I follow I go to the bathroom, it’s all the way in the back, down a hallway. Single use room Come back, notice the sushi chefs have not slowed down at all They each have a rolling mat and they’re very quick with it Each time they load up another boat or plate we get hopeful it’s for us Most of the tables are within view of the sushi bar Eventually we get our food, this time it’s on a plate Try out different sushi this time, some more elaborate like the “Rock and Roll” covered in different sauces Everything is good but I can tell I’m slowing down Everyone’s getting full but we want round 3 Sort of mutual peer pressure, kinda like “ehh i’ll do it if you guys want to” Everyone eventually caves, we get a few more sushi servings but nothing significant A couple comes in that my friends know, they sit down at the bar I think to myself that it’s weird they’re coming in just the two of them Food comes out, this time on a smaller plate We struggle on the last few pieces, definitely want to persist but it’s getting hard Don’t want to have to pay extra Eventually ask for the check, not too much pressure to leave a big tip because the waitress didn’t spend a lot of time checking in on us We pack up and head out, there is still a wait when we leave, probably due to limited seatingb

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que - 8PM

Get to the restaurant, ask for a table for two Lot of flyers for live music, performances, etc. I’m seated, waiting for a friend Seated at the table in the middle, feeling exposed a little Friend takes longer than expected, I’m checking out the menu, waitress comes by I can feel the glances of the table of 3 college aged guys on the booth There is also a table of three adults, white, two men and one woman I look around a bit, looks like it’s more packed at the bar Friend gets here, apologizes for being late and very quickly the waitress comes over and asks what we’d like to drink Most likely was watching the table for the second person to show up I order a beer and my friend gets water, she IDs me We take a look at the menu, share some stories I look around and notice that the two-person tables are all in one corner, pushed closer to the back of the restaurant Could be to make it more quiet/intimate? Opposite side from the bar, maybe they want to serve two different purposes esp when they’re hosting a show TVs by bar, maybe a more casual experience instead of focusing on who you’re with Lot of tables that seat six, otherwise mostly booths Lighting seems just a little dim, but not severely Music is classic rock, fitting for the woody/smokey/BBQ aesthetic Waitress comes over to take our order, we order, have some banter I see one or two more groups walk in as we talk, one of them is a group of college guys I see a lot of college guys but no groups of college girls. My thought is that heavy hearty food like BBQ is frowned upon Girls want to watch their figure, tend to eat healthier Behind me there are more groups of two or four people eating It seems like this table is the one on display, everyone who walks in or out of the restaurant walks right by this one We get our food, looks good Mac and cheese, we both agree, is bomb. Have some more banter with the waitress about it I look around at how the tables are set up Our section is mostly booths for two or four, with these two six seaters in the middle Behind me is mostly booths on a raised area, two or four again but it seems like mostly two High top tables by the bar I see college aged guys or young professionals holding beers, standing around by the bar talking The waitress comes over to us and asks us how we’re doing Offers me another drink, trying to get that upsell Toward the end of our meal, finishing up Waitress starts taking plates from us but I notice she doesn't ask us if we want dessert Possibly the comments about how good and filling it was? We made a few of those Also Jonah separately asks for another container of Mac n cheese to take back home We have her split the check so Jonah can pay for his Mac n cheese Receipt says fill out survey and bring it back for bottle of BBQ sauce. That's how they get you! People might make a point to go to the dino again just for the free sauce (when really they have to pay for another meal too) We sign our receipts and leave

Smokey Bones - 7PM Arrive at restaurant Big parking lot Grand exterior, doesn't really strike me as barbeque other than the sign Enter, get a more modern vibe when compared with something like dino Just clean, I don't know how else to put it. Good, classy branding even though the jokes on the walls are humorous “Less congested recovery room” Walls are wood layered Get a table for 3, there are some hockey games on but nothing huge. I see some people wearing sports apparel at the bar. This is an interesting restaurant because it’s not quite sporty enough to be a sports bar, but not quite Q’ey enough to be a barbeque. I guess more on the barbeque side but still a unique hybrid I see a few groups of college kids but the number of young to middle aged adults overshadows Mostly groups of three to five, mostly male, dressed business casual as if they came from work A few families too We sit down and take a look at the menu. Moderately priced ($15 range) but that’s what you come to expect from decent barbeque I get some wings and my friends get brisket and ribs, create your own combo REAL good pecan butter cornbread Funny sayings on the wall Carolina mop sauce Warm environment Classic rock Fast service Lot of seats but not all full Can picture it gets busy during big sports games Get food, wow! Pretty fast considering our orders, maybe the kitchen was not too busy My wings are fine but for others some sauce is necessary. Good thing we had a caddy full of different ones. Boneisms = innuendo Humor is definitely selling point Waitress also witty, definitely deserved a bigger tip for that

Food is delicious Waitress is on top of her game Clever names on the bathroom doors Bones club reward program We said no thanks but i can see why it would attract return customers who live closer to the area Waitress definitely deserved a bigger tip

[mcp-ethnography-blog]

Field Notes for Final Essay

Kuma Ani

We pulled up to the restaurant a little before 6PM. My friends had told me we should make a reservation, because it gets busy. We parked on the street, because there was no parking lot for Kuma Ani. When we approached I hardly noticed the place, and I could tell that it was one of those hole-in-the-wall places that gets around by word of mouth. We walked in and stated that we had a reservation for 4, and we were led to a table within 5 minutes. The booth we sat in was all wooden (seatbacks and benches), with some decorative pillows on the seats. It was fit to seat maybe 8-10 people, and very comfortably fit the 4 of us.

Ambient music was playing, it was a sort of easy listening with a soft volume. The sushi chefs behind the bar were constantly busy. Each had their own area, equipped with a couple sushi rolling mats and knives to work with. There is a chalkboard mural on the blackboard wall behind the sushi bar, with the name of the restaurant along with some detailed fish. Glass separates the prepared food from the people sitting at the bar, so if you wanted you could look through and watch your food being made.

There aren’t a whole lot of tables in the restaurant, which is why it is so hard to get a seat without a reservation. As I look around I see a couple other groups in the restaurant, one group of six Asian girls in their mid-20’s and group of college-aged students. I could safely assume they were in college because one of the guys had a sweatshirt with Greek letters. There were about six or seven in this group as well.

The waitress came over and asked us what we wanted to drink. Here you don’t get menus, it’s more like a checklist where you tally how much of each item you want. The waitress left us 3 sheets to order from. We began filling out the first order, each picking a few types of sushi or sashimi that we enjoy. Because it’s all-you-can-eat, it costs $20.99 + $1 per piece of sushi left on the table. I can see how this might lead to competitiveness, especially among the college crowd. Not only can you eat as much as you want, but you have to finish everything you order.

The restaurant is looking pretty full now, and we finally receive the sushi platter on a wooden boat that is pretty grandiose. It looked to be that not everyone got boats, they were just for the bigger parties that ordered a lot of sushi. We have chopsticks with which to eat, and we cruise through the first round with relative ease. About three-quarters of the way through my friend suggests we put in our next order. I notice that the waitress hasn’t really come around much to check in on us, but I figure this is probably because it’s all-you-can-eat and she’s waiting to see a mostly empty sushi platter.

We eventually put in our next order and it comes time again to wait and watch as they prepare our next round. The restaurant is pretty full now, and at one point a toddler walks by and the young family he’s with has to run and get him. Every time we see a boat being loaded up we get our hopes up only to watch it go out to another table. Meanwhile we are trying to determine whether or not we ordered enough to justify another boat. Eventually our food comes out; we mostly ordered different sushi than on the first round, with some more elaborate rolls with different sauces on them. It’s all very good but one thing is clear, at this point I’m becoming quite full. My friend Josh hints at a round 3 and although everyone is half serious, the mutual uncertainty kind of feeds into everyone convincing each other and themselves to get a third round. Mostly out of pride, I’d argue. As we wait for our third and smallest serving, we see a couple walk in and sit up by the bar, a fraternity brother of my friends I’m with and his girlfriend. I find it odd that they’d come to a place where they might not be able to do as much damage to the food as a group of the four of us could, but the sushi was good so maybe it didn’t matter.

After fighting over who was the least full and distributing the last agonizing pieces of sushi, we asked for the check and headed out. There was not as much pressure to tip as the waitress played a smaller role in the process.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que

When I get to the restaurant, I head inside and realize my friend has not arrived yet. The hostess, however, asks me if I would like to be seated anyway. I notice there are tons of flyers for various live performances both at the dino and around the capital region posted up in the lobby area. I figure why not have a seat, so I follow her to be seated at a table that can accommodate six people. This table we’re set to eat at has a pretty nice view of the restaurant overall, because it’s located in what is basically the center. The waitress comes over pretty quickly with menus, and asks me how many more are arriving. I order water for both of us because I figured it was a safe call and she could at least take care of something in the meantime. Seated here I felt pretty exposed because like I said, it was out in the open in the middle of the restaurant. A big table, with just me at it. Brought me back to the days of analyzing eating alone.

My friend eventually arrived, and the waitress quickly came over to ask if there was anything else she could get us to drink. She was clearly watching and waiting to come over to take care of the whole party. I order a beer and my friend sticks with water, and while we wait to order we shoot the breeze about how each of us are doing. I notice there are a couple groups of college kids (with RPI clothing) sitting nearby at the booths. The way the seating is set up, the bigger tables mainly were in the area we were sitting in. The bar area was home to some two to four person booths and tables. Additionally, there were a bunch of what seemed to be young professionals (male) hanging out together and chatting while standing up by the bar. There was a TV some were watching, too. Behind me were a bunch more booths and tables for two or four people. Some older groups were hanging there, some adults and some elderly folks, two groups of three and two groups of two. The tables for two were farther to the back, and I thought this could be to keep it quiet, because it was on the far opposite side to the bar (where the TV was, where a more casual experience is). I was thinking the fewer distractions, the more intimate the dining experience, and Dino wants to cater to both user groups.

We order our meal and have some banter with the waitress, mostly about how good the mac n cheese here is. The waitress also asks me later if I want another beer, clearly trying to get that upsell. Beers aren’t cheap here. After some time passes, we get our food. I’ve been watching some people enter and leave, and it’s about an even mix of older folk and college kids. What’s interesting is that I don’t see any groups of girls coming here - only guys. My best guess is because girls, in general, have a tendency to eat healthier when going out. Obviously barbeque is not the best choice when there are other options around Troy that might be more beneficial to the waistline. This is a generalization, however, just based on my personal experience.

We finish up and Jonah wants some more mac n cheese and cornbread to bring home. We ask for separate checks to split up the order accordingly, and I could get my 10% student discount for flashing my RPI ID. I found it interesting that she didn’t ask if we wanted dessert, but she may have overheard us talking about how full we were. When the check comes, there is a section that has a survey code, where they promise a free bottle of sauce on your next visit if you fill out the survey. This is clearly a way to invite you back in while making you feel good by giving you something to reward customer loyalty. We sign our checks and head out, this time I feel more obligated to leave a decent tip because the waitress took care of us with water refills and always had some banter to share when she visited our table.

Smokey Bones

As we arrive at the restaurant I note that it does not look like a place that would be a barbeque restaurant. The outside looks more like a japanese restaurant that’s by my home. It’s got some interesting trim and the shape of the building just really doesn’t scream barbeque. The only giveaway is the sign that says “Smokey Bones”. We walk in and the best description I can give is that it’s a combination of Hooters, Recovery, and Dino. My friend described it as a “less congested recovery room” because it has fewer TVs and higher ceiling It’s very clean, however, and the branding is more modern than traditional. Classy, but somewhat irreverent with “Bone-isms” all over the wall. Sayings like “Only girls with nice racks” (in reference to a rack ribs) and the one seen below “Hate to break it to you vegetarians, but plants are living things too”.

We sit down at a wooden booth with cushioned seats. It is a warm environment with classic rock on. Plenty of seats are available - it is a big restaurant - but regardless the service is fast and within minutes of sitting down a waitress is asking us what we want to drink. We ordered waters and I observe that since there are a decent amount of TVs, the place probably gets busier for big sports games. While waiting to order, I observe that there are a bunch of other groups in the restaurant, and most of them are younger to middle aged adults. Some of them are wearing business casual, as to indicate that they may have come straight from work to the happy hour deals here. The other demographic here is college students, and once again (similarly to the Dino) there are not nearly as many girls as there are guys. This location is not too close to any college in particular, so college students need to go out of the way to visit this place. This could be another reason why there are more young professionals and middle aged adults here than college students.

When we order, there are plenty of options and ways to customize the meals. My friends got a custom combo and I ordered the wings. The prices were moderate, as I would expect decent barbeque to be. Averages were around $15, and this might explain the middle-class demographic in here. Eventually we get our food, it came out pretty fast (~20 mins for the three of us, not too bad). Maybe the kitchen didn’t have a whole lot of orders at that time?

It really seems like humor was a big sell for Smokey Bones, as they had clever names on the boys and girls rooms and their sauces had different names such as “Carolina Mop Sauce”. This, along with the bone-isms on the walls with the hints at innuendo, create a lighthearted environment. The waitress was well humored too, cracking some jokes with us and generally engaging in banter, knowing she had an audience of college students.

Once we finished our meals, we got our check split and the waitress asked if we were members of the Bones club. Apparently it’s a club you can join for free and get emails for deals and rewards for spending money at Smokey Bones. Clearly a loyalty program to invite return customers, but we declined although it was free to join, simply because we didn’t know when the next time we were going to come back. When we signed our checks, I made sure to give the waitress a good tip because she treated us well and also improved our experience with her wit and charm.