#in the version of these kids that lives in my heart they let Carlos take physics

[thebluestbluewords]

happy holiday break, let’s talk class schedules

According to the Secrets of Auradon Prep tie-in book, AP runs on a rotating block schedule. Six periods per day, plus lunch. Pretty reasonable for a high school class schedule.

Homeroom once a week feels a little weird to me, but after an unofficial poll of some friends, it’s apparently not too uncommon for American high schools to only have it at the start of the week.

It’s sort of nice that the students get a study period every day, instead of having their free block/study block worked into the rotation with the rest of their classes.

In Mal’s Diary, we get another look at her schedule.

She’s in most of the same classes as the sample from before, but no chemistry class. Is Mal not interested in chemistry, or did Fairy Godmother decide it was more important for her to learn about evil fairies instead? Are there other “cultural history” type classes for other students, or did Fairy Godmother and whoever planned the class schedules for the other VKs just decide to pile on allll of the history/social studies classes for the VK to educate them in the ways of Auradon?

I think it’s funnier for me personally if Fairy Godmother received transcripts from Dragon Hall, looked at the VKs’ classes so far, and decided to say ‘fuck it’ on math and science classes, what these kids need is Auradon cultural education. Woodsmen, Fairies, Auradon History, and straight-up Goodness 101. One singular math class will take care of the rest, they’ll be fine.

[descendantofthesparrow]

Protective P2 - Harry Hook x reader - commission work

(gif by Val on twitter) 

Protective p1 (OG version, bad writing made in early 2019)

Protective p1 (V2 REWRITTEN VER made in October 2020)

commissioned by @thebookbakery

=

You stared wide-eyed at the letter held in your eyes; sent, written, and signed by King Ben himself.

Dear Mr. Harry Hook and Ms. (y/n) of the isle. His Royal Majesty, King Ben of Auradon, and his Councilor Ms. Evie of the Isle, hereby request the pleasure of your company, for the upcoming academic year at Auradon prep. Please notify his Majesty’s couriers of your response to this request.

-we’d love to have you three with us here in Auradon, you and your child deserve a better life, will you come? If you accept you will be picked up one week from your response date and will live in the dorms until graduation. - King Ben

It had been around two months since the whole ‘kidnapping ben for the wand’ situation, and Ben had not been able to get you, Harry, and your baby off his mind. And before anybody else could stop him; he made the arrangements for the three of you to live in Auradon, and sent the very invitation you were holding now.

You stood from the barrel you were sitting on and walked into your shared room with Harry, holding up the letter as he looked up from feeding Arella. “what’s up-“ he paused as you turned the letter around and let him read it. His eyes went wide “holy shit, is-is that fer real?!” he stood, gently moving Arella into your arms and taking the latter, reading it over and over again “holy shit it's real-we-i-you…” he looked back up at you, reaching out for your free hand and intertwined your fingers “should we do this?”

You thought about it for a moment, then looked down at Arella, smiling as she played with your jacket straps “yes…yes we should” you smiled up at Harry, who seemed unsure of this decision but he would follow you into oblivion.

“Okay, I trust yeh” he mumbled, kissing your lips and then Arella’s head.

-

Only a week later, you and Harry were packing the last of your things up to leave for Auradon, Gil had been invited as well, already at the other end of the tunnel to wait for the limo with Dizzy; who had also been invited.

Harry slung his bag over his shoulder and picked Arella up off his bed, cradling her carefully in his arms and leading the way out of his room and onto the main deck, where the rest of the crew were waiting.

They all said their goodbyes, Desiree and Drey cooing at Arella and Harry let crew say their personal goodbyes to her. Bonnie squeezing you tightly as you patted her head “stay safe you two” Jonas mumbled, patting Harry’s shoulder as he took Arella from him “and take care of the pirate princess” you and Harry nodded, the crew waving goodbye as you walked off the docks through the tunnel.

You stood with Gil and Dizzy a few moments later, waiting anxiously for the arriving Limo. And behold a minute later it pulled up, the driver stepping out and unlocking the back, helping the four of you load up. Harry took all your bags and stuffed them in the trunk, Dizzy sliding into the car first and taking Arella for you to get in easier.

Harry and Gil soon got in and Harry slid next to you, wrapping one arm around you and the other on Arella, rubbing his thumb on her chest as her tiny little hand curled around his forefinger hanging from your shoulder. “we ready?” Harry whispered, leaning in close to you. You nodded with a nervous smile and Harry kissed your cheek “let’s do this”

-

Two hours later the limo pulled up to Auradon prep, where Ben, Evie, Carlos, Jay, and Ben’s mother all stood ready to welcome the four of you. Dizzy bolted out first as soon as the door open and leaped into Evie’s arms, the two squealing with each other in excitement at Dizzy finally being in Auradon.

You weren’t surprised Mal wasn’t there, she didn’t trust or like Harry or Gil at all and probably felt betrayed by you for siding with Uma after she left.

Ben stepped forward as you, Harry, and Gil climbed out of the car, holding a sleeping Arella in your arms. Evie and Belle immediately went soft at the sight of her but kept their composer as Ben stepped forward with a smile “Welcome to Auradon: Ben said happily, clapping his hands together “first I want to apologize it took so long, and second; thank you for accepting my invitation. I know it was hard to make that choice in both trusting me and leaving behind the isle and your family” you knew he meant the crew “but I promise they will soon follow and now;” he gestured back to the dorm building “let’s get you all set up.” You nodded, letting Evie step closer and coo over Arella.

“oh she’s so cute~” Evie giggled, pressing her fingers into Arella’s (not as pudgy as it should be) cheek softly, your baby girl gurgled and pushed Evie’s hand away, Evie laughing quietly at it “oh I love her already…(y/n)?” you hummed, not looking at her as you followed Ben through the halls of the building “im sorry I left you”

You looked into her eyes, softening a bit as you could only see sincerity in her eyes. “i-“ you started, lifting Arella in your arms a bit, her head cradled in your arm. “i-…don’t forgive you, not just yet but” you smiled at her as her face fell but rose in hope at the ‘but’ “we can start with being friends again?” Evie beamed and nodded, looking over at Jay and Carlos who were letting Evie talk to you first before they tried “and them too, I can tell they want to apologize…Mal thought” Evie winced at that, yeah; Mal would probably take a long time to come around. She had even cussed (y/n) out at the hideout after Evie the boys told her about (y/n)s relationship with Harry and her position on the crew.

‘she betrayed us as soon as we left! We can't trust her! Or Harry! they might lead Uma right into Auradon to destroy it!’

To say the least, Evie and the boys distanced themselves from Mal; after seeing her very narrow tunnel vision, they didn’t want to hear her bitch about (y/n) and Harry’s arrival at Auradon.

Evie hoped she would come around soon though; she missed the days of the five of them running around causing chaos. But reminiscing about the wicked old days could be saved for later, as Ben had led the group to one of the dorm rooms.

“Harry, (y/n)?” Ben called, Harry humming and looking up from Arella as he made faces at her “this will be your dorm room” Harry looked surprised at that, he had expected the dorms to separate them but-

Ben opened the door to reveal a large room, two full-sized beds by the windows (that could be easily pushed together), a crib, a newly installed mini kitchen with a working stovetop, a large dresser (two actually) flowing with baby blankets, baby clothes (designed by Evie), toys, baby food, diapers, wipes, anything a young parent could ask for.

“guys” your voice cracked as you walked into the room, Arella already reaching for the teal octopus plush sitting in her new crib “this is-i-holy shit!” Harry walked up behind you, resting his hands on your shoulders as he looked around the room with watery eyes.

“I don’ know wha’ ta say” Harry croaked out, turning back to Ben; who just smiled.

“a thank you would be nice” Ben joked then waved it off “we’ll let you settle in, Gil, Dizzy?” the two turned to Ben, who waved them out of the room “I’ll show you to your rooms” Gil gave you and Harry a hug and kissed Arella’s forehead, running out of the room after Ben and the others as he closed the door.

“we’re actually here” you breathed out after a moment of silence, slowly spinning around the room. “actually in Auradon”

“aye,” Harry muttered, noticing your bags had already been brought into the room “kinda weird we’re not ‘ere ta destroy it” you chuckled, handing Arella to him and checking over her new items, Harry cooing at her and lifting her into the air, her adorable baby babble echoing around the room.

A few hours later, everything had been unpacked and set up, Arella was dressed in one of her new outfits, of course, designed by Evie; a tiny red jacket that copied Harrys iconic one, black shorts, booties, and a white t-shirt with a spray paint hook on the front. “hi darling” Harry cooed, kissing his daughters cheek multiple times as she giggled “ah yeh look so badass~”

You laughed at his adorable behavior with your kid and walked over to him, slipping on one of your new jackets from Evie and kissing his cheek “and you are so cute” Harry flushed but accepted the compliment, bringing Arella to his chest and enveloping her in his arms as you grabbed Arella’s dinner. “come on, Ben said we were going out for dinner tonight” Harry hummed, grabbing a baby sling and putting it on, then slipping Arella inside.

-

You sighed, setting down your book bag next to the door and closing it with your foot. You appreciated the fact that FG gave you and Harry only four classes a day (and switched the two of you off so Harry took care of her in the afternoon while you took the morning shift) so you could attend to Arella more often than not but that didn’t prevent you from being exhausted from them.

You looked up and cooed, Harry was on your now connected beds, asleep with Arella sleeping on his chest, his arms curled around her safely. you quickly took a picture with your phone and sent it to Evie, who immediately sent back several heart-eye emojis.

You put your phone on the table and walked over to the bed, carefully climbing on and resting your chin on Harry’s shoulder, reaching up and caressing Arella’s soft cheek. Harry grumbled as he felt you and took one of his arms off of Arella and wrapped it around you, pulling you even further into his side “afternoon my love” you mumbled, leaning up and kissing his cheek “how’d she do?”

“ ‘ad a lil’ tantrum afta’ yeh left, missed ‘er mommy but” he yawned in the middle of his sentence and pushed his cheek onto your head “she did good, fell asleep ‘bout n’ ‘our ‘go”

You hummed and rubbed your thumb on Arella’s chest, she hadn’t even moved in the few minutes you had been on the bed “that’s good, did she eat her lunch?” Harry sleepily nodded and was already falling asleep again, following Arella’s lead.

You stared at the two loves of your life, and you thanked whatever gods that had intervened in your life to let you meet Harry almost two years ago and saved you from meeting a bad end with the Gaston twins. And then you had fallen for him and fallen for him hard. And you didn’t regret going behind your friend's backs to be with him; not if it resulted in the greatest thing you had ever made, that was sleeping on his chest.

-end-

so this was a commissioned 2nd part to one of my very first stories i posted on here back in 2019, that was rewritten in late 2020 and i never planned to continue it, but i was commissioned to do so and im happy with how it turned out~!!!! :3

permtaglist!

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@thecaptainsgingersnap​ @jatp-rules-my-life​ @verboetoperee​

@saryguerrero​

[juniaships]

I did say i was gonna make a descendants au with my oc so i wanna take a moment to rewrite D2.

So it picks up a school year later after my version of D1 (which i will go to in a separate post). Ben is planning on getting more kids off the isle but is constantly met with obstacles especially from his new advisor/headmaster (An OC). The Core Four have settled down to pursue their dreams. My OC Paige doesn't really know what to do with her future since she's burned out. Ben invites her to a tea party. At first she resists but through Evie and Mal's encouragement she agrees to the date. During the date Ben admits he is getting fed up with being ignored and doubts thay he would make a good leader. Paige admits that she is losing her love of runes and wants to try something new.

Later that night the castle gets broken into. Ben goes with his bodyguards to check it out and engages the thieves. However the thieves knock out the guards and take Ben. The next day the kingdom hears of Ben's kidnapping and Chad and Audrey are freaking out. Mal receives a note from a mysterious sender and realizes who the culprits are. She, Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Paige and go to the Isle to rescue Ben. Chad and Audrey go with them because Ben is their friend and Chad wants to prove he can be a hero. Together the seven heroes go to the isle. Carlos gives Adurey and Chad rough looking clothes, telling them they need to be incognito as the isle do not take kindly to AKs. The Royals aren't pleased with this. Worse, Audrey and Mal sees things differently and constantly disagree. They arrive on the isle and Jay uses his thieving skills to sneak around for signs of Ben.

Chad and Audrey come face to face with the harsh living conditions of the Isle. While the Royals is met with scorn, they find help in the form of a young hairstylist named Izabella. Izzy takes the group into her salon and tells them the truth: that her companion Uma took Ben as leverage against Auradon so that all the kids there could be freed. Knowing the villains true plans our heroes go back on the ocean

With Ben he meets the Pirates - the Ocean Seven. Ben is surprised to see Prince Hans in the crew; Hans explaining he imposed exile on himself and the Pirates took pity on him. Gil is put in charge of guarding Ben. Ben attempts to persuade Gil to let him go but Gil refuses and claims unfinished business. Gil reveals that his father is Gaston!

Gaston wants to kill Beast to get with Belle. Gil, who doesn't have it in his heart and couldn't live up to Gaston's expectations, ran away from home and met Uma and Harry. Gil thinks that by taking Ben his father could let him back home. Ben replies that Gaston isn't a good father that way and asks if that's what Gil truly wants. Gil ponders the question; Harry arrives and tells Gil that the Auradon students are attacking. He leaves Ben alone to help his crew fight; Ben struggles to free himself with a broken glass he found.

Mal and Audrey argue but they get interrupted by Uma's ship. The two ships engage in battle with Uma's crew boarding the Auradon ship. They fight; Jay sneaks aboard the ship and frees Ben. Back with the AK ship the pirates have them cornered when interferes and pleads for everyone to stop.

Mal admits that she and Uma had a torrid rivalry and tries to apologize. But Uma doesn't want to hear it. Ben promises Uma and the kids that they will be allowed on Auradon. Uma relinquishes him.

Chad and Audrey, having seen the isle for themselves, realize how much privilege they have and encourages Ben's plans. At the cotillon everyone is there and suddenly the pirate crew shows up all dressed in the fancy outfits. The headmaster starts to scold Ben for bringing criminals to the party.

However a strange whirlpool starts to sink the ship and everyone including the pirates rush to save it. It turns out Ursula is attacking the ship with the intent to kill all the Auradonians and flood their kingdom. She tries to get Uma to join her but the captain refuses. Mal forms into a dragon and fights with the monster. But she is overpowered.

Luckily Evie gives some of her magic to transform Uma into a sea witch and both Uma and Mal fight off Ursula before trapping her in stone. With Ursula defeated, whirlpool stops and everything is back to normal.

The headmaster tries to blame the. VKs for attracting Ursula but Ben defends them by saying the pirates are just kids who just wanted to be accepted. Even Chad and Audrey step in, Chad ripping into his parents for letting a sweet girl like Izzy endure the same abuse his momma had; and Audrey calling out her grandma that theirr actions made them no better than Maleficent. The other Audradon students pitch in voicing their complaints on how the Isle Kids are treated. Overwhelmed with the amount of Support, Belle and Beast finally accept Ben's plans: starting by firing the headmaster. They also pardon the Pirates IF they use their talents for the good of all. The party goes on without a hitch.

Weeks later all of the VKs are let into auradon. The adults - the ones that truly reformed - still have to wait as they don't want to risk it. Chad accepts Izzy as a sister, Audrey and Mal call a truce. Carlos and Evie creates new clothes for the VKs to wear, and Uma and Harry are part of the swim team. Gil even pursues art and starts to learn how to read. Paige decides to go into humanities she still reads runes but now has a middle ground. Before we end it Hans tells Belle to let Anna and Elsa know he apologizes for hurting them even tho he's aware he won't be forgiven for his crimes.

The post credits show flames and then a person walking out if it: Mozenrath. Since the magic if the Isle doesn't affect him he is now going to finish what he started years ago: this brings us to D3 being Jay focused.

And now to the Ocean Seven - my version of the Sea Three but with extra members!!

- Uma, daughter of Ursula; fierce captain with a thing for theatrics; Turquoise and aqua

- Harry, son of Captain Hook; second in command and somewhat of a flirt; also sort of moody and wants to help Isle Kids: Red

- Gil, son of Gaston and one of the Bimbettes; gullible but loyal and the definition of non toxic masculinity; Orange and yellow

- Prince Hans of all people - exiled prince with no home and a LOT of regrets; still manipulative but now it's ✨constructive✨Teal/forest green

- Pearl Sparrow: daughter of Jack Sparrow, wild and ferocious with a surprisingly cultured side; Black; has a rivalry with Jay bc long ago he stole something of hers.

- Jeremie Smee: younger nephew of Smee; softspoken yet clumsy; White

- Goldie Silver: possible illegitimate daughter of John Silver, thief and good at technology. Gold & ochre

- Victor Eel: OC with no associated disney character though inspired by Ursula's eels. Slimy and duplicitous towards his enemies; only follows Uma bc she has the most food. Purple.

Whew! That was A LOT to write! If i could turn back time I would give this movie the epic pirate fantasy it deserved! Looking back it was one of the better Descendants films and i wished disney did more with it. I tried to give Ben and Gil some interaction since their parents are mortal enemies. But also a chance for Audrey and Chad to have a REAL redemption arc, as well as Jay and Carlos something to do. Oh and Evie uses magic bc it was so weird how she lacked it. And of course Uma getting a better ending than she had, and more VKs as well. As for Hans yes I added him too because Frozen 2 was gonna have his redemption arc and i was disappointed they didn't go through. Would've set him apart from other main disney villains but oh well a girl can dream, right? That's all I have, I still need to work out my plans for D1 and D3. Bye!! And hope you enjoy this rewrite!

[darlingpetao3]

Thank You For Ruining My Life: An Homage to Tom Cavanagh

“You’ve ruined all my future expectations of men.”

The costume-clad woman had the courage of steel to say this to the then 53-year-old actor, Tom Cavanagh of The Flash, in front of a ballroom filled with a couple hundred people. This brave utterance was spoken during the 2016 Fan Expo Vancouver convention during a Flash question and answer period with actors Tom Cavanagh and Candice Patton. In its third season, the show was undoubtedly still hitting its stride in popularity, and the room was packed to hear these two speak.

The brave woman whose turn it was at the microphone was referring to Tom’s role as Ed Stevens on the NBC 2000 hit, Ed. I had not known of this show previously, but having now heard such a proclamation intrigued me. “You’ve ruined all my future expectations of men.” That was a tempting notion, and as I continued to listen to this disarmingly charming and wittingly funny man steal the stage, Tom intrigued me even more. I’d watched him play three different versions of Harrison Wells on The Flash since the show’s premiere date, yet I hadn’t truly noticed him in a “life-ruining” way before.

Little did I know that Tom Cavanagh would not only eventually ruin my expectations for men as well, but he would change my life in other ways, too.

After the Q&A, I had this urge to buy a S.T.A.R. Labs T-shirt from one of the vendors at the convention. In my head, I thought I would purchase something so that I could have an excuse to talk to Mr. Cavanagh at his signing booth. Again, he intrigued me, and I wanted to experience more of his incredibly likeable personality. So, I dragged my friend with me to wait for what was maybe ten minutes in a queue. Shortly, I was paying the assistant for my autograph I would soon acquire. They wrote my name on a sticky note so that Tom would know how to sign a personalized message to me. And then, it was my turn.

His eyes sparkled when he turned his attention to me. I instantly had a feeling this was just the way he was naturally. Oh yeah, and I swear to God I’d never seen eyes that blue in my entire life. It genuinely stunned me.

“Hi!” he greeted me.

“Hi!” I responded, equally as thrilled. Tom admired the T-shirt I had brought and took note of my name on the piece of paper. I remember us joking together about the extremely lax security in and around S.T.A.R. Labs on the show, which prompted his message to me on the heather-grey cotton. He wrote my name, [followed by a heart!] and a very welcoming, ‘Come on by, just walk right in!’

I had official clearance from Harrison Wells himself.

I thanked him very much, leaving with my treasure folded over my arms. My friend and I walked towards the hall’s exit, and I couldn’t shake this feeling inside me. It felt strange—I couldn’t name it for the life of me. It felt like an odd fluttering with a simultaneous yet contradictory slightness of breath. My head was confused and would continue to be so for the rest of that weekend.

As I waited at my gate in the airport on that Sunday evening to head home, all I knew was that the moments at the con featuring Tom were the highlights of the weekend for me.

And that I was going to begin watching more of the other films and television shows he’d been in. What was the show the brave cosplaying woman had said ruined her expectations of men? Oh yeah, Ed.

Maybe I’ll start there…

***

Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad…

In my house, it’s never really Christmastime until Michael Bublé croons through the speakers of the wooden stereo system in the living room. It felt especially festive as it was now Christmas Eve—a month and some change since the con. It was late, possibly ten o’clock. I was lying on the floor in front of the Christmas tree with my trusty laptop, a word document open. I was writing three holiday-song short stories featuring the new muse in my life, Harrison Wells. I wanted to be able to post them the next day, so my fingers were taptaptapping away.

I had written a handful of things before 2017, most of which had been Marvel-related, under my second, ‘rebirth’ pen name online. I was a little fish among all the grand and fabulous writers on Archive of Our Own, and in many ways, I still feel like that little fish. I was only just learning and feeling out the psyche of the Wells characters. Each one is so different. In my rewatch of the previous seasons of The Flash, I’d taken diligent notes, and as I’d later learn with each following rewatch, I would know them all—what they think, how they talk and behave—like the back of my hand. It was fun to suss out these guys, and I found that I was growing to love the act of writing even more.

One month later, in January, I would post all the stories I’d written thus far on Tumblr. I’d just created an account and, who knows? Maybe I’d get a wider range of readers on here, too.

Might as well give it a shot, right?

***

Wild horses couldn’t keep me from attending Fan Expo Vancouver 2017, especially when the big news dropped. Not only would Tom Cavanagh be attending again, but so would Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker, Candice Patton, and the convention-elusive star of the show himself, Grant Gustin.

Before the moderator for the Flash cast’s Q&A panel could utter the final thanks to the actors at the end of the session, I bounded from my seat and sped down to the photo op booth where the cast would be taking “Team Up” photos with fans. ‘Sped down’ has to be the most appropriate couple of words because I indeed felt like a true Speedster dressed head to toe as the small screen’s adaptation of Jesse Quick, the angsty and brilliant daughter to Harrison Wells turned superhero.

After waiting in a queue that felt like ages, I was next to stand with Team Flash. As I took a step forward, all of the actors’ and actresses’ eyes—the people I spend time with every Tuesday evening—were on me. I heard a familiar voice approve of my costume. It was Danielle.

“Tremendous.”

Grant even joked that he thought for a second Violett Beane, the actress who plays Jesse Quick, had shown up to surprise them. “I was like, what’s Violett doing here?” he said.

I stood in the back row, happily sandwiched between Tom and Carlos. I dared to let my hands rest on their backs, and I couldn’t contain my joy. Shortly after, when I received my near-instant physical photograph of the moment, I saw Tom had pointed at me. In my mind, it felt as if in his gesture, he meant, hey, look at this cool person. Haha. I couldn’t be further from it.

I would go on to further be uncool in public as I later found myself virtually shaking and almost hyperventilating in line for a one-on-one photo op with Tom. The guy dressed as Kid Flash behind me gave me a few encouragements of the “it’ll be okay” variety. As my turn finally arrived, the lovely man of the hour greeted me with a bright smile in recognition of my Reverse Flash T-shirt (I had done a quick change before this photo op because I had worn a Flash T-shirt for a photo with Grant).

“Great shirt!”

The internet comes up with many hilarious and fitting words, but none such so than the term “Cavanarms.” One of the said Cavanarms found its way around my shoulder in such a casual way. My hand rested on his back, and I have told anyone who will listen about how soft his sweater was. What was approximately a five-second interaction will stay with me forever. And to this day, I will always regret how I’m standing beside him in the picture—there’s a distinguishable gap between us. I could have been closer—should have been!—but I like to use the fact that I felt as if I’d combust into flames if I were any closer to the man.

Maybe I’d have another chance to combust later again that day because, believe it or not, this fan hadn’t had enough of seeing Mr. Cavanagh in person. And since he was appearing at the con for this day only, there was no way I was going to squander any opportunities. Besides, there was still one final thing left on my convention docket: the autograph. In my mind, going to get his autograph was an excuse to get to talk to him and simply be in his presence for longer than five seconds. Here, take my money. I’m a sucker, and I’m proud of it. I saved all year for this kind of thing, and Fan Expo has always been my ultimate nerdy Treat Yoself Day.

Plus, this year I came equipped with a question for Tom (something for which I may have prepared a little too far in advance).

“Which of your characters would win in a lawyering battle: Ed or Miles?”

Miles was Tom’s latest character from his newly released project Darrow & Darrow, a fellow lawyer as Ed Stevens (remember, the man who ruins women’s expectations of men?), whom he portrayed almost two decades prior. What I loved about Tom when I got to ask him this was that he was silent for a moment following the question. He was genuinely putting thought into my question. As he pondered, Tom continued to autograph the photo of us together taken mere hours ago.

“Ed. He would wipe the floor with that other guy. Like, Miles is great, but Ed has a rapier-sharp mind, you know?”

I wholeheartedly agreed with his answer and felt relieved inside for some reason. We thanked each other (as politely as two Canadians can) before I left him to pay attention to the next lucky soul in line. I made the mistake of casting my eyes downward at the signed photo.

Tom had signed two little hearts over the I’s in my name. He really needed to stop adding hearts to my things, or I was just going to melt to the floor. In fact, I started to make these strange noises as I tried not to completely maul everyone in front of me while exiting. My friend ushered me as fast as physically possible on our way out of the main hall. One man took one look at me and asked, “Are you okay?”

No.

“Yep!”

The second I made it out of the herd, I broke out into open space. First came the minor hyperventilating. Then came the squealing followed by laughter. Top it off with various fangirlish comments of, “He’s so beautiful!”, “His eyes are so blue!” and “I love him!” and I was probably quite the sight to see (but at a convention, that’s considered normal!). My friend smiled on as she let me express everything that I had to keep inside until I had the right time to expel my emotions. I was on cloud nine. Ten, if at all possible.

The next day would be the con’s final day, which I would attend alone. My friend needed to catch the ferry in order to prepare for her courses the day after. I did a scan of the convention hall one final time in case there was something I missed purchasing. Afterwards, I sat on the cold hard flooring of the convention centre hallway for a bit of a break. I was wiped out. With my phone in hand, I smiled at the messages from this one Tumblr blogger who had been following my posted adventures at the con. I had seen and replied to many of her comments on my stories I’d written thus far, and I enjoyed her matching enthusiasm for Tom and The Flash in general. I felt her to be a kindred spirit. I had no idea then that I was chatting with one of my future best friends, L.

***

I spotted her.

She was wearing an identical shirt to the one I had on—a light grey T-shirt with a sequinned Spider-Man mask in the corner, which around it read, We met on the Web. A giddy me couldn’t wait for the short escalator ride to end. Her back was to me and facing the baggage claim, so here was my chance to surprise her instead.

I towered over my friend, E, and donned a low, authoritative voice.

“Excuse me, Miss, can you come with me?”

She squealed a greeting to me and I returned it as we hugged for the very first time after two and a half years of online friendship. We would still have about two hours to kill until our mutual Tumblr best friend, L, touched down at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport from across the Pond.

Something I noticed was that E and I carried on talking during our wait like it was second nature, that we hung out like this all the time. Whereas when I met L in person for the first time the year previously, our first meeting was that of quiet, delighted shock, unknowing how to react to one another’s physical presence. It almost felt like a fantasy. The closest thing we’d ever gotten to this was visiting over video chats! I’m not sure what each of these different reactions in these separate meetings meant, but what I do know is that I’ve never had such strong female friendships such as these—so full of uplifting support and love for one another. They are the greatest ladies I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

And as a searching L eventually turned the corner to meet us in the Arrivals terminal, I caught sight of her Tom & Grant bandana tied around the handle to her carry-on bag. It was an item she had received in return for helping fund the short film produced in 2018 (I’d bought the ringtone). Seeing the accessory jolted me to remember that the former of the titular short was the reason for this long-awaited get-together holiday in the Windy City in the first place. Tom Cavanagh, unbeknownst to him, had just officially united three online friends, each from a different country, to spend six full days of in-person bonding and a whole lot of fun.

***

I should have been shelving books.

I should have been doing a lot of library-related tasks, but my head was elsewhere. Anywhere other than the small-town public library where I work. Instead, I sat on the carpeted floor of the Junior/Young Adult section with my phone in hand and a dreadful article title staring back at me.

“The Flash: Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh to Exit after 7 Seasons.”

My world felt like it was falling apart.

Tom was leaving? There had been rumours and wonderings spreading around the fandom regarding whether he was leaving the show. With a storyline ending with a monumental sacrifice and a time-travelling man saying his farewells, it all seemed to point to the fact. I should have known… I could have rivalled Supergirl as being the Paragon of Hope after all the optimism I doled out to my followers and friends who would come to me worried Tom would exit the show. I would always give reasons to deny such a thing could happen, claiming that I’d believe when I saw it.

Well, there it was, and I definitely saw it.

One could feel the ripple effect over the internet of the shards of broken and riled-up hearts around the world.

Tom’s exit was on his terms, having not felt challenged by his character’s plotlines, as mentioned in a recent Entertainment Weekly article. As a viewer—and I am a viewer (Mike and Tom Eat Snacks, anyone?), it has been increasingly difficult to look past the missed shots made by story editors and showrunner, so understandably, the actor would want to seek something more exciting and meatier. That said, Tom has always shone on-screen and taken what he’s been given in stride. He turns unearthed material into diamonds and indeed shines on screen. Steals it, even! Tom easily makes the episodes he’s in better, and when he’s missing, you feel the loss. The few episodes of Season 7 without him only give us a tiny hint at how the show will be without him going forward. It much resembles when you might bring out your favourite jigsaw puzzle, only to find that the one piece you need to complete it isn’t there.

***

On a personal note, as I write this, I am roughly 20 followers away from reaching a milestone of 2,000. I have written well over 200 stories for The Flash alone (whether they be short or long, one-shots or chaptered), and goodness knows how many words I’ve generated altogether over the course of these many years with inspiration from the show and my favourite character. I’ve written and co-written novel-length stories, one monumental Wellsian story of which was done alongside L and E (almost solely done through alternating text messaging in the app, Line) that reached over 108,000 words and consisted of 42 chapters. And when I’m not writing for my blog, I’m also working on trying to accomplish my dream of becoming a published author. Just as I thought before I launched my Tumblr blog, I think again now: Might as well give it a shot, right?

***

I have watched virtually everything Tom has been in that I could get my hands on, both physically and electronically. Sure, a few titles are out of my reach and probably lost to the very early 90's forever, but from what I've seen through Tom's filmography is enough to know that he can do anything. He can play the romantic leading man that will make you fall head over heels for him or a deranged killer that will have you genuinely scared of him. That is talent. Tom always brings something new to the table from each role to the next, and (when he's not playing those psycho killers) you can't help but admire his craft.

Not only is his acting stellar, but from what we as fans have gathered on the man, Tom has got to be one of the kindest men in the business. His humour and sheer ridiculousness could get anyone through a tough time (we’ve seen plenty of bloopers and behind-the-scenes videos to prove this!). He has clearly bottled and stored an endless supply of Fountain of Youth™ and each year continues to wow us with his handsomeness. Tom is charming, dedicated, and yes, arguably holds the world record for Bluest Eyes.

In my eyes, Tom Cavanagh gave me the two best friends I could have ever asked for, as well as plenty more lovely friends I’ve continued to make online. (One day, I hope to meet him again so that I can tell him in person how because of him, I’ve met such very important people in my life). Through Tom, I have truly found my passion for writing, and in doing so, segued me to dare to dream of becoming a published novelist. I wholeheartedly believe all of this would not have happened if it weren’t for those first series of events that led me to meet Tom and love and admire him immensely. He is indisputable proof that there are indeed men like him out there. Indeed, he did ruin all of my future expectations of men. He ruined my life in the absolute best way and I am eternally grateful.

I am very much looking forward to what Tom will do next. I think it’s rather needless to say that I will follow him in his career, as he has gained a devoted fan for life. He represents so much to me and so much of it I have gained since meeting him that fateful day, when I thought to myself, Maybe I should buy this T-shirt and get this guy to sign it. Wherever Tom goes in life, I’ll be here to cheer him on.

I have a pretty good feeling plenty of others will, too.

[cardest]

New Orleans playlist

Hungry for some po boys? Feeling the Mardi Gras vibes for this weekend? This is the ultimate NOLA playlist, right here. Play the songs here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC182dTlE-Gii6ZOO5ZrN1Z1T

Louisiana and New Orleans, all in the one awesome playlist. If there are songs I left out, let me know and I can add those. Or come meet me at Le Bon Temps Roulé  and we’ll listen to this NOLA playlist together with drinks.

LOUISIANA & NEW ORLEANS

001 Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras 002 Earl King - Ain’t no city like New Orleans 003 John Lee Hooker - goin’ to Louisiana 004 Crowbar -  Wrath Of Time By Judgment 005 True Detective - Theme (The Handsome Family - Far From Any Road) 006 EyeHateGod - New Orleans Is The New Vietnam 007 The The Meters -  Chicken Strut 008 Paul McCartney - Live And Let Die (from Live And Let Die) 009 The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar 010 Lucinda Williams - Crescent City 011 King Hobo -  New Or-Sa-Leans 012 Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting 013 Down - Underneath Everything 014 True Blood Theme Song (Jace Everett - Bad Things) 015 Corrosion of Conformity -  Broken Man 016 The New Orleans Jazz Vipers - I Hope Your Comin' Back To New Orleans 017 Willy DeVille - Jump City 018 Left Side - Gold In New Orleans 017 Necrophagia -  Reborn through Black Mass 018 Johnny Horton -  The Battle Of New Orleans 019 Dr John - Litanie des Saints 020 Foo Fighters - In the Clear 021 Redbone - The Witch Queen Of New Orleans 022 Jucifer - Lautrichienne 023 Danzig - It's a long way back from hell 024 Harry Connick, Jr. -  Oh, My Nola 025 The Gaturs - Gator Bait 026 Jon Bon Jovi - Queen Of New Orleans 027 Cyril Neville -  Gossip 028 Carlos Santana - Black Magic Woman 029 Gentleman June Gardner - It's Gonna Rain 030 Eddy G. Giles - Soul Feeling (Part 1) 031 Tool - Swamp Song 032 Beasts of Bourbon -  Psycho 033 Seratones - Gotta Get To Know Ya 034 Chuck Berry -  You Never Can Tell 035 Grateful Dead - Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo 036 Pale Misery - Hope is a Mistake 037 Exhorder - Homicide 038 King James & the Special Men - Special Man Boogie 039 Chuck Carbo -  Can I Be Your Squeeze 040 Amebix - Axeman 041 Tomahawk - Captain Midnight 042 Waylon Jennings - Jambalaya 043 Heavy Lids - Deviate 044 Red Hot Chili Peppers -  Apache Rose Peacock 045 Necrophagia -  Rue Morgue Disciple 046 Johnny Cash -  Big River 047 Albert King -  Laundromat Blues 048 Meklit Feat Preservation Hall Horns - You Are My Luck 049 Le Winston Band  - En haut de la montagne 050 Dr. john - I Thought I Heard New Orleans Say 051 Down -  New Orleans is a dying whore 052 Samhain -  To Walk The Night 053 Creedence Clearwater Revival -  Green River 054 Southern Culture on the Skids -  Voodoo Cadillac 055 Bonnie, Sheila -  You Keep Me Hanging On 056 Warren Lee -  Funky Bell 057 Elf - Annie New Orleans 058 Cannonball Adderley - New Orleans Strut 059 Doug Kershaw - Louisiana Man - New Orleans Version 060 Willy deVille  - Voodoo Charm 061 The Animals -  The House of the Rising Sun 062 Porgy Jones -  The Dapp 063 Lost Bayou Ramblers - Sabine Turnaround 064 IDRIS MUHAMMAD - New Orleans 065 John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen No. 2 066 Hank 3 - Hillbilly Joker 067 Nine Inch Nails -  Heresy 068 Talking Heads - Swamp 069 Irma Thomas - I'd Rather Go Blind 070 Mississippi Fred McDowell -  I'm Going Down the River 071 Dee Dee Bridgewater   - Big Chief 072 Dr. John  - Creole Moon 073 Agents of Oblivion -  Slave Riot 074 Steve Vai - Voodoo Acid 075 Saviours -  Slave To The Hex 076 Kris  Kristofferson -  Casey's Last Ride 077 JJ Cale - Louisiana Women 078 Cher - Dark Lady of New Orleans 079 LE ROUX - Take A Ride On A Riverboat 080 The Melvins -  A History Of Bad Men 081 Floodgate - Through My Days Into My Nights 082 Opprobium - voices from the grave 083 Quintron & Miss Pussycat - Swamp Buggy Badass 084 Child Bite - ancestral ooze 085 Sammi Smith - The City Of New Orleans 086 The Explosions - Garden Of Four Trees 087 Bobby Boyd - straight ahead 088 Bobby Charles - Street People 089 Wall of Voodoo -  Far Side of Crazy 090 Rhiannon Giddens - Freedom Highway (feat. Bhi Bhiman) 091 Elton John - Honky Cat 092 Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie and Clyde 093 Fats Domino - I'm Walking To New Orleans 094 Cruel Sea - Orleans Stomp 095 Down -  On March The Saints 096 Danzig -  Ju Ju Bone 097 The Neville Brothers ~ Voodoo 098 Megadeth -  The Conjuring 099 Miles Davis - Miles runs the voodoo down 100 Elvis Presley - King Creole 101 Led Zeppelin - Royal Orleans 102 The Lime Spiders -  Slave Girl 103 BIG BILL BROONZY  -'Mississippi River Blues'   104 Kreeps - Bad Voodoo 105 Dirty Dozen Brass Band -  Caravan 106 Kirk Windstein -  Dream In Motion 107 Eletric Prunes - Kyrie Eleison - Mardi Gras 108 Merle Haggard - The Legend Of Bonnie And Clyde 109 Corrosion of Conformity -  River of Stone 110 THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN (MAIN TITLE) 111 Zigaboo Modeliste - Guns 112 ReBirth Brass Band - Let's Go Get 'Em 113 Inell Young -  What Do You See In Her? 114 Jimi Hendrix - If 6 as 9 (Studio Version) Easy Rider Soundtrack 115 Deep Purple -  Speed King 116 Exhorder - The Law 117 Crowbar -  The Cemetery Angels 118 A Streetcar Named Desire OST - Main Title 119 WOORMS - Take His Fucking Leg 120 steely dan - pearl of the quarter 121 Tabby Thomas - Hoodoo Party 122 Black Label Society -  Parade of the Dead 123 Dwight James & The Royals - Need Your Loving 124 Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (2012) The Rampant Hunter (Soundtrack OST) 125 PanterA - The Great Southern Trendkill 126 Ween - WHO DAT? 127 Earl King - Street Parade 128 Ernie K-Doe - Here Come The Girls 129 Dejan's Olympia Brass Band ~ Mardi Gras In New Orleans 130 Body Count -  KKK Bitch 131 Goatwhore - Apocalyptic Havoc 132 C.C. Adcock - Y'all d Think She Be Good To Me (from True Blood S01E01) 133 The Meters - Fire On The Bayou 134 Dr. John - I Walk On Guilded Splinters 135 Balfa Brothers - J'ai Passe Devant ta Porte 136 Ween - Voodoo Lady 137 King Diamond -  'LOA' House 138 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Born On The Bayou 139 Dax Riggs -  See You All In Hell Or New Orleans 140 Professor Longhair - Go to the Mardi Gras 141 Dixie Witch -  Shoot The Moon 142 Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away 143 Fats Waller -  There's Going To Be The Devil To Pay 144 Mississippi Fred McDowell -  When the Train Comes Along with Sidney Carter & Rose Hemphill 145 Treme Song (Main Title Version) 146 Tony Joe White - Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll 147 Nine Inch Nails -  Sin 148 Exodus -  Cajun Hell 149 NEIL DIAMOND - New Orleans 150 James Brown - Call Me Super Bad 151 Jimi Hendrix -  Voodoo Child ( Slight Return ) 152 Allen Toussaint - Chokin Kind 153 Dash Rip Rock  - Meet Me at the River 154 Hawg Jaw- 4 Lo 155 Hot 8 Brass Band - Keepin It Funky 156 Hank Williams III - Rebel Within 157 Dejan's Original Olympia Brass Band - Shake It And Break It 158 Jelly Roll Morton -  Finger Buster 159 The Royal Pendletons - (Im a) Sore Loser 160 Little Bob & The Lollipops - Nobody But You 161 Gregg Allman - Floating Bridge (True Detective Soundtrack) 162 Michael Doucel with Beausoleil - Valse de Grand Meche 163 Dolly Parton - My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy 164 Othar Turner & the Afrossippi Allstars – Shimmy She Wobble 165 Jucifer - Fleur De Lis 166 Soilent Green -  Leaves Of Three 167 Ides Of Gemini -  Queen of New Orleans 168 Betty Harris -  Trouble with My Lover 169 Lead Belly - Pick A Bale Of Cotton 170 Candyman Opening Theme 171 Goatwhore - When Steel and Bone Meet 172 Acid Bath - Bleed Me An Ocean 173 Pere Ubu - Louisiana Train Wreck 174 Walter -Wolfman- Washington - You Can Stay But the Noise Must Go 175 Alice in Chains -  Hate To Feel 176 Body Count -  Voodoo 177 Live and Let Die - Jazz Funeral 178 Smoky Babe -  Cotton Field Blues 179 Professor Longhair - Big Chief Part 2 180 Lewis Boogie - Walk the Line 181 James Black - Theres a Storm in the Gulf 182 The Balfa Brothers - Parlez Nous A Boire 183 The Jambalaya Cajun Band - Bayou Teche Two Step 184 The Deacons -  Fagged Out 185 Thou - The Changeling Prince 186 Black Sabbath -  Voodoo 187 King Diamond -  Louisiana Darkness 188 Doyle -  Cemeterysexxx 189 KINGDOM OF SORROW - Grieve a Lifetime 190 Hank Williams III - Louisiana Stripes 191 FORMING THE VOID - On We Sail 192 BUCK BILOXI AND THE FUCKS - fuck you 193 Down in New Orleans - The Princess and the Frog Soundtrack 194 Trombone Shorty & James Andrews  - oh Poo Pah Doo 195 Whitesnake -  Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City 196 The Dirty Dozen Brass band - Voodoo 197 Joe Simon - The Chokin' Kind 198 Down -  Ghosts along the Mississippi 199 AEROSMITH  - Voodoo Medicine Man 200 Nine Inch Nails -  The Perfect Drug 201 The Byrds - [Sanctuary III] Ballad Of Easy Rider 202 The Iguauas - Boom Boom Boom 203 PJ Harvey - Down By The Water 204 Louis Armstrong - Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans 205 Dr John - Right Place Wrong Time 206 ESTHER ROSE - handyman 207 Lightnin Slim - It's Mighty Crazy 208 Slim Harpo - Blues Hangover 209 Irma Thomas - Ruler Of My Heart 210 WEATHER WARLOCK - Fukk the Plan-0 211 Superjoint Ritual - The Alcoholik (Use Once And Destroy) 212 Stressball - dust 213 Trampoline Team - Kill You On The Streetcar 214 Xander Harris - Where’s your Villain? 215 Dukes of Dixieland - When The Saints Go Marching In 216 Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Su Su 217 Danzig - I'm the one 218 EyeHatteGod - Pigs 219 Hank Williams Jr - Amos Moses 220 The Cramps - Alligator Stomp 221 Crowbar - The Serpent Only Lies 222 Shrüm - drip 223 Thou  - The Only Law 224 DR. JOHN - Babylon   225 Garth Brooks - Callin' Baton Rouge 226 Wild Magnolias - All On A Mardi Gras Day 227 NCIS New Orleans TV Show theme 228 Skull Duggery - Big Easy 229 Harry Connick Jr. - City beaneath the sea 230 Elvis Presley - Dixieland Rock 231 Tom Waits - I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Ninth Ward) 232 Neil Young - Everybody's Rockin 233 Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals - Delinquent 234 CORROSION OF CONFORMITY - Wolf Named Crow 235 Widespread Panic - Fishwater 236 Lillian Boutté - Why Don't You Go Down to New Orleans 237 Bryan Ferry - Limbo 238 Scream - Mardi Gras 239 EyeHateGod - Shoplift 240 Better Than Ezra - good 241 Duke Ellington - Perdido (1960 Version) 242 Bob Dylan - Rambling, Gambling Willie 243 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - sAve my soul 244 Le Roux - So Fired Up 245 Concrete Blonde - The Vampire song 246 Boozoo Chavis - Zydeco Mardi Gras 247 Idris Muhammad  - Piece of mind 248 Les Hooper - Back in Blue Orleans 249 Doug Kershaw - Cajun stripper 250 DOWN  - Witchtripper 251 Soilent Green - So hatred 252 Professional Longhair - Big chief 253 Willie Nelson - City Of New Orleans 254 Tom Waits - Whistlin' Past The Graveyard 255 Brian Fallon - sleepwalkers 256 Patsy - Count It On Down 257 Into the Moat - The Siege Of Orleans 258 Bruce Cockburn - Down To The Delta 259 Jello Biafra · the Raunch and Soul All-Stars - Fannie Mae 260 Exhorder - Asunder 261 Cane Hill - Too Far Gone 262 The Slackers - peculiar 263 Crowbar  - A Breed Apart   264 COC - Wiseblood 265 Necrophagia - Embalmed Yet I Breathe 266 EYEHATEGOD - Fake What's Yours 333 Alan Vega - Bye Bye Bayou 666 DOWN  - Stone the crow

I don’t beads by the way! Hit play here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC182dTlE-Gii6ZOO5ZrN1Z1T

[pluviophile-bookworm]

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Rewatch pt. 4

I really need a pick-me-up after 2x11, and I feel like 1x7 might be what I'm looking for, so here I am again with another HSMTMTS rewatch. I'm genuinely so excited for both of these episodes, so without further ado, let's jump right into

1x6: She stands for... lies, pressure and very inappropriate suggestions (coming here after 2x11 might have been a mistake, actually)

I honestly don't get why Nini's reaction to seeing Ricky in full Troy costume was so big — he actually looked pretty ok to me. Sure, the wig is a bit too much, but so what, it's cute.

Ahhh my boy Reddy is so adorable in that talking head... 'click!' Gosh, I love seeing him so cheerful! Guess he's embracing his role as part of the crew. As he should.

'I'm home'. Yes, Sebby, and you look so good, too! Gosh, I love this scene so much. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it.

Gina looks beautiful, though — I mean, she looks beautiful in anything, but I really like the Taylor look on her.

Ok, I fully understand everyone's frustration about this picture — it's genuinely so hard to get a good picture of someone jumping up in the air, and I can only imagine what it would be like with six people. A bunch of my classmates tried to do something like that ages ago and, needless to say, it didn't go very well. No good pictures were taken that day.

Ah, Portwell: the early days. Ok, but wanting something and feeling like you have to get it is far from the same thing, EJ. Honestly, these two in their early days as accomplices... this is not the first time they've been like 'X is the same thing as Y' when it's obviously not. I mean, of course, that time they became accomplices because 'we want the same thing' — which, at that point, they didn't.

Ok, but they were in such unison with that 'Not now!'... couple goals! You know, even before either of them had considered the possibility of them being a couple for real.

That's a lot of pressure that Miss Jenn is putting on dear Carlito over there. I mean, he's one of the youngest at the drama club and he has to essentially do her job for her, all while she's not even sure if she'll be able to return to her job. I just... keep reminding myself that these kids are closer in age to my little brother than they are to me (except for EJ, who is precisely in the middle), and then the pressure they're under takes on completely new proportions in my mind. None of them should have to deal with all of this. And no amount of 'trust the process' is making it better.

'Should I just live vicariously through someone else?' Oh Reddy, you should just live for yourself. I mean, the truth is I don't practice what I preach most of the time, but I really do mean this. Just go out there and live your best life. You're not Ricky's therapy dog or anything (that being said, Ricky's getting a therapy dog when?).

What part of 'a forest of boys' does Nini not get? It's simple enough. Just help Carlos do his job, how about that? I mean, he shouldn't have to do everything himself anyway.

See? He cracked. That's what happens when you put all this responsibility on a teen's shoulders and be like 'deal with it'. He was just trying his best, you guys. He did not deserve all the clapback.

Ricky's forced optimism about Miss Jenn and the show is too much even for me. Sure, I know everything turns out mostly alright at the end, but this just sounds like Ricky's on the verge of a breakdown. You know, every time someone's been too unrealistically positive on this show, it has ended in a breakdown. And that's the last thing I want.

I do agree about the simple acoustic version of the song, though. Sometimes simple is the best option.

Major props to Carlos for going up to Mr. Mazzara like that. If someone had bullied me, and especially if that someone was a teacher, I'd never have dared to call them 'Benjamin Mazarra!' to their face. Even when he's on the verge of despair, this boy is still the boldest. And we love him for that.

Is this where the 'Carlos Surname' joke started, though? I had forgotten. It was funny while it lasted.

Ricky doesn't know it yet, but he's seriously playing with Gina's feelings there. And I don't blame him because, again, he doesn't know yet, but I still feel bad for her.

'Despite the 4.3 GPA, I'm actually an idiot.' — EJ is high intelligence, low wisdom, confirmed. Not that this is news, but I really don't remember much about this season, so I'm pointing this out now.

Now forgive me if I'm not feeling for Miss Jenn after 2x11... she did some really unforgivable things there. Still, as much as I want to say a real qualified teacher would not do any of that, my personal experience suggests otherwise, quite unfortunately. Miss Jenn might not be very emotionally mature, but not having legal teaching credentials is not her biggest issue, really. It is precisely her lack of emotional maturity.

OMG, Big Red accidentally invited the entire drama club over! And that, I guess, is half of how Redlyn established themselves as the hosts of every out-of-school drama club gathering. Thanksgiving is, of course, the other half. Gosh, those two were the parents of the drama club even before they were a couple. Guess they're soulmates in that way, too.

Ok, so I didn't comment on this after 2x8 when Big Red did it to Ricky, but now that I finally notice that Seb did it to Carlos, too (I took my time, thanks), I need to talk about the knee touch thing. See, this is exactly the amount of touch I used to be comfortable with (since I'm very touch-averse) — both on the giving and on the receiving end — and it can mean so much when you feel bad. It's a subtle 'hey, I'm here, it's going to be fine', a sort of hug-without-the-hugging... I feel like this is a gesture we don't see enough of in media and it can feel just as intimate as, say, holding hands or cuddling. I don't want to talk about kissing because I don't know anything about it. But I just love how we've got the knee touch depicted by both a romantic pairing and a platonic pairing in the show. Ok, rant over. But I just really wanted to talk about this because, well, I saw myself in it.

'Her past is a little bit sketchy'... I see, Ash has already started writing Truth, Justice and Songs in Our Key, even if she doesn't know it quite yet.

Miss Jenn finding out Mike is Ricky's dad is just as awkward as it should be. Whatever they had going on should have ended right then and there.

'... people in the dramatic arts are insane' — 'Thank you.' — Umm, Miss Jenn, you are not really helping your case there. Quite frankly, you're lucky you've got the allegiance of the entire drama club. I don't think they'd have your back as much after 2x11, though.

Ok, but... Big Red wearing a longcoat just to take it off for the dramatic flair of it all? An icon if I've ever seen one. Also, mad props to Larry for apparently learning this number in record time after Dara got injured.

Oh, and... mad props to all the kids in-universe for writing, rehearsing, and learning this entire number in one night.

So both Seb and Natalie have solo lines in the song... and Seb was promoted to main in s2. So does this mean Natalie will get the same treatment in s3? I mean, that will probably mean they'll try to stick her in some sort of romantic plot, and I really don't need that, but I really, really want her to be a main character.

Also, let's not forget we had our first Redlyn moment in this number... seeing them dance together makes my heart jump with joy!

I won't lie, though, the entire dance number and everything was just a little bit uncomfortable to watch after 2x11... these kids do so much for Miss Jenn, and what does she do? Put insane amounts of pressure on some of them, shuts others down at every attempt to put in a word, favours yet others despite their abysmal performance at the audition, and then has the audacity to tell that same person to jump off of something high, with all the implications attached? Not that I'm naming any names, of course. Ok, this has taken a sudden and uncalled for turn for the dark, so I guess I'll just move right along to the next episode now.

1x7: A world where 'That was terrible!' and 'I'm so happy!' can both be true at the same time

My girl Ash is doing the recap! And she's a pun queen, too. 'Miss Jenn was in hot water, Carlos was a hot mess...' — not pleasant, but so true. But wbk. Ashlyn is the best.

And... Ricky and Nini's on and off chemistry is back on. Good for them, because after season 2, I really needed to see a good rehearsal. But I'm thinking EJ's joy at the end-of-school bell had little to do with Thanksgiving...

That look Reddy gave Ashlyn as she was walking out... might be me digging for breadcrumbs, but I think I just saw the exact moment my boy fell, and he fell hard. Ok, I realise now after I've said this that 'fall' probably isn't the best choice of words, but you know what I mean. Fell for Ashlyn. Not like... oh, never mind.

'So meek, so mild, sword!' I can't really explain it, but I love this line. And I feel like it describes Ash so perfectly: like, she might be meek and mild, but if you cross her, she's armed. Gosh, I love her!

Not the Caswell parents leaving their children alone over two holiday breaks! No wonder these two are the way they are. But they're about to get a beautiful Thanksgiving celebration. [Fun personal fact: the year I was born, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving day. That doesn't mean much in Bulgaria, but my dad works with a lot of Americans so my parents knew about it and I've known this and that about this holiday I've never celebrated since I was very young. I have no idea why I'm telling you this, but Thanksgiving has always reminded me of my birthday for this reason, so... ok, moving on.]

So I know she kind of suggested it, but... why does Carlos think it's his place to invite people over to Ashlyn's? I mean, this was part 2 of Redlyn establishing themselves as the hosts for any out-of-school gathering, but... oh well, it led to a beautiful party with everyone, so... I'll allow it.

I really liked Nini's talk with her grandma. It was really nice, and a very fitting way to remind everyone what Thanksgiving is originally about. I feel like people often forget that when it comes to... literally every major commercialised holiday.

Wow, EJ really is that person where once the tap is open, it can't stop spilling. And I kind of like that look on him. It's a transitional stage between EJ 1.0 and EJ 2.0, and I appreciate it for what it is.

Ahhhh it's Redlyn's first proper 1-on-1 conversation! I mean, it got kind of really awkward really quickly because of — surprise, surprise — Nini and Ricky (and EJ), but those two are so adorable! No more breadcrumbs — we're about to get an entire five-course meal here! Which goes really well with the Thanksgiving setting, now that I think of it.

Gosh, they've never really talked and my boy whips out the 'the only thing I'd ever throw at your face is a brighter spotlight' line right off the bat? Boy is whipped! But like, he is the master of grand gestures where Ashlyn is concerned. Still, in this first moment they shared, he really was like, go big or go home, and home isn't really an option here. But I should have known, it's in his name after all. Gosh, I love both of those two so much! Especially when they're together.

Ok, so... this is a really bad way to meet your mother's new boyfriend. Poor Ricky. As if ringing his mum wasn't hard enough already.

See, when I rewatch season 1, I get where the Rina stans are coming from, but then again, remember when I used to say I wanted Gina and EJ to just be friends? Yeah, that's changed too. Not that I ever shipped Rina romantically — I rarely ever ship a pairing unless they're explicitly stated to have something going on, just because I can't see that sort of stuff very clearly — but I really, really want them (Ricky and Gina, I mean) to be really good friends. Once they get past the awkwardness of their sort of history, I mean.

I miss the good old days when Nini was a nice person... I mean, we kind of (really) had a glimpse of that in 2x11 (I'm guessing she was making up for Miss Jenn's very inappropriate slip-up), but I miss the days before she was this big internet-famous songwriter and actually had to be convinced by Ashlyn that she should write songs for herself... wait, now that I think of it... Ashlyn might have helped create a monster there. Oh well. Still love her so much!

You know, I love the Choosical, but it's all a bit sad, if you stop to think about it for a sec. Just picture little single-digit-aged Carlito making this whole thing up in an attempt to participate in his favourite thing... only to not have anyone to play with for the next ten years. Great, I just made myself cry. The thing is, I relate to that story a bit too much. I remember in preschool, when the rest of the children would play together, I'd sit in a corner by myself and read the only book that was there... over and over, day after day. I don't even remember a single thing about that little book right now, but back then I clung to it like it was everything. And I couldn't very much share the experience with any of my peers, seeing as I was the only kid there who could actually read (my grandma used to be a preschool teacher and she taught me to read when I was 4). So yeah. I went off on a rather personal tangent there. Thing is, I know how little Carlos felt and I'm so happy that he finally gets to share this thing he made with a loving and supportive group of friends. Everything has its time and place, I guess.

'Look, I'm not following Big Red just because he paid me a compliment' — of course not, dear, you know your own worth and we love that for you — but see, when he said that thing that you're referring to as a compliment, he did not lie! You really are the brightest star and deserve the brightest spotlight. See, the thing I love most about Redlyn's compliments to each other is that they're so sincere and state nothing but the absolute truth. Those two just see each other for what they are, and love each other as they are. And I think that is beautiful.

It's so funny to me every time someone gets something wrong and Carlos just walks past them out of nowhere and corrects them without missing a beat. I kind of relate to that side of him, too. Except it's usually about grammar and language in my case, not HSM trivia.

If I were Nini in this scene, and was suddenly put face to face with Emily on the spot like that, I would not have been able to handle it. So props to Nini for handling it.

Yeah, sorry to break it to you, Emily dear, but whatever you're doing is not a Cockney accent. I don't claim to be an accent expert, but I know first-hand what Cockney sounds like and... that's just not it. Even Dick Van Dyke was closer to a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins, and that's saying something. (See, I feel bad criticising any aspect of Emily because her actress is no longer with us, but... I have no idea who let them get away with passing this off as Cockney).

Is this the beginning of Jennzara there? I am loving this.

Of course Carlos was obsessed with Glee as a kid... but wasn't he a bit too young for it when it aired? I know I was, and I'm older than those kids. I mean, I waited until I was emotionally mature enough to watch Glee, and that wasn't until 3 years ago, when I was 18 going on 19. Ok, I'm thinking too much into this. Moving on.

Ahhhhh, Redlyn! Just... all of their moments. But screaming the lyrics of What I've Been Looking For on top of their lungs while looking right at each other... was so beautiful to watch. Give me more of that!

EJ: 'That was terrible.' Seb: 'I'm so happy!' — Moods, both of them. Those two are real-life emojis, aren't they? And we love them for that.

'... without laughing... or killing each other.' — I feel like that last specification was needed given that it's Ricky and EJ we're talking about, and especially what happened last time they had to do a one-on-one exercise during rehearsal. The ensuing scene, however, is the most hilarious thing!

Root beer, huh? Is that the HSMTMTS code for 'awkward' now? I mean, Nini and Gina had a nice talk there, all things considered. I really want the two of them to put the Ricky thing past them and be friends... but we'll see.

Gina is trying to make the sleepover thing look like 'it's not a big deal' despite how big of a deal it obviously is to her... to which I say, good for you, girl, but I wouldn't know. The only sleepovers I've ever had have been with my little cousin who is 9 years younger than me and also insists on sleeping with a very bright nightlight on, which means I can't sleep at all. So yeah, I wouldn't know. But I'm happy that Gina is feeling included.

So this is the exact moment when it becomes clear that Big Red is not telling us the complete truth when it comes to his HSM knowledge... '14 and 10'? Even I didn't know that. I knew 14, but... for someone who allegedly 'hates musicals', my boy has very detailed knowledge of one certain musical movie... I love how it got him a certain girl's attention, though. Not that she wasn't already paying attention to him, if you catch my drift.

Ok, but this hits even harder now than it did the first time — just when Gina has finally managed to make friends, to feel included in their group, her mum has to move her away again. This is straight-up tragic. I'll say it now, and I'll probably say it again when it comes up in the rewatch — Ashlyn is an absolute queen for taking Gina in for the next semester.

'That's sort of what you always do, huh? Take care of everyone else' — yeah, Ash, and you do the same. You two just need someone to do for you what you do for other people. See, guys, this is what I mean. This is why they're soulmates. Because in a world that has more or less forced both of them to put others first, they put each other first. They each get to be the most important person to each other after they've been stepping back for others all the time. And if that isn't beautiful, I don't know what is. I know I'm repeating myself over and over saying this, but... they own my heart and soul and I'm not for sale.

Ok, but Ashlyn's little run after Big Red left was so cute! Girl is... I don't know why I keep using that word, but... falling.

Unpopular opinion: Out of the Old is the best Nini solo to come out of this series to date. Maybe I feel that way just because I relate to it most, but hey, that is a valid reason to like something.

Oof, EJ's losing followers. Oh well, if they're unfollowing him for being too honest, they didn't like the real him to begin with. So good riddance to them.

Yikes... Jennzara fell asleep with flammable stuff left unattended... we all know how that ended, but just the fact that they felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in each other's presence... speaks volumes. So I guess... well, I don't know what exactly I'm saying regarding the fire they caused, but I loved this big little moment they had.

So this is it. That was 1x6 and 7 and, well, they were beautiful, but there are some parts I can't look at in the same way anymore after 2x11. Guess that's the risk of a rewatch. The Redlyn scenes, though — still the best part of both of these episodes. That and a couple of other things for which I don't need to pretend like I haven't seen season 2.

[godess-ofthe-underworld]

Love Finds A Way (sequel to "See You Again) {A Harry Hook x Reader story}

Summary: You would think that six months in Auradon would do any villain kid good.  Well, not Hadley.  After the events of the Coronation, Hadley's mood took a downward spiral; and for one reason, guilt.  She'd broken a promise and left her best friend on the Isle of the Lost.  How will she handle seeing him again when certain circumstances bring her back to the Isle? Will she finally tell him what she really feels?  

Five teens lurked in a dark classroom, lit only by the burning light of blue flames flying out from underneath a bubbleing caldron.  Inside the caldron, bright red apples bobbed along it's surface.  A girl with deep blue hair and ruby red lips stired the contents of the caldron with a wooden spoon.  Another girl with hair as bright as the fire that came from underneath them, stired the flames that wrapped from her hands down to the floor.  Two boys, one with long dark brown hair and the other with longish white hair and black roots, pourd more apples into the caldron as the last girl recied lines from an old spell book she held in her hands.

(Mal) 

Wicked ways beneath the skin,

Let all who taste it now join in

(All) We got all the ways to be W-I-C-K-E-D We got all the ways to be W-I-C-K-E-D C'mon Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! (Haha) Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

(Haldey) Crashing the party guess they lost my invitation Friendly reminder got my own kind of persuasion

(Carlos)

Looks like this place could use a bit of misbehavior Happily ever after with a little flavor

(Jay)

Bad to the bone with even worse intentions We're gonna steal the show and leave 'em all defenseless

(Evie)

A fairy tale life can be oh so overrated So raise your voices and let's get it activated  

(all) Long live, havin' some fun We take what we want There's so many ways to be wicked With us, evil lives on the right side of wrong There's so many ways to be wicked

(Hadley, Mal, Jay, Carlos, Evie) Apple, apple Dip, dip Wanna try it? Tick, tick Take a bite C'mon be bold Change the way the story's told

(Mal) This time the dark is finally getting your attention

(Evie)

We're wicked by the book and class is back in session

(Jay)

You like it, steal it, gotta beat 'em to the treasure

(Carlos)

A rite of passage Bad just doesn't get much better! Long live, havin' some fun We take what we want There's so many ways to be wicked With us, evil lives on the right side of wrong There's so many ways to be wicked

(Mal) Mother always knows best (Evie)

Show her, pass every test (Carlos)

Hear her voice in my head (Jay and Hadley)

Evil is the only Real way to win! We got all the ways to be Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! W-I-C-K-E-D Let's go! We got all the ways to be Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! W-I-C-K-E-D (Yeah) Long live, havin' some fun We take what we want There's so many ways to be wicked With us, evil lives on, the right side of wrong There's so many ways to be wicked

 6 months

6 amazing months have passed since the core five were brought from the Isle of the Lost to Auradon.   The five were praised by many for saving the kingdom after the return of  Maleficent, who now resides  in a tank in Mal and Evie's room,  though some were still skeptical of them. They eventually found their own clubs and activities.  After Ben became King, his kingly duties took up most of his time, he had to drop tourney and his position as Captain of the fencing team. He offered the position to Jay, who gladly accepted, but not with out Carlos by his side.  Mal was thrust into the world of princess-hood as she and Ben announced their relationship.  She didn't have much time to herself any more with all the interviews and press.  Evie and Hadley made their own business creating custom dresses together.  Hadley also found the art club which she quickly rose to the top in with her excelled drawings.  

They'd made even more friends after coronation was over making their group go from five to nine.  Lonnie and Jane became close with the girls and Ruby, daughter of Rapunzel and president of the art club, joined them after witnessing Mal's graffiti and Evie's dress making skills.  Hadley found herself either in her dorm with Ruby, working on art projects, or in Evie's room, making dresses.  Hadley rarely had time to herself, but she was grateful for the distractions.  Whenever Hadley was alone and left to herself, her thoughts always drifted to a certain pirate she left behind on the Isle.  She cried herself to sleep most nights propped up against her window that gave her a near perfect view of the Isle.  She felt guilty for not going back and breaking her promise to return to him.  She'd tried multiple times to talk to Ben about possibly bringing Harry over to Auradon, but every time she tried he was whisked away by someone or something more important. Hadley used any free time she had to think of ways to get back to harry, or even bring him here but nothing seemed to work.  The others grew concerned for Hadley and tried everything they could to cheer her up, but nothing seemed to stop the guilt that was eating away at her heart.

The first few months were hard for all of them.  They had to lay off being evil and learn to be kinder to others and worst of all be good. 

For Hadley, Evie and Carlos, this was not a problem as they were naturally nice, though Hadley still played tricks here and there with her shapeshifting, mainly on Carlos, she didn't do it to cause harm anymore.  Mal and Jay however, had a lot of trouble adjusting to the change. Jay still tried to pick fights with anyone who made fun of them, but was always held back causing more teasing. 

Hadley could see Mal slowly losing her cool day by day after being surrounded nearly non-stop by press and fans.

Hadley took it upon herself to help out her now blonde haired friend. See Hadley may not be the strongest person in Auradon, that title was held for her cousin Hercules, but people are still afraid of fire.  More importantly, people are afraid of people on fire.  

This is where we find Hadley now, coming to Mal's rescue once more.

A/n: Wow! I can not believe that I am posting the first part to the sequel!!! It feels so long since I started writing this series.  If you would like to be tagged for the next part please message me!  you can aslo read the illustrated version of this series over on Wattpad (@phelpsphan)!!    Please comment and like for Part 2!!! <3 <3

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in Descendants.  Hadley and the plot between her and Harry are mine.

[allkinds-oftrash]

Ya girl is watching the latest HSM series ep and Imma live blog it hshshs and will add my reactions under the cut so it doesn't end up a long post. Anyways, let's goo:

AHHHH THE MORNING SHOW WITH GINA AND EJ WE LOVE TO SEE IT

They really said we're gonna let life imitate art with Nini and Olivia huh

Ricky was SUPPORTIVE??? Damnn I really thought we gonna get a classic Ricky tantrum....

But also wow sir that sounds salty and should definitely talk to someone abt how you're feeling...A therapist maybe 👀

I know we needed to contextualise how Ricky felt abt the song but I really wanted to see Nini's interview in full!!

Sebby you're so cute I do wanna see yall do DEH

Shjshshs not the rights not being available for another 5 years 😭😭

I dunno how they're in great shape and closer to the Menkies Gold after not having a single proper rehearsal, but go off Miss Jenn

Omg honestly Kourt's costumes are always amazing and on point Imma excited to see it

Kourt is such a simp we love to see it

Carlos is so pissy this episode we love to see it shshhs

Also love the way Seb calms him down and keeps him nice it's such a funny dynamic

"We had 20 people make our Belle dress over 50 hours" Okay North High shut the fuck up

I'm calling it now the reason North High knows so much is cos Howie is the leak and Kourt has been unwittingly telling him. The way her phone keeps going off as they discuss how North High knows everything is really good foreshadowing if my prediction is right

Also like her phone went off just as Carlos said "How did they know that?" THAT'S PEAK FORESHADOWING

If Howie ain't in North High, I dunno what Tim is doing

GSJAGSHAH KOURTNEY MAKING ABS FOR EJ I CANNOT

"I have abs" We know sweetie

"I PADDED THE THUSH FOR YOU" "AWW THANKS KOURT I NEEDED THAT" THIS INTERACTION IS EVERYTHING THAT WAS SO FUNNY!! I love that it is now canon that EJ has abs but no butt love that for him

Okay but like damn these costumes are great!! North High can fuck right off with its high end ones I just wanna see lowkey homemade costumes by students; I'd watch a Broadway show if I wanted to see professional costumes okay

Damn Carlos has killer eyesight clocking in that mask in the trunk

GINA BBY DON'T SAY THAT AND HAHSGSH NINI NUDGING HER WAS SO FUNNY

Nini's little look over at Gina was like "Omg you guys my girlfriend is so cute and dumb" GINI STANS HOW WE FEELING?

Miss Jenn don't be that naive, your boyfriend probably put them up to it

That Insta page is prophetic with their timing tbh; all the info is a leak obviously looking at your Howie but like the timing of it all. Those kiddos don't know that they are discussing the stolen mask at this exact moment (Kourt has put down her phone after Carlos snapped at her so Howie doesn't know they are talking abt it rn)

"We don't dance with the enemy" *cuts to her dancing with Zackey later*

SEBBY WEARING THE TEACUP COSTUME OMG HE'S GOING MAKE SUCH A CUTE CHIP (yes I am still mad Seb/Joe was robbed but Imma fangirl over the costume anyway)

Wtf why does North High look so expensive - they are literally in the same district as East High right??? How did they get this much funding

North High is a very artsy and rich for a public school; they should have had Nini go here instead of YAC tbh (like this campus feels like what YAC should have been) NOW THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING STORYLINE

Seblos' dynamic IS ON POINT THIS EP I really love my bois so much and their back and forth is hilarious

Shhshs DIANE who loves volleyball and North High okay I totally believe it

WHY ARE RED AND ASHLYN SO KINKY EVERY DAMN EPISODE TIM THESE ARE UNDERAGED CHARACTERS STOP IT

Shshsh we love Gina knowing herself and practicing self control by volunteering to be the lookout

Omg yall listen to Carlos and stfu they are so lucky no one saw or heard them yelling Wildcats

Oh no no no no no Miss Jenn you gonna get sucked in; this is gonna be so messy

Omg I saw someone post about this scene before I watched the ep YALL ARE RIGHT THAT BOI HITTING ON GINA IS SO FINE Babes go for that one, not EJ

NOT THEM FAKE DATING UGH E W TIM STOP MAKING ROMANTIC PORTWELL A T H I N G I honestly do not understand how some of yall can ship it romantically knowing Sofia is a whole underaged babey and Matty is a whole ass grown man - like I get the appeal of the Wonderstudies getting together and they do have chemistry but the irl age gap is creepy and outweighs the appeal of shipping them romantically

As I always say; Portwell/Wonderstudies should be a BROTP not an OTP

Ugh Brotp Portwell would have clocked Lily right away; romantic Portwell making googly eyes at each other isn't helping anyone

Living for Nini getting the recognition she deserves - I really like her solo arc this season she's so much more interesting without Ricky tbh

Aww Kourt you simp I love her and I'm so happy she's happy I wanna be wrong about Howie being a North High kid

Where is the mask??

OHMYGOD THESE KIDS COMING IN LIKE A HORROR MOVIE

Lily really wishes she was Jesse St. James huh; you could never Lily so stop

Andrew Barth Feldman and his cute little French accent I love him so much

Hnng Miss Jenn gonna get manipulated by this hoe. Omg wowow Zackey really is a hoe, making out with another girl before the show THE AUDACITY OF HIM SAYING MISS JENN WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH I WILL THROW HANDS WITH THIS MOFO

Wait the kids didn't steal it BUT WHAT IF ZACKEY DID

Ssjsgfajhdfg I CANNOT WITH ANDREW'S ACCENT but I can't tell if its really bad or really good but I'm also confused why didn't they just cast a French person as Antonie shshhs Antoine is adorableee and a little shit the best type of character

Lily is so annoying b y e sis bye and Olivia Keegan is talented I just wish they didn't make her character such a cartoony villain type

"How about if we bop to the top" SEBBY I LOVE YOU AND NEVER STOP BEING SO CUTE I SWEAR and Awww Carlos called him Honey I am s o f t

Hnng why do these fools are really gonna give into North High calling them chickens

OHHH NO SHE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT ABOUT ASHLYN FUCK A DANCE OFF I AM ABOUT TO THROW HANDS WITH A 16 YEAR OLD

"She told us not to dance with the enemy. She's better than this" No Sebby, she's not *cuts to her dancing with Zackey* AND OMG THE WAY I SAW THIS EDIT COMING BEFORE IT CAME

Ooooh I like this song wayyy more whatever the mess The Mob Song became (when I first heard it drop on Spotify yesterday) Around You is such a great song musically and lyrically very relevant to these two and gosh I love their voices together

They have so much chemistry damn, go home Mike (well he technically has oop) and Mr. Mazzara

YES YOU DO MISS JENN YOU ALWAYS HAD IT

Oh god this is the scene from the trailer; she's gonna make a move on Ricky isn't she?? Leave him alone Lily he doesn't need a 3rd girl to be confused about he needs a therapist

Lily shut the fuck up with quasi; STOP TRYING TO MAKE QUASI HAPPEN

"I love Nini's song" Sure, Jan.

...Okay yes you should have called him out but don't bait him LIKE THAT oop there's the scene from the trailer

Ohmygod is Andrew Barth Feldman gonna hit on Ashlyn

Okay this is so cute but also I am VERY annoyed with the way this show handles its characters like they aren't relevant or important unless they get into a relationship or a love triangle?? That's such a shitty way to give out screentime and arcs to characters. Is it not enough to develop the characters on their own and strengthen their friendship???

HUH TIM why you so obsessed with compulsory heterosexuality??(well also homosexuality for Seblos but they are the only ones I'm not annoyed with their relationship cos its a hella big step for Disney to have a gay couple and their relationship isn't in our faces or overshadows the plot and its just spinkles of cuteness every time they interact - they are honestly who Rini wishes they were; besties in love. They are a couple that Tim should be taking notes from; leave the relationship drama in the background, focus on the theatre and friendship aspect of everything)

My mini rant aside; this is a very adorable interaction between Ashlyn and Antoine.

"TOM HOLLAND ON STILTS" GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT COMPARISON I AM SCREAMING ANTOINE THAT'S SO FUNNY

This is so funny he keeps picking out the hottest guys of the group; as if he himself isn't the French version of Big Red they look super alike ngl shshsh

WHY YOU RUIN IT WITH THAT ANTOINE I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU

Drama between Antoine and Red is already spicing up shshsh I cannot

Why are you so dramatic with the shuffle Lily gtfo of here...also this doesn't make sense?? She wasn't even on a BATB playlist; what if a non BATB song came on ahahah

Good to know they aren't big fans of The Mob Song like I am Awww EJ you cutie, okay I will appreciate the OG Mob Song just for you

OH WAIT HE PROLLY LIKES IT COS ITS A GASTON LED SONG TIM GIMME THE EJ SOLO I DESERVE IN THIS NUMBER

I'm being robbed of Gaston for the last 7 eps I at least deserve an EJ solo for compensation

The way the set looks straight out of Broadway but also like omg the blue lighting and fancy stage gave me intense flashbacks to that Glee episode where Vocal Adrenaline sang Bohemian Rhapsody

RICKY STOP BEING SALTY AND ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND LIKE A NORMAL PERSON

OMG THE SUBTITLES SAID ITS HOWIE SINGING AS THE BEAST I FUCKING CALLED IT

Howie you hoe you gonna break my girl Kourtney's heart

Yeah...still not a fan of Antoine's Dance Remix

Yall know Gina would kill the dance number if she wasn't wearing that fit

Okay but it's Gaston led song WHY DOES EVERYONE BUT EJ HAVE A SOLO IN THIS SONG??

First the Beasts led it (Howie sounded better than Ricky ngl), then the Lumieres (their voices worked hella well together; I always forget what a talented singer Frankie is THEY NEED TO GIVE HIM A SOLO SONG) and now the Belles are going at it (Ashlyn's voice is superior)

BIG RED BEING JEALOUS AND SALTY IS SO FUNNY ITS LIKE A PUPPY BEING ANGRY I CRI

...Did anyone really win, Lily??? STFU

CARLOS IS RIGHT AND HE SHOULD SAY IT

Oooh I did see someone talk about this when the Rose Song dropped last week, apparently its illegal to add songs to a musical you're doing for a school play; I really thought the show would brush past that irl rule but I guess they are playing into it

THE WAY EVERYONE TURNED TO EJ FOR THE SPORTS METAPHOR I AM D Y I N G AND HIS FACE WAS GOLDEN! ITS LIKE THAT LISA SIMPSON MEME SHHSHSH

Okay Nini is being a little pissy about leaving her song out of the show and its a little selfish to wanna keep it at the risk of being disqualified but I also understand why she's hurt

Everyone is dog piling on her right now being against her idea and it feels like they are being against her song and her herself instead of them not wanting to be disqualified. Also like she poured her heart and soul into the song after Miss Jenn lowkey rushed her to write it. So I can see why this feels like a rejection of her and her song and why she's so hurt rather than her seeing the big picture right now

It doesn't help that Ricky said the final blow causing her to walk off

Okay maybe Zackey gets some rights for being chill and wanting the kids to be peers

THIS MOTHERFUCKER I KNEW HE WAS SHADY Also the way I gasped even though I predicted he stole the mask halfway through this ep shshsh

Stab him Miss Jenn STAB HIM

Bitch why you so threatened by East High if yall have such a Broadway-esque show planned??? They honestly should have stuck to the Little Mermaid; I really wanted to see the aquarium

"It's just a song Ricky" "A song can mean everything" Do you get deja vu? Anyone else getting intense flashbacks to Jan when DL first dropped and all the drama happened 👀

YES PLEASE STAY CO ANCHORS Gosh I love them so much esp once you take the romantic connotations out of their interactions

ROUGE GRAND I'M SCREAMING

I love this long take of checking in with everyone's relationship status (still hate how romantically focused this show has become but still a cool shot)

I K N E W IT I WAS RIGHT

Okay but like looking at Kourtney's face I have never wanted to be wrong so bad GOD I HATE IT HERE I really think he likes her and I hope they work it out

Nini setting up her own music acc feels like when Olivia rebranded her whole IG to be just for her music stuff - love this for both of them

AHHHHH SHE'S NINA NOW YALL

I know everyone loves her as Nini but like I have always loved the name Nina and it really suits her to be honest also shows how she's growing up now and kind of leans into the lyric "I won't be confined to your point of view" from The Rose Song because Nini is the nickname Ricky gave her so it shows that she's outgrowing him too and I love that for her!

Overall thoughts; they really crammed all the North High drama into one ep huh. Personally would have liked it if all of this was spread out throughout the last few episodes; like different hijinks for every episode. I'm just a big fan of properly setting up the overall arc over the season instead of patching it together closer to the climax/end of the show. Cos now it lowkey feels like two different seasons - 2A felt like The Rini/Rina Show esp with YAC storyline and whatever was going on with Rina and now 2B is finally feeling like what this season should have been all this time

[only-here-for-jatp]

Build-a-Band pt 1&2

Inspired from a tumblr post that I have lost track of. (If you see it lmk)

The boys go to Build-a-Bear. 

Each chapter is told from the POV of a different person. Reggie is first up!

I tried to reference actual build a bears, but the accessories are whatever I wish into existence so there.

Can read on Ao3 here

And also below! ~1900 words

Everything had been normal since the Orpheum. Well as normal as life can be when you live with three teenage boy ghosts from the 90s and you’re in a rock band that played one of the most well-known clubs in LA. The boys still got into their crazy antics that Julie inevitably had to fix and there was still something going on between her and Luke, whatever that was. She didn’t have time to worry about it so much these days.

Ever since the Orpheum they could touch and every now and again they could become visible to Flynn or Carlos. It still hadn’t happened in front of Ray yet, much to Reggie’s disappointment but he kept trying. Ray had taken news that the boys were ghosts surprisingly well with the addition of a few extra rules. He eyed the empty space where one ghost in particular was supposed to be when he told them although if the object of Ray’s focus noticed he sure didn’t show it.

Time was passing by rather quickly these days, and soon it was the start of summer. Julie’s dad had been nudging her to get a summer job and she couldn’t help but think it might be a good idea. The band was playing regular gigs now, but they weren’t making much money. If they were going to keep going, they needed another source of income. The boys of course couldn’t be of much help with this since you know, dead, so it was mostly up to Julie.

The boys, especially Luke, were a little grumbly about her taking time away from their music. Once she explained that this was to make money for the band, they’d felt a little better about it. They still weren’t over the moon, but the pouting had definitely decreased.

This is how Julie found herself with a job that she knew really wasn’t that awful but was exhausting none-the-less.

Build-a-Bear.

-----------------------------

The boys were really enjoying the fact that summer meant more time with Julie, even if she did have her new job at the mall. Reggie in particular loved having the extra people around. There was always something going on with Carlos and he’d made numerous trips to baseball practice, or to the park, or whatever was going on.

Today though, after much begging and pleading with Julie, she’d finally relented to let him tag along to her job. For the most part she’d forbidden them from visiting, saying that her job was chaotic enough without throwing three teenage ghost boys into the mix, but Reggie had just been so intrigued.

Build a Bear was apparently a place for kids where they came and made stuffed animals and you could add hearts and costumes and name them. To him that sounded like possibly the best place in the world.

When he was younger, he’d had a small chocolate brown teddy bear that he carried around with him anywhere. It came with him for the first day of kindergarten, and most days after until he found Luke. Then Sir Reginald, as the teddy bear was known as, would stay in his backpack, just in case. It’d been his support during all of the fighting, and he’d hold tight every time he hid in his closet trying to drown out the noise.

In truth, he’d never really grown out of his teddy bear but it was early middle school when Luke discovered there was a way to climb in through Reggie’s window and soon it was Luke sitting with him in the closet or pulling him out of the house to the studio to play music and wander the beach.

How exactly did one make a stuffed animal he thought? It seemed like it would take a long time sewing all of the pieces together and stuffing it? That’s a lot of work, do kids really enjoy it?? So he was very curious about this Build a Bear, especially when Julie exclaimed that they sold more than just bears! He could Build a Dog or a Turtle or maybe A DRAGON. He had no idea what he was going to find, but he was so excited to find out.

Reggie poofed into the store sometime that afternoon and immediately felt his eyes widen. This. Was. The. Best. Stuffed animals lined the walls of all shapes and kinds and colors. He stood in a sea of kids all running and screaming in sheer joy and he got it. If Julie hadn’t already spotted him, he would absolutely be doing laps right now. But he promised and he really wanted to try and keep the promise that he would be on his best behavior.

He took in the plastered on smile that edged just a little bit toward frantic, her tense posture, and the kids that were lightly tugging on her arms and knew he really couldn’t- “OH MY GOD JULIE IS THAT A STAR WARS BEAR.” He shrieked upon seeing what was clearly a teddy bear but it LOOOKED LIKE DARTH VADER and before he knew it he was poofing over to Julie, tugging on her arm much like the children while speaking so fast it sounded like a blur even to him “JulieJulieJulieJulieJulieJuliePrettyPleaseJulieCanIHaveTheBearJulieIt’sStarWarsITSSTARWARSJULIE.”

All of a sudden Julie was laughing and he stepped back to give her a curious look. Had he broken her? He hadn’t meant to break her. OH NO what was Luke going to say if he broke Julie? And Alex? Oh god please let her not be broken.

But soon he saw the soft smile playing on her lips, a genuine one this time. He smiled back at her and he watched her give him a small nod in a different direction. His eyes followed where she was indicating, and he felt his mouth drop open. There was a soft tan bear with kind of curly fur and its feet had this soft pink material on it. And he couldn’t say what about the bear it was, but it felt like he was looking at Alex.

Reggie quickly glanced at the name, “Timeless Bear” and he smiled. That was all of them exactly. Julie had come to stand next to him, and whispered softly “we can make that one, deal?” Reggie nodded, joy spreading through him quickly and he couldn’t stop his excitement from making him bounce.

Julie had a horde of kids following behind her and Reggie joined them, fitting right in if he wasn’t taller than them. And a ghost. Julie had picked up what looked like a deflated version of the bear and understanding was slowly started to dawn on how this whole process worked. But he still couldn’t figure out how they were going to all stuff and sew it.

Julie led them to this small open space and he watched all the children sit down, so Reggie followed along. In front of them was this huge machine and Reggie stared at it in awe. Was that? Was it filled with stuffing??? This was so cool! He was almost too distracted to miss Julie’s speech. Something about waiting your turn and choosing the softness levels and adding the heart.

Wait. The heart? Reggie tuned back in.

“Alright everyone, you will all need to pick a heart for your new friend.” Reggie’s eye grew wide. The shuffling of kids drew him to the little boxes filled with soft satin hearts. They were all in shades of red and pink and checkered. Julie was there talking with the kids to help him decide when he spotted a heart that was the exact same shade as Alex’s favorite sweatshirt. He pointed with a small voice and said that one. Julie picked it up as they all headed back to the big machine.

“Of course we can’t just put a heart inside our new friend. We’ve got to get it going with some magic first.” Reggie’s eyes widened, watching as Julie charmed the kids into believing with her. “First, we’ve got to rub the heart between our hands to make it warm.” All of the kids followed suit, and even though he knew Julie had the heart for his new friend between her hands he still followed suit. “Next, let’s add a little excitement! We can jump up and down for this one. Gotta have a spring in our step after all.”

“Now, give it a big hug so your new friend knows you’ll always be there for him.” Julie was making eye contact with him now and he could feel himself tearing up a little.

“Finally, make a wish and whisper it into your heart.” Reggie whispered into his hands “I wish I could stay with my brothers forever.” He didn’t know what Julie whispered to his heart, but he trusted her.

The kids bounced around in excitement, not feeling the gravity that was shifting around them. Julie stared for one long moment at Reggie before turning back to them with a smile and beginning the process of stuffing the bears. Reggie gasped so loud he made Julie whip her head around at him. THAT was how they did it. The machine did the stuffing and then it was just a quick close up! He watched the kids get their new stuffie one by one and then take them over to the “grooming” stations where you could brush them and “bathe” them before finding outfits. Reggie wandered over to the clothing section and admired all the selections. There were fancy dresses and Halloween costumes and pajamas and sports outfits and fanny packs.

WAIT. He shrieked with joy and immediately started clapping and jumping around. There in the accessories was a little black fanny pack. He started searching more thoroughly now. There wasn’t a pink sweatshirt but oooh! Was that a pink shirt! And and a baseball cap. YES.

He turned around to find Julie only to discover she was on the last kid. He walked over to her and stood patiently by as she heaved a sigh of relief. Waving them off. “Ready Reggie?” He nodded and shook in excitement. “Here!” She handed him the little pink heart and for a second he could only stare at it. But then he held it tightly in his hands and whispered in his mind.

You will be Alexander. You are the greatest drummer and one of the greatest friends a guy could have. You will be there for every heartache, panic attack, and moment of joy. You are sarcastic, but there for us anyway. Just wait until you meet the real Alex.

Julie nudged him, ready for the heart and watched as the limp piece of fabric became almost real. He didn’t give Julie much time after she finished before dragging her to his clothing selections. She giggled the whole time though, he knew that although she might act exasperated she was having as much as him. She approved of all the clothing choices, and offered one additional thing.

A small rainbow flag that had a band so it looked like the bear was holding it.

Reggie watched it all come together. He took one look at the dressed up bear and exclaimed- “It’s ALEX!!! I have to go show him!!! Thanks Julie” He gave her a quick hug and poofed away before anybody could wonder why that bear was floating.

[yassifiedintj]

Hey y'all!! First time posting on tumbrl, so, forgive me if something goes wrong. I have the same ability with technology as my 50 years old mom. Literally, me and technology? Nope. I'm basically a boomer. Anyways, inspirstion for this comes from a headcanon made on twitter by @aikohwrites and other following tweets like the ones from @dulceirenerod79. So, the idea is not mine, I hope I gave everyone the right credits. Just trying to put down what was my version of that headcanon. So, basically, I kept their original names because I didn't know how to change them but of course some things are totally made up just for the sake of the story. Also!! I'm not a native english speaker!! That's why probably there are gonna be some grammar mistakes, and I build the sentences in a very simple and italian-ish/spanish-ish(lol) way. Oh and just clarify, I have nothing against chileans lmao, I'm peruvian and I know chileans "generally" have some tensions with some other countries in LatAm. I mean, Latinos Unidos but I just thought it could have been useful for the story. But I don't mean it in a serious way, don't worry. So, anyways, I would appreciate any feedback. See you next time, if I don't procrastinate writing this sort-of-fanfiction-but-not-really

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Chapter 1 - An unexpected visitor

It was hot. Okay, maybe not as hot as he thought it would be, but the air was still really hot. -Dad, what if the other kids hate me?- asked the kid who was tightly holding his hand. -Carlitos, they won't hate you- answered Pedro, looking at his seven years old son directly in the eyes, in the most convincing way. Actually, he was sure that little Carlos was gonna get appreciated, convincing the kid was the problem. Definitely a harder job. -Escuchame- Pedro said with a firm but reassuring voice -you're kind and lovely with everyone, I know you're shy, but you're also friendly. You know that. They will love you. Everyone loved you in the old school- The kid's head tilted for a few seconds with hesitation, but then he vigorously nodded before letting go his father's hand, as he fixed his backpack on his shoulders. -Will you pick me right after I finish school?- he asked, still a little bit insecure. -I promise- Pedro answered promptly. -Ok then, let's go- Together they entered the school, where the man introduced the kid to the headteacher since Carlos was the new kid, even thought the year had started only from a month. The headteacher assured him that she was gonna keep an eye the kid, and she was gonna make sure he was doing good with his class. Pedro tried not to turn around every time to check on his son when he exited from the school, while going back to the car. He went back home trying to concentrate on the music playing from the radio and not on the thousands of question going on in his mind: if the job would have gone we, if Carlitos would have found friends at school. And Jaime, his other son, right in the middle of his rebel adolescent phase, what if he didn't go at school at all? But what about their neighbours, would have they get along well? Would have he finished to tidy up the house before starting to work? He didn't realise he already arrived at home. He parked the car in the parking lot in front of their new flat, their new home, and then he entered the house closing the door with a snap. He let himself sigh when he saw the large quantity of boxes standing on the floor, still waiting to be emptied. He started to get busy, catching the first objects in the big, plastic box standing in front of him: the chilean flag and three family pictures. He let out a small smile when he saw his beloved flag, that he kept as a reminder for himself, but mostly for his sons. He wanted them to be proud of their roots. The wall right in front of the door seemed the perfect spot, so he placed two nails to hang up the flag, then he looked at his work of art, under where he placed a small table in which the family pictures found their place. Those picture really warmed his heart: one of them portrayed Carlitos playing football, one the kids at the aquarium and the last one the three of them smiling on a mountain trip. It wasn't much, but he did a good job. He rubbed his forehead with the back of the hand, realising he was sweating. How the hell was the weather so damn hot? Suddenly he heard someone knocking on the door. He wasn't waiting anyone and didn't anybody in the neighbourhood, so he hesitantly reached the door, still unsure of who could have been outside. He opened the door, and standing on the porch there was a man with striking blue eyes, brown curly hair, holding a cake in his hands. He was scanning that man without saying a word. -Oh, well...- was all he managed to say, trying not to give a bad impression to who was probably a neighbour just trying to be polite. -I'm Edgar, your neighbour. Welcome to our neighbourhood!- he exclaimed with enthusiasm. -Oh, my pleasure, I'm Pedro- he finally answered, trying to reciprocate the enthusiasm, but all he gave was probably just a tired smile. Not that he wasn't happy to see such a nice and friendly neighbour, he had just been super stressed in the last days. He reached out to shake the other one's hand, but he realised that of course, Edgar had his hands busy holding the cake. -Sorry, I didn't realise...- he mumbled. -Don't worry! This is for you- Edgar kept smiling as

he offered him what Pedro recognised as... -Is that a torta tres leches?- he asked. Thinking about such a familiar dessert relieved him a little bit, and made him forget about the amount of stress he had been under since him and the kids arrived there. -Done with my own hands- Edgar answered with pride. -Thank you, really, I think I never needed this cake so much- A few second of uncertain silence followed, and Pedro decided that it could have been the beginning of the first friendship in the neighbourhood. He and the kids needed that, so he decided to do something he would have normally considered risky. -It would be such a waste to eat it all on my own, I mean, my kids will love it for sure but... I was wondering if maybe I could reciprocate the favour and, you know, offer you something to drink and maybe we can eat it together- he proposed. It seemed like Edgar was considering the proposal, then he nodded. -Sounds like a good deal- he answered, smiling. Pedro opened the door to let him in and we'll, something really concerning happened. Actually he had no idea of what was going on in Edgar's head, and especially the amount of thoughts and have went through his brain in just a fraction of seconds. Indeed, Edgar was really disturbed by the chilean flag, and he thanked Jesus, Mary and Joseph that he didn't have a venezuelan flag printed on his forehead and it wasn't Copa America period, so he wasn't wearing any venezuelan football team t-shirt. We could say that the Chilean flag hanged in the living room wasn't giving him exactly the best impression. He had just stepped into the chilean's house and he immediately started to eloquently cough. -Well, you know what? I just remembered I had to take a few things for my daughter. You know, I have a daughter. And she need a few things. In short, I forgot I had a very urgent thing to do. Daughter before anything!- Edgar surprised himself with the speed in which he pronounced those words. -Yeah, don't worry- Pedro said, quite baffled by the sudden change of voice tone in the other man. -Thanks for the offer, anyway- Edgar said, taking a last nervous look at the Chilean flag as he was exiting from the house under the sigh a worried Pedro. -The offer is still available, anytime you want. I hope we can still catch up!- he said while observing Edgar leaving his house with a nervous smile. Pedro closed the door, doubtful, asking himself what could have caused that sudden change of humour. He looked at the cake, deciding he was gonna try it on his own. Cutted a slice, he placed it on a small plate and picked up a bite with the spoon. Damn, it was good.

[arcticdementor]

“Hey bro! Check out this Nike ad!” This was my entry point into a new world.

…

Since Carlos had lived mostly outside the United States, he was able to follow soccer on a level I’d never encountered in my hometown. Back then, before social media and the advent of scarf-wearing Northwestern fútbol hipsters, big-time European soccer was like the metric system: Known to almost all but ourselves. But Carlos knew, and immediately used LimeWire to curate me a massive archive of 1990s through early 2000s soccer highlights. What was I doing in the world without them?

Oddly enough, in trying to inculcate me in soccer fandom, he started not with game highlights, but with the advertisements. Yes, Carlos was an educator and a voluntary footsoldier for Big Apparel. Going in, I had no clue about high-quality, internationally popular Nike soccer ads. The ads, written by the legendary Wieden+Kennedy firm, were miniature movies, films that were often creatively daring but also quite funny. The most popular of these ads might be “Good vs. Evil,” from 1996, where Nike’s best soccer players team up to play Satan’s literal army. The blending of sacrilege, theology and comedy just worked, like a more ambitious version of Space Jam that somehow took itself less seriously than Space Jam.

…

Yes, I know ads aren’t supposed to be high art. I understand that they are the purest distillation of manipulative greed. And yet, they sometimes are culturally relevant generational touchstones. While Nike was weaving soccer into enduring pop culture abroad, it was having a similar kind of success with basketball and baseball stateside. These ads weren’t just pure ephemera. Michael Jordan’s commercials were so good that, as he nears age 60, his sneaker still outsells any modern athlete’s. “Chicks dig the long ball” is a phrase (a) that can get you sent to the modern HR department and b) whose origins are fondly remembered by most American men over the age of 35.

Modern Nike ads will never be so remembered. It’s not because we’re so inundated with information these days, though we are. And it’s not because today’s overexposed athletes lack the mystique of the 1990s superstars, though they do. It’s because the modern Nike ads are beyond fucking terrible.

…

They’re bad for many causes, but one in particular is an incongruity at the company’s heart. Nike, like so many major institutions, is suffering from what I’ll call Existence Dissonance. It’s happening in a particular way, for a particular reason and the result is that what Nike is happens to be at cross-purposes from what Nike aspires to be.

…

For all the talk of a racial reckoning within major industries, Nike’s main problem is this: It’s a company built on masculinity, most specifically Michael Jordan’s alpha dog brand of it. Now, due to its own ambitions, scandals, and intellectual trends, Nike finds masculinity problematic enough to loudly reject.

This rejection is part of the broader culture war, but it’s accelerating due to an arcane quirk in the apparel giant’s strange restructuring plan, announced in June. Under the leadership of new CEO John Donahoe, Nike is moving away from its classic discrete sports categories (Nike Basketball, Nike Soccer, etc.) in favor of a system where all products are shoveled into one of three divisions: men’s, women’s and kids’. Obviously Nike made clothing tailored to the specificities of all these groups before, but now, Nike is emphasizing gender over sport. Gone is the model of the product appealing to basketball fans because they are basketball fans. It’s now replaced by a model of, say, the product appealing to women because they are women.

And hey, women buy sneakers too. Actually, women buy the lion’s share of clothing in the United States. While women shoppers are market dominant in nearly every aspect of American apparel, the clothing multinational named after a Greek goddess happens to be a major exception. At Nike, according to its own records, men account for roughly twice as much revenue as women do.

You might see that stat and think, “Well, this means that Nike will prioritize men over women in its new, odd, gendered segmentation of the company.” That’s not necessarily how this all works, thanks to a phenomenon I’ll call Undecided Whale. The idea is that a company, as its aims grow more expansive, starts catering less to the locked-in core customer and more to a potential whale which demonstrates some interest. Sure, you can just keep doing what’s made you rich, but how can you even focus on your primary business with that whale out there, swimming so tantalizingly close? The whale, should you bring it in, has the potential to enrich you far more than your core customers ever did. And yeah yeah yeah, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but those were birds. This is a damned whale! And so you start forgetting about your base.

You can see this dynamic in other places. For the NBA, China is its Undecided Whale. It could be argued that the NBA fixates more on China than on America, even if the vast majority of TV money comes from U.S. viewership. The league figures it has more or less hit its ceiling in its home country, so China becomes an obsession as this massive, theoretical growth engine.

…

Here’s the main issue for Nike in this endeavor: The company, as a raison d’être, promotes athletic excellence. While women are among Nike’s major sports stars, the core of high-level performance, in the overwhelming majority of sports, is male. Every sane person knows that, though nobody in professional class life seems rude enough to say so. Obviously, there’s the observable reality of who tends to set records and there’s also the pervasive understanding that testosterone, the main male sex hormone, happens to give unfair advantages to the athletes who inject it.

Speaking of which, there’s a famous This American Life episode from 2002 where the public radio journos actually test their own testosterone levels. The big joke of the episode is just how comically low their T levels are. Sure, you would stereotype bookish public radio men in this way, and yet the results are on the nose enough to shock.

As a nerdy media-weakling type, I can relate to the stunning realization that you’ve been largely living apart from T. Before working in the NBA setting, I was an intern in the cubicles of Salon.com’s San Francisco office, around the time it was shifting from respectable online magazine into inane outrage content mill. Going from that setting to the NBA locker room was some jarring whiplash, like leaving the faculty lounge for a pirate ship. To quote Charles Barkley on the latter culture, “The locker room is sexist, racist, and homophobic … and it’s fun and I miss it.”

…

The “Good vs. Evil” ad boasts a “Like” to “Dislike” ratio of 20-to-1 on YouTube. On June 17th of 2021, Nike put out an ad ahead of the Euro Cup that referenced “Good vs. Evil” as briefly as it could. In this case, a little child popped his collar and used Cantona’s catchphrase. As of this writing, the new ad has earned a thousand more punches of the Dislike than of the Like button.

When you see it, it’s no surprise that the latest Euro Cup ad is disliked. I mean, you have to look at this shit. I know we’re so numb to the ever-escalating emanations of radical chic from our largest corporations, but sometimes it’s worth pausing just to take stock and gawk.

…

But today we are in the land of new football, where we take dictatorial direction from less-than-athletic minors. After her announcement, we are treated to a montage of different people who offer tolerance bromides.

“There are no borders here!”

“Here, you can be whoever you want. Be with whoever you want.”

(Two men kiss following that line, because subtlety isn’t part of this new world order.)

Then, a woman who appears to be breastfeeding under a soccer shirt, threatens, in French, “And if you disagree …”

And this is when the little boy gives us Cantona’s “au revoir” line before kicking a ball out of a soccer stadium, presumably because that’s what happens to the ignorant soccer hooligan. He gets kicked out for raging against gay men kissing or French ladies breastfeeding or somesuch. Later, a referee wearing a hijab instructs us, “Leave the hate,” before narrator girl explains, “You might as well join us because no one can stop us.”

Is that last line supposed to be … inspiring? That’s what a movie villain says, like if Bane took the form of Stan Marsh’s sister. Speaking of which, was this ad actually written by the creators of South Park as an elaborate prank? It’s certainly more convincing as an aggressive parody of liberals than as a sales pitch. Why, in anything other than a comedic setup, is a woman breastfeeding in a big-budget Euro Cup ad?

It’s tempting to fall into the pro-vanguardism template the boomers have handed down to us and sheepishly say, “I must be getting old, because this seems weird to me,” but let’s get real. You dislike this ad because it sucks. You are having a natural, human response to shitty art. This a hollow sermon from a priest whose sins were in the papers. Nobody is impressed by what Nike’s doing here. Nobody thinks Nike, a multinational famous for its sweatshops, is ushering us into an enlightened utopia. Sure, most media types are afraid to criticize the ad publicly. You might inspire suspicion that what you’re secretly against is men kissing and women breastfeeding, but nobody actually likes the stupid ad. No college kid would show it to a new friend he’s trying to impress, and it’s hard to envision a massive cohort of Gen Z women giving a shit about this ad either.

Now juxtapose that ad not just against the classics of the 1990s but also the 2000s products that preceded the Great Awokening. Compare it to another Nike Euro Cup advertisement, Guy Ritchie’s “Take It to the Next Level.”

…

Here’s the problem, insofar as problems are pretended into existence by our media class: The ad is very, very male. Really, what we are watching here is a boyhood fantasy. Our protagonist gets called up to the big show, and next thing you know he’s cavorting with multiple ladies, and autographing titties to the chagrin of his date. He can be seen buying a luxury sports car and arriving at his childhood home in it as his father beams with pride. Training sessions show him either puking from exhaustion or playing grab-ass with his fellow soccer bros. This is jock life, distilled. Art works when it’s true and it’s true that this is a vivid depiction of a common fantasy realized.

Nike’s highly successful “Write the Future” ad (16,000 Likes, 257 Dislikes) works along similar themes.

…

The recent Olympic ads were especially heavy on cringe radical chic, and might have stood out less in this respect if the athletes themselves mirrored that tone on the big stage. Not so much in these Olympics. It seems as though Nike made the commercials in preparation for an explosion of telegenic activism, only to see American athletes mostly, quietly accept their medals, chomp down on the gold, and praise God or country. Perhaps you could consider Simone Biles bowing out of events due to mental health as a form of activism, but overall, the athletes basically behaved in the manner they would have back in 1996.

But Nike forged onwards anyway. This ad in celebration of the U.S. women’s basketball team made some waves, getting ripped in conservative media as the latest offense by woke capital.

…

“Today I have a presentation on dynasties,” a pink-haired teenage girl tells us. “But I refuse to talk about the ancient history and drama. That’s just the patriarchy. Instead, I’m going to talk about a dynasty that I actually look up to. An all-women dynasty. Women of color. Gay women. Women who fight for social justice. Women with a jump shot. A dynasty that makes your favorite men’s basketball, football, and baseball teams look like amateurs.”

When she says, “That’s just the patriarchy,” the camera pans to a bust of (I think) Julius Caesar. At another point, the girl says, “A dynasty that makes Alexander the Great look like Alexander the Okay.” Fuck you, Classical Antiquity. Fuck you, fans of teams. You’re all just the patriarchy. Or something.

Nike could easily sell the successful American women’s basketball team without denigrating other teams, genders and ancient Mediterranean empires that have nothing to do with this. Could but won’t. The company now conveys an almost visceral need for women to triumph over men because … well, nobody really explains why, even if it has something to do with Undecided Whaling. In Nike’s tentpole Olympics ad titled “Best Day Ever,” the narrator fantasizes about the future, declaring, “The WNBA will surpass the NBA in popularity!” ​

…

There are theories on the emergence of woke capital, with many having observed that, following Occupy Wall Street, media institutions ramped up on census category grievance. The thinking goes that, in response to the threat of a real economic revolution, the power players in our society pushed identity politics to undermine group solidarity. Well, that was a fiendishly brilliant plan, if anyone actually hatched it.

I’m not so convinced, though, as I’m more inclined to believe that a lot of history happens by happenstance. If we’re to specifically analyze the Nike Awokening, there is a recent top-down element of a mandate for Undecided Whaling, but that mandate was preceded by a socially conscious middle class campaign within the company.

This isn’t unique to Nike, either. Given my past life covering the team that tech moguls root for, I’ve run into such people. They aren’t, by and large, ideological. Very few are messianically devoted to seeing the world through the intersectionality lens. They are, however, terrified of their employees who feel this way. The mid-tier labor force, this cohort who actually internalized their university teachings, are full of fervor and willing to risk burned bridges in favor of causes they deem righteous. The big bosses just don’t want a headline-making walkout on their hands, so they placate and mollify, eventually bending the company’s voice into language of righteousness.

…

All the guilt and atonement transference make for bad art. And so the ads suck. There’s no Machiavellian conspiracy behind the production. It’s just a combination of desperately wanting female market share and desperately wanting to move on from the publicized sins of a masculine past. So, to message its ambitions, the exhausted corporation leans on the employees with the loudest answers.

There’s a lot of interplay between Nike and Wieden+Kennedy when the former asks the latter for a type of ad, but the through line from both sides is a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Based on conversations with people who’ve worked in both environments, there’s a dearth of personnel who are deeply connected to sports. In place of a grounding in a subculture, you’re getting ideas from folks who went to nice colleges and trendy ad schools, the type of people who throw words like “patriarchy” at the screen to celebrate a gold medal victory. The older leaders, uneasy in their station and thus obsessed with looking cutting edge, lean on the younger types because the youth are confident. Unfortunately, that confidence is rooted in an ability to regurgitate liturgy, rather than generative genius. They’ve a mandate to replace a marred past, which they leap at, but they’re incapable of inventing a better future.

…

Ironically, Nike mattered a lot more in the days when its position was less dominant. Back when it had to really fight for market share, it made bold, genre-altering art. The ads were synonymous with masculine victory, plus they were cheekily irreverent. And so the dudes loved them. Today, Nike is something else. It LARPs as a grandiose feminist nonprofit as it floats aimlessly on the vessel Michael Jordan built long ago. Like Jordan himself, Nike is rich forever off what it can replicate never. Unlike Jordan, it now wishes to be known for anything but its triumphs. Nike once told a story and that story resonated with its audience. Now it’s decided that its audience is the problem. It wouldn’t shock you to learn that Carlos hated the new Nike ads I texted to him. His exact words were, “I don’t want fucking activism from a sweatshop monopoly.” He’ll still buy the gear, though, just not the narrative. Nike remains, but the story about itself has run out. Au revoir. 

[popculturebuffet]

The Casagrandes Reviews: Croaked!

Halloween Havoc rolls on as we shine a light on the other beloved holiday on October 31st, Day of the Dead! Sid and Ronnie Anne’s well meaning plan to help Sid’s sister Adelaide move on from her frog’s death ends up convincincing the small child she has power over life and death. I’m sure all big sisters do that at some point. More about the whole being dead thing under the cut. 

I’ve hyped this one up in both previous Casgrandes reviews, so as you can tell i’m excited for this one. As i’ve mentioned before but will repeat for anyone new here, I absolutley love this episode and when I did a binge a month ago for labor day of this show, it was one of the standouts by a wide margin. I only held off so long because why should Halloween be the only holiday I cover during spooky season huh? I mean yes it’s in my halloween coverage’s title but  there’s always room for incusivlity. Like jello or Wolverine. 

As for if i’m covering this show’s paired episode, the show’s episode for halloween itself...

Yeah I have nothing against the episode ITSELF, it’s just.. eh. I mean we do get bobby as a dracula and sid as a lobster, a cute dance sequence and Stanley griping about not getting to wear his costume at work, which is valid, and then wearing said taco costume at the end... it’s just wrapped around your standard “character blows off a family engagment for something that turns out to suck” plot, the only diffrence being Bobby being the best brother ever is supportive of Ronnie Anne going to a 6th grade party and gladly helps salvage the night at the end. And it wasn’t a plot I liked to begin with, so it had that going against it. And I Know, I tend to zero in on i’ve seen it before a lot.. but that’s because .. it’s OKAY to do a tried and true plot tha’ts been done a million times as long as you can do something entertaining with it.  Both She Ra and Avatar the Last Airbender are about a world tha’ts long been conquered whose long lost savior comes to turn the tide of the war.. but that’s about as much as they share in direct comparison and both are fucking fantastic for diffrent reasons entirely.  But as rehashes go that episode wasn’t BAD , just eh, and i’d rather focus on things I can write more about frankly. 

Speaking of which, yeah I love this episode, and like “Mexican Makeover” it comes from Lalo Alcaraz of La Cucharacha fame, a comic strip writer whose also the show’s consultant for mexican culture, and is part of why the former episode disapointed me: because this one was REALLY fucking good. So enough hype , pitter patter let’s get at er.  The episode opens with Rosa setting up a day of the dead altar for her Father, with Sid and Ronnie Anne wondering what’s up, with Sid out and out wondering if Day of the Dead is mexican halloween something i’m ashamed to admit I thought of it as for years and years, because i’m as white as I am dumb, and most cartoons didn’t go much beyond “the dead come back for a day” and get into the more metaphorhical aspects we get to here. I assume Coco is the exception, as is the book of life I just still need to watch both. And yes you may boo me over this, I certainly deserve this.  I do however like this line as it’s a common misconception, and gives a  lot of kids likely thinking the same about the holiday in the audience a surrogate.

Ronnie Anne also wonders what the altar’s for. Rosa, while minorly annoyed at the two is happy to edcuate explaning it’s a day for honoring your loved ones and inviting them back, metaphorically though the metaphor was lost on young me since both Mucha Lucha and El Tigre had the dead literally come back, via an altar with offerings of their favorite things. It’s a nice bit that not only explains the holiday for those in the audience who either forgot a lot of that (raises hand) or didn’t know any of that, and also helps explain how the holiday is metaphoircal, something I didn’t think about before because as we’ve established i’m kinda dumb. The point is I like it.  Sid however gets an idea: Her sister Adelaide has been down in the dumps since her Frog, Froggy died, likely named after Big the Cat’s frog but this Froggy’s penchant for running off probably just got him ran over since Adelaide lives in the city and Frogger is sadly inaccurate, as George Costanza leanred the hard way. 

So our ambigiously gay duo visit Addy, who being a 6 year old who just lost her pet is bawling her eyes out. So our duo tells her about day of the dead and they set out to get froggy’s faviorite things: From shoelaces to the hoppit, a frog themed version of the hobbit I both wish is real and belives is probably better than the second two hobbit movies, flies (with help from a dirty diaper because this show and it’s sister can’t resist poop jokes.. go with your audience I guess), and a lilypad. The result is this. 

I”m.. not going to ask why a 6 year old’s frog has the frog equilvent of a naked burt renoylds on a bearskin rug photo, froggy’s sexy secrets died with him. But unfortuntely nuance is lost on a 6 year old, so Addy assumed Froggy was actually coming back and just grieves harder now. So Sid comes up with Plan B B: bring froggy back from the dead at the old pet semetary. Though since they don’t want to defile his body they try a dead ally cat first instead.  

One Zombie Test Cat later, they decide sometimes dead is better and just go with plan b: Sid once had a goldfish that died and her parents got her a replacement, and since it worked on her, and apparently still works on Bobby, they decide to pull that. They rent a frog from the pet store. And if your asking “wait pet stores , even fictional ones, do that” and suprisingly.. no they do not, but Pete, the guy at the pet shop which is also named after him, likes Sid’s mom’s tour. Okay two questions: one is that little pete from the adventures of pete and pete all grown up? I mean I know what happend to his actor... 

But in universe we have no idea. And Brendon Small, the character and the actor, showed up on Clarence so it’s plausable. And secondly where can I get the job as owner of my own pet store near melissa joan hart doing a gator show. I may have a career goal now. 

So they sneak in subsittue froggy, and we get an adorable montage of Addy hanging out with Froggy the Second: Getting some son, eating flies (though Addy spits her’s out. She’s not Lana.), and watching the Hoppit.. as I wish to one day. I mean we see a trippy bit of it but not the actual thing.. I guess I can add seeing a full version to my small list of things related to this franchise that I only I want along with my a diffrent world-esque spinoff show following Lori and Bobby. 

Addy happily sleeps after that giant ball of adorable, and Sid and Ronnie Anne take Froggy 2 back to Creepy Guy at the Pet Store.. I mean Pete.. I mean Future Me. So Sid pats herself on the back metaphoircally for the plan.. which this being a sitcom, naturally has kinda snowballed. Now Addy thinks she has power over life and death. Guess she has the same Christmas LIst as Crow

As not to break a small child’s heart for the second time in two days, our heroines decide they have to bring back her wish list: Great Aunt Milly, Old Mr Woodburn, and Abraham Lincoln. 

Since they don’t have a time traveling phone booth, they’ll have to go with the next best thing, my boy Tio Carlos. Seriously why they don’t use this adorable nerd more is beyond me. But Carols being an adorable history nerd gladly agrees to play LIncoln for what he thinks is a play.. I mean greanted they could just tell him the truth. He’s a dad, he gets this kinda thing. Meanwhile our girls dress up like said aunt milly and shenanigans insue. It’s a really funny scene.. until it falls apart with the mr. woodburn impersination, revealing it was all a hoax, and sending Addleaide crying to her room understandably not wanting to talk to either of them. Still we got Carolos as lincoln. That’s not nothing. 

But yeah having made things worse by accident, the girls go to Rosa for help who while understandably annoyed at the mess they made, is more than willing to come with and help. Because Rosa is fucking amazing ,that’s why. She sucessfully coaxes Addy out and then takes her down to the Casagrande’s place to show off her altar and explain the true meaning of day of the dead: Thinking about your loved ones.. keeps the memories alive. Thinking about who they were, what they loved, what they meant to you.. it’s not raising the dead.. but honring them. It  not only made the real value of the holiday sink in for me but i’ts a good message for kids, and a good way to teach them about a holiday most probably didn’ know how it worked if they even knew at all. It’s a really sweet powerful moment, and the combination of alcaraz’s writing and Sonia Manzano really brings it to this scene. It’s easily the show’s best. Good stuff. 

Froggy II interupts the scene.. turns out a trail of bacon bits, that we saw left earlier, lead him back, and Pete’s been following him the whole way and is winded because of course he is. We’re in the same blobby shape I get it man your fine. So with Addy already liking the second froggy, and having fully come to terms with the first’s death, Sid offers Pete tickets to her mom’s show in exchange for Froggy II, whose named that in this scene and who we saw in uptown funk. As long as it’s the splash zone he’s fine with it and Sid knows her mom enough well enough to know Becca would probably gladly trade a ticket for her daughter’s hapiness. Plus it’s easier to get someone to willingnly sign the wavers about getting gator blood on them when they already want that so win win.  We end on a Day of the Dead party with the whole cast in day of the dead makeup, eveyrone happy.. except Carl who’se subplot of spreading marigolds everywhere I missed and he ended up at the Loud House. Why this didn’t lead to a crossover I dunno. I mean if Steve Urkel can jetpack into the family from step by step’s yard,  why not? I know the 90′s were a diffrent time but this was a missed opportunity. Funny gag anyway. And scene. 

Final Thoughts: I was pretty transparent with this one: I think it’s a wonderful, heartfelt, and well done look at day of the dead tha’ts educational without cramming the education part down your throat, like any good cartoon that teachs you something should do, and it’s also really funny and endearing.Not much else to say, it’s just really good and I was glad to highlight it and if you haven’t seen it, please do it’s perfect viewing for the season. If you want more Casagrandes I have two reviews under the nick tab on my blog, and will be covering the second batch of Halloween/Day of the Dead episodes later this month, along with the new loud house halloween special Ghosted. And if you can’t wait for either of those, monday i’ll be covering the new ducktales halloween special. Until we meet again, viva la muretos. Play us out Nimoy...

[seblos]

there’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach - ch 4/10

chapter title: you’re on, lovers!

word count: 1,995

[one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine (coming soon)]

read on ao3

“So,” Ashlyn leans over during history. “You and Seb, huh?”

Carlos looks up from the textbook he was reading in surprise. “What do you mean?” he asked, eyes widening. It wasn’t Ashlyn talking to him that surprised him. They had become closer as rehearsals progressed. Also, when they both had lingered near the GSA poster, Ashlyn had struck up a conversation with him. Turns out she was bi, and theatre queers always stuck together anyway. It was her words, rather, that gets his attention. 

“I mean, you too stare at each other all through rehearsal, you sit together at lunch, he drives you home like every other day,” Ashlyn lists, and Carlos’s heart speeds up. Was it really that obvious? “So are you two together, or…” she trails off.

“No! I mean… not yet,” Carlos feels his cheeks heat up. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if we were… but no.”

Ashlyn smiles. “Cool. If it helps, he totally likes you too,” she adds.

“How do you know?”

She shrugs. “I just have a feeling.”

“Did he tell you?” Carlos feels his stomach twist. As much as he wanted confirmation that the other boy liked him back, the idea of hearing it from Ashlyn rather than him felt wrong.

“No,” she says, and Carlos lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “I mean, I haven’t asked him since I thought you two were already a thing. But we’re in baking club together and when I asked about you he kinda lit up.”

“Oh, okay,” Carlos nods, and his heart swells. “So what should I do about it?”

Ashlyn shrugs again. “I dunno, ask him out?”

He blushes. “No.”

“Alright, that’s on you,” she said. “But you should ask him to hang out or something. Get closer to him, so when you are ready it won’t be awkward.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to ask out Seb,” Carlos mumbles. “I’ve never dated anyone. I don’t know how to be a boyfriend.”

Ashlyn smiles sweetly. “I’m pretty sure he hasn’t either. It’s something you can figure out together, you know.”

After she says that, their teacher scolds them for talking, and the two bend back over the worksheet they’re supposed to be working on. As he stares at the textbook, though, Carlos can’t help but think about what Ashlyn said. They would be figuring it out together. It’s hard to believe that someone like Seb could possibly like him back, but it might just be true, and the idea of it makes Carlos’s heart leap to his throat.

—

“Every time we end rehearsal early, I feel like my life is a lot more like Glee than I think it is,” Carlos says, rolling his eyes as he zips up his backpack from yet another badly ended rehearsal. They had barely lasted half an hour today. At this rate, they’re never going to get the blocking done by the show. 

Seb laughs from where he’s organizing his sheet music over at the piano. Everyone had already filed out of the room, but Carlos purposely had taken his time, knowing that Seb would most likely be the last one out. By this point, it was just routine.

“To be fair, Miss Jenn was definitely a Rachel Berry in high school,” Seb comments, stuffing the folder in his backpack, and Carlos snorts lightly. “So,” he says, swinging his backpack onto his back. “Since rehearsal ended early, I’m assuming I’m driving you home?”

Carlos is about to say yes until he remembers what Ashlyn had told him earlier. Before he can overthink it, Carlos asks, “Or we could hang out? Since it did end so early… could we do chem homework or something together at my house?”

Seb looks surprised at first, and Carlos’s heart is still beating quickly, but the shock wears off quickly and is instead replaced with a smile. 

“Sure, I’d love to,” Seb says. 

As they’re walking out together, their hands brush together for a moment, and Carlos can’t tell if it’s on purpose or not. He debates grabbing Seb’s hand for a moment but ends up just grabbing the strap of his backpack instead to resist the urge.

Carlos swears that he sees Seb’s expression drop for just a second, but it’s so quick he probably just imagined it.

They still end up having Georgie give them a ride, who is surprisingly not upset about having driven all the way to the school just to drive the two of them back to Carlos’s house. Rather, she just gives Seb a sort of half-smile. He immediately blushes, giving her the stink eye, and Georgie just laughs.

On the ride over, though, Carlos realizes what they’re about to do. Seb is about to be in his house, in his room. He doesn’t know the last time he’s had someone in his room since 7th grade. Sure, Seb knows about his weird, split family already, but the idea of him experiencing it is so much scarier for some reason. He tried not to overthink it as Seb stepped into his house. 

“Carlos? Is that you, mijo?” his mother calls as he shuts the door, and Carlos suddenly realizes that he should have checked with his mom if Seb could come over before he invited him. To be fair, though, he’s never really done this before. 

“Hi, mamá!” He says as his mom steps into view. “I brought Seb over to work on some chemistry homework, I hope that’s okay.” 

He’s expecting some sort of disapproving look or passive aggressive comment about checking with her before bringing someone over. Instead, “So this is the Sebastian I’ve heard so much about!” is what his mother says, much to his surprise. 

“It’s great to meet you, Ms. Rodriguez,” Seb says with a smile, and his mom raises a sly eyebrow at Carlos, who only gives her a look in return. 

“Seb, are you staying for dinner?” she asks, turning her attention back to the boy.

“Oh, no, I need to be home to finish my chores. Thank you so much though!” 

“Chores, huh?” Now it’s Ms. Rodriguez’s turn to smile. “You could learn something from this boy, Carlos.”

Carlos just rolls his eyes. “I do some chores!” He defends. “Also, I told you mamá, Seb lives on a farm. His chores are a bit different from mine.”

“Alright, well, I’ll let you two get your homework done,” she dismisses them, and Carlos leads Seb upstairs to his room.

When they first enter it, Carlos immediately goes to his bed. He motions for Seb to sit down, who does so hesitantly. Neither of them say a word for a moment, and Carlos worries that he’s made a mistake inviting Seb over here. 

As if on cue, Seb breaks the silence.”So, you talk about me to your mom, huh?” he teases, and Carlos hits him with a pillow.

“To be fair, she asked about you,” he says, which releases the tension as both of them relax, getting back to their normal selves.

They both take out their chemistry homework, but it ends up lying abandoned on Carlos’s desk in favor of the two of them discussing theater and rehearsal.

“Can I just say, your facial expressions while Nini and EJ were singing were priceless! If I wasn’t so focused on hoping that this rehearsal would actually stay together, I would have lost it watching you.” Carlos laughs, and Seb glares at him harmlessly. 

“Let’s just say I definitely liked out version better! I’m telling you, trying to keep a straight face was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Surprised I can do anything straight, to be honest,” Seb says cheekily from where he’s laying on his stomach the foot of Carlos’s bed.

(The joke doesn’t exactly take Carlos by surprise, but just the casualness of it does. He had only ever made those kinds of jokes with Ashlyn, and had forgotten that he was able to make them with Seb too.)

“I love Nini, I do, but sometimes her ability to jump from boy to boy surprises me,” Seb continues. His phone lights up with a text notification, and he picks it up to read. “Speak of the devil, Nini just texted to tell me that she and EJ have officially broken up. Blocked his number and everything.”

“Wow,” Carlos raises his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you and Nini were friends.”

“Yeah, well, we met when we were young. Only other kid I knew that had two last names, which we decided to be the basis of our friendship, I guess. I ended up transferring schools, and I guess she skipped a grade or something because we didn’t meet again until last year when I got to East High and we got reintroduced during Brigadoon,” Seb explained.

Carlos nods along. He knew that Seb didn’t go to the middle school he had gone to with Nini and Ricky and all the others, but somehow it never occurred to him that he knew them before high school.

“I never really got close to her,” Carlos says, surprising himself. “I mean, we're friendly, but I guess I didn’t really think we had much in common. Plus Gabriella isn’t in any of the huge dance numbers, so I guess that’s how I ended up migrating more towards you and Gina.” 

He’s never really talked about his differences with the rest of the cast with anyone else because, well, he doesn’t really talk to the cast in general. Part of him wants to open up to Seb about the weird balance of being a sophomore who has some sort of authorial power over the upperclassman, but he can’t exactly put it into words and it hurts his head to think about. He files that thought away for later as Seb starts talking again.

“Are you calling me a dancer?” He asks, sticking his leg up for a moment. His tone is joking, but the smile across his face seems genuine, and it makes Carlos’s heart melt.

“Mmm, you could use some work,” he says, looking Seb up and down as if he’s judging his form, causing Seb to blush lightly. “No, but actually, you are a really good dancer. Compared to some of the others at least,” Carlos laughs, and Seb joins in.

“Wow, so kind of you,” he says, rolling his eyes although the smile is still spread across his face. “I’m kidding, I don’t even begin to compare to Gina and some of the ensemble. I would kill to be able to move so easily like that.”

“I think you’re doing fine, considering your lack of dance training,” Carlos says, and now it’s Seb’s turn to hit him with a pillow. “Although…” he starts as he considers how this idea will go over with Seb. “If you wanted to, I could give you dance lessons? Like before school or something?”

He’s expecting Seb to reject the idea or come up with excuses. Instead, the other boy's eyes light up and he props himself up on his elbows. “Really?” he asks excitedly, and Carlos sits up straighter.

“I mean yeah, if you genuinely want to improve and you want extra time practicing,” he says with a smile. “We could do once a week, or non-rehearsal days, whatever is best for you!”

“Non-rehearsal days would actually be perfect!”

“So do you want to start this Friday?” Carlos asks since that would be their closest non-rehearsal day. “Maybe, like, 7:00? Gives us about half an hour before homeroom. Or is that too early?”

Seb shakes his head. “I’m up every morning at 5:30 in the morning anyway, so 7 works fine for me!” he smiles.

Carlos smiles back before he processes what Seb had just said. “Geez, 5:30? That’s so early,” he says disgustedly. 

The way Seb laughs makes his head spin, and suddenly Carlos doesn’t know how he’s going to be able to survive private rehearsals in a few days. 

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | INTERVIEW WITH JON CARLING

Scratchy black and white drawings and the ink meanderings of artist Jon Carling have always caught our eye. They’re like something out of a weird dream or out of an ancient children’s book–,and they’re always captivating. We’ve been following his prolific drawing career for a long time and recently caught up with Jon to find out more about his inspirations, his early artistic influences, and his recent dip into animating his beautiful works. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist. 

Introduce yourself?  And where you’re from or currently residing? What’s your favorite thing about the city? My name is Jon Carling. I am an independent artist living in Oakland, California. I love the landscape. The beauty of the Northern Californian coastline is a life long inspiration to me. 

How would you describe your work to someone who is just coming across it? Scratchy ink drawings, some scribbling, mostly black and white.  Weird children's book art. 

How did you first get interested in drawing or figure out that you had a knack creating awesome art? I have always really enjoyed making stuff.   Drawing is really a habit from childhood, I would  escape into my sketchbook, and my imagination, making up worlds. It is an awesome feeling to manifest ideas with some degree of success.  That feeling is what keeps me doing it after all of these years.

Who and what were some of your early artistic influences? What artists inspire you these days? Early on, I loved Saturday Morning Cartoons, After school Cartoons, Fucking Sesame Street.  All the 80s kids' stuff.  Garfield Volumes, The Far Side, and Calvin & Hobbes. 

When I was 6 or 7, a comic book store opened near my house, and that had a huge impact.  The dude who ran it, Butch, was an old hippie dude who also had a huge collection of Japanese comics and toys.This is when Voltron and Robotech had just started airing in the U. S. . It was perfect timing to be exposed to all that incredible art.Greek Myths by D'Aulaires was my first book, and basically my bible.  I think you can see the influence on my work from that book.  

These days, I have been studying animation, so, I have been admiring the classic cartoons and animation from early film, all the way up to today.  I have been reading 'Elemental Magic' by Joseph Gilland.It is a book all about traditional animation special effects.  Amazing.  

Not only do you produce a lot of drawings, but also create zines and now dabbling in animation. Tell us a little bit about how you ended up animating your drawings? Obviously, I have a love for cartoons.  Creating a cartoon of my own has been something I have dreamed of forever.  I have created short animations over the years using traditional methods: Paper and pen on a light table, scanning everything into photoshop, and putting it all together in there.  It takes forever, and it can be pretty discouraging when you are sitting there doing data entry for hours.

Recently, a friend let me try out his Ipad Pro, and I am blown away by how much better the pen interface has become.  I got excited about the possibilities for animating and started researching tablets.  And, after years of being very reluctant to using digital tools to make my work, I finally got a drawing tablet.  I ended up getting the Samsung S4 tablet instead of the Ipad Pro because I feel like the pen and the screen are better suited for me and my work. I am using it everyday, I love how fast and clean the process is, while keeping the feel of my lines.  Now I have a Huion Kamvas monitor for my computer too, I am getting the feel for the whole process, but, I am excited about what I can do now.  

As exciting as it is, pen and paper is always closest to my heart.  

What are your essential art tools and materials? I really just need a sketchbook, a pencil (Sumogrip .5) , and a pen (Pilot Hi-Tec-C 03). If I have that with me, I am quite happy.

How do your ideas take shape? How do you get from start to finish? What’s your process? I love to daydream.  I have a bunch of ongoing stories in my head that I always turn to if I want to go somewhere.Other times, I just draw without any idea or expectation.  I follow the pencil and start fleshing things out.I love phrases, sometimes out of context.  A simple phrase can be the spark for a huge idea. 

How has your style of drawing changed or evolved? What allows you to grow artistically? I don't know what is changing exactly.  The cross-over digital art is new, so, I am sure it will alter my work to some degree.I feel like I am always refining and hammering out a more perfect version of the world in my head.

What has been the most challenging project you’ve worked on? Last year, I had the opportunity to illustrate Carlo Collodi's 'Pinoccio' for an Italian publisher.It was almost 200 illustrations with a tight schedule.  It was just an epic amount of drawing, and when it was finished, I was able to travel to Italy for the release, and it just turned into a really magical experience. 

What was the hardest thing about it and the most rewarding? The discipline to complete the work, while maintaining quality that honors the book.  It was a grind for large portions of the work, but, the end result made me realize how much good comes out of genuine work applied to a dream.

What was your last adventure that showed up in one of your illustrations, thematically or just visually? Oh, it probably had something to do with a dream that involved a bird headed soldier dragging my injured body off  the battlefield. 

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and pursue art? Make sure you are doing it regardless if it is your "job".  I am passionate about drawing, it is what I do, I don't see it as my career.  First and foremost, I do it for myself.

What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks? By all means, enjoy yourself, and the time you have.  I would make sure you have put yourself in the direction that fits best with your specific way of creating.Art School costs so much money, I don't think a truly determined person needs to go at all.  If you love art, and the creative process, you will seek knowledge.The debt from art school can crush any hopes for a fulfilling career in the field.

What are your favorite style of VANS? I love the ComfyCush Era style and fit.  They are extremely comfortable and look super cool.I also love the traditional white slip-ons, they are the best shoe in the world to draw on.

Anything you can share that is coming up? Last year, I created a limited hand cast resin figurine of my 'Traveling Witch' character. You can purchase the second edition in my Etsy store, along with other witch loot. FOLLOW JON | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | SHOP

[mrsjaxtellerfan]

Love, Marriage, Baby

Hey, y'all!  I conspired with my girl @lookprettyliveclassyplaydirtyyt to write this one for ya!

Requested by @spnhollis  Hope you enjoy!  Sorry it got a little long!

Reader is the new mechanic at TM, builds a strong relationships with all the guys and starts doing things for the club. Juice ends up with a crush on Reader and it’s super fluffy or whatever you get inspired to write.

Warnings:  mention of serious medical conditions, PURE FLUFF

Here it is a hot summer’s day and we are sitting here in the hospital waiting for our baby to arrive.  I can’t help but think back to the first time I saw y/n, the love of my life.

Flashback

A car I’ve never seen before pulled into the T-M lot and parked by the bikes. I saw a girl with long, curly, blue hair, wearing shorts and a black band tank with a flannel tied around her waist, get out and walk toward the office. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, staring at the now closed door.

“Juicy, boy.  You okay?”  Chibs asks, glancing over at the starstruck lass, snapping him out of his thoughts about the mysterious girl.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.  What were you saying?”  Juice turns back toward the elder gentleman, keeping an eye on the door hoping to get another look at the stranger.

I felt her squeezing my hand. Knowing she was having a contraction, I did my best to help her through it.  When she lets up, I glance down at the women I never would have guessed I would have fallen in love with or who would love me back.

“Hi, I’m y/n.”  The mystery girl says, holding her hand out to the dumbfounded Juice.

“Oh, uh, hi.  I-I’m, uh, Juice.”  I reply, snapping out of my stupor.  Y/n giggles, grasping my hand. Her hand is so small, and warm in my much larger hand.  I can feel the callus’ she had, leaving me to wonder what it is she is doing here.

“Juice, like the drink? How did you get that nickname?”

“Well,” I say pointing over my shoulder, “it’s better than Half-Sac.”

She let out a laugh that made my heart flutter when I heard it, secretly hoping I’d be hearing it for the rest of my life.

Present Day

Knowing she was in pain, I decided to tell her a joke. “Hey babe? What do you call someone who builds dog houses?”

“What do you call them, Juice?”  Y/n gasps out, pain evident in her voice.

“Bark-itechts.” She let out a small laugh, not wanting to hurt anymore than she already was.

“You’re a mess, Juicy.”  She giggles, clenching down on his hand as another contraction hits.

The monitors start beeping erratically, and a group of nurses come running, checking the fetal heart monitor. They put an oxygen mask on her face.  Pulling back the blankets, there is a puddle of blood.

“The baby is breech, compressing the cord and it has prolapsed! She’s hemorrhaging!  Get the doctor!” The nurse yells, preparing her to move.  Everything is happening so fast.  I can barely understand what’s happening until I’m being pushed out of the way.

“What does that mean? Is she gonna be okay?”  One nurse stays behind.

“We will do everything we can.  Your wife began hemorrhaging, the cord was protruding causing the oxygen to be cut off to the child and causing changes in your wife’s circulation as well.  We are doing an emergency cesarean.  I need to get back there.  Someone will come out as soon as we can.”  The nurse stated, rushing through the double doors they took my wife through.

“Just please don’t let her die!”  I drop to my knees, beginning to pray, something I haven’t done in ages.  Gemma comes running back wrapping her arms around my shaking form.

“Oh, baby.  She is going to be okay.”  Gemma soothes.

“She has to be.  I can’t lose her.”  I sob, putting my face in Gemma’s shoulder, my only focus on my wife and unborn child.

Flashback

“Juice, give it back!”  Y/n giggles, playfully pushing my shoulder and jumping to reach the tool.

“What?  I can’t hear you.”  I snicker, continuing to tease her by holding the wrench she needs above my head.

“Juicey, please give it back.”  She bats her lashes, glancing up at me through hooded eyes.  The air is knocked out of me when she slams her body against mine using my surprise to grab the wrench out of my hands.

“HA, I win!”  She tonts, skipping back to the car she was previously working on.  I watch as she bends over the car, looking back at me over her shoulder, giving me a wink while the look of shock still graces my face.

“You going to help me, big boy?”  She purrs, grinning at me with a knowing look.  I snap out of it, with s smirk of my own, making my way up behind her leaning form.  I can feel her breath hitch, goosebumps appearing on her exposed skin.

“Oh, yeah, baby.  I’m going to help you.”  I purr into her ear, placing my hand on the base of her back, feeling the soft skin that has become exposed with her shirt riding up.

Present Day

“Juice!  Have you heard anything, man?”  Jax asks, pulling me into a hug.

“No, nothing yet.  I can’t lose her, man.  I can’t.”  The tears begin flowing again.  I feel myself being pulled into a group hug, full of people I call family, while I wait to hear if my new family is going to survive.

Flashback

“Juice, come on, my family isn’t that bad.”

“Not that bad, babe, they’re awful.” I murmured looking down at her, pecking her on the lips before turning back to the ominous, red, door.  “I can’t believe you grew up here.”  I glance up at the big, white, soccer mom house wondering how this little spitfire came from a home like this.  She giggles, knocking on the door, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Hi, baby!  I’ve missed you!  Who is this handsome fella’?”  A small, older version of y/n glances at me, pulling away from the massive hug she had pulled y/n into.

“Mom, this is Juice.  My boyfriend.”  Y/n states, smiling at me.

“Boyfriend? You didn’t say you had a boyfriend when we talked last.” Her mom stated, looking up at me.

“Yeah, it happened recently.”  She smiles, clenching my hand in her smaller one.  I smile at them relieving some tension that started building.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Juice, was it?”  She states, reaching a hand out to me.

“Juan Carlos, mom, Juice is just his nickname. Is grandpa around? I haven’t had him offer me any brandy yet!” She asked, her white teeth showing.

“Oh, you know your grandfather, dear.  He is in the living room watching the game.  I’m sure he has some brandy to offer.”

“He hates when I interrupt him when he’s watching the game, but he can never stay mad at his favorite granddaughter! I’m gonna go!  Come on babe, he will tell you all his war stories from Nam.”  

“More like his only.”  Her mom laughs.  “Oh, dear, come in, come in.  You can call me Rhonda by the way.”

“So you’re telling me, she ran around naked outside in the winter because she wanted to feel the snow on her tush?” I laugh, glancing at the girl I know I’m going to marry.

“I was a nudist okay, when I was a baby, I HATED wearing clothes. Any chance I got to not weAr then, I didn’t. But I also got sick that day too!”

“Babe, I think you’re still a nudist!”  I laugh, instantly turning red at the thought of what i just revealed in front of her family.  Rhonda busts out with laughter nearly spitting her wine out.

“That is NOT true, I just don’t like to wear pants, or bras. Not fully nudist, just half.” Y/n replies, trying to save me from her dads questioning.

“How would he know that if you guys aren’t married?”  I cough, looking at my laugh, hearing a smack.

“Leave these kids alone, can’t you tell how in love they are.  Remember how bad we were when we were their age?”  Rhonda laughs.  He shakes his head with a small glare.

“And when grandpa caught you guys making out?”  y/n giggles, grabbing my hand under the table.

“Yeah, I do remember how we were, which is why I’m not approving of this.”  Her dad replies glancing at his wife.

“No one asked if you approved of anything, dad. We are just two kids, and when you’re in your 20s you do fun things that you can’t do in your 40s, dad, like get laid.” Y/n quipped at her dad, staring at him with her big brown eyes, probably like she did as a child.

“Hey, now, who is saying we don’t get laid in our 40s?”  Rhonda laughs.

“Grandpa told me, he said ‘after 40, there’s no more fun, all the kids are grown, having kids of their own. They forget to call you unless it’s your birthday, you miss out on a lot.’ I don’t want that, I don’t ever wanna turn 40.” She replies, pouting.

“Shugs, I have had the best sex of my life, since I met Helen, this lady from my bingo group.”  Grandad replies with a grin.

“Yeah, how old is she, Pops, one of the players daughters, or granddaughters?” She lets out a laugh joking with him, knowing he’s happy with Helen.  “When do we get to meet her. Pops?”  It was at this moment I realized without a doubt I was going to marry her.

Present Day

“Family of Y/n Ortiz?” The doctor asks, coming into the waiting room. I stood up, taking long strides toward the doctor, I needed to know about my family as soon as I could. “I’m her husband, is she okay?”

“She is fine, and so is the baby. We are doing blood transfusions, trying to get her platelets up so you can’t see her yet, but you can go to the nursery, and meet your daughter, if you’d like.”

“It’s a girl?”  I smile, tears of relief rushing down my face.

“Oh, I’m sorry,  I didn’t know it was a surprise…”  The doctor breaks off being pulled into a hug.

“Thank you doctor!”

Flashback

“Y/n, you know you don’t have to do this!” I exclaimed, trying to get her to stop.

“Juice, Oakland knows all the eaters and sweetbutts here, it needs to be someone they don’t know.” She continued getting dressed.

“When this is over, I want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, of course.” She plants a kiss on my lips, heading to the van.

She rode in the van on the way to the Oakland warehouse, tied up and blindfolded. The Oakies, as she calls them, claimed a female ripped them off, and she was willing to put herself in danger to help the club. We pulled up to the warehouse, being rough with her, we had to be, but it hurt me. They sat her down in a chair and pulled the blind old off of her. One guy got right up next to her, and she bit him. You could see the anger in his eyes, as he pistol whipped her. I flipped seeing him hit her and pulled my gun, the others doing the same.  After the first shot was fired, it was a storm of bullets before all was quiet.

“Are you okay?”  I ask, untying the binds.

“I’m fine, baby.”  She reassures.  I pull her into a hug before we head back to the club.

“Juicy, what did you want to talk to me about?” She asked, tucking the front of my shirt into her gym shorts.

“Hmm?” I questioned her, looking her up and down, taking in the sight of her in my shirt. I want that forever. “Oh yeah, sit please.” I say leading her to the couch.

“I don’t have a big fancy speech planned, and I know we aren’t at an aquarium, but, Y/n, Will you marry me?”

“Juan, yes.” She pulled me in for a kiss as I slipped the ring on her finger.  Grinning I pulled her into me, swinging her around before I placed her back on her feet.

“I love you.” “I love you too, Juicy.”

Present Day

I stood there, looking at the gorgeous little girl, that Y/n and I brought into the world, in complete awe.

“Can I hold her?” I asked the nurse.

“Of course.  Have you ever held a baby before?”  The nurse asks, picking up my baby girl gently.

“No, um, I haven’t.”  

“Here let me help you.”  The nurse guides my arms in the proper hold before laying the tiny baby in them.  She looks so small in my hold, she peaks up at me, the same way her mother does, and smiles before going back to sleep.

“Mr. Ortiz. You can see your wife now.”  The doctor says, coming into the nursery.  The nurse leads me to the room, daughter in hand.  

“Hey, baby.  Meet your daughter.”  I whisper, walking into the room with our daughter, the nurse leaving us.  Y/n is laying there, hooked to machines, with a small, content smile on her face.

“It’s a girl!”  She exclaims, smiling her megawatt smile at me.  Can we name her Marisol? after my grandmother?”  She asked, looking at the tiny baby in my arms.

“Anything you want baby, anything.”  

“I love you both so much.”  Tears come to her eyes as I hand her Marisol, tears beginning to stream down my face.

“I love you both too, baby, so much. I will never let anything happen to my two girls.”

“Juan, did you call my parents? I want them to bring my grandpa so he can hold her, I know he misses my grandma. Maybe this will help him feel better.”

“OH FUCK! I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMETHING!”  I exclaim rushing out of the room, her laughs following me.

“Baby, your daddy might forget somethings like that, but he will always remember to check for monsters under your bed. He will always do the voices when he reads you bedtime stories, and he will always protect you. No matter what.”

Tag list:  @gemini0410 @spnhollis @lookprettyliveclassyplaydirtyyt

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[egg2k16]

Quotes from 12th grade

I forgot to upload these when I graduated, but here they are now!

8/28/17

2. Carlos "I'm giving up my health" 9/5/17 Mario "If we still here during lunch, we can sneak out!" Patricia "You want to sneak into class?"

9/18/17 2. Aliyah "It was hard" Morua "I know it was hard" Sabian "I know it was hard. I made it that way" 2. Brandon "My special need is aid"

10/3/17 6. Vicky "Valery, why is this such shit?" 10/4/17 3. David "Alright Mr. Morua I'll be right back" Class "MR. MORUA?!?!?!" David "Mr. Grana" 10/4/17 Karina "Deaf blind and very confused" Me "That should be the name of my biography" ~ Joselyne "If you're not a competitive person, then don't apply to competitive schools"

10/6/17 3. Luis "I was thinking about the cheese"

10/12/17 3. Me "Unchangeable and swole" Karina "You sound like a fuckboy trying to write a love poem" Me "Am I not a fuckboy trying to write a love poem?"

10/13/17 2. Me "A pity pizza, if you will" 2. Me "All those cans there look sexy" Karina "Your sexuality is those cans. How gay are you? See those cans?" Me "Yeah? Yeah"

10/13/17 4. Student "What movie is this, Captain America?" Students "Civil War" Student "But it's Captain America, right?" Students "Yes" Student "You could have just said so, damn" 10/14/17 Rafael "It's a butter knife, not a cutter knife!"

10/17/17 2. Morua "What are complement goods?" Carlos "Nutella" Morua "Nutella and what?" Me "Nutella and everything" Morua "Nutella and everything. You're not wrong, Valery"

2. Morua "You still have to pay taxes" Marcelo "Not if they don't know you're there"

11/7/17

3. Me “You think I'm not aware, yet what you don't know is that I'm increasingly aware every time I write an essay”

Grana “Ahh, it's almost like you're learning in school”

11/8/17

2. Morua “Disney stocks are very expensive. You would own the paperclip on the CEO’s desk.”

6. Vicky “Cortina”

Joselyne “Everything he says is ugly”

11/13/17

6. Regalado “Only positive stuff now”

Johnny “Oh, ok. Khan Academy is good.”

*silence*

*laughter*

6. Girl “I don't have time to take notes and I don't have time to draw!”

6. Me “It's a see-saw. It's a danger see-saw. Over a cliff. While it's on fire!”

6. Me “That's so pretty. Let's take a field trip to the Hagia Sophia”

Class “Mhmm”

6. Nathalie “I've never seen a Bible in my life”

6. Joselyne “Oh my God. He vored the Bible”

11/16/17

1. Mrs. Ski “Robert, are you still with us?”

Robert *almost asleep* “Yes”

11/20/17

2. Me “You know, that's your problem. You just hand out the tests and they’ll have to figure out what to do with it!”

Morua “You know what, Valery, you right”

11/27/17

6. Me “I like how the lady explaining the mandalas is a white lady”

11/30/17

3. Grana “You just rewrote a Hemingway novel!”

12/5/17

1. Ski “Bleeding hearts want to stop the dear-loving!”

2. Karina “I'm confused and concerned!”

6. Malo “This video is twenty long!”

12/7/17

?. “Don't blame me for your shitty immune system!”

12/11/17

2. Morua “Adulting waits for no one”

12/14/17

3. Rafael “The devil is his father!”

3. Andrea “I'm bullying myself!”

Lunch. Rafael “Oh that's right, I forgot! I'm mad at you too! You're all trash!”

Lunch. Lauryn “She said she liked dick.”

Me “DICK?”

Lauryn “Yes, exactly”

7. Rodriguez “When you're an adult you can make the decision of either moving back to Costa Rica or … Colombia?” “Yeah” “Yeah, I remember Costa Rica more because you're more emphatic when you talk about it. It's like the forgotten little dog”

12/19/17

2. Morua “Death taxes”

Brandon “There's a tax on dying?”

12/20/17

3. Grana “Oh yeah, if he was a cold stone killer. Stone cold. Hehe, ice cream!”

12/22/17

2. Me “What are we gonna do today?”

Joselyne “Nothing”

Morua “What's the phrase … comiendo mierda”

2. Karina “Kids are cool, but dogs are awesome”

?. “TRUST ME YOU NEED TO GO TO FUCKING COLLEGE”

1/16/18

2. Me “B E T !”

2. Morua *about Lord of the Flies* “And as the book continues, what happens?”

Me “Angry little boys”

2. Me “Just don't murder people. But if you do get murdered, then that's your fault”

Karina “Don't be a little bitch!”

2. Morua “The govt makes sure that your rights are protected”

Me “But are they?”

Karina “No they aren't”

Me “You right”

1/18/18

6. Malo “It's just France, except take out the nce”

6. Me “You can't have both, you bitch”

1/22/18

3. Grana “Do any of you recognize this band? (The Cure)”

Me “Are they … British boys?”

Grana “Yes they are British boys”

?. “I was prepared, just not for those questions”

5. Avila “Look at Carlos, making everyone look bad!”

Me “Wow, for the first time!”

Carlos “I know, right?!”

1/23/18

1. Andres “Who are you waiting for?”

Me “Jesus”

1/24/18

3. Karina “Ugh, English”

Me “You're a native English speaker!”

3. David “I love the murdering of families”

Carlos “You know, that's kinda hot”

Grana “At this point, nothing surprises me anymore”

3. Marla “He had the Dexter goods!”

5. Brandon “When you drive, you'll finally have a new perspective on life”

7. Rodriguez “I'm worried, I couldn't do that simple handshake. I wonder if I'm dying”

1/26/18

2. Joselyne “It's just ice, bro. Zane from Ninjago says this”

Me “Canon”

2. Morua “Let's say Agustin is talking in class. And I'm teaching the class and I hear talking behind me and I say, ‘Agustin, go to the office.’”

Agustin “That's just Mr. Sisak”

2. Morua “Robert, are you really living if the government protects you from Karina and the Mexicans?”

2. David “Wow, I can choose between Raul Castro or Castro, Raul”

2. Brianell “You can either choose Raul Castro or Raúl Cástro. One with an accent one without, and if you pick the one without, you die”

1/29/18

1. Samantha “Screw you and your detours”

3. Grana “Yeah, the pizza, pizza van hit him”

Carlos “Pizza pizza?”

Grana “Thanks for that, Carlos”

1/30/18

1. Me “I'm not a meanie”

Samantha “Yeah, she's not a wasp!”

1/31/18

3. Carlos “Did you get the goods?”

Me “Te pasaste la raya”

Carlos “Man shut yo mouth!”

Me “YOU shut your mouth!”

Class *ooo*

Grana “I'm gonna end it there on Valery’s victory”

3. Me “Your eyes don't grow, you grow into your eyes!”

3. Me “Are you still talking about your eyes?”

Kafruni “Is that why you need glasses?”

3. Me “He's a little bitch. You think a hardcore bitch would kill people who talk smack about them??”

3. Gio “You've heard of Atomic Blonde, now get ready for Hardcore Bitch”

2/2/18

Lunch. Joselyne and Me “various versions of Oscar Isaac came to my house”

2/5/18

1. Andrew “I'm a professional kayaker”

1. Andrew “Shut the fuck up, ugly. I'll leave you in the Everglades”

2. Me “What did we do last class?”

Karina “I'm the wrong person to ask that”

2. Isa “You got them ratchet-ass K Mart markers”

6. Khan “It's a phallus”

Me “I KNEW IT!”

Regalado “Obviously”

2/7/18

1. Ski “Quarter 3 is the toughest when it comes to grades, right Agustin?”

1. Ski “The little mosquito that could”

2. Morua “The last war the United States fought on US soil was the Civil War”

Karina “It's because we're smart”

Me “Are we?”

Karina “No”

Marcelo “It's cuz we have a moat”

Morua “Actually, two moats. Two big moats on either side with favorable countries on either side”

2/8/18

3. Tall “The tone is pessimistic and bleak, because that's how Poe is”

3. Gio “... Fortunado has the moral high ground”

Grana “Oh, so he's Obi Wan”

Me “ :D “

3. Me “It's over, Monstresor”

Grana “Ahh :D “

3. Me “Moral of the story is: There is no morality”

3. Grana “Yeah, it's like ‘Oh sorry man I stubbed your toe.’ ‘You're dead to me’”

5. Ivory “You're pregnant? Welcome to Chili’s!”

2/9/18

2. Me “It's okay. It's understandable. You're valid, Mr. Morua”

Morua “Thank you”

2. Karina “They're Other now”

Morua “Umm, we prefer Miscellaneous”

Me *dying from laughter*

Morua “Okay, it wasn't that funny, Valery”

Me “Let me laugh, Morua, damn”

2/2018

1. Me “It's a little bitch”

Sam “Yeah, but what kind of little bitch?”

2/23/18

2. Morua “Say hi, Kafruni”

Everyone “Say hi, Kafruni!”

3/7/18

6. Regalado “I wonder what they did in the medieval times with a solar eclipse”

Me “Johnny’s blind! Shit, that's the fifth one today!”

3/8/18

3. Me “Peacocks are just chickens. Any bird is a chicken if you try hard enough”

3. Grana “Peacocks, we know, are flamboyant chickens”

5. *Brandon just abandoned Brito*

Brito “I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU WOULD BETRAY ME! WHY DID I TRUST YOU! EVERYONE ALWAYS LEAVES ME, MAN!”

3/9/18

1. Me “This is all your fault, Sebastian”

Sebastian “Okay”

6. Vicky “I have P.E. for sixth period”

3/12/18

7. D Rod “Lies, slander, and libel. Write that down, that I missed it”

3/19/18

1. Me “Drink up, bitch”

6. Regalado “Japan”

Diana “Oh, K-Cock?”

3/21/18

1. Sam “You're killing my vibes”

4/3/18

3. Mary “Did you finish the book?”

Rafael “Did I raise my hand?”

4/4/18

2. Morua “Now you guys can stalk Marco Rubio”

Sabian “We want you to stalk Marco Rubio!”

Morua “I'm not paid enough to stalk Marco Rubio”

Me “We'll pay you to stalk Marco Rubio!”

2. Morua “The average congressman is a white male -”

Me “Wow”

Morua “- and in their late 50s”

Me “I did not know this information at all before in my life”

Kafruni “Jaja, Valery”

2. Morua “This is our district”

Marcelo “Why is it like that. Why is it drawn like that. I disagree with our grouping”

4/5/18

3. Sebastian *about Norwegian Wood* “I kind of lost my train of thought during the interview, but it's cool”

4/6/18

6. Window *laughing but squeaking*

Nathalie “Window sounds like when you cleaning a window!”

6. Window “What happened?”

Me “You're laughing but you're squeaking so much you sound like when you're cleaning a glass window!”

Angelina *dying of laughter* “That's really good, Valery!”

4/8/18

7. Me *about the Star Trek vs Star Wars shirts* “I represented Star Wars. Are you proud of me?”

Rodriguez “Yes I am, my child”

Me “Oh my God, Patty, he finally recognizes me as his child!”

Rodriguez “I meant that in the spiritual sense”

Patty “You guys have a weird dynamic”

Me “But it works!”

Rodriguez *laughs*

Me “Sometimes a family can be a disgruntled 30-something year old man and an energetic 18 year old girl”

4/10/18

6. Regalado “It's a gradient of racism”

4/11/18

7. Rodriguez “Soon, a new Snapchat is gonna come out that will make the original Snapchat look old. What will happen to the last three years of your life?”

Isabella Ruiz “It'll be a fun time, it made me happy”

4/12/18

2. Morua “I don't get why this is so complicated. The exam is on the 24th. If you'd like, we can have a quiz in the days before about the days of the week”

4/13/18

~*Gradbash*~ After hours

Matthew “JUMANJI?????”

Capt Brianell “Matthew, I stick my 12 size foot up your ass!”

Brianell “Go the fuck to sleep!!!”

Rafael “Matthew, you turn on that light, you won't be able to see it!”

Karina “I love this sweater, man”

4/16/18

2. Agustín “Yo, can we all graduate together?”

Lunch. Rafael “Joselyne is my best friend”

Joselyne “What the fuck”

4/17/18

3. Gio “I don't know, I don't watch anime”

4/24/18

6. Regalado “The Bauhaus is a rejection of art nouveau”

Me “Is everything in art a rejection of something else?”

Regalado “Yes”

Hass “Hehehe”

6. Window looks at me

I look at window

Me “What?”

Window “What?”

Me “You were the one who looked at me first!”

Diana and Nathalie *laugh*

4/25/18

1. Shawn “Do I have to do para, par, pa, parisitm?”

Ski “Parasitism”

Shawn “That's exactly what I said”

1. Shawn “Dude, why is your example so long? An example is like, an example”

1. Shawn “What are you talking about? If the Earth wasn't sustainable, we wouldn't be here right now”

4/26/18

2. Morua “The President is Chief Citizen, the most well-known citizen of the United States, which we know… is a lie”

5/1/18

3. Karina “When you call us up, are you going to show us our essays-?”

Grana “Your Oscar Wao essay”

Cortina “Oh man”

5/2/18

2. Morua “I can't just fire Valery because I don't like her hair. Valery is incompetent at her job… plus her hair is dumb”

6. Regalado “It'd be a Venus, but since it's era, you have to put the Greek one”

Window “Jesus Christ”

Regalado “No, Jesus isn't there yet”

5/4/18

2. Morua “Writing papers is so easy yet you guys are always, uggggghhhhhh”

Me “It's because we like to write, we just don't like to write for school”

Jethro “Not everyone writes, Valery”

2. Karina “This is too much adult conversation, I'm gonna throw up”

5/7/18

1. Sebastian “Cadmium yellow!”

Vicky “Did you search up ‘Bob Ross yellow’?”

Sebastian “No, I put in ‘yellow Bob Ross’!”

5/11/18

3. Me “Would I lie to you about the X Men?”

Carlos “OOOHHH!!!”

5/16/18

4. Jose Diaz “What's a weaboo?”

Me “You don't wanna know”

Student “OOOHHH!!!”

6. Vicky, crying, mouth full “I love eating”

5/21/18

1. Shawn “You guys don't know how to take care of a child at all”

1. Andrew “What is this, a parent-teacher conference?”

5/24/18

3. Carlos “Hey Mr. Grana, for the playlist project-”

*Grana plays music*

Carlos “- Oh shit”

5/29/18

3. Marla “I love this song!” (Best Part by Daniel Caesar)

Carlos “What is this?”

Marla “Shut up, Soundcloud rapper”

Everyone “OOOHHHH”

5/30/18

?. “No cabrón, esto es un auto de última generación”

6/1/18

2. Joselyne “Today is Tom Holland’s birthday”

Me “Wow, and on the first day of Pride Month. Hmmm”

Joselyne “Hmmm!!!”

6. Me “You will get to mine, right?”

Morua “Yes”

Me “Awesome, thank you, my mom loves you!”

Matthew “That's what you always want to hear. My mom loves you”

6. Steven “Wait, do you want me to sign it?”

Me “Of course, that's why I put it there!”

Steven “I was so confused, you didn't pass it along!”

Me “Did I put it there for decoration? I put it there for a purpose!”

Steven “I got you, I gotchu”