#to everyone who broke themself down because school was supposed to build you back up but it didn't

[linseymiller]

tumblr, want to be the first to know something?

I have a new YA fantasy book coming out in the next few years, and it contains my favorite three characters I've ever written. I cannot wait for you all to meet Fabian (insufferable), Credence (perfect), and Euphemia (uncouth).

[hamilton-one-shots]

Can u plz continue the Philip and George Fanfic, PLEASE

(This one ended up really long. Oops.)

Philip shut off his alarm as fast as humanly possible, not wanting to wake up his boyfriend. Luckily, it didn’t seem that Georges was going to wake up anytime soon. He smiled at that and checked his phone, his smile immediately fading. The first weekend of the second month already?… He tutted and sat up, making sure Georges was warm and covered before getting out of bed and packing a bag. He went out to the living room and woke up his father as he and John laid on the couch.

“What’s up, Pip?..” Alexander asked, half asleep.

“It’s one of those weekends..”

“Oh..” He carefully scooped up John and took him over to his room, letting him stay asleep, before getting dressed and coming out to Philip.

“Can’t I just stay with you? I’m sixteen! I don’t want to go with her for a whole weekend.”

“I”m sorry, Pip.. Rules are rules…”

He groaned as the doorbell rang and let Alexander open it, wanting to shave off as many seconds as possible.

“Alexander.”

“Elizabeth.”

She looked past him at Philip and smiled softly. “Come on, son. You get to be with me this weekend.”

“Whoop-de-do..” he muttered as he followed her out and to her car. Alexander and Eliza were divorced and Philip their son. Of course, at his age, he was able to take part in the decision to let Alexander have sole custody of him, but Elizabeth’s crying and begging as the ruling was being made led to this arrangement. Philip had to spend the first weekend of every other month with her.

He hated the first weekend of every other month.

“So, how has school been? Have you made any friends?”

The answer was almost always no. And he didn’t feel like receiving a sermon. “No.” He was proud to be dating Georges, but he didn’t want to deal with her and he was sure he would understand.

“How are your grades?”

“Average.”

“Okay… Anything new happening?..”

“No.”

She sighed. This was going to be a long weekend.

Philip rolled his eyes. Way too long. He watched the movies that she made him sit through with her all day, keeping his phone silenced.

Georges woke up an hour after Philip left, frowning when he saw that he was gone. He got up and made his way to the kitchen, finding Alexander making breakfast. “Good morning, Mr Hamilton..”

He looked back and smiled. “Good morning Georges.” He looked back at the pan of bacon. “I’m sorry, but Philip had to leave.. He has to go with Elizabeth once every other month.”

“Oh.. I feel more bad for him than I do upset that he left.. No offense.”

“None taken, believe me.” He rolled his eyes and kept cooking.

“I’ll just go, then..”

“No, you don’t have to rush off. Come on, I’ll make you breakfast, then you can go home.”

He smiled. “Thank you..”

“No problem.”

And he did just that, staying there for breakfast before driving himself home. He spent the day studying and lounging around, not knowing what else he could do. Later that night, after dinner, he got a call from Philip and answered it as fast as humanly possible, smiling widely. “Hello?..”

“Hey, Georgie.. Sorry I had to leave you this morning.. I assume my dad told you where I am?”

“Yes and I’m not upset. I just hope you’re okay there..”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve had to stay in this hellhole.” He tutted. “But I’ll see you Monday, okay?.. I just wanted to call and make sure you weren’t mad at me.”

“I’m fine. I was about to go to sleep, actually.. But I’ll stay as long as you want.”

Philip smiled. “You go to sleep.. I’ll call you when I can tomorrow.”

“Okay.. Bye..”

“Bye..” He put his phone down and sighed as Georges hung up. He still wasn’t a very sociable kid, but he was always wanting to hear his boyfriend’s voice. It had only been a bit over a month, but he was really feeling strongly for Georges. He even thought about dropping the l-word soon… Maybe that was too crazy. He shrugged it off and rolled onto his side, falling asleep.

In the morning, he reluctantly went down to the kitchen for breakfast, just making himself a bowl of cereal and praying he could sneak it back to his room.

But no.

“Good morning, Pip.”

“It’s not Pip. I’m sixteen.”

“Alright then, Philip. Good morning. Did you have a nice night?”

“I guess.”

“Anything interesting happen?”

“No.”

“Any phone calls?”

He paused as he raised his spoon and looked up at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not dumb, Philip. I heard you talking to your girlfriend on the phone. I’m your mother, you don’t have to be embarrassed to tell me. I think it’s sweet.”

He rolled his eyes and kept eating.

“So, what’s her name? Did you meet her at school?”

“It’s Georges,” he replied simply. If he had to deal with her, the least he could do was draw it out, build up the shock when he dropped the bomb on her.

“Georges?.. That’s an unusual name, but very pretty.”

“Very pretty, alright..” With the random streaks of color in his otherwise dark mess of hair, since he could never choose just one color. And the way his dark eyes lit up all the time. Georges was very pretty.

“What about smart?”

“Pretty smart, yeah.” Georges was a straight A advanced course student, just like Philip.

“Maybe you could bring her over to meet me next time,” Elizabeth said simply, believing that she had finally began getting through to her son.

“I’m not sure I’d be able to.” After all, there wasn’t a her to bring over.

“Oh? Why not?”

He just shrugged.

“Well, I assume she’s met your father.”

“Kind of.” He finished his cereal and took the bowl to the sink, cleaning it and the spoon and putting them up before heading to the staircase.

“Then why can’t she meet me?”

“Because there is no she.”

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Philip began climbing the stairs. “Georges is a boy.” He managed to make it to his room before all hell broke loose.

Elizabeth stormed up the stairs and slammed the door open. “What do you mean Georges is a boy?”

“I mean he’s my boyfriend.”

“You can’t be dating a boy! You’re a boy, Philip. It isn’t right.”

“You know what else isn’t right? Tearing a kid away from his best and only friend because his parents are a little different. Karma’s a real bitch, isn’t it?”

“What does that have to do with anything? You were a little boy! I’m surprised you even remember anything about that. And I was trying to protect you.”

“Oh, yeah, I feel so protected.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s the goddamn twenty first century, Elizabeth. Catch up.”

“I am your mother and you will treat me as such.”

“Some mother you are.” He rolled his eyes. “Four year olds don’t care about their friend’s parents. They don’t care about people who are different. They just care about being happy. You are the opposite. You care about how other people run their lives, even though it doesn’t affect you at all and you don’t care if it ruins your own ‘son’s’,” he said with air quotes, “social life. You don’t care that it made me too afraid to make another friend ever again because I thought you’d find something wrong with that one and tear me away and that it lead me to thinking that anyone could hurt me. That everyone would. You don’t give a damn about anything but your own outdated beliefs. The only reason dad didn’t leave you sooner was because your stupid religion doesn’t allow it, but that didn’t stop you from cheating, did it?”

Elizabeth was silent by then.

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot. You don’t just go out when dad’s out working hard and make new guy friends. You can’t just blame that on him because he did everything he could to love you and that’s more than I could ever think of doing.”

“You don’t understand. A man should not be too busy for his wife, ever.”

“I can’t count all of the times you were too busy for him, shopping or whatever the hell you did leaving most of the day. It sure as hell wasn’t work.” He got up and slung his backpack on. “I’m out of here.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Watch me.” He pushed himself out of the door before she could block it and dashed down the stairs and out of the house, walking to his real father’s house. His real second father’s house. John had been the one who’d babysit him when Elizabeth went out and Alexander worked overtime. He’d been his only true friend and encouraged him to make more, accepting that he wouldn’t want to, just like Alexander. If anyone had the right to call themself his parent, besides Alexander, of course, Philip loved his dad, it was John.

He knocked on the door as he arrived.

“Philip?.. What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the witch house this weekend?”

“I left. I told her about Georges and I had enough of her crap, so I left.”

“Oh.. Come on in. I’ll call your father over to pick you up.”

“Thanks..” he muttered as he stepped inside. “I already ate, by the way. I told her after breakfast.”

“Are you sure you don’t want some pancakes?”

Philip smiled. “Alright. Only because it’s your world famous pancakes.”

John smiled and made him a plate, eating with him in the living room.

When Alexander got there, the first thing he did was sit beside his son and pull him into a tight hug. “Elizabeth called and she told me that you left. Don’t scare me like that again..”

“I’m sorry, pops, but I could not stay with her anymore..”

“I’ll try to make that happen. I called someone else trying to find you..”

Philip smiled. “Let me guess-” He was interrupted by a stream of French relief and Irish curses tackling him in a hug on the couch.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”

“I won’t! I promise.” He kissed his cheek and smiled. “Me and my dad are going to make sure I never have to go back there again..” Elizabeth was just in his past, a pathetic excuse for a mother figure. With Alexander still being his awesome father, John as his new second father, and Georges staying by his side, Philip could tell that his future was going to be a lot better.

[sher-soc-the-famder]

YOOOOO MY FELLOW GAYS it me :p I’m baaaack with another set of conspiracy theories for @altruistic-skittles’ In Our DNA Because I love driving myself insane by thinking in circles XD

That and I’m determined to figure out the Macy Mystery(tm) before it’s revealed, it’s practically a matter of pride at this point XD I mean, I probably won’t but I’m having a blast piecing different hints and details together. Like Game theory, with about the same track record too!

ANYWAYS SPOILERS AND POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW :P

First to recap! From my last theory post

- Patton having emotional power (CONFIRMED!)

- Roman being Subject 89 (CONFIRMED!)

- Patton, Logan, and Macy (Still in the air, probably Jossed XD)

- Virgil’s history with Logan (Still in the air)

- The whole thing being a test (JOSSED)

...which is not to bad actually, huh. ANYWAYS I’m gonna be focusing on the biggest mystery at the moment: Macy so buckle up it’s about to get weird

To start off with we need to narrow down the list of suspects which goes thus:

Roman, Virgil, Logan, Patton, Damion, Ms. Spencer, Emile Picani, Remy, Hobo (yes I’m including the cat, I did say that it was going to get weird), and finally Macy herself!

Pleeeeease let me know if I missed any important characters! I’m not including the parents or Flora because the ages just don’t match up at all, and if I start trying to add them to this equation I really will go mad. 

ROMAN

I’m crossing Logan off this list off of one thing alone: the ships listed for this fic. XD Logince. Need I say more? No? No. Go get your man, Ro

PICANI AND REMY

I mean, they’re in the tags. They’re gonna show up at some point. However, I’m doubting the existence of a third sibling. Neither Patton nor Logan has mentioned the existence of one. Plus I’m inclined to think that Skittles has already introduced us to Macy, and is just making us all suffer at this point

MS. SPENCER

...ok I don’t actually think that Ms. Spencer could be Macy but I really, really wanted to point out that Damion disguises himself as her at least once. How else would a supposed elementary school teacher know that people would be after not only Patton but Roman as well? Why would she time her running into Virgil so suspiciously well that Virgil doesn’t meet Patton at the theater? She’s surprisingly gentle with Roman, whom Damion would know

Hence at least in the theater scene Ms. Spencer = Damion 

aaaaanyways moving on

HOBO

I mean at this point, the cat could be a person and I would not be surprised. Virgil even points this out himself, that the cat could be a mutant and following him around for some reason. The two year timeline is rather suspicious as well. I’m leaning Hobo = Remy at the moment but WHO KNOWS Hobo could be Macy XD (and believe me, the moment that cat makes a return I’m starting a whole new theory board for them)

DAMION

(First off, gdi, Damion adds a whole new layer to the Unreliable Narrator tag, Skittles I’m going to go mad XD)

Damion is not Macy but he’s definitely involved somehow. My current theory? He’s the kid that broke his arm and led to Logan being taken. Chapter 7 opens with a flashback of someone who’s broken their arm, and is met with icy blue eyes. Logan. They leave and then they return to reassure him that everything will be alright.

But

They do it softly, in a way that helps him catch his breath. Which sounds an awful lot like Patton to me. “It’s going to be okay”

So

Damion breaks his arm, Logan sees it and tells Patton, Patton heals Damion’s arm and leads to Logan being taken. Which is why Damion is looking out for them. They helped him out and in return, one got his mind twisted and the other got taken to a facility and experimented on for years.

(Also note the ambiguous pronouns I’m going to bring those back up)

Also Chapter 9, with Damion being disguised as a scientist and helping Roman and his mother escape, leads me to believe that all the files about subject 89 were corrupted and/or deleted by him

PATTON

Ah, the story that Skittles wants us all to believe, the most likely to be true shhhhh I’m in tin hat denial land right now, the red herring, the bright spotlight that Skittles wants us to pay attention to so that she can pull of her magic trick in the shadows

WELL I WILL NOT BE FOOLED

Patton may look just like Logan, Patton may be trans, Patton and Macy may both have hints at having healing powers, Patton’s mothers may have locked him up in order to keep him from being taken as well, Patton may have memory problems that point to Logan messing with his head, but look

...

...

The story of Patton being Macy goes as thus:

Patton/Macy (from here on known as Patcy) heals Damion’s broken arm and gets noticed by Dr. William. After a period of time, Logan notices that people are trying to take their sibling and alters people’s memories into thinking that it was him who healed the broken arm. They alter Patcy’s memories for...some reason, and Logan lets themself get taken to the facility in Patcy’s stead. Patcy’s mothers, lock them up to keep from losing another child. A few years later Pacty realizes their gender, Patton chooses his name, Roman saves him from his mothers and we hit the present day. Makes sense no?

W R O N G XD

There are a few details that stand out that this doesn’t answer: Patton’s bracelet and his habit of messing with it. Why Damion- disguised as Ms. Spencer- kept Patton and Virgil from meeting. Why did Logan need to erase Patton’s memories of him in the first place?

Patton as Macy makes the most sense and yet, when I think about it, it doesn’t feel right. I can’t shake the doubt and conviction that he’s not Macy

Which leaves us with Virgil or Logan

VIRGIL

I doubt Macy is Virgil.

There are a few things that could mean his is Macy: the fact that he’s gender fluid, the normal life he got to lead (s u p p o s e d l y there’s still the question of how he meet Logan, which means he isn’t all normal), Virgil’s family being connected to the facility somehow, the way that the two just click, that strange moment where Patton notes about two of his students looking alike but not being related, and Virgil insistence that Logan gets to live their life

And one other vague hint that Skittles has told me that I’m not sure I’m allowed to share that could swing as support or something to disprove Virgil = Macy I haven’t decided yet

But I don’t think he’s Macy. For a couple of reason. Logan claims that Macy would look like them, and it’s one of the few things that I trust. Virgil has an entire documented family history. Virgil has time based powers when Macy is connected to healing powers in some form. And then well

Moxiety is listed as one of the ships XD With the build up of Logan and Patton’s connection they have to be connected in some way which could make Moxiety a little,,, squicky depending on what that connection is. :p 

Which just leaves:

LOGAN

Yeah, you heard me. I think Logan is Macy. I know it’s probably not right but GDI I’m attached to the idea now that I have to lay my clones theory to rest, at least for now

Do I want it to be a complex conspiracy? Why yes, yes I do, I know it’s not likely but it’s fun to think about and I hope it amuses Skittles. Look I watch Game Theory for fun, I love MatPat but I doubt 90% of his theories are right XD They’re fun anyways. *coughs* I’m rambling back to my thoughts

I already established in my first theory post that I don’t think we can trust Logan completely about their own past. They erased something from it. The question is what? They remember Macy obviously, and taking her place.

And that’s what interests me the most. They took Macy’s place. The fist couple of files we see about them is a search for healing powers. Why? Why would they expect healing? I said family lines before but they clearly don’t show any knowledge of Logan having siblings until they slip up about Macy.

And then there’s the fact they couldn’t erase memories until they were about eleven. Which means that everything they did before that was alteration and not erasures. Whoever Patton was to Logan, they couldn’t have erased things completely, only changed them. And you know what’s interesting about that?

Patton’s comment about Damion

“He was almost like a brother to me”

That on top of Damion trying to keep Royality separate from Analogical, it makes me think that things are going on. Things(tm)

So the Logan as Macy story goes as thus:

There was a pair of twins, both of them female. One heals people with the touch of her hands, and the other can dip into their memories like a pool. One day they meet a boy who’s broken his arm. The one who can heal gets caught healing him.

They’re young, they don’t know what to do. Her sister panics, and refusing to let her sister get taken, swaps both of them. She writes away her existence from her sister’s mind, filling in the gaps with the boy they had helped or just plain emptiness. And then, to make sure that they cannot find her sister, she changes her own mind, putting herself in the place of her sister.

Macy guarantees her sister’s freedom by making sure that they’ll never learn the proper name and information about her. But she keeps the idea of her sister close, to take with her. And leaves her sister a bracelet, maybe not to remember her by, but as a hope that maybe one day they’ll meet again

The only thing I can’t figure out is the whole gender issue, which I figured Damion would help Logan hide but IDk about the rest BUT COME ON The rest of it makes sense!! 

So I stand by Logan is Macy XD

Though it still leaves

MACY

There are two options with this. Macy is simply herself, and Patton is himself, a coincidence that everyone built up. Or Macy doesn’t exist. And was simply someone Logan imagined in order to help him cope. Neither of which are likely at all 

BUT STILL POSSIBILITIES

ANYWAYS thanks for joining me in tin foil hat land again XD I hope y’all are enjoying this fic as much as I am and SKITTLES I’m excite for where you take it no matter where it goes!!

Keep up the good work and have an awesome day! <3

[asahiwasabi]

third gym part three and rudyako part one

The week had gone by way too fast.

Over the course of the part four days, Rudy, Ren, and Akane had abducted adopted around nine more people into the third gym, including but not limited to: a serial prankster, the tiniest player Rudy had ever seen, his teammate that was nearly as tall as Ren, their quietly sarcastic manager, and a set of twins that were a whirlwind of character tropes. Despite how wild they were and how crazy they made the third gym, they had become like family to Rudy.

All except one of them.

His name was Skunk.

No one knew how he had known to find them last year (Ren claims that Skunk and Cory used to be friends when they were younger) but he showed up on the last day, all skeezy and flirty and, for some reason, just rubbing Rudy the wrong way. Normally not a very mean person, Rudy, for the first time in their life, felt like telling him that he couldn’t play with them. Thankfully, training camp week ended before Rudy could say something actually mean, and they put it out of their mind as they went through the next school year.

And then the summer of their third year rolled around, the usual crowd gathered in third gym, and Skunk was there.

And he was dating Sayako.

“I don’t know, we just kind of got to talking around the end of the school year,” Sayako explained shyly, blushing as usual. Rudy watched her carefully. If anything, Sayako seemed less than happy about the relationship. “We’ve only been dating for a couple months, don’t worry.”

But Rudy did worry. Skunk flirted with everyone, he was rude, he tracked mud everywhere, he stole food off of everyone else’s plates (only Akane was allowed to do that), and worst of all, he did it in front of Sayako. Sayako, who was the sweetest tiniest cutest human being that Rudy had ever encountered, was dating their literal worst enemy. 

Well, not worst enemy. Rudy wasn’t that dramatic. They did hate him, though.

And THEN, Skunk broke up with Sayako at the end of night two. Or at least, that’s all Rudy heard as Sayako cried in the equipment room. She was in there with Tadami, and Rudy had only found them because they were looking for an extra net to try and trap Skunk in with Minako. As soon as Rudy saw Sayako’s teary face and heard her say, “We broke up,” the blood began pounding in Rudy’s ears. How on earth could that scumbag do that to her?

“Rudy, no, wait--”

Rudy went storming across the gym, grabbed Skunk by the back of the shirt, and dragged him outside. He struggled, but thanks to the rage and Rudy’s weird strength, he couldn’t do anything as they threw him up against a wall. “What the hell--” he squawked, but Rudy shoved him back again, keeping a hand fisted in his shirt.

“What the hell did you do to Sayako?” They growled, making him blink before his face slid into a defensive grimace.

“The hell are you talking about? She broke up with me!”

Rudy paused. That...was not what they expected to hear. But still, it was bound to happen anyways with the way Skunk had been acting around her. It was totally justified!

“Still,” Rudy frowned again. They were a good few inches shorter than him, but that didn’t stop them as they told him, “You were terrible to her, it’s no wonder she did. I honestly hope you take this as a lesson, because otherwise, you’re going to end up alone and miserable forever.”

Skunk only glared down at them before finally shoving them away. “Fuck off, Rudy.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, the practice shirt shifting as he shrugged guiltily. “Just worry about your own business with Sayako.”

“What?” Rudy furrowed their brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Skunk leveled them with a bored glare. “Are you serious? Jesus, you really are as dumb as you look.” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “Just...do better than I did, alright? She deserves it.”

Rudy blinked at him, and he just shook his head again. “Look, I’ll tell everyone you roughed me up real good so that you can keep your tough older sister persona going--”

“Sibling,” Rudy corrected automatically, still confused, and Skunk waved a hand.

“Right, sibling, my bad. This doesn’t mean we’re cool though, aight?” He glared at them one more time, then sniffed. “So oblivious. Holy shit, she wasn’t kidding.” With that, he turned and walked back into the gym, head lowered. Rudy remained outside for another minute, still trying to figure out what Skunk meant. Do better? At what, playing against her? The Raccoons did lose to the Otters pretty regularly now when Sayako was back row. She’d become an incredible libero. Her form was immaculate.

Rudy shook their head, finally moving to walk back inside. Skunk was off to the side, complaining loudly about something to Cory and Ethan, who both were barely listening. On the other side of the net, Akane was waving Rudy over, shouting something about needing a bad blocker, and right next to her was Sayako. She had a soft smile on her face, almost thankful, and her eyes were still shining a bit from her previous tears. Her cheeks were pink, making her look like a disney princess come to life. Except cuter. Way cuter.

Rudy tripped in the middle of the court as their heart thudded painfully in their chest. They barely heard Ren sigh, “Look, you broke them.” Rudy righted themself, tossing back their bangs with a forced grin.

Suddenly, they felt like they knew what Skunk had meant.

The week had gone by way too fast. Somehow, the Bears were regularly beating everyone now, including the Robins. Ruth and Ethan didn’t let up on their trash talk, but they were more serious during the games than they usually were. Daiki was beaming every time he completed a set now, and their monster of a middle hitter had only been successfully blocked about once a game. Throughout the week, Rudy continued to find new people to bring to the gym, continued to try and prank Skunk with Minako’s help, and kicked ass in their games.

They wished they knew what was going on. Something in their team had clicked yesterday, and since then, the flow was so good even the Otters’ trainer had compliments for them. The Robins’ trainer told Rudy once that “they had decent footwork back row” and Rudy couldn’t stop their hands from shaking the rest of the day, and not just because they were terrified of her. Their team was winning game after game, and in the third gym, everything was back to normal.

Except for when Sayako smiled at Rudy and Rudy felt like gravity had lifted. If they wanted, they could probably jump over the entire building. Maybe even the moon. It was like every time she smiled, the whole world made a little bit more sense. Actually, everything made a little bit more sense. That weird twisty feeling when Sayako was laughing with someone else? That was jealousy. The weird floaty throat lump when Rudy was watching Sayako play? That was pride. The reason Rudy was always trying to carry Sayako? Probably just because Rudy was trying to show off or something. And the whole gravity thing?

It was because Rudy liked Sayako. Like, like liked her. How it had taken her so long to see that was a mystery, but apparently Ren had known the entire time. And Akane. And apparently, most of third gym.

“Are you seriously telling me you’re just now realizing it?” Akane asked, exasperated. Ren was smirking behind her, both of them leaning on the same pillar. Their late night meetups after third gym closed were regular now, even after Ren and Akane had gotten together. (Which was terrible, because they used to smirk a lot before, and now it was ten times worse.)

Rudy groaned and threw their head back, accidentally hitting it against the cement wall with a loud thump. Ren winced, but Rudy steamrolled on, “I didn’t know! I just thought we were like, really close friends or something! I didn’t know it was, like, a serious thing!”

“Rudy, you’ve liked her literally since you met her,” Ren told them patiently, and Akane followed up with, “You seriously didn’t know you liked her? Even when you physically lifted her up and claimed that she was a damsel in distress and you were her knight in spandex armor?”

Rudy slammed a hand on their face. “It was a joke, oh my god, I was so obvious--”

“To everyone except yourself,” Ren huffed, making Akane laugh. Rudy groaned dramatically again, and Akane finally shifted forward, looking more serious.

“Look, you’ve got two days left of training camp. Why not just tell her?”

Rudy looked up at Akane, eyes wide. “Uh, yeah, and have her tell me, sorry, I only date assholes who like to pour milk in other people’s shoes?”

Ren winced, and Akane rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure she only dated him because she felt obligated to. Also because she was figuring some things out.” Ren immediately stiffened, and Akane patted his knee before he could say anything, “No, I’m not dating you because I’m obligated to. I actually like you, you dork.” Ren relaxed, and she continued looking at Rudy. “Rudes, I promise. It’ll be fine. Just tell her.”

Rudy looked away, out over the grassy courtyard to where they had first met Sayako. As if it was that easy.

The week had gone by way too fast.

The second to last night, Rudy once more gathered all of their third gym children friends into a circle so that they could hand out cards again. All the cards were personalized and made at 3 in the morning last night with Ana’s help (because she was the only one awake) and also handed out cookies. Skunk got a wad of toilet paper and a chocolate bar that was kind of melted. Sayako got four cookies. Rudy accidentally smashed her card.

“This week has been the best yet,” Rudy announced after handing everything out, and pulled Minako and Ren into awkward side hugs. “I’m so so sad that this is my last year, but I really hope you guys keep this going. It’s a great chance to expand your play styles and try out different strategies, and you guys have improved so much.”

“Hurry it up, coach,” Cam shouted from behind Atsushi, and everyone laughed.

“I’m just....really proud. And happy. And so grateful that I met all of you.” Rudy looked at everyone, smiling softly. “You can definitely expect to see me at the Fall tournaments and every game of yours that I can make it to, and I’ll kick your butt if we play against you.”

“You wish!” Ruth shouted, and Dahlia echoed the cheer. 

Rudy smiled at Sayako and quickly looked away.

The last night was a whirlwind of team gatherings. As the new captain this year, Rudy was running around trying to keep their first years from doing anything to the Raccoons (they did not want a repeat of the water fountain incident) and making plans with the other captains for games throughout the season. Before they knew it, it was two in the morning, and everyone was asleep.

The week had gone by too fast, and Rudy was left, awake and alone and staring out the bus window on the way back to their school, wondering if they’d missed their chance.